Just Feel Better Video

Another Video.  The videos  are getting easier for me to do but maybe not easier for you to watch lol
 This one took about 40 minutes to an hour from the time I thought to do it until the time it was published...so that is good.

I learn a lot of strange things about my outward appearance when I watch myself on video. I scare myself with some of my facial expressions...good thing it was done on Halloween.

I think it is so cool to watch yourself objectively as you are communicating...lets you see what others see.  The experience is usually full of surprises. I actually get my Communications students to videotape themselves in a role play scenario so they can critique the way they are presenting self to others.

What I want to stress

Please know when I speak about lifting ourselves up from despair I am not undermining the challenge of those emotions.  I worked in Mental Health so I am aware of how these emotional experiences can impact our judgments and decisions.  I also know from my own dark times (and we all get them) how hard it can be to take the first step. Climbing up is not always easy, even if it is only one rung at a time.

Please.... I cannot stress this enough...if you are chronically experiencing things like despair and helplessness ... seek professional help.  Reach out to someone. Don't suffer in silence. You are too valuable not to feel better!

Also remember there is no shame in feeling our emotions...only in the sometimes desperate  consequence of denying them. Tell someone how you are feeling!

I  want you, us, the whole world to just feel better!

Intention and Gratitude lists

My prayer is gratitude.

My intention is peace.

My answer is Love.

-Anna Taylor (http://emilysquotes.com/my-prayer-is-gratitude-my-intention-is-peace-my-answer-is-love/)

So we all know the value of being grateful and at the same time wanting more... at this point ...don't we?  So are we putting a little commitment and effort into building up these two experiences? 

I decided today to keep two lists on my desk top.  One reads My Wanting List and the other, My Gratitude List. So far I have 25 pages of gratitude and 17 pages of intention.

I am no expert but I think it is essential to spend a few minutes each day coming up with reasons to be grateful and things we want to put out there into the universe. Be grateful for what you have and ask for what you want.

We can also review these lists on  a daily basis  to ensure we are filling our minds with these things rather than the negative thoughts. This will help us to feel better and it is all about feeling better.

All is well in my world.

Just Feel Better

On this long upward climb to Love, remember, you do not have to make the leap from feeling awful to feeling great...just take the step up to feeling better. Make it your goal to just feel better one ladder rung at a time. That is the surest way to climb.
-me ...from something I wrote along the way

The Importance of Feeling Good

Oh man, the more I learn, the more I realize that the most important thing we can do in life is to work towards feeling good.  It is all about feeling good!  When we feel good we vibrate at a higher level and when we vibrate at a higher level we are in sync with the vibration of Life...what was intended for us. So what is the so called "secret" of life that people write and speak and create documentaries about?  Feeling Good!

Many of us know that.  Yet we find ourselves in life circumstances we don't want...we are caught in the lower energy emotions of fear, shame, despair and wonder how we are to get up to the level of vibration where all the great things happen. We set out with all the greatest intention to feel good!

Setting Ourselves up For Failure

We set ourselves up for failure, however, when we try to leap from a place of despair to a place of bliss.  So do not focus so much on feeling good...just better. Feel Better.

A Course in Miracles describes our life experience  being divided by two emotions:  Fear and Love.  Fear, of course, is low energy and Love is high energy. All the negative emotions are in the fear section all the positive are in the Love section. If I am in helpless despair...at the bottom of the Fear section where most of us spend too much of our lives and I hear that Bliss is at the top of the Love section...I am going to want to climb up.  My temptation is to get there as fast as I can but I need to remind myself in order to get there at all...I can only move up one step at a time. 

One step at a Time

So what is above the experience of helplessness and despair? Sadness maybe.  I once wrote a poem and in it I described sadness this way, "Something sweet can be found in sadness, a soft melancholy whisper that breathes life into a withering soul, filling the void where apathy once sat."  So despair is apathy and helplessness and sadness offers just a tinge of hope in amongst all that melancholy.  Not the greatest emotion but it is better.  So I reach for sadness.

How?

Well feeling is the energy that makes the world go around but thoughts are the energies that create feelings.  So in order to feel better we need to think better.  We change the thinking process ever so slightly to take us from a feeling of utter despair and helplessness to sadness. We practice with the thought until it "feels right"...until it is believable. Once there, we take a deep breath and feel the relief!

Relief. 

You know you are there when you feel a certain relief of the heaviness the lower energy held over you....doesn't have to be a tremendous amount of relief just enough for you to say, "I feel somewhat better."

