The Love for Ourselves

Our sense, believes on self-acceptance, our ability to have a certain degree in experiencing love for ourselves, is greatly depending on the ability to become aware and eventually free ourselves from earlier created mind-games, beliefs and convictions.
For example, we all have a certain idea about beauty. And I don’t mean the commercial kind of beauty that is torpedoed at us. I’m talking about the beauty that we try to aim for as individuals and the one in which we compare ourselves with our direct surrounding. We admire or dislike others by the mere capacity of liking ourselves. How many of us can honestly say that they found themselves totally and absolutely beautiful? Not many would be my guess. But did you know that when you are scanning around the people around you, unconsciously you are scanning from your own pre-programmed mind-set to seek out and categorise every person that is around you? Did you know that every time you look at another person, all kind of systems are set in motion to figger out where this person is fitting in? Most of the time we use three different categories: worse, same, better.
Here is an example:
For me, my teeth, next to the fact that I thought I was excessively skinny, had always been that part of my body that I didn’t like. When I was young, I hated my teeth. It was ratter late, in my thirties that I, with the encouragement of my wife, had my teeth straighten out. It was after doing so that I kind of had peace with them but still, not in love with them. However, I realized that I was scanning, with a strong comparing program, other people and judging them by their teeth. If someone had better teeth than mine, I felt insecure, if someone had similar teeth as mine, I felt equal. If they had worse teeth than I did, I felt superior. At that time, I wasn’t conscious of my self-created mind-game at that time. I did however, notice the unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings I got while running this ‘program’ on other person and putting them in a labelled box. In addition, the unpleasant stupid side effect of this programming was that, once this person was put in a particular box, I couldn’t get them out anymore. The only option was to ignore the whole scanning process or to take any means to help me avoid having contact with these people. Well, you know that is a task doomed to fail.

Over the years, while listening to others talking about their faults, their dislikes or admiration to others, I learned that this was a program everyone was using to put themselves and others in a category by placing a well-designed and proven scanning system upon people which followed by putting them in a pre-determined box. Always using the same determination: worse, same, better. Whether it was hair, teeth, face, lips, boobs, butts, feet or toy, cloth, shoes and even behaviour…whatever, it was always judged in the same manner. And, I’m sure that we all had this same uncomfortable sense while it was happening, while we were running our well-designed scanning device, but were to unconscious and afraid of making the right decision. We didn’t understand what was really happening, not conscious of the mind-games we were creating, just accepting, no…taking it as something normal. Everybody does it, so why start asking questions and doubt ourselves even more. Yep, I’m sure this sounds familiar to you.
But why? Why did we start this in the first place? How come we took this as normal and not the fact that we are able to make conscious choices that will make us more involved in our own life?
Because we didn’t learn this. We didn’t learn about these qualities in the first place. We learned to follow the crowd. But what if, we did teach ourselves to become conscious of our own mind-games? What if we are able to consciously choose our thoughts, our beliefs and most important our direction of focus? It would mean that, for one, we wouldn’t be slave to our mind-game habits. It would mean that we can and are able to make conscious choices that would involve us (more) fully in our own lives. That’s a grand thing now, isn’t it?
But how do we do this?
It is as simple as it is complex and it definitely isn’t coming overnight. It take commitment, perseverance and courage.
Really? Why does it have to be so hard? Isn’t there an easy way for this? Like an app or so? Yes, it is expected that we want it to be easy and pre-made for us. That has always been the way before. All our life we took things pre-chewed, pre-existing, pre-known and pre-done. We were oblivious about the whole concept of consciousness. We didn’t learn to really feel and think consciously for ourselves. And now, because we didn’t learn this from day one, it makes it a bit harder to do this when we have packed ourselves with all kinds of handy habits, mind-games and well programmed settings. They are now well settled and deep in our system. The moment you start to steer them up they will rebel and try to dig themselves even deeper.
Then why would I even try?
Because you know, you want to! You know, while reading this, that you feel this little but strong voice yelling at you from deep down that tells you that it wants to get out. This little voice is you!

Okay…so, how do we do this?
Good, now we can get started. As I said before, it is a fail-fall-down-and-get-up-and-start-again procedure. The deeper you start digging, the harder the resistance will be. That’s okay. Don’t let this distract or discourage you. It merrily means you are doing damn well. Trust that.
The best thing is to do this together with others. Why? Because doing this with others will enable you to really put things into practise. You can do this alone, of course, but doing it together with people of whom you know are in the same process will fasten the cycle and each individual process. Also, and this is just as wonderful and important, doing this together with others might give the circumstances that you or the other encounter an issue that is really hard to handle. At a certain point, you might feel or think that you really dislike that person for hitting you so hard on that sensitive spot. And yet, this is one of those beautiful moments that comes to you as a gift to really let go of what was always keeping you from being free. We often see those moments as irritating and annoying but in reality; these are the little diamonds that were placed there for you to find on your path of life.
The True Nature Seminar gives that opportunity. A one-day intensive seminar, which takes place in the Netherlands several times a year. In this seminar, you will get in touch with your true nature, your qualities and will start to explore your own mind-games. You will be given the tools to change the old mind-sets to a free and non-conform state of being. I invite you to join this seminar. Not only will it be a great opportunity to give yourself a meaningful gift, it also is a beautiful gathering of loving people who all want the same thing: feel and experience love and joy again in their lives.
More information about this seminar you can find here:
http://inspire-encouraged.com/seminar.html

In this seminar you will have the opportunity to get familiar with the use of the following five powerful tools. With these tools you can change, alter and even get rid of old patterns, believes and mind-sets. However, and more important, it gives you the ability to train your consciousness and help you in choosing your choices more deliberately. In each case, it is to help you to find and practice a more and focussed self-love:

– FOCUSED THOUGHTS. Focused thoughts is a method in which you learn to channel your flow of thoughts. This will help you to create a higher focus and ability to deliberately choose your thoughts. By detaching ourselves from the never-ending flow of thoughts, we create an inner space to work from. With the right focus, a powerful chemistry will take place that gives us the ability to create a different reality and awareness.

– MIND SETTING. Mind setting is a way of resetting your mind. For this, we can use auto-suggestion. For the most part, we let ourselves be dwelt by everyday happenings. Because we ‘listen’ to all these different information’s that are thrown at us, we create a reality based on that information. However, when we realise that it is us who are the creators of our experiences, we can start shaping a new mindset. This can occur spontaneously. Most of the time this is a profound moment of awareness. It literally can cause an enlightenment sensation in which you suddenly realise you don’t have to fight anymore or a deep sense of oneness is felt. This, we might be able to call an altered mindset.

– AUTO SUGGESTION. Auto suggestion is a method where we learn to repeat on daily basis deliberately chosen thoughts, words and generate matching feelings to create a new pattern of thinking. Repetition will make the new thoughts sink in our ‘system’. However, it is very important to involve a matching emotion to secure the new chosen thoughts in our system.

– FAITH AND CONFIDENCE. Faith and Confidence is perhaps one of the more important ingredients for successfully altering a mindset. An altered mindset requires a strong confidence in ones own capability and a immovable faith that whatever is wanted will happen. Faith isn’t the same as trust. Faith is stronger, has much deeper roots. You can trust something without having faith in it. Faith and Confidence are both accessible through the use of auto-suggestion.

– DIRECT TOUCH. Direct touch is a beautiful exercise to get in touch with one’s own voice of the heart. It also is a great tool to discover your life purpose. When we are able to hear our hearts voice, it is as if we suddenly hear our own truth. It really can be an emotional encounter to suddenly get the information about you from you.

 

Are you interested in Inspire & Encouraged?
Feel free to contact me about the True Nature Seminar or any other topic.

With love, light and courage,

Alexander.

 

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The Flower with four leaves

…a little story about being, choice, and awareness…
Once, there was a big tree. This tree had many flowers. They were beautiful white and all of them had four leaves. All but one. This one flower had five leaves.
The fact that this single flower had five leaves instead of four made it very special. It made this flower different from all the other flowers. At least, that’s what she made herself believe in the end. At first she didn’t know that she was different. She was just there, together with all the other flowers, being a flower and not aware of any sort of difference. But this big tree had an amazing ability. It was giving each flower the ability to think.
So, these flowers were all thinking the same thing: they thought they were beautiful. They all thought that their leaves were the most beautiful. That the yellow buds where complimenting the ivory white leaves and that having four leaves was the best amount a flower could have.

And this one flower with five leaves? She was looking just the same. She as well had a beautiful yellow bud and her leaves were beautiful ivory white as well. She had even five of them. But for all the other flowers this was strange. Why did she have five leaves? Why not four? And why was she different? They didn’t understand. So, they started to talk about her. They were telling each other that she was strange and awkward looking. And sometimes, after a period of hurtful silence, they laughed out loud and made jokes about her. Only because this flower had five leaves instead of three.

