When we get a flash of insight or inspiration, where is that coming from? What opens the gateway to a fresh blast of ideas or perspectives?
How do we get tapped in better so that we can have more of those inspired moments? Seems to me the part of the secret to these flashes of inspiration come from relaxation. I have noticed that sometimes when I am walking, tending my garden, playing music, dancing or doing something simple like that is when fresh insights or inspirations come.
Sometimes when we focus on something too hard we do not see all our options and ways of getting to our goal, so looking away from the problem for a moment lets our vision refresh.
Have your eyes ever gotten tired from sitting in front of the computer for hours? Get away from your desk and go outside. Focus on the horizon. Look at the clouds, landscape, birds in flight, anything to shift your focus to the far distance. Feel how refreshing that is? Does everything come back into focus a little better now?
Sometimes it is more than relaxation that works. Sometimes you just have to accept that you do not know everything and affirm that you are open to new answers, new perspectives, new insights.
Another tactic that might work wonders for you is to simply draw a card a day from whatever deck you like to work with. If you feel like drawing more than one card, go ahead. The idea is that the randomness of the act compels out mind to think outside the square.
There is one other factor which we should notice. Practice. Practice? If you ever read or hear interviews with people who are great at what they do, no matter whether they are athletes, musicians, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, inventors, healers, readers, psychics, whatever, you find a common thread. All of these people spent a lot of time practicing their chosen skill in order to learn how to do what they do excellently. The practice is what leads to excellence. In the midst of the practice, something "just comes to them" and there is the hit song, the popular book, the trademark physical form that scores points, the invention that revolutionizes a product line and all the rest. There is an altered state we get to when we practice.
How many ways are there to break through?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Is Surfing the Web Astral Travel?
The world today looks so different from the world of not so long ago, that it is almost as if a time warp drew us through.
Astral travel? Think about the jarring effect of visiting another country for a week or two or even a nice island getaway for a long weekend, and then returning to work.
Think about people we have corresponded with on the internet and we have never met them. There are people we do business with whom we never meet in person. We simply have an email exchange with them.
If we know people only through websites and email, is that a form of astral travel? Is certainly isn't real time travel.
We can post web pages and blogs somewhere out there and everyone in the world can see them, but they reside somewhere other than on our computer.
We can access pages people created in another country on the other side of the globe just as easily as we can visit a page or an email from a friend in the same city or town. We think we can see them, but all we are really seeing is an image.
Is surfing the web a form of astral travel?
Astral travel? Think about the jarring effect of visiting another country for a week or two or even a nice island getaway for a long weekend, and then returning to work.
Think about people we have corresponded with on the internet and we have never met them. There are people we do business with whom we never meet in person. We simply have an email exchange with them.
If we know people only through websites and email, is that a form of astral travel? Is certainly isn't real time travel.
We can post web pages and blogs somewhere out there and everyone in the world can see them, but they reside somewhere other than on our computer.
We can access pages people created in another country on the other side of the globe just as easily as we can visit a page or an email from a friend in the same city or town. We think we can see them, but all we are really seeing is an image.
Is surfing the web a form of astral travel?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Half Empty or Half Full?
When the blizzards hit hard out here, you can see effects almost immediately. Within a couple days, even the huge chain grocery stores start to have empty shelves where produce and bread used to be.
That is an instant reminder of how interdependent we are in this world. Other people raise and produce our food and send it to us.
Such sights inspire some people to advocate that everyone store tons of food for emergencies. Of course, having some extra canned goods or dried food on hand is always a prudent idea. How much? Well, the half empty glass people will advocate a couple years worth, but perhaps a few months worth will see you through the worst emergencies, since the groceries seem to be restocked to normal within a week. So the extra will get you through times of power outages, storms and short periods of unemployment.
Another suggestion that has merit is that of victory gardens. Back around WW2, people were encouraged to grow some of their own vegetables and fruits in their own yards for their own consumption so that more produce could be available to feed the troops. Lots of people did.
Even to this day gardening is the most popular hobby not only in this country, but in the world. There is a real joy and pleasure to seeing plants grow, nurturing them and then having vegetables, fruits and herbs from your own garden be part of your meals. Herbs that season your food or become tea add a lot of life to any meal.
