Extension is the practice of expanding our homeostatic range. When done skillfully, this expansion increases our power and our uncertainty. We seek extension because it liberates our consciousness from habituated patterns that limit access to ourselves and calls forth greater resourcefulness, greater availability, and greater power from within. It sends signals that more is needed. Extension sets a marker one step beyond the familiar, so close we must reach for it, while far enough that we become something more through our reaching.
The three levels of extension:
A mind that is not in perfect extension is either rigid with overextension or flaccid from a lack of extension (anxious or exhausted). It doesn’t know how to locate the optimal spot where the mind is charged in perfect extension. It is either dragged forward by an idea that it should be more, do more, or have more, until it reaches overextension or collapses in on itself by the thought that it is not enough, it does not deserve, or it cannot succeed. It will ride these thoughts down until it reaches underextension. People aim to have relaxed attention that is in a dynamic state of growth. Many have traditionally attempted to achieve this through external goals, competition, or working to be the best.
The issue is this: the monitor that can tell us what perfect extension is, is located within us. And these extrinsic ideas tend to have us overextend and experience burnout, injury, or a dissatisfying comedown on the back end. In this cycle, we ramp up, enter overextension, then come down into underextension. The consciousness, while experiencing peak states, experiences them at a great cost. The alternative route involves never ramping up sufficiently to break through the wall of tumescence that occurs as resistance. Look for a spot in between where there is a consistent extension that cuts through tumescence without extending beyond where consciousness is able to go.
If there were only a single instruction, it would be to take a risk and stay with ourselves as we do. The issue with extension is that we get locked in a self-consciousness we cannot get beyond, so we bear down and “break through” just as we do with an induced climax. The only issue is that we break our connection to ourselves in the process, which occurs to the body as abandonment. The trick is to activate a constant attention that pushes forward without checking out. We must push to the very edge of where we can take our consciousness. If we are able to stay with ourselves, we must. But if we cannot stay with ourselves, we should not. This is the first stage. We would be wise to stay here until we break through the wall (and there is a wall).
At this edge, consistent repetition of activity will bring us to the wall and through it. Provided we move through the wall in what is called perfect extension (where we are pushing and relaxing at the limits of our skills and knowing), we will be able to maintain consciousness on the other side, which is important for sustainability. Otherwise, if we cannot maintain consciousness, a comedown with digestion will be required to enable us to return to consciousness. As an alternative, we can remain with consciousness, but not in a way where we only allow limited stimuli rendering it lax, or in a way where we push beyond what we can move with. We aim for the sweet spot where we are pushing and allowing. This develops our consciousness through marathons rather than sprints.
As we adapt to this balance of consciousness, we notice extremes are absorbed into an expanding bandwidth. It isn’t that our highs are not high or our lows are not low, but that they are contained within a larger consciousness and thus not experienced as extremes. It is the difference between an explosion happening underwater with the buffer of consciousness, or on land without anything to lessen the impact. This buffer optimizes the experience of growth, as what we learn is held in consciousness and our attention can let go and relax inside this larger field of awareness. When we have this buffer, the body can release insight, intuition, and genius.
These elements will no longer occur as explosions—flashes that move through us only to be lost. Any idea that comes to us can be caught and employed, implanted in an environment conducive to its gestation. Big moments of brilliance will not threaten the stability of the mind as it will have bandwidth for all of them. We discover genius is not the purview of the few, but is available to all who have expanded their field of awareness through regular, repetitive immersion in a field in which they push and relax concurrently. Having been so fortified, awareness is now able to receive genius, holding it in a way that, instead of destabilizing the mind, adds to its richness.