Archive for March, 2010

Muse of Spring Equinox

March 30th, 2010 by Michele

The Equinox, usually falls on March 20, 21, or 22. It is a time of new beginnings, the wind blows away the old so we can start anew. Ostara, also known as Oestre, anchors the lineage of Easter. She is the Goddess of fertility and stands at the balance point between day and night.

Her legend is birthed from a healing egg found filled with serpent spittle on the first day of Spring. This is the time when the light expands in and around us, opening communication with our soul purpose. Ostara celebrates the essence of female creativity with life changes in both our inner and outer worlds. She lifts the sun, rising in the East, and watches as the Spring wind blows it up and overhead, higher and higher before it sets at days end.

Goddess Ostara, you bring us the light, and the balance of the night. We look to the East, feeling the wind on our faces, breathing in and breathing out, clearing Winter’s dross: the external and internal cobwebs, making space for new inspiration.

In gratitude and honor, we bow to your fire as it mirrors both nature and humanity, the divine hologram in all things. Your elemental fire transforms the sprouts into seedlings, it encourages snakes to shed, and the birds to molt. We boldly embrace our connection to those elements, the directions and their seasons, the true support for heartfelt change in our inner and outer worlds.

Ostara, we synchronize ourselves to your maiden rhythms, pulsing excitedly with life and rebirth as we sing your name. We discover the eggs of renewal and fertility, as we open not only our hearts and wombs, but our bodies to your spirit, and our minds soon match the Sun’s brightness as it increases ten-fold inside our cells and energetic matrices.

Together we alight on the feathers of intention, celebrating our cleansing, our healing, our awakening and our resurrection. Moving along the wheel as it spins toward the Eastern most point and the rising sun, we allow our spirits to soar, flying with you into the dawn as it breaks on the shores of the morning.

Here today and for the rest of your season, we sow the seeds for mental clarity, community vision and shared creativity. We’ve tilled the soil and now plant our gardens. Inherently knowing our boundaries, we waste no time in places that do not welcome us. Likewise, we cleanse our auras, establishing reciprocity and gentleness in our statements of ownership and grounding.

We hone our focus and call on you now, Ostara, Goddess of the Vernal Equinox, to show us the way to our soul’s purpose, the reawakening of our deepest yearnings, desires and intentions.

Like you, so many moons ago, we search for and find the egg that contains the serpent and it’s spittle. We bravely crack it open, taking the venom, ingesting and alchemizing it’s powerful resources to transform our cells, one day giving birth to the divine child within us.
Today we dance the dance of Spring, linking our hearts to yours, our hearts to the Goddess and to the land, and our hearts to one another in enthusiasm and love.

New Beginnings

The Element of the Season is Air. Feel the Wind on your face and let it blow through your hair; feel the warmth of the Sun on your body. Smell the Jasmine, the early Rose. Breathe into your nasal passages and down through your spine. Fill the Earth with the energy of old and watch as it’s alchemized and transmuted.

Breathe into your head and into your feet, engaging the Sun and the Earth, feeling the energy of Mother and Father as they meet in your heart. Exhale out, filling your body with total balance and unconditional compassion.
Observe yourself from the sacred space in the center of your head, experience the deep inspiration as a gift from source. Be with yourself here, in silence, for some time.

When you are ready, take a moment to write about what you learned about yourself during the Winter months, that which you’d like to know and release. Ask your inner voice to speak softly of the seeds you’d like to plant this Spring for the upcoming year.
On a piece of paper, draw a large spiral, writing your spiritual intention in the middle. Record your intentions on the next ring of the spiral for anything you wish to manifest in the mental realm. Record your intentions on the next ring of the spiral for anything you’d like to manifest in the emotional realm.

On the next ring as you spiral outward, record the physical changes you’d like to create for yourself, your community, your country and your planet. When you’ve finished, beginning in the middle of the spiral, place your fingers at the center, slowly sliding them outward along the rings of the spiral as you envision yourself, relaxed, rejuvenated and renewed.

The information here has been compiled from various personal experiences as well as teachings and information from Kathy Jones’ book “Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess,” Mara Freeman’s book, “Kindling the Celtic Spirit,” and Frank MacEowen’s book, “The Celtic Way of Seeing.”

The Energetic Connection offers podcasts and online courses in self Mastery and Opening the Body to Spirit.

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Journey into the Shadows: Reflections & Projections

March 28th, 2010 by Michele

Remember all those friends I mentioned in yesterday’s post?

I am them; they are me.

More on that later today.

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States of Mind: Monkeys, Cats & Lizards

March 27th, 2010 by Michele

Monkey mind is commonly known as an over-active mind particularly corresponding to the neo-cortex or cerebral parts of our brain.

