The Law of One

Connections
Watercolour by: Beverly Blanchard

A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness. – Albert Einstein

The Law of One simply states that we are all related and connected.  There is one source and everything is contained within the whole.  I am you and you are me.  We may be unique beings but we are not separated beings.  Everyone and everything is a spark of the original source and that source is love. 

Many indigenous populations have demonstrated this type of understanding in their philosophy on life.  They believed everything and everyone was related, and everything was contained within the circle of Existence was their family.  When they prayed they gave thanks to the Great Spirit, Grandfather Sun, Grandmother Moon, Father Sky, Mother Earth, the winged, the four-legged, the four elements, the tree spirits, the water spirits and the two-legged.  Everyone and everything was seen as a part of the whole family of the Great Spirit, and everything and everyone was contained within the whole. 

To understand this law on a personal level, one need only look at their own body.  To the eye the body’s boundary is the skin which keeps everything together.  Within the skin there are various organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, intestines, brain, and spleen.  There are various glands.  There are also muscles, connective tissues, energy centers, and a blood supply comprised of billions of cells.  Although each part of you has a specific function and looks to be separate, they are actually all connected and working within the whole of what is called you.

To further the analogy of one, look at the connection between humans and trees.  In order to survive, human beings breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.  Trees on the other hand, breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen to survive.  Without the trees, where would man be?  Without man, where would the trees be?  Everything within and around you is connected.  Everything is energy spinning in form.

 Here are some exercises for you to play with:

1.  See everything and everyone as Source Energy in action.  As you go about your day mentally visualize everyone and everything as the Source Energy spark.  Mentally say, ‘There is God/Source Energy doing….’ For instance, you see someone picking trash out of a container mentally say, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy picking trash out of a container.’  Someone is running for the bus, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy running for the bus.’  You see a bird flying in the air, ‘There is the spark of Source Energy flying in the air.’  

2.  See everything and everyone as you in action.  As you go about your day mentally visualize everyone as you.  Mentally say, ‘There I go...’  You see someone picking trash out of a container mentally say, ‘There I go picking trash out of a container.’  Someone is running for the bus, ‘There I go running for the bus.’  You see a bird flying in the air, ‘There I go flying in the air.’  

3.  Release yourself from the concept of ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’.  Once you use the words ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’, you make yourself separate from everyone and everything.  Try removing the words ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘my’ from your vocabulary for a week.  Instead of saying, ‘I am going to work.’ say, ‘We are going to work.’  Instead of saying, ‘I am going to my house.’ say, ‘We are going to our house.’

 

Here is a beautiful animation by Dreamworks Animation entitled First Flight.  Watch how a busy businessman finds a connection with a small bird.

 

 

 

You Are Valuable

Spirit of the Light
Pencil Sketch by Beverly Blanchard

Do you value yourself?  Most of us don’t.  We taught early in our lives that loving ourselves is wrong.  We are told that the opinions of others matter and tooting your own horn is being arrogant, narcissistic.  We are given teachings that tell us we should put others first and instead of following our bliss we back readymade ideas of how we are supposed to be and act in this world.  If we do this and that then we will be of value.

The only thing is value does not come from the outside.  Your value is not about how much money you have in the bank or the job you hold.  It has nothing to do with where you are on the social scale.  There are people at both ends of that spectrum who clearly do not value themselves.  It is not about how many hours you put into your job or how many struggles you face your life.  Your value in this world can only come when you recognize that you are valuable.

My mother once said to me, God does not make junk.  She was right.  Source energy or God, it does not matter what term you use is about evolution and love.  If you accept the fact that you are worthless and undeserving in this world then you are basically saying, ‘All of creation is worthless and I am the only part that does not fit in.  I am unworthy of love.’  Now that is an arrogant statement.

Of course you can always accept that statement as fact because Source Energy will always love you unconditionally but why choose a miserable existence?  You are a divine magnificent expression of Source Energy in action.  Accept that fact and awaken to the fact that you can be and do anything you want.  You have a right to be here.  You have a right to enjoy life now.  You are valuable.  I leave you with a poem I wrote from my book, Into the Waves.

