Forever Young

Children are so full of life because they’re more connected to the source. It’s so amazing to watch them learn and grow. They tend to be so much more in touch with their feeling nature because it has not yet been conditioned out of them. This emotional fluidity enhances children’s ability to learn quickly and adapt to circumstances more readily. These accelerated cycles of growth continue on through adolescence and into early adult hood.

Younger people’s bodies and minds are naturally more resilient. Their auras tend to be very clean and vibrant. The innate healing power residing within helps to clear their physical and subtle bodies of toxicity.

We go through so much over the years. Many of us were subjected to emotional, physical or sexual trauma in childhood. We may suffer the loss of loved ones as a result of death or the dissolution of a relationship. We may also experience periods of financial hardship or suffer from serious injuries or illness. Our constitution tends to weaken over time and the stress finally begins to take its toll upon us.

Many of our lives have become so pressurized. We may find ourselves locked into survival mode as we struggle to come up with the money to pay the mortgage, make the car payments and keep up with all kinds of other expenses. We may be really exhausted by the end of the day, but we end up zoning out in front of the tube. But television continually bombards our senses. All kinds of simulated dramas and messages are continually being fed into us. And that just piles up on top of all the stresses and issues that we are not processing from our daily life.

Many of us feed off of the stimulation of television, radio, internet, cell phones, all the other gadgetry that we’ve become addicted to and the buzz of the city. It fills the void so that we don’t have to feel the emptiness within ourselves. We become so over-stimulated by all the stress and the incessant bombardment of audio, visual, kinesthetic sensory input and electromagnetic pollution that we’re continually subjected to. We often fail to recognize the impact upon our health since all this sensory input isn’t as tangible as the piece of cake that we stuff in our mouth that adds more inches to our waistline.

People internalize so much stress, because they don’t know how to digest what is happening in their lives or their internal responses to these events. Our internal resources diminish so that we lose the capacity to do the processing that is necessary to maintain health. Hurtful feelings and memories and the stresses of daily life get pushed down in our bodies. The accumulating stress continually wears on us. Our bodies break down at a more rapid pace causing us to age prematurely.

Many people’s physical and subtle bodies become so saturated with the backlog of undigested thought and emotions, the energies of other people and the environment and the left over impressions of all the sensory input they are continually subjecting themselves to. The abdominal-pelvic region of the body becomes especially dense and toxic.

Undigested mental-emotional-energetic residue has a numbing or deadening effect upon our consciousness that can cause us to become very "thick". Perceptions are dulled, our intellectual and emotional range narrows, and that makes it difficult for us to grasp the subtleties and complexities of life.

The Chinese refer to this congestive residue as "stagnant chi". This left over residue stresses the body so that the organs and systems do not function as well. It depletes our life force and kills our drive and enthusiasm. We no longer have the energy we need to get and go. We become more sedentary and complacent over time and find ourselves feeling content to just sit at home and vegetate in front of the tube.

It’s crucial for us to take time to check in and be present to ourselves throughout the day. Stop and acknowledge what’s happening in your day. Pay attention to how you feel in response to the events taking place in your life. Do you feel fatigued, anxious or overwhelmed? Does your body feel heavy or congested? Do you feel scattered and find it difficult to focus? Breathe softly and deeply as you immerse your awareness in the stressful feelings and sensations that you notice within your body. Allow yourself to be permeable so that the stress can just flow through you. The stress will gradually dissipate. This practice will make it easier for you to manage the stresses of daily life. It will minimize the wear and tear and replenish your vital resources.

My friend Ricky comes from a fundamentalist Christian background. We share a lot in common and have talked at length about the things we went through while we were growing up. Ricky had to endure a lot of physical and emotional abuse during those years. Ricky said that it probably would have been easy for him to disconnect from his past and forget about everything that happened, had all those issues not surfaced in both his work and personal life.

