A Balanced Approach to Wellness!

Archive for the ‘Focused living’ Category

Guidance along the Journey

Journey sign

“The journey through life is a series of starts and stops, U-turns and wrong turns, ups and downs, unobstructed paths and no entry areas, straight and obvious routes and winding and precarious backstreets, unpredictable events and constant rhythms. The journey through life is perceived as difficult, or difficult and interesting, or difficult and unfair, or difficult and deserved, or difficult and surmountable, or difficult and this-or-that. The journey through life is varied in length; a short life is mourned and a long life is accepted. The journey through life is similar for all in that it starts with a breath and ends with a gasp (except in cases of sudden unnatural death).”
…from Oneself—Living

We all enter life with stumbling blocks in front of us. Some stumbling blocks are more difficult to pass and some stop us completely. The journey is meant to be trial-and-tribulation full, not smooth-sailing-the-whole-way. The idea that life is supposed to be easy is a marketing ploy that cripples and weakens us. Life is not a laundry detergent commercial with all the stains coming out, clean as new. Life is complex! Yes it is, and the more we prepare for complexity, the more we can exalt in the journey.

Here is guidance for the journey:

  • Learn to breathe properly and variedly. Knowing how to breathe through the changes in life will help you stay focused and well.
  • Develop your senses. Use your eyes to study the world. Use your nose to create memories. Use your ears to connect with animals and plants. Use your mouth to nourish your body. Use your hands to create. Use your bodily awareness to connect with other people.
  • Know yourself. Know the things that draw you to them and the things that repel. Know your temperament and accept it. Know your abilities and your drive. The more you know yourself, and live accordingly, the more you can live truthfully.

“Each step towards balanced living has repercussions for future satisfaction with one’s life. Deliberate work towards wellness, physical and mental, paves the way for life that is enriching. Deliberately choosing activities that better oneself, one’s community, and the surrounding environment rather than choosing activities that distract, paves the way for a life that is rewarding.”
…from Contracts for an Exemplary Life–Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals

To purchase Oneself-Living and Contracts for an Exemplary Life, click these links:

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SHOUT the Wonder! Energy Guidance Connects to Truth!

infantTruth and soulful existence are intertwined possibilities. Creating a life that expresses soulfulness reveals truth that is real for each person.

Soulful existence is often lost as people are shaped by society. People lose the ability to know their own truth.

Energy Guidance Complete delivers wisdom for each person’s truth and soulful existence. Energy Guidance Complete is guidelines to oneself.

To return to one’s intended soulful self requires effort. There is no magical shortcut.

Energy Guidance reaches each person through communication between Renee and Spirit. Renee receives instruction for each person in the way he or she can achieve balance and true direction.

Physical constraints influence the steps towards balance, as do illnesses and past traumas. Determination to achieve goals and live a life that satisfies brings results with each step followed and each message heeded.

Connecting to Energy Guidance opens the way to healing, reality, and soulful existence. Energy Guidance connects to the Truth!

Energy Guidance has helped many issues and troubles. Here is a list of some of them: https://energy-guidance-complete.com/egc-sessions/

Shout the wonder!shout

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The Essential Bucket List

bucket-list

A bucket list is assisted fulfillment of worthwhile goals. It offers insight into your personality and soul. It also allows thoughts of death to be considered in a constructive way.

If you want to create a bucket list that will carry you to fulfillment, be sure to include these suggestions on your list:

  • Search for relationships that supply comfort.
  • Decipher the sounds, sights, tastes, and smells that bring you contentment.
  • Give yourself to a cause that connects you to the environment.
  • Try difficulty. (This item refers to any challenge that seems worth trying.)
  • Create a friendship that is satisfying.
  • Receive yourself with compassion. (This item helps you accept and like yourself.)
  • Open to differences. (This item allows you to see the differences in people and societies in a fulfilling way.)

Going through life with a bucket list that reflects these items can bring you joy, adventures, and satisfaction!

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Sharing

renee-ein-gedi

So many things can be written about: the importance of sleep or water or nutritious foods. Perhaps nature’s effect on us or the importance of caring for animals. And yet, those topics feel insignificant next to today’s headlines blaring out another surprise terror attack.