Be You

Society may want a carbon copy.

But look around.

There are no assembly lines.

There are only originals.

Look at nature.

No flower is ever the same.

Every tree is different.

Nothing in existence is duplicated.

And neither are you.

Everything in existence is unique,

and this includes you.

You are not a puppet, no one is pulling your strings.

At any moment, make the decision.

Drop the illusion you are powerless.

Drop the belief that to conform is correct.

Drop the program that you have no meaning,

or that existence is out to get you.

Existence is only for you.

Be innocent.

Be childlike.

Be trusting.

Be you.

Walk the fine line between madness and sanity.

For you were created as a unique being.

You are a shareholder in human consciousness,

and you have an important song to sing.

Find that song.

From the center of your being,

sing that song.  

Sing it proudly.

Because without you the stars,

moon, sun, earth, sky and trees will miss you.

A small part of existence will be vacant.

Release yourself from the illusion of smallness.

Release your emotional hold on the past.

Remember, live in the head you live in stupidity.

Love opens the eyes.

Now is the only moment.

Here is the only space.

You are the only you.

Silence your mind.

Listen for that small, still voice within.

Live with an open and simple heart,

And, like a feather, goodness will find you.

Appreciation is the Attitude

Nature Spirits at Play
Watercolour by Beverly Blanchard

It begins like this:  the more you appreciate, the more you get. The more you get, the more you appreciate.  If you stay on the appreciation vibration, life just keeps offering you things you like.  Unfortunately, for many of us appreciation is not part of our everyday thinking.  We get wrapped in the mundane routines of life.  We complain about what it is we don’t like and often we take the people and situations in our lives for granted.  It is only when a tragedy or something breaks down in our life that we stop to reflect on the relevancy of what we had.

Studies have shown that when you operate in a mode of appreciation, there are positive chemical changes that occur in the body.  Levels of the stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine decrease, coronary arteries relax which increase the blood supply to your heart.  Your breathing becomes deeper and more relaxed, and by raising the level of oxygen in your body, you become rejuvenated.  In addition, because the mind can only focus on one thing at a time, when you are in a state of heartfelt appreciation you cannot experience anger or fear.

Now I will be the first to admit that it is sometimes difficult to think about appreciation when you are in the middle of your world crashing around you or you are face to face with an ornery person in your life.  What you would rather do is complain or tell someone about it but the more you focus on what is wrong the bigger the problem becomes. 

So how do you shift to appreciation?  You refocus your thinking and start looking for things to praise.  Look for what is going right in your life.  Look for the beauty around you.  Look for things to love.  Think about all the people in your life that love you.  Listen to the music of nature.  Every day it provides you with a symphony and it doesn’t cost you a dime.  Mother Earth spins in her orbit and you didn’t have to do a thing.  The sun comes up every day and doesn’t say you owe me.  If you slept in a bed last night then you have something to appreciate.  If you woke up this morning then you have been given the gift of life.  If you took a shower this morning then you have something to appreciate. Let your imagination go wild and start doing rampages of appreciation.  You can do them anywhere and at anytime…walking down the street…sitting in a meeting…standing in the shower…sitting in your car…standing in line…sitting on the bus…

Begin using your time to your advantage.  Become an optimistic leaning person and live your life in appreciation.  Start making lists of the positive aspects of your life.  Begin now and you will see your life change.

Here is a video by Sivan Garr...there are a lot of people who love and appreciate you...I love you!

 

 

 

 

 

Guilt-The Manmade Emotion

Today's post is from my unpublished manuscript entitled, "Is this Happiness?" I decided that perhaps the dialogue between Alexis and her spirit guide could best describe how guilt keeps us small.

Bald Eagle
Charcoal Sketch by Beverly Blanchard

 

Bald Eagle was punctual as usual.  At exactly seven o’clock, he materialized in the living room startling Alexis who had somehow expected him to use the door.  Bald Eagle laughed as he materialized, “I figured I do not have to bother using the door any more.  We Spirits really prefer to just appear.  Walking through doors gets the neighbors talking.  So, how was your day?”

“Interesting.  Had breakfast with my friend Robert, and we had a conversation which left me wondering whether I have been practicing love or guilt?  You see, Robert met this woman who said that if you think you are surrendering to love, you are actually surrendering to guilt because love needs no surrender.  Well, if that is the case, then most of what I thought was love, has actually been love laced with guilt.”  She held a serious look of disbelief on her face.

“Ahhh, so, I see you have discovered your second worst antagonist, the contrast of guilt.  Guilt will make you feel lousy; every single time you allow it to visit.  It pushes in on you, and the more you back up, the more it keeps pushing in on you.  When it finally has you cornered, and you are fighting for your life, guilt empowered by the fight turns to fear.  Wherever there is guilt, fear is not too far behind.  Oh and, guilt is an insidious creature that destroys love, and creates suffering.  You cannot have love, if you have guilt.  They cannot exist in the same place, their energies are not compatible and they defy the Universal Laws.  It is a state of mind, and in your world it has been long thought to be loving intent.  Loving intent it is not.  It is the gap in the universe that seeks to deny your true response to a situation.  Guilt is not caused by what happened, but how you relate to what happened.  It reinforces the feelings of not being okay if you allow your true vibration, your true alignment with Source Energy to shine forth.  Guilt is one of your society’s greatest control mechanisms and it is used to widen the gap between Source Energy and yourself.  As with fear, there are really two types of guilt.”

“So, there are two?”  She had never thought about the different aspects of guilt. Was there actually a good side to guilt?

“Almost always are two types in everything.  Helps to keep you confused.” he grinned.  “One type is thought of as real guilt, but, in actuality it is better to call it regret.  It is when you hurt someone or the possessions of someone and you truly feel sorry for your indiscretion.  The dialogue in your head is one which usually focuses on what you could have done differently, and how you are sorry for what you did.  Regret is almost always instructive.  You learn from it.  Now the real, true guilt is of a self-imposed behaviour.  You decide that you have done something that may have caused hurt or pain to someone else.  It is based on a measure of mind reading, and a mental guess on your part that an action, thought, or even a word caused harm to another.  The dialogue in your head usually goes something like this... ‘Why did I do that?’  ‘Why could not I do more?’  ‘If only, I was better, nicer, kinder, warmer, compassionate, caring....  You end up beating yourself up with an over obtrusive voice reproaching you over and over again in your mind for something you may not have actually done.  For some of you humans, it can actually become debilitating.  Understand the difference?”

“Yes, I do.  Hey, why don’t they teach you this stuff in school?”

Bald Eagle keeled over in convulsions of laughter, leaving Alexis staring at him in a somewhat stunned disbelief.  She thought it was an innocent enough question, yet, Bald Eagle seemed to find it extraordinarily humorous.  When he finally could contain his laughter, he exclaimed, “Because then they would empower you!  Once you understand your true connection, and the power of operating in alignment with Source Energy there is only empowerment.  No guilt. No fear.  There is no need for controls.  Think what that would do to all your government systems and other institutions in your world.”

“I never thought of it like that.  I guess we have been living for so long with this concept that we are all powerless.  We are all slaves to the systems that govern and control us.  The systems that promise to protect us if we give them our power.  Only we hand over our power, and there is no security.  Instead we find they lied to us, and used guilt and fear to control us.”  She looked somewhat shocked at what she had just said.  The picture of the world she was living within was becoming clearer.  Handing over her power was not giving her any more security and protection.  It was limiting her.

Fear - False Evidence Appearing Real

A Dark Corridor
credit: Stock Exchange 1413258

We live in a world that is continually selling us fear.  Our media is frequently citing statistics about how dangerous life is for us, and we have a corporate world that offers us a variety of contraptions and pills to save us from the boogieman of fear.  We have become so accustom to the onslaught of fear in our world that we can no longer distinguish the difference between true fear and manufactured fear. So what exactly is the difference?   

