dailydatewithgod

Our template for survival comes with a side effect.  We are constantly on the outlook for what could upset the construct of our survival.  Our brains are wired to keep us alive. This is a good thing.  The downside is we tend to focus easily on the negative because it holds within it the potential to end our existence. It sounds dramatic but life and death are a reality.  In the early years of human existence however, the threats to survival were more striking like the potential to run into animals that would kill us or the scarcity of food in winter.  Today our world is constructed differently.  At least for those of us who live in cultures where industry and technology thrive. Our mind’s inclination to focus on the negative becomes more about perspective, interpretation, and potential death to our identity.  We fall for the construct that familiar is safe and the unfamiliar feels uncomfortable and could be threatening.  Growth comes through discomfort but if we are afraid of the unfamiliar then we are reluctant to grow.  Yet growth and change are inevitable.  This creates a certain calamity of experience.  In this calamitous space, we can develop additional awareness aside from that of our brain that is focusing only on survival.  We can acknowledge the brain wanting to keep us breathing and activate the openness of the heart which engages other sensors by which to measure the experience as an actual or imagined threat.  Pausing to breathe which activates the heart to attention gives us a moment before defaulting to an automatic reaction.  It is a simple way to activate additional possibilities aside from the negative inclinations.  In the moments of pause, we can connect to an opening to another layer of options.  It is not woo woo to activate our hearts in the conversation, it is a step towards wholeness.  It is an activation which involves being present, connected, and agents in our own lives.  We can honor our baseline desire to live by bringing ourselves fully into the experience and engaging with our whole selves.