We are on a quest for betterment.  We want to be more enlightened, more conscious, more compassionate.  In this era of personal growth and modern spirituality there is a certain expectation of evolvement.  We scramble towards an ideal.  In the process, we end up replacing one set of shoulds for another, and thus our ideal stagnates us.

When you are focused on where you feel you should be, you are not present. Your attention is on the distant horizon, not on finding the way there.  It is you who takes you there.  More than any book, any guru, any ideal.  You don't get there by keeping your eyes fixed on the dazzling distance.  You stop and say, "Hmmm, I am here now.  Let's start here."

So where is here?  If here is somewhere we don't particularly like, it is because we are feeling the limitations of our energy patterns.  The natural state of our energy is free flowing.  Along the way, we respond to perceived circumstances by creating energy patterns to address the situation.  These are brilliant and resourceful answers to the difficulties we encounter.  After the difficulty is over, however, the pattern remains.

These energy patterns literally have shape and size in the body.  They are solid and inflexible.  They were formed for a reason and they served their purpose well.  But as we try to move on we inevitably run into them, still loyally doing their job.  This is where we begin the harsh self-judgment.

"Why," we say, "do I act/think/feel this way?  This is unacceptable!" Or, "I'm not really this way.  I am enlightened and evolved."  Because our starry eyes are fixed on the golden ideal, where we are looks ugly by comparison.  We either berate ourselves or avoid the way we are, or both.  And the patterns are still there, solid and running.

Being different than we are isn't a matter of willing ourselves towards the horizon dragging along the active patterns that still form our thoughts and behaviors.  The journey is a paradox.  Staying put where you are actually gets you where you're going.

Becoming aware of our patterns is the first step.  To do so we must put aside the prism of self-judgment and see clearly.  We must be the compassionate objective observer  of ourselves.  We can start with the belief that wherever we are just is, it is not good or bad. There is no judgment on it, no conclusion made.  Most of us believe that judging our behavior is the right thing to do.  To not do so indicates some kind of lack of morality. But morality has nothing to do with it.  This is simply a practical approach to healing the patterns within that cause us to act and think in limiting ways.  Any kind of judgmentalism or morality gets in the way of that.

Most all personal growth is focused in the mind, changing how you
understand  and think.  But energy patterns are not in the mind, they are in the body.  Dissolving energy patterns requires bringing your conscious energy into your physical body.

Before they come to me, most of my clients have never experienced this kind of body consciousness before. Having not experienced it on a physical level makes it conceptually hard to understand.  Yet once experienced, you know it well.  Bringing your conscious energy into your body is a very simple exercise.  Don't think you have to have done years of meditation or be a yogi to achieve this.  Being in your body is your natural state.

The conclusions we come to about what we might find is what keeps us out of our bodies.  Let your compassionate objective observer lead this journey.  When you are ready, notice what you are sensing in your body. What draws your attention?  Follow it. You may observe a physical feeling that's accompanied by an emotion.  You may have a physical memory, a smell, a taste.  You may get a vivid image.

Whatever  comes up, remember that you are the compassionate objective observer .  As long as you can be that, you can stay in your body.  If you find yourself becoming critical, thinking about what's happening, coming to conclusions, you have come out of your body again.  That's ok.  Let your compassionate objective observer  notice that.  You can't do this wrong.  This is being where you are.  This is the most vital and important personal growth there is.

When you do this, your energy patterns start to dissolve.  Often you can feel it in your body.  And you will notice it in your life.  There will be a lessening of intensity or a complete absence of the behavior, emotion, or thought pattern you were having difficulty with.  Not only is the pattern gone, it leaves a clarity in it's place.  In that clarity you see that you are miles closer to the horizon.  And where you are is beautiful too.