The moment of change is here

There is a quiet energy in the air…

The temperature is neither cold, nor warm

It is neither light, nor dark

A breeze touches the trees softly…

People are going about their business

Yet the market square seems larger as they cross it

The path through the forest is longer than anyone remembered

As the wind clears out the last leaves on the ground…

The roads and pathways have an emptiness about them…

As if everything that used to occupy them has left

And everyone is waiting in quiet anticipation

While the wind picks up, and whispers: “Change…”

The space we live in is ready to receive all that is new

The soil is awaiting new trees to be planted

The air is fresh, and breathing is easy

As we are invited to step into this opening in space and time

To discover new things about ourselves

To express our newly recognized selves in new ways

To bring out the best we can be…

To build a world from Love, and Light, and Peace

The earth is cleansed, and ready to support us

To listen to our wishes and desires, our voices

Singing ancient songs that have never been heard before

That are carried on the whispers of the wind…

So fill this quiet energy with life, and dance, and song

There is no need to wait for permission

How you live the expression of your unique self

Is ultimately just your decision…

Return of the light

It is that time of year again when the light returns.

Whether we look at it from the physical, seasonal perspective of the Winter Solstice or from the perspective of the celebration of Christmas — these last days of the year are marked by the return of the light. Or Light as the case may be.

With that, it starts a time of new beginnings. The most obvious one the beginning of the New Year. And that often spills over into our lives when we start the year with our New Year’s Resolutions; our decisions to make the New Year even better than the old one has been. To set out to become an even better person than we have been up to now in our lives…

With the physical return of the light on the Winter Solstice, our vital energy starts building again, enabling a greater focus on everything we want to accomplish over the next year. At the same time the days are growing longer again, literally shedding more light on just about anything we focus at so that we can see it with more clarity.

With the return of the Light as we celebrate Christmas, the inspirational Light returns. This is the Light that guides us — and while some may see this Light as outside of themselves, others will experience it as the inner connection to the highest counterpart of themselves. As this Light returns, it brings us closer to the (higher) wisdom we need to make the best, the wisest decisions in order to move ahead on our personal paths.

It means that just over a couple of days, both the physical light as well as the inspirational Light come into our lives to give us that opportunity to set our goals for the New Year — whether these goals are personal or even global. Independent from our drive to come up with the best New Year’s Resolutions, or whether we have given up on those entirely (as we tend to forget about them, sometimes as early as January 2nd when ‘real life’ begins again), we are pushed to look ahead, to make plans and set goals.

The timing gives us all the tools to see clearly what we want to do, and why. It gives us the light and clarity to envision the structure through which we will achieve the goals we set out to achieve…

This makes this time of year — on top of all of the celebrations — a truly productive time of year as well. Even if you just use it to create a little list of the ideas and plans that come up so you can revisit them later.

First published 12/25/2016

Song Lines

Although I have never been to Australia, Song Lines are an intriguing concept to me.

Let’s start with a description of Song Lines…

For the Aboriginals all land is sacred and alive. Their ancestors gave it life in singing, and gave them life through song, and dwell in the land still. Therefore songs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive". In singing, they preserve the land, the story, and the dreaming of their ancestors, and in doing so recreate it in their oneness of past, present, and future.

For me this ties in with my shamanic path, as well as with the understanding that we are the creators of our own lives.

But how many of us actually create all things in our lives with purpose, in such a way that a oneness with past, present, and future is (re)created with every step we take?

Looking at myself, I tend to look at something — one thing — I want to create or manifest in my life. And depending on whether I just desire to have this thing, or whether I really need it in my life, the manifestation of it happens faster, or in some cases, not at all.

In my efforts, I turn all of my focus to this one manifestation. And in doing so, I let my Self, and the rest of my life, ‘roll with the punches’.

Through Song Lines, the Aboriginals recreate all that is with every step they take on the path of life. They not just recreate their Selves, they recreate nature and the path they are walking through nature. And in doing so, they remember the age-old pathways, the wisdom of those lines, and they acknowledge the sacredness of the land and nature.

