Shifting Sands, Shifting Focus

Another beautiful sunrise in the Sangres

The minute you can get your gaze, your attitude, and your focus off someone or something you don’t like, the influence is gone. Will is the only tool you’ve got.  Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: One Original Thought – September, 2011)

I don’t know anyone who isn’t experiencing shifting sands in some form or another.  If not in our own personal experience then perhaps in someone close to us and most certainly in our society as a whole.  Change is life. 

I’m in the midst of some influences and experiences that I don’t like. They remind me that I’m not in control of them and that it is my choice to what extent they control me.  That reminder is a gift.

They call on me to choose how I will apply and use my will. Where will I put my attention?  How long will I dwell in the negative event, beating up myself and perhaps others with my thoughts?  When will I put my gaze elsewhere? 

Now, in this moment I shift my gaze.  I didn’t get here as quickly as I would have liked. I inhabited the negativity of an event and opened the door to later events that seemed to pile on.  I started the shift enjoying a glass of wine and conversation on the deck with a lovely B&B guest.  I noticed how easily I could step into a conversation about what I love about where I live.

A bit later as I felt the negativity come creeping back in (okay, honestly it was rushing!) I reached for one of Gregge Tiffen’s September booklets, took a breath and asked ‘what do I need to see right now?’  Voila! My gaze landed on the above. The shift in my cells was palpable as the frequency of my energy began to shift. I also noticed how easily it slipped in that instant when my gaze didn’t have a clear focal point. 

I read a bit more and shifted my thinking to this week’s post. That’s a luxury usually reserved for Thursday mornings, but I felt inspired by the words and the experience.  Writing is a place to focus that shifts whatever is influencing me.  And, selecting photos from this week’s stunning landscapes provided yet another soothing place to land my gaze.  My will to shift the energy is taking root.  The lightness I feel contrasts where I dwelt earlier in the day.  With that lightness I feel gratitude and a hint that in this event the answer to a seemingly unrelated question is being revealed. How cool is that?

Memo to self: When shifting sands feel as if they are about to drown you, shift your gaze, your attitude, your focus and see what new frequency you can muster.  Then, be tenacious in maintaining it.

One of several stunning sunsets this week.

Morning Moon

Banishing Negativity

Grateful for another day of the sun rising over the Sangres!

Negativity can’t create anything. It can't even create further negativity because that energy just maintains itself.  Gregge Tiffen (PS 52, Series 8, The New Experiment, Week 47)

Negativity is a misapplication of the laws of the universe and the rules of the planet.  Patrece on behalf of P-Systems, Inc. (PS 52, Series 8, The New Experiment, Week 47)

I don’t know about you, but some days it feels like our world has become a cauldron of negativity. Is it any wonder that we don’t seem able to move forward, given that negativity doesn’t create anything? How can we possibly address what is on our own plates in terms of life, not to mention the plethora of critical issues needing the best of each of us collectively when fear and hatred are being hurled at us from so-called leaders, the media, and even one another?

While turning off the news or taking a break from social media may give us relief from time to time, do these tactics sustain us in maintaining a positive approach to life?  While I’ve long preferred and, hopefully, been successful at maintaining positivity in my life, I can’t claim to have banished negativity completely. Hey, I’m still human after all.

And yet, I honestly think that I’m doing pretty darn well with my personal positivity score.

But a weekend experience of allowing my ‘inner snarky’ to surface at about the same time as this week’s installment of PS 52 arrived, coupled with wondering why a project I’m involved in can’t seem to move forward, prompted me to take a look at negativity – that within as well as that beyond my reach. I was quickly reminded that my ‘inner snarky’ surfaces when things don’t turn out like I want them to (duh!): a show is late starting and I leap to ‘they are wasting my valuable time’, leaving in the dust relaxing and enjoying the moments of peace or extra time with a friend.  I quickly return from negativity-land, but I wonder: why do I go there in the first place?  Answer: habit (‘nuf said).  Solution: awareness + choosing differently.

As I reflected a bit more, I allowed myself to see and acknowledge the shifts and pruning of habits and beliefs that I’ve done over the years that contribute to my capacity to maintain positivity in our sometimes negative and chaotic world:

• Practicing gratitude for ALL
• Immersing myself in nature, self-care, and care for Cool Hand Luke
• Nurturing curiosity, especially when I don’t know how to move forward, shifting from declaring ‘I don’t know how’ to asking ‘How can I? What if …?’
• Taking responsibility vs. blaming others
• Developing my capacity to say ‘no’ to opportunities, events, and others that don’t represent the quality I want at that moment
• Nurturing and developing my core belief in the abundance and intelligence of the universe
• Nurturing patience for myself and for others
• Learning to enjoy my own company
• Continuing to learn about and experiment with how energy works
• Remembering that life is an experiment and events are here not for me to be right, but rather as gifts for my learning, AND that I have a band of personal guides that are with me all along the way
• Make and take time for fun!

