787 thoughts on “How was your Day? – “Intense””

1. The word says it all: “intense” = ‘in tension’.

2. When we talk about our day being intense and that there is so much to juggle, we do create a barrier for people/others to not ‘bother’ us with more, and equally as Otto has so beautifully shared it gives us an excuse or a ‘get out of jail free’ card to not take responsibility for other things or try to get sympathy from others with what we are going through. This is in fact a game we play and sadly we are the main ones who get affected by this and exhausted in the end.

3. Otto, thank you for this fantastic blog – I am going to have to re-read it a few times as it feels like I am still stuck in choosing to see my life at times as being very intense too. I so understand how I create this myself and the words and my choice to see it as being intense is what actually makes it so, rather than the day itself bringing that to me directly. Thank you!

4. It opens life up when we are willing to see things in a whole new way, to challenge our perceptions, and experience how life can be without our own impositions. We can be so limited by our own consciousness, I’ve seen it many times in myself. Otto I so appreciate the reminders here to be open and aware of more loving ways to be, and that life does not have to be a certain way.

5. Even as a kid I believed that we were masters of our own universe (and I didn’t grow up watching He-Man) I knew and still know that we create our perceptions and realities.

6. Words can either take us closer to our Essences, Inner-most-hearts / Souls or be a huge distraction and keep us in deep illusion, and thus understanding the energetic Truth of words is super important for our evolution.

7. “what else could I do today?” Realising that we just have to be all that we are so that the ‘doing’ is already ‘done’.

8. “…heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to. So, living an iota less than this then obviously puts me in tension!” Very simply stated! We are very good at creating our own realities and perceiving life in a way that is convenient and comfortable, and often through the lens of our hurts, and to keep ourselves in irresponsibility.

9. We can create our own labyrinth and get lost in it, but it’s okay because as the creators we will always know the way out.

10. It’s quite amazing when we take a step back and look at how we set ourselves up. What we project, we create.

11. It’s so easy to place all that is going on around us as directing how we feel, and yes life can certainly be intense or challenging, but it feels really beautiful to bring it back to ourselves and whether we are living the connection to our soul or not as the true reason for our sense of stillness and love, or disturbance and feeling unsettled.

12. Life is intense when we choose to disconnect from God and from who we are, hence this is why so many people are finding life so intense. We often seek remedies to lessen the intensity instead of eliminating the intensity by going straight to the cause and stop fighting who we are.

13. I can really relate with what you have shared here and am so aware that for the last week I have been saying I feel tired and that it has felt I have been on this treadmill that never stops … however, I have created this! It is so true in that our livingness, how we live, either supports us or doesn’t and a great reminder to bring it back to quality and first the quality in how we are with ourselves.

    1. The quality of the energy we choose to run our bodies has a big effect on how we feel.

14. “I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me.” I am starting to clock when I repeat mental pictures, reactions or conversations. It stops me being aware of what is beyond that which I am focusing on, keeping me at a certain level. Another reminder to keep feeling the quality of that which I am repeating.

15. Saying yes to more that is the thing and doing so without expectation of how it should be and we should be in this – this is very possible if we make the foundation of our life about quality, about bringing that quality to all we do. We set our own ways with how we move, how we speak, everything.

    1. When we think we have no more space and time for anything else, and yet we still say yes to the next thing, it is amazing how things can shift and change. When there is true purpose, there is space for all that needs to be done.

    2. Letting go of pictures and expectations is key in our lives, ‘without expectation of how it should be and we should be in this’.

16. I was working with someone recently and they were very intense it was like being next to a pressure cooker. I did wonder how anyone with such pent up stress can keep going without exploding in some way.

    1. They do sort of exploded in that they constantly let of steam like a pressure cooker all the time and everyone else gets assaulted by that – eventually it turns in and the body will develop some illness or accident.

17. I used to be a very busy person and get stressed about how much I had to do. I very rarely feel like that these days and most likely do more than ever although it does not feel that way. The way I see it is that I am here with my all every day and I attend to whatever is there and feels true to me to attend to in that moment and whatever does not get done clearly didn’t need to happen in that moment or it would have.

    1. Sometimes what is there for me to attend to is quite surprising. For example I might have some sort of apparently urgent job and somebody comes into my office needing support and I end up speaking to them for 30 mins rather than doing what I had thought was urgent. Today to my great surprise I found myself going for a swim in the middle of the working day and came back refreshed and was super productive in the evening.

       1. Prioritising ‘jobs’ is indeed an ‘art’ – and comes not from the head but from the body.

18. A gem Otto, thank you. It exposes the way we set ourselves up, but we can live in space and rhythm which supports us to embrace more, and intensity doesn’t have a part in that.

    1. We certainly can Monica, the choice is always ours how we want to live, with intensity or with stillness?

       1. Very true, it is always our choice how we want to live, knowing this is empowering.

19. Great points here, really there is always a huge amount of things that are going on. However of those things how many times do we get caught up and feel the intensity and how often do we see the day as an opportunity with whatever comes our way?

20. This is a great example of how we run with these pictures which in effect give us the excuse to ignore everything else in our lives. I’m in this situation at the moment where because I have to focus so much on my college work that everything else has had to be put on the back burner and what I realised four weeks in is that the course hasn’t been that difficult (up to this point) but the reputation it has of being brutal is something that I at times have chosen to run with.

21. We definitely do write our own future and most of us are not even fully aware of the oh so many subtle ways in which we subconsciously do this. Last week when I looked at my working week it was jam packed and I could feel myself starting to get anxious about this as i had lots to do. What I could feel is how I was living my week before it had even begun. I had put my body in ‘busy’ mode when I was not even doing anything! I noticed this and something changed and yes the week was busy but what I appreciated is how most of the time (not all of the time!) there was a flow and joy with this and could appreciate how I planned each moment to support the next.

    1. True, we do write our future, what choices are we making, ‘I was writing my own future.
       I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was.’

22. Thank you for your gorgeous honesty, Otto. Being aware, observing and understanding the significance of the words we use in an incredibly powerful self-healing support.

    1. I love the honesty and awareness you came to, ‘No, I don’t want to know or see more, because that might expose the game I’m playing, so I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me.’

23. I love what our are sharing here Otto. In the end it comes back to ourself to reflect and see why we create the days the way we have them. Are we standing in our own way to prove something, to get the recognition that we crave, etc. etc., or do we allow the abundance in ourself to be there in everything we do and then some more.

    1. We do stand in our own way, we cap our evolution, great to catch this as Otto did, ‘I had built the perfect merry-go-round to keep me exactly where I was and, whilst on that merry-go-round, there was no way that I was going to say yes to seeing more, yes to anything else I could be doing, yes to awareness, yes to growing.’

24. I know that feeling, of using a busy period and a feeling of being stressed as a defence. A thin veil I pull over to act as a barrier and effectively say to the world…. ‘keep out, I’m too busy’. Everyone loses from this – I’m disconnected, and those around can’t enjoy any kind of relationship.

    1. I know I have been on the giving and receiving end of a relationship of “I’m too busy to connect” and it feels horrible to receive. However, it’s only when I feel how horrible it is to give to myself first is when I do something about it.

       1. How are we treating and caring for ourselves, always important to reflect on, and feel.

25. I love what this blog communicates about our self-created perception and through that applying our own self-limiting hand-breaks to the possibility of expansion and being more. I have been noticing that it is not even necessary to be working as hard as is mentioned here for us to choose the label of “intense” and feels its impact. We are at the liberty of randomly choosing such limitations whenever and wherever we choose.

26. You know, I’m quite sick and tired of constantly hearing empty how-are-you’s. We’ve come to a place where these three words no longer mean “how are you”, they’re just a conversation starter, a protective tool so that people don’t feel my vulnerability when calling for a favour, or just so that we look good and like a caring person. But if the true care for the person is not in that sentence, the words mean nothing.

27. So revealing how we may color our life and get so identified with what we do and be the owner of end results, and the process – like, ‘look at me and what I have done, how much I have done’, and what I can feel is how we are missing the point and actually shortchanging ourselves when it comes to appreciation. We are so much more than we allow ourselves to settle for on this plane of life and there’s so much more on offer for us to connect to. And so much more can be done when we get ourselves out of the way.

    1. There is so much more on offer for us to connect to, do we block or allow that, ‘It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.’

28. When we live in an intense way we literally just live with constant tension.

    1. I agree Elizabeth you can actually see the tension coming out in the way that some bodies actually shake with tension. I was on a plane recently and the legs of the passenger sitting next to me were shaking and the person across the aisle from me had what some might call a nervous twitch; he was constantly drumming his fingers on his arm while at the same time clicking his fingers with his other hand! Both people were totally unaware they were acting in such a way.

29. What a huge realisation and a deeper understanding of the tension and overwhelm plague that is crippling our world. When we make life about ourselves of course there will be tension as we are working on meeting our agenda rather than flowing with what is needed for the all.

30. There are two ways to deal with busy and challenging times: 1. using it as an excuse to have a break of evolution or 2. knowing that everything is there to evolve us, especially the most challenging situation, accepting that and dealing and growing with whatever comes up.

31. What a leap… To start letting go of the intensity, to realise that there actually is a flow, there is a connection, and within that reconnection there is effortlessness and grace

32. I’m a guilty user of ‘intense’… it’s the one word that sums it all up with out saying much else. But really, saying what is feeling intense will probably help clear the tension!

    1. Expression is everything. In expressing it gets the chance to be looked at and you can become more honest about it. In shortening it with ” intense” you simply cut yourself from feeling deeper into it and renouncing what truly makes the intensity.

33. Intense = in-tense, we live in tense all the time, that nervous energy that runs through out body, oh I am so familiar with it. Questioning whether everything we do is correct, perfect even. Whether our work, way of being is good enough/will be accepted. At the end of the day it boils down to: do we feel worthy enough in ourselves? Do we feel good enough and content in who we are.

34. I was joking with someone just yesterday about how people’s default response at work is ‘busy, soo busy’ (and it’s not uncommon to hear ‘intense’). And fair enough if that is the case. The point I’m making is that there is often a lot of baggage or stuff behind that response: wanting to be perceived in a certain way, seeking sympathy, drive, recognition. I’ve said it myself. But ultimately, by being truly honest with ourselves and others, we can change what is often a formality into a deeper and more truthful conversation.

    1. I changed it around- I do say that I am very busy and peoples reaction is always very funny, as they think they need to feel sorry for me. But I then respond immediately how much I love it to be busy and how much the things that I do are needed. It totally changes the perception of people which is beautiful and sometimes very amusing to observe.

35. When we forget about the purpose for doing something and instead just focus on the end result and what we may get out of it, we simply set ourselves up in tension. And if by some chance the outcome is not what we had hoped for up goes the level of tension once again. We, as humans, seem to have living in tension down to a fine art, but it has been a choice to do so, so if we don’t like where we find ourselves, in the very next moment we always have a choice to make a very different more self-loving, and tense-less choice.

36. Pretty cool to have your eyes wide open to the dramas and complications that we can create in our own lives. Once we see it, we are more aware of it and from there can make choices. When we remain blind, we cannot.

37. This does make me ponder, is there more to the fact that we seem to have an abundance of tension in our lives? Is there a part of us (however small) that enjoys that drama and the conversation about it that ensues?

    1. What about connecting to the abundance of space there is available at all times?

38. There seems to be a craving for this intensity, whether it’s extreme sports, extreme partying or pushing oneself to achieve impossible targets. There is a thirst for the dramatic and sensational, there is continual pushing of the boundaries. Is it because we are not accepting ourselves for who we are? We are not recognising what amazing and incredible creatures we are without all this razzamatazz? were we to stop for a moment and connect to what’s inside this scientifically stupendous body and begin to feel what’s going on deep within and around us on levels we have until now ignored we might begin to realise we have got it all – and the deliciousness of life is not in the extremities.

39. Building a relationship with Space and not Time…this is the key to maximising the volume on offer when we make life about evolution and not existence.

40. Intense is a really interesting word that so many of us use yet how often do we actually create that intensity for ourselves? More often than not if my day is intense its because I’ve chosen to get caught up in the day rather than being me and dealing with whatever comes my way that day.

41. What I love about what you share here is that you start out with a reason (excuse) why you had to be the way you were but then come full circle back to you, finding the responsibility in your own hands why you were the way you were. However way we turn and put things they come back to us, the power lies with us.

42. The what is next or saying ‘yes’ to more does not come from the doing but from my willingness to deeply surrender to the beauty and love inside me.

43. Otto this is a really honest blog and I’m sure that many of us can relate to what you have shared. There was a period in my life when I also lived in a way that the more dramatic I made my life sound the more sympathy I felt I gained from others that then justified my way of living. No on pulled me up perhaps because they were getting something from the drama of my life?

44. It’s okay if life is intense if that is our choice. Honesty is key. We like the intensity. Our complaint may be there but we like it as we are choosing it. But we can also surrender to our choices really surrender, to the intensity and the exhaustion, taking the responsibility in acknowledging yes this is our choice. And it’s okay. We only fight intensity when we are not honest, that we know there is something deeper but we are not choosing it and yet want to not admit it is our own choosing, so we suffer even more than being honest of the creation we choose. Choosing creation is what it is, not good or bad, we can just be honest about it.

45. Could it be that we get addicted to the tension, the level of stress we have in our lives, because without it we are left to feel our relationship with space and all that is communicated to us through it? Or we could say, that it is this relationship with space (how open we are to receiving universal wisdom/God’s love) that directly relates to the amount of tension we feel. If this is so, then it is not the elimination of tension that we must seek but more so a relationship with it that will ensure we keep moving in a way that allows us to surrender deeper and deeper into this field of communication, allowing more of what lives within us to be expressed out.

46. We are the creators of our own intensity and I have found the more intense my day the less I am able to observe during the day, and when I focus on my awareness I am at ease with myself.

47. Thats great to understand that particular revelation… the more dramatic, the more excuse was there… humans just LOVE stories…and until we let them go, we stay trapped.

48. A real eye opener of a read today, thank you Otto. I can see how much I play my own version of this game and how in doing so it keeps it all about me and is a very clever way to avoid being called to more responsibility. A very wise woman once told me that I couldn’t be faulted on my work but the question was if I was being all I could be and the answer I felt was no, but the trick I played and still can is to offer enough so I can’t possibly be called out as not doing enough and of course there was a talk track to go with that. And all of this exposes how much we can make is about ourselves and how exhausting that can be, and how when we get ourselves out of the way we allow space to ask ‘what more could I bring?’

49. Revelation delivered – it’s like we use the word ‘intense’ to otherwise say ‘back off, I’m doing the best I can and you have no idea what I’M up against’. Of course people will not ask further questions, or like you said Otto, pull us up for our choices. Fact is, we all are subject to energy, we can all feel it, it’s just about having a body that is surrendered to that and not fighting it by going into control and tension.

50. Yes, really the only thing we have to do is move our body and the rest is clear, we don’t have to ‘make it happen’ or make it special. We are just responsible for the quality in which we are moving around. When situations are intense we can still stay with ourselves in the quality we have chosen and enjoy, because of that, the situation, there are no ups and downs then.

51. To live in tension (in-tense) is a 24 hour-job. We not ony have to prepare for it, lace our day with it, act in a way that guarantee bringing it to ourselves, but also talking about the day to get relief while engaging in circulation energy that feeds the next day.

52. Living in tension sets us up to have in-tense days.

53. Wow – thank you, thank you, thank you for making the space to write this Otto, it is a blog I will definitely be re-reading as I so often wrap myself up in the ‘intensity’ of work.

54. All we have to do is bring all of ourselves to each day with love integrity and awareness and the space will be there for what is to be done. Thanks Otto for exposing how we can set ourselves up to be less and avoid what is so lovingly on offer.

55. Thank you Otto, this is perfect timing for me to read this today as lately I have been saying to others how intense life has been for me. I can see how I am creating this and then constantly confirming this back to myself giving me an excuse to avoid responsibility and my greater awareness.

56. “It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.”
    This statement is how it actually is, in truth. We are here fully supported by our heavenly brothers. The question I constantly ask myself is why do I not accept in full my equality to my heavenly brothers? It is totally ridiculous that we doubt this truth, but we do, and until we are able to accept in full our equal grandness, the tension of our lives will be felt in our bodies.

57. This is a great reminder of how we are always setting ourselves up for the day and the future with the inappropriate use of words.
    “I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was”.

    1. Well said Stephanie, the responsibility of how we live, speak and move becomes much more refined when we know, without doubt that such a way we choose will bring more of that same way.

58. Love it Otto. I get so in-tense sometimes I feel like the world has closed in on me and I may explode – which is not at all pleasant for me or others to experience. Recognising the absorption of the intensity around us as a bodily tension is definitely the first step to deconstructing it.

59. Yesterday I felt totally committed to the job I was doing, even though the amount of it seemed impossible. I found myself feeling joyful as I committed more and more, and enjoyed engaging with everyone along the way. I observed myself talking to a customer and asking her if there was anything else that I could help her with. I felt so committed I wanted to go the extra mile even though I already had so much to do. This felt so different to the days when I wade through my work feeling grumpy about it. I felt on top of my work instead of drowned by it. It was all in the attitude.

60. I loved that I reread this blog today as I have just started a new job and had fallen into the ‘this is so intense’ trap as I am learning new systems and new skills. Reading this is a great reminder that I can take a step back and take the self out of the picture and simply allow things to unfold.

61. I can certainly relate to this one. How I create the intensity is interesting. You are correct Otto, it’s the self getting in the way, whether for identification or recognition etc that is what leads us to feeling in-tense. Over the last month or so, what I have observed is that I have a lot more space in my day, but I am recognising that I don’t know how to be in that space, so I have created all sorts of things – intestines, issues, dramas, being busy or even time out to make sure I am receiving some kind of identification. Learning how to be in space with me is a weird but amazing feeling at the same time and I don’t have to exhaust myself or get in-tense in the process.

62. It is valuable to read and be reminded that we create our own intensity when it comes to situations. Intense would be a word I would have used when visiting the dentist but have chosen of late to change the relationship I have with my dentist and the work that needs to be carried out. So, now I appreciate what my tooth is telling me, the healing that is being offered and the disregard that can be released due to the procedure. Also, it is not the dentist we dislike; it’s the procedures and the previous bad experiences that cloud our perceptions. So, it depends on how we look at things that can make a situation intense or not – ultimately it is our choice.

63. Again we have space versus time… That age-old quandary… And when we discover space, how our life changes!.

64. I do find it revealing how much my perception of how something is going to be affects how I actually am whilst there/ doing it – it’s amazing how much we can create ‘drama’ where it’s really not necessary!

    1. Where it’s not really necessary.. or doesn’t even exist to start with! Drama and stress are things that are very real human experiences, but entirely created by our perceptions and expectations of how we want things to be, or think they should be, vs an acceptance of how they actually are.

65. Absolutely Otto. Having stops and check-in moments through out the day allows you to press reset on any old patterns of stress or drive that have kicked in and allow you to feel the effect this is having on the body. Then you can settle into your body again, and move forward with a reset quality.

66. Beautifully called out the games we set up so we can be excused or irresponsible in life. I can relate to the examples you have given, as saying you are busy and thinking you are busy is a great excuse to not engage with the rest of life fully. It’s a sneaky way of saying back off everyone!

    1. This is a great sharing Fiona exposing the trickiness of busyness.

67. Exposing the games that we play can sometimes be uncomfortable, but once we take that step and feel the release and freedom from the shackles that held us in that imprisonment in the first place is beyond making a different choice it is aligning to our true innate being and quality and saying yes to that.

68. It’s a beautiful thing to come to such a place of honesty within oneself, to not judge or be hard on ourselves, but instead to delight in the revelation presented and see the power we have to change our lives.

69. I love that you have ‘called out’ so beautifully the relationship between intensity and self and that manipulating life by choosing ‘intense’ is self indulgent. Lots to reflect on here – thanks Otto.

70. Constantly saying that our life is ‘intense’ can also be a way of seeking recognition and a ‘well done’ for making it through the period of intensity… As you’ve shared Otto life is getting busier and busier, but do we see this as an opportunity to give our all to every moment, or are we constantly trying to cope with our ‘intense’ world whilst actually blinding ourselves with the hamster wheel we’ve created to keep spinning around and around?

71. There is an intensity in the use of the word ‘intense’ that is designed to impress, put others on the back foot and alert them to the fact that we don’t want to be questioned about what is really going on; ‘intense’ is a handy and dishonest smoke screen.

    1. So true Gabriele, we use ‘intense’ to protect ourselves and to get others to back off.

72. It totally freaks me out how much some people can get down in a day showing us all that it is possible and possible without being intense and you are right Otto, it certainly does boil down the purpose of what we do and how we live, being able to deeply care for oneself but also keeping that self out of the way of the purpose.

73. This is fantastic Otto. Many of us think that life is intense because of the intensity of this world and not because of how we are in it necessarily. Yet the quality of how we are in it is everything because we can choose to take the intensity in and hence feel intense within us. Or we can just choose to be with it all holding our own quality of gorgeousness and space.

74. I felt myself squirming when I read about the creation of “dramatic stories about how full-on” your life is, as I was an avid creator of those stories too. I can now feel that I wanted others to feel sorry for me but never really thought about the fact that I was already laying down the excuses in case I messed up in some way. When we start to understand that we create our own lives, then it is clear that we create our own stress, so conversely we can also make the choice to heal it; the power to do so is ours and ours alone.

    1. So well said Ingrid. All this drama of ‘intense’ which most of us do, is just creating a problem, a hiccup, a glitch in the glorious flow of life so that the human spirit can get some ‘relief’ from evolution and its extraordinary and continuous expansions.

75. I am seeing more and more how the human spirit just loves to have an intense day, something it can hang onto and identify with to stop the ‘flow’ from heaven.

76. What I am learning is that when I make anything that I am involved with intense then I know I am completely off track and running to someone else’s rhythm.

    1. Or that the rhythm that you are running to is one of drive, centred around self? – that is often what gets revealed to me when I feel that intensity creep in. Big picture stuff doesn’t leave room for petty individualism such as intensity.

       1. Great reminder that when I am getting caught up in drive, intensity, needing things to be a certain way (even needing or wanting myself to feel a certain way), I’ve forgotten about the bigger picture and made it all about me.

       2. Once words like ‘want’ or ‘need’ start popping up, then I know I’m off track and have become all insular.

77. “No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity” This is something I really needed to read today. I so appreciate what you have shared here Otto as I was convinced the course I am doing is so-o-o intense but today I will approach it in a whole different light!

    1. !!! Yeah, how many o’s can we add to the soooo….? You sometimes have to laugh at how indulgent we can be!

       1. Absolutely Otto, we, as an identified human-being, play right into it feeding the overwhelm to make it all so-o-o-o-o dramatically overwhelming. ‘The woe is me and my lot’ card keeps us from stepping up and taking responsibility for what is before us. To put it simply all we need do is live each and every moment in connection with our innermost and allow and accept everything that flows from this connection even if we don’t really understand in the moment where it is leading us.

       2. That letting go of the need to know where something will lead or what it will look like lessens the intensity we create, because it allows space – the opposite of intensity, which is a sense of compression.

       3. Yes Bryony, and the more we surrender to our inner impulses, like a jigsaw puzzle, everything we do seems to fall into place and become something we had no idea of in the beginning.

