Conscious Living
Get In Touch With Silence
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.” ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross~
Never Too Old
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
– Clive Staples Lewis
Stay Within Your Center
“I teach people that no matter what the situation is, no matter how chaotic, no matter how much drama is around you, you can heal by your presence if you just stay within your center.” – Deepak Chopra
Björk Vulnicura Cover – (Not My Pic)
Top 5 Regrets People Make On Their Deathbed
The other day I was thinking about life, and what people expect from you, how people tell you should be or doing this & that. I hear it all the time, you should have a book, you should be a writer, you should be a photographer, you’re in the wrong profession, etc. You start to think that while you’re happy with your life, your job, the places you’ve been, the things you’ve done & people you’ve touched & been inspired by, that somehow that isn’t enough… you should be doing more. You should work harder. You could have more money to buy more things & go more places, a bigger audience & more attention. But, I don’t care for those things & it’s not what motivates me. I began thinking perhaps I’m not passionate enough? But that’s not true, I’m one of the most passionate people I know & aren’t I already living that life? Inspiring, creating, sharing? So then I have to stop questioning myself and imposing other people’s opinions on me. I know who I am & I know the purpose I serve. I feel successful in many ways & feel as long as you’re happy with who & where you are & what you have, that’s all that’s needed. Life is a lot simpler than we make it.
But, that’s what’s honored in our society, you’re supposed to go to school for years on end to learn false history & things you never end up using, to work hard, make that money to buy those things, be who your parents want you to be & don’t stop at anything for success, even if it means running people over or time away from your friends & family. That’s called sacrifice, right? But, it’s not until you’re about to die that you realize it’s not what everyone wants you to do or who they expect you to be, it’s not about working your life away, suppressing your feelings & no time for loved ones… all that leads to unhappiness. Why wait till you’re about to die to contemplate these things? Why should we be made to think we are not enough, and we don’t have enough, that you shouldn’t be happy where you are and that more = good? It’s all an illusion.
Today, a friend shared a link regarding people’s regrets on their deathbeds. I thought to share as well.
When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again & again. Here are the most common five:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
I AM – The Documentary
I AM – By Carlos Juan (CJ) Mendez
In this deep, insightful documentary, Hollywood Comedy director Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Bruce Almighty, Nutty Professor) films & recounts his experiences after having a bad bike accident that left him with a concussion and damage to his frontal lobe. He had to spend lots of time in bed & recovery. Others with this condition were led to depression & suicide. When left with nothing but your health, you contemplate life in many other ways. He realized it’s not about money, fame & fortune, everything he had already attained, and new lessons were learned from a new perspective. He decided to use the time to try to find out more about what’s wrong with our world and what we can do about it. He meets with spiritual philosophers & leaders & shows how even as kids we go to school to learn to compete & be number one. We’re conditioned to grow so we can consume more which equals good, since good is the measure of life. Everything is an advertisement & money equals happiness. Accumulation seems key, but this is all a big mental illness & how lots of it creates emptiness & loneliness. He found himself in his big house with nothing but his health. Everything didn’t mean anything anymore. He realized this isn’t the natural rhythm of life which equals happiness.
So what is it? What’s wrong with our world? What can we do to fix it?
Our economy is a monster, a huge machine that we created & not a natural force of nature. And what is it for? It all makes you think. It’s as if we’re trained to be greedy, aggressive & violent, to separate yours & mine. We’re taught that’s the nature of life, evolution, survival of the fittest. Yet, we experience shock after shock to prove that we got it all wrong and that and that the true natural state of who we are is love, not war. We come together in life after disaster since compassion & empathy are key & our human basic nature is to cooperate. Cooperation is of the highest value & domination is of the lowest. Even in the animal jungle their nature is cooperation & democracy. Like a flock of birds in the air or school of fish in the ocean all moving together in unison, they actually decide together so fast we can’t even see it but not one single bird or fish is taking the lead, they are all agreeing as one. Also, he touches on the “Butterfly Effect” and how whatever happens on one side of the globe affects the other. Our DNA is very close to many animals on this earth & we’re all related. WE ARE ONE.
We learn that sympathy is actually our strongest instinct in human nature & this is also something to Darwin stressed in his studies (aside from his theory of evolution & survival of fittest), but one of the key points that everyone chose to ignore in his teachings as we were brought up because we don’t honor sympathy & they didn’t want us to focus on that. Society and those in control wanted us to focus on the competition, not our true empathic nature.
The truth of who we are is that we are because we belong. I AM.
We have what’s called the mirror neuron, when we see & feel what you see in others. For instance, you see someone get hurt on TV & you feel that pain in a way. And evolution has been hard wired for a compassionate response & a need to serve others more than ourselves. But some have what’s called the selfish gene & attitude that has been embedded & taught to them when sympathy is actually our strongest instinct in human nature. Our hearts rule. Scientifically, more information goes from your heart to your brain than from your brain to your heart. Compassion, love, and gratitude are key.
Then, Tom did a test with yogurt. A scientist hooked up electrodes to Tom & also to the yogurt. Tom’s thoughts were affecting the yogurt’s neurons & if he thought about something painful or stressful, the yogurt would react. It was pretty insane to see, but it shows that even in simple state, the yogurt is aware & alive. Think about it, it has water, cultures & bacteria as well. It’s a celled organism. It reminded me of a study I read about where a doctor put electrodes onto a plant & someone came into the room with fire & the plant reacted. And when the fire was removed from the room, the plant calmed down. The fact is that we’re all connected on many levels we will never even see or comprehend naturally. And our argon atoms (what we exhale) stays in the air & becomes part of the whole, the ether, the other layer of unseen, interconnected energy in our world. Think Star Trek on an invisible biological & cellular level.
Our mission on this earth, and what Tom was trying to portray in this documentary is to bring consciousness & awareness & perception to others. Until people all start thinking on the same level, to cooperate as one, there will always be separation, negativity & misunderstanding. This all seems so basic & elementary, but it’s deeper than we think and we’re far off our path.
Towards the end of the documentary, Tom ends up selling everything big he had… the big house, the private jet and fancy car. He now lives in a modest home in California, bikes to work and takes commercial flights. In the end reminds us that the need for personal property beyond our means is a mental illness. Nothing in nature takes more than it needs and only love & cooperation will save our world.
I AM. WE ARE. ONE
“Competition as we know it is dead. Collaboration is the new competition. It’s about working with each other, not against. Together we all win.” – Rich German“
“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part in time & space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts & feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires & to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures & the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure & the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” – Albert Einsten
2 Opposing Christian Views on Homosexuality
I thought this was an excellent video that puts things into perspective, and shows that people are willing to change their views when you remove sexuality and replace it with spirituality. Bravo to the Prime Minister of Australia!
“On the question of marriage equality, I took a position about 4-5 months ago because I concluded in my conscious, through an informed conscious, and a Christian conscious, it was the right thing to do. I don’t get that (it is wrong). The Bible also says that slavery is a natural condition. What is the fundamental principle of the New Testament? It is one of Universal Love, loving your fellow man. And if we get obsessed with a particular definition of that through a form of sexuality, I think we’re missing the centrality of what the spiritual gospel is all about.” Kevin Rudd – Australia’s Prime Minister
A CONSCIOUS EFORT
“If we were to make the conscious & frequent effort of treating others with consideration, the effects on us & on society as a whole would be amazing.” – Henry Charles Link
GIOVANNI & GRAND LUX CAFE
Working at Grand Lux Café in Aventura Mall is a very nice guy named Giovanni. He’s tall, perhaps in his late 30s or 40s, Latin/Italian & reminds us a bit of Walter Mercado in his finesse & soft spokenness. Of the many times we’ve lunched there, my co-worker & I only had him once, and we never forgot the experience. Today, we got him again, and we smiled. Before he even asks what you want to drink he says, “Welcome, my name is Giovanni, I’ll be your server for today, and I’d like to start off by wishing you a nice start to a great meal.” It kinda throws you off since it’s not something you’re accustomed to. He takes your order, gives recommendations, smiles & gives such life to everything he says. When he brings you water, he says, “Here’s something I would like to provide to refresh you.” You think to yourself, ‘uhm it’s just water’ & most people just drop it off & keep it moving, but it really is refreshing & he makes you want to drink more of it. When he brings your food, he says, “Please enjoy & I would like to take this moment you wish you great health & many blessings.” The first time we were wondering if he was on happy drugs or smoked some good stuff before his shift.
Today, it hit me differently. I recalled reading the Celestine Prophecy many years ago & it spoke about the way we intake food, and how we shouldn’t eat while watching TV or be too distracted, how we should focus on the food, focus on its energy & give it more energy before we intake. It causes you to be more conscious, enhancing your perspective & the properties of the food at the same time. Some pray before they eat & that’s another form but I admit I don’t do it very often, and some just say, “Amen” & dig in, not actually giving it much thought. But, Giovanni makes you pause before you have that meal & forces you to give it more consideration. While he kinda throws you off with his uber kindness, he makes you feel so much better about your entire experience. My co-worker thought something was wrong with him & then you realize there’s nothing wrong with him, you’re just not used to such courtesy, cognizance or conscientiousness, and that’s sad, it should be more common. Sometimes, you expect people to be quick and/or bothered & that sucks b/c you begin to allow it in a way & brush it off as them just having a bad day. But, that doesn’t make it OK.
The first & last time he served us was many months ago & we always laughed about how he was a little out there, but we never forgot his name or how he made us feel. So when we had him again today, my co-worker’s eyes lit up & she began giggling, all giddy that Giovanni was working our table. We agreed that for all that we laughed about this guy, he’s really doing something special & it really does make a difference in your dining experience. Upon leaving he says, “Thank you so much, I wish you a great day full of abundance & joy.” Who says that after you finish a meal? Most people just want your tip, but Giovanni does, and that’s why he gets a bigger one! Energy is currency & currency is money, and those that take the time to go above & beyond & actually make your experience something else deserve the best. I’ll be writing to Grand Lux to let them know how great Giovanni is, and next time we go, we’ll request to sit in his area, because every meal you have should be filled with such love & lightness.
Honor Yourself
Consciously directing loving energy toward ourselves through meditation & enjoyable activities helps us feel lighter, happier, and more connected in our relationships. While most of us routinely express love and kindness to others, we often forget to honor ourselves with the same level of affection. Since love is a transformational energy, choosing to love & cherish ourselves can encourage good health, high spirits, and a willingness to connect more meaningfully with others in our lives. The more loved & happy we feel inside, the more we want to reach out to share our joy with others. The love you feel for others will be magnified if you also focus on loving yourself today. DailyOM
CJ's InSight 