Excavate & Penetrate — Day 178

This week we're taking a big-picture look at awareness & acceptance, and we're working on balancing them.

As we build our awareness, it's like we're excavating or penetrating more deeply into ourselves (this body/earth). Sooner or later, we'll unearth and release some old reaction that will require our acceptance to process it out. Once we do enough of that, we're back into an awareness practice, and so the cycle continues.

One thing to watch with your awareness practice is that, the times that it's most appropriate and fertile to do it is when you're most prone to get distracted. Life is relatively calm and it's very easy to distract yourself with something more fun or easy.

And with your acceptance practice, there is often a stage where you've unearthed some deep and pervasive issues, which don't seem to fade away. Sometimes these can last for months or years. The key here is to practice diligently (you are making progress, even if you can't feel it) and gently – your responsibility is not to make things better, but simply to accept them.

PRACTICE

Remember your awareness when you're feeling good.

Be gentle when acceptance is required.