3 Ways to see wisdom in urges to escape

Its common to wish to escape from thoughts of discomfort and challenges that feel overwhelming. Life situations can escalate or get-out -of hand. Simple conversations can intensify, and trigger your emotions. Why assume changing scenery makes a difference? What is really going on? Ponder 5 ways to see wisdom in urges to escape: 

1) Look deeper to see what you really wish to escape  

Notice on the surface, you may think you wish to avoid conflict at work, in relationships or other situations, or even temporarily alleviate the stress you link to paying bills, keeping up appearances, multi-tasking or other matters. Turning inward reveals all urges to escape/ travel/ change scenery are forms of resistance to accepting true being (who you really are). Discomfort arising in relation to your external world reflects internal tug-of-war between the limiting Mind and expanding Self. This reveals why people often say they need a vacation to recouperate from the vacation or attend retreat after retreat. Rather than relax and be in the moment, an active mind focuses attention on what is not being done somewhere other than where one is.

2) Society/ culture programs humans to suffer.

Notice the Mind is programmed to oscillate between perceptions of pain and pleasure and focus mainly on misery of who you think you are not, where you are not and what you are not yet doing. This takes shape as focusing on the past or future, on what seems lacking or missing in your life, on what you no longer have or would like to and do not yet see materialize. This even comes across in calendar celebrations that recognize historical events but actually just keep you focused energetically away from now. 

3) Recognize & move beyond 'the what next syndrome.'

Notice the ways the Mind keep you thinking about the future and speaking using the future tense in language. You come to nurture expectations for what is next rather than appreciate where you are. It can take shape in a linear timeline vision for relationships (i.e. dating, commitment, marriage, children, house purchase, children, retirement ect), for moving up a hierarchy in the workplace, for envisioning step-by-step changes to any situation. Watch what happens to the urge to escape when you let go of all expactations.

At some stage, stepping back allows one to see through all the seeking and master the focus of attention. It dawns that physical existence is not full of problems to be solved but rather, full of mysteries to be lived directly. No questions arise in the Silence where nothing is happening and no-body exists to escape from.

Be awake to what matters

At any moment, you can wake up.  Any situation can awaken you.  Existence is an exercise where you create ways to feel more alive.  Being awake is feeling into knowing what matters.  Sometimes small life changes enable you to feel more awake, more present.  Even splashing water on the face can help.  How much sleep do you need to be awake to what matters?

To be awake is to recognize it was a dream that created the sense of distance between who you are and what you think you want.  Dreaming is the distance.  For dreaming to feel real, sleeping is necessary.  From the moment you are awake sleep disappears along with the world of dreams and the impulse to dream.

Being awake is being here now and accepting what you already are.  Awakening cannot be made a goal. All goals are dreaming like all achievements and pursuits to them are dreaming. He who is asleep cannot dream his way to enlightenment.  Whatever you imagine is not the same as being what you are already.

It is assumed that a process exists for everything and so process is dreamed into being.  It is imagined you must follow a path to reach a destination, take training to become qualified with a certain skill, literally travel from place to place, when the starting point and destination are the same. That is, you convince yourself you are less than you are in order to think you must earn the reward of a desired experience.   Being awake to what matters is accepting everything is instantaneous.

Similarly, it is often assumed a person moves through dreaming and waking states to wakefulness and then to that which has no name.  Everything but the last state takes you away from yourself. In reality, you do not go anywhere but life and experience looks different in the imagination.  You think you must lose yourself to become whole, do something to merit entry into paradise.  When you truly lose the self, your false identity or sense of separation from who you are,  you cannot come back to it and for desire and ego cease to exist.  

Get this: Paradise is here now.  Being awake to what matters is knowing no-thing you think exists.  Yet, the point of it all is enjoying every step of the imagined journey, appreciating every experience, and loving everything you encounter along the way back to where you never leave.  Love is the answer.  All of existence points toward it and is it. 

5 Ways to know change is in the air

Many people get wrapped up in the prospect of change.  How can you know change is in the air? 

1) Read your vibes. If you detect a sense of discomfort or restlessness, this is your physical body letting you know it is the right moment to make a change or let change happen.   

2) Watch your thoughts. As you notice desire arising, and find you are focusing attention on particular visions or ideas, this is a stepping stone to feeling the urge to do something differently.

3) Feel the waters. Feel life as a stream. You are either in the flow or going against the current. Change here is perpetual. The moving stream cannot be held onto.  To the degree you resist the stream, you feel the current is moving. Every emotion you feel points to the state of the flow.

4) Understand the system of waves. For every change, there is the unchanging. You are just as much light and darkness.  No waves have only crests or only troughs.  Cycles exist based on perception of space and time.  Space is inseparable from objects that occupy space.  The seen is inseparable from the unseen. Cannot have the ups or highs without the downs or lows of life.

5) See the underlying motive- the impetus for change is often the desire for a greater degree of permanence. As you come to see the true reasons for your choices, you can more clearly identify what you really want.  Decipher illusions you create for yourself.  The Path finds you.

Recognize what you really want

Everything you do or do not do is an effort to recognize what you really want.  Finding this article is no accident.  Noticing particular situations or people in your life is no accident.  Growing more aware of what you think and feel is no accident.  In fact, there are no accidents.

Even now, you are noticing certain things about yourself and your life that feel completely new.  Awarenss is expanding.  Know you are always in the right place, in the right moment.  Watch what you resist letting go, what is disappearing from your life.  Be aware of what you are feeling.  Your feelings are the path to what is hidden right in front of you.  Everything that matters is ready for you to embrace it when you are.  Any pressure or stress you feel comes from you.

Its not what you think

You may think certain things are missing in your life; a certain amount of money, the appropriate course of study, the perfect home, the right partner or relationship, business deal, opportunity, or condition.  Look closer.  Be aware you cannot tell life what you need.  Life reveals timeless insight and wisdom to you based on what you think you want.

You may hear people say you are what you think or you are what you do.  Step back.  Get completely clear.  Nothing is ever missing in life.  When you think this is the case, you forget who you are. When you know who you are, anxiety falls away. Whatever comes and goes, changes of state or conditions do not bother you.  What awaits discovery and recognition? Notice the witness of desires arising and falling away.  Notice what witnesses the silence.