INSPIRATION FROM ROSEMARY: Are You Struggling?
PS: Do you feel ready for the coming transformations? Are you in the flow and ready for that next opportunity coming your way? If you need answers for questions like “what is my next step?” Rosemary can help. Schedule a FREE Discovery Session with her to be sure you are ready! Schedule Here
Monday’s Poem: Not for Me
I’ve been writing recently about my “Floating Heads” who spoke to me through Rosemary last December. This was during one of her Conversations with The Other Side. I am recalling that December event in anticipation of the Conversation Rosemary has scheduled for tonight, Monday, May 20 at 7:00 PM Eastern time. (See below for details how you can join.) And also see the posts about that December Conversation here if you are at all interested in how a Medium, like Rosemary works: December Post
I wrote this poem back in February remembering what my “Floating Heads” had to say to me:
Not for Me
Not for me but them
They say.
But why, what meaning then
Can pay
For all the errors of this
Poor way?
Just keep doing, write on
They say.
It makes no matter when
We pay.
All errors are erased along
The way.
Erased? But how I wonder now.
No pay?
Can this be true? I wonder how.
They say
it can be so: the forgiving Tao’s
The Way.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: There is still time and some space available for tonight’s Conversation. It is held online using either video conferencing or phone. Learn more here
The Fever Story; 2nd and Final Chapter (and only the beginning!)
Both Rosemary and I have been writing for some time about the importance of the times we are in; these times of great change, transformation. We are not alone in our sense and our gathering information and exploring the energies, vibrations, influences and characteristics of these times. If you are reading this blog and you are breathing then you know what we are talking and writing about. There is both a sense of great elation, of a coming freedom we have not yet known, and a sense of impending doom. I’ve heard many people speak of these “dire” times we have entered.
With this sense of great change afoot, I return to my story about my fever last week and what it means to me. My friends, the “Floating Heads” (ref: this post) had more to tell me about the meanings behind the illness:
QRS: Listen to the music: you are opening to love. Your chest is cracking open. Your body is the chrysalis that is splitting to reveal your inner splendor. This is a very vulnerable time for you. Feel it. Go with it. There is no putting it back together now. The butterfly in all her sensitivity and delicate style is emerging. Treat yourself very gently now. Watch and feel this process.
Be very careful with your emotions. Cry if that’s what you need. Don’t forget to laugh. Examine every moment as a new learning experience. Your “What is this?” question applies to every moment. Don’t waste a single one; examine everything as a curious child. No anger, no judgment, no second guessing. It all just is. Trust it all as perfection and part of the growth experience. Remember when you emerged from your first experience of a sweat lodge ceremony? It’s like that. You are birthing yourself out of the heart of the fever and gradually appearing as new creature. Learn all there is for you to gain in these next weeks and months. Receive. Don’t over-analyze. Accept. Breathe it all in as a wondrous New Being.
End of the story!
Now it’s up to me to do the work. And it’s all about awareness. It is about living in the moment and being inquisitive. “What is this?” It is living with this great mantra/koan/question: “What is this?” Awaken to curiosity – the curiosity of a child! With this curiosity comes delight. Lightness and laughter abound. This is the awakening I am called to and long for. This is it!
Why do I write all of this? Why am I telling you this personal story?
We are all in this together. I am not alone in my awakening journey. You are here with me. We are in the great transformation. Live it with me. Are you curious about what comes next? Join me in this curious, exciting, maybe dangerous, certainly delightful exploration of what comes next!
You are not alone!
Brain Science, Storytelling, and YOU! – Richard’s Commentary
I have a recent story to tell and I hope I only have to tell it once! As always it is a question of learning the lessons. Here’s the story:
About a week ago I started running a fever. I had no real symptoms other than the severe body aches and pains that often accompany a fever. As this one developed not only did the aches and pains get worse but the fever turned into significant shakes and sweats over a three-day and night period. I had not experienced this kind of illness since I came down with malaria in Africa more than 40 years ago – it was that bad!
The fever was at its worst right at the New Moon/Solar eclipse last Thursday evening. I went to the doc Friday afternoon about the time I started to feel just a bit better. Lots of causes, thankfully, have been eliminated. And now I am much better, finishing a course of antibiotics even though I suspect it was viral. But much more important than the medical report or even my symptoms and treatment are the lessons and symbols represented by this fever and my experience of it.
