The Tao of Dog Part One

THE TAO OF DOG

APR 13, 2013

dogs

On Monday I woke up to a new awareness. It was very physical. My body was stiff and hurting. I had been happily living an inspired life and “working” on taking a vision for my life’s work, for AOMusic and for children who need love and care and grounding it in reality: The reality of manifesting my passion into a tangible form. Manifesting my dream in concrete ways like people, money, space, investors and commitments of a substantial kind. Manifestation somehow had stopped feeling fun and had become my work

So, once I had made my regular cup of Roobios tea, cut strawberries, bananas and oranges and then switched on my computer, the first thing that came up on the screen was my “Notes” program, which is my revolving to-do list. The list had nearly two hundred items on it. My eyes got instantly blurry and couldn’t focus. I thought to myself, “low blood sugar, that’s it!” Then I made an egg-protein drink and went back to my computer. Still blurry. The rest of the room was fine, the view from my window crisp and clear. It was simply the screen of my computer, more precisely; it was simply my to-do list that I couldn’t get into focus.

It was apparent that I was ‘not seeing something’, literally. So, off I went to meditate and tune into the metaphor. I posed the question, “What had become blurry for me in my work and what was I not seeing?”

Once I am willing to ask a hard question like this and then be open to an answer, I get the answer, instantly. The voice I trust with my own life said, “Are you feeling inspired about your to-do list?” “No, I’m feeling inspired by the vision, the dream and the creativity!” I said. “So then, is the feeling you have about your inspired vision the same feeling you have when you look at your to-do list?” Right then and there I knew that something was off since my answer was, “No.” I was not in alignment within myself.

I had lost ‘sight’ of the miraculous feeling that comes when I am aligned with a vision that perfectly matches my heart, my mind and my purpose. So, how was I supposed to feel those same feelings when I face a to-do list that needs a staff of twelve to get done in a timely way? I knew enough about the laws of manifestation to understand that there can be no “vibrational gap” between the excitement and feeling of awe I have when I am living inside my own dream and the feelings I have when I face twenty emails waiting to be answered, or endless research to be done. Closing this gap is my spiritual practice.

I feel the high frequency emotions of love, gratitude, enthusiasm, joy and inspiration the minute I hear an AOMusic song, see the face of one child we work toward helping, talk to a producer about the endless possibilities for film or start seeing money coming into our AO Foundation International. But, when I pick up the phone, start to plow through the avalanche of emails, Skype for the sixth hour in a row or just try to get the bills paid and then feel exhausted, resentful, stressed, anxious or fearful, well you see what the problem is? The two energies cancel each other out, they are not in alignment. Houston, we have a problem.

Who in their right mind finds joy in the mundane steps up to the top of the mountain? That is not entirely the question. The question is more of how to in fact do what feels nearly impossible to sustain the joy and creative edge even when facing more no’s in a day than yeses, more hours at the computer than playing outside, more money going out than coming in?

So, I set out to learn how to close the gap in my vibrational reality and start to put things into focus. I set out to make sure that how I was be-ing and what I was do-ing were entirely congruent.

Just when I realized I had some quantum ‘waking up’ to do, I was invited to house sit for a friend going to Bali. She had a house that screams Tuscany overlooking the water here in the Pacific Northwest. The spacious rural bungalow is also the home of three amazing dogs: Logan, Rex and Angel Baby, a white Pit Bull. I said yes, and for one week had the sanctuary and quiet I needed to sink into these questions.

Then I did dog therapy (or more accurately, the dogs did me), which in fact became the source of my coming to the answers I needed. In short, a dog lives in the moment and there is not one incongruity, just being present fully, joyfully, expectantly present, with no expectations except that when you throw the ball, they get to retrieve it. They do not toil to fill their dog bowl but they know with all certainty that the bowl will be filled right at 4pm. They never doubt it for a second.

The other blessing being here in the Washington, which made my time unbelievably rich and clear, was that it rained every single day when I was on my Tuscan retreat. I could not distract myself from the question of ‘alignment’ at hand. And, at the end of five days of inquiry, there was one remarkable answer to the question of how to align my deepest most soulful vision with the mundane work that I believed I needed to do to manifest it. The surprising answer was: Be Lazy.

