Peace, Love and Increase (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Which world will you live in today? The one that tempts you to enter and create through negative thoughts, fear and doubt or the  one that quietly beckons you toward peace, love, happiness and joy?

Commit just for today to gently watch your inner world and softly shift it each time a negative or fear filled thought or feeling arises. Breathe, let go, choose love, appreciation, gratitude—just for one moment and then the next and the next.

Commit to building a resonance of inner  peace and happiness through each moment, just for today. Decide to paint an inner landscape of hope, love, peace and ease—-breathe, let go into a world that YOU choose.

Related articles

• What Is Inner Peace? (blogcritics.org)

Cosmic Consciousness (Photo credit: Rainbow Gryphon)

Is there a link between compassion and crime? As I listened to an NPR story about the drop in violent crime for the fourth consecutive year, I wondered if this is a reflection of society becoming more community-oriented, compassionate, caring and kind. I see more and more evidence of this every day every day. Yes, there are still those who don’t have a clue and continue to operate under old paradigms. Although such voices are loud, domineering and at times unbelievable, I am convinced that this is a dwindling population. As we withdraw our focus from what feels wrong and place our energy on what feels right, each of us will experience more of the inevitable shift in consciousness. It is a sign of our times.

Look around. “Doing good” is a growing movement. You will find ample evidence that people DO care about others. In my town a Fire Fighter grows fresh produce for our local food pantry and encourages others with gardens to drop off their extra produce so that those in need can eat fresh, seasonal vegetables. Our Helping Hands organization of volunteers provides those in need with things such as support for basic necessities, back to school clothes and school supplies, holiday food baskets, items that are ready to pass along (such as bikes) and more. Some people contribute money, some contribute items, some contribute time. Some people do all three. What’s going on in your family, community, or social network that is “doing good” for others?

Daily inspiration is readily available. The Good News Network is in its 15^th year of providing good news to its internet readers. They provide inspiring stories of people doing the right thing world-wide. The Daily Good, another online resource, has been providing inspiration to its subscribers since 1998, almost as long. The mainstream media is also hopping on the bandwagon. Compared to prior years, more and more time and space is dedicated to human interest stories that encourage, stimulate interest, and inspire our spirit. These are just a few examples. I know that there are many more.

As we “do good” for others, I believe that each of us becomes more compassionate, caring and kind. Being part of the same human family, deep down we have similar needs and wants. What’s “out there” in the big, wide world is a reflection of what’s “inside,” closer to home, as reflected in our community, family, and individual consciousness. As we continue to shift and change for the better, the world around us will too.

One of the most effective ways to make a difference is to do “the work” on yourself. Consciously release your resistance to what “is”, accept things as they are, and change what you can. As you work with your own energy, the energy around you will shift as well. If you don’t believe it, just play with this concept. You will soon see evidence of your thoughts, feelings and beliefs playing out in front of you. Sometimes we are blind to this. As you tune in and observe what really shows up in your world each day, you may be delighted to realize how you, the observer, can change what is being observed. The world is one big mirror of our collective consciousness. We are all responsible for what is going on. You can begin by being more compassionate, caring and kind with yourself. Just do a little bit more every day. When you have a setback, accept it and begin again. Living your life this way can be a lot of fun and make a big difference in the world at large.

Our violent crime rate has dropped for four consecutive years. This is a good thing and each of us has contributed to it in one way or another. Maybe in 2012 we’ll see an even bigger jump. Let’s each BE the change we want to see in the world.

Related articles

• COSMIC Convergence – by Carl Calleman [topics include Elenin, pole shifts, consciousness shifts, and more]] (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• World Peacemakers Call for 3-DAY Moratorium on All News 9/22-24 (news.yahoo.com)
• Clow’s 2011 Fall Equinox Report (deniselefay.wordpress.com)

Contemplation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Are you feeling the results of the harsh, cold and unyielding temperatures on your patience? The already difficult season of winter becomes even more unbearable when we are besieged by extremes of temperature, as well as continuous ice or snow storms!

