Mood:  a-ok

2010 is offering us the perfect opportunity to balance our connection to Planetary Energy, and as the months go by many of us are noticing the effects of pressure building on the choices we make...

One of the things that I have noticed when talking with others is that lately many of us seem to share a pathological busyness. I choose the word pathological deliberately here, because to me it really does feel like a form of sickness. There is so much I want to do and also so much I have to do, that I end up rushing around from one task to another. Where is the space for me in this mad rush, I wonder? I seem to get caught in a reactive mode with no time or space to find any perspective. And without this space it is hard to make the choices I need to make.

I know I can’t do everything; no one can! How can I decide what to do and what to stop doing? If I let the urgent tasks, or the tasks that I feel I have to do, decide how I spend my time, then I am not consciously choosing my direction. But equally, I have responsibilities and commitments to meet, like everyone else. I know it is important to get some work done in this area, prioritising according to what I want to manifest, making active choices about the direction of my life, before Gamma arrives with all its wonderful stormy energy and really stirs things up!

So if you identify with any of this: if you are noticing increased or out-of-control busyness taking over, if your diary is filled well in advance with no down time for relaxing, reflecting, or responding to opportunities the Universe sends your way, then please join me over the next few months as I work to find more balance in this area. I will make some suggestions for activities, but it would be fantastic if some of you could share your ideas and experiences too, so we can help and support each other.

To start with I want to suggest a visualisation and connection to Planetary Energy. If you have been working with the Star of 13 you will know that Planetary Energy is the energy of manifestation, and we often connect with it to manifest our dreams in this physical reality. When used this way it can be quite heavy, leaving you feeling sleepy. However Planetary also has a function of release, leaving us feeling lighter and refreshed, and this is where we will start our work.

Make yourself comfortable, lie or sit down and begin to centre yourself in your body, connecting to every area of it using any relaxation technique you enjoy. When you are relaxed begin to visualise a cross with arms of equal length, like a plus sign (+). Imagine this cross beginning to turn anti-clockwise. It turns quite slowly so that you can always see the separate arms of the cross, and as it turns it begins to release energy from the centre out through the arms of the cross, spinning off into the Universe. Imagine that you are releasing busyness, releasing activities that don’t serve your higher purpose... You don’t have to specify what that is, or what activities you are releasing – just feel yourself getting lighter and lighter as you release all you don’t need or want in your life.  Continue releasing any stress in your life, releasing anything that weighs you down, allowing Planetary Energy to move... Do this for as long as is comfortable. At this point you are not trying to make a rational list of things you want to continue doing or not, you are just trying to move the energy and get a little room in your life. If you notice you are releasing specific activities, you can make a mental note of that and come back to it later and think about it. But for now, simply do this exercise several times a week for a few weeks to create some space and lightness around you. Together we are letting go of some of the busyness and clutter so we can start to create space for choices!

(If you would like a CD with music and a guided meditation to help you connect to Planetary Energy, you can order one on-line by following this link: http://www.starof13.com/index-filer/Page3273.htm)

Posted by angel-healing at 6:29 PM BST

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I define responsibility (response-ability) as the ability to choose how we respond to stimulation coming in through our sensory systems at any moment in time. Although there are certain limbic system (emotional) programs that can be triggered automatically, it takes less than 90 seconds for one of these programs to be triggered, surge through our body, and then be completely flushed out of our blood stream. My anger response, for example, is a programmed response that can be set of automatically. Once triggered, the chemical released by my brain surges though my body and I have a physiological experience. Within 90 seconds from the initial trigger, the chemical component of my anger has completely dissipated from my blood and my automatic response is over. If, however, I remain angry after those 90 seconds have passed, then it is because I have chosen to let that circuit to continue to run. Moment by moment, I make the choice to either hook into my neurocircuitry or move back into the present moment, allowing that reaction to melt away as a fleeting physiology.

The really exiting news about acknowledging my right and left characters is that I always have an alternative way of looking at any situation – is my glass half full or half empty? If you approach me with anger and frustration, then I make the choice to either reflect your anger and engage in argument (left brain), or be empathic and approach you with a compassionate heart (right brain). What most of us don’t realize is that we are unconsciously making choices about how we respond all the time. It is so easy to get caught up in the wiring of our pre-programmed reactivity (limbic system) that we live our lives cruising along on automatic pilot. I have learned that the more attention my higher cortical cells pay to what’s going on inside my limbic system, the more say I have about what I am thinking and feeling. By paying attention to the choices my automatic circuitry is making, I own my power and make more choice consciously. In the long run, I take responsibility for what I attract into my life.

Nowadays, I spend a lot of time thinking about thinking just because I find my brain so fascinating. As Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ There has been nothing more empowering than the realization that I don’t have to think thoughts that bring me realization that I don’t have to think thoughts that bring me pain as long as I am aware that I am choosing to engage in that emotional circuitry. At the same time, it is freeing to know that I have the conscious power to stop thinking those thoughts when I am satiated. It is liberating to know that I have the ability to choose a peaceful and loving mind (my right mind), whatever my physical or mental circumstances, by deciding to step to the right and bring my thoughts back to the present moment.

More often than not, I choose to observe my environment though the nonjudgmental eyes of my right mind, allowing me to retain my inner joy and remain detached from emotionally charged circuitry. I alone decide if something will have a positive or negative influence on my psyche. Recently, I was driving down the road singing at the top of my lungs with my favourite Ginger Curry CD, ‘I got JOOOOOOY in my heart!’ To my chagrin, I was pulled over for speeding (apparently there was way too much enthusiasm going on behind the wheel!). Since receiving that ticket, I have had to make the decision at least 100 times to not feel down about it. This little voice of negativity kept trying to raise its ugly head and bum me out. It wanted to mull the drama over and over again in my mind, from every angle, but regardless of my contemplation, the situation would have the same outcome. Frankly, I find this sort of mental obsessing by my left hemisphere story-teller to be a waste of time and emotionally draining. Thanks to my stroke, I have learned that I can own my power and stop thinking about events that have occurred in the past by consciously realigning myself with the present.

With that said, however, there are some occasions when I will choose to step into the world as a single, solid, ego centre separate from you. Sometimes it is just pure satisfaction for me to bump my left hemisphere stuff and attitudes up against your left hemisphere stuff and attitudes in argument or passionate debate. More often than not, I don’t like how aggression feels inside my body so I shy away from hostile confrontation and choose compassion.
For me, it’s really easy to be kind to others when I remember that none of us came into this world with a manual about how to get it right. We are ultimately a product of our biology and our environment. Consequently, I choose to be compassionate with others when I consider how much painful emotional baggage we are biologically programmed to carry around. I recognize that mistakes will be made, but this does not mean that I need to either victimize myself or take your actions and mistakes personally. Your stuff is your stuff, and my stuff is my stuff. Feeling deep inner peace and sharing kindness is always a choice for either of us. Forgiving others and forgiving myself is always a choice. Seeing this moment as a perfect moment is always a choice.

This article was written by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor,

Posted by angel-healing at 9:00 AM BST

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Mood:  a-ok

Pray in your local waterways, at the rivers or lakes or streams. Or pray with a bowl of water in the middle of the cities.

"We are Water Babies.
Do not to forget to say thank you every day for the water you drink,
the water you bathe in.
Without our Mother water we would not survive."
Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Takelma Siletz, Oregon

The specific ceremonies being conducted on May 18, 2010:

Grandmothers will be holding Water Prayers in the following places:

African Rainforest, Gabon - Grandmother Bernadette Rebienot
Great Lakes, USA- Grandmother Rita Blumenstein
Mountains of Oaxaca, Huautla de Jimenez - Grandmother Julieta Casimiro
Desert of the American Southwest- Grandmother Mona Polacca
France - Grandmother Flordemayo
Black Hills of North America- Beatrice and Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance
Plains of North America, Montana-Grandmother Margaret Behan
Hood River, Oregon- Agnes Baker Pilgrim
Nepalese Himalayas- Aama Bombo
Brazilian Amazon-Grandmothers Maria Alice Freire and Clara Shinobu Iura
Tibetan Ceremonies in Canada- Tsering Dolma Gyaltong
Mahia, Aotearoa, New Zealand - Ambassador Pauline Tangiora

At the same time, people will be praying at
Nine specific bodies of water around the planet using crystalline energy

· Lake Tahoe, California
· Lake Titicaca, Peru
· Lake MacKay Australia
· Lake Chad, Africa
· Lake Bikkal, Russia
· Lake Kissyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan
· Lake Geneva, Switzerland
· Lake Superior, Minnesota
· Colorado River Complex (Healing and Purification Ceremonies for this vital USA waterway)

"Water reflects the human soul. If you say, 'thank you' to water, it will be reflected in the form of beautiful crystals overflowing with gratitude in return." Masuru Emoto, The Secret Life of Water

For more information:  
www.goldeneagleceremonies.com

Posted by angel-healing at 10:53 AM BST

Updated: Monday, 17 May 2010 10:55 AM BST

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Mood:  amorous

The Infinite Journey to Conscious Loving
by Gay Hendricks, Ph.D. & Kathlyn Hendricks, Ph.D.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a heroic shift out of an old paradigm, the default programming that we’re born into Unconscious Loving to a new paradigm, Conscious Loving. Here’s a quick look at the old and the new paradigms, so you'll know what you're getting out of and getting into.

UNCONSCIOUS LOVING

We repeat the same patterns and problems over and over, and we don’t identify ourselves as the source of those patterns and problems. We spend a lot of time ignoring or recycling the patterns, and expend considerable energy trying to prove somebody else is to blame.

We get defensive in situations where we could get enlightened. Somebody says, "Hey, you’ve got a drinking problem." We reply, "Says who?" They say, "Well, you drove into the driveway last night, ran over the kid’s bike, threw up in the flower bed and peed in your wife’s steam iron." We reply, "Nobody’s perfect, and you're a jerk for ruining my day with your negativity." (Defensive maneuvers: Getting sleepy, bored or tired; getting irritable, hostile or tense; getting fascinated by TV, food, liquor, tobacco, drugs; stonewalling, sulking, withdrawing.)

We have feelings we don't share, or are carrying secrets we haven’t told to the relevant person. (Distinction between secrets and privacy: Secrets are things you hide because you’re afraid of how others would react if they heard them. Privacy is when you keep something hidden because to share it would dilute its personal or sacred nature. Example: For Bill Clinton, Monica was a secret, and the relevant person to tell was Hillary. For Monica, the journal she kept would fit the privacy category.)

We think of ourselves as victims and go back and forth between thinking of others as perpetrators or fellow-victims. In conflicts, we argue from the Victim-Position, casting others as Perpetrators. To resolve arguments, we often join the others in being Fellow-Victims.

Example:

Us: You're ruining my life, you jerk.
Them: No way. You're ruining my life, you jerk.
(Repeat until somebody drops from exhaustion.)
Us: You know what? You and I are okay. It’s the world that’s ruining our lives.
Them: Yeah! Here, have a brewski.

We don’t express our full creativity, and have a variety of reasons, many of which are excellent, why we’re not doing so.

CONSCIOUS LOVING

The new paradigm is built on the earlier foundation described in our earlier books such as CONSCIOUS LOVING. In that book, two principles occupied center stage: The Authenticity Principle and The Responsibility Principle. The Authenticity Principle holds that relationships only flourish when both people speak the microscopic truth. If any relationship problem recycles, look for the significant truth that has not yet been spoken. If the microscopic truth is not spoken (for example, "I didn’t have sex with that woman") a costly and tiresome melodrama usually occurs in the aftermath of the lie.

The Responsibility Principle holds that relationships only flourish when both people take 100% responsibility for any issue that arises. By contrast, most people try to apportion responsibility, which always leads to blame, conflict and power struggles. For example, a repetitive conflict about money only resolves when each person claims full responsibility by asking, "Even if it looks like my partner’s problem, in what ways am I contributing to the perpetuation of this problem?"

EMERGENCE OF THE NEW PARADIGM

Now, two new principles take relationship transformation into a new dimension: The Commitment Principle and The Appreciation Principle. These principles hold powerful keys to an ongoing problem in human relationships: How to free individual creativity while simultaneously bringing both partners into greater harmony.