You can imagine what happens next. This flower started to feel sad and alone. She didn’t understand why all the other flowers didn’t like her. She didn’t do anything wrong.
More and more she started to close her leaves. Why wouldn’t she? Every time she would open her leaves, all she was getting were jokes and laughter from the other flowers.
And so, after some time, this flower became so sad that it started to wish that it was just like all the other flowers. She didn’t want to feel this. She wanted to feel loved. She wanted to be part of the rest. She wanted to be just white with four leaves instead of five.
And after some time she decided to change something about herself. Because she was now convinced that she was not beautiful. She was not like the others and therefor not as beautiful as they where. Now, she would make herself more beautiful. So, one night, she took all her courage and changed the colour of her five leaves from white to pink. It was really beautiful indeed. The flower was hoping that all the other flowers would see it and would find it so beautiful that they would love her and accept her. But instead, when the other flowers woke up the next morning and saw the new, pink leaves from this special flower, they started to laugh even louder. They were saying it was ridiculous. Why would she draw even more attention to herself? She was already weird. This was hurting the flower very much. She didn’t understand. Why would all these flowers be so mean? Why couldn’t they just be nice to her?
She became so sad and felt so alone that she closed her leaves for three days. Even on a beautiful sunny day, she didn’t want to open her leaves. She could hear the flowers around her chat and laugh, but was too afraid to open herself again.
Then, one night, she did something very daring. Something so drastic that all the other flowers would see that she is just like them! At midnight, when all the flowers were closed and asleep, she painfully forced one of her five leaves to fall off. It was hurting a lot. It was, as if she took a piece from herself, and threw it away. Silently, and with great sorrow, she watched how her leaf fell to the ground.

The next morning, when all the flowers woke up and started to open themselves for the first sunlight, she was full of anticipation to see if the flowers would notice what she did. And believe me, they did. They saw it. All the flowers were looking at that one leaf lying on the floor. All the flowers where watching her not knowing whether she did this on purpose or if it was an accident. Now she was the same. Just like them. There was no more difference between them and her. Immediately they became all very, very silent. It was as if they lost their voices. Not one of these flowers dared to see a word.

Then, something very special happened. From one moment to the next all the flowers started to lose their leaves. The floor beneath the tree became all white from all the leaves that were falling down. It was a real spectacle to see. For several minutes it was raining beautiful white leaves. It was a sight to see. But now, all the flowers were leafless. All but one! One flower did not lose her leaves. This flower, whom desired more than anything to be accepted, to be just like the other so she could feel loved, was the only one left with four leafs. She stood out. Again. She became special. Again!

Selfish in Nature

We are in nature selfish.

I wrote an article before on egocentric and selfishness. But as you can see I found it necessary to elaborate on this subject.

One of the first things we learn as we grow up from toddler to adolescence to adult is that we shouldn’t be selfish. We should think of others first before we may think of ourselves. We all know the sweet selfishness of the young toddlers when they take whatever they want, don’t want to share and make a whole commotion when another child is taking away their toy. And then we, the adults, do our utmost best to convince this little child, which has no clue what so ever on what you’re talking about, that it is not nice if you are not sharing. Of course we believe we do this with the best intentions and with the convincement that we are making a better person out of this child. It’s for his/her own good and benefit.
While for some part this is true, the intention can be sincere, most often the true motivation for adjusting this behaviour comes from our own childhood where we were being taught that sharing is a must and not liking that someone is taking away your toy is bad. Throughout our lives we are being believed, taught and convinced that selfishness is a bad thing. People are being praised, idolised because of their evidently selflessness while others are virtually being out casted for their supposing acts of selfishness.
And although, again, the intention for this believe might be sincere and coming from a good and healthy idea, the outcome is rather different from an actual lived attribute that is fully understood.

It is true that selfishness can be shaped in any form you want. It is true that you can use selfishness to practice an egocentric lifestyle. But what about self-love? Is self-love evenly to selfishness? I would like to say no but can imagine there is some clarification needed.
When you do a quick research about the meaning of selfishness, egocentric, self-centred or even narcissism, you will soon find that all these terms are described as a characteristic that most people would like to avoid or at least not to be judged on.
The consequences of this division, this need of classification of characteristic attributes, is that pretty everything is quickly thrown on this stack of interpretations.
From this stack I would like to take this one cart; self-love.

True love comes from loving yourself first.
Does this sound familiar? It’s a phrase you hear often these days. On social media for sure you’ll find that one of your friends has posted a beautiful photo with a similar text in it. Loving your self is a must these days. Gosh, there is a predicament. Love yourself but at the same time you need to avoid being selfish.
honestly, I don’t care much about all the designations. I do care, though, that you might feel obliged to hold back on loving yourself just for the sake of not being labelled selfish.
Self-love is a virtue. A self-given quality! Isn’t that a beautiful phrase? Self-given quality.
It already makes me happy by saying it.
But what does self-love mean? For sure it doesn’t mean that you put your own interest above others. Although sometimes you need to do so. And here we have to go back to the previously mentioned designations.

