Hello!  And welcome to Season 2, Episode 5 of our Path of Presence Podcast, available at:  www.PathofPresence.com/podcast

Our theme for this season is all about the journey of presence - of being present to the process of entrepreneurship - of building a business, and of living a thriving, balanced and integrated life.

The key to fully living is to be mindful.  Now, the word mindful has become a mainstream word. ... and that’s really awesome. 

But, what does being mindful mean? How do we practice that art & science of living mindfully, each and every day of our lives, embracing all that life has to offer? 

Embrace?  Yup.., that’s what I said: Embrace! 

To open our big loving arms and energy and, whatever it is that’s in front of us, we invite it forward to let it be. 

Living fully is a practice of mindful awareness, moment to moment. We become conscious of how our thoughts inform our actions in the moment and how our actions inform our thoughts.

The awareness of what’s going on for us internally creates a choice of action and therefore, paved way for us to not simply go about on autopilot, but to consider each moment as a moment into itself.  We can choose over and over again, consciously, from our higher functioning brain to live more integrated, productive lives.

Guess what?  Being mindful precisely opposes being mindless, right!?

Well, we have all heard, overheard, have shared with others how we mindlessly unloaded the groceries or fed the dog, or stuffed our meal down because we were in a hurry to get from one place to another.

To be mindful in of big things in life, we practice with the seemingly small, everyday things in life:

Unloading groceries, feeding the dog and consuming our meal 

With great awareness of every apple we put away...

With great awareness of every crunch that we hear as we lovingly mix the dog food...  

With great awareness of savoring every flavor, we taste from our life-giving meal.

Mindfulness allows us to integrate the experience of living without being rushed from one place to another, hurrying from one activity to another.

We literally, become present to our lives.  When we become aware and in the moment, our gratitude grows.  We appreciate the wonder before us.

Rather than fear, or pain avoidance, we become curious to every moment allowing us a front row experience of the gift we call our life!

If you find yourself hurried these days, and want more sanity in your life, consider slowing down and practice mindfulness.

Okay, so previous episodes in this season addresses some of the most challenging issues of being an entrepreneur:  focus, organization and critical self-judgement.  If you missed episodes 1-4, go back and download them and have a listen. Pathofpresence.com/podcast 

So at the heart of all entrepreneurs is creativity - it is our source for zeal, drive and at the source of creativity is imagination!  

Imagination allows us a direct link to visioning - seeing beyond the now to what we want to create, 

So that we become fully aware of what ours is to do, 

Thereby, giving us a glimpse of our own potential and the possibility of who we are 

And knowing that it is all within our reach.

Vision

So for a moment, let’s consider the word vision.

What do you think of when I say vision?

I think about being 15 years old and being told I need glasses to focus and see.  Oh gosh, as a insecure teenager, last thing I want to sport is a pair of cheeky glasses.  So in my vanity, I quickly decided right then & there that I am a contact lens wearer!!!  And for anyone who wears contacts, you’ll probably remember that getting used to having plastic over your eyeballs is a journey in itself, right?  Okay, I digress ...  

The short definition of vision is to see: the ability to see.

Clearly, from my story, I needed help physically seeing, and putting into focus what was before me...

I like to think that my vision is bad so that rather than focusing on just the purely physical, my sight can turn inward. 

I can be laser focused to see my inner vision

What we [the popular mainstream] consider vision is a sort of goal planning. 

However, rather than allowing the head to calculate and dictate the dates to which we assign things due, we create smart goals by tuning in to our best inner resource and authority - the voice within.

Visioning is about bringing up to light, to surface, to our waking conscious that which is important and particular to us.  We are essentially uncovering a piece of us that, for whatever reason, we have hidden away for long - even to ourselves, because at one point or another, someone along our path told us it’s not okay.  And so we tucked it away, hiding it from ourselves and the rest of the world, our deepest desire, and potential.

It is from a parasympathetic state of mind, relaxed and at ease, that we do our visioning.  We never want to do so while we are stressed out or under pressure to make plans and take action.

So when we tap into this deeper part of our consciousness, we are in a relaxed state.  We get away from our survivalist mind and flight, fight or freeze frame of mind and into a state of deep relaxation.  

From this parasympathetic relaxed state - thoroughly relaxed - body mind and spirit  - that we can call up, from the deepest place within ourselves what we see for ourselves as Possibility. 

In this relaxed state, we are not in our calculating, thinking, logical brains, but in a more balanced homeostasis, an open state of awareness where we use all of human senses, including our intuition and extrasensory perception to receive information not available through the traditional 5 senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

And in case you are wondering what those others senses are - well, human beings have 5 additional senses that's not talked about, unless you are a scientist.

Here they are: nociception (pain); equilibrioception (balance); proprioception and kinaesthesia (joint motion and acceleration); the sense of time; thermoception (temperature differences); and possibly an additional weak magnetoception (direction)

Ha!  A sense of direction - folks - is a real thing - Who knew?

So in the process of visioning - to call ourselves out - to living up to our full potential 

We employ all of our resources, to tap into our soul’s purpose.

How Do We Tap Into Our Soul's Purpose?

We begin with deep relaxation

In a meditative, parasympathetic state, of mindful awareness - taking long deep breathes, without any threat, and releasing our guard to the fight, flee or freeze, response, we become open and available to 

Utilize our senses - all of our senses - to perceive in a multi-dimensional way -  the life we are here to live. 

So rather than coming up with strategy or scheme, we allow our knowing to inform us of the direction we are to take with our business, with our relationships, with our lives…

Simply by tuning in to our best inner authority.  Some may call this the still small voice.

Various cultures have different names for this: The Christ presence, the Buddha nature, The Light within us

When we say Namaste or namaskar - 

We are saying essentially - "The Light within me honors The Light within you."

Th point is - This light, Christ/Buddha nature is inherent in all human beings

Perhaps it is the indomitable human spirit!

The soul of our beingness that transcends time and space, outlives our physical death.

It is the observer - the consciousness of the person.

And it is through mindful awareness that one can tap into the wisdom that is inherent in all of us.

And no one can tell you not to listen to your inner voice.

You, and only you know your own inner authority. The more you practice being in the presence of stillness, the more connected you become to this soul of your being.

And to live by vision, not only are we allowing our soul to inform us of the direction we are to take with our life, we are also putting our faith in the inner guide that has come to help us live up to our potential.

So, if you are interested in stepping your life up a notch or two - or interested in a quantum change in how you go about conducting your business and your day to day practice - I invite you to simply listen.

Listen to the voice within you - that is the best authority.

Allow your soul to be your guide and vision to lead your every step.

That's it for today… there’s much to chew on and I’ll look forward to being with you on our next path of presence episode where we continue talking about the journey…