Embracing Nature’s Wisdom: 4 Powerful Exercises for Peace, Joy & Creativity by Simon Paul Harrison Published by Fox Walking Publishing at Smashwords Copyright 2012 Simon Paul Harrison. All Rights Reserved Discover other titles by Simon Paul Harrison at Smashwords.com: The Truly Alive Child: For Those Who Seek a Grander Vision for Our Children https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/227157 Smashwords Edition, License Notes Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. **** Table of Contents Ch. 1 Nature’s Wisdom Shows Us The Path Back Home Ch.2 The Sit Spot Ch.3 Exploring The Senses Ch.4 Mindful Walking Ch.5 Soft-Focus Ch.6 Everything Is Within About The Author & Other Books **** Chapter 1 Nature’s Wisdom Shows Us the Path Back Home Rivers flow, birds sing. The wisdom of Nature is simple and timeless. In the simple experience, we find true peace. In the timeless experience, we discover deep joy. If we wish to experience our true selves: Peace, Joy, and Creativity, it is clear we require a different quality of wisdom, one that cuts through the countless layers of illusions we have created in modern society. In Nature we find the ultimate teacher. Wherever we look, there she is, pointing to the truth in every direction. The wisdom held by rivers reminds us of our inherently peaceful nature far more effectively than any classroom. Bird song reminds us that we are free far more effectively than any war. The wisdom contained within a single acorn reminds us that we are all one far more effectively than any government initiative. Society tells us who we should be; Nature shows us who we truly are. We have a deep connection to all life. But more than this, we are life itself, just as an individual wave is at the same time the vast ocean. There is no conflict, nothing to chase, nothing to fight, and nothing to compete with, for when we experience ourselves as connected, we no longer feel compelled to chase and fight. It is in this experience that we find what we have been searching for: lasting peace, profound joy, and pure creativity. Living in the here and now with Nature, we return to our birthright of walking as one with life. In modern society, our views of reality can easily become distorted. When we are close to the stillness and quietness of the Earth, so many of our illusions are left behind: separateness, need, insufficiency, and fear, to name but a few. So we see and experience actual reality, not what we think reality is. There can be a universe of difference! Nature expects nothing from us, and so she gives everything. There is no hidden agenda, and there are no entry requirements to enjoy Nature’s timeless wisdom. Money is not important in the slightest. Nor is our age, gender, race, or appearance. Although it may seem strange to some, neither is it important how clever we are. In fact, cleverness can work against us if we are not careful because our minds try to work out the great mystery instead of just being it. The only thing required to achieve this state is a willingness to be open and to ask questions without deciding the answers in advance. We can empty our cup and be satisfied that there is no need to fill it. This can prove a huge stumbling block because we live in a society that tells us that in order to be happy, we must fill our cup to the brim with external success and material possessions, then fill it some more. If this still isn’t enough to bring us peace, then we’re told that maybe we just don’t have what it takes and just have to accept that we’re inferior. But it is not in the filling of the cup or even the process of emptying it that peace is found, but in realizing there is no cup to be filled. Then all that is left for us to do, in the words of an anonymous Zen master, is to have a really good laugh. Nature is an ever-willing helper in this. We can give to Nature so effortlessly because we know we are not being judged. This is tremendously liberating and healing. We often say we are able to “let go” of our troubles. When we continually let go, we become empty to the point that we experience life as never before. In this case, emptiness is a good thing. Our physical boundaries dissolve and we experience ourselves as more, larger, grander. When we feel the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things flowing in us just as it flows through the morning birdsong, the seed is planted. The grip of the illusions of separateness is broken and it’s inevitable the seed will grow—maybe slowly, maybe quickly, but always toward greater communion with life. Nature moves to a different rhythm than modern society. When we feel a cool wind blowing and let its spirit move within us, our anger dissolves. When we become the goose as it flies overhead, our fears dissipate. As a single raindrop hits the palm of our hand, our true nature is revealed to us. Nothing to chase, nothing to run after, nothing to fight. No struggle, no tension, no conflict. We are peace. We are freedom. We are life. We are the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Nature shows us the path back home. Our Birthright Even though we may not yet know it, our greatest desire is to touch life so deeply and so intimately that we become as one with that which we are touching. Doing so on a purely physical level does not satisfy us. We desire an embrace that sees our very souls merge with another, and another, and another until we have at once both a profound experience of individuality and oneness with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. This movement toward communion with eternity