Consistent with the theme this week of “Actor or Director” it is time to repeat the cry of the Director: “Action!” Enjoy this throwback video:
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Are You the Director or the Actor in the Play that is Your Life?
October 10, 2014 — RosemaryIt is really easy to convince ourselves that we are always directing the activities in our lives. We think that we are in charge. And, yet, we often find ourselves acting against our plans, our choices, our mental outlines for our lives.
Have you ever planned to diet/exercise/be more productive/call a friend, etc., and then found that you didn’t follow through? Was it because you didn’t want to do what you thought or was it because something ‘came up’ and you didn’t get to it?
What do you believe about what ‘comes up’ in your life?
The Director of a stage play is the one who determines how a scene will look, who will stand where when, when and where entrances and exits will occur. The Actors look the way the Director wants them to look, stands where they are told to stand, moves where and when they are told to move.
When you look at your own life, how many times have you intended to go in one direction and something happens to shift that plan?
Of course, many times unforeseen situations arise and we must be in flow, be adaptable. And your unconscious mind can bring those so-called ‘unforeseen situations’ into the scenario for an unconscious reason because your conscious plan conflicts with a belief held at the unconscious level.
I see this in clients all the time. The intention is there. Everything seems to be lined up. And then something happens.
I’ve seen it in my own life. It’s called ‘self-sabotage’ and it doesn’t go away because the conscious mind makes a decision to change things.
On January 1 every year millions of people make New Year’s resolutions and, by February 1, most of those resolutions have been broken. I stopped that dance a long time ago!
It is in your unconscious mind that the programs and habits of a lifetime reside. If you were told as a child that you ‘don’t deserve X, Y or Z’ then your unconscious mind continues to believe that event if you are decades beyond hearing that phrase. If you told yourself when you were a teenager going through puberty and wishing for a date that you were too ugly to be asked out/to ask out that girl you liked, then that inner teenager might still believe that about you even if the mirror in today’s reality doesn’t confirm that truth.
What did you used to believe about yourself, life, the world around you that might be holding you back today? Is it your unconscious mind that is the Director while you and your conscious mind are merely the Actors on the stage?
You can’t just decide to do things differently and have your unconscious mind let go of those old beliefs. They are programs that are running all the time. They are beliefs that trump conscious decisions many times.
The work is to go inside and uncover the programs and reprogram your mind.
Ask yourself if you are really the Director or if there is something unconscious at work today that you would like to reprogram. Then do the work and get the appropriate help to do that reprogramming.
Decide to be the Director AND the Actor in the play of your life!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Hostage Situation – Inside Yourself?
October 3, 2014 — RosemaryWhat part of you is holding another part hostage?
If that question is hard to answer, then try this one: What is Fear keeping you from doing in your life?
We have so many fears, many of them unconscious, and they can cripple our progress through life. Sometimes it is a fear of public speaking (have you heard that this is often greater than the fear of death?) or it might be a fear of spiders. Some have a fear of flying that keeps them from enjoying vacations to distant lands.
But most of the fears that I see with clients represent a conflict between a part that wants to step forward and a part that is afraid to do that.
It can be around any issue: a relationship, a job, money, family, taking a risk, making a decision. There is a feeling of wanting to move and yet, at the same time, a sense of paralysis.
Have you ever felt this way? Perhaps you are feeling this today around something that is going on in your life.
What have you thought about doing that you are not doing YET? What has been hanging around waiting for the perfect time for you to commit to it? Where do you want to go in your life that you have been afraid to move toward?
There is always some fear lurking in the issue when we feel torn about a decision or making a move in a certain direction. Sometimes the fear is that we don’t know what to do next. It might be a fear that we’ll make the wrong decision or choice and there will be consequences.
The part inside of you that is holding you hostage to a fear may not be revealing the exact nature of that fear to you. Often a client will come to me with one issue and the REAL issue is something behind the one they can see.
I spent a VIP Day with a client once who wanted to plan out her business and marketing as we discussed in her preparatory session. She came with calendars and plans in hand. What happened during our hours together, though, showed why she had been unable to get those plans organized.
There were family issues to be resolved before her unconscious mind would allow her to leap forward in her business. We spent most of the time working through the blocks and fears that had been lurking behind her indecisiveness.
After the work of clearing those blocks and fears, we sailed through the business part of the planning!
