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In This Edition Of Mystical Scuttlebutt:
Upcoming Events
Practical Tip
Dilemma Of The Month
Reflection Of The Month
Clues For When You're Stressing Out
Testimonial
Last Chance To Sign Up for The NO MORE THIS OR THAT Seminar on Tuesday, May 29th.
May 29th - No More This Or That
This one-day seminar provides a powerful tool freeing you to recognize the hidden partnerships between seeming opposites like dependence and independence, freedom and responsibility, and trust and doubt. You can then harness the power of a deeply mystical understanding enabling you to expand your ability to find the NOW and be present to its unfolding. This basic understanding of impermanence and duality (or polar opposites) guides you to the missing link in how to practically weave your spiritual life into your marketplace life. Fee: $130 Time: 9 to 5:30 Location: Seattle , Washington , USA. To register, click here.
Last Chance to Sign Up
For The Paradox Management Certification Training Starting Tuesday, May 29th.
May 29th through June 4th 2007 Paradox Management Practitioner Certification Training - for Therapists, Coaches, and Organizational Development Consultants.
Polarized thinking is but a stage in the evolution of human understanding. Paradox Management delivers you to the next stage for your personal and professional growth. This training fills an important gap in the professional and spiritual training of Coaches, Corporate Consultants, Business Leaders, Educators, Therapists, and Spiritual Teachers. An absolute must for anyone interested in the conscious co-creation of a different kind of world. Please visit our website for additional information - Led by Ragini Elizabeth Michaels, Consciousness Teacher, Marketplace Mystic, and originator of Paradox Management. - 7 Days – Fee: $2,700 – Discount: $2,400 if paid in full by May 20, 2007 - $2,550 if paid in full by May 1, 2007. Location: Seattle, Washington, USA – Times: 9 to 5:30. Registration closes on May 1st, 2007. Click here to register.
"The absolute best training I have ever attended. I now feel qualified to handle my client’s dilemmas that aren’t responding to traditional conflict resolution! A great find!” - Lainie West, Consultant, Seattle, Wa.
When you find yourself getting worn down by the “heaviness” of your life problems and dilemmas, come back to the most basic unavoidable fact of our lives – the fact of impermanence. Everything that arises, also passes away – without exception. The end of every birth is death. The end of every coming together is parting. The end of every holding on is letting go. This is not meant to bring on depression, but a sense of freedom from having to have life go your way – a sense of relief from having to control life so it happens the way you think it should. Learning how to open to the basic facticity of change gives immediate access to your own personal taste of peace and serenity. If you find yourself feeling depressed by this, try on the idea that the joy of life can also be found in the journey itself and not only in the destination. Give it a try and investigate the value of this little wake-up call for how to enjoy more moments of your time on this funny little ball floating in space deep in the middle of now-here.
Dilemma of the Month: Awake Vs. Asleep
In the world of consciousness growth and spiritual evolution, being “awake” is a highly valued and extremely desired state of being. Whether we define “awake” as being conscious, alert, aware, present, mindful, or just cognizant of what’s going on, we prize this state as one that brings us closer to happiness and inner peace. And indeed, it does do just that. Thus, we strive to wake up from our conditioning. Unfortunately, we also set up amazingly high standards for how long we must stay awake in order to really “awaken”. Most of us, then, unconsciously use that degree of “awakeness” to assess our spiritual development and growth. When we do fall asleep, which I can guarantee we will, there then arises immense self-judgment, criticism, discontent, and deep disappointment in our inability to keep our vows and follow up our desires to produce a continuity of mindfulness and a non-stop flow of Presence to what is unfolding.
We feel this way because falling asleep is traditionally viewed as one of the great hindrances on the spiritual journey to Presence and a life of mindful living. Whether ‘falling asleep” appears as snoozing, napping, slumbering, checking out, numbing out, being dead to the world, tranced out, losing awareness, being absent, in denial, avoidance, or just plain lost in thought, it is usually considered a state to steer clear of and sidestep as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to circumvent being asleep to the moment and thus, the inner struggle for your attention begins – stay awake and alert, or relax and fall asleep. The tug to move in both directions can be very strong and very often simultaneous.
Managing The Dilemma
To effectively manage this dilemma requires insight into the paradoxical nature of the deep hidden partnership between wakefulness and sleepiness. Just as our breath consists of an inspiration and an exhalation in order to complete itself and sustain the oxygen and carbon dioxide balance in our brains, our mind/body requires both alertness and rest. We require a respite from attentiveness so the mind/body can rebalance and renew itself in order to keep going. We also require relief from relaxation. Without the arising of tension, no movement can occur and the balance between the two poles will again be lost.
Our life journeys pulse with the rhythm of a dance of duality. It becomes easier, more workable, and more peaceful when you understand the hidden partnerships between seemingly opposing poles and can allow them to be what they are. Being awake and being asleep are not against each other. It is the tension between the two that provides the territory of your journey. I invite you to inquire into your own experience of both wakefulness and sleepiness and explore for yourself how you are currently relating to the two. When we can learn to see the Oneness of things hidden in the organic unity of the two poles, access to the “peace that passes all understanding” suddenly emerges. Give it a try. It can be quite enlightening!!
To visit this month’s new Reflection highlighting Lao Tzu, please click here.
- When you’re beating yourself up for once again reverting to old, unwanted, and unconscious behaviors
- When you set a goal for yourself that looks like it’s reachable but you find yourself exhausted and tired of striving so hard to reach it
- When you keep pushing yourself despite the fact that you’re tired and need to rest.
Remedy:
These are clues that you may be out of balance in relationship to rest and activity. Like the fibers in a muscle, we must learn how to work together with all of our needs, allowing some to be put aside while we rest, and freeing others to emerge and take us in a seemingly different direction. Learning to tune into the guidance of the body and to honor its intelligence requires wisdom. And this wisdom is rooted in being able to hold both rest and activity, both the goal and journey, as partners in the creation of your desires come true.
Take a moment and explore your own position in relationship to rest and to activity. Do you feel pulled toward one and away from the other? Does one hold a more valuable place than the other in your hierarchy of what’s important to you? Do you avoid work by overemphasizing rest? Or do you avoid rest and overwork? Whatever your reasons for choosing one over the other, the reality is they are in partnership and only by embracing the value of each can you ride the energy flow between them to more easily and peacefully get where you wish to go – wherever that may be. I invite you to give it a try and explore what you think and feel about rest and activity in your life. Who knows? Something valuable you had not seen before might come into view.
"The work done in this seminar should be an essential part of the 'luggage' one packs while on their spiritual journey. The tools and understandings about the duality of the world we live in and how to reconcile our need for spirit while still providing for a roof over our head are invaluable.”
Deirdre Devlin, Director of Marketing, Hi Tech Company
To visit this month’s new Reflection, please click here.
To visit our On-Line Store, please click here.
All material (C) 2007 Ragini Elizabeth Michaels, www.facticity.com or ragini@facticity.com
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