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Are You the Director or the Actor in the Play that is Your Life? – Richard’s Commentary
This is such a wonderful question Rosemary asks. It’s one of those questions that makes you go “hmmm”! It stops me and makes me think. And, it’s another one of those questions that take me inside, to examine, to evaluate, and maybe, just maybe to shift!
Here’s the key to Rosemary’s Exploration:
What did you used to believe about yourself, life, the world around you that might be holding you back today? Is it your unconscious mind that is the Director while you and your conscious mind are merely the Actors on the stage?
It’s those old beliefs, those old programs that run on automatic when our attention strays, when “unforeseen situations arise,” or when we simply get caught off guard in a moment of weakness.
Here’s a simple example that is trite but true, a cliché of our times: driving in traffic I still find myself getting upset by unconscious drivers who are in some way impeding my progress! Then I realize I am being unconscious myself in my angry reactions. I take a breath, go briefly inside to remember my impatience is getting in my own way, release frustration and then move along more smoothly – until the next inattentive driver annoys me!
This is a life-long habit. I probably learned it from my father, even though in rural Wisconsin he did not face the driving difficulties we have here in the East! I know I am being the Actor in my little stage play about driving in traffic and my unconscious mind is the Director in this play. It is a hard habit to break and I get plenty of opportunities to practice!
I find my breath work, as part of my Qigong and Yoga practices help me overcome, or at least recover from habits of a lifetime. As long as I remember to breathe intentionally I can short-circuit the old programming and my conscious mind can recover control and direct my life.
Here’s how that works: one of my practices is to employ the Hamsa mantra as taught by Swami Muktananda (ref: I Am That The Science of HAMSA from the Vignana Bhairava). This is probably the simplest yet most profound mantra in the Yogic tradition. “Ham” means “I am” and Sa means “that.” It may also be seen and pronounced or read as So’ham “that I am” depending on personal preference and breath flow.
Ham is the sound of the breath as you inhale. Sa or So is the sound of the breath as you exhale. My natural breath includes a more lengthy pause after exhaling so I use Hamsa as my breath mantra; in other words it seems more natural for me to inhale before I exhale. Practice both ways; if it seems more natural for you to exhale first then So’ham may be the better way for you to use this key mantra.
For that matter you can even use English here inhaling on the “I Am” and exhaling on the “That.” The real key is to become aware of the breath and then become intentional about breathing through the recovery from habitual action and reaction you are working to reprogram. As Rosemary writes:
You can’t just decide to do things differently and have your unconscious mind let go of those old beliefs. They are programs that are running all the time. They are beliefs that trump conscious decisions many times.
The work is to go inside and uncover the programs and reprogram your mind.
Breath work is an excellent tool to aid you in the reprogramming effort.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Are You the Director or the Actor in the Play that is Your Life?
It is really easy to convince ourselves that we are always directing the activities in our lives. We think that we are in charge. And, yet, we often find ourselves acting against our plans, our choices, our mental outlines for our lives.
Have you ever planned to diet/exercise/be more productive/call a friend, etc., and then found that you didn’t follow through? Was it because you didn’t want to do what you thought or was it because something ‘came up’ and you didn’t get to it?
What do you believe about what ‘comes up’ in your life?
The Director of a stage play is the one who determines how a scene will look, who will stand where when, when and where entrances and exits will occur. The Actors look the way the Director wants them to look, stands where they are told to stand, moves where and when they are told to move.
When you look at your own life, how many times have you intended to go in one direction and something happens to shift that plan?
Of course, many times unforeseen situations arise and we must be in flow, be adaptable. And your unconscious mind can bring those so-called ‘unforeseen situations’ into the scenario for an unconscious reason because your conscious plan conflicts with a belief held at the unconscious level.
I see this in clients all the time. The intention is there. Everything seems to be lined up. And then something happens.
I’ve seen it in my own life. It’s called ‘self-sabotage’ and it doesn’t go away because the conscious mind makes a decision to change things.
