Hello

Intuition, premonition, and precognition are knowings about the future.

Intuition is a type of sixth sense that is integrated with our five sense awareness system and can be developed through mindfulness, attention, and intention.  Intuition is more about a now experience.  Intuition is an instinctive knowing, and provides guidance in decision-making and direction.

Premonition and precognition are a type of future knowledge either through sense awareness or actual information or cognition of a future event.  These are generally urgent and or negative, a feeling or knowing that something bad is going to happen.

I have written previously about intuition in my blog called instinctive knowing. I think of intuition as an instinctive knowing that gets our attention in subtle and nagging or persistent ways, pulling us back to situations to take action to avoid something that is a problem or needs our attention.

I have had several premonition experiences.

The first event was about 11 days before the 2001 September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and attempted attack on the White House.  It was a profoundly painful and shocking experience, in which I was thrown out of my bed  from a deep sleep, by some unexplainable energy.  I received a blow to my left eye, requiring 14 stitches, and a head injury with memory loss for several months.

The second event occurred near the death of my dear friend.  I experienced this as her energy unlinking from my energy.  It was an intense pulling almost tearing or ripping from my energy field.  I fell to the ground and could not get up for several minutes.  It was quite terrifying as I was not sure of what was happening to me. The disorientation lasted about 30 minutes.  I had been providing energetic healing to my friend over the course of her illness for a year and a half.  I later discerned that this was the time that she actually died.  I was not with her, nor did I know that she had died at the time I experienced the event.  I learned of her passing about a week later, when I was informed by one of her family members of her memorial service.

A third event occurred about 13 days before the death of my father; I perceived it as his energy unlinking from mine.  I had been caring for him over the last 6 months of his disease.  I perceived this as the time wherein his spirit or soul had made the decision to leave the planet.  I was with him when he died about 2 weeks later.

The most recent event occurred several days before the recent assassination attempt of the Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  This was less painful than the previous three events, but lasted for a great deal longer.  It was intensely uncomfortable for 30 minutes but was disorienting and problematic for several hours.  Because of my earlier experiences I thought it might be indicative of something happening to someone close to me.  I called all my family members and all were ok.  Two days later the assassination event occurred.

In all events I felt an intense premonition with physical repercussions however I did not have a precognition of the events per se.  I was able to intuit the connection between the events and my friend’s and father’s deaths, but only made a guess that the other two events were related to the serious tragedies that followed.  A very intense dream predated the event related to the 9/11 attack and the assassination event.  These dreams held many archetypal images of evil which were uncommon in my typical dream processes.

My last three premonition events share a very specific physical experience that occurs directly in my brain and perceptual field.  It is as if part of my brain is not under my control, akin to how a muscle feels when it has fallen asleep and is beginning to get blood back to it – heavy, fuzzy and outside normal control. It is difficult to describe the feeling, but it has a quality of an intense dizziness, where I feel greatly disoriented, unable to stand up and I experience my head being heavy and pulled to the ground.  There is no precipitating event to explain the phenomenon.  It lasts from several minutes to several hours; my pulse and blood pressure are normal for me.

I have had other events where I felt that someone I love or care for was in a dangerous situation.  The most recent this past summer.  In each of these events I had an extremely uncomfortable feeling, almost irritating from a physical perspective of being bothered and worried.  This to me is more of an instinctive knowing or intuition and is usually related to a situation where I can make a change by paying attention or by being available to the person about whom I am worried.

Developing intuition through paying attention to your sensory awareness system and developing your mindfulness so that you can allow your perceptions to assist you in mediating between figure and ground are useful when being faced with premonitional experiences.

It is possible to utilize intuitive information to make changes in direction in your life course or to intervene in some situations.  I have not been able to effect any change as a result of my premonitional  experiences.  Through some precognitive dreams I have been able to initiate a course change for myself and others, and so have been able to utilize these in a positive growth-promoting way.

The idea of having a premonition of a negative event but not being able to effect any change as a result of this, is somewhat frustrating and disorienting.

I perceive that there are levels of possible futures, related to the way in which time and space unfold.  Many circumstances together create an event and as a result what outcome will be is part of a specific equation of a number of factors and actions.  Thus the theory of free will in many spiritual traditions.

However, a number of divinatory systems and individuals who perceive they have access to future information seem to see a picture of what is to come.  Events are set into place that once followed to their natural course result in specific event; any change in a person’s actions could bring about a different outcome.  Astrology, Tarot readings, the I Ching, and other divinatory systems check specific charts and meanings and many are based in mathematical equations.  However, there isn’t always agreement.

These premonitions may be a type of intuition from a collective unconscious archetypal energy perspective.  So that when there is a stronger chance of something happening, then those who are sensitive to this energy receive the information.

