Creating a More Beautiful World

I imagine right about now, many of us would love to create a more beautiful world, not to mention one that is more predictable, saner and safe. But is this even possible? And how do we get from here to there?

I’m reading an excellent book on this subject, one that I highly recommend:
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein.

The author emphasizes our minds don’t know this is possible, but our hearts do.

Eisenstein says the world is living in, and shaped by, an Old Story of Separation which causes all manner of pain and dysfunction. The book explores various facets of that state of being: “the habits associated with it, the wounds bound up in it, the stories that reinforce it, and the social institutions that reflect and sustain those stories.”

Eisenstein says separation isn’t real; in truth we are interconnected. “We are the same being looking out at the world through different eyes.” He says we need to create a New Story of Interbeing. You’ll notice the role of old and new stories in the book is very analogous to the work we do with old and new stories in forgiveness.

Eisenstein says: “By your actions, you choose which story and which world you are part of.”

“As a story ages, cracks appear in its boundary, in the shell of the cosmic egg. A miracle is the name we give to the light that shines through from a larger, more radiant world. it says not only that reality is bigger than we thought it was, but that that bigger reality is coming soon. it is both a glimpse and a promise.

To the extent that we ourselves are living in the realization of interbeing we too are able to become miracle workers. That doesn’t mean that what we do seems miraculous to ourselves — it fits in with our expanded understanding of the nature of life and causality.

For example:

  • When one is aligned with the purpose of service, acts that seem exceptionally courageous to others are a matter of course.

  • When one experiences the world as abundant, then acts of generosity are natural, since there is no doubt about continued supply.

  • When one sees other people as reflections of oneself, forgiveness becomes second nature, as one realizes “But for the grace of God, so go I.”

  • When one appreciates the order, beauty, mystery, and connectedness of the universe, a deep joy and cheerfulness arises that nothing can shake.

  • When one sees time as abundant and life as infinite, one develops super human patience.

  • When one lets go of the limitations of reductionism, objectivity, and determinism, technologies become possible that the science of separation cannot countenance.

  • When one lets go of the story of the discrete and separate self, amazing intuitive and perceptual capabilities emerge from lifelong latency.

These and many other miracles are the landmarks of the territory of “interbeing.”

Sounds pretty good, don’t you think?

The New Story isn’t one we can create alone. The author stresses, we must each do all we can to create the New Story and at the same time, the New Story only becomes possible because we are creating it together. But the key is that each of us must choose which story we will stand in.
As more of us enter this territory . . . together we find our way toward the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

Love,
Eileen

 

Healing Racism

Healing racism is one of the most important opportunities we now have.
I want to share an encouraging perspective from a member of our community, Marquita Campbell.

At this time, we have an opportunity to participate in reshaping the future narrative. Is racism age old? Of course it is! Is it the same old, same old? Not this time. What is different is that lynchings used to be an invited event, now it sparks outrage. What is different is the backdrop, the context, the framework. When in the history of our existence that the heinous death of a man (let alone a black man) has taken on a global response that stands up to say NO MORE!!!!? This is a pivotal moment.

We cannot employ ineffective, antiquated methods to address today’s opportunity. People are listening, we don’t have to yell. People are asking, we don’t have to demand. People are hearing, we just have to speak. This time is different. WE get to respond, We don’t have to react. Let’s try something different. That is all we ever really wanted was to be heard, seen and respected. WE ARE HERE!!! Let’s recognize the opportunity.

If we go into auto drive and slip back into the usual behavior, we will miss the moment because like it or not the world will make those changes with or without us. THAT is where we are. There will be changes, don’t miss the opportunity to be the driving force to shape history. We are truly at the helm. We have the spotlight. The world is listening. They have embraced our outrage, our anguish, our pain. They really do see it. They see it in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Italy, France, Canada, England, Syria, they see it and they see us. Let’s be receptive, this time let our response evolve as the world is evolving. Let’s talk.

If we are going to reshape the narrative, let’s start with the fact that the voices and behavior of the few do not represent the whole.The loudest voices are not the majority, they are simply the most visible. Sometimes we need to get out of our own way. Change is not just one sided. Sometimes we need to be willing to collaborate. Let’s do something different. We all know the definition of insanity, doing the same thing, expecting a different result.

In the end, this is the culmination of what it was all about….. the marches, the water hoses, the dogs, the beatings, protest. That was not intended to be our perpetual existence. That was all for a purpose, we need to recognize where we are in the journey.

