Awaken in the Now

As I’ve walked my spiritual path over the last few years I’ve let go of many aspects of my identity and the ways I had habitually defined myself. The question - Who am I? - is a key spiritual question which can be a conduit for accessing our true nature which is beyond all labels. My core spiritual practice is cultivating presence/awareness and in that space introducing the question Who am I which is an inquiry into the nature of the self. In letting go of many of my labels including ones associated with spiritual beliefs, career and relationship I’ve found that I’ve become much more free to respond to situations in the moment in surprising ways. Surprising because my responses are so spontaneous and don’t necessarily fit into my ideas about how I behave. Without such a rigid definition of who I am I can more easily step into roles, activities and ways of relating to people which would not have been possible before because my beliefs about who I am would limit the possibilities. This has opened a new world of unlimited adventure and experience and while it is often scary not to have the familiar backdrop of the old identity I feel far more alive than ever before.
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Most people have heard of mindfulness, like meditation it has become a fairly common term in general use. It has also become more accepted in western psychology as having therapeutic benefit. Many books have been written on the topic and yet there remains much confusion in terms of just what mindfulness is and how to apply it on a daily basis to heal and find greater freedom, this is especially true with regard to difficult or emotional situations, its easier to be mindful of a sunset compared to the intense anger in a fight with a partner. While the definition of mindfulness varies I would describe it as a gentle, focused, compassionate attention. A quality of spaciously noticing what is happening whether it be within or without. In the west today there has developed a tradition of Buddhist training and practice that is mixed with western psychology. From this tradition, represented by Psychologist/Buddhist Teachers such as Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, a very practical application of mindfulness practice has emerged that can be readily applied in daily life especially with difficult issues or situations.
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