Opening Up - Project Overview

Here is an overview of our 30 Day Opening Up project. This post provides links to pertinent aspects of this project, so that you won't have to sift through the archives.

To find out more about this project, you can take a look at why we thought Opening Up would be a good idea. If you would like to try this project for yourself, you could start on Day One and then continue on through Day Thirty posting your thoughts, ideas, results, joys and disappointments as you go. Or, you could browse through the posts and work the project in no particular order.

This is an active blog, and if you post, we will notice and reply.. and give you the benefit of our own experience and our support if it seems pertinent or appropriate. You can find complete listing of the day by day links at the bottom of this post.

The basic summary of our results can be found here: Opening up, How did we do? and individual comments and feedback can be read here.

We do have a recommended reading list if you are interested in expanding your understanding. I don't know how up to date it is, but there are a lot of really good books listed. There is also a collection of our favorite affirmations, prayers, poems, and etc. Or you can just go to Way Cool Quotes and find a bunch more.

As promised, here is the complete listing of all the posts for our 30 days of Opening Up:

Day One: Opening Up - Our New Project
Day Two: Open Door Meditation Revisited
Day Three: Man is not an island.
Day Four: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Day Five: The door is round and open
Day Six: Each moment
Day Seven: The Winds of Change
Day Nine: Quotes for Today
Day Ten: Conscious Intention
Day Eleven: Praying with open arms
Day Twelve: An Invitation to Open Your Mind
Day Thirteen: A Manual for Conserving Paths
Day Fourteen: The Doors Open
Day Sixteen: Janus - The God of Open Doors
Day Seventeen: Meditation to Relate to Infinity
Day Eighteen: Settling for less?
Day Nineteen: More on saying Yes!
Day Twenty: Trust
Day Twenty-One: The Journey to Success
Day Twenty-Two: Hidden Harmony
Day Twenty-Three: Open to Money Magic
Day Twenty-Four: Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open
Day Twenty-Five: More Thoughts on Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open
Day Twenty-Six: Staying Open
Day Twenty-Seven: Your Wildest Dream
Day Twenty-Eight: Exploring Possibilities
Day Thirty: Wow! Where did the time go?

Opening Up - How did we do?

Our results for the Opening Up project were so great they almost sound like endorsements for an infomercial. Here's what we had to say about the project:

General Observations:

"This has been a great project! I think the best part for me is all the visuals it helped create. Imagining the open doors, the paths leading out, etc. Bringing those images into my mind when I'm feeling closed in is really helpful. I feel myself relax immediately, like, "OK, Karla, refocus here..take a breath and look at everthing that is open to you today!" ~Karla.

"It isn't until it's at the end of the process that we can really see how far we've come. I had NO idea what a wonderful project this was going to be." ~Dawn

"For me, the biggest thing I can see is that I feel much more relaxed about me, who I am in the world, and how I am in the world." ~Shirley

Specifics:

I wasn't open to the free flow of money and once I started adjusting my attitude..ta da..it's trickling in. A check for a channeling reading done by phone, some relief with tax refund, help from my boyfriend with bills. Maybe if I keep working on it, we'll have a rushing river soon!

Oh, one more thing. We are getting married... Decided to stop waiting for money for a big bash, stop waiting for everyone to get along perfectly, stop waiting... to be perfect... forgive myself for past relationships... and just be OPEN to living and the possibilities love brings ...once we decided, everthing started opening up FOR us.. a reception place became available free, found a free place to wed on beach, a friend is a photographer, stumbled across a really cool minister, found discounted decorations online... this is all in the past couple weeks. I'm telling you..I think this opening stuff is awesome!" ~Karla

"My husband got a job...not just any job, but a job that is ideal for him and for our life situation. I had a job offer that was great money, but I dreaded accepting... I let go of the guilt, the worries about money, and I refused the job. Not two days later, I had job offers for tutorials that payed triple the amount per hour. The tutorials are only 2 hours a day, leaving the rest of the day for me to explore and play. Low stress, lots of money... all because I listened to my inner voice and did what felt right, not what felt like the thing I SHOULD do. I opened myself up to taking a Reiki course, even when I doubted it's validity... and I opened myself up to the others in the course. Now, I have a Reiki master who is awesome, new friends who help lighten and brighten me inside and out, and a new skill that has changed every aspect of my life. Not only that, but my husband is planning to take the next course, so he can help me to heal my immune system (Chronic Fatigue). How awesome and OPEN is that! This has been so much more than I expected it to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." ~Dawn

