Seeking and Finding Wholeness

What’s 11/11/11?
It’s a day!

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Is it astrologically significant?

I don’t know!  I don’t know astrology.  I can’t even tell you if the date is really 11/11/11 for all I know the year might be wrong say 2014 instead of 2011, the date is probably normal and boring in other calendars (like the Muslim, Mayan, Hebrew calendars) today.
But, I can tell you the moon is full tonight!
And, no matter what the date astrologically (and corrected for error) might be,  that doesn’t lessen the uniqueness of this day.

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What’s so special about the date?

Nothing and everything!
It is what you make it.  Just like everything else in our lives and society at large, it is what we, human-kind, decide to make of it, and is ultimately what we make it, as a society and on individual basis. (Think: christmas, rituals, holidays, money, brands, trends, music,  laws, habits, best sellers, and others “labels” that we as a society create and agree to live by.. we created them, we made them all what they are).

So, consider making this day 11/11/2011 special.

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Pray?

Consider saying a prayer, pausing for a minute, being thankful, being hopeful, being positive, wishing well to others, extending love and smiles to others..

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Why?
Just because you want to.

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Wont it be nice for you, to look back in 10 years form now, and know exactly what you were doing at 11:11 11/11/11 ?
Do something special,  do nothing at all .. whatever suites you; just be aware of the moment.

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Many think of the number zero (0) as being , well, ZERO..

empty, indicative of lack, emptiness,

nothing being there to be counted.

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Just ask yourself:

What if zero was where things start and where things end?

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What if zero was infinite, connecting mathematical infinity with new beginnings,

thus

Being the other face of infinity,

The source of everything else,

Making zero full of possibilities

Infinitely full of possibilities

What if zero,

Is where it all starts, and it all ends?

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Do you still think zero is still empty?

Perhaps it’s infinity

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Perhaps infinity is zero

and zero is infinity

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all of duality added into one

non-duality

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in other words,

the

Omniverse

in

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Ask yourself:

Could my loneliness really be a homesickness  for my inner divine or god?

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Now, NASA has scientific evidence that is about to change the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth. The topic of what is “living” and what is not is one that has intrigued me for years.

Mainstream science seemed to define life narrowly based on common Earth-bound life forms. Today their definition was expanded.

NASA: 12.02.10 – NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

GFAJ-1 grown on arsenic Image of GFAJ-1 grown on arsenic.

“The definition of life has just expanded,” said Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it.”

This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week’s edition of Science Express.

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.

Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.

“We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we’ve found is a microbe doing something new — building parts of itself out of arsenic,” said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team’s lead scientist. “If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven’t seen yet?”

Image of Mono Lake Research area

The newly discovered microbe, strain GFAJ-1, is a member of a common group of bacteria, the Gammaproteobacteria. In the laboratory, the researchers successfully grew microbes from the lake on a diet that was very lean on phosphorus, but included generous helpings of arsenic. When researchers removed the phosphorus and replaced it with arsenic the microbes continued to grow. Subsequent analyses indicated that the arsenic was being used to produce the building blocks of new GFAJ-1 cells.

The key issue the researchers investigated was when the microbe was grown on arsenic did the arsenic actually became incorporated into the organisms’ vital biochemical machinery, such as DNA, proteins and the cell membranes. A variety of sophisticated laboratory techniques was used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html

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“The missing link in physics is consciousness”

Scientists consider math as the universal language. Should we meet aliens from other galaxies math is expected to be the language we could use. Notice how math is a “language”

We also consider physics to hold “laws” of nature. Yet a universal unifying theory of physics still eludes the greatest minds.

Humans do not use physics to walk, to open a door knob, to run, to use tools.

Cats do not use physics or equations when they sprint or jump on to the counter-top.

Birds do not use physics or equations to fly.

The biological brain or what we call the “mind” in these beings does NOT use equations or math.

I was taught that everything and everyone uses physics, this statement is very misleading. Physics, as in all of Science, simply “explains” or interprets into “laws, observations, words and numbers what nature does.

Physics and math are simply written “languages” that we use to explain “nature” or what we consider “reality”. All living beings seem to function just fine, naturally, organically, without knowing math or physics.

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The reason a unifying theory of physics is missing, the reason physics explains many things but not everything, is that physics (and math) are missing something.

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Physics and math are missing something that cannot be written, or explained, or translated into a human language, this missing link is “consciousness”.

