Humility

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."

Rick Warren

Interesting that during a recent session of Scalar Heart Connection 'humility' came up as the opposite of anxiety or worry.

It gave me pause for thought.

Is it ego then that pushes us to think we can do something about our concerns, goads us to take control, convinces us action must be taken when maybe it cannot in the moment. I imagine this is the kernel of anxiety or worry. The question comes up "What can I DO?"

Humility's question might be "What can I ALLOW?" or "What can I become open to?"

It is a softer more loving energy that creates flow rather than tension, blockage or harshness.

I have been keeping this in mind since it came to my attention and as the quote above invites, I have been attempting to think of the needs of those around me and trusting that everything is conspiring for the good. It feels healthier.

It is not what I would have thought of as humility previously, but it makes sense to me now.

What do you think?

Listen

Listen.
What do you hear?
Right now I hear a bus passing outside and a child turning the page of a large book.
I listen some more and I can hear a newspaper being folded and as I close my eyes to eliminate distractions I become aware of my breathing. I cant hear it but I feel it.

How often each day do we actually feel our breathing, maybe with a sigh, or a yawn.
Breathing is one incredibly powerful way to control our stress levels and consequently impact our health. And the best thing is - its free!

Listening and becoming aware of our breathing is the first step to body consciousness. So often we are unaware of our bodies. I know this has been so for me for most of my life. I am a head centered person, thoughts running me here and there and keeping me occupied for hours on end. What can I read on the internet, what can I watch on TV, find me a good book, write me a journal, who can I call...OMG it wears me out! And there's more.

Probably over 20 years ago I made my first attempt to meditate. It was a disaster! Yet I knew there was something there for me. I came back to it after a decade had passed. Slowly, slowly I began to release myself to it's benefits.
The benefits to me are the release of fear. When I sit and simply be, allowing what is, being with my body and beyond that the ether/energy/life. Imagining the universe is breathing me, I allow the knowing, that the spacious place within me is the same place I came from and the place I am going to, beyond this life. Its not a scary place of oblivion with which my ego/mind fights. It is a peace that goes beyond understanding.
Meet me there.
Listen.
Do you feel your breathing as you close your eyes.
This is the gateway.
Come on inside.
Listen.

Heartfelt

"That's all any of us are; amateurs. We don't live long enough to be anything else."
Charlie Chaplain

We are half way through January, if you set resolutions for yourself I wonder where you are with them at this point? Are they long forgotten or have they evolved into something else?

Honestly I cant remember what mine were but I do remember the intention of them. At the speed at which  my mind can change I decided this year just to listen to the guidance of my heart. The heart is somewhat more reliable and consistent than the mind. There are so many distractions for the monkey mind whose talent is jumping about and following threads of interest. It has its usefulness and place.
The heart on the other hand can be truer, wiser and a more gentle adviser as we navigate our lives.

I discovered a technique last year for accessing the heart wisdom, its called Scalar Heart Connection. It bypasses the mind based on the idea recently discovered that the heart has a brain and wisdom of its own that is pre-sentient. It knows before the mind. The technique can bring to light what is hidden in the subconscious and help shift our mental vibration or energy into alignment with the gentle and loving energy of the heart. Experiencing this shift for myself has brought me a great deal of peace.
I am sharing the process now having take the workshops to be listed as a Practitioner www.ScalarHeartConnection.com.

I am an amateur, a lover of bringing peace and new insights into my own life and into the lives of others. I am loving the path I find myself on through listening to my heart.

What is yours telling you?
If you would like to experience the process for yourself I am offering sessions for $45 if booked before January 31st. It is powerful, it is profound and you can read more at my website www.SpiritisTalkingtoYou.com

Wishing you a very happy and heart centered 2015.
Namaste.

Abundant Support

I cant write today without touching on the commemoration of the tragedies of 9/11. No doubt following those events there were a lot of questions flying to heaven looking for a god or asking where is the order in this chaotic and seemingly cruel random existence.
My prayer today is that each and every person touched by these events has found a measure of peace, that they have made their own sense of it, each finding his or her own answers.

"Unfortunately every attempt to grasp the totality of life from a cognitive perspective is bound to fall short, because the brain is limited in how it perceives the world.
We may try to fill in the gaps with intricate beliefs but ambiguities and uncertainties remain and these are the very things that pull us deeper into our biological quest for knowledge, meaning and truth.
Around and around we go, for wherever there is a mystery, our brains are destined to explore."
Page 99 from "Why we believe what we believe" by Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman


Each of us must find what resonates in our own hearts as we make sense of our worlds but one thing I am fairly assured of is, that every person affected by these events were offered some form of loving support, from sister,  brother, mother, daughter, father, stranger, neighbor, friend. In some small way or large, love was offered.
It is my belief that Spirit/Life always supports its own expression, so we are each supported in our highest expression today and always.

