Category Archives: Inspiration

Inspiration

Humanity’s 5 Biggest Virus Thoughts And The 5 Best Antidotes

Photo By Peter SperoMy friend, and wonderful artist, Greg Turiya Liotta shared this incredibly simple and lucid piece by Nithya Shanti via social media recently.  The moment I read it I knew I had to pass it on.  The understanding demonstrated in the following piece has the power to transform individual lives, as well as our human community.  May it bring you the peace and clarity that it did me.

“Five Biggest Virus Thoughts of Humanity:

1) I am not good enough yet
(I am imperfect and behind schedule)

2) We are all separate
(Races, religions, cultures, beliefs and species, divide and separate us)

3) There is not enough for everyone
(People are greedy and resources are limited)

4) There is so much more to be done
(Our to-do list is endless and seems to never get done)

5) I am here to work hard and survive
(Life is a serious, dangerous place)

Notice how each of these thoughts feel in your being. If it tightens, stiffens and contracts you at any level, it indicates that your inner being is telling you not to believe these lies!

Five Powerful Antidotes to these Thoughts:

1) I am enough
(I am perfect and endlessly improving)

2) We are all one
(Like fingers in a hand and waves on an ocean, we may appear different, but we are all made of the same one substance and are throughly interconnected and interdependent)

3) There is plenty for everyone
(There is enough for everyone’s needs, deep down everyone just wants contentment and our creativity and resourcefulness is unlimited)

4) There is nothing to be done
(Our ‘to-be’ list is always complete and everything in nature happens spontaneously, by itself, at the right time)

5) I am here to play, thrive and have fun!
(I don’t take life so-o seriously, for I know I’ll never get out alive! When I am having fun, everything easily gets done)

Now notice how each of these thoughts feel in your being. If it calms, relaxes and expands you at any level, it indicates that your inner being is telling you that this is closer to the truth.

Remember:

“What the thinker thinks the prover proves.” This means any thought we repeatedly think will start to appear self evident and true to us. Our outer world always matches our inner perceptions.

So if you have been habituated to any of the virus thoughts, these antidotes may not appear very convincing. However if you say them to yourself until you begin to feel them in your heart and do so everyday for a month, you will certainly experience a beautiful shift and your outer experiences will mirror these improved perceptions.

The Practice:

So put your hands on your heart, look at yourself in the mirror and say this aloud everyday:

‘I am enough’
‘We are all one’
‘There is plenty for everyone’
‘There is nothing to be done’
‘I am here to play, thrive and have fun!'” (Nithya Shanti)

Standard
Inspiration

What’s purpose got to do with it?

HeartA few posts ago I embarked on the 30 day before bed challenge to see how the five minutes before sleep can change waking reality.  In this challenge I have been flooding myself with what it will feel like when all of my dreams come true, assuming the feeling as if those dreams had truly come to pass already.

The inspiration for this challenge came from Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Wishes Fulfilled where he says, “In this brief portion of your day, you are going to tell your subconscious mind how you feel and what wishes God (the universal one subconscious mind) is to fulfill upon awakening from your deep slumber.  This five-minute segment of time in your bed, about to enter into your subconscious and marinate for the next eight hours or so, is the most crucial segment of your entire 24-hour day,” (Dyer 136).

Since I didn’t fall asleep the second my head hit the pillow last night, I decided to flood myself with the feeling of great love for the people in my life.  Although the miracle of this challenge isn’t what happens during sleep, but rather what begins to manifest in the waking hours of life, my dream last night was so fantastic that I have share its personal revelations.

In last night’s dream I was in a big lecture hall listening to none other than Oprah herself, and she was talking to various people in the audience.  I found myself standing up, staring right at her, when she pointed at me and asked, “What are you?”  Being unsure of my life’s purpose I uneasily responded, “I am a poet?”  She laughed and in her fabulous Oprah tenor replied, “Girl, you’re a talk show host!”

Needless to say, in the dream I was thrilled.  I finally knew my life’s purpose, it had been right in front of me all along!  Just then, in the midst of my jubilation, a man sprayed a hose full of water right in my face.  I then realized something I had been avoiding by not living out my purpose; when you start to live your dreams there will be more opposition from others.  

The higher you are lifted, the stronger the force will be in the opposite direction.  Yet, there is nothing wrong with that, quite the opposite is the case; that backlash is a helpful sign you are living on purpose.  That metaphorical hose down in my dream did not dampen my spirits, I was so overwhelming overjoyed to finally have my purpose revealed to me.

