Trust vs Doubt

As the days pass by one by one I find myself often in a cycle of thoughts and emotions. My active mind is always producing a large volume of familiar questions, scenarios, doubts, hopes, inner conversations and much more. There are some regularly themes that seem so important I have to review them or do I? One of the big inner debates is about can I trust the creation of my life to myself or is there some greater force I have to work with? I appreciate a variety of viewpoints here. I have doubt that I really know the answers on this topic. Believe me, it is not from a lack of trying, thinking, sensing, meditating or processing.

In the movie The Secret and in many other sources of thought, there is a prevailing belief that with our thoughts you and I create our reality. There is no doubt there is truth to that idea. I know that if I focus my thoughts and emotions in a positive direction the results have a greater chance of being positive. As a counselor, for many years, I listened to the stories and thoughts of my clients and heard how they were experts at creating lousy realities for themselves by the stream of negativity they focused on. I know when I feel doubt, when I lack trust in myself and the ways of life, I seem to create mixed results. Those mixed results create more doubt and I find myself endlessly searching inward for the hidden barricades of the unconscious. This process of the pursuit of self-awareness seems endless and frankly at times discouraging. Do I know what I am doing? More questions, more unknown and the doubt feeds itself.

Now let’s get back to the question of me or a greater force at work? Is there any doubt that there is a greater force then you or I in the universe? I would say there is no doubt. I know I didn’t create the infinite universes that exist. Did you? Probably not, if you did please give me a call because I have some questions (what a surprise) and a request or two. Whatever that force is, I observe that it is not really understood by the world religions because they all seem a chaotic bunch of ramblings and questionable beliefs.

Another viewpoint is one of trust. This trust is of myself and that I am doing my best. When in that state, life looks brighter, things seem more possible and my mental and emotional state has more of a flow to it. That greater force is in me or I am in it. When I trust that a greater wisdom then my ego and personality is involved then I feel lighter and more relaxed. I could say with some confidence there is a higher Self in me that is connected to the creative force of the universe. That makes sense to me, what do you think? If there is in me this greater force then there is that force in you. Maybe you and I are living our lives to realize that infinite mind in each of us?

Obviously, I don’t have all the answers. I do recommend trusting the wiser part of yourself as the best guiding force for your life. Pay attention to what you feel, think and know is your higher truth. Trust your sense of knowing. Doubt may just be the ego playing its game of sabotage. I know in my life that when I trust in myself and things working out, they generally do. I get impatient at times, but you probably don’t, right? That impatience in me is doubt.

I make a commitment today to explore the path of trust. Would you like to join me?

Here are three steps to more trust in you and the greater knowing inside and beyond.
1. Begin to reshape your inner dialogue to reflect a trust in yourself and a higher knowing you have access to. Stop the endless cycle of self-doubt, not deserving and other limiting thoughts by paying attention to what you think about.
2. Take time every day to quiet your mind and appreciate something about you and your life. Sit, relax and appreciate.
3. Each day get clear what experiences you want to have and then listen and follow the knowing inside of you. The more you listen the more you will know. The more you trust the more you open to the flow.

May trust expand into the knowing of the Self in you that is one with the creative force of the Universe.

Let me know what you discover. I share my journey here hoping it will shed some light on yours. If you have light to share please do so. We all could use all we can get.

Let's Be Peaceful

Today is Monday and the beginning of another week. I am really looking forward to things coming up this Spring and Summer. The first event is the World Peace Conference next week in Sante Fe, New Mexico. We will go there to be with like-minded people, to talk about ways to bring more peace to the world, and to share our peace designs with positive messages for peace. Check out those designs at www.peace-together.com. Being with others who want to make a difference will be energizing. When people share an intention and work together the results can be powerful.

Peace is not a political issue; it is personal issue. At a political level peace is probably not going to happen. Politics is about competition, approval seeking and the pursuit of power. Those are not ingredients for peacemaking.

Peace first starts inside each of us. We must begin by finding peace with who we are and with the life we have created. I have a Guide to Inner Peace available to you over on the navigation bar to your right under free downloads. Please feel free to explore this helpful guide. Inner peace is a process that is ongoing.

Once the inner peace is progressing then the next step is for people to get together and talk about how peace can be possible in the world. There are some key components. The first is that we have to get to a place of true compassion for each other. We need to be able to care about all our fellow human beings. With compassion, we can be ok with the many the differences in viewpoint and belief. If we understood that we are all connected on a very basic level beyond out beliefs then compassion for each other is possible.

There are many differing ideas and beliefs but they don’t begin to number the amount of similarities we all share. At a very basic level there is a powerful connection between us all. We all want: a good life; love and friendship; the best for those we care for; the right to be who we are; the desire to express our own unique talents; a hope to enjoy prosperity and abundance; a purposeful and fulfilling life; clean water to drink and air to breathe; the possibility of a better future; and so much more.

These shared hopes and desires offer much common ground and the basis for the people of the world to find ways that we can assist each other in meeting our needs. This is a world according to the Win-Win model. When everyone wins through having at least his or her basic needs met then the world can be peaceful. Is there any doubt that we have the innovation and resources to make sure everyone can have what they need and can seek to make their dreams come true?

