By Debra Basham, on October 25, 2020 You do live in a physical world,
but there is nothing about your physical world
that is not spirit-based.
There is nothing about your physical world
that is not Source-based.
~ Abraham Hicks
October 2019 I started reading books about non-duality by Rupert Spira. Yesterday the same friend who introduced me to Spira’s writing last year suggested I check out his teachings on being aware of awareness. This comes at a perfect time for me as I am working on the sensory systems information published in Healing with Language, the SCS/NLP training manual.
This comes at a perfect time for “us” as we are bombarded by input from the world through these sensory systems! If some of what you see, hear, think and feel, is keeping you awake at night or causing your blood pressure to go up, causing your concern by concretizing your perceptions of separateness, read on.
Simply put: Whatever we are experiencing, we are aware of that.
Most often, however, this simple experience of being aware is overlooked.
Spira gave a powerful example of this. Think of a flashlight. We can shine light on everything else, but we cannot shine the light on the light bulb from which the beam is shining. The light beam is the source — it can only shine on something that is “other than.”
This flashlight of awareness shines light on your thoughts, feelings, sensations, tastes, smells, memories, beliefs, perceptions, and opinions — all “other than.”
If awareness is incapable of turning around and looking at itself, then how are we going to know our true nature? Let your attention relax or sink or fall backwards into its source….
Let go.
Relax.
Fall backwards.
Sink.
This reminds me of “How to Activate your Diamond Light Body” from Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration, by Penney Pierce.
1. Quiet yourself, center your attention in your body, be in the present moment 100 percent, and create calmness and receptivity. Recall some past positive experiences.
2. Imagine that behind your back, your diamond light body appears. This body looks just like you but is made of pure transparent light and has no wounds or blockages. Your light body radiates wisdom, love, harmony, and the knowledge of abundance. Your light body steps forward and puts its hands on your shoulders.
3. In your imagination, feel the higher vibration of your light body; welcome it and attune to the frequency. As you do, your light body steps inside you, merging with you seamlessly and easily.
4. Your light body matches up with your physical body perfectly, each light body part finding its physical body part: the light heart merges with the physical heart, the light cells match the physical cells, the light brain joins the physical brain. Take some time to scan through the various parts of your body as this process occurs.
5. Allow yourself to let go into the light body as it takes over, saying, ‘You know how to run this brain, this heart, these lungs, how to use these hands, this voice. Please show me how. I trust you to renew me, reorganize me, and teach me.’ Fall into your own light and feel supported.
6. An odd thing happens as you let your diamond light body take over to guide you, a saturation point is reached where you ‘flip’ and realize you are the diamond light body. Your identity shifts. As you hear the voice of guidance from the light body, you realize it’s your voice. You might say, ‘I am here now, and I know what’s real.’
7. Let your diamond light saturate not only every cell, but your emotions, feelings, and thoughts as well. Let it work on your brain and body, dissolving shadows, filling in gaps, upgrading all your systems, erasing worry and doubt, opening new pathways, and reprogramming you with updated frequencies. Remain in the silence.
8. Now, ‘strike the tuning fork’ of your diamond light body’s vibration and let waves of your light and your original tone ripple through every tiny space in your body and out through your skin into the space around you. Let it expand as far into the universe as it wants. As your own diamond light expands, it joins with the diamond light it encounters in the presence everywhere. In the center of the light, is your home frequency.
In the Christian New Testament (Galations 3:28) this idea is stated clearly, and in churches all over the world people sing the truth: In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.
In Meditation is Simply to BE, Rupert Spira says it this way:
It is this disinterested but completely allowing contemplation of the body in the world that the body loses its ‘me-ness’ and the world loses its ‘not-me-ness.’ In this way bodily sensations no longer cry out ‘I am separate, I am exclusively you” and perceptions of the world no longer cry out, ‘I am separate, I am not you.’ Everything sings out, ‘I am made of You.’
