It's been a while since I've written anything on this blog. However, an inspiring epiphany came today, along with a big shift I felt in myself. It has to do with allowing and also living the life I was born to live.
My path has been one less traveled for sure and my call to it strong. Because of that many of my lifestyle choices are different than those living a more traditional life--things such as not wanting to watch TV or to eat a standard American diet. I also want others to feel free to choose as they will in accordance with their own knowing of what best supports their purpose. The rub comes when there is a deep and profound recognition of another being for the gifts they bring and the accompanying desire, either one way or both, to fit into each others lives more significantly. Then the dance begins of how to adapt your lifestyles to live harmoniously, either on a daily basis or in shared social situations. I don't find general social situations to be much of an issue, but more what affects my daily sense of well-being, or the "idea" that I have to compromise core lifestyle choices that make me happy to accept someone.
I have had issues with chemical sensitivities, digestive challenges related to certain kinds of food and asthma that arises from both. My epiphany was that in a way I had chosen the dis-ease as a way to give myself permission to live the way that made me feel good (on many levels) and it also gave me a "legitimate" out when others viewed me as being "a pain in the ass." But, the truth is I just want to be who I am regardless of whether it makes sense to anyone else or not. I don't want to create any kind of condition to justify my choices. In turn, I want the same for everyone else, and how that translates for me is to honor the love I feel in recognizing someone for who they really and not needing it to be anything more. If it happens that our paths have significant overlaps and we want to walk some of it together, great, but I'm not that interested in working hard to alter my life so someone doesn't feel judged by me. It can be so much easier when there's no need to hold onto the love passing through my life as a way of affirming myself in some way. Long-term relationships still form, but with more ease when I can bring my whole, authentic, joyful self to the table and when passing on what's offered is not an offense. When the similarities for daily nurturing, entertainment, or life purpose aren't there, no problem. Just release each other from expectation and move on to where you find alignment and allowing.
The trickiest part is with family, which is where we first took on behaviors to please someone else even when they didn't feel genuine or aligned with our knowing. Yet, I feel that my letting go of any guilt that my choices are different likewise releases them from feeling they aren't good enough by my standards, which isn't what I feel, but the energy gets sticky and confused when we are trying to be something we aren't.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Gut Feeling
We have all heard the old adage about trusting your gut, but I don't think most people realize just how much our gut does for us, and how it is literally connected to our feelings and mental states.
I recently heard an interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride who has a thriving medical practice in Cambridge, England. Unfortunately, it is thriving because of the drastic spike in autism, ADHD, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia and other ailments, which she addresses. What launched her into this area of expertise was when her own son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. She admits that her medical training left her with no solutions and so she returned to school to obtain a doctorate in nutrition and this is the basis of her success today.
She explained in the interview and in her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome that the gut is the basis of all health in the body. She is not the only medical doctor advocating this these days, but there is still much awareness to be developed by mainstream medicine in this area. In fact, the practice of medicine in western, industrialized countries has contributed a great deal to the demise of this foundational piece of health. It was, as she explains, the introduction of broad spectrum antibiotics at the time of World War II, which were over prescribed for every sore throat or earache, that began upsetting the balance of beneficial microorganisms in the gut. Additional contributors to the depletion of beneficial microorganisms are the high percentage of sugar and processed, starchy foods, as well as other foods grown with pesticides, and animals raised with hormones and antibiotics. Oral contraceptives and chemical pharmaceutical products, both prescription and over the counter, also wreak havoc on beneficial organisms. Another factor that set the stage for a rapid decline in health was the trend away from breastfeeding from the 50s to the 70s. This weakened babies immune systems, 80% of which is in the gut wall, because they never received the good bowel flora that is introduced through the mother's milk. On top of all of this, the increase in the number of vaccinations, which may help those with healthy bowel flora, can be devastating to babies with already compromised systems. The result of all of this is that twenty years ago the occurrence of diagnosed autism was about 1 in 10,000. Today, in western industrialized countries it is about 1 in 150 and some places in the UK and US it is as high as 1 in 66!
So, the bottom line is if we don't start trusting our guts more, and educating ourselves on what it takes to restore the important balance of microorganism species there, we are in big trouble. A good start would be reading her book, which she said many people are using successfully in a self-guided program.
I appreciated the analogy she used of our bodies being a planet inhabited by hundreds of species (about 500 different species in the gut) and that when the body becomes compromised, imbalanced and toxic, the opportunistic pathogens take over and well-being declines. She also said that you can't kill all the bad microorganisms and that the better approach is to focus on creating a supportive environment for the good ones and introducing more of them into the system. The "good ones" will keep the "bad ones" in check and when the system is weighted in favor of the good the "bad ones" actually have a beneficial, synergistic role to play.
Sound familiar on another level? So, let's get healthy! It's all connected.
I recently heard an interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride who has a thriving medical practice in Cambridge, England. Unfortunately, it is thriving because of the drastic spike in autism, ADHD, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia and other ailments, which she addresses. What launched her into this area of expertise was when her own son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. She admits that her medical training left her with no solutions and so she returned to school to obtain a doctorate in nutrition and this is the basis of her success today.
She explained in the interview and in her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome that the gut is the basis of all health in the body. She is not the only medical doctor advocating this these days, but there is still much awareness to be developed by mainstream medicine in this area. In fact, the practice of medicine in western, industrialized countries has contributed a great deal to the demise of this foundational piece of health. It was, as she explains, the introduction of broad spectrum antibiotics at the time of World War II, which were over prescribed for every sore throat or earache, that began upsetting the balance of beneficial microorganisms in the gut. Additional contributors to the depletion of beneficial microorganisms are the high percentage of sugar and processed, starchy foods, as well as other foods grown with pesticides, and animals raised with hormones and antibiotics. Oral contraceptives and chemical pharmaceutical products, both prescription and over the counter, also wreak havoc on beneficial organisms. Another factor that set the stage for a rapid decline in health was the trend away from breastfeeding from the 50s to the 70s. This weakened babies immune systems, 80% of which is in the gut wall, because they never received the good bowel flora that is introduced through the mother's milk. On top of all of this, the increase in the number of vaccinations, which may help those with healthy bowel flora, can be devastating to babies with already compromised systems. The result of all of this is that twenty years ago the occurrence of diagnosed autism was about 1 in 10,000. Today, in western industrialized countries it is about 1 in 150 and some places in the UK and US it is as high as 1 in 66!
So, the bottom line is if we don't start trusting our guts more, and educating ourselves on what it takes to restore the important balance of microorganism species there, we are in big trouble. A good start would be reading her book, which she said many people are using successfully in a self-guided program.
I appreciated the analogy she used of our bodies being a planet inhabited by hundreds of species (about 500 different species in the gut) and that when the body becomes compromised, imbalanced and toxic, the opportunistic pathogens take over and well-being declines. She also said that you can't kill all the bad microorganisms and that the better approach is to focus on creating a supportive environment for the good ones and introducing more of them into the system. The "good ones" will keep the "bad ones" in check and when the system is weighted in favor of the good the "bad ones" actually have a beneficial, synergistic role to play.
Sound familiar on another level? So, let's get healthy! It's all connected.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Handy survival tip
I don't mean to be alarming with this title, but I'm feeling that given the increase in catastrophic earth events it may be timely to share the following information.
I have known about "urine therapy" for many years and it is a valid approach for helping to restore health, regardless of compounding external circumstances. Basically, urine therapy is the practice of drinking your own urine. For health purposes there is a specific protocol for times of day and amounts to use for the best benefit. As I understand it, the urine also contains "information" about what is imbalanced in the body or what is needed, and taking that information back into the body acts as a homeopathic for resolving the issue.
The basic thing I want to share is that urine is sterile, consisting of water, salt, and excess nutrients. You may have encountered people who would urinate on an insect sting or wound to promote healing. The important thing to know is that in times of crisis, when there may be no potable water available, you can keep yourself alive by drinking your urine. It has both water and nutrients and you can keep them recycling for a period of time to stay vital in the absence of other water sources (and also nutrients). There are people who have survived disasters this way for many days without water and they are not in the critical state they would have been with no water.
Anyway, it's always good to have information like this in your bag of tricks.
I have known about "urine therapy" for many years and it is a valid approach for helping to restore health, regardless of compounding external circumstances. Basically, urine therapy is the practice of drinking your own urine. For health purposes there is a specific protocol for times of day and amounts to use for the best benefit. As I understand it, the urine also contains "information" about what is imbalanced in the body or what is needed, and taking that information back into the body acts as a homeopathic for resolving the issue.
The basic thing I want to share is that urine is sterile, consisting of water, salt, and excess nutrients. You may have encountered people who would urinate on an insect sting or wound to promote healing. The important thing to know is that in times of crisis, when there may be no potable water available, you can keep yourself alive by drinking your urine. It has both water and nutrients and you can keep them recycling for a period of time to stay vital in the absence of other water sources (and also nutrients). There are people who have survived disasters this way for many days without water and they are not in the critical state they would have been with no water.
Anyway, it's always good to have information like this in your bag of tricks.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Your best friend is always with you
Indeed your body is your best friend. It takes you everywhere you want to go and supports you in having a good time while you're there. However, like any friendship, the experience is going to be more optimal when you are also paying attention to what your friend wants. If you never listened to your friend, or didn't take into consideration what works for them,they are not likely to keep showing up for you. The fact that our bodies keep trying, while we take them for granted, puts them at the top of the list for deserving our adoration and attention.
So, if you are complaining about some function or aspect of your body, maybe it's time to get some relationship counseling :) What I mean is treat your body like the most cherished friend you could ever have. Listen to it. When you find out what it likes go out of your way to get that for it.
I know some people get frustrated with their bodies because certain foods they want to eat don't work for them. What if rather than trying to change your body to do things the way you want, you found pleasure it giving it what helps it thrive. In the long-run it will be what brings you joy as well, because there is nothing like being in a body that performs like a finely-tuned race car--the ride is fantastic.
Also, keep in mind that often what you may think you want, which ends up making you feel bad, is an attempt at an emotional fix, or a craving generated by parasites or microorganisms that need that food or substance to stay active in your body.
It can take time to really develop a compassionate and astutely-tuned communication with your body, but the payoffs of that friendship can't be surpassed.
So, if you are complaining about some function or aspect of your body, maybe it's time to get some relationship counseling :) What I mean is treat your body like the most cherished friend you could ever have. Listen to it. When you find out what it likes go out of your way to get that for it.
I know some people get frustrated with their bodies because certain foods they want to eat don't work for them. What if rather than trying to change your body to do things the way you want, you found pleasure it giving it what helps it thrive. In the long-run it will be what brings you joy as well, because there is nothing like being in a body that performs like a finely-tuned race car--the ride is fantastic.
Also, keep in mind that often what you may think you want, which ends up making you feel bad, is an attempt at an emotional fix, or a craving generated by parasites or microorganisms that need that food or substance to stay active in your body.
It can take time to really develop a compassionate and astutely-tuned communication with your body, but the payoffs of that friendship can't be surpassed.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Focus on what's working
In my observations of human nature I have noticed that the typical default awareness of many of us is to focus on "the problem" or what's wrong. Then we have a job, something to fix, or at least fixate on, but when it comes to well-being, the healthier approach is to focus on what's working.
I always have people fill out an intake form when I start working with them and they note the issues that really have their attention. Of course, they wouldn't be there if nothing was bothering them, so I'm not suggesting being in denial about what our bodies are communicating to us. It's a bit of a paradox actually, because we want to be tuned to the subtle messages we are receiving so that we can correct course, so to speak. The piece of the puzzle we're often missing, however, is taking the time to be in awe of and appreciative for where the body has rebalanced. I know sometimes it will take a while for me to realize that an issue I was having hasn't been present for a while, because once it's gone there can be a tendency to forget that it was there and to direct my attention to the next item on the improvement list. Because the work I do is subtle it can be off people's radar just how much improvement they've had, unless they go back and revisit what their level of discomfort was when they came in.
On the larger scale, I imagine we could transform the world, or maybe just our experience of it, by paying more attention to what's working. It might be an interesting exercise to take a week off from focusing on any problem, whether it be with our own health or a troubling situation in the world. Try filling each day with appreciation for what your body is doing incredibly well, or what healing is emerging out of challenging situations in the world.
There's a photographer named Dewitt Jones whose work I came across and celebrating what's working is the whole focus of his message. I found it very inspiring and uplifting. You can subscribe to his weekly email with one of his amazing photographs and a beautiful reflection at www.dewittjones.com
I'm sure everyone has known someone whose eye's sparkle and whose joy is contagious. Chances are they are paying more attention to what's working in their world and drawing more of it to them!
I always have people fill out an intake form when I start working with them and they note the issues that really have their attention. Of course, they wouldn't be there if nothing was bothering them, so I'm not suggesting being in denial about what our bodies are communicating to us. It's a bit of a paradox actually, because we want to be tuned to the subtle messages we are receiving so that we can correct course, so to speak. The piece of the puzzle we're often missing, however, is taking the time to be in awe of and appreciative for where the body has rebalanced. I know sometimes it will take a while for me to realize that an issue I was having hasn't been present for a while, because once it's gone there can be a tendency to forget that it was there and to direct my attention to the next item on the improvement list. Because the work I do is subtle it can be off people's radar just how much improvement they've had, unless they go back and revisit what their level of discomfort was when they came in.
On the larger scale, I imagine we could transform the world, or maybe just our experience of it, by paying more attention to what's working. It might be an interesting exercise to take a week off from focusing on any problem, whether it be with our own health or a troubling situation in the world. Try filling each day with appreciation for what your body is doing incredibly well, or what healing is emerging out of challenging situations in the world.
There's a photographer named Dewitt Jones whose work I came across and celebrating what's working is the whole focus of his message. I found it very inspiring and uplifting. You can subscribe to his weekly email with one of his amazing photographs and a beautiful reflection at www.dewittjones.com
I'm sure everyone has known someone whose eye's sparkle and whose joy is contagious. Chances are they are paying more attention to what's working in their world and drawing more of it to them!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Animals as teachers
Sometimes the most profound lessons come when we least expect them and from those we may not have sought out as teachers. Part of staying balanced and at peace in the world today is keenly tuning our senses to what is around us and how it is informing our choices.
I am just ending a temporary living situation that came with unexpected gifts, namely a lot of animals, and particularly a lion and three tigers who taught me some powerful lessons. I entered that relationship with them by first of all making space to just sit with them and be still. Once the connection was made, they took me on an amazing journey inward, particularly one of the tigers named Typhoon. I can't exactly put the experience into words, but my internal being has changed.
They are powerful beings who command respect. To meet them eye to eye there must first be a stillness within and a calling forth of courage to stand equally in their presence. Hand in hand with stillness is being fully present and aware, because if you are distracted in their presence they will either lose interest in connecting with you or they may startle you with an aggressive move.
I spent my time singing to them of their magnificence and then later meditating with them. Even when it seems they are nodding off they are tuned to your every move and when you are unruffled by their advances they drop back. Ty would test me to see if I would sense him coming up behind me before he reached me with a lunge. They move silently, but I got to where I could feel him energetically and when I would turn to look him in the eyes, as he practiced his stalking, he would immediately release the approach. Often times I would come down and approach him head on, leaning to the fence that divided us to look him in the eyes, nose to nose, as he "chuffed" or gently snorted his greeting and acknowledgment. Then I would sit next to him and sometimes he would curl up pressing the fence where my body touched, gazing intently into my eyes. The stillness and presence with him both opened my heart and called me into my courage in a way I hadn't stood in it before. There was no inner quivering, only a respectful strength, for which I felt appreciated.
So here's what I learned and how I have changed as a result:
1) I'm more confident to speak my truth without hesitation or quivering.
2) Living courageously commands respect.
3) Being still and present disarms aggressive moves.
4) Taking time to really connect with whomever is before you yields amazing gifts, one being a heart that breaks fully open.
So, find what is both wild and courageous within yourself, as well as that which is still, present and loving. These are times that call for all of these qualities.
I am just ending a temporary living situation that came with unexpected gifts, namely a lot of animals, and particularly a lion and three tigers who taught me some powerful lessons. I entered that relationship with them by first of all making space to just sit with them and be still. Once the connection was made, they took me on an amazing journey inward, particularly one of the tigers named Typhoon. I can't exactly put the experience into words, but my internal being has changed.
They are powerful beings who command respect. To meet them eye to eye there must first be a stillness within and a calling forth of courage to stand equally in their presence. Hand in hand with stillness is being fully present and aware, because if you are distracted in their presence they will either lose interest in connecting with you or they may startle you with an aggressive move.
I spent my time singing to them of their magnificence and then later meditating with them. Even when it seems they are nodding off they are tuned to your every move and when you are unruffled by their advances they drop back. Ty would test me to see if I would sense him coming up behind me before he reached me with a lunge. They move silently, but I got to where I could feel him energetically and when I would turn to look him in the eyes, as he practiced his stalking, he would immediately release the approach. Often times I would come down and approach him head on, leaning to the fence that divided us to look him in the eyes, nose to nose, as he "chuffed" or gently snorted his greeting and acknowledgment. Then I would sit next to him and sometimes he would curl up pressing the fence where my body touched, gazing intently into my eyes. The stillness and presence with him both opened my heart and called me into my courage in a way I hadn't stood in it before. There was no inner quivering, only a respectful strength, for which I felt appreciated.
So here's what I learned and how I have changed as a result:
1) I'm more confident to speak my truth without hesitation or quivering.
2) Living courageously commands respect.
3) Being still and present disarms aggressive moves.
4) Taking time to really connect with whomever is before you yields amazing gifts, one being a heart that breaks fully open.
So, find what is both wild and courageous within yourself, as well as that which is still, present and loving. These are times that call for all of these qualities.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Move to thrive
Sometimes the most powerful things we can do to stay balanced just seem too simple and we can tend to gloss over the innate resources we have, thinking there must be some special product or program we need to buy in order to maintain good health. The truth is, other than needing to obtain healthy food, the other basics of the health equation require nothing external. Those are: exercise, deep breathing, getting enough rest, keeping a positive attitude and having meaningful connections with others.
This month I want to emphasize the importance of moving your body, and if you have trouble thinking about an exercise program then how about dancing? Make it fun and enjoyable, but however you do it, move. Energy gets stuck and the more it becomes stagnant the greater the sense of discomfort on all levels. I'm always amazed at how fast I can shift my energy with movement--dancing, yoga, a walk in the park, or whatever it is. I'm not sure why at times I forget how huge the benefit is and I can let it slip when I need it the most. It seems that during periods of change in living situation, relationships, or finances that beneficial routines can get disrupted. At these times stress tends to be higher and it is more important than ever to push through and stick to an exercise commitment. While conscious, deep breathing doesn't replace exercise, it will move energy and is essential.
Remember, if your position is fixed in a moving stream, you will get worn down.
The only difference between fear and adventure is how much you breathe. ~Rob Kalnitsky
I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble
This month I want to emphasize the importance of moving your body, and if you have trouble thinking about an exercise program then how about dancing? Make it fun and enjoyable, but however you do it, move. Energy gets stuck and the more it becomes stagnant the greater the sense of discomfort on all levels. I'm always amazed at how fast I can shift my energy with movement--dancing, yoga, a walk in the park, or whatever it is. I'm not sure why at times I forget how huge the benefit is and I can let it slip when I need it the most. It seems that during periods of change in living situation, relationships, or finances that beneficial routines can get disrupted. At these times stress tends to be higher and it is more important than ever to push through and stick to an exercise commitment. While conscious, deep breathing doesn't replace exercise, it will move energy and is essential.
Remember, if your position is fixed in a moving stream, you will get worn down.
The only difference between fear and adventure is how much you breathe. ~Rob Kalnitsky
I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble
Monday, June 27, 2011
Passion is key
I'm back on the Blog circuit realizing the importance for sharing tips and inspirations for navigating these potent, amazing and stressful times.
Today I came across a link to a performance of a young Korean man on "Korea's Got Talent" that touched me to my core. I think it has moved many people who have seen it and for me there was a special gift, which was the affirmation of the power of passion to transform lives. His passion certainly will transform his own life, and beyond that his example of staying connected to a passion that gave him joy and made him feel like "someone different" will rekindle dreams many have let go of because they believed they weren't possible. Here's the link to this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SIxSbTSBTc&playnext=1&list=PLB405CDBF61489F16
My own version of this is that I just completed a collaborative project to make the first video segment of a series called, Earth, a Love Story. This is something for which I have carried a vision a long time. And, while the first offering isn't perfectly polished, it is birthed with great joy because I stepped up to meet the universe regardless of ideal circumstances. While I don't live on the streets as this young man did, it seems I've been in a phase of instability and transition for longer than I would like. Committing to this project in the midst of all of this has in an odd way created "home" for me and so I encourage any of you reading this to commit to your passions and dreams knowing that a ground swell of joy will help to transform the face of the Earth. Following is a link to my website where you can read about the larger vision of my work and you can watch the Earth, a Love Story video: www.onwingsofadream.com
Today I came across a link to a performance of a young Korean man on "Korea's Got Talent" that touched me to my core. I think it has moved many people who have seen it and for me there was a special gift, which was the affirmation of the power of passion to transform lives. His passion certainly will transform his own life, and beyond that his example of staying connected to a passion that gave him joy and made him feel like "someone different" will rekindle dreams many have let go of because they believed they weren't possible. Here's the link to this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SIxSbTSBTc&playnext=1&list=PLB405CDBF61489F16
My own version of this is that I just completed a collaborative project to make the first video segment of a series called, Earth, a Love Story. This is something for which I have carried a vision a long time. And, while the first offering isn't perfectly polished, it is birthed with great joy because I stepped up to meet the universe regardless of ideal circumstances. While I don't live on the streets as this young man did, it seems I've been in a phase of instability and transition for longer than I would like. Committing to this project in the midst of all of this has in an odd way created "home" for me and so I encourage any of you reading this to commit to your passions and dreams knowing that a ground swell of joy will help to transform the face of the Earth. Following is a link to my website where you can read about the larger vision of my work and you can watch the Earth, a Love Story video: www.onwingsofadream.com
Friday, March 5, 2010
Beyond Blogging
When I entered the world of blogging it felt a bit odd, like talking to myself in a way, or recording my personal reflections as sort of an online diary. Sometimes I had inspirations that I wanted to write about, which I did, but I find inspirations come more fluidly when ideas are sparked in relationship to others.
A wonderful new friend invited me to participate in a site that was being "re-developed" to expand global consciousness and to create community. The site is called Avanoo, www.avanoo.com. The space is dynamic, kind, loving and co-creative and it has become a wonderful part of my life. I do the majority of my posting there now because it comes naturally as a part of dialogue.
I invite those who are interested in the type of offerings I make to come to Avanoo where you will find a banquet rather than one offering on the menu. Avanoo is a place for inspired engagement for dreaming a new world and for occupying home,in each aspect of its development, with gratitude, ease, awareness and joy.
My profile picture and name is the same as here. You can select "Listen" once you are in my profile and you will get notifications of new postings from me, or other people you choose to "listen to" when you log into the site (click on notifications). Otherwise you can just browse the recent activity.
Hope to see you there!
Lots of love,
Dawn
A wonderful new friend invited me to participate in a site that was being "re-developed" to expand global consciousness and to create community. The site is called Avanoo, www.avanoo.com. The space is dynamic, kind, loving and co-creative and it has become a wonderful part of my life. I do the majority of my posting there now because it comes naturally as a part of dialogue.
I invite those who are interested in the type of offerings I make to come to Avanoo where you will find a banquet rather than one offering on the menu. Avanoo is a place for inspired engagement for dreaming a new world and for occupying home,in each aspect of its development, with gratitude, ease, awareness and joy.
My profile picture and name is the same as here. You can select "Listen" once you are in my profile and you will get notifications of new postings from me, or other people you choose to "listen to" when you log into the site (click on notifications). Otherwise you can just browse the recent activity.
Hope to see you there!
Lots of love,
Dawn
Friday, February 19, 2010
Giving Up Judgment for Lent
I had a client in my office the other day and she was talking about the "bad things" she was giving up for Lent. I can certainly understand if it feels important to change a behavior because it doesn't support the person, and I've heard that it takes 30 days (or maybe it's 6 weeks) to establish a new habit. That's all good, but in her case, as I think is true for many, it was about sacrificing the pleasures she felt guilty about.
I invited her to instead consider giving up judgment for 40 days, since I think that was more what Christ had in mind anyway. Hey, what if that resulted in a newly formed habit at the end of Lent? Wouldn't that make the offering up of Christ's life more worth it than the fact that someone wasn't eating Twinkies anymore?
I don't know, just food for thought :)
I invited her to instead consider giving up judgment for 40 days, since I think that was more what Christ had in mind anyway. Hey, what if that resulted in a newly formed habit at the end of Lent? Wouldn't that make the offering up of Christ's life more worth it than the fact that someone wasn't eating Twinkies anymore?
I don't know, just food for thought :)
Friday, February 5, 2010
Love is the Doorway
Many years ago I had an instantaneous healing experience that followed weeks of praying for an ailment to be healed with no result. At the point of the healing, something was communicated to me from spirit that enabled me to see that the prayers had been offered in more of a rote fashion than with a sense of faith in the outcome. Praying was simply what one was supposed to do in such cases, but I had no real sense of them being received and the request granted. The day the healing occurred I received the message that if I truly believed I could be healed, I would be. The moment that really clicked in me the pain and other symptoms were gone.
I think that in a similar way I have created my own barrier to awakening because of some basic misperceptions. I have held the notion that to awaken fully and completely meant giving up everything of this world and I made a pact with God to do just that when I was in my mid-twenties. I think on some level I assumed that included loving partnerships, because I equated that with attachment. I think the deeper truth is that this was a convenient way to avoid vulnerability and potential pain.
It’s amazing to me sometimes how the most profound understandings are really so darn simple, and get lost in all of the other conditioned beliefs. What I think I am finally grocking is that waking up depends on loving fully. Just as with the instantaneous healing I think I had the core understanding about awakening backwards. I assumed that I had to be fully awake to be an embodiment of love. I’m sure the conditions of each awakening are different, but my sense is that creating a practice of being present to love each moment is more important than a letting go of the world. I’m not talking romantic love either, I’m referring to the hardest kind of love—to love everything as it is. Any parent also knows that what is offered from love may often not feel like it.
Some of the most profound experiences I’ve had as an “activist” involved seeing beyond surface appearances into the essence of someone perceived as the enemy and loving them. The reactions against that both from fellow do-gooders, and from my own internal judge, are that if I love someone in this way they may forget that I don’t agree with them. They may think I have forgiven them and that we are no longer opponents. It may be taken as they no longer need to feel the guilt and pain over their actions that I’m intent on eliciting or reinforcing in them. I think the bigger question here is, What does happen when we truly forget that we are enemies or that we have different ways of being in the world? Please don’t take this to mean that behaviors that are not supportive of the whole go unaddressed, but rather that true transformation results more from love than judgment and rejection. (I will include fear in this also, because I strongly believe that lasting change is not brought about by fear).
On the level of personal relationship there is a lot of hesitation to use the word love, particularly between adults because there is a fear that the depth of that will be misconstrued. We also withhold our love until we have deemed someone worthy. Personally, I sign the bulk of my communications—Lots of Love and I mean it. I refrain from this only when I feel someone doesn’t know me well enough to understand that it is simply a statement of where I am coming from. It does not, however, define a type of relationship, or any expectations I have with that person. If there is any confusion or concern around what I mean, just ask me to clarify.
Lots of love,
Dawn
I think that in a similar way I have created my own barrier to awakening because of some basic misperceptions. I have held the notion that to awaken fully and completely meant giving up everything of this world and I made a pact with God to do just that when I was in my mid-twenties. I think on some level I assumed that included loving partnerships, because I equated that with attachment. I think the deeper truth is that this was a convenient way to avoid vulnerability and potential pain.
It’s amazing to me sometimes how the most profound understandings are really so darn simple, and get lost in all of the other conditioned beliefs. What I think I am finally grocking is that waking up depends on loving fully. Just as with the instantaneous healing I think I had the core understanding about awakening backwards. I assumed that I had to be fully awake to be an embodiment of love. I’m sure the conditions of each awakening are different, but my sense is that creating a practice of being present to love each moment is more important than a letting go of the world. I’m not talking romantic love either, I’m referring to the hardest kind of love—to love everything as it is. Any parent also knows that what is offered from love may often not feel like it.
Some of the most profound experiences I’ve had as an “activist” involved seeing beyond surface appearances into the essence of someone perceived as the enemy and loving them. The reactions against that both from fellow do-gooders, and from my own internal judge, are that if I love someone in this way they may forget that I don’t agree with them. They may think I have forgiven them and that we are no longer opponents. It may be taken as they no longer need to feel the guilt and pain over their actions that I’m intent on eliciting or reinforcing in them. I think the bigger question here is, What does happen when we truly forget that we are enemies or that we have different ways of being in the world? Please don’t take this to mean that behaviors that are not supportive of the whole go unaddressed, but rather that true transformation results more from love than judgment and rejection. (I will include fear in this also, because I strongly believe that lasting change is not brought about by fear).
On the level of personal relationship there is a lot of hesitation to use the word love, particularly between adults because there is a fear that the depth of that will be misconstrued. We also withhold our love until we have deemed someone worthy. Personally, I sign the bulk of my communications—Lots of Love and I mean it. I refrain from this only when I feel someone doesn’t know me well enough to understand that it is simply a statement of where I am coming from. It does not, however, define a type of relationship, or any expectations I have with that person. If there is any confusion or concern around what I mean, just ask me to clarify.
Lots of love,
Dawn
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Healing Communities
It feels like a time of moving from a consumptive economy to an enrichment economy. That said, I am inspired to breathe life back into a long-held vision to develop a highly creative and self-sufficient community as a model and resource center for others who want to explore harmonious ways of living. My idea of this is community made up of simple individual living spaces, although if people are inspired to live in more of a collective, that's up to them. The community I have envisioned will have five primary focuses: 1) care for and education of the children; 2) food production; 3) architectural design for energy and resource efficiency with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty; 4) healing and transformational services (which includes a strong emphasis on the creative arts), and 5) consulting, communications and external project funding. The objective is to provide livelihoods for community members through these five focus areas.
I see people from all walks of life visiting this community not only to explore the idea of cooperative living, but to take part in a series of experiences which would open them up to their creative potential by reconnecting them to a part of themselves that longs to dream and to celebrate. By the way this model can easily be integrated into existing communities.
Intuitive knowing and a sense of balance within our environment has been conditioned out of many of us, or at least significantly repressed. How many of us are even the least bit aware of what our own bodies are trying to communicate to us through discomfort or illness? We have been taught not to pay attention—take a pill and it will go away, rather than exploring where our body is telling us we are out of balance. Similarly we are taught not to pay too much attention to the environmental imbalances that speak to us of a system in distress. If the water is not healthy to drink, we are sold water filters rather than being asked to look at how we are contributing to the situation.
The objective of the experiences people would go through in this community is to get them back into their bodies, so to speak, to enliven their senses and empower them to be acutely aware of how they are interacting with everything going on inside of and around them.
There could be retreat-type programs that included some or all of the following: 1) dream work and journaling; 2) body movement including five-rhythms, ecstatic or freeform dance, Tai Chi, yoga, etc.; 3) music workshops, i.e., drumming, singing, toning, etc., 4) communication workshops, i.e., consensus or team building, effective/compassionate dialoging and active listening, mediation; and 5) solo or guided wilderness quests. Body work or healing modalities geared toward accelerated release of emotional and physical blocks would also be available upon request, but would not be required.
During the course of a day, visitors would have free time to spend with members of the community whose function they were particularly interested in. For example, if someone’s profession was as an educator they might be interested in observing how that function happened in the community.
At the end of a day, people might gather around a fire to the sound of drumming to hear the storyteller weave a tale of who we are and where we have come from. Then the group would begin to develop their own story of where they want to go. By creating one’s own dream, the chances of maintaining the commitment to follow through are greatly increased.
The emphasis of the community experience would be to empower people to start from wherever they are to create a more satisfying life. Although the community itself would serve as one model, it is only that. This would not be presented as the only way to live, since it will simply not be within the reach of some of the people who come as participants. Ideally, funds will be raised to enable people from a range of social situations to come and participate and to have access to the help they need to actualize their dreams. For example, inner-city youth who are interested in taking their energy for organizing gangs and directing it another way can apply for scholarships. Once they have developed a plan or vision for how they want to enhance the communities from which they have come, staff members would be available as consultants to assist with the development of plans or to guide them to the resources they will need. It is even possible that some type of foundation could be set up as a part of the community that would provide funds for start-up projects on a limited basis.
The Community Core Center Design
Urban or suburban communities can also be enlivened and transformed with the introduction of a community core center. The model community proposed above would serve as a resource center to provide consulting services to guide people through the process of designing centers in their existing neighborhoods for the purpose of reestablishing and deepening their joyful engagement with one another. These centers would incorporate nodes that catered to the needs and interests of the members of that particular community. Existing buildings can be adapted for this purpose. In new developments, or where vacant lots exist, earth-friendly, energy-smart centers can be built. Following are some of the components that might make sense:
* A type of “general store” that would be a food co-op, carrying locally grown organic foods and also hand-crafted goods. An important aspect would also be to have a type of café or gathering space for socializing. Having live music or open-mike events further attracts people to hang out and interact, as well as creating venues for artistic expression.
* Shared gardens, both a community food garden and beautiful reflective gardens to engage the senses and for peaceful contemplation and renewal.
* A business resource center, particularly for people who have home-based businesses who would benefit from convenient access to shared equipment or services such as shipping. These can be relatively small and still serve the needs of the immediate community. It can also be a place for people to have a workspace who are visiting for a while.
* A community room for gathering to play music or have performances, meetings, classes such as yoga, dance, or celebrations of various kinds.
* In artisan communities there may be a desire for a ceramics studio or another type of workshop that people wouldn’t necessarily have room to incorporate in their home space, and would enjoy sharing with others.
* There might also be a desire for a few spa type rooms with hot tubs and space for services like massage or body work, or other healing modalities.
* There could be spaces for after school programs with the elders of the community being available for tutoring, storytelling, or childcare.
Basically, members designing the center would want to think in terms of what would draw them into the community space with others, feel nurturing, and make their life easier and more joyous.
When I think about these spaces I know that beauty draws me in, not just functionality. I suppose this would be the Feng Shui aspect of the design, or what encourages energy to flow there. Buckminster Fuller captured it when he said: “When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
The garden aspect of the core center seems key. Personally, I like the idea of rooms or spaces that are built out around a beautiful hub—a garden that people can even walk into and sit next to a pond or small waterfall. Hot tub rooms could be situated to look onto the garden in areas that would have privacy. The café or other socializing spaces would also be enhanced by the garden. Additionally, there could be two garden spaces, one a community garden for growing food, the other aesthetic.
These centers would be supported financially both by membership fees from the community members, similar to homeowner’s association dues, and revenues generated by different aspects like the business center, café, or healing services. There may even be Bed and Breakfast pods adjoining the center for visitors coming for workshops held at the center, or just people who are interested in visiting to experience what it is like to live in one of these vibrant hubs. Additionally, initiatives could be put forward with local governments to give financial incentives for these centers since they would increase the health and well-being of their citizenry. This isn’t out of the question, since this is a common practice with large-scale development.
I also see this being a car-free center with ample bike and walking paths leading into the center, with covered, artistically enhanced walkways in between the different pods of the hub. One of the community services could be little electric shuttle carts for people who couldn’t walk or bike into the center from an outlying area.
To further enhance the healing aspect of this core center, it could be designed in line with sacred geometry principles and include things like labyrinths. There is so much creativity that could be brought to this endeavor and ultimately it is about communities thriving because money is kept local and relationships with each other and the Earth are the focal point.
Please respond if you want to join me in taking this idea further! (Or, if you already have such a thing going!)
I see people from all walks of life visiting this community not only to explore the idea of cooperative living, but to take part in a series of experiences which would open them up to their creative potential by reconnecting them to a part of themselves that longs to dream and to celebrate. By the way this model can easily be integrated into existing communities.
Intuitive knowing and a sense of balance within our environment has been conditioned out of many of us, or at least significantly repressed. How many of us are even the least bit aware of what our own bodies are trying to communicate to us through discomfort or illness? We have been taught not to pay attention—take a pill and it will go away, rather than exploring where our body is telling us we are out of balance. Similarly we are taught not to pay too much attention to the environmental imbalances that speak to us of a system in distress. If the water is not healthy to drink, we are sold water filters rather than being asked to look at how we are contributing to the situation.
The objective of the experiences people would go through in this community is to get them back into their bodies, so to speak, to enliven their senses and empower them to be acutely aware of how they are interacting with everything going on inside of and around them.
There could be retreat-type programs that included some or all of the following: 1) dream work and journaling; 2) body movement including five-rhythms, ecstatic or freeform dance, Tai Chi, yoga, etc.; 3) music workshops, i.e., drumming, singing, toning, etc., 4) communication workshops, i.e., consensus or team building, effective/compassionate dialoging and active listening, mediation; and 5) solo or guided wilderness quests. Body work or healing modalities geared toward accelerated release of emotional and physical blocks would also be available upon request, but would not be required.
During the course of a day, visitors would have free time to spend with members of the community whose function they were particularly interested in. For example, if someone’s profession was as an educator they might be interested in observing how that function happened in the community.
At the end of a day, people might gather around a fire to the sound of drumming to hear the storyteller weave a tale of who we are and where we have come from. Then the group would begin to develop their own story of where they want to go. By creating one’s own dream, the chances of maintaining the commitment to follow through are greatly increased.
The emphasis of the community experience would be to empower people to start from wherever they are to create a more satisfying life. Although the community itself would serve as one model, it is only that. This would not be presented as the only way to live, since it will simply not be within the reach of some of the people who come as participants. Ideally, funds will be raised to enable people from a range of social situations to come and participate and to have access to the help they need to actualize their dreams. For example, inner-city youth who are interested in taking their energy for organizing gangs and directing it another way can apply for scholarships. Once they have developed a plan or vision for how they want to enhance the communities from which they have come, staff members would be available as consultants to assist with the development of plans or to guide them to the resources they will need. It is even possible that some type of foundation could be set up as a part of the community that would provide funds for start-up projects on a limited basis.
The Community Core Center Design
Urban or suburban communities can also be enlivened and transformed with the introduction of a community core center. The model community proposed above would serve as a resource center to provide consulting services to guide people through the process of designing centers in their existing neighborhoods for the purpose of reestablishing and deepening their joyful engagement with one another. These centers would incorporate nodes that catered to the needs and interests of the members of that particular community. Existing buildings can be adapted for this purpose. In new developments, or where vacant lots exist, earth-friendly, energy-smart centers can be built. Following are some of the components that might make sense:
* A type of “general store” that would be a food co-op, carrying locally grown organic foods and also hand-crafted goods. An important aspect would also be to have a type of café or gathering space for socializing. Having live music or open-mike events further attracts people to hang out and interact, as well as creating venues for artistic expression.
* Shared gardens, both a community food garden and beautiful reflective gardens to engage the senses and for peaceful contemplation and renewal.
* A business resource center, particularly for people who have home-based businesses who would benefit from convenient access to shared equipment or services such as shipping. These can be relatively small and still serve the needs of the immediate community. It can also be a place for people to have a workspace who are visiting for a while.
* A community room for gathering to play music or have performances, meetings, classes such as yoga, dance, or celebrations of various kinds.
* In artisan communities there may be a desire for a ceramics studio or another type of workshop that people wouldn’t necessarily have room to incorporate in their home space, and would enjoy sharing with others.
* There might also be a desire for a few spa type rooms with hot tubs and space for services like massage or body work, or other healing modalities.
* There could be spaces for after school programs with the elders of the community being available for tutoring, storytelling, or childcare.
Basically, members designing the center would want to think in terms of what would draw them into the community space with others, feel nurturing, and make their life easier and more joyous.
When I think about these spaces I know that beauty draws me in, not just functionality. I suppose this would be the Feng Shui aspect of the design, or what encourages energy to flow there. Buckminster Fuller captured it when he said: “When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
The garden aspect of the core center seems key. Personally, I like the idea of rooms or spaces that are built out around a beautiful hub—a garden that people can even walk into and sit next to a pond or small waterfall. Hot tub rooms could be situated to look onto the garden in areas that would have privacy. The café or other socializing spaces would also be enhanced by the garden. Additionally, there could be two garden spaces, one a community garden for growing food, the other aesthetic.
These centers would be supported financially both by membership fees from the community members, similar to homeowner’s association dues, and revenues generated by different aspects like the business center, café, or healing services. There may even be Bed and Breakfast pods adjoining the center for visitors coming for workshops held at the center, or just people who are interested in visiting to experience what it is like to live in one of these vibrant hubs. Additionally, initiatives could be put forward with local governments to give financial incentives for these centers since they would increase the health and well-being of their citizenry. This isn’t out of the question, since this is a common practice with large-scale development.
I also see this being a car-free center with ample bike and walking paths leading into the center, with covered, artistically enhanced walkways in between the different pods of the hub. One of the community services could be little electric shuttle carts for people who couldn’t walk or bike into the center from an outlying area.
To further enhance the healing aspect of this core center, it could be designed in line with sacred geometry principles and include things like labyrinths. There is so much creativity that could be brought to this endeavor and ultimately it is about communities thriving because money is kept local and relationships with each other and the Earth are the focal point.
Please respond if you want to join me in taking this idea further! (Or, if you already have such a thing going!)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Honoring My Body
I often wake in the morning with some type of ephiphany, perhaps resulting from soul journeys into other dimensions of consciousness, undertaken to weave together bits of information that haven't connected during waking hours.
Before jumping into what now seems ridiculously obvious, and yet still unresolved, I have to give a bit of background on how I relate to my body. For as long as I can remember I have struggled with weight issues, although I have had reprieves for periods of time when I would get everything just right in my diet and exercise routine. I was never one of those people who could maintain a stable weight for years with relatively little attention to the matter. While I gave up on ever having the "idealized female form" a long time ago, paying attention to my body for health reasons is very important.
As of the first of December I moved out of the house I was in when I began this blog. I had another temporary place to go to but not until the first of the year. I knew I was going to Colorado for Christmas and so I decided to camp in my office until I left. The combination of non-routine situations got me into some non-optimal eating habits and exercise went out the window as well. On top of that was the challenge of "holiday eating" . . . need I say more? So I'm back to square one on balancing my body and dropping the resulting weight. This part of the routine I am very familiar with, and also the fact that once I have spiraled down there seems to be a magnetic force that wants to suck me deeper into that hole. Combined with the physical weight and lethargy comes an emotional heaviness. No big surprise there either. What does amaze me is how I can still be surprised by how easy it is to change the emotional heaviness just by putting my body in motion again. Energy gets stuck and if I don't actively make a point to move it, well I stagnate . . . just like the water in a pond that doesn't circulate in some way. Okay, so far none of this is earthshaking news.
So, yesterday I was giving myself a biofeedback treatment and what popped up to be addressed was to reduce self-destructive behavior. It was a bit of a shock, but only momentarily, because I had to quickly acknowledge that despite how well I thought I was handling all of the instability I was neither exercising nor making good food choices. Hey, depression doesn't just happen, it creeps up on people slowly because we don't want to cop to the little self-destructive things that are laying a solid foundation. The biofeedback wake-up was the first bit of information that played into this morning's awareness.
The second thing that happened was when I returned "home" to the house I will be in until the spring, I had an email from the lovely folks who own the house and live upstairs telling me how much they appreciated that I respected and cared for their home more than anyone else that had ever lived here. I emailed back to say that they had invested so much of their love into the house that it would feel awful not to take care of it.
The third piece is that I have been reading The Disapperance of the Universe, which is connected to The Course in Miracles. I have spent many years engaged in spiritual dialogue that reminds us we are really spirit and not to be so identified with the body, but this book really hammers home that we are not bodies and this is all an illusion. Bear with me now as I try and quickly tie this all together.
This morning I woke feeling an emotional heaviness and I recognized the connection to the sluggishness in my body. I also saw the lack of care of my body being connected with the "self-destructive" urge to be free of the small self, or ego identity, because so much of my energy has gone into focusing on my physical reality. Perhaps all along my weight struggle has been an ego-identity battle. One part of me wanting to validate my physical existence and the other wanting to break free of what tethers me to this world. The crazy thing is that neither of these parts represents spirit, for spirit is already free.
Whether being here in this body is an illusion or not, I am having this experience and I recognize the love that is in every cell of this body that keeps it working in such a miraculous way in spite of me. I'm so sorry that for one moment, on any level of my being, I wished to be free of this, and when I return to the ultimate home I have a sense that whoever is upstairs will be grateful for how well I took care of my physical homes--both body and Earth.
Before jumping into what now seems ridiculously obvious, and yet still unresolved, I have to give a bit of background on how I relate to my body. For as long as I can remember I have struggled with weight issues, although I have had reprieves for periods of time when I would get everything just right in my diet and exercise routine. I was never one of those people who could maintain a stable weight for years with relatively little attention to the matter. While I gave up on ever having the "idealized female form" a long time ago, paying attention to my body for health reasons is very important.
As of the first of December I moved out of the house I was in when I began this blog. I had another temporary place to go to but not until the first of the year. I knew I was going to Colorado for Christmas and so I decided to camp in my office until I left. The combination of non-routine situations got me into some non-optimal eating habits and exercise went out the window as well. On top of that was the challenge of "holiday eating" . . . need I say more? So I'm back to square one on balancing my body and dropping the resulting weight. This part of the routine I am very familiar with, and also the fact that once I have spiraled down there seems to be a magnetic force that wants to suck me deeper into that hole. Combined with the physical weight and lethargy comes an emotional heaviness. No big surprise there either. What does amaze me is how I can still be surprised by how easy it is to change the emotional heaviness just by putting my body in motion again. Energy gets stuck and if I don't actively make a point to move it, well I stagnate . . . just like the water in a pond that doesn't circulate in some way. Okay, so far none of this is earthshaking news.
So, yesterday I was giving myself a biofeedback treatment and what popped up to be addressed was to reduce self-destructive behavior. It was a bit of a shock, but only momentarily, because I had to quickly acknowledge that despite how well I thought I was handling all of the instability I was neither exercising nor making good food choices. Hey, depression doesn't just happen, it creeps up on people slowly because we don't want to cop to the little self-destructive things that are laying a solid foundation. The biofeedback wake-up was the first bit of information that played into this morning's awareness.
The second thing that happened was when I returned "home" to the house I will be in until the spring, I had an email from the lovely folks who own the house and live upstairs telling me how much they appreciated that I respected and cared for their home more than anyone else that had ever lived here. I emailed back to say that they had invested so much of their love into the house that it would feel awful not to take care of it.
The third piece is that I have been reading The Disapperance of the Universe, which is connected to The Course in Miracles. I have spent many years engaged in spiritual dialogue that reminds us we are really spirit and not to be so identified with the body, but this book really hammers home that we are not bodies and this is all an illusion. Bear with me now as I try and quickly tie this all together.
This morning I woke feeling an emotional heaviness and I recognized the connection to the sluggishness in my body. I also saw the lack of care of my body being connected with the "self-destructive" urge to be free of the small self, or ego identity, because so much of my energy has gone into focusing on my physical reality. Perhaps all along my weight struggle has been an ego-identity battle. One part of me wanting to validate my physical existence and the other wanting to break free of what tethers me to this world. The crazy thing is that neither of these parts represents spirit, for spirit is already free.
Whether being here in this body is an illusion or not, I am having this experience and I recognize the love that is in every cell of this body that keeps it working in such a miraculous way in spite of me. I'm so sorry that for one moment, on any level of my being, I wished to be free of this, and when I return to the ultimate home I have a sense that whoever is upstairs will be grateful for how well I took care of my physical homes--both body and Earth.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Follow Your Heart
Attempting to convey the pure awareness from stillness into language feels like placing a first footstep onto a virgin drift of glistening snow. I cross it anyway, because I want to get you and share the experience of the beauty and, of course, in doing so I have taken away from the untouched nature that first captivated me.
I am a person "with a good mind," but perhaps there is a downside to that when one's ultimate goal is to break free from illusion. A truly good mind recognizes its own limitations and can offer its services more humbly. Mine, however, has seemed bent on contorting in every possible direction to make sense of it all, like a dog chasing its tail to exhaustion. At the same time I know that my self-identified mind will never grasp the totality of spirit, because you cannot make something concrete which by its very nature is not. To pursue the path of "reason" as an entertainment is fine, but to opt for this as the way to inner peace is less than optimal.
How then does one carry stillness into appropriate action in the world? I can only describe what happens for me as paying attention to resonance. That coupled with a return to innocent perception, or seeing with physical eyes that don't categorize based on preconceived assumptions, leaves me free of inner conflict. Do I do that all the time? No, but I certainly know what the difference feels like.
I describe resonance, which I sense in my heart-center, as a type of energetic oscillation that is expansive and deep like the ocean. It contains true, unidentified power and engenders reverence. It is also what I feel when I am physically present with the ocean of this earth. It requires nothing and it offers everything. It is indestructible and ever present, although at times it feels fragile and fleeting.
I also describe resonance as a sort of magnetic attraction. It's not a choosing based on reasoned assessment, although that doesn't need to be absent. However, the bottom line determinant for me is, Does it feel right? Does it keep the inner osciallation in accordance with the expanded state? I'm working on not needing to apologize or compromise my joy because I can't give a good reason for my choices. I'm sure everyone has been around someone who is blissfully in love and irrationally giddy about everyone and everything they encounter. How often have you thought, They'll get over it and get more real? I know the type of love described does often change, simply because it is contingent upon something outside of us, but what if "getting real" came to mean operating from resonance?
Life works best for me when I align thought and action with this inner sense of peace. I could call it my spiritual GPS. We all know it, but some have denied it more than others. I think there is a fear of how anything will get done, or move forward if reason gets tossed out the window. How will we judge right action if there are no rules to apply? I'm not too worried about it, because my experience tells me that the intelligence greater than what can be managed by my human mind will have no problem with the details.
I am a person "with a good mind," but perhaps there is a downside to that when one's ultimate goal is to break free from illusion. A truly good mind recognizes its own limitations and can offer its services more humbly. Mine, however, has seemed bent on contorting in every possible direction to make sense of it all, like a dog chasing its tail to exhaustion. At the same time I know that my self-identified mind will never grasp the totality of spirit, because you cannot make something concrete which by its very nature is not. To pursue the path of "reason" as an entertainment is fine, but to opt for this as the way to inner peace is less than optimal.
How then does one carry stillness into appropriate action in the world? I can only describe what happens for me as paying attention to resonance. That coupled with a return to innocent perception, or seeing with physical eyes that don't categorize based on preconceived assumptions, leaves me free of inner conflict. Do I do that all the time? No, but I certainly know what the difference feels like.
I describe resonance, which I sense in my heart-center, as a type of energetic oscillation that is expansive and deep like the ocean. It contains true, unidentified power and engenders reverence. It is also what I feel when I am physically present with the ocean of this earth. It requires nothing and it offers everything. It is indestructible and ever present, although at times it feels fragile and fleeting.
I also describe resonance as a sort of magnetic attraction. It's not a choosing based on reasoned assessment, although that doesn't need to be absent. However, the bottom line determinant for me is, Does it feel right? Does it keep the inner osciallation in accordance with the expanded state? I'm working on not needing to apologize or compromise my joy because I can't give a good reason for my choices. I'm sure everyone has been around someone who is blissfully in love and irrationally giddy about everyone and everything they encounter. How often have you thought, They'll get over it and get more real? I know the type of love described does often change, simply because it is contingent upon something outside of us, but what if "getting real" came to mean operating from resonance?
Life works best for me when I align thought and action with this inner sense of peace. I could call it my spiritual GPS. We all know it, but some have denied it more than others. I think there is a fear of how anything will get done, or move forward if reason gets tossed out the window. How will we judge right action if there are no rules to apply? I'm not too worried about it, because my experience tells me that the intelligence greater than what can be managed by my human mind will have no problem with the details.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Invictus
Last night I saw an incredible movie that I recommend without reservation. It is Invictus. It captures the essence of what makes Nelson Mandela so remarkable as a leader and offers insight into the key elements of transformation and reform.
You might wonder why I am writing about that on a blog for self-care. The answer can be summed up through another quote that I have always loved, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (I’ve seen it attributed to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes).
As individuals, our health and sense of well being are directly linked to our emotions and our emotions are linked to how loved and empowered we perceive ourselves to be. Mandela’s most powerful tool was forgiveness and rather than seeking to right a wrong through disenfranchising those who had oppressed him, he honored what they cherished most and used it as a focal point for creating unity. Mandela realized that for all the immense problems the country faced, none would be resolved successfully until the hearts of people were transformed and joined.
As you consider your own health and how to facilitate body-mind-spirit healing, consider what weighs heavy in your heart that pulls down your energy and contributes to imbalances. Ask yourself what you have identified as disempowering you, whether it is a person, a corporation, a political system, or something else. Then consider how to work with, rather than against those energies for a truly new reality.
I have inserted the poem Invictus below, which was a source of inspiration for Mandela during his 30 years of imprisonment. I am also following this with another blog that was something I had written previously that seemed related. It is called The Dream of Righteousness.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ William Ernest Henley
You might wonder why I am writing about that on a blog for self-care. The answer can be summed up through another quote that I have always loved, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (I’ve seen it attributed to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes).
As individuals, our health and sense of well being are directly linked to our emotions and our emotions are linked to how loved and empowered we perceive ourselves to be. Mandela’s most powerful tool was forgiveness and rather than seeking to right a wrong through disenfranchising those who had oppressed him, he honored what they cherished most and used it as a focal point for creating unity. Mandela realized that for all the immense problems the country faced, none would be resolved successfully until the hearts of people were transformed and joined.
As you consider your own health and how to facilitate body-mind-spirit healing, consider what weighs heavy in your heart that pulls down your energy and contributes to imbalances. Ask yourself what you have identified as disempowering you, whether it is a person, a corporation, a political system, or something else. Then consider how to work with, rather than against those energies for a truly new reality.
I have inserted the poem Invictus below, which was a source of inspiration for Mandela during his 30 years of imprisonment. I am also following this with another blog that was something I had written previously that seemed related. It is called The Dream of Righteousness.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ William Ernest Henley
The Dream of Righteousness
I am drawn to people who are good-hearted, kind people who exemplify a wholesomeness that feels right at its core. I have been involved with many causes spearheaded by people who stand for righteousness and the greater good, but as I get older the lines blur and the veil of illusion around a particular filter being inviolate weakens. This small "I" has been humbled many times by the shattering of conviction to absolutes that cannot contain the wholeness of spirit, however it may choose to appear. The only thing I know to be true now is that things are not always what they appear to be and love calls me to be present to the moment and what it offers.
I also see that at the core of this draw to live a righteous life is the desire to be loved—if I am good enough then I will be admired, respected, loved. Fair enough, after all the desire to be kind and to do no harm makes for better human relations and benefits all of life. Nevertheless, if my ultimate goal is to awaken fully, then even this beautiful dream must be surrendered. I must be willing to go unrecognized as anyone special. Resisting being ordinary, and equally as human in all that is contained within me, has perhaps been my biggest stumbling block. It has caused me to judge and create separation.
The spiritual teacher Gangaji once spoke of her days as an activist before "awakening" and the realization that she came to that those fighting against the "wrong doers," whoever they were, didn’t really want those people to "get it" because then they would all be the same. The activists would no longer be seen as more virtuous and on some level that was disturbing, because this was the basis of their identity.
If it is all a dream, then the dream of righteousness has a lot of appeal. At the same time it is a hard one to want to wake up from, just like when I have dreams with a very high pleasure content that I want to linger in longer. What comes with awakening is unknown, and I do believe there is nothing that "I" can do to make myself more worthy. In the meantime, to be present to love, whatever that looks like, seems a worthwhile endeavor.
I also see that at the core of this draw to live a righteous life is the desire to be loved—if I am good enough then I will be admired, respected, loved. Fair enough, after all the desire to be kind and to do no harm makes for better human relations and benefits all of life. Nevertheless, if my ultimate goal is to awaken fully, then even this beautiful dream must be surrendered. I must be willing to go unrecognized as anyone special. Resisting being ordinary, and equally as human in all that is contained within me, has perhaps been my biggest stumbling block. It has caused me to judge and create separation.
The spiritual teacher Gangaji once spoke of her days as an activist before "awakening" and the realization that she came to that those fighting against the "wrong doers," whoever they were, didn’t really want those people to "get it" because then they would all be the same. The activists would no longer be seen as more virtuous and on some level that was disturbing, because this was the basis of their identity.
If it is all a dream, then the dream of righteousness has a lot of appeal. At the same time it is a hard one to want to wake up from, just like when I have dreams with a very high pleasure content that I want to linger in longer. What comes with awakening is unknown, and I do believe there is nothing that "I" can do to make myself more worthy. In the meantime, to be present to love, whatever that looks like, seems a worthwhile endeavor.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Acknowledging Home
No matter what kind of abode I create or what town I choose, it seems important to remember that home is really the Earth. At present I spend too much time in offices, both for an environmental organization and for my biofeedback practice. What my soul really wants is to connect with home--to plunge my hands into the soil and to stand barefoot on fertile land. This time of year can be a bit cold for being barefoot, but when it is possible there is great benefit because the more I can get "in touch" with the healing frequencies of the Earth, the more at ease I am in my own skin.
Since the inherent frequency of the earth, known as the Schumann Resonance, is 7.8Hz (7-13 Hz) a person's brain waves resonate with that frequency and it has been shown in scientific studies to be an essential requirement for physical and psychological health. Since there are so many extraneous ELF frequencies in the earth's atmosphere at this time, these frequencies can cause a drowning out of the natural Schumann Resonance. Being where this resonance is strongest helps to recover autonomic nerve balance, remove stress, and intensify concentration.
So, if we really want to heal ourselves and the Earth let's create gardens--reverently and with the same attention we would afford our most beloved. The Earth is our home, our mother, our bodies--literally. She feeds and clothes us and we are made up of the same proportion of salt water and minerals. We have paid too little attention to this type of bonded relationship and are feeling the pain of disconnection and isolation.
The separation has altered our thinking in ways that are confused. For example, breastfeeding went out of fashion in the 50s and was deemed to be beneath the modern woman. Not only did this undermine the immune systems of the infants deprived of this perfect food, but it also created a generation of people who have trouble bonding because they didn't get enough Oxytocin, the hormone and neurotransmitter known as the cuddle hormone, which is transfered through breastfeeding. Thank goodness there is a return trend to valuing the inherent benefit of using the gifts, such as this, that nature has given us.
Also, providing children with all of the "stuff" that seems essential these days, i.e., cell phones, iPods, X-boxes, cars, you name it, will never give them what they really need. In my opinion, that is a sense that they are an integral part of something profound and holy; and that their families and communities will be there when all the rest falls away.
I love the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Following is a quote that speaks to the need to connect to what we know in our bones as an essential for evolution:
"In the world, nothing could ever burst forth as final across the different thresholds successively traversed by evolution which has not already existed in an obscure and primordial way."
Since the inherent frequency of the earth, known as the Schumann Resonance, is 7.8Hz (7-13 Hz) a person's brain waves resonate with that frequency and it has been shown in scientific studies to be an essential requirement for physical and psychological health. Since there are so many extraneous ELF frequencies in the earth's atmosphere at this time, these frequencies can cause a drowning out of the natural Schumann Resonance. Being where this resonance is strongest helps to recover autonomic nerve balance, remove stress, and intensify concentration.
So, if we really want to heal ourselves and the Earth let's create gardens--reverently and with the same attention we would afford our most beloved. The Earth is our home, our mother, our bodies--literally. She feeds and clothes us and we are made up of the same proportion of salt water and minerals. We have paid too little attention to this type of bonded relationship and are feeling the pain of disconnection and isolation.
The separation has altered our thinking in ways that are confused. For example, breastfeeding went out of fashion in the 50s and was deemed to be beneath the modern woman. Not only did this undermine the immune systems of the infants deprived of this perfect food, but it also created a generation of people who have trouble bonding because they didn't get enough Oxytocin, the hormone and neurotransmitter known as the cuddle hormone, which is transfered through breastfeeding. Thank goodness there is a return trend to valuing the inherent benefit of using the gifts, such as this, that nature has given us.
Also, providing children with all of the "stuff" that seems essential these days, i.e., cell phones, iPods, X-boxes, cars, you name it, will never give them what they really need. In my opinion, that is a sense that they are an integral part of something profound and holy; and that their families and communities will be there when all the rest falls away.
I love the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Following is a quote that speaks to the need to connect to what we know in our bones as an essential for evolution:
"In the world, nothing could ever burst forth as final across the different thresholds successively traversed by evolution which has not already existed in an obscure and primordial way."
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Can an Internet Community Meet Deeper Needs?
A friend recently invited me to be a part of a social networking site he is redeveloping. There is a lot of interaction between people on the site to evolve it in very creative ways.
He posed the question: Do social websites feel cozy, safe, or sacred?, to which I responded:
While I appreciate the opportunity to network with awesome people I may not connect with otherwise, virtual connections are for me not "cozy or sacred" --they are second-best attempts at real human connection. Often times the most powerful way for me to be with someone else is in silence . . . sharing an experience. I love being with the Earth, hugs, gazing into someones eyes, feeling their energy. These things aren't possible on the web.
Everything has its perfect place. I appreciate the possibility to share ideas here, particularly with people in places around the world that I have no real perspective on.
What I find interesting about this site (http://dev.avanoo.com) is how I can wander around the "places" to go or "things" to do and have fun sharing random thoughts that are stimulated by the theme areas. And, hey, people respond. I will have to say that if anyone can make the internet feel "cozy," I think my friend can. I will be interested to see where he takes this.
He posed the question: Do social websites feel cozy, safe, or sacred?, to which I responded:
While I appreciate the opportunity to network with awesome people I may not connect with otherwise, virtual connections are for me not "cozy or sacred" --they are second-best attempts at real human connection. Often times the most powerful way for me to be with someone else is in silence . . . sharing an experience. I love being with the Earth, hugs, gazing into someones eyes, feeling their energy. These things aren't possible on the web.
Everything has its perfect place. I appreciate the possibility to share ideas here, particularly with people in places around the world that I have no real perspective on.
What I find interesting about this site (http://dev.avanoo.com) is how I can wander around the "places" to go or "things" to do and have fun sharing random thoughts that are stimulated by the theme areas. And, hey, people respond. I will have to say that if anyone can make the internet feel "cozy," I think my friend can. I will be interested to see where he takes this.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Balance
Just as it has been said that you can’t bring an end to war through war, neither can you create balance through unbalanced approaches. Humans are as much “natural systems” as the Earth is as a whole. Having been involved in activism most of my adult life I know the tendency to sacrifice myself to a cause—to go beyond where I can maintain a healthy balance in order to avert an anticipated outcome. Granted sometimes it is essential to throw my weight to one side of the boat, so to speak, to prevent it from capsizing, but then the weight must be redistributed again. I also know from personal experiences that were potentially fatal that my survival ensued because I got still inside and was fully present to a greater awareness that guided me through the situation. The solution was often unexpected and not one I could pluck from the “rule book.”
At one point I had an intense sense of responsibility that unless I did everything I could to “save the planet” that we were doomed and that it would be my fault. (I’m grateful that the universe is not beholden to my perceptions.) The result was that I pushed myself so hard (mostly mentally) that I got burned out. Trying to guilt other people into helping me, no matter how subtly, never worked either. Fortunately the universe laid me off from that job and sent me for retraining with my dolphin family. Their approach to helping us shift the mess we are in is joy, play, community and love. It’s not about what you can’t have or shouldn’t want. It’s about creating such joy that there is no thought of need.
My sense is that the bulk of the planetary crisis we now find ourselves in has to do with disconnection from source, self and each other and lack of awareness in general. To reestablish all of this requires an internal slowing down and a return to the stillness from which balance moves back and forth and comes to rest. Anyone who has ever tried to get an object to rest on a balance point so that it doesn’t fall off knows that if you have to move it to redistribute the weight you do it gently and with a certain stillness and focus.
I’m including a link here to information on creating a “gifting” economy that really resonates with me. The presenter, Charles Eisenstein, talks about the universe operating on the principle of gifting—our lives are a gift, the air, the water, and all of the abundance of the Earth are gifts. We have established ideas around money that go against this gifting principle. Here is another wonderful opportunity for rebalancing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB23ms4rqjY
I don't do great things. I do small things with great love.
~ Mother Teresa
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
~Buckminster Fuller
At one point I had an intense sense of responsibility that unless I did everything I could to “save the planet” that we were doomed and that it would be my fault. (I’m grateful that the universe is not beholden to my perceptions.) The result was that I pushed myself so hard (mostly mentally) that I got burned out. Trying to guilt other people into helping me, no matter how subtly, never worked either. Fortunately the universe laid me off from that job and sent me for retraining with my dolphin family. Their approach to helping us shift the mess we are in is joy, play, community and love. It’s not about what you can’t have or shouldn’t want. It’s about creating such joy that there is no thought of need.
My sense is that the bulk of the planetary crisis we now find ourselves in has to do with disconnection from source, self and each other and lack of awareness in general. To reestablish all of this requires an internal slowing down and a return to the stillness from which balance moves back and forth and comes to rest. Anyone who has ever tried to get an object to rest on a balance point so that it doesn’t fall off knows that if you have to move it to redistribute the weight you do it gently and with a certain stillness and focus.
I’m including a link here to information on creating a “gifting” economy that really resonates with me. The presenter, Charles Eisenstein, talks about the universe operating on the principle of gifting—our lives are a gift, the air, the water, and all of the abundance of the Earth are gifts. We have established ideas around money that go against this gifting principle. Here is another wonderful opportunity for rebalancing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB23ms4rqjY
I don't do great things. I do small things with great love.
~ Mother Teresa
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
~Buckminster Fuller
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What Does It Take to Make Home?
It seems that as much as I enjoy creating beautiful places to live and work, I also find a great deal of pleasure in lightening my load and being unencumbered. I am in the process of moving out of the home I created only a few months ago with an as yet to be determined "final" destination. In this type of move it is very freeing to have little to take with me. Today as I was packing and passing things on to new homes I was almost giddy. Finding out how little I really need to create a peaceful, beautiful space is almost like a game. I'm sure I must have been a Zen monk at some point, because it is so easy to slip into that mindset. I also notice there is a certain clarity that comes with simplifying on the external level.
I know someone who can carry everything she owns with her and she has no "home." She is the head of an international organization addressing human dignity and considers herself to be a global citizen. She is always traveling as a part of her work and stays with colleagues that are a part of their network. She is very involved in the world and is sort of a professional "Peace Pilgrim." I've gotten pretty light at times in my life, but the level of detachment to place and stuff just described is something that is still a bit of a stretch for me, and it fascinates me. Maybe I will get to that point someday, but then if too many people end up that detached it could present an interesting dilemma--where will all "Peace Pilgrims" stay? Ha! Ha!
When I relocate people are always asking me, "Is this permanent?" All I can say is that nothing in life is permanent and, for better or worse, I seem to have been the water in the river that has moved through quickly whereas others are the boulders that are washed away slowly over time. It's all good! I will say that it is my intention to root myself somewhere as a part of larger community. Perhaps when I am fully at home inside the external search will end and I may discover that there is really nowhere to go.
I know someone who can carry everything she owns with her and she has no "home." She is the head of an international organization addressing human dignity and considers herself to be a global citizen. She is always traveling as a part of her work and stays with colleagues that are a part of their network. She is very involved in the world and is sort of a professional "Peace Pilgrim." I've gotten pretty light at times in my life, but the level of detachment to place and stuff just described is something that is still a bit of a stretch for me, and it fascinates me. Maybe I will get to that point someday, but then if too many people end up that detached it could present an interesting dilemma--where will all "Peace Pilgrims" stay? Ha! Ha!
When I relocate people are always asking me, "Is this permanent?" All I can say is that nothing in life is permanent and, for better or worse, I seem to have been the water in the river that has moved through quickly whereas others are the boulders that are washed away slowly over time. It's all good! I will say that it is my intention to root myself somewhere as a part of larger community. Perhaps when I am fully at home inside the external search will end and I may discover that there is really nowhere to go.
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