Archive for February, 2006

My experience
Organic raw cashews are creamy and delicious. I’ve wanted to try these for a while and I just got a bag on Thursday. I’m truly impressed with their quality and taste. They come vacuum packed which preserves their freshness. Even the kids like these.

Versatile
Try them in your favorite raw food recipes or add some other dried fruit, nuts and seeds to make a nice trail mix.

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Cold and Flu season, that’s what this time of the year is called, right? Well, after all I’ve read about the body and how it cleanses itself, I believe a cold is the body’s way of cleaning itself out. This is the time of the year when our world is dark and cold. Before electric lights this time of year was more of a time for going inward, staying inside and general introspection so it’s no wonder that the body usually takes this season to clean itself out. Spring is coming and our bodies need to prepare for the extra work of planting and bringing in the harvest, at least that’s what our bodies were made to do. So, cleaning out the clutter of our minds and bodies is what this time of the year is all about. That’s what I believe, anyway.

How the body cleanses itself
The body has several avenues of elimination. The digestive system, the respiratory system and the skin are some of them. I think there are others but I don’t remember them off-hand. The body removes toxins from the cells and internal organs and sends them out of the body through these channels. Toxins come out the pores of the skin through sweat, the respiratory system through mucus and the digestive system through… well, you know.

How I handle a cold
The best thing we can do is help our bodies optimize this time of healing.
Digestive system
Simplifying our diets so what we eat is easy to digest allows the digestive system to focus its energies on elimination. So I cut out all processed foods, which I try not to eat much of anyway, and heavy protein. Heavy protein is meat, in any form, and eggs. I also cut out dairy since dairy causes mucus. Citrus fruits help the body rid of mucus faster. I hate to say this but doing an enema can help clean out the colon and speed healing. I have also been known to fast. Definitely check with a doctor you trust before doing any of these. One other thing I do is to take Cayenne Pepper capsules. (Don’t take if you have a fever.) Swallow one with water in the middle of your meal. If you feel any burning after you finish, it means there wasn’t enough food in there to mix in and you need to drink water until the burning stops. (You’ll want to check with a doctor you trust before you take these.) This helps to burn off toxins in the body. Ginger does the same thing. Honey can help soothe the throat, if it’s scratchy. If I’m awake I prefer to drink water until my throat isn’t scratchy anymore but you find out what works best for you and you do that. Staying well hydrated is essential.
Skin
Skin brushing with a Veggie Bristle Skin Brush helps keep the pores open so they can work effectively at eliminating toxins through your perspiration.
Respiratory system
Using a Neti Pot helps prevent colds and sinus infections as well as removing mucus that has accumulated in the nasal cavity.

Closing
Other than that I just take cues from my body as far as anything else it needs. I find I need extra rest and less activity and I give myself that. Staying warm, especially when I’m outside, can help my body reserve its energy for healing instead of keeping me warm. so I take extra care at this time to bundle up when it’s cold outside. So, cuddle up with a good new age adventure story, enjoy the season and rejoice if you have a ‘cold’, your body is healing and cleaning.

Warning/Disclaimer
I am not a doctor and you should seek the opinion of a doctor you trust before changing your life-style. I don’t suggest trying to speed up the healing through drastic measures. It never works well, usually causes more stress and can be potentially harmful in the long run.

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My experience
 At the beginning of my spiritual journey in 1994 this was just the thing to engage my mind. It’s a "new age" adventure story. It teaches principles to help us on our own spiritual path and our evolution as a species. This book was so intriguing, fascinating and interesting that I read it in two sittings. It took about 9 hours.

So, if you’re looking to learn more about "new age" principles and enjoy reading a good novel, this is a wonderful choice.

Author
The author, James Redfield, is creating a community for those who see the vision of the The Celestine Prophecy. If you resonate with the ideals of this story he wants to hear from you.

Movie
The Celestine Prophecy Movie is coming out soon. But you can see it as soon as March 31, 2006 at a pre-release screening. If you feel guided you can even host your own pre-release screening. The website offers online discussion forums, movie trailers and much more. (I reviewed the movie)

View book details at Amazon.com: The Celestine Prophecy

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The Problem
People aren’t being nice to themselves, each other or the planet.

The Solution
We have to remember who we are: the Source of all Life, individualized. Remembering this will also help us remember that we’re all one. We will then treat each other with love and respect all the time.

Barriers to remembering
The pain body and the restless mind.

Restless mind
In most of us the mind doesn’t stop thinking. Just try to stop for five minutes. You’ll probably find you can’t even stop for one, let alone five or the rest of your life. The restless mind keeps looking to the past and/or the future instead of being in the now. It thinks the past and/or future is more important and more powerful than the now, which is the opposite of the truth.

