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ROSEMARY’S COMMENTARY: How’s Your Health?
Balance and Health; they really do go together! In the video posted yesterday, Rosemary speaks of balancing the four bodies: Spiritual, Mental, Emotional and Physical. And this is the way to health as well! So often we think of health as a well body, our physical body. The physical level may be where a symptom shows up most prominently, but how often does a dis-ease begin at another level? Here’s Rosemary on Health. I’ll be back tomorrow (Thursday) with my own commentary on Rosemary’s MuseLetter (subscribe).
I’m writing this as I sit in a doctor’s office while my daughter sees a surgeon about having her gall bladder removed. It’s sobering to see your loved one in pain.
So I’m thinking about the pain that so many people have, every day, because their health isn’t what they would like it to be. Not just physical health, but also emotional health, mental health, spiritual health. It’s so important to be healthy on all levels that just focusing on the physical doesn’t lead us to the life of our dreams.
What’s the last thing you did for your emotional health? Are you looking at your life for keys to the blocks that you are experiencing? Have you mined the past on your personal timeline to learn the lessons of your experiences? Are you developing new tools for your responses so your knee-jerk reaction isn’t where you get stuck when something happens in your life?
How about your mental health? Have you examined the tapes that play in your head for their source and to decide whether to keep them playing or to change them? Do you know what negative thoughts are popping up and keeping you from growing into the person you were meant to be? Are you holding yourself back from your greatness because you think you can’t be great?
And your spiritual health is most important because the beliefs you hold affect all the other levels of your being. Your beliefs affect your thoughts which generate your emotions and, finally, present as physical health problems if you haven’t cleared them. Oftentimes, beliefs come from our childhood or our family tree or our environment [society, teachers, churches, etc.]. They have not been generated consciously but are sourced in the unconscious mind.
What do you believe about yourself? Might there be a belief that ‘Everyone in our family gets arthritis by the time they are 50’? How about ‘No one from this neighborhood gets to go to college’? These unconscious beliefs operate to restrict us whether we are aware of them or not. Have you examined what you believe and made a conscious choice about holding onto that belief or releasing it?
At the physical level, you must choose to live in balance with all of your other levels. Are you eating in a way that matches your beliefs about food and its sources? Are you making physical choices based on unconscious emotions or thoughts that conflict with what is best for you? Do you ask yourself questions about your life and its balance when something presents as out of balance?
Many people can look at stress in their life and see the imbalance that is caused there. Too many believe that they can’t do anything about stress. But what they are really saying is that they don’t know what to do about the stress that they can’t change.
Things happen. We react. Then we choose our response to the event. That’s what life is.
And if we can’t change the things that happen, then we have to look at our reactions and our responses. This is the first place to build up our took kit so that we can live a conscious life and choose wisely our responses to events. This FOLLOWS doing all the other work to bring our beliefs, thoughts, emotions into balance.
When I spend a Muse Day with a client, where we have a whole day together to clear blocks and make plans, we often spend most of the day on the clearing blocks part of the agenda, checking in on the spiritual, mental and emotional levels. Creating a plan for the actions to take in the physical plan is often the easiest and quickest part of the day because we’ve brought every thing else into balance before we start the planning.
Trying to plan without the balance brings frustration and much harder work. Trying to deal with dis-ease without finding the source of the imbalance makes the task much more difficult, if not impossible.
Our daughter will be fine. She’s been working through many levels of what is happening. I’m sorry she’s going through the proverbial ‘2 by 4 to the head’ experience but haven’t we all had some of those? We learn!
And I hope that you, too, will examine the levels of your being for where imbalances live. Clearing those can really help you move the pain out of your life!