       4. Which is sooooooo much less intense than how most of us are living – and yet we avoid this path because we want the ‘easy’ life. Makes no sense.

78. Intensity belongs to the self the human spirit creates, which is part of what you are already saying here Otto. The stance of intensity closes down the space within us and without of us and is the human spirit’s way of clinging onto its own identity. It is imitating the amazingness of life in a ridiculous gesture.

79. When we start to ignore those thoughts of being too busy to take on anything else, feeling like we’re already too stretched, too tired, etc, and just say yes to what’s needed next, life takes on an amazing dimension – or rather, we allow ourselves to feel the fullness of these additional dimensions that life is offering us all of the time.

80. The more I sit with this the more I realise just how often I am enticed into accepting the heaviness that an intense day brings. So there is a lot to do, we can either embrace the activity with a light and playful heart, or make heavy weather out of it. Both bring an energetic quality, one that lifts and lightens or one that darkens the horizon, always a choice.

    1. Or is the ‘heaviness’ actually our resistance to the invitation to be more? As someone who frequently has and still does feel that ‘heaviness’, I can speak from experience that it is amazing what happens when we choose to surrender into whatever is needed, rather than remain in the intensity of self.

81. There may be tension in life, but do we have to live in it all the time? It is simply being everything we are from moment to moment and that guarantees a certain quality in our movements and everything we do.

82. We always have a ‘choice’ (or an alignment to make) of whether the day will be intense or not. Intensity is out there in the world being offered around like ice-cream. I have just been through a big house-move which also involved buying lots of things like new furniture and a fridge etc. The move itself was intense in terms of the energy involved of having to extract myself out of the ends of my previous marriage. On top of that the wrong fridge was delivered (2 days late in soaring 30 degree temperatures), the wrong bed was delivered (so had to sleep on the floor), the wrong curtains were delivered, the wrong blinds arrived, the fire log heater which was ordered a month ago, I find out yesterday was not even ordered. Had I succumbed to the frustration and intensity of it all I would be a real case. Interestingly I was able to keep observing and be detached from it all knowing that there is a bigger picture to it all. And sometimes I just laughed. The man I spoke to yesterday who forgot to order the fire (ha ha!) couldn’t believe I didn’t rage and rant at him and thanked me, ending up giving me a free delivery (when it comes ha ha!)

83. An amazing blog thank you for showing the shift in the body that takes place by not focussing on the jobs alone but bringing in the bigger picture, bringing that lack of ‘tense’ in the body and a true willingness for more.

84. This intensity that we can choose to live life in is what leads to exhaustion…and if I may say it is not what we do or how much we do that leads to the so called intensity as I know of people who only work 2-3 days per week, who have no children and who find it overwhelming to deal with just some basics in life in terms of preparing dinner and cleaning up the dog’s toys. And this intensity that they live, is no different to an intensity that another lives in working 7 days per week and juggling more. The fact is that the intensity is being felt – an intensity that shows that we are not living in a natural rhythm and trusting in the space that we can allow in life no matter what. So the bottom line is that it is us who create the intensity in order to not feel how easy it actually can be, how harmonious life actually can be…

    1. Brilliant. Exactly agree with you and what you explain exposes perfectly that intensity is not a quantifiable measurement – it is purely a manifestation of the tension of what we are not living. And thus even those who are working 7 days a week and juggling loads have to ask ourselves; what more is there that we can do? Also, there is another factor that comes in to it – purpose – a constant refinement of the impulse behind our moves and choices.

       1. Love this inspiration to always be asking what’s next and saying yes continuously to what’s needed… the more I commit to just doing whatever it is I can feel that’s needed in any moment, the simpler and more joyful and lighter my life becomes. I’m doing more, but it feels almost effortless, like I’m not actually doing it at all, just being guided by what feels true to do in any moment. It’s quite incredible how this has happened, in a short space of time, simply by saying yes to life, yes, I’m here and I want to be doing this, letting go of any pictures of what that ‘yes’ will look like or how I think I might feel doing it.

85. Otto, absolutely brilliant blog, and one I have thoroughly enjoyed reading again…this part jumped out at me in terms of how we create our own days/weeks/months: “I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was. I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity” – how we choose to percieve things and how we then live it is what brings the tension to the situation, rather than it being the other way around! I know I still have much to work with in letting this all go, but I am re-newed in my inspiration having read this blog again!

    1. And reading your comment re-inspires me. We have much to learn from each other and when we walk as equals, sharing our learnings with honesty we can really support each other. We are not designed to walk through life solo and a wide, true family is something that I am really allowing myself to treasure.

86. Tension can sometimes come from an investment in how we want our day to be that often busts the pictures and ideals that lie beneath.

87. Lately when people have been asking me about my work I have had a similar response, that it is full on. The interesting thing is that I can feel this will pass and it is not as hard or ‘full on’ as I am making it in my head. It actually feels more like a delay tactic to feel how capable I am.

    1. Say ‘yes’ and what you need is already there. We constantly under-estimate the power that is available to us if we are prepared to get ourselves out of the way.

88. A great reflection… We can either be in tension , or truly in the flow. In that flow starts with the extraordinarily beautiful, practical and simple cycle of in breath stillness out breath stillness.

89. Acknowledging that by pre-determining how one’s day is going to be is providing an excuse for one’s irresponsibilities and slip-ups is a very profound observation – thank you Otto for your honesty and sharing.

    1. And ultimately the only person we are lying to is ourselves. The humbling absurdity of this is something that I try to remind myself of frequently. No matter how polished the presentation, I am but a simple fool that is once again lying to myself. I say it like this not to beat up on myself, but just to expose the silliness and futility of it all. And yet what you say JSTEWART is very spot-on and is a game that, despite writing this blog, despite knowing exactly what I am doing, I still play.

       1. Yes, and it is quite extraordinary how even when we know we are not being in truth we do not stop and change but carry on in ‘our own way’. Is it because we do not wanted to be judged? Be rejected? Seen as a failure? ……….

90. It’s really helpful to reflect like this I find on how much or where we have projected expectations or preconceptions about how things are going to be and the effect this has had on the way we have responded to a situation…

91. This is such a great piece of writing Otto, your honesty and willingness to see through what most would be stuck in for evermore is awe inspiring. If people could really come to grips with what you are sharing here, life humanity, our evolution would take off in leaps and bounds. Imagine life without tension, stress and all the other things we create for ourselves to stop or interrupt us from our full potential.

    1. Imagine our lives without self – because all of these things that you describe are self-made, self-created, self-fed and thus self-fulfilled. The deeper the connection we have with who we truly are the less we seek recognition, relief, emotions, escape, etc…and thus we just do what is needed to be done.

92. Buying into intensity is a choice, an alignment we make with something that is outside of ourselves and that has nothing to do with us – unless we allow it.

    1. The use of the word ‘allow’ is really spot on – because it parks the responsibility and choice firmly at our own door.

93. ‘True evolution comes from saying yes to more’ – so interesting the limits that we place on ourselves in our minds, e.g. about how much we need to eat, sleep, work etc, are often totally independent of the natural limits of our physical bodies, which are capable of an enormous amount, when treated with love and respect and when we live aligned to the body’s natural rhythm.

    1. Look after your car and it runs and runs and runs. It’s the same with our bodies and yet most of us treat our cars better than we do our own bodies – which is pretty insane for multiple reasons – not least that we can replace our car, yet our body is the only one we get for each life. I have found that a deepening awe of my body supports me to connect to it and really appreciate the incredible vehicle that it is.

       1. Thanks for this Otto – makes me mindful of how I am treating both car and body, and what opportunities there are to service and maintain both.

94. I understand now that the quality of my every breath determines whether I am holding my body ‘in-tense’ or whether I am allowing there to be space for whatever unfolds moment by moment.

    1. That’s beautiful, thank you Matilda. When I feel an excess tension in my body or holding of the breath it can be a sign for me that I am trying to control a situation and with that is a signal for me to let that go and come back to how I truly feel to respond from my whole body and not just a picture in my mind about how I think it should be…

95. Awesome awareness and honesty and this just shows how much we do write our own future. Reading this I reflected on how many people in the world consider they have had a stressful day, or week, or month or that their work is super stressful or their life is stressful .. just so much to do and so many demands and then we create the wheel of … stress, or busy or intensity .. a merry-go-round that we feel we cannot get off or stop, and so become more stressed or tense! But it can be done. You can have a super jam packed full day everyday without it being stressful, ‘busy’ or intense. I know because I have seen this being lived by the Benhayon Family consistently for years. I guess having the awareness first that we are like this and adding/creating to the stress or intensity by our movements, thoughts and what we are saying is what needs to happen, because as soon as we are aware of what is truly happening, we can start to make the changes needed to support us, so it is not intense or stress-full .. we can change our movements, thoughts and what we say.

96. Life becomes intense when I try to control and seek recognition and identification in what is happening. Recently I can see it’s been to be identified in struggle and being in a poor position. Even writing that feels exhausting but that’s what I’ve done, invested in life being hard and harsh. Thank God there are blogs like this sharing that all of these games can be let go of.

    1. When I see them as the games that they are, it allows me to be light-hearted with it all, not take it too seriously and move on, crucially, without judgement. This is really important for me as I can often fall into the trap of it all becoming too intense (repeat intended!)

97. Last week was a busy week for me, I was being pulled in lots of different directions. A part of me wanted to start calling my week ‘intense’ and look for excuses as to why I was not coping but the content of this blog stayed with me as I felt the responsibility being asked of me and instead felt the joy in saying yes.

98. ‘I was pre-laying excuses for my irresponsibility over this period’. Beautifully expressed Otto and revealing of how we play games with ourselves and then complain about the consequences we created!

    1. !! So it’s the perfect set up. We create the issue and then we can grump and complain about that issue – thus enabling the delay and irresponsibility to deepen….which results in it all becoming even more intense – which then validates the story that we told in the first place!! Embarrassing to have it exposed like this.

99. You reveal so much in this blog Otto including how to love with true joy. How can there be any joy when you are constantly feeling a great level of unresvoled tension in yourself and your life?

100. We certainly are ‘creating’ our own day. Only yesterday, even when I know better, I was working on something with a colleague and we had set it that we would do 7 hours work (9am to 5pm). As it happened it was a very hot day and I felt that when I got to five and a half hours of editing that I needed to finish it, but I didn’t speak up because we had a kind of goal-thing going where we wanted to finish a document (and this made sense). On top of that was over a hour more on the computer. I was aware all day of keeping on my presence, of getting up and walking around and drinking lots of water, but really I also needed to finish slightly sooner as I could energetically feel what was happening. I have recovered now but I needed ‘recovery’ time and that no longer makes sense to me.

     1. I agree a similar situation played out for me yesterday. I knew i needed to rest as I was physically not well and I even told people I was going to do that yet I found myself “just” fulfilling one more task because it seemed to fit in in so many ways but my body came back depleted and run down. Sometimes continuing gently is not enough our bodies need to stop and recuperate – and yes it is only because we have created the exhaustion in the first place.

        1. I know this scenario well Elaine. I agree that we have created this exhaustion in the first place and sometimes it is a big healing from aeons ago, because we are now so strong that we can clear that out. I know for myself that it is easier to say that we need to honour this, than actually carry out that honouring as i have momentums and ideals about ‘working’ that get in the way. My beloved ritual these days is to make sure I surrender several times in a ‘stop-spot’ through the day, and it makes the day very beautiful..

101. Like the China wall, it’s us who create the great obstacles in this world, then get excited that they can be seen from space. Yes we have become masters at complication but this doesn’t stop the fact that Love is truely easy in the first place. Thank you Otto.

102. I know this well, it’s when the self comes in and wants recognition for all it’s hard work it’s done, not wanting to accept that it is part of the all.

103. If intensity is felt within, then ones quality is not being honored for the grandness it is.

104. This is something I have been clocking in my movements over the last month. It’s been very freeing to see that it’s been my own creation that’s creating the intensity. Yes, things are getting busier and there is more to do in a day, but if the quality is not there then what is the point of the actions?

105. This is such a beautiful and empowering offer for us all Otto as it exposes the momentum that can bring on regret in our more elder years, ‘What on earth did I do with my life and where did it go?’ If we surrender to the rhythm of unfoldment and presence there will be no regret –regret being one of the greatest hindrances to passing over gracefully.

     1. No-one is perfect and we all make mistakes. Thus, as we approach the time of passing over, the truth lies in an honest and utterly un-judgemental appraisal of our lives. From this we then have the choice as to what we are going to let go of, or what we are going to take with us to the next life. If we beat ourselves up with regret, we are denying ourselves the love that is needed to know that we can let go and that everything will be ok. (actually it will be a zillion times better!!)

        1. This is also an appraisal that we can be doing moment by moment through observation – simply because we love ourselves and others, so there will be no build up of regret, but a beautiful completion in each footstep so that the past no longer binds and holds us.

106. Otto this is a blog that I will always come back and read, as for a start your writing it proves that you are seeking to live absolute truth by the act of writing it. You created space in your extremely busy life to sit and express magic that can help us all live that truth.

     1. Expression of anything that we feel to be true is a bridge to further evolution. But the real gold is in walking the talk and this blog is something that I need to re-read as well, because I have found that these patterns can easily resurface, whenever I drift away from myself.

107. ‘I was writing my own future.’ So simple and so stark and yet that is exactly what we do .. my version being busyness and what you offer here Otto is pure gold … I use this as a cloak to avoid responsibility, if someone challenges me, I will come out with my busy excuse, I did it today and that excuse came with being aggrieved that someone would ask more … don’t they see how much I do … aah the need to be identified and the need to be left alone all rolled up into one. And in all of this I feel the lack of responsibility, what if I asked what is needed here? And how can I support without any drama or need but just a willingness to be there. And as I write this I can feel the tendrils of my comfort … for in order to live this way what would need to change, what comforts would I need to drop and there in lies my responsibility, and the question arises, how willing am I to be the one? How willing am I to see, to be aware, to be responsible?

108. As much as there is work to be done, i know that living and stating how ‘intense’ our day is, is like a validation and offers recognition. Yet lately i have been experiencing so much energy supporting me, the more i say ‘yes’ to more it flows easily – rationally it does not make sense but in fact it does. We limit ourselves that so much is too much, yet we are more powerful than we want to know.

     Funny, I say ‘I love working, BUT i add, it’s intense’. It’s like if i don’t add the intense part, then it does not validate how ‘hard’ I’m working.

     Otto, you introduce and for bust, this idea that life makes us intense, it is us. There is so much more we can tap into and this is the key. And when we do, life becomes about abundance, not limitation.

     ‘It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.’

109. It is fascinating how we create the intensity and build this into our lives, so when it comes, it’s like ‘I told you so, I knew it’.. we did but it doesn’t have to be like that.

110. It is very exposing to realise and own that we can often create very intense and dramatic lives in order to feel accomplishment at enduring life or to pull attention to ourselves. Letting go of this pattern can allow for more spaciousness and also less individualism.

111. From what is shared here, you could say that we reap what we sow. How we express about our day or how we look at what will be next plays its part in what will unfold for us.

     1. Exactly. And taking this metaphor further (perhaps too far?!) if we sow it, we then reap it and then that crop is what we then eat….and so it becomes part of our body and deepens and deepens and around and around we go. And thus, it is in those very first movements – the seeding. That is the key to it all. Love where you have taken it Sally.

112. ‘And now, with this new learning, I am seeing that there is room for a great deal more and, amazing beyond amazing, that fills me with joy.’ Beautiful Otto and super inspiring. There is always more on offer, we are expanding, just like the universe.

113. I love this blog. It shows the canniness we do possess in mastering these games that we delude ourselves from – games we orchestrate to shut ourselves down from being more aware. It also shows the power of honesty and willingness and what takes place when we allow ourselves to dismantle the games we play – the awareness that we claim back, and the joy that this brings.

     1. What’s cool to appreciate in the games that we play is the mastership that we have of those games – as you point out. What I get from that appreciation is the then unavoidable fact that I must know everything about what I am avoiding – otherwise how can I be so precise and efficient in designing the games to avoid them? It’s a tongue twister, but it makes sense to me and thus one can take the awareness and flip it into appreciation and acceptance. We are majestic; and thus, some of the games that we play to avoid that majesty are pretty impressive!

114. This blog has opened my eyes to see how addicted to tension we actually are. We work with it, talk about it, take it to bed with us etc. We fuel our relationships with tension many times in the day so no wonder we end up exhausted.

     1. And thus as it is with all drugs that we can get addicted to, we then have to ask the question – what are we running away from, what are we hiding from, what are we suppressing or denying? For me it was all about self. If I took the ‘drug’ of intensity, it kept my world all about self – which, no coincidence, is what all drugs do.

115. “No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity.” . . . now this is my kind of equation. I love it. So simply and so true.

     1. If only they taught this stuff at school!! – thank Heaven for the syllabus of the Ageless Wisdom and the learning temple that is Universal Medicine.

        1. Absolutely agree with you here Otto, and thank heavens for you sharing your story so everyone who reads it get the Ageless Wisdom straight from you even though they have never heard or may never hear of Universal Medicine.

        2. Because, in truth, the Ageless Wisdom is accessible to us all and thus we are all both teachers and students along the path of return.

116. I’m struck by how in some days, when the quality is there and I flow with my day enormous amounts happen, get done, complete and I can feel this dance with the all in the day. When I introduce my stress or intensity there is a wobble, I lose the flow and then suddenly I’m having to push, its exhausting and invariably the wheels come off and very little actually gets done in that quality. So exposing which is exactly as it should be in order that I can learn that its quality and connection first, and then everything else flows from there.

117. Amazing sharing with us Otto. There is so much to see and feel, let alone be bogged down with a busy schedule, which isn’t bad but we have to ensure things are appreciated.

118. Intensity is one of those many roads that leads to comfort.

119. I love your conclusion that we are made to work, that’s how we are designed. Very awesome we are!

     1. Yes, so true. How amazing to be packed to the brim in terms of being super super busy, in the ‘intensity’ of life, but at complete ease with this – wondering from this spaciousness what else needs to be done. That’s when we claim purpose in a very joyful way back into our lives.

120. What I love about life and living it with the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom (http://www.unimedliving.com/ageless-wisdom), is that it is always showing you there is more, more to expand to, more to surrender to. I think we are so capped in our current way of thinking. For example, for many these intense days lived would be the limit, there would be no more, and definitely no asking for it. I love that there is always more, if we are open to it.

121. It really clicked with me today Otto, that when we are in our own struggle, which can be different for everyone, we are on a merry-go-round and we are more looking at finding it ‘intense’ and saying we would like it to be different but at the same time constantly feeding it by our own investment in it. When we are in this we don’t accept we could be more amazing for the better of everyone and that is why it is such an illusion when we are in there because we still might be thinking we are really trying to get out yet it is for our own convenience and not for the growth of everyone and that is what makes the change.

122. I have also found that when asked how I am or how my day was, I can get stuck in the pattern of saying ‘intense’, ‘busy’, ‘fine’ etc – all words that answer the question but dont truly express anything about my day, and in some ways box in or cement the day in a certain feeling like it being a busy and ‘big’ day rather than it being an amazing day full of great conversations and a lot of activity.

     1. Oh yes. I too have done this for aeons. It’s like people asking “how are you” and then your reply “fine”. In my case it was very often a trick to allow me to not take responsibility for the moves that I have made. Because, in truth, if my day was only “fine” or it was “intense” then there is much that I need to look at, and yet we throw these words out with such regularity and abandon that they lose any of their purpose. It’s becoming more and more clear to me how essential it is that we are super attentive to the words we use so that their truth can really serve.

        1. I agree Otto – and in those moments when there is not the time or truly the space to give a fuller account of our day, there is a way we can express/sum up the day simply that is honest rather than a brushing off. I can express honestly that actually, I am a little tired, or if I have actually taken the time in my day to appreciate all the amazing moments, share genuinely that I am amazing. It is taking the opportunity that the moment offers for connection with another and honesty with myself

        2. I’m really playing with this and what you say is so right. Being honest and transparent doesn’t necessarily mean that we then have to get into a long, drawn out conversation that we may easily not have the time for at that moment. So great to practice delivering truth even if it is quick, rather than brushing it away. There is one small problem that I have noticed – when doing this, the other person is so often so surprised and pleased to hear a true response that I can then feel that they want to go deeper!…..so then i just have to lovingly claim it and know that as much as could be done has been done. Complete.

123. What a super beautiful support and so very true, however we decide to deal with things we have to live with it. Simple, and to me it shows the importance of self-love and self-care, with everything we do it is the care and love that we allow that lets us and others strive and bloom.

124. You unravel beautifully how the many pictures and expectations we have predetermine our life. With that we do not go openly into the day and embrace what comes towards us but have given our day already a frame within which we then work. It is like your example of intense, that was the main tenor you had your days set up in. Really fascinating and so awesome to undo this.

     1. And now that I have it doesn’t mean that I don’t go back there, but it does mean that I really recognise it, so can change my moves much, much sooner.

        1. Yes, it is a step by step unravelling until we are ahead of what comes.

125. It is great to re-read this blog and see how we can create our own intensity and nervous tension just in how we relate to life and events.

126. Thank you Otto, it’s my second read and I understood the in-tense-ness we create by being less than our amazing self, our soul and the essence of that in human life. Any day, even without a workload, can feel in-tense when we separate from who we are, and are then in the tension to return to our true selves.

     1. Absolutely. The ‘intensity’ has zero relationship to the actual work-load. I have laid in bed doing nothing and felt the ‘intensity’ of not being connected to myself; the mind explodes, emotions run, nervousness, self-doubt, anxiousness, jealousy and all sorts can come crashing in. Crazy intense…but I’m still just lying in my bed!

        1. Love this point you have just made Otto and will remind myself of it when I contemplate the enormous list of tasks, work and writing that is laid out in front of me at the moment (having recently moved house and still not having it fully furnished and adapted). It doesn’t matter ‘how much’ there is to be done, it is simply the energy we do it in. We imagine that when we get everything in order we will just coast along and have fun and that we will be ‘there’! But there is no such thing, because the next expansion is already calling. Time to laugh and surrender!

        2. It was a while back that I realised that the “To Do” list would never get any shorter! And nor should it – for we are designed to do, we are designed to serve, so the list should in fact always be expanding. Our role in it all is to ensure that we too are expanding and can thus embrace what is being offered as a way to serve.

        3. Yes, that is so crazy, we all play it in our head and the body has to deal with it, but the fact is that it is actually not really happening and yet we make it happen. All the while, in your example, you could just lie in bed and be still with no intensity to ail you with.

     2. This made me smile – likewise I’ve sat there worrying and getting stressed about something that is coming up, or OMG how am I going to get all these things done… yet at that moment, with all that space around me, I am simply sitting. Nothing hard about that!

127. Funnily enough I was chatting with my husband the other day and we were talking about how much we had to do. But the day hadn’t started yet and we both stopped and realised the label we were putting on our day- much like intense – we can set ourselves up to live in a picture and not the truth of a situation

128. Intensity is an energy we choose to fill up space and ensure we are numb to life. Like a rollercoaster wheel that keeps speeding up it seems impossible to stabilise let alone get off. But the key is what is driving this ride is the tension we feel but seek to over-ride. Beautiful Otto.