I have been processing this experience, this story since I was well enough to meditate and write about it. And my old friends, QRS (remember my “floating heads”?) have helped me with some interpretation. Here’s the real story of my serious fever:
What is the message from my unconscious mind via my body?
QRS: Your body heated up to burn out some impurities. The shakes were because you are not using the “shaking technique” from Jeff Primack (this is a Qi-generating approach by shaking the whole body for a period of time; we did it for 12 minutes at the Qi-Revolution weekend!). Do it for five minutes every day. It will help. The sweats were to purge impurities through your largest organ – your skin. Shower to cleanse away the toxins. Heat, fire is from the heart. You are heart-broken for multiple reasons. The fever was a reminder of the fire and passion of your heart and that you need to attend and mend the brokenness before you can do any real work of consequence. The fire was a tempering and a mending process. You will emerge from this stronger if you take these words “to heart”! The weakness was to get you to rest. You have to be quiet to mend. Your quiet time has helped. The aches and pains were your body knocking at your door to let you know it needs your care. Yes, Qigong has been good. But keep it up. Don’t let your body turn to brittle old bones!
Your mind has been in a fog. This was a reminder to not slip away into a fog like your dad did! Awaken! And stay awake.
You think you have been working hard on yourself. Don’t mistake effort for accomplishment. Working hard is only part of it. Achieving is necessary. Awaken! It is time to break out. Move beyond the chrysalis stage and emerge, fly. You have so much to do, but time is not infinite. Deaths of your friends are to remind you of this. Their time ran out; mission accomplished. Yes, you have your purpose, your mission, but you only have the rest of your life to fulfill it. Don’t let us down. Wake up!
This explanation of my story has helped me realize the fever had its purpose. And I have my lesson to take to heart. As I wrote this I also recalled the Buddhist prayer, or Evening Gatha, we recited at Zen Mountain Monastery when I spent some time there:
Let me respectfully remind you,
Life and death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken. . .
. . . awaken,
Take heed. Do not squander your life.
Do not squander your life…
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Brain Science, Storytelling, and YOU!
Recent studies of the science of the brain are showing us that we can create new neural pathways by thinking new thoughts. And the more we think those new thoughts, the stronger those pathways grow. By the same token, old pathways can break down with misuse or get rewired.
Wow! That means you can give yourself a new brain by thinking new thoughts! As The Scientific Mystic, I think this is cool science!
Of course, if you reinforce old thoughts, old patterns, you strengthen those pathways. Hmmmmm… That means that if we keep telling the same old stories, thinking the same old thoughts, we dig ourselves into deeper trenches in our brain that make coming out of those trenches more difficult than they need to be.
This is bad enough when we keep retelling our own stories. Do you know some people who seem to be stuck in their victimhood because they keep re-telling their story and they never change the ending to claim their power now? It’s as if they are magically drawn to the past and they somehow get stuck there. We do that to ourselves unconsciously, too. We hold onto grudges because we keep reliving that past hurt or anger or upset and we reinforce the patterns of old.
We don’t need to keep doing that, however. Many survivors of horrendous abuse can tell you that, although it is extremely difficult work, therapy has helped them to move on from their victimhood. In my coaching practice I can see amazing progress in the clients who work to shift their stories into being the empowered hero of their own lives. As a matter of fact, I don’t work with clients who are unwilling to write a new story because we have so many tools to facilitate the shift that there’s no need to stay stuck.
The most insidious stories are those that come down the family tree, or from a parent or authority figure from our childhood. These we accepted, as children, as absolute truth and haven’t brought them up to be re-examined in light of our adult understanding. They run the program of ‘Me’ at the unconscious level and we don’t even know whose story is creating our life.
The first step in becoming the hero of your life is to look at your stories. What are they? Are they true? Or do you keep re-deciding to believe something that might not be true in the present moment? You are always at choice about what to believe. This is an active process. But first you must bring your beliefs into the open so that you can decide with consciousness whether or not you want to keep believing that way.
What you thought about the world when you were 7 years old just might not be true for you at 37 or 57 or 77. Maybe it’s time to re-decide?