Congratulations on your success...you are moving up!

Do we stay there?

Definitely not.  Reach for the next emotion which might be shame or guilt.  Then from there reach for anger and blame...Every climb from despair to sadness, shame to guilt, guilt to anger etc is going to offer a certain amount of relief.  Feel the relief with each step upward. When you get to frustration you are very close to the neutral point...the halfway point that divides the Love feelings from the fear feelings.  This emotion is acceptance.

Things are so much easier when you get to acceptance.  Relief comes so much quicker and the move up is faster.  Embrace the wonderful feeling of letting go of resistance that occurs in acceptance but then keep moving. Keep climbing until you get to where you want to be, where you are meant to be. ..at the top of that ladder.

We can get there but our focus should not be on feeling great...just better ...one emotion at a time.

References and recommended reads

ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined volume: Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace.

My book when it is published which won't be long now lol ( I am so optimistic because I think it is a great book with a lot of valuable learning to share.)

The first step toward change is awareness.  The second step is acceptance.
-Nathaniel Branden (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/step.html)

Urgent!

We have to live life with a sense of urgency so not a minute is wasted.
-Les Brown (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/live_life.html)


Triage

When I look at how most of us deal with life, I recall my experience doing triage in the emergency room years ago.  When patients would come in I, as the triage nurse, would have to quickly assess them to determine if their need for treatment was a Stat ( right away), Urgent ( within a short period of time) or Non-Urgent (could be referred to the overcrowded waiting room for an indefinite period of time). For the well being of the patient and healing team it was essential to make this determination correctly.

In correctly triaging our own lives.

 I find most of us...me included...have a tendency to  really screw up the triage systems of our own lives.  Too often we make life situations into emergencies and catastrophes when they are not or worse we refer our broken dreams, joy and happiness to the waiting room. While sitting on the hard plastic chairs  and drinking stale coffee...our wishes and desires are easily forgotten or pushed aside by someone else's needs.

The Waiting Room!

Maybe you can relate to this.  Maybe you are like me. I am world's worth procrastinator. I too often push things off onto a tomorrow I know will never come.  I have dreams, plans, intentions...lots of them.  And though I do not want to worry about manifesting these things or get too involved with the doing and fixing...I am realizing that just sitting back and waiting is not the  answer either. That method of coping with life has not really worked out for me to date.

When I look around me and see that months, years or even decades have passed and I have still not accomplished what I wanted to...I feel so "blah!"  I know then that some action is required. 

Urgent!  Living Required Now!

So in order to compensate I now try to place an urgent stamp on my life file.  I find myself putting my life experience into small blocks of time in hope that I will be more motivated  to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in order for me to fulfill my purpose. 

As if I stumbling through the revolving doors of my life with a severed jugular...I see time as precious and the need to accomplish my dream as urgent. I need to fix what is broken.  Replace what is lost. Fill my life with all it is meant to be filled with now. Otherwise I will soon be completely drained and lifeless.  This is urgent.  Living is required now.

Learning to triage correctly

There are some simple steps we can take to put our life into perspective so we avoid long waits in an emergency room

• Determine the difference between emergency, urgency and non-urgent.  What is truly important to you having a fulfilling life and what isn't? 
• Remind yourself that few things in life are the emergencies we make them out to be.  Remove the drama.
• Put away the time wasters and focus on the urgent things in your life. Stamp correctly.
• Before you push something into the waiting room of your life, determine if it belongs there. Upgrading to the latest and newest IPhone may be something that can sit on one of those hard plastic chairs for a while.  Getting that new lump checked or putting money away for school may not be.
• Remember life is  short and you are bleeding.  Fill your day with things that fill you up, not things that drain you farther.
• Take some action now towards your dreams.  It doesn't have to be big...just one small step will do.  Fill out that application; write that first paragraph; pick up the phone.
• Know that it is up to you to determine what is urgent and non-urgent in your life.  Don't let others determine that for you!
• Live your life now.

It is all good.  All is well in my world

Answering the last of the Soul Questions

Keep your eyes open to your mercies.  The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
Robert Louis Stevenson ( from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertloui205032.html)

Waking Up

Hopefully we have shed some light on most of the before mentioned soul questions to help us wake up:

• Who am I?
• What is that I want?
• What is my purpose? (which would tie in with What gives me meaning? How can I serve?)
• What am I here to Learn?

I hope I made it clear that those are questions that no one can really answer for us.  We must seek inwardly for the answers if we really want to know.