It’s premise rests in people whose attention flows where the constantly passing or even raging thoughts go. Like riding a raft through river rapids, these thoughts pass through everyone’s mind constantly, every day, and someone who is at the effect of these thoughts in any given moment, has a “Mind Monkey.” What makes one person different from another is the amount of attention given to those rogue thoughts.

The common Asian concept of Mind Monkey is one who is (Wikipedia) “unsettled, restless, capricious, whimsical, fanciful, inconstant, confused, indecisive,” even “uncontrollable.” Western ideologies often associate it with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or the added hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). That all sounds about right in comparing it to it’s origins in China and Japan.

Some of my less conversant or outwardly expressive friends point out that I am “mental” or have a “monkey mind.” One of those friends recently mentioned to me (after years of finger pointing) that she finally recognized her own “monkey mind.” I laughed when she told me because I know that everyone has a Monkey in their minds and it’s often misrepresented, hidden or misinterpreted. She just didn’t want to know it was there!

As for me, I’ve had lots of experience with meditation, conscious movement, yoga and breath which all slow down my Monkey. In any given moment I can take a few deep breaths and lose my thoughts, although they are never completely and forever gone. What makes one person different from another in this instance is the amount of attention given to those rogue thoughts in any one moment. If I’m feeling particularly self-conscious or in the midst of accustoming to any variety of new situations, I can definitely let my monkey wreak a lot of havoc as I follow those incessant thoughts around in circles. It’s merely a distraction from what is present.

Lack of presence is almost always about the monkey mind. Ever disappear during a conversation or lecture at school or while driving? What about fantasy or imagination? Could it be that indulging in fantastical thoughts without moving them through the body with play are also food for the Monkey?

I have friends who are not present even when their bodies are right in front of me. Some of my closest friends are with me regularly and yet their minds are living out some other reality. That’s most likely because they have an excessive amount of monkey play going on in their heads. Many of these people also watch a lot of television, play computer games and read cheap romance type novels as a way to shut out the Monkey Mind.

Funny, that I can be carrying on a conversation about something that is quite deep and expansive, a discovery that requires a balanced mental and heartfelt response, while they are off in some other land exploring whatever they explore. Within this dynamic they tell me I am intense and mental. Two days later I can refer to what we discussed (never be fooled by nodding heads and mumble of “uh huh”) and they say, “oh, you never mentioned that!”

On the other hand, and of all my friends, I almost always have the best memory of past events, specific conversations and experiences, even down to the year and season or month…I’m a bit reluctant to admit that I often know the day too.

I have another friend who is very bright, can interact with psycho/spiritually expansive material and yet is constantly distracted by thoughts. Inevitably, during our conversations, we wind our way through many personal experiential tangents before coming to the point. A five minute discourse is often only completed after hours of meandering. She also has a very poor memory of both long and short term experiences.

Her Cat probably isn’t connected to her Monkey and may be talking too frequently to her Lizard.

So what am I saying here? I guess I’d better make a list for the Logos.
1. Monkey Mind is distraction.
2. Monkey Mind is not present.
3. Mental, intellectual, expansive and directed conversations about personal discovery are NOT Monkey Mind.
4. Meditation or any internal focus helps to relax the Monkey Mind.
5. Everyone has a Monkey Mind; the frequency of its visits is a matter of how much we exercise our gift of relaxation or focus.
6. Intellectual books are a way to invite in more material for the mind to ponder and expand upon, yet can become fodder for the Monkey if not channeled properly.

Cat Mind on the other hand is related to the mammalian brain. It is very instinctual, emotional, and psychic or intuitive. It’s in the mid-brain where all of our memories are created and stored and our autonomic functions controlled. Cat Mind keeps us in tune with the rhythms of our bodies as they relate to our planet’s rhythms of light and dark, seasons, rotation and tilt. Lizard Mind is our reptilian brain, or brain stem area, and relates to all of our more automatic functions like respiration and heartbeat. It is very survival oriented.

Reptiles have no real higher brain function, yet as humans with three distinct brain compartments, our Lizard, Cat and Monkey minds are supposed to communicate with one another. Sometimes they don’t do a very good job of it because we entrap ourselves in the cage with Monkey after a long day of details; become caught-up in laying around curled up or playing comfortably in the sun with our Cats because we are overwhelmed emotionally; or stuck in survival mode, only looking for the next bug to snatch, the next rock to climb under or the next rodent to squeeze and then swallow, eating because we are in such trepidation and fear about our lives.

In any of those cases, we are not operating at our maximum capacity nor are we balanced and connected. Keeping it simple, we could effectively say that the lower Lizard brain relates to the lower Chakras; the Cat Mind is the Heart; and the Monkey Mind is the combination of upper Chakras. In the levels of physical consciousness, our energy moves upward toward the higher mind and Chakras, yet we don’t throw away our knowledge of other planes of existence as we climb.

