Coming to Our Senses

After my mother had taken her last breath, it was evident that what lay there on the bed was just a shell, a former home for her spirit. I was amazed at how quickly her body became cold, and eventually stiff when the life force was no longer animating it. I was also stunned at how deeply I take my life for granted, forgetting that someday it will end.

Lift your hand to your cheek and feel the warmth. At this moment you are being given the gift of life, a gift that is yours to treasure for however long it is here. The amazing thing is that none of us knows when it will be taken away. It could be seven decades from now or this afternoon. We have very little control over that. But we do have the opportunity to become consciously and creatively engaged with this wondrous gift we have been given. It doesn’t matter if we’re caught in a traffic jam, late for an important meeting, or are struggling with the fear of being fired. We are still here, alive in this moment. Our mind may be somewhere else, but the rest of us is engaged in the only moment that truly matters. It makes no difference if we’ve gained 10 pounds and can’t fit into the dress for the party, we are still here. It doesn’t matter if our partner left us and we’re deep in the throes of a broken heart. We are still here.

Are you ready to live in this moment, to actually be here for your life? Are you ready to free your attention from the maze of struggle and use it instead to connect with life? In order to do this, you need to groove a pathway from the struggling, controlling, fearing mind back into the living experience of your own life.

Our senses are a doorway. No matter what the mind is doing, they can reconnect us with here and now. Is there any accident that the phrase, coming to our senses means getting clear again?  Our senses are a wonderful place to learn the art of engaging with life. Each of these exquisite gifts can, in their own way, invite us back into the magic and wonder of life. There is almost no greater joy than to be lost in an old pattern of struggle and suddenly be awakened by the sound of a bird, the smell of a campfire, or the sensation of my breath moving in and out.

When my children were little, I was washing dishes one day with my attention firmly ensconced in a maze of struggle. The struggle crystallized around a challenge in one of my children’s lives.  I was slowly tumbling down the steep slope of overwhelm when, all of a sudden, awareness kicked in. “I am lost in thought again, and what is happening is that I am washing dishes.” I brought my attention to the sensations I was experiencing in that moment—warm water, the smell of the soap, the sounds of a pan against the sink, and a utensil against the pan. At first, my mind wanted to go back into the struggle, but I gently and persistently kept on bringing it back to the actual experience. Soon my mind began to settle, and my awareness could see (rather than being lost in) this old and very familiar pattern of overwhelm. With my awareness freed up from the struggle, I could now make skillful choices around this challenge.

I was able to pull myself out of struggle because I have cultivated awareness of my senses, using them as a place to rest from the ever-forward tumbling of the mind. As one of my teachers once said, “Where there is awareness, there is choice, and where there is choice, there is freedom.”

The invitation for today is to pause a number of times throughout your day and use your senses to connect with life. Really taste a bite of food. Really hear the sounds arising and passing. Really see what is in front of you rather than thinking about it. Really smell what is here. Really feel what you are touching.

Let your senses open the doorway into the magic and mystery of life.

Coming soon is Mary’s newest online interactive course, Falling in Love with You. Be on the lookout for upcoming specials for the course, which begins again on Feb. 1^st.

And please note that we are also running a special on the What’s in Your Way IS the Way self-paced, which begins as soon as you enroll. From now until December 15th, this life transforming course if available for $197 with coupon code: wiywsp4$197