Tag Archives: Meditation

Open To Your Own Wisdom

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Higher Self: 11 Ways to Connect With Your Soul

August 17th, 2020

By Aletheia Luna

 

Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. ? Ralph Waldo Emerson

Through the ages, the Higher Self has been given many names: the inner Self, Soul, Christ-consciousness, Beloved, Buddha-nature, and Spirit. Regardless of what we call this fundamental inner Core, it is our deepest, most Divine essence.

Yet despite being familiar with these concepts, many of us still struggle to understand the Higher Self and its role in our lives. In other words, how can we transform this topic from an intellectual concept into a feeling that we experience

What is the Higher Self?

The Higher Self is your True Nature: it is your wise, unconditionally loving, creative, Whole, and eternal inner Center.Deep down, we all carry a certain level of resonance with these words. We recognize that there is something mysterious within us, something sacred. What few of us manage to come to terms with, however, is that our Higher Self totally goes beyond our conditioned fears, limiting beliefs, wounds, and ego fixations. It actually represents our most authentic state of being that we’ve lost touch with in modern life. While our Higher Selves are completely free, they can be blocked, repressed, and denied by the limited ego (or small self).

The Shaman and the Lake Story

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

? Alan W. Watts (The Book)

I want to share with you a story that will help illustrate what the Higher Self is:

Once there was a Great Ocean. All of existence was birthed from this Great Ocean, lived off this Great Ocean, and returned back to this Great Ocean. In the beginning, millions upon millions of tiny rivers sprung from this Great Ocean. Each river snaked across the land like delicate veins. But one day, a great drought came. No one saw it coming. The scorching sun dried up each snaking river so greatly that they all turned into lakes. No longer were they connected to the Great Ocean, so they felt great loneliness and isolation. As time went by, each little lake became more and more depressed, forgetting the Great Ocean.

One day, a shaman came to drink from one of the lakes. He noticed that it was depressed. “Why are you so sad?” he asked. The lake, despondent and gloomy responded, “Because I am nearly dried up and there is little water left. Time is running out. Soon I will be gone forever.” The Shaman peered intently at the lake and laughed hysterically. “Silly lake, don’t you know that you are connected to the Great Ocean? Although you change, you are changeless. Your water evaporates and returns back to the Great Ocean. It is then reborn, repurposed, and redistributed. How can you live or die? You are birthless and deathless. You are in all things. You are all things.”

This story is the best way I can think to describe the Higher Self.

We are all like the lakes in this story. We believe that we are separate, isolated and cut off because of the ego. But something within us (the Shaman) continuously drives us closer to the truth through the voice of intuition, instinct, and deep knowing.

Eventually in life we have an illuminating moment of self-realization or remembrance: that we are rivers that are connected to the Great Ocean. The river represents the Higher Self. The Great Ocean represents Spirit, Source, or Oneness.

‘Benefits’ of Connecting With Your Higher Self

Here are some inevitable benefits of reconnecting with your True Nature. In fact, I prefer to think of these “benefits” as “semi-permanent to permanent shifts of being” depending on how strong the encounter is:

  • Lowered or completely diminished anxiety
  • Lowered or completely diminished depression
  • Openness and receptivity to life
  • Creativity and inspiration
  • Enhancement of intuition and spiritual/personal gifts
  • Greater tolerance and patience
  • No longer fearing death
  • Developing a mystical perception of life
  • Cultivating unconditional love for self and others

These “benefits” touch only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to experiencing your Higher Self! Because the experience is so individualized and personal, we all taste different benefits to varying degrees.

11 Ways to Reconnect With Your Higher Self

I first encountered my Higher Self during an intensely traumatic shamanic experience. In this encounter, I lived through what felt like hell.

All of my deepest fears were exposed and laid completely bare in front of me.

For about an hour or more I experienced waves of the purest forms of anxiety, paranoia, terror, insanity, and loneliness imaginable.Despite constantly feeling on the verge of madness, I managed to surrender and accept what was happening. This shamanic experience awakened me to the existence of my Higher Self, or what I prefer to call “Divine Nature.”

Thankfully traumatic experiences aren’t the only way to reconnect with your Higher Self, however!

Other people encounter the Higher Self during activities such as meditation, fasting, wilderness retreats, dreams, visions, or even near-death/out of body experiences.However, for everyone the situation or technique is different — there is definitely no one “prescribed” way to experience the Higher Self. Sometimes, we experience our Higher Selves in completely spontaneous and ordinary circumstances!

Here are some paths and practices that may help you reconnect with your Higher Self:

1. Discover the face of your Higher Self

What does your Sacred Self look like or resemble? You might like to use visualization, inner journeying, or self-hypnosis to help you with this. Although your Higher Self is ultimately beyond all labels and forms, it helps to have a visual depiction to aid the human mind.

2. What does your Higher Self feel like?

For example, when you have a mystical experience or a spontaneous meeting with this deeper part of you, what sensations arise within your body? How does your chest, belly, head, and body as a whole feel? You can also connect with your intuition to help you answer this question. As your intuition is the voice of your Soul/Higher Self, it provides direct access to this eternal part within you. Pay attention to what the voice of your intuition feels like within you. Is it a soft whisper? Perhaps it is a feeling of inner stillness, calmness, compassion, or deep knowing.

3. What message/s does your Higher Self have for you?

You might like to explore automatic writing, dream analysis, and even the use of oracle cards to connect with the messages of your Higher Self. You can also try developing more body awareness and use inner visceral mindfulness as a way of tuning in to present moment guidance. Meditation is another powerful way of connecting with the insight offered by your Higher Self.

4. Make time for silence and contemplation every day

Start with a minimum of 10 minutes daily. You can use this time to meditate or to simply revel in nature and the wonders of existence. What feelings or thoughts do you have during this time? You might like to record them in a journal.

5. Explore what things you can surrender or let go of

One of the biggest reasons why we struggle to connect with our Higher Selves is that we are carrying too much mental and emotional baggage. What needs to be surrendered and removed from your life? How can you practice letting go more? Introspect and examine what beliefs, ideals, assumptions, and/or conditionings are causing you to feel separate and unhappy.

6. In what ways can you accept and love yourself (and others) more?

Love opens your heart, and your heart is a direct doorway into your Soul. What could be a more powerful way of reconnecting with your True Nature? The more love you feel, the more life expands, and the more deeply you can embody your Higher Self. Learning how to love yourself is a crucial way to experience your True Nature. Ask yourself, “What within me needs to be held in the loving arms of compassion and self-forgiveness right now?”

7. Try non-resistance (“going with the flow”) for one day

Here’s an experiment: commit to allowing everything to happen as it happens, including your thoughts, emotions, and external circumstances. Try this for at least one day. How do you feel? The more we resist life, the more we are stuck within our dualistic minds. Non-resistance doesn’t mean being a push-over or doormat (it’s important to create boundaries and say no). Instead, non-resistance is a philosophy toward life. It honors reality – and the more connected we are with reality, the more access we have to our Higher Selves.

8. Discover who (or what) your Spirit Guide is

Spirit Guides are powerful beings that help us to connect with the truth, courage, wisdom, and love within us. Whether you believe them to be archetypes or actual independent energies is irrelevant: they can help you connect with your Higher Self by guiding you into rediscovering who you really are.

9. Find your soul place

We all have at least one soul place on earth. A soul place is a special site or spot where we experience unique feelings of belonging, empowerment, and energetic rejuvenation. Finding your soul place will help you to connect with your True Self by relaxing and slowing down your nervous system, as well as inspiring you to be introspective and mindful.

10. Practice mirror work

When you stare gently into your eyes in a mirror and call on the presence of your Soul, what do you feel? What do you experience? The eyes, after all, are the mirrors of the soul. See if you can gently move past the voices of self-judgment that naturally arise when doing this activity, and tap into your inner Source. This is a powerful and rapid way of reconnecting with your Higher Nature. Read more about mirror work.

