Seeking and Finding Wholeness

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

 Marianne Williamson

Peace …comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the Universe and all its powers, and when they realize that…the center of the Universe… is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

—Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, 1947

Very valuable – must watch:

It is sad how people experience stress during the holidays, but things don’t have to be this way!

The shopping, driving, mailing out greeting cards, going to the post office, budgeting, traveling and seeing relatives. Sounds familiar?

I want to tell you now, that you can change this. You do not have to be stressed. In fact, you can be happy and make a bunch of other people happy.

You do not have to navigate crowded malls, get stuck in traffic, drive long distances, deal with airports and air travel, worry what gifts to buy, wrap gifts, mail gifts, send cards… nothing! Yes, you can simply say “no”.

Many alternatives to the commercialized, stressful, costly and polluting norms exist. Consider finding a bunch of friends that are close to your heart and locale (in your same state or region) and spend time with them.

Give people good words, give good wishes, give hugs, give love, give smiles, do good deeds, be extra relaxed, open doors for people, plant trees, etc.. The sky is the limit. You do not have to venture into these pesky malls.

You have the power to save money, save the environment, save yourself from headaches and have a greater more positive impact this season by being a better friend to yourself, to others and to nature.

Yes, YOU have to power to keep things simple. To say no. To start new traditions. To be unique.
Consider giving a donation to non profit organizations, give the Gift of Microfinance , be selfless, serve others, or make some good food and invite people to eat.

Consider spending time alone in meditation, in counting your blessings, in reflection, in prayer, in adoring Nature or a candle’s flame. Take a walk on a trail, go alone or take a loved one, if it’s cold bundle up and go out, adore the snow, adore the sky, adore the trees, spend time with your God or Nature.

Make the new years, Christmas, solstice or Yule a time to be good, truly good to yourself, to nature and to other people.

If you celebrate Christmas, this year remember that Jesus said “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” and “sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Rid yourself of materialism and stress, keep things simple, honest, spiritual; you will be happier and make others happier while saving a bunch of trees, reducing your carbon and waste footprint and feeling better than ever for having done what you KNOW is right, not what you are told is right.

Remember, you are not alone.

Blessings, Love & Wisdom

During your day, periodically bring your attention back to yourself. Bring your awareness from wherever it is, from the ether, from the computer, from other people; wrap it up and bring it all back in, as if you are calling the troops home. Call your energy and your attention from everywhere it’s at back into you. Regroup your thoughts, breath deeply, calm and be present inside yourself.

If you do this you will be aware, present & most importantly alive.

Ask yourself what do you need right now:

Do you need to breath deeply?
Do you need close your eyes?
Do you need to drink water?
Do you need to eat?
Do you need stretch?
Do you need to use the bathroom?
Do you need to relax and take a break?
Do you need to plan something?
Do you need to stop?
Do you need look away into the distance from whatever you are doing?
Do you need to stop eating that snack?
Do you need to go on a walk?
Do you need fresh air?
Do you need a nap (to sleep)?
etc …

Now that you’ve asked, will you give yourself what it needs?

The lesson here is to check in with yourself from time to time, listen to the most important person (YOU).

This sounds simple, doesn’t it?

It is, but sometimes when we are at work, studying or working a project and too busy with life, paying attention to others, we forget to pay attention to ourselves.

So,

from time to time,

Ask yourself

“What do I need now?”

&

you will be more present in the now and more alive

Ethan Z

When life throws a rock at you (in the form of opposition, challenges, sickness, ideas, etc) What do you do with this rock? Do you throw it away, perhaps throw it at someone else? Do you keep it and put it on the mantle next to the family photos, or do you shape it with a tool?

A rock can be useful.

Place it on the ground in front of you, fill in pot holes with it, put it in a puddle of water and step on it. Step on it, it’s a rock.

Speak well to yourself because your deep mind is always listening.

By Devin Hasting

I heard or read this somewhere, written below based on my recollection / in my own words:

Watch your thoughts, they will become your desires
Watch your desires, they will become your decisions
Watch your decisions, they will become your actions
Watch your actions, they will become your habits
Watch your habits, they will become your life style
Watch your life style, it will determine your destiny

I have a story for you:

Once Upon a Time In a Land Far Far Away, there was a young king who suffered from mood swings.

He would be confident of his decisions and his own greatness, until he got depressed and fell into a deep depression. When this king was feeling blue, he would sit and stare, he would sleep for hours on end, he would do nothing, and he would also become convinced that he was worthlessness and unimportant.

If this king lived today, we would have called him bipolar or perhaps manic-depressive; but this was a long time ago, and back then no one had names for these symptoms. The king was left with no real help, he brought the best herb doctors and they gave him special attention only fit for a king, but his mood swings did not improve much.