Asleep or Awake?

What about the question : What am I grateful for? 

I believe this is probably the most important question to answer even though it may not be the easiest,  especially if we are operating from a low energy mental focus on "lack."

Are you forgetting to be grateful?  I often do and I need to remind myself how essential gratitude is in my own little life and in the world at large.  We need to be grateful.

How?

Psychology researchers, Robert Emmons and Mike McCullough, have conducted several studies into the nature and benefit of gratitude on the human experience.  They have concluded that the creation of gratitude lists or journals are highly beneficial for several reasons:

• They remind  us of reasons to be grateful. 
• Have been proven to help individuals  want to take better care of themselves;
• create more optimism, alertness, attentiveness, energy and enthusiasm in those who write down on a daily or weekly frequency what they are thankful for ;
• help people make progress toward their goals 
• increase the tendency of list keepers to  reach out, connect, appreciate and help others
• build more positive outlooks towards self, society and life in general.

                                                                                           ( Emmons Lab, 2017)
So?

Maybe it is time we wake up, take out our pen and paper and start jotting down what it is we are grateful for in life.  Keep the list handy for review on those days it is hard to remember.  :)

There is plenty to be grateful for.  We just need to take the  time to slow down and consider it.

All is well in my world.


References

Emmons, Robert ( 2017)  Gratitude and Well-being. Emmons Lab. Retrieved from http://emmons.faculty.ucdavis.edu/gratitude-and-well-being/.

On Learning and Changing

Change is the end result of all true learning.
-Leo Buscaglia


According to this American writer, speaker and professor of Special Education...if we want change we do so through learning.

Life Is full of lessons from which we can learn...some of them not so fun!  Each time we encounter a struggle or heart break we can curl up and succumb to it or we can learn from it and move forward.  We will at some point recognize we want things to be better than what they are.  We want change ...so we learn and move on.

In this address Buscaglia also says that:

 

Change involves three things:

First a dissatisfaction with self- a felt void or need;

second, a decision to change to fill the void or need;

and third, a conscious dedication to the process

of growth and change-

the willful act of making the change, doing something.

 

 

 

What are we to Learn?

 

I would guess that we are here to learn two things:  Who we are and  who we are not. When we experience the dissatisfaction with self- this self ego has created- we may experience the emptiness it offers.  Identification with the ego leaves us with void and need. We may question, "Is there more than this?" We begin to learn who we are not.

 

The Process of Learning Who We are not...

 

That question will set us off on a journey of learning and we will change and grow.  This process will be gradual for most of us; quick and explosive for others.

 

The change will involve dropping the trappings of the false self and finding and embracing the real offerings of the true Self. It is not an easy change because ego doesn't make it easy.  It is hard to let go of the things we defined ourselves by in a world that honors and celebrates those things.

 

A Conscious Dedication

 

What we need to see us through is a "conscious dedication" to the process. All learning requires practice, practice, practice; mistakes and learning from them. If you are anything like me you will stumble and err your way through this learning to wake up process.  The trick is to stay committed...knowing who awaits on the other side of your learning...who you really are.

 

The Reward is Learning who you really are

 

All the learning, all the practicing will take us to who we really are.  It will feel like drastic change as we go through it but what we may realize when it happens is that...it was not change after all...but simply a returning to who we have always been.

 

 

All is well in my world!

 

 

Quote retrieved from: http://izquotes.com/quote/339487

You are always a student, never a master.  You have to keep moving forward.

 

-Conrad Hall

Quote from : https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/moving_forward.html

What do you want?

Three Life Rules

1. If you don't go after what you want, you will never have it
2. If you don't ask, the answer will always be no
3. If you don't step forward, you will always be in the same place- Unknown

Taken from: https://www.pinterest.ca/explore/inspiration/

 

 

 

How cool is that?  I recently got in the habit of writing what I want down in clear simple statements.  I keep a list and man is it long lol.  When something shows up in my life that I don't want...I see it as contrast and I turn it around into something I do want on paper. 

 

Yeah...just words  and mental construct that means little other than the way it makes us "feel".  You need to feel good when you go through that list.

 

All is well in my world!

Something Peculiar

The most common ego identifications have to do with......social status and recognition....and other collective identifications.  None of these is you.
- Eckhart Tolle

Like None of these is me...really!

