"Try to rise to the occasion. Be the most wonderful expression of you
that you’re capable of. This step makes you a conduit of God’s love. " - Marianne Williamson
"Bless the world. Pray not just that your own life will be blessed but that blessings be poured on everyone. This step makes you beautiful." Marianne Williamson
sâmbătă, 10 august 2013
Sandra Ingerman What does it mean to live an awakened life?
We also must wake up the shamanic teaching that we are dreaming the world into being with each thought we send out and with the words we use. What we feed grows. As we wake up learn to have more discipline with the thoughts, words, attitudes, and beliefs we allow ourselves to focus on throughout the day. Words and thoughts are seeds and when we nurture them they grow into strong plants in both our inner and outer landscape.
For this essay I wanted to focus on the importance of enlivening our senses to assist us in waking up to the beauty that life has to offer.
We are so overwhelmed by sensory stimulation that is part of the world we live in. It is difficult to find the quiet space within where spirit, the helping spirits, and nature can inform us through ways of communication that are beyond words but more of a transmission that touches the depth of our soul. We cannot stay on the surface or understand on a rational level the mysteries of spirit.
When we take a walk in nature and speak to the spirit of the elements and to other nature beings the true wisdom comes through a transmission that is beyond rational understanding. This energetic transmission touches a knowing that we are born with which acts as fertilizer for our growth.
I recently read an essay that was written by Sparrow Hart titled “Of Dreams and Dragonflies.”
In the essay Sparrow Hart shares how he learned that dragonflies have two sets of eyes that have 16,000 lens. Sparrow Hart was reflecting on how dragonflies inhabit a universe we cannot conceive or fathom. What he wrote started a deep process of reflection for me.
As humans we have our internal and external senses. But in the Western world we cut ourselves off from using the depth of our senses.
I started to reflect on how in the modern world we have deadened our senses. We live and work in environments that are stale. Many people use scented candles and artificial fragrant sprays to cover up how the air smells.
We listen to music on our devices throughout the day. Many of us live surrounded by so much external noise that we cannot hear the beautiful bird songs or the sound that comes to us from the gentle breezes, strong winds, or the rain.
When was the last time you heard a tree sing? Trees do sing and if you really open your “invisible ears” you will hear them.
And many of us are disconnected from our bodies, and we don’t let ourselves fully touch all that is in our surroundings.
We mask the taste of our food with so many artificial flavorings and sweeteners we no longer can appreciate the fresh tastes that the earth gifts us with.
We often surround ourselves with so many material objects that we go on sensory overload and we cannot take in the beauty of the sights of the natural world.
A friend of mine was sharing with me how she was on a boat trip on a river in a rural part of Australia. The guide on the boat was trying to point out to all the tourists a tree in the distance with a snake on it. The people in the boat could not even see the tree that the guide was pointing to. As they got closer everyone could see the tree and the snake and was amazed at how the guide could see them so far away. Obviously the guide senses remained enlivened by living in the natural world. We have lost the ability to stretch our awareness.
This is all to say we are missing out on a lot that life has to offer. We cannot perceive the beauty in life and connect with nature with unless we truly use the senses we were gifted with.
We must fully enliven our senses once again to contact the beauty and power of the world around us. And then we can truly appreciate the beauty that lives in all things.
Also we have non-ordinary senses. We have the ability to tap into our shamanic, psychic, and intuitive knowing through using our inner senses. But here again I find that so many of us have stopped working with our own psychic senses.
Before an earthquake or other natural disasters occur animal behavior changes significantly. During the destructive tidal wave in Thailand animals had moved to higher ground and to safety before the tidal wave was apparent to humans.
I have a friend who had a boa constrictor and before an earthquake the snake started becoming agitated. The same behavior can be seen in birds, dogs, cats, and other animals. Most humans are not in touch with the psychic senses that inform us about changes occurring in the earth and in the environment.
As we live our daily lives we can open our non-ordinary senses to perceive a rich and magical world around us. We might hear a message in the wind as we walk to work. When our ordinary senses are not so overloaded we find ourselves in touch with inner knowings where we simply feel the truth of guidance or wisdom in our bones.
