Clearings

I wrote the first part of this post and decided it was too silly to finish.  Then I read an article about some market research that was done on the concerns a large segment of consumers have about what is going on in their mouths and what they can/should do about it.  If market researchers, those miners of what makes us tick at any given moment, see teeth as a notable issue, this post may not be so nuts after all.

Take something you do every day.  Not big, ordinary.  Like brushing your teeth.  And become your own observer.  Somewhere in that very ordinary thing you do is the reason why.  Maybe you brush because your mother convinced you that is how days start and end.  Maybe you hold the thought that people like you better if you're minty fresh.  Maybe you like you better if you're minty fresh.  Maybe it's just plain fear of the dentist.

Because you are an observer, not a judge, let yourself be neutral about what you discover.  Neutral is, for example, seeing yourself without the thought that you are still under your parents' control, neurotically begging for the approval of strangers, hopelessly self-involved and fear driven.  Neutral is that it does not matter.  Free of those fascinatingly juicy emotional hooks that come with judgement.

Observer that you have become, if only in front of the bathroom sink, you are now equipped with an amazing new tool: you can become deeply aware and at the same time choose that neutral, no judgement perspective when that is what serves best. 

Experiment, give that neutral perspective a road test.  Here is something to try:

At the risk of seeming like you have become the second coming of Spock, spend a day out in the world being observer, not judge.

In all your doings and seeings, let there be no hint of conclusions drawn.  If you notice clouds, clouds will not brood or threaten, be filled with promise, offer to play.  Colors, textures, tastes, words spoken, written, sounds, shapes all observed in their fullness.  Unaltered, unjudged.

Was there richness in the day?  Was there connection with your world?  Was there none?  Will you do it again, give it another go?