Well I'd be lying if I said, after all my evolution,  I didn't still  have a big, fat swollen ego because I do! I just have the inflammation managed (somewhat).  So there are some things I feel confident I wouldn't do. I honestly believe I am far enough beyond my need for the good opinion of others that I wouldn't  promote myself or my blog beyond what felt "right" to me.  I could be mistaken...but...

Something Peculiar

Hmmm!  I have noticed something peculiar today. I have been getting this recurrent blog site on my stats since June. I like to check in on sites who are repeatedly checking in on me for courtesy reasons.  So I did several times wondering why this blog ranking site kept showing up.  I would obviously be of no interest to "Top 16"  nor "Top 16" to me....so why were they there?

Today I decided to scroll down and I discovered a comment from me on this blog site that promotes spirituality sites.  I am concerned because the comment for all extents and purposes looks like it comes from me but as far as I know...as far as I can remember...I never actually posted it.  So I am wondering how it got posted with my pic? Hmmm!

Is it my memory?

Did I have a menopausal moment where I slipped into some dementia fugue and wandered off onto someone else's site thinking I belonged there? I suppose that is possible.  I may have done something I would not normally do and completely forgot about it.  This menopause does some strange things to the mind, afterall.  Yesterday morning I spent a good half-hour looking for the tea I just poured and where did I find it?  In the fridge lol. So it is possible that I momentarily stepped out of my normal behaviour pattern and did something I cannot recall doing.

But I doubt it!

Just not me...

You see I am not one to actively promote my blog for all kinds of reasons.  I mean I will write articles and include my website on my bio giving like-minded  readers the choice to step into my world for a while to view the real me  if they so choose. I feel I owe the reader and the site I was published on that much. But that's it.  I do not tell people about my blog.  I do not use social media to promote it.  I do not seek rankings in any way shape or form.  I just want to write.

Though I love the visits and truly appreciate the readership I receive, I will never be one of those neighbors who stands at the end of the driveway waving people down. My house is way too messy with piles of imperfections  all over the place lol and I am not one for keeping up appearances. 

It is, therefore, so totally unlike me to ask to be on a site that ranks sites....not that there is anything wrong with that...but it is not where I am at. And it is not where I want to go.

I just cannot see me posting that comment and all jokes aside, I am sure I would remember at least something about it if I did.  So if I didn't put it up there, who did and how?

Other than learning my way around email, internet researching, and my blog site I am basically as dumb as a stump when it comes to this cyber world. So I am not sure how someone else could post for me.   Nor do I know how to remove it. I have to figure that one out.  It would be a little awkward to comment again to ask to have my previous comment removed but I may have to lol.

No harm done.  I actually got a few readers from it, not all of them appreciative lol, but that's good. I also assume the intention for posting for me  was well meaning.  So I am grateful for that.  Ohhhh! Maybe it was an inside job? I have some questions to ask around here.

Regardless...it is all good!  Why don't you check out the sites ranked on Raise Your Vibration Today https://raiseyourvibrationtoday.com/2015/03/14/consciousness-websites/  .  It is, after all,  all about you finding what works for you...not about the peculiarities in my own blogger life.

Raise Your Vibration seems to be  a great site with a lot to offer...as well as a great referral to other sites. Isn't it wonderful that so many people are waking up?

All is well I my world!

Art

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
-Pablo Picasso

Art in whatever form it is expressed: paintings, writings, photography, sculpture, drama, dance etc etc etc...is a beautiful soft and refreshing cloth that wipes away ego from our human lives, for at least a moment. It is a reminder of what is real and beautiful beneath the grim this world of form piles on us. It reminds us of who we are.

Remember that it is not about being great, or "special" in your gift.  It is simply about the willingness to express it.  I write and I give my words away.  I am not great but I have something to share.  I photograph and I give my images away.  I am not special in this gift  but I have something to share.

My offerings may be meager but I feel called to give them away ( and I mean that literally lol ).  I want to do my small part in wiping the dust off souls, mine included. 

Do you?

Note:  Of course there comes a time when you might want to start getting paid for it lol...just so you can continue creating what needs to be given away.  Develop your skills, practice and get to the point where you know that what you have to offer is of value.  Give it away freely until you know you have to make it your life's work...then look for compensation. Know that the universe will support you. If you are following the right path...you will get what is needed to help you focus more on your art.  I am not quite there yet. lol

Life Purpose: What are you going to give away?

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
-Pablo Picasso

Wow! Isn't that an amazing quote from the greatest modern painter of all time?  If we follow his wisdom we will work hard to discover what gift we were born with to share and then we will put all our energy into sharing it.  Why?  To make the world a better place and to bring you joy (believe it or not...I am coming to see they are the same thing!).

