August, 2013
(Note: The message here does not only pertain to just the college atmosphere. It also can be applied to living in the city, or any other seemingly massive community. With such a universal message, knowing how to live within and without in any environment will just keep you even more leveled.)
Campus life for a majority of college students is just about to get started. In this incredibly thrilling time of our lives, we are exposed to massive changes that occur straight before our eyes, some consciously and other quite subconsciously. However, it seems that one change that we fear the most is the adjustment to the rollercoaster that is campus life.
Whether we are hitting the campus of 50,000 or the campus of 500, it becomes very easy to be only a single body in the mass. This often can lead to extreme isolation and social deprivation, despite the overwhelming system of support of others. We may feel as though we are immersed into our resources, but sometimes we feel just as like we still haven’t found our niche or best placement.
This can especially be seen in the works of Scott F. Fitzgerald in his illustrious novel, The Great Gatsby:
“I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets… I saw him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without.”
Quite often, college will feel like the experience that Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, in his wild and fascinating variations on life. BUT, F Scott Fitzgerald notes that despite Nick own personal story taking place in the middle of Manhattan, he was still “within and without” in his own story.
So do we do about this ‘within and without’ business and make sure we have a real connection to whatever student body we wish to be a part of? Simply…
Be involved.
When most of us hear this phase, we are transported to a time when involvement simply meant signing up for a new club or trying out a new activity. If someone attempts to join a new organization without having any physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual connection, then they will continue to feel as though they are a part of the shell of the group, and always wonder if they should be somewhere else on campus.
However….
The state of being, which in our case is involvement, is all truly about creating meaningful connections AND profound associations. When this is done, every interaction is appreciated and every gesture is a sign of gratitude. Instead of creating artificial bonds that seem to all but dissolve by the light, strive to make a few deeper ties into your own reality. By removing this synthetic zone of fixation on what we could be doing, we allow ourselves to become fully engrossed in what we are doing. Without worrying about trying to have ‘the best story on campus’ or the ‘most notorious reputation’ we allow ourselves to be involved in much other rewarding activities that don’t question our social status, but rather our spiritual elevation. With such rooting in the self and the soul into everything that is joined or experienced, life itself becomes an even more enjoyable process.
And THAT is when college becomes the wonderful experience it is cut out to be. It is your choice, to be within and without, or to be completely involved with every part of your being in this fascinating new experience. Your call, your choice, your college dreams are ALWAYS your choice.
(Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)
Dear Therese,
Georgia here again. So what about the current state of affairs in this world? It is obvious, to me at least, that we are being lied to by so many that we have trusted to tell us the truth.
Take, for example, our weather patterns these days. Cloud formations that used to be rare are common place now. There is increasing evidence that the clouds are being chemically created. This brings us to two points. Barium and aluminum are being dropped on us something like 5000 times the norm. Just like gmo food, they are using us as guinea pigs to see the side effects. AND they are using the force of nature to the advantage of big business and government. I think they are purposely using these things to keep us scared and controlled. They are not using these things for the “good”. I think you would think long and hard about the effects of these chemicals if one of your kids was messed up in the head and the other other one couldn’t breathe bc of possibly being those guinea pigs.
We have the capability to manipulate something as big as the weather and it would be awesome. But now is no time to lay down and volunteer but a time to demand that we have a right to know what is being dumped on us. Because we lay down and take it, we are condoning to the “elites” that humanity has no value.
How are we to think of these things as spiritual opportunities??
Georgia
Wow! Georgia, I like that you are asking these questions! Putting the everyday reality into a spiritual perspective is sometimes very hard…almost impossible sometimes. Okay, I’ll give a spiritual explanation and some perspective on these things a shot here.
My thoughts: man can do just about anything. We can create and engineer even human life. Many think this to be a sin. Only God’s territory. As you know, I think we are all “gods”. (As CWG puts it, individuations of Divinity.) Engineering life, or engineering clouds, it isn’t about doing these things, but for what purpose they are being done. This, then, becomes a matter of individual and collective choice. Do I have a problem with engineered clouds being used to create water in a drought area? Or to recapture wasted water to refill the aquifers? No. Do I have a problem using them to cause destruction to profit big business and control the people? You betcha. So, personal and collective awareness is, as usual, the key (opportunity) to changing how we use our power…and that changes as we begin to view humanity as One. Realizing the butterfly effect is real. In Christian terms…what you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.
