Mind Shift- Your Ability to Control Your Emotions

Close your eyes and relax. Unclench your jaw, your fists or any areas of tension. Breathe deeply and take a few cleansing breaths. Breathing in all of the beautiful energy of nature and now exhale all the noise and chatter in your head. Float along this current of nothingness. Now allow a thought to take residence in your mind. I can shift my mind to a better place.

The planet around us is struggling to survive. Global warming- sudden shifts in the earth - catastrophic weather patterns all bring their attention to us in a very loud way. Wake up! it seems to shout – Stop ignoring your environment – we are all connected and if we are hurting than you are suffering as well.

We are living in an age of technology that has connected our world in a way that no generation before us has ever seen. This communication can work both for and against us. It can bring encouragement and truthful insight or it can lead to utter chaos. We all like to think of ourselves as strong knowledgeable individuals, and many are, but many of us will follow a fool off a cliff. The only way to actually be led by this is to ignore your own inner voice and allow others to think for you.

For example if we know a storm is coming and we are able to use technology to “best guess” its course we should be able to decide for ourselves (unless we are relying on others because of mental or medical impairments) what the best plan of action should be. Many, many people have lived with the threats of all types of weather throughout the ages as well as the pets and wildlife that have gone before us. Did they have the weather channel, facebook or CNN? No, they simply took the warnings they were given, the necessary precautions and gathered with friends and family to wait out the storm. Many had to leave their homes to find a safe haven and many returned to find their dwellings demolished. We live with unforeseen natural environmental events that will continue long after we part this earth.

No one is advocating that we do not heed a warning. But there must come a time when we listen to our inner voice and “turn off” the hype, because that is what it is – in actual fact it sells advertisement. STAY TUNED…BREAKING NEWS…THIS JUST IN… If you were able to step aside and see how it was commercially packaged and delivered to you, you would see it for what it was, sheer drama which instills fear to make you come back for more. The music – the lighting –the flashing scrolling red text – the newsman strapped to a tree…none very helpful in preparing a community at all. You want to be able to rely on calm rational decisions and not whipped up emotional actions. This is when a mind shift is needed most. If you were trying to assist your children or elderly loved ones how would you approach them- careful and quiet purposeful direction to lead them to safety…or a burst of continued fearful updates?

There are many opportunities to practice this useful mechanism and if we wanted to we could probably fill pages and pages creating a list. Think of some events that you encounter in your daily lives in which you have no control. For example: (and I will only name a few as they can bring you down emotionally just listing them!)

-       Airport hell

-       Dr’s visit…the inner waiting room

-       Traffic jams

-       Unexpected weather…cancellations and loss of power

-       Trip to the Motor Vehicle Office

As we look at these examples we can feel the groans as they drag themselves through our lips. Now place yourself in one of these circumstances. For example you arrive at the Motor Vehicle office and you pull the number 63 and a voice calls out “number 31”. You look about and notice the bleak faces…the room is painted gray and actually looks as if it is getting grayer. But you need this document today and you have to wait. Others grumble and some start talking on their cell phones and you can feel the air thicken with negativity. It hovers about you like a cloud.

By quieting your mind and breathing easily allow your mind to shift. You have complete control of your thoughts, perhaps you were meant to learn something, and perhaps you were meant to use this very moment to understand that you have power over your own emotions. This is YOUR journey and you do not have to get swept along with all of the angry emotions of the people around you. Can you sit and see how unique you are – not better than others – no, just able to distance yourself enough to think upon positive things. Shift your attention and focus to a happy place. Maybe it’s a loved one, maybe it’s a good book or maybe a project you need to work out in your mind before you begin to create it.

This ability to shift your mind can truly remove unnecessary stress in your life. This skill can also help when you feel yourself spinning out of control. When you begin to feel yourself stiffen as a disagreement with someone is about to surface, catch yourself and say “mind-shift”… is this really how I want to respond? Am I prepared to allow all negative emotional energy have its free reign? What will this accomplish? Learn to use this mind shift as a lifeboat giving you safe passage to the calmness that you thrive in. When anger is all around you, don’t allow yourself to be carried in to the debris of negative thoughts. If this means turning off the media – hanging up the phone, than DO it. This especially means you will need to mentally turn off the media - a challenge as it adorns all airports and public places which are unavoidable today. Mentally tune away from the people on their cell phones and yes they even have conversations on the toilet, riding their bikes and even strolling a beach. Use your ability to shift your mind instantly.

