Being Here Now means creating every moment. Being the creator of your moments is the most spiritual level of responsibility. Recognizing yourself as the creator of your moments grounds you in the world & in yourself. You miss the opportunity to create your moments if you simply indulge habitual ways of responding to [...]]]>  

Being Here Now means creating every moment. Being the creator of your moments is the most spiritual level of responsibility. Recognizing yourself as the creator of your moments grounds you in the world & in yourself. You miss the opportunity to create your moments if you simply indulge habitual ways of responding to the circumstances around you. Train yourself to stop overthinking; work to keep your mind empty – life, itself, will provide just enough to put there for you to work constructively and creatively with. If you want to be spiritual, start at square one: be the conscious creator of your experience, moment by moment. To elevate spiritually, practice witnessing yourself in the act of creation, moment by moment; witness without judgment or apprehension, but with the open-minded awe of a curious child. To go beyond the game of spiritual elevation, of hierarchy, be amused by what you see.

I used to not [...]]]> It’s been several months since I posted my last blog.  That timing coincides with when I started traveling before the start of summer.  I’m still out and about, indulging in various adventures and, while I haven’t been blogging, I’ve been posting about 3 or 4 tweets a day on Twitter.

I used to not like Twitter – I didn’t care to be as informed as it enabled me to be about the details of activities of the people I was following.  But when I started tweeting, myself, I discovered it was a more effective way to wake people up.  And I discovered writing the sort of tweets I write triggered a sort of endorphin high.  Getting big ideas down to 140 characters or less became an art form, a dance with words.

I think you’ll find that reading them is like an interactive dance wherein, reading one at a time, you can get very present, go inside, and engage consciously with what it points your attention to.  In this sense, they are a bit like an Oracle, offering you a window which provides insight into yourself, your life, your choices, your ability to choose.   They invite you to be honest with yourself – intimately honest – and to consider making adjustments to be more in alignment with who you want to be, what you want in your inner experience and outer life, and how you want to effect the world.

Please consider following me on Twitter.  Just press the Twitter button on my website or go to http://twitter.com/#!/jimlehrman.   And I welcome your comments here, as well.

Here are the tweets I’ve done so far:

Could it be that every individual has a mystical part of them, an adventuring part, and an enlightened one, clouded at times by neurosis?

Ponder this for triple the amount of time you’d like to: In what ways is your vulnerability more of a blessing than a curse?

Are you “working” at having fun? Fun is more a function of attitude than of activity. Lighten up & take responsibility for what you bring.

While the names faces themes & clubs u formally or informally belong 2 can change, are your patterns staying the same? Where are u taking u?

Make space for wonder in ur life & in the lives of others. Recognize when it occurs in you or others. Stay with it. Cherish those moments.

Treat your insights with respect; explore if & how to translate them into action & into results that honor the significance of the insight.

It is valuable to be aware what your virtues are. (eg respectful, generous, fun) They are resources. Explore who these virtuous selves are.
 

 

Mindfulness grounds you in the present and gives you access to the infinite. jimlehrman.com

Humility frightens those who pretend to be strong.

Having trouble with yourself these days? Can u access the you u used to love? Revisit that state, sustain it, study it, love it, practice it

Can you distinguish between your fantasies & your visions which have potential to become real? Allocate your attention & efforts accordingly

Are you driven by fear or love? Do you hold back from pursuing what u really love because of something you need to simply get stronger than?

Put your attention & efforts on getting clear on what matters to you. Then behave as if it matters. That’s where you will find yourself.

The future is a big place – sit and ponder the meaning of that. Let it in. Feel its spaciousness & build a good foundation for it.

Stay present, pay attention, and keep a pulse on knowing what does & doesn’t matter. Practice responding consciously to what matters.

Your mind has a life of its own. Deepen your conscious relationship with it. Be present to its actions. Compassionately monitor & manage.

Being in the water is not about getting to the other side. It is about enjoying the swim. Enjoy the swim. Enjoy the swim every moment.

Purpose & passion – take time to reflect on your definitions, their expression, & how you are in or out of balance in regard to them.

What are you able to STOP doing that you know isn’t working for you? What are you able to do MORE OF that you know you’re doing right?

Mindfulness grounds you in the present and gives you access to the infinite.

Lie down, close eyes, feel the passing of time as u imagine you’re 1 a stick floating downstream on a lazy river; 2 a rock in the same river

Next time you feel anxiety, notice where in your body you feel it. Be the witness of the sensations, then witness how your mind participates

What in your life needs u to do a better job of defining? Clarity allows you to do more with less. It is a synergistic & efficient resource.