The nature beings with all their internal and external senses are great teachers for us in how to reconnect with the earth within us and the earth without. As we do this we find our perception changing about everything occurring in our lives. Life takes on a deeper meaning and we can begin to see the beauty that life has to offer and how precious it is to be in a body.
Many people don’t want to be connected with their bodies. For a variety of reasons maybe through past trauma or illness being in a body is a source of pain rather than a joyful experience. And many of us also disconnected from our bodies as we have disconnected from nature. For to really be in nature immediately connects us back to the beauty of being in a body.
It is time for us to honor our bodies and not reject or judge them. It is time for us to allow ourselves to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell all that nature offers us. And then we inhabit a universe that right now most of us can only imagine.
There are so many levels of awareness we can open to as we learn how to sharpen our perception.
http://www.awaken.com
The Power of Choosing Your Thoughts
Time spent alone in thought can be positive — a rich environment for personal growth and creativity. Yet, getting “in our heads,” can also be dangerous when we negatively turn against ourselves. There is an important difference between introspection and rumination. Introspection can be a process of healthy self-reflective examination and exploration, all of which are good for our well-being and our brain. Rumination, on the other hand, can lead us to spiral into a vicious cycle of negative thinking that holds us back and hurts us in our lives.
The problem, however, is that our mind is not always a safe place. Every person is divided between a healthy attitude toward themselves that is goal-directed and life-affirming and a destructive side of themselves that can be self-critical, self-denying, paranoid and suspicious. This inner critic, also referred to as the “anti-self” or the “critical inner voice” can take over our thinking and lead to rumination. Rumination occurs when we become trapped in a negative cycle of circular thinking. This type of thinking has a strong link to depression and suicide.
When we are in the realistic point of view of our “real self,” we can have positive self-reflection. When we are in the point of view of our anti-self, experiencing thoughts that focus on us as “bad,” we should make a conscious effort to avoid ruminating. There are seven other activities on the Healthy Mind Platter that are far more favorable when in this state, including play time, physical time and connecting time.
Mindfulness meditation is another healthy practice we can adopt that has been proven, not only to improve the quality of our lives, but to possibly extend the length of our lives. It can also reduce ruminative thinking. When we learn to meditate, we learn to choose our thoughts. We are better able to consciously steer away from the directives of our critical inner voice.
At first, this can be quite a challenge, as our critical inner voice has a way of slipping into our thoughts without us even realizing it. We may, for example, be sitting in meditation and start having thoughts toward ourselves like, “You don’t have time for this. You never get anything done. You are so useless. How can you be so lazy? Why can’t you do anything right?” Our critical inner voice might even attack our efforts to meditate or control our thinking. “You’re terrible at this. You can’t even sit still for one minute. You will never be able to relax. You’re such a mess!”
When we learn mindfulness, we gain the power of familiarizing ourselves with our thoughts and our patterns. We can get to know our critical inner voices, and we can start to recognize when these cruel thoughts start to surface. We can then choose to steer our minds away from these thoughts. We can see the thoughts as clouds passing in the sky, yet like a mountain, we can stand solid and allow them to float by without letting them overpower us or influence our behavior.
When we do take time to be mindful and introspective, we must adopt an attitude Dr. Siegel describes as curious, open, accepting and loving (COAL). We can then think about what we want to challenge in ourselves and how we want to from negative past influences. In this way, we give our lives meaning and direction without falling victim to the inner critic that holds us back and keeps us from achieving our goals.
Shakti Gawain
"I am willing to make mistakes and learn from them." Shakti Gawain
"Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you - work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you." -Shakti Gawain
"The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be." - Shakti Gawain
Shakti has written numerous books considered classics in her field. Her distinguished publishing history includes best sellers Creative Visualization, Living in the Light, The Path of Transformation, Four Levels of Healing, Creating True Prosperity, and Developing Intuition. Her books have sold over 10 million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. She is the co-founder, with Marc Allen, of New World Library Publishing Company.
She has appeared on such nationally syndicated programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, Sonya Live, The Larry King Show, The Leeza Show, America’s Talking and New Dimensions Radio, and has been featured in New Woman, New Age Journal, and Time Magazine.
