Practice Being Present

Hey, welcome back to the Karen Kenney show. I'm super duper excited to be here with you. And if this is your first time here, welcome. I'm so happy that you

found me somehow, or somebody referred you here, sent you the link or said, check it out. That's like the highest compliment I can be given is when somebody refers

somebody to me. So just thank you for being here, loyal listeners and newbies. What a delight. So if you heard the intro to this, I was talking about how regular listeners,

you know that I have as a spiritual mentor, right? It's one of the things that I do I'm a spiritual mentor, is that I have a DSP, a daily spiritual practice. And always, as

part of my daily spiritual practice, I asked the divine, I asked God. I asked Spirit, Holy Spirit, my in the teaching, my spiritual team, right? All the powers that

be, all the divine help is because God knows I need a lot, okay, but it's true. So I ask all my divine help is like, Hey, how can I be of service today? Like, put me to good

use. Like, put me to good use. Like, if I'm going to be here in this illusion, in this body, like, please, for the love of Jesus and all things holy, put me and my eyeballs

and my brain and my mouth and my hands and my body, right? Like, put, put, put me to good use. So there's a prayer that I say every day that's adapted from A Course in

Miracles, where I basically asked to be told where to go and what to say and who to say it to, and all that stuff. Right? So this morning, I asked specifically, like, hey,

what? What is one way that I could be wicked helpful to the people that I communicate with, right, whether it's through the people in the nest, my my group, spiritual

mentoring program, or, you know, if I decide to do a podcast today, and one thing came through loud and clear. And you know, a lot of times I think it can be funny, like

spiritual people or spiritual teachers or spiritual leaders, whatever, will say things like, oh, and I heard the voice of God. Like I heard, I heard God tell me to do this.

Right? For me, it's more like, you know, I get, I get an impression. I call them word impressions, like, all of a sudden, there's something in my mind. I've heard people call

these things, like, downloads, whatever. Sometimes I'm just like, they're inspired ideas, right? But it was clear to me, like this thing that that came into my mind, the

word impression was this thing called birth. Is one word birth, and I see the big letters in my head, right? It's like, B, i, f, W, A, burfois. And you might be like, Okay, what

the hell are you talking about? Well, I'm going to share it with you. First of all, I appreciated that, that that's what they brought into my head, because birth, why is

something that a concept? It's a process that has been around for me for over 20 years, a wicked long time. And so, of course, I got to give you a little story. I

got to give you a little back story. So, so stay with me, because this is going to benefit you, I promise. So some of you may know I've been a yoga teacher for a wicked

long time. I started teaching yoga before I was even certified, so back in like 1998 1999 is when I first started teaching yoga. And then in 2001 I went to the Kripalu Yoga

Center, right? So the Kripalu center for yoga and health, it's officially called, it's out in the Western Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. It's been around for a

really long time. So I went there, and I lived there for a month. And it's like being initiated, man, it's like hardcore, like you are there for a month, living in this living

at Kripalu, right? Like going through the whole thing. Like, we would wake up at like, 530 in the morning. We would do, like, yoga, do a yoga class, and then we would, we would

have silent breakfast, and then we would go and we would do training for three hours, and then we would have lunch, and then we would come back and we'd do training some

more. And then we would, like, we were immersed, immersed in the the yogic lifestyle and the teachings of Swami Kripalu. And one of the things that I will

say about Swami Kripalu, and if you've never been to Kripalu, it is an experience, and I highly encourage you to go. I encourage people in the nest to go. I encourage my

yoga students to go. And people I work with one to one and one to one mentoring. It's a powerful experience to go away and just kind of immerse yourself for two days a weekend,

right? And I and I retreat or go there for a specific workshop or training. It's incredible. They don't do the ytt the same way as when they did it back when I did it,

like over, like, 23 years ago, but I still think it's an incredible thing. But what I was going to say is, when we were there and when I first walked into the building, I'll

never forget. So Swami Kripalu, the word Kripalu means compassion. And Swami Kripalu is who the yoga center. The Kripalu Yoga Center is, you know, inspire. By named after

whatever it was, it was, you know, for him and the people that he taught, etcetera. And I'll never forget the first time I walked into the lobby and I walked straight back to