I will write more about the peace process over the weeks to come. I see a need to help people to start to imagine that peace is possible. Isn’t it time to evolve past the ego need to control and instead grow the heart of peace in each of us?

If we can imagine it, we can make it happen.

Spring Is Bursting Out All Over The Place

It is Spring and everywhere I turn I see new life. There is a wonderful new colt with his mom; he is all legs. There is the six little fluffy geese down by the lake all chirping away. There are the trees busting with new growth and the smell of blossoms everywhere. There are big bushes of purple lilac perfuming the neighborhoods. The wild flowers up in the mountains have begun to appear. My seeds for my garden have come up and now get to bask in the sun and showers of the season. Life is bursting out all over the place. I love this time of year. I am inspired by nature and this cycle of new births. I feel energized and renewed as if new parts of me are coming alive.

How does spring feel to you? Hopefully you are not too busy to notice and are part of this renewal? What parts in your life do you want to rebirth or freshly recreate? Here are 8 ideas for renewal:
• Put a fresh coat of paint on the body by having it tinted ever so lightly by the sun.
• Open your heart and let the old stuff go. A fresh airing out can do wonders.
• Get out and exercise, feel the pump, let the sweat roll and enjoy being in your body as if moves.
• Go for a quiet walk and let the mind slow down and take in the beauty. An appreciating mind is a calm and inspired mind.
• Plan to go to a spa for a day of self-care and relaxation. Leaving the tension behind opens new possibilities.
• Join with nature and let you eyes sparkle with the joy of aliveness. See all the new and be renewed.
• Make play a priority at least once a week. Enjoy life and nurture the aliveness of the child within.
• Let your spirit soar past limiting beliefs and blossom into its fully unlimited beauty and potential.

Your goal, if you choose to accept, is to add at least two other renewal ideas that would be really good for you to do. Then you have 10 options to explore often to bring out your best. The more you do for yourself, the more you will have to give to the world.

HELEN HAYES:
All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.

MATTHEW ARNOLD:
Is it so small a thing 

To have enjoy'd the sun, 

To have lived light in the spring, 

To have loved, to have thought, to have done...

*

Questions, Observations and Awakening

I am a person that asks a lot of questions and I constantly observe how we humans act in the world. I question and observe myself too. I ask myself questions every day about what I am doing? Who am I? How can I do things better and more successfully? Where should I put my time? How can I make a difference? Is this what I believe and is that true? The questions are always there and the observations are always happening. The reason I ask so many questions and keep such a watchful eye is because it seems essential that I be as conscious as possible. I want to be awake and aware as I can be. I know that is my purpose to be awake and to assist others to be awake. I observe to understand.

I am unsure how I ended up so different and unique in how I look at things? That uniqueness in viewpoint is an asset I bring to the world. Everyone has there own set of strengths they add to the symphony of life. I have come to appreciate my different ways of looking at the world and what I have to offer. I am being who I am. Who else could I be? I have come to accept myself and my pursuit of consciousness as who I am.

Who are you? What are you interested in? How do you go about exploring your uniqueness? Have you come to appreciate who you are? What do you believe in and how do you find your own truth? These are all important questions. Just asking the questions and seeking your answers is a very positive thing to do. Observing who you are and how the world works will make you awake and aware. This is the basis of being a conscious human being.

Why is a being a conscious human being important? If you look around and observe you will see the world is driven by habit, unexplored beliefs and a trance like existence. That makes for a world that is not realizing its potential; a world run too much by seeking what is familiar and avoiding the unknown. Do you suspect, as I do, there is more possible and that we need to encourage a higher realization of our human family?

I have been rambling on here because I am asking questions and observing and what I feel inside is a deep concern for where we are going. There has never been a time in history more important then now to be who you are as fully as you can be. The world needs our awareness and consciousness now. The world needs our loving and compassionate hearts now. Are you ready to expand into the greatness of who you are?

Each of us is so unique and has so much to offer. Here are two quotes I thought you might like to remind you to be you.

Elaine Christensen
"Inside me there is a dancer. Inside this middle-aged body of a housewife there is a dancer. Don't laugh. I have danced with sunflowers in sandy September fields with fruit trees each spring, blossoms in my hair at the lake's edge in winter where tall grass and thin reeds wobble on pointed toes in the wind and in summer with the sea where anyone can find the dancer inside. Don't laugh. Barefoot, arms outstretched, palms raised to the sky, to the birds, to the clouds, to God, who choreographed it all, I danced. I knew every step and the waves stood up and bowed."

Winston Churchill
"There comes a special moment in everyone's life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission - a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he finds his greatness. It is his finest hour."

Is It Time to Play Yet?

It is a sunny morning here in Boulder and I feel like hoping on my bicycle on going for a nice ride. I have an urge to play and to appreciate the beauty of nature and the amazing mountains here. This urge to play in me is saying don’t forget to have fun. It is so easy to get caught up in life and doing things. I have been very focused on my blog, my other writing projects, our peace company and the consulting I do part-time for another company. All this activity fills my days and lately I feel the child in me is saying, “nurture me, let’s go play”. That call to play always gets my attention because I trust the child in me as an important balancer. I have come to understand that to play, have fun, explore creative ideas, and do the things I enjoy nurtures me at so many levels.

If I don’t nurture myself, who will keep me in balance? The answer is that me taking care of myself and having fun is the right thing to do. Only I know the urging of my heart, my body, my mind and my spirit. This awareness of what I want and need keeps me health and passionate about life. I have come to trust my inner knowing very much and that serves me well. Getting caught up too much in trying and doing can knock me off balance. I like to just be me sometimes and go play.

Why is this important you may ask? Well here are some ideas in support of having fun and playing. The world you and I live in is full of seriousness, accomplishment, meeting goals, keeping up financially, work obligations, making sure everybody has what they want and need and more. Does this sound like a lot to you? It is and add to that you trying to meet the expectations and gain the approval of those around you. This can be overwhelming. What about your own needs; what about time to just be with yourself? That is where having fun comes in. Taking time to play and expressing yourself in fun and enjoyable ways helps you get re-energized and renewed. When you are doing what you love this creates molecules of joy that flow through your body and make you feel healthy and vibrantly alive.

I like the idea of molecules of joy. Like going to a gas station when you run low on fuel; going to the fun station and refueling with joy is needed too.

What are the things you like to do for fun? What things do you need at your fun station? I will tell you what I need at my fun station to give you some ideas: I need a ping pong table, art supplies, lots of colors of paints, pens and pastels, magazines I can cut up, a bike for riding, a car to go visit fun places, a kitchen to experiment in with fun food, a calendar of events to check out, friends who are fun to play with, a pile of money to use for play, musical instruments, a good sound system and DVD player, golf clubs, tennis racket and more.

 

Have fun and make two lists today. First, make a list of all the fun things you love to do, list everything you can think of. This may take a day or two to remember everything. Then post that list somewhere you will see it everyday. Second, make a list of all the things you need at your fun station and set up it up so you can go have fun anytime you want to or need to. Now the last part; make a commitment to yourself to have more fun. A little bit fun each day would be so good for you, better then any vitamins and so much more fun then being too serious about life.

Let the joy molecules begin there dance in you.

As always I would love to hear of your adventures and especially the fun ones.

Obstacles and Assets

There is a real advantage to being aware. I have over my life benefited immensely from my awareness. I have used awareness to discover the barriers to my success and to explore my strengths and assets. I have through insight been able to stop falling into the same potholes of life and instead move on to bigger and better potholes. Actually these potholes are challenges and I am more able with awareness to take on the bigger challenges of life and succeed. I use my assets, which I continue to explore and become more aware of, to create the life I want.

This awareness advantage allows you to discover what your obstacle and assets are and from there manifest what you want in life. If you have obstacle to success, to love, to prosperity, to peace of mind or whatever you want; with awareness you can overcome those obstacles. Here are some examples of moving past barriers with awareness.

If you want a loving relationship but that isn’t happening then you have obstacles. Your obstacle could be a closed heart; it could be memories, ideas or limiting beliefs from growing up; it could be that you never go any place where you could meet people. If you put the light of awareness on any of your blocks you will see something you need to change.

Awareness = Choice = Change

Another example might be that you want more money flowing in your life. The obstacles to that flow could include: feelings of not deserving and low self-worth; you could have an underlying faulty belief that money is bad and you don’t want to have what is bad; you could still be searching for what is meaningful and purposeful work. When you get the necessary insights, you will have the answers for opening the flow of prosperity.

With awareness you can move past whatever is in your way and move to having what you want.

Now let’s look at the awareness of you assets. When you know and understand what you do well, then you have more power to bring about the results you want. What do you do well? What gives you energy? What feels right to you when you do it? This information is very helpful because then you know what you do best and feel good about it. If you don’t know your assets then it is time to bring your awareness to discovering what they are. Here are some more good questions for asset assessment. Take out a piece of paper and answer them as fully as you can.

1. What do you like to do (write down everything even if it seems silly or questionable in reality)?
2. What activities give you energy, make you feel alive and are fun?
3. List 10 or more things you do well and enjoy doing them?
4. What is you purpose in this life? What is your personal mission?
5. What comes easy for you? Like math, language, design, research, listening, building relationships, etc.
6. What path of life has heart in it for you?

There are more questions to be asked but these should get you going toward more awareness. Once you have ideas of your strengths, skills and assets then you can grow and build on them. To add further awareness be willing to ask others for feedback about what you do well. Others can sometimes see your assets better then you do.

Awareness of your obstacles and assets will greatly enrich your life. Take the time to make a positive difference for you by knowing who you are as fully as possible. You will be glad you did because the results will be very beneficial.

Einstein said something like this, “You can never solve a problem from the same level of awareness that created it.”

Let me know what you are discovering.

Insight and Awareness

This week I am writing about awareness. Yesterday I put the light on appreciation and gratitude as important ways to be in awareness. Just to take a few minutes a day in appreciation helps me focus on all that I have to be grateful for and that feels like a very positive thing to do. Now I want to talk a little more about the process of awareness and why it is so powerful.

Awareness means to be awake and aware. When you are aware, you act from a place of knowing what is in the present moment. Awareness is only possible in the moment. You can have awareness about the past but that can only happen in the now. Awareness happens both inside and around you. You can be aware of how you are feeling. You can be aware of the feelings of others. You can be aware of thoughts you have, body reactions, the call of purpose within you and the need to have a relationship with your soul. You can be aware of the rhythm of the sun, the seasons, the urges for food, lovemaking and rest. In each moment there is opportunity to be aware of many thing at many levels. The more you are aware, the more you can act and be in alignment with what is; you can step into the flow of life more easily and effortlessly. This living in awareness assists you to powerfully create the life you want in harmony with the world around you.

Insight is awareness. When you gain insight about your feelings, how you are with them changes. When you gain insight into you inner dialogue, you modify or enhance your self-talk. When you have insight about situations you are in, then those situations look different and you are better able to respond successfully. Insight and awareness enrich your life because you are more fully present to all that is.

Here is another experiment to explore. Yesterday the goal was to be aware of your thoughts as the day progressed. Today you are going to add your feelings. Now you take time throughout your day to be aware of your thoughts and your feelings. Most feelings are created by thoughts so exploring both will give you many opportunity to be aware of how you create your reactions to the world.

Thoughts = feelings = your reaction/response to yourself and the world.

With awareness you empower yourself to come from a strength of knowing. Try these ideas out and see how much more you can direct your life to create the results you desire.

I have assisted many people in this journey and have watched the light of insight change there lives. I am available for consultations at explorelifeblog@gmail.com

Appreciation and Awareness

The weather finally seems to be warming up around here. Yesterday I went hiking up in the mountains near my home and very much enjoyed the smells of the forest and all the blooms. The day was clear and I had great views of Boulder and the surrounding area. There is something so wonderful about being out in nature and appreciating all the beauty that is part of living here. I feel very fortunate. It is easy to feel good when there is so much to appreciate.

I am grateful to live here and to be able to walk in the natural wonder of this place. I am grateful because my life is full of love and good friends. I feel gratitude for the inspiration I feel and the energy and good health I have. I am thankful for each breath and the opportunities each day brings. I appreciate the flow of income I have and the new possibilities I am exploring. There is so much to be grateful for and when I do appreciate life and what it offers then I feel happy and at peace.

It is easy to forget all the positive things going on and instead focus on what isn’t the way I like it to be. That feels like my ego focusing on what is wrong and wanting something different. I was just having a little battle in my head this morning feeling like something wasn’t the way I had hoped. This faulty thinking was tainting my morning walk. It wasn’t until I started writing that I could see what was going on. The insight now is, when I find myself in that stirred up state of discontent, I need to bring myself into the moment and appreciate what is. That seems obvious to me now but a few minutes ago I was stuck in disappointment. How quickly my thoughts and feelings can change from discontent to happy, from disappointment to appreciation if I simply enjoy the moment and all it has to offer.

Can you identify with this battle of the mind? Are you aware of your mind taking you to unproductive, limiting and negative places? Do you notice when your mind is open, appreciative and inspired to see the reality of beauty and wonder of life?

Let’s make a practice of being aware this week and see what you and I can discover about the way we look at the moment to moment unfolding of our days. Start in the morning with the intention to be aware of your thoughts and how they shape your experience. As the day progresses make sure to keep coming back to the awareness of your thoughts. At the end of the day see what you have learned about the power of your mind to shape your experience. Keep in as much awareness as you can this week and let me know how it goes. I will be exploring also and share as I go.

On my Saturday post I quoted Francis Lucille about how awareness shapes our experience. Check that out because there is real insight in what he has to say.

If you are blogger and support peace check out www.bluepyramid.org/peace which has a goal of having 1 million blogs sign up for peace.

Saturday Opportunity for Insight

The following is from the book 365 Nirvana, Here and Now.
This lesson is from Francis Lucille a teacher of consciousness who I had the good fortune to hear in person in Santa Barbara.

Q: I had brief glimpses of this realm in moments of stillness. Then I go to work and find myself in an environment, which is neither royal nor peaceful and my serenity immediately disappears. How can I keep my equanimity permanently?

A: Everything that appears in awareness is nothing other than awareness: co-workers; clients; supervisors; absolutely everything, including the premises, the furniture and the equipment. First understand this intellectually, then verify that this is so. There comes a moment where this feeling of intimacy, this benevolent space around you no longer goes away; you find yourself at home everywhere, even in the packed waiting room of a train station. You only leave it when you go into the past or the future. Don’t stay in a hovel. This immensity awaits you right here, at this very moment. Being already acquainted with its presence, and once having tasted the harmony underlying appearance, let the perceptions of the external world and your body sensations unfold freely in your welcoming awareness, until the moment that the background of plenitude reveals itself spontaneously.

“Peace has nothing to do with where you are and everything to do with how you see where you are.” Josh Baran

The Heart Of Responsibility - Part II

I hope you find this topic of responsibility helpful. When I was younger, I thought responsibility was some kind of obligation and something you had to do. Over the years my awareness has expanded and I now have a deep respect for the power of responsibility in my life. I see that I create my experience of life. If things are going well then I am responsible for that and if they are not it is time to look at what I can do to bring about the results I desire.

The heart is a key part of being responsible in your life. It is the heart that has the courage to take responsibility. It is the heart that has the passion to drive you to the results because of your respond-ability. When you live with purpose you are saying, “I take what I have been given to do and respond with all I got.” That is the way of the response full heart.

The next step to talk about here is how you can live in a responsible way in a world that needs all you have to give. Don Juan Matus the shaman teacher of Carlos Castaneda used the word impeccable. Impeccable means showing up and doing your best in everything you do. That is the way of responsibility. Now days there is a sincere need for you to be impeccable in what you do and responsible for how you are in the world. You and I at our best using our greatest abilities to respond are essential for the health and evolution of the planet.

If we don’t speak for the planet, who will? If we don’t work for peace, who will? If you don’t take action to end hunger and help reduce suffering, who will? If we don’t have compassion and caring for our fellow inhabitants of earth, who will? If we don’t stand up to greed, power, and fear, who will?

Try this: make a commitment to stop blaming and complaining. It is time to get off the couch and step into your power. Now turn inward to your heart, mind and soul and say, “I take full responsibility for my life and for who I am here to become. I will settle for no less then the best I have to offer.”

There is a lot of responsibility needed. Are you willing to join me and become fully responsible for your life, for your part in your community, country and on the planet? Now more then ever, you and I are needed at full power, full consciousness and fully able to respond with the best in each of us. Be responsibility with all your heart.

Responsibility - A Practice of Power

This morning I walked along the creek behind my house. It was swollen from the recent rains, very lively and made those wonderful sounds of water flowing. There is something very soothing about the sounds of water whether it is the ocean or a stream.

I walk along the stream for a while to contemplate the day and my mind explored several ideas about what I wanted to create in my life. It was a good walk and very motivating. As you probably already know I believe in the power of the mind and heart to create what you and I want in our lives. This got me thinking about responsibility, which could also be respond-ability or the ability to respond. This is an empowering concept and a practice of power.

In created the life you want, you must be able to respond to what is flowing your direction. Like the stream after the rains you need to adapt to, direct, respond to what is coming your way. You also need to know that you create your reality. When you have respond-ability you make things happen because you know you are the doer and the result creator. Taking responsibility means you are fully aware that you are the one who makes your life happen; there is no blaming or complaining because it is your life and you own it. Blaming and complaining are crap magnets, the more you reject responsibility the more powerless you feel and the less things work out the way you want them to in your life.

Responsibility is a practice of power because you know it is a powerful stance in life. You are saying, I create my reality and I look only to me for the results. That doesn’t mean you don’t join with others or seek the guidance of a higher source. It simply puts you at the center of your life with a knowing that you are responsible for how it goes.

If you listen to others for very long you will hear that many do not know the power of responsibility. The world is full of blaming and complaining and frustrated people who wonder why things aren’t working out. Sure you will have moments but don’t stay there long or you will soon feel like a victim of circumstances and others. There is no power in the role of the victim.

This practice of power starts with your thinking and involves your heart. Start with exploring your thoughts and watch to see if they are coming from your ability to respond or from the place of looking outside of yourself as the creator of your results. Here is a practice to explore:

Begin each day with a visualization of what you want to create. Next come up with the steps you want to take to make that happen. From there move into action and watch what unfolds. Do you stay in your power, do you take responsibility as you go, do you slip into blame or by chance complain? This process of observing is very helpful because with awareness you can make the choices necessary to succeed. As you understand the way that you create your day you gain a greater ability to respond successfully.

The stance of responsibility is a powerful one. Walk today with the full responsibility of each step in creating the life you want. Tomorrow we will explore the heart and it’s place in enhancing your ability to respond to the world with passion, purpose and power.

Joan Didion
The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

Josiah Gilbert Holland
Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.

Effort or Acceptance

One of the influential teachers of the 20th Century about how to live life was J. Krishnamurti. When he was born many thought he was a very special soul and he was raised and educated by a group of people who felt the need to oversee his development. When he became an adult he rejected the ways of his training and went to find his own truth. After years of seeking he became a teacher of life and in essence proved to be a special person indeed.

I came upon an idea of his and I found it relevant for today. He believed “effort” was a distraction from what is. He said, “The moment I accept ‘what is’ there is no struggle.” Does that sound right to you, it sure does to me? How much time do you spend in trying to change things because they are not the way you want them? How much effort and time goes into changing “what is” into something it is not? It seems you and I have been well trained in not being ok with what is and instead spend much of our lives trying to fix things.

This struggle to control and change the world may need to be more closely examined. I know I am fully caught up in the idea that I need to change myself and others so we can be better in some way? This need for improvement may mean that at some level I am unable to accept myself and others as we are. What would it be like if instead of trying to modify and change everything, I was able to look at and accept everything as it is, free of judging it as right or wrong? I suspect if I was freed up of this effort to change then I could just accept what is and that would transform completely my view of the world. Think how much energy would be freed up.

I am going to do an experiment and find out what happens. I will try a radical acceptance of what is, be with it and not judge. I will be in awareness and drop the effort. Fear instantly comes up as I write about this experiment and I think well what about this or that, it needs to be different. The need to change something may make it a more powerful force of resistance? If I am ok with what is, then I can just be and not use so much energy to make things different?

It doesn’t mean the questioning stops and the action ends. Instead questions become awareness and consciousness and action happens from a place of acceptance. This allows any necessary transformation to take place from a higher knowing free of the struggle to make things as I/you/ego think they should be.

Well on with the experiment, want to join? Ready to give up the struggle and free your energy for other things like love, joy and peace?

“So, effort is non-awareness. . . So, awareness is non-effort”   
J. Krishnamurti

On a Path With Heart - Part III

When I was a young adult Carlos Castaneda was one of my favorites to read because he helped me think outside the box. There was one particular idea that I got from him that I will always carry with me. He said the way to know if where you are going is right for you is to ask yourself this simple question, “Does this path have heart?” That question has been and still is a powerful one for me. When I am about to set off on a new direction in life I need to explore if there is heart in it for me or not? If there is then I can go fully forward on that path, if not then I choose another way. Jack Kornfield an inspirational Buddhist writer wrote a wonderful book called A Path With Heart about using your heart as a guide to creating an expansive life. The Buddhist concept of loving-kindness is worth exploring for a deeper understanding of the power of the heart in life. There are many resources out there to explore and inspire a path with heart. Here are some qualities of the heart worth looking into.

The qualities of a path with heart that you want to carry with you include the following:
• The courage to face the challenges of life
• The compassion to feel for others
• The kindness to reach out and care
• The determination to succeed no matter what
• The understanding of a knowing heart
• The joy of living from love
These are great guiding forces available to you when following the call of heart. Let them guide you to your highest expressions of who you want to be.

How do you obtain these qualities you might ask? They are already in you. All you need to do is remind yourself and step into the “unified heart field.“ This field is the place where all hearts are joined together in the knowing space of compassion, unity, love and joy. You have tapped into that field before. Remember when you felt connected to everything and in this state of expansive and all inclusive love. If you don’t remember that state then it is time to remember. If you do remember then join us as we go there now.

Get comfortable in a quiet place and enter into your heart. Feel the heart and the love in waiting. Then imagine connecting your heart to someone you love and let the flow start. Then expand the love’s flow to all those you care about. Take time to do this until you feel a wonderful flow happening. Now take this flow of love and love all beings on the planet. Open now to the love flow of all beings flowing through you. Imagine the interchange of love flowing through all living beings. This is the unified heart field. Stay with this feeling until you feel totally connected to all beings. When you feel and experience this unity of love you will know that you are always connected to every living thing.

I invite you to live form your heart each moment of each day. The path of the enlightened heart will bring out the best in you and those you touch. Live it with passion and joy.

Let me know how this goes and know you are joined with me and all others in the field of love. I will meet you there.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

I write about consciousness, peace and living life as fully as possible on this site and I love sharing ideas, inspiration and my passion for making a difference in the world.

I too have a very political side and question much of what is going on in the world. I want to have a place to rant more so I created another blog to do so.

Wake Up World

Wake Up World is a call to everyone to wake up, step into your power and create a revolution of human empowerment, true wisdom and awakening. This blog will be edgy and question much of what is establishment. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://wakeupworld.ning.com

Heart Power Part II

I wanted to share with you the power of love in a story about you. You were most likely brought into this life out of an expression of love. As a child you had this endless and open willingness to love. Then you learned that love was conditional because the love coming your way was often conditional. If you were “good”, did what you were told, and acted right, then you were given love. If you were “bad” then love was pulled back and you received disapproval. As you were raised the conditions of love varied and you heart closed down more because you felt less and less sure when it was ok to love. Maybe you had a pet you loved very much and you heart learned unconditional love.

As a young person you may have felt your heart open to another in a unique and wonderful way and then the biological urges kicked in and that love felt different. As you grew into adulthood you experienced your heart open more to others and it often was driven by needs. Now the opening of the heart had a different quality and it was more about mating. As your life progressed you began to understand the differences in love. You have had one partner or a variety of partners and the children that arrived through that love. You loved them all and grew. You also found out that you could love good friends and from afar those you admired. Now as a mature adult you heart is getting back to the child like open willingness to love much more freely. Or has it closed down from experiences and only allows a glimmer of love on occasion? Maybe it is somewhere in between the wide-open and carefully guarded heart?

Let’s talk about where your heart is and where it can go. If you find love easy to give and easy to receive then you enjoy life and feel compassion for your fellow human beings. If you have a story in your mind about being hurt too much by love then you may be guarded and less open to enjoy life and feel for the suffering of others. Whatever the way you are is ok because you have within you and endless capacity to love. You could love the entire universe and everything in it and still have more love to give. Imagine that! Here is an exercise to explore that endless love.

Find a quiet place to sit comfortably and get in touch with your heart. Feel your heart beat and imagine it glowing with warmth and a loving color. Imagine that heart glow filling you body so that each cell and particle is now glowing. Feel the healing power of such love. Now see the loving glow surrounding those you love and let them bask in the warmth and healing energy. Next imagine the glow of love filling everyone in your community and across your country. From there imagine the power of you healing and giving love covering the entire planet. This love, you have, can heal the planet too. Then let your love expand to include the entire universe and as far out as you can imagine. Now you are beginning to feel your capacity for love. Is that amazing or what?
Now bring all this love back into your heart and imagine spreading it everywhere you go each day.

Practice the heart visualization as often as you can and watch your heart open to a love that can transform you and the world. This ever-expanding unlimited love is needed today. Will you please share as much as you can? Be the power of love and let you heart shine.

Living From Your Heart - A Practice of Power

I look at the world and feel the need for love. You know because you can feel it too. The news is full of human struggle, fear, grief and suffering. I am so glad the news doesn’t represent most of reality. There are also many wonderful and beautiful things happening but the networks feels that is not important enough to cover. Do you ever get the feeling that fear is the tone our government and the corporations want to set? Control and manipulation is easier when people are afraid. There is something that can be done to offset this negative slant and the culture of fear. You and I can live from our hearts. These time call for us all to have compassion and to open to love. Love is the opposite of fear.

Love means you are open, accepting, appreciative, kind, caring and understanding of yourself and others. Love is a practice of power because it means you walk the earth with a heart that is receptive and expansive. You are wise and understand that love is the clear solution to all problems that exist between humans.

With love as the guiding principle there is no need for war, for domination and control, for ego-driven greed. Love is receptive to a variety of viewpoints and opens your heart to appreciate differences. Love makes you want to listen with compassion and to seek common ground. Love frees you and I from this need to judge, to make everything and everybody either right or wrong, good or bad. This is very liberating and allows you and I just to be with others.

The compassionate heart can find solutions to anything.

How do you develop an ever-expanding heart? This practice of power takes courage and sometimes means going against the prevailing ways of fear and withdrawal. Here are several ways to expand you heart.
• Focus on caring and compassion in everything you do. Ask yourself am I doing this from a place of love?
• Practice radical acceptance of all differences and open to finding common ground. Walk the path of love with everyone.
• Find your own heart by appreciating who you are and what you have to give to the world. Love you as you are now.
• When in fear find something to love. Move from contraction to expansion, from being closed to open.

Over the next few days some specific ideas and practices will be explored so you can expand you heart. Start right now with this simple but informative experiment as you go through your day. Monitor your heart in every situation and see if it is open or closed, expanding or contracting. This will give you information about how and when you love and when you don’t. Do this without judging, see what you can learn without placing a good or bad label on it.

Your heart, your love, your compassion are powerful and very needed today. Together let’s create such a force for love that the world changes for the better.

The Winds of Change Are Blowing

Last night the wind had the trees dancing madly. Can you feel the winds of change blowing across the planet? It is time for you and I to wake up from our unconsciousness, our trance of routine, our habit driven ways, and our too busy to pay attention avoidance. These are very powerful times and what you and I do both collectively and individually can make a difference. Do you want to be a difference maker? Do you feel that purpose driven desire to do something meaningful with your life?

There are several things to consider if you are ready to step up to the next level of meaning and purpose. Your mission if you choose to accept it will call upon strengths and inner resources that you have not yet accessed. Are you ready to step up and be your best? These 3 factors are key components for creating powerful results.

Factor 1. Do you have a relationship with your higher self? If you don’t then you will be driven by ego and that will not take you to the next level. In the Journal Archives you might find the two articles on Self and Ego helpful. Difference making and the realization of you mission demands that you show up as empowered as possible and only your Self can do that.

Factor 2. Do you have a clear intention of where you want to go and what you want to accomplish? Are you ready to be a paradigm pioneer and a guide for a new and better world? You intention is what brings all your inner resources into focus. Wayne Dyers book called Intention is a great resource if you want to read more.

Factor 3. Are you a relationship builder? Do you have an open heart and the compassion necessary to enter into meaningful relationships with people who share your mission to make a difference? You cannot do it alone. You must be able to work with others who share your purpose. Together you can take each other higher and create much greater results. Be in unity, set a course and feel the happiness and success that is possible.