Purpose can come in the form of something you physically do, or it can come in the form of a way of being.  Purpose can be an intention you live by, such as being pure love, being the light of consciousness, or being joy made manifest.  Whether your purpose is a way of being in the world, or has gone on to be a physical task, the joy that comes from living on purpose is unique and endlessly fulfilling.

On this Valentine’s Day which is so often focused on other people’s purposes in our lives, it is my wish to focus on our unique purposes in our own lives.  May this message from Bishop T.D. Jakes on Oprah’s Lifeclass be a refreshing perspective on purpose and fulfillment:

Standard
Inspiration

How To Calm A Turbulent Mind

Photo by Peter SperoIt is common to tell someone to, “take a deep breath,”  when they’re on the verge of becoming distraught.  This next advice goes far beyond well wishing and explains how the breath can actually work for you in times of trial:

“The wonderful way of charging yourself with nectar is just by breathing. Breath is our life. Breath not only builds up the body, it also builds up the mind. If you regulate the breath, you have regulated the mind. To give an example: Suppose somebody looks at you and uses a very bad word. The person used nothing but a sound, but you got really disturbed. You become angry. Just a little agitation of the mind agitated your whole body. And what happened to your breath? That is the secret. The agitation of the mind brings agitation of the breath. So take the clue and say, ‘To calm the mind, calm the breath.'” (Swami Satchidananda)

Standard
Inspiration

“Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.” – Tolle

Good Morning Today I slept extremely late. Having a day free from work and obligations is a beautiful thing and I usually relish it.  But today, instead of enjoying the time off, I decided to make a big “to-do” list to keep unsettlingly at the forefront of my mind, while feeling completely unmotivated to accomplish any of my tasks.  I kept wishing I had the motivation to get things done while I actually had the spare time.  At the same time I felt nervous knowing that if I didn’t complete my “to-do” list today, I would be in a panic later on when I would be busier.

Does this sound at all familiar? Have you ever woken up in a funk?  Have you ever wished you could just feel better or feel more motivated?

This morning, in my day-off funk, I decided the least I could do was watch some videos on YouTube in the hopes that something inspirational would pop up.  If you’ve ever watched an Eckhart Tolle video, and if you read this blog regularly you most certainly have, you will know that each video starts with the sound of a bell, a high-pitched “ping,” which is coincidentally now the iPhone alert for a text message.

The second I heard the “ping” I realized what I had been doing all morning.  I was hoping that at some point the feeling of motivation would overtake me, and I’d get up and take action.  I was waiting for this feeling to happen.  But feelings don’t just fly through the ether and enter in through your ears.  They are created and experienced from within your very self.

All morning I was waiting for an emotion to happen to me, when the only way to feel that emotion was to create it myself.  Waiting to feel motivated is a trick.  It won’t happen.  You have to make the decision to invite that feeling forth within yourself.  The good news is that this is not as big of a task as it may seem.

Feeling the way you want to feel only takes one small step in this one moment you are experiencing.  That small step may be washing your face and brushing your hair, or going to a cafe to get some tea or coffee, or searching YouTube for an inspirational video.

With that being said, I now relinquish my big “to-do” list, and am finding my motivation right here with this one task of typing words on a keyboard.  The next step will take care of itself; the next task will happen in the moment that it happens.  Until then, I will work on creating the way I want to feel in each small act.

Understanding that emotions are created within, and choosing which emotions you want to feel, are the first steps to getting out of a funk.  I invite you to make that choice with me.  What inner feeling do you want to cultivate today?

Standard
Inspiration

Eckhart Tolle’s “Secret Formula”

Photo by Peter SperoEckhart Tolle has a “secret formula” for navigating the myriad of changing forms we call life.  I’m going to give it away, even before the video: what is is.  Ok so the formula is no secret, it is pretty obvious that this moment is how it is.  Such a perspective could not be more basic.  But when you actually feel that “what is is” a momentous transformation takes place.  You have allowed your experience to be as it is, and in surrender have placed yourself at the seat of power. You can now witness your situation and allow the highest potential response to emerge from that awareness.  Burden and effort are replaced by ease, spontaneity, and creativity.  In the following video Tolle offers how to enter this state in any given situation:

Standard
Inspiration

5 Minutes That Can Make Your Dreams Come True

photo by Peter SperoWhat runs through your mind five minutes before sleep?  I used to be in the “can’t stop my mind from racing so I can’t sleep” club and am very relieved to have stepped down as a member many years ago.  Even if you don’t have a problem falling asleep at night your thought pattern right before sleep is affecting your waking life more than you may have realized.  Sleep is the time where our subconscious mind reigns.  We go back to the spacious ether from whence we came for regeneration, and emerge with fresh life force energy each morning.