129. Intense is the perfect distraction from giving ALL that you are to EVERYTHING that you do. Imagine if in those moments, days or weeks when things are fast pace and busy, we brought our highest quality to it all…

     1. Intense is also the perfect excuse to not give the All to Everything, when the pace drops off a bit – because intense also gives us the perfect excuse to seek relief.

130. Since first reading this blog Otto, I am seeing how much I set myself up for intense, difficult or hard days by the quality of my thoughts and in any moment I have the opportunity to make a different choice.

131. I like this blog because it gently makes fun of the drama we like to create in life about life. When I keep things simple and just get on with things without worrying about how much there is to do, it all feels effortless. However I can also get into the stories about being too busy, which keep me out of this simplicity and ease in life.

132. I love this – quality over quantity; and it is refining and developing this quality that is literally changing my life, moment by moment.

133. I love how much we can influence the way our day is going to be. I find things get ‘in-tense’ when I have started in a rush and not listened to my body in the morning. So take work for example I can set myself up by running late so already feeling tense and then it is like a compounding effect. Whereas when I give myself the space in the morning I find that I am far more in flow and whatever comes gets dealt with rather than seeing it as something frustratingly in my way! When we work with the flow of the universe it almost feels effortless yet work against it and life can quickly become a struggle.

134. This blog really brings home just how much we get in the way of our own flow and the flow that’s possible for us all to be in rhythm with. No wonder exhaustion is high on the illness and disease statistics in society – we are using a false unnatural way of living, moving, working that goes completely against the divine order and flow of our particles.

     1. I agree. Is exhaustion high on the statistics? If it is then that is terrifying because I would suggest that exhaustion is possible the least diagnosed issues of modern society and is way, way, way worse than any statistics are telling us, in that a huge percentage of us are living with a level of exhaustion that we are totally ignoring. Consider for a moment if the consumption of all coffee was frozen for a week. Everywhere, everyone. Then consider the true picture that would be revealed; it’s actually kinda unimaginable. We are nowhere near realising how exhausted we all are.

135. Thank you Otto. Such a real and practical sharing that many can relate to. I love the part at the end where you share about JOY. When we don’t choose to be with intensity in life we open ourselves up to feel and live the joy that naturally feels within.

136. If I let my mind run the show then my day can feel super intense, if I stay with my movements then my day has a natural ease and flow.

137. This pattern of making excuses is indeed a way of covering up and avoiding the honesty of various situations and choices we have made. It can perpetuate an ill pattern of behaviours and a momentum that can only ever keep building until we are brought to a stop in life through an accident, illness or dilemma in life.

138. I too lived with the dramas and the continual thoughts of ‘how could others possibly know what was going on in my life?’ …“could they possibly understand or challenge the way I was being, because they’d have no idea what I was going through?” What an exhausting way to live, living with the self-perpetuating and self-created tension. To step out of my own way, to observe my life with the utmost honesty and to be open to making different choices has been the recipe that has turned this deleterious way of living (existing) into a way of life that is a joy to live.

139. No matter how much we have to do in one day, I have found it quite surprising that there is enough time when I get out of the way and allow the day to flow. That seems to bring space to allow it to happen.

140. I completely agree that when I make life intense it is because I am demanding or wanting something out of it rather than just sensing what needs to be done and rolling with that. And when I am in the intensity of self there is no room for joy.

     1. So this is really useful. I’m not feeling the joy? Stop and observe and be honest about what is running my day. These brilliant tools we have make living life a joyous game.

        1. Exactly Otto – the lack of joy is a dead give away that something is up and I’m not feeling myself and great point that if we are not feeling ourselves than something else is running us.

     2. Yes, and intensity is felt on a physical level: When I’m in the intensity of self there’s a pressure and a hardness that I inflict on myself, and then life feels squashed and pressurised. When I let go of doing everything I think I need to do and just go with it, get on with what’s right in front of me to be done, there’s a natural flow and simplicity to life, and so much more space in my body.

141. A beautiful understanding and learning on the stress we cause ourselves and the intensity of life we allow to affect us .Taking true responsibility here for the energy of our thoughts and the way we play at life is deeply interesting to study and the sense it makes of how we set ourselves up to be.Getting ourselves out the way and allowing feels a much better option in life and very supportive.

142. As we let go of intensity and struggle in our lives, we allow more space for deeper love and joy to be our every moment.

143. It is very true – we can write/speak/see. The question is what quality are we doing this in?

144. “intense = in-tense.” How wonderful it is to feel the truth of words and what they hold for us in terms of how we live and see life. When we have a picture and or dialogue playing out on what we feel life is going to be we not only hold our bodies in tension but also halt the opportunity to be open to whatever shall unfold in it’s own time and space. Life is a series of moments that we can choose to either forecast the what could be or leave space to an expansion of something much more. Life is a forever unfoldment of truth with our choices.

145. The mind chatter that can make everything intense in my day if I allow it is the only thing that needs to go and I am on to it! Big time!

146. The impact of the words we use to talk to ourselves and others about how we are feeling, life and our plans is significant and huge… a great thing to bring our attention to.

     1. I love the concept that everything matters but struggle with it and that responsibility it brings at the same time.

     2. We truly are the makers of our future and every seemingly small choice to be with our true flow (which is simply saying yes to the grand flow of the Universal orders) matters significantly in how much space we will feel in our bodies and lives.

147. “Very simply, if I get myself out of the way, then I will not be in this tension, I will not be in-tense and thus the day can no longer be intense. No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity. ” Love this Otto. What do we now choose?

148. These days I like to say that my day or my week or my month …and my life has been and is very FULL. There are times when it feels intense, there are times when it feels overwhelming, but overall when I am with myself there is a fullness in my life that feels amazing and I am so appreciative of! And so perception is key and as perception is governed by the energy that we are in, it is a tell tale sign of the choices I have been making and the energy that I have aligned to on a moment to moment and day to day basis.

     1. I really appreciate this Henrietta. Full. A great word to use. What I like about it is that it is a really call to be constantly looking and refining our choices, because when I hear that word I am immediately drawn to ask “Full of what?”

149. Simplicity, letting go of the struggle and a loving dose of self-acceptance and appreciation… some of many tools that turn the tide on our ferociously tough attitude towards ourselves and life.

     1. …and realising that it’s not all about us in the first place anyway. This is the hugest part of it for me; all intensity comes from an initial stand point of making it all about me.

        1. Yep tension and self are very close partners, to the exclusion of true purpose to support All.

        2. Making life about purpose gets self out of the way.

        3. Great point Otto as soon as I take my focus away from me and what can I get out of the interaction, day, life etc.. everything changes. I no longer get so narrow focussed towards an end goal or point and allow what is before me to be and so do not get so caught in it as I am no longer invested in the outcome and what it will look like.

        4. Yes.. when I take a step back I can see how there’s a part of me that likes the rush of the intensity..the drama, the stimulation of will I/won’t I be able to achieve everything I wanted to do, as if the clock will stop ticking at some invisible point ahead. It’s like a very addictive game. What supports letting go of this racy drive to do everything is reminding myself that I’m not going anywhere, that those tantalising to-do list thoughts are there but I don’t have to engage in them. I can ‘drop into’ my body, by feeling my feet on the ground. In doing so, I get out of my head, and then I get the simple instructions of what’s needed next through my body- just a simple knowing – and the intensity I was in is lessened.

        5. Absolutely Otto. This is what is coming home to me so strongly – IT IS NOT ABOUT ME. Life even seem-lived without this programming is immensely beautiful and has an underlying stillness which is so healing, like a constant healing balm that far ‘out strengths’ the intensity of life around us.

        6. A great paradox that ‘to come back to oneself’ is by making life no longer about ‘me’.

150. We indeed write our own future Otto and the book we write on is our own body. This amazing ‘book’ documents every energy that we put out there and it shows us exactly how we have been living. Intense? Or otherwise? What is wonderful is that you have identified what is happening before your body has collapsed under the burden of it.

     1. This is great Lyndy. “the book we write on is our own body”. A really powerful way to explain it and what I get from this is how it makes it unavoidable of the responsibility that we have because just like a book by your bed – you can choose to read it or not.

        1. Love it Otto!
           We are taught to read and write words at school but not energy (as we all know so well😊) – this has been very pointedly left out of the syllabus. It is deliberately kept from us (and we choose to sync with this collusion) that we are the authors of our own lives. And in this way we perpetuate the recklessness and irresponsibility of the spirit. I love what your blog brings.

        2. I was pondering this exact thing this morning. When a child first walks into a school an enormous thing happens. The first day of their long journey to learn about life, to be educated, to be formed into adults, to be equipped for the world that lies ahead of them. They are full of expectation, trepidation and are open books, blank canvases. A gigantic moment and the hugest responsibility of our teachers, our education system and the consciousness that we have ALL built and adhered to. And on this very first day…and every other day of their subsequent 11-18 year journey through the education system, they are systematically and deliberately pulled away from their innate knowing and natural clairsentience. It’s a gross, violent and absolute abuse. Just pause for a moment and imagine what it would be like if that first day was spent asking the children how they felt? whether the room was set up ok? to sit still for a few minutes and gently breathe…

151. So true Otto. Where there is space there is joy.

     1. And we choose whether there is space or not… simple and sweet is our responsibility.

152. I agree Otto, in that we do this to ourselves. There’s always a choice to either be ‘in-tense’ (love the breakdown of the word) or surrender and allow.

153. ‘And now, with this new learning, I am seeing that there is room for a great deal more and, amazing beyond amazing, that fills me with joy.’ – The willingness for MORE is deeply felt and truly inspirational.

154. ‘The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had.’ it’s interesting isn’t it how self perpetuating and self feeding a drama can be.

155. I certainly had what anyone would consider an intense day at work today, but after re-reading this fabulous blog by Otto I am feeling now how that feeling of intensity was founded on my reactions to what other people were saying about me after I called out something that I felt was not only unsafe but an illegal practice. I can see now how when I am too concerned about what people think about me, it causes a reaction in my body as if I had done something wrong, even though at the time I was standing up for what I felt was the truth. This stance will undoubtedly come under fire when people do not want to take the responsibility for not living that truth and sometimes this manifests into an attack on the one who called it out. But the truth is the last one standing, as Serge Benhayon has said so wisely.

     1. And also very supportive to remember that the reaction that may be coming at us isn’t actually the truth of who that person is and thus we shouldn’t take it personally. If we can remember that then it helps in breaking the illusion of the ‘intensity’.

     2. This absolutely sums it all up, Michael: ‘…the truth is the last one standing…’

156. We innately feel tension as that is what pulls us back to the truth of who we actually are. BUT, f we ignore (say yes to) a level of tension, then the level of tension then has to rise for us to feel the tension, and again if we continue to ignore, it continues to rise…which is how we get into the mess of stress, intensity, exhaustion and all sorts off other more extreme illnesses.

     1. Us feeling tension just shows us how naturally sensitive we all are.

        1. And thus, tension becomes our purpose. We know we are more and thus we move toward that more.

        2. Love this connection between tension and purpose: tension is like a signpost in my body that is telling me what’s needed next, from how I need to move, work, what to next etc. If I ignore it, it continues to build. It’s like my body’s clever way of getting my attention and showing me something I need to look at, to grow.

     2. Yes.. if we ignore and try to push down the tension, instead of admitting and accepting that it’s there and dealing with it face on, it doesn’t go away, we’re just temporarily distracted from it, until we eventually look at how and why we’re creating and perpetuating it.

        1. It’s interesting the words you use here “push down” the tension. To push something down requires force and to keep it down means that the force has to be constant – thus in tension. So in fact, what you are exposing is that the denial of tension requires an act that creates more tension. And so on and so on. No wonder we are all utterly exhausted (see coffee consumption statistics)

        2. Wow! Completely awesome observation Otto. Each time we do not feel and consciously address a reaction to tension (or anything else) we are taking further steps away from our natural state of co-creation, knotting up the pathway more and more with reaction upon reaction creating complexity . . . which the human spirit loves, because it loves both numbness and drama, as they keep us unable to be our divinity.

        3. Exactly. I’m just in awe of the expanding realisation of the enormous effort and tension that is needed to play this game. It is deepening my understanding of how true vitality is lived.

        4. Yes, I totally get this. So could the antidote to this then, be honesty, and letting go of needing to be or feel a particular way? Admitting that we’re living in and with a lot of tension, which then gives space to observe and address why that is – instead of adding more tension and exhaustion by denying that it’s not there and trying to prove to ourselves and others that we’re not in tension, or feeling ‘in tense’.

157. I have observed that I feel overwhelmed when I begin to resist what life is reflecting. When I am in the flow, then what needs to happen does. I have many of the hours in my everyday full of things I have said Yes to. How I approach it and hold myself in it, makes so much difference. In the resistance there is a tension that increases, space will be there when we are open to the natural flow of life.

     1. Yes great point here that the overwhelm and intensity comes from our reaction to the work to be done not the work itself. I have recently being saying yes more often to those impulses that come from my body or opportunities that simply come my way in my life and I can feel how true it is to say yes to these things – there is no doubt when I connect to the truth of it in my body. However sometimes my mind likes to come in and make things complicated and can create stories about how it is not possible, not enough time etc which then creates the intensity which really does not need to be there if I simply surrender to the natural flow and my original impulse that I registered in my body.

        1. Clocking those voices and being really honest about where they come from. Because in truth – really? Really? Are our little complications, worries or self-centred issues really going to get in the way of what needs to be done? No judgement – just an honest appraisal and a focus on what we are going to give oxygen to.

158. Otto, this is an amazing level of honesty that you bring, and one that I too can sit with and ponder on how much this can play a role in my day…
     “I was pre-laying excuses for my irresponsibility over this period. By getting out in front with dramatic stories about how full-on it all was, I was absolving myself from any slip-ups that I had been making along the way, whilst also trying to ensure that people didn’t pull me up for some of the choices that I had made – how could they possibly understand or challenge the way I was being, because they’d have no idea what I was going through? The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had.”

     1. I agree Henrietta, there is an amazing level of honesty shared in this blog, one that opens up the topic of business and how we can set ourselves up for stress and intensity well before the situation and intensifying any issues, stress or difficulties.

159. Our day becomes that which we perceive it to be – and hence the words we use will illustrate the experience we have had. This does not mean that it has really been like this but it is what we have chosen to see it as or experience it as. For example, 2 people can have the same day, and yet share it as being completely different…how can this be? Can this have anything to do with our perception? And if so what governs our perception? Could it be an energy that is there to tell us what our experience has been? And so what if it is about shifting the energy and not the what actually happens in the day, in order to change our perception? What tells us that the glass is half full rather than half empty?

     1. Or is it about what our initial purpose was at the beginning of that day? If our purpose was to tick boxes, get recognition, satiate the self, or any other individualist motivations, then it will often feel intense. However, if we were to connect to a bigger picture, to a wider purpose and if that commitment was true and felt and lived, then the day wouldn’t feel intense – indeed it would probably feel too empty! I definitely don’t live the latter all of the time, which is why my life can often still feel intense or that I am chasing-my-tail. So, I am really focusing on this now; really looking at that initial purpose and motivation, really examining my day and committing to shifting that balance.

        1. Thank you Otto, I really appreciate your honesty and everything you’ve shared here. I am deeply examining the anxiety of getting things done currently, which has come from my experiences in education and work and putting everything ahead of myself. Unravelling that will take time, and I like your approach to look at the beginning of the day and where our intention is, feels like a great foundation to start with.

        2. And each day can be ‘started’ many times. What I mean is that there is always an opportunity to stop and address the tension, re-calibrate, re-connect, and go again. So – we have no excuse!

160. The body’s natural state is one of harmony and if we accept anything less than that as ok, it becomes our new ‘normal’. This is not to say that we don’t experience tension, just that we know in our heart of hearts that we are deeply harmonious and loving beings, and can consistently take the steps towards returning to that.

161. “I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was. I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity” its amazing how we can set ourselves up in this way for anything. The quality in which we go to do something will always determine how what lies ahead of us is going to play out.

162. A great example of looking deeper into the words we use.
     And that everything that happens is an opportunity to evolve.

     1. Yes Ken. I am really at the tip of the iceberg with this but am having a fascinating time exploring this and really checking in with every word that I use. I feel that this is way, way bigger than most of us even begin to appreciate. The force of mis-used words is a huge science; how it imposes on others, how it caps others and ourselves, how it enables us to hide, lie and protect, how we use them to absolve ourselves of responsibility, to keep people out…the list is endless. Words are a very, very powerful weapon and, like all weapons, if misused or abused can cause immense damage.

163. I absolutely love the play on words with the word “Intense” = “in-tense” in other words in tension. For how can the body surrender to true purpose when we brace ourselves for the delivery on hand? This is the learning, to trust and embrace the body in surrender rather than in tension, and then bring this to all that we do.

164. Wow Otto, this is an amazing sharing and very inspiring – I am still caught up in moments where I talk about how intense or ‘full on’ my schedule is or can be (frequently working 90 hours per week by juggling 2 jobs), and in just saying that alone I feel the tightening in my shoulders with the anticipation of the tension of what is to come tomorrow. It is a way of self sabotage and way as you have shared to configure things so they will be hard. I have also discovered how there is a belief in me that one has to work very hard in order to see any change or growth – and here I use the word ‘hard’ in terms of these changes or growth cannot be seen as easy or else I will be seen as lazy! Recently I too have experienced some ‘space’ and as soon as I felt this, I found myself deeply surrendering and asking “what is next…” What a blessing and a healing to feel a life so full yet knowing that there is always space for more.

     1. Hi Henrietta. I was inspired by your comment to do some math. 90 hours a week seems like a huge amount. But then I considered, that still leaves 78 hours a week. Now of course we have to sleep and rest and eat and do all sorts, but it struck me as interesting to consider it from the other angle. BUT then I realised that in looking at it like this, I am changing nothing – it’s still the same game that we play. What we truly need to be doing is considering it as all one life. Thus it doesn’t matter how many hours we are doing of anything since it is all the same and we bring all of us to absolutely everything – including the sleeping part! Thank you for this.

165. This is awesome Otto, ‘And now, with this new learning, I am seeing that there is room for a great deal more and, amazing beyond amazing, that fills me with joy.’

     Saying yes to evolution means you are supported all the way to embrace the opportunities available, saying yes to more without overwhelm but purpose and commitment is working in joy. This confirms how much we are capable of learning, expanding and evolving beyond what our minds could sometimes comprehend.

166. No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity. I absolutely love this recipe as it makes so much sense. we get in our own way and bring the tension through our mind. Better to move aside and let love lead.

167. What sometimes happens is that intensity is a re-interpreted version of true enthusiasm and passion. We get the original pure impulse and then skew or exaggerate it into its gross astral form of expression. So often underneath intensity there lies a beautiful enthusiasm and joie de vivre. I have always loved Occam’s Razor: ‘Don’t multiply things beyond necessity’ – even though I have broken this ‘law’ myself as a regular habit!

168. Loved reading your playful sharing Otto. A very wise woman I know once told me that as soon as we say a no to the possibility of more, we are closing down our bodies to the more. She gave an example of how in her busy business she was able to cater for unexpected clients by remaining open and not having fixed schedules. Since then I have been applying it to my life too and this simple and profound sharing supports me immensely.

169. Amazing how we can perceive something that we are completely sold on thinking is true when in fact we are completely deluded…

170. The moment I’ve connected and acknowledged that my evolution is in the work I do there is less resistance to the intensity and more acceptance and appreciation in my work, this makes me less tired, gives me space and much more joy, it definitely has changed my movements.

171. So true, to observe and question why we approach things in a certain way is super important. If we have a certain dialogue running there is no doubt we seed forth what is going to come to be…stress, hard, scary and as you say intense are all going to continue to snowball if we keep seeing life that way.

172. I created a whole lot of tension for myself yesterday, I set myself up to make something complicated when it didn’t need to be, I felt the impact of this on my body from tension making me feel heavy, tired and aching, and also the impact this had on the day. But today I saw it clearly, what my responsibility in it was, and in doing so was able to address it this morning with a completely different approach and sure enough it flowed beautifully, no problem or complication.

173. There is something in us that loves to be identified with such things. “Can’t you see how busy I’ve been?” We often want recognition for it and then it’s exactly as you say Otto we seek confirmation that we have been so busy that there isn’t possibly room for anything more, including responsibility.

174. Wow, I have been playing the intense card for ages, I think I am going to have to read this blog another couple of times to truly hear what you are offering. It is like I have convinced myself, that I could not possibility fit one more thing in, that doing so would be insane. I am realising the damage my intensity is causing my body and it also shows on my face. Thanks for the honest expose and I look forward to really reading this blog until I totally get this.

     1. And I am still learning to live it consistently!

175. The way we speak and the descriptions we use have such a physical effect on us. It is time to look below the surface of words and choose to take a moment before we respond just so we can see what words we are using and if they are placing an unnecessary burden on our bodies.

176. When I truly surrender to what needs to be done, there is always space to complete whatever is there to do. Although when I try to put ‘me’ into it and make it what I want the pressure kicks in and it doesn’t flow.

177. It has been beautiful to read and apply this understanding and honesty of the intensity that we create in our lives and how we can change this but also finding how it can creep into everything if i let it. It can however change so simply with the realisation in the moments.

178. What I actually really find supportive is, when a day was indeed intense and you just call that out for yourself and admitting, that it was challenging etc. We are so used to toughen up and that we can handle anything with an ease- showing transparency let other people see you and being able to support you. Because, the world IS intense.

179. I love the term you have used Otto – ‘running a dialogue’ ( or possibly monologue) which we all do in different flavours. I just caught myself running one about ‘fixing’ a misapprehension someone had about an event which occurred about 7 years ago – making sure the record was straight! I dropped it as soon as i registered what i was doing. Surrender, surrender, surrender to our universal, shared truth is so needed by us all to cut through the static caused by our own internal dialogues and monologues!

180. So much of our day is determined by the quality of our thoughts, if I focus on how much I have to do I can easily go into drive or overwhelm but if I focus on the quality of my movements there seems ample space and my work has a flow.

181. By dropping the ‘busy thoughts’ in my day I have been connecting much more naturally to my movements. With this is a massive difference in how I actually feel at the end of the day, much more vital. By letting the day unfold as it will the quality I can feel I’m working in is deeper and a simple appreciation for what ever is before me, the bonus is being totally ok with whenever things complete they complete. Basically letting go of control.

182. “I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity…” – I’m appreciating more and more the effect of how we set ourselves up to respond to life in a certain way according to how we perceive events are going to be, and how much of a difference it makes to be aware of my body and how it’s feeling as a marker of the way I’m approaching something…

     1. It is super interesting to observe the body what we call in that it contracts away from its natural surrenderdness. It happens super immediate and hidden sometimes. For me checking in my body a couple of times, how my shoulders feel or if my face is relaxed for example, became a ritual and routine during a day. It helps me to be aware when I am out of my stillness and essence and not getting pulled into a drive or reaction.

        1. Great and very practical rituals Stefanie to have on the day in support of the ‘natural surrenderdness of the body’. Very timely, thank you.

183. Beautiful Elizabeth , we are the authors of our own lives.

184. It is so much about getting ourselves out the way. What you present Otto is next level – we start to take responsibility for how we are living but at the same time there is a need for us to look at where we get in the way.

