If you ever wonder

I would like to be someone you’ll remember
But not someone you can’t forget

Becoming aware of my presence should be like
Taking notice of a gentle breeze passing by

When i am with you

I would like to be as unobtrusive as the faint aroma
Of a freshly gathered bouquet

Waiting quietly to be
Enjoyed

When I arrive
It may be like a kiss from the morning sun
And when i leave

I hope you will be filled with reassurance that
Like the dim light of the moon

The consistency of the cycle is the promise
Is the cure

And all these things that I am

that are in
And of this world

are there
Just to let you know

If ever you wonder … emphatically yes
You are truly loved

Procrastination, Energy, and Good Timing

For my first article in January,  I like to write about goals, resolutions, or whatever you call the list you make of intentions for the coming year. It’s well known that few well-meant intentions get realized. Often we become enmeshed in a pattern of pushing forward when action feels inappropriate. Then, discouraged, we begin to put off action. Simply described, procrastination is the act of putting off doing things we don’t want to do.

Students are famous for putting off papers or studying. Avoiding the completion of certain dreaded household tasks is also a popular activity. Many of us put off making phone calls we absolutely don’t want to make.

Even though procrastination can seem to be the avoidance of action, it’s an activity that consumes a great deal of energy. We don’t simply avoid the unwanted action and then forget about it.

The thought that we should do it keeps on returning, like a mosquito hungry for blood. We use energy to resist the thought. Then we blame ourselves for laziness, fear, or whatever inspires the delay. We may end up feeling worse and more exhausted than if we’d actually done the thing we didn’t want to do.

It may seem like the appropriate solution is to simply do it and get it over with. However, that can cause additional problems.

Act in Haste, Repent at Leisure

Say you know you need to paint the bathroom, and you haven’t bought the paint yet. You say to yourself, “That’s it; I’m going out right now.”

You go to buy the paint and realize you haven’t decided on a color yet. You’re not going to let procrastination stop you any more, though, so you pick out a color, hardly looking at it, come home, and realize the color is awful–maybe before, maybe after you paint.

You have a report to write for an organization. You’ve been dreading putting the words together, but the deadline is closing, noose-like, around your neck. You get on the computer and zip through the writing. Only when it’s time to give it do you discover you wrote on the wrong subject.

You’ve been putting off a possibly painful conversation with someone. The longer you wait, the more angry and upset you get, until you begin to feel like a soon-to-erupt volcano. You decide you have to say it, no matter how it comes out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come out very well, and the other person stops speaking to you.

The Nightmare Journey

Sometimes both the resistance and the action that overcomes it are more subtle. You may not deliberately resist doing something, but you feel mental/emotional reluctance, which in turn creates energetic resistance. It’s as if you’re driving with the emergency brake on.

For example, you’re going to visit a family member out of a sense of duty, but no real joy. You half-wish something would happen so that you didn’t have to make the trip.

When you call to make the airplane reservations, the line is busy. You try making your reservations online, and the server is busy. You call again. After listening to the “Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed” message, you push the wrong button. Then you try again, get the right one, and get put on hold. Finally, you hear a human voice and manage to work out a flight plan that doesn’t have you flying from New York to Nevada in order to get to Florida.

Later you print out your online tickets and see they’re incorrect. At last, you get the arrangements done to your satisfaction, but when you get to the airport, you find there’s no record of your reservations. Fortunately, you have your tickets, but it takes a lot of effort to get things worked out, and you barely make your plane.

Resistance can also hold back the fulfillment of what you think you really do want. You may want a better job, but don’t feel capable of fulfilling its requirements. You’d like to go to Europe, if only you could get there without having to travel. You’d like to have a show of your art, but then everyone would see it.

The Virtue of Struggle

I have come to realize that my not wanting to do something isn’t necessarily a measure of my laziness. It may, instead, be like the light on the dashboard that tells me my emergency brake is on. Procrastination lets me know that my energy is blocked from the easy fulfillment of an action.

I have also discovered that about ninety percent of the braking action stems from the belief that accomplishment should involve difficulty. A widespread belief tells many of us that we’re worthy people when we push through our resistance and do things we don’t want to do. Holding this belief can have the magical effect of multiplying—at least in the mind—the difficulty of an action.