Yesterday it happened in the country where I live, the day before in the country where I used to live.

The terror attacks have been happening every day in countries where I’ve never lived or visited, and I tend to let those attacks stay distant. Not let them faze my daily concerns.

Same with the reports of never-ending murders in some cities or horrific attacks on women in other countries or sex trafficking all around the world (my country included), and on and on. So many disturbing reports about the awful ways people treat one another.

“What can I share with people…” I ask Spiritual Presence, “…when I feel too sad to write about the importance of sleep or water or nutritious foods?”

Here’s the answer:

Life flows—highs and lows and in-betweens, floods and ebbs continuously. The lows take people down, where they are capable of incredible meanness. The highs bring them into incredibly kind states.  The meanness and the kindness are tangible expressions of life. Striving for kindness is best.

In my life, I can aim for the kindness and work to keep the low from overtaking. The other stuff is happening and I’ll stay aware, but keep striving for the kindness.

Now I feel a bit more ready to share what I had planned to share before the too near attack happened. The next post will share a dessert recipe I have come to rely upon to keep my nagging sweet tooth at bay. If it can help others combat their own sweet tooth, then I will have done a bit of kindness.

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Overcoming Yourself

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The biggest obstacle facing each of us is overcoming ourselves.

Yes the environment in which we live influences our choices, but our main obstacle is the internal environment of destructive dialog with ourselves. Certainly the effects of childhood traumas lead to misdirected internal dialog. Choices we make afterwards, even though related to those traumas, are still our choices. The old messages cannot be blamed for all that is wrong later on.

Hurt from relationships that were difficult can influence unconnected relationships, but again, the choice is there to bring in the hurt or accept that the hurt does not have to destroy the other relationships. The internal dialog about relationships can stew in the hurt and disappointment or can move on to excitement and appreciation.

Overcoming self-imposed misery is the most important step in achieving satisfaction. External events cannot bring satisfaction if the internal dialog rejects it. Other people cannot provide happiness when the internal messages prevent it.

The key to overcoming destructive internal dialog is to listen to internal directives instead:

  • Quiet urging to explore interests that have been ignored should be heeded. The quiet urging tells you in a hushed voice that is your connection to yourself and to your essence. The quiet urging presents wisdom within.
  • Incessant thoughts about philanthropy are natural reminders of your humanness. These thoughts can be about family members, friends, or social acquaintances. All people naturally consider the welfare of those around them. These thoughts propel acts of kindness and belonging.
  • Strong messages of Intuitive knowledge advise about actions to take and choices to make. Intuitive knowledge advises about split-second decisions, choice hierarchy (knowing the choice that fits your needs and temperament), and uncomfortable situations. Intuitive messages offer contrast to destructive internal dialog.
  • Bodily cues dispute destructive internal dialog by presenting the body’s needs in tangible feelings of hunger, thirst, restlessness, and shutdown. The cues prevent immersion in despair, unless the body is too weak or overtaken by invasive substances (too much legal or illegal drugs).

In the poem “!!Me!!” from Connection—A Collection of Wisdom Poetry, the following words describe aspects of the destructive internal dialog:

The part that sees the needs of others
and holds back.

The part that sees the needs of me
and holds back.

The part that craves love
and then becomes afraid
when love is received.

Overcoming self-inflicted pain is the most important step towards living a life that is true and fulfilling. Shutting off the destructive internal dialog and amping up the internal directives can bring real satisfaction in life.

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Muddling Through

mud

Mud makes us happy when we are playful children. Mud makes us miserable when we are busy adults with little time for extra cleaning. The cleaning of the mud is an extra chore that few choose to take on willingly.

And yet, many go through life acquiring mud that they refuse to let go. This type of mud is not physical, but is just as dirtying and requiring of cleansing.

  • This mud is habits that hold us down.
  • This mud is relationships that mire us in muck.
  • This mud is internal criticism that dirties our thoughts.
  • This mud is chosen employment that creates unpleasant versions of ourselves.

Muddling through so that we can get through our days is not living; it is living trapped. We can get trapped into work that makes us feel empty or worthless. We can get trapped into relationships that cause us to feel depleted or used. We can get trapped into dramas that are not our own making, yet influence and dirty our living. Destructive habits and unfulfilled dreams trap us more.