185. With the greatest respect to anyone living through ‘intense circumstances’ in their lives at this moment because there is a lot of intensity out there in the world when I consider all the problems, evil and illness in the world. However there is also a huge amount of love constantly available to all and we always have the choice to react to life which cuts ourselves off from love, or hold our love and our truth and then respond to whatever is going on around us.

186. I can so relate to your experience of describing things as intense Otto and it is refreshing to hear another deeper perspective on this – that our relationship with life and its events and circumstances and how we are with everything that occurs is what makes a huge difference to how much intensity we actually feel on a daily basis and great to consider that we are the makers of our own intensity.

187. I love the science you are presenting here, that we determine how our day is going to be, that we determine how our life is unfolding. This is incredibly awesome and maybe challenging at the same time as it brings responsibility back full circle to ourselves.

     1. It does Esther, but it also empowers us to bring the changes that so many of us are craving. No matter whether we bury it with food, hobbies, alcohol, sport, work or whatever, there are huge numbers of us who can very definitely feel that there is a more connected, joyful and purposeful way to how we are currently living. And understanding of this ‘science’ is a blessing because it puts us in the drivings eat, whereas so many of us feel that we are passengers of life.

188. It’s such an interesting philosophical point to ponder on that we create everything we experience…. One that blows a lot of the irresponsibility out of the water.

189. I love how you almost decapitated intense to in-tense. If we were to say in tension the focus comes back from what is outside of us to the quality we hold ourselves in.

190. Buying into the intensity in life, creating dramas and allowing that energy to rule us is another form of self-abuse.

     1. So true. And it is by looking at it through these very wise lenses that we may be inspired to make the changes.

191. I love this understanding that we create the intensity ourselves, and therefore, once realised, we can simply get ourselves out of the way and un-create it. Knowing it as a choice takes away all the drama and angst.

192. It is so true, when we are on the merry-go round, we are only capable of seeing the restrictions and become blind to what is truly on offer.

193. I remembered this blog yesterday when I was feeling overwhelmed and as if I wanted the world to stop. It feels so awful when I lose my commitment to life. I have no energy and I just want to crawl into bed and never get up. I fully admitted this to myself yesterday and as a result I woke up with a whole load of fresh energy and a desire to get out of bed and get on with my day. There is no choice but to carry on, and if we embrace life with joy we feel so much more energised and are able to do so much more. Not with a drive, but with a willingness and appreciation.

     1. ..sparked by the initial honesty. Amazing to read how these simple choices can either inspire or devastate the body.

194. By not embracing in full the work I have been given to do by the hierarchy I cannot let through the volume that is there to come through me. This is a game I can see I am playing so as to not have to take responsibility for all that I am here to reflect.

195. Thanks, Otto. It is very powerful to become aware that we are writing our own future by the choices we make.

196. Under all the layers of dishonesty and unawareness that we expose by applying an ever-deepening honesty eventually truth and an ocean of awareness await us.

197. When I become caught up with the intensity I leave no space for expansion – when I stop and connect to stillness I can feel everything that I have been creating to block returning to fully embrace my divinity.

198. Over the last 10 days being off work over the Christmas break I’ve observed how much I have wired myself to have something to be concerned about, some kind of ‘issue’ and almost always it is related to time. Time is always beating me, I’m always behind and hence the tension I’ve set out to create.
     It is crazy… and very revealing of the games we play with ourselves.
     But I love what you have shared Otto. I can see very clearly how it’s a game to shun the responsibility of bringing the glory I do know and live, and the divinity in my expression that is simply asking for my permission to flow with more and more volume. Which of course, creates the huge tension that I then try to alleviate with shenanigans and age-old excuses.

199. No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity. When you put it like that Otto, you get to see, we really are our own worst enemy time in all things time.

     1. Yes, we really are our own worst enemy’s ‘in all things time’. In space there is no room for intensity.

200. The word that comes to me when reading your words Otto is appreciation. You labeled your days as intense, and yes you obviously had a lot to do, but isn’t it magnificence that you have been given so much to bring out to the world. And I love that you tackled the obstacle of intense and laid this foundation for all of us, to make space or let us feel and be aware of the space, the more, the expansion that is always there.

201. Just reading the working hours, 14-20 hours a day, mostly seven days a week, makes me realise I could be saying ‘yes’ to a lot more, instead of feeling the stress of never being on top of everything. What makes me stressed is my own self-imposed deadlines… ‘must do this before X or else’ – it’s completely self-orientated and so what you’re saying here makes total sense – that when I get myself out of the way, what the ‘me’ wants to do, and surrender to feeling what is there to be done, life flows, and I enjoy whatever I’m doing, instead of trying to get it done to live up to a picture of how I think it needs to be.

202. Love what you are saying here Otto about our self-imposed isolation and how when we make it about self we actually cut ourselves off from the enormous universal support that is flowing around and through us constantly. All we have to do is surrender to this connection with our soul and the rest takes care of itself.

     1. Oh yes. I want to write a follow up blog all about going solo. Another of my heffalump traps!

        1. I am in that one too! If my day is not full/full-on then chances are I am alone with no support! Wambulance time – so yes, write that blog Otto or even Andrewmooney26 – or perhaps it is my fingers that need to find the keyboard as well 🙂

203. Amazing how saying the word “intense “was a set up for how the day would unfold, busyness can be a way to check out and not be responsibility, a great sharing of your awareness thank you Otto.

204. ‘it all starts by getting self out of the way.’ – If we allow life to unfold naturally, without the need to ‘keep control’, it is amazing to feel the simplicity in which the day to day living just flows.

205. I love how you were aware that building this intensity in your day Otto, you were attempting to absolve yourself from any slip-ups that you had made, like you were saying it’s not your fault because you were so busy. I know this game too, not wanting to take responsibility for my choices and ‘blaming’ others. Once it is exposed, the game’s up!

206. This is a great one to consider at the start of the day, how am I setting up my day? Any trains of thought running through that can be predisposing to the day ahead?

207. A brilliant blog and sharing to read for the new year ahead and the intensity we can create out of the simplicity that can really be there to en-joy life and be with ourselves and our bodies in it all connected to the flow of life whatever that may be.

208. “No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity.”

     …an equation we like to ignore because with the tension comes a density through which we can feel identified because without it we are left to feel the magnitude of space and thus the volume on offer for us to deliver, were we to align ourselves with this. That is, we have become so identified with the ‘self’ we have created that we stubbornly refuse to surrender this self back into the big soup of The All from which it first arose/separated itself from.

     Quite simply and ironically – we are attached to all that we have created and so busy ‘playing God’ that we forget our innate godliness and thus un-god ourselves by trying to be God instead of just being who we naturally are, which is godly in itself.

     1. Brilliant. And humbling to consider God’s work load! Which, as you have beautifully expressed, is in fact a work load that we are all designed for – since we are all godly.

        1. Exactly and the load is only heavy if we are trying to do it on our own by thinking we are ‘the one’, when really we are the many who are equally the One when we work together.

        2. Immediately, I am reminded of The Great Pyramids.

209. Brilliant expose Otto. How we can keep ourselves creating the very intensity we are wanting to alleviate. All our images, pictures hold us to a frame and the truth is when we see through those there is a spaciousness that is expansive, borderless. I have experienced this too, where time becomes more spacious. Great reminder to get out of our own way.

210. Pingback: Leaving Things to the Last Minute – The Truth about Serge Benhayon

211. Having an intense job can be a huge thing to identify outselves too. Like being busy is what is seen as someone who is hard working. Being spacious, grand and flowing – doing things when they are needed and not worrying about it before- are actually true ways of hard working we just have to start appreciating more.

212. A profound blog Otto in the raw honesty you bring to expose the games we all can play until they are seen for what they are.

213. It has been great reading and re-reading this blog, a great reminder of taking that awareness into my life at a new level. Feeling any tendril and not allowing myself to react in the face of any drama has been fabulous, and my gall bladder loves it!

214. When we cap our awareness we are declining the opportunity to connect to the universal mind, which brings truth to all situations – we have to ask ourselves why we would do this?

215. This idea of writing our own future – on the one hand it seems almost preposterous (what about destiny, pre-destination, fate?) and yet it is our reality. Whether on the micro or the macro we are not the victims of some outside forces or puppets without will. We choose in every moment, through our thoughts, our words and our deeds, what is going to play out and so the language we use to describe our every day is incredibly important. Super super cool that you’ve reminded us of this Otto, and thank you for realising there was the space to write your blog!

216. Wow and wow Otto, so honest, so true, so exposing, so loved it.

217. How simple and stunningly refreshing it is to read of your self-discovery… we need be astutely aware of what we are projecting and casting out and the reasons for our actions,

218. I like this part about creating a very dramatic picture each time someone asked you how you are, so that you could essentially get away with behaviours that you already knew were not true or supportive, but did not want the other person/s to see and hence call you up on. But what is so great, and needs to be appreciated, is the fact that you did know all along what would be the truly supportive way to live with all the of pressures and demands that your life has given to you, and the only real mistake – if we can call it that at all – was to invest in the tasks and activities of your life as if they could define you, when really they cannot because you are stupendous far beyond what any daily chore or activity could reflect. Therefore the knowing of who you are and how to live from that essential essence of you is the greatest craft of life that we can live by and share.

     1. You are a master of direction of appreciation and you are absolutely right. If this wasn’t innately and absolutely known, then I’d never have been able to create such a precise avoidance….and, more to the point, nor would I have persisted in the investigation and eventual revelation. I deeply appreciate the alternate angle that you have reflected.

219. How we live sets our future. When we live in a way that allows our body to be in harmony then we are setting ourselves up for good physical health, likewise with our mental health, how we are with ourselves and in our relationships affects everything that happens around us, and in the same way, how we think directly affects how we respond to the present situation and prepares us for the future. We can live the future right now. Why wait?

220. I love this Elizabeth – the quality of our intentions determines the quality of our eventual experience.

221. I know at this stage in my evolution this is only words as I am not living it, but I can see from those who are that there is no difference between work and not working for when we get self out of the way everything is done for true purpose in the waking hours of our lives.

     1. And even in our sleep when our Soul delivers dreams!

222. And when we meet that revelation, we have the opportunity to be honest and change our movements, or go around again. A sobering and profound thought on the 1st day of a New Year. Thank you Elizabeth for your deep wisdom.

223. Many of us choose the tension associating it with work life as if it’s an expected way of being. Then relying on the evenings and weekends to relieve us of the tension in whatever form we have chosen to do this in, i.e. TV, drinking, working it off at the gym, overeating – the list is endless. But what this blog is showing us is that this tension that we subscribe to is a choice and that we do have control of it, and in fact, we are the creators. How crazy is that!

224. This blog shows to me once again that we are the creators of our own life and in doing that we are limiting that what can be brought through us to the world from the divine and from our heavenly brothers in getting our act together and to restore the foundation of love back into our everyday’s lives. We are so much more if we can let go of this creation thing and instead surrender to our natural way of being and to work in co-creation with the all we are surrounded by.

225. There is much to be done, keeping a light heart in it all is essential. What I am learning is that our attitudes can either support or hinder. When we make life intense, everything gets a bit compressed and heavy. We always have the ability to make light work of it all, after all it is what we are born to do, working is a very innate expression.

226. I’m resisting what is on offer here! I understand totally what is being said in moments and then I want to check out. I’m digging my heels in and simply don’t want to feel that I am the creator of the intensity in my life and that this momentum keeps on going unless I expose it like Otto has. I can feel how I’m hanging on to this way of being because of my investment in the illusion it brings. How can I choose the drama of intensity and everything that comes with it when my purpose is to bring the qualities of the true woman that I am to the world? At last I am stirred and sad as I begin to get a sense of the choice I have made to have intensity in my life. Thank you Otto for sharing.

227. Otto, it’s great to keep coming back to your article, this really stands out; ‘if I make work ‘hard’ then yes, it is ‘hard.’ I can feel how there is a choice to think about work as being ‘hard’ and to be in the intensity of this or there is another choice which is to simply do what is needed without labelling it as ‘hard’, ‘demanding’ etc.

     1. Dropping the labels – great choice, labels feel like they come with self-identification.

        1. That’s what these labels say in small print on the back of them! If you look, you’ll see a scoring system of self-identification. demanding = 1 point, hard = 2 points, full-on= 3 points, intense = 4 points! I’m being silly but actually as I write this, I can really feel that this is literally how I have operated. When I am feeling still and full, then I will simply express what the day has been with zero sensationalism or excess superlatives. When I am feeling needy and empty, then I consciously choose the words (as above) depending on what ‘score’ of self-identification I need.

        2. Great revelation of the unspoken unwritten score card, not only can I feel we do this to ourselves we hold them up to others expecting them to ‘read the invisible ink’ that we are worthy and need attention for this. The tick of this is everyone feels and reads this energetically and it’s how we respond or react to the ‘need to score’ that brings connection or separation of ourselves and with each other.

228. The “yes” to more awareness does not come from wanting to know or see more. It comes from deepening the love we already are and then we see.
     Anything other than Love is our protection to not seeing more.

     1. Beautiful. And no matter how much we rant and rave trying to convince ourselves to say yes to more it doesn’t work when we come from our mind. It is through the way we are with ourselves, our livingness that paves way to the what is next.

229. “How was your day?”, “How are you”, “How have you been?”, are all questions that we idly throw around but there is nothing that is not expression and therefore nothing that does not contribute to who we are, because expression makes up every-thing including us, so who are we choosing to be with the way that we are choosing to express? To add, as everything is something then the questions that we ask and how we ask them is also expression. There is literally no-thing that is not expression, so the question in any given moment is ‘who are we choosing to be with how we are choosing to express?’

230. Could it be possible that “the internet has blurred the boundaries between office and home,” so we can experience life as being ‘no different’ so no matter what we are doing it is one life that becomes all about us being in divine connection what ever we are doing?

     1. Super true Greg. And whilst it could be seen as a negative thing – this blurring of the boundaries between work and the rest of our lives – is it possible that this is in fact a more accurate representation of the truth? What I have found is that if I live my life with a series of on/off switches then it just doesn’t work. What supports me is bringing my all and equal to everything – whether that be a $$$$ contract, brushing my teeth or saying good morning to the kids. Do I live like that? No, not all of the time and this is where the tension first arises. Consistency and full commitment is what breathes space and dilutes the tension.

        1. The tension now feels to me like something to be embraced.Yippee! Yet in the past it would have been something I would want to suppress and numb immediately because I desire the extremely comfortable life – it is not yet coming always ‘naturally’ to me. The human spirit also loves the intensity because it makes it feel alive, as if it is ‘having a life’. I know you’ve already said all this Otto, in one way or another, but I am just saying it again!

        2. Could it be the tension never leaves, and we are all learning how it is working in our life?

        3. The tension shows us, categorically, that we are more than what we are living…and yet so many of us live in way that tries to deny and hide this tension, only to then feel wretched at how mundane and repetitive our lives have become (the classic mid-life crisis – “is this really all that it is all about??”). It’s a crazy game and we have no excuse and can claim no ignorance as tone tension has always been there – lovingly pulling us to be more.

     2. If we live life in compartments there is a different quality and persona for others to see that we bring to each compartment. This causes huge tension as it is not living from the true essence of ourselves.

        1. Love the honesty Otto, and the fact that it is recognised feels as though the path of living in “full commitment” is allowing us to feel the tension that is there. Discerning, that tension which is always there and knowing it is allowing us to evolve as it will never leave, because we are always returning to our full-ness as a Son of God!

231. ‘if I make work ‘hard’ then yes, it is ‘hard.’ …. or, as you share, we can surrender, get ourselves out of the way and allow ourselves to be supported and guided to bring through the absolute divinity that is on offer, all around us, we just have to say ‘yes’ and be open to receiving it.

232. “No, I don’t want to know or see more, because that might expose the game I’m playing, so I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me.” – and in doing so we are isolating ourselves off from truly connecting with everyone around us – further ensuring that the game is allowed to continue.

233. We really do create our own reality… and if we focus ahead, our bodies will be in the tension of whats coming (known or unknown); if we focus on the past, this also creates a tension when we judge/criticise and constantly replay what was and or what could have been… therefore the only ‘time’ is the present moment – so what quality is present and how fully are we living that moment?

234. This really illustrates how we talk ourselves into things, and just as easily, we can ‘talk’ our way out of them too!

235. Do we experience reality or do we perpetuate it by the virtue of our movements? This blog answers that exquisitely.

     1. Yes.. for me it’s: is my experience of life based on time or space? When it’s based on time, then I’m constantly up against it, holding the tension of my to-do list but never enough time to complete everything. When it’s space, there’s joy – time becomes irrelevant, and I enjoy what I’m doing because I’m fully committed to doing it, completing whatever part of it is there to be completed, in that moment, enjoying being in the flow and the movement of that one thing. Space = simplicity.

        1. Love that equation Bryony, Space = simplicity

236. We have all had experiences where life flows and things are simple. In reflecting on those moments there is an inherent trust that everything works out as it is meant to, without any need for recognition or need or tension. Those moments are pointing the way that we can be that way through all of life, rather than being the exception.

237. Thank you Otto – on first reading this blog, a light of truth was sparked and my days have been quite different.
     I was under the spell of busy I was casting through my thoughts and it was having a party at my expense. Since then there is more ease, settlement , space and completion. Who needs a holiday when there are insights and truths to awaken our awareness and bring truth and love to our movements which naturally brings expansion, simplicity and joy?

238. It is very enjoyable to suddenly have the energy to intensely work all day every day. After a while we can then be just as productive with less intensity and more harmony and then joy.

239. It may not be as obvious as your example of intensity but aren´t we all ‘pre-disposing’ ourselves quite often in the way we approach our day, the next task or meeting? It is definitely worth to develop our awareness of the ‘pictures and expectations’ we hold and impose on what is ahead and or in front of us. It is like a set of glasses with all the colours we may choose to taint life the way we ‘need’ it to be so that we are confirmed in what we are comfortable with and don´t need to expand our awareness beyond the known and controlled reality we have created.

     1. Absolutely Alexander – we are constantly predisposing our day with all the images and expectations we carry around with us – the past that we are allowing to possess our possible future – and all to keep ourselves ‘safe’. We carry so many of these images that we cannot see the wood for the trees. The images cast shadows and we are lost in the dark and obscure tanglement of the wood.

240. “choice to accept and appreciate how much more powerful I am, how we are designed to work and how true evolution comes from saying yes to more.” This is so true for all of us, we just need to get out of the way, appreciate how more powerful we are and get out the way, we will then be give all that is need with all the support.

241. I feel myself squirming reading this as I have identified very strongly with the intensity of work, and yet I have always known there was another way to be with it that didn’t leave me exhausted and wrung out at the end of the working week and seeking relief in my ‘weekend’. By focusing on getting through the intensity of work I have continued doing things in the same way, as I know I can get things done/get results by being as you say head down, blinkers on, but in doing so I have been keenly aware of how I forget I have a body and will push it to it’s limits without caring for myself. This is in no way sustainable and never has been and yet I will fall back on it when the intensity increases. What you have learned Otto is the piece I’ve been looking for – the equation that has taken the blinkers off my eyes so I can now see clearly. I often have the thought of ‘what else can I do’ but have quickly squashed this because I have thought to myself I need to have the space to prepare for the intensity of work. Loving how you have blown wide open the ‘intensity’ myth and exposed it for the diminishing, individual state of being it is – how what we accept we become ie. it will be intense therefore I will be intense, and how this self-ish choice is in direct tension to who we are in truth.

242. I love this Otto, so absolutely true the way we can set ourselves up in this way, and I know all too well. When I have done this in the past, I was definitely not with myself because I know my soul wouldn’t be trying to sabotage what was next or there to be done.

243. I am inspired by the level of honesty you have gone to here, Otto, exposing the tendency to play games in order to avoid feeling the full power that is at our fingertips.

     1. Yes, it is a learning process. First we discover that we have power and then we discover how much more power we can have. Great fun!

     2. Absolutely – the game is herein exposed in simplicity, with clarity.

244. Expanding on this it is clear that everything in our day/life is exactly how it is because of our own choices and there is nothing that is beyond our control – really puts ‘blame’ to bed for good and invites us to be truly open to the possibilities of letting go of it at the same time.

245. When I make life hard or intense what am I running away from? There are certainly moments when I feel this way of being and as crazy as it sounds as soon as I catch myself it passes and I feel completely different enjoying what is to be done in front of me without it feeling a burden because I am enjoying being with me. For me this is key… the relationship with self and what is next to look at that brings a greater presence to being with me.

246. When you break ‘intense’ down to it’s roots; ‘in-tense’, it really exposes the quality of how we respond to life when it gets what we consider busy/full on. But what if we were to focus on having a greater quality, appreciating the space in the in-between moments and therefore be ‘in-space’ rather than tension?

247. “Furthermore, by running this dialogue, I was completely and consciously capping my awareness.” Great way to keep the blinkers and avoid taking care of the peripheral issues that we see sliding past. We always know what needs taking care of, it all comes down to a choice to respond in the moment to make the space to care, a skill I have yet to fully master!

248. There are some great sharings in this blog and the comments, I love being reminded of this fact, ‘I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity’.

249. We are all constantly creating our identities as we go through life. Small individual identity factories, billowing noxious fumes out through our chimneys. We continually stoke the fire of identity with our thoughts, our reactions, our speech and our movements. If we chose to stop stoking the fire of identity, then our rigid beliefs about who we think we are, would start to fade and the resplendent truth of who we actually all are would be revealed.

     1. Love your expression here Alexis Stewart about creating our identities and to simply stop stoking the fire of identity brings the healing.

        1. We are all already healed, it’s simply part of our assumed identity to think that we’re not.

250. ‘Furthermore, by running this dialogue, I was completely and consciously capping my awareness. I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day and by doing this, was choosing to not read the truth of each situation.’ – the more we expose the truth of these games that we play, we reduce the hold that they have for everyone.

251. Describing life as intense is an excuse not to take responsibility and I can feel how much I use this excuse for just that.

252. In asking what else can we do or what is next we allow space for the us to evolve which is our natural way to be – to expand and increase our awareness and capacity to express more of the truth we are of.

     1. This is true Michael and yet I have so often felt the impulse to ask what’s next and then pulled back and turned away from the expansion being offered because of wanting to protect the time I have thought I needed to recover from the intensity of work. Otto has cut through the massive illusion and arrogance of this and exposed the irresponsibility of it all. What an amazing end to the year (it’s Dec 31st as I write) offering a deeper foundation to step onto to for the new year.

253. ‘…how we are designed to work and how true evolution comes from saying yes to more.’ I am starting to appreciate this more and more, though also know where I resist the flow of what there is to do which creates tension and complication.

254. Like with the word ‘intense’ or other words we use as a one-word-description for a state of being they are actually very condensed and lack the full expression of what we are actually feeling and what is going on, so no wonder that they rather keep us compressed than setting us free when using them.

     1. This is interesting. What I feel you are saying is that whilst we might think that expressing how we are feeling is supportive and healing actually, if we use a simplified or reductive language, we are in fact capping ourselves and keeping ourselves locked in a movement. So it is essential to really get to the root of what is going on and not take the short-cut that many of these words offer.