P.S. So were those who died so tragically supported? It is my belief they were equally supported in their transition to a higher plane of existence. Like in birth, they have started life in a new form, no doubt welcomed by loved ones already passed and offered no less loving words and gestures. This is simply my sense of it, you must find your own.

Let Death lose its Sting...

They say that death is our ultimate fear and all other fears can be traced back to the idea of death. The word itself makes us recoil. It means something is devoid of life, inanimate, inert, ended and without power of any kind. Our ego screams at the thought of its annihilation, the idea that we end or no longer exist. This is the human reaction to the death of the body.

In Religious Science we believe very differently; that life never ends, we are not our bodies, we are our consciousness and as such a unique part of Spirit which is infinite and ever expanding. Depak Chopra gives an example to illustrate this idea; your TV until it is turned on is inert but the signal information is always there no matter how long the TV has been off. So too with people when they die in the physical, their energy still exists, its just not channeled in a visible body. For this reason we are never separate from those who have left this plane of existence, though our energy/consciousness still expresses through our bodies it is also connected with the whole, as a wave in the ocean of being. Therefore we can still commune with our loved ones in consciousness and they with us. What a comfort when we truly deeply know this.


As an old friend of mine used to say I'd still rather have someone with skin on!!! Yes we miss those who have left us. I live 6,000 miles from my family but at any time I still gain great comfort in writing a letter to my mother which is an action that I take separate from her. This year as part of my artistic expression I began making collage portraits of my family members. It is one very satisfying way of spending time with the individuals I miss and love. I also get to acknowledge their unique traits and qualities and how they express those in life. My art pieces represent my experience of another individual, what I see in them and the connection we enjoy.
In the Workshop "Remembering with Joy" that I designed with my friend Mary Hylan this is the core idea; we focus on the beauty of a relationship and how we have been enriched by another, knowing that we can still draw joy from it, that we have gained from it and that every situation in life including loss is an opportunity to know our spiritual interconnectedness more deeply.
For details www.GratitudeandGrace.com

“Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.”

God Speed

“I sent my soul through the invisible,some letter of that afterlife to spell; and by and by my soul returned to me,and answered, "I myself am Heav'n and Hell"
Omar Khayyam

Loosing someone we love whether in an untimely way or after they have lived a long and fulfilling life raises questions for even those among us who have the strongest faith.
I used to visit with a lady I came to call my adopted granny for about 5 years before her death at the grand age of 95. I knew her husband also who died a year or so after I began visiting them. She felt his loss acutely but it did not dampen her zest for life despite being legally blind and her mobility slowed to a snails pace. She used to tell a story of trying to console a child who was grappling with the death of an aunt. She would tell her that that person was with her in spirit although she couldnt see her anymore and that all she had to do was think of her and she was present. The young girl seemed to understand but her response was, "That's all very well but I'd rather have someone with skin on!"


I think of that story when someone passes. I know that people sense the presence of the deceased person from time to time and definitely hold that loved one forever alive in their memory and hearts but its the loss of the physical presence that the mind has such a hard to coming to terms with.


A young man of about nineteen gave me pause for thought when he made a comment as we talked about death. He had meditated since he was very young and felt he went to that place of simply being energy or spirit when he sat to turn within. He felt as if he had already visited that place of disembodiment and pure consciousness, there was nothing to fear in the afterlife.

If death is the ultimate fear, fear of non existence, his experience is a good argument for the meditative state. Only once in my life have I had that truly freeing experience. I felt unencumbered by all my attachments to who I am on this physical plane and it was blissful.


If this is what our loved ones go on to, we can celebrate their release knowing we will join them one day or any day if we choose to incorporate deepening our meditation into our daily practice.

If I myself am heaven and hell, it's a powerful and comforting way to choose heaven as we commune with the universal energy where we are one with our beloved and they are one with us.

Can you relate to this? Have you had a similar experience? I would love to hear about it.

Emptiness is in fact form when we forget the self. There's nothing in the universe other than ourself. Nothing to compare, name, or identify. When it's the only thing there is, how can we talk about it?- Taizan Maezumi

For Clifford Giles beloved and loved by all who knew him.