The Global Conversation

Tag: fear

  • How do I let go of fear so I “can have it all”!?

    There is something that I have been struggling with for quite a few years now. I guess the best way to describe it is to say that I am afraid of my own success, my joy, my happiness. I KNOW all the teachings of Conversations With God are true because after I came to the teachings about fifteen years ago, my life, as I knew it at the time, changed. It was the only time I have been so close in alignment with my Soul/True Self. I was creating all that I desired at that time and I was soooooo at peace and tranquility with all. I miss this!

    I KNOW I’m not disconnected from Spirit or my Soul, yet this is how I feel, and I can’t seem to reconnect. I can’t seem to MAKE MYSELF do the things that will enable me to “connect” again. I can’t get my ego to do the “work” to grow further. I can’t seem to commit to meditation, knowing full well how important and beneficial it is to my Soul, and I have found myself getting bored with the messages and teachings at my New Thought church. It’s like I’m sabotaging my own happiness.

    Someone once told me that this fear is probably due to my deep down feeling of not being worthy of all I deserve and can have. She said, “It scares you to think that you CAN have the material things, money, joy, happiness etc…” She also said, “You wonder what would happen to you if you did get it all.”  So I guess my question is, “How do I make myself get over this fear, because frankly I’m tired of not having it all!”… Carrie

    Dear Carrie… The way I see it, fear of success is quite different from feeling unworthy of success, so the first thing to do is to get clear. Which is it? Do you agree with your friend that you feel unworthy? Look deeply into your Sponsoring Thoughts about success and happiness. The fact that you had deep peace and tranquility and desires fulfilled fifteen years ago makes me wonder if either of these two scenarios are true. If you harbor either of these fears now, logic implies that something would have had to trigger them after your time of deep joy, peace and success. Is this the case? Can you trace the roots of your fears to anything specific that happened? If you can identify what that was, then you can begin to heal it. Remember, what you resist persists and what you look at deeply ceases to have its illusory form.

    It may help you to know that I, too, sometimes feel that the teachings at New Thought churches can become, shall we say, redundant. Many of them seem to be stuck in what I call “Law of Attraction 101.” As Neale would say, this is child’s play. Please don’t make yourself wrong if this is how you feel too! Remember, feelings are the language of the soul and they are there to guide you. As a student of Conversations With God, you may realize, as I do, that the CWG messages go waaaaaay further than what Science of Mind or Unity teach. Remember, the people who founded those churches lived roughly a hundred years ago. Back then, they were ahead of their time, but now they are actually behind the times. I think that’s why New Thought ministers are constantly looking to current New Thought authors such as Neale, whose teachings go into infinitely more detail about Life and how it works. Please don’t get me wrong: I love my church and am very grateful for it. I also realize they are filling a great need because so many people are just beginning to embrace these larger understandings about God and Life.

    I suspect, dear Carrie, that these feelings you’ve been experiencing are perfect messages from your soul which is trying to remind you (literally to “re-mind” you) that there is more—much more—to be understood about life, the understanding of which would change everything for you. I think you may simply be hungry for your mind to catch up with your soul’s knowing of how things really are, and once your information is more complete, you will again find yourself in the same place you were fifteen years ago when you first discovered CWG.

    I would ask you which books in the Conversations With God Cosmology you have read and if you missed any, please read them right away, in the order in which they were written. You might even want to strongly consider going back to Book 1 and reading all of them straight through the list. I promise you, since you are different now than you were fifteen years ago, you will have many new “aha” moments!

    At the risk of making this column too long, I am including the list here for you, along with an explanation of each book. If, after reading all of these, you still have fears or questions, please feel free to email me again. I think, though, you will begin manifesting more joy, peace and success into your life automatically as you move once again—and this time, thoroughly—through the material.

    Blesséd be, Carrie!

    THE CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD COSMOLOGY:

    CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 1

    The First Installment of an extraordinary trilogy, Conversations with God marks Neale Donald Walsch’s initial dialogue with God. This book discusses personal issues such as prosperity, relationships and the nature of spiritual truth—with God providing clear, understandable answers. Further than the author’s conversation with God, you’ll realize that your own understanding and your own conversation with God is the true subject matter of this unforgettable text.

    CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 2

    The second book of the extraordinary Conversations with God trilogy by Neale Donald Walsch deals with global issues such as education, politics and human sexuality.

    CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD Book 3

    This third book in the Conversations with God trilogy by Neale Donald Walsch is about more universal issues such as the nature of the soul, space and time, and highly evolved societies. Many consider this the completion of the basic text and a superb segue into the next part of the series.

    FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD

    The essence of the message lies at the heart of faith—the sacred place in every person, where we stand alone with God. Each of us must forge our own unique relationship with God, a God who is everywhere and speaks to us in all we do. It is up to us to stop and listen. It is up to us to respond—to begin the conversation. And a conversation is the first step—just as in any relationship—in establishing trust, in building friendship, in creating communion. Largely autobiographical, in Friendship with God, Neale shares the next part of his journey, and leads us to deepen and strengthen our own bonds with God.

    COMMUNION WITH GOD

    Now God reaches out again…offering you wholeness…communion. Now you will know the God who believes in you. You have come here to learn, through your own experience, that God resides within you. You have come to have a meeting with the Creator—a Creator who is within you and all around you. And in order to do so, you must look beyond the Ten Illusions of Humans.

    THE NEW REVELATIONS

    When you recognize these illusions, you can change the way you think. When you accept that they are only illusions, you can change what you believe. And when you live without them, you can change the world.

    TOMORROW’S GOD

    Purporting to be the dictation of a direct conversation with God, it places before humankind an unexpected prediction that our species will create a new God in the very near future. Gone will be the histrionics, requirements and commandments, judgments and punishments of Yesterday’s God. Tomorrow’s God describes in detail the character and characteristics of a future Deity whose only emotion is total love for all of humanity and life itself, and whose agenda includes no other objective than to empower life to produce more life, more abundantly and more gloriously in each moment. Striking in its theology and expansive in its cosmology, Tomorrow’s God offers the world a path out of its unremitting despair and a just-in-time detour on what many see as a journey to self-destruction.

    WHAT GOD WANTS

    Be Careful. This book is dangerous. It explores with startling freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could ever imagine. That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history. If embraced it most certainly will change your life.

    HOME WITH GOD: IN A LIFE THAT NEVER ENDS

    This is the last book of the Conversations with God series. This is the book that readers of CWG have been waiting for…when Neale asks and receives answers around the experience of death and dying. The inspiring and poignant messages contained in this dialogue are life-changing and spirit-renewing.

    CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD FOR TEENS

    Adults are not the only ones searching deeply for answers to the major questions of life. Neale had another conversation—one in which he speaks to God about questions raised by teens around the globe. It’s a simple, clear, straight-to-the-point dialogue. The answers may challenge beliefs about God, money, sex, and love—about everything you may have been taught. Further, you’ll discover that it is not really the author’s conversation with God that matters. It’s your own conversation.

    HAPPIER THAN GOD

    Since the publication of his stunning worldwide bestseller Conversations with God (over two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list; now published in 37 languages), Neale has been telling readers that a new understanding of God can change lives and change the world. In this book, he expands on that theme by exploring how ordinary people can work in direct collaboration with God to transform their everyday lives into extraordinary experiences. This is not a book of spiritual theory; rather it provides a plan we can use to change our lives. Included are “17 Steps to being Happier Than God.” This is a plan that combines the best of the conceptual truths from his 9-book Conversations with God series with “The Process of Personal Creation” to turn those concepts into practical tools for altering life for the better—forever.

    WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES CHANGE EVERYTHING

    This book speaks to the heart of every person who has lost their bearings in the aftermath of a major life change and to those who would help them. A strikingly clear and useful text, it offers wonderful tools for healing and living, including a new psychological model of how to combine the “Mechanics of the Mind” with the “System of the Soul”.

    (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:  The CWG Helping Outreach 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.