I have often wondered what would happen if I would do the same thing. I would need to do it in a manner that fits our culture and that suits my life...

I might not actually sing it — although making up the songs would be a great deal of fun — but my singing is not that good (and this is just the first of a bunch of reasons not to sing these things out loud). 

But what if I started acknowledging all the parts in life that are good to me, that are working for me — all the things that enrich my life? They would include people, and that which provides my income. They would also include parts of me that I have ‘inherited’, like a family history, or values that are part of the culture I have grown up in…

However, I think I would start with acknowledging my Self.

Singing the song of how my body as the perfectly healthy temple of my soul. The song of how my mind is strong, and can give direction to my path. The song of how all my experiences are precious for what they have taught me...

I would start with singing “I am”…

First published April 23, 2009

The Best Possible Outcome

Whenever we are working on something, we are working toward ‘the best possible outcome’. What the best possible outcome actually is, depends on the project at hand — and very often on our definition of success. If our definition of success involves a monetary perspective, chances are that in our ‘best possible outcome’ money is involved. On the other hand, if our definition of success has more to do with following our heart’s desires, what we envision as the ‘best possible outcome’ may not have a monetary aspect at all.

From a spiritual, or even universal perspective the ‘best possible outcome’ more often than not has to do with our personal growth. With the lessons learned. With experiences we have as we move forward along our personal paths.

As such, the spiritual perspective on the ‘best possible outcome’ may be vastly different from what we have dreamed up in our own conscious, logical minds as the ‘best possible outcome’. After all, we really love to have happy endings...

But what if your personal path takes you into serious illness? From our human perspective that is about the worst that could happen to us. However, from a personal-growth perspective it may well be an experience that will allow us to move forward on our paths with leaps and bounds!

It seems that perhaps the biggest difference between our logical perspective and the personal-growth perspective are our emotions. As opposed to the spiritual world, our emotions allow us to learn our lessons in the earth plane. From the spiritual perspective we are cheered on with every step we take on our personal path of growth — whether that involves pain and suffering, or winning the multi-million dollar lottery.

That being said, the energy of this point in time does allow us more than ever before to adapt and change our ways mid-stream. And as soon as we figure out how to bring our logical perspective and the spiritual, personal-growth perspective on ‘the best possible outcome’ together — our rewards can be greater than we ever dreamed possible!

And this seems to include financial and health issues just as well as smaller, or more subtle, ‘best possible outcomes’.

It does require for us to be courageous enough to be willing to look at all the aspects of what is happening in our lives. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All without judging ourselves because of it.

Just observing what is at play, how we feel about it, what it has to tell us, and what we feel we are learning from it.

The ultimate outcome may still not be what we feel is a good or desired outcome, let alone what we perceive as the ‘best possible outcome’. Yet chances are it has permitted us to learn and experience invaluable lessons on our path of personal growth.

First published March 8, 2013

Unexpected Change of Circumstances

It is funny how the circumstances we may find ourselves in can either give us a jumpstart, or stop us in our tracks. We tend to look at a change in our circumstances as a negative. Something that is throwing off our routine; that takes away the structure in our lives — in other words, something that makes our lives harder than it needs to be, as it takes away the organization we have imposed on our lives. It stops the plans we have made in their tracks, and suddenly we need to adapt to a place — and energy— that we are not that familiar with. 

This seems quite obvious with the big events in life — like relationships (whether they start or end; they do change the circumstances), moving house (for whatever the reason), losing or finding a job… All of those things change our circumstances to such extend that we are forced to adapt.

While there are also much smaller things we can find on our path, that change our circumstances in such a way that they become ‘life altering events’. With the recent pandemic as another major circumstance that can affect our lives and cause us to change direction on our individual life paths, is our health. Or more precisely, our perception of our health and wellbeing.

Suddenly it seems like we have become much more aware of how fragile our health and wellbeing are — or can be. Where only a couple of years ago we may have thought that being healthy was our “normal” state of being, now it is almost like we have to take overate action to maintain that level of wellbeing that we are comfortable with.

