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Emotional Awareness
Managing and Dealing with Your Emotions and Feelings
Emotions are “the glue” that connect people to one another. They are the foundation of your ability to understand yourself and relate to others. When you are aware and in control of your emotions, you can think clearly and creatively; manage stress and challenges; communicate well with others; and display trust, empathy, and confidence. But lose control of your emotions, and you’ll spin into confusion, isolation, and doubt. By learning to recognize, manage, and deal with your emotions, you’ll enjoy greater happiness and health and better relationships.
Why emotions and feelings matter
Babies are bundles of emotion, experiencing intense emotions of fear, anger, sadness, and joy within their first eight weeks of life. As an infant, your emotions connected you to your primary caregiver in what was the first relationship of your life. Throughout life, emotions continue
to serve this same purpose:
connecting us to others.
Without emotions and an awareness and understanding of them, it’s impossible to build or maintain strong, healthy relationships. The feelings of others will escape you
unless you’re familiar with your own emotions. The more aware you are of your own emotions, the easier it will be for you to pick up on what others are feeling and accurately read their wants and needs.
- understand yourself, including your deeply-felt needs
- understand and empathize with others
- communicate clearly and effectively
- make decisions based on the things that are most important
to you
- get motivated and take action to meet goals
- build strong, healthy relationships
Whether you’re having
an argument with your spouse or dealing with colleagues at work, your emotions influence the communication process. Over 95% of communication is nonverbal and emotionally driven, so the stakes in learning to harness your emotions are high. Say the wrong thing, or miss an emotional cue, and it can do a lot of damage.
How emotions and feelings affect communication and relationships
Consider the emotional responses
of Bernie, Rhonda, and Jim and how they affect their home and work relationships:
Bernie is
a kind, steady, and dependable man whose emotional flatness inspired the nickname “Mr. Robot.” In his love relationship
with his wife, Bernie remains emotionally uninvolved. His mood is always low key - nothing is too exciting, nothing is worth
arguing about. It blindsides him when his wife files for divorce; he never saw it coming. Bernie likes his job, but his flatness
has hurt his ability to advance. His bosses can’t imagine him motivating others.
Rhonda works
hard at her marriage. Attractive, caring, and hard-working, she takes everything seriously and seldom complains or criticizes.
But her lack of spontaneity, humor, and playfulness is taking its toll, as her husband contemplates romantic involvements
with other women. Rhonda’s seriousness also limits her popularity at work. Her coworkers tend to forget that she is
there.
Jim is
admired for his kindness and generosity. Only his family knows of his extremely short fuse. After an unprovoked verbal outburst,
Jim is predictably apologetic. When people tell Jim’s wife how lucky she is to have such a wonderful husband, she bites
her lip, aware of how she and their children suffer in their relationship with him. His temper also keeps him from working
well with others and has limited his choice of jobs.
Like misfiring pistons, Bernie,
Rhonda and Jim are incapable of connecting with their strong emotions - the tools they need to communicate with themselves and pothers. They do not experience the full range of core emotions, or gut feelings.
Evaluating your emotional awareness
Although
emotional awareness is the basis of emotional health, good communication, and solid relationships, many people remain relatively unacquainted with their core emotional experience. It is surprising
how few people can easily answer the question: “What are you experiencing emotionally?”
Emotional awareness involves two
basic abilities:
- The ability to recognize
your moment-to-moment emotional experience
- The ability to manage all
of your feelings appropriately
What is my level of emotional awareness?
Ask yourself the following
questions. If you can answer “yes” to most of the questions, congratulations! If not, you may want to work
on raising your emotional awareness:
- Can you tolerate strong feelings,
including anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and joy?
- Do you feel your emotions in your body? If you are sad or mad, do you experience physical sensations in places like your stomach and chest?
- Are you comfortable with
all of your emotions? No one chooses to be angry, sad or frightened but if you are, is it OK?
- Do you pay attention to your
emotions and use them to guide your decisions?
- Are you comfortable talking
about your emotions? Do you communicate your feelings honestly?
- Do your emotions capture
the attention of others? Do others know what you feel? Are you comfortable with their knowing?
- Are you sensitive to the
emotions of others?
Unhealthy ways of dealing with emotions and feelings
We are all born with a capacity
to freely experience the full range of human emotions including joy, anger, sadness, and fear. Yet many people are disconnected from some or all of their feelings. By trying to
avoid pain and discomfort, their emotions have become distorted, displaced, and stifled. You lose touch with your emotions when you attempt to control them,
rather than experience them.
Ways of avoiding strong emotions and feelings
- Distracting yourself
with obsessive thoughts, escapist fantasies, mindless entertainment, and addictive behaviors in order to avoid emotions you
fear or dislike. Watching television for hours, playing computer games, and surfing the Internet are common ways of avoiding
dealing with feelings.
- Sticking with one emotional
response that you feel comfortable with, no matter what the situation calls for. For example:
- Shutting down or shutting out
intense emotions. If you feel overwhelmed by your emotions, you may cope by numbing yourself. You may feel completely disconnected from your emotions, like you no longer have feelings at all.
The consequences of avoiding emotions and feelings
- You lose the good,
along with the bad. You either feel your emotions or you don’t. When you shut down negative feeling like anger, fear, or sadness, you also shut down your ability to
experience positive feelings such as joy, love, and happiness.
- It’s exhausting.
You can distort and numb emotions, but you can’t eliminate them entirely. It takes a lot of energy to avoid having an authentic emotional experience
and keep your feelings suppressed. The effort leaves you stressed and drained.
- It damages your relationships.
The more you distance yourself from your feelings, the more distant you become from others, as well as yourself. You lose the ability to build strong relationships and communicate effectively, both of which depend on being in touch with your emotions.
You can’t manage emotions until you know how to manage stress
The ability to manage stress is a prerequisite for emotional awareness. Raising your emotional
awareness and emotional intelligence begins with the question:
"What kinds of sensory input
instantly make me feel relaxed, safe, calm, and focused?"
Knowing the answer is especially
important for people who have had overwhelming emotional experiences as a child. Once you have a safety net in place and know
how to make yourself feel good quickly and dependably, you can begin to explore the emotions that seem disagreeable or frightening. The key to coping with strong emotions is knowing that you control of them - not the other way around.
The ability to quickly reduce
stress allows you to safely face strong emotions, secure in your ability to regulate your feelings and behave appropriately. When you know how to maintain a relaxed, energized state of awareness - even when something upsetting happens - you can remain
emotionally available and engaged.
Getting back in touch with your emotions and feelings
The process of raising emotional awareness involves reconnecting
with all of the core emotions, including anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, and joy. As you start this process, keep
the following facts about emotions and emotional awareness in mind.
Emotions quickly come and go, if we let them
You may be worried that once you reconnect to the emotions you’ve
been avoiding, you’ll be stuck with them forever, but that’s not so. When we don’t stoke our emotions with
thoughts about them, even the most painful and difficult feelings subside and lose their power to control our attention.
