An Adventure in Finding Yourself in the Social Media-Driven Age

“Get lost and find yourself.” 

I heard this adage in my earlier awakening-to-self years. Perhaps you’ve heard it too. Every so often it is ignited by my life’s experiences, taking on greater depth and pertinence. My recent trip to San Francisco is no exception. Added to this, just before I left for this trip, I met a fellow spiritual junkie, and as I drove him home and heard his story, I and was reminded that this is more than just a tagline. The best way to find who we are is to unroot ourselves and transplant to another place for a while. Here, we see who we are, and what core values we take with us, whether for a short travel to clear our mind’s palate and rejuvenate body and soul, or for a more substantial shift.

The difference now in the current age of social media is the way we can find ourselves. 

FINDING MY WAY via SOCIAL MEDIA

The days of printing out itineraries from piles of brochures and magazines are … well, alive and well still, I suppose. But for the social media-savvy generation, if you can access and dare to navigate the networks of social media for a little while, what you find can be quite inspiring and intriguing.  Rather than reading generic print from a magazine, we can connect and commune with a much more ALIVE thread to a place.

As I arrived in San Francisco, I began exploring the hashtags #SanFrancisco, #SanFran, #SF, and through these found even more hashtags to use, like #bayarea, or #bayareaatnight. It’s one of the quickest ways to get to know the local vibe and vernacular of a place. 

The point of Social Media # hashtag exploration is that it can, at its best, be extremely intuitive and user-friendly. What are my interests? What do I like to explore? For me, enter #yoga, or #coffee, plus #SanFran, #SF, into Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Oh, by the way – don’t forget to mark your location on those Instagram snapshots. I always get the most immediate hits from these markers. 

SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIVE

Take my stay in San Francisco. I arrive at my hotel, I tweet @ the hotel name and post a picture. This blasts out to the hotel and they give me a friendly response sometimes within minutes. 

Here is a little conversation I had with @SoulsofSF on Twitter after finding her pictures and profiles of people living in San Francisco. 

As I peruse Instagram, I find a picture of a dancer posing in front of eye-catching Greek or Roman-style stone columns. This leads me to her profile, leading to another picture tagging the location. I explore the hashtag of this a place, a museum, which leads me to more galleries and stunning pictures, and finally, my own visit the next day. #success.

SOME TIPS

•  Explore the local Facebook groups and pages. See which ones have the most followers and the most recent posts
• Twitter and Instagram are less innocuous than Facebook (if you’re worried about coming off as weird or stalking)
• Use whatever search terms are pertinent and intuitive to you

If you need more options, explore more hashtags and see what’s most current. You’ll find things in a way more personal than you could have ever imagined compared to pages of a brochure. 

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

In the universe where everything is connected, Social Media sharing follows this archetype. It’s a practice of little bit of reasoning, intuition, and the Law of Attraction, if you think about it. 

So while you may roll your eyes at those silly pictures of iced tea with a mint sprig and Mayfair filter, know that those GO somewhere; they do matter!

That’s why I use it. Take a picture. Post it. See who likes it, see who they are, where they’re from, and if this leads you anywhere. It takes seconds of tapping your finger, literally.

Social Media, isolating? Too easily lost in the virtual world? Not in my experience. Use it! See just how you find yourself. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Getting Centered Simply

Happy Friday, everyone!

I was feeling so scattered today! I tend to get lost in email-world and digital world -- like Tron but less visually stimulating. 

I literally closed my labtop and said aloud to no one, "I need a break." I stepped away to my healing room and sat in front of my Sri Yantra picture. And I simply focused. Thoughts came in and out, and I let them pass as I focused I the bindu at the center of the image. 

The importance in stilling the mind is not if you are absent of thought, but rather the ability and discipline to not follow the string of thoughts that the mind conjures up. 

I love to use the image of clouds passing by across a clear sky. Thoughts come and go, and still we, our essence, remains. Our awareness remains. 

