Get a Grip!

Picture of person roping a heart from http://eruke.files.wordpress.com

I had a moment of clarity this morning as I walked the trail in the park with my dog.  My mind was racing with all the things that I had to do, and I was thinking about a client.  I began to imagine her getting ill and me feeling sad.  I noticed that my emotions were going into a tailspin, and my thoughts were getting increasingly dark.  I heard a voice say, “Get a grip!”

Everything stopped!  I felt peace and calmness around me.  I realized that getting a grip was not just getting a grip on one’s emotional state, it is also about getting a grip on one’s thoughts.  It is about getting a grip on going out into the future where things may happen and are unlikely to happen the way that we imagine them.

I had let myself run away with thoughts and emotions that had no basis in the present moment.  “Get a grip” means to come back to reality, and to the present.  It means still your thoughts, and still your mind. It means, take back your power!

Our thoughts, mind, and emotions sometimes seem like they are beyond our control.  To prove the point, here is a little exercise.  Try to stop your mind from thinking.  Now, read the phrase, “The Sounds of ……”.  Try it again.  Read this phrase, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's …”.  Our minds simply want to complete the phrase.

You see, our mind, which thinks all the time, really wants to be helpful.  Unfortunately, our mind has had little discipline to keep it working on positive, happy thoughts, so it simply turns to the the wave of information that it has the most on.  Most of the information that we take in from media is unhappy news or bad news.  So, our minds and thoughts automatically generate bad news scenarios.

The bad news scenario is what happened to me this morning.  Now, when I start the bad news thoughts, I say to myself, “Get a grip!”  It works!  You can change your thoughts.

Many blessings,

Judy

Which is the Dream?

I am fascinated by dreaming!  I have now taken several courses on dreaming and I have read about forty books on dreaming.  Shaman and medicine men/women believe that this world that we walk in is the dream, and that what we see in dream time is the reality.  Some of them base this belief on the fact that when several of us are in the same situation, for example, a conversation or argument, each of us will have a different view and memory of the incident.  However, if two of us have the same dream, and if we are both in it, our memories of the dream are usually the same.

The following story is quite thought provoking.  What do you think this story says?

 

This beautiful picture of dreaming is from creoleindc.typepad.com

Dreaming

The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

Happy dreaming!

Many blessings,

Judy

A Story About Prosperity

  Picture of prosperity from www.deplicque.net

We all have different ideas of what prosperity is.  The www.thefreedictionary.com defines prosperity as “the condition of prospering; having good fortune”.  You see, I was writing a workshop on healing with different energies from trees, and several trees are associated with prosperity. Given that some of these powers were attributed to the trees by our Ancestors, I wanted to make sure that the definition of the word was the same.

I then came across a Zen Buddhism story that put everything that I know about prosperity, wealth, riches, and abundance into perspective.

I hope that you enjoy this story!

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A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations. On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?"  

"If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

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Many blessings,

Judy