Connected and Committed

regimen

Anybody else been tempted to try this cleansing flush for 9 days?

Regimen:

1.) Wake up and drink 1 quart of warm water with 2 tsp of uniodized sea salt (this is supposedly an internal enema calling it a "salt water flush")

2.) 6 - 12 8oz glasses of the following lemon drink throughout the day:
8 oz. water
2 tbs. fresh squeezed organic lemon juice
2 tbs. grade b organic maple syrup
1/10 tsp cayenne pepper

3.) 1 cup herbal laxative tea before bedtime

4.) Hot shower in morning and evening using a body brush to shed toxins on surface of skin

I asked an online friend if she had heard about it, and she was drinking it as we both were typing! So I think that is a sign that I try the beverage and see how that goes. Not eating for nine days is a story I have that I cannot do. Wonder if I could drop the story.

questions

Yesterday I was struck with the thought that we all are waiting to hear the right question that will wake us up from our human cultural stupor and begin to help set us free. There are many versions and variations to the right question --  paths up the mountain -- and the variety in the world allows for each of us to hook up with and resonate with what works for each of us.

Questions that have helped me:

The Sedona Method

Think about something that is troubling you (or even something that isn't troubling you, Lester Levenson was a big fan of letting go of good feelings too).

Focus on your feeling about it RIGHT NOW, then ask yourself (or get someone to ask you) these questions:

1. COULD YOU ALLOW THIS FEELING BE HERE? (i.e. can you just accept it and live with it?) - Whether you answer yes or no doesn't matter.

2. COULD YOU WELCOME THIS FEELING? - again, whatever you answer doesn't matter.

3. COULD YOU LET THIS FEELING GO?

4. WOULD YOU?

5. WHEN?

However you answer the questions doesn't matter, you just ask and answer them in that order. The feeling can be released however you answer, ideally you'd answer NOW! to the final question, and let go of the feeling, but people might release or dislodge feelings no matter what the answer.

Then you get in touch with your NOW feeling about the same issue, and see if it is different, and do the process all over again, and repeat until you feel you've let it go as much as you can.

I know it sounds a bit mental, but when you do release it can feel awesome! Sometimes people have physical reactions just by doing the process, like breaking into a sweat, etc.

There is the analogy that feelings are like layers of an onion wrapped around a core belief/feeling, and by going through the process you gradually let go of all the crap wrapped around a specific issue.

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Byron Katie's The Work

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do you react when you think that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

Turn the thought around.

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Does holding onto this belief or this thought serve you?
~~Source Unknown

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exhausting

The most exhausting thing you can do is to be inauthentic.

~Anne Morrow Lindberg

Someone recently asked me the question, "What do you want?" More than anything, I want to be authentic. The slings and arrows of existence are so much less harsh, so much less crippling, so much less debilitating when you come from the place of who you really are. Actually, the slings and arrows morph into rubber imitations of their former selves. We don't give them the power we once did, and they are laughable, amusing, rather than sucking one dry of vital energy from dodging them indefinitely.

For me to be authentic, daily life must include depth. Depth of experience, depth of relationship, depth of soul. Skimming across the top just doesn't cut it. Pretending that it cuts it is even worse. Now I feel the tug of Goddess Wild Woman on my arm saying," Cut these posers loose and let's get serious about having some fun!"

I just read a bit about her in Goddess in the Office: A Personal Energy Guide for the Spiritual Warrior at Work by Z. Budapest. "This all-important deity is bored to death with our modern jobs. She sleeps throughout the day on her bed, unruly, woolly, and needy. She demands attention, so we give her coffee and doughnuts and sweets of all kinds, which work on her for a while, but not for long. She wants to be touched, made love to, entertained, and instructed."

These days I feel her, reminding me to lay claim to what I've discovered lest I lapse back into the sleep of forgetfulness. Often now there are memories from my teens and twenties that float up out of nowhere, replaying the stories that were written one way because the Goddess wasn't around yet. Well, she was, but I just didn't hear her communication above the proverbial din.

I can fill in the gaps now, add the experience and the depth that was missing back then. Thank you Goddess for never ceasing your call.

Depth includes striking up conversation with perfect strangers, and they are perfect, every single one of them, in a store, at work, online, and enjoying the deliciousness when they play with me. It includes going deep with those I already know and love and resonating with the results on an even deeper level.

Depth means calling myself on not being honest with myself as soon as I realize what's happening.

Depth means telling my truth in spite of it possibly making someone else uncomfortable.

Depth means pushing the envelope on how I choose to live, making up new rules as I go along, charting new territory when the old ones don't fit me. It means changing my mind, because it's OK to change your mind.

Depth is in the house when my soul smiles.

underwhelmed

I attended a festival of the body/mind/spirit today and came away - underwhelmed. Outside of the friends I was with and the guy giving away hugs (well, OK, maybe the spikenard essential oil I bought), there wasn't anything in that building that could feed my soul, and I realized that I wouldn't classify myself as a seeker anymore. I have seeked, and hung in there long enough to be found. Remember who I am. Wake up. Peel away the layers of crap. And I know. From the insides of my cells out. That what's on the menu for tomorrow just gets better and better.

