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A Tool For Shifting Your Energy

4/24/2018

Reminders are great aren't they? I've found it useful to re-read books, re-listen to a podcast or video, or hear a lecture on a topic that I've heard before. It can serve as a great reminder. Sometimes our brain is focused on certain pieces the first time and then picks up new pieces when repeated.

Lately, I've taken a few classes that served as great reminders for me. Sometimes it can be easy to forget, fall off the bandwagon or get complacent. This week I want to re-discover a tool that I have used for many years and have found to be a useful one. This is a repeat of one of my early posts. I hope it serves as either a great reminder or as a new tool for your toolbox.

What is your typical response when you become frustrated, angered or upset? Maybe you are having a disagreement with your spouse or coworker, or you are 'having one of those days' with your kids, or your family member is pushing one of your buttons. It's easy to get sucked into the hot mess, engage and probably make it worse. Sure, you might start out trying to be reasonable, but if your buttons are being pushed it can be hard to maintain composure. Even if we do, we usually walk away stewing and fretting about it in an unproductive way. I've learned several amazing tools that have helped me to handle situations like these with a lot more grace. I want to share one of them with you today.

This is a tool is simple, easy and works fast. Whenever you are confronted with a situation that is challenging and runs the risk of getting the better of you, repeat to yourself out loud or silently, "the God in me is loving the God in ____" and insert the name of the person(s) impacted. Repeat this over and over for a few minutes until you feel the shift happening inside of you. Even if you have to grit your teeth and choke it out at first, do it anyway. You will be surprised how after saying it a few times, your own thoughts and energy will begin to shift.

Now the super cool thing about this tool is that it not only begins to shift you, it also starts shifting the other person, and they are not even consciously aware that you are doing it. You will notice that they tend to calm down and that their energy becomes more positive and calm. This tool is amazing and so easy to do! Remember how thoughts become things and impact our environment and what comes back at us? Well, this is another powerful example of how this can work.

Here is how Spiritual teacher Pamla Ashlay-McPherson describes this tool, "People address each other from the part of themselves that has been programmed by this earth life; they forget they are spirit first encased in a body and when we address each other from our spirit to their spirit we speak greater truths. So next time someone is yelling or upset; be still, and in your head repeat over and over, 'the God in me is loving the God in you' and they will stop; as it will bring them to a greater truth without realizing it."

Next time you are in a challenging situation that threatens your ability to stay in a calm and loving place use this tool, repeat...the God in me is loving the God in you...and feel and watch what happens.

Please let me know how you like this post in the comments below. I would also love to hear your experience once you put this tool into action!

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." The quote is by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit priest.

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The Practice That Has Changed My Life

4/17/2018

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If I had to pick one practice that has impacted my life the most, it would have to be my prayer practice. Starting and ending my day in prayerful meditation has been life altering. Within my prayer practice I have woven together several of the tools that bring about more joy, peace and happiness. This prayer practice has become my anchor and it has significantly changed my life.

My daily prayer practice includes prayer, affirmations, gratitude, intention setting and meditation. All of the heavy hitters for supporting my day and my life.

For me, prayer is how I connect to God, to Spirit, to my higher-self. It's how I remember, it's my centering force and my guiding light. It's remembering who I am, what my intention is, that I am loved and supported, and all of the blessings that are in my life. Prayer helps to foster my relationship with God.

One of the things that helps me the most is the practice of presence that prayer brings. Prayer pulls me back into the moment and into relationship with myself and with God.

In case it is helpful to you, here is my current personal prayer practice. It is ever evolving, shifting and changing, but this is what it looks like at the moment. This is my "formal" practice, prayer and gratitude are also a spontaneous occurrence throughout my day.

Morning practice (5 to 15 minutes)
I sit down on my meditation pillow and put on some soft mediation music. I start off by saying, "Good morning God, good morning Soul, who am I?" I answer this with several affirming "I am" statements. I am a child of God, I am light, I am love, I am compassionate, I am forgiving, I am grateful, I am enough, I am healthy and well, I am strong, I am creative, I am a servant of God, I am a vessel for God, etc. Doing this helps me to center, to remember, to bring my awareness to my intention.

I then ask, "Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom?" This opens me up for guidance to seep in.

I then move into gratitude, "I am grateful for the blessings of today. I am grateful for..." and I list as many things that come to mind that I am grateful for.

Next, I further establish my intention for my interactions for the day. I set the intention for each of my interactions to be kind and loving. That God's will be done, that loving thoughts prevail. I briefly work through all of the people that I know I will have interactions with throughout the day and set my intention for loving kindness.

Lastly, I offer up any special requests on behalf of myself and others and end by sending out loving energy toward those who I sense could use some additional loving, positive, healing energy on that day.

At the end, I sit in silence and further meditate for whatever length of time feels right to me on that day. A few times each week I sit in meditation for a longer period of time (up to an hour).