     

     

  • I need help moving out of a fearful place

    I am going through a bit of change looking for a job and being scared of my full potential. I just finished my degree in homeopathy and what I would like to do the most now is to practice and help people. First, however, I need to help myself. I need funds to start my clinic (insurance, association membership, place to practice, the list goes on). Fear of failure keeps me procrastinating and in a fearful place. I want to move out of it and I need help… Ava

    Dear Ava… Thank you for reaching out. I can see why it would be very daunting to open a brand new clinic. That’s quite a laundry list of things to do to get started, and looks to be quite expensive! Let’s see, though, if we can address these other fears you’re having that are holding you back, because an acronym for FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. And as one of our great American presidents, FDR, said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

    You say you are scared of your “full potential”, but is full potential anything to be afraid of? Our Soul’s basic desire is to express itself fully, in the grandest version of the greatest vision it ever held about itself. In other words, to reach its Highest Potential. If you really knew and understood the truth of Who You Are, Ava, an aspect of God with its same unlimited power to create anything you desire, I think fear would not be an issue for you.

    And about that “fear of failure”: did you know that Conversations With God says there is no such thing as failure? Anything that looks like a failure is simply Life’s way of course-correcting. When something we’ve planned doesn’t go the way our Mind thinks it should, it can only be because our Soul has a higher plan for our growth, and this is nothing to be afraid of, my dear! The Mind’s information is so very limited, but the Soul knows all, and will never steer us wrong. We may experience disappointment over a perceived failure when it first happens, but given the benefit of time and hindsight, we will always see the blessing and growth it brought us.

    Would it be possible for you to offer your homeopathy services in a clinic that has already been established, so you wouldn’t have to start one from scratch? Or could you start working part-time out of your home, or perhaps in an herbal or whole foods shop, or at a massage or chiropractic clinic? In other words, see if you can find a way to start your practice on a smaller basis. Since you just graduated, it will give you an opportunity to dip your toe in the water and make sure you really love this line of work before jumping in with both feet! I would think you’d need a little practice too, before starting a clinic.

    Fear is just a distortion of the One Emotion – Love. What do you love so much you’re afraid of losing it? Please look deeply at your fears and ask yourself this all-important question about each one of them: IS IT TRUE?

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God 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:  The CWG Helping Outreach 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.

  • Being afraid…and doing it anyway

    How many of us are holding back in our relationships?  Who among us is restricting their growth potential or avoiding a change in their career?  Let’s see a show of hands from those of us who in some way, shape, or form are limiting ourselves in some aspect of our lives because we are afraid.  Yes, I have to admit that my hand has slowly crept up, too.

    Afraid of rejection?

    Afraid of being hurt?

    Afraid of being hurt again?

    Afraid of being hurt even again?

    Afraid of not being good enough or pretty enough or smart enough or sexy enough?

    There seems to me to be a curious double standard when it comes to fear.  Human beings have clearly demonstrated time and time again that we actually are not afraid of fear.  In so many ways, we are fear-seekers.  Just ask the rollercoaster-riders, the bungee-jumpers, the race car drivers, the tight-rope walkers, the lion-tamers, the deep-sea divers, the skyscraper window cleaners, and those who have left the boundaries of earth’s atmosphere to explore what exists beyond this planet we call home.  Heck, even I welcomed fear into my life with open arms recently when I zip-lined five stories over a swampy pond filled with giant alligators.

    It would appear that in those specific instances, fear actually propels us into our greatness, thrusting us into our highest potential.  We desire the rush of danger.  We crave the surge of vulnerability.  We embrace the feelings of uncertainty.  We know there are no guarantees…and we do it anyway.

    So why do we not apply that same powerful field of energy when it comes to matters of the heart and soul?  Why do we suddenly “need” the guarantee?  Why do we suddenly “require” the certainty of a sure thing?  Why do we only clear the pathway to our heart when we feel convinced that it is “safe” to do so?

    In the meantime, while we are waiting for those assurances, we are not only denying ourselves the gift of those around us, we are denying those around us the gift of us.  Fear-based thinking causes us to live small and live prudent, shrinking into an existence of believing we can shield ourselves from our imagined fears by cocooning ourselves in layers of imagined protection.

    Imagine if Martin Luther King, Jr., thought, “I have a dream, but I am simply too scared to share it with the people of the world.”

    Imagine if Rosa Parks thought, “I do not want to give up my seat on this bus because of the color of my skin, but I am too afraid not to.”

    Imagine if Neale Donald Walsch thought, “I had an extraordinary conversation with God, but I’m too afraid to share it with the world for fear of how it or I will be received.”