is what drives us to dance, sing, write, play, laugh, cry, cook, garden, to create music, create artwork, and make love. All our activities have as their source the ocean of life, the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. And like a cool ocean on a hot summer’s day, just dipping our toes in isn’t enough. Nor is diving in. We want to get so close and personal with the ocean that we not only experience it flowing around us, but through us. When we allow this to happen, we realize we are not just an isolated wave, waiting to break upon the shore and cease to be. We are the small and the large, the stillness and the movement, the shallow and the deep. We desire to touch life so intimately that we experience not that we are at peace, but that we are peace itself. The four exercises included in this book are designed to help you do exactly that. Centered upon experience rather than information and stripped of any cultural or religious dogma, they get straight to the heart of the matter. The exercises support you in creating the environment and the space in which you will discover your truth and your birthright. They will help you create your own experiences of peace, joy, and creativity. You will not have to accept someone else’s version of what you should think, do, and say to lead an increasingly peaceful life. There is little power or merit in that. Instead, these four powerful exercises will support you in becoming aware of many different paths and opportunities. They do not dictate or prescribe which path you should take. You should always be dancing to your own tune, creating your own masterpiece, conducting your own orchestra, and ultimately finding your own truth. It is only when we embrace the truths that we ourselves have discovered that our birthrights of peace, joy, and creativity are experienced in the here and now. Born with a Pure Connection Instead of thinking in terms of connecting with our birthright, we would be more accurate to call it reconnecting. We are not creating something new. We are simply remembering how we have always been. We are all born with a pure and complete connection to every other being, even every other part of the universe, both seen and unseen. As very young children we understood this, and we demonstrated through our actions that it was our birthright to live in harmony with all others. We experienced in every moment what it was to be truly connected with Nature and life. We found eternity in the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, the smell of a wildflower, or the loving smile of our mother. We experienced our true identity as part of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things as we explored every last nuance of life. We knew, without anybody telling us, that life was a playground and a place of rich discovery, of self-fulfillment, and of deep, unconditional love. It was only as we were taught and we observed others that we began to accept their truths as our own. This invariably led to our experience of a pure connection with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things being slowly eroded. Inevitably, our experience of walking as one with life fell into neglect. But no matter how much we ignore, subdue, or even attempt to destroy that part of ourselves, we will find that it is impossible to harm it. The light inside of us can never be damaged in any way. We may forget our true nature, but it will not forget us. As soon as we are ready to call upon the peace, joy, and creativity that are the very essence of who we are, we can be assured that they will be there. What Will We Feed? There is a Cherokee story of an old man teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil—he is angry, greedy, and arrogant. He lies, destroys, and is full of ego. The other is good—he is joyful, loving, serene, humble, truthful, and compassionate. The same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person too.” The young boy thought about these words for a moment and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one I feed.” Every moment of every day we are faced with the same choice. Which life experience will we feed and help to grow strong? The unconscious experience, never understanding who we really are, never realizing our full potential, living in a world of separation, which can only ever lead to ignorance, greed, violence, and fear? Or will we feed the conscious experience, where we not only conceive of a grander reality but we create it, we live it, and most crucially we experience it? The choice is always ours. A number of individuals on the planet have chosen the latter option. They have reconnected with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things in a deep and meaningful way simply by choosing to do so. What all those people who have reconnected have in common is that they do not accept other people’s ideas of the world as their own, especially if what they hear contains messages of limitation, separation, or fear. All those who have found an unshakeable sense of peace have not bought into the small, limited worlds that others would have them believe in. Instead, they have gone out, asked questions, and experienced for themselves what life was actually telling them. In every instance, what we find when we listen with an open heart is that life is far simpler, yet far grander, than most of us have ever dared to dream of. Will We Shrink or Grow? If we choose to believe in a world of separation, we limit ourselves to a smaller life. It is smaller in every sense; what we think of as our own identity