where the doors are that go out to the outside, to the big field in the back, and I saw a picture of Swami Kripalu. And I think that there's just these kind of moments. And

maybe you've experienced this yourself, whether you saw a person or a picture of a person or something, and it just like, boom. It's just like, and I just, I just slammed

both of my hands into my chest. If you're not watching this and you're listening, it was like, boom, like, when I saw that picture of Swami Kripalu in the lobby,

smiling back at me. It was like something happened in my hat. Man. I was like, Oh my God. And the word like, I just looked at his face, and I'm like, Yes, like, this is a

teacher of compassion, and there's so much I could tell you about him, but we also call him Bapuji, so I'll just never forget, and I think it's important, because me going in

and seeing his face and feeling that feeling in my body, it really allowed me to be open and receptive. I always say, like, S, T, o, t, J, spiritual team on the job that I was

able to learn, like to really learn and to be available to these teachings, and burfois was one of them. And so birth is one of the tools, one of the processes that I keep in

my spiritual toolkit for all the things that I mentioned in the intro, right, if I want to be more present, if I want to navigate an uncomfortable feeling or some pain, that's

like coming up when I want to come and soothe my nervous system, if I feel myself starting to tip into that sympathetic nervous system reaction of fight and flight,

right? And I don't want to do that right, fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop, all the F's, all the different ways that we respond to stress or to trauma or get triggered, or

whatever. Okay, so birthwa is one of the yogic and spiritual tools that I keep in my spiritual toolbox, yoga philosophy and yoga science and yoga spirituality will always be

a part of my toolkit that I share with people. And so I still call upon to this day. I use birth while I use it in my yoga classes. Like I said, I use it with my

clients. I teach it to people in the nest. And today, today, via listeners, I'm going to share it with you. Now, if some of you have ever been to a Kripalu Yoga class, you

may have heard this concept. You might be a Kripalu teacher. Nice, nice, other lineage holders in the house. So I'm going to tell you what it stands for, and then I'm going

to tell you how to use it. And I really always want this show to be like a little bit of storytelling, like using stories in a positive way, right? Sometimes, sometimes

rewriting or re editing. Kind of the stories we tell about ourselves and others in the world, yes, but I love to do some storytelling, and then to take spiritual

principles that we can apply to the everyday moments of our life, to the everyday stories of our lives, to like what is happening in our lives. So I always want this show to be

practical and applicable and that you can put it into action like right away. Okay, so, birth Wah, it stands for this, and if you're want to write this down, you can

write it down. I always say, though, make sure you give credit. If this is something that you're going to share, make sure you let people know that it comes from the

Kripalu tradition. Okay. Birthwa, B stands for breathe. Ah stands for relax. F stands for feel, W, stands for watch, and a stands for allow. And one of the things that I love

about birth, while it's that it's a really simple and straightforward technique, it's going to help you to be in the present moment, moment to moment, like any time that

you

find yourself that you're starting to like, lose your peace like, starting to lose your peace of mind, when you're starting to kind of lose your mind, when you're kind of

starting to lose your practice, when you're starting to like, lose your shit, right? This is also a wicked helpful practice that you can do. And I made sure to write myself

down a couple of notes, just so I don't forget. Because I like, I could I try to on these shows like, I could literally talk for hours about these things that I bring up,

like, you don't want to have to sit here unless I'm usually having a conversation with another person. You do not want to sit here and have me go on and on and on. So I

try to keep these like short and punchy, and so sometimes I make notes, just so I don't forget if there's something important that in particular that I want to share, so it

doesn't get lost in translation. Okay, so let's just say something is coming up for you. Let's say you notice yourself about to start. You starting to get a little little

impatient with your kids, right? You're starting to like you. Get a little annoyed, like you're on hold, on the phone, you're standing in line, people are doing what you

want them to do, whatever the thing is, and you just start to feel, whether it's fear or agitation or something, some sensation arising in your body. And you know how this

usually ends? Okay? You know how this usually ends? And so, like, we're not going down that path. So I think of birth, what also, you know, we talk about in the work

that I do, you know, in coaching and in mentoring, as like, we have these habits, we have these patterns, we have this programming, we have these ways of being.

And I think of birth, what is a really powerful pattern, interrupt, okay, it's a very mindful you can think of it as mindfulness too. It's a very mindful way of

being, okay. So some shit starting to stir within you, getting a little ants in your pants. You're starting to get a little agitated, right? Okay, number one is, you're

gonna breathe. Now, how we breathe? Matt is okay. So in this case, let's make it specific. I want you to breathe in through your nose, if you can, obviously, if your

nose is stuffed up or whatever, but do your best breathe in through your nose, and then try to exhale that breath out twice as long through your mouth, like you're breathing

forcefully through a straw, like I don't know if you can hear that, but if you Watch the podcast on YouTube, you can see me doing it right so you breathe in through your

nose, exhale out twice as long, through your mouth. It's also going to help your nervous system to down regulate do that several times, because what the breath is doing in

this moment, it's helping you to reconnect with the sensations in your body by paying attention to the inhalation and the exhalation, this is also going to help you

to slow the bug down.

Just slow it down, right? So breathe

right. Take some full, deep belly breaths. Dear God, we would call Complete Breath, full breath, right? So number step number one, you feel yourself

starting to get a little kooky. Slow it right down. Slow it right down. Let's get in touch. Let's get in touch. Let's go inside. Breathe. Pay attention to the inhalation and

the exhalation. That's step one. Okay. Step two,

relax right

now. Look, I know how annoying it is when you're starting to feel anxious, when you're starting to feel agitated, when you're starting to get those emotional ants

in your pants, right? Like, nobody likes being told, right. Relax. Like, oh yeah, tell me to relax when I'm anxious. Like, that's gonna help me, right? But listen,

hear me out guy, know, as a fellow, as a fellow person who navigates anxiety, right? Listen to me. One of the ways that you can make relax, move it from a mental concept to

a physical concept that actually helps you is this notice in your body, like, scan through your body and notice any place where you are gripping, right? I just clenched my

fist where you are like, clenching like, maybe you're clenching your jaw where you're tightening. Maybe you're tightening your belly. Maybe you're white knuckling your

steering wheel. Maybe you're holding you're just like, your ears are up by you, your shoulders are up by your ears, like you're rigid, right, any place where you feel this

gripping, this gripping, this resisting, this tightness, this fear, right, showing up physically. This is when we can just kind of scan through the body and then consciously

soften your muscles. So notice if you're clenching your jaw, and if you are soften the jaw, you can move your jaw left and right, right, relax the jaw. I just did it

right. Just relax the jaw. Any place where you notice that you're forcing like, if you really you're kind of trying to force your way, or force getting your way, or trying

to, like, make something happen. You know, any place where there's contraction? Because I always say, Love doesn't happen in a contracted state. It's when we open up, it's

when we relax. So we want to reduce any effort that we are currently kind of inflicting, right? Reduce any effort around heightened mental activity, right? So, for

example, the need to attack defender prove when you start to put your dukes up, you know what I mean. So we want to try to help ourselves to consciously relax, to soften,

to let go a little bit. We all know how to kind of take that breath out, drop the shoulders, relax your belly, close your eyes for a moment, right? Just just ease on down

the road a little bit physically. And this is going to help you move away from that sympathetic nervous system reaction of that, fight, flight, fear, flop and fawn. Okay,

that's step two. Step number three is the feel right we want to feel. I always say to my yoga students, notice what you notice. Notice what you're noticing right now, bring

your awareness. Focus. Your awareness. Awareness internally to yourself, right? Notice the sensations that are coming up in your body. Notice the feelings that might be

bubbling up to the surface. Notice the memories that might be arising in your brain, in your mind, okay, notice the thoughts that are flowing between your mind

and then the reaction that they're giving your body, because the body and your mind are not separated, right? They are constantly incommunicado. They're constantly

talking to each other. You know what I'm saying, so be present for what is arising. Be present for what is arising within you, physically, mentally, emotionally, right?