Learn to take control of your emotions by adjusting your mind to a positive thought. It may take some practice to remind yourself. Sometimes I hear my spouse saying, “mind shift” as I become agitated and I reply “Mind your own shift” as I huff and puff, but for the most part this small technique has helped our relationship as well as our outlook.

Have you ever found yourself engaging in what started out to be a positive endeavor and the outcome was tears and frustration? Something wonderful and purposeful, and act of kindness shattered into hurt feelings and silence.

If your intention was something for example, “Let’s gather together to help our parents” and others have strong opinions of how this should be achieved, how can you shift your mind to keep the goal in focus? Another example may be joining together to help our children in sports, music, clubs, etc. Others will have their opinions on how the road to achieve this is pursued. Can you allow them to have an opinion in which you do not share? Can you shift your mind to give your assistance to fulfill what your initial intention was... to aid your children? If we begin at home perhaps we can help others nationwide. It is a concept in which we should happily meditate about, as focusing positive thoughts can move mountains.

By keeping this mechanism of your mind active you will begin to find so many ways to use it to your advantage. Some people count to ten… not me, nope too long. I think MIND SHIFT, and I have instant awareness and less wrinkles.

Even if we are that one smiling happy calm person in the storm we can actually make a difference. We can learn to move our anger, which is absorbed, into everyone and everything we encounter and redirect it, finding ways to create positive energy and harmony in our universe. We are all connected – tune in and take control over the uncontrollable events and you will be stepping toward a brighter future.

I have been given this MIND SHIFT information through the practice of meditation. To learn how you can meditate all on your own without any CDs  for FREE please click. 

Man Made Hell = Man Made Fear Conclusion

continued...

The Down And Dirty Church was the last one I attended. It was a place filled with broken people, some fighting addiction and others just sick of the other churches on the menu. This wasn't a church my parents would have understood at all. There were no pews anywhere...only round tables with tattered people drinking coffee and sharing their troubles. Some were dressed in their finest and some were homeless and rarely bathed. It didn't matter to anyone what they looked like... they all blended together. I was humbled by the many acts of kindness I witnessed and yet I still remember the frustration of the pastor as he stood speaking to the people regarding the war in Iraq. He said "People wake up, don't you realize that there are mothers and fathers of our enemies that are praying to God as well to save their children from our armies? Don't you get it? God is not American and he isn't a democrat nor a republican." The people shook their heads, as this was too hard to fathom. How could God not answer our prayers and save our children? God was a Christian after all and of course He was pulling for our side…wasn’t He?

As a freelance artist I worked for many clients. In 2004 the local Jewish Community Center hired me part time creating brochures, logos and some ads. The phone rang again and suddenly I was working for a magazine called the Friends of Israel, it was a Christian magazine that was started in the 1940's to fight anti-Semitism. So, oddly enough I found my week split between these two dynamic passionate organizations. It was through this connection that I was able to arrange a meeting and they actually sat down together (unheard of in my neck of the woods) to share ideas on how they could work together. Funny, looking back at this I remember feeling as if I was some sort of ambassador - for people rather than doctrine. And then to my surprise the Jewish leaders sent me to Israel to work as an artist with their sister organization teaching them my graphic skills. Nineteen people of Jewish faith and me...the un-Jew. The leader of the organization I was attending with, asked me to lead Shabbat on the southern part of the wall in Jerusalem. Huh? I asked, hello I'm not a Rabbi and by the way I'm a woman...why me? "Because you are the most spiritual," he said. He got this impression most likely because the touring bus we were riding in would often hear me cry out “Hang on, we need to make a pit stop…Jesus did a miracle over there.” This of course made them think I was a Jesus Freak and I explained to them that my faith in God was not a religion I followed but actually just my way of life. I tried to spread that light wherever I went.  I continued in my hope that men would see past their dogmatic beliefs in their personal views of who or what God was and just learn to truly help one another. I quit the church and watched many friendships evaporate almost instantly. I am still a bit surprised by this. All of their preaching about God is love and love thy neighbor only to be tossed aside like stale wine. All of their talk of helping their communities while they pushed for bigger recreation facilities for their church members. All their talk of unemployment rising as they organized ski trips and fancy social gatherings. Incredible yet very true and still continuing.
I then walked with uncertainty...would God punish me? Would I now be counted with all of those poor sinners that were going to hell? I was taught since birth that I was born with sin and needed the blood of Jesus to wash me clean in order to be accepted by God. But now I was naked and I no longer prayed to the big J. He seemed to me a man that some powerful people put up front as a deity to make themselves more worthy than others.

