Every Day a Holy Day: Exercises, Experiments and Practices for Mindful Living (Consciousness Classics) - Softcover

Haynes, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0895562782 ISBN 13: 9780895562784

Publisher: Gateways Books & Tapes, 2017

Synopsis

An excellent manual for the use of serious spiritual seekers, this book demonstrates how to effortlessly fold spirituality into life. Included are 121 exercises that can be done effortlessly and without being noticed anywhere, anytime. The focus of the book is not about having a peak experience, although these exercises can be a catalyst for this. Rather, it points us to a way to live our lives, to be one with our environment and the people with whom we relate. The book offers a lifetime of keys in the guise of exercises, experiments, and practices to keep unlocking the doors and deepening our relationship to our heart’s desire.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Haynes was born in 1950 to a tenant farming family on the plains of west Texas. After graduating high school she attended Texas Tech University for a year before moving to Denver, Colorado where she worked and studied at the University of Colorado. Barbara continued to live in Denver until 1986 when she moved to Grass Valley to work with E.J. Gold and the community of IDHHB.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Every Day a Holy Day

Exercises, Experiments and Practices for Mindful Living

By Barbara Haynes, Tabatha Jones

Gateways Books and Tapes

Copyright © 2016 Barbara Haynes
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-89556-278-4

CHAPTER 1

Kitchen Hands

While cooking a meal, notice what your hands touch. Spice jars, salt shakers, and drawer handles are some of the things that come to mind. When cleaning up after the meal preparation, be sure to clean those places, items, utensils, etc. that you touched while you were cooking. As you wash each of the items used in your daily meal preparation, reconnect with the time during your meal preparation you used the item.

Attitude of Gratitude

As you prepare food, generate an attitude of gratitude toward the food for its willingness to sacrifice itself to feed you, your family and friends.

Guests

As you prepare a meal, picture the people who will be eating the meal. They may be family members, friends, business associates or people you may not as yet know. See them enjoying and benefiting from the meal you are preparing.

Plates

As you serve the plate for each individual at the table, say a blessing prayer for that person.

Silence

No talking in the kitchen. This can begin as a three to five minute exercise. As you repeat it, increase the time, in increments, with which you are comfortable. The goal is to be able to practice silence during the entire time you are cooking. Communication directly related to the preparation of the meal is allowed.

Do Talk

Work with a friend in the kitchen and talk to your heart's content. Notice the difference, if any, between the experience of not talking while working in the kitchen and talking while working in the kitchen.

Stay Put

Once you come to the kitchen to cook a meal, do not leave the kitchen to attend to other business, unless it is an emergency. Do not make phone calls or step out of the kitchen to handle anything other than getting necessary supplies stored outside the kitchen or setting the table.

Do Leave

Let yourself come and go from the kitchen as you prepare a meal. Do you notice any difference in the quality of the experience, in the timing or sense of the space created for the meal?

Special Object

Pick an object that you pass by many times a day. Establish a specific pattern in relation to this object. Walk around the object, touch it, nod to it. Create a subtle ritual which you perform each time you encounter your chosen object.

Something New

As you walk into a familiar room, notice something new. Do this for each familiar room you enter throughout the day.

Notice Me

When you walk into a room, what do you see first? As you do this throughout the day, observe if you have a tendency to notice certain types of things more than others.

Notice Me Two

What is the first color you see when you walk into a room? Do you notice one color more than others?

Room

Which element in a room defines it for you? What would the room be without this element? What makes the music room the music room? If you took the piano out of the music room, would it still be the music room?

Smelly Rooms

What do you smell in the different rooms and places you encounter during the day? Do the smells remind you of other places, times, emotions or events?

Smelly Places

Today, as you travel from place to place, notice the differences in the smells you encounter. If you closed your eyes, would you be able to know where you were? How does it make you feel? Does it bring up any associations or memories?

Lighting

Notice the lighting in each of the different rooms and spaces you find yourself in today. Does the lighting produce a mood?

Same Room

Pick a room in your home that you frequent every day more than once. Observe the changes in lighting in this room under many different conditions. Morning, noon, evening or at different seasons of the year or with electric light. Notice the differences in this room caused by the change of light.

Same Room Again

Choose a room that you are in at the same time everyday. Notice the changes in the room each time, even though you are there at the same time everyday.

Changeling

As you walk into a room, assume that one of the items in the room is not exactly what it was. Which item is it?

Details

When you find yourself waiting, select an object near at hand and notice all the details possible without moving yourself or the object.

