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…