One more thing - Rachel Ray, you rock. I finally tried one of your recipes - Chicken Tortilla Soup - and it was fabulous. I know there are a lot of RR haters out there, but I am not one of them. Yours was the culinary contribution to an indescribably delicious evening, and I thank you for it.

you so totally rock

Should you ever hear that voice inside exclaim that you're working too slow, are too easily distracted, or that you should take life more seriously, please rest assured, dearest Debra, that it absolutely, positively is not me.

I'm the one saying, "You totally rock!" -
     The Universe

presence

God does not test you.  God simply gives you opportunities to recognize the presence of love where you thought it was absent.

     -- Alan Cohen

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More than ever before I concur with the David Deida theory that women are in charge of the energy in a relationship, and men are in charge of the direction of a relationship. And that women send out sentinel tendrils throughout the day, checking in on the energy levels. Sometimes those sentinels come back with good news, and sometimes they don't.  And then a read on the direction is necessary. It's a dance that goes on and on, forever.

organic

Organic wine, even. Yummy. Can't even think about drinking the other stuff anymore.

selfish enough

If you're not selfish enough to want to feel good, then you can't connect with the energy that is your Source which does always feel good. --- Abraham

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And honey, does it ever feel good.

everyday enlightenment

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the quest for enlightenment, no experience
is irrelevant. Meditating for days in a mountaintop sanctuary may work
well for some seekers, while others are more likely to uncover hidden
truths about the nature of reality as they microwave a burrito in a
convenience store or play soccer in the living room with their drunk
friends, using a rolled up pair of socks as the ball. Even if your
spiritual search usually fits the first description, Gemini, I suspect it will
more closely match the second in the coming weeks. The secrets of the Divine Wow are primed to reveal themselves to you in the midst of everyday chaos.

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I'm not a Gemini, but then Rob Brezsny's weekly free will astrology feels more like a chiropractor's tweak to the whole body, not just certain parts. Everyone's sign message applies to everyone. And this art of everyday living credo feels right on.

this is true

We have never seen any of you want anything that wasn't for one reason: You have this innate knowing that makes you want to gravitate toward what feels better. --- Abraham

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That's why there is so much variety in the world. Why should there be a bazillion different kinds of cleaning product, shoe style, car model, pen, book, religion? Because each of us has different preference markers. Some of them happen to do the Venn diagram dovetail with other people on the planet.

my story

The email address sounded vaguely familiar.

The online dating web site that processed and delivered it to my inbox revealed that yes, indeed, we had met before - maybe five years before. At lunch. And he had monopolized the entire conversation. Didn't invite me in once. I remember going back to work incensed and shaking my head. How could people be so boorish and egotistical?

Obviously he didn't recall any of this after bumping into me again in cyber space. His message was one of appreciation for my writing in my profile, and for a few things that we had in common. He was leaving for Europe in a few days and didn't want to dangle any carrots, but how about meeting for coffee, or something?

Something tugged at me to respond in spite of the residue from our past experience. So I replied.

A few hours later we were talking on the phone, arranging a time to meet over an early light dinner in a place we both knew.

I walked toward the restaurant having decided that I wasn't going to bring up our previous sharing of a meal and just enjoy what unfolded during this one. 

Which turned out to be a most pleasant, most charming, most delightful conversation, to which I was invited and to which I also contributed, unsolicited. The man sitting across the table from me hadn't changed. He was the same man I had spent time with years ago. I was the one who was different. I finally had something to say, and the inclination to say it.

At one point, the universe delivered an opening, the perfect opening, that allowed me to say, "Funny you bring that up, because we HAVE met before."

Stunned silence for a beat.

"About five years ago. We had lunch in a bistro at the balcony of the mall. I understand why you wouldn't remember, because I didn't have anything to say back then. I was invisible, even to me."

More silence with memory wheels churning in the background.

Then a smile of vague recollection. And gracious acknowledgment and self deprecation.

And I knew I had to drop my story.

The one about monopolizing and boorish and egotistical.

It just wasn't true.

lordy, lordy

The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff. It is absolutely the amount of joy that you feel. --- Abraham

happy happy joy joy

mixed metaphors

“They were up a tree without a paddle.” - thanks to Jenny

This tops, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." Mostly because I don't subscribe to the gender war under-current in this line. A fish without a bicycle doesn't know that it doesn't know that there's something amazing to be experienced outside its day-to-day round, if one can only open up to new possibilities.

Being up a tree without a paddle, however, just conjures up priceless imagery in my head: frantically scraping a canoe paddle against a tree trunk while being whipped around said tree sitting in a canoe that is currently possessed by an electronic bull mechanism. Or something like that.

dizzy

the reason

from Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Finally things began to settle down. Mrs. Jewls wiped her eyes and said, "Why don't you tell the class why you are so happy? At least let us know what we are laughing about."

But D.J. just kept on smiling.

"Aw, come on, D.J.," said Deedee."Tell us."

