It's been a long time since society acted first with love, understanding, or kindness. We have learned to respond first with distaste and hate. Most of us can think of a thousand things that annoy us each day. Few can think of a thousand things they enjoyed.
In Moana, a demi-god was powerless against a hate filled monster. Brute force can't win against an even more powerful force. Anger doesn't win when pitted against anger. Each of us has a well of anger that can run deep, so responding with hate or anger is only going to bring in more hate and anger. In fact, Moana was only able to win when she laid down her fear, sadness, and anger and gave Te Fiti her heart back. By sharing love and compassion, she was responded to in kind. Once shown kindness, Te Fiti showered love and kindness, even toward the one who had originally stolen her heart. She was able to do so because she had been reconnected with her heart. In fact, all characters were able to act more nobly when they reached inside themselves to act from the heart. When Moana embraced her heart, she became more courageous. When Maui was able to live out of his heart (rather than follow his ego), he was able to back Moana up despite his fear of losing his hook. Our lives can only be enhanced by returning to and living out of our heart. Our first reaction will be to shower others with kindness and being able to look over other's faults if they have done their work to come back to their heart. By remaining disconnected, we only keep trading hurt and anger and hate. The well keeps growing and we begin to lose who we are becoming--a lava monster. It is our duty to our world, but mostly to ourselves, that we learn how to respond first with love, to ourselves, to the world, to others who do not think like us. Brute force or hate mongering is only going to keep the hate well growing. Maybe if we change how we respond to things, we can change the world we live in.
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Many times we stop to ponder the meaning of life. We wonder what is our purpose, what is the meaning of our lives, what are we here for, who are we? Why is it we ask ourselves these questions? Maybe it’s the yearning, the calling of our soul into something greater than just surviving. Life essentially is not about getting through or making the most amount of money or friends or even having the best time. Life is about returning home to ourselves, about learning how to be more genuine and authentic, about sharing our gifts with the world.
In “Finding Dory,” Dory journeyed across oceans to find her parents, to find her home, but her true accomplishment was when she found herself. The truth is that we never leave home, we carry it around with us. Our home is ourselves, our true selves, not the personas that we share with others. In essence, we spend our childhood building walls around ourselves to hide our home, our inner self, from the world. The rest of our lives is spent taking down those walls so we can return to our homes to share ourselves with the rest of the world. As we take down these walls, we begin to find our family, not the ones that we are born to, but the ones that help us be strong and become better people. As we see in Finding Dory, life presents many challenges and plans get derailed. Not everything goes according to plans. We don’t quite find ourselves in the easiest way and sometimes it gets messy, really messy. We feel ourselves breaking apart or breaking open. All of these leads to the final stage, the third stage of the “Marine Life Mission,” the release. The release is when we allow ourselves to be. When we find our way back home and break down the walls, so that our true selves can be free. That is the true calling of life. Following the path back to yourself so that you can then share your gifts and your love with the world. You are home. As the new year rolls around, it is inevitable. People everywhere start talking about their resolutions. They look for things that they want to change and make a commitment to forgo their undesirable habits. Yet, somewhere along the way, these resolutions fall apart and people are not able to stick with them. Despite their good intentions, many people try to become what they want instead of really becoming what you are.
As Zootopia brilliantly said, “You can’t be what you want. You can only be what you are.” Now, that is not to say that you cannot change. The trick is to change in order to fit who you are rather than just becoming what you want. One of the saddest resolutions I hear so many people make every year is to lose weight. This is a classic example of trying to be what you want. In essence, by wanting to lose weight, individuals are wanting to be something they are not, which instills a deep sense of dissatisfaction within them. Instead, you can only be what you are. Each body is different so losing weight for one body is very different than another’s body. Trying to work out like crazy is not going to work for everyone, nor is extreme or fad dieting. Your body has specific needs that will allow it to function optimally. By devoting yourself to learning more about your body through work with physicians, acupuncturists, or nutritionists, you will learn to take care of the body that you have. Being what you are means taking responsibility for learning more about every aspect of yourself. However, this goes much deeper than just resolutions. We are a society who constantly judges others and bases our outlook of ourselves on how we compare to others. Yet, we don’t compare to others in any circumstance. There is no one who does things better than others, no moms who are better, no spouses who are better, no children who are better, no writers/musicians/artists/philosophers/etc. who are better. Does Alice Walker being a good writer deny Herman Hesse from being a good writer? No, they simply are both really good writers who challenge us to think about what we experience and believe rather than blindly accepting truths. So to, we should do this with our self-conceptions. Instead of desiring how to be like other people, we should be focusing on how we can be utilizing our facilities to our fullest capacities. Within us, we hold infinite possibilities; yet, we spend so much time looking outward at what others have rather than turning inward and nurturing our own possibilities. As long as we look outward, we will face struggles and obstacles because those things simply aren’t meant for us. This year, let’s spend more time on finding out what we are so that we can begin to manifest that into our lives. We have heard many people tell us that we need to shift our outlook on life or change how we view things, but nobody has ever really told us how. How do you go from a