     2. I love the detail you are discussing here Alexander. If we were to say I am in tension rather than my day is intense, it shifts the responsibility – from feeling like a passive victim we can objectively nominate that we have responsibility for how we are feeling and so are not so caught up in that restricted feeling and restricted expression. The next choice then becomes one of how to expand rather than staying imprisoned by the word that reflects the feeling.

255. It is interesting what takes us out from being with ourselves. Holding on to beliefs and ideals such as life has to be intense through working hard otherwise we are not seen is a big one! We get into competition with others, sizing up what another is doing to make us feel better. We even are championed by how much we are doing feeding the recognition we crave for but what if we let go of the struggle, let go of the mind games we play and the hurts we carry. Is it possible to live with no intensity and struggle? For me it is a commitment to letting go of all those areas of comfort I find myself in even that brief moment where I check out in my mind for I know what lies ahead in my day I can master effortlessly.

     1. Intensity and struggle remind of air pressure gauge, and we are the motor. The higher the air pressure required in a confined space, the harder we have to work to maintain the number set on the dial, that we have set our selves or have been told what must be maintained. What’s the worst that can happen if we unplug the machine?

     2. Great summary Caroline, and inspiring to hear about a commitment to let go of anything that does not equate to being ourselves.

256. When we are already tense, on edge, then we are so much more likely to find the day more difficult and stressful. It reminds me that if you have a car crash when you are asleep at the wheel, your body remains relaxed and the damage of the impact is less than if you are awake and you tense in anticipation of the impact – the tenseness in your body exacerbated the impact. When we are free to move with the flow of the day it is like riding the waves, rather than in the tense need to have it go a certain way or in anticipation for an intensity we are creating before it actually happens, an battling the waves.

     1. Really great analogy about being asleep at the wheel Rebecca. Interesting that by being awake we have more awareness to what is happening but also to deal with what we are experiencing.

257. I may have said it before but this blog is the ultimate in responsibility it takes it to a level I haven’t much contemplated, and freaks me out a bit when I think of all the time I have wasted in my life and the times I have said that I am too busy to do extra work. There must still be a fine line though, we can’t work to the point it becomes over the top and self abusive.

     1. So well said Kevin – there is that fine line of not spreading yourself too thin and taking on too much – but it is about taking on what you can handle and saying yes to opportunities especially when you can feel how beautiful and supportive they can be to all.

258. What an excellent blog which has shone a massive dose of light. How all there needs to be is a slight adjustment or alignment to my outlook and then each day is an absolute Joy with the next just waiting to be grabbed with both hands.

     1. Yes I fully agree Natalie. It is as you say an adjustment to how we look at things. I find that I’m often fretting about the time when I have HEAPS of time, thereby creating the rush in my own body first, and then funnily enough this is what plays out. In other words, I set it up to be a drama, and then it is one.

259. Just putting aside the ‘intense’ thing for a moment Otto, it sounds as if you are working harder than just about anyone I know. I know that I couldn’t work 20 hours a day – that would leave 4 hours in which to sleep,shop, buy food and cook it, do extra Unimed work,have relationships with one’s family, look after your living space, do the laundry ( unless of course all this was provided for you, sleeping excepted. If you can manage that and not ever feel intense then that would be a miracle indeed. Amazing!

     1. !!!! Not every day is a twenty hour day! What has been amazing to feel and learn is how deeply supportive and important all those other things you list actually are. And over the course of this whole two year period I have really seen the power of maintaining all aspects of my life. So, relationships with family, cleaning the house, other Unimed projects are all essential – and when I am struggling, it is usually (no, always) because I have dropped one or more of these other aspects. There is also some really practical skills to learn. For example; I do the whole week’s cooking on Sunday, so that every meal is pre-prepared and ready for the week ahead.

260. I can certainly relate to this, Otto – “I was pre-laying excuses for my irresponsibility”. How clever we can be in creating smoke screens and dramas that take the focus away from our actions and behaviours. We can even buy into it ourselves, although deep down we feel the falsity of it all.

     1. This game we play only works when we are all complicit … the more we expose the falsity of it all, it will crumble as we return to a true, honouring way of living together.

261. We can choose to focus elsewhere like you said Otto “No, I don’t want to know or see more, because that might expose the game I’m playing, so I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me” yet what is beautiful is that there is only so long we can keep the game going until we come to the point of awareness we were trying to avoid.

262. What a great awareness it is to see how we set ourselves up for ‘hard or intense’ days. I love the sense of responsibility here – no one to blame, we did it ourselves. I also love the awareness that we can choose to be joy-full. To me, joy is a natural way of being that is open to us all.

263. The key here feels to be remaining open and building, whether it is work or relationships, but keeping going and appreciating how steady we can be as we keep taking more things on. We can never say life is boring when we appreciate how much we are growing and moving forwards.

     1. So true, gillrandall, ‘We can never say life is boring when we appreciate how much we are growing and moving forwards.’ Life is so full when growth and expansion are our lived way.

264. Brilliant blog Otto – saying ‘yes to more’ in living with true purpose, awareness and responsibility, is evolution. “It really is that simple; a choice to choose self and thus to stay in-tense, or a choice to accept and appreciate how much more powerful I am, how we are designed to work and how true evolution comes from saying yes to more”.

265. The closest I have ever come to ‘real intense’ was when, many years ago when I was in the military and I played a part, occasionally in moving nuclear weapons. The briefings and the whole operation had a pressure that was omnipresent and oppressive; I had to stifle the urge to laugh at one briefing that was held in a room that was like a vault with the intensity that filled the room. I had transported lots of different types of explosives; nukes were just the biggest. It was just a job that was required… and reprimands were never an issue if something went wrong.

266. It is a beautiful process to see how intensity enables us to grow. Things that in the past I used to struggle to do now seem a natural part of my day. And all we are shown here is that when we expand to accommodate what feels true, the space opens up for more truth to be embraced.

     1. This feels awesome and profound, rowenakstewart: ‘..when we expand to accommodate what feels true, the space opens up for more truth to be embraced.’ I can feel the magnitude of your words reverberating through every cell in my body. It’s like a remembering and confirming of what that expansion is and feels like and how that inner expansion then becomes reflected outward as the universe responds in kind.

267. How powerful are we that we can create our own reality, for example tell ourselves that our day is going to be intense and then ensuring through the way we move throughout the day that this is what occurs. This shows us that we need to be responsible for how we move through life because every movement has an impact both on ourselves and on others.

268. This truly exposes just how much our thoughts affect us and our lives. I have come to realise recently all the self chatter that goes on in my head is constantly defending and justifying everything I do and everything I don’t do to myself… which creates a constant tension in my body, and then I wonder why I’m so exhausted!

269. Its great how you unravel the game you play Otto – that we all play in one form or another… it’s such a set-up to distract us away from the Divine beings we innately are!

270. A while ago I was speaking to a friend of mine who was temporarily unemployed – when I asked her how it had been she replied instantly – ‘intense man!’. To me this clearly shows that the intensity we feel is not a product of being overwhelmed or overworked but as you say Otto of the many attachments we cling on to. After all these ‘intense’ stories let us cement that we are separate individuals with colourful histories and tales. This just perpetuates the big lie – that we are here alone with no connection to anyone else.

271. You offer great insights to the game that is at play with our work (and home) life. We have a part to play in the intensity, and the stress, and that is not a criticism, but a way to be empowered.

272. Such a powerful article Otto and something I can very much relate to in my own life, as I work incredibly long hours as a flight attendant especially through the night and would often talk about how tired I felt. I cope better with the job now than I did 20 years ago and a lot of this is because I stopped constantly confirming how tired I felt, especially during and after shift work. I learnt to connect to others more and I would begin to notice how much more energy and zest for life I would have, whereas before I used my tiredness as a form of protecting myself from others and basically giving me an excuse to not fully commit to life.

     1. I concur with everything you have said here. But, I bet there is also much more to it than this; the way you look after yourself, the way you eat, the way you move, what you drink during the shifts, how you have slept the day/night before…etc..all of these details all add up to support us enormously during these long working days and it’s good to appreciate the amazing support that we give ourselves.

273. I really noticed this a lot more (being on the customer side) that is, how customers were really demanding of staff. It was quite shocking and how staff in shops looked really tired. Isn’t Christmas ‘supposed’ to be about Love? I feel we really do need to re-evaluate what we are doing here en-masse as it needs to change.

274. My whole life I have enjoyed working and it has made complete and utter sense to be getting on with it to the best of our ability. I love what you have shared here Otto about ‘how we are designed to work and how true evolution comes from saying yes to more.’ – To keep saying yes to the more and have no boundaries just letting what is possible unfold.

275. ‘By getting out in front with dramatic stories about how full-on it all was, I was absolving myself from any slip-ups that I had been making along the way, whilst also trying to ensure that people didn’t pull me up for some of the choices that I had made – how could they possibly understand or challenge the way I was being, because they’d have no idea what I was going through?’ – I can so relate to this when I go into ‘busy-ness’ – as though being busy and doing lots of things justifies any behaviour , like my not being present with myself and everyone else. There can also be an underlying resentment there that I have been doing ‘so’ much – yet in truth, no one asked me to do it all and I could have asked for support, but instead I put on my martyr hat and got on with it. Loving exposing these patterns of behaviour for the truth of what they are and feeling the harm they cause, irrespective of our attempts to manipulate and justify them to ourselves and everyone else.

276. ‘I was writing my own future’ – I am realising how easy it is to fall into a pattern of doing this, when we look ahead and put a label on how things are going to be. Whereas, if we just allow things to unfold before us and are open to feeling the fullness of what is on offer, our experience can be so very different; inspiring, amazing, evolving, magical – just by allowing ourselves to be in the universality of life, open to all that is there before us.

277. ‘…protecting the creation that much of my work is…’ this is a profound realisation in itself – that not only do we make choices to create a situation to suit us rather than be open to expanding further but them are prepared to protect it too.

278. This is such a great blog Otto, thank you. You simply show how much we create our own world and thus how much power we have in fact. Thus no more complaining or excuses but the simple question of where is my investment in the situation I am in.

     1. The more simple we begin to see that it is, the more acute our responsibility becomes. There are literally no excuses.

        1. Yes, and an excuse is like stepping on the break anyway and denying one’s own power.

279. ‘…. and suddenly found myself asking, “what else could I do today?” For the last two years I have been constantly struggling to deal with the mountain that was on my plate, and so the notion of asking for more would have been utterly insane!’ Awesome Otto! ‘What else we can do’ is only ever about opening up to spaciousness and responding to that.

280. If there is no emergency but we keep having intense days – is that because we are identified? This has been my experience – intense days can feel great, but is there more?

     1. Mine too Christoph. I was definitely using the ‘intensity’ for identification…and also justification.

281. “I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was.” Realising that we invite the quality of life via the stories we tell ourselves frees us up to take a closer look at our beliefs – are they true and serve us well, or simply something that keeps us bound on the merry go round?

     1. Yes.. we ingrain the patterns that we create through allowing the same old thoughts to churn around in our heads. Knowing that we create our own reality through all of our choices and the stories we tell ourselves is so empowering because we can choose – and only we can choose – to let go of those stories at any time. The key is being aware enough to know what they are- an ever deepening process as we get to know ourselves more deeply.

282. ‘I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was.’ – This is such a great example of how we keep ourselves trapped in the illusion of our own making.

     1. This example shows how we can collate any manner of beliefs around all kinds of things that then dictate the day/life we experience. All self created.

283. How our mind can set us up for another intense day, Otto I love how you have unravelled intense which makes it very clear we are the ones who put pressure on the day and the way we are with ourselves before the day even has started. I recognise this way of thinking making things heavy and hard to fulfil instead of just adjust the way I am with myself and let the day flow from the beginning with no expectations whatsoever just an allowing to be me in all that is there.

     1. Yes, the key is the pressure – whether we relish it and attack it head-on or whether we contract from it and struggle through it. Perhaps it isn’t pressure at all until we interpret it that way.

284. Loving the raw truth of the process you describe in coming back to you, Otto. The man who surfaces at the end of your blog feels a more tender, vulnerable, gentle you fully stepping up to claim the graceful powerhouse you know yourself to be. Awesome.

     1. What is the quality that we enter into the day with, and do we surface at the end of the day with that same quality? A great point to stop and consider the factors that we allow into our lives to either support or disrupt the quality of flow from one moment into the next, and the end result of those choices.

        1. Brilliant reminder, Bryony, that it is we who allow the factors into our lives that ‘either support or disrupt the quality of flow from one moment into the next…’ and so it is our choices and our movements that determine not only the quality we enter into our day with, but the quality we surface with at the end of our day. The knowing that at any given moment we can with grace choose again when we feel ourselves slipping, coming full circle as we lovingly bring ourselves back.

        2. Yes, that is the awesome part- that even if the day has gone pear-shaped and we’ve made some not so great choices, those choices don’t have to dictate how we respond to the rest of the day: our choice to stop and lovingly reset, or continue previous momentums, is available in every moment.

        3. Several weeks ago, in the evening, I began the practice of getting into bed full of joy regardless of how my day did or did not flow. I am consciously choosing to pause in my movements from finishing my day to getting into bed, having completed as much as I felt to and leaving the rest behind without any judgement. This allows me to, as you say, stop and lovingly reset so that the moment I approach my bed the joy of doing so is present within me as I lovingly place my body on the bed and adjust my bed clothes with the exquisite tenderness one would bring when doing so for a newborn child. My body responds with a joy that is beyond description and the connection with my soul is intimately felt. As this marker becomes more and more familiar in my body I recognise that this is the level of connection and intimacy I choose to bring with me into the world – still a work in progress.

285. I love your honesty here, Otto – “All of the above is protecting the creation that much of my work is, the investment that I have in it and the recognition that I seek for it.” Once we see through the reasons why we choose to do things, we are no longer imprisoned by this behaviour.

286. What could be more inspiring and confirming than accepting that, ‘we can choose to see the tender love in the space that holds us’?

287. It is amazingly supportive to read this exploration of our approach to our days, how we label them and how we identify ourselves by levels of busy-ness. And then the humdinger of all gifts, that we have a choice in how we approach our days… always have had and always will have. Thank you, Otto.

288. If you think about it it is natural to be active or doing something every moment of every day. Whether we call this ‘working’ or not is totally irrelevant.

289. I love the honesty of this blog because quite often we tell ourselves that others cannot possibly understand because they are not experiencing what we are going through. I have noticed that I can say I am too busy and that I haven’t got time for x,y and z but when I break it down and look at the tasks I have to do and the time it takes me to do them, it’s not that much.

     1. Oh gosh. This happens to me all the time. I look at what I have to do and it feels like a mountain. But, then I get on with it, commit in full and invariably everything is done with plenty of time to spare. There is so much space within time if we commit in full to that time. So we can either drag our feet and trudge through the work – in this case, there will be no space and time will run out….or we bring our all, our heart and soul to the task in hand, and bingo – the space expands and there is plenty of time….for more!

290. In Tense. We can either live with a constant tension in our bodies, tight muscles, clenched jaw and so on, or learn to surrender our movements and attitude so that our bodies can glide through what we have to do. Focusing on the quality of our movements so we stay open and present doesn’t necessarily diminish the workload but does support us to respond to life In Ease, which makes it so much more enjoyable for our selves and everyone else involved.

     1. Yes, Rowena, In Ease is much less hard work and more with the flow, so we actually can get more done!

291. ‘how could they possibly understand or challenge the way I was being, because they’d have no idea what I was going through? The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had.’ – feels like the drama is the real hook here, keeping us in the momentum, whilst keeping everyone else out. As long as we’re in the ‘drama’ of the situation, we’re isolating ourselves from our self and our support network, further fuelling the drama.

     1. What you point out here is key to it all; the drama keeps everyone else out. More than anything else whatsoever, what I have learned in the last two years is that we are not designed to work solo; we need support, help, partnerships, relationships…over and over I have tried to go solo, and over and over I have stumbled and crashed. It is not the way and thus the creation of the drama is double-damaging because, as you say, it keeps the support at bay.

     2. Yes, Alison, and I am really struck by the effectiveness of drama in keeping others at arms length and how devastating this is, since we learn so much about ourselves, love and life in relationship with others.

292. I love reading this blog each day currently and my experience of my day has changed because of it. I realise now that I am holding back what is there for me to bring in making my day a challenge when it needn’t be.

293. I have found that if something I am doing becomes intense, it is because I am allowing/feeding it to happen. We become the ball in the pinball machine, and the flippers are choices we make, to keep the energy high and the ball in motion. All of this starts well before we put the coin in the slot!

294. We’re constantly writing our own history and when you look back at what we’ve written so far, it’s easy to see that we’ve made some utterly appalling choices.

295. When my day starts to look challenging I remind myself of this blog, my movements and my choice to set myself up for it to be intense or surrender and allow it to unfold.

296. I love this sharing Otto! I realised just recently that when I am asked how I am, my answer is “I am tired” it is further confirmed by your blog that I too was setting myself up for that to be my experience.

     1. Roslyn your comment spurred me on to consider what has stopped me and many others from answering the ‘how are you?’ question with a flamboyant flourish of ‘amazing thank you’ and that is because there are so few people living a truly incredible life that most really don’t want to hear that another is genuinely flying. Therefore we cower with our true expression and minimise our joy, so as not to make another feel uncomfortable. But in reducing our expression, we can’t help but reduce who we are, because how else do we know who we are, other than through our expression? If it weren’t for expression then nothing would come into being. We are being our expression because how can we possibly be any-thing else?

        1. So revealing what you write here, Alexis. You have expressed exactly the process I went through yesterday when a friend commented that I was beautiful inside and out. My immediate feeling was to agree with her whereupon my next immediate reaction to that was that I could never verbalise that I am beautiful! And that even if I did, how uncomfortable would that make others feel?? I was able to observe myself in my response/reaction and could feel my own joy diminishing as a result. I decided then and there ‘no more!’ and went on to express ‘yes, I am feeling beautiful inside and out.’ In those split seconds I had a knowing that because my feeling beautiful inside and out was coming from the depth of self love I have developed for myself, I was able to express that love openly and lovingly as a reflection for all.

        2. And Brigette with your choice to respond the way that you did, you expanded and therefore the Universe had no choice but to expand with you.

     2. I love your observation Roslyn, it allowed me to realise that, if asked how I am, recently, I’ve been saying I’m busy. Yet, whilst I have been working more days, having people to stay and hosting a large family Christmas lunch …. I’m only feeling busy if I allow myself to do so – which would mean everyone misses out. The choice is mine to make, to be with me and allow myself to be a part of everything I do, rather than pushing myself to get through what is there to be done. Two very different ways of being, one is draining the other effortless and very joyful.

297. WOAH so we create the intensity in our day? Now that is one to stop and feel for sure.

     1. I agree Vicky – what is on offer here is significant and something for all of us to deeply reflect on.

298. Saying yes to more … this is truly inspiring Otto. And unpicking those games and stories we tell ourselves in our intensity and busyness gives that space for more. Thank you I’m now considering the stories I run about my busy and intense life.

299. I came across a pattern in myself I noticed in someone I know whereby they live in a hurricane of business saying how busy they are and acting flustered and stressed, which no doubt they feel. It’s effect is to keep people at arms length and not have to say no to requests to do things because noone dares ask. Giving myself permission to look after myself, rest when rest’s needed, discern and say no to what’s not for me to do, to not be swayed by sympathy or recriminations on being asked to do things, means there’s no need to look busy and waste energy in this way.

     1. Great point that we can use busyness as a way to hide from the world and from others – putting up the ‘I’m busy’ sign all the time can be a way that we pretend to protect ourselves from the intensity of the world and others, but hiding and withdrawing is no form of protection – and doing that just feeds the external intensity, instead of providing a different reflection.

300. Every move we make, every breath we take creates our day, and it is our choice to align to The Livingness and God or to a loveless force. Brilliant blog Otto, exposing the nuts and bolts of this.

     1. Great reminder, Lyndy, energetically – we are always aligning to something, more the fool are we if we are not aware of what it is we are aligning to.

        1. Totally Alison.

301. We make predictions based on past experiences and the impression we wish to create and leave for others and ourselves.

302. Hi Otto – it really stands out how saying things are ‘intense’ actually puts us in a comfort of not taking more responsibility. This is a set up we like to put ourselves in and gives us a perfect excuse. A great point of reflection for those of us who claim to always be ‘busy’

     1. And it’s almost as if society has accepted irresponsibility. Say that you are ‘busy’ and it’s literally like a get-out-of-jail card, a pink ticket, a free ride.

303. What I love about this awareness is we have a choice, and yesterday I lived this choice to simply be in my day without any pre-program and the day was simple, felt complete and the level of commitment went even deeper. Plus some additional things where done – like: take a lunch break, sit down for 5 min at the end of the day and take a walk after dinner!

304. ‘But there are extra levels to this game that I was playing.’ this is a revealing point to accept. We can often stop at feeling like we have understood because we have recognised the issue without fully unpacking all that goes with it, what lies underneath and why it exists in the first place.

305. Otto, this really is amazing beyond amazing, I have found it really helpful reading your blog, I have been saying how intense my work has been but what I can feel is that the calling it intense and feeling overwhelmed at the thought of how intense it is and it is going to be is the tiring part, if I just get on with my job without going into my head about it all then actually its fine and really isn’t that hard – interesting.

306. “Very simply, if I get myself out of the way, then I will not be in this tension, I will not be in-tense and thus the day can no longer be intense.” I love this Otto. So simple and so clear, and sooo exposing. Thank you.

307. I wonder just how much of our days we set up ourselves…

308. You could definitely say that we write our own future by virtue of our choices, but you could also say that we choose to delay the future that is already set out for us by choosing to get stuck in overwhelm rather than find a flow so that we can welcome what’s next to deepen, address or develop (which doesn’t have to look like more work, but could be all to do with how we are in relationships for example)…

309. I am learning there is another way that allows a super busy day to flow by simply connecting to myself. It can sometimes be blessing to be super busy because it can give us great focus which can bring more space to the day.

310. This is such a great exposé, Otto, of the games we play and the hurts we carry which justify us not fully committing to life.

311. We can all live intense lives and fill every moment with emotional drama and activity but when we truly connect within there can be a different kind of busyness, one that has purpose and within which each activity has the space it needs and there is no stress or tension in the body.

312. I absolutely love hard work and I feel like we’re designed to work hard, what if intensity comes not from working hard but from how we deal with things, the energy we choose, the thoughts and emotions we choose, our reactions to life and other people and those curveballs – I reckon these are the things that make life intense not the length of our day. And as you brilliantly say: it’s one billion percent our choice how we deal with these elements.

     1. We definitely underestimate the effects of emotions and reactions and living a reduced ME have on our physical and mental body all the time. They are a constant energy drainer.

313. You show me here Otto,how we are the writers of how our lives can be, it is but a choice,we can struggle our entire lives to achieve what this world has to offer in the temporal sense or we can relinquish our self driven self and go with the flow of the universe.

