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19 December, 2014  by

The Art of Life – Creating Through Chaos

There is an art to life and living, if we learn how to live it from the inside out instead of from the outside in. It requires the willingness to open our minds and hearts to our own unique, creative gifts. But, more importantly, it allows us the freedom to see through the matrix of boxes and squares and detach ourselves from controlled illusion of our reality. Then, looking from the inside out, we find that the reality of creation is actually beautifully chaotic.

Down The Rabbit Hole

As human Beings, we can become attached to all kinds of ideas of what we think we need to be happy – comfort, security, career, social circles. But when we look deep within ourselves, we realize these needs are mostly of a material and external nature. Although they can be alluring, the happiness we find in these attachments and identifications is usually temporary, as they reflect our relationship to the chaotic outside world, not our personal, peaceful inner world. Of course, when our happiness depends on conditions outside ourselves and our control, we search for completion from the outside in. Then, when those external conditions are taken away, so too is our sense of peace and fulfilment. We have lost control over our emotional being.

But everything is upside down in this beautifully chaotic rabbit hole. In our attempt to find happiness in the outside world, we often perceive external chaos as our lives “falling apart”, when really, circumstances are just starting to come together in our lives in ways we can’t comprehend.

There’s terms for this state of being and several come to mind – rock bottom, crisis, despair, and/or finding the Spirit within (a process that will crack you wide open, but that’s another article in itself). In these times, whether we can see it or not, our external attachments and identifications are stripped from us, and it is only within ourselves that we can create comfort in the chaos.

The Life Force

What we learn about love is backwards. We are raised believing we must search for love outside ourselves, find someone to love us, and find someone to love. We learn that we are alone, incomplete and loveless without the love of another.

In reality, we ARE love, in its purest form. But we are conditioned to feel separated from that true nature of love, valuing only the love we receive from outside ourselves. This leaves us open to fear, as we believe that love itself can be taken away.

Love and hate (fear) are like oil and water, so when they interact on an energetic and emotional level we often find chaos in the polarity – an allergic reaction if you will. Our loving nature and our fearful conditioning can’t co-exist. Something has to give. And in that dark and confusing place, we find rock bottom; the inky black energy of the aether, where our training and our truth collide. But, it’s also the place where we find our greatest opportunity – the creative “spark” to light our way out of the dark.

Even in our darkest and most painful times, we always have that opportunity; that choice. It’s harder to make that choice when we are in an emotional state of change because change can feel like we’re losing something, and in uncertainty, we fear what may yet be. But as we shed our external attachments, the way forward – that creative spark – can only be found in the emotion of the moment, right now, not in feelings of loss (past) or fear (future). The only way out is through.

As the old makes room for the new, our overwhelming emotions can sometimes make us feel like we can’t go on. Fear, loss and grief are all common. But what we’re feeling in those rock-bottom moments is actually the stale old toxic energy dying, not our life force! It’s no vacation, but at the end of it, we are left with new circumstances, new energy, a new perspective. On a micro level, these old energy patterns are being felt and released by individuals, while on a macro level, humanity is currently reflecting the same process — we’re at rock-bottom, feeling the chaos of this energetic clash, and using that spark to light creative new ways forward.

When we go into darkness, it’s no vacation. It helps to remember: when emotional chaos takes hold, the best remedy is simplicity. When we simplify our lives and remove subjective distractions, it brings us closer to alignment and objectivity. We become more sensitive in our perceptions. We can be still with our thoughts and feelings, while also exploring the opportunities they create. This will tell you everything you need to know – even if it feels upside down (you’re in the rabbit hole, remember?)

The Big Move

First, it helps to know that we’ve done this before even if we can’t see it, or forgot how. Through the process of shedding old energy and creating ‘the new’, we’re changing, morphing, evolving, and moving energy – the emotional kind of energy that comes with great weight, which is why the process of releasing it is called enlightenment (light bulb moment!) Although the ego part of us may attach to the feeling of loss, and resist letting go of old comfortable energy, this process of unpacking our emotional baggage Lightens our emotional load and helps us to align our energetic being to what our heart and soul essence is really searching for — change and the fear that comes with it. The whole gamut of conscious experience.

It can feel daunting, looking into our own personal rabbit hole, but don’t be scared. The darkness is part of the great aether which is the spiritual energy of creation. The aehter is the “place” and the mindset where illusions are shattered, perspectives are changed, new dreams are forged, and something beautiful and honest is born – seemingly from “nothing”.

Remember though, the “nothingness” you may experience is still something, because there is no such thing as nothing. In the heart-felt stillness of the dark, we find the presence, openness and creative spark we need to truly see our reality and consciously invigorate our lives, aligning our outer world to our inner reality and desires.

So honor the darkness for the experience that it is and the lessons it offers your heart and mind – and most of all, know that it is temporary.

To make ‘the big move’ is basically a 2-step process. First, we have to identify and connect with the fearful energy that wants to be expressed – or released. Most of us have an awareness of our fears and the patterns they create in our lives, even if we’re unsure how to process them and/or persuade them to move out. This is the process that we don’t necessarily like so much because it’s uncomfortable at best. The key is realizing that we need something to replace the fear in our heart.

When fear keeps us “stuck”, the reason we find it so hard to move is because we stop supporting the Universe to support us, by focusing our consciousness on the “what if’s” — what we don’t have, what we can’t do, what may go wrong, and often, what other people think. The ego’s perception becomes about “loss” and “want” and “fear” of the potential future; and so we lose touch with our natural sense of gratitude for now — which is a necessary ingredient for co-creating with conscious intention. But that sense of fear is not real, it is the ego trying to protect itself from the worst case “what if’s” that may or may not happen in the future, and redirecting our attention back to familiar patterns of behavior that may gratify the ego in the short term but do not serve the Self in the long term.

Then, when ego/fear prevents us from trying, or even dreaming, nothing happens at all! Today or in the future…

… and so, this is where we get “stuck”, going round and round trying to solve fearful problems in our heads, trying to resolve our fears with the same mentality that created them… more fear. It’s the emotional equivalent of banging our heads against a proverbial brick wall.

Ego is the antithesis of Oneness. Inherently fearful of the unknown, ego is hard wired into our biological flight-or-fight/fear response. It views reality in terms of separation and comparison to others, blind to the bigger picture that exists beyond its own self-oriented awareness.

The best way to resolve the fear of doing is to DO. Go ahead and prove your fearful ego wrong.

Sure, it can take great courage, discipline and self-understanding to honestly explore the dark recesses of our fears and ego. But the truth is, there is no other real option. As we continue down this path of collective and personal awakening, our unresolved ego/fears and their effects are becoming increasingly obvious in our lives, and like any other unsustainable practice, we can no longer put them aside without consequence.