"I decided to be open and started a really awesome project that has already made me some money right off the bat." ~Michelle

"I found a meditation practice that is also a prayer that is also an exercise in "thy will be done" that is also being fully present in the body that is also really fun and good exercize. That was awesome... Even though I missed a significant amount of work right around Christmas, I did not run a zero balance, or have a "low balance" notification from my bank... Still no sign of my "winter depression" which to me is a major miracle. It's the first winter EVER that I haven't been depressed even one time..." ~Shirley

Other comments and tips:

"My guide said to imagine big boulders on those paths leading away from the open door and to see my "boon" (I had to look it up..it means prayer answered or a gift) just past the obstacles. He said to use my mind to make the boulders roll away off the path. I had alot of fun with this and could see the heavier ones move slowly to one side or the other and I got really good at making the little rocks skitter off to the side like scattering bugs. Path clear! Voila!" ~Karla

If anyone else who worked this project would like to make a comment, feel free to do so and I'll add your experiences and input to this page as well.

Wow! Where did the time go?

Suddenly, our thirty days are complete. Today is our last day of exploring "Being Open" as a group project. This project has been a joy for me. So many times we have begun a project and by the middle of week two we are praying for it to be over with. Remember the Million Dollar Experiment? By the seventh day I was ready to quit. Opening Up has been wonderfully freeing and really feels good, I have no plans to ever stop doing it. That being said, it is, nevertheless, evaluation time.

So, here are the questions to consider:

1. In general, what are your observations as to how "Opening Up" affected your life, both inwardly and outwardly.
2. Do you have more money? more time? more freedom? more creativity? more peace? more happiness? more understanding? more prosperity in any form?
3. Would you recommend "Opening Up" to others as a means to achieve prosperity, success, and/or happiness?
4. Do you plan to continue to use the various concepts and ideas presented? Any specifics that stand out?
5. What was your favorite part of the project? Was anything posted that was specifically helpful or illuminating to you?
6. What was your least favorite part of the project? Why?
7. Did you feel that you actively participated? By that, I mean, did you work on "Opening Up" as a daily practice? weekly practice? once or twice?
8. Did this particular project feel challenging? was it easy? did you have to "work" at it? was it simple? complicated? too simple? too complicated? too easy? too hard? too much fun?
9. Do you have any suggestions as to how this particular project could have been enhanced. How could it have been made better for you?

Moving forward:

Over the next few days, I will be compiling the answers and creating one or two pages detailing our experience with this project, and wrapping things up. It's possible that I will go back in time and wrap up some previous projects that are still on my "to do" list. So, if you receive totally unrelated posts via email, that's me - back in time - tidying up.

Suggestions for our next project:

For our next project it has been suggested that we do O-Po-No-Po-No (I'm sure I massacred the spelling). It's an Hawaiian Kahuna technique based on love and the idea that love solves everything including financial issues, mental health, physical health, ad infinitum. Does love heal all? Does love conquer all? Is love the answer? What do you guys think? Should we do that one next? Any other suggestions or ideas? Now's the time to put your two (or three) cents in.

Exploring Possibilities

Here we have the "wildest dreams" that were posted on Friday. The idea is to brainstorm simple and effective, audatious and daring, unusual and creative, surprising and not so surprising ways that each of these dreams might begin to progress towards reality. Let's think outside the box, and let's be open to big new ideas about ways to actually move towards those dreams.

As you read what each person has posted, allow your mind to roam freely through the realm of the impossible as well as the possible and then share everything that comes up. Be sure to include any thoughts that come up regarding your own dream as well. As you read what others have written with regard to your dream, open up your own inner doors and entertain those possibilities. Be friendly. Invite them in.

Remember: being open to an idea doesn't mean you have to act on it, opening a door doesn't mean you are now required to go through it, smiling at someone doesn't make you married.

Ready? Here goes:

Two Feathers said...
Ok, I'm up for it. The idea that I have that has the most "juice" to it, the one that currently seems out of reach and unrealistic, is my idea to move into a "Vardo Van" - a totally cool, wonderfully colorful, small but efficient, van outfitted much like the Gypsy Vardo's of times gone by. Along with that dream, comes the idea of traveling here and there, blogging along the way, "pitching my tent" so to speak at various places and selling art, telling fortunes, teaching Reiki, talking to animals, telling stories, and being mysterious and magical.

The "how-to" totally eludes me. I'm thinking it would require a significant amount of money for the Vardo Van and the Laptop. Not to mention the self confidence and the courage to do all that other stuff. If I had the money - I'd swallow my fears and go for it. So... how to finance my dream. That's the question. Any ideas?

Michelle said...
i want to create an avian rescue. i haven't had a lot of passion about anything for a long time, but when i think of those birds that need to be rescued it gives me energy and i feel the strenght it would take to do it. that says a lot to me these days!

Cindy H said...
My dream doesn't really involve myself or my family. It involves a family who are friends of mine. My friends Holly and John have a son who is now 15 years old. When he was 11 years old he suffered a stroke and is now quadriplegic. Unfortunately, he also is unable to speak even though the stroke did not affect the part of his brain involving speech. The doctors here in KC don't know why he can't speak. He has a voice but can't get words out, just various grunts. The only way this poor child has to communicate is through very time-consuming yes and no questions. He indicates yes with his eyes and no with a slight hand movement. He has an electric wheelchair but doesn't even have enough hand control to drive it himself.

The sad thing is that he is 100% "there" mentally. He can still spell his favorite word: antidisestablishmentarianism"!!! He attends school but most of his friends have sort of "moved on" with their lives as teenagers but he is trapped in this body that won't even allow him to speak and I know he is just so miserable!!! I also feel for his parents, especially Holly, who cares for him full-time.

I have written e-mails to Oprah and Montel in the past but haven't had a response. I just KNOW that if we could get Jeremy on some national show, we could get exposure to his condition and find somebody who can help him get his speech back! That would be the greatest gift we could give that family! As far as we know, he is the ONLY person to have survived a stroke such as this and lived AND still had 100% full mental capacity. Others have either died or are paralyzed, but in a vegetative state mentally. Can you imagine having a severe pain and not being able to tell anybody about it? Can you imagine needing your nose scratched and not only can you not scratch it, you can't ask anyone else to?

Please visit jeremytye.com for more information on this wonderful boy whom I have known since he was 2 years old. It would be GREAT to brainstorm ways to get his condition national attention!!!

the gay bookworm said...
Okay so I like this idea of sharing our dreams. Even though we have done this before I think it is good to not only focus our dreams but to put them out there for the universe. My dream is to be the owner of the house at 1305 Owen St. in Saginaw Michigan. To have the wealth to fund or at least the start up funds for a community center where people in the community offer their skills whatever they may be to those in need of those skills. Where adults learn skills, pass along skills to others, adults or children. A place where people with time on their hands could maybe watch the children of people who need to work but can't afford daycare. Whatever the skill it is passed along to the community. From garndening to the arts, computers to automotive. This is something I have had in my heart for a long time.

I would also like to have the wealth to support artists of all kinds. There are so many talented people whose dreams of creating art are squashed by lack of money and resources. I guess I bascially want to be wealthy, wealthy enough to support others in their pursuit of fulfillment.

Karla said...
I'd like to cease working in an attorney's office and write. I like my job but I'd love to be creative. This would also free up time for travel to Mexico and for taking a class on meditation..maybe for learning Reiki. My guide, Ole, keeps teling me to BREATHE. It sounds so simple! I read somewhere that by focusing on the VALUES you wish to accomplish rather than on the MONEY, it helps. So I want to be wealthier, yes. But what I'm really after is FREEDOM to live the creative life I imagine. By focusing on the values I want in my life, it seems that more doors are opening. I'm still broke.. ha ha ha! but the quality time with family and friends, the opportunities to write, the travel to Mexico, all those things are coming into my life right now! Amazing!

Your wildest dream!

Yesterday, I read the book "Sweat Your Prayers" by Gabrielle Roth. In it I found a story that I thought would be appropriate to this month's project. Here it is:

"We are whoever we can imagine ourselves to be. Years ago I met an American girl from the Deep South on the beach in Sitges, Spain, who fantasized about being a nanny for Princess Grace in Monaco. On a whim she mailed a letter to Her Royal Highness. A few weeks later she received an airplane ticket to Monaco for an interview. She got the job. I never forgot this story and often tell it to people who think their dreams are too wild to come true."

