The post 2 minutes being – Mindfulness exercise to help you survive the madness appeared first on The Now Project.

You’ll be pleased to know it’s a done deal. In this moment the ego is already finished.  Don’t believe me? – Try this.  Humour me and see for yourself. Pull your full attention into this moment. Do it right now. Make yourself as alert and alive to right now as you can, not a second forward, not a second back, stand alertly on the knife edge of now and see for yourself.  And if you can realise fully “right now” and experience the full intensity of this moment you’ll see that the voices in your head go quiet and that there is no ego right now. The ego cannot exist now and since there is only now, the ego has already ceased to exist. There is nothing to do.

Do you see? Your ego can only exist when you bring it into existence though the attention you give it. The ego cannot exist without your attention. That’s why it’s always trying to pull you into the past and future and always wants to drag you back into the narrative. The ego can only exist by subverting your attention by drawing you in.  

Don’t fight your ego don’t resist it, because that is giving it attention. The ego loves a fight; don’t make it your enemy. The fight gives it form and keeps it alive in you. Don’t argue with your ego, because in truth that’s just the ego arguing with itself and you can get horribly lost that way. Instead withdraw your attention, deprive it of its food. Withdraw your attention and put your attention on what is real here and now. Give your ego no energy, offer no struggle. Realise the truth of this moment and know it is only a figment of your imagination and the spell is broken. At least for now!

There is no merit in fighting your ego. Not only does the fight give the ego strength, but it also reinforces the separation. Because you see, ultimately it is part of you. Everything is you and it is this core delusion of separateness which created the ego way back in human evolution when we fell asleep and lost paradise in the ego’s dream.

Now is the time for us to evolve again, to move beyond the egos grip and the chains of our past conditioning. The ego has reached its logical conclusion, it has turned on its host and the accelerating insanity has put humanities very existence is in peril.  Now is the time to awaken from the ego’s dream, there is no need to fight sleep no need to struggle free of the dream. Simply open your eyes and see. Really see, look without judgement, really see, and see with your whole being. Listen, alert to every sound, letting them all rest without discrimination, and whilst you listen hear the infinite silence from which all sound arises. Touch, taste, and suck every juicy drop of this moment. Make this moment a truly sensual experience.  Feel how awake you are, feel the life that is everything and glimpse a new world.

Give up the fight, you’ve already won. Wake up to this moment and realise that a world free of ego is already here. Right Now.

The post Top Tip #9 – Stop Fighting… you’ve already won! appeared first on The Now Project.

Beliefs limit you; they are a trap, a prison of limited possibility. Once you have trapped yourself with a belief it then you have become imprisoned in your world view.  The miracle of existence is lost, smothered by the screen of your perception. Your beliefs translate and interpret the truth, and murder it.  Yes beliefs murder the truth. They disconnect you from consciousness and deny the miracle of life itself. The truth cannot be understood, it can only be known as a direct experience. The truth is a conscious connection with the source of all things, it is a knowing, unnameable and undefinable, and to make it something is to destroy it. The moment the truth becomes a belief by definition it can no longer be the truth it has become the property of the ego and you are lost.

Beliefs limit you; they limit you to the scope of your beliefs. Your belief that you are powerless denies the unbelievable power that you hold within you.  The belief that you are small and that you are separate is the foundation of your suffering and the root cause of mankind’s wanton destruction of our planet. Can you see how dangerous they are? Can you see how beliefs are at the root of all war, of all injustice and intolerance and the myriad of ways in which mankind displays its inhumanity. Can you see how dangerous they are? Can you see how they separate you from others? Every time you make yourself right; you make the rest of humanity more wrong and see how your rightness separates you and see that the true prize for your rightness is fear resentment and isolation? 

Holding beliefs is like putting yourself in a very small box with the lid locked tight. Once in the box you cannot experience anything outside of the box. You have shut out all the unbelievable possibilities that make life so wonderful bountiful and creative.  The true nature of reality is far beyond your limited beliefs; the true nature of reality is miraculous, it is unbelievable.  Please don’t limit the possibilities, there is a whole universe of possibility outside of the box, a universe of surprise and wonder aching to manifest but unable to do so because you shut out the possibilities with your beliefs.  

