Tag mind | CHOKI

10 June, 2015 by Choki team

You Are The Infinite Explorer

How does anything ever change on this planet? Through people empowering themselves with the conviction that one person can make an impressionable difference in something. This internal belief has the power to do everything from disempowering corrupt systems to nurturing consciously evolved social ideas.

Yet, with the awareness of this power should come the awareness that we cannot force sleepers to become awakened. A sleeper is someone who has not yet realized that every single aspect within this vast and infinite matrix of consciousness that observably can be called the Universe/Multiverse is interconnected. Let the sleepers enjoy their rest… their slumber will end soon enough, when the time is right.

This realization can be explosive, and in the negative sense if forced onto someone who is not ready to become awakened. Those minds which are unprepared for this expanded level of awareness should be left alone for the time being. They feel that all their needs, wants, and desires are satisfied by the hallucination of culture and therefore should be left alone for now. Hope however that one day, following their own pace and on their own time, they will feel the pull to take an inner path to self-realization.

With the power that you hold within yourself, do not try to convert; do not try to take off the rose-colored glasses people may have on. As Terrence McKenna said many times, find the others. Find those that have the will, courage, and determination to travel down the path towards self-realization and consciousness expansion. These are the people you should focus on, as they have taken the most difficult step…they have awakened.

Nobody has expressed this undertaking more beautifully than perhaps Pierre Teilhard de Chardin when he said that “there is an almost sensual longing for communion with others who have a larger vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendships between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality almost impossible to describe.” Remember that everything is energy and if we try to work with individuals who are radiating an energy that is diametrically opposite of ours, serenity and rapport cannot be reached.

Theoretically it may be possible to grab someone by the hand and get them on the inner path (this most often occurs through the use of entheogens). However, the end result is unpredictable and may cost of us more time, energy, and effort than it is worth. Share, support, and learn from other awakened souls who share the same passion, vision, and quest as you do. You will notice very quickly that the more you converge with such people, the faster you will feel that you yourself will rise into the highest echelons of consciousness. Feeding off each others’ energy, you will climb, you will fly, you will transcend.
By realizing that the power you need in order to become consciously evolved and eventually enlightened is within you, no more will you be fooled by others into believing that there is any single belief system or school of thought that has all the answers.

It’s like the Buddha said, “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

By empowering the infinite explorer that is your Self, you cease living a shadow of what you are and start living as a liberated soul on a quest to experiencing happiness and bliss as a perpetual state of consciousness that helps shift the collective consciousness of humanity to that very same level.

You are the catalyst for change. You are the awakened that will help transform humanity into something greater. You will be an example of what a consciously evolved human race looks like. Be mindful that everyone is growing at their own pace in their own time. There is no need to prove anything to anyone that is not ready for blunt and perception-shifting realizations. All good things come in due time. Seek out the others who have already embarked on the inner path and who no longer wish to be a part of a hallucinatory reality.

They are out there, and their numbers grow every day. Seek them out in any way you are able to. With today’s technology, this is easier than it has ever been in history, period. So go on and find the others who also realize that the power is within them. Together, we can live a future that is based on unity rather than separateness…a future where love is more expansive than hate. Say it can’t happen and it won’t. Turn this dream into a reality.

www.choki.org

Author: Paul Lenda / Wake Up World

in Choki's art 0 comments

5 June, 2015 by Choki team

Emotional Energetic Healing: The Future of Medicine is Here

“Everything is energy.” ~ Albert Einstein

Energy medicine is at once time-honored and new. Whether using traditional forms like acupuncture, t’ai chi and reiki or modern applications such as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), magnetic, vibrational or music therapy, working with the human energetic system to create wellness is an esteemed practice that produces tangible results.

According to Dr. Erin Olivio in the article Energy Medicine: “The field of energy medicine involving putative energy fields is based on the fundamental premise that all physical objects (bodies) and psychological processes (thoughts, emotions, beliefs and attitudes) are expressions of energy. Therefore, all bodies are believed to be infused with a “subtle” energy or life force. This life force is known by a variety of terms corresponding to different traditions. Intraditional Chinese medicine it is called qi (pronounced CHEE), in the Judeo-Christian tradition it is called spirit, and in Ayurvedic medicine it is represented in the doshas.”

What the ancients recognized, science is now validating. Candace Pert, PhD, is one researcher who has significantly contributed to the legitimate study of Mind-Body Medicine.

How emotions affect physiology

“Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body. Conversely, physicians treat the body with no regard to the mind or emotions. But the body and mind are not separate, and we cannot treat one without the other.” ~ Dr. Candice Pert

In Dr. Pert’s book, Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine, she explains how a class of proteins called peptides (including endorphins) act as a nervous system, delivering information throughout the body. Her theory is that the surface of each cell is covered with receptors for specific peptides. These free-floating molecules function as messengers. When we have a specific emotion, a cascade of peptides are released that ultimately influence our body.

Paul Trachtman explains how this sequence works in Smithsonian Magazine:

“… it’s through the emotion-modulating peptides that an embarrassing thought can cause blood vessels to dilate and turn a face beet red. In the same way, the molecules of emotion can mobilize immune cells to destroy an incipient tumor. Techniques like meditation or visualization may also act as forces to set those molecules in action.”

The question is: If emotions alter the functioning of the body, how do we experience healing by addressing subconscious negative emotional patterns?

This is the topic of a cutting-edge documentary on Mind-Body Medicine: E-Motion.

The energy of emotions

Leaders in the field of energetic medicine — including Sonia Choquette, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Bradley Nelson, Don Tolman, and others — explore the connection between emotions, the body and health in the documentary.

Taking into account the subconscious mind is 1000 times more powerful than the conscious mind, we are likely to ask: What actually controls it? The answer lies with unresolved emotions.

When we have traumatic perceptions buried in our subconscious mind, these emotional memories — when triggered — will cause a reaction in the body that sets-off a cascade of stress hormones, thereby altering our physiology.

How are these negative perceptions created? By our thoughts, because thoughts create emotions. And when we feel an emotion strongly enough, it will become trapped and disrupt the energy field of the body. Anger, aggression, anxiety, depression, sadness — these negative emotions will lodge themselves in the body and are the leading cause of physical pain. Eventually, if the blockage isn’t cleared, disease will develop.

Dr. Joseph Mercola provides an example:

“… those suffering from depression will often experience chest pains, even when there’s nothing physically wrong with their heart. Extreme grief can also have a devastating impact — not for nothing is the saying that someone “died from a broken heart.” In the days after losing a loved one, your risk of suffering a heart attack shoots up by 21 times!”

He also points out:

“Your body cannot tell the difference between an actual experience that triggers an emotional response, and an emotion fabricated through thought process alone — such as when worrying about something negative that might occur but has not actually happened, or conversely, thinking about something positive and pleasant.

“The fact that you can activate your body’s stress response (which produces chemicals that can make you sick) simply by thinking means that you wield tremendous power over your physical state in every moment. Moreover, it means that you can literally manifest disease, or healing, by thinking.”

Needless to say, in order to enjoy vibrant health, it’s vitally important to release emotional baggage.

Tips on how to ditch toxic emotional imprints

The team of experts in E-Motion believe there are active steps we can take to heal the body, the subconscious mind and our overall health. Here are a few:

Always remember that our mind is the key to healing.

Expect good things in life.

Slowdown when you feel a negative emotion arise and acknowledge it, then honor and release.

Practice Emotional Freedom Technique. By doing so, we short-circuit damaging energetic patterns from taking hold within the body.

Be clear about your purpose in life. To discover your calling, answer the question: “If I weren’t afraid, I would …”

Focus on the color of food to heal the chakra centers. For example, exposure to sunlight + eating pineapple and oranges will help fortify the 2nd and 3rd chakras, which helps alleviate depression.

Participate regularly in a water fast to clear problematic emotions from the body.

