Hilarion: A question has arisen in which people do find themselves under a lot of stress. They feel the obligations of others around them, for their lives or so forth. Often times, this is very simple to shift because they have grown up in a society in which you are rewarded so much for dealing with this and taking on various obligations and for doing things in the world.
But, little attention is paid to the inner. Little attention is paid in the family to de-stressing or being in nature or simply sitting quietly without anything to do and just breathing. Are you capable of just breathing? Can you allow such an energy within your own consciousness that just allows that air in and out. It is one of the simplest of all meditations that you put all that attention and focus on the breath. On that in, and on that out and allow that as a way to reduce your own stress and come to a place of balance, come to a place of simplicity.
Many aspects of this are called, “mindfulness,’ and that is one of the simplest mindfulness exercises and can be shown by such physical measurements that in such a meditation or an attunement there are ways in which the body is clearly de-stressing. Lowered blood pressure, reduced muscle tension, various hormonal changes, different ways in which the brainwaves shift into a more repetitive pattern such as the alpha wave or whatever. It is good to do this but it is also good to practice at it not for the purpose of de-stressing and being able to come to that place of centeredness or relaxation or de-stress when great burdens are placed upon you, when there is some degree of stress in the world.
Now, to some individuals this sounds like, “oh, I know all about that. Old hat. Easy stuff.” But, you must understand that there are some individuals who have not been taught this. It has not been a part of their upbringing. Their parents have not shared this with them; how they de-stress. So, it is a very helpful and wonderful exercise even if it is something for which you are able to re-examine it.
What in your life reduces stress for you? Could it be something that you are willing to shift if necessary? Afterall, you don’t want to be doing something that is illegal, or harmful or fattening. You want something that is going to be de-stressing on its own and a way in which you are perhaps able to grow a little and have deeper knowledge of yourself or awareness or so on.
After doing this, re-examing your life and where the stress and difficulties are can sometimes be very helpful. In doing so, you may find other approaches are easier to work with. Yes, you can read about other approaches but when you do so from a place where you are feeling stress it is often difficult to accept this. Thus, it is like you have a bucketfull of water and you are going to pour more into it. There just isn't room for it, you need to empty out some of it first.
The point is that in making a shift of this nature you have two important responsibilities. One of these is to yourself, of course, because from a place of less stress or deeper knowledge that comes from working with various tools and techniques. You can change and shift your life and make this better for you but you can also make it better for others.
In that way, the second part of this is also about teaching. Are there people in your life, perhaps they are younger than yourself who would benefit from learning some of this? Can you share with them what has worked for you? Not from a theoretical way but what has actually worked in your own way to de- stress, relax more and have a deeper understanding.
It’s a powerful question and it is often stated quietly as we have suggested so that it might run deep. It is an invitation for you to ask yourself, “could I just let it go?” And sometimes even in the midst of difficulty you can for a moment, knowing that you will return to whatever needs to be dealt with right after you come to that place in which you have more energy, more relaxation and more understanding of yourself and then you will be able to understand others more easily.
One of the actions that so many people feel in the transition from one life into the next, be it as death, be it as the soul, be it as an energy that moves in consciousness from one level to another is alot like letting go because so many of the things that you have held onto you have done unconsciously; survival of the physical body, breathing; all the things that keep you going. No, you don’t have to think about it, you can allow the breath on its own. You always do this when you sleep and you don’t have to hold the muscles tight in order to keep them together and you can completely relax at times when it is safe to do so .
Yet, you will find that one of the first things that pops into your consciousness as you make this transition from being alive to being not alive is how much of that holding of that stress and that hanging on to that you were doing. Almost to the point of it being in and of itself overwhelming.
So, you have done this before in all of the lifetimes you’ve had in the past as you let go of them you have this realization and so what you begin to realize as you are looking at stress and you are coming to greater and greater mindfulness: is that so much of that which you consider a burden or so much or that which is stressful or that which you are struggling with is self-imposed. It is the way in which you are responding to it that is the tightening, the hard, the difficulty.
This is hard to understand from the outside. If we tell you this you would certainly object. You would say “oh, no, how then should I be earning a living? How, then, should I deal with this big problem with my children or my parents or where I work? Or, or, or"….yet, there is also as if bubbling very deep below the surface something else. Something that whispers to you, “you don’t have to.” You are choosing to and it is a way in which you are relating to that and similar energies.
So, it is often helpful to contact that place and another way of de-stressing or learning or working with “could you just let it go?” or the rest of it, is simply to acknowledge the source. That brings us back to that question we have so often posed. "Who or what is experiencing this right now? Who or what is experiencing this stress? This need to do something? This not knowing?" Whatever it is. "Who or what is experiencing that? "What this attunes you to is a place where there really isn’t any “doing.”
All of that is in that place is being. A being that doesn’t need to do anything, Know anything. It is simply the manifestation of itself. An impossible thing to understand within the language construct that requires the object and the thing that it is working on, the subject and the predicate (whatever the energies are with you) it is beyond that and what a beautiful time to acknowledge this and to welcome this and to know it, in the time in which you now approach that magical place.
You don’t have to figure it out. You only have to acknowledge that magical place for itself in which that magical energetic, that mysterious energy has been celebrated by humanity in so many ways it is called, “Halloween.” It is called “The Day of the Dead.” It is called this because you have the opportunity to know this safely and to know it in a way in which you are able to know it and breathe and know that there is something beyond the knowledge that comes at the level of the computer, of a scientific method, of a law or principle or idea. But, rather comes in its fullness as something of beauty. As something powerful within itself. It is your invitation to know this.
Of course, it is there all the time, but this is just the time in which you are welcome to do it a little bit more. For the three weeks or so beginning around October 24th as Mercury goes retrograde you may have an even deeper opportunity to do this. Because certainly such an energy will accelerate and strengthen as it crosses over that time period in which this is celebrated. Halloween is celebrated all over the world by children as they are playing with it the way it has been commercialized such as costumes and candy and seeing strangers and all of that. But, there is at its core, something else. An appreciation of something intrinsic, just there waiting to be discovered.
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