Have you ever experienced a floating tank? I recently spent an entire night in a floating tank, also known as a sensory deprivation chamber or isolation tank; It was a 7 hour float from midnight to 7am. What trip! I have floated several times before, but never for this long. In the tank, as your body and physical sensations disappear, you become pure consciousness-energy, pure consciousness. This is a profound “going within” experience. Without all the distractions of the outside physical world to deal with, you automatically become aware of what’s inside. Time becomes infinite and everything is available as you open to inner experience.
Now, although most of my float was beautiful and mystical and magical, I did have a few moments of worry and concern. It wasn’t about the float itself. No, my car had been broken into a few days before, and that unpleasant incident was still in my thoughts.
Has your house or car ever been broken into? How did you handle it?
On the path of transformation, or spiritual journey, you may experience moments when you become aware of how much you have grown. Some of these are moments that follow challenges in your life; You can compare how you handled a particular situation versus how you would have handled it in the past. These are pleasant moments that are usually marked with a comment, something like, “Wow, I’ve grown so much, as in the past in that situation I would have XYZ’d (scared, depressed, mad, and angry for days), or whatever), and this time I did ABC’d (handled it easily, was relaxed and present, moved on, etc.)”.
The carjacking was one of those experiences where my growth became apparent to me. I stopped by my local grocery store on a Sunday night at 8:00 pm to pick up a few items for the upcoming week. I was in the store for about 30 minutes. When I got out and opened the back of my new SUV to load the groceries, I noticed that my backpack wasn’t there. I was sure I had put it there so I looked in the backseat where I saw a bunch of broken glass. Someone had broken the rear passenger window and stolen my backpack. This is one of those challenging moments I mentioned, not a big one, in the relative scheme of things, but big enough to be a bit of a test for me.
Of course, my first and natural reaction was “Damn! I can’t believe it! Really? Someone broke the window of my new car and stole my backpack? In the grocery store parking lot at 8 pm ! Let’s go!” I felt the shock of unpleasant surprise, followed by anger, followed by disbelief, then acceptance, and then moving toward solutions. All of this happened in about five minutes as he surveyed the damage and assessed next steps.
Bruce Lee once said, “Under pressure, you will not reach your level of expectation, you will fall to your level of practice.” In ITP (Integral Transformative Practice) there is a practice known as “Taking the Blow as a Gift”, which I call “Looking for the Good” in my coaching program. This practice certainly served me well that day! This is how it works: First you accept the truth and reality of a situation and everything you are experiencing (thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc.); you allow everything. Since everything is energy, the most efficient option is to allow the energy to move and flow without resistance, just awareness.
Given my level of practice, the energies moved through me relatively quickly and in about five minutes I moved on to look for the good in the situation and the gifts that had been given to me. This is Wach:
1) The thief broke only one window.
2) Only my backpack was stolen and nothing else.
3) My new computer was not in my backpack (but it was the day before),
4) He or she received only a couple of books, some notes, an old IPOD touch and a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses.
5) Anyway, I didn’t like those sunglasses.
6) I look too much at my notes; this is a message it’s time to stop looking and start doing.
7) The Universe is telling me that it is time for me to stop hiding behind my sunglasses, to take them off and let the world look me in the eye.
8) Perhaps the transformational books and notes they stole will somehow open up the thief a bit, a gift from me to him or her.
9) A sense of compassion for the perpetrator who believes that in order to get what he wants he must steal it from others.
10) What a great opportunity to practice.
Y…
11) I’ll probably have something to write about in a future mojo article. I certainly will!
With these ideas, I literally laughed out loud on the way home with my purchases while the icy wind blew through my car.
My practice with this incident continued as I worked to fix it. Practicing “going with the flow”, I didn’t do anything about it for three days; I didn’t even clean the car glass. He had more important things to do and the moment didn’t feel right. However, I “gutted” the desired result and came to this: the window will be repaired quickly and efficiently, like new, for $300 or less. $500 or more felt painful, while much less than $300 seemed unrealistic.
With my intention clear, I tried to call a different dealer than the one I bought the car from, to get a comparative price, but was unable to get through twice! Putting that aside, I called the dealer I bought the car from and was told it would cost $833 if they did it at their shop. Holy Moly! However, they told me that the day before they had started outsourcing the windshield work to an outside company and that they would be happy to give me that number (Note that it doesn’t make sense in a logical, linear world that a shop that could do the work would refer to another person, however, in the metaphysical and energetic reality in which it was resonating, it does). Sure, I said, and called them right there.
The next day, the window technician from this other company picked up the OEM glass at the dealership, brought it to my house, completely cleaned all the glass on the car, installed the window like new, and billed me $255! Like magic.
As a Passion Test Facilitator, we teach our clients to practice “Intention, Attention, No Tension”. This means: be clear about what you intend, act towards that end and pay attention as it unfolds, then give up and relax into reality as it REALLY unfolds, with no expectations. It really works. However, it takes practice.
So now, back to my night float. The floatation center is located in an area of Oakland that isn’t exactly super safe. Having experienced my car being broken into, I lay there on the hover tank with thoughts that my car had been stolen, damaged, or somehow vandalized. But I just let them float. He knew that whatever happened, he could handle it. I affirmed over and over, “I am the King of No Matter What. Any Hit will be a Gift, and there is always Good in EVERY situation.”
When it comes down to it, the only thing you have to fear is YOURSELF. If you realize that what you fear is not something external happening, but HOW YOU WILL EXPERIENCE IT AND HANDLE IT, you will have taken the first big step. So when you realize that YOU CAN HANDLE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, you will have NOTHING to FEAR. When you have nothing to fear, then you are “The King or Queen of No Matter What.”
Try this:
Remember a challenging experience in your life. How did you handle it? How could you have handled it better, more efficiently, more effectively? What practice could you adopt to begin to deal more effectively with the challenging aspects of your life? What situations might arise in which you can practice these new ways of being? Choose and commit to involving your new practice in these future situations.
Congratulations, you are on your way to becoming the “King or Queen of No Matter What”. And one step closer to your mojo!