Emotions

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Emotions are thoughts which manifest within the body.

Thoughts are ephemeral, non physical, imaginings.  They have no power until they take hold in the physical body. Anger, passion, fear, and frustration are caused by thoughts which arise from our conditioned belief systems.

Thoughts on their own have no power.  When thoughts combine with painful memories (thoughts of the past), they begin to gather strength.  In short order the body begins to react.  Adrenaline levels rise.  Blood rushes to our face and head.  No matter how hard we try to keep our composure, we are soon out of control.

We can break the hold that our thoughts and emotions have over us by bringing our awareness (i.e., our attention without judgment) to them.  When we bring awareness to our emotions without reacting to them, they begin to dissipate, like the air slowly going out of a balloon.  The more we bring our awareness to our emotions, the less of a hold they have over our lives.

If we try to stifle or ignore our emotions, they will often cause disease or gain in strength within our subconscious, ready to explode at the next opportunity.

Let's bring awareness to our thoughts and emotions.

Being

Roberton Island, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Our journey is over.  We can stop searching, striving, learning, struggling, and seeking.  There is nothing to find, nothing to learn.  It is the effort that is keeping us from our goals.

All that we have to do is surrender to the peace, love and joy that is already within us.  We do not have to follow a religion, a spiritual master, or a guru.  We do not need to read books.

The peace that we seek is already present.  It is what we are.  All the anxiety, desire, frustration, and anger that we feel has been layered on top of who we really are through a lifetime of conditioning.

Although there is nothing that we have to add to ourselves in order to feel peace, there are things we need to shed.  We need to surrender our conditioned beliefs, judgments, expectations, and desires.

When we shed our thoughts about the past and future, and other garbage that we are thinking, we are left with our true selves.  We will be at peace.  Our relationships will be effortless.  The answers to all our problems will be apparent.  Miracles will occur.

Let's acknowledge our thoughts and surrender them to the Void.

Perfection

Coromandel, New Zealand

Can we see the perfection in this moment, in every moment?  Everything is exactly as it should be.  Everything that occurs is specifically designed to enhance our awakening.

When we resent or resist what is happening in this moment, we are interfering with the Divine flow of nature.  Things seem to go against us. Our irritation and frustration increases.

When we allow things to be just as they are and accept them with gratitude, we are in harmony with All That Is.  Miracles begin to flow naturally into our lives.  We are blessed.

Let's relax into the Present Moment.

Simple

Central Park

Let's keep it simple.

1.  Let's bring our attention to the present.

2.  Let's keep our attention on the present.

Perfect.  We are now awake.

Being

Kereta, Coromandel, New Zealand

Peace.  Love.  Joy.  Freedom.  We have all had glimpses of these states of being.  Is it possible to perpetuate those states.  Of course.

They are our very essence.  All we have to do is switch from thinking to being.

When we turn our attention away from thought, our essence fills the vacuum.  We are in our natural state of peace, love, joy and freedom.

We do not have to learn anything, achieve anything, follow anybody, read anything.  There is nothing that we have to do.  All that we have to do is make a choice in this very moment to shift our attention from thought to being.  The Universe will do the rest.

Easy peasy.  Let's be free.

Insight

Venice Beach

Our thoughts are like a solid wall, not allowing insight to enter.  When we are perpetually thinking, there is no room for anything except our thoughts.  We need to make space for wisdom to appear.

If we create an empty vessel, by surrendering our thoughts, insight will flood in to fill the vacuum.

We spin our wheels, lost in thought, trying to figure out the solution to a dilemma we are experiencing.  It is the endless thoughts which are preventing the solution from entering our consciousness.

In an empty vessel, wisdom will flood in, health will flood in.  So will peace, love, joy and freedom. These things will enter when we are in a state of being, as opposed to doing or thinking.

Do we have a problem?  Instead of trying to figure it out, let's surrender our thoughts and allow the solution to present itself.

Let's allow wisdom and insight to enter our consciousness.

Embrace and Surrender

Central Park

Our emotions are the keys to awakening.

Are we worried?  Frustrated?  Irritated?  Angry?  Afraid?  Often over little things?  When we experience strong emotions do we lash out with rage?

Does our worry make us happy?  No.  Does our worry help us to further our goals?  No.  Does it serve any function whatsoever.  No.  Are we stuck in a relentless cycle of worry that we can't do anything about?  No.  Do we have a choice?  Absolutely.

We can rid ourselves of worry by bringing awareness to our thoughts and embracing the feelings within our body.  We embrace them, feel them fully, without acting on them, and surrender them.

Worry consists of unacknowledged thoughts which come from fear.  By bringing awareness without judgment to our thoughts and feelings, and surrendering them as useless relics from our conditioned past, we can free ourselves.

Our unacknowledged emotions cause us to say and act in ways that only bring us unhappiness and frustration.  We can use our emotions to awaken.  When we feel a strong emotion, we should not act on it for at least several moments.  We feel it fully.  We bring our awareness to it.  We do not judge it.  The emotion will subside in a brief period of time.  Then we can act on it if we are moved to do so.

The source of our emotion is not what we think it is.  We believe that some person or some event caused the emotion.  Actually, our emotions are caused by our conditioned belief systems.  The person or event which we believe caused the emotion was merely a trigger which caused us to access the unacknowledged thoughts and emotions within us.

Let's embrace our emotions and surrender them to the Void.