Being Appreciative ?!

One day when I was walking in the busy and crowded railway station, a familiar inner voice spoke casually to me: “What she had done was gorgeous, that could be a great idea for you to follow, adding that element when teaching a class could make it better…

I thought I was being appreciative, but I was stunned that my apparent appreciation towards others and to new ideas made my energy contract and my back become a bit tighter than usual. My tongue was no longer relaxed on my lower palate and my head felt a bit bloated. I was not at ease, nor in touch with and open to the world.

I believe my body will always give me messages that are trying to tell me the truth underneath my surface reactions. I started to visualize and felt my back leaning against the support I have built up (this time it was the Love of the Universe). After a minute or so, I realized that after giving out appreciation to another, I had stealthily and craftily added following disapproval of myself: I hadn’t done what others had; I didn’t use that idea; I didn’t add that element to…

Sometimes our admiration and approval of others are instinctively turned to criticisms of ourselves; sometimes so smoothly that we may not recognize it! We need to see these criticisms for what they are! Leaning back onto our life-support/love will help us to see clearly.

Our body is the most honest mirror. I trust mine to reflect the messages my conscious mind tries to hide but that I need to learn.

P. 96 of my book illustrates a simple mental exercise to categorize our thoughts and so we can deal more easily with the root belief behind them that might be causing us a problem. (If you want this exercise free, please leave me your email address).

Here I would like to give you some physical actions for your body so you may effectively release the tension from holding on to self-disapproval and free your mind to find out what has happened inside.

1. Exhale strongly, preferably making an “arrrr” sound. Your lower jaw should drop down significantly, like sighing

2. Then as you exhale, drop your shoulders as much as you can, even if the extent is small to start with

3. Soften and stretch your throat when you inhale

4. Feel cool air sinking down into you until it reaches your tummy,

5. If the air goes low enough, you will feel the inhalation is pressing on and massaging your abdominal organs, including your bowels and stomach

(10-20 breaths)

1. When inhaling, begin to saturate your face with cool air, as well as following point 4 above,

2. Slightly draw your lower belly (below the navel) in and feel the support there, from the base of your body

3. Feel your heart and move it (not your chest) forward gently. Do not tense your upper back or squeeze your shoulder blades together

4. Then you may start to categorize your thoughts as I described on p96 of my book

With practice, you will easily and quickly find the cause of many cases of tension and stiffness in your body