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I remember the first day I was exposed to physics. I was very excited to interpret and understand how things work. However, I soon started to notice a persistent thought, it almost always nagged on me, starting on the first day and onto every physics class I took in high school. Even in college this thought never cased to exist. I found myself often thinking (more accurately feeling), “but this is not right”, “something is wrong about this”, “I know physics is not done this way”. My main feeling was that “it was wrong”. But I could not explain where this feeling came from. I simply assumed that I just needed to learn more advanced physics to get this feeling to go away.

I’ve always had a persistent and intuitive sense that there was a different way to interpret the universe and “nature”

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Hi again!

Here are a few thoughts for you to consider today:

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The more the old systems reveal their inadequacies the more people will believe change is needed. Every thing that happens is an opportunity. Everything is neural, if you define it as positive you get a positive effect.

NOTHING has a built-in meaning.

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love,
Ethan

Why do people think that they (and all other humans) are born as babies with sin, with this burden of sin, disobeying a god, with an imperfection, with evil?

This notion is accepted in mainstream culture, just examine for a second where it came from, then ask yourself if you believe it.

I got news for you, you are born pure, clean, free of sin, perfect and beautiful. Humans are intrinsically good.

Think about it.

Food for thought,

Why Do People Think It Is Ok To Waste Food?

Leave your answer in a comment

Why do people think Jesus had a European looks (long soft blond hair and green/blue eyes)?

The above photo is the face of Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” is similar to many modern-day images of Jesus.

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Do you remember your childhood memories of Jesus?

Do you remember seeing images of him in bibles, posters, Sunday school literature or seeing conceptualization of Jesus in statues?

If you are White or Hispanic, Catholic or Protestant (even Orthodox or Evangelical,Born Again, Baptist etc) you just may remember a blond Jesus with long hair.

One famous image of Jesus was a painting by Warner Sallman, called “The Head of Christ” (1940). It showedd Jesus with flowing blond hair and blue eyes. He’s clean-looking, safe, passive, and even feminine to a degree.

This is Sallman’s Jesus:

Let us take a look at more conceptualizations of Jesus from around the world,

The image above is from a popular Children’s Bible (popular in the 70′s), Jesus had blond, blue-eyed Jesus throughout

The image above is of Jesus is from Ethiopia, from the 17th or 18th centuries.

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Food for thought,

Which of these has more of an effect (influence) on the other,   media outlets (movies, TV shows and ads) or actual real life / culture?

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My view is that media has a bigger effect on culture than culture has on media. TV and media have a lot of power on many people to a degree where these shape people’s beliefs, behaviors, and culture.

Simply put, people see it on TV, in fashion shows, in music videos, in ads, done by celebrities, owned by modern-day mystical figures, adopted by friends …  and people mimic.

Media has the upper hand on culture, not vice-versa.

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What do you think?

Leave your answer in a comment.

I constantly find myself seeing things differently than people I am with. Cultural norms that people accept as divine laws to live by amaze me every single day. I remember asking “but why” as far back as my memory goes. I probably asked “why” as a baby before I could even talk.

I’d see people do a certain thing, say certain things,  or react in certain ways, then I’d ask myself “why”? I asked why because the actions did not seem positive, or seemed lacking in judgment, logic, or respect. Asking “why” meant that something did not make sense to me.

If I verbalized my questions I usually heard unsatisfying answer, most of the time  the answers went like this: “because that is the culture”, or “because it’s in the bible”, or (this may be my favorite one) “because this is what people do”. Some may call you “weird” for questioning “what people do”. Years went by, my questions never got an answer.

Today, I have much more insight into human reasoning and behavior, coupled with love and understanding. Thanks to hypnosis, varied life experiences and guidance, I understand why people do things better.

Understanding something doesn’t mean I agree with it though. It also doesn’t mean I stopped asking “why”. I continue to ask “why” now purely from sheer amazement.

One simple, yet very common example that I came across recently was being at a party, with alcoholic beverages, and seeing a gal tell her friend “have another drink.”  When the friend indicated a “no”, the gal insisted and asked again trying to be more persuasive.

This made me shake my head in disagreement, I probably gave the persons a shocked look as well. I hide my opinions less than I used to do as a kid, some people don’t like that. I don’t care.

Replace the alcoholic beverage seen here with food, fashion, cars, work, computer games, opinions, actions, pretty much anything that a person (a groups, an institution, organization etc) may ask you to do (or think) because they think “it is cool”, or because “it is the way people do things.”