That little story got me thinking. I was wondering if she got the job because she was extraordinarily qualified? or because it was so audacious? maybe both? and did she tell anyone that she was going to do that? was she excited and happy when she wrote the letter? was she so sure that it was a fantasy that she attached absolutely no expectations to it at all? was she surrounded by people who said to her "you can do anything you choose"?

All of which brings me to my next question: Is there something audacious and wild that you would like to do? Something so interesting, so fantastic, so exciting, that you would never even think of attempting it? Is there a letter you could write that might open the way for that wildly fantastic notion? Is there a phone call? a website you could visit? an ad you could put in the paper? What about Oprah? Is there some small action you could put forth to start that ball rolling? Are you afraid of how interesting and wonderful your life could be? So what if you fail? Approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less! So how about it? Wanna start something big?

Lets list our wildest dreams here, and then brainstorm with each other as to what small, simple action could be done to get the ball rolling. I dare you to think outside the box... way outside the box... something grand and impossible. Something wonderful. Who's up for it?

Staying Open

Karla's comment on Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open, stimulated two posts. Instead of waiting, and posting them on different days, I'm going to post them both today. Here's the first one, it's from ElsaJoy.com:

I'm sure you remember that old story about the monkey who came across some ripe berries in a glass jar. Not surprisingly, the monkey was elated about his find, and immediately plunged his hand inside the jar to grasp a fistful of berries. But when he tried to withdraw his hand, he found he was stuck: the neck of the jar was too small an opening for the monkey's clenched fist to negotiate. He had two choices: hold onto the treasure in his fist and remain imprisoned, or release the treasure and regain his hand.

The monkey was in agony, because he did not want to let go of the food.

The moral of that story, of course, is that letting go can be vital to your health. That concept is easy enough to read on paper; in real life, though, it is tougher to grasp. We've all been in the monkey's shoes, after all -- who hasn't tried to hold fast to something at some point, even when it was obviously a poor choice? Come on: we've all done it. Several times.

I once met someone who was holding on for dear life to a job he detested. He had been working hard at it for years, typically he would spend 10 to 14 hours a day slaving over his desk. If you asked him why he didn't look for something else, he would give a totally reasonable answer: "It's all I know."

Then one day, out of the blue, he discovered he had terminal cancer. He was shocked: he was still young, his body was in good shape, and it didn't seem remotely fair to him to be felled by cancer before he had gotten any fun out of life. The doctors told him he had a year left to live.

Stunned into unreasonableness, this fellow quit his job and decided to spend the year enjoying himself -- something he had never done before in his whole life. He had, you remember, held passionately tight to his profession, even though he hated it. But in the face of death, he lost all fear of leaving his job. He packed up a few clothes, cleaned out his bank account and took off for a trip around the world.

We didn't hear from him for several months; as the days slipped by, many of us became increasingly concerned about his wellbeing. Was he all alone in some obscure hotel in South America, getting weak and frail? There was no way to track him down; and we kept worrying about him at a distance.

Ten months later, one of our team got a phone call from the fellow. He was back in the U.S, hale and hearty, and bursting with ideas about starting a new business. The cancer? It had disappeared off the map -- the doctors could no longer see any remnant of it in the X-rays. The man was healed.

We couldn't believe our ears.

He stopped by to visit us a few days later, and indeed he looked happy, tanned, vigorous and full of excitement about his new career, which was in a vastly different direction from his previous one. We gathered around him in awe. "But how on earth did you get healed?" we all wanted to know. He said, "Well, my doctor thinks it was because I let go of the job I hated -- and then just dashed out and did all of the things I never let myself do before."

He's still healthy today, many years later. And he loves his work. We say he healed himself of cancer. He says cancer saved his life.

That same story about the monkey was told in a different way by the beloved American comedian Jack Benny. One of Benny's most famous comedy bits is the one in which a robber comes up to him on the street and demands, "Your money -- or your life!" Benny stares at the robber and then falls into one of his relentlessly long, silent pauses.

Exasperated, the robber repeats his ultimatum: "Your money -- or your life!"

And Benny says, "Don't rush me.......I'm thinking."

