A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – JANUARY 20

Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
— Robert Browning

DEFENDING AGAINST DEFENSIVENESS

Defensiveness is one of the biggest barriers on the path of conscious living. Every time you say, “Wait a minute! This isn’t the experience I’m supposed to be having!” you put the brakes on the learning possibilities in that moment. It takes genuine courage to come up against your defensive patterns, then to choose to let them go, making yourself vulnerable. Become familiar with some of the major defensive patterns:

DISTRACTIONS
Q: What are you feeling right now?
A: Let me catch this phone call first, then we can talk.

HOSTILITY
Q: What are you feeling right now?
A: Why are you people always so obsessed with feelings? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned thinking?

OVERINTELLECTUALIZING
Q: What are you feeling right now?
A: My friend Sid said he read a book that said feelings were made up of three chemicals, but I can’t remember exactly which they were right now.

TRYING TO PLEASE/APPROVAL-SEEKING
Q: What are you feeling right now?
A: I guess I must be scared—does that sound right to you?

A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – JANUARY 20

Today, notice any times you start to feel uncomfortable. At these times, ask yourself what you are defending against right now. When you can catch yourself in the act of going defensive—and then choose to let go of your defensive posture—you can make great leaps ahead on the path of conscious living.

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