Secrets

Posted to Facebook Apr. 7th.
We are all probably familiar with secrets being those things that we deliberately and consciously do not share with certain individuals.  But how about those things that we habitually and unconsciously do not share with certain individuals?

I have came to a place of peace in regards to not needing to assert/share my understanding about LOP with those in the world that are not interested.  I adopted a "answer only when asked" philosophy, and it became apparent that many were not really interested, because they were not asking.  Not 'bothering' to share became habitual -- big parts of my life were kept behind closed doors, not under lock and key, but only because many were not asking for them to be opened.  Is this a secret?  Is this LOP?

I am now realizing there is a fine line between "answer only when asked," and keeping secrets.  There is a fine line between not asserting ones beliefs, and still being who we really are (WWRA).  There is a fine line between being quiet because one is so use to not being asked who they really are, and becoming comfortable with hiding in the safety of not sharing who we really are.

LOP is not hiding, or secrets, or holding back in fear of judgement.  Nor is it trying to convince, or justify to, or be accepted by, those who see things differently.  LOP is expressing WIRA, from an essence of appreciation, unconditional acceptance, belief and trust in myself, and trust that others can handle it.

LOP is sharing and expressing WIRA, because there is no benefit to keeping my genius self a secret.

There's a Whole Lot o' Energy Goin' On

Posted to facebook Apr. 2nd
The "E=MC2" book that I am reading right now, got me curious as to how much energy I am.  So, I thought it would be fun (with the help of my husband) to figure it out .  (I know, I know, fun is in the eye of the beholder.)

So here is what I am understanding.  If we pour/pump energy into mass, at a rate faster than the speed of light, that energy turns into mass.  That means we can also take a unit of mass and figure out how much energy it would have, if we knew how to purely convert it into energy.  (The atomic bomb is an example of us knowing how to purely convert mass into energy.)

I am, based on my crude mathematics, 1,580,128,000,000,000,000 units of energy. 

Look around you.  Imagine the amount of energy that surrounds you right now.  There's a whole lot of energy going on.

But Aren't I Suppose to Struggle?

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 29th
I know it can seem counter-intuitive, but being at peace with what I don't want is not asking for, allowing more of, or being resigned to a life of what I don't want.  Finding my place of peace is creating peace.  We can be so ingrained with the beliefs of hard work, no gain without pain, or the need to be busy, that not struggling against what we don't want can feel like we are permitting more of it.

Being at peace is about not giving up my joy/connection with who I really am/well-being, for any reason.  Being at peace is about staying in alignment with what I do want, so that I am able to recognize my answers and opportunities when they are in front of me.  Being at peace is about taking care of this moment, the only one I ever truly have, and filling it with who I really am.  Being at peace is the road to what I do want.

If I believe I need to struggle to find peace, I will choose the options of struggle, over my happiness, every time, and I will end up down the road of life asking why the happiness never came.  But if I am able to find peace with that work situation, or the relationship, or the financial situation, or my health, or my career, I end up down the road of life saying, "Gee, it seems to have been one peaceful moment after another," and that's because it was.

LOP is a place of peace.

Why Einstein?

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 26th
I am currently enjoying the book, "E=MC2" by David Bodanis, which is subtitled, "A biography of the World's Most Famous Equation."

Yesterday I was reading a section where David was questioning why Einstein was the one to pull all the elements of E=MC2 together.  The individual aspects of this equation were already in existence and had been evolving for some time.  There were others working on similar questions as Einstein, that arguably could have been considered smarter than him.  So what was it about Einstein that made this famous equation apparent to him?  Well, David points out a number of characteristics that may have contributed to it.

One thing that was working for Einstein was space.  He was employed at the patent office which was taking up little of his mental energy and allowed him the space to explore his ideas.  A second element was time.  He was not pressured by outside influences like some of the other scientists of the time, who were under academic pressure to publish.  He could follow his ideas at his own pace and on his own agenda.  Another was trust.  David shares that Einstein's family had a history of trusting him and accepted his interest in whatever he was interested in -- a great confidence builder.  He also writes that his family "encouraged a playful distancing tone," which to me sounds like they encouraged the silliness of being imaginative and different, and being outside of the box.  Mr. Bodanis includes the cultural influences of being Jewish, in Germany, at the turn of the century and how his beliefs about responsibility, justice, and authority where probably quite different than the many German scientists of his time.  And finally, the author includes what many might call the failures that Einstein experienced early in his life (i.e.not getting into the 'right' schools, being a lowly patent clerk, etc), that probably created a thirst, a desire, the inspiration to keep pursuing and searching.

Why Einstein?  We will probably never fully understand all of the intricacies that led to his conscious recognition of this equation.  But it would be fair to say that having enough faith in myself, to allow myself the space and time to follow my inspirations down those roads that interest me, to be playful, curious, have an adventurous spirit, without being too concerned about what others think, and choosing to use the clarity I get about what I do want, when I experience things I don't want, certainly doesn't hurt.

LOP is having the space and time to believe in, play with, be curious about, and follow one's inspirations.

Be the Change

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 22
Lady Gaga has launched the "Born this Way" Foundation, which is about supporting children/youth in being who they really are.  A main focus with this topic is bullying, and it is important to Lady Gaga because she was bullied as a child.  She has some unique thoughts about bullying, like it's not something you can legislate, and both 'victim' and bully need to be considered when resolving the issue.

This got me to thinking about bullying and what it is helping us to understand.  Gandhi taught us that we want to "be the change we want to see" and maybe bullying could actually be helping us become the change we want to see. 
Maybe kids bullying each other is just a mirror being held up for us adults to see ourselves more clearly.
Maybe if we really want to get kids to be more accepting and nicer to each other, we as adults need to be that change. 
Maybe, if we want bullying to stop, we want to stop bullying in all its forms. 
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we need to stop warring with other people.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying the Democrats and Republicans need to stop defiling each other.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop threatening people with incarceration.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop making kids learn what we want them to learn.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want less laws and rules, not more.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop criticizing each other.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to quit forcing each other to be who we are not.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop judging ourselves as less than others.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to start seeing the value each one of us has.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to start believing in ourselves.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to become so clear about who we really are it won't matter what others think or say about us.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to share who we really are with the rest of the world, so they too can feel free to be who they really are.

Oh wait . . . maybe that's what Lady Gaga is doing?

Putting It Off

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 19th.
My depression taught me that we all want to feel good.  Most of us know this, whether it is conscious or unconscious, and move forward in our life trying to figure out what those things are that are going to make us feel good.  But trying to figure out the 'what' of feeling good is actually a form of procrastination, is the long way around, is putting off what I really want -- which is just to feel good.

There are stories of fact (Victor Frankl, a prisoner of the Nazi concentration camps), and fiction (Pollyanna, a girl who overcame the death of her parents and the abuse of her new guardian) that share with us that we no longer need to wait for things to be a certain way for us to feel good. 

LOP is not about enduring one's terrible circumstances and just trying to be happy with being miserable.  LOP is about knowing that we no longer need to deny our joy or peace or freedom or love until our experience dictates it.  We no longer need to hold ourselves captive to whatever misery we think our current circumstances require.  We no longer need to justify our happiness through our results, or our in this moment reality.  We no longer need to put off what we are really looking for, which is to feel good, because we think it comes from outside of us. 

LOP is knowing that I create my good feeling in life, and I don't need to put if off any longer.

Peak Experiences are LOP

The following is a peak experience excerpt from the book LOP.

"I completed my official duties at the Law Courts Building (my placement as a college student), said the last of my Merry Christmas wishes, and headed out the building.  It was 5:00 PM and being north of the 49th parallel, our world was already dark and the rest of the downtown folk were beginning their journeys home.  However, that night, instead of the usual rush during the "rush hour" there was more of a calm.  It was almost like the city, as a whole, was remembering the meaning of Christmas, and people were taking the time to appreciate.  Perhaps many of them had just come from their Christmas work party or had just shared a genuinely warm Christmas wish with a coworker.  Or, perhaps it was the weather that evening. The city was covered with a white blanket of snow that felt more snugly than a gathering of ice crystals.  The air was warm and gentle with just a slight breath of wind that would occasionally brush past my hair and play with the odd flake of snow flickering to the ground.  Whatever this gentle feeling was, I could feel the 'Peace On Earth' that is so often described in our prose celebrating this time of year.

As I made my way to the bus stop, I slowed to a rhythmic, meditative walk -- the reality of my freedom (I was on a Christmas break) was settling in.  I could feel the appreciation for where I was in my life.  My accomplishments seemed to be unveiling themselves to me.  It was like I hadn't seen them before this because I had been too busy creating them.  I got to the bus stop a few minutes early and looked out at what surrounded me.  Churchill Square, our city centre park, stretched out before me with its trees and monuments and benches for people to relax.  In the wintertime a skating rink was created and music piped in  for that small community feeling.  And at this time of year each tree had been decorated with a million little, white lights that sparkled at me as I looked up at them.  At that moment, as I basked in the beauty of the park, a wave of knowing flooded through me that would have been frightening if it hadn't been such a peaceful, loving sensation.  For that instant, I truly knew all was well, and not just for myself, but for the whole world.  I could feel the vastness and the intimacy as one, and if I had any doubts to that point about there being a God, they were dismissed with this wave. 

Within seconds I arrived at a level of appreciation never before experienced and yet it felt like I had always existed there.  Then my logical brain kicked in and warned me that I better come back to "reality" or I was going to miss my bus.  With a flash I was back in my body, with my feelings, my worries, my 'to do' list, and with the gift of remembering and touching that mythical place that I wanted to call Home."

Let Him Run

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 12.
I recently re-watched "Secretariat", the movie about the horse who won the triple crown in 1973.  Spoiler alert:  If you haven't seen the film and you would like to watch it as a surprise, you might not want to read this.

After winning two of the three Triple Crown races, the owner and trainer started preparing for the final and longest of the three races, the Belmont, and pondered their strategy.  Should they do what all others usually did and let their horse rest, or should they trust their instincts and train Secretariat hard so that he would be prepared for the long distance and be able to win against his closest competitor, who was a long distance runner. 

Training hard was not the conventional wisdom because with that came the risk of hurting or ruining a horse.  Most would hold their horse back in fear that something might go wrong.  However, they decided to train him hard and trust their instincts, and believe that Secretariat would know what he wants to do.

Race day comes.  Secretariat and his closest competitor dominate the race.  They are neck and neck most of the way.  The owner yells out, "Let him run!"  The jockey stops holding him back and lets him go, lets him be all that he is, and he wins the Belmont by 31 lengths.

I believe we are all Secretariats.  And when we stop holding ourselves back, and let ourselves run, we all win our Triple Crown.

Balance

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 9th
I am involved in a project right now that has immense logical detail to it.  Hundreds of logical decisions, each one with its own ripple effect bumping up against other logical decisions.  It requires being mentally focused for many hours in a day.  I can walk away from my days feeling like all of my energy is stuck up in my head.

LOP, the book, talks about balancing the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual parts of ones self, and the important role balance plays in remembering, believing in, and expressing who we really are.  For example, when I was depressed in my teen years I did not know how to balance my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual selves.  I didn't even really recognize that there were different aspects that I wanted to be balancing.  Being involved in a very mentally focused project has awakened my awareness of the importance of balancing them all.  So what can I do to balance things out?

Being physically active helps me to get out my head.  It feels like it helps to draw the energy, my focus, that is stuck in my head back down into the rest of the body.  My workouts, walks, stretching my body, are all a part of fulfilling that balancing -- now more than ever.  I am also planning a reflexology session, which I have always adored, and that too helps to redistribute my energy/focus more evenly through my mind and body.

For my emotional self I am wanting to remember to ask myself how I feel about what is going on in my day.  I want to stay in touch with my emotional guidance system as I am making all these decisions.  With so much detail and logic it can be easy to retreat to the mind, but the mind can only keep track of so many details at a time.  However, the emotional self will always clue me in as to when something just doesn't quite feel right and I want to take another look at a decision.

The fourth aspect to balancing myself is including my spiritual self.  To know what I really want, think, and feel, about something, I want to be listening to who I really am (WIRA).  To listen to WIRA I often need to create a space of time and quiet and just shut my mind off and listen.  It doesn't need to be big chunks of time off in the mountains somewhere.  I can remember Oprah saying that she has sometimes just excused herself and gone to the bathroom in order to create the time and space to listen. 

There is nothing like a busy time in our lives, or taking on something new, for creating an expanded experience of practicing LOP.

No Help Thank You

We are taught that 'good' people help people, and I would agree that someone LOP naturally helps/inspires others.  However, sometimes what we call 'help' may actually be more like 'rescue'.  We see someone headed for what we judge as a not so good outcome and we try to avert it so that they can feel better (and quiet often so that we can feel better).  And so my question is, might we be robbing this person of an opportunity to succeed?

I heard James Cameron, creator of the movies 'Titanic' and 'Avatar', say that he is thankful he was not helped, not given a hand up (I think he was referrring to when he was a kid and a young adult).  He could see how not being helped had made him rely on himself, had forced him to believe in himself, had given him the opportunities to try on his own and experience successes.

Maybe having the opportunity to figure something out can lead to me feeling good about me.  Maybe me feeling good about me can lead to believing in myself more.  Maybe believing in myself more gives me the confidence to trust who I really am (WIRA).  Maybe trusting in WIRA helps me hear the unique expression of me.  Maybe the unique expression of me is what I have to contribute to the world.  Maybe what I have to contribute to the world is me being successful.