You are 37.2 trillion cells. You have between 50-70,000 thoughts per day. That’s between 34-48 thoughts per minute. But who are you really? Are you simply a set of stories you have been continually told or that you tell yourself? This storyteller inside tells us all kinds of things. It can tell us we are sad, glad, mad, excited, depressed, the stream of messages is continuous and at times unrelenting. Is there a way to stop living out all these stories and get to know the storyteller on a more intimate and deeper level? I believe there is, and the first step is noticing.
Perhaps as some point in your life you have happened upon the image above at the start of this blog?
Depending upon how you look at it, this is a young woman or an old woman. Its all about where one focuses their attention. The Young Woman, Old Woman Ambiguous Figure (also known as My Wife and My Mother in Law) was created by an anonymous illustrator in late 19th century Germany, and reproduced on a postcard. William Ely Hill (1887 - 1962), a British cartoonist, produced a later, well-known version. The later, well-known version, was first published in the magazine Puck, in 1915.
As I often mention in my blogs, from a Shamanic point of view, all of life is interwoven in a majestic tapestry. When we recognize that we are not separate from life, but rather a thread that connects to this tapestry, we begin to feel safer, more trusting, and less a victim. Beginning to see life as an intelligent process is the key. Stopping and listening is the secret.
We need to learn to trust the process. The truth is not one of us can make our hair grow, make night turn into day, or tell our food to digest, it all happens without a single thought from us. Life is intelligent and knows what to do. In fact, we don’t even recognize how much we trust this intelligent process. Life truly is a great, majestic mystery.
So how is it we can shift from not feeling safe, not trusting and being a victim? I would propose that it is when our immediate experience and attention come together. This is the moment we begin seeing. In fact, strange as it may seem, you may even find yourself declaring, to yourself, “I see you!”. I remember the first time this happened for me. I had been meditating for the first time in my life consistently for a month. There were a myriad of benefits accumulating day by day but the most profound came one day when I realized I had some how transformed into an observer rather than unbridled participant in the storytellers, stories. I declared, “I see you”. There was something amazingly comforting in this. I noticed.
In listening to a recent podcast where Mary O’Malley was interviewed about her book, “What’s in the Way Is the Way”, I was struck by something she said that I believe is related to this concept. She said, “Life is set up, to bring up, what has been bound up, so it can open up, to be freed up, so you can show up for life. When you become fascinated by the challenges of life rather than angry, you become interested in what is being brought up inside of you, this how we set free this bound up energy.”
I would equate the fascination she mentions with curiosity. When we develop an observer’s curiosity rather than a participant’s angst, clarity and direction are the result. In our forever louder culture, which vies for every piece of your attention, every day, it is more important than ever to have a personal practice which helps you to step outside of the participant role and into the role of observer. It is here you will begin to see, you will notice, what is truly important and what is not. It is here you begin to trust, feel safe, and know that you are connected to it all.
If you missed a podcast talk on the connections we all have, and how that relates to Shamanism, please check out Sharry Edwards, MEd., who works with Sound Health and the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology in Albany, Ohio. On the BlogTalk Radio program, she along with guest speaker, don Zane Curfman (my Shamanic Teacher) and I all deeply discuss these human based connections. Enjoy!
*More specifically at the 31- 40 minute mark.
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