Now, if you take a moment to think about this, you may start notice how common this example is.

If your friend was a true friend, she/he would RESPECT your wishes and opinions. When you say “no” to any idea, a “real friend” would immediately respect your “no”, they will smile and move on to another issue out of sheer respect for you. It’s true that your friend my have the idea that drinking more means “you are having more fun”, she/he may want to see you have more fun based on their understanding of “having fun”, but if you said “no”, for whatever reason then a “no” is a “no”.

You do not need persuasion, you do not need someone to tell you how to have fun. YOU are the one having fun, you decide what fun is to you.

When your gut feeling, desires, or simple leanings go in one direction, if you are happy doing a certain thing, and are then faced with a friend (or anyone for that matter) telling you that this is “not how people have fun”, be bold and say “No.”,

“This is how I have fun.” “This is how I enjoy life”.

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Is your cup half full or half empty?

As I was scanning my eyes over the buffet of bumper stickers plastered  to the passenger side of a car, this one jumped out at me.  I had never seen that before!  Never heard that before, never thought of that before-  “What does that mean to me?” I wondered, and toyed with the idea in my head.   Immediately my mind showed me an image of a person, being bombarded with information and opinions, mainly mass media: magazines, television, newspapers, radio, advertisements, etc.  Then i thought of a parent, pointing their finger at their child, telling them they are not enough of this, they are too much of that, etc.  Then we can bring in religion.  And societal ‘norms’.  And culture.  And the list goes on and on…

I thought of how quickly we tend to compare ourselves to each other, to the status quo, to what everything “out there” is telling us.  We are constantly being told how to be.  We are being told how to look FOR the world and how we should SEE the world.  So we don’t always see the truth about ourselves.  Most people have maybe never even pondered , let alone remembered that WE ARE FINE THE WAY WE ARE.

You may not like your body, you may not like the way you appear to others, you may look in the mirror and resist what you see, whether it’s your face, your skin, your hips, your hair, but

YOU ARE FINE THE WAY YOU ARE.  Take a deep breath.  Take a load off!  Can you feel any relief from this possibility??

It’s easy for us to get overloaded and mislead by everything around us.  But the truth of you is inside you- always was, always will be, You cannot lose it.  You’ve just forgotten it’s there.  I am a bodywork practitioner, and that’s why I LOVE doing massages for people- it chills us out, quiets us down, in body and mind, allowing our truth, each individual’s deep well of wisdom and uniqueness, to easily float closer to the surface, eventually permeating out into what appears to be beyond the boundary of our bodies- into what we call ‘reality’

When we stop fussing, mussing, worrying over and trying so damn hard to look good, be ‘appropriate’, make a positive impression and be accepted by people, and we instead put our intention and focus on feeling peaceful, grounded, centered in our True Self’s awareness… we just naturally shine!  And we become magnetic- to other people and to what we want.  That’s hot.  It’s attractive!  And innate within us- patiently waiting, right now, to flood every cell of you and influence all the ways you go about and interact with the world: through your thoughts, words and deeds.

Take a deep breath.  Instead of trying to fix or change what you’re seeing, just let it be.  This goes for your body, as well as any and every situation in which you could ever find yourself.   When we let it be,  it can then have the space and opportunity to change, right before your very eyes.  If it doesn’t change, then at lease your concept of it will-  Cuz everything starts within, behind the eyes.  What ideas and perceptions you hold inside, determines what your eyes will see outside.

Botox, make-up, the right clothes, cologne, teeth-whitening kits, most personal care products- don’t even care of us at all-they are toxic and poisonous.   What most people put on and in their bodies is an underlying  futile attempt to help us feel whole.

Wholeness starts within.  Seek within.  Change the way you see things, and worry less and less about how you look on the outside.  Go to the core of you, the truth of you, which nothing can alter, and will not be masked for much longer. Things are really shifting right now on our planet, are they not?!   We are being called now ,to change the way we see each other, our relationship to the planet, and our connection to what many refer to as God.  Through this fresh way of seeing, we are making manifest heaven on earth.  Heaven floats within you!

May you blissfully float in and exist from the Heaven within you.

~Namaste~

Here is an article being shared here with you. I do not know enough about the topic to make a meaningful comment, for now.

Posted here to be shared:

How Qigong or Taoist Yoga Explains Gurdjieff

by drew hempel, MA

(anti-copyright, free distribution).

