Empowering Your Body Through Thoughts (WD)

In honor of his memory, Wayne’s Hay House family will continue to share his advice and wisdom in this weekly newsletter, bringing you excerpts pulled directly from Wayne’s published works.

I have long been intrigued by the power of our thoughts. The mind-body connection is a fascinating area of inquiry, particularly in the field of applied kinesiology. On many, many occasions I have brought people up onstage to demonstrate how muscle testing can reveal which of our thoughts are serving to strengthen us, and which are making our muscles go weak. 

I would ask a volunteer to deliberately tell me a lie, such as to falsely say that her name was Mary Jones and then swear to it; as I muscle tested her, the lie would always make her arm go weak. Then she would give me her real name, and much to her astonishment, the same arm would remain firm and I would be unable to push it down. I then began to have volunteers think of a moment when they felt shame, and without revealing the details, simply stay in the feeling of being ashamed. Without fail, in one hundred percent of the times I used this demonstration before thousands of people, every thought of a negative emotion – such as shame, fear, worry, sadness, or rage – revealed the same reaction when I pushed down on their arm. They would always go weak simply because of the thoughts they were selecting at the moment. 

Our body’s basic health is impacted on a continuing basis by how we choose to utilize this amazing human attribute called our mind. On one occasion, my son Sands was listening to some loud music with violent and profane language blaring out over the speakers in the house. I asked him to remove the CD and bring it to me. I then did a muscle test by having him first hold an organic apple over his heart, and I was unable to even budge his strong extended arm. Then I had him replace the apple with the CD containing the offensive language, and he immediately went weak. He was in shock. 

Many family evenings were spent in fun and enlightenment with my children on how our thoughts impact every muscle in our bodies. It was part of my effort to have all of them learn to change, on the spot, any thoughts that might have a deleterious effect on their bodies. ‘Your heart,’ I would tell them, ‘is one huge muscle, and it is seriously impacted by any thoughts that are unhealthy for your own well-being.’ 

When they would ask me how a thought that was a lie could possibly make their muscles go weak, I would remind them that their bodies came from a source of perfect love, which is Divine truth. When they would abandon that truth, which is their very source of being, by telling a lie, they would put their bodies into a weakened posture, a place that is foreign to their very creative essence. I frequently quoted the poet John Keat’s observation that beauty is truly the expression of God’s wisdom: ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’ When you leave truth, I would them, you are literally forsaking your source, and this will always weaken you. 

I know that my every thought has an impact on all of the organs in my body. Every day I stay in a state of gratitude for the I AM presence that is always with me. I call upon it whenever any discomfort or signs of impending illness begin to surface. I know that my thoughts will either assist me in staying in a place of well-being, or enhance the ability of the disease to immobilize me. Having all my children be fully aware of this innate power to heal and manufacture any needed medicine, without having to obtain a written prescription, was something I wanted them to see firsthand. 

All I wanted for my sons and daughters, and for all of those who read my books and attended my lectures, was to realize that they could always choose a thought that would empower them, as opposed to ones that make them fragile and weak. As my children heard me say so many times, ‘Your life is a product of all of the choices you have made, so choose well.’  

  — Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

This excerpt is pulled from
Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You

Nobility

When a man has pity on all living creatures, then only is he noble. -Gautama Buddha

I saw a man on the freeway putting himself at risk to save a runaway dog. Occasionally, I see a lady in my local park feeding the ducks. When I'm at the airport I occasionally observe a blind person being helped by a guide dog. Love, concern, and trust are all aspects of Say Yes to Your Spirit. And none of this is complicated. The above stories that include animals are all everyday experiences. None of them are complicated theory. Rather they represent feelings. They are an emotional response to life. Nobility is demonstrating love as a response to the many happenings in our life. It is the love dance. - Leo Booth

Today I am able to appreciate the creatures who share our planet.

On this day of your life

Neytiri & Jake, I believe God wants you to know...

...that no financial crisis can overpower 

the peace of God.

At a time of extraordinary uncertainty, people are

turning everywhere for answers. How about to God?

Those who know God as a living reality in their lives

are finding peace in the midst of turmoil, security in

the face of fear.

