Dances with Ducks

I've been hanging out at the American River lately to escape the heat in Sacramento valley. Almost every late afternoon, you can find me sitting in the shade, with my feet in the river. I'm often accompanied by a flock of mallard ducks, who nest nearby.

The ducks are teaching me, just like every other part of nature. Here is some of what I'm learning:

• You are made for your surroundings. Ducks are perfectly suited for their environment. Their food is everywhere -- under water (algae and other aquatic plants, tiny fish) and on land (insects and seeds). They are built to swim both above water and under water (those webbed feet are so efficient that ducks can even run short distances on the water), to fly in the air, and even to walk a bit on land. The transitions between these different ways of traveling are seamless and beautiful. (Have you ever seen a duck land on water? It's kind of like watching someone waterski). Their feces fertilize the areas to feed other plants and animals. 

 Humans are no different.  Each of us is made for the specific niche in which we find ourselves. It may not be obvious, because it may feel awkward -- but the duck is as nervous about predators as you are about that next meeting or next job.  Think about all the ways in which you are suited to your circumstances. At the very minimum, if you are reading this, it's because you are interested in your own self-development. You have therefore surrounded yourself with opportunities for this, whether that's through your work, your family, your friends, your health or your hobbies.

• When you have nothing else to do, take care of yourself.  Ducks spend a lot of time grooming their feathers, in the same way that cats do. All that feather maintenance must keep them waterproof and optimally aerodynamic, both of which are necessary to their safety and finding food.

Humans are no different. You need to maintain your physical body so you can hunt later. Maybe you need to exercise aerobically, or stretch, or do strength training, or sleep, or do any of a million things you know will help you perform better when it matters.

• Stick close to your mates -- they'll keep an eye out for you. Ducks seem to sleep, or at least nap, in groups, and one of their number always has his eyes open.

Humans are no different.  Even though we no longer live in clans in our society, good friends will look out for you. No single one of us can keep our eyes open all the time, and no single one of us can see in all directions simultaneously. Stick close to your friends, appreciate when they look out for you by covering for you with the boss, or finding a bargain for you -- and look out for them, too.

• Just because your mates are looking out for you, doesn't mean they're not looking out for themselves. When humans show up with bread treats, the same duck who was keeping an eye out for the group will still elbow (wing?) her way to get to the bread first.

Humans are no different. Your best friend will likely tell you about that hot new guy, or the person who's looking for your services -- but only if she's not interested.

• Each duck is unique, and no duck is truly different.  If you sit with the ducks long enough, you begin to notice that each duck's feathers are subtly different. This one has stripes under his tail, that one has only white feathers there, the other one has an adorable curled feather on top of her back. And all are covered in feathers, have a head, two wings, two webbed feet, and a heart and other organs that support all of this.They are all governed by the law of gravity, and the fact that their specific gravity is less than that of water. Do they feel the same inside? Who knows?

Humans are no different. You may feel alone, misunderstood, like you are the only person in the world with your beliefs or your history or your problems. And we all have a head, two legs, skin without feathers or fur, and organs to support it all. Perhaps we do feel differently inside, as we each have a different history, and yet all of us are subject to the law of gravity, the laws of man, and the fact that our bodies will some day wear out.

Pointing towards Reincarnation

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/health/13mind.html?src=me&ref=general

Try This @ Home -- How Psychics Have Fun, Part 3

The West Coast Dowsers' Conference was wonderful! Not only did I get to change a few lives by teaching how to access intuition without tools, but I got to have fun. As one of the old time dowsers said from his podium, the dowsers, as a group, are the best psychics he ever met, they just don't necessarily want anyone to know that. So I got to hang out with lots of other psychics for a couple of days and learn some things, too.

One presentation was on orbs, which are energy phenomena that no one can exactly explain. (For more orb photos, see here.) Some theorize that they're angels, or devas, or extraterrestrials, or spirits of one sort or other, but no one really knows. (Yes, someone talked for 1 1/4 hours on orbs; where else but a dowsers' conference would that happen?) They seem to like good energy, including nature. They show up on digital photos quite easily, though only rarely on film. I learned that orbs' 'social distance' seems to preclude them from hanging out in rooms with standard 8' ceilings, and that they like to hang out in good energy if the ceilings are at least 12'. The room was a sort of bowl, with about a 16' ceiling at the bottom, where the presenter stood, so I aimed my camera at the ceiling and took a random shot. Guess what? if you look at the photo above, you'll see a clear orb at the top center, with a fainter one immediately to its right.