Next time u feel anxiety, notice where in your body you feel it. Be the witness of the sensations, then witness how your mind participates

Just as any color can be pulled out of blackness, so 2 can any emotion be pulled out of the moment – by circumstance or conscious choice.

Enlightening insights can be gained by converting your definition of a situation’s content into a clear understanding of its context.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,My, oh, my, what a wonderful day. – Ray Gilbert by way of Uncle Remus, pointing us towards a great attitude.

What in your life needs you to do a better job of defining?Clarity allows you to do more with less. It is a synergistic & efficient resource

Imagine there is a continuum which has resentment on one end and gratitude on the other. Where would you place yourself on this continuum?

Something to consider & think about at times: Drama does not appear in nature. The level of reality where stuff happens is free of stories.

Anyone lose a gray pit bull terrier dog in Venice, CA? Walking northeast of Washington Blvd & Ocean, just north of Marina Del Rey. 12:45 pm.

Isn’t it a pity. Now, isn’t it a shame. How we break each other’s hearts. And cause each other pain – George Harrison

Something to consider & think about at times: Drama does not appear in nature. The level of reality where stuff happens is free of stories.

We all organize to move away from our pain & towards the magic we remember. How we organize around this endeavor is what makes us different.

Freedom comes in various flavors. It’s good to know what your favorite flavor is. Is it internal or external? From grace or effort?

So many wonderful pieces made up the adventure Ive had these past weeks: loving people, tribal gatherings, rainforests, dolphins, even a UFO

Are there moments when you are able to see even your panics, tragedies, sorrows, etc, as simply being more stories? Its all just more stuff.

Learn to delineate the difference between the situations you simply perceive of as dramas and the dramas you pass off as mere situations.

The function of my “religion” is to see that I am the creator of my experience & see how I go about the business of creating my experience.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.~Dr. Seuss

Where is “fun” or “pleasure” or even “pain”? Does it appear in nature? Once again, no. It’s a result of how we organize around “stuff”.

Choose something you know you do which is mindlessly automatic. Experiment: track each time this part of you gets triggered; simply notice.

Are there moments when you r able to see even your panics, tragedies, sorrows, etc, as simply being more stories? Its all just more stuff.

Watch out now, take care. Beware of the thoughts that linger… – George Harrison

Mindfulness coach – Practical training in Ecstasy, Effectiveness & Equanimity. jimlehrman.com

Nurture happiness actively-both inside you & around you. Come up with 1 new way each day to notice & invest & inspire. Make it fun, not work

Give your attention to someone who is excited. Give their passion space to grow. Maybe give them feedback on which to deepen the roots.

From a young age I’ve felt out of place because I don’t take for granted that this civilized world we live in is the overall norm for earth.

You’re invited: Relax your jaw, your forehead, your shoulders. Be with your breath. Soften your belly. Soften your focus & stay present.

Ah, simple pleasures. I admit that when I attend with soft focus to the sensations of breathing -with no distractions- I am free. I love it.

How much times goes by between actions of treating what matters to you as if it matters? Put your time, attention, energy where it matters.

When you’re freaking out over something look for that moment when there is a “you” in your view of what’s happening.Then become the observer

Rainforests delight me more than ice cream. I become unstuck in time grateful to be alive on this planet. The smells, sights, light, animals

What good is mindfulness if you don’t use it to see & get past your self-defeating behaviors & underlying beliefs?

Everyday pick 1 story you carry of the way the world works. Look closely at it w/ an open, inquisitive mind. Who is this you who holds on?

Chasing that thing you’re after gives a bit of an endorphin high. But do you know what you’re really chasing? Wake up & catch up w/yourself!

Do you have a sense of honor about what u r doing but also a sense of emptiness? Question what is driving you. Be honest, humble & relax.

Trances: triggers can be subtle, effects overpowering. Notice when you’re immersed in self defeating dogmatic notions you take for granted.

Nurture happiness actively-both inside you & around you. Come up with 1 new way each day to notice & invest & inspire. Make it fun, not work

Mindfulness: take a front row seat to the full spectrum of your experience. jimlehrman.com

Being present is a full time job. You’re invited to volunteer. Instead of getting paid, YOU pay with your attention & you get what u pay for

I like invoking my memory of how stretched out time was when I was a kid. Both time & my mind were so spacious.Use intention to recreate it

Presence can start now. Start by slowing down & simply noticing what is present in your experience. jimlehrman.com

Embrace & savor mysteries with eyes wide open and full of wonder instead of indulging your need to know, your drive to fill in the blanks

How do YOU recognize that you are your own teacher, that you are your own master? In what ways do you act on or invest in that awareness?

