I have come across so many different versions of this exercise – Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Osho – they all recommend the simple act of contemplating nature as an opportunity for transcendence.

This week, try every day to find a beautiful flower (yes, it can be the same one every day if you like) and spend five minutes just looking at it. Don’t label it or try to describe it mentally. Just look. Become one with the flower. Feel the inherent stillness present in it. Flowers are an easy access point for the stillness within all things, and in connecting with the stillness in the flower, you automatically connect to the stillness within yourself. My favourites for this one are orchids for their intense otherworldliness, but any flower will do. In fact, sometimes the simplest and smallest flowers hold the most wonder when really looked at without the interfering mind.

To continue this exercise throughout your life, buy yourself (or even better, grow yourself) a beautiful flowering pot plant for your desk. Then, every time you feel yourself getting sucked into the world, simply connect with your flower for a moment and feel the power of this simple meditation come to life (next thing I’ll have you hugging trees... Ha ha!).

Happy ogling!

Ready for some fun?! This week we’re going to try stepping out of our comfort zones. Spiritual traditions are always telling us that we are not who we think we are and that we need to let go of all our self-imposed definitions to find out who we are not, are thereby who we actually are.

So, your exercise for this week is to figure out what and who you define yourself as (including the implied definitions) and then to mess with these as much as possible.

For example...

 - If you define yourself as a Goth, you could spend the week dressed in bright colours and listening to hip-hop.
 - If you define yourself as a Christian, you could try going to a service at a mosque or synagogue.
 - If you define yourself as a punctual person, you could try to be late for everything this week.
 - If you define yourself as a couch potato, you could go for a daily run.
 - If you define yourself as the life of the party, you could try to sit inconspicuously and observe instead of partaking in the action.
 - If you define yourself as shy, make an effort to say one thing to every stranger that you pass.

Try to stir up some of your little habits and routines that you have put in place – eat dinner at a different time, try something new, wear your hair in a different style, sleep in or wake early.

Do something so out of character that everyone says “hey, do you know what so-and-so did today – I would have expected it from x but not from them!” The more uncomfortable and unlike you it is, the better.

May you find who you are not, and discover that it wasn’t what you thought it would be!

Have fun!

I found this one on You Tube, posted by NetiNetiFilms from their DVD “I Am That I Am”, and it is based on the teachings of Sri Nisargaddata Maharaj.

All the spiritual teachings throughout the ages have taught that we are more than mere bodies, that we are the infinite, the ever present, the eternal. We are encouraged to somehow get in touch with this feeling, to draw our attention away from the physical and into this inner world. Eckhart Tolle calls this feeling Beingness, Michael Brown calls in Presence, Maharaj calls it the I Am. Whatever name you give to it, it helps to have a taste of what it is you’re trying to connect with. I believe this meditation is an excellent starting point.

This is the link to the video on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhYnrDBnQHc&feature=related

 Its quite nice to have someone talk you through it, as it needs to be done with your eyes closed . Otherwise, I’ve typed out the meditation below – read it through a couple of times and then talk yourself through it or get someone else to talk you through it.

“Close your eyes.
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you a man, a woman, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you defined, undefined, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you limited, unlimited, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, are you in a body, out of a body, or neither?
Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations or your perceptions, notice the no-state state of the I Am - no thoughts, memory, emotions, associations or perceptions.
Open your eyes, but keep part of your awareness in the no-state state of the I Am”

Try to connect to this feeling as often as you can.

Wishing you a week of no-thingness.