Instead of waiting for this moment or hour or day to pass, or dreading the next moment or hour or day, why not raise your level of consciousness to ‘effortless and enlightened’ right now? And why not maintain it throughout the day?
You don’t need any fancy equipment or tranquil environment. Well, actually you do but they’re not anything external or material. They’re internal and the only material thing you require, you already have.
What am I talking about?
Nothing other than your imagination and your body!
With your imagination, you can instantly create the most tranquil environment you could possibly experience. And with your body, you can express whatever you wish to!
So, here are 5 extraordinarily effortless ways you can raise and maintain your level of consciousness to enlightened using your imagination and your body!
1. Breathe consciously several times a day.
Use the moment of ‘stuckness’ or ‘anxiety’ or ‘boredom’ or ‘feeling stressed’ as a prompt to breathe deeply, gently and consciously. Whether you’re sitting at a desk, worrying about your child as you wait in the doctor’s surgery or taking your dog for a walk, you can do this.
Let your abdomen rise and fall fully and slowly. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth on the sound of ‘ha..aaa…’. Enjoy this instantaneous shift in your state of consciousness.
Instead of feeling stuck or overwhelmed or bored, which are all states that result from energy not flowing freely, you have now opened up the channels for it to do so!
Apart from providing your cells and all your tissues with more oxygen and expelling more carbon dioxide than normal shallow breathing does, deep, conscious breathing also resets or creates new neural pathways in your brain.
Dr Andrew Weil, a medical doctor and a keen practitioner of mind-body healing has been involved in research demonstrating the health benefits of conscious breathing which, among other things, suggest changes in neural pathways in the autonomous (involuntary/without conscious effort) nervous system. Such results have also been found by other scientific bodies including the American College of Chest Physicians.
Studies have found that the range of health benefits derived from conscious, deep breathing includes improved digestion, memory, relief from depression and respiratory conditions such as asthma,.
Conscious breathing interrupts the mostly unconscious or automatic state of mind that you are usually in and in which ‘stress’ is experienced. Today, there is overwhelming evidence that points to stress being the underlying condition for the majority of diseases.
Since stress is the condition in which the mind-body is unable to respond effectively to the demands made on it, anything that interrupts that condition and restores the mind-body’s natural ability to respond effectively is helpful. Conscious breathing is able to do this.
While it is still not clear exactly how it does it, we know that when we do conscious, deep breathing, stress levels are reduced and dopamine, a neurotransmitter that activates the pleasure pathways and helps improve memory and self-efficacy, is released.
So, breathe deeply and consciously several times a day!
2. Yawn lavishly, stretch luxuriously and touch yourself tenderly every few hours
We assume we yawn because we’re bored. But even if that were true, it doesn’t explain why boredom should trigger yawning.
Researchers from Yale University and the University of Maryland suggest, however, that there may be a functional reason for yawning – it cools down the brain.
Stretching helps to loosen muscles that are locked in tension thus enabling energy to flow freely once more.
Both stretching and yawning have some things in common – they increase blood pressure and heart rate, something that is especially useful when you’re feeling stuck, down in energy, lacking clarity or feeling unmotivated or uninspired.
As for touching, whether touching ourselves or being touched by another, we’ve all felt the almost instant release of tension and the generally pleasant feelings that accompany it.
According to neuroscientist, Lucy Brown, touch has a wide impact on the brain. It influences our sensations, our movement, our thought processes and our ability to learn new movement. And it does this on both conscious and unconscious levels.
So, yawning, stretching and touching are such easy ways of instantly shifting to higher states of wellbeing. And whilst we may be titillated by the thought of touching ourselves (:)), simply consciously stroking the underside of your lower arm or drawing circles around your cheeks or drawing horizontal lines across the back of your neck with both index fingers can stimulate an immediate sense of wellbeing.
So yawn, stretch and touch every few hours!
3. Take any problem you have and schedule a meeting with it
It seems that we are never free from one kind of problem or another. (Personally, I prefer not to use the word ‘problem’. I prefer to think in terms of *events* or just *questions* for which I don’t yet have answers). And, predictably, they seem to torment us especially when we need to keep our focus elsewhere, like on our work or on our children!