How exciting that brain science in the 21st Century is helping us to shift! We have amazing techniques available to shift our neurology by thinking new thoughts, writing new stories. We can live a conscious life by examining the thoughts we have, the stories we tell ourselves and others, the beliefs that underlie the choices we make.
I recently heard Candace Pert, PhD, a molecular biologist, speak about science and spirituality. She wrote the book, Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine. I love what she said about the Brain: “The Brain works by making up stories. People sometimes rent out space in their brains to people who have been dead for years by telling and clinging to old stories.”
Make sure YOU are the one who decides which stories to tell and which ones to evict!
PS: Here is a fun way to find out who might be renting space in your brain: join Rosemary for a Conversation with The Other Side. Next Monday, May 20, at 7:00 pm she is offering an online Conversation where you can talk to anyone from your past who has crossed over whose story you may be holding on to. Get more information and registration details at TheScientificMystic.com
INSPIRATION FROM ROSEMARY: Whose Story Are You Telling?
My video for the week: Whose Story Are You Telling?
PS: Here is a fun way to find out who might be renting space in your brain: join Rosemary for a Conversation with The Other Side. Next Monday, May 20, at 7:00 pm she is offering an online Conversation where you can talk to anyone from your past who has crossed over whose story you may be holding on to. Get more information and registration details at TheScientificMystic.com
I Ching Cast for the New Moon in Taurus; May 9, 2013
Yes, it’s Monday, but since I published a “Sunday Poem” for Mothers’ Day yesterday, I am publishing my “moonthly” I Ching reading for the Taurus New Moon (and solar eclipse) that occurred last Thursday evening (8:29 pm EDT).
As I enjoy doing on, or shortly after the New Moon, I cast a Gua, a hexagram, for the I Ching to see what the yarrow stalks had to tell me about the energies for the up-coming moonth. For me this helps put me in a frame of anticipation as I calmly manipulate the yarrow stalks to generate the 6 Yao, or lines, of the Gua. And, after the power of this New Moon, which included a solar eclipse, I really needed both calming and anticipation!
The hexagram I cast was Fu which means “Turning Back” in The Complete I Ching translated by Taoist Master Alfred Huang.
Note that the third line is a six, a greater yin line which means it’s a moving line. The energy of the moonth may begin with Fu, but the moving line generates a new Gua when the third line moves to a yang line. The new Gua and therefore the new energy coming in during the moonth is symbolized by the hexagram Ming Yi which means “Brilliance Injured.”
“Turning Back” is about the cycles of life. Everything turns and returns. Dawn follows the night. The Decision for this Gua is positive and ends with “Favorable to have somewhere to go.”
As I look at this in the greater context of the New Moon/Solar Eclipse I can see positive change coming as the result; the expected transformation is in its early stages of unfolding. The “turning back” is part of a cycle that may be repeating but the cycle is more like a spiral that rises with each dawn. There is a direction to the cycle: favorable to have somewhere to go!
There is a concern expressed here in the third yao, the changing line: the Yao Text for the third six (greater yin) is “Repeatedly turning back. Adversity. No fault. This “turning back” feels like spinning wheels. No progress can be made this way. And while this sense of being stuck may be excusable (no fault) I am glad to receive this warning that there could be some “wheel-spinning” energy the early part of this moonth.
There is a Chinese saying that helps with my understanding of “Brilliance Injured”: “tao guang yang hui” which means “hide one’s light and abide one’s time.” Here too is a message about the energy of the moonth: it might be wise to keep one’s head down and exercise patience. Yes, change is coming; the lower trigram is Li or Fire. But fire is under the upper trigram, Kun or Earth. This is like sunset; the light is hidden under the darkness, below the earth’s horizon. There may be some darkness, some shadow energy hidden in the change energy this moonth.
The advice I have taken from this divination is “don’t let the darkness extinguish the light; just turn your light down a notch and remain steadfast and upright. Remember the “turning back” – the sun will rise again.
There is one more piece of good news in this accomplished gua, Ming Yi: its mutual gua is Jie, Relief. Biding one’s time does lead to relief!
Have a good moonth and keep your head down!
Please enjoy!
