Tag Archives: spirituality

Inspiration

How To Lose Weight Right Now!

CakeI swear this will feel better than any regimen of protein or cinnamon.  

What weighs you down even more than half of a leftover birthday cake?  What is worse for your health than a fast-food sandwich containing bacon, cheese, pancakes, and syrup in one?  Its energy is just as real and contains consequences like any physical substance we ingest.  It’s a grudge.

When I was in high school I found little wrong with holding a grudge.  If I thought you “stole” my boyfriend, or talked badly about me to friends, that was enough for me to carry the weight of negative feelings for you.  It seemed just at the time.  My compassion grew after graduating high school a semester early, and finding that the daily lives of others were not at all like I imagined them to be.  It took time, but I slowly realized that just as my inner life was incomprehensible to even my closest friends, so too were the inner lives of all people.  I found that even though I could be affected by the choices of others, their choices were made from their point of view, in their world, with that person as the main character of the story, just as I am my own life’s main character.  

To drop a grudge doesn’t mean you approve of past actions taken by an individual; it means you allow the past to be as it was, and forgive it for being.  To expend energy fighting against that which is already the case is, bluntly put, insane.  The past that now exists in the present as a thought in the mind can persist in draining your life energy through your reliving it in the present, or it can be relinquished.

By Peter SperoWhat would change in your life if you let go of a grudge?

What would you receive if you relinquished your non-forgiveness? The reward looks different in each circumstance, but rest assured there is a reward, not to mention the actual of feeling of being lighter. The mind doesn’t know this, because its aim and reward is its own thought-made sense of self, which one grudge can easily keep in place. By letting go, the mind thinks it’s losing. And it is. It’s losing its firm grasp on your attention. It’s losing its stronghold on your sense of self. It’s losing what it thinks is all there is: thoughts. Because of this it has cunning ways of convincing you why you can’t let something go, why it is in your best interest to not forgive. Don’t be fooled, the mind will use its best logic to keep its identity as your sense of self. When it uses convincing logic to maintain its position on the pedestal of your awareness all that is needed is to see it for what it really is. The ego.

The mind-made sense of self pales in comparison to who you truly are. A thought in your head can never come close to the majesty of your being. You are consciousness. You provide the space for thoughts to be created and noticed. And one of the best ways to gently let go of the ego is to let go of a grudge. Who can you forgive today?

Standard
Ego

9 Unconscious Ways The Ego Takes Over Your Life

Reflected LightThe ego needs a lot of things.  Without wanting, the mind made self loses steam, and your true self beyond the voice in your head begins to emerge.  Finding out the nature of your true self beyond what your thoughts are attached to is one of the greatest adventures of being a human.  But how can this actually be done?

To the mind, it appears that there is nothing beyond itself, because it only recognizes things.  Space is incomprehensible to a thought whose meaning is always attached to some-thing.  Yet, space is our home.  We are consciousness, that which is aware and watching.  We are the space in which all things arise.  When you balance your life with space you have access to the power that created the universe.

In Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth he offers pointers to help create more inner space, and diminish the egoic mind.  One of these pointers is to become aware of patterns that operate in your life which attempt to inflate or repair the egoic sense of self.  The list of these patterns literally makes me laugh out loud, because I have seen each one operate in my life at one time or another.  Experimenting with letting go of these patterns whenever you become aware of them can at first feel uncomfortable, but then give rise to a powerful feeling of spaciousness and peace.  The true self then has room to emerge.   I hope reading these “ways in which people unconsciously try to emphasize their form­-identity,” as Tolle puts it, is as amusing and enlightening to you as it was to me:

  1. Demanding recognition for something you did and getting angry or upset if you don’t get it

  2. Trying to get attention by talking about your problems, the story of your illnesses, or making a scene

  3. Giving your opinion when nobody has asked for it and it makes no difference to the situation

  4. Being more concerned with how the other person sees you than with the other person, which is to say, using other people for egoic reflection or as ego enhancers

  5. Trying to make an impression on others through possessions, knowledge, good looks, status, physical strength, and so on

  6. Bringing about temporary ego inflation through angry reaction against something to someone

  7. Taking things personally, feeling offended

  8. Making yourself right and others wrong through futile mental or verbal complaining

  9. Wanting to be seen, or to appear important (Tolle)
Standard
You

“Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” ― Henry David Thoreau

Joey and KatieThe most vital component to your life’s purpose is being yourself.  I don’t say this to be kind or encouraging, but as a matter of urgent importance.  While you many never see it, you being yourself is changing someone else’s life.  Without you being who you truly are, the world is missing its only chance of you.

So who are you?  It is easier to start with who you are not.  You are not a bundle of thoughts.  You are not who you think you are, or who anyone else thinks you are.  You are not the name, weight, and hair color on your driver’s license.  Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, what is left?

