Step Two: When that which arose has completely passed through you, place your attention on thoughts that serve you. Think the thoughts you would think if your dreams had already come to pass.
Step Three: Allow those thoughts to awaken the feelings that would be present if your dreams were currently your outer reality.
Step Four: Bring your attention to the exact space of now that you are in and allow those beautiful dreams to permeate your present world.
The following video is not just beautiful and inspirational. It also speaks to the heart of the human experience and the lesson we must all learn at some point in our lives, at the latest when we are about to transition from this world. That lesson is how to be alone. Whether you are physically alone now or not, you are the only constant in the equation of your life, all other variables change. Now is the time to discover that constant self, and now is in fact the only place where who you are can be found.
As the years pass what I want to be has become clearer to me. I want to be consciousness, love, peace, joy, and utterly present. What continues to elude me is what I want to do. Not knowing my outer purpose has caused me to engage in a lot of efforting to “figure it out,” which comes along with the residual anxiety from thinking I should know what I want to do when I don’t yet know. This mental non-acceptance of what is, not only causes suffering, but is also a sure ticket to becoming out of alignment with the present moment.
The other night I received a profound message from a colleague who wasn’t even trying to offer advice. She told me that all through her twenties she kept trying to do what she thought she was supposed to do; she tried to “make it happen.” But eventually everything came together, her outer purpose became clear as day and was not what she initially worked for all those years. For her, this new understanding would have come one way or another, and the years spent thinking she was supposed to have it all figured out would have been much better spent just enjoying herself. Not only would her purpose have presented itself eventually anyway, she said it probably would have become apparent much sooner had she not been attempting to “make it happen” the way she thought it was supposed to.
In the gift of her story I heard echoes of Tolle, “Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.” Enjoy the “right now”, no matter how messy that “right now” appears, and how elusive future security may seem to the thinking mind. A seed of joy now will be realized in even greater abundance in the future. A seed of presence now, will grow into your life’s outer purpose.
While I never read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist in high school, on a whim I began listening to the audiobook version this morning as I went through my daily routines. I could barely bring myself to stop listening when I arrived at work.
The narrative is thrilling, but the wonderment of Coelho’s tale is in its bare, purposeful wisdom regarding the nature of existence.
The quote in the picture above is not merely a kind sentiment, meant to bolster self-confidence. It is a universal principle operating inexorably through all of us, through all of life. When you live with the felt and realized understanding of your true worth and role in creation, you not only take responsibility for the power of your life, but you also align yourself with your purpose for being.
My 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)
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?
Today I almost cried over spilled milk, literally. I splurged on fancy organic milk and as I was walking through the door to my home it fell to the ground, broke open, and spilled everywhere. It wasn’t just a trivial problem, it was the trivial problem. Yet, that didn’t matter to my thoughts which easily picked up on why this was an issue I should be upset about. When I am easily upset by small things it is a reminder that I’ve forgotten who I truly am, my infinite true self.
When I try to remember the problems I had a year ago today, or even last Sunday, I have no inkling of what they were. Can you remember what problems you had last year? Can you remember the problems you had five years ago, or ten? The only problems I think about are those I am experiencing now, which will soon fade with the passage of days and be replaced with new issues to be bothered about. The situations themselves are not problems, they are how they are.
Problems are created by thoughts about a situation. Suffering, and negative emotions, are created by judgement of an experience.
It is easy to see how spilled milk is only a problem when I make it so through my thoughts. It can be more difficult to watch experiences without judgment when the stakes are high. I am grateful for this passage from Swami Satchidananda’s Weekly Words of Wisdom, because it is a great reminder to stop grasping at outer solutions for peace and happiness and remember who we really are:
“The teaching in the Bible, just as we find in the Bhagavad Gita is: Don’t look for the fruits of your own actions. You are made in God’s own image. You don’t need to look for fruits from outside. But Adam forgot that he was God’s image. And forgetting is what you call avidya, or ignorance. You forgot your truth. The minute you forget it then you look for it from outside. So Adam thought, ‘Ah, by eating the apple I’ll be happy.’ That was said to be the first ‘sin.’ Eating the apple was not the first sin. Forgetting his true nature was the original sin. Once you forget your true nature, you will commit face many, many problems. So, remember who you are.” (Swami Satchidananda)
With 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.
I was a little girl with many fears. I wouldn’t go on escalators, or boats, and retreated to the basement every time the wind blew. As I grew up I went about the business of letting go of these fears one by one, but at the root of each issue I knew I was afraid of dying. That fear too can be shed, just like a childhood fear of natural disasters.
Let Yourself Learn’s first guest author, Greg Spero, offers a shifted perspective on death and existence:
By Greg Spero
Let’s call that timeframe an eon.
Well, of course it did. After all, what was that piece of energy doing before it was the molecule of the ant?
A billion rays of light from a billion stars from a billion destroyed planets from a billion ants went into each molecule that made up the ant I killed. And the energy from that ant will, and has already, become that which will spread infinitely throughout the universe for the rest of time, which will go on for eons times eons times eons, further than we can comprehend.
Many people have a fear of dying. But I don’t. Because I will never die, and neither will you. That ant was not living. Nor was he dying. He was simply existing. He was not himself, nor was he something else. He was simply the universe, incarnate in a form that we think we recognize as an individual piece, when in reality, our recognition spans a limited moment in an infinite cycle of energy.
The ant I killed is a human, in another time.
The ant I killed is me, in another time.
The ant I killed is everything, in another time.
And so is everything else.
So are you.
So am I.
We are lucky to be conscious in this moment, observing the reality around us, and existing, enjoying, emoting, loving, hating, feeling, lusting, living in the brief time between what we recognize as the existence and nonexistence of our consciousness. Yet, birth and death have nothing to do with existence and nonexistence.
Birth and death are a brief passing place that we recognize because outside of those boundaries we can’t interact with our immediate surroundings in the way to which we are accustomed in this life.
What happened with the ant’s body could very well happen with something deeper than the body; an energy that exists that we can’t pinpoint, from which some draw the idea of God, and some draw the idea of Buddha nature. Another energy, other than what we see physically, that will also be recycled infinitely throughout existence.
Or maybe that energy is the same as the energy that makes up the molecules of the ant I killed.
Maybe it’s all the same.
Maybe the infinite expansion of time before and after this moment allows for every piece of energy in the universe to exist as every incarnation of every possible thing and being in all the universe, including what we see, our family, friends, the bed on which I sit, the other ants scattered about the outside of my house, the solar system, and the universe. Maybe my consciousness is actually just a small piece of the universe as it infinitely reincarnates in every possible formation and has infinitely reincarnated in every possible formation for all of time.
The ant I killed is not a self. It is the universe.
And so am I.
And so are you.
I don’t worry about dying. Because I am not alive. I simply am, and will be for the rest of time.
Let Yourself Learn 