January

Nine of us today after a twenty minute catch up of all that had happened amongst the U3A members,  we watched a half hour video on the inner outer worlds and a short video on positive thinking.

After a break we then read the following.

Sense of awe as powerful as drugs for reducing inflammation

Spiritual feelings, or a sense of awe when we look at a beautiful scene or hear uplifting music, cause a powerful anti-inflammatory response in our body that's every bit as powerful as drugs, researchers have said this week

This sense of the 'other' boosts the immune system, and lowers levels of cytokines, proteins that cause inflammation in the body. Inflammation has been associated with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and even Alzheimer's disease and clinical depression.

"Awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines, and this suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions-a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art-has a direct influence on health and life expectancy," said researcher Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at University of California at Berkeley.

To assess the impact of positive emotions on inflammation, the researchers recruited 200 young adults who, on one given day, said how often they experienced amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, joy, love and pride; those who had the most experiences also had the lowest levels of Interleukin 6, a cytokine that's a biomarker of inflammation. “Once you accept life without struggling against it, you can see that everything serves you in one way or another. A lousy meal helps you appreciate and remember a good meal.

A defeat strengthens you for the next victory. If you try not to quantify and judge things and accept them as part of your overall experience, you become mature. All of a sudden that power that should have been yours from the beginning is returned to you as a calm individuality – a creative stillness that allows you to BE. Acceptance unshackles you from the restraints that you’ve created for yourself, and it allows you to explore inside your own individuality.”

What would it mean, how would it change things, if, this year – a new one just begun – you, me, anyone listening could take this advice? Acceptance without struggle. And awareness that everything happening that we don’t like is actually serving us in some way. It is all in how we choose to use our thoughts. And the life we are creating is made from our thoughts.

Our thoughts seemingly arise out of nowhere, capture our attention, torment us for a while if they are at the negative end of the continuum (and with the brain’s natural bias toward the negative, they often are) and then, eventually, leave us alone. It feels we are at their mercy. The wisdom and spiritual traditions tell us we need to let go of the egoic mind (the mind that generates thoughts) and find the calm stillness of the Higher Self behind it. Herein lies the answer to our distress. It is said the mind makes a wonderful master but a very poor servant. For most of us, our minds, the monkey mind (or the lower mind in the theosophical tradition) is our master. My proposition is this: can we decide, right now, to turn this around and make 2018 the year of change of mind? From master to servant the mind’s status can be changed. What would it take?

Acceptance – according to Stuart Wilde and others. Acceptance is allowing life to unfold without imposing the ego’s preferences upon it. Michael Singer wrote the story of his life on this path, entitled, “The Surrender Experiment”. His realization that the monkey mind with its never-ending chatter was just, well, weird. And why was it so? What was that about? He set to find out and embarked on a spiritual journey that took him to a place of ongoing, every day, every moment surrender. What occurred was remarkable. When, through his practice, he learnt to drop his busy thinking mind, with its constant commentary, its negativity and unending worrying – he discovered that life took care of him! He didn’t have to try to control it anymore. And, miraculously (to us, who live in the world we think of as reality) everything worked out for his highest good. Ultimately. In fact, what we perceive of as incredible and miraculous is simply the outworking of the higher intelligence – Source, the God Force, the All. Call it what you will. The intelligence that underpins this life of ours knows what is right for us. We don’t. We have so little control in truth. And how desperately we cling to the idea that we have to control things, in order for everything to be okay. The opposite, it seems is true. It is when we let go and get out of the way, that life is able to unfold most perfectly for us.

“Love nothing but that which comes to you

Woven in the pattern of your destiny.

For what could more aptly fit your needs?” ~Marcus Aurelius

I want to go a little deeper here. So, we stop trying to control, we let go, we accept whatever occurs. We learn to say yes, instead of no, to whatever life presents us with. Big stuff. Probably not going to happen overnight. Surrender is going to be a practice requiring some dedication and self-discipline. Meditation is key because it is at a fundamental level training in mindfulness. Or rather, mindlessness. We must observe the nature of the mind, to understand it – then we let it go. Meditation offers us this opportunity.

Our story is the one the little voice keeps telling us. It is the product of years and years of conditioning, from our loved ones and our society. It is the product of a karmic legacy that was crystallised in events of early childhood. It is the product of our ego’s primary mission – to keep us alive in a physical body: hence the vast scope of fears and what if’s that adrenalize our bodies and brains, keeping us in a state of hyper-sensitivity to any real or imagined threat. In short, our story is the product of the dominance of our small self. I’ve had enough of it – and if you feel the same way, let’s do this. Let’s change our vibration – from fear to surrender and trust, and from resistance to acceptance. What have we got to lose? Just our small selves. And behind these small selves of ours is our Higher Self.

