meredith murphy | luminous being

daily routine: sitting meditation

by meredith murphy

Meditation saved my life.  

I used to say this all the time after I began sitting meditation almost 20 years ago.  I still remember the moment when all that labeling of thoughts as "thinking" actually showed up spontaneously in the middle of an argument as an angry, reactionary thought arose and instead of speaking, I heard, in my mind "thinking."  And then there was this stillness.  WOW!!  I realized I'm witnessing my thoughts--not just merged with them.  There was through meditation, now a gap created between thoughts and me.  Eventually I experienced great bliss and an expansiveness in which I experientially merged with/felt the Oneness of and with everything.  Over time my thoughts just stilled.  The mind just got quiet and now if I'm not consciously thinking my mind is routinely, consistently spacious and quiet. 

It certainly makes it a lot easier to hear your inner being when there isn't a constant sound track going on about everything and anything!

The gradual "showing up" to meditate, does what meditation does--it begins to free the mind; reinstating it's natural luminosity and spaciousness.  For me this has been a wonderful path.  I have experienced great realization in meditation and the benefits continue to flow into my life.  Sometime ago I wrote a little article about developing detachment and neutrality through meditation, and based on some recent emails I've received about the desire to quiet the mind and listen to the heart, feel the soul presence, I thought I would share it here...

One of the most valuable practices in developing detachment and neutrality is meditation that cultivates mindfulness, or develops what is called, “witness” consciousness.  I practice a combination of Tibetan/Zen/Taoist Meditation, which is one way to cultivate the natural state of mind.   

The reason this meditation works is that your mind is truly naturally spacious and quiet―like the sky (that’s the metaphor/image I love).  And like the sky has sun and clouds and moon and lightening and other phenomenon move through/across it, the sky is just the sky―spacious and unchanged by say a flash of lightening.  When we train our mind in this type of meditation we become increasingly detached from the “lightening” of our mind.  This detachment creates a gap, or space, and it is in this space that we experience freedom.  We can relate to life in freedom rather then by reacting, or identifying with what flows through our mind.  The benefit of practicing this type of meditation specifically is that you grow in your ability to simply observe thoughts and images, or even whole story lines and emotions as they arise and naturally dissolve, without being them―becoming them, or getting attached to them or pushing them away.  Thus you begin to not build up congestion through incomplete experiences, for you flow, as if on an inner tube down the river while noticing friends on one shore and yucky experiences on the other―you neither grab at things, nor push them away, you take what the Buddhist’s call “the middle way” you flow, allowing all that arises to rise and dissolve, as you continue to be present, detached and neutral about everything. 

The photo above is me meditating at the Krishnamurti Center in Ojai, CA (taken by my dear friend Sofia Peacock).  It’s helpful to meditate in a quiet place and returning to the same place paves the way energetically.  As Krishnamurti and others have meditated here, the energy was very wonderful to shift into and the space itself supported my focus.  I’ve meditated outside, and in many places, with others who are experienced and with “newbies” who are learning.  All of it is valuable, but the most precious for me is meditating, in my own home, early in the morning, with myself.  I make a cup of green tea, or coffee first, and enjoy that on my cushion before I sit.  Sometimes if I’m hungry I eat a banana.  You can have breakfast first too.  Do whatever works for you and supports you in being present.  You’ll see that as with all things, being loving and attentive to yourself, allowing rather than being critical, allows the experience to arise effortlessly.   

how to practice?

1. Choose a quiet place and a quiet time in which you will not be disturbed.  Ideal times are early in the morning.  It’s okay to have coffee/tea first :)  The energy is quieter early in the day, which supports the experience you are cultivating, but any time is fine.  Also, if possible sit at around the same time each day―this helps to build the habit and help you get into the meditation quickly; you’re cultivating a pattern of being.

2. Set a timer.  You don’t want to be checking the clock during meditation to see how much more time, or how much time has already gone by.  In the beginning it’s beneficial to sit for at least 15-20 minutes.  Some people don’t really experience their mind quiet until closer to 40 minutes.  Choose what you can.  I personally like to sit between 30 and 60 minutes as after an initial period of settling the energy deepens and expands and I feel the benefits exponentially.  Whatever feels right to you and works for you is good.  Just choose a time frame and stick to it.  Set a timer on your phone, or somehow so it will go off when you’re don’t and place it out of eyesight.

3. Practice every day.  If possible.  It’s called practice, right?

4. Sit upright in a way you are comfortable but most importantly so that your spine is straight.  You can sit in a chair or on a meditation cushion.  It’s good to be comfortable so sit however is easiest for you―that way you minimize any way you might be distracted by the body while you meditate.

5. Place your hands palms-down on your thighs.

6. Keep your eyes open and look in front of you and downward―say 12-18 inches in front of your body, toward the floor.  Keep your gaze soft, looking at this same general spot, not focusing, just resting your eyes there.  This is your position for the entire meditation.  Once you begin, try not to move physically.  If your feet or hips or legs fall asleep, shift to a new position and again, then try not to move.

7. Breathe normally.  Pay attention to your breathing; meaning what you are doing now is looking softly downward and just noticing your breath.  Notice that as you inhale, there is a rising in your abdomen.  As you exhale, feel your abdomen relaxing back into its neutral position.  Just notice this.  Softly.

8. While watching your breath you will discover you are no longer watching your breath, you are thinking.  You’ll discover you are making a grocery list, thinking about a person, engaged in a mental conversation, or having images flash through your mind.  

9. In this practice, we're simply going to name the thoughts and images that arise, by saying to yourself, quietly, gently, neutrally when you notice this is happening, "thinking." 

10. As you label the thoughts “thinking” the attitude is mellow.  Detached, friendly and relaxed, like gently telling a puppy, “sit.”  Just observe and label. 

11. Then return to watching the breath.

12. Do not be concerned with how often or how much this happens.  If your mind wanders, no problem, just come back.  You don’t have to make any effort to change what’s happening, just label it, “thinking,” and return again to watching your breath.

13. The part of you that is observing and labeling the thinking is called the Witness Consciousness, or the energy of Mindfulness - and is the part of our mind that remains forever untouched by its contents - by the thoughts and images arising within it. A traditional metaphor for this aspect of mind is that it is similar to the deepest part of an ocean - which remains calm, still & silent, even if at its surface, waves (of thinking, emotion, or sensation) are raging. 

14. When the alarm goes off, turn it off.  Take a moment to come back to your body and notice how you feel.

notes

The great thing about meditation is that it’s not about effort or trying to do it right.  You just have to show up.  There is no way to do it wrong.  So give up evaluating or comparing and just do it.  Do it when it seems wonderful.  Do it when it’s not.  Just keep doing it.  The practice does the work, you show up. Trust it.  Humans have been using it for a long time and it’s well known for it’s benefits.  

As a little side note especially to the metaphysically inclined: it’s good to remember the purpose of witness meditation is NOT to have phenomenon show up―like to start channeling or see angels or anything.  The practice is to quiet the mind and experience the natural spaciousness and peace that is your true presence.  So if you start having these experiences, don’t become enamored with them, just label them “thinking,” and return to your breath.

For questions about meditation and your practices to cultivate happiness, joy, clarity and presence in life, I am happy to be of service.  Feel free to get in touch via email: Meredith@ExpectWonderful.com

Namaste!

*

If you'd like to print, save or download these ideas for meditation?  click here: Developing detachment and neutrality through meditation 

creating a momentum of happiness

by meredith murphy

I've been reflecting lately on all the small shifts I've made over time which have accumulated into the happiness I now experience.

Happiness I've learned, is not the result of one thing, but a certain way of being and a momentum of many things stringing together moments where we feel good.

All of us long for happiness.  In fact, many wise people have observed that we all do everything we do because we sense or thought of feel or realized at one time that this would make us happy. 

To create a life in which happiness is a boundless spring within ourselves is a worthy aspiration.  It's also in harmony with life--it's something we cannot seem to squash the desire for.  So going for it and learning what paths create this is not just fun, but also smart.  Because consciously or not, this deep seeded desire actually influences everything.

It seems to me in my own experience that there are things which always elicit happiness and things which seem like they will but don't.  Of course there are those things we each say/do which we sort of know from experience will not feel good and yet we do them anyway.  Often these make us feel really bad--because we've acted on our own behalf in a way that isn't serving our own wellbeing.  Yet if we're gentle and honest, we discover that underneath those kind of patterns there is, yet again, the sincere desire for happiness.  Typically there is some pay-off for the behavior that is usually a diluted form of feeling good.  Maybe it's the best way we knew how to get to feeling good in the past?  So even if it's a lame version of happiness we choose it because it seems to be better than not having any happiness.  So maybe we can just lighten up about all of this and realize we are in our own perhaps warped way, just seeking the fundmanetal nature of reality--which is joy.  Even though some of our choices result in experiences that feel icky (Like eating sweets when we want love.)  We can recognize the basic impulse toward happiness and instead of beating ourselves up we can just choose to add a small new habit into our life which might help us tap into love in a more sustainable way.

What's amazing is that sometimes it's easier to just build new wonderful feel-good ways of being, then to drop bad habits.  Sometimes we can just pivot our experience through looking at and paying attention to something new and healthy and wonderful and amazingly, over time, we realize the old bad habits that didn't serve us has just dissolved on its own.

I like this kind of approach because it's easier.  Why not choose the easy path?  It's just a simple truth--the more uplifting, congruent, love-filled moments in my day, the less of any other kind of experiences.  So the not-happy moments gradually just got squeezed out.  

Now it's the exceptional moment when I feel content--content being a downward dip in my experience.  Generally I know a sustained experience where I am present, clear and happy!  Occasionally I feel frustrated.  And very rarely irritated or angry.  Because these lower-vibe experiences are the exception, I am very quickly aware of what's happening and so can choose to care for my experience.  For me the important thing when I am triggered or feel badly is to just be aware and then to interrupt this.  I just stop participating in whatever is happening.  Once I've interrupted this, sometimes I just feel good and well-being returns spontaneously.  Then I can "clean up" anything I need to--like apologizing to someone if I wasn't really listening, or for leaving a conversation because I had to take care of myself.  All of this happens pretty smoothly now, because happiness is a groove for me vibrationally, as I've cultivated it, and it's natural for the inner-smile to come forth again.

The amazing thing is that none of these changes were difficult to make.  That's because I made them when I felt ready, or inspired.  When the idea of this way of being was nudging me, popping up synchronistically all around me, pointing me in this direction.  So I made changes when I was in alignment with new ways of being.  How do you know this?  If you sense something will bring you more happiness, it likely will.  Simple as that.

Some of these changes took longer than others to truly become a habit, but they all reflect things I care about--kindness, openness, love, appreciation, respect for life, nature, enthusiasm, warmth, simplicity, beauty.  I suspect it's because they are aligned with my values that they eventually took root within me and have just become who I am and how I do things.  

Here's a few of the changes I've made that I've seen great benefit from: drinking more water, using/checking in with direct knowing rather then using my mind to "figure things out," stretching when I wake up, paying bills with happiness for all I receive, washing my dishes right after I'm done eating, eliminating animal meat, eating more fruit, taking time to focus on my breath, enjoying a daily sunbath, calling in my higher self and grounding each morning, deciding not to take anyone's comments or feedback as criticism--seeing it as just their opinion, always welcoming my dogs/cats when they want attention, learning to be alone with myself, journaling, meditation, listening more and talking less, following my intuition even if I don't understand it, smiling at each person I come in contact with, waiting until I know what I want/want to do before doing it--not trying to "find" answers--letting them come to me, walking my dog every day and noticing the trees and the sky while I'm out walking, making a choice to sustain eye contact with others, getting up early.  

You'll notice these are process related, not results related.  I am not trying to achieve a certain outcome.  I am choosing to live in ways that express what I care about and the kind of presence I wish to be.

I didn't do all of these at once, but little by little they accumulated.  Some are larger and more pervasive and took more time to accomplish.  All began with an intention to move in this direction and to become this kind of a person.  Small or large, all of these changes can enlarge our experience as we take the time to focus upon one and then allow it to become an organic part of how we live.  They may seem subtle but building new habits is a powerful thing.  Just one of these becoming a habit, becoming who you are/how you live in an ongoing way, will have long lasting implications for your light and your happiness.  

It's exciting to realize there so many little ways to open up our experience to more wholeness and joy.  

I love making small changes because they are easier and also they snowball--the wellbeing we develop through one path opens up our whole life.

As we discover the new experiences that come from one path or doorway into greater awareness, we become more aware in general.  As we choose small shifts in being and doing that reflect our values and ideals, we amplify our ability to embody these qualities.  So the great gift of paying attention to your life and making small changes to reflect what you sense will bring you more happiness, is it shifts your consciousness and refines your emanation to reflect and be MORE of you!  Pretty cool.  

What small shift, or opening has been nudging you from within lately?  Has it occurred to you that your higher self flows through your consciousness like a stream and might be planting ideas within you with this little flow of inspiration?  If it's a big change can you break it into pieces and start small?  What new habit would you love to create that would feel good and make your life more fun?  

Enlarge your experience of aliveness?  Be sneaky and clever.  Smart small. Unleash an innocuous momentum of happiness in your life.  Catch yourself offguard...seed your life with newness while no one is noticing.  Cultivate and grow.  Get your inner smile on.

 

photo by Pink Sherbert Photography  http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/250674118

are you discouraged by conflicting guidance about ascension?

by meredith murphy

Well, if you're feeling this, congratuations.  Your feedback system, your amazingly perfect inner compass is attuned and working well.  This kind of feeling is the emotional equivalent of a siren, or a flashing red light: it's a alert!  It's USEFUL.  It's telling you something like: you're disoriented.  You're out of sync with you.  Like maybe you've let THE authority on all this slip into the background and are listening to other people's guidance and advice?

Realize my lovely ones, there are many paths.

It's increasingly important that we learn to use our heart--to drop out of mental/thinking modes of "figuring things out" and use our heart and a sense of knowing that we feel in our whole energy body to discern what's true and useful for each of us.

And to do this as the ultimate authority on everything.  EVERYTHING.

Got it?  NO ONE knows more about what's right for you than YOU.  I think that bears repeating...

NO ONE KNOWS MORE ABOUT WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU THAN YOU.

Now I'm not knocking the great gift of encouragement, validation, or even using a guide or a person you trust to help you connect with expanded knowing.  These are all useful and valid tools on your path.  I use them.  Many of us do.  But again, you would use your own sense of what's right for you to choose this person and to evaluate what you experience when working with them.  That is discernment.  And if you agree with what guidance or insight comes forth, and any ideas for healing or growth you're offered, then you apply them again, with discernment.  Do they work?  Do you see a difference?  Does life get better?  More joyful?  More clear?  It ought to. Guidance is supposed to work and improve your experience.  To support you in feeling great and becoming more empowered.

And it's becoming more and more important as the diverse paths to ascension become articulated and sometimes are talked about with such wording and seeming authority as to make you wonder, "OMG--I'm not doing it this way?  Did I miss something?  Am I on the wrong path?  This isn't what I'm experiencing, am I out of it somehow?  Did I miss the chance to be part of this."

Ouch.

All of this is tough to feel, but again, it points to a fundamental mistake in orientation.  YOU have within you everything you need to find your way.  This is true for everyone, and actually so much of this path is about realizing this and then growing our own capacity to find what we need within.  So if you're listening and following your heart, using your focus and energy to grow in this inward clarity and connection, asking for inner guidance and listening, choosing experiences and people who amplify your inner clarity, expand your perspective in ways that feel right and useful to you, and support you believing in yourself, you are perfectly fine and actually doing and being exactly as you need to be to wake up and not just join, but help CREATE the party!

I wrote this today, because once again, I have gotten a lot of emails from readers asking questions about stuff being published and shared.  I too have noticed some pretty wild stuff being circulated following 11-11-11. Emails messages that say they're all about the new Earth but are still speaking duality talk as though some things are bad for us and we cannot possibly kid ourselves thinking we will ascend if we participate in them. Nothing is inherently bad. These are just labels and judgements. Please follow your inner guidance. It may validate what you're reading or hearing, but it may not.  It may be true in this moment, but not in another.  Life is dynamic and changing as are you, and what you need evolves and cycles, is fluid and changing in perfect harmony with the leading edge of you!

Trust that what uplifts and inspires you is perfect for you. It's about our own unique energy field and what will support us moving into wholeness and embodied divinity. There is not one path. So if you're wondering what's "good for you" and "what might get in the way of your ascension," ask yourself and listen.  Pay attention to how things make you feel.  THAT is your answer.

Things and activities are not good/bad...they're just different options.

Choose what makes you feel expansive, filled with love, hopeful, harmonious, balanced and gives you more joy. Listen to your heart. And if you find that challenging, make time to be in silence. Nature is so helpful in aligning me energetically...but what works for you?  Use what works for you. Be YOU.  You are the authority for everything, for you. Do not be distracted by what feels right for others, or what other Lightworkers even advocate passionately.