I have heard people who love what they do telling others how difficult it is. If they are writers, they describe the agonies of sitting before a blank screen; if they are artists, they curse the paper or canvas that stubbornly remains blank. If they are teachers, their students have conspired to turn their classroom into the blackboard jungle. They believe this, because they’ve become oriented to the idea that for something to be worthwhile, it must involve struggle.

I’ve gradually let go of this perspective, but it’s a work in progress, and it can still blinker my vision. Right before I started writing this article, I was working on another. It didn’t seem to want to get written beyond a certain point, so I stopped working on it, feeling guilty that I was procrastinating, thinking how difficult it was to write.

Once I got over the misery that all that hard work would be wasted, I decided I didn’t have to write that article. Instead, I wrote this one, in about a tenth the time I spent agonizing about the other one.

There’s no virtue to suffering and struggling or in being blocked, frustrated, or self-critical about something that isn’t happening. That only blocks the smooth flow of energy needed to get things done.

The Virtue of Ease

Here’s a mantra you may find helpful: “Life is meant to be easy. Life is meant to be fun.” When you find you don’t have to mentally or physically add difficulty to a task, it can become enjoyable. For example, when I clean the house, I stop myself from looking for a badge of virtue for such drudgery. I give up the idea that I’m Cinderella scrubbing the flagstones. Instead, I listen to music or sing while I house clean. I tell myself this is good exercise. I think about how nice the house is going to look.

I’ve also noticed that some of the things I put off doing seem to get done by themselves. Try asking the universe to do some of the items on your list. The people you’re worried about calling may call you with the good news you thought you’d never hear. Instead of searching for an elusive reference, you may find a link for it in your email. The results can be miraculous.

The best result is that when I’m unburdened by guilt over procrastination, or the heavy burden of having to be a good and worthy attention, I have much more energy to give to the creative expression and fulfillment of those projects that really thrill me.

Energy Un-blockers

Meditation in general helps us to return to the core of being, especially when it interrupts a frantic stream of activity or an equally frantic avoidance of activity. In a state of deepened connection to our true selves, we can effectively ask the question, “What is most important to me right now?”

You might want to hold carnelian while asking that question. Known as the “be here now” crystal, it helps us to focus on what is of most immediate value to us.

Smoky quartz gives us the gift of both grounding and activating our energy. It can help to smooth out those push-pull energy spurts that say, “I’ll do it,” “I won’t.” It particularly helps in this process by disposing of psychic waste, those old beliefs and emotions that prevent us from being clear on what we want.

While it can be placed at the feet in meditation for grounding and energizing, you can also hold a clear quartz in one hand and a smoky quartz in the other. Contemplate those conditions and emotions you wish to release or change while mentally focusing on the smoky quartz; then ask for inspiration regarding accomplishing these changes.

Several crystals that, in their unpolished state have vertical striations or ridges, help energy move more smoothly. Among these are golden topaz, kunzite, danburite, and the tourmaline family.

The Essence of Timing

People are often confused about the differences between the FES essences, Cayenne, Blackberry, and Tansy. Blackberry is for those who feel stuck at the mental level. They feel unable to translate their ideas and goals into the actions that will bring them into being.

The properties of Cayenne are particularly suited to the subject of this article. It’s for those who procrastinate, and feel indecisive and stuck in inertia. This essence catalyzes one to action. You can think of it as building an energetic fire.

Tansy helps those who feel stuck in a laziness or lethargy that goes beyond procrastination. If you need Tansy you’re not thinking about doing something enough to procrastinate. The essence inspires one to take decisive action.

If procrastination itself is a pattern, it may have become a habit. Chestnut Bud (Bach) can help with unwanted repetitive behavior patterns.

All good things to think about (I think!) in this new decade 2010.

Live in Joy!

Lilly

Two Days We Should Not Worry

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.

Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

We cannot undo a single act we performed;
we cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday is gone forever.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow
with all its possible adversities, its burdens,
its large promise and its poor performance;
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

Tomorrow’s sun will rise,
either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow,
for it is yet to be born.

This leaves only one day, Today.
Any person can fight the battle of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad,
it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

Let us, therefore,
Live but one day at a time.

~ an unknown angel ~

Thought and Character

The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately executed.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

Thought in the mind hath made us.
What we are By thought we wrought and built.
If a man’s mind Hath evil thought,
pain comes on him as comes the wheel the ox behind.
If one endure in purity of thought,
Joy follows him as his own shadow – sure.

Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of ong-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.

Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength And peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse wrong application of thought, scends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative which he may make himself what he wills.

Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state; in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his “household.” When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise aster, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience.

Only by much searching and mining are gold an diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. And that he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove: if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances; if he will link cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, utilizing his every experience, even to the most trivial, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself. In this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that “He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”; for only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

The Most & The Greatest – The Test

The most destructive habit
Worry

The greatest Joy
Giving

The greatest loss
Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work
Helping others

The ugliest personality trait
Selfishness

The most endangered species
Dedicated leaders

Our greatest natural resource
Our youth

The greatest “shot in the arm”
Encouragement

The greatest problem to overcome
Fear

The most effective sleeping pill
Peace of mind

The most crippling failure disease
Excuses

The most powerful force in life
Love

The most dangerous pariah
A gossiper

The world’s most incredible computer
The brain

The worst thing to be without
Hope

The deadliest weapon
The tongue

The two most power-filled words
“I Can”

The greatest asset
Faith

The most worthless emotion
Self-pity

The most beautiful attire
a smile

The most prized possession
Integrity

The most powerful channel of communication
Prayer

The most contagious spirit
Enthusiasm

~ unknown ~

Holding On To Illusions

A couple of weeks ago I was performing one of my daily exercises swimming laps when I observed a women, in her early seventies, enter the pool and securely grasp hold of the side. She slowly made her way round the pool to the deep end by holding on to the side of the pool and moving her hands to guide her way to the deep end. She then let go and swam on her back all the way to the shallow end.

I watched her repeat this routine over and over. Of course, I could not let an opportunity like this pass-by without asking her what she was doing by holding on to the side of the pool to get to the deep end. I asked her why she did not swim to the deep end.

She explained that since she was a child, a fear of putting her face into the water had stopped her from swimming on her front. Her fear of drowning by swallowing water was so strong that for most of her life she could only swim on her back and feel secure. Swimming on her back towards the shallow end was acceptable to her mid-set, however if she reversed the routine and tried to swim on her back towards the deep end, fear overtook her and she could not release her hold from the side of the pool.

Well, me being me, I explained to her how fear is an illusion of the mind, even though it be a persistent one. I gave her a few practical tips on how to overcome her trepidation of swimming on her front. I spent about half an hour showing her how to move a few steps from the shallow end, kick off the bottom of the pool, and float to the shallow side. She tried it a few times without success and told me she will work on her mind-set thoughts and keep trying this new technique of floating a few feet to the shallow side.

I did not encounter her again in the pool for a few days. Well, a few days later what do you think happened to the seventy-year-old fear of not being able to swim on her front. The answer was … nothing I could say or do could help her change her fearful mind-set.

She continued to hold on to the side of the pool for dear life until she made her way to the deep end and then let go and swam on her back to the shallow end. She told me that she had thought about what I had said to her, but she just could not get over her fear of swimming with her face in the water. I jokingly said to her that perhaps her body was not made to swim face down and only constructed to swim on her back. Not realizing the humor she relied, what about all the other people who can swim on their front … Why can they do it and I can’t. I replied, simple because they do not believe it is impossible to swim on their front.

Now before you start to think that this woman is somehow unusual let me ask you a question. Can you live in a joyful state of mind, every second you exist in the pool of life? What is that you answer! You declare it is impossible to live in a joyful state of mind every second you are on earth. Well, what mind-set leads you to believe it is impossible?

-What types of thoughts have hold on your mind that limits your happiness?
-What are you clutching on to that restricts that natural flow of serenity and contentment?
-Are your thoughts of limited joy any different from the woman who finds it impossible to swim with her face in the water?

By my observations of humanities habitual patterns and characteristics, I have determined that most people in this world hold on to thoughts throughout their lives that restrict them from living in a natural free flowing way.

Yes in – deed, most peoples brains have been influenced by perceptions, ideas, thoughts and suggestions from other people and are limiting the way they live their lives.

While getting a good education well-meaning teachers may have seeded your thoughts.

-The thoughts may have been planted by well-meaning religious viewpoints but if you still hold fears what good is the religious doctrine doing to your every lifestyle of happiness.

-Well-meaning scientific experts may have planted the thoughts and delivered new inventions and hi-tech gadget but how much lasting happiness does that contribute to your life of joy.

-Well-meaning family and friends may have planted the thoughts since you were a toddler however, how has that helped your well-being for long-term mental stability and permanent blissfulness.

