Friday, October 26, 2012

Your Life is your Message to the World. Make it Inspiring.


 Life is full of positive experiences. Notice them. Notice the sun warming your skin, the small child learning to walk, and the smiling faces around you. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential by revealing in the beauty of these experiences, and letting them inspire you to be the most positive version of YOU.

What would happen if you approached each day intentionally with a positive attitude? What would happen if you embraced life’s challenges with a smile on your face? What would happen if you surrounded yourself with people who made you better? What would happen if you paused long enough to appreciate it all?

Living a positive life is all about creating positive habits to help you focus on what truly matters. This is the secret of super positive people. Here are some simple ideas to help you follow in their footsteps.

Wake up every morning with the idea that something wonderful is possible today. – Smiling is a healing energy. Always find a reason to smile. It may not add years to your life but will surely add life to your years. A consistent positive attitude is the cheapest ‘fountain of youth.’ You’ve got to dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on Earth.  


Celebrate your existence. – Your mind is the window through which you see the world. The way to make this the happiest day ever is to think, feel, walk, talk, give, and serve like you are the most fortunate person in the whole world. Open minded, open hearted, and open handed. Nothing more is needed. All is well… and so it is.

Appreciate life’s perfect moments. – Your life isn’t perfect, but it does have perfect moments. Don’t let the little things get you down. You’ve got plenty of reasons to look up at the sky and say, “Thank you, Iwill do my best to make this a great day.” So slow down and pause for a moment to stand in awe of the fact that you are alive, and that you have the ability to rediscover life as the miracle it has always been.
    
Embrace life’s challenges. – Uncharted territory in your life is not good or bad, it just is. Yes, it may rattle your foundation, and you may be tempted to pullback, say you can’t do it, or bail completely. But these are exactly the conditions that set you up for massive amounts of personal growth. Each experience through which you pass operates ultimately for your own good. This is the correct attitude to adopt, and you must be able to see it in this light.   

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Homo Novus...New Humanity

Twenty years ago Dr. James Austin, a neurologist, had a mystical experience. As a result, he did not join a religious order, nor, for that matter, did he begin one. What he did begin was a new field of scientific exploration called neurotheology.

In a nutshell, neurotheology is the study of what goes on in the human brain when one is having a peak spiritual experience. While scientists, yogis and philosophers have speculated on the biological aspects of spirituality for centuries, it is only since the advent of sophisticated brain imaging techniques that we have been able to actually see “pictures” of the brain and thus explore the physical aspects of transcendence.
In 2001, a slender volume called Why God Won’t Go Away inspired a cover article in Newsweek magazine and introduced neurotheology to the wider public. When one of the book’s authors, radiologist Dr. Andrew Newberg, hooked up a long-time Buddhist meditator to a SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scanner, he discovered that a portion of his frontal lobes lit up like a Christmas tree when he was in deep meditation. This led Newberg to surmise that this area of the brain may be partially responsible for feelings of spiritual transcendence. When he tested his theory on a group of Franciscan nuns at prayer, the nuns’ scans showed similar results to those of the Buddhist meditator, adding weight to his argument.

The theory that the frontal lobes might have something to do with spirituality has been entertained at least since the nineteen-fifties, when a researcher by the name of TDA Lingo established a brain and behavior research laboratory high in the in the Colorado Rockies. Lingo came home after fighting in WWII plagued by one question: “Why must I kill my brother in war?” He attended several universities and dropped out shortly before completing his doctorate at the University of Chicago in order to pursue his studies independently. To fund his endeavour, he bought a guitar and started doing the rounds of his local clubs, eventually landing a job as host of a nationally broadcast NBC television variety show. On the last night his show was aired, he looked into the camera and asked if anyone had a mountain for sale. Someone did, and the “Dormant Brain Research and Development Center” was born on 250 acres of pristine wilderness west of Denver, Colorado, on what he would soon rename Laughing Coyote Mountain.

That was in 1957. Lingo remained on the mountain and conducted regular summer “Brain in Nature” courses for thirty-five years. There was no electricity on Laughing Coyote Mountain. Participants slept under the stars. Lingo typed their lessons on a manual typewriter and hand-cranked copies on an aging mimeograph machine. Keeping things simple was a vital part of his modus operandi.
Unconventionality was a hallmark of Lingo’s entire career, a trait that probably has something to do with why his research has been largely ignored by the scientific community to this day. What can’t be ignored is the increasing evidence that TDA Lingo may have been well ahead of his time.

Lingo focussed much of his attention on the amygdala
, an almond-shaped structure (the word comes from the Greek word for almond) deep within the brain whose principle function has long been associated with triggering the “fight or flight” response to danger. For whatever reasons, scientists in Lingo’s era largely overlooked another proven function of the amygdala – to trigger ecstasy. In laboratory tests with rats in the 1950’s, researchers discovered a phenomenon they called “kindling.” Given the choice between food and excitation of regions of the amygdala and nearby structures of the brain, the rats chose excitation over food to the point of starvation. While that in itself did not prove that they were experiencing “rodent nirvana,” as Lingo colourfully put it, it did suggest that whatever they were feeling, it was good.
Lingo’s contention was that the amygdala could be consciously controlled and used to “click on” the pleasure response in the frontal lobes. Eventually, the practitioner would, as Lingo put it, “pop their frontal lobes” and experience nirvana, samadhi, or what he simply called self-transcendence. Moreover, argued Lingo, the practice was as easy as flicking on a light switch and could be done by anyone, anywhere.

That’s a big claim to make for a couple of very small organs, but recent independent research has begun to corroborate his findings. The “father” of neurotheology, James Austin, saw a critical role for the amygdala in his own experience of transcendence. Neuropsychologist Dr. Rhawn Joseph goes further and says, "These tissues, which become highly activated when we dream, when we pray or when we take drugs such as LSD, enable us to experience those realms of reality normally filtered from consciousness, including the reality of God, the spirit, the soul, and life after death."

When psychologist Sara Lazar “photographed” kundalini yoga practitioner Hari Mandir Kaur Khalsa’s brain with an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine, she discovered that when Khalsa entered a deep state of meditation (as evidenced by the slowing of her breathing to four breaths per minute), her amygdala became active. This pairing of deep tranquillity with an excited amygdala seemed like a contradiction to the researcher who equated amygdaloid activity with emotional distress, but it was exactly as TDA Lingo would have predicted to be the result of “clicking forward,” as he put it.

[Please go to
Scientific American Frontiers . Worried Sick. Watch Online | PBS and click on "Play Video" under the 4th show listed "Just Relax". The amygdala clicking segment is about 1/2 the way through the clip. The clip also features film of monks sitting in a 40 degree unheated hut, covered in freezing dripping wet sheets, which they they dry out with their own body heat, which they consciously raise with brain focus meditation.- N.S.]

On the down side of the amygdaloid experience, Joseph LeDoux argues in The Emotional Brain that the amygdala has “hijacked” our human brain and led to many, if not most, of the mass neuroses and psychoses of modern life. That observation too corresponds with Lingo’s hypothesis: What LeDoux describes is what Lingo called being “clicked backwards.”

While what goes on in the amygdala is actually far more complex than Lingo describes it, his hypothesis, that the organ is instrumental in producing both negative and positive emotions and, more importantly, can be consciously manipulated, is scientifically sound.

Centuries before Western science “proved” that meditation could alter brain wave patterns, practitioners verified it through direct personal experience. Many experienced meditators who have stumbled across Lingo’s work have found “amygdala clicking” to be a powerful adjunct to their regular practice and at least one professional yoga instructor has made it a regular part of his teaching, with reportedly very positive results. The bottom line is, it’s free and it’s easy, so why not give it a try?
First, a little brain biology is required. The “triune brain” is a model used to understand basic brain structure and function. In this model, the brain is viewed as consisting of three separate but interconnected parts. The oldest part is the brain stem or reptilian brain, so-called because it processes our most basic survival instincts. A common neurologists’ joke defines these as the “four F’s of reptile brain behaviour – “feeding, fighting, fleeing and reproduction.” The reptile brain is entirely “me” centered.

Next on the evolutionary scale is the limbic system or mammal brain. More advanced on the evolutionary scale than the brain stem, the limbic system is capable of emotions and enables us to function within social hierarchies. Unlike the reptile brain, the mammal brain is capable of considering the needs of others.
The largest portion of the brain, the primate brain, encases both the reptile and mammalian brains and enables us to perform sophisticated mental tasks like speech and maths. The whole front portion of the primate brain is the frontal lobes. Place your hand across your forehead and you’re grasping your frontal lobes.

For many years, the frontal lobes were thought to be largely dormant – for their mass they seemed to perform few important functions. Gradually, brain scientists came to discover that the frontal lobes are far more important than previously thought. Their contributions to our mental makeup include creativity, imagination, foresight, and the ability to empathize with others. The Tibetan Buddhist meditator in Newberg’s study demonstrated unusually high activity in the left frontal lobe while practicing a technique that involved concentration on loving compassion. In contrast, psychopaths, who by definition lack the capacity to feel empathy or compassion, have been shown to display very low levels of frontal lobe activity in brain scans. The frontal lobes, basically, seem to be the part of the brain that enables us to think outside the box of our selfish bodily needs and desires.
Lingo subscribed to the “dormant brain” theory, reasoning that not only our more noble emotions had their “home” in the frontal lobes, but that, once activated, they would prove to be where so-called paranormal powers such as intuition and telepathy could be accessed as well. Interestingly, recent studies have suggested that intuition is a testable and demonstrable phenomenon and is traceable to, yes, the frontal lobes.

Gautama Buddha argued that happiness is our natural state, but we have lost our way. The Noble Eightfold Path was designed to remove the obstacles to happiness. TDA Lingo argued that the amygdala has been socially conditioned to remain on high alert, thus blinding us to our natural potential for unlimited creative joy. Amygdala clicking was his recipe for giving us back our birthright – frontal lobes bliss.

This is how it’s done:

To locate your amygdalae (that’s the plural – there are two of them, one in each hemisphere), place your thumbs against your ears and middle fingers on the outside corners of your eyes. About 25mm inside your head from where your forefingers naturally come to rest on your temples is where your amygdalae reside.
There is an easy way to observe the amygdalae at work. There is a direct connection between the amygdala and the olfactory nerves, or sense of smell. Find something foul smelling – vinegar or rotten eggs do the trick for most people. Take a whiff. When you instinctively draw back from the source of the smell, your amygdalae are largely responsible for your feeling of repugnance. Now try the same thing with, say, a fragrant rose. What happens? A feeling of pleasure washes over you. Spring is in the air! The amygdalae have done their job once again, orchestrating the neurochemical pleasure response.
Picture your amygdalae sitting there inside your brain, hyperactively warning you to “fight or flee.” Neurons like bolts of lightning are firing madly backwards, down to your brain stem, screaming, “Go! Go! Go!” For Lingo, the trick was to get that energy flowing forward, to the “rose garden” of the frontal lobes. He and his Brain Lab students and colleagues experimented with a variety of methods to reach that goal. In the end, one of the most powerful tools he discovered was simple visualization.

Visualize a feather softly tickling the anterior (forward) part of the amygdala, first on one side, then the other. If you prefer, use a pair of feathers and do both sides at the same time. That’s all there is to it. Just remember, gentleness (you’re using a feather, not a cattle prod!) and directing energy forward, into the frontal lobes, are the keys to success.

Don’t let the almost ridiculous simplicity of the technique put you off. It really is amazingly powerful!
Neil Slade, Lingo’s long-time associate, has been teaching it in classrooms, on radio, and via the internet for years. In his book, The Frontal Lobes Supercharge, he writes, “It’s the fastest way that you can start clicking forward that we’ve found. It works from the very first minute you try, and is failsafe.” He goes on to advise: “Keep tickling until you get the desired results and long lasting positive emotional feedback. The effects are progressive and cumulative.”

The results may be subtle at first. If you’re stuck in traffic (a great place to try it), you might find yourself relaxing and actually listening to a song on the radio instead of just hearing it in the background. A wave of contentment might pass over you as you realize with a flash that as long as you’re stuck in this traffic jam, you have absolutely no responsibilities. Suddenly you’re on a mini-holiday in the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Isn’t the harbour beautiful this morning!

Or the results may be more pronounced. People have reported spontaneous kundalini awakenings and other deeply transformational experiences as a result of “clicking.”

Whatever the effect, whether subtle or deeply profound, it is guaranteed to be positive. According to Lingo and an increasing number of contemporary researchers, the pleasure response is an in-built evolutionary reward for accessing our most advanced neurological potential.

TDA Lingo referred to the reptile brain as EGGS – Ego, Greed, Grasp and Suck, while the frontal lobes housed our most advanced and selfless potential. He felt that humanity is at an evolutionary crossroads. We have the choice between remaining stuck in self-destructive egotistical behaviour or evolving into a more loving, cooperative, highly evolved species he dubbed “Homo Novus” or New Humanity. It is hard to argue with his ideals – and, increasingly, it’s hard to argue with his science as well.

But Lingo remains an enigma. But maybe we don’t need to be polite. “Crazy wisdom” has a long and venerable tradition in most religions. Back in the fifteenth century, another iconoclastic character, an alchemist who called himself Paracelsus, managed to offend virtually all the medical establishment of his time, but is remembered today as one of the fathers of modern medicine. His real name was Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Because of his outlandish behaviour, Paracelsus gave the English language a new word – bombastic. Like Paracelsus, TDA Lingo used an assumed name (his birth name was Paul Lezchuk) and also like Paracelsus, his behaviour could sometimes be described as “bombastic.” Perhaps, in time, he will also share the recognition for his achievements Paracelsus belatedly received. In the meantime, for the open-minded, an appreciation for what he had to offer may be only a “click” away.         