It’s time we cleared the space, start a fresh canvass, and show those around us they can do the same too.

Grab a Pallette!

Our emotions ultimately tell us everything we need to know about what’s working and not working for us in our lives. When things aren’t “right”, we experience discomfort or discontent in various areas of our life. If we don’t allow these feelings to surface, and more importantly to guide our mind’s decisions, the unresolved emotional energy will always find a way to be expressed, whether the ego likes it or not. For many, the ongoing denial and apathy to such challenging feelings can culminate in a ‘dark night of the soul’, where the emotional veil suddenly drops and the full range of emotional energies demand that we feel them, and heal them, at once.

In these times, we may not like what we see when we look at the canvas of our life. Reflecting on our fears and most painful experiences forces us to be aware of the fearful, unloving, or desperate decisions we’ve made in our lives. We may not like the landscape we’ve painted, or the details in the background, or the truth about what we’ve emulated from our fear but we can change it, move it, enhance it, and color it in. First we need to step back and really see the canvas objectively – without ego – and feel the message within it. Our pain, discontent, anger and regret are all perfect indicators that we are settling for something in our lives that is not aligned with our true Being. Exploring and acknowledging the whole spectrum of our feelings is the first (and most difficult) step to healing them, and starting over, creating through the chaos.

In order to unravel the effects of our feelings and experiences in ego and fear have caused on our energetic landscape, it’s a case of going back through the darkness in order to see the Light. That’s the duality – Light doesn’t exist without dark, and the only way out is through. Follow the light.  Sometimes that means we have to stop, look, and listen in order to find a heartfelt stillness enabling us to truly see what our heart, and the universe by extension, is trying to show us.

Then, when we confront our true human and spiritual nature head on and “survive” the truth of our dark side (even though our ego feared we would perish!) we emerge with a new clearer perspective — ready to create a more honest, simple, joyful, meaningful, enriching, experiential kind of life. The kind of life that is perfectly aligned to the inner Being we have come to know so well. The kind of life that is impossible to create while the ego has us convinced that what we want for ourselves is always somehow out of our reach.

Color in the Dark

Let’s be honest, our darker feelings of fear and chaos aren’t exactly easy to look at up close and personal. We learn to keep our fear hidden just beyond the periphery of our conscious awareness in order to stay “sane and functioning”. The ego’s mode of operation is like a secret agent in stealth mode encouraging the turbulence of our fear. Its very purpose is to make us aware of our own fears and/or limitations taking us into the darkness of the aether.  But the darkness only obscures our view, hiding a blank canvass of infinite potential. We have something the ego doesn’t though — color, light and shade which equates to every imaginable outcome.

Creating something *NEW* is the best way to release emotional baggage and re-color our lives into a canvas we can’t wait to claim as our own and share with the world. If we allow ourselves to fully experience the dark side of our emotional existence, we can use that experience as both a motivation and a tool to create new experiences, new relationships, and new outcomes.

Our creative juices move in synchronicity with the universal flow of creation when we allow ourselves to be guided by our hearts. As we release our fears and overcome the urges of the short-sighted ego, we learn to listen to our heart and to our inner guidance. The dreamer’s dream comes to life before our very eyes and it mirrors back to us all that we truly are – beautiful, colorful, and unique Beings of light, consciously co-creating our own canvas, and transcending the darkness of the aether. Fun and rewarding, our existence suddenly becomes a vibrant colorful life when we make the choice to embody the art of life, with all its light and shade, and open ourselves to experience its endless, beautifully chaotic possibilities.

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Author: Jennifer Deisher / Wake up World

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11 December, 2014  by

9 Healing Benefits of Music

Music… loved, cherished, and admired by humans for countless ages. It’s shaped culture and society in very profound ways. It has started social revolutions and shifts in collective consciousness. There is a magical feeling that can come from music and its enchanting spell has affected billions of people in sometimes life-changing ways, as it continues to do to this day.

In recent decades, many studies have been done on music to see exactly how much of an impact and just how influential it is on human beings and other sentient life. The discoveries are absolutely fascinating.

Music as a Healer

Mystics, sages, and others have mused about the healing properties of music. They realized such qualities existed because they experienced them first-hand. As convincing such evidence may have been for such individuals, such proof does not hold precedence in modern western society, where scientific empiricism reigns supreme. Thankfully, many studies have been done to show that music does indeed have healing powers.

If a person has a stroke on the left side of the brain, where the speech centers are located in most people, that “wipes out a major part of communication,” said Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, chief of the Cerebrovascular Disorder Division and Stroke-Recovery Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. But if the right side, where a lot of music is processed, is intact, some stroke patients can use “melodic intonation therapy,” which involves singing using two tones (relatively close in pitch) to communicate.

Schlaug’s research suggests that with intense therapy some patients can even move from this two-tone singing back to actual speech. Stroke patients with gait problems also profit from neurologically based music therapy. At the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, director Michael Thaut and his team have shown that people partially paralyzed on one side can retrain to walk faster and in a more coordinated way if they practice walking rhythmically, cued by music or a metronome. Combining rhythmic training with physical therapy also helps stroke patients recover gait faster.

A number of studies show that music therapy – the use of music for medical goals – can reduce pain. In a 2001 study on burn patients, whose burns must be frequently scraped to reduce dead tissue, researchers found that music therapy significantly reduced the excruciating pain. Patients undergoing colonoscopy also seem to feel less pain and need fewer sedative drugs if they listen to music during the procedure, according to several studies. Another study done at Glasgow Caledonian University found that people who were listening to their favorite music felt less pain and could stand pain for a longer period.

Music therapy may also improve mental state and functioning in people with schizophrenia, according to a 2007 Cochrane review. Premature infants who listen to lullabies learn to suck better and gain more weight than those who don’t get music therapy. And Deforia Lane, director of music therapy at the University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, has found an improvement in immune response among hospitalized children who played, sang, and created music compared to children who did not get music therapy.

Finally, research conclusions have identified how the affect of music could replicate the effects of hormone replacement therapy in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Sound is a Harmonic Healer

Wave forms and frequencies permeate everything from the smallest sub-atomic particles to the largest structures – through solid objects and energy fields – even our thoughts and emotions. When we are feeling good, all aspects of our being can be said to be in harmony. When we are experiencing discomfort on any level, or sickness occurs, the vibrations of certain sounds can help bring us back to a harmonic, healthy state.

Along with healing and transformation, making sounds through sacred instruments or our voices has been a joyful part of human life throughout human history. It is only recently that watching TV or listening to recordings has virtually replaced the pleasure of making sounds together. Modern science is proving how sound vibrations can improve health and enhance our lives. A research team in Sweden discovered the most effective way of clearing blocked sinus passages was humming! Some participants in these sound healing sessions have noted how relaxing and uplifting the experience is, while others find it has helped relieve pain, bring them to a more joyful state, and many other benefits.