THE FOUNDATION OF THE LAW OF THREE

“‘Before examining these influences,’ began G., ‘and the laws of transformation of Unity in Plurality, we must examine thefundamental lawthat creates all phenomena in all the diversity or unity of all universes.’” – In Search of the Miraculous (p. 78, emphasis in original, and source for below Gurdjieff quotes).

I continue to see a lot of serious confusion about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, a very influential source for people exploring paranormal healing powers.  First of all there was Gurdjieff’s focus on the truth of his teaching, not on the kundalini energy effects.  This is one reason people reject Gurdjieff.  For example a famous person, Katherine Mansfield, came to Gurdjieff shortly before her death from tuberculosis.  Some people think that Gurdjieff just accelerated her death because he focused on the truth instead of on healing.   Secondly there’s the problem of Gurdjieff’s lineage.  Some state Gurdjieff was a Sufi but since he didn’t have a particular Sufi master he’s not credible.  Gurdjieff does name a very important Sufi teacher who doles out amazing secrets in Gurdjieff’s excellent book Meetings with Remarkable Men.

Most importantly Gurdjieff didn’t pass on and develop his powers in someone else — i.e. create another energy master.  Gurdjieff doesn’t have a replacement yet many people think that Ouspensky was necessary to help Gurdjieff or that Bennett or Orage or others can better continue Gurdjieff’s teachings.  For example, because of this conflict, the famous NYC literary critic Edmund Wilson made fun of Gurdjieff based on Orage’s attempts to teach Gurdjieff.  The best book on Gurdjieff’s teachings, In Search of the Miraculous, is only hindered by Ouspensky’s extended yet confused commentaries while Gurdjieff’s longest book was the cause for Gurdjieff considering suicide.  Beelzebub’s Tales is not a reliable source since his publishers forced Gurdjieff to change the meaning of his teaching, as Bennett reports.

What is clear is that Gurdjieff’s teaching is based on harmonics or what some term “psychic music,” the central secret of my 2001 U of MN masters thesis, linked at http://nonduality.com/hempel.htm and focus of my subsequent research, including my previous articles here.  I discovered that the Pythagorean Perfect 5th or 2:3 music interval, C to G, and the Perfect 4th or 3:4, G to C, are the same as yang and yin in Taoism.  Gurdjieff also relies on the Pythagorean teachings based on harmonics or what Gurdjieff called the Law of Three, the fundamental law.   (as quoted above)

Western science converted complimentary opposites, yin and yang, or the Pythagorean Tetrad of 1:2:3:4, into a symmetrical system through the same diatonic scale that Gurdjieff presents in his teaching, thereby forever confusing the West’s understanding of Gurdjieff.

For example the major third diatonic music interval of Gurdjieff, 4:5, was converted into 5:4 as the cube root of two while the Pythagorean diatonic minor sixth, 5:8, was converted into 8:5 as the Golden Ratio.  In fact the extension of the Tetrad, 1:2:3:4 (Perfect 5th/Perfect 4th complimentary opposite harmonics as the Law of Pythagoras) into symmetric-based ratios (i.e. Gurdjieff’s 4:5 into 5:4 as the cube root of two) was the product not of Pythagoras but of Platonic math from Archytas’ creation of the geometric mean (a “one-to-one correspondence of letter and number”).  I give the technical details in chapter four of my blogbook, http://mothershiplanding.blogspot.com.  Math professor Joe Mazur recently stated that my compilation of this information is “very valuable” and he recommended that I have it published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Westerners do not clearly see that the point of Gurdjieff’s “Law of Octaves” is based on the complimentary opposites or his “Law of Three” known as the Pythagorean Tetrad, 1:2:3:4. Instead we find various other interpretations of Gurdjieff’s diatonic Pythagorean scale — that the interval of the 7th is somehow the secret of Gurdjieff or that since it’s the same diatonic scale used by the early Christian church this is why Gurdjieff’s system works, etc. The most famous symbol of Gurdjieff, the enneagram, was also converted into symmetrical decimals, forever damning it’s foundation in the Law of Three complimentary opposites. The current mainstream understanding of Gurdjieff is wrong but qigong or Taoist yoga clearly explains how to solve this problem.

