Look for the sameness and that’s where you will find the oneness. But is it true that that sameness leads to Oneness?

Sameness is safe. Sameness means that you are just like me, that you love just like me, digest just like me, that you are human just like me.

Looking for sameness means that I don’t really have to look beyond my own self concepts to find you.

People are afraid to disagree with each other especially when it comes to “important” matters like religion, politics, or raising children because they believe that have to agree in order to be friends. When we agree then we are the same.

But where there is agreement there is no growth. Where there is sameness there is no God in multiplicity.

As a culture we need to learn the art of allowing disagreement and difference.

As long as we listen to one another, disagreements are beautiful. In fact, one of the most powerful phrases in the human language is, “I hear you.” The other is, “I see you.”

I love to hold the energy of allowing people to be themselves, to have their own thoughts and opinions. I love not wanting to change anyone. I love it when I can love people just as they are. When I am doing that, oneness doesn’t matter.

In your mind’s eye, you can see that this path is clear except for the dappled sunlight and the occasional leaf dancing to the rhythm of the wind.

This path is free of obstacles, and that it stretches all the way to the horizon and beyond.

Be on the path and say to yourself quietly, “I know that Power and the Presence of Spirit goes before me. It has made my way clear and It blesses all who come near me.”

Do this visualization often.

Have a beautiful, obstacle free, and blessed afternoon

This goes beyond just appreciating the moment.

“Wanting” is a visceral energy that is connected to our sense of well being.

Wanting what you don’t have creates a sense of lack, while wanting what you do have creates abundance.

I choose abundance.

We talk on the cell phone when we drive, eat lunch at our computers, text or watch the news during dinner,  and so on.

The idea of having to keep up with all of this new technology has taken over our minds, thoughts, and lives;  resulting in high and pervasive levels of  stress.

Multitasking breeds inefficiency and stress because your attention can only be in one place at a time, not ten places at a time. It also fragments your attention causing you to be unfocused.

Fragmentation and being unfocused is exhausting…and there is nothing worse than coming home feeling overworked, overtired, and over-stressed and yet nothing meaningful was accomplished.

How Meditation Helps

When you meditate regularly you learn how to focus your attention on the present moment. Thoughts, images, and feelings come and go.  You learn how to  rest your attention in the present moment and the body rests there too.

Try this:

When you notice that you are multitasking, stop, take a deep breath and ask yourself what is important right now.  What is the one thing that needs your attention right now.  Then do that!

Click here and experience a free guided meditation

Is freedom from judgement possible?

Is it possible to not feel pain when others criticize you, your ideas, or projects?

Is it possible to not to feel joy when others praise you?

Praise and criticism are two sides of the judgment coin. To let go of one, means you’ll have to get rid of the other.

I have a confession to make, I enjoy making others happy.

It feels good when my picky children say, “dinner was good mom,” and it feels bad when a project I’d spent hours on is rejected or criticized at a board meeting.

There was a time when my desire to please others kept me from saying what was really in my heart and mind. I would withhold the “truth” because I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but really I was fearful of their reaction, fearful that I would be rejected.

My desire to please others became a trap.

My desire to please others started to change when my children became school age. I realized that no one would advocate better for my children than me, and so their needs became greater than my insecurities. I have had to confront other parents, teachers, coaches, and administrators on their behalf.

My meditation practice has been invaluable to me in dealing with judgments and confrontation.

Meditation has not only helped me to stay calm and centered, it has taught me to recognize the “me” beyond my fears, doubts, and emotions. That is, the practice of sitting, breathing, and being while letting my thoughts and feelings go, has carried over into all other aspects of my life!

Freedom from the judgement of others isn’t about not feeling happy or hurt, it’s about knowing who you are beyond the noisiness of your doubtful thoughts and your elated or hurt feelings. Freedom from judgement is about following your truth.

Meditation heals.
Just Breathe,
Krista

“Connecting with the Still Small Voice Within,” 8 Week Meditation Class starts January 25th and January 26th.

During meditation focus your attention on relaxing the face, shoulders, hands, legs. Conscious relaxation removes your attention from thinking mind.

Why? Because your attention can only be in one place at a time.

If you help with conscious relaxation the go toMeditation Storefor a free guided meditation.

Happy Holidays

I started my meditation later than usual morning.  As soon as I began, I heard both of my kids screaming at each other over the Wii remote.

Thoughts rushed in, “Why is this happening now?” “This shouldn’t be happening.”  “I should send them to camp.”

I felt anger radiate down the insides of my legs, my stomach tighten, and throbing at my temples.

I willed myself to stay conscious and not react by employing two techniques:

• Deep conscious breathing to allow myself to feel what was happening inside of me.
• “Positive Self Talk.”