For the sake of the universe, the angels, the planet, nature, humanity and ourselves we need to banish negativity.  Ground zero is right where we live. It’s you. It’s me. It’s up to each and every one of us to forge a path to banish negativity in all of its insidious forms from our lives. The quality of our future – this life and beyond – depends on it.

Taking time for some fun at Crestfest 2016!

Another beautiful sunset on a beautiful day in the Sangres.

Energy Shift!

Cool Hand Luke: ever present teacher to a not always present student.

To accept an event as your opportunity to reveal more self honesty is the issue for effective and efficient rates of progress. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Economical Rates of Progress – August, 2010)

So often we think of self-honesty as a drag. And we forget, at least I do, that the discipline of using our will is a gift given we humans at birth. It isn’t hard, and it does require practice.

This morning I woke as if I’d not had a good eight hours sleep. I felt tired and, even though it’s my favorite morning, this Thursday had me thinking about spending the day in bed with the covers pulled over my head.  I stretched and got up anyway.  It is blog day you know.  Not only that it’s a special blog day: the 156th post, marking three years of weekly posts.

Good Morning from the Sangres!

Still dragging after making my tea, I picked up one of Gregge’s booklets from my bedside stack. The page that I opened it to reminded me that I have a ‘band’, a group of astral energy beings assigned to support me, just me, in life and learning.  How is it that I so easily forget that they are available 24/7?  More importantly, how could I remember?

About that time Cool Hand Luke woke up, stretched, looked at me with those soulful brown eyes, and took a few steps to come an put his head on my lap. Tears streaming, I knew in that instant that Luke is a messenger for my band.  I had not only the answer to ‘how can I remember?’ (duh, it’s right in front of me!). I also had an insight as to what Luke is trying to communicate when he sits patiently and just looks at me: ‘HI! Remember us? We’re here for YOU!’

Need I mention that my energy shifted immediately?  The weary me that had waked up less than hour before had shifted: Bring on the day!  Let’s get the blog done and see what else wants to be created.

At a time when our planet needs joy and all the positivity we can muster, this morning using my will to take just one step and then the next, I made that shift. No covers over my head this day!

Some might think differently, but there is no ‘one size fits all’ formula. We each need to experiment and discover what works for us.  Taking time to simply remember a few basics can be a wonderful place to start.

Remember who you are: a cell in the infinite universe of love.

Remember time is not the issue: you have all the time you need, eons of time, to learn and grow in wisdom.

Remember you are in school: earth school is not a cake-walk. You earned the privilege of being here at this time, just as you earned the gifts of learning that every challenge you face offers.

Remember that something beautiful greets you every day: if you don’t see it, look in the mirror and smile.

Treetops, sand dunes, mountains, sky!

Ever on duty!

The Power of Quitting

To Be As Crystal Clear as this Lake below Zapata Falls ...

You are meant to understand your dual polarity needs: the work and the play, the private and the professional. If you keep just one single polarity, you diminish productivity. One gives you the energy to accomplish and enjoy the other.”  Gregge Tiffen (Impatience Fishes In An Empty Pond – June, 2008)

Decades (oh, how I would like to say ‘years’!) ago when I was fresh out of graduate school, I didn’t have this wisdom. I was hell bent on using my urban planning skills to make the world a better place. I regularly (and proudly) worked intense 70+ hour weeks, continuing the habit I created in grad school taking a full course load while holding a full time consulting job.

Five or so years into that way of life, I was exhausted and miserable. Ready or not, I felt challenged to confront the reality that I was working hard but hardly living. At about the same time as this recognition came, a series of events at the agency where I was Deputy Director (I worked my way up the ladder fast!) left me feeling uncomfortable and unable to fulfill my role. And, so I resigned.  I didn’t understand until much later that through those uncomfortable events, the Universe was conspiring to support me.

I read. I rested. I slept (really slept!). I played, went to therapy, and travelled. I spent days on the Pacific Coast mesmerized by tide pools. I was introduced to metaphysics, Gregge Tiffen, and what has become a lifelong curiosity. I fell in love, experienced a breakup, and met the man I would later marry.

And after six or so months, I was ready to re-engage professionally, this time with a commitment to work and play.  Creating a different life was possible because I had the courage to quit, walk away from the so-called ‘security’ of a paycheck. And, many years later I made the same choice, ending a marriage.

Yucca in blooming splendor!

Today, I exercise my ‘quit’ muscle when I find myself in situations where my experience is complete. That can look like satisfaction upon completing a project or, at the opposite extreme, it can be when a situation doesn’t feel right and I no longer choose to put my energy there.

‘Quitting’ can also be simply taking a break, as I did this past week, engaging in a ‘stay-cation’ to hike and enjoy my cousin’s visit. It can be stepping away from a ‘problem’, knowing that I can return later with a fresh perspective (though they often resolve themselves before I do!)

In our culture we tend to look down on ‘quitting’ as the shadow or ‘bad’ side of being engaged. ‘Quitters’ have no honor. Perhaps though it’s time we develop a new view: quitting as a valued skill that has its place in our life skills tool box, keeping us on course so we don’t find ourselves, as I did those decades back, in a life that others (employers, family, friends, the culture) would have us live. Rather we are living and learning in the life that is authentically and uniquely ours.

A view of the Great Sand Dunes from Blanca Peak. On a clear day you can see forever ...

Pivotal Moments

Another beautiful sunrise in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Consciousness recognizes Life not society. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Sex, Lies, and Assumptions, June, 2010)

Life is an infinite series of potentially pivotal moments.

I always catch myself when I start to say ‘I always …’ Oops! There I go. Perhaps we do have characteristics, habits, ways of being that have been with us ‘always’, although ‘always’ is infinite and goes back beyond this silly measure we call time. ‘Always’ includes every experience that consciousness has had in every form physical and non-physical in the vast Universe.

That’s a bunch of experience to bring forward to this moment. No wonder life sometimes seems so complex.

But I digress. This day find myself reflecting on my own personal thoughts and our collective thoughts in times of tragedy. I’m observing how I and others respond (or react). I see elements of what looks to be our highest and our best. And, I see the opposite extreme. I reflect on how events impact us and how our collective consciousness – the combined thoughts, words, deeds of each of us – are creating the world we experience.

I’m wondering how it is that in the in the immediate aftermath of the event we know as 911 I could pen a challenge to not let fear take over our thinking?  And, I’m wondering how it is today I maintain that same sense about current events while I am not consistent in bringing that same understanding and peace to personal situations and relationships? How is it that my actions ‘locally’ don’t consistently align with my higher global worldview? These questions call for continued observation and reflection. Perhaps there is no definite answer other than how I use what I discover.

All events in life – the personal ones and the global – are FOR us. They invite us to choose whether or not we will participate and how we will do so (or not). They invite us to learn. Some invite us to be distracted from our path. Other events cheer us on.

Every event holds the potential to be a pivotal moment – one in which we choose to be true to Life rather than follow the dictates of a society that tells us how we ‘should’ be.

Every moment holds the potential to be a stand for who we are as an individual, to accept others on the same terms, and to bring authentic love and understanding into our world.  There is beauty in the prickly business of life, our opportunity is to see and respond to the beauty, not the thorns.

Beauty Blooms From the Prickliness of Life

Learning Is Your Power

Early morning haze as the sun rises to shine on Blanca

The more we empower other people or conditions, the less we use the invested power in ourselves and the less we understand about what we have available. Gregge Tiffen (Pleasure Is Short, Wisdom Is Infinite – May, 2008)

You do know, don’t you, that the Universe invested tremendous power in YOU?  It invests that power in each of us, forever and ever. Amen.

We live in a world though that would have us forget this truth. We interact with other people and with systems in such a way that we come to depend on them. When we lose our awareness that conditions as experience are here for our learning, we give our power away.

I write this blog with pen and paper. In order for my words to get to you, I rely on a computer, an internet connection, and more technology services than I can understand. A glitch happens somewhere along the way. I learn to work around it and, along the way, have the opportunity to manage my temper.

Deep within, often outside of my awareness, I trust that the message will get through. If it doesn’t, I trust that as well. Unless I empower them, the ‘glitches’ take nothing from me or from my power. Each week I intend to offer something of value from my experience. You determine what that is for you.  Independent of you, I determine whether I am satisfied. (That said, I love your feedback and comments!)

As I look out to the world beyond me, I wonder if the angst and anger visible in our world isn’t a result of investing this power we were given by the Universe outside of ourselves rather than in our own learning to use that power?

We know much (or we wouldn’t be granted the gift of being on this planet at this time).  Yet, we are each here to add to what we know by applying our knowledge in new ways and learning from the experience.

Stop for a moment. What is your greatest challenge right now? Where are you in relation to that challenge? How much of your energy is invested in thoughts like ‘if they would …’ or ‘if only it …’?  How much of your energy is invested in you with thoughts such as ‘what if I tried …’ and ‘what can I learn from this’?

What if we asked these questions from a place of faith that all things are working together for our highest learning?

My truth is that there are no guarantees. Yet when I approach my life’s events from this place of learning (no matter how long it may take me to get here!), I always (and in all ways) come out ahead, even when the apparent outcome may not be to my preference or my liking.