That is the power of CLEARING THE FEAR! When a part of you is being held hostage by a fearful part, you must learn what the fear is and how to satisfy the part that holds the fear BEFORE you can take the next step in whatever area of your life where you feel stuck.
How are you holding yourself back in your life? Have you identified the fear?
Move the fear out of the way so that you can move freely toward the life you desire!
ROSEMARY’S THROWBACK THURSDAY VIDEO: Today is Your Birthday!
October 2, 2014 — RosemaryOur theme this week has been about “birthdays” – birthing babies, birthing new projects by choosing to move forward with new ideas, new thoughts. Today’s throwback is from a bit over a year ago. Every day is a birthday for your next step!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Create Your Baby!
September 26, 2014 — RosemaryWhat is waiting for you to create NOW? Not next year. Not someday. But now.
It is easy to dream up great ideas and to plan to make them become reality, but until you take action to create them in the physical plane, they will remain ideas. What is on your drawing board that is waiting for some action?
I am not a fan of regrets or of looking backwards, but when I hear someone say that they wish they had done something differently in the past, I want to suggest that they take action in THIS PRESENT MOMENT instead of looking to what might have been.
You are always at choice in your life. You are always ready to create your next ‘baby.’ No matter what the circumstances of this moment might look like to you, you can always choose to move in the direction of that creative idea, that dream.
What is one step that you can take to give a signal to the Universe that you are ready to make that dream become a reality? It doesn’t have to be huge. You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row. You don’t have to have worked out all the steps required to finish it.
You only need to know what the one next step needs to be.
And then you need to take that step!
Creating something requires a choice to move and an action to follow up that choice. Are you focusing on what you don’t have available? Are you focusing on the overwhelming nature of the full project instead of the requirements of the one step in front of you?
The most important choice that you make is the choice of thoughts that you will think.
Really. This is most important. Your thoughts really do create your reality. Many people try to deny this but worrying about something you DON’T want energizes that which you don’t want. You want to program your unconscious mind to focus energy on that which you DO want and you make this happen by choosing your thoughts to support the direction of your creative dream.
When you have a creative idea, when you get an inspiration, that idea exists in another dimension and you have been given access to that idea as the ‘keeper of the creation.’ It then becomes your responsibility to pursue that creation.
Do you feel that you have an overwhelming list of creative ideas and that you can’t possibly accomplish them all? This is a great place to be! You are being invited to capture the ideas and then to use your intuition to prioritize the development of those ideas into projects.
It is important to ask yourself, ‘Is it mine to take action on this idea?’ Sometimes your role is to receive the idea and then to hand it off to someone else or bring it to a team. Sometimes your creative idea meshes with someone else’s for great synergy.
But if you don’t take action in the direction of those creative ideas, how will you find the partner? How will you make everything come together? How will your creative idea ever become reality?
Start your creative process TODAY. Figure out your ONE NEXT STEP.
Nine months (or earlier!) from now, when your creative ‘baby’ is born you’ll be glad you took the action you decided to take today!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: You Are Not Your Stories
September 19, 2014 — RosemaryHow many times have you heard yourself repeating a story about something that happened to you, or that you learned about yourself as a child, or that some parent or teacher convinced you was true and, yet, inside, there was a niggling doubt that that story is still true about you today?
Or maybe you keep telling that story without even realizing that it belongs to the past and no longer holds any truth for the you who is showing up in your life today?
It is so easy to ‘story ourselves’ into our victimhood and we hide behind our stories until it becomes difficult to find the real person behind the mask of story.
Years ago (okay, decades ago) I sold cosmetics at home parties part time (yes, your guess is right about which one!) and I had a woman attend her neighbor’s party to try out the new cosmetics. She came in wearing orangey makeup over deep pockmarks and sat at the table with the others to follow the program, removing her makeup and trying on what I was offering. After hearing her friends around the table exclaim over her new look and how great she looked, she requested some additional cleanser, got out her bag and reapplied her orangey stuff before she walked out the door to cross the street to her home.
The hostess was embarrassed and apologetic but I assured her that it was okay with me. Each of us needs to feel comfortable about the way we show up in the world. This woman needed that mask before she could even walk across the street to go home. She ignored her friends compliments and went behind the familiar mask, even though the new cosmetics were more flattering.
How easy it is to wear what’s familiar, even if it’s not the best for us? We sometimes find comfort in the familiar when it is painful just because we don’t want to move into new energy.
