Being 
We are human beings, not human doings.
When I first read that a while back now, I had to stop and think about what it meant. I kind of got that as humans we are ‘beings’, and that we are always ‘doing’, but it was to take some time before it sank in for me.
I seem to be always rushing around. From the time I wake up I am needed by someone in the family for something. All day I am then doing stuff, going places, talking to people, then I come home and the doing continues until it’s time for bed again. A classic case of the ‘do do’s’.
Not once did it occur to me in the day to stop and ‘be’. Just be still with me. Take time out to ground myself, take deep breathes and take in what’s around me. To notice what I was doing, and for what reason. To be aware of the choices I was sub-consciously making about my thoughts, behaviours and reactions to things – actually being consciously awake as we covered in blog A for Awaken.
We are not just ‘beings’ in the sense that we exist. To be is to live with presence. To be in the now. To have awareness of the moment we are living, each moment at a time.
For some that may seem quite a bizarre thought, as for the most we tend to either live in the past (remembering time gone by, whether good times or not), or we live in the future (hoping and wishing for something to come along, or fearing what might happen). Rarely are we present in the now and accepting this moment for the gift that it is.
My beautiful son has a natural gift for living in the present. He has Autism and while that brings with it so many challenges for him and us, it also brings some lessons for me too, and one of those is his natural way of being. He can be in a meltdown one minute, and then the next laughing his head off to Peppa Pig.
While we might remember something in the past that stays with us often for a lifetime, he doesn’t dwell on anything that has gone. This is a great gift that means that his future is not determined by what has been before.
We also have a great tendency to live in our future. Whether this is in the “I will be happy when…” mode or in fear of something that will never actually happen. This takes our life force away from us and puts us firmly in the land of ‘doing’.
To live with presence and awareness of the moment is a natural default mode for all humans. As we are born we begin living in the now. Just being who we are and noticing all around us. Yet over time we take on this concept of not being happy with ‘now’, and move from ‘being’ to ‘doing’ so that we can get to another moment in time instead. Now that is bizarre.
Living consciously is living wide awake and in the present moment. Being here, right now, noticing what you are feeling and having a clear awareness of your present situation and choosing the thoughts, behaviours, feelings that serve you right in this moment. Then the next moment. That is being.
B is also for ‘Broadband Consciousness’ or BC for short.
This is taking consciousness to the next level… going broadband with it. BC is the amazing programme created and run by two great friends of mine Richard Wilkins and Liz Ivory, who live and teach this every day. Richard is the self-proclaimed Minister for Inspiration and you can find out more about these real life Superheroes at http://www.theministryofinspiration.com/
I’ll write more about BC in the next blog: C for Choosing (and Cosmic Google!)
With love and gratitude
Nadine.