Unrestricted, the core emotions of anger, sadness, fear, and
joy quickly come and go. Throughout the day, you’ll see, read, or hear something that momentarily triggers a strong
feeling of some sort. If you don’t focus on the feeling, it won’t last, and a different emotion will soon take
its place.
Our bodies can clue us in to our emotions
Our emotions are closely aligned to physical sensations in our
bodies. When you experience a strong emotion, you should also felt it somewhere in your body. By paying attention to these
physical sensations, you can understand your emotions better. For example, if your stomach tightens up every time you spend
time with a particular person, you can surmise that you feel unsafe in their presence. That doesn’t necessarily mean
that you are unsafe, only that you feel that way.
You don’t have to choose between
thinking and feeling
Once you have confidence in your ability to safely experience
any of your emotions, you can think, plan, and engage in a wide range of intellectual activities without completely loosing
touch with the physical sensations in your body that signal your emotional state.
Emotional awareness can be a background condition that functions
like instinct. When it’s strongly developed, you’ll know what you are feeling without having to think about it.
When your emotional signals become strong enough, you realize that something important is going on and shift your focus accordingly.
How to raise your emotional awareness
The key to raising emotional awareness is practice. Like building
muscles in a gym, the more you flex your emotions, the more “emotional muscle” you’ll build. You wouldn’t
expect to be a bodybuilder after just five minutes. The more consistently you practice, the greater the change you’ll
experience in what you feel, think, and do. To develop your self-awareness and connection to others and incorporate it into
your life, you need to retrain yourself through hands-on exercises and real-world practice.
How will you know when you have practiced enough? In general
you should feel more energy, experience more positive feelings (as well as other feelings), and have a greater ability to
concentrate your attention. You should feel more alive!
Emotional awareness is one of the five key skills of emotional
intelligence
The ability to recognize and manage your emotions is one of
the five key skills of emotional intelligence. Together, the five skills of emotional intelligence help you build strong relationships,
overcome challenges, and succeed at work and in life. The good news is that the skills of emotional intelligence can be learned
by anyone, at anytime. But there is a difference between learning and changing, or applying what you’ve
learned to your life. To learn in a manner that produces real change, you need to engage the emotional centers of the brain
in ways that connect you to others. The best way to do this is through interactive, nonverbal, sensory-based exercises.
Developing emotional intelligence: A free, online learning
program
EQ Central, a Helpguide-affiliated website, offers a free emotional intelligence training course. The step-by-step, self-paced course includes six articles and
six video lessons filled with real-world examples and hands-on exercises that will help you raise your emotional awareness
and master all of the skills of emotional intelligence.
click here for source site
Walking meditation: being aware of your body
We begin by being aware of our bodies. This is the first "basis of mindfulness." It's useful to begin any meditation session (whether seated or walking) by paying attention to those parts
of the body that are in contact with the ground.
This helps to stabilize and
ground the mind, making it calmer and less likely to wander. So in this practice I usually start with becoming aware of my
feet - first standing and then walking.
Then I lead my awareness systematically through my body, relaxing each part of my body as I bring in into the center of my focus. It's important to remember to experience these sensations, rather than think about them.
Thinking about sensations keep us trapped in our heads and perpetuates patterns of anxiety, craving, etc. By experiencing our sensations, on the other hand, we help to cut down on unproductive thinking and bring about more calmness.
Remember
to relax each part of your body as you become conscious of it. This practice is a wonderful opportunity to practice letting go. You can really notice how your walk changes as you relax.
Compared to sitting meditation, you may find that it's far easier to be aware of your body while walking. A lot
of people find that being aware of their bodies is much easier when their muscles and skin
etc. are in motion.
This can make walking meditation into a very powerful and intense practice. Most of us live rather too much "in our heads" and when we find a way to bring our awareness into our bodies it can be a positive relief and even a great pleasure.
It's particularly
interesting to become aware of the angle that you hold your head at. The angle
of your head has a huge impact upon your experience. If your chin is tucked into your chest and you're looking at the ground
in front of you, you'll almost certainly find that you become caught up in a very cyclical pattern of emotion.
If your chin is in the air,
you'll probably find that you're either caught up in thoughts or in the outside world. We'll look at this again in the section on "balancing inner and outer."
personal note: this is a very important topic... read
more about it at the source site by clicking here! There's much more important info there to read as well!
12 Questions Every Parent Must Ask About Their Child's Mental
Health - Being Aware Of Your Child's Mental Health
Does my child ...
1. Often seem sad, tired, restless, or out of sorts?
2. Spend a lot of time alone?
3. Have low self-esteem?
4. Have trouble getting along with family, friends & peers?
5. Have frequent outbursts of shouting, complaining, or crying?
6. Have trouble performing or behaving in school?
7. Show sudden changes in eating patterns?
8. Sleep too much or not enough?
9. Have trouble paying attention or concentrating on tasks like homework?
10. Seem to have lost interest in hobbies like music or sports?
11. Show signs of using drugs &/or alcohol?
12. Talk about death or suicide?
If you answered yes
to 4 or more of these questions & these behaviors last longer than 2 weeks, you should seek professional help for your child.
For more information, contact:
SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information
Center
800-789-2647
www.mentalhealth.org
We had an employee who was a compulsive gambler & unfortunately,
he lost his job because of absenteeism. When confronted, he always appeared in control. However, he was only in control of his excuses. What more could I have done to help him?
Although you can’t
diagnose a compulsive gambler, being aware of signs &
symptoms of performance problems can help you determine whether referral to the EAP is necessary.
Symptoms of compulsive gambling may include:
-
being chronically late for work
-
unexplained absences or disappearances from work
-
abusing sick leave
-
taking long lunch or phone breaks
-
leaving work early to gamble or meet a bookie
-
taking vacations at gambling destinations
-
borrowing money from coworkers
-
having conflicts with them about money owed to them
-
requesting salary advances
-
family members calling to inquire about the
salary of the employee
-
using petty cash to float a loan
-
requesting pay
instead of vacation time
-
stealing company-owned
merchandise or property
-
falsifying expense
accounts
Without an effective
performance appraisal process, some employees will gradually
demonstrate problematic workplace behaviors that otherwise wouldn't
appear. The performance evaluation in fluences a constructive sense of urgency that contributes to productivity & positive workplace behaviors.
Even the
best, most self-disciplined employees benefit from performance appraisals, not only because
of the recognition that comes from a job well done, but also because of the
certainty of an adverse response from an unsatisfactory
evaluation.
Other important benefits of performance appraisals are their contribution to boundaries & the promotion of an influential
relationship between the supervisor & the employee.
A meaningful performance evaluation is an important management tool that keeps these boundaries from becoming obscure, the result being diminished authority
crucial to the supervisor’s role.