I would also urge you to keep open the possibility that at least some of these cloud/weather changes may be circumstantial, as opposed to insidious. Be very careful to avoid being sucked into the story of the way things are, and stay as much as possible in observing the facts (as you know them) of what you see.
Which actually takes me to the esoteric question of “why not”? If this life is but a continuation of life, and we really, as CWG states, have no life to lose, why not consciously agree to be the guinea pig to further the course of humanity? Why not volunteer?
Ahhh, there’s the key! We are NOT volunteering right now! But what if we were, for real, given that choice? Might that not change some things? Might life look more like an opportunity than it does now? What if we were told up front that there was going to be a section of this planet used to experiment on long term human effects?
Older people might volunteer to live in “chem zones” to give their children’s children a better life. Especially since much of the world is starving due to lack of rain for crops. We are sacrificing ourselves for far less noble things already.
Don’t mistake, please, that I think it is okay to be doing what they are doing, in the way they are currently doing things. Transparency…choice…is the key.
There is abundant room for changing how we look at life…and that’s exactly what this site is all about!
One more thought… An unfortunate statement about humankind is that sometimes the masses are so meek and compliant that it takes a “madman” to step out of the box…a person (or group of persons) who dares to even think something is possible! Now we sane, but outside the box thinkers, Spiritual thinkers, have (the opportunity) to either keep the madmen in check, show the madmen a better way (who he/she really is) or empower the masses. Or at least begin to en-mass allow the sane, outside the box thinkers/doers to not be reviled. Currently people are afraid of being relegated to the fringe of their families/societies/religion if they don’t stay inside those boxes. Portrayed as unpatriotic, heretics, crazy and or conspiracists. Make sure to look at your own views of others, and not disempower.
Georgia, in our search for a better way of living, we do have to be very alert to not falling into yet another power grab agenda masked in altruism. (Opportunities to Be discerning, careful, vigilant?) We must be careful of anyone who wants us to be fearful vs merely aware. I get the feeling that there are many agendas in play here, and many are proclaiming themselves to be the one and only “right” one. All of which means, to me, that we have to be “cafeteria Catholics” and pick what works from each, and figure out what is truly for the greater good…and create our world consciously from this point forward. Knowing that what works now most likely won’t entirely work, oh, two thousand years from now! We must now work the idea of change into our long term thoughts. The opportunity to create our own agenda…not all agendas are self serving and malevolent. We can include the thoughts of others and other ways.
On the subject of religion, and government, it is encouraging to see even the Pope and Rev. Pat Robertson changing their minds about homosexuality on even a minor level. The United States has made major attitude and legal changes in this area. This may seem off topic, Georgia, but it is all wrapped up in control…the ultimate control…of sexuality, and specifically the feminine energy….feminine energy and attempts to suppress it. Just look at television commercials geared for girls and toys for them. Absolutely ridiculous that still, in 2013, all the girl toys are make-up, hair playing with dolls, dolls to teach them how to be a mommy, brat dolls that are nothing but materialistic, fashion creating websites, jewelry making, hair extensions and color. Whereas the boys toys are geared around imagination and engineering!! We are “Madison Avenue-ed” into our roles from an early age. Warriors that are used to protect money and the status quo are called heroes and idolized. A woman who questions that status quo is a B word or worse…never spiritual, intuitive, peace-maker. The divine feminine is Mother, but not in the way it is currently portrayed. These times are giving us, I believe, our opportunity to create balance.
Georgia, the bottom line of what I am saying is that we do have control. We have control of how we think and feel about this world we live in. We can fall into the chaotic energies swirling about, or we can keep the perspective that we are the butterfly that can effect our world. We can become a conscious part of the collective, and influence that collective. We are being given many opportunities to choose how change happens. I believe we, as individuals, through our thoughts and actions, can not help but influence the direction of humanity.
Rudyard Kipling said it perfectly. (I know, I know, this post is getting really long, but I think it is an important topic!)
If—
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website atwww.ChangingChange.net . She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: ChangingChange.net offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
WE DO LIFE ON THE EARTH
What is the message that we need to transmit to future generations of this planet — so that our children and all children to come are Self-loving beings with fully functional Self-Esteem, and capable of creating a joyful and healthy world for themselves?