and our actual experience from moment to moment. Our senses, both physical and nonphysical, are weaker, so we don’t have enough sensitivity to feel and see and hear that there is a flow to life. We are not sensitive enough to experience that when we go against this flow, we create extremely harmful amounts of stress and fear. These inform our next choices, and because we are fearful of opening up to the flow of life, our choice is usually to close down even further. We do this because we believe closing down to be a safety mechanism to maintain our own survival. But the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things cannot cease to be, for it was not born. As a result of us turning off the flow of life that naturally moves through us, we become less sensitive. A negative cycle is quickly established. To dance in peace and joy with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, there can be no restrictions on the flows of energy moving in us and through us. To walk this path, we must be prepared to leave behind many of our current constructs of what constitutes reality and even who we think we are. Could There Be Something More? What if it is possible we don’t know everything, that our understanding of exactly how life works is incomplete? What if we don’t have all the information? Admitting we don’t know something goes against one of the most ingrained behaviors in our society. Our culture tells us to be strong, to not show any kind of weakness. We are taught that when we meet someone for the first time, we should shake their hand firmly, look them in the eye, and let them see and feel just how strong an individual we are. We continue to vote for a politician, even if we know he is lying through his teeth, but not if he admits he just got something wrong. It seems the ultimate weakness in our society is to show any sign that we might not have all the answers. Yet if we are to experience the divine peace of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, we must look deeply into things, with humility, and acknowledge that given the way we live, we obviously do not know everything. An interesting study was conducted by Harvard Medical School in the 1970s that involved two sets of kittens. Both groups were of course fed, watered, and cared for. One group was placed in a room that had nothing but vertical black and white stripes on all the walls. The second group was placed in a room that also had nothing but black and white stripes on the walls, but these ones were horizontal stripes. When the two groups of kittens grew up and were brought together into a “normal” room, the most remarkable things happened. Those kittens that had been raised in the vertically striped room would happily walk around the uprights of chair legs, but could not perceive the crossbeams, the horizontal pieces of the chairs. They would repeatedly walk straight into those. The exact opposite occurred with the kittens who had only known the horizontally striped room. They would avoid the horizontal cross-pieces of the chairs, but would walk straight into the vertical legs as if they did not exist. Evidently, the rooms the kittens had grown up in allowed them to perceive only certain parts of reality. The implications for our lives are huge. There could be an infinite number of different rhythms of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things going on right now in front of our eyes. But just like those kittens, because our brains are so used to a certain world and our senses are so limited, we may not actually be able to experience new things. The study suggests that our understanding of reality is almost certainly not complete and that there is so much more out there, just waiting to be discovered. Yet not knowing everything is not the challenge we must face. The challenge before us is to stop pretending and convincing ourselves that we have all the information. We can feel deflated by this, or we can feel elated. We can feel inspired because we understand there is always more to discover, and that everything we think we know could be changed in an instant. Clinging to our current way of life can be scary because someone could pull the proverbial rug from under our feet at a moment’s notice. But if we are already seeking change, if we feel in our hearts that there is still more that life has to offer us, and more that we have to offer life, then the admission that we don’t know everything is remarkably empowering. We don’t have to waste any more energy on thumping our chests like a gorilla, or crowing like a rooster to appear all knowing and all powerful. The energy we save by abandoning these pretenses can be put toward what is actually important: creating a world in which we experience the deep peace, joy, and creativity that is who we really are. How to Use the Exercises The four exercises are designed to create environments that expand both your understanding of identity and your actual experience of that grander understanding. In this way, you cultivate a movement away from the illusions that may have you bound in stress and fear and toward a deep communion with the peace of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. You should seek to incorporate these exercises into every aspect of your daily life; on your way to work, on the train, while you cook dinner, as you talk to a loved one, or even as you take a shower. There is never a time you’re not surrounded by Nature, the wonderful vehicle for reminding you of who you really are. And there’s never a time you’re not surrounded by