New Understanding

March 3, 2014

It’s strange, but I am understanding new things about the world all the time. I now understand why some middle-aged women cut their hair short (or shorter) — it’s the awkwardness of grey hairs growing in. Another one: some people become alcoholics because they are punishing themselves for something, and are actually slowly committing suicide. One more: when we think of aliens, we think of “the greys,” but they aren’t necessarily real. They became well-known after the TV show “The X Files,” which is just a show, not a documentary!

Freakonomics coverI’ve been reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner lately. In it, they look at all kinds of trends and statistics to try and figure out why the world is the way it is. No subject is taboo, and they are careful not to confuse morality with causality; just because something ought not to happen, doesn’t mean it doesn’t. As a result, I have a much better understanding of how urban street-life and drug culture work. The authors actually got financial records from a gang in Chicago, and a sociology student hung out with the gang members and made notes on what he learned. The over-arching theme in Freakonomics is incentive — what makes people do the things they do — and it’s becoming terribly interesting to me. (With my introverted nature, I never really thought about this much before.) The incentive to be a drug dealer? To be recognized, to be popular, to get rich — very similar to an aspiring actor: to be one of the very few to make it big.

Sometimes, I get a new flash of understanding by reading/learning something, and other times it comes as a flash of insight — something more akin to intuition. I had a truly startling flash-revelation when I was in Wrigley. One morning, in that state between sleep and wakefulness, an image and a sentence came to mind: “If I get big enough, maybe they will leave me alone.” The really big girl I had met recently was obese because she was trying to keep men from bothering her. She had been abused and the thought that came through to me was crystal clear. It is sad, but I guess that is her coping strategy… I just don’t know if it’s working.

That flash of insight lead to this:

When you hate yourself, you are less healthy (which includes being overweight).

Many people would say I have it backwards: they hate themselves when they are overweight. But I believe it goes the other way. Why? Because the reverse is true:

When I like myself the most, I am naturally thin and healthy.

It is easy, and it doesn’t seem to matter much what I eat. The “work,” if you want to call it that, is in liking myself, because I’m human too, and sometimes I get into a habit of complaining about myself more than appreciating.

The thing is, you can’t fake liking yourself. Remember how Freakonomics is all about incentives? You can’t ask “what’s my incentive to like myself more? To be THIN!” That just reinforces the idea that you are not okay unless you are thin — a message that has saturated the media, although I am happy to see more normal body images popping up all the time.

But this blog post is not about being thin. It’s about understanding things, and how a new perspective changes everything. So let me summarize a few of my latest revelations:

  • When I tell myself “I don’t feel like being grumpy today. I want to be happy!” I am well on the way to being happy.
  • When I focus on what I have to work with, rather than what I am lacking, I become like MacGyver — solving problems, coming up with innovative solutions, and being a hero (at least to myself)!
  • When I am grateful for everything around me, I am overwhelmed with contentment.
  • When I am happy about who I am, health comes easily.
  • If you’re after fame and fortune, choose acting rather than dealing drugs (it’s a lot safer).
  • No matter the hair style, grey hairs happen!

less grumpy people

By Teresa | Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , | Comments off

Affirmations to Try

October 4, 2012

I just thought I would take a quick minute to share some of my favourite affirmations with you! Although some are “deeper” than others, they have all been very helpful and powerful. Give them a try or make your own!

“I am surrounded by people who love and support me.”

“Everything I eat goes into the building blocks for healthy cells.”

“Every time I brush my teeth, they get healthier and healthier.”

“I have all the money I could possibly need for anything and everything I could possibly want or need to pay for!”

“Nothing can harm my eternal spirit.”

“I love my job and I’m really good at it!”

“My car is awesome; it cruises along so smoothly and operates perfectly.”

“Good things are coming my way!”

And the one I use most frequently: “Everything always goes smoothly for me.”

May these affirmations help you be kind to yourself, love yourself more, and overcome your past. Do you have any affirmations you’d like to share?