    If any one of those people had listened to and acted upon that voice of fear, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right here, right now.  But these are the risk-takers.  These are the people who looked fear squarely and confidently and gently in the eye, blessed its presence in their lives, and did it anyway.

    And what exactly is the difference between these three individuals and us?  What do they have that perhaps you or I do not?

    Nothing, except a deep-seated understanding that no matter what happens, no matter how the chips may fall or in which direction the events of our lives take us, we have nothing to lose.  The guarantee that life gives to us is that we simply cannot fail.  The only “loss” we can experience is the one we personally create in our individual reality when we do not place ourselves fully in the game, the type of loss that prevents us from not only knowing who we really are, but actually experiencing who we are.

    “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
    Conversations with God

    (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.)

  • The road to higher consciousness is not easy

    By savoring every moment as a gift from heaven for what you are learning about yourself, you will one day ascend from the ashes to victory. As you stretch your new wings and shake off the debris from the fires that extinguish your suffering, you will have been transformed into a greater being than before.

    As I travel down the road to recovery from my stroke, I think about what I’ve been through, where I am and where I’m headed. My stroke was not just a physical situation. Yes, on the physical level, I had a hole in my heart that allowed a blood clot to pass through and land in my brain, causing an ischemic stroke, which paralyzed my right side.

    BUT there was a huge spiritual component to why I had a stroke. I went through a total transformation of self, moving from an ego-based mindset to a more heart-centered consciousness, the final goal being to find an inner balance between the masculine and feminine principles within. This was my karma, the road to a more enlightened way of being for me.

    But having such a life-altering experience so that one can be elevated to a new level of consciousness is certainly not what I wanted or expected. I didn’t think it would have to be that hard. Boy, was I wrong! Trying to become a more conscious soul, at any level, is not an easy task, nor is it for the delicate spirit. It takes a lot of fortitude, a lot of perseverance and a lot of faith! It also takes the ability to align your vision of what you want with what the universe has destined for you, since you are co-creators of your life.

    As you follow your path to fulfill your destiny, you know you will encounter obstacles along the way, bumps in the road that will cause diversions, distractions and downright disruptions to your progress. You might fall umpteen times into the psychological chasm of doom, and claw your way out just as many times. And each time you feel yourself falling, you grasp for something to hang onto to avoid falling into the depths of the mire.

    You may start by replacing the negative thoughts that are responsible for your plight with positive thoughts. Dis-ease, whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, begins with a thought. The energy of a negative thought can reverberate throughout your entire energy field and manifest into an imbalance that becomes an energetic blockage, giving rise to any number of afflictions. By replacing these negative thoughts, which come from your “egoic” fear-based mind, with positive ones, which come from your heart, you are giving yourself a chance to heal the mind-body connection, where one’s thoughts and emotions affect one’s health through chemical changes in the brain that have an impact on the immune system.

    On a more profound level, and most importantly, is your connection to your divinity, the source of all of creation that is always there to support you through thick and thin. But to fully commune with this inner power that shows us the way to our own magnificence, to our absolute truth, you must disengage yourself from your egoic mind that feeds on fear, and move to your heart center, where your divine essence resides.

    Having both a positive outlook and a genuine relationship with your own inner sacredness will help uplift you as you find your way out of the darkness and into the light, to your own brilliance where you shine brightly in your own glory.

    But the journey to your radiance is not a swift one. It is not a race to the finish. It is a process, one that could take a lifetime, depending on how deeply rooted the obstacles in your path are, and how many you have. Do not try to take the quick route to that inner light, as there is none. You will always be confronted by some sort of gremlin just waiting to throw you off track. This is how you grow into your own full potential, by confronting the encumbering monster, possibly battling with it, but ultimately dancing with it as its partner. It’s better to make your enemies allies instead of adversaries, as it makes the path to your illumination much easier. All your obstacles will become sources of encouragement instead of deterrents, since, in truth, they are simply facets of your psyche, showing you what you need to do to reach that inner sanctum.

    By taking it one step at a time, savoring every moment as a gift from heaven for what you are learning about yourself – who you are at the deepest soul level – you will one day ascend from the ashes to victory. As you stretch your new wings and shake off the debris from the fires that extinguish your suffering, you will have been transformed into a greater being than before. You will have reached a new level of awareness.