the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, the beautiful canvas on which you create your life. It does not serve any of us to create a situation where we have two separate worlds, yet we often do just that. The first is the one in which we function, go to work, pay the bills, purchase groceries, look after our children, manage stress, and so on. This is what we sometimes term the “real” world. Then there is a second, separate world, which we perceive as our time, in which we meditate, exercise, play, and really come alive. There is never a time life is not happening, so we are never short of an opportunity to embrace who we really are. By knitting seamlessly the two worlds of “real” life and “time to come alive” life, any moment we choose we can consciously move into experiences of walking as one with life. **** Chapter 2 Exercise #1: The Sit Spot The sit spot is the essence of the idea that embracing simplicity is life changing. And the sit spot is about as simple as it gets. Choose a place in the natural world, sit down, and simply enjoy the show Nature puts on. In addition to giving you the opportunity to watch what many consider to be the greatest show on Earth, this exercise creates an almost perfect environment in which to reconnect with life. First, it provides you with the space to become still and quiet. These are your two greatest allies in leaving your illusions of separateness behind and plugging back in to the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Our modern society is remarkable in its ability to distract us from this flow of life, causing us to forget who we really are. It does so in a number of ways, but a very harmful distraction is the constant bombardment of our physical senses. If we are not already deeply connected to the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, we become locked in to a purely physical existence. There are constant stimulus from televisions, computers, traffic, cell phones, and other people. These distractions make it exceedingly difficult to live anything but a purely physical life, and as such we become desensitized to the flow of life, which obviously moves in many more realms than just the physical. Certainly, Nature is never silent, but it does not overwhelm and bully our senses in the same way that our current human-made creations do. It is in the quietness and stillness that we are able to hear, feel, and most of all experience the truth that we are deeply connected to all of life. We are not isolated individuals, fighting one another other for the right to exist. As we learn to maintain our awareness of this connection, the distractions become easier to ignore and to transcend. But to find that place of truth inside of us, there really is very little as effective as finding a sit spot and using it frequently. What Happens on a Sit Spot? So, what makes a good sit spot, and what do you do there? The first thing a good sit spot needs is the best location you can find. Ideally, this should be in Nature, out of sight or sound of anything human-made. However, those places are few and far between and sadly becoming rarer. In reality, you should aim for somewhere with access to Nature—maybe the bottom of your yard or the edge of a field on your way to work. The farther away from the distractions of society you can get, the better. I’ve known people who are fortunate enough to be able to walk to national forests each morning as well as people in New York City who do their sit spots at the window of their apartment halfway up a skyscraper. You can always find a little oasis somewhere that works for you. The second thing to consider is how easy your sit spot is to access. You want somewhere that doesn’t take a huge amount of time or energy to get to. All other things being equal, you are more likely to visit your sit spot if it’s two minutes away as opposed to twenty minutes. By making it easily accessible, the rhythm of going there regularly can prove life changing. When you get there, the great news is there are absolutely no expectations. There’s nothing you have to do. It’s impossible to fail! You simply enjoy the time, revel in the experience, and grant yourself the freedom to not do anything. You can enjoy just being. I strongly recommend that you not write in a journal when you’re at your sit spot. You can do that when you get back home. Naturally, cell phones, computers, books, or anything else human-made that can distract you from becoming still and quiet should be left behind. People often ask how long sit-spot time should last, and it’s a very good question. It’s important not to equate quantity with quality. You might be at your sit spot for as little as five minutes and feel inspired, peaceful, and very much in touch with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Equally, you could spend half a day and feel nothing but distracted and agitated the whole time. It really depends how effectively you can let go of your expectations and illusions. Of course, twenty minutes will give you longer to let go than two minutes will. But you must honor what feels right for you in the present moment. There’s nothing worse than having someone else tell you that you should go for X number of minutes each day. In the moments where it just doesn’t feel right, trying to force stillness and quietness is extremely counterproductive. If you do this, it’s likely you will not experience anything other than frustration and be distracted, the very things you are trying to let go of and leave behind. This turns what should be a peaceful time into a battle, as you try to