J. W. Dunne, a British aeronautics engineer, undertook the first systematic study of precognition in the early twentieth century. In 1927, he published the classic An Experiment with Time, which contained his findings and theories. Dunne’s study was based on his personal precognitive dreams, which involved both trivial incidents in his own life and major news events appearing in the press the day after the dream. When first realizing that he was seeing the future in his dreams, Dunne worried that he was “a freak.” His worries soon eased when discovering that precognitive dreams are common; he concluded, that many people have them without realizing it, perhaps because the do not recall the details or fail to properly interpret the dream symbols. Dunne’s Theory of Serial Time proposes that time exists in layers on dimensions, each of which may be viewed in different perspectives from different layers.

Dunne concluded with his Experiment With Time, that time was best observed as an “eternal now”, from The power of premonitions: How knowing the future can shape our lives, by Larry Dossey.

What is interesting about this is the concept that where we have the power to change is in the now.   What we are experiencing is always in the now, so when we have a premonition of the future the action we take now may actually have an effect on the future now.

Practicing meditation and mindfulness may open-you-up to increased information to guide your actions now, and effect outcomes in your future now.   Pretty cool side effect of increasing your centeredness, and relaxed, neutral state of being.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Ever wake up and everything you see, feel, and experience seems blah or worse frustrating and angry?  Those days are hard, cold starts no matter the actual weather outside.

It’s as if  you can only see what is wrong with your partner, children, job, and well, life.  The key here is to shift the energy BEFORE you start a fight.  This is a difficult task if you are not prepared with some excellent tools.

If you have had such a day you know this idea of shifting the energy is often a distant concept.  You have a pressure to act on those negative feelings.  If you don’t act but you remain feeling that way you may have a very negative inner dialogue throughout the day, and you may begin to have deeper feeling of depression or resentment.

When this happens shift your inner dialogue to an inner negotiation.  This is a good time to say okay, it’s true I really find it frustrating when my partner doesn’t seem to be listening to me, but what else might be going on, going on with him or her, going on with me, going on in the environment.

Mindfulness and increased whole-istic awareness really help to re-center you and re-balance you.  Returning to balance or re – balancing offers a way to start over with renewed clarity and a more full self and a more broadened perspective; focus in and focus out to increase your overall perspective of you, other, and the situation.

So two things help to get you started on the course of mindfulness and re-balancing.  First is the attitude of gratitude and second is increasing your awareness and broadening your perspective. It doesn’t matter wich one you do first and both work together well.

For example, your child is having difficulty listening and he is distracted.  When you point that out he gets angry and says you’re the problem.  If you are already in that funk described above this is a great opportunity for a huge snag in your relationship with him.  If you use your increased mindfulness about the situation you may discover that your child is tired or hungry and his distraction or ill-temper is a result of these biological deficiencies.  Maybe you realize you are stressed by a big account at work so are pushing too hard or you are reactive.

Looking at the environment, the ground of what is around you helps to orient you to what actually needs to be addressed.  Another insight might be that your child seems to have these problems at transitions, or at certain times of the day – orienting yourself to the possible patterns will help you to assess what adjustments you can make to have a smoother interaction and more positive connection with your child.

Okay what about the attitude of gratitude how does this apply?  When you find yourself in a slump, or funk, or negative space, it isn’t that what you are observing is incorrect, it probably is correct.

It is the spin on the identified problem that is probably askew.  Accepting the truth of what you are observing while centering it into the whole of your experience, or relationship is the key for returning to balance.

Let’s say you feel your partner is taking you for granted.  You  feel you are doing a lot to support the family, but it seems that there isn’t a lot of recognition for what you do.  The attitude of gratitude can help by again, accepting your observation may be right while looking at what is really working about the relationship.  Looking for where you are grateful.  This concept is similar to the idea of being the change you wish to see in the world – be more grateful and you will experience not just the positive feeling of gratefulness but an increase in positive feedback form your partner.

Our inner feelings are deciphered through our perceptions.  How you see the world, and your experiences is the lens through which you determine whether you are happy, connected, successful, and content.

This is the concept of  the glass half full or half empty. Being in the attitude of gratitude allows you to balance your perspective; moving through figure and ground so standing in the center where you are able to see both aspects and integrate then to have an increase in centeredness in your approach in how you feel, experience, and act in the world around you, your environment.

Observing through, and having, this attitude of gratitude has very positive effects on helping your children and your close relations also shift into the center in their relationship with you, so that they may in turn act from a more centered place.  This is an essential component of effective problem solving, knowing what is working is as important as knowing what isn’t.  Both aspects inform the decision-making and solution process.

When you find yourself in a funk and you want to move to joy, or at least to center.  Stop and pay attention to what you are observing and what is bothering you.  Look at all aspects of the situation:  yourself, other, and the environment.  Listen to your inner awareness, and your intuition, and practice inverting the problem so that you see what is working too.

Then you will feel a shift in your perspective and you can respond in a more balanced and ultimately more joyous way.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Reading signs is an art and a skill; it’s pattern recognition and figure/ground shifting.

