Dear Friend

Sorry!

Big apologies for no Letter last week! I was so wrapped up preparing for and delivering these training sessions this month, that it wasn’t until Thursday that it suddenly dawned on me that I had not been in touch with you! I have also taken on some teaching work to improve the English skills of Chinese children online, so all in all I’m in a busy mode right now.

So this month I’ve now trained three separate groups with the first training session, and in total I was teaching about 240 people from all corners of the world. It’s a very exciting challenge for me, and I now do the second round in June, and then the third round in July. They are all spiritual leaders, so what they learn with me they can then pass onto the members of their own groups.

This is precisely what I wanted my mission to achieve, to spread a certain way of learning and teaching throughout the world. I want to educate the educators: parents, teachers, home educators, leaders of all kinds, and all world helpers.

Then they educate those in their own home and work life in kind, and voila, we change our world into a much better world using proper education that is heart-centred and human-centric and which spreads rapidly and widely.

Conscious Living

So today I’d like to share an extract from my book which gives you a practical procedure to make conscious living central to your life. Conscious living is the fundamental tool for self-education, and it is self-education, and ONLY self-education which is the liberation of any human being who embraces it.

Food for thought (1)

What pain do you suffer from that you know about? If you think more deeply on this, do you discover that you are holding and hiding more pain that usually you manage to pretend is not really there?

Think about this for a few minutes before reading on. Even better, jot down your thoughts so you have a record.

Food for thought (2)

Unless you are prepared to dive into the darkness, the very thing you fear will continue to haunt you. The darker it looks, the darker it feels, the more you avoid looking there, the more harmful it will get. Shining light into darkness does one thing only: darkness has to flee, it has no chance of winning against light…

Pain is a real pain (even if you can’t see it)

There is only one kind of pain that is really, truly, horribly painful.

The one you won’t do anything about. 

The one you pretend is not there. 

The one you kid yourself is ‘normal’ because it’s the same for everybody else.

I am talking any kind of pain: psychological pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, physical pain, social pain. 

We have been conditioned to either bottle it up, or seek some kind of ‘expert’ out there in the society to fix us: doctors, gurus, magic pills, men on white horses, the Government, psychologists, life coaches etc etc.

This is relying upon luck and others to fix you. And in our current times you will have a very long wait, and in fact most likely you will just arrive at your deathbed one day and be filled with regrets for what you didn’t do.

In many cases, to make matters worse, the fixers are broken too.

Now clearly, if you hold, or are hiding from yourself, a pain that you are unaware of, especially a psychological one, then you not doing anything about it at all. And it will simply chip away at you in the background, making you a fraction of your potential and promise, causing you misery, without you being able to do anything about it.

I have observed that many people do this, not seeing their own pain and stress.

It means you will live a life of constant stress, even if you can’t quite put your finger on why you are so stressed. Always you will think it’s others, or bad luck, or this situation or that event, which causes you all your woes.

But it’s not, it’s you that causes your own woes. We’ve talked about this in previous Letters. The problem is not out there, that is just the trigger, the problem you experience is your reaction to the trigger out there.

So get doing, get fixing yourself. And if you can’t do it now, then when can you do it? There only IS now. Stop putting things off until ‘tomorrow’. Tomorrow is just a mental construct: when you wake up each morning it is never tomorrow, always a new today.

A practical guide for living consciously

Now, even for busy people this technique can be done! There is simply no excuse to not incorporate this into your life. It needs practice, but you will NEVER not have time to do it! And many wonderful things will begin to make themselves known to you as you become skilled in conscious living.

Remember, conscious living is your number one tool for throwing off society’s chains draped around your shoulders, and living the life of your dreams.

In reality.

So, here is the extract from my book, with a task at the end of the reading for you. My book has tasks all the way through it, because if you ever want to make something really beautiful out of your life YOU have to DO things, you have to TAKE ACTION. And all my tasks ask you to DO something. Every task you fail to do, because you think it won’t benefit you, or that you say you’ll come back to ‘when I’ve got more time’, is a lost opportunity.

Over to you!

[NB I make reference to ‘my massage with the falling water noise’. We will learn about this in next week’s Letter]

From Chapter 11 - The Journey of Life: Living Consciously

Conscious living is when you notice, and are aware of, what is happening around you, what you’re doing, and what is going on inside you. We notice and have awareness of life using what we shall call our ‘mind’s eye’. It is your mind’s eye which is noticing and reading the text on this page right now. Conscious living is connecting your mind’s eye to the present moment.