-oOo-

Elsa Bailey is a free lance writer who has created www.elsajoy.com as "a labor of love." If you are ready for inspiration, wisdom and spiritual connection, then visit Elsa's site.

More thoughts on control issues, trust, and being open

In reply to the last post on Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open, Karla had a great response. I started to just respond in the comment section, but it occured to me that this would make a good post (actually two posts) as it contains so much food for thought.

Karla said: Maybe it's important to remember that we don't always have to fly. The chicken could hop down on the ground and find a fascinating life there! Wherever we go when we leap off the roost, there are adventures to be had!

I love her point about the chicken... we are who we are. Being a chicken (if you are a chicken) can be adventurous and exciting and fulfilling. But, if you are, for example, a robin TRYING to be a chicken... well it's going to be stressful, and complicated, and unsuccessfull on many levels. A chicken, on the other hand, trying to be a robin is doomed to failure.



So, I like her point. I guess the question would be who am I? What is my own unique essential nature? And just begin to BE that.

She also said: The open hand DOES seem easier to do. The only thing is sometimes I find myself REACTING to events in a way that causes the hand to tighten up. Kind of an uncontrollable thing to regain control. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Is that self preservation or a lack of faith? How can we remember to let loose in that instant we want to form a fist? I KNOW I'm not in control but it's that knee jerk reaction in crisis, ya know?

I was thinking about what she said, and looking at the image of the bird on the hand, and I couldn't help noticing that that little bird has what looks like a good grip on the finger it's sitting on. Which brought up a number of questions:

1. When you clench up, are you gripping on to your support system?
2. When something frightens you, do you hold tight to your beliefs, to your "source", to your "God", to balance, to home, to love?
3. Or do you clench up and cling to something different?
4. What?
5. Are you the bird on the hand?
6. A bird in a cage?
7. Or the monkey with his hand in the jar?

Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open

We seek to control our lives when we do not trust, when we do not love. Our ego, perceiving itself to be vulnerable and insecure, uses control in an effort to protect itself. At the root of our need to control, we find fear. It may be fear of the unknown. Fear of not coping. Fear of loss. Or possibly even fear of looking stupid. And as our efforts to control other people and events invariably fail, our fear increases.

“When I grip the wheel too tight, I find I lose control.”
~Steve Rapson

Trust, on the other hand, is a quality of the soul. While control is a tool of the mind, trust and faith are aspects of the heart. Trust comes with the deep knowing that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies. When we trust enough in life to give up our need to control, we can relax and open to the flow of energy in our lives. This brings peace of mind. ~from Higher Awareness

Here we have a perfect picture of trust and openness. I don't know which is more important for me to achieve - the open hand that speaks gently and quietly of allowing beauty, love, and whatever it is that I want - to come and go as it pleases; the open hand that says I don't have to cling to anything in order to "make" it stay.

OR

Is it important for me to know that I am in "good hands," that I can fly if and when I choose, and that there will always be a safe place to land, that I am free and unlimited in every way. What about you guys? What is important for you?

"The only real security in life lies in relishing life's insecurity."
~M. Scott Peck

Open to Money Magic

If you buy lottery tickets, use this spell. Every time you buy a ticket, think to yourself that you are doing it as an act of magic and power. Say to yourself:

I am open to wealth coming to me,
I am open to good fortune coming to me,
I am open to my luck.

Assemble a prosperity altar, and put the lottery tickets on it. Surround them with symbols of good luck — a four-leaf clover, rabbit’s foot, and so on. You might want to add a small container of cinnamon, or to burn cinnamon incense. Put any money you find on this altar as well—pennies you find on the street, change from vending machines, and so on. Like will attract like, and money will attract money.

~Magenta Griffith

The Hidden Harmony

Every moment everything is changing.You cannot stop the river - it flows! But because we like to stop things, to make them permanent, we create a hell around us. If you have a clinging and possessive mind you will miss the freshness, the unexpectedness of each moment. Celebration is possible if each moment brings you something new. Then life is excitement - without expectation. Nothing can frustrate you because in the first place you never expected that anything was going to be the same forever.

Live in readiness to be surprised, never taking things for granted. The moment you take anything for granted, something in you dies. Expect nothing but be ready for everything. Then small things become precious.

If you have eyes which are open and ready to be surprised, to wonder, and a heart ready to be in a state of awe, then everything is beautiful. You have found the hidden harmony. Life is a great dance, each moment is unique. Be thrilled with each and every moment whatever it may contain.

~from Discover Meditation by Pragito Dove

The Journey to Success

Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008

While many of us have metaphorically climbed mountains and conquered peaks, Edmund Hillary was the first person to summit the highest peak in the world, Mt. Everest. He died earlier this month and has been lauded - and quite rightly so - in the press. You may already know a few of the details of the ascent:

• His background as a beekeeper in New Zealand - and how hauling around 80lb beehives helped build the strength that would help his climbing.
• His partnership with the sherpa, Tenzing Norgay - a friendship that would last all their lives.
• How he "cracked" the crucial move of the last part of the ascent, a 40-foot rock face later named the "Hillary Step."
• That Hillary and Tenzing spent only about 15 minutes at the summit.

Hillary took Tenzing's photo, Tenzing left chocolates in the snow as an offering, and Hillary left a cross that he had been given. Because Tenzing did not know how to use a camera, there are no pictures of Hillary there. (Sir Edmund said, ""As far as I knew, he had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.")

But here's what's inspiring for me:

Hillary and Tenzing didn't just start at base camp and stroll up Everest. They took it in stages. Many stages. In fact, over the course of 6 weeks, they did it in 45 stages, back and forth to Base Camp, back and forth to camps 1 through 9 - and then and only then the final push to the summit. And what's more - it was only a last minute decision that it would be Hillary and Tenzing that were to make the ones to go to the top. Up until then another climber had been expected to be the one - but was unable to cope with the final challenge.

So what do I take from this?

1. You never know when your opportunity may come along. So even if you're not "in the lead" prepare and train as if you are - and see where that takes you.
2. No one gets to the summit in a single bound. Practically everyone who's an "overnight success" has taken years to get there. It takes stages, and with every stage your mind and body expands to be able to cope with where you are now and gets you ready for where you need to go next.

And now it's your turn:

• What's the Great Work you're striving for now?
• What's the next stage you need to reach?

-oOo-

Source: Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff that matters creator of Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You've Been Avoiding.

Trust

"Ultimately, we must learn to trust ourselves. When we do this intimately and intelligently, the world opens full of meaning before us. We find that we ourselves are the doorway to a fathomless understanding of the source of life itself. We need only to learn to walk through it."

~James Thornton

More on saying: Yes!

That is the greatest secret there is - to say yes. Then things start immediately opening and there is contact.

Life ordinarily prepares us to only say no. Life goes on corrupting our minds and creating doubts. Because of those doubts and because of those no's and the negatives, one becomes enclosed, one lives in a kind of imprisonment, a China Wall surrounds one. That wall is invisible, transparent, so you don't know that it is there, but it is always there. Once you say yes, it starts disappearing.

To say yes is to be religious. Yes is the most sacred word. One Christian saint, a really significant man, Saint Francis of Sales, had only six words in his prayer, "Yes, Father, yes, and always yes." That was his whole prayer and I have never come across a better prayer. Nothing more can be added to it: "yes, Father, yes, and always yes." But my feeling is that this is a kind of repetition. One yes will do: why say "Yes, Father, yes, and always yes."? Yes means everything. It is always, it is forever. One single yes is enough. It should be intense, it should be total.

One yes is already too much. And if you understand me, and some day you will understand me, if you can say yes without even using the word 'yes' then it is the uttermost in prayer. One word is more than enough; no word is the ultimate. Just a yes attitude, a climate of yes... not a verbalisation but a heart full of yes. Not something in the head but in the very bones and the marrow.

When you can say a total yes, the being starts becoming a flame. The being immediately flashes into a flame. It is exactly as if you bring a small flame into oxygen and it flares up. The moment you say yes your being flares up and becomes a great flame.

~Osho

"YES!"

Settling for Less?

"The space for what you want is already filled with what you settle for instead."

I don't know where this quote came from, but it does seem to be true in my own experience. What about you guys? What do you need to clear out and clean up? What do you settle for? What do you close the door to because you're in too big of a hurry to wait? How much of what seems "blocked" and "stuck" in your life is caused by the clutter of accumulated "stuff" you've settled for because you didn't think you deserved better? Or because you didn't think you could have better? Or because you didn't think what you really wanted was even possible? Are there doors you don't open because you don't believe they are really there? Are there doors that won't open because too much "stuff" is in the way?