11. Connect with the present moment

Awakening to your True Nature can only (and ever) happen right here, right now, in the present moment. This is the secret passed down through ancient traditions and spiritual teachings: Paradise is here within you, the Kingdom of Heaven is Now.

The difficulty we face is the monkey mind that is constantly running around, trying to get us to some special future place. But the beauty and ultimate compassion of Life is that you don’t have to find your Higher Self/Soul in the future: it’s right here within you!

Unfortunately, most of us struggle to settle into this simple but sacred truth. Our minds have such a strong grip on us that we can barely sit still for two seconds without squirming and trying to avoid how we feel. This is why a combination of spirituality and psychology is so important. We need psychology to help untie our inner knots, and we need spirituality to help loosen the mind….

To connect with your Higher Self, try establishing a regular meditation practice. Explore different meditation techniques (such as following the breath, open awareness, body scan, self-inquiry, etc.) and see what works for you. Sometimes a combination of techniques works the best. If you need help, try downloading a free meditation app such as Calm, Headspace, or InsightTimer.

“Higher” Self is Not Exactly True

In fact, any label that describes That-Powerful-Presence-Within-Us isn’t correct as it both transcends and integrates all labels. On an absolute level, our True Nature simply is – it is beyond time, beyond duality, beyond even thought.

However, for the human mind it does help to refer to that Powerful Presence within us with a phrase such as Higher Self because it does indeed feel ‘higher’ than the ego (and so it is in a sense). But that is not all it is and we need to be careful of making the mistake of associating spirituality with nothing but the ascending, transcendent path.

Remember that true spirituality, your True Nature, encompasses everything.It is here in the dull moments just as equally as it is in the ecstatic and blissful moments. It is here while you’re scrubbing dirty pans in the sink just as much as it is while you’re gazing at the stars.

Terms such as ‘Higher Self,’ ‘Buddha Nature,’ and ‘Soul’ are useful, but they’re ultimately limited. Who you are is so much more than a concept. Remember that as you seek to reconnect with the Truth of Who You Really Are.

Higher Self Q&A

How to listen to your higher self?

The best way to listen to your Higher Self is by learning how to trust your intuition. Your intuition is like a conversation between your mind and heart: it communicates the deepest and wisest truths that you need to be aware of in the moment. Start by journaling about any intuitive ‘hits’ you’ve received during the day and check back on them. What happens when you listen to vs. ignore these intuitive tugs or gut instincts?

Is the higher self the same as the soul?

Yes. The ‘Soul‘ is just another way of saying Higher Self. These words can be used interchangeably.

What is my lower self vs. higher self?

Your lower self is your small, limited ego. It is the self that believes itself to be separate from existence. Your Higher Self, on the other hand, is your True Nature that recognizes itself as one drop in the Ocean of Life. While your lower self is defined by fear, isolation, and paranoia, your Higher Self is defined by love, interconnectedness, and expansion.

What questions should I ask my higher self?

When reconnecting with your Higher Self, try to think carefully of deep and significant questions you’d like to be answered. Questions might include, “What is my life’s purpose?” “What are my gifts?” “Why do I keep repeating this negative pattern?” and so on. Remember that the answers may be revealed to you slowly, so be patient but receptive.

How to connect with your higher self?

There are numerous ways of connecting with your Higher Self. Some paths you may like to consider include meditating, going out in nature, practicing dream work and mirror work, using oracle cards, doing guided visualizations, and so on. Choose a path that resonates with you.

from:    https://wakeup-world.com/2020/08/17/higher-self-11-ways-to-connect-with-your-soul/

Are You Listening?

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You Are Always Connected But…

The first thing to understand is, even though you may not feel connected, you are always connected to your higher self, spirit guides, and spiritual family — you are never alone.  They are always listening and always answering you and sending you messages.  It’s just a matter of whether you are receiving the messages or not, whether you are hearing the information being communicated.

The communication mode can vary.  Some people can literally HEAR the messages — they hear the sounds of words (this is called clairaudience).  But this is not the case for most of us, at least not yet.  For most people the communication and guidance coming from their higher self and guides comes in the form of intuition — thoughts that come to your mind, ideas that pop into your head, and associated feelings.  What some have called “the little voice in their head.”

Keep in mind that spirit usually communicates to us in a whisper — gentle whispers in our head and our heart, it will almost never shout.  Because the messages are so subtle, it is very easy not to hear them, or to dismiss them as your imagination.

Many people are so busy, and their analytical minds are chattering away so loudly, that they don’t notice or hear the subtle messages coming from spirit.  If they do notice their rational minds are likely to reject or ignore them.

Hence, it feels like there’s no connection! And indeed there is no FUNCTIONAL connection — but only because you are failing to receive the messages.

Another way that spirit can communicate with you is through signs and symbols delivered to you via the outer world.  Often this mode of communication is more concrete and unambiguous than the messages coming through your intuition and spirit uses it as an auxiliary communication channel as appropriate.  As usual, you need to be paying attention and trusting what you see and feel for this channel to be effective.

More on this later in the article but first let’s explore the reasons why you are not receiving your intuitive messages and what you can do about it.

The Top 3 Reasons Why You Aren’t Receiving Messages

The top three reasons why you aren’t receiving the messages being sent to you are; (1) You’re not noticing them because you are too busy and distracted, (2) you’re not hearing them because they are getting drowned out by too much mental noise, or (3) You’re not trusting them and simply ignoring or rejecting them.

Let’s dive into each of these in more detail and explore solutions.

#1 – Busyness and Distraction

People often DON’T NOTICE the intuitive messages coming from spirit because they’re so busy — and DISTRACTED — by their hectic day to day lives.  They’re immersed in dealing with issues and chores; interacting with friends, family, coworkers; and dealing with any manner of things and are simply not paying attention for messages from spirit.  And these messages are generally very subtle, so you really have to be paying attention to recognize them.

We all have busy lives to some extent or another, and we can get very busy for periods of time, and that is to be expected.  But if you want to have a good connection with spirit you need to set aside some quiet and alone time, preferably every day.  A spell of time where you slow down and relax and allow yourself the opportunity to hear and feel your connection and the messages coming through it.

This could be some form of daily meditation if that resonates with you.  But any kind of quiet time will work; solo walks in nature, trail running, gardening, whatever.  Anything that you enjoy doing that relaxes you and that is relatively mindless will allow the relatively subtle thoughts and feelings of your intuition to be heard.  If you can’t manage to get some quiet time on a daily basis, don’t worry — semi-regularly is just fine.

In my personal case, I do not do well with sitting still and quiet, so meditation is out for me.  I prefer to take solo walks in nature and in the hills.  I don’t do these every day but quite frequently.  Getting exercise and being in nature seems to reenergize me and some of my best insights, inspirations, and obvious messages come to me before, during, and after these.

What works best for you?  Please share in the comments section below the article because it might help others with ideas.

#2 – Mental Noise

People often CAN’T HEAR the messages from spirit because their minds are so busy churning away coping with the problems of everyday life.  If you are not hearing the voice of your higher self and your guides it may be that you are never quieting your mind enough to hear it.  The constant chatter of our analytical and egoic mind is mental noise that can drown out the incoming messages that are being delivered through our intuition.  The messages from spirit are like whispers and can be easily be overpowered by our other thoughts, fears, and worries.

One must make time on a regular basis to quiet the mind so you can hear the guidance and information coming through from your higher self and guides.  Any kind of quiet time will work but the less physical sensory stimuli, the better.

Of course, meditation can serve this purpose very well if it resonates with you.  It turns down the volume on the mind and reduces worry, stress, and anxiety which are the major sources of noise that interferes with us hearing our divine messages.  In meditation you tune out the external world and go inside, which is your portal to the field of consciousness, making it easier to hear the messages from spirit. The eternal essence of all beings is pure consciousness and we are all parts of the one field of consciousness, that’s why going within is your connection point.

If meditation doesn’t work for you then anything that allows you to relax and lets your mind get quieter is good — absolute Zen-like clear mind is not required.  Often any repetitive relatively easy mindless task that you enjoy can serve this purpose.  Quieting your mind by whatever means on a regular basis it the best first step.  This will allow those relatively subtle thoughts and feelings of your intuition to be heard.