I recently finished reading Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Wishes Fulfilled, which I cannot recommend enough, where he talks about the ways in which we train our subconscious mind with the thoughts we have right before sleep.  The subconscious mind is the deep end of the mind, which contains all that we have learned and programmed ourselves to know automatically, like driving a car, riding a bike, or answering “Well, and you?” when someone asks how we are.  The subconscious mind acts through us without us having to vocalize the instructions with thoughts.  The actions prompted by the subconscious mind creates the majority of our experience. Dr. Dyer calls it our “automatic pilot.”

So what is important about the five small minutes before falling asleep?  According to Dr. Dyer, “In this brief portion of your day, you are going to tell your subconscious mind how you feel and what wishes God (the universal one subconscious mind) is to fulfill upon awakening from your deep slumber.  This five-minute segment of time in your bed, about to enter into your subconscious and marinate for the next eight hours or so, is the most crucial segment of your entire 24-hour day,” (Dyer 136).

I am not taking Dr. Dyer’s word for it.  I’m going to embark on a 30 day before-bed challenge, in which I use the last five minutes of my waking day to imagine my wildest dreams and assume the feelings of those dreams as if they were already my reality.  Will this change what my subconscious mind manifests throughout my days?  Will those positive emotions merely cause pleasant dreams, or will they permeate my waking experience?  

I encourage you to join with me on this 30 day before-bed challenge, and see how five minutes can change your whole reality.  It may be helpful to make a list of the thoughts and emotions you will fill your mind with before bed, and recite them to yourself each night right before sleep.  If nothing else, this nightly ritual will surely help those of you still in the “can’t stop my mind from racing so I can’t sleep” club to resign your membership and embark on your new journey in the “wishes fulfilled” cohort!

Standard
Inspiration

“The blossoming of your full potential is made possible by faithful tending to your inner state.”

Photo by Sally Spero

The inertia of my long winter break has a gravity that I find very inviting.  It is easy to want to stay at home in my robe and slippers; in fact it isn’t something I can talk myself out of desiring.

Last night I asked myself if there were any job in the world I would feel like going back to after my year-end break.  I could not think of one.  If Professional Netflix Watcher were a job I would probably be okay with going back to that, and do quite well, but that is not (yet) in the realm of possibility.

I had two extra days off from work because of the bitter cold here in Chicago, and while I relished the prolonged period of rest, I found that my anxiety about returning to everyday life grew. The inertia of stagnation is powerful.  This object needed a force to act upon it.

I decided to commit to listening to another round of “Deepak Chopra’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge,” since any step forward would begin to create my future.  While my winter break mentality still lingers quietly in the periphery of my consciousness I can act upon my own state of being by taking just one small positive action at a time.

photo-16There is nothing too flashy or exciting about spiritual growth from the outside.  In fact everything on the outside seems to get a little bit quieter, even slower.  The same is true of the inner experience of spiritual growth at times when you are making the quiet effort to regain balance in life.  During today’s meditation the voice in my head was noisy, my eyes even fluttered open a few times.  There were no flashes of enlightenment or miraculous insights.

This is the quiet road to experiencing the true, inherent fullness of life.  It is in these internal pursuits that the real work of your soul, with its experiences, karmic obligations, and purposes can come to fruition.  The blossoming of your full potential is made possible by faithful tending to your inner state.  When you ask what lesson you are meant to learn in each life experience, you set yourself on the road to “graduation.”  You embark on the path of your reason for being.

In this small moment in my life where I am gently being guided back to balance I am reminded that the only necessary step is this one step.  What happens next, what will be required of me, is not my business.   My business is the present moment.

Whether it is focusing too much on “the big picture” or losing focus altogether that is causing stagnation in your life, choose one small step to gift to yourself.  Each conscious attempt truly will be a gift to your life, and the lives of everyone else, whom you are intrinsically connected to.

Standard
Inspiration

How To Be Abundant In The Midst Of Lack

photo-14In the middle of the night as I lay in bed drifting off to sleep during a particularly humorous episode of Futurama, I had the idea to check my bank account and bills.  This one small thought, instantly acted upon, led me to attempt to figure out how everything is going to work out with a looming credit card bill, rent just having been deducted, and a future with a job funded by a grant that is a few months away from ending.

In unconscious moments the ego easily gains a strong hold on your attention. It presents thoughts that you already strongly identify with, in moments where you will follow those thoughts to the point of action, creating a reality not based upon real life, but upon a thought pattern.