If you find yourself tempted to shine your light on republicans or democrats or those who agree or disagree with you, relax into your diamond light body.
Let go.
Relax.
Fall backwards.
Sink.
Our home frequency, our Source, knows I am made of You…
(*Note – Send email to debra@scs-matters.com if you would like my audio recording of How to Activate Your Diamond Light Body.
By Debra Basham, on October 24, 2020 “Resilience is not something
we have or we don’t have.
It is something that
we can train
in our minds and bodies.”
~ Liz Stanley
I’ve made a promise to myself to post a blog each day until after the Presidential election. Putting my fingers on the keyboard grounds me. I am choosing to widen my window of tolerance.
Trauma can narrow our window of tolerance, and human life inherently exposes us to trauma (admittedly, some more than others).
I recently was listening to a Sounds True podcast with Liz Stanley and Tami Simon about stress arousal and the way past trauma relates to our ability to think creatively, solve problems, and access choice in any given situation. The podcast is where I heard the phrase “window of tolerance.”
Whether or not we consciously know it, humans have both a “survival brain” (bottom-up processing) and a “thinking brain” (top-down processing). Even without knowing the terms, you do how good it feels when these two processing systems are collaborating.
We have been expertly trained at powering through situations — often ignoring our body’s emotions, sensations, and physical pain. Stanley refers to this common phenomenon as “thinking-brain override.”
“Survival-brain hijacking” is when the heavy emotions trigger stress arousal and impulsively drive our behavior, sometimes with horrific results.
Meditation (training in mindfulness) can help “widen” our window of tolerance and assist us to react more skillfully and to avoid destructive extremes.
Here is a simple tool for any time you notice yourself feeling stress: Move your attention to the information coming from your senses. “Feel your feet on the ground, notice where your butt is touching the chair; pay attention to the breath coming in and out through your nose; notice the air is cool on inhale and warmer on the exhale; listen to the waves or the wind or the motor of the refrigerator.”
Notice… notice… notice.
Smell some essential oils.
Slowly dissolve a lozenge or small piece of hard candy in your mouth. Perhaps that is why the ones with holes in the center are called Life Savers!
Just looking out your window helps….
Here are the east and west views from my window this morning during yoga.
Over these next two weeks, let’s each intentionally widen our window of tolerance….
By Debra Basham, on October 23, 2020 “You’re braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem
and smarter than you think.”
~ Christopher Robin
A precious friend told me about 45 years ago that I should be a political pundit. According to Wikipedia, a pundit is a person who offers to mass media their opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically political analysis, the social sciences, technology or sport) on which they are knowledgeable (or can at least appear to be knowledgeable), or considered a scholar in said area.
Having watched the 2020 Presidential debates, I began the day today by asking for a revelation of truth about all of this.
From my journal:
V:
How would you articulate what you already see?
D:
1. Whomever is elected, we will still have some navigating to do.
2. Whomever is elected, we can choose peace.
3. Whomever is elected, we can continue mean-spiritedness.
4. Whomever is elected, the need to tap into the well of wisdom remains.
V:
There is nothing more you need to see.
My soul longs to hear leaders courageous enough to speak the truth to a collective courageous enough to recognize truth when they hear it: “I know uncertainty can be unpleasant. While we want definitive answers to what we will do and what we will encounter, the truth is, we don’t yet know. I can promise you I will remind myself over and over that we access more wisdom and creativity in unity than in divisiveness. I assure you I aspire to have the humility to ask those who see things differently to help me see what brought them to their conclusion so we can gain wisdom together. It is without a doubt that I would be lying to make campaign promises to you beyond these truths….”
Perhaps we would do well to make Stephen Covey’s 1989 book,7 Habits of Highly Effective People, compulsory in all education forums. You might appreciate a summary of the 7 Habits.
Habit 1: Be Proactive® …
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind® …
Habit 3: Put First Things First® …
Habit 4: Think Win-Win® …
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood® …
Habit 6: Synergize® …
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw®
For the theme of today’s blog, lets focus on Habit # 6:
Innovate and problem solve with those who have a different point of view. To put it simply, synergy means “two heads are better than one.” Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own.
“If the person you are talking to
doesn’t appear to be listening,
be patient.
It may simply be that
he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
~ Winnie the Pooh
In 2004, Covey published The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. It seems most fitting for us now:
The crucial challenge of our world today is this: to find our voice and inspire others to find theirs. It is what Covey calls the 8th Habit. The 8th Habit is the answer to the soul’s yearning for greatness, the organization’s imperative for significance and superior results, and humanity’s search for its “voice.”
“A little consideration,
a little thought for others,
makes all the difference.”
—Eeyore
* Special thanks to Winnie the Pooh and friends for the powerful pundit points!
By Debra Basham, on October 18, 2020 Like my parents taught me,
‘There are no monsters in the sea,
only the ones we make up in our heads.’
~ Christina Zenato
A friend shared an amazing video of a woman swimming with sharks. But this woman is not just “swimming” with the sharks. Christina Zenato, a professional diver, is removing fish hooks caught in their flesh!
Christina says, “It’s done on the shark’s terms, not mine.”
Amen!
Christina has a box containing over 300 hooks….
I wrote in my journal earlier today:
Dear Holy Spirit,
I am so impatient with John. What will help me be kind?
(Note* The catalyst for this latest round of impatience was him wanting to use the tablet Stacey gave him instead of lugging around the huge 3-ringed binder. He went the home of a music friend who has software he likes a lot. John returned minus his tablet, excited that his friend was going to set it up for him. Soon, John’s friend came, unable to complete the download without my email address. I get triggered into frustration at having to manage John’s technology as well as my own, especially when it is something I am not fluent in. True confession: I do not know how to work this Android tablet, nor do I know anything about this software….)
The VOICE in my journal responded:
V: The impatience is not with him, it is within you. Like so many humans currently, strong emotions around the helplessness related to the pandemic are arising. Are you providing enough space for all you are experiencing? We know you are navigating a lot, but so was Viktor Frankl.
Man’s Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Living through horrific happenings, Frankl was able to find purpose and positive feelings using his psychotherapeutic method.
A quick search brought up this quotation:
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
~ Viktor Frankl
During the Oakwood Retreat, John Orr shared having asked Aaron why human incarnation is so difficult. Aaron said we choose incarnation because the catalysts for growth are so readily available on this heavy density plane. Aaron said there is a plane on which soul growth can happen without so much difficulty, but without a physical or emotional body (only a mental and spiritual body), the soul growth is soooooo slow, like millions of years. Aaron said, “Soul’s who are impatient for growth choose the earth plane!”
Between stimulus and response there is a space….
You can watch for “divine” themes in each day. Howard Thurman’s Word for the Day from Gratefulness.org : Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
In that space is our power to choose our response….
And the Deep Spring Center Thought for Today from Aaron:
Perhaps as you sit there by the water, let’s use a big sloppy wet dog as example, the dog comes running along and jumps across your lap. You’re wet, you’re covered with sand. You have a scratch where his claws dug into the flesh. He’s licking your feet and it’s an unpleasant feeling. Ultimate reality has not gone anywhere; pure awareness hasn’t gone anywhere; but for the moment you can’t access it. Your mind and body come back to a lower vibration. You breathe a few times. A friend comes over and dries you off with a towel. You open up, see the dog frolicking so happily, catch his joy a bit, and you open back up into pure awareness.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom….
May all beings experience the beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
By Debra Basham, on October 14, 2020 Belief can be overrated. If one did not believe in gravity, would gravity still have an effect? Of course, it would. It is likely that astrological influences are having an effect on us in much the same way.
Mercury went retrograde on October 14, where it will stay through November 3.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020, is election day….
How Mercury In Retrograde Is Affecting Your Body And Energy Levels – It’s all happening! by Susannah Guthrie
Expect to have more or less energy than you’re used to, particularly of the nervous variety.
October 2020’s Mercury retrograde will either sap you of your usual zest and leave you feeling lethargic, or fill you with chaotic, scattered energy that might have you feeling restless, unfocused and anxious.
In our third year of Dharma Path, Barbara Brodsky and Arron (check out Aaron’s new blog) have us working with a wonderful practice to navigate strong emotions in a way that prevents us from being overcome by them.
Here are the basic steps of “Akashic Field Practice.”
1. I open myself to this field in which there are both spaciousness and calm and peace, and disturbances. Because of the essence of my practice, I am willing to experience the disturbance. I’m not afraid of the disturbance, because I know that the spaciousness is much vaster than the disturbance. And so, instead of focusing on the disturbance, I focus on the spaciousness.
(We are encouraged to think of holding and comforting these uncomfortable emotions like we would hold a distressed baby, seeing the baby as a more infantile consciousness, and we ourselves are able to hold that infantile consciousness with mature consciousness. Saying to ourselves, “It is going to be OK. I love you. You are safe.” This holding, comforting, supporting is based on our highest intention for highest good of all beings, harm to none, and lovingkindness.)
2. Invite spirit (God/Higher self/Love) to support your choice for kindness.
3. Ask in your heart of any entities (angels/guides/masters) that come, “Do you come for the highest good, in service to all beings, and harm to none?” Wait until you get a clear YES.
4. Invite all loving beings (entities) to get closer as you clearly state your need. “My body is shaking. I really feel rotten. I’m not emotionally scared so much as my heart is pounding and I feel the fear in my whole body. Please help.”
Imagine feeling a warm energy moving throughout your body; loving energy surrounding you; energy clearing, as spaciousness opens up inside you.
Remember YOU always have access to this energy. This is always available.
Music can help your “mature” consciousness calm your “infantile” consciousness, especially kind during this Mercury retrograde over the next few weeks. I love Karen Druker’s Gentle with Myself, and Cecelia’s Amazing Grace (with whale sounds!).
October 14, 2020 Daily Word: Let Go, Let God
I work in divine partnership to accomplish great things.
A surfer harnesses the ocean’s power to complete the exhilarating ride to shore. I, too, place myself within the divine wave of God’s power. I neither move out in front of it by forcing my will nor do I hold back out of fear and insecurity. Only when I center myself in the wave can I discern the answer or direction I seek. I let go into the magnificent power of God and ride the wave that is my inner guidance and direction.
In prayer, I release the need to know what is going to happen and trust that my highest good is unfolding. I do what is mine to do, leaving the greater part to God. I listen to my intuitive knowing, heed the guidance I receive, and then follow through on my inner promptings with deliberate, purposeful action.
You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.—Psalm 31:3
By Debra Basham, on October 10, 2020 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.
~ Pema Chödrön
This week’s Oakwood Retreat has been very intense. Staying at home for retreat has some benefits. You don’t have the expense of lodging or travel time, and you get to sleep in your own bed. Like all of life, though, everything holds its opposite.
The morning instruction on working skillfully with distortion and heavy emotions was soooooo relevant…
I have had one of the decidedly most unskillful weeks I have had for decades. When you are sitting in meditation for 6-8 hours, day after day, stuff will come up. The catalyst for my stuff was the (hopefully) last of the work to complete home repair related to the mold remediation. But vital to realize the catalyst (whatever the catalyst) is not the distortion. The distortion is how we relate to the what is triggering us.
On one walk, I saw two crickets. On another, about a half dozen earth worms. Twice I had a red-bellied woodpecker hanging right on my window! Every day that shrub is filled with the comings and goings of sparrows. But one morning I heard a disturbance, opened my eyes and saw that a hawk was actually in the middle of the shrub. I had six Blue Jays at the feeder one morning, and this morning I had four big crows.
Cricket totem: A sign of good luck in many cultures, cricket symbolizes initiative and intelligence, and having the gift of foresight.
Earthworm totem: Working old ground; examining the past and its effects upon present conditions; including exploring past lives.
Sparrow totem: Integrity, empowerment, persistence, hard work, peace and wisdom. Guides us to learn to work hard with all.
Woodpecker totem: The power of rhythm. Discrimination. Connected to the heartbeat of Mother Earth herself. Symbolizes the stimulation and awakening of new mental faculties. New ways to look at things — new wisdom and new rhythms to dance to.
Hawk totem: Represents focus, strength, and poise, and can show you your hidden abilities to lead yourself and others to a more positive outcome.
Blue Jay totem: Symbolized by assertiveness, determination, and above all, intelligence.
Crow totem: Watchful creatures with sharp and powerful foresight. An omen of transformation and change.
When you go on retreat, you practice noble silence. This does not just mean not talking. You are excused from any of the normal social politeness. No small talk, no anticipating others needs, no distracting yourself with discursive thought. You see clearly the weeds in your own garden. So I wrote a poem.
When Weeds Grow: A Haiku
Every place where weeds grow
Oxygen is shared with you
Breathe in and feel TRUTH
Challenges abound
And LOVE is always around
We have so much help
What do you see as
Weeds grow there in your garden?
Breathe…. They are pure gift
During the final sitting, my mind went back to some trauma I experienced while traveling to Europe in 2011 — this exact same week! Mind was churning trying to remember the details. What was the name of the country where I had gone to the exotic gardens? Thinking, grasping, trying to remember until I let my mind soften, like taking a step back, and simply intended access to the information. Pop! Monaco….
This is not a new lesson for me. I remember leaving the house a bit late with my earrings in my hand. Pulling up to the stop sign, the left earring slipped in but I could not find the hole in my right ear. The next stop sign, I tried again. Again without success. At the third stop sign I asked for help. Pop! The earring went right in and I heard a voice say, “We would have helped at the first stop sign if you had asked.”
I have wired lamps, lifted heavy objects, remembered things, found things, and received guidance regularly for a very long time. Our teacher, Aaron, was speaking of how the mundane mind can be very helpful to orchestrate some tasks. One student asked Aaron if he uses Barbara Brodsky’s mundane mind for working with the technology. Aaron replied, “No, I just invite the computer to co-create with me.”
The current conditions are chaotic. We need all the co-creation with spirit we can access. As Aaron said, “How can I save anyone if I can’t save myself?”
This week I saw a quotation by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The next Buddha may be a sangha.”
It definitely took a sangha to offer this wonderful week of focused dharma practice. Sharing a few notes from my journal:
You have come as midwives. You can be the midwife who is there in the room being calm or the one running around the room saying, “It isn’t coming quickly enough!”
Be with things as they are. Not stoically, but lovingly. Liberation means walking on the unstable ground and finding your own balance.
Allow the practice to ground us in the innate perfection without denial of the conditions.
Say, “I consecrate this effort to the good of all beings.”
Each time you are able to offer kindness in a difficult condition, it changes the world around you.
One day when we sang “This Little Light of Mine” the teacher said it is really a great big light, so I wrote new words to the tune:
This GREAT Big Light of Mine
(sing it to the tune of This Little Light of Mine)
This GREAT BIG light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This GREAT BIG light of mine
This light is divine
This GREAT BIG light of mine
Isn’t even really mine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it
Let it shine around your town
We can let it shine
We have help, we’re not alone
Please just let it shine
Let it shine when fear appears
We can let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
By Debra Basham, on October 1, 2020 The headline: The first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into a bitter showdown …
It would be so easy for me to pass judgment about how unskillful bitter exchanges are were it not for the fact that I had just let myself get triggered by a friend I care for very deeply.
We knew we had only a few minutes to talk before I was to be online for meditation, so in those few minutes she got to the heart of the matter for her: “I feel betrayed.” This was not the first time I had heard her express these same words about her boss over the years. But on this day I had an expectation for something else.