The mindful master has no need for belief; she sees them as the imposters they are. Because when you can be mindful and clear your head of beliefs, even for a moment, you have and entered that quiet space of awareness, all that is left is direct knowing – a profound space of direct knowing.

Don’t defend your beliefs – destroy them. Don’t fight for your beliefs – surrender them.  Don’t let your beliefs define you because you are undefinable and limitless.

Please don’t believe me. Just practice and see for yourself.

Adrian

The post Top Tip #8 – Be a Non Believer appeared first on The Now Project.

Maybe start with 10 minutes and build up, my record is 4 hours, but that has taken years of dedicated training in doing nothing!

Instead of doing, try being instead for a while. Find yourself somewhere nice to sit (it’s easier “to be” and do nothing when there’s a nice view) and make yourself comfortable.  Now for the hard bit, sit and do nothing!

You can look around, smell the air, feel the breeze and notice the breath in your body, and focus on anything that is here now.  Be fully alive to what is here now, in reality. Feel it, don’t think about it, feel fully and don’t move from the spot. Be still and observe yourself. Here in the now.

Observe your mind’s need to leave the now, see how it hate to be here, see how it wants to construct a fantasy future or wallow in a problem, but will never let you rest here and now.

Observe your addiction to distraction. See your craving to pick up your mobile, check your emails, text someone or read something.  Experience what that craving fees like.  See how your ego craves distraction. Just sit and be with the craving.

Observe any feelings of restlessness.  How does restless feel?  Don’t describe it your mind, feel what it feels like.  See how your ego spins a story to add to the restlessness.  “You can’t be sitting here doing nothing, when there is so much to be done” “it’s lazy to sit and do nothing”  “I must do that now, it can’t wait”. Observe the spin machine in action, its lies and deception would make any politician proud and it simply can’t be trusted.  Train yourself to be still and become comfortable with the discomfort of restlessness. 

Lean how to sit and be. You’ll see how it connects you to yourself, to your inner most self.  It’s connects you with who are on the level of being. Not the material, level of doing. It connects you to that mystical space of nothing.  That place of being, before it becomes something, before happening happens, that space of pure potential and the source of all things.  Don’t believe me, because a belief is a thought form and from the level of doing, just learn how to be still and do nothing and see for yourself.

Adrian

P.S If you fancy starting with 2 minutes of doing nothing try this link to http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/  it’s excellent.

The post Top Tip #7 – Practice Doing Nothing appeared first on The Now Project.

You’ll never get to the future because the future doesn’t exist – now is all there is and when the future arrives it will still be now. You see there really is nowhere to go.

Our minds are constantly projecting to the future focussing on the next thing and that’s what makes us so stressed and unfulfilled. When you are walking your mind always wants to be at the end of the road. And then when you get there it will want to be somewhere else, because that what it does, it wants to be in the future, it is restless and constantly chasing.

Well I’ve got some bad news for you, the end of the road is old age and death (if you’re lucky) and there really is no rush. Your life is not in the future, it’s not in the next step, it’s in this step, and your life is here now in the miracle of this moment.

When you are walking try to focus on the step you are on. You’ll get where you are going, but you may start to notice your life on the way.

Here’s my challenge to you. Whenever you are walking, even if it’s only between the sofa and the kitchen, do it mindfully. Feel your feet on the floor, notice the movement of your body, experience your weight shifting, and notice your centre of gravity change. If you are outside, feel the breeze on your face or the warmth of the sun on your skin. Use all your senses to come alive and experience your life as fully as you can, where you are here and now. Life isn’t here for you to figure it out, it’s here for you to live, to experience through your body. Make life a sensual experience rather than a problem waiting for a future solution.

You can walk quickly mindfully or even run mindfully if you choose to, but you may find that since you are no longer going anywhere that the rush disappears from your life and you find increasingly that you are happy where you are. Isn’t that the secret? To be happy where you are! You can’t be anywhere else so you might as well eh? Practice Mindful walking for a week and see what happens.

Make a commitment to yourself that when you are walking, you do it mindfully. I guarantee that within the week you will start to notice things you’ve never noticed before and you’ll experience a marked shift in the depth and intensity of your experience of life. You’ll wake up to your life.

Be present,
Adrian

The post Top Tip #6 – Mindful Walking appeared first on The Now Project.

