A shamanic saturday afternoon
A Shamanic Saturday Afternoon - Photo by Gilbert Ross
Last Saturday I went for a bit of Soul Hiking up in the northwestern part of the island (see here). I didn’t take much with me…just my camera, some water and my soul.
The weather was fantastic. That part of the island has some magic in it which I can’t explain better than a picture I took (above) and a poem I wrote here below:
The north-westerly wind chanted prayers in my ears
Its salt-laden mouth weaved words in languages strange
The waves below crashed into riddles of brittle sound
A prelude to tales of near and distant seas unbound
The heavens echoed white plumes of remembrance
Clouds of fleeting memories against a darkening canvas
Wild thyme incensed the air with seductive smells
An offering to the skies born out of rituals and spells
I descended down the rocky hills as faithful as a pilgrim
Mindfully securing my feet in a slow apologizing pace
The rocks were in slumber, entranced by the moving shadows
Silently I walked into the secrets of these enchanted meadows
The mystic light played with the clouds for a while
Then lit up the sea with pools of incandescent gold
Dazzled I sat down on the edge of this weathering land
My disentangled heart floated away like shifting sand
I hope you liked it. If you did I wouldn’t mind if you share it along just to light up those unispiring Mondays 
Reboot your life: 20 mental barriers you should let go of
photo by admitchell08
You are in an imaginary hot air balloon. It’s just you and all of your belongings in the wicker basket. Something went wrong and you are losing altitude fast. You will hit the ground in less than ten minutes if you don’t come up with something quick.
The only immediate solution is to get rid of excess weight and throw off at least half of your belongings. It’s that or hit the ground in ten. You look at the things and hesitate for a few seconds but then you do what you have to do and start throwing the things you have gathered half your life one by one. The cargo gets lighter, the descent slows down then you are floating up again back to altitude. You are relieved beyond comprehension.
This happens to all of us in less dramatic circumstances. We attach ourselves to things that we have accumulated over the years. Some of them might have some practical value. Others we just have attached ourselves sentimentally to over time. Some others are just clutter.
Our mental life follows the same fate. We carry with us a lot of things in our heads along the years – Our life story, emotional attachments, beliefs and other things which can linger in our minds for many years.
Some of them are useless ideas that drag us down considerably. Some are emotional debris from difficult moments in our past. Some are just beliefs which we have attached ourselves to for no apparent justifiable reason. Some others are just self-destructive habits and fears.
So if you were in the hot air balloon situation, which of these mental barriers should we let go? I have listed down 20 here. Do you have any more? (more…)
Expanding consciousness through compassion & loving kindness
photo by Mara ~earth light~
The notion of practicing compassion for other fellow humans has been with us since the beginning of time. After all, Man is a social creature in need of meaningful social connections in order to grow on all levels of his being.
The concept of compassion however has in recent times been appraised in value. Its importance is starting to be understood under the new light of a drastically changing world where people are getting more connected, economies collapse and new global crisis emerge. Compassion is becoming increasingly tied to the future of humanity. In order for Humanity to keep the balance against the impounding waves of change we need to grow collectively in mind, awareness and in consciousness. One essential ingredient for this growth is cultivating compassion and loving kindness
Compassion compels action and social change
“You know, there’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the steelworker who’s been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this — when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers — it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” Barack Obama
The art of creating meaning into your life
Photo by Faungg
I think one of the most fundamental questions we come to ask in our lives is “what is the purpose of my life?” which can be transcribed into “How meaningful is the life I am living at the moment?” This is a personalization of the more general and philosophical question “What is the meaning of life and everything?”
These questions often arise when we are going through major life transitions or y-points in our lives where crucial decisions and drastic changes have to be made. When we go through big changes our reality bends and shifts because we are breaking away from our old worldview and leaping into a new one. Big changes and moments of temporary crisis often bring with them deep questions about the meaning of life and our role and identity with the changing world around us.