More Details

Pick a room in your home in which you spend a lot of time, then pick an object in that room and study it or "spend time with it" for five minutes every day for a week. After spending five minutes a day for a week with the object, what do you know about the object you didn't know before?

Add Detail

Pick an object in a room you enter and leave several times a day. Each time you go into the room glance at the object and add a new detail to what you have already noticed about your chosen object.

Jumping Color

As you enter a room, notice the color that jumps into your attention. Look at the color. See the play of light, the intensity, the various shades. Watch as the change of light in the room alters the color. Does the color illicit memories or emotions?

More Color

When the one color of the room has flagged your attention, notice where else in the room the color is located.

Color of the Day

Each day for a week, pick a color you will notice for that day. Notice where you find this color most – in offices, outdoors, Dr.'s office. How is it used? On walls, in clothing, furniture? How does the observing of the color seem to affect you? How are the different colors of the different days different?

Keys

As you open a locked door, use your keys to remind you that you are passing from one universe to another. Do not assume you know what is on the other side of the door, even if you have been through that door thousands of times.

Washing Dishes

As each item is cleaned, silently repeat (aloud if you are alone or your housemates are understanding): "Thank you for your service."

Flowing Universe

When riding in a car or traveling in or on other transportation (where you can see the scenery passing by), gradually come to feel that the car, train, bus or subway is not moving, but rather the scenery is flowing by you. The vehicle is standing still while the universe flows past.

Sweep the Floor

(Notice I did not say vacuum the floor.) I prefer to use an old fashioned straw broom in the kitchen. A push broom – one you can use in the garage or on the sidewalk or pathway is also a good candidate for use in this exercise. As you sweep, watch how your body coordinates itself to accomplish the task. Watch as if you are watching a dancer. Be aware that all the movements needed to "sweep the floor" are done without you directing the activity.

Mirror

Look in a mirror. Look past the face you see to the environment behind. Get the feeling that the room you see in the mirror is the real room and the room in which you are standing is the reflection.

Mirror Reflection

Study your reflection in a mirror. Get the feeling that the person in the mirror is the real person and you are the reflection.

Making Faces

Stand in front of your bathroom mirror. Any mirror will do, but I like doing this exercise in the bathroom – don't know why. Make all kinds of faces. Do this every day for a week.

Laughing in the Mirror

Relax your face so that it is basically expressionless. Now, laugh in as many different ways as you can manage without ever changing your expression. As you do this, watch your face in the mirror to be sure that you are not "putting on a happy face."

Cleaning

As you dust, wash, shine, polish or vacuum the various things that you clean, be aware of each object's thingness – it is a vase, a table, tile floor, etc – being the best, whatever it is. Be sure to respect the being/thingness as you clean each object.

Long Hall

When you find yourself walking down a long hallway, focus on the end of the hallway while relaxing the focus of your eyes, so that you can see all doorways and side hallway entrances, as well as the ceiling and floor. Get the sense that the doorways and side hallway entrances are openings into other realities, connecting with the reality you are currently in. The hallway is an artery through which beings move from one reality to another.

Sound

Listen to the environment as if you do not know what the sounds are. Be an auditory illiterate. Do not identify any sound. Notice that each sound has a different feeling, tone, color and vibration. Allowing yourself to listen without identifying the sound may, lead to other ways of perceiving.

Listening

Find a place where you will be surrounded by people who speak a language you do not understand. Listen to the people around you as they speak. Hear the rhythm, tone and speed of the language. Relax and let the sound just be. Notice what effect, if any, not being able to understand those around you has on you.

Street Sounds

If you live in a busy city, this will be an exercise that is easily accessed. When you find yourself in the midst of a very busy and loud city environment, listen to the sounds as if they are musical instruments or conversations of unknown beings. Let go of significance related to the sounds. Let yourself listen for the play between the sounds.

Movie Making

As you go about your day, watch for those happenings that would make a great scene in a movie.

Don't Touch

For three to five minutes a day, do not touch your face. After a week or two, expand the length of time you assign to not touching your face by another three to five minutes – more if you can tolerate it. It is possible to continue expanding the time allotted to not touching your face, until you discover that you have taken on the practice / habit of not touching your face.

New Energy

This exercise builds on the "Don't Touch" exercise. As you are able to not touch your face for longer periods of time, notice if there is a change in your energy. Is your energy more calm? Do you have more energy? Do you feel less distracted? Notice what changes begin to occur as you "Don't Touch."

Instrument

At least once a week during your daily music practice, just listen to how the instrument sounds. Do not strive for correctness; simply let the instrument express itself and listen.

