 Deeper self awareness and personal transformation are facilitated by creating a safe, warm, accepting environment where each person is invited to relax, experience what is going on inside, and express whatever thoughts, feelings, and responses arise in regard to something they wish to explore. Try it out!
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There is nothing more to be said in support of the enigma of life.
It is most powerful when we can work together
Potential for growth and development is built into us all.
Transcending personal insecurity is one vehicle to this end
Above all, this is a conscious process. Awareness matters:
Evolution of life as we know it depends on the interplay of division and unification.
Says Rumi: Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two a beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings. This is good reason to celebrate our differences!
Does that imply that everything we think is real is at least partially an illusion created by our minds?
Complex associations of thoughts, feelings, & responses based on past experience create our personal "reality." Simply by slowing down and observing, without judgment, the process of the mind we begin to construct a new mindset, one that more and more reflects our present moment experience. By grounding ourselves in a sense of OKness ("in this moment I am safe, I matter, and I belong, no matter what is being felt or thought") while activating the insecurities of the past our minds can update to a perspective of security.
What we think we know (beliefs) and who we think we are (identity) are stored networks of thoughts, feelings & actions carried forward from past experience. So who I am in the present moment is the experiencing of arising thoughts, feelings and actions, both those happening now and stored ones that are being re-experienced.
As we reactivate stored patterns of thinking-feeling-acting (unconscious material) and re-experience them with an attitude of present moment, nonjudgmental awareness we update our minds and bodies. With practice, this growing center of awareness gradually incorporates and transforms all past experience, bringing us into a full, timeless, state of being and becoming, ever more willing to encounter the unfamiliar and unknown.
Note: Gratitude Is UNCONDITIONAL!!!
An attitude of non-judgement allows accidents to be doorways of discovery.
Beyond right-doing & wrong-doing is a field -- I will meet You there. RUMI
Although the default mode of the mind tends to turn everything into a problem, we are not bound to dwell there, creating suffering for ourselves & others. What if our true birthright is to be joyful, viewing everything, including ourselves, as Divine beings, created in the image of God???
In this field all existence, all experience brings forth never-ending gratitude.
Our minds record & unconsciously operate on past experiences & practices, predisposed toward a personal insecurity bias, i.e. what's wrong, inside & out.
By taking every opportunity to honestly affirm that "I am safe, I matter, & I belong," no matter what I am used to thinking, feeling, and doing, we begin reshaping the content of our minds & associated thoughts/feelings/reactions.
Dualistic thought, feeling & response patterns, negotiating individual & group survival needs, automatically create a personal reality, reliant on the past. Curious attention can be used to tease apart the elements of each pattern
... and reveal the beauty and ingenious design of the default operating system that works efficiently, though not always effectively, on our behalf.
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Moment to moment non-judgmental awareness transcends the limits of personal reality, allowing connection to limitless creative consciousness.
Since none of us can survive in isolation, individuals are meant to serve others.
Whatever brings people together in community creates unlimited potential. 
No nation on earth represents this truth more than the U.S. Let us never forget that our success depends on granting everyone the freedom to contribute.
You are built to Love all ways. Make it a part of each moment: Meet Joy.
1/18/2017 0 Comments Practice and Embody Gratitude
Acknowledging & appreciating the gifts we receive in each moment are conscious expressions of our relationship with the Source of life & love.
Click on the flyer photo below or here to view slide show
Workshop Guided Meditation Exercises:
Exercise 1: Exploring Personal Orientation to Insecurity
1) Assume a comfortable position that can be maintained for 20 minutes. 2) Affirm that right now, in this place, you are OK no matter what feelings or thoughts are being experienced. Decide to meet and hold whatever arises with unconditional attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing (5A s). 3) Set your body at ease. Use slow abdominal breathing. Sense into your body, beginning with feeling how it relaxes into what supports it. Then very slowly sense all aspects of your: feet, legs, hips, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, back, scalp and face, space inside your head. Next breath & very slowly sense inside the throat, chest, abdomen, making space for anything to enter awareness. 4) Slowly repeat to yourself the following phrase: I am safe, I matter, I belong, no matter what. Notice whatever arises inside irregardless of form (sensation, emotion, image, thought, judgement, memory, metaphor, impulse, tension etc). 5) Welcome each element, giving it time and room to develop. Curiously, patiently, be with it, allowing it to be as it is, noticing what it is like. Sense what it may be offering or revealing. Notice anything else that arises in relation or reaction to it. 6) Notice anything that gets in the way of fully accepting, as it is, whatever is being experienced. Listen for the judgments, worries & concerns: What is most feared. What is most longed for. Appreciate any protective or supportive nature of its role (how it has tried to help in some way). Notice what it reminds you of from childhood and sense into any other associations. 7) Repeat steps 4, 5, & 6 as needed to stay engaged or re-engage with body. 8) Create a loving space to hold, without judgment, all the components of your internal experience, free of any need to analyze or figure it out. Allow yourself to be affected and to integrate it without explanation. 9) Survey your body and note anything that differs from when you started. Appreciate your body. Let it know you will return to attend it in this way. Slowly bring your attention back to the room. Take out your syllabus and write down or symbolize the forms of F-T-R that were experienced and note any links between them (e.g. feeling - memory - response) 10) Choose a listening partner. Describe your session experience, using notes as needed (5 min. each, without interruption).
Exercise 2: Exploring & Resourcing the Bodily Aliveness
1) Assume a comfortable position that can be maintained for 20 minutes. 2) Affirm that right now, in this place, you are OK no matter what feelings or thoughts are being experienced. Decide to meet and hold whatever arises with unconditional attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing (5A s). 3) Set your body at ease. Use slow abdominal breathing. Sense into your body, beginning with feeling how it relaxes into what supports it. Then very slowly sense all aspects of your: feet, legs, hips, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, back, scalp and face, space inside your head. Next breath & very slowly sense inside the throat, chest, abdomen, making space for anything to enter awareness. 4) Remember a time, in early childhood, you felt most alive, enthusiastic, or free. Recall the circumstances, setting, what it felt like. Sense your body as you recall even more details of the memory and any associated feelings, thoughts, responses (F-T-R). Curiously and compassionately be with whatever is being sensed, offering each one lots of time and space to develop. 5) Notice whatever else arises in relation to it, be it sensation, emotion, image, thought, judgement, memory, metaphor, movement, posture etc. Invite it to reveal more. Especially welcome any opposing, competing, or confusing judgments, attitudes, or feelings, & what they remind you of from long ago. Get a sense if they are somehow adaptive/protective, & how they were adopted. Appreciate them & the role they served. 6) Stand upright, silently but emphatically decide I am fully alive! and take a fully alive posture. Sense into and be with whatever arises internally in reaction to the affirmative decision and posture. Welcome any familiar patterns of opposing F-T-R. Get a sense if they are adaptive or protective in any way, and how. If so, appreciate them and their role. Next sense into the core of your body and be with its deepest longings/yearnings or doubts/fears regarding aliveness, and once again silently but emphatically decide I am fully alive! Allow your body to experience its aliveness. 7) Create a loving space to hold, without judgment, all the components of your internal experience, free of any need to analyze or figure it out. Allow yourself to receive and integrate it all without it having to make sense. 8) Survey your body and note anything that differs from when you started. Appreciate your body. Let it know you will return to attend it in this way. Slowly bring your attention back to the room. Take out your syllabus and write down or symbolize the forms of F-T-R that were experienced and note any links between them (e.g. feeling - memory - response). Hold whatever feelings arise in non-judgmental with-ness. 9) Find a listening partner. Describe your session experience, using notes as needed (5 min. each, without interruption).
