” There is a tremendous skill in deliberately directing your own thoughts that will yield results that cannot be compared with results that mere action can provide.”

~ Abraham

I have been taught, by the true Teacher within, that the essential purpose of our existence is the revelation of joy and the basis of that joy is freedom. That delicious freedom is the reality of every waking moment, yet,  from our fear, resistance to it does arise in the mind.  When a friend spoke recently of a frightening situation, I proposed that she choose a basis of her thoughts which she could focus upon. She grew angry, and asked” Are you saying that I am responsible for everything just because of what I am thinking?!”. Perhaps, not so simply as she’d stated, in truth I was pointing out that she had choice in the deliberate direction of her thoughts in that moment. Had she focused upon the growing fear of a unkown danger, she would surely nurse the beast to great strength, experience tremendous sadness and grief and eventually come to wonder why that storm had come so rapidly and caused such great destruction upon her life experience. On the contrary, she had the choice of choosing to nurture the thoughts that brought a sense of peace and alignment with her true Self knowing that all is well and seeing the possibilities from a vantage point of strength and invulnerable wholeness. Mere words will never come close to expressing the majestic power such choosing of thought can have over the quality and direction of life experience. There are few skills equally worthy of attention and cultivation.

Here is a useful exercise:

The next time you are feeling out of balance, go to this guide and see it bring you closer to your own liberation of thought.

• Awakening: What was I just thinking?  Put your ‘finger’ upon the thought that began the avalanche of feeling your are experiencing now.
   
• Acknowledgement:  See the thought as the catalyst it is.  Declare: “There is one of those disturbing ego thoughts again!”  * Don’t let your mind get stuck on the term ego.  We will discuss this term at length in a future post.  By all means, use another term if the mind is becoming distracted by this one.  Low energy, negative and bad vibration are all good replacements to try.
   
• Awareness: That thought comes from my fear of  ??  . When I allow thoughts of fear, I disallow alignment with my Source, God, Allah, Buddha, inner Christ, Divine Mother .  Call the Presence by any name you choose- just call ‘it’ forth:)
  Do I want that thought to grow or increase in experience along with the dis-empowerment it brought?

 

• Affirmation: What is the contrasting thought and desire? Choose this contrasting thought or desire stated clearly and deliberately.

 

• Alignment: The moment by moment practicing of deliberate thoughts chosen by you in a conscious state of awareness brings the here and now alignment with who you really are which your soul craves so deeply.  This is the only ‘work’ you will ever need to do.  Be here, stay here, and when you experience thought and emotion that makes alignment elusive, return with gratitude to the Awakening. In Joy!

Our beautiful, creative and sensitive 10 year old son, Ano, pulled another infamous Denis the Menace stunt this morning and, as usual, it presented a great practice experience for me. When I went outdoors with the dog, I gave Ano specific instructions to prepare the breakfast smoothie he insisted on having today. His instructions were actually so specific he was even give exact measurements by the ounce, serving size of fruit etc. This was all appropriate for him and he had no trouble remembering. However, he had great difficulty sticking to the plan and when I returned home soaking wet & breathless with 20 min to shower dress and brush Zuri’s hair, feed the dog, give hugs, kisses and pack snacks, I was faced with a kitchen of banana peels, open peanut butter containers and the JUICER and BLENDER- BOTH filled with banana peanut butter soymilk GOOP

Shift : My curriculum for the morning-
Can I abide in trusting my profoundly healthy and trust-worthy core to invoke the resources and right action instantaneously even when I don’t have a thought available that supports the “how” of it all? Can I abide in my Mountain nature of dignity and equanimity even “in the middle of all this”- solid, trusting and rooted as the mountain yet fluid, open and receptive in my Lake nature and allow the balance to handle the moment, period.

Well, like the first leg of a triathlon, I burst into that moment a surface froth of trembles and tension- spouting words, unsure, uncomfortable and ready to do what I’ve practiced most in this earthly presence- thrash about and abide in the world of illusions. I was holding my face, raising my voice, turning in circles and mumbling under my breath in anger. Ano and Zuri just watched while they both attempted to gulp the goop.

With the purest intention let go of the anger and open to love, I spoke to Ano and watched the conversation in awe. The lesson for both of us unfolded and I was amazed that it was happening so effectively. Yet I did not know I had any knowledge of how or what to do differently. I was speaking to him with the passion and earnestness I felt without resisting or suppressing it and yet there was no anger or even frustration. It was Spirit giving him what he needed in that moment- unconditional love served on a platter of ‘learning to take responsibility for your actions’ (without avoidance and backtalk) and ‘sometimes you just have to follow instructions’. The best part of all is the vibration we felt which said that there is a way to teach a lesson and learn a lesson without judgment or condemnation and that way is the one that leads to pure growth so the lesson doesn’t have to surface again. Voila and tada today.

I love to share this stuff. It’s the healing available behind the masks we all wear. Best of all, I love to know that we are all the very same and the lesson I received in my kitchen this morning will likely show up in yours- that is, if it hasn’t already! Isn’t this Earth thing exciting?!

Those of us called to lead may very often find ourselves enduring years of inner turmoil and agony when our gifts do not seem to be of use in our lives or our purpose is unclear.  The deepening desire to evolve can become a burdensome inexplicable sorrow in the absence of Source connection.  Through these times we resist the shift of consciousness, some of us more obstinate than others to remove our focus from Fear and surrender to the Love ever present and available just beyond the fog of ego.

I dare share that my life’s journey thus far has led down many a road where the light of my soul was so completely and painfully eclipsed by suffering that I appeared, undeniably, to be an entirely different and an often unattractive human being. These repeated bouts of angst and disappointment birthed an intense longing for the experience of God’s truth and pure Love within. That longing grew over time and became an all encompassing burning desire until, I felt, there was nothing, no accomplishment, relationship or experience more vital to my next breath than to know my Source. At this time, the outer mask I wore was one of grief and defeat as though I’d lost the very essence of my soul. Emotionally, I stood lost in a dark maze of life and cursed the darkness so many days in so many ways. My closest friends and family had already come to know me as a brightly shining, intuitive and creative light who often lost herself in a web of darkness. You can imagine that my seemingly sudden emergence into alignment was met by great skepticism and even disbelief.  Yet, irrefutable as the gifts of faith and grace, shift does indeed happen.  We must know that it not only happens but if we let it, is the most natural and readily available experience of all.  It is the solid, mountainous, centered direct knowing of Spirit’s indwelling loving presence.

Being an alchemist of the soul today, disbelief and cynicism now offer me the keys to open a door to profound humility and ground me in the very unglamorous hunger for alignment and connection to the Source at all times, under all conditions. Saint Maharaji Baba taught that to know God, one must have the thirst of a man lost in the desert without water for days. In that knowing, I am grateful for the maze and the darkness as it was necessary to create the burning desire that led me back to the Source. However, parallel to the humbling and grounding I experience when confronted by other peoples skepticism of my Truth, I am equally weighted by discomfort. As these feelings arise, I sit in a seat of defenselessness acknowledging that it is here to illuminate the ”growing edge”. In other words, show me what I must let go of to be free.  A shift into growth and acceptance instead of resistance.

The rough edge of discomfort and defensiveness shine a light on my dependence on the approving thoughts and agreeable opinions of the people I love.   Though I value them,  I no longer require approval or even agreement to validate my Truth. In order to allow the full expression of the Divine to emerge as my life, I have learned to trust my own intuition emanating from the vibration of the greatest force in the universe as it lives in me. Trust, like knowing, lies within foremost. In trusting my Self, I must allow the totality of my light to outshine any meager egotistic temptation to explain, defend or convince anyone of who I am or what my purpose is – ever. Therein, the ultimate discovery is that the only action to be taken is returning to center and opening my heart evermore to Love such that cynicism or doubt are disintegrated in the light of direct knowing.

It is my calling to reveal the depths of my majestic evolution, to share the noisy and sometimes disheveled beauty of this Spirit path. It is my tall order from the universe and I yearn to fulfill it with every skill and blessing. I commune here with you trusting that God works in my words and voice to uncover the Light and Love available to us all behind the masks we all wear – through and beyond the noise, and tragedies as the shift happens.