You know the experience when you learn a new word and all of a sudden you see it everywhere.  Or when you are working on a problem and it seems the movies, tv shows, books and news are all discussing aspects of the same problem – even if they are calling it something else.  You are making connections between what is on your mind and what you see in your environment.

The information to solve the problem begins to present itself in all sorts of different ways and places if you can just pay attention and recognize the pattern(s).

If you use it to guide you in your life choices then it requires an ability to recognize when you are faced with divine  guidance and when you are tricking yourself, and it has a playful quality to it.

I used to think everyone saw information in patterns; then I discovered it wasn’t as common as I thought.  It seems it has some instinctive qualities to it but it also can be developed.

I remember when I was a child and my Mom would put me down for a nap, that I was not going to take, I would pass the time staring at the ceiling – there were some truly amazing images there.  Shapes and squiggles make patterns that are recognizable to me.  It’s like laying on grass and looking at clouds – images develop and then shift and then transform into something else.  It has some relationship to what is on your mind and it has some concrete aspects too.

It’s quite meditative and develops the creative aspect of your brain.

I think this past time developed my skills at reading signs, drawing, diagnosing problems, and finding creative, innovative solutions because it developed my perception at pattern recognition as well as my skill at shifting between figure and ground.

It’s a type of Gestalt paradigm shifting; allowing the ground or pattern to develop into a figure, interacting with it and the pattern recognition program in your brain.

This talent is useful for developing mindfulness, problem solving, and focusing life choice transitions because it helps to open your horizons and encourages thinking outside the box.  It uses your internal sense awareness system and increases your connection points or threads to the environment around you.

In the latter situation it works a bit like  free association in psychoanalytic theory, because it helps you ascertain what is in your subconscious, especially that which may be enough under the surface that you miss it when thinking in a formal way.

The theory is that our subconscious has information to share with our conscious mind but that we have stuffed it down under for various reasons.

In example, you love music and love to sing but you had a parent who wanted you to study a science because that was real education and music was folly – so you stuffed your love of music into your shadow or your subconscious.  You may have allowed yourself to follow music and buy music and participate in music in a number of ways but not as a career.

Then you come to a crossroads in your life and you are thinking about what you want to do as a change in career.  When this happens your subconscious wants to get your attention so music, singing, and themes or signs of this nature would begin to present themselves to you in your environment.  Your subconscious isn’t affecting your environment by changing what is there,  it is affecting what you perceive – it is affecting to what you put your attention.

In free association, the rule is to say the first word that comes to your mind without censorship, this is giving you a glimpse into your own subconscious pattern recognition and what associations you have of which you are unaware.

The experience I described above about learning a new word and then seeing it everywhere is another example of seeing due to an increased awareness.

This idea of reading signs can be taken too far, wherein a person must wait for a sign to take an action.  I am not suggesting this, nor do I think this is an empowered way to move through life.

I am suggesting that having the capacity to lightly and playfully notice to what you are attracted or what seems to keep presenting itself to you when you are working through a problem may be an innovative and whole-istic way to guide you in problem solving.

This can be developed through figure ground perception, perspective shifting, and awareness development along with pattern recognition to discover new connections and innovative solutions to bothersome problems.

One way to increase your availability to this phenomenon is to start out by focusing in on a problem you would like to solve – perhaps something that you have tried to resolve through other more formal paths.  Once you have a sense of it – then write it down on a piece of paper and leave it next to your bed.  Look at the information on the paper and think of your question about the problem, and ask for guidance with it as you fall asleep.

You may find you have dreams that give you information about what to do.  Also, pay attention to what patterns are presenting themselves to you as you go through your day.  Jot these down with the question or problem on the piece of paper next to your bed.

Do this for a few days, then look at what information you have gathered and see if you can identify a pattern or answer to your conflict.

I hope you find this to be a fun and informative exercise.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Feeling like you need more time to get things done?

What about those amazing stories of how a person seems to have split-second responses in times of crisis?

What these two things share is our experience or perception of time.

I think there are ways to shift our experience of time.  One way is to see in 3 dimensions, 3-d, through different levels at once.  Another is a concept of bending time.  It’s like experiencing time moving in slow motion when you need more time to respond to a crisis.

Mindfulness can affect the perception of time.

When we are doing a task mindfully the experience of time is stretched, like there is just enough time to finish the task.  This also increases ones sense of pleasantness to the task.

Think of a time when you felt that time went by faster or slower.  The most common experience of this is when we are doing a task that we do not want to do, or is boring, it feels at these times as if time passes drags by or when we are doing something we love, the opposite is experienced, it goes by fast.

Have you ever experienced an event in slow motion?

It’s a bit surreal, your inner perception, thoughts and awareness of events seems to be heightened and happening rapidly while events you are observing are slowed down in comparison, appearing to unfold in slow motion.  I have had this experience a number of times.