#3 – Not Trusting Your Intuition

Perhaps the biggest problem in receiving the messages from spirit is that we will notice an incoming message but our rational minds will reject or ignore them.  We won’t trust that they are meant for us and are meaningful.

This is one of the main reasons that people don’t FEEL like they have a connection to spirit.  They are NOTICING the messages but are promptly ignoring or rejecting them because their rational mind doesn’t understand and trust intuitive communication or deems the thoughts and feelings as impractical, unrealistic, silly, or whatever.

Developing Trust In Your Intuition

To establish a functional communication channel with spirit you must learn how to trust your intuition.  This is very challenging for many because of the very rational approach that our culture ingrains in us.  You can’t expect the communication process with spirit to follow rational rules — the rational model of the world was devised from our study of the material world and we are not dealing with the material world here.  Try to keep an open mind and pay more attention to your thoughts and feelings as well as things that you see and hear around you.

Firstly, It really helps to know that your higher self and guides are always with you (in fact, within you) and that their primary mode of communication with you is through your intuition.  You must trust that you are being listened to and answered.  And you must trust that you are able to know the answers.

Don’t expect this trust to develop overnight.  It could, but it might require a little time.  If you set the intention to achieve a better connection, it will come.  Go ahead and tell your higher self, guides, and spiritual family (out loud or in your mind) that you want to establish a good connection with them.  Then all you need to do is start paying attention to your thoughts and feelings and things happening outside.

Most likely it will start with small coincidences and synchronicities.  Make a habit of looking for these and to make note of them.  Also, begin to make a habit of asking for what you need.  Start with small things that you want to happen that day.  The goal is to experience small successes that build your confidence that your communication channel with spirit is open and working.

After asking for help with something pay attention to what shows up.  Sometimes the answer arrives as the thing you needed, other times a helpful person will show up, or you might stumble upon some relevant or useful information.  Often you will be answered by receiving an inspired idea or thought.  Sometimes it will be blatantly obvious that the idea must have come from spirit because the idea had absolutely no precedent in your prior thinking — it just came out of the blue.  Trust that these are truly messages intended for you from spirit and let yourself gain confidence and experience in how communication with spirit works.

Ask For A Sign of Their Presence

One way to build your confidence and trust is to simply ask them for a sign of their presence.  They will deliver a sign to you that they know is the best way to convince you — and it might be something very personal — since they know you better than you know yourself.

Some traditional signs that are offered by your angelic guides, as silly as they seem, are putting a coin or feathers in your path, perhaps repeatedly.  But honestly, it could be anything so keep an open mind and pay attention.

Another way they may indicate their presence to you is through repeating numbers.  If you are seeing numbers like 11:11, 444, or any other number that is showing up repeatedly and more often or in quick succession in ways that seem improbable this is very likely a high five from the other side.

Repeating numbers are how my guides got my attention initially.  After they knew I had noticed the frequent and improbable repeating numbers, then they nudged me to stumble across the book Angel Numbers 101 which explains what they mean.  I only had to read the first paragraph of that book, and I realized that this must be what was happening to me.  As the book points out, not only will your guides get your attention with the repeating numbers but they can then be used as message codes and allow for an alternate channel of communication that complements and is a fallback to your intuition.

Asking for a sign of presence isn’t something that you only do when you are initially trying to establish a connection.  You can do this whenever you’re feeling of connection is waning or when doubt is creeping in, and you need reassurance of their presence.  They will be very happy to give you a sign of their presence any time you need reassurance.  They want you to trust their messages, and they know how important it is for you to trust their presence.

I’ve done this numerous times myself.  I occasionally get busy or stressed out and distracted by my work and the world and I feel like I’m disconnected. When I get in that state I just say out loud… “you know you guys (that’s how I refer to my guides.. as you guys) I’m feeling really disconnected and it would be very reassuring to get a sign of your presence.”  A sign always comes and sometimes in the most amazing and delightful ways!

That wraps it up for how to master your primary channel of communication to spirit — your intuitive communication channel.  But there is an alternate communication channel that you should be aware of.

Alternate Channel of Communication — External Signs and Symbols

Another way that messages can be delivered to you is via signs and symbols in the outer world.  Your guides frequently use this mechanism by presenting to you a picture or symbol, a word or phrase, a song, meaningful numbers, or anything else that serves as a symbolic message.  These may appear on license plates, road signs, music playing on the radio, and the like.  Unfortunately, most of the time people are not even paying attention to things like this.  If they do happen to notice something they’ll usually just write it off as a meaningless coincidence.

Start paying more attention to the symbols in the outside world and your first impressions of what they might mean.  With practice you may perfect recognizing them and begin to trust this symbolic communication channel.

Start asking questions and pay attention to what form the answer comes in — it may show up through your intuition as a hunch or inspired idea, but it might come as a sign or symbol.  For example, you might see a license plate with some pertinent and meaningful words on it that feels like your answer — trust your feelings and the message.

Solidifying Your Connection

With trust, patience, and practice using the techniques described you will firmly establish your communication channel to the Divine as many thousands and thousands have already done. And many more are coming online every day, one of which will be you.

Spirit is delighted when each of us becomes aware of, and then firmly establishes a connection.  It allows them to start guiding us more effectively — and this is what they signed up for, and agreed to do for us when we decided to dive into an incarnation in the Earth game.  So they finally get to execute their purpose fully, which is very rewarding and satisfying for them!

from:    http://divine-cosmos.net/improve-your-connection.htm

A Time to Become

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Transforming Uncertainty into Loving Possibility

ByJanessa Robinson, Performance artist, producer, and writer

In the midst of a crisis, big or small, you may find yourself feeling afraid of what’s next because things seem uncertain. What if rather than becoming wrapped in the fear of uncertainty, you use these moments as an opportunity to grow in love?

Meditation from home

When events of global impact occur, you may feel confronted by the limitations of your control in the physical world. You may find yourself questioning your power or feeling uncertain about your future. The vacation trips you planned, conferences you scheduled, playdates/events you arranged—everything suddenly halts, and it is as if time itself has come to a sudden stop.

It is within this in-between state of things that is precisely the right time to turn inward and plant seeds with the lessons you’re learning. It’s a time to learn so much about what is important to you and who you might become.

A Lesson from Improv Comedy

In 2016, I was living in Washington, D.C., and effectively experiencing a quarter-life crisis while working at an environmentalist organization. I felt as if I let life fly by while being too afraid to chase my dream of being a professional artist and entertainer. My job sent me to a content marketing conference in Cleveland, Ohio, where I sat in on a session about creativity in business. In the session, a comedian explained to us the difference between someone who is incredible at improv and someone who struggles with it. He told us, “The comedian who is incredible at improv silences the fear in their mind.” Improv is all about stepping into the unknown with curiosity and enthusiasm; the game asks its players to agree to whatever is happening in the scene and to build on top of that.

The comedian who is great at improv has an idea and they bypass their fear of, “Will this be funny? Does this make sense?” They simply move into the idea on stage and perform their next action, whatever their comedic contribution is to the scene. A great improv comedian makes a choice to transform that moment of uncertainty into an opportunity to explore and create. A pro at improv answers the question of “What will happen next?” with a determination through humorous thought and action.

Moments in your life may sometimes feel like improv scenes because you share this world with others, almost like characters in a story, and you impact others but you don’t always know what’s coming next. I left that conference session with a lot of questions about the future of my career. The truth is, I had been afraid to ask myself, “What do you want?” There was a fear of failure and the uncertainty of success that made my heart pound. But there, in Cleveland, I found myself listening to the comedian daring me to be courageous.