Another presentation was so much fun -- we got to use our minds to hold dimes to our foreheads (no spit, no tools, nothing, believe me). Try this yourself -- if you just put a dime on your forehead (without tilting your forehead back), it'll fall right off. Then try imagining your forehead as a giant magnet and see what happens. The photo at right is what happened for me.

Then we held spoons to our heads in the same manner. Yes, it works! You have to begin with your head tipped back a little, and concentrate a little more, but it does work.

Then we had a spoon bending party. The presenter handed us cheap spoons that she got from the cafeteria, and told us to put the bowl of the spoon against the fleshy part of our left hand. Then we were supposed to push on the handle and it would bend. Well, you can't just push and have it bend. However, if you run energy into the handle, it will twist with almost no pressure.

Almost everyone could do it. The woman next to me, who told me that she used to do it regularly, but had 'lost' the ability in the last few years did several full revolutions. At left is what my spoon looked like. Please note that this is not a 180 degree bend -- it is a 540 degree bend. See the loop at right?

Then I got to do something I have wanted to do since I was a teen. I got to be part of a group of five who took turns lifting each other with just 2 fingers each.  One sat in a chair. The other four each clasped our two hands together with our paired index fingers pointed forward. Two of us were stationed with our paired index fingers under the seated one's arm pits, one person on the right and one on the left. The other two were stationed with our paired fingers under the seated one's bent knees, one person on the right, and one on the left. When I was seated, they couldn't lift me -- until I thought of myself as being held up by a helium balloon. Then they lifted me a good 18 inches off the seat -- with just 2 fingers each! And I was the smallest person. Two of the guys easily topped 200 pounds, and we lifted all of them! For the last 2 people, I could actually see their energy bodies lift up above their physical bodies from what they were visualizing, and they they were quite easy to lift, where it had been impossible before.

And yes, you can try all of this at home! (Don't try the lifting if you have any physical issues.) It will help you develop your own psychic abilities. Let me know what happens.

How NOT to Communicate

Heather, a good friend of mine, just had the oddest experience -- and there are some lessons on communication in it for us all.

Heather founded a sort of meditation and psychic development group, which she ran for many years. She gave up running it some years ago when she had her first child, and almost immediately realized that she didn't even have the time or attention to attend. Everyone wished her well, and she remained on good terms with the group, even visiting occasionally to share some new discovery she'd made.

The group recently decided to make a big push for a day-long alumni gathering, which was also envisioned as a sort of outreach for new members.  They sent a mass email to everyone on their mailing list, which included both past and potential members, and then followed it up with a posting on Facebook, again inviting everyone with whom the group was 'friends', and later, several follow up emails.

Heather saw the group email, and while she was supportive, decided it wasn't all that important for her to go, as her now 10 year old son had a baseball game that day. To be honest, her feelings were a bit hurt that she hadn't been asked to help plan the day, or even a part of it.

A few days before the event, she began to get phone calls from current group members, including the person now running the group. "Are you coming?", they all began, and continued on the themes of 'it's going to be amazing', as well as 'we love you, we miss you, and we want you here'.

Heather calmly explained the situation, including her scheduling and emotional conflicts. When she spoke about her feelings, the group leader said, "But I did contact you -- I sent you a message on Facebook!"  Heather checked, and sure enough, there was a message asking for her participation. It was cleverly entitled, "Psychic community gathering -- my angel wants to talk to your angel!", sent after the announcement of the event. Of course we all know that it's normal to schedule and begin promoting events long before you plan their details. But Heather assumed that the 'my angel' message was another Facebook group event invitation, of which she gets 2 or 3 a day, and ignored it. 

The moral of the story here is:

Do NOT rely on any one method of communication to reach someone! 

In these times of communication overload, when we are all bombarded by email, voice mail, and text messages, not to mention Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, yahoogroups, various chats and other services too numerous to mention, it's important to either

• Find out what mode of communication works best for each person with whom you communicate, or 
• Use several modes of communication in parallel, especially if it's important

Further, writing a personal message is NOT like writing a headline. In a headline, you are aiming to intrigue. In a personal message, it's more important to be direct. To that end:

•  Make sure your subject line is specific, to the point and accurate, lest it be misinterpreted. 
•  If your message is personal, the title should indicate it's a personal message, especially if you are sending it on one of the big services. 

If you don't receive a timely response, follow up on your first communications with a second round, again in a simultaneous manner with a specific, and clear subject that this time shows some urgency. This time, use all possible methods, and use the telephone, if possible. Many people will understand the urgency of a telephone call. 

(For a discussion of how all this information overload is affecting us, please see this.)

In the end, the onslaught of phone calls, along with the discussions that resulted from them, ironed out all difficulties. Heather was happy to let her husband take their son to his game, so that she could present a new technique at the gathering. 

Trust, or Not? Hormones Make a Difference

Hormones Tip Balance in Matters of Trust - NYTimes.com

Love and Respect

If I had a dime for every time I heard someone, usually a woman (but it happens to men, too), say she wasn't feeling loved by her significant other, I'd be a very wealthy woman. And I think she's often confusing love with respect.

Love is a feeling. It is literally a cord running between your heart and your partner's, with energy flowing both ways. This is why many people, when they describe love, describe it as a warm feeling in their heart. They are literally feeling that flow of non-physical energy. Love is something that just exists. You can feel it, or not, but it is still there. You are made of the stuff of the universe, which in some sense, is love. So being loved, living in love is your birthright. You are loved by the universe simply because you exist.

Respect, on the other hand, is something you earn. You earn it through your actions, or perhaps your words or your choices, because in some sense, they are actions.

So you can be loved without being respected. Think of how you love a pet, especially if the pet pees on the living room rug. You feel the tug in your heart, the love, and you forgive it. Do you respect your pet? Not so much.

You can also be respected without being loved. This is the norm in work situations. You expect to be spoken to respectfully, to have requests made of you, rather than having orders barked at you (even if they're really orders). You expect that your opinion will be at least requested, if not acted upon, before a major change in something which is in your area of expertise and/or authority. If they don't respect your work, or your work ethic (showing up late, messing up assignments, etc.), eventually you're gone. But that warm, fuzzy feeling around your heart? It's not there, you don't even expect it to be there.

The problem is that some relationships, like intimate ones with significant others, have to be relationships of both love and respect, in order to work right.

If you are loved, but not respected in an intimate relationship, you'll end up feeling worse and worse about yourself. When you accept disrespect, rather than standing up to it, especially when it is fed to you as a steady diet, you only have two choices. You can either agree with the other person's low opinion of you, and think less of yourself; or you can disagree with that opinion, and think less of yourself for not standing up to it. Either way, you feel worse about yourself. (Abusers count on this.)

If you are respected, but not loved, in an intimate relationship, you'll feel that lack of warmth around your heart, and will know at a deep level that something is missing, even if on the surface, nothing is wrong.

So when a relationship isn't working, ask yourself: is it the love that's missing? or the respect?  And is there anything I can do to change that?

Using 4 Models of Time to Create Your Ideal Life

We generally assume we live in a three dimensional world, that is, length, width and height (or the x, y and z axes of Cartesian coordinates). The truth is that we live in a four dimensional world. The fourth dimension is time. It seems to me that you can't have physical reality without time, because then things would literally run into each other constantly.

Over the millenia, how people think about time has changed. I know of three models:

• cyclical time
• linear time
• ever present time

In cyclical time, the time of ancient people (and still the time of plants and animals), we live in the rhythm of days and nights, as well as the cycles of the moon and of the seasons. For example, Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon (calculating the Paschal full moon is complicated).The image for this is a circle, or perhaps a spiral.

In linear time, we are on a sort of railroad track from the past to the future. We can look behind us, or in front of us, but we can't revisit the past, nor can we jump to a future date without going through all the dates between now and then. The image for this, obviously, is a straight line.

In ever-present time,  we focus on the idea that in non-physical reality, all time is somehow simultaneous, that is, that all time is the present.The image for this is a bubble, with you, creating physical time, sitting in the center of it.

I was recently shown that there is, in fact, a fourth model of time. It is a composite of the other three. Imagine the three dimensional bubble moving along a straight line in a flat plane (with the two dimensions of the plane representing three dimensional reality), with a spiral of time moving down around the bubble, perpendicular to the plane in which the bubble is moving. That is, although you act in this three dimensional world, your consciousness is pulling one probably reality into physical existence from the many which exist in non-physical ones.

How do you select one probable reality from the many which exist? Emotion.

Why emotion? This has been emphasized ad nauseam by Abraham, as channeled by Esther Hicks. I have to say this puzzled me for the longest time, but the answer is actually quite simple: most human emotions are those of the body, which is physical, not those of the soul, which is not. Human bodily emotion is what pulls things into the physical world, because it is the only way for the body to experience the events desired by the soul.

On Not Being in Control

A  former high official from the Drug Enforcement Agency recently said publicly that the so-called War on Drugs is over, and we lost. He continued, saying that we should just legalize the drugs, standardize them, distribute them through approved outlets and tax them. This would both take the money out of drugs, discourage crime at many levels, and provide safer drugs for those who are addicted.  Apparently, over time, the number of addicts will decline, because although the drugs are cheaper, they are never given away free, which is how many get hooked originally. (This is what is happening in Switzerland, as a result of their policies and laws.)

There's a huge controversy simmering over what to do about illegal immigration. I'm not going to take sides here. However, there is large scale sociological research which shows that stricter enforcement of our borders has made the illegal alien population larger, rather than smaller. Why? Because now, once you get here, you can no longer afford to leave -- you might not get back in to the US again.

The largest economy in the world can neither enforce its drug laws nor control its borders. What can you or I control? Our bodies? Our thoughts? Our emotions? Our actions?

Most of our bodily processes, like digestion, regulation of body temperature, and heart rate, are beneath the level of our conscious awareness. You can breathe consciously, but that takes so much of your attention that you really don't do much else consciously while you're doing it (this is why it's a form of meditation). Digestion is accomplished largely by a community of friendly bacteria, not even strictly by 'us'.

Some say that 80% of our thoughts are habitual and unintentional, that is, out of our control. Over time, you can change deep beliefs, or substitute positive thoughts for negative ones, again, with a fair amount of intention and effort. This is what hypnosis and NLP and certain other healing modalities are for.

Your emotions are caused by a combination of a triggering event (which is out of your control), along with the deep belief structure (also normally out of your control), which create thoughts, which create emotions.

Your actions are under your control -- at least to the degree that you can consciously override all the beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. And to the degree that your actions affect your body, you can control your body.

Let me suggest, then, that control is a pretty outmoded idea, born of the industrial age, in which everything was related to a machine. In a machine, you control the parts, how they fit together, how fast they work.  People became cogs in the great machine, its acolytes. But the entire world as a great machine? An illusion. Perhaps a useful illusion, because it encourages action, which may change things, but still an illusion.


Perhaps being in the flow, or being in alignment, is a better idea. Think of it this way: a dam is the illusion of control; water is the flow of life. Would you rather be the water or the dam? The water will continue to flow, forever. It is powered by the sun, which evaporates water from everywhere, and earth's gravity, which brings that water to earth as rain, which runs downhill. Water will fill up rivers which have been dammed, and flow over the top to the sea. The dam slows them down, perhaps, but doesn't stop them. Eventually, water will wear down the dam.

If you think of yourself as a drop of water, then your goals might be different. You might choose to be in the center of the flow, where it's calmer (there's always turbulence at the edges, because of friction with the sides of the channel). You might want to know where the river is heading, while realizing that you don't control the direction. That might help you get back into the center of the flow, if you're at an edge, where you feel the turbulence. You might choose to enjoy the scenery as you pass, knowing that you can't stay in the same place, can't hold on to the view. You might choose to connect with the other droplets of water, because collectively, we can change the course of the river.

Silver Lining Department

The eruption of Iceland's volcano may be Mother Earth's attempt to offset global warming. Mt. Pinatubo's eruption in 1991 cooled average temperatures on Earth for 3 years, as much as .71 degrees in the maximum year.

The 5 Stages of Transformation

Lately I've been 'seeing' a ridiculous number of relationships ending, mostly among my clients, but among friends, as well. The relationships vary: marriages, lovers, friends, siblings, coworkers, a man and his job, a woman and her home. And I've noticed that the pattern remains the same. Often I can see that it's really over before my clients do. Why?

It's because the pattern is obvious to me, partly because I've seen it so many times, and partly thanks to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (On Death and Dying (Scribner Classics), who identified it in terminally ill patients in the 1960's. The pattern she identified, consisting of the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, really applies to any death -- death of a relationship, losing a job, losing a home, etc. All deaths precede a transformation; after all, physical death is the ultimate transformation. Conversely, it seems that all transformation is preceded by a death, even if that is the death of a single belief.

For a relationship, the five stages go something like this: He isn't really ignoring me, he's just working really hard (denial). How dare he stay out so late -- three nights a week? How dare he treat me like this? Is there another woman? (anger) Maybe if I lose weight, and cook a good dinner for him every night, and don't mention my suspicions (which he denies), then maybe he'll come home to me (bargaining). Can't I do anything right? Am I not good enough for him? I'm so depressed, I can barely get out of bed in the morning to go to work. I have to force myself to smile at him (depression). Oh, I get it, he really is out of this relationship -- he's been seeing another woman for six months. Now what do I do? (acceptance)

For the loss of a job, the five stages might go like this: I know there are going to be layoffs, but it won't happen to me (denial). Maybe if I do an extra project, I can make myself so essential that it won't happen to me (bargaining). I got laid off! How dare they do that to me, after 10 (or 15 or 20 or 45) years of service? (anger) What did I do wrong? Why is this happening to me? Who am I without this job? I can't bear to even look for a job, I'm so upset (depression).  How am I going to survive? What do I do next? (acceptance)

The stages don't necessarily go in neat order. It's quite common to bounce back and forth between, say, denial and anger, anger and bargaining, anger and depression, or depression and acceptance.   

If you're in one of the stages of loss, i.e the stages of transformation, what can you do about it? If you're in denial, not much, because you don't know what you don't know. The good news is -- that can only last so long, because something, perhaps a physical ailment will call your attention to the impending transformation.

Once you get to the stage of anger, there is something you can do. You have to ask yourself, what specifically am I angry about? What am I pretending not to know that keeps me here? What is my part in this? Is there an internal change I can make? When you change, aka transform, your reactions will be different, so the world, including the relationship, will be different.

If you are already at the stage of bargaining, there is a different set of questions. If you are having to bargain to keep something, you have to ask yourself if you want it badly enough to do all the extra work. Maybe the answer is yes; maybe not. In my experience, though, once you are even at this stage, it's really over. It may take years for the whole thing to play out -- you can bounce back and forth between denial (everything's okay) and anger and bargaining (we hit a rough patch again) for a long time. Occasionally, in a lover or marriage relationship especially, the bargaining forces a real change in one or both of the parties, so the relationship transforms, but without breaking up. 

The difficult thing about depression is that a lot of times, people get there without even knowing what specifically depresses them. People will often medicate themselves out of the feeling of sadness or depression,  with cigarettes, alcohol, or legal or illegal drugs, without ever dealing with the underlying issue. (I'm not a doctor, but I do understand that there are some depressions that are purely chemical, that is, from neurological problems; brains that don't produce normal amounts of certain chemicals. I'm not talking about these people.) You have to deal with the underlying situation. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes you really have to think back to what triggered the feeling.

It helps to ask yourself what you lost, or what you fear losing (though if you're here, it's probably already lost). And what you lost doesn't have to be a person, or a job, or a thing. It can be just an idea or a belief -- and sometimes these are the most profound triggers of transformation. When you lose something (or someone), it's important to ask what you have instead, because that points in the direction of hope or actions you can take to move into acceptance of the change.

When you realize what is going on, you can consciously choose to move through these stages.  By asking the questions above, as well as others unique to your situation, you can shorten the time frames of the stages of transformation. You can see the glimmer of acceptance, and a new situation, even as far back as the stage of anger.

If you want help moving through your particular situation more quickly and easily, please call me at 888-4-hollis (888-446-5547) to discuss options.

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?

According to the Bible (Matthew 27:45-46), Jesus is reputed to have asked this on the cross. The New English Bible translates this as, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" There is lots of speculation about why Jesus would have said this. Most of the speculation boils down to the idea that Jesus was acting like a normal human in a terrible predicament, which, of course, he was.

But I don't think that's what it was. Not that I'm a biblical scholar, or even Christian. (Although perhaps that's an advantage, as I wasn't programmed to believe anything in particular.) This is how my guides explained it to me:

If you choose to serve humanity or the earth, that is, the common good, or even the higher spiritual good, you must choose to serve of your own free will, not because it is your path, or because you are guided. You must choose to serve without the intervention of anyone, including guides, angels, or whatever your conception of God. That moment of choice is probably the only moment in your life when you are truly alone.

Choosing to serve of your own free will is the next step in spiritual mastery. It is the invitation for the Christ energy, the energy of evolution, to enter you.

There is, of course, no requirement to choose to serve -- all choices are honorable when made in full consciousness. 

So should you ever feel truly alone in making a decision, especially if you are accustomed to getting any sort of spiritual or psychic information, please understand that this is an invitation to your spiritual evolution. There is a reason you feel alone -- and you can take an ironic sort of comfort from that -- you must be doing something right to even get the invitation!

Reflective Listening

In reflective listening, you get into rapport with your subject (the joke is: smile, lean forward and nod), occasionally repeat what they've said back to them, and let them go on. This interview is a great example of that.

Rielle Hunter (the mother of John Edwards' love child) insisted that if she were to go public, she'd do it in her own words. This is, therefore, a verbatim transcript of the interview.

The technique is great, and okay, it's maybe a little titillating in that, "ooh, here's someone else's dirty laundry in public" kind of way. Enjoy!

Hello, America, My Name Is Rielle Hunter: Politics: GQ

Talk Deeply, Be Happy?

I guess this is why I love my work so much -- I get to have deep, substantive conversations with people every day!

Talk Deeply, Be Happy? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

It does make me wonder, though, if focus is associated with melancholy (aka sadness), and deep conversations (during which you'd have to be focused, right?) make you happy, is the main difference the connection to another person? That is, does deep, solitary focus tend to make you sad, while deep connection tend to make you happy?

Quantum psychology, here we come!

As someone who experiences Radin's entangled minds as an everyday event, I really appreciate his research. Here, he links to an article in "Nature" that shows that quantum effects can exist at room temperature, i.e. in living bodies. My favorite quote:

"... the concept of entangled minds will become so obvious that it won't be considered controversial any more. It might take a year or two for the hoopla to settle down, but in the grand scheme of things we will have advanced from a "para" discipline to the mainstream in a flash. And likewise, centuries of past objections and skepticism about the reality of psychic and mystical experiences will also vanish in a flash.

This sea-change won't mean that everyone will start levitating on Tuesday and walking through walls on Wednesday. The phenomena may still be quite capricious and hard to control. But that will be seen as a psychological issue, i.e. the instability of undisciplined minds. And not one about existence of the phenomena. "

Entangled Minds: Quantum biology now. Quantum psychology next?

Do Vacaions Make you Happy?

Turns out, not so much:

How Vacations Affect Your Happiness - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

But planning them does, so plan away!

FREE Intuiton Development Teleclass tomorrow (Thursday), 10AM PST

Everyday Intuition

Did you know that there's a structure to intuition? There is.

 

Learn what it is, and how to use it to your advantage in every day life. You'll also learn some attitudes that will enhance your intuition, and have a chance to examine your own intuitive skills in a fun, interactive environment. 

Join me tomorrow, Thursday for a FREE teleclass, in which we'll explore the six different types of intuition -- and most importantly, which of them you use!
 

      When: Thursday, Feb. 4, 10AM PST

     Where: wherever you are

     Sponsor: Up2Yoga.com 

Register for FREE Now! (Don't worry that the link still says Jan. 21, and the wrong title -- the call in info is the same.)

My call-in workshop  is part of a new program called Up2yoga – a continuous conversation about yoga teachings and practices, and how to live them day-to-day. I’m excited to be part of it. 

My Everyday Intuition workshop offers a fully interactive experience. Through advanced technology, we’ll engage with each other as if we’re together in the same room – with breakout groups, live Q&A, and more. This gives you a chance to get deeply involved with the material and learn from each other, as well as from me. 

Register now for free access to my workshop, and consider becoming part of the Up2yoga community. You’ll engage with other people like you – people who want to deepen their understanding of yoga, themselves and their world, and live their yoga in powerful ways.

To sign up, click here.

Dying for Health Care

What's the difference between the outpouring of support for the Haitians after the earthquake, and the inability of our Congress to support American citizens with a bill providing health care for all?

It's the video, stupid.

We are deluged with videos of Haitians dying on the streets of Port-Au-Prince, their screams heard around the world. We see bodies piled by the side of the road, and mass graves being dug by backhoes. In the midst of this, doctors talk about preventable deaths.

There are 46,000 preventable deaths each year in the US, too. When the US story is told, however, all we see is town hall meetings -- people talking in a hearing room, tearfully telling stories about how their mother, or brother, or daughter, died because they couldn't get health care. Yes, their emotion carries, but it does not have the gut wrenching impact that it would have if those deaths were seen.

What we need is uninsured people dying on the Capitol steps, both in Washington, DC and in every state capitol, as well as the Federal Buildings in New York City and Los Angeles, to shame our government into passing universal health care. We need brave people, who want their deaths to count for something, to volunteer to die in public. (I realize this may be thought macabre, but the idea was born more of desperation than anything else.)

We need their families there with them to tell their stories, because the dying probably can't.

We need videographers to document these deaths, and put them up on YouTube, because the corporate media won't carry these stories until they are shamed into it by the viral nature of the 'amateur' videos.

We need an attorney to write a statement for the dying to sign, that they are volunteering to die in public, of their own free will, in order to protect those supporting them from any prosecution. We will probably need other attorneys to support these families, in case they are arrested for their civil disobedience. (Though it's difficult to imagine the police arresting a dying woman.)

We need other volunteers to support these brave souls, to provide care for the dying, and to provide logistical assistance.

So, if you know someone who is dying because of their lack of health insurance, ask that person, "Do you want your death to count for something?" and get into action.

"If the people lead, the leaders will follow."
Mahatma Gandhi

[This vison was given to meby by guides a couple of years ago. I never mentioned it to anyone. A couple of days ago, I 'saw' it again, and this time, I told my husband, who suggested I write it. Please don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.]

Can meditation make you lucky?

Did you know that there's a structure to luck? There is.

And if you've ever lost something, then relaxed and felt yourself being led to just the thing you though you'd lost, you may have wondered if there were a connection between the two. There is -- learn what it is tomorrow.

Join me tomorrow for a FREE teleclass, in which we'll explore how you can be luckier, as well as the surprising ways in which happiness, success, health and luck are connected.

When: Jan. 21, 10AM PST

Where: wherever you are

Sponsor: Up2Yoga.com

To sign up, click here.

Have I become a cyborg?

I have always laughed at those folks, walking around with the blue tooth headsets, seemingly talking to no one. (How can you tell if that person talking to no one is normal or schizophrenic? By the presence -- or absence -- of a blue tooth headset.) I jokingly call them cyborgs -- the next step is implantation of that headset in the ear.

Actually, I think that blue tooth technology and wireless devices are just proxies for the coming of widespread human telepathy. Or maybe we're using technology to reclaim part of our birthright.

I obviously don't have a blue tooth headset. But I'm beginning to wonder if I'm part cyborg, myself.

I've been without my Mac for over a week now, except for one day, during which I rescued the two main documents I'm working on, and a bit of my calendar, which I had to (eek!) write down by hand. The substitute Mac I have is even more unreliable than my main one, in that it shuts down randomly (save your work often!), and it doesn't have my address book (BOTH my address book backups died simultaneously with my Mac hard drive), nor can it access my email.

I'm feeling really out of sorts. Everything takes twice as long on this old machine, and the keys and the touch pad don't feel the same. I feel unproductive, at sea. There are lots of things I can't do, but I'm also avoiding things I can do online, like write this, just because it's not the same machine. Have I become so attached to this computer, this thing, that I'm not myself without it? And does that make me a cyborg?

But here's the even stranger thing: I'm noticing my own telepathy more. I am planning to hike with a friend, M, in Marin on Saturday afternoon. Since I don't go there all that often, I decided to visit another friend, J, afterwards, around 5:30, and arranged that over a week ago. This morning, it popped into my mind to stop and see a third friend, A, but I dismissed it, because I don't have my address book, so I don't have her phone number. Here's what happened:

I was talking to a client this morning. We were almost done with our conversation, just saying our goodbyes, when the phone cut out. I hit *69, as she had called me, but got connected to M instead!

M said that she was planning to visit A on Saturday (wow, what a coincidence!), and could I shift my plans to accommodate that?

Well, I had to call J to see if she could meet at 6 instead of 5:30 -- but I wanted to visit A, as well. Luckily, M had A's phone number (remember, I don't have an address book), and it turns out that A's birthday is Saturday, so I was invited to her open house!

And J had emailed me this morning (but I have no email) to ask if I could arrange our meeting to be at 6 instead of 5:30!

Maybe I'm connected on the innernet, even when I'm not connected on the internet. And maybe you are, too.

What is a Teacher?

George Leonard, black belt aikidoist, prolific author and co-founder of Integral Transformative Practice, dropped his body permanently yesterday. I learned a number of things from George, one of which changed my life, or at least my experience of it, completely and permanently (I'll get to that later). George was a Teacher for many people, and it got me to thinking about what a Teacher is.

Lots of people are teachers, which I define as having knowledge or skills that others don't have, which they pass on. But a Teacher is more:

• A Teacher has wisdom you don't have, and passes that on, along with the knowledge and/or skills.
  
• A Teacher sees you, in the African, or Na'vi, sense -- seeing into your soul, seeing who you really are.
• A Teacher, by passing on what (s)he knows, and by seeing you, allows you to have more access to yourself, and to universal wisdom.

One person's Teacher may be someone else's teacher. It has to do not only with the teacher, but also with the student. Perhaps the student doesn't want to be seen, or isn't ready for the wisdom the teacher has.

Or maybe there's just a connection between the two that allows the teacher to be a Teacher for that particular student. I had a chemistry teacher in high school like that. I don't think she was a Teacher for much of anyone but me (and she was only a teacher for a couple of years, before going back to school to get her PhD and into industry). However, I learned not only chemistry, but also that being an adult didn't mean being serious all the time, that it was okay to explore the offbeat (she taught me how to do grave rubbings), and lots of other things.

A parent, while always a teacher, is not necessarily a Teacher. Maybe the parent is very screwed up. Or maybe the parent is so invested in what (s)he would like the child to be that (s)he is incapable of seeing the child.

Teachers don't have to be human -- nature is a wonderful Teacher. For me, it's the ocean. For others, it's the woods, or the mountains. Animals can be Teachers, too. I've sure learned a lot from my cats.


Teachers don't even have to be physical. Throughout history, people like Jesus and St. Teresa of Avila have talked about their discarnate Teachers.

George invented this exercise, which he called 'Take the Hit as a Gift', which came from his aikido training. It involved someone scaring you half to death, and you using the energy and moving with the energy till you actually felt that you had more than before you were frightened. It totally worked for me! and my neurology has never been the same. It used to be that when something lousy happened, I'd crawl into bed for a while, usually a few hours, but occasionally more. Now, I just go for a walk -- and the worse the hit, the more I walk. And staying in action makes me feel less like a victim, and more like there's something I can do, even if I'm not in control. So thank you, George, for this and many other lessons. Have a great trip -- and take the hit as a gift! :)