Awareness

Taming The Roaring Noise Of Anger - Simple Solution # 2

The follow is another short concise self-intervention. Take a few minutes to give this anger shifting technique a try.  You will appreciate how quickly anger becomes a manageable emotion.

Don’t deny or ignore anger. Acknowledge it. Simply acknowledging it changes it from a monster in the closet to an awareness of energy in motion (emotions).

One Remedy For Fear That Will Never Let You Down

Today I start a series of posts which offer simple solutions to many of  the issues we deal with - sometimes on a daily basis. I want to offer you useful and effective ideas/techniques that you can use starting immediately that will enhance the quality of your life.

Simple Solutions #1 - A Remedy For Fear

Fear is a powerful emotion that we all feel. Many deny they are afraid but we know better. Life offers us many unknown situations and fear is a natural reaction.

Insights From Being With My Dad On His Final Journey

I lost my father on Monday. He has battled heart disease for many years. He was a kind, generous person who was outgoing and very involved in his community. We often saw the world very differently but he always had unconditional love for me. Everyone needs someone like that in their lives.

Sometimes I asked him too many questions about his ideas and it made him uncomfortable. He was a person who had a strong faith in what he believed and didn’t like different points of view. My nature is one of curiosity, inviting new perspectives and encouraging the search for truth. 

How A Nightmare Shocked My Ego And Taught Me To Let Go And Trust.

I woke up wrestling with the energy of the dream. It felt like a disturbing force was running my sleeping mind bent on delivering a strong message.  The dream was a fireworks of visuals that said, “Pay attention to me.”  I wanted to understand but I wasn’t quite ready.

It took me over a year to sort this nightmare out. When I did, it changed everything I thought I knew.

My understanding of that dream happened recently as I was walking along the beach. A bright light-of-insight clicked on and words from a higher place of knowing came to me. This was immediately followed by a flashback to that dream disrupted morning. I now understood.

What If As We Grow Older We Become More Open Instead Of More Closed?

Life’s bumps and bruises cause in all of us a variety of responses some of which are healthy and some less so.

We can take what life gives us, learn from it, expand our minds to take it in, and open our hearts to accept what is. With this kind of openness we can be wise in mind and loving and compassionate in our heart.

We can also fight change, resist what we could learn from, argue to be right, and slam the door shut to our heart if we don’t like what is going on. This reactivity causes us to close down, be angry and too fearful to engage with other hearts and minds. 

Are You Listening To Your Wise Voice or The Dangerous One Inside?

Over the years I have come to realize that there are two primary inner voices that direct the unfolding journey of our lives. These two forces are the Self of our higher nature and the self that is ego-guided. To make this distinction within us and to understand its impact on humanity is of the greatest importance. The following is a sharing of insight to encourage more personal awareness about the Self and the self:

Each of you has a higher nature. That Self can be understood as your wise mind, your soul, and the part of you that is infinite and eternal. This expanded Self is your onboard direct link to the source of all creation (aka God, Great Spirit, Allah, Divine Mother, Source Energy and by many other names).

How I Got Over Myself and Started Writing With a Clearer Voice

Yes, I am on a mission. But now I realize my mission is not about me. I have come to understand my mission is to be here to support and encouragement your mission.

The ego-mind is always on a mission to convert people into followers (translation – have control over them.) It can seem like such a higher calling for those who are ministers, rabbis, priests, nuns, monks, gurus and other mission driven professionals. However, if the ego is in charge, the calling is more toward self-power than toward empowering others.

The Inner Lightness Of Being

In this moment you can live in awe of the incredible peace, love, joy and freedom that is available to you. It is a simple choose, be present or not.

There is such wonderful peace when you are able to be fully present to yourself and the divine that powers your life force. In the worry and hurry world peace is left in the dust on the trail of the ego-mind. Peace is the still pond of mindfulness when you rise above the chatter of the ego-mind. Peace is the comfort with self when you are hanging out free of the judging mind, just being.