    (Erica Tucci had a full life as a corporate manager of a Fortune 500 company, a healing arts business owner and an author. It all came to a screeching halt in June 2011 when she had a stroke. During her recovery, she gained much wisdom about what’s really important in life and she re-entered the world with a new mission in life. She now wishes to use her story as an inspiration for others facing life challenges, which we all have, big or small, as well as continuing the work she was doing before her stroke, helping women find their “yin radiance” through their authentic voice and their own healing. She considers herself the Radiance Muse, inspiring you to live your life brilliantly. For more information, visit www.ericatucci.com and www.radiantsurvivor.com.)

    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.”)

     

  • Is death just nothingness?

    Dear Therese,

    I am at the time of my life where I realize I have far fewer years behind me than ahead of me, and I have to admit I am afraid of death.  I have always been afraid of death.  Even when I was young, and practicing my religion I never thought death was anything except just stopping.  I would like to believe something else, but right now I just believe death is forever nothingness, and I think about it a lot.

    Nancy in St. Paul

    Dear Nancy,

    Increasingly there is evidence that there is life after death, due to things like near death experiences, but it is still very contradictory at best.  Some think it concrete evidence, some think it evidence of what our bodies do when under certain conditions and stresses.  I happen to think it is not strictly chemical.

    Getting to the very basics of science, energy can never go away, it can only change form, right?  Which means, if nothing else, we will continue on for sure, even if not in the form we are experiencing right now.  Not very comforting, though, is it?

    I also happen to resonate with things in the CWG world…go figure!  In “Home With God, in a life that never ends” Neale Donald Walsch talks with God about death.  One of the things that seems most true, given the anecdotal evidence mentioned above, is that what we believe about death is what we will experience after we die.  If we believe in hell, or, in your case, nothingness, that is exactly what we will experience…until we decide we have finished this particular human experience all the way to its completion, and are ready to meet up with the All (God, if you will), and choose again.  We can choose to do the same life again, or we can choose one of the infinite possibilities that exist called “The Life of Nancy.”  Or we could stay with Creator, but that isn’t likely, because the urge to experience what we know would be very alluring.

    Part of what I hear you saying, though, Nancy, is that you have a particular attachment to this body, and this mind.  What if I were to tell you that it is also suggested in “The Only Thing That Matters,” by Neale, that we change form for a bit, but that we ultimately reunite with this same mind/body/soul that we now are?  Our form changes energy, much like snowflake to rain to ice to vapor and back to snow.  It is all the same thing, but different forms, and we will resume our form as well.  For me this is comforting, and explains a lot of my feelings of been-there done-that!

    Of course, as is glibly said, there’s no getting away from the fact that we are going to die, but that does not mean that we have to dwell in the fear of it either.  Ultimately it is just another change in a life that is nothing but change…each change can be called a little death, and, if you are like me, you can also look back and see that each “little death” opened up the pathway for something else.  I think it is pretty cool to sit and imagine what that “something else” will be after the change called my physical death!

    Nancy, I hope that you can imagine that, too, and choose to live this life consciously and with joy, and not waste it through living fearfully…although, you will get the chance to do it again if you’d like!

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offers insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life. 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.)

  • Conquering fear

    Fear has been on my mind a lot lately, especially when it comes to this venture of Pajamas Notebook.  I started out as I always do, like a firecracker, but as time goes on I find myself getting fearful again.  This time around, it is a different type of fear than I am normally accustomed to.  Usually, I would get scared of failure. “What if no one likes me?”  “What if I fail miserably?” Those feelings I am used to and have become really good at handling,so they don’t bother me anymore.  What this new fear does deal with is the fear of success!  Odd, isn’t it?

    This time around I find myself saying, “What if I become successful?” or“What if my message takes off and the spotlight starts to shine on me?” How do I handle that?  Being a humble person, the thought of “all eyes on me” is a bit daunting, as I have never wanted to outshine anyone else in my life.  I suffer from “feeling bad for those around me when I start to take the lead so I step back” syndrome.  This was even stronger when I became a Wife and Mother.  I always wanted to be a Stay-at-Home Mommy (which I am), a supportive wife (which I am), a loving sibling (which I am), and a loving daughter (which I am)…which is why my mind keeps putting me in checkmate by saying, “You have everything you ever wanted… why push it and try for more?  How will you balance your home with a business?  How will you care for your husband?  How will you make time for your kids?”  It is those moments where fear starts really knocking at my door.