It's all, in the end, about priorities. Life priorities.

Do your priorities have to do with the body?

Or with the soul?

Apologies (OM)

by Madisyn Taylor If we can remember that our response to others is important, we can realize that trust and forgiveness go hand in hand. In life there will always be times when we are affected by the actions of another person. When this happens, we often receive an apology. More often than not we say, "It's alright," or " It's okay," and by saying this we are allowing, accepting, and giving permission for the behavior to happen again. When we say "thank you," or "I accept your apology," we are forced to sit in our feelings rather than ignore them. There are many of us who feel that it is easier to brush off how we really feel than to express our discomfort with something that has happened to us. While this may initially seem like the best thing to do, what it really does is put us into an unending pattern of behavior; since we are not honest with another person, we continue the cycle of letting them overstep our emotional limits time and time again. By doing this we place ourselves in the position of victim. We can put an end to this karmic chain by first acknowledging to the other person that we accept their request for forgiveness; often a simple "thank you" is enough. To truly create a greater sense of harmony in our relationship, however, we need to gently, and with compassion, express our innermost concerns about what has transpired. By taking a deep breath and calling upon the deepest parts of our spirit, we can usually find the right words to say and verbalize them in a way that lets the other person recognize the consequences of what they have done. If we can remember that our response to others is important, we can begin to realize that trust and forgiveness go hand in hand. And when we react in a way that engenders a greater amount of honesty and candor, we will establish a more positive and empowering way of being and interacting others.

How Changing my Diet Changed my Skin.

Via Sarah Anne Brown

“Hey, Pizza Face. Yeah, you.”

My inner voice was merciless as I gawked at my reflection in the mirror. How did it get this bad?

Red and pustulous, my skin was as angry as I felt.

The breakouts had started when I was 12. It was an insidious onset; but by the time I was 15, my acne was omnipresent. To make matters worse, no treatment seemed to alleviate the problem.

My dermatologist was miffed by my body’s unresponsiveness to the various face washes, prescription pills, and medicated creams that we tried. Nothing was working.

I got so desperate that I decided to take Accutane, which was a powerful drug that required the patient to sign a contract in acknowledgement of the associated risks. At 15 years old, I did not care. All I wanted was to have clear skin. But my parents asked me to discontinue taking it after two months because I exhibited an extreme personality shift.

A few years later, my dad—a doctor—became a strong advocate for alternative health care, which included embracing a plant-based diet. He read books like The China Study, which found conclusive results that dairy products are inflammatory and can lead to cancerous growth. His findings caused him to encourage me to pursue alternative ways of treating my acne. 

I was finally convinced to visit a Naturopathic Doctor, which is the type of physician who focuses on preventative health care through alternative treatment methods. His recommendation aligned with my dad’s: change my diet, and more specifically, cut out dairy.

It was the push I needed, and I began to religiously remove dairy products from my life.

A month later, I was marvelling at my skin. Not only was my acne completely gone, I had also simplified my facial care regime to a mild, natural cleanser.

My life had changed.

But the initial transition from eating dairy to not eating dairy was a lifestyle adjustment, which brought its own set of challenges. Surprisingly, craving milkshakes, ice cream, and other dairy-based sweets were not the only hurdle I had to overcome.

My friends and relatives were resistant  to my new restrictions. After all, food is ingrained into culture; and I come from the deep South, where butter and milk are staples at any level of the food pyramid. This meant that eating out became more complex, as many places did not offer dairy-free menu items aside from salads. I also had to work with my parents—my mom in particular—to find meals that I could eat while I still lived at home.

That being said, those who loved me, and knew my struggles, saw the visible results and celebrated with me.

After those first few months, I became the poster-child for a dairy-free diet. One of my friends decided to try it out with me. She is also dairy-free today.

That was seven years ago. Ever since then, I have sought out ways to care for, and heal, my body through my diet. This is not only for the sake of my skin. My consumption of dairy products also influences my energy level, mood, and ability to focus.

Thankfully, the world has become a friendlier place to people like me and my friend. Nowadays you can expect to find alternatives to cow’s milk at most coffee shops and restaurants. In some, you can even find vegan (i.e. dairy-free) options, which is encouraging progress.

