Friday, October 31, 2014

Choose Love



I just watched Jim Carey's Commencement address for the 2014 graduates of the Maharishi University of Management.  It is interesting that the life I strive for is the one that he describes.  I'm so excited to know that Jim has evolved and is using his influence to raise the vibration of the planet through his words and fine example.

There is a mighty distinction between "a dog that can eat you that is in your head, or a real dog that can eat you".  And he's right when he states that most people do not make this distinction.  They may not even realize that they are the dog in some cases biting off their own leg.

One thing is for sure, I needed to hear this to remind myself that I am not alone.  That what I believe and how I live my life is the real deal.  I am who I say I am, I have what I say I have, and I do what I say I do.  For this, I am truly grateful.  Otherwise, I'd be operating from fear and there is just too much of that going on these days.

Be aware of the wolf in sheep clothing that would try to persuade you to be the fear that they personify.  God forbid.  Be the light.  Be the love and be the peace.  Let the rest go.

~*~


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Releasing the Shadows

Guest Teaching 
Intro to Reiki 
Bergen Community College 
2009
                                             
Now that we have covered what meditation is and how to start to be the stillness the next step is to think about techniques to free the mind of all that clutter, be it mild, medium or very strong clutter.  In the beginning of my journey all I had was this unquenchable passion, this magnetic pull and every time I would try to get closer to the source of this pulling I would be confronted with all kinds of obstacles from rouge thoughts to full on stories of a painful trauma or situation that I had endured or survived.  The rouge thoughts were easily navigated around or dismissed entirely.  The painful memories and the dense emotion that would come to the surface, well that was another thing entirely.  Why was all of this coming to the forefront of my quiet time?  I am trying to meditate over here. 

For me, in order to fill this vessel with light it had to be emptied of all the shadows, shadows being my past disappointments, offenses, attacks of all kinds, jealousy, bitterness, envy, things I held against myself as well as others, maybe even God.  It’s when we get in the silence all these lists come to the surface.  Why is there a list and what is this list doing to us?  Can’t we keep the list and just focus on the light?  Yes.  We keep the list while focusing on the light but just as light reflects off a shard of glass, the light inside of us will reflect onto and off of anything that needs to be addressed, released, and transmuted into the positive including this list.

For example, you and a friend have had some cross words and there’s an event coming up soon that you will both be attending.  It’s awkward and there is friction between you and you may think that as long as you’re not in the same room together all is well but that’s not entirely the case.  The thoughts and emotions created by this illusion of separation bring real roots with it.  This could be an opportunity to transmute friction by making amends, having another conversation with humility, forgiveness, whatever the case may be.  Making no decision is a decision so if you decide not to address the situation and just attend the event, bringing these shadows with you, you run the risk of adding onto what was already a stressful situation.  This can become compounded now because of the allowance of friction.  I realize we cannot control anyone, only ourselves so perhaps clearing the slate prior to the event is the only path to peace.  You decide to be the peace.  You decide to forgive and keep no record of wrong despite the fact that it hurt, you felt slighted, you felt wronged.  Jesus said in Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  ‘They’ are you and me.  We need more forgiveness for self and others.  We need to realize we are all connected doing the very best we can do with the information we have.  Forgiveness is underrated and holding onto grudges leads to all sorts of sticky, dense, and toxic energy in the human body and causes internal and external wars potentially but it doesn't have to.  Keeping a record of wrongs, well that’s just a trigger mechanism to relive and reanimate for whoever will listen to the wrongs that our poor souls have endured.

But you are not a poor soul.  You are a very strong and capable being whose soul purpose is to bring about peace on this planet at this time.  If we release these toxic shadows and transmute them into the light, our meditation experience will be sublime.



How do you release these shadows? 

Firstly, be brutally honest with yourself.  Become aware of the feelings and emotions that accompany thoughts that pull you out of center, out of the present moment into the past.  What happened?  Becoming aware of these obstacles is the first step.  Keeping a journal is the second.  All of my mentors have taught me to journal.  Every one of them stating the importance of taking these thoughts, emotions, memories and writing and them down, getting them out so to speak.  Like a vortex of energy they swirl inside the brain and heart creating all sorts of distractions.  Once the brain is allowed to relive and replay the emotions are sure to follow.  Once you engage in a shadow thought and the emotion starts it may seem like there is no end to your suffering and you are quite right.  If you allow your mind to relive and replay and you allow your emotions to live on the inside of you like a jack in the box just waiting for the right trigger to pop out, scare you and other people, you are not living anywhere near center, near conscious living, you are living on play, rewind, repeat. 

