Tag Archives: Consciousness

Feminism

The Enemy Of Feminism

A ChainLabels often lead to misunderstandings but right now I feel like putting this label out there for greater clarity.  I’m a feminist. I’m a feminist in a big, unapologetic way.

Feminism is a movement that says all human beings are equal, are of equal worth, and have the inherent right to live free from the shackles of prescribed gender roles and the institutions which were built around them.

The energy described as femininity has long been oppressed in both men and women, leaving both at a disadvantage.  This created a history where women, and the feminine energy in men, continually suffered marginalization and disenfranchisement.

As a feminist I am free to say that I accept your life choices, whether you are a man or woman, and honor your individual journey.  Feminism, like other movements aligned with the natural progression of the universe towards justice, love, and peace, is at its core one more pointer towards the inherent unity of life.

One of the great aspects of feminism that I admire in the women and men who act upon its principles is the ability to look again.  Feminism takes a look at what our minds have created and asks whether or not they are true and useful.  It asks, is the manner in which I am treating and perceiving a person and her choices based upon the lens of my own life experience?  It asks, can I gain new insights by looking at human beings that seem different from me, free from the story my mind has already created about them?

The enemy of feminism isn’t men and it isn’t women.  The enemy of feminism isn’t ignorant bloggers who have large audiences that are quick to agree with their unexamined inflammatory judgments.  The enemy of feminism is not women who behave this way or that way.

What is the enemy of a person attempting to look upon other human beings in a new way, regardless of their previous assumptions?  That, of course, is the ego itself.    The ego is created when who you are gets all wrapped up with the thoughts that you have.  Strong opinions, stories, assumptions, and an us-versus-them mentality is the birthplace and breeding ground for the ego.  This is also why, for all the ego’s hatred of the meaning of feminism, it loves the label, it loves the thought that it can then use as fuel for its pseudo-life. If feminism is more than just a bundle of thoughts in your mind that you do or do not identify with, then you are experiencing its meaning beyond ego.

So before you go judging women and men for sharing their unique life experiences from their perspectives, laugh at the voice in your head.  If you can do that, the voice in your mind hasn’t become the ego, and you can still enact the principles of feminism by seeing the true worth of every human being from freshly unveiled eyes.

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Life

How To Perceive Your Own Best Interest

ACIM QuoteI do not perceive my own best interest. This notion use to torment me.  When I first began to see that every small action on my part had a ripple effect, beyond anything I could conceive of, I became worried and unsure of myself.

On a small scale this looks like not being sure which plans to commit to this weekend because it isn’t yet clear what will end up being the most enjoyable option.  On a larger scale this looks like questioning the motives behind a chosen career path, or not being sure if you should commit to a relationship.

What I hadn’t perceived after experiencing an awareness of the infinite effects of my small choices was what those consequences meant for my true best interest.  After a little bit of living it becomes clear that things that are bad at one time can turn out to have positive outcomes, just as something that was first good news can turn into suffering later on. But at a higher vantage point whatever journey the ripple of each action takes there is with it the movement of your highest potential unearthing itself through the inner erosion that takes place one situation after another.

According to A Course In Miracles understanding that you don’t perceive your best interest is an essential step in allowing miracles to occur.  Without this internal judgment of external situations your every moment can transform into the shape it was meant to realize, and with it enact your own best interest.

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Waiting

When Something Feels Wrong

TenebraeDo you ever feel restless, like you are just waiting for some type of change to happen? Do you ever feel like you want to do something more meaningful with your life or just want to feel differently than you do now?

If so, I have good news and bad news.  The good news is, you’re not alone!  The feeling of being disconnected, or just the slight sensation that not everything is as it should be, is a universal human experience.  The bad news is, there is nothing you can do to fix it.  Even if some exciting event were to take place in your life, afterwards you would just be back in the old familiar waiting stage.

The amount of time spent experiencing those pivotal life moments that are tangible and obvious pales in comparison to the waiting period.  There is more good news of course!  You can stop waiting.  To the mind that would seem an impossible task.  After all, it has so many thoughts about the future that it is waiting for, a future that will never come, because when it does it will no longer be the future, it will be the purgatory of the present.  That is the mind’s view of life.

To stop waiting means to stop asking your mind for permission to experience the reality of your present moment.  To stop waiting means to allow yourself to feel what happens when you become present and take away the momentum of your attention from the never ending thought ticker playing across the screen of your consciousness.

It may feel uncomfortable sometimes, but that is only the initial experience of the new layers you’re reaching as you delve just below the surface of your present moment experience.  Much like Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to let go and relax as they were being strangled by Devil’s Snare in order to make their way through to the sorcerer’s stone, there is more than the prickly uncomfortable surface experience.

Next time you feel out of alignment with your highest potential take a deep breath, lean into the initial uncomfortable feeling as you come into the present moment, and settle into what is real.  In this simple and transformative video Eckhart Tolle puts it much more eloquently:

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Life

“It starts with an ending.” – Oberst

CardinalOn my walk home from work I was stopped by the loud conversation of a beautiful red bird with a fellow in a nearby tree.

The next two days mark the end of my four-year journey as a Teaching Artist at a Chicago Public School, and I’ve been finding myself asked daily, “What do you want to do?”

As I stood staring at the radiant body of the red bird I thought, “What is the Cardinal meant to do?” and laughed in spite of myself.

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Life

Decisions: How do you know if you’re right or wrong?

Goodbye Playhouse!

Do you trust in your own decision-making abilities?  How do you know if you’ve made the choice that will lead to the highest potential outcome?  How can you maintain trust when people and situations reveal themselves to be different than you initially believed?

