If you think you've seen the ocean because you stand at the water's edge, think again. Perhaps you've sailed across the open sea communing with whales and sea birds, do you think to yourself, 'now, I have seen the ocean, now, I have seen the sea'? What if you've only flown over the oceans, from land to land, would that perspective be the one? One glorious sunny day, you swim with dolphins and snorkel with sea turtles and sting rays, does your mind satisfy the heart and say, 'I've seen this before'? And, sitting at a fancy restaurant, the waiter brings you a fresh sea bass dinner, do you think you know fish now?
The mind is quick to relay a complete compilation of perspective in unfathomable time. It is so convincing. The mind can take any story, any image, any thought, any thing and create an epic masterpiece of illusion.
Even the best of us can become hypnotized by the confusion with which the mind presents its stories. The best actors and actresses are portrayed on the stage in the mind way before a toe has ever graced a stage. What of all this drama? What of all this chaos? We channel it outward to space, to thin air, to each other, to our children, to everything with very little concern of the result. We are so sure of what we see. We are so sure of what we feel. We are so sure.
Clarity would disagree.
In my own personal journey, in my own personal mind, I have been disillusioned. I have been hoodwinked. Scammed. I have believed the epic story teller's tale of woe, fear and defeat. I have reaped the minds suffering of repeated dwellings, deep caverns of discontent and discord. I have believed others' stories too. I have believed the media. I have believed merchandise. I have believed that which has no soul. The mind is soulless. The mind is conflicted, quick to reverse its ego serving hard drive. The mind is a tool that can malfunction. The mind can be manipulated. It is one of the human souls' routing systems of all we have the potential to become, but the mind has to be controlled, corralled, soothed and calmed. The only thing that soothes the mind is the human taking control of it. And, might I add, if you don't control your mind, someone else will. Perhaps just an archetype run a muck, or perhaps it's someone else like government, or pharma. It is much harder to control that which you do not understand. Knowledge is truly power here.
It's been a long 40 years for me in the desert of my mind. Unlike the seas and oceans depth, my mind just stretched across for miles in the dust of scorpions. I am referring to the process that I allowed my mind to take when navigating my world. Sure, we all have issues, or past experiences, or things that have happened to us that we carry. We all do. And sure, some of us are more aware than others even convincing themselves that they're doing something different, finding a better solution, a more profitable outcome, but the results speak volumes. You are what you think you are, and I am what I think I am.
And, all of that is subject to change in a flash, like a comet streaming across the sky illuminating the shadows and dust that transcends. Give in to it. Allow. Stop resisting. Only silence and meditation can lead the way through the noisy hallways and persistent sign posts showing choices always, but definitives never. Courage. It takes courage to look within and to cultivate truth and integrity in a society that is dead set against your freedom. My freedom. I choose to carry my dust pan around on the inside and tidy up. I'm clearing out, with love, that which no longer serves me. With respect and gratitude, I silence fear and reach for trust. You are welcome to sift my ashes to find your own peace. The grains of sand have much to say and I gladly share, only asking you to use your own discernment, your own souls' affinity for truth, when seeking answers. Seek your own sands of truth. Truth wins, hands down.
"What is truth?" retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him.'
Isn't it interesting that the bible depicts Pilate questioning what truth is? He is asking from his mind what truth is and then, from his heart he testifies to the truth of that hour, of that Great Man and Teacher Jesus, "I find no basis for a charge against him.", and they crucified him, first with their minds, and afterward their hearts bled.
Oh, that discernment could have formed itself out of dust and ashes and testified to all of us.... Oh, wait. it did. Jesus certainly came in truth, died in truth and testified from his heart, truths that will serve mankind until man is kind, kind to ourselves and then, kind to each other.
I am cultivating a kinder mind now. I am serving a Higher Master now. No longer will I serve the will of the mind, but the mind will serve my will. I am the Master. For this purpose we have come. We have come into existence to experience the fullness of life and that is love, not drama, not struggle, not a lot of things. You decide. I am and I have. ~*~
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.
