Yin and Yang

I've been busy with life. I don't like to be too busy and the economic slow down created a pace that I could get used to. Still, it didn't take long to become busy with creative endeavors like working on my consciousness, developing new seminars and catching up on obligatory paperwork, renewals and continuing education. Being busy (yang, expansive, external, masculine) has a drug-like feel to it. It creates stress but, also an adrenal "high". When you combine that with the increased income and prestige that productivity earns in our society, it's easy to see how it can become addictive (and why caffeine is our favorite drug). Even in my internal work, I've been really good with affirmations lately (more yang) and not so good with meditation (more yin, internal, receptive, feminine). If I want to harmonize the masculine and feminine (sort of like India and Pakistan in my subconscious) I could focus on that one behavior. Valuing (easy) and regularly practicing (not so easy) meditation would nurture the feminine principle and bring peace, health and joy in multiple ways. Can I do it? I don't know. Ask me about it. Don't let me get away with avoiding it.
Peace
Randall

Truth

Interesting how attached people can be to their beliefs, attitudes and even their favorite sayings. I often feel compelled to question something when everyone else in a group seems to accept it without critique. Many statements are "politically correct" for a certain group and are accepted because they are familiar and comfortable. "Follow your heart" seems true and important partly because it contradicts conventional wisdom in our culture to "think before you act". Neither statement is reasonable in all situations. They are not supposed to be. They are cliches. Positive thinking is helpful except when it isn't. Is it always "good" to be happy? Research shows that pessimists make more rational decisions. Someone who is joyful all the time probably has serious health problems from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. My point is that people tend to over-simplify life on Earth. We all would like there to be easy to read maps, directions and principles. Unfortunately the ones that do exist seem very individualized. People can't agree on which ones are true. So find what works for you. By all means, pick some beliefs, principles, values and quotations. Experiment with them. Use them. Have fun with them. Just don't confuse them with reality.
Stay engaged.
Randall

Affirmations

You may have realized that it is easy to replace "good" in the affirmation from the previous post with almost anything you like. Love...for instance. My experience is that the more specific the affirmation, the more effective it is. If you find the key issue that is blocking your desire or your accomplishment and address that key, results will usually happen within 24 hours. I was lazy with this affirmation and got no visible results. Then I became more serious and started repeating it at every opportunity throughout the day as well as ten to twenty times before going to sleep and first thing upon waking. Within days I saw changes. As in the outside world, hard work and determination pay off. People may look at you strangely though while you are talking to yourself.
Randall

Good

Here is a (new thought) affirmation that I am now repeating many, many times per day. Try it!

Good and more good is mine.
An ever increasing good is mine.
There is an infinite good, which is mine.

Everywhere I go, I see good.
I feel it. I experience it.
It crowds itself against me.
It flows through me.
It multiplies itself around me.

I am worthy of and entitled to more good.
I give myself permission to accept and express more good.

Thank you, Spirit. And so it is.

Flying home

Polarity Therapy is about utilizing the five elements to understand our reality and to bring more balance and harmony to it. Coming back from Daytona to Cleveland, at 40,000 feet, I thought about the air element and how it might affect our consciousness. The "mountain top" experience has been an ideal and a cliche for centuries in the mystical and spiritual world. Now we can have the perspective that altitude brings with little effort. How is our consciousness different at 40,000 feet? What is available and accessible to us? What insights and solutions might we find? Probably not many if we spend the time watching an in-flight movie. What if we honored that opportunity and used it for meditation, planning, finding a solution for some current problem or affirmations to reprogram our nervous system? What if we took time to notice the subtle changes in our minds, bodies and spirits while we are flying? If we can afford a plane ticket, we can afford to pay attention. This is an example of a resource that we often ignore. Explore the air element next time you fly. Open to its secrets and its lessons. Ask for its help. Breathe.
Have a great flight!
Randall

Learning and Wisdom

I love to learn and I appreciate other people who share the same addiction. This weekend I will be in Daytona Beach teaching Touch For Health Kinesiology level 1. There are 18 people in the class and feel the excitement of sharing valuable material with students who really want to learn. I have always believed that we come to this planet in order to learn and grow. It sometimes seems that certain individuals have avoided that task and that even age doesn't guarantee wisdom. Yet, I can never be sure what changes a person has gone through or what particular lessons he or she came here to learn. Perhaps the outward signs of intelligence and wisdom are a projection of our own distorted lenses, an illusion which we have created in order to have something to aspire to. Can we ever "know" anything? Besides, since I firmly believe that we create our own reality, I have to concede that I create every encounter with every individual in my life. Therefore each client, acquaintance, friend and enemy is there for a reason. For me to judge a person or get angry because of who they are is like cursing a textbook because I can't understand the material (O.K., maybe I've done that too). So, I'm learning to be more accepting, slowly but continually. Some learning is fun. The most important lessons are usually less fun. I'm learning that as well. May your lessons in life be gentle.
Randall