This coming week my grant-based job of four years is coming to an end and life is thrusting me into change and uncertainty.  In work, as well as in relationships, my mind’s favorite candy is questioning my ability to make decisions that are in my best interest.  The voice in my head could live an entire life surviving purely on self-doubt.

When I have difficulty trusting in people or situations I remind myself that I don’t have to trust in any thing, I only have trust in the universe, God, life itself.  Yet, sometimes the voice in my head has enough momentum that even this perspective fails to interrupt its destructive thought pattern. This is why I am so grateful for the insight in the following video.  It reminds me of what it feels like when my decisions are being guided by the clear perspective of present moment awareness, rather than the clever arguments of the mind.  Being able to discern between the two is the difference between peace and suffering.

http://youtu.be/YFPgTUpcZcY

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Peace

How To Deal With Other People

HopeWhat can you accept in other human beings?  If we look within, most of us will find that there is a certain level of “otherness” we are able to accept, beyond which tolerance dissolves.

This is more obviously the case when we examine our feelings towards people who are dangerous, break laws, or don’t adhere to societal norms of behavior.  On a more subtle level, I see it on the CTA during Chicago’s morning commute, when two people have a loud conversation instead of scrolling through their iPhones.   In that moment a humorously clear gulf is created between the quiet majority, and the atypical loud morning conversationalists.

What creates this separation between people?  It is born of thoughts and opinions in the mind that are completely bought into.  Luckily this can be overcome more easily than it would appear, even in the face of humanity’s long history of alienating others who seem too different to allow.

When you are able to observe these thoughts as they happen, you haven’t immediately identified with them and taken them as truth.  When you see thoughts of separation in the mind, that witnessing provides the choice between alienation and inclusion.  It provides the opportunity to not accept judgment of others as absolute truth.  Before peace becomes more noticeable on a societal level, this small decision will be building its firm foundation.

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Inspiration

What Could Trust Do For You?

TrustGive yourself the gift of a day of trust.  When life feels tumultuous I designate minutes, hours, or even a day where my only objective is to surrender, trust, and accept.  If an unexpected obstacle arises it is often at this moment when the day turns from one of trust back into moments of worry and attempts to “fix” the situation that I find unacceptable through thinking in unproductive circles.  

This too, is okay.  It is merely one more chance to embark on another minute, hour, or day of trust.  Suspending disbelief and allowing yourself to feel that the universe, God, life energy itself is providing for all your needs, just as it had in your first nine months in your mother’s womb, offers the opportunity to experience the true effects and purpose for the practice of trust.

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Inspiration

My Big Fear

WyomingWhat do you consider your greatest burden?  What keeps you from feeling free to enjoy life?

Some people worry, some stress.  Some people have experienced trauma that never leaves their minds.  Some people don’t want to be where they are right now, while others don’t like who they are.  

Since I was a little girl the most dominant thought pattern disrupting my natural ease has been fear.  While a fear of death outweighs other fears, it doesn’t really matter what I’m afraid of.  The content of each fearful inkling doesn’t matter because after all of these years listening to a thought pattern fueled by fear I have found that anything can be used to feed its momentum. This is also why fear is my greatest teacher.

Whatever your most intrusive burden may be, it provides you with two paths.  It has the power to drive you deeper into unconsciousness and pain, or drive you out into light and understanding.  Fear is such an easily accessible fuel for my thoughts that I can either focus on the energetic train of one thought after another spurred by the initial feeling of fear, or I can use the fear to force me into becoming completely present.

The less focused I am on the reality of my immediate experience, the easier it is for old thought patterns to gain new life.  Now when a fearful thought enters my mind, no matter how benign it may seem at first, I use it to force me into focusing on my surroundings.  I visually examine whatever my gaze falls upon and make it the center of my attention.  I listen closely to the sounds around me.  Fearful thoughts still come, but they are balanced and increasingly overpowered by the intensity of presence which they trigger.

What thoughts cause you to suffer?  Even if those thoughts are justified and grounded in reality, if they cause suffering they can become your presence trigger, they can wake you up.  While joy, peace, and love are equally effective teachers of being, if you work with what you’ve got you can transform any substance into pure gold.

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Ego

You Are Missing Something

Joey and Katie Lolla '12But it is not what you think it is!

On Friday and Saturday nights the world of social media blows up with pictures and comments about the fun parties, plans, and events that it seems everyone is taking part in.  But for every selfie taken at a club there is a person looking at it and feeling like they’re missing out.

The pictures do make those events look fun.  And I’m sure many of those weekend parties truly are a great time.  But you aren’t actually missing anything by not being there.  A picture on Facebook doesn’t come close to the complexity of the actual experience of an individual.  Even if you are at home alone, your experience is no less or more than anyone else’s.  If you were in that situation there is no telling what the actual experience would be in comparison to the vision you have of it in your mind.

Creating scenarios contrary to your current experience that you think would enrich your life or make you “more” than you are right now is a favorite activity of the ego.  It is just another way the ego can take control of your attention, and bring you out of alignment with the reality of the present moment.  You aren’t missing the party, you are missing the now.

Wishing you were there when you are here is creating suffering for yourself.  If those people in the pictures seem to be having a better time than you it is not because of the party, but rather your own thoughts are keeping you out of the space of infinite joy, possibility, and peace.

If your sense of self is wrapped up in the thoughts you have, and those thoughts are telling you that you cannot be at peace now, you are experiencing ego.  So if you see the good times being had by others and feel a twinge of discomfort and suddenly become ill at ease with your present situation, congratulations!  You have become aware of the ego directly.  That awareness is the beginning of the end of the ego, and the start of the experience of your true self, real joy, and lasting peace.

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