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Don’t be Like a Fly

August 12, 2012

I was cleaning windows today when I came to the one in the porch. This one is out of the way, so it rarely gets looked at or tidied up. The window sill was littered with dead flies, and there was a live one bouncing incessantly, they way they always do, against the glass.

Why do flies do this? I tried to shoo this one away, because I was going to be spraying glass cleaner and it would die if it got sprayed. That fly just wouldn’t be shooed — it was intent on bouncing its head up against the glass over and over again, trying to break through the barrier — invisible but unbreakable (for a fly).

So, I sprayed around it, but the vapours made it woozy and it flew strangely. Eventually, it flew away, and maybe once it turned around, it even saw the open door and flew outside to freedom. This whole experience made me wonder — how are we like the fly, bouncing our heads against a barrier we can’t get through?

Do you have anything in your life that you’ve been struggling with for a long time? Like a fly trying to fly through a window, you think there should be a way through. You can see the light and just can’t figure out how to get to it. You try and try, over and over, but you’re just acting like a fly.

If this is striking a chord in you, don’t ignore it. What is coming to mind right now? Don’t shy away from it — it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you’re human. Sit for a minute and think about whatever is coming to you.

So what can you do? If you keep bouncing up against that glass, you might end up like all those other flies — dead on the window sill. I’m not just talking about being physically dead, but emotionally or spiritually dead. It could also be a death of your freedom, creativity, joy, happiness or health. What are you afraid might be dying?

If you don’t want this to happen, just turn around. Stop trying, stop bouncing against the problem and look the other way. Look for the open door. Look at what is lovely and beautiful about your life, about the world, about you. Stop focusing on problems, either in you or in the world around you, and trying to fix them. If you just fly away from them, you’ll find another way to the light, to the great outdoors, and never have to worry about another window again.

There’s a common expression that goes something like “when God closes a door, He opens a window.” I would say “when the window is closed, look for the open door!”

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Picking up Good Vibrations…. in Your Body

August 6, 2012

Have you heard of the concept of “raising our vibration”? In the New Thought realm (wikipedia page), we often talk about raising our vibration. I was thinking about what this means and how it works, and got these tidbits of inspiration.

We are all familiar with microwaves, but few of us know how they work. Microwave ovens work by beaming actual microwaves — electromagnetic radiation, similar to light but with longer wavelengths — that are tuned to the frequency that excites water. The radiation then heats your food by heating the water within the food. Stay with me here! I am going somewhere with this.

How about MRI machines? They work on a similar principle, using electromagnetic radiation. Once your body is magnetized inside the huge magnet, the machine beams radio waves towards your body and the hydrogen atoms in your body — which are everywhere, and very abundant in water — “reply” to the incoming radio waves by producing weak radio signals of their own, which the MRI picks up. So an image of your body taken with an MRI is actually made from radio signals your body produced.

I wonder how else our bodies react to frequencies? Every atom or molecule has certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation (microwaves and radio waves are just two types) that can make the atom excited or make the molecule vibrate in particular modes. It follows, then, that the calcium in my body might react a certain way to certain energies. Or any other element, like iron or oxygen or sodium.

From the Heart-Math Website

What about molecules? The water in the microwave is a molecule, and there is lots of water in our bodies (plus lots of other molecules). I wonder if unsettled energy like anxiety or worry might cause certain atoms or molecules to act differently? I remember reading The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto, and he certainly proved that water reacts to different thought messages! I also remember reading this article on the Heart Math website that talks about how our heart’s rhythm and electrical signals change when we are focused on appreciation compared to being angry or frustrated.

And then there are the really long chain molecules like RNA and DNA. These ones are certainly far more complex than simple H2O, but it stands to wonder if more complex frequencies — those created by thought energy itself — could affect them.

Could playing and staying youthful keep you healthier?

Could having faith, i.e. not worrying, help your cells to function better?

Could being positive and thinking loving, appreciative thoughts make your cells “happy?”

Well, the only way to know personally is to try. Imagine that your cells are happy. Love your body. Appreciate the life-giving forces that inhabit it. Feed it with healthy food and thoughts. Don’t give in to worry. Breathe the fresh air deeply, consciously. Do this, and I BET you will feel better than ever!


video about Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work

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Energy Beings

August 2, 2012

We are Energy Beings.