Read more…

Did you know that fear and excitement are essentially the same feeling, the only difference is the label we give them and our preconceived perceptions of the label.

Think about it. Both feelings are experienced in the belly. How we think about that feeling in our belly determines whether it has power over us or if we get power from it.

Excitement is energizing. Fear is paralyzing.

Be aware of this when you feel that paralyzing sense of fear and consciously turn it into an empowering exciting feeling.

This is how you can turn paralyzing fear into motivating exciting energy every time you face a life challenge.

Do this and you will discover your inner power to always convert challenges to motivations, hard times into growing opportunities, and as a result have a never ending source of motivating energy and a positive outlook on life.

If you know me you’d know that I enjoy browsing through people’s biographies, education, field of work and authored works. As I read about people that interest me for whatever reason I will share with you their biographies here. Here is the first of these Biographies.

About Peter Russell M.A., D.C.S., F.S.P.

1) From: http://www.peterrussell.com/pete.php

Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, of The World Business Academy and of The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest.

At Cambridge University (UK), he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. Then, as he became increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the human mind he changed to experimental psychology. Pursuing this interest, he traveled to India to study meditation and eastern philosophy, and on his return took up the first research post ever offered in Britain on the psychology of meditation.

He also has a post-graduate degree in computer science, and conducted there some of the early work on 3-dimensional displays, presaging by some twenty years the advent of virtual reality.

In the mid-seventies Peter Russell joined forces with Tony Buzan and helped teach “Mind Maps” and learning methods to a variety of international organizations and educational institutions.

Since then his corporate programs have focused increasingly on self-development, creativity, stress management, and sustainable environmental practices. Clients have included IBM, Apple, Digital, American Express, Barclays Bank, Swedish Telecom, ICI, Shell Oil and British Petroleum.

His principal interest is the deeper, spiritual significance of the times we are passing through. He has written several books in this area — The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God.

As one of the more revolutionary futurists Peter Russell has been a keynote speaker at many international conferences, in Europe, Japan and the USA. His multi-image shows and videos, The Global Brain and The White Hole in Time have won praise and prizes from around the world. In 1993 the environmental magazine Buzzworm voted Peter Russell “Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire” of the year.

2) From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Russell

Peter Russell M.A., D.C.S. (born May 7, 1946) is a British author of ten books and producer of three films on consciousness, spiritual awakening and their role in the future development of humanity. He has designed and taught personal development programs for businesses, and been a popular public speaker.

Early Life and Education

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Have you ever wondered what that interesting tingling, goosebumps, goose bumpy, static electric, flowing energy, electrical sensation you felt within you or on your skin was?

You may have noticed this sensation while meditating, praying, doing guided imagery, relaxing, listening to music, when enjoying nature or when you stand in the wind or the sun.

I asked myself what this sensation was, could it be the life force, the Chi, or a healing energy? Luckily, I posted a blog article with exactly this question entitled “Tingling Goosebumps Equals Life Energy” (click here to read it)Posted in September 22, 2008

That blog article got a stronger response than I had anticipated, responses came from a diverse set of people mostly united by experiencing this sensation. Many shared their stories in comments others emailed me directly. I also went off and started asking people I knew especially ones that were spiritual.

I have compiled all the answers I received and below you will see a list of what most people gave as an explanation. They overlap:

1. Sensing an entity / presence in the vicinity / spirits
2. The ability to sense Life Force in you
3. The ability to sense / channel Life Force energies around you
4. Flushing / in ancient times, they called this an annointment (Saint Teresa of Avila wrote about it in her memoirs) / releasing debris
5. Cleansing of your chakras
6. Indicating the beginnings of a Kundalini awakening

What it is not:

1. It is nothing to be afraid of.
2. I asked my doctor, he said its not neuroplogical (unless it is uncontrollable, continuous and very obvious)
3. Not Anoxia

Conclusion:
Keep meditating. Keep experiencing this sensation. If the effects are positive, then continue to seek them.

Personal Experience:

Since the last article on this topic, I have noticed considerable warmth that accompanies this sensation when I mediated, in the stomach and chest. The sensation starts in the head, but sometimes it seems to start in the upper back, sometimes in the lower back. Every time, it spreads all over down to my toes and to the neck and head.

Leave a comment below or join the discussion here where people are also sharing their experience with this sensation: http://www.wholenessforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=21

Previous articles on this topic: Read more…

Hypnosis is a state of relaxation with a state of heightened awareness all induced by nothing more than suggestion. It is perfectly normal and natural. In fact, hypnosis is a state so natural that every one of us uses it sometime every day without even realizing it.