make it to the magic number. Most of all, you should make it an enjoyable experience, because then you’ll be more likely to return to it the next day. If you arrive at your sit spot and it feels as if you are forcing things, you should accept that you are doing so. Simply stop, get up, and go and do something else that doesn’t require you to force the issue. When you feel like it again, an hour, a day, or even a week later, you can return to your sit spot. It’s worth noting that not forcing things applies to the rest of these exercises. You need to learn to find a balance between pushing yourself to create a new experience of life, and in the same moment, being gentle with yourself. The power of a sit spot cannot be understated. In the quietness and stillness, it is far easier to find what we are searching for. We experience that the source of all our peace, joy, and creativity is not outside of us. It’s always been with us—it’s the very essence of who we really are. The birdsong in the morning does not cause us to suddenly become peaceful; rather, it awakens the flow of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things inside of us, and we plug back in to peace. We always find it from within. The bird (or any other part of Nature) is simply the messenger that causes us to look inward, to see the truth that we are all one, all connected in a vast sea of energy, and that we are very much walking as one with life. Happy sit spot! **** Chapter 3 Exercise #2: Exploring the Senses In this exercise, you are cultivating an increase in your sensitivity on both a physical and an energetic, or soul, level. Let’s begin with the physical senses because for most people they are more easily accessed. They do not stand alone, but begin to melt into and support your experiences of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. What you’re going to do is simply bring your focus onto each of your physical senses in turn, isolating each one from the others. As you bring your focus to each one, it is exercised much like a physical muscle. In a relatively short time, it becomes strong and effective, allowing you to perceive a larger and grander reality. This is vitally important because without the ability to experience ourselves as more, we are again left stranded in our illusions as a small individual, fighting against everything and everyone for our survival. Find a place, away from distractions, and take a few moments to become calm and peaceful. The first few times you try this exercise, you can close your eyes. We have learned to be so sight dominant that our visual sense can tend to take over and tell our other senses what’s going on. Because we’ve done it for so long, our other senses have deferred to our sight. However, just as in the story of the kittens, to think that what our eyes see is the extent of our reality is severely limiting our ability to experience our true selves. Let’s begin with your sense of hearing. With your eyes closed at first, focus on the quietest, smallest sound you can hear. Then switch to the loudest, the largest sound. Finally, bring your hearing to certain individual sounds, exploring each of them in turn for a period of time that’s enjoyable. Now move on to your sense of smell. Find something you can explore by smelling it. Ideally, this should be done without physically touching or holding the object. Smell in every way you can, with short sniffs and long inhalations until you feel you’ve explored every nuance of that fragrance. You don’t need to worry about placing labels such as sweet, earthy, or stinky on what you’re smelling. Rather, you come to know the smell for what it means to you without the filter and distraction of a label. Next, move to your sense of touch. Again with eyes closed (for the first few times), find something to explore with your fingers, lips, or any part of your body you choose. You shouldn’t be satisfied simply with the first detail you feel. Try to discover all the subtle nuances and beauty of the thing you are touching. Seek the same level of discovery with your sense of taste. Just make sure it’s something safe to put into your mouth! And finally, explore something intimately with your eyes. With all five senses, the more intimately you explore the object, the more life gets turned up and the richer it becomes. Reconnecting Through Your Soul Now let’s move on to the soul, or energetic sense. Without this, there is no true reconnection to the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. There is no reclaiming of our birthright of walking as one with life, and no deep peace and joy, because without it we cannot move beyond a purely physical, separate existence. Peace is found when we realize we are as connected to the plants and animals as we are our own body. It is through our souls that we connect. To cultivate and sensitize yourself to the soul rhythms of life is no more difficult than to explore with your physical senses. But it may be new, and as such it’s important not to burden yourself with expectations. Simply enjoy the present moment of the exercise, giving your soul the space it deserves to be able to grow and flourish. You can start by sitting somewhere quiet (perhaps your sit spot), giving yourself a few moments to become still. A highly effective way to begin is to bring your focus and breath to one small part of your body. The heart, tummy, fingers, or scalp can be good places to start. With your focus concentrated on one area, after a time you may begin to feel a physical sensation there—possibly a tingling, an energy, or warmth. As you