    With that being said, I ended up spending the entire weekend thinking about this subject.  What fear is, what common fears are, and how it affects different kinds of people.  Through this process, I was finally able to muster up enough courage to no longer allow this emotion to get the better of me.  How did I do this you may ask?   Simply, by deciding to put all TRUST in me, so that I will be able to answer any knock at my door with a smile and with love.   You see, the truth is that fear is constantly knocking at our doors if you really take time to listen.  We can either choose to ignore that it’s there and just keep pressing on, or we can finally stand up with all that we are and open the door to invite fear in!

    That is what I have chosen to do.  I have decided to walk straight up to my door, open it up, and invite fear inside.  I am going to ‘trust’ that this feeling knocking means I truly am on to something with my business…I am going to love the crap out of this scary emotion until it’s so full of love it has no choice but to love me back…I am going to put all my light towards the fear, and whatever else walks through my door, that it will be overrun with the warmth of which I am.

    I have decided right here and now, to no longer live life by constantly ‘exiting stage right.’  Instead, I choose to harness the gifts provided to me and get to gettin’ when it comes to sharing my message with all of you!

    Since I have made this declaration to myself and to the universe, I am overrun with pure joy for what lies ahead and am excited to have ‘fear’ along for the ride.  Maybe, just maybe, I can finally teach IT a thing or two about how the soul really works!

    What would you do, if you knew you wouldn’t fail?  What would you do, if fear no longer conquered your life?

    (Jaimie Schultz , a/k/a Pajamas, is a fun-loving, passionate, adventure seeker who loves life and loves helping others see how much they should love theirs. She is passionate about all things mystical and out of her control. You can visit her website at www.pajamasnotebook.com)

    (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.”)

     

  • Therapy for Therapy: Can we really change our behavior?

    Anxiety. Stress. Fear. These are just a few of the many ways that I have heard my classmates describe their high school experience. Yet these seemed to be the most common descriptions I have heard about this period of life for people between the ages of 14 and 18. As I look at my own high school experience, I too recognize that it has been anything but a carefree journey. Through the combination of social interactions and academic expectations, teens are becoming overloaded. But by how much?

    Apparently, it’s enough to drive us crazy. In a 2000 publication, the American Psychological Association (APA) reported that the average teenager will experience the same level of anxiety as that of a 1950s psychiatric patient. And this was just for the average teenager before the time of Twitter and Facebook. What would this data look like now? And, more importantly, why hasn’t anything been done about this teenage mental pandemic since?

    Though the level of anxiety teenagers feel has skyrocketed, the psychological treatments for this problem has remained virtually the same. Across the board, stress therapy has focused on the concept of coping with our stressors. Even the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has highly recommended stress management techniques that act as distraction to our mind from our stressors. The activities outlined by the CDC include participating on a sport, taking up a hobby, becoming socially involved, and of course, looking for professional help. By attempting to change our behavior, therapy tries to change our thoughts, and is often unsuccessful.  Though these activities do help alleviate stress, they are only temporary in their affect. After the activity has finished and the session is over, the fear, stress, and anxiety will still persist in our thoughts.

    This still means that we are trapped in the same cycle. What if I want to do more than just “deal” with my stress? What if I actually want to change the way I feel?

    By focusing purely on reaction, therapy has forgotten all about the creation side of the spectrum. We CAN choose whether we will simply react to the events of life or let our own decisions construct an entirely new concept on how to live life. By changing our thoughts, it changes our behavior.

    In this mindset (or rather, open mindedness), we employ the Core Message of the Be-Do-Have Paradigm. With Have-Do-Be state, we rely on outside factors to shape our journey for us, while in the Be-Do-Have Paradigm, we are the source of our own change. Though our beliefs in our Old Cultural Story still think it is rational that we must have things to do stuff to be stress-free, we know that this simply is not the way. To change our thoughts, we must BE the creative cycle of Be-Do-Have, rather than the reactionary Have-Do-Be. By just being what you truly wish to be, you can do things that reinforce that state of being. And by doing these behaviors, you will have the lifestyle that you want to live.