When I was in college I fell 15 feet through a hole in a roof.  It seemed to take forever for me to hit the ground.  I was intensely aware of time passing very slowly.  The event took less than a minute, but felt like minutes in slow motion for me.

In my work on a crisis response team, as the team captain, I experienced a number of events where the crisis event unfolded in slow motion as my internal sensory awareness of the possible actions available to resolve the crisis sped by in my mind, until I decided upon and took the best action.  What felt like plenty of time to resolve the situation internally was observed to those around me as happening in seconds.  That is a type of seeing in 3-d and bending time, and it is a function of utilizing mindfulness.

This experience of events happening in slow motion, happens infrequently and has something to do with a heightened level of attention/awareness in concert with some degree of risk or need for heightened awareness.  In example, when you see someone about to enter an intersection where they will be confronted by an oncoming vehicle.  The event slows externally in your perception as you internally increase or speed up your awareness of everything around you to see if you can act quickly to save the person or avert the accident.

This experience in real life is similar to what the cameras depict in movies where the action is slowing down and the awareness is overly heightened allowing for a protagonist to do exactly what is needed to resolve a dangerous or risky situation.  There is in general a heightened risk that requires split second response.

Having a capacity to change your perception of time, or bend time, allows for what appears to be super human skills when responding to emergency situations.  Having spent many years in a role of responding to emergency situations, I think it is a gift that also requires development.

The key is mindfulness and a long history in meditation and paradigm assessment and shifting.  These activities develop the skill at bending or perceiving time at different speeds or maybe it’s perceiving events at different time speeds.

Practicing meditation and Mindfulness are the best ways to develop your super human skills in response time and time perception.  These activities also increase you experience of tasks and events as pleasant and worthwhile.

One interesting fact about time is that from a mathematical perspective, time feels faster and slower in different times of the calendar year.  This has to do with the movement of planets and the sun and earth.  The equation of time varies over the course of a year, in a way that is almost exactly reproduced from one year to the next. Apparent time, and the sundial, can be ahead (fast) by as much as 16 min 33 s (around 3 November), or behind (slow) by as much as 14 min 6 s (around 12 February).Wikipedia, equation of time.

This is a very comforting piece of information for me since I find that the concept that time is a linear and an exact thing does not fit into my experience of time at all.

Meditation and Mindfulness increase your capacity to see in 3 dimensions and enhance your internal sensory awareness perceptions. It also increases your capacity to assess your environment and shifting paradigm perceptions.

See you tomorrow, which you may perceive as happening slower or faster …..

Beth

Hello

The solution to a dilemma is found within – Not just within yourself but also, within the dilemma.  It’s all in how you look at the problem, your perspective,  and what assumptions you have accepted that may need to be re-evaluated, your paradigms and beliefs.

Re-evaluated through a new perspective provides fresh insights into the problem and its underlying components, agreements, and belief systems.

You have to be focused and clarifying.  Objective rather than subjective n your evaluation.

In psychology we talk about an observing ego.

The underlying aspect of an observing ego is an unattached perspective of yourself – observing and evaluating your behavior from a slight distance without subjectivity.  It’s an aspect of yourself that is more neutral and observant.  It provides information about reality testing and whether your paradigms are fully informed.  From a psychological perspective developing your mindfulness will develop your observing ego resulting in an internal system for paradigm identification and shifting.

Perspective alteration leads to paradigm shifting, especially when done in a neutral unattached mindful way.

Usually a person evaluates a chronic or bothersome problem as if running on a track, and with each repeat of the course of thinking he creates a rut in thinking, so that he is unable to see other perspectives, interpretations, or outcomes.  This creates a feeling of being stuck, constriction, and powerlessness.

Sometimes this worsens over time as each course chooses a subjective negative perspective leading to a downward spiral – this is depressive thinking.

The more one repeats runs around the thinking track the more one feels stuck.  This deep and constant feeling of discouragement decreases a persons capacity  to see from a whol-istic, mindful perspective.  And this makes the solution that is present invisible to the person. This results in internalized frustration that then pervasively affects other aspects of his life, and life choices.

The solution is present in the interpretation of the components of the problem.  Looking at a problem from various perspectives shifts the rut in thinking, or offers a new visual or sensory perception of the problem.

Changing your perspective is like changing the lens of a camera it shifts the image, it allows one to see various details of the image differently.  This is true about a problem too – shifting your perspective allows details to be viewed differently, some become more clear others obscured – like zooming in or out.  It allows for a shifting between figure and ground or paradigm perspectives.

Through this re–view one is able to see what assumptions, paradigms, internalized or introjected belief systems are informing one’s thinking regarding a problem.

Here is an example of a relationship problem.

A person is in a relationship that does not serve her.  She feels obligated to her partner but doesn’t feel fulfilled; these feelings are at cross purposes.  She has a belief system that requires she stay in the relationship.  She tells herself she must deal with it and suppress or “get over” what she is feeling.  This requires a denial of who she is at a core level.

