One intriguing identifier of our own predilection to quickly conclude a situation is, reaction. We see/hear the news and whammo, we react with an opinion. It only takes a second. Or in our case, a moment. Is all the information available to us to properly judge a scenario?
Truth is, we can never get enough information nor do we have the time to pursue the end of the internet, to get this information. Yet despite the bottomless pit of data collection, we do not even research an iota, even when we have the time. Our opinion, really, is the most important arbiter of of our information seeking. Unless it is an area where we are immersed in, due to a job, hobby, or natural interest, we do not pursue further information gathering.
But what we do act on and opine on, is our reaction. Even if we were an expert in the field of inquiry, would it be best to blurt out or tweet, the first thing that comes out of our probably biased little self? The news is filled with regular stories about celebs and others who have publicly faux pauxed due to feeling an immediate need to comment. Do we really need to feed this immediacy?
What is lost if we wait, even ten minutes or more? What is lost if we wait until we have contemplated the many ways we can harm others with our words without thinking it through? Is waiting and processing more information maybe the better way to respond given all the hate and negativity that we and the rest of the world have already generated?
Texting/driving exemplifies the dangerousness of ceding to the immediacy of reaction/response. Life is not some type of game show where we have to press the buzzer in time to win. We play this game like it is. But how much harm to ourselves and others can be reduced by not reacting in vivo? It is one thing to have the ‘reaction’ internally. It is often not the right thing ‘to do’ if we have not seen our response as a reaction internally and externally (if we were to act it out).
Feeding reactivity is like feeding the tiger within us and then using this tiger to interface with our world. See thoughts first. See which thoughts are reactions. When seeing the reactions, watch them without acting on them. In an hour, a day, or whatever period of time desired, count the number of thoughts that are reactive. (And the thought was that this was going to be easy!) Of course, if we are driving or other similar activity we must react as a course of being safe. What we find is that easily most of the time, we are reacting.
Doing this personal research makes this point valuable. Opinion is too easy. Test it out. Doing this research, we know that waiting was a viable option most of the time. We know that the world did not fall apart and just as important, we did not fall apart.
Look at the difference of keeping the reaction internal to displaying the reaction externally? Do we maybe begin to see our thoughts better? Are we able to see that we are responsible for a lot of crap? For the reactive thoughts that we did not display, did we see the power they had or did not have upon us? Did we see the attachment that made the thoughts ‘hot? Did we see that we do not have to be attached?
Actually, just doing this exercise sincerely with awareness at least one time, shall cause a shift in consciousness, at least for the moment. We shift because that is what is really going on. We made the decision to not do the same thing time after time, day after day, or year after year. Just losing the reactivity will allow your greater Self to arise because of the space that is created.
We use observation of reactivity to find the Moment. Use the Moment to help find the space and depth of where You are. See everything, always.
edward. . .Being effortlessly Now 