PS: Halloween, All Saints Day, Day of the Dead…they are here! And to take advantage of this time, when the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest, Rosemary hosts a Conversation with The Other Side! Friday Evening, November 2, 2012. You are invited! Deails Here
ROSEMARY’S VIDEO: The Steps to Balance
Here on the East Coast in Mayland we can certainly use “steps to balance”! As major storm, Sandy, roars through the area we are all being challenged to remain centered and resourceful. The storm combined with a full moon is really taking a toll on emotions! Breathe, remain alert, present and resourceful! And take the advice of Rosemary’s video here:
“Are You Flipping Out Over Something?” A Commentary by Richard
As I indicated last week when I posted Rosemary’s video from her MuseLetter (subscribe here) I am posting my thoughts on that video on my blog. Without further introduction, my thoughts:
I was particularly struck by the topic this week: Flip-Out. In fact I too often find myself flipping-out and almost always over very small things. Computers suddenly running slow, or even worse, crashing for unknown reasons; a lost item, like keys; a negative checking account balance when there should be plenty of cash available; a credit card that inexplicably fails to work (and this is worst if it’s a client’s charge that won’t go through!); the dog’s 2:00 am need…the list can be nearly endless! Are these life and death issues; of course not. But in our hustle-bustle lives they do add fuel to the fire of an already hot burn life-style that keeps pace with a 21st Century clock!
Is it a particularly male thing to flip-out over small things? Rosemary goes through life at a pretty calm clip; her life is just as complicated as mine. She writes and speaks this week about a “Toolbox of Resources.” Well, I’m a pretty resourceful guy; I’m on the journey with her. And yet my fuse is so much shorter. But I’m ready to learn these lessons; the 2×4 upside the head is beginning to hurt, get through to me!
I am examining my tools and resources. In the last few months I have rediscovered the Tao, the ancient Chinese philosophy known as The Way. I have read fairly extensively about Taoism, studied it as part of my seminary program, practiced off and on through authors such as Mantak Chia, studied and memorized sections of Lao-Tzu’s Taoteching, consulted the I Ching, and practiced Tai Chi. And recently I found an excellent Qigong instructor who has brought me back to this Way. And there are some significant tools and resources to be found here.
Managing my “flip-out moments” is certainly a skill I am working on. An emotion I frequently reach for in these moments is “anger” in its various forms. I can too easily flash to a white heat over some relatively small irritation. I cool quickly and then realize the exaggerated reaction as an unproductive response to the situation. And I ask myself, “why the unbalanced reaction?” And, “why the wasted energy?”
The Chinese Masters identify anger as one of the obstacles to finding The Way. In addition to wanting to reduce my expenditure of energy on a wasted emotion, I want to overcome this obstacle. And, oh by the way, mastering anger will go a long way toward improving my environment!
In the Taoist traditions negative emotions, like Anger, can be transmuted into their corresponding virtues; in the case of Anger the work is to transmute it to Creativity or Resourcefulness. Wow! What if my wasted anger energy can be channeled into creative energy? What a concept!
This is not as easy as it sounds, however. But in my mind it is clearly worth the effort; I choose creativity over anger, calm over flip-out, any day! Rosemary mentions meditation as an approach to “hit the pause button” in the midst of over-reaction (or better yet before the reaction even occurs!). Qigong is often referred to as “Meditation in Motion” and I am finding this practice is a way to pull my energy and my resources, my consciousness, into the present moment when I can be fully aware of my environment, my reaction at any given moment to the environment and to then respond appropriately. When I am very, very present I can actually catch myself on the verge of anger and quickly seek a creative response, diverting the anger into resourcefulness! I have a long way to go to catch myself every time, or even often! But it’s good work for the journey!
Guys, Rosemary has many ways to channel the flip-out mode into presence of mind. Her toolbox is filled with fun things and even some neat toys! Sometimes it may seem easier just to go with the reactive emotion of the moment; but too often the consequences of the easy route bite painfully.
Flip-out reaction or creative response? The choice is yours if you are willing to do the work!
PS: Beginning today, Monday, October 29, Rosemary is offering you a new way to add to your toolbox! She is holding a FREE half-hour call of wisdom and guidance for Conscious Living; to support you Living Your Richest Life! As Einstein said: No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Lift your consciousness and lift yourself!
Click Here for the call-in details; it’s FREE!
ROSEMARY’S VIDEO: How to Avoid Flip-Out
OK, I’m coming back to this blog that I’ve been neglecting for too long. It’s time to get “regular” again. And with shifting season as we move into the dark times, the quiet times, the inner times, it’s a good time to not only reflect but to offer back what has been churning around inside.
I’ve been motivated in part by partner, Rosemary’s review and renewal of her work. She has shifted from a fairly standard weekly Ezine format, published for well over three years now, into a more active, video format. She publishes the weekly MuseLetter on Fridays (you can subscribe here). And last Friday she published a video and commentary that inspired me to get the word out to a wider audience! So, without further introduction here is Rosemary with an important message. I’ll be back tomorrow and on Monday with commentary.
Greetings from far away and yet so near!
Hello. I’ve missed you. I have been away for too long but the away time was well worth it. In early June Rosemary and I married some very good friends in DC. They live in Maryland but DC allows gay marriages and Maryland recognizes all legal marriages from other jurisdictions. I think the biggest hurdle in the whole arrangement was getting Rosemary certified to perform weddings in DC. All came off without a hitch; well, that’s not true exactly! The hitched couple is now on their honeymoon cruise!
Then last week I was in Ojo Caliente, NM mudding an adobe hall where I go to school: Bolad’s Kitchen. The great hall, we call her The Lady, was built and mudded three years ago. The entire structure, a free-standing (meaning no posts of any kind) building made entirely of mud stands about 20 feet high and is about a 40×50 foot rectangle. She has to be re-mudded every three years since she is made of all natural ingredients that weather with the passage of time. There were about a dozen of us and we put an entire coat of mud (half agregate, half adobe, a bunch of shredded straw and water) about a half inch thick around the entire hall during the week. It was hard work but a labor of love!
With all this activity I have neglected this blog. Sorry if there has been anyone out there impatiently waiting for my next post. But the marriage of friends and The Lady come first!
I will comment on this week’s Mystic Message from The Divine Feminine tomorrow. It is an excellent message that we all need to hear and consider. It’s titled “Reach for the Joy!” – you may want to read it in advance.
Meanwhile, be good to yourselves and do reach for the joy!
Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards: Maat and Isolt
Greetings on this fine Monday in Colorado: cool temperatures, bright sun and a nice breeze; it would be a sailor’s delight if we had any water! It’s also “remembrance day” (aka Memorial Day) in the US. When I was a kid growing up we also used this day to remember all of our relations who had crossed over, not just the war fallen. I still do that preferring to avoid the whole concept of celebrating war.
Rosemary and I leave for Maryland tomorrow to celebrate something very special, a wedding in DC! Since we’ll be out of town for this week, and then I’ll be in New Mexico the following week mudding the adobe hall (The Lady), the home to Bolad’s Kitchen, posts may become thin. I’ll keep Rosemary’s blog going and will at least attempt to post on Wednesdays here to comment on the Mystic Message. Divination using the Dr. Doreen Virtue Goddess Oracle Card may fall off a bit. So, these cards may be the guidance for the next couple of weeks.
Today the card I drew is Maat. But as I drew her from the deck another slipped out: Isolt. So, I retained her as well and took her emergence as part of the message and the amplifier to Maat. I did not draw a Grandmother Card today.
Maat’s message is Fairness; and she says: “This situation will be handled in a fair and just manner.” She goes on to define fairness and I really like this: “Let me suggest another definition for fairness: It’s when all parties surrender their personal agendas in favor of the greater good for the entirety of the group.” And perhaps on this Memorial Day this is a good thing to remember: for the sake of fairness we are called to surrender our personal agenda for the greater good. This doesn’t sound exactly like the current “American Way.” We have been so caught up in the rights of the individual and, especially, the rights of the corporations, that the “common good” is often completely ignored. Yet Maat would have us surrender these individual rights, these corporate rights for the sake of the group.
It used to be that corporations were granted their status and privileges by states to serve the people, the common good. And that certainly seemed fair. It’s not clear to me that corporations these days have the common interest in mind. In a perfect world the corporations would respond to their boards of directors which would respond to the stockholders who would represent the common good. How far have we come from that perfect world? And as we remember those who waged war to defend our democracy how far have we come from that democracy? Do we still have a government of, by and for the people, or do we have the best government money can buy?
Whew, sorry! Not sure where this is coming from. I guess the word “fairness” on this Memorial Day took me down a rather serious and dark rabbit hole! Let’s look at the meaning of Maat for ourselves and then take a close look at Isolt, who will soften this whole discussion – and calm me down!
“Maat is the Egyptian goddess of integrity, fairness and justice, who holds a scale that measures souls against a feather at the time of death to detect any heaviness from guilt.” writes Dr. Virtue. That is a beautiful and potent image! I would love to be able to claim that my guilt rests as lightly on my soul as a feather!