If she is successful at this then she splits away from herself and feels alone and disconnected.

If this is not successful then she feels incompetent and develops poor self-esteem.

At various intervals she feels stuck – neither option of staying or going feels like a solution because she has set up a complicated bind of agreements, beliefs, and expectations that together are incapacitating.  Therefore, she feels stuck and powerless in her life.

The solution is present within the dilemma but she will have to look at each of the agreements, interpretations and expectations that make up the problem to determine which are inaccurate or untenable.  Then she will have to re-choose how she wants to act in the relationship.

First she has to center herself on what she wants and believes and then the action or solution to the problem will present itself.  If her wants and beliefs are at cross purposes then she will be stuck in her thinking and be unable to act.

This is mindful paradigm perspective shifting and I call it Soul-utions focused re-working or working through.

Why Soul-utions ?  The soul or heart is whence she needs to be evaluating her situation – not the mind/thinking alone.  Think of mindfulness as the mind filled with the guidance of the heart. The mind is directed by core instinctive knowings which are deeper and more personal than the social mores that are laid over our internal sense of self.  These are more personal but not more subjective, so that connecting to the core of yourself allows you to be more objective in your analysis of a situation.

Since we are social beings it is difficult at times to separate what is truly our center – our instinctive knowing – and what is a social or group expectation overlay.  Coming from our heart helps us make this distinction.

The more one practices mindfulness and meditation and breathing, the more one has access to his or her internal, centered, perspective of the world.

As you look through this mindful, internal, centered lens you are able to see the solution to whatever dilemma you are facing; it is within you (from your center) and within the components of the problem.

A good way to start this process is to remind yourself  to go within, stay centered and re-view what paradigms or perspectives make up the choices that make up the problem.  Some people find getting to a heart centered perspective requires a spiritual connection or praying – these modes can be helpful.  I find meditation useful.

You will find that mindfully looking at the problem from different angles will be beneficial.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Whenever you find yourself at a crossroads or blocked by an obstacle, the first, best action is non-action.

Stop, and be still.

This action allows for all the information to settle and catch up to you and where you are.

Action before you know what is best, is reaction, and is usually part of a Habit Reaction Pattern. This will generally get you more stuck or going down the wrong path.

Some people instinctively know and can see the multilevel aspect of circumstances and therefore can act quickly in emergency situations – this is not reaction but instinctive knowing action.

An Instinctive Knowing Action and a Habit Reaction are different from each other. The former feels right, but doesn’t have any fearful or emotional charge to it, the latter is emotion-laden and can feel automatic (reactive) and be linked to historical experiences.

The Instinctive knowing action feels calm and has a degree of unattached certainty; the thing that needs to be done now.

The habit reaction pattern feels like a repeat of a previous experience and the person is generally not feeling calm when they are participating in it.

The process of mindfulness actually increases the ability to instinctively know, and with practice can expand the needed space for being still while condensing the needed time for instinctive knowing action.  Mindfulness increases instinctive knowing through paradigm shifting and understanding, the aha experience where everything fits into place

The more your habit is mindfulness, the greater and swifter your capacity to evaluate all the information and act instinctively.

Moving through an obstacle, an obstructive cycle or a stuck place requires the following steps.

First, stop and be still. Breathe.  Center yourself, get into the present moment; Connect within while simultaneously viewing what surrounds you.

Second, look/observe and listen to the environment and your inner landscape – your sensory impressions and feelings.  What immediate knowings are present.  Increase your awareness, pay attention, and make note of what you see, feel, and experience.

Third, notice to what you are drawn or repelled.  This is important because often in stuck situations what is required is going toward that which you fear.  Using mindfulness is important here to help you ascertain whether these pulling and pushing feelings are part of a habit reaction pattern or an instinctive knowing.

When dealing with an obstacle the problem exists in the stuckness and the need to transcend, go around, or move through, where there appears to be no path.  If you have the ability to discern what seems to have more energy then you can go toward that, allowing your instinctive knowing to guide you.

However, if you have a habit reaction pattern that signals fear as an emotion in response to change then be cautious in treating the fear at face value.  The fear may be interpreted as stay away or a cue to move forward toward it.  If it is part of a habit reaction pattern, the fear may intensify as you step forward but there may be no objective information to support the fear, there may be only emotional charge and history.

Fourth, Apply mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the key to assessing this issue.

Mindfulness focuses our attention and our intention so that we can increase our own centeredness, perception, and perspective of the obstacle or stuck situation.  Surprisingly it also has the effect of slowing down time by setting us in the present moment.

Let’s use commitment issues as an example for a stuck or obstructed situation.

A person has a habit reaction pattern to feel fear and run in the opposite direction or take a defensive stance when faced with a potential for committed relationship.  This is a pattern imprinted in reaction to his earlier negative experiences in relationship.

