You Are a Contribution - an interview with Sister Gloria

    

    Gloria never disappoints. I enjoy going to see her because I enjoy the feeling I always have when I leave. Sister Gloria of the Brahma Kumaris is my meditation instructor, and friend. Over the weekend, I was blessed with one on one time to sit and talk with her. 

    Dressed in her white robes, Gloria greeted me with a bright smile. She always has a glow about her. It's calming and uplifting at the same time. It's also contagious.

    Music began playing from another room, just as we sat down to talk. Perfect timing, she said. Gloria sets music to come on every few hours to remind her to stop what she's doing and sit in meditation for the length of the song. I put my things aside and joined her. With eyes open, as the Brahma Kumaris meditate, I focused my very favorite picture. Already, I was feeling at peace.

    What, I asked her, is missing most in the world today?

    Understanding the Self, she told me. We need more education about who we really are. We live in a world of labels - mother, brother, sales person, etc. But these are artificial. These are not the real Self. It is a big undertaking to understand the Self. We need to peel back the layers to get to the fruit.

    Then what is the real self?

    What you see is a package. YOU are not at all the package. The inner you is that gentle, unlimited, un-perishable, intangible, spiritual being. A jewel of light.

    When you are driving a car, do you ever believe you are the car? No! We are the DRIVER. That is the Soul, the Self. We are the driver of this vehicle the body. 

    To understand the Self better, Gloria further told me about the 3 Faculties of the Soul. The Mind, the Intellect, and the Sanskaras, or personality traits.

    Because the soul is not physical at all, it needs a tool to get attached to this world.

The Mind helps the soul to move about using the body. It works with the 5 senses - We see a flower, think about getting to the flower, send a message to the brain to go and smell the flower. The mind facilitates EXPERIENCE, which is the whole point of being in this world. We interact with the flower - know what the flower is. The 5 senses are the receivers that belong to the world. The mind keeps on thinking about how to use those 5 senses to bring

the experience to the soul. But the mind gets over-used. We experience the flower and instead of just enjoying it, we keep going. We wonder, what will happen if we tear the flower, throw the flower? We want to posses the flower because we have experienced so much good from it, we want more. (Ah, this is where addictions come into play isn't it? I asked her... Yes.)

    The Intellect is the wisdom keeper. It can keep the mind in check. It can say - The flower is beautiful. Go to it, and then leave it alone. But the soul can dismiss the intellect

because the soul can be misguided by the mind. Yet if the soul is aware of the intellect -it can choose who is in control. When the soul understands that the soul is in control, the soul can allow the intellect to give input. When the mind overdoes the flower, the intellect

can step in and say- Leave it as it is, it's a beautiful flower, leave it at that. The intellect has the wisdom to say no.

    The Sanskaras are the recording of what the mind and intellect have done. Go back to the flower. If you have stomped on the flower, the mind creates a recording and reflects in you something that is not so nice. Or suppose you are gentle with the flower, the sanskaras

show a reflection of a gentle, positive person. It keeps recording what you are doing in life and reflecting that back out to the world.

    

    How do we recognize and undo the damage of the negative recordings we have created? 

    The soul is energy. When you send energy out - it is a message, through energy. Other people receive that energy. It can be undone, but is not always easy.

    First, you create positive traits, positive habits. Meditating helps us begin. It is through meditation that you begin to recognize the differences between the positive qualities vs negative ones, and how to gravitate towards positive qualities and virtues. Then you can begin to recognize and create new personality traits so you don't have to go back and use the old ones.

    What keeps you on this path, Gloria?

    There IS NO OTHER path. This is the breath of life for me. I began to receive so much positive energy - it makes me happy! I am more humane, I have more energy. If a car doesn't have gas, it can't run. This gives me fuel! If I don't have this, I have no gas for the car! If you are next to the pond where you can drink water, why would you move away to the desert?? This is my fuel of life. This has helped me understand who I am, change my ways, understand what people really are.

    Even health problems. This has helped me so much to create a healthy life. This meditation creates an impact on the healthy cells. They naturally reject the illnesses.

Because this is the natural way of being. Life naturally has to be good. But it is human beings that bring in the artificial ways of being which create an unhealthy life. The meditation restores all that has gone wrong. Raja Yoga Meditation. Instead of your mind running the soul - your soul runs the show. 

    A lot of us try this path, but we fall off. How do we get on, and stay on this path?

    Well how many times do you eat/feed your body during the day? 2-3 times? Plus snacks? How often do you recharge your cell phone?

    Your Soul is your battery. How can we never refuel it? Never recharge it at all? We MUST feed and recharge the soul for it to work! Meditation recharges. Every day life is so highly demanding that it drives people crazy, gives nervous breakdowns - it is draining! We must recharge.

    In all the time I've known you Gloria, there is one thing that has stuck out in my mind above all the rest. You told me that I myself am a contribution...

