May 2012

The Vocabulary of Wellness

Dear Friends,

This past month, I did a presentation at a local Healing Extravaganza on the vocabulary of wellness.

I realized that there are many health care practitioners who can work with your body and your energy fields and some who can give you insights about your life's purpose and spirit guidance.

However, only you yourself can determine your attitude and your thoughts.

What is in your mind as you wake up in the morning?

What are the last thoughts of your day as you fall asleep at night?

Though it may betimes seem as if our thoughts are involuntary, especially when we have strong emotional reactions to our experiences, in fact, we have free will to decide what we want to give our energy and attention to, how we choose to talk about our experiences and how we would like to further engage with situations.

Our thoughts are not "inevitable".

Certainly, our families and communities and interests and understanding of life predispose us to think in certain kinds of ways. Equally certainly, the more you repeat a specific thought, the more habitual it becomes and the easier it is for that thought to continue coming to the forefront of your mind. Because energy follows thought, your experiences will no doubt conform to that thought, further justifying the thinking of it.

A simple example is the notion of not having enough time.

It never rains but it pours.

I remember when I decided that I was not enjoying the drama of having too many things coming at me at once. I started to practice the thought in my mind that things come into my life, at a pace I can handle. Experiences arrange themselves so that I can give them the attention they deserve, be properly prepared and be able to digest and assimilate them afterwards.

Rain comes in desireable times and amounts.

I work as a gardener. The other day, I was doing the spring clean-up of perennial gardens. About one o'clock I stopped for my lunch break. I sat in my car, chewing and doing a sudoku puzzle when all of a sudden, I heard the rain. It was very suddenly raining very hard. I expressed my gratitude to the weather spirits for waiting until my lunch break to rain and relaxed into my puzzle. After twenty-five minutes, I started to wonder what I should do. It was still raining quite hard. I had decided that I would sit it out for a while, wait to see if it would stop, when it was over, just like that, exactly one half hour after I stopped for my break. I did put on my raincoat and boots and there was a bit more drizzle over the next little while, but I did not get wet and the sky cleared and everything was fresh and beautiful and life is good.

The weather spirits are good to me.

When there is a thought that comes repetitively into your mind, that you really do not enjoy the experience of, it is possible to change the thought. In my experience, the best way to do this is to decide what you are going to replace it with. Simply deleting a habitual thought is more difficult to do than setting up a replacement thought.

Say, for example, some person is annoying you in some sort of a way. You cannot stop thinking about this person, why ever, you have let them get in under your skin. You have sorted out what is your own responsibility in the situation, you are acting towards them harmlessly, not doing anything to aggravate the situation while being true to yourself, and still they insist on getting away with behaviours that are simply not fair/considerate of others/enhancing for the highest good of all.

What you give energy to, you strengthen.

By thinking about them, you are strengthening them and their annoying behaviours.

What do you do, then, when they are in your presence, in your personal space?

What do you do when they come into your thoughts as a memory of the experience?

My personal practice, when confronted with annoying situations is to shift my attention from the angry/demanding/noisey/whiney/boring/self-centered person(s), admit that I am engaged in the situation, release whatever my personal plans/expectations/ego considerations are, and refocus on setting my intention for the highest good of all, imagining a golden pool of light above and a golden pool of light below, and channelling universal energy into the scene. I ignore what the person(s) are doing and chant God God God God... in my mind.

When thoughts of the scene come as memory, I play with different responses. I can replace the thought with visions of a more ideal scene. I can channel compassion on the person(s) trying to imagine what causes their behaviours. I can imagine their highest good. Or I can use my creative imagination to envision myself in a scene where I would never be subjected to such behaviours again.

It may not be easy, but it is possible to exercise our free will to give strength and attention to what we want to see and experience. The more I practice, the more my experiences correspond to my visions of what a peaceful, envigorating life looks like.

And the easier it becomes to disperse annoying persons and situations.

When I was compiling my vocabulary of wellness, the words and phrases organized themselves under headings. Please use which ever of these thoughts stand out and speak to you and ignore the rest or put them on your back burner.

This is my persoanal arsenal.
You, no doubt, have some key phrases of your own.
Some of my words may suggest others to you.
Honour them, play with them.
Above all, be gentle and humour yourself.
You are a perfect piece of individual divinity :)

Vocabulary of Wellness

Universal Laws

Love is the underlying energy of the universe - - - All is One

What you give energy to, you strengthen - - - Energy follows thought

Every human has a personal spirit quide

You are at the right time and place for your life

You are a perfect piece of individual divinity

You have free will to choose your attitude

You are the one you have been waiting for
It is not the experiences you have,