Archive for August, 2021
Hot Tub Time Machine
You might think this a silly metaphor for inner work and I agree, it sort of makes me chuckle. 😉
Nevertheless, floating in a hot tub is where Epiphany, goddess of light bulbs, found me amidst my meditations. So I’m utilizing a little levity with a profound subject.
This epiphany came as I was engaging in a water emersion meditation, as employed in the latter half of Michael Brown’s 10 week Presence Process program. The intent is to immerse yourself in water and FEEL everything unconditionally. Don’t shy away from uncomfortable emotions, just be with them.
For some reason, probably habit, I had turned on the jets. As I allowed my body to float the jets started slowly spinning me until at one point a jet very nearly blasted into my ear. Annoyed, I contorted my body and buoyed myself back to where I had started.
Of course, the same thing happened again.
But I didn’t WANT to change. I wanted to be able to float freely and enjoy that feeling, not work to impose my will upon what was “supposed” to be a free flowing session.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal. I put my heels on the bench across from me and, voila, I was able to still float. Once I finished my meditation I could actually use my feet anchors to position me just so, in front of that same jet to get a nice massage.
It occurred to me that this is often how life is. If we don’t have our proverbial anchors we can be buffetted about like a ship in a storm … or a meditating floater in a jacuzzi.
In my twenties I rebelled and didn’t want anyone telling me what I HAD to do. I’ve often thought of myself during that time as someone flailing about, searching for anything to give me answers from outside of myself. Friends, drugs, sex, music, performance, etc. That was me just getting spun around by the proverbial jets of life.
When I was introduced to energy work and meditation SUDDENLY there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t have to be out of control, I could actually give MYSELF that which I was so desperately searching for.
An even deeper level of that comes when you consciously choose for yourself what you will stand for. When you declare yourself a stand for something, that is you putting an anchor down so that you are not buffetted about by the ever-changing unknown of the world around.
Stands can be tricky though. Many people stand for something, and wind up hurting a LOT of people because of what they have chosen to stand for. Their stand though has them feel like they are on solid ground, that they are right.
Usually this happens when people get their stands from outside of themselves.
Discovering a stand that is true to who you really are? Now that requires some work and diligence. It’s easy to take someone else’s stand and make it your own (a church, a mentor, a boss, etc.), but to come up with your own stand that will have you be at peace and even content whatever comes your way? That takes some deep soul diving.
For instance, I recently have declared myself a stand for my conscious way of being to be a support for anyone who, like me, has experienced abuse as a child.
Prior to that I declared myself a stand that by me staying in the present, every moment, I allow God to flow through me and that gives others the opportunity to discover their own unique spiritual connection and Guidance.
Those are stands that are deeply important to me and they also are stands that I can take with me into every arena of life. You want to discover what has deep meaning for you and then you can begin to formulate that stand.
When you can actually put your soul’s stand into words and embody it … then you will have something that sees you through, and you’ll never lose it. That’s pretty powerful.
So here’s to thought provoking hot tubbing! Have a blessed day.
Peace and Love.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
In The Present, Ever Deepening
While I have not been as diligent with blogging of late, I have definitely been committing myself to inner work and development … and BOY, has it been a year and a half for it!
Just before COVID really shut things down I had begun working with an intensive leadership development group based in Atlanta. I paired this with bi-weekly sessions with a Qi Gong master I have worked with on and off through the years. This work began around January of 2020 … coincidence? Hmmmm.
Another developmental work began last Spring. A friend, also a member of the leadership group in Atlanta, asked if anyone was interested in doing The Presence Process with him. I was not familiar with the book/program, but I’ve always been curious and game for that which I have yet to experience … so it was game on.
I have now completed my third time through The Presence Process, by Michael Brown. It is a ten week program, as well as a book to read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested … I guarantee it pertains to ALL people. It’s ten weeks of progressive work at being present … sounds pretty simple, right?
Yeah, so simple that it has turned my world upside down. After my second time through the process I had a repressed memory surface of sexual assault by a man in a bathroom when I was four years old. Being present to that has been … well, I won’t say for now because it would require some swearing.
I had obviously heard about repressed memories but figured it didn’t apply to me. After all, I can remember things all the way back to age two. So I was fairly certain if something had happened to me I would remember it.
I now believe that every single one of us has repressed memories … every … single … one. Can you remember every event that happened in your life from age two to seven? No?
Well then, my friend, you’ve got some memories in there that you are not conscious of … many of them are still affecting you in the life you live. How you process, how you interpret the world and the actions of people in the world around you … the context that you perceive life with.
Here’s the thing … so long as there are unintegrated emotional roots for our current triggers that go ALL the way back to those years? We are a slave to them. You want freedom? Most people do.
True freedom comes in being present to what is so, all of it. As Michael Brown says in his book, “The only way out is through.”
So why on earth would anyone actually WANT to expose themself to the roots of their emotional triggers? Well, it depends on how you want to live life.
Do you want to keep re-living the past and projecting it on out into your future?
Or do you want to discover who you really are down underneath all the habitual ways of being/reacting you were imprinted with by others as a child when you didn’t yet have the ability to cope?
So I’m going to start writing again. Some of it will be spiritual, as has been my wont, but I also want to get into what it means to REALLY have your voice, and to have your choice … YOUR choice. Your true self, not the imprinted, knee-jerk reaction, emotional triggers you have come to associate with who you “are”.
There’s beauty down in there … believe it.
Peace and Love.
——-
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Religion4All 