So often, we look for connection and comfort outside ourselves. But if we rely on external means in our pursuit of pleasure, we run the risk of deluding ourselves that we’re in control when we’re not.
The opioid crisis exemplifies how out of control we can become in our desire to numb ourselves or to feel anything uncomfortable. This crisis of mass addiction claims more than 90 lives each day. The risk of death becomes a price that opioid addicts are willing to pay so that they can have temporary relief from pain and emotional anguish.
Sadly, we haven’t learned how to use our own body’s natural abilities to work through pain and suffering. Our own brains can actually manufacture chemicals that can produce the type of endorphins that make us feel as good or as high as drugs or alcohol can. What’s more, we all have the ability through tools such as Mindfulness and meditation to trigger the neurotransmitters in our brains that make us feel high. Some of us, however, are awakening to this capability, including veterans with PTSD who are able to reduce stress and anxiety and connect with feelings of harmony and happiness.
We’re all able to tap into Mindfulness — or present moment awareness — to reveal the moments of our lives as rich with meaning. Mindfulness helps us not only to ameliorate our suffering, but to experience joy, elation and a higher state of consciousness. Mindfulness is there for us when we want a boost of energy that lifts us up from the doldrums of everyday life.
Our spirits not only deserve to be nurtured and loved, but also to feel exalted. We can experience this type of joy that gets our neurotransmitters truly fired up. When we’re good to ourselves and able to value who we are, we’re in essence taking care of our spirit.
Our brains are ripe to join the universe in its oneness. With Mindfulness we’re able to achieve a shift in consciousness that essentially helps raise the consciousness on the planet. When we practice Mindfulness, stay in present moment awareness, commit to self-surrender and lift the veils of falsehood, we will feel this shift. Our consciousness is connected to the collective.
In essence, what we do affects the universal consciousness of the planet. If we attempt to find that connection through drugs, alcohol or other mind-numbing influences, we rob ourselves from finding union with the divine spirit within and around us.
Begin a Mindfulness practice and begin a journey towards connecting with the divine spirit by using this contemplation as a guide:
1. Find a quiet place to sit.
2. Let your mind rest in non-doing.
3. Open your mind to receive by telling yourself that you’re open to knowing.
4. If your mind is active, engage it in a question — for example: “Who am I?” or “What is this life?”
5. Spend time allowing yourself to be with what you ask.
6. Say that you are ready to “know.”
7. Dwell in whatever you’re hearing or feeling.
8. Allow yourself to go deeper into reflective thinking and let your introspection take you where it will.
9. Call forward God, source or whatever the divine means to you.
10. Let yourself freefall into the connection of your spirit with the divine.
Making time for Mindfulness is a gift to ourselves. Finding time in our day to be still and present puts us in touch with who we are, and in our knowing, we uncover our union with the profound state of mystical awareness.
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Ora Nadrich is founder and president of the Institute for Transformational Thinking and author of Live True: A Mindfulness Guide to Authenticity, named among the “top 18 books on what an authentic life looks like” by PositivePsychology and “one of the 100 Best Mindfulness Books of All Time” by BookAuthority. She is a certified life coach and Mindfulness teacher, specializing in transformational thinking, self-discovery and mentoring new coaches. Her new book is Mindfulness and Mysticism: Connecting Present Moment Awareness with Higher States of Consciousness (IFTT Press, Nov. 11, 2021). Contact her at oranadrich.com.