VividLife.me » Spirituality

READ: Becoming Love by Janice Chrysler

Janice Chrysler — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:00:40 +0000

A simple touch, a gentle kiss, a warm embrace, sitting silently while holding someone’s hand or a loving smile from across the room can all bring peace and calm to a troubled stranger or friend. Just think of when you were a child and how magical it felt to have someone kiss away your “boo-boos” after you had fallen and hurt yourself. Anyone who has had pets can relate to their instinct in knowing when to come and curl up on your lap or lay beside your bed when you are not feeling well. Love, whether it comes from another person or animal can bring balance and healing into our lives faster than any medicine or ritual. Oh, but let’s not forget the love sent to us through nature! Can anything be more calming than an orange and purple sunset as it casts its reflection upon a glass-topped lake? Or sitting under countless stars on a full moon lit night?

It is all too easy to by pass the simple things in our lives and brush off the necessity for the feeling of connection with one another, the universe, nature and the Divine. Isn’t it easier just to make the excuse that you don’t have the time, energy or money to reach out and touch someone, take a walk or to pray? After all, wouldn’t it be safer not to love in order not to feel rejection or hurt feeling? But in reality, what are you really saving? In fact, you are depriving yourself of the very thing you came to this earth to experience – the joy of life itself!

Take a moment and look around you. Really look at the people you meet, the buildings you pass on your way to work, the colours of the leaves of the trees or hear the laughter of the children playing in the yards. When was the last time you read the name tag the check out girl in the grocery store was wearing and then took the time to call her by name? How many times have you passed an elderly person who was sitting alone on a bench, not even taking the time to send a smile their way? Those people you pass and choose to ignore may be going through something upsetting in their lives and your kind word could make all the difference in their day or even their life.

Random acts of kindness are not things you should have to think about and plan but rather come naturally to you throughout the day. So I challenge you during the course of the next month, make it a point to do give something to everyone you meet, give something back to the earth and make a point to put aside time for your connection with Spirit. No money needs to be spent and very little time will be taken from your day. Passing along a smile, encouraging words, or even silently sending another love and positive energy can all be done so easily. Thinking about the products you purchase and their effect upon our earth, going for a walk, breathing in the fresh air and feeling the warmth of the sun upon your skin are simple ways to give thanks to this planet and the universe. Above all, allow yourself a few minutes each day for solitude and meditation because it is during these moments of silence that you find your inner peace and connection to Spirit. Here in this time where you “just be” you will experience the oneness with everything and find yourself being rejuvenated and your love replenished a hundredfold.

What are you waiting for? Close your eyes, breath deeply, exhale slowly and allow the love of the world around you and the unconditional love sent from Spirit to completely envelope you. Now imagine sending that love to all the people you have crossed paths with today…. whether you know them or not, like them or not and regardless of what they did or did not do towards you today. Send this same feeling of love to all of nature and the universe as it too must heal and grow through our positive thoughts and actions. Now, wasn’t that easy? You have just taken the first step to truly becoming love and opening yourself up to receive the many blessings you too deserve.

Janice Chrysler: Through Hypnosis, Reiki and Spiritual Coaching Janice assists others in awakening their inner strengths and connection of Mind-Body-Spirit. Once this spark is ignited they are able to make changes necessary for their personal growth. Practicing from her Marmora office, Janice provides private and group sessions and workshops along with weekly meditation classes. She is also a wedding officiant providing unique ceremonies for weddings, namings and funerals. In all areas of life, her goal is to bring individuals closer to Spirit. “Life is a learning field for all of us and we are all on a journey. Throughout the trip we cross each other’s path for a reason. I am grateful for all my life’s experiences as I feel it has taught me to become who I am today and I know, the trip is far from over! Who knows when and where we will meet. Namaste, Janice” www.mindfuljourney.ca

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What is Love? by Panache Desai

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Technorati Tags: gentle, inner peace, inspiration, Janice Chrysler, kiss, love, nature, Relationships, Spirituality, touch, vivid life

READ: Telling the Truth About What Is Here by Gangaji

Gangaji — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:32 +0000

One of the most powerful phrases in human language is “I am here.” It is powerful because it is utterly simple and profoundly true. Anything that is said or thought afterward is just an addition to this basic, unfaltering truth. In fact I and am and here are all pointing to the same essential truth, pointing to that which needs no foundation for its support, because it is the foundational truth.