Learn The Emotion Code technique by Dr. Bradley Nelson to rapidly release stuck emotions.

And finally, never underestimate the healing power of gratitude and liberal self-love.

www.choki.org

Author Carolanne Wright / Wake Up World

in Choki's art 2 comments

25 March, 2015 by Choki team

Can Technology Aid Your Meditation Practice?

As the science of contemplation develops, there are many ways to leverage technology in practice. Here are some tools and ideas you may want to consider.

The intersection of technology and meditation can be a difficult crossroad to navigate. Constant connectedness is a facet of modern life that often comes at the expense of our ability to reflect and create mental space, and therefore the use of technology to aid contemplative practice may be counterintuitive and is sometimes controversial.

Soren Gordhamer, founder of Wisdom 2.0, a conference that explores the relationship between contemplative practice, technology, and business, recently told Anderson Cooper in an interview on 60 Minutes, “What people are realizing is that constant connectivity is great for part of the day, but if you do it your entire day you’re more stressed, you can’t sleep, you’re less present with your kids, and they’re hungry for … some kind of contemplative space in [the] day.”

When Vincent Horn, host of the Buddhist Geeks podcast, started meditating, he says his teachers viewed technology and the world of technology as, in some ways, antithetical to the contemplative life. “[In their view] these technologies just distract and fragment you; that’s all their good for.” It was an “act of rebellion” on Horn’s part to begin to explore the ways that Buddhism, science, and technology converge.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama is an advocate for bringing science, technology, and one’s spiritual path together, going so far as to say that Buddhism should change its claims when science can conclusively demonstrate them to be false. Neuroscientists have researched meditation for many decades, starting primarily with Transcendental Meditation in the 1960s and 70s. Since 1987, momentum in the field has increased thanks in part to the Mind and Life conferences, which facilitate collaboration between academic scientists, the Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan monks and scholars to help build bridges between meditation and biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Out of the basic scientific research into meditation’s effects has naturally emerged a wave of technological applications to help people learn to meditate or enhance their practice.

Some of these products are fairly straightforward adaptations of the time-tested structures for meditation instruction and practice. For example, using videos to teach to people online and message boards for communities to gather and discuss their practices. These are old foundations of practice, now given an extended reach. Other applications however, are more novel and technologically involved. At the institutional level, for example, Judson Brewer and his lab at the University of Massachusetts have developed fMRI and EEG tools to measure brain activity in real-time and provide feedback to help optimize contemplation. Consumer enterprises like Interaxon and HeartMath, offer affordable EEG and heart rate-sensing hardware and software with instructions for using them to improve meditation.

Outside of commercial and institutional enterprises, amateur technologists and hackers are also active in this space. Mikey Siegel, an engineer and graduate of the MIT Media Lab, and the cofounder of the Transformative Technology Lab at Sofia University, hosts “Consciousness Hacking” Meetups in the San Francisco Bay area and has recently expanded to New York City to organize, develop, and promote the community of techno-yogis.

For consumers, mobile apps are some of the most prevalent and easily accessible meditation products on the market. If you search the Apple App Store, you will find 360 “meditation” apps and 447 for “mindfulness.” Many of them are timers that use sounds and visual elements to represent the how long you have been meditating. Some remind you to weave in mindful moments throughout your day. Others help you start and maintain a committed meditation practice. Here are a few standout programs that you may find useful:

Insight Timer (Free): This app features a variety of high-quality recordings of meditation bells to help you begin and end your practice. It also features guided sessions by many well-known meditation teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, and Eckhart Tolle, and it “gamifies” your progress to encourage continued practice. You can also use the app to connect to other users all around the world.

Mind (Free): This is “just” a meditation timer but its simple design and elegant aesthetic make it a standout in the app marketplace.

Headspace (Free to download, $7.99 per month): Ideal for beginners and casual meditators, this app features meditations of different lengths for health, relationships, and performance, written and recorded by former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe. The program is free to start, but a subscription allows you to access longer courses and additional techniques.

Omvana (Free to download, $1.99+ per meditation): This app offers thousands of guided meditations for various situations produced by an array of independent experts from diverse backgrounds. Omvana also lets you record your own meditation or relaxation tracks set to background music.

While many applications may offer an entry point for new practitioners, some of the experts we spoke with had doubts about whether technology-aided meditation could ever be as powerful as classical meditation “technologies”. According to Jon Mitchell, managing editor at Burning Man and author of In Real Life: Searching for Connection in High-Tech Times, a new book on mindfulness and technology, the tools available to consumers are still too simplistic to accurately represent and feedback information more useful than that of your own rich sensory experience. He is also concerned with what he calls the “dependency drawback.” Traditional teachings are internalized through texts and personal instruction. When your meditation practice requires an Internet connection, electricity, a digital community, and an iPhone, it’s harder to practice independently. “If your analytics become your mantra, then how can you practice without them?” he asks.

We will find out in time whether technology-aided meditation can overcome these hurdles. It’s clear that there is a great deal of creative energy in the space, and pioneers in the field say that neuroscientific applications for meditation may soon make dramatic leaps in their effectiveness and widespread use.

This is the first of a two-part examination of technology-aided meditation. Check back next month to learn more about its potential risks and benefits.

www.choki.org

By Zach Schlosser

in Choki's art 1 comments

27 February, 2015 by Choki team

Mentally Strong People: 13 Things They Avoid

For all the time people spend concerned about physical strength and health, when it comes down to it, mental strength can mean even more.

Particularly for entrepreneurs, numerous articles talk about critical characteristics of mental strength—tenacity, “grit”, optimism, and an unfailing ability as Forbes contributor David Williams says, to “fail up.”

However, we can also define mental strength by identifying the things mentally strong individuals don’t do. Over the weekend, I was impressed by this list compiled by Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, that she shared in LifeHack. It impressed me enough I’d also like to share her list here along with my thoughts on how each of these items is particularly applicable to entrepreneurs.

1. Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves. You don’t see mentally strong people feeling sorry for their circumstances or dwelling on the way they’ve been mistreated. They have learned to take responsibility for their actions and outcomes, and they have an inherent understanding of the fact that frequently life is not fair. They are able to emerge from trying circumstances with self-awareness and gratitude for the lessons learned. When a situation turns out badly, they respond with phrases such as “Oh, well.” Or perhaps simply, “Next!”

2. Give Away Their Power. Mentally strong people avoid giving others the power to make them feel inferior or bad. They understand they are in control of their actions and emotions. They know their strength is in their ability to manage the way they respond.

3. Shy Away from Change. Mentally strong people embrace change and they welcome challenge. Their biggest “fear”, if they have one, is not of the unknown, but of becoming complacent and stagnant. An environment of change and even uncertainty can energize a mentally strong person and bring out their best.

4. Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control. Mentally strong people don’t complain (much) about bad traffic, lost luggage, or especially about other people, as they recognize that all of these factors are generally beyond their control. In a bad situation, they recognize that the one thing they can always control is their own response and attitude, and they use these attributes well.

5. Worry About Pleasing Others. Know any people pleasers? Or, conversely, people who go out of their way to dis-please others as a way of reinforcing an image of strength? Neither position is a good one. A mentally strong person strives to be kind and fair and to please others where appropriate, but is unafraid to speak up. They are able to withstand the possibility that someone will get upset and will navigate the situation, wherever possible, with grace.

6. Fear Taking Calculated Risks. A mentally strong person is willing to take calculated risks. This is a different thing entirely than jumping headlong into foolish risks. But with mental strength, an individual can weigh the risks and benefits thoroughly, and will fully assess the potential downsides and even the worst-case scenarios before they take action.

7. Dwell on the Past. There is strength in acknowledging the past and especially in acknowledging the things learned from past experiences—but a mentally strong person is able to avoid miring their mental energy in past disappointments or in fantasies of the “glory days” gone by. They invest the majority of their energy in creating an optimal present and future.

8. Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over. We all know the definition of insanity, right? It’s when we take the same actions again and again while hoping for a different and better outcome than we’ve gotten before. A mentally strong person accepts full responsibility for past behavior and is willing to learn from mistakes. Research shows that the ability to be self-reflective in an accurate and productive way is one of the greatest strengths of spectacularly successful executives and entrepreneurs.

9. Resent Other People’s Success. It takes strength of character to feel genuine joy and excitement for other people’s success. Mentally strong people have this ability. They don’t become jealous or resentful when others succeed (although they may take close notes on what the individual did well). They are willing to work hard for their own chances at success, without relying on shortcuts.

10. Give Up After Failure. Every failure is a chance to improve. Even the greatest entrepreneurs are willing to admit that their early efforts invariably brought many failures. Mentally strong people are willing to fail again and again, if necessary, as long as the learning experience from every “failure” can bring them closer to their ultimate goals.

11.Fear Alone Time. Mentally strong people enjoy and even treasure the time they spend alone. They use their downtime to reflect, to plan, and to be productive. Most importantly, they don’t depend on others to shore up their happiness and moods. They can be happy with others, and they can also be happy alone.

12. Feel the World Owes Them Anything. Particularly in the current economy, executives and employees at every level are gaining the realization that the world does not owe them a salary, a benefits package and a comfortable life, regardless of their preparation and schooling. Mentally strong people enter the world prepared to work and succeed on their merits, at every stage of the game.

13. Expect Immediate Results. Whether it’s a workout plan, a nutritional regimen, or starting a business, mentally strong people are “in it for the long haul”. They know better than to expect immediate results. They apply their energy and time in measured doses and they celebrate each milestone and increment of success on the way. They have “staying power.” And they understand that genuine changes take time. Do you have mental strength? Are there elements on this list you need more of? With thanks to Amy Morin, I would like to reinforce my own abilities further in each of these areas today. How about you?

www.choki.org

Source: www.forbes.com

in Choki's art 0 comments

19 February, 2015 by Choki team

Instinctive Choices – An Exploration of Intelligence, Consciousness and Mind

What Is and What Is Not.

What is Intelligence, the mysterious expression of all that exists. What is the Prime Directive, the Action arm of Intelligence that is the overseer responsible for the harmonious functioning of Nature. What is pristine consciousness, the medium through which life expresses itself.

Stealing Lives.

How societies are contributing to humanity’s downfall.

A natural law says a like thing cannot see itself. Mind is not capable of understanding that all its beliefs, including that of being a permanent, independent, autonomous entity that is capable of generating its own thoughts, are delusional. Mind can doubt many things, it cannot doubt the reality of its own existence. That realization comes only through the lens of the pristine consciousness. Seeing through the obscure visions of mind we cannot realize that mind is a myth.

The pristine consciousness is constantly being bombarded with false teachings and so stifling its inherent nature of Acting in relationship. Pristine consciousness doesn’t need to be told how to be, it simply needs its own space to Act.

What we believe as normal living practices is what is preventing life from expressing itself. We are ancient actors wearing the masks of past generations. That mask is mind. In all peoples, mind is expressing itself in exactly the same way. We recognize the emotions of anger, hate, jealousy, envy, fear, resentment, highs and lows of all kinds, etc. because we identify with those same emotions. This has been going on since time-immemorial. In that sense there is “nothing new under the sun”.

The survival of animals depends on the instinctive choices made in their environment.

It is a natural law that animals grow from their environment. The choices that they make through natural instinct provide for a stronger future species. So why is that human beings suffer from some of the choices that they make in their environment?

Choices are always of the mind and when acting from those choices we are behaving as the animals. The instinctive animal response is to secure and protect its environment. The response to the human environment provides only for the pristine discernments to life’s expressions. We are presently protecting the turf of mind’s choices as the animal is protecting its physical turf.

When substituting mind for pristine consciousness, both suffer. The brain suffers from physical deterioration due to its emotional outbursts and the pristine consciousness suffers bouts of depression, anxiety and other negative emotions. Suffering is not nature’s consequence but rather an error in the mechanical functioning process.

Because nature is not fragmented like mind, (where the whole is comprised of its many indoctrinated parts) Nature’s wholeness is perfect and as such can only produce that which is of its own kind. The disorder we witness in humans is not in the sum of our physical parts but rather in the mis-guided functioning of its newest part, the memory-senses complex. Mind was given as an indispensable enhancement to serve the choiceless discernments of the pristine consciousness.

Because mind cannot generate its own thoughts, it cannot have its own opinion about anything. It is chameleon like, in the sense that that it can only reflect its present environment. It is simply a uniquely marvelous recording and storing instrument. So, why does it seem at times that we are acting in an errant and erratic way?

It is not mind that is the origin of these states but rather the pristine consciousness. Our identification with mind is manipulating those defects. Mind is not directly responsible for any of the world’s ills because it is not in charge of the necessary amounts of energy needed to do any harm.

An ancient proverb says: “To train up a child in the ways he shall go and when he is old he will not depart from it”.

We are still wearing these ancient masks. It may at times be expedient to train animals but never human beings. For a very long time we have gotten it wrong. It is not the parents’ duty to train their children in the ways they should experience their lives, but rather to protect them from all who are trying to indoctrinate them so that they fit in with the ways of society. The state of not knowing is their natural state.

With the exception of human beings, Nature is expressing itself as Intelligence intended. It is we, as mind, that is out of order. An imaginary non-entity, non-self is making efforts to fulfill its hopes, dreams and desires by allowing us to believe that its actions are being self-generated and not seeing that they are being generated by the stealth deceiver, mind.

What we factually are is self-evident. An awareness that has no content. An awareness that does not condemn, identify nor justify. The pristine consciousness as choice less awareness was never born, it simply is and always will be. It is part of the mystery of how life, through the pristine consciousness, expresses itself. All species partake in this awareness. It is only human beings who have the ability to be aware of their awareness while being aware. This does not mean that we are better than other species, only different.

This awareness is not wanting to unite with any ideology, it simply desires its own space to respond to life’s challenges. For this to be realized there is only one way it can happen. There are no paths and no battles to be won. By simply witnessing how mind is desiring to be first in the challenge-response process and not allowing space for the pristine consciousness to fully experience the completed challenge. By mind’s constant interruption into the challenge-response process, our replies, for the most part, are made out of confusion. Mind sees and hears only what it is familiar with and never experiences the newness of life’s challenges.

By ceaselessly being fully alert (aware) in all of life’s challenges, mind comes to a complete halt and the pristine consciousness once again is in charge of its total energy. All challenge responses are again made whole and so, complete. For the first time we see our part in identifying with mind by falsely believing that it and pristine consciousness are the same. With that apperception, mind falls into its natural rhythm of being a true and faithful servant and the pristine consciousness once again returns to being the medium through which life expresses itself.

That returning

Is my wish for you.

www.choki.org

Author: Harry Krueger

in Choki's art 0 comments

2 January, 2015 by Choki team

Apple Cider Vinegar – One Of The Most Powerful Health Tonics In Your Kitchen

The question is not what Apple Cider Vinegar can do, but what can’t it do. As a folk remedy, it has been credited with curing everything from the flu to warts or sunburn to dandruff. However, it also can help reverse many serious diseases that many would immediately turn to pharmaceutical medications to solve.

The benefits of apple cider vinegar come from it’s healing compounds which include acetic acid, potassium, magnesium, probiotics and enzymes. Science has verified this through empirical evidence observed through the ages.

Apple cider vinegar can kill head lice, ease digestion, prevent flu, prevent acne, reduce inflammation, kill fungus, regulate pH balance, dissolve kidney stones and helps relieve allergies, migraines, asthma, nausea, heart burn and wash toxins from the body.

1) Diabetes.