3 Questions for Self-Transformation

In the session, I scribbled in my notebook as much as I could about the advice he gave us. When I got home, I meditated using lavender oil and cosmic music. I breathed naturally and closed my eyes. I asked myself, “What do I want? Who am I? Who do I want to become?” Images of a joyous me, a secure me, a me that is reassured about who she is and where she is in life—that’s what I saw before my eyes. I cried and asked myself aloud why I didn’t feel that way already—and I wrote it down. Then I began journaling regularly, “How do I feel right now? How do I want to feel a year from now? What experiences will create that feeling? What can I do right now?”

I followed the answers to these questions. They included things like wanting to feel at peace and whole, seeking experiences of community and support. I discovered that I needed to pour my love into the world if I wanted the world to pour love into me. I wrote poems to my loved ones, words of affirmation for the universe and myself, I took the time to listen to strangers. And while I quit my job and left D.C. without any certain idea about what would happen next, I still found myself in places filled with care and among people who received me with love as I made my way to living in California.

From Chaos to Peace

Now when I come across any defining moment in my life—a crisis, major transition, or advancement—I ask myself these same questions. I breathe. I visualize. I dream.

And it feels as if in an instant, the uneasiness of uncertainty dissipates. I return to my higher self, back to wholeness, and back to love. If you seek beauty, love, abundance, and peace, you will find it. Even in turmoil.

There is no doubt that suffering is happening as people seek appropriate healthcare, children are out of school, and people make ends meet to feed their families. There is also a great awakening happening inside of us. We are awakening our power of compassion, gratitude, and creation. Over the last month, air pollution in Los Angeles has cleared up, fashion designers have shifted their production from couture gowns to facemasks, and even certain CEOs have forfeited their salaries to make sure that their employees are supported.

In Portland, where housing costs have been trending upward for years, a landlord has elected not to collect rent from his tenants for the month of April. And in fact, when he discovered that one of his tenants was in need of food to feed her family, he surprised her with groceries on the front porch. In New York City, an advocacy group called Transportation Alternatives encourages people to donate unused bikes to essential workers. These are just a few of many stories that have emerged through this time of uncertainty.

It is easy to look at today’s circumstances and simply see what is lacking. But these people have seen the situation for what it is, and they visualized ways to contribute something meaningful, something that would make a difference. What they’re doing is something that you have the capability to do. You have the power to transform chaos into balance, it simply requires intention and practice.

The next time you become aware of uncertainty, ask yourself, “How can I help? How can I contribute? What gifts may I offer?” Watch what happens next. Soon you’ll find yourself creating ideas and giving support, feeling empowered. The uncertainty will dissipate, and a vision of love will arise in its place that will help you rediscover who you are meant to be.

from:    https://chopra.com/articles/transforming-uncertainty-into-loving-possibility

Whitley Streiber in Pine Ridge

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 A New World

It is our privilege and pleasure to welcome the world-renowned author Whitley Strieber as our featured author for May.

Whitley has dedicated many decades of his life to investigating the paranormal and detailing his profound supernatural experiences for the world to read. In this excerpt from his book ‘A New World’ Whitley explores his extraordinary encounter with a hidden landscape during his stay on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; and the messages he received about the nature of the universe and the mysterious visitors that interact with our world.

Chapter Four, The Fields of Asphodel

During the weekend of July 19–22, 2019, I went to a place of great human suffering and incredible power. While there, I had extended, days-long access to another world, an experience that went far beyond anything else that has happened in this lifetime of strange and extraordinary experiences. I think that what happened offers a major clue about the origin of the visitors, and possibly also of their enigmatic human allies.

I had been invited to a small conference at the All Nations Gathering Center on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where I was to give a talk about The Afterlife Revolution. It was hosted by Dallas Chief Eagle and his wife Becky and organized by Mia Feroleto, publisher of New Observations Magazine.

Before going, I had learned some of the reservation’s history, but it had offered no clue about what was actually going to happen to me there. Like most people outside of American Indian culture, my awareness of the spiritual power of their religions was very limited. Being a Texas German, I was aware that my ancestors had a high opinion of their religion and spiritual development. Why, I did not know. I do now.

I also knew that Pine Ridge was the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973. On December 29, 1890, the US Army had opened fire on a group of 300 Lakota Sioux, killing 90 men and 200 women and children. In 1973, Wounded Knee was occupied by 200 Oglala Lakota and members of the American Indian Movement in protest over corruption in the tribe’s government. This led to a siege that lasted two months that left two Lakota killed and fourteen wounded and two federal officers injured. I also learned that Oglala Lakota County was the poorest county in the United States, with an average annual income per person of just over $8,000. Officially, the average life expectancy on the Pine Ridge reservation is 66.81 years, but statistics attributed to the Pine Ridge hospital cite a life expectancy among women of 55 years and men 47 years. Suicide rates are high, especially among teens, driven by the sense of hopelessness that infects their lives like a virus. During the winter of 2015–2016, one 12-year-old girl killed herself because her family could not afford heat, and she could no longer bear the cold. Alcoholism affects 85% of the population. Drug abuse and crime are rampant, and living conditions are dreadful beyond anything I have ever seen in my life.

None of this is an accident or due to laziness or any such issue. It is because of the location. During the 19th century American Indian wars, the Lakota Sioux were intentionally confined to this place because it is so lacking in resources. Distances are long, so work off the reservation isn’t economical for most residents. Because of its isolation, lack of good farmland and general scarcity of exploitable resources, there are few jobs on it, contributing to a chronically high unemployment rate.

While I found an oppressed people there, I also found that it was a place of great human spiritual power, in fact, power beyond anything I have ever known anywhere. I have some idea of what this power is, which I will discuss in depth in a later chapter. I had not been on the reservation for more than a few hours before I began to feel it. And when I say feel, I am not talking about something vague—some sense of unusual energies. Far from it.

On my first morning there, when I happened to close my eyes during a drive of half an hour or so, I saw movement behind my closed lids—what looked like shadowy trees and rolling hills, but not the ones we were passing. Surprised, I opened them immediately. I couldn’t understand why I’d been seeing anything at all. When I closed them again, what I saw simply took my breath away. I sat there watching an entire second landscape flow past the car. Although it seemed to be twilit rather than sunny, the effect was so vivid it was like wearing a virtual reality headset.

I was flooded with strong, poignant and yet contradictory emotions. There was at once a sense of homecoming and homesickness. It wasn’t as if I was in two places at once, but rather looking out the windows of my heart into two worlds that have been locked forever in a secret embrace and seeing that wonderful, sweet thing for the first time.

As we drove along, I sang out the different features I was seeing. “There’s a creek over there, we’re passing under an arbor of trees, there are long hills on the horizon. Oops, the road’s gone off down the hill.” Among those in the car who heard me doing this was our very kind driver, Kevin Briggs, who unfortunately could not close his eyes and look as the others did. Conferees Alan Steinfeld, Ananda Bosman, Mia Feroleto and others did close their eyes. Some saw it vaguely, others not at all. Only Ananda and I saw it clearly.

Even though the image was shadowy, it was extremely detailed. I could pick out individual trees, fields, even a narrower version of the road we were on.

After a few moments, I realized that I was watching not another world altogether, but another version of the landscape we were passing through. It was a bit more rough, with occasional gorges and generally wider streams. The other road was not only narrower, it wasn’t graded. The result of this was that it sometimes wound off down a hill while we continued along the graded version in our world. This would leave me with the uncanny sensation that the car had taken flight.

The vision didn’t go on for just a few minutes, but for the entire time I was on the reservation. It continued whether I was riding in a car, walking, sitting or standing. For those three days, I was living in two landscapes at once. After I closed my eyes, it would take about thirty seconds for the other world to appear, but it did so reliably. When I was standing somewhere, I could look down and see grass and gravel that was not present in this world. I could bend down and look closely, even to the point of being able to count the number of petals on flowers and observe the details of grasses and the discolorations on stones. I could touch and smell nothing of the other world. In this sense, it was very much like out of body travel, which detaches you from those senses. I was not physical in that world, and I have to wonder if that might not be how our visitors experience this one. I tried using the sensing exercise as a tool for physically moving into the other world, but it didn’t work. Nevertheless, it is my strong sense that what we think of as technology is not what enables things like this to happen. I think that it’s something to do with attention, concentration and the brain, and possibly also requires the cooperation of an outside energy that is itself conscious. My thought is that my lifetime of doing the sensing exercise and the changes in my brain that have resulted have made me more able to see this other universe and, to a limited extent (so far), interact with it.

PD0

The changes I am referring to involve a brain area called the dorsal striatum. It contains two regions, the caudate and the putamen, which are connected by an area of white matter called the internal capsule. There is a study under way that suggests that the density of the white matter region may govern the degree to which an individual possesses intuitive sensitivities.

To read the rest of the article, go to:    https://grahamhancock.com/strieberw1/

Steven Greer’s New Movie

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New Documentary Explores How Humans Can Make Contact With Extraterrestrials

By    CE Staff Writer

In Brief

  • The Facts:Dr. Steven Greer’s new film Close Encounters of The Fifth Kind teaches people how they can peacefully make contact with ETs. As of April 7th, you can watch it on major movie rental platforms.
  • Reflect On:Is it time humanity makes contact with ETs ourselves as opposed to having government control that process? Are we being made to think ETs are a threat to us?

When the world learned of a fact UFOlogists have known for decades, that UFOs have been visiting earth for many years, suddenly the UFO question went from “are UFOs real?” to “who is manning them?” Now, the public has a choice: either we continue to listen to mainstream media and government to inform us about the issue or we start listening to the UFOlogists who have been accurately talking about this for decades. Which one we choose will have a huge impact on where this goes.

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In 2018, footage obtained by the To The Stars Academy from the US Navy showed unidentified flying objects being tracked on a military jet radar and camera. The footage revealed quality images of an incredibly fast-moving object that the Navy knew nothing about. This footage hit mainstream news everywhere, disclosing to the public that UFOs have in fact ben filmed by a credible source. Fast forward 1 year, the US Navy confirms that the video footage was, in fact, authentic and did show a UFO flying by, and once again mainstream media was all over it.

But along with the admission of UFOs came a threat narrative. The idea that these crafts could be dangerous, our enemies and that we should be careful about how we respond and prepare. Of course, this narrative was coming from the same organizations that had lied to the public about UFOs for decades, and now that they were admitting this reality, they also intend on controlling the narrative that goes along with it.

Dr. Carol Rosin was the first female corporate manager of Fairchild Industries and the spokesperson for Wernher Von Braun in the last years of his life. She founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space in Washington DC and has testified before Congress on many occasions about space-based weapons. In testimony with Dr. Steven Greer, Rosin claims that in the later years of his life, Wernher von Braun was trying to warn humanity about an emerging narrative that aliens were a threat to humanity.

Dr. Wernher von Braun was a top-ranking SS officer who headed the Nazi rocket program during WWII. He was brought to the US via Operation Paperclip where the US seized Nazi scientists to come work for them after the war. During testimony, Dr. Carol Rosin stated the following about what Von Braun told her:

“The enemy at first he said, the enemy against whom we’re going to build a space based weapons system . . . First the Russians are going to be considered the enemy . . . then terrorists would be identified and that was soon to follow . . . then we were going to identify third world crazies, we now call them nations of concern. . . . The next enemy was asteroids . . . [and] against asteroids we’re going to build space based weapons.

And the funniest one of all, was against what he called aliens, or extraterrestrials, that would be the final card. And over, and over, and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving his speeches for him, he would bring up that last card.

‘And remember Carol, the last card is the alien card. We’re going to have to build space based weapons against aliens,’ and all of it, he said, is a lie.” (source)

According to Rosin, Von Braun knew that it was the interest of intelligence agencies to lie to the public about aliens in order to push forth a space weaponization agenda. And right now, here in 2020, this is precisely the agenda we are seeing play out as UFOs are disclosed to the public.

This is why I stated at the beginning of this article, that who we decide to listen to when it comes to the ET story that is emerging is very important. Leaving it to those posing a threat narrative may lead us to destructive ends, whereas listening to those with a different message, who have been proven to be correct over the years, might lead us to peace.

The bottom line is, up to this point, human governments have been the face of how humans contact and engage with ETs – is it time the people take this task on by themselves? And send a different message to ETs?

Enter Dr. Steven Greer’s new film Close Encounters of The Fifth Kind.The film not only discusses quite clearly exactly what this threat narrative looks like and how it’s being used to keep humanity in the dark about what’s really going on with ETs, but it also explores how humans can make contact with ETs themselves.

The first aspect of what this film covers will truly give viewers a much better understanding of how to navigate ongoing ET disclosure narratives as they come from the government. It will help viewers unlock a sense of discernment within themselves and begin to see through many narratives coming from popular voices and institutions who may be knowingly or unknowingly spreading a false threat narrative.

The next aspect of this film is where we dig into solutions from a point of consciousness. Information spreading around the world to wake people up to the reality o ETs is one thing, but affecting global consciousness and creating unity is something else. And this film lays out a plan to make that happen.

Personally, I have been practicing contact with ETs for about 11 years, and the content shared in this film does align with the experiences I have had and methods I’ve used. Never had I had a “bad” or “threatening” contact experience, and thus I do not resonate with the general narrative coming from government on this.

I truly believe people should check out this film so regular citizens can be the face of extraterrestrial contact on behalf of humanity – not governments. Now is the time, not next year or the year after, now. Especially with us all being on lockdown, what better time than to go out at night and choose to connect?

In the movie you will also learn:

  • CE-5 contact techniques and show the amazing evidence of Contact as never before!
  • the consistent results that people doing CE-5 experience.
  • the connection between consciousness and space, time and matter.
  • the nature of consciousness as an unbounded field of awareness that transcends the limits of space, time and matter — and yet is fully present in every point of space and time. This infinite field of consciousness is present within every awake, sentient being — human and ET.
  • how ET electromagnetic communications systems interface with our consciousness and coherent thought in such a way that any human with a peaceful, sincere intent can make Contact. NOW!
  • remote viewing — a way to view non-local events.
  • scientific evidence that proves that Mind-Consciousness is not limited to your body or brain but is a seamless field of awareness that connects all times, places and matter.
  • how 1% of the population meditating and making peaceful contact can cause a “phase transition” shift that transforms the entire planet and moves humanity onto a peaceful future that is Interstellar.
  • and take you behind the “Alien Mask” of deceptive events and phenomena.
  • how deceptive events are created by shadowy Unacknowledged Special Access Projects in the military and intelligence community that are designed to sow fear and division among humans regarding the ET presence.

You can watch Dr. Steven Greer’s brand new documentary here.

from:    https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/04/07/new-documentary-explores-how-humans-can-make-contact-with-extraterrestrials/

Look Elsewhere!

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6 Ways to Break the Hypnotic Spell of the Mainstream Media

by

Mainstream Media They Live

Here’s six steps to filter out media noise, break the hypnosis of the mainstream media, and get to the information that truly matters.

There is no information age. It doesn’t exist. There is only the Age of Noise. Because although we now appear to have an infinite ability to see everything that’s going on in the world at once, from photos of the world from space to the fact that our friends are indecisive about what to eat tonight, we have no ability to filter that information and sort for what matters. We have no reliable media gatekeeper. We only have the so-called “mainstream media,” which is just the advertising wing of multinational corporations.

We used to pay people to filter information for us: these were called professional journalists, writers and artists, whose job it was to dive into the sea of information and come back up with pearls for us. But we don’t pay those people anymore, because the media conglomerates that have consolidated into only a few massive holdings since the 1990s have realized that they don’t have to.

They don’t have to because their interest isn’t providing real information or truth, their interest is in providing content that gets as many people as possible to look at it, in order to get the most advertising money possible, because that’s how they get paid and can afford the salaries and insurance costs of the large staffs they need to do what they do. That’s their daily reality. And so they’re in the business of giving people what they want.

Since the 90s, the trend has increasingly been to cut out professionals and get people to generate their own content. That means reality television, YouTube, Facebook. No big budgets needed and far more profit gained. Since everybody is a star now, everybody is constantly generating more free content than we can ever consume. And so professional creatives have gone the way of the dinosaurs, and instead of getting reporting on, say, Karen Silkwood blowing the whistle on nuclear power, or Gary Webb’s expose of CIA drug trafficking, you’re getting reporting about how some celebrity is in a Twitter feud.

We have no more professional gatekeepers. We are scattered to the four winds, drowning in Facebook feeds or aggregation blogs. These mega-blogs, which we have mistakenly expected to replace mainstream media outlets, are in the same position: largely beholden to the tastes of their audiences, and stuck having to keep people happy with unchallenging, crowd-pleasing content to drive traffic to their site advertisers so that they can eat.

So where does this leave the information-poor individual who hopefully wants to get their head over the waterline enough to start to see the things that actually matter?

It means you have to be your own media gatekeeper. Flat out. You can’t outsource that job to somebody else anymore, because the mainstream media, or the alternative media, or Blog X, Y or Z, are not going to comprehensively do that job for you the way you need it done. They’re too beholden to economics, ratings and their own viewpoints and reality tunnels. And more and more, they’re probably not able to do that job because they’re not properly trained for that job, and I don’t mean just bloggers, because these days very few people who work in the mainstream media have any journalistic training at all. Nobody can get the information you need for you, you’ve got to do it yourself.

Luckily, we’ve got tools that can help us do that. Here’s a few beginning steps:

1. Decide what matters.

Faced with infinite information, you’ve got to decide up front what you’re going to filter for, at least initially. You’ve got to restrict your data to some extent, which sounds counterintuitive, but is necessary. You don’t need more information, you need more information about the things that matter. I suggest that the things that matter are, simply, information that can directly positively effect the welfare of you and your family, and information about the general welfare of the planet.

2. Use web tools to automate your info intake.

Everybody on the web is largely in the same position: grab info from a few news sources (like AP or Reuters) and then recycle it into blog content. They’re using the same tools as you to get their info. So cut out the middleman. I recommend setting up Google Alerts, for a start, to give you info about the issues you actually care about instead of waiting for somebody else to. Beyond that, I highly recommend using an RSS aggregator like Feedly to dump a lot of media outlets into an easy-to-digest feed. Work done upfront will pay off in time saved later. Reddit is also an excellent tool, as long as you stay off the dreaded, time-sucking front page and keep to subreddits pertinent to important topics.

3. Expand outside of your demographic bubble.

Whoever you are, you fit a demographic, which means that the mainstream media specifically tailors content that it knows you will like for the shows you watch and blogs you read, so advertisers can sell you products they’ve determined your demographic buys and use the language and images they know you will respond to, all in order to get you to make that purchase.

Expand out of the box they’ve decided you fit in. Read blogs and consume media from sources outside of your demographic, and that definitely means outside of your political and religious persuasion. Otherwise you’re blinkered not only to things that are going on around you, but also to parts of life you might be ignoring.

4. Read a book.

You still won’t get nearly as good of an info download from months on the Internet as you will from reading a well-researched, info-dense book, a book which, never forget, can represent years or decades of professional research and experience rather than an afternoon spent dashing off a blog post to throw out into the netherworld. Don’t stop reading, and reading better and more challenging books. The Web is really only a menu of culture; don’t forget to eat the meal.

5. Think critically.

Understand what confirmation bias is, and always consider the source of an article. Who wrote this, and what’s their agenda? What are they selling? Do they cite their own sources? Is this from a professional journalist/writer or from some wackadoo or salesman spouting off on the net? To dig deeper, get this excellent, comprehensive primer in critical thinking skills.

6. Meditate.

Sounds potentially hokey, but there is no better discipline for learning how to shut off what is pointless bullshit and go only for what actually matters than meditation, because in learning to control one’s own thoughts internally, dealing with external noise becomes immensely easier.

Information is power. Know how to get it. Don’t outsource it to the mainstream media to do it for you.

(The image and clip above are from They Live. If you haven’t seen this classic film, you must; it’s actually the best primer on seeing through social hypnosis and the mainstream media that you could hope for. Watch it here!)

from:    https://ultraculture.org/blog/2017/05/03/mainstream-media-hypnosis/

Just Be Quiet!

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How Silence Awakens Your World

November 26th, 2019

By Paul Lenda

Staff Writer for Wake Up World

Enjoy the silence. It’s hard to find these days. It really does seem like you need to go up a mountain and climb into a cave to find silence. Even then, you will have the intruding sounds of airplanes overhead. What is a person seeking relief from this loud, loud world to do?

Would Siddhartha Gautama have been able to spend several weeks alone in the forest meditating without being bothered by the sounds of modern industry and crowds flocking to him and building a village around him, as happened to Ram Bahadur Bomjon, aka the Buddha Boy, in the mid-2000s?

Silence is more precious than ever today, and also more needed. Look around you. Most people seem to be stressed and anxious about something. About 43% of Americans are on mood-altering prescription drugs, which is not counting those who are going the route of plant-derived substances to get help with relaxing and just being in silent presence. There’s lots of doing, but hardly any being.

This is unfortunate, since silence awakens your world. People oftentimes find it difficult to just sit in silence, with themselves and with others. However, when you are utterly silent, a wave of peace washes over you. The secrets of the universe open up to you because you have become quiet enough to be aware of them. You connect with your inner being that connects with the Source Supermind of Reality.

How to Practice Silence

In today’s demanding and noisy world, it can be difficult to get truly silent and be at peace. Here are some tips on how you can cultivate silence for yourself.

Find a Place to Retreat Into Silence

Come up with a place outside, or a location within your home, where you can retreat to and become silent. You can consider this a sacred space where you will come to specifically practice silence. Make sure to leave your technology behind, or at least turn it off. Do what you can to make sure any intrusive sounds are not going to distract you.

If you hear the various modes of noisy transportation, incessant leaf blowers, or people shouting, you should probably find another space. If this is simply too difficult for you to do, get yourself a pair of noise-canceling headphones and put those on.

Set a Time for Silence

It may seem strange to schedule quiet time, but it really does help make this a new habit for you. Set a calendar reminder on your phone or write it down somewhere in an agenda so you will remember to go into silence at the same time, every day.

Close your Eyes and Listen

When you finally sit (this will help you avoid falling asleep), get comfortable and close your eyes. This is when you start the practice of silence awakening your world. Become open and receptive to the subtle voice of your inner being and the all-permeating field of consciousness that is All that Is.

You may find it difficult to get silent initially It may take you 15, 20, or 30 minutes at first to get to that place of inner calm, especially if you had a long day and are busy rehashing everything that happened to you that day. If you have difficulty breaking free from the distracting thoughts, focus on your breath or on peace. You can even visualize a calm lake with gentle ripples. Whatever works for you will work best, so just take these as suggestions.

Once you become truly silent, your world becomes alive in a way that brings you the clarity of insight, as well as a profound sense of inner peace. In a world which is becoming increasingly loud, it is imperative to give ourselves the gift of silence.

About the author:

Paul Lenda is a conscious evolution guide, founder & director of SHIFT, author, writer, speaker, meditation teacher, life coach, and ambassador for the New Paradigm wishing to provide an integral role in personal transformation and the collective social transformation of humanity. Paul offers private one-on-one holistic life counseling & conscious evolution sessions, via Skype or phone. Paul takes into account all aspects of the hyperdimensional matrix when providing guidance, counseling, and coaching.

from:    https://wakeup-world.com/2019/11/26/how-silence-awakens-your-world/

Finding Guidance Within

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Taking a Leap of Faith – 5 Ways to Trust Yourself More

July 31st, 2019

By Tom Crawshaw

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

We all have to make many, many decisions in our lives. Some big, some small. Some decisions completely change the direction of our lives, while others fade away into insignificance. How many times have you ignored that hunch or gut feeling, convincing yourself, through logic and reasoning, to choose something different?

We often disregard our body’s intelligence and guidance, only to look back and realize that it was trying to steer us in the right direction. Instead of trusting ourselves, we reach for tools, systems, strategies, books, or anything outside of ourselves that can convince us that a different approach is going to be more effective.

Call it your intuition, inner guidance, higher self, gut feeling, or whatever label works best for you. I like to think of it as being similar to the GPS in your car. You have to set the end destination and drive the car, but the GPS will find you the quickest and easiest route to take. Just as when we are driving and fail to listen to our car’s GPS, when we ignore our internal GPS, we might end up taking a longer “route” with more “traffic,” obstacles that might even cause us to get frustrated and angry. I’ve often found myself swearing deliriously at my GPS for adding an extra twenty minutes to my journey after taking a wrong turn.

The truth is, you already have all the answers you’ll ever need. Your internal GPS is waiting for you to input your destination so it can help guide you towards your end goal, purpose, or mission. Why is hardly anyone talking about this? Why aren’t we all taking time out of our busy days to seek guidance from our internal GPS so we know where best to focus our efforts?

Conditioned To Mistrust Ourselves 

All throughout our lives, we’ve been conditioned to seek guidance outside of ourselves. At home, our parents took care of us for many years before we had to start making decisions on our own. At school, the teacher was always right, even if we held an opposing viewpoint. I remember, when growing up, I always wanted to be one of the cool kids. So much so, that I would hide my unpopular music tastes and lack of interest in football, just to try to fit in. We often make decisions to please others, to fit in, or to improve our images in the eyes of others. It’s this kind of misguided motivation that can lead us astray.

You know how easily kids get swept away by some new craze or trend, just because everyone else is doing it, right? It’s pretty much the same for adults too. I remember some friends at school all deciding to attend the same university. Not because it was the best option for their chosen course of study, but because all their friends were going. Think about how many people aspire to be artists, musicians, comedians, writers or inventors, only to end up settling for an office job, just like everyone else.

When I look around in the entrepreneurial business space, I see people everywhere shouting about their new course or program that will take you from zero to hero in a matter of weeks. All you have to do is fork out $5K and follow their system, explicitly. So, why then, do so many people fail to get their wonderful new business off the ground after implementing everything from their new program? Although there are many reasons for this, one of them has to do with ignoring their inner GPS. They are trying to chase money and success, and just because it’s worked for someone else, they believe it will work for them, too. This is not how reality works. I’ve experienced it myself. You might achieve some short-term success, but you’ll still feel empty and unfulfilled because you are not advancing closer to your true purpose. You are not acting in accordance with your values.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that teachers, universities, office jobs, and business courses are inherently bad or useless. They are all amazing tools that you absolutely can use on your journey. Sometimes, getting that office job or buying that expensive business program is the best thing you could have done. Often, they will give you new experiences and opportunities to learn and grow. Usually, however, if you’re acting out of alignment with your internal GPS, more discomfort will come to the surface, trying get you to pay attention.

Ultimately, the buck stops with you. You will keep making decisions every day whether you listen to your internal GPS, or not. Some people spend their whole lives chasing cars, money, women, and fame. The famous actor Jim Carey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” What he’s really saying is that if you let money and fame become your purpose, you will not find happiness and fulfillment. When you trust yourself to go all-in on your passion or purpose, devoting enough time, patience, and trust to pursuing it, the money and success will follow, even if that means eating shit for years until it happens.

When Life Gets Easy

Imagine, just for a moment, how it would feel to wake up and tune into your internal GPS to get guidance on where to place your focus for the day. Life would start to happen with more flow and ease because you would not be second-guessing yourself or obsessing over what other people are doing. When you make decisions from a place that is in line with your purpose, you are able to let go of the desire for instant gratification. You may not see results immediately, but you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you’re heading in the right direction.

So many people today, especially in business, are chronic overthinkers. Analysis paralysis happens when we struggle to make a decision when too many options exist. Often, we place too much emphasis on the outcome. We compare this option to that option, trying to determine which will yield the best results, ending up stuck in round after round of comparisons. The fear that we will not make the optimal decision creeps in, often sending us scurrying back to the known and familiar. The result may be that no consciously thought-out decision ever gets made. When we can stay clear-headed and connect to our higher purpose, however, making that scary decision will seem like the only option that feels right.

Logic and reasoning can be useful, at times, to help us focus on what’s really important, so we can identify when we’re being hijacked by our emotions. Making decisions fueled by fear, greed, anger, or desperation never ends well. Usually, when these emotions show up, we’re reacting to something or someone that has triggered us. It’s important to calm down, center yourself, and get clear on how to move forward, consciously.

Listening to your internal GPS naturally will bring up a lot of fear and discomfort, because you’re going against your usual way of doing things. Your mind and body have been conditioned to act in certain ways based on your past behavior. When you recognize whenever your past conditioning is trying to take over, that awareness, coupled with some kind of positive action, will help you reclaim your power.

Is There Any Proof? 

Steve Jobs once said in the famous commercial, “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” You only get called crazy when your ideas make other people uncomfortable, when you’re going against the grain. It’s likely that your internal GPS will guide you toward decisions that will not make sense to most people, maybe even yourself!

Intuition has guided the decisions of many influential and successful individuals like Henry Ford and Elon Musk. They both made what appeared to be irrational decisions early on in their careers. People thought they were crazy and that they were destined to destroy their companies. But, over time, they were proven to be right, time and time again.

I found this story about Henry Ford on Inc.com that demonstrates one of the bold leaps of faith he made:

“Henry Ford faced falling demand for his cars and high worker turnover, so in 1914 he did something that probably made other barons of industry go pale: he doubled his employees’ wages. Crazy? Well, within a year, turnover dropped by a factor of more than 20 while productivity nearly doubled, and demand for Ford cars boomed because Ford’s own workers could now afford the product they were making.”

When you make decisions based on your intuition, you might be labeled as crazy or unpredictable, but you are making leaps of logic and sensing new connections that others miss. This is where new ideas and innovation stems from. Being able to zig while everyone else is zagging will open up some amazing opportunities in your life.

The Intelligence In your Body

On a physiological level, in both the heart and the gut, we know there is a concentrated cluster of neurons that have the capacity to process and send information to the brain. So by definition, these areas in our body possess an innate form of intelligence, thus, we can use this type of intelligence to guide our decision-making. It’s hardly any wonder why we hear people say, “listen to your heart,” and “trust your gut!”

I don’t want to dive into this topic in too much depth as I’ve already discussed it in way more detail in another post on my blog. To read more about the fascinating science of our heart intelligence, click here to go read my detailed article on this topic.

How To Tune Into Your Internal GPS

Ok, so if you’ve stuck with me this far, you must be dying to know what practical steps you can take to start receiving guidance from your internal GPS. I will warn you now, it’s going to require a whole lot of practice, consistency, and trust before you will start to get reliable guidance on the things that matter in your life. Also, I do not claim to be an expert in this area. The method outlined below is what I’m currently testing in my life. In fact, it was my internal GPS that gave me the drive to start writing again, opening up a whole new area of my life that I had never considered before.

So if you’re down for putting in the work, here’s what you need to do.

1 – Meditate Daily

I’m a big advocate for daily meditation practice. To be able to listen to your internal GPS, you must be able to quiet your mind so you don’t mix up your own internal ramblings with the intelligence that is available for you. If you want to get your hands on a free 12-minute guided meditation I recorded to help you manifest what you want, click here.

2 – Just Ask

After you have been meditating for some time, say 15 or 20 minutes, solidify one question in your mind that you would like answered. Repeat this question several times in your mind and then let it go.

3 – Be Receptive 

Next, you want to shift into a receptive state. Place your attention outside of yourself, into the space around you. You want to lose all sense of your mind and body and drift out into the vastness of space. Stay there for some time. If any answers or insights come, try and remember them for the next stage.

4 – Start Writing 

If you received some answers while in your receptive state, make sure to write them down immediately. If not, no worries. Sit there for a few more minutes with a pen and paper, and just write down whatever comes to mind. The idea is to write continuously, without stopping and without judging what’s coming through.

