Need For Solitude

I want to mention something in this particular post, which I believe to be vital to human beings: silence, the embrace of solitude.  Silent reflection is  vital to discern what is going on in society, to reflect on the roadblocks which hold us back in fulfilling our God-given purpose, and vital to come to find our most inner call as a human being.

Contrary to societal trends, we need solitude. Without stepping away from the turmoil of our lives, our notorious business, the information highway, we become over burdened. We need times, preferably every day, in which we are by ourselves in quietude. We need to BE, just us and God or just us and God's creation depending on your faith.   Without solitude our mind withers, our compassion becomes non-existent and we become puppets for other people's opinions.  I suggest that during such a time of solitude you connect with God, the Universe, with the benevolent force you believe in (I realize I am not only talking to Christians). Use this time to pray or meditate, reflect, contemplate or do Yoga.

For some, being in the quiet will take effort. Many turn on the TV in the early morning before they even brew their coffee and some go to sleep with the TV still on.  We live with too much noise and so much unnecessary information. All this is draining the energy we need to entertain a creative mind and a feeling of peace and wholeness.

Exercise:

Don't turn your TV on for half a day or day. If you suffer from withdrawal just start with one hour without TV. Notice what you feel.....are you restless and don't know what to do with yourself?

Journal all those feelings. If you decide to do a TV/ Media fast decide if you want to do it once a week, every day for a particular hour and stick with that.

Notice: Are you substituting one noise for another?

Meditation: “In quiet I listen to you Oh, God.” (Breathe deeply and repeat this thought)

Go on a silent retreat if you hunger for quiet and you can't find it at home.


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

Interconnectness of All Life

I know that the great Sages of our great traditions who claimed that there is a vast mind or vast intelligence out there are right. We may call it the Universal mind or “The One Consciousness,”  or God. The name doesn't really matter. It all points to the same Greatness. Islam for example teaches that God has 99 names. Even we Christians call Jesus the Son of God, Son of man, the light of the world, the open door, the bread of life.....and so on. You find some of them in the "I AM" statements of the Gospel of John (in the Bible). And God is called the Creator, Eli, Jehova, the I AM....

Now when I talk about a Greater Mind, I am not referring to what we understand as mind and connect it with intellect. That Greater Mind encompasses intellect, knowledge, wisdom of the heart and has a sense of ever embracing expansion. How I know this is through my own meditations and experiences with that Greater Mind.

The Greater Mind can be experienced by concentration and moving into energy mentally, energetically merging with other parts of creation.

For example I have merged through such concentration and for lack of a better word “meditation” with the energy of a tree.

I felt its roots and I felt its branches reaching not only up high into the sky, but up into the cosmos. The roots are connecting in a oneness of the tree root system which gives an immediate sense of accessing a knowledge pertaining to the trees around the world. There is an incredible interconnectedness.

Through deep concentration we could connect with the Greater Mind through the rest of creation or from one part of creation to another part of creation. Of course that should not be a surprise for those of faith, God created all life, all life is part of God.
In the Bible we read following: ...I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
I think if and when God chooses to give wisdom, understanding and a variety of gifts to us, it is quite possible to find understanding beyond what we deem currently possible.

Even for those who don't subscribe to a particular religious faith it should not be surprising that there is this interconnectedness. In science we have figured out that everything is energy. Whether this energy barks, grows apples, loves another human  - form is still energy.

Whenever I merged mentally via envisioning, I felt an incredible sense of love and energy pulsing to me. The connectedness created a sense of joy. Joy is a higher vibration of creativity.  The energy of creativity pervates all life. God CREATED all things.

Those who go out to try to reproduce such results and fail will say this is humbug. But why they failed will be the inability of most human beings to concentrate deeply enough at the moment, or the fear to look ridicules. I believe there are human beings who have that concentration and are able to access that information and teach that concentration.  Of course that "spiritual consciousness” is just a tiny part of the Greater Mind, just like our human thinking is. (It is a small part of the larger energy) We have been told that we use only a small percentage of our brain; the exact number is currently under debate. Deep concentration will increase that. When we envision, our concentration is at maximum.

Fear, however, decreases the ability to focus and concentrate deeply and connect. I have noticed this myself. There are moments and days I have incredible insights, but those are never moments and days when I am afraid of something. Whenever someone has to save their interests they will speak and counter out of fear. With that they will not only sabotage any ability to access the Greater Mind and celebrate the Interconnectedness, but they will also put a roadblock to advancement for the human race.

Exercise:

Go into your garden if you have a tree or invite yourself to a friends house who has a tree in the garden ( and tell them you are doing an experiment). Lean against the tree, in your inner vision notice the energy of the tree, then try to merge with that energy. Feel yourself stretching to its crown and below to its roots. Notice all the feelings you have, the energies you feel. You may want to write your experience down.

My brothers and sisters in Christ you may rather choose to meditate on following Biblical verse:

Jer 17:7-8
"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit."


Or you might sit with someone  (maybe holding hands) and meditate on your Oneness in Christ.
" I live in Christ, I am united with you in Christ."