Muddling through is a chosen way of life, and it’s surprising how many people choose to just muddle through. Even when they know how to pull themselves out, they choose not to. It’s more comfortable to stay in the same place and complain or give up.

Muddling through is not how people are meant to live. Muddling through should be reserved for times when unexpected events create the need to get through something or require efforts beyond our abilities. Muddling through is a positive thing when life demands beyond-our-control efforts. Muddling through is a negative thing when it becomes the regular mode of functioning.

The way we see mud, and the way we let it sink us or entertain us, focuses the way we get through life. With our determination to be ourselves comes our determination to not just muddle through. Muddling through is for specific times. Muddling through is best left for them and not for most of our days.

Here’s to living and not to just muddling through!

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Upbeat Advice

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“Smile and the whole world smiles with you.”

“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

“Look on the bright side of life.”

People like quick fixes. They like sayings that make them feel good. They also like reassurances.

Energy Guidance looks on the bright side of life and sees the potential in everyone. Potential is possible and attainable through persistent efforts and focused activity. Potential is about changes when necessary and restraint when needed.

Since September 2013, Energy Guidance has appeared in books and this blog. The advice has been honest and current. Answers to unclear questions have been offered and medical afflictions have been tackled. Focused living and paths to well-being have been provided regularly.

If you have liked one or more of the blog posts, please share them with friends. If you know of people who suffer from health afflictions deciphered by Energy Guidance, please share the information with them.

Good advice is meant to be passed along. Spiritual wisdom can elicit skepticism, but if people can look beyond the source of the wisdom they can see that the advice is truly wise.

Give others the opportunity to grow with Energy Guidance by sharing it with them!

And remember to…

“Count your blessings!”

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Creating something new from a fill-in-the-blanks form—then creating a life anew

Cover-Contracts for an exemplary life

“In the next chapter, “Exemplary Life Contract Forms and Examples”, there are contract forms that contain fill-in-the-blanks. You can photocopy a contract and fill in the blanks or rewrite the contract using the base form for inspiration.”

This excerpt from the book Contracts for an Exemplary Life explains that you can use the book examples to design your own path towards change. Change is possible when you really want it. Change is possible when you are really committed to it.

I have worked with many people through private sessions of Energy Guidance Complete. I have seen people make major lifestyle changes and I have seen people flounder and resist. Those who make the changes create joy and opportunity. Those who resist continue to make excuses and stagnate.

Private sessions with Energy Guidance can bring change relatively quickly, depending on the change desired. Exemplary contracts, which were created through Energy Guidance, can also bring change relatively quickly, depending on the change desired and commitment.

Exemplary life contracts can help with:

  • personal issues such as weight, health, self-criticism and other negative behaviors, self-development, and habit changes
  • family issues such as improvement of family relationships, health, family rituals, and family dynamics
  • community issues such as feeling a part of the community, supporting important community efforts, conserving more, and helping animal and environmental causes
  • people issues such as making time for friends, changing negative relationships with coworkers and service providers, becoming neighborly, and teaching one’s children about others

Contracts for an Exemplary Life—Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals provides a vehicle for people who want to bring change. It is available on amazon.com: http://amzn.com/1518880746

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Too much stuff

too much stuff

Stuff. Too much stuff. Yes, most of us have too much stuff.

The stuff seems necessary at first, but then it controls. The stuff controls our living because it requires the time spent thinking about each item and storage of each item for use or for keeping out of sight and the time spent deciding whether to keep each item or to dispose of it and cleaning each item and additional evaluation of each item’s stay in our possession.

The more stuff we have, the more space we need to display, organize, store, and control. Or if we can’t add more space, then the stuff fills in more and more of the empty space in our homes til we can no longer control the accumulating forest of stuff.

Emotional and sentimental feelings often cause us to keep things we don’t need or like. Societal pressure often causes us to accumulate things we don’t need or want. Feelings of deservedness often cause us to accumulate without need. Feelings of emptiness push towards buying too much to fill the unfulfilled need to belong. Each of these causes pushes towards a home that is too different from the true essence of each of the residents.