When we daydream we are experiencing a mild hypnotic trance. ‘Motorway hypnosis’ is a term coined for those periods when we drive somewhere and cannot remember it. That’s a form of hypnotic state. This is how you tend to feel whilst in hypnosis. It is very pleasant, relaxing and extremely comfortable. It’s an altered state of awareness. Many people would liken it to a ‘mental massage’.

The theory behind hypnosis is that we have one brain but two minds – one conscious and the other unconscious. Every day after we wake up, we begin running programs stored deep in our unconscious mind – this is the mind that remembers all the automatic stuff like riding a bike/driving a car, how to make yourself feel good OR bad. This ’storage area’ is much bigger than the mind you are using to read this now.

They work together; so that when you are driving and your conscious mind suddenly switches to something bothering you [a coworker, a big presentation/fear of height]; your unconscious mind carries on driving until you arrive at your destination or your conscious mind resumes driving, not remembering how you have just driven. If something dangerous had presented itself you would have avoided it.

These running programs, once formed, have an amazing capability for producing the same results, over and over again. Whether they are good for you or bad! Hypnosis gives you the tools to make these programs work FOR YOU!

A hypnotic state is not is sleep, it is not unconsciousness. Nothing can be done to you without you allowing it; you won’t be made to bark every time you pass a dog or cat. For hypnosis to work you must want it to happen, expect it to happen and most importantly allow it to happen.

Some people question if they are in a trance because they don’t experience a mystical transcendental journey; the truth is the depth and state of trance is different for everyone.

However everyone can experience a hypnotic state, be it at varying levels, and thus everyone may benefit from hypnosis.

Hypnosis is effective in all areas of self improvement, in overcoming fears and phobias, in assisting in health and well-being as well. It can be very successful changing habits, overcoming anxiety, losing weight, defeating depression, to name a few of its applications.

Hypnosis has been used for centuries, and millions of people have been helped in many different ways. It’s also said to be an excellent way of relaxing.

I listened to a radio interview recently and found some of the aspects that the guest speaker discussed agreeable. I noted quotes below from the interview that I liked and wanted to share with you:

On Remote Viewing, in a radio interview with Coast to Coast with Art Bell, Stephan A. Schwartz said:

[Remote viewing is a] learnable skill, like a kind of modern mental martial art or mental yoga; its an ancient one [found] in the shamanic traditions all over the world.

All over the world, there are traditions of training people to be able to use this use this aspect of consciousness to open themselves to it, its like learning to play tennis basically, there is nothing supernatural or weird about it, it its not anomalous.

All these words [that] people use, anomalous, wired, I don’t even like the word psychic, its just non local consciousness its something we all have by reason of being living organisms.

It’s your birth right as a human being

This ability is always present because it a function of being a living organism

In Stephan’s opinion, phenomena like remote viewing, intuition, telepathy ad others are all basically non local consciousness or non local awareness.

Listen to the whole interview here

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Water has the ability to be altered by conscious attention, as evidence seems to indicate. Schwartz reported that Dean Radin had recently replicated Masaru Emoto’s groundbreaking research, demonstrating that the shape of water crystals can be affected by thoughts and music.  Water was tested in an experiment involving 14 healers and patients and showed changes in its hydrogen bonds that were not present in the control group (water not exposed to the healing thoughts), Schwartz detailed. His research indicates that the consciousness of all living things from humans to plants is connected.

If consciousness can alter water, and we are made of more than 70% water, can consciousness and water be used in healing?

Watch 10 you tube videos (coast to coast radio interview with Stephan A. Schwartz) and discuss this topic further here (login not required to join the discussion). The interview is very interesting I recommended listing to the whole thing.

Stephan A. Schwartz is research associate in the cognitive science laboratory and a leading expert on the practical application of remote viewing and aspects of extra ordinary human functioning, he is also a co-author of over 30 papers, and is involved in energy medicine work and a member of the parapsychology association

By Gabriel 1999 ~  Thank you for allowing me to post this here.

Chains by Ethan

I used multiple resources and created a comprehensive wellness tracker work sheet that you could use to track everything related to your wellness (physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, etc..). I put this in a PDF format here for anyone to download free of charge. No registration required, simply right click and save the file.

Click here to download the Complete Personal Wellness Tracker

I had a few nutrition classes over the years, I also have a few books that had sheets you could use to track food intake. The problem with these sheets is that they don’t track enough. A person is not just what s/he eats, we are complex (emotional, mental, spiritual, etc..) beings and there are a lot of (inner and outer) environmental variables that effect us.

One day at a physical therapy meeting, the physical therapist suggested I track my food intake to find what is causing my migraines. He suggested using a tracking sheet very similar to the one I am giving away here. He then made a comment that these sheets only track food intake, so they ignore many other things.