Look, racism is as old as time, fact. But I reiterate, while this expression of racism is a throwback to a brutal time in our history, again, it is no longer socially embraced. Nothing is the same, there is a prolific global movement. People have physically demonstrated their solidarity. They have stood up and showed up. They are waiting for us at the table, let’s show up!!!! Now IS the time to talk. As they say, if not now, WHEN????

Marquita Campbell is a mediator, a forgiveness coach, a mindfulness coach and diversity trainer with over 20 years of experience in facilitation and program development. She has a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. She is American born with Barbados, West Indian ancestry.

Blessings,

Eileen

The Call of the Soul

The Call of the Soul is that inexorable pull over the course of our lives to return home, to our soul, to who we really are. For me, the call has been getting louder lately, clearer and more compelling. How bout you?  Do you hear it?  Do you feel it? How is this showing up in your life, or not showing up?

When we learn to accept ourselves as we truly are, express ourselves authentically and live life accordingly, life gets much simpler and more joyous. And when we are disconnected from our true selves, it tends to be more painful, difficult, and dysfunctional.

It seems like a no brainer to be true to ourselves, but it’s not always easy. We may give a lot of weight to what others expect of us, or to appearing a certain way. We may have resistance to letting go of this. The parts of us that are invested in our stories and old wounds are, well, invested. Our wounds may cause suffering but they are familiar. 

The important thing to know is that when we are ready to move forward — when our suffering becomes too great, too unbearable, when we desperately need relief — a path will rise up to meet us. In the case of forgiveness, it provides a structure, an incremental method to release the painful past, so shifting to a new way of being is less overwhelming.

Forgiveness challenges the limited beliefs and false identities that give rise to our stories and our suffering. On the other side of our false narratives, is the true Self, who we really are.  As the past is released, we are better able to hear the voice of our true self, the call of our soul.

Spiritual teacher Gangaji says this is the great awakening of our life, and of our time:

If we are willing to take responsibility for our own depth of awakening, for our own peace … then we can actually be available to effect bigger change. Then at least this one place [you] are at peace, is free. Whenever any of us chooses peace within our mind and heart, an enormous force of energy is freed. To be peace is to offer peace. Only then will we see what can truly arise on this earth. …

You are not alone in this awakening. There are people all over the world at this very moment with the same commitment. Without denying the waves of terror and suffering on our planet, we can recognize that right now there is a great wave of support for awakening for the whole human race to shift its perspective of war, terror and hatred to one of openness and acceptance. Each one of us is essential.

Fear Not

As news mounts daily about the coronavirus, unfortunately many people are being thrown into panic. It feels like there is a secondary epidemic – of fear.

In short, there is a huge opportunity right now to be swallowed up by fear.

Or Not.

I’m reminded of these lines from Kipling’s famous poem (which I’ve included below):

If you can keep your head when all about you   

Are losing theirs . . . .

I was talking about this earlier today with my friend and colleague Dr. Gwendolyn McClure who points out the role emotional contagion plays in situations like this, wherein one person’s emotions trigger the same emotions in another.

In the meantime, how are you doing with all of this?  On a scale of 0-10, where is your fear level?

If you are in fear, can you take a step back and observe yourself being in fear?

I know we have many “good reasons” for fear.  There always are.  At the same time, can you see that you have a choice in the matter?  We have been conditioned to live in fear and worry. For many of us, it’s become our default setting.

But does it serve us?

I’m not aware of any evidence that people who panic fare better than those who stay calm and collected?  On the other hand, there is tons of evidence that fear and stress deplete our immune system, which is what we need to strengthen, not diminish.

What if we trusted ourselves to educate ourselves about the virus and use that information to take care of ourselves?

What if we could leave fear behind?

And take one day at a time.  One breath at a time.

Take heart my friends, and fear NOT.

Blessings,

Eileen

An Act of The Heart

The mind alone can never forgive. True forgiveness is an act of the heart.

I’ve met plenty of people who told me they ‘thought’ they had forgiven. What they mean is they formed the mental intention to forgive, only to later discover that the judgment and resentment were still there.  Does this sound familiar?  I call this forgiving from the neck up, or, emotional bypass.  It may provide temporary relief, but it is not lasting. I also frequently encounter people intent on analyzing their experience. They seem to believe that if they fully understand the situation, it will enable them to forgive – but this is not the case. True forgiveness cannot be intellectualized. 

You can say the words “I forgive”, and have the thought “I forgive”, until the cows come home, and still not have actually forgiven. The mind can only take us so far. At some point we must enter the arena of feeling in order to release the anger, blame, resentment, and so on.  They must be addressed.  Of course feelings are vulnerable and possibly unfamiliar, which is why we might want to avoid them, but the only way to heal is to walk through them. Feelings are the true pathway home.