Pain body
The pain from the past accumulates and lives on in us as the pain body. If you imagine it as an invisible entity you are close to what it actually is. It gets “triggered” (you’ve heard of buttons, right? Well, these are the buttons.) and the pain body can take you over. You think it’s you, but it isn’t. You’ll recognize this when it happens. Just look for signs of negativity. It can be in your thoughts, feelings, and moods. The body getting aches and pains is a sign the pain body is awakening. Have you ever thought you knew someone and then they start acting crazy? It’s probably the awakened pain body.

Methods for being in the Now
1) Observe your thoughts by listening to the voice in your head. You must listen to it NON-judgmentally. Don’t judge your thoughts, just observe them. This goes for times when the pain body has been activated, too. 2) Feel the inside of your body. If you close your eyes and feel the inside of your body, perhaps one part at a time, you can feel the energy moving through your body. This is the inner energy field. No matter what you are doing make it a habit to keep some of your attention on the inner energy field of your body. If you need help being in the body, the breath can help you get there. Just pay attention to your breathe going in and out of your body and you’ll soon have your attention in the body. 3) Catch the pain body as it starts to awaken, before it arises and takes you over, by paying attention when negativity starts to fill your mind. Listen to the voice in your head and feel the inside of your body and the pain body will loose power. The negativity will subside and so will your reaction.

How it works
As you live more and more in the now you reclaim energy that is being used up by the restless mind and energy that is stuck in the pain body. Consequently they lose their power. Through continuing effort, patience and perseverance you will be at peace. The mind will be calm; the pain body will dissolve and won’t cause you or anyone else, pain anymore. You reclaim this energy by being in the now.

Benefits of using these methods while in a relationship
Eckhart Tolle points out that relationships aren’t meant to make you happy. Really?!? Unfortunately, that isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that they don’t cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that’s already in you, you just blame it on your partner so it seems like the relationship is causing it. The good new is intimate relationships can be used to achieve enlightenment. It isn’t east at first but fortunately all it takes one person to make it work. You don’t need your partner’s cooperation. So don’t stress if they won’t cooperate, just do it for yourself.

My experience
I’ve found that only one of us gets ‘triggered’ at a time, usually me. If Martin reacts, both our pain bodies have been activated and an argument ensues. So the trick is not to get ‘triggered’ by the person who starts acting negatively. For example, I was making dinner on Saturday and got angry when I asked Martin to set the table. He responded with a query as to whether or not I was going to set the table for him the next morning when he made breakfast. I was the one who got angry but he wound up reacting to my anger. (It did seem to me like his response was passive aggressive in the first place, though, so maybe I was reacting to him, but that’s not important for our example.) I observed my reaction, emotions and thoughts as they were happening and I guess he did the same because less than 15 minutes later, when he came back to the kitchen, the anger had dissipated from both of us and we hugged before we sat down to eat dinner.

Obviously the best thing is not to react at all. Just observe the other person’s reaction, non-judgmentally, while keeping your attention anchored in the moment. Martin has always been really good at not reacting when I get ‘triggered’. Now I’m getting good at it too. We’ve both gotten so good that even if we both react, it doesn’t last long, 15 minutes at the most. I used to hold onto anger for days, so this is quite an improvement for me. Also, I don’t get angry as often as I used to. Watching what I eat, practicing the methods in Transforming Stress as well as the methods in The Power of Now have helped me cut down on being moody and getting angry in the first place. (12/06-I’ve since been working with the teaching in Ask and It Is Given and have raised my non-reaction to a whole new level.) The healing work I’ve done, books I’ve read and following the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda have really worked tremendously to bring me to this place of emotional health and well-being. It’s been a hard, long 16 years since I started my own healing and spiritual journey and the road hasn’t always been easy. In fact it was hardly ever easy but it had to be done. Now I’m closer to being the change I want to see in the world. As we heal ourselves we help millions of others to heal as well. And now I can share the things that have helped me get to this place so you can get to it too.

More than I can possibly write about here
There is so much more in and to this book: being in the body as a means of being more creative; finding inner-peace; healing the body; clearing the toxins in our body and planet and so much more. The author’s voice even works toward make people more conscious. This book has been thought of as graduate work in the New Spirituality. I must tell you that there are probably a great many phrases in this writing that are direct quotes from the book. I have been listening to the audio CDs of both The Power of Now and Practicing the Power of Now for two years now so it’s hard for me to totally paraphrase everything. I hear Eckhart Tolle’s voice in my head and it really helps me throughout the day. It’s also merged with my own thinking so I remember the book in much the way it was written. No plagiarism was intended and I tried to change phrases as best I could.