We live on more than just food. We live on energy. It’s simpler to think of our bodies just as chemcial-food-energy factories that convert chemical energy from food into energy for use in our bodies, either as motion, heat or building blocks for cells. That is true, and what you tell yourself about the food you eat is one part of the equation of health. If you think that the food you are eating is bad for you, it will be (no matter what its actual content). If you think that the food you’re eating is good for you, that will be true for you!

Tell Yourself This: Everything I eat contributes to my healthy body. Everything I eat comprises the building blocks for perfectly healthy cells.

Although this is true, there is so much more to it than that. We absorb other types of energy too. Have you ever noticed the “mood of a room” change when a new person walks in? Have you ever felt tired and frustrated one minute and then perky and happy the next, because a friend called you or you started doing something you enjoy? Your thoughts are a form of energy and your body benefits or suffers based on the type of energy that you are creating with your thoughts.

The next time you feel tired or mildly depressed, rather than eating something, why not try feeding your energy body another way? Read some jokes or look at cartoons (Savage Chickens is one of my favourites). Remind yourself that life is supposed to be fun — put on a playful attitude. Sit quietly and breathe deeply. Remind yourself that everything is working out perfectly. You are a good person, and good things happen to you. Put your feet up and focus on your breathing. Imagine that you are reaching upward, tapping into a higher energy (literally and metaphorically). Think of someone who inspires you and imagine that you are entering his/her energy-space… you can tap into the place their higher self lives. Keep breathing!

Tell Yourself This: I am an energy being. I am in a healthy, happy energy field right now. I am “recharging my batteries” right now with pure, loving, abundant, expansive, boundless energy.

Your energy body can be described further by chakras, but for now, just realize that there is more to it than food. Sometimes when I am vaguely hungry but I don’t know why, I just sit and have a short meditation and then I feel better, centered. I am no longer hungry (although I am still sometimes thirsty). I wonder how different your body would be if every time you ate, you also topped up your spiritual batteries? Would you feel like eating less, because your spiritual body has also been consciously fed? Would your digestion be better? Would the food-chemical building blocks be used more perfectly? Leave a comment and let me know how this works for you!

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Connecting with the Essense of Appreciation

July 19, 2012

Gratitude is so important to focus on. It makes the difference between smelling the roses and just inhaling a different flavoured air.

Making a list of things to be grateful for is nothing new. Many people keep a gratitude journal to help them to remember all the things they have to be thankful for. I think we all know intuitively that this is a good practice, and that connecting with gratitude is the way to a more enlightened life. There is a little more to it than just scribbling in a book, however.

Mindlessly writing is mindlessly writing. It doesn’t matter what’s actually getting onto the page. When you are making a list of things to be thankful for, do so consciously. Pause and really picture what it is you appreciate about that thing. Connect with the wonder of it, the beauty or the specialness. This isn’t a “head-thing” — making a longer list, or adding more adjectives (details). It’s a “heart-thing.” Activate your imagination and feel the appreciation grow.

In fact, if you think about it, sometimes when you are thankful for something what’s actually active in your vibration is the very thing you don’t want. For example, you could be thankful for your health, but in your mind, you are thinking of this-or-that person who has the flu, and *whew* you haven’t caught it yet. If you continue down this road of thinking, you may end up with the flu after all, because of the Law of Attraction. You spent more time thinking about the flu than thinking about how healthy, energetic and spunky you feel! This may actually explain the increase in cancer we are seeing lately. Rather than focusing on being healthy, people everywhere are focusing on the illness, the symptoms, the treatments, and the deaths.

Shift your focus. Be sympathetic to those who are ill, but don’t forget what it means to be healthy. Be more grateful, but make sure that your focus is on the thing you love and the gratitude or appreciation itself. In fact, just changing your lingo from “gratitude” to appreciation can be enough to remind you that it’s all about the positive aspects, the light, and the beauty.

Note: You may like to join the Gratitude log — a place to post whatever you are grateful for!

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