Being Authentic vs. Mindlessness

We are often distracted from what is truly important to us by objects of compelling illusive desire, such as the big house and fancy car. In addition, we are drawn to the captivation of the mindless distraction of playing computer games, casino games, the countless addictions we engage in, anything that will distract us when we are feeling overwhelmed and/or disconnected. Instead, what would feed your soul? What would rouse you to be authentic in your expression? 

I Choose Wholeness & Peace

There is a distortion of our soul on such a profound level that needs to be brought to our awareness if we are to feel whole and have peace.

I went to a Sundance movie screening recently at the college. It was about how women in the media are portrayed as sex objects rather than real human beings who are capable of greatness. I saw this same kind of information about twenty years ago and things seem to be getting worse. 

There is no denying that women are portrayed as sexual objects in the media. We have all seen the sexy females in places where it feels incongruent. For example, while watching the TV show, House, the woman in charge of the hospital looks like she is ready to go on a romantic date rather than run a hospital. We see the animated women who are skimpily dressed using brute force like a man would do to fight against evil. We may have even seen how men and women in news commentaries make comments about a woman’s looks rather that her abilities and contributions. 

In the video, they showed a news commentary, a discussion between men on what it would be like if more women occupied spaces in politics. One man’s comment was that the effect would be PMS and mood swings rather than having a balancing effect from a different perspective on actions and decisions made. 

What is also interesting is that women in other countries have more positions of power than what they do here in the U.S.  Women make up 51% of the population here in the U.S. and hold only 17% of the positions in politics. 

Because media (TV, radio, internet) has the ability to socialize us, this kind of portrayal of women has a detrimental effect on the self-esteem of the female population. Being an “object” means women are here to please another with no thought or concern for their own wellbeing or desires. We see this play out in the way women and adolescent females dress with lots of cleavage, both front and back, in an effort to be more “sexy.” Females usually dress to the nines and most males dress casually. Being an object also makes it easier for abusers to hurt or kill because it takes the humanness out of the act. 

This kind of socialization not only has an impact on females it has a huge impact on males. Males at a very young age are taught to disrespect females by perceiving them as sexual objects and to use them for their own pleasure. This does not and cannot have a good impact on their self-worth to treat people this way.

Besides the effect on self-worth for both males and females, we have so much casual sex going on. This is happening at an extremely young age. Adolescent girls and boys are having such casual sex it’s alarming. Along with that comes venereal disease and new babies who also grow up in this atmosphere and it goes on and on. 

What this does to the psyche on a soul level is damaging. Males using females, females being used, then in turn using males because of the imbalance of power. I know what it is like from my perspective and it doesn’t feel good to be objectified. Diminishing value of my being is what it feels like to me. 

When we are conditioned to live this way it goes against the grain of our soul, we know it doesn’t feel right, yet we have a hard time doing things differently because we need to have an awareness of what is actually going on here. Until we shine a light on it and put a name on it, we will continue to do things as we’ve always done them. 

In reading the book “Return of the Bird Tribes” by Ken Carey, there is a part about the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She comes upon two young Sioux hunters. The one brother lusts after her. She grants him his wish,

 “And so the second brave was left standing alone on the prairie, watching as his bother walked off, apparently enjoying the mysterious woman in the swirling cloud of dust that for awhile hid them both from sight. When the dust settled enough to see, there was the woman, binging slowly together the stitches of her dress. At her feet, partially decomposed, lay a corpse, alive with worms, beetles and a cloud of hungry flies.” 

Is this symbolic of the death of his soul? The brother was still standing. 

White Buffalo Calf Woman states, 

“A man who looks first to a woman’s outer beauty will never know her beauty divine, for there is dust upon his eyes and he is as good as blind. But a man who sees in a woman the spirit of the Great One and who sees her beauty first in spirit and in truth, that man will know God in that woman; and should she choose to lie with him, he will share with her in enjoyment more fully that the former ever could. And all will be as it should.” p. 52 

This is a new paradigm for us and it has been in the making for a long time. It is not a war between the sexes, but a time for healing our souls. Now we are consciously aware of this, we have the power to choose what we want. I choose to feel whole and have peace.

How to Create Bliss at Work

I want to change the energy at my place of work. Tweak it a little. It's not that it is so negative by any means. In fact, it is one of the best places I have ever worked in. However, it is not perfect. Sometimes it is blissful and sometimes it is not. My goal is for a blissful life. Therefore, to make it blissful, I have to put out thoughts of "bliss" and what I want that would make me feel blissful more of the time.

Now, I know that what I am experiencing is the result of my perceptions. Therefore, the best place to start is there, in my mind. I also know how powerful my thoughts are to create the life I want. As a result, I decided to send positive energy to my department on my way into work the other day.

Usually, when I enter work, I exchange a pleasant hello to people I pass. Well, on this day that I sent in the positive energy. I was greeted with two big smiles and some candy. =) I love it! 

I imagined energy coming from my heart, saying, "I love the people at my work." I think I will do this every morning.


What would you like to create at your work?

Am I Spiritual?

I consider myself to be a spiritual person. To me, being spiritual means knowing there is more to life than what meets the eye.

As I contemplate life, I realize there is order to the universe from the smallest flower to the planets in the universe. We can see this when we study sacred geometry, the flowers with their petal shapes and their centers having the geometric shape of the flower of life in them. In addition, the planets are rotating perfectly around each other year after year. For me, this order gives meaning to our lives and its purpose. Just as the flowers and planets are an expression of life, so am I.

Just like the flowers and the planets, my soul wants to express its essence, its desire to BE.

Geometric Flower of Life

 

Beauty is in the Soul

For attractive lips,

Speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,

Seek out the good in people

For a slim figure,

Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,

Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,

Walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,

Revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,

You'll find one at the end of your arm

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands,

one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!



By Sam Levinson, In One Era and Out the Other

The Mind/Body Connection

Have you ever been under chronic distress and gotten a tummy ach? That is because every time we have a thought, we have an emotion. Every time we have an emotion, it releases molecules of these emotions into our bodies.

According to Richard S. Lazarus, "Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." In other words, it is a feeling of a loss of control.

Just so you know, stress is any type of change, even what we perceive to be good change. It is still change and it is stressful. 

There are many types of stress; however, here I am referring to distress. Of the distress, there are two types. One is acute and the other is chronic.

Acute stress is intense and short-lived. It's like when we are pulled over by a police officer. After the incident, we can calm back down, depending of course on whether we get a ticket or not.

Chronic stress is ongoing; we could have it for days, weeks, months, or even years. We have chronic stress when we are in an unhappy situation and we can't seem to find a way out. For example, a credit card bill that only grows despite payments. Or maintaining a relationship that seems bad to stay but worse to leave. We are constantly arguing with family members. We are caring for the sick or elderly.

As we know, distress is the fight or flight response. It is getting our body ready to fight or flee for our survival. When this happens, our pupils dilate, blood flows away from the digestive system to the muscles of the extremities so we have the energy to fight or run. Our heart rate increases and we are on high alert or jittery.

Although most of the time we do not have to fight or flee for our survival, but we still experience the body mechanisms of that process. Continuously releasing these stress chemicals into our bodies takes its toll on our emotional and physical well-being.

We are so used to having stress that most of the time we don't realize we have it. Some people get headaches because they tense their neck and shoulder muscles and constrict the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.

It is difficult for our brains to function when we are under stress. When emotions go up, thinking ability goes down, we become forgetful and misplace things. Sleeping through the night becomes difficult and we become accident-prone.

The body has the ability to heal itself, but when the body is continuously out of balance, it becomes detrimental to our health, turning into physical symptoms and illness. Symptoms of illness whether physical, mental or emotional are the bodies ways of letting us know we are out of balance.

I will be teaching a free class on the Mind/Body Connection. Come and find out how to create balance and allow healing to take place in your life. To find out about attending classes based on universal principles, click here.

To keep in touch with updates about Linda's Soul RETrieval, sign up by clicking on the "Follow" link in the column to the right. 

Thanks to Rapid Eye Technology

Testimony from the RET newsletter:

"Until that new experience with Rapid Eye Therapy, I didn’t realize how old experiences from a person’s early years could affect the rest of their life. Now I understand that when a child is faced with a traumatic event (which may not be viewed as traumatic by another observer), the child reacts in a particular manner. That reaction is called a traumatic memory and will affect how that person reacts in similar situations throughout the rest of his or her life. That same reaction in childhood may not work so well or seem so rational when unconsciously triggered as an adult. But, a particular undesirable and unconscious behavior leftover from a forgotten trauma can be released in literally a session or two.

In one session, I released a problem that I had worked on in weekly sessions of traditional psychotherapy for four years with no relief from my distress, no end to my compulsive thoughts!

In one session of Rapid Eye Therapy, I found the birth-place of that horrible negative voice that plagued me in every job and every project throughout my life, and then in the same session, released it, never to be plagued again. Impossible, you say? That’s what I said before RET, but now I’m a true believer, a convert, and would do nearly anything for another session of RET." - Kathryn DeLong, Port Townsend, WA