The post Karma, the key to conscious creation appeared first on The Now Project.

The nature of our human mind runs us ragged, a ‘problem’ arises and before we know it our minds are off running a thousand scenarios, every if and but and every imaginary conversation until our central nervous system is flooded with the emotions that the thinking triggers. Often we then begin to seek ways to relieve ourselves of these feelings or we start to react to them, making rash decisions and sharing our stress, anxiety or anger with those around us. So when we’re lucky enough to see this happening we can ask ourselves… what is real right now?

It’s a powerful question on many levels so let’s start at the basics…

What is real right now? I’m sat here in my studio, I can feel the keyboard at my fingertips, my chair holding me, my feet on the foot rest of my stool, I can smell the plant on my desk, I can hear the music I have playing. If I look around I can see the things that litter my desk, my garden out the patio doors. All these things, experienced through my senses bring me back to the present moment – and it’s only here that I am given the potential to make a conscious choice where I now direct my attention.

So now I can consciously choose to go a little deeper… again, what is real right now? If I go into my body I can feel I’m carrying a little bit of anxiety, there’s some energy moving around my abdomen and lower back, there’s a bit of sadness in my chest. I accept all of this as part of my current experience. Staying in the body and away from thought I can start to feel these feelings moving and shifting with my attention and acceptance. I begin to feel less anxious, the tightness in my chest is easing as the sadness turns to something more peaceful. I can focus on my breath, each breath entering and leaving.

Now that I’m firmly planted in the here and now and can ask myself again, what is real right now? This time I can address – if necessary – the external things that may need my attention, and from the present moment I may see things quite differently, I might notice how my emotional state was driving my thinking or visa versa or I might realise that I don’t have to be a superhero to get through my day or to have an impact on the world that I inhabit.

There’s another side to this question too; in our fast paced lives where information is thrown at us constantly through so many mediums, we are plunged into a world built on fear, on wanting and desire, on chasing or searching. Our natural human compassion is drowned out, our natural state of peace and love is dampened by our external world and the perceptions we’re programmed to make. So taking a moment to question things, to ask yourself ‘what is real right NOW?’ isn’t just good for you but it’s good for humanity as a whole as it leads us to a place where we can take responsibility of ourselves and our place in the world.

I hope this question helps you today.

One Love,

Sophie

x

The post What is Real Right Now? appeared first on The Now Project.

Every conflict begins with an angry thought which festers in the mind of the unaware. Be mindful and pay close attention to your thoughts or the angry monster will spread destruction, that’s for sure.

The angry head monster has come close to destroying all humanity several times and on a personal level it makes it’s host so isolated and resentful and miserable. It sows the seeds of aggression and projects into the world of discord and conflict and violence.

“I’m right to be angry claims the head monster” and that maybe true, and if an angry feeling is present in your body then so be it. But do you want to be angry? Do you want that anger drive your behaviour? Do you want to react from anger? Do you want that anger to spread and poison the world you live in?

The angry monster poisons the world and it poisons your experience of the world. How can you engage in the full beauty and aliveness of the world if you view it through a moaning mind? It’s impossible.

As I sit here writing this in the sunshine it makes me smile to realise that the man I overheard moaning about the rain the other day is right now likely moaning about it being too bright or something. There is nothing wrong with rain and there is nothing wrong with sunshine, in truth they are both amazing and wonderful but the angry monster doesn’t want you to see that. It wants you to experience the world through discontent and resentments, it wants you to judge and condemn everything and everyone as wrong. The angry monster likes to make you right and them wrong. But every time it makes you right it makes the rest of the world more wrong, and your prize for being right is more anger and miserable isolation, congratulations!

You see the anger monster feeds off your mind, it feeds off your angry thoughts and it feeds off the anger that it raises in others, it feeds off the conflicts that it possesses you to create and when it’s gorged on the anger that you’ve projected out into the world, it will move on from the main course and turn on you by inviting it’s mate guilty monster round for desert and they’ll feed off thoughts as they beat you up for what they made you do. A bit rich isn’t?