The effect of apple cider vinegar on blood sugar levels is perhaps the best researched and the most promising of its health benefits. Several studies have found that vinegar may help lower glucose levels. For instance, a study (White, A. Diabetes Care, November 2007) of 11 people with type 2 diabetes found that taking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed lowered glucose levels in the morning by 4%-6%. In another study from Arizona State University, subjects took a drink of 20 grams of apple cider vinegar and 40 grams of water. Those with insulin resistance who drank the vinegar had 34% lower postprandial (after-meal) glucose compared to controls.

Vinegar may be the most cost-effective diabetes medicine in history, but most people with diabetes still aren’t aware of its benefits.

2) Allergies

This miracle vinegar helps to break up mucous throughout the body and cleanse the lymph nodes. Believe it or not, research suggests that apple cider vinegar can help with allergies because of its ability to reduce mucous and sinus congestion. When reducing the effects of allergies, it can also help stave off sinus infections and their related symptoms, such as sore throats and headaches.

3) High Cholesterol.

A 2006 study reported in Medscape General Medicine, showed evidence that ACV could lower cholesterol. In a study published in a foreign medical journal, scientists found an apple cider vinegar-enhanced diet may increase HDL (“good” cholesterol) and reduce levels of triglycerides, while research in rats also suggests that apple-cider vinegar can help control triglycerides and cholesterol (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, June 22, 2011).

4) Blood Pressure and Heart Health.

A large observational study found that people who ate oil and vinegar dressing on salads five to six times a week had lower rates of heart disease than people who didn’t. Researchers have suggested that ‘this reduction in blood pressure may be caused by the significant reduction in renin activity and the subsequent decrease in angiotensin II’. Potassium in the vinegar ‘balances sodium levels in the body, which aids in maintaining blood pressure within healthy limits’ and ‘apple cider vinegar also contains magnesium, a mineral that works to relax blood vessel walls and thus lower high blood pressure’. Another study in rats also found that vinegar could lower high blood pressure.

5) Restores Acid/Alkaline Balance

Apple cider vinegar helps the body maintain a healthy alkaline pH level, and some ‘alternative’ practitioners recommend using apple cider vinegar to help balance the body’s alkaline/acid levels. The theory behind the alkaline diet is that our blood is slightly alkaline (with a normal pH level of between 7.35 and 7.45) and that our diet should reflect this pH level as the body constantly strives to achieve this state of equilibrium.

Research shows that higher acid levels (lower pH level) leads to a lack of energy and higher incidences of infection. Proponents of the alkaline-acid theory believe that a diet high in acid-producing foods leads to lack of energy, excessive mucous production, infections, anxiety, irritability, headache, sore throat, nasal and sinus congestion, allergic reactions, and increased risk of conditions such as arthritis and gout.

6) Face and Hair Health

It is widely known that apple cider vinegar can be used as a rinse for your hair after shampooing to add healthy body and shine. Recycle an old shampoo bottle and fill it with 1/2 a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a cup of cold water. Pour through your hair after shampooing several times a week.

You can also dilute apple cider vinegar with two parts water, and spread the concoction over your face with a cotton ball as a toner at night after washing, or in the morning before you apply your moisturizer. You can also dab apple cider vinegar directly onto age spots and leave them on overnight to lighten their color.

7) Weight Loss.

For thousands of years, vinegar has been used for weight loss. Why? White vinegar (and perhaps other types) might help people feel full. A study (Ostman, E. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,2005) of 12 people found that those who ate a piece of bread along with small amounts of vinegar felt fuller and more satisfied than those who just ate the bread.

A 2009 study on mice showed that consuming acetic acid (the active component in ACV), upregulates the expression of genes for fatty acid oxidation enzymes in the liver causing a suppression in body fat accumulation. In a double-blind experiment, obese Japanese were assigned to three different groups based on similar body weights, body mass indexes (BMI), and waist circumference. Each group drank a 500 ml drink containing either 30ml, 15ml, or 0ml of vinegar daily for 12 weeks. Those in the 30ml and 15ml groups had lower BMI, visceral fat area, waist circumference, serum triglyceride, and body weight to the control group of 0ml. The 12-week weight losses were modest: 1.2kg in the 15ml group and 1.7kg in the 30ml group. These two groups consumed a similar number of calories to the control group and also performed a similar amount of exercise, so the effect is not likely to have been due to an impact on appetite or other lifestyle changes. It was concluded that consumption of vinegar might reduce obesity.

Final Note.

Unpasteurized or organic Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) contains mother of vinegar, which has a cobweb-like appearance and can make the vinegar look slightly congealed. It’s the best way apple cider vinegar should be consumed.

www.choki.org

Author: John Summerly / Wake up World

in Choki's art 1 comments

30 December, 2014 by Choki team

6 Stories That Will Make You Believe In the Power of Your Mind To Heal You

My book Mind Over Medicine is full of data scientifically proving that the mind can heal- or harm- the body. But data can be dry, and sometimes what resonates most deeply within our souls are stories. So sit back, grab a cup of tea, and let’s have story time. I’m going to tell you a few true stories that will demonstrate to you how powerfully the mind affects your physiology.

Mr. Wright

As reported by Bruno Klopfer in the Journal of Projective Techniques in 1957, Dr. West was treating Mr. Wright, who had an advanced cancer called lymphosarcoma. All treatments had failed, and time was running out. Mr. Wright’s neck, chest, abdomen, armpits, and groin were filled with tumors the size of oranges, his spleen and liver were enlarged, and his cancer was causing his chest to fill up with two quarts of milky fluid every day, which had to be drained in order for him to breathe. Dr. West didn’t expect him to last a week.

But Mr. Wright desperately wanted to live, and he hung his hope on a promising new drug called Krebiozen. He begged his doctor to treat him with the new drug, but the drug was only being offered in clinical trials to people who were believed to have at least three months left to live. Mr. Wright was too sick to qualify.

But Mr. Wright didn’t give up. Knowing the drug existed and believing the drug would be his miracle cure, he pestered his doc until Dr. West reluctantly gave in and injected him with Krebiozen on a Friday.

To his utter shock, the following Monday, Dr. West found his patient walking around out of bed. Mr. Wright’s “tumor masses had melted like snowballs on a hot stove” and were half their original size. Ten days after the first dose of Krebiozen, Mr. Wright left the hospital, apparently cancer free.

Mr. Wright was rockin’ and rollin,’ praising Krebiozen as a miracle drug for two months until the scientific literature began reporting that Krebiozen didn’t seem to be effective. Mr. Wright, who trusted what he read in the literature, fell into a deep depression, and his cancer came back.

This time, Dr. West, who genuinely wanted to help save his patient, decided to get sneaky. He told Mr. Wright—that some of the initial supplies of the drug had deteriorated during shipping, making them less effective, but that he scored a new batch of highly concentrated, ultra-pure Krebiozen, which he could give him. (Of course, this was a bold-faced lie.)

Dr. West then injected Mr. Wright with nothing but distilled water. And a seemingly miraculous thing happened—again. The tumors melted away, the fluid in his chest disappeared, and Mr. Wright was feeling great again for another two months.

Then the American Medical Association blew it by announcing that a nationwide study of Krebiozen proved that the drug was utterly worthless. This time, Mr. Wright lost all faith in his treatment. His cancer came right back, and he died two days later.

The Hexed Girls

As described by George Engel in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Baltimore Case Study Number 469861 was an African American woman born twenty-two years earlier on Friday the 13th in the Okefenokee Swamp near the Georgia-Florida border. She was the third of three girls delivered that day by a midwife who proclaimed that all three girls, born on such a fateful day, were hexed. The first, she announced, would die before her 16th birthday. The second would not survive her 21st. And the patient in question was told she would die before her 23rd birthday.

The first two girls died within one day of their 16th and 21st birthdays, respectively. The third woman, terrified that she would die on her 23rd birthday, showed up at the hospital the day before her birthday, hyperventilating. Soon afterwards, before she turned 23, she died, proving the midwife’s predictions correct.