Negative emotions are painful and it is normal to want to contract away from the emotion and/or “lash out,” that is, fix the external condition.

Reacting from anger or any negative emotion perpetuates that emotion by either inflaming it or causing it to go dormant.

So, in the case of my kids fighting, I could have yelled at them which would have both inflamed my anger but also would have caused a sense of temporary relief.

Unfortunately, by yelling at them, I only teach my kids that yelling solves problems and so the cycle of screaming would perpetuate itself.

The second technique is “Positive Self Talk.” This is where you literally talk yourself down from the ledge.

I asked myself, “Is it true that I need absolute quiet to do my meditation?” NO.

“Isn’t it true that even when it’s quiet there can still be drama in my head?” YES.

“Doesn’t the sound of their fighting sound like the mental arguing in my head?”  It absolutely does.

“What do I do when I am distracted by my thoughts?  I move my attention away from the thoughts and into the refuge of my breath and body.”

So that’s what I did. I moved into the refuge of the breath and body.

Of course my mind wanted to argue with me but I didn’t listen.

As I quieted down, I kid-you-not, so did they.  It was magical…at least until they decided to wrestle each other for the Wii remote   ;-)

Happy Holidays.
Namaste

I watched my body’s reaction to these thoughts: there was tension, deepening of my breath, euphoria, and a release of adrenaline that I recognize as tightness in my solar plexus and tingling in my arms and legs.

As I watched, I realized that the tension in my body was not only uncomfortable, it was similar to how my body reacts to some of negative thoughts and images that float through my mental screen.

Most people come to meditation because they want to stop thinking, at least that is what they say.

In my experience, most people come to meditation because they want to stop their negative thinking.  However, what they really want is for the mind to serve up positive and supportive thoughts.

I know this because its what I have wanted from my meditation practice. There isn’t anything wrong with this desire. In fact, there are a lot of techniques you could use to make your mind a friendlier space to inhabit.

However, if you want peace, if you want unlimited creativity, if you want to experience unconditional love, then  you have to let go of the desire for any thought.

Letting go of the desire for thought, does not mean that thought ceases, it means that you no longer react emotionally to it.

And what you are left with is YOU. You as peace. You as unlimited creativity. You as boundless energy. You as unconditional love.

Right now, your ego may be having a fit, “I won’t be able to function! Nothing will get done. I’ll be poor because I won’t want anything,” and so on. I know because it’s what my ego says to me. But it isn’t true.

You’ll just be you, and I’ll just be me,  only we’ll be happier because happiness won’t depend on what goes in and out of our heads.

Come meditate with me Namaste

Mark interviewed me about my latest CD “Guided Meditation for Relaxation and Inner Peace.”

In the interview, I give tips and insights into how we can find inner peace and balance no matter how busy our lives are….and most of us are busier than ever.

You can find the interview on page 46.

The December2011 issue features three brave and amazing women who are doing wonderful things to create peace and stability in their communities.

In The Whole Person Calendar you will also find everything metaphysical that is happening in Southern California.

I feel really honored to be a part of this amazing publication.

Thank You WPC!

Check it out and like me and The Whole Person Calendar on Facebook

I went to Michele’s workshop feeling open and excited.  The first day I painted flowers, trees, and a cow.  It was fun but far from earth shattering.  I noticed too that my energy level during that first day was really low.  I was hungry all day and I couldn’t wait to take a break.  When I asked Michele about it she said “Fatigue is not  uncommon.  What it represents is that we are fighting with our creativity, with our intuition.”

The next day when I arrived, I found myself painting trees, again.  Then I started to paint some mostly trite and uninspiring words, “God, Love, Sad…”  When I asked Michele if it was okay to the words she reminded me that we were to paint images.  I immediately felt at a loss.  She then suggested that I stay with the discomfort of not being able to use words to express myself.

I went back to the painting, wordless,  and had it in my mind to paint another flower when suddenly I stopped, my brush poised just above the paper.  In that moment I realized that because I didn’t know what to do I went right back to what I already knew how to do!  By doing what I already know, I wasn’t allowing the unknown to move through me.

This is exactly what we discuss in the journaling and meditation class.  Instead of paint however, we use a method called “Free Writing,” writing prompts, and guided meditations to move our awareness away from our conditioned/thinking mind.  Through writing and being still we exhaust everything we know about ourselves and the unknown Self emerges.

Connecting with the unknown Self, our source of creativity, is addicting.  Once you feel the newness, the insight, and the love moving through you, you want more of it. However, it doesn’t have to happen through the painting process or even the writing process.  My feeling is that any method that keeps your attention focused and in the present moment introduces you the great unknown Self.  It cannot help but to emerge through us.  As Michele says, “It’s just waiting to come through you.”

Namaste