    If you yourself are fully charged, your battery is charged - then whatever you do, wherever you go, you are sharing that energy. It's like a rose - can you stop the fragrance of the rose? No - it gives. Even if you can't do any extra service or giving, if you are charged, your soul is giving off energy that flows to others. Energy has no boundaries. Wherever you go - you are giving that. It is okay to give in just that way. If one person feels good - it is good for many.

The Brahma Kumaris offer meditation classes in over 10,000 centers around the world. These are offered free, or by donation, with the philosophy that by nurturing the well-being of the entire human family through promoting spiritual understanding and leadership with integrity, it leads to elevated actions towards a better world.

To learn more about the Brahma Kumaris and Raja Yoga meditation, visit http://www.brahmakumaris.org/ 

Taking the Extra Step

The promised interview with my beloved meditation instructor is on it's way! In the meantime, something came up with my oldest daughter today...

She asked me if there was ever a time in my life when I didn't have friends. I responded honestly, that I always had friends, but I do recall a number of times in my life without any truly good friends - the ones I had were more to just have someone to hang out with, rather than be bored.

She told me she felt like that right now. And if I know her, she will be the same as me - easily able to make friends, she'll never be alone, but that doesn't guarantee strong friendships at all times.

She said a few of her current "friends" say negative things, and even if they are joking, it doesn't feel good. This is what I told her:

That sometimes you have to be your own friend first. Sometimes it's really hard to walk away from someone because of that fear and discomfort of being alone. Yet when we respect ourselves enough to walk away from the negative, that itself is canceling out a negative situation with a positive action. And with that comes more positivity, even though we might have to wait for it a little while. You may have to play alone at recess a few times, or sometimes even longer. But the courage to do that in order to keep the respect for yourself is well worth it - with the benefits including stopping a pattern of accepting bad treatment in your life before it gets started. 

And secondly, that she really had three options. She could continue hanging out with that person and bickering back and forth and feeling yucky about it; she could choose to stop hanging out with that person; OR she could choose to stop hanging out with that person AND tell them why.

She said she didn't want to explain herself, and I said that's completely fine! It really is. It is taking a step up from being down. However, when you choose the third option, it's like taking two steps up instead of just one. When you explain to someone why you're walking away, you are giving them an opportunity to change. You are opening a door. You are now doing the right thing for TWO people. And you literally double your blessings/ good karma/ goodwill that will come back to you down the road. You are still doing the right thing to simply walk away, and yet you can do even more by walking away and giving the other person an idea of why.

We also discussed that a lot of kids don't change - and my precious, insightful 9 year old said sometimes it's because they just don't know any better, or any other way to be. 

But each time we stand up for ourselves, we take away the power any negative people or words have over us. And when we give someone that open door to see what their actions are doing, we give them the power to make a change.

Out of Nothing, And No Way, A Way is Made

Michael Beckwith says this quite a bit when he preaches. It's really stuck with me, but only in desperate times. 

Today wasn't so desperate, but I got to feel the depth of this statement - Out of nothing, and no way, a way will be made.

So I noticed this crack in my windshield yesterday in the midst of driving all over town in holiday shopping traffic - I think to myself, That sucks, and promptly forget all about it.

And today. Today I was given a precious gift of $200. I was so happy! I thought of the boots I need, the haircut I could get, how I could surprise my husband with something, Chinese food for NYE, etc... After telling myself I wasn't going to use this gift to pay bills, I was going to use it as a gift for myself - these are the things that came to mind. We are truly a paycheck to paycheck family, and $200 extra dollars is a real blessing.

Then I get in my car to run an errand, and there it is, like a cold, hard slap in the face - the windshield crack. Except it had grown. No longer forgettable, this thing was now over a foot long. I sighed. I knew right then what I needed to do, and I knew right then how much it would cost. I needed to call my insurance company and have the windshield replaced, and my deductible is exactly $200.

Did I have my moment of thinking WTF?? Oh yea I did. Then I had the moment of forcing myself to get over it - like not naturally getting over it, but nudging myself, thinking "Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude Erin!! Be grateful you had the money!" When really inside I'm whining "But it's not fair!!"

The difference is, this all lasted minutes - not hours or even days like something of this nature used to.

A friend of mine recalled to me in the midst of this that when she used to be tight on money, and had a struggle, something always worked out so she could afford it. This my friends, is Right Thinking. What we are accustomed to is Backwards Thinking - "Damnit, I had money and now I have to use it for a repair! This sucks, poor me!" But that's backwards, it's literally flipped the wrong way, and in so doing completely changes the tone, feeling and attitude. 

Just flip the two events in the opposite order - "I needed a repair, and then I got the money to fix it!" This is so simple it's almost stupid. But do you see how the entire tone changes? It changes so that, in fact, it leaves no room for poor me or bitter feelings, yet brings about an atmosphere for gratitude. 

There are just two sides to every coin, and we are the ones who can flip it. I flipped my situation into one that felt grateful, and this brings about joy, which in turn leads to more things to be thankful for.

Look at that. I was going to need help with that windshield. And out of nothing, and no way, a way was made.

Amen.

Forget the Resolutions...

As I see it, resolutions are for the birds. We usually don't keep them anyhow! And so it becomes this silly little waste of time, helping us to either become better at accepting that it's okay to make promises we don't keep, or to feel lousy about our inability to follow through.

Last year I chucked the New Year Resolution, and implemented New Year Intentions.

An intention is different. Whereas I liken resolutions to hard set goals we carve out for ourselves, intentions to me are softly playing in the background. There is no deadline or point at which we've failed to come through and accomplish the goal. Intentions are intuitive. Intentions are positive. Intentions affirm the best outcome.

A resolution might be to start going to the gym, or even, "I will go to the gym 3x a week." Well we know how that can turn out! By February we've already put our membership on hold bc its too cold and dark to want to leave our house after work!

Along the same lines, the Intention would come from a place of feeling like your body and emotions would benefit from some physical exercise. It would go more like this, "I intend to fulfill my right to healthy living." Or, "I intend to release stress in a healthy way." And then we watch for the ways this plays out for us. We watch for the opportunities which come to us that will make it happen. This gives you so much to work with, and so much room for success! And you don't scold yourself for not keeping the intention. Like I said, you keep it softly in the background, and the universe has a wonderful way of helping us fulfill these life affirming desires!

So be gentle with yourself and listen to what your mind and body are telling you, use that intuition to get your New Years Intentions. Don't go with what you think you "should" do, bc logic has less say with Intentions.

I'm happy to say last year I naturally saw my intentions playing out for me and I fell into a rythem of seeing them through or at least making progress. And I've already gotten that intuitive notion of what I intend for myself in 2014.

Listen to that inner voice to guide you, and you will see wonderful ways you can fulfill your intentions for the new year. Keep them playing softly in the background, and watch for doors to open.

Until then, a VERY Merry Christmas to all... Watch for my next blog post featuring an interview with my dear meditation instructor, Gloria of the Brhama Kumaris!

To a Happy start of 2014...Cheers

Random Acts of Stuff

Walking into the bank today, I noticed one of the trees in the parking lot had been... "Decorated"...
Well you could call it that.
My buddy Jason, the Security Guard, filled me in.
"It's a local guy who does it. He brings random stuff he finds, and he decorates the tree with it. He's got Christmas already all planned out", he told me. "I told him he at least had to wait until Thanksgiving was over", Jason chuckled.
I wondered if the decorations would change much for Christmas, since the Thanksgiving decorations had nothing to do with the holiday.
Speckled with car keys, a sock, and other lost things, for a moment I noted that it doubled as a glorified lost and found!
Regardless of what it represented, it made me smile. Why?
1- Because someone in the community got to do something with their creative energy, and the Bank (Im sure with outrageous rules and regulations to abide by) did NOT turn him away.
2- It was hilarious.
3- I finally got to get moving on what this Blog was created for. Cheering on people in the community who are Amazing, Awesome, or simply just interesting in their own way.
Watch out Jason, I'm on a roll now, you might be next!!

An Important Reminder

Is anyone else sick of BS in their lives?
This full moon definitely got the better of me, and I pretty much tumbled and fell on various occasions.
I've cried, I've yelled, and felt a heavy sadness.
But wait...
All my energy has been focused on everything wrong, and how much I hate it!
After 3 days of hating the world, I took my Power back.
You can't shove the feelings aside, you have to feel them...
But then, you kick the BS to the side - and put your energy into what you DO WANT.
It works people.
A smile replaced the frown, and I remembered all things are possible. And what a better reminder of what to aim for, then feeling everything that you don't want.
Even for these terrible feelings, we can be grateful. Because if we know enough to just turn around, everything we want is right... there... waiting.

Filling the Gap

Recently, I was presented with a situation that normally I would've felt very upset about. Upset, anxious, uncertain, resentful. A victim of whatever outcome may arise.
I spent a few hours being upset. Feeling helpless as to what would become of things.
Then, in an instant, I perked up.
Now this will sound cheesy to many of you, but to some of you, you'll know.
I perked up because I remembered God. You know that big old guy in the sky who magically controls our lives... No, not that God.
I remembered the God that absolutely, positively, without a doubt has the precise perfect vision of me, created in His likeness. I remembered the God that ALWAYS gives me the right next step to take, for the right next place I need to be. I remembered the God who never for even one second stops seeing me as Empowered, and never ever sees me as a Victim.
I remembered all these things in an instant. And instantly, I smiled. Instantly, I left victim mode and went into Faith mode.
You see, this takes the QUESTION out of what may come. You know you will be given what's best.
On a daily basis, no I don't continually remember this. But with each circumstance that arises, my faith only grows stronger, because our questioning serves as a reminder.
It's bold to say, because so many times we do not like the outcome. Faith is the understanding that in hindsight, you always understand why things happened as they did. It always makes sense later. God fills the gap between now, and then...