Just living a healthy life — with healthy food, enough sleep, and plenty of exercise — no longer seems to get us the same results it always did…

It amounts to an unexpected change in circumstances that demands us to look at the way we live our lives differently.

On one hand we may find that the stress we have always experienced as a “normal” part of life can have a greater impact on our sense of wellbeing than it ever did before. But then again, this greater awareness of our (perceived) physical fragility may also allow for physical anomalies to come to the surface unexpectedly.

It can be as simple as twisting an ankle because we stepped on a loose tile on the sidewalk, or as complex as an illness we find ourselves dealing with out of the blue.

These type of unexpected circumstances ask for a drastic reduction of whatever stress we are experiencing in our lives. On top of that it becomes extremely important to prioritize — to determine what is most important to us as we are living our lives, rather than to continuously adapt to (what we perhaps are thinking) other people around us are expecting of us.

And when we take back our ability to make our ow decisions, walk our own path, and live our own lives in a way that makes us happy — we may well find that our sense of wellbeing grows, as well as the perception that we are stronger — healthier — than we think we are.

Expressing Ourselves

Perhaps one of the more dramatic changes in energy at this point in time is found in the way we are expressing ourselves. We may have grown up with the understanding that the way we should express ourselves was “task-oriented”, and seen from a perspective of things that had to be done in order to move forward in our lives. Yet in this point in time this is shifting to expressing who we are. In other words, the way we express ourselves is shifting from “what we should do”, into an expressing of the individual uniqueness that we are.

While this doesn’t mean that we quit our jobs, or any drastic measures such as that, it does mean that it is becoming increasingly more important to pay attention to the unique energy, perspectives, or actions we have to offer to the world — on our own terms.

It requires that, as an individual, we embark on a journey of discovery.

We may have a fairly good idea as to who we are and what we have to offer to the world around us, yet chances are that there is still a lot left to be discovered — perhaps not in the least about how we can productively express the distinctive qualities that make us uniquely who we are.

At first, this may seem to be somewhat of a detour on our paths. After all, things are working well the way they always have, right?

On the other hand, if ever we have had that little whisper in the back of our minds that what we would really like to do is … … … — usually something that we may not feel is productive, useful, or even feasible — this is the time to explore what it would take to at least satisfy your curiosity… We may even find that expressing this newly discovered side of ourselves turns out to be highly productive, extremely satisfying, and therefore an activity that brings great fulfillment into our lives.

Whether this leads to a totally different way we do our jobs — or even a different job — and things that just need to be done, or just something that we keep doing “on the side” is not as important as is seems at first glance. 

The fact that we move along with the shift in energy of this point in time is the important thing. 

Expressing the unique qualities that make us who we are more and more has a tendency to make us feel better about ourselves and our lives. And it places us in a position where it becomes ever easier to make the changes that may have been lingering — perhaps because we didn’t exactly know how to go about it…

So, as we express our unique selves more and more, chances are we become happier, healthier, relaxed, and more productive people…

Vacation

Whether we go on a long trip, or only have a brief sojourn - all vacations have one thing in common… we step away from our day to day activities in order to have some fun, to take a rest, and in a way to recharge ourselves.

Yet the word in itself has a lot to say about what vacation is all about, It seems to have a lot to do with the verb ‘to vacate’ - meaning to leave or to make empty.

The question then becomes what we are leaving behind; what are we making ourselves empty of.

When you see some spring break video’s on YouTube, it seems that in some instances what some vacationers leave behind is their good old common sense...

Something else most leave behind while vacationing is our day to day schedules - the times we wake up, the routine to get to work, coming home, doing chores. All those things we leave behind as they are part of our ‘regular lives’ rather than our vacation.

And finally, the thing every vacationer really really wants to leave behind, or even vacate themselves from, is stress. At least the stress that is associated with our busy day to day lives, as research suggests that vacation in itself can be a source of stress all its own.

In a sense, looking at the word vacation form its most literal perspective, taking some time to ‘vacate ourselves’ from those things that burden us is a good thing. It allows us to take a step back, to see what is really happening in our lives, to decide what is truly important to us. And then, what we take back from vacation is the knowing of exactly that: what is and what isn’t important to us. Coming home to our regular lives we then have a choice to act upon that knowledge.

