Introduction to
Deep Living:
A practical path to
happiness and fulfillment through
honesty, courage, consiousness,
and self-responsibility

copyright © James Swank 2011. All rights reserved.

When I turned 40 years old in 1995, my life fell apart. This collapse motivated a search that led me to a deep understanding of myself and human behavior in general. It was the beginning of a process through which my experience of life radically altered, and I became aware of many things that had previously eluded me. It was the beginning of a new way of living that led me to a deep sense of happiness and fulfillment.

For most of my life I was lost, confused, angry, fearful, and profoundly unhappy. Through what I have learned, I have come to love myself, love life, and experience an amazing sense of clarity about myself and the world around me. I’ve gone from being someone who was dark, cynical, and sarcastic, to someone who is caring, grateful, and in awe of life’s perfection. I have found a personal sense of truth that guides me through life with joy, grace, peace, simplicity, and a feeling that I have found and am fulfilling my purpose. Having found this, it is very clear to me that this feeling of happiness and fulfillment is the most valuable thing to obtain in life, after our basic requirements for survival.

In my search, I looked in many different directions. I learned and experienced many things. Some were extremely valuable, some were useful as stepping stones, and some I eventually saw as diversions, though at the time I thought they were valuable.

In this book, I offer the lessons that were instrumental in my transformation; what supported me in finding my true sense of self, and the feeling of joy and simplicity I experience in day-to-day life. I want to tell you the things that I learned that were most effective for timely and permanent transformation, so you can take advantage of them and find the most direct route to your own experience of joy and fulfillment, while avoiding many of the paths I found less effective.

In my search, I studied many religions and philosophies; eastern and western, esoteric and practical, traditional and alternative. I became particularly attracted to Hinduism and yoga and became a yoga teacher. I also studied several forms of Buddhism, Taoism, Paganism, and a variety of meditation practices, both traditional and more modern variations coming out of the Human Potential Movement.

Besides looking for philosophical answers, I was also looking for practical answers on how to heal my body and my psyche. I experimented with a wide variety of therapies and forms of healing and bodywork from many different traditions. When I found a form of therapy effective, I studied it. I was particularly drawn to osteopathy and studied several osteopathic techniques, including becoming a registered practitioner of Ortho-Bionomy. I was also attracted to aquatic bodywork, gained certification as an aquatic bodyworker, and I developed a distinctive form of therapy using osteopathic techniques in the water.

As I became more skilled, I applied to and was accepted by a healing center, where I was able to practice what I was learning professionally. As my practice developed, I became very interested in our emotions and studied psychology and behavioral sciences with particular interest in the new developments in cognitive science, gestalt therapy and trauma resolution.

I became very interested in how we heal, and explored perspectives on healing including certain aspects of Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Shamanism, and many esoteric methods out of the “New Age” movement. In my desire to understand relationship and sexuality, I studied several forms of modern Tantra with a number of different teachers.

I dove into spirituality, going to satsangs, meeting gurus, and studying with many spiritual teachers. Along the way, I found several teachers whose work I found extremely valuable with whom I spent as much time, and learned as much from, as I could.

An amazing synergy developed between my personal and professional practices, in which I was constantly confronted professionally with what I needed to address personally. It was through this combination of personal and professional practices, and the influence of my teachers, that I both learned and developed the practice through which I found happiness and fulfillment, and the method to support others to find deep happiness and fulfillment as well.

Here I present a combination of the most effective practices that I learned, combined with a way of looking at the world through which you will learn to reach a state where you are deeply feeling your authentic feelings in response to what is happening in the present moment. You will come to see that there is a deep inner truth within each of us that is quite different than who we were taught to be, and that we are constantly making choices, usually unconsciously, that, in most cases, support the sense of self that was created by how we were taught to live, instead of this deep inner truth. I will show you how you can become aware of these choices and learn to make the choices that more directly support you living your deepest truth. Through becoming connected to your deep inner truth, you will obtain the happiness and fulfillment I describe.

I have found that our feelings are our path to truth. I show a way to feel feelings that supports transforming behavioral patterns, that taps into vast sources of information that are extremely valuable in making life choices, and that guide us to a deep connection to our inner truth, which will bring us into a state of happiness and fulfillment that is beyond anything I could have imagined before I experienced it. This is an amazing state where life is incredibly rich, and in this state, you will experience a sense of clarity, empowerment, stability, and joy. It is this state I am referring to when I use the term “Deep Living”.

Moment by moment, we are all having an experience. I have found that by focusing our awareness on that experience and making choices that create as deep and rich an experience as possible, not only do we feel as wonderful as we can possibly feel, but the things we do that create those feelings are the exact things we need to do to fulfill our purpose in the world and participate in life in the most responsible way, both individually and socially. Throughout the book I will refer to our “greatest potential” or our “maximum potential”. By this I mean when we are feeling as wonderful as we can possibly feel while living our purpose and contributing our perfect part into the joint creation that is life on earth.