So, how do you enter the emotional realm?  How do you forgive from the neck down?

One of the keys for me is guided meditation.  I start with the breath, and then bring awareness to the body step by step.  This creates the foundation for all the other work.  For some, it might feel uncomfortable and even unsafe at first to bring awareness into the body, so we go as slowly as necessary to create safety.  When we can feel our body and not push our feelings away, we discover that the body has vitally important information for us, information far more reliable than that acquired from the mind alone.  

Here is a powerful passage on the topic of coming into the body, embracing our emotions and forgiving, written by Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now:

Unless you give it some attention, emotions will prevent you from gaining access to the inner body, which lies at a deeper level underneath it. Attention does not mean that you start thinking about it.  It means to just observe the emotion, to feel it fully, and so to acknowledge and accept it as it is.  Some emotions are easily identified as anger, fear, grief, and so on.  Others may be harder to label. They may just be vague feelings of unease, heaviness, or constriction, halfway between an emotion and a physical sensation. In any case, what matters is not whether you can attach a mental label to it but whether you can bring the feeling of it into awareness as much as possible.  Attention is the key to transformation — and full attention also implies acceptance.  Attention is like a beam of light – the focused power of your consciousness that transmutes everything into itself. 

In a fully functional organism, an emotion has a very short life span. It is like a momentary ripple or wave on the surface of your Being. When you are not in your body however an emotion can survive inside you for days or weeks, or join with other emotions of a similar frequency that have merged and become the pain boy, a parasite that can live inside you for years, feed on your energy, lead to physical illness, and make your life miserable.  

So place your attention on feeling the emotion, and check whether your mind is holding on to a grievance pattern such as blame, self pity, or resentment that is feeding the emotion. If that is the case, it means that you haven’t forgiven. Non-forgiveness is often toward another person or yourself, but it may just as well be toward any situation or condition – past, present or future — that your mind refused to accept. Yes, there can be non-forgiveness even with regard to the future. This is the mind’s refusal to accept uncertainty, to accept that the future is ultimately beyond its control. Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief. It happens naturally once you realize that your grievance serves no purpose except to strengthen a false sense of self. Forgiveness is to offer no resistance to life — to allow life to live through you. The alternatives are pain and suffering, a greatly restricted flow of life energy, and in many cases physical disease.

The moment you truly forgive, you have reclaimed your power from the mind. Non-forgiveness is the very nature of the mind, just as the mind-made false self, the ego, cannot survive without strife and conflict.  The mind cannot forgive.  Only you can. You become present, you enter your body you feel the vibrant peace and stillness that emanate from Being.  

 A potent reminder that we are so much more than our minds, thoughts, beliefs and words.

Musings on Miracles

The Path of Forgiveness is The Path of Miracles.

When I talk about what is possible with forgiveness, people often remark that it sounds miraculous. And on one level, it is. Yet, I can tell by the way they say this they don’t believe they could achieve the same amazing results. But that’s the thing. Miracles are possible – for everyone.
 

What is a miracle anyway?  We often think of a miracle as something mystical or magical. But this simply reflects the fact that we can’t explain what happened. 

This is explained in The Twelve Conditions of a Miracle by Todd Michael:

Miracles are poorly understood. Often we think of them as events in which the laws of the universe, the laws of cause and effect, are somehow circumvented. A miracle occurs when something impossible happens. We believe this about miraculous events only because we fail to understand the processes of cause and effect that enable them.  We are very much like Neanderthals observing an eclipse. Because we lack the proper knowledge, we rationalize what we observe in peculiar, supernatural terms when, in fact, what transpires has an entirely natural explanation.

What appears to us as a miracle actually follows natural sequences of cause and effect which we simply do not yet understand. 

To understand how this applies to forgiveness, think about some of the things that occur when we forgive:

  • We release anger and resentment we’ve been holding onto. People describe feeling lighter. There is an energetic shift.
     
  • We reconnect with a part of ourselves that is whole and wise. We connect to our inner truth. We feel empowered. This shifts our very stance in life.
     
  • We release fear and the need to control. This allows more room for the flow of life, and the flow of love.

It comes down to the fact that forgiveness changes our state of consciousness. Todd Michael points out, physicists now agree with what metaphysicians have long understood:  The universe rearranges itself around our states of consciousness.  

In other words, our state of consciousness is causal.  When we let go of our grievances and shift to love, the world around us changes too. Possibilities are created that didn’t previously exist. 

Until we grasp just how infinite and intelligent the universe is, and just how powerful our choices are in the creation of our lives, I suppose this will all continue to feel magical and mysterious, but that doesn’t mean it’s unattainable. Not at all.

As forgiveness teacher Collin Tippin says, forgiveness makes room for the miracle.

Blessings,

Eileen

Why Forgiveness and Boundaries Go Hand-in Hand

Learning how to set boundaries can be an essential part of forgiveness.

Fear of getting hurt again is a big reason people don’t forgive. They use anger to protect themselves. The problem is, holding onto anger is toxic.  It hurts you, far more than it hurts the other person, and it ends up binding you to the person who hurt you. 

An alternative approach is to protect yourself with boundaries, instead of anger. Then you can take care of yourself, and forgive.  This way you reap the benefits of forgiveness and avoid the toxicity of anger.

For many of us, boundaries are a foreign concept. We weren’t taught about boundaries.  We don’t know what they are or how to establish them. We certainly didn’t have good role models. Instead, we learned to accommodate other people and put their needs above our own. That’s fine up to a point. But, when we find ourselves being treated poorly by others, it may indicate that our boundaries are weak or non-existent.

We need to learn that our needs matter. We need to know that we deserve to be treated well by others. We need to get clear about what’s ok for us, and what is not ok. And we need to learn how to speak up for ourselves.

The essence of a boundary is “here is what is ok with me, and here is what isn’t ok with me.”  You have a right to set boundaries.  In fact, it’s your job to set clear boundaries — to let others know what is ok with you and what is not ok — and stick to them. 

So, what do healthy boundaries look like?  Here are some examples:

  • It is not my job to fix others.
  • It is okay if others feel angry, but it’s not okay for anyone to lash out at me.
  • It is okay for me to say no.
  • I’m not responsible for how others feel.
  • I don’t have to anticipate the needs of others.
  • My needs matter.
  • Nobody has to agree with me.
  • I have a right to my own feelings.


Forgiveness can be combined with a range of possible boundaries, depending on what would have you feel safe and protected from being hurt again. For example:

  • You may feel the need to sever contact with the person.  
  • You might need to take a break. In this case, you might want to let the other person know you are working on finding peace and ask them to respect your space. Tell them you will let them know when/if you are ready to resume contact, and it might be in small ways at first. This approach can reduce stress, because both of you will then know what to expect, and it allows you to take small steps (when you’re ready) to see if you can re-establish trust.
  • You might choose to continue in a relationship with a clear boundary — i.e., “this behavior is unacceptable to me and if it happens again, we’re done” — provided you are 100% committed to following through, if the boundary is crossed.

The point is, when it come to forgiveness, it’s not necessary or wise to put yourself at risk. But you do need to be very clear in setting boundaries with the person who hurt you.  Doing so is an act of self-love, self-care, and empowerment.

blessings,

Eileen


Tidying Up

Lately I’ve been fascinated by a Netflix seeries called “Tidying Up” — a show about Marie Kondo.  

Marie is the author of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever, which has sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages.  

It’s perfect inspirtion for spring cleaning!

In each episode, Marie works with a family that has piles and piles of clutter in their home. People whose lives and relationships are choking on their stuff. People who desperately need to declutter and they know it.

Marie is great. Marie does not judge. She enters their home with sweetness and light. She teaches the family how to organize methodically, one category at a time.

We watch as the family sorts through their things, item by item: clothes, books, kitchen, papers and so on.  

We witness as they confront the failed promises of consumerism. Our culture teaches us that we can purchase the solution to all of our problems. It’s not all that surprising that so many people end up with closets, homes and garages literally stuffed with things. After working with Marie, we see most of these items stuffed into large garbage bags, headed for charity or landfill. 

In many ways, our possessions reflect our lives — our hopes, our dreams, our successes and our failures. So when we sort through our belongings, we are sorting through our lives.  And when we release things, we are releasing the past.

Not only do these people end up beautifying their homes, they transform their lives in the process.  They talk about having space for the first time, having air to breathe.  Feeling lighter, feeling free.

This is what I find so striking . . . 

The results are remarkably similar to what people experience with forgiveness.

Unresolved emotional debris and inner conflict also accumulate in our lives, much like old clothes in the back of our closet. They too need clearing out every once in a while. For example:

  • Those things we haven’t said to our loved ones
  • Areas of procrastination
  • Regret over past decisions
  • Guilt as a parent/child/sibling/mate
  • Emotional eating/spending/avoiding
  • Incompletions in relationships

Marie offers one simple rubric for sorting:  Does the item spark joy for you? 