Another benefit from stepping out of our every day environments in order to vacate ourselves - to release the things we no longer need - is that this in and of itself not only relieves us from our burdens, it also creates a new space. And this space, all new and clear, provides us with openings to start doing new things. To explore new avenues. Embark upon new adventures - not just during our vacations, but perhaps especially in our day to day lives...

And it is these new avenues and adventures that can bring a sparkle into our lives even long after we came home from our vacation…

First published 6/8/2013

A new life

What if your life — the way you have always lived it — stopped? Nothing as dramatic as passing over; not even as traumatic as losing your job or home... But just the realization that the things you have always been doing are not gaining the same result anymore — and that this change has come suddenly...

Would you jump at the chance to reinvent your life; to reinvent yourself?

Or would you keep trying to make it work the way it has always worked before?

It seems that this is the very question many people find themselves faced with at this point in time. 

It may have started with a couple of little things. Things that all of a sudden can fluster you where before they would have never upset you at all. Or the realization that just watching the news on TV can absolutely leave you drained of all energy. Perhaps even a sense that friends you have known for a long time just don’t understand you anymore...

When you feel like this is happening in your life, it is probably time to take a break — to take a moment to evaluate whether these are just isolated incidents, or if this change is also going on inside of you; in your energy. To see if maybe you are too busy. If you are taking time to take care of yourself instead of just making everybody around you happy. To explore what your priorities truly are at this point in time.

In all likelihood something like this happens to us several times in our lifetime. Those moments that come up and present us with the opportunity to change directions; to change our lives; to change ourselves...

As such, these are special moments. 

Upsetting, yes — but also very precious.

Each of these occasions brings with it the possibility of creating a new life for ourselves; a new energy — inside and out. 

The difficulty is that when a situation like that knocks on our door — we hardly ever have any idea as to what we want to do different. Where we want to change directions. How we want to turn out in our new energy; our new life.

It is hard to take positive, productive steps if you have no clue where you want them to lead you. And yet, it is often the only thing you can do; to take it step by step, and having the faith that each of these steps will bring you to the new life — which on some level you have been yearning for, for some time...

First published  1/31/2013

Breathing

We all do it — breathing… And most of us don’t even give it a second thought. It just happens. We breathe in and we breathe out. And when there is something exciting happening, we may hold your breath for a couple of moments. To then release it when we decide everything is okay, and we are safe.

Breathing in… and breathing out.

Have you ever thought about what is happening as you are breathing? Apart from staying alive? But apart from oxygenating the body, a lot more is going on…

As we are breathing in, we are expanding our space. And in doing so, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to permit new information, new experiences, or even new energy to enter our space. Having breathed in, we then evaluate the new experience or energy. We decide if that, that we have permitted to enter on our breath, is actually beneficial or useful to us. If it inspires us. If it has the potential to make our life experience richer…

And as we breathe out, we release everything we have decided is not going to bring us forward on our path. Whether that is that new experience that is not living up to its promise, or if it is old information, or energy we no longer need. Like stress, for instance. Having breathed out, then, we are from some perspective a clean slate, and ready to do the same process all over again…

Can we really do this in just the time it takes us to breathe in and to breathe out?

Well, the answer is yes! Even when we are not conscious of this process with every breath we take (which is a good thing, by the way), this is truly what we are doing as we are breathing.

As we are becoming more aware of this process, we may find that in the world today the emphasis is placed upon the in-breath. On the expansion. On the assimilation of new energy and new things. And while there is nothing wrong with that, it may lead us in direction where we have a sense of fullness that doesn’t light up. Often even a feeling of being stressed about all the things that are coming our way.

When that happens, it is time to breathe out… To let go of everything that, while it may be interesting, is not helping us on our path through life. To let go of diversions, but also of patterns that were once useful to us, yet have no longer a purpose in our lives.

When observing our breathing from this perspective, there is a huge value in breathing out… In letting go… In relieving ourselves from the burdens we no longer need to carry.

