Category: ego

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What is Chaos?

Chaos is the product of our ego. It is that part of us that has to be in charge and has to be right. Does it sound like anyone you know? It is part of our overblown self-worth that tells us everyone is out to get us, that we can’t trust anyone, that they’re all out to get us.

It is the untruth trying to save our ass. It makes things up to reinforce our point of view.

Just imagine for a minute, if we examined those thoughts of distrust. Where would they lead? Probably back to beliefs that have unconsciously been injected into our psyche from external sources, like our family, our friends, politicians, and even the media. It probably started with our parents saying something like “don’t play with matches or you’ll get burned!”  That was true. And so we began to trust this ego, because it saved us, or could have from a worse fate.

Pretty soon, we’re beginning to believe more things our sources tell us, some not so true. We form a basis on which to build a philosophy, albeit a false one, based on others unchallenged beliefs. It was easy. We didn’t have to think about a thing, and we’ve written our book of life and how to blame it on others.

All we need to do is a little self-examination of these things we’ve allowed ourselves to be told, to begin to look at our thoughts critically, to reexamine what we have believed with the reality of what is actually going on around us, and we might find a whole new way to think and believe. We can walk our own path to freedom, to liberation from the fear of everything we thought we knew until we found out they weren’t even our thoughts.

That’s what happens when we begin to think for ourselves. When we decide to stop being sheep and walk upright, the view becomes less confused, less obstructed by  the sheep we are following. We begin to rise above the crowd and begin to see clearly.

~revjim

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1st Century Mystics  October 4th
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/1st-century-mystics

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From our Week 2 study of The Grace in Aging

“Chaos is the experience of our own ignorance, the experience of the charged contents of an unexamined and untrained mind.”

Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Aging

~revjim

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Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

 

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On Being Happy

be-happy“Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you.” ~jts

Everything in our life is a choice and how we choose determines how we see our life.

Are you happy?

Or, do you wake in the morning and wonder “What’s going to go wrong today?” Do you fear that things that haven’t happened yet will? Do you feel that something bad is going to happen to you, and you don’t even have any reason to feel that way, beyond an offhand comment you heard or a news reporting the radio?

Psychologists refer to F.E.A.R as an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. I love that. It amazes me how often we fall into this mode of thinking, me included. We really limit ourselves when we allow some future “maybe”may occur for us, bad or good, and that our future is totally out of our control. The truth is that most of the things that happen to us are a product of our thinking. If we think the world is basically a dangerous and unloving place, that is what we tend to see. If we believe the world is basically a good and safe place to live, this is what we tend to see.

Can we control everything that happens to us? No. Most of the things that aren’t under our control are remote occurrences and almost silly to think about. The chances of your house burning down, or getting into an accident or most other things are so small that they really are False Evidence Appearing Real. Something like a bombing is astronomically small. They are also external things to us.

Our real control is in our day to day lives, our personal choices. We have virtually 100% control over those. How we eat. Is it healthy? How we spend our money. Do we choose frivolous things we’ll never use? In business, do we make informed choices, or do we see a resurgence of the “pet rock” or “Beanie Babies?”

There are many benefits of choosing to be happy. The first is that smiling not only makes us feel better, it also helps cheer others up. Smiling is contagious. Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you. Imagine how much more you might attract into your life by just changing your primary thought to being happy when you wake up n the morning.

I have always, as long as I can remember, woke up and greeted the dawn with a hearty in-breath, a big smile and, most of the time, a statement to the sun, of how grand life is and how blessed I am to be a part of it! I also intentionally interact with people in public and give them a glance and a smile, and sometimes even a quick greeting, if they actually make eye contact with me. In small towns people are more willing to engage you, than they are in the “big city.”

Still, all in all, being happy leads to you wanting to take better care of your body, mind and spirit. Leaving out any one of these things can lead to you, or me, from being in harmony with our own self and lead us into that quagmire of unhappiness and a pronounced frown.

Did you know it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. That alone is a good reason to smile.

~revjim

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#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online