His long,lean, brown body is built for the water. He's a natural swimmer. So was his mother. She was a Junior Guard and taught swimming for several years. Now her son is in the pool and after his first lesson, his talent shows. He's ready, at three years old, for a coach. I'm so happy. His dad is a strong swimmer as well. I wish he was here instead of Phoenix. The temp on the beach here is 74 and the water is 71. It's perfect. I hope this weather holds out because they won't be here for another three weeks. They're coming out for Ryan's engagement party on Labor Day Weekend. My sister Vicky is having it at her beautiful house in Hermosa Beach. All the decks and gardens will be full of people celebrating. I can't wait. Vicky gives the best parties of anyone in my family. She's a class act. She's doing very well. btw. She's on her last series of chemo and doing great. All smiles!
I'll be doing some entertaining that week as well. I just finished the plans for the deck and the furniture is waiting to be delivered. We lost a table during a winter storm when the wind took the umbrella for a flight off the deck. The chairs are still here but the cushions need replacing. I ordered a bar and two bar stools and a low table with a center part that comes out to reveal a copper bowl, for either ice or a fire. Now I can entertain outside without having to walk in and out of the house. I've learned to cook everything on the grill and the bar has a cooler to store the cold stuff in. It's going to make entertaining so much easier and when we aren't having family and friends over, we'll be doing Disneyland and Sea World, the Science Museum and maybe the tar pits. He's loving dinosaurs right now. Dinosaurs, trains, cars, trucks and Buzz Lightyear.
I ask him, "Who do I love?"
He answers, "Me."
I ask, "How much do I love you?"
He smiles, "To infinity and beyond."
He's taking Kung Fu too....it's so cute.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Patriotism
pa·tri·ot·ism Pronunciation: 'pA-trE-&-"ti-z&m, chiefly British 'pa-Function: noun: love for or devotion to one's country.
Nothing there about blind devotion or following elected officials without question,or having the unwavering trust that your country can do no wrong. It is our duty to question. It is our right and an responsibility to know the truth. How easy it is to deny the evidence of wrong-doing, to rationalize it away. Put your head back in the sand....
Nobody wants to know the ugly truth in a dysfunctional family. But, in order for the family to heal, there must be someone there to open the blind eyes. They are often dismissed and called names and sometimes don't survive the ones who want to stay in denial for reasons of loyalty or fear of reprisal. But, in order to be whole...you must seek the truth. And the truth will set you free.
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. "
Nothing there about blind devotion or following elected officials without question,or having the unwavering trust that your country can do no wrong. It is our duty to question. It is our right and an responsibility to know the truth. How easy it is to deny the evidence of wrong-doing, to rationalize it away. Put your head back in the sand....
Nobody wants to know the ugly truth in a dysfunctional family. But, in order for the family to heal, there must be someone there to open the blind eyes. They are often dismissed and called names and sometimes don't survive the ones who want to stay in denial for reasons of loyalty or fear of reprisal. But, in order to be whole...you must seek the truth. And the truth will set you free.
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. "
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Theocracy or Democracy?
The term theocracy is commonly used to describe a form of government in which a religion or metaphysical faith plays the dominant role. It refers to a form of government in which the organs of the religious sphere replace or dominate the organs of the political sphere as clerical or spiritual representative(s) of god(s).
Friday, July 28, 2006
George W. Bush said....
"This bill...crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it."
President Bush, announcing his veto of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.
Interesting, don't you think? Suddenly he takes moral issue? Executions are okay...bombing another country is okay. Killing thousands of civilians is okay, torture is okay, lying about it is okay, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts he thinks exploding the WTC was okay too, because he okay'd it. He's THE DECIDER.
I'm not the only one who knew the truth about what happened that day. I saw it clearly the day after 9/11. I said to my friend Donna Cook Wright, "This is an inside job...we did it." I believe we allowed this to happen.....where was NORAD? Nobody wanted to hear it. But people are talking about it now. Movies have been made, books have been written...It's all coming out now. Please don't let him get away with it. Wake up America.
Stem cell research will save thousands of lives and improve thousands more. Hundreds of thousands. Millions. He's an idiot. Actually, no, he's not. He's a criminal.
President Bush, announcing his veto of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.
Interesting, don't you think? Suddenly he takes moral issue? Executions are okay...bombing another country is okay. Killing thousands of civilians is okay, torture is okay, lying about it is okay, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts he thinks exploding the WTC was okay too, because he okay'd it. He's THE DECIDER.
I'm not the only one who knew the truth about what happened that day. I saw it clearly the day after 9/11. I said to my friend Donna Cook Wright, "This is an inside job...we did it." I believe we allowed this to happen.....where was NORAD? Nobody wanted to hear it. But people are talking about it now. Movies have been made, books have been written...It's all coming out now. Please don't let him get away with it. Wake up America.
Stem cell research will save thousands of lives and improve thousands more. Hundreds of thousands. Millions. He's an idiot. Actually, no, he's not. He's a criminal.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
One of my favorite readings this year....
......took place in March. It was in a hotel lobby in Northern California. We sat down in a quiet corner. I began as usual but instead of seeing his guides or teachers, I saw him, in spirit or energy form. That's rather unusual. But, there he was, standing right in front of us. His root chakra was wide open and full of spark. His second chakra was on fire. It shot out in all directions all around him. We talked about that for quite some time. What it meant, when it started, why is started, how it's affecting his life and relationships, what to do about it...and so forth. When that message was received and understood, we went on the the next thing... His job. I saw him at work. He didn't look happy. So, I asked him. "What's going on with your job? You don't look happy there." The bottom line was that he was about to have a big change in his job. In fact, I saw him doing something completly different and it had something to do with pizza. I questioned what I was seeing several times because I just couldn't imagine this man in the pizza business. But, there it was ....pizza. I said, "You aren't going to stay with the job you have. You're leaving and.....I don't know exactly what but it will have something to do with pizza. You won't be doing it alone either. You have six people working for you. They don't look like pizza delivery people, more like partners or support staff. They look more professional, older, business people."
He seemed to think that wasn't likely. "Pizza?" The session went on for about a half an hour or so when I said, "I think your wife should be here." Not five minutes later she came walking up to us. She said, "I was in the shower and I just knew I needed to be down here." She didn't even bother to put on her make-up. She got dressed and came. This, I was told, was highly unusual. In all the years of their marriage, she's only been without make-up twice. We got a good laugh out of that. "The session continued for a total of 2 hours.
Fast forward three months....
The next time I saw this couple we were sitting in a restaurant drinking beer and eating appetizers. She nudged him with her elbow and said, "Tell Elizabeth what's going on."
He smiled and told me that since his session in March he had decided to leave his job. He started interviewing with a cheese company. He shared with me all the details. This cheese company sells 95% of the worlds pizza cheese. "Oh REEEEAAALLY." Yes, and what's more, there are six department heads who will be reporting to him, if he gets the job. As he was telling me about this company and how great they are, I kept hearing a voice in my head repeating over and over...."Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday....on and on. I finally had to interrupt him and say, I don't know exactly what this means but they're telling me "Friday. You'll know Friday." It was Wednesday. The evening went along and we had a great visit. Friday came and when he came home from work there was still no word on his last interview, other than it was between him and one other candidate. We all sat together in their living room and had one more reading. Nothing about the new job came through. It was all about spirit guides and past lives and ....to tell you the truth, I rarely remember all the details of a reading.
One week later I got a phone call. It was my client. He had received the news.....on the following Friday. He now has a wonderful new, exciting and very well paid job with a great company.
Hmmmph! Pizza!
He seemed to think that wasn't likely. "Pizza?" The session went on for about a half an hour or so when I said, "I think your wife should be here." Not five minutes later she came walking up to us. She said, "I was in the shower and I just knew I needed to be down here." She didn't even bother to put on her make-up. She got dressed and came. This, I was told, was highly unusual. In all the years of their marriage, she's only been without make-up twice. We got a good laugh out of that. "The session continued for a total of 2 hours.
Fast forward three months....
The next time I saw this couple we were sitting in a restaurant drinking beer and eating appetizers. She nudged him with her elbow and said, "Tell Elizabeth what's going on."
He smiled and told me that since his session in March he had decided to leave his job. He started interviewing with a cheese company. He shared with me all the details. This cheese company sells 95% of the worlds pizza cheese. "Oh REEEEAAALLY." Yes, and what's more, there are six department heads who will be reporting to him, if he gets the job. As he was telling me about this company and how great they are, I kept hearing a voice in my head repeating over and over...."Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday....on and on. I finally had to interrupt him and say, I don't know exactly what this means but they're telling me "Friday. You'll know Friday." It was Wednesday. The evening went along and we had a great visit. Friday came and when he came home from work there was still no word on his last interview, other than it was between him and one other candidate. We all sat together in their living room and had one more reading. Nothing about the new job came through. It was all about spirit guides and past lives and ....to tell you the truth, I rarely remember all the details of a reading.
One week later I got a phone call. It was my client. He had received the news.....on the following Friday. He now has a wonderful new, exciting and very well paid job with a great company.
Hmmmph! Pizza!
He's called four times....
He wants to meet me and have a reading but he's not sure what to expect. He made an appointment and cancelled it two days later. He then called back and asked if I would tell him anything 'bad' about the future. He doesn't want to know when he'll die. He called again last night and asked, "What really happens in a reading?" "Do you burn incense and light candles?" "Do you use Tarot Cards?" "Do use crystals?" "Will I feel anything?"
Whoa! Relax, Cowboy! Let's clear away all the movie hype about psychics. I don't wear a turban, I don't look into a crystal ball, I don't burn incense (unless the room stinks) and I don't read tea leaves. I'm clairvoyant. Clear seeing. Nickname, "Woman Who Knows Things." I've done readings in cars, malls, hotel lobbies, parks, grandma's house, but mostly in peoples living rooms. I have tools like, crystals and sage bundles, tarot cards and Runes, but I rarely use them. I sit and take a couple of deep breaths and I'm in the zone. I often say a few words like, "We ask our Teachers, Guides, Angels and Ancestors to join us here. We ask for their loving guidance and information. We thank them in advance for their wisdom, love, protection and guidance. "
I see images. Sometimes I see my client's spiritual energy or aura. Sometimes I'll see their Spirit Guides, sometimes I'll see their Grandmothers. Sometimes I'll see them in a past life. Whatever is shown or told to me, I will describe or translate.
Here's a transcript from a reading I did last month.
"There's a spirit here. It's man. Small. (long pause) No. It's a boy. He's about ten years old. He has dark hair and he's lean and small for his age. (pause) He's not related to you by family or name. He is you." (pause)
Client: "I was very small as a boy."
"More than that, you were a delicate boy. You played gentle games. You didn't like playing sports. It hurt. I see you playing a board game. (long pause) "Scrabble?"
Client: "I loved playing Scrabble!"
"I'm being shown this for a reason. .....Pause.... I see you playing with a girl, a friend. A neighbor or distant relative.
Client: "My cousin. I think. What does she look like?"
"She has long curly light colored hair. Lighter than yours. She has beautiful eyes. She's younger than you. Smaller. She's wearing a dress. It's a sun dress. She has a bow in her hair. She's laughing."
Client: "Yes, that's her. What...(Pause).... Is she .... (Pause)
"She's not in this body anymore."
Client: "This is what I wanted to ask you. Amazing. Is she still around me?"
"Yes. Very much so. She is a beautiful spirit. Very loving. Very supportive and protective of you. I see no reason to ask her to leave you. Sometimes spirits on the other side spend too much time influencing us for their own purposes but she is not like that. She is more ...pause...
She's like an angel but not."
Client: "She's not an angel?"
"No. You see, just because someone passes over does not make them an automatic angel. However, she is very loving and wise, she has not reached Angel status."
Client: "Why is she still here? I mean...I like that she is ...but....is that bad for her? Isn't she supposed to go to the Light?"
"She is Light."
"She's showing me something...wait. (Long pause)
"You were there. She was sick. You were there. She's very grateful. She wants you to know that you are on the right track. I don't know what track that is, but as far as she is concerned, you're doing what you are supposed to be doing. Does that make sense?"
Client: "That's another thing I wanted to ask you. I'm thinking about changing jobs. I really don't like the company I work for. They're very short sighted about things. They aren't ...well...what else does she say?"
"You are changing your clothes? (laughter) She's funny. You're changing your clothes. She says you'll understand."
Client: "Yes. I wear a uniform to work. I hate it. I said it out loud just last night. I don't want to wear these clothes anymore." (sniff)
"She's laughing. She's showing me....(pause).... She's showing me....she's showing me a scuba diver? wait. Yes, a scuba diver. He's working. He's in a beautiful place I've never seen. Um...I've not traveled much so ... This place looks tropical but there is work being done here. Important work. You are there.. You are diving down in the water. You are ... Cleaning? No....saving something. Is is wildlife or ...."
Client: "Oh my God! How did you know that? Yes. I've been wanting to do this....this thing. I don't want to tell you because, well. (Pause) Is it something I should do? I'm kind of afraid it won't pay well and it's far from my family and friends and stuff. But, I really want to go. I guess I just want someone to tell me it's okay."
"Oh yes...it's more than okay. She's very excited about it and so is..... there's someone else here. wait. There's a tall man here. He's wearing a suit. He looks like. The suit looks like a style from the fifties. He's wearing a hat. He's smoking a pipe. He's shoes are two-toned and he's wearing a ring on his right hand. Is this your grandfather?"
Client: "Yes! He (pause). What color is his ring?"
(Deep sigh) "It is gold but it has a stone in it. Give me a minute. It's a blue stone, a sapphire?"
Client: "Yes, that's him. Oh my god! What is he saying?
"He's conservative. Worked hard for his money. Made lots of it. Saved it all. Never took vacations. Never had adventures except the kind you have in business."
Client: "yes"
"He was strict with you. Stern. Cold. He wanted you to be tough. He wanted you ..... hmmm
you didn't feel very good about yourself with him. He knows that. He wasn't accepting of your soft nature. He's sorry. He wants you to know that he loves you. He's sorry. He's kneeling down now....he's next to your chair. He's asking for you to forgive him."
Client: "He was tough on me. He used to call me a sissy. Whenever he came over to our house I would run and put my games away and pull out the football... I pretended to ..."
"He knows. He knew then too."
Client: "He was afraid for you. You're mother was protective and he saw that as a weakness. He didn't want... You're father wasn't around. Where was your father? I don't see him. Oh...(pause)...oh..... So, your father traveled. He worked a lot and you were with your mother all the time. No siblings....I don't see any."
Client: "No."
"So, you were your grandfathers only grandchild?"
Client: "Yes."
"He says you should take off your uniform and go."
Client: "Really? I wouldn't have expected that from him."
"No, I don't suppose you would. But,... He's been through some changes."
Client: "Is Lisa still here?"
"Yes"
Client: "Do they see each other?"
"Now or do you mean regularly see each other?"
Client: "Both, I guess."
so....it went like that for another hour. He asked questions...got answers...felt relieved. He quit his job and flew down to some island to live happily ever after.... lol....gotta go. I have to go meet another client.
Whoa! Relax, Cowboy! Let's clear away all the movie hype about psychics. I don't wear a turban, I don't look into a crystal ball, I don't burn incense (unless the room stinks) and I don't read tea leaves. I'm clairvoyant. Clear seeing. Nickname, "Woman Who Knows Things." I've done readings in cars, malls, hotel lobbies, parks, grandma's house, but mostly in peoples living rooms. I have tools like, crystals and sage bundles, tarot cards and Runes, but I rarely use them. I sit and take a couple of deep breaths and I'm in the zone. I often say a few words like, "We ask our Teachers, Guides, Angels and Ancestors to join us here. We ask for their loving guidance and information. We thank them in advance for their wisdom, love, protection and guidance. "
I see images. Sometimes I see my client's spiritual energy or aura. Sometimes I'll see their Spirit Guides, sometimes I'll see their Grandmothers. Sometimes I'll see them in a past life. Whatever is shown or told to me, I will describe or translate.
Here's a transcript from a reading I did last month.
"There's a spirit here. It's man. Small. (long pause) No. It's a boy. He's about ten years old. He has dark hair and he's lean and small for his age. (pause) He's not related to you by family or name. He is you." (pause)
Client: "I was very small as a boy."
"More than that, you were a delicate boy. You played gentle games. You didn't like playing sports. It hurt. I see you playing a board game. (long pause) "Scrabble?"
Client: "I loved playing Scrabble!"
"I'm being shown this for a reason. .....Pause.... I see you playing with a girl, a friend. A neighbor or distant relative.
Client: "My cousin. I think. What does she look like?"
"She has long curly light colored hair. Lighter than yours. She has beautiful eyes. She's younger than you. Smaller. She's wearing a dress. It's a sun dress. She has a bow in her hair. She's laughing."
Client: "Yes, that's her. What...(Pause).... Is she .... (Pause)
"She's not in this body anymore."
Client: "This is what I wanted to ask you. Amazing. Is she still around me?"
"Yes. Very much so. She is a beautiful spirit. Very loving. Very supportive and protective of you. I see no reason to ask her to leave you. Sometimes spirits on the other side spend too much time influencing us for their own purposes but she is not like that. She is more ...pause...
She's like an angel but not."
Client: "She's not an angel?"
"No. You see, just because someone passes over does not make them an automatic angel. However, she is very loving and wise, she has not reached Angel status."
Client: "Why is she still here? I mean...I like that she is ...but....is that bad for her? Isn't she supposed to go to the Light?"
"She is Light."
"She's showing me something...wait. (Long pause)
"You were there. She was sick. You were there. She's very grateful. She wants you to know that you are on the right track. I don't know what track that is, but as far as she is concerned, you're doing what you are supposed to be doing. Does that make sense?"
Client: "That's another thing I wanted to ask you. I'm thinking about changing jobs. I really don't like the company I work for. They're very short sighted about things. They aren't ...well...what else does she say?"
"You are changing your clothes? (laughter) She's funny. You're changing your clothes. She says you'll understand."
Client: "Yes. I wear a uniform to work. I hate it. I said it out loud just last night. I don't want to wear these clothes anymore." (sniff)
"She's laughing. She's showing me....(pause).... She's showing me....she's showing me a scuba diver? wait. Yes, a scuba diver. He's working. He's in a beautiful place I've never seen. Um...I've not traveled much so ... This place looks tropical but there is work being done here. Important work. You are there.. You are diving down in the water. You are ... Cleaning? No....saving something. Is is wildlife or ...."
Client: "Oh my God! How did you know that? Yes. I've been wanting to do this....this thing. I don't want to tell you because, well. (Pause) Is it something I should do? I'm kind of afraid it won't pay well and it's far from my family and friends and stuff. But, I really want to go. I guess I just want someone to tell me it's okay."
"Oh yes...it's more than okay. She's very excited about it and so is..... there's someone else here. wait. There's a tall man here. He's wearing a suit. He looks like. The suit looks like a style from the fifties. He's wearing a hat. He's smoking a pipe. He's shoes are two-toned and he's wearing a ring on his right hand. Is this your grandfather?"
Client: "Yes! He (pause). What color is his ring?"
(Deep sigh) "It is gold but it has a stone in it. Give me a minute. It's a blue stone, a sapphire?"
Client: "Yes, that's him. Oh my god! What is he saying?
"He's conservative. Worked hard for his money. Made lots of it. Saved it all. Never took vacations. Never had adventures except the kind you have in business."
Client: "yes"
"He was strict with you. Stern. Cold. He wanted you to be tough. He wanted you ..... hmmm
you didn't feel very good about yourself with him. He knows that. He wasn't accepting of your soft nature. He's sorry. He wants you to know that he loves you. He's sorry. He's kneeling down now....he's next to your chair. He's asking for you to forgive him."
Client: "He was tough on me. He used to call me a sissy. Whenever he came over to our house I would run and put my games away and pull out the football... I pretended to ..."
"He knows. He knew then too."
Client: "He was afraid for you. You're mother was protective and he saw that as a weakness. He didn't want... You're father wasn't around. Where was your father? I don't see him. Oh...(pause)...oh..... So, your father traveled. He worked a lot and you were with your mother all the time. No siblings....I don't see any."
Client: "No."
"So, you were your grandfathers only grandchild?"
Client: "Yes."
"He says you should take off your uniform and go."
Client: "Really? I wouldn't have expected that from him."
"No, I don't suppose you would. But,... He's been through some changes."
Client: "Is Lisa still here?"
"Yes"
Client: "Do they see each other?"
"Now or do you mean regularly see each other?"
Client: "Both, I guess."
so....it went like that for another hour. He asked questions...got answers...felt relieved. He quit his job and flew down to some island to live happily ever after.... lol....gotta go. I have to go meet another client.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
What will my next grandbaby look like?
Hmmmm... Big Brother, Michael is in for a special kinda love.
Another email...thank you Margie
Greeting and glad tidings ~
Today, July 25th 2006, Dr. Masaru Emoto planned
to celebrate his fourth annual 'Thanks to Love and
Water Day' at the Sea of Galilee, in Israel. Due to
rising conflict, this physical gathering has been
postponed.
As Gratitude is a bridge to peace, establishing coherence between the heart and mind, we have a tremendous opportunity to gather in Light of the current conflict, creating peace by being peace through the power of Gratitude.
Imagine the synchroniticites here:
Today is also the Day out of time, a new moon is rising, AND we are celebrating our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude gathering. A powerful day, indeed!
Let's gather our collective power and celebrate together, aligning hearts and minds worldwide to peacefully bless the waters of the world, those within and without, with our Love and Gratitude. Here is a simple, yet effective formula for entering peace thru Gratitude: Set aside a moment to fully immerse yourself in Gratitude. Begin by focusing on a memory, one that elicits the feeling of Gratitude within. Move this memory into your heart, allowing your mind to rest by simply focusing your breath. As thoughts arise, release and return to a centered State of Gratitude.
Remain here for a moment, or longer, as inspired
feeling the coherence of our collective consciosness swimming in Gratitude. In honor of our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude Gathering, you are invited to join us for a Sunset meditation, as well. We will be facing the light, with our Love and Gratitude, breathing in thanks and releasing appreciation for all that IS, and all that has been, and all that may BE.
Today, July 25th 2006, Dr. Masaru Emoto planned
to celebrate his fourth annual 'Thanks to Love and
Water Day' at the Sea of Galilee, in Israel. Due to
rising conflict, this physical gathering has been
postponed.
As Gratitude is a bridge to peace, establishing coherence between the heart and mind, we have a tremendous opportunity to gather in Light of the current conflict, creating peace by being peace through the power of Gratitude.
Imagine the synchroniticites here:
Today is also the Day out of time, a new moon is rising, AND we are celebrating our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude gathering. A powerful day, indeed!
Let's gather our collective power and celebrate together, aligning hearts and minds worldwide to peacefully bless the waters of the world, those within and without, with our Love and Gratitude. Here is a simple, yet effective formula for entering peace thru Gratitude: Set aside a moment to fully immerse yourself in Gratitude. Begin by focusing on a memory, one that elicits the feeling of Gratitude within. Move this memory into your heart, allowing your mind to rest by simply focusing your breath. As thoughts arise, release and return to a centered State of Gratitude.
Remain here for a moment, or longer, as inspired
feeling the coherence of our collective consciosness swimming in Gratitude. In honor of our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude Gathering, you are invited to join us for a Sunset meditation, as well. We will be facing the light, with our Love and Gratitude, breathing in thanks and releasing appreciation for all that IS, and all that has been, and all that may BE.
For Ann
A climb for Atonement
This exercise was taught to me by several Masters. I later experienced it in my Avatar training. It has been practiced for many centuries.
It's an extremely powerful and miraculous process. It works best on a mountain trail, a path up a hill, or several flights of stairs but it can also be accomplished on a level path or beach. What is most important is your intention and your deliberate path to a predetermined destination.
For each step you take on your climb to the peak or to your predetermined destination, whisper an action you have done, a thought you have had, or a behavior you have engaged in that was not motivated by care or love. Include any act for which you have a justifying belief or any act you feel a need to explain.
example;
step one..."I cursed a driver pulling out of a parking space too slowly...."
step two... "I told my mother a lie about where I was last night."
step three.. "I took my neighbors newspaper."
step four... "I stood up my friend at the movies."
step five ..."I called myself ugly."
step six... "I got angry and hateful at the sales call last night."
Use them all....every thought, deed, action that was not motivated by love or care. On and on all the way to the top...or end of your walk or hike.
On the peak of your mountain or hillside, staircase or walk (at your destination)....contemplate SPANS OF TIME. That is to feel and think of what a second is....or a minute or a decade, or a millennium...a century and an hour. Get a sense of it. When you are feeling...you aren't thinking. Experience the idea of a year.
For each step you take on your return down the hillside or staircase, bless someone or something. Confer their well-being or prosperity....or success. Bless with love and conviction. When you bless your brother, you bless yourself as well.
When you are finished, feel what it feels like to have released yourself.
This exercise was taught to me by several Masters. I later experienced it in my Avatar training. It has been practiced for many centuries.
It's an extremely powerful and miraculous process. It works best on a mountain trail, a path up a hill, or several flights of stairs but it can also be accomplished on a level path or beach. What is most important is your intention and your deliberate path to a predetermined destination.
For each step you take on your climb to the peak or to your predetermined destination, whisper an action you have done, a thought you have had, or a behavior you have engaged in that was not motivated by care or love. Include any act for which you have a justifying belief or any act you feel a need to explain.
example;
step one..."I cursed a driver pulling out of a parking space too slowly...."
step two... "I told my mother a lie about where I was last night."
step three.. "I took my neighbors newspaper."
step four... "I stood up my friend at the movies."
step five ..."I called myself ugly."
step six... "I got angry and hateful at the sales call last night."
Use them all....every thought, deed, action that was not motivated by love or care. On and on all the way to the top...or end of your walk or hike.
On the peak of your mountain or hillside, staircase or walk (at your destination)....contemplate SPANS OF TIME. That is to feel and think of what a second is....or a minute or a decade, or a millennium...a century and an hour. Get a sense of it. When you are feeling...you aren't thinking. Experience the idea of a year.
For each step you take on your return down the hillside or staircase, bless someone or something. Confer their well-being or prosperity....or success. Bless with love and conviction. When you bless your brother, you bless yourself as well.
When you are finished, feel what it feels like to have released yourself.
A Course In Miracles
Lesson 196
It can be but myself I crucify.
