Dear Common Awakening Companions,

Observe human behavior in any public space, and we all see the same scene. Heads are bent over a phone. Fingers scroll or tap in rapid succession. You may notice your own human itch to reach for your phone when time appears in your schedule, from stopping at a red light in your car to waiting for an event to begin. The aversion to boredom compels us to create an experience of busyness.

A recent research study caught my eye and invited me to pause and reflect on my own habitual scrolling!

Japanese students were brought into a room with no stimuli and told that they would be waiting, and they could not sleep, walk, exercise, look at their phone or watch. They were asked to predict how their experience of boredom would be before entering. What surprised them was that they ended up being more engaged than they anticipated. They were occupied by own their own thoughts and some moved into daydreaming and mind-wandering, which are all associated with improved mood.

When boredom appears we turn to busyness. When we are overrun by packed schedules, we crave space and time for doing nothing. We may continually feel in a tug-of-war over how much or little we are plugged into busyness or checked out by boredom, and we search for balance between the two.

When we are in a state of Fullness, the dynamic shifts. No longer are we managing or controlling busyness or boredom through the use of a device. We are in a state that creates. How we experience our world arises from this state. In this way, we actually lose the capacity to say, “I am busy” or “I am bored.” When we realize that it is our state (our placement within) that creates busyness or bored, we are free from the binding of being bored or being busy.

I can hear your groans as I write this reflection. “But we are busy! Or we are bored! That is the reality!” I get it.

The minute we recognize that our state creates our reality, we have the power to change the see-saw. To begin, we start small with noticing the itch to reach for a phone when boredom or busyness appears. This small shift of awareness will shift our state. In the pause is our opportunity. The pause is the moment in which our inner state begins to create a new reality, in which we are not bored or busy. We are now in a moment that is undefined by busyness or boredom.

This is your state, and it literally changes how you see, hear feel, know and experience your life. It is the solution. Whether it be boredom or busyness, our state frees us from see-saw patterns and permanently finds the point of perfect balance, our state of Fullness that is forever.

With love,

Annie

P.S. It is not an overstatement to say that my state has saved me. On September 18th, Annmarie and I are offering a live interview between us about the 4 energies (facets of Fullness) that we use to move through suffering and find balance without bypass. I’ll share personally about the loss of my son and how use these 4 facets to find my Fullness (balance), while allowing suffering to be present without bypass. These 4 facets have been concrete energy types that I have leaned into to find a way through the unimaginable. I invite you to join us on for this live interview between us and bring your own difficult challenge, life question or sticky situation that could benefit from these 4 facets and the balance they provide.