An Unexpected Situation

What Went On At The Hub ….

I opened my talk about an “Unexpected Situation” that had happened recently.
Those unexpected moments, which have the ability to literally catapult you out of our
usual daily routines. I read out a letter I had written to the parents of a young man
who had died suddenly and whom I had known as a young boy. An unexpected
situation that stopped me in my tracks yet held personal insight.

Would these, and other such circumstances and situations be ‘life’s way’ of catching
our attention do you suppose? My guess is that they must be. How else does life get to
wake us up beyond our saturated culture habits discontents and constant distractions?

What I Noticed ….

I got to step out of the usual autopilot mode of doing, if only for a while. Past and
future thought processes didn’t hold centre stage. Usual perceptions, judgements,
beliefs and other ongoing mental traffic were dimmed out. Deemed as unimportant
somehow.

Being stopped in our tracks literally opens the ‘here and now’ door of our self-aware
presence to be felt and understood. We find ourselves touching a place that’s
undisturbed by the ongoing stories, dramas and such that play themselves out in our
daily activities and mindsets.

Breaking Out of Prison!

I certainly wouldn’t dispute the difficulties entailed particularly in the early stages of
learning to be present. Who can honestly blame us! We are held hostage a good deal
of our lives by past memories or our ongoing need to improve ourselves in some
fashion or other. The list can be endless.

As we begin to salvage more of our consciousness we see through our automatic
‘fixed lens’ of behaviours, attitudes, judgements and beliefs.

Believe me when moments of having little or no reaction’ or feelings of internal
combustion to whatever situations arrive. You are out of prison!!

A Simple Habit That Keep’s Me Steady!

Conscious Breathing. I simply include it as part of my daily management
strategy. It’s now a habit that has more power than my fight or flight flag!

1. Pause (traffic lights, before eating, before answering…make your own list.
2. Breath In (consciously deliberately) say the words ‘here’
3. Breath Out (feel wave of emptying out – slight squeeze of belly button) say
   the words (to yourself obviously!) now.
4. Guess What? You wont ever know…. Until you give it a go!!

What I’m Reading

The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edit Eager

I found myself wanting to skip over some of the pages in this book. Edits, personal
experiences, as a child in Auschwitz is where I struggled with the atrocities she and
her sister endured at the hands of our ‘ (in) human race’.
What was the component or elements that helped her survive such atrocities kept me
turning the pages?

Perhaps some of the quotes below will give some insight….

You can’t change what happened. You can’t change what you did or what was done
to you, but you can choose how you live now” She suggests also that the biggest
prison we have “is in our own minds.

On Humour!

A recent scientific study showed that out of 2,295618,367 people, 94% are too lazy to
actually read the number.

Any comments or suggestions you might like to share, please contact me or leave a comment.