Over the Rainbow

We’re used to testing ourselves based on “trust everyone and everything” until proven “wrong” (innocent until proven guilty), or skepticism (“prove it”). Reading The Joy of Health again, I understand better now how we learn through opposites. As I think about and review my experiences up to now, I can see why and how I made the choices I made at different times and “crossroads.” When I think about the reality that “we do the best we can with what we know” at any given moment, I recognize how wise it is to feed ourselves the knowledge that helps us to “grow big and strong” as a mind. This is the same as truly appreciating (living, choosing, sharing) food as fuel for our physical body as we live each moment of every day. It seems so obvious, doesn’t it. Yet obviously it isn’t, or we wouldn’t have the level of disease experience and the constantly revving research and development and treatment engines that we have come to believe are essential for us to survive. When we know what’s good for us, we do it? Countless examples come to mind. The tobacco industry’s internal memos ever so slowly came to the collective surface as we reached a level of change in public behavior about the fact that smoking dramatically raises the incidence of diseases. How long did this take, and with how much cost? I smoked cigarettes for years, beginning in high school. (Happily, I gave it up years ago and my cells are happier for it, as are those I am around!) My parents didn’t smoke and were amazed that I did, encouraged me to stop.  Yet, I continued, off and on, for years. Why? It’s just an example to me of so much of our collective behavior and how we resist change, we resist thinking more deeply about the energy of our lives in motion and the ripple effects of our energy in motion as we live, breathe, eat, drink, laugh, dream, heal, die.  I still hear people say, everything that tastes good isn’t good for you!  That belief definitely could use a software update! And, this medicine isn’t working for me, there must be another that I can use. There are always alternatives.

The BP Gulf oil spill is another example in which I recognize how we aim to show ourselves how, seemingly despite our best intentions sometimes (we tell ourselves), “accidents happen.” As we begin to look at the causes and effects at each level of interaction (cause and effect), “accidents happen” is not enough of an explanation. Why? What can be done differently? Why did each cause happen? What were we thinking and why? What does each event tell us about our thinking and our true intention. Because we haven’t understood that we are energy beings first and matter second, we tend to think of who to blame (persecute, who will “pay”) first, not what were/are our true intentions and are we happy with the results.

“Only we know, on a subconscious level, if we are being true to that Higher Energy of ourselves within us as our personal guide.” (The Joy of Health)

How do we determine what is “best” for us? First, knowing that we want the best for ourselves is an important thought and energy focus. I did not always use this thought energy – Often I didn’t truly know what I wanted, or denied it.  I resisted learning. Why? I did not resist all learning. I loved certain information, certain people, full moments (which I didn’t know then to call “energies”). What level did I resist and why? What I resisted vehemently when pressured was change – changing my image and attitude about myself. Why? I did not like to be controlled (as I felt it then), yet the beliefs I held on to internally if not consciously, were the fetters I used to control my own thinking and feeling. Is an advanced level of thinking knowing what’s best for us and acting (choosing/living) in harmony with that energy of love? When we deny ourselves as an energy being (disavowing our mind, harboring negative emotions, abusing our senses), we react as animals cornered, or kept in a cage  - we must learn that the cage is our own beliefs.

Spiritual Philosophy teaches us that we are energy first, matter second – we’re encouraging ourselves to open our mind and consciously use our energy of thought as a Universal force of Good – i.e., being guided by the Ethical Values that are our internal design, not swayed by the small minds’ (ego) winds of change. Our physical identity as we are growing into “knowing ourselves” is not attached to a physical association of any role except that of a human energy being, first.  We’re patterned to be successful. What does it mean to each of us to be “successful”? Our country’s founding fathers (note, fathers, not mothers) honored their intention in a commitment to the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A friend years ago told me, You speak as though you know what you want, but you do not act as though you do.  I remember this often, and now that I have grown into loving the life that I live – this is very different than seeking to live the life I love.  Whatever our commitment is to ourselves, as a human being, we must know that we have one, and nurture ourselves with that knowledge. How do we do this? We each choose our ways, and enjoy them, must nurture them, share them. This is how we honor our creation and expand our infinite pleasure.