Where are we going?
The market economy is the modern GODDESS on Earth. This is the underlying message of this civilization to future generations of this planet. In the name of a “healthy economy,” we devastate the planet which is the home of future generations for millennia to come, and our most precious human qualities like compassion and solidarity, because our economy has to “grow” today.
Huge debts run the global economy and our homes today. The global credit stock doubled from $57 trillion to $109 trillion in just ten years (from 2000 to 2010). It will need to double again to an incredible $210 trillion by 2020 in order to provide the necessary credit-driven growth. It is debt that governs our world.
Our world—where one billion people, one-seventh of the total population, now lives in total poverty—annually spends about $1.5 trillion on military expenditures. As long as the strongest economies of the world enrich their national budgets with exorbitant earnings from its arms exports, there will be wars. And as long as the so-called “civilized world” silently watches the planet’s poorest countries import the latest “how-to-kill-your-neighbor” techniques, instead to spend money on the newest technology and know-how to make a living and become self-sufficient, there will not be peace and prosperity on Earth.
The golden age of survival. This is the world of our immature ego. After millions of years of evolution, we still stand on the law of the jungle in which there is no value greater and no ideal cherished more than “survival at any cost.” And the more powerful and richer we are as we survive, the better. But as long as we continue just surviving, instead of really living, we will continue to struggle in fear. And as long as we live in fear, the law of the jungle remains our highest ideal. Debt, poverty, and pain pave the way for future generations—instead of happiness, prosperity, and joy.
As within, so without. No human being with Self-Esteem will cheat, lie, steal, kill, abuse other forms of life, or otherwise harm another, or be indifferent to his/her environment. The shape of our current personal and global affairs directly reflects the actual state of our individual and collective lack of Self-Esteem. If this were not the case, we would all live in harmony and peace.
The answer to the problems of our civilization lies primarily in our own approach to ourselves. This is where each of us must begin.
When I look at our world today, I am still overwhelmed when there is another bomb exploding in a bus or town square, another escalation of war, another aerial bombardment “in the name of democracy”, another pollution disaster, another political or financial corruption scandal, another child murder, another school killing . . . and another . . . another act of destruction happening somewhere on Earth. It is as if the shockwaves of destruction are growing faster and faster, hitting us harder and harder.
And yet I cannot help noticing that in all the confusion and chaos lies a certain sense of purpose, and with all the economic, political, and civil turmoil taking place in various parts of our planet, I detect an increased awareness, a rise of consciousness, a cleansing process underway, which will lead us to a new world of peace and tranquility.
It is in these turbulent times that each of us bears full responsibility for the decisions we make everyday—as we choose between love and fear, Self-Esteem and Self-denial, between sheer survival at the expense of all other forms of life on the one side and meaningful and fulfilling life in the interest of all on the other.
Now is the time to ask the fundamental question: What do I really believe in? Now is the right moment to follow the Spark of Light within and use our spiritual powers to help co-create our New World.
“Your cure is in you,
but you do not see;
Your sickness is from you,
but you do not feel;
You allege that you are a small star,
while you contain the whole cosmos.”
~ Sidi Mohammad Al Jamal – Sufi Master
(Vladimir Bayer lives in Prague where he work as translator/consultant/writer. He is also the author of “From Darkness to Light: A Path to The New World.”)
(If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.”)
When does too much turn into addiction?
I am often asked this question in many different forms, about many different subjects. It usually comes across in questions like am I addicted to work, or money, or candy, sex, alcohol even television. The list goes on and on. Society has done a wonderful job of blurring what is really very obvious to most people. In order for something to be considered an addiction the following definition must apply. You will not hear the definition of addiction talked about in the media.
Continued use in spite of negative consequences.
For those of you who read this column regularly you have heard this definition before. These negative consequences for the 5 major addictions are obvious to everyone who knows the addict. For the soft addictions the consequences may not be so obvious from the outside.
Many people would say that a person who makes millions of dollars and continues to build his wealth is addicted to money. Without knowing who this person is and what he is up to with his money, it is not for us to say that he is addicted. Take for example, the person who works 100 hours a week. We would judge this person to be a workaholic. But what if that person is doing what he or she loves to do? What if the work this person is doing is for a cause that could bring great joy and freedom to large numbers of people? Do we still say that person is a workaholic or do they now become a saint?
