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!

Memories

The memories we have of facts and figures, of situations, things we have learned along the way — whether we have just a sense of recall of them or truly can remember every last little bit of detail about what happened — pretty much have entered our memory through the conscious path. In other words, as we experienced it, it became part of our short term memory — and after that, either because the event was important to us, or because we put effort into it (like learning things at school which you may have done through repeating the very things that you needed to remember) they have found their way into your long term memory...

Yet, for pretty much everybody there seem to be memories — things you seem to clearly remember — of situations or events that you have not physically experienced during your life.

For instance the sense you may get of ‘having been there before’ while, from a factual perspective you arrive there for the very first time in your life. Or a clear memory of a situation that took place in a different time, and perhaps even on a different continent...

These type of things would indicate that we remember things across time and space. Or do they?

Some people may say that what we ‘remember’ are no actual memories, but more things that for one reason or another ‘we tune into’. We tune ourselves to a certain frequency, a certain field of energy perhaps, where images of some past event become available to us.

This brings up the question how those images — the knowledge of past events — are being kept in that particular place, that specific energy.

From that perspective it seems that humanity is not the only one to have a memory. Somehow important events appear to be kept in the memory of the place where they took place. Like an energy imprint. 

The manner in which we gain access to these energy imprints is through meditation — through our sensory awareness.

This may even mean that a place is just a place we may even have visited it many times before — until that time that there is something in the atmosphere… a scent, a certain color of the light, a stillness… Or sometimes even a specific sound that puts us into the state of mind where we can remember whatever it is that is held in the energy imprint of that place…

And with the veils between “here” and “there”, between “then” and “now”, getting thinner to the point of almost disappearing, we may receive these kind of memories more often and wit greater ease.

In other words through a sensory trigger we may suddenly remember things across time and space.

It is important however, to realize that those memories may or may not be our own... And yet, somehow those memories have value on our path through life right now — otherwise, chances are we would not have tuned in to those memories…

Therefore, the truly interesting questions are… 

• What can I learn from this memory, this energy? 
• What does it show me that is pertinent to this point in time?
• How can having remembered those memories help me on my path right now?

Adapted from the original post, published in September 2012

Living your life your way and taking the responsibility for it

The better we get to know ourselves, then more aware we become of the things that are truly important to us. We know our needs, as well as our wishes and desires… When that happens, we can — bit by bit— shape and mold our lives in a way where the things that are important to us can be expressed more fully. 

As we do, chances are that our needs are met just that much easier. 

In a sense it may seem like living life becomes a smooth flow.

This does not mean — unfortunately — that there will never be any challenges, or difficulties in our lives as we are walking our personal path. Those are called “growth opportunities”, as often, when we overcome them, we are richer for it. Not rich in a monetary sense, but rather from an experiential perspective.

To a certain extend, these things are sort of expected to happen. Especially when you find yourself on a personal path through life that is spiritual in nature, where you are purposely taking steps to get to know yourself ever better in order to gain an ever greater ability to express your true self. Your core self.

What may come as somewhat of a surprise is that when we choose a path like that, we also become more self-reliant. Perhaps also more of our own best friend. It is not that we would not enjoy other people around us, but somehow we feel more and more comfortable hanging out with ourselves. 

Enjoying some quiet time. Sensing that special quality in the air, just before a thunderstorm breaks. Finding joy in dancing in the rain, shouting to the wind, and being touched by the warmth of the sun. Being in awe when you find yourself in the right place at the right time, to have just that once in a lifetime opportunity be handed to you…

Another aspect that may come as a side effect to having a lifestyle like this, is that it may become easier to respect yourself, and when you do, to respect others. To give other people the breathing space you like to have, in which they can live their life the way they see fit.

Without the need for anyone to interfere, pass judgement, tell them how they can be better at what they do, or start making decisions for them — just to help out…

Yes, it may seem that when you seek to know yourself and to live your life your way — and to take that as the entire package, responsibilities and joys, obligations and seeing your wishes and desires fulfilled — you would need to take a step back from a society in which so many people — on so many levels — are continually interfering with other peoples lives. 

Becoming more of an observer. 

To then continue walking your walk through life. Your way.