When we speak of introspection, how does one look where the eyes cannot go?
Actually, looking inside is inherent to us all and universal in our experience.
It is understandable that our natural ability to go inside tends to fall away during the course of a busy life. Looking within, however, is never lost. Through simple means, we can quickly come to recognize our own history with this truly basic human gift. Then with this recognition, we regain the ability to routinely revisit our inner awareness. What follows is an easy exercise the reader can use to recapture their own internal experience, an experience that, once recalled, becomes deeply familiar. Read through this exercise before beginning. Then, when you put this paper aside, don’t worry about getting it right, because the words here serve only as a guide. Your own innate wisdom will reveal the next step, as you intuitively follow along. So aim for deeper, not better, for gentler, and in favor of your own intimate understanding.
Find a quiet place, a place that is reassuring and comforting to be in right now. Turn off your phone. Commit to several minutes of unbroken time, and then arrange to be undisturbed. As we begin, from a standing position, place your feet a shoulder-width apart. Let your eyes close and rest unengaged, while we continue. Now gently pull the back of your head upwards. Notice that your jaw recedes, as your neck lengthens, and weight is lifted from your shoulders. Your entire spine now follows upward, while this lengthening tends for your hips to tuck under, so that the knees are slightly bent. Relax your hands, letting them fall at your sides. Return your attention to the back of your head, and gently allow it to float upwards, until this elongation has straightened the entire length of the spine. It is common to experience a calming effect with this straightening. Accept the relief; and welcome it to pass throughout your standing figure.
Your upward movement has been intentional, but the gentleness with which it comes about will allow this posture to be sustained without effort. As the head begins to float, breathe into this slow release upward, and notice the alignment. With your heels firmly planted on the ground, and the back of your head extending upwards gently, the entire length of the spine comes into an unforced straightening. As you notice and accept the complete sensation of this lengthening, the rising continues. Relax further into this expanding sense of personal space. Keep your eyes still, and unoccupied, as you depend on your internal awareness to continue this exercise.
Bring your attention into your feet, while floating your head up. Rock forward. Be aware of the first point where you sense more weight on the balls of your feet. Now rock back through the middle, and continue slowly backward. Find the earliest moment when there seems to be slightly more weight in the heels. Stop here, and then rock slowly forward. Notice the middle, and then settle into this front-to-back middle. Breathe, settle in, and take a moment to develop a sense-memory of this position, and then continue.
Slowly and gently sway to the right, just enough to notice more pressure on the right foot. Now come back, noticing when the weight feels equal on both feet. Sway to the left, again only slightly, and then unhurriedly settle into the middle, as the pressure equalizes on both feet. You may be most comfortable going side to side, less each time, until the middle is evident. When you have arrived, stay in stillness, and settle even deeper, as you hold a sense-memory of this position. Breathe fully, and use the breath to gently hold open this expanded personal space of your greater alignment… alignment emanating from the center.
Since looking inside requires the temporary suspension of looking outward, accept the comfort you have found here and let yourself fall inward. Hold awareness from the center, without a sense of direction, or spatial orientation. Being held without intention, our centeredness begins to cross into timelessness. A deep confirmation of this lies in our constantly rediscovered stillness of this intimate space. You are now on the inside. From here, the gift of the present moment mysteriously unfolds, even as it remains complete. Here it seems as if nothing needs doing, and yet everything happens. So where are you looking? You are looking without eyes, and so there is no direction. This is sight that encompasses the space, yet does not pierce it. As you occupy this space, hold close and recognize, so that you can return to this completion when needed. Now open your eyes and step forward. As you come back to outward awareness, slowly turn all the way around. Notice your center- this presently unseen place where all begins.
Of course, we are not speaking of the center of gravity. In this centering routine, we are exercising our introspection, while using gravity as a subtle cue to help us recognize what we refer to as our center of awareness. The balance found here does have a physical component, which we access through our sense of the figure’s balance. It also has a conceptual component, as well as an emotional component. As you read these words, and think about centeredness in your own life, the conceptual component is being strengthened. Feeling safe while noticing, and then deliberately remembering, the relief of the stillness you just experienced strengthens the emotional component. Reading through and then performing this exercise is a reliable method we can use to recognize and return to our center on a momentary basis. From here, the traction to bring about personal change can be accessed. With practice, we begin strengthening the physical, conceptual and emotional components that together form the balance of cognition that sustains our center of awareness. With this strengthening, one comes to acknowledge that nothing is missing from the center. From here, there is no need to strive, because you already own this, in an intimate and faultless completion.
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