BOOK LIGHTS: “The New Codependency: Help and Guidance for Today’s Generation”

“I’d spent two years trying to get into a relationship, and the next five trapped, clawing my way out.  I obsessed until my head ached.  Literally, it hurt.  I didn’t know what feelings were.  Whenever I said I felt something, people said, ‘Don’t feel that!”

from The New Codependency:
Help and Guidance for Today’s Generation

by Melody Beattie

Have you ever doubted your own feelings?  Melody Beattie describes so well how we can be in situations that cause all sorts of reactions within us but people tell us not to feel what we are feeling!  Don’t let that doubt about how you feel creep in.  Examine your feelings.  Feel your feelings.  Get the learnings from them and then let them go.  They are there for your personal growth.  Don’t let others tell you not to feel what you feel!

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

“Sean, my Yogic Irish dairy farmer, explained it to me this way.  ‘Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine,’ he said.  ‘You want to stay near the core of the thing – right in the hub of the wheel – not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you can get frayed and crazy.  The hub of calmness – that’s your heart.  That’s where God lives within you.  So stop looking for answers in the world.  Just keep coming back to that center and you’ll always find peace.'”

from Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

‘The hub of calmness – that’s your heart.’  Do you meditate?  Journal?  Sit sometimes and calm your thoughts?  It is in this place of stillness that you will find the Self of Self Love.  I love this model of the Universe as a spinning engine.  You want to avoid the outer edges where the craziness is.  Here is where the messages bombard you and they have nothing to do with who you are at your center.  Find a way to get centered and you will learn to quiet those other voices.

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “Smart Women Know Their Why”

“…the fear of growth itself.  This is the fear at the core of why one consciously or subconsciously chooses to stay where they are, even when in pain.  Growth changes you at a cellular level and it is uncomfortable sometimes.  Successful, happy people get used to the energy of growth and instead turn the uncomfortable feeling into excitement.  So when fear of growth surfaces, they know they are on the right track and likely heading in the right direction.”

from Smart Women Know Their Why
by Sheri McConnell

It is often the fear of growth, the fear of this change at the cellular level, that keeps us from examining our beliefs and thoughts.  What if I have to change and change is uncomfortable?  Well, I would suggest asking, instead, What if I DON’T change and opportunities pass me by because I’m choosing to stay stuck?  If our own beliefs and thoughts are holding us back then we can change them and move forward.  Let’s make that an exciting thing to do!

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “The Planetarization of Consciousness” by Dane Rudhyar

“Philosophy, in the most authentic sense of this word, is an enquiry into the basic character and the implications of human experience and, in the most general sense of the term, existence. [Italics the author’s]  The purpose of such an enquiry seems obvious.  It is to enable human beings to collectively and individually develop their innate potentialities with the best possible chance of success, of total happiness and/or self-transformation toward higher levels of fulfillment.”

by Dane Rudhyar

Thus begins Dane Rudhyar’s 1970/77 book.  How far, it seems, we have come since we honored the philosophers in our society.  For some of us, it becomes difficult to lift ourselves up above mundane human existence and we leave the philosophy part to the scholars.  But there are questions that we must ask ourselves and, as humans, this is a part of our existence on Planet Earth.  Perhaps the most essential questioning starts with ‘Why am I here? Who am I here to BE?’

Let’s promise ourselves that we will focus on those questions and look for the lessons that contain the answers.  We ARE here to develop our innate potentialities!

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: “Smart Women Know Their Why” by Sheri McConnell

“Understand this.  Reacting is not authentic.  When we are in a reactive moment, we are not operating from our authentic core and we literally shrink and cause those around us to shrink also.  Being authentic is not about you, it is about your time in this world and how you affect everything around you.”

Sheri McConnell

Conscious Living requires that we be authentic – to our Higher Self and to our Life Purpose.  I love what Sheri is saying – ‘Being authentic is not about you.’  It is time to discover and claim your Life Purpose and to manifest that in the World.  I’ll help you!  And we are all waiting for you to do this!  You are loved and supported as you make the choice to be your authentic self.

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: “Smart Women Know Their Why”

“You have been down that road and you know exactly where it goes and that is not where you want to be.”

Trinity to Neo in The Matrix trilogy
as quoted in Smart Women Know Their Why
by Sheri McConnell

How often do we keep going down the same road, knowing exactly where it goes, and yet expecting to get somewhere else?  CREATE the new road for yourself.  Make the magic work for you.  Believe that you CAN and that you DESERVE the magic in your life.  Let’s all agree to create a new dream reality – where we support each other in our pursuits and we cheer each other’s victories.  Let’s focus on what we do want in our lives rather than on what we don’t want.

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey”

“One of the greatest lessons I learned was how to feel the physical component of emotion.  Joy was a feeling in my body.  Peace was a feeling in my body.  I thought it was interesting that I could feel when a new emotion was triggered.  I could feel new emotions flood through me and then release me.  I had to learn new words to label these ‘feeling’ experiences, and most remarkable, I learned that I had the power to choose whether to hook into a feeling and prolong its presence in my body, or just let it quickly flow right out of me.”

by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph. D.

When Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke she had to relearn living in consciousness, but her awareness shifted so profoundly that she couldn’t go back to being the way she had been before the stroke.  Noticing how much control we have, how much power over our thoughts and emotions, makes us truly empowered individuals.  CHOOSE what you think, feel, believe!

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “The Magicians”

“Once magic was real everything else just seemed so unreal.”
from The Magicians
by Lev Grossman

Maybe what we describe as ‘magic’ is just the energies that we don’t understand yet.    Where is the ‘magic’ in your Life?  Are you ready to let the energies shift?  When Magic is Real, all else is Unreal.  Think about it!
Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “Steps to Enlightenment, Twelve Powerful Tools for Mastering Ourselves”

“Free will should not be confused with free-for-all.  We are given a free will in how we choose to respond to the opportunities, challenges, and obstacles that our higher self presents to us on our path.”

by Sharmai Amber with Keith Amber

Our higher self knows what it is doing.  Every experience is an opportunity to learn.  We can choose our response.  And sometimes the path to happiness from an unhappy place is to take advantage of an opportunity to help someone else toward happiness!

Rosemary

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BOOK LIGHTS: from “Steps to Enlightenment, Twelve Powerful Tools for Mastering Ourselves”

“When we react to another’s comments or actions, our defensive, angry behavior is pointing to an area where we need to work on ourselves.”

by Sharmai Amber with Keith Amber

Life is a continual opportunity to work on our inner growth.  How we react to others indicates where we need to work TODAY.  Look at your ‘tantrums’ as guideposts along the path pointing to where your lessons are now.

Rosemary

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