The inner habit reaction equation may be something like this, commitment = self death or loss.  The intensity of the equation relates to the degree of fear the person felt at that alpha relationship that created the habit reaction pattern.  This equation is an oversimplified description of one previous relationship that was in some way made definitive to the person.

The equation was developed to avoid the pain that came with that relationship.  The inner habit reaction keeps the person from living in the here-and-now because it takes over as soon as a risk is perceived, disallowing the opportunity for the individual to see his own behavior and responsibility in the pain caused in the earlier or any subsequent relationship.

The person feels fear and reacts as if the situation is dangerous, as if it is exactly the same, as if the past is happening in the now.  This sets up the power of the habit reaction pattern and the instantaneous/automatic reaction quality.  Often the individual is unaware that he is acting under the influence of a habit reaction pattern.  He may feel he has great instincts but in reality he is cutting off his connection to his instinctual sensory system.

He may desire a committed relationship but because of his habit reaction pattern he finds himself continually having to survive relationships that feel dangerous, so isn’t able to participate in a committed relationship.  He feels powerless to change the cycle and only feels powerful within the habit reaction pattern.  He desires something that he feels powerless to attain because of the habit reaction pattern.  It’s a paradigm that keeps him stuck; shifting his perspective, shifting the paradigm allows him to see his way through.

Increasing his attention and intention, placing himself in the center of the situation and re-viewing his perceptions and perspective – all mindful actions – allows for the opportunity to view the situation in the present moment unfettered by the habit reaction pattern and story of the past.  It places the past in the past, and by doing so allows for a more mindful whole-istic perspective from that event to be incorporated into himself and then applied to the present situation.

This allows for the illusion of the obstacle or stuckness to shift so that the way through is presented in a clear and obvious way.

In order for the illusion of the obstacle to shift, the paradigms, perspectives, and rigid belief systems must shift to fit the actual present moment situation.  This internal shifting allows for the unfettered presentation of the way through.

Mindfulness allows you to see the way.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Being at the threshold is exhilarating.  It is a mixture of excitement, fear, strength and letting go.  It’s standing in a place of neither here nor there and both simultaneously.

It has an unreal or murky quality as if seeing through water into another space.  It is the moment of change when you can feel the change is coming but may not have a clear picture of the outcome.  Sometimes this is instantaneous and sometimes the space of the threshold is extended.

Most developmental tasks like starting a new job, creating your family, creating your career, and  increasing your self-knowing, require this space, this time of being in-between, or being at the threshold of stepping off.  They have the mixed experience of excitement, fear, the unknown and trust.

It’s a space of letting go and stepping forward, of risking change – it’s in the energy of  the Fool card in the Tarot. When I first started my psychotherapy practice I used to spend a lot of time considering this space.

The process of psychotherapy is always moving away unwanted, unneeded garbage, – thinkings and feelings, undesirable or outdated habit reaction patterns, – and moving into a waiting space until new habits and patterns of being in the world are embraced.

Some of my more compelling paintings are of threshold spaces and themes, beautifully colored spirals, and doorways into more openings and pathways.

Being on the threshold is a space that I am drawn to experience.  It is this ever-expanding sense of movement through space from a metaphorical perspective.

From a practical perspective it can feel unpleasant because it is an unknown space – a space of something that is to be revealed.  Although some people are most comfortable in that space just before a decision is made, most people find the waiting, the space of unknowing or just before, to be uncomfortable and difficult to tolerate.

A threshold from a psychological perspective is a space between two different existential planes.   A friend  of mine, in her monthly spiritual newsletter at  http://www.terrylamb.net, discusses the concept of the Jungian liminal space not infrequently.  She integrates this concept with astrology.

A Jungian liminal space is a threshold space.

In Jungian theory the Individuation process of self-realization takes place within a liminal space. The process of  Individuation happens typically in middle age, and it can be seen as a movement through liminal space and time, from disorientation or separation of themes to integration.

What takes place in the shadowy, murky phase of liminality is a process of breaking down and letting go and what I call breaking through or stepping through to the new, full, whole self; one is “Making whole” ones meaning, purpose and sense of relatedness in ones style of being in the world and relation to self.

Carl Rogers describes the client therapist relationship as having an  “outside-of-this-world” quality. It has a sort of trance-like feeling. The client-therapist relationship, can be described as a liminal space, a threshold between two worlds of experience – that of the therapist and the client in the phenomenological space of the therapy room.

It is a space from which both client and therapist emerge at the end of the hour, as if from a deep well or tunnel or shared knowing/experiencing.   It  marks off the special kind of reality of a psychoanalytic or psychotherapy session, the different kind of reality that is within it.

Jungians, archetypal therapists, and Rogerian therapists describe the requirement or need to accord space, time and place for liminal feeling.  It can be a bit exhilarating to be on that edge and as such it is important to honor also movement through the space and allow the opportunity for a new developmental threshold to present itself when appropriate.

Psychotherapy is not required to find yourself at the threshold in your life path or to even experience the exhilaration of moving through it.