Being in the flow of Divine energy is proving a matter of letting or allowing answers, inspiration and right action to come as opposed to getting these things by force or uphill resistance. The axiom “Let don’t get” are not my own profound words- rather they are the essence of the lesson Michael Beckwith introduces in his Life Visioning process.  As with many such materials, I ingest and digest the wisdom and the Divine within does a wonderful job of correlating and organizing the universal truths from them all for me, building the fortitude of increased intelligence and awareness of my own intuition with each one.  When I am deeply listening with the core of my being, these wise words speak to much more than a surface mind intellectual understanding – a “sounds true” perception.  Instead, it speaks to a core of light that is simply called into remembering and it feels much like the call from an old, dear and loving friend.  It is a call and a voice instantaneously understood on the deepest level and in need of no explanation or questioning.  So, the day’s inspiration card at my bedside meditation table read “Let, don’t Get” today.

As it happens, beyond the morning’s thoughts of the weather, the dog, my grumbling tummy, deciding on the run or the bike, the yoga, the kid’s breakfast and snacks, the hair style, the hubby’s kiss and the cat’s food, (breathe…) I knew most deeply, that the energy ball I saw building in the previous day was still with me and needed to be moved up and released.  It was a dark ball of confusion, negative, disappointed & ungrateful emotion most of which I’d sat with and utilized for growth.  The finale would be not ignoring it but following inspired action to let it be released.  The oxymoron is that when such clouds of ‘mud energy’ arise, they dampen the psyche and burden the body so it becomes more difficult than normal to be inspired and move through them with the patience and intensity that will release it.  In my case this morning, small surface mind quibbles, tension and fear over yesterday’s unexpected car accident, tire blow out on the highway and subsequent repair costs built into a fearful ball of turmoil over precarious finances, unpredictability and  potentially unreliable “stuff”.  It, the ball, was separate from me.  That is, it was a detached contrast to my choice of grounded gratitude, courage in embracing the unknown situations and experiences as they occurred and certainty that all was already not only well but unfolding exactly as it should.  Yet, the ego has a way of creating diversions that, if not carefully observed, utilized and disintegrated can threaten to eclipse the eternal light of our soul. 

 Therefore, reaching past the weight of those emotions, I invited them to sit with me and made it clear that I was willing to hear their truth.  In listening, I remembered Yoga is a powerful tool for transforming heavy energy so I gave more attention to that blissful practice today.  When the body began to yearn for more movement, I walked out into the sunlight with Faith, my beautiful black pup.  Without predetermining whether we would walk or run or hike or bike, I went outdoors with only the intention to have fun with Faith.  To let myself play with her rather than getting some miles in or getting a run in.  The thought was to let the right action in.  This body has shown me miraculous possibilities when I invoke the power of deep listening and let my body have and do what it needs to.  Letting go into a rhythmic trot with Faith easefully crescendoed into a graceful cleansing gallop and while we let ourselves enjoy sips of spring water and gratefully received the grand view of our nearby lake, the energy of burden, ingratitude and complaint was disintegrated and exhaled through a wide joyous grin into the trees.  Wayne Dyer once said “The wilderness is therapy.”  Indeed, the trees have a majestic power to cleanse such residual ego balls.  They cleanse and they transform the energy.  I know this because when I let them, I gaze into the trees ahead and exhale the heaviness I begin to feel in my legs and lungs.  Without fail, they return to me a revitalized energetic shift, it makes me buoyant and whisks me home.  Faith and I were so thrilled, giddy even, to let ourselves have such fun outside playing together this morning.

The power of allowing can be applied to every area of our lives that may have previously seemed difficult.  Difficulty is a sign that we may be resisting instead of allowing.  For example, we can let the body be healthy instead of trying to get in shape.  This shift in consciousness invites the power of listening to what the body needs and enjoys, then simply providing it without resistance.  In this, there is no answer outside of you, no process to undergo except deep listening and the willingness to be available to the answer that you already have.