You will know who you are by witnessing yourself free from these thought-made selves it is so easy to get attached to.  You don’t have to try to be who you are, and you definitely don’t have to “figure it out.”  Who you are emerges when you untangle your identity from your thoughts and circumstances.  Allowing yourself just to be in the world, experiencing life as it is, and following your own joy in whatever way it expresses itself, will show you yourself more truly and miraculously than your mind could have ever thought up.

I love this video.  This little girl is so inspiring, not because of a particular skill, but because she is being herself.  And what happens when you are who you are, without trying to be what you think you should be in the eyes of others?  People notice you!  People think you are doing something amazing!  You bring people joy!  You don’t have to be the best at this or that.  You only need let your true self act, and it will be better at whatever it does than any amount of practice could produce:

http://youtu.be/NUUQWCkumXE

Standard
Inspiration

Living For The Weekend And The Secret To Joy

What is so wonderful about a vacation to the Caribbean? What is appealing about walking along a white sandy beach at sunset?  Why do we so often long for the next vacation, or live for the weekend?  To put it simply, we long for the feeling.

If you’ve ever had a wonderful experience on vacation, or a revitalizing weekend after a long week of work, you have experienced a beautiful inner feeling that keeps you coming back for more.  Many addictions begin just this way.  There is an experience of a feeling that you enjoy to such an extent that you want to feel it again and again.  What are you actually enjoying?

Your mind will tell you, “I love the margarita,” or, “I love laying on the beach in the sun with nothing to do and a good book to read.”  The mind confuses the state of joy with the outer experience it perceives while in that state.  But it is not the form of the experience that keeps you coming back for more.  It is the state of joy.  The joy of being.  I call it a “state” because it is not the same as an emotion that passes through your consciousness and then dissipates.  Joy is an inherent natural state of the being that you are.  Joy is discovered when layers of form, emotions, and thoughts are uncovered.  Joy is revealed, not created.

That longing for a vacation, or the weekend, is a longing to be back in that state of pure joy, your true state of being.  Once you have realized that what is so enjoyable about a good time is not the experience, but the state of joy itself, you open yourself up to being able to experience that which you desire regardless of circumstance.  Joy is your natural state, it is always present.  It merely gets covered up by thoughts and the “cares of the world.”  How did you feel on your last vacation?  How did you feel Friday after work was over?  Relax and allow that sensation to well up from within you, imagine you are on that beautiful sandy beach with clear waves rolling over your toes.  Joy can be uncovered at any moment in any situation; it doesn’t have to be Friday.

The following video on manifesting abundance operates under this very same principle.  Abundance, like joy, comes from within.  The experience of abundance in outer form is only its surface layer.  The state of abundance originates within you:

http://youtu.be/BD52vEw3ZUY

Standard
consciousness

Can you go a day without judgement?

FlowersThis morning I listened to Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success as I was getting ready for work.  Chopra talks about accessing the field of potentiality, the space in which your highest dreams have the opportunity to manifest, and how to access this space.  One of the prescriptions he gives is to go the day without judgement.  Along with other tools, such as meditation, going without judgement creates space for the highest potential of any moment to arise.

I made the decision as if it was easy, “Sure I can go the day without judgement!”  Which within ten minutes turned into me becoming aware of how often I was judging the world around me.  I first noticed it standing at the bus stop.  I saw a guy park his car “way too far” from the curb, and as I was thinking this thought, I realized I was already judging!  In conversations with friends and coworkers, I began to notice how often I voiced my opinion.

I wasn’t just noticing negative judgement, I also noticed that I judged things all the time in a positive manner.  I would see a tree and think, “What a beautiful tree!”  I would look up at the sky and think, “Such interesting clouds today.”  Negative or positive, I found that I was constantly in judgement.

This experiment was anything but a failure, it truly helped me see how often I was judging the world around me instead of perceiving it as it really was.  Tomorrow I’m going to try again and see what happens.  I invite you to join me in going one day without judgement, just to see what it’s like!  Let me know how it goes, I’d love to hear your story!

Standard
Inspiration

Personality or Prisonality

Is your personality a prison?  Do your likes and dislikes, wants and fears, opinions and attitudes interfere with your life? 

I’ve never been a morning person; I would rather stay up late and sleep late.  In my life there have been countless examples of that aspect of my personality keeping me from experiences I would have loved.  During the summer in which I “woke up,” experienced a new level of being present, I suddenly realized that I could be a morning person if I wanted to.  The only thing keeping me from engaging in countless early morning activities was the fear of the voice in my head that would be furious to be thinking at 7:00am, and would ceaselessly continue its complaints until I was back in bed.  Since I had stopped taking that voice so seriously, I realized that I could be a morning person if I so chose to be. I joined a choir that met at 8:30am on Sundays.  This might sound ridiculous to all those who wake up at 3am to get to work at 5am everyday, but for me 8:30am on a weekend was never even an option. 