So if a person likes to come home from work every night and crack open a cold beer, sit on the couch and watch the evening news is he addicted? My answer is, “I don’t know, what happens if he doesn’t watch the news?” You didn’t see that coming? Really?
The news media uses fear as the driving force to keep people coming back. And it works! How does being informed of the murders, house fires, and potential terrorist threats, on a daily basis help us to feel joy? Do we really need to know what the weather is going to be this coming weekend so we can make plans? Many people keep a cable news channel on all day long listening to the same 5 stories be repeated endlessly. You don’t think this is addiction? Tell me what good this serves in our lives.
Fear, is the opposite of everything that we are.
God said that in CWG book one.
Fear causes tension and anxiety which leads to all sorts of physical and mental health issues. Fear causes the body to enter into the fight of flight syndrome. While in that mode the body cannot repair itself thus becoming vulnerable to disease.
Living with a pattern of behavior that creates a mental state of fear qualifies as addicted by definition. Repeating a behavior that is non-beneficial to our physical health or our mental well being is dysfunctional living.
Hang on — there’s breaking news — oh no, a carjacking in New York City.
Yes, this story gets the headlines; one man carjacks somebody in a city of 12 million people and this makes a top story on the 5 pm news? Why? What is the end game of this type of reporting? Is it really just to keep us coming back day after day so they can sell ads? Why do we not see the bigger picture? That the majority of humans are out in the world doing good things, living normal, happy lives? When will we decide take back our reality creation instead of letting someone create our reality based on what sells more advertising for them?
It is staggering to see what the media chooses to report on when you look at it honestly. The news is merely another form of entertainment much like professional wrestling. They are going to look for the most sensational piece of news and beat it over our heads for as long as possible. A sensational plane crash gets 2 weeks coverage at the top of the hour while meanwhile 44 people per hour per day die from addiction-related incidents.
My wife and I decided a few years ago that we would not watch news unless there was something happening that we felt the need to be informed of. We also decided if we were going to watch that we were going to keep our finger on the channel button and turn it off as soon as we received the information we desired. For the most part we get our news through the internet where we can pick and choose what it is we want planted in our head.
My suggestion to everybody is how much news are you watching? How is it affecting your life? Is it helping? Or is it just filling your head with useless information?
In June we kicked off our first in a series of CWG on recovery retreats. A small group of people all shared a life-changing event. If you are in recovery and not experiencing great joy and freedom or are still suffering with addictions, please consider giving yourself this experience. Our next retreat will held in San Jose, California, Sept 19 -22nd, 2013. On October 24 – 27th, 2013 we will have another retreat in Orlando Florida. Click here for more information on these life changing retreats.
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website for more information at www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
Given that she is a potential (and highly predicted to be) Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 2016, do you believe it is appropriate for NBC and CNN to each produce documentary films or programs on the life of former U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
Every event and circumstance on Earth is jointly produced, placed into the collective reality as a collaborative creation of The Collective Itself. And the tragedy is that The Collective does not know this—or, worse yet, does know this, and merely acts as if it does not.
The result of this is that most people wind up turning to God at the wrong time….usually after, rather than before, events have taken place or circumstances have been created.
This is because most people do not know who they truly are, nor do they have an accurate understanding of what their relationship with God is.
Thus, people think that most of them are at the effect of events and conditions such as conflict and war, financial collapse, political upheaval, violence and killing. They believe that it is the tiny few who are in power who are creating them, and the masses are left to only endure them. And when it comes to so-called Acts of Nature, even the powerful few are thought to be at the effect of life.
Whether it’s an act of Man or of Nature, our species is very clear: It’s not our fault. We had nothing to do with it.
FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time
PART II of an ONGOING SERIES
No human behavior has anything to do with global warming (which half the planet continues to deny is even occurring), earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes, raging wildfires, torrential rains, or tsunamis—or the increase in disease among the Earth’s people, such as the growing cancer rate, or the increase in early heart attacks, stroke, and Alzheimer’s.