It was all too easy to stay awake even longer with a train of thought that I kept running after as if it could somehow help me.

That is the illusion.  Identification with thought always seems like it will benefit you, because thoughts are created to promote themselves.  Thoughts are quite good at convincing your attention they are important and necessary often to the detriment of your actual welfare and living reality.

I could see, as the night dwindled, I was being taken in not only by thought patterns but also by negative emotions, and however attractive that negative energy may seem at the time, it cannot improve any situation.  The night eventually set me about sleeping.

SnowToday Chicago is a blanket of luminescent snow, a task to navigate through but incredible to behold.  The abundance of life is making itself impossible to miss.  It is everywhere and affects everything around it.  An abundance of snow is an outward manifestation of the nature of the universe, of life itself.  The fact of the outer existence of form is the evidence of the overflowing abundance of the ether, of God.

Creation, abundance, life begins in the formless, it begins within.  The formless is the foundation from which all outer form manifests. For all of the things in this world, like money, love, enjoyment, knowledge, we first must set the platform from which it will manifest outwardly in form.  There has to be an inner reality first.

No matter how many reasons your mind gives you to worry, and believe that your immediately perceived situation is your end-all be-all, you will not achieve change or prosperity until you experience the reality of abundance within yourself, as yourself.  You are living proof of an abundant universe where we have the opportunity to exist and thrive, and for our needs to be met and exceeded.

Experiment with feeling abundance in the present moment.  Look around and see the abundance of things, of electricity, of water, of snow, of people, and know that it is your reality.  For me, when I get into a place where all I see is lack I take a little while to snap out of it.  Listing in your mind what you are grateful for can help bring you into a prosperous state and give you a real experience of the abundant nature of the universe. Then with a clear mind and an open heart you can observe the transformation of your situation, however it may look.

Standard
Inspiration

How To Make Your New Year’s Dreams Come True

PHOTO BY PETER SPEROWith a new year upon us thoughts surrounding the future are at an all time high.  Resolutions, hopes, worries, dreams, and plans for the coming year are at the forefront of our collective mind.  What new year’s resolutions are you setting for yourself?

Each year I create a list of resolutions that go something like this:
1. Meditate every day.
2.  Practice Yoga every day.
3.  Learn how to cook.
4.  See a movie every week.

I’ve heard of people following their resolutions for a few days, a couple of weeks, even months.  But at the end of each year we often realize we have in some way abandoned our resolutions and then go about making new ones.

My experience differs slightly in that I don’t even begin to practice my resolutions.  I make the list, and enjoy myself in the process, but never actually set about the task of enacting the new lifestyle I have envisioned.

There is hope yet for those of us who have no commitment to new year’s resolutions!  I find that I accomplish the truest desires of my heart, live the lifestyle I dream about, and find new strength to pursue goals the more I forget about future altogether and pay attention to the moment I am living in.

When I enjoy the sunlight streaming through my shades in the morning, appreciate each sip of coffee, and feel the snow crunch beneath every step on my walk to the bus, I end up living the life I’ve imagined.  To a mind that lives on past and future this present moment awareness is meaningless.  Yet all positive and fruitful action arises from being completely present to your immediate experience, and creates your future from the miraculous consequences of that positive energy.

Switching your attention from the thinking mind to present moment experience creates an almost alchemical reaction. Anxiety and stagnation are transmuted into peace and prosperity.

This year I resolve to allow myself to be right where I am, and I wish the same for you.

Standard
Inspiration

Why I Changed My Mind About Sam Harris

A few weeks ago my aunt Nancy sent me a video that blew me away.  I was about to share it when I discovered the speaker was none other than Sam Harris, a popular critic of religion.

That same evening after I decided posting something by Harris wouldn’t be in keeping with my own views and intentions of peace and unity, I posted an entirely different video and received an email that another blogger had “liked” it along with a list of popular posts to check on their blog.  The first post I saw written by this blogger was entitled, “Atheist Sam Harris changed my perception of him forever when he said this.”  I was led right back to the video I had tried to stay away from.

I was snapped out of my identification with my own views, along with the thoughts and opinions I had attached Sam Harris to. Human beings are not the thoughts they think, the opinions they hold, or the perceptions others have of them.  My perception of who another person is will never come close to the reality of their being.  Now, after letting go of the need to know who Sam Harris is, it is clear to see that attaching myself to a judgement about another person will cut me off from experiencing the gifts they offer to the world.

It is with an open mind, and understanding heart, that I gladly share this beautiful moment of presence:

Standard