Yesterday, turning potential or real pain into prayerfully-expressed hope felt good – a relief. It changed the way I approached difficult tasks – especially if I brought in the reminder that primarily our actions are gifts from God delivered through us not by us (see yesterday’s Zen reading).
But most of all, the protocol gave me some direction when the WHO announced that we are now in a pandemic situation.
“I hope that this situation passes gently and lightly across this planet. I hope that all those affected are blessed with pure light, pure relief, and heavenly consciousness. I hope that we can all be uplifted by this planetary event so that we realise our capacity for love, cooperation, mutual appreciation; so that we turn to unity, to collaboration and to humble service of each other…”
A couple of days ago, I came across a newsletter from the wonderful Yoga with Adrienne – it seems she’s been working with her commonly-used phrase, Find What Feels Good (FWFG), as a framework for her community. Gorgeous. I’ve been playing with the phrase on my walks, using astonishingly beautiful Abraham-Hicks podcasts to define the Feels Good feelings. Here are my phone notes and the idea I had of tracking what feels good – and what doesn’t – across the day:
Find What Feels Good today
(Because WFG is Me-connected-to-the-stream-of-pure-positive-energy)
Write myself a time sheet, early first, down to the end of the day:
Column 1 = Feels Good = lined up with my inner being, syncing, tuned in, connected to Source Energy, aligned with inspiration, getting into the Vortex, vibrationally up to speed, downstream, under the influence of Source, in oneness with my original vibrational state of beingness, with the rightness of Me, focussing consciously, getting ahead, pre-paving, making your world better, moving in the direction of the vortex and therefore feeling satisfaction, daydreaming not nightmaring, tuned in, tapped in, turned on, caring about what I’m thinking and feeling.
Column 2= doesn’t Feel Good = tug of war with inner being, unaligned with inspiration, under human momentum, upstream, under the influence of something other than Source, making your world worse…
Good morning, sweet being. Column 1 is plenty for your needs. We know that you like to point to what tears you up, but we really wouldn’t recommend you give disconnected experiences any more energy than they already got via your earlier vibrational state and wandering attention.
We love the idea that you should constantly be asking yourself, across the day:
- How am I feeling?
- What is my state?
- How does this make me feel?
- Can I milk the goodness out of this moment a little more?
- In my next segment, what feeling am I intending to feel? [Segment intending]
- How would I like to feel at the start, peak and end of this task? [Pre-paving]
- Where do I appreciate this moment in my body?
- What senses are being tickled here?
Remember what Abraham says about this life? They say “If we were in your physical shoes, we would…” They remind us that this physical life is delicious because, oh dear love this is so important, because of our physical senses. That autonomic nervous system, that vagus nerve, those butterflies in the stomach… it doesn’t come with you after this life! The sensations of your body, from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’ are the gifts of the emotional guidance system [EGS], which is one of the best, best, best aspects of physical life! Until, until, until… ooh, this is hard… you decide that pinching yourself off from your EGS is the way to go. Sound familiar to anyone?! That’s the feeling of stuck, of split energy, of frustration, of yearning for satisfaction. In truth, there are no ‘negative’ feelings: there are just signals which show you you are facing away from your EGS, which is to say, away from your Inner Being.
How best to turn to my EGS?
This FWFG game is an excellent way to turn to your EGS, because it has no grand objecitive to it other that to get into your body a little more, and attune yourself (great word, ‘attune’) to picking up the signals of Feeling Good. This is really all you need to get in to the Good Feeling mode and hop in to the navigational stream of your EGS.
What you want to avoid is that situation of having a satnav on and set to a destination, but you decide to take a detour to the service station, and the satnav is shouting at you, “At the next junction, do a U turn…. Turn round… Re-routing… Turn round… Not that way… What are you doing? Go left… No turn round.” Make sure you and your EGS are working together. Listen to its voice. Your voice. Start by following What Feels Good.
Let’s read. You’re going to like it.
***
Funny, because in truth, I felt a bit of heaviness about this chapter. It’s called MISTAKES IN PRACTICE, and it’s about all the ways we might fail to keep our zazen practice pure… And how we shouldn’t do zazen to feel good! Sometimes, reading this book, I think, golly, was it made for a more innocent age?
Exactly so! Hence it’s immense value. Because innocence is the basic human state, whatever the age and state of society. All prompts to reawaken simplicity and innocence in us are to be welcomed. Right?
Ok, I’m picking this following paragraph. It’s helpful to me, because it starts with the ‘unhelpful’ things I ‘object’ to (eg ‘you have the wrong idea’), but it ends with a message I can take with me, not just to my practice (which is loose enough as it is!) but to the rest of what I do in life:
MISTAKES IN PRACTICE: If you find some difficulty in your practice, that is the warning that you have some wrong idea, so you have to be careful. But do not give up your practice; continue it, knowing your weakness. Here there is no gaining idea. Here there is no fixed idea of attainment. You do not say, “This is enlightenment,” or “That is not right practice.” Even in wrong practice, when you realize it and continue, there is right practice. Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice. Zen Mind p73
I could apply that to my work. And that would take the strain off me. The acceptance of radical imperfection. What’s important is to keep yesterday’s 3 states of action/being to mind:
- first = aware of our essential self/Self/Source-self, eg straight after zazen
- second = doing everyday things like making tea
- third = creative, giving, teaching, intellectual, conscious
The second and third become like ‘children who have lost their parents’ if the first is not activated.
Let’s meditate…
***ZazenGuidedMed3minBreathingSpace***
Tbh, short and simple was v refreshing. The reminder that: I can focus my attention wherever I choose.
And today is about focussing the attention to Find What Feels Good.
Excellent. And if I were to lift my sights up, right up, and ask the…
Source of my Being, the Holy Heart of my Soul,
What one thing would You have me do today?
A storm just blew in, as if from nowhere, and filled the bright, blue sunshiney morning with sideways rain – did it not? [Yes!] But, you saw it coming across the fields, didn’t you? [Yes!] And you know that storms always eventually blow over? [Yes!] We want you to remember that the same is to be said of what you call ‘pandemics’. Today, quite simply, we want you to hold the thought in mind that, ‘this too shall pass’ – not in the shrugging-the-shoulder sense, but in the sense of knowing, knowing, knowing that suffering, acute though it may be, is always a transient state. So really do focus on Finding What Feels Good today. Let this passing planetary event remind you, deeply, all of you, that life is about Finding What Feels Good: that is Source’s gift TO ITSELF. Ok?
WOT [What One Thing] thing noted – will do: Today, quite simply, we want you to hold the thought in mind that, ‘this too shall pass’.
So when I Feel Good I am ‘gifting’ Source?
Entirely. Why did Source out-manifest itself in the physical form if not to expand? And why did Source create an Emotional Guidance System (aka Find What Feels Good system) if not to facilitate, accelerate and enable that expansion?
Imagine Source felt whatever you felt, and only that – so Source’s feelings were entirely dependent on yours. Would that encourage you to clean up your frequency?
Or put it this way. Imagine your children only felt what you were feeling…
Well we had that!! And yes, having my internal stress mirrored back to me certainly did encourage me to clean up my frequency!
The bottom line is this: Finding What Feels Good is not an ‘indulgence’ or ‘selfish’, it’s the first act of service you can offer to this vibrational universe!
Find What Feels Good
***
When I go back to the nonphysical world and the nonphysical souls say to me “what’s so good about the physical world? “, I will say to them, “it’s all about feeling good! On Earth it feels good to…
- Watch the Sun come up and the day begin
- Have a cup of coffee in the morning
- Stretch your body
- Walk your body in nature
- Set tasks for yourself and complete them
- Get stuff done
- Have a good cry and process feelings of sadness
- Sense opportunity
- Go about under the influence of source energy
- Daydream a little bit
- Imagine good new things
- See the best in people
- Exchange smiles or hugs
- Anticipate good experiences
- Sense nature coming to life after a long winter
- Remind ourselves that this too shall pass
- Bring out the best in another person
- Help another person to become more aligned with themselves
- Have a good, true, open dialogue
- Remind ourselves that anything is possible can
- Have lunch…