314. Isn´t it even prestigious nowadays when someone says that they have an intense time and lots of work to do and that it is hard?!There is this identification and recognition we want- only when you really kind of suffer of the intensity of the work that you are doing and because you are doing so much at the moment you are SOMEONE and very” busy.” I am always amazed how people are stunned when I tell them how much I work and that I don´t suffer from intensity or stress. 🙂

315. Every time I read this blog I laugh because I so can see myself in it. I spend my time saying how intense life is and how busy I am and all this does is put me into greater tension and as you say create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I love how you have exposed this Otto because when we get the self out of the way, that is that part of us that is identified with what we do, we create space to simply be with what is before us and deal with it. This is such a valuable lesson.

     1. Yes, I agree Elizabeth and what I have been noticing is that in the letting go of all this drama and identification with being busy, we free ourselves of the pictures and expectations of what our days ‘should’ look like and are therefore more open to and appreciative of what does present and unfold in our days.

316. No, life does not need to be that constricted we have made it to be as when we allow ourselves to stay open and eager for what is next or can be done more we are capable of so much more.

317. ‘Intense’ is just a mind set, a big one, but none the less an invented attitude that we can choose to put down in favour of just getting on with it. I notice how I can use it to avoid taking care of what really needs to be taken care of. Thank you Otto for putting it on the radar, you have emphasized the importance of getting my own agenda out of the way and committing in full to what ever is required.

318. If for whatever reason we stop to say yes to more we stop evolving and get stuck in the creation we have human life made to be.

     1. Yes and we think it is comfortable but it is this false comfort that is making us ill.

        1. True Fiona, but the problem is indeed that we think we are comfortable but one day we will all discover the truth of your words and discover that life is about evolution and not to stagnate in our current way of life.

319. I love this blog and can relate to a lot of it. Connecting to space versus time changes everything in what at first feels like a miraculous and yet very normal way.

320. Walking alongside you over the years, it is inspiring and very beautiful to read this article. Not only do I nod in agreement all the way but also realise that over this period and in this letting go, a palpable tenderness, that is so your natural, has emerged and now emanates so invitingly, inspiringly and openly for us all.

321. “…what else could I do today?…” How awesome is it to have this thought… A sure sign of living beyond capacity, and that space is infinite, not just in the Universe, but as a by-product of the way one lives!

322. Love it Otto, we create our intense future by the movements we choose, and so we could either be who we are and ready – or creating ourselves to be overwhelmed before life has even come our way yet- I guess this is one of the downsides of our recall memory, we recall what things were like and rely on that to be our future, instead of allowing it to unfold.

323. We continuously isolate ourselves from our constant connection to God by creating a man-made bubble of self around ourselves. If we were to dissolve our bubble of identity then we would know ourselves to be in the body of God, which we always are but it’s just our identification that comes from our heads that prevents us from experiencing it in our bodies.

324. It’s interesting to feel the difference made when we let go of the control of life and how we see it and surrendering to our movements and being present in each moment we have before us. The quality in which we then move changes from intense and stressful to one of flow and ease, making life not only enjoyable but we have more space to see the world around us and observe all there is to share.

325. This is a great expose Otto of how we create our own reality through the thoughts we choose, and so cool to expose them for what they are – a distraction from being the Divine beings we were born to be.

326. One of our greatest handicaps is to ‘think’ that we are intelligent, that our knowing comes from our mind, from our ability to remember facts and our reasoning. This arrogance closes us off to the infinite wisdom that is all around us, waiting to pour through us, when we are open to living in connection with our soul. There is so much available to us that we are not currently utilising.

327. ‘I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity’ – it’s very interesting how we can ‘set ourselves’ up to be on a certain trajectory before we have even begun what is ahead of us – ‘pre-disposing’ ourselves to be a certain way. In doing so, we close ourselves off to the multi-dimensionality that we are all a part of, we limit our experience to being that which we have pre-determined it to be when in truth there is so much more there that is available to us when we surrender and allow ourselves to be open to what is before us.

328. ‘And now, with this new learning, I am seeing that there is room for a great deal more and, amazing beyond amazing, that fills me with joy.’ I love it Otto ! And I so know exactly what you have described here. When I recently made the decision to sell the house I was in (on an acreage) and come to Goonellabah, the most beautiful house was constellated for myself and my house mate to buy. When I sat down to contemplate the house (before I had yet seen it) I felt my whole being suddenly expanding – space beyond glorious space, joy beyond joy – and I knew that this would be the house that would be my new foundation for service in the last years of my life . . . leading into the next life.

329. It is so true Otto that we can get caught in the drama and intensity of life because it offers us recognition and the sense that as an Individual I am amazing for getting through all this work. It is very exposing yet liberating to get the self out of the way and feel the support that is there when we connect with the fact that we are one with the all.

330. I’ve realised something this morning – feeling busy, saying I’m busy, planning being busy, anticipating being busy takes the joy out of me.

     1. That kind of busy actually gets you out of space and into time related ground. Yes we can be busy, but if the tasks are done in space, you would just flow and not call it “being busy” in that kind of sense. I would call it productive .

        1. I can feel this is where having true purpose sits, purpose far greater than an individual orientated need for recognition, success or reward.

     2. That’s true, the moment we anticipate a busy day life becomes about time and it’s all about what needs to be done and when and how, and it easily gets done – but without the magic of life.

        1. Exactly. Anything that kills our connection to space is going to kill the magic of life, the joy.

        2. It’s a bit like tunnel vision, you see the end point but miss that we are in an amazing world and there’s so much more to life than reaching an end point.

        3. I really like this Meg and it feels very pertinent. So often I used to get myself through a big day by focusing on the “light at the end of the tunnel”. But, as you wisely point out, that means that everything around me is not only pitch black but also very restricted and I am missing the joy and space of the now and the all.

        4. Yeh how often do we go – ok I just got to get through to the end of this day, or the end of this experience, or finish this check list, but by discounting this time we are discounting ourselves and discounting the magic that could make this whole day incredible.

     3. Good point, Sandra. It is worth continually asking ourselves, are we in the joy of each activity or interaction or can we be taken over by a force, which robs us of feeling connected to ourselves and what is there for us in the moment?

331. I had not clocked the amount we try to cap our awareness in this way but it seems so obvious when you point it out like this, equally I can feel how I try to avoid the responsibility for standing in my light for all to see rather than being in the tension.

332. some of us humans pay a lot to make intense experiences…..to feel alive. but when the normal every day living is intense we groan… we can be so crazy. Or learn. As you shared. Thank you Otto!

333. This really highlights for me how much of an impact we have on the way we experience or respond to situations and life according to how we approach it.

334. It is fascinating how we can let the drama of life increase the perceived tension, getting involved, repeating the stories, circulating the tension all around. I know when I have a very busy day looming, I can go into overwhelm even before the day begins, anticipating how tricky it is going to be, or I can let it be what it is.

335. The moment we get identified with life we give permission for life to make us who we are and no longer make life the expression of who we naturally are. So when life is intense we feel intense, if life is flat we feel flat etc. First lesson with Serge Benhayon: Know how you feel when you are just yourself; then do life knowing who you are.

     1. Live life from you – not letting life live you.

336. Awesome blog Otto great reminder that we always create our own reality and that we are never given more then we can handle. And that we can handle loads if we get our self out of the way and allow the volume to come through.

337. ‘I was in the shower contemplating the day and suddenly found myself asking, “what else could I do today?” ‘ – Absolutely love this, simply trusting that you will be offered exactly what you are able to deal with.

338. Thank you Otto, can I add life can be more like one of those Eyes that dot our big cities as a merry-go-round is static? From an Eye at 135 metres and a 360° life takes on a see it all perspective then at the other end a worms eye view with everything in-be-tween. The thing is as with a merry-go-round we still only see what we let ourselves see and thus the intensity is heightened!

339. Otto -Wow this is a great blog I will read this again and again as I can so much relate, you basically nail it, we can choose the intensity of life by getting caught in the recognition or we choose to surrender to the divinity inside that is constantly expanding with a steady knowingness – with no intensity or stress!

340. Yes, Otto, when we let in the support that is all around us, it becomes clear that we are never alone and have the support to live in truth and love each and every day.

341. “All of the above is protecting the creation” well said Otto, I was reading this blog and recognising so much of it in myself, and asking myself what is it that’s at the nub of making life more complicated (intense) than it needs to be? and this is it, the complexity (from those internal stories) is a way to keep the individual identified, to stunt awareness and therefore comfortably (or you could say, ignorantly) admonish responsibility. It makes ugly of what we so often champion as success.

     1. So true Rosanna, when we look deeper the complexity and the intensity is a great way to avert our awareness and responsibility. And in this light we can see that the stories that we imagine ourselves a victim in, are completely and conveniently self-created.

342. I so appreciate the liberation from the consciousness that says hard work whilst juggling the rest of life is overwhelming and that if the focus is on the quality we are in in each moment then we can travel from moment to moment gracefully without investment in outcome, finishing our day with the same ease in which we started it.

343. Love the clarity your blog gives in how when it is about self how complication and struggle set in, and it all our own creation.

344. Otto your sharing is utterly glorious as I got to feel the expansion that you have chosen to return to as a result of choosing to let go of the contraction that comes from identification with self. Tension can only come from identification with self, as the soul does not feel tension and so whenever we feel tension then this is an instant alert to the fact that we have gone into separation from the All and identification with the small.

     1. True Alexis any contraction we feel is set up by ourselves not wanting to feel the enormity of who we truly are and thus living less is our choice to fight divinity

        1. What a futile battle.

345. Recently I have become aware more and more how there really is no such thing as an excuse, I’ve either done it or I haven’t and all results of what I have achieved is the outcome of the energy put in. There is always room for more, when we get self out of the way but less room for excuses.

     1. This is huge and the backbone of true responsibility.

346. “The intensity is created by me.” Otto the strength and simplicity of this single statement is very powerful, it makes me consider that every time I have had a struggle in my life – it’s been my choice to make it like that. At the same time when life is flowing is not by accident but by the love I’ve taken with myself.

347. “I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity”, wow Otto this line really made me realise that we ‘pre-dispose’ ourselves constantly to what is ahead and therefore as you so aptly say, we are actually writing our own future, guaranteeing that what we anticipate, we shall receive. It feels to me that what we anticipate, we anticipate with our heads and then that in turn places the body into a certain way of being that is in itself the experience.

     1. Oooh. I like this Alexis. The pictures are painted by our mind, the intensity is born and cultivated by our mind,…and then it is our body that has to take the consequences of the movements that we have placed it in.

        1. Bingo and as it is our movements that then call in our thoughts, we are trapped in a merry go round of similar behaviours, lifetime after repetitive lifetime.

        2. Except that, by the same science, we can also see how incredibly easy it is for us to take ourselves out of that cycle – change our movements. I’m still discovering the true power of this and can still resist it, or still not embrace it in full. But there is no question that it is true and that it works and thus of our absolute responsibility for our thoughts, choices and expression.

348. What a powerful and inspiring blog you share here Otto. The honesty of expression cuts through any beliefs about intensity and exposes the inevitable ‘tension’ that holds back our true expression –
     “It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.”

349. I too have carried this ‘but you’ve no idea how intense it’s been’ bill board around for eons, but as you have clearly exposed Otto, it’s time to realise how I have set myself up, take responsibility, put the bill board away and just get on with it. A question I have recently asked myself is “What if this is how it is going to be for the rest of my life?” Am I ready to live intensely and to make it my norm, so that I no longer recoil in horror at what is being asked of me, but gracefully accept that the level of intensity is not only here to stay, but that it is going to get bigger and commit to it with all my heart.

     1. I really like this Rowena – my wife and I often talk about the same; “the work load isn’t going to get any less..” so we can either go on fighting it and feeling in overwhelm…or we can change our movements, approach and self-painted pictures of what life should be like…when we do the latter (which we don’t always do), sure enough, space opens up and the joy returns.

350. Have you ever been in an old canvas tent in the summer? They were hot, oppressive, unbreathable and confining. When we allow our selves to have an intense day, what is the difference between living in-tents?

     1. I love the analogy you share here. To walk around feel confined and not feeling your true self and worth is crippling no doubt.

     2. Very true Steve, great analogy there is not much difference. Ultimately it is our choice and alignement of energy that will govern how we perceive things to be and ultimately how our day is. When things start to get ‘intense’ I have been experimenting with going for a walk, even just a few paces, and it is amazing how the intensity dissapates and I get to see what is going on clearly. Say I am stuck with something at work, same thing it is like I then come back fresh. The steps I take are with purpose, commiting to connecting with myself and so not just wondering about otherwise nothing really changes!

        1. I have also used the step back and or, take a walk to clear the fog I have created myself. The break, always gives me clarity every time.

        2. It can seem almost too simple. Yesterday I found something was getting to me as was not working / doing what it should have so I put it to oneside and when I came back to it it was sorted immediately. Otherwise if I had contiuned with it I could easily have gotten very frustrated!

351. Otto, this article is amazing, what you are sharing is very powerful and makes sense, I can feel how it is in me trying to please and gain recognition and get things right in my job that makes it intense, not the number of hours I work and the nature of my job. I have experienced that if I stay present and do not go into my head and off into thoughts of self doubt etc then actually my work load is fine and I do not get exhausted and instead enjoy my work – very interesting.

     1. It is fascinating about what truly exhausts us! Very little of it has to do with the actual work in a day.

352. We create every situation in our day through our movements and choices and so we also have the power to change them – not just the situations themselves but our experience of them as is so beautifully exposed and shown here.

     1. I agree – two people can live the same day and yet feel completely different at the end of them and it is simply because of how each chose to approach the day

     2. Our experience and perception of our daily situation can be completely altered by changing our focus and our movements – totally worth experimenting with!

353. At the moment I have to learn a lot for my exam and the amount of things I have to remember sometimes put me into an overwhelm. I can tell you that this is not a nice feeling at all as it stops all the joy I normally have while I am learning. I am starting to recognize that I am the one putting myself into this emotion of overwhelm and so I am the only one who can stop to do so.

354. “..The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had….” A classic trick of the spirit! that one day, you hear yourself sounding so dramatic telling the ‘story’ and in your head you are saying.. “Hang on, it wasn’t that bad..” It then exposes the ‘grooves’ or habits we have made in the way we hold conversation and story-telling… Its a great moment to realise to recognise this habit, as we then have the ability and awareness to pull the spirit into line!

355. So beautifully said Otto: ‘Furthermore, by running this dialogue, I was completely and consciously capping my awareness. I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day and by doing this, was choosing to not read the truth of each situation. I was in effect saying; “No, I don’t want to know or see more, because that might expose the game I’m playing, so I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me.” . . . and further calibrate to the world of drama that was the domain of the daily work, with more drama. Heaven forbid that you would be the exposer of the game of such an industry! But you’ve done it, How brilliant.

356. ‘The last two years of my life have been very, very busy. I have been living away from home a great deal and the work hours have been long – between fourteen and twenty hours a day, mostly seven days a week.’ – this in itself is a very extreme way to be living, compared to the acceptable norm for our society. To then be open and looking for ‘what is next’, what else can you be doing, is phenomenal and it shows how the way we are currently living is suffocating our potential. It’s actually the restrictions we put on ourselves through our propensity to be guided by the falsity in life that drains and exhausts us. When we can truly let go and allow the Universe to flow through us, anything is possible, as you show.

357. Interesting that we can feel more worried about being able to cope with ease as opposed to being more comfortable being in struggle or when things are intense.

358. If everything in life is energetic which in my experience it is then it makes sense that if we are expecting something to happen a certain way then we may actually be setting it up to be that way.

359. ‘The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had.’ – This is a great point, we are very clever at making up excuses, and we can pick and choose between the dramas in our lives.

360. These insights are so very appreciated Otto. The paradox is we say no to more awareness because we are avoiding all we have yet it is exactly this that brings the true energy, vitality and all knowing to any situation to support us to actually be with all that needs our attention. Head down blinkers on means we drain our life source to complete what ever we are creating.

361. ‘…finding the space in all of this to look after myself.’ How do we look after ourselves? It is not just making time for a relaxing bath, although that is lovely, it is how we are with ourselves 24/7, aware of our inner language, keeping it loving, aware of our movements, keeping them tender, aware of what we eat, nourishing foods and one that requires special attention, making sure we have enough good quality sleep and how we are with ourselves in the day and how we prepare for sleep, all these things will make a difference. We can also be exercising gently to make sure we are fit enough to handle our busy day. There is a lot we can do to support ourselves.

     1. This is so true Carmel. All of the above are important to support the quality we can then bring to every situation as a way of living, rather than being caught up in the intensity and rush.

362. You are indeed right; when we talk about how intense, hard or difficult our day is/our days are, we pave the way for all the excuses to come in that we think might absolve us from our responsibility to the all we are a part of.

363. Self seeking more of itself: Self = tension = seeking intensity = more self

364. I just finished an intense studying experience and it affected me. I know much more about the subject but it will take a few hours and perhaps a day to get back to myself.

365. Once again here lies a blog that makes me think of a world where everyone is working towards a one common good that everyone can benefit from. If we get self out of the way what problems, disputes, arguments would then arise?

366. ‘And this puts me in huge tension with the truth of what I am, the true purpose of what I am doing and the enormous power of my true expression and the all that I can bring to the world.’True Otto, buying into the tension caps everything we truly are….. It is extremely intense out there in the world and getting more so by the minute. It is important to be able to clock that and observe, and not be drawn into the high drama of it all.

367. I just witnessed a young man going into stress and tension about everything he had to do in preparation for another Christmas dinner. I could feel his whole body going into hardness and into motion whereas at that point in time there was nothing yet to do. The pressure we put on our bodies by our thoughts, expectations and push is unnecessary draining.

368. No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity. ‘ Love this Otto, it makes so much sense.
     ‘

369. I have often gotten to the end of the day and lying in bed, I can feel the in-tensity of the day even if the day itself wasn’t very intense – my body is holding tension. If every day is like this, holding myself tense in preparation for the day, then each day will feel more difficult than it needs to be. Being able to let go and just meet the day as it is, frees the body up to be at ease

     1. I agree Rebecca it is definitely a good thing to know how to completely relax and surrender at the end of the day so that any tension from the day is not carried forward into the next one and therefore avoids the ‘snow ball’ effect which can eventually lead to some kind of health crises.

        1. I agree, and also the tendency to feel stressed, pressured or overwhelmed even when there is little to be done, simply because we are still carrying tension we haven’t let go of

     2. I have become aware of this particularly over the last few days. The release from my body as I lie in bed has been showing me how I have been too much in the ‘doing’. The tension I have felt from all the things I’ve felt I’ve needed to do has stopped me from being able to just be in a rhythm with myself as I do everything, I’ve left myself behind. I could blame it on all the extra people being around me in my home, but this is just an excuse, the choice is always there for me to come back to myself and bring me to all that I’m doing.

        1. I agree – we often blame the way we feel on our surroundings, but the responsibility for letting the external environment affect us always lies with us

370. When we are in the tension of self we become blinkered and in constant danger of feeling overwhelmed whereas when we surrender our lives to purpose we expand and find ways to serve that we would never have imagined.

371. It’s a very responsible knowing to have, that we create our own circumstances and situations.

372. I love how you show us how we can set ourselves up for the day, meeting, phone call etc we don’t want with preconceived ideas and beliefs, and the impact it has on our body. A great one to observe in my day. Thank you.

373. It is amazing to get to the point, as you clearly have Otto, of realising that we create our own dramas and struggles. This leads to unnecessary tension in the body and ultimately illness and disease, if we do not take responsibility for our own ill creations by relinquishing our hurts and protection.

     1. That is SO true – we create them ourselves and it is fascinating when we notice doing that.

374. ‘…the internet has blurred the boundaries between office and home…’ True, and to a degree I welcome this and can see the nature of work changing because of it. But as is intimated here, we must be very clear about our relationship with work and not be ‘on-call’ 24/7. I see it happening in the sector I work in and many people are exhausted as a result.

375. ‘I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was.’ How much of what we experience is created by our predetermined attitude to what we might meet before us, rather than meeting every situation calmly as it arises?

     1. Yes, gorgeous, Rachel, how about we let every situation come to us, instead of we chasing it and being exhausted before it is there.

     2. It’s like we pave the way for more of the same, I’m feeling to use stepping stones so I can connect to the newness of each moment and movement.

376. It is interesting to look at the true meaning of words. In tense is so obviously in tension, we use this word intense so often in your everyday lives because we have created so much tension with our busy lifestyle. The question we can ask ourselves is why have we chosen to live this way?

377. This is a great sharing of how we play games with ourselves all the time. Is it possible that we play these games as a way to stop ourselves from moving forward and as a way to remain stuck and comfortable?

378. A blessing to see aspects of ourselves, previously hidden from view, be empowered to move differently and break old cycles.

379. Although I have never worked those hours. I could relate to focussing on being busy as a pre- laid excuse for any slip ups and more so to avoid developing relationships. I didn’t have time for it! When you take away the feeling of busyness its amazing how much space there actually is.

380. “I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day and by doing this, was choosing to not read the truth of each situation” – So true, that by focusing on the final product or outcome which could be simply ‘getting through the day’ we miss out on appreciating and feeling the quality of the moments in-between.

381. It’s so true. We create our own intensity. Our body becomes tense and then life is intense. Great call.

382. “I was pre-laying excuses for my irresponsibility …”. What a protection you have exposed here, Otto. Wow!

383. It is not always so easy to look at how much control we have over the intense-nesses of life, creating and shaping it as we can do, forever seeking resolution from it, but also perhaps relishing in the identity that it gives.

384. Very honest blog Otto, thank you. We can set ourselves up with the perfect scenario as to why we cannot possible evolve as look at all that I have to deal with/am doing/ you wouldn’t understand. It can take a lot of honesty to see we do such things and that really life is life, on it goes and it’s our choice what we do with it.

385. “I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day and by doing this, was choosing to not read the truth of each situation.” Thank you for your candid honesty Otto for clearly exposing the very calculated way we avoid our responsibility to be aware and respond to every inch of our lives, making everything about self and refusing to see the impact this has on others. If we truly want to raise our game, evolve and address the ills of our world, getting intense is what it is all about.

386. This blog really knocks my socks off. Many times I’ve used the intensity of life as an excuse to live less than who I am. I was convinced this intensity was imposed on me. You remind me that this is not the case, intensity is chosen when I make life about gaining recognition and security rather than truly serving.

387. Otto, what you are sharing here is really interesting, particularly about being busy and things being intense giving you an excuse and no-one being able to pull you up for choices that you have made. Having started a new job that I have been saying is ‘full on’ my house has become really messy, I have focussed on my work and getting it done and let slip tidying the house and calling friends and family, reading your article I can feel that I have used my new job as a reason why I have let other things slip and that actually I can look after all of these things if I am not caught in the ‘intensity’ of work and instead work in a steady and loving way.

388. We indeed can be the creators of our own life and if we choose for instance tension to be part of that in any way shape or form, then our life will be like that. This makes clear that any malfunctioning in our lives is worth to investigate as it might just being there because of our own creation.

389. Our life is of our own creation… facing our own choices can be a very humbling experience – and very evolutionary too!

390. I feel that saying yes to more, is also actually a very good way of turning around, or bringing a stop to the buzz or overwhelm we may be in that we have actually created and would give the space needed to move forward in more of a flow and alignment.

391. Love the way you write “in-tense”.. as in residing in the house of tense… to now choosing to reside in the home of love and responsibility.

