Jake from State Farm's blog: "Health Tips"

"I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it. When there is no struggle, there is no strength." Oprah WinfreyThe well-known Greek Philosopher Aristotle, believed that everything happens for a reason, always. And that every experience in your life, was designed to shape you and reform you into the ultimate and greatest version, that could ever imagine yourself to be. The only thing that prevents this, is having the wisdom to see it.

1. In Times of Struggle

Every negative experience; every time of struggle, can then be viewed as an opportunity for tremendous growth. Alike to a caterpillar burrowing from its chrysalis. When all of its forming and changing is complete, its metamorphism has transformed it into a magnificent butterfly. It has shed its former skin, and flown on the wings of new life and a new way of being.

2. In Times of Healing

Some may find it hard to believe that everything happens for a reason, especially when experiencing grief or loss. At the time it may be very difficult to see the blessing in it, as all that is being felt is pain. But it is through our lowest points in life, where we gain the wisdom and allow for new-found strength to emerge. Without loss we wouldn't appreciate gain, without grief we wouldn't appreciate love. Without death, we wouldn't appreciate life and without fear, we wouldn't appreciate love.

3. In Times of Happiness

By far, the most victorious of all happen stances, when it all comes together in one moment, the AHA moment, as the metaphorical photo finally develops. When we reach the point, after all of the struggles, the self-substantiating realization beams through and we finally see the wisdom behind the subconscious choices we've made. Clarity shines through like the morning sun peeking out on the earths horizon.

4. In Times of Chaos

True chaos, cannot be chaos for as long as there is choice involved. Things may appear to be random, but as we all know appearances lie.

"To someone who can't read, letters on a page appear to be randomly chose when in reality they are precisely ordered."- Deepak Chopra

Meaningful coincidences and synchronicities may also be viewed as random events with no connection, yet to the eye of the beholder, those events would have a real purpose and meaning.

5. In Times of Reflection

We see the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, each unfolding a beautiful picture. The pain, the turmoil, the struggles and the victories, each essential building blocks to the molding of who we are today in this present moment.

An unfinished product, always growing, learning and experiencing. And by reflection we see, why it had to happen the way it did.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life"- Steve Jobs

Here is a delicious dessert recipe using bone broth! We call it the Best Pumpkin Pie Ever.

Hands-on prep time: 40 minutes
Total prep time: 8 hours and 40 minutes
Yield: 1 pie, approximately 8–10 servings with generous slices

Ingredients for the pie crust:
2 cups almond flour
¼ tsp. sea salt
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. gelled neutral bone broth (add 1tsp. powdered unflavored beef gelatin to ¼ cup bone broth if the broth you have on hand didn't gel well)
1 tsp. ground fenugreek

Ingredients for the pumpkin pie filling:
1 (2-lb.) sugar pumpkin or butternut squash (you can bake it yourself with the instructions that follow, or feel free to substitute with canned organic pumpkin)
1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
1 (16-oz.) can coconut milk (or make your own with 1 cup water and 2½ Tbsp. coconut butter, blended thoroughly in your blender)
½ cup neutral bone broth
¼ cup honey
½ cup flax meal
¼ cup coconut oil
1 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 eggs, plus1 egg yolk
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
½ tsp. cardamom
½ tsp. turmeric
1⁄8 tsp. cloves
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Instructions for the pie crust:
If you want to make your own almond flour or soak your packaged almond flour (both of which are optional), follow the instructions in Chapter 9. If you have the time and interest, you might try an experiment, making one pie crust with soaked flour and one without. See how you feel afterward (notice any and all symptoms—mood and digestion), and you'll know if it's worth it for you! Preheat oven to 350° F.

Add the almond flour and all the other ingredients into a mixing bowl. You can do this in your food processor with the S-blade, if you have one. Mix until the batter forms a ball Press dough into a greased 9" pie dish. You can make this crust very thin—it's actually better this way. Make sure that the edges around the outside bottom edge of the pie are thin as well (as the crust is pressed into the crease of the pie plate at the bottom). It should be about ¼" thick or so. This crust keeps its shape well and holds the pie filling beautifully.

Once your pie filling is done, pour it into the crust.

Instructions for the pumpkin pie filling:
Keep oven at 350° F. (If you're using a glass pie plate, lower the oven temperature to 300° F.) If you're baking your own pumpkin, the easiest way to do this is to poke about 10 holes in your sugar pumpkin (or butternut squash), put it in a baking dish with about 2" water, and bake until you can easily insert a knife into the pumpkin (or squash).

Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then cut down the middle and scoop out the seeds (you can set them aside if you want to clean them and make pumpkin or squash seeds, which are delicious!). You'll get approximately 2 cups (give or take) of pumpkin from a 2-lb. sugar pumpkin. If you're making your own coconut milk, do so while the pumpkin is baking, then chill for 1–2 hours so that it gets really thick.

Scoop out 2 cups of pumpkin and save any excess for another pie or a side dish for another meal. Put the pumpkin in your food processor with the S blade (you can also use a high-speed blender or mixer). Add dates and puree.

Now add the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients and puree until fully blended; taste and see if you like it. At this point, the adventurous cook can add more dates or honey for sweetness, or more of any spice you want to emphasize, according to your taste.

Assembling and baking the pie:
Preheat oven to 425° F (reduce the heat to 375° F if you're using a glass pie plate). Add the pumpkin pie filling into the crust you've already prepared, and fill right to a tad beneath the rim of the pie plate. (If you're not using a crust, just pour the pie filling into the pan.) Put the pie in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350° F (300° F for a glass pie plate). Bake for 40–50 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool for 2 hours. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap (if we use plastic wrap, we make sure it's tight and doesn't touch the pie, only the plate), and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

Serving suggestions:
Serve on its own or, for a real treat, add a scoop of the Moroccan Vanilla Spice Ice Cream on the side and Enjoy!

Let's affirm: "I am enthusiastic about life and filled with energy and enthusiasm."

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." ~ George Bernard Shaw

Before my senior year at university, I was quiet, timid and generally apprehensive about conflict.

Usually I tried to avoid it altogether and hope that the issue would naturally run its course and dissipate over time. When I felt hurt, uncomfortable, misrepresented, pressured, belittled or ignored by someone, I would attempt to cast these feelings aside. But I found that in doing so my discomfort and anxiety continued to build and became an even greater burden.

Things changed for me when I started attending social anxiety workshops provided by my university. I learned invaluable tools for dealing with conflict. Not only has this advice helped me resolve conflicts, it's also assisted me to assess and evaluate my own emotions. I've gained a newfound confidence in my ability to handle any social situation.

One thing especially that I found to be highly useful was to communicate the issue(s) in written words. Allowing me to thoroughly reflect on the situation and my feelings toward it, writing helps bring clarity to the situation and communicate my perspective more clearly and effectively.

Assertive writing has helped my friends and me immensely to resolve a conflict and/or clear up ambiguities in a relationship.