Mindfulness is the most useful tool at this fascinating place.

Using your connection to yourself and placing yourself in the center of your world through present moment focus, compassion, acceptance, allowing and paradigm recognition and shifting allows for movement through the doorway, through the developmental task and doorway, into the enlightened place available to you at the other side of the threshold.

When you find yourself at the threshold remember to Breathe.

Embrace your whole self and Allow your inner sense of life to move you gently along your path.

Mindfulness will give you a focus and a sense of ritual and relief as you again re-member, re-connect, who you are and what is at your center, your heart center.

Being at the threshold can be like a playful and sacred space if you allow yourself to embrace your full whole mind, body, spirit self.

Think of the threshold between night and day, day and night, and how sunrising and sunsetting connects you to spiritual and material aspects of your environment.

These transitional times occur every day.  Other transitional times occur weekly and throughout our lives.  There are many types of transitional spaces that can offer opportunities to experience the space between two existential planes.

Keeping mindful about this in the daily function of your life will attune you to your inner self so that when a transitional developmental task presents itself for discovery you are able to fully apply your mindful present moment attention to the experience.

Acknowledging these and being in the moment at the threshold seems to offer opportunities to heal, release, grow, and transform at a quantum level.

The threshold offers us an opportunity to begin anew like caterpillars shedding cocoons and becoming butterflies.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

What defines success?

Is it the outcome, or how others see you?  Outside-in process. OR  Is it how you see yourself?  Inside-out process.

The outside-in process keeps the reins of your success outside of you so that you must keep performing to feel a sense of self-esteem – leaving you with an external locus of control.  This is a state wherein your self-esteem dwindles between successes and requires constant attention to remain buoyed.

The inside-out process is the opposite.  One develops an internal locus of control and is buoyed from within between successes and even through failures or difficult trials.  This is what we want to develop in ourselves and our children so that we can weather the storms of life.

When you get kudos for something you did, it can pull you away from what’s inside, or who you are, especially if the thing you accomplished did not develop out of an internal drive toward something but rather to make another happy.  It puts you at cross-purposes where you are working to get the kudos but not necessarily focusing your energy onto your own goals.

If you are pulled forward toward the creation of something by an inspiration from within, then the kudos for that thing transcend the exterior into the true self, and connect directly with your self-esteem.  This can be enhanced by the support of others but develops you along the path you have identified for yourself.

The development of self-esteem is an internal process.

If you are helping a child develop his or her self-esteem it is an internal process that is guided from the outside.

It requires a type of mindfulness that applies lovingkindness, compassion and perspective toward the child with an intuition of what is happening within him or her.  It is a reinforcing of his or her internal talents and vocations.

Self-esteem is caring about, having a fondness for, and connection to, ones self in a balanced and harmonious way.  Don’t think narcissism, think joy de vive – it’s a gentle sweetness.  Self esteem is an energy that says I can do it – or I can’t do that but it’s ok, I’m ok.  It’s accepting and strong, both.

When you are developing a positive self-esteem within your child, successes and accomplishments and people being proud of  him or her are necessary.  This looks outside-in, but it is actually a reinforcement of inside-out behavior.

The way in which this is promoted or encouraged is though en –courage -ing.  Distilling the inner courage by taking advantage of courageous opportunities.  Successes are not required for this to develop, however having triumphs over  small conflicts is very helpful.

Mindful intuitive guidance helps to focus those opportunities so that the child can move through to see the growth and expansion he or she can create.  Courage is the energy of moving through the fear of something to see that you can do it.  It is also the energy that embraces how we are different and unique, and how these unique talents may create opportunities in our life-path, embracing the whole of who we are.

The utilization of mindfulness as a way of navigating our environment  increases our understanding of ourselves and others.

Mindfulness incorporates an integrated spiral inspiration and expiration of sensing information, while remaining connected to that inner compass of spirit-self.

Cool image don’t you think – an integrated inspiration and expiration of sensing information while being connected to that inner compass of spirit self, – I see it as the spiraling dna-structure or a kundalini spiral of energy.

I once experienced a kundalini spiral of energy.  It began at the base of my spine and  swiftly moved up along my spine through all my chakra energy centers.  I had the most cathartic and joyful feeling rising through my body.  It was automatic and profoundly joyful.  It was like a laugh or cry of joy that began deep within me and then rumbled out quite unexpectedly and rather forcefully and uncontrollable like a sweet little belch of happiness.  I can only lightly remember the whole of the experience – much like birthing my child – only remnants of the experience remain.  I believe this is partially because the full emotional and visceral qualities of the memory are not held within my mind but within my body.

The full body memories seem to be re-kindled when involved in a similar activity.

Self-esteem has the same quality of wholeness.  Feeling a sense of self-confidence can be re-kindled when participating in a similar experience or activity whence once you built it.  It’s one of the reasons that once you have a habit of success with something you want to repeat the experience or activity because it reinforces that sense of self-confidence or self-esteem.