And then I want you to imagine that you are ascending, calming, healing, kind, compassionate breath to those pots of your body that are feeling activated, obvious,

stimulated, intense, triggered, anxious, whatever. So literally, think about sending the breath and also sending kind and compassionate thoughts. Okay, so we have the

breath, number one, relax number two, and then we're feeling, we're noticing what we're noticing. We're focusing on the sensations that are arising without

attaching meaning to them. Let me say, Just be present. Just notice, right, what's coming up? Because this is the next step number four we're going to watch. So I think

about the watch, right? The W in birth. This is when we get to do what we call witness consciousness. This is when we watch and we witness. This is when we try to take, like a

higher above the battleground, above the timeline, we step back, we draw back, so that we can have a different perspective. And this is when we can kind of observe the

experience. Right? We can observe what the ego is churning up inside of us, but we can observe it right, with compassion, with with curiosity, right? And so this way we meet

ourselves. We meet ourselves in whatever is arising within us. We meet it with curiosity, instead of judgment. Like I said, we call this witness consciousness in

Kripalu Yoga. And what it allows us to do is, you ever see a movie where you're like, zoomed in really close, and then all of a sudden, the cameraman, like, pulls way back,

and you get this new POV, this new point of view. And this is what it allows us to do. It allows us to kind of separate ourselves, to stand apart from the perceived problem or

pain or sensation that we are currently having. And it gives us a new perspective. And that when we can get when we can remove ourselves from the action, the chitta, the

Chitta in our mind, that that that chatter, that monkey mind, that is just like that critical mind is just like verbal vomiting, like fear all over the place, right? We it

helps us when we step back and can watch and witness from a distance. Now, I'm not talking about completely disassociating yourself, although I will say this in my own

life. You know, disassociation, I've talked about this on a previous episode. It often gets a bad rap, but for a lot of us, that was a survival mechanism. We were allowed to

kind of step way back, and it allowed us to survive some pretty intense shit, okay, but I'm not necessarily talking about like stepping like, completely outside of

yourself, but just shifting back, not over identifying with the body, not over identifying with the problem or the trigger or the emotion, right? Because we know that

emotions, right? The chemical flush of an emotion takes like 90 seconds, two minutes, it's gonna move. It's gonna shift and change if we allow it to, if we don't get to attach

right to what's happening, if we can create a little room, a little breathing room, you know what I mean? Okay, that's step four. Watch, witness number five is allow. This is

the A in burfois, allow. So can we let the experience whatever is happening? Can we just for a moment let it be what it is, just let it be what it is without trying to

change it, understand it. Control it, judge it, assign meaning to it right away, right? Just allow ourselves. We call it like riding the wave, like riding the wave. And if

you're watching this, you see my hand kind of making like a wave, like motion, right? Like riding the wave of the experience. We stop resisting what is we stop fighting it

and trying to control it, right? Trying to, we stop trying to control other people and events and every little fucking thing out of fear and anxiety, right? We allow, we allow

the energy to kind of move through ourselves, to move through us, to move through the experience, and allow. It, because if we allow it, it will settle. We

see animals out in the wild, right? You see a gazelle getting chased by a tiger, whatever the cheetah, the tiger, the lion, is not successful, and you'll often see the

animal, it will drop to the ground. It will start to shake. It's allowing the that chemicals of those that fear to wash through their body. And then they just get back up.

They shake it off, and they go back to the watering hole, and they go back to what they're doing. They're not completely traumatized by it, because they've allowed

the wave of sensation to move through their body. They're not sitting there going like, Oh, why did the target Try and catch me? Like, why? Hey, it's not fair. It knows I

have a bum leg. It knows I'm having a bad day, right? It hasn't been enough water on this area, right? They're not sitting there like, they allow what is coming up to come

up, and they don't attach too much meaning to it. And this is the thing about birth, why that is so powerful, is that it's a fantastic way to help ourselves, right? I

often say to my clients, jokingly, help me to help you. Right, help me to help you. But birth, why is a great way for you to help you? This is a great way to self guide and

to self Coach. And this is a powerful, powerful, powerful way to practice being present, which is the, I think the title of what I call this episode right practice

being in the present. Being present is the present. It is the gift that you give yourself, because so much suffering, so much suffering, is ego generated. It is fear

generated. And it happens because the ego mind loves to time travel. It loves to go back in time. It loves to leave the present moment and go in search of it's like in A

Course in Miracles, we say seek and do not find it loves to go seeking for shit, right? Oh, I

want love. I want peace. I want happiness. The ego loves to, quote, unquote, go seeking for that shit. But it's amazing how it never seems to find it, right, seek, but do not

find that's the agenda of the ego. Because the ego likes to time travel and go back in time, and the brain too. The brain likes to find what's familiar. It's not necessarily

looking for novel, new experiences, right? So the ego likes to go back in time. It likes to play, and you can double A man hands me if you know what I'm talking about.

