525,600 Minutes

by Jerry Kuhlman - Founder and Author of StillMind.net - 1/1/2007

As the Broadway show tune points out, there are 525,600 minutes per year.  How will you measure them in 2007?

It's the time of year for resolutions, which is good.  It seems natural that with the early sunsets comes reflection, a turning inward to reassess, to take note of where we're at, and to open to new possibilities.  It's a universal cycle and it is practiced by most of our fellow creatures, finishing the tasks of the fall and preparing for winter.  This ebb and flow is a necessary part of our seasonal patterns.  Making resolutions is a natural progression in the process.  However, in our culture, we sometimes make resolutions an unhealthy focus on our negative traits, a purging of sorts.  Often, though, we find that when we try to block out or mask certain facets of our lives, those facets loom larger still, and we end up accomplishing the opposite of what we had intended.  With this approach, our resolutions fall by the wayside in short order and our so-called negative traits simply get covered up or camouflaged.  There's a better way.  By heightening our awareness of the origin of our impulses and bad habits we can affect big changes in our lives without much effort at all.  As I tell my meditation students, the effort is in the awareness.

If, for instance, you are overcome by the desire to eat massive amounts of little chocolate donuts, you might say that you are practicing unawareness.  By succumbing, you sweep your best interest under the rug, and momentarily forget about it by conveniently being unaware.  At the very moment when this desire popped up, if you had only been aware and awake and mindful of your actions and reactions, you could be doing something entirely different than gorging on little chocolate donuts.  Yeah, right, you say.  Easier said than done.  Think of it this way, though.  We all shift back and forth between awareness and unawareness, but the more we practice one or the other, the better we get at it.  Just like shooting basketballs.  In the same way, you might say that we practice anger by being angry.  When we are anxious, we are practicing anxiety.

Well then, you ask, how do I practice awareness?  Back to the little chocolate donuts...the next time an unwelcome urge presents itself, instead of tagging it with a negative slant, and temporarily banning it from your life "forever", try to turn toward it, embrace it.  Sounds corny, I know, but be one with it.  It's counter-intuitive for most of us, but without judgment, without the notion of good versus bad,  examine the issue.  Try to see the different facets of this impulse.  Without seeing it as a negative or positive aspect of your life, try to get to the root of why you want to eat little chocolate donuts at this moment in your life.  It's not something you need to obsess upon, in fact, to simply acknowledge the thought is enough.  It may take awhile to peel away your layers enough to find its origin, but in time the issue will be resolved, one way or another.  By gently letting the impulse present itself, acknowledging it, and giving it a space in which to be, you can, in turn, take the proper action, or no action.  Sounds abstract, I know, but think about it.  The simple act of being aware of an impulse when it arises, instead of sweeping it under the rug, puts that impulse in suspension, allowing time for it to fade away, or to find a solution for it.  Voila!  Awareness. 

The idea is to string one moment of awareness after another until you are practicing a life of awareness, but even if you can just afford a few minutes daily, that's ok, since awareness tends to feed on itself.  Eventually, a tipping point occurs and you're practicing awareness a good part of your time.  Here's the key.  Make the effort to deliberately practice awareness before it's actually needed in the heat of those little chocolate donut moments.

Yeah, right, you say.  It's still so intangible.  Actually, the practice of awareness is quite simple.  Pick something to focus on, and when you drift off and lose concentration, gently return to your point of focus.  The granddaddy and epitome of the practice is, of course, meditation, but it can really be any facet of your life: taking a shower, taking out the trash, walking, sports, practicing yoga, doing the dishes.  Your point of focus can be anything that you do in any of the waking moments that make up your years.  Here's how it goes.  When you walk the dog, really walk the dog.  When you do the dishes, really do the dishes.  When you practice yoga, really practice yoga.  Experience whatever it is that you're doing, really being with it, front and center, totally present, right here, right now, not in the future or the past.  Yes, you will lose your focus, but when you realize that you have lost it (your focus, silly), gently return to it.  Yes, the impulse for little chocolate donuts (or whatever) will inevitably arise time after time after time after time, until one day, quite to your surprise, it doesn't.

Jerry Kuhlman, the founder and author of StillMind.net, began his yoga and meditation practice in 1973 with Lex Gillan at the Yoga Institute in Houston, TX.  What started as a way to meet "chicks" quickly became a way of life, soul cleansing and profound in its message.  In the ensuing years, he set out to wear many hats, climb many mountains, and sail a few seas.  Along the way, he carefully chose some large obstacles to happiness, as humans do.  Using yoga and meditation to deal with the difficulties in life, he found that the larger the obstacle, the greater, and more unexpected, was the light that it shed on his life, compelling him to see with brand new eyes, and allowing him to open to the joy of life.