Presence

Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old
By Deepak Chopra

Everything you think and feel reflects who you are. If you think and feel from a superficial level of awareness, that is who you are. To dive deeper into yourself and, hopefully, to get to that place where you are love, compassion, trust, and truth, you have to follow the path of your present responses.

Someone who feels unloved can still find love in its purest form, but he will have to work through the layers of resistance that block the feeling of pure love. Your present emotions reflect the present state of your nervous system with all its past imprints.

Whenever you have an experience, these imprints enter into your response, which means that most of your reactions are echoes from the past. You do not really live in the present.

However, at least you are reacting in the present, and that is where the search for your true self begins. Your emotions are the most present-centered thing you have. An emotion is a thought linked to a sensation. The thought is usually about the past or the future, but the sensation is in the present.

Your mind quickly links sensations with thoughts, but when we were infants, our first experience and emotions were much closer to physical sensations. We had no inhibitions or second thoughts about crying when we were wet, cold, lonely, frightened, etc. Our minds didn’t know those powerful words bad and no. Bad teaches you that certain thoughts are shameful; no teaches you to resist your own impulses.

More complex words and interpretations came later. As adults, when we deny ourselves the immediate experience of an emotion, a screen of words is out up by the mind, and this throws us out of the present and into either the past or the future. To feel an emotion fully and completely, to experience it and then release it, is to be in the present, the only moment that never ages.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book."
- Irish Proverb

 

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Time

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." ~ Will Rogers

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Imagine Magick

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
- Albert Einstein

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Happy Monday! What do you see in this coming week?

You're probably "expecting" the same things you got last week.  Take a moment today and see something wonderful and unexpected for your week.

Make your magick!

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A Good Morning to You

"Every morning when we wake up, we have a choice to either open to a potential miracle and celebrate it, or to choose complaint and control."
- Deepak Chopra

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I also recently heard Joel Osteen talking about how every morning is a gift of joy from God just waiting for us to open and unfold in it.  And it's up to us to accept the gift of joy we're given each day.

One of my very first observances in the morning upon waking is how cozy and warm I am in my bed.  That simple observation of pleasure makes me smile and sets the stage for my entire morning.

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Kindness Personified

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Abraham Joshua Heschel

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It's not always easy to be kind.

I've always been a person who enjoys gossip.  Who's doing what, and with whom?  Did you SEE what he did?!  Did you hear what she said about him?!

Oh yeah!  LOVE the gossip!

Mostly because talking about other people's lives makes me feel a whole lot better about my own.

And it's FUNNY!  People make me laugh.  Mainly their stupidity.

How kind of me, right?  I know.  It's not at all, not one bit.  Even though I hold my tongue and only vent such things when the subject of my rant isn't around, that doesn't make it any better.

I've been doing a lot less gossiping and felt inspired to make "not gossiping" a new years resolution of sorts this year.

Being clever, and wielding a sharp tongue was always something I was actually proud of.  Cut them down, put them in their place, and leave them speechless.  Piece of cake.

Not so much anymore though.  Now, I listen to those younger than I (and sometimes often older too) throwing around their sarcasm and unconscious observations and I want to simply smack them for their lack of compassion and excess of rudeness.

So it is because of these personal observations that I've resolved to not be that way anymore and instead make a conscious choice to stand in their proverbial shoes for a moment and try to have compassion for them instead of pointing out their obvious "sins" and stroking my own ego with the knowledge.

Maybe I won't be admired by the same group as before, but I can at least admire myself  And if we're truly honest with ourselves, we can see that our own admiration is the only admiration we've ever really been seeking.

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Great Titles by Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Do Unto Yourself

Too many people are living in a prison that they have themselves manufactured.
- Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith
 

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Your mind is given to you as a tool.  It is very useful indeed.  It allows you to contemplate and reason.  It allows you to plan and remember.

It also allows you to imprison yourself, held captive by shame and regret.  Beaten down by your own thoughts and rendered immobile in a belief that you are an undeserving failure.

Every time you beat yourself up, you cast another iron bar in your self imposed prison.  Every time you believe that little voice in your head that says unkind things, you allow demons to rule your world.

Imagine your child making a mistake and verbally abusing themselves for it.  As a parent, you would immediately rush in explaining that mistakes are just mistakes.  In short, shit happens.  But we all move forward and just intend to do better next time.

Why is that so hard to believe about ourselves?

Why do we believe that we should never slip up?  Why do we deny our human-ness.  Why do we understand and accept with grace and kindness, the mistakes of others while belittling and blaming ourselves?

I believe in the golden rule which says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  And I believe that generally speaking, we DO.

However, I think a more useful and accurate rule for the advancement of our own humanity and self love would be to "Do unto yourself as you do unto others."

Give yourself the same kindness and understanding as you do to others.  Don't berate yourself.  Don't hate yourself.  Any being that acts out in negatively perceived ways only does so out of fear.

Why would you bully someone who is afraid?

If you're disappointed in yourself, vow to change.  Vow to do better.  Vow to BE better.

But no one ever felt inspired to be MORE because they were bullied or belittled into it.  LOVE is what inspires.  Love is what transcends the mind and the mind made demons.

All you need is love.






The Beatles on Amazon.com

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Great Titles by Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith  

Life Visioning

Spiritual Liberation

Inspirations of the Heart

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Empowering Thoughts

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
– Carlos Castaneda

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I thought this was a beautiful quote to ponder on the early morning of the Winter Solstice.

I have been looking forward to the changes in me that this new cycle brings in.  One of my "New Year's Resolutions" is to be more diligent in my thoughts toward other people.

I'm going to think about them.  Thinking is what we DO.

I intend to send more powerful and light filled thoughts out to everyone who crosses my mind.
I intend to send fewer thoughts of disagreement, dislike, discomfort, anger, resentment, ego, gossip, etc..

It's going to take me the same amount of time and effort to think either thing, but while one train of thought will empower, the other will tear down.

I don't want to feel the need to tear down to assuage my ego anymore.  I am giving up the need to be right or superior.  I have been giving it up, little by little, over these past few years, but I feel like I'm in a place now where I'll be able to let more, and possibly then rest, go.

It occurs to me that, if I encountered a person who was sleep walking, enthralled with the belief that the dream in which they walk, is real, I would never try to make them feel like less for their state of awareness.  If anything, I would gently nudge them hoping they awaken.

The light filled, loving thoughts and actions are the nudge.

You will never belittle, shame, or guilt anyone into being more loving.  You can only love them into it.

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Great Titles by Carlos Castaneda

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

A Separate Reality

The Wheel of Time:
The Shamans of Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life and Death

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Honoring God AKA Yourself

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
– William J. H. Boetcker
About William J.H. Boetcker from wiki.

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I believe this 100%

This is what I feel is the definition of living an authentic life. Want to see magick in your life?  Make this your personal motto.

There is so much that people say they want or say they believe or say they feel.  But when given a situation to act in a way that is authentic and congruent to what they say, they often act out in a shallow, unconscious way that doesn't honor their true self at all.

Be true to you.

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Great Titles 

FREE DOWNLOAD!!

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May the Force be with You

Do or do not. There is no try.

– Yoda

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This quote became very real for me when I quit smoking back in 2006.  I actually heard myself say I would TRY to quit smoking.

One cannot try to quit smoking.  Saying you will TRY to do something is already admitting defeat before you've started.

Try says it's going to be REALLY hard and you might not make it.  You might be unsuccessful.  You could fail.

I don't know about you, but for me... if I want it bad enough to bother with, I don't want to TRY... I want to DO, SEE, ENJOY, BECOME.... not try.  Seems like if you try, half your focus is on the failure.

Do or do not.... it's completely up to you... but there is no try.

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Great Meditation MP3s 

^^^ Bliss Suite ^^^
FREE TO DOWNLOAD FROM AMAZON!!!!!

Tag, You're It

Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.


– Adam Michnik

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I'm reminded of the Dalai Lama who said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

When we decide to make a change, all that's required is that we actually CHANGE.

If you want to be a happier person, be happier.  If you want to get along with your family, get along.

Be that change.  Embrace the new that you seek and BE it.  Dress up like it and talk like it and act like it and you will become it.

The old ways can never stop being THE way unless you stop choosing the old way and begin choosing the new.  It's all up to you.

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Great Titles by Adam Michnik