How To Be So Much More

Yesterday I was at a gallery and something connected about art and how it is a vehicle to deepen our experience of life and open our channel to our spirit.  There was a painting of a crow sitting on a window ledge and looking at the sun; it was titled at the Edge of Freedom. It seems crows are symbolic messengers for both my wife and I. For years the intuitive has come to us in a variety of forms with crows high the list. Inner messages call us to leave old stuck patterns and limiting beliefs behind and instead move into the wonder of the unexplored richness of life. This message came home with clarity looking at that painting.

As I read what I wrote above I see by my words that what I want to say is that there is so much we can become aware of and know if we allow the messages around us, the images, and the metaphors speak to us in the inner language of the intuitive.  Everything becomes more alive when we are open to see, hear, feel and sense the wisdom of the universe.

How do you make contact with the other world of knowing beyond your rational mind?

What kinds of messengers or metaphors are knocking on the doorway to your higher knowing inviting you to further awaken? 

Where do you have stuck patterns or places in you wanting to come into full expression?

What parts of you are touched by images or intuitions that keep showing up and begging you to pay attention?

Where do you keep pushing away what you know is right for you?

How do you diminish your own power by holding out against you’re your quiet wisdom?

None of this is meant to judge but to invite. You are unlimited potential in waiting; you are the grace of light longing to be expressed.



To Be Present

This moment is all that matters in life.

If you are fully present, you are a gift to the world.

Here and the now is the only place where things can happen.

If your mind resides in the now, true joy, love, peace and freedom are possible.

In this moment your thoughts determine your experience of life.

The past no longer exists; memories are thoughts in this moment.

You never arrive at the future because you never leave the now.

Fear, worry and anxiety can only come into your life when your thinking is trying to place you in the past or the future. The mind has the ability to take you out of being present but it can never remove you from the reality of the now.

If you spend too much time regretting the past and worrying about the future you may totally miss out in living the joy of the present moment.

Many people live with the mindset of once I finish school, or once I am in love, or once I have a family, or once I have a good job, or once I am a millionaire, I will be happy, but they will never find happiness except in the now.

All possibilities only exist in the now.

Practice: Now in this moment, only be aware of your breath, breathe in and feel you body fill with oxygen, pause, then breathe out and feel your body release, pause, and then breathe in again. Whenever you take a moment to follow this cycle of the breath, you bring yourself fully into the infinite possibilities of being fully present in your life.

My work with clients focuses on taming the mind. I help bring you into the most powerful and effective states of mind, emotions, heart, body and higher nature. Sign up today for my email and contact me (joseph@josephbernardphd.com) so we can move your life into the now, where what you want can be created.

 



Making Your Relationships Important

If you are truly interested in building powerful relationships in your life there are important guidelines that will make a huge positive difference. I trust you will find these ideas very helpful for both those you love and for your relationship with those you work with and those who are your clients. The following essentials will lead to meaningful and valued relationships:

* All relationships are greatly affected by the quality of your heart. If your heart is guarded and protected, your connection to others will be limited. If fear guides how you connect to others, you won’t significantly connect to most people.

If your heart is open, if you have compassion for those around you, then people will want to connect. Everyone appreciates loving-kindness in his or her life.  Your open heart is the doorway into connecting at a deep level. This is no limit to the hearts capacity to bring love into all relationships.

* If you want to connect in a significant way with others, you must be able to accept them as they are. No one wants to be judged by you especially critically. Relationships built on the idea that you can change the other person are doomed to be frustrating and most likely to fail.

The judging mind needs to be transformed to a respectful and accepting mind if building healthy relationships matter to you. Acceptance is saying I want to have a relationship with you just as you are.

* You have to show up for a relationship to work. Many people related to others on a more superficial level and with little or no genuine interest in who they are interacting with. This lack of real contact means there is only a superficial exchange which is not a relationship. 

Showing up means you are fully present when you related to others. That means you are hearing and feeling what the other person is saying. You are listening with compassion not just in waiting for your turn to talk. Being fully present to another is a wonderful gift.  It is a gift of the heart and ones that keeps giving and receiving.

* This final relationship essential is the realization that those you are in relationship with are not separate from you. This means, “All of us are connected to each other.” “There is a little of everybody in you.”