Finding Your Gift

So how do we know what gift we have?  Most of us would answer with, "I don't have any real gifts."  How sad is that for all of us to hear?  We too often  down play, neglect to develop, or strive to express these innate gifts we possess because they are not "special" enough. 

They do not have to be special!  They just have to be you! 

We all have some unique thing that has the ability to help expand life, create beauty, inspire, motivate, soothe and heal within us but we don't tap in to it.  So often we are so self depreciating in this ego competitive world that we do not see ourselves having anything "special" to offer.  We assume we need to be "better than' or as "great as" in order to say we have a gift that is worthy of sharing. But we don't. 

We just have to share what brings us joy and bliss...that right there is a big pointing finger sign  that says "This way to Your purpose! "  Your gift is a gift to you and a gift to the world.

What do you love to do?

What makes you lose track of time?  What makes you smile or laugh as you do it?  What makes you want to rush home and say, "Guess what I did today?" These are the things you have to offer.

Some of us can create great works of beauty that reflect how amazing the world is.  If that is your gift...you need to create

Some of us may have voices that vibrate with the angels.  If that is your gift, you need to sing.


Some of us have healing hands, minds and hearts that help in some small way or some great way to put an end to suffering.  If that is your gift you need to heal.

Some of us have a gentle touch and a caring heart  that helps the world and it's beings to grow.  If that is your gift, you need to  nurture and grow.

Some of have minds that strive to solve humanity's issues.  If that is your gift, you need to problem solve.

Some of us have a desire and ability to build great things, important things, and useful things.  If that is your gift, you need to build.

Some of us have the ability to teach the world what it needs to know and inspire humans to set an example.  If that is your gift you need to teach and inspire.

Some of us have the ability to express what the soul is saying through words and speech.  If that is your gift, you need to write and to speak.

Give away what feels good.

There are so many gifts out there.  What you feel "good" doing is your gift. What benefits the world and self...even in a small way...is your gift.

Find it within yourself.  Then...Give it away.

All is well in my world!

References

Pablo Picasso; Paintings, Quotes and Biography (n.d.) Pablo Picasso and His Paintings.  Retrieved from https://www.pablopicasso.org/

You either get bitter or you get better. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you!
- Josh Shipp (motivational speaker)


Wow!  Don't have much to say today.  Tired  and a little off center.  I won't bore you with the details.  Just hope that regardless of how you are feeling right here and right now you reach a little higher for a better experience.  :) Whether it is raining, snowing, freezing or sweltering in your part of the world...I also hope you  get out there to enjoy the beautiful day in any way you can!  It is sunny here and I intend to slip outside and sit in the sun...P.J's, bedhead and all.  I will do what ever I can to find relief and feel better!  It is all great! 

All is well in my world!

Quote from: https://www.pinterest.ca/explore/better-person-quotes/

"It" Whispers

It Whispers

 

It whispers to me

from somewhere

beneath all the noise.

It reaches out and grabs me

through the darkness of misunderstanding.

It holds me down and keeps me stable

while the swirling vortex of chaos

 

surrounds me.

When I feel like I am lost

and wandering through

 

unfamiliar territory,

it directs me and shows me

 

the way home.

It assures me that beneath

the pain and frustration,

I allow to consume me at times,

there is a peace,

a love,

a light so healing,

ready to guide me to

a new tomorrow.

It whispers

as  it patiently waits

for me to know the truth:

I am so much more than this.

 

Dale-Lyn 2011

 

Witnessing Suffering

May all beings be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.
The Buddha


There is so much sadness in the world. 

It seems that a lot of the people around me are depressed enough to take their own lives (or at least attempt to). I worked in psychiatry so I seen this a lot in the professional context...that was hard enough... but when it happens to people you see everyday, waving as you walk or drive by...the reality of this suffering hits too close to home. Then you hear of broken hearts as relationships that you assumed were strong from the outside looking in fall a part. Cancer rears its ugly head in relatives and you know your loved ones are suffering because of this presence in their lives...and you feel there is nothing you can do. 

That's it! I guess, our own suffering is worsened by having to "helplessly" witness the suffering  of other sentient beings around us.  

How do we cope with this helpless feeling?

Step One:  Accept!  I believe the first step is to acknowledge and accept, as Buddha taught, that there is suffering in the world. Living beings suffer.  That is the truth. 