Coaching may be
an option for you & the EAP may offer help, or know of
resources in the community where you can turn. The EAP may have additional suggestions for you, depending on your discussion.
Coaching has become popular in the past several years, but it isn't a regulated
or licensed profession. It entails working with a trained
& quali fied person under a formal agreement. The coach will discuss performance outcomes, expectations & commitment within the coaching relationship.
Coaching can be
done over the phone or in person. The coach will ask you an
extensive series of questions, develop a plan & guide you step-by-step to help you achieve your desired goal. As the coaching relationship ends, you will review your
goals, progress & the effectiveness of the coaching experience.
By the time you’re
done, you should have a support system & a plan of action to maintain the behaviors & relationships you achieved during the coaching period.
Your employee’s
response to your confrontation doesn't re flect her interest in correcting her performance or taking responsibility for her problems. It's natural to assume that your employee
would dismiss any attempt to refer her to the EAP.
However, EA professionals
have consistently observed that most employees such as the one you describe
will eventually come to the EAP if a progressive disciplinary
process is used. In fact, the defensiveness you witness may ironically be a clue to her amenability
to a referral. She also may feel guilty about her poor performance. You can’t tell from her reaction.
Her difficulty
in accepting your confrontation may be attributed to the work environment,
the nature of a personal problem if one exists, her personality, or other unknown factors. Below the surface of her defensiveness she could be hurting & wanting help for an unmanageable personal problem.
My employee appears arrogant when confronted about performance
problems. Although her work issues
are obvious, I feel like I'm the bad guy when
I confront her. I don’t think this describes someone who would ever go
to the EAP, correct?
Awareness
Developing / Focusing your Awareness
- key to happiness, health & freedom
Being aware
in the moment is the essence of many esoteric, mystery, spiritual & ancient schools & teachings.
Excerpt from , "Friendship
with God" by Donald Neale Walsch
"I have come here to wake you up.
You're awake now. You are aware. Awareness is a state
of being. You're being aware. From this state of awareness,
you can choose any other beingness. You can choose to be wise, or wonderful. You can choose to be compassionate & understanding. You can choose to be patient & forgiving.
Can't I simply choose to be
happy?
Yes
How? How do I do that?
Don't do it. Simply be it.
Do not try to 'do' happy. Simply choose to 'be' happy & everything you'll do will spring from that. It will be given birth by that. What you are being gives birth to what
you're doing. Always remember that.
But how can I choose to be happy? Isn't it happiness something that happens? I mean, isn't something that I just am because of something that is happening, or going to happen.
No! It is something
that you can choose to be because of what is happening, or going to happen. You are choosing just to be happy. Haven't you seen 2 people reacting entirely differently to the same outer set of circumstances.
Of course. But that happens
because the circumstances meant something different to each of them.
You determine
what something means! You give it its meaning. Until you decide what something means, it has no meaning at all. Remember that.
Nothing means anything at all.
Out of your state if
beingness will meaning spring. It is you who are choosing to be sad. Or choosing to be angry, or mollifired, or forgiving, or enlightened, or whatever. You are choosing. You. Not something outside of yourself. And you are choosing quite arbitrarily.
Now, here's the great secret.
You can choose a state of beingness before something happends, just as you do after something happens. Thus, you can create
your experience, not simply have it.
You are in fact, doing this
right now. In every moment. Yet you may be doing it unconsciously. You may be as someone sleepwalking. If so, it's now time
to wake up.
Yet you can't be totally awake
while you're thinking. Thinking is another form of being in a dream state. Because what you're thinking about is the illusion, you've placed yourself there, so you should give it some thought.
But remember,
thought creates reality, so if you've created a reality that you don't like, don't give it a second thought.
"Nothing is evil, lest
thinking make it so."
Precisely. So every once in
a while, it might be good to stop to thinking all together. To get in touch with a higher reality. To pop out of the illusion.
Excerpt from Friendship with God, Neale Donald Walsch, pp 198 - 206
Identity Doesn't Die
Awareness will
never experience non-awareness, death. The one who is already dead (not the one who appears
to die) is the one who says, “Life is mine. God is MY life.” The “my” who says “mine”
is the possessor, the liar from the beginning.
This one can be loosed
& let go here & now if one will simply, consciously, be what he is already. What is that?
-
unencumbered
-
unjudging
-
unpossessed
-
motiveless
-
opinionless
Awareness ITSELF.
No effort is necessary.
What is the activity of Awareness?
To behold, witness,
see - acknowledge, love & be!
Does Awareness have authority
to judge?
Awareness is Awareness, not an evaluator. It makes distinctions, not judgments. “This is a hickory tree,” it says. “That is a mountain.” It is the poor judge who agonizes over bad hickory trees.
It isn't enough
to proclaim that there's no human identification while one continues to identify himself as one; nor is it enough to attempt
to enjoy the benefits of 2 identities,
-
one considered "real"
-
the other "unreal"
Most
especially, it's futile to work one against the other so that a human sense of self will fare better because of a knowledge of a "higher" order of being.
Listen to the simplicity of the New Idea: Spirit is being this Awareness of being.
The function of Awareness is Spirit's responsibility & it doesn't belong to another called you, me, he, she or it. We aren't concerned about he, she or it, however; we're concerned with the only one we can be concerned about - this Awareness being I.
What must we do in order
to let Spirit - Infinite Intelligence, Power, Authority & Being - be all in all?
We simply let go the futile notion there is a "me" or a "you" using this consciousness. It's as simple as that. If one thinks this
is to be languid & lazy or to languish in an ivory tower of mental escapism (as intellectualism
- & Macbeth - inevitably charge), let him try it! Just let him try it!
Very quickly he
finds it far removed from "doing nothing." To those bold enough to offer up the old ego in honest sacrifice, this "world experience"
breaks forth into astonishing, joy-filled, "busy" adventures.
by W. Samuel - Full article on reality page
The essence of many holistic
approaches or spiritual paths is that you develop awareness - train your mind
The aim is to
stop the mind wandering & clinging to distractions & thoughts of past, future - worry, fear, greed etc.
Be here now! Rest
in peaceful awareness!
Be aware
of the voidness / emptiness of reality!
eg. Meditation, Buddhism etc.
eg. Alexander technique - being aware of posture in the moment
eg. healing - being aware of energy
healthy eating - conscious eating, Conscious Parenting,
etc.
'Energy follows thought'
Bringing your awareness
/ attention to something , brings energy there, 'you manifest
what you focus on'
Exercise: close your eyes & just focus on on of your hands. Soon, if you can keep focused & calm, you'll notice the temperature in your hand rising.
Relax. Just stop
thinking, start feeling, just being aware of your senses. eg. breath, hearing, taste / smell, sight (focusing on one object), etc.
Who am I?
I am the awareness
/ silence that I am
I am the silent witness, who observes, without judgment
This is what Awakening
/ becoming enlightened / god - realized is about - being consciously
aware in the present moment reality - the eternal ever-refreshing flow of Is-ness
With awareness
you get insight, acceptance & relaxation.
I am whatever I identify with!!
read more
10 levels of Awareness
Donald Neale-Walsch
dreamt the following levels (from Seminar in London 2000)
-
sufferer
-
seeker
-
finder
-
-
-
knower
-
experimenter
-
one that experiences
-
expresser
-
become one with that which you express
So many seekers
become seekers due to suffering.
The highest level of awareness is to become one with what you express (e.g, Truth
or Love)
To develop Awareness:
take a step back from self - visualize self from above / outside self
Be aware
of:
-
-
primary selves - caretaker, pusher, etc.
-
Archetypes
-
Star Signs
-
Rays
-
Most people are stuck,
playing the roles mentioned above (e.g. poor me to get attention).
Most people react like
robots acting from previous beliefs, attitudes, experience, habits etc.
Most people are already stressed & angry before they realize / are aware of their bad actions / attitude. Usually too late by that stage - already said something painful.
Most people identify
themselves with the primary roles - most people think they are their fears / habits / beliefs, etc.
Through cultivating &
training the mind you can detach from the situation/ loaded statement / action / criticism etc.
By meditating & simply becoming aware of our roles / habits etc. we get an extra split second to
decide whether or not to react / shout / get stressed or irritated.
So someone who meditates might actually notice 'becoming stressed', more - not because he / she is getting more stressed, than before, but because he /she has become aware of it. (However
there may be a period of accelerated irritation / stress as we learn / unlearn lessons & traumas)
The trick is to become
aware of the primary selves and realize that ' I am not my fears / roles, I am the awareness of the roles that appear'
This is not limited to self either - I am the awareness of the psychosocial role playing!
The enlightened being is always fresh - no fixed belief / desire only preferences - everything is new, as if for first time again! and if you don't get what you've been aspiring for then
no worries - you accept and understand that it is part of life.
7 Types of People & corresponding professions
-
The Power Type - Government Politics
-
The Love Type - Education & Teaching
-
The active type
- Finance, Trade
-
The artistic
type Sociology, race and culture cooperation
-
The scientific
type - Sciences inc. medicine & psychology
-
-
The business
Type - Structuring of society
for more info on the 12 rays see ray page & 'The complete Ascension Manual, By Dr Joshua Stone' Fear & Ego
Be aware of your
fears
- fear of
Be aware of your
ego
Be aware when your negative ego is operating.
Negative Ego operates from:
Ego's try & manipulate people to gain energy. As soon as voices are raised you're probably speaking / shouting from a ego perspective - not getting what I want or - 'I do everything, no-one cares' (poor me / martyr)
or 'I am right, you're wrong' (proving
point) or 'what's in it for me' or ' nobody tells me what to do!'
Be aware
of doubt, feeling's of lack of self-worth staying fit & healthy being aware of your of your emotional, mental, spiritual, & physical
habits & processes i.e., eating, sleeping, breathing,
meditating
Be aware of the flow Awareness of when you are in the flow
or out of it - feeling in harmony with life or out of sync.
Be aware when your inner peace is disturbed.
Balance you Yin / Yang - left brain - right brain
Be aware of when you're
operating from left or right brain
When you get angry at somebody/thing, become aware of your ego & motivations detach self from situation - take a step back - watch self like movie - become aware of control dramas are you reacting from fear? (fear of losing power / control / approval etc.)
Often we blame others for our anger, stress, rage - however it's always up to us whether or not to get upset - there's always a gap between stimulus & reaction!
The truth according to many teachers & guru's is that we deserve that situation because our karma. The paradox is that we should thank our friends / lover's / family for
getting us stressed - so that we can learn about ourselves! We should be saying
sorry to them!! 'you don't like in others what don't like
about yourself' Life is like a mirror!
As within,
so without, As above so below (Hermetic Law) Polarity - Play of opposites, cycles, See Beauty / divine in all - plants, people, stones, thunder etc.
related books:
- Meditation in Plain English
-
Soul Psychology : How to Clear Negative Emotions and Spiritualize Your Life
Joshua David Stone (UK / US)
-
Personal Power through Awareness, A Guidebook for sensitive people Sanaya Roman
-
The Power of Now, A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
What does all this mean?
The following is a summary
of 'The Meaning of Life' - followed by tips for harmonious living . If you choose so & intend - this page will help you, as a pointer, on the path to being happy, balanced & at peace with self & others.
This is based on my personal
levels of consciousness & research of ancient & modern, spiritual & scientific texts, exercises, practices
& experience.
Don't believe anything - experience it for yourself. Be open minded & healthy skeptical.
If you put knowledge into
action thru regular practice you'll have more good luck / karma, you'll be able to manifest & attract anything
your heart desires & your life will have more meaning & direction.
-
Confidence will increase - as you realize nobody can harm your inner spirit & as you master your self
-
You'll be in the flow
- life will be full of more meaningful experiences & relationships
-
You'll experience Synchronistic
(meaningful coincidences) events more regularly
-
Ascension & fully
integrated, unsurpassable enlightenment in this lifetime
-
If you choose you may
open your Third Eye, Buddha's Eye, Buddha's Palm, Eye of Insight & intuition - namely ability's of - sense subtle energies, clair-sentience, clairvoyance, clair-audience, Inner Knowing, peace, clarity, direct cognition, direct comprehension - seeing the true nature of reality
-
This is real &
available to all who are ready, willing & able.
Now I've given
you the positive sales pitch, I have to warn you.
Warning of Spiritual Path
Asking the questions
that this page & site deals with is a serious matter, no joke. Monks would cleanse, purify themselves before even asking
before asking some of the deep questions of life - such as
- Who Am I?
- What is the Meaning of Life?
In the Ancient Mystery
Schools of Egypt you'd spend at least 12 years on the left brain & 12 years on the right brain (left & Right Eye of Horus).
In Tibetan Buddhism
you prepare & learn for years before being shown certain teachings & being initiated / empowered into higher spiritual
practices.
However the chances are
you've already been thinking about it (consciously or un / sub consciously), otherwise you wouldn't
be here.
Even if you think you're here by accident / pressure / politeness I reckon that there's a deeper meaning to your presence here. But
then again I could be wrong! Time will tell!
Your life will more than
likely change at rapid, but not too uncomfortable pace - But once you start becoming conscious it is difficult to turn back. Relationships
change as people try & hold you back or don't know how to deal with you.
However if you decide
to embark on this journey,
-
Be aware that you'll uncover many parts of yourself that you didn't know existed & /or tried to hide from self & others.
-
Be aware that you may change friends or your friends may change too!
-
Be aware of the pace of your learning,
-
Be balanced & integrated in your approach - mental, physical, emotional & spiritual levels
-
-
-
Be aware that change is inevitable - so resistance is futile
-
Be aware of timing - timing is everything
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Be aware your day to day responsibilities & necessities - but try to gradually cut these down
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Be aware that there are no guarantees & this is a pathless path - teachings are only a map - not the territory
- finger pointing to the moon, not the moon itself.
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Be a student
not a follower
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And don't be
attached to the trappings, psychic powers, increased power & charisma
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Be aware that you're probably reading this page for a reason - the time maybe right for another boost to your life!
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Be aware it's worth it! (but no guarantee)
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Be Aware of Awareness!! Be aware when you lose
your rag/ center/ balance.
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Just Be Relaxed & Alert - Rest in the 'clear & knowing state', rest in 'mere experience', abide in pure luminosity - true nature
of mind.
In Case of Danger
If life is too hectic
If you're going mad
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Seek professional
guidance - counselor's, psychotherapist (I'm not a medical practitioner)
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Check your expectations on life / God / self / others against reality - what truly is!
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Don't read into
signs & symbols too much, but acknowledge them
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Don't ask abstract
questions that can't be answered - e.g. if Hitler was alive today?
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Be present in the moment - focus on the scenery, flowers, sunset, body, birds, animals, friends, thoughts, emotions, actions, breathing, seeing, hearing, feeling, dancing etc.
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Serving others
is a good way to get over neurosis - but be careful this often scares people if you force help on them
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Meditate - become aware of your thoughts -madness /disturbances, know that they'll soon pass
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Be
tranquil & relaxed but be focused & alert
see pages on pitfalls of the spiritual path & seeking & madness
Awareness Thru Creativity - By Emelisa Mudle
Creative self-exploration
is an amazingly insightful experience, which can help you get in touch with your subconscious & bring clarity into feelings & thoughts that may be holding
you back.
Many people walk into my painting workshops wondering what they are getting
themselves into. Yet they arrive open & ready for the experience. We begin painting with the opposing hand, paper &
anything but a paintbrush. To allow the right side of the brain to play more freely, our first paintings are done without
the use of words or intentional symbols.
After we finish each painting, I ask them
“How do you feel? What feelings came up for you as you were doing this?”
By
the 4th painting some of the students are in tears of release. Others have discovered the freedom of exploring their inner
world without being hindered by their left brained judgmental side.
In the final
painting we set an intent, whether it's a happy moment or a painful time in their lives. They continue applying paint with
their opposing hand, exploring further into themselves. After half an hour we talk about their experiences. My students are
always amazed at where the workshop has taken them. Some of them work thru their grief for deceased loved ones. Others are
able to let go of a fear that plagued them for many years. Others discover new joy & appreciation for themselves.
Kate attended a one-on-one healing session. She was feeling frustrated
with her “inner critic.” As I guided her thru the process she began to see something she hadn’t seen before.
The face of her critic had appeared in the tree of her painting.
As we explored
this further, Kate was able to see how she gave her power to her inner critic. As she continued to paint thru her feelings
of powerlessness, she was able to see how powerful she really was. Kate walked out of her session with a healthier understanding
of her critic; she felt such a sense of joy & freedom. I've been in contact with Kate since her session & I'm happy
to say she has found a sense of freedom within her she had never experienced before.
Some
people ask, “How can creativity get me in touch with my feelings?” Using the opposing hand calls upon the right
brain - the feeling intuitive side, not the more linear left side. The creative experience opens us up, allowing our unconscious
thoughts & feelings to unfold thru the act of painting. Imagine your mind is like an iceburg; consciously, only 15% is
visible above the water.
Creative exploration
taps into the hidden 85% & helps us bring more awareness into our lives.
A gentle exercise
You will need:
· Paper
· Medium
of your choice (pastels, pencils, paint).
Create a space where you are not going
to be disturbed for an hour or so if you like you could light a candle make a pot of tea and light some incense.
Take 3 deep breaths. As you inhale, feel the breath move down all the way to your toes. As you
breathe out, release any tension.
Now focus on something that is bothering your—work,
relationships or health. Before you begin painting set an intent such as: “My intent is to explore and gain clarity
on my health issues.”
Now, using your opposing hand, allow yourself to just
make marks and let the feelings out onto your paper. When you feel you are finished, ask yourself. “How do I feel? What
do the colors represent? Are the marks heavy or light?”
For instance: Sometimes
when I paint I may see a lot of anger around health issues. In the next painting I will ask for clarity with the anger and
what it is doing to me. If I still need more clarity, I go into left and right hand writing, asking a question with my normal
writing hand and responding with my opposing hand.
Example:
Normal hand: “I
am really feeling angry and I am having trouble finding out why can you assist me?”
Opposing hand: “I have had enough of how you
are treating me. You always sit around and put horrible food in me and I have had enough”
Normal hand: “I’m sorry. I didn’t
know you felt this way. What can I do to help you?”
Opposing hand: “I need more water, more life force food; more walking; more love.”
Continue painting
and writing as long as you feel the need to explore this issue to gain more clarity. Journaling about your explorations and
the paintings themselves will also give you further insights.
Creative exploration is such a gentle way of healing, just remember to be open
and let go allowing the process to guide you. I have healed my migraines and still work on my anxiety issues using creative exploration.
-Emelisa Mudle is an Australian Artist and International Workshop
Facilitator. Emelisa runs a variety of workshops each month. In November to January 2007 she will be traveling to the USA
and running workshops in the East Bay area of California. Please visit her website http://home.iprimus.com.au/emelisa
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it's in the news....
A Jewish Path to Fulfillment & Personal Growth. Start here with Way #1: Be Aware of Every Moment.
Imagine you're stuck in traffic
& another driver is taking dollar bills & throwing them out the window. You can't believe it. The guy is whacko. Every 5 minutes, another dollar flies out the window!
You probably never saw this.
But you've seen someone throwing 5 minutes out the window.
Maybe you even did it yourself.
The bus takes off & you're really enjoying the scenery: "Oh, a hill... look at that store... & there's a park!"
It's not so bad for the first
few minutes. But then the cash register starts ringing up more wasted time. Ding! Ding!
To become a great human being
requires applying your mind constantly, until it pervades every fiber of your being.
It all begins with a decision,
a commitment. Try saying aloud: "Life is an opportunity. I want to use my mind & be constantly moving toward my goal."
You may notice some resistance as a little voice protests inside: "No way! All work & no play will make Jack a dull
boy. C'mon, let's space out & watch TV!"
Does this mean being an obsessive workaholic? Of course not - you still need to sleep!
Let's understand.
"Constant striving" means that when you sleep in order to be more productive, then the sleep becomes part of your overall goal. It's the same with eating & exercise.
So what about relaxing?
Of course it's okay
to relax. But relaxing means "changing gears." Your relaxation should be purposeful & directed. Think of something else that's not as exerting, but is still meaningful. For example, shift your focus to nature, music or art.