With massive amounts of intellectual, educational books, texts, journals and expert advice, no person is immune from synthetic thought patterns that can restrict the natural free flowing truth, intrinsically gifted in all human beings. How many people do you know who are not restricted in some way or other and have no need to hold on to unwise teachings that are seeded in their minds by other people?

Maybe it really is impossible to teach old dogs new tricks. So why not just settle for getting-by with holding on to the sidelines of bliss and understand you are mentally constructed in that confined way. Just make do with the average joyless moments most people tell me is inevitable. What is the point in looking for what you deem to be unlivable blissful answers, no matter how truth-full they may be, but make no sense to your intellectual, thought-life possessor.

Well, there may be one alternative to holding on to all elemental fallacies contained in … intrinsic doctrines, inbred intellectual reasoning and logic, informative philosophical debates, ingrained religious teachings, entrained educational rules and regulations, entrenched spiritual habits and other deep rooted meaningful Perceptions, Ideas, Thoughts, Suggestions (PITS) … but I doubt you would believe me if I told you what it is.

So rather than disclose to you how to live your life in a manner that is unacceptable to your knowingness, maybe I’ll give you a little hint into the types of mind-sets that can un-anchor your brain and cast you adrift from a more realistic mode of authenticity.

- If a person has a strong intellectual mind-set it may smother them
- If a person has a weak intellectual mind-set it may drown them
- If a person has a medium intellectual mind-set, it may suffocate them.

However if a person can live with an objective detached mind-set, it will be a game, set and match … liberating a winner/winner.

So, if you feel it is impossible to live in a joy-filled mind-set all the time, just continue to endure sharing the unsatisfying holds on your mind, with others who also share your accustomed viewpoints. Keep away from all those other strange people, who are in the same mode, but with different slants on truth, but like you, holding on to the edge of the thought-life pool, without ever being in the free flowing blissful central moment.

Although, in the final analysis, everyone will swim in the same erroneous human pools of thought, that restricts joy they do not have to accept it as their reality. Even though many people will keep a stiff upper lip with differing viewpoints, that will cause conflicts of interest and unrest, a few simple minds will not buy into the illusions that surround them

… As an early warning sign perhaps we can give the erroneous mind-sets brigade an official title …

How about … Contriving Orientation Navigators … Thoughts that CON you out of a joyful-thought-life and navigate you into worrisome, depressive deliberations.

The good news is that when you learn to live joyfully, despite what your conditioned mind-set may determine is impossible to live, you have overcome your fear for the truthful wisdom you were born with … When your life ends, you will have no regrets of missed moments of joy. And that my friends, is the only proper definition of success… The merry moments of blissfulness lived.

Developing Soul Consciousness and Overcoming Challenges

In Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore says that the greatest illness of modern times is ‘loss of soul.’ I do not think that we have lost soul, but simply have not yet discovered it, and therefore live in a soulless way.

The new consciousness on the planet today demands that each of us no longer neglect this vital aspect of who we are. Ignoring this reality has dire consequences, as Moore points out: “When soul is neglected, it doesn’t just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or to try to eradicate them one by one; but the root problem is that we have lost our wisdom about the soul, even our interest in it.”

Becoming soul-conscious or expanding consciousness is not a choice. It is a deep and natural urge within all of us that is being emphasized by the needs in the world today. The only choice is whether or not we will cooperate or resist the expansion of consciousness once it begins happening. And consciousness seeks to expand in all aspects of life where we have gained sufficient awareness and learning.

When we resist this movement of soul within, we become ill or accident prone or unhappy. We experience emotional pain or money problems or our relationships don’t work well. In general, our life sends us signals to which we must pay attention. Through developing soul consciousness, we learn what these signals are, how to interpret them, and then what to do about them.

The evidence of the drive for expanded consciousness, or soul, is found in everyone’s deep yearning for liberation. The liberation we want is the release from duality – the very stuff that the challenges of life are made of. But we cannot find this freedom unless we deal effectively with the challenges.

All challenges that we experience are initiated by the soul, even though it can appear that the challenges come from other people, the world around us, society, circumstances and situations. What is the nature of these challenges? What is their purpose? How can we master them?

As we master our challenges, we gain in wisdom and develop the power, love and intelligence that is characteristic of soul consciousness. When we incorporate the mastery into our identity, transformation ensues and greater liberation is experienced.

The Soul Journey