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Week Three & Four - The Vitality Series

Welcome to Weeks Three & Four 
of the Vitality Series!

At the beginning of this series it was pointed out that our vitality was never lost, just inefficiently distributed through our split attention. It was bound up in our habits, the baggage of our past and the fears of our future.

In Week One we began putting down the useless baggage we had been carrying from our past so that we could begin the practice of turning our attention to the present.

In Week Two we studied the habitual patterns in our present so we could determine the quality of the future we were building for ourselves.

Now in Weeks Three and Four we will begin using what we have learned about ourselves to begin creating moments that are outside of our box.

A moment outside of the box is a moment out of context with our past conditioning.

A moment lived outside of our box requires our usually scattered mind to focus all of its resources into the present moment and live with a clear vital sense of exploration.

It is a moment that calls for our undivided attention.

Living in this manner becomes a daily practice in weeks three and four of the Vitality Series

Exercise One
The shape of the box

In the last two weeks you were asked to make two lists.

The first was a list of things you needed to do before you died and a the second was a chart of your daily events including your reactions to those events.

Spend some time with these two lists. They actually form a description of the box you have been living in. Meditate over these lists and see if you can extract from them the nature of your box.

Hint: Be very aware of the areas on your list that display fear, anger or frustration in any form. These feelings are the walls of your box. They are a conditioned limitation you have placed on yourself. Stare deeply into these limitations. Become aware of their many manifestations in your life.

 Such a limitation is usually represents a line you’ve never crossed before. 

See if you can define the limitation. Make it solid so you can actively deal with it.

Oftentimes the limitations you perceive from your lists will appear separate and different from each other. But upon closer inspection, you will see that they are the same limitations masquerading in different forms.

All limitations are illusions. You are only bound to them by choice.

When you feel you have solid understanding of the box you have fashioned for yourself, move on to exercise two.

Exercise Two
Freedom within the Practice of Presence

For two weeks now you have been working on deepening your practice of presence. Now we will take it one big functional step further.

For the next two weeks as you are performing the practice of presence, consciously let go of the box you are living in. For those 10-20 minutes become so absolutely present that you allow yourself to completely forget the personality-based identity you have been bound to for all these yeas and just be.

Your mind will very likely throw a temporary fit, but just don't attach to anything it is saying. Just let it go, neither denying nor embracing it. Just be. Just see what it feels like to be outside of the box of your personality and all of its acquired illusory limitations.

When you begin to catch moments of success in this endeavor, move on to Exercise Three

Exercise Three
Living outside of your box

Now it is time to put all the techniques you have been learning together. We are going to begin charting experiences outside of the box.

Take a look at your description of the box you are living from exercise one and begin planning experiences beyond the walls of its limitations.

The Key to surviving a journey beyond the walls of our box is the practice of presence. Before we take any step into the unknown we have to let go of the past images we had been using as material to fashion our box. Instead we allow our consciousness to step deeply into the present moment and we stay there as we enter an experience outside of our box.

e.g. If in one of your experiences a homeless person asked you for money and you felt resentful, you know that giving in that way is limited for you. Anyone may choose not to give, but you got angry. That is a wall. An experience beyond that wall is an experience outside of you box.

e.g. If you get nervous or self-conscious at the idea of being exposed, you might get up on stage some karaoke night and sing.

e.g. If you have a fear of rejection in asking people out on a date you might go on a spree of asking several people out that you know will likely reject you just to overcome your fear of rejection.

This exercise is about consciously going into the arenas of life we thought we couldn't go in.

The practice of Exercise Three is to take one solid step beyond the boundaries of your box each day.

When we truly give ourselves 
to an experience outside of our box, 
our box becomes that much bigger 
because we now know we are capable of more. 
In a sense, an ever expanding box 
is no longer a box at all.

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