LOP is a Talking Butt

Posted on Facebook Nov. 14th
Being my genius self does not mean I have to paint a 'Mona Lisa' or write a famous trilogy.  Being my genius self can show up as a side splitting laugh, a 'silly' idea, an 'accident', or me just being me.

It would be not that long ago that no one would have thought a man making faces and talking out of his behind would be an expression of one's genius self, (never mind a way to create fame and fortune).  Jim Carrey strolled into our lives a couple of decades ago and expanded our understanding of being our genius selves.  He was just doing what he had done his whole life.

We are waiting to enjoy your genius self too.  Remember, and believe in, who you really are and it will be a better world for it.

Listening and Focusing Exercise

Here's something for you to try/practice right now if you so choose.  In 'Living on Purpose' the book, a part of the third ingredient is the tool of focus, and the fourth ingredient I describe is listening.  In the following exercise you can practice both.

So, here is your assignment -- please read all of it before starting.  I want you to get up, right now, and go for a walk around the block.  And while you are walking around the block I want you to only focus on, to the best of your ability, what you appreciate about your day today.  If you can only think of one thing then just stay focused on that one thing.  If you can't think of anything to focus on, focus on your appreciation that you can get up and walk around the block.

Before you move, and as you digest what your assignment is, try and distinguish the two voices that have opinions about what I just suggested you do.  One will be what some call the personality or ego, and the other will be who you really are (WYRA), or what some call your inner being or your soul.  Try to listen and hear both.  What are they saying?  One may be louder than the other.  One might have responded quicker than the other.  One will feel better than the other.  You may even want to take out a journal and write what you are hearing/thinking.  Some people recommend that you use different hands to write, to help separate the voices/thoughts.

Once you are clear on which voice is WYRA, and what it is saying, follow through on what You are telling you is the most in alignment choice.  If WYRA is saying that you do not choose to go for a walk around the block right now, your assignment is completed with perfection.  If WYRA is excited about the idea of taking a few minutes to stretch your legs, get some fresh air, and fill yourself up with appreciation then trust it and follow through.  Listening begets a clearer and clearer voice.

If you are inspired, I would love to hear how it works out for you.

Update from Facebook page

In my continuing journey of following the specific inspirations, some days I have had more than one thought that I was inspired to share. However, at the same time, filling your email inbox was not feeling inspired. So, I have started a blog where I am posting as much as I am inspired to, and I invite you to have a visit when you are inspired too.  Find me at http://lopwithsandi.blogspot.com/ (cut and paste ...the address). And, if you choose, you can sign up for receiving emails from there as well.

I will continue to share, here on facebook, some of my LOP experiences and any announcements/invitations I have. Facebook still seems to be the easiest place for people to comment, which I invite you to do with your own experiences of LOP. Comments are welcome on the blog as well, however, you would need to sign up with Blogger in order to do that.

11/11/11

On this day, when many are remembering and honouring those who have gone before us and what they have created, I also remember and honour who we really are, and what we are creating.

In 1971, our family travelled to England to visit relatives.  My uncle, being a part of the military, took us to a Military Tattoo demonstration.  As the cannons exploded and the gunfire rang out and the men portrayed a battle scene, my young seven year old self cringed in horror and fright.  To this day, for me, I feel better holding the vision of us finding other ways to be together in the world. 

However, I know not all people feel this way about war.  Some believe war is a necessity.  Others find that it is a way to express themselves.  For some it is their source of education, a way to become more of who they really are.  And for some it even symbolizes an opportunity for adventure, to see the world, to be a part of something bigger then themselves.  All of these things are ways of LOP.

So, even though the choice of war is not for me, the choice of us being able to choose whatever we want, and not eliminating any possibilities from the smorgasbord of life, is definitely for me.  Therefore, on this day of Remembrance, I celebrate all the past choices and all the future choices, as I do my best to make my choices from a place of remembering who I really am.

Guarded Boundaries

I caught myself guarding, wanting to create boundaries, around my time this morning.  I wanted some time for me to be involved in a specific LOP activity, and I felt like in order to have that I had to guard that time.  Well, I realized in my attempt to LOP I was not LOP, because guardedness is resistance. 

I have heard people speak about how they need to create boundaries with people, and I am understanding what they are meaning by that.  In order for them to protect themselves from something unwanted they put limitations on time together, proximity, or allowable conversations.  However, that is not LOP because LOP is not about resistance.

Guardedness or creating boundaries is about limitedness, a belief in lack, 'there is only a certain amount and it is hard to obtain'.  So I may catch myself being guarded around money, or my home, or my time, or my relationships.  I may be guarded about my energy, my creativity, my love, my enthusiasm, my well being, my willingness to learn new things.  We may guard the earth, our oil, our water, trees, and fresh air becasue we have watched it decrease.  And it may be easy to defend our stories of limitedness because of the realities we experience . . . but it is still not LOP, I am not being my genius self.