It likes to go back in time. It likes to replay old hurts. It loves to rehash those old betrayals. It likes to highlight the mistakes. It likes to point to all the

stories and all the beliefs and all the reasons and the How comes and all this stuff, because it loves, it's a field day, right? Like the Olympics are, like,

happening, you know, when you look at all the events of the Olympics, and I'm like, Oh yeah, over here we have the triathlon of guilt, and then we have the javelin throw of

blame, and we have the 400 meters of regret, right? It's like, this is, this is the Olympics. This is the Olympics of the ego. It loves to assign guilt. It loves to assign

shame and blame and regret about what has happened, what hasn't happened, what you did do, you didn't do, what you should have done, like all that shit, right? Or it loves

it insists on time traveling into the future, right? And that's where we get to rush forward in time, like literally, we start to project, we time travel to

ourselves in the future, and we start to imagine and envision and have these expectations of what we think is going to happen, or what should happen, or what we

want to have happen. We're already trying to control the damn future, right? And this is where we have doubt and anxiety and expectations and worry about what we think

might happen, and oh my god, all the what ifs the what ifs the worries in the worst case scenarios. You know what I'm saying. But here's the thing, healing only happens

in the present moment. I did a podcast talking about going back to the scene of the crime, right? We think if we go back, we go back and we go to the past, like that's how

the healing if we go back to that, it's like no healing happens in the present moment, because that's where you are right now. That's where is the intersection between you

and the divine. I always say, you know where God is. God meets you right on time. The Divine meets you right on time. The Universe meets you right on time. Spirit meets you

right here and now. That's where the healing happens. When you think about like symbols, right? Like, we think about all the different kind of religious symbols, but the

Christian kids, the Catholic kids, right? We know that symbol of the the cross, right, with the high it looks, looks kind of like a, like a little T, right? That cross

symbol, to me, that intersection, right? How I think of it like, a lot of people think of it like, Oh, God, the cross. It's where Jesus died and suffered. But I often think

about it as like, that's where, that's where the heavenly realm comes down and bumps up against the earthly realm. That's where the divine, inhuman, the divinity. And humanity

intersect. We have that moment, and where is that moment? Right here, right now. Healing is available to us in every single moment, because that's where you are, and that's

where love is, capital L, love, that divine love, right it's happening right here and right now, so in the present moment. This is why birth, walk can be so powerful and so

healing because it meets us. It is a tool that we can use right here, right now, wherever we are. Okay. So this simple technique gives you a useful way to come

back to here and now, come back to where the holy instant is, come back to where love is actually happening here in the present moment, and allows you to not only be here,

but it can guide you safely back home, to your body, to your breath, to the Beloved. It guides you back to your heart right it guides you. It guides you back to your right

mind. It guides you back to the God of your own understanding, whether you call that the divine, the universe, spirit, higher power, mother, nature, whatever your word is for

the divine, right? It guides you back to love. So, birth. Why we want to birth? Why ourself? Right? I'll show. I'll, I'll hold this up. So this is something we got in our

ytt, just so you see it. So I'm holding up a little thing that basically says birth, wah, just so you can see, see it, and you'll see this graphic. It shows like this wave of

sensation, right? So it's, breathe, relax, feel, watch, allow, okay, and it's basically, there's a catalyst, there's an inciting incident. Usually there's something

that happens, whether it's a thought, whether it's a feeling, a sensation in the body, a situation, a circumstance, right? That's the inciting incident, as I call it,

as a writer, right? The inciting incident happens, okay? And then we start to have some, some, some sensations start to build up, right? We have a thought that creates a