Ricky told me how on one occasion they threw him down on the floor at a prayer meeting and tried to cast Satan out of him. Ricky had confided in a few people who he thought were friends at the time, not realizing that his words would find their way back to his mother. That only made matters worse.

Ricky told me about a recent trip he made to see his mother and how she continues to bring up issues pertaining to events that took place during his adolescence. Many years have gone by and she still believes that Ricky said and did things to deliberately hurt her. Yet Ricky was just doing the best he could at the time to cope with the stress, make sense of what was happening and to survive.

Ricky went on to tell me how he feels that he cannot open up to his mother. And that she is so locked into her own world view that she cannot possibly hear or understand where he is coming from. He also said that she can be very invasive at times. And that causes Ricky to feel that he has to hold his mother at arm’s length.

I’ve spent time with both Ricky and his mother and it was really interesting to watch how they interact. Ricky’s mother is really nice and her intent is very loving, but her expression of love comes out very distorted at times, because it gets filtered through the many issues that are not getting resolved. It’s obvious from the mother’s comments that she feels a sense of guilt over some of her past mistakes. But she cannot learn or grow from her experiences, because she will not go into the underlying emotions. That prevents her from understanding her part of the conflict or coming to resolution of these issues. It also creates a compulsion that causes Ricky’s mother to enact many of the same inappropriate behaviors that had pushed Ricky away.

Many of our parents were doing the best they knew how to do with the resources they had. Earlier generations were in some ways less open and understanding of their feelings, emotions and issues than we are now, because they were taught to bury or suppress what they were feeling. That often prevented them from ever really acknowledging or realizing the impact of their actions upon others.

People continue to avoid the feelings and issues that they don’t want to face. It can become very difficult to interact with people who are unwilling to go into their feelings or address their issues, because they lack the flexibility would make it possible for them to learn or grow. It can feel as if you’ve hit a wall once the issues begin to surface in a relationship. The relationship often becomes mired in conflict. You can never resolve the issues and that makes it difficult for the relationship to ever grow or evolve.

Facing our mistakes can evoke tremendous shame because it confronts us with the realization that others may have been hurt as a result of our actions. Many try to stuff the feelings back down, but it can be difficult to avoid the pain when we’re confronted with the consequences of our actions.

We all have a tendency to avoid certain feelings and realities that we don’t want to face. Denial disconnects us from reality by disengaging parts of our mind. Certain feelings and realities stop registering within our awareness over time because our mind gradually loses its ability to recognize our feelings or perceive what’s going on. We may not be really cognizant of what is going on in our lives or what we feel in response to it, but we end up internalizing all the feelings, issues and realities. Those internal conflicts never have a chance to reconcile and parts of us remain frozen in these conflicts indefinitely.

Unresolved issues or conflicts operate from our subconscious mind. Our emotions are the glue that holds these patterns in place. Parts of us never evolve because they remain fixated in our unresolved conflicted issues. That prevents us from really learning or growing from our experiences. We can never really grow or mature unless we learn to really process the underlying feelings.

Buried emotions distort our perception. They create blind spots that prevent people from really seeing and understanding what’s happening their lives, the people with whom they interact and the implications of their actions. That’s why it’s critically important for us to acknowledge our mistakes. It’s not just an intellectual process. We need to really experience how we truly feel in response to our actions and whatever else is happening in our lives. This is the only way we can ever experience true empathy.

I’ve made mistakes in my own relationships because of my lack of understand of the other person or the issues at hand. Breathing into the feelings and emotions has a way of bringing everything to the surface so that I can get a sense of what I’m doing wrong. It also helps me to become more present in my interactions with others.

There are times when I’ve been so blinded my own projections that I could not see what I was doing. The patterns were so deeply wired into me and I felt helpless to get to the source of the problem on my own and effect any significant change.

Acknowledging our mistakes can be very unpleasant at times because it brings up many of the issues and feelings that we rather not face. But this is what allows us to be really present to ourselves and others so that we as individuals and our relationships can grow and evolve. This level of honesty is essential if we are to continue to be fresh and relevant.