One time an instructor told me that I didn't know the subject matter after I asked him a question about my assignment. He told me to go home and read the textbook in a condescending manner, which nearly brought me to tears. I sent an e-mail about how I was feeling in his course and that his refusal to help me had been really upsetting. The next day, I received an apology in response. He realized that what he said may have been offensive and offered to provide extra tutorial hours to help his students, including myself. This is a minor case where a letter helped me resolve an issue.

It's amazing how powerful written words can be. They give us immediate cathartic release as a channel to address our emotions and needs in a healthy and constructive manner. They're an effective tool for open communication and prompting concrete solutions to problems we're facing.

Below are three points to consider when writing a letter to express how you're feeling:

1. Use "I feel" statements

These statements are profound because they phrase the situation so that it reflects your perspective and emotional needs without putting direct blame on the other person. When you frame the letter from your perspective rather than presenting a biased narration of the scenario, you avoid attacking the person you're addressing. In doing so, they are less likely to react defensively and more inclined to cooperate with you and understand you.

2. Explain the situation succinctly

It's important to explain the main issues without getting too much into the unnecessary details. The goal of this letter is to get your point across. Writing excessively may come across as off-putting or neurotic, and I find that a paragraph or two is more than sufficient to communicate my thoughts effectively.

3. Be as honest and truthful as possible

Although your letter should be succinct, the most convincing letters are the ones that are incredibly honest. I find this to be the hardest component of writing a letter: it involves writing about your feelings and vulnerabilities to someone so that you and they can better understand how you've been affected by the situation.

It takes a lot of courage to do this, but it's worth it in the end. Once you acknowledge your feelings and communicate them, you will find a great weight lifted off your shoulders.

~

Here's a sample template:

Dear __________,

Although it's difficult for me to bring up this subject, I feel that it's necessary to discuss this (conflict/misunderstanding). Because I feel like I can better express myself in writing, I've chosen to write you a letter.

Lately, I've been feeling hurt about (insert situation). When (the situation) happens, I feel as though I (what emotional need is not met).

This has been weighing on me and I don't want to leave it unresolved. I would appreciate if we can straighten this out soon, but even if we can't I just wanted you to know how I'm feeling.

Sincerely,
You

Even if you do not get a response, simply acknowledging your feelings and knowing that you have done your part to address the situation is often enough to rest your case and improve your outlook. Moreover, when it's written down, you have concrete proof of the exchange. If you don't get a response, not receiving an answer may be an answer in itself.

~

Author: Catherine Chea

Editor: Caroline Beaton

Image: Flickr/Matteo Paciotti

Secret Revealed

- The Great Secret of Life is the Law of Attraction.
- The Law of Attraction says Like attracts Like. So when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you.
- Thoughts are magnetic and thoughts have frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent into the Universe and they magnetically attracted all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source – You.
- Your current thoughts are creating your future life. What you think about the most or focus on the most will appear as your Life
- Your thoughts become things.

Secret Made Simple

- The Law of Attraction is the Law of Nature. It is as impartial as the Law of Gravity.
- Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.
- To know what you’re thinking, ask yourself how you are feeling. Emotions are valuable tools that instantly tell us what we are thinking.
- It is impossible to feel bad and at the same time think good thoughts.
- Your thoughts determine your frequency, and your feelings tell you immediately what frequency you are on. When you feel bad, you are on the frequency of drawing more bad things. When you feel good, you are powerfully attracting more good things to you.
- Secret Shifters, such as pleasant memories, nature or your favorite music, can change your feelings in an instant.
- The feeling of Love is the highest frequency you can emit. The greater Love you feel and emit, the greater the power you are harnessing.

How to use the Secret

- Like Aladdin’s Genie, the Law of Attraction grants our every command.
- The Creative Process helps you create what you want in three simple steps. Ask, Believe and Receive.
- Asking the Universe for what you want is your opportunity to get clear about what you want. As you get clear in your mind, you have asked.
- Believing involves acting through speaking and thinking as though you have already received what you’ve asked for. When you emit the frequency of received it, the Law of Attraction moves people, events and circumstances for you to receive.
- Receiving involves feeling the way you will feel once your desire has manifested. Feeling good now puts you on the frequency of what you want.
- To lose weight, don’t focus on “losing weight” instead focus on your perfect weight. Feel the feeling of your perfect weight and you will summon it to you.
- It takes no time for the Universe to manifest what you want. It is as easy to manifest one dollar as it is to manifest one million dollars.
- Starting with something small, like a cup of coffee or parking spaces, is an easy want to experience the Law of Attraction in action. Powerfully intend to attract something small. As you experience the power you have to attract, you will move on to creating much bigger things.
- Create your day in advance by thinking the way you want it to go. And you will create your life intentionally.

Powerful Processes

- Expectation is a powerfully attractive force. Expect the things you want and don’t expect the things you don’t want.
- Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing more of what you want into your life.
- Giving thanks for what you want in advance turbo-charges your desires and sends a more powerful signal out in the Universe.
- Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feeling of having it now. The Law of Attraction then returns that reality to you just as you saw it in your mind.
- To Use the Law of Attraction to your advantage, make it a habitual way of being. Not just a one-time event.
- At the end of every day, before you go to sleep, go back through the events of the day. Any events or moments that were not what you wanted, replay them in your mind the way you wanted them to go.

Secret to Money

- To attract wealth, focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you focus on the lack of it.
- It is helpful to use your imagination and make-believe you already have the money you want. Play games of having wealth and you will feel better about money, as you feel better about it, more will flow into your life.
- Feeling happy now is the fastest way to bring money into your life.
- Make it your intention to look at everything you like and say to yourself “I can afford that. I can buy that.” You will shift your thinking and begin to feel better about money.
- Give money in order to bring more of it into your life. When you are generous with money and feel good about sharing it, you are saying “I have plenty.”
- Visualize checks in the mail.
- Tip the balance of your thoughts to wealth. Think wealth.

Secrets to Relationships

- When you want to attract a relationship, make sure your thoughts, words, actions and surroundings don’t contradict your desires.
- Your job is you. Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody.
- Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who show you love and respect.
- When you feel bad about yourself, you block the love and instead you attract more people and situations that will continue to make you feel bad about you.
- Focus on the qualities you love about yourself and the Law of Attraction will show you more great things about you.
- To make a relationship work, focus on what you appreciate about the other person, and not your complaints. When you focus on the strengths, you will get more of them.

Secret to Health

- The placebo effect is an example of Law of Attraction in action. When a patient truly believes the tablet is a cure, he receives what he believes and is cured.
- “Focusing on Perfect Health” is something we can all do within ourselves, despit what may be happening on the outside.
- Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity and leads to miraculous cures.
- Disease is held in the body by thought, by observation of the illness and the attention given to the illness. If you’re feeling a little unwell, don’t talk about it – unless you want more of it. If you listen to people talk about their illness, you add energy to their illness. Instead change the conversation to good things and give powerful thoughts to seeing those people in health.
- Beliefs about aging are all in our minds. So release those thoughts from your consciousness. Focus on health and eternal youth.
- Do not listen to society’s messages about diseases and aging. Negative messages do not serve you.