Everyone will see the anger monster sometimes and it’s really important that we are mindful and we watch out for it, but some people are completely possessed by it, so possessed that they don’t even realise that they are. They’ll blame out there and never look in here. They’ll say its other people or situations that is make them angry. They’ll see an angry world everywhere and never know it’s them, and that’s fine, but you know better. You are mindful, you can watch and see. Don’t be angry with them for that, because that’s more pain for everyone. Be mindful, watch yourself, because getting angry with someone else because they are angry is a good way to get horribly lost.

Don’t fight anger, because the angry monster loves fighting, it’s one if it’s favourite dishes. Don’t fight it, just notice it. Don’t let it attack you either by allowing angry thoughts about yourself. Stay mindful and just watch. Seeing it is enough. Because if you are watching the angry thoughts, then they are not you, they are just thoughts. And you don’t have to go where they take you.

So if you can’t fight the monster, what do you do? Well you do absolutely nothing, you say nothing, and you do nothing, at least until that feeling has gone. It would be a good move to take yourself away from the source of your anger, but do nothing and say nothing, because whatever you do or say will make matters worse and the angry head monster will feast for sure. You will say something hurtful like “you always do this or that” which is untrue, because they don’t, it just seems like it when the monster wants to feed. It possesses your mind and picks fights. So watch with mindful attention, realise the possession has starred and hide away if you can, until you are safe. When the angry monster has gone, discuss the issue then, if there is still one to discuss. But it’s amazing how often that issue which was so important that you wanted a fight becomes a trivial matter when the monster has gone. And pass it will if you don’t feed it.

Remember the first rule of monsters, don’t feed the monsters.

The angry head monster can jump out and catch you unaware, so be very mindful and aware. Sometimes it will appear from nowhere as an angry rage and be incredibly destructive. But if you are alert and watch carefully you’ll see that it didn’t just appear from nowhere, but has been sneaking up on you for a while. It may start by stalking you, watch out for it moaning and complaining, finding fault or obsessing about a mild irritation.

It will look for excuses and find reason for the irritation, this is how it grows you see. It will draw you into the resentful story and feed and grow, then if you see it becoming snappy and short tempered beware because the slightest thing can trigger a terrible rage.

Be mindful and awake and you can spot it before it does too much damage you can guard against possession by anchoring yourself in the now. Because if you are fully in the now you can watch your thoughts and quieten your mind and the monster will have no food.

It will try hard to drag you in, and you must be mindful and watch your thoughts closely, because the angry monster will lie to you, and try to trick you. It will tell you that not getting angry is weakness, when in truth it is self control and strength and it will claim you have no choice, but you do, you are mindful and can return your attention the present moment and deprive the monster of food.

I’m not pretending it’s easy the angry head monster is strong and it may drag you off many times yet, but the more mindful you become the less this will happen. You’ll see it creeping up on you more and more often and will not be able to drag you away so far or for so long. And if it does, then forgive yourself the straight way because, remember it will feed on the thoughts telling you off.

The angry head monster is a nasty one all-right it can be violent and spiteful, but it has no stamina, and if you catch it with your mindfulness it will burn up inside you and pass quickly and I’ve been reliably informed eventuality burns out completely. But that’s future and we don’t do that do we?

The post Beware the Head Monsters – The Angry Monster appeared first on The Now Project.

Head monsters come in many shapes and sizes, they lurk in the shadows of your mind and they creep up on you when you are not paying attention. It’s so important to be mindful and aware!

It’s so important because being mindful and aware and learning how to watch the monsters, is the key to your escape. You need to observe their tricks and their sneaky ways or the monsters will get you for sure.

Let me describe some of these head monsters so that you’ll know what to watch out for. Head monsters don’t like being watched, you see, when you are mindful and watch them, it takes away their power, so they rely on you not seeing. Be awake, be mindful and watch out for head monsters.

Over the next few weeks I will help reveal some of them to you, so you can watch them and take away their power.

The Worry Monster

The most common of all is the worry monster, have you seen it? This one likes to scare you. It scares you with “could happens”, “what, if’s” and “maybe’s” and worst of all the “then what’s”. This terrifying beast preys in the future. The worry monster runs nightmare scenarios, plays out imaginary problems, has imaginary arguments, imaginary wars, suffers imaginary losses and even goes to imaginary funerals.

