It is one thing to develop awareness of being during meditation and contemplative practices. It is another thing to maintain awareness of being when acting in the world. In this workshop, we explore how to move into action while maintaining awareness of being.

When we move into action, we use somatic states to comprehend our actions. We may, for example, comprehend the acts of saying “yes” or “no” as analogue to the somatic states of pulling something towards us or pushing something away, respectively.

Using certain somatic states to comprehend our actions will cause us to lose awareness of being. Using other somatic states to comprehend our actions will enable us to move into action without losing awareness of being. In particular, using the somatic states we feel when we are aware of being to ground our concepts of action, is what enables us to move into action while maintaining awareness of being.

By changing the somatic states we use to comprehend our actions, we literarily change the place from which we act.