MESSAGES FROM THE FUTURE #82 Do you want to feel more empowered?
Do you want be be happier?
Do you want to experience bliss more frequently?
Here’s what you do…
1. Stop watching news programming!
2. Ignore advertising!
3. Exit politics.
4. Tune in to your immediate environment.
5. Take responsibility for your self.
6. Control your self.
7. Step away from your monitor.
Isn’t it interesting that a computer screen is called a monitor? Do we monitor it or does it, by our constant viewing, monitor us?
Peace of mind. 3 words just loaded with meaning when joined together as an idea. They suggests not only mental but also spiritual and physical states of existence. It is, [sadly] too often, something longed for but seldom experienced. So how does one experience peace of mind? I think it is a gift that we need only receive to experience. Can you receive it? Can I? Do we need help receiving it? One of the beautiful things about peace of mind is that it doesn’t remove us from life’s difficulties but gives us a way to deal with difficulties that is both positive and beneficial not only for ourselves but others. So for those who want to escape life’s difficulties – I’m sorry peace of mind will not provide escape. But it will allow you to perceive life struggles as if they were moving in slow motion giving you time to respond effectively. Peace of mind is natural state of existence that, in this day and age, is constantly under attack from exterior forces – often created by ourselves. We tend to blame others and don’t take responsibility for how we have had a part in creating this noise that disrupts our natural state of being.
So, how do I achieve peace of mind? Here are some easy steps. Once the practice is established it doesn’t take long to receive this gift.
1. Stop – just stop what you are doing.
2. Find a quiet place that you enjoy being in. [I have several places I can go – even at work – if I need just a couple of minutes to reconnect to this gift.]
3. Sit. [close your eyes if needed] Focus on your breathing for a couple of minutes. Then…
4. Take responsibility and admit to yourself that you have also had a share in disrupting peace of mind – either for yourself or others.
5. Think about and see the things around your daily life that disrupt your peace of mind. It might be technology or other people – even family.
6. Letting go: Forgive yourself for how you have disrupted your own peace of mind and the peace of mind of others.Then forgive others for how they have disrupted your peace of mind.
7. Receive your peace of mind [you may have to verbalize it at first saying, “Thank you, I receive this peace of mind”]. Imagine how to carry it with you through out your day at work, with family, strangers and friends.
Some people may need help receiving peace of mind. Look for ways to help them receive and achieve peace of mind. Give them peace of mind. This will also help your own peace of mind. Give the gift of peace of mind. I give it to you. Right now. Can you receive it, and accepting it, be grateful?
Music often plays a role in my experience of peace of mind. The video is for one of my favorite Japanese artists Missa Johnuchi. Enjoy this song. I apologize, in advance, that I don’t have a translation for the Japanese lyrics. But again it’s the music itself that I find to be the very expression of peace of mind – like it’s title. [If any reader does have a translation of lyrics please post in your comment. Thanks.]
PEACE OF MIND by UNESCO Artist for Peace, musician/composer/conductor Missa Johnuchi
Have you ever been misunderstood, misinterpreted and felt just completely ineffective when you talk. I know I have.
Maybe it’s not what we say but HOW we say it – the words we use to express ourselves.
I actually went out with my camera again. It’s been quite a while since I went in search of interesting places and spaces. I am amazed at how readily my city tears itself down in ongoing urbacide (urban suicide). There are more real estate signs on vacant lots than I could ever hope to imagine. It seemed sad to remember the places that stood in those empty lots and how all that may remain is someone’s fading photograph. There is a feeling of security in seeing familiar buildings that still stand – a bit like seeing an old friend. And when those buildings are preserved and reused – all the better. But too often they are torn down and just an empty space is left. People don’t want to invest in what was. What was, is too often viewed as an eyesore, an ugliness, or too costly and is removed – often with the excuse of safety concerns or in the name of progress; when this happens it not only changes the skyline of the city but also the skyline of the cities soul. Something is missing. When I got home I wrote this,
HOLES IN MY CITY
There are holes in my city
where buildings used to stand.
Empty spaces are all that remain
where factories made my world.
A dream that never was
cannot be remembered or built upon.
There is no foundation
there is only dust and wind.
Remembrance is only a delusion
sickness of mind and soul
for a community that is trapped
in its struggle to free itself from nothing.
There are holes in my city
where buildings used to stand.
Places where people lived
where the voices of children could be heard.
Now there is silence
even the ghosts don’t linger here.
Some say silence is golden
but the same silence can drive a person mad.
There are holes…
*note – the photo in this post features what used to be St. Bernard’s School. A wonderful stone and brick structure that was originally build in 1887 and was one of the oldest buildings in Akron. Demolition began on 3/28/14. Another hole has been made.
... on being and becoming ... 