For me this week I will call on Maat to remind me to be fair; this will mean putting the common good before my own agenda. And this is in excellent congruence with this week’s Mystic Message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary. Check out the message and post titled Send the Judge on vacation and choose Compassion! I’ll comment more on this post on Wednesday, but note how this plays into “fairness,” into the message of Maat! And this takes me smoothly to Isolt.
The subtitle of the Isolt card is Undying Love, and Dr. Virtue has her say: “The love you have shared is eternal regardless of the situation.” The message of Isolt is one of healing, especially of the heart. And she calls on us to first heal the hurts inside ourselves by going to that inner space and examining the wounds, the places of grief, loss, betrayal, despair. Be patient and gentle in this process. Compassion comes from within and begins as compassion for one’s-self.
Isolt is the Celtic goddess who was caught up in a love triangle between her husband, King Mark of Corwall, and the knight, Sir Tristan. Her message is to balance all of our love relationships. “She reminds us that – regardless of the situation – our love is real, powerful, and undying.” And our love can heal all hurts.
It’s certainly an interesting time for me to draw Isolt as we prepare to travel to Maryland to visit family: daughter, son-in-law, GRANDCHILDREN, sisters, husbands, nephews, nieces; and friends. And we go to marry a beautiful couple, to join them in a bond of love. I will carry the message of Isolt in my heart on this trip and hold Love as my motivating emotion.
Fairness and Love. Maat and Isolt. They seem to go hand-in-hand. (Clearly Isolt slipped out of the deck as I drew Maat because she knew they belonged together!) How can we have fairness without love: the common good requires our love. How can we have love without fairness: compassion calls us to surrender.
from The Divine Feminine: Watch for the Daily Messages from the Universe
The Mystic Message for the week is about signs from the Universe. Whether these are things that show up in our lives as confirmation, or they are serendipitous events that “just happen” (I haven’t used the word “coincidence” since I read the Celestine Prophecy a lot of years ago), or answers to questions we might have, the Universe is out there to respond to us. We live in a reflexive Universe full of wonder, power, and, yes, answers for us. All we have to do is ask, and then listen/watch for the Universe’s response; another way of saying this: “We are the Universe, and the Universe is us.” (sort of like that old Pogo cartoon where Pogo the Possum says: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” (published on Earth Day 1971)
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Do you have a reflexive relationship with the Universe? The Divine Feminine are suggesting we need to “watch for the daily messages from the Universe. And I’d go even farther and suggest we need to “ask” for daily messages. This is a great way to hone our intuitive skills. Ask and then listen. There are many ways to listen: inside, to what your heart or gut or another part of your body might be saying; in nature, to animals showing up or trees waving, or a stream running, or the ocean roaring; just being as you go about your day, someone calls, a package shows up, you get an appointment you were hoping for.
You can also be very direct, as I’m doing on Tuesdays and Thursdays on this blog by using oracle cards or other forms of divination. Go to yesterday’s post to see how meaningful and accurate oracle cards can be. Or get out a pendulum and ask it (and your body) to give you answers; muscle testing is a form of divination not unlike using a pendulum; and there are more esoteric forms of divination, including one of my favorites: the I Ching. One of the keys with any of these tools is to formulate your question or intention carefully. The Universe can get pretty specific, so try to be as direct and specific in your request as possible.
There are also forms of active meditation that can provide answers to questions you may have for the Universe. One of my practices is journaling in the form recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I write three long-hand pages in a notebook every morning (at least I try to). For me this becomes a meditation and I often just write what comes to me, without really thinking about it; I simply relax and let the pen write the words. There are many answers to be found in these scribblings. An approach Rosemary suggests is to write down a question with your dominant hand then answer the question with your non-dominant hand. This is a way to activate the intuitive part of the brain. (I would do this but my handwriting with my left hand is so bad I couldn’t read the answer!)
And there are very direct and active ways to seek answers such as Shamanic Journeying, holotropic breath work, yoga asanas, trance dancing, hypnosis, drug induced trance states, etc. All of these approaches I would call reflexive in nature; they are ways to seek answers from our Higher Self, the Cosmos, the greater Collective Conscious of which we are a part.
What kind of relationship do you have with the Universe? I hope it is a trusting one in which you feel supported and your questions are answered. “Watch for the daily messages.”
Men and The Goddess 