I had to take a few days off from doing Kamana due to being sick over the weekend.
Todays exercise are going to put me in tune with me senses. I am going to have ears like a deer, the skin of a baby, nose of a bear, and the power of the wolf (who use all of their senses simultaneously). Today I am going to spend three separate times outside (15 minutes minimum) and try to engage one of these senses, then slowly combining them. The goal is to be able to do so while walking and moving around.
2pm- These exercises are harder than I thought when I first read it this morning. I am having a really hard time concentrating and trying hard to become in tune. The first thing I tried was to practice ears like a deer. Deer have amazing hearing ability and take in "the whole field of sound". This is what I tried to do outside in my backyard. I found myself focusing more on the thoughts in my head than actual sounds. It was also really difficult to not focus hearing on wear loud sounds were coming from. I found myself shifting my hearing directly to the place where it was coming from and not taking in all the sounds as a whole. I tried closing my eyes and this helped a little but with focusing but I still felt as though I wasn't completely getting in tune with "deer hearing". Maybe I need to give myself more time in order to focus my mind and body on only taking in sounds. I stayed outside for about 20 minutes and just didn't feel like I accomplished what this exercise wanted me too.
After doing ears like a deer, I tried to focus on the sensations of my skin (like a baby). I found this to be a bit easier than the deer exercise. I closed my eyes again and tried to sit as still as possible. I found I was noticing the breeze upon my skin but after a while I started focusing on the breeze shifting every piece of hair on my body and I could feel the goose bumps starting to raise. I tried to focus on how the breeze shifted and how this felt differently each time. I was imaging having fur like deer, and how the breeze would feel shifting their fur and how it would feel differently than mine.
Todays exercise reminded my of one of my favorite quotes by Walt Whitman.
"Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body."
So how does it feel to take days "off" from Kamana? Did you still hear your trigger? What's frustrating about day 13 of Kamana is that there's no day 13, you're on your own. Of course that's not true, but it can seem that way. The trick is to embed these practices into your life and help cultivate a support network of friends, family, and mentors to renew your commitment to "seeing through native eyes" and hold you accountable.
ReplyDeleteBeing sick is the same as day 13, how do you walk in the way that Kamana is training you when Kamana is no longer holding you accountable or when you feel sick, or when your concentration breaks and you brain starts wandering to your grocery list. I love the story of brain patterning. Like if you never heard a chickadee before and someone points out the song to you. If they do it again, your brain gets patterned to that song and pretty soon you can't not hear them. So what patterns are you feeling like are becoming most ingrained in you?
Oh Walt Whitman, what a poet.