It is in no way possible to distinguish human behaviour in any sort of classifications. When you choose to live on this planet, you did so with the consciousness of freedom. Free in making choices, free in interpretation and free in how and what things mean to you. Classification, uniformity or designations are tools to make things understandable. They are not, by all means, laws to live by. All the words in the category selfish, egocentric, etc. have a general given explanation. Not to give you an ultimate law of how it is but to generally explain what is meant with using these words. It is so important to discover your own conclusion, your own meaning to certain given qualities. Such as self-love. You have an enormous valuable, rich and elaborate dictionary to your disposal, called ‘your heart’. If from anything you want to know whether feel true about it, whether it is something honest to you or a given truth, ask your heart. Feel what your heart tells you, for trust me it will not come to you in beautiful intelligent phrases that you can understand using your brain. It is that soft tone of heart, that utterly pure but oh so serene sensation that you get when being on the right path. That feeling of joy that you only experience when you speak your truth.
These are all forms of expressing self-love. It can include as many different ways of expressing as there are people. There is no one way. There is only your way!
Self-love can mean that you give yourself the liberty to make mistakes. To fender through life never really knowing who you are or what you want from life. It can include that you willingly and consciously choose to live alone. That you deliberately decide to think of yourself before others just for the sake of learning to love yourself. It honestly is beautiful to explore the love for yourself. Give yourself room, give yourself ability and perhaps for most; give yourself the pleasure of making mistakes. As I mentioned before in previous post, you have nothing to live up to. There is absolutely nothing you have to achieve! Nothing you have to earn or do before you can be what you want to be.
You are already complete!

FINDING YOURSELF, LETTING GO AND TAKING CONTROL.

Finding one’s self has become one of the most recalled things to do over the years.
A number on your bucket list. A thing you have to do.

Whether you took that conclusion yourself or you were inspired to do this by a spiritual movement or teacher, maybe even by the circumstances at work. It seems that where ever you go this topic is spoken of one way or another.

But at the same time we want to have security and are often confronted with the difficulties of letting go of all that we love and is giving us a sense of security. We want to have a life according to certain standards in which we feel safe, secure and have enjoyable and pleasant experiences. Can these two things be combined in harmony?

It is true that there is something compelling in the quest of finding the truth about who and what you are. By knowing who you are and even by knowing what you are, you most likely will know your purpose for this chosen life. And having a sense of purpose is seen as an enormous gift. Another number on your bucket list.
But what is your motivation for wanting to know who or what you are? Is it the need for security? Or is it unexplainable inner call that is telling you to go and find yourself? And is purpose in life a fixed thing or does it change while being practised? Does it all even matter?

An important, let’s call it ingredient, that will come your way on this road of exploring who you are, is the necessity for letting go and to go with the flow.
Why is this so relevant?
Something I noticed over the years when being in contact with people who seem to be in peace, to a certain level, with whom they are and seem to have a clear vision of their purpose in life, is that these people are most of the time open to change. They don’t hold on to a certain idea of how things should be but more flow and act on what is relevant for that moment. This can be interpreted in little moments but as well in relatively longer periods of time. For example, with jobs and undertakings.
It shows us that nothing is fixed. Nothing is written out, secure or certain. We crave for safety, security and certainty and are often in total loss when we are confronted with anything out of our control.
Let’s look at this for a moment: control. We use this word easy enough to imply that whatever went out of control is out of our control.
But are we supposed to be in control? Control over what?
This is a very important question. And the answer might be seen as a contradiction but it isn’t.
Ask yourself why you think you need to control. what would be the answer?
Is it because you feel that certain events happen ‘to’ you instead of ‘by’ you? Or because we are conditioned with the idea that bad or unpleasant things are always out of our intention because nobody wants things to happen that make them unhappy?
Or is it the idea that if you create control as much as possible over situations that you might at least have a bit of influence on how thing go as to give yourself the idea that you protect you and your surrounding from bad things to happen.
These questions aren’t easy to answer and will differ from one person to another. But to create some sort of desired change in this we need to accept one important thing:

Focussing on things that we do not want to happen will empower those things in happening.
What does this mean in short? It means that we are responsible for all that happens within our personal experience. All attention we give to events we want to avoid will eventually take us to an experience in which that what is being avoided will be expressed according to an appropriate need. Just as the attention we give to events we do want to happen will take us to a matching experience.

And this is where you do need to take control!
Not to protect yourself from what you don’t want but to create what you desire. That is basically the only control you will need to take. And you will soon discover that this kind of control isn’t as stressful, tiresome or demanding as the previous kind of control.
The flipside of this coin is to just go with the flow. This is deliberately choosing to live your life unconsciously. Going with the flow is a recommended thing to do but it is sometimes misplaced by putting yourself in the role of a victim of circumstances. Going with the flow is definitely not that. Going with the flow means that you consciously take full responsibility for your thoughts and actions and accept all consequences coming from your thoughts and actions.
We can call this consciously and deliberately taking control over your life in which you consciously and deliberately create your own reality.

How is this related to finding yourself?
Something more pressing here is to try to answer this question:
Who is it that you’re trying to find? Probably you will answer by saying that you hope to find yourself. Of course. But who or what is that? Really, try to focus on this question, who is it that you are trying to find?
Don’t get me wrong, I do encourage you to start this quest in finding yourself. But I would like to start by rephrasing the intention; start being who you are.
Finding yourself implies that you either lost yourself or never where yourself. Gosh, do you feel the anxiety and desperateness in this statement? Please read this article I wrote some time ago about acceptance.