I want to give you an image of how this can work. There is on all major ocean liners a part of the rudder called the trim-tab. This piece of the turning mechanism is essential to altering the course of the ship. How the trim-tab works is that when the pilot determines that the course needs to be altered then he or she adjusts the trim-tab. Now on a huge boat like this, going at the speeds it travels, to turn the large rudder would be impossible and probably damaging to it. So above the rudder is a small rudder called the trim-tab. This little rudder can be turned and with it the course correction begins and then the full rudder can be engaged. This is a great analogy to anyone who is an on a mission to make a difference. To change the course of where this planet and its inhabitants are going you and I need to be trim-tabs. You and I do our small part of course correction and then the larger motion of change will kick into gear.

Another trim-tab kind of idea is the following: when 1% of the people grasp an idea then it spreads across the planet; when 10% of the population understands and accepts a new way then it is unstoppable as it spreads. I am sure you can think of examples. One that comes instantly to mind is the idea that we should fear terrorists. That idea was accepted by the masses unfortunately without question.

Now is the time to activate the trim tab in you. Guided by the Self, a clear intention and a team of like-minded enlightened warriors, you and I may be on our way to being unstoppable forces for positive change.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" Margaret Mead

A Time For Contemplation and Compassion

The shootings at Virginia Tech have left me wondering about how this could happen. I have spent 30 years as a Mental Health professional and have worked with many people who had serious mental health issues. Much of what I have seen is a product of the environment in which these ill individuals grew up. Let me make it clear here, I am not looking for blame here but instead see this as an opportunity for growth and deeper understanding.

At a society level there are factors to speculate about: during the time of war is killing minimized and rationalized; are violent video games having an ill affect on the human psyche; are we too busy to pay attention to those in trouble; should schools look at educating the whole person which means not only the minds but also the emotional and physical well being of the students; and other questions?

On a community level have you and I gotten too busy to pay attention to those around us who need care and compassion. Are there people in our families, at work, in our towns who we sense are isolated, afraid and in need of help. Do our communities have the resources to reach out and make a difference. Can we together do something in the form of compassionate action that would help?

How about on a personal level? Have you and I lost our own peace of mind through our hurry and worry lives? Have we been too busy to pay attention to our own emotional needs? There are many questions to ask. The best thing to do from this tragedy is to ask questions; to become more aware and conscious of ourselves and others; and to remember the importance of our hearts as a difference maker in the world.

This is a time for reflection and to do so will make us, our community, and our society healthier and better able to prevent or reduce future needless suffering and loss of life. Each of us can make a difference and our difference making is needed now maybe more then ever.

“Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people’s hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human 'brain' with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human 'heart' with compassion.” Dalai Lama

In seperateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength.” The Buddha

"Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." Albert Einstein

Check Out My Guest Blog In The UK

Today and tomorrow I have the great pleasure to be a guest blogger on a very successful blogging site in the UK. Please go check it out and leave a comment there at http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog

When You Ask The Guidance Will Be There

I have been feeling very energized lately because life feels like it is flowing nicely. I feel like my intuition has been very active and that guidance is always there when I need it. I wanted to talk today about intuition and our sense of knowing. I have come to realize that there is in you and I this available higher knowing that is always there when we ask. My experience has been that when I feel something is the right thing to do, and I feel it clearly then I know it is the right thing to do. The more I trust my intuitive knowing the more it is available to me. The more I go with this inner knowing the more I create the results I want. This feels good and I want to keep growing that trust in the part of me that does know.

I want to help you also grow the intuitive knowing and your receptivity to guidance. Here are some ideas I want to share. I have learned to trust my intuition by playing with it. I remember when I was a grad student and living in San Francisco and I would guess when the next bus would come to take me across town. If I paid attention to my sense of inner knowing, I got to the stop in time to catch the bus, if not I often just missed it or waited a long time. I often guess who is calling on the phone or what is in the surprise package I receive. I have fun with tapping into my inner knowing because that keeps me light and open. Kind of like, “angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly.” I have found the lighter I am about life, the more I know and can open to the flow. That little rhyme came from being open to letting my hands do the writing.

It has been my experience over and over again that there is always guidance when I am open to receiving it. I have another story about asking for guidance and how open you need to be to get your message from wherever it may come from. My friend Jonathan had been considering a trip to India during the Christmas holidays and had asked for guidance so he could decide whether to stay home for the holidays or go to India. He said to the universe I want to know what would be the best for me to do in the next week? On Sunday the last day of that next week Jonathan was channel surfing and came upon a TV ministry and for some odd reason he actually stop to watched for a few minutes. He never watches those programs so he found himself curious why he was feeling it was right to stop. In just a minute he knew why. The Minister was talking about why it was important to go to India, an unusually topic for this kind of program. Jonathan was now fully attentive to what this minister was saying. Then the part that gives me goose bumps every time. The minister then looked directly into the camera and said, Jonathan, you need to go to India. WOW if that isn’t clear message from the universe, I don’t know what is.

If you ask, you can know. If you learn to listen deeply you will always be guided. If you call on the universe to show you the way, you will be shown.

It is so much easier when you open to the aid of the universe. You don’t have to do it alone anymore.
I welcome your comments and your ideas. If you have private questions please feel free to ask them at explorelifeblog@gmail.com

Let your light shine, Joseph