Meditation to Relate to Infinity

"No one wants to become limited, because each of us is infinite; the source of each of us is Infinity. Infinity has everything. When you relate to Infinity, Infinity gives you everything."

~Yogi Bhajan

Posture:
Sit in Easy pose (or in a chair) with the spine straight. Relax the arms down with the elbows bent by the sides. Draw the forearms in towards each other until the hands meet in front of the body, about one inch above the navel. Keep both palms facing up, and rest the right hand in the palm of the left hand. press the thumb tips together.

Eyes:
Eyes are one-tenth open and focused the tip of the nose

Chant:
Inhale deeply and continuously chant the following mantra in a low monotone voice, moving your lips to create the sound.

Sat naam - sat naam - sat naam
Sat naam - sat naam - sat naam
Waahay guroo.

Time: 11 - 31 minutes.

Why?

This meditation causes the heavy area of the vagus nerve to activate. This extends the brain – eventually to Infinity. The result for the person meditating is that s/he will blossom like a flower into his/her entire potential.

Janus - the God of Open Doors

Today is the full moon. It's also the first full moon of the year, and I thought it might be interesting and fun to do something magical to celebrate. When researching, and looking for ideas for posts, I came across this nifty little tidbit:

January is named after the Etruscan word janua which means door, and is dedicated to the Two-Headed God, Janus. In the days of the Caesars, Janus was known as the God stood at the beginning of the year, looking simultaneously to the past for understanding and into the future for manifestation. This is why Janus was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions.

Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He was also known as the figure representing time because he could see into both the past and the future. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings.

Here we have a small ritual and a prayer to Janus.

Light a cranberry-scented candle, and have some rose petals handy. As you light the candle, recite the following:

God of beginnings
Accept this offering of sweet-smelling cranberry to make you glad
Bless me on the beginning of this new year;
And bless my beginnings throughout the year.
God of the threshold,
Who opens up to a new year;
God of doors,
Who opens on to a new time;
Janus who looks both ways,

I offer these rose petals to you,
And ask you to look behind and ahead,
And guide me through the year that begins today.
A New Year is born from you
Praise, blessings and honours are due for this gift
Hear my words,
You who give birth to everything,
A new born year takes place among your wonders,
One more thing for which you might rightly be praised.

Sprinkle the rose petals, and leave the candle to burn down.

Note: The phrase "new year" can be changed to reflect whatever is new in your life, for example: new project, new ideas, new day, new adventures, new opportunities... etc. Find something that is appropriate for your experience and substitute the words.

The Doors Open

The doors open
Not just a crack, but fully open and wide
And the wind blows through
Drapes billow out in the fresh breeze

Opening, opening
One door after another, one window after another
The breeze is fresh and new
As it blows through

I feel the cleansing, blowing freshness
I am like one of the billowing curtains, sheer and diaphanous,
Beauty and love flowing and blowing
Clean and pure on the air

I stand now on the open plains
Where the breeze blows across the land
And the whole world is like a grassland unending
As far as the eye can see open, open
Open and unobstructed
All barriers down
All obstacles removed

My translucent hand reaches out and forms life from air
Air like clay that can be molded
Matter formed by my own translucent being
Air full of life and love

Yes, love,
Love is the clay

Love is the artist and the art itself
Love is the clay and the potter
Love is the hand that forms and the form that results
And the freedom that blows is a freedom to create

And here at the heart is my own beating heart
That beats in tune with your own
The coming and going of timeless time
The coming and going of formless form

We ask: Is it now?
Is it now to move, to form, to be in this wondrous opening?

And the answer flies back across the plains, as swift as that breeze,
No, no, swifter
As fast as the blink of an eye, it comes

Yes, yes

The time is now
The energy is here now
The open blowing moving forming of the formless into being
This is now
And the fresh air of being is now

Reach out your hand of love
Grab the freshening air and form it
The world is molded to your own thinking, being, intending hand

A light glows and comes toward you
See it fill the air
The moment is now for the forming
The moment is now for creation
The world is yours to shape and form

You are the light
You are the love
You are the artist, the creator

We are the light, we are the love
We are the creators

Blowing and open and new
I am
We are
Life is

~Carrie Hart

June 2007

A Manual for Conserving Paths

From Paulo Coehlo, author of The Alchemist, we have this cool eCard. Since we are working on opening doors, I thought it might be good to say a little bit about following the paths that might lead from those open doors.

(Run your mouse over the right hand corner of the card below, it will begin to curl, click on it to open the card and turn the pages. If it doesn't load properly, here's a direct link to the page where I found it.)

An Invitation To Open Your Mind

The following is from the DVD Ramtha: Create Your Day - An Invitation To Open Your Mind:

You know the moment you wake up, have you ever noticed that you don't know who you are. You wake up and you don't know who you are. Have you noticed how you look around the room to orient yourself, and what is really surprising is when you see the person next to you and for that split moment you don't know who they are?


I think you should contemplate that a lot. We spend the next moments before we ever get out of bed reorienting, rebounding with an identity that for a moment we didn't even have, and the identity is that (thing) we start to from when we take a look at the person next to us. And then we get up, and we start scratching our bodies... and then we get up and we go to the latrine and on the way we look at ourselves.

Why do you do that? Why do you stare at yourself? Because you are trying to remember who you are. It is still a mystery.

But if you have to remember who you are and remember the parameters of your acceptance and the fence of your doubt, if you have to go through the ritual every single day to remember who you are, what are the chances that your day is going to turn out unique?

Very slim indeed.

But what if ... before you tried to remember who you were ... you remembered what you wanted to be, and maybe that came first before you saw your mate, before you clawed yourself, before you staggered out of bed, scared the cat and saw yourself in the mirror. Before you did all of that, what if you remembered something:

"Before I bond to the ritual of my neuronet, I am going to create a day that is astounding, that will add to my neuronet, that will add to the experience of my life."

And you create your day - you create your day. That moment that you are not yet who you are is the most sublime moment in which in that moment you see the extraordinary, you can expect and accept the unordinary, you can accept a pay raise today. If you become yourself, your expectation of a pay raise greatly diminishes. You and I both know that. But in this one state of nonconclusiveness about your identity, you can create anyway.

So I tell my students, before you get up and remember who you are, create your day. Then after you create your day, your routine will change. You will be a slightly different person staring at the urinal, looking in the mirror. There will be something different about you, and that will be a wonderful thing.

Praying With Open Arms

Here is an excerpt from "Stories of God" by Maria Rainer Rilke, I am curious to know what your thoughts are on his ideas about God, and particularly I would like to encourage every one to try praying with wide open arms and see what happens. Here's what he says:

"You know," I began again, "in olden times people prayed like this -" and I spread my arms out wide, involuntarily feeling my breast expand at the gesture. "in those days God would cast himself into all these human abysses, full of despair and darkness, and only reluctantly did he return into his heavens, which, unnoticed, he drew down ever closer over the earth.

But a new faith began. As it could not make men understand wherein its new God differed from their old one (for as soon as they began to praise him, men promptly recognized the one old God here too), the promulgator of the new commandment changed the manner of praying. He taught the folding of hands and declared: "See, thus does our God wish to be implored, so he must be another God from the one whom heretofore you have thought to receive into your arms." The people saw this, and the gesture of open arms became a despicable and dreadful one, and later it was fastened to the cross that all might see in it a symbol of agony and death.

Now when God next looked down upon the earth, he was frightened. Besides the many folded hands, many Gothic cathedrals had been built, and so the hands and the roofs, alike steep and sharp, stretched pointing towards him like the weapons of an enemy. With God there is a different bravery. He turned back into his heavens, and when he saw that the steeples and the new prayers were growing in pursuit of him, he departed out of his domain at the other side and thus eluded the chase.

He was himself astonished to find, out beyond his radiant home, a beginning darkness that received him silently, and with a curious feeling he went on and on in this dusk that reminded him of the hearts of men. Then for the first time it occurred to him that the heads of men are lucid, but their hearts full of a similar darkness; and a longing came over him to dwell in the hearts of men and no longer move through the clear, cold wakefulness of their thinking.

Well, God has continued on his way. Ever denser grows the darkness around him, and the night through which he presses on has something of the fragrant warmth of fecund clods of earth. And in a little while the roots will reach out towards him with the old beautiful gesture of wide prayer. There is nothing wiser than the circle. The God who has fled from us out of the heavens, out of the earth will he come to us again. And, who knows, perhaps you yourself will some day dig free the door..."