Repeat Yourself

I like to fold laundry as I do this exercise. In particular I find washcloths and towels to be the best for this practice. However, any action that is repetitive will work. As you do the repetitive action, get the feeling you will be doing this forever. How does that make you feel?

Speaking

Before you speak, ask yourself why? If it is not actually necessary, refrain from speaking. As you become successful at holding your speech, you may discover some interesting things about your energy.

Say It Again

At some time during each day, pick a phrase you have just spoken and repeat it in exactly the same way and tone you used the first time. This can be a fun meal time activity, especially with kids.

PMS

When you are depressed, sad, or troubled, behave in a way that will not betray your inner state. For women, if you hear, "I didn't even know you were PMS" from your partner or housemates, you have succeeded at this exercise. As in many practices, it is good to notice any changes in yourself as a result of not manifesting your inner state.

Seeing

Look closely at a plant or animal or human. As a child, I would spend hours observing the world that was contained in the ground at my feet. I would lie on my belly gazing into a miniature world awestruck by the intricate beauty. Even though it was hours, it would seem as minutes to me. I felt as if I had gone on a journey, not of this world. So, find a willing plant, animal or human and take a journey of your own.

Thank You

In this day of automation and cars that talk to us, it seems only appropriate if we thank them when they automatically lock the doors or tell us our keys are still in the ignition. And how about the coffee maker that turns itself on and brews you your first cup, so it's ready when you step from the shower? Or that automatic watering system that saves you dragging the hoses all over the yard? For a day or a week or from now on, say thank you to those unseen automatic helpers.

Meal Time

Sit quietly at your table for five minutes before beginning to eat. Take the time to see the people with whom you will share your meal. See the environment in which you will consume the meal. Notice the sounds and smells of your environment. When your plate is served, see the food on your plate. Acknowledge its willingness to be consumed and used by you.

Special Guest

Have a dinner party and invite someone whom you are not fond of. Treat this particular individual like a precious friend. Make their favorite dish or menu, have their favorite flower, music, etc.

Fuzzy Friends

Treat your fuzzy friends, also known as stuffed toys, as though they are alive. Make sure they are seated where they can see the activity in the room and that they have other fuzzy friends with whom they can have fun. Talk to your fuzzy friends. Also listen – you'd be surprised what they will have to say. Some of my best friends are fuzzy.

Silent Spaces

Observe the silence between sounds.

Pauses

Observe the pause between in-breath and out-breath.

Actor

As you prepare for your day – showering, shaving, putting on makeup, dressing – do it as if preparing for a part in a play. Throughout the day, remind yourself that you got into costume and character to act your part.

Phone

When you answer the phone, visualize a long tunnel-like opening happening between you and the party to whom you are speaking an opening that connects two different dimensions or realities.

Mirror Reminder

Each time you look at yourself in a mirror, remember you are an actor in a play.

Sherlock Holmes

Create a story – a history – about who lives in the room you find yourself in, based on the objects in the room -the way the room is decorated, how neat or not, how clean or not, etc. This would be a great game to play with the family, each individual telling a different history/story. If you don't know why this exercise is called Sherlock Holmes, look him up on the internet – you'll be glad you did.

One Object

Take an object and tell the history of the owner.

Miniature

Look at a miniature scene and think of it as a world in another dimension, rather than a small representation of our dimension. Study it closely – until you really do see the world as its own. Miniature railroad scenes or worlds contained in bottles are good possibilities for this exercise.

Walking Through Air

When walking, feel the air moving across your body, even indoors. Don't change the way you move, but get the idea that you are moving through a substance that is flowing around you.

Say "Thank You"

Say thank you to someone every day. Not the automatic thank you that we so often express, but a genuine thank you. Perhaps for something thoughtful they always do. Or a small kindness in an otherwise difficult day.

Sit Still

When you find yourself waiting – doesn't matter where – don't move for five minutes. Don't touch your face, don't shift position, don't use mobile devices. Just sit still.

Breath

From time to time, throughout the day, notice your breathing. Without any attempt to change it, simply notice – is it quick, shallow, constricted? Also, notice what emotion you may be feeling at the same time. Just let the breath be what it is. Simply observe. Check in with yourself in this way several times throughout the day.

Reaction

"It's not what's happening that is the problem, it's my reaction to it." Use this mantra any time you need to remind yourself that a change in attitude will change your experience.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Every Day a Holy Day by Barbara Haynes, Tabatha Jones. Copyright © 2016 Barbara Haynes. Excerpted by permission of Gateways Books and Tapes.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gateways Books & Tapes
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895562782
• ISBN 13: 9780895562784
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154