Just as going with the flow is an important ‘ingredient’ for giving yourself the space to be who you want to be, so is acceptance. Don’t start your quest by first listing all the things in yourself that you are not cool with and then find an equivalent to replace it. Just skip this step and jump immediately to the process of taking yourself, seeing yourself and accepting yourself just and fully as you are! Now at this very moment.
Finding yourself is illusive! It will be a start of a never ending quest in which you eventually will discover that you really already are who you have been trying to find.
Being who you are, on the other hand, is an absolute must to fulfil this life that you chose to live.
The common mistake made, or better to say confusion, is to think that you first have to know who you are (by finding yourself) before you can be who you are. Wrong!
You do not even have to know who you are to actually be! In some cases, especially taken from a Buddhist perspective, it is considered as a great obstacle to wanting to know who you are. Being is not knowing! Knowing is not being! Understanding who or what you are, on the other hand, is coming from the heart and is dipped in loving intentions. This understanding comes from intellect and heart working together. Knowledge and love hand in hand. Love for yourself in all its imperfect perfection and insecure security!
‘to be or not to be’ van William Shakespeare, although coming from a different perspective does says it all. To be fully alive, to accept, to love and to fully give yourself the liberty to be who you want to be. Or, not to be and live your life according to assumptions, expectations and unconscious circumstances in which you feel you are the ball that is played by something else then yourself. In other words, not alive but dead.

We, as energetic nun-corporal beings, are complete. Directly connected to the source, which for some is god or the universe, we are indeed complete. But as corporal human beings we chose for a life of great contradictions and sometimes almost diabolic circumstances in which we develop an immense strong craving for security. We must learn to develop and master the harmonic use of our heart with our intellect. Both are still and often divided and seen as two opposites. But nothing could be further from the truth, they are both yours and neither one of them is to be denied in its existence. Use them naturally and intuitively.

WHY JOY (IN PAINTING) IS SO IMPORTANT

Over the years, besides teaching about painting I try to make the students aware of everything that is involved in the process of painting, how ones ability to become one with the moment has a strong influence on the success. One particular thing though, always seem to a main obstacle: the struggle to reach a certain aim. And in most cases times I tell my students how important it is to have fun in what they’re doing. I thought I could elaborate on this a bit.

Often, and this doesn’t only occurs with those who start painting, during a painting process you can find yourself coming to a point where you feel that you are stuck. This can have several different causes. For example not understanding certain technique, blocked by trying to much to understand what it is that you are painting, being convinced that you just can’t do it or any other circumstrances that implies that things are not going the way you want it. It is true, and I would be the last one to say it’s not, that getting a decent sense of technique, knowledge on material and to know at least the basics on what paint and medium does while working with it, is inevitable for learning the art of painting. With everything you wish to achieve there comes a time you will have to be on the learning side of the table to fill yourself with any given and available knowledge on what it is that you want to achive. And overcoming that feeling of being stuck or being blocked is, just as learning a specific technique, a attribute that can be mastered.

Painting should be a joy. The whole process should fill you with happiness, joy! Isn’t that a strong statement that implies that without it…well, you might as well give up. No. it is quite the opposite. But, to be clear, it is not the hilarious and excited kind of joy. More a inner happiness and sense of peace.
How many times did you experienced this feeling that you completely lost track of time, forgot where you are or who you are and was absorbed by the process of painting? And how many times did you experience that you where blocked? Couldn’t get what you wanted, seemingly having totally lost that long desired and appreciated ‘touch’. How many times did you experience that anger, that uncontrolable feeling of throwing that painting across the room? Both are magical moments which, with a paradoxale twist, are entwined together.
But how do you get yourself (back) in that zone of enjoying the whole process? How do you get yourself from outraged to serene calm and enjoying the process?

Well, if you’re indeed as angry that even the fires of hell don’t seem to upset you anymore, I think you indeed better take some distance from your process and have a good cup of relaxing tea. The idea is to not let yourself enter a state of frenzy. How? By cultivating one important espacts in the painting process: JOY. How do we do this? For one thing by focussing on the process only. Not on what it has to become. Not on how detailed it has to be and not on how many more layers, time and effort it needs before it’s perfect. No. Stop bothering yourself. You will get there anyway. Don’t rush yourself by focussing on the irrelevant stuff. Focus on what gives the most pleasure, the most joy: In this case Painting!! And I’m sure that this isn’t so hard for you. Because you choose to paint, to learn about painting, techniques and stuff, because it gives you so much joy.

It is the same with all the other stuff in life. I know, that when you are learning it might feel that this natural state of being in the flow and enjoying the fact that you don’t have to think about what the best approach is for this particular subject you want to paint, is hard to reach. But it isn’t. It isn’t your knowledge that will give you joy. It isn’t the experience that will give you joy. It is your own mindset that makes you choose. So choose to focus only on the process of painting. And this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to study hard to gain the appropiate know how, this means that this process includes the studies you make to learn, to make something your own or to understand matter. All those things should be done with the joy of the process. It is the same with drawing an object. Once you try to interpretate the object as something you can understand logically you will start to make weird mistakes. You disconnect yourself from the object by trying to understand what it is. But once you let this interpretation go and just look, you will amaze yourself by drawing exactly what you see.

So go out there and have fun! Enjoy whatever it is you’re doing! Really…!!! Do it!!

Right and wrong

An article written….

Last week I was being interviewed about an interesting topic: “Jesus”.This interview took place as part of a documentary. The focus was to get different kind of perspectives together about Jesus. 

During this interview an interesting sub-topic appeared (which couldn’t be attended accordingly due to a lack of relevancy to the subject) that I would like to address here.

In previous post I mentioned it as well but now I thought it be more relevant to write about it.

From the moment we hit this world as a new born we immediately are confronted with the sense that we have to make choices between one thing and another. But it doesn’t stop there. The ability to make a choice is an utmost important, valuable and conscious created ability and attribute for us to re-invent the experience of love. 

But we created this world so far that it has an immense strong distinction between things that are considered to be right and things that are considered to be wrong. 

To some point of perspective this sense of difference is inevitable to fully experience a linear reality experience. It gives the ability to experience the full possibility of choice making and to have the possibility to get an unlimited variety in how to experience one single moment in an unlimited amount of different ways. 

But an important element, call it insight, is almost purposely or consciously forgotten in this process of experiencing all this wonder. It is the inner knowing that in the root of our being this sense of difference, this separation and sense of right and wrong, does not exist. 

It feels almost impossible to put this “knowing” in words because this “knowledge” comes from a source where there is absolute no separation. How does one translate something which is shapeless, formless and consist utterly out of energy? Thank the universe there is no right or wrong way to do this 🙂

All is one. Including our lives and experiences now. And yet within this linear live we created for ourselves, on one hand it is imperative that we experience this sense of right and wrong, and on the other hand we need to remember what we are and merge it all together as to come to the point that we fully see, feel and experience that all is indeed one. It is a splendid paradox in grandeur. 

 

We are more than just this physical body. We are one with the source. Not subjects to or children from the source. No. We are part of it in the same way that a drop of water is the same as the sea. On its own it might have a partial different structure but when back in the sea it is the sea. 

When you realize this and feel it in your being you can do nothing but feel the joy and laugh about it…about everything. Because then you realize how insignificant, laughable, hilarious and beautiful our reality really is. 
So….right and wrong? Yes and no?

I leave it open. Realizing that nothing is fixed, including the concept of right and wrong, might give you a sense of freedom, an insight in how your reality is formed and how you move in this. 

As I often tell my students in art class; “There is no right or wrong way to do something. Try not to focus on how to achieve your goal but only on what you want and enjoy doing it. The process of doing knows very well how to do it or how to get where you want to be.”
Enjoy!

The influences of HSP and Introvert.

 

During the last few month something interesting took place. Since more than 6 month I was experiencing some difficulties while practicing the part-time job  I have working with children.

It started with a confrontation that I should be more interactive with my co-workers. According to what was said I was working too much on my own little island. I wasn’t sure what to do with this feedback. My first consideration was to figger out a way to set things right and I started to force myself to be more interactive and do what was expected from me. The result was that I felt insecure en unnatural in my behavior. So I kind of dropped it and went back to my nice little island.

As you probably can guess there was another knocking on my beautiful wooden door as soon as there was an opportunity to do so. Again I was confronted with the fact that I lacked the skill of interacting and seek others opinion about the choices and decisions I made.

It left me angry and misunderstood.
Why couldn’t they understand my view on this matter?
Why couldn’t they trust that I had everything under control?

It remained a question until I run into an article about being an introvert in a working situation written by Susan Biali.

It was as if I was reading a story about me. So much of what was written I could relate to and recognized. So I started to become more familiar with the concept introversion and high sensitive people (HSP). Here it was mentioned that most people who seem to have the characteristics of an introvert are commonly also highly sensitive people. Perhaps one could say that when someone is born with a high sensitivity in a surrounding that is mainly focused on extroversion are easy to develop an introspective character to coop with their high sensitivity in an extroversive  society.

The more I read about it, the more I started to recognize the characteristic parts of an introvert in myself.
But an interesting thing happened though, although by receiving this knowledge I was able to create some peace and rest about these specific characteristics I created over the years. It really helps sometimes to find some sort of understanding and recognition in your own behavior especially when yours is being questioned by your surrounding.
But at the same time I wanted to ensure that this new information would not become an established order within my creation. That is to say that this knowledge about introversion should not become my excuse for my behavior.

Character doesn’t make the person. The person is the form in which the energy is shaped because the energy itself is shapeless. Character is formed by choice. Choices that are made before the actual manifestation as a person and during the life as that person.

But let’s go back to the topic on introversion in a working place.

I think I’m not far off by saying that most working places are still unaware of the full potentials of their employees. Although more and more people, and therefore companies, are becoming aware of subtle changes that are accuring around and in themselves, it is still accurate to say that most companies are afraid to make a leap into an environment that might seem to be uncontrollable.  The safest thing to do is indeed hold on to what one knows and in this case is a working environment that is based on extroversion. The one who speaks first, the one who speaks the most or the loudest will be heard, the one who speaks afterwards, thinks before speaking or doesn’t want to speak at all is easily overlooked.
But being save doesn’t always work. And as well; this being save can be interpreted in different ways.
One thing that should not be a choice for safety is to decide to deny your natural character to fulfill the expectations of your surrounding, in this case the working place. A company might want you to adjust to their current believe that everyone should have the same working skills as being assertive and aggressive when it comes to giving opinions and making decisions. And although everyone, extrovert or introvert, could, till a certain level, do this it requires an enormous unnatural effort from someone who is born with the characteristics of an introvert.

The unfortunate thing is that in most working places it isn’t realized and valued that the possibilities and opportunities they receive when acknowledging the introversion of people, they are missing an enormous value of knowledge and working force that can be obtained by these people who are considered to be introvert.
But let us not forget: It is not your surrounding that needs to adjust to your characteristics. It is and will always be you who needs to make the choices that will lead you to the happiness and fulfilling life that you are aiming for.
it is what I have been trying to say now for some time. It is not about getting everybody on the same line. It is about letting everybody have the unconditional freedom to be what they need to be. And this is and can only be considered and decided by the person in question.
This is what I try to say in the previous post: “NOW” and “STOP LOOKING“.

It is funny and beautiful at the same time to see how those little fragments and possibilities of knowledge and insight always seem to fall into place when you need them to know.

If you like to know more about introversion and extroversion? Here are some interesting links:

Click to access empathia-advisor2014-04-IntrovertsExtroverts_and_the_Workplace.pdf

http://career-advice.monster.com/in-the-office/workplace-issues/understand-workplace-introverts/article.aspx

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Egocentric or Selfishness

Egocentric and selfishness. Two words that became heavy on interpretation.
There is a difference but yet both words are used in the same manner.

Ego centrism is an inability to understand or assume any perspective other than their own.
Selfishness is being concerned for oneself or one’s own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others.

So far for what tradition has to say about these words

What if those interpretations are not as solid as we always thought they were? Are morals really fixed? Are they universal true?
What if these words do not actual resonate unless one understands that it must be within a collective agreement.
To choose ones self before anything else, to deliberately choose not to help someone, to leave someone behind for the profit of ones self, to live only for your own profit is often seen as being selfish or egocentric.
But where does this judgement come from? What gives us de idea that someone is selfish? Is it that person’s trade or behavior or is it our own lack of understanding, our lack of self knowledge and lack of love for ourselves?
If one would question someone else his or her behavior, is this done out of what? True concern to create a better situation that will benefit you and others? Why would someone want to question someone else’s behavior in the first place. Discomfort in one’s own reality? Why should one not choose for love for ones self?

And there lies the key to selfishness. The beautiful truth about selfishness is that it is a radiating and fulfilling choice or wish to feel love for ones self. And this could very well mean that you do or choose things that, in the eye of your surrounding, can be judged as selfish or egocentric. Well, they are right. Because you choose to love your self. You choose to be happy. And who on earth can deny you your happiness.
It is a common interpretation for the way it was taught and we just take it for the truth. But if we defy this common agreement we can start to think, believe and act according to what our inner guiding system tells us.

look at our children for example. before they are confronted with our convictions, our believes and our habits they are the innocence and pure souls that know very well what they want and do not want. They feel nothing but love and are fully open to everything that hits there world. They do not feel any judgement to what ever kind of behavior that is thrown at them. Only when they are purposely told that they have to alter there own true nature and to become self conscious and aware of their behavior just to become what is expected from their surrounding, their journey of self denial, lies and adapting to there surrounding is started to answer the need for acceptance and non disturbance from that same surrounding.

But just as those innocence young children we all are splendid accessible, all containing encyclopedia.
How about opening that amazing source you are and start deciding for yourself what is good for you, what makes you happy and what makes you tick! The really lovable world that we are looking for is in our selves. The living together part comes from accepting one’s self fully and from there the acceptance for difference is automatically made.

No biggy there… 😄

20 december 2020…There is a biggy here!
Reading back on this topic, which I wrote I don’t remember when and I don’t care, I still do see the evident truth of my careful chosen words but it is, just as evidently, not true at al at the same time. Yes, we grow – even though it is within an illusion – and within this growth we learn that some writings are not as important as the seemed at the moment it was written. Therefor a small, I’m not gonna explain to much on why and what or even considering that I have to explain myself, adding to this writing which, for that matter, can be added to any of my previous writting because it covers really everything else. 
Being egocentric or selfish is meaningless! If I even would consider that there is a correct way of saying anything, which I feel less and less, I could say that from the above lines the following is the most accurate of all: 
...”these words do not actual resonate unless one understands that it must be within a collective agreement.”...
For the rest of the carerfull written words you can say it is all bullocks! 
Any describtion of behavior is and will never be otherwise nothing more than a describtion within an illusive world in which we agreed that certain behavior is either negative or positive. Because neither of those truly exist it is therefor impossible to clearify that something is different than something other. Nothing exist outside our own interpretation, outside our never ending production of thoughts. 
Happiness? give me a break! What was I thinking! happiness is, just as any other proclaimed announcement such as egocentric or selfishness, an idea, a thought, which on itself has no meaning, no existance, nothing of any kind. 

Please…although I could continue to elaborate on this empty subject I’m not. Just go and start looking in your mirrow for an hour and tell me what you find…

NOW

To describe what I want to share is sometimes hard. Sometimes, the topic is energy. Energy is shapeless and always changing. Nothing to grab on and has no handles to take with your intelectual mind.  That is the main lead I have here.

A very important part in life is the knowledge, knowing and feeling that you are already complete and whole.  This sense of recognition is basically understanding what you are and feeling the embracement of your self. Becoming conscious of your (true) self.

When you start to discover that the love you experience, the allowence that you feel, the acceptance that you experience is all you, you will see, feel and know that nothing, really nothing is different from you.  You are already healed. There is nothing you need to fix, to make better or to uplift to a next level. You don’t have to achieve anything or prepare for a higher dimension because you are already there where you can and will find what you’re looking for.

We live in an amazing world where we choose how to manifest our life. This is not an obligation but a joy. This life is not a journey but a joy. This choice is not put on you but was chosen by you for joy. This life is not a process of learning but to remember and to enjoy.  You can not fail! Because there is no one and nothing to judge over you. If you feel you have to achieve something, that you need to prove something or to reach something it is only because you put those bounderies there for yourself so you can do what you choose to do. But you do this out of your own free will and from your wholeness and completeness.

I know this sounds contradictional and it does sound as something you need to reach or achive. But it isn’t.

Food. Nutrition or Energy.

More and more we come to be aware of the sensitivity of food and how we respond to it. Tests are done and many conclusions are made.

But an important aspect seem to be ignored or left out which I would like to address here.

Food is not just a physiological product that has nutritional benefits. All the information about food, its nutritious value, vitamins and minerals and so on, is just a small part of the whole aspect of food and actually much less important than you think.
Unfortunately this is what is focused on due to the food industry, marketing and mostly in the health and fitness world. You are taught and are being convinced what is best to eat to get the desired result.
But there are important elements being left out in this.

Food is for most energy. We are for most energy. Energy responds to energy. Chinese and old western medicine are well known with the benefits of each food and its energetic origin or signature.
The nutritious value of food is only present because of the energetic signature or better said; its source energy. Not the other way around.

Now what happens if your personal energy, which is directly connected to your metabolism, is out of focus, is not how it should be. Then the connection to any kind of food you eat can’t be made.

Due to a poor emotional ventilation your metabolic system isn’t able to digest whatever food you are taking. You can, and probably tried, as many diets as you can endure but nothing will seem to work for you.
Having stress at work, or working for something you don’t believe in, has a major effect on how your body takes the food that is given. Whatever food you eat has its own personal energy. On itself this is no problem unless the receiving vessel (which is your body) itself is energetic in dis-balance. Than the vessel, won’t be able to digest the food properly. The energy from this food will be stored and not used. Energy that will be manifested as body weight that we have to carry with us because we do not know what else to do with it. This is because we don’t recognize the essence of this energy only because we do not see our own essence.
In a way you can say that you need to be the essence of your existence; a vessel that is always receiving and giving. It’s a never ending flow of energy. Once it becomes static it loses the ability to transform other energies that it receives.

So to maximize your metabolism it becomes rather important to look at your life. How is your personal and emotional garden? Are you happy? Do you feel you experience a stressful life? Are you easy with different circumstances? Do you accept yourself?
There is no right answers for these questions. Only your own personal way. Nobody is the same except that we all have a vessel of flowing energy. But each one of us has different personality.

And when you come down to the point that you are answering to your heart and your personal and emotional gardens are flowing and growing with the seasons, you will see and know that you automatically adjust your food to it.

So, don’t worry too much about what you should or shouldn’t eat. Take care of your life and your body will tell you what it needs. Trust me, the fact that you will start to hear it already is a sign that you are listening to your heart.