READ: Soul Breathing by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
January 26, 2012 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Filed under •-Feature, Health & Well-being, Insights, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Reflection, Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual teachers, Spirituality, Vision
This week I felt the impulse to share a very simple practise I use to lower fear and be with any anxiety that arises. First, a little background.
One of the things I appreciate about the writing of Jungian analyst James Hollis is how direct he is about the challenges of being human. In Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life (as well as in his other books) Hollis tells us that in order to find and fulfill our purpose in life, in order to really grow up, we have to expand our capacity to tolerate anxiety, ambivalence and ambiguity. Why? Because, given the unpredictable and every changing nature of life there is going to be anxiety, ambivalence and ambiguity. When we were children and relatively powerless we understandably developed strategies to lower or distance ourselves from the discomfort of anxiety: some of us tried to earn safety by attempting to do things perfectly (me!) while others sought to escape through fantasy or whatever numbing substance/activity was available, (food, television, computer games) while still others became combative and rebellious. The problem is the anxiety management strategies we developed as children don’t work well for us as adults if we really want to be present, live our lives fully and co-create meaning in the world.
On the surface, this can be a hard sell: read this book or do this work and you’ll be able to tolerate more anxiety? May not be the catchiest marketing method. But the truth is we cannot experience and be fully present with joy if we are armoured against or busy trying to outrun the anxiety that’s part of normal human experience.
And there are moments, even when we are fully committed to being present with whatever is, that can simply feel like more than we can hold, moments (or days, or weeks) when our anxiety goes through the roof. Our palms sweat, our hearts pound, we can’t articulate a complete thought and/or we are racing around doing a thousand things to avoid feeling the anxiety. In those moments, it’s helpful to have a way to ground and strengthen our capacity to be with what is. I want to share one such practise here.
This method for being with anxiety without letting it paralyze or send us running from the room is deceptively simple. It comes out of my experience participating in and leading sweat lodge ceremonies. Now, if there’s anything that can and sometimes does raise anxiety it’s going into a small, dark structure filled with hot steam and other people you may or may not know, to do a ceremony designed in part to help you send out prayers from the heart centre of your being. And in ceremony there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no distraction, no way to use old strategies. So, one of the things I have often done myself and have instructed others to do when anxiety arises is- breathe through the soles of your feet.
I know, it sounds crazy, but try it. Wherever you are reading this, put your feet flat on the floor and imagine the earth below you. It may be several stories below you, but wherever you are, it is there- same earth as the one that’s there when you’re sitting on a beach or hiking in the wilderness.
Then, imagine that you are breathing through the soles of your feet, inhaling up from the earth through the bottom of your feet into your body, and exhaling back down through your body and out the soles of your feet into the earth. The beauty of this method is that although it grounds and calms, it does not take us away from what is happening within or around us. It just helps us lower our fear enough to be with what is. And you can do it anywhere: in the middle of a business meeting or at the dinner table with relatives. The more you practise it the more you can develop what is called split attention where a small part of your awareness is imagining your breath flowing in and out of your body through soles of your feet, while you are clearly and calmly answering a question in a job interview or explaining to a relative why you don’t have a “real job.”
So take this along with you today. Give sole/soul-breathing a try, because the soul really can hold it all.
From The Green Bough blog (c) Oriah Mountain Dreamer 2010
Oriah is the author of the international best-selling books: The Invitation, and The Dance, and The Call (published by HarperONE, translated into eighteen languages.) Her much loved poem “The Invitation” has been shared around the world. Trained in a shamanic tradition, her medicine name Mountain Dreamer means one who likes to find and push the edge. Using story, poetry and shamanic ceremony Oriah’s deeply personal writing and her work as a group facilitator and mentor explore how to follow the thread of our heart’s longing into a life where we can choose joy without denying the challenges of a human life. www.oriah.org www.oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com https://www.facebook.com/Oriah.Mountain.Dreamer?sk=wall
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READ: Why am I Still Depressed and Angry? by Panache Desai
January 25, 2012 by Panache Desai
Filed under •-Feature, Health & Well-being, Insights, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Purpose, Reflection, Spiritual teachers, Spirituality
There is a common fallacy that is undermining your journey into wholeness and authenticity. I’m a bit of a gunslinger in this territory, but it is important that you are empowered in this fundamental truth; when you are finally able to grab that brass ring of spiritual accomplishment, you are still going to experience sadness, depression, fear and anger.
I’m going to step out on a bit of a ledge here and conjecture that even the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle get irritated now and again. Recently we watched Oprah up-close and personal in her series “Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes.” Oprah is an amazingly light on this planet and week after week we witnessed the full range of emotions she still experiences. While I don’t call myself a spiritual master, tens of thousands who have experienced vibrational transformation through me define me as such. And I still feel anger, sadness, and fear.
There is nothing wrong with anger, sadness and depression and your experience of them does indicate that you are broken or need fixing.
We are energetic beings. Highly subject to and influenced by the frequencies that are bathing the planet as well as the corresponding energies that are being lovingly stirred up within. The vibration of our planet is in an accelerated state of evolution. You have witnessed the tangible results of these shifting energies in wildly changing weather patterns, a sharp increase in catastrophic weather-related disasters, global instability, financial crises, and the collapse of global systems and structures. If this is how an entire planet responds, imagine the tug and pull on your sensitive being?
Vibrational change, which in reality is vibrational increase, pushes your unresolved vibrational density (the emotional and psychological blocks lodged within your being) into the light of day. Your sadness, depression, anger and fear are energies that are simply looking for release. Each emotion is an energy within your body wanting to be in motion and rise to the surface to be EMBRACED by you. But the number of years that you’ve shamed, ignored or stuffed them is the degree to which they’ve created blockages within your system, growing out-of-proportion to life’s unfolding circumstances, and eventually causing illness and disease.
As we navigate this time of accelerated evolution the truth of your energetic state (your sadness, worries, fears, anger and depression…) is being revealed to you so that you may consciously experience it, embrace it and evolve. Just as a mother lovingly burps a child to release the pent-up bubbles and gas in her baby’s system, the Divine is lovingly embracing you so that all that is stuck or churning within your energetic field may flow through you to be released. This is the true work of inner alchemy and ascension.
If what you desire is a greater level of authenticity within yourself and those you love, you have no choice but to embrace this process and feel what is inside of you. But you do have a choice as to how you experience it, and what you do with it.
One choice is to further suppress or repress your emotions or blame others as the source or reason for your state of being. Doing so increases your vibrational density and keeps you firmly stuck in victimhood with your stories, reasons and justifications while holding you hostage with the “could haves” or “should haves” of life.
Alternatively you may choose to be empowered through vibrational transformation, knowledge, and practice, and find peace with these emotional states by lovingly embracing them as a part of yourself.
Here are some steps to help you begin navigating your fear, anger and depression:
Breathe with Conscious Awareness: In the face of overwhelming emotion you cut the oxygen source to your body by unknowingly holding your breath or breathing very shallowly, keeping you in a heightened state of contraction. Completely relax your body and continue to breathe deeply.
Place Yourself In Present Moment Awareness: When emotion strikes, the stories and beliefs that keep old feelings in place roar to life. You are trapped in an old reality that most likely has nothing to do with what’s unfolding. Get out of your head and anchor yourself in the present moment. Focus on your feet and feel the connection with the ground. Wiggle your hands and feet to establish you in the present. Even the briefest break from the saga unfolding in your brain can disengage you from the past and allow your beingness to support you in the now.
Consciously Name and Acknowledge the Emotion: The instant you name the feeling and become aware that you are experiencing something, you are provided the spaciousness to remain open to the flow of the experience. “Wow, I’m experiencing my anger right now,” is a doorway to awareness as you flow with the energy of the emotion.
There is an End: Sometimes in the midst of emotion, you feel like it is bigger than you. Every experience is finite, it has a beginning and an end while your true nature is infinite. Don’t be afraid. Fully experience the feeling and know it will end.
Every emotion originates from source. Oneness is inclusive of every feeling, emotion and experience – yes even anger, rage, sadness and depression. Trust in this knowing.
Panache Desai is an inspirational visionary and contemporary spiritual master whose gift of vibrational transformation has inspired and shifted the lives of tens of thousands. He shares eternal truths, inspirational insights, and vibrational tools to create the life of your dreams. Panache is a modern-day avatar who acts as a direct link to Divine consciousness empowering people of all ages, economic and educational backgrounds to transform their lives by connecting them with their limitless Divine nature. Young, hip and funny, Panache brings his global community together weekly via LIVE webcasting. http://www.panachedesai.com/
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Are you hard on yourself? The Practice: Don’t beat up yourself. Why? The previous JOT – admit fault and move on – was about our relationship with other people. This JOT applies the same practice to ourselves. Most people know their less than wonderful qualities, such as too much ambition (or too little), a weakness for wine or cookies, something of a temper, or an annoying tendency to rattle on about pet interests. We usually know when we make mistakes, get the facts wrong, could be more skillful, or deserve to feel remorseful.
READ: I Resolve to Be by Gina Sendef
January 24, 2012 by Gina
Filed under •-Headline, Law of Attraction, Metaphysical, Spiritual Guidance
It is that time of year when many people will decide to make a New Year’s resolution; as if the changing of one calendar page will magically bring them the power to achieve a goal or create something new. The truth is, we have that power always, no matter the date or year on the calendar or time on the clock. This year, I am resolving to be.
This is not a goal I intend to achieve, or something new to learn, or a fear to overcome, or a desire to manifest or an item from my bucket list (not that I even have one); this is my natural state, the natural state of all living things. I resolve to be and from that find peace and joy in the present moment. I will not be checking anything off my yearly list, for I no longer have one. I will not celebrate when I accomplish my resolution, for it is always with me. I will not be upset if it does not come to fruition, for there is nothing for me to create. I resolve to be in doing so I will attain everything I ever need.
Aside from resolutions, I often hear people declare, as a new year dawns, that they are thankful the past year ended because it was not a good one. Again, the turning of a calendar page will not magically change your life and end a bad cycle. Only your willingness to change can do that and it can happen on any given date not just January 1st. If your attitude about a certain date or year is negative, than you will only attract more of what you wish to avoid. Focus instead on the positive things that happen for nothing is ever all good or all bad; it is only our perception that makes it seem so. Where you attention goes, your life flows so if unpleasant things are happening, change direction immediately and do not wait for a certain date.
The Law of Attraction is present 24/7 and 365 days a year, not just on January 1st. While a resolution is a positive idea, why wait for year’s end. Make them all the time or don’t make any at all and choose instead to make your intentions for your life a constant process instead of a yearly one. That is why I resolve to be; no pressure, no judgment just the sweetness of the present moment to enjoy for this year and all the rest to come. This is my lifetime resolution.
Gina Sendef is a independent Spiritual Self-Help Author and Angel Intuitive. Writing is her life long passion. Her soon to be self-published first book, “Truth Works, Divine Life Lessons for Kids of all Ages”, is a self-help book geared towards reading age children, teens and young adults. The premise for Truth Works is to undo harmful affects that exisit when our children are taught traditional life lessons like “life is not fair” or “money is the root of all evil”. The goal of the book is to undo this programming at a young age, ensuring the subconscious belief system for our children is optimistic, safe and secure. When we address these destructive beliefs in childhood and expose their false nature, they cannot reside in our subconscious minds for a lifetime as the basis for our beliefs. We are left with the pure, positive and absolute spiritual TRUTH. She created Angel Works as a means to work with the positive and loving energy of the angels to provide people with guidance that will improve their health, uncover their life’s purpose, enrich their relationships and enhance their lives.
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READ: Does Your Relationship Ever Get You Down? by Ed and Deb Shapiro
January 24, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Family & Relationships, Health & Well-being, Love, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Oneness In Action, Personal Growth, Relationships, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality
Shortly after we were married we went to India and spent our honeymoon in monasteries and ashrams. We also had a private meeting with the Dalai Lama at his residence in McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Himalayas. As Ed recalls: After some thirty minutes of talking with him I was feeling so moved by this gentle and loving man that I didn’t want to leave! I was completely in love with this delightful being. He was so ordinary, sitting between us and holding our hands. Finally, I said to him, ‘I don’t want to leave! I just want to stay here with you!’ I knew he would understand my sincerity and would say yes, how wonderful, I can see you are ready for the teachings. But, instead, he just smiled and said, ‘If we were together all the time we would quarrel!’
So relax, if the Dalai Lama can quarrel, so can we! Inevitably there are going to be times when relationship is not easy, when differences collide, when egos clash, when my needs seem more important than yours, or when your needs are not being met. For relationship creates untold problems. Sitting in solitary bliss with our hearts wide open and love pouring out of us towards all beings is relatively easy, but as soon as we come in direct contact with another person everything changes. Our ability to stay open and loving, our selflessness and generosity, all this and more is immediately confronted by someone else’s own wants and needs, by their capacity to accept and love or not.
Relationship is not just an integral part of being alive, it is also the most vital and challenging teacher we can ever have. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, If you can make friends with one person, you can make friends with the world.
Difficulties in relationship show us the many ways our ego-selves try to be right, which can be a cause for either conflict or laughter. Once we were sharing some of our marriage issues with our meditation teacher, and he looked at us quite puzzled. ‘Why not just laugh?’ he suggested. And he was right. Laughter really is the best medicine. When we see the absurdity of two ego’s knocking heads and trying to outwit each other it is very amusing. So often a disagreement is about seeing the same thing in two different ways: one sees a white ceiling, the other sees a flat ceiling, but it’s the same ceiling!
Sometimes, it can be healthy to have a good quarrel, if we can then just let it go and come back to loving. There are bound to be times of flow and times of discord but we don’t need to hold on to either. Difficulties arise because we cling to our own opinion as being the right one and it’s this holding on, with the ensuing shame, blame and hostile silences, that causes so many problems.
In fact, those people we have a difficult time with are really our teachers. For without an adversary—or those who trigger strong reactions such as annoyance and anger—we would not have the stimulus to develop loving kindness and compassion. So we can actually thank our exasperating relationships for the chance to practice patience. What a gift!
We are not alone here, each one of us—both directly and indirectly—affect each other; everyone and everything is dependent on everything else. As Mother Theresa reminds us: If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.
*****
See our award-winning book:BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Edgar Mitchell, Jack Kabat-Zinn, Byrone Katie, Jane Fonda, Marianne Williamson, and many others.
If there is one book you read about meditation Be The Change should be the one. Hear about some of the cool people who are doing it and why you should do it too. – Sharon Gannon, founder Jivamukti Yoga.
Deb is the author of the award-winning YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness.
Our 3 meditation CD’s: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
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January 24, 2012 by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
Filed under •-Feature, Health & Well-being, Insights, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Reflection, Vision
Are you hard on yourself?
The Practice:
Don’t beat up yourself.
Why?
The previous JOT – admit fault and move on – was about our relationship with other people. This JOT applies the same practice to ourselves.
Most people know their less than wonderful qualities, such as too much ambition (or too little), a weakness for wine or cookies, something of a temper, or an annoying tendency to rattle on about pet interests. We usually know when we make mistakes, get the facts wrong, could be more skillful, or deserve to feel remorseful.
Some people err on the side of denying or defending these faults ( a word I use broadly here). But most people go to the other extreme, repeatedly criticizing themselves in the foreground of awareness, or having a background sense of guilt, unworthiness, and low confidence.
It’s one thing to call yourself to task for a fault, try to understand what caused it, resolve to correct it, act accordingly, and move on. This is psychologically healthy and morally accountable. It’s another matter entirely to grind on yourself, to lambaste your own character, to fasten on the negative and ignore the good in you, to find yourself wanting – in other words, to beat up yourself. This excessive inner criticism tears you down instead of building your strengths; it’s stressful and thus wears on your mood, health, and longevity.
Nor does beating up yourself help others. Most of the time, they don’t even know you’re doing it, and if they do, they usually wish you’d stop it. Harsh self-criticism can also be a way to avoid feeling genuine remorse, taking responsibility, making amends for the past, and doing the hard work of preventing the fault in the future.
Further, the charges and scorn we throw at ourselves are often based on nasty scoldings, shamings, rejections, and humiliations experienced as a child: bad enough that they did this to you back then, and even worse that you’re doing it to yourself today.
How?
Pick a small fault – such as being a few minutes late, interrupting, or having too much dessert – and then try on two approaches about it. First, talk to yourself about it like a supportive but no-nonsense friend, coach, teacher, or therapist. Notice what this feels like, and what the results are for you. Let’s call this the encouraging approach. Second, talk to yourself about it like an alarmed and intense critic – maybe like your dad, big sister, or a minister or teacher talked to you. What’s this approach feel like, and what are its results?
Let the differences between approaches sink in. How do you feel inside when you’re “listening” to each one? What’s your sense of the influences in your life that have created each approach? What are the distortions or fixations on the negative in the critical approach?
Let a real conviction form as to which approach is better for you – and a real resolve to truly use the one that’s best for you.
Then, when you find a fault in yourself – no need to go looking, they appear on their own! – really try to use the encouraging approach. Name the fault to yourself and admit the facts of it unreservedly. Open to any appropriate remorse. Commit to skillful corrections for the future.
And then take a big breath and very deliberately name to yourself three strengths or virtues you have. Let the sense of them, and of your natural goodness, sink in.
And then take another big breath and move on.
* * *
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of the bestselling Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (in 20 languages) – and Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time. Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s taught at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and in meditation centers worldwide. His work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Consumer Reports Health, and U.S. News and World Report and he has several audio programs. His blog – Just One Thing – has over 30,000 subscribers and suggests a simple practice each week that will bring you more joy, more fulfilling relationships, and more peace of mind and heart. If you wish, you can subscribe to Just One Thing here.
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What gets you stuck? The Practice: Admit fault and move on. Why? Have you ever watched two people quarrel, or otherwise be stuck in a conflict with each other? Usually, if either or both of them simply acknowledged one or more things, that would end the fight. Read On…