 Is there a way to make peace with this season?  Is there a means to find not just respite, but maybe even an appreciation of this quieter, less active, time of the year?

Of course there are many approaches that help us tolerate and get through this time: winter sports, vacations, new hobbies and interests. These are all worthwhile and useful alternatives to enable us to withstand the long, cold, and dark season.

There are also choices in how we view this time of year that can help reduce some of the stress and frustration. We can look at winter as a teacher. We can open ourselves to learn something from this season that we are used to just enduring. Years ago we would have laughed at such an approach! Finally it occurred to us that our attitude was not working. So we thought a trial run of a different point of view couldn’t hurt.  We found that it not only didn’t hurt, it in fact helped…a lot!

The natural world has much to teach us about flowing with cycles and changes…how to be patient and go with the flow rather than fight what is.  If you allow it, winter’s journey can be a kind of spinning inward, a letting go of resistance to all that you find harsh, cold and unyielding. Within the short and cold days of winter, there is a lot of magic and beauty.  It can be a time of quiet reflection, a time to learn how to turn your attention inward. When you do this, the possibility opens to learning how to become friends with a slower, quieter, less active pace. You can welcome the respite from the over-activity of the holidays, and warmer seasons. By slowing down and going inward, you may discover that solutions come to you more easily.  You may also discover that you can get more done in less time.  You may discover that you like the new pace and improved balance.

However, there are challenges to implementing these ideas! We seem to resist slowing down. We are used to such a high level of activity, and have such high expectations for every area of our lives, that it is hard to slow down. We have all cooperated in the creation of lives so full of action that is hard to change. In spite of warnings regarding health, our own unrest and feelings of distress with the pace, we continue onward as if it is impossible to change.

You are, whether you choose to believe it or not, the change agent and meaning maker of your life. So if you are to have something new enter your existence, you will have to make room for it and put it there. You will have to align your energy with your intentions and get ready to receive everything you are asking for.  Whatever you ask for, will come.  How about beginning with the willingness to entertain some new ideas?

Nature’s wisdom follows predictable, repeatable cycles of change and growth. Winter’s time of ‘darkness’ is a resting time, a space where there is a deep process of renewal and rejuvenation happening before the grand explosion of life in spring.

Winter provides us with a similar experience. With a somewhat slower pace of life you can take the opportunity to give yourself a gift of time each day for quiet reflection. You can learn to enter into this state that nature models so gracefully. How do you do this? One way is to practice some form of meditation, deep relaxation, and contemplation or prayer as a daily routine. This may be difficult at first for many reasons. It may feel as though nothing is happening or that you are not being productive, responsible or worthwhile. As you become more familiar with spending time in this type of activity, you will gradually become aware, however, of how profoundly it can impact your life in ways that support the values you cherish.

Deep within each of us, is the need for quiet; for the kind of rest that replenishes and nourishes our bodies, minds and spirits. There is a place inside that understands and knows how to BE. However, you need to access it, it will not force its way into your life. You access it by slowing down, tuning in and listening to everything within your body and soul.  When you provide the means to travel there, your life is greatly enriched for the brief investment of time that you make.

What are the benefits of learning to spend this kind of time?

• You may find a kind of rest you did not think was possible.
• You can discover that silence will teach you things you didn’t know.
• You can develop new perspectives, new views that help you in practical ways.
• You may realize the difference between knowledge and understanding.
• You may find you are more than a constant process of doing.
• You may find that by slowing down you actually accomplish more with less effort.
• You may rediscover your creativity and simple solutions to everyday problems.
• You may find that you really enjoy and cherish this time.
• You can develop a reliable source of renewal, guidance, support and problem solving.

All relationships need attention, time and space to grow. Winter provides the possibility for a new kind of relationship—with yourself. This relationship is grown and nurtured internally. It is deceptively quiet and subtle, but like winter, it can be powerful in the gifts it brings: expansion, growth, warmth, beauty …your own personal Spring!  Go inward this winter and nurture the seeds of change and growth within you.  Contemplate what you really want in your life and make room in your heart and soul for its arrival.  Align your thoughts and your energy with your intentions on a daily basis.

Make a commitment to nurture yourself this winter.  Align your spirit with Nature’s cycles.  When spring arrives, the seeds of winter will burst forth will new life and vigor.

If peace of mind is your goal,
look for the errors in your beliefs and expectations.
Seek to change them, not the world.
And be always prepared to be wrong.
Peter Russell

I believe this is part of the shift in consciousness that is underway for us all–realizing what is beneath all our outer seeking, needing, and wanting and making the inner changes to bring it about.

Awakening allows for: eyes that open wider, ears that hear more clearly, a mind that broadens and expands to include more and exclude less, and a heart that both widens and opens.

 Awakening is an imperfect course, one with jagged edges that can pierce the smoothness of our contentment and explode the inner space of our reality.

 Awakening requires courage, perseverance, commitment and practice:

Courage to face the day, to see how far we’ve come AND how far we have yet to go

Perseverance to show up, shift and move forward while honoring the missteps

Patience to ride the currents—the updrafts and the troughs

Commitment to practice even in the stuck times

 Awakening is allowing our humanness to be touched our spirit and be shaped by it. It is then that resistance can fall away and we can open into the ease of soul, and let it lead the way.

 When disaster strikes it can rock the very foundation of our individual and collective psyches. It is  as though our deepest fears are shaken loose from the comfortable bed where they have been lying and rise up to remind us that they are still there. We become aware once again that safety is not a guarantee in this world. The truly terrifying emotion that gets triggered in such circumstances is one of powerlessness.

 Someone once said that the emotion we most feared was one of powerlessness. My experience and observation in this lifetime is that this is probably true. We REALLY do NOT like to feel that we are powerless in any area of our lives.

 Daily life, at least in most of the western world, can lull us into a sense of complacency where we can “forget” about this issue of powerlessness. Of course unconscious behaviors show us that in fact some part of us is trying mightily to hang on to a feeling of power, control and safety. However, when catastrophe strikes the mighty energy of fear awakens.

 Each person has their own unique way to defend or cope with the arousal of such fear. Some go on the offensive and cast hateful (and often totally illogical) blame on others. Some creatively weave stories that assign power to an external source with rules and regulations that they themselves just happen to be in alignment with, but the folks who are suffering the calamity are not and hence their troubles.  In fact it may be that we all carry some version of this story in our deepest of hidden places—be good, do this, follow that and no harm will come to you! But disaster has a way of shaking our belief systems and opening us up to our fears about safety, security, as well as to what is really important. This can be a time when we can discover things about ourselves and choose (or be forced!) to grow and develop aspects of ourselves that we may not otherwise.

 If we ask questions about our deepest fears…if we confront them and look to what it would take to dissolve them, heal them, let them go…and yes, maybe even accept that we may have to live with some part of them and learn to manage them more grace-fully.

 Our true power lies within the better part of ourselves, in our spiritual nature. We can choose to grow and develop this aspect—to learn how to attune to the energy of love, peace and ease and allow it to flow through us even in an imperfect world. Aligning with the energy of these higher qualities strengthens us and those around us through a kind of ripple effect.

 Learning to root and ground ourselves in these stronger energies opens us up so we become more aware of healthier choices and responses to our world –ones that nourish and enhance ourselves, others and the world. Centering in these energies brings clarity, a higher way of knowing and Being to us. Our choices and responses can become more kind, loving and wise.

 A question that often is asked is, “Is there a higher purpose in the disasters that strike us? “  Perhaps the answer is that is our choice. Perhaps the real question needs to be, “How do we want to respond to the challenges and conditions of our lives?” We can choose to develop our awareness and consciousness. We can choose to work toward an integration of mind and heart. It is there that we can find the deep choice of wisdom and love.