Category Archives: Inspiration

Inspiration

“There are no dark nights of the soul; there are only dark nights of the ego.” – Robert Holden

Shift Happens!

I saw this posted on Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Facebook page, and loved the clever way the words pointed towards the truth! When I experience pain, there is that still small voice at the back of my consciousness reminding me that suffering is created by the ego.  My true self is still whole; nothing can be given or taken away from being.  When in pain reminding myself that my attachment to the situation is causing the suffering, and that the situation already is how it is regardless of my reaction, a small space opens up around the pain that allows healing to work its way through.  To paraphrase Tolle, suffering is ego created but is ultimately ego destructive.  To say it another way, no matter what you are going through a world of greater peace and joy is perpetually blooming in the midst of the ashes.

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Inspiration

How can you tell if you’ve actually “let it go?”

skylineHow do you respond when someone tells you to, “let it go?”  I have been told, in many different contexts, to let something go, and often my response has been, “I will, but…” Which is to say, that I haven’t actually been letting go.  I’ve been learning that a true act of letting go contains far greater power than any reason not to ever could.

By letting go, you align yourself with the power of the universe.  You surrender to that unending stream of energy always flowing towards your highest potential.  So why don’t we let go more often?  Simply put, the thinking mind.  The mind needs thorough convincing to let go of anything.  To let go of a thought, an attachment, a grudge, or a question, the mind requires a foolproof argument to relinquish its firm grasp.  The thinking mind loses control over your life when you surrender and let go.  It doesn’t know a higher power will take the reigns; all the thinking mind sees is a life out of control, without any safety net.  Since the thinking mind is so bent on holding on, it is necessary to go beyond it to experience true surrender.  This means instead of convincing your mind to let go, you only need to convince your true self a more wondrous world is waiting for you on the other side of surrender.

How do you know if you’ve really let go?  When someone close to you has upset you and you decide to be the more conscious being and let it go, and think to yourself “Yes! I’ve let it go!” that is not surrender.  That is the thinking mind holding onto the concept of being more spiritually aware than others, and the idea of letting go.  You will know you’ve truly relinquished something when you feel a deep sense of peace, aliveness, and even joy that has nothing to do with your outer circumstance.

When you are having a disagreement with your partner, and no clear resolution has been found, but you feel completely at ease, you have surrendered.  This opens you up to being a vessel for solutions.  The universe has space to work through you to solve any problem you are experiencing, any dysfunction in the relationship.  Another sign that you have surrendered is that your compassion grows.  You can listen to your partner more deeply, without the voice in your head whispering internal judgments.  You can even understand a point of view you initially disagreed with.  Surrender offers unlimited potential for growth, expansion, peace, and love.

For me, writing this is a personal message to assist myself in surrender.  Although I am writing thoughts, they help to point me beyond my thinking mind to my true knowing.  There are many things in my life I can surrender to, like my work situation, my ideas about how my outer life should look, my opinions, and my ideas about how my loved ones should act.  And the only way to discover the miraculous consequences of surrender is to try it out.  What in your life can you let go of today?

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Inspiration

“Anything that is usually a means to an end, make it into an end in itself.” – Eckhart Tolle

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and find that you cannot stop thinking?  Or perhaps you are already awake, just going about your day, and notice your mind won’t stop running in circles?  As humans, we are of one mind.  We all think.  This short video, with Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, offers enlightening, practical ways to take momentum away from the thinking mind:

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Inspiration

“The ego could be defined simply in this way: a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle

Night SkyWhat thoughts take you out of the present moment?  For me, when I experience thoughts of fear I find it easy to lose focus on what I’m doing, my attention completely taken up by the train of thought.  I was listening to Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth today and the following passage spoke so truly that it brought me right out of my thinking mind and into the present moment experience.  May it do the same for you:

The most important, the primordial relationship in your life is your relationship with the Now, or rather with whatever form the Now takes, that is to say, what is or what happens.  If your relationship with the Now is dysfunctional, that dysfunction will be reflected in every relationship and every situation you encounter. The ego could be defined simply in this way: a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment. It is at this moment that you can decide what kind of relationship you want to have with the present moment. (Tolle)

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Inspiration

Football as Spiritual Practice

Bears FootballThere was a buzz in the air of Chicago Sunday morning.  Football season had begun.  Yesterday was a great day for Bears fans. We won our game, and the Packers lost theirs.  Personally, I have never felt compelled by football.  That was until yesterday.

