Awareness – Page 2 – Henriette Nolte

Patience

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Henriette

I’ve struggled with sciatica for a number of years now. I have to do various things to counter back pain and weakness in my left leg. This includes back exercises, mobility work, not sitting too long, not standing too long, the list goes on.

Last year I realised that my impatience to fix this thing was actually a major hindrance to resolve the issue on a more permanent basis. I was expecting quick results. I wanted to be done with this irritating condition. I was often not receptive to aches and pains. And, I wasn’t gentle enough with my body.

How To Connect To Your Own Inner Wisdom

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Henriette

In last week’s post I argued that we should not buy into spiritual teachings that do not resonate with us. We should not buy into prescribed doctrines simply because it’s the norm. Or because it’s old. Or because we fear punishment.

It is better to connect with our own inner wisdom on a deep level. But this takes time. It often requires journalling, asking questions, listening to dream messages, and being receptive to intuitive nudges and insights. It might involve reading a particular author. It might involve meditating. It might involve painting or drawing something. It also might involve cultivating silence and being receptive to a visionary image.

There really are countless of ways to connect to our own wisdom. This post discusses a few ideas and methods.

Fear, Control, and Spirituality

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Henriette

In my twenties I sought advice from various people in spiritual positions. I wanted to resolve my inner turmoil. My sense was that I was missing something fundamental: purpose, connection, and inner peace. I also had an enormous amount of latent trauma beneath my awareness.

But no one that I came into contact with ever really helped me. Many people in authority positions were sorely disappointing. The majority of them were controlling and tried to force compliance by instilling fear in me and others. Some were dangerous. Many lacked compassion. Nearly all of hem lacked true wisdom and presence.

But something good came from all those years of searching. I learned discernment. A foundational thing when it comes to the religious or spiritual teachings of others. Today, I only take in those teaching that resonate with me. I do not force myself into some prescribed doctrine that stands completely separate from experience and my own inner knowing.

Here are a few specifics to watch out for.

Are you afraid of everything? | Lessons from Jon Snow

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Henriette

When Jon Snow first meets Samwell Tarly he is struck by how incapable and frightened the ‘fat boy’ is. Sam doesn’t fit in with the hardened brothers of the wall. He doesn’t care for hunting, cannot fight with a sword, and even proclaims himself a coward. But when Sam tells Jon that he doesn’t like high places, Jon can no longer keep his thoughts to himself. Jon asks in baffled frustration, “Are you afraid of everything?”

State Of Consciousness Matters

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Henriette

Whenever I draw something, there might be a part of the drawing that is repetitive and “not fun”. The challenge with these parts is to stay present and avoid just-get-it-done mode.

With drawing, parts with low variability and high repetition—like say the wing of a bird—can evoke restlessness and carelessness. But rushing screws up the drawing. This is always the case. Rushing is the enemy of good work. So is carelessness. I know that if I want the entire drawing to be of a certain standard then I need to be present for the boring parts, the difficult parts, and the enjoyable parts.

The Benefits Of Meditation

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Henriette

I started meditating circa 2010. Six months later I noticed fundamental changes in myself. My baseline anxiety went down by a very noticeable degree. Large crowds no longer freaked me out. I slept better. I quit smoking. And tests and exams became a breeze.

Before discovering meditation, tests were the bane of my existence. University level math is not a joke, and I’d had panic attacks in a bunch of tests. Always math. In one of those, I had to walk out after writing only my name and a scribble of a matrix. Not being able to breathe in a large lecture hall is horrible.

Thinking Anaesthetizes The Emotional Body

Posted on November 19, 2024November 19, 2024 by Henriette

Thinking anaesthetizes the emotional body. This is an important point that is often overlooked in mindfulness teachings. There is a reason why incessant thinking is so addictive—it shifts awareness from the emotional body to the mental body.

No Progress Without Presence

Posted on October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 by Henriette

Years ago I wrote a post about how we should favour process over progress. In that article I make the argument that we should not aim for predefined goals to get to some predefined top of the mountain. We don’t always know how long something will take. And we don’t know how the journey will look, so our best strategy is to settle in and focus on what we are doing in the moment.

People—especially large institutions and organisations—fixate on progress to the point where they no longer realise that their checkbox approach has nothing to do with real work. Peter Thiel makes a similar point in Zero To One. Here’s a quote:

“In the most dysfunctional organizations, signaling that work is being done becomes a better strategy for career advancement than actually doing work.”
Continue reading “No Progress Without Presence”