So why, in the microcosmic Universe of Spirituality as related to our brains/minds do we separate ourselves, disconnecting ourselves from our physical and emotional needs or the fact that we have a mind? I think there was something really lost in translation here. And anyone who tells you, just because you are easy with your mental capacity and or higher intellect, that you have a Monkey Mind, is simply not integrated.

In fact, as I did my best to show in the first few paragraphs of this blog post, those who don’t speak outwardly, those who appear to be quiet, are probably most likely to have Monkey Minds, especially if they have memory loss and lack of presence too.

Check out Opening to Spirit courses at the The Energetic Connection where you’ll find tools self-mastery. It really is as simple as a breath. Breathe in; breathe out. Follow the breath, stop the Monkey.

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Journey into the Shadows: Transitions

March 26th, 2010 by Michele

There’s a common thread between all the glitches I’ve experienced in my life the last couple weeks: INABILITY TO SUSTAIN THE RESULT. Often, when I obtain what I’ve wanted or worked for, the enthusiasm for the project drops off, leaving me chomping at the bit for a new adventure. Right now my project is the Program; I am determined to resolve it completely.

At times I seem to forget that even though the Program’s root may be cut and I may not act out from the pattern of the program every minute, it still exists in my cells and they communicate to one another through neurons. Because I haven’t finished building the new neural neighborhood and don’t want to be homeless, I go back to my old house. Part of me believes that I am strong enough to venture into old territory without succumbing, yet before the new neighborhood is built, I am tempted to refurnish the old one.

The last couple weeks I put it to the test in several ways; 1) by inviting old friends back into my life; 2) choosing to handle a long-term plumbing issue which can only be repaired by people I have never been able to trust; and 3) overtly putting myself in front of a magazine of angry old bullets that I was unsuccessful in dodging. I was injured a couple times in this process which reduced the strength I had stored, making it more challenging to meet the wave of desire that washed over me. Before I knew it, I was back in my old house again, surrounded by angst, struggling to get out.

For some, these repeat patterns come about with any variety of transitions; graduations, day to day business, weight loss, exercise programs, recovery from addictions, new friends, marriage or any relationship upgrades, buying a house or car, birth of a child and more. In all these situations we first recognize a desire, work toward an end point, and once the goal is reached, some of us are left feeling empty, worn out, in the unknown, uncertain of the next step. It is here, at the so-called end point, that our tenure is challenged and we often defrock ourselves rather harshly.

It’s easy to see in someone with a recurring drug addiction, and much more elusive in a traditional, everyday piece of life.

Some of us crave the excitement of the process, the struggle, the uphill battle, and that’s what drives us. Others feel like fish out of water in their new constructs, desperate for familiar seas. Most of us want the comfort of the energy stains on our old walls and carpet. In essence, we’re lazy and can’t find the inner motivation to cover the walls with our new paint. With all that old desire present, we are most certainly challenged to sustain the thing we wanted in the first place. We develop beliefs that we are unworthy, incapable, tired, and want more or different.

It’s all an addiction. And while we are paving the new streets, laying foundations for the new homes, we still need a place to sleep and eat; unfortunately, we often choose the old neighborhood. Instead of camping out under the stars in our new front yards, we go “home.” That’s exactly what I did last week. It was my Birthday and I “allowed” myself too much food that I couldn’t digest. I revisited my old stomping ground, the old restaurants and chefs.

What an excuse! That type of celebration was the Program talking. Besides, a little cheesecake goes a long, long way. I didn’t really need to eat half of it by myself.

Like all heavy food, it has taken me over a week to purge it, delaying my ability to take in new sustenance at the necessary levels. My former state of being lost its brilliance and expansiveness. Because of my choices and relative unconsciousness, I will now most likely be delayed in arriving at my next destination for at least two weeks, maybe more.

It was a good holiday though! Was it worth the wait? I don’t know yet, as I’m still feeling a bit sluggish; it may have been a necessary detour. I’ll let you know when the emotions, fears and negative thought subside. I’ll let you know when I go into the delivery room again, breathing and patiently pushing while the new baby moves slowly through the birth canal.

Yes, I must repeat that part. They say the first birth is always the hardest; lucky for me, I’ve had a few!

For more information on the Program and your personal constructs, contact Christina Nixon; christinanixon@sisna.com; 505-992-8112.
Listen to a short meditation audio on Podcast VI Focus.

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Journey into the Shadows: Yin, Yang, Brain

March 25th, 2010 by Michele

Stories are fun to write and read if the material is engaging. Yesterday I wrote a pretty long-winded blog about a facet of my program that could, depending on the receiver, be construed as deep & provoking or boring, surface level information. It’s all in how each individual perceives and interprets life in any given moment.

