The Storyteller

Don't be distracted by your stories.

don Miguel Ruiz




Everyone loves a good story... and we especially love OUR OWN stories.  And that is because we get to cast ourselves in the roles we are attracted to for subconscious reasons.  We can be the brilliant hero or the preyed upon victim.  We can be the perpetrator if we tend to judge ourselves mercilessly...or a bit player if we feel invisible and that nobody “sees” us.

We all have stories that “explain” our lives...a popular practice that makes sense of what is happening to us.  The problem is that once we decide on what our”role” is, we typecast ourselves in it and find it exceedingly difficult to look more deeply into and revise the story that we have become comfortable with and that now comprises the identity we assign ourselves.

don Miguel Ruiz, Toltec spiritualist, counsels us not to be distracted by our stories for they are only the illusions that represent what we are able to see so far.  And he wants us to grow.

Jean Atman, Ascension and Energy Medicine Specialist, offers us a deeper view:
What many people don't realize is that the people we engage with will always mirror who we are on the inside. 

While  these individuals with whom we engage may look completely different and separate from us, they are really only a cogent reflection of who we are for WE create our world and WE populate it with fascinating characters who have much to tell us.  We create them so that we can see ourselves.  And we have not done this on a conscious level. This creation is a spiritual exercise that may on a superficial level confuse and confound us.  In fact, we may not feel ANY connection with some of their behavior.  But there is SOMETHING they are doing that holds the potential to help us discover what we may have never recognized nor suspected about ourselves.

Fortunately, the characters we create also exist to illustrate the beautiful accomplishments of our lives.  These generous, compassionate Individuals mirror our same attributes just as the dysfunctional, fragmented individuals hold the clues to issues buried deep in our psyche.

There is something fascinating and powerful about these scenarios.  Each of us has the earth assignment of returning to our essential self as a creature of Love, recognizing, acknowledging, owning and releasing our fear based behaviors.  And the assorted characters who populate the landscape of our lives give us important checkpoints about our progress and the problems with which we still struggle.

What an intriguing (and challenging) way to become aware of where we reside in our personal journeys.  In every case, a masterpiece of soul projection.  Don’t be distracted from discovering their powerful revelations.


                                          Marie Helena





image: 
Carmen Cicero on View at June Kelly
news.artnet.com

ALLY MCBEAL'S Theme Songs

ALLY MCBEAL'S Theme Songs

I so love my DVR. I can watch my favorite programs whenever the mood strikes me and recently I've been watching reruns of Ally McBeal and thinking about why I love that show so very much.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because all of the characters on the show are such…well…”characters"!  So vividly drawn with all their peculiarities and idiosyncrasies...so colorful and alive...so free to be who they are (as wild and crazy as that may be).

Several of the characters on the show have theme songs (having been advised to do so by some equally colorful therapists). Right in the midst of the action I can hear their theme song music rev up, usually jump to top speed and, often, come to a screeching halt when an unsuspecting character enters the scene. There are even times when a character cannot call up his theme song, is woefully bereft and unable to operate at full throttle.

The theme song singing is always full of emotion...sometimes bouncy with a revved up beat, sometimes sad… pouring out pain and sorrow...but always...always there is an aliveness to the music. There is a desire and there is a willingness to engage with life and with others and to revel in joy (manifested by the singing and dancing) and sometimes to sink into frustration and stress (often displayed in the unisex bathroom).

And I wonder…

What if we were all like the characters in Ally McBeal?  What if we felt free to show the world our authentic selves? What if we all had theme songs that inspired us to do exactly what felt right with no holding back of emotions? What if we truly lived our dreams and changed our song if the original one was not working?

Dancing and singing are really soul activities because they are borne from our emotions. And we can "dance" and "sing" in many ways. I’ll bet you have many very delightful avenues of expressing yourself.

This Ally McBealing is truly embracing the moment and doing it with gusto and delight...feeling your aliveness...your beingness pull you into what is most important about how you live your day. Not the list of things you set out to accomplish, but rather the moments of HOW YOU CELEBRATE YOURSELF! And that is exactly why we are here: to celebrate our connection with everything and everyone around us!

The next time you pass by someone let yourself wonder what his theme song is. And don't forget to turn up the "volume" on yours!

Won't It be Wonderful When...

American inspirational speaker and author Esther Hicks has a great suggestion for those moments when we begin to fret about something that is not working out the way we want it to.  She cautions that our fretting, which feels like such a logical expression of our discomfort and anxiety, only serves to bring us MORE OF THE SAME. 

Vibrations are attracted to each other.  We are sending out a vibration of angst and we are attracting more angst into our life.  And, if we have fully surrendered to this distressing  position, we can get so dramatic about the situation and even up the vibrational ante with our philosophical renderings:   
"I knew this would happen." 
"This is the way it always goes." 
 "Why me?"

In effect, we have placed our order with great emotion and drama, unaware of the fact that the Universe is the PERFECT delivery system and it gives back to us whatever we present.  Whatever vibration we send out with our thoughts and emotions is the determining factor of what we will get back.  Our perception of trouble brings more trouble. 



"Really?"  you might think   "Thanks a lot.  Just what I need...more trouble." 
 "I can't catch a break."  But the fact is, YOU CAN just by understanding the natural rhythm of the Universe and being willing to put some conscious effort into the messages you deliver to yourself.


Of course, there is more to the story.  You are not going to be willing to consciously formulate a hopeful message if you haven't noticed these things...

The Universe is designed to bring you whatever experiences that you are attracted to. 

Whatever you wish to experience will come to you when you ALLOW it...
    when you don't mess things up with your fear of unworthiness and doubts and
          concerns,
    when you trust that what you desire will be delivered to you in the perfect time.

All that you have to do is KNOW that this process will happen and anticipate the arrival of what you have dreamed.


Our home base here IS earth school and our lessons are supposed to be uber challenging.  And this is no exception.  This work is not easy.  It takes some CUTTING EDGE awareness and wisdom and...curiosity.  We are often unwilling to leave our old habits and default of victimhood because it feels so comfortable there.  It's what we know and everybody talks like that...right?

See where that kind of thinking takes you?  In circles of suffering...and why should you have to be stuck there because it's what everybody does?


Why not see for yourself?  Experiment.  Try feeling Esther Hick's new mantra, one which expresses so eloquently the way you would like things to be and celebrates, in advance, the "perfect" moment in which you get out of your own way and your desired vibrational wish makes its way to you.


Won't if be wonderful when...


                                                                                     Marie Helena




image from chemersgallery.blogspot.com
from the book, "Wishing Ball" watercolor/collage

Life's Glorious Adventure

The soul is healed by being with children.
                                                            
English proverb  

                                                      
And I am contemplating why this is so...

There is such a freshness, an aliveness to children.  They wear their emotions  with such glorious transparency...they  ARE their emotions.  There is no guessing whether a child is happy, sad, excited, angry, restless.  Their emotional state is on display through every fiber of their being.

They are so PRESENT.   Tuned in.   They want to be a part of whatever is going on.  They want to voice their vote about it.  If they like what they see, their pleasure is undeniable.  If they don't like it, that's undeniable, too.

Children ADORE themselves.  They feel certain everyone will adore them, too.

Why not PRANCE about...SPLASH through puddles...MAKE gigantic gum BUBBLES and chocolate pudding FACES? 



All  of this feels to children like their birthright. 
Just because.



Life is Fun!

                                           

Sing!   Don't worry how you sound.            

      

Dance!  Don't worry how you look.

EnJOY YOURSELF!

                                                 
         
Now contrast that glorious, multi-color, CinemaScope presence that is children with the restrained, cautious, self-protective, proper image of the GROWN-UP who has learned to contain his impulses, to recognize organizational hierarchy, to follow whoever is  "in charge".  


No wonder we need children to bring us back...to return us...to our beautiful primal selves entranced with life and everything around us, unafraid to speak our truth, trusting our own instincts regarding whether we choose to be all in...or...moving on...to the next delightful destination.


What a beautiful world it would be if the "child" in every one of us NEVER grew out of "life's glorious adventure"!

                                                                        Marie Helena




top image from paigekeiser.blogspot.com.

Deconstruction

Any habit needs all its parts in order to function. If some parts are missing, the habit is disassembled. 

                          Carlos Castaneda




Mountains are so difficult to climb.  And yet we line our imaginary landscape with images of ALL of the momentous (and mountainous) changes we are going to make in our lives.  And it feels virtuous to conceive of such worthy undertakings.  Virtuous...and exhausting.  So exhausting we may never even get started.


I love Carlos Castenada’s solution.  It’s simple and realistic...and encouraging.

Break the stronghold of an addictive practice by changing one thing.  ONE thing.  Can you flex that much?  I’m betting YES and, if you do, you get an influx of dopamine as you celebrate loosening the anchor that’s been sapping your emotional and physical energy.

It feels really good to take action.  And, if the action you take is a creative experiment to possibly prove Castenada’s theory to yourself, you become a practicing social scientist with the possibility of gaining important information about how to change and improve your life. 


There is an exciting energy at work here. 

Take charge. 

Change your story by changing its details. 

Then watch how things rearrange themselves when you uproot an essential element.  

ENJOY the rollout of how the carefully orchestrated habit starts to unravel when you choose to loosen the strings.


This could prove to be life-changing, initiating a new practice that is easy enough to do and important enough to shake up old ways and trade them in for more creative and satisfying possibilities.  

    
ONE thing.  A three second decision. GO.




                                                                                                        Marie Helena



image from pinterest
No Thinking Only Daydreaming
Shell  Rummel