736th Week:  Sources of Inspiration and Information

ByNancy Napier

I’ve written many times about the importance of teaching ourselves to have access to the inherent intelligence and perception of the heart.  The heart brain automatically orients to a sense of connection and it is deeply enriching to move through daily life from this perspective.  That said, when one seeks to be in the world with an open heart, it is also possible to more keenly feel the pain and suffering of others, be they other humans, other species, our planet, Gaia, a living being.

I have long had, and constantly recommend, a practice of starting the day taking in something inspiring, rather than beginning the day watching or listening to the news.  In the current political and social climate, I notice that my heart needs to fill up with even more inspiring stories of people helping people, people working to protect the environment, people doing acts that embody kindness, empathy, and awareness of the suffering of others.  The lack of empathy in our current leadership in the United States is a powerful source of anguish, and one of the ways I’m able to keep my heart open and my awareness willing to take in what is happening to us collectively is to offer myself these daily moments of inspiration and good news.  I remind myself regularly that, within a context of wholeness, there is always good happening if I will take the time to look for it.

For this week’s practice in conscious living, I invite you to seek out sources of inspiration and information related to issues that concern you, issues that you want to understand better, issues that you want to be able to do something about.  One of my sources of inspiration is to use Audible books and to listen as I do chores.  Michelle Obama’s book, “Becoming”, was a powerful source of inspiration and I was sorry to have it end.  A current book is “My Grandmother’s Hands”, which focuses on racial issues.  Even though the subject is painful, the information offered is both historically significant and currently applicable in a way that leaves me understanding things about myself I hadn’t recognized before. Because it is written by a man who practices Somatic Experiencing®, the trauma resolution approach I also follow and spent 12 years teaching, there is a kindness and surprising gentleness in the book, given the charged nature of what it’s actually about.  And so, for me, this is a source of inspiration as I listen to it, as well as a source of hope for our future.  I also draw on spiritual sources of inspiration from a number of places, which I’ve shared over time in these practices.  Servicespace.org has many resources that are inspiring and filled with good news, as well, including DailyGood and KarmaTube emails–https://www.servicespace.org

Here are a couple of other resources that are focused on the movement from “me to we”, with many programs and activities that serve to promote our sense of interconnection and interdependence:

https://www.unify.org

https://www.metowe.com/about-us/

As with all these practices in conscious living, there’s no right way to offer yourself ways to increase your empathy, to increase doing acts of kindness in your daily life, or to support living with an open heart.  The key thing is to be open to the feedback your own body-mind offers you as you touch into what you experience as you meet the world with your heart intelligence and perception rather than with just your head brain awareness.

Remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing them to move on through.  It also helps to remember that the inevitable self-talk we all walk around with in our heads is a form of self-hypnosis, so it’s worth paying attention to what you tell yourself about you and your world.  These statements arise from prior conditioning and it can be very helpful to generate thoughts about you and your world—your ongoing self-hypnotic conversation with yourself—that promote a sense of connection and well-being.

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January 2016 Audio Meditation

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2023 May Meditation

ByNancy Napier

This month, we expand the everyday relationships you have with the world around you. Imagine you go to a store–notice how it is to recognize that when you enter the store, you are immediately in relationship with it. You have joined the community of presences that comprises the store. Take a moment to offer gratitude and blessings to the store and to everything and everyone within it, acknowledging within yourself the inevitability of relatedness, of community, every time you move in and out of a particular space, be it a store, a park, a recreational environment, any building–anywhere at all…

Please remember never to listen to guided audio meditations while driving or using dangerous machinery.

If you’d rather see images of nature as you meditate, here’s link to the youtube version…

https://youtu.be/RSQCVdJEFIU

Week 628: Where Do You Place Your Attention?

ByNancy Napier

Walking across Central Park one morning, I watched a dog wiggle and waggle in anticipation of chasing a ball. His attention was absolutely fixed on the ball in his human companion’s hand. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else registered as the ball was finally in the air and he ran after it with great enthusiasm. This got me to thinking about how powerfully the focus of our attention affects what we perceive and how we engage the world. Read More “Week 628: Where Do You Place Your Attention?”

758th Week: The Importance and Power of Presence

758th Week: The Importance and Power of Presence

ByNancy Napier

I taught a workshop the other day and was keenly aware of the importance and power of presence as it affects not only ourselves but the space and people around us.  This professional workshop focused on helping clients become more grounded and have the ability to re-center after becoming activated.  As we all came together for the day, I could feel the qualities of our combined presence and found myself emphasizing the presence of the practitioner as the main element in any healing process.

On a more general note, I’m also always aware of the importance and power of presence as we move through our everyday lives. There isn’t a moment that we aren’t radiating the qualities of our personal and collective presence, and our personal presence inevitably impacts not only our own experience but that of everyone we encounter along the way.

This got me to thinking of the ways in which we can become more mindful of the qualities of our personal presence, and of the importance of being able to notice when we radiate negative or hurtful qualities and need to make available the choice to reorient ourselves and “dial in” a different mood state, quality of consciousness, or focus of our attention.

Read More “758th Week: The Importance and Power of Presence”
853rd Week: The Body as Community

853rd Week: The Body as Community

ByNancy Napier

As I thought about what to share as a practice this week, a recent webinar I offered for professionals came to mind. It focused on the wide variety of reciprocal relationships we have with everything we encounter in the course of our everyday lives. One of the subjects I didn’t spend a lot of time on in the webinar was to focus on the reciprocal relationships we have with our physical bodies.

Over the years, I have had a relationship of gratitude with my body—gratitude for the fact that it allows me to be here, gratitude for all the organs that make it possible for my body to function, gratitude that my body is healthy. For me, love—the frequency and energy of love—is the most powerful healing frequency we can access and I draw on it liberally in my life. One of the practices I’ve engaged over the years has been to send love to my body each day, as part of my gratitude practice. 

I may have mentioned before that our bodies are actually comprised of many organisms that are non-human. Here’s a quote from the BBC News: “Human cells make up only 43% of the body’s total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists.” The American Museum of Natural History says that, “Your body is an ecosystem” and that, “An ecosystem is a community of living things.” Because of these facts, I seek to have a cooperative, collaborative, and loving relationship with the organisms that populate my body and that support my daily functioning. I include these organisms in my gratitude practice and regularly send them love.

Read More “853rd Week: The Body as Community”
856th Week: Returning to Steadiness

856th Week: Returning to Steadiness

ByNancy Napier

For quite a long while now, I have invited myself and others to find the fundamental and ever-present steadiness that is an inherent part of our core presence. Within this living presence of centered and grounded awareness, there is always a steadiness that is undisturbed by anything that may be happening in our lives. It’s a practice I’ve cultivated and returned to again and again, and the habit of orienting to the steadiness that cannot be disturbed has proven to be a powerful and useful resource.

One example of the benefits of settling into the underlying steadiness we all carry at the core of our being is a mundane one, but one that has had particular importance to me. As the child in my family who felt responsible for caring for my mother’s happiness (definitely a child’s perspective!), I developed an underlying anxiety around caregiving. Needless to say, this anxiety was readily present over the years whenever animal members of my family needed medication or some other challenging treatment. Inevitably, I would be anxious—anything but calm—and that never helped. What I discovered in recent weeks, when three feline members of my household had medical issues come up, is that my practice of orienting to my internal steadiness has offered an opportunity to meet these medical needs with a calm presence that I didn’t know was possible. 

For this week’s practice in conscious living, I invite you to explore the following practice to see what it might offer to you. 

Read More “856th Week: Returning to Steadiness”

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