True fear causes physical responses in our body. Our vision becomes more focused; lactic acid is pumped into the muscles.  A chemical called “cortisol” is released into the bloodstream, which prepares you to either fight or take flight.  It is natural mechanism that lets us know we are in danger.  It is an also an internal response system in which our intuition provides us with information to keep us safe.  For example, you are walking through the woods and a large black bear crosses your path.  You don’t think about anything you run for your safety.  Under true fear survival is your primary mode. 

Manufactured fear has no basis in reality and is conjured based upon your perceptions about a situation or person.  For instance, the company is downsizing and you are fearful you may lose your job.  Manufactured fear is often accompanied with worry and doubt.  In the case of worry, we create negative scenarios about what might happen.   Whereas doubt is a 100% trust in a belief you don’t prefer.

The problem with continually operating from a mode of manufactured fear is our body become impervious to its natural responses.  We no longer listen to our intuition or gut feelings.  Since we are running on adrenalin our immune systems become compromised and we lose our ability to make rational decisions.  Since everything is vibration our fears actually become self fulfilling prophecies.

So how do you step off the fear vibration?

1.         Change your worry to wonder.    For example, if you are in the midst of a downsizing at work.  Instead of worrying about losing your job you might want to change your thinking to a positive outcome.  ‘I wonder what it would be like to two job offers on the same day.’

2.         Change your worry to ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’ statements.  ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I found a better job that paid a higher salary?’  ‘Wouldn’t it be nice I won the lottery.”

3.         Get in touch with your intuition by playing games with it.  Your intuition can be in feelings, visions, auditory statements or bodily sensations.  How does your intuition work for you?

4.         Stop listening and reading the news.  Try it for one week and you may discover you are not missing anything.  You may also discover that your mood is substantially improved.

Next post I will look at how guilt operates in our life.

Energy in Motion

Lake Superior and Good Feeling Emotions

The third major component in the creation of your reality deals with your emotions.  Our e-motions are actually energy in motion and they are vibrations.  The emotions we are feeling send out signals  that attract to us the situations we encounter in our daily lives. 

There are really only two emotions:  love and fear.  Each is at the opposite end of the vibrational spectrum and between them is a variety of related emotions.  In the range of love, we have the feelings of joy, bliss, happiness, worthiness, security, etc.  At the spectrum closer to fear we have emotions such as: anger, greed, disappointment, hatred, jealousy, anxiety, frustration, etc.

There are no are no wrong emotions.  All emotions are valid and provide you information about where you are focusing your energy.  Like a gas gage on your car, your emotions are indicators telling you where you are on the vibrational spectrum. 

Many of us never make the connection of how our emotions are actually fueling our thoughts and words.  Instead we allow our feelings to run amuck and we end up stuck in both emotions and thinking that are not working in our highest interest. 

With regards to our emotional growth, here is an interesting point to ponder.  At an emotional level, the majority of adults have not grown up beyond the age of thirteen.  Meaning most people are still using the emotional behaviours they learned as a child to cope with adult situations. So next time you are faced with an individual exhibiting bullying tactics in your life, you might want to see them as a frighten child in adult body. 

When we do not acknowledge the emotions we are feeling, they don’t go away.  Instead these repressed feelings surface in other ways in our life.  We end up sick.  We put on weight to protect ourselves from our outside world.  We move through the day with aches and pains or we become lethargic.  In some instances, we continually bump into furniture and hurt ourselves. 

In order to work with and understand your emotions you need to become aware of them.  What does the word love feel like to you?  What about the words:  easy, secure, fun, happy, confident?  What happens to your body when you allow yourself to step into these emotions? 

The more you become aware of how you are feeling throughout the day, the easier it is to shift your emotions.  Shift your emotions, you change your thoughts and you change your point of attraction.  When your point of attraction shifts, you may find that the people and circumstances that brought you grief no longer show up in your life or you handle them differently. 

