My video for the week: Where Are You Headed?
PS: I have had such a good time with my “15 for 50″ calls I’ve extended the offer for a few more days. So, if your plans are not shaping up as easily or quickly as you’d like, consider a special Compass Call: that’s a quick dive with me into Dimensional Exploration to confirm your direction or choose your next step. But hurry, it expires soon!
Buy it here:
I too like the word “audacious” as Rosemary said in her Exploration of this week’s theme. It sounds like the word audition and reminds me of our daughter-in-law, an actor in Hollywood who goes on a huge number of auditions working hard to break in to the big-time. She is one of the hardest working people I know, dedicated to her craft, keeping her talents sharp with classes, all the while working a full-time job in an important position at Sony in LA! Yes, she is my idea of the audacious auditioning actress! She is bold, she steps out to audition for many roles and she takes action to pursue her passion, her career in acting! Keep up the hard work, Angie; you’ll make it!
If we were all living our passions I am convinced this world would be a happy place for everyone. Our passions are fired by living our purpose. I have heard Rosemary say, many times, that we are all here on purpose. This life on Planet Earth at this time is no accident of birth, no random combination of genes and DNA that just sprang to life out of nowhere. We are here, now at this juncture of time, space, star configurations and expansion for very particular reasons. And it is individual Purpose that is the foundation for our “bold stepping out and taking action.”
Angie knows her purpose. She is fired up. And when she is on stage, acting the roles she wins she comes alive and puts herself into those roles. She is living her purpose, boldly, out there, in action.
I struggled with my purpose for a long time. I’ve done many things. All of them have been wonderful experiences. I often laugh and claim to have led many lives already in this one life-time. But I also know that those lives, those experiences have all come together to create the person I am today. Nothing random here either. And when I got my hands read using Scientific Hand Analysis with Baeth Davis, one of Rosemary’s mentors, all those lives came together in a well formulated Purpose for me. No, I didn’t learn something brand-new about myself. What I got through the process was confirmation that I’m OK, that I’m doing and being exactly what I am here to do and be. I am living my purpose.
So, why bother? It is great to get the kind of confirmation we all seek that we are on the right path. It means we can stop looking, stop wondering…and we can be bold, audacious even, in the pursuit of our purpose. We can get passionate about that purpose because we know it is our purpose! It’s written in our hands!
No, this is not about “palmistry” although the science of “Scientific Hand Analysis” did get its start in Palmistry (or did Palmistry emerge from the science of hand analysis?). There are patterns in our fingerprints and in the markings of our palms that can be categorized, analyzed, measured and compared that become the signposts and mile-markers for our journey. The fingerprints never change. They are formed well before birth, at about 16 weeks! And we have them for life. These are the basic pointers to our Way. The hand prints, the lines, the crosses and stars and various marks on our palms do change. They develop as our brains develop. Changes in our palms can be mapped to changes in our neural pathways and developing neural networks as our brains develop and expand with new knowledge, new beliefs, transformations of mind and spirit!
How cool is this? I can get pretty bold in writing on this subject! Why? Because I think if we all knew our purpose, like Angie, and lived our passion the planet would be a pretty cool place! We would all be bold, we would all step out into our purpose and take action to live the life of our dreams!
Here’s a link to learn even more: Scientific Hand Analysis
PS: Happy Valentine’s day! And you can still get that special gift for your Valentine! Here’s one action you can take: get them a Compass Call with Rosemary; that’s 15 for 50, her special offer available only through February 14. Act Now Here
My video for the week: Be Bold, Step Out, Take Action!
PS: Are you stuck for that special gift for your Valentine? Here’s one action you can take: get them a Compass Call with Rosemary; that’s 15 for 50, my special offer available only through February 14. Act Now Here
Questions, questions! Where do I go for answers? Seems like we are constantly assessing and reassessing as we move through the early years of this 21st Century. Now we are in the teens! Is it time to begin to grow up into this era?
And sometimes we don’t want to hear the answers so we don’t ask even the safest of questions. How many of us are really interested in hearing the unvarnished truth about the environment? Our youngest “child” is back in college at NC State and taking some classes in environmental studies toward his geology degree. Some of the new facts coming up in his course work are scaring him! There are some serious problems out there: melting ice, ocean temperatures, ocean currents, salinity changes, bio-mass expansion, methane build-up, it goes on and on. Our computer models can’t even keep up because the data is off the charts!
Then there’s the “soft science.” I just finished a book by Drunvalo Melchizedek, The Mayan Ouroboros. Yes, I read some far out books, and no, I don’t believe every word. However, I do enjoy counter-balancing all the so-called “facts” of science with information coming in through various channels, including my own and Rosemary’s. And more often than not, 80% of the information we read in some of these “far out” books corroborates our own information! OK, so maybe sometimes we are a bit far out there too.