It’s also why using repetition can ingrain a greater sense of self-confidence.  The trick is to practice the activity correctly so that what is entrained is positive and en-courage-ing.  You want to avoid, side-step, setting into place a negative habit reaction pattern.  This relates to activities like math, and gymnastics, and bicycle riding, but it also applies to social interactions, problem solving, and facing fears.

Mindfulness increases your connection to yourself so that you can have a more accurate ability to focus your positive energy toward your own successes and growth.  Teaching mindfulness to your child increases your child’s capacity to find courage and attain an inner sense of en-courage-ment.

Watching my daughter practice her gymnastics I observe how perfectly she stands on the beam, and I am grateful to her gymnastics coach for teaching her small components that en-courage her to continue and build her inner self-confidence through her constantly developing spiral of success.  Step-by-step she moves toward her own internal goal of perfection through the mindful guidance of her coach who provides the requisite set of practices to allow her mind and body to develop the building blocks of self-confidence and then mastery.

Mindfulness is truly a treasure as it allows us to move back to center and en-courage our best self to come out and play.  It en-lightens our awareness, and increases our connection to our inner locus of control and develops a solid self-esteem.

Mindfulness is re-member-ing, re- connecting our experiences so that we can build on the components that best help us move toward our goals.  Mindfulness is like my daughter’s fantastic gymnastic coach gently pulling us back to center, then adding a new move and refocusing us, and then moving on to keep adding the building blocks of success.

Use mindfulness to get a handle on what parts of your life are under your internal locus of control.  If there are areas that feel like they are controlled from without, use mindfulness to bring you to center.  Then with compassion and lovingkindness reframe, re-set your center so that you can connect or re-connect with your own positive self-esteem.

See you tomorrow.

Beth

Hello

Loving another is a funny journey of faith and risk.  It is an adventure of the most daring kind.  It teaches you about yourself and the other, as well as The Way, the Tao. It requires knowing, perceiving, negotiating, holding on, and letting go.

It is a strange sort of risk, a sense of faith and trust of knowing yourself, and knowing the other.  Seeing through the facade the other presents to protect self while secretly wanting to be seen and loved for his true self.  Loving through your own facade and fears to find a peaceful connection and acceptance.

And just to spice up the adventure, there is the issue of time and space, and accepting the inevitable knowledge that everything changes.  It requires being willing to enlist anew in that dynamic process, holding on to what matters and the truth in the relationship while letting go of the fears and attachment.

It’s a risk to love.  A risk of interpretation.  A risk of acceptance and expectation.  A risk of perception.  It’s a risk of loss of what is gained.  It’s a risk to allow yourself to be seen and to see the other.  Risky because being faced with the intimate experience of love is so invigorating and vulnerable.

In order for true love to be felt there is a degree of self that must be released to make room for integration with the other in relationship.

I believe there is a strong connection between intimacy, vulnerability, risk, and connection.

When you are in a relationship with someone who does not allow himself to be vulnerable, then the relationship is not risky – but it is also not intimate.  The connection is more superficial, and less profound, but relatively safe.

The risk in love IS to be seen and cared for – and then to WANT to be connected… the risk is that in the seeing and being you feel real like in the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, where the love of the boy transforms the bunny into something truly special.

Risking what happens when change or loss comes, as it inevitably will, the pain will be greater.  It’s risking the pain, in order to have the amazing joy of being seen and loved.

I have found that the depth of ones grief is equal to the height of one’s joy.  Therein lies the risk in loving….

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.  ~Jean Anouilh

True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self.  ~William Butler Yeats

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.  ~Victor Hugo

Love is when you can be your true self with someone, and you only want to be your true self because of them.  ~Terri Guillemets

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love.  It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.  ~W. Somerset Maugham

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.  ~G.K. Chesterton

There is a lovely children’s book that I read in my high school French class that I carry in my heart about the meaning, adventure, committment, and risk required in love.

Le Petit Prince  by Antoine de Saint-Exupery  “Here is my secret.  It is very simple.  It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye…  It’s the time that you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important. . . . People have forgotten this truth,” the fox said, “But you mustn’t forget it. “You become responsible for what you’ve tamed.”

“You’re responsible for your rose. . . .”You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.  But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…” “If you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life.”

Like a number of well written children’s books and fairy tales, this book offers supreme guidance on a major developmental task of life.  Faith and trust are the paramount components of loving.  Risking self and loss is required in love.

There are a lot of books that talk about how to calculate the risk and reduce the percentage of loss but as long as intimacy and self are involved in order to truly love and be seen one must step off the cliff like the fool card in the Tarot, Trusting one’s mindful heart.

Mindfulness is the key to reducing the risk while keeping the intimate connection – mindfulness and present moment focus.  These help to surround the risk with compassion, integrity, and character.

I hope you have a fantastic adventure in loving.

See you tomorrow.

Beth