If one is doing something while being preoccupied with thinking about something else, one’s mind’s eye is on the thinking, not on the doing… wherever your attention, there is your mind’s eye. Conscious living is being aware of where your attention is lying.

Look up at the ceiling right this second, and realise you are doing it… there, conscious living. Now look at your right foot and notice it with your mind’s eye; now stroke an imaginary cat and watch your hand as you move it… there, conscious living.

It is said, by those who study and research such things, that most people spend over 90% of their lives not living consciously, rather they engage with life through the autopilot of their subconscious mind. Routines, habits, and actions we do all the time are so ingrained in us that we don’t have to think what we’re doing, we can automatically do them, and therefore often we just don’t notice that we are doing them. We don’t have to think how to open a door, walk, get dressed, take a shower, clean our teeth and so on. 

And because of this, or arising out of it, a section of our mind runs riot with what we can can call our internal chatter, or inner talk. It is this chatterbox mind which steals our consciousness, diverts our mind’s eye from what is going on in the world and from what we are actually doing. In my massage with the falling water noise I kept losing awareness of the water because my chatterbox mind was doing its stuff.

This inner talk, while sometimes benign, is our tormentor-in-chief and the instigator of all our destructive words and deeds. Everybody has negative self-talk, doubt, guilt, shame and so on, and this is your internal chatter and part of the system’s program we’ve been talking about.

Conscious living means we can notice this thought production factory within our minds, and that is always the start of solutions to our problems in life. 

It’s easy to get ourselves into conscious living mode and, until we practise and become skilled in living this way, even easier to become distracted out of it by this inner voice of ours. I’d like to offer you a method for instantly, whenever you think about it, bringing yourself into conscious living. Once we live more consciously we can start availing ourselves of all the aforementioned benefits. My method also carries some associated health tips to help you with your wellness journey, as a free bonus!

The best way to see everything and fully grasp the act of conscious living is to bring your focus onto our four most common daily activities, which ordinarily you are unlikely to be aware of because you don’t need to be, you can do them all without thinking about them. I’m talking about breathing, sitting, walking, and eating. 

My suggestion is to practise getting yourself into conscious living mode with these activities at first which means you’ll get unlimited opportunities to become skilled at it. Then just apply it to all other areas of your life.

Quite simply, bring your attention - your mind’s eye - to the activity you are doing. As soon as you realise or notice that you are eating, breathing, sitting or walking then you are in conscious living mode. That you were not aware of doing them beforehand is because your mind’s eye and attention was preoccupied with doing or thinking about others things. Let’s go through them one by one.

Whenever you are next walking somewhere remember reading this chapter and notice your walking, become aware that you are in the process of walking. Keep your attention on your walking, notice how fast you are going, what kind of posture you have, how you hold your head, what your arms are doing, all the while being aware of what is happening around you in case you have to change your direction. You are now consciously walking with full awareness. But your chatterbox mind can hijack your attention very easily (so can your smartphone)…

To practise maintaining conscious walking, notice each time your feet make contact with the ground and when they leave the ground. Keep noticing, keep your attention on your feet. 

Health tip: instead of rushing to wherever you’re going and barely even realising you’re walking, set off earlier, slow down from your usual pace, walk upright, chest out and head up and walk confidently into the space ahead of you. It’s you and the world together, enjoy the world’s company, embrace her, be that lionheart! Keep doing this for the whole journey, whether it’s one minute, ten minutes or more, whether it’s at home, in the garden, or out and about. If you become distracted - you will, many times - just return your attention to your posture and feet.

Health activity: find some parkland, lawns, a beach, and enjoy walking barefoot. If you didn’t know, this is called ‘earthing’. Earthing is super healthy for us - the earth gives off negative ions which send positive energy through our feet and into our body which we don’t get when we’ve got shoes on. When I walk barefoot I definitely live consciously, I love the sensation of being connected to Mother Earth, for she is the giver of life.

Whenever you are sitting down - and many people nowadays spend a lot of time sitting down - recall this chapter and bring your attention to your body. Become aware that you are sitting down, and notice your posture. Are you sitting with back upright and shoulders open or are they slumped in the shape of a hammock-shaped banana? I used to be a slumper, but I began retraining myself after I started my wellness journey. These days I look around me when I’m out and about and nearly everybody slumps. It’s become more of a health disaster since smartphones came onto the scene. Notice what you’re doing and if need be straighten your back, open up your shoulders, make your chest point forwards, and relax out of any tension you notice in your neck region. This all becomes super important if you do a lot of computer or desk work.