Walking this morning in Oregon, doing a session on the phone, a mother deer and two very young fawn walked past, seeming happy & unafraid.

Be honest with yourself: Do you organize around your wants in neglect of your needs? It’s not too late to make yourself more sustainable.

Cherish the extraordinary but don’t hoard it. The magic must remain rare or it becomes ordinary.

Growing older is life’s later invitation to shift from protecting yourself against fear to investing in freedom and happiness in the moment.

Embrace & savor mysteries with eyes wide open and full of wonder instead of indulging your need to know, your drive to fill in the blanks

Notice what is different in your experience between standing in one place & (A) talking while moving & (B) talking while not moving

Live w/one foot in the perspective that you don’t have a lot of time and one foot in the perspective that you have all the time in the world

Mindfully rub your finger & thumb together. Slow down & notice: is your thumb rubbing your finger or is your finger rubbing your thumb?

Next time you’re asked “how are you” does that trigger you into automatic response, or can you stay present enough to notice the impulses?

Mindfully rub your finger & thumb together. Slow down & notice: is your thumb rubbing your finger or is your finger rubbing your thumb?

Notice when you buy into blaming. What elements do you notice in the pattern-righteousness, indignance, shame, fear, denial, age regression?

We live by myths. eg: “poor me”. Even if you can only guess at yours, place it on a continuum & determine what myths lie to its right & left

Practice noticing moments of your essential self blossoming above the varous expressions of your more strategic self. Cherish & deepen there

Another of those forks in the road of evolution: when decisions stopped being based on the concern for their impact 7 generations ahead.

Is a room defined by the space within it or by the walls that contain it? What defines reality – the chaos presented or the order perceived?

Like a car can go straight or veer right/left, Self-concept is adjustable but you need to be aware of your current direction & change slow.

Standing fully relaxed in perfect alignment: can you notice when you are there? Can you notice the difference in your experience?

Your attention can focus like an MRI on layers: the tension at the front of your eyes, inside them, and behind them. Travel along & notice.

Upon waking, be like a tracker in the bushes, observing the clearing that is your waking consciousness. What is present there?

Yes with the #entourage wrap party behind me Im getting back to my #mindfulness oriented tweeting, feeling that verifying sense of alignment

Time to get back to tweeting. And blogging. Heading north in an RV, I look forward to focusing my thoughts into 140 or less characters.

I like films that point me to new considerations of reality. There’s a part of me who plays with the moment like a filmmaker or philosopher.

Question authority, yes, but explore your structure of it. How do you go about the business of overriding your own with someone else’s?

Of the people who think they want a more conscious relationship with themselves, many need help in being honest with themselves. Contact me.

Take a step back from yourself & reflect:what story do you have about your dad? Mythic hero, mellow, or mishugina? May it humble & warm you.

Being a dad, myself, has been a grand surprise/adventure. I love my kids & respect their integrity, creativity, intelligence & heartfulness.

I was blessed to have a father I, and everyone, loved. A humble, joyous, heartful man of wisdom & humor. He was a great model for integrity.

Your posture need improvement? Could it be weakness in your monitoring & managing rather than something physical? Be mindful.

Practice tracking instances when you push a “should” or “shouldn’t” on yourself. Or on others. Be present & look deeper.

How does the story of “not good enough” seep into how you meet the situation at hand?

Gratitude is the stuff of the heart. Resentment is the rust of the heart.

This is the first day of the rest of your life; and THIS moment is the ONLY moment you will be given for you to experience.

Looking into the eyes of strangers, can you distinguish between what you see of them and what you see of you?

To who would u do an effective job of holding accountable? What would that look like? Who would be good at doing that for you? What would…

Name your best trait – who modeled that for you? Name your “worst” trait – who modeled that? Develop a conscious relationship with yourself.

Mindfulness coach – Practical training in Ecstasy, Effectiveness & Equanimity. jimlehrman.com

At 1 of the many dog parks in San Diego. The dogs seem to have more fun together & be happier. This town shows many ways it respects dogs.

Self inquiry is a lifelong exploration bringing constant discovery. Each discovery deepens & expands you. Seek out & harness your curiosity!

Look around – what do you see that will not disappear at some point? Look within – what do you see that will not disappear at some point?