The Commitment Principle: Every relationship problem is rooted in an overlooked commitment issue, and if this issue is addressed correctly it becomes a springboard to a profound breakthrough in closeness and individual creativity. The principle holds true even if the two people involved in the conflict have been in relationship for decades. It also applies to boardroom as well as bedroom relationships. By analyzing hundreds of conflicts, we discovered that the problem often began with a withheld commitment. In other words, someone (or sometimes all parties) did not fully commit. Once we made this discovery, we worked out a simple way to find where the commitment problem was located and a technique for moving through the impasse rapidly.

The Appreciation Principle holds that relationship problems begin in an "appreciation gap," a specific place where a break occurs in the ongoing flow of appreciation. In the absence of a felt-sense of appreciation ‹given and received, spoken and unspoken) a host of energy-draining problems ensue. After discovering this principle, we designed a simple set of appreciation activities, which anyone can do.

In Conscious Loving, we do things very differently than in the old paradigm:

If a pattern or problem repeats itself, we look for the source of the pattern in ourselves, even if another person looks like the main character in the drama. Example: Even if your partner is the one who’s come home drunk every night for the past sixteen years, the conscious person thinks, "Hmmm, how am I inviting this sort of behavior in my life?" and "Hmmm, who was it that didn’t kick him/her out fifteen years and 364 days ago?"

We commit ourselves to learning, instead of getting defensive, in every interaction. We get skilled at thanking people and the universe for giving us feedback, instead of punishing them. "Thanks for pointing out my drinking problem. From my actions (the bike, the flower bed and the steam iron), it appears I’m out of control."

We make conscious commitments, and hold ourselves scrupulously to those commitments. We commit to things that are within our control, such as telling the truth and taking responsibility, not to things that can't be controlled (promising to love the person always, promising we'll never do it again, etc.)

We tell the truth, and give enough detail so that the relevant other person fully understands. Bill: "Yes, indeed, I had sex with that woman. The first five times were fun and titillating, although I didn’t ejaculate, but the last two times were ho-hum even though I did. I feel guilty as hell and scared you won’t like me."

We take full responsibility for what happens in our lives, and seek out relationships with others who also take full responsibility. In a conscious relationship there are no power struggles because each person takes 100% responsibility.

We commit ourselves to full creative expression. If we're fully engaged in our own creativity, we don't have time to accuse others of oppressing it.

We speak appreciations frequently. Examples: I appreciate you for helping Kevin with his spelling last night, I appreciate the way you look today, I appreciate your sense of humor.

SUPER-CONSCIOUS LOVING

We’ve found that it’s possible to take a rapid ride to hitherto-unimaginable relationship heights by adopting one very radical concept and practicing one very simple technique.

The Concept

Stop focusing on problems, difficulties and issues for a period of time (a month is a good period of time to start with) and instead, focus only on expressing appreciations to your partner (or to anyone else you want to be close to, such as children or co-workers.) At the end of the period of time, you can always go back to focusing on problems if you want to. However, most people find that expressing appreciations clears up even long-standing, recurring problems that nothing else has budged.

The Technique

Step One
Choose a heartfelt commitment to making the expression of appreciation your top creative priority. In other words, choose to regard thinking up and delivering appreciations as your highest art form. A year or so ago, I (Gay Hendricks) chose appreciating Katie as my highest priority art form. Until then, I regarded my writing as my highest priority art form. I decided to put as much time and energy into noticing things I appreciate about her, thinking up ways to appreciate her and delivering appreciations to her as I did to my writing. To my delight, our relationship took a quantum jump (it was already great!) to absolutely transcendental. To my great surprise, my writing became even more fun and productive.

Step Two
For one month, put your focus on one major activity: Think up and deliver appreciations as often as you can, but at least ten to twenty times a day. Focus mainly on verbal appreciations, appreciation-by-touch and telepathic whole-body appreciations. Use material appreciations sparingly if at all.

At the end of the month, evaluate the level of positive energy that’s flowing between you.

© The Hendricks Institute.

Posted by angel-healing at 12:29 PM GMT

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