Give up your job as master of the universe, it’s a thankless task and the pay is rubbish. The universe simply doesn’t do what it ‘should’; it’s a constant source of frustration and disappointment. And even if it goes the way you want it to for a while, it’s not going to last and then you have all the heart ache and disappointment that goes with it. The universe simply won’t do what it’s told, it’s impossible to control, the job is undoable – so resign, right now resign; the universe will just have to survive without you in charge.

How does that feel? A relief isn’t it?

How would it be, if instead of fighting this moment, which is painful and pointless, (because now has already won) let the universe be as it is and focus on the only place where you really have power – focus on yourself here and now. In truth the only power you really have in any situation is how you respond to it in this moment. The quality of that response will inevitably influence the outcome.  If you react from a place of resistance the seeds of that reaction will grow and the effects will come back to you. Your best chance of manifesting your preferred outcome is ultimately dependent upon your ability to manage yourself in this moment, on your ability to consciously choose “right action” (or no action) rather than being forced into reaction.

Right action can only come from a place of surrender, from a full acceptance of what is.  Because when we let go and we allow the flow of life to prevail we start to see the possibilities beyond our blinkered perception of what “should be” and see that “what is” in this moment is the flow of life, it is the will of the universe and we see that flowing with life rather and resisting it is infinitely more comfortable and rewarding.

The universe wants you to create, it wants you to be abundant, it wants you to awaken, it wants you to realise yourself. Because when you realise yourself you’ll see that you and the universe are one and that ultimately you have only been resisting yourself.

Be present,
Adrian

The post Top Tip #5 – Give up being Master of the Universe appeared first on The Now Project.

Of course it’s easier to want to be where you are when you are sunning yourself on the beach than when you are stuck in front of a computer in the office, or up to your eye balls in washing up. But in truth you can only ever be where you are and the wanting to be somewhere else is taking the shine off your life. So next time you find yourself stuck in the mundane, stop, let go of your resistance to what is and engage fully with where you are.

A woman from one of our Mindfulness courses inspired me to write this, she told me that after our last class she had made a conscious effort to be here in the now as much as possible,  and to use whatever she was doing at that moment as a focus to bring her  back into the now.  “I’ve never enjoyed scrubbing the floor so much” she said “it’s my new meditation, in fact all my house work is a meditation”.  She had discovered the miracle of mindfulness; she had discovered how when we bring our full mindful attention on to any task, we transform it. It goes from being a chore to an expression of the moment. We get to see the light reflecting back off the clean surface, we experience the movement of our arm, the sound of the brush and the light in the bubbles.

Is scrubbing the floor any better or any worse than sitting down drinking tea?  No it’s simply what we are doing now.  Mindfulness teaches us that what we get out of each moment, the intensity of our life experience, is not so much determined by where we are or what we are doing but by our depth of presence and how fully we are engaged. What we get from this moment is our state of being in this moment. Finishing the floor cleaning is no better than doing the floor cleaning. Do it fully and discover the delight in the mundane.

Adrian

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Even in the midst of the depression I could still watch my thoughts, I was all too familiar with my thinking patterns and preoccupations and I could see my minds tendency to go towards worries and knew the common themes which triggered my despair. I could observe the old stories going round and round again, and could witness my insane reasoning. I could see my madness, it was as clear as day, but when it was like this I could rarely find enough mindfulness to give me much peace from it. Whatever I tried the chatter continued.

I know now that this is a normal part of the training, and that mindfulness comes and goes. Mindfulness always returns eventually, and so will yours too. Getting lost in your head again and being dragged back into the madness is all just part of the passage. Mindfulness comes and goes and that’s fine and when you can see it like that it will hardly trouble you at all, but the truth is, for a large part of the passage you may find this kind of thing happening a lot – so here’s the tip.

Step 1 – Surrender

Don’t even try to silence your mind. The trying is a non-acceptance of now you see. If you have a chattering mind in this present moment then that is how it is. Trying is resistance to what is and actually makes things worse. In truth whatever you fight you make stronger because the fight gives it attention and provides it with energy. So surrender to your noisy head. If your mind is running wild that’s okay, it is as it is, offer no resistance, and if you can achieve the ultimate, let go and want nothing other than what is right now and you may free yourself in one go! But if you can’t, which is most likely, then surrender to that too.