It felt as if he read my mind. I took that thought and did the research, comparisons, and came up with this tracker sheet that will help you track way more than just food intake. It tracks many variables that ultimately have an effect on your overall wellness.

You now can keep track of your expectations, emotions, sleep, mood, weather, physical exercise, plus more.

This sheet is self explanatory, I hope that no instructions are needed. My only instruction to you is to remember this sheet is a self-help tool. Use it for your own benefit, no one will read it so don’t worry about spelling and neatness, this is for you only, to help you track variables that may be effecting your wellness. As long as you can make sense of your notes then you’ve been successful in tracking the variables.

There is no such thing as a perfect tracking sheet. This one is a general attempt to facilitate to the needs of many. You now have to take it and personalize it. If you have something you want to track that is not on this sheet, simply write it in, any white space will do, the margins and bottom part of the sheet are god spots for these additional notes.

Once enough data has been collected you could reflect back at the notes, and see patterns, find behavior, thoughts or actions and what effects they produce.

Your feedback is important, this is not the first version, and will not be the last. If you want to ad a variable to track please let me know. I am working on the next version and will publish it once it’s completed.

I give this away to you, asking for nothing, sending you wishes of well being.

Stay well.

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I was listening to an interview with Eckhard Tolle a few days ago. He mentioned something very simple that, while I knew, I did not practice. He talked about living in the moment, appreciating the present and recognizing that when we seek goals we may be missing on the more satisfying journeys.

Many of us, including myself, are goal oriented individuals. We hop from goal to another and operate our daily lives driven by goals or destinations. When you are like me, it is not unusual to never appreciate where you’ve been or enjoy what you’ve done. When you reach your goal you feel satisfaction and pride, but this doesn’t last long because all you want now is to move on to the next goal.

Seeking goals may get you far in life, but at the same time you risk not being aware of the majority of your life since most of youe life is actually comprised of journeys that you decided to take. Eckhard’s view is that the journey is important, perhaps more important than the destination. My personal view is that both are important, because the journey is part of the quest, part of the destination; they are the “one experience”.

Your life is full of journeys, and destinations. There are some destinations one may never reach, take ‘wholeness’ for example, optimum intelligence, perfection, or even enlightenment. This does not mean that we cannot pursue these goals and partake these journeys; in reality we do seek these unattainable goals. Even if all your goals in life are achievable, most of your life will be journeying. Thus we should use our journeys to enrich and add value to our lives.

I leave you with this question to ponder: Is life all about the journeys, not the goals?

Think about this:

“Enlightened humans will recognize the truth when it is presented to them, fully indoctrinated humans will first deny, then look for reasons to doubt.”

Something I read somewhere on March 2008.

I add: “Humans seeking enlightenment seek the truth with an open mind.”

It is worth it being OPEN MINDED !

We often seek to accomplish things, reach places, complete tasks. We do this so often that we never ever notice it when we reach a goal, accomplish a task, or reach a destination.

Here’s a simple trick to help you live in the moment. Simple ask yourself “What’s my relationship now to this moment?”

This question enables me to appreciate what I have done, and where I stand. It helps me calm down, and relax as well. When I’m stressed without being consious of the stress this question takes my mind out of the loop and enhaces my conciousness.

Amazing how one question can change your experience, even if for a moment. Give it a try, ask yourself  “What’s my relationship now to this moment?”

Once you’ve tried this, leave your feedback to let us all know what you thought.

Sometimes, I find it difficult to listen to my inner intuition or gut when trying to make a decision. Selecting a grad school program has been one of these decisions, so far. In this article I will show you a trick I heard about today that involves flipping a coin to help you listen to your gut feeling.

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One of my readers left a few comments on 10/28/2008 and reported to me his experiences.. I pasted the main points below in order to respond to them.

I have nobody else in the world that understands that sensation. It is like what you described, except mine is rather different than yours.

The sensation would be felt from the head till foot, sometimes foot to head going up, sometimes from shoulder down. Sometimes when i’m reading something, i could feel it on my right wrist. The materials read, only you would know from my earlier contact message.
This electrical sensation differs from another form of energy i feel – heat that seeps in slowly into the body.

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What is that tingling, electric, goosebumps-y sensation that some experience?

In this blog entry I talk about my experience with this sensation. This is not a new sensation but I recently experienced it in abundance.

Throughout my life I had felt tingling waves that went inside of my body and spread on the surface of my skin while meditating or praying, especially when in deep relaxation or concentration. When this sensation is on the surface it is accompanied by goose bumps that swarm the skin and traverse the body in waves. When inside the body, this sensation is like a cloud of charged tingling particles. I found it possible to direct this cloud of sensation with concentration. Does this sound familiar?

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