My boyfriend was so overjoyed all day, and I as I watched the multitude of fans on TV cheering from the stands I saw football in a new way.  Football has no utilitarian purpose.  It isn’t a necessity for survival. (Although I know some who would disagree.)  Football is a game.  And people love watching games.  They are full of joy.  While some describe it as an escape, I would venture to say that football is as real as any other aspect of life.  Humans brush their teeth, we eat food, we build ourselves shelters.  Games, art, creativity, and playing around are integral aspects to the human experience.  Our minds tell us that joy is not as important as survival.  This is because the mind doesn’t experience joy; you experience joy.  Meanwhile, survival thoughts are very real to the thinking mind, which thinks it has to control its environment to survive, that it has to fight and work hard.

Those thoughts are all very productive at providing momentum for the thinking mind.  Joy is not.  Often in moments of joy our minds become still, with all of our attention placed on the present moment experience.  These moments make being alive feel “worth it.”  Has the voice in your head ever questioned you when you decided to relax and do something purely for enjoyment?  Perhaps you sat down to read a book or listen to music, and your mind said something like, “You shouldn’t be doing this right now.  You have so much to do.”  Even though our thoughts are convinced those “other things” are more important than an experience of joy, we don’t have to buy into it.

I’m going to do an experiment, and I invite you to join in with me if it speaks to you.  Be alert the next time you do something just for yourself, with no end goal or purpose besides enjoyment.   If the voice in your head attempts to sabotage that joy, see what happens if you don’t take it seriously.  Maybe even smile or laugh at the thoughts trying to convince you there isn’t enough time for enjoyment.  After all, you cannot waste time.  Past and future exist for us right now as thoughts in our heads.  The only moment you’ll ever have to actually live through and experience is the present moment, right now.  And you have all the now in the world.

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Inspiration

“Don’t Believe Everything You Think”

Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Have you ever seen or heard something that seemed like it was meant just for you?  Last night I parked behind a car with the bumper sticker, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”  What a wonderful message from the universe!  Peace has room to grow in your life once you stop taking your thoughts so seriously.

I have been more stressed out recently, from work and moving, than I usually ever am.  But once I stop believing in all of the worry thoughts, I have more space for peace and joy to rise.  The practice is moment to moment.  When I find myself pacing around a room, with my shoulders up to my ears, I have a new opportunity to take a deep breath and let go of my attachment to my thoughts.  When I start thinking of everything I have to do, and feel the heat of stress rising in my belly, I take a deep breath, and surrender to the present moment once more.  When I hear the din from the train and am about to freak out about moving to a place where I’ll have to hear it everyday, I take a deep breath, and remind myself how grateful I am to be so close to transportation.

In a new apartment, no matter how perfect and wonderful it is, it’s easy to see all of the little things that are wrong with it. What situations in your life provoke the voice of complaint? The easiest way to combat the voice of complaint is gratitude.  Whenever I hear the voice in my head complaining, I try to replace it with a list of the things I am grateful for.  I am grateful for my bedroom.  I am grateful to have a shower.  I am grateful for the stove.  I am grateful to be under a roof.  The list is infinite, and the best part is that it replaces the voice of the ego attempting to sabotage the peace of presence.

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Inspiration

How To Move With Equanimity

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I am sleeping in a new home tonight for the first time in five years.  Just yesterday I was struggling with the idea of how it would happen. The most helpful tool for staying in the moment, even when stressed, was reminding myself that whether I worried or not, it would happen just the same.  And wouldn’t you know, it happened.

Retaining equanimity does not mean that you don’t experience emotion.  Equanimity is allowing yourself to experience life in all of its manifestations, allowing life to be as it truly is.  In this way you become one with life, and are carried in the infinite flow of its energy.

As I experienced the ups and downs of my reactions through this transition, I was reminded by Swami Satchidananda, in an email from Weekly Words of Wisdom, how to ride the wave:

Reaching samadhi doesn’t means that you go into a trance or withdraw from life. If that were so, you can find a whole bunch of rocks sitting on a mountainside and you can say they are in samadhi. Samadhi means you retain your equanimity, you still function in the world without losing your equanimity. You become like a good surfer: well balanced as you surf the waves. A good yogi will always be balanced and surf in the world, facing both ups and downs alike. You will never get hurt, depressed by a depression in a wave or excited by a crest of a wave going upward. You will still remain balanced. That means you are perfectly healthy. Nothing and nobody can make you sick or can shake you.

God bless you. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. (Swami Satchidananda)

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Inspiration

“Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.” – Joel Osteen

Have you ever experienced an obstacle in your life?  Maybe things didn’t go according to plan?  I’m sure for the majority of humans the answer might sound something like, “duh,” or, “why are you even asking?” While accepting that challenges are a part of life is healthy, the old tried and true negative reaction can cause further difficulty.

This video has the power to make you shout for joy each time a setback presents itself.  Instead of feeling discouraged when situations don’t flow with ease, this simple wisdom can allow you to experience those instances from a completely different perspective.  I love this clip of Joel Osteen on Oprah’s Lifeclass.  It transcends religion, and mental constructs, reaching right to the heart of personhood.  Thanks Joel and Oprah!

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Inspiration

“I’ve Got A Golden Ticket!”

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My parking spot was stolen. Admittedly, that is not the most accurate sentence. I don’t actually own a parking spot, so strictly speaking nothing was stolen. But another driver did prevent me from parking in the spot I was attempting to back into. It was at that point, when I decided to give it up and drive away, that I allowed myself to cry hysterically for about a minute and a half.

Was this an overreaction? It was clearly a very strong response. But the parking spot was just a small nudge over the cliff I had been teetering on since I left work. I had received some information about pay and hours for the coming year that was not in alignment with my thoughts about how it should be. Usually that is where frustration starts. There is a disconnect between reality, and the mind’s ideas about reality.

Intellectually I am aware that the events that took place today were all working for my good. My brain still trusts the universe. But that wasn’t how I was feeling. I felt frustrated, and unnerved. So when “my” parking spot was “stolen” I decided it was time to let out the negative energy that had awoken within me. If I hadn’t allowed that energy to express itself, it would have lived on within my body, leaving me more susceptible to illness and further negative energy.

I then proceeded to find a parking spot, and walk home in the gloriously clear blue sky. I find that after a less-than-desirable experience, it is necessary to rev myself up again. Instead of letting the space created from purging my negative energy fill up with a reaction to another event, I feel it is more helpful to choose what I let in.

For a few minutes I danced and sang about how grateful and abundant my life was. Then I decided to watch an inspiring sermon on YouTube, but instead found myself watching clips from Willy Wonka. Wouldn’t you know it, it was just what I needed! The first video featured the song, “Golden Ticket,” which displayed exactly the level of energy I was attempting to reach. What was more, I heard the lyrics spoken straight from the universe itself:

I never had a chance to shine
Never a happy song to sing
But suddenly half the world is mine
What an amazing thing
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley)

When I let go of thought, observe the world around me, and sense my own beingness in connection with all that is, that is what it feels like! I’ve got a golden ticket and the world is mine, or rather, I am the world. Consciousness is the real golden ticket. God can speak to you with exactly the right words, through any vessel in the universe. All that is required, in the words of Willy Wonka, is to “simply look around and view it.”

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Inspiration

“This is how you manifest!” – Michael Beckwith

Flowers in WinterI am ridiculously excited to share this video with you tonight.  Many thanks to the brilliant author Pam Grout, who posted this video on her blog http://www.pamgrout.com.  I know her from reading E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality, which I have previously written about, and her travel blog http://www.georgeclooneyslepthere.com.  I asked if I could pass this video along, because it is so poignant, funny, ringing with truth, and inspiring!  Michael Beckwith will lift you up, and leave you laughing:

What is your “what?!?!?”  As I watched this video I was brought right back to the day I received a voicemail saying I had won a raffle.  The raffle prize happened to include a month of free Yoga on the same street as the new apartment I’m moving into.  I had been in the midst of Pam Grout’s first experiment from E-Squared.  Per the experiment, I asked the universe for a sign or gift, within forty-eight hours, as a clear message of its presence.  It showed up in a big way!  I will never forget that leaping feeling, the inability to contain my laughter and excitement.  That is my “what!?!?!” moment.

Evoking that feeling aligns you with its energy and everything that comes with it.  It’s like you and that feeling are on the same page, the same wavelength.  Then all you have to do is “ride the wave,” as Oprah puts it.  Get aligned with that feeling and watch all beauty it contains come to you.  Although none of us know what the consequences of evoking that blissful, “anything can happen” feeling, will look like, it will be quite a ride finding out.

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