negative thought pattern to a positive thought pattern? How do you go from dwelling on your past to planning your future? Shifting: Tools and Tips from A to Z by M. Gayle provides an excellent guide to changing your behaviors and thoughts. Instead of focusing on inundating you with outside information, Gayle helps you turn to your own inner wisdom in order to embrace your own healing powers and ability to transform. Each lesson is succinctly written in order to help you focus on integrating these ideas into your life. Shifting turns each letter into a lesson on gaining more inner clarity in order to follow your path and includes an exercise to help you master the teaching. Once you begin to explore your inner world, you begin to make your own path through life. To do so, you need to trust yourself and learn how to listen to your inner truth. Along the journey, you will come across many of the lessons detailed within Shifting. In fact, there were several terms that I would not have immediately associated with shifting that were essential for my healing process. Oftentimes, we begin to rid ourselves of negative energy but we do not always nourish ourselves. While we are on our journeys, we need to keep a constant vigilance on what we let in and what we need. Shifting is a great find and a wonderful read for those who are interested in healing, self-compassion, journeying, personal development, or just living a more meaningful life. Find Shifting on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Shifting-Tools-Tips-M-Gayle-ebook/dp/B01A22U51E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461260455&sr=1-1&keywords=shifting+gayle The healing journey is one of reclaiming who you are and owning your voice. The Healing Journey: A Meditation and Coloring Mandala Workbook (by Janet Gillett) takes you through various lessons that will help you find the strength and power you carry within you. Each lesson is reinforced with a meditation, a mandala, and a journal entry. These exercises work together to enhance your ability to integrate these lessons into your life. The healing journey is discussed in four parts: entering, honing your skills, acknowledgement, and healing. First, you have to open to the healing journey by being curious and wanting to look at what it would mean to heal. Once you make the decision, you will need to reinforce several skills that may be dormant or lightly used up until now. Following this skill gain, you will be able to look more deeply into your relationships and your life. After you have integrated these aspects into your life, you will experience healing. Each exercise is designed to enhance your connection with yourself and the world around you. The guided meditations provide a direct line to your inner world. They can be used to gain silence and clarity with each lesson, as well as on their own. Meditation allows you to become mindful of yourself and your thoughts. During the healing journey, you will learn to direct your thoughts in a more positive way rather than remaining stuck in negative self-thoughts and sayings. Mandalas have been used as healing symbols for many generations through many cultures. As you color mandalas, you can take in the healing energy while doing something that relaxes and soothes you. Mandalas are also a visual reminder of the lesson depicted and are paired with an affirmation that you can remind yourself when you need some healing energy from a specific lesson. Journaling helps you gain clarity and express where you are with a particular lesson at the end. Once you reflect on certain topics, you can integrate the information into your worldview and life perspective. As you continue on your healing journey, you can go back to each of the journals and see how your understanding of each lesson has deepened as you grow. You can pick up The Healing Journey: A Meditation and Mandala Workbook through Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Journey-meditation-coloring-workbook/dp/1523958995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455729683&sr=8-1&keywords=janet+gillett The healing journey is one of reclaiming who you are and owning your voice. The Healing Journey: A Meditation and Coloring Mandala Workbook (by Janet Gillett) takes you through various lessons that will help you find the strength and power you carry within you. Each lesson is reinforced with a meditation, a mandala, and a journal entry. These exercises work together to enhance your ability to integrate these lessons into your life.
The healing journey is discussed in four parts: entering, honing your skills, acknowledgement, and healing. First, you have to open to the healing journey by being curious and wanting to look at what it would mean to heal. Once you make the decision, you will need to reinforce several skills that may be dormant or lightly used up until now. Following this skill gain, you will be able to look more deeply into your relationships and your life. After you have integrated these aspects into your life, you will experience healing. Each exercise is designed to enhance your connection with yourself and the world around you. The guided meditations provide a direct line to your inner world. They can be used to gain silence and clarity with each lesson, as well as on their own. Meditation allows you to become mindful of yourself and your thoughts. During the healing journey, you will learn to direct your thoughts in a more positive way rather than remaining stuck in negative self-thoughts and sayings. Mandalas have been used as healing symbols for many generations through many cultures. As you color mandalas, you can take in the healing energy while doing something that relaxes and soothes you. Mandalas are also a visual reminder of the lesson depicted and are paired with an affirmation that you can remind yourself when you need some healing energy from a specific lesson. Journaling helps you gain clarity and express where you are with a particular lesson at the end. Once you reflect on certain topics, you can integrate the information into your worldview and life perspective. As you continue on your healing journey, you can go back to each of the journals and see how your understanding of each lesson has deepened as you grow. You can pick up The Healing Journey: A Meditation and Mandala Workbook through Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Journey-meditation-coloring-workbook/dp/1523958995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455729683&sr=8-1&keywords=janet+gillett |
AuthorI love to write, but I also love to read. I review books that come my way and help me on my journey. These lessons have helped me become the person I am Archives
April 2017
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