5 – Trust 

This step is the biggie! You now have to decide if you’re going to trust the guidance you have just received or to continue with your life as it is. It’s going to take some time to differentiate between the information that is already in your mind and the information from your internal GPS. My advice is to trust whatever comes through and see where it leads. Or, you can ask the same question again, in a subsequent session, to see if you get the same answer. If you do, then you know what needs to happen!

from:     https://wakeup-world.com/2019/07/31/taking-a-leap-of-faith-5-ways-to-trust-yourself-more/

Changing Perspective

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The After-Effects of Awakening

~ admin

AwakeningSteve Taylor, Ph.D. – As a psychologist, I have been studying what I call “awakening experiences” for a decade, and have recently published (with a co-author) a new study of 90 such experiences in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.

Awakening experiences are moments in which our awareness expands and intensifies. We transcend the worries that normally preoccupy us and feel a sense of elation or serenity. Our perceptions of the world around us become more vivid, and we feel a sense of connection to nature, other human beings or the whole universe in general. We feel a sense of love and compassion, and there is a strong sense that we have transcended a limited state, and that awareness has become more authentic than normal. At higher intensities of awakening experiences, we may even feel that we have lost our normal sense of identity and somehow become one with the whole world.

My research has found that there are three contexts that consistently show up as major triggers of awakening experiences. Around a third occur in situations of stress, depression and loss. For example, a woman described how she was devastated by the end of a seven-year relationship, “facing a suffering that I didn’t imagine could possibly exist.’” However, in the midst of this suffering, she “began to experience a clearness and connection with everything that existed…I was in a state of such pure happiness and acceptance, that I was no longer afraid of anything. Out of that depth arose such a compassion and connection to everything that surrounded me.”

The second major trigger of awakening experiences identified by my research is contact with nature. Around a quarter of the experiences take place in natural surroundings, apparently induced by the beauty and stillness of nature. People reported awakening experiences that occurred while they walking in the countryside, swimming in lakes, or gazing at beautiful flowers or sunsets. And the third most significant trigger of awakening experiences according to my research— with a similar frequency to contact with nature—is spiritual practice. This primarily means meditation, but also includes prayer and psycho-physical practices such as yoga or tai chi. The relaxing, mind-quietening effect of these practices seems to facilitate awakening experiences.

Enduring Transformation

However, perhaps the most significant thing about awakening experiences is their after-effects. Even though they are typically of a very short duration—from a few moments to a few hours—they frequently have a life-changing effect.

Many people described an awakening experience as the most significant moment of their lives, reporting a major change in their perspective on life, and in their values. In our 2017 study of 90 awakening experiences, the most significant after-effect was a greater sense of trust, confidence, and optimism. For example, one person reported that even though “that whole experience was brief, it left a little piece of knowing and hope. While I still was and am on a journey of self-reflection, it left me knowing that your inner truth is always there for you.” Another person reported that, “To know that it’s there (or here, I should say) is a great liberation.”

One person had a powerful awakening experience while suffering from intense depression during which she “felt the most intense love and peace and knew that all was well.” The experience only lasted for a few minutes, but in its aftermath, she found that the feeling of dread had disappeared from her stomach, and she felt able to cope again, which led to a new, positive phase in her life. As she described it, “I looked around and thought about all the good things in my life and the future. I felt more positive and resilient.” Another person described how her awakening experience “allowed me a glance into the other side and opened me to the knowing that I am never separate, alone, nor unheld.”

Such changes in attitude sometimes led to significant lifestyle changes, such as new interests, new relationships and a new career. Some people reported becoming less materialistic and giving up high-powered professional careers for a simpler, more altruistic lifestyle.

This shows that awakening experiences have a powerful therapeutic effect. They make us realize that the world is a much more benign and meaningful place than we normally perceive it to be. And once we have glimpsed this, it becomes a permanent reality to us. As the great psychologist Abraham Maslow noted – in relation to what he called peak experiences — ‘A single glimpse of heaven is enough to confirm its existence.’

from:    https://www.shiftfrequency.com/the-after-effects-of-awakening/

Ahh, That Monkey Mind

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2 Remedies for a Chaotic Mind

January 9th, 2019

By Nick Polizzi

Guest writer for Wake Up World

We certainly live in unusual times, don’t we?

When the news headlines are filled with fear and uncertainty, it’s easy to be thrown off keel and get stuck in our heads. But the elders have taught for thousands of years that personal evolution doesn’t occur without a little ruckus, just like new seeds won’t sprout unless the soil is churned.

There are many real challenges in the world, and as we try to wrap our heads around them, it’s important that we remember to do so with mindfulness and compassion.

We’re all born into this world vulnerable and pure, completely reliant on the kindness of others. By remaining present, we begin to see this humanity in everyone, whether they are the perceived “good guys” or “bad guys”.

A great place to look for inspiration is our children. A child doesn’t recoil in the face of challenge. No, they are perpetually curious, resilient as warriors, and in a constant state of play. We grown-ups somehow lose that superpower as we get older and the perceived stakes of our actions get higher. But luckily for us all, there are a number of ways to shake off the illusion and get ourselves back into a harmonious state of life flow.

I’ve prescribed a couple of practices below that have really helped me quiet my mind and stay grounded, happy, and connected to purpose lately. I hope they help you too!

Sacred Prescription #1

This first one might seem downright crazy. You’ve probably never heard of it before, so get ready for your mind to be blown… Meditation!!!

Okay, maybe you’ve heard of it before… but do you actually make time for it, and incorporate it into your daily routine?

In our seemingly busy lives, there’s a compulsion to stay on the move, make every second count, burn the midnight oil, and then crash at the end of the day. Some might even say that this fire-drill consciousness is at the root of the imbalances we are seeing in the world, and also within our selves.

What happens if we carve out a little time each day to sit and experience the very moment we are in, instead of the road ahead or the rear-view past? In the digital age of speedy information and mini adrenaline rushes, we need something to bring us back into our bodies and help us see our reality for what it truly is.

A close friend and I are in the middle of a meditation challenge right now and it has been extremely helpful over the past month. It’s gotten to the point where I look forward to my 1PM meditation every day.

If you start with just ten minutes each day of quieting the mind in a wakeful state, I can almost guarantee that new openings and releases of tension will happen for you.

Sacred Prescription #2

When our reality gets a little hazy now and again, there are certain “medicine questions” we can ask ourselves that have the power to pull enlightened answers from somewhere within our psyche.

When you’re doing the work, these can be extremely helpful to have in your back pocket. Below are two of my go-to questions, but there are a number of them!

Medicine Question 1:

What is the one conversation that you’ve been putting off having with a friend or loved one?

It’s tempting to get caught up in all the flashy happenings on the world stage, but what about the people right in your own life? This is where you have the most influence and it’s often not a place of focus (ie. texting at the dinner table).

We humans are mirrors for one another and any relationships that are out of whack are often a useful reflection of inner imbalances that we have with ourselves. One of the fastest ways to heal your life is to reach out consciously and resolve any conflict, however subtle or obvious, that you might have with someone dear to you.

Just like a newborn baby cannot survive without the warm touch of another, we “grown-ups” tend to slip into imbalance when a connection to a member of our tribe is languishing.

Medicine Question 2:

When was the last time you put yourself outside your comfort zone?

Are you cozy in the life and role you’ve created for yourself? Is that coziness serving your highest ideals? We humans like predictability and pattern, but you would be surprised at how therapeutic a little shakeup can be.

Rituals like sweat lodge, temascal, vision quest, and the various sacred plant ceremonies are all aimed at bringing an individual to their limit, for what reason? To remind them they are limitless.

Limitlessness is a nice term, but to understand it fully you must be willing to go outside your comfort zone. If you’re looking for a powerful way to expand your limits while enhancing your relationships, refer to Medicine Question #1 ?

Have a wonderful week and remember, we’re all in this thing together.

Stay curious,

Nick Polizzi
Founder of The Sacred Science

from:    https://wakeup-world.com/2019/01/09/2-remedies-for-a-chaotic-mind/