So how else could I have chosen to perceive this time I wanted to guard and protect?  Well, I could have chosen to be in a place of eagerness or enthusiasm, and look forward to that LOP activity later.  I could have chosen to trust that all things have their perfect inspired time and that I need not force my schedule on any activity.  Or, I could have chosen to know that I can experience LOP in any moment, anywhere, instead of feeling like I had to create a specific moment at a specific time. 

And, if I had honestly been in alignment to be focused in that particular LOP activity in that moment, doors would have opened, things would have changed, and it would have ended up being the natural next step.

LOP Love

I would not describe love, when I am Living On Purpose (LOP), as being like what is described in many of the books we read, the songs we hear, and the movies we watch.  Those often contain the essences of yearning, jealously, fear, or frustration.

I feel I am Loving On Purpose when I am so full of love that it spills out onto another (sounds messier than it is).  I appreciate them just as they are, and believe in the light that is them.  I don't need them to be different, I just feel so fortunate to have this great excuse to love.

When I am Loving On Purpose I am excited about wherever my loved one is going.  I have unwavering faith in who they really are.  I feel no need to help them because I know they are more than able, however, I am happy to join in if they ask.  I sit back and bask in the freedom to love them, right now, just exactly the way they are.  And I appreciate to the ends of the earth that I have this fabulous, easy, excuse to love; a place to focus and allow that with which I am filled.

Of course, from that place, I am able to turn my attention to whomever or whatever is next, and use that as my excuse to love too.

Dedicated to one who taught me how to love through his example.

Will-i-am Ebbing and Flowing

I appreciate this quote from Will-i-am, of the Black Eyed Peas, because it feels like he is describing the ebb and flow I referred to yesterday.
"The songs come when they come.  When you force them, you don't want them.  Usually when you are thinking about something, you are doing too much. When you are not thinking of stuff and things are just coming to you, that's when you got magic sauce. You are just like the vessel, the conduit, the channel that it's coming from.  .  .  .  I am not a musician, nope, but I've got ideas."

Ebb and Glow

This past summer I learned so much about the ebb and flow of life -- thanks to the abundance of online Abraham-Hicks workshops.

For me the ebb and flow refers to my journey of gracefully moving back and forth between the specifics and generalities of life.  Being general is sitting joyfully in the essences I know as who I really am (WIRA).  The specifics are the inspirations that I allow, am able to recognize, due to the peace I experience while sitting so joyfully in the essence of me.  When the specifics are coming freely and rapidly I see that as a time of flow for me -- delicious.  When the specifics are quiet and the furthest I can joyfully reach are the general good feeling essences of WIRA -- that is delicious too.

In the past I have not cooperatively danced the dance of ebb and flow.  I would usually ebb until I got a nibble of a specific and then I tried to push, drag, and pull the specific in the direction I thought it should go.  I thought that once a specific was born I should not be going back to 'just' the general good feeling place of the essence of WIRA.  Instead of allowing a number of specifics to congregate together to make a whole, I would try and figure out the details logically.

I am enjoying the realization that the specifics are not my job.  I am enjoying the idea that the Universe, God, the right hemisphere of our brain, whatever you want to call it, answers our questions and solves our problems and inspires us to the specifics.  I don't have to control or force them into being.  When I listen to Tyler Perry and James Cameron talk about their creative process they seem to describe themselves as the scribes of the inspirations, and their job is just to keep up with the specifics.

In the past I resisted the ebb once I got into the flow.  The flow feels so fantastic, it is kinda like asking a drug addict to quit.  However, honestly, I don't really want to stay in the hightened specificness either.  Having ebb with the flow is a beautiful balance, and resisting the ebb when it comes is like resisting the ocean tide for ebbing.  The ebb is natural and an essential part of the dance.

So, this morning, I ebb and glow.

My "Lusting" Results

Last week I posted about 'lusting' after outcomes in order to be happy. I said I was going to spend a week making a note of when I caught myself wanting things to be different, knowing that conscious awareness is often enough to let things go.

Well, my notes show a few spousal lustings, a financial lusting, some household chore lustings, and some social outing lustings. Most of them were fairly easy to let go of once I caught the story I was telling myself about what I was resisting.  However, one experience, (someone sharing one of their stories/beliefs) took some dedicated focus, for a couple of hours, before I could feel the peace start to fill my experience. There was no way I could avoid doing the work with that one.

I also had the opportunity to witness someone else recognize that their reality, and their experience of it, are not really connected. That was fun!

Knowing that "my reality does not determine my experience" is not about becoming complacent with what is, it is about creating true freedom and joy. It is me creating my own reality by remembering to choose alignment with who I really am, which always feels good, and leads to my perfect answers and solutions.

If you joined in on the exercise take a minute to look back at your notes and acknowledge what you now know.

Ahhhhh -- Accomplishment?

Ahhhhh to finish that project.  Ahhhhh to do something I haven't done before.  Ahhhhh to complete a long "To Do" list.  Ahhhhh that feeling of accomplishment.  I know.  I am with you.  That feeling of accomplishment can be pretty darn delightful . . . but, once again, I am suspicious of myself.

I can also get that fix of accomplishment when I get that job, or buy that car, or get out of debt, or have that gorgeous wedding, or complete that education, or please others . . . still suspicious.

I know that for many of us, most of our days are filled with things we are accomplishing, things we are doing to get them done, things that are necessary so that other things are achievable, and it all seems very necessary, but I don't believe that it is Living On Purpose (LOP).

Accomplishment is usually rooted in a desire to earn worthiness, or to justify something.  "If I do this I'll get that.  If I do this then I am a good person."  LOP is the expression of something I am fully present with in the moment, with no ulterior motives attached.

Most of the things I do to accomplish something, I do because I am after the good feeling once it is done.  LOP is doing things because they feel good in the doing of them, and I am in no rush for them to be done.  (i.e. A child at Christmas is not ripping through the wrapping paper exclaiming, "Oh the drudgery of it all!"  They are diving into the gifts full of eagerness and enthusiasm for the moment.) 

Accomplishment comes from a place of being motivated, LOP comes from a place of being inspired.  When I try and accomplish something it can be accompanied by feelings of frustration, or resentment, or resistance or procrastination -- but I am able to plow through and get it done anyways.  LOP is accompanied by feelings of curiousity, appreciation, creativity, abundance and faith. 

And when I am LOP it does not mean I will not accomplish things.  Accomplishment is a natural outcome when I am LOP, it is just not the primary focus.  And LOP does not mean I cannot be doing all the things I am doing now.  I can just decide to enjoy doing them versus lusting after them being done.

So, here's an idea.  Play a game, be curious, watch yourself and notice (writing it down always helps me) what you are doing from a place of accomplishment (get it done, justify myself, be responsible), and what you are doing from a place of LOP (this is really fun, I have lots of ideas about this, I can hardly wait until I have a few more minutes to spend time doing this.)  And, here's the trick, play the game from a place of LOP versus trying to accomplish something.

Ask A Different Question

The question we are perhaps unconsciously asking ourselves hundreds of times each day is, "What do I need to do here?"  Maybe a better question is, "Who am I here?"

Normal But Not Natural

I was having a conversation with someone and they shared that they believed it is normal to worry about those we love.  I could feel a knot form in my stomach, which I have come to know as my way, of telling me, that who I really am does not agree with that statement. 

I realized the knot in my stomach was about my definitions of normal and natural.  I have learned that things can be normal because everyone is doing it, but they may not necessarily be natural -- meaning being who we really are.

The reason worrying about loved ones, for me, is not natural is because in the moment I am worrying I am not loving, I cannot be both at the same time.  In the moment I am worrying about them, I am in fear and that is the opposite of love.  If they are my loved ones what is natural is to love them, unconditionally, no matter what.  If I love someone I want to believe in them, help them remember who they really are, trust their ableness, and be the light when they forget all of that.  A loved one is one whom I love, not sporadically, not most of the time, not just when it is easy, but someone I appreciate, as best I can, moment . . . by moment . . .  by moment.

What other stories might we be telling ourselves that may be normal but not natural?

To Fix or Not to Fix -- No Question

At one point my career involved providing life management programs for government sponsored re-employment programs.  I worked with individuals in the process of building self confidence and skills to enter, or re-enter, the work force.  With the numerous hours we spent together I often had the opportunity to begin to see who these people really were -- their skills, and gifts, and natural ways of being.  My appreciation for the experience of seeing them, for who they really were, was immense.

However, the agenda or hopes of the sponsors of these programs was not always to assist the individuals to find their skills and gifts and natural ways of being, but to teach them how they should be for certain careers.  Although I completely understood the circumstances of the sponsors, I could never bring myself to telling someone how they should act, or be, or who they were.  I didn't have the words for it back then, but it felt to me like I would be telling them there is something wrong with them, they needed to be fixed, or different, in order for them to be successful in their lives, and I just never believed that.  I did these programs for a number of years, even though they did not feel quite right for me. 

Eventually this work came to a natural conclusion.  Years later I am embracing how much these programs, and the fabulous participants, taught me about who I am, and my natural way of being.  I have come to understand my litmus test for my own work.  I simply ask myself, "Is this person wanting someone to be different, or are they wanting to see someone differently?"  The former creates lots of opportunities for potential contract work (although I am not so confident in its success).  The latter is probably less popular (right now), but I'm your girl!

What do you know for sure about who you really are because of the work you have done in the past?