Filling our homes with things we cherish is the way to bring harmony into our living space. Even useful utensils can be cherished for their helpfulness. Keeping stuff that truly entertains or uplifts is the way to infuse our homes with balance and peacefulness. Removing the excess can bring joy!

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Decorating with Creativity

Painting by Sigal Chen Granot

Painting by Sigal Chen Granot

The more a person is in touch with his or her soul-endowed abilities, the more amazing the decorations of living. What are living decorations? They are expressions of life through art, dance, music, words, and arrangements.

Art that is not copied, but is pulled from inside is art explosion. It is expression of soulful seeing.

Dance that bursts forth is movement true. It is expression of soulful gratitude.

Music that is heard in the trees and in the wind speaks to the soul and calls for expression through voice and instruments. Soulful listening brings music that is connected.

Words formed into song or stories or shapes are transporting when the thoughts are pulled through soulful channels. The soulful touch elevates the ideas. Soulful expressions of living—heartfelt poetry, stirring prose, and inspiring presentations—weave soulful and physical living into one.

Living decorations are visible through gardens that take the breath away, by parks that call out for connection, and in individual efforts to share wonder. Arrangements of plants, flowers, trees, fountains, stones, paths, and spaces that inspire amazement and appreciation are arrangements that have been soulfully influenced.

Even a home can be soulfully designed when the inhabitants decorate according to their true feelings and passions.

Decorating with creativity is possible when outside voices are tuned out and inner guidance is turned on.

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Bringing Personal Change through Adjusting Relationships with Others

Cover-Contracts for an exemplary life

Often when we think about making changes in our life we think about personal goals like losing weight or getting organized. Personal goals are thought to bring us the most change.

How about looking at bringing personal change from a different direction–from bringing change through our relationships with others, rather than from change just within ourselves.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life offers ideas for bringing change through Me-with-Others contracts. Here are examples of Me-with-Others contract goals:

  • nourishing friendships
  • criticizing people less
  • treating service people with kindness
  • volunteering at a shelter, food kitchen, or facility for the elderly
  • attending communal events
  • being neighborly
  • developing a community
  • (for those with children) educating children about how to treat other people

By focusing on the relationship with others, personal growth can take place alongside the stated goals. The others focus naturally affects us in positive and nourishing ways.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life contains twelve examples of Me-with-Others contracts. There are also many examples of personal contracts, contracts to affect family relationships, and contracts for improving yourself through your relationship with the environment.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life—Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals contains help for people who want to bring change. Contracts for an Exemplary Life is available on amazon.com: http://amzn.com/1518880746

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My Contract for Overcoming Cravings

shoutRecently, most of my blog posts have been about the problems with sugar and sugar substitutes. Spiritual Presence shared the facts about sugar and sugar substitutes, and although I am the one receiving this important information, I was ignoring it. As a matter of fact, I found myself eating more of the things I was learning are so destructive–and craving them more then ever!

After yesterday’s blog post “A World without Cravings” I finally realized that I have to cleanse myself of sugar because it keeps calling to me to eat more and more. I understand that my cravings started early through all the sugared products I was fed as an infant and child (see “Child Abuse with a Spoonful of Sugar“), and those cravings never let up. I had worked to overcome them, with moderate success every now and then, but I hadn’t realized just how destructive sugar is until Spiritual Presence shared the information.

Using the Me-With-Myself contract form in the book Contracts for an Exemplary Life, I have written a contract to help me overcome my cravings. My goals are not only to avoid sugar and to be happy without sugar, but also to understand the importance of my choices on myself and on others around me.

I’m giving myself two months to overcome my addiction to sugar, and then I will see how it feels to be sugar free. During this time, I will eat fruit and sweets that are unprocessed based on the information in the blog post “The Facts: Sweeteners from natural to laboratory-made, Best & Worst“. I will check ingredients in prepared foods for sugar and sugar substitutes. And each time I see sweets that I used to eat, I will feel strong that I can resist them!

It’s never too late to change!

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Bringing change using Exemplary Life contracts

Cover-Contracts for an exemplary life

Health improvements, self-development, changes in behavior, changes in habits, and legacy building are goals that can be reached when Exemplary Life contracts are used. An exemplary life is lived when future generations are kept in mind, when habits reflect caring for oneself and one’s family and community, and when activities are chosen that create satisfaction with one’s life.