Bedtime practice (2-5 minutes)
When I lay my head down on my pillow at night, I turn my focus to gratitude and then to protection. This practice has been extremely helpful to my ability to swiftly drift off to sleep. This is huge for me, because for a fair chunk of my adult life I suffered from insomnia. "God thank you for the blessings of the day. I am grateful for..." and I list as many things as come to mind that occurred during the day and in my life that I am grateful for.

I end my prayer by asking God to shine his loving and protecting light over me, my loved ones and the whole universe. I then visualize the image of loving light surrounding all of us. It's comforting and it brings my heart peace. That's it and then I drift off to sleep all happy and peaceful.

I am not suggesting that this is how you should pray. Praying is a personal practice and I don't proclaim that my way is the best, or the right way, it's simply what I've found to work for me. If something in there helps to serve you then I am glad to have shared it with you :)

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How Many Other Things Are We Missing?

4/10/2018

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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.

When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

I invite you to stop and smell the flowers, to pause and listen to the music, to slow down and witness life happening around you. I invite you to step off the hamster wheel of life and to be more aware, to be present with yourself and those around you. I invite you to set down your phone, to look up from your computer screen and to bear witness to life, to connect with those around you. Let's look up and not miss the beauty that is around us.

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You Are Greater Than Your Thoughts

4/3/2018

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Several of my previous posts have discussed the choice to either live in a beautiful, or in a suffering, state of being. This choice is a conscious decision to manage our mind to keep ourselves from getting stuck in a suffering state. This week I want to share with you some ideas on managing our mind, because our mind can either work for us or against us at any given moment.

We are thinking beings, every moment of every day, our mind is trying to make sense of what we see, hear and experience. Understanding the nature of thought is a critical piece of the puzzle to leading a happy life. Keeping us from getting stuck in a suffering state of being.

Thinking is an ability and it goes on whether we want it to or not. We tend to believe that "thinking" requires time and effort, but thinking about something can occur over several days or within a single second. We tend to place more weight on the "thinking" that happens with time and effort, and dismiss the importance of a more fleeting thought. Feelings follow and respond to thought, regardless of how much time that thought takes. Every feeling (whether negative or positive) is a direct result of thought. For example, it is impossible to have sad feelings without first having sad thoughts.

Richard Carlson in his book, You Can Be Happy No Matter What, explains it this way, "If you have the thought, 'My boss doesn't appreciate me...I never get the recognition I deserve,' the fact that you now feel bad about your job came about as soon as that thought came to mind. It all takes place in an instant. The time it takes to feel the effects of your thinking is the same amount of time it takes to see the light after turning on the switch."

He goes on to say, "The ill effects of thought come about when we forget that 'thought' is a function of our consciousness...an ability that we as human beings have. We are the producers of our own thinking. Thought is not something that happens to us, but something that we do. It comes from inside of us, not from the outside. What we think determines what we see...even though it often seems the other way around."

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we are in charge of our thinking and that it's our thinking, not our circumstances, that determines how we feel. We tend to blame our unhappiness on our circumstances, which makes us feel powerless over our lives. Now you might be thinking to yourself that some of life's circumstances make our reality suck which in turn makes our thoughts suck.

As Carlson states, "We have innocently learned to interpret our thoughts as if they were 'reality,' but thought is merely an ability that we have...we are the ones who produce those thoughts. It's easy to believe that because we think something, the object of our thinking (the content) represents reality. When we realize that thinking is an ability rather than a reality, we can dismiss any negative thoughts that pass through. Only thought brings meaning to a circumstance."

When we think about something, we can choose whether we take the thoughts to heart and react in a negative way, or choose to let them pass through. We can pick and choose which thoughts we wish to react to. We don't have to take everything so seriously, we can lighten up. We can choose to practice some of the other tools in our toolbox like empathy, forgiveness, looking for the lesson and the silver lining, etc. We can choose to have that childlike quality which brings back curiosity, wonder and adventure into our lives.

This childlike quality will allow us to listen to people and to our thoughts in a more loving way without letting every negative thought bother us. Because ultimately, the relationship that we have with our own thinking determines our mental health and happiness. Not every thought needs to be taken seriously, analyzed and construed as reality. We can choose which thoughts to act on and which to let pass through, we can choose to not be victimized by our own thinking, we can choose to keep ourselves safe from our own selves.

What do you think about thinking being an ability from which our feelings are derived? Or, about the idea that thinking is an ability rather than reality? I would love to hear your thoughts :) on this post. Please drop me a comment or send me an email.

Michael Neill gives a funny and informative TED Talk about our thoughts called "Why Aren't We Awesomer?". Check it out at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr6VawX2nr4

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A Tool For Shifting Your Energy

The Practice That Has Changed My Life

How Many Other Things Are We Missing?

You Are Greater Than Your Thoughts

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