Sometimes, even a simple change of scenery, a cold drink, or a breathe of fresh air is enough to recharge your batteries.
But don't space out.
We do this, because it's painful
to be constantly aware, to be constantly "on."
To break thru that pain, focus
instead on the pay-off. When you're constantly aware, every experience becomes a lesson
in life. i.e., if you're in a dentist's office, you could use that time to reach any number of crucial insights:
- I'm lucky to have teeth. A toothless
life would be much less pleasurable.
- If there's such a thing as dental hygiene, there must be a
concept of spiritual hygiene, too. I wonder what it is.
- Without the pain of the drill, my teeth would fall out. Perhaps
some other difficulties in life also help me accomplish good things.
- The human body is so intricate. The integration of teeth,
gums, tongue & saliva is an incredible feat of anatomical & physiological design. How did it all come about?
Whatever you're doing at any
given moment - watching the news, working on a business deal, talking to a friend, reading this article - give it your full
attention. Decide that you're willing to take the pain of thinking, of being aware, all day long.
"CONTINUOUS:"
WITHOUT INTERRUPTION
Whenever you pursue a specific
goal, it should be without interruption. It's actually better to study for 1 hour straight, than for 2 hours with interruptions.
Interruptions break our train of thought & limit our ability to retain information. They take the power out of learning.
Set aside a certain time when
you block everything else out, where you'll not budge from the activity you're focusing on. Don't sit down & then get
up to open the window. Then get up to fetch a Coke. And get up again to close the window. And get up to turn on the radio.
Make up your mind: "I am going
to do 'X' for one hour straight. No bouncing up & down!" For an entire 15 minutes, don't stop. Not to change your seat,
not to get a drink, not for anything that isn't life-threatening!
You can practice this while
riding on the bus, or waiting at the dentist's office. Set yourself a goal of 15 minutes to focus exclusively on one subject. It may be a problem you're having at work, a personal goal, or an issue in a relationship.
For example, you might say
to yourself, "The next 15 minutes I'm going to devote to thinking about my family, how I can help them, why I love them, my pleasure in them."
Or try devoting 15 minutes a day to be aware of every aspect of life around you - from the blood coursing
through your veins to keep every cell alive, to the ant crawling across the ground under your feet. For that 15 minutes, you're
totally attuned to the miracle of being alive.
Then, at the end of these
15 minutes, appreciate how the time was well spent. Time that otherwise would have been wasted...
Little by little, increase
your time. First 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then one hour, then two hours. Once you hit four hours, you're sailing.
The Vilna Gaon, the great
18th century Jewish scholar, said that the first 3 hours & 59 minutes is stoking the furnace. By the 4th hour, the pot
is boiling.
And don't stop. Because if
you take the pot off the fire - even for a few minutes - you have to reboil it all over again.
"CONSISTENT:"
ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE
To really get into gear, you
need to find your rhythm.
The human body loves patterns.
Even the most daunting tasks become fluid when set into a schedule. This means doing the activity in the same place, at the
same time & in the same way (as much as reasonably possible).
That's why Judaism has certain
pre-set activities every day. When waking up, i.e., we say: "Thank God I'm alive." It's a moment of conscious appreciation for getting another chance, another day. This awareness gets us up on the right side of
the bed, starting our day on a high note.
When it comes to any goal, make a certain time of the day "holy." For however much or little time, make a commitment & be consistent every day. There's power in that commitment. You know you're going to change. Your life will be different.
Try it. Commit yourself 365 days a year, for the rest of your life: When you wake up in the morning, appreciate being alive.
"CYCLICAL:"
REPETITION & REVIEW
Life isn't one-dimensional.
It must be studied from every side & turned upside down.
Study the same subject for
a long period of time. Don't bounce around superficially from one topic to the next. Choose a topic you love & become an expert in at least one aspect of life. Become engrossed.
Whatever subject you choose,
there's always more to learn. Even as you move to other areas of knowledge, be alert to pick up information pertinent to previous
topics. This allows for cross-referencing & ultimately, a deeper understanding.
Whatever you learn, make sure
you don't forget. How many times has an insight struck you with astonishing clarity - & then slipped out of your mind the next day? The insight is fleeting if you don't capture it in some way.
It has to sink into your bones & permeate your
mind.
This means constant review
of one's learning in some form or another.
Verbal repetition is powerful. It clarifies an idea & brings it into reality. That's why we repeat the Shema twice a day & why we review
the Torah year after year. The Sages of the Talmud would repeat any new insight 40 times - & repeat an especially vital
idea 101 times.
It's kind of like "Remember
the Alamo!" Of course, you may forget the Alamo, but you can remember this article in a catch-phrase like "Make Every Second
Count" or "Live to the Max."
Whatever moves you &
gets you energized, repeat it again, again & again.
Make it your refrain, your
background music. When you wear out one phrase, get yourself another. Whatever works has power.
"COMPREHENSIVE:"
BE A STUDENT OF LIFE
Imagine someone asking you,
"What do you do?" You answer, "I'm a lawyer," or "I'm an engineer," or "I'm an accountant."
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Suppose you see someone going
to sleep & you say to him, "What do you do?"
He says, "I'm a sleeper."
"You're a sleeper? How do
you make a living doing that? Who pays you to sleep?!"
That's my point exactly. When
you add up the hours over a lifetime, you spend more time sleeping than being a lawyer.
The essential you isn't the
lawyer. It's the thinker, the seeker, the living, breathing human being who loves, who is continually growing, who desires greatness, who hungers to know more. Identify with this. It's who you really are.
Ask a woman with 4 children:
"Who are you?" She answers: "A mother." But that's only one aspect of who she is (albeit an important
one). She's also a friend, a community volunteer, an educator, a chef, a nurse, a child psychologist, a thinker, an information gatherer, a pursuer of truth & more.
Unfortunately, we develop
this identity problem early in life. Every child is asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" This question has subtle
implications that can damage a developing personality.
The child is thinking: "What's wrong with being 'me?' Is 'me' so terrible that I have to 'become' something different
when I grow up?"
The Sages say: "Make the study
of life your main occupation & your profession secondary." The question isn't "what are you doing for a living," but rather
"what do you do for life?"
If you see yourself as a "thinker," then thinking becomes a priority. So update your self-definition. Learn your whole reason for living & live it fully.
IS LIFE GOOD?
The bottom line
is you have to decide: Is life good or not?
This comes down to a more
basic question: Does life have purpose?
If it doesn't,
then there's no reason not to waste time, because nothing really matters anyway. But if you believe there is a purpose to life, why would you want to waste any bit of it? You'll want to understand
every aspect of life, to do the most with the limited time you have.
Jewish consciousness
says that the worst crime is murder.
- The worst murder is premeditated.
- The worst premeditated is of family.
- Even worse is murder of self - i.e. suicide.
- Spiritual suicide is worse than physical suicide.
- Killing time is spiritual suicide.
Human beings were
created for pleasure. Adam & Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden. In Hebrew, Eden means "pleasure."
When you commit yourself to what a human being was destined for - a life of pleasure - you'll go out searching for the highest pleasures.
Along the way, you'll make distinctions between pleasure & comfort, between necessary pain & needless suffering. And through the process, you'll discover the true meaning of life.
The Torah says:
"Abraham was old & he came with his days." Many people can become old without their days, because they may only experience
growth over a year. But Abraham & Sarah had daily growth spurts. They got as much out of living as possible.
Make the commitment to discover life's deeper pleasures. It could be the difference between a useful life & a wasted one.
10 TOOLS FOR CONSTANT AWARENESS
1) Plan out what you want to accomplish. If you know what you're after, you'll pursue it with more vitality.
2) Plan in the evening how you'll get up in the morning. Don't let the snooze button control your life.
3) To start off on the right
foot, get up 10 minutes early & say the Shema.
4) Review your day. See what
the obstacles were. Strategize how to avoid them in the future. Review what you learned in the past 24 hours.
5) Catch yourself day dreaming
at least once a day & examine: "What am I doing right now & how could I use this moment more effectively?"
6) Become a student of life.
Study wherever you are. Have books, thoughts, etc. ready to keep your mind growing. (No staring out the window like a zombie.)
7) Memorize pieces of wisdom. It will give you something to learn as you walk down the street or wait in line at the supermarket.
8) Pick appealing catch-phrases,
to inspire yourself on the spot & to wake yourself up when you feel like drifting off.
9) Frequently ponder the question:
What is the purpose of life? What am I doing on this planet?
10) Plan ahead now. What do you want to study? What do you need to realize your ambitions? How do you want to grow?
Everyone says that "time is
money." But which is more important: five minutes or a dollar? Time is the greatest opportunity of your life. Don't waste a minute of it.
Managing your Learning
For most people studying at
university poses many challenges. Not only is there a large amount of work to do in a relatively short space of time, but there are also the competing demands
of work, family, social life & sport to cope with.
Understanding the nature of university study & knowing how to function more effectively as a learner will help you to meet these challenges & demands.
Understanding expectations
It's important to realize that learning at university is very different to learning at school. At university you're expected to:
- take responsibility for your own learning - i.e., it's up to you to decide how & when you'll study & how much you'll learn
- be able to think independently - i.e., to go beyond lecture notes & textbooks, to make links between theory & practice, to apply your knowledge
& skills to new situations, to evaluate arguments & evidence & to form independent judgments
- recognize that knowledge isn't fixed or certain, but is constantly evolving, that it's constructed by individuals & that theories
& opinions may consequently differ & be contested or challenged
Being aware of how you learn
The first step towards becoming
a more effective learner is to understand how you learn.
To find out more about yourself as a learner, try answering
the following questions:
1. When learning do you try to memorize a lot of facts you
don’t fully understand?
2. Do you need to make sense of information before you memorize it?
3. Do you try to distinguish
between concepts & examples?
4. Do you attempt to relate new knowledge to what
you already know?
5. Do you try to gain an overview of a subject or reading before
focusing on the details?
6. Do you like to be told what to learn & how to go
about it?
7. Do you like tasks that are open-ended & that allow you to develop
your own ideas & interests?
8. Is the need to pass exams & to complete assignments your main reason for studying?
Improving your learning style
Research has repeatedly shown
that students who adopt a deep or strategic approach to learning are more successful at university than those who adopt only a surface approach.
On first coming to university,
however, many students continue to rely on approaches they used in the past, even when such approaches are inappropriate for
the tasks which have been set.
To get the most out of your university studies, you
may need to rethink your current learning strategies. Here are some things you can do to improve the way in which you learn:
* Concentrate on understanding key concepts & principles i.e., Make sure that you grasp the ideas that underpin specific facts & opinions & that you're able to distinguish concepts & principles from examples e.g.,
When driving in NZ the
principle is that you must give way to cars on your right.
The specific situations in
which you do this are examples of the application of the principle.
Link individual facts
& examples to a conceptual framework, ie. Don’t attempt to learn facts & examples in isolation. Make sure that you relate them to the concepts & principles they illustrate.
Obtain
an overview of a subject or argument before focusing on the details i.e., Make sure that you understand the material you're reading or learning & that you've grasped the main ideas before you begin to look at specific facts
& examples.
Try to relate new knowledge to existing knowledge i.e., When you're
introduced to new information, try to relate it to what you already know & understand about a particular subject or topic.
Try to enjoy learning for its own sake
i.e., Pursue subjects & areas of interest. Don’t learn simply to pass exams.
Make
good use of feedback i.e., Read the comments of markers carefully & try to use their suggestions to improve future
work. Pay attention to comments about your response to the assignment topic, as well as to comments about presentation etc.
If you've answered multi-choice questions incorrectly, make sure you find out why your answers are incorrect & remedy
any gaps in understanding.
Most importantly, don’t be afraid to seek help from your tutor or lecturer.
How to get more out of studying
As well as trying to improve
your learning strategies, you should also work on improving your study habits. There are many things you can do to ensure
that you study more effectively, but the following things are the most important:
Plan your study. Don't spend all your time in 1 or 2 subjects while ignoring others. Designate regular study times & plan other commitments around these, not vice versa! Calculate at least 1 hour in study time for each point a paper is worth i.e., 6 hours in addition
to class time for a 6 credit point paper.
Learn to prioritize. Decide what's important & urgent & deal with these tasks before tackling tasks that are less important & that can wait. You should also make sure that you note when major assignments are due, so that you plan your time accordingly.
Begin with the assignments
that have the earliest deadlines, not those that are easiest or most interesting!
Be an
active rather than a passive learner. Don't just read your notes & textbooks as if you were reading the newspaper or a novel. Try using the
following techniques:
- Underline key points
- Question yourself & get others to question you on
what you're reading
- Draw diagrams or concept maps to help you to make sense
of information
- Summarize lecture notes & course readings
(this will help recall)
- Relate ideas to similar ideas
- Picture things in your mind as you read
- Repeat important points & details to yourself
- Practice answering questions & doing problems
Avoid studying the same subject for long periods of time without a break. 5 one hour sessions can sometimes be more effective
than one 5 hour session!
Study the subject or subjects you find most difficult or
boring before the ones you find interesting. This will help you to maintain concentration.
Revise
consistently, not just the week or day before exams. The more you go over material, the more reinforcement will take place &
the easier it'll be to recall.
Try to study at the time of the day that's the most
productive for you. For some this is in the morning, while for others it's in the afternoon or evening.
Don't persist with study if
you're feeling very sleepy as you'll not be learning effectively. Take a break every hour & if you're finding it particularly difficult
to concentrate, slot in some other activity between study sessions.
Study in an environment
that you find comfortable. Don't, however, choose one that's so relaxing that you fall asleep!
Staying motivated
It isn't uncommon for students
to lose interest & motication at some stage duing their studies. This may be due to changing interests, employment, family problems, or any number of other factors, so don't be surprised if you find yourself in this
situation.
There are several strategies
you can use, however, to help yourself to stay focused & motivated.
Try, i.e., to
- establish clear
short-term goals. i.e., Specify what you want to achieve this week & this month, rather than what you hope to achieve at a later point.
- break goals down into achievable tasks. i.e., If your goal is to complete an assignment, break this down into when you'll do the required reading, when you'll compete your first draft
& when you'll revise what you've written.
If the goal is to understand a particular topic, break this down into reading lecture notes, reading to relevant sections
of the textbook & completing any further reading.
- include rewards i.e., Make sure you treat yourself to something you enjoy when you have met deadlines & have achieved set
goals.
- form
a study group It may be difficult to do this, if you're a distance education student, but if you
can't meet face-to-face with students who live near to you, you could try other means such as audio-conferencing, e-mail &
telephone.
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PTSD's - Manager's Workshop - being aware in business of post traumatic stress disorder & the winter duldrums - Brief Article
William J. Dorgan
Every year at this time many
employees & employers, not to mention customers, providers & clients, find themselves deep in the recesses of a cyclic
psychological slump & they don't know why.
I'd speculate that this year
will see a dramatic increase in the symptoms of these winter doldrums, variously described as the blues, melancholia, clinical depression & SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Being bummed out, dispirited, down in the mouth, unhappy & gloomy has been part of the human condition ever since our ancestors crawled out of their loincloths & donned animal
skins to keep warm.
Tragedy used to be part of everybody's lives. For
our grandparents, life itself was a "vale of tears."
But for everyone born after
WWII, life was a "cabaret" & many of these people lived their entire lives without feeling the sting of tragedy. Bad things still happen to us, but we're generally equipped for these losses.
Once in a while (via the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001), however, the ancient human condition emerges from its primordial ooze &
something beyond ordinary human loss occurs. We're traumatized & jolted & then reawakened
to how fragile our lives are.
So devastating & long lasting are the effects of extraordinary loss that it's finally been given a name & a diagnostic category
of its own: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). No gobbledygook, no euphemism & no psychobabble can conceal the fact that this is one of the saddest human disorders.
Misery & suffering is universal.
Many, but assuredly not all
people, display the telltale traits of PTSD for months & years afterward. Many relive the trauma in dreams or in disturbing flashbacks. Many steer clear of anything related to the trauma or have difficulty falling asleep & staying asleep.
Many can't focus & are
easily startled; others become passive & are constantly anxious. Many become anesthetized to life & feel disinterested & separated from others.
It's said that time heals all things.
Does it? Some wounds heal & others don't. Many victims don't recover briskly, while many of us spring back with resilience. Others are more brittle & beyond consolation. And, sooner
or later, they'll all show up at your cash register.
So, what does this all have
to do with business & management? Everything! Your ability to stay attuned to the societal underpinnings affecting your
bottom line will put you in a better position to weather the storms of fluctuating, seismographic market changes not yet apparent,
but, nonetheless, lurking in the shadows of a war-time economy.
Be prepared to listen more attentively to your customers' complaints. Encourage your workers to walk customers gingerly & thoughtfully thru their questions.
Seize the opportunity
to forestall any semblance of discourtesy & rudeness. You may be the next PTSD victim. And that's no way to start out the New Year!
Increasing Awareness
By Mary
Evans
The ability to shift consciousness
has numerous benefits and can be taught. Our learning is integrated when we can shift our own consciousness. We achieve a
level of self mastery -recovery of our own attention. These are the tools taught on the avatar course. Some students integrate
the tools quickly, some will take years to fully integrate, as a result of life lessons we must first experience.
The ability to shift consciousness requires awareness of what
is existing. If a pain persists without attention, it may lead to nerve damage and numbness - an inability to perceive pain.
Since pain is the messenger that something is out of balance to reach a state of numbness poses more of a threat than the original pain signal.
We can become psychically numb…we are unable to differentiate our own thoughts from those indoctrinated into us.. we learn to recite without question the facts and details of what was read, said or inferred.
Spreading of gossip or incorrect information is an example of psychic numbness.
Punishment
delivered as a form of control, reduces our awareness. With reduced awareness, we are
less adept at feeling obvious signs of violation. Violations can continue easily once our awareness is down.
The natural signal,
PAIN, is interrupted by a spasm, a tick or a total bypass of the nervous system into nervous BEHAVIOR ?irritation, excitement, hyper excitement, hysteria, giddiness, mania etc. All reactions TO stimuli are either self created, administered or as a result of a collective identity
(culture).
We escape into our interests..
hobbies...being absorbed into a self created form of pleasure that temporarily lifts us out of the suffering that is inevitable for us to experience. Sometimes,
the self absorbed interest leads to further injury…carpal tunnel syndrome, eyestrain, obesity, joint pain, muscular pain, social isolation, addictions and compulsions etc.
What seems to separate us from the animal kingdom is an ability to increase
our awareness - it can be easily taught in an environment that is lenient, loving and forgiving of errors. The temporary teacher is creating opportunities for our world lessons to unfold without punishment.
Through these lessons,
we increase our self awareness until we can demonstrate the use of the tools TO the teacher or anyone else. This is the goal of avatar - there is a learning environment where teacher and student sometimes appear to be struggling a little to get some
experiences to work with. (A violation has to be felt fully before it transforms into a
world lesson.) A pain has to be recognized before it can be eliminated and awareness has to be raised before there is a cure.
We can set ourselves up as a healers and go ahead and heal those we believe are needing us, or we can set ourselves up to allow others to heal themselves (if they feel the need.)
The rate of success depends on our honesty and willingness to acknowledge certain aspects of ourselves that we create when our awareness drops.
There is rarely any identity
that we cannot cease to create. Avatar is easier for those interested in self honesty - it’s more challenging for those of us who have been betrayed, lied to, robbed, mugged, beaten and punished inappropriately by someone they have given authority to.
It’s difficult for
those of us who have witnessed too much of any limited experience. We have been limited and disempowered. (A housewife for 20yrs might find the
freedom to choose her experiences to be more painful than the limited life she may be complaining about.)
Avatar offers the tools
to freely create and discreate (eliminate fixed attention) whenever, and
wherever. It gives a power that can be giddying and shocking. The power is respected and contained - unleashed when suffering is no longer welcome.
What
aspect of suffering is no longer welcome?
Author's Bio: Mary M. Evans has been a Licensed Avatar Master since 1992. She offers one free preliminary session to
anyone wishing to explore the workability of the Avatar tools in their own life. Her e-mail address is maryevans@avatarfl.com
www.avatarfl.com
source site: click here
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