If something sparks joy, it’s a keeper.  If not, she says to thank the item for what it’s given you and release it. Through her process, Marie is teaching people to attune to the spark of joy so they can recognize it more easily. 

What if we could do this in other areas of our lives?  

With disappointments and mistakes from the past, what if we could simply thank the situation for what it gave you, give thanks and let it go?

When relationships end, we often experience difficult feelings such as hurt, abandonment, disappointment, and grief. But if the time has come to part ways – whether through our own choice or not – what if we could focus on the love and joy that was shared instead?  

There is a deep honoring in Marie’s approach.  She honors the people, the home, and their things — even the rejects.  In the process, she teaches people to focus on gratitude and cultivate joy. And as Marie says, joy comes from the inside, not the outside.

About The Wall

I want to talk about inner walls. Emotional walls.  Walls meant to protect and keep you safe. Walls that have been there for so long, you may barely know they are there. 

Maybe you created the wall because your heart was broken at some point, and it really really hurt. Maybe you learned the hard way that you shouldn’t trust people and definitely shouldn’t trust love. 

You might not be aware of having a wall, but I guarantee if you are presented with the opportunity to receive more love than you ever have before, you are likely to come face to face with your wall. You might experience it as resistance, discomfort or outright pain. You might believe that something is wrong, and feel a strong urge to pull away.

I’ve seen this many times, because this often occurs when people forgive. We come face to face with the prospect of receiving more love than we have experienced in a long long time, or maybe ever. It can be uncomfortable, and you might have a profound moment of reckoning: “Do I dare take the risk of opening? Can I trust this?” 

Or maybe, if you’re lucky, your heart will simply burst open before your mind has a chance to stop it. It still might feel painful around the edges, and there will often be tears — much like any birthing process. But let them be tears of joy. Yay! You’ve had a breakthrough.  

And then, when the floodgates burst open and love is flowing, don’t forget to forgive and thank your messenger — the person who delivered you to this moment of forgiveness by triggering something difficult and painful in you.

This is what Marianne Williamson wrote about inner walls in her wonderful book, Return to Love:

People who have the most to teach us are often the ones who reflect back to us the limits to our own capacity to love, those who consciously or unconsciously challenge our fearful positions. They show us our walls. Our walls are our wounds—the places where we feel we can’t love any more, can’t connect any more deeply, can’t forgive past a certain point. We are in each other’s lives in order to help us see where we most need healing, and in order to help us heal.  

Every time we forgive, we have the opportunity to let more love in. We have the chance to heal old wounds, let our walls down, and release whatever has separated us from love. 

blessings,

Eileen

Path With Heart

Image result for public domain images of heartsOne of my favorite book passages is from The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenada. His teacher tells him there are a million paths in life.  Castenada asks, “then which shall I choose?” to which the teacher replies:

All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

This can be applied to many things in life, and it can be applied to forgiveness.

The Path of Forgiveness is a path of the heart. It can be very frustrating for those who want to figure everything out with their head. (It’s not possible.) This used to be a frustration of mine as well. But I’ve learned over the years to trust my heart much more than my head.

The Path of Forgiveness is a path that also requires us to develop emotional awareness and intelligence. This is not easy either, given our cultural emphasis on mental prowess and scant attention to emotional development.

This is well explained by Michael Brown in The Presence Process:

In life, we automatically grow physically by putting the correct or appropriate nutrition into our body. Our mental growth is also spoken for when we enter and attend the basic schooling experience. Yet our emotional growth, which usually begins to slow drastically at about seven years of age, receives no real attention as we move into and through adulthood. In this world, we have proven ourselves to be remarkably physically adaptable. In the last hundred years, we have also become mental giants, but sadly, we have also become increasingly emotionally dwarfed. The turbulent state of the world we live in today is a testimony to the fact that it is the playground of the emotionally immature.

In other words, it’s time for us to grow up emotionally!

This is especially important for those on a spiritual path. It is the emotional experience of love and devotion which enables us to make contact with our spiritual selves:

This emotional experience fuels our ability to penetrate the vibrational realm. Meditation in its purest form is a tool intended to drive us out of this physical world experience along a mental pathway into our hearts. When we are in our hearts, we are one step away from our Divine Presence. It is our Divine Presence which then oversees our entry into the vibrational realm.

The key is in shifting our emphasis from mental understanding to emotional truth, i.e., to feeling. It is committing ourselves fully to the journey. And always but always choosing the path with heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

warmly,

Eileen