feeling in the body. We have a feeling in the body. It generates a thought, Okay, so some the sensations start to build and then right at the top of this wave, right? If you

can imagine an arch, if you're not watching this, if you're listening, if you drew a piece on a piece of paper from point A to point B, but instead of it going straight

across, it goes up like an arch, like, think of like the action. I think it's, is it in Philly? Is it in Philadelphia? What's the town with the arches, or the arch? Okay,

think about like a big, a big act up to the sky, okay? I made my point, like a rainbow almost, okay, at the crest at the very top of it. This is where the sensations crest,

okay. And then they start to come down the other side, okay. And this is when we start to have acceptance and integration, okay. And then basically we come down. And this is

where there's a shift. This is a process of moving, of shifting yourself, your thinking, you're feeling your breath, your mind, you can feel it in your body. This is how

transformation and change happens, right? So birth, while leads to change, it leads to transformation. And whether that is a shift in how we're perceiving ourselves, how we're

experiencing a situation or an old trigger or an old feeling or something that used to scare us, or even if you're just standing on your yoga mat, and you teach it as making

you hold, like I often do, a posture a little bit longer, we slow it down so we can actually feel some shit right, so we can be present to what is alive in us, what's going

on in us, and we can use the breath, right? So something happens, and we think, just breathe, right? We take the big breath. Ask ourselves, what are you feeling right now?

Just allow yourself to feel. Allow these sensations to arise within us, right? So breathe, relax. Feel, I skipped it. Breathe. Then we relax. We notice where we're tight,

right? We allow ourselves to soften the body, soften the muscles, no gripping, right. Breathe, relax, feel, notice what you notice. Watch. We try to step back. Create a

little space. Just witness what's coming up for us, without judgment, without meaning, without making things wrong, without labeling things. And then we allow let the

experience be what it is. We can move through that wave. Think of it, of it, of like riding that wave, and allow yourself to be in the present moment when you are in the

present moment you that's when you are alive, that's when you are paying attention. That is when you can be present for your loved ones, for your sweetie, for your

children, for your animals, for the environment, right? Right? So that we can actually make choices that are in alignment with who we really are, with our goodness,

with our holiness, with our beautifulness, right? So it's it's important that we learn how to be able to stand in our own sacred ground, to be present for what is happening

within and without. And as we're moving towards, you know, life is getting extra you know, I always say people try to try to like, say, like, keep your podcast like, you

know, not so time, but, but we, here's the reality. We are moving into an election cycle, an election year, and things are already getting extra wacky out. Yeah, so

having tools in your spiritual toolkit are so so so important. And the kind of tools that I like to use help us somatically, subconsciously, spiritually, right? They

help us with brain science, right? Pattern interrupts all these things. These are the kinds of things that I work on with my clients, one to one, but also in my group

mentoring program, the nest. So you guys, this is just like one of the, one of the, I can't even tell you so many things that I share with people, and if you found this

helpful, and if you've been thinking about joining the nest, it's like, what are you waiting for? Come on and join us. Because it is life changing. I'm telling you, it's a

friendly group of people. We do good work, we do deep work and and we have a lot of fun. And if you want to join, if you want to find out more info, just go to Karen

kenney.com/nest right? If you want to get on my email list, Karen kenney.com/sign up. And if you want to leave a little tip. If you want to leave a little love. Donation from

yohat to mine for so support the show. If you dig the show, you can always do that too. Karen kenney.com/tipja, tip. Ja, one word. Alright, you guys. I hope you found

birth. Breathe, relax, feel, watch, allow. I hope you found it helpful in some way. If you did, please write to me and let me know. Send me a message, DM me, find me online,

shoot up a message. I love you guys. I appreciate you. Thank you so much, beautiful listener for tuning in. It means so much to me. And like I said, I hope that you put

this into action and that you use it, and that you see that it can be a really helpful tool to help us practice being in the present and to shift our minds from fear to

love, to help our nervous systems have an experience of safety and to get out of our head and drop down into our heart. Okay, wherever you go, out there, wherever you go

out there, today,

may you leave yourself in the people and the place and the animals and the environment and the planet better than how you first found it wherever you go, may your presence

be a blessing. Bye.