Children have a tremendous sensitivity about them and are usually very connected to their feelings and emotions. Their openness and sensitivity makes them very empathic. Children internalize many of their parent’s strengths and resources. They also have a tendency to take on some of their parent’s negative traits. Many people become more and more like their parents as the years go by.

Children who grow up in rigid cultural or religious backgrounds are more likely to lose touch with their feeling nature as they internalize the belief structures of their families. They tend to become more rigid and set in their ways as the years go by and that makes it difficult for them to change or open to new ideas and ways of doing things.

It’s okay to have strong convictions and feel passionate about what we believe in. We can hold strong convictions and still maintain an openness that allows us to come to a new understanding, change our perspective and come up with workable solutions.

Bodies become tense and armored as we suppress our feelings and emotions. Our minds begin to fixate around certain ideas or ways of doing things. We lose our mental-emotional agility and become rigid or set in our ways.

Suppressed emotion reinforces our limiting beliefs by holding them in place. Parts of our mind begin to shut down or operate beyond the range of our conscious awareness and that narrows our range of perception. We lose the ability to even consider other perspectives or gain a deeper understanding when parts of our mind cease to function. That keeps us stuck in a very limited world view.

People who suppress their emotions have a tendency to harden or fixate in their attitudes or beliefs. Their character becomes more rigid over time. People who adhere to rigid belief structures have greater difficulty accepting the varied aspects of their human nature. They’re more apt to shut their feelings, emotions, innate drives, desires and passions in the basement. These parts of the self are often expressed in some kind of distorted manner. These repressed aspects of the self have a tendency to manifest in some form of fanaticism or need to control others.

Many of us have a tendency to resist life when things are not going our way. We’re often aware of the frustration and upset that we’re experiencing, but we seldom know what to do about it. We may grow accustomed to being so stressed out, that it becomes the norm. We may even lose touch with the fact that we’re holding so much stress and tension within ourselves.

I’m always doing what I can to create more favorable outcomes, but there are times when things don’t go my way and circumstances are totally beyond my control. I sometimes find myself feeling hurt, frustrated, angry, and confused or any number of other things. I could shut all the feelings down, but everything would become all jammed up inside if I not digesting what’s taking place. I find that it works much better to fully open to what’s happening by breathing softly and deeply into these realities and everything I feel in response to it.

It’s so easy to forget and get caught up in all the drama. And there are times when I feel like I’m fighting or resisting what’s happing. So I have to continually remind myself to be mindful and bring myself back to the underlying feelings. I have to stop long enough to acknowledge what’s really happening in my life and notice how I feel in response to it. I often ask myself "…What’s the deepest feeling behind all these thoughts". And then I pay attention to whatever I feel in response to the events unfolding in my life.

Many of us have such a limited understanding of our body-mind. We haven’t really learned how to care for ourselves. Our body-mind becomes saturated with the backlog of undigested thoughts, feelings, emotions and life experiences. That causes our bodies to become overly stressed and we age faster. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Thoughts, feelings, emotions and life experiences need to be digested and assimilated. You begin to activate the healing intelligence within your own body-mind as you breathe into the body sensations or the feelings and emotions that you feel in response to what’s taking place within your life. It may take some time, but the feelings will gradually dissipate as you continue to breathe into them. One feeling often leads you into another and you may find yourself going through a whole range of feelings and sensations. Continue to follow the feelings and sensations as they go through their progression.

Digesting emotion enables us to grow and mature as individuals by facilitating a process of reorganization within our mind. That makes it possible for us to adapt by come to terms with what is.

I work with this practice every day and that makes it much easier for me to digest the stresses of daily life. But I also find that there’s so much happening in our lives now and that I’m not really able to process everything.

I go through a massive purge every time I go out on a vision quest. Volumes of old unprocessed stress, feeling and memory come flooding up to the surface. I’m often surprised by the feelings, memories and issues that surface because I didn’t realize that I was holding a lot of these things inside of me. Going without food and water for days and nights can be really harsh, but the vision quest helps to renew my strength and determination and that keeps me moving forward. I always feel so much more present in my body and alive afterwards.

My senses have really opened up as a result of the vision quest and all the other practices that I’m doing. That’s made it possible for me to look into people and to see what’s happening within their body-mind. I see a number of exceptional people who continue to grow throughout their lives. Others seem to maintain a status quo. But many end up letting themselves go because they have so little understanding of their body-mind and they really do not know how to care for themselves.

The residue of all our stress and undigested mental-emotional energies tend to create body-armor or congeal within the body. This residue continues to accumulate over time. The subtle bodies consisting of the chakras and layers of the aura begin to break down and degenerate. We tend to get stuck in the same kinds of issues and emotions because we lose much of our ability to process them. Stagnant residue stops the presence of the divine from flowing through us and the flame within begins to diminish. Our intellectual and emotional range narrows, our drives and passions die out and our world begins to shrink. Our senses are dulled and we feel heavy and sluggish. That prevents us from growing and moving forward with our lives. And then our spirit begins to wither within.

We all need to be working with practices and doing healing sessions at regular intervals if we are to cultivate aliveness within the body and maintain a youthful quality about us. This will make it possible for us to digest our emotions and issues so that they do not back up inside of us. Damage will be repaired within the physical and subtle bodies. New cycles of growth are initiated. Our passions and drives will reawaken or grow stronger. This will clarify and deepen our sense of purpose.

Going through vision quests and working with the various healing practices helps me to expand into greater levels of awareness and self-realization. Year by year I find myself feeling more present and alive. It often feels as if I’m just beginning to live, and the process just becomes more exciting. It’s also helping me to see the potential within other people.

The breathing practices that I share with you provide a very powerful means of activating the generative healing powers that are inherent within your own body-mind. Many of the people I work with are integrating these practices into their daily lives. I see them progress much faster as a result. There are numerous other practices that you can incorporate such as pranayama and chi gong that increase the amount of life force within your body and awaken the latent powers within.

Masters from the various ancient traditions did hours of practice on a daily basis. Their spiritual awareness and intellectual capacity continued to develop throughout their lives. Many of these masters lived up into their 90’s or 100’s, yet they still have a very youthful quality about them.

I know people who have virtually no downtime. That concerns me because the body mind needs time to regenerate and I see the price they eventually pay for not taking care of themselves. But it’s a matter of priorities for most of us. Think of all the time you spend watching television, surfing the internet, hanging out or talking on the phone. Even if you are busy, you can still learn to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life by breathing into the feelings and sensations that you experience as you move through your day.

Some people tell me that doing practices takes too much time. Imagine what would happen if you took that attitude with your car? What if you didn’t bother to change or even check the oil? Your car’s motor would burn up. We can’t abuse and neglect our bodies and expect them to perform indefinitely. What many of us are doing to our body-mind is the equivalent of someone who fails to maintain their car. You can go out and buy a new car, but you can’t go out and buy a new body once the one you have starts to fall apart.

Children are very curious by nature. And those individuals who maintain a youthful quality throughout their lives have a certain curiosity and desire that compels them to explore and to experience new things.

The mind is like a muscle. It needs exercise in order to develop. Making greater use of your mind will help you stay younger. Stretch beyond your comfort zone to learn new things, acquire new skills, experience new things, develop new relationships and nurture your existing relationships. This will stimulate your brain in a way that causes it to develop new neural connections, making it possible for you to continually evolve.

A big part of staying young is having an attitude that allows you to view every experience, including your setbacks, as opportunities to learn and grow. Be willing to fully embrace life and feel what you truly feel in response to what happens. That’s what awakens the passions within. Understand that everything you learn or achieve is a part of your awakening.

©Copyright 2008 Ben Oofana. All Rights Reserved.　 This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission.