What are You Connected To?

The Internet promised us connections. How's that working for you? It depends on WHAT you want to be connected to.

While in Oregon last month, I changed the stories I'd been telling myself about the way things have to be. Without email or newspapers or TV, I was news-less and disconnected from the world for three days. And I was totally connected to my heart and to the 14 people with whom I shared a workshop about the meaning of presence.

One of the physical exercises that we did was exaggerated movement to represent a part of our lives. My choice was walking quickly in tight circles, moving my arms like lethal buzz saws while holding my elbows close to my sides. I was a busy bee engaged in frantic activity and  getting nowhere -- cramped, furious motion that exhausted me (even though it lasted only a minute).

This bit of improvisation brought home the profound message that I, caught up in a whirlwind primarily of my own design, had lost sight of the bigger picture: where do I want to go, and what action will help me to know that?

Our lives work for us only when we are fully present. Without that presence -- that awareness of right now -- we are pursuing goals that are always somewhere else. I'll take a break, we tell ourselves, once I've finished this project. But the other demands on our time are out there -- like stacked-up planes circling above the airport in bad weather -- pressuring us to hurry up, do more, do it faster.

Cranky or bored with everyday tasks (fixing a computer glitch, scrubbing the bathtub, grocery shopping), we try to hurry through them while thinking of the "important" stuff that needs to be done. Can you imagine yourself washing dishes and focusing only on that AND being joyful about it? If not, what's the alternative? -- To stand there, up to your elbows in soapy water, feeling resentful while the to-do list dances in your head. Since we can do only one thing at a time, what's to be gained by feeling impatient with THIS moment?
 
Standing still, taking the time to breathe, to notice, to be silent are essential to knowing. The key to being present is being fully there in the stillness of now, no matter what you are doing.

Yes, if you want to know the latest news, the current scoop on the rich and famous or where to get music downloads, then the Internet is the place to be.

If you want to get off of the doing, rushing, getting, having treadmill, then the place to be is where you are ... right now.

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True stories of connecting, awakening, seeing and knowing are at connectingstories.com

WATER WINGS FOR SUCCESS - ISSUE 2005-11 - ISSN: 1534-178X
(c) Copyright Jane Allen 2005. All rights reserved.