The worry monster paralyses its victims, stuck to the spot with fear and it possesses your mind and causes you to panic and react, making more food for the monster. If you see this happening remember the first rule of head monsters – don’t feed the monsters!

The worry monster is a nasty one alright; it sucks the life out of you, takes the gloss off life, it can make you ill and even kill you! Realise now that thinking about that is just more food for the worry monster, so be aware. Don’t feed the monsters!

Be very aware because the worry monster feeds off your fear. You can’t run from the worry monster, because running from the monster strengthens it with the fear from your flight. You can’t hide from the worry monster; it will smell the delicious smell of your fear and find you and feast on you. It will feast on your anxious reaction and the reactions that you create in others.

Don’t even think about fighting the monster, you’ll always lose. (The second rule of monsters is don’t fight the monster, I’ll explain rule 2 in more detail when we examine the Angry Monster.)

Don’t worry; there is one place where you are always safe from the worry monster, one place where it can never get you.

That place is the here and now, the present moment. The present moment is home and the worry monster can’t get you when you’re home. You must be mindful and  reside as much as possible in the present moment, giving your best attention to what is here and now and staying away as best you can from the future. The worry monster hunts in the future remember! It can’t feed off you in the now.

This is how you defeat all of the head monsters, you starve them. You defeat the worry monster by not giving attention to the future; you stay as best you can in the here and now. It will try to drag you away to the future, problems, issues plans, and more plans, it will tell you that you must worry, and that your worry serves a purpose. It will pull you hard and when that doesn’t work it will try to reason with you and seduce you into the future. Observe you compulsion to go with it, see your addiction to the monster see how part of you loves the monster and doesn’t want to be parted from it.

Don’t go with the monster, no matter how seductive. It will pull you so hard that you’ll need to anchor yourself in the here and now, throw down an anchor, grab onto to something, the feeling of your breath, a sound, a taste, anything that is here and now. Give where you are and what you are doing “right now” your full attention and use what is here as your anchor to now, your anchor to home.

When you withdraw your attention from the monster by giving your attention to what’s real here and now, you create a space in your mind and you’ll see the monster and give it no attention. You’ll watch and return to now. It may resist for a while and it will use all its power to drag you into worry thoughts but if you keep your attention in the now, you’ll be giving it no food and the monster will eventually fade with hunger. And in the space that is left in the here and now you’ll see that the monster is just a dream. You’ll see that it is you who creates the monster, you create it in your mind you create it by living in the future and you create it with the attention that you give it. You create it with your thinking. Be present, practice mindfulness, learn how to quieten your mind and let the monster dissolve and the space of awareness that grows.

Who’s up for some monster hunting?

The post Beware the Head Monsters – The Worry Monster appeared first on The Now Project.

What is the essence of mindfulness and how do I know if I’m doing it right? In this instructional video Oli will show you one simple way to be sure your practice is on track.

More from Oli: The Four Skills of Mindfulness

The post The Essence of Mindfulness appeared first on The Now Project.

Living a life of mindfulness is easy and hard, all at the same time. On the one hand, it is incredibly simple to live in the present moment, just for now, but it seems very difficult to stay there.

Your mind may be like a raging torrent, dragging you away into thoughts of past and future, or the outside world may seem to demand your attention, leaving you lost in problems and stories. Either way, it is easier to live more connected to your true self and to the present moment if you have a few tools to help you to stay present.

And so, I find it useful to break mindfulness practice up into four complimentary skills. In reality, these skills overlap and are not separate, but you may find it helpful, especially at first, to practice them one at a time. After a little practice, you will find yourself naturally applying each skill at different times, but here are a few simple exercises t get you started.

Skill 1: Instantaneous Focus

Instantaneous focus is pretty self- explanatory. It simply means narrowing down your attention to this very instant. The simplest way to do this is with a practice I call Just This Breath.

As you read this, move your attention to your breathing. Feel what it is like to breathe in and out. Don’t worry what your mind says about it, just feel the breath as it happens.

Now narrow your attention to just this breath. Feel this in breath, feel this out breath, and in between breaths check whether you are still in the present moment or not. If you find yourself lost in thought, come back to just this breath.

Try living one instant at a time and see what it’s like! This can be especially helpful when your mind is racing, chewing over some past or future problem (because there aren’t any problems right now).

