Spiritual Solutions

by Kris King

Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down.
                —–Eckhart Tolle

I remember when I was first certain that I wanted to pursue my acting dreams while living in Springfield, IL. After driving back and forth to Chicago for auditions, it was clear to me that I needed to move to Los Angeles if I were to have a real shot at it. I sat with that knowing for at least a year before it hit me that time was not going to allow me to wait for a more favorable circumstance. At that point, it wasn’t what I needed to do that was an issue; it was how I will do it.

The major obstacle for human beings is the thinking mind. Alternatively, the human mind is the best tool ever given to you. If used in unison with the soul, the mind helps to create some of the grandest ideas, the most loving gestures, and numerous opportunities. The mind, unaccompanied, creates conflict, strife, and problems that can lead to the most erroneous behavior. In other words, when the mind plays the role of the sidekick to the superhero, the bad guys are captured and the town rejoices. However, when the mind starts acting as if it is the hero and feels that it doesn’t need any assistance, it will eventually self-destruct trying to save the town, ultimately taking the town down with it.

The problem seems to be that most people are trying to use their mind for the what as opposed to the how. To piggy back off my earlier example, when contemplating the move to Los Angeles, it was clear that I needed to move there, I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. So I explored a few different options. I thought about getting a loan. I even thought about saving up for a year or two, then moving. Until I eventually came to the obvious decision to sell my home and use the money to move and pay off some debt before I left. My mind made an assessment of what my options was, weeded out what wouldn’t work, leaving me with the best available option based on my circumstances. Two months later, I was in L.A.  

Your soul is all knowing. Your mind is all memory. If the mind is left unattended, all of your decisions will be made from past experiences. And can you blame it? The mind is trained to go into the storage room of any similar situation that you are currently in, see what you did in that situation, then act out a similar, if not an exact solution even if that solution didn’t work the last time. This is because it has no new data to work with. At least it seems this way.

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Yesterday was a historic day, not just for Americans but for those around the world who woefully believed that the American Dream was fading into the land of myth, into the mists of Avalon.  Being the daughter of an immigrant and of mixed cultural heritage yesterdays outcome is especially meaningful.
 
My father is from Guyana, South America, and came to this country on a student visa and with $23 in his pocket. Being black and immigrating to this country at a time of increasing racial tension did not daunt him from wanting to participate in the American Dream of equal opportunity and limitless possibilities. After being here only a short while, he met and married my mother, an American of German-Irish-Dutch descent. 

My parents married at a time in our history when inter-racial marriage was still illegal in some states.  I grew up listening to the debates over inter-racial marriage on the television.  It seemed like they would end every show with someone saying, “What about the children?” “What about the children,” the final lament of those who were, and are, fearful of change.

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A man who is centered and calm is a leader and a better decision maker. A man who is thoughtful and present will master all of his relationships. A man who is happy with himself is powerful and becomes the master of his circumstances.

There are those men who feel that they are at their best when they are stressed and under pressure. The high from competing with himself and others or the pressure of meeting an 11th hour deadline creates anxiety and produces adrenaline that can be addicting. This stress-anxiety-adrenaline loop feels like excitement, freedom and aliveness. Over time however, stress, anxiety, and adrenaline will slow him down, burn him out and is ultimately detrimental to his state of mind and wellbeing. Unchecked stress, anxiety, and adrenaline interferes with sleep, undermines his sex drive and weakens mental acuity.

Meditation and mindfulness, also called practicing presence, will sharpen his competitive edge without burning him out. The key is to focus on what’s happening now and let go of the outcome. When a man’s attention is continually on the end result, people, projects and objects become a means to an end. His work and his life will lack originality, joy and enthusiasm. Focusing on the outcome feels like anticipation, worry, anxiety, and stress. The practice of being in the present moment will turn stress, anxiety, competition, and worry into energy, clarity, enthusiasm, and joy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Meditation for Relaxation and Self-Healing begins this week at Beach Cities Health District.  I am really excited to be offering this class again.   We’ll be using visualization to manifest more health, wealth, and happiness into our lives.  I hope to see you all there!

When: October 1st

Time:  7:30 pm-8:30 pm

Where: Beach Cities Health District

514 N. Prospect Ave.

Redondo Beach CA, 90277

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Try not to get too bogged down with all the negativity around and about you.  Life is for you and the Spirit of the Universe loves and adores you.  The earth gives up her gifts to you daily…roses are still in bloom, the humming birds chirp and sing, and the earth is firm and sure beneath your feet.  Presidents falter and empires fall but the sun still shines for one and all. 

There is plenty of good food for you to feed yourself…mind, body, and soul, you just have to look for it.

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It doesn’t matter how much we think we know or what we say we believe.  What matters is whether or not are we living our deepest beliefs with integrity. 

We talk about peace, love, and compassion but so few of us live these principles.  Our compassion extends only to the people who think like we do, not to the person who abused us.  Our peace extends only to the people who believe in what what we believe, not to the non-believer.  Our love is only for those who please and validate us, not for the person who disagrees with us. 