The third force beyond yin and yang, the source of the I-thought or the source of the Pythagorean One, known as the Goddess Harmonia, is what I call “female formless awareness.” Gurdjieff has this to state about it: “Contemporary thought realizes the existence of two phenomenon: force and resistance, positive and negative magnetism, positive and negative electricity, male and female cells, and so on. But it does not observe even these two forces always and everywhere. No question has ever been raised as to the third, or if it has been raised it has scarcely been heard.”

THE SECRET OF THE SCALE SHOCKS

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Greetings and salutations!

the following is a message that I feel is very worthy of sharing with those of us who are seeking wholeness, especially on this day many call “valentines day”. This message was sent out yesterday from the founder and leader of Young Living brand essential oils. if you don’t know who or what i’m talking about then here’s my quick shpeel: Young Living is passionate and serious about producing therapeutic-grade products; Gary has the strictest standards for purity, potency and safety when it comes to the essential oils that Young Living produces, and he is passionate about bringing a higher quality of life to all of the world. if you are new to ‘essential oils’, they can be considered, but are far from limited to the word aromatherapy. they are basically considered the blood of a plant/tree/fruit/flower and this blood contains enormous healing potential, and is imbued with the intelligence of nature.

I am a distributor of these oils-
i use them in a variety of ways daily, on myself, on dogs, and in my massage and healing practice, so i have stories from using the oils myself, as well as from other people over the last year and a half, since I first heard about Young Living.

i hope you have a wonderful valentine’s day! know that i love you, and care for you so very much. You are an invaluable piece of the giant Cosmic Puzzle, I will say. and that is no small thing! I mean, your ability to realize grander dreams and desires for ourselves and others, is important. Your health, happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction in life IS IMPORTANT. i think you came here to this thing we call “Life” to evolve and achieve deeper fulfillment in your own unique and perfect way. And really, right here and now, you are doing that just perfectly. You are perfect, whole and complete. You are lovely. I love you!

if you would like to get to know more about the Young Living essential oils on your own, you can click here or just get in touch with me.

peace!

~angie

Happy New Year!

At this time, a week after the celebration of Christmas, we find ourselves gearing up for one more round of parties, celebration, and perhaps some deep reflection and quiet contemplation.   And we carry on a tradition of making , what many people call, New Year’s Resolutions.

I was pondering this word on the night of the solstice- when the light begins to return for longer periods than the darkness- and it dawned on me (no pun intended!) that the evening of the solstice felt more like “New Year’s” to me than anything.  A new year was beginning for me that night, as the darkness would be given less time to linger, and the light would be filling our days moreso.  What a great way to think about how we are moving into a new chapter in our lives.  The chapter of 2010-

But the meat of what I got to pondering, on that cold, crisp night here in Minnesota, where I live… was the word “resolution”; what’s with this making new year’s resolutions stuff?  I find there is a lack of feeling and motivation behind this word, resolution.

I wondered how many other people hear that catch-phrase and imagine the plethora of topics that are common in our country:  eating healthier, going on a diet, losing weight, getting in shape, paying off debt, quit smoking, quit drinking, quit this, quite that, stick-to-this, follow-through-on-that, etc.  These things can sound like such a CHORE!  And then it hit me:  the very word itself, resolution, implies there is something to be resolved, and if something is to be resolved, then we must first have a “problem”.

Well, I don’t like the word problem. When we take into account the Bigger Picture, I feel that here, there are no problems.  A problem is a matter of perception.  They are just a sign-post that something is simply out-of-whack in our mind and our heart, and thus is spills forth into our outer lives.  So we must bring it into the light, where it will be TRANSFORMED, brought back into alignment, and returned to us as a fresh perspective, a right outlook, a new energy that will fill us and point us in the direction of where we would like to be going.

After all, nothing can truly be destroyed, extinguished, or ended.  ALL is energy, ever changing, in a state of flux, shifting and moving and altering form as it naturally evolves or as we come along and perceive it and project our energy onto it.  So it’s not that bad habits need to be cut out of our lives- in fact, this can prove to be quite difficult!  Going “cold turkey” just usually doesn’t work that well.  But if we offer it to the Light, it will be transformed and shifted in the way that is most effective and perfect for us.

We are not here to resolve our lives or “fix” the world- WE ARE HERE TO TRANSFORM IT.

And Oh!  What a grand opportunity that is.

May you know that you,

right here, right now,

are FULLY  EQCUIPED to do just that-

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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

My TV broke 3 weeks ago. Since, I’ve had much more time for quietness and for reading. I am getting more stuff done and am flipping books like a lean mean reading machine. I do watch movies or certain TV episodes online on websites that offer streaming, flash and divx movies. But I can easily now read more, which is good since I am currently studying for the GMAT test, reading the book “Relearning to See”, taking a hypnosis class. Not to mention my day job. Life is busy, I am glad the TV doesn’t work!