Lazy is a word that carries terrible connotations with it. And mostly because we are a culture that prizes productivity and over-responsibility as we are constantly comparing one person to another on those standards. Being a ‘slacker’ is how most people regard being lazy. Yet, the heart of being lazy is simply not to be inclined to work or exert energy. Bingo. Exerting energy was what I was all about when I approached my responsibilities and endless tasks that I had deemed necessary for achieving success. And of course if I did not “exert” myself how would they get done and where would my dream be then?

Exertion and work are the opposite of allowing and flow. My dream of helping children around the world who need love and care at the most fundamental level and creating new vehicles for AOMusic to touch the hearts of people is never anything but flow for me. Allowing the dream to unfold like a flower should be easy. You would never put energy into forcing a flower to bloom at any other speed than its own natural rhythm and flow.

It was clear that when I approached my list of mundane tasks I was not allowing for the same energy to permeate the process and bring both joy and excitement to every phone call. I was not allowing the process of “Do-ing” to become “Be-ing in the flow with each task”. Allowing the task to present a fun aspect, an unexpected outcome and a great satisfaction, even if I did not accomplish my goal that day.

I watched my three canine companions make no effort at all in a day except to simply be happy and in their own true nature. They slept when they felt like it and if they were needed for something they brought their own happy selves to the project. They knew the nature of being happy, they rested in between exercise, they greeted me every morning as if it was the happiest moment of their lives and the very first time they had seen my face or watched the sun come up. I had something to learn watching them and Be-ing with them.

I learned that it is essential to take care of myself first and foremost. That if I deeply care about the wellbeing of others or mass consciousness I must tend to the wellbeing of my “self” in order to advocate for anyone else. You cannot assist anything you are not already feeling in yourself. If you want to be advantage to others you need to be an advantage to yourself. I am never an advantage to myself or anyone else when I allow the feelings of over work, stress, anxiety or fear to be part of any moment.

So, being lazy means to relax and feel into my life at that moment, create a process of pleasure with my “work” and to not exert energy to make any one thing happen. Exertion suggests that I believe that I am the only one to do what is needed. Now that flies in the face of our American work ethic doesn’t it? Especially when we have such a flawed premise in our society which says “the more you DO the more you are WORTH.” What this new perspective says is “the better you feel, the more you allow” and the more you allow the better the outcome. This is a powerful and clear intent: Allowing instead of efforting.

Being lazy means to give myself permission to allow the law of manifestation to fill in the grid of my dream and vision with all the things that my over-efforting can squeeze out, like coincidence, serendipity, spirit, destiny, new people wanting to help, opportunities and simply, the unknown. Then to make room for the Universal truth of manifestation to take root. To have a high vibrational frequency that, like a magnet, will attract what you desire.

So, here is what I learned and I am passing it on with delight. I call these the Six Steps to Being Lazy. You might do these every day, to start your day or end your day before you go to sleep or better yet, both.

1. Remember the vibrational alignment you want to achieve between your dream and your daily work. If you are clear that joy, love, adventure or being on your creative edge is what your dream is truly about then be clear that these are the experiences and ultimately the feelings and emotions you desire and deserve in the work you do toward achieving your vision

2. Meditate at least 15 minutes a day to empty your busy mind and invite these feelings of joy and love to fill you. Meditation opens the door to allowing.

3. Go outside no matter the weather, pay attention and find things to acknowledge with gratitude. AND do this out loud. On your walk, in your garden or as the wind is howling and rain is on it’s way, notice what is all around you and acknowledge everything that touches you: “You are my favorite flower, you are the most beautiful bird, you are the most exciting sky, and you are my favorite tree, my most treasured vegetable in the garden, the most beautiful chicken, frog, dragonfly or next door neighbor.” If you are walking your dog, speak with him or her about how you love and appreciate them, their beauty and their sacrifice in life to love you and only you. As you speak this gratitude and appreciation out loud you are completely rebooting your energy and raising both the vibrational frequency of you and everything around you. You are making your own heart-music in the world.

4. Buy a notebook for your “Positive Attributes”. Make five different subjects and write all the positive aspects of them: Relationships, my dream, my children, my body, my friends, my love life, my talents and gifts. Find five themes or subjects in your life that are very meaningful to you and then list all the positive attributesyou can think of to say about your love life, your body or your talents. Fill the page. And then re-read and add to it daily. This Self-Appreciation and Self Love will completely rewire your cells.

5. Look upward and outward. Go outside or stand at a window and acknowledge that there are “universal forces” that are focused right at you. Consciously acknowledge that you are the object of their positive attention. Say out loud: “I am grateful and I will be in conscious awareness that you too are right here with me, assisting, inspiring, guiding, having fun with me, supporting me, helping me, loving me, showing me, caring for me, surprising me and say it over and over again. Get into an endless loop of this Universal acknowledgement.

6. Hug the world. A friend of mine pointed out that it is important to hug for thirty seconds or more, with eight or more people every day. Now this is a challenge in our touch phobic society. But, the heart as the largest electromagnetic field in the body can entrain with another heart when hugging, which then can create greater health, a more vibrant immune system, the feelings of love and the feeling of safety and belonging.

What we forget in our lives, on this one planet, is that all that we want for others and for ourselves already exists. The only thing we truly have to DO is allow for it all to manifest and to relax all of our efforting, our reactivity, our fear and our contraction and simply let all our desires flow to us, at a rate that will astonish you. So let’s all get really, really lazy. Woof!

And stay tune for part two on the Tao of Dog.

Practicing Transformation

Jun24

by Maya Christobel

I am hearing daily from so many people that they are feeling… “different”: More sensitive, feeling body pains, getting ill, energized for some, sluggish for others. Tired but not sleeping. Overwhelmed but not knowing exactly why. All bodily responses to changing energetic fields all over the planet and in our solar system. The answer is not sleeping pills or any conventional response. We need an entirely new perspective.

It is no longer possible to separate ourselves as if we are distinct from EVERY OTHER THING. We are being affected daily by our Sun and Solar Flares, by Climate Change, by our Economy, our Friends, our Fears and our Dreams. Greece cannot have economic collapse and create a global fear response and we not feel it on the other side of the globe as we eat dinner.

So, we are being asked, if not required, to take a new position in our lives in order to integrate these new energies that are changing the very DNA of us as a species so that we not become ill in response. This sounds overwhelming and for some it is. Confusing and it is at times. The natural response to change is usually a kind of “contraction” in our lives, a reactivity to fear, a stepping up of activity and problem solving. This is no longer working. The new response to these demands is to…relax. Breath. Walk. Sleep. Laugh and be in a place of Openness and Love. Not easy as the lives we live swirl around us and the majority feel massive amounts of fear.

I remember reading about a woman who was attacked by a bear. She was just in her tent minding her own business when out of left field a bear tore through her tent and began to drag her off to the woods to kill her. Others had already died. What she did was counter-intuitive to screaming and resisting. She went silent and limp. She stopped resisting. What happened next was astonishing. The bear dropped her in the woods and walked away. She was not unharmed, but she was alive.

I am finding that I have the opposite response to mounting tensions in the world, tensions in my life and personal crises. I am not worrying or trying to “figure anything out”. I am not resisting. That is very new for me and may have much to do with my choice to begin to live in the flow. Allowing rather than pushing the river that rushes all around me. My list of what I think I should do still sits mostly unaddressed as I put on my hat and grab my binoculars and go out to Lighthouse point to watch for the Orcas to come through. Years ago I would have decided that I was in denial, crazy as a loon, lazy, afraid to face facts if I had done such a thing. Now I am different. I feel perfectly centered and none of the traditional triggers in my life that would have sent me to bed sleepless or with a sore throat and a pounding heart seem to affect me in any of the usual ways. And that undone list of “necessary responses” is till there and the world has not collapsed around me. I have not become a bag lady.

The antidote to the psychotic times we live in is not to speed up…but to do exactly the opposite: Slow down. Slow way down so that the body can manage the energy that is presenting itself in a hundred new ways a day. To stop our reactive resistance just like the woman who saved herself from the jaws of a bear.

The second cure for harrowing times is to change your mind. The mind wants to solve the unsolvable and will use up all available energy trying to. The way to stop this over-thinking, over-worrying, over-analyzing is to change your thoughts from “I am overwhelmed”, to “I have an opportunity for creativity”. From “I am afraid”, to “I am practicing love and trust in this process of change”. What these changed minds mean is that we are finally acknowledging that we are in control of our experience. Fear is the belief that we are not in control. What we intend to think really does change the outcome of our daily experience.

Many people all over the world are talking about the unprecedented times of spiritual, physical and emotional evolution we are in. From CNN to Psychics we have a delicious array of input to help us navigate our changing times, changing relationships and emerging new world view. Here is just one piece of writing that I think is helpful. It came to me from Marlene Swetlishoff. Good, sound and inspiring guidance.

“You are in a period of stillness awaiting the influx of greater energies that are soon to flood the Planet. Be receptive and open to these energies and absorb as much of them as you are able. Set your intention to receive in grace and ease and it will be so. Many changes continue to take place within your physical bodies and your DNA is being further activated. The next six months will bring through many revelations and a greater connection with your inner truths.

Stay connected to your inner core essence and let it guide your way. This will help you to stay in the knowing of yourself and that which is important for you to follow for the highest and best outcomes in all that occurs in your daily living. In dealing with others, always look to meet them in the areas of common interest and endeavor to reflect to them your Light, and in turn, allow their Light to reflect back to you. You are in a period of igniting each other to the unfoldment of greater visions and dreams.

This will transpire in different ways for each of you and the outcomes will be wonderfully diverse as each of you express through your Beings that which is uniquely your own essence. Become each others greatest cheering teams, for much joy and laughter will facilitate the moving forward of each of you to your true and rightful place, as the shift of the ages continues to occur. Let go of all remaining fear and doubt, for all that comes through you is the merging of the higher aspects of yourselves. There will be prolonged periods of the feeling of joy that bursts from within you as you leave all that was behind you.

Stay grounded into the Earth each day as she will support you as the metamorphosis within you continues to take place. Drink copious amounts of fresh, clean water to help facilitate the movements of the new energies coming through you and be outdoors as much as possible. Practice deep breathing exercises each day to help move the new Pranic energies into your cells. Allow the expression of all that comes through you and observe what comes forth. You are reconnecting to skills, abilities and talents that have been dormant for a long time.” Marlene Swetlishoff

So, in between sharing about my journey on this road I am on, I will be sending up a few flares for your consideration as we all float in this big boat of change. What an exciting time to be in.

And again, I invite you to share your story with me. How are you changing and what are you doing about it in your life? What are you learning? We all need each other, as Marlene said, to cheer us on during this amazing time.

Blessings, Maya Christobel

Letter on Life

Feb3

My family consists of three women. My two daughters and myself. We have faced some extraordinary challenges this past year that require each of us to learn and open to new ways of thinking about our bodies. We are inspired to ask new and innovative questions in order to address a deeper understanding of how to achieve vibrant health in life. What an opportunity to be thankful for. How amazing to be in this dialogue and life with my own children.

And, as any mother will confess, I wake at night feeling the weight on my shoulders to lead the way, to learn and teach by example and to share every little scrap of what I might know with the two people I love the most.

So, I decided to share a letter I sent to my daughters with you. This letter, from the heart to what I truly believe is about what I believe is at the heart of all our illnesses in life, addressing what is not only a personal journey, but a global moment in time. Our society is soul sick and we each feel it in our own ways, from constant stress to life threatening issues. From a feeling of being lost and overwhelmed to coming to the end of life feeling alone. Each of these experiences lead the way to answers that are essential to continuing life on this planet.

So, here is what I told my daughters. Blessings, Maya

Dear Ones,

Everything is Energy. A scientific fact. Everything being composed of energy means that the shape and form and function of anything is determined by it’s frequency and vibration. Energy never dies, it only changes. It evolves. I remember you once said to me when you were growing up, “ Mom, the one thing you told me that I will never forget is that the only thing that you can count on in life…is change”. I still believe that.

Our physical bodies are changing. There are important reasons for this and it starts with understanding the concept of Evolution. Evolution is any change across successive generation. Let’s just stay general with the idea that we change, the planet changes, thus our cellular makeup and our DNA is affected by those changes and therefore the rate we vibrate changes too. We are hugely affected by this fact every day of our lives.

Before your grandmother was born, say a hundred years, energy was different. There was no electricity so to speak, no atom bomb having been dropped, no pollution or planes or cars or the grid of technology that surrounds our planet like plastic wrap. There were far less people, cleaner water and on it goes. Now, we live under the weight of all that has been introduced to our natural environment and thus to our bodies. We then do what all living things do. Our bodies attempt to adapt, even when we are not aware of its struggle to do so until we have some concerning symptom that derails us.

But, adaptation to agents that are not at all “real substances” that the body recognizes, (wheat, genetically modified corn, additives, chemicals, car fumes, food pumped with hormones and a complex new electromagnetic grid in life) and the body cannot assimilate these foreign properties and truly create healthy adaptive responses fast enough.

The body sends out a red alert and then an inflammatory response in the form of anger and frustration or allergies and tumors. Thus, our cells spin differently, the electromagnetic fabric of the heart and the brain is compromised and put under rigorous pressure. This is called Stress. Our world presents us too much stress to assimilate from the outside and we then generate an inner stressful response of our own. But in the end no one can keep up with the imbalance without acute awareness of how to combat the problem

The stress we subject ourselves to, for many of us who are more sensitive to energy than other people, can create what we call dis-ease, maladaptation, cellular anomalies, and energetic flow issues ( like in acupuncture). The way to handle this inevitability is to reduce, as much as possible, being subjected to these invaders our body does not recognize, giving our bodies more time to truly create a healthier response and have time to recover from all the other stressors.

This downtime that our body needs can be provided through more sleep, more rest, meditation, walking in nature, hugging, kissing and laughing. But we feel time speeding up and most of the above list of healthful responses are not part of our daily life. We need to begin to view these measures of self-care as essential as the air we breath.

We feel most of this if we are awake and aware. Yet, there are two other factors we do not know as much about or take into account in our lives. First, is the profound effect “place” and “people” have on our health or lack of it, energetically. The easier way to say this is that if we are truly all connected, then we ARE ALL CONNECTED to each other’s health or ill-health, positive emotions or negative ones and so on.

We exchange with every person we meet…energy. So, it is safe to say that who you touch, who you live with, have sex with, the emotions that surround you, the positive or negative flow of energy all around you on the streets and in restaurants, has either a positive effect on you or a negative one. We feed on this energy 24/7, ingest it, become toxic from it and then over time, show physical and emotional imbalances and symptoms.

We in fact may not be the source of the depression or anxiety at all. We may CARRY that emotion or toxic energy for another person, like having become a sponge without knowing it. We must wake up to this reality if we are going to be responsible for our lives, our health and the health of our loved ones.

If we are around positive heart energy with good feelings, our energy will resonate with that energy, we raise our vibrational frequency and we will increase the available energy for happiness and healing in ourselves and for the people and animals around us.

If we are around negative emotions, then the contrast of that energy requires the body and the heart to adjust and if it cannot adjust, then a kind of energetic toxicity builds in the body which over time can be illness and even death.

“Places” have as much toxic energy as people do. Cities have a much more difficult frequency than a country cabin. The closer to nature the more balance there is. The question is, are we listening to our body’s feedback on how we feel with any give person or in any given place? Do we act on that pit in the stomach or that sixth sense that we should not go down a street or take an apartment that simply just does not feel right?

And I hear you say, “impossible to not be around toxic situations”. True. But you can choose to minimize those situations and not participate and you can take the time to learn how to both protect yourself from energy that you do not want and to clear it when you have been around it. It is a kind of Good Hygiene that is far more important than taking showers or using soap and water to reduce germs. Time consuming? Yes it is. But, so is all the effort to combat illness, migraine headaches, exhaustion, cancer, or failing relationships. Right?

Secondly, we must as humans take into account that we live in a larger Universe on a planet in crisis filled with fear and collapsing structures. Change of a magnitude we have never experienced is under way and inevitable. Our planet spins inside of other Cosmic energies and is moving to position itself in the Cosmos where it has never been before. Earth has compromised protective shields much like our own immune system, and is affected by the energies that every other planet in our solar system emanates. We are not simply connected to one another we are connected to everything, big and small.

Chaos of energy abounds. It clear to most of us that something is radically changing as our planet evolves to higher consciousness: From hate to love, from exclusion to inclusion from fear to joy. This is an EVOLUTIONARY leap. Our cells are trying to keep up with this energetic change and many sensitive people are finding that their bodies are not able to and are producing a myriad of symptoms that our traditional medical system would just like to give you a new drug for. It is easier to do that than to wake up isn’t it? Do you find yourself more tired, or depressed, having headaches or anxiety for no apparent reason? Do you forget things or get dizzy and disoriented? These are not necessarily issues of aging or hormones. These are some of the symptoms that our bodies are out of synch with the changing energies around us.

So, as you look at this historical evolutionary leap that involves changes in our cellular nature and our DNA and if you look at the changed electromagnetic field around us from technology or global warming, you might stop and hit the pause button on life. If you factor in the unprecedented pollution we absorb through our very food, air and water but then still go along with the status quo to hang out at the bar, to eat junk food, to have your home positioned next to electrical transformers or sit in front of a computer monitor or TV with countless other electromagnetic technology you might ask yourself why? Do you think there will not be physical and emotional fall out? We are in denial to the nth degree as a specie. We are clearly not connected or listening to our body’s language and intuition. Re-establishing this primal and essential connection to our own body language and to our intuition and feelings, is part of the leap we are making right now in 2012.

Our wake up call is to wisely take in the facts and realize that our bodies are an electrical grid which absorbs all the energy we are exposed to. Then we must responsibly position ourselves in places, with people, eating food and feeling emotions that are congruent with the higher vibrational frequencies of love, joy and compassion. We must learn to get rid of the excess energy as well as stay connected to the only place that grounds all our circuitry: The Earth.

We can change two things. We can construct our lives around health and good energy and clear out of what is not. And we can change from the inside out. This is the key to everything.

The heart is the largest electromagnetic field in the body. It emits a field outside our bodies, just like the Earth does. If our hearts are closed out of fear or hurt, then the available energy is limited and our positive protective field around us is small. If we focus on amplifying our heart energy instead of the energy of our thoughts, we then raise our vibrational frequency to a place where healing can happen, miracles occur, and where we can protect ourselves against negative energy and increase our life span, our joy and our aliveness. By doing this one thing for ourselves we affect every person around us. This is how one person changes the world.

It is the inside-out process that is necessary to heal from any condition, as well as constructing a life that reflects smart thinking and care for our bodies, without whom we would not be here. It is this inside-outside process of accessing our unlimited energy of the heart that is the Warrior’s Path for this year of 2012. It takes immense courage and faith and trust to do this in the world we have created.

Cultivating a practice of increasing heart energy is a commitment I am making to create health and longevity in my life, and most of all, to combat the negative effects of a planet in fear. Fear is illness. Fear is not a vibrational match to what it is to be a loving human being. Our fearful thoughts, our images of fear on the TV or in Movies and that unnamable fear and anxiety that just seems to follow most of us like a cloud, can be neutralized with opening the channel to the heart and raising the vibrational frequency of our emotions, our thoughts and our actions. Then we will change our cellular nature and move in congruence with the evolution that is taking each of us onto a new path.

Our health requires that we make this leap. Our very survival as a planet depends on it.

With Great Love.