392. It feels to me Otto as if there is something true about it all being ‘intense’ and yet I love your choice to refocus into more observation and less drama. I also love how you have exposed the protection element in all of this: ‘I was pre-laying excuses for my irresponsibility over this period. By getting out in front with dramatic stories about how full-on it all was, I was absolving myself from any slip-ups that I had been making along the way, whilst also trying to ensure that people didn’t pull me up for some of the choices that I had made – how could they possibly understand or challenge the way I was being, because they’d have no idea what I was going through? The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had’. Good protection racket!

393. ‘But here I was, with space, a lack of ‘tense’ in my body and a true willingness for more.’ – what I felt reading this was your surrender, Otto, your choice to let go of the ‘created life’ and all the restrictions that that brings, and instead, being open to the Universal flow of life to pour through you. So inspiringly beautiful.

394. ‘Certainly it has been a busy time but my story is not unique: working hours are expanding, the internet has blurred the boundaries between office and home, and many of us are seeing that, with the world as it is, there is always work to be done.’ – so true, Otto, even more reason for us to learn how to best support ourselves and be forever deepening our level of self care. It’s not the amount of time that we rest that allows our body to rejuvenate, it’s the quality of all of our movements that lead us to our rest period and so the cycle continues when we wake and tenderly open our eyes, being aware of every aspect of our body as we gently get out of bed.

395. This is so inspiring ‘I was in the shower contemplating the day and suddenly found myself asking, “what else could I do today?” Thank you.

     1. Yes, truly inspiring – we can all do this.

396. ‘Furthermore, by running this dialogue, I was completely and consciously capping my awareness. I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day’ I can feel how much I have braced through life to handle the ‘intensity’ without seeing the truth of what is going on around me. My focus is so often on the end goal and not the quality of the steps to get there and then I’m oblivious to what is really going on.

397. When we make life about struggle or it being intense it seems to close us off from people and from our full potential. What you’ve shared Otto is so relatable, so often we tend to create situations that do not support us to evolve but when we are willing to address what is the really going on, we have the power to change how we feel, how we choose to work, relate to people and our ability to embrace true responsibility.

398. ‘And it all starts by getting self out of the way.’ This is a simple statement that has taken me a while to embody, because we all see ourselves as individuals and much of what we do is for self. Once we accept the fact of brotherhood and that we are all returning together back to the glory we came from, it takes the self out of the equation – nobody returns on their own – we are in it together, therefore the more we can work together, the sooner we will all get back. We are supporting each other and the way we can do that is by letting the natural glory that is within us to shine through so that everybody can feel it and be inspired. Everything we do needs to be for all, nothing for personal gain, nothing for appreciation, reward, recognition, simply doing what needs to be done for all of humanity.

399. This is really amazing to read and also reflect that I know this for myself. People will say my work is intense but I’ve come to know it’s not when I allow myself to observe and feel. It’s intense when I’m invested in looking good – so in outcomes, being the one who brings about change; if I’m chasing recognition and trying to fit what isn’t possible in the time given. And what I’ve noticed is when I observe life flows more – partly because I allow myself the space to read situations and feel what’s needed and when, and partly because people are inspired to also make choices that flow. And I know I’m only living a tiny fraction of what’s possible.

400. I agree Doug sometimes the reflections and events that play out in my life are hard to accept that I have created it all without looking to blame someone or something else. But when the true buck stops here that is when we can then start moving ahead full bore.

401. Total game changer Otto and beautifully observed, articulated and expressed. If we take the intensity out of the equation, we are left with a fathomless space through which we are communicated all that we need to ‘get the job done’ and then some. For it is our natural way to be part of a continually expanding universe and not living at odds with, and in resistance to, the expansion that is on offer when we do not invite drama and complexity into the situation.

     As humans it would appear that we have quite a knack for ‘densing’ up space, yet ironically it takes more energy to resist the expansion than to embrace it. Does this not then expose the game most of us are playing at the level of the spirit that does not want to let go of all that we have created that we can ‘hold onto’ in the measureless space that is the Body of God/the Universe we all live within, and that lives within us.

402. ” So you see? The intensity is created by me. ” and like everything the way we live today carries over into how we live the next day. Until one breaks the cycle it will never stop , until something happens in life to stop oneself .

     1. The part you highlighted shows we are responsible for everything we experience. It shows we have a lot more power in what happens to us than we are led to think.

     2. Indeed john, we are the creators of our own life and becoming aware of this fact shows how immense powerful we are. Because from this understanding we can make other choices and direct our lives to a more natural way of being by letting go of the forceful elements in us that likes to create.

403. That’s awesome Otto! We all live in this so called rat race, and we’re all always complaining about how much there is to do and it’s never ending etc etc. Part of life is accepting that it is in fact never ending – so rather than dreading and anticipating it, we’re better off going ok, cool, let’s go, what’s on for today! In the same way we accept that we need to eat and shower and be with those we love, that’s all a given…so should work be – it’s life.

404. I can really feel from reading this how much more I could also achieve by getting me out of the way and living for a bigger purpose, one without the individual as the main focus, but I will have to work a lot harder at this one after many lives of living as that individual.

405. I love this article as even though personally I have never meet the author this is so on point for my life, we could be brothers in fact as it’s that close a window into my life. This supported me in my days and in fact in one day that had just past I wondered where I had been all the other years these things had been going on. A veil has been lifted from how I see and now it will never be the same again, thank you ‘brother’.

406. We really are the creators and can so get in the way of what is on offer when we go into drive and get caught up in the doing of things rather than appreciate who we are and just being that in all that needs to be done. It all can be done, but just without the tension that you write about.

407. That is a pretty inspiring sharing considering all that you are already doing but now bringing quality too and so not being drained by it. To consider that you can change a situation simply by how you approach it is very cool.

408. So brilliant to expose this Otto, I often would use this word to describe my life etc and it is such an accepted cop out as you say. I connected to the more you share as being what more could I bring by actually being myself in full not ‘doing’ more.

     1. I love the expansion offered in your comment Vanessa. Offering more is not just about fitting in more actions but the vastness that we can bring in each and every moment when we choose to be and express in our fullness.

409. A great blog! When we have more energy we can have a tendency to just work as before but for longer hours. After a while we notice that doesn’t make sense – our awareness has increased so we can work much more effectively as well and can do with much less conscious effort while being equally or more effective.

410. I agree with you Otto. When I focus or commit to keeping it simple the way forward flows no matter how much work is required – I know I have all I need to complete what is required.

     1. Space opens up when we keep it simple and work in a flow rather than setting ourselves up for it to be intense.

411. This is great to simply read and feel the truth in: “ by running the dialogue I am capping my awareness”. This is such a great realization to expose, thanks Otto.

412. Otto, here you expose much and one standout is the capping that we put on ourselves through our external situations. I saw clearly how you describe the capping of you, and what else could be on offer due to the ‘intense’ days you were having. And the other standout today is to appreciate what is actually on offer for us.

413. Ah the excuses, I always had a ready supply of those, the reasons for my own self created levels of intensity! You have hit the nail on the head here Otto, love it. The trick is for me, to notice when those excuses come in even if miniscule.
     I recently had a period off between jobs. In part it has been wonderful to get to feel who I am without my roles and identification with my work but there was also danger in having so much space, at times it has felt like being in a boat. Rowing or wallowing? Wallowing is not much fun. Now I am working again I am feeling a great deal of joy as Purpose/rowing has been proven to be the catalyst to inspire in me the question, “What else is there to be done?”

414. I love how the sharing of your insights has you put the concept of blaming circumstance for the intensity we may be feeling squarely on its head. Nothing creates more intensity and unease than acting contra to the truth that we feel inside.

415. Very true – we create our own reality choice by choice.

416. Otto, I love how you have unravelled the self created drama of ‘intensity’ – your sharing offers a true change of awareness around purpose, responsibilty and owning our own power.

417. “if I make work ‘hard’ then yes, it is ‘hard.’ “ Yes so much in life and especially the parts we don’t like are of our own making.

418. Getting ourselves out of the way seems to be the answer to dissolving being intense about our workloads and days.

419. I agree with your definition: ‘true evolution comes from saying yes to more.’
     Saying yes to what is on offer and be willing to expose any irresponsibility for our reactions.

420. I am constantly amazed at the amount of work some people can get done in a day and when I reflect back on what I have done in the past, I was always busy but it was with a raciness, a nervous tension and these days there is a lack of stillness that means I set myself to do a task and then distract myself and it takes all day to get it done and then I end up late going to bed in order to complete the work. Otto’s blog is inspiring in that when we open ourselves up to doing more, then more space becomes available.

421. ‘Intense’ ‘Busy’ – these are great catch all responses to the question of how was our day, and often what I say so I answer the question but don’t go any deeper or further – there is so much more to a day than just intensity or business but how much do we make these things the focus, the defining factor in our day being productive or full – what about it being full of purpose, space or joy?

422. Great exposure of how we set our selves up and create a reality that actually isn’t real at all.

423. Yesterday was a very-full day with work taking up to 15 hrs. of physical labour that was done in a loving rhythm but as you say Otto there can always be more of me being connected and lesson-intensity.

424. Thanks for sharing Otto, I have been having some in-tense times too so this is a good wake up call!

425. Its so true how we can set ourselves up with what we say as on one occasion in the past that I recall, I was talking to someone about their work and they shared how amazing their week had been, then they asked me how was my work going, and immediately I went straight into my head and into comparison and trying to think of something that happened that was just as amazing in my work. I have done this countless times in my life and when I reflected back later, I realised if I had of just stayed with my body and felt how amazing it felt to just stay with me, I could have said, work is really good.

426. It takes a huge dose of humility and an even bigger dose of surrender to let go of our problems – because without them we are no longer caught in the limitation we actually enjoy having of believing we are one-dimensional, an individual with their own experiences that define them, as opposed to surrendering to being the kingly being we are, expressing through the human body we enhouse, God’s work on earth.

427. Otto this is a great awareness to come to. Love the clarity you bring in how easily we can set ourselves up to create a problem for the day before it’s already started.. and so that day then becomes it. It’s in our hands.. our choice as to how our day will go. Thank you.

428. Absolutely Elizabeth. We are masters of creation – the quality of what we express is the quality we experience in life. Simple.

429. Superb Otto. I deeply appreciate you sharing your learnings. Thank You.

430. I have known that headless chicken feeling, meeting myself coming back, keeping the balls in the air, hardly any time to breathe with so much going on. When we let go of all that, everything can flow quite easily because there is no tension driving and perpetuating it.

431. Going into lock down with the blinkers on is actually a selfish act that shuts others out. It gives out a message that we are super important and that no-one else matters except the job that we are doing. I know it well, and even though I’m aware of how arrogant it is I still find myself getting hooked up in it, and dismissing people in my path who are seemingly unimportant to the task that I am involved in. Really awful.

432. “I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was. I was pre-disposing myself, my movements and my body to an ‘intense’ day and therefore was immediately holding myself in the tension of that intensity” This is such a great and clear observation Otto, and one that Im sure many of us could relate to. We are so good at setting ourselves up for situations to occur, but more often than not will blame our circumstances on the effect they are having on us, rather than take the resopnsibiltiy for the choices we made that ultimately led to those situations.

433. I love this – how you have opened the conversation up. Anything that we create is a road-block to co-creation.

434. Space versus time- what are we choosing? When I choose to feel space in my day and work within the space rather then trying to work to time my day flows. However there are always “time” tasks which can pull me out of space and I am on the time machine again. I can choose again to make a different choice- I love how I can make another choice in every minute of the day- so powerful and life changing. Thank you Otto your blog is so relatable to me and to the world I think!

435. This highlights the way in which we create excuses for not going further, expanding and deepening the quality and capacity we have to bring love to everything we do.

436. I love the saying, ‘We are never given more than we can handle’, and the key is in HOW we handle what we’re aware of and know needs to be done. There is our work, absolutely, but there is also how we move, how we are in relationships and the deeper level those are being called to at all points in time. Getting support is the only way we can ‘handle’ what is there to be received, learnt and done, because we were never designed to do life alone. After all, there’s only 7.5 billion of us.

     1. I agree, never more than we can handle. Enough though, so that we can learn how to do ever more with truth and love should we choose to do so.

437. How many of us write our future, writing the script for each day of our lives, never changing it or expanding it – set by the preconceived ideas we have. What would happen if we had no script? It would leave a lot of space for the ‘more’ to come…

     1. I like this question. And why is it that we keep it the same, year after year and why is it that so many struggle with change? Have we become creatures of comfort, who find change hard? Is it because we are avoiding the potential to expand and evolve?

438. Such a powerful testimony to our responsibility. How if we make our life about ourselves and the ‘intensity’ of living not only do we miss out on so much but more importantly we are holding back so much from others, “It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.” What a true and appropriate awareness for this day of all days in the year – December 25.

439. Beautiful Otto – so simply presented and broken down and I love how you have shared ‘in-tense’ – Ha, of course it is – in tension. That is so obviously huge. What you offer here is that it is a choice and that you have chosen differently and said no to the game that keeps us less.

440. Is it not fascinating that we struggle to let go of our investments and step aside and just allow what is asked of us to come through and deliver what is needed without any recognition. Letting go of the self is a process that requires a steady checking in and letting go. With a whole lot of honesty as well.

441. The question ‘what else could I do today’ is one for me to take with me into this week. I have asked myself the question what did I not do or what did I do wrong a lot in the past with only created more tension for the next day. This new question is appreciating and creating the space to say yes to more.

     1. Great point Carolien – the quality in which and how we ask ourselves the question makes all the difference.

     2. Great point, to look at what next rather than to beat ourselves up or put ourselves down for whatever we didn’t do or didn’t choose.

     3. Yes.. when we appreciate something it feels so much more expansive in our body than the tight constriction of regret/self criticism. Appreciation offers the space for the what’s next, whereas criticising myself cuts me off from it.

442. Thank you Otto,this is such an inspiring blog. I know the combination of working hard and tension very well, and there was still a part of me that felt this was just how it is but from you blog I realise that this tension is completely self inflicted, whether by reacting to those around me or the work that needs to be done or by putting pressure on myself of what needs to be done. Where as true hard work, as in volume, can easily be done when I surrender in full to what is before me and when I allow myself to know how supported I am.

443. “The more dramatic it sounded, the more excuses I had.” Oooh, ouch. Sounds very familiar, how I fish around for dramatic excuses to cover up my lack of attention to detail and irresponsibility. Time to get real, get out of the way and get on with it, life in all its intensity.

     1. It sure is ouch, but ouch with a big fat THANK YOU that goes with it because it is great when we become aware of the lies and games we play. ;

     2. Yes. And if we can be truly honest about this then we can really evolve ourselves out of these patterns. That is where the true responsibility lies – in having the humility and purpose in seeing the patterns and then committing to changing. That is what I am working on. I see stuff – but do I then make the changes?

444. I love this blog Otto . . . what a great realization and I loved that you shared this with us as it has really hit a spot with me. Thank you for the inspiration.

445. Otto, your awesome blog shows the power of the words we use to set ourselves up as to how we live in each moment. I have been one who has lived exactly like this; regularly setting the scene so that if I ‘failed’ I already had the excuse ready and waiting. But in living in this self-preserving way we are actually living so much less of who we are and in the process everyone misses out on the amazing us.

     1. Ingrid the same here with me, just by setting our day up, a period up or indeed a whole year. When we let go of projecting onto that moment and allow ourselves to be open to whatever it is that is there to learn or do next then things are far simpler than first envisaged.

        1. And when we let go of a picture of how it has to be, and allow for more… so much more unfolds and is on offer. We are the ones that limit it and I feel that has a lot to do with our self worth and what we hold as a belief as to what actually is possible. The only limitations are coming from us.

446. I too work a lot and in fact have an infinite number of things that I could do and contribute to so know it will never be different until my last breath. Sometimes I can fall into the intensity or overwhelm (less so these days) but remind myself that we are never asked to do more than we can and therefore if I am feeling that I am doing more, I have not discerned what is truly there for me to attend to or not, or perhaps there is something else in my life that needs adjusting to provide more space.

     1. Yes.. if I’m feeling pushed for time it’s a sign for me to look at if/where I’m spending too long on something, going into too much detail in over-focussed perfectionism, wanting to get it right, instead of completing it and moving onto the next thing.

        1. Yes the getting it right trick is a killer!

     2. It can be a hard pill to swallow that overwhelm is simply a choice we make to alleviate the pressure that comes from not living the depth of what is here to be lived by us all.

     3. There is such wisdom here and I really appreciate the offering that if one area of life seems overwhelming it may just be that there is another area to look at and a hole to close there.

        1. ha ha yes look at the whole and close the holes 😉

     4. It is very empowering to realise that overwhelm is a harmful emotion and something we create because once we become aware of that it is easier to stop creating it and playing the victim!

     5. I appreciate how you have taken this deeper Nicola. We are never asked to do more than we can, thus, if our day is feeling very full…it is an invitation to look deeper at everything and see where there might be more space..or perhaps whether everything that is on the menu actually needs to be there. Is the purpose absolute in all that we are attempting to do? If not, then perhaps it can be dropped or altered…Thus the ‘intensity’ actually becomes an invitation to finesse. Thank you Nicola.

        1. Thanks Otto – yes it has been a huge lesson for me. A wise woman one said to me if you spend one minute too much or one minute too little on something you are out of space!

        2. It is such a gift to connect to purpose and responsibility and commit in this way because it is very evolutionary. For example if there is genuinely a call for me to do more and I am having difficulty with that, it may be that I need to adjust my diet because if I overeat at night (as I am prone to) then I do not wake up early enough and am less clear. Equally if I indulge in emotions or reactions then I do not have the clarity to attend to what is needed in a simple way – there is always something to learn!

        3. Indeed there is always something to learn, but only if we are open to that possibility. This sounds obvious and sounds easy; but one of the biggest hurdles that I have had to cross (and am still crossing) is getting rid of self, investments, pictures and pride..so that I am then truly open to learning, to seeing what is being offered.

     6. Imagine how different our lives would be not only in how we relate to ourselves but to everyone else if we fully lived that understanding Doug. Sometime I think I “know” what you have shared in relation to myself but then find myself making excuses for someone else and that is a giveaway because how we are with one we are with all.

447. I love this work life you have described Otto. I feel very inspired as for it to truly work/happen we have to really embody the truth that nothing is because of us individually, the support is everywhere and we are just here to express, reflect and bring it through, and for us to take so much responsibility in the arena of work, there also needs to be a strong foundation and responsibility lived in all other areas of our life. I simply feel every particle in my body saying yes.

448. This is a great sharing as you make clear how living less than who you truly are puts the body in tension… which, is the beginning of ‘dis-ease’

449. It is insightful to realise just how much our thoughts and ‘automated’ responses predispose our perception and therefore we come to ‘believe’ this as our reality…Yes, couldn’t agree more… “The intensity is created by me…”

     1. Our perception of things can be incredibly powerful and write the future as you share. It is so common place for people to speak as you expressed appreciation in being so busy and intense with life it is awesome to have you expose this for the set up it is.

     2. Agree.. if we decided to ignore any nonsensical thoughts, not give them any further airtime in our heads, could this improve the quality of our lives and our overall mental health?

450. I love your joy Otto and that is undeniable through all of this, despite the ‘intensity’. In fact those who get very intense (myself included) often have a great propensity for moving into joy very quickly – drop the intensity and the joy is there. There is the tension that is naturally going to be there, as the Ageless Wisdom teaches us – when one has huge awareness there is going to be tension of that and all we need to do is respond to that observationally, rather than react to it.

     1. Great points and also how there is a difference between in-tense, out-tense, past-tense and tension. There is always a tension that we can feel… pulling us to evolve back to ourselves and this is simply how it is (thank God literally). We can develop as you say an observational relationship with the tension and not an intense or emotional one – something that I manage at times but not at others!

        1. Ha ha! Know just what you mean Nicola!

451. This is a perfect blog to read today on Christmas day .. which is so often referred to as intense, around family, cooking or providing for others whilst living in the relationships we have – these can also be referred to as tense times. I love what you have explored Otto, you have inspired me to surrender more deeply to what it is that I am needed for today, what do I really need to do and with this I can let go of the busy things that I think need doing and instead perhaps enjoy just being with me and others.

     “It prevents me from walking alongside the unfathomable support that I have on offer, in partnership and absolute equality with my heavenly brothers and heeding the undeniable pull of the true divinity that I am and to which I can inspire many to return to.” This is a super powerful line ~ and I’ll be reading it again and again..

452. Intense, complicated, irritable, mad, crazy to name a few. How often do we stop to take stock of how our movements in the day have added to this?

453. Super post Otto…”So you see? The intensity is created by me” – completely I do see.. and also that the intensity is created by us and is a cloak of cover to not feel the true intensity that of not being who we truly are, but instead a created version that gives us an excuse to not be our original version…. and original versions are the ones that are always loved the best too no?!!

454. This is brilliant. The tension that we feel is us not living who we are, not living what we are here to do. And yes, I am feeling it in my body.

455. Thank you Otto, I learned so much from reading your article because I also create my own future by constantly going on about how busy I am and how intense it all is. That part of us that wants to avoid responsibility certainly finds many ways to do it and you have unearthed for all a really insidious one. Your article is a bit like an oasis in a desert, which allows us to stop and consider what we are doing. Talking about how busy and intense life is does not serve and in fact is a smoke screen. We convince ourselves that we cannot possibly do another thing, cannot possibly step up and fully be who we are because we are so busy. It is as you say the perfect excuse to not choose to evolve.

456. Awesome blog Otto and something I can really relate with as I have found myself constantly saying to people my day has been busy, my week really busy etc etc and realised like you I was setting myself up and even though it may have been busy I was not taking responsibility for the way I had been living and in some extents this is still currently happening. Very cool to realise living less than who we truly are and getting ourselves in-tense is what causes the intensity.

457. You are so on the money here Otto. We can use intensity as an excuse and it takes honesty and humility to see that and you have that in spades, especially in sharing your experience publicly.. I recently saw how I was making a living away from home experience ‘intense’ and as a excuse to bring a little less of my power to my life and I was making it all about me. Getting the individual self out of the way and asking what else is quite phenomenal and well worth exploring.

458. ” intense = in-tense.” I like this Otto I never saw the word that way before.

459. This is a timely read for me today as I have been using ‘busy’ to play small and avoid taking responsibility.

460. Wow, this makes so much sense, of course I set myself up for my days to be intense, as I read the first part of your blog I could literally feel the tension creeping in as I could feel what I perceived to be a lack of space in your day and reflected on how I kid myself with the same story in mine. This is genius, thank you.

461. Beautiful Otto, there are so many subtle ways we place ourselves in compromising situations and this is a great example.

462. What I find so inspirational is that life is simply about choices… we can choose simplicity or we can choose complication – one allows for so much space, harmony and flow in life… and the other is all about intensity and drama. Its a no brainer which choice our bodies prefer.

463. Intensity creates a numbness, an insensitivity to what we feel. We think with this we can avoid the tension of what evolution is calling us to. But this just isn’t true. Brilliantly said Otto.

464. ‘No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity’ ….. love it. Your expression is so beautifully simple, clear and very honest, leaving no room for anything to hide away. Wherever self is involved, we will always be moving in a way that justifies and protects our own interests, in some way, if we are able to let go of this, everything changes and a whole other way of being opens up to us, that honours the truth of who we are and all that we are a part of.

