@Attention – building the posture wk 1 review (Day 153)
You've started to build a new way to be in your body, a posture that we're calling @attention. You can stand, sit, lie, run, eat, think...you can do everything in this particular physical posture of awareness and acceptance. In order to live (feel, think, act) mindfully, you must embody it!
In looking-over the past week of building your standing@attention, I'd like to use two metaphors to reflect on what we did. These shifts you're making are subtle, but they are also foundationally deep, and I think the evolutionary impact-scale of the metaphors is apt.
Standing-up straight: This is like going from being an invertebrate to a vertebrate. You began using your backbone. This cantilevered posture allows for...
Breathing open: The posture of inhalation – feeling and sustaining an expansion/lift in your ribcage. This is like going from being a water-breathing creature to an air-breathing one. Now you are awake and in-control of your own mind.
PRACTICE
Focusing on your body experience, feel your way into the two giant evolutionary jumps described above. Take a breath of air, as if for the first time. Sit/stand-up and support your torso, as if for the first time.