The most important choice we'll ever make..

Each moment we have a most important choice to make. We can notice awareness and all that awareness is aware of; thoughts and feelings, our own breath, our surroundings, people and animals, life all around us, nature, and sensations in the body. We can also begin to notice- the stories in the mind, beliefs, conditioning, our tendencies to avoid, protect, zone out, even move into addictive behavior and unconsciousness in an effort to not feel pain or discomfort.

We can notice this field of awareness, it extends beyond the body, reaching out in every direction, up to the skies and down to the core of the earth. There can be a noticing that awareness is aware of so many things and within that are all points of view. This is a critical piece, if there is an awareness of this field, the within and the without, the sky and clouds, other divine beings, all of life, there is awareness of an infinite number of view points, perspectives, and possibilities.

We can begin to notice that when we are caught up in a story like- "this is wrong, this should not be this way, he/she should not be doing this, they should not be treating me this way, it should be different" that we actually collapse into a single view point, a "me" that is arguing with what is.

Each moment is an opportunity to choose to rely on awareness or to attach to a point of view and take the roller coaster ride of thoughts and emotions as we separate ourselves from everything and collapse into a viewpoint, letting the mind drag us around like a dog on a leash, story after story, drama after drama.

While we may have a habit to collapse into a point of view, thinking that we are that point of view, defending it like our very "life" depends on it. In actuality we are not a point of view, we are the field of awareness, our very essence is the awareness that contains all of life and as we practice noticing this there is a feeling of expansion, a ease of being, a relaxedness, a quietness. From this relaxedness we can access clarity and wisdom, our innate strength, a sense of our true self that we've been looking for all our lives.