Improving health can be by eating more nutritiously, scheduling regular physical activity, and learning to lessen stress. Self-development can be by learning to play a musical instrument, developing hobbies, and meditating. Changes in behavior can be by becoming more appreciative and being kinder to oneself and others. Changes in habits can be by revising daily routines that are not nourishing and preventing procrastination. Legacy building can be by spending more time with younger people and evaluating the legacy you want to leave. These are but a few of the topics that can be addressed with Exemplary Life contracts.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life is spiritually received assistance that understands what people want. People want their lives to be expressions of who they are. They want to be actively engaged in living and they want to face the challenges that life presents in a confident and gratifying way. Unfortunately, as they go along, people lose their focus and mire themselves in distracting and destructive activities and habits.

With true-to-me contracts, a person can return to the natural way of being: expressing who the person really is, engaging actively in life, and facing challenges with confidence and satisfaction.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life—Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals contains help for people who really want to bring change. Contracts for an Exemplary Life is available on amazon.com: http://amzn.com/1518880746

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Obsessively Celebrity

star sunglasses

Idolizing celebrities is removing. It literally removes a person from his or her reality, because the reality is away from where the “star” is located. The “star” is living a life somewhere else, and the idolizing person is existing in a place between reality and fairy tale. Fairy tale living is half living incarnate that renders the idolizer removed from reality and removed from time.  Idolizing excessively creates facsimiles of the people doing the idolizing and of the people being idolized. Neither facsimile is real.

Idolized people become their idolized selves or dive into their area of expertise to avoid the fame.  Becoming an idolized self is destructive, because no person can be the idolization of themselves. Avoiding the fame through total immersion in the area of expertise prevents establishment of relationships and well-rounded living. Both results of idolization remove the “stars” from living a real life.

Obsessively desiring to be like a celebrity prevents a person from seeing his or her own talents. When a celebrity’s achievements spur others to achieve their own goals, the teaching is uplifting. When the celebrity’s achievements become obsessions without causing positive results for the idolizer, the worship becomes destructive.

Looking beyond oneself for inspiration is normal human behavior. Watching elders teaches customs and traditions. Listening to others with skills or knowledge as a way to improve one’s own skills or knowledge is useful. Studying the achievements of a person who has impacted others in a positive way is enlightening.

Here are celebrity obsessive behaviors that cause removal from one’s own life:

  • Displaying a holiday card of the family of a celebrity financial planner as if you know this family is removal from your own life.
  • Following the tweets and instagrams of a celebrity instead of communications from family and friends is removal from your own life.
  • Changing your appearance or buying clothes you can’t afford to look like a celebrity is removal from your own life.
  • Changing your activities to watch a “star” walk by is removal from your own life.
  • Abandoning principles and close people for the chance of spending time with a celebrity is removal from your own life.

Obsession with beautiful people is like celebrity obsession, because it creates people who are not real. Physical beauty is part of a person, but not the entire person. Physical beauty is just 1/12th of the person. Admiring a person because of 1/12th of who they are is evaluation misguided. Seeing beyond the obvious is right.

Each person’s star should be lighting the path from the sky and not another person because she sings well or he kicks a ball well. People aren’t stars. They are embodiments of their abilities and talents. They are not meant to be idolized.

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Keeping Resolutions

Cover-Contracts for an exemplary life

Resolutions are a beginning towards changing habits or unwanted aspects of our lives. Resolutions are broad and sometimes are too vague to bring success; however, resolutions can be doable when contracts are used for ensuring success.

Contracts for an Exemplary Life is a book filled with contract forms and examples that can be the basis for success with resolutions. The contracts can help with evaluating commitment to resolution goals and can bring focus to the steps needed to accomplish the goals.

“There are over forty examples of contracts to help you write a contract for your personal betterment, for your relationships within your family and with other people, for your legacy, for your influence within your community, and for your impact on yourself and others. There are contract forms to help you develop the contracts that will work for you.”  – from the back cover

Contracts for an Exemplary Life is spiritually received assistance that understands what people want. People want their lives to be expressions of who they are. They want to be actively engaged in living and they want to face the challenges that life presents in a confident and gratifying way. Unfortunately, as they go along, people lose their focus and mire themselves in distracting and destructive activities and habits.

With true-to-me contracts, a person can return to the natural way of being: expressing who the person really is, engaging actively in life, and facing challenges with confidence and satisfaction.

If you would like help keeping resolutions and making true-to-yourself goals, read Contracts for an Exemplary Life—Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals. It is available on amazon.com: http://amzn.com/1518880746

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Luck! What luck?

luck

Attitude. Timing. Cause and effect. These determiners are the cast that perform and deliver the production known as luck. Luck does not exist. Luck is used to explain good or bad fortune, to ward off the evil eye or other such spirits, to water down achievement. Rather than attribute life happenings to the true causes, people often attribute them to luck. As if it’s not in our hands. True, things happen that are not in our hands. Natural disasters are not in our hands. The behavior of the environment, of animals, of the weather, of fire, are often beyond our control. Then timing comes to the fore. Being where the disaster occurs, not being where the disaster occurs—timing matters.

Attributing life events to good and bad luck prevents people from being responsible for the good and bad and good-bad things that happen to them. As if their actions weren’t the cause; as if their attitudes weren’t affecting the outcome; as if the results were miraculously delivered. As if taking responsibility and saying I caused this thing to happen, or I am what I am because of all I did, is wrong or is conceited or is honest and factual.

When something bad happens to a person, it is easier to say “I have bad luck” than to say “I wasn’t prepared” or “I was responsible”. Much easier to be happened to than to be happened because of. Much easier to let go of the resulting havoc than to accept personal involvement. Much easier to assign to something outside, something amorphous, than to acknowledge, admit, embrace one’s own involvement in the lackluster performance, mistake, or mess. Luck is the recipient of ownership when the real owner is unable, too modest, or too embarrassed to claim title…

…The importance of preparation cannot be overemphasized. Without it, opportunities are squandered, missed, lost. Being prepared enables seizing the moment, living the dream, catching the wind. Being prepared prepares for minor emergencies, gifted opportunities, necessary procedures and activities, and surprise happenings—good and bad. Being prepared strengthens and calms, emboldens and activates, saves time and saves nerves. Being prepared facilitates quick thinking and thoughtful reflection. Being prepared facilitates successful performance and quick getaway. The right thing when needed…

… Attitude that is constricted, unsatisfied, or cranky leads to perfunctory performance and lackluster end results. Attitude that is accepting, supportive, and encouraging propels performance, investment in delivery, and satisfaction with end results—even if the end results were are not spectacular…

… Attitude. Timing. Cause and effect. Each in its influence creates our reality. Each in its force determines our behavior during times of calm or action or destruction. Each in its subtle way helps to mold and construct our lives, our development, our legacies…

To read more about “not luck”, purchase Pond a Connected Existence: http://amzn.com/1494793008

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Anniversary thoughts

 

Hearts-anniversary

In honor of my husband’s and my anniversary, I’m posting thoughts about couples from various Energy Guidance Complete books.

From The Gift of Intuitive, Dedicated Comfort:

Finding a partner who generally fills expectations is worthy of investment.

From Pond a Connected Existence:

Finding a way to be together without creating chaos. That is the goal in partnership. Finding a way to survive, to support, and to care. Living as designed—with and not without, together and not alone, next to and not far from.

From Oneself—Living:

Love is labyrinthian, multifaceted, and demanding—demanding in attention, demanding in compassion. Demanding in a good way, that is, love requires consideration of a person’s essence and foibles. … Multi-faceted refers to the various moods of love—desire, yearning, simmer, and satisfaction. Labyrinthian because love can be hard to negotiate, discover, and unravel.

From Vitality!:

You should speak compassionately…

From Awaiting Light:

Togetherness is vital for normal human development.

From Unfolding:

The union of two individuals
Union of differences
Distinct preferences
Attractions separate
Yet joined.

Two
Too
Together

The union of two individuals
Direction for life chosen
Focus on similar aim
Movement coordinated
Yet individual.

Two
Too
Together

The union of two individuals
The merging of separate souls
The rhythm of mankind retained.

Here’s to togetherness!

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Life as a page

Blank page

“A blank page. Each person’s life when just starting out is like a blank page. Some pages never get filled. Some pages get filled partially. Some pages are SO full of interactions, questions, adventures, accomplishments, failures, starts, stops, and attempts. Some pages are full of starts, stops and attempts, starts, stops and attempts, starts, stops and attempts. Some pages have tentative actions while others have decisiveness. Some pages contain laughter and joy. Some pages, only sadness and disappointment. Most pages have a bit of this and a bit of that, but they don’t have as much as they should of BALANCE, PURPOSE, and SUBSTANCE.”

From the Introduction to Oneself-Living

Life can be viewed in many ways. Seeing it as a blank page allows for creativity and possibility. Filling the page with color and poetry and formulas and shapes and adventure logs and so much more. Or filling it with lists of “can’ts” over and over. A blank page allows each person to make their life into a personal story that is captivating in its uniqueness.

A blank page is what we get at birth. A life that ends too quickly can still be filled with creativity and possibility if the person fills it so. A life that is long can be empty of creativity and possibility if the person fills it so. The filling of the page is important. The color comes from interaction with others and with Spirit. The poetry comes from moments of connection. The formulas come from learning and striving. The shapes come from self-awareness and self-expression. The adventure logs recount life travels, the good and bad, as life develops.

Filling the page with oneself makes the most sense. Not filling it with what others want, but with what you want. What you want…

Each person has a separate page. A separate blank page. It’s never too late to add color, poetry, formulas, and shapes.

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Important tests for health

Post 80-Attention

For optimal health, the following health maintainers should be monitored:

  1. Consumption of nutritious and satisfying foods. (Focusing on foods that are bereft of nutritional value or are lacking in the aspects that naturally gratify [for example, fat-free foods] undermine physical, emotional, and intellectual health.)
  2. Interactions with other people. (Too little interaction undermines emotional and spiritual health.)
  3. Participation in physical activities that bring joy and challenge. (Participation in physical activities that are not enjoyed undermines emotional and spiritual health.) Daily physical activity is necessary to keep the bones, muscles, and flows working properly.
  4. Rhythmic breathing that is varied and appropriate for the body’s activities.
  5. Sensitivity to environmental concerns. (Disregard for plant life, water sources, and conditions for animal rearing undermines the grounding of the world and damages physical and intellectual health.)
  6. Appreciation for life’s gifts.
  7. Attention to self-needs. (Ignoring one’s needs damages all the aspects of balanced health. This area does not mean self-centeredness. It means self-support.)
  8. Sufficient and satisfying sleep.

Each of these health maintainers is vital for well-being and balance. Focusing on a few of them is not enough.

“A good life is one in which a person knows that he or she has affected, uplifted, and connected.” from the book “Vitality!”.

http://amzn.com/1499599196

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To complain or not to complain

pain

There is a woman I know who complains whenever she gets the chance. Nothing and no one is off limits from her fault finding. There is another woman I know who suffers from debilitating pain and who has experienced much more suffering than the woman who always complains, yet she never complains.

“…life is amazing and large, and should be embraced.”

“People are constantly forced to make choices throughout their day.”

“Much depends on our attitude and on our desire to be well.”

To complain or not to complain?

Complaining is easier than accepting responsibility or accepting things that didn’t go the way we wanted. Complaining leads to less awareness of others and to over-focus on oneself. The more a person complains, the less he or she lives peacefully.

Living peacefully

Living as though the events that befall can be handled with neutrality and insightfulness. Understanding that there are ebbs that test our strength and simple joys that overwhelm. Raising concern when injustice occurs and when unwellness or health require care. Remaining faithful when circumstances test faith.

Ways to curb complaining

  1. When you catch yourself about to complain, breathe deeply then breathe more deeply until the desire to complain passes.
  2. Fix what can be fixed.
  3. Help a cause or an organization that helps people with handicaps, helps animal welfare, or helps sustain the environment.

“The feeling of life in one’s body is an extraordinary feeling. Noticing the feeling of being alive, of being awake, of being vital. Amazing!”

The quotes in this blog post are from Vitality! How to Create a Life That Is Healthy.

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