The Awe of Music

Music has also been shown to have the wonderful power to awe humans. Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute, for instance, have found dramatic evidence on brain scans that the “chills,” or a visceral feeling of awe, that people report listening to their favorite music are real.

Music that a person likes – but not music that is disliked – activates both the higher, thinking centers in the brain’s cortex, and, perhaps more important, also the “ancient circuitry, the motivation and reward system,” said experimental psychologist Robert Zatorre, a member of the team.It’s this ancient part of the brain that, often through the neurotransmitter dopamine, also governs basic drives such as for food, water, and sex, suggesting the tantalizing idea that the brain may consider music on a par with these crucial drives.

Listen to Music, Develop More Neurons

Music, the universal language of mood, emotion and desire, connects with us through a wide variety of neural systems. Researchers have discovered evidence that music stimulates specific regions of the brain responsible for memory, language and motor control. They have located specific areas of mental activity linked to the emotional responses elicited by music. An outstanding discovery recently has shown that children listening to music have increased neural development. Neurons are the oldest and longest cells in the body. You have many of the same neurons for your whole life.

Although other cells die and are replaced, many neurons are never replaced when they die. In fact, you have fewer neurons when you are old compared to when you are young. However , data published in November 1998 show that in one area of the brain (the hippocampus), neurons can in fact grow in adult humans as well. The discovery that new neurons develop in children can also mean that they can develop in an adult. It would seem a reasonable assumption, although it is not yet clear empirically if this is the case, but those that cherish and love music will tell you anecdotal evidence that they feel they do have more brain power than before.

The Brain Loves Harmony

“Undeniably, there is a biology of music,” according to Harvard University Medical School neurobiologist Mark Jude Tramo. He sees it as beyond question that there is specialization within the brain for the processing of music. Music is a biological part of life as surely as it is an aesthetic part. Studies as far back as 1990 found that the brain responds to harmony. Using a PET scanner to monitor changes in neural activity, neuroscientists at McGill University discovered that the part of the brain activated by music is dependent on whether or not the music is pleasant or dissonant.

The brain grows in response to musical training in the way a muscle responds to exercise. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston discovered that male musicians have larger brains than men who have not had extensive musical training. The cerebellums, that part of the brain containing 70% of the total brain’s neurons, were 5% larger in expert male musicians. Researchers have found evidence of the power of music to affect neural activity no matter where they looked in the brain, from primitive regions found in animals to more recently evolved areas thought to be strictly human such as the frontal lobes. Harmony, melody and rhythm invoke distinct patterns of brain activity.

Attaining Full Consciousness Through Music

Attaining full consciousness, meaning that one utilizes both sides of the brain equally has been shown to manifest in musicians and those who are exposed to music for a good portion of their life. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

Instrumental musicians often integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece, and they have to be very good at simultaneously reading the musical symbols, which are like left-hemisphere-based language, and integrating the written music with their own interpretation, which has been linked to the right hemisphere. The researchers also found that, overall, the musicians had higher IQ scores than the non-musicians, supporting recent studies that intensive musical training is associated with an elevated IQ score.

A Music-Memory Connection

Music surprises us yet again; this time revealing that it helps us remember. In a recent study, Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California, Davis said that “what seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye.” Janata began suspecting the medial pre-frontal cortex as a music-processing and music-memories region when he saw that part of the brain actively tracking chord and key changes in music.

He had also seen studies which showed the same region lighting up in response to self-reflection and recall of autobiographical details. In his own study, Janata saw that tunes linked to the strongest self-reported memories triggered the most vivid and emotion-filled responses – findings corroborated by the brain scan showing spikes in mental activity within the medial prefrontal cortex.

The brain region responded quickly to music signature and timescale, but also reacted overall when a tune was autobiographically relevant. Furthermore, music tracking activity in the brain was stronger during more powerful autobiographical memories. This latest research could explain why even Alzheimer’s patients who endure increasing memory loss can still recall songs from their distant past.

Music as an Identifier of Emotions

In a study detailed in the European Journal of Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary Northwestern research team for the first time provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual’s ability to recognize emotion in sound, which is quite a useful skill in any facet of life. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, found that the more years of musical experience musicians possessed and the earlier the age they began their music studies also increased their nervous systems’ abilities to process emotion in sound.

Previous research has indicated that musicians demonstrate greater sensitivity to the nuances of emotion in speech. In fact, recent studies indicated that musicians might even be able to sense emotion in sounds after hearing them for only 50 milliseconds.

Immerse Yourself in Music

By now, the intimate role musical harmonics play in your life should be abundantly clear to you. There’s so many incredible benefits you can have to your overall wellness by incorporating music into your daily life, be it listening to music in whatever way you do, playing an instrument for fun or professionally, or using specifically designed healing music right before bed or in a meditation session.

However you use music in your life, you will definitely experience the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits that music provides us. Enhance your life experience with the added element of music whenever you are able to and you will find yourself living a more surreal and more transcendent life.

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Author: Paul Lenda / Wake up World

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9 December, 2014  by

The Failed Politics and Faulty Science of Climate Change

The climate change/carbon emissions debate is over. It’s a redundant distraction to the broader actuality of humanity’s blatantly destructive environmental practices. The question at the core of the ‘climate’ discussion is not if the planet is warming, or whether carbon levels are to blame, the question is whether our current way of life on planet earth is sustainable. Yet this supposedly “scientific” debate has deteriorated to narrow, ill-informed political rhetoric that keeps us debating the details, not the central issue.

Is human activity negatively affecting our planet’s health, and risking humanity’s future? – Yes.  Are our current practices sustainable? – No.  Are carbon emissions altering our environment such that it is causing global temperatures to increase? – Inconsequential to the broader matter at hand.

Whatever the temperature may be, or how wild the storms, it is only a symptom of our collective disconnection from Mother Nature. Living a lifestyle that is incompatible with nature, we have allowed our atmosphere, water, soil and food supplies all to be ruined by ever-increasing environmental, industrial and agricultural poisons. And now, with unprecedented rates of disease affecting ‘developed’ nations, our increasingly toxic reality — changing climate or not — is reason enough to end this narrow ‘carbon’ rhetoric and initiate the many systemic reforms we know are now essential to our survival.

But the science of the ‘climate change’ paradigm, just like modern medicine,focusses aimlessly on the understanding the symptoms, but never the cause. It’s the scientific equivalent of crapping the bed and then focusing on how best to cover up the smell…. Meanwhile, it seems government officials are deliberately dragging their feet, gambling with our future to further an increasingly blatant commercial agenda.

