Vernon Howard’s exercise. SOOIB: Stay Out Of It, Birdbrain!
What a beautiful spiritual exercise this is. Your whole past life consists of you reacting this way or that, and yet, you have never arrived at happiness. Ponder this deeply. Years and years of your solutions have produced a self that may have changed in some ways, but you have not arrived at contentment. Day after day of your solutions. Hour after hour of your reactions, minute after minute, tons of your reactions, and your opinions. Have you ever considered slowing down inwardly and seeing what is really going on? The Universe is doing well, no, the Universe is doing great, and so I invite you to join it, so you can be doing great.
This exercise of staying out of worldly events and all those inner reactions you have that are driving you more mad brings relief. Standing aside from yourself (SOOIB) sets something else in motion inside of you. I invite you to try this exercise, and then you will know if I’m telling you the truth. Anyone can argue and say; I don’t agree with this, but this is just another one of your reactions. Only in the doing will the right answers reveal themselves.
This exercise brings relief to your life.
Yes, simply drop it. What a relief!
We do a great injustice to the birds by calling us birdbrains! Birds are sharply aware, alert and in the moment no matter what they are doing, as are most animals (at least the ones that humans haven’t dumbed down and numbed out by making them too domesticated and indoor animals). We’ve believed we have to quench our thirst from the chemically treated city well, so every day we load ourselves up with buckets to fill up with the water that we can bring back to drink from. Imagine the shock of those few who stumble onto the truth, that our souls are spring-fed wells that, by their very nature, never run dry! We must stand aside from ourselves to let it flow.
This exercise echoes the sentiment of Jesus when he said: My kingdom is not of this world.
Yes, Aaron, just think about this, at any time during my day, which is loaded with reactions, I remember and practice SOOIB, I can instantly remove myself from that reaction. I realize and see how important it is not, and given instant relief from a mind that seeks to turn on itself. Talk about magic. Yes, my kingdom is not of this world. I really appreciate this exercise because it separates me from what I believe is me. So it is good to see the negative, for how else can we break free of it.