Tracking your experience is a fundamental skill which is often overlooked. Develop it & you expand yourself in many ways. jimlehrman.com

Self inquiry is a lifelong exploration bringing constant discovery. Each discovery deepens & expands you. Seek out & harness your curiosity!

Notice: do you make a statement when a question would much better serve to enhance the situation?

Practice tracking where others’ attention goes in the moment & you will deepen your ability to track your own experience.

Feeling/expressing gratitude is wonderful. When the feeling comes as a surprise its even better. Throw yourself into it when it shows itself

Do you often flip from 1 experiential state to another, for instance going from strong to weak? See if you can track those changes. Observe.

Notice the next time a thought intimidates you: notice the state of intimidation, the story that accompanies it, & the triggering thought.

What sensations can you notice/track/study which are actually a constellation of other sensations? Examples: hunger, tiredness, even pain

Mindfulness grounds you in the present and gives you access to the infinite. jimlehrman.com

Pick something in your predicable experience (eg tiredness, a craving) and see if you can observe the onset sequence of the experience.

Take 10 minutes to skip instead of walk. It’s fun healthy & you can even get a bit airborne. Track physical mental emotional & sense of age.

Try this for mindfulness: every time you walk thru any door today, see if you can track what you were thinking and what you were feeling.

For development of mindfulness, track everything you notice in your experience in a given moment: feelings, thoughts, motions, attitude, etc

Wake up to this fact: We foremost live in our experience, not in our achievements or even our identities. Explore and live accordingly.

Focus on some part of your body (eg. eyes, belly) & notice the reversing domino effect of tension – track the release of tension thru you.

If youre going to play the “what if” game give equal time to the positive: not just “what if I get hurt” but ALSO “what if I come out great”

Keep things clean. Meet others in the place where respect for both of you can be honored. But be honest with yourself. Be in real integrity.

We have the ability to justify whatever we want to. It is a skill that can make us feel right & strong, but can diminish our integrity.

If you were 10% more sensitive to people than you are, would it be too much? If you were 10% more sensitive to yourself would it be enough?

So much music in my head I might be stuck in the elevator of life. It’s a good elevator. The music is good.

Presence can start now. Start by slowing down & simply noticing what is present in your experience. jimlehrman.com

Strive to be functional and balanced: know how/when/why to be self-reliant, collaborative, coachable, responsive.

Are there ways you respond to that which is nourishing as if it is toxic, &/or respond to that which is toxic as if it is nourishing? Why?

Experience is composed of story & state.Story is anything associated to words.State is energy felt in the body in the moment. jimlehrman.com

I think I’ve got a radar that sniffs out signatures of my past. I love when the radar locks in onto a place and time that I’ve long forgot.

Overwhelm, fogginess etc can be seen as being just more story & state. Step out & observe what stories these waves of energy are attached to

Trains, planes, back in LA. Everything everywhere is in motion, somethings at speeds just too slow for us to notice. Reality is just a swirl

Experience is composed of story & state. Story is anything associated to words. State is energy felt in the body in the moment.

Being instructive is typically well-intended but if it doesnt respect the intelligence of the person being taught then it can be destructive

Disdain rises out of the depths without being questioned. It is a strong,clear & limiting reaction. But who modeled it for you? Sidestep it.

Both being honorable & its opposite can be done either mindfully or mindlessly. Automatic responses, even good ones, stunt your growth.

Impulse management: blessing & curse. Blessing:better connection with the world. Curse:worse connection with yourself unless you’re aware.

There’s probably somewhere in your body where you store tension: shoulders, jaws, belly, eyes, etc. Consciously go 10 min staying relaxed.

I start by standing outdoors with the person and asking, “where does the sky [...]]]> One way I like to give people an ecstatic experience is with a couple of simple seemingly innocuous questions. They are the sort of questions you’d ask a very young child, yet they serve to deepen our perspective of reality.

I start by standing outdoors with the person and asking, “where does the sky begin?” There are a few answers I typically get, but the answer I’m looking for is “at my feet”.

Then I ask “where does the environment start?” The most common answer, given as a follow up to the first one, is “at my skin”, to which I supportively say that that’s correct, but only if your point of reference is at the edge of your skin; only if your experience of being in the world starts at the edge of your body. And, while we live in the world, on a deeper and more accurate level, we live in our experience.

Sure, you can notice the leaves swaying in the breeze, can feel that same breeze against your skin, and notice the song being sung by the nearby bird, and you can take all that in with awareness and even appreciation of the beauty of the environment. But you can also notice the flow of your breath, the sinking or rising feeling that comes over you emotionally, and the thoughts of wonder or of conviction which seem to blow in and out of your mind like the breeze. These are events that are happening, just like the wind and the birds “out there”.