One unhealthy way that human beings tend to cope with this reality is through something called cognitive dissonance...by closing our minds to the truth of suffering, our eyes to the sight of it and our ears to the sound of it. We often do not take responsibility for our part in it...no matter how small that part may seem. Without responsibility...there is no power. We allow suffering to continue by pretending it doesn't exist.

If we really want to do something about the suffering in the world we need to accept that it exists.  We need to take our heads out of the sand. There is suffering!

Step Two: Don't Collect suffering! Once you accept suffering, do not be tempted to collect evidence of it.  It is easy to get lost in the suffering of others or our own.  "Bad things" always seem to happen in batches. We may come to believe that suffering is all there is. We may collect the suffering we witness or experience, creating a huge collage in our overworked minds...that leads us to look out upon the world as a place that "causes nothing but pain."

Yes there is suffering!!  But there is also light, peace, joy and love in the world!  There is goodness and generosity...strength and harmony.  The world is a beautiful place and life is a precious, precious thing very much worth experiencing fully. 

Of course when someone is suffering from the darkness of fear or depression...it is hard for them to see that. Their vision is too blurry to see clearly. The world around them appears to be so very dark .That leads me to the most important step of dealing with suffering in the world.

Step Three: Be the Light!  In order to end the suffering in the world, we need to end it in the place it exists...the only place it exists...in our minds.  If  we want the world to be a place of light, peace and love ...we  must begin in the only place where we  truly have control...our own minds.  If we find our  way past suffering there...we will radiate like a light that helps others to see.

If I experience peace and calm...I will bless the world with a certain peace and calm. If I experience joy...I will offer joy to the world. If I experience Love in its purest form...I will bring  the healing power of Love to the world. The better I feel...the better the world will feel!

We all must strive to feel as good as we can! The more of us that do that...the less suffering there will be.

I truly believe that!

All is well in my world.


References:

McLoed, Saul (2014) Cognitive Dissonance. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html

Quote from: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/309904018092866978/

Time to Go Guys?

As with the migrant birds, so surely with us,  there is a voice within if only we would listen to it, that tells us certainly when to go forth into the unknown. 
-Elisabeth Kubler -Ross

All is well!


Pic from me: :)

Quote from Thinkexist.com: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/how_do_the_geese_know_when_to_fly_to_the_sun-who/13269.html

Beyond the Weakness of the Flesh

The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
 (Matthew 26: 41; NIV)

We all have good intentions do we not?  We all strive to be the best people we can be...to reach the height of some spiritual pinnacle (whether we call it spiritual or not).  We feel pulled by Spirit's intentions at some point in our lives.  We might hear the call, reconstruct our psyches so they are more in tune with spirit's voice than body's and set our to achieve our goals.

What happens if our flesh, the body we are in,  just does not want to cooperate?

My flesh is sometimes weak though I know my intentions are good.  Last night at Two  a.m.  I was reminded of how weak that flesh was.  I awoke with what I first thought was intense heart burn and now realize it was much more than that.  I am very weak today as a result and once again find solace in having my nitro near by.  I at the same time feel very defeated.

You see, I had convinced myself  that if I could push thoughts of physical limitation out of my head...use my mind to keep a clear path for my spiritual awakening...I could get above my body's complaints.  I have learned to push aside thoughts and speech about what my body is feeling and doing.  I "ignored" its weakness.  I was as convinced, as the disciples were at Gethsemane,  that I could "stay awake," ...only to realize that I couldn't!

And when that happens instead of nurturing and caring for my body in its weakness, I turn on it and I turn on my mind. I get mad at it for not "trying " harder.  I get angry at my mind for losing control and discipline over this vehicle my soul is driving. What I am doing, in a sense, is what my Catholic upbringing told me would be the greatest of sins, I am spitting on the altar.  The altar I am spitting on is the altar  of my Being.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,  who is in you, whom you have  from God? You are not your own?  1Corinthians 6: 19 ESV

Instead of stopping, slowing down, seeking outside help...I tend to push myself harder.  It didn't matter how I felt during the night...I got up at five , made breakfast and lunch for everyone and drove my son to work. I didn't tell anyone about my experience, until much later in the morning, because I was ashamed. 

On the way home I had another epiphany. Basically...that this is absolutely crazy and I am indeed acting like a crazy lady.  I had a bad attack and the more I push past those attacks and ignore them the less likely I will get to where I want to be.   If I want Spirit to do what it is here to do, I need this body and I need to take care of it!!! Regardless if I get the external help I need...I need to accept, respect and accommodate my body for where it is at now! That's up to me.