When I argue with reality, I lose —
but only 100 percent of the time.
~ Byron Katie
All suffering is essentially wanting something other than what is.
The following morning I was still watching the subtle contractions with my friend when I said, “All roads lead to Rome,” and she responded, “I don’t know about that, but all roads lead somewhere.”
The saying that all roads lead to Rome was reality in the days of the Roman Empire. All the empire’s roads radiated out from the capital city, Rome. Commonly, the saying now often means all the methods of doing something will achieve the same result in the end.
Whether Trump or Biden wins the Presidential election, “Election Day” will take place on the last day of Mercury’s last period of retrograde motion in 2020! (This one lasts from October 14 to November 3.)
According to the age-old practice of astrology, we are all influenced by the effect of Mercury in retrograde. This from The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Mercury Retrograde Dates in 2020:
Review projects and plans at these times, but wait until Mercury is direct again to make any final decisions. You can’t stop your life, but plan ahead, have back-up plans, and be prepared for angrier people and miscommunication.
Some people blame Mercury retrograde for “bad” things that happen in their lives. Instead, this is a good time to sit back and review where you put your energy in your life.
The Deep Spring Center Thought for Today addresses this, too:
Please do go out and work for the candidate of your choice and also listen carefully to the other candidate and try to understand any basis of fear or confusion from which the statements seem to be coming. Do so in order not to condemn from a place of opposition but truly try to understand, because you will then have compassion for this opposition view rather than just condemnation for it. From the strength of that compassion you are much better able to say no than from the place of condemnation and oppositionality.
~ Aaron
I drew a couple of Osho cards, inviting balance. Key words from the first: “It is a time when you are ready to let go of any expectations you have had about yourself or other people, and to take responsibility for any illusions you might have been carrying.”
Key words from the second: “He has no private goals, no desire that everything should be other than the way it is.”
Oh, my.
I guess all roads do lead somewhere…
By Debra Basham, on September 27, 2020 Anyone who lives art knows that psychoanalysis has
no monopoly on the power to heal.
Art and poetry have always been altering our ways
of sensing and feeling
— that is to say,
altering the human body.
~Norman O. Brown
Reality TV, like everything else in this human incarnation, has its ups and down, strengths and weaknesses, benefits and costs. This year’s America’s Got Talent cost me a lot of tears.
As a poet myself, I am no stranger to the experience of having words make me cry. And this year’s AGT winner, poet Brandon Leake, touched the world with words like “Pookie” and “generational healing” and “no more time left for fear” and “you are so much stronger than you think” and “as soon as Covid hit, everything changed.”
Here is a link to a significant 14 minutes and 11 seconds: ALL of Brandon Leake’s Performances on Season 15 of AGT! on Youtube.
Brandon Leake said it best, “As soon as Covid hit, everything changed.”
Last evening I shared a meal at a table with someone other than John for the first time since March 15, 2020. Interestingly, I knew before I got the call inviting us that I would be doing that. Even so, it was not an easy decision when I learned that four households would be gathered!
I sent a text message to my friend:
Honest answer: Are you expecting/asking guests to arrive in masks for pre-dinner conversation; remove masks for eating (6 feet or more distance); and to put masks back on for any after-dinner conversation?
She responded:
Absolutely. And they all follow these guidelines all the time, the best I can know.
I wrote back:
We will see you there.
I cried when I read her next message:
I love you and appreciate your process in getting to this decision. ❤️🙏😷
You see, this was not just four households selected willy-nilly because we are going stir-crazy. These were two of our dearest friends hosting two other families who had been touched by recent loss. We share deep connections through church and loss and Covid.
Seated to my right is a mother and her beautiful adult daughter, who is currently living with her mom. Their husband and father died late May of a post-Covid complication: stroke. They were unable to be with him as he was moved from facility to facility, until the very last hours of his life in this body. After he passed, they were unable to gather with friends and family to celebrate his life.
Across from John and me were our hosts. Her mother passed just weeks ago… and they, too, have been unable to gather with friends and family for a formal Celebration of Life.
The fourth household is a woman seated alone. She just lost her husband to Alzheimer’s disease, after having kept him at home as long as humanly possible, evidenced by the fact that he lived only a very short time once moved to a facility. Everyone at his visitation and funeral were required to wear masks and social distance.
The serving table stretched about 12 feet with concrete landscaping blocks strategically placed to hold down autumn-colored table cloths. Placed around the perimeter are seven TV trays; each adorned with a brightly colored place setting. Cloth napkins compliment the loving atmosphere. I hear the words from the communion liturgy inside my head telling me this table has been prepared for you.
The warm autumn wind was blowing as “Eau de Cologne” of garlic wafted from the house.
After a feast fit for royalty, it was already dark as we slowly rose from the table. It was awkward to not help clear the table, go into the house to help load the dishwasher and wash the pots and pans. We were obviously all grateful for what we were able to share but also profoundly aware how very difficult it was to say goodbye without hugs. The desire rose up in my chest and left a lump in my throat.
Today I see this message from another friend, along with the photo:
Here’s my two flightless friends — Rowdy, who can’t fly but ran five miles at 4 a.m. and this monarch who hatched on Monday with imperfect wings. So he hangs out in my office on fresh flowers during the week and here at home on weekends. I feed him sugar water 1-2x day. Rowdy is getting used to sharing his home with a monarch companion.
Just as Rowdy is getting used to sharing his home with a strange companion, we are getting used to sharing our lives with this pandemic….
By Debra Basham, on September 23, 2020 OOPS…. A mistype of the most important kind.
Several individuals expressed feeling depressed with all that is going on right now. I mentioned how the uncertainty shifts us into the SYMPATHETIC nervous system – fight, flight, or freeze.
Some people are said to look for love in all the wrong places. Trying to find peace or trust or love or joy while the sympathetic nervous system is active is like setting a lobster trap in the Sahara dessert.
The sympathetic nervous system simply can never find peace!
By Debra Basham, on September 23, 2020 I go to nature to be soothed and healed,
and to have my senses put in order.
~ John Burroughs
Several individuals expressed feeling depressed with all that is going on right now. I mentioned how the uncertainty shifts us into the sympathetic nervous system – fight, flight, or freeze.
Some people are said to look for love in all the wrong places. Trying to find peace or trust or love or joy while the sympathetic nervous system is active is like setting a lobster trap in the Sahara dessert.
The sympathetic nervous system simply can never find peace!
Later that day, another group gathered and the same topic came up! The teacher, Barbara Brodsky, invited us to think about the experience itself.
Can we acknowledge that mental and emotional and energetic experience called depression, without trying to get rid of depression? Who is the one that is watching this experience of depression? And what is the energy field and mind like for the one who is watching depression?
When something is unpleasant, what happens in my mind?
Being truly present you can see depression as an object arising out of conditions — impermanent, not “self.” Without trying to fix it, just really look at what it is. Here’s this strange object called depression. But what is it, and from what does it arise? Where will it go?
~ Barbara Brodsky
The parasympathetic nervous system handles uncertainty very differently. Recognizing the only constant is change, and like a young child, you see everything as an adventure. Each step is an amazing part of the journey.
Watching a panel discussion on Infinite Potential sponsored by the Fetzer Foundation, I was in awe of how much is known about science and spirituality. Everything science can prove, mysticism has always known.
One of the closing comments, this one by Bob Roth, CEO of David Lynch Foundation, is worth holding onto with your head and your heart:
Water puts out fire, if the fire is too large, you need more water. Its not the fault of the water, its how large the fire has grown.
Yes, there is a lot going on right now, and yes, the sympathetic nervous system misses the truth, but each step is an amazing part of the journey of our Infinite Potential…..
|
|
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 43 other subscribers
|
Comments are closed 
You must be logged in to post a comment.