Step 2 – Stop and be where you are

Check into your body. Ask yourself “where am I now?”, or “what is real right now?” and then focus fully on what is real in this moment, not on what is  unreal, the past and the future in your head, but focus fully on what is real right now. You’ll often find that this brings instant relief and for a moment the world shines back. If your emotional painbody is in full stride you’ll be unlikely to get relief for long, but it always helps to remind yourself of what real even if it’s only a fleeting appreciation. As you focus on where you are, here and now, your attention is taken away from head chatter and into your body. You may find some space in your mind and some relief from your compulsive thoughts. If your head continues to chatter don’t worry, it’s fine, sometimes It’s like that. We still have a trick up our sleeves

Distract your mind with a mantra

If you already use a mantra meditation technique use that, or if you want to chant Gods name in Sanskrit then do that, but if not you can always make up a mantra of your own.

You could repeat: “There is only now” or “I am not my thoughts” over and over again.

You may choose to meditate on this mantra for a while, or you could simply keep repeating it in your head as you go about your business (being as mindful as possible of course). The mantra will act as a distraction for your mind. It helps to focus attention and some mantra’s can even help to bring you into a kind of universal harmonic alignment; but we’ll explore that another time.

At the very least you’ll find that your mind gets so bored with the mantra that is “shuts up” and you’ll eventually get some peace, but even whilst it is still chattering the mantra is far less destructive than where your mind would go without the mantra to focus on. So you might as well give a go.

Adrian

If you missed it – have a look at Top Tip #1 (here) and look out for Top Tip #3 coming soon…

The post Top Tip #2: Noisy Head – Emergency Rescue appeared first on The Now Project.

This the most simple and also the most powerful mindfulness technique that there is. There are only two breathing techniques that you really need to practice mindfulness. The first technique is to breathe in, and then breathe out; and the second is the breathe out and then breathe in. Either is fine and we don’t need to complicate things any more than that.

You don’t need to breathe in any particular way, you don’t need to think about breathing, just breathe, the breath happens all on it’s own. Even when you are asleep! Just bring your attention on to your breathing and notice how it feels to breathe. There is nothing else to do.

Try it now

You could chose a point inside one nostril and become aware of how it feels as the air flows in and out over that point or you could simply notice how your chest rises and with each in breath and how it falls with each out breath. Focus your attention on the movement of the air and the movement of your chest. Don’t think, just notice.

If you want to get really advanced you could practice abdominal breathing it takes a bit of practice, but in reality nothing could be more natural. It’s how you used to breathe before you got lost in your head and your body became ridged. It’s how babies breathe.

Start by noticing your breath. Now bring your attention onto your stomach. See if you can keep your chest fairly still and inflate your lungs by letting you stomach expand like a balloon. Go on, don’t be shy no need to hold it in, let your stomach expand, this will allow your diaphragm to come down and fill your lungs with air. You’ll find that your breath is far deeper when your breath this way, it’s also much more relaxed and slower because you get so much air with each breath. Now simply let your breath fall into a natural rhythm and bring your attention onto the experience of your stomach inflating and deflating with each in and out breath.

By bringing your attention on to the experience of breathing you are bringing your attention into the present moment. Your breath is always in the present moment you see, if you are breathing in the past or the future you are in really serious trouble! The breath is an anchor to the Now.

When you see your mind beginning to wander to past, future, problems, worries or daydreams, or what ever it does, don’t resist that, it’s what our minds do, it’s the nature of mind to wander; simply observe your minds tendency to wander and bring your attention back to the breath. Your thoughts will carry you away again and that’s fine, simply pull your attention back to your breath when ever you notice that your mind has wandered. Each time you bring your attention on to your breath you have returned to mindfulness and your awareness deepens.

It’s simple but by no means easy, there is a momentum to your mind – it has been running at full speed and it will take a while to slow down, but if you can make breath awareness a habit you’ll find that it’s a really powerful tool in helping you to cultivate mindfulness.

You have to breathe so why not do it mindfully!

Try the Breath Awareness meditation here – a free downloadable meditation you can use again and again.

The post Top Tip #1: Breath Awareness appeared first on The Now Project.