Bless everyone on their own perfect and wonderful path.  But live your own life.  That's how you eliminate the conflicting feelings about what's true and what's right for you.  You become your own authority on everything.  And amazingly, life from this inner orientation becomes increasingly clear. 

Trust yourself.   Claim what you know.

nourishing your power

 
by meredith murphy

I have been merging with nature consciously since I was a small child.  I didn't think of it as anything unusual.  I will say though, I was well aware that the experience definitely had a certain charge!  A kind of magial, secret power...I knew there was something awesome about these moments in life and being a person aware of living this way even as a child I knew this. I also knew it was something to do by myself and often.

I used to go and sit outside on the front porch during a rain or even thunderstorm.  There was a little notch at the corner of the house created where the huge picture window frame jutted out and the surrounding brick was set back at the corner.  Just the right size for someone small enough to sit and not be seen from either direction.  I loved to sit there and become one with everything.  I love that I grew up in a household where I had lots of freedom to explore the outdoors and be.  No one interrupted me or worried about where I was.  I felt confident, connected, elated and entirely safe.  As I dissolved in my secret space, I would feel an incredible bliss arise.  I felt huge and spacious.  Elated and expansive.  I felt like ME. 

When I lived in Nashville I used to walk often at Radnor Lake.  As you walk around the lake the bushes are tangled and dense and when I could find an opening I would step off the trail and sit within the thicket.  As I relaxed and was still, without any effort on my part, I would feel the boundaries of my energy dissolve. I could then sense tiny movements and all kinds of life energy around me that I could not see or hear.  Lots of small birds which live darting in and out of these thorny bushes at amazing speed begin to come out in the open as though I was not there.  Playing!  People would walk by and not even notice me.  Meanwhile, I was getting a giant juiced up infusion of exhilarating life-force energy.  My awareness was non-local and I was part of the whole.  This mode of being I now know fed my energy body, (what I now know is my KA body) and again, an incredible bliss arose. From the release of all resistance and all identity?  I don't know.  But whatever it is, it works.

It's powerfully expanding to take your awareness, and thus your state of being, to different levels of focus on purpose.  To realize that you exist as YOU reading this simply by focus, and that you can alter that, anytime you want.

One of the ways I learned to channel consciously was to attune myself to the energy of another thing, and eventually, another focus and speak what I experienced.  

More and more I have returned to the simpler way of being that I engaged in as a child.  I just expand without words, and feel.

Today, I was very inspired by this image...this beautiful bird (finch?)  So delicate and free. 

I began to soften my own energy to attune to this gorgeous landscape...to imagine the feel of resting on a zinnia, wings tucked back, entirely supported.  At ease.

Openness takes me once more into spacious expansion, and bliss.  And with this openness is freedom--no obstructions to flow.  My vitality, an endless spring.

Then I began to see...and make connections.

For a long time I didn't make any correlation between these nearly daily experiences and my own enormous personal power.

I have always had an unusual amount of self-confidence and trust in my own power.  For much of my life, I didn't even know this was unusual.  Only as I got older did I gradually discover that not everyone felt this way.  I typically am so involved in my interests, what I'm learning, my passionate self-expression and being with friends and animals having conversation and fun, that I don't compare myself, I just AM.  As I began to work as a executive coach and strategic consultant, a career coach, leading teams and teaching, I realized my experience was more unusual than I had known.

The way any of you know me now, is in many ways, pretty much how I've always been.  I know what I feel and think.  I learn things quickly.  I'm quick and smart.  Clear and bold.  Energetic and positive. Creative and logical.  Soft and outgoing.  Love being alone and open and accessible to connect with.  Confident and enthusiastic.  Engaged and involved.  I make money easily, change my life as frequently as I like to keep up with me.  I find myself good to great at most things I turn my attention to.  I don't feel I need to prove myself to others and I don't care too much about what others think about me.  I don't feel I need a degree or a resume to open doors for me.  I've gotten all kinds of jobs and created work because it was what interested me and my energy and confidence made things happen.  I'm robust physically, coordinated and strong.  Loved and loving.  Connected and free.  I'm continually thriving, and moving toward greater thriving.  I trust life to speak to me.  I trust my presence, I trust the Universe and I believe in the innate capacity of YOU in much the same way.

Audacious?  Well, yes--by old paradigm criteria.  But isn't this somewhat the way self-love and empowerment feels like?  

For a long time I didn't make any correlation between these nearly daily experiences of non-local knowing and energizing, and this atypical human experience of enormous personal power.  In hindsight I see the energizing of my etheric body and this regular return to the fullness of non-local perspective, is the literal fountain of youth; sustaining my innocence, curiosity, flexibility, sense of self and ultimately, my feelings of being powerfully capable, deeply loved, vitally important and totally free throughout my life.

Amazing how simple it might just be to find your power, and to expand it.

It might not actually require you to participate in rituals, find a guru, commune with ascended masters, go back to school, spend thousand of dollars on therapy, or learn secret techniques.

I'm not knocking any of these approaches and I myself spent lots of money on therapy reclaiming aspects of my childhood.  Obviously I channel ascended masters and love the experience.  So these things work and are very helpful, but I am urging you to tap into something even deeper.

I noticed that even during the most difficult parts of my own years of therapy, I felt my own resilience, in a much stronger way then it seems others I know have been able to.  After an especially hard session, instead of feeling tired and sad, I used to ride my bike home from my therapist's office, roaring out loud at the top of my lungs about what I was going to be and do, while weaving amidst downtown Chicago traffic and feeling invincible. 

Why is that? 

I feel it has to do with these direct experiences with the true nature of reality that reveal our inherent God-ness and the bliss, that if you don't know how to find it, feels SO very elusive and if you do know it, sets you free--it grounds you in a fundamental state of worthiness and awesomeness that's kinda bullet-proof, actually.

Isn't all of adult life about going after the paths and things, experiences and relationships which will return us to a state of happiness we KNOW is fundamentally what life is all about?  Aren't we working towards that peaceful, blissed out state, seeking some kind of return in so many ways?

I keep thinking lately that life is really a path of returning to wholeness because in wholeness we feel powerful.  HUGELY POWERFUL.  And we're innately powerful.  It's natural.  When we're young and haven't forgotten this yet, we live differently...we're not worried about getting hurt.  We go and do what seems fun.  If we get knocked down, we mend and do it again.  We follow our heart.  We are open and innocent enough to feel life in so much richness it's glorious and mind-blowing on I-can't-wait-to-get-out-of-bed-and-ride-my-bike kind of daily basis.

I believe we can plug directly into all this just by returning to a non-local presence regularly. 

I now continue to create these experiences, only with a much fuller understanding of what is taking place.  I use solar flares, channeling and high-vibe energy of all kinds to nourish my energy.  I do this by becoming non-local, or one with everything, and this happens just naturally as I relax and allow.  I can also do it intentionally with my focus.

Looking back upon my early experiences with this shows me how natural this all is.  I was never afraid when I became one with the sky, the rain, with all of nature, when I extended my energy out to merge with the entire Omni-verse.  I just felt bliss. INCREDIBLE bliss.  You know--the way we feel after great sex, kinda bliss.  Think about it...

When you're in love and you have just had great mutually orgasmic sex, there is an intimate secret bliss between you and your lover.  A radiance that lasts and an energy field you're within (the non-local one you co-created and shared, btw).  You look at one another in knowing wonder and glee at what you've shared and felt.  There is deep satisfaction, fulfillment and peace.  You actually feel profoundly powerful, if you think about it.  And filled with love.

That's what I feel whenever I release my local identity of Meredith, and allow it to enlarge into an expanded non-local field of whatever I choose to be the boundaries.  I feel a huge sacred private connection that exhilarates me and alters everything that follows it.  I feel spacious, huge, gladdened, made more alive and inviolable.

I might expand into a connection with all of the planet, or just the rain, I might become one with a place I'm in, or enjoy an expanded and merged state of being with my pets or dissolve into the whole sky.  There may be forms within this field, but my awareness rests in the space within the forms and the space outside the forms; the non-local fluid omnipresent Oneness.

And in this openness, I feel, simply, like me.  The ultimate, infinite, splendiferous, cool, powerfully creative, loved, me.  The me that lives life, as Byron Katie, says, (reflecting total empowerment, nonchalance and trust), "Everybody already LOVES me, they just don't know it yet!"

 

 

discernment and staying in your power

by meredith murphy

I've noticed a flurry and acceleration of activity lately.  Have you?

Just as a reminder, we're within a total re-booting of our energy system (see the digest, from August 11th).  And Mercury goes direct this week on Friday, the 26th, so perhaps we'll see more clearly and communicate with greater ease about what we're experiencing now?

There has been a lot of energy and also some significant hype about about the Mayan calendar coming in October.  In the same way that Hollywood jumped on the 2012 bandwagon, there are videos showing up all over the internet, espousing all kinds of views.  And now I am seeing several highly visible ones from websites created by people who are unidentified.  Who are "sharing" some ideas--yet unwilling to introduce themselves and commit to a viewpoint. 

This is not responsible journalism or blogging in any way.  It's so easy to put stuff out there without citing any source--and I am totally okay with one person being the source, sharing what they sense, channel or understand.  For those of you who share videos and articles with your friends, I encourage you to not feed the frenzy by just posting and circulating stuff that isn't put through your own filter of discernment first.  

In addition, channeled messages are all over the place with many different possible outcomes being portrayed.  I've seen noted channels share things that feel totally energetically different and out of resonance with me than the rest of their work.  I've received lots of emails about this and people wondering about the diversity of the messages coming forth.  Some people thought huge energy shifts happened the weekend of the 13th, some are predicting this coming weekend that a huge flip will happen.  There's a lot of stuff in the air. 

One question is, does it apply to you?

Clearly there is a lot of energy moving, a lot of change, an anticipation of further, perhaps MORE dramatic earth changes (earthquakes, days of darkness, poles flipping dramatically, disclosure, etc)

In the midst of this flurry (which may only increase), I want to remind us of the fundamentals here and encourage us to be coherent and clear.  Which is ONLY possible from anchoring with our own guidance and our inner sense of things.  We must be in and come from our own still point to know if what we read or experience is true for us, applies to us, resonates within us and in doing so has meaning for us RIGHT NOW. 

If we encounter a video, a channeled messages, a post or a energy update and we're all over the place and ungrounded when we read it, how are we to know what's true?

For me, daily grounding and meditation has become more important, and now it is happening several times throughout the day.  I am getting myself up early to make sure I have quiet time to just sit and be and listen and cultivate my field, before anyone else needs me or the day gets going. 

I am also determined right now to continually return to clarity throughout the day.  I use the Abraham-Hicks vortex meditations (15 amazing minutes) and lie down listening to them whenever I feel tense, confused or not sure what to do next or how to handle something.  I am also using simple witness meditation, that I've intuitively practiced for most of my life--I remember doing it on my own when I was about 8.  Only in hindsight understanding I was focusing on my KA body and energizing it.  See how much our own innate wisdom is right for us?

Returning to a peaceful, in-the-vortex state is always grounding, nourishing, allowing and gives rise to clarity.

There are of course countless tools for working with our energy and our consciousness.  More and more I am focused on those that are simple and direct.  There are many wisdom traditions throughout our history that have rituals and practices for connecting with our true nature and accessing wisdom.  More and more I feel to allow ourselves to approach this in a modern way--un-hooked from any tradition or dogma.  We can connect and access expansive knowing simple with intention, choice and focus.  It truly is that simple.

The month of June--the Eclipse/Solstice series that extended into mid-July, was a powerfully transformative time for the planet and us, just like the December Solstice/Eclipse series was in 2010. 

It is the procession of the Equinoxes and the Solstices which are shifting our galaxy and ultimately altering the entire nature of the cosmos. 

The Mayan Calendar, numerology, channeling and other tools and methodologies have been offered to give us a greater understanding and a way to navigate during these times.  But the best navigation is within us.  And by tuning into that, you can be assured you won't miss ANYTHING important.  Within you lies the answers to everything essential to your awakening.  The litmus test?  Does it bring your more peace?  Do you feel joyful.  Does it open your heart.  Do you feel shivers, a thrill of recognition?  Even if it's difficult, does it bring you closer to you, does it bring you more alive?  Even the difficult moments are openings potentially when witnessed with presence and gentleness.  From this comes healing and insight.

These are the ways to sense truth and you are made for this.  Claim what you know and dare to live from your own point of focus; bring your unique and valuable perspective to our shared, co-creation of the ultimate new paradigm and the graceful resolution of the old.

Remember and trust in this: amidst the plethoria of information--some of which you are well aware is just noise--there is an amazing authentic beautiful thing happening...

People of all different nationalities, ages, and backgrounds, are being drawn within.  Life, in many experiences is nudging us to embrace and orient to the same values.  We're having similar discoveries.  The awareness of the beauty of love, the interconnectedness of our planet, the divine nature of our being, the purpose of being here now--the participation in a collective awakening and the desire to re-focus on this and to expand into a new paradigm for humanity and our planet, is growing in volume and participants.

You'll notice in this great dog park pic that a diversely beautiful group of canines is doing what we're doing--being themselves and moving in the same direction.  There are probably other dogs (not pictured) sitting still or lying down and doing nothing...and others still running in another direction.  Also just part of the way the divine plan is perfectly unfolding.

I encourage you to remember the underlying source energy that flows into and gives life to all of us; we're all receiving the same fundamental impulses and calls to life.  Each of us filters these through our own lens and as such our way of talking about what's happening reflects where we are, and our own quality of perspective and awareness.

In my experience, I must draw even closer to my own heart--listening, and to my body and my inner sense of things--as the ultimate authority for EVERYTHING.  Nothing else--no other source--is capable of guiding me as well as I may care for and love myself.

The nature of our reality is varied.  There is not just one thing happening here.  Meaning there is not one earth experience; there are as many as there are points of focus.  Yes we share collective energies, but we also are an energy field which magnetizes based on our vibration, like experiences.  So each of us reads life as a reflection of our own prior focus.  Life as we know it, is simply a giant feedback system--reflecting our state of being, clearly and without distortion. 

As such we are served so beautifully exactly what we feel and expect.  And when we get otherwise, it's a wake-up call that our sense of what we've been feeling and expecting might be a little out of touch with what's really within us. 

We are each only capable of birthing the new earth by resolving the duality within ourselves.  We cannot resolve duality within others.  Let me repeat:

I CANNOT RESOLVE DUALITY IN OTHERS.  I MAY ONLY PARTICIPATE IN  BIRTHING THE NEW EARTH AND THE NEW PARADIGM BY RESOLVING DUALITY, RESOLVING EVERYTHING WITHIN ME.  CREATING TRUE PEACE--NOT AN ABSENCE OF PROBLEMS OR CONFLICT, BUT DEEP, SUSTAINED PEACE WITHIN ME. 

That's where my power is: within my own life and my own experience.

I can trust that as I do this, what is ME mirrored in the world around me and I can alter the world, from within me.  The conflict, fear, anger, aggression, hurt, distrust, critical view, in essence--distorted and wounded--parts of me that are made manifest in the world around me--will disappear and change--reflecting what I create within me.  That's it.  Therein lies my power to create the new paradigm.

We support each other in this inward journey.  We inspire.  We affirm.  We recognize one another's beauty.  We encourage.  We're brave.  We're courageous...bold even.  We open up.  We're met with friendliness and kindred souls echo our vulnerability.  We all heal. 

I see enormous love and gentleness being offered and received by people all around the world. 

The relationship we have to the planet herself is for many of us, being understood more clearly and our awareness of this soulful, valued sentient being in our experience is informing more and more our ways of being and creating.  We live appreciating and aware of her.  Love is resolving deep wounds created by old paradigms and limited perspectives. It is a glorious time to be alive.

As the flurry of activity accelerates as we approach the September Equinox, the ending of the Mayan Calendar, the 11-11-11 alignment and the entry to 2012, you, attuning to your own authentic voice and being YOU, is of enormous importance.

It alters the very nature of reality, bringing all of life into greater sincerity and wholeness.

You are beautiful, important and innately wise.  I feel you running alongside me, in your own perfect way with our eyes on the prize: the actualization of the new paradigm.  Play and enjoy yourself.  Discern from within.  Shine forth in light.  Sit still or nap when you feel like it.  Run in the other direction when you feel you need to.  Just trust yourself.  You are the most important part of this change in your life.  Aren't you just in awe of yourself?  No?  Well then there's a nice place to begin.  Yes?  Well, yummy...let's just soak this up a bit.

May we each, increasingly and consistently, see and feel through the flurry, the majestic wise sentience of our eternal being.  The eternal flame of pure love, pure potential and pure joy.  The One I AM, and the glorious expression of this in each of us.  Namaste.

the gift we give ourselves

by meredith murphy

Today's my birthday and it's been a quiet day so far.

I had planned to have dinner with Takis at Laguna Beach--but he's sick as a dog in bed, so there will be a rain check on that one.  I wanted the rest of the day to myself anyway--the way I like most days--so here I am.

It strikes me that when we evolve into living a deeply authentic life then days like birthdays look an awful lot like regular days.  I felt like it, so I slept in and allowed myself to lounge in bed, enjoying the softness of my sheets.   Normal--I typically get up when I feel like it.  Took Jackson out and enjoyed the cool morning air, listening to the birds in the bottle-brush tree hanging over my fence.

Inside again, I turned on some Stan Getz, opened up the blinds and then washed my face.  Loving the cold water on my skin, very refreshing!  Dressed in comfortable clothes that I also wore last night (not the underwear of course) but my fashion life is simple--I wear jeans, a cotton tank top and then something over that--today a long sleeved t-shirt, it's in the 60's and going to be cool.  I put on my watch and some scuffs to wear around the house and that's it.

Then I went into my kitchen and drank a large glass of water while looking up at the large evergreen tree outside.  There was a owl in it last night again and I keep hoping I will see it.  No such luck, but the sky is gorgeous--streaked with white and quite spectacular.  I then fed Jackson--doing our usual little dance, while making some oatmeal with raisins, ground flax seed, cinnamon and a little soy milk.  I made vanilla coffee and then set a place and ate this at my table with my cat rolling around on the other side, along with a soy sausage.  I eat this pretty much every day--just different fruit depending on what is in season and organic and local.  Nothing lately that looked fresh, thus the raisins.  Then I wrote for a while.  Reflecting on my feelings lately, what arose for me following the powerful clearing transmissions during yesterday's event.  I also grounded myself, adjusted my aura, ran cosmic energy through my spinal pathway, connected with my higher self and spent some time in meditation.

Phase one of the day complete.  I made another cup of coffee in my French press--half decaf this time--and then sat down to read the messages and birthday wishes in my inbox and on my phone.

So this is my day!  And not to bore you with the details, but to share that these seemingly mundane things are entirely enjoyable.  I began my birthday this way and it is entirely to my blissful liking.  Interestingly while writing, I made a list of things I would love to experience this year--and most of them are just extensions and expansion of how I already live. 

Liking finishing my book, which I know will happen--I already write daily.

I was thinking I'd like to go back to Paris, or maybe to Prague.  I haven't walked the streets in a European city enjoying the architecture, the markets and the energy in a while.  London is kinda on my radar for the fall...we'll see how that flows. 

It reminds me of something Seth Godin said once, when people talked with him about emailing on the weekends for his business.  His response was kinda like, "I LIKE what I do, why would I take a break from it?  For what?  It gives me pleasure so I do it everyday."  (liberal paraphrasing)

I get that.  My life is really an honest extension of me.  I like being alone with myself.  So a lot of my day is like that.  While alone, I like writing, reading, playing with my pets, painting, drawing, looking at things--nature, images.  Listening to music.  Cooking.  I love being outdoors, so that happens often during the day.  I love to look at the sky, the stars at night, open the windows in the morning and freshen up the energy inside.  I like to sit at my desk and listening the whistling sound of my dog sleeping on the floor, while composing my perspective in words.

I think paradise is actually kinda easy.  It's so much simpler and closer than I used to realize.  It's just living in harmony with me and doing what I want.  Some people are surprised that I don't make big plans for my birthday, or want to eat sweets (I don't really have sweet tooth--so why would I eat sweets?).  The way I celebrate is just to live, doing what interests me right now.  Allowing the day to be created as it comes--without feeling any need to choreograph it in advance.  This way it flows my way--which makes it perfect.  Isn't that what we all want on our birthday anyway?  A perfect day?  Why not have one every day?

Loving what is, is so much easier, when what is, is just a clear path to being you.  No forced activities or facades.  No dressing up for others, or feeling you need to look good or impress anyone.  Just listening to what feels good to you...and for me today, I think that may be walking my dog, looking at a new desk that fits in my tiny office to make sure I like it and then if so, ordering it.  It occurs to me I can order Indian food as my substitute dinner, and I haven't had it in a while, it's one of my favorites, and I'll also have leftovers for lunch tomorrow--so I'm looking forward to that.  But if something else feels good later, I'll do that instead.

Other then that?  Who knows...probably some time reading.  Maybe looking at dwarf lemon trees for my patio.  A walk comes up again--I can feel I'm itching to get outside--and walking around the Rose Bowl feels right today--it's gorgeous when the weather is like this.  I may continue researching how to attach a lattice to my fence where I want to plant a bougainvillaea so I can enjoy it outside and see it from my kitchen window.

I share this with you to encourage you to live your life authentically--doing just what pleases you and to realize in being YOU as you please, you are living integrity and coherent innately + you're probably HAPPY.  Isn't that the point? 

By being YOU, you accomplish all you came here for and the whole earth moves into more ease as a result of your vibe. 

Loving what is, IS aliveness.  It's presence to life and in this presence we receive all the gifts of awareness and life.  

It's also a whole lot easier to love what is, when what is is perfectly aligned with you--moment to moment.  And the only way to do this, is to do what you want, say what you feel, be who you are, in every way in all moments--spontaneously, authentically, sincerely, without in any way second guessing it.

I know so much of our culture and history trains us away from this very self-centered mode of being.  But guess what?  It's the clear and easy path to joy, contenment, fun and ultimately?  Bliss.

Following your bliss, makes loving what is, a piece of cake.  So there's my birthday sweet ;)  Ease.  And my best gift: allowing myself to be ME.  In all ways!  What could be sweeter than infinite freedom, deep happiness and endless joy?

 

 

choosing nonchalance

by meredith murphy

I've decided there are some things in life I wish to view very lightly--  Surprising behavior from people I know; definitely the news and many world events...  And so, in this aspiration to be more easy with life, I have been exploring my experiences and realizing: nonchalance requires trust.

To be nonchalant means having an air of ease toward all of life.  It's a wonderful quality and I love even that the definition uses the word "air."  Who doesn't enjoy the experience of taking something challenging or difficult lightly?  Its such a relief!  The flip side of this is taking something tremendous and awesome lightly as well.

Oh--you weren't counting on that?  :)

The Buddha is quick to remind us of not attaching to anything--good or bad.  Or whatever--I know we're moving beyond labels, the point is, that over-identifying or holeding onto anything isn't really helpful in cultivating ease.

There is a fine line between raising our eyebrows and seeing, making adjustments to create future experience and moving on and vehemently pushing something away--thus amplifying it and engaging with it even more. 

There is also a fine line between savoring and clinging.  It all has to do with being in the flow in the moment.  For example the other day my cat, Astra, came up and I was petting her--which she was loving and I was loving--and then she walked away and I was watching her walk and I was lingering in this moment of communion we had just shared and watching her, I was surprised when she leapt to the window having seen a bird.  And I realized: that's it!  She's already moved on, and even if its only for a little bit, I'm still there--back in the past in my emotions with the experience.

I realize whenever I don't respond to life this way--with nonchalance--that it all comes down to some un-free behavior or habit, some limiting idea, some viewpoint out of sync with the source flowing within me, ultimately, with a lack of trust on my part.  Like maybe I won't get another moment like this.  Or somehow not thinking every moment can be one I can entirely enjoy.

This makes me think about washing the dishes or chopping wood--you know, all those Buddhist ideas that remind us that we can enjoy anything if we bring our full presence to it.  It's true you know. 

So I see how nonchalance requires me to consider what exactly DO I believe about life?  Do I see all moments as equal?  Do I expect each moment to be as capable of profound joy as any other?  Is the incredible expansion of channeling a message--is that experience more ripe for happiness then making coffee?  If I am an eternal divine being capable of limitless bliss, am I actually approaching life from a place trusting this to come forth and tuning into it?

Do I truly trust in my own divinity?  In the divine timing, the divine orchestration of life?  Not just as an idea, but am I living-breathing-being with this as my reality? 

Furthermore, do I truly embrace my capacity to create my experience, feeling ultimately so powerful that whatever shows up that I inadvertently created not to my liking can simply be smiled at as a reflection of my own carelessness of focus and re-shaped to my own liking?

This is the subtle meanderings of our newness flowing forth.  We realize that we are indeed capable of anything and although I choose wonder, awe, bliss, inspiration, amazement, love, abundance, clarity, focus, playfulness and many other experiences, I also too choose to have my energy in life flow through choice rather then being triggered by the reflections that catch me off guard and are not really in the vibe I want to experience.

Like Astra who knowingly plays with her reflection in the closet mirrored door, I want to play with the reflections of my state of being--noticing and when I feel inclined, adjusting. 

Choosing nonchalance toward life means not being casual but being filled with faith.  It is an essential ingredient to a peaceful heart.  Only by relating to life with a trusting cooperative approach am I able to experience the diversity of aliveness and my own countless creations with the perpetual eye of a powerful creator and enjoy it all.

Playfulness is a wonderful and essential part of life, a luxury that all of us have access to.  Choosing nonchalance and empowerment for me brings forth a playfulness to life that I find helps me have fun, relax and in this state of relaxation ideas, connections, energy and clarity flow forth in abundance.  I am also learning that I can trust in this--by continually choosing my state of being I remain in a perpetually creative vibration that yields moment after moment of joy.  Wow. 

The value of self-trust is obvious.  Experiencing it deeply is another thing.  I am learnign it may be cultivated--by keeping my word and commitments to myself, which first of all means making commitments with care--considering if I am truly want to make this choice and live it.  The more I keep my word to myself, and live my life making my own happiness and joy the first priority, the greater self-trust I experience. 

How are you at trusting yourself, the Universe, life in general?  And what helps you to feel this feeling, deepen it, identify with it, and literally become it?  If that interests you.  It certainly interests me, and I'd love to hear from you on what your experience is.

Nonchalance for all!  Yes indeed.  Well for anyone that's interested anyway--that's my intention today.  In my world ease is definitely IN. 

shine on! inspiration #2

an invitation to be the new human

by meredith murphy

What was here, is still here.

Nothing is created or destroyed.  All exists in a simultaneous circular state of quantum information, that is continually expanding and diversifying. 

You locate specific moments, places, energies with the choice of focus. 

If your focus is on the past, you're not fully in your body here and now. When this is your focus, your chakras and part of your energy are in stasis and cannot move. 

It's good to reinvent/metamorphosize the past--bringing wholeness and light to things and creating quantum shifts, and that is done through conscious light work.  However, "visiting" the past unconsciously and continually is dis-empowering and creates a feeling of being stuck and things not changing.

Today, make a conscious effort to be grounded in your body fully. 

Your body is a temple of light.  It is a sacred space in which vast, mysterious multidimensional energies converge and commune.  I invite you today, to be here, be now and know the power and joy of aliveness! 

Let each moment be fully within your focus and released as the next one arises.  Practice the fluidity of moving as one with the energy that is.  Be the new human: grounded and multidimensional.  Bringing all that you are into your human energy field and your life.  What a gift for All-That-Is!

 

cultivate your groove, it's easy!

 

Loving this awesome and buoyant tune by Sergio Mendes with Indie Arie. The lyrics are SO fabulous, "Kindness is timeless...love is so easy, it just takes a moment to show somebody that you care...to give someone your love."

Are you consciously using music to uplift yourself?  It's SO easy and feels so good! ♥

Give yourself a little effortless joy!  Rock out to the songs that make you sway, swing or even dance.  Play the ones that get you singing, breathing deep and smiling.  Lift YOU up.

For me, I'm groovin' lately on this little bubbly Brazilian-style joy.  Join me?  My groove, my life.  Welcome!  Vibe on in...