Pride.  We used to talk about pride, now we talk about ego.  Most of us don’t really understand what the ego is, there are so many different ways of defining it, but pride we understand.  Pride and unconsciousness, (”Father forgive them they know not what they do”), is what keeps us from living in joy. Pride. It’s pride that keeps us from apologizing to our spouse or our children when we’ve been too harsh with them.  It’s pride that keeps us from telling them that we love them.  It’s pride that keeps us on the edges of our relationships–never to experience the fullness and richness of the other person’s company. 

Humility.  Humility is pride’s opposite.  True humility is an act of courage because it is often misconstrued and misunderstood as weakness.  To be humble is to stand in a place of power, to recognize the shortcomings of our pridefulness and then let go.  It takes humility plus courage to live the deepest and fullest expression of Life.  

Action. To speak of humility, to speak of compassion, to speak of love, is not the same as being humility, as being compassion, and being love.  This is true spirituality.

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Why do we love negativity?

Why do we believe that real life is found in  the dark place of our lives?

Why is it so hard for us to forgive…the past, ourselves, the driver who cut us off on our way to church?

Why do we insist and persist on dwelling on these ridiculous transgressions?

What is it about me that does not allow me to forgive myself?

Do you know?

Affirmation: Life is Light. Light is my nature. Peace is who I am.

Forgiveness is as easy and refreshing as… 

drinking a cool glass of water on a warm summer’s day.

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Hello everyone,

Well there’s been a lot going on, all good.  I plan on making some changes to the blog.  Soon there will be a free 20 minute guided angel meditation, as well as videos on simple everyday mindfulness, online classes, and so much more.  I haven’t shared this all yet with my web guy Mark, so let’s just keep it between us. 

Also, I’ve just discovered something called art journaling.  I love to journal and I have been journaling on and off for about ten years.  While I was in Santa Fe, I literally stumbled on something called, “The Diarist’s Workshop.”  Incredible stuff!  Well, over the past two weeks or more I’ve been up late researching art journaling and adding it to the mix with my everyday journaling.  I’ve also started taking an online art class.  I love the way the Life always has something new and delightful in store for us, we just have to learn to expect our good to arive more often.  Anyway, it’s not to late to sign up for the art class or to start your own series of art journalings.  If you want to see what I’m up to, go to http://www.flickr.com.  My screen name is Krista1970.  Check it out, leave a comment.  Let me know what you think…but be nice.

Bye for now.

Krista

p.s.

I will be posting new class updates shortly. 

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Good Vibrations

How does the material world exist if the fundamental building blocks of matter have no mass?  And what does this have to do with meditation, visualization, and your wellbeing? 

Your body and everything else in the universe may look solid; but all matter is made up of particles, particles that have no mass.  Science has yet to quantify exactly what this is all about, but the mystic and the metaphysician will tell you that the fundamental building blocks of life is Source energy…moving, oscillating, vibrating, living energy. You are Source energy in a beautiful and unique form. 

You direct this energy with your thinking and with your feeling.  That is, you have a free will to do whatever you want with this energy.  If, for example, you direct your thoughts towards something that makes you feel sad, disappointed, or resentful, the vibratory nature of your being slows down and you feel drained, tired, or depressed.  Why?  Because your sense of wellbeing is directly related to the quality your thinking, and your thoughts direct the vibration and flow of your energy.

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This month I’ve been working with, “Meditation in the Silence,” by E.V. Ingraham. Below is an excerpt from the book regarding communing with our Source through the practice of sitting in silence. I’ve also included a lesson and mindfulness practice that complements Ingraham’s.

The Practice of the Silence

1. Be comfortably seated so that your mind will be as free as possible from any thought of the body.

2. Remember that this period of silence is a period of prayer, a period of conscious communion with your Source.

3. Be interested in discovering the nature of Source and what Source wishes to reveal to you.

4. Become very still, and listen with your whole being to catch whatever degree of Presence may be revealed to you.

5. Acknowledge that The Presence is in you and that Its infinite wisdom is unfolding in you, Its Life is expressing in you, and Its inexhaustible substance is being formed in you continually.

6. Do not make the period of silence too long in the beginning—perhaps only two or three minutes. Let it be only as long as your interest seems to hold you.

7. Only by practice does one become a musician, and it is by practice that you develop the new consciousness of spiritual things…so don’t be discouraged if your experiences are not as you anticipate them to be.

8. On closing your time of silence, assume an attitude of thanksgiving.

From, “Meditation in the Silence,” (by E.V. Ingraham, pp. 42-43)

Lesson and Practice: Practicing Attention and Appreciation.
To know God (Source, Universe, Soul, Self, etc…), you must first be interested in knowing God, you must give your attention to It. This week practice knowing God in all things, in all places, and in all peoples everywhere through the giving of your attention. Read the rest of this entry »

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