I find that, as Sadhguru says, being alone, taking time away from people and keeping silence are all means by which I can allow myself to simply receive. It’s such a relief, once you get used to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have students that tell me how ‘hard’ meditation is, how ‘awkward’ silence is, and I tell them they’re just not used to receiving. Silence, at first, is about not speaking. Essentially though, when we don’t speak, we leave space. Space for the other, space for experience, space for the unknown. Space to receive. What makes it ‘hard’ is that we’re so invested in showing ourselves, aggressively taking up space, claiming, justifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pause for a moment as I write. What am I receiving now? There is a bird in the distance. The hum of cars as they pass on the street. Someone is joyfully yelling at a friend on the street. The blanket on my legs feels so soft and warm. The taste of my last sip of coffee is still lingering on my tongue, and my stomach just let out a growl. My belly rises softly and falls with each breath cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can sit here for hours, so much to receive. As I come back to writing, back to expressing and pushing, I’m still aware of what I’ve just received. More aware of the sounds and sensations, I feel much more present and calm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is the ‘spiritual path’: Being awake and aware, receiving while taking. Tuned in to the rest of the orchestra while we still play our own little part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being alone, keeping a distance from people, and becoming silent are not only opportunities for someone on a ‘spiritual path’, these are opportunities for any human who wishes to stay sane. I slowly get up from the table, watching the scene as though in slow motion, taking it all in with full attention. It’s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,64,8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mindfulness","category-shamanism","category-yoga-off-the-mat","category-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Opportunities_sm.jpg?fit=400%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedominawareness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}