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Here are 10 paths toward a more joyful life

Accept Yourself
Without self-acceptance, you will limit and block how much happiness, prosperity, love, and success you will enjoy. The miracle of self-acceptance is that if you are willing to accept that happiness already exists in you, you will begin to experience more happiness around you.
 

Follow Your Joy
There is a world of difference between searching for happiness and following your joy. Following your joy is about listening to your heart’s desires, noticing what truly inspires you, and recognizing your soul’s purpose. A good starting point is to reflect on the question “When am I at my happiest?”

Choose Happiness
Try to find the place in your mind where you have already decided how good today will be, how good this year will be, how good your life will be. Are you happy with your decision? Set a positive intention right now to let today be even more enjoyable than you thought it was going to be.

Free Happiness
A lot of happiness is overlooked because it doesn’t cost anything. If you think money will buy you happiness, you will go shopping for the rest of your life and never be completely satisfied. To enjoy some free happiness, make a list of everything in your life that costs no money and is totally priceless - like laughter, friendship, meditation, air, kindness, and the stars at night.

Love Someone
To be happy, all you have to do is be the most loving person you can be. People who give their best time, energy, and attention to their most important relationships experience more happiness. Stop the busyness, and think about who you would like to spend more time with, acknowledge more, and have more fun with.

Forgive NOW
Sometimes in order to be happy now you have to be willing to give up all hopes for a better past. Living happily ever after starts with forgiveness. You can’t keep carrying a grievance and hope to be happy. Happiness is a gift you give yourself because it sets you free.

Vocal Gratitude
Say out loud three things you are grateful for. Do this right now, before you go on reading this article. Gratitude is often referred to as the shortest shortcut to happiness. The more grateful you are, the happier you will feel.

Beware Martyrdom
A martyr believes they have to sacrifice themselves and happiness in order to enjoy the good things in life. When you try to play the martyr, you lose and so does everyone else. Be kind to yourself. Life always gets better when you treat yourself better.

Be Present
Living in the “not now” is a chief cause of unhappiness. In the English language, the word “present” has three distinct meanings: “here”, “now” and “a gift”. The more present you are in each moment, the more happiness you will find. Happiness is where you are.

 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

10 Things No One Can Steal From You


Of all the things that can be stolen from you – your possessions, your youth, your health, your words, your rights – what no one can ever take from you is…

Your uniqueness. – You are unrepeatable. There is a magic about you that is all your own. Having a low opinion of yourself is not humility, it’s self-destruction. Holding your uniqueness in high regard is not egotism, it’s a necessary precondition to happiness and success. You deserve to wear a smile in your heart. Not because of what you have or what you do, but because of who you are . Yes, you are changing each day, but you are always amazing just as you are.


How you feel about yourself. – It takes a long time to learn how to NOT judge yourself through someone else’s eyes, but once you do the world is yours for the taking. We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own life, and we will never be happy or successful if we try to live someone else’s idea of it. So give up worrying too much about what others think of you. What they think isn’t all that important. What is important is how you feel about yourself.

Your intuition. – If you’re thinking just like everyone else, you aren’t really thinking. Follow your intuition. Do what makes sense to you. Never compare your journey to someone else’s. Everyone has their own struggles, their own challenges, and a different path that they chose to get to where they are. Remember, you don’t need to wait for external circumstances to perfectly align in order to show up for the life you’ve been dreaming of. What you’re looking for is already somewhere inside you.

Your passion. – If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now. Find your passion, whatever it is. Become it, let it become you, and great things will happen FOR you, TO you, and BECAUSE of you. And even if things don’t work out as planned, you’ll still be heading in the right direction. Because nothing you have passion for is ever a waste of time, no matter how it turns out.

Your determination. – When life gives you something that makes you feel afraid, that’s when life gives you a chance to grow strong and be brave. Nothing is permanent in this crazy world, not even your mistakes, failures, or troubles. If you keep your eyes open and your feet moving forward, you’ll eventually find what you need.

 Your attitude. – Something nobody can take away from you is the way you choose to respond to what others say and do to you. The last of your freedoms is to choose your attitude in any given circumstance. Choose to be happy and positive. It is not always easy to find happiness in ourselves, but it is always impossible to find it elsewhere. Regardless of the situation we face, our attitude is our choice. So smile as you walk away and move on from negative people and their actions.

