YES WE DID!

Can you stand it?
The World rejoices
with us...
HOPE...
PROGRESS...
CHANGE...

But now we have a great job ahead... We must step up to the plate, be more self reliant and more responsible in our actions. IT will take years for the mess that has been made of this country to be corrected and made great again. I am most excited for our children.... They now have a "real" role model for them... not a Hip Hop Rapper.... Not an athlete... not a TV or Movie star. A MAN of color, raised by a single mother... a MAN, who is intelligent, self confident, articulate, passionate... A MAN, that takes the high road in all situations, A MAN, courageous in his convictions, hell... a MAN of conviction, A MAN of INTEGRITY. No More Excuses... YES WE CAN!

This is the Gratitude month of November... and we have much to be grateful for... A brave new world... where color is no longer an issue... (however, some still need to catch up and we must send them love and light...)

peace n blessings,
Gail


Living from the Heart

Many of us have been taught to live from only one of our six senses, our mind. We have forgotten, lost touch, with the other five senses available for our perception of life. Assuming no physical disabilities, every moment of life, we can see with our eyes, we can smell with our nose, we can taste with our mouth, we can hear with our ears, and we can touch life with our skin.

Living from the heart is allowing our body/mind sensations to come to our attention, moment by moment. In reality, every moment of life is new and every situation is fresh and clean. When we live from our head only, life can appear to be repetitious, sometimes exciting and sometimes boring. We are continually seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Much of my life has been in this seeking process. An inner feeling of uneasiness, that I should be somewhere I am not, with someone I am not, having something I don’t have. Instead of living from my whole being, I have been in the process of having this and wanting that, of being this and becoming that. The cycle of emotional suffering is very painful and I have learned that it is all self inflicted.

Living from the heart means we are connected deeply with the core of our real being. We know who we are and where we are all the time. We are connected with the source of life.

A child is born in the world, he has an experience, this experience goes into his brain, he remembers the experience, he desires the experience again, if he gets what he desires, there is pleasure, if he doesn’t get what he wants, there is emotional pain for him and or others around him. At a very young age, the child has formed an image of himself and of the outside world. When the outside world fits the inside image, there is pleasure, when there is no match, there is pain. The cycle of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain begins.

He starts using his intellect to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This becomes a habit, an ingrained pattern in the brain. Patterns repeat until replaced. The longer a pattern is repeated the deeper ingrained it is. His brain becomes conditioned to look at life in a certain way, with certain beliefs. This pattern continues until something happens in his life to show him that his version of life no longer works. This is can be viewed as life waking him up.

To live from the heart means to live from feelings, body sensations. We learn to trust our own feelings and rely on them. We learn not to rely on our mental and emotional states alone. We learn to distinguish between emotions and emotional reactions.

When our mind and body are not in sync, in the present moment, there can be tension and conflict in the body. Mental and emotional movies can create drama in our minds and our brain sends chemicals flooding the body alerting it to dangers that are not real, they are only in our mind.

We can learn to slow down our thinking process so that we can observe our thoughts and feelings. The brain is a receptacle for thoughts, an instrument, a tool. Slowing down the function of the brain will slow down the production of thoughts. Thoughts produce feelings, sensations in the body. Feelings produce emotions. An emotion produces energy in the body.

We can slow our brain down by meditating, by praying, by deep breathing, by exercising, by touching our body and letting it know it is safe, by allowing thoughts to come as they will and seeing clearly that we can let them go as quickly as they come.

A clear mind and a receptive heart is a recipe for a healthy and vital life. My hope is that everyone will realize that all suffering, with the exception of physical pain inflicted on one person by another, is self inflicted. When we realize that we are creating our suffering, we can stop doing that and observe the thoughts and feelings instead of becoming them.

It’s takes time to drop conditioning, but the rewards are well worth the effort and we have plenty of time to do this. Time is a function of the mind. Time comes from nowhere and goes nowhere.

Tomorrow never comes, everyone knows. Tomorrow never comes, it just goes! Awareness of the body/mind functions over time reveals to the observer the truth that this present moment is all there is.

©2002 Michael D. Johnson, all rights reserved.
http://www.blogthings.com/howthankfulareyouquiz/

Be Happy by Being Grateful for Whatever Comes
by Enoch Tan

All we want is to be happy in life. Happiness is not only what we feel when we have what we desire, it is also the very emotion that attracts what we desire to us. It is much easier to manifest our intentions if we stop focusing on intending but instead we focus on just being happy with what is. Focus less on asking the universe for this or that and more on just being grateful for whatever comes. We will feel such sweet and true joy when we enjoy the present fully than by trying to create for the future.

Many a times, we sabotage the manifestation of our intentions unknowingly by focusing too much on intending. The truth is that focusing on our intentions too much only reinforces the fact that they do not exist, therefore we are trying to manifest them. The idea that you must focus on your intentions all the time is a fallacy. To manifest our desires, you have to be in vibrational harmony with the realization of our desires, which means you must think, feel and act as if your desires have already manifested.

If you already had all your desires manifested, you wouldn’t be trying to manifest anything, but you would be enjoying and being grateful for all that you have. You would feel totally happy and joyful about the way your life is. You would totally love your life. That is exactly the state for you to be in right now if you want to be in vibrational harmony with all your dreams and desires. This is the secret key all along. It is about not trying to manifest at all but to allow yourself to be as happy as you can be.

http://www.mindreality.com/be-happy-by-being-grateful-for-whatever-comes

Being Grateful for Your Uniqueness

Have you ever wondered if it is really true that no two snowflakes are alike? Well, scientists tell us that variations among complex snow crystals are purely limitless. Many snowflakes look alike – even under the microscope – but at closer examination, they differ. Even with 1024 snowflakes per year, the probability of two exactly identical snow crystals happening within the lifetime of the universe is practically zero.

Given the infinitely greater complexity of a human person, you may be absolutely sure that there never was, not ever will be, anyone like you.

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person...
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those
who have lighted the flame within us..."
~Albert Schweitzer