The Way Through: Cultivating the witness

Photo by Brian Jeffery Beggerly

When you allow your mood to be determined by circumstances, your well being goes up and down.  How you feel is contingent on things turning out a certain way and when they don’t turn out that way or even come close to turning out that way, then you’re down. And then you’re up only when things start to work out in a way you’re attached to.

It’s like riding a wave.  The wave is going up and coming down. There’s ebbs and flows.

If you sit in the position of the witness, you’re able to watch things go up and down. And you’re better able to navigate.  The waves aren’t carrying you with them. The witness is in the position to see opportunities as they manifest.

The witness is just witnessing. The witness doesn’t have any attachments.  The witness doesn’t have the ups and the downs.  The witness is just reviewing the whole scene. When you are in the perspective of the witness, you’re able to see the path of least resistance to what you want.  You can see the next step. It will reveal itself in front of you because it is just about taking the next step – instead of being about the need you think you have to satisfy NOW.

Through the eyes of the witness, you’ll see an opening – even if it doesn’t make complete sense. You get an awareness of the action to take. The witness has the benefit of intuition, but it’s also combined with knowledge that you have of the circumstances.  It’s what you know and what you understand, but it’s more than that. It’s an awareness of the flow.

Consider taking a “mini-retreat” as the witness.  This is the kind of retreat you can do in 10 or 15 minutes.  A retreat is being present in the moment.  Sitting on the porch can be a retreat.

There’s a part of you that knows the right action to take in a given moment. It’s your inner advisor.  You just need to regain that trust in yourself.  The more you do it, the more that trust increases.