Tips to successful practice
Listen to the CDs or read some of the book every day. Practice being in the body when you are doing everyday things like washing dishes, climbing the stairs or after getting in your car. There are meditations in the book to help if you have trouble feeling the inside of your body. What you can also do is try feeling your body after you have done some aerobic activity (if your doctor says you can do aerobic activity). I have found it 100 times easier to feel my inner energy field when my blood is really pumping. Accept where you are and be there fully. Even if the pain body is active in you, don’t try to be in any state other than the one you’re in. Wanting to be in a state other than the one your in is projecting yourself into the future. I’ve noticed that I naturally stop listening to the CDs for a little while. Other things just come up that I want to listen to but I always continue practicing. I just return to listening to the CDs when it seems right. I alternated between The Power of Now (7 CDs) and the abridged version, Practicing the Power of Now (3 CDs).

View book details at Amazon.com: The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

View the audio CD at Amazon.com: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

View book details at Amazon.com: Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from The Power of Now

View the audio CD at Amazon.com: Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now

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You want what?
I remember it well [fade up flashback music]. We were at a family function and one family member asked the little one, around two-years-old at the time, "Can I have a kiss?" She shook her head to say, "No." We talked about it and wondered why most adults ask children for kisses and hugs instead of just giving them. We figured it’s the habit, handed down from generation to generation, of looking for love outside ourselves. We also decided it was going to stop right there. Then and there we decided we were going to ask if we could give our children hugs and kisses and be okay with it if they declined. Isn’t there enough for everyone?

I didn’t realize it at the time but I guess it really comes down to this: our culture has taught us that love is something we need to get, that there isn’t enough for everyone. Therefore, we go out of our way to get love in whatever way we find acceptable. And, we are taught, before we give any love we should get love, thereby making sure we have all we need before we risk running out. It’s similar to Zig Zigler’s analogy of standing in front of a fireplace and saying, "Give me some fire and I’ll put on some logs." It isn’t going to happen. The logs have to go in before the fire can even start. The reality of love is that there’s plenty for everyone all the time and all we have to do to get it is to give it, unconditionally.

An evolution
I realized just the other day there’s another step in the evolution of hugging and kissing our children and others: asking if we can share a hug and a kiss. So now I offer to share hugs and kisses with my children. Sometimes they say no but I don’t pout or try to make then change their minds. They’re expressing their individuality and I rejoice in their person-hood. Who knows, someday we may discover another step in the evolution of hugs and kisses. Right now I’m content to practice this one and raise children whose personal preferences are honored and respected.

What is love, anyway?
Love, in its highest form, is Divine Love. When you love everyone and everything in the Universe, unconditionally, that is Divine love, which is True love. And there is an infinite amount of True love, so there really is enough love for everyone. Remember, the more you give away the more you have. Unconditional love is the only way.

We are all one
Consider that we are all one. We are all part of the same body, different parts, but a part of the whole. If I hold back unconditional love from even one part of me, I am holding back from loving all of me, and that keeps me from experiencing Divine love. If my love is conditional, it isn’t love.

Perpetuating the problem
The problem gets perpetuated and acerbated with the messages we receive from the time we are young children. It starts with, “Give me a kiss.” Over the years we reinforce what “love” is by what we read to them, what we say to them, what our Valentine’s cards tell them and the way we as parents interact. And what we are teaching them usually isn’t Divine love. I don’t know how to say this or why this article is so difficult for me to write (I have been Divinely commissioned to write this before Valentine’s Day, so go figure) but what we are teaching our children isn’t True love. We are really teaching them conditional “love”.

Valentine’s Day cards
Just think about the Valentine cards you’ve received in the past: “I love you because of all the things you do for me”; “I love you for how you make me feel”; “I need you”; and the infamous “What would I do without you?” These don’t sound like the messages of unconditional love, do they?

Romantic movies
Now picture the messages in romantic movies. A young couple falls in “love” and to be apart causes them “pain”. “I can’t live without you” is a common line. Hmmm, sounds like an addiction to me, how about you? And when the relationship finally does come to an end how do the lovers feel? They usually feel pain. Wow! That’s a definite sign of an addiction. As Eckhart Tolle tells us in The Power of Now, “All addictions start with pain and end with pain.” I don’t think it can be made any plainer: in the beginning young love can’t live apart (or they feel pain) and at the end they are in pain because they have to live apart. And movies are just a reflection of what happens in relationships in the “real” world anyway.