Health tip: if you slump a lot make it a mission to retrain your sitting posture, and in so doing you will have to become super good at conscious living. It’s amazing how quickly we go from a conscious straight back to our default slumping position. I can’t recall how long it took me to really retrain myself, perhaps a year or two, not sure. Now I sit upright subconsciously as my default sitting position. This also helps you if you are prone to any back pain.

Health activity: sit down on the floor cross-legged or in the lotus/half lotus position if you can, and practise keeping your back upright for as long as you can. Sit against a wall if it helps you to maintain conscious attention. If you find you have slumped, straighten up. In all these kinds of retraining activities never lose heart, sometimes you have to practise for quite some time to get the real benefits, but when you succeed you really do boost your wellness factor.

Whenever you are breathing… hah, just joking. Whenever you remember to, bring your conscious attention to your breathing. This of course can be anywhere at any time. Notice your in-breaths and notice your out-breaths, and keep noticing for as long as you can or have time to do so. Just keep following your breathing, feel your chest moving. Do you breathe through your mouth or nose? Do you breathe in a shallow manner?

Health tip: make sure you’re always breathing (you get only quality health info in this book).

Health activity: combine with sitting or lying down on a yoga mat or your bed, or anywhere comfortable, and make breathing your only activity. Now focus on slowing down, breathing more deeply in and out, and enjoy the process. As you breathe in and out you might let your mind’s eye do a check up on your body, part by part, perhaps starting with your toes and work your way up to the crown of your head. Visualising, say, your heart, direct your in-breath there to bring oxygen to it, and then with your out-breath imagine toxins leaving your heart. In this way you can keep conscious of both your breathing and each part of your body, while feeing oxygen to your whole being.

At the start of my spiritual journey, when living in Bangkok, I used to take a long weekend most months at a nice beach town two hours away. I would get up early, go and sit in the shade under some trees on the beach and, as the sun was rising out of the sea and upwards, I would focus on counting 100 deep breaths in and out. The rule was that if I lost count I had to start again. Usually I ended up becoming so hungry for breakfast that I gave up. But the journey was the key, and I was getting lots of good oxygen and circulation while practising holding my conscious attention.

When you are eating, notice your eating, notice how fast you eat, how much or how little you chew your food, and what the tastes are like. Now, again, I have completely retrained myself in my eating habits. Most people don’t just eat, they do other things at the same time, barely even noticing their meal - tv dinners, on-the-go meals, smartphone meals, non-stop talking meals and so on. That is not conscious living! 

Most people eat fast, and I mean fast. I observe it all the time. Barely any chewing going on, just shovelled down like there’s no tomorrow. I recall before I moved to Thailand being a very fast eater myself, usually finishing my meal before everybody else, and in those days I got a lot of stomach aches and indigestion. I knew not why back then. So many pains and bodily malfunctions arise out of our ignorance. Now I’m usually the slowest eater.

Health tip: to practise maintaining your conscious attention when eating, ensure you chew every mouthful plenty of times. You may find that previously bland tastes begin to release pleasures hitherto hidden from you. Your stomach will have less work to do and will be most thankful to you. Ayurveda views the stomach as the seat of health, and is where health first starts to go wrong if we don’t take care of it. Try to get into the habit of doing nothing else while eating most of your meals. Especially when you’ve got good tasty healthy food. If you’re busy talking, watching tv, on the phone, you won’t notice all that lovely food. Of course, a good meal out with good company is somewhat different. It’s the default that counts.

Aside from the four essential habits of life, what else can we apply our mind’s eye and conscious living to? The short answer is anything and everything, but perhaps a longer answer will be more useful. Before I give you my thoughts, why not get your notebook out and brainstorm with yourself all the things you can start deliberating noticing, observing, paying attention to? Write down all your thoughts, and then choose some to focus on in the coming weeks.

A final word

So there’s your Weekly Task for you! With several Weekly Health Tips for the price of one!

And if you want to get a copy of my book, then you can buy it on Amazon. Easy to do if you are reading this on my website, if you are reading it in your email inbox just click here.

Have a wonderful week!

All the best

Philip