One further point I want to make regarding the shifting of emotions is this:  confronting the person you are angry with when you are in an angry mood will not always improve the situation.  Sometimes it is better to do the inner work and wait until you are in a better frame of mind.  Anger begets anger and we end up saying things we later regret.  Sometimes it is better to move the emotion first.  So how do you move those emotions that are not serving you?  Here are a few tips:

Ø  Do some physical exercises...go to the gym...do some yoga...go for a walk...

Ø  Chop vegetables.

Ø  Stop ranting to everyone about the situation or person.  The more you talk about it the more it gains momentum.

Ø  Cry.  Sometimes crying offers us a release.

Ø  Look for a better feeling thought.  For example, if you are feeling frustration you could tell yourself: I am doing alright.  This too shall pass.  Everything always works out for me. 

Ø  Breathe.  All your emotions are connected to your breathing patterns. Practice taking long slow deep breaths and remember to exhale. 

Next post I will discuss more about our emotions.   For now here is a video of Daniel Goleman explaining his theories of emotional intelligence.

 

 

 

 

Whose Blueprint Are You Following?




Winged Ones of Paradise
Watercolor by Beverly Blanchard

 

If your thoughts are the building materials in creating your reality, your beliefs are the blueprint.  When most people hear the word belief, they automatically associate it with religion, culture or politics. Yet, your beliefs are more than that.  They are thoughts that you keep thinking about yourself, your community and your world.  They are the foundational basis of your life.

It is said that we come into this world as a blank slate, and as we grow up our parents, teachers, friends, and society all tell us who we are; what we should think; and how we should behave. Although these people may have had good intentions, many of the beliefs we have picked up along our life journey are not working for us.  Instead they keep us stuck in behaviours in which we live our lives trying to live up to the expectations of others while we move further away from our authentic self. 

Few of us ever take the time to think about whether what we have been told is true or bogus.  We have accepted these beliefs and allowed them to unconsciously shape our reality.  How many of us have been told the following:  You are worthless.  You can’t do anything right.  You will never be able to do it.   You are too old/too fat/too useless/too stupid.  You don’t have what it takes.  You will never be successful.  You aren’t qualified.  You aren’t good enough.

So how do you start identifying what beliefs are no longer serving you?  You begin by looking at areas of your life that don’t seem to be working for you. Look for areas in your life where you feel fear or where your buttons are easily pushed.  Start listening to the habitual words and phrases you are using to describe your life.   When you come across something that is not positive, stop and ask yourself: what would I have to believe for this to be true?  Is this really who I am?

Examining your beliefs it is somewhat like peeling an onion.  The more layers you peel, the more variations of the belief you uncover. As we move through this blog, I will show you other ways to identify and change limiting beliefs.   Next post I will show you how your emotions fit into the picture.

In the meantime, here is a short video about Janine Shepherd.  Janine was training for the Olympics when a tragic accident shattered her dream.  Faced with a doctor’s prognosis of never walking again, she chose to create a new reality for herself based on her belief in her abilities.  Her story shows how important it is to never let someone else’s beliefs direct your life.

 

Why do I keep thinking about this?

Lake Superior

Many of my clients have experienced what I commonly refer to as the monkey mind.  It’s when your mind continually rehashes a problem over and over again.  Usually the subject of these dialogues deals with something in our life that we are not happy with.  It could be a disagreement with someone.  It could be a work, financial or health situation.  Whatever it is that incessant dialogue in your head won’t stop and the more you tell yourself not to think about it, the more you think about it.  It is called the law of resistance and that which you resist will persist.

Here is the reason why we find it difficult to shift our thinking process.  Our minds like to be kept busy and are continually nattering on about something from the past or projecting something into the future.  Our minds do not operate in the present.