maintain your focus upon this small area, the sensations become easier to feel. Just as with your physical senses, you should work to feel subtle nuances in the energy. After you feel comfortable and can easily bring your focus to one small part of your body, you can switch to your whole being. At first it’s likely you will stay within the limits of your physical body, but if it feels natural, you can allow your sensing of self to expand and flow into the spaces surrounding you. This will happen naturally as you become calm and centered. Soon, you may reach a point where you can feel that your physical body is not the full extent of your being. When this expansion happens, you are flowing with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. To understand and develop relationships with life around you, you can use this same sense. Choose a nearby object—it makes no difference what it is, but it helps if it’s not going to fly, swim, or run away. Just as when you focused on one part of your body, you now do the same with the object you chose (for the time being!). Use your awareness to feel around it and especially into it. Remaining calm, and with no expectations, pay attention to the subtle feelings in yourself. A river, for example, feels very different from a car. Love feels very different from rage. When you want to sense and become aware of the soul of another being or object, whether it is human, animal, plant, river, wind, mountain, or even the earth, simply redirect your focus and awareness onto that being in the same way you directed your focus onto yourself. In time, you will be able to sense and communicate on a far deeper level than you would simply being stuck solely in the physical. Into a Larger World This sensing, both physical and non-physical, has far more implications than simply smelling the proverbial roses. What you are beginning to do, especially with the energetic sensing, is to train your consciousness to be used in a completely different way. Imagine a room, with nothing in it but a cup of water. The room represents the world around you. You are the cup, and the water inside it represents your energy. The way that most of us use our energy in modern society is to dip our fingers into the water and flick it at anything around us in the room that grabs our attention. Pretty soon we exhaust the supply of water. We do this with our energy. We throw it around and make it jump at anything and everything that distracts us. Pretty soon we too are drained. We are running on empty and can do nothing but shrink back into our separate, isolated selves. A much richer way to sense than randomly flicking our energy all over the place is simply to metaphorically fill the cup up with so much water that at first it cascades over the sides and in time comes to fill the entire room. Now, when we want to sense something, we simply become aware of a different part of ourselves. We do not need to go chasing it. It is us, and we are it. What this means for your senses exercises is that when a physical stimulus around you makes noise, movement, or activates any of your senses, try not allow your focus to jump to each of these. Gently resist the temptation to allow your mind to wander to anything that grabs its attention. Rather, maintain your inward focus and let everything come to you. At first it may prove challenging and possibly even scary. It’s easy to feel vulnerable when you try to change the habits of a lifetime of reaching out to every stimulus. You may have become accustomed to making sure everything receives a label so that it can be neatly arranged in your world. At its most basic, your physical mind seeks to assign a label of either danger or non-danger to everything. The problems begin when you cannot control that attention, and it literally seems to have a mind of its own. This need to reach out for everything will soon diminish, and very quickly you will find a sense of real and profound peace. **** Chapter 4 Exercise #3: Mindful Walking Mindful walking is the act of moving with complete awareness and consciousness of the present moment—the home of our deep peace and joy. Mindful walking can be described as a type of meditation because whether we are sitting, eating, cooking, or doing any other activity, meditating means we simply bring the focus of our awareness to the here and now. Mindful walking is related to the way we move, but this is not simply a physical act—anything but. Almost always we move because we have a destination to get to. We are physically moving ourselves from A to B. And because A to B is the purpose of the movement, we usually seek to get it done as quickly as possible. While our body is moving in this manner, our mind and soul cannot take part in the journey, because we have already projected them to the future destination. The journey becomes a means to an end. But life does not take place in the future because the future hasn’t happened yet. And life obviously does not take place in the past because the past is already gone. Life only happens in the here and now. So we cannot be truly alive if we focus on the destination. We are alive wherever we are on the journey, and this is the only place where we experience peace. Mindful walking allows us to be fully alive because we are fully present in the moment. When we move at the pace of our modern society, life flashes past us and we are reduced to desperately trying to grasp at something in order to enjoy a brief moment of peace. Inevitably, though, it eludes us. Mindful walking permanently grants us the experience of our true selves. Thus, even something as fundamental as walking to the car in the morning can be used amazingly effectively to reconnect with our birthright of walking as one with life. How to Walk Mindfully Focus on walking slowly and gently, as if your feet are coming down onto a living thing, which of course they are. Thich Nhat Hanh, a wonderful teacher of mindful walking, says you should envision your feet kissing the Earth with every step. Avoid striking the ground with your heels. This isn’t healthy for your physical body, but in particular it causes you to move too quickly, reducing your sensitivity. Instead, aim to consciously place the outside ball of your foot on the ground and roll it to the inside, then bring your heel and toes down in contact with the earth. Most of all, be present, aware, and focused on what you’re experiencing right now in the present moment. You can have a destination—the car, the bathroom, aisle twelve of the supermarket to pick up peanut butter—but as soon as you know where you’re going, switch your focus back to the step you’re currently taking. Creating Rhythm As you become aware of the steps you are taking, begin to also become aware of your breath, inhaling and exhaling. Count how many steps you take for each in breath, and how many for each out breath. Aim to maintain consistency, because this allows for rhythm to develop. For example, if you take four steps as you inhale and four steps as you exhale, simply count this number of steps for every subsequent breath you take. When you enjoy the rhythm of your breath and steps in a slow dance together, you naturally begin to let go of many of your illusions. You don’t even have to try. The rhythm supports your mind and body to find their way into harmony in the present moment. How many steps you take is up to you. But you should always feel unhurried, at peace, and able to take great joy from this simple practice. If you practice often, in a relatively short span of time your ability to sense the flow of life will dramatically increase. You’ll realize that when you walk mindfully, you have plugged yourself back in to the life-enhancing properties of the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. There is no fight, no desperate attempt to push away from negative thoughts and feelings. There is a tangible experience of letting go of everything you thought you were and everything you were trying to be. Simply focus on the present moment, and let deep peace and joy flow through you naturally. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was from a friend, Rick Berry, who said, “Mindful walking isn’t just a way of moving; it’s a way of life.” **** Chapter 5 Exercise #4: Soft Focus The last exercise is again multifaceted. On the surface, it appears to be a purely physical act, but it extends to cultivate sensitivity and connection in every part of our being: body, mind, and soul. Allowing our eyes to relax into a soft focus totally changes the way we perceive the world and subsequently our relationship with life. I’ve also heard this called wide-angled vision and splatter vision. I like the term soft focus because it reminds us to let go, to allow our whole being to become soft and supple and dance with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. The way we have learned to use our eyes is to constantly have them flitting from one object to another. This is actually tunnel vision because the object we focus upon at the end of the tunnel is the only thing we are really aware of. Everything else either becomes diminished or we become completely unaware of anything else around us until we shift our attention onto the next thing. We do need tunnel vision. It serves us very well when we want to focus on and do something like change a light bulb, identify a tree, or read a book—it supports us in our doing. But in any relationship, there are times when it is our turn to do something and times when it is our turn to simply be—to listen and be still, allowing the relationship to develop naturally. In soft focus, we are developing our relationship with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Doing Is All We Do In modern society, it is normal for us to constantly be doing something. Fixing this, improving that, working out how to get ahead. If we aren’t doing something that we perceive supports our progress or improvement, we may feel guilty and search desperately for anything to fill the void. Because we are so heavily skewed to the doing aspect of life and so far away from the stillness of simply being, we don’t take the time to listen, to see, and understand what life is telling us. As such, when we act, or when we do, the doing is usually steeped in our illusions and lacking in true understanding. This invariably leads to suffering for all beings concerned—ourselves, our fellow humans, and all our brothers and sisters in Nature. There are a number of reasons why we have changed the way we use our eyes and our awareness, but two stand out in particular. The first is the way our society has evolved. We no longer need to be supremely aware in order to survive. For the most part, our physical lives are relatively safe and secure. The ability to drive to the grocery store is really as far as our need for awareness extends. We no longer need to exercise our physical muscles for our survival, so they atrophy and become weak. The same can be said of our awareness. What modern society has given us in material comfort it has taken away in experiences of peace, joy, and creativity. While our physical world is one of lavish luxury, our