Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
The Four Agreements – Book Review Sunday
Posted by: Ann
March 28th, 2010 >> Books, Life, Relationship, Truth
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book
I really believe if you keep the 4 agreements in mind when you are dealing with people and living your life, your life will go more smoothly. I could list the four agreements here but then you would get the wrong idea and think you already know it all. Don Miguel Ruiz really explains each of the agreements and what they mean and why they are important. He uses many examples.
This book has helped me keep an even keel when I deal with difficult people. I found the most meaningful agreement was the second one ‘Don’t take anything personally’. Just this one agreement can help you stay calm when in the midst of emotional storms created by those around you.
It you would live your life to these 4 agreements you would live a happier and more productive life.
Yesterday I started with the ASL (American Sign Language) class I am taking but I got distracted. So today I will take up where I left off
The ASL class is just a little introduction class but I have been fascinated. The language actually makes sense to me. I took two years of German in High School and that also made sense to me. It is English that doesn’t make sense.
I have struggled with English most of my life. I am very thankful for spell/grammar checker and my husband who must have another gene for spelling that most engineers don’t have. I do like to write; otherwise I would not be writing so many blogs. I guess I have a lot to say, but sometimes I wish we used a different language than English.
I have learned a splattering of Spanish and it is a very sensible language. So between the various languages I have been exposed to (Spanish, German, ASL) I have decided that English is the oddball. It is a language that you can spell a word the same way but pronounce it differently depending on how it is used for example: lead and (you guessed it) lead. It is also a language where you can spell a word two different ways but they are pronounced the same for example: soul and sole (or back to the previous example: lead and led).
I read once that our founding fathers voted on the language to use in the United States and English beat out German by one vote. I wish it had gone the other way.
I pity the poor soul (this is the correct soul/sole) who has to learn English as a second language. No wonder we have so many people living here who have never learned English and choose to speak their (this is another one: there, their, they’re) native tongue at home.
I think English is so difficult because it has words from so many languages and this makes spelling a nightmare. I saw the tapes the school uses to try and teach phonics and reading to the struggling students. There were over two years worth of tapes! Forty minute sessions daily through the school year of spelling and phonics and exceptions to learn! This is ridiculous.
English has one more little quirk that it shares with only 2 other languages in the world. That is the use of ‘do’. This is a funny little word and many people trying to learn English never master it. If you listen to someone for whom English is a second language and they sound odd, it is because of the ‘do’. They aren’t using it.
Well, if it ever does come to a new vote, I am voting for another language.
I am taking a little introductory class in American Sign Language (ASL). It has been very interesting. ASL has its own sentence structure and is an official language. I also learned that the public school teaches sign language but it is not ASL but a mutilated version that corresponds to our English language sentence structure. Why would the schools do that? Why not teach the real thing instead of trying to pass off a version that many deaf people may not be able to read? (I just added one more point for home schooling).
In Texas, I have been seeing billboards that tout Texas Public Schools. These billboards are sponsored by Friends of Texas Public Schools (FOTPS) and most say something along the lines of ‘great things are happening within Texas Public Schools’. First I ask why does the Public School have to advertise? If they are doing a great job, it will be known.
Have you ever noticed that ads usually tout their weakness as their actual strength? It is like they think if they scream loud enough that this product does this particular thing so well that you will believe them. I have seen this with cleaning supplies, laundry soap, food items and now I am seeing it with the Texas Public School billboard campaign. There is a reason that so many people home school. I know teachers who home school. I know people who would like to home school. I know a woman who was a single mom and teacher who wished she had been able to home school her overly bright child. This child with so much potential was burned, ridiculed, and put down by the school system so much that now as a grown young man he makes a minimal living flipping hamburgers. I know of another woman whose son was salutatorian for his High School, winning over $130, 000 in scholarships but then refused to go to college because he just saw it as more of the same type of hazing and he was feed up with it.
What is our school system doing wrong that it is creating such a crisis with our children?
I think the biggest problem is that they are teaching to a test and forgetting to teach the children. This is not an indictment of the teachers. There are many teachers out there who sincerely want to help the children learn but their hands are tied with policies and procedures. The polices must be changed so the teachers may actually be able to teach again. I have seen teachers who rejoiced when the last TAKS test was complete for the year because then they were finally free to teach what they wanted the kids to learn. They only had a few weeks but they tried the best they could. What is wrong with this picture?
I am afraid I have been ranting. I meant to write about learning a new language, ASL. I guess I have a topic for tomorrow.
Find Your Soul Mate Workshop – April 17, 2010
Posted by: Ann
March 25th, 2010 >> EFT, Energy, Life, Manifesting, Meridian Tapping, Relationship
I am excited about my workshop on “Finding Your Soul Mate”. I have been working hard to make it a great workshop. Yesterday I put the workbook together, a total of 18 pages.
There is so much great material out there that I am having a hard time deciding what to put in. I think I will put it all in and then have some things I can cut down on or cut out if time gets too short.
This workshop is Saturday April 17 at the T.B. Harris Community Center in Belton, TX. Time is from 9:00am through 3:00pm with lunch included. The topics to be covered include
1. Where you are now
2. Where you want to be
3. Why you are not already there
4. How to get where you want.
I will be using various techniques to help you activate the ‘Law of Attraction’ to bring that special someone into your life.
Find out more at www.naturallyresilient.com/event
Spring is here! At least according to the calendar. The bluebonnets are starting to bloom. There is suppose to be a good crop this year because of all the rain.
We had a very cold and wet winter in Central Texas. We had several snow flurries and then a nice snow that actually stuck around for a whole day! The cats did not like the snow. Only one actually ventured out into it and he was our long haired cat – the one whose protein went to make fur instead of brains. But it was pretty to look at and play in. We did have a short show ball fight just so we could say that we played in it.
My son, who claims he likes the cold, sure did spend a lot of time indoors this winter even during the snow day. When I was a teenager living south of Houston, we had a 4 inch snow. I spent most of the day outside in it. I only came in to defrost my toes and nose. I remember that school was cancelled only because the busses would not start.
If you live in a cold climate which sees more than its fair share of snow, I guess you are not as mesmerized by the white stuff. But down here it is always out of the ordinary.
I guess I should not be too quick to say that winter is over. Three years ago we had a 5” snow fall the night before Easter! That was fun. People were building snow bunnies in their yards.
Everyone in the US should have their census by now. They want you to send it in the day you get it but it ask about who is living on the premise on April 1. You never know what can happen in two weeks. I am not sending mine in until April 1st.
There is another quirk that bothers me. This census asks about a person’s race. There are several things I don’t like about this question.
First, as long as we keep dividing people into ethnic groups we will continue having separation of people. The ‘them’ versus ‘us’ mentality will still prevail and people who look a certain way will be the subject of various crimes.
Second to what purpose is a question like this anyway? We are getting to be such a mix that the question is obsolete. If I look at my background I find German, Irish, English and who knows what because I had a great Uncle who said he was laid by the buzzards and hatched by the sun. He never would say where he came from. So maybe I am part buzzard, but that is not a “race” option on the census form.
Third is that this division is so misleading. I know people from Mexico who do not look Hispanic but they still abide by the Mexican culture. The Hispanic look comes from intermarriage of the native Indians of the area with the Spaniards who came over. I would think a better question would be ‘What culture do you live under’, or ‘what language do you usually speak at home’.
I am still undecided what to put for race. My husband wants to put American but I feel that still divides us. I want to put Human — that is what I put on all questionnaires that request such information. Maybe I should put buzzard. Well, I still have until April 1 to decide.
The brain is an interesting thing. It is bombarded with millions of sensory inputs a day, (what am I saying?) a second. Look around you everything you see, all the colors, shapes, whether something is moving or staying still, all the sounds, high to low frequency, all the vibrations and things you feel. I just realized my right hand fingers are cold. All of this is taken in by your mind and sorted into importance by the mind and then only what it considers to be important is delivered to the conscious. This is why I often say “You see what you want to see, and you hear what you want to hear”.
Have you ever bought a new car and in driving it home started noticing all the other cars on the road just like yours? This is your mind working. It has realized that this car, make, model, color is important to you and it is pointing out all the ones on the road that fit into that criteria.
I am starting to think that coincidences fit into this realm. Your mind has come to realize that a specific something is important to you and now it is ‘highlighting’ the things in your life that fit that mold. There are other things that are going on in your life that would also be characterized as coincidences but your mind is ignoring them, they do not surface to your conscious level so you can note them as being such. Only the things you are paying attention to in your life will surface.
For example, you are having a problem with your business and have been trying to think of solutions then you meet somebody at a friend’s party that has a solution that would work great for you. If you had not been concerned with a solution in the first place, you would have met this person and probably would have promptly forgotten them even if they mentioned something that would have been great for your business because this was not of prime concern for your mind.
Maybe this is why affirmations or (as I will be explaining on Sunday) afformations work. This is your mind being conditioned into what is important and so you start noticing opportunities.
This leads to another question. Does your mind (or maybe on a spirit level) also twist things to bring you to a solution? Did your mind suggest that you go to that party even though you really didn’t want to? Was that other person persuaded on an energy level by your mind to show up because they had an answer to the problem? I will tackle this tomorrow.
Our lives are full of symbols.
Dreams contain symbols of our emotional state and sometimes provide information of what is going to happen. If you learn to interpret the symbols, you can have helpful information that can direct your waking actions.
Our aches and pains are often symbols. We tend to get more aches and pains as we age because we ignore the symbols as we receive them. These symbols tell us of things we need to take care of. Our society has gotten out of touch with the symbolic life. When we ignore them, they have to get louder and louder to try and get our attention. Sometimes it takes a major, life threatening illness before we will pay attention and ‘read’ the symbol. I have heard many people exclaim that they would not go through a major calamity in their life again for a million dollars but then again they would not take a million dollars for that experience. So if you are going through a major life challenge, look for the meaning behind the event.
Not all symbols come to us in major life events. Most are just day to day things. Look at everything with new eyes. That tree in the front yard – what does it mean? It is in your life for a reason; a deep personal reason. Maybe it is struggling and not in good shape – that could mean you are struggling with life right now. Maybe it is flourishing – that could be an indication that your life may be very full and satisfying. Reading the symbols around us can be very enlightening.
For those who are less esoteric, let me assure you that you use symbols everyday. Think about words. What are you doing right now? You are interpreting symbols that convey meaning. These marking on the screen have a message for you and when you interpret them (read the words) you get a picture of the emotion and the idea of what is being conveyed.
Try and be more aware of the symbols around you this week.
A Cry from the Womb – Book Review Sunday
Posted by: Ann
March 14th, 2010 >> Books, God, Life, Reincarnation, Spirituality
A Cry from the Womb: Healing the Heart of the World: A Guide to Healing and Helping Souls Return to the Light After Sudden Death, Miscarriage, Stillbirth or Abortion
I know the author and knew about one of her losses but had no idea about the other traumatic events. But in this book she opens up and tells of all the anguish and heart ache that she has held hidden inside.
Gwen is a medical intuitive, spiritual teacher and healer. In her work she strives to bring peace and healing and in this book she strives for the same thing. She is very concerned with the Soul: the soul of the child involved and the soul of the adults affected.
If you are in pain and hurting due to the loss of a child, this book can be a great comfort.
“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”
—- Anais Nin
We all put our own spin on what we hear and see and then we don’t understand why every one else does not agree with our opinion. If we all could experience events from the same perspective, we would all have the same opinions: how dull.
Most of the time we imagine what is going on with the other person. We reason in our mind what is going on and in doing this we create stories. Usually these stories and assumptions have a negative bent to them. For example if someone does not agree with your opinion you may be quick to say “they are just stupid” or “how can they miss this obvious point”. We are quick to make these negative assumptions. Why is that?
If we are making things up anyway, why not make something up that is positive or at least something that would make sense for the situation. You see someone speeding and your first impulse is to get in front of them and go slow. Second impulse is to wish the police would stop them for reckless driving. But would your opinion change if you knew that they just got a call from the hospital and were told if they wanted to see their child alive they better get there quick. I have actually known someone in that position.
In my experience, people do the best they can in their situation. People do not wake up and say “I wonder what dumb things I can do today?” Yes some people are smarter than others but each is doing what he/she thinks is best at each moment no matter what the IQ.
Live your life with forgiveness and compassion; you don’t know when you will need that from someone else for your dumb decisions.