Disappearing act

Disappearing act

Ever think about what it would feel like being a part of a magician's trick? Especially the one when he makes the assistant disappear and then reappear somewhere else. I am sure it is just an illusion yet the effect is spell binding. Now imagine if you could do that to yourself on a regular basis, how would you feel? Life is chaotic as it is with the constant hustle and bustle of our physical and mental processes that we cannot keep up. We get so involved in the flow of work or life activities that we forget who we are or what we represent and for that matter what would happen if we were not here. There is a simple little exercise you can do to not only disappear but when you reappear, you are more alive and aware of the moment. 

Right in the middle of the chaos of your life when you feel you are so overwhelmed, stop. Take a breath. Imagine that you have died and you are not here, yet you are now at this very moment witnessing everything happening in front of you but cannot communicate with any person, or anything. Just watch as things happen WITHOUT your participation. Just be still. Feel everything happening. See the people communicating and going about their activities , see objects moving, note the events unfolding through time. This is an amazing disappearing act. It will bring  you a sense of peace as you see that life is moving right along without you. Know that everything is well despite your absence. This in no means underestimates your presence on this planet or undervalues your life's existence. It simply reveals that life can go on even though you are not there to be involved in the overwhelming madness of it all. Be like a ghost or angel if you will, just witnessing.

Now step out of your plane and join the race, but this time with a fully awakened presence of mind. Know now that your reappearance heralds your key necessity to make a difference in the course of events, yet now with a greater sense of peace. Disappearing and reappearing is more dissolving and re-manifesting yourself into a new you, one more capable of exacting help, providing assistance, changing causality and outcomes with calm, focus and poise.  You are more valued than you believed, more loved than you realized and  more needed that you thought. Fulfilling your multifaceted roles while wearing your numerous hats is one thing, yet looking good and alive wearing those hats is quite another.

Wow you have been gone a while, welcome back...and thanks for returning :)

The doctors waiting room

The doctor's waiting room

If you are ever unfortunate enough to have to go visit the doctors office you are usually required to patiently (no pun intended) sit in a room till your appointed time to meet with the health care professionals. Looking around the room, you can see the variety of faces of the patients. Some sad, some sick, some impatient, some depressed, some dejected. The whole gamete of human emotion can be found. Different people all with a different physical or mental illness that is plaguing their existence. Regardless of specialty, the fuller the waiting room the inference is that more people are sick and ailing which is unfortunate. Hence it is always good to appreciate when you are healthier, and  in so doing enjoy it with great gratitude that you are not an patient. Not a single one of us can recall that they have never seen an unhealthy person and more so never recall not getting sick at one point in their lives. This is the nature of life and eventuality of death. Sickness and good health are just states of being while we start and end our lives. 

The doctor may be sad to see an empty waiting room or elated when seeing a packed one, yet regardless of their opinion they are there only to help the physical or mental derangement.The healing of the spiritual is in your hands. What you choose to focus on expands. The more negativity you choose to accept and bring in, the more illness in some fashion creeps in to your heart, mind, body. The more positivity you seek, the more clean health you embrace. I am certainly not advocating that you do not seek out care when needed, nor that you miss your wellness physical appointment so that you stay healthy. I am emphasizing that apart from medication, and supplements there is another part of you that may equally need treatment, so do not discount this entity, namely your Spirit. 

Exploring the lighter side of life is as important as seeking a health care professional's counsel. Spend some quality time with yourSelf to firstly diagnose what the disease process that has taken hold of you. Check out the symptoms as you run through your feelings of unhappiness, anger, negativity. Once you make your diagnosis, then start chipping away at the root cause. As you do this, the treatment presents itself as you do this and may in fact be just that, reduce your sizable mountain of an "illness." Whether it is finding something humorous to enjoy, or a peaceful walk with nature, or engaging in a hobby of your choice, the treatment and cure is within You. Spiritual sickness is curable 100% of the time, unlike the illnesses of the manifested world. Reconvening with the universe and your Source is a good initial place to open yourself up to understand the magnitude of the problem. Despite your ego telling you otherwise, your particular barrier is not unique and the solution is always at hand. Forgiveness and letting go of your troubles is one such avenue, and immeasurable gratitude for all in the past, present and future is yet another road that you must travel on to attain your "cure." So the next time you are in the waiting room , try meditating while you patiently wait instead of being a waiting patient, you may have started your healing process before your actual appointment. 

Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, within Me.

Living on the edge

Living on the edge

Someone bothers us or something does not go our way. It irritates us. This festers like a thorn in a finger, and continues to draw out older negative experiences. Regardless of relationship to the present condition, these negative feelings continue to create an eventual tidal wave that will rise and rise leading to frustration, hatred and anger. We then teeter on the edge of madness. Yet what prevents us from losing our cool and striking someone or something, thereby committing a heinous act. Or even for that matter letting our guard down and in that momentary weakness or blurring of lines commit adultery, steal, lie, cheat, striking someone in anger and behave badly.  Moreover what is lacking in many who do cross over the drawn line of "normality." 

The place to answer the question is at the beginning. How do we prevent ourselves from reaching and living on the edge of the abyss? It is very easy to say "stay calm and carry on", " be at peace at all times", " relax and meditate" yet the truth be told it takes a lot more courage, strength and resolve to hold back the winds of anger in face of a stimulus versus hiding in a hut away from reality. This is called living. The adages noted as above are merely reinforcements to the already erected scaffolding of the mind that is in place to prevent you from  losing the battle and pulling you back from the edge. We should try not to keep living on the edge lest we intend to stay there and get accustomed to the dizzy heights from whence to fall. We prevent ourselves by strengthening these reinforcements on a daily basis through the presence of mind and faith. Being in the moment affords us the extra second of pause to breathe and then react which makes all the difference in the world. By allowing your spirit to give you much needed counsel in that split second makes the difference between you shouting in anger or striking someone, and maintaining composure and walking back from the edge. Unfortunately the edge will always be there so long as we interact with this world and the persons within it, yet it is about summoning the fortitude and not stepping off the edge of destruction. That brief second maybe in just a second in linear time but it is in fact infinity in spiritual time, long enough for you to choose the next step. What may not be present in the people who commit bad behavior or heinous acts  are those whose struts are not strongly placed and so are carried off by the forces of anger. 

The blurry lines of right and wrong are instilled from a young age by parents, teachers and society, the downside is that it is usually based on someone else's morality and imprinted upon us. The nature of spirit is never allowed to "mature" in the physical realm as we are too young and physically or mentally "immature"and so we adopt the boundaries and lines from others. I would argue that if given the right circumstances by parents or society as a whole, one can allow even a young child to have the confidence and insight to ripen their own spiritual Selves, thereby adorning their true morality while still at a young stage, and so not corrupted by that of others. Yet time and tide wait for no man, and neither can be reversed, so move forward and do your best. I would suggest that by enabling the practice of being ever present, which might be helped through various meditative techniques, or simply following your breath awareness on a more moment to moment interval might be one such start. Not taking on the stimulus head first may assist in changing the landscape that is presented. Living on the edge or walking around on egg shells is no way to live. Look over at the abyss, smile and say boo ! Make it afraid of you and not the other way round. Remember to step away not step off the edge. 

Scared of heights? Great time to not live on the edge. 

 

Living outside your comfort zone

Living outside your comfort zone

We love the idea that whatever we do is within our personal acceptable limits. We enjoy being in within this "zone" as  it is comfortable. We barely stretch out  from its walls to improve ourselves ever so slightly and then retreat within once again. This is called our comfort zone. It is known, it is safe and secure. Any ideas that break down these walls or require us to jump across the safety of the boundaries gives us concern and we dare not venture out. Inside the zone is the knowledge that we have obtained through out our lives either through experienced triumphs or fears or things we have been told without much basis in fact. Tales of others experiences from long long ago are firmly entrenched within us, leaving a footprint if you will into our psyche. The ego is the king or queen of this realm and clearly very happy to run a tight reign.  When the drawbridge of the castle of comfort is drawn up and the windows are tightly shut, there is little room for reason to creep in and bring you out to  explore anything. You bolt the doors and get into your proverbial comfortable slippers and lie on the comfy sofa and do not take any calls.

Now outside this zone is the unknown, and everything that you really choose to desire, choose to do and choose  to become. Yet you have to choose to come out. Living outside your comfort  zone is very hard for your ego, but very easy for your true Self that knows what to expect, namely freedom to do anything. Whether you choose to explore new lands, change your career, pick up new hobbies, learn new skills, try a new experience, you usually take permission from your ego, who usually says a big emphatic NO ! Somehow you escape and do what it is you choose to do and the zone becomes bigger. Once you experience something it now becomes part of your repertoire of knowledge and  the ego accepts it. The tough part is trying to get the walls permeable enough to continuously keep experiencing new things and then like a balloon it expands and the comfort zone encompasses everything. However note that like the balloon, the zone will also at some point grow to a certain size and then stop expanding  or burst. This problem occurs because like with the balloon, boundaries and walls will always restrict us. 

A novel idea is to liberate ourSelves from the said comfort zone and find another form of housing, essentially living free outside of the comfort zone at all times. The universe will provide you with all you ever will need to live outside the constraining zone, making your stay more comfortable. You are going to have to negotiate with the ever powerful ego and let it understand that it is in its best interest to join in the fun, and that it is still in control of itself but not of you. There are infinite possibilities awaiting you to explore and for you to grow. You are the true king or queen of your castle and world. Will you let your subjects like the ego and the mind,  chain you in your own home, or will you open the front door, step outside and take in the sights, sounds and a big breath of fresh air.

Have you scaled the walls of your comfort zone yet?