In my own kitchen, I’ve discovered a world of possibilities. For example, almond milk has become my go-to for coffee creamer, and it tastes great in oatmeal; and frozen bananas, avocados, spinach, and cacao powder are amazing additions to any smoothie. I also love cooking an array of soups that are both healthy and filling.

The sky is truly the limit, even when you’re trying to eat a plant-based diet (tip: Pinterest has a great online community of healthy-minded folks. I’ve found some of my favorite recipes on there).

Looking back, it is still amazing to me that, all along, the answer was simple: return to the earth’s remedy, which is the food that it provides. Therein lies the most powerful drug of all.

~

Author: Sarah Anne Brown

Tired of Running? These Buddhist Quotes will Stop you in your Tracks.

Via Lindsay Carricarte

Stop right there!

That’s the first step for us when we want to bolt and run. If you’re anything like me, and you’re used to hitting the road when things get tough, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Quitters never win, right?

I’ve heard that my whole life, yet somehow, up to the age of 34, I kept finding myself in a relentless pattern of quitting and running. Of course, I didn’t think I was quitting and running. In my delusion, I told myself that I was just a free spirit, and I was on another adventure. I believed it too.

And then the day came when I didn’t want to run. I didn’t want to give up. Yet everything in my mind was saying, “Go, run, be gone, we don’t need this.” But my heart wasn’t in it anymore, so I stayed. And I changed! I changed drastically. I gave up my identity as a runner and a quitter, and I started being brave and courageous. Not the false ego bravery I thought I had, but actual bravery. I started facing the things that made me want to tuck tail and run.

In the space of pausing and staying, I found the freedom I was so desperately seeking when I would flee at the slightest challenge. I began practicing yoga and mediation as it was meant to be practiced, and it started having a profound effect on me. I began to be an observer of myself and my mental chatter. I started to drive the bus of my mind rather than allowing it to careen wildly where it would at any given moment, as it had done throughout my life.

And that was true freedom. Knowing how I act, think and react to life is so profound. Understanding my own wiring and programming was mind-blowing and eye opening, as it allowed me to begin to create space for change within myself. I began to be able to choose which responses worked for me, and which ones needed to be cut away like a cancerous growths because they were doing more harm than good.

As I studied Buddhism, I would come across words of wisdom that seemed as though they were written just for me. I started to discover that I wasn’t unique, and that from the sound of it these Buddhist monks completely understood the calamity of my inner struggles in life.

They wrote about life and their inner workings with such acceptance, insight, clarity and humor that I was immediately hooked. I thought to myself, “Wow. They’re monks and they know exactly how I feel and think. There is hope for me after all.” I was elated to finally feel as though I wasn’t the only bat sh*t crazy person in the world! And thus my love affair with Buddhism was born.

This love affair turned into a marriage as the years passed, and I’ve completely adopted many Buddhist principles and practices into my daily life. I practice and study the dharma to the best of my ability. Sometimes I fall extremely short and other times I’m a Zen ninja.

The point is that I no longer take myself so seriously. I love myself, and I treat myself with loving-kindness, which means that I am able to propagate these qualities out to others. Through understanding myself, I understand you because as humans, we all share the same sh*t. It may manifest in different ways and different behaviors, but when we get below the surface we find we are one and the same. We find our bodhichitta. 

Bodhichitta means awakened mind/heart. It is through opening our heart that we connect with others, and where we see that we are never alone. We are no longer afraid of our pain when we tap into this place, and through it, we can pause, connect, forgive, love, and stay right where we are instead of running away.

To this day, these quotes stop me in my tracks. Because even now I want to haul ass and go sometimes. But I don’t. And now I know that running doesn’t always mean physically leaving, as we can mentally and emotionally check out as well.

It is my hope that these wise words may resonate with that place deep inside of you as they did for me:

1. “We are warriors-in-training being taught how to sit with edginess and discomfort. We are being challenged to remain and to relax where we are.” ~ Pema Chödrön

When you fancy yourself a warrior, as I did for so long, words like this simply captivate you. The moment I read this, I was like, “Challenge accepted, Pema.” And since that day, I have practiced with discipline to pause and breathe in order to remain exactly where I am and to relax there no matter what it looks like.

2. “Each time we can sit still with the restlessness and heat of anger, we are tamed and strengthened. Each time we react to anger or suppress it, we escalate our aggression.” ~ Pema Chödrön

Again, this one spoke to my warrior soul. I wanted to be tamed and strengthened more than anything because I was so tired of being a slave to my emotional unavailability and my childish reactions to life.

3. “Yet feeling emotional upheaval is not a spiritual faux-pas; it’s the place where the warrior learns compassion. It’s where we learn to stop struggling with ourselves. It’s only when we can dwell in these places that scare us that equanimity becomes unshakeable.” ~ Pema Chödrön

Erroneously, I thought for many years that being spiritual meant you didn’t get angry or emotional. Learning how to use the upheavals as lessons was so empowering for me. It still is! And of course, this is a never-ending process. The work is never finished.

4. “Right here in what we’d like to throw away, in what we find repulsive and frightening, we discover the warmth and clarity of bodhichitta.” ~ Pema Chödrön

These words absolutely cut straight to my heart. Hearing that I could discover warmth and clarity in the aspects of myself I once wanted to throw away was akin to receiving a warm hug from your favorite person on earth. It was a breath of fresh air with the tidings of hope upon it.

5. “Meditation practice is regarded as a good, and in fact, excellent way to overcome warfare in the world: our own warfare as well as greater warfare.” ~ Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Our own warfare…wow. Just ponder those words for a moment and discover what they bring up in you. As someone who was in constant strife with myself, these words were the grand slam of all wisdom for me. I mean, if Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche knows about inner warfare, then there’s hope for us!

It comes down to this: We run because we are scared, because we do not want to stay and fight. We doubt ourselves. This creates an inner battle that, for me, ruled my life for years. So when I read these words, they grabbed my heart. They told me that it’s okay that I have been fighting myself; so have we, and there is a solution for you.

It is my truest hope that in sharing this wisdom, I reach you, dear reader. You, who like me, has struggled to stay. You are not alone.

There is great benefit to starting a meditation practice, as you can see. Knowing the wisdom is half the battle. Through mediation we learn to apply it.

May it be of benefit.

Author: Lindsay Carricarte

How to Say “F*ck it” to Fear & Anxiety (& Start Living your Life!).

Via Alexa Torontow

I seriously never thought this day would come.

The day where overthinking, over-analyzing and fear stopped controlling my life.

The day where I no longer felt paralyzed and frozen nearly every day.

Although this moment has been in the making for years, one day I woke up, and I was completely bored of my own fear; I was sick of my own stories and my own sh*t.

Most people who know me have no idea how much anxiety I used to experience on a regular basis. Probably stemming from the assumption that because I’m a yoga teacher, I write the type of poems you would read in savasana, and the articles I write are usually about access points to the underlying current of ease in this life experience.

There’s no way someone that does that for a living would be—or have been—crippled by anxiety, right?

Wrong.

A huge reason I got hooked on the practice of yoga and meditation was because of my anxiety. And it was a big reason I kept coming back so much, until I ended up becoming a yoga teacher myself to share my passion for these powerful and life changing practices.

Anyone who suffers from anxiety knows that it’s not like a light switch you can just turn off. It takes time, it takes patience, and it takes a whole lot of practice.

Even when I first started teaching yoga, it was still strong enough that I would sometimes have full blown anxiety attacks before class and afterward. When everyone left, I would just cry, sitting with the feeling that everyone hated the class.

Sometimes the fear, anxiety and torment would be so loud that I would get my classes covered or try to find a way to call in sick—even though I knew deep down I really wanted to do it. The fear was just so loud and controlling that it kept me stuck in so many ways.

I would attempt to practice just observing my thoughts, sitting in the seat of the witness and all the yogic concepts and philosophies of non-judgment and non-violence. But you know what, sometimes the practices alone aren’t enough and we need additional help to get out of our minds and into our lives.

I know I did.

It affected all parts of my life—my friendships, my work and my day to day living.

Some days I would wake up feeling completely frozen, unable to get out of bed or even reach for a book. It was a different kind of anxiety, it didn’t make me hypervigilant and hyperventilate like it does for some people; I would be just be glued to my bed with irrational fear.

