Buttons only exist in the outer self. Presence dissolves them. Learn how triggers reveal where you’re hooked and how awareness turns them into freedom.
Many thanks for your great guidance to Presence. This “buttons” issue is one I’ve had trouble with, most of my life. There are a couple of people in my family who know my triggers & just love to jab me there (& a few who do it “unintentionally” but constantly). Learning to remember Presence at these times is a relief. Your lesson is a gift of freedom.⚡️
I like this idea, that it is the surface personality that gets triggered but deeper presence rolls with the emotional wave and lets it pass on. But how to get there with triggers everywhere, fragile self clinging on to personality as identity, emotional noise masquerading as music, other people seeing your personality as fixed and not wanting you to change as it threatens their sense of self..... I could go on. I think the solution is as complex as the problems but looking outwards and living in full knowledge of imperfection is a start.
I like your use of the word deeper and prefer it to higher, less hierarchical for me
Steve, you’re naming the actual battlefield. The personality gets spun up like a chihuahua on espresso while the deeper presence just watches the storm without getting dragged into the debris. The challenge isn’t the trigger. It’s the part of us that thinks it is the trigger.
And yes, the world is full of people who prefer you frozen in whatever version of you made them comfortable. Change threatens their script, not your soul.
The image of the ego as a pinball machine brought me right back to the way I used to react to situations. Looking back I can see how it was all necessary to lead me onto the path of awareness and presence, and for that I am grateful. I don’t mean to imply that my work is done, but simply that the path you describe has brought me to deeper and longer lasting states of peace, and ultimately joy, than I ever dreamed possible.
“Blessed are the ones who realize freedom is not the absence of emotion but the absence of reactivity.” This. This.
Experiencing the absence of reactivity, which feels like the first time every time, is truly blissful freedom. My knees and my psyche are worn out from a lifetime of knee-jerk reactions. The remedy flows from my heart where a mantra from the book THE FOUR AGREEMENTS gently sings “Don’t take anything personally.” Once upon a time I didn’t even know that was an option.
My personal triggers haven’t gone away but my inner world is changing - there is a new rhythm to my responses. What a relief to experience times when pointed, meant-to-be, very personal attacks come, sometimes in a current moment and sometimes through a distant memory, and all that I “hear” is that small inner voice reminding me “sweetheart you don’t have to take that personally . . . bless it, bless them, bless your beloved Self and just keep going♥️” 🙏😌
I used to unknowingly hold my breath a LOT which contributed to feeling awful - anxiety, raised blood pressure, tight neck and shoulder muscles, nausea . . . etc. More often now, I’m almost immediately aware that I’m about to go there and it’s becoming more natural to relax and just breathe - to bless and not curse. Not always mind you, but more often. ☺️
This is beautifully said. That moment when a trigger lands and nothing inside you jumps to catch it really does feel like freedom. Not the floating kind, but the grounded kind that lets you breathe again.
What you described with the breath is so real. Half the suffering so many of us carried came from holding air like it was armor. When the body learns it can soften instead of brace, the whole inner landscape changes.
And you are right about the rhythm. The trigger may still knock, but the heart answers differently. A little slower, a little kinder, a little wiser. Bless it, bless them, bless yourself, and keep walking. That is the path.
The teaching from Cynthia is from a recording of a live workshop where Helminski’s book, Living Presence. I would go with Living Presence https://amzn.to/48URrAN
Answer to a prayer I’ve been praying all week. Amazed at how differently i feel now than i did when i started reading this. It was like my mind was being read & what i needed understood & shared in the most precise understandable way possible. Inhale. Exhale. The corset’s off, i can breathe again. I only know of one way of giving thanks for this 💝
Many thanks for your great guidance to Presence. This “buttons” issue is one I’ve had trouble with, most of my life. There are a couple of people in my family who know my triggers & just love to jab me there (& a few who do it “unintentionally” but constantly). Learning to remember Presence at these times is a relief. Your lesson is a gift of freedom.⚡️
Just feel it. I can tell you’ve been practicing Buddhism from this “brief moment of awareness” practice alone. Beautiful post!
I like this idea, that it is the surface personality that gets triggered but deeper presence rolls with the emotional wave and lets it pass on. But how to get there with triggers everywhere, fragile self clinging on to personality as identity, emotional noise masquerading as music, other people seeing your personality as fixed and not wanting you to change as it threatens their sense of self..... I could go on. I think the solution is as complex as the problems but looking outwards and living in full knowledge of imperfection is a start.
I like your use of the word deeper and prefer it to higher, less hierarchical for me
Steve, you’re naming the actual battlefield. The personality gets spun up like a chihuahua on espresso while the deeper presence just watches the storm without getting dragged into the debris. The challenge isn’t the trigger. It’s the part of us that thinks it is the trigger.
And yes, the world is full of people who prefer you frozen in whatever version of you made them comfortable. Change threatens their script, not your soul.
The image of the ego as a pinball machine brought me right back to the way I used to react to situations. Looking back I can see how it was all necessary to lead me onto the path of awareness and presence, and for that I am grateful. I don’t mean to imply that my work is done, but simply that the path you describe has brought me to deeper and longer lasting states of peace, and ultimately joy, than I ever dreamed possible.
“Blessed are the ones who realize freedom is not the absence of emotion but the absence of reactivity.” This. This.
Experiencing the absence of reactivity, which feels like the first time every time, is truly blissful freedom. My knees and my psyche are worn out from a lifetime of knee-jerk reactions. The remedy flows from my heart where a mantra from the book THE FOUR AGREEMENTS gently sings “Don’t take anything personally.” Once upon a time I didn’t even know that was an option.
My personal triggers haven’t gone away but my inner world is changing - there is a new rhythm to my responses. What a relief to experience times when pointed, meant-to-be, very personal attacks come, sometimes in a current moment and sometimes through a distant memory, and all that I “hear” is that small inner voice reminding me “sweetheart you don’t have to take that personally . . . bless it, bless them, bless your beloved Self and just keep going♥️” 🙏😌
I used to unknowingly hold my breath a LOT which contributed to feeling awful - anxiety, raised blood pressure, tight neck and shoulder muscles, nausea . . . etc. More often now, I’m almost immediately aware that I’m about to go there and it’s becoming more natural to relax and just breathe - to bless and not curse. Not always mind you, but more often. ☺️
This is beautifully said. That moment when a trigger lands and nothing inside you jumps to catch it really does feel like freedom. Not the floating kind, but the grounded kind that lets you breathe again.
What you described with the breath is so real. Half the suffering so many of us carried came from holding air like it was armor. When the body learns it can soften instead of brace, the whole inner landscape changes.
And you are right about the rhythm. The trigger may still knock, but the heart answers differently. A little slower, a little kinder, a little wiser. Bless it, bless them, bless yourself, and keep walking. That is the path.
Ps what would you suggest reading first - Helminski or Bourgeault? Thank you 🙏
The teaching from Cynthia is from a recording of a live workshop where Helminski’s book, Living Presence. I would go with Living Presence https://amzn.to/48URrAN
Already have it - bought it last week thru your Amazon link - 😉 thanx for making that so easy & i know you’re an affiliate. I’ve been called worse.
Answer to a prayer I’ve been praying all week. Amazed at how differently i feel now than i did when i started reading this. It was like my mind was being read & what i needed understood & shared in the most precise understandable way possible. Inhale. Exhale. The corset’s off, i can breathe again. I only know of one way of giving thanks for this 💝