Living Consciously February 18, 2009

Dear friends,

Just as our bodies require good quality food to generate the energy we need to live fully, our minds require high quality thoughts for the same reason.  What makes your feet get up and go out the door with a smile on your face?  Besides a good breakfast, it is the eagerness that comes from a positive outlook.  When we expect to enjoy our day, do good work, have some fun with other people, we are eager to get started.  It is a positive and directive energy, which clears our mind and opens us up to creativity.

On the other hand, a great deal of energy is generated from anger too, but it is not a good energy.  It creates confusion in the mind, an overload of adrenaline in the body, a tendency to lash out against, rather than relate to the other.  Anger comes from stored up negative or self rejecting thoughts.  Unacknowledged, they flood the brain when we perceive some kind of threat to our position, value or power.  It is as if some force has co-opted our brain.

Part of our self care must be the inner realm of mind. We simply must feed our consciousness with life-affirming thoughts and deep stillness.  A great deal of scientific study has shown that a few minutes of meditation every day, is like a nutritious meal.  We feel energized, eager to engage the world, happy to be us and stable from within.

After meditation, spend a few minutes in positive self talk:

 I am grateful for this magnificent life I am living.

I am a beautiful being of enormous creativity.

I am healthy, wealthy and wise.

You get the idea.  Learn to energize your thinking and feeling nature so that you can go out and not meet the world head on, as they say, but greet the world fully intact and ready to play.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes

Living Consciously February 19, 2009

Dear friends,

 I recently saw a wonderful play starring an eighty year old woman.  She was on the stage for every scene of the ninety minute production and she was marvellous.  Ironically it was about an older actress trying to learn her lines for a female version of King Lear. There were many humorous references to the ravages of aging.  The character was in turmoil over not being able to remember her lines.   But the real person didn’t miss a beat.  She was proof positive that our brains can learn and retain information at any age.

The experience of aging is not unlike going to elementary school.  It is all new and you really don’t know what you are capable of achieving.  It seems mysterious but soon you are reading and writing your own name.  Before long you feel competent to give second grade a go.  The learning curve is always stretched out before us.  As we age, we keep testing our physical body to see what it can still do.

The most important lesson of aging isn’t about our bodies, however.  It is the awareness of the wisdom we have gained.  We begin to clarify our real interests, what is important to us, what we are no longer willing to participate in, who are real friends are.

In the aforementioned play, she comes to the conclusion that remembering Shakespere word for word is not so key to the success of the play.  It is what she brings to it, it is her understanding of the character, it is her passion and belief.  She announces that, what the heck, I’ll just improvise when I need to.  That is wisdom.

Self acceptance at any age is vital to personal happiness.  As we deepen our understanding of the creative nature of the mind, we always know enough to be authentically ourselves and to bring something new to whatever role we are playing.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes