How Do I Achieve Inner Peace?

When I read these words to myself, sometimes on a daily basis, I become stronger in my belief that Change and Peace are on the same continuum and they always start (and end) inside of me.

"My whole being works best when I am able to achieve EQUANIMITY in life. I thrive when things are NOT tipped too much in one direction for too long. And when I realize EQUANIMITY for myself I experience a deep inner peace.

The entirety of everything is made up from one thing. That one thing is Divine. I call this divine thing Source because it exists eternally in, around, under, and through all “other” things.

I am just such an “other” thing. I am not Source as Source is the beginning of everything, but Source is ALL of me. This means that all the wholeness and perfection that Source is – I am. From this recognition I take confidence that I have the same power to manifest, just as Source does.

I accept that all of life is change and within all circumstances change is constant. From within this reality I create a subtle and gentle swing for myself in which I happily glide from here to there… and back again. From this place where I sit as things appear to shift  - my experience is always that ALL IS WELL.  I am Equanimity. I am Balance. I am Peace.

For this realization I give thanks. For this knowing I am humbly grateful.

Having written and read these words I let them go now.  I release these words into Source knowing the thing is already done and I am already Peaceful.  I release these words as I say, And so it is.”

Will you come and sit on my swing with me?

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Love Beyond Measure

"For I have learned that every

heart will get

What it prays for

Most " - hafiz

How much Love can you take? 

Let's talk volume here. Is it enough? Is it too much? Can you take just a little more? And just a little more again? Why is there a set amount that is allowed? Does it burn to feel the unbounded vastness of Love's light? Is it possible to conceive of this much Love being at your disposal?

Is a little trickle thru a tiny fissure in the granite of a great stone gorge all you can abide at this time? Any fissure can become a crack. And any crack can break wide open...if you let it.

What about a gusher? What about a geyser? What about an tidal wave? Now we are talking about more than just volume. We are adding velocity. It is too much, too fast! Make it stop - all this Love! It hurts too much!

Let's just stop this all together! Let's just stop this "stopping Love." Let's just let it flow and feel it however it arrives, accept it no matter what it looks like, who brings it, or how fast (or slowly) it comes. 

Make welcome Love. Make welcome Love. Make welcome Love.

This is my prayer.

What does your heart pray for?

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The Divine in Scotland

the divine in the palm of our hands

"I am where I need to be.

Everything around me

includes and hides the sacred."

                     ~ Mary Mrozowski

This includes haggis.

What is divine that is in front of you?

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6 Mental Faculties

"The task is not to see what has never been seen before, but to think what has never been thought before about what you see every day"  
~ erwin schrodinger 

Saw this NASA image and immediately thought of Renaissance painter Mantegna's fresco painting on a ceiling in Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy.

NASA astronomical photo of the day 2014 July 24

Mantegna "The Bridal Chamber" circa 1474

Kinda cool - huh? 

This juxtaposition of images sings a song to me of the six mental faculties: Will, Perception, Memory, Reason, Imagination and Intuition. 

Experiencing simultaneously time, space, art, science, wonder & joy in the moment of this discovery I am also reminded that I am a unique character with a unique perspective all my own. Recognizing this is "good stuff making!"

What makes you unique?

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Permission

A few synonyms for permission are: authorization, consent, leave, authority, sanction, license, dispensation, assent, acquiescence, agreement, seal/stamp of approval, blessing, clearance, allowance & empowerment.

Who gives us permission?  I have come to realize I have the power to give myself permission. Permission to love. Permission to heal. Permission to feel ALL the feelings that arise, not just the good ones. I know when I assent to this I burn off those parts of myself that hold me down. I also give myself permission to focus on those things that make me come alive so I can fly higher than I have ever flown before. Even if I do not know how...I allow it! 

Where can we go to get permission? I go to the dreams of my best life to get permission. I want so much to feel joy and have meaningful relationships. I give myself permission to feel and have all that I desire.

Why do so many of us feel we need permission? In the past I needed external approval to wash away the voice in my head that tells me I cannot have that, I do not deserve this, I am not worthy.

Now, and from this day forward, I give my permission to claim that which has always been *unbelievably* mine - a life filled with love and happiness. This is an internal thing. It is part of my foundation from which all other choices can be made and which supports my core of peace.

So it seems permission is very important. It allows so many things too manifest. 

What are your permissions? And if this is too tough a question. Here is an easier one. 

What will you no longer allow?

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A Call to the Universe

So I am having fun and they all say, "Just follow your passions and life will find you!" But I still have that longing, that requirement to be intimately engaged with one other person. To be joyfully entwined with them and all their interesting foibles and have them lovingly entwined with me and all my curious faults.

Why do I want to be peas to some one's carrots? 

Because I know there is soooooo much joy and laughter in this kind of sharing and caring for another. Yes, there will be challenges too, but for the personality that I am, there is nothing in this life that beats this kind of experience. And I want more of it. I want lightning to strike twice. I want a correction made in my path that allows this intimate experience to come directly to me. Do not pass go. Do no collect 200 dollars.

I also know this is how we grow. I know perceived foibles of the other leads us toward discovering our own truths. Yes - although our perceived faults may at times be spot on, they are more often than not guideposts toward something needing recognition within ourselves.

And I know that even when the object of this relationship departs, the Love shared remains forever. This I know for sure.

So it is this kind of circumstance I long for... dare I say it... a love relationship. There are just so many opportunities for such a variety of adventures on a daily basis! Doesn't this excite you?  Well, perhaps it doesn't you, but for me it is pure heaven.

The puzzle of loving someone has an unlimited number of pieces. And I am ready to spread them out on the table and slowly and carefully discover life's biggest picture together. Ah yes, please bring my spiritual partner to me so we can pick up the pieces together.