Through her seminars and her books, Shakti helps people heal and develop all levels of their being — spiritual, mental, emotional, physical — and access their intuitive inner wisdom. Sharing the ideas and practices that have helped her the most in her own life, she guides others on their path to living more consciously. She facilitates us in finding deeper meaning and purpose through developing our unique gifts and abilities.
Shakti is a passionate environmentalist, who believes that as we bring more awareness to our daily lives, we can learn to live in balance on our planet.
She and her husband Jim Burns, live in Mill Valley, California.
Mom,
she was right — Shakti’s book describes very well how I’ve always lived
my life — I just didn’t know anyone else did it. I had never heard
other people talk about living by intuition and heeding their own
internal guidance system. I felt affirmed and validated after reading
Shakti’s book.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Living in the Light by New World Library, so I thought it would be interesting to check in with the author and see what she’s up to lately. I figured it would be a real treat to interview an author who’s been such a positive influence on my life, and tens of millions of other lives, too.
BJ: What is it you want people to understand about how to “live in the light”?
Shakti: We all have within us a deep wisdom, but sometimes we don’t know we have it. We live in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge or validate human intuition and doesn’t encourage us to rely on our intuitive wisdom. Much of the Western world emphasizes rationality and reason, but overlooks or ignores the enormous value of intuition and instinctive wisdom. When I wrote Living in the Light, I wanted to share about how I live my own life and to encourage people to tap into their own inner wisdom.
It’s so practical to connect to that source of guidance on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis. Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you – work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you. Listening to your internal guidance system will lead to a rich, fulfilled, happy life. That’s been my experience… and millions of folks can attest to it in their own lives as well. Of course life is not always easy and in fact, some are very difficult. This is all part of the process of being human.
BJ: What’s the relationship between your rational mind with your intuition?
Shakti: Your intuition is not the same thing as your mind. In fact, intuition is really the opposite of your mind — and you need to use BOTH in living your day-to-day life. The mind is the enemy of intuition, according to many New Age adherents, but I don’t buy that. I look at everything in terms of polarities — two ends of the same continuum. Young/old, male/female, individuality/conformity, work/play, freedom/constraint, right/left, day/night, life/death, rational/emotional, and so on. Mind and intuition are at opposite ends of the same continuum and our goal is to strike a healthy balance between the two. It’s not a question of either/or… it’s a question of both/and. We shouldn’t ignore any guidance that comes from the mind – we should listen to our minds AND balance mental messages with intuitive messages. We need both to navigate our way through life.
BJ: Care to talk about what you are working on these days? Writing a new book? Doing workshops?
Shakti: Yes, yes, and yes! I’d love to talk about what I’m up to. The book I’m working on right now is on relationships — about how we can use our relationships as paths to consciousness. By viewing our relationships with friends, family, and co-workers as mirrors, as teachers — we see that they are reflecting back to us exactly what we most need to learn. I plan to finish the book this Winter for a Fall 2013 release.
In addition to that book, I have a couple more I plan to write: The first is titled Write Your Book! for people who have a message to share and want to write a book. I believe that everybody needs to tell their story — to be heard, to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be understood. We all want that, deep down inside — and writing a book is a great way to make sense of your own experience and to share it with others.
The other book I’d like to write is my own life story. I did one already, when I turned 40 and wrote Return to the Garden, but now I’m 63 so it’s time to do it again. I think a lot of people will identify with it.
BJ: I think so, too. A wise editor once told me: “That which is the most personal is also the most universal.” So I’m sure that many people will identify with your life story.
Shakti: I love that advice! “That which is the most personal is also the most universal.” Perfect.
BJ: What else is up next for your work in the world?
Shakti: I’m very interested in the dialogue we have with the inner parts of ourselves. I’ve been influenced by the work of Hal and Sidra Stone and am developing ways to help people get in touch with the disowned parts of themselves. I conduct small, intimate, one-day workshops at my home once a month or so — and I do individual coaching with people as well.
A few years ago I took some time off to deal with a few health issues — my body was letting me know it needed some attention and healing — so I didn’t write or do workshops for a while. But now I’m refreshed and renewed and my health has restored, so I’m having a wonderful time with the new direction of my work.