Faulty Science of ‘Climate Change’

Let’s get real here. The debate of ‘climate change’ has not been a real debate for many years now. It was and remains a political distraction, not a scientific discourse. The complex question of our changing ecosystem has been reduced in our collective language (through media and political manipulation) to a simplistic notion of “carbon emissions”.

And so, while our focus remains only on carbon, no action is being taken to reform the dirty industrial systems we already know are yesterday’s news. Clearly, this unending debate is staged in favor of those who profit the most, drawing focus away from the broader environmental issues – andsolutions – and impeding necessary reform.

Our society is dependent on energy from operations plagued by gas leaks, oil spills and radioactive meltdowns; our food supply is increasingly tainted by “FDA Approved” agricultural poisons, our atmosphere is being sprayed with toxic cocktails in an arrogant attempt to control the planet’s weather, while our carbon-absorbing oceans and forests are being further decimated by short-sighted commercial practice with each passing day. And what of the effects of radioactive pollution? EMF radiation? Airborne toxins from petrol technologies? Agricultural poisons in air rain and soil? And what of other factors we can’t yet understand?

Only a politician or a corporate spin-doctor would argue against replacing destructive technologies like fossil fuel, poison-dependent agriculture and nuclear energy/weapons experimentation, with sustainable systems that will serve us today, and for seven generations to come.

Conveniently, the “scientists” advocating the official carbon rhetoric have ignored countless significant (but politically inconvenient) influences on our natural environment in order to reach a position of advocacy, making the worst mistake a scientist can make — omitting to consider information that is already well known. Such information includes:

  • atmospheric heavy metal and chemical spraying as part of geo-engineering/chemtrail programs
  • ever-increasing levels of airborne pollution and nuclear radiation in our air and sea
  • mounting waste from ‘functioning’ nuclear facilities. (So far nuclear science hasn’t figured out how to eliminate radioactive waste material, only how to accumulate and store it for future generations to worry about)
  • compromised soil and water caused by increased “fracking” (read: “blowing shit up underground”) in local communities
  • 3½ years worth of radioactive waste pouring from the failed Fukushima Daiichi facility into the oceans that are home to the plants that supply two thirds of our atmosphere’s oxygen
  • the effect on other plant and animal life, including the collapsing bee colonies that pollenate food bearing, oxygen-creating plant life on land, and the knock on effects of their ill-health and decline on a deeply inter-connected ecosystem
  • unsustainable agricultural processes, including but not limited to the heavily instituted use of the toxic pesticides (such as the RoundUp (glyphosate) poison that is central to GMO crop production) that have been linked not only to the collapse of global bee colonies but also unprecedented rates of human illness
  • ever-diminishing rain forests
  • the cumulative interaction of these factors in our ecosystem, and our bodies, particularly when airborne pollutants commonly associated with geo-engineering and nuclear programs (heavy metals) interact with electromagnetic radiation and HAARP
  • substantial evidence that temperatures on other planets in our solar system are also rising, indicating that a warming effect on earth may be the result of sun spot activity and changes in cosmic rays interacting with the earth’s atmosphere. To learn more, please read: The Climate Change Hoax.

Ignoring not one by all of these factors, the “scientists” propping up the climate/carbon debate compound the first mistake by making the second worst mistake a scientist could make: omitting the potential of other factors, known or unknown, that may influence their considerations, results and predictions of environmental changes.

Is carbon really our biggest concern? No, it’s just one of our least tangible concerns — the perfect political diversion from any discussion of tangible systemic reform. When we view this situation with our eyes wide open, suggesting that putting a price and/or “cap” on carbon is the mechanism that will “save our planet” is ridiculous. But it sure does make people feel better.

Reality Check

Humanity is living an unsustainable life here on earth. Our days like today are numbered. There are countless factors that are putting our natural ecosystem under pressure, yet with public debate carefully steered by corporate-government and their media, the entire discourse of our environmental future has been co-opted; reduced to a dangerous theatre of populist politics that is rooted in polarized, dualistic thinking — the opposition of two competing ideas, two parties, left and right, neither one a complete solution…

Sleepwalking to Extinction

Whole regions have been made uninhabitable via the status quo of the petrolithic era and nuclear era, and the delicate balance of the whole planet’s ecosystem has been degraded by these operations. There is no question that today’s oligarchical globalization are unsustainable, and beyond that totally destructive today – like repeatedly crapping in one’s own bed. And while the powerbrokers of globalization continue to exert influence over supposedly independent media and sovereign governments, the debate of global warming remains little but unscientific distraction from any real solutions. And recent history has proven this to be a fact.

Global pollution and the environmental destruction of the earth is obvious, apparent and affronting. The oligarchical status quo of globalization and institutionalization has resulted in pollutants and toxins which permeate the oceans once thought to be limitless, and pierced the atmosphere.

Do the ice caps have to melt before this narrow carbon-obsessed global warming debate might cease for a moment, and focus may turn toward actually doing something positive about our fouled air, water, land and food?

What is already scientifically known about global environmental destruction is enough for any reasonable person to support drastic change — in order to prevent drastic change. Undeniably, this change must start with the immediate reformation of institutions, particularly the energy and technology industries that profit while simultaneously working to suppress the development of genuinely sustainable energy technologies. Individuals, like you and me, who are already burdened with bio accumulative toxins of all sorts from these contaminating practices, should not be the only ones to bear the hardship of such change. Such burden should be placed squarely on the institutions that are the source of the problem, that profit from the problem, and accordingly, that wield their political influence to prolong the problem.

Time For Climate Revolution

It is time to get real. These power-brokers are playing political games with our planet. They aren’t going to correct their own corrupted priorities, and realistically, we don’t have time to wait.

Human over-consumption of the Earth cannot continue without dire physical and spiritual consequences. We cannot consider ourselves the peak of evolution on earth while also being responsible for its devastation. We cannot breathe, eat or drink politics. Nor can our future generations. It time we start thinking outside the narrow confines of the political convention and formality that led us here. What we need is an environmental revolution. Our future on earth now depends on it.

The narrow, pseudo-scientific global warming debate is over – as is the need for any further debate on our destructive environmental practices. What is needed is systemic change. Now. It is the only way humanity has any hope of surviving — no matter what the temperature.

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Author: Ethan Indigo Smith and Andy Whiteley / Wake up World

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4 December, 2014  by

Light Goes On, Within You And Without You

Once we have moved past the fun and games that life presents to us, the vast majority of us will eventually embark upon a “Spiritual Quest for Fire”.

Without going through a load of esoteric motions, or suggesting that one more thing in the physical realm is going to bring us “The Answer” we are seeking, let us admit the world does not know. We do not know who and what we are, what our purpose is, and what really happens beyond this worldly experience.

And while it does have a place in the human experience, physical science still falls short of any meaningful answers to the primary questions we ask on our journey here:

Who and what are we?

What is our purpose here?

The word “suggests” is popular in science, while “faith” is the catchall for religious meaning in our lives. What we really need is an experience that is not of this world; an undeniable experience that will eclipse the mediocre offerings of a world gone mad with fear.

Ignorance is not bliss and being unaware of our Source is nothing but a formula for chaos and disaster. All we have to do is look at the state of the world to understand what our ignorance has given us – nothing that we want.

Gratitude – The Afterbirth Of Forgiveness

Gratitude is where all the real nutrients are. Forgiveness is the first major stepping stone towards the inroad of absolute truth and is a prerequisite if we ever hope to know anything and understand what is real. Forgiveness is the catalyst that reverses our perception and prepares us for the shining truth.

Although forgiveness is an illusion – for nothing in Perfect Love needs to be forgiven – we still need it in our human experience to liberate the mind from grievances, which hides the Light that shines within us and all around us.

Practicing forgiveness is not nearly as difficult as holding grudges. It has this miraculous ability to lift the weight of the world off our shoulders by dissolving unloving thoughts within our thought system. Forgiveness undoes what is not real so what is real can be remembered.

It doesn’t cost anything to work towards a Masters in Forgiveness. But the refusal to forgive is indicative of our refusal to love one another and this cost is enormous in terms of human tragedy and needless suffering.

Apologizing For Spiritual Impurities

We cannot afford to distract ourselves or be concerned with any past life travesties, mainly because all we can really deal with is the here and now. There is nothing else.

Rather than reflecting on our “sins of the past” let us focus on simply being willing to heal every situation that has resulted in conflict or unhappiness for anyone involved.

Saying “I am sorry for the incident” is another miraculous statement. This is not an admission of guilt but a desire to let all false perceptions of separation go in favor of the truth, which is that no one is separate from Source or each other. When we are willing to apologize and ask someone to “forgive us” it is a sign of respect and means that we want the other person to be happy and at peace.

People who do not forgive are suffering and fail to understand there is nothing to forgive except the unloving thoughts that deprive us of peace. The apology is simply a reminder of what waits on the other side of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a promise that the Eternal Light that is there, unseen, will reveal itself in our dealings with the injured and sick. Forgiveness is the means, and peace of mind is the result.

What else could we want but to be happy and at peace?

Gratitude For Everything Polishes The Soul

The soul, or spirit, needs no salvation and cannot be killed or injured. It can, however, be hidden behind the debris and fallout of unforgiving, unloving thoughts that are out of sight but not out of mind. These are the thoughts that need to be cleansed and polished.

Love is approached through gratitude. It means we have willingly laid our weapons down and taken a step forward in our mind to heal and be healed.

Expressing sincere gratitude in words and deeds is the promise that Love is for one and all. Gratitude is like a soft cloth that binds and heals everything within its gracious embrace.

Shining Our Light Of Love By Extending Waves Of Gratitude

There is no need to wait on the world for happiness since it is inherent in who and what we are. Sincere gratitude enables the person who extends it to fully recognize that they have accepted it first, which enables them to give it all away.

The way it works is quite simple; the reason it works is fail-proof. Through complete forgiveness, all unloving thoughts are completely undone. The forgiver experiences sincere gratitude because their thoughts instantly become unified and releases them from all conflict. Where there is no conflict there is only happiness. And this is peace.

The Light that streams and glows everywhere is real. It belongs to each of us equally – all of it. This Light connects everything and proves the separation from Love never happened.

Who and what are we? We are love.

What is our purpose here? Our purpose is to bring peace to the world by bringing peace to our own mind.

Make a commitment today to forgive the world and set it free from the effects of unloving thoughts. Only then will we be in the clear where the only possible experience left for us is peace and joy because Love is the Answer.

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Author: Carmen Allgood / Wake up World

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27 November, 2014  by

The Story of the Four Animal Friends

The Four Animal Friends story is recorded in the Sutra teachings of the Buddha. The Four Animal Friends story tells about Buddha’s earlier life.  The Buddha had many lives before becoming a fully enlightened Buddha. 

The story occurs in Beneras or Varanasi that is located in India.  In one of the forests in Beneras, there were four animals.  These four animals were living together.  In this area of Beneras, everything was going well and there were not any problems. There were good crops of food, rain was falling on time, and there were no disasters and no famine. All the people in the area were happy.

The King of this area was very curious because areas surrounding his province were having a lot of problems. There were problems such as drought, famine, and fighting in the areas surrounding the King’s province.  The King was really surprised that his province was so peaceful and everything was going so easily. The King went to see astrologers to find the reason why his province was so peaceful. The astrologers found that all these good things in the province were because of four animal friends that were living upstream from Sumalti province.  The good fortune was not due to the power of the King or any of the people but was due to these four animals.

In this particular forest, there were four animal friends  – a bird known as a pheasant, a rabbit, a monkey and an elephant. These four animal friends were living in harmony and they respected each other very much. They respected each other in the tradition of the Dharma. The respect the animals had for each other and their friendship brought all these good things to the province.

One day, the four animals came together to talk about who is more wise and older. There was a big banyan tree where the animals were living. The elephant said that he could remember when the tree was his height.  The monkey said to the elephant that he must be older because he could remember when the tree was so small that he could hop over the tree. The rabbit said that he must be older than both of them because he gave the tree manure when the tree was just sprouting up from the ground. The bird said to all of them that he was much wiser and older because he was the one who brought the seed from a different place.

The size and the strength of the bird is small and the size and the strength of the elephant is very big and powerful. The animals were each different but they respected each other. The animals found that the bird was the oldest and the wisest. The rabbit was the next oldest and wisest, followed by the monkey with the elephant being the youngest.  The bird, the pheasant, taught the other animals moral conduct. Each of the animals followed the advice of the bird and this helped to increase happiness all around the area.

Each animal respected each other and respected the bird as the oldest and wisest.  The four animals had a very good friendship with each other. The power of their friendship with the respect for each other created in all the province a good atmosphere.

This story is recorded in the Sutra called, the Vinayavastu (Foundation of Discipline).  In the Vinaya teaching Dulwa Lung and the discourse Do De Na Kyang Lung it is written that these four animal friends were the Buddha himself and his three attendants. Kuengao (Ananda), Sharibhu (Shariputra), and Mougyelghibhu (Maudalyayana) were the three attendants. The bird, the Pheasant, was Buddha, the rabbit was Ananda, the monkey was Shariputra and the elephant was Maudgalyayana.

The Four Friend Animals is found in paintings on paper and canvas as well as wood carvings throughout homes, schools, and other buildings in Bhutan. This story is painted on walls in monasteries.  The Four Friend Animals is a beloved and well known story with the people of Bhutan. 

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25 November, 2014  by

What Motivates You to Help Others?

When I got back from the World Domination Summit this summer, I wrote a post about what motivates visionaries to try to change the world. The conference was full of well-intentioned do-gooders trying to make the world a better place. Amazing things were being birthed as a result of this impulse to do good. But I couldn’t help wondering whether this impulse to be of service came from a pure, noble intention or whether it came from some sort of underlying sense of unworthiness or ego-driven motivation. Or both.

In other words, why do we do what we do?

A few people argued, “Who cares why? As long as the world is benefiting from these impulses, why question it?”

Yet, as one of those self-help author do-gooder types who is committed to getting my own ego out of the driver’s seat and letting the Divine take the wheel, it matters to me.

Is Your Self-Worth Tied To How Helpful You Are?

I have a theory about all of this. I think those of us who commit to acts of altruism on behalf of making the world a better place do so because it makes us feel better about ourselves. Something within us doesn’t feel good enough/ valuable enough/ worthy enough unless we’ re devoted to helping others. We don’t believe that we’re good and valuable and worthy not because of any external action but because we all have within us a spark of the Divine which makes us inherently worthy. So we go out and help people, and people tell us how we’ve saved their lives, and then we feel more worthy. We matter because we matter to someone else. Then our worried, scared, “never good enough” egos feel better.

So what would happen if someone waved a magic wand and all the do-gooders suddenly woke up and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that we were worthy – without all the accolades and applause and love letters from those we’ve helped. Would we lose all ambition to help others? Would we just sit on a park bench and bask in our awakened worthiness?

I don’t think so.

The Pure Impulse To Serve

I think it’s part of human nature to feel the impulse to ease the suffering of other living beings. When Eckhart Tolle woke up and realized that everything he had ever desired existed right here in the present moment, he spent months sitting on a park bench, basking in the bliss of his awakened state. He suddenly knew he was a valuable, worthy child of God who didn’t have to do anything to earn that grace. But Eckhart didn’t stay on that park bench forever. At some point, a pure impulse to share with others the bliss of what he was experiencing in the present moment motivated him to write The Power of Now and A New Earth. I don’t think the sharing of this message was motivated by ego. I think it was motivated by this pure impulse to ease the suffering of others who were missing the bliss of the present moment by living in the past or the future.

This is all just my theory, but I now think we’re often motivated to do good things because we’re trying to feel more worthy. But it’s possible to know we are worthy and still serve others from a pure, clean impulse to ease the suffering of others. 

I Can’t Do It

So as I get ready to speak to an audience of people I hope to help with my words, I am doing a worthiness meditation so I can get my ego in the backseat and let the Divine use me in service to those who might be suffering. I remind my ego (I call her Victoria Rochester) that she is already good enough / valuable enough / worthy enough without gushing fans or long lines at my book signing or getting to sit next to Louise Hay at dinner.  I am asking for Divine guidance. I am realizing, ironically, that I am speaking at an I Can Do It conference, and yet, perhaps, as Tosha Silver suggested, “I Can’t Do It.” Or rather, I Choose Not To Do It- because I want to let the Universe do it instead.

That’s what I hope to relay to those I serve at this conference. I don’t want to just feed their scared, worried, “not good enough” egos. I want to help them remember that they don’t have to do it – that if they get their egos out of the way and let the Divine take the lead, all will be well and they will finally find the peace they’re seeking.

Do You Yearn To Serve?

Generosity, altruism, charitable acts, and self-help teaching are all great. Don’t get me wrong. But if you find yourself compelled to be of service, I invite you to examine your motivations. Are you trying to feed the hungry ghost of the ego, which never gets filled no matter how many people you help? Or are you motivated by that clean impulse to ease the suffering of others? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Knowing I can’t do it alone.

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Author: Lissa Rankin / Wake up World

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21 November, 2014  by

6 Things Your Soul Wants You to Know

We all wander through life searching for a higher purpose. We live with the same questions. Who are we? Why are we here? What are we meant to be doing? Am I living my best life?

Throughout my life I have pondered these questions. My experiences with over 400 deaths as a frontline social worker in a busy ER gave me the greatest insights and new understandings about death, dying and how the soul wishes to express itself in life.

Each life experience is an invitation to live as closely as possible to your soul’s true essence.

To help you to do that – this is what your soul wants you know…

1. You are OK just as you are.

The main goal of life is to not really change, grow or transform yourself. It is to be at peace with who you are at any given moment despite what you have done or not done; said or not said. Transformation is a choice we all have, but from the soul’s perspective, it is not the greatest priority.

2. Your soul invites you to view yourself through a lens of understanding.

While the way we respond to events in our life holds significance to some of our happiness, more important are the thoughts you have toward yourself as you critique whether you handled your response to a situation well. Too often we criticize ourselves for not handling a situation well. Thoughts such as, “Why on earth did I say that?“ or “I was just way too emotional for that situation” are some common examples.

Your soul is calling you to view yourself kindly and instead say to yourself, “I did the best I could at the time based on what I knew and my best was good enough”.

3. Your soul wants you to know that you are meant to feel deeply.

We are not here to brush over our experiences, but to experience our emotions and listen to our feelings as they guide us either closer to, or further from, what is best.

4. You are here to attune yourself with the good, the brightest, best and most delightful.

We are here to know the delights, feel the lightness and most of all, to know love, kindness, compassion and joy.

5. You are here to experience life. What that means is completely up to you.

It is not so much about what you experience, but the way you feel about yourself as you experience that matters most. There are many of us who experience great success for example, but we don’t allow ourselves to actually feel and breathe in the bounty of what we have achieved. Instead we just tick that box and move forward to the next goal.

Life is not meant to be lived this way. We are here to immerse ourselves in each and every experience and feel the greatness of who we are as we live each day.

6. Your soul wants you to know stillness.

When we are still, we can truly listen. As we listen we open ourselves to understand and it is within the stillness that we can feel the greatest connection to our soul’s wisdom. That is why meditation, being still in nature and finding a quiet moment for ourselves feels so appealing. They are opportunities to connect with who we truly are. Kind, compassionate, gentle and wise.

We just have to listen.

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Author: Katrina Cavanough

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17 November, 2014  by

Yoga and Earthing – Wellness Inspired Practices

Whether you’re in class, getting onto your yoga mat, or just getting home from work, it’s not uncommon to overhear someone talking about “getting grounded”.

In practice, grounding is a mechanism seen on three levels. It’s 1) a physical connection to the earth beneath you, 2) a shift in mental focus, allowing you to center your thoughts, and 3) whatever else brings your mind and body to ease in the here and now.

Grounding yourself is a mechanism by which you’re able to stabilize your energies, center your mind, and focus on the moment. As a result, you’re able to take a deep breath, step back, and focus on you for that very moment – no matter the time and place.

Let’s Start with Yoga

Incorporating the practice of grounding into your life can be done any number of ways, but one of the most recognized and impactful is through the practice of yoga. Through certain yoga poses, this sort of grounding presents your body and mind with the opportunity to release anxieties and physically root yourself to the earth.

The root chakra, in particular, is based entirely on how our bodies are connected to the earth and acts as a natural energy pathway. Through the root, base chakra (pulling from the earth through the feet and into the lower spine), the body maintains an entry point for universal energies and sustains a healthy foundation for your bodily function.

It’s not surprising that, with this concept in mind, Chinese tradition holds a heavy focus on strengthening and sustaining this root point. Earth Qi represents the patterns of energy and the earth’s magnetic field that we are surrounded by. Many exercises that are meant to strengthen the body and mind, including yoga, are done barefoot. A central practice within Chinese tradition includes the growing of a “root”. The Kidney 1 point (also known as the “yong quan point”) involves the opening of a conduit and connection between the earth’s surface and a person’s feet/body.

With yoga as a grounding mechanism, you’re forced to rely on both your mental focus and connection to the earth in order to sustain a balance. A few poses that are particularly helpful in grounding (both mentally and physically) include:

Mountain Pose

Tree Pose

Downward Facing Dog

Child’s Pose (an all-time favorite)

The Earth Connection

If yoga isn’t always an option given your hectic schedule, don’t worry – there are other options. What’s most important to remember is that grounding is what works for you. Just because the downward dog is what grounds your neighbor, that doesn’t mean it’s the only option out there.

While grounding is partly psychological, it’s also physical and can be done very easily by stepping outside. Our bodies desperately yearn for a healthy connection to nature and to the earth. This connection is what nurtures us, it keeps us alive and energized. More importantly, this connection with nature reminds us what an immaculate world we have around us. As humans, we spend far too much time insulated in our synthetic environments and disconnected from the outside world. This disconnect poses significant risks to our health and wellbeing.

Establishing that root, absorbing the earth’s energies and grounding yourself is done most easily when barefoot.

Recent studies and medical professionals have begun to identify the scientific benefits of this Earthing practice. By creating a direct connection to the earth (going barefoot), your body is able to absorb the Earth’s limitless supply of free electrons. These electrons, studies suggest, act as antioxidants by stabilizing and neutralizing harmful free radicals associated with inflammation, injury and/or toxicity.

Various industries have begun to take notice as well, creating various Earthing products to maintain this sort of connection, producing earthing or grounding products designed to help our bodies regain natural balance and stability on a molecular level. In particular, earthing shoes have recently entered the realms of medical study and footwear production.

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Author: David Gelfand

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15 November, 2014  by

9 Significant Benefits of Green Tea

Humans have been drinking green tea for almost 5,000 years (as early as 2,737 BC) both as a beverage and a medicine. But do you know just how good green tea really is? As more research is done into the properties of green tea (which comes from the Camellia sinensis tea plant) the more we discover there are amazing benefits to drinking it.

Here is a list of all the health benefits of green tea supported by research and studies done in recent years.

Benefits of Green Tea

Ingredient Found in Green Tea Significantly Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth in Female Mice

Green tea is high in the antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin-3- gallate) which helps prevent the body’s cells from becoming damaged and prematurely aged. Studies have suggested that the combination of green tea and EGCG may also be beneficial by providing protection against certain types of cancers, including breast cancer. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Mississippi researchers now finds that consuming EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth in female mice. 

Green Tea Compounds Prevent Memory Loss from Lack of Oxygen (Sleep Apnea)

People with the disorder called sleep apnea literally stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes for a minute or longer. With the most serious form, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), this can happen hundreds of times during a single night and deprive the brain of oxygen, leading to possible brain damage that causes memory problems.

According to new research, natural substances in green tea appear to stave off these OSA-caused cognitive deficits. Using green tea instead of drugs prevents brain deficits due to hypoxia and could be an important aid to preserving the memories of millions of people suffering from sleep apnea. 

Green Tea Can Help Delay the Onset of Type 1 Diabetes

A powerful antioxidant in green tea may prevent or delay the onset of type 1 diabetes, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Researchers were testing EGCG, green tea’s predominant antioxidant, in a laboratory mouse with type 1 diabetes and primary Sjogren’s syndrome, which damages moisture-producing glands, causing dry mouth and eyes. Both type 1 diabetes and Sjogren’s syndrome are autoimmune diseases, which cause the body to attack itself. Autoimmune disorders are the third most common group of diseases in the United States and affect about 8% of the population. The study supports earlier research showing EGCG’s impact on helping prevent autoimmune disease. 

Green Tea Slows Down Prostate Cancer Progression

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in men in the United States, but a new study has found that drinking green tea can slow down the progression of prostate cancer. Participants in the study were given the equivalent of 12 cups of green tea a day for an average of 34 days. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was reduced by an average of almost 19%. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was reduced by 9.9%, and prostate specific antigen (PSA) was reduced by 10.4%. Some of the men showed numbers reduced by as much as one third. 

Green Tea May Help Prevent Oral Cancer

According to a study recently published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, people with precancerous oral lesions were able to slow the progression of those lesions by taking a potent green tea extract. What’s more, the extracts caused some of the participants’ lesions to disappear entirely.

Researchers had 41 leukoplakia participants take one of three dosages (four, if you count the placebo group) over the course of 12 weeks: 1000 mg of green tea extract, 750 mg of green tea extract, or 500 mg of green tea extract. They took their allotted amount three times per day. At the conclusion of those three months, the researchers took oral tissue samples from each of the participants for another 12 weeks to see if there was any lessening of the lesions. Of those taking the highest dose (i.e., 1000 mg), researchers saw a lessening or disappearing of the lesions in 60% of the participants. People taking 750 mg also experienced a significant lessening (again, approximately 60% of the participants). Of those people taking the lowest green tea extract dose (500 mg, 3x per day), just over 35% experienced lesion reduction. 

Green Tea Can Prevent and Help to Treat Brain Disorders

A study that reveals the powerful effect of the green tea component EGCG in preventing and treating serious brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases. When combined with another isolated component, the elements therapeutically eliminate the protein amyloids which are thought to cause these brain diseases. Researchers from Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania discovered that two chemical components, one found in green tea, were able to break up the amyloid plaques and restore normal cell function in samples similar to what would be found in patients with brain disorders. The combination was found to be effective at eradicating all kinds of amyloids. 