Here is a simple experiment for you to try. Next time you wake up in the morning lay there in bed for a few moments. Become aware of your thoughts.  What you will discover is your mind will search for the last thought you had before you fell asleep.  The mind always returns to the vibration you last left it at.  So if you fell asleep thinking about an argument you had with a friend, the mind will return to that set point to begin your day.  This principle also applies to everyday situations and people.  Ever went home to a family reunion and found yourself acting in ways which were contrary to who you are today?  What happened is you went back to the old vibration.

In order for you modify a thought process you have to understand it takes 17 seconds for a thought to create a point of attraction.  When you hold that thought for 17 seconds another thought of a similar vibration will join it. If the thinking process is allowed to continue for 68 seconds then that train of thought becomes your dominant vibration and attracts to you persons or situations of similar thought.  So if the thoughts you are thinking are positive, change nothing.  If they are negative, you have to shift to another train of thoughts and hold that thought stream for at least 68 seconds.

So how do you shift to another train of thoughts? First you have to recognize that you have to work at it.  You can’t just do it once and expect your life to change.  The mind is extremely stubborn and once it gets hold of something it is like a dog chasing its tail. 

Here are a few exercises you can try.

1.   Give the mind a diversion and go do something else.  Go for a walk.  Pet your dog.  Go to the movies. Take a nap.  Search through YouTube and find something that makes you laugh.   

 

 

2.  Practice mediation. If you find that your mind will not shut up while you are trying to meditate focus on a noise in your environment or use a chant.

3.  Think a better feeling thought.  Think about someone you love and all the things you appreciate about them. Think about a beautiful sunset.

4.  Write out the letters of the alphabet and beside each letter think of a good feeling word. For example, a=appreciation, b=best, c=charming, d=delicious...

5.  Another diversion you can do is sing musical scale or use a non-descript phrase or sound. 

Next post I show you how your beliefs affect your life.

What Story Are You Telling?

Most of us have been conditioned to think and speak in terms of what we don’t want. We don’t want this illness, this job, this type of relationship, this government, this economy...we don’t want crime in our communities. We have become very good at complaining about what it is we don’t want in our lives. 


Sleeping in Consciousness
Watercolor by Beverly Blanchard



The trouble with this type of thinking is the universe does not recognize the words not/no/never.  The universe only operates on the affirmative.  When you say you don’t want to date any more losers, the universe only hears ‘you want to date losers’.  Beating the drum of what we don’t want in our lives will always guarantee we get more of it because the universe is about matching frequencies.  You get what you focus upon and until you change your thought process, you will keep attracting the same type of relationships, the same type of jobs, the same employees, the same old, same old. 

 

It is not only the stories we are telling.  The words we use and how we use them are also important.  For example, if you are telling yourself that you want to be free.  What exactly do you mean?  There is freedom for something and there is freedom from something.  When someone asks, ‘how you are’?  Do you say ‘alright’?  ‘Not bad’?  All words carrying a vibration.

So how do you change things? Your first step is to become aware of what it is that you are telling yourself and other people.  Spend the next few days listening to the stories you tell and the words you are using.  Listen to your internal dialogues with yourself.  You may be surprised to find that you aren’t as positive as you thought you were.

After you have observed yourself for a few days, start making a conscious effort to change your stories and to define the words you are using.  Start removing the words no/not/never from your vocabulary and begin thinking and talking about what you want.  I don’t want to date any more losers becomes I want to date someone who is easy to be with, someone who is emotionally and financially secure.  I am sick becomes I am feeling a lot better and every day I am getting stronger.  Frame everything in terms of what you want. 

Listening to the words you are using and how you are using them makes you a conscious creator.  Next time someone asks, ‘how you are doing’?  Tell them wonderful.  It doesn’t matter what is going on right now.  It’s the past.  Your creation of your reality begins in this moment.  Right now is your bouncing off place. 

Start framing your life by telling the story of how you want things to be.  Beat the drum about what it is you want.  Beat the drum of what is going well in your life.  Regardless of what is happening in your life there is always something good that you can focus upon.  Focus on it. Amplify it.  Change your thinking and you change your point of attraction.

Next post I will show you how to stop that incessant dialogue in your head.