Saturday, December 31, 2011

~something said~

"The Truth is inseparable from who you are.
Yes, you are the Truth.
If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time."
- Eckhart Tolle

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Truth Shall Set You Free

The Truth Shall Set You Free

This famous quote from the Bible resonates with most people, regardless of cultural or religious background. The truth, on one hand, is subjective - depending on your level of consciousness, and it appears to be defined by personal experience. On the other hand, the highest truths are the same for all of us and therefore have an objective quality to them. This inherent dichotomy lends itself to each of us discovering our own path to truth and the greatest pointer to your own truth comes from the feelings you have about something. If this old adage is true, how exactly does the truth set us free?

The truth is something that you know and feel to be right for you. Each of us has our own experience of it. It is a belief or understanding that resonates with your very being. It is found within your stillness, guided by your breath. It is of a quality that does not need to be confirmed or approved by anyone else. Nor does the truth have to be reasonable, logical or provable. It simply must be in alignment with you Higher self. In other words: when what you say or do is reflective of your soul and not your ego, you are in alignment with your truth.

The ego creates ideas that it claims to be true and if we are not present enough, we will say and act in ways that are in accordance with this false idea. Statements like “I must struggle first before I succeed” or “I will be worthy if only I get that job” are examples of shadow beliefs that the ego creates in the mind as a truth. But if these shadow beliefs are investigated a bit further- meaning if you bring presence or consciousness to them, they cannot be sustained by the ego. Shadow beliefs are created by the mind through learned behaviors, past experiences and cultural expectations and they are fueled by fear. Fear and conscious awareness cannot coexist. Often times the very thing that we are most afraid or ashamed of are the things that will lead us to a fuller life. They are opportunities (or little pointers) to where you must begin to learn to accept yourself. Only after we accept ourselves completely can we step more fully come into the greatness and the lightness of who you really are and what we are meant to be. The truth that will set you free is not a concept of the mind but rather an inner knowing of the soul. Your soul knows for certain that who you are right now is more than enough. Right now, you are exactly as you should be to step into who you are meant to be. That is the Truth.

The truth sets us free by dispelling the illusion that the mind has created. The falsehoods that we live each day: whether it manifests as buying things that we cannot afford, doing work that does not fulfill us or maintaining relationships that no longer serve us – these lies contribute to the illusion we project. And that illusion keeps us from truly connecting to others. There is a tremendous amount of energy lost by maintaining a falsehood. That’s why you will never fully step into who you are meant to be by pretending to be someone you are not. A lot of people are caught up pretending to be happier, more successful or financially secure than they really are. How can we truly succeed at creating the life we have always wanted while trying to maintain a false pretense? When you present your inauthentic self first, false relationships develop as a result. Your pretend self is engaged with someone else’s pretend self. This type of relationship drains the life force from you because it is the mind that must keep up the pretense. Our infinite creativity and vitality comes from our connection to Life and cannot be supplied by the mind. Life demands that we use each moment and all our energies to create abundance, beauty and love in the world. Our full attention is needed to create the life we have always wanted. Anything less will keep us trapped in our current conditions and freedom will be a concept never truly experienced.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Living Your Truth

33-Living your Truth

What does it mean to live your Truth? I’m sure that most of you have heard this expression before. What comes to mind when you hear it? I used to think “living my truth” meant speaking my mind, living as I please and believing in whatever philosophical and spiritual ideas that felt true to me at the time. On a basic, topical level, this is living your truth. To have the freedom to choose whatever you wish and to be in the world as you see fit. But notice the capital “T” on “truth” in the first question I asked. It stands for something that reaches much deeper than the egoic and mundane levels of our lives. Beyond the mind’s idea of “living as I please”, when you are asked if you are living your Truth, the soul stands at attention. If you have the courage to really ask this query, the soul cannot help but begin to evaluate, instigate and reorganize your life in a way that will speak your Truth. Your soul rises to the occasion and the opportunity to express itself more fully. And anything that does not resonate with this higher vibrational frequency shall change or fall away.

I’m speaking of the soul. Your soul. And once engaged, your authentic Self will assist you in every way to live more fully. Activities that once were considered exciting will no longer bring you joy. Whereas, you will be drawn to people, places and experiences that you never considered before. You will find yourself seeking new ways of being in the world that just feel right. Our feelings are a great indicator of knowing if we are in our Truth. You are in alignment with your soul or living your Truth when you are in a feeling of peace and joy in whatever you do. If it doesn’t feel right then what you are doing is not in alignment with who you are.

Often times we will hear something that we know to be intuitively true. Without knowing why we are in agreement with the idea, it somehow creates a shift in our perception and adds another layer to our reality. This occurs when the soul encounters something familiar to it but we are stuck in our mind, our ego, which wants proof before accepting any new idea. When I first heard about the concept - “we are all one”, I felt an inner knowing that this was true. I get goose bumps speaking of it now. I can distinctly remember what happened after hearing that truth, my mind asked the question, “But how is that possible?” My ego wanted proof of something my soul already knew.

Over the next few articles, I will be discussing ideas around living your Truth. I’ll look at why it is of great value (and necessity) to living your fullest life and I’ll look at some practical things we can do to live as authentically as we can while in alignment with our higher selves, our Soul.

The God in me salutes the God in you.