So whenever life is “getting to you” a little bit, take a moment to consciously breathe it all out…

Why we do the things we do

There are any number of reasons why we do the things we do. Some are better than others, yet most may not be the best reason to do anything at all — and that in itself should be food for thought...

So here are seven reasons that come to mind:

1. It’s our job.
2. It is expected of us.
3. It is what we need to do to gain approval from others.
4. It is what we are told/taught to do.
5. It is what we want to do.
6. It is what makes us happy.
7. It is what we are passionate about.

And while each and every one of those reasons may come up on their own, they can also dovetail into one another, and as such become stronger reasons to do the things we do…

On the surface there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the first reason — ‘It’s our job’. Having a job is a good thing, especially if you like your job. It is a way to provide for yourself and your family — a way to ‘pay the bills’. Yet what if it is not a paying job, but more a ‘self-appointed’ job? A chore that no-one is willing to help out with, because it is “our job”? Then suddenly this reason connects with reasons 2, 3 and 4 — and the question arises: “Is this really true? Is it truly my job?”

The second reason is even less clear-cut. Is what we do expected from us by ourselves or by others? Or are we just thinking others are expecting it from us? In all likelihood, even if others are not expecting it from us, they won’t protest if we do the things that someone would need to do anyway…

Numbers 3 and 4 are often intertwined. As long as we are doing what we are told or taught to do, we will gain the approval of others — be it parents, teachers, or bosses… And while it may be a good thing to do the things we do in the way we were taught how to do them, that probably shouldn’t be why we do them. Approval ratings usually are highly overrated where it is about the everyday things in our lives…

The last three reasons turn out to be more sustainable reasons.

When we do the things we want to do in life, we very often find ourselves in a state of contentment, of happiness, or even a peaceful state of mind. (Unless of course we want to do those things because we think it is expected of us to do those things.) When we are doing the things we truly and honestly want to do, chances are they will make us happy!

Ultimately, the very best reason to do the things we do is when we are passionate about them. When they inspire us.

When we identify the things we are passionate about, and put in the time and effort to actually doing them — chances are we got it made!!

A new premise

We all have our perspectives on what works for us in life, and what does not. Often these perspectives are the trees that have grown from the seeds that were planted when we were very young. They were usually the seeds from the gardens of personal beliefs of our parents, that were carefully harvested and prepared by them — and eventually scattered in the fertile soil of our being…

Some of those seeds will never germinate. Others will germinate, yet never grow into the trees our parents had hoped for. But then, some of those seeds will grow into beautiful plants and trees in the gardens of our personal beliefs, our personal truths.

It has been this way for eons of time.

Yet, long ago, we may have felt happy, protected and cared for by our parents and those that came before us, every time we looked around in the garden of our personal beliefs and personal truths, and noticed the lush environment that was growing from the seeds they had scattered. An environment that emanated memories and wisdom…

Nowadays, however, changes are happening all around us, and they are happening faster than we feel comfortable with in the best of times — let alone in a point of time when environmental, social, and health challenges seem to appear wherever we look — it seems that the gardens of our personal beliefs and personal truths do not flourish anymore. Somehow, the seeds scattered long ago do not seem to grow into the lush beauty our parents had hoped for.

When we enter a point of time like we have entered now, perhaps it is a good time to examine the soil, the basis of our personal beliefs and personal truths. It may be a good moment to take on a new premise from which we can move forward. Like a premise that is based in the Universal Laws:

1. All is mind, mind is all.
2. We create our own lives through our thought patterns and the decisions we make, and actions we take based on our thought patterns.

Using these two statements as a (new) premise, it seems the most important things to get a handle on in order to make things work for us again in our lives, are our thought patterns.

And perhaps it is not as much about the random thoughts that come up during the day, but more about where we place our focus, and in which situations we engage mentally.

In these changing times it is easy to focus on the challenges humanity is faced with, or on all the things that are not quite going the way they were intended to go. We may almost automatically engage in situations that already are problematic, or may start presenting a problem in the not so distant future…

When this type of an interaction becomes a pattern for us — following our new premise — we may be manifesting challenges and difficulties into our once so happy and organized lives…

The advice on how to change that is simple — yet by no means easy.

The moment you find yourself engaging in a news item on TV about any one of then challenges we — as humanity — are facing in a fearful or negative manner, take a step back. Turn off the TV and purposely find something beautiful in your environment, or something that is working well for you in your life. In other words, refocus your attention, and start thinking about those things that are working beautifully for you. The next step is to start doing more of the things that are working well for you at this point in time.

In short: step back, refocus, and take action accordingly.

The moment we refocus our minds on those things that are working in our lives, that are beautiful, productive — in other words, those things we are grateful for, we set ourselves up to create this productive beauty in our own lives. And yes, that includes enhancing our physical health…

What we know to be true vs what we believe to be true

We may know that we are good, productive, kind, loving, honest, respectful people who can take care of ourselves. We may be aware that there might be situations that can be more challenging than others — yet on the whole we will get by just fine!

At the same time we may believe that we are “stupid” because it took us a little longer to learn to read when we were 6 or 7 years old. We may believe that we are “no-good people”, because we didn’t fit in very well when we grew up. We may even have come to the conclusion on a deep inner level that love hurts, that those who are less than honest and trick the system of society get further in life; or that respect is a fear-based sentiment...

These believes more often than not are things we were told by others, or shown by others when we grew up. And when we are told something over and over and over again, chances are that — at least on some level — we start believing it to be true.

So we may end up having two, completely different perspectives on who we are, on our abilities.

And where what we know to be true is stored in our ratio — in our logical, conscious mind. What we believe to be true is stored in our subconscious mind, the mind of our dreams — the mind that takes over the moment we are not consciously thinking about something.

The result is that, unless we consciously decide to do so, the things we believe to be true are never measured against the things we know to be true. This then, can put us in a situation where we are totally “with it” when we are logically, consciously presenting ourselves — yet as soon as we direct our focus elsewhere we start projecting the subconscious picture of ourselves that we, on that deep inner level, believe to be true...

A duality like that can well become a major obstacle on our personal path, a definite challenge in our day-to-day lives.

For many people the answer to just one question, when answered with absolute honesty, is enough to help them become aware of a ‘knowing vs believing challenge’ in their lives:

“I know I can do that. Do I believe I can do that?”

Others may want to get help from a coach or healer specializing in bringing what you believe to be true closer to what you know to be true.

Either way, the closer what you know to be true and what you believe to be true are to one another — the easier live gets to be!

First published March 1, 2011

Messages

Picture: The Shaman’s Dream Oracle

It seems like we are getting messages all the time. Whether it is digitally, through reading something in the newspapers, our from a more spiritual perspective — messages are sent to us in a sheer unending stream.

How we react to these messages and what we do with the information they present is up to us. 

Somehow though, when the same — or very similar — message suddenly pops up coming from different sources, I have a tendency to pay attention to what the message is…

The message I received was on the importance of keeping a clean house. And it first came when we did some work on our (actual) house that required a painting to be taken down from the wall. It was immediately apparent that some cleaning was in order. Yet pretty soon after that I had a dream that indicated “cleaning house” is a good thing at this point in time. And finally, I pulled the card “A Tidy House” from “The Shaman’s Dream oracle”.

Now, granted, getting rid of some dust and keeping the house clean is something that needs to be done somewhat regularly. Yet it seems there was more to the message…

From a symbolic perspective, a house signifies the mind. So when a house — any house — appears in our dreams, meditations, or when using an oracle deck, its message will have to do with our mind. Our thinking, and yes, our attitudes and even our opinions.

Looking at the message this way, I took it to be an invitation to do a mediation and check out what “my house” — the house that would show up and take form in my meditation — looks like. And perhaps even more importantly, what I am storing in “my house”…

Am I still holding on to boxes full of old beliefs and outdated perspectives in the basement? Perhaps it is time then, to toss those out! As well as cleaning the cobwebs and dust, clearing out things I may have been raised with, yet they never rang true to me…

In a sense I have found that I benefit from revisiting “my house” on a regular basis (in meditation) just to see what is there and to air it out. To get some fresh air in the rooms, perhaps even paint the walls a different color.