The Blind Women of Khmer Rouge

As described in Anne Harrington’s The Cure Within, two hundred cases of blindness were reported in a group of Cambodian women forced by the Khmer Rouge to witness the torture and slaughter of those close to them, particularly the men in their lives. Examination of these women found nothing physically wrong with their eyes. The conclusion those trying to help them came to was that by being forced to view the unbearable, “they had all cried until they could not see.”

Multiple Personalities With Different Health Issues

Anthony Robbin’s Unlimited Power describes a case of a psychiatric patient with a split personality. One of her personalities was diabetic, while another was not. Her blood sugars would be normal when she was in her non-diabetic personality, but then when she shifted into her diabetic alter ego, her blood sugars rose, and all medical evidence demonstrated that she was diabetic. When her personality flipped back to the non-diabetic counterpart, her blood sugars normalized.

Psychiatrist Bennett Braun, author of The Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder, describes the case of Timmy, who also had multiple personalities. One personality was allergic to orange juice, and when this personality drank orange juice, Timmy would break into blistering hives. However, another personality drinks orange juice uneventfully. If the allergic personality was in the midst of an allergy attack and he shifted back to the non-allergic personality, the hives would disappear instantly.

Stamatis Moraitis

Stamatis Moraitis was a Greek war veteran who was living in the United States when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and told he had only 9 months to live. He was offered aggressive treatment, but after 9 doctors apparently assured him that it wouldn’t save his life, he decided to save his money, decline treatment, and move with his wife back to his native Ikaria, a Greek island where he could be buried with his ancestors in a graveyard overlooking the Aegean Sea.

He and his wife moved into a small house on a vineyard with his elderly parents, where he reconnected with his faith and started going to his old church. When his friends got wind of the fact that Stamatis was back home, they showed up with bottles of wine, books, and board games to entertain him and keep him company. He planted vegetables in a garden, basked in sunshine, savored the salty air, and relished in his love for his wife.

Six months passed, and not only did he not die, he was actually feeling better than ever. He started working in the untended vineyard during the day, making himself useful, and in the evenings, he’d play dominos with friends. He took a lot of naps, rarely looked at a watch, and spent a lot of time outdoors. At one point, 25 years after his diagnosis, Stamatis went back to the United States to ask his doctors what had happened. Apparently, the doctors were all dead. Stamatis finally died this year in Ikaria. He was 102 years old.

Anita Moorjani

In her book Dying To Be Me, Anita Moorjani tells the story of how she was dying of end stage Stage 4 lymphoma when she experienced the classic “white light” near death experience many have described. As she traveled to the other side, she was able to look down upon her loved ones, even though some of them were not in the same room with her. Her heart was filled with a feeling of profound unconditional love, and she was happy to be free of her dying, tumor-riddled body.

Then she was told that she had a choice. She could stay in the white light and die, or she could go back and share her story with others. She didn’t want to come back. Her body had been in so much pain, and her soul had been suffering. But she was told that if she came back, her cancer would be cured. She believed what she was told, and felt called to come back so she could share her experience.

Anita’s cancer was gone within several weeks. This all happened under the care of her bewildered doctors, who documented her spontaneous remission. Anita is now on the Hay House speaking circuit with me, spreading the message that death is nothing to fear.

Have Your Heard Stories?

When we doubt the mind’s power to help – or harm – the body, it helps to share stories. Have you had a personal experience with the mind’s power to affect the body? Share your story!

www.choki.org

Author: Lissa Rankin / Wake up World

in Choki's art 1 comments

23 December, 2014 by Choki team

One New Year’s Resolution That Can Transform Your Life – Forever!

We create New Year’s Resolutions as a way to start over and maybe even create a whole new us, but often, those promising resolutions fail before they ever really begin. Perhaps, we are just making the wrong resolutions.

What if there was one New Year’s Resolution that had the inherent ability to completely transform our lives? Instead of changing or improving something, what if we went to the core of all issues and weresolved it once and for all? What if you could reclaim your full connection to Who You Really Are?

Most of us operate in a perpetual state of disconnection to who we really are: aka higher self, source self, true self or whatever you may call it. Many of the challenges and issues in our lives could beresolved by simply getting connected and staying connected. Of course, we wouldn’t be alive if we weren’t connected at some level, but there is a big difference between minimal connection and full connection. When we are fully connected, we are aligned with something greater than us, and we are in sync with the natural rhythm of the universe.

When you are connected to the source of who you really are, you know it, because life flows with ease and grace. You can create what you desire, and you are joyful, peaceful and abundant. Everything in your life is a direct result of being connected or not connected. When you set your intention on getting connected first and foremost, you will also align with the realization of other resolutions that you may desire.

The less connected you are, the harder it is for the universe to answer your hopes, dreams and prayers – not because you are less deserving. You are always deserving, but rather because you are not plugged in and the energy cannot flow – therefore what you desire cannot manifest in your life. Manifestation is the flow from thought to thing. The more connected you are, the easier thoughts can flow into things. In other words, the easier and quicker the universe can deliver your dream.

You have innate control of this connection – you are the captain of your ship and you can consciously make choices, on a moment to moment basis, that either connect or disconnect you.

If your resolution is to connect to who you really are, this is not a one-time thing. You must intentionally make this connection every day, until you reach an energetic and emotional threshold where that connection clicks for good. It does take effort, but once you fully connect, it is easy to stay connected and, in fact, life becomes effortless. This is what we have all been seeking.

The key to this resolution is to make your connection to your Real Self the most important aspect of every day, and to make your relationship with your Real Self the most important relationship that you have – because it is.

It is extremely beneficial to have a practice, such as breath-work, meditation or yoga, that helps connect you to your source-self, but this article is not about that; I will leave your personal practice up to you. This article is a step by step guide that will show you how to wake up, get connected and stay connected in real, every day, life.

If you haven’t been living a connected life, at first it may feel uncomfortable or challenging to get connected, but that is only because you are not accustomed to it, but keep going. After a while, disconnection from who you really are will be so obvious and uncomfortable that you will stop everything in order to get connected.

When you do feel dis-connected, pause what you are doing, and partake in whatever is necessary in order to get reconnected. A common excuse is, “I don’t have time,” but that is like saying I don’t have time to find my car keys so I will walk thirty miles to work. Your connection to who you really are is the key to your full awakening, and creating the life that you dream, desire and deserve. Nothing is more important.

Symptoms of disconnection include: fear, stress, overwhelm, worry, feeling unloved, unworthy, alone, and basically any emotion that feels uncomfortable. Signs that you are connected include: feeling exhilarated, creative, joyful, engaged, enthusiastic, peaceful, loving, and feeling really good for no external reason at all.

Your New Year’s Resolution Program

Connecting to who you really are does not happen overnight. Despite what we may hope and believe, spontaneous awakening is not the norm. Waking up and getting connected requires consistent intention and attention over a period of time. To support you best, I have created a 12 part guide, with each section providing an essential key that will help you get connected and stay connected.

On the path to connecting with your Real Self there is no failure – so just do your best, and remember each day is a new day, and you have unlimited “do overs.” Above all, be kind to yourself, as you use this guide to support your journey to awakening to Who You Really Are!

1. Master Your Mind

Your greatest resource is not time, money or investments. Your greatest resource is your energy. Not just the energy necessary to get through the day, but rather the vibrational energy that makes you who you are. The universe in which we live is one of vibration, and vibration is also what creates each of us.

Your vibrational energy always measures somewhere on a scale between high and low. On the low end of the scale, one is down or depressed. On the high end of the scale, one is radiant – life shines brilliantly through the one whose vibration is high. There is a direct correlation between your vibration and how connected you are. When you are disconnected, your vibration is low, while the more connected you are, the higher your vibration. Intentionally raising your vibration is a powerful way in which to get connected, so this is where we will start on your journey to being who you really are.

Thought is key.