Maybe you had similar experiences.  Maybe you can recall times when you pushed yourself past a limitation  because you were angry at your body or mind for being weak, afraid of what that weakness would mean in terms of you reaching a goal. There is so much out there promoting this "drive" to get past pain.  There are slogans like "Just do it!"; "No pain; no gain!" etc...Yet when we adhere to these suggestions are we not just  spitting on altars?

Are our bodies not communicating with us when they act up?  Are our minds telling us something needs to be addressed when they too misbehave? Why can we not just listen understanding that the body, mind and soul work together for a common goal? Harmony...And without harmony in Self how do we expect to have harmony in the world?

I love this quote from Yogi, B.K.s. Iyengar,

Sometimes our body is willing, but our mind is weak. Sometimes our mind is willing, but our body is weak. Do not be afraid.  Strive to extend your capacity but do not be disappointed with yourself. What does not challenge us cannot change us.

-B.K.S. Iyengar (Yogi)


 Life is just one long complicated yoga pose. We  need to strive to extend our capacity without being disappointed with ourselves.  We will get to where we want to go  but only if we put aside our fear and respect our limitations as they are now. Instead of pushing the body, let it flow naturally into the position.  Instead of resisting with the mind...let go.  We can, if we do so gradually and gently get past our barriers. Be patient ( and I say that to myself :))  We can grow beyond our limiting perceptions!

All is well.

References:

Bible Hub: http://biblehub.com/matthew/26-41.htm

Bible Hub:  http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/6-19.htm

Iyengar, B.S.K. (2013) Yoga: The Path to Holistic Healing. England: DK

Another publication

Check out this on the Global Harmony Crew site (what a great name, eh?).  Grateful for the opportunity to find my words there in amongst the great message they spread!
http://www.globalharmonycrew.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-life-the-24-hour-life/

The images are amazing!!!

Please read all the posts and subscribe! Global Harmony is something we all want, right? :)

To Know Yourself.

To Know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy beneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.
Eckhart Tolle

So to answer the first soul question posed by Deepak Chopra and others, "Who am I?" ...I use the above quote from Eckhart Tolle.  From that I answer, using the limitations of words and mental concepts:  We are what is underneath the thinking, the mental noise, the pain. We are Being.  We are stillness. We are Love and joy. 

I believe, however, that who we are  is not meant to be understood with words.  It is meant to be understood by feeling and experiencing it.  How do we do that?  We stop doing or at the very least slow down; we go inward in and we embrace the Being within us all....at least for a few minutes a day.

We all can do that, can't we? Wouldn't the rewards be worth it?   Imagine experiencing freedom, salvation and enlightenment.

All is well in my world.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved October 16, 2017, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/eckharttol571625.html

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living things and the whole of nature in its beauty.
-Albert Einstein

Who Are We? Why are we here?

We are what we believe we are.
C.S. Lewis

To answer the question Who am I and why am I here? I look to someone I admire and respect.  Albert Einstein was a  brilliant scientist but he was also a deeply spiritual man.  Beyond the theory of relativity he teaches of what it is to be human and connected to something so much greater than our little selves.

In a letter he wrote to a grieving friend he explains that who we are right now is delusional. He alludes to a need  to free ourselves from this self imposed prison by changing what we believe about ourselves.  We need to remove this false idea of separation and reach out with compassion to the entire universe.


A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "Universe"; a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as somehow separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons near to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. (brainpickings)

One of our roles and purposes for this human existence then...is to get beyond the delusion of self to the reality of Self.

How do Science and Spirituality Fit Together?

If you are anything like me, you probably see the spiritual and the scientific  as two distinct fields of thought.  One is based on the mystical and the inexplicable while the other is based on the need for observation and validation. I guess when we ponder the questions: Who am I and why am I here? We want to understand the "mystery" with "empirical knowledge".  Can we do that?

To truly Know is to do so only in the unseen  realm where terminology and mental construct does not necessarily fit....where time and distance  isn't real; where there is no separation.  There is a science that studies this. Of course the "science" I am referring to here is quantum physics. 

There is a book out there that explains the connection between spirituality (Buddhism) and quantum physics entitled, "The Quantum and the Lotus" by Mathieu Ricard, a molecular biologist turned Buddhist Monk and Trinh Xaun Thuan, a Buddhist  astrophysicist.  I will definitely be placing that on my to-read list. 