No human behavior has anything to do with the dying off of the bees (which, if it continues, is going to have a disastrous effect on pollination worldwide, and then on global food crops), or the increasing toxicity of our drinking water, or the fact that tests show that hamburgers from fast food chains rarely contain more than 15% real meat (and in some tests have been shown to contain only 2% actual meat), or the fact that more than 650 children die every hour on this planet because of starvation.
When an entire culture refuses to believe that it has anything to do with what is occurring, it cannot do anything about what is occurring.
This, in 25 words, is a summation of the present reality on Planet Earth.
As I have noted in this space before, much of this has to do with our understanding of the nature of God itself. Is there even a being called “God”? What is the true nature of The Divine — and what does it want, need, require? What does it actually do in our lives? How does Divinity interact with Humanity? What is the nature of this relationship? Does it even exist?
These questions and more will be explored here in this multi-part series titled FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time, headlining The Global Conversation online newspaper in the weeks ahead. I hope you will join in the discussion by posting in the Comment Section below — and invite your family, friends, and acquaintances to do the same. Now is the moment for a worldwide conversation on a matter of global impact and universal significance.
In the months ahead I will bring this discussion right into your home via telephone and video links. Look for that from CWGConnect. In the meantime, join us here for the online print-media element of this exploration.
With the ending of summer, teenagers everywhere are focused on getting in the last minute trip to the beach, back to school shopping, and savoring the final days of pure laziness. But as we focus on these activities, we often forget the most important of them all: having a direct conversation with God. Period.
As for those of us already immersed in the God-being experience, this post should serve as a healthy reminder to remain connected to the highest source possible. There is always another mystery, another light, another piece of knowledge to be understood. So, if you understand, please continue to expand and explore your relationship to the Universe and to Divine Oneness.
But for those who think that this sounds strange…
Now, I know that some of us out there have doubts about this whole ‘talking’ idea. Most of us, through whatever religious vehicle that our parents have driven into us, think of God as something inaccessible and far, far, far above our limited understanding. Further, some of us even think that only other highly spiritual people, such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, and Neale (obviously), can possibly participate in such a sacred activity. But…..That is a lie. Period.
The honest truth is….
ANYONE AT ANY POINT OF THEIR LIFE CAN TALK TO GOD AT ANYTIME.
Do I need to repeat that for you?
We don’t need a median. We don’t need a prophet. We don’t need a preacher. All we need is an enlightened mind, an energized body, an earnest heart, and an elevated soul (thanks again Neale). But don’t worry. It IS easier than it sounds.
If you are too instilled in religious anthropomorphism of ‘God’ as ‘The Old Man Judging Us In The Sky’, then think of it as a conversation with the Universe, the Over-Soul, the Infinite Being, the Complete Oneness, or what you feel the deepest connection with.
If you don’t feel a connection on the spiritual level, you are going to have a problem.
So it sounds a little (or extremely) intimidating. We often wonder what we would say to God if given the chance, but what will we do when we actually do? Will we say the wrong thing or embarrass ourselves? Will we ask too much and be disappointed? And most daunting…
Will we be judged for what we asked, and thought of as a lesser being?
Nope. Not at all. Nowhere even close to that.
ASK GOD ANYTHING. Really, it’s okay.
Talking with God – about ANYTHING – is talking from your highest intentions and listening from your sincerest gratitude. There is no judgment, there is just what you choose to create on the deepest and most intimate level possible. Besides being a way to resolve all tension, distress, and worry in your life, it talking to God also simply recreates the all-too-forgotten that there is meaning for everything in the Universe. But to make it easy, let’s take a look at this from the two levels:
+ Talking from Your Highest Intentions: The true Dictionary Definition of the word ‘communion’ is “the act of sharing one’s thoughts and emotions with deep understanding in intimate converse”. There is nothing to fear, there is nothing to hide; it is all a part of infinite consciousness anyways. Unveil your deepest intentions, to God and also to yourself. When the individual consciousness in you speaks directly with the collective conscious of the universe, it is all in the deepest and purest mutual understanding on the most intimate level possible.
+ Listening From Your Sincerest Gratitude: In order to effectively communicate in ANY setting, one must also listen just as deeply as they speak. Open yourself to the universe – even if it means that your current way of thinking may be exposed to be erroneous. To enhance the harmony of life, we must listen for the melody that underlies it all. Being willing to stop our own internal chatter, we also recognize our own gratefulness for everything that the universe has provided us. Whether it was challenges to stimulate our spiritual development or the experience of love in its highest form, we are always in a state of enduring awe. As we communicate with God, our awe for life itself grows ever more apparent.
So go out there, and have your communion elevated to the highest level. For the majority of people, (Neale and myself included), the easiest form of communication is through writing. Literally, with the salutation, closing, and all the rest. Just try it and see what happens when you start writing back. One thing I have observed from my own Conversations…
“Writing this weekly column is God living through me, but writing to God is God living within me.”
Though both experiences manifest our creative talents into the universe, they each let us understand a very different part of ourselves. With artistic expression, we are not always honest with our intentions. With spiritual expression, we remain forever open and truthful with our highest purpose. Make sense?
I know this site has been founded by the book series Conversations With God. BUT too many of us still read it and think only of how lucky Neale was to have access to this experience. When we go beyond simply just thinking ‘That’s a wonderful idea…for others to experience’ to ‘This is something that I consciously choose to experience as a part of my daily life’, then that’s when we CHANGE. That’s when society CHANGES. That’s when the human race CHANGES.
To ONENESS, to BEINGNESS, to LIGHT, to LOVE, to TRULY UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT.
And really, for the deepest questions in life, who else would you ask?
(Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)
I would like to invite you to take a little test. This is not a difficult or complicated test. And it won’t take up a lot of your time. It is simply a fun experiment.
Perhaps some of you have taken this test before. But maybe there are quite a few of you have not.
Below is a short video. In the video, you will see four people wearing white clothing and four people wearing black clothing. You will be asked to count the number of times a person wearing white clothing passes the basketball to another person wearing white clothing.
At the end of the video, you will be given the answer so you can compare your findings to the correct number of passes.
(Please view the video before clicking “read more”)
I generally consider myself to be a person with a fairly high level of awareness, so I was humorously shocked to find out at the end of the video that I had “failed” this exercise completely.
And as a result of this interesting awareness test, my mind could not escape the burning question: If I missed something as seemingly obvious as a moon-walking gorilla dancing in the middle of a small group of eight people, what else might I not be noticing in the world around me as I go about the business of my day-to-day affairs?
Nearly every day, I drive home past the perimeter of a beautiful state park. It is a mile-long stretch of lush beautiful trees and other colorful varieties of Florida foliage. One afternoon, I saw a family of beautiful deer grazing in the tall wispy grass. It looked like a water-color painting, so peaceful, so natural, so perfect. Of all the previous days, weeks, and months of me driving home on this same road, sometimes even traveling on it twice a day, I had never before seen any deer. Ever.
Well, the next afternoon, during my regular commute home, I intentionally looked for the deer, determined to lay eyes upon this picturesque setting once again. And to my delight, and surprise, there they were again. Not the exact same number of deer; there were only two this time. And not in the exact same location; they were a hundred feet or so further down the road. But there they were, peacefully grazing in the tall wispy grass.
And on many occasions since that very first moment, I have seen deer along the side of the road. But it couldn’t be possible that the first time I saw these magnificent creatures was actually the first time they ever appeared there, could it?
Of course not. It was only the first time my awareness included them.
This experience was revolutionary for me and it stirred up quite a few questions: What else am I not seeing in life? Of all the events happening around me, why do some of them come into my awareness and others do not? Am I consciously choosing this? Or is it created by something other than me, being placed into the space of my existence? And the biggest question of them all: What does this mean?
Of course, the answer to that bigger question, as I’ve come to know, is one that can only be answered by me as a creation of my own choosing. For me, it means that there is much more going on here than what I currently see. It means that when I think I know what I need to know, if I expand my perspective to include more, I will allow myself to experience that I actually know more. Because I now understand that the way I view life is based upon my perspective. And my perspective provides the underlying support system which serves to create the reality I ultimately experience. The truth I hold, the thoughts I choose, and the emotions I experience are all sequentially tied into and foundationed upon the perspective from which I see things.
So as hard as I might to try to tell someone “how” something is, or when someone else gets frustrated because I don’t “see” things in a similar way, it is important to remember that a thing can only be seen in the same way when viewed from the same perspective.