This week I invite you to notice where you are investing your power.  And, if your investment is outside of you, to gently question, experiment and discover the power of learning in (re)claiming your power.

On behalf of the forest, a tree greets the morning sun.

Mother Nature, Planet Earth

The early morning sun begins to shine on the peaks

Mother Nature, planet Earth, gave us our power, our life, our energy. Ideally, we learn and teach fidelity for the land. We are to take care of the planet and to take care of the body that birthed us. It is everything to us. Take care. Do not destroy it. Do not turn your back on it. That is taking dominion. Gregge Tiffen (Mother Nature – May, 2007)

Years ago when I lived in the city, it was an effort to escape the concrete jungle and put myself in the woods or on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico. I always preferred the woods. After an interim move to a small canyon on the West Texas plains, I now find myself at home in the quiet woods of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Here appreciation, gratitude, and love for nature and for my physical body grow.

Here I am nourished by what my five senses take in:

• The distinguished song of the meadowlark and the gentle sounds of Cottonwood Creek as she flows down the mountain and through the foothills
• The beauty of snow-capped peaks by day and clear, vast starry sky by night
• The solid, yet uneven earth under my feet and chill of the morning air on my cheeks
• The freshness of the earth and the pines after a rain
• The flavors of produce fresh from a friend’s garden or greenhouse and of pine pitch when my hand is sticky and I lick to clean it

Here I notice how my senses work together: sight and touch keeping me upright as I walk on rocky trails.

Here my ‘sense’ beyond my senses becomes more known.  I deepen my connection to the earth and come to know her as the source that sustains me.  I aim for my choices to reflect this knowing.

Here I take care of the earth and of this vehicle that consciousness has chosen for the ride this sojourn.

Here as I plant the seeds that know they are carrots, beets, beans, and squash, I scatter seeds reflecting what I know about the Universe and what I’m curious about.

The seeds are sown. Let the growing begin!

And, here knowing now what I didn’t know when I lived in the city, I see that I can honor Mother Nature, planet Earth, my true family wherever in the world I find myself.

I invite you to join me in the experiment to embrace the dominion we were given. In the weeks ahead, wherever you are, take time to notice and honor the ground that you walk on.  See, hear, feel, smell, taste the planet that is your home. Remember that you are not separate from her indeed you are integral part of the play.

Learn your lines and play your part well.

A friendly junco greets the day

The Gifts of Restraint

No problem is without a solution, and no problem exists that did not exist as an ‘unproblem’ before it became a problem. Every knot was once a straight rope, and no knot unties itself. Gregge Tiffen (Pleasure is Short, Wisdom is Infinite – May, 2008)

The post could be subtitled ‘From Insight to Experience (or Challenge)’. After sharing last week’s insight (http://cindyreinhardt.com/blog/healthy-thinking) about energy wasted and the health impacts of a particular habit of my mind, I challenged myself to laugh each time I noticed I was engaging in the habit. For a few days, I laughed a lot!

Then, slowly, subtly something began to shift. My attention was much more focused on what was in front of me. My thoughts were clearer, my awareness seemed sharper, and I experienced a lessening of the physical symptoms I’ve been addressing.  I was beginning to end a habit of thought that didn’t serve me. Or, was everything just calm with no external events to catalyze my habitual reaction?  Several days of snow, rain, and cold blessed me with the opportunity to read, rest, snuggle in by the fire (and Cool Hand Luke, of course), and to disconnect from the world. Nice!

Soon, the sun came out and I plugged back in. My inbox revealed an email that is just the sort of stimulus to trigger that old reactive habit. Step One: fire off a quick, snarky response. Step Two: play the endless feedback loop of ‘how dare you’ to keep myself riled up and ready to battle.

But this day I stopped. I made different choices. Yes, I was disturbed by the other person’s action. No, I would not engage in my old habits. I would stop. I would restrain from letting my fingers fly across the keyboard in reaction. I would not allow the situation to take over my thoughts unless and until I could think about it clearly and with the intent to resolve. 

This approach did not require that I ignore or avoid the situation. Indeed it created the spaciousness to allow it to unfold, to discover others who shared my view, and to engage in positive conversation about moving forward with them. When not engaged in that way or in my own personal review, I was able to invoke the discipline to set the issue aside and to be mindful that restraint was/is a choice. 

Within a couple days, a way forward emerged through the actions of the person who sent the original email. Others had expressed their concern in their ways, powerfully, gracefully, and with clarity. The way is being shown.

Restraint is a muscle for me to develop further. In these intense times where there seems so little, perhaps restraint is a gift for us to all develop in our ways at our pace. So much learning; so many gifts!

Thank you ‘Restraint’ for ease, grace, peace, possibility, growth, and personal satisfaction (just to name a few!).