spiritual world is languishing in poverty. The main reason our ability to use our soft focus has diminished is our frenetic lifestyles, which push us away from the power of the present moment. Because we are addicted to worrying about both the past and the future, we do not take the time to simply be. There’s always somewhere to go, something to do, and a plan to be made. Soft focus, like all our experiences of communion with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, can only ever be accessed in the present moment. Because we choose to spend so little time there, we end up finding there is very little time in our lives when we feel calm, inspired, and truly at peace. How to Switch to Soft Focus To use soft focus, choose to look at everything, but nothing in particular. Allowing your eyes to relax, gently push the edge of your vision as far left, right, up, and down as it can go. This should be done without turning your head or moving your eyeballs. If something catches your attention, by all means go into tunnel vision and focus on it. Then, after a few seconds, return your vision to its expanded and relaxed state. You’ll find very quickly that using your eyes in this soft focus manner brings about a meditative state in your whole being. The tangible expansion you feel is not just on a physical level, but also a soul level. In time, as you flow naturally between tunnel vision and soft focus, you’ll find you become far more peaceful, joyful, and creative. This is because your doing—your words and actions—will no longer be based on illusions but will instead dance in harmony with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Soft focus, just like mindful walking, becomes not simply a different way to use your eyes, but a different way to live. **** Chapter 6 Everything Is Within We are always dancing with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. We are always walking as one with life. It’s not like a switch we can turn off and on, and we don’t go from an absence of this state to one day suddenly achieving it. It’s who we are at all times. But one moment we might become aware of it; we might remember. And then the next moment we may forget again. Most people on this planet are playing out that cycle right now. The exercises in this booklet are designed to create an environment that constantly reminds you of who you really are. When you enjoy them as described, you will find your periods of unmindfulness in which you experience suffering and pain becoming shorter and shorter, and the periods of remembrance in which each moment is filled with peace, joy, and creativity becoming increasingly sustained. Everything you need is within you. Inside an acorn is an entire oak tree—it is just waiting for the right conditions to grow and flourish. The same can be said of your connection to life. It is inside of you, right now. It is simply waiting for the right conditions to be able to flourish once again. If you listen to and trust yourself, you’ll realize that deep down you know exactly what you need. When you immerse yourself in calmness and stillness, you will flourish. The power of these exercises lies in the extent to which you can integrate them into your daily life. You can sit in stillness and quietness on your lunch break, use your senses in a grocery store, enjoy time with soft focus as you wait for an appointment, and walk mindfully to the car in the morning. As you become increasingly conscious, your connection to true living will increase exponentially. Relatively quickly, all these small experiences will cascade into other aspects of your life, and very soon you’ll see yourself as having made great strides. But in the same moment, you’ll also recognize that you have not moved anywhere, because you are all things. You’ll experience your true self as lasting peace, deep joy, and pure creativity. Moving with the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, you will once again walk as one with life. ### About The Author & Other Books and Resources Simon Paul Harrison is the author of The Truly Alive Child, and the founder and director of Wild Earth's Children. Simon’s life work and vision is supporting people to re-connect with the very deepest flow of who they really are: peace, joy and creativity. Simon uses the power of nature to create the space for people to embrace deeply life-changing experiences. Simon began working with children as an elementary school teacher in his native England. After a number of years he came to America to learn from world renowned tracker and survivalist Tom Brown Jr. Simon fell in love with the natural world and never looked back. He worked for Tom Brown’s Tracker School before becoming the director of The Children of The Earth Foundation (COTEF), a non-profit that Tom founded to lead children back to the Earth. Simon enjoyed a number of successful years with COTEF, teaching all over North America, including Alaska, New England, and the Cree Nation in Quebec. Simon felt the calling of his vision urging him westwards where he founded Wild Earth’s Children and wrote The Truly Alive Child. He lives in Colorado with his wife Katherine. Discover other titles by Simon Paul Harrison at Smashwords.com: The Truly Alive Child: For Those Who Seek a Grander Vision for Our Children https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/227157 For more free resources, upcoming programs, audio downloads, social media, and to order your print copy of The Truly Alive Child: For Those Who Seek a Grander Vision for Our Children, go to http://www.simonpaulharrison.com