I’m especially interested in relationships since that is a part of life that causes enormous pain for many people. When I was younger, relationships were a source of pain and frustration for me, too, and now I understand why.
BJ: I love hearing your perspective on relationships! About 20 years ago I attended one of your workshops and recall how you said, “People who really want to be in a relationship are IN one.” I’ll never forget the impact your statement had on me. I have said for many years that I want to get married again, I want to have a life partner — but when I look back over the years, my behavior tells me something different. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to get married — I’ve dated dozens of great guys, and had some good relationships — but somehow, they always ended. So… I suspect that while I SAY I want a man in my life, maybe deep down inside I really don’t. Maybe I want freedom more than I want partnership. What do you think?
Shakti: That’s exactly the kind of thing I was talking about earlier in our conversation. Freedom and relationship are polar opposites — they both exist on the same continuum. You DO want a relationship — and you DO want freedom — what you really want is BALANCE, you want wholeness. But there is some inner conflict — fear, anxiety, some disowned part of yourself that is keeping you free, but also keeping you out of a relationship. That’s exactly the kind of thing I help people with in my workshops and my coaching.
The disowned parts of ourselves are what get in the way of us having the relationships we long for, the careers we don’t know how to create, and the goals we want to achieve. It is by getting in touch with ALL the parts of ourselves — by having a gentle dialogue with all the “selves” we have inside — that we integrate them into a more comfortable, peaceful way of being with ourselves. We have to get good at being with ourselves before we can hope to be good at being in relationships with others.
http://www.awaken.com
"Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you - work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you." -Shakti Gawain
"The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be." - Shakti Gawain
Shakti Gawain
Shakti is a pioneer in the field of personal development. For over twenty-five years, she has been a best-selling author and internationally renowned teacher of consciousness. Shakti has facilitated thousands of individuals in developing greater awareness, balance and wholeness in their lives.Shakti has written numerous books considered classics in her field. Her distinguished publishing history includes best sellers Creative Visualization, Living in the Light, The Path of Transformation, Four Levels of Healing, Creating True Prosperity, and Developing Intuition. Her books have sold over 10 million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. She is the co-founder, with Marc Allen, of New World Library Publishing Company.
She has appeared on such nationally syndicated programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, Sonya Live, The Larry King Show, The Leeza Show, America’s Talking and New Dimensions Radio, and has been featured in New Woman, New Age Journal, and Time Magazine.
Through her seminars and her books, Shakti helps people heal and develop all levels of their being — spiritual, mental, emotional, physical — and access their intuitive inner wisdom. Sharing the ideas and practices that have helped her the most in her own life, she guides others on their path to living more consciously. She facilitates us in finding deeper meaning and purpose through developing our unique gifts and abilities.
Shakti is a passionate environmentalist, who believes that as we bring more awareness to our daily lives, we can learn to live in balance on our planet.
She and her husband Jim Burns, live in Mill Valley, California.
Shakti Gawain Is Still ‘Living in the Light’
Years ago I read Living in the Light by Shakti Gawain and loved it. I gave the book to my mom who called me when she finished reading it and said, “That’s the way you live YOUR life!”
Mom,
she was right — Shakti’s book describes very well how I’ve always lived
my life — I just didn’t know anyone else did it. I had never heard
other people talk about living by intuition and heeding their own
internal guidance system. I felt affirmed and validated after reading
Shakti’s book.This year is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Living in the Light by New World Library, so I thought it would be interesting to check in with the author and see what she’s up to lately. I figured it would be a real treat to interview an author who’s been such a positive influence on my life, and tens of millions of other lives, too.
BJ: What is it you want people to understand about how to “live in the light”?
Shakti: We all have within us a deep wisdom, but sometimes we don’t know we have it. We live in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge or validate human intuition and doesn’t encourage us to rely on our intuitive wisdom. Much of the Western world emphasizes rationality and reason, but overlooks or ignores the enormous value of intuition and instinctive wisdom. When I wrote Living in the Light, I wanted to share about how I live my own life and to encourage people to tap into their own inner wisdom.
It’s so practical to connect to that source of guidance on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis. Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you – work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you. Listening to your internal guidance system will lead to a rich, fulfilled, happy life. That’s been my experience… and millions of folks can attest to it in their own lives as well. Of course life is not always easy and in fact, some are very difficult. This is all part of the process of being human.