That way, “my house” has plenty of space to embrace new concepts, new ideas, new opportunities and adventures.

And if “my house” is clean and clear and ready for new things to come into it — chances are, my mind will be open to new adventures as well!

When the same message comes into our lives repeatedly, following up on them can be quite helpful. Or at least that is what I have found…

You can get the guided meditation (and more), 

as well as an explanation, here…

Perhaps not a popular perspective

There are three concepts that work together in our lives that seem to be quite important in this point of time…

• Through polarities we can develop our discernment to where we a make decisions as to what we like to experience in our lives. In other words, if we don’t know darkness, we will not recognize the light.
• Energy is energy, is energy… The frequency we tuned our energy to and how we express the energy that is available to us dictates our experiences. If we are frustrated or even angry, we may experience more frustration and anger in the world around us — a popular way to look at that is “The law of attraction”.
• We are responsible for our own lives, and how we tune in to life — the decisions we make and our actions that result from those decisions — have great impact on how we experience life. 

There are two things that — as we ponder those concepts — come up…

• There is no “good” or “bad” energy. How energy is used either agrees with us, or it doesn’t — and through our discernment we can then decide whether we wish to have that particular energy in our lives… Or not.
• The way these concepts work together gives us full responsibility over our lives… And also all the free will choice one would ever need — and more — in order to make this life count. (And even if we have trouble seeing that right away, from a Universal perspective this will always be true.)

What is boils down to is that any judgement is irrelevant. We can observe how people use energy to express themselves, to then discern whether we would like to bring people that express the energy in that manner into our lives. Whether that is in a meeting, through our thoughts, or even through an emotional reaction to what we observed…

Something else that is implied is, that when we ourselves are not entirely balanced it becomes easier for unbalanced expressions of energy to find us… The moment we notice that happening, we can choose to not allow that to become part of our lives. Yet it is a good thing to ask ourselves why it showed up in the first place… 

As a result we can choose to rebalance ourselves.

Ultimately this becomes a path where those expressions of energy we do not wish to experience in our lives are not labeled “good” or “bad”, but rather looked at as omens that show us where in our next step on our path of personal — spiritual — growth can be most productive…

The choice is ours!

Mindfulness — What the mind is full of…

“The quality or state, of being conscious or aware of something happening in this moment.”

Yet, mindfulness is perhaps more often seen at this point in time as:

A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

As such, it is a method of detaching from the "hustle and bustle”, to the point of observing what is happening — without and within — while having no need to be part of what is happening, or even interact with it.

Therefore, when practicing mindfulness on a regular basis, a state of being can be reached in which we are aware of what is happening around us, yet we only choose to interact with whatever is happening within our own realm of influence — therefore more and more being in a position in which we can truly create our own experiences in life…

A step on the road to get there, is to check every once in a while what our minds are full of…

Are we truly just observing what is going on? In other words, is the calmness we project a reflection of our inner calmness?

Or do we look calm on the outside, while engaging in a conversation within ourselves in which we comment on what is happening, formulate opinions on who is doing what, and why, and perhaps even judging all that we see happening around us?

If our mind if filled with opinions, or judgements, on things that are happening in the world — perhaps even in areas, or on topics that are well outside of our realm of influence — we may find it hard to find (and let alone focus on) the good things in our lives. The things that work for us, that make us happy. Those things that bring the calm contentment in our lives that “there is enough”.

That we are enough.

In a sense, then, it is important of seeing the goodness in our lives, while still being fully aware of things that are negative, yet choosing to not interact with that negativity…

Just send it Light, and Love, and Healing… And move on with our own lives…

Like many things, it sounds a lot easier than is.

We probably all can reach a state of being calm in meditation, while walking in nature, or working on our favorite project (whatever that is). It is a lot harder to maintain that same state of being calm when watching the news or reading the newspapers.

The good news is that when we slip out of our state of being calm, we are still a good person! And being aware of it makes it easier to take a deep breath, observe what just happened, and move forward on our own path in the realization that we have just made a giant leap in our personal growth!