Skill 2: Allowfulness

Allowfulness is our next skill. It is a word that came to me while I was wondering how describe the art of allowing what is whilst simultaneously trying to improve your life. Alowfulness seemed to fit nicely.

To practice allowfulness, take your attention inside and notice where your body feels tense. Watch the tension closely, allowing it to be exactly as it is, just for this instant. Feel your breath coming and going and be curious. What does the tension feel like? Does it move or stay still? How much space does it take up? Keep noticing your breath as you make friends with the tension, allowing it to stay as long as it needs to, which is always just this instant, (what else is there?).

Try practicing allowfulness when you feel stressed or upset and you want to run away from those feelings. It’s a great way to process them instead!

Skill 3: Finding Space

We have been conditioned to pay close attention to objects, events, sounds and sights, but we humans often don’t notice space, silence or stillness. Deliberately looking for them is a wonderful way to step out of mind and into now!

Come back to your breath and notice its rhythm; there is the in breath, the out breath and a pause in between. Pay close attention to that pause, the gap between activities. Allow your attention to sink into that gap, feel it deeply, then allow it to disappear as the next breath arises.

You can extend this activity by noticing the empty space in the night sky, listening to the silence between words or sounds and by enjoying the spaces between events in your life. Try it when you’re waiting in line at the supermarket, or when your day seems overfilled with appointments and events.

Skill 4: Noticing Awareness

If you pay close attention to your experience, you will find two dimensions. There are things that happen (thought, feelings, clouds, the sunset) and there is someone watching all that unfolds (awareness). In other words, there are things happening and there is you watching them happen. This may seem a little other worldly, but it is quite obvious when you look inside.

Start with your breath once more. Notice your breath coming and going and then ask yourself, ‘Who is watching the breath?’ Don’t try to answer in words, just allow the question to sit with you.

Can you sense the awareness that is there in the background?

Feel the sensations in your body and ask, ‘Who is aware of this body?’ See what you notice when you look into the background of your experience, who is there?

You may find that you can’t answer this, but you can sense something (or someone) watching. Congratulations, you found yourself!

This practice may take a few goes to make sense, but it is helpful when you are getting lost in the identity your mind created through stories of the past and future. It is quite a deep practice, and if it feels too difficult now, start with one of the others and come back to it later.

Once you get a feel for these four skills, you will find that they an be combined and that they are indeed one practice. But start with one at a time, just for a few minutes a day, and you will start to feel some changes very quickly. Consistency is more important than duration, so keep at it in small doses and you will never be the same.

And if you would like a more detailed set of exercises to help you on your journey, you can check out my latest book, Mindfulness For Life or visit www.olidoyle.com

The post The Four Skills of Mindfulness appeared first on The Now Project.

Mindful Check-ins can be done anytime, anywhere and only take a few minutes – like any practice, the more you do it the more beneficial it is. Here is some basic pointers to get you started…

1. Stop (it’s easier than you think – and sometimes it happens for you, for example – waiting for a train, in a queue, making a coffee/tea)
2. Breathe – Take a slow conscious breath, in and out, and just observe it, feel it; relax your shoulders and soften your stomach
3. Notice – Where am I now? Is my mind noisy or quiet? Feel your feet on the ground
4. Feel – How am I feeling? What physical sensations can I feel in my body? Acknowledge what you feel without judgement
5. Be here – What’s real right now? Simply observe yourself in this moment
6. Breathe –  Spend a few moments observing your breath again

After you’ve mindfully checked-in you can shift your attention back to the tasks at hand, taking the mindful awareness you’ve cultivated into your activities and interactions.

Regularly checking in gives us room to notice how our thoughts affect our emotional state and can often put things in perspective when we find ourselves in challenging situations.