Of course, the alternative to this kind of experience is to just continue to follow my own passions & have loads of fun. Now these are two very good choices I can get behind! No rocks. No hard places. Just life naturally unfolding with ease, along with Spring, allowing both the sun and the rain to grow me up! 

Have you a longing that needs a more refined definition?

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Emotions are like Black & White Cookies

Have you ever had a Black and White cookie? It is the official baked good of Manhattan and perhaps some places in New Jersey as well. It is a soft cake-like cookie the size of a newborn's head. On top it is iced with both a chocolate and vanilla icing and has a striking hard edged line down the middle where the two icings meet. And I just LOVE them!

When you get one in your hand you get to choose how you are going to attack it. You get to have a bite of the chocolate and then the vanilla. Or you can eat all one side then the other. Or perhaps your desire is for balance and take your first bite right down the middle. It is a fun dessert that offers joy no matter how you receive the cookie into your mouth. Both the dark and light parts.

If we could only experience our emotions this way.

My emotions tell me how things are. But they are not the tellers of the whole truth. They are simply our good messengers. I have come to know when I am able to welcome ANY emotion this way, I am able to feel it and be witness to it at the same time. In the past I suffered from confusion - thinking I WAS my emotions. I think this is because we feel our emotions throughout our bodies. This uber proximity is what got me confused!

Now I think of emotions as electrical charges. They are ignited to show me something. And they naturally run their course then go away. When I allow it, I can open up and look underneath my emotion. This way l can know myself better. And when I know myself better the rest of IT ALL falls into place with ease. Of this I am sure…I am the cake and emotions are the icing!

The dark part. I know I am wounded and healing is underway. The healing takes the form of feeling all sorts of anointed pangs again and again and again. OK... this is a fancy way of saying PAIN... I know. But when I reframe these things I feel as divine, sanctified or blessed it helps me move away from "Damn it - not again!" towards "I wonder what this is trying to tell me?" I am reframing things to survive. I am awash in tears right now. They are the realist of real. I let them flow and wonder what these tears, today - right now- are telling me?

The light part. Love is real too. It is eternal. This is how I am able to take the rest of it all in. Just wish I had a person here with me now to share all this love. THIS is what pains me today. Not in a needy way, but in an exploring way. There are always folks with whom we can share love. A bounty of souls in fact. But having that one, that intimate someone, is a special gift. Can I reframe this circumstance of yearning to acknowledge I am full of love and these tears are calling me out to open my heart even further? Yep, I can!

I wonder how open a heart can get?

How graciously my cookie crumbs have lead me toward this most wonderful question and toward a way to take action. Using Loving Kindness Meditation is a practical approach to a more open heart.

Also called Metta Meditation, practicing Loving Kindness increases positive mind states such as patience, kindness, compassion and acceptance towards yourself and others. Practicing Loving Kindness reduces negative chemicals (cortisol) in our brain and increase oxytocin which can further improve our ability to love and be loved.

Traditional Loving Kindness Meditation goes something like this...

Perhaps centering yourself by making the breath the focus of your attention and then feeling the breath moving and the body sitting.

And when you are ready, bringing to mind someone that it is easy to feel loving kindness towards. An easy, simple relationship may be best. Allowing yourself to hold them in your awareness perhaps seeing them in your mind’s eye or perhaps feeling a sense of them in your heart, can you feel a sense of loving kindness towards them?

As you hold them in your awareness, begin to send wishes of loving kindness to them. Silently repeat these phrases:

May you be safe
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you live with ease

Now lets switch it up! Gaining a sense of your self, and cradling the sense of yourself in your awareness repeat these words silently to your own sense of self:

May I be safe
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I live with ease

If it seems artificial and stilted to say such things to yourself, for yourself, maybe you’re not feeling loving kindness in this moment - and that’s OK. Whatever you’re feeling, you can hold the intention of loving kindness... offering it from wherever you are... however you are now ...

Is it time to experiment? Or would you rather just go get a cookie? Either way - Joy awaits!

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Proximity Always Wins!

Our attention naturally goes to what is nearest. I see, smell and touch the matter at hand. My vision is acclimatized by my experiences so I essentially choose what I see.

But the Imperceptibles, those higher vibrational energies like emotion and the eternal qualities of Love, Grace, Joy, Harmony, Illumination, Creativity... you get the picture... are organically back burner sort of items as they are more naturally felt not seen. It is almost a requirement that one deliberately chooses to pay attention to these sorts of things, lest they go unnoticed, unexperienced, or unexpressed.

So by default we see that which is materially in front of us and we have to actively attune ourselves to experience the unseen in life - be awake. 

But if proximity always wins - here is the greatest news of all. All that we see is outside of ourselves and all we feel is within. Don't get much closer than that! And if our hearts are wide open...we see what we must to grow. 

Love, Grace, Joy, Harmony, Illumination, Creativity... and all the other qualities of this nature are the stuff we are made of. It puts me at ease to acknowledge the imperceptibles are actually closer to me than than any person, place or thing. 

Yes, sometimes I am still the Ringmaster. I want control. "Full steam ahead!" I shout as I stubbornly hang on to an old way of seeing things. And that's what I usually get for my efforts --- a full head of steam! 

No, for this new life, which will be like none I have known before, I cannot create a detailed blueprint. I must get rid of the microscope and the binoculars and let my open heart "feel" the way forward.

So close and yet so far away. Kooky, that's how it appears to me. A universal practical joke. The more I inwardly engage, the less seeking I have to do outside myself.  I am Love. I am Joy. I am Harmony. Cannot get more instant than that - Mr. Coffee, Mr. Keurig, Mr. Microwave, Misters iPhone, Drive-Thru and Key Fob!

"The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't.... The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness." ~ David Foster Wallace 

Does this make any sense?


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