Romantic books
These have the same messages and story lines as the movies except they usually end while the lovers are still “in love”. Try ending a book without a happy ending and it won’t sell as well, unless you’re Hans Christian Andersen, of course. Even the band who wrote and performed a muscial based on one of his stories had a happy ending.

Music
This is probably the biggest one. The next time you have the radio on listen, I mean really listen to the words. I think you’ll be surprised. All the same messages from the books and movies are being expressed, to music, in great depth and feeling. Then think about how most of us listen to music the majority of our waking hours. We get them “stuck” in our head and repeat them over and over like mantra thus reinforcing the ideas. We are literally programming our minds to expect conditional love in our relationships. In our world of duality the message is that it’s normal to love a person one minute and hate them the next. Again, from The Power of Now, “How can you love your partner one minute and hate them the next? True love has not opposite. If your love has an opposite it isn’t love” (I’m paraphrasing.)

How to find love
Where can Divine love be found? Fortunately it’s close, it’s inside each one of us. All we have to do is love everyone in our life, including ourselves, unconditionally. You may ask how I do that. I’m still working on it myself. I guess that’s why this article was so challenging for me to write. What I found is that I need to take care of myself in order to create a fertile ground for unconditional love to be the norm in my life and this was just confirmed for me on page eight, “Really Love Yourself” of the book Wonderful Ways to Love a Child. “Loving yourself is the basis for all that is beautiful and meaningful in the human experience…”

Eliminate stress and irritability
That means I keep myself from being irritable by taking care of myself and doing what I need for myself. I do this by daily practice of the Heart Breathing from the book Transforming Stress; eliminating sugar (this is huge!) and other processed and mood altering foods from my diet; exercising regularly, endorphins are a great stress reducer and eliminator; getting enough sleep so that I’m not tired and irritable during the day; drinking enough water since dehydration can make you tired; and meditating regularly. There are other things that I have done in the past, can do now and plan to do in the future. I especially like going out with my friends regularly and having a “date” with myself once a week as recommended in Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. So find what eliminates your stress and irritability and make the change.

Eliminate anger
Now this one I’m still working on. If you watch violent movies and/or play violent video or computer games I strongly suggest you eliminate those from your life to eliminate anger. It really puts one in an unreal space and, I think, alters their consciousness into a place that we really don’t want to be. Doing all of the things above helps eliminate anger too but not as much as practicing the methods in the book, Transforming Anger by the same people who wrote Transforming Stress. I’ve seen the methods of the Transforming Anger book in action and it is amazing! I’m still amazed when I think about it. I am starting to read this book, and incorporate the methods now. Thanks to my mother for giving me both these transformational books.

Conscious incompetence
(Can you just imagine what that phrase means?) When we are working to change an undesirable habit in our lives we move through all the stages mentioned in Customer Service Over the Phone. So start listening to what you say to yourself and everyone else. When you say something that that comes from conditional love just rephrase it to reflect your desired mind-set of unconditional love. Soon the words that come out of your mouth, and the words you speak to yourself, will automatically come from unconditional love. Persistence and patience is the key to conscious competence, and feelings of unconditional love for everyone is the reward.

Back to love
True love is not outside us. It’s inside us waiting to be shared with others, which is what makes it grow. So, if you feel you need love, give love unselfishly, unconditionally, for the sheer joy of it and it will come back to you a thousand fold. And seeing everyone as having enough love will definitely make a huge difference.

Conclusion
We could say the evolution of hugs and kisses has gone from thinking there isn’t enough love to go around to realizing there’s lavish, abundant, unlimited Divine love everywhere at all times for everybody. Now isn’t that something worth teaching our children?

So write your own Valentine’s Day card
I’m writing mine to reflect how I feel, within the parameters of where I am in my life and on my journey and keeping in mind where my husband is in his life and on his journey. If you are writing it out long-hand I suggest you write it out on unlined paper first so you know how long it will be in the card and can allow for that amount of space so you don’t wind up writing on the back of the card or having to start over and waste a card.

My Valentine’s Day card for Martin, my husband
"I’m glad you’re my partner on this segment of my journey through life. I enjoy growing and knowing you’ll be here on the other side of what I’m going through. Your patience over the years has truly been a blessing. You know I’m here for you, too. Being with you has taught me how to get over my fears and face new challenges while standing in my power. I appreciate, and am grateful that you accept me for who I am and encourage me and support me in making my dreams come true. Thank you for working with me to use our relationship to grow and change into the grandest version of the greatest vision of who we want to be. I care about you and love you the best that I can. One day I will love you with the unconditional love of Divine love. Until then, know that I care for you very deeply as I know you care for me."

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