All is well!

References and recommended reads:

Popova, Maria (n.d.)Einstein on Widening Our Circles of Compassion. brainpickings. Retrieved from https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/11/28/einstein-circles-of-compassion/

Ricard, M. & Thaun, Trinh. (2004). The Quantum and the Lotus. Broadway Books.  (Please note: I haven't read this yet and am only recommending it on a gut level curiosity to understand.)

 

in the end, she became

more than what she expected.

she became the journey

and like all journeys,

she did not end, she just

simply changed directions

and kept  going.

r.m.drake

 

 

 

Excuse the formatting in the previous post, please.  I get lazy from time to time and copy certain quotes, instead of writing them out,  and the site ends up not only highlighting what I quoted but most of the text.  Another imperfection I will work towards sorting out, lol.  All good!

I am What?

Trust me with your life, because I Am you, more than you are yourself.
Bhagavad Gita

So how do we answer the question, "What am I?"

I believe we answer with "I am that"

I am what, crazy lady?

I mentioned earlier that when we repeat/think the mantra OM So Hum we are actually saying "I am that. "  What exactly is that?

Again...I don't know...yet.  :) But there are  a lot of possibilities out there that resonate in my core.

"That" according to the writers of the Rudraksha Yoga site is Brahman: the One, the Divine, the Universal Self according to Vedic tradition. There is an amazing translated passage in the Gita that Ram Dass & others have  written about.  It is worth a read:  https://sacredgate.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/bhagavad-gita/

Now I caution when reading  translations because words/concepts/ terminology and meaning  may differ from translator to translator.  For example, I cannot seem to find what chapter that beautiful passage from above comes in when I read the below translation of the Gita.  Just saying.

The gist is the "that" is God.  We are more God like...a bigger Self  than we are little "I's" or selfs. 

Even the Tao purports this idea.  In the Scriptures of the Yellow court, the body is described as a divine court with inner dwelling places for each God.

How do Christians view the "that" in I am that? Do they see the body as a dwelling place for God?

I love this passage from Corinthians:  "Do you know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? " I Corinthians 3: 16 (ESV) .  It speaks to the same idea, does it not?   God is within us and therefore we are God like.  We are born of God and we know God through the amazing act of Love.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. " I John 4:7 (ESV)

God is Love and we therefore are Love too.

What we are Not.

I believe it is important in understanding who we are... to strip away the things we are not.  If we want to see the  true Self we need to remove the false self  that hides it.

We are not our egos; we are not our personalities and false selves.  We are not the masks we wear.  We are not the opinions of others.  We are not our successes or what we feel we have "earned" in terms of prestige, wealth or recognition.  We are not what we do or what we own. We are not our thoughts or our minds . And we are not our bodies.

We are often over identified with the little self and its attachments.  The little self is focused on body and mind and so often steers us away from the voice of Spirit.

We are something much more than this.  We are that which sees and experiences all these things. We can not see that until we step away from the things the little "I" attaches too.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2


Hmmm! What does that leave us with?

What we are then ? What is "that"?

"That" is God/ Brahman.  We are of God/ Brahman.  "That is Love" . We are Love. The Kena Upanishad puts it beautifully.

Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby the eye can see: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;

Not that which the ear can hear, but that whereby the ear can hear: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;

Not that which speech can illuminate, but that by which speech can be illuminated: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;

Not that which the mind can think, but that whereby the mind can think: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore.

 Now that resonates in me.  What about you?

All is well.

References/Sites to Check Out:

" Not That Which the Mind Can Think"-The Kena Upinshad (2013) MoonLightened Way.  Retrieved from https://moonlightenedshelves.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/not_that_which_the_mind_can_think/

Open bible: https://www.openbible.info/topics/who_we_are



Religion Library: Taoism (n.d.) Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence. Patheos. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/library/taoism/beliefs/human-nature-and-the-purpose-of-existence

Rudraksha Yoga (2013) What is the  Meaning of Soham?  Rudraksha Yoga. Retrieved from https://rudrakshayoga.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/vagartha-what-is-the-meaning-of-soham/

Sir Edmund Arnold (translated by) (n.d.) The song Celestial. Theosophical University Press on line. Retrieved from http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/ctg/bhaggita.htm
 
Taylor, Marie (2013) Bhagavad Gita . Remembering the Sacred Self. Retrieved from https://sacredgate.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/bhagavad-gita/