While writing this I’m laying down with a bad back. I’ve now been off work for a week which years ago would have been a massive problem for me, my mind would have told me ‘you can’t be off work you’re too busy, you’ve got bills to pay etc’.
So then, not only am I in physical pain but I’m also creating mental pain for myself. Even now my mind tries to come in and tell me I can’t just lay here – ‘you need to get up and do something, anything!’ – constantly going round and round in a loop developing stress and anxiety.
This is where mindfulness comes into play, just to sit and observe my mind going over and over these stories. I now find it very amusing to watch these old patterns playing themselves out. What the mind can never understand is the concept of just being. It always wants to be doing something, absolutely anything, it cannot stop. And this is where our mindfulness practice comes in; just to be still, here, now is one of the greatest teachings. I really believe that’s why I’ve got a bad back – so I can just stop, be still and take a look at my life, what I need to do, what I need to focus on. You don’t need to be in some cave in the Himalayas, just where you are is perfect, how it should be, as it is.
By surrendering to what is I free myself from any unnecessary pain, I can then deal with whatever is here. I can’t deal with what my mind is making up because it’s not real and that is the beauty of surrender. When I surrender to what is my life has a wonderful flow about it.
The mind is always denying life, wanting things this way not wanting something else but surrendering just to what is gives me freedom and opens up doors that just wouldn’t be there if I was fighting reality. My practice always comes down to two words – surrender and acceptance – it’s that simple. Am I surrendering and accepting what is happening? if I am the answer is always there, if I’m not I suffer.
There’s an analogy of driving a car, now the ego wants to be the driver, it wants to go left when it wants to go left and it wants to go right when it wants to go right, always wanting to be in control but awareness, consciousness, true nature, whatever you want to call it, is happy sitting in the back because it knows something the ego doesn’t, it knows it is the passenger, it is the mysterious driver, it is the car, it is the scenery it’s driving through, it is everything now that’s powerful, it’s not weakness – can you see the difference?
Now don’t take my word for it, practice surrender and see for yourself it is a powerful way to live your life, so as I’m laying here I’m surrendering to what is and do you know what? it is ok, everything is ok and it always has been.