D.J. did't say a word. He couldn't. His mouth was stretched out of shape.

"Let us guess," said Ron. "If we guess right, will you tell us?"

D.J. nodded his head. His smile began to hurt his ears.

Everyone took one guess. "Have you been swimming?"

"Is it your birthday?"

"Are you in love?"

"Did you get a green ball?"

Nobody guessed right.

At recess D.J. was still smiling.

Louis, the yard teacher, called, "D.J. Come here."

They walked to the far corner of the playground, where they were alone.

"What's up, D.J.?"Louis asked.

D.J. just smiled.

"Come on, D.J. You can tell me. Why are you so happy?"

D.J. looked up at him. He said, "You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy."

cockles of my heart

There is something about the sight of anyone holding a book and walking from some activity to another, rapt in the plot or the narrative of what's printed on those pages so much so that they can't tear themselves from its orbit and rejoin what's going no around them, that makes me smile. But something about seeing a young person, under the age of 20, say, doing this really warms the cockles of my heart. That was Little Man yesterday, walking from the library to the car. What made it even sweeter was that he requested the excursion and understood the gravity of the mission since the place was due to close in half an hour. They had the requisite title, however, and all was well in reader land. Ahhhhhhhh.

ocean

it isn't fun

It isn't fun to do the impossible.

-Abraham-Hicks

nudges 4.19.07

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) Persistence in my perennial search for how the universe works. If not for that persistence and need to know, I wouldn't be enjoying the most amazing period of my life - ever - right now;

2) The ability to let go of resistance myself, and perceive when resistance shields are up or not in someone else.  Subsequently, the state of grace that exists when resistance is out of commission in both parties is nothing short of miraculous;

3) Ricola cough drops;

4) When synchronicity comes out to play in all its glee-filled glory;

5) To witness for myself that people around me behave the way I'm vibrating, whether in the upper or lower registers of the emotional scale;

6) The Taming of the Anxiety Shrew;

7) Hearing new music with friends and adding some of it to my mp3 mood enhancement repertoire;

8) being so happy and very grateful;

9) knowing that I know.

rent-free in your head

KILLER blog entry about those rogue thoughts we allow rent-free space in our heads.

key words

Um, just when exactly did I use the words "penis enlargement" on my web site, and just how exactly did that phrase bring someone to it in a search engine, as my reporting says it did - not just once, but twice? These spammers, these cyber slime, they become more and more clever as their past attempts at subterfuge are cut off at the knees. I say, come over from the dark side, and applyyour skills to something useful. Like, I don't know - penis enlargement.

can't sleep

 

This is what I imagine it feels like in my brain, somewhere, when I can't fall asleep for no apparent reason. Softly aware, eyes closed perhaps but not yet engaged in that slow spiral to unconsciousness. Not really even tipping over to annoyance even. Just not sleeping. Still as a statue to no avail. Valerian root, anyone?

inhale deeply

nudges 04.16.07

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) Returning from a spring break jaunt with sanity/body/mind/soul intact;

2) Music that continuously amazes me with its transportive powers;

3) Higher highs on the emotional scale, and higher lows;

4) New friends who are open-minded and willing to try new things;

5) Discovering interests in common with people I have known for quite awhile;

6) Feeling comfortable in my own skin;

7) Fresh-cut flowers;

8) Easing back into the workaday world;

9) Being paid to do something I love to do.

walkin'

window shopping

easter in seattle

It would be fun to shop in a market with this staring at you, wouldn't it?

anyone, anyone?

I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off again. It was wonderful. I was instantly transported back in time to the day I saw it first - only the last few minutes, in a teacher's lounge on a very slow in-service day. And then I savored it from the beginning. Pure glee flowed through my system.

This time around, I noticed how out of touch Edward Rooney was, and how his world revolved around resentment and control. And I noticed how Sloan was a cardboard character. She could have contributed her feminine energy to the adventure, but she wasn't invited to the table.

Ferris was a poster child for life lining up the way we expect it will, universe bless him. 

expectancy

More shifting. More feelings of expectation. I remember feeling this way when I was in junior high. I would wake up in the middle of the night, wide awake, and to pass the time, I would grab a steno pad and write stream of consciousness poetry. Night after night this would happen. Since I burned the steno pad along with some of my other, early, angst-filled journals, I can't attest to how often. But I remember it as a not unpleasant experience. I've heard it said that back in the day when certain cultures revered their priestesses, they would meet at 4:00 AM to do their thang. I wonder sometimes if that is the call I hear, early in the morning. Sleep, yes, but come, now. There are things for you to hear and see and do and be.

cathedral

It's been a long time since I've been inside a church, voluntarily or otherwise. Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend an Easter musical event inside one such amazing structure. The acoustics made the experience so pleasurable that I forgot about where I was. It helped that the orchestral and choral arrangements were contemporary, and it helped that good company was sitting next to me. My soul was fed by the music from the first notes to the last. The entire event was a sweet labor of love, and the director has my admiration for sustaining the enthusiasm for his dream in order to make it come alive again and again.