“One truth you must consider. You are only as expansive, successful, joyous, peaceful and free as you truly love and accept yourself.”
~ Joseph
If you want to know if you are addicted to doing, here’s the test: Take 30 minutes and do nothing. Watch how your body reacts. Notice where your thoughts go and notice what feelings get stirred up.
As you do nothing: your mind races, your body feels uncomfortable and your emotions are like a rollercoaster. Just like the addicts I use to work with in my previous job.
Actually these reactions are not generated by a true addictive withdrawal but more by the ego-mind feeling it’s loosing control.
Today I have a special message just for you. Yes you, the person reading this. You might wonder, “How do I know you?
Well to keep this simple, let’s say I know you because you and I are one. We share the same collective consciousness. Our souls are connected. Our hearts have the same infinite love waiting to be expressed. We come from the same source.
I could go on but I think you get the picture. Beyond our separate stories there is so much we share.
Not only do I know you, I know what is possible within you. That is why I am writing to you today
Warning: Reading this can throw a wrench into how you view yourself and the world.
I was standing around a fire with some friends as our weekly morning men’s group was coming to an end. We were offering intentions to the fire as is the tradition in the world of sacred fires. Fires of this nature are wonderful for releasing the past, and seeding intentions for the future.
I joined in. I wish for safety and success for friends as they headed off to lead a shamanic journey to sacred sites in Mexico. I also offered intentions for the well-being of all on the planet and as I always do, for peace in the world. When it came to personal intentions, I drew a blank and didn’t think much of it.
As I was driving home this phrase came to me with resonating clarity, “No Me.”
How can you get out of your own way and remove the inner barriers to explore all that is possible?
What would you life be like if you allowed the following truths about you to become fully realized?
You are:
Pure awareness
A bright light
Unconditional, endless love
Infinite and eternal
Pure presence
In unity with all of life
A soul having a human experience
Stillness and peace
Bliss waiting to be experienced
Joy and happiness
Grace waiting to be expressed
One with the Source
Free to be anything you want
One with beauty of nature
The expanding universe
Compassion for all
A difference maker
Acceptance and appreciation
How do you realize these true qualities of your nature as a human being?
Sit is stillness and be guided.
I love chocolate, pies and tasty desserts. It was only recently that I made a very interesting discovery. I was exploring a few ideas for an article I was writing when a bolt of insight set me back into my chair.
That insight was about having a life long desire for more sweetness in life. I am going to mix some metaphors here but hang in there. I promise you, this will shed some interesting light and insight into your life.
This is not the time to timidly walk the planet in self-doubt. We as humans have spent too much time holding ourselves back.
We don’t question our thoughts and beliefs so they run us. What limits us, is not the outside world but the inside limitations we enforce with our thinking.
The ego has dominated the workings of humanity for most of our time on the planet. This ego force - and farce - has been the source of all human suffering. Yet this ego is but an imaginary mind creation set for self-sabotage, routed in the primal mind of fear and survival. It’s the juice of fight or flight.
Still we turn away from the inner knowing that invites us to be free of the thoughts and beliefs that hold us back. It seems we have become attached to the limits we think are ours. We won’t let go of our fears, the ones we don’t deny. They provide us an excuse, a way to explain our lack of commitment to anything other than just getting by. This is a path of mediocrity and we settle for that.
Have you had enough? Are you ready to set yourself free?
Recently after a peaceful and contemplative day I was doing Tai Chi when an extraordinary thing happened. I was extending my arms outwards as if to expand myself into oneness with the Universe and I spontaneously went into an altered state.
This experience of altering my state has happened in the past - compliments of my inner practices. The difference is this state stayed. Usually these experiences last for at most a few hours. This expanded viewpoint of oneness remained through the night and is still present as I write this.
I am very excited about the fresh perspective I have gained through my readings lately. One book particularly (Awakening In the West by J. Lumiere-Wins and L.M. Lumiere) shares some fascinating perspective from people like you and me having experiences of spiritual awakening.
I now better understand how we create freedom for ourselves so we can get out of our own way.
These stories of awakening have a common theme of non-dual awareness. Non-dual awareness is realizing that the nature of your mind and the Universe are non-dual, they are one. With this awareness you awaken to the infinite and eternal within you.
My favorite descriptive word so far about non-dual is “vastness.” The most inspirational understanding so far about the non-dual experience is one of stillness-wave-stillness.
Let me share why this all matters to you.
As a seeker, I have been traveling down this endless path that is ever expanding. I keep hoping for something that clarifies beyond doubt the best ways to be “me” in the world. It hasn’t happen. Has it happened for you?
So I am left with this vast expanding awareness that seems to keep breeding more awareness.
Can't it be simple?
Maybe, maybe not
Why not?
Well it goes like this:
In the past few years or maybe it has been all my life, my soul has been trying to keep me heading in the right direction. You know us humans we are always going off course following some tangent of desire or tripping ourselves up with our thoughts.
The voice of the soul is a quiet one. It whispers wisdom for me to listen to or not. It can be in the form of an intuition, an inner guide, a flash of insight or inspiration or the knowing messages from an open heart.
How does your soul communicate with you? Do you listen?
Lately what I thought was real has been dissolving and a new more glorious picture of what is possible has been coming into clarity. This has me shook up inside and very excited. I love change towards higher expression and sharing this journey with you.
This deeper exploration is about “who I am” beyond any past limiting concepts. I have been pleasantly surprised by the ease at which old self-definitions are giving away to a much larger understanding.
This exploration is not for the timid. Your personal foundation will be significantly rattled before the dust of self-remodeling settles. Fortunately your inner resources are more than up to the task.
Today I want to share with you five ways of meeting with awareness as you take this journey towards a greater you. These points of contact with awareness each offer you an opportunity to take a giant leap of growth that will change forever the way you view yourself and the world.
Books have always been an important source of insight for me. They have even flown off the shelf demanding I have a look at them. Recently a book (The Awakening West by L.M. Lumiere and J. Lumiere-Wins) quietly drew my attention. Immediately I knew words of wisdom awaited me inside.
The words that caught my attention drew me back to my work with awareness. I have seen many people's lives incredibly transformed in a moment of awareness.
LOVE is really all that matters. Let your heart feel the truth of love. Imagine a world filled with love and more and more hearts everywhere open to love.
All these article and seminars about finding purpose, searching who you are, and what to do with your life can be distilled down to one simple truth – your purpose, who you are, and what matters is to spread love with an open heart everywhere you go.
Love can solve all the world’s problems.
You and I live in critical times that will shape the destiny of humanity and the planet. We were born to be part of this time because of our unique capacities. These capacities can only be realized if our minds and hearts are open.
Recently walking through a parking lot (I know this seems like an odd place but frankly any place is wonderful when the light goes on), I had a moment of great clarity. I welcome these moments of insight. They feel like a gift from a much wiser source of knowing than my ordinary mind.
The clarity was – The time is now for everyone to step forward with a total openness of mind and heart. This openness is essential for all of us to break from the old stuck ways that no longer work. Once liberated, together we can create new more expansive forms of expression.
New forms of expression are needed across our social structures, business models, economic systems, human services, planetary practices, and political and religious organizations. They could all work better for the good of all humanity and the planet.
You and I are here now to be powerful agents for positive change. The challenge is how to do this. How can we bring the endless flexibility and genius of our open minds and the infinite compassionate wisdom of our open hearts to work together for the greater good of all life on the planet? The task is monumental, the challenges never ending, and thankfully our possibilities and potential are awesomely incredible.
Guest post: Dr. Mike of UpbeatBrain.com is my first guest writer here at this blog. I think you will very much appreciate the clarity of this post. Thanks Mike
Decades ago, during a summer job as a hotel desk clerk, I came across three practice golf balls — the plastic, wiffle-ball kind. That job got a little slow toward the end of my 3-to-11PM shift, and I wondered if I could learn to juggle those golf balls. I didn’t know it then, but that challenge showed me that juggling teaches success in life.
With no idea how to juggle, I started with two balls in one hand and one in the other, and quickly threw balls in every direction. Okay, I said to myself, this demands a simplified approach.
LESSON 1: Break down a challenge into manageable steps.
You come equipped with incredible inner resources. You are built for success. You have all you need to fully express who you are with passion and purpose.
All you have to do is open to the wise knowing within. This wisdom is available because you have these inner resources onboard:
o Your body is ready to guide you to greater health and well-being.
o Your mind hungers for more exploration and learning.
o Your hearts is full of loving kindness and compassion waiting to be expressed.
o Your intuition is whispering to you right now about how to live more fully.
o Your spirit invites you to expand almost constantly.
Are you open to this deeper knowing? Are you listening to the guidance provided to you whenever you tune in? Do you follow what you know inside is right for you to do?
Life has a way of shaping you. Sometimes the formative experiences of life push you towards what or who you want to be and other times they bend you away from what matters.
Experiences that open you up, make you available for all kinds of meaningful possibilities. Ones that cause you to close, be fearful or unsure can send you down a narrow path of less opportunities.
You can interpret life’s events and situation in ways that close you down. You might close your heart to keep safe, or close your mind to be right. You could even let emotions like fear run your life.
You can also take what comes your way and see it from the perspective of learning and growing. That way all experiences add more to your bank of understanding and awareness. You might actual learn to welcome adversity and challenges.
You and I are micro-dots on a tiny wet planet rushing through space at a rate that would blow your hat off. For the Earth to make one complete rotation in 24 hours it must travel at 1000 miles per hour. For the Earth to orbit the sun in one year it must travel 66,000 miles per hour. No wonder life can seem to be speeding past.
The latest astronomical research is offering some glimpses into a much bigger picture than was imagined before. The universe is expanding at a rate that has doubled itself in the last 10 years. Now we are told we most likely live in a multiverse not a universe.
Let’s consider for a moment our relationship with this expanding Universe. We are a tiny life force yet our minds are capable of thinking in ways that are equally as expansive as the Universe.
I love living at the ocean. It feels as though I have come home. It has been a year this week since we took a chance and uprooted our lives by moving to the Oregon coast. In preparation, I quit my job, we sold one of our cars, filled a large rental truck to capacity and said goodbye to the great friends we made in Colorado.
My wife Bobbi, Pax our dog and myself headed out on the road late one afternoon for what we thought would be a two-day journey. Not long into Wyoming the rental truck hit some rough roads and began to rock side-to-side. I thought, “Holy Shit! I am going to dump this truck on its side and all our stuff we be scattered across Hwy 80."