I am reminded of an Eleanor Roosevelt quote my dear friend Sandra Gibson refers to in her life affirming work “You gain strength, courage and confidence from every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do”. Those words bring most of us to a thought of some courageous action to be taken or fear bravely confronted.  With deep listening, I’ve discovered that the thing I thought I could not do, a great fear, is to live without resistance.  I am learning to reside in a deep trusting place where love is released and inspiration and powerful intention let more accomplishment come into being than I have ever imagined or witnessed before.     Frantic external action, busyness and incessant getting are the diversions that thwart real accomplishment from ever being birthed.  With this truth in mind, letting is a refreshing and empowering space to settle into, the power of opening to the grand expansiveness of God and standing in the simplicity of being guided.  If you listen deeply, with the inner ear, you may also find that this is the one thing you think you cannot do.  Spirit says the answer is – don’t think, do.

The spirit has a majestic way of turning all situations into wondrous growth and discovery opportunities regardless of how seemingly difficult sad or even terrifying the problem may have been.  I like to call this spiritual alchemy. It is our our divine right that all things may not only be used for our good but, if we know it, all may be turned into gold for our use for the good of all.   I am reminded of this power I hold to access spiritual alchemy whenever I am faced with new challenges.   To such challenges ,the answers I received previously, I usually  responded with a forceful resistance to the loving flow of Source energy.  At earlier stages of spiritual development, I would immediately engage  my iron-like  will to adopt or impose a new discipline into my daily routine – more intense weight lifting for a stronger physical body, absolutely no cooked foods, flesh or dairy products I would commit to these things in a most strong willed attempt to “get clean”. Ultimately these were earnest but extreme and inflexible attempts to come closer to God.  These disciplines always ended in great suffering as all in such a manner of rigidity and forcefulness do.  Those attempts at rigid discipline were simply desperate attempts to answer the burning intense longing for alignment with the Divine.  We can only hear what we are ready to hear.  No amount of advice about mediation or prayer or even yoga from others could be received by my mind entangled with my will and insistence on finding an answer out there  to my spirit’s calling in here. 

As I’ve matured in the spirit journey, I have learned that each effort was indeed a necessary part of my experience- each vital period of suffering priming me to receive the blessing lesson from the universe at my very next step.  In this I have learned to be grateful for suffering.  As the balance of the universe would have it, I am equally grateful for the joy suffering has made available to me, a constant sweet inner home that is always present regardless of people or outer circumstances.

Yet,  we know it is beneficial to cultivate the consistency of daily practices that support our alignment with Source.  When we understand and feel the flow of universal God energy as a ‘downstream’ flow or what Deepak Chopra refers to as “the path of least resistance” the path to cultivating our practice can become crystal clear.  For each one of us, the daily practices that support alignment and nurture mind and body are as varied as our personas.  However,  we do not need discipline or willpower to meditate, practice yoga, healthful exercise for the body or consume nutritious natural foods. We only need to know how to FOCUS our attention and effort on being in alignment with our source. The most important change we need to make is in our thinking.   Focusing on thoughts of these practices as the cultivation of the bliss they truly bring will support our ability to experience even greater joy everyday while that elusive blissipline is becoming stronger at the very same time.  Until we focus our thoughts and vibration in this way, duality and contention will manifest in our experience of old man discipline.  It is marvelous to use the power of spiritual alchemy where even  old man discipline can be of service as we transform him into the golden love of blissipline.

I come to you all in high gratitude on this glorious day in our time on this planet.  Our  sister  in spirit, Sandra Dubose , songstress, filmmaker, and visionary extraordinaire is now strutting humbly and joyously in the garden of her manifestations.  I was delighted to hear the telling, last night, of the unfolding of her wings when she attended the National Alopecia Foundation’s annual conference as keynote speaker just this past Saturday June 27, 2009.  It was the first of many such engagements to come and the energy of generosity, healing and gratitude flowed through her uplifting, encouraging and inspiring each and every member of the audience with the gift and talents she has been so blessed with for so long. 