The esoteric wisdom has been telling us this for eons. Sadly, the message has become more and more obscured in this most dense of material eras. 

December's last meeting

We viewed three videos one a TED whose speaker told us the best way to keep the brain active. Another Bill Lost His Memory and very short video of a ten year old girl who was a musical genius.

“At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.”

― Lao Tzu

Finding Your Inner Magic Through the Power of Self-Belief

By Christine Evangelou - August 30, 2017

Our mind is like the creative coordinator behind the inception of our dreams and aspirations. The direction that we place behind our thoughts and corresponding beliefs can either envelop us in anxiety and fear or propel us to great heights.

Our mind is truly magical when we believe in its power as a tool for manifesting our purpose and intention. Our ego gets a bad rap, and is often viewed as our enemy within. But we should not combat our ego’s processes or think of our ego as an entity in itself; this only serves to enhance a battle mode mentality that further undermines our journey to our greater goals. Our mind, our ego, is just another part of our inner brilliance. When we come to an enlightened understanding of our ego, we naturally give way to a higher state of thinking. When we open that space of awareness, we learn to love the power and beauty of our minds, and to draw all the benefits it has to offer us.

Finding Your Inner Magic Through the Power of Self-Belief

As you think, so shall you become. Bruce Lee

We are the creators of what we think and feel; if we can nourish a limiting thought or belief, then we can just as easily do the same for a non-limiting one. If we can build walls in our mind that obstruct our progress, then we can definitely knock them down. We are all gifted with the innate power to attract our deepest desires into our physical space — we only need to believe that we can.

Self-doubt is a silent serpent that creeps into the patterns of our thinking and eats away at our self-belief. The miracle and magnitude of our soul does not contain self-doubt. We are the ones that open a door for it to walk through.

Through mindfulness and moments of introspection we can sift through the intricacies of our thoughts, distinguishing what takes us toward our contentment from what moves us away from it. The decision is always ours.

Our minds are the home of our rational thinking, but they are also the birthplace of our full and unfiltered imagination. Essentially we need both, yet our imagination is stifled by rationality and logic. Our imagination needs freedom in order to see the true wonder of what could be. Our logical thinking looks for the guarantee, yet creative thinking searches for the boundless beauty of possibility.

We can only bring into our sphere what we put the power of our intention behind, like a rocket that needs that big burst of fuel to lift it off the ground. When we believe in the magic of possibility a whole new world presents itself to us: borders dissolve, barriers come crashing down, and we catch a fierce glimpse of limitlessness and expansion. A child’s eyes untouched by the reality we find ourselves in have the ability to grasp the realm of imagination and all its gifts. When we can look at life through the lens of our inner child, everything is possible.

Boosting self-belief and inner confidence

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave; find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

– Henry David Thoreau

Our self-belief and inner confidence take a battering through what we deem as failure and not quite hitting the mark. When we feed into these thoughts we provide them with a stronger foundation to keep knocking us off our feet and keeping us down when we inherently know that we can take flight. When we fall, we need to defiantly get back up. When we stumble, we need to draw upon our inner resilience and pull ourselves up to balance. How we rise is more meaningful than how we actually fall. How we deal with everything, is everything.

If we allow our mindset to remain locked on our failures, we lose every second of chance and magic that the present moment holds. We have programmed ourselves to fear loss and making mistakes, yet the greatest loss arising from a lack of self-belief is the cost to ourselves. Self-belief is a key to the entry-door of our highest potential, and we own that master key.

Our inner magic and making our mark

From my own experience, I want to say that you should follow your heart, and the mind will follow you. Believe in yourself, and you will create miracles.

– Kailash Satyarthi

Our heart pumps our truth and authenticity. It never gives false hope. When we can adjust our thoughts to align them with the promise and ingenuity of our heart, then we heighten our magnanimous intellectual and intuitive processes. As human beings there is nothing that separates us. We all have the infinite ability to create, conceive brave new ideas, and design our lives around making our earthly mark as individuals. We are the architects of all that we seek to inspire and nurture.

Our ego processes that cage us in can lead us away from our inner magic; our center of love and exquisite connection. How can we begin to even imagine our greatest potential unless we believe that it exists within us all? The vastness of our own infinite magic is something that only we can access and fully explore. Our thoughts and beliefs are our instruments for permeating what lies within. When we change our thoughts we can create another reality. Our mind should not eclipse our heart, for together they form our own unique synergy.