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

One of my favorite quotes by Albert Einstein

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery— even if mixed with fear— that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man.

I’d like to share with you this phrase

develop the courage to be imperfect

Think about this for a second, is anyone perfect? You can seek perfection all you want but you will never be perfect, will you? do we even know what perfect is, do you ‘really’ know what it means?

Now, that you’ve seen these questions, I ask why do we fear being imperfect?

Isn’t it natural to be imperfect?

Can you seek perfection while finding the courage within you to be imperfect, and be OK with that reality?

Can you develop the courage to be imperfect?

Consider these famous quotes on courage:

Courage, an optimistic attitude, common sense, and a feeling of being at home upon the crust of the earth, will enable (us) to face advantages and disadvantages with equal firmness.

–Alfred Adler

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.
~Ambrose Redmoon

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
~Mary Anne Radmacher

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
~Winston Churchill

Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
~Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

Fear and courage are brothers.
~Proverb

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
~Raymond Lindquist

Courage is knowing what not to fear.
~Plato

Courage is a kind of salvation.
~Plato

Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.
~Robert Cody

I’ve talked about migraines here before. Here’s a little about my experience with them. I believe I started to have migraines back in 2006. At first I didn’t know they were migraines, I was confused why I kept getting ill and why I had headaches. Then came the auras which made things clear, yes I had migraines, and not so clear because these auras left me almost blind.

By 2007, I was getting one every week. Initially most occurred on the weekend or early in the week.

They were accompanied by the spots of light that usually grew larger, these are the auras, if you don’t know what they’re called. I simply referred to them as bright light spots, or a single bright light spot, that sometimes had other colors mixed in, sometimes had a blank/dark spot as well. The auras often reminded me of staring straight into a flash light.

They would grow and sometimes cover enough of an area in my field of vision that I had to find a place to sit and wait it out because my vision was impaired t a degree that I couldn’t see and operate (walk, meet people or drive) safely.

Naturally other symptoms showed up. Usually after I saw the auras, and even when the auras were long gone, I would deteriorate in terms of weakness and headache intensity until by night time I find myself throwing up and feeling like I am so sick and weak that I could die.

This all became too common, too frequent. I was ‘falling apart’.

As a result of my migraines, I grew to recognize them in their early stages and to catch these early symptoms and listen to my body and start to take action steps to stop the oncoming migraine in its tracks.

After other health issues ocurred, I made a commitment towards my health, and followed through. This lead to less migrains and to my ability to stop them before they get really bad. Sometimes I forget my commitment, and that’s when I get a migraine.

I guess, now, migraines are my body’s way of reminding me to take care of my mental, emotional and physical wellness and health.

This is an interesting article written by Teresa Silverthorn on an interesting phenomena, namely worshiping and studying the invisible God. I use the word invisible here, because as Teresa points out, when a person says they can see this God they are told ‘no you can’t see (him or her)’, in fact one is not supposed to see it.

In the framework of the article below, I see these scenarios:

• God actually doesn’t exist but you are asked to spend your life seeking it
• God does exist but it it is simply invisible to humans
• God is a figment of imagination
• God is not invisible but some want you to think it is

Re-printed below with permission from author:

The human race is psychotic. They were either born that way, taught to be such, or it was decided upon.

I have heard this before, and so have you. I am speaking of a current statistic that claims that a certain percentage of humanity has been defined as “psychotic,” which leaves the rest of us looking around our neighborhood analyzing our friends and co-workers.

In my opinion, it refers to the majority. Not the minority. And, I’m only speaking of a certain element of our existence, not an overall judgment call.

Read more…

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…

Have you ever day dreamed about not owning a house, not having to pay rent or mortgage or the never ending utility bills? How about living in the jungle or in a small cabin on some serene hill? Have you ever wished you could climb a mountain, finding a cave and converting it into your residence?

How would you like a small tent or a tipi (tepee) as a place to sleep and rest while having the whole wide world and nature as your real home? ….. Have you ever imagined that?

Have you ever wondered how you would fair without modern life amenities such as electricity, hot water, the internet, personal automotive vehicles or huge grocery stores?

Have you wondered why? Why you live in a city, why you have to work and why we use money?