My intention is to write primarily for myself and anyone else who might come across this blog; mothers, grandfathers, bodybuilders, pilots, yoga teachers, gurus, psychotherapists, metal workers, cashiers, geeks and more.

Because that’s a pretty expansive group of people, there’s a lot to be said for a linear look at how certain things come about. Our Logos function, masculine left-brain understanding, needs only a simple list or chart to grasp the skeleton or template of a concept. Sometimes this really helps the right-brain Eros function to go even deeper into the feminine and intuitive aspects of a concept.

Working together, these two upper brain parts give us a greater foundation for understanding and the ability to move into the abyss of possibility. Even deeper inside the brain is a level of understanding (groking) that departs from the Yin and Yang of things, at least on the surface. Our mid-brain contains the physiological and energetic constructs to grasp everything, including the nature of the Universe without so much as a chart, a word, a noise, smell or touch.

Have you been in there lately?

I’d like to take a brief journey into the brain as it relates to the Program today. Let’s begin with the Logos function and very simplistic view of the Program’s development.

-Lovers conceive a baby; they are joyous and filled with the pleasure of union and sexuality, the promise of a good life.
-Father leaves before baby is born, never to return.
-Mother becomes depressed because she cannot handle the emotions of anger, anxiety, hopelessness and loneliness.
-Mother’s thoughts become futile; future is uncertain, men are not to be trusted.
-Baby feels this inside its container: the placenta. Baby feeds off these emotions and negative thoughts.
-Baby’s reality is inside this container filled with emotions from mother.
-Baby is born, placenta is broken, the energy contained in the placenta is now held inside the baby’s bones and organs as a protective field in its new environment.
-The Program is born in physical form.
-Knowing nothing else, the baby’s inner reality begins to expand into its outer world.
-Projection of distrust, anger, anxiety into the outer world attracts the same to the baby.
-The emotional and psychic experiences of the baby become hardwired as “truth” & “reality.”
-And the beat goes on, and on and on.
-Time goes by and one day the baby is an adult with a cognitive mind and an ego which both support this “reality.” Emotions have become thoughts and thoughts are linked from the brain into the experiences out in the world.
-The outside world reflects this reality and the thoughts become stronger, more believable.
-Beliefs become more ingrained as the years progress and a double bind replaces the original container, becoming a prison.
-The Program is reality; all outer reflections begin to mimic the Program.
-A neural net has been created and the baby lives here inside this neural neighborhood all its life, until the adult chooses to see and change it.

As the baby becomes a toddler, a child and eventually an adult, the mind isn’t really privy to this template because it is overwhelmed with hormones, emotional energies, physical sensation, aging, outer world problems, relationships and memories of past experiences, which of course are all interwoven within and created by the Program along the way. The perceptual mind can only understand what it knows and feels, the physical sensations and states of being which are covertly linked to emotions, experiences and the Program at the root of it all.

This framework is tied into the mammalian (mid) brain and interpreted by the upper brain’s right and left hemispheres/frontal lobe. Somehow along the way, the left-brain learns and forms its logic on these experiences. The right-brain is not necessarily linear, yet forms its assessments from time-related experiences as well. It’s not the memory, but the interpretation of these events that is different from one side of the brain the next.

Okay, so it’s complicated, I know. How then do we get to the part of the brain that holds these memories and re-frame them? It could be as easy as going for a walk, once you’ve opened the door to possibility anyway. Thinking and walking can manifest new neurological networks and re-wire the brain.

Openness.
Desire.
Awareness.
Attention.
Focus.
Re-frame.
Create, realize.
Manifest, actualize.

-Bring your attention deep inside your mid-brain, the Center of your Head.
-Breathe into your nose, exhale down your spine.
-Bring your awareness inside yourself, noticing how you feel physically, emotionally and the thoughts that run through your mind.
-Release all thoughts and emotions on the exhale. Just intend that they will move through you.
-Clear away past experiences as you exhale.
-Create an image of what you want in life; health, home, career, consciousness, travel, whatever.
-Focus on that image as long as you can. Bring the image back if you loose it.
-Walk around your neighborhood as you focus on this image.
-Do it for 10 minutes daily, then increase the time.
-See what you create!

This is the beginning of a long relationship with your brain and your ability to manifest whatever you want; to embrace who you really are outside of the Program you’ve been carrying and projecting your whole life.

All roads lead to the Program, inside and out. When you’ve spent some time in the Center of your Head, you can find your own truth within and begin to re-create yourself.

Remember, anything you want and don’t have, anything you see and dislike about yourself or your life, anything you see in another person, is somehow related to your Program and its life long projections that emanate from inside you.

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