Even when I started writing, and would post something on social media or publish an article, I would shut off all my devices and avoid technology for at least 24 hours because of the fear of how it would be received.

I would totally get that vulnerability hangover the next day and catastrophize the “negative effect” sharing my experiences would have on my life. That people would think I’m crazy, over emotional or downright insane.

During conversations with people, I would try to be present, but the ruminating thoughts in my mind were so loud that I couldn’t help but create a story about how much this person doesn’t actually want to be talking to me or spending time with me; I felt this way with even my closest family and friends.

And what I found the most ironic was the amount of comments I would get about how calm people felt around me or how I help put them at such ease.

I would smile and say, “I’m glad to help in any way.” But simultaneously think to my self, “Um, what? If you only knew what it’s like to live in my own head.”

If people actually knew how much daily distress I was in, I’m sure some might’ve asked why I keep putting myself in situations that cause me stress and continuously go through it.

The reason is, regardless of how horrible and uncomfortable the anxiety was, I could feel it lessening in the most microscopic of ways every time I would show up and move through it.

Over time, with much effort on my part, the intensity of my anxiety dwindled immensely.

And then one day day when I woke up, it felt like the grip it had on me and my life completely lifted.

It feel spacious, light, and I felt so damn free.

I thank yoga, meditation and therapy.

It has taken years and years of cultivating a consistent yoga and meditation practice, and taking the time every day to reconnect to that underlying current of ease.

It has taken a huge shift in perception of what I thought it was to be strong. It isn’t to buckle down and power through it; it’s to recognize when we need to ask for help.

In addition to what I was doing, I also thank time. I think eventually we just get so sick and tired of our own fear that we’ll wake up one day and realize how futile the amount of energy that was going toward those types of anxiety and fear controlled thoughts really is.

One day, we’ll get a surge of urgency that this way of living is no way to really live.

I know for me I had to hit rock bottom emotionally before I finally realized that I needed a change and that I needed help.

Fear will always be there in the background, and it has its place. We definitely do need to see it, hear it and acknowledge it. But for the love of all that is, we can not let it be the place where we make our decisions from. We can not let fear be in the driver seat of this precious life adventure.

Life is too damn short to live like that, and it’s a complete and total waste of our time here.

I truly hope people don’t have to spend as many years as I did with anxiety and can find practices that allow them to experience a true sense of freedom.

But something important to remember—to get to that day where we can say f*ck it—it takes patience, it takes practice, and it takes alot (a lot) of self compassion.

Through cultivating a consistent yoga and meditation practice, and sitting in the seat of the witness, we get to practice allowing everything to be exactly as it is—our fears and anxieties included. Something magical happens when we do this on a regular basis; the grip it has on us begins to lessen as we see it without any story or judgement.

As Swami Kripalu says, “The highest form of spiritual practice is self observation without judgement.”

The more we unplug from external stimulus, and drop beneath our societal roles, titles, and even our current moods and emotions—we reach the sweet center of our true essence beneath it all.

The wholeness, the completeness, the inherent enough-ness that we are by simply being human.

It’s our natural state, and it’s our birthright by being here.

Of course I still have my moments, but now in the midst of chaos, that underlying current of ease is so much louder and stronger.

And yes, at times I have thoughts of self doubt, but they no longer inhibit me from saying what I want to say or doing what I actually desire to do.

The way I teach, share, create and show up has changed drastically over the last few years. The more time I spend sitting with myself, the less I care how my art or what I say is recieved. Because I’m not my art, I’m not my words, and I’m not the way in which I teach.

I’m what’s beneath it all.

That which is eternal, as old as time and here to simply experience what it is to be alive.

I truly believe, to the core of my being, all people deserve to feel at ease and deeply at peace.

But if that sense of ease and peace is far from accessible, and the grip of anxiety is so tight: reach out, speak up, get help and remember, we are not meant to go through it alone. There are so many people out there to hear us and see us—from our friends and family to support groups and professionals.

Because yes, life sure can be heavy, serious and rather chaotic.

But can also feel fluid, light and so deliciously free.

