Further Reading

Friday, 30 June 2017

Withholding

Daily OM: The most common form of withholding is what we commonly call "the silent treatment," but withholding encompasses any unwillingness to express your true feelings. It also includes an unwillingness to give support, praise, or positive attention to the people you love. We have all known someone who is impossible to please, and many of us have suddenly found ourselves at the other end of a chilly silence with no explanation. At the same time, many of us will recognize our own tendency to withhold our emotions rather than express them. Most of us have seen both sides of the withholding dilemma. Emotional pain is at the root of our tendency to withhold, and withholding causes pain to the people subjected to it. It is a dysfunctional pattern that creates a breakdown in communication and understanding.

No one deserves to be subjected to withholding. Feeling ignored, disrespected, or shut out, and to not know why, is a terrible feeling. The first thing to remember if this is happening to you is that you are not to blame. You are caught in someone else's pain pattern...read more>>>...

Image of the Day

Malham Cove, UK

The Number One Killer of Women is in Part a Form of Spirit Sickness

Waking Times: The most common killer of women is also one of the most preventable diseases. According to research from Harvard, coronary heart disease, and the stress which is behind it, is the leading cause of death among the female gender, but why?

As per the study, women are six times more likely to worry about getting breast cancer, but heart-disease is a much more real and present danger. Part of the problem is that breast cancer usually hits a woman in her 50s, while the first heart attack happens to women when they are much older, so it is easier to discount heart disease, and the underlying factors which contribute to it...read more>>>....

Image of the Day

The Henge, Bywong, Nr Canberra, Australia

We Are Like Nature

Daily OM: Nature is a mirror, inspiring and teaching us, deepening our sense of belonging in the world. Wherever you look, you can see that our patterns and the patterns of the natural world are the same. You can find this resonance in every form, from molecules to plants and animals and to planets. We live our lives according to the same principles as the trees, the mountains, the clouds, and the birds.

We begin our lives in the womb, folded in on ourselves like the bud of a flower. We can see our whole lives in the mirror of this natural form. When we emerge from the womb, we slowly begin our unfolding, just as the flower begins to open its petals...read more>>...

Saturday, 24 June 2017

Image of the Day

Queenstown New Zealand - Copyright MatthewJames

A Great Teacher

Daily Om: The journey of water as it flows upon the earth can be a mirror of our own paths through life. Water begins its residence on earth as it falls from the sky or melts from ice and streams down a mountain into a tributary or stream. In the same way, we come into the world and begin our lives on earth. Like a river that flows within the confines of its banks, we are born with certain defining characteristics that govern our identity. We are born in a specific time and place, within a specific family, and with certain gifts and challenges. Within these parameters, we move through life, encountering many twists, turns, and obstacles along the way just as a river flows.

Water is a great teacher that shows us how to move through the world with grace, ease, determination, and humility. When a river breaks at a waterfall, it gains energy and moves on, as we encounter our own waterfalls, we may fall hard but we always keep moving on...read more>>>....

Thursday, 22 June 2017

Passive Aggressive Behaviour

Daily OM: If you've ever found yourself repressing your anger and behaving in other ways to get your point across, you may be someone who is adept at engaging in passive-aggressive behavior. Although passive-aggressive behavior is recognized as a psychological disorder, it also describes the behavior that many people use to cope with confrontational situations. Such behavior has the outward appearance of being peaceful, yet it is really an attempt to express oneself in seemingly passive ways--usually without accepting responsibility for doing so. For example, someone who doesn't want to attend an event with a partner might engage in behavior that causes them to be late or miss the event without ever admitting to their partner that they never wanted to go to the function at all. Procrastination, inefficiency, stubbornness, and sullenness are some of the many ways that anger can be expressed indirectly.

It is important not to judge ourselves when we engage in passive-aggressive behaviour...read more>>>...

Image of the Moment

original Light of Truth Oracle artwork by Matthew James
Challenges is equivalent to The Hanged Man image in traditional tarot decks. Overcoming setbacks and obstacles with fearless determination, as no door cannot be opened, no puzzle cannot be solved. It just takes an understanding of the forces working with you, and the forces opposing you. Its an understanding of why there is opposition, and why you are faced with the challenges you are, at this moment in time.

Sunday, 18 June 2017

Things We Can’t Control

Daily OM: The idea of trusting the universe is a popular one these days, but many of us don't know what this really means and we often have a hard time doing it. This is partly because the story of humankind is most often presented as a story about struggle, control, and survival, instead of one of trust and collaboration with the universe. Yet, in truth, we need to adhere to both ideas in this life.

On the one hand, there is much to be said about exerting control over our environment. We created shelter to protect ourselves from the elements. We hunted for animals and invented agriculture to feed ourselves. We built social infrastructures to protect ourselves and create community. This is how we survive and grow as a civilization...read more>>>...

Saturday, 17 June 2017

Image of the Day

UK Grey Squirrel

Worry

Daily Om: We have all had the experience of worrying about something at some point in our lives. Some of us have a habitual tendency to worry, and all of us have known someone who is a chronic worrier. Worry is an extension of fear and can be a very draining experience. In order for worry to exist, we have to imagine that something bad might happen. What we are worrying about has not happened yet, however, so this bad thing is by definition a fantasy. Understood this way, worry is a self-created state of needless fear. Still, most of us worry.

One reason we worry is because we feel like we're not in control. For example, you might worry about your loved ones driving home in bad weather. There is nothing you can do to guarantee their safe passage, but you worry until you find out they have reached their destination unharmed. In this instance, worry is an attempt to feel useful and in control. However, worrying does nothing to ensure a positive outcome and it has an unpleasant effect on your body, mind, and spirit...read more>>>...

Discovering True Selves

Daily Om: When we want to see deeply into the heart and mind of another person, soul seeing, also called soul gazing, allows us to see their soul. The soul is the purest expression of an individual and is not bound by physical forms or fleeting emotions. Through a simple art that involves looking deeply into a partner's eyes, soul seeing can show you a person's inner beauty that you might otherwise miss. It is possible for someone who appears cold to have a warm, giving, nurturing soul or someone of average appearance to have a beautiful soul. Soul seeing is a way of looking past shapes, sizes, attitudes, and behavior to see the real individual that lies beneath the surface. It allows you to see the true essence of another person, the radiance of their being, and their spirit within.

Soul seeing is accomplished by sitting face to face with another person. It is helpful to first state your intention before you begin. As you stare softly into each other's eyes without stopping to look away, each of your souls is revealed to the other. Try not to look for anything in particular or seek traits you're hoping to find...read more>>>...

Monday, 5 June 2017

Image of the Day

Kookaburra, Australia

Image of the Day

Crimson Rosella, Australia

Saturday, 3 June 2017

Time The Great Healer

It's always difficult leaving a place behind. Especially where its somewhere you've spent numerous years at, and you have so many happy memories attached to the place.

You will feel quite sad for sometime. There is a period of adjustment as you strive to leave your past behind you. If you have taken many photographs, and have plenty of memorabilia, of the place you have left behind this can both help and hinder the adjustment period. At first it may be too painful to look at the photographs, as fresh memories of the place will come to mind; thoughts that you last had consciously when you were there will surface, and because thoughts don't adhere to conscious time, you may get the strange feeling of having just been at the place when 'you thought that thought'. Eventually, however, you will find that it won't be as painful to look at the photographs, and they will become a comfort to you. Slowly, new memories in your new place, or home, will replace the old thoughts, and the great healer known as time will have helped you.

You will have fond memories and a set of photographs to help you remember a former home when the memories start to fade, as they do.

Is Our Sun Conscious?

New Dawn Magazine: I have been studying our Sun for some years, focusing on the influence of erratic solar behaviour (erratic from a modern human perspective) on the course of human development and civilisation. One of my major conclusions is that the last ice age ended abruptly circa 9700 bce due to a major solar outburst (or series of outbursts). Solar activity is intimately tied to climate changes on Earth, which in turn have major effects on life on our planet, including humanity.

Following the solar agitation and disturbances that ended the last ice age and possibly continued for several millennia, during the last 8,000 years or so the Sun has been relatively stable, with periods of quiescence. In modern times, that is since about the middle of the twentieth century, the Sun has shown increasing signs of agitation, of variability, of erratic behaviour, of “mood swings,” the likes of which have not occurred since the solar outbursts that ended the last ice age.

If we were to witness a repeat of the events, the solar outbursts, that ended the last ice age, there is no doubt our modern technological civilisation would be utterly decimated. We would be thrown back to a “stone age” and worse. Why do I say “and worse”? Because today we have hundreds of nuclear power plants around the globe...read more>>>...

Quality vs. Quantity

Daily Om: We live in an age of quantity. The media shapes us with the notion that larger, faster, and more are often synonymous with better. We are told that we need to find more time, more possessions, and more love to be truly happy. A smaller quantity of anything that is high in quality will almost always be more satisfying. A single piece of our favorite chocolate or a thin spread of freshly made preserves can satisfy us more than a full bucket of a product that we aren't very fond of. Similarly, one fulfilling experience can eclipse many empty moments strung together. It is not the quantity of time that matters, but the quality that you experience during each moment. Every minute is an opportunity to love yourself and others, develop confidence and self-respect, and exhibit courage. Ultimately, quality can make life sweeter. When you focus on quality, all your life experiences can be meaningful...read more>>>...

Friday, 2 June 2017

Image of the Day

Intermediate Egret, Australia