What happens then, is that neither our *problem* nor our work gets the dedicated attention that they deserve. Something that I’ve learned to do and have taught clients to do is this:
Schedule a time with your *problem”.
Set a time (and venue), preferably later in the day or evening where you will give it dedicated attention. I even suggest pouring yourself and your *problem* a drink so that you evoke a sense of welcome and friendship. You treat your *problem* as a friend rather than an enemy or a nuisance.
You have to understand that your *problem* is a result of years of conditioning or habit. This particular *problem* at hand may appear to be a *new* one but it is a result of the same triggers – fears, anxieties, insecurities, anger, resentment, doubt etc – that you experienced over and over again.
Sit with it, give it all the time it needs, ask it all the questions you can think of to help you understand it and reassure it. Effectively, you are finally taking the time to listen to yourself, to find out more about yourself, to understand yourself better and to reassure yourself.
The act of mentally (and physically) scheduling a meeting with your *problem* has the wonderful and immediate effect of effortlessly redirecting your focus to the task at hand. Your conditioned mind/ego is reassured that you’re not ignoring it. It knows you’re committed to spending time with it and it will happily retreat to a corner and let you get on with what you need to attend to.
Make sure you stick to your commitment and take the time to meet with your problem. You will find that it is nowhere near as *problematic* or *intractable* as your first thought.
4. Turn your name into fun, inspiring and beautiful objects
One of the reasons why we find life hard is because we have lost touch with our childlike capacity to use our imagination freely. We look with disdain upon *dreamers*, either silently or verbally chiding them for not being *practical* or living in the *real* world.
Despite the fact that our experience of the so-called *real* world is mediated by our perception or IMAGE-ING of what we see, touch, smell, taste and hear, we have not fully understood how to use this amazing faculty to our greatest advantage.
One thing we do know – whether something is *out there* in the physical/material world around us or only in our mind’s eye i.e. our imagination, the same neurochemical and physiological reactions are activated. This is because the brain does not distinguish between images that are triggered by objects/situations in the physical/material world and objects/situations that are conjured in the mind.
There is absolutely no limit to what you can choose to imagine to stimulate your personal wellbeing and sense of self-worth or self-efficacy while breaking you free from your conditioned, habitual thought patterns where you feel stuck, unworthy or incapable.
Here are some of my favourites which I use when I find myself stuck or struggling through a piece of writing or when I want to invite new ideas for a project that I’m planning:
Take your name and imagine it as a
Ball – to evoke a sense of smoothness, the ability to roll effortlessly in any direction and always ready to move
Kite – to evoke a sense of great height, freedom, lightness, wide perspective
Mountain – to evoke a sense of stability, strength, power and endurance
Garden – to evoke a sense of beauty, growth, aliveness, freshness, collaboration
As the mind imagines, and the brain IMAGES, your body chemistry changes and you are brought effortlessly into an enlightened state of possibility, creativity, power, freedom and joy!
5. Take any unpleasant emotion and give it a big hug
We are mostly afraid of unpleasant emotions and tend to deny them, suppress them, avoid them or be overpowered by them. None of these reactions help us in the long term even if they appear to provide an immediate escape.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you were never again afraid or overwhelmed by emotions such as anger, guilt, embarrassment, jealousy, powerlessness? Well, it is entirely possible! How? Make friends with them!
Understand that they arise out of habit – associations with past, unpleasant experiences. They are emotions that have never really been properly acknowledged and reconciled which is why they return again and again.
In other words, they are a part of your ego/conditioned self that has never been fully acknowledged, allowed to express itself without negative repercussions and allowed to peacefully dissipate.
So, instead of continuing to deny, suppress or avoid them or be overpowered by them, take them by the hand, give them a big hug, let them sit by you and tell you all they need to say.
In short, show them (show that part of you) that you no longer see them as a threat, that you genuinely want to help them and love them unconditionally. Then, be amazed at how peaceful, powerful and free you feel!
Just 5 extraordinarily effortless ways you can shift to enlightened living right now!
Effortlessly!
Lucy
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