Write it down.  Whatever is swirling around you on the inside put it on paper.  Notice the emotion, if any, the tears, the effect this thought has on your entire being.  It’s no wonder you were having trouble focusing on stillness when this troublesome thought lives like a weed on the inside whose only purpose is to choke the life out of you and with no one cutting it back, eradicating it, or even trying to until now, it has had free reign.   Every morning when you wake up write in your journal.  Write your cares, your fears, your joys, your doubts, your worries, write everything down that is in your brain when you wake up.  This takes some of the sting out of the thought.  This releases some of the emotion associated with the thought.  Are you done now that you’ve written it down?  No, not entirely.    You may notice that this same thought is upon you every morning.  It’s the same thought or problem or hurt and it’s nagging at you.  You’ve already written it down.  Why won’t it go away?




Journaling is a very powerful tool in emptying the mind of the human but sometimes it’s just one of many spiritual tools that one needs and has access to.  Depending on the thoughts or emotions, a person may need to delve deeper to get to the root causes in order to release.  Prayerfully journaling and prayerfully meditating work in tandem with Spirit to miraculously heal and diffuse negative energies that live inside.  You will know when you are free from these thoughts because there will be a lightness about you that was there all the time, but you were not aware of it.  Once we peel back the layers of thoughts and emotions we can tap into the true source of our true infinite nature where shadows do not exist and if they do exist, they do so to test and refine.  What we are dealing with now is our own creation and its purpose is quite the same.    Do not resist the lesson or the path.  It’s the same for all of us.



Affirmations, self talk, positive thinking and deliberate thoughts that empower us to continue on our journey when releasing shadows are extremely important.   They are important all the time.  I liken it to keeping a weight in your hand to constantly flex the muscles in your arm.  Deliberate thoughts train the mind to strengthen itself with positive fuel as opposed to negative toxic fuel which makes us sick.  It makes sense, doesn't it?  What goes in must come out.  Positive goes in, positive comes out.  Negative goes in, negative comes out.  We have the capacity to lift up the vibration of the world with our delightfully positive outlook on life and we have the power to pull down the vibration of the world with our toxic, worrisome and negative outlook, but it actually takes more effort to frown than smile.  That’s because you’re true nature is that of peace, dare I say love. 

Once you release thoughts and emotions that no longer serve you, you make room for thoughts that have a much higher purpose, vibration and in fact are much higher;  thoughts about world peace and unity and healing and joy, thoughts about feeding the world and advocating for all living things and our planet.  Our minds and our souls are on this planet for a much higher purpose than just ourselves but it absolutely begins with each and every one of us.  When we take responsibility for the state of our being, the state of our consciousness, we can then take the proper steps to join in with the universal, if not just global oneness thought process that includes and never excludes, that tolerates and respects, edifies and supports, loves and has compassion for the entire human spirit not just the few highly favored. 

Meditation is the tool if you want to get to the bottom of who you are.  Journaling and praying keep you humble, accountable and somewhat scientific in your approach utilizing all the spiritual resources available to you and taking very complex principles and breaking them down into palatable, useable, techniques.  You will turn to your journal over and over.  You will see the Hand of God at work in your life.  You will see the scales fall off of your eyes right before your writing fingertips.  You will lament and purge and stain your journal with sorrowful, salt filled tears.  You will turn the page and see and feel those tears transmuted into the platinum healing light of God.  You will never be the same.

What if it all gets to be too much to bear?  Hang in there.  Prepare a spiritual space for yourself that you can return to with a feeling of being cared for.  You are taking yourself on your life path journey.  Make it okay.  It is okay.  Everything will be okay, no matter what.  Affirm this to yourself.  Create a vision board of you meditating and being free.  Remind yourself over and over that this is your time.  Use some incense, candles, essential oils and hemi-sync brain wave meditation music, go for a walk in the park.  Stay grounded.  Stay the course.  Keep your inner eye focused on the prize:  Peace.  Stillness.  Joy.  Refuse to be distracted. 




As you further along on this path you will become lighter, more joyful, more grounded.  You will not be so fully persuaded to react to life’s circumstances, pushing and pulling as you had in the past.  There will be space in between your thoughts.  You will react less and thoughtfully respond more.  You will have raised your inner frequency and outer energy.  People may notice.  New challenges may present themselves.  Observe them from a safe distance.  Notice they don’t have the same allure they once had.  Notice you may not want to play the way you played in the past.  Listen to your newly honed intuition.  Pray about everything.  Journal your every thought.  Meditate every day.  Keep on the path. 

Your mind cannot comprehend what is waiting for you in the stillness.  Trust that the light is pure and illuminating. 


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Place of Beginnings



"Faith is an island in the setting sun.  
But, proof, 
proof is the bottom line 
for everyone".
Paul Simon

I am an energy aficionado and I have a question.  Why have we given over our faith energy to the pharmaceutical industry whose ads confound us with their endless side effects and not Spirit and its endless and infinite possibilities?  I have never heard feathered into any one of these mainstream media medical ads at the beginning, the middle or the end, that this that or the other drug will actually cure us.  On the contrary, taking drugs approved by the FDA in this country comes with a plethora of possible side effects that will only lead us to additional drugs with an even longer laundry list of side effects.  If proof is the bottom line for every one the jury is in, the decision is final, just say no to drugs.  Perhaps there is another agenda?  Well, of course there is, I'm being silly.  You know it.  I know it.  The entire world knows it.  So, how can we get around it?  Are there any real healing and wellness alternatives out there for our maladies or are we doomed to pharmaceuticals for all eternity? How did we actually arrive at this state of being?  Are we all really this ill that we need all of these toxins?  Penicillin is less than one hundred years old and just look at how many drugs are on the market today with their corresponding illnesses that probably didn't even exist back then.  

Okay that was way too many questions and that all just lends itself to my passion and how taking back our health is of optimum importance.  I don't want you to just feel a little better, I want you to feel amazingly better.  My goal is to teach as many people as possible that they are making themselves sick in a lot of cases with the substances they consume and absorb, the thoughts they think and project and ultimately the energy that either sustains or depletes them,   I work with energy but what does this mean?  This means that the subtle energies that exist around us and are emitted from us are scientifically and humanly detectable and if you work towards that ability you not only can detect these energies in yourselves, but you can transmute the negative ones and help to heal them where necessary, through the grace of God, of course.  You can do this just as easily as I can and it starts with intention, prayer and meditation and once you begin your practice there is no limit to what you will learn and experience about energy and how much of it you actually are so changing it becomes easy and effortless especially as it pertains to personal wellness and healing.



By now, most of us know that everything in existence is made up of pretty much the same star dust energy as everything else.  At the center of even the most dense matter, when you get down to the atomic level nothing is static or stagnant.  When you get down to the sub atomic level even those atoms are moving with a pulsating life force energy that is changed only by your observation.

Imagine.  You become aware of your thoughts and your frequency, the vibration you are putting out into the universe and you decide to change it and it changes.  The potential for world peace lies therein I would think.

That's a rabbit hole of a different depth and I digress, but not really.  Getting back to everything and everyone is emitting a frequency that is scientifically detectable.  Plants, animals, people, sound, light, scent, inanimate objects all emit a frequency and these frequencies vibrate at different levels.  The best way for me to describe the difference and how you may have already been able to feel these frequencies, when you walk into a room that’s open and inviting and filled with flowers or plants and children and loved ones you may notice the energy is very loving and inviting, comfortable and healing.  On the other hand, if you walk into an environment where an argument has just taken place or is taking place and you see and hear the argument escalating, you may notice that your heart rate increases along with your blood pressure and you may think this is a natural response for most of us and you’d be right.   A person just walking into either of those environments can blindly absorb all the energy around them and carry it around for days.  A high vibration can linger just as long as a lower vibration only the lower vibration has an uncanny ability to destroy and cause disease while the higher vibration has an uncanny ability to calm and cause healing.  What energy workers try to teach is that firstly there is a detectable vibration and that we are either raising it or lowering it depending on our state of awareness.  The second is that you are emitting a vibration and you are responsible for where you point that thing!  Don’t be pointing your vibration in my direction unless you know what you’re emitting.  We are always emitting and absorbing but the goal and ultimate objective is to become so aware that we emit only unconditional love, one of the highest possible compassionately healing vibrations.  We then detect and shield ourselves from the lowest ones transmuting them into the positive and to take this notion to its highest possible fruition, to heal the human body and then for that healed human to heal other humans.  J 


Proof?  Yes, yes.  There is proof in Spirituality but how do you package an experience?  In our Western capitalist culture we are manufacturers of product so where is the Spiritual product that proves that Spirit exists and healing exists?  I personally use incense and healing crystals and anointed essential oils and all of them become useless without my intention.  However, with my intention and the grace of God all things are possible and I've EXPERIENCED phenomena that Science would argue is not provable but what does Science have to do with God?  Well, it has everything to do with God but people tend to get in the way.  God reveals Him/Herself to each open heart as the open heart seeks, shows up, listens, taps into, reaches up, prays and meditates.  You have to be in attendance and Spirit will touch you and provide you with all the proof you need.  It becomes irrefutable.  This proof is the kind of energy Healers, Yogi's, Priests, Monks, Sisters and devoted followers have been speaking about for eons.



Everyone emits their own personal frequency.  Some people just make you feel better and some just don't.  I leave it up to you to decide but try not to judge just try to become more aware.  Personally speaking I’ve had my own experiences with energy, which have lead me here today and my purpose is not to convince you but you to teach you that energy is detectable, we all emit frequencies and some of us work really hard to tap into higher levels of consciousness so as to be able to detect and transmute the lower energies.  Imagine a room full of negative ions and a very high vibrating positive ion enters into the equation, well that positive ion especially if it has the grace of God and intention to do so, has the potential to transmute all of those negative ions into positive ones.  In translation, energy workers have the potential to turn negative energy into positive energy through teaching, anointing, laying on of hands, through prayer, primarily though the driving force in all of it; God, intention and the desire and love to help people heal themselves from stress, heartache, suffering and ultimately illness.  There are many like me who walk about spreading the great news that there is real healing in the world.  There is also a tremendous need for more healers.  Perhaps you're being called to take yourself to the next level in your own spiritual development.  I say 'perhaps' but I know you are being called to the next level, we all are.  The question becomes will you answer?


Meditation is one way to answer the call.  It is a very powerful way to connect to source.  Prayer and meditation go hand in hand like inhaling and exhaling.  They work in tandem to bring life force energy into the breather.  Meditation is a spiritual relaxation technique that helps you to hear closely what the body needs, what the spirit needs, and what the soul needs because it settles you into the core of your true being, your true nature, your true essence.  You think you’re just human and let’s be clear, just human is a brilliant, amazing, incredible mind blowing trip.  But what’s going on inside of this human and how it connects to everything else that’s alive and everything else that exists is mind blowing on a level that you can only reach through meditation and that is anything but 'just' spiritual. 
The sublime ultimate is pure spirituality existing in the consciousness and intention filled, light saturated human being.  The human that yields its outward fading shine and inward miraculous mechanics to an infinite and omniscient spark presence is surely a being that time would surely charm, per Axel Rose in November Rain “If you could heal a broken heart, wouldn't time be out to charm you”?

Meditation takes you into the quiet, peaceful, tranquil, vast space of your heart center.  It is the place where silence and stillness exists in the midst of your never still body.  Your body is in constant motion, even when you’re sleeping.  You are a ‘life force being’ who radiates energy vibrations, just like electricity.  Some of us operate at full capacity easily and effortlessly.  Some of us are barely operating.  Some of us are somewhere in between.  Some of us are sick and some of us on this planet are so out of touch.  So how can we get to the place of beginnings?

Meditation is a vacation within that teaches us over time where our center is, what balance feels like and where our jumping off and landing back point is, our place of beginnings.
 
What do I mean by that?
 
Life has a way of pushing us around, literally and figuratively.  Sometimes we overextend ourselves, we stop taking care of ourselves and allow ourselves to get away from optimum health, we over eat, or over drink or over work too much, we lose sleep, we get into arguments, we get disappointed, we get stressed out, frustrated, we act out and we can eventually get sick from all of this pushing. 



Unfortunately, the humans I've experienced around the Northern New Jersey area in particular are quite interested in pushing.  They push on the highway, in the hallway, in the grocery store, at the mall.  You do not want a confrontation but if the majority of the people are walking around with dense energies, you are susceptible to that energy.  You can absorb that density and take on its traits and become short tempered, get really stressed out and start to push back.  We’re watching all over the world people being pushed by low vibrating humans and then other low vibrating humans are pushing back, harder and more often.

