Life...we're all in it together and yet we feel so separate and so alone.  Lost in the rigours of day to day we trudge along, focused mainly on ourselves, those closest to us, and the dramas that we create in our minds.  Not to say that life doesn't have it's moments of extreme which force out the most human aspects of our being, but for the most part the things that we chose to put a great deal of emotion and energy into don't really merit our intense attention.  

Why is it that we feel such a great sense of separation...a separation that when taken to the extreme sees us destroy ourselves, others... any and all things?  

It seems that through an intensely long period of evolution of human consciousness the tools of the mind and how we see ourselves have malfunctioned.  If we take time out to listen and observe our mind at work, we discover an endless chatter of random and rapid processing of thoughts.  Quite terrifying, frankly, and addressed only by making the choice to first look, and then begin to develop an awareness of what it is, that we are thinking.  Once we become aware of the thoughts we can start to recognize patterns and then ask ourselves where do these patterns stem from.  Recognition and awareness open one's mind to a whole new level of consciousness about self, others, and the bigger picture of life.  

Having a sense that we are all in this thing called life together is something that we can put into a visual to get a better idea of what that means.  Imagine all of us being in a massive room together...no doors or windows except for the one marked death.  There are only so many resources in this room...only so much food, water, oxygen.  Such a simple metaphor yet if we all pondered life everyday from this perspective, we might start to shift from a view of self to a view of unity and oneness with all that is.  

As new energies arise, a great opportunity lays before us...an opportunity to go inward, to discover what is at the core of our fears and the source of our beings.  It is the discovery of both that will set us all free.

Peace, Love & Light

photo...Terry celebrating his birthday in the water

If you knew you could do something.... something that you really wanted to do... and you knew, beyond any doubt, you could do it...then you would do it. Wouldn't you?  

So then the question is, what are the things that stop you from doing the things you really want to do, when you aren't 100% certain you can achieve what you want to achieve?  

Often in life, there are many things we dream of accomplishing but because we are not guaranteed to succeed at these things we stop ourselves from ever venturing out to even take the first steps towards reaching our goals.  What a waste of a good life, it seems, to get stuck in our fears of doubt and uncertainty so much so that we miss the greatest part of life itself; the journey.  

My philosophy in life is that there is a gift inside of everything, sometimes we just have to look a little harder to find the gift.  In other words, no effort is ever wasted, no lesson ever lost if we look to the events and the people of our lives as our masters, our gurus, our teachers.  Inside of this thinking there are no failures, only experiences and every experience offers us the potential to expand our consciousness.  

Any experience that provokes negative feelings is a clue to us that there is something within us calling out to be healed.  People are our mirrors and when we see something in them that pushes our buttons this is a direct tip-off that we have not accepted some aspect of ourselves.  If we deem someone selfish, for example, and have strong negative feelings towards this person and their actions, this could indicate that we are not allowing ourselves enough time, freedom, money, space or whatever else it might be, to take care of our own needs.  If we are willing to look beyond the surface feelings, perhaps of anger, fear, or resentment towards the other person, we may discover that our strong negative reaction is actually envy or even jealousy towards the other for doing something we wish we could allow ourselves to do as well.  Another possible reason for our reaction could be that somewhere in our past we accepted a false or limiting belief about ourself, in this case, that we are selfish.  This label we have acquired may not be true but if we accept the notion into our self view, we create disharmony within us.  The false belief wages battle on who we really are and until we are willing to venture inward, to find this mistruth and reconcile it, we will likely find that we see selfishness in people everywhere we look.

This whole line of thinking can be applied to any experience as well.  Perhaps we have accepted a limiting belief about ourselves, that we are not good enough, can't do 'it', that we are stupid, that we can never succeed.  Guaranteed if we have these beliefs lurking in our subconscious mind, situations will arise over and over of our own creating to support these limiting beliefs.  Therefore, to transcend such limitations we can use challenging situations as our guiding lights to push our buttons and lead us on the inward journey to discovery, healing and wholeness.

All of life's experiences are important and have great value.

So what is stopping you from doing the things you really want to do in life?  

Like Nike says, "Just do it!"

...above photo: tow in surfing on big wave day in Kauai Dec/2009

Check out this recent article in the Georgia Straight offering more insight into the power of the subconscious mind!...

A clever UBC experiment involving a Ouija board and scores of questions suggests that the mind has more than one level

Negativity, doubt and fear are challenging aspects of the human condition but we can think of them as gifts, if we so choose, because when we have these feelings we know that something isn't right.  The upside to this is that once we are aware that something isn't right, we then have the opportunity to look inside ourselves to find out what is causing the uneasy feelings.  

Awareness is always the first step to change, therefore in order to change, we must be willing to observe our actions and feelings to get a sense of where we are at in the moment, in the day, and in our lives.  Feelings and emotions help us determine how in or out of harmony we are with our true selves.  Once we know where we are at we have a better idea of where we want to go.

The problem with living in negative states of being on a regular basis is that we begin to shut down and cut ourselves off from reaching our full potential and living lives we truly love.

The good news is, just as negativity can flourish, so too can positivity.

Optimistic outlooks can develop from adding simple habits to our day.  My favourite habit is practicing 'the attitude of gratitude' at least 3 times a day.  When I wake in the morning, before my feet hit the floor, I lay in bed and express to the universe my deep gratitude for at least 5 things in my life.  I do the same thing before my evening meal and when I close my eyes at night before falling asleep.  

The practice of gratitude, has of course been an intrinsic part of many cultures and religions through out time, but in our Western left brain dominant world where we have been conditioned for speed and results, we've left little room or time for truly acknowledging and appreciating all that we have.  In taking for granted all the simple but amazing aspects of our lives, like one great thing about our bodies, our health, our family, friends, and the beauty of the world around us on a daily basis, we allow a great void to form that becomes harder and harder to fill.  We become increasingly disconnected from ourselves and the world and begin to look for distractions so that we don't have to feel the emptiness we have allowed to form.  

All it takes to start this gratitude process is to find a few things in our life that are good.  Even if we don't feel like anything is good, there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for.  Start with the simplest of things if you are having a hard time, like the fact that your arms work, or your legs work.  If your arms and legs don't work, then find something on your body that does work and focus on that...use your imagination if you have to.  Gratitude is largely about moving our focus from the negative to the positive.  The more we do this the more our outlook on life shifts and our lives naturally evolve to reflect our outlook.

Developing a deep sense of gratitude is like building a muscle.  The first time we do a bicep curl or a leg press it's hard, it hurts and we experience resistance inside ourselves.  Our mind will try to talk us out of what we are doing because we are stepping out of our comfort zone.  It can be the same way with practicing gratitude.  In the beginning, we may feel resistance to finding anything to be grateful for because we love and know our misery like an old friend, and it is easier to remain in what we know, even it feels bad, rather than to venture out into what we don't know...just like it is easier to remain on the couch and out of shape even though our body suffers from the inactivity.  What we don't know from this vantage point is how much better life can be.

Never let simplicity fool you...with a willingness to try, a desire for something better and a little gratitude practice thrown in, we can be well on our way to living a life that we love!

PS...the image at the top is my husband's way of showing gratitude for a beautiful sunset in Hawaii!

"So much life has happened in this little house". These are the words that come to my head as I ease back into a comfortable chair on the back patio of our tiny little house. As I sink in I let out a deep sigh of release letting go of the tension in my body accumulated after a long and productive day. I breath in deeply the vibrant smells that fill the air on this summer night… smells that say everything is alive and active and interacting. The cloudless sky fades from the deep magenta of twilight into the darkness of the night and the first stars begin to appear reminding us that we are not alone in this universe. The night  bugs are hovering around me,  attracted to the glow of my computer screen and I can hear the possums and raccoons rustling their way out into the night, well rested from their day's retreat.

Our beautiful garden, teaming with life, invites me to remember a collage of memories that reside not only in my mind but also in the spaces and places contained within the fences and hedges of our yard. A cascade of images appear and fade, one being replaced by another... moments long passed and times gone by. I get a flash of our old Samoyed Daisy, barking at the fence in her "I-am-a-princess" way, calling to the children next door to come visit her. I think to myself " Wow, that was such a long time ago!" and  I relish in the fact that history has been made here.  It has been made by a cast of characters; my husband and myself, our neighbors, our family and friends, our beloved dogs long since passed and now resting beneath the garden flowers, and of course by all the beautiful vegitation that resides here, and the creatures who pass through on their daily and nightly prowls.

 "So much life has happened in this little house", I think again, but this time I realize this thought is directed towards my body... temple of my soul…a perfect biological system waiting for directive, moment by moment, from the command center of my mind and the divine guidance of my spirit. In the last five months I have made a conscious effort to develop an acute awareness around my feelings and thought processes throughout the day.   If I am experiencing a feeling that doesn't feel good I have developed the habit of asking myself “what is the thought that is causing this feeling?” and I instantly realize that I am generating a negative thought. It turns out it is me who is causing the negative feeling that I'm having. In this moment of awareness and recognition I have the opportunity to make a choice. Continue generating the negative thought or choose to focus on something positive.  It is in this moment of choice where we profoundly create our experience of life. Our minds can only hold on to one thought at a time and we get to choose what that thought will be. There is always something positive to focus on. This process is like learning to build muscle... the more you flex a muscle the stronger it gets. It takes only 16 seconds of focus to change our thought patterns and 60 seconds to change the energy that we are generating out into the world, and as they say “what you give is what you get”.

The most powerful way to live our life is through choice. Choose your thoughts and your life will follow the lead. Change your thoughts and guaranteed, you will change your life.

photo...life's a beach...and if it's not it should be