The purpose of this book is to help you create a personal practice that will bring you ever closer to your maximum potential. By “personal” practice, I mean a practice that you design specifically for yourself. Everyone will have a different path to develop the skills to reach their greatest potential. When I refer to this overall practice, I call it the “Deep Living Practice” or capitalize the word “Practice”. This helps differentiate your overall Practice from the many individual practices of which your overall Practice will be comprised.

Along with teaching you how to create an effective Deep Living Practice, I also present a way of looking at life, and the world, that I refer to as the “Point of View.” I also capitalize “Point of View” so you will know that I am referring to this particular perspective. The Point of View is a fundamental part of what I offer in this book. It provides a viewpoint that is essential to support the transformation your Deep Living Practice will provide.

I do not believe the Point of View is the right way, or the only way, of looking at life. Part of the Point of View is that there is no right way of looking at life, and that beliefs tend to create more problems than they solve. I encourage you to take the Point of View as a hypothesis and experiment with how your life changes as you look at your life from its perspective. You will find that the Point of View is an extremely valuable tool that supports transformation by providing a bridge between your current belief system, which is instrumental in how you are presently experiencing your life, and your deepest inner truth.

I did not create the Deep Living Practice and the Point of View by myself. They are a combination of what I have learned from several different sources that I have adjusted, altered, and augmented through the lessons I learned in my personal and professional practices. My personal and professional practices were laboratories in which I could develop and test the information and the practices I recommend, and to personally experience how they affect different people in different situations. My personal and professional practices have been the conduits that have taken the information I am presenting from the theoretical to the practical, and are the basis of how effective the Point of View and the Deep Living Practice are.

This is not an easy path. In creating the Deep Living Practice I strove to make it as practical and effective as I could to support timely and permanent transformation. When I started my search, I was looking for enlightenment and a quick solution to all of my problems. Over time, I found a persistent step-by-step approach to be much more effective. There are many challenging obstacles to overcome on the path from who you have been taught to be (who you think you are) to your deep inner truth (who you really are). I have found by breaking those challenges down into smaller manageable parts and focusing on the next step on your path, while also working on the skills that will allow you to make those steps, you will achieve the greatest results.

Since 2005, I have been sharing this information in private sessions and small groups. I make it as easy to learn as I can. I find this information extremely practical, and I try to teach it in a practical way, so interested people can learn it and benefit from it as efficiently and effectively as possible. In this book, I will jump from subject to subject, telling you small pieces at a time, letting you know what I am going to tell you, reminding you of what I have already told you, all with the goal of bringing you to a point of understanding, and then deepening that understanding. I ask you to bear with me and, at least the first time, read this book in the order I present it. After that, I encourage you to reread and jump around. I will be presenting a huge amount of information, so be careful to not let it overwhelm you. I’ve kept most of the chapters short, and I suggest you take at least a moment between chapters to let the content sink in. The real understanding doesn’t come from the book. It happens inside you, and deepens over time.

I offer many, many possibilities—far too many to do in a short period of time—so take your time. You might start a few of the basic practices as you read the book the first time. Then, if you have decided you want to follow this path, use what you have learned by reading the book to create the Deep Living Practice that is perfect for you. Experiment with the information I provide here. It is essential to learn from your experience rather than to just accept ideas.

Many aspects of this Practice are quite challenging. Be gentle with yourself. It doesn’t work to push yourself too hard. On one hand, you need to make your Practice a priority and apply yourself if you want to get results, but on the other hand, this is ultimately a Practice of self-love, so being too strict with yourself, or pushing too hard, will defeat your purpose. You will not reach happiness and fulfillment through struggle and hardship. You can learn to create a balance where you are actively pursuing your Practice in a nourishing and loving manner.

If you choose to adopt the Point of View, and experiment with the practices and exercises I suggest, I feel sure you will experience transformation, and that you will come closer to the feeling of happiness, clarity, power, and fulfillment I experience, and the deeper you go into it, the deeper you will experience these feelings. As you read this book, you will see that the choice to adopt this Point of View, and pursue the Deep Living Practice, is at the core of the results you will obtain. Your gains will be proportional to your commitment to your Practice, and, as you will come to see, your commitment to your Practice is actually a commitment to your deepest inner truth.

The vast majority of the specific practices I recommend are things you will be able to do by yourself, and these are the parts of your overall Practice where you will have your greatest development. You will find that you need help for some parts of your Practice. Don’t let this stop you. I suggest ways to get the help you need. Being connected to the world around you is an important part of the Deep Living Practice. Getting the help you need is a way to start connecting. I have found that, if you really make the choice to do something, support will be available if you make yourself available for it. Intimacy is also a vital part of the Deep Living Practice, and the connections you make with the people you share your Practice with will very likely enrich your life.

Earlier I mentioned that I had found my purpose. My purpose is to support and encourage people to find happiness and fulfillment in their lives by helping them find their deepest inner truth and through that, the fullest and deepest experience of life available to them. It is my goal, through writing this book, to do exactly that for you.

James Swank

2011

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