It is through experience that knowledge becomes wisdom. Wisdom is a great gift. When used properly, wisdom can assist us to live a life of peace. What do you search and strive for in your life? For each one of us it appears in different forms. Hopefully at some point we become wise enough to see the walls we have built around ourselves that limit us. Allowing ourselves to release and let go of all that does not work in our life any longer takes courage and inner strength. These walls of resistance are sometimes invisible even to our own eyes. It is so easy to look at someone else’s life and see why things are not working out for them. Yet when we look at ourselves, we often miss what limits us. I know I want to be a happy little miracle maker. How about you? I think we all feel that way. Some serious contemplation and examination may be necessary (when you are ready) to make profound shifts in your life. There are millions of books on the subject of living a better, happier, healthier life. Why then is the world not filled with happy, healthy, successful, peaceful, fulfilled people? It is sometimes even hard to find people that are filled with true joy.
Our world seems to have sped up at a pace no one can keep up with. Everyone is busy, busy, busy. No time is the mantra everyone hears from each other. People want and need more time just to get through the day and accomplish tasks, just to keep up.
It is time to take the journey back to self, back to love. Living in the past will only complicate your life and do nothing to build a better brighter future for yourself and your family. The future does not exist yet. The moment you are in right now creates your next moments, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. This is so simple, that we just don’t get it. The few who do live happy lives. How do you feel right now? Think about this, because it is all that exits. Imagine a tightrope. You are standing on the tightrope, which represents NOW. On one side is the past and the other is the future. Do you notice there is nothing there? Absolutely nothing. The past is gone as soon as the moment passes. The only thing that keeps it alive is your mind or a memory, that’s it. Imagine the things people could let go of if the past is released into the nothingness that it is.
Embrace the NOW moment. What do you want? In the fullness of this moment happening NOW, you get to decide. Your moments gain momentum and appear in the physical for you to experience. So, if you get to choose, wouldn’t you want something wonderful in your life? Every moment you stay peaceful, joyful, productive and take action towards your dreams, you take a step closer to the life you want to live. I want this life for myself and work towards it daily. Old patterns and habits are exactly that - old, and keep us stuck in a continual rut. I want out and am climbing that ladder one step at a time, one day at a time by practicing the art of living in the NOW moment. The more you can stay present, miracles do start happening. The phone rings, connections are made, people supply you with information or bring you something you needed (without having to ask.) Synchronicity is happening all around you. Oops! then we forget and go back to old patterns and get old results.
Remember to pull yourself back to NOW as often as you can, until it becomes a great new habit that will reshape your life. I did not say it would be easy in the beginning. Just get your foot in the door, use courage, and please trust that things will shift for you when you let go of the judgments and move into joy. What I wish and dream of for myself, I wish for and dream of for everyone everywhere. I send you love and support in your best life lived in the courage each of you represent to me.
~~ Have you done an examination of where you live your life from?
~~ What is your philosophy?
~~ Do you live a full life, where at the end of that life there are no regrets?
~~ Are you in integrity and honor with yourself?
~~ Are you supporting something in another person that does not come from integrity?
~~ Do you realize that when a person does not act out of honor or integrity, this can set into motion the same energy in another persons life?
~~ Do people add so much baggage to their lives because they are not living in integrity or honor, with not only themselves, but the people around them?
~~ What are the silent forces in your life that impact your reality experience?
~~ Do you stretch you code of ethics where they are not honoring or creating integrity, sending mixed messages that come back as limitation in your life?
~~ What energy and feelings are you setting into motion that comes back to you as something you don’t recognize or want? Are you willing to look at that and change your old habits and patterns that don’t work for you?
~~ How expanded is your consciousness? Are you willing to expand yourself? Is there something in you that supports doubt and fear? Fear of success, fear of failure?
~~ Are you coming from a place you choose? If not, are willing to ask for help? Are you willing to listen?
You get to choose. Ask these 2 most important questions, What and Why. What are you doing. Why are you doing it. Listen and allow a flood of thoughts to bring you awareness.
Grab that torch of Liberty and Authority that comes with your life. Be the Force.
You have probably heard about Jill Bolte Taylor who was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center. Dr. Taylor experienced Nirvana, by having a stroke. This stroke happened Dec 10th 1996, when she was 37. You will find the video of Dr. Taylor explaining the entire experience on stage at Ted Talks on this website as a video post in the Living in Courage archives. Imagine seeing that the atoms and molecules making up your body are blending with the space around you. Everything made up of the same energy. Dr.Taylor did just that. My Stroke of Insight is Jill Bolte Taylor’s new book about this experience, published by Viking. Jill went through 8 years of rehab and recovery. This experience has changed Jill’s life dramatically. Dr. Taylor can step into the consciousness of her right hemisphere at her own command, and be one with all. Imagine the bliss and joy of this. Dr. Taylor believes that in our choice to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemisphere, the more peace we will project into the world. I highly recommend this book. Your perception of the brain and how it works will expand, opening your mind to new possibilities.
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
Jill describes the left and right hemispheres of the brain, what their functions are, how they affect us on a global scale, who we are in relation to having 2 cognitive minds with the power to choose the life we want to live or to be separate. Which do you choose? I have made my decision and will do everything in my scope of influence to spread the word.
If you do not have the courage to draw and paint, but really want to try, watch this video. Try everything you dream to do. If an elephant can draw, so can you. Listen to these quotes from National Geographic and Novica.
The elephants at the art academies in Southeast Asia are taught to hold a paintbrush with the tip of their trunks. Initially, the mahout guides the elephant’s trunk over the canvas and offers rewards for good performance.
“It only takes a few hours to a day to teach them,” said Mia Fineman, an art historian whose book When Elephants Paint is an illustrated history of the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project.
“But the elephant has to want to learn,” she added. “Elephants in captivity are definitely bored, but it’s a matter of disposition, an innate proclivity. Some will do it and some won’t.”
Stars of the Elephant Art Scene
Not all elephants can paint, and of those that do, some are better than others.
“Ramona in Bali is really a star among elephant artists,” said Roberto Milk, co-founder and CEO of Novica.com. “She’s been painting for a long time, and her work has sold well in earlier auctions so she’s really elevated her market level.”
There’s definitely a learning curve.
“The elephants learn quickly and clearly get better over time,” said Catherine Ryan, vice president of communications for Novica. “‘Better,’ of course is an aesthetic judgment, but you can see the paintings get more complex when you compare an elephant’s early work to later pieces.”
Maximize the power of your brain by using Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping, which is fun, colorful and straightforward. This is a genius tool. Tony says that Beethoven, Leonardo De Vinci, Darwin and all the great minds used image association such as this. Mind Mapping is a thinking tool that reflects internally what is going on in the brain. People who use color, according to London University, do better in life. Tony uses key phrases and images which assist in finding solutions and coming up with brilliant ideas.
Subscribe now to the Living In Courage Newsletter and you'll get a free download of my ebook!
Endorsements
“Debra Oakland has clearly written Living in Courage from the heart. This is a book that guides people to summon the courage to face life's biggest challenges. You will find wonderful nuggets that you can apply to your life now.”
~ David Riklan, Founder of SelfGrowth.com,
the #1 Self Improvement Website on the Internet
www.SelfGrowth.com