Even “I am not here,” comes from the truth of being here. Denial of presence can only be stated here, where you are. The power to deny yourself comes from the truth of yourself.

In recognizing that basic truth, I am here, you have the opportunity to be welcomed here, to welcome yourself here, and to welcome what else has appeared here, in whatever state you find present in yourself.

I am inviting you to tell the truth, as completely as possible, about what is here. You probably have particular feelings that are here. Can you welcome them? When feelings change, you are still here. Feelings will change, which may be a good thing or a bad thing, but you remain. Here remains. Here doesn’t change. Things that appear here change.

Tomorrow comes here, yesterday was here. The sun comes here, clouds come here. Limitless beingness, here, discovers itself as I. The ground of the ground, the beingness of your being.

In this very moment you can tell this basic truth, I am here, and meet whatever is evoked by that truth telling. You can rest your mind in this truth. Your thinking mind can be embraced by this truth.

As an investigation, just in this moment, can you find a beginning or an end to here?

Has here ever been absent from your life?

Can you find a time in your life when you ever were not?

You can also turn your attention to the pronoun that everyone uses, I. If you do not limit I to a particular story about I, or a particular definition, or a particular gender, or a particular body, can you recognize it here as consciousness? Deeper and closer than any thought, and yet informing every thought.

In recognizing the particular thoughts that attempt to define I, and attempt to define being, and attempt to define here, in any moment we can simply return to the fundamental truth that needs no definition for its truthfulness.

I am here.

Then we can ask ourselves, “Is it enough?” If full attention is turned to I am here, is anything lacking?

There is no correct answer. It is a discovery.

This blog is adapted from a talk given by Gangaji at Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC in September 2011. Gangaji’s new book Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story, was published in September by Tacher/Penguin. In this life-changing book, Gangaji uses the telling of her own life story to help readers uncover the truth in their own. Publisher’s Weekly said, “This gently flowing but often disarming volume invites readers to examine the narratives that shape them, and is a call to pass beyond personal stories to find a deeper, more universal self.” Visit www.gangaji.org for more information about Gangaji and her upcoming events, including the monthly Webcast / Conference Series, With Gangaji, which is currently undergoing an in-depth study of Hidden Treasure.

Gangaji shares a simple message – “This is an invitation to shift your allegiance from the activities of your mind to the eternal presence of your being.” Born in Texas in 1942, Gangaji grew up in Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1964, she married and had a daughter. In 1972, she moved to San Francisco where she began exploring deeper levels of her being. She took Bodhisattva vows, practiced Zen and Vipassana meditation, helped run a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center, and had a career as an acupuncturist in the San Francisco Bay area. Despite her successes, Gangaji continued to experience a deep and persistent longing for fulfillment. She pursued many paths to change her life including relationship, motherhood, political activism, career, and spiritual practice, but even the greatest of her successes ultimately came up short. In the wake of her disillusionment, she made a final prayer for true help. In 1990, the answer to her prayer came unexpectedly, taking her to India and to the meeting that would change everything. There on the banks of the river Ganga, she met Sri H.W.L. Poonja, also known as Papaji, who opened the floodgates of self-recognition. In this meeting, Gangaji’s personal story of suffering ended and the promise of a true life began to flower and unfold. Today, Gangaji travels the world speaking to seekers from all walks of life. A teacher and author, she shares her direct experience of the essential message she received from Papaji and offers it to all who want to discover a true and lasting fulfillment. Through her life and words, she powerfully articulates how it is really possible to discover the truth of who you are and to be true to that discovery. Gangaji’s website www.gangaji.org

READ: Don’t Put Anyone Out Of Your Heart by Ed and Deb Shapiro

Ed and Deb Shapiro — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:37 +0000

The story goes that, at the time of the Buddha, a group of monks wanted to do a quiet retreat away from the crowds of followers, so the Buddha sent them to a glade in the forest where he said they would be undisturbed.

The monks found their way there and settled down to meditate. But what they didn’t know was that this particular glade was inhabited by a gang of tree spirits who were really upset that the monks had come. And when tree spirits get upset they can be extremely scary, ugly, very smelly and unbelievably noisy, ferociously shrieking all over the place. They did everything they could to spook the hermits and make them leave. And it worked. The monks decided they couldn’t possibly meditate with so many disturbances, so they went back to the Buddha and begged him to let them go somewhere else.

But no. Instead, the Buddha taught them a meditation practice of loving kindness, or metta in Sanskrit, which develops loving kindness towards everyone, including yourself and your enemies. And then he sent the monks back to the forest. His famous words were: This is the only protection you will need.

Thinking the Buddha must be mad the monks reluctantly went back to the glade, sat down and began practicing metta. And the tree spirits, who at first were not at all pleased to see them returning, no longer had any affect on them. For all their antics, the monks just kept sitting there, beaming out kindness. Eventually the spirits were won over by the waves of love and compassion emanating from these robed ones and, far from than chasing them away, the same nasty’s that had been so ferocious now became disciples.

The question is, who are the tree spirits? Realistically, they are everything that goes on in our own minds—all the doubts, fears, anger, insecurities, and negative thoughts—that constantly undermine our basic goodness, which is innate in all of us. And the point the Buddha was making is that loving kindness—metta–has the capacity to overcome all manner of inner monsters and ghouls and lead us to a true heart opening. Metta is the act of extending our love, kindness and friendship equally towards all beings, proving that love is more powerful than any negative force. Rather than trying to deal with negativity, we cultivate the opposite; seeing and knowing pain, we bring caring and kindness.

We know this sounds so easy: just be kind and loving, how great, what a cool idea. But in practice it’s not always so simple, such as when someone says or does something that is personally critical, derogatory or hurtful. Can metta still flow when the ego-mind is upset? By focusing on loving kindness as a way of living, it shows us all those places that are bound in ego and selfishness; it brings us up against our limitations and boundaries. Where do we meet our edge? Where is our capacity to step over the edge into greater kindness? How genuine is our ability to be altruistic in a difficult situation?

We remember talking with our friend Ram Dass at the time of the Clinton/Dole election. He told us how he had a picture of Bob Dole on his meditation altar as: “Dole needs the most love and compassion as he is the one being so vilified.”

In that act, Ram Dass was practicing true metta. It was an important reminder not to cast anyone out of our hearts, for in the process we are casting out ourselves. If we feel affected by someone being dismissive, critical or hurtful, it is invariably because there is a hook in us for that negativity to grab hold of, a place where it can land and trigger all our hidden feelings of unworthiness, insecurity, and self-doubt.

However, when we extend metta toward someone we are having a hard time with, an extraordinary thing happens: the landing place, or the hook within, begins to dissolve. Then the negativity has no place to go. Metta asks that we stay caring, that we keep our heart open to the situation we are struggling with and all the accompanying annoyance and anger, and hold ourselves with gentle tenderness. Then amazing change is possible.

5 minute Loving Kindness Meditation

Begin by breathing into you’re the area of your heart, softening and relaxing with the in-breath, letting go of tension on the out-breath. Hold your name or an image of yourself in your heart and silently repeat: May I be well, may I be happy, may I be filled with loving kindness.

Next, wish all beings be well, wish all beings be happy. If at work you can spend a few moments repeating the names of people you work with and wishing them happiness and joy. On your way home from work reflect on your day and generate loving thoughts to those you meet. At night, think of your family and friends and wish them wellness and happiness: May they be well, may they be happy, may they be filled with loving kindness.

Finish by taking a few deep breaths and slowly opening your eyes, nad have a smile on your face!

****

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 Jack Kornfield, Jon 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.

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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Technorati Tags: appreciation, gratitude, Happiness, inspiration, love, Meditation, personal development, Personal Growth, self-discovery, Spirituality

READ: WHERE IS YOUR ATTENTION? By Cynthia James

Cynthia James — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:57 +0000

There are some people that are experiencing greater challenges than ever before in their lives. Others are experiencing spiritual awakenings that are awe inspiring. The news tells us that our culture is in a crisis mode and spiritual teachers tell us that this is a transformative moment in time. The question becomes; through what personal lens are you viewing life and the world around you? How are you framing the hard moments of feeling disconnected and afraid?

Most of us are clear that the setting of powerful intentions puts something in motion in the universe that can support a dynamic unfolding in our lives. I would like to suggest that we look beyond intention and see where we are placing our attention. Where we place our attention grows. What decisions are we making based on perceptions of lack and limitation? What behaviors are being activated out of fear and doubt? Are we seeing the potential for growth and personal expansion? Are we excited to open to the grand opportunities that are available in every moment? In other words, are we looking at the world through a glass that is half full or half empty? If it is half empty, we feel victimized by our circumstances. We feel helpless and overwhelmed. If we see life as a half full glass, we become enamored with the possibilities that are available in every moment. We begin to stand in a place of expectancy of good that will fill our cup to overflowing.

Here are some questions that may support placing your attention on powerful possibility potential:

1. Does my heart feel closed or open?
2. Am I afraid in this moment? Is the fear real or imagined?
3. Am I focusing on the past?
4. Am I worried about the future?
5. How is this fear serving to keep me feeling small and inadequate?
6. What is available for me to shift my thinking right now? (prayer, meditation, journaling, etc)
7. What ignites me and brings me joy?
8. If there were no obstacles, what would I be doing? Now do it, even if it is in a small way….there are no obstacles.

I encourage you to journal around these questions and then make a list of action steps that you will do to focus your attention on what you want. You do not want to place any energy on what you don’t want.
Take a moment to remember this:

I declare in this moment, that I am a space of pure potential. Bad news has no power over me. I enthusiastically choose my thoughts. I consciously choose my behavior. I joyously choose love over fear, harmony over discord and peace over pain. I am the captain of my ship and I sail the uncharted waters of expanded living.

Cynthia James is a transformational specialist guiding thousands of people to make changes for lasting healing in their lives. Ms James is a speaker, teacher, performing artist and the award winning author of “What Will Set You Free”. Cynthia has facilitated hundreds of workshops, and keynotes; including Celebrate Your Life, Woman Arising, the Gift in Shift, Colorado Behavior Healthcare Council, the Women’s Success Forum, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Detention Facility, and many others. She is the founder of the Cynthia James Support Network; an online support community. Cynthia’s newest book, “Revealing Your Extraordinary Essence”, offers practical tools for self empowerment. www.CynthiaJames.net

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Technorati Tags: attention, challenge, Cynthia James, experiences, Focus, inspiration, spiritual teachers, Spirituality, thoughts, vivid life

READ: Soul Breathing by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Oriah Mountain Dreamer — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:10 +0000

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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Technorati Tags: anxiety, breathing, fear, grounding, inspiration, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Reflection. Self Help, Soul Breathing, Spirituality, stress

READ: Why am I Still Depressed and Angry? by Panache Desai

Panache Desai — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:31:36 +0000

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.

Technorati Tags: anger, conscious awareness, depression, energy, internal harmony, mindfulness, panache desai, Panache Desai blog, Personal Growth, present moment awareness, sadness, spiritual teacher, Spirituality, stress, vibration, why am I angry, why am I depressed

READ: Does Your Relationship Ever Get You Down? by Ed and Deb Shapiro

Ed and Deb Shapiro — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:51:06 +0000

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.

Deb is the author of the award-winning YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness.

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As we think so we become by Ed and Deb Shapiro

LOVING A WABI SABI SLOPPY JOE by Arielle Ford

Even though Diane truly loved Jerry (her husband who is 20 years her senior), she was confronted on a daily basis with something about him she found very hard to embrace: his passion for poppy seed bagels. Since childhood, Jerry has had a love affair with poppy seed bagels. In fact, he enthusiastically devours one nearly every day. Jerry’s slices and toasts his bagel, then takes it into, Read On…

Technorati Tags: appreciation, gratitude, Happiness, inspiration, love, Meditation, personal development, self-discovery, Spirituality

READ: What is Your Story? by Gangaji

Gangaji — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:49:16 +0000

All creatures are born inescapably defined by their stories, yet if we remain limited by those definitions we live a life of inner bondage. When we recognize the stories that generate our definitions of ourselves, we are closer to the discovery of what is indefinable within us. That discovery reveals inner freedom and lasting fulfillment.

Each life form has a beginning, an arc of a life story, and then an ending. Most of our internal and external attention and communication circle around the particulars of how we define ourselves as collective life and how we define ourselves, or others, as particular life. Other animals, trees, flowers, butterflies, spiders, rocks, planets and solar systems also have their stories, and the broadcasting of their stories is both our greatest entertainment and our inevitable humbling. We can find ourselves, or parts of ourselves, in all stories and we can separate ourselves through our stories.

We all come from life-giving energy, are infused and animated by life energy to become a particular life-form, and we all end in returning to formless life. Along the way there are small and great dramas, crossroads of destiny and surprises both wondrous and horrific. Some life stories end very quickly and some go on and on. There are countless dramas within this bigger, incomprehensible universal story. Stories are sung, put into sacred books, memorized, dramatized and consulted generation after generation. Our collective cosmic story is a teeming theater of lifeforms appearing and disappearing. Forms are born, live through many stories and then die. Before any form appears, life is here. During the lifetime of any form, life is animating that form. After any particular form dies, life — while withdrawn from that form — remains here. Life is true. It is always here.

Most of my life was spent at war with the characters — including the lead, me — in my story. They weren’t good enough, or smart enough, or deep enough. At one point in the story of me, none of us were rich enough. At another point, when material possessions were disdained, none of us were poor enough. It was never right. It could always be better. Sometime in the future, I could make my story turn out to fit my latest idealization, or so I hoped. For four decades I worked at building a story that would fulfill me. Periods of happiness and peace came and went. Lasting happiness remained out of my grasp. It took some time to realize that the lasting fulfillment I was seeking couldn’t be captured by any story I told about myself. The fulfillment I was seeking in my many attempts to tell a story of victory couldn’t be captured because it is free. It took more time to realize that my story was mysteriously appearing in that which is already fulfilled. It was a beautiful and wonderful shock to discover that freedom and fulfillment were never absent whatever the latest rendition of my story. My story was an individual display of the search for the living free consciousness already inhabiting each character. When I recognized the silent fulfilled core in all versions of myself — and all the others in my story — I could rest. In the spaciousness of rest, I could begin to live my life from fulfillment, rather than continuing to search for it.

What is your story? You discover your story by noticing what you are telling yourself over and over. Notice what you tell yourself about your past, your present and your future. In order to have any lasting impact, our stories have to be told and retold. All stories have a narrative. Your narrative is what you tell yourself through thoughts and images with accompanying emotions. What is your narrative? You can check right now. It is bound to be familiar. It is natural as human animals with developed cognitive abilities to generate and follow the narrative of our stories. It certainly is not wrong to do so. But it is limiting. It limits attention to events that are forever changing. To discover how your attention is being spent, discover what you habitually say to yourself. Listen to your narrative while suspending belief in it.

All definitions and stories arise from the silent core, and in surrender all are then pointers to where they come from and where they return at their end. In surrender all is transparent from the luminosity of your naked self.

This blog is adapted from Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story, which was published by Penguin Tarcher in 2011. In this life-changing book, Gangaji uses the telling of her own life story to help readers uncover the truth in their own. Publisher’s Weekly said, “This gently flowing but often disarming volume invites readers to examine the narratives that shape them, and is a call to pass beyond personal stories to find a deeper, more universal self.” In February and March Gangaji will be teaching in Maui, HI, offering a Silent Retreat with Eli, and Small Group Weekend. Visit www.gangaji.org for more information about Gangaji and her upcoming events, including the monthly Webcast / Conference Series, With Gangaji, which is currently undergoing an in-depth study of Hidden Treasure.