Exercise 3 : Exploring A Personal Limitation/Impasse
1) Assume a comfortable position that can be maintained for 30 minutes 2) & 3) As in previous exercises above. 4a) Make a welcoming space for anything to enter awareness in relation to the limitation of moving forward. Sense into what is wanted and/or what is not wanted. A part of me is wanting something. Sense into what your body is wanting, hoping or expecting to feel or to happen by moving ahead. Go for the deepest longings in the most vulnerable places. Make room for it to reveal fully. Notice what it reminds you of from long ago. Hold whatever feelings arise in non-judgmental with-ness. 5a) Inquire into reluctance, worry, concern. Another part of me may be holding back for fear of something. Sense into what your body fears happening and/or feeling in the process. Go for the deepest fears (dread) in the most vulnerable places. Notice what it reminds you of from long ago. Hold whatever feelings arise in non-judgmental with-ness. 4b) Inquire into any possible competing urges. Perhaps another part of me is wanting something else instead. Sense into what your body is wanting, hoping or expecting to feel or to happen by taking this road. Go for the deepest longings in the most vulnerable places. Make room for it to reveal fully. Notice what it reminds you of from long ago. Hold whatever feelings arise in non-judgmental with-ness. 5b) Again inquire into reluctance, worry, concern. Another part of me may be holding back for fear of something else. Sense into what your body fears happening and/or feeling from this choice. Go for the deepest fears (dread) in the most vulnerable places. Notice what it reminds you of from long ago. Hold whatever feelings arise in non-judgmental with-ness. 6) Acknowledge and take note of self-judgments that arise in relation to any of the wanting/longing. A part of me says I should want _____ or should feel _____. Sense into any attitude or feelings associated with it and the role it serves. Appreciate any protective nature of its role. Notice what it reminds you of from childhood and any associated feelings or bodily sensations. Another part of me says I should not want _____ or I should not feel ______. Sense into any attitude or feelings associated with it and the role it serves. Appreciate any protective nature of its role. Notice what it reminds you of from childhood. 7) Create a loving space to hold, without judgment, all the components of your internal experience, free of any need to analyze or figure it out. Allow yourself to be affected and to integrate it without explanation. 8) Survey your body and note anything that differs from when you started. Appreciate your body. Let it know you will return to attend it in this way. Slowly bring your attention back to the room. Take out your syllabus and write down or symbolize the forms of F-T-R that were experienced and link any relationships among them. 9) Choose a listening partner. Describe your session experience, using notes as needed (5 min. each, without interruption).
Record notes for what arose during each exercise
THOUGHTS (mental) Judgments, Memories, Attitudes FEELINGS (visceral) Sensations, Emotions, Energy ​ RESPONSES (physical) Impulses, Tensions, Postures  Same energy. Opposing directions. An epic struggle begins.  Remember the power of non-violent opposition and civil disobedience!  11/8/2016 1 Comment Love is True Creative Power Relating to self & others through non-judgmental with-ness includes all. 
Be with it All, just as it is
Including the dualistic mind
What's True: It's ALL GOOD!
What if nothing is wrong? Seriously.
The human brain is wired to scrutinize the environment for whatever needs to be addressed to ensure physical security, purposeful activity, and community support, all of which are necessary for survival in a hunter-gatherer, tribal context. Sense into how this operating system continues to manifest itself on a regular basis within your psyche. Accept and appreciate the ways it shows up. Consider what life would be like if it were no longer taken so seriously.
Identity begets separateness, which begets comparison, which begets conflict.
Like it and not, we are all unique expressions of the same oneness. Egos only attract & repel other egos, for they share a common illusion. Trace your positive or negative reactions to Trump back to their source.
No different than any other, Trump is not your enemy or friend. He is a teacher.Psyche for Survival: Feeling, doing, & thinking, directed by desire & aversion, which guarantees physical safety, productivity, & community.
Psyche for relating (to whatever): Sensing into all with non-judgment & loving kindness, which guarantees discovery, creativity, & transcendence.
The Way In is the Way Out.
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