Soon after my trip to Israel I developed a severe pain in my right leg. I went to many specialists and it grew worse. Two years went by and still the pain remained. On the off chance that some herbal hippie might be able to help me, I attended a symposium in northern California. Unknowingly, this was my first step toward breaking free of a belief system that had imprisoned me since birth. Something happened to me there that is still hard to explain. Let's just say I met a woman who gave me an energy massage that opened my eyes to looking deeper within. She spoke of seeing my aura, my guides and how strong I was spiritually. Um...yeah, sure right. She told me I was to ask the voice within to lead me to learn how to connect with my higher conscious and that it would all be told to me. This sounded like gypsy talk to me and I smiled and left her little tent thinking she was probably high on weed. She said she had spoken with my guides and that I was a very strong healer. Yeah? Well then why the hell was my leg racked with chronic pain? Healer... me? Maybe she didn't dial in the stars and line up the moons correctly... or maybe one of her crystals had a crack in it.

Two months later the pain had miraculously vanished and I was meditating daily. I started to listen and tune in and I became aware that a tiny voice that I had thought was just random had actually been with me as a small child. When life was hard and my parents were fighting I used to go to my special thinking spot and this voice comforted me. Years later when I was in an abusive relationship this voice helped to lead me to safety. I never gave it much attention; it was just always there. 

Through meditation I was able to understand who these guides were and now I ask and receive amazing insight.  I have learned that God is not an entity in human form. God IS. Lord IS. Source IS. All of this is not for one country or one species. We are ALL connected in this love of IS. Every blade of grass, every mountain, every grain of sand and every drop of water IS a part of this and every time I look into the eyes of my pet I am looking into the eyes of God or whatever you call Source. And every time I look into the mirror I am seeing a part of IS, wow, that alone would have rocked the church into burning me at the stake most likely…and in New Jersey too!   

I was able to break free from the rules and regulations and words all written by man and seek this connection to the Spirits that walk beside me. No heaven or hell to fear only love and truth in knowing life is eternal. Yes, I have been visited many times by those that have crossed over (including my family and loved ones) and each time I am left with a morsel of realization. This connection to my higher conscious has allowed me to love myself in a way I have never experienced. I am worthy, I am beautiful and I have so much love to give to others.

For the many, many people that continue in their religious quest I take nothing away from that and I do not wish to have you think I have negativity towards you. Each of us has our own journey. For me I no longer live in fear of a man made deity that will smite me if I do not keep in step. I will continue to try and spread this love of myself to the planet around me. My connection to the spirit world is not new, I have always known that I would not die. I understood at a very young age that my physical self would expire yet my spirit would continue. Thoughts are... after all... LIVING THINGS. I got a little confused when I started to listen to the teachings and writings of a world where fear was used to control my thoughts and make others more powerful- after all they use our energy to make themselves greater. But that is in the past and I am able to give my energy to a planet that is crying out to all. It is through this connection to IS that I am able to move easily toward fulfilling my passion of purpose. Every day is a new challenge and every day I face a new understanding. I am so thankful I was able to escape from the man made hell and release myself from the fear that kept me from truly finding the love that awaits all of us...and it starts within.

Yes, I took a slight detour from my meditation experiences, but since most of this writing came through while meditating I wanted to bring it into the light:)
To learn how you can meditate without any CD's or guides please read Meditate for FREE