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Hey Reader

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Check this out.

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"The way that becomes a way is not the real way, and the name that becomes a name is not the real name." - Tao Te Ching

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​There is a tendency to limit our experience of life by relating to it through the symbols in our mind--our thoughts and conditioned ideas about the way things are.

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The alternative is to connect to the essence of what's in front of us and feel out the situation from a more grounded, embodied place. ​

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The Way out

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“The sage empties his mind, fills his belly, weakens his will, and strengthens his bones." - Tao Te Ching
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Empty you mind; Empty your mind of the symbols, the ideas, and the labels. Filling your belly; fill your body with your energy, your attention, and your breath. Weaken you will; your demand for things to be different than they are and stay in a state of willingness instead of willfulness; Strengthening your bones; Staying aligned within your body.
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Here is a process or practice:​
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1. Connecting with the present moment. Aligning with your spine, connecting with your breathing, and being here and now.
2. Learning to observe the flow of your experience, observing your thought patterns, and then observing what's happening in your body, your physiology. Just observing the tension. Noticing it and allowing it to be there.
3. Changing your attitude. Begin to look inwardly with kind eyes or with a soft smile and just notice and allow our inner bodily experience to be as it is—even the difficult feelings—the part of ourselves that we want to always push in a closet. Just notice. Just allow it to be there.
4. Asking questions into it. By asking questions, you develop a relationship with the wisdom in your body. And with time, you realize it has more information about your life experience than your thinking mind. It knows things beyond automatic thought patterns. First, ask where you feel it, the quality of it, then just be with that experience. As you practice staying with your felt experience, words, images, memories, and emotions naturally emerge. Processing and total body integration happen spontaneously.
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This method was inspired by a mind-body process called Focusing, developed by Eugene Gendlin. His research showed that true lasting change emerged from bodily intelligence and not from mere intellectual knowledge based understanding. He realized that questions directed at our bodily experiences cultivated an authentic transformative process; - It’s this, not our theories or stories about such and such a thing, that truly creates lasting change.

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As you practice this, the more you will come to realize that thoughts are mere symbols representing reality, and can become automatic, fixed patterns or programs, and that you are not your thoughts. You are much, much more.

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If you found this helpful, please forward it to someone that would benefit.

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