~

Author: Alexa Torontow

Time

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. -Steven Wright

When we Say Yes to Your Spirit we acknowledge that there is a thing called time; it is the space that makes up our hours, days, weeks,months, and years.We are born into time. Spirituality teaches us to respect time. Take time. Relax. We can rush at life or we can seek balance. I believe that if we are always in a hurry, rushing, never smelling the roses, then we abuse time. The psalmist suggests, "Be still, and know that I am God." Take a breath. If we are to dance in God, then we need time to make the correct steps, gliding into creativity. Today we know that compulsion, obsession, addiction, and fanaticism are all unhealthy behaviors because they are frantic.We all need the gift of balance, if we are really to create anything in our lives. This is the dance.

Today I respect the quality of time.

NUGGETS OF WISDOM - 65

·         “Joy is a decision, a really brave one, about how you are going to respond to life.”—Wess Stafford

• ·         "If you do the will of the Father in heaven, you shall never fail in the attainment of the eternal life of progress in the divine kingdom."  - Jesus
  ·         “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”—Jalal ad-Din Rumi
  ·         “When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.”—Shannon L. Alder
  ·         "God-knowing individuals are not discouraged by misfortune or downcast by disappointment. Believers are immune to the depression consequent upon purely material upheavals; spirit livers are not perturbed by the episodes of the material world." - The Teachings of Jesus
  ·         "When you pass from time to eternity, a high supernaphim likewise shares the transit with you as the custodian of creature identity and the surety of
  personal integrity."
  ·         “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”—Joseph Campbell
  ·         "Life is something different from all energy manifestations; even the material life of physical creatures is not inherent in matter."
  ·         “One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” — Paulo Coelho
  ·         "If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man."
  ·         "Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, the one to which your local universe belongs, is known chiefly because of its tremendous and lavish bestowal of merciful ministry to the mortals of the realms."
  ·         “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”—Albert Einstein
  ·         “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
  ·         “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”—Erich Seligmann Fromm
  ·         "In the spiritual experience of all personalities, always is it true that the real is the good and the good is the real."
  ·         “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”—Osho
  ·         "You have been endowed with a perfect guide; therefore, if you will sincerely run the race of time and gain the final goal of faith, you will be eternally united with your indwelling Adjuster. Then will begin your real life, the ascending life, to which your present mortal state is but the vestibule."
  ·         “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.”—Pablo Picasso

On this day of your life

Neytiri & Jake, I believe God wants you to know...

...that there is a Chinese proverb: Great doubts deep wisdom.

Small doubts little wisdom.

Never stop doubting, never stop questioning, never,

ever assume you have all the answers. Having all the

answers kills the question itself; renders it lifeless --

and you, too...

Keep looking, keep seeking. Never, ever find it all.

Because when you find it all, you deny that there is

more. And there is never not more.

Ants and Bees, a Metaphor (OM)

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

We can learn a lot from watching ants and bees living in community and working for the greater good.

When we see ants and bees out in the world, we often see just one, but this belies the reality of their situation. More than any other species, ants and bees function as parts of a whole. They cannot and do not survive as individuals; they survive as members of a group, and the group's survival is the implicit goal of each individual's life. There is no concept of life outside the group, so even to use the word individual is somewhat misleading. Often, humans, on the other hand, strongly value individuality and often negatively associate ants and bees with a lack of independence. And yet, if we look closer at these amazing creatures, we can learn valuable lessons about how much we can achieve when we band together with others to work for a higher purpose. 

Most ants and bees have highly specified roles within their communities, some of which are biologically dictated, and they work within the confines of their roles without complaint, never wishing to be something other than what they are. In this way, they symbolize self-knowledge and humility. They also display selfless service as they work for the common good. In many ways, they are like the individual cells of one body, living and dying as necessary to preserve the integrity of the whole body, not to protect themselves as individuals. In this way, ants personify the ability to see beyond one's small self to one's place within the greater whole, and the ability to serve this whole selflessly. 

Ants and bees can inspire us to fully own what we have to offer and to put it to use in the pursuit of a goal that will benefit all of humanity, whether it be raising consciousness about the environment, feeding the hungry, or raising a happy child. Each one of us has certain talents we were born with, as well as skills we have acquired. When we apply these gifts, knowing that we are one part of a greater organism working to better the whole world, we honor and implement the wisdom of ants and bees. 

How Yelling “I Hate God!” Changed my Spiritual Life.

Via Sally Bartolameolli

Spirituality is a passion of mine, the seeds of which were planted early.

Catholicism was a thread in the tapestry of my life as much as anything Italian (gathering to make pasta, biscotti dipped in morning coffee, homemade wine from Uncle Tulio).

Our traditions included prayer before every meal, icons of Jesus and Mary in backyard grottos and rosaries under everyone’s pillows. In our small town there was only one Catholic elementary school, and I walked the four blocks to it daily.

During winter, the longest season in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, one learns early in life to layer. One day I actually passed my school without realizing it until I finally peeked out of the scarf wrapped around my face, white blowing all around me like a snow globe on steroids. I had forgotten to stop and look and ended up a block and a half past the entrance. Lesson learned.

Those walks to school in any season were my time to contemplate the meaning of life (as much as a young mind might) and the true nature of God.

Among other subjects, I had religion class. The teacher, Sister Leonice, was a colorful storyteller. Between reading stories about the fires of hell in class and hearing about our sins during daily mass, it wasn’t long before the teachings we received began to trouble me.

It seemed near impossible to make it to the pearly gates.

We were told that God loved us so much that he would sacrifice his son for our sins—that every hair on our head was cared for. Then, sometimes in the same sermon or religion class, we were told that we had to fear God. There were the fires of hell, and if we were “bad,” this hell would break loose.

For my seven-year-old mind, this did not compute. During those daily morning and afternoon walks, I played out all the possible scenarios.

Sister Leonice also reminded us of God’s omnipresence and ability to see and know all of our sins. Again, the vigilance thing. She doubled as assistant principal and could be seen walking briskly down the hallways, leaning slightly forward with her nun’s habit tight around her body, like a general on her way to her own private student court martial. With a look that stirred fear in the most lion-hearted of us all (including parents), she put us on guard.

Was I going to burn in hell if I displeased God? If God loved me so much, why was I supposed to be so afraid all the time?

Conflicting views on the walks to and from school fueled my need for meaning and understanding—until one day it came to me. I knew what I had to do. I would find out, once and for all, the true nature of God.
It took a few more walks to and from school to muster the courage, but then, one day, I knew it would happen that afternoon.

It was springtime. The fragrance of lilacs drifted around me just a block from my house. Appreciating their sweet scent, I also wondered if it would be my last opportunity to enjoy the blooms. As I rounded the corner of our block, I went straight to our two-car garage where a four-by-six-foot mirror hung on the wall.

As I stood in front of the mirror, I paused to look around. I peeked out the window at my neighbor’s home for, perhaps, the last time. I took a couple deep breaths, closed my eyes, and tightened my fists close to my body to prepare for what might be a final blow.

I took one last inhale and yelled, “I hate you, God!”

The next moment or two seemed like an eternity. I stood with my eyes shut and my body stiff with tension. After about 30 seconds, I slowly exhaled and relaxed the tightness in my shoulders and fists. I cautiously opened my eyes and looked around in anticipation of what destruction might await.

To my relief, nothing had changed. I peeked out the window to see my neighbor’s home still standing. I quickly ran in the house to be sure my Aunty Ann was there waiting, as she always was.

I walked back to the garage and stood for another moment in front of the mirror. I was not struck down by lightning and no one I loved had been hurt.

It was an important day.

At that moment, I decided that God was indeed a loving God. Even when I disobeyed and blasphemed, I would not be struck down, nor would I, or could I, evoke the fires of hell.

I still wasn’t sure why I was told to fear God, but it didn’t matter anymore. I knew God’s love was stronger than God’s vengeance, and his kindness would always win over his anger. Yes, it was a good day for me, a day I would anchor with the belief that God was kind, understanding and somehow impervious to my childish whims.

When all else fails, I relax into the knowing that my Spiritual Source, whatever language used to describe her/him, is loving and invites free expression. This comfort wraps itself around me on a daily basis.

~

Author: Sally Bartolameolli