#SpiritualityForSimon
With so much uncertainty in the world in recent days and weeks, I have decided to share Spirituality For Simon with you...
I hope it brings you the peace and happiness that I intended when I wrote it...
For The Highest Good Of All Beings Everywhere,
Sherri
I hope it brings you the peace and happiness that I intended when I wrote it...
For The Highest Good Of All Beings Everywhere,
Sherri
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Spirituality for Simon by Sherri Lyn Sim
Copyright © 2016 by Sherri Lyn Sim
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906376
ISBN:
Hardcover: 978-1-5144-8668-9
Softcover: 978-1-5144-8670-2
eBook: 978-1-5144-8669-6
This book is dedicated to all the minds that have opened, all the minds that are opening and all the minds that will open…and it was written “For The Highest Good Of All Beings Everywhere…”
A special thanks to:
My dear friend Sue for her wisdom
My dear friend Sonia for her words of encouragement
My dear friend Niki for her insight and for editing ‘Simon’
My dear friend Madera for sharing her perceptions
My dear friend Maureen for her generosity and for editing ‘Simon’
Magical Punta Sal where I wrote the first draft of this book
The Goddess for getting me back on my path
The Universe for making my dreams a reality
And to Me - for showing up - and stepping up!
FOREWARD
Much of this book is a compilation of ideas, thoughts, theories and beliefs of my own, my friends, and wonderful writers, authors and visionaries. I am not trying to “rip off” their ideas or trying to make money off their thoughts, theories and beliefs. I am merely putting all this information that I have gathered, learned, discovered and follow all in one place, for you.
Most things we learn have come from the teachings of others and sometimes we come to our own conclusions based on that. In the past, people have just been going along with what they have been taught and shown, perpetuating the “machine.” But now we are beginning to think our own thoughts, honour our own ideas, follow our hearts, create our own realities, truly live, and be present…and what you will read in the following pages will help you get there…
- Sherri Sim -
“For the highest good of all beings everywhere”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At the dinner table one night, Simon asked me what I was doing to my food. “I am giving it Reiki,” I said. He wanted me to Reiki his food too, so I did. After he ate it, he said, “It didn’t taste any different,”…and I couldn’t explain it to him! Even though I knew what had happened, I couldn’t articulate it! So this book is for Simon…and for me: To be able to articulate how I believe that the Energy of the Universe works!
Simon is not the inspiration for this book. I was already writing it. However, he became the inspiration for how the material is being presented. Don’t get me wrong! Simon is no dummy! He asks questions and challenges answers! Quite smart, actually!
Thanks Simon!
What did happen to his food when I gave it Reiki? Reiki is Universal Energy. I asked for the love and light of Reiki to come down through me and into his food. That was my part in the process. It wasn’t my energy I put into his food. I can ask for an intention when I channel Reiki, however, Reiki sends the energy and uses it however the intelligence of Reiki sees fit. I trust that Reiki did what was needed for Simon and for his food. Pretty vague, yes, but once you have experienced Reiki yourself, you will understand what it does for you and I know how it works for me. It’s a personal thing. But this book isn’t about Reiki, it’s about Spirituality...so let’s begin!
So Simon…Spirituality is…
In 1 word: You
In 2 words: Your essence
In 3 words: Accessing eternal existence
In 4 words: Being part of Source
In 5 words: Your relationship with the Universe
In 6 words: Looking outside of yourself at yourself
In 7 words: Your connection with yourself and everything else
PROLOGUE
A lot of what I am going to write about you can find in any
self-help book, but I want to make this easy, basic, useable, and accessible, in a fun and light-hearted format.
You might find that I ask a lot more questions than I answer and that I offer multiple answers to questions. This is to make you think, to get you to be open to “more than meets the eye”. This information is planting seeds in your subconscious that will awaken - in your future experiences - after reading this book!
So Simon…What do you believe? What do you believe in? Do you need proof to have faith in what you believe in? It sure helps! Proof is awesome and it makes our minds happy! It makes things tangible for our analytical minds!
So Simon, what’s tangible proof to you? All five senses stimulated or just one or two? Any specific ones? Tangible proof in sight? Can’t see radio waves. Tangible proof in sound? Can’t hear the colour blue. Tangible proof in touch? Can’t feel the scent of a rose. Tangible proof in taste? Can’t taste a great idea. Tangible proof in smell? Can’t smell a star in the sky…
Do you believe in things beyond your five senses? Our existence in these physical bodies is largely based on our five senses (We actually have six senses and that sixth one is where the things we shouldn’t possibly know come from!). Do you believe we have six senses?
If you say “Yes” this will be an interesting read. If you say “No” please keep reading as you may uncover a few new perceptions that could have a wonderful impact on your life!
So Simon, what do you know that is true? What do you believe but can’t prove? What are you sure of but not sure who would believe you? What do you know but can’t explain what it is or how you know it? How many people must believe something is true before it becomes true for you? Does one person tell you what’s real and what’s true? One institution? Do you believe in anything 100%? What is that thing you believe in 100%, Simon? IT IS REAL because of your unshaking belief.
So Simon, tell me what you have been taught about energy.
What do I mean by energy? Heat, light, radio waves - are all forms of energy. Can you see radio waves? Can you hear them (with out a receiver?) Touch them? Taste them? Smell them? No? Then how do you know they are there? How did we ever know they existed? Well, someone perceived them, and developed a theory. They believed their theory and set out to prove it! They believed! …and others thought they were crazy! (At least for little while!)
Still feel like reading on???
Things are not always as they appear. Our brains process information based on what we already know and that is what we perceive. As we learn more, our perceptions change.
Five hundred years ago we all knew the Sun revolved around the Earth! It appeared so therefore it must be true - so we were taught it was true. When Galileo invented the telescope, he saw and could prove Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity (The Earth revolves around the Sun). When Galileo published his findings he was tried by the Inquisition for heresy! (Copernicus was not tried as he published his findings shortly before his death.) But guess what? Those heretics…were right!
So Simon, what we see/perceive and are taught/conditioned… becomes our truth. Is your mind open to new, possible truths? Can you accept a huge blow to your beliefs? Can you stand up for something you believe in that no one else does? Have you ever been so sure about something that you’d “Stake your life on it?” “Swear on your mother’s grave?” Is there a remote possibility that you could be wrong? Ever been SO SURE about something - then found out you were wrong? Let’s not bet our lives or our mother’s anymore!!!!!
With new information: Could your perception change and bring you to a new conclusion? Every time you learn something new your viewpoint changes to something different, it gets stronger or becomes less important.
Perceptions are about to change ladies and gentlemen! So let’s open our minds… just a crack and I’ll shed some light on a few perceptions…the conclusion you draw is your own. It’s your truth. I am not trying to convince you of my truth, I’m merely opening the box we often think inside of. Whether you choose to remain thinking inside or outside the box, the choice is always yours alone.
Warning! Thinking outside the box can be a little lonely, frightening, even threatening. Thinking inside the box doesn’t allow for much growth or change. Sorry for opening this Pandora’s box on your safe and static world! You will not be the same after. But did you really pick up this book so you could stay the same?
And speaking of being the same… - “exactly like another or each other” – Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Let’s talk about style! What’s in? What’s out? Who decides? Why would you choose to follow that? So that we can all wear the same clothes, have the same haircut, watch the same TV shows? If you are the same as everyone else… why do we need you? There’s already someone just like you! What can you add? Will you raise your children to be just like everyone else? “Why can’t you be like everyone else?” Ever heard that? Make you shudder?
Thank you to every purple haired, nose pierced, face tattooed, funky clothes wearing, accordion playing soul for choosing to be different! You have something to add to life! Albeit, it’s not easy. Ostracized, called names, ditched by your families, talked about, excluded from things…
Yup, it can be lonely outside the box. It’s not easy, but you are free. Free to choose.
If all your choices are made for you and you follow along with that…then why are you here? When do you stop merely existing and start living? Take off the “cookie cutter” glasses and see the world through new eyes. Your own!
Sure it’s safe inside the box! Everyone you know is there doing what’s familiar, and familiar is comfortable. There’s a saying about that…”The evil you know.” Just because you are used to a certain behavior, doesn’t mean it’s good!
Wake up, wash, eat, go to expected routine, get provisions, go home, eat, watch TV, go to bed, repeat until death…
Go to school because you’re supposed to?
Get the job your parents want you to have?
Get married because that’s what all your friends are doing?
Where is YOUR Happiness?
In food - because you’re not living your own dreams…
ln TV or games - so you don’t have to think about it…
Repeat until death…
Ever notice how the troublemakers in school were the ones who went on to start their own businesses and became successful and the prom queens are unhappy housewives? Those who dared to be different stood out and were themselves, are generally happy and successful - and those that put on airs to please everyone else remained cogs in the wheel of conformity. They live in similar houses with similar jobs, have similar kids and similar spouses and do the same things at the same time of day and year...
Repeat until death…
Look in their eyes. Do you see a spark? Are they happy?
So let’s step outside of that box for a second! And if you’re not ready, peek outside the box! And if that’s too much - just know there is something outside the box!
Hey, if you are genuinely happy inside the box, kudos to you! For making your choice to be happy! For “Choosing the Box” - because that is what YOU wanted! I honour your choice! As for the rest of us…we’re going outside the box for a spell!
I love Deepak Chopra for getting right to the heart of it. “Who am I? What do I want? What is my dharma (or purpose)?” So, what DO you want? What else? Right now. Do not care what anyone thinks about what you want. Do not care if what you want is even possible. Just be honest with yourself. And if you use the word or think the thought “should” here…please close this book, smack yourself in the face with it, open it back up, and keep reading!
Should is someone else’s expectation put onto you. My friend Madera says: “Don’t should on me!”
Expectations! There’s a word! Initially it implies something not met yet. Clearly it’s mostly used by others to get what they want. So if you’re the person who expects a lot of things from others, and tells people what they “should” do - be prepared to be disappointed! Because others don’t necessarily want what you want! And they aren’t here to serve you! Uh uh! Are you here to please everyone else? No way!
Here’s what “should” sounds like:
“I bought you this nice car and beautiful house in this fancy neighbourhood. You have everything anyone could possibly want. You SHOULD be happy! You SHOULD appreciate all this!”
Hmmm…Did they expect/assume that’s what you wanted? Did they ever ask what you wanted? Or did they expect/assume that you’d want what they “think” everyone else should want…what they “think” should make anyone else happy? You know what they say about ‘ASS U ME’...well, that’s pretty much how I feel about the word “should!”
Who decides what makes you happy? Who decides what you want? (The answer, in case you didn’t know…is you!)
I’ll warn you now, this book is gonna make you think! And it might make you angry, and it might change your life. And please, whatever you do: Don’t get mad at yourself for what you might think is “time wasted” in your life. You did the best you could with what you were taught and shown, reacting to the expectations of others. You needed to experience all that so you could understand this.
So, if you are 99 years old with one day left to live and just read this book and think it’s too late…It’s not! You read it just in time to change your perceptions and give it to someone who’s 18 - so they can have better information than you were given, make different choices than you made, and have a better life than you may have had…
Let’s see where this road takes us…
PREFACE
CHANGE, going with the FLOW, and expressing the ENERGY of LOVE, GRATITUDE, GIVING AND RECEIVING through your SIX SENSES brings about ABUNDANCE, ATTRACTION, AND MANIFESTATION - which require the BELIEF that THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS therefore you are the creator of your own reality so you must FOLLOW YOUR HEART because HAPPINESS is a CHOICE, and FEAR and CONTROL make you feel like your choices are limited. There is no such thing as COINCIDENCE. LESSONS and MESSAGES come to us all from one source. WE ARE ALL CONNECTED, you, me, and the UNIVERSE. This is MY SPIRITUAL PATH - which may be different from yours and that’s OK. That is the difference between SPIRITUALITY vs. RELIGION.
OK Simon, here’s what all that means!
ABUNDANCE, ATTRACTION AND MANIFESTATION
What? English please!!!!
Abundance…An extremely plentiful or over sufficient quantity or supply; overflowing fullness - Dictionary.com
Attraction…A force acting mutually between particles of matter, tending to draw them together and resisting their separation – Merriam Webster.com
Manifestation…Materialization; an occult phenomenon; a sign that shows something clearly; one of the forms that something has when it appears or occurs; a perceptible, outward or visible expression – Merriam Webster.com
So, where does Abundance fit into all this? Right here! The Universe is limitless, and we can easily attract and manifest the Abundance we want in our lives. Abundance doesn’t necessarily mean millions of dollars in the bank or stockpiles of food or a driveway full of vehicles! Abundance is the copious amount of things all around you! All your friends and loved ones! The endless beauty that surrounds you! Abundance is having enough of what you need. Enough money to pay the bills, enough food to feed you. Is your cup half full? That’s Abundance and you can attract and manifest it!
…and Abundance was one of the last sections I wrote for this book! This one is hard for me still! So funny how I am writing this book for Simon and everyone else, but truthfully? It’s all my own advice that I need to remember and follow myself! Funny human!
Abundance? Look in your fridge…how many bottles of condiments? Cupboards…how many cups and glasses? Clothes closet…how many pairs of shoes? Garage…how many tools or boxes of stuff? See what I mean? Abundance is everywhere! I think we just need to open our eyes to all forms of Abundance and to different means of receiving Abundance.
For example: If you buy your groceries from an expensive store week after week, it costs a lot of money. But if you grow some of your food in small planters in your home, you save money, and have so much extra food that you can’t use it all. You have to give it away before it goes bad – and by the way - giving it away produces Abundance for the receiver…just sayin!!
Look in my fridge! Oh, I am out of strawberries = lack…however I have mangos and papaya and aguaymantos (yum!) and chirimoya and apples and bananas = Abundance!
Lack (fear) and Abundance (trust) are two ways to look at the same thing. Have a look!
What is Abundance to you? I want to earn enough money to pay my next month’s rent the day after I pay this month’s rent. There is a fear there…some belief in lack. But I have enough money in my savings account to pay next month’s rent right now…so where is that fear coming from or more importantly, how do I trust in Abundance? That’s the real question, isn’t it?
TRUST! Trust the Universe will provide. How do we do that? Let’s look at our body’s cells. ”Typically a cell stores only three seconds of food and oxygen in its cell walls. It trusts on being totally provided for.” - Dr. Deepak Chopra, Book of Secrets, page 9.
The cell knows/trusts that the food/energy it needs will be delivered by the blood system on time for the next process! That is trust in Abundance on the cellular level. That is flow. That is the opposite of storing/hoarding. That is not “fear of lack”, that is “trust in Abundance.” The energy the cell needs will come from somewhere, and the cell does not know where that energy will come from or in what form. It continues on with its functions because the whole system is working in unison. On its own level, it trusts, without fear.
...and as far as Attraction goes…what you “put out there” comes to you…it doesn’t get much simpler than that! I don’t make this stuff up! It’s just how it works.
Here’s how you attract or manifest something… step by step:
Think about it/visualize it – a desire you feel strongly about!
Intend it to happen – requires belief and faith!
Put forth an effort in the physical world – you can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket!
Trust it will happen – so there are no doubts to stop or slow down the manifestation!
Wait for it patiently – like you don’t care either way!
Let go of how it will happen – let the Universe work out the “how!”
Detach yourself from the outcome – if it’s in your highest good, it will happen!
Your thought that you put power, intention and belief into, went out into the Universe. Then you let it go. The Universe took the necessary time to put it all in motion and voilà! Manifestation!
Try it in a meditation: Imagine blowing up a balloon. With each outbreath, put your intention or desire into the balloon. Tie it with a long, imaginary string and see the balloon rise. Now let go of the string and let your desire go. Letting go of the string is being detached from the outcome. It’s “putting it out there.” If you cling to it, hanging on to the string - it can’t get to the field of the unmanifest to begin to manifest!
OK - Let’s say there is a mean dog in your neighbourhood that you walk by everyday. You are afraid of it because it viciously barks at you...and every day you think, “Oh it’s gonna bite me one day,”…and you pass on by and go about your day. Day after day you feed that thought with your fear. I can almost promise: You’re gonna get bit! You picture it over and over in your head! It’s a done deal...just a matter of time! “See I TOLD you that dog was going to bite me one day!” You put so much energy towards it that it had to happen!
But why attract negative things? Why put so much effort and emotion and time and worry into something bad or frightening? How about this? One day that dog and I are going to be friends! And each day send it love and picture yourself petting him. I know it’s very hard to conquer fear…but try a little at a time. One day you’ll walk by, and he won’t attack the fence. When you remove the energy, the dog has nothing to be attracted to. Soon, he just barks, and over time, just growls. One day you walk by, and he doesn’t even look up. Allow that peace for yourself.
Now let’s manifest something good! Do an experiment. Each morning say, ”Someone is going to give me a red flower,” and wait. The funny thing about Attraction, if you don’t care either way, it will likely happen faster. Say it in the morning and forget about it. There is a red flower coming your way!
The Universe is aware that you are now aware! - and it is happy! - and it is ready to show you that it is aware that you are now aware! What are you going to abundantly attract and manifest?
BELIEF
“I’m a believer” (The Monkees)
Belief…Confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof; confidence; faith; trust - Dictionary.com
We all have different views of everything. We can all look at the same painting and see something totally different. We can witness the same event and notice different things about it or remember it very differently. Neither of us is wrong. My perception is different than yours. That’s all! I used to think someone close to me lied a lot. Turns out, that is how they actually perceived what was happening. That was their reality. And it WAS real to them. It WAS real, it was truth. That is how Belief works. If you believe it strongly enough, it becomes true, it becomes real. Sounds crazy, right?
Here’s what I mean:
My Grandma believed so strongly in God, Jesus and Heaven - with her whole heart and soul. She KNEW that when she died she would go to heaven and be with Jesus. I used to think she was crazy but now I KNOW! She is there! Because she BELIEVED it, she made it a reality. It’s not my exact reality, but it was hers and IT IS REAL!
You are the creator of your own reality! It requires Belief. Not just saying it, not just affirming it, not just repeating it, not just wanting it, but BELIEVING it with your whole being. Your truth becomes true. Your reality becomes real.
Believe me? Not yet? Over time, you will begin to see examples of this - Believe it!
“Everything is possible for him who believes” - Mark 9:2
CHANGE
No one said it would be easy!
Change…To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone; to transform or convert; to become different
- Dictionary.com
Nothing remains unchanged! Nothing! Do you really want something to never Change - to stay the same forever? Remember your first love in school? ”We’ll be together forever.” Glad that didn’t happen? Do you want your dog to live forever? What about when he’s so old he can’t walk anymore or is in pain… still want forever? Have you changed for the better in the last five years? Would you want that old you back? To have stayed the same, and never changed?
Do you want to live forever while everything and everyone around you changes, dies, moves on and you are alone in a world you don’t know anymore? Do you want your baby to stay little forever? Never out of diapers, never walk, never talk, never go to school, never grow up, never have kids of their own?
Change is inevitable. That we cannot control. Whether we accept Change or not is a choice. Trying to keep things the same will make you so unhappy because you can’t keep anything the way it was. Allowing or accepting inevitable Change brings new things into your life.
For example: If you hadn’t changed schools - you’d never have met your best friend. If you don’t Change the tires on your car - they become bald and dangerous. If you don’t Change the water in your pet’s dish - it becomes stagnant and unhealthy. Our hair is always growing, our cells are always dividing, dying off and making room for new ones. Change.
No - New isn’t always better, but Change is gonna happen whether you embrace it, accept it or fight it to the bitter end! It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not. I am not asking you to like it. I am saying “Best to be open to it and stay in the flow of life”…and by flow I mean not forcing things, not trying to control things, allowing things to unfold naturally.
Let’s talk about love. Being so in love - that passion that you had never known before - that brought you so much joy…Of course you’d want to hang onto that forever! Who would want to let that feeling go? But honestly, once you have experienced it, you are no longer the same person you were before you experienced it! You have been changed by that experience…so that feeling wouldn’t be the same either. It has been experienced so the feeling has changed. You can’t hang onto something that is ever changing.
Change can be a loss. If we lose something incredible, for whatever reason, a space is left, and if we don’t fill that space with something beautiful, the space will fill itself. “Nature abhors a vacuum!”
The sadness, emptiness, hurt, we feel from that loss, is the fear that we will never experience that incredible thing again. Fear, loss and grief have filled that space. And the greater the attachment, the bigger the space that’s left. I am not saying don’t grieve! Absolutely grieve! Absolutely feel! Absolutely express! But also keep love in that space to keep it full, to keep the fear and longing out. Even if you could have whatever it was forever, each moment you Change. Your relationship to it changes.
Keep your heart full of love and let the experience Change, evolve, grow, ebb and flow, come and go. Love the memory. Love the person. Love yourself, so that fear, disappointment and loss don’t fill you up instead. Know and No - you will never feel that exact way again or get that moment back – you and it have changed. It cannot be the same. Make new moments based on what you learned and experienced. Yes, it can get easier and better each time!
But it won’t - if you decide it won’t! It won’t, if you believe it won’t!
You need to fill that space with something! Love the fact that you got to feel so good and that because it was possible once, it can be possible again. It won’t be exactly the same feeling, but you can feel that intensity again. Fill that space with something good - so that same intensity of sorrow doesn’t fill it instead…sorrow from trying to hang on to something that can’t be held onto.
Are you clinging to the same old thing because it’s safe/known or are you accepting/embracing the new changes coming your way?
Got Change?
CHOICE
This or that? This and that! This, not that. This, this and that. Neither this nor that. That, that and maybe that. None! All! Choosing not to choose is a still choice!
Choice…Care in selecting; the opportunity or power to make a decision; the act of picking or deciding between two or more possibilities; a range of things that can be chosen – Merriam Webster.com
Everything you do is a Choice. Every thought you act on, even what you “think about” or what you “put your attention to” is a Choice. What you say is a Choice and the spoken word cannot be taken back. Once spoken, it exists in the “collective consciousness.”
Do you know what to say to push someone’s buttons? Do you do it on purpose? Sometimes? Have you put real thought into the stinging words or unwelcome habit you are perpetuating? That is your Choice to make. Do you realize that you made a Choice there? Is it a habit to do that? Do you believe it’s a habit or a Choice? Please put some thought into this next time you go to make a biting remark or do something hurtful...take that split second and make the Choice consciously. If you still go ahead, that is your Choice to make.
You can also choose to feel any way you want. Often it’s difficult NOT to choose an old pattern of how something makes you feel.
Hard to wrap your head around?
For example:
Let’s say you see your old high school nemesis driving a nice car, and you don’t even own a car…
You can choose: to be envious.
You can choose: to let it roll around in your head over and over and be pissed off all day and take it out on everyone around you.
You can choose: to just forget about it and go on with your business.
You can choose: to be happy for them (because seriously you’re not in high school anymore!)
You can choose: some other way to feel about this event.
Take a moment to imagine how this would make you feel?
Then imagine making the Choice to feel differently.
What would you choose?
It’s your choice!
COINCIDENCE
I don’t think so…
Coincidence…A striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance - Dictionary.com
“There’s no such thing as coincidence!” We’re just on the same wavelength! Let’s call it - Synchronicity!
This actually happened – NOT a coincidence!
Months before, my friend Niki and I had talked about possibly starting a three month rotating manager program at her creative, holistic centre, Healing House. I would be the first of these managers and I wanted November, December and January. We didn’t know who the other managers would be or what months they would want. We let that sit on the back burner, so to speak.
Months later, I realize: How and where to get my messages out on “How to save the Earth and the Animals” (my passion!) – It’s to and through kids!!!! I can start doing that through the Healing House Kids Program when I’m Manager! That is where I will integrate it through art projects and English lessons!
“I need to talk to Niki about this right now!” I thought to myself!
That very day - doesn’t she email me and say she’d like to talk to me about the three month rotating manager ‘thing’ because another friend, Maria wants the three months right after me! There would be a perfect flow!
However, Niki never spoke to Maria about our plans of the rotating House Manager! Maria just called her and offered exactly what we were looking for with no prior knowledge of our idea! I am not kidding!
It’s no different than when you think of a friend and the phone rings and it’s them.
That is not Coincidence! That is connection! That is synchronicity! That is being “in tune!”
CONTROL
Mayday! Mayday! Ground Control!
Control…To exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command; to hold in check; curb; to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of; regulation; the situation of being under
the regulation, domination or command of another
- Dictionary.com
A lot of our stress comes from trying to Control others, to Control things and to Control situations...and we can’t. We try! We use manipulation, aggression, anger, guilt, withhold love/sex and use force to Control things, but all we can really Control is ourselves, our reactions, our expectations, and our emotions.
While you are trying to Control everyone and everything in your life, you’ll be busy 24/7 and rarely satisfied. Am I right?
I am not asking you to give up what you want to see happen, just be able to let go of it if you can’t have it. By all means – ask! How else will anyone know what you want if you don’t ask? But be ok with a “NO.” And you don’t have to like “NO” but ask yourself in the grand scheme of things...how critical is this?
Sure, some things need to be controlled…sugar levels in a diabetic? Critical to life! If your kid leaves the house and his hair is a mess? Not so much! Likely just a blow to YOUR ego. What will people think? Not life threatening!
Do you need to Control what your partner wears? Where everyone sits at the table? How much milk they put on their cereal? These kinds of controls…ask yourself: Why is this so important to me?
Being controlling is based on fear. Are the fears justified? Are the controls you put in place just habits? Was a parent controlling, and you learned the habit like learning how to speak or how to cook? You learned their way - it was what you were taught, shown, how you learned by example. No one’s fault!
Let’s look at the most controlling person you know. How’s their health? Do they smile or laugh much? Are they happy? I’ll bet not - if they don’t get their way!
Now let’s look at the most carefree, easygoing person you know. How’s their health? Pretty good huh? Yup. It’s that easy! It’s not that easy to give up on any ingrained pattern, habit or characteristic - but possible. And boy you will be so much happier - and guess what? So will everyone else around you!
Now let’s keep something in mind...just because you loosen up Control once or twice, don’t expect the world to notice! Years of Control have had a huge effect on those around you. They may not notice that you have relinquished Control over something. For you it’s been monumental! They didn’t even notice!
Communicate!!!! Open up! Tough to do! Say, “Hey, got a minute? I need your help with something.” (pick something easy) “Hear me out OK? I am going to bear my soul to you…”
Here’s a scenario:
Messy Hair! It’s the end of the world!!!!!
“You know each morning when you’re getting ready for school, you don’t comb your hair! I yell at you to comb your hair, you don’t, we fight, you leave annoyed, and I stay mad. I’d like to tell you why it’s so important to me that you look neat, and I want to hear why you feel it’s not important. We will understand each other’s point of view. You still might not do what I ask, and I may not stop asking you, but we’ll know more about how each other thinks, about our personalities, why we do the things we do.”
(Are you willing to have this kind of conversation? You’ll have to look deep inside yourself and examine your motives…just sayin’)
How are you gonna feel if your kid says that the bully at school messes his hair each day, and when it’s messy, he bullies the other kids instead? Imagine being a kid terrorized at school everyday for neat hair and a parent terrorizing him at home for messy hair! When’s the poor kid gonna break?
How important is the neat hair now? Now you get to step up, be the hero and give love and support (because you feel like the biggest ass on the planet!!!) But now you can “step up” because you took the leap, took the time, asked the question, had the conversation, opened up! Good job!
Here’s another:
Diabetic sugarholic! This one’s a time bomb!!!
Instead of trying to Control what they do, tell them why you want to Control what they do! Sounds simple enough…
”The reason I nag you about your sugar intake is because I love you so much and it frightens me to think you could lose your eyesight, the use of your legs or your life over this. I want to be with you for as long as I can and sugar threatens that for me. When you die you’ll be gone, and you won’t care but I will be alone and broken hearted and would never forgive myself if I didn’t try every day to keep you with me.”
This could open up any number of responses. “It’s none of your business.” “It’s my life.” “Oh, that won’t happen to me.” “Do you have any idea how hard it is to manage my sugar and hear you nag about it all day?”…Be prepared for any response when you ask a question!
Likely you will take them by surprise with your new approach – they might not know what to do or say...just know that the seed is planted, and the conversation might continue another day.
You have had time to plan and prepare for this conversation – they didn’t. Offer them an out. “This is how I feel. I just wanted you to know why I do this and neither of us is happy about the situation. Can I ask you to please think about it and when you are ready, I’d like to hear how you feel.”
(…are they looking at you like you are from another planet right now, Control freak?)
Do you think you will feel better for voicing your love and fears…for getting them out of your mind, for giving them voice?
I have found from experience (all of what I am sharing is from my experience) that the worries that go over and over and over in my mind, go silent when I let them escape out my mouth! And OMG the first few times your mind goes quiet like that…”Heaven, I’m in Heaven!”
The only thing you can control is yourself!
ENERGY
Not your science teacher’s kind of energy…or is it?
Energy…A usually positive spiritual force; a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system – Merriam Webster.com
Here’s a mind blower! You can haunt a place without being dead. You don’t have to die there! You have left an Energy signature there! Think about THAT!
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It merely changes form. Heat, light, movement, thoughts, vibrations, sound waves, radio waves, any kind of waves…they are all Energy. Anything in motion is Energy. Energy is in everything. Energy is a force, and we are all one Energy, the same energy…just in different forms.
There’s kinetic energy, potential energy, mechanical energy, mechanical wave energy, chemical energy, electric energy, magnetic energy, radiant energy, nuclear energy, ionization energy, elastic energy, gravitational energy, thermal energy, physical energy, emotional energy, biomagnetic energy, metaphysical energy…just to name a few!
Still not sure what that all means? Ok. You know how you can feel if there is someone watching you or standing right behind you when you never saw or heard them approach? You felt their Energy! They were in your personal space, your energetic field!
For Example: Every time you walk up to the same animal it is a different experience. Yours and their energies are slightly different each time. That is why a pet may react one way, one day, and differently the next. Animals can sense energies much better than we can.
We all felt this intense energy!:
I volunteered as manager and caretaker of an amazing animal shelter recently. Rosemary had eight dogs and 44 cats at the time, all very well cared for and most roamed free on her property. It was incredibly tranquil there. You’d never guess it housed so many animals by how quiet it was…
Except when Garfield, a tough male tomcat decided to pick a fight. For a few days in a row, he was picking a fight with sweet little Joy, who rarely left her cozy bed. This one day the screeching between the two of them and my yelling at them to “Stop it,” set the whole place on edge! The energy in the air was intense even after the fight was over! All the animals were visibly affected.
Tigressa, a very sweet, very old, little cat shared the back patio with two dogs, Rosie and Princessa. Shortly after the fight, while everyone was still all riled up, Tigressa took a swipe at Princessa! So out of character for her! All because the energy in the space had changed from chill to shrill - and all were affected by it!
Life is Energy, love is Energy and so is hate. What kind of Energy do you want to feel? How do you want your energy to be felt by others? Energy is a vibration and a vibration is energy.
“The whole of the Universe is energy and each basic element of the known atomic chart consists of energy at different rates of vibration. The difference between any two elements is the difference in both atomic structure and vibration rates.”
(Reflection magazine, Issue No.9 July/August 1998, ISSN 1326-8414, page 22.)
What kind of energy are you going to vibrate today?
FEAR
“Feariphobia: Well, I’m afraid that I’m afraid!”
Fear…A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid; foreboding; apprehension; dismay; dread; terror, fright, panic, horror, trepidation; concern or anxiety; anticipation of the possibility that something unpleasant will occur - Dictionary.com
…possibly the #1 cause of unhappiness!
There are different types of Fear. Primal Fear, emotional Fear, phobias, irrational Fear, rational Fear, being cautious…
Thank you, my friend, Madera, for bringing to light two different kinds of Fear for me – primal/instinctual Fear and emotional Fear.
Primal Fear is when your gut tells you something is wrong. Emotional Fear keeps you from hurting your ego! Phobias are psychological fears and can be paralyzing and likely irrational. Rational Fear keeps you out of dark alleys full of drunken people fist fighting. Caution can be a form of Fear if it’s taken too far and stops you from living, experiencing, and enjoying life.
Fear is taking the memory of something unpleasant from the past and applying that to a present or future situation.
Fear causes hate, violence and prejudice.
Fear can easily be taught! If you are afraid of spiders, likely your kids will be too. If you are afraid of water, well…your kids learn from you! “Water must be dangerous, Mom is afraid of it.” If you are afraid of thunderstorms, your dog is going to be afraid of them too. Who wants to be afraid? Why teach that, why pass that along?
Breathe through your fears, face your fears or at least acknowledge your fears and figure out why you are afraid. Disarm that Fear and gain power over it. Gain your power and freedom back. Send love to that Fear. See it with adult eyes. See what you are afraid of with compassion for it. Is it afraid of you too?
Are you afraid to try something new? Afraid of how you’ll look? How others will see you? Afraid you won’t be good enough?
Was there ever anything you did perfectly the first time? Are you willing to try and keep trying, or will you give up after one try? Will you get frustrated and quit? Will you let others discourage you?
Who are you doing it for? If you are doing it for someone else you might care what you look like or worry you might fail or what they will think of you or that they will judge you…but if you are doing something for yourself, you won’t care how you look doing it, or if you have to keep trying to get it right.
So, who are you doing it for? Why are you doing it? When do you have to be an expert by? How will you judge yourself on the outcome? Ask “What’s in it for me?”
Are you afraid of failure? Failure isn’t doing something badly. Failure is giving up.
Ask yourself: What’s the worst that can happen? Then what? Then what? Keep asking until you exhaust the question (or yourself!)
“If at first you don’t succeed try, try again.” That never made sense to me until I understood it as - Try trying again! What have you got to lose?
This experience had a far-reaching affect on me:
One afternoon, people I loved and looked up to eavesdropped on me singing by myself when I was a kid. They made fun of me and laughed at me, and I was so embarrassed that I never sang in front of anyone.
Why not? What if someone else did the same thing to me? Could I stand it again? Would I be willing to put myself in that situation again? The first time I was taken by surprise and so embarrassed and it made me feel ashamed somehow. I wouldn’t open myself to that feeling ever again. I cared what they thought! I loved them! Their opinion mattered to me. I felt ridiculed. Why would I ever put myself in a similar situation by doing the same thing?
I was afraid that that same thing would happen again, so I let it stop me from doing something I enjoyed so much. Their opinion mattered so much it deprived me of the joy of singing for most of my life!
Could I sing in front of someone if I didn’t care what they thought of me? Easily!
Lesson here!!! Don’t allow Fear to stop you from trying, to stop you from fully living! If you don’t care what anyone thinks about you, you very likely won’t Fear trying or doing something.
Next time you feel Fear - ask yourself:
Is this primal Fear or emotional Fear?
A rational Fear or an irrational Fear?
Is this a phobia or caution/worry?
Is this my Fear or a Fear someone taught me?
Primal Fear – Trust!
Emotional Fear – Exercise your self-esteem!
Rational Fear – Get yourself somewhere safe!
Irrational Fear – Question!
Phobia – Face it!
Caution – Proceed with caution!
Your Fear – Look at it!
Someone else’s Fear – Unlearn it!
“FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real” (Neale Donald Walsch)
FLOW
Just go with the flow!
Flow…To move in a continuous and smooth way; to move with a continual change of place among the constituent particles; to proceed smoothly and readily; to deform under stress without cracking or rupturing – Merriam Webster.com
Flow is like being in the right place at the right time. Goin’ with the Flow. It doesn’t mean go along with everyone else. It means listen to your heart, your gut, your intuition, that inner voice. Things go smoothly when you’re in the Flow, and you come across roadblocks and bottlenecks when you aren’t. These roadblocks and bottlenecks show you when you’re out of the Flow!
You may find yourself somewhere unexpected, and you go with it. That’s Flow! And it might just turn out to be amazing!
Flow is allowing the natural order to occur, leaving it up to the Universe to decide and going with what turns up in front of you. If you fight the Flow, you may miss a great opportunity that was in store for you.
Flow means just trusting the Universe to put you where you need to be, but not necessarily where you want to be. Remember a time when something didn’t go how you wanted and in the end it was a blessing in disguise? Accepting that detour is Flow. Know it will all work out.
When something doesn’t work out like you hoped or planned and you go with whatever comes along…that is Flow.
Forcing things to go your way is not Flow. It’s the “Anti-Flow”!
Ever hurried somewhere and the place was closed? Ever rushed to get something done and did a half ass job because you rushed and the deadline got extended? Forcing something is also trying too hard. It’s best not to force something to happen, just allow it to happen.
You can’t force someone to love you, but you can allow them to love you. Allowing and accepting is Flow.
Flow may take you to a not-so desirable place and if it does, there is a lesson there you need to learn. Incredible things can appear to you in the Flow and sometimes nothing special happens. You may never know the disaster you avoided by staying in the Flow. If your plans go awry and you don’t resist, pay attention, something is there for you. Getting upset doesn’t change the outcome! Just go with the Flow! Don’t plan the fun - or the Flow - out of things!
My lesson in Flow:
A flight from Lima to Sao Paulo to Florianopolis turned into a flight from Lima to Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, to Sao Paulo to Brasilia to Florianopolis. And all that showed me the incredible power of Reiki…and Flow! (And it also proved the potential for travel disruptions during a Mercury Retrograde!)
Here’s what happened:
I sent Reiki to the whole plane as we left Lima on the way to Sao Paulo - to each person, mechanism, panel, bolt, everything. The flight is normally five hours. Delays due to weather, rerouting, landing priorities, sitting on tarmacs, being in line ups etc. added a good 12 hours to our trip. Not one upset person! Not even babies cried!
People missed connecting flights (myself included), and no one complained! Huge lesson there for me!!! We all went with the Flow. Really quite incredible that a planeload of people stayed in the flow, kept their cool and even had an enjoyable time chit chatting while we waited and waited and waited! Still don’t quite believe it, but I was there to witness it! If someone had fought the flow and “air raged,” they would have ended up in a Brazilian jail…instead we ended up in paradise. That whole vacation was a magical flow actually. I highly recommend the beaches around Garopaba, and I highly recommend Flow.
Breathing is a Flow of air - in and out of your lungs - you don’t want that Flow to stop! Rivers Flow - fast, slow, and sometimes they look still but there is movement under the surface. Love flows in and out of our lives, as do friends. Allow the old ones to Flow out and the new ones to Flow in. What no longer serves can be let go of.
Let go, and be in the Flow.
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Follow your heart, follow your heart, rinse and repeat
Follow…To come after in sequence; move behind in the same direction; to accept as a guide or leader; accept the authority of, or give allegiance to; to conform to, comply with, or act in accordance with; obey - Dictionary.com
Heart…The center of the total personality, especially with reference to intuition, feeling, or emotion; the center of emotion; especially as contrasted to the head as the center of the intellect;
capacity for sympathy; feeling; affection; spirit, courage or enthusiasm; the innermost or central part of anything - Dictionary.com
This chapter could/should just read: Follow Your Heart, Follow Your Heart…over and over until the end of the chapter because it’s all you really need to know. Everything else I wrote is just what your brain needs to hear/understand to keep reminding you to Follow Your Heart!
I don’t mean: What you want on a whim, or the flavor of the month…I mean: What has your Core Being been calling out for?
If you Follow Your Heart, your dreams, your lifelong passions will come to you, will work out and you will be so happy! Things will flow and be easy. You’ll be amazed!
If you don’t Follow Your Heart and live your life for someone else, to fill someone else’s goals and expectations for you, how can things flow easily? Would you truly be happy?
When you Follow Your Heart/passion/dharma - it won’t seem like work and you will attract abundance in your life because you are on the right track.
First step? What is your purpose, your passion? Deepak Chopra asks “What would you do if you had all the money in the world and all the time in the world?” Brilliant man! That is your passion, your heart’s desire. The Universe is just waiting to help you make that a reality!
YES! It’s really that simple!
What did my heart say?
My whole life it said go to South America. Ever since I was a little kid!
In my forties I made a list of things I wanted to do in my life. I made a plan! A one year, a five year and a ten year plan. South America was on the ten year plan. It was the biggest dream of them all, the most difficult in my given situation and the most expensive to pull off. More than a year passed and all the things on my list were still on my list, and I didn’t really have passion for most of them…they were “shoulds.”
I was very unhappy in my unfulfilling life and kept saying to myself, “I’ll do that in my next life,” or “Maybe in my next life,” and the growing depression made me finally say: “Now’s the time! - Do or die!” (literally) and I went to South America and my life changed on an unimaginable scale! And one year and one day later I was back in South America to stay - where I wanted to be my whole life, and I need a whole other book to tell you the list of my dreams that have come true since, that have basically fallen into my lap because:
I FOLLOWED MY HEART!
“Follow your heart and get your groove on because no matter what anyone said, it’s never too late to have it all” – a note from the Universe (a friend sent me this quote one day and it changed my life forever! Thanks Sonia!)
GRATITUDE, GIVING AND RECEIVING
It just keeps comin’ back around!
Gratitude…An emotion of the heart, excited by a favour or benefit received; a sentiment of kindness or goodwill towards a benefactor; thankfulness. Gratitude is an agreeable emotion, consisting in or accompanied with goodwill to a benefactor, and a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services, or when no return can be made, with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty - Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary
Giving…To present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; bestow; to hand to someone; to grant to someone; to impart or communicate; present; offer – Dictionary.com
Receiving…To take into one's possession, something offered or delivered; to have (something) bestowed, conferred; to get or
be informed of; to hold, bear, or contain – Dictionary.com
I say an extensive prayer almost every morning…for many reasons. I am truly appreciative of these amazing things in my life! I have learned to be truly thankful for so many things that I used to take for granted! It makes me aware of the multitude of blessings in my life! It raises my vibration and keeps the flow of giving and receiving alive!
If you are like me, you probably hold a little resentment towards whatever religion you were brought up with, was forced upon you, or was scared into you. Because of that, maybe you have an aversion to saying “grace” or “your prayers?” Does it make you roll your eyes? Let’s change the words “Saying Grace” or “Giving Thanks” to completely shift the energy behind them. Let’s say “Feel Gratitude.” One difference is that we no longer have to thank some ONE or THING, we can just feel or show Gratitude…and Gratitude is all part of flow, Giving and Receiving.
Of course you can still thank God, Allah, The Goddess, The Universe, the Supreme Energy, The Divine, The Almighty, Buddha, The Great Pumpkin or whoever you want to acknowledge…or you can just be grateful! The end result is the same – the vibration of Gratitude goes outward…and…it comes right back to you!
Try this:
If you see a gorgeous sunset or a cute puppy…just say or think or feel “Wow! I am so grateful I saw/experienced that!” You don’t have to say it TO anyone, just express it somehow. Just acknowledging beauty can be an expression of Gratitude because you are feeling it. Gratitude is actually a physical feeling…a vibration. The vibration of Gratitude is an endless wavelength of positive energy that is continuously moving outward in all directions. It is received by the Universe and then comes back to you.
Think about it! Appreciation. When you do something for someone, you likely want it acknowledged or appreciated. Of course the ultimate act of charity is anonymous, but we’re not all saints and angels here! We want to receive some form of appreciation or Gratitude.
When someone does something so wonderful for you, and you appreciate it SO much…there’s a feeling that goes with that. That is the feeling/vibration of Gratitude! Feel it!
Giving and Receiving go hand in hand. It’s a flow, an energetic exchange. If it’s “all give,” one becomes empty, drained. If we only receive, we stagnate, become unappreciative.
Giving feels great and so does Receiving (if the exchange is done genuinely!)
Here’s what I mean:
I offer you a gift because I want to give you something, maybe a gesture of appreciation. You accept the gift, and you feel great because you have received a gift! I feel great because I got to express what I wanted to through the giving.
Or look at it like this:
If you don’t receive the gift, I don’t get to receive the joy!
It’s a two way street, Giving and Receiving.
By me Giving, I also receive.
By me Receiving, I give the giver what they want as well!
And we’re all grateful! It’s a win-win situation!
HAPPINESS
Happiness isn’t a thing, it’s a state of mind.
Happiness…Pleasure, joy, exhilaration, bliss, contentedness, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction, felicity; imply an active or passive state of pleasure or pleasurable satisfaction - Dictionary.com
To be happy is a choice, albeit a tough one. My dear friend, bless her heart, could be in paradise and find something wrong. Not her fault. Like many of us we have been taught/trained to find fault, lay blame, strive for improvement or want more. We’ve been programmed since birth, by our parents, families and teachers. Not their fault! Their parents, families and teachers programmed them, and so on and so on! It’s no one’s fault!
Why do we have to lay blame anyway? Because! It takes the attention away from our own faults, misdeeds or lack of knowledge! Have a look at that!
But back to Happiness! Do you see what’s great or beautiful out there or do you see what’s not great or beautiful. Do you see the flower on the roadside or the litter beside it? Do you see both and enjoy the flower or see both and resent the garbage?
Now that being said… Are you happy? And if not, what would make you happy?
I was asked this question once and was shocked! I didn’t know the answer! It wasn’t like it was a test or anything! I’m the only one who could possibly know the answer! And I didn’t. But I sure am glad she asked because I decided to find out. I thought about it, figured it out, then I went about making it happen. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. Actually, it was easy, but I chose to make it hard. I didn’t believe life could be easy. I thought I had to struggle and work hard and do without to earn happiness. Boy was I wrong! Again, it’s what we have been taught, but it doesn’t mean that those teachers were right!
I said to myself, “I’ll never be happy because I can’t have this/do that etc.”…I believed it was impossible, so what I believed and what I chose became real for me...but once I knew what I wanted and slowly changed how I thought - and although I made it hard for myself at first- I made it happen! I found happiness!
Now that being said… I have sat in paradise and cried over one thing that was missing in my life amongst all my dreams that had come true...sitting in paradise! So it can happen to all of us! We can find happiness and lose it with one thought of lack – or we can choose to come back to Happiness. See the flower!
What makes you happy? What makes you smile? Are you generally happy? Ask yourself why or why not? What do we actually need vs. want? We NEED air, water, food, shelter and love. When our needs are met, we have all we need to be happy.
Need vs. want.
Does money make you happy? How? Is it because you can buy things with that money? So then, it’s the not the money that makes you happy, it’s the things. Do things really make you happy? When you have all the things you wanted to buy, would you really be happy? I guess the real question is…for how long?
Have a look at this:
What things would make you happy that money can buy, that you cannot afford? A car, maybe? What would that car fulfill for you? Ease in your day-to-day life? Ownership? Attention? Respect? Acceptance? Ask yourself: “What is the true desire behind the car?
If I could get that ease, ownership, attention, respect, or acceptance another way, and that made me happy – would I still want the car?”
And if the answer is “Yes, I still want the car,” then great! Your mind will be at ease because your deeper needs or desires would be met. You’d be happy - allowing you time to think about how to get that car instead of your thoughts being consumed by not having one...
Let’s look at this a little differently: So, if you have this car that you think will fill a need that will make you so happy…you now have to make monthly payments, pay for the license, driver’s education, insurance, gas, maintenance, repairs, parking and so on...You have to work more hours to pay for the upkeep of the car. Are you happy now, or has the car made you more unhappy? Now you’re afraid someone might hit your car or spill something in your car so you protect it and don’t want to drive it certain places or park it near other cars or have certain people in it…
Are you happy yet?
Deep down, what did you really want? Acceptance and attention, or a car? What I am asking here is – What would make you truly happy?
Money Cannot Buy Happiness…seriously, it can’t!
Money buys things, Happiness is a state of being!
Ask yourself:
Does a minor setback roll off your back or make you angry?
Do you say nice things or hurtful things?
Do you sing, hum, whistle or do you yell, complain and curse?
Do you naturally smile or scowl?
Do you think about what you have got or what you don’t have?
Do you lend a hand or expect people to do things for you?
Are you grateful to be alive or think you’d be better off dead?
Are you happy or unhappy?
So, if you are NOT happy…
Figure out what you truly want! AND Change your thoughts!
Happiness will follow!
LESSONS
Today’s Lesson: Lessons!
Lessons…Something to be learned or studied; a useful piece of practical wisdom acquired by experience or study; something
from which a person learns or should learn - Dictionary.com
Everything is a Lesson.
You choose whether to:
1) recognize it
2) accept it
3) learn from it
4) make the changes learned…or not.
If you don’t, don’t worry, the Lesson will return another time. You’ll get another chance! May or may not be so gentle next time ‘round, though!
Lessons come in a variety of shapes and forms. Do you attract the same kinds of relationships and people? Lessons have more than one face too.
If you attract the same unhealthy relationships, you are:
1) putting it out there so you manifest it – If you say “All men are dogs”, you’re gonna get dogs.
2) getting a mirror of yourself – what you don’t like about someone or something is likely one of your own characteristics
3) not paying attention to the Lesson - so it keeps repeating, until you:
A) recognize it
B) accept it
C) learn from it and
D) do something different to break the loop.
I had to pay attention to this:
I met an amazing guy, and we had a wonderful time together. However, there were SO many similar things, situations, traits, and circumstances to another relationship I’d had, it was uncanny! I started writing down all these similarities as I recognized these old patterns showing up. This again? This again? I began to joke that this was my old life and patterns only the 8.0 version! Super upgraded, but still the same.
So I took that list I’d made, and figured out what I hadn’t learned last time, and I knew I had to make the changes because I really didn’t want to relive any of those situations again. Some were old lessons, some were recent patterns but there were so many!
(more than 40 I’d noted!) It was a huge gift to get them all at once, an ass kicker, though! It was NOT easy, but damn, I did not want to relive any of them again, and I am so grateful they came in a wonderful package!
Thank you my friend.
I ended our relationship, and that was the last Lesson. I worked on the entire list. I checked them off one by one, once I was actually living the change I needed to break those patterns.
Acknowledging them isn’t enough. You have to live the change or the Lesson will return. The last one kept circling back around…over and over, and I let it. When I finally broke that one last pattern, I filled the space with good intentions, and I am now open to a whole new way of looking at my life and the kinds of relationships I want to attract. I broke my own heart leaving the 8.0 version, but did I really want the 9.1 version of the same thing to come back? ‘coz it would!
There’s a lesson in everything if you look!
LOVE
…is like ice cream!
Love…A strong positive emotion of regard and affection; any object of warm affection or devotion; have a great affection or liking for – vocabulary.com
What does love mean to you? There’s a good chance your view of love is pretty limited! There are many different types of love.
We can look at love in general as a vibration and then at the various different kinds of love as slightly different frequencies of that vibration…
OK - in laymen’s terms…We can look at love in general as ice cream and then at the various different kinds of love as the various different flavours of ice cream…Let’s taste a few different flavours of love, shall we?
There is unconditional love; conditional love (Relax! We’ll get back to that!); motherly, fatherly, sisterly, brotherly love; familial love; love of your child; platonic love; romantic love; love of pets; self love; love of nature; love of life; love of activities; emotional love; love of sensations; love of beauty; love of things; love of God/ Great Divine Spirit/Buddha/Allah/Goddess/Mohammed/Universe (did I leave anybody out?)…just to name a few!
Love IS NOT:
Missing or longing for someone. Love doesn’t hurt. That is lack, not love!
Hurtful or jealous. Love isn’t ownership. That’s possession and manipulation, not love!
Sex. You can love sex and you can express love during sex. That is physical gratification, not love.
Love IS:
A beautiful feeling of emotion that makes your heart sing!
When you care for something or someone so much and don’t need anything in return!
The greatest expression of joy!
Love is free - so don’t be stingy with it!
Love comes in many forms - so don’t get all caught up in that it’s all about sex!
Love comes from you - so don’t deny yourself the joy of expressing it!
Love is limitless - so don’t cut yourself off from receiving it!
Ok, I am sure a few alarm bells went off when you read “conditional love” - so, as promised…we’re getting back to that! Conditional vs. Unconditional Love - and you can look at this however your heart sees true!
Again, I am talking about love in general - being a great feeling, a high vibrational frequency, NOT as the deciding factor of whether you love or don’t love a person based on a set of specific criteria!
Unconditional love is like a mother’s love for a child, one who can do no wrong, or how your dog feels about you. Conditional love could be: “I love seeing you play with the kids, but I hate it when you play so rough with them!” That is still love, love of an event or action, it’s just conditional – based on how the action is performed.
Unconditional love is a lofty target and it’s definitely worth striving for, but let’s allow ourselves to find/see/feel love in the little things, the simple things, to just feel love and not have to categorize it, justify or judge it. Just feel it! Be love!
So, depending on how you define love sets the tone for how much love you can experience and what feelings or expressions of love you want to experience! It’s all up to you!
So, yes, you CAN love ice cream!
MESSAGES
…(rrringggg)…It’s for you…
Message…A piece of information that is sent or given to someone; an important idea that someone is trying to express; a communication in writing, in speech or by signals; and underlying theme or idea – Merriam Webster.com
As there are lessons everywhere, there are also Messages everywhere. They come in many forms. You may get a twitch in your eye, a funny feeling in your stomach. They may be Messages to you to “Go for it!” or “Watch out!” Only you trusting your instincts will teach you which it is. ASK! Seriously, ask – yourself!
When you look at the clock or the bus schedule, does the same time stand out or the same numbers appear? Does a bolt of lightning strike as you think something? What was your thought at that moment? What was going on around you when something out of the ordinary happened? Start noticing the Messages around you. When I have a specific thought and a hummingbird flies up to me and hovers right in my face, I need to revisit that immediate thought! For me, it is right on the mark.
This was one of many Messages I could not ignore!:
One night I got up in the middle of the night and went outside to watch the skies. I don’t usually wake up and go outside but this night I did, and the sky was gorgeous! I started thinking about something I really needed to do. But this thing, it was so hard, and I really didn’t want to do it, and I was always so unsure. If it is so hard and I don’t want to do it, how can it be the right choice? But deep down I knew it was. So I decided, “YES, I am going do it” and within moments I saw seven shooting stars! Really?! Can you ignore a message like that? It was pretty drastic, but I was not noticing or paying attention to other Messages so they had to be in my face for me to pay attention and accept them. Now, I can see much more subtle Messages and most times I act on them. And oh! They are bang on!
There was a time I’d only listen to them if they made sense. Now I try very hard to go with it no matter how odd because the message was meant for me!
Sometimes the message can be so subtle. You’ll hear yourself say:
I don’t know, something told me to!
I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, I just know!
This doesn’t make sense, but I have to!
…and you do it anyway and it turns out it was quite important!
I don’t hear words in my head (most of the time!) when I say, “something told me.” I get an idea that doesn’t feel like it was mine - or a feeling that I am just supposed to do something.
Here’s another message I got:
One morning I was walking alone on the beach and scouring for rocks, (my joy!) It’s normally a pretty deserted beach but there were two people behind me, a little ways back. I found a red, yellow and orange rock in the shape of a heart and something told me to “give it to her.” My mind said “Seriously? You want me to walk up to her and hand her a rock? They’re gonna think I’m nuts or dangerous!” But I knew I was supposed to do it. I found this exquisite rock and got the message so I stopped, turned around, walked a few steps towards them and said, “Un corazon para ti,” (A heart for you), and handed her the rock. She looked at me and asked, “De donde eres?” (Where are you from?)
She took the rock, and we started talking. Turns out we were on similar paths and she needed my help, and she also introduced me to a friend I needed to meet.
I got a message and listened and acted on it and because of that I had the opportunity to make almost every dream I had come true right there on that very beach!
In the inner quiet of your mind, the Messages will come to you. You don’t even have to look for them. Let them appear to you. In whatever manner you will understand them or what your sanity will allow - is how they will come to you!
Get the message?
SIX SENSES
We are eternal energy - experiencing itself - in this existence - through our senses…Que?
Sense…The faculty of perceiving by means of sense organs; a specialized function or mechanism by which an animal receives and responds to external or internal stimuli; conscious awareness; a definite but often vague awareness or impression; capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a basis for action or response – Merriam Webster.com
Another way to say it is: The Universe created us to experience itself. The Creator and the Witness. We exist (as the Witness) for the universe (the Creator) to experience itself. We have our five Senses for the Universe to feel, taste, touch, smell and hear through us, and we have our sixth sense to communicate with the Universe. We have evolved to be cognizant of this and as such are now experiencing ourselves anew.
(I’m sorry….run that by me again…)
The Universe - which is energy - which we are part of - created our bodies with these five physical Senses - to experience physical things - through vision, contact, odor, flavor and sound! And our sixth sense – to communicate that information back to itself through vibrations!
Vision is the strongest of our Senses. It uses up a lot of space in our brains compared to the other Senses. Notice how you close your eyes if you really want to hear something or enjoy the taste or smell of something? Vision is the easiest, most common way to receive messages. We perceive colour with our eyes as vibrational waves of light. We see vibrations.
Touch comes to us through our largest organ and more! Our skin and everything inside…can feel! So imagine the affect touch can have. Touch can heal or hurt, be hot or cold, soft or firm. We can touch someone’s heart with a kind word or gesture without any physical contact! Think about that! We feel vibrations.
Hearing is possible because of little bones in our ears that vibrate against a drum - making sounds. We give meaning to and interpret those vibrations as messages and signals. Oh our incredible and complex brains! But it’s nothing without the vibration. Our vocal chords vibrate to make sounds, our brains work within various different wave lengths (vibrations of alpha, beta, theta waves). We hear vibrations.
Taste for me is all about pleasure! (We have other pleasure organs that I wont get into here!) Think about how your body physically reacts to taste. Something delicious? We get all soft and relaxed and dreamy. Something awful? We screw up our faces, get tense and shudder. Can we taste a vibration? Yes! Taste is a vibration! Taste buds are the receptors and converter/encoders of the vibration of the things we ingest. Our brains interpret the vibrations as taste. These received vibrations also tell our body how to process the foods we are eating - what enzymes to release to digest those foods…all based on the vibration received. Not too hard to imagine…We taste vibrations.
Smell is closely connected to taste. Without smell it’s difficult to taste…as you well know if you have ever had a bad cold and can’t taste your food when you can’t breath through your nose. So, smell as a vibration? Yes! Chemical substances like borane and sulfur have similar smells but neither contains elements of the other. However, each of their molecular bonds with hydrogen - vibrate at similar frequencies! Voilà, they smell similar! We smell vibrations.
That leaves the Sixth sense…call it what you want. Intuition, ESP (Extra Sensory Perception), a gut feeling, that “knowing,” messages, visions, voices…How do you receive information from your inner self? Imagine how strong that sense could be if we activated the dormant 70% of our brains!? Where does that information come from? How does it get to our logical brains? It comes from the Universe. It comes on waves of vibration. Our Senses receive the vibrations and send signals to the brain to interpret those vibrations. We perceive vibrations.
…and for dessert? Yes, I’ll have the vibration of Crème Brulée please…
SPIRITUALITY vs. RELIGION
…and in this corner…
Spirituality…The experience or expression of the sacred – Adapted from Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1967
Religion…The belief in a god or group of gods; an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods; a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices – Merriam Webster.com
Religion is generally a man-made institution that uses fear to control the masses under the guise of a God.
Spirituality is an individual path to peace and wellbeing. It’s your own. You choose what to believe in. You can take a little of this and a little of that…a little of these teachings and philosophies and ideas of your own, and create your own beliefs and truths. Your Spirituality connects you with your spirit, and mine connects me with my spirit. I cannot impose my beliefs on you and try to convince you that my way is better because it’s only better for me. We can agree on many levels, and open each other’s eyes to new ideas, but neither of us is wrong in what we believe. Your deepest truth, what you believe with your whole heart, becomes real in your world. Your core beliefs are your reality.
Here’s what I believe:
When I die my spirit/soul essence/eternal energy will transmute into another form of energy and will continue outside of the body it’s in right now…in a place where we are all just energy. No physical bodies, just our essence in a different form of energy - and spirituality is how we connect to our spirit, that eternal essence that is us and is everything else before and after this body, the life force beyond the six senses and our perception of time.
…and the winner is…..
THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS
“Spirit Science” proves it!
Thought…An idea, plan, opinion, picture etc., that is formed in your mind; something that you think of; the act of carefully thinking about the details of something; serious consideration; reasoning power; the power to imagine; a developed intention or plan – Merriam Webster.com
Thing…An object, animal, quality, etc., of any kind; a particular event, occurrence or situation; deed, act, accomplishment; a product of work or activity; the concrete entity as distinguished from its appearances – Merriam Webster.com
How does a thought become a thing, you might ask? Many ways! By believing! By asking! Through intention and attention!
…But on a physical scale it works something like this: “Thoughts are energy. They create space and manifest.” (Chaitanya – Yoga Teacher Training - Cusco 2013)
There is a thin boundary between thought and reality. Just like the thin boundary between dreams and reality.
Ok, picture this:
You wake up from a dream and it is SO vivid you can still see it, feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it. Where did that dream go? It’s not in a place in your head. It was an energy pattern that played out in front of your inner eye. Just like memories…they aren’t stored in a place in your brain, they are energy patterns. The same as Thoughts!
As we already know EVERYTHING is energy. Therefore, so are Thoughts. Energy moves via vibration, like a wave, and once the wave is sent out, it goes on forever. So…that thought?
IT IS OUT THERE!
And the stronger you feel it, or believe it, the more energy goes to it to make it happen, to make it real! So be careful, or should I say be conscious of your Thoughts!
Fear is very powerful and there is incredible belief behind your fears. Whether you know its rational or not, that fear is REAL and it has enough power to control or manipulate you! So you can see how fearful thoughts could manifest so quickly - with that kind of power behind them!
Thoughts become things! And if you don’t believe me, try it! - But please, try something good!
Thoughts do become Things! What you believe comes true!
Ever heard the saying “Careful what you wish for?”
UNIVERSE
"If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in
terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
– Dr. Nikola Tesla
Universe…All of space and everything in it; an area of space or a world that is similar but separate from the one that we live in; the whole body of things and phenomena observed or postulated; a systematic whole held to arise by and persist through the direct intervention of divine power; the world of human experience; a distinct field or province of thought or reality that forms a closed system; self–inclusive and independent organization – Merriam Webster.com
The Universe or Consciousness is eternal, timeless. It is everything. God, Buddha, Divine Spirit, Creator, Goddess, The Universe – whatever you want to call it - experiences through us. That is how/why things manifest. We think them, and the Universe creates them and experiences these things through us. It creates the things we put our attention to. It exists through us and will give us what we want or think about. It will give us whatever we put our attention to – whatever makes us feel deeply or strongly.
If I am deeply sad and cry all the time, the Universe will bring me things to make me sad! Why?
First of all, I must like being sad because I cry all the time – it’s where my attention is most of the time! That must be what I want! Secondly, it’s such a strong emotion or feeling, and the Universe gets to experience this incredible intensity!
The Universe makes something more beautiful because we are appreciative of it and paying attention to it. As we appreciate it more and more, the Universe shows us new ways of seeing it, in greater detail, and in ways we’ve never noticed before. It’s like the Universe is watching us and trying to impress us - in its own art gallery!
I am not kidding!
The Universe does make the same things more beautiful for me each time I look! Because I notice these things - and I OH SO appreciate them! The Universe feels that vibration of gratitude and shows me more and more!!!!! It’s a beautiful cycle!
The Universe manifests the most incredible situations and opportunities through/for us. I know it does because I see it everyday and I often laugh right out loud! “Funny Universe!” I say…and even more often I say: “THANK YOU UNIVERSE!!!”
The Universe puts us right where it needs us to be – right where we need to be!
“He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the Universe.” - Marcus Aurelius
WE ARE ALL CONNECTED
Cells talk to cells
Connected…Joined or linked together; having the parts or elements logically linked together; incapable of being separated into two or more closed, disjoint subsets – Merriam Webster.com
“Each cell receives a complex combination of signals which simultaneously trigger many different signalling pathways. Each step in a signalling pathway provides an opportunity for cross-talk between different signals. Through cross-talk, the cell integrates information from many different signalling pathways to initiate an appropriate response.” - University of Utah Health Sciences
The heavens are connected to the plankton in the ocean. How you ask? We Are All Connected by energy.
Here’s a few examples:
We Are All Connected to the Moon. We cannot touch the Moon but it controls our tides. A woman’s menstrual cycle is the same length, 28 days, as the Moon’s cycle. Some ocean animals such as corals, sea urchins, fireworms, sturgeonfish, grunion and more mate/spawn on the full moon. Depending on where the Moon is in the sky, it affects our moods. These same quadrants, when the Sun passes through them, also affect us. We associate it with star formations, but it’s the energy out there coming from different directions in conjunction with the Sun or Moon that we feel. A connection doesn’t have to mean physical contact, it just means a simple connection.
We Are All Connected to water. Our bodies are made up of minerals and water. We need water to survive, for our bodies to function. We drink it, cook with it, wash with it. It brings peace to so many people, when they sit and watch it or listen to it. There’s a strong connection there.
We Are All Connected to Trees. Plants and trees take water and minerals from the soil. Plants and animals are eaten, providing nutrients and producing waste. They die, decompose and turn back into water and soil that feed something else. Plants and trees produce the oxygen we breathe. Our lives depend directly on them. They clean our air. No wonder there are tree huggers! Trees give us life! So at first we may not see a connection between ourselves and a tree, but there is one.
Every living thing is affected by everything around it, either directly, indirectly, physically or energetically. We may not see the connection but it’s there.
An elephant eats the leaves of a tree, and produces dung. The dung is eaten by a beetle, which bores into the Earth to lay its larvae. Once hatched the insects emerge and leave air pockets in the Earth. These air pockets allow water, oxygen and nutrients to penetrate the Earth, all which nourish the roots of the tree that grows the leaves that the elephant eats. Each is Connected to the other and relies on the other without knowing that it does.
A bird eats fruit and the fruit’s seeds, scattered in the waste of the flying bird, germinate into new fruit trees to feed the birds. Each relies on the other as part of the chain, part of the cycle. The bird needs the fruit to live, the tree needs the bird to help it perpetuate its species. It grows more fruit and houses countless insects and animals and birds that are part of their own connected cycle of life.
Birds, bats, spiders, lizards and other insects keep insect populations under control. But we need a balance of insects to pollinate the flowers of the plants to make the fruit and vegetables we eat, that these and other animals eat.
Poisons and chemicals sprayed or dumped on the Earth or in the waters and oceans, kill off tiny and large organisms that are part of a delicate chain we don’t fully understand. But this chain is critical to life on Earth. We can’t be the ones responsible for making species go extinct because everything is a critical part of something else. Every living thing is important because everything is Connected.
When people interfere with the natural order of things, things get out of balance and we eventually harm ourselves. We are all one, one ecosystem called Earth. The Earth is one organism and we are just a small part of it. We are not separate from it!
The Earth is not here for us to use; we are part of its system. We are not above nature, we are part of nature. We are one.
MY SPIRITUAL PATH
I worship nature.
I honour the Earth, the Goddess, the Universe.
I study the effects of the Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars.
I follow the Earth’s path around the Sun.
I practice Earth Magic.
We are all one energy.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
We are all connected.
We each have a purpose.
We can manifest what we want.
Everything is a lesson and if we don’t learn it, the lesson will return. Thoughts become things.
What we believe becomes real.
The things we don’t like about others are our own qualities.
I am to spread love, light & joy all over the world and live by example the best that I can, and inspire wherever I am.
That is My Spiritual Path…What’s yours?
AFTERWORD
So when you make the CHOICE to let go of FEAR and CONTROL, allow CHANGE, FOLLOW YOUR HEART, practice GRATITUDE, GIVING AND RECEIVING, listen to the MESSAGES using all your SIX SENSES, learn from the LESSONS, ask for positive things and allow the ENERGY of the UNIVERSE to strengthen your BELIEF in ABUNDANCE, ATTRACTION, AND MANIFESTATION and that THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS, you will know that WE ARE ALL CONNECTED and it will be no COINCIDENCE that your deepest desires will come true and FLOW to you and you will have found HAPPINESS and know LOVE regardless of what MY SPIRITUAL PATH is or how I feel about SPIRITUALITY vs. RELIGION!
So Simon, thank you for reading my book. I hope you liked it, learned from it, can take something away from it or at least became open to a few new ideas.
Please share it with whomever you feel will enjoy it, benefit from it or will draw inspiration from it.
It has been my joy to write it and finally share my thoughts, my way of life, and my way of seeing the world and our existence in it, with you. Thanks for bearing witness to my stories, life experiences and entertaining my scenarios!
I wish you well always! Blessed Be!
Sherri
CHANGE, going with the FLOW, and expressing the ENERGY of LOVE, GRATITUDE, GIVING AND RECEIVING through your SIX SENSES brings about ABUNDANCE, ATTRACTION, AND MANIFESTATION - which require the BELIEF that THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS therefore you are the creator of your own reality so you must FOLLOW YOUR HEART because HAPPINESS is a CHOICE, and FEAR and CONTROL make you feel like your choices are limited. There is no such thing as COINCIDENCE. LESSONS and MESSAGES come to us all from one source. WE ARE ALL CONNECTED, you, me, and the UNIVERSE. This is MY SPIRITUAL PATH - which may be different from yours and that’s OK. That is the difference between SPIRITUALITY vs. RELIGION.
*****
So when you make the CHOICE to let go of FEAR and CONTROL, allow CHANGE, FOLLOW YOUR HEART, practice GRATITUDE, GIVING AND RECEIVING, listen to the MESSAGES using all your SIX SENSES, learn from the LESSONS, ask for positive things and allow the ENERGY of the UNIVERSE to strengthen your BELIEF in ABUNDANCE, ATTRACTION, AND MANIFESTATION and that THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS, you will know that WE ARE ALL CONNECTED and it will be no COINCIDENCE that your deepest desires will come true and FLOW to you and you will have found HAPPINESS and know LOVE regardless of what MY SPIRITUAL PATH is or how I feel about SPIRITUALITY vs. RELIGION!
- Sherri Lyn Sim -
*****
What a perfect day to get back to writing the sequel to Spirituality For Simon! I got side tracked from finishing the first draft last winter after leaving Ontario...
Now I have the perfect place, by the ocean, to pick it back up again. Spirituality For Simon was born ocean side...let's see what comes to life here for "Simon Says...Tell Me More!"
Now I have the perfect place, by the ocean, to pick it back up again. Spirituality For Simon was born ocean side...let's see what comes to life here for "Simon Says...Tell Me More!"
*****
On Galileo's birthday, a fitting day, I correct a mistake I wrote in Spirituality For Simon.
On page xvii of the prologue, I wrote that Galileo invented the telescope, when actually he 'revolutionized' the telescope.
(Imagine! Everything that you look up on the internet isn't true!!!!)
A few minutes ago I finished re-reading Spirituality For Simon and I have to say I LOVE IT! Still!
The only other thing I'd change is the placement of a comma - haha!
If you haven't read it yet, get yourself a copy!
Its a fun, light read. You'll get a chance to laugh at me and laugh at yourself!
You'll also discover some simple ways to bring some peace and happiness into your life.
Who doesn't want that?
*****
On Galileo's birthday, a fitting day, I correct a mistake I wrote in Spirituality For Simon.
On page xvii of the prologue, I wrote that Galileo invented the telescope, when actually he 'revolutionized' the telescope.
(Imagine! Everything that you look up on the internet isn't true!!!!)
A few minutes ago I finished re-reading Spirituality For Simon and I have to say I LOVE IT! Still!
The only other thing I'd change is the placement of a comma - haha!
If you haven't read it yet, get yourself a copy!
Its a fun, light read. You'll get a chance to laugh at me and laugh at yourself!
You'll also discover some simple ways to bring some peace and happiness into your life.
Who doesn't want that?
*****