Putting aside essential needs like food, shelter, clothing and healthcare for the moment – things that are more or less guaranteed for most people in most of the developed countries – there really isn’t that much that we really need. Along with the essential survival needs, like those just mentioned, we also need to acknowledge:
1. Air – in order to breathe
2. Aliveness – our animating presence; and
3. Appreciation – connection, love, gratitude and joy
The needs for air and aliveness are so basic and readily available that they’re not even mentioned in most human need assessments. Yet without air and the ability to breathe automatically we wouldn’t even be alive. Not only that, conscious awareness of our breath and aliveness connects us with life itself rather than our life situation or circumstances. So, it’s helpful to get in touch with our breath and bodily aliveness – paying attention to the aliveness or animating presence that we are – instead of being lost in the daily cravings, aversions and delusions of our egos as we react to our life situations and external events.
The ego-mind likes to spin stories that often add to suffering and is heavily invested in a sense of self. Our egos can be a bit over reactive on matters like personal security, power, approval of others, control and identification with external references like our job, earning capacity and overall status relative to others. There’s a place for engaging the mind without being overly invested in a sense of self. When we become calm, alert, relaxed and present, we are more able to use our minds purposefully instead of allowing our minds to use us. We can find contentment and satisfaction by gently noticing our breath and aliveness, whatever else might be going on in our life situation.
Doesn’t it feel so good to be alive?
Now, you can start appreciating spontaneously as a calm, aware and alert presence.
Source: Extracted from the book Peak Performance!! ATTENTION available on Amazon