What is your security blanket? What mask do you wear that keeps you hiding from your beautiful real self because it is familiar and comfortable, even if your real self is more beautiful?
Uncovering the real self behind the mask is the work of personal growth. The transformations can be amazing! And it means letting go of the old masks, the old stories that we hide behind before we can shine the light of our real self out into the world.
I have a problem with some of the support groups out there that have you staying the victim of your story by repeating it over and over again. Your story is A story. It does not define WHO YOU REALLY ARE. The only reason to tell a story is to show how you’ve grown beyond it so that you can help someone else experience the same growth.
Listen to yourself and your chatter. Notice that your stories might be repeatedly keeping you the victim instead of being stories of empowerment. Notice that you might be hiding your inner light behind a mask that you can shed now.
You are not your stories. Let the light of the real you shine into the world without a mask!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: 5 Steps to the First Step
September 5, 2014 — RosemaryHave you ever felt ready to step out, to move toward a vision, a dream, a goal and been paralyzed or unable to move forward?
We all have, at some point. We can see where we want to go. We can feel what it will feel like to be there. We can almost taste that space. And, for some reason, we are stuck. We can’t seem to put one foot in front of the other and move.
What does it take to get to that destination?
It takes the First Step.
Once you have taken that First Step, the second, third and fourth are much easier to take. And they seem to be evident, with a lot less confusion or trepidation, than the first one.
But what will keep you from taking that First Step? A lot of things. Fear. Doubt. A sense of unworthiness. Confusion about what the First Step is. A Concern that you don’t have the entire route mapped out and you don’t want to take the First Step until you know for certain what every subsequent step looks like. A lack of confidence in yourself. A lack of commitment to actually moving toward that dream.
So what can you do when you are stuck in the Paralysis of Step Zero?
Here are the 5 Steps to the First Step:
- Breathe. Now this might seem a simplistic approach but this really is the first action to take in any process. Take a deep breath. Repeat. This sets the stage for the rest of the process.
- Connect to Your Vision. Get the dream/vision/goal into clear focus in your mind’s eye. Feel it. Sense it. See it. Taste it. Make it real to your unconscious mind
- Clear the Blocks. Identify what is or has been holding you back. What beliefs are in the way? What negative self-talk are you putting in your mind that convinces you to stay stuck? This is a very important step! Get help with this because you can be blind to your blocks.
- Commit to Forward Motion. All the dreams in your head will remain there unless you make an honest and whole-hearted commitment to moving forward. Do you really want that dream or vision? HOW MUCH do you want it? Enough to commit yourself and your energy and your time to it? If you can’t commit, then go back to Step 1 and Breathe before revisiting Step 2 to decide if you need to tweak that Vision.
- Connect with Your Intuition, Your Inner Guidance and Ask for the First Step to be Unveiled to You. Ask only for the First Step! If you try to control the whole journey your Controller takes over. You really want the curious Explorer within you to take the First Step!
Then, step out in innocence and trust.
The First Step will reveal the Second which will reveal the Third. If you can’t see where to step next, then pause and Breathe. Repeat Steps 1 through 5 for the Next Step.
You can do this!
Know Thyself – Tools for Self-Knowledge – Richard’s Commentary
August 20, 2014 — RichardAs I was writing my “morning pages” today I realized after a couple of paragraphs that I was writing today’s post and commentary on Rosemary’s Exploration article. I began my pages, as I often do, writing about the passage of time; here’s my entry:
We are running out of Leo fast; and then August. Everyone seems to be noting how fast time is now passing.
Of course it is all perception – as everything is. One effect on our perception is the amount of information we are bombarded with moment to moment. 24-hour news, FaceBook, email, the never ending stream of websites and blogs is literally overwhelming. When we are overwhelmed we can go into a spin, a dive that seems endless, frightening and high-speed. Time melts away in the dive – it almost feels like a death-defying dive!
And it is all perception! The only reality is of our own making, our own perceiving. To change our reality all we need to do is change our perspective. And this is a matter of intention and attention.
It begins with intention: what is going on inside. If we feel we are in free-fall, take a breath, maybe two, deep cleansing breaths, and then put the brakes on. Stop the fall. Sink into the dantien (the lower abdomen area) and breathe there. It is possible to float here. And as we float we can get a sense of flow, of going with the flow. The current doesn’t have to be a raging rapids; it can be a slow, lazy summer river taking its time in search of the sea. It can take on any speed we give it because this is our reality. We can imagine it to be any rate of flow we desire!
It’s good to take time out of a busy life to slow the pace. There really is no place to go. There’s nothing to do. Oh, OK, there are chores of life, tasks we set for ourselves, responsibilities we sign up for and lessons to learn. But we can be and breathe through all of these.
The “being part” is the witness who rides above all of the rapid pace, the wild passage of time, the endless stream of information. Rise up to that level and watch it all. How serious does it all appear to be – how real? How important?
From that vantage the passage of time seems almost irrelevant. Yes, we have our lessons to work out, our karmic Lesson Plan. Here’s where attention comes in. There are external influences that come to play in our lives. We have other people’s perceptions to take into account and to process. When we pay attention we can see and learn the lessons these interactions hold for us. This is a matter of shifting our perspective from “encounter” to “classroom.” We shift from “other” to “mirror” – how is this person mirroring me, my interactions and my behavior?
Inner perspective, intention, and outer perspective, attention, are always relative, which means they are adaptable, transmutable. The simple technique of using breath to do the adapting is all that’s needed. One breath can stop the fall, gain a fresh perspective and shift reality.
I have moved now well into my birthday month, working on my 70th year! To many, and sometimes me, this sounds old! And from this perspective that time is speeding up, I may not have much time left! So, I take a breath and try this on: “70 is the new 50”! Ah, that’s better and about how I feel! And soon enough 100 will be the new 70!
Rosemary asks: Have you explored tools to help you understand where you are coming from? What about where others are coming from? Do you value the differences in how people approach learning, or life, or do you expect everyone to see things as you see them? To listen and to hear exactly what you hear? To feel the way you feel?
My answer, as it is for many things these days, is “I practice Qigong.” Breathe deeply and gain a new perspective on your “reality.”
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Tools for Self-Knowledge-What’s in Your Toolbox?
August 19, 2014 — RosemaryMy “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Tools for Self-Knowledge-What’s in Your Toolbox?
Mystic Messages 
The Light Quotient – Richard’s Commentary
August 27, 2014 — RichardI am struggling with this response. Why? I am in a bit of a dark place at the moment, so Rosemary’s post is aimed directly at me! And what do we often do when something is aimed directly at us? We freeze! And I’m sitting here at the keyboard a bit chilly, frozen, dark!
But here goes! Here’s the key to the whole article:
You might never have thought about decisions and choices as a matter of assessing Light Quotient before but the time is here to bring more Light into the world. Thus, we must constantly focus on how much Light we are contributing to the energy field around us and around the Planet.
Staying in my dark mood is a choice. I realize that and have been moving this choice around in my mind – and my heart – since yesterday afternoon. As I went to sleep, and it took awhile to drop off, I worked to lift the “light quotient” all around me. And it took work! I did a “nightly review.” Do you ever do this? It’s a good exercise: before dropping off to sleep go over in your mind all the events of the day, moving in reverse order, latest event to earliest. Review the events, and especially your responses to those events from the perspective of learning lessons. Ask: did I respond appropriately? Could my reaction have been different, better in some way? How might I have done that differently, more effectively? This process is not about self-judgment but about learning and improving. Maybe another question can be Did I bring in enough light into that situation?
This process did help me drift off to sleep last night. It didn’t solve any problems and it didn’t lift my dark mood entirely, but it did bring more light into my life and my rest (dreams were good!).
Now, here, this morning there are still some clouds overshadowing the light in my day so far. But as I write I have the sense that there is a lifting to those clouds. Maybe just writing about it has helped bring in some light. I do picture myself as a “writer.” I can add this “tool” to my approach to lifting the “light quotient” in my life. In fact, this is exactly what my “Morning Pages” practice is about. Following the Julia Cameron Artist’s Way approach has helped me with the “light quotient” in my life for many years!
When I awoke this morning my first thought was about this blog article and how I was resisting it, resisting writing about this business about “light quotients.” I was still in the darkness. But I asked how I could bring in more light and that’s when I reminded myself that “I am a writer.” I need to be able to write about anything, even (especially?) about light when I am in the dark!
The sun is coming out. My day will be bright now because I am choosing to see the sun beyond the clouds. I wish for you a sunny day filled with an abundance of light. And if you are in the clouds ask what choices you are making to remain in the shadows. It’s a process and takes practice!