When you help lift a person up, inspire them, give them encouragement, you are also lifted up, inspired and encouraged. If you treated others with kindness and respect they will treat you the same way. If those you connect with are expanding in their minds and opening in the hearts you too also become a more expansive person.

A quick easy relationship reminder is: 

Open and Accepting heart

Focused in the Now

Realizing Your Oneness with all

Joseph's Update: Website is continuing to go through changes and my focus is coming into greater clarity.

Please take a moment to fill out my email list then twice weekly you will get an email from me with my latest post.

I know you already receive too many emails so I promise to be respectful of your time, therefore only on occasion will I send you additional flashes of insight and inspiration.  

Also really great special offers will arrive every few months. 

Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to hearing from you and how I can serve you in ways that light up your life.

 



Life Lessons Keep Getting Better

Today I want to share with you about the evolution I am going through as I move into fully creating my life and income free of the dependence of working for others. I share this with two hopes in mind: 1. That you will gain awareness about your own journey in ways that eliminate barriers to the success you desire. 2. That as I write about my journey I will gain further insight into how I can more fully set myself free of any self-limits.

Lately a series of lessons have been presenting themselves to me that are important in my own growth and evolution. The following four life lessons may be of great value to you:

This first lesson is one I keep learning: when I write about what is going on for me, I always get clearer about the process I am going through. So when you get stuck, start writing about it because it moves the chaos of your thoughts into a form you can better evaluate and adjust. I always learn something new when I write things out. I make connections I haven’t made before. I see things from a fresh or different angle. I am able to shed more light on places in me that are in need of the light of higher consciousness. When I write for insight, I bring more awareness into everything.

The second lesson is becoming very clear: I need to find my own voice in creating this new life for myself. That voice is uniquely me and has to be free of trying to do it right, or of the need for approval.  In finding my unique expression, which is the collection of my life experiences and insight, I have something genuine to share that will be of benefit to others.  This is also about fine-tuning my message. I have much to give and it needs to be offered with clarity, passion, and a lightness of being that touches the souls of those who want to be reached. My voice, my message must say with brightness and aliveness that what I have is just what you need. I undersell so I need to step bigger into speaking with enthusiasm. This is a lesson that keeps giving.

The third lesson is one I know to be true but keep moving past it by doing stuff instead of just being: The busier I get the more important it is that I spend quiet time. My quiet time is an endless stream of nourishment, inspiration and energy.  By quiet time I mean: taking time to daily to practice meditation and mindfulness; taking time for quiet walks just being present; each day noticing and appreciating the beauty of nature around me; caring for my body as a temple of my divine nature; and living with an open heart even in the face of my judging mind. I love the peace of stillness and giving myself the pleasure of being quiet is great kindness.

The fourth lesson is clearer today than ever before: I am the creator of my life, not the creation of my thoughts and beliefs. I have worked with people for years as a therapist assisting them to examine their thoughts and beliefs. There is never-ever an end to that examining of your or my thoughts and beliefs. I am the creator of all my thoughts, beliefs and feelings. No one ever makes me think anything, feel anything or believe anything. I am always at the level of choice since I am the creator not the creation.  In truth, I can absolutely create anything I want. Try this on: I am the creator of the creation I call my thoughts, feelings and beliefs. I can therefore change anything in my creation that limits me.

*Update here at my blog* As you can see there are many changes going on. These changes are still happening and will come together more in the next few weeks. However changes will always be going on here because it is a reflection of ongoing growth, of new insights and awareness and the exploration of how to do what I do even better so I can better assist you in creating the life you want.

I would really appreciate you signing up for my email list so that I can send you my latest posts, tips, inspiration and special offers that I am in the process of creating right now.

Love and peace to you.



Change Your Story

I want to thank Buddhist teacher Cheri Huber for the inspiration for today’s post. She tweeted something like, “Just change your story.” My inner voice said that is an excellent topic for my blog.

What stories am I talking about? If you take the time to observe what goes on in your mind and do so over a period of time, you will notice some regular themes. Most of these themes are ones that direct the way you see the world. Let me give you some examples:

You can have a story about money being bad, and you never seem to have the money you want. If you have a story about money being bad and you want to be a good person, then your story of money will keep you from having it.

You can have a story about not being good enough. That story plays every time you go after something and don’t get it. Soon you expect to fail and you feel that you are not good enough to have what you want.

You can have a story about how amazing you are, and everything you do turns out great. Believing in yourself usually means you take risks, follow your heart, and do what it takes to succeed. This story is one that you don’t want to change. If anything you may want to play this story more often. 

Why would you want to change your story? Stories that don’t work for you like: you not being good enough, not deserving, not okay as a person, money as bad or any other negative story limits greatly the possibilities of your life.  So when you notice a limiting story you play about who you are in your own mind, you then have the choice to change that story. You most likely have some deeply grooved stories that hold you back from having the life you desire (this is true of all of us.)

Changing your story begins by listening to what stories you have playing and then questioning whether they are serving you well or not. Most of the stories in you mind are thoughts that have been replaying for many years. These stories can be replaced once you are aware of them but if you don’t take the time to become mindful of your thoughts, these stories will limit what you want to make happen.

Simply put, pay attention to how you talk to yourself, you inner dialogue, the stories of how you see the world. As you notice ideas, beliefs and stories that are limiting you, you then have awareness. With awareness, you acquire choice. With choice you can change old themes to new ones that move you in the right direction.

Imagine having thoughts, ideas and beliefs about you and your life that make your life the way you want it to be. If you commit to listening inward, asking yourself questions about what you are thinking, and becoming aware of thoughts you want to replace, then you take back control of the life you long to create.

Here are some ideas to help you be more aware, take the time to explore these practices compassionately:

  • Notice in the morning what your basic story is as your day begins. Notice what your story is about work or not working
  • Notice what your story is about yourself as you go through your day
  • Notice your story about your family
  • Notice your story about your body
  • Notice your story about your feelings
  • Notice your story about the people you spend time with
  • Notice the story about how you feel about your life’s direction
  • Notice the story about how you feel after work
  • Notice how you spend your free time and your story about that
  • Notice how much time you spend in distracting yourself and the story you may be trying to hide
  • Notice when and if your heart is open and the story about that
  • Notice if you ever slow down or take it easy and the story of why you do or don’t
  • Notice how you feel at the end of the day and the story of that day
  • Notice if you ever appreciate beauty and any story about that
  • Notice if you are ever grateful and any story about that
  • Notice if you feel your life has meaning or not and the story about that
  • Notice is you feel at peace and any story about that
  • Notice if you are happy and the story about that

Keep on noticing until you understand what stories take you higher in life and which ones cause you life to close down. 

Be kind in all of this noticing. To judge yourself negatively for the stories you have would be to begin a new limiting story or add on to one you already have. The best frame of mind is to just impartially get to know what is going on inside and upgrade the stories that need to change and energize the positive ones that are already there.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am changing my story.

Last night I placed this message on my Facebook page and today I want to share it with everyone who stops by to read my blog. I so much appreciate you and you interest in expanding your mind and opening your heart. 

I am taking a scary but exciting leap. I am going to need your support. I will now make my living with my blog, my coaching and my training and presentations. I affirm this with all of you as my cheer leading team. I am putting a plan together now, with a relaunch of my blog, a spelling out of my services and products and the building of a co-created movement called Better World Together. Stay tuned, have your thinking caps on, your hearts energized and people in mind I can be of service to. Love and peace to all of you.



5 Questions You Need To Ask Yourself

I am in the process of getting ready to re-launch of my blog. I have decided to fully believe in what I have to offer in helping you and others like you making a positive difference in your life and in the world. The times are ripe for those ready to get off the sidelines and fully engage in the game of life. It is time for you to live with clarity and purpose, for you to take what you were given in the way of your unique skills and desires and leave you mark on the world with distinction, determination and with considerable courage.

There never has been or will there ever be another person like you on this planet. What you have to offer if you fully express yourself is a, once in the lifetime of the planet, gift to humanity. You are up to the task or you would not be here in this life at this time in human history. At some level you are here now because you chose to be.

The task before you is basically the same as it is for all of us who care to be more self-realized and of greater service to humanity: to boldly go forward with all you have on board and to do what you are here to do, while being the absolute best you can. There is no mediocre or ordinary in this life because the extraordinary is essential in these times when the great shimmering energies of change call us into being what we are here to be.

Look no further than the messages from your heart, than the intuitive call of the infinite within you, than the urges to create what is needed to shift us all. There is a deep whisper that is requesting your participation in moving forward the process of evolution toward the greater possibilities in all of us.

Along the way you will need support, encouragement, ideas, inspiration, hope, courage, and most of all the highest consciousness and most expanded heart.  This is the intersection where our journey’s can meet. I want to help, it is my purpose to do so. My consciousness and my compassion have expanded to the point where I have something of value to offer you. Your consciousness and compassion have expanded to point where you can receive help and turn that into positive results. There is great power when forces purposefully join together.  I will have additional information about working together as my Explore Life moves to a new and vibrant level. I look forward to sharing this and to hearing how I can make a meaningful difference in your life.

In the mean time I wanted to offer you 5 questions to consider in your mind, your heart, intuitively and with your higher nature if you want to move your life toward the extraordinary:

What is the deepest knowing in you trying to tell you at this point in your life? Are you listening and what are you doing about this guidance?

How are you getting in your own way? What can’t you seem to get past?

What in your life gives you the most meaning, the greatest feelings of aliveness?

How are you working at expanding your mind and opening your heart?

What brings you the deepest sense of peace and connection with your infinite nature?

If I can be of assistance in helping you answer these questions don’t hesitate to email me at josephteach@hotmail.com. You have resources available to you that can forever expand the possibilities of your life.  

My book – Awaken: 100 Questions To Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart, is a wonderful companion on the journey toward the  full expression of who you are.



Knocking Down Old Walls

The time as we know it is shifting rapidly. If we stand too long in one place we may be left in the wake of dynamic change.

The end of the sheeple class is fighting with all there guns firing because they don’t want to go peacefully. Although their nature is to follow without questioning, they don’t like it when the tried and true for them is look at with doubt.

The old ways are old and tired. To conserve things as they have been is not the way ahead. The echo chamber of the lifeless ideas still shouts but today’s minds are much more occupied.

The days of blindly following are dropping by the wayside because evolution is calling. The ways of might makes right are bucking those that would challenge but the heartless cannot lead with passion.

Come towards the light of awakening, of questioning the status quo, of greater expectations for what is possible. The juice of life flows in the sweetness of nectar from an open heart and a seeking mind. There is only delight in the now, only peace in the present.

Stand aside and let the once grand battle of ego-ideology whimper itself out, the weapons created in these delusions now could ruin everything but greater awareness will win out. Leadership for this new way is now coming into the knowing of many who not long ago spun hopelessly in the culture of things and mindless distraction.

Down the hallway, out into the streets, the game of competition melts away as the aliveness of many welcome the differences of all. Unity, collaboration, creativity, compassion, consciousness, and the greater realization of connectedness now points the way for the transformation of this century of deeper knowing.

If the truth be told it must first be found beyond the past limits of ideas and beliefs. These are times that must wipe the chart clean of the stale and misunderstood. Opinions have become as empty as the souls claiming to know.

What next?

Listen inward, find what makes us feel alive and energized.

Turn to others and listen to the rhythm of co-creation.

Move toward share solutions, the bigger picture for generations ahead, the rightness of kindness, of listening to understand, relax into what feels natural, turn away the programmed distractions and find instead the authenticity of what is real and of value.

Marvel at the resourcefulness of those that would have us all in control by entangling us in the web of unimportance and false differences. The real is never entertainment or diversion.

Explore what is possible. Rest in the space between thoughts. Linger long enough to know what is sure for you. This knowing is beyond ordinary thinking. It feels more like truth with a big warm batch of chocolate chip cookies. Long-winded explanation are not needed.

Then along the way, things release that need to go away, past bumps smooth out, matter takes care of what doesn’t matter.

Now sleep is deep, dreams are alive with insight.

Life becomes the joy of the moment, the kindness of meaningful connections, whispers of inspiration, and the sense of what is possible expands.

And the walls come tumbling down.

 



Is It Our Actions Or Our Vibrations That Create The Most Powerful Results - An Experiment

The doing of life so often distracts from the deepening inward. I keep getting caught up in stuff instead of the light of a deep connection with spirit. It is surprising how often things like emails, Twitter, and Facebook (even though they are part of my social media enhancing strategy) take up so much time.  There are so many ideas out there that I find myself exploring, yet inward the most important exploration gets set aside. As I write this I wonder if the inner work will take care of all the rest and immediately my inner voice says YES!

I think it is time to do an experiment. That experiment will be to sort out which of two strategies will create the best results. I guess I better define the two strategies and the results I want to measure. I use the word measure here because I think the results have to be more than what feels better, or what seems better. The results have to be things that can be measured like number of new opportunities that come my way, new social media contacts (followers/friends) or income generated or other measurables to be determined as the experiment continues.

My hypothesis includes:

That the inner work is just as, if not more important than the outer actions taken

That the higher vibrations of inner work creates more positive results

That actions in themselves are positive but informed actions guided by intuition, heart and/or spirit are more powerful

That the outer world is not the source of supply, the inner world connection to Source is my supply.

That I live in an abundant universe and what I need to do is open to the flow of that abundance.

That what I focus on expands, the more my thoughts are on living in a wonderful life, the more wonderful my life will be.   

 The two strategies are:

1. Action - Spend my day blogging, commenting, twittering, reaching out to other bloggers, interacting with Facebook, generating and using my email list and promoting my book(s) and services.

2. Inner Focus - Spend my day being mindful, tuning inward, listening to my intuition, raising my vibrations through inspiration (reading and videos), meditation, out of body experiences, and visualization.

The next question is how much time do I spend doing each strategy? If I spend one day doing one and another day doing another, how will I determine what create the results I get. I could do a half-day of each but that would really make the results difficult to measure. If I spent one week doing one strategy and another week doing another strategy the results would be easier to measure. Can I spend an hour of each day doing the work of the non-primary strategy or would that mess up the results?

Lots of questions always come up in these kinds of experiments so the goal is so reduce the variables so I can get cleaner results. The challenge is that I have been using these two strategies blended for a while so I need to figure how to sort them out in a way that makes the two separate from each other for this experiment. My thinking is I will reduce one of the strategies to one hour per day while I full focus on the other strategy and then switch those the following week.

The following are measures I will use in the first experiment. I will take notes as I go and fine-tune for the next two weeks.

Scale 1 - 5                                            

Low – 1     Neutral – 3    Positive - 5

Overall sense of self         ____

Degree of self-awareness  ____

Receiving intuitive guidance  ____

Sense of accomplishment  ____

Note for scale:

Number of positive indicators noticed ____

Interactions that created significant positive opportunities ____

Write out positives noted

As I read this again I see lots of uncontrolled variables but I will go forward anyway and make adjustments as needed. One of the questions I have is, the follow week may be where the results of the past week show up. How do I measure that? 

I welcome your suggestions and ideas. I think within a month, I will have some very interesting results if I keep good notes on the process.



A Light Went On – Now What?

The signs were there. Messages kept popping up all over. My blinders needed to be removed. I sensed a shift but too often I held to the familiar. It was like the message was saying, “Come to the light,” but I kept just putting my toe in the ocean when the entire ocean of consciousness was calling me.

My next step to the calling was to say, “Yeah what do you want.” You know with the tone of “you are bothering me.” I was actually somewhat flippant to this inner voice because my mind was thinking this voice is always yakking at me. That mind was the ego-mind that doesn’t like any intrusions on its reign of control.

“All right already, what is it now,” was my next barrier to the light that was poking at me. I was still being run by the ego at the helm. Then I began to listen and the higher mind said ok this is where we connect with the infinite and eternal, this is the soul’s source making itself available. Just a minute I thought, what are YOU doing hanging out with me - my ego-mind in self-doubt reappears. Then I (of my higher nature) allowed the words to come in more deeply. In the now of quiet contemplation I thought I am having a moment of awakening. This was a very reassuring insight.

Then I went off to sleep with the thought that I can live in connection with Spirit, the intelligent creative force of the Universe. This idea brought a great sense of hope for me.

Next thing I need to share is that I have great difficulty with the word God even though I wrote an entire book about God (coming out soon). The word God has been misused in so many ways that I almost can’t say it. I think of wars in the name of God, arrogant leaders using God as their reason for acting the way they do, religious extremists who kill in the name of God, TV evangelist who become rich using God’s name, people who think God’s on their side in a football game, worse of all are the many who claim to do God’s work but fill their days with their ego agendas, and on and on and on. So many have done terrible things in the name of God.  So I won’t use God here but this connection I am making certainly feels Divine in its nature.

When I woke up this morning, the sense of this great energy filled me with light. I let myself sink into the place of just being receptive. I got clear guidance that I was being asked to join with Spirit in all aspects of my life. Asked I guess because of free will or because I had been so reluctant.

How do I now integrate this higher level of Spirit realization? I am clearly guided by this inner voice even as I write in this moment. I will benefit most by being in the now, being mindful of the present moment. Even in noticing this next breath I am present to this greater knowing. Now I have the opportunity to listen, practice, and expand into the full realization that I am Spirit poured into human form.

As I come back the next day to edit this I realize this awakening will mean that I have to figure out how to be in the world and not caught up in it; how to interact with and express Spirit as I go about the ways of daily living? This is much more complicated than I had hoped. As I have read in the stories of awakened individuals, insight and light can be powerful but integrating them into life can take years.  In daily practice, I find my mind often so preoccupied that I am not even in contact with my higher nature or any voice of Spirit.

I now feel like this is what happens, I have been blessed, through 30 years of inner practices, with many deep moments of insight, unity consciousness, expanded awareness and then I tend to push these moments of light back out of my view so I can return to the groove of the familiar. This has made me rich in insights but poor in integration. I am working with how to stay present to my higher knowing, be as fully here and now as I can be in each moment.

What also is true is that my ego-mind is fighting these new possibilities because it knows the end of its rule is near. Not the ego of “boy I am somebody” but the ego of “you don’t know what is going on so do what you know.” This is the urge to move into the safety of the groove of the familiar.

More as I learn more.

Take A Chance On Being Bold

Over the next few days I will be busy with family and holiday events. My previous post is about seeing yourself in new and more expanded ways in 2012. I have an assignment for you below if you are truly interested in making 2012 something special. This next year will most likely be the most important year of your life. The expectations for 2012 are high because of certain indications but only you will determine how you experience this upcoming year. Yes there will be circumstances that will have influence, but you will interpret those circumstances and assign meaning to them through your thoughts and heart.

Imagine seting your mind on the idea that this will be the year of breakthroughs for you, the year you got your life heading in the right direction.  If that is what you want to happen, you have the ability and mind power to shape those experiences. Why not think extraordinary?

With the many changes around the world in 2011 and the now World-Wide Occupy Movement there is bound to be many more changes. You can be part of what happens. The time is ripe for you to make a positive difference. 

What if you left behind, your old definitions of self and began the year by redefining yourself, redirecting your energies, reorganizing your thoughts, and recharging your life with new ideas, more self-awareness, and greater purpose?  What if you deepened your experience of life by exploring inner practices? What if you made feeling good about your life as a priority?  Would 2012 be different than 2011, you bet it would.

Assignment: Grab a pen and paper and write down at least 10 new ways of seeing yourself from the previous post. Then write about how you would implement them in your life in this next year. Be creative, brainstorm, and let all ideas be considered.  Then when you are ready, decide what you are willing to commit to and put together a plan, do a vision board/collage, write a manifesto, of whatever will get the year going with lots of energy and inspiration.

If you feel like sharing, let me know what you are up to; I will do the same.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays To You