Bringing awareness into the world

Looking at the state of the world can be a downer. We see traces of suffering everywhere. It’s sad that so many people live in constant struggle—either sabotaging themselves or failing to live the life they truly want. It’s also sad to carry the constant grey, empty feeling that follows us wherever we go.

At OpenRoom, we believe the “cure” for a “grey and empty life” is to bring awareness into our lives—and into the world—through spiritual practices.

This is where it gets interesting. We believe there’s a common misconception: that “spirituality” is only for monks in the mountains, for people who don’t shower, or for those who reject a luxurious lifestyle. That is not true. You do not have to renounce desire or pleasure to live a “spiritual life”.

We want to help end this misconception and encourage people to embrace spiritual practices. Why? Because we believe these practices are the only ones that address the problem's root cause.

Psychology, religion, and spiritual traditions are beautiful and can help us work through problems, but they are often temporary remedies. Many do not address the root cause: a lack of awareness of who we truly are.

We live our lives confused. We think we are our mind—and therefore the thoughts and emotions it produces. We think our thoughts and emotions are our “inner world.” But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

There is a completely different world beyond what the mind can perceive. In this world, we live in pure joy and gratitude. This state is unconditional—it is our natural state of being. There is no suffering.

Of course, there is still sadness, happiness, anger, and all the emotions we know, but in this new world, they don’t dictate how we live our lives. Most importantly, fear is no longer the one calling the shots. Fear doesn’t disappear—but it loses the power it once had over us.

This is what drives and fuels OpenRoom: helping people bring awareness into their lives and thus start living a proper, peaceful life. There are thousands of spiritual practices, but we believe the one that truly matters is observing our mind. We can do this in three ways:
Become aware of your thoughts and emotions. Set aside time in your day to observe your thoughts and emotions. Write them down. Give them space. Let them be. Quite literally, observe them and take notice of them.

Be present. Do what you are doing—right here, right now. The present moment is the only moment that exists quite literally. But don’t struggle with your thoughts if they pull you into the past or the future. Let them be. Honor them, no matter how much fear they inject into your body. Don’t run away from them, and don’t declare war on them. Let them be.
Accept. Start dancing with your life. Be grateful and embrace the life you were given. This doesn’t mean you should settle for your external circumstances. It means: identify what you can reasonably do and do it, and let go of the rest—because whether you like it or not, it is out of your reach and you can’t control it.

This is why OpenRoom was created: to embody these three practices in our company and, in doing so, help bring awareness into the world. Hopefully, we can help us realize that what we do is not so important as how we do it; this is what truly matters. Infusing what we do with beautiful, positive energy is the essence of OpenRoom, and we do this by simply observing our mind.

(Picture credit: Josh Sorenson)