Meditation is the opposite of pushing.  Meditation is the acceptance, release, detachment and freedom from every day stresses that once you begin to practice, seem to, over time, have less meaning.  Your frequency gets higher.  The denser energies of sadness, disappointment, anger, and stress, etc. resonate less.  When we operate from a low capacity these denser energies resonate strongly since we are closer to that vibration but optimally our goal is to raise our vibration, increase our capacity to accept and release thereby creating freedom which I can associate with the feeling of a really amazing vacation where you breathe deeply without a care in the world.  The secret is that the ‘vacation’ lies within perception.

Sounds easy right?  Well it is.  Meditation is the easiest thing in the world to do.  You do not need any equipment (although Young Living Essential Oils definitely help), you do not need any special clothing.  All you need is the desire to reach a state of being that is peaceful, joyful, expansive, healing, Holy, and delightful.



Eat, drink, use the restroom, shut off all electronic equipment and be prepared to sit comfortably, uninterrupted for at least 5 minutes the first time.  Notice I did not say there should be silence in the world.  There is no such thing.  As I am typing I can hear the orchestra of crickets outside my window.  There will ALWAYS be distractions.  These will be effortlessly and easily overcome with practice.  Do not concern yourself with noise.  Just go within.
 
Sit or lie down or hang from a tree if that makes you comfortable, the key is to come to meditation with no physical desires EXCEPT stillness, peacefulness and grounding.  I use Highest Potential or Peace and Calming Essential Oil and inhale it deeply to further prepare myself for this quiet time.

After you've read all the way through, begin by closing your eyes.  Take a few deep breaths, inhaling deeply and holding it in at the top of the breath for a moment or two, and then releasing slowly and fully.  Repeat this two, or three times to bring your focus to your breath and away from the many thoughts of the mind. 

At this point the mind may resist and ask you to do a million things, and it may even chastise you for not ‘doing’ something, but trust your highest self.


“You are a human being not a human doing”.
as Deepak Chopra said, and meditation is indeed ‘something’.

 
Relax into your breathing, and begin to WATCH as your many endless, contrary, opinionated, passion filled thoughts come to your mind to distract you, to tell you of their urgency.  Relax and just let them float by, returning to your deep inhale, holding it at the top for a moment or two, and then releasing slowly.

Every time you find yourself ‘thinking’, bring your focus back to your breath and away from the mind.  The goal is to create space in between your thoughts.  The goal is to quiet the mind and connect you to your warm and loving heart center so that you can connect with your highest self, your life force energy, your Chi, Ki or Qi.  With practice, you can learn to connect, tap into, turn onto, lean into, and radiate from your heart center all the peace necessary to navigate this world which is by far the most powerful way to go.

There is more positive energy emanating from a meditative heart than anger from a bitter one.  Bliss, joy, love and peace are derived, cultivated, shared, taught and learned from this energy center.  They are the highest vibrating emotions and intentions one can have.  Meditation helps us to release anything that holds us back from these and unconditionally loving ourselves first and then one another.



Now, with a deep inhalation bring your attention from the breath in your chest to your heart center where all the love in the world is stored.  Place your hand on your heart with the intention to love, honor, embrace and comfort yourself for all that you do, have done or will do as a spirit being having a human experience.  If you know you've done the best you can do, love yourself.  If you know you can do better, love yourself.  If you know you've not done enough, love yourself.  Try and create a deep love for yourself and if possible, love deeper. Connect your deep breathing with the slow, steady, rhythmic beat of your heart.  This is the source and pulse of energy and frequency that you are emitting.  Others coming into your presence can feel this emission before they speak with you.  Emit the highest possible frequency and just like sound waves bounce and return, the highest possible frequency will emit back.

Inhale deeply.  Think calm.  Hold for a moment or two, exhale deeply and smile. Congratulations.  You have just taken your first meditation trip to the place of beginnings.  This place is your source of all calm, peace, bliss and joy, even in the midst of hardships and trials.  This center place is the place you want to become intimately familiar with.  The more you visit the calmer and more peaceful your state of being will become and the more your ability to cope with adversity increases.  Naturally this will spill over into every cell in your body making them calmer and more peaceful and that increases health and wellness.  Meditation is the first step to become aware of and taking control of your state of being and making sure you are on the right track.  You can visit this place as often as you like, you just need to close your eyes, take a deep breath and begin your journey within.

Namaste,
Maria