There is no need to feel like we need to create anything in our life because we are, as living creatures, always in some state of activity. If you look outside you will see there is always something going on, something to see; it is the same with our organism. We can perhaps understand this better when considering a natural scene: a forest, an ocean, a mountainous terrain, a wooded trail. Most of us would agree there is always something going on in nature. Well, we are equally of nature as these examples, our body, in its wholeness, forever moving on the inside and the outside (and as a connected whole there is no real distinction between these two seeming dimensions). This is similar to the fact that we are round, cylindrical, all areas of us consisting of a front side and back even though we sense ourself to be divided between front and back, top and bottom.
Our continuous bodily movement is no different than that of a brook, ocean, tree or dog. Sometimes, physical movement is subtle, seemingly nonexistent (though of course we know our circulation and other systems are always in motion), and other times more ferocious, but always equally active. We don’t perceive our own bodily movement because our focus is generally on the messages in our thought process, however, we can switch our lens (our attention) to viewing our body parts in their movements.
This reminds me of being at the eye doctor when she switches the lenses on that optometric contraption (phoropter) and asks, “Is it better now, or now?” In the case I am presenting it isn’t about seeing better but seeing through one lens over another. We can look through the lens that draws our thoughts into focus, or we can switch to the lens that brings our bodily movements into the spotlight. The latter would include any movement: our hand moving with a pen on a piece of paper, a teeny gesture of our head turning in one direction or another, eyes blinking or throat swallowing, tongue and lips repositioning when we talk, small gesticulations of our arms while in conversation, legs moving us into another room, or chest rising up and down while our body respires. This is all nature’s movement, no different than what we see when we look at “nature,” and, it is occuring all day long, never stopping, as one second turns into another. Notably, looking at this is not what kicks it into motion. Our body is in continual motion automatically; just see for yourself!
Consequently, there is no need to create any activity because we are always already in it. You can even know that you can focus on your thoughts and still be assured your body will be in an ongoing state of action. We don’t act because we make ourself act. We are in action because we are a body of nature. Does the ocean only move when someone looks at it? Does a flower in our garden only grow when our focus suddenly switches to it? Of course not. So, we can relax into the awareness that our brain and rest of body function involuntarily, ceaselessly, making decisions and moving us through all our activities whether we are paying attention to ourself or not. There is no need to create because we are already in a constant state of creativity. Nature is nature, we could never mess with it. If you want to know what you are doing, just switch to the inner glasses that show you your bodily movements, i.e., look down at your body and observe what it’s doing now (and always remember to include the physical structure of your face and head as part of your body). Just don’t judge your behavior; it’s doing all it can in any moment in time.
Jill Eng 