We all have the ability to elevate our experience from one of a distorted reality (what we think is happening). We even have the ability to move beyond an experience of observed reality (what we can readily see happening) and closer to an experience of ultimate reality (what is actually happening). How do we do this? By expanding the perspective of the Mind to include the Wisdom of the Soul. It is from this vantage point that we will be given the opportunity to see without limitations, allowing us to embrace every aspect in our lives, including our relationships with each other, with a deeper understanding of what we have already always known.
For a more extensive look at the revolutionary Mechanics of the Mind/System of the Soul process, I invite and encourage you to read the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything, which offers extraordinary spiritual and practical insight into what “creating your own reality” truly means.
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
I have a dear friend who, I am discovering, doesn’t keep her word. She says she will do things, but then, if something better comes along, she changes her mind. I have noticed that she does this with new jobs. She gets all excited about them, says they are perfect for her, then within a few months something happens that she doesn’t like and she quits. With me, most recently she offered to house sit and take care of my cats for a week, then after a couple of nights, she changed her mind and never came back. She got a neighbor to cover for her and didn’t tell me about it until several days afterward. Had she bothered to even send me a quick text, I would have told her I preferred to use my regular cat-caretaker, who I had already paid before my friend offered to stay at my house. I’m noticing a pattern here because I know of another woman who was unhappy with her for the very same reason. She makes sure the cats are okay, but doesn’t stay there as she says she will. I am familiar with the old saying that it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, but is it okay to do so over and over again with no seeming regard of how it affects others? I don’t know whether to call her on this or to just keep my mouth shut about it. Can you offer any advice? … Sandy
Dear Sandy… I learned a very valuable lesson from my father rather early in life. I had signed a three month contract to do piano bars in Sweden one winter. When I got there I hated it. It was dark and cold and I found the people quite unfriendly, and after two weeks I decided I wanted to come home. I called my dad and told him, and he asked me an all-important question: “Did you sign a contract?” I admitted that I had, and he said, “I think you should honor your agreement.” I realized he was right, and, Sandy, by doing that, I changed the course of my entire life! So many wonderful things wouldn’t have happened had I not stuck it out, and the next month they moved me to a different city and I loved it!
There is something profoundly important about keeping one’s word. It not only lets others know our character, it allows us to express ourselves in the highest and best way possible. For that reason, it is of the utmost importance to think things through as much as possible, and to listen to our feelings and guidance before declaring that we will do something. If we give our word that we will do something, I think that unless situations really dictate otherwise, we keep it, even when the going gets rough.
One of Don Miguel Ruiz’ “Four Agreements” that I try hard to live by is, “Be impeccable with your word.” And Conversations With God says that we create on three levels: Thought, Word and Action. There is great power behind speaking our word. It tells the Universe what our intentions for creation are, and it helps things start falling into place to make that happen. When we continually change our minds, we confuse the Universe about what we choose to call forth. Therefore, being impeccable with our word is not only important in our relationships with each other, it is important in our relationship with God. When we clearly tell God what we intend to do, we consciously co-create with It.
Now, your question of whether or not to say something to your friend is one that, I’m afraid, you are going to have to decide for yourself. I know that confrontations are difficult for many people, including me. You might want to remember the “Five Levels of Truth Telling” from CWG:
1. Tell your truth to yourself about yourself.
2. Tell your truth to yourself about another.
3. Tell your truth about yourself to another.
4. Tell your truth about another to that other.
5. The your truth to everyone about everything.
You have already taken Steps 1 and 2. Now your decision is whether to implement Steps 3 and 4. Remember, what’s going on with your friend is only your truth about the situation. There are always two sides to every story. Do you know why she changed her mind in this particular instance? Were there extenuating circumstances that prevented her from being able to keep her word?
The ultimate goal in truth-telling is to clear the air of any negativity and end up in a better place than you were before. It is never to assign blame or judgment on another. The possibility does exist, however, that in telling your truth to your friend, you will cause her think twice before not following through with her word in the future. This could serve to be a boon to her in future agreements, not unlike my decision to stick it out in Sweden in that dark, cold winter so long ago.
If you find you just don’t have the courage to come right out and talk with her about it, perhaps this Advice column could suffice…
(Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School.To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: ChangingChange.net offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