If we were to reverse engineer human vibration, we would observe that our vibration is effected by our emotions, and our emotions are precipitated by our thoughts. Therefore, we can say that thoughts influence vibration. This is great news, because our thoughts are really the only thing that we have any control over. Since you cannot think negative thoughts and have a positive vibration, the first call to action is mastering your mind.

Your thoughts and imagination are priceless technology and you are meant to be the controller, but if you don’t take intentional command of this internal technology it is easy for outside sources to take over. Reclaiming your mental powers might be new to you, so don’t get discouraged if it feels like your mind has a mind of its own or your thinking is like a runaway train.

It does take time and practice to master your mind, but there is nothing in the world of greater value in order to raise your vibe and get connected. You cannot expect anything in your life to change or improve until you claim the most important power that you have – your power to think and your discernment in what thoughts to believe and give energy to through your attention.

Resolving to change negative thinking can be overwhelming, but you don’t need to change all your thinking at once in order to experience a shift. Simply, begin by eliminating “that one negative thought” – you know the thought. It is the repetitive negative thought that you think every day. The one that brings you down and makes you feel bad. Be careful not to replace this one thought with an equally debilitating thought. Once you have mastered this one thought, move on to negative thought number two, and so on….

Maybe there is a series of negative thoughts that you can group together and choose to eliminate, for example, judgmental thoughts. Because judgment excludes, rejects and pushes away, it is a quick method for disconnection. Sometimes we use judgment to motivate ourselves or others, but it is ineffective because it actually de-motivates – you cannot be motivated when you are not connected.

The way to release judgment and most negative thinking is simply allowing yourself to be who you are, exactly as you are now, and allowing others to be who they are. You don’t have to accept anything about anyone, simply allow, and see what happens. As you simply watch your thoughts, you become the Watcher of Thought – a non-judgmental observer who is closely aligned with your higher self. In this way, you can begin to unmask the ego.

Remember, thoughts are not things until you believe them. It is up to you to believe thoughts that support you and release thoughts that keep you asleep.

Don’t under estimate the Power of Positive Intention. For example, practicing gratitude automatically shifts your thoughts in such a way that your vibration naturally rises, and you become connected. Just as judgment quickly disconnects you from your Self, gratitude is a powerful path to connection.

It is very helpful to notice what thoughts make you feel connected and what thoughts immediately disconnect you. If you can track your thoughts and understand the direct relationship between thoughts and connection, you have gained an immense power that will allow you to become master of your mind – which is exactly the way the Real You intended it to be.

2. Free Yourself

Your connection to who you really are is intrinsic and guaranteed. There is really nothing to do in order to connect. In fact, the real secret to connection is undoing all the things, thoughts, stories and beliefs that have disconnected you because they are out of alignment with who you really are. In order to reclaim your connection you must free yourself and everything that has interfered with that connection.

Freeing yourself means Letting Go.

Letting go is an unraveling process, and you can begin anywhere in your life. You can practice letting go of things that no longer serve you. You can let go of relationships that no longer support you. Or, you can let go of everything – every day. Letting go does not mean that you must go off and live in the woods; in fact, you don’t necessarily have to give away anything when you let go. In letting go, you are letting go of attachment – to anything that has imprisoned you, in any way.

If you are honest with yourself, you already know what needs to be released.

For years, I went through a process of mentally letting go of everything in my life, including my cherished children and even my life’s purpose, but in letting go, all my relationships improved and my life took on a greater clarity. In letting go, I freed myself energetically and emotionally, and as a result, I got plugged in to a higher way of living and relating to others – and even myself.

We are not meant to grasp onto life. Life is meant to be lived through us, and the only way that can happen is if we let go. Letting go is not giving up. Just the opposite. When you let go, that which you truly desire can come to you in the best possible way. So, don’t be afraid to let go. In letting go, you automatically connect to your true self and then everything good can flow to you in ways that you never could have imagined. Letting go is magic. Yes, it takes practice but you can do it.

When you completely let go, you are instantly connected. Try this for even five minutes a day. Let go of everything and see what happens.

3. Be True to Your Self

If you are trying to be someone other than who you are, you immediately disconnect from who you really are. The more your false self operates in your life, the more disconnected you become, and the lower your vibration.

You are a special and unique being in this world and you are meant to express your style and creativity. The more you allow yourself authentic expression, the more connected you are and the higher your vibration. This is the year to be yourself and create what you truly want to create.

Now is the time to use your voice. You cannot be your greatest or truest self without speaking your truth. When we stay closed and hide our truth, we cut ourselves off from evolving and becoming who we really are, while resolving to speak your truth gives you the ability to shine and teach others how to shine as well.

In order to connect to yourself, it is essential that you become Self-full. Most of us have been brainwashed to believe that putting yourself first makes you selfish, but this is furthest from the truth. When you put everyone before you, you become depleted and have little to give. When you resolve to put yourself first, you become someone who takes care of themselves to such a high regard that you have an abundance of love, clarity and energy for everyone else.

Don’t forget to have fun! A huge part of being yourself is having fun and doing things that make you feel good. In feeling good, you get connected because who you really are is joyful; so every time you reach for joy, you reach for your true self. What is that one thing that makes you feel connected more than anything else? For me, it is skiing deep, fresh powder through the trees. Sounds crazy, maybe, but this is where I “lose myself” and I get plugged into my Self. What is it for you? Walking in nature, music, dancing, tennis, sky diving, gardening – whatever it is, do your best to make it a regular practice because it is an essential shortcut to your connection.

There will come a time – once you become completely connected, you will become blissfully Self-Less. In becoming Self-less, all your needs and desires are fulfilled and you can put everyone first without compromising or sacrificing yourself in anyway. The path to getting there is through being Self Full, for as long as it takes. Now, you have some leverage to truly take care of yourself.

4. Open Your Heart to Receive

When we close our hearts, we disconnect from who we really are, and the more we open our hearts the more connected we become – the more love flows to and from us, and the higher our vibration.

Our first defense in protecting ourselves from real or imagined threats is often closing our hearts, but staying closed to the world is exhausting and counter-productive because it cuts off the energetic flow of who we really are. Yes, you do become vulnerable when you open your heart, but you also become strong and powerful – and most importantly, you stay connected.

It is not possible to authentically give or receive when our hearts are closed. Only through an open heart can we give unconditionally and without attachment, or needing something emotional in return. Often it is easier to give than receive because we must be even more open and vulnerable in order to fully receive. We are talking about receiving from others, as well as, receiving from the universe. Of course, the universe gives to us through the channel of those in our lives, so, if you cannot openly receive from others, you are also not receiving the good that you seek from the universe.

When your heart is closed, your flow is blocked, and you may experience overwhelm, exhaustion, resentment, and even prosperity issues in all areas of your life. By learning to receive, you allow yourself to get back into the flow of the universe which is always in a perfect cycle of giving and receiving.

This is the time to practice opening your heart to receiving. Notice all the places in your life that the abundant and loving universe is giving to you – and really accept these gifts. The more you can receive the more Life has to give.

Don’t worry so much about the giving part initially. Giving happens organically from an emotional state of self-fullness. When we are full, we overflow with the desire and means to give abundantly to the world. The problem has been that we have been taught to give before we have anything to give. If you are in need, and you give, you create more need for yourself – because you become depleted.

The key to giving is first receiving by plugging into the infinite flow of the universe.

Close your eyes, breathe, and imagine the energy of light flowing from the Infinite through the crown of your head and filling your whole body, and every cell in your body – with pure love.

5. Own Your Worth

Who you really are is unconditionally worthy, so as soon as you question, or try to prove your worth, you disconnect from your Self.

The world cannot, and will not, give you worth, because worth cannot be given. In fact, the search to prove your worth disconnects you from your intrinsic worth. I won’t get into all the reasons why most of us go through life feeling unworthy. It is enough to say that life programs us in this way, and that programming causes us to stay asleep and disconnected, but that program can be turned off, with your intention to do so.

You cannot be connected and question your worth at the same time.