Are you not a morning person?  Do you dislike waiting?  Can you not stand loud restaurants?  What are the parts of your personality that are keeping you from experiencing the fullness of life and your true authentic power?  In his book, The Seat Of The Soul, Gary Zukav defines authentic power as, “when the personality comes fully to serve the energy of the soul.”   In this video Gary and Oprah discuss where your authentic power comes from and how it can change your reality:

Standard
You

A Personal Message From Humanity To You:

You Are Here!Congratulations, you made it!  Every small act, intention, and detail of the universe all worked together for your being here.  The cells that formed you came together specifically to manifest you.  Existence needed you to be here as yourself.  And you made it!  The entire world is a different place because you exist.  The way you experience the world changes all of our experiences of the world.  This is how much you matter.  You are important.  You are on purpose.  When you experience a victory, we all win.  When you are full of sorrow, we all weep.  When you express yourself as you truly are, you give each of us the gift you were meant to bring to our existence.  When you look on the world with love, acceptance, peace, and joy, you are providing the opportunity for everyone else to experience that world.  Everything worked together perfectly for your being here, and is working perfectly for your existence as yourself.  Congratulations and thank you for irreversibly impacting the whole of existence.

Standard
Ego

The 6 Thoughts That Are Keeping You Unhappy

Light

“Whenever there is unhappiness in the background of your life (or even in the foreground), you can see which of these thoughts applies and fill in your own content according to your personal situation:

‘There is something that needs to happen in my life before I can be at peace (happy, fulfilled, etc.). And I resent that it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe my resentment will finally make it happen.’

‘Something happened in the past that should not have happened, and I resent that. If that hadn’t happened, I would be at peace now.’

‘Something is happening now that should not be happening, and it is preventing me from being at peace now.’

Often the unconscious beliefs are directed toward a person and so “happening” becomes “doing”:

‘You should do this or that so that I can be at peace. And I resent that you haven’t done it yet. Maybe my resentment will make you do it.’

‘Something you (or I) did, said, or failed to do in the past is preventing me from being at peace now.’

‘What you are doing or failing to do now is preventing me from being at peace.’” (Tolle 114)

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?  Seeing them without content lays bare the structure of the egoic mind that does not recognize the present moment, living in the phantom past and future.  Shining the light of your own awareness on the voice of the ego is the beginning of its end.

Standard
Inspiration

You Are Changing The World, Whether You Know It Or Not

Humans are promoters, givers, energy mathematicians.  We are always adding the energy behind our actions to a pool of like energy.  This can be recognized in negative emotions, which add their “low” energy to negative energy created by painful experiences from the past.  Has anyone ever tried to make you laugh when you were upset or angry?  In my experience, there is a part of the self in that situation that wants to stay upset.  It only wants to feel worse, to add to itself.

Your actions and intentions cast a vote in the energy and experience of the world around you.  The energy that creates war multiplies through more war.  To diminish the energy of separation and pain, we need to cultivate a higher frequency of energy that creates different outcomes.  It is inspiring to hear it so simply put, and well received, in this video that I couldn’t wait to share:

http://youtu.be/1HxU-nfRsKk

Standard
consciousness

How do you know if you’re being yourself?

Me as a child with my older brother.

Me as a child with my older brother.

When I was a little kid I longed to know who I really was.  I remember wishing someone could just tell me.  I envied my friends from foreign countries who had a strong national identity.  I thought they really knew who they were.  I tried finding my identity in things, like being a writer, an actress, a musician.  But nothing ever stuck.

Now I am grateful for that.  I didn’t yet realize that the self attached to thoughts and things was the ego, the parasitic mind that can only survive through attachment to forms.  It wasn’t until the summer I turned 23 that I suddenly realized what a gift it was to experience the self without definitions and attachments.  It was then, when I realized what I was not, that I became open to finding out who my true self was, how it expressed itself, and how the true self was more expansive and inclusive than I could have ever thought up with my mind.

At first, not buying into your own thought created identity can feel like a black hole with no end in sight.  There is another side.  You will know it through inexplicable feelings of joy, love, and the state of peace.  For me, it still becomes obscured by the ego at various points throughout the day.  The good news is, that once you’ve experienced your true self it continues to grow in presence and power, no matter how the ego may try to reassert itself.  So who are you?  Try asking yourself without answering with words, and let your self show you.

I love this short video with Eckhart Tolle because it can give you an experience of your true nature as pure consciousness, as the watcher:

Standard