Taming Your Gremlin Part 1

As a “personal care” provider in the spa industry, I spend lots of time helping people figure out how to relax! Because the work is sometimes intense, I also need to keep myself “in tune”.

There is a little book called Taming Your Gremlin (TYG) that I have studied for years. I have attached an audio from the author. What I’d like to share with you today is step 1 in a 3 step process toward healing that I learned from this book:

Step #1, Simply Notice: With each breath in and out we are experiencing a moment in time. It is in this moment that we need to be fully aware and present, because each moment is truly a present, a gift, it is what I like to call “God’s Eternal Now”.

Some call this state of awareness being grounded, focused, balanced, centered, present… you get the idea. I believe that it is in this place that we find the peace that passes understanding and joy unspeakable. Moment by moment, breath by breath, we can handle what ever comes our way. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do we live our lives? One breath at a time.

So simply noticing is nothing more than being fully aware of  what’s going on with you in the  present moment.

It is being aware of your:

• Thoughts – Ex: What are the thoughts coming up? What is my “spotlight of awareness”?
• Feelings – Ex: What emotions are coming up right now? How intense are the feelings?
• Senses – Ex. What do I smell, see, hear, feel?
• Body – Ex: Am I holding tension anywhere in my body? What sensations am I feeling? Do I normally notice this area when I am feeling this?

This awareness takes literally one breath’s time, once you have developed the pathway of awareness and unblocked hindrances.

Hey, once upon a time this was natural to you. When, you ask? Your childhood!

Simply Noticing is not about:

• Making judgments – Ex. Why does she always talk to me like that? What a jerk!
• Trying to change – Ex. I need to quit eating so much.
• Beating yourself up – Ex. I am such a jealous person, no wonder he left me.

My hope is that you practice step 1 when you remember to breath. Build a pattern of open awareness, so that you can be present in each moment.  Simply notice what is showing up.

I’ll leave you with this: The author of TYG, Rick Carlson, gives us a wonderful insight he calls the Zen Theory of Change:

“I free myself not by trying to be free, but simply by noticing how I am imprisoning myself, in the very moment that I am imprisoning myself.”

See you at the spa!