If you are producing more than you can eat right away, you can share it with others, you can can, freeze or dry it. Even a small patch can produce a lot. Many people would think that the idea of having a garden rather than a lawn would be less aethetically pleasing, but that all depends on your sense of aesthetics. For most of the life of this country, manicured lawns were not the standard in front of every house.
So is your life half empty or half full? We must trust that the world will continue to work. Farmers all around the world will continue to produce food and these mutual exchanges will benefit everyone. My world view is not so grim as to think that this will all end suddenly one day.
My glass is half full when I work in my garden because I enjoy it. My trust that other people will keep producing is based on the simple truth that buying and selling are necessary parts of life is also a half full view of life. We all have to guy and sell something just as part of every day life.
The half empty view of creating a life where each person is capable of producing all their own food is a reality that will never be available to most people. Seeing the glass as half full is the only option that makes sense. Always seeing it as half empty makes for a grim view of life, devoid of joy.
Another
That is an instant reminder of how interdependent we are in this world. Other people raise and produce our food and send it to us.
Such sights inspire some people to advocate that everyone store tons of food for emergencies. Of course, having some extra canned goods or dried food on hand is always a prudent idea. How much? Well, the half empty glass people will advocate a couple years worth, but perhaps a few months worth will see you through the worst emergencies, since the groceries seem to be restocked to normal within a week. So the extra will get you through times of power outages, storms and short periods of unemployment.
Another suggestion that has merit is that of victory gardens. Back around WW2, people were encouraged to grow some of their own vegetables and fruits in their own yards for their own consumption so that more produce could be available to feed the troops. Lots of people did.
Even to this day gardening is the most popular hobby not only in this country, but in the world. There is a real joy and pleasure to seeing plants grow, nurturing them and then having vegetables, fruits and herbs from your own garden be part of your meals. Herbs that season your food or become tea add a lot of life to any meal.
If you are producing more than you can eat right away, you can share it with others, you can can, freeze or dry it. Even a small patch can produce a lot. Many people would think that the idea of having a garden rather than a lawn would be less aethetically pleasing, but that all depends on your sense of aesthetics. For most of the life of this country, manicured lawns were not the standard in front of every house.
So is your life half empty or half full? We must trust that the world will continue to work. Farmers all around the world will continue to produce food and these mutual exchanges will benefit everyone. My world view is not so grim as to think that this will all end suddenly one day.
My glass is half full when I work in my garden because I enjoy it. My trust that other people will keep producing is based on the simple truth that buying and selling are necessary parts of life is also a half full view of life. We all have to guy and sell something just as part of every day life.
The half empty view of creating a life where each person is capable of producing all their own food is a reality that will never be available to most people. Seeing the glass as half full is the only option that makes sense. Always seeing it as half empty makes for a grim view of life, devoid of joy.
Another
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Spirit Dancing
My experience with dance is that it is a superior method for uplifting a person's moods and creating an altered state of ecstasy and awareness.
For me, this works a lot faster and better than any of those meditation traditions where you just sit down and be quiet for hours.
Music and movement can change my state of awareness in a minute. Dancing with people fosters a sense of connectedness, because whether it is swing dance, contra dance, freestyle movement or something else, the rhythms of everyone are drawn together. It also inspires spontaneous creativity and joy.
Plus, you get the obvious benefits of aerobic exercise and burning off calories. Way more fun than just doing reps on a weight machine. And like other forms of exercise, the flow of blood and oxygen also stimulates fresh perspectives and new ideas.
Every time I go out for a walk, go swimming or go out dancing, I always find that mind becomes more alert and new ideas flow to me.
If spirituality is about sensing our connection to other people, and with spirit, what better demonstration than dancing with a partner?
For me, this works a lot faster and better than any of those meditation traditions where you just sit down and be quiet for hours.
Music and movement can change my state of awareness in a minute. Dancing with people fosters a sense of connectedness, because whether it is swing dance, contra dance, freestyle movement or something else, the rhythms of everyone are drawn together. It also inspires spontaneous creativity and joy.
Plus, you get the obvious benefits of aerobic exercise and burning off calories. Way more fun than just doing reps on a weight machine. And like other forms of exercise, the flow of blood and oxygen also stimulates fresh perspectives and new ideas.
Every time I go out for a walk, go swimming or go out dancing, I always find that mind becomes more alert and new ideas flow to me.
If spirituality is about sensing our connection to other people, and with spirit, what better demonstration than dancing with a partner?
Friday, March 27, 2009
Watery Visions of the Future
Remember how not so long ago the people who advocated that we get more of our electricity from wind or solar power were regarded as wackos. Today, those people are regarded as visionaries and people are interested in developing more infrastructure to generate wind and solar power.
Now we come to another problem. Water. Doesn't it strike you as strange that the way that Los Angeles and Las Vegas get water is to have it piped from the Colorado River? Why haven't we set up plants by major coastal cities like Los Angeles to desalinate and clean up water from the ocean? It could be done on the east coast too.
Atlanta had a drought last year because the water levels from the Chattahoochee River were down. A pipeline from the Atlantic would not be nearly as long a pipeline as the Alaska pipeline that transports oil.
I would also expect that bottled water might be one of the next industries that will see sales go down. Two reasons. One, it seems wasteful to throw away a plastic bottle every time we take a drink. As far as filtering, a person can get something as simple as a pitcher with a filter or attach one to their sinks or, of course, in many refrigerators. Using a refillable container is much less wasteful and more cost effective.
Perhaps one day in the not too distant future, we will hire engineers and construction crews to build desalination plants on our coasts near major cities to solve our problems with water shortages.
Maybe that sounds too visionary now, but then again, sustainable agriculture is now something we hear talked about more all the time, along with questions about the quality of our food sources and more inspections for food production facilities.
Maybe it is time for some of these watery visions to come true.
Now we come to another problem. Water. Doesn't it strike you as strange that the way that Los Angeles and Las Vegas get water is to have it piped from the Colorado River? Why haven't we set up plants by major coastal cities like Los Angeles to desalinate and clean up water from the ocean? It could be done on the east coast too.
Atlanta had a drought last year because the water levels from the Chattahoochee River were down. A pipeline from the Atlantic would not be nearly as long a pipeline as the Alaska pipeline that transports oil.
I would also expect that bottled water might be one of the next industries that will see sales go down. Two reasons. One, it seems wasteful to throw away a plastic bottle every time we take a drink. As far as filtering, a person can get something as simple as a pitcher with a filter or attach one to their sinks or, of course, in many refrigerators. Using a refillable container is much less wasteful and more cost effective.
Perhaps one day in the not too distant future, we will hire engineers and construction crews to build desalination plants on our coasts near major cities to solve our problems with water shortages.
Maybe that sounds too visionary now, but then again, sustainable agriculture is now something we hear talked about more all the time, along with questions about the quality of our food sources and more inspections for food production facilities.
Maybe it is time for some of these watery visions to come true.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Blizzard After Equinox
The equinox signals a time of balance between light and dark. So now the days are lengthening and we are moving through spring and toward summer. Yet today we have a blizzard.
When I lived in Atlanta, the progress of the seasons I grew accustomed to was different. We had plant seeds in the ground by spring equinox and green shoots were up by May, and we even had the first flowers of the season by Groundhog Day. Then as the days got hotter, the flowers continued to unfurl all spring, all the wonderful healing and culinary herbs bounced back to life, and the vegetables continued their steady progress toward fullness and ripeness, or as folks would say "good eatin' size."
Out here in Colorado, they say not to plant before Mother's Day, and today is a perfect example of why, although when I first moved out here, I thought they were pulling my leg when they told me to wait that long.
This blizzard has brought me a day of rest, and if it snows more this evening, I will stay home again tomorrow. That would be a benefit of the blizzard.
Once we have made it through the last off the storms then the challenge will be to keep the plants watered, because the constant sun will fry them if you forget to water for a couple days. That is the relentless task of the gardener out here.
But for today, I will enjoy a quiet day at home, every once in a while looking at the blanket of snow out there and be glad that I don't have to drive in it. Nature is balancing me today by giving me a rest after weeks of nonstop work. Yes, the equinox is bringing balance back in.
When I lived in Atlanta, the progress of the seasons I grew accustomed to was different. We had plant seeds in the ground by spring equinox and green shoots were up by May, and we even had the first flowers of the season by Groundhog Day. Then as the days got hotter, the flowers continued to unfurl all spring, all the wonderful healing and culinary herbs bounced back to life, and the vegetables continued their steady progress toward fullness and ripeness, or as folks would say "good eatin' size."
Out here in Colorado, they say not to plant before Mother's Day, and today is a perfect example of why, although when I first moved out here, I thought they were pulling my leg when they told me to wait that long.
This blizzard has brought me a day of rest, and if it snows more this evening, I will stay home again tomorrow. That would be a benefit of the blizzard.
Once we have made it through the last off the storms then the challenge will be to keep the plants watered, because the constant sun will fry them if you forget to water for a couple days. That is the relentless task of the gardener out here.
But for today, I will enjoy a quiet day at home, every once in a while looking at the blanket of snow out there and be glad that I don't have to drive in it. Nature is balancing me today by giving me a rest after weeks of nonstop work. Yes, the equinox is bringing balance back in.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Does Letting Go Lead to Chaos or Peace?
The latest religious surveys about the habits of Americans continue to show the trends away from organized religions to more free form, unafiliated religions and spiritual practices. Letting go of those forms seems to suit more people every time one of these surveys is taken. People want to let go of the forms they find restrictive. They want the freedom to be creative. They want the freedom to believe or not believe, practice or not practice as they choose. Letting go brings less problems for those who want more peace in their lives, more personal power, control of their personal spiritual life without someone else telling them how it should be.
I generally do not talk about politics on my blog, but here is another simple example of letting go solving a problem. Right now the wars between gangs trying to control the drug traffic is causing the government to assign hundreds more cops to the border area with Mexico. One simple act could make all that unnecessary. If we simply legalized drugs, there would not be a need for gangs to control the traffic any more. Gangs fought for control of beer and whiskey distributorships when alcohol was illegal. Now people just go to stores and buy the stuff. Same would happen if drugs were legalized. People would simply go to stores and buy the stuff and the government would make money on taxes. So we keep wasting more money deploying police to stop something that cannot be stopped, and in the meantime, many people will be killed or seriously hurt in the drug wars. And all that could end with one act that would also turn it into a money maker for the government.
Another step toward letting go is easing the travel restrictions to Cuba. I have been of the opinion for a long time that the embargo has been ineffective. It did not cause the government of that country to change. Lifting the embargo would be a boon to their economy and also stimulate tourism and trade from people in the US who want to do business there and vacation there. Letting go of this failed idea can produce a good result.
And here is one more. I am no financial expert, but the more news stories I hear about the misdeeds of the financial firms, the more I wonder if letting them go into bankruptcy and letting the well run companies take over would not be the better choice. I have compassion for all those workers at the auto manufacturers, but if they cannot produce a product of quality equal to or better than what we get from other manufacturers, theen I guess we will just buy more from those other manufacturers and we will continue to see more Hondas, Hyundais, and Toyotas on the road than Chevys, Buicks and Pontiacs.
Sometimes we have to let go of what is not working in order to let other things work better.
I generally do not talk about politics on my blog, but here is another simple example of letting go solving a problem. Right now the wars between gangs trying to control the drug traffic is causing the government to assign hundreds more cops to the border area with Mexico. One simple act could make all that unnecessary. If we simply legalized drugs, there would not be a need for gangs to control the traffic any more. Gangs fought for control of beer and whiskey distributorships when alcohol was illegal. Now people just go to stores and buy the stuff. Same would happen if drugs were legalized. People would simply go to stores and buy the stuff and the government would make money on taxes. So we keep wasting more money deploying police to stop something that cannot be stopped, and in the meantime, many people will be killed or seriously hurt in the drug wars. And all that could end with one act that would also turn it into a money maker for the government.
Another step toward letting go is easing the travel restrictions to Cuba. I have been of the opinion for a long time that the embargo has been ineffective. It did not cause the government of that country to change. Lifting the embargo would be a boon to their economy and also stimulate tourism and trade from people in the US who want to do business there and vacation there. Letting go of this failed idea can produce a good result.
And here is one more. I am no financial expert, but the more news stories I hear about the misdeeds of the financial firms, the more I wonder if letting them go into bankruptcy and letting the well run companies take over would not be the better choice. I have compassion for all those workers at the auto manufacturers, but if they cannot produce a product of quality equal to or better than what we get from other manufacturers, theen I guess we will just buy more from those other manufacturers and we will continue to see more Hondas, Hyundais, and Toyotas on the road than Chevys, Buicks and Pontiacs.
Sometimes we have to let go of what is not working in order to let other things work better.
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