 Your ability to spread love and kindness. – The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away. And 99 percent of the time you get what you put in, so give freely. Charity can be in the form of a smile, lending an ear or a helping hand. There are many acts of kindness that don’t cost a cent. Remember, the ultimate goal of all goals is to be happy. If you want to be happy make those around you happy.
 
Your hope. – It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it. The biggest obstacles that stand between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it, and the faith to believe it’s possible. Hope is the little voice inside your head that whispers “maybe” when it seems like the whole world is shouting “impossible!”

Your knowledge and life experiences. – Character and wisdom are sculpted over time. They come with loss, lessons, and triumphs. They come after doubts, second guesses, and unknowns. If there was a definitive path to success, everyone would be on it. The seeds of your success are planted in your past failures. Your best stories will come from overcoming your greatest struggles. Your praises will be birthed from your pains. So keep standing, keep learning, and keep living.

Your choice to move on emotionally. – Don’t let past relationships and old mistakes ruin your future. Don’t let someone or something that didn’t make it in your life continue to hurt you. If you do, you’re still giving a portion of your life to something that no longer exists – it’s like letting your happiness slip into a black hole. Learn the lesson, release the pain, and move on. Scars remind us of where we have been, not where we are headed.


Sunday, October 7, 2012

Saturn Return for Scorpios ( check your natal chart to see if Scorpio is your ascendant or Moon sign or if Mars or Pluto OR others )






Saturn moved out of Libra yesterday - it has been there for 2 and a half years. Many people frown on Saturn because it is restrictive, limiting and disciplinary, but that is leaning more towards the afflicted Saturn.

With the help of Uranus squaring Pluto,

Saturn is allowing Consciousness altering breakthroughs that will help us to deeply see what our World, ourselves and humanity needs most.

IF we look to someone else to decide this for us - we are missing the mark and not working on developing self-awareness, intuition and discernment and this is crucial during this time. We must become personally empowered in our own truth because where our power is and where our intention and beliefs are - determines what timeline we are on.

Service to others and allowing Spirit to inhabit the human vessel - thinking from the Heart and increasing the Universal Love & Wisdom energy from within, is just a necessary foundation to begin with to avoid timelines that are less than desirable or liberating.

Saturn afflicted in our World today has to do with the false authority structures, control agendas and repressive forces. When we work with Saturn though and release ourselves from the afflicted version that we are up against in the outer World - we find that its attributes can be utilized in a most positive way, especially when it transits, enters our sign or is dominant in our charts.

It is all about refining ourselves, helping us to stand in our mission and in our Power - it helps with boundaries and for us to cut away energies and people that no longer are healthy for our life-path, so we can then draw in those we can really commit and devote ourselves to.

It allows us to finally Master the forces that have constricted us or made us insecure or the feeling of being beaten down, silenced, or blocked. 


 It limits our desire for excess, it assists us to see who we truly are, by pulling us into more self-responsibility, it disciplines us to change worn out habits and negative patterns and it helps us to take that old voice of authority and return it Cosmos, so that we can really utilize the positive polarity of Saturn and then allow it to work in our World to create change.

 In doing this we get closer and closer to moving into the center of the Wheel, awakening to our Wholeness and natural Divine essence, that the zodiac helps us as a map to find - so that we can then liberate ourselves from the Wheel.

In the two and a half years Saturn was in my Sun sign Libra - it did all those amazing things for me and I thank Saturn so deeply for the tough love - it is really a part of ourselves that is ready to show up!

Now it is moving into Scorpio - so allow it to work for you, it will be highlighting areas of ones life related to power, death, re-birth, sexual energy, transformation - it will help you bring in a higher energy and expression. Allow its disciplinary nature and its teacher quality, to show you how these forces are best worked with, rather than the way the afflicted Saturn and false authority structures and social conditionings have taught or influenced us.

These planets help our inner work and they don't help us when we count on the outer world for answers, that is why it is a blessing when we can come face to face with it - because its highest octave is always the force that wants our attention and that comes from the Cosmic intelligence of the Creator - not the perverted afflicted intelligence of the illuminati- that can serve as a dark teacher, but only up to a certain point.

We are the ones to take the afflicted negative polarity of how these planetary forces have been used and turn it into its highest expression for ultimate freedom! That is why it is awesome to be challenged in life - it allows you to make the most potent choices for your journey, so choose the higher road and allow the inner guidance to show you the way by getting to know yourself deeply inwardly and spiritually.

Rumi

It takes a thousand stages for the perfect being to evolve.