The more I focused and the more still I became, the better I felt. Breathing slowed and deepened. I actually became more energized, too. 

Such is the power of concentration or focusing the mind.

There are so many centering and meditative practices! It doesn't always have to be still-mind, eyes-closed meditation in order to become centered and at peace. I think this is a misconception that many people have. That's why there's yoga, breathwork (pranayama), and for example, yantra -- focusing one's gaze at an image to achieve still mind.  

It doesn't have to be long. In my case just today, 12 minutes turned into 15, then 20-something minutes. I couldn't tell after a while, and it didn't matter. 

So very thankful to lose track of time in order to FIND, and not LOSE, myself!

Namaste.

What Do I Choose?

Inspired while on a plane to Seattle and after reading a bit of "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann. 

I need to commit to being a more responsible inhabitant of this planet.

For those of us who have the capacity for greater thinking, expanded thought process and creativity, we need to come together and collaborate to solve the world's problems while moving forward with living. 

There are always many different scenarios. There are endless possibilities and lines of probability. They can be optimistic or dismal. But if left to chance alone, without the willpower of the philanthropists or the willing servers and healers, the balance will be shifted in favor of those who choose short-sightedness and selfishness for over the goodness and long-term proliferation of all. Whether this is due to self-malevolence acting outward at the expense of the unaware, or to ignorance, or a a lack of fulfillment, it does not matter. What matters is that forces of ill will, which we can even for dramatic effect give the names dark forces or evil, exist. These forces that would tip the balance of planetary resources and energy of human potential and collective consciousness towards disorder for selfish and temporary gain will follow fate of entropy unless countered by order and willpower if those that choose altruism or at the very least sustainability. 

I believe in universal forces. I believe in greater Intelligent Source that is able to orchestrate a grand scheme and scenario in terms of societal interplay and longevity. I believe that Source would not grant us short-handed of the necessary forces on both sides of the equation in order for life and creation to thrive and perpetuate itself. Any other viewpoint unto the nature of the Creator is absurdly fatalistic. Why would the Creator toss us all into a fishbowl just to see how ugly its demise could be? What is the pleasure in that? What is the payoff to the Creator?

I make this last point because I want to show in more simple, rational terms that the point of our existence is to exist and thrive, not just decay. Therefore there must already be sufficient forces of good and numbers of individuals with willpower and creative capacity to make such an existence unfold. 

Then where are we?

How do we find ourselves? If there is a higher source orchestrating all of this, wouldn't we also be given the awareness to know what role we need to play? 

Well, yes. I think we all do have access to this higher plan, both on the grand scale and more individually unique to each of us. We all contain light of awareness and the creative spark. I believe when we awaken to our true selves and our true nature, we can then freely express our uniqueness and from this place of understanding create with awareness. We can engage our willpower and create for ourselves and for the whole. When in alignment with our truest selves, we know what our purpose is; who we are, what understandings we have, what our role is in this overall creation. Then whatever vocation we move forward in with awareness is in alignment with the Creator's plan. Then as if by a miracle everything falls into place. Everything flows and moves forward effortlessly. We are in alignment with the universal laws out forth by the Creator. 

As a healer, I see myself helping others to remember their inner light, their creative essence, their healing power. I help hold space and set their intentions in motion so that they can more truly know and fulfill their true selves. Not the selfish, egoic, survivalist self that requires more narrow focus in order to survive. Many of us are past this evolutionary stage of development. We need to consolidate and graduate these survival energies and begin using more of our creative energies. Such is the natural unfoldment of the creative process. 

To illustrate this, I will turn to the simple pattern seen everywhere in nature: birth, life, sex, death. Egg, larvae, caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly. Infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age/wisdom. Time unfolds this cycle of life everywhere and always. 

Life and nature is about patterns, be it on the micro or macrocosm, from simplicity to more complex and once again back to simplicity. This is the creation cycle. If our current universe was born of the Big Bang, first was just all a contraction of light and matter, bursting forth into a giant swirling pool of matter, energy and light, eventually taking on order and collecting into more stable and intricate form, to ... ? 

We need to step up. We need to claim our place in the universe and on this planet. We cannot hide our heads in the sand. What keeps us from lifting our heads and becoming courageous? Fear. Worry. Possibility of discomfort. All human emotions and lack of belief in ourselves and our creative power. 

Unless we remember our true nature as creators, or are inspired by our own uniqueness, there will not be any real progress forward or cleaning up of our own mess; we get lost in despair and think this life is all for nothing. And we don't see how fulfilling our individual role can then aid the whole. 

But, if we CAN see that in knowing ourselves, in becoming aware and having the inner tools of forgiveness and healing, that we DO in fact fulfill our individual plan and thus the Creator's plan, then we can do no wrong! Everything is possible! 

And if everything is possible, then what do I choose? 

That's the beauty of it. It's for you to decide. 

A Return

In honor of Good Friday (which occurred yesterday), I wanted to write a little bit about the surreal experience I had revisiting my childhood church. 

I am not religious by any means. But growing up, I attended Roman Catholic church. I think it's quite normal for kids to hate going to church -- for my case and for many, it's boring, quiet, I'm sitting next to strangers who I'm eyeing carefully behind my mother's shoulder for the slightest cough or sniffle they might have, so that during the dreaded "sign of peace" portion of mass, we intermingle extra long in our family unit so that we don't have to shake those peoples' hands. And why on earth does it have to be so early in the morning? I could be sleeping! I mumble the prayers and responses because I'm supposed to, but I don't know why. It's devoid of meaning, of depth, and yet I'm supposed to act this way, and this makes me holy and loved by God somehow??? And on and on. 

Yet as I step into the vastness of the church, I'm overtaken by a sense of awe and great love. As it has become ever since I began on the healer's path, now when I'm in any holy place, I'm sensitive to the vibrations and the energy there. I can't fully see auras yet but I don't need to. Immediately I look to the central altar and the large image of Jesus and it's shimmering with light. 

Back in my childhood, we always sat in the back. "To beat the crowd." We always drove in the back way of the parking lot and parked as far away from the entrance as possible for an easy getaway. It always drove me crazy. 

Now, I walk straight up the center aisle and sit face-to-face with God. I can't help but want to be close, to go up front, and experience as deeply, intimately, as I can.

It was all so surreal. After the initial wave of divine love sweeps down my Crown and spreads throughout my aura and captures me in a glorious, full-body chills sensation, I'm able to inhale deeply and exhale a breath of deep, profound gratitude. Gratitude that more than ever before, more than I ever could have hoped for or imagined in my lifetime, I can feel and experience god within. And not only within; as I pray, aloud or a whisper, or silently, as I bare my heart open I hear messages of response. I remember praying as a child and thinking, hoping, that I would hear an actual voice clearly in my ear or at the very least in my head. That never happened. For me, and again for many, it happens much more quietly as a stirring in the heart, or a sense of love or comfort that's beyond words. It's so quiet that unless we're still enough, we miss the message entirely.

Now, I know this. Now, I listen. And now, I hear, I feel, and I know, when I'm answered.

Instantly, constantly, flashes were happening. All the memories of going to church, and the experiences and perceptions I had. Of staring up at the ceiling, how I would note the patterns, the curve of the ceiling beams, the colors of the wood and marbling of the stone. The light shining through the stained glass windows. The images of the saints and angels. It seemed important, it seemed profound, and I didn't know. Happening in that present moment, I was staring at these same objects, these surroundings, and simultaneously remembering what I thought/saw in the past and now the present. I could see, and I could change the perceptions at will. I could loop in and out of time. I could superimpose thoughts and perceptions, together, one or the other. 

Plus, the emotions I was feeling, of profound gratitude and love from God within and around me and all of the ALIVE love vibrations and reverence offered from everyone having been in that space, ahh!!! Amazing.  I couldn't help but smile from