There are two levels of “insufficient awareness” which can keep you from being fully present to your environment. The first is to not even be aware of the elements going on in your experience. I call this being “lost to the experience”. Walking next to a building that is on fire and not noticing it, or having a surge of anger and not noticing it are examples of being lost TO the experience. In both cases, the person is out of touch with what is going on in his or her environment, regardless of which side of the skin it’s happening on.

The second is to be aware but to over-identify with them. I call this being “lost in the experience”. Taking home a puppy being given away when you don’t have room, or indulging a surge of anger like a surfer on a wave are examples of being lost IN the experience.

But imagine you are able to notice – as it arises – the impulse to take home that puppy, or the surge of anger demanding to be indulged. If you can notice those inner elements of your experience, then your point of reference for what is happening around you is no longer at the edge of your skin but at the edge of your attention.

Imagine noticing your thoughts, shifts of emotion, sensations – all being experienced as simply more of the stuff “out there”. The flow of your experience is… noticing the airplane in the sky, noticing the tightness in your belly, noticing the thought arising “I wonder what I’ll have for lunch”, noticing the smell of the nearby creosote bush, noticing the memory return of a rainstorm a year ago… These are all events, some of which are located out there, some located not out there.

If your point of reference, if where you locate YOURSELF, is at the point from which your attention moves from object to object, then the environment starts at the edge of your attention, not at the edge of your body.

It may be paradoxical but it’s true, that we tend to respond more objectively, effectively, and compassionately to the things we think need attention in the environment around us than to the things that happen inside us. Thus, this shift of perspective may help you treat yourself as well as you treat the world around you.

To the extent that you can allow yourself to engage with the events that unfold in your inner experience as consciously, autonomously, and either responsively or equanimously as you engage with the events that occur “out there”, you are that much more in the natural flow of life and that much more fully taking in the experience of it.

Try this: Take a handful of minutes to sit and allow yourself to notice whatever happens to come into your attention. Regardless of whether your attention is on something from inside you or from something “out there”, acknowledge each thing you notice as simply being more “stuff”. Take it slow, and do this with an awareness of the distinction between the observer and what is observed, between you and not you. Whatever is in your attention is in the environment – you are the observer and whatever is in your attention is not you. This observing “you” is the only thing NOT in the environment. If you keep up this practice over time, your skills of attention will sharpen, and more and more of this observing “you” will become part of the environment. The more “you” disappear, the more spacious your experience becomes.

Who are you in this moment?  You are the character who’s experience is enmeshed [...]]]> Moment by moment, one event after another crosses in front of our field of experience.  Our work is to slow down and observe the world that is being created within ourselves as we organize around the event of this moment.

Who are you in this moment?  You are the character who’s experience is enmeshed in the story and state of where your attention happens to be focused.  You are not always THIS character.  There may be a cast of thousands in there!  While we like to think of ourselves as being one stable personality, one or another of these characters, these parts of us, can get triggered simply as a result of where our attention goes.

Here’s an experiment:  focus your attention onto something that you know has some emotional charge for you.  Maybe an incident that left you hurt or unresolved, maybe a gift from a friend, a scar on your arm, maybe your dog.  As an experiment, see if you can sustain your focus on that thing WHILE watching the unfolding elements of your experience.  That is, notice what thoughts arise, what emotions, what you feel in your body, the flow of associations, even how old you feel.  Notice the story that gets indulged, and the state that accompanies it.  Notice all this AS THE WITNESS rather than as the one having the experience.

To turn this exercise into some practical training, see if you can sustain focus – or even choose some other charged thing to focus on if you want – and slow down enough to “locate” yourself securely as the witness (which simply means to be “separate” enough from your experience to be able to study it), staying there long enough to really experience the difference between being this character and being the “witness”.  Then, and this is where you strengthen your skills, shift to being the character who is having the present moment experience, letting go of the witness altogether.  Allow yourself to be enmeshed there long enough to have a conscious awareness that, “yes, this is familiar, yes, I know this character”.  Then (the most strengthening step) step out again and locate yourself as the witness.  Stay present as the witness while allowing this part of you, this character, to stay present as well.

The better you get at being able to step out of your experience and be the witness, and to shift back and forth as described above, the stonger your ability will be to get perspective in situations which in the past may have most “undone” you.  There is much you can do with this skill!