You see,  in spirit and from afar we have conspired together in the earnest and sometimes laborious creation of what is now her life’s work and highest mission.  She has overcome her life’s greatest obstacles while spinning the cocoon of faith and gratitude diligently every day.  In doing so, Sandra has emerged a butterfly embodying what Marianne Williamson succinctly described as “shining your light… unconsciously giving other people permission to do the same”.

Swarmed by throngs who received  her soul stirring words and inspiration, even her husband was lifted into a frequency of felicity and revelry from the very breath of her light.  Yet, I digress as  Sandra is an elegant, humorous and poignant communicator in her own right and she will share the entirety of the  story of that blessed day, when the time is right, in greater detail that I could ever hope to.  Gift yourself the experience of this butterfly  by visiting  www.myalopeciaexperience.com.  There is more healing and well being available to you  there than you have ever imagined or experienced.  Go to her website with an open heart and you will leave overflowing.

So, I  bring word of her experience here today as the precursor to witnessing the evolution, unfolding and growth into the fullness of all we have been created to be. Hence,  opening our violet wings.  You will find that taking flight as Sandra has, energetically speaking, is a return to the profoundly trust-worthy core that has always called you from within.  There is no secret to the simplicity of cultivating everything you want to have be or do as her experience testifies.  Myself included, many human beings spend years of this life searching for an inner peace and purpose through means outside of  themselves.  Money, food, alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, physical beauty and sex  become our coping mechanisms to soothe the pain we feel so deeply when we have lost touch with the Divine source within.  Quite simply, the inner wisdom that can always be trusted in all ways becomes clouded, mocked, feared and doubted by a surface mind rancid with thoughts and judgments learned in the human world of events and circumstances created by other rabid minds just like ours. 

Yet, the Source from which we all came and are always connected to can never stop calling, loving and focusing on you.  It is a source of love and light that can never be destroyed.  In the scientific world it has been explained by Albert Einstein himself who purported that energy cannot be created or destroyed.  You are that Divine energy and it is the one true essence of you that can never be destroyed by any amount of doubt, fear, worry, coping mechanisms, judgment or dis-ease.  As we come to know this we can see more clearly the power and greatness we hold. Events and phenomena as they show up in our experience are simply a mirror of the thoughts and energies we’ve nurtured and focused upon. 

Sandra is now walking in a splendid garden, a field of sunlit flowers and a green meadow reaching as far and wide as the eye can see.  Because we are all so undeniable connected to the same loving invincible source, I am graciously blessed to feel and experience her bliss and power even though we are hundreds of miles apart.  I invite you to conspire together  with an earnest intention to amplify the blessings to come to her.  Sending Sandra greater abundance, prosperity , peace and love than even her great visionary human mind can conceive of, we are her co-creators in a life experience of Joy.  On Saturday, she challenged her audience, lovingly, to take back the joy and peace that their beliefs  in lack and limitation have created in their lives.  I challenge you all who know and love her to use the power of your Divine energy to plant even more roses in the garden Sandra will continue to flourish in.  Go within and radiate your love and gratitude to her.  Envision that beautiful bald head of hers, the fullness of her laughter and the sweet melodious voice filled with an inexhaustible glow of warm light.  There is no greater gift you can give to her.  I challenge you and I am excited to witness the love you send her as it manifests in a life experience that can only be described as charmed.

These days, as I rise with the sun, I affirm that very word as I place my feet on our honey wood floor “What a charmed life I live.  I have such joy!”  I am here to attest that Sandra’s is no situation amassed by great luck or even selective favoritism of a petty, human-like deity.  The God she knows is far greater reaching and being than any human mind can ever truly conceive of.  It is the source of light that lives and breathes in her every affirmative, lovingly joyful thought for another soul’s healing, every delightfully generous deed  and vibration of  well-being she sends to all who experience her presence.  In this source I’ve watched my sister dwell, cultivate and be.  She calls it God but divine love is not egotistical and does not care what any of us call it as long as that name allows the flow of peace and love within.  As she reported to me last night  “Look at God!” I relay it to you and, if I may add to that sentiment, look at what a charmed love we can all live when we let it flow.