Owning your worth is much simpler than it sounds, because there is really nothing to do. In fact, it just requires that you stop chasing the elusive carrot on the stick, by taking a permanent break from seeking worthiness. Claiming your worth is an undoing process, and it doesn’t happen overnight, but you can “un-do it” and the reward is great.

First, notice all the ways in life that you might be trying to prove your worth. Just notice them – without judging yourself. Self-judgment is another way we disconnect ourselves, so skip the self-judgment and just observe.

The next step is beginning to dis-entangle your identity and your life from issues of worth. You dis-entangle by taking your energy and attention away from it – and releasing all the stories you tell yourself about your worth. Giving energy to worthiness feeds and perpetuates the issue.

Remove your energy from worthiness and unworthiness loses power and dissolves.

The bottom-line is unworthiness is an illusion, therefore, trying to prove worth is living a lie. We have been trying to heal feelings of unworthiness by “being more and doing more,” but you don’t overcome the lie by trying to fix the lie. You overcome the lie (illusion) by withdrawing your energy.

You resolve the issue of unworthiness by turning your back on it – over and over again, for as many times as it takes, until it is gone forever.

We are talking about emotionally detoxing from unworthiness, and ending the cycle of “not enough.” We are talking about releasing yourself from an imaginary prison that has probably effected your whole life. The thing is, no one is keeping you in this prison, and only you have the keys to open the door and the needed courage to step out.

Knowing and owning your unconditional worth as a powerful and special being in the universe plugs you in, and aligns you with a high vibration. When you are no longer pursuing paths or people in order to feel good about your-self, you become empowered and connected. You also become free to live your life as the Real You intended to live.

Imagine how your life will change from a state of Knowing Your Intrinsic Worth.

6. Claim Your Power

There is a direct correlation between owning your power and your connection to who you really are. The more you own your power, the more connected you are. When you give your power away through self-sacrifice, not speaking your truth, putting yourself last, doing one thing in order to get another, not following your inner guidance, hiding behind others or repressing or diminishing yourself in any way, you immediately disconnect.

A huge clue to understanding where you give your power away is to notice where you give your energy away and where you become emotionally drained. The places in your life where you feel as if you are losing energy, are likely the same places where you are giving away your power. Is it in a relationship, work situation, organization, etc…? Maybe you own your power in some situations or relationships but not in others. You give your power away anytime you believe that someone has something that you need, and you alter your behavior in such a way that you compromise your integrity. If you could “get out of your own way,” your intrinsic power would flow to you – and through you.

You get out of your own way by “not doing” all the things you do that stop the flow of this infinite power. This power naturally flows until we do something that impedes the flow. Your thoughts, beliefs and actions are so powerful that they have the ability to cut you off from this immense Power Source. That should show you how powerful you really are; you have the power to stop the flow of the universe in your body and in your life!

If you listen, your inner voice will tell you exactly where you are not standing in your power and being true to yourself. This time is dedicated to listening to that all-knowing voice and taking inspired action in your life that allows you to reclaim your power, thereby connecting to who you really are.

Above all, do not give your power away in exchange for anything, including love, approval and rewards, or to avoid conflict. When you give your power away, you disconnect and nothing and no one is worth the loss of connection to who you really are.

7. Power of Choice

You cannot be awake and stay connected without exercising your power of choice. Your power to choose is your power to consciously create your life. When we don’t consciously choose, life chooses for us and we allow the world to keep us asleep.

Being awake and connected to who you really are means that you must make conscious choices in your life. This can be as simple as choosing what thoughts to believe. When you remember that no one can control what thoughts you think, and what thoughts you believe, your power to choose exponentially expands.

When you make conscious choices, through your thoughts, intentions and inspired actions, your life responds accordingly and you become aligned with not only who you really are, but also with your highest and best possible destiny.

The Power of Choice has two “secret weapons” – the power to say yes and the power to say no.

The Power of No!
Giving yourself permission to say no allows you to set boundaries in your life – to do what you want to do and not do what you do not want to do. The choice to say no allows you stay in alignment, and in integrity, with who you really are. When you fail to say no, when you really want to, you immediately disconnect from your Self, and your vibration lowers. This is why if feels so bad when we don’t follow that inner guidance.

The Power of Yes!
Virtually everything you desire that you don’t already have exists outside your comfort zone. Saying “Yes” allows you to bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be. As you follow your inner guidance by saying yes, you might experience some discomfort at first, but as you follow the lead of your higher self, you will become more connected to yourself and to life.

Every choice should be prefaced with the question, “Will this disconnect me or connect me?”

If your number one intention is to be connected, your choices become crystal clear.

8. Give Yourself Time

Imagine a life where you have more than enough time. Here is a real-life magic trick; when you slow down and get off the adrenaline roller coaster, you will discover that everything still gets done and maybe even gets done better. We think that time is the same for everyone, all the time, but this is an illusion. Time morphs according to our thoughts and feelings at any given moment.

When you slow down, life slows down.

Because life responds to your lead, you must give to life what you want in return. A rushed life is a mirror for rushed energy. If you want more time, you must align with a feeling of having “all the time in the world.” This might also mean that you stop measuring your life by ticking years, and you consciously choose to become Ageless.

The key to creating more time is being present in the moment.

When you are present, you are connected. It is impossible to have one without the other. A quick fix to getting connected at any moment is to become present. Stop what you are doing. Take a deep breath. See, hear, smell, taste, feel – drop into now. Being present is an extreme sensory experience. When you are present, sight improves, hearing heightens, taste is delicious and your sense of touch and being touched is sensational. Presence precipitates bliss, peace and even ecstasy.

9. Inner Guidance System

How you feel at any given moment is your inner guidance system communicating with you. Everyone has an inner guidance system (intuition, gut feeling, sense of knowing), but many of us have been “trained” not to listen, but that training has taken us away from one of the most important gifts that we have. Your Inner guidance system is like your telephone to who you really are. If you want to be connected, then you must use this “phone system” on a daily basis.

Your inner guidance system speaks to you through emotional energy.

Because who you really are is joyful, moving in the emotional direction of joy moves you closer to connecting to your Real Self. If you are in emotional pain, in any way, it is an indication that you are thinking thoughts that are not aligned with thoughts that your Real Self would think, and the pain you feel is a result of disconnection. It is also that pain that will eventually cause you to let go of the lower vibration thoughts that create separation – and eventually you will move toward feeling better. This is your Real Self navigating you by means of your inner guidance system.

Often we come to crossroads in life and we don’t know which way to turn, but your inner guidance system does and it will guide you through the form of tangible energy; if you follow this energy you will always be guided. In other words, when we are meant to take inspired action or move in a certain direction, we have the physical energy to do so, because the flow of the universe connects with us and through us to give us tangible energy. You can even imagine different choices and feel if you have the energy or not, before ever taking action. If you lack energy to move in a certain direction, listen to this insight.

Forcing yourself to do something when it doesn’t feel right immediately disconnects you, while listening to that wise inner voice, strengthens your connection to who you really are.

Your inner guidance system will tell you when you are connected and when you are not. Just pay attention to your feelings, and if you are not connected, ask yourself how to get connected, or what you need to “stop doing” in order to get connected. The more you listen, the stronger your intuitive voice will become.

In order to hear your voice, quiet down and be still. You cannot hear your voice in the midst of outward chaos or inward chatter. It is in your highest interest to spend time every day with the intention of listening to your Wise Self.

10. Master Your Emotions

Our emotions drive us and they are directly responsible for our vibration, and therefore, whether or not we are connected.

There are two primary elements to mastering your emotions. The first is meeting your own emotional needs and the second is owning your emotional reactions.

Give to yourself what you have been seeking from others:

Do you desire acceptance, understanding, appreciation, compassion? Whatever it is, give it to yourself. If you need others to meet your emotional needs, you give your power away, and you disconnect from who you really. Being emotionally needy lowers your vibration – this is why it feels so bad, and rarely even works. How can the universe meet your emotional needs, if you are vibrating at a low level where the high vibration of love cannot easily flow? Ask yourself, what emotional need am I lacking? If it is appreciation, for example, set your intention to appreciate yourself, and take inspired action that supports self-appreciation. You might also want to give appreciation to others as well – the more you give something away, the easier it can come back to you.

Give up emotional addictions:

What is your most common reaction when things go wrong? Frustration, impatience, guilt, regret, etc…? What you may not realize is that when we develop emotional patterns of reacting certain ways, we become magnets for situations that cause us to react those ways. First determine your emotional addiction and then make the choice not to react in this way despite provocation. At first, you may still experience situations that provoke the addicted reaction, but after days or weeks, you will have broken the emotional addiction and life will respond by no longer irking you in that same way.

Here is a challenge: Instead of responding with your personal emotional addiction when things go wrong, what would happen if you responded with the emotion that fulfills your emotional need. For example, if your addiction is frustration and your emotional need is understanding, instead of getting frustrated when things go wrong, you respond with understanding.

Finally, the Magic of Love is always available to you. By choosing love, you immediately connect because who you really are is love. The more you give love, the more life will love you in return. If you only do one thing this year, let it be to Practice Love.

11. Pay Attention to Life

What is fundamentally you is not separate from the outside world. You are everything. You are the whole universe – every flower, every molecule, all the good and all the bad. You are not just a temporary extension of life, you are the infinite expression of life itself. Believing that we are separate from life alienates us from the very life that we are. Waking up to who you really are, means waking up to life – your life.

Many of us go through life asking for what we desire, and this is fine, but do we ever stop to ask, “What is life asking of me?” Did you know that life is speaking directly to you every hour of every day, but most of us are oblivious to this two way conversation?

Often, we want to know what is in our subconscious minds, but there is no mystery to this, because your subconscious mind is constantly and accurately projecting itself out onto the screen of your life. The key is to pay attention to your life. What would happen if you resolved to pay attention to your life?

When you drop your rationalizations and justifications for who you are, or for life being the way it is, what is your life telling you? Who is life asking you to become?

By paying attention to your life, you have the power to receive valuable information – making your life the best it can be. The more connected you are to life, the more connected you are period.

Take time to really listen. Imagine that life has a voice – what is life saying to you now?

12. Take 100% Responsibility

Waking up also means that you focus on the areas of your life where you are not conscious – and you become conscious. The issues in your life are presented to you in order to direct your attention in such a way that you do wake up. Pain and discomfort are powerful wake up calls. The problems in our personal lives and in the world are intrinsically designed to awaken us. That is the point

It is not enough to just pay attention to your life, in order to be fully connected, you must also be 100 % responsible for your life.

Every time we blame someone or something for our issues or problems, we not only give our power away, we become disconnected from who we really are. In order to stay connected, you must be responsible for your life, and everything in it.

The final key to connection is claiming responsibility – your full ability to respond to life.

When you completely own your power, you take responsibility for everything in your experience; this includes everything that directly happens in your life, as well as everything that you are even conscious of in the world. Nothing is happening outside of you; everyone and everything is a reflection of you. This means that there is no blaming others for doing or not doing things – without blaming the world, anger, frustration and a host of other disconnecting/low vibration emotions are no longer provoked.

If something is not working in your life, you must look inside yourself to find the corresponding “inner cause” of outer-trouble, and shift it. From a higher state of consciousness, you find the dis-harmony in yourself and you harmonize it.

Even though you are responsible for your experience of reality, you are not responsible for others. This means that you allow others to be exactly as they are – without trying to fix or change anyone for any reason.

The key to effective self-responsibility is to shift yourself in such a way that the outside world responds accordingly and ultimately becomes more harmonious. You do this by mastering your thoughts and emotions, letting go of negativity, expressing yourself, being at choice in your mind and in your actions, listening to your inner guidance, and always responding from a place of intrinsic power. This is your dynamic recipe for getting connected, being connected and staying connected.

Happy New Year!

As you live your life from the state of wholeness, you gain an abundance of everything truly important in life – that abundance naturally overflows, so that you have enormous gifts to contribute. But of all the gifts the greatest one is showing others, through example, how to connect with who they really are. This is your most sacred purpose.

You make the biggest difference in the world when you live from the exalted state of True Selfhood, and you cherish, nurture and honor this state, above all else. This is what it means to be the change you wish to see in the world!

www.choki.org

Author: Nanice Ellis / Wake up World

in Choki's art 5 comments

4 December, 2014 by Choki team

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.

www.choki.org

Author: Carmen Allgood / Wake up World

in Choki's art 4 comments

18 October, 2014 by Choki team

Researchers Finally Show How Mindfulness and Your Thoughts Can Induce Specific Molecular Changes To Your Genes

With evidence growing that training the mind or inducing specific modes of consciousness can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. A new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France reports the first evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of intensive mindfulness practice.

The study investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice,” says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs,” says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), where the molecular analyses were conducted.

Mindfulness-based trainings have shown beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders in prior clinical studies and are endorsed by the American Heart Association as a preventative intervention. The new results provide a possible biological mechanism for therapeutic effects.

Gene Activity Can Change According To Perception

According to Dr. Bruce Lipton, gene activity can change on a daily basis. If the perception in your mind is reflected in the chemistry of your body, and if your nervous system reads and interprets the environment and then controls the blood’s chemistry, then you can literally change the fate of your cells by altering your thoughts.

In fact, Dr. Lipton’s research illustrates that by changing your perception, your mind can alter the activity of your genes and create over thirty thousand variations of products from each gene. He gives more detail by saying that the gene programs are contained within the nucleus of the cell, and you can rewrite those genetic programs through changing your blood chemistry.

In the simplest terms, this means that we need to change the way we think if we are to heal cancer. “The function of the mind is to create coherence between our beliefs and the reality we experience,” Dr. Lipton said. “What that means is that your mind will adjust the body’s biology and behavior to fit with your beliefs. If you’ve been told you’ll die in six months and your mind believes it, you most likely will die in six months. That’s called the nocebo effect, the result of a negative thought, which is the opposite of the placebo effect, where healing is mediated by a positive thought.”

“It’s a complex situation,” said Dr. Lipton. People have been programmed to believe that they’re victims and that they have no control. We’re programmed from the start with our mother and father’s beliefs. So, for instance, when we got sick, we were told by our parents that we had to go to the doctor because the doctor is the authority concerning our health. We all got the message throughout childhood that doctors were the authority on health and that we were victims of bodily forces beyond our ability to control. The joke, however, is that people often get better while on the way to the doctor. That’s when the innate ability for self-healing kicks in, another example of the placebo effect.

Subconscious Beliefs Are Key

Too many positive thinkers know that thinking good thoughts–and reciting affirmations for hours on end–doesn’t always bring about the results that feel-good books promise.

Dr. Lipton didn’t argue this point, because positive thoughts come from the conscious mind, while contradictory negative thoughts are usually programmed in the more powerful subconscious mind.

“The major problem is that people are aware of their conscious beliefs and behaviors, but not of subconscious beliefs and behaviors. Most people don’t even acknowledge that their subconscious mind is at play, when the fact is that the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind and that we operate 95 to 99 percent of our lives from subconscious programs.

“Your subconscious beliefs are working either for you or against you, but the truth is that you are not controlling your life, because your subconscious mind supersedes all conscious control. So when you are trying to heal from a conscious level–citing affirmations and telling yourself you’re healthy–there may be an invisible subconscious program that’s sabotaging you.”

The new science of epigenetics promises that every person on the planet has the opportunity to become who they really are, complete with unimaginable power and the ability to operate from, and go for, the highest possibilities, including healing our bodies and our culture and living in peace.

www.choki.org

Author: Michael Forrester / Wake up world

in Choki's art 17 comments

« Previous