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Rediscovering Your Natural Curiosity by Gangaji

The primary concern for all life forms is survival. In the case of humans, the basis of everything we think is somehow about our survival. Everything we feel is related to our survival. Even everything we understand is about our survival. What we understand is what we can categorize. A category presents us with a version of reality we can live with. If we can live with it we can survive. Read On…

Walking On The Moon And Moments That Change Your Life Forever

Technorati Tags: authenticity, gratitude, Honesty, inspiration, peace, personal development, Spirituality

READ: Walking On The Moon And Moments That Change Your Life Forever

Ed and Deb Shapiro — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:01:17 +0000

Imagine walking on the moon and then returning to earth in Apollo 14? That’s what Edgar Mitchell, the 6^th astronaut to walk on the moon, talked to us about for our radio show and in our book, Be The Change. Few of us ever get to see the earth from outer space, but it was entering the vastness of space that led Mitchell to a deep, personal transformation, one of those moments that change us forever: unexpected and unlooked-for moments that take us out of our normal, rational selves and offer us a glimpse into another dimension of reality.

“We were coming home after being on the moon. As we rotated, a 360-degree panorama of the heavens appeared in the spacecraft window every two minutes. As my job had been the landing craft on the moon, I could now sit back and enjoy the view. I became immersed in the vastness of space. Suddenly, I realized the connectedness of everything, like the ancient mystics all said, and it was accompanied by this feeling of ecstasy, an overwhelming experience that I had never had before.”

Having a glimpse of a different reality can have the effect of turning us inward, as if the outer world loses its relevance while the inner world becomes alive and vibrant. As Mitchell continues:

” I wanted to know what had happened in that transcendent experience so when I got back to earth I started talking with Eastern mystics and holy men, and with spiritual people from all over the world. I studied virtually all the meditation disciplines and techniques and practices that there are. The only answer I came to was that I was in resonance, a deep quantum resonance with the ground of my being. A theologian would say the ground of our being is God; I would say it is a field of infinite energy and potential and that when we have such experiences we are in quantum resonance with that deep reality. And when we get in resonance with that reality, we have this feeling of deep peace and the sense that everything is really okay.”

Such transcended moments can take the form of dissolving our sense of being a separate self. For Deb’s mother, it occurred when she was washing the dishes and heard the sound of a wild bird’s song; in that moment, she became the sound and lost any sense of being apart from it. For Deb, it occurred when a worm crawled over her foot: “I was barefoot and had been walking slowly and meditatively across the grass. I had stopped and was standing very still and silent when this worm crawled out of the earth and traveled across my foot before disappearing back into the grass. I felt this intense gratitude that it had deemed me safe enough to walk over, and then I suddenly became it, there was no difference or separation between us. I too disappeared into the grass. In that moment I ceased to be a separate, ego-defined human. It changed the way I saw everything.”

Transcendence also awakens our heart to the love that is the essence of all life. Ed had this experience when he was on the ferryboat going from NYC to the Statue of Liberty. It was evening and he was gazing at the starlit sky. “It seemed the sky was clearer than usual with the stars shining brightly. It was if the microcosm became the macrocosm and there was no separation, just one breath. The universe was breathing and I was part of this universal breath, my whole body was breathing along with the whole cosmos. I became breath, and then it all became a bright light. All I could feel was that everything is love. I spun around and in every direction it was love! Within and without was love! Up and down was love! My whole being was blissful love!”

Such moments stay with us; they alter our fundamental awareness and constantly remind us not to take ourselves too seriously, that we are way bigger than we realize, and that that vastness is always available to us.

****

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.

Deb is the author of the award-winning YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness.

Listen to Ed and Deb’s VividLife Radio interview with Edgar Mitchell 6th Man to Walk on the Moon:

Shoot for the Moon with Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, 6th Man to Walk on the Moon

VividLife Radio’s Ed and Deb Shapiro welcome Edgar Mitchell, an American pilot, engineer, astronaut.and the sixth person to walk on the Moon to discuss realization , oneness and walking on the moon. Edgar Mitchell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970 by President Richard Nixon.

Technorati Tags: appreciation, Grace Ste.Croix, gratitude, Happiness, inspiration, life purpose, love, Meditation, personal development, Personal Growth, self-discovery, Spirituality

READ: Something Greater This Way Comes by Panache Desai

Panache Desai — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:31:50 +0000

I see all of life unfolding in an upwardly evolving spiral. And its momentum is continually moving you forward.

Even those events that appear to be catastrophic are propelling you onward although you swear they are giant steps backwards. Bad marriages, crappy jobs, financial challenges, health crises, the loss of a loved one… each appears as a debilitating or even disastrous set-back, further complicated by the stress and emotions that flood every sensory point within your body. Fear of what’s unfolding and the mind’s need to analyze and label renders you hopeless at times and further cements your reality as depressing, insurmountable, and even crippling.

Yet the truth remains that even in the face of tremendous odds, each is challenging you to a greater way of being.

The vast majority of those who find themselves on the path of enlightenment do so with the belief that when you reach a certain level of consciousness misfortune miraculously evaporates; that somehow years of practice and austerities provide immunity to the bad stuff. Nice concept… but again, not true. Bad things happen to good people all the time regardless of the level of consciousness they inhabit.

From the moment you take your first breath until you draw your last, the rollercoaster of life will continue to unfold as the vehicle for a veritable smorgasbord of highlights and train wrecks, celebrations and tragedies, all for your benefit, and each ultimately providing the opportunity for you to flow with what’s unfolding.

Every challenge – big or small – serves as the catalyst to bring up whatever is unresolved within you. A bad marriage feeds into your story about being inferior, unworthy, and unlovable, but it’s not the divorce that is causing you sadness, grief and stress; it’s your resistance to the experience of the divorce. Unexpected job loss and financial hardship is the outward manifestation to support your life-long story about not being smart enough and a failure, but it’s not the job loss that is causing you anger, fear and depression; it’s your resistance to what’s unfolding. And the unforeseen death of a spouse confirms your darkest beliefs that you will always be betrayed, abandoned and alone but again, but it’s not death that cements your story but your escalating interior battle with what’s unfolding, that leaves you drowning in fear, stress, and victimhood.

Whether it’s a minor hiccup in your daily experience or the most unspeakable tragedies, it is your RESISTANCE to what’s unfolding that causes you stress, pain, grief and sadness. As long as you externalize the problem by waiting for the event to go away, life to get better, or people to change, you remain hopelessly trapped. You have placed your BEINGNESS outside yourself and you diminish your ability to be present, to grow and evolve.

The only thing you have control over is how you meet life as it unfolds. Each event is a messenger calling you into greater possibilities. The first step to meeting life with presence is to consciously BREATH and fully FEEL what is coming up within you WITHOUT JUDGEMENT. Your emotions are the vehicle through which the unresolved energies move through your body. Step out of judgment and blame. As you sit with the emotion you move into presence by simply feeling. Your tears are merely salty water running down your face – you are making up the rest.

Indeed each of life’s events is a bridge to higher and greater consciousness. Through the catalytic experience of each, your unresolved issues are being drawn out of you so that the underlying energies can be experienced. Every trip and fall along life’s path calls into your awareness any and all unresolved emotional content. Fear, anger, sadness, insecurity, and most definitely stress. As you evolve along this spiral of evolution, you meet each of life’s challenges from a higher perspective and a greater level of being and self-love.

With conscious awareness and presence a miraculous shift unfolds. You move away from the limited critical evaluation and judgment of the mind into the spacious and loving presence of the heart. You are able to flow with life and miraculously your perception of suffering begins to evaporate.

This truly is a huge step in human awareness and not an easy one. So be gentle with yourself as you navigate these new waters. When you trust in the greater evolution of life as an ever unfolding spiral it becomes easier to acknowledge that the universe is on your side and working in your favor. And know that always… something greater this way comes.

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Who am I? by Shayne Traviss

Scientists say we’re made of Atoms, pure energy…but where does that come from? World religious heads say we are a creation of God…but where does God come from? Philosophers and Spiritual teachers have entertained theories from; we are one collective energy expressed through many forms, to life is an illusion…but where does that come from?

Getting to Know You by Panache Desai

Someone You Really Need to Get to Know There is someone I’m dying for you to really get to know. This person is amazing, insightful, charming, brimming with life, and filled with limitless potential. You’ll be blown away by their depth and capacity for love. I’d like you to meet… you!

Technorati Tags: conscious awareness, depression, internal harmony, mindfulness, panache desai, Panache Desai blog, Personal Growth, present moment awareness, spiritual teachers, Spirituality, stress