On January 1 every year millions of people make New Year’s resolutions and, by February 1, most of those resolutions have been broken. I stopped that dance a long time ago!
It is in your unconscious mind that the programs and habits of a lifetime reside. If you were told as a child that you ‘don’t deserve X, Y or Z’ then your unconscious mind continues to believe that event if you are decades beyond hearing that phrase. If you told yourself when you were a teenager going through puberty and wishing for a date that you were too ugly to be asked out/to ask out that girl you liked, then that inner teenager might still believe that about you even if the mirror in today’s reality doesn’t confirm that truth.
What did you used to believe about yourself, life, the world around you that might be holding you back today? Is it your unconscious mind that is the Director while you and your conscious mind are merely the Actors on the stage?
You can’t just decide to do things differently and have your unconscious mind let go of those old beliefs. They are programs that are running all the time. They are beliefs that trump conscious decisions many times.
The work is to go inside and uncover the programs and reprogram your mind.
Ask yourself if you are really the Director or if there is something unconscious at work today that you would like to reprogram. Then do the work and get the appropriate help to do that reprogramming.
Decide to be the Director AND the Actor in the play of your life!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Are you the Director or the Actor?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Are you the Director or the Actor?
PS: If you would like to hear more from Rosemary and the Dimensions she channels check out The Oracle Speaks. Details on the website
MONDAY’S POEM: Cool Autumn Mist
I have always enjoyed Haiku. I haven’t written any for a long while but need to dust off an old volume I have floating somewhere in the house. Here’s a new one for today:
Cool autumn mist
Drips from the leaden sky
Becomes real rain.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Haiku are fun to write. Write your own and send it to me as a comment!
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – All our Relations
I dug in the archives for this one – back to 2010. I think the Full Moon and eclipse Wednesday morning (I got a good glimpse of it as the Moon was setting) shifted a few things. I am feeling more connected. And this poem is about that. When the Native Americans use this expression, “and All our Relations” they are offering prayers for everyone and everything; they feel connected because they are. And whether we feel it or not we are!
All our Relations
Connections, Relations,
There is a difference.
Sure, we are all connected.
The air you breathe, I breathe.
The atoms of Adam’s body
Are in your body, my body.
We are of the Earth;
These are connections.
We are all connected.
And your DNA is my DNA.
Your Mother is my Mother
A thousand generations back.
Your Father is my Father’s cousin
Not so long ago.
The blood of the Buddha,
Blood of Christ
Flows in your veins, my veins,
And all our Relations’.
©2010 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Hostage Situation – Inside Yourself? – Richard’s Commentary
I can certainly relate to Rosemary’s Exploration this week. And it’s not any one or big fear that holds me back from “living my richest life.” It’s usually little things. And when I move beyond the fear and look back I think: “what was I ever afraid of?”
Most of my little fears come from my childhood. I was an only child for a long time – my next brother came along when I was already eight. I was protected and even revered within my extend and large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And because family was always there I didn’t have to venture out much into greater society.
So, when Rosemary asks: What part of you is holding another part hostage? I can usually point to my inner child – that protected and easy living six year-old.
Rosemary is exactly right when she says:
But most of the fears that I see with clients represent a conflict between a part that wants to step forward and a part that is afraid to do that.
It can be around any issue: a relationship, a job, money, family, taking a risk, making a decision. There is a feeling of wanting to move and yet, at the same time, a sense of paralysis.
My adult self always wants to step forward; I am usually energetic, decisive and know what I want. But sometimes that six year-old digs in his heals and sets up a block out of some weird sense of protectiveness.
Does this ever happen to you? Do you ever feel paralysis as you work toward an important goal? When this happens to me I usually have to go inside to work through the issue. Sometimes I even have a talk with the six year-old to calm any fears he may be experiencing. I remind him of several factors in the situation:
- I am in charge and I know what I am doing; I’m the adult, after all!
- We have done things like this before and it always comes out well!
- Look to the end result, the success. Doesn’t that make you happy?
- Let’s just move forward and see what happens; you’ll be OK.
This inner dialogue can take several forms: meditation, writing, even sometimes a shamanic journey (for me this is similar to an inner guided meditation) to visit my places of safety and my power animals. I can even take my six year-old into the future to see the positive outcome and allay any further fear.
Of course using a coach or counselor is always an option. Inner child work can be very powerful and productive. The tools and help are there for all of us to “live our richest lives!”
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Hostage Situation – Inside Yourself?
What part of you is holding another part hostage?
If that question is hard to answer, then try this one: What is Fear keeping you from doing in your life?
We have so many fears, many of them unconscious, and they can cripple our progress through life. Sometimes it is a fear of public speaking (have you heard that this is often greater than the fear of death?) or it might be a fear of spiders. Some have a fear of flying that keeps them from enjoying vacations to distant lands.
But most of the fears that I see with clients represent a conflict between a part that wants to step forward and a part that is afraid to do that.
It can be around any issue: a relationship, a job, money, family, taking a risk, making a decision. There is a feeling of wanting to move and yet, at the same time, a sense of paralysis.
Have you ever felt this way? Perhaps you are feeling this today around something that is going on in your life.
What have you thought about doing that you are not doing YET? What has been hanging around waiting for the perfect time for you to commit to it? Where do you want to go in your life that you have been afraid to move toward?
There is always some fear lurking in the issue when we feel torn about a decision or making a move in a certain direction. Sometimes the fear is that we don’t know what to do next. It might be a fear that we’ll make the wrong decision or choice and there will be consequences.
The part inside of you that is holding you hostage to a fear may not be revealing the exact nature of that fear to you. Often a client will come to me with one issue and the REAL issue is something behind the one they can see.
I spent a VIP Day with a client once who wanted to plan out her business and marketing as we discussed in her preparatory session. She came with calendars and plans in hand. What happened during our hours together, though, showed why she had been unable to get those plans organized.
There were family issues to be resolved before her unconscious mind would allow her to leap forward in her business. We spent most of the time working through the blocks and fears that had been lurking behind her indecisiveness.
After the work of clearing those blocks and fears, we sailed through the business part of the planning!
That is the power of CLEARING THE FEAR! When a part of you is being held hostage by a fearful part, you must learn what the fear is and how to satisfy the part that holds the fear BEFORE you can take the next step in whatever area of your life where you feel stuck.
How are you holding yourself back in your life? Have you identified the fear?
Move the fear out of the way so that you can move freely toward the life you desire!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What Are You Holding Back in Yourself?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What Are You Holding Back in Yourself?
MONDAY’S POEM: Conflicted Poet
There is a Full Moon coming up this week on Wednesday, 6:51 AM Eastern time. As the moon swells it is good to tune into her energy and all the energies around and within. Just notice how you feel. Go out and view the moon and tune in. Observe everyone around you, the driving (also Mercury is retrograde now), the attention span of the people you encounter. This is a good “noticing” time.
It can also be a time of conflict, inner and outer. Here’s a poem for this time:
Conflicted Poet
What does a conflicted poet write?
What bubbles up from below?
What trickles down from above?
Love. A poet writes of love
For all the world to read
And understand this Queen.
Low. A poet sinks so low
To find the deepest part
And understand this King.
Light. A poet merges with Light
To sing of the highest peaks
And understand this God.
A poet writes of highs and lows.
He writes of light and sings above.
And most of all he writes of Love!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
I wrote today’s poem in early 2013 as a way to live that year, life. There is a cycling about this poem of circles, hinges and turnings. And with faith there is a spiraling that powers the evolution of consciousness. There may be other acts that we, as humans, need to live by, but for me these are three of the most important ones:
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
Three acts to live by:
Love, where it all begins
And ends.
The circle of everything
Turns with the tides
As the Moon loves down.
Forgiveness, in the middle,
The hinge.
It all turns on this act,
Swinging ‘round and ‘round
As a gateless gate for passage.
Gratitude, the end,
No end.
Turning about the center
Where it All rests
As we give thanks and praise.
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude:
Grace.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 