Have you imagined different systems of living than the ones we live in and rely on nowadays? What would it be like to un-institutionalize yourself from all these systems?

Are homeless people homeless for the same reasons? Is it a life choice? Is it your right to make that choice?

Watch this video about Michael, a homeless person living in the hills around Fairfax, California. It has him talk about his experience, why he is homeless, what it is like to be homeless in Fairfax.

In this interview, Michael says “its my choice to be here right now, i wouldn’t trade [this for anything else]“. He also says that living in nature is a “really healing thing”.

If the video above is not working try watching the interview here:  http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-258613 Make sure you read the comments under the video as well.

Carl Gustav Jung was a famous Swiss psychiatrist, a student of Freud & the founder analytic psychology. I find some of his words very interesting and worth thinking about. This is one of the quotes I like:

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become

This one is so true.

I found myself at urgent care having trouble breathing last week. After many hours of tests and waiting, I was admitted in at the hospital and diagnosed with Pulmonary Embolism (a blood clot in the lung with a 30% mortality rate). Luckily, the one I had was small in size and I bounced back on my feet quickly.

If you know me you will know that I’ve always believed that everything in life has positive aspects, even seemingly dangerous, unpleasant or unforeseen situations can still offer glimmers of positiveness, sometimes lots of positiveness. Not only that, but that negative events could be turned around and used as opportunities for improvement. Unfortunately, some people take offense when I mention that ‘bad life events‘ can be positive things.

I am about to share with you actual thoughts I had while I was at urgent care and from the time that followed at the hospital. You will soon notice the majority if not all the thoughts were somewhat silly, somewhat childish, but that doesn’t matter because I know that all of them made me smile.

I am often amused easily by nature and seldom by man made things. I believe that anyone can be as amused as me by what nature has to offer, it’s not difficult; it is also possible to amuse at life events just the same. The way I see it, people and life events are parts of nature.

Now let me share with you my thoughts. Some of these thoughts were vocalized as soon as they materialized in my mind resulting is some chuckles, smiles or laughs by people that were there. In general, finding the positiveness in little things made the whole experience of being at the hospital much more pleasant for me and more tolerable for others.

You may want to read the post about my Pulmonary Embolism (here) to get the time line of events. The thoughts below are organized in chronological order.

Feel free to laugh at my easily amused self

Why am I sharing theses?

To show you that you can find intriguing, exciting, amusing, beautiful, even amazing and positive aspects to everything and every event, including when you are in pain and at the hospital.

Here goes:

On the CT scan

Thought: Wow, my first CT scan, I wonder how different it is from an MRI.

Read more…

Wont you say that the pursuit of happiness is one thing that is programed in most of us?  Not counting mentally unstable individuals, its safe to assume that we all want to be happy. The interesting thing though is how little we know about what it takes to be happy or satisfied. We often seek happiness only to create suffering.

I use the words ‘happy’ and ’satisfied’ interchangeably, the way I see it they are the same. Suffering also needs to be clarified here, suffering encompasses any of these: stress, negative emotions, misery, pain, etc.

Why is the list below so long (80+ topics)? Well, after getting a pulmonary embolism last week, a potentially lethal medical condition, I decided to write down a list of ideas and concepts that are dear to me in one post and to push them out on the Internet. This article is essentially my message to the world; I was planning on writing an article for each of (or a combination of) the topics listed below; as you will notice some article have already been written; however, who knows if I’ll live long enough or if I’ll ever have the time to write articles on all these topics.

The list below is a compilation of things I learned or developed (through thought processes), philosophies, beliefs and ideas that I consider dear to my heart and I do live by.  I do not want to take credit for any of the topics below, these were passed on to me through people, nature and other life events. I only learned them, tried to sincerely live them, and now, wrote them down. I believe that the more of these that you embrace the more satisfied and happy you will become.

Please share your tips for happiness by leaving a comment.

Message to the world, brought to you by Wholeness Blog:

1. Appreciate and delight in the smallest things and the simplest things.
2. Plan the future but don’t get obsessed about it. You can plan so much, but when something unplanned happens, then it is what it is, collect yourself and move on.
3. Many unexpected things may happen, sometimes things are what they are, sometimes they are not. Know which is which.
4. If you are faced with bad news, a bad reality, you will have to first accept it before you can deal with it. Some people go through denial and other moods, but you cannot move forward until you accept reality.
5. Take what you have and go along with it. Make the best with what you have.
6. See the positives and the lessons in everything  you experience.
7. Don’t see the obstacles and the so called ‘negative’ things, you will only pull yourself away from living a better life.
8. When you dream or plan, be free, explore all the possibilities, identify your dream as if no restrictions exist at all. Then, add the restrictions, examine which are real and which are self imposed, then create plans.
9. There is no good or bad. A few things are absolute good or bad, the rest are all in between, they are shades of gray. Even in your life, what you see as bad, may actually be good, your evaluation of something as bad is your own opinion, your own view, and your view is influenced by your mind set. (Read this on the good and bad).
10. Keep your mind OPEN to seeing the good in everything.
11. Stop and notice nature, birds, the wind, beaches, rain, smells, grass, dew drops, plant leaves, etc.. and see the beauty and life in them.. See the good in them.
12. See the good in you, all you’ve done, all you’ve overcome, the past events and challenges you lived through. Appreciate what you’ve managed to do and deal with. See how all these things made you who you are now and how they made you more mature and stronger.
13. Respect yourself. If you don’t no one will.
14. Love yourself. If you don’t no one will.
15. See the good that you have, your healthy blood, brain, eyes, ears, oh so many things that you are fortunate to have.
16. Demand respect of others, BUT give it back.
17. Treat others as you wish to be treated.
18. Make peace not war, in your mind, in your heart, with others, with nature and with everything.
19. Appreciate what you got. Do not take anything for granted. We got countless of things that should not be taken fro granted, for instance: Your house, the roads, the water, sewers, the food, the highway system, having fuel, electricity, the sun, the clean air, the money you have, your job, pets, rain, the night sky, green plants, fruits and on top of them all your health.
20. Remember, so many people are not as blessed as you are.
21. Read more…

I always try to see the positive side of things; it’s a habit of mine. I always tell people that there is ‘A’ positive in every thing, even in the seemingly negative. Pick any event in life and I can argue that it was neither good nor bad, and that it has positive aspects. Some people get offended when I say this; I am not trying to offend you here, but if you are, please keep on reading and let me know if you still feel the same when you’re done.

I often tell people there is something to learn and a chance to grow in every life event even horrible events. Now I am getting the chance to live what I preach in more serious ways than I had expected to. What you might find weird is that I find myself excited about this opportunity, to live what I preach, to see how I will react, how well I will utilize this opportunity to improve my life and to hopefully be an example to the few of you who don’t agree with me.

The badness of bad things, the goodness of good things, and the goodness of bad things, your memories of them and your future, all, depend on your view (attitude and mind set).

In a previous post titled ‘I Could Have Died’ (click here to read it), I explained a recent health situation I had to deal with. I was diagnosed with a blood clot in the lung; things could have ended much worse than they did. I walked away from this alive and (lightly) kicking, with a lot of positive emotions.

I write this at the risk of shocking some, but the truth is I don’t think of this recent situation as a ‘bad’ event, because I know how lucky I was, I could have died and I didn’t, and that’s lucky. I am not labeling it as a ‘good’ event either, whether it is good or bad is something for history to judge based on the outcome, by how my present and future are shaped or changed. What this event really was, is an ‘opportunity’.

There were many elements that made up this event, some more positive than others, some were arguably negative. This does not make the health scare (i.e event) negative or bad.

See, when a person labels something as ‘bad’, so many ‘negative’ things (emotions, memories and future events) are bound to be influenced and changed.  Bad and good are nothing but labels that we apply to otherwise, well, label-free, not good nor bad, events.

This reminds me of what Jesus once said. In Matthew 7:16-17 He said “You will know them by their fruits.” Just as Jesus asked men to judge other men according to their fruits (actions and outcomes) I ask that you judge your events by their fruits.

One should not label an event, but rather judge their outcomes. Outcomes happen in the future; thus one must only judge an event in the future to have an honest judgment otherwise she would be predicting, not judging. As we all know, most predictions are self-fulfilling.

Labeling an event before waiting to see the outcome is pre-judging, it predetermines to a degree the outcome. Thus, if you judge an event as bad, you are actually making it produce bad outcomes.

Since I don’t want to pre-judge this event by labeling it, how then would I describe the event? Let’s look at the facts:

• It was unforeseen.
• It was concerning, sometimes scary.
• It was challenging.
• It was a serious medical event.
• It was not as bad as it could have been.
• It is inconvenient.

Read more…