When you can, try a longer check-in…
Here’s some pointers to take you a bit deeper:

1. Stop
2. Breathe – Take several slow conscious breaths, spend a minute observing and experiencing your breath
3. Notice – Is my mind noisy or quiet? Feel your feet on the ground or bum on your chair, scan through your body, relaxing each part as you go; become aware of your hands and feet
4. Look – Where am I? Go through your senses – what can you see, smell, hear, take a moment to go through each sense individually then experience them all together
5. Feel – How am I feeling? What physical sensations can I feel in my body? Acknowledge what you feel without judgement and take some time to explore where the sensations are and allow them to be there; observe the minds tendency to attach a story to them
6. Be here – What’s real right now? Simply observe yourself in this moment, watch your thoughts as they come and go and notice what is happening within your body
7. Breathe –  Spend a few moments observing your breath again

Your mindful practice will evolve as you go so it’s important to let your intuition guide you, the pointers here are to get you started but you might like to add things as you go or adapt it to suit you. There are no rules – just be!

We’d love to know how you are getting on with your mindful practices and help you along – so if you have any questions or just want to share your experiences please either leave a comment below or get in touch with us at support@lovelifelivenow.com

The post Mindful Check-in appeared first on The Now Project.

A: As your mind quietens something interesting starts to happen. Without all those compulsive thoughts, space emerges and the formless dimension begins to reveal it’s self.

Thoughts are forms you see, they aren’t concrete and physical yet, but they have substance and are subtle material forms. And when you experience the world and yourself through thoughts, they keep you trapped in the material dimension. As your thinking quietens you become conscious of more subtle dimensions to existence and that’s what’s happening to you.

Everything is energy. It’s the foundation of all things. When you feel your energy you are becoming conscious of a deeper dimension to reality and yourself. There is a whole new universe of possibilities and opportunities here for you to explore. Ultimately it all leads back to consciousness it’s self. A realisation of oneness. This is what physicists call quantum mechanics, or what you might call the spiritual dimension, but it isn’t something I can teach you about, it’s something that you realise for yourself.

Got a question or issue you’d like some advice on? Simply pop us an email at support@lovelifelivenow.com and we’ll respond as swiftly as we can. We will feature questions on here anonymously and only with your consent.

The post Q: Feeling energy in my body appeared first on The Now Project.

A: Fantastic your meditation is working, congratulations, your restlessness is your reward. Or rather your awareness of the restlessness is your reward.

Mindful meditation exercises are essentially attention training. Mindfulness is all about paying attention, paying attention to the world around you and also paying attention to your inner world. Your thoughts, your actions, behaviours and also paying particular attention to your emotions. Your anger, your fear, your cravings, your desires and that restlessness which so plagues your meditation.

You kind of get what you get with meditation and what you get is what you need! Sometimes you might drop away into a blissful emptiness other times you might just sit and watch your head chatter incessantly and find that you experience intense restlessness.

Either is fine, it is as it is.

There’s nothing new about your restlessness, what is new is that you are becoming painfully aware of it. This is mindfulness. The art is paying attention to it, if you can bring mindfulness to the feeling it no longer drives your behaviour and creates your world.

Meditate on your restlessness, how does it feel? Experience it fully, use your restlessness as the focus of your meditation.

What fantastic training, with practice you find that you can feel restlessness without becoming restless, anger without becoming angry, anxiety without becoming anxious. That’s the training!

Got a question or issue you’d like some advice on? Simply pop us an email at support@lovelifelivenow.com and we’ll respond as swiftly as we can. We will feature questions on here anonymously and only with your consent.

The post Q: Frustrated with meditation appeared first on The Now Project.

There’s 2 basic nadis the Ida and Pingala

The Ida is the left or feminine channel
The pingala the right or masculine channel

When we do this practice we are cleansing these channels so that your energy system will work in balance, there is a connection between your breath and your mental structure, to bring balance to your thought is very important for all aspects of our lives.

It’s very simple, here a brief explanation (also explained in the illustration above):

1. Try not to eat a few hours before (that goes for all meditations)
2. Sit comfortably (if you can the spine should be comfortably erect)
3. Place your left hand in your lap, palm facing up
4. Use your right hand thumb and ring (3rd) finger (fold your middle and index finger)
5. Now block your right nostril with your thumb and inhale through your left nostril and then exhale through the same
6. Then using your ring (3rd) finger block your left nostril and inhale through your right nostril and also exhale through the same
7. Now again, block the right nostril with your thumb repeating the process it’s very simple
8. Take full deep slow breaths continue like this for at least 4 minutes

Relax and enjoy!

The post Nadi Shuddhi – A Yoga Breathing Practice appeared first on The Now Project.