The very same subtlety, omnipresence and mystery that surround us are intrinsically woven in to all we are. The flowers that bloom, the trees that rise to their full might, and the birds that take flight in freedom-filled skies never deny their ability to share and present their gifts. Sitting within our body and soul are the remnants of stars as old as our universe — who are we to deny our own supreme magic?  

November meeting

Nice sunny morning and an enjoyable meeting. We looked at 3 short videos and then examined this positive philosophy.

Next meeting on the 29th December.

All the material I use is from the Internet my thanks to those who uploaded it.

Can Embracing Negative Emotions Increase Your Well-Being?

Many people struggle with negative, even destructive feelings—about themselves, about others; about emotions aroused in their careers or relationships. Trying to stifle negative emotions—or feeling bad about having them to begin with—is pretty common. It causes much distress and struggle; and often brings people into psychotherapy.

The irony, here, is that resisting or trying to push away your “bad” feelings actually intensifies them. Psychological health and well-being both grow from the opposite: Embracing them. Recent research provides empirical evidence for that. In essence, it shows that you can feel better by allowing yourself to feel bad. 

In fact, that’s what meditative practices help you learn to do, which accounts for much of the rise in popularity of meditation, yoga, and other mind-body practices. Here's why: When you try to deny or stifle any “parts” of yourself—whether undesirable emotions, desires or fears, you become fragmented. But you need a sense of integration; of wholeness inside, to grow your well-being and capacity to handle the ups and downs, the successes and failures; all part of the relentless change and impermanence that characterizes life.

One of the new studies, conducted with 1,300 adults over the course of three experiments, underscored that in its findings. For example, it found people who try to resist negative emotions are more likely to experience psychiatric symptoms later, compared with those who accept such emotions. The latter group—those who showed greater acceptance of their negative feelings and experiences—also showed higher levels of well-being and mental health.

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, was conducted by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Toronto. According to lead author Iris Mauss, "We found that people who habitually accept their negative emotions experience fewer negative emotions, which adds up to better psychological health." But those who tried to avoid negative emotions in response to bad experiences were more likely to experience symptoms, like anxiety and depression, six months later.

Such findings underscore that meditative practices enhance your “muscle” for tolerating the ebb and flow of emotions and preoccupations; rather than clinging or attaching oneself to them, which pulls you in their direction. As that capacity builds, you become more able to stay focused and centered internally, in the face of the rise and fall of emotional turmoil, including needs, fears, frustrations, and longings—all of which are part of the fluctuations of life. Meditative practices and yoga diminish the tendencies toward anxiety and depression—as evidenced by studies of brain activity as well as conscious experience among meditators.

I find it a bit amusing that researchers who find empirical evidence for the benefit of accepting and letting go of negative emotions often sound as though they’ve invented the wheel. It may be news to them, but such knowledge has been around for several millennia in other cultures. Nevertheless, it’s good to find studies that corroborate that, especially for people who are otherwise sceptical or unaware of the importance of practising acceptance.

For example, the researchers point out, “People who accept (negative) emotions without judging or trying to change them are able to cope with their stress more successfully." And, they add, when bad things happen, it may be better to let negative emotions run their course rather than trying to avoid them. As Mauss says, "Maybe if you have an accepting attitude toward negative emotions, you're not giving them as much attention. And perhaps, if you're constantly judging your emotions, the negativity can pile up."

Well yes! That’s certainly true, as many people eventually discover.

A different study also underscored the link between well-being and letting yourself experience all emotional states—the pleasurable, as well as the unpleasant, undesirable ones—and without judging or chastising yourself. This cross-cultural study involving over 2,000 people from eight countries, described in this summary and published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. According to lead researcher Maya Tamir at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that "Happiness is more than simply feeling pleasure and avoiding pain…it is about having experiences that are meaningful and valuable…” And, "All emotions can be positive in some contexts and negative in others, regardless of whether they are pleasant or unpleasant."

This study found that—across cultures—people who experienced more of the emotions that they “desired”—i.e. authentic, internal experiences that they acknowledged and accepted—reported greater life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms. And that was regardless of whether those genuine emotions were pleasant or unpleasant.

Building the clarity and capacity to know how to deal with emotional states grows from acknowledging all of them, whatever their source—past or present circumstances; it doesn’t matter.  All are part of who you are as a total, whole being. With that awareness and acceptance, you’re more able to decide how to respond to whatever is aroused—both internally, and in your outward behavior.

Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:

1. Open to experience: both positive and negative emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than resorting to ego defense mechanisms).
2. Existential living: in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the future (i.e., living for the moment).
3. Trust feelings: feeling, instincts, and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. People’s own decisions are the right ones, and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.
4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk-taking are features of a person’s life. A person does not play safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.
5. Fulfilled life: a person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and experiences.