Please feel free to do an audio-visually guided Being Break by logging into You Tube and typing in Karyn Klapecki to get to my channel, or scroll to the bottom for a direct link on this blog.
Here is a written version for you.
As you begin this experiet may help you to remember this metaphor. IF we were driving down a country road and we were going to simply notice and acknowledge each thing we saw, it would simply be a recording of whatever we experienced next, without stopping to comment or dwell – simply record as the car keeps moving forward. So it might sound like: I see a fence, with barbed wire, I see a telephone post, I see a bird on the wire, I see a field with grain blowing, I see a bale of hay, I see a cow…. We wouldn’t know exactly what we’d see next, but whatever it was we’d simply accept it and record it. If we see nothing but prairie with little else for hours, there is no judgment, it just is what it is. So keeping this in mind as the process of witnessing, let’s continue with the Being Break.
Allow yourself to sit comfortably. Then just allow the body to BE. You aren’t running the body, but somehow aware of it as a witness – able to feel it and experience it, but more objectively. Notice if the muscles relax or tension releases, on its own. Notice any adjustments the body makes, on its own. Then could you allow the Breath to BE. Allow the rhythm and depth to be noticed. And as you notice the body and the breath, allow yourself to be aware of how they will come into harmony and equilibrium – without any help or direction.
Could you then allow any thoughts or thinking that seems to be there. There could be a lot, a little or none. If there are thoughts, could you let them be, as opposed to being the thinker? Thoughts come regularly all day and we get lost in them – yet do you really know which thought you’ll have in the next minute? Are you really the thinker? So could you simply be more objective of thinking? Be aware of judging thoughts or questioning thoughts. Let them all BE here now if they are present.
Could you allow any feelings you are aware of to be there? Check deeper in the body. Watch all sensations. Be with them – just like driving down the road and recording the next thing. No judgment or questioning or ‘doing anything’ … just BE with whatever is. And could you rest even beyond all sensation? Could you enter the awareness field where there is no person, no effort, just a sense of awareness? And could you allow yourself to BE…… and BE…
Notice the quality of the experience in awareness – there is no person or body … there is no location, no beginning or end point, no center. There is no investment in anything, no judgement, no activity or doing… just a unified consciousness awareness. From this point of awareness, if anything arises, it is simply noted, accepted . . . or another way to put it – the awareness is not affected by anything that is going on. (It really wouldn’t matter what came up next along our drive, it would simply be recorded as the next thing).
The Stillness, Is-ness, Presence of Being is ‘everything’ .. all expansive and everywhere, and gives the base for all that is in form … and yet it is NOTHING as well. It just IS.
Witnessing from the perspective of Being allows the acceptance of all that arises in our anxiety and feelings of ‘lack’. These emotions drive our compulsions – we jump in and DO Something, and we repeat patterns of behavior and often use solutions we’ve always known. The more often we can BE with our compulsive tendencies, the less charged they become. Then we tend to let them go more completely and have choice as to what we might ‘do’. The actions and thoughts that appear on a base of calm presence are likely to bring more efficient or effective outcomes. Creativity occurs for the situations that life presents. Decisions we make in this unified consciousness of Being, are creative and collaborative.
It’s an odd think to think of taking a Being Break because we cannot actually NOT Be. However we are often turned away from that, and consumed by our compulsions to deal with the other energy patterns that seem to pull us into thinking patterns as separate individuals. By taking breaks to realize our compulsions and by becoming aware that they are not necessary to follow or get lost in, we slowly regain a sense of presence, being calm and more fully aligned with everything.
RELEASING from BEING
When you take a Being Break, the state of awareness is a perfect place from which to introduce a topic you would like to release on. Simply acknowledge the problem or difficult situation and allow all the conversations, visual pictures, thoughts and thinking to arise and BE with that. BE with the body and all the energy that appears to stir and swirl through the body.
Allow all the sensations of feelings, the upset or anxiety or anger etc. Be with all that is there. Then allow any feelings that want to change the situation, or feelings that resist it, hate it, or want it to go away… and be with that effort in the energy. BE aware of scared, hurt and vulnerable feelings and allow them (just like recording the next thing on our car drive in the metaphor). Then also Be aware of any other effort, like wanting to understand, figure out or prove a point or judge what is right … Allow whatever inner conversations that arise. Be aware of all of this efforting energy … Yet there is no effort to BE.
Allow yourself to BE with how real, personal and important this entire situation seems…. It may feel very familiar, as if it is life itself… Yet, as you are simply BEING with all of this, notice how it probably is dissolving… not so important…. You can just BE with it all and it will harmonize away as you rest more clearly and fully in presence, unaffected by what just happened. Allow yourself to BE….and BE… and BE.