Everyday Philosophy- The Exercise

Recently I have been thinking about things that have contributed to help me find the real meaning in my life, and this is one of them. When I was living in London I attended a Philosophy school in Marylebone.  Every class we would practice "The Exercise" below.  It allowed the students to step in the space of being present and alive.  The Exercise has greatly changed my life, and massively improved my sleep habits...really use ALL of your senses when practicing.  I would suggest you have someone read it to you or print out a copy to read yourself.  

The following exercise is both ancient and modern.  It is both time honored and of the moment.  It is very simple and requires no special training. Practice everyday for 30 days.

Find a comfortable chair.

First let the mind be free of any concern or preoccupation.

Allow the body to be upright yet relaxed. 

Let go of tension.

Be aware of where you are now...

Feel the body...

Feel the weight of the body on the chair...

Feel the gentle pressure of the clothes on the skin...

And the play of air on the face and hands...

See color and form...

Be fully here...

And let listening be wide. Accept all sounds...those close at hand...

and then those further and further away...

Let all the sounds be held in the silent listening, 

and rest in that awareness for a minute or two.

Excerpt from Philosophy Works

Check out these yoga sites!

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110119-the-worlds-best-yoga-spots

Pefectionism

According to wikipedia perfectionism is defined as the following:
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that perfection can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable. At such levels, this is considered an unhealthy belief, and psychologists typically refer to such individuals as maladaptive perfectionists.


Hamachek describes two types of perfectionism. Normal perfectionists "derive a very real sense of pleasure from the labours of a painstaking effort" while neurotic perfectionists are "unable to feel satisfaction because in their own eyes they never seem to do things [well] enough to warrant that feeling of satisfaction". Burns defines perfectionists as "people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment".

After watching the movie Black Swan this weekend, it has inspired me to write about perfectionism. The Queen Swan played by Natalie Portman (who was brillant in this film), demonstrates characteristics of perfectionism throughout the film. Natalie Portman plays the neurotic perfectionist who never feels like she is good enough when training for the role of the Queen Swan.

My husband Mike who takes Improv courses wanted me to be mindful of the characters in the movie. He is reading a book called the Eight Characters of Comedy. One of the characters is THE NEUROTIC. According to this book the NEUROTIC get frustrated when nobody understands them, they tell you what they're thinking as they're thinking it. They always expect things to turn out a certain way and they get upset when they don't. They have a "rule book" that they just assume everyone will follow, a set of rules that helps them make sense of things. they talk and talk and talk some more.

Questions to think about:

What is arising in your mind when you read this?

What expectations do you set for yourself?

What does being perfect mean to you?

What does letting go look like to you?

Exercise

Start to observe how you feel when you are achieving certain goals, or perfecting tasks in your life. Does pain arise in your body? Are you breathing more heavily?

Keep of a journal of these and start to observe the way you feel when performing these tasks.

The Lotus Life

Creating this blog will allow me to tap into my creative resources.  I will be blogging about my journey as a life coach amongst many other things for the next few months...I encourage you to follow + please feel free to comment at any time.

I too have a life coach and one of my goals for the week was to create a blog.  I am rubbish at writing so this will be very informal.

P.S. Check out my new website: www.lotuslifecoach.com