Green Tea May Strengthen Your Teeth

Researchers have found that drinking at least one cup of green tea a day increases the odds of keeping your teeth as you age. The researchers suspect that antimicrobial molecules called catechins present in green tea and in lesser amounts in oolong tea provide the benefit. But be careful if you like your tea with sugar: sweetener may negate the effect, the team found. Yasushi Koyama of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and colleagues looked at more than 25,000 Japanese men and women between age 40 and 64 in making the determination. They found that men who drank at least one cup of tea a day were 19 percent less likely to have fewer than 20 teeth (a full set including wisdom teeth is 32) than those who did not drink green tea. Tea-drinking women had 13 percent lower odds.

Green Tea Helps to Prevent Dementia

Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have just discovered that when green tea is consumed, the digestive process in the gut creates powerful chemicals that work to protect the body against Alzheimer’s. Digested green tea chemicals prevented the Alzheimer’s disease-linked toxins from destroying normal cells and were seem affecting cancer cells, significantly slowing down their growth. 

Drinking Green Tea Lowers Fat Accumulation in the Body

Drinking between 5 and 8 cups of green tea each day was shown to lower body weight by an average of 5.6% and to decrease abdominal fat stores by 17.8% over a period of 8 weeks. Green tea consumption has long been associated with lowered risk of cancer, metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

A study was conducted by Polish researchers and used an animal model to determine weight loss and fat accumulation characteristics. The researchers also analyzed cardiovascular risk factors and atherogenesis over an 8 week period. The animals were fed a high fat diet and drank green tea made from either a 1.1% or 2% extract of the active phenolic compound. The results indicate that body weight and fat reduction are dose dependent with maximum results (5.6% lower body weight, 17.8% fat reduction) achieved with the 2% extract. Researchers found that the green tea concentration is important to achieve optimal weight lowering results.

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Author: Paul Lenda 

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12 November, 2014  by

What is The Purpose of Your Incarnation?

It seems to me so many of us are trying to figure out exactly why we are here, in this incarnation right now. And in a world of increasing craziness, exactly what are we here to do?

How can we help?

It’s a question that’s enough to drive you crazy just thinking about it! So what if the reason for your incarnation could easily be revealed to you from the current circumstances of your life?

What if a simple change of perspective on how we create reality could uplift not just you, but everyone around you?

What if that’s the only truly positive way to change the world…

The Universal Law of Attraction

In my perspective on reality, it’s not that each of us is here to do a specific thing, although it may at times – for very good reasons – look like that (I’ll return to why in a moment).

To me, practically, everything works according to the Universal Law of Attraction, which in essence means this:

Everything works in the universe according to the configuration of consciousness. Whatever configuration we have inside, is creative and manifests outside of ourselves exactly the mirror we need in order to further unwind, evolve and grow. Our purpose here is to shine our light ever more brightly, to express ever more authentically, to be all that we can be.

By the Law of Attraction, the mirror we create is our perfect tool for fulfilling that destiny.

So to me, our destiny is not something that we do – although we will do many things. Our destiny is all about beingness and unfolding that.

Simply Amazing Gifts of Beingness

So the gifts that we are given when we incarnate are amazingly magical gifts of beingness: like compassion, love, joy, interpretation, understanding, empathy, non-judgmental discernment, acceptance, surrender, creativity, catalysis, passion, commitment, focus, motivation, leadership, entreprenuership and the absolute Merlin mastery of pure magic!

I briefly mention these as words, but each alone is so incredibly bundled with possibility and expression, it is impossible to properly capture their quintessence. You think you’ve mastered a degree of surrender, then the universe artfully configures some new cliff edge to show you where you’ve been hanging on. You think you understand how to truly manifest, the universe shows you a whole new box of tricks. Such gifts of beingness have endless expression – simply endless!

It seems to me, from copious exploration both in this life and many others, that the universe works tirelessly with its infinite palette of power to make one key thing happen (although in infinite different ways). That is:

To provide continually updating, evolving, morphing and changing vehicles such that we can each express one or more of these gifts – to enable the gifts to truly sing.

By the word ‘vehicle’ I mean a situation, event, occurrence or experience. It could be a relationship with a particular configuration for example that pushes all of your buttons. Why? So in experiencing your tightness you can confront it, evolve and grow beyond it. Or it could be a life-threatening or seriously debilitating illness that you just can’t seem to cure. Why? So that you have the perfect situation to experience yourself and know yourself as something beyond merely physical.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Many people look into the outside world for their destiny not realizing they’re already creating it! As the Oracle says to Neo in the film The Matrix: “you’re not here to make a choice, you’ve already made the choice, you’re here to figure out why you made the choice.”

So if we can pause for a moment and reflect on exactly why we’ve created the circumstances we’re now in, then we’d realize we’re being offered vital clues for how to proceed…

The external mirror is showing us two things: both our distortions and our magical gifts of beingness. If we can accept the distortions, not need them to go away, but explore who we are through them, then what happens is we tend to drop into the void of infinite potential and from there, we touch a magical gift of beingness which is being reflected in the outside mirror. Then all we have to do is to attune to that gift to have the most incredible creative impact.

Building the Flow

So if we can stop struggling to make a choice of what to do, and instead figure out what’s our highest expression in this moment, then what will happen, is that the universe will use its full unfettered power to support that gift of beingness in some way.

In which case, we simply don’t need to figure out what is is that we’re here to do. What I’ve discovered is that if I always come from beingness, if i always expand into my distortions and make space for the gift to arise and sing, then my life seems to be magically guided on a path – more a flow actually – which the more I align with, the more I give myself to, the stronger and stronger it gets. It feels like being swept along in a magically creative torrent.

I don’t determine which way the torrent is going, what it is here to do, but I notice it has a consistency and pattern to it. I could say I’m being a coach, or a teacher, or a facilitator, but in actual fact, whatever I end up doing, I’m just being me, and I observe this encourages others to be them. Then I laugh inwardly to myself: is there really anything else going on!

The Only Truly Authentic Choice

It’s so often the case, that in the copious one-on-one facilitation that I do, people are trying to figure out what choice to make in the outside world. Why am I here? What’s is the purpose of my incarnation? They’re often struggling to do ‘this’ or ‘that’. Sometimes they’re creating so much internal stress around the decision it’s practically driving them crazy.

So I say to them:

“Forget about needing to make a choice. Your higher consciousness has already chosen.

Instead look first for the blockages you can expose, accept, expand into and let go of.

Then, above all, look for the gift of beingness that is wanting to come through you right now.

Look for it, feel it, embrace it, attune to it, give it wings and let it sing through you.”

If you can do that, you’ll truly change not only your world, but the wider one. There simply is no other authentic way.

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Author: Chris Bourne

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