    If this sounds simple, it should. The entire concept of the Be-Do-Have Paradigm is that it is naturally applicable – it doesn’t require toiling hours or rigorous schedules. By being calm, by being flexible, by being controlled, we can take a look at our stress inducing environments with entirely new eyes. Suddenly, when you are being composed instead of acting composed, life’s unpredictability doesn’t seem that stressful anymore. So go ahead and try the Be-Do-Have Paradigm, and be your own triumph. At the very least, I know you will BE happier!

    (Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Can I choose love instead of fear?

    There is more love around.  I can feel it.  Or is there more love in myself?

    Love and joy have no upper limit. You can carry only a certain amount of hatred, sadness and grief inside you, because at some point they will all change into love. This will happen either during this life or the next one. Universal love is infinite freedom. It is freedom to choose and to learn from one’s own choices.

    You are never alone. You are always accompanied by love which manifests itself in different energies and forms of life. What you feel and perceive is different from what reality is. Your feelings and perceptions are but partial truths. The more you manifest love, the more you will feel and perceive yourself to be part of a whole, which is a good deal greater than the world you are living in.

    There is much more love in the world than what is usually thought. People would be able to live in a much greater love for themselves, each other, nature and the whole planet if the distorted structures in our societies all over the world did not limit and suppress the expression of love.

    Someone says that we are living in a loveless world. I say that we are living in abundant love. It is a different thing than whether we are able to discover and recognize the abundant love in ourselves. We are living in a world of illusions. The value system around us may rather be more destructive than loving. We are being sold self-esteem without love. Our yearning for love is appealed through our self-esteem.

    Commercials and advertisements make us feel unhappy unless we acquire this and that. Those that we call  charity organizations may say, ”Buy yourself a good feeling, donate for charity.”  Love has been turned into merchandise. Yet love is free of cost. We can show love and radiate love around us all the time, and totally free of charge. If you saw the impact of love energies, you would understand their power. The spirit is stronger than matter.

    Joy is free.

    Joy is love.

    Joy is in your attitude.

    The more you feed joy and love, the more you will be them. This must happen unselfishly, without compulsion or artificiality. The world is full of pretension, smiles and promises which are not real. The world is also full of honesty, smiles and being which are real. You must recognize them in you and in others. You must recognize yourself. Do you know yourself?  Many think that they recognize themselves, their expectations and needs although they only recognize the needs and expectations that the environment has
    created for them.

    Can you distinguish real love from market values? You can if you only want to. Can you distinguish between desire and love? For love is much more of the attitude “how I love” rather than “how I am loved.”  The need to be loved has prevailed for too long over expression of real love in humanity. All kinds of means for being loved have been and are being used.  People do things, buy products, and choose attitudes in order to be loved.

    In the course of history many distorted attitudes have become generally accepted laws and patterns of behavior. The world is so full of these norms restricting love and freedom, rites and attitudes that an individual who expresses love may seem as unfit for the society…because love and freedom are one.

    When we express love, we are free. There is no wrong in love. Real freedom is absolute love. The notion of freedom as well as that of love is distorted in our world. There are attempts to buy and attain both of them in ways that are nothing but delusion when compared with real love and freedom. In the most extreme case, nations think that they can buy freedom by reinforcing their armed forces. In doing so, are they imagining that they are buying love, too? For freedom is love. Freedom attained through life-destroying methods is dependency and fear. Fear is a challenge for reaching real love. Love has no fear. How could love have fear because love is eternal, infinite power and wisdom? Infinite love, infinite wisdom, and infinite power are in you. So why would you be afraid?

    Fear is not in you. It is in the societal, social and economic structures. Fear is energy which maintains these structures. These structures are so distorted that they are sustained by life-destroying energies. They are antiquated energies which are having their death struggle, when at the same time life-constructing energies of love are manifesting themselves ever more widely.

    (Timo Teide is an artist, author, and spiritual guide who lives in Finland.  He has had dozens of art exhibitions and he has done meditative music and books about love. The healing power of art and the multidimensional impact of colors, forms and sounds are the most important elements of his art. Visit: www.teidegallery.com. Contact Timo: timo.teide@gmail.com.)