Quotes to reflect on:

"Look out into the universe and contemplate the glory of God. Observe the stars,
millions of them, twinkling in the night sky, all with a message of unity, part of the very
nature of God." (Sai Baba)




Btw. If you have any thoughts, concerns and want to share your own insights I welcome your comments. A ministry here in Tulsa says it so nicely: "We don't have to believe alike to love alike."

© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

Choosing Kindness As a Path To Redirect The Fearful Mind

"The highest wisdom is loving kindness."  (Talmud)

We are used to comfort and obtaining many things with little effort.  Anything that requires effort, many of us do not enjoy. However, if we want to enjoy how our life and life in society works, I think it is paramount that we put effort into that which would benefit us all.

One of those things can be that we consciously choose to be kind to others. There is a book out called: Acts of Random Kindness. You might google this title and read this book. It has great suggestions.

Why would we want to put effort into kindness? Because if we don't, we already start seeing the results of what an unkind society looks like. Fearful people are extremely self centered. Being kind makes us other centered. For a group or society to work properly, we need the latter.

And if we did not learn to be kind (not all of us learn that) than we can still choose to act kindly, provided the person has figured out that kindness goes farther than bullying and aggression.

To choose to be kind also requires us to see the other as worthwhile. The other must be viewed as friend and not as a threat.

Exercises:

Envision yourself performing an act of kindness toward someone it seems to be difficult to be kind to. You choose the act. And envision your act until you are able to actually perform this act in the physical reality we are living in. 

As Christian you may want to pray: "Lord, help me to see others through your loving eyes." While we can chose to act kindly this comes rather hard if we don't call upon God. We are too often missing the mark and need God's grace to guide us.

Reflect on following  Biblical Scripture: "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, KINDNESS, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Gal.5:22-23)

Reflect on following quotes:

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." (Dalai Lama 1935)

"The beginning and end of Torah is performing acts of loving kindness" (Talmud)

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." (Mother Theresa)


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

When We Are Afraid To Listen

We may be afraid to listen because what we might hear could cause us to have to change. Here we are dealing with a closed  and set mind. We may run into things like, my father voted republican or democrat, so I must. Also, rigid religious and scientific beliefs fall into that.

We follow old structures, thinking we can bring about new results. At the same time  we can't hear what someone with a better idea has to say.  We become defensive about our ideas.  Here we deal with two fears, the fear of change and the fear of having our validity undermined.

Our need to have a purpose (and be valuable) is extremely strong. If we feel valued, we also feel loved. And who doesn't want to be loved? If there is something that undermines our perceived purpose instead of re-examining our stand, we will most likely lash out in defense. Our defense is to devalue the other so that we can hold on to our own value and purpose ("I am right and you are wrong"). If we are afraid to loose being loved and admired by our peers, we will be afraid to listen.  Even if we know that what is being presented is right – we can't change. To be able to change in spite of this peer pressure will take enormous emotional and spiritual growth.

We need to learn to be able to stay calm in spite of disappointments. We need to become aware that others are trying as hard as we are.  After all, we are disappointing others as well.
Once we realize that, we can start examining our motives. We might want to ask ourselves when we got into an argument: "Was this argument because I am afraid to change and take a look at something different?"  "Why am I defending my stand so strongly?" "Can I still see the other person as valuable, a friend, or as a child of God in spite of our differences?"

Exercise:

Tell yourself in one or two minute meditations throughout the day:

“I am lovable because I am created by love.” Then look at someone else and say: “You are lovable because you are created by love.”

Christian meditation: “God is my strength because God created me through love.

Teach me what forgiveness really means.” Then look at another and say to yourself: “I bless you, because your are created by God.”

or: I am valuable, because I am a child of God  and God creates nothing inferior.
(Some of the meditations are based on meditations from the "Course in Miracles".

Other suggestions: Read up in scriptures (the Bible), or if you are not a Christian in your specific Scripture texts pertaining to forgiveness, kindness and love.

© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

When We Are Afraid We Don't Listen

Most of us have heard the expression “I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Well, we do that when we are stressed, fearful and panicked.  Now we are often stressed because we experience fear... Fear of failing a course in college, fear of being cut from the workforce, fear of what will happen if we can't pay all our bills, to name a few. We are so absorbed with terrifying possibilities that we can't focus, especially not on another person. If we can't hear that other person, how are we going to listen? And if we don't listen, how will we live in relationship?

“Being listened to is so close to being loved that most people don't know the difference.”  (David Augsburger ... in Right Listening by Mark Brady Ph.D.)

I agree. Being heard is better than therapy, equal to love, and gives a sense of peace and safety. So if we are not able to listen, it promotes the opposite of love. It promotes a lack of safety and brings turmoil. When we make decisions out of fear they may sometimes be harmful to ourselves and to others. We make them because we have lost our sense of safety, peace.  and of being loved. We are drawn into a void of churning emotions. Someone so emotional can't listen.

Exercise for this week:

Make it a goal to notice    1. How often your mind wanders when you listen to someone.

2.     How many seconds or minutes do you actually manage to listen at a given time.

3.     Relax in a quiet atmosphere and bring up/envision a conversation you had with someone today/this week and observe that conversation. What was said? Did you listen? What all was going on?

4. Meditation: breathe deeply and then repeat "In Christ (God) I am safe"
    repeat this mantra until you feel more at peace.


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell