The Lotus

 

“If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see your life as your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?”

don Miguel Ruiz

Take a quiet journey back in time and ponder the artist palette of your childhood.  In those moments you painted the picture of your life with bold, splashy colors and magical dreams.  Everything seemed possible, just awaiting your attention.  Even though the constraints of time have moved you into more grown up circumstances, the vibrancy and joy of your innocence still see so clearly the beautiful spirit you are.

Perhaps your image has been dusted with weariness or tarnished with unresolved pain.  But the child/spirit/artist in you knows your beauty and worth. 

So bring that sense of adventure and vibrancy into your story.  Make something beautiful in your imagination.  Visualize the exquisite LOTUS, a symbol of rebirth and transformation which blooms perfectly pristine even from the murkiest of waters.

YOU are the radiant lotus emerging so brilliantly from the complications and adversity of the world.  

                                     Marie Helena

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

                           Henry Ward Beecher

Painting the Big Picture

As we create our lives, one of our most important tasks is to paint pictures. As the artist, we determine whether the view we hold is a bull’s eye, clear cut, precise interpretation of the moment we are experiencing or whether it is sweeping, global, pandemic, universal.

To put it more simply, are we looking at the minute details or the big picture?

And, while there are substance and validity to both views, one may perhaps be a better collaborator in fulfilling our Divine contract to traverse the human landscape we inhabit.

When we react to something or someone that distresses us, it is so very natural to shift into the magnitude of the feelings that arise…our pulse may quicken, our muscles become tight, our mouths dry as we become the emotion we are experiencing.  And, from this vantage point, it is very difficult and challenging to see or even sense the broad view of what is happening.

But, when we engage our artist’s brush to paint the big picture, everything rearranges itself, presenting us with a wider, more sweeping view of what has just occurred.

We see not just the person’s words or behavior of the moment, we discern the totality of the mysterious, complicated creature in front of us, including his hopes and dreams (realized or unfulfilled), attempts to negotiate life (successful or not), and, perhaps most importantly, aspirations for what he truly would like to be. And we are then privileged to see not just what is being expressed in that moment…which may come from hurt or a sense of rejection or failure... but the beauty of the whole person who is, alongside us, traveling through the challenges of our earthly home.

And this bigger picture can also help us view the distressing circumstances of our lives with the knowingness that we are receiving guidance and protection of our spirit.  (Can you paint the picture of your spiritual guides watching over you with love and compassion?) 

And if you can view this bigger picture as a steppingstoneto the magnificent understanding that is to come about how the circumstances of our lives have taken us so beautifully, so perfectly to the place we have wanted to be…then, the bigger picture becomes one of our greatest guides in moving through the experiment we call life in this dimension.

The good news:

We have the power to change our artist default button to this position…to lift the intensity of the suffering we sometimes endure and help us gain a new mastery of our personal and global universe.

Game Changer

Accept that what other people do or say has absolutely nothing to do with you...absolutely nothing.

                                    Ken Lauher

Hmmmmmmmm.  That's really a major GAME CHANGER, isn't it?

 Here's the logic behind this statement. 

What a  person says or does is a really an authentic expression of how he is being affected in this moment by the circumstances, influences and events of his life...and that is exactly what his message tells us. 

It's a state of the union kind of message.  And his reaction or response to these circumstances, influences and events is determining   

IF, WHEN, WHAT AND HOW  

his message will be delivered and how the events in which we interact with him will unfold.

This is a VERY important piece of information for us to have because this awareness can alter what his message FEELS LIKE to us.

 

WHAT IF every time someone spoke to us we viewed the encounter as a fascinating checkpoint of what is transpiring in this person's life?

 

The information we receive from the interaction would still be FOR us but in a much different way than we had expected. 

It would be information ABOUT the other person and that information (intellectual, emotional, etc.) would help us choose how we might wish to respond...what we say and in what manner we say it.   It would surely be signaling very clearly  whether the person has a need for compassion, support, understanding or assistance.

This would be a MAJOR SHIFT for us 

               from 

"what just happened to me" and "how that made me feel" 

                to 

"what can I observe about you and what you might need from me". 

 

And while this process is going on we would still  be able to learn what we need to know...what is going to happen, is happening ...or not...BUT we would be learning it from a different perspective.  

It would be other directed...and possibly action oriented.  

Not only would it give us an opportunity to pay generous attention to someone else, the fact is that when we sense the emotional need of another and respond in a way that supports that need, our dialogue and conversations play out more smoothly and the other party feels gratitude for our caring and may even choose to respond to us in kind.

Being open to observing a person and learning about the space he is in would serve everyone well.  

In particular, we would no longer SUFFER from feeling hurt by the message itself or the way the message is delivered because we would know that the message is not an attack on us but rather  a behavioral transcript in this moment about the messenger himself.

 

Here is a place where Higher Self can offer us some BEAUTIFUL GUIDANCE as we exercise patience and show support, love and caring.

The question is:

Can we make this leap and view each person as a mystery...unfolding...

and bless our role as witness to and supporter for that revelation?

                                            Marie Helena

 image from stushieart.com

Masquerade

Deepak Chopra,world renowned mind-body connection guru, tells us that "All great changes are preceded by chaos."

It is only when our usual, predictable methods of handling our life problems FAIL and we are feeling LOST that we step outside the box and search for new inspiration regarding how to reframe the issues and, thereby, change our perspective, our beliefs and ultimately our feelings.  

 

This point in time is extremely valuable to usbecause without the turmoil and tumult...without the agitation and frustration of the chaos... we would keep doing what has always worked for us...

we would ride the high...

but we would stop growing.

 

And that is why we need to BLESS these moments.  The Divine Universe is sensing we are READY for the next cutting-edge change in our life.  It has upped the ante, sizing us up as capable of dealing with the distress and, even more importantly,  capable of making it work in our favor.

 

In Alberto Villoldo's COURAGEOUS DREAMING he gives us an inspired suggestion regarding how to change the story we are telling ourselves about the chaos.

 

Villoldo says we tend to see ourselves in one of three roles:  victim, rescuer or perpetrator. 

If, however, we can vacate these roles and fly instead to the spiritual level of eagle in our version of the story...we can successfully REFRAME its significance...how it affects us...and what we are able to learn about ourselves.

 

If the chaos we are experiencing makes us feel victimized...

if the fallout of the crisis feels personal...

know that it IS personal but it is not meant as an attack on us...

it is a personal, unique-to-us  OPPORTUNITY to reach deep inside and find the strength and resilience to transcend the experience and find within ourselves the courage...the creativity...and the conviction to see the bigger picture and to nurture a character trait that we have not yet developed.

What brings  us angst, fear, distress, frustration... ALSO brings us the very  powerful occasion for transcendence and release from that suffering.

Chaos is the ultimate MASQUERADE.  What looks like pandemonium  is, in reality, a perfect strategy.

An always-brilliant plan to help us evolve  into the Next, Grandest Version of Ourselves...from the highest state-of-the-art personal development bureau, The Divine Universe!

                                                Marie Helena

                                                                                  

image from ayrerabbitry.webs.com

The Ides of March

Let go of the need to defend your position.

       don Miguel Ruiz



It happens so easily to all of us.  We suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a highly spirited discussion and discover that we are face to face with an opposing or alternate perspective and so we automatically step into the role of “defender” of our position, digging in our heels...gently at first and then with increased vigor...as we set out to convince others of our point of view.  

What is it that encourages and even entices us to go for the “win”?  What is it that is driving this behavior that is so prevalent...and even predictable in the human psyche?

And, while we ponder that, imagine how disarming it would be to encounter an individual who has no need to convince everyone of the validity of his position, no need to be recognized by everyone as holding the "right" answer.


I had my own personal encounter with a situation like this a few years ago during a holiday gathering at our home.  It was a very subtle experience but later I strongly felt the significance of the moment.

Several people had been invited over for the holidays and we were chatting happily and enjoying the interchange.  I am not sure how we landed on this topic, but someone introduced the subject of 
The Ides of March.

At that point, I enthusiastically interjected myself into the conversation, remarking that I happened to know that The Ides of March fell on March 12th and that I knew this because The Ides of March was the birthday of a good friend of mine with whom I had worked.  One of our guests commented that The Ides of March was actually on March 15th.   At this observation, I strongly asserted that I was certain it was the 12th and that I had a memory of holding a very specific intention to recall that particular date.  After my interjection our guest declined to assert his belief that March 15 was the date in question and the group moved on past the consideration of the event’s date to its actual meaning.

By the way, Wikipedia describes The Ides of March as "a day in the calendar notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts."


This little incident was long forgotten by me until  a few months later on March 15 when I happened to hear a commentator announce that it was The Ides of March.

Oooooops!  I thought and looked online to verify this unexpected piece of information.  As I absorbed the correction, two thoughts circled in my brain.  The first was:  How did I ever confuse this date and become so convinced that I had it right?  The second was:  What a considerate 
guest we had hosted at our home that evening during the holidays.  The visitor had obviously known his information was right and yet he chose not to make a point of debating this with me in front of the others.

This gesture of his felt important to me.  I saw this behavior as evidence of his generosity and thoughtfulness and I made a point of telling him so the next time we spoke.


How refreshing it had been to engage with someone who was not harboring a strong competitive need to prove his point.  And, on the fifteenth of March, the point was made for itself quietly and with no aggressive fanfare.


This choice of action of our guest that night most certainly revealed his honoring and understanding of human emotions.  Giving me the opportunity to learn for myself what I did not know was actually very profound.  He clearly saw that the date itself was not the primary issue and neither was emerging as the person who had all of the answers.  

He had no need to engage in a battle of rightness; he just wanted the opportunity to plant the seed of what he knew to be true.

This individual was obviously able to enter into a moment and quietly leave his gentle signature on it, inviting others to engage with the information in the perfect moment for them.  No need to defend...just a subtle awareness and affirmation of how we learn best when we are in the most relaxed and curious frame of mind.

What a splendid idea!  No “debt settling” of The Ides of March...rather just an eloquent exploration.


                                                                                                     Marie Helena