Goodbody Every Evening

You don't have a soul.

You are a soul.

You have a body.

~C.S. Lewis

How to Stay in the Present Moment, Eckhart Tolle

1. Inhabit the body. Sense the aliveness that is in the body. This takes your attention away from thought. The practice of physical movements such as Tai Chi helps. Sensing the body becomes an anchor for staying present in the now.

2. Make it your practice to welcome this moment, no matter what form it takes. Say yes to whatever is “now”. There is only one moment, but different forms of it. The secret is not to resist these forms. Surrendering to the forms that arise takes you to the formless in yourself. You then sense a spaciousness around whatever happens in your life. People, events, situations, objects come and go. Being in the now moment liberates you from form, from the world. With that liberation comes enormous peace.

Nothing happens next.  Everything happens now.  ~Cheri Huber

What are the benefits of general awareness?

We avoid showing ourselves by using our musculature to create protective barriers around our vulnerabilities. By becoming aware, we have the choice to lower these barriers or to continue to live behind them. Maintaining the barriers expends a lot of energy that could be used for your life's purpose, for something other than retaining muscle tension or an emotional position. Rosen Method bodywork begins with the individual and his or her own growth, but it doesn't stop there. The individual's growth leads to action, and those actions cause a ripple effect in the world; the possibilities are unending.

~ Marion Rosen

The Edge of Awareness, Eugene Gendlin

Inward listening is a dialogue in which "I" and "what comes" both participate and change.

Inward listening lets go of self-engineering, but not of forward-moving bodily life-energy and active development. It is a dialogue with a sensed "edge" that comes physically in us, which we cannot direct or construct. In that dialogue I do not become less than in my usual ways of living. I become more than I was.

We value this edge because it is a porous borderzone through which new steps come that we could not have made. In this metaphor the word "edge" works oddly. This "edge" is the center of the body. It is also the center of speech and action. What you really meant by what you said — or, the motivation you really felt is that unclear but alive bodily sense.

Knock-knock.

(Who's there?)

Nobody.

(Nobody who?)

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