Breathe

Breathe ~ again

I wrote this blog earlier this year but I felt it needed to be said again

Breathe

A recent bulletin described the increase in respiratory illness due to diminished air quality. It is true that we are not taking care of our Mother, the Earth, as well as we should and that we need to pay attention.

It is equally as important that we do not assume a "Victim of Circumstances" mind-set.

Many of us listen to bad news, corrupt news, "they're-gonna-get-you" news all day long and though it is important that we stay informed and involved we must take care not to do so at the detriment of our health.

After all, how can dead or sick people change the world!

When we are stressed and anxious we breathe through our mouths. This causes our bodies to instantly shift gears into the "fight or flight" mode.

This means that the majority of blood vessels in the viscera (our innards or trunk) restrict, sending the majority of blood to our limbs to help us run or punch or protect through defensive motions, the blood vessils in the front of the brain also restrict and send the blood to the back of the brain (reaction-impulse-instinct centers).

Now this lack of blood in the viscera causes our non-vital systems to shut down. First to go is immune system, followed closely by many other systems and organs such as thyroid, digestion, pancreas, kidneys, etc.

Now the front part of the brain has to run with a minimal amount of blood so it to reduces or shuts down its processes such as decision making, thinking, creativity. (Next time you're at the store and you're stressed and you can't decide between whole wheat or twelve grain, check your breathing, you're probably breathing through your mouth, its dry, your shoulders are up around your ears and you just can't make such a momentous decision at the time).

Now, we add to this situation the fact that most of us only breathe with about 30% of our lungs, I wouldn't be making any major bets on the welfare of our immune systems.

When we are not stressed and when we breathe through our noses the blood is distributed evenly throughout our body. Our organs and systems florish, they do their jobs. We have less illness, less cancer, less chronic issues, our brain can make decisions, we become more creative, more successful, happier.

So, if you are not being chased by a tyranosaurus or training for an HBO Boxing Championship fight you should take a deep breath through that snoz of yours and fill those lungs to capacity.

Breathe,

Imagine Good Things,

Remind Your Cells How Good Life Is

and the next time you read one of those Doom and Gloom bulletins say, "Bummer" and get on with creating a good day.

Mother of Mother's Day: Julia Howe

Do you know who Julia Ward Howe is?

You could say she is the mother of Mother's Day.  Though her intention was not to set aside one day of the year for mothers to get flowers, cards and maybe breakfast in bed.

Her intention for Mother's Day was a day for women to stand up and say "ENOUGH".

Women, we are the strongest, the most intent and as a group, the most powerful entity on earth.

There is no reason for us to tolerate war, to tolerate child abuse, to tolerate corrupt government, to tolerate the media holding our daughter's self worth hostage.

Please read:

Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870

Arise then...women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts!

Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies.

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,

For caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn

All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country

To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with

Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.

"Blood does not wipe out dishonor,

Nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil

At the summons of war,

Let women now leave all that may be left of home

For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means

Whereby the great human family can live in peace...Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,

But of God -In the name of womanhood and humanity,

I earnestly ask

That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,

May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient

And the earliest period consistent with its objects,

To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,

The amicable settlement of international questions,

The great and general interests of peace.

10 Steps To Peaceful Consciousness

Found this wonderful message surfin' this morning and thought I wouldshare it. It is from Deepak Chopra.

Each step is just as important as the next but I really do love step 10, being with my precious granddaughters every day.

I've said it before and I will say it many more times but I am sure there will come a time when our great-great grandchildren will be reading in their history books how primitive man once believed that the world was flat and that conflicts could be resolved with violence.

Those wonderful children will shake their heads at such archaic and ignorant philosophies.

I also think they will be reading how the women, sisters, mothers and grandmothers gathered together and changed the world one heart at a time.

Ten Steps to Peace Consciousness

1. Change doesn't start on the surface. It's generated from consciousness. This has been true throughout history. If both Buddhism and Christianity could begin with one person, let us not think in terms of numbers and odds. It may sound grandiose to compare ourselves to great spiritual guides, but we act collectively, as an alliance. Our strength comes from critical mass.

2. We aren't here to make the world evolve. We are here to evolve as individuals and then to spread that influence. In the wisdom tradition of Vedanta, the stream of evolution is known in Sanskrit as Dharma, from a root verb that means 'to uphold.' This gives us a clue how to live: the easiest way for us to grow is to align ourselves with Dharma. We don't have to struggle to grow--that would be unproductive, in fact. The Dharma has always favored non-violence. If we can bring ourselves to a state of non-violence, and connect with others who are doing the same thing, we have done a huge thing to reinforce Dharma.

3. Societies get into the grip of their own self-created story. It's helpful to realize that we can choose not to participate in that story. Realize that national and tribal stories are limited, self-serving, based on the past, reinforced by orthodoxy, and therefore opposed to real change. Stories are incredibly persuasive. Wars are fueled by victimization that runs deep, for example. So let us not try to change anyone's story. Let us only notice and observe ourselves when we buy into it and then let us back away from participating in it.

4. Let us not demand of ourselves that we alone must be the agent of change. In a fire brigade everyone passes along a bucket, but only the last person puts out the fire. None of us know where we stand in line. We may be here simply to pass a bucket; we may be called on to play a major role. In either case, all we can do is think, act, and say. Let us direct our thoughts, words, and actions to peace. That is all we can do. Let the results be what they will be.

5. Let us realize that engagement and detachment aren't opposite—the more engaged we become, the more detached we will have to be. Otherwise, we will lose ourselves in conflict, obsessiveness, anxiety over the future, and feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Keep in mind that we are pioneers into the unknown, and uncertainty is our ally. When our minds want closure, certainty, and finality, let us remind ourselves that these are fictions. Our joyous moments will come from riding the wave, not asking to get off at the next station.

6. Since most misery is born of failed expectations let us learn to minimize expectations so that we will feel far less guilt and disappointment.

7. We aren't here to be good or perfect. We are here as the antennas for signals from the future. We are here to be midwives to something that wants to be born. Good people have preceded us. They solved some problems and created others. As one wise teacher said, "You aren't here to be as good as possible. You are here to be as real as possible."

8. I know this sounds difficult, but let us try to be tolerant of intolerance. This is a hard one at times, but if you try the opposite—showing a hard heart against those with hard hearts of their own—all we've done is expand the problem. It's helpful (but often difficult) to remember that everyone is doing the best they can form their own level of consciousness. Trying to talk a terrorist out of his beliefs is like trying to persuade a lion to be a vegetarian. All we can realistically do is seek openings for higher awareness.

9. Let us resist the lure of dualities. These include us versus them, civilized versus barbarians, good versus evil. The good, civilized people of Europe managed to kill millions of themselves, along with millions of "them." In reality we are all in the same boat of human conflict and confusion. Sometimes it helps to admit that the doctor is not far from being a patient.

10. Let's create an atmosphere of peace around ourselves. Imagine that we are like a mother whose children come home crying about fights at school. Would it be her job to soothe their wounds or to arm them for fighting back tomorrow? Simplistic as it may sound, the male principle of aggression can only be healed by the feminine principle of nurturing and love.

Love,

Deepak

A Party Of Ten

Okay, you just recieved a phone call from Donald Trump. (it could happen!) He has arranged for you and 9 other people to spend a weekend all expenses paid.

It is your choice where you go but you can only take 9 people that you don't know personally.
It is a weekend to share ideas and learn from each other.

Where do you go and who do you take?

I'm going to take my guests to a Grand Log Cabin in the Colorado Rockies. We will sit around the river rock fireplace, with a blazing fire, sipping fine wine and discussing life and life's journey.

How to make the world a better place.

My guest list includes:
Neale Donald Walsch

Sue Monk Kidd

Nelson Mandela

Bruce Lipton

Kate Millet

Miriam Cruz

Christine Northrup

Wayne Dyer

Deepak Chopra

I've got goose bumps just thinking about it!

So where would you go and who would you take?

Shoppe of Lost And Found Dreams ~ Now Open

I woke up this morning and knew that I had experienced a very important dream last night. It started with a meditation.

In this meditation I imagined a pair of giant doors, incredibly beautiful but so light that I could open them with one finger. As the doors opened a golden light washed over me and washed away all the stress and tension, the tresspasses and tresspassings. It was awesome and I gently slipped into dream time.

Something changed last night and I can almost put my finger on it, almost taste it, almost bring it into focus and then it slips away. Does that ever happen to you?

In just the last month or two some of my dreams and hopes that I have had for the future have been lost or drastically changed.

Have you lost a dream?

Did something happen in your life that made that dream slip into the ether and you haven't been able to recover it? Is it because Father/Mother/God has a better dream for you than you had for yourself?

I want to open a Lost and Found for Dreams.

The shop will be on a hill. As each individual walks up the path to the shop they will see the shop only as they can and need too. For some, it will be a sweet little thatched cottage in the woods, for another it might be a towering castle in the fog, still another might see Grandma's house on 24th and Gilpin and know that Grandma is waiting inside to hold you, give you some homemade bread and talk to you about your dreams.

For everyone the doors will open with a gentle push of one finger and as you walk in a brilliant light of love and forgiveness and acceptance will wash over you. There may be a shelf or two here and there where you can see some old dreams, a little dusty and maybe a little chip here and there but as you glide across the floor a glorious gilded cabinet rises to meet you.

The light is so bright, but smells of new rain and fresh mountain air. The glass doors open slowly and there in the light is the Divine's version of your dream.

What does it look like? How does it feel?

Are you ready to wrap it around you and own it?

Soundtrack To My Life

Sort of an introduction to me...because you know it is all about me:

Now we can call this blog Soundtrack to my life or we can call it putting off until later what I should have accomplished this morning.....Your call

Opening Credits: Poems, Prayers and Promises ~ John Denver

Waking Up Scene: Its a Beautiful Morning ~ The RascalsCar

Driving Scene: I Can't Drive 55 ~ Sammy Hagar

High School Flashback Scene: Hooked On a Feeling ~ BJ Thomas seguey into California Dreamin' ~Mamas and Papas

Nostalgic Scene: Time In A Bottle ~ Jim Croce

Bitter, Angry Scene: Draw The Line ~ Aerosmith

Break-up Scene: Hit The Road Jack ~ Ray Charles

Regret Scene: Let It Be ~ John Denver

Nightclub/Bar Scene: Boogie Woogie ~ Tommy Dorsey

Fight/Action Scene: Mission Impossible.....helloooo!

Saturday Morning/Cleaning the House Scene: James Taylor's Greatest Hits or Anna Nalick depends on the degree of the mess!

Lawn Mowing Scene: Sweet Home Alabama - Lynrd SkynrdSad,

Breakdown scene: Forever Love (Digame) ~ Anna Nalick

Death Scene: Mil Besos ~ Patty Griffin

Funeral Scene: Poems, Prayers and Promises and Country Roads ~ John DenverMellow

Pot-smoking Scene: (yes, there will be one of those scenes...a little flashback) Summer Breeze ~ Seals & Croft

Dreaming About Someone Scene: Dreamin' of You ~ Selena

Sex Scene: Has been censored from the movie version but as the scene fades away Lionel Richie starts to sing Brick House!!!!!

Contemplation Scene: Unwritten ~ Natasha Bedingfield

Chase Scene: The Merry Minuet ~ Kingston Trio

Happy Love Scene: Theme from Tootsie It Might Be You ~ Stephen Bishop

Happy Friend Scene: Boney Fingers by me with my kids singing along

Closing Credits: Brown Eyed Girl ~ Van Morrison

So, do you think you know me any better?