But here’s what Rosemary is offering in her message this week: “Question everything!”
I start with questioning myself; and yes, I question my questions. Am I listening to my inner guidance? Am I double checking my inner guidance? Are my practices right for this time? Do I need to change my diet? Am I spending too much time practicing and not enough doing? Am I sleeping too much, or too little? Are my priorities set correctly? You get the picture, right? This is about awareness. This is an awareness practice!
I am reminded of a Korean Koan that I frequently fall back on; actually it’s like another practice. The koan is simply to ask: “What is this?” when faced with an issue. Ask it inside and listen for the answer. And when you get that answer, ask again: “What is this?” You keep drilling down as deeply as you can go until the issue is resolved or the answer to the question is satisfying. When facing a dilemma I often fall back on this practice and simply ask myself: “What is this?”
This is where I go for the answers: inside. And if the answer doesn’t bubble up I go to external sources; and then I test their answers inside. How does the answer feel; does it resonate; is it off the grid? And if I can’t feel for the answer I sometimes use an intuitive tool, like a pendulum (I carry one with me almost all the time). And if I don’t have one I can even test something with my body. Here’s an example of that:
When I am looking for an alternative health support item, like an herbal preparation to boost my immune system if I feel a sniffle coming on, I usually face an array of possibilities at the health-food store. So, I narrow the field just by reading labels but still face several options. What I do is a form of muscle testing: I close my eyes and hold the products, one at a time, near my heart and sense the energy. I am usually either pulled a bit forward or pushed a bit back for each item. I reject the ones that push me back (repel) and keep the ones that pull me forward (attract). I continue this selection/elimination process until I am down to the one that’s most effective.
Our body, our heart, our intuitive senses know the answer well before our brain, especially the left side, kicks in with a “logical” one.
The array of questions out there can be overwhelming. There are many complex issues coming forward in the early teen years of the 21st Century! Narrow them down to the important ones and seek for satisfying answers on the inside.
Then be at peace!
Rosemary always asks these pointed and difficult questions! Yes, I know they are good for me to reflect on, to answer, truthfully, for myself. And I actually thought this one would be reasonably easy for me to reply to and write this commentary. Then I took a second look!
A couple of years ago I did an exercise to clarify my values, to align them with my thinking, my philosophy. I made a list and prioritized it. I took a deep dive into this analysis, writing at length about these values I had come up with, what they mean to me and how I live by them. At the end of much thought I distilled the set of values down to two key ones: Practice and Love. In fact I even drew a diagram, a schematic to relate these two primal values: Practice –> Love.
No, this doesn’t mean my practices lead to love and it doesn’t mean if I practice well enough I will learn love. Maybe these meanings are overlays here, but these are two distinct values for me. I truly value that I am able to practice my various approaches to live a conscious life. Meditation, yoga, qigong, pages, poetry, … and any other consciousness raising practice that comes along that has potential for me is a key value. And how much more can I say about Love? Self, family, friends, community, humanity, life, Planet Earth, Nature, food, wine, beer making, wow…so much to love in life! And, clearly there is a relationship between practice and love. I love my practices. My practices help me better understand this whole sense of Love. Love improves my practices. It is complex and I can’t say that I even fully understand it when I write, and I often do: Practice –> Love.
But Rosemary’s question goes deeper here. Yes, she asks us to review our values, but more importantly to review our lives as they reflect those values we reaffirm! This is the key analysis, the driving question.
And I’ve spent the last several days, as part of our retreat weekend, reviewing and refining my answer. My answer initially is “no.” Oh sure, I’m doing a lot of practice, and I’m pleased with this. I also love: I am partnered with the love of my life. I am part of a loving family. My kids really do love me (at least they’ve done an awesome job of showing it!). But there’s a deeper level here I am reaching toward.
My exploration begins with the word “unconditional.” This is the quality of Love I’m reaching to attain. And this would then truly be the goal of Practice –> Love, my core values. I am not practicing unconditional love at every opportunity and therefore, my life is not reflecting this value.
That said I am working on it. This is my new level of Practice I’m striving to achieve. I suspect it is a life-long pursuit! But I have begun. Last evening, after Rosemary and I had returned from our retreat, our daughter stated, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that she had been craving pancakes for breakfast and would I please get up to make her some next morning! Hmmm, on Wednesdays she leaves for work at 7:15; hey, I’m retired, and while I am working harder than ever before and enjoying it a whole lot more, my hours don’t include 7:15 am! I did not commit! But this morning I was awake at 6:30, wanting more sleep. I debated with myself for about 30 seconds, and then asked “what would I do if I held the value of unconditional love? Yeah, you guessed it; I got up and fixed daughter and two grandsons pancakes (two different kinds). And the surprise and smiles were well worth the few extra winks!
With this good experience as a launch point I have been challenging myself to come from unconditional love all day. I’ve failed multiple times! I had several errands to run which meant driving and encountering other drivers; always a stumbling block for me to keep my cool while driving, but at least I continued to pull myself back to my core value. I’m practicing!
How are you practicing your values this year?
“Thoughts become things” according to Mike Dooley. They are things according to many current authors linking quantum fields and our brains (or should I say “minds”?). Our thoughts are certainly energy that is detectable, measurable and effective! The so called “new age” construct that we create our own reality through how we think and act, imagine and project our thoughts, ideas, visions into the world is becoming main stream science for those who are open and willing to explore these not-necessarily-self-evident concepts.
Then whether we believe this approach or not would seem not to matter; it’s not a matter of faith but a matter of science. We don’t believe in gravity; it’s a fact that objects near the earth respond to a force by falling to the earth. “Thoughts are things” is not a belief system but as real as gravity. There’s a lot of empirical evidence to back this up.
Therefore we really do have to be very aware of our thoughts, to monitor them, to assess and characterize them and to channel them in the direction we choose if we want to live a certain way. And this is particularly true if we want to change, improve the way we are living – evolve!
The way I look at this we need to be of “two minds.” We need our “active mind” to get us through the day. Part of this mind keeps us alive, running our physical bodies and responding to external stimulations as they pop up. And part of this mind is making decisions on a myriad of inputs; some decisions are almost automatic, based on habits and some are actual choices we are motivated to make based on priorities and plans. Then there is the second mind, the observer mind that assesses our life from another level. This could be called the “meta-mind” because it operates at the meta-level lifting out of the routine operations to passively monitor how we are doing. This could also be called the “mindful mind.”
Another common expression these days is “change your mind and change your life.” This could be the corollary to “thoughts become things.” These are easily expressed phrases, quickly becoming platitudes. But underlying their seemingly obvious simplicity things get a bit dicey. How many of you are sticking to your resolutions for 2013? That mind that runs on autopilot and habit consumes a huge percentage of our waking mental activity. It is not until we begin to assess how we are spending this “mind time” that we realize how much thought-energy is wasted. Don’t feel bad if you are already falling short on those resolutions. The routines you were living through in 2012, while not “hard-wired” into your brain, are a set of well worn pathways through neural networks laid down years ago. They are difficult to rewire!
The endless loops that play and replay in our minds are wasted energy. The knee-jerk emotional energy we expend on all the little, and sometimes big, annoyances in our lives is pretty much wasted – this emotional energy seldom accomplishes anything!
This is where the second, meta-mind comes in. We cannot change our minds, change our habits, change our responses unless we monitor, assess and evaluate the rightness and usefulness of those responses in the first place, when they occur.
A perfect example happened to me today. I was practicing qigong. My meta-mind should have been in high-gear, right? I was present, mindful, deeply into the practice. There were some people in the neighbor’s backyard talking and I could ignore them. Then our Lhasa Apso, Tara, came on the scene. At first she was attentive but quiet. Then as she detected the outside disturbance she let out a piercing bark. I almost jumped out of my skin! Then I scolded her for disrupting my practice. It took me several moments to re-collect myself and get back in my rhythm. Later as I was reviewing this I realized my reaction was not only out of habit but also unfair. Tara’s breed is from Tibet where Lhasas were raised as temple watchdogs. Their job was to alert meditating monks and masters if there was an intrusion into the monastery! Well, Tara was doing exactly what she was bred and raised to do! And she doesn’t have a meta-mind (at least as far as I can tell) so I had no right or reason to scold her! I’m the one with the meta-mind but it didn’t wake up until after my unfairness.
Exercising this meta-mind is no easy thing. This is why it is called “practice.” And it is through this practice that we can begin to “think new thoughts.”
How’s your 2013 practice coming along?
It seems important for us to look at the state of the world and the way that humans are treating humans today.
This is not about politics although the politics of each country reflect what is happening in the psyches of the inhabitants. What are you projecting from your psyche?
Since thoughts are energetic projects and have an effect on the environment we must take responsibility for the thoughts that we hold in our energy fields. Ask yourself about the thoughts you projected today. Did they come from a place within you that is sourced in Love? Were your thoughts uplifting ones that, if written down and shared with others, they would make someone smile and feel good about themselves? Or were you angry or upset and projecting that energy outward?
Think about the effect on a city when anger and hatred are stirred up and people are focused on disenfranchising others or hating and separating others. Think about what could happen in a place where the people are fearful or wanting to kill others or angry at their neighbors.
Now think about the effect on a city when the inhabitants come together around a common cause to support each other. Think about a community where kids can play safely because neighbors look out for neighbors. Think about the energy in a place where neighbors spend the evening sitting together outside sharing chitchat and watching kids play together.
What do you feel as you imagine these scenarios? Can you picture the column of energy that rises up from a place when the energy is what you pictured? Which energy column would you rather sit next to?
This is what we each have a responsibility to create and to monitor. Your energy is magnified when attached to the energy of others. What do you chat about with your friends? Your co-workers? Are you spinning each other up with thoughts of hatred and anger and separation? Or are you finding common ground in which to discuss ways that you are similar and can agree? When you spout off do you move the conversation to solutions or do you stay in the emotion of the problems? Are you more comfortable discussing issues than seeking strategies for moving beyond the problems?
Each of us has responsibility for the thought energies we project. When we gather with others, we intensify the energy of the ideas expressed and discussed. Conversations do not have to be confrontational. There can be real, honest agreements to disagree, but there must be respect for the person even if the ideas expressed cannot be embraced.
Somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten that we are all connected. We are all members of the human race. We have differing perspectives based on what we have been taught or what we have experienced or what we have embraced as our values. Yet each person is on Planet Earth to learn lessons, to grow, to advance human consciousness, whether or not they have embraced that responsibility.
Accept that you cannot control the thoughts of others, but you can control your own. Catch yourself building a column of energy that doesn’t feel supporting and light and stop it. Shift your thinking to thoughts of Light and Hope and Community. Make sure you are projecting energy that you wouldn’t mind having projected onto you!
And surround yourself with people who are willing co-creators of columns of Light rather than anger and hatred. We will all thank you!
PS: To guide your thoughts for 2013 with incredible inspiration from The Divine Feminine you can get the 8 recordings I made at the end of 2012 during my Wisdom of the Week (WOW) calls. Get them here.
Here’s my video for the week: The Energy of Your Thoughts
PS: For more inspiration and incredible guidance from The Divine Feminine you can get 8 recordings I made at the end of 2012 during my Wisdom of the Week (WOW) calls. Get them here.
Speaking of taking care of yourself first so you have the energy and resources to serve others, I’ve been thinking a lot about veganism and vegetarianism lately. I know a number of people who are and have been for years. In fact my son has been mostly vegetarian since his college days after reading “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior.”
And recently I have begun to know people who are not only very strict in their discipline around a vegan diet but are also strong advocates of such, recommending it as a way to eat to save ourselves and the planet in the process. In fact some folks become so enthusiastic about their lifestyle and dietary choices that they almost become zealots, fundamentalists in their beliefs and political views on the subject.
I could say that some people even push my buttons on this subject. And I ask myself, “what are they mirroring for me that I need to examine closely?”
Examining this question took me all the way back to my childhood. I grew up on a small family farm in Wisconsin; and yes, it was a dairy farm. But we raised pigs, chickens, and sheep as well. For the most part we were a self-sufficient farm growing and raising much of our own food. Milk was the primary cash commodity and it all, but what we saved out for our personal use, went to a local factory that made cheese. Everything was pretty local in those days. We traded the eggs to the local grocery store for credit toward the things we didn’t raise or grow ourselves. We ate the extra roosters. We ate our own meat from pigs and steers we raised. So, I grew up with a lot of meat, milk, cheese, eggs; and when the local hunters helped thin out deer herds during hunting season we had venison as well.
I look back on this childhood with a great deal of fondness; I feel blessed to have been raised in the country with what then would have been the nearest thing to non-GMO, organic food we could have had from any source at any price – and it came from our “back-yard”!. We knew exactly where it all came from and what went into it.
Fast-forward about 60 years and it is hard to believe how things have changed! While some of the family farm remains right there in Wisconsin where I left it, much of the land has been sold to a “giant farm” following the trend everywhere to big-agri-business; the family farms of my youth are mostly gone. And I now live on the east coast with just enough garden for a few tomato plants. The nearest thing to small farming is the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) approach we have supported for the past few years. At least this way we are sourcing some of our produce locally; it’s fresh and organic and supporting a healthy way of life and a healthy planet!
My diet has changed too: for several years I have made my breakfasts and lunches in my Vitamix “super-blender” by creating a concoction of nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables; it’s all raw, as organic as I can find and it certainly qualities as vegan. I have lost a bit of excess weight, very gradually, while on this regimen, I have lots of energy, feel great and I believe I’m pretty healthy. And for dinner I often have a meat dish. I love cheese (here I don’t think I had a chance since from childhood I had more milk in my veins than blood!). And, while I’ve given up on chicken in my diet I still enjoy, now and then, a bacon-and-egg breakfast on a random weekend.
I am far from vegetarian, let alone vegan! And I am not sure I ever want or need to become a strict anything. I tend to avoid becoming a zealot about things in life.
That said I have asked myself if I need to look more closely into this mirror held up to me by those who are more zealous! Are we on an evolutionary path toward a meatless diet? Will this path, in part, be driven by realities of limited resources and over-pollution by the current approach by big-agri-business? Are we killing ourselves with GMOs? Can we rely on science and technology to continuously increase production of already strained resources?
And the real nagging question, because I want to think of myself as an evolutionary and cultural creative: “Is the New Human vegan?” I’d love to have your thoughts.
Mystic Messages 
EXPLORATION: Where Are You Headed?
February 20, 2013 — RosemaryAre you headed in the direction of your dreams or do you feel as if you are spinning your wheels and staying in one place? Or are you marching forward but NOT in the direction of your dreams, hoping to change course eventually and get back on track?
One thing I know about the 21st Century is that Time is speeding up. The clock still ticks away 24 hours every day but they seem to be passing more quickly than those same 24 hours used to pass. There is a sense of urgency about doing our work in the World, living our Purpose. Do you feel it, too?
I think this is why so many people are feeling frustrated with jobs, with situations, with politics, with anything that seems to be stuck in old patterns that are not moving forward. We are all feeling a drive to manifest our dreams NOW.
This isn’t to advocate impatience but to urge you to examine yourself and your life and to be brutally honest with yourself. Are you on the path to the realization of your heart’s desires? Or are you waiting for something to happen to push you along? Sweet One, the ‘something’ has happened! It’s time to move!
Some people have pooh-poohed the Big Shift of 2012 because the world didn’t end on December 21, 2012. Others believe there was a shift of something but they aren’t sure what that ‘something’ is. Still others are waiting for something else to happen that might take several years to complete.
There’s a bit of truth in each of these beliefs, but here is what’s going on. The Shift wasn’t about a comet hitting Planet Earth and causing the demise of our physical world and it also wasn’t about some chosen group [everyone thinks that they are in the chosen group and all others are outsiders] didn’t get swept away into some kind of heaven or nirvana. The Big Shift was a shift in Consciousness, a part of the evolution of human awareness, and it really is a BIG Shift.
As each individual is given the choice of expanding or contracting, of participating in the evolution of Consciousness or ignoring it, then each individual also has a responsibility to move into living their own Life Purpose, the very reason that their Soul incarnated in this lifetime on this planet. No more excuses. No more delays. No more waiting. The Time is NOW.
Do you know your Purpose? Are you poised and ready to live it but unsure of the direction you must take?
Look into your heart. FEEL your heart’s desires. Learn the direction of your dreams.
Most of our lives are spent answering to others’ expectations of us. Most of us have not been taught to listen to our inner voice and determine our heart’s desires. How, then, do we do this?
The first step is to give yourself permission to live your dreams. You might think that this is easy but there seems to be a little voice that will pop up and undermine your determination to live your dreams. Have you ever heard it? ‘Who do you think you are to dream that big?’ ‘You’re not good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, slim enough, strong enough, etc. to accomplish that.’ ‘Nobody in the family has ever _________ so what makes you think you can do it?’ And on and on.
Do the work to still this voice. You do have permission to live your dreams. Your heart’s desires are the messages from your Soul about the direction this lifetime is to take. Fulfilling your Life Purpose should feel like the realization of a nagging desire to move in a certain direction. Allow yourself to pursue it.
The second step is to identify your dreams. Figure it out. Energize the vision of you stepping into those dreams.
Next, create a plan. Notice what works to support you and what doesn’t and then adjust your life circumstances to allow the possibility of realizing the dreams you identify.
Take these steps and you’ll have the compass pointed in the right direction. Let your heart’s desire be True North for your compass and set your course. Then enjoy the ride!
PS: It’s not too late for your “15 for 50″ call. I’ve extended the offer for a few more days. So, if your plans are not shaping up as easily or quickly as you’d like, consider a special Compass Call: that’s a quick dive with me into Dimensional Exploration to confirm your direction or choose your next step. But hurry, it expires soon!
Buy it here: