Living Untethered (the book everyone needs)

I re-read Untethered Soul by Michael Singer and then his follow up, Living Untethered, this month of September. The books sparked a new daily mindset for me to work on my consciousness of the present moment. I am living Michael Singer's analogy that "Life is like sailing; we can't control the tides, currents or winds, but we can adjust our sails." I am adjusting my sails every moment of the day.

I have been working really diligently on realigning my energy. I have been regaining my center. I have been grounding, meditating, practicing yoga and qigong. School began again and I have placed all accountability on my son to start taking responsibility for himself. He has been improving. I had to move myself out of his way; because he describes that any of my interventions are pointless and just get in his way. I have stepped aside and now he has been showing more progress than before. I adjusted my sails by lowering my standards and expectations in addition to detaching from the outcomes of his high school experience.

Here are my own take aways from Living Untethered that I have been focusing on. These are responsible for my realignment progress.

Image is linked to Target purchase page because I bought my paperback at Target

My unedited notes that I took in my phone while reading "Living Untethered"

1. Active meditation: not trying to “clear mind” at all! Just notice and observe. 15 mins morning and night. Just to get into PRACTICE of taking time in the seat of the soul, 3rd party objective view point. Notice automatic thoughts. Feel yourself separate from inner voice.

2. Start to CATCH yourself during the daytime anytime your mind races and is on autopilot. Stop notice observe feel and remove or let go by RELAXING INTO IT, allowing accepting not judging and let it go. Heavy heart and lump in throat is the emotional energy trying to rise and come out but you’re feeling the lump in your throat and holding it back so not to cry and push it down. BUT LET OUT THE EMOTIONS EVERY TIME YOU FEEL THEM. DO not BLOCK IT!

3. “Clean As You Go” by handling emotions in the moment, at the moment, rather than suppressing or biting tongue. Tell your feelings, express your hurt feelings, clear and purge daily so you don’t hold on to traumas.

4. Practice WILLPOWER and DISCIPLINE. Doing things you DO NOT WANT TO DO. Going AGAINST YOUR VOICE. Do OPPOSITE of what you usually do on autopilot. Practice self discipline so you learn that you are always the only one in control of yourself not anything or anyone else. You don't want to workout, do it anyway. You want to talk a lot, don't and stay quiet and listen only. Don't feel like cleaning, do it anyway. You want to give into a vice, stop yourself. Practice your discipline.

5. Any time you come against a blockage, trigger, person who bugs you, or content that irritates you, anything that causes tight reaction and emotional response-shows that you have a judgment or attachment to SHOULDS—-stop, notice and get curious of your reaction, excavate trigger and remove this.

6. A person doesn’t call you back and your autopilot voice questions if you did something wrong or they don’t really like you. Stop and feel the rejection, relax into the discomfort and allow the feelings in your body to happen instead of repressing or suppressing. Get curious about where past hurt is stuck in body from past— mom dad other experiences etc. dig and find where it’s coming from and when in the past you STOPPED and repressed it. Feel the feelings now and let it wash over you and cry or feel irritation etc and allow to let the feelings rise up through your heart where you’ll feel emotional ache and visualize it rising up and steaming up and melting away and rising up thru heart and up throat and top of head and flowing out and up to source energy to be cleared and cleansed and recharge to good energy and then recall that renewed tonified energy back down into your body to fill you up with good energy and let the past go and reclaim the present moment. That is what "processing your traumas" is all about.

7. Question your attachments and know you are safe and have everything you need inside of you and it doesn’t matter if someone calls you or likes you and fight flight response is unnecessary.

8. No attachments to outcomes

9. No judgment of what is good or bad or shoulds or comparisons. Everything is as it is and you roll with everything.

10. Only do the best you can do and stay present to what is real and now, no future casting or past ruminations.

11. We are stardust and universe happens whether we are here or not, can’t control. Animals and bugs are doing everything exactly as they always have and only humans have changed to automations and conveniences and now we have too much time in our HEADS and not in our BODIES. We no longer need to walk for water and hunt and gather for our daily survival and use our bodies wholly. Our energy is not in our bodies and limbs and floats to our heads and we ruminate and think way too much. We need to use our bodies and bring that energy down and be mindful and in present awareness and deal with what IS not what May or May not be.

12. Get a job and if you like it great and if you don’t then deal with it then, just do your best. Make new choices later instead of not making choices based on future doomcasting.

13. Focus on what you want, not worst case scenario. RAS (reticular activating system) in our brains look for evidence in outside world to support inner world because it thinks it’s important to us. When we think about all the homeless people and tents and trash and dirty streets and we think and talk and watch content about it, then we are out n about and that’s all we see and notice. If we stop that content and convo and think about the things we love about our city and daily walks or drives (like tree lined streets and shops and how pretty weather can be and murals etc) then we notice those things more often.

14. Positive media content vs Negative

15. Make a list of your triggers. People you avoid or hope to not run into. You divorced and still ruminate on Ex then you aren’t divorced. You worry about your kids and if they are going to pass classes and school stuff and you picture them homeless on drugs and estranged, wasting current moment and what is TRUE. Make moment to moment decisions based on what’s true now. Stop yourself from going into fear. Only love.

16. Most issues that we ruminate on have to do with people and miscommunications. Be direct and communicate honestly and ask for clear clean safe time to address issues. Get it out of the way. If you need to email or text or talk, better than suppressing and making guesses.