1. When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed.
2. Perhaps at first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we practice for today. It may, in fact, appear to be a sign that punishment can never be escaped because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail to understand the truth it uses thus. But you can learn to see these foolish applications, and deny the meaning they appear to have.
3. Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego. For the ways in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer. You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see within today's idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts of crucifixion and of death, to thoughts of liberation and of life.
4. Today's idea is one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today, that we may quickly go the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence, as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need for this. It is but willingness. For what would seem to need a thousand years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God.
5. The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seemed to be salvation. Yet it merely stood for the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell? Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him, and waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart?
6. Such is the form of madness you believe, if you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he will not perceive its foolishness, or even see that it is there, so that it would be possible to question it.
7. To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much as will permit fear of retaliation to abate, and the responsibility returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift has been accomplished, you can not perceive that it is but your thoughts that bring you fear, and your delieverance depends on you.
8. Our next steps will be easy, if you take this one today. From there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.
9. Salvation's song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. you are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.
10. There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this had been concealed while you believed attack could be directed outward, and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal enemy; the source of fear.
11. Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love, calling Him Father and yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon,--today. Step back from fear, and make advance to love.
12. There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.
It can be but myself I crucify.
1. When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed.
2. Perhaps at first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we practice for today. It may, in fact, appear to be a sign that punishment can never be escaped because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail to understand the truth it uses thus. But you can learn to see these foolish applications, and deny the meaning they appear to have.
3. Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego. For the ways in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer. You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see within today's idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts of crucifixion and of death, to thoughts of liberation and of life.
4. Today's idea is one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today, that we may quickly go the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence, as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need for this. It is but willingness. For what would seem to need a thousand years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God.
5. The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seemed to be salvation. Yet it merely stood for the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell? Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him, and waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart?
6. Such is the form of madness you believe, if you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he will not perceive its foolishness, or even see that it is there, so that it would be possible to question it.
7. To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much as will permit fear of retaliation to abate, and the responsibility returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift has been accomplished, you can not perceive that it is but your thoughts that bring you fear, and your delieverance depends on you.
8. Our next steps will be easy, if you take this one today. From there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.
9. Salvation's song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. you are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.
10. There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this had been concealed while you believed attack could be directed outward, and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal enemy; the source of fear.
11. Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love, calling Him Father and yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon,--today. Step back from fear, and make advance to love.
12. There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.
Monday, July 24, 2006
New cars are wonderful things...
My new car is on its way here! There's plenty of room for Maggie Mae and all my camping gear, and in case of foul weather and leaky tents, I can sleep, stretched-out, in the back. Yippie! And a bigger yippie is that it gets better mileage than my Saturn. 32 mpg. It's a 2007 Ford Escape with all the fixin's. It's a hybrid.
Emotional trauma...
It is not the event that determines whether something is traumatic to someone, but the individual's experience of the event.
What is emotional or psychological trauma?
The ability to recognize emotional trauma has changed radically over the course of history. Until rather recently psychological trauma was noted only in men after catastrophic wars. The women's movement in the sixties broadened the definition of emotional trauma to include physically and sexually abused women and children. Now because of the discoveries made in the nineties, known as the decade of the brain, psychological trauma has further broadened its definition.
Recent research has revealed that emotional trauma can result from such common occurrences as an auto accident, the breakup of a significant relationship, a humiliating or deeply disappointing experience, the discovery of a life-threatening illness or disabling condition, or other similar situations. Traumatizing events can take a serious emotional toll on those involved, even if the event did not cause physical damage.
Regardless of its source, an emotional trauma contains three common elements:
1. it was unexpected
2. the person was unprepared
3. there was nothing the person could do to prevent it from happening
It is not the event that determines whether something is traumatic to someone, but the individual's experience of the event. And it is not predictable how a given person will react to a particular event. For someone who is used to being in control of emotions and events, it may be surprising – even embarrassing – to discover that something like an accident or job loss can be so debilitating.
What causes emotional or psychological trauma?
Our brains are structured into three main parts, long observed in autopsies:
the cortex (the outer surface, where higher thinking skills arise; includes the frontal cortex, the most recently evolved portion of the brain)
the limbic system (the center of the brain, where emotions evolve)
the brain stem (the reptilian brain that controls basic survival functions)
Because of the development of brain scan technology, scientists can now observe the brain in action, without waiting for an autopsy. These scans reveal that trauma actually changes the structure and function of the brain, at the point where the frontal cortex, the emotional brain and the survival brain converge. A significant finding is that brain scans of people with relationship or developmental problems, learning problems, and social problems related to emotional intelligence reveal similar structural and functional irregularities to those resulting from PTSD.
What is the difference between stress and emotional or psychological trauma?
One way to tell the difference between stress and emotional trauma is by looking at the outcome—how much residual effect an upsetting event is having on our lives, relationships, and overall functioning. Traumatic distress can be distinguished from routine stress by assessing the following:
1. how quickly upset is triggered
2. how frequently upset is triggered
3. how intensely threatening the source of upset is
4. how long upset lasts
5. how long it takes to calm down
If we can communicate our distress to people who care about us and can respond adequately, and if we return to a state of equilibrium following a stressful event, we are in the realm of stress. If we become frozen in a state of active emotional intensity, we are experiencing an emotional trauma—even though sometimes we may not be consciously aware of the level of distress we are experiencing.
Why can an event cause an emotionally traumatic response in one person and not in another?
There is no clear answer to this question, but it is likely that one or more of these factors are involved:
1. the severity of the event
2. the individual's personal history (which may not even be recalled)
3. the larger meaning the event represents for the individual (which may not be immediately evident)
4. coping skills, values and beliefs held by the individual (some of which may have never been identified)
5. the reactions and support from family, friends, and/or professionals
Anyone can become traumatized. Even professionals who work with trauma, or other people close to a traumatized person, can develop symptoms of "vicarious" or "secondary" traumatization. Developing symptoms is never a sign of weakness. Symptoms should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to heal, just as one would take action to heal from a physical ailment. And just as with a physical condition, the amount of time or assistance needed to recover from emotional trauma will vary from one person to another.
What are the symptoms of emotional trauma?
There are common effects or conditions that may occur following a traumatic event. Sometimes these responses can be delayed, for months or even years after the event. Often people do not initially associate their symptoms with the precipitating trauma. The following are symptoms that may result from a more commonplace, unresolved trauma, especially if there were earlier, overwhelming life experiences:
Physical
1. Eating disturbances (more or less than usual)
2. Sleep disturbances (more or less than usual)
3. Sexual dysfunction
4. Low energy
5. Chronic, unexplained pain
Emotional
1. Depression, spontaneous crying, despair and hopelessness
2. Anxiety
3. Panic attacks
4. Fearfulness
5. Compulsive and obsessive behaviors
6. Feeling out of control
7. Irritability, angry and resentment
8. Emotional numbness
9. Withdrawal from normal routine and relationships
Cognitive
1. Memory lapses, especially about the trauma
2. Difficulty making decisions
3. Decreased ability to concentrate
4. Feeling distracted
The following additional symptoms of emotional trauma are commonly associated with a severe precipitating event, such as a natural disaster, exposure to war, rape, assault, violent crime, major car or airplane crashes, or child abuse. Extreme symptoms can also occur as a delayed reaction to the traumatic event.
1. Re-experiencing the trauma
2. intrusive thoughts
3. flashbacks or nightmares
4. sudden floods of emotions or images related to the traumatic event
5. Emotional numbing and avoidance
6. amnesia
7. avoidance of situations that resemble the initial event
8. detachment
9. depression
10. guilt feelings
11. grief reactions
12. an altered sense of time
13. Increased arousal
14. hyper-vigilance, jumpiness, an extreme sense of being "on guard"
15. overreactions, including sudden unprovoked anger
16. general anxiety
17. insomnia
18. obsessions with death
What are the possible effects of emotional trauma?
Even when unrecognized, emotional trauma can create lasting difficulties in an individual's life. One way to determine whether an emotional or psychological trauma has occurred, perhaps even early in life before language or conscious awareness were in place, is to look at the kinds of recurring problems one might be experiencing. These can serve as clues to an earlier situation that caused a dysregulation in the structure or function of the brain.
Common personal and behavioral effects of emotional trauma:
1. substance abuse
2. compulsive behavior patterns
3. self-destructive and impulsive behavior
4. uncontrollable reactive thoughts
5. inability to make healthy professional or lifestyle choices
6. dissociative symptoms ("splitting off" parts of the self)
7. feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, despair, hopelessness
8. feeling permanently damaged
9. a loss of previously sustained beliefs
Common effects of emotional trauma on interpersonal relationships:
1. inability to maintain close relationships or choose appropriate friends and mates
2. sexual problems
3. hostility
4. arguments with family members, employers or co-workers
5. social withdrawal
6. feeling constantly threatened
What if symptoms don't go away, or appear at a later time?
Over time, even without professional treatment, symptoms of an emotional trauma generally subside, and normal daily functioning gradually returns. However, even after time has passed, sometimes the symptoms don't go away. Or they may appear to be gone, but surface again in another stressful situation. When a person's daily life functioning or life choices continue to be affected, a post-traumatic stress disorder may be the problem, requiring professional assistance.
How is emotional trauma treated?
Traditional approaches to treating emotional trauma include:
1. talk therapies (working out the feelings associated with the trauma)
2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves changing one's thoughts and actions, and includes systematic desensitization to reduce reactivity to a traumatic stressor
3. relaxation/stress reduction techniques, such as biofeedback and breathwork
4. hypnosis to deal with reactions often below the level of conscious awareness
There are also several recent developments in the treatment of emotional trauma. Depending on the nature of the trauma and the age or state of development at which it occurred, these somatic (body) psychotherapies might even be more effective than traditional therapies. Some of the new therapies include:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming)
Somatic Experiencing
Hakomi
Integrative Body Psychotherapy
What is emotional or psychological trauma?
The ability to recognize emotional trauma has changed radically over the course of history. Until rather recently psychological trauma was noted only in men after catastrophic wars. The women's movement in the sixties broadened the definition of emotional trauma to include physically and sexually abused women and children. Now because of the discoveries made in the nineties, known as the decade of the brain, psychological trauma has further broadened its definition.
Recent research has revealed that emotional trauma can result from such common occurrences as an auto accident, the breakup of a significant relationship, a humiliating or deeply disappointing experience, the discovery of a life-threatening illness or disabling condition, or other similar situations. Traumatizing events can take a serious emotional toll on those involved, even if the event did not cause physical damage.
Regardless of its source, an emotional trauma contains three common elements:
1. it was unexpected
2. the person was unprepared
3. there was nothing the person could do to prevent it from happening
It is not the event that determines whether something is traumatic to someone, but the individual's experience of the event. And it is not predictable how a given person will react to a particular event. For someone who is used to being in control of emotions and events, it may be surprising – even embarrassing – to discover that something like an accident or job loss can be so debilitating.
What causes emotional or psychological trauma?
Our brains are structured into three main parts, long observed in autopsies:
the cortex (the outer surface, where higher thinking skills arise; includes the frontal cortex, the most recently evolved portion of the brain)
the limbic system (the center of the brain, where emotions evolve)
the brain stem (the reptilian brain that controls basic survival functions)
Because of the development of brain scan technology, scientists can now observe the brain in action, without waiting for an autopsy. These scans reveal that trauma actually changes the structure and function of the brain, at the point where the frontal cortex, the emotional brain and the survival brain converge. A significant finding is that brain scans of people with relationship or developmental problems, learning problems, and social problems related to emotional intelligence reveal similar structural and functional irregularities to those resulting from PTSD.
What is the difference between stress and emotional or psychological trauma?
One way to tell the difference between stress and emotional trauma is by looking at the outcome—how much residual effect an upsetting event is having on our lives, relationships, and overall functioning. Traumatic distress can be distinguished from routine stress by assessing the following:
1. how quickly upset is triggered
2. how frequently upset is triggered
3. how intensely threatening the source of upset is
4. how long upset lasts
5. how long it takes to calm down
If we can communicate our distress to people who care about us and can respond adequately, and if we return to a state of equilibrium following a stressful event, we are in the realm of stress. If we become frozen in a state of active emotional intensity, we are experiencing an emotional trauma—even though sometimes we may not be consciously aware of the level of distress we are experiencing.
Why can an event cause an emotionally traumatic response in one person and not in another?
There is no clear answer to this question, but it is likely that one or more of these factors are involved:
1. the severity of the event
2. the individual's personal history (which may not even be recalled)
3. the larger meaning the event represents for the individual (which may not be immediately evident)
4. coping skills, values and beliefs held by the individual (some of which may have never been identified)
5. the reactions and support from family, friends, and/or professionals
Anyone can become traumatized. Even professionals who work with trauma, or other people close to a traumatized person, can develop symptoms of "vicarious" or "secondary" traumatization. Developing symptoms is never a sign of weakness. Symptoms should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to heal, just as one would take action to heal from a physical ailment. And just as with a physical condition, the amount of time or assistance needed to recover from emotional trauma will vary from one person to another.
What are the symptoms of emotional trauma?
There are common effects or conditions that may occur following a traumatic event. Sometimes these responses can be delayed, for months or even years after the event. Often people do not initially associate their symptoms with the precipitating trauma. The following are symptoms that may result from a more commonplace, unresolved trauma, especially if there were earlier, overwhelming life experiences:
Physical
1. Eating disturbances (more or less than usual)
2. Sleep disturbances (more or less than usual)
3. Sexual dysfunction
4. Low energy
5. Chronic, unexplained pain
Emotional
1. Depression, spontaneous crying, despair and hopelessness
2. Anxiety
3. Panic attacks
4. Fearfulness
5. Compulsive and obsessive behaviors
6. Feeling out of control
7. Irritability, angry and resentment
8. Emotional numbness
9. Withdrawal from normal routine and relationships
Cognitive
1. Memory lapses, especially about the trauma
2. Difficulty making decisions
3. Decreased ability to concentrate
4. Feeling distracted
The following additional symptoms of emotional trauma are commonly associated with a severe precipitating event, such as a natural disaster, exposure to war, rape, assault, violent crime, major car or airplane crashes, or child abuse. Extreme symptoms can also occur as a delayed reaction to the traumatic event.
1. Re-experiencing the trauma
2. intrusive thoughts
3. flashbacks or nightmares
4. sudden floods of emotions or images related to the traumatic event
5. Emotional numbing and avoidance
6. amnesia
7. avoidance of situations that resemble the initial event
8. detachment
9. depression
10. guilt feelings
11. grief reactions
12. an altered sense of time
13. Increased arousal
14. hyper-vigilance, jumpiness, an extreme sense of being "on guard"
15. overreactions, including sudden unprovoked anger
16. general anxiety
17. insomnia
18. obsessions with death
What are the possible effects of emotional trauma?
Even when unrecognized, emotional trauma can create lasting difficulties in an individual's life. One way to determine whether an emotional or psychological trauma has occurred, perhaps even early in life before language or conscious awareness were in place, is to look at the kinds of recurring problems one might be experiencing. These can serve as clues to an earlier situation that caused a dysregulation in the structure or function of the brain.
Common personal and behavioral effects of emotional trauma:
1. substance abuse
2. compulsive behavior patterns
3. self-destructive and impulsive behavior
4. uncontrollable reactive thoughts
5. inability to make healthy professional or lifestyle choices
6. dissociative symptoms ("splitting off" parts of the self)
7. feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, despair, hopelessness
8. feeling permanently damaged
9. a loss of previously sustained beliefs
Common effects of emotional trauma on interpersonal relationships:
1. inability to maintain close relationships or choose appropriate friends and mates
2. sexual problems
3. hostility
4. arguments with family members, employers or co-workers
5. social withdrawal
6. feeling constantly threatened
What if symptoms don't go away, or appear at a later time?
Over time, even without professional treatment, symptoms of an emotional trauma generally subside, and normal daily functioning gradually returns. However, even after time has passed, sometimes the symptoms don't go away. Or they may appear to be gone, but surface again in another stressful situation. When a person's daily life functioning or life choices continue to be affected, a post-traumatic stress disorder may be the problem, requiring professional assistance.
How is emotional trauma treated?
Traditional approaches to treating emotional trauma include:
1. talk therapies (working out the feelings associated with the trauma)
2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves changing one's thoughts and actions, and includes systematic desensitization to reduce reactivity to a traumatic stressor
3. relaxation/stress reduction techniques, such as biofeedback and breathwork
4. hypnosis to deal with reactions often below the level of conscious awareness
There are also several recent developments in the treatment of emotional trauma. Depending on the nature of the trauma and the age or state of development at which it occurred, these somatic (body) psychotherapies might even be more effective than traditional therapies. Some of the new therapies include:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming)
Somatic Experiencing
Hakomi
Integrative Body Psychotherapy
From Psychology Today
Anger, pain and depression are three negative experiences so closely bound together it can sometimes be hard to know where one ends and the other begins. Pain is a complex phenomenon that has emotional and physical components. The emotions play a huge role in the experience of pain, and pain is intimately associated with depression. It's long been known that the psychic pain of depression feeds anger. But just as often, anger fuels depression.
A powerful emotion physiologically and emotionally, anger often feels good—but only for the moment. It can be a motivating force that moves you to action. But there are good actions and bad ones; it's vital to distinguish between the two.
Many people confuse anger and hostility. Anger is a response to a situation that presents some threat. Hostility is a more enduring characteristic, a predisposition, a personality trait reflecting a readiness to express anger.
Anger is usually anything but subtle. It has potent physiological effects. You feel it in your chest. You feel it in your head. You feel it coursing through your body.
Nevertheless, anger can be insidious. Anger confers an immediate sense of purpose; it's a shortcut to motivation. And if there's something depressed people need, it's motivation. But anger creates a cycle of rage and defeatism.
When you feel anger, it provides the impulse to pass the pain along to others. The boss chews you out, you then snap at everyone in your path. Anger, however, can eventually lead you into self-pity, because you can't slough off the self-hurt.
Anger is classically a way of passing psychic pain on to others. The two-step: You feel hurt, "poor me," "I hate you." It's a way of making others pay for your emotional deficits. It is wise to change that tendency. Whether or not anger fuels depression, it isn't good for the enjoyment of life.
Here are ways to keep anger from feeding your depression.
- First, of course, is to identify anger and to acknowledge it. Anger is one of those emotions whose expression is sometimes subject to taboos so that people can grow up unable to recognize it; they feel its physical discomfort but can't label it.
- Build a lexicon for your internal states. If you have a word for your emotional state, then you can begin to deal with it. Feelings are fluid; you need to stop and capture them in a word, or else you lose them and don't know you have them. A label improves your ability to understand your feelings.
- View your anger as a signal. It is not something to be escaped. It is not something to be suppressed. It is something to be accepted as a sign that some deeper threat has occurred that needs your attention.
- Make yourself aware of the purpose your anger serves. Be sure to distinguish purpose from passion. Things that have a positive purpose seek betterment, growth, love, enhancement, fulfillment. Things that have a negative purpose are motivated by a sense of deficiency. Your boss yells at you, you feel diminished; the anger you express at others is driven by the blow you've just received. Are you enraged about an inequity or unfairness?
In order to identify your motivation, you need to look within. It's a matter of becoming psychological-minded and engaging in introspection. Tune into the inner dialogue that you customarily have with yourself.
- If your anger is deficiency-motivated, driven by a wish to rectify a wrong you believe done to you, work on acceptance. Give up your obsession about the wrong. See that the opposite of anger is not passivity but more functional assertiveness.
- Uproot mistaken beliefs that underlie your response. Very often anger is the result of beliefs that lead you to place unreasonable demands on circumstances, such as, that life must be fair. Unfairness exists. The belief that you are entitled to fairness results from the mistaken idea that you are special. If you feel that you are special, you will certainly find lots to be angry about, because the universe is indifferent to us.
Insisting that life must be fair is not only irrational, it will cause you to collect injustices done to your noble self. Even if you are experiencing nothing more than your fair share of unfairness, such a belief can still fuel rage and lead to depression.
Those who hold the deep belief that life should always be fair cannot abide when it is unfair. That leads directly to rage that is totally inert, because they believe there is nothing that they can do about the unfairness. They feel helpless and hopeless—in other words, depressed. Self-pity is another description of the same phenomenon.
- Notice your own complaining. Listen for both overt and covert complaining. Overt complaining hassles others. It's really a manipulative strategy. Know when it's becoming a downer and a barrier to a strategy of effectiveness—like complaining about a fly in your soup. Covert complaining hassles you; it drags you down into passivity and inertia. Once you notice it, determine to give it up.
- Once you can accept that life sometimes is unfair, then you can pursue positive purpose. You can work constructively against injustices you find, transforming your anger into passion. Or you can pursue fulfillment in spite of the unfairness that exists.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
I've been away....
I took an unexpected road trip on Monday of last week. I got a call from my daughter and she sounded like she could use a visit from her mom so I was packed and on the road within 30 minutes. Maggie Mae came too.
It was 118 in Phoenix and smack dab in the middle of the monsoon season. I just got back and it rained all the way home. In fact, it's raining right now, in my beach city, and there's plenty of thunder and lightening to add to the ambience. Strange weather for Southern California. I'm sure we've set some tempurature records this week. I'll have to check....
I checked....
EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING.
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS HEAT INDEX VALUES BETWEEN 105 AND 115 DEGREES FROM LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING. THE HIGHEST HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE EXPECTED IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN FROM BEVERLY HILLS THROUGH THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS.
AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...TRY TO STAY OUT OF THE SUN... PREFERABLY IN AN AIR- CONDITIONED ROOM. CHECK UP ON RELATIVES... NEIGHBORS...AND CHILDREN AT PLAY.
CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY ARE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT STROKE. NO PERSON OR PET SHOULD EVER STAY IN AN ENCLOSED VEHICLE EVEN FOR THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE- THREATENING LEVELS...EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.
It was 118 in Phoenix and smack dab in the middle of the monsoon season. I just got back and it rained all the way home. In fact, it's raining right now, in my beach city, and there's plenty of thunder and lightening to add to the ambience. Strange weather for Southern California. I'm sure we've set some tempurature records this week. I'll have to check....
I checked....
EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING.
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS HEAT INDEX VALUES BETWEEN 105 AND 115 DEGREES FROM LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING. THE HIGHEST HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE EXPECTED IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN FROM BEVERLY HILLS THROUGH THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS.
AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...TRY TO STAY OUT OF THE SUN... PREFERABLY IN AN AIR- CONDITIONED ROOM. CHECK UP ON RELATIVES... NEIGHBORS...AND CHILDREN AT PLAY.
CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY ARE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT STROKE. NO PERSON OR PET SHOULD EVER STAY IN AN ENCLOSED VEHICLE EVEN FOR THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE- THREATENING LEVELS...EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Damn! It's HOT!
Huminidity in Southern California is usually pretty low, afterall, it's a desert. But, last night at midnight , it was 71 degrees in my beach town, with 90% humidity. It's crazy. We had a freak thunderstorm in the early am hours and it looks like we're going to have more of the same today. It's awful. I know it's much worse east of here and in the northern valleys it's unbearable, but the beach dwellers are suffering too. We usually have a cool breeze coming in from the ocean but there's been no such thing. It's nasty out, plain and simple. From what I've read, the whole country is sweltering. I'm going to move to a house with a pool.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Minestrone
My baby girl is now a wife and mother. Her baby is three years old and she's expecting one more in December, a Christmas baby. She's feeling kind of funky, what with the heat and morning sickness. Whenever I go to Phoenix to visit, I make a big pot of her favorite soup, Minestrone. It seems to be the only thing she wants to eat right now. So, here is the recipe, Honey.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med. leek
1 small onion
6 cloves garlic
1 can kidney beans rinsed well
3 boxes of organic veggie broth
6 or 7 cups veggies, brocolli, green beans, zucchini, yellow neck squash, carrots, celery
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 head shredded cabbage
grated parmesean cheese
crusty sourdough bread
In large pot, heat oil on med heat. Slice leek down the center and remove tough outer layer. Rinse well and thinly slice up to green part. Chop onion. Add both to pot and saute for 2 or 3 minutes, or until tender. Add pressed or finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and cook another minute. Add chopped and sliced veggies and stir till coated with oil, onions and garlic. Add can of kidney beans, rinsed. Add broth and herbs. Bring to a low boil and turn down heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add macaroni and frozen peas and corn and cook 10 minutes, covered. Add shredded cabbage cover again and turn off heat, allowing cabbage to wilt. (5 minutes.) Serve with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and warm crusty sourdough bread....Yum!
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med. leek
1 small onion
6 cloves garlic
1 can kidney beans rinsed well
3 boxes of organic veggie broth
6 or 7 cups veggies, brocolli, green beans, zucchini, yellow neck squash, carrots, celery
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 head shredded cabbage
grated parmesean cheese
crusty sourdough bread
In large pot, heat oil on med heat. Slice leek down the center and remove tough outer layer. Rinse well and thinly slice up to green part. Chop onion. Add both to pot and saute for 2 or 3 minutes, or until tender. Add pressed or finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and cook another minute. Add chopped and sliced veggies and stir till coated with oil, onions and garlic. Add can of kidney beans, rinsed. Add broth and herbs. Bring to a low boil and turn down heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add macaroni and frozen peas and corn and cook 10 minutes, covered. Add shredded cabbage cover again and turn off heat, allowing cabbage to wilt. (5 minutes.) Serve with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and warm crusty sourdough bread....Yum!
Exercise your belly laugh!
The Hermosa Beach Magic and Comedy Club is celebrating their birthday all month with 20 comedians a night. Tickets are only $20 and there's a 2 drink minimum, well worth the amount of exercise your face and sides will get. I laughed to so hard I almost popped a blood vessel.
Thank you, Linda
If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
millions who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back,
a roof overyour head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States..
If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
who cannot read anything at all.
You are blessed in ways
you may never even know.
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
millions who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back,
a roof overyour head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States..
If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
who cannot read anything at all.
You are blessed in ways
you may never even know.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Miss Maggie Mae
Well, last week I was ready to ship this 75 pound pup to Neptune or worse but after a few more days of working with her I think she may have just bought herself another week. I've learned to put all my shoes, leather cases, cell phones and assessories, and bits of edibles behind the closet door. I've learned that if she has long morning walks and time to run at the dog park she's much happier to behave as I ask, and I've learned that dog people, the ones I've met so far in the dog park....are wonderful people. They've all been so helpful with ideas and advice for my training. Miss Maggie Mae is going to go camping with me next week. I've ordered a crate for her, as the dog owners at the park have all agreed is the best way to keep your dog contained and easier to train. I may have to buy another collar or two, a prong collar and a halter for around her snout. She's still pulling a bit which means my mother will not be able to walk her at all until that is stopped. She doesn't jump on people, she doesn't bark, she doesn't beg, she's really well behaved. This may be just what my Angels had in mind for me. I'm up early to walk her, I'm out late to walk her again and she sleeps on the floor at the foot of my bed, just in case I have a need for wet kisses. LOL Dogs have a way of crawling into your heart even when you're resistant. I highly recommend them.
http://www.thesecret.tv/
http://www.thesecret.tv/
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I ordered the DVD at www.thesecret.tv
If you haven't watched this online movie you are cheating yourself out of some very useful information.
I'll be showing it at my house in a couple of weeks. Another film for our "Enlighten-UP" meeting.
If you haven't watched this online movie you are cheating yourself out of some very useful information.
I'll be showing it at my house in a couple of weeks. Another film for our "Enlighten-UP" meeting.
Dr. Bruce Lipton
http://www.brucelipton.com/ Ya gotta love this guy. He's such a wonderful speaker. There's a video on his site that explains hindbrain reflexes...check it out.
Thank you Beverly
The Daffodil Principle:
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.
"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car."
"How far will we have to drive?"
"Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to this."
After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, " Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.
"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car."
"How far will we have to drive?"
"Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to this."
After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, " Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.
How Quickly Can A Healing Take Place?
As quickly as you believe it can.
Many years ago, when I was working in a day spa in Manhattan Beach, I felt a stabbing pain in my wrist. I was afraid of its message...arthritis?......over-work?..........fracture?.........My mind began to jump around. "I can't miss work." "This isn't good." "I hope I'm not getting arthritis." Uh-oh...my other hand began to hurt....Holy Crap! "What's going on?" "I can't afford to miss work!" I jumped into a mode of healing that I was used to, as a massage therapist. I massaged my hands and wrists, I cancelled appointments to give them rest, I iced them, I bought a bottle of Advil, I wrapped them in ace bandages and left the office, worried I wouldn't be able to finish out the week...or worse, my career could be over.
Then, while walking to my car, head down, worried mind, shoulders slumped, the perfect image of a victim....my other training kicked in..
"What belief do I have that is creating this?" I started laughing at how I managed to go from one little bit of pain to total victim, in record time. How funny we humans are. Before I made it all the way across the parking lot I turned it around, I went from victim to creator. I owned my creation and then changed my mind. The pain was dis-created along with the belief. It was gone in an instant. The whole experience, Gone!
A healing can take place in an instant when you own its creation. If you created it, and you did, then you can dis-create it. Turn off the energy to it and allow it to cease. Then create the belief you prefer to experience. "I'm always healthy and strong." "I am radiantly healthy."
In relationships, we are co-creating. Any and all relationships are a co-creation. What he or she does or says, has as much to do with your beliefs, as they have to do with his or hers. Once you know this, it's very hard to play the blame game for very long.
You'll know what your beliefs are when you look at your life and your relationships and your experiences. They are a direct reflection of what you believe about yourself.
Again...what I judge in you, I judge in me.
What I love in you, I love in me.
What I resist in you, I resist in me.
So, the question to ask is, "What do I want to create next?"
Many years ago, when I was working in a day spa in Manhattan Beach, I felt a stabbing pain in my wrist. I was afraid of its message...arthritis?......over-work?..........fracture?.........My mind began to jump around. "I can't miss work." "This isn't good." "I hope I'm not getting arthritis." Uh-oh...my other hand began to hurt....Holy Crap! "What's going on?" "I can't afford to miss work!" I jumped into a mode of healing that I was used to, as a massage therapist. I massaged my hands and wrists, I cancelled appointments to give them rest, I iced them, I bought a bottle of Advil, I wrapped them in ace bandages and left the office, worried I wouldn't be able to finish out the week...or worse, my career could be over.
Then, while walking to my car, head down, worried mind, shoulders slumped, the perfect image of a victim....my other training kicked in..
"What belief do I have that is creating this?" I started laughing at how I managed to go from one little bit of pain to total victim, in record time. How funny we humans are. Before I made it all the way across the parking lot I turned it around, I went from victim to creator. I owned my creation and then changed my mind. The pain was dis-created along with the belief. It was gone in an instant. The whole experience, Gone!
A healing can take place in an instant when you own its creation. If you created it, and you did, then you can dis-create it. Turn off the energy to it and allow it to cease. Then create the belief you prefer to experience. "I'm always healthy and strong." "I am radiantly healthy."
In relationships, we are co-creating. Any and all relationships are a co-creation. What he or she does or says, has as much to do with your beliefs, as they have to do with his or hers. Once you know this, it's very hard to play the blame game for very long.
You'll know what your beliefs are when you look at your life and your relationships and your experiences. They are a direct reflection of what you believe about yourself.
Again...what I judge in you, I judge in me.
What I love in you, I love in me.
What I resist in you, I resist in me.
So, the question to ask is, "What do I want to create next?"
Harry Palmer
"Honesty with yourself leads to compassion for others. It's easier to defend your actions than to honestly examine them. We are quicker to attack than admit. Admissions require courage. Becoming more honest with ourselves means introducing more honesty into the collective consciousness of the world and this lays the foundation upon which an enlightened planetary civilization can be built."
Avatar Plan For A Better World
I can learn to be alert to my own self-deception. I can learn to recognize the signals that tell me I am losing my integrity.
1. When I am quick to find the error in others, I have failed to correct myself.
2. When my acts are designed to persuade another, I doubt myself
3. When I experience struggle with the world, I have denied responsibility for my own creations.
4. When I feel separate and alone, I have failed to forgive.
5. When events repeat themselves in my life, there is a lesson I need to learn.
1. When I am quick to find the error in others, I have failed to correct myself.
2. When my acts are designed to persuade another, I doubt myself
3. When I experience struggle with the world, I have denied responsibility for my own creations.
4. When I feel separate and alone, I have failed to forgive.
5. When events repeat themselves in my life, there is a lesson I need to learn.
One never knows where healing will come from. You may expect it, or seek it out from one direction yet find that it comes from another. The end result is what is important. The Universe will see to it that it is accomplished if if is your heartfelt intention. Your intention is what is primary to succeed in any healing. It may not look the way you think it should, it may not turn out exactly as you invisioned, but it will be accomplished.
If your belief is that you are a healer, then you will be moved to actions that provide you the experience. It never fails. Believe it and you'll be living it.
If your belief is that you are a healer, then you will be moved to actions that provide you the experience. It never fails. Believe it and you'll be living it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Here is The Secret
www.thesecret.tv
For a few dollars you can watch a 90 minute movie or order a dvd that will tell you The Secret....
This is what I teach in a nutshell....
For a few dollars you can watch a 90 minute movie or order a dvd that will tell you The Secret....
This is what I teach in a nutshell....
"When life becomes difficult, we ask 'why.' It's the wrong question. We need to ask 'what.' What am I supposed to learn from this? If we don't 'get it' the first time around, life presents the opportunity to learn the lesson time and time again, until we understand and change. Then, when we look back, we often wonder why it took us so long."
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
As it turns out....I have lost my mind.
Maggie Mae is going back to Phoenix, or to new owners, or to another planet. Puppy mentality in a 75 pound dog is a dangerous mixture. She's sweet and smart but man-o-man she can do some serious damage when you aren't looking. Damage to expensive items.
After our morning walk today I had to go to Cingular in Manhattan Beach to get my phone checked out. It was telling me to install the battery which was already in there. It turns out sticking your cell phone inside your bra when you workout isn't the wisest thing. Moisture and cell phones don't do well together and I was forced to buy a new one and me without insurance. I decided to get one with a new headset and all the fancy whooohaaas so I could take my long walks with Maggie Mae and not miss business calls. I brought it all home and laid it out on my dresser to charge up. After a my massage therapist left (yes, I get massages regularly) I came into my room and Miss Maggie Mae had gotten up on my dresser, gouging her sharp nails into the wood and pulling down my brand new headset. She chewed it up into itty bitty pieces. My candles are destroyed, a piece of jewelry and all the packaging was strewn all over the floor. I can't do this. I can't afford to do this. I've spent $300 on her in less than a week and she hasn't even seen the vet yet. Couple that with the loss today and I'm going to go live in the poor house, if not the home for the mentally impaired. She's cute...but not that cute.
After our morning walk today I had to go to Cingular in Manhattan Beach to get my phone checked out. It was telling me to install the battery which was already in there. It turns out sticking your cell phone inside your bra when you workout isn't the wisest thing. Moisture and cell phones don't do well together and I was forced to buy a new one and me without insurance. I decided to get one with a new headset and all the fancy whooohaaas so I could take my long walks with Maggie Mae and not miss business calls. I brought it all home and laid it out on my dresser to charge up. After a my massage therapist left (yes, I get massages regularly) I came into my room and Miss Maggie Mae had gotten up on my dresser, gouging her sharp nails into the wood and pulling down my brand new headset. She chewed it up into itty bitty pieces. My candles are destroyed, a piece of jewelry and all the packaging was strewn all over the floor. I can't do this. I can't afford to do this. I've spent $300 on her in less than a week and she hasn't even seen the vet yet. Couple that with the loss today and I'm going to go live in the poor house, if not the home for the mentally impaired. She's cute...but not that cute.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Harry Palmer, 1987
It's difficult to describe the experience I call Avatar; how does one describe a not thing that is void of aspects?
Sometimes I think enlightenment takes only a moment to achieve, and the rest of existence is spent trying to describe it.
As long as you realize that my word descriptions are merely sights and sounds to entertain the mind, here's something to play with:
Aware: Watchful; vigilant; knowing
Will: The power to decide;to direct; to decree
Feel what it feels like to be only..................................
effortlessly................
AWARE WILL.
Sometimes I think enlightenment takes only a moment to achieve, and the rest of existence is spent trying to describe it.
As long as you realize that my word descriptions are merely sights and sounds to entertain the mind, here's something to play with:
Aware: Watchful; vigilant; knowing
Will: The power to decide;to direct; to decree
Feel what it feels like to be only..................................
effortlessly................
AWARE WILL.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
The Goddess Persephone
A brief psychological overview of Persephone
Persephone - possessing an introverted temperament (polar opposite to Hera) with issues of inner world control/ power--she represents the goddess of the underworld--concerned with the world of spirit, the occult, matters associated with death. She is mystical, visionary and often possesses spirit guides. Her awareness is diffuse. Persephone belongs to the relationship-oriented 'vulnerable' goddess category having a very close relationship with her mother, Demeter. Another aspect of her vulnerability, Persephone was abducted, taken to the Underworld and raped by Hades. Her mother, Demeter mourned, sorrowfully, in the face of her abduction.
Persephone is said to have a younger counterpart to herself--Kore--another name for the young Persephone. Psychologically, this may be a representation of two or three levels of this archetype: Kore, the Maiden, Persephone (or Demeter), the mature Woman, and Hecate, the Wise Crone.
Persephone type woman is more attracted to the spiritual nature rather than the physicality of her partner. She may unconsciously attract destructive relationships or potentially controlling partners. As an unconscious protective measure, she may choose a safe alternative in a younger, non-threatening partner whom she can mother.
Persephone - possessing an introverted temperament (polar opposite to Hera) with issues of inner world control/ power--she represents the goddess of the underworld--concerned with the world of spirit, the occult, matters associated with death. She is mystical, visionary and often possesses spirit guides. Her awareness is diffuse. Persephone belongs to the relationship-oriented 'vulnerable' goddess category having a very close relationship with her mother, Demeter. Another aspect of her vulnerability, Persephone was abducted, taken to the Underworld and raped by Hades. Her mother, Demeter mourned, sorrowfully, in the face of her abduction.
Persephone is said to have a younger counterpart to herself--Kore--another name for the young Persephone. Psychologically, this may be a representation of two or three levels of this archetype: Kore, the Maiden, Persephone (or Demeter), the mature Woman, and Hecate, the Wise Crone.
Persephone type woman is more attracted to the spiritual nature rather than the physicality of her partner. She may unconsciously attract destructive relationships or potentially controlling partners. As an unconscious protective measure, she may choose a safe alternative in a younger, non-threatening partner whom she can mother.
From The Teaching of Jesus
Self-Condemnation
The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
This represents a theological state of mind which is quite common to all of us; one of self-condemnation and personal distrust; it is morbid and detrimental to our welfare; a theological state of introspective morbidity, which might be classed as one of our worst mental diseases. Self-condemnation is always destructive and should never be indulged in by anyone, it is always a mistake. There is no question but that all of us have done that which is not for the best. From this viewpoint, all have been sinners, because all have fallen short of the Divine Calling. If we have sinned, it is because we have been ignorant of our true nature and because experience was necessary to bring us to ourselves.
And the Father Saw Him Afar Off
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
This is the most perfect lesson ever taught by the Great Teacher. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." This means that God turns to us as we turn to Him. A more beautiful thought could not be given than this! There is always a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind. As we look at God, God looks at us. Is it not true that when we look at God, God is looking through us at Himself? God comes to us as we come to Him. "It is done unto us as we believe." "Act as though I am and I will be."
God Does Not Condemn
"And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fated calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry; For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."
The great lesson to learn here is that God never reproaches and never condemns. God did not say to the returning son, "You miserable sinner, you are no more worthy to be called my son." He did not say, "I will see what I can do about saving our lost soul. I will spill the blood of my most precious son in hopes that by this atonement your life may be made eternal." He did not say, "You are a worm of dust and I will grind you under my feet in order that you may know that I am God and the supreme power of the universe." No, GOD DID NOT SAY ANY OF THESE ATROCIOUS THINGS! What the Father did say was, "Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." Here Jesus is showing that God is Love and knows nothing about hate.
The Science of Mind
Ernest Holmes
The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
This represents a theological state of mind which is quite common to all of us; one of self-condemnation and personal distrust; it is morbid and detrimental to our welfare; a theological state of introspective morbidity, which might be classed as one of our worst mental diseases. Self-condemnation is always destructive and should never be indulged in by anyone, it is always a mistake. There is no question but that all of us have done that which is not for the best. From this viewpoint, all have been sinners, because all have fallen short of the Divine Calling. If we have sinned, it is because we have been ignorant of our true nature and because experience was necessary to bring us to ourselves.
And the Father Saw Him Afar Off
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
This is the most perfect lesson ever taught by the Great Teacher. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." This means that God turns to us as we turn to Him. A more beautiful thought could not be given than this! There is always a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind. As we look at God, God looks at us. Is it not true that when we look at God, God is looking through us at Himself? God comes to us as we come to Him. "It is done unto us as we believe." "Act as though I am and I will be."
God Does Not Condemn
"And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fated calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry; For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."
The great lesson to learn here is that God never reproaches and never condemns. God did not say to the returning son, "You miserable sinner, you are no more worthy to be called my son." He did not say, "I will see what I can do about saving our lost soul. I will spill the blood of my most precious son in hopes that by this atonement your life may be made eternal." He did not say, "You are a worm of dust and I will grind you under my feet in order that you may know that I am God and the supreme power of the universe." No, GOD DID NOT SAY ANY OF THESE ATROCIOUS THINGS! What the Father did say was, "Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." Here Jesus is showing that God is Love and knows nothing about hate.
The Science of Mind
Ernest Holmes
No One Gives to Us but Ourselves
"And he fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him."
How true this is; no one can give unto us but ourselves and no one can rob us but ourselves. "There are no gods to say us nay, for we are the life we live." In our greatest extremity, in the moment of great need and dire distress, who can help or serve us? All of our troubles come from an isolated sense of being; we alone can return to the "Father's House."
The question might be asked, "Where was God and why did He not come to the rescue of His beloved son? Did He not care............was He heedless about His son's welfare? Why did God allow such a thing to happen?" There is only one answer to all questions of this nature: God is always god, and man can always do as he pleases. He would not be an induvidual unless this were possible. The Father is never conscious of incompletion. the Father's House is always open, the latch string ever hanging out, the door always ajar, but man must enter, if he wishes to abide within.
Harmony can never become discord. the truth can never produce a lie. God can never be less than God. Could God enter into a field of strife, then He would not be God. God cannot enter the pig pen. We cannot contract the Infinite, but we can expand the finite. "And no man gave unto him." It is always thus.
The Science of Mind,
A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life
by Ernest Holmes
How true this is; no one can give unto us but ourselves and no one can rob us but ourselves. "There are no gods to say us nay, for we are the life we live." In our greatest extremity, in the moment of great need and dire distress, who can help or serve us? All of our troubles come from an isolated sense of being; we alone can return to the "Father's House."
The question might be asked, "Where was God and why did He not come to the rescue of His beloved son? Did He not care............was He heedless about His son's welfare? Why did God allow such a thing to happen?" There is only one answer to all questions of this nature: God is always god, and man can always do as he pleases. He would not be an induvidual unless this were possible. The Father is never conscious of incompletion. the Father's House is always open, the latch string ever hanging out, the door always ajar, but man must enter, if he wishes to abide within.
Harmony can never become discord. the truth can never produce a lie. God can never be less than God. Could God enter into a field of strife, then He would not be God. God cannot enter the pig pen. We cannot contract the Infinite, but we can expand the finite. "And no man gave unto him." It is always thus.
The Science of Mind,
A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life
by Ernest Holmes
Friday, July 07, 2006
Oh My God! What have I done?
Last Saturday I drove to Phoenix to celebrate Independence Day with my babies. Michael is three now and so much fun. We had a wonderful visit, however, I came home with more than I left with.....72.5 pounds of dog. Her name is Maggie Mae, she's almost 11 months old, and she promptly barfed up her dinner on my bedroom carpet last night. Have I lost my mind?
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