LOOKING. . . Your Daily Companion

• 06 Dec 2017 • John Tarasin

We are attempting to identify LOOKING within the context of STOP. LOOK. BREATHE. . . . as an action and experience.

Let's identify an initial parameter.

"That people do what they know." What you know defines how you behave. Therefore, unless you Look, you won't 'know' anything else. You have to Stop and Look, otherwise you won't see any other options.

The second parameter, is the possibility that we are conditioned to seek 'God'. By this we mean another power, authority or entity outside ourselves. This takes away our personal responsibility to see the world as it is.

Therefore, we might think that we don't need to Look, because so many things are taken care of for us. Or that it's too hard to Look. Or don't know or to Look. We are social and tend to follow a leader, authority or Guru and seek a way to live, conscious or otherwise, or seeking a way out of misery / suffering through an outside source. This is an easy way to live, sort of. Consider how advertising or the emotional eating of certain foods, for example, seek to get our attention -the eating of sensational foods , to push down emotions, tends to dull peoples attention and puts them back into comfort blanket mode . 

" The outside source seems to  promises a way through pain and suffering via an authority to guide out of discomfort."

The Stop. Look. Breathe. message refers to a particular capacity to stay with a challenge or experience as a result of relating with the world that presents discomfort or imbalance.

Rather than avoiding, managing or running away from the discomfort, it's suggested that we stay with it until the 'holding experience' takes it's course and transforms into a deeper quality. To meet the challenge and stay with it. . . to breathe into it wholly as a complete body experience. To allow it to 'flower' and come into contact with a deeper quality or capacity.  A deeper sense of what is real, what is here. This is something we can only do ourselves. No one else can do this for us. It has to be experienced by the individual, to be felt and sensed into.

When we avoid doing this, we tend to behave in ways that seeks an easy path, that will ultimately define how we live and therefore, define who we think we are. For example, we might feel weak and fearful around a certain situation or person and for the sake of living an 'acceptable' life (least objectionable path), we take a path of behaviour that will avoid making contact with that situation, thus creating a behaviour that we begin to identify as our way.  And then it's who we begin to believe we are.

Alternatively, we can choose to feel the discomfort, completely. We don't need to confront or express courage within the feeling of fear. Be with yourself and have the courage and allowance to feel the fear, anxiety, weakness, lostness. You may be judging your experience, or yourself, as inadequate or inappropriate. Be aware of this judgement as it usually compounds and interferes with completely allowing the feeling to be as / what it is.

Also, do not judge yourself if you 'fail'. . . as in divert your attention away from the intention to stay with what you're experiencing. To observe this requires a presence in itself. No doubt another opportunity will come along soon enough!       
Also, be aware of the tendency to judge yourself as 'failing'. This will divert your attention away from the intention to stay with whatever you are experiencing.   

So, LOOKING, is when you become attentive and sensitive to what your are feeling and experiencing, observant to your behaviour.   

Become friends with those things that you avoid. Learn about it and discover it's nature. See how it features in the choices you make and contribute to patterns of repetitive behaviour. See how it contributes towards creating your 'personality' and activity. 

And therefore, to who you think you are. Can this be done as you go about your day?

The Nirvana LOOK charm is represented in by the ancient Eye of Horus motif. The all knowing and all seeing eyes of a falcon. Like a metaphor for seeing from up high - this could be taken as both a higher perspective and from being up high, a different perspective. Either way, the vision expands to a more spacious perspective.

The charms and motifs provide valuable touchstones to act as your daily companion and reminder that you have the innate and inbuilt capacity to Look and be with yourself. . .

A selection of bracelets from the Nirvana Classic Collection feature the the Stop, Look and Breathe charms in small sterling silver and pure yellow gold, large sterling silver and small sterling silver and pure rose gold motifs. Click on an image full product details.

We'd love to hear your experiences and how you relate to 'Looking'. You can share your  how this discovery is for you at the bottom of the blog, should you feel so inclined.

With presence,

John Tarasin