465. So awesome Otto… it is great to see the games we play, to see them for what they are – usually all about self and avoiding responsibility! We can then inspire ourselves and others in the new choices we make.

466. Oh my goodness, what a truly inspiring blog, Otto. Thank you, I will very much enjoy re-reading this over and over ….. what you share is huge, you’ve smashed out of that glass room that we can create for ourselves, which justifies any short comings in our behaviour and keeps everyone away.

467. Telling someone that your day or period of time or work was intense feels like making an excuse for any so called failures or mistakes that happened on the way, and as you say Otto, it allows us to shirk the responsibility of living our full glory. It feels like a prop to keep us going with our heads above water, survival at its best. No wonder we are in tension, intensity or no intensity. Being and giving our all is an intention that has no pictures, just a knowing of all that we can be.

468. Thank you Otto, for there is absolute love in describing what intense truly means and what it represents to us. Instead of calling this word out loud often, to stand more still to what makes our live in-tense and how actually not normal this should be. Amazing.

469. Our perceptions do really colour life instead of connecting to the truth and what’s going on and available. What your blog has shown me is how we run with stories instead of checking in with ourselves and what’s truly going on. I find for me stories can have a victim consciousness element which allows me to not take responsibility for what’s really going on. Thanks Otto.

470. The thing that I feel in this sharing is how we begin our day tense when we expect it to be intense. We have already adjusted our posture, tightened our body and formed a shield of sorts to go out and face the day. In feeling this I am now pondering on how we eliminate any space from freely being in our body or day. We have already filled our body with tension and our day with expectations of what it will bring. What I also sense from this is that it sets us up to not be fully present in each moment, so we miss vital moments where another may need a little more time with us, simply don’t see a note that we need to have, forget to perform an important task, etc. There is much that is glossed over or simply over looked when living in the tension of being prepared.

471. I too have come to realise that we create our life by how we think it to be. Whilst this is rather revealing it is so very supportive to know and understand how our thoughts and behaviours are actually precursors to what we experience in life, as it offers us the opportunity to make changes to what we allow ourselves to think about or look at ways we live that we need to keep us feeling ‘good’ about ourselves. All the while making our lives much more complicated than they could be.

472. Wow – this is an awesome blog and perfectly timed, thank you Otto. Whilst I have felt this myself, tracking it back in detail like this really exposes the choices we make to create and maintain these situations and our motivation in doing so.

473. I have found when I let outside influences guide how I feel, I have lost any and all connection to my sacredness.

474. Yeah letting go of drama is something I am working on, it’s just an avoidance of power essentially, so simple but something I certainly like to dine out on.

475. We most definitely write our future. We get so much recognition for being super busy etc that it can be hard to let go of the identity. Knowing that every day is an opportunity to live with so much more love and joy is something that is definitely worth allowing in.

476. I can relate to intense and how it keeps cycling around if not dealt with truly. The pressure it has put on me and my body has been huge and in that I can see what this condition has kept me from. At most points when anything was there in a relationship the intensity would strike out, I was living it and therefore it was with me in everything. It felt like a lock down, a hand on your throat and allowed no space for joy as life was a monotone existence. Seeing the intensity that was created by my own hand has been another part of freeing myself to more in the world and in that freedom joy has returned.

477. Great dissection of the label ‘intense’ which keeps us locked in a perceived intensity and living our moments in time rather than surrender to the grace of space.

478. Great insight Otto to the words we use to justify what we create to keep us in our ‘box’. I can feel where this hits the spot in me the past few weeks and I really appreciate you shinning the light on this so I have the choice to let my thinking go and allow my inner-being to step up and out to join humanity in my fullness – God knows there is a calling for us All to choose this.

479. This is fantastic Otto, to get to the reality of the game of self. I know this well and I too have had a lot going on with long hours etc and to read how you have exposed what was keeping you small and tense is super insightful. Get the self out of the way… this is one that needs constant exposing as we have such an ingrained way of living that is all about self. Thanks for sharing Otto.

480. Very powerful to understand that the tension most felt is that of not living the divinity that you are, naturally. Which brings in to view, how much effort it takes to hold ourselves back.

     1. Absolutely. So no wonder it feels intense! Fun to expose the self-inflicted merry-go-round of all of this!

481. There are certain jobs that the world has said are more intense, some are physically intense and some emotionally, but both ask for a buy in which means we have stopped reading why things are happening. There is so much for us to learn if we are open to taking a step back from the tension and see how much is actually needed or how much we are the ones who need it.

482. You have offered me a moment of pause this morning and I so appreciate it. When we use the drama of the supposed ‘intensity’ of our day to make excuses to prepare another that we are likely to let them down it is such an abdication of responsibility and a ‘get out of jail free card’ in the commitment to life stakes.

483. “By getting out in front with dramatic stories about how full-on it all was, I was absolving myself from any slip-ups that I had been making along the way, whilst also trying to ensure that people didn’t pull me up for some of the choices that I had made…”- I can definitely relate to this approach in a way that sometimes when I work really long hours or finish a big project I tend to allow myself to eat things that I don’t normally eat or even stay up later than normal watching some movie as a reward. But this behaviour is never really honouring of ourselves and if we were truly appreciating the work we have done we would not change our choices in a way that took us away from feeling all that is there to feel and grow into, as Otto has demonstrated so clearly in this great blog.

     1. This is a great detail that I hadn’t considered really. How this behaviour also allows us to defend our own choices to ourselves. So; we make up the story, we make some un-self-loving choices, we then have the pre-laid excuse that we then tell ourselves. Could the self-serving irresponsibility ever be so clear?!

484. Very well said Jane, I agree, we have the power to change how we are with our family, with work and life in general. The intensity we often feel comes from avoiding the grandness we are and also from avoiding responsibility.

485. Powerful blog Otto, it is incredible how much space opens up when we claim and accept how amazing we are and what is possible when we get ourselves out of the way. This is a brilliant example of taking responsibility for how we live our day, our life and work.

486. A great exposure on how we limit our greatness by getting stuck in the idea of complication and intensity in our day and we can make different choices, even in our use of words.

487. Beautiful open and transparent writing. I can certainly relate to creating my own tension and busy-ness, with every day filled up with an endless list of things to do and when I look at my diary I often think: ‘this will not fit and will be too full’. A couple of weeks ago I did an experiment with getting myself, my control and planning out of the way by surrendering to the day and what was to come in full trust that it would all work out perfect for all involved. And guess what, it did! Beyond my imagination things flowed effortless and kept falling into place every moment of each day. No tension, no stress and no exhaustion at the end of the day, but connecting to my soul and my body.

488. …and how awesome that you’ve had that time to write this blog post to share with everyone. Big time appreciation!

489. Reading what you write makes me think of how we sometimes can’t ‘see the trees for the wood’ – in other words we lose perspective of our true purpose in life. Remembering this, as you point out, is a real game changer.

490. That’s the life-skill; to stand back and thus be able to see the wood from the trees and then, as you so rightly say Jane, we can start to see our own part in the intensity that we have created – which then empowers us to ‘unpick’ it.

491. Amazing Otto, putting no limits on the amazingness we are, and can bring to our every day!

492. Our whole perspective changes when we open up to the grandness we are from…it puts ‘work’ in a different light.

493. It is so interesting how we get what we create, Otto, but when we get ourselves out of the way, the tension completely changes. We have made the tension and we can choose to stop it.

494. Awesome. Tension is created in the relationship between self and that which is not self – so where there is no self there is no tension. How beautifully simple. A recipe for the pureness of ‘just being’.

495. Building awareness allows to see life more clearly. It also allows us to better understand the nature of the games that we play and come so naturally to us that we do not even question them… until we realize what we have been doing.

496. Amazing – we are so prone to going into the business when things get busy, the intensity when there is a lot to do, the overwhelm, anxiety etc – but these are all secondary reactions to life that come from us not meeting the day, the challange, the work we need to do with all of who we are – if Superman turned up to a battle with evil as Clark Kent, I bet he’d feel a bit stressed. We are given everything we need to do what is needed in life, all we have to do is get ourselves out of the way and turn up prepared to be all of who we are (Wearing a Cape is an optional extra)

497. Thank you Otto, I can so relate to what you say. A few people recently have also commented on how hard I work and sometimes I can unequivocally say that I do not, it is my steadiness and consistency that they are appreciating but other times by my allowing tension in my body I am actually going hard to get things done and in that sense, yes, I am working hard and that is not kind to me or anyone for the energy I am leaving behind lacks harmony love and stillness.

498. Thank you Otto, you have pin pointed a great deal that applies to me also. During the Christmas season in retail I just put my head down and the blinkers on and decided that I just had to ‘get through’. The result was tension due to the ‘hard work’ that I was doing. No room for growth or any more awareness. I totally understand what you are saying. Thank you for shining the light on this.

499. Great blog. You’ve totally turned upside down all my notions of what working ‘hard’ means, and that there can be true joy in working long hours, if I’m staying present and connected to my body and not totally lost in what I’m doing, and understanding that the intensity comes from me, and how I relate to what’s going on around me, not from the work itself. Knowing that we create our own inner environment, that we hold dominion over whether we’re internally stressed or not, is truly empowering. This is also responsibility – not blaming anything in the outside world for being stressful: we are the ones that are creating how the world is, in our own way – and so it’s up to each of us to change how we are in it.

500. I read this, and the self quite simply squirms, because it’s been nailed in the corner. Wow, how we make things hard for ourselves to keep up the identification, and how possible it is to live life full to the brim, serving in every moment of our day, when we make it about the Godliness we ALL have within, and not about little me wanting to have its fit for the day.

501. Wonderfully captured Otto, the relationship between Self and experiencing life as Intense. I realise I’ve managed to lessen the feeling of ‘intense’ by seeing ‘work and everything and anything that needs attending to in life’ as just doing my thing, – (trying) not to categorise it, just getting on with whatever it is. Yet I still feel a degree of intensity at the amount that needs attending to. There is definitely still a tension that must therefore come from some other place than doing what needs to be done – and you’ve put your finger on it. – – Note to ‘self’ 😉 – re-read, re-read and take note.

502. Otto, this amazing blog is very timely for me. I recently had a very busy period at work when a colleague was off sick. The amount of extra work that suddenly appeared was huge but instead of getting myself out of the way and trusting all the support for me was already in place, I went into the drive of proving to myself and others around me that I could do it all myself. The tension from creating this drive was at a cost to my body which at the end of the period was exhausted. Thank you for sharing the simplicity of ‘if I get myself out of the way, then I will not be in this tension, I will not be in-tense and thus the day can no longer be intense.’

     1. It’s great to clock these examples. Similar situations are going to come round again and again, so if we are honest, then we get to learn and that’s the best result.

503. Otto I love the power and simplicity in what you share, how we make life is our choice and its a great point to consider in how much of life do I make ‘hard’ or ‘intense’ instead of asking what else is needed, what is next and in that get out the way of my filter on life.

504. And I thought my life was busy! I loved how you broke it all down into simple maths. Thank you Otto

505. Otto, absolutely love your blog and I can so relate to experience this too. Working in hospitality the hours are as long as you describe, constantly on the go. I too had got caught up in the intensity of it all, but a few months back the penny dropped and I realised when I allowed a flow in my movement and just said yes to more, the day was fuller but a more beautiful flow, then tension in my body gone, the work load increasing but everything flows in its divine way. The support is there, it comes to you and everyone around start to take on more responsibility for the self. How amazing this is. I agree get self out of the way and make it simple.

506. Wow this really exposes how we set ourselves up for tension by pre-judging that life is going to be ‘intense’. I have certainly been guilty of this myself on many occasions and can feel how at the times when space opens up there is sometimes a feeling of fear about how will I cope if my days are not crammed full of stuff to do?! Letting go of these self-obsessed thoughts we are then open to feeling what is needed next in the trust that we will never be given more than we can handle – truly a beautiful way to move through life.

507. Love the clarity that you share here Otto, thank you. I’ve been realising more myself recently as well just how much I impact the way that I feel by how I approach or respond to situations, if I just see the ‘negative’ or if I open up to seeing the opportunity that is there for deeper connection and learning.

508. I can’t even imagine the amount of work you get through in one of your days Otto, it would be way too intense for me and if I am honest I would probably crack and end up in the luny bin and here you are seeing the scope for more by getting self out of the way. Totally inspirational and I will never complain about being overworked again and see how much more we can get done by just getting on with it and getting self out of the picture.

509. Its fascinating to see how what we express really can be magnified in our bodies and to understand that each time we think it and say it, we then walk and move it…..
     Identifying and owing life’s intensity is a self imposed drain and as you say Otto a complete cap on the potential flow and order of each day.

510. “No self = no tension = no in-tense = no intensity.” – This is a great formula. With the word ‘intense’ comes the sense that life is of a crazier, lower quality, but being busy in no way means that we have to drop everything else; the inbetween moments of space, the relationships and so forth.

511. I love this, because, yes, there is a lot of work to be done in this world, but what you describe here is that it comes back to the quality we decide and allow ourselves to be in while we are doing all the things we are doing, as it is the quality that determines how we truly feel and not the amount of work that is done/to be done. Beautiful. And this opens us up to the one step at a time, as this is the only way to go any way.

512. ‘So you see? The intensity is created by me.’ I am also beginning to be aware of this for myself too, Otto! I have often blamed the world for its intensity and have thought myself a victim of it… but I realise how I set this up within. At the end of the day, I can either react to life and go into overwhelm, or hold steady within myself and respond differently to what is around me, before me and in me.

     1. When we attempt to control life or control what we see in this wrestle we ‘need’ a cover and in walks intensity. Very few people will touch you because of your intense bite and what they are seeing you do. That’s the thing there is a lot of doing in intensity and you defend the fortress from the doing. As is being said there is more to us from being then doing. All of us can do and there are many intense version we can create but we aren’t here to do life, there is a larger part that can’t be seen from doing with our head down. When we be, truly be and allow others to be natural we are pulled to return, return to how things truly are and from there our walk is settled and there is joy in our step because everything is seen. Push forward into ‘getting it done’ and you walk right past the worlds sign posts and end up not only down a different road but you are then needing to do more to cover your own tracks.

        1. Beautifully expanded (as you always do Ray). Head-down, baton-down-the-hatches, going solo, blinkers on, just-get-it-done,…all of which mean we miss the everywhere-opportunities to be shown and guided by the magical flow of the universe and thus missing our true purpose. Even a to-do-list can keep us stubbornly going down one (and perhaps the wrong) track.

        2. As we are seeing we can never truly walk down a ‘wrong road’ or even a ‘right road’ we choose to either “guided by the magical flow of the universe” or not. So any road is always a choice, our choice and how we go down that road is the key.

513. How beautiful Otto to see that we create our own world and in -tensity stress and everything else and how amazing this is to realise this and the changes we can therefore make to change. Such a real and supportive sharing that makes all the difference to what we perceive as the world and the true space we have to evolve and be more of who we truly are in and walk along side with purpose and love. Very powerful and a gift of gold.

514. “I knew it was going to be ‘intense,’ I said it was going to be ‘intense,’ I invited it to be ‘intense’ and, sure enough, it was.” Yes, we can write our own future with our expectations and pictures – so we do have a choice – to feel constrained and overloaded or to have space and freedom, regardless of how ‘busy’ we are.

515. “….. it all starts by getting self out of the way.” Very true Otto. When I do this (get myself out of the way) it feels amazing that more energy seems to come in, time disappears and space opens up.

516. ‘Very simply, if I get myself out of the way, then I will not be in this tension, I will not be in-tense and thus the day can no longer be intense.’ This is a gorgeous equation that can be applied, as you have shown, Otto, to any situation, anywhere no matter how much there is to do, and yes by your example we can see that for some that amount can look overwhelming. To be present in the moment on a foundation of self-worth knowing that quality can be brought to every moment without investment in outcomes offers space in the moment to bring all that we are to it. The key, as you have shown, is to start to live it by letting go of those old ideals and beliefs. Thank you, Otto, for sharing your profound learning here – it is inspiring.

517. I love your exposé of the word intense as being in-tense as in in tension. I can relate to this as well as much of my life is what many would deem “intense” but I am not experiencing it as intense simply because I have no tension doing it!

518. Yes indeed, Otto. When we build a life based on the forever deepening connection to our soul, everything flows and becomes one and the same.

519. Thank you Otto for cracking open the ‘Intense’ myth. I completely agree. We create our own intensity, often wanting someone to pat us on the back, acknowledge, appreciate and applaud our sacrifice and hence give us a huge ‘Get out of Jail Free Card’ for all the mistakes we make because of our self absorption. When we wise up, get our selves out of the way and realise that life, purpose, relationships and work are all naturally intertwined, a whole new universe of potential opens us before us.

520. It makes so much sense that we create our tension depending on how we react to life. In fact, we are setting ourselves up to have stress and feel overwhelmed.

521. Wow this sharing so perfectly and completely bursts the bubble that work is hard and that we are victims of the circumstances we are in.

522. In essence Otto, we’re shown how to be with whatever we’re given in life. It all flows from the quality of our inner world.

523. Love it Otto, it is like when we hold onto ourselves and our ideals that what we are doing is a lot we are blocking our own flow and ease. We can really feel what we can do at any moment, it is more the apprehension beforehand that can make it intense and exhausting. I often get more exhausted by the idea it is too much than the load of work itself.

524. What a great insight Otto into how we create our stories and then run with them allowing for drama and excuses rather than simply doing what is there to be done. I know for myself at work things can get stressful, busy or in-tense but this is usually because I allow it, sure there are pressures but I know that the way I am directly affects the way I perceive the situation to be. I can blame external factors and get caught up in it but ultimately it is down to the choices I have been making and the way I have been living that dictates how my day will go. So the same, almost identical events can occur and depending on the way I have been living and am feeling the way I see them, and thus respond or react to them, can be completely different.

525. Beautiful Otto, we create our own reality don’t we? And you show powerfully that whatever demands are placed on us through work and family, once we open up to the heavenly support that surrounds us, we are given what we need and have capacity for more than we ever dreamed of. A truly expanded way of living that is, as you say, joyful.

526. You know reading your blog I had the thought – what if the way we see our life completely makes it the way we see it? So if I see my life as hard, it will be hard, if I see my mistakes as failures I’m going to keep “failing”, if I see everything as a learning I’m going to keep learning. It makes you ponder what really are our eyes for, and how powerful is our sight, or in-sight.

     1. Exactly Meg. I love this, love how you have expanded it. Whilst the blog only focuses on one area of our lives – work, it is also totally transferrable to all areas. Thank you.

527. Thank you Otto for showing that when we choose joy in our movements in the present then joy will be how we are however intense the world around us may be.

528. Thank you Otto for a clear and real example of how we experience life and the world is our creation.

529. Otto your blog reads like my experience in the last 2 years also and “in-tense” is exactly how it feels. Something that I can feel here for me is that there is a seeking of recognition for working in an “in-tense” environment with a lot going on and I’m ‘holding’ it together. And your correct about using that no not being able to be pulled up when we so strongly believe that what we are doing is right. Your blog has helped me reflect on a situation I have been in recently where that exactly is what has been offered, even though its not easy to feel. Getting myself out of the way feels like a great start.

530. I could very much relate to this, and have been doing something similar for a few months. When someone would ask me how I was I would answer ‘pretty good, work is super busy’! When I started to stop repeating this, then it was amazing how much I could fit in a day, without rushing and carrying on.

531. Beautiful Otto and seeing how you are with your family and the amazing work you do we can only look forward to seeing more. I love the way that inviting more opens up space for life to be less intense.

532. It is very revealing to listen to ourselves and our choice of words for they make a huge difference.

533. An awesome expose on foreseeing our future movements made and the intensity and strain it then has on our bodies and the magic that unfolds when we simply live each moment from our movements and enjoy the space to be exactly as we are born to be everyday. Thank you Otto.

534. The thing is: How can I embrace a new level of responsibility without leaving me behind? How can I live lovingly and consistently in this growing opening to more and more responsibility? The intensity comes from the tension between evolution and all the information we carry with us from our whole life and lives, which is exposed and cleared with every step we take to a new point. This experience sometimes feels exhausting, sometimes liberating, but always there is a learning in our way that helps us to go deeper and learn more while we are ‘doing’ in the surface.

535. A very relatable blog Otto, especially as ‘intense’ is becoming a more and more common way for many of us to experience life.

     I love the reminder to allow ourselves space to get ourselves out of the way and out of our often self-created tension, and in place of this to allow for the joy that comes when we embrace expansion and responsibility, rather than try and avoid it.

536. Gorgeous Otto, I love the way you describe this ‘intensity’ story we all run – like a film script we have going in our head. When you talk to others and trundle these lines out, there’s a part of you that knows they are not true. Yet the intensity seems to be so real. Yet I am starting to see I create it in order to avoid what I feel. So the answer is not in any to do list or app but in my feeling senses and allowing that.

537. Wow. The honesty and humility you express with is so disarming. You support me to see where I play this in tense game too.

538. Furthermore, by running this dialogue, I was completely and consciously capping my awareness. I was giving myself pre-meditated permission to keep my head down, the blinkers on and just get through the day and by doing this, was choosing to not read the truth of each situation. I was in effect saying; “No, I don’t want to know or see more, because that might expose the game I’m playing, so I’m just going to deal with the intensity in front of me”. Wow Otto, I can absolutely relate to the truth of what you share here, about running dialogues to stop myself and getting in the way. This is so perfect for me right now, and I love the question, what else can I do today.
     Love it. Thank-you.

539. The first thing felt from this sharing was—how much to appreciate! Opportunities to be much more out in the world bringing ourselves and I absolutely can relate to the fact that all challenging or huge situations in work or in life is “challenging” me to let go more of self and to move in trust and flow that there is another way to live and to work and every such time I feel so deeply humble and I truly love to work even more hours and even more committed.

540. Thanks Otto for a brilliant blog and just what the doctor ordered as I have just come out of another intense period of work that I created and managed to dull myself down to hang my identity of being able handle the intenseness. It always all about our choices and how we live and choosing love is definitely much more precious and productive,than intensity ,blame and disregard .Thanks brother.

541. The tension you share here is often the excuses we can make to sit in the comfort and relief of this behaviour rather than choosing to feel the simplicity and power that comes with working in true purpose which is absolutely, effortless.

542. Amazing Otto, thanks for sharing! I will definitely reflect on this one.

543. While we are ‘miles apart’ in gender, age, nationality, country of residence, profession, family and probably more, I can still relate completely to what you have shared. You are in a high pressure job, raising a family etc where one can easily agree there is tension. So how is it that someone who is retired, running an airbnb business from home, can still relate to ‘intensity’? I feel it is because, if we hook into the world outside of us, hook into the temporal world (with all its chaos, goals & beliefs), then we are not living our innate gloriousness. Any anytime we aren’t living our own divine-ness, we are in tension.

     1. I love this Gayle and have always felt what you are talking about. Intensity is entirely relative to each person’s situation. When explaining this subject, I sometimes use the rather random example of the person whose fingernail has broken. If you have invested all of your life into having perfect, long, beautifully manicured fingernails – then, when one breaks, it is INTENSE. As you so correctly say, the intensity is entirely self-made, a choice.

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