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Saturday, July 18, 2015

Become What You Are

"But so, in just the same way, we say 'There are really different people. There are really different events.' But actually there aren't. I'm not saying that if we were to see the world in its truth, all of you different people would disappear, that your outlines would suddenly become vague, and you would turn into a solid lump of gelatinous goo. A lot of people think that's the way mystics see things. That's not at all what would happen. The thing I'm saying is this: we are all different, but we are as interrelated and indispensable to each other as the different organs in our body. Stomach, heart, glands, bones, etc. Now you can argue that the stomach is fundamental--eating is the big thing. And therefore we grew brains as extensions of the stomach to get it more food. So that you say 'The brain is the servant of the stomach.' But you can argue equally that the brain is primary, and it has all these thinking games to play, and it needs a stomach as an appendage to supply it with energy. Or you can argue that the sex organs are primary and they need the brain and the stomach to keep that ecstasy going. But the brain and the stomach can equally argue that they wouldn't find it worthwhile going on unless they had the sex organ appendage to give them solace. 
 
The truth of the matter is that nobody comes first. No one pushes the other around. You don't find brains without stomachs and sex organs. They all go together. And this is the fallacy of Freud, in saying that the sexual apparatus are primary. It just goes along with the others.

So you don't have a universe in which a series or a collection of separate events or things are banging each other around like an enormous mass of billiard balls. You have a situation which is quite different from that, where what have hitherto been called 'causally related events.' To say that certain events are causally related is a very clumsy way of saying that these certain specific events which you have isolated as being causally related, were in fact really all parts of the same event." 


Source: Become What You Are ~Alan W. Watts

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

10 Tips to Raise Your Vibrations

All your thoughts and feelings are energy, and energy is vibration. Learn to Raise those Vibrations and watch your life change dramatically. 

1. Find something beautiful and appreciate it. Beauty is all around us, from the morning dew to the evening stars and everything in between. Most go through life not noticing all the beautiful things that are around them, and yes it's every where, so take the time to notice them, and appreciate them when you see it. Whether it's the scent of a flower or the way rain ripples in puddles of water, appreciate the beauty life has to offer. 

2. Make a list of all that you are grateful for. Making a gratitude list shifts your vibrations from focusing on what you do not have to what is already abundant in your life. There is more to be grateful for than you could possibly imagine. You can start with “I'm Alive!” and expand from there. Gratitude is the Attitude. 

3. Meditate. Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and breath in and out. Too often we rush through our days with a scattered brain leaving us in a state of anxiety and stress, Meditation helps to calm your spirit down and put you in a peaceful state of mind. 10 Minuets of meditation a day can change your life forever. 

4. Do something for someone else. Giving to someone else shifts your thinking from “I don't have enough, to I have more than enough to give to others.” Abundance is a high vibration. 

 
5. Stop complaining and gossiping. Complaining and Gossip puts you in a very low vibration. Ask yourself “Are the things you are talking about bringing you more of what you want?” if not then, Stop complaining, and start finding ways to rejoice. 

6. Move. Exercise. Get active. Vibration requires movement, the more you move the better your vibrations move. So Get Active! Dance! The happier you feel, the more you will draw happy experiences to yourself because you are operating at a different frequency. 

7. Realize that you have more control over your life than you thought. You are not a victim to circumstance, past, family upbringing, trauma, or anything else. You can change your life in an instant. Just realize this. In many wisdom traditions this is called “total responsibility.” No one is responsible for how you feel right now but you. It isn't a curse. It's a blessing because it gives you your power back. 

8. Breathe. Just sit and try to make your breath longer, fuller, and more relaxed. It has a direct affect on your nervous system and helps to calm you down. A calm vibration is a high vibration. 

9. Do Something You're Afraid Of Fear holds us back from being in a state of love and happiness, and facing those fears opens you up to a greater world of possibilities. Fear of Heights? Go skydiving. Scared of public speaking, say a poem at an open mic. You'll begin to realize your fear was worse then the actual problem, and a sense of relief will wash over you. 

10. Have a Meaningful Conversation with a Friend Rather than gossip or complaining, talk about you ideas. What do you have planned for yourself? what do you think is the nature of reality? Are we spiritual beings having a human experience? Talking about these things with someone helps to raise both your vibrations by thinking big. If you don't have someone to talk to about these kinds of things with, there's a community of higher minded individuals right here. Leave a comment down below and let's chat! 

Source: Mind Openerz 

7 Mind Blowing Facts About Your Body

The human body is even more impressive and magnificent than you can imagine. While we may sometimes look at it and see how weak and fragile it is, we also need to realize the mind blowing wonders we all hold inside ourselves. When our body works, we do not feel, or even notice it is doing anything special, however, it is. As we go about our daily lives like nothing is happening, the body is working, using power, and healing. 
Here are 7 mind blowing facts about your body :
1. Your brain operates on the same amount of power as a 10 watt light bulb The human brain uses about 200 kilocalories per day, which equates to approximately 10 watts of power. For comparison's sake, that's about 10 percent of the power that it takes to run a 100-watt light bulb. So the cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn't too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you're sleeping. 
2. Every 7 years your body completely replaces itself 25,000,000 of your cells died while you read this sentence. It's okay though, your body made more than 300 billion new ones today. The cells that make up your body are dying and being replaced all the time. This happens so often that about every 7 years you have a completely new body of cells. While this is true for most cells, such as the cells lining the stomach, some of the most important cells in your body (those of your bones, your brain, and your heart) don't regenerate much at all, so treat them with care. 
3. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 250 miles per hour The speed of nerve impulses varies enormously but the fastest travel at about 250 mph. That's as fast as a Formula 1 racing car! However this demand for speed uses a lot of energy and is found only in neurons that need to transfer information urgently. For example, if you burn your fingers it is important that your brain gets the message to withdraw your hand very quickly.
4. There are more cells in your body than stars in the galaxy Your entire body is made up of around 75 trillion cells. Each one of your cells is like a small city with thousands of different types of complex molecules interacting with each other to keep you alive and conscious. When you compare this to the 400 billion stars in our galaxy, you can understand just how magical your existence really is. So the next time you are feeling down or insignificant, simply remember, you are made of 75,000,000,000,000 cells, and that's far from “insignificant”! 
5. There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in an adult human body If you took all of the blood vessels out of an average child, and laid them out in one line, the line would be over 60,000 miles long. An adult's vessels would be closer to 100,000 miles long! That means an adult's blood vessels could go around the circumference of the world more than 4 times! 
6. The cells in your body react to your thoughts Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said: “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions”. Your mind is a powerful machine and controls every function of the body. But the good news is you have the power to control your mind. Experiencing positive thoughts leads to more positive thoughts and an even broader view of everything around us. For example, positive thoughts can strengthen your immune system while negative thoughts can bring it down. 
7. You are made of stardust As Carl Sagan used to say, we are made of “star stuff”. It sounds like a line from a poem, but there is some concrete science behind this statement: almost every element on Earth was formed at the heart of a star. The carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms in our bodies, as well as atoms of all other heavy elements, were created in previous generations of stars over 4.5 billion years ago. So next time you're out gazing at stars twinkling in the night sky, remember, we are all made of star dust, we are all one! 
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer. 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Turning Wounds into Wisdom: The Power of Transforming Pain into Strength

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

As our inner work unfolds, we often discover many setbacks and may even experience traumatic events that fundamentally change us. Even in the healthiest families there can be significant emotional wounds leftover from our youth. But these don’t have to be unfortunate occurrences. And maybe they weren’t even accidental. Perhaps “fate/destiny” had something else in mind for us, in order to catalyze a particular type of personal development that requires trauma for its genesis. What hurts us can cripple us, but it can also shape us into something more powerful.
But this requires presence. It requires having a different perspective about what it means to hurt and what it means to experience emotional trauma. One way to change our perspective is to look at our wounds as sacred things. Our sacred wounds can be a great source of personal development. Like John Keats wrote, “Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?” Indeed, allowing our wounds to become sacred is allowing Ego to become Soul.
If we really allow ourselves to live greatly, we must open ourselves up to being present to our sacred wounds. The ability to have an authentic engagement with life takes the courage to face prior heartache and pain, and the ability to cultivate it and refine it. Either way, the pain and heartache will be there. The question is whether or not we have the courage to transform it into something that can refine our soul.
Pema Chödrön said it best: “We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” Letting there be room is allowing for a space, a sacred space, where we can be fully present with our pain.
”There’s a lesser known Hindu deity named Akhilandeshvari, or The Goddess of Never Not Broken. This Goddess embodies the ability to come together and fall apart, over and over again. She is the personification of healthy annihilation, the archetype of vicissitude. She breaks apart in order to come back together as a more powerful entity. Indeed, it is exactly because she is able to break apart that she is so powerful. What a shift in perspective!
True strength isn’t wholeness but the ability to adapt to the change that comes from falling apart and coming back together again, from wholeness to brokenness and back. This is the epitome of transforming pain into strength. Falling apart is what happens when we experience trauma. Coming back together again is the scar left behind. Adapting to the new way in which we are put back together again is honoring the sacred wound. Like Joseph Campbell wrote, “Suddenly you’re ripped into being alive. And life is pain, and life is suffering, and life is horror, but my god you’re alive and it’s spectacular.
It may take an entire lifetime to complete the healing of our sacred wounds, but the point is to begin the healing – and there are diamonds in the rough. Those who become wise always experience the most pain. Falling apart and adapting to coming back together again in novel ways is the epitome of wisdom. Facing the pain is like looking into the abyss. It’s like having a staring contest with our inner-most demons. But with enough practice, with enough polish, we can transform those demons into diamonds.
We can transform that abyss into a mirror that reflects infinite growth. “Think of the birth of the pearl,” writes Bill Plotkin, “the tiny grit of sand within the oyster creates an irritation the oyster seeks to eliminate by coating the grain with successive layers of lustrous deposits, ultimately producing the jewel.” Just as the grain within the oyster can be transformed into a pearl, the pain within the human can be transformed into strength.
There is a saying in Tibet, “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.” At the end of the day, life is pain. We must learn to experience pain well. Indeed, there is an art to cultivating sacred wounds that only the happiest people know. Like the Buddha said, “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” When we resist pain we create more pain, which is called suffering. When we can embrace pain with a warm, peaceful curiosity, we gain the ability to transform wounds into sacred wounds, and we limit our suffering.
Like Leslie Fieger ingeniously opined, “Any fool can run toward the light. It takes a master with courage to turn and face the darkness and shine his own light there.” Let us have the courage to turn and face our pain, to shine our own light there and see how many demons we can mold into diamonds, how many wounds we can transform into wisdom, and how much pain we can wrestle into strength, in order to become multifaceted beings with the power to heal the deeper wounds of the world.