It is not easy to answer such questions for the simple reasons that the answer to such questions lie exclusively within us and not outside of us. Things and situations in our lives have meaning because we attribute meaning to them. They do not have meaning by themselves but depend on our perspective, reality and system of beliefs. The same thing may have deep meaning for me but can be meaningless to you or it may have different meaning to one person at different times in her life depending on her experiences, motivations, beliefs and perspectives.
But how can we give more meaning to our lives? I’m sure we all asked ourselves this question at one point whether explicitly or otherwise.
Happiness and self-realization depend on how much our lives are enriched with meaning and purpose. A meaningless existence is certainly not a wholesome and happy one.
Unfolding the bigger picture
Very often meaning is equated with knowing our true purpose, our mission and goals in life. This is true at some level. By knowing and embracing our role in the big picture of life, we find a lot of what we experience as more meaningful.
Our purpose however is not always clear to us at all times because it is sometimes cluttered and hindered by negative emotions, misconceptions and wrong sorts of habits and beliefs.
Here are a few approaches that help us deepen and enrich our connections with ourselves and with others, align ourselves with our inner purpose and open our hearts for the joys of living a meaningful and happy life: (more…)
The Power of Gratitude (and why it always works wonders)
Have you ever been grateful about something small or big that happened unexpectedly but has made a difference to your day, your mood or your life in general?
Go back to it with your mind and remember how it feels. How would you define it? For me it’s a warm comforting feeling of love, reward, appreciation and happiness. You know those moments in our lives where we count our blessings and feel happy to be in the knowledge that life has been kind and good to us no matter how small or large that blessing was.
Just the awareness and recognition of it confers a moment of serenity and pleasure that brightens up our day and enlivens our souls. It is like a brief opening in our hearts where for a moment we stop and peep outside of ourselves and realize that life is abundantly blissful and generous but we often obscure this fact with our everyday hectic routines, by giving more attention to negative thoughts and by being too sucked by our needs and wanting. (more…)
A Note on Happiness
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” Aristotle
Photo by Hadrien
Every living being in this world seeks happiness whether s/he is aware of it or not. It is the meaning and purpose of life as Aristotle had noted.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I hear you say. Yet is it really that obvious I dare ask again?
If it were that obvious why aren’t billion of dollars being spent in researching the ‘Science of Happiness’? Why aren’t political systems based on the pursuit, achievement and safeguarding of Happiness? Why aren’t there too many religions that instead of attaching themselves to Dogma and authority reorient their beliefs on the basic Human need of Happiness? Why isn’t Happiness a shared point of reference between political, ideological and International transactions?
Something is not that obviously straight forward to me. (more…)
Follow Your Heart and Life will Follow
When these words of wisdom were told to me I was still a young man. The real depth behind their meaning was not apparent to me yet. Their wisdom was concealed by my unripe age. Not that they are cryptic or anything but rather because it’s one of those sayings which unfolds and reveals itself to you as your experiences in life grow and mature.
There are three fundamental notions that the saying points at:
1. Authenticity
2. Trust
3. Manifesting your destiny or Life’s Purpose
The lesson is simple as much it is abysmally deep: When you learn to discover your authentic self amongst socially constructed preconceptions, distorted self-images and learn to trust the natural pulse of your heart’s true desires then you will manifest them in your life. You will manifest your life’s purpose (more…)
Sowing the Seeds of Love
Love does not come to you and strike you inadvertently (although that is how we interpret it on certain occasions). It doesn’t come down like a thunderbolt and stun your heart. Love comes to you because you have prepared the right conditions for it to grow. You attract love into your life because you have placed the right signs to show it the way in. This may all sound wishy-washy talk to you but the logic of it has strong roots in studies on the human mind and condition.
In this article I will discuss and put forward some simple but not commonly known potions to attract Love into your life.
Love as a fundamental Human need
When we think about Love we usually make our first association with romantic love. This is indeed one member of the same Kind, but Love in its entirety is much broader than that. We give and receive Love from and to our Children, our elders, our parents, our friends and loved ones and even from people who are strangers to us but share with us the very common fact of being Human. (more…)