Secret to the World

- What you resist, you attract, because you are powerfully focused on it with emotion. To change anything, go within and emit a new signal with your thoughts and feelings.
- You cannot help the world by focusing on negative things. As you focus on the world’s events, you not only add to them, but you also bring more negative things into your own life.
- Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attention and energy to trust, love, abundance, education and peace.
- We will never run out of good things because there’s more than enough to go around for everyone. Life is meant to be abundant.
- You have the ability to tap into the unlimited supply through your thoughts and feelings and bring it into your experience.
- Praise and bless everything in the world and you will dissolve negativity and discord and align yourself with the highest frequency – Love.

Secret to You

- Everything is Energy. You are an energy magnet, so you electrically energize everything to you and electrically energize yourself to everything you want.
- You are a Spiritual Being. You are Energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed – it just changes form. Therefore, the pure essence off you has always been and always will be.
- The Universe emerges from thought. We are the Creators not only of own destiny but also of the Universe.
- An unlimited supply of ideas is available to you. All knowledge, discoveries and inventions are in the Universal Mind as possibilities, waiting for the human mind to draw them forth. You hold everything in your consciousness
- We are all connected and we are all One.
- Let go of difficulties from your past, cultural codes, and social beliefs. You are the only one who can create the life you deserve.
- A shortcut to manifesting your desires is to see what you want as absolute fact.
- Your power is in your thoughts, so stay aware. In other words “Remember to Remember.”

By Carolanne Wright

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

A tiny gland in the center of the brain named the pineal may seem insignificant, but researchers have found it to be vital for physical, mental and, many believe, spiritual health. Through poor diet, exposure to toxins, stress and modern lifestyle choices, the pineal gland becomes hardened, calcified and shuts down. To awaken this gland from its slumber, detoxification is necessary using diet and herbs, sunlight and pure water.

An important pea-sized gland

Pinecone shaped, the size of a pea and resting in the center of the brain, the pineal gland is small but powerful. It secretes melatonin, which regulates sleep/wake cycles, and serotonin, a neurotransmitter that fosters happy and balanced states of mind. Not only crucial for a good night's rest, melatonin also slows aging and is a potent antioxidant. It helps to protect against electromagnetic pollution as well. Moreover, individuals have reported heightened feelings of empathy while supplementing with melatonin — leading to more harmonious interpersonal relationships.

Scientists suspect that N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is also produced by the pineal gland. This is the substance that gives shamanic botanicals like Psychotria viridis its hallucinatory kick. Dr. Rick Strassman, author of DMT, The Spirit Molecule, believes that the pineal gland produces DMT during mystical experiences as well as at birth and death. DMT is also associated with lucid dreaming, peak experiences, creativity and the ability to visualize.

Why the pineal gland becomes sluggish

As a result of the aging process and exposure to toxins, the pineal gland begins to calcify. Sodium fluoride is the number one enemy of a healthy pineal gland. This toxin is lurking in the water supply, conventionally grown food and toothpaste. Dietary hormones, mercury, processed foods, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and refined sugars cause calcification as well. Radiation fields, like those found with cell phones and wi-fi networks, are damaging too. Avoiding these hazards is the preliminary step to healing this gland. The second course of action involves removing existing calcification.

How to revive optimal function

According to the Decalcify Pineal Gland website, the following foods and supplements are helpful for detoxifying the pineal gland and restoring vitality:

1. Organic blue ice skate fish oil
2. MSM
3. Raw chocolate
4. Citric acid
5. Garlic
6. Raw apple cider vinegar
7. Oregano oil and Neem extract
8. Activator X (vitamin K1/K2)
9. Boron
10. Melatonin
11. Iodine
12. Tamarind
13. Distilled water

Holly Paige of Food for Consciousness, also offers a number of suggestions to help jump start the pineal gland. "Happy Tea" is one. A mixture of passion flower and St. John's wort, the tea contains pinoline — a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). When MAOIs are freely circulating within the system, more naturally occurring DMT is available to the brain — encouraging creative and bright mental states.

Another pineal revitalizing brew is ayahuasca. Small 'tastes' of this preparation (one tablespoon per day) will help to elevate mood, creativity and inspiration. Ayahuasca can be made by boiling Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis (chakruna) with orange juice for a few hours. In large doses, it can substantially alter perception and trigger visions. In small amounts, it refreshes the mind. Please note: Extracting DMT from any plant, including Psychotria viridis, is illegal in the United States.

Sunlight is also considered 'food' for the pineal gland. At least 10 minutes of sunlight exposure is recommended each day. Meditation, chanting and pranayama breathing practices are beneficial to the pineal gland as well.

Article Sources

"A Fluoride-Free Pineal Gland is More Important than Ever" http://wakeup-world.com

"The Pineal Gland — The Bridge to Divine Consciousness" Scott Mowry, Miracles and Inspiration. miraclesandinspiration.com/pinealgland

"Pineal Gland" Regina Bailey. biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/pineal-gland

"Reactivating the Pineal Gland" Food for Consciousness. foodforconsciousness.blogspot.com

"Psychotria viridis – Chacruna" Botanical Spirit Shop. botanicalspirit.com/psychotria-viridis-products

"How to Detox Fluorides from Your Body" Paul Fassa naturalnews.com/026605_fluoride_fluorides_detox

Decalcify Pineal Gland. decalcifypinealgland.com

"How to Decalcify and Detoxify the Pineal Gland" www.wakingtimes.com

"Professor talks DMT research, its effects on you – and possibly your faith" Clayton Crockett, Legacy Magazine sureveille.com

"Wi-Fi Health Dangers & Radiation Health Effects", Safe Space Protection. safespaceprotection.com

"How to Exhale in Pranayama" Sudha Carolyn Lundeen" Yoga Journal. yogajournal.com

"Melatonin and Meditation" Cathy Wong, About.com Alternative Medicine altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody/a/Melatonin

"Ayahuasca: A Plant for Healing the Soul" Chris Kilham, Medicine Hunter foxnews.com/health/2011/01/05/ayahuasca-plant-healing-soul

"An introduction to METAtonin, the pineal gland secretion that helps us access higher understanding" METAtonin Research. metatoninresearch.org

"Indolethylamine N-methyltransferase expression in primate nervous tissue" Nicholas V. Cozzi, Timur A. Mavlyutov, Michael A. Thompson, Arnold E. Ruoho, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. neurophys.wisc.edu

By now, most of us have heard the news: grateful people are happier, healthier and generally more fulfilled.

And while these are all really great side effects of gratitude, for me, one of the coolest things about gratitude is the way it affects the heart. The heart creates an electromagnetic field that expands up to five feet from the body. Its electrical field is 60 times stronger in amplitude than that of the brain.

Studies show that when people cultivate positive feelings, the heart's frequency changes and its waves become smoother and more consistent, while anxiety or stress caused waves to be shorter and less organized. Though most positive feelings were capable of affecting the heart in this way, researchers noted that gratitude changed the heart's rhythm more easily and faster than any of the others.

What's more is that this frequency can even "entrain" hearts and brains nearby. It's especially likely that the heart with smoothest, most "coherent" frequency will be the heart that other people sync up with. So if you're cultivating gratitude, it's probable that you're changing the feeling state of those around you for the better too.

Basically, even when we aren't aware of it, our heart is constantly communicating with those around us. But as complex as it all may seem, intuitively, it seems that humans have been aware of this chatting between hearts for quite some time.

It may be the reason we say we're having a "heart to heart" with someone when we're engaged in an intimate, sincere conversation.

Researchers have reported that hearts between lovers sync even when the lovers aren't touching or conversing. The same goes for heart frequencies of unborn babies and their mothers.

// ");// ]]>">So when Jim Rohn said, "You're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with," he made an interesting point indeed. Our bodies are talking. And physiologically, it's gratitude whose message is the loudest. We're affecting each other in ways we may have never even pondered.

Choose your company wisely, but find comfort in the idea that gratitude has a way of trumping all. Keep gratitude flowing in your own heart, and you can change the world around you without lifting a finger.

15th August 2015

By Banu Sekendur

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

We live in a world of duality, as it is intended to be. This means that there is good and bad as well as right and wrong. This yin-yang theory exists within and without. The reason why the earth plane is a great school for a soul's expansion is this very reason. If there was no duality, there would be no pain, no joy, no variety and no growth.

This basically means that there are people and energies that we encounter who offer us the lessons we need while we walk our path here. At times, this fact simply points to learning how to work with, clear and protect against negative energy. I find it to be a lot like a video game, actually. Maybe earth life is our Dungeons and Dragons field. We get better at the game as we keep playing it.

Though this article is mostly for HSPs (Highly Sensitive People), empaths and intuitives, it applies to everyone walking on this planet. Anyone can be effected by lower energies, especially during times of high-stress and transition. Sometimes we attract, receive and absorb lower energies from people or in our environment. This is part of the game and going through those experiences help us expand as individuals and souls. That's the story I am sticking with anyway. Your guess is as good as mine, since we all experience amnesia as we incarnate.

What Are Some of the Signs That You Have Picked Up Negative Energies?

You may get dropped calls, or a sudden, passing static on your phone while speaking to someone at a location where you don't normally have that experience.You may start feeling depressed out of the blue (!) and you're not clinically depressed.Suddenly, you can't log into your bank account (or any other online account) and keep getting an error message even though your internet connection seems to be strong.You get extremely tired all of a sudden and feel the need to take a nap even though you are not sleep-deprived.You feel resistant to helping yourself, or giving yourself something you know you need (i.e. You may resist eating when you are actually hungry).Your throat feels sore as if you've caught a flu virus (sometimes that is how our body reacts to the lower energy).You lose your house keys or your wallet, lock your car keys inside your car, or have something you value stolen.An email you sent out does not reach its intended recipient and hours later you get a mailer daemon message.All of a sudden, your mind starts spinning on negative thoughts about someone or a situation of the past (which you had done inner work on to clear), etc. No matter how hard you try to wave them off, they stick to you like chewing gum on asphalt under 90 degrees.You engage in behaviors that are against self-love, such as spending money on unnecessary shopping, when you don't have the budget for it, etc. This is especially valid if it is out of character for you to do so.

The possibilities are endless, so ultimately it's up to each of us to recognize and make note of these patterns, as they are personal. It took me several years to recognize what happens to me when I am effected by lower energies. Experiencing a combination of these on the same day, or in a short amount of time – especially if they are not regular occurrences – can help you see what is happening. It becomes clearer as you learn to tune-in your awareness.

Once I recognize that I have picked up lower energies, I use several of the methods (described below) together, to clear my mind, body, and energy field of this lower vibration. No one deserves to plug into your energy, and you have the right to command that they leave you alone. The reverse is also true, even if it is unintentional.

Here are 20 Techniques That Work to Clear Lower Energies, Especially If You Combine Several of Them:

1. Set a strong intention to clear these energies

Place both hands on your heart and say your intention out loud. You can write it on a piece of paper and burn it in addition to voicing it. Repeat your intention a few times. We gain and lose a lot of power from our throat chakra. Use your voice for clearing and protection.

2. Yawn away the negative energy

Yawning is said to be a great tool for clearing. You may not feel like yawning but if you start doing the yawning motion and acting as if you are very tired and need to take a nap, you may be surprised to find that the yawning continues. You can do this right after you set the intention mentally and feel a strong resistance against using your voice to call on your power and for divine help.

3. Play drums or drum music in the background

If you don't have a drum at home, don't fret. Youtube has many videos of shamanic, African or Native American drum music. Find one that you like and start playing that in the background while you apply some of the techniques mentioned here. If this doesn't appeal to you, then go to a wooden desk or table you have and start drumming with your hands.

4. Use a smudge stick

White Sage is the most well-known herb used for this clearing technique, but a bunch of dried Rosemary, Cedar, Mugwart or Sweetgrass (cut from your garden) all work well too – see here. Light the smudge stick and when you have a good flame, blow it out, and using the smoke, start with your body. Circle all seven of your chakras and all of your outer energy field. Don't forget the bottom of your feet. As you go through each chakra, pull your arm away from that area (as if you're pulling a scarf off of your neck with one hand).

Once you've smudged your body, taking necessary pre-cautions against dropping hot embers as you go, using the power of your intention, go around the entire room (or the whole house) with the smudge stick in your hand still smouldering, making sure you get into all the corners and under furniture. Open one (or several) windows for the smell and the lower energies to leave the space as you command them out mentally or with your voice! If you have money issues (especially if it popped up that day or very recently), clear your purse or wallet with the smoke as well. If your computer is acting up or you're getting bounced email messages, clear your computer too. Electronics get effected fast and this serves as an indication that you have picked up a negative energy.

5. Say a clearing and protection prayer/mantra

Here is an example:

I, (insert your full name), refuse permission for any living and non-physical being to enter my body, mind, soul, spirit and energy field for intentions that are other than love. I break all contracts, vows and agreements I might have made knowingly or unknowingly in all time, space, and dimension that in any way diminish the fullest expression of my joyful soul essence. I break these agreements from this moment backwards, through every experience of my past, and from this moment forward until the end of all time. I command that these energies and people to leave my space NOW! They have no power over me. I ask for divine protection from these energies, that they NOT return to my energy field in any way, and for any reason. I now build a shield of light around me with this heart intention and my free will. I thank you that it's already done.

As with some of the other techniques mentioned, you may have to repeat this several times and must say it out loud. You can even place your right hand over your throat gently to feel the vibration as you say this prayer. Feel free to modify this prayer to your liking. Nothing is cast in stone.

6. Use a rattle to break up the energy into a zillion small pieces

Just like the drums, if you don't have a rattle, put some pennies in an empty plastic drink bottle (or topper-ware) and shake it in a way what feels right to you. It's more effective if you move around in your space while you're doing this.

7. Burn lemon or orange peels

Use a cheese grater to get some peels and throw them into a non-stick pan to cook for a short time. Do this as if you're sauteing onions. The smell is very pleasant and uplifting. It will fill up your space to repel any lower energies that may be lurking in it.

8. Laugh it off

Laughter is not only the best medicine for sickness but it is a very effective tool for clearing lower energy. Joy is the highest vibration there is, so it works beautifully for canceling out lower vibrations. You probably won't feel like laughing when under the influence of these negative energies. So, pull up some funny videos on Youtube to watch. I have a handful of favorite comedians whose bits make me laugh out loud. Some examples are: Wanda Sykes, Jim Gaffigan, Louie C.K., Chris Rock, Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres and Aziz Ansari to name a few. No doubt you have your favorites too.

9. Light a candle

One candle should be enough (you can light more than one if that feels right) with the intention that the flame absorbs and melts away these lower energies. I use white emergency candles that I keep handy at home for this purpose and sometimes let it burn all the way till it's all gone. Then I throw it in the garbage. You can also bury it somewhere in your yard. Before buying candles, please be cautious about where your candles are manufactured.

10. Use sea salt

Genuine sea salt can be expensive. I use it symbolically and don't use a lot of it. It's all about intention. Placebo effect works for a reason! You can sprinkle some into warm water, mix it well and drink it. Or you can draw a hot bath and put a few table spoons of it in the tub to soak in. If you don't have a bath tub, you can take a shower. In both cases, set the intention that the water will pull away the negative energy as it goes over your body and into the drain, back to mother earth to be cleared.

11. Create an 'attractor' for lower energies

Pour a glass of water and set the intention that lower energies that are in your field will be absorbed by this water. Keep the glass filled with water until your energy feels clear and free. Then pour the water in the toilet and flush it, or pour it out in the yard for the lower energy to be transformed back into love by mother earth.

12. Skip like a child

As I mentioned above, joy is the highest vibration there is. Skip like a child for a minute or longer to counter the depressive or angry thoughts (or the sudden negative emotional state you got into). This is great to do on a regular day when you wake up grumpy or with a bad dream that you can't shake off.

13. Clap Your Hands

Sound can be created by any tool, including your hands. Clapping works beautifully, especially when combined with singing a fun tune, a joyful song or whistling. Walk around your space while clapping, and you can also skip while you're doing this. Any (or all three combined) will raise your vibration and repel negative energies so you can be free to experience joy again.

14. Dance it off

I guarantee you, if you dance to "Love Shack" or "Footloose", it will be hard to keep your negative mood or these lower energies attached to you. This is perfect if you like to dance. Make a playlist for times like these and throw a few of your favorite songs into it to dance to.

A few ideas for protection...

15. Engage with the protection prayer (#5) regularly

Repeat the prayer in the morning an at night (or even in between). Another idea is to hand-write it and keep it in your wallet or the dashboard of your car. You can also write it in the back of a happy photograph of you ( as a child or as an adult) that you keep by your bed. It's not narcissistic, it's self-love.

16. Use pine for protection

Cut off a small piece of pine needle branch (size of your hand will suffice) from a pine tree and put it in a vase or a glass of water. Once you've done the clearing by using the methods above, set the intention that the pine needles repel and intimidate these lower energies so they don't come back. If you're in a vulnerable stage in your life, keep it around for a while. Give thanks and love to the pine for letting you benefit from its protective energy. Replenish the water every other day as a way to care for and respect the pine for its service.

17. Watch your words, actions and karma

This is very important. Sometimes when we are stressed or upset with someone, we don't pay attention to our thoughts, words or actions, and may send out negative energy to others. It may feel good at the time but it opens us up for lower energies to enter our field. Like attracts like. If you are obsessing on negative feelings or thoughts about someone (deserving or undeserving) and do not exercise your free will to distract yourself from thinking, feeling or wishing badly, the boomerang effect will show up in your life. Maybe not the next day but eventually it will. I experienced this with great regret! The best thing to do is to ask your 'higher self' to make you aware of those times when you need to pull yourself up from these thoughts and feelings. This is when you can use laughter to clear them away. What we give out, we receive!

18. Find ways to counter stress

Stress is a part of every day life, but if it is ongoing and you do nothing to diffuse it with relaxation, exercise, dance, art, a fun activity or meaningful connections, you will be more susceptible to discordant, lower energies attaching to you. Do your best to make rest, relaxation, a healthy diet and laughter a priority, even for 5 minutes a day to keep your energy strong.

19. Make figure eight movements for aura strengthening

You can combine this with the drum music playing in the background. Rotate around as you move both arms in a figure eight motion – as if you are an orchestra conductor. Start from the ground and go up as you keep rotating and go back down towards the floor. Make sure you cover all four directions. Do this for at least one minute or longer to strengthen your aura.

20. Adopt a Tree!

Yes, you can adopt a tree in a local park, or on a walking trail – one that calls to you – then make it yours. Lean against that tree for at least 15 minutes and ask it to pull out anything in your energy field and body that is of vibration less than love. It works! I can guarantee you that if you build a relationship with it, talk to it and give it heartfelt thanks, you will be able to clear away anything in a short amount of time, and leave the tree feeling light, uplifted and loved.

Previous articles by Banu:

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say!Boundaries: Bust or Must?

About the author:

Banu Sekendur is a writer, teacher, coach, small business cheerleader and an intuitive (not in any particular order) with a dual Masters in Mental Health Counseling and Art Therapy. A life-long seeker, Banu has been interested in the workings of the human psyche since childhood, and has dedicated her life to helping people discover, own and live who they truly are ~ and to build a happy life around that.

Universal principles can guide you in those moments where you have no clue where you should be headed. They are the lighthouses that guide your boat on the ocean of human experiences. Strive to find these universal principles and make them a part of you.

1 – Action

You, in the sense of being everything, have constructed the human experience. You experience yourself through an individualized experience of taking directed action. Humans are built to move forwards. We're put together in such a way that we are pushed forwards. Going forward makes us feel good. If we feel we're moving backwards we're filled with bad emotions. These are built-in chemical reactions.

Taking action can lead you into a flow state. When you're doing a task and you get into deep concentration your body releases nitric oxide, which flushes out stress hormones – The stuff that makes you anxious, depressed or afraid. Nitric oxide also triggers release of a whole range of feel-good chemicals that increases your brain capacity and creativity.

Conscious thinking starts shutting down and you feel one with the task – You're in flow.

You've experienced this state many times in your life. Can you recall doing some task during your life, where all you wanted was to keep doing that task? Do you have some passion in your life? Something you can do without ever feeling stressed out or wanting to do something else? If you answered yes to any of these questions you've experienced the flow state.

Flow creates passions, because it feels so incredibly good. This IS the way to attract passion into your life – Taking action and entering flow. No action, no flow, no passion.

You might think, "Why do we meditate?" Meditation is just sitting – The opposite of action. On the contrary, meditation is taking action. It is the continual observing, accepting and letting go of thought-objects. It can even be hard work. Meditation can create flow and become a passion. There are many studies that show how meditation triggers the release of nitric oxide.

Take action towards those things that fill you with excitement and enjoy. Joy attracts joy. Flow attracts flow. Taking action leads you to action in new and related areas of life.

Action opens up new doors and possibilities. The path is not always clear when you start walking. The path is formed when you step on it. When you believe in the process and trust life to unfold in beautiful ways, that path will take you places you could never imagine. This is the path of action. The path of inaction leads nowhere.

Taking action means taking directed action. Taking action with purpose. Mindlessly following your whims does not qualify for taking purposeful action. Formulate clear goals to make it easier to take real action. There are two types of goals that have been shown to be the most long lasting and fulfilling.

These are goals of mastery and service to others. Becoming masterful in something means that there is no end goal that you believe will make life amazing. It is a continuous process of becoming better in the moment. Each moment of taking action towards mastery is a success.

Something these types of goals have in common is that they are at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of need.

Goals from the lower levels are often needed to fulfill the needs from the lower levels, but they fall by the side of the road once you reach them. You need to go forward in all these areas however. Going backwards is not what we are built for.

Spiritual pursuits are a part of the highest need – Self-actualization. This is the need for experiencing oneness and pure present awareness. Some will tell you that spiritual pursuits are everything – That all the other needs are materialistic and egotistical.

This is failing to understand some of the other universal principles, namely integration and acceptance, which are explained later in this article. It is also failing to understand our nature.

Severe lacks in the lower level needs distract your spiritual pursuits. A life of inaction and regression is a life of stress hormones. Stress hormones like cortisol are the feelings of anxiety, depression and fear. Stress hormones inhibit the parts of your brain that make you human – The parts of you that give and receive love. They put you in a state of alertness, suspicion and fear. The reptilian parts of your brain take over a lot of the control – Addictions and egoistic behavior surface.

A life of purposeful action on the other hand is a life filled with love when you also follow the other universal principles. When you fulfill your needs in the first four levels of Maslow's Pyramid, your brain is filled with feel-good neurochemicals and love-chemicals. They make you feel togetherness, trust, love, pride, respect, fulfillment and a whole range of other good feelings. When you feel fulfilled you're ready to take care of others. It is also much, much easier to sit down and meditate and accept whatever arises. You feel oneness more easily. One of our upcoming courses is about these chemicals just mentioned.

This is not a call to action for filling your life with stuff. There is much wisdom in living a life of simplicity. What is needed to fill the needs in the different levels of Maslow's pyramid depends on your views on life, what people you surround yourself with and what ideas you expose yourself to. If you watch Hollywood movies and TV-series all day, you can expect to need more things to feel fulfilled.

This is a call to action for living a life true to yourself; to follow your joy and excitement; to live a life that motivates and inspires others; to experience your higher self from as many points as possible.

Many are attracted to spirituality and eastern philosophy because of lack in the lower needs. They hope that spirituality or meditation will solve their problems. To some degree it can, but you're missing some of the other universal principles, namely integration and action in the lower level.

Take the twofold path. Take both spiritual action and action for the progression of the lower level needs. You're then entering a positive feedback loop, where fulfillment of needs make it easier to experience deeper spiritual levels and the experience of deeper spiritual levels make it easier to fulfill the lower level needs. Balance is the key. Take balanced purposeful action.

2 – You Attract More of What You Focus on

The next principle is that you attract more of what you focus on. This is related to the law of attraction and the law of cause and effect. Your brain is working to give you success in whatever you focus your attention on. This principle can be summarized as follows:

You focus on how bad life is:Life becomes worse.

You focus on how good life is:Life improves

You focus on opportunities:You get more opportunities

You focus on how busy you are:You get more busy

You focus on how free and happy you are:You become even more free and happy

You watch the news and see how gruesome the world is:The world gives you more cruelty

You focus on what you like about people:You like more people

You focus on how people conspire and try to cheat:You cheat yourself of a wonderful life

You focus on how people give you chances to love them, and how awesome it is:
You receive more love.

3 – Taking responsibility

When I discovered this principle of taking responsibility and started implementing it in my life, everything changed. Fast. When I was younger I avoided responsibility as if it was The Black Death. I always had some good explanation for why it wasn't my fault.

This is a victim mentality. Life pushes me around and I'm just a poor little snowflake that can't do anything. A victim mentality attracts more bad things that just happen to me.

I changed it to a driver seat mentality. I took responsibility for what happened in my life. Instead of looking for reasons why it was not my fault, I took the default stance that it was my fault. I started saying this phrase often:

"I take full responsibility for [that] happening."

A paradoxical effect of taking responsibility for what happens is that other people also start taking more responsibility and you receive less blame. Say that you and two others do a project together at work and your boss is not satisfied with the results. He is not happy.

You're now at a point where you have two choices. You say you take full responsibility for what has happened by saying the above sentence, or you try to put responsibility on the others. You can do this by for example naming all the incredible things you thought or did during the project, or you can just outright say why it is the other's fault.

Blaming others puts them in a fight or flight state. Either way they're not taking responsibility. You lose respect in the eyes of your peers. You lose respect in the eyes of your boss. You lose respect for yourself. You will be left with more blame than what the results merit.

When you take responsibility the others will first of all be surprised. They will also get a small pang of guilt if they don't chip in. They will relax as the pressure is suddenly taken off them. They know that you're not judging them and trying to blame them. They start looking at themselves and realize that they also have responsibility. They all know that you don't have full responsibility – Even your boss.

Sometimes you're fully to blame. Boss it up and say you're sorry.

This principle of taking responsibility bears fruit in any situation. It stops bad situations from creating animosity and disrespect. It turns a bad situation into a situation of respect and growth. It becomes a situation that fulfills the 4th need of Maslow's pyramid – Esteem.

Take responsibility of your life and stay in the driver's seat.

This life is the role you're playing, so play it to your potential.

4 – Acceptance

The next principle is acceptance. This principle is about acceptance of the moment. The moment is what will always be there. Resisting it or rejecting it does not change it. It is what it is. What you resist persist.

Accept what arises in this moment and surrender to it. Enjoy it and see that this is you. Everything that arises is your awareness – It is you – but you can sculpt what goes on. You can sculpt the human experience when you accept what is. Become aware of what is now and take a step back.

See the moment for what it is and direct your present step. Hack away at the moment with your present action. Take another action. Move forward with your present step and make the present a beautiful sculpture.

Accepting does not mean condoning or giving up. It means to see the world as it is – To take in the facts and being open to reality. Rejecting what is, is rejecting yourself. Work with nature by following the universal principles. Nature – The higher You – Will keep on doing its thing. Love it and you love yourself.

5 – Integration

Integration is another of the universal principles that has revolutionized my life.

Integration is about seeing how it all connects and fit together. If you can't see how it all fits together at this moment, it only means that some of the puzzle pieces are hidden under your bed. Integration is about not judging everything as good or bad, but rather seeing that it is part of everything.

Integration is about being open to the world and learning all the sides. We're conditioned to taking sides and adamantly insisting on one side being absolutely correct. This world of absolutes is a mirage. The soldiers on both sides of the war are happy that at least they are fighting on the right side.

Spirituality or religion is not the one true path. Humanism is not the one true path. They're both just part of what is. Enjoy spirituality and pure present awareness. Enjoy the human experience. Balance it. All this awesomeness is you. Start seeing everything as part of you. Learn about life and integrate it all.

Look at the people around you. They are that same awareness as you. I am now experiencing myself through my eyes, your eyes and their eyes.

The mind is creating an experience of the underlying reality. This is a representation of you. The awareness – you – experiences the things that your mind synthesizes. That experience is all you. Integrate it all.

6 – Coming Back to Baseline

We started the universal principles with action. The last universal principle is about striking the balance. We need to repeatedly come back to baseline.

Living a life of purposeful action leads to both frustrations and amazing feelings. It is a life of passion and haste.

So much to do

So much to see

So much to taste

So much to feel

So much to hear

So much to think

We humans have a strong tendency for going overboard and taking things too far. Taking action is like increasing the speed of your boat. It's exhilarating and you have tons of fun. You jump on the waves of life and go through troughs and peaks – bad and good periods of life.

Sometimes you need to slow down and see where the boat is headed. This is what going back to baseline means. Take regular periods where you dramatically slow down the pace of life. Spend time meditating and just being. Set aside time for just thinking. Spend unhurried time with friends and family. Evaluate your course.

This cycle of action and baseline can be implemented on both the micro level and the macro level. Take some time out of every day for peace and quiet. Also take longer periods of contemplation to balance out the longer periods of action. Personally, I spent a few months traveling and did a 10-day silent meditation retreat in Thailand. Do what resonates with you.

"There is more to life than increasing its speed." – Mahatma Gandhi

Global Harmony Crew helps people uncover their true selves and live a life full of meaning and happiness. Join the crew by subscribing and you will learn about everything from the deep metaphysical questions, to basic steps you can take in your day-to-day life to manifest happiness and fulfillment. Follow Global Harmony Crew on Facebook as well!

Throughout the history of neurological research, it's been proven that one's involvement in exercise expands one's brain functioning; in turn, I think "exercise" is a paradigm where several different fitness modalities can fall under. In this piece, I will discuss the notion of unilateral loading on one's body, as well as the mind. You will learn how to train your brain and body to achieve great results in increasing your mental capacity.

Brain, On Exercise

The National Library of Medicine conducted a study showing that "Physical exercise has been shown to increase brain volume and improve cognition in randomized trials of non-demented elderly". Now, throughout this trial the exercises were restricted to the confines "Tai Chi" and other accredited fitness practices. Imagine, if one could extract the mental benefits of exercise without getting caught up in the mishegas of today's fitness crazes. Enter, the unilateral loading.

What Is Unilateral Loading?

Unilateral, for all intensive purposes, is prompting/loading one side of the body, but not the other. Typically, in the fitness community, unilateral loading is used to correct physical imbalances (leg muscles, biceps etc.); with that being said, as a student of Integrative Neuroscience, I see loading unilaterally as a challenge both physically and mentally. For example, balancing on one leg is unilateral loading in its most refined state. Of course, there's clear muscle recruitment, but there's an overwhelming amount of focus needed to maintain that sense of physical symmetry.

Check out this video where, fellow HKC instructor, Al Kavadlo conducts a one-legged squat.

Obviously, this level of fitness is not expected of you; just notice the amount of mental (albeit, physical) energy required in contrast to doing a basic, run of the mill squat. Interesting, right?

Loading the Brain

To provide you with a crash-course in basic neuroscience; images which one visually perceives in the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere via the optic chiasm (visual converter, if you will). With that in mind, let me give you a prevalent example of neurological unilateral loading.

Growing up, I've always written with my left hand, albeit, the writing was riddled with scribbling and illegible marks. Leading one to wonder whether I was a true lefty; as a result, I began to practice writing with my right hand. While this transformation to become as normal as you "righties" was a failure, my left hemisphere was challenged to react to this new stimulus I forced upon it. Albeit, this is sort of a lame example, it should show you that exercises which separate portions of the body, or even brain, have merit because of their ability to focus on different hemispheres of the brain. All that being said, this is yet another way for us, mentally curious spirits to continue our journey to mental excellence.

Hemispheres, In Isolation

Studies show that people who use the right hemisphere of their brain more than their left are more prone to creativity. Allowing researchers to infer that, generally, lefties are more creative than righties. As mentioned previously, the notion of writing with opposing hands forces one to utilize a hemisphere of the brain which doesn't get worked as often. Personally, as a lefty, I'm quite disorganized (organization is associated with the left hemisphere), so by using my right for more activities such as, squeezing a stress ball while studying (personal favorite), writing, or even lifting weights one is more inclined to use this dormant hemisphere in a more accessible fashion.

Practical Uses

As for the mother who wishes for the answer for the summoned question, how do we incorporate this into a daily routine for our toddlers and youthful brains which require constant mental stimulation? Well, there's a number of ways. Obviously, games are the most effective way; during school required "gym" classes, unilateral motions can be incorporated seamlessly without the child even realizing the neurological benefits. For example, lateral jumps, focusing on jumping into side planes, left plane using the right hemisphere, right plane using the left hemisphere. Yes, it's that simple. Albeit, the results are subtle, mental growth is not achieved without consistency and attention to deal.

Beyond Recognition

Understand that your mental capacity for growth is beyond recognition. Something which I like to preach is that "we are not assigned a limit to our mental capacity, so why not max out?" As a college student, I've learned that credit cards do have limits, which means they max out. Your brain is not a credit card, the only "maxing" out you may encounter is the occasional study break after your finals. As a fellow survivor of finals week, you are entitled to that; that being said, be hungry to expand your brain volume and restless in your aspiration to acquire new facets of intellect.

Gary 'Z' McGee, Staff Writer
Waking Times"Make no mistake about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." –Adyashanti

The first thing to remember, here at the outset, is that enlightenment is not a destination but a direction. It is not a truth but a process. It is both imaginary and real. It is not an either-or, but a both-and. It is only achievable when it is understood that it is an unachievable thing. Once we can let go of the need to achieve it, then we free ourselves to allow the process to unfold, and we become the achieving. It is the constantly expanding horizon of human flourishing. But it can hurt like hell.

Indeed, enlightenment is no walk in the park. The first teacher met on the path toward enlightenment tends to be Pain itself. Enlightenment is both a reckoning and a wrecking, both an expansion and an annihilation. The following four steps are just the tip of a much deeper iceberg of trials and tribulations, fraught with menacing thresholds and sinister Rubicons. Thin-skinned, faint-of-heart, status-quo-junkies addicted to comfort, need not apply. And if you decide to apply, leave your invulnerability behind. It's an illusion anyway. Here then are four of the scariest, but secretly wonderful, steps one can take on the path toward enlightenment.

1.) Vulnerability and Self-Honesty

"There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough." –Alain de Botton

Vulnerability is downright scary. But in order to gain the ability to learn from our mistakes, to have fun with our inherent hypocrisy, and to have a good sense of humor in regards to our fallibility as an imperfect species, we must first have the capacity to be vulnerable, which requires brutal self-honesty and ruthless self-interrogation.

Brutal self-honesty and ruthless self-interrogation forces us to face our own demons. It pushes us to confront our most personal foibles, fallibilities, and unhealthy propensities and to question all authorities, especially our own. It forces our head over the abyss of the human condition, searing our soul with the unavoidable blazing flame of truth: impermanence. It slaps us across the face with its absolute mockery of our happiness ever being a thing that can be permanent. It insouciantly rattles off the almighty cosmic joke, making damn certain we realize we're the butt-end of that joke.

Which is why a particularly effective strategy at achieving a state of vulnerability and self-honesty is to use our sense of humor. When we laugh at ourselves we loosen ourselves up. The screws of our seriousness get unscrewed by the genius of our humorous sincerity. We suddenly go from being the butt-end of the joke, to laughing at the joke, thus turning the tables on the jokes power over us, and thus on power itself. When we can laugh at ourselves we are allowing ourselves to be "weird," to tackle the dilemma of the self from another angle, to impose a state of existential vulnerability that transforms the soul into a prism where the light of truth can shine through and take the form of the rainbow of self-honesty.

And Pain is the terribly-beautiful, shiny-red, thorny and jagged little pill that we learn to swallow, again and again, with a devil-may-care, spiritually masochistic smile on our all-too-human faces. Bottoms up!

2.) Swallowing the Jagged Red Pill of Truth

"The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it." –Osho

Without the painful red pill of truth, we're stuck with the all-too-comfortable blue pill of deception. The blue pill gets stuck in our throat, causing no end of blockages, suppressions, oppressions, and depressions. The blue pill is a beacon of deception, lodged in our throat chakra, jamming all frequencies and preventing us from speaking our truth and from being impeccable with our word. The blue pill is a magnet for lies. And lies are sexy, scandalous scoundrels. They float around in a foggy smoke, seducing us with false kindness, kissing us just the right way, and lulling us into brain-washable complacency and a heightened state of malleability. Under the blue pill's seduction, we are pawns wallowing in self-incurred immaturity. Taking the red pill dislodges the blue pill, thus clearing the passage and opening all frequencies to the truth.

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another." –Immanuel Kant

But seeker of enlightenment beware, the teacher who longs to jam even the red pill down your throat. The choice must be yours, and yours alone. A good teacher will guide you to the red pill, but he/she should never force it down your throat. Like Adyashanti said, "My speaking is meant to shake you awake, not to tell you how to dream better." You have to want to dream better first.

"The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange." –G. K. Chesterton

Swallowing the red pill is a frightening prospect. It shatters worldviews and dissolves certainty. It replaces answers with questions. It upends all apple carts: psychological, physical, and spiritual. It reconditions preconditioning. It cleanses the doors of perception. It shatters the glassy essence of cognitive dissonance; the shards of which splinter off and sting like mad in the fleshy heart of truth. It leaves your soul naked, vulnerable, and blank-slated in the angry eye of an apocalyptic existential-hurricane of uncertainty. It reveals that you were always God in hiding. And the heavy burden of that prospect alone can be a soul-crushing responsibility. But like Seneca said, "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."

Read more articles from Gary 'Z' McGee.

3.) Ego Annihilation

"There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don't allow yourself to become one of them." -Ralph Marsten

This one is arguably the most painful. The death of the ego is no walk in the park. It is more like a walk through a dark night of the soul surrounded by an angry abyss that's really just the small-minded version of you not wanting to lose what it feels is the essence of you: your ego. But the ego is not the essence of you, and it never was. The real you is an interdependent cosmic force, an interconnected frequency, a unified cosmic agent going through the motions of being a mind-body-soul.

"But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?" –Friedrich Nietzsche

Ego annihilation leads to the ashes from which the phoenix of the soul rises. But first there must be descent. There must be a tearing part, a burning down, a sacred disintegration. But the task of severance is a repentance. It speaks the language of vicissitude. It howls inside you like old night. It moves through you like fresh smoke. It is the blood of a full moon's howl. It is a cruel wheel spinning its cycle of animal angst, of species-crimson. It is in this moment. Here, at the crux of the cross, at the knot on the wood, where the crooked trees mock your martyrdom and all your ancestors can smell the scent of your heart's full blossom, blinking in and out of the ether, screaming at you, "It is time! There may not be another life to love."

And so you descend. And so you cross the Rubicon of the self, bridging the gap between Man and Overman above the Existential Black Hole. And so you lose yourself in the blue smoke, in the loose shadows. You scream out like Yin. Your fists clinch like Yang. The fish feed on their tails. The snakes do the same. It's like heaven and hell in your body. People can smell the animal in you, the wild-self coming to life. Death hums a eulogy in the trees, and you die a small death: the exulting death of your ego. And then you're quiet as a doll, vulnerable, astonished, and cataleptic from the fall. But now you're a force of nature first, a person second. And the Earth has finally discovered its salvation: the awakened human soul.

4.) Fearless Forgiveness

"In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Things will go on as they always have, getting weirder all the time." –Robert Anton Wilson

Fearless forgiveness is scary because it is uncomfortable on an ontological level. It's both a tearing down of the walls that protect us from the world and an unlocking of the prison door of our expectations. When we tear down the walls, fear is paramount and must be faced, and that can be dreadfully uncomfortable. But like Farrah Gray said, "Comfort is the enemy of achievement." So it behooves us to get uncomfortable. Like Neo waking up from the Matrix for the first time. When we unlock the door to our prison, the way the world truly is despite us, and in spite of our expectations and worldview, becomes the harsh Desert of the Real, which only we can face and resolve for ourselves. But at least now we have the double-edged sword of fearless forgiveness to cut through all the red tape.

Forgiveness hurts because it is the ultimate letting go. It's a deep, visceral acceptance of the way things are, regardless of our need for things to be a certain way. It's a decisive shedding of the burden of what we cannot control. Tantamount to Buddhist non-attachment, fearless forgiveness is a reckoning of existential proportions that turns the tables on the concept of control itself. It gives us permission to authentically and sincerely go with the flow. With fearless forgiveness it suddenly becomes okay that the game of life is "rigged," because our fearlessness is a willingness to transform whatever negative, counterproductive, unhealthy shit gets thrown at us into something positive, progressive, and healthy. And our forgiveness is a giant sigh saying, "It's okay." It gives us the insurmountable courage to transform demons into diamonds, fear into courage, anger into strength, and disdain into compassion.

Fearless forgiveness is allowing ourselves to be intimate with the cosmos as it truly exists. Like Dôgen said, "Enlightenment is intimacy with all things." And intimacy with all things is just as likely to hurt as it is to feel good. But that is perfectly okay. It gives us permission to take the good with the bad, the unhealthy with the healthy, and the immoral with the moral. And then it gives us the courage to transform it all into our own amazing thing: art, adventure, love.

In the end, enlightenment is scary and painful, but it is so amazingly rewarding that it doesn't even matter. As Camus said, "Life should be lived to the point of tears." We must ride the fine-line between ecstasy and misery in order to enjoy the great mystery. Question thyself, overcome thyself, forgive thyself, then rebirth thyself, ad infinitum, and the path toward enlightenment shall not elude you.

About the Author

Gary 'Z' McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.

~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with friends and family...