“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Anne Lamott
Living the computer age like we do, I am we sure you are familiar with the advice just to unplug your electronic device and plug it back in again to get it working again. It is like the brains of the computer get all clogged up or off kilter and nothing you do seems to work until you unplug it and plug it back in again. Funny thing is, most of the time, I find that this does the trick too!
Like Ann Lamott says in this quote, we also need to unplug ourselves, it seems, to get ourselves working again. You know what I mean, right?
Sometimes I feel like the student in Mr Osborne's class from Gary Larsen cartoon from the 1986.
I am sure I am not alone here. We live now in the information age and man can we get our brains filled with so much information. With our cell phones, it seems like the information is pouring right from our phones directly into our heads. Our minds do seem to need unplugging these days to make them work again, or at least that is my experience. Maybe now more than ever!
"The mind can only reprocess the past, judge the present, and worry about the future." Richard Rohr
Now you may not totally agree with this quote about our minds but my personal experience is this is all too true. My mind does seem to get itself tied up. As Howard Thurman says "The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic". That's me, endless traffic of past and the future with lots of measuring, comparing, judging and worrying. Why do I do this so much? Corrie Ten Boom has some wise advice for us to consider regarding worry!
"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."
So, here is the deal for me, I was not nearly aware of all this "endless traffic in my mind" until I began to sit quietly and watch myself pass by, so to speak. Once I began to become an observer of my thoughts, ideas and feelings letting them pass without attaching to them, then I began to really learn to unplug my mind! It seems the very action of watching or observing and not participating or attaching to the"endless traffic" of my mind, is almost a "Jedi mind trick". It really works!
It is been a journey to learn this "Jedi mind trick" and I practice it everyday (even if it is just 5 minutes) but for me, it is my way to truly unplug my mind. My experience is that the more I became practiced at it this, the more I was truly able to be "present to the moment". It is like I untangle my mind at the start of each day and I am ready to be fully present to the "sacrament of the present moment". To live like this is what is referred to as a "non-dual consciousness".
" Non-dual consciousness is about receiving and being present to the moment and to the now, exactly as it is, without judgment, without analysis, without critique, without mental commentary, without your ego deciding whether you like it or not.
For me, this method of unplugging daily, has created a whole new way of knowing the world! Now this is freedom, freedom from the endless traffic of the mind.
My you have peace of mind, body and soul!
John
P.S. The photo of me at the top of this blog was from a hike to Mt St Helen's. Now that is another great way to unplug the mind and just embrace the moments. At least this works for me as well.
I will be heading off on a trip to Portugal in about a week from now. I am planning to try and release a few blog post from along the way with photos, of course!
Dance like no one is watching
Instead of ending my blog post with a Nature Meditation, I thought I would leave you with a song I came across recently and have been listening to daily. I love this song. It is by Jason Mraz and it is called appropriately "Living in the Moment". I encourage you to listen and let the music flow and just let your thinking mind release and dance, just dance! The words are really awesome too!
Living in the Moment
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