BJ: What’s the relationship between your rational mind with your intuition?
Shakti: Your intuition is not the same thing as your mind. In fact, intuition is really the opposite of your mind — and you need to use BOTH in living your day-to-day life. The mind is the enemy of intuition, according to many New Age adherents, but I don’t buy that. I look at everything in terms of polarities — two ends of the same continuum. Young/old, male/female, individuality/conformity, work/play, freedom/constraint, right/left, day/night, life/death, rational/emotional, and so on. Mind and intuition are at opposite ends of the same continuum and our goal is to strike a healthy balance between the two. It’s not a question of either/or… it’s a question of both/and. We shouldn’t ignore any guidance that comes from the mind – we should listen to our minds AND balance mental messages with intuitive messages. We need both to navigate our way through life.
BJ: Care to talk about what you are working on these days? Writing a new book? Doing workshops?
Shakti: Yes, yes, and yes! I’d love to talk about what I’m up to. The book I’m working on right now is on relationships — about how we can use our relationships as paths to consciousness. By viewing our relationships with friends, family, and co-workers as mirrors, as teachers — we see that they are reflecting back to us exactly what we most need to learn. I plan to finish the book this Winter for a Fall 2013 release.
In addition to that book, I have a couple more I plan to write: The first is titled Write Your Book! for people who have a message to share and want to write a book. I believe that everybody needs to tell their story — to be heard, to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be understood. We all want that, deep down inside — and writing a book is a great way to make sense of your own experience and to share it with others.
The other book I’d like to write is my own life story. I did one already, when I turned 40 and wrote Return to the Garden, but now I’m 63 so it’s time to do it again. I think a lot of people will identify with it.
BJ: I think so, too. A wise editor once told me: “That which is the most personal is also the most universal.” So I’m sure that many people will identify with your life story.
Shakti: I love that advice! “That which is the most personal is also the most universal.” Perfect.
BJ: What else is up next for your work in the world?
Shakti: I’m very interested in the dialogue we have with the inner parts of ourselves. I’ve been influenced by the work of Hal and Sidra Stone and am developing ways to help people get in touch with the disowned parts of themselves. I conduct small, intimate, one-day workshops at my home once a month or so — and I do individual coaching with people as well.
A few years ago I took some time off to deal with a few health issues — my body was letting me know it needed some attention and healing — so I didn’t write or do workshops for a while. But now I’m refreshed and renewed and my health has restored, so I’m having a wonderful time with the new direction of my work.
I’m especially interested in relationships since that is a part of life that causes enormous pain for many people. When I was younger, relationships were a source of pain and frustration for me, too, and now I understand why.
BJ: I love hearing your perspective on relationships! About 20 years ago I attended one of your workshops and recall how you said, “People who really want to be in a relationship are IN one.” I’ll never forget the impact your statement had on me. I have said for many years that I want to get married again, I want to have a life partner — but when I look back over the years, my behavior tells me something different. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to get married — I’ve dated dozens of great guys, and had some good relationships — but somehow, they always ended. So… I suspect that while I SAY I want a man in my life, maybe deep down inside I really don’t. Maybe I want freedom more than I want partnership. What do you think?
Shakti: That’s exactly the kind of thing I was talking about earlier in our conversation. Freedom and relationship are polar opposites — they both exist on the same continuum. You DO want a relationship — and you DO want freedom — what you really want is BALANCE, you want wholeness. But there is some inner conflict — fear, anxiety, some disowned part of yourself that is keeping you free, but also keeping you out of a relationship. That’s exactly the kind of thing I help people with in my workshops and my coaching.
The disowned parts of ourselves are what get in the way of us having the relationships we long for, the careers we don’t know how to create, and the goals we want to achieve. It is by getting in touch with ALL the parts of ourselves — by having a gentle dialogue with all the “selves” we have inside — that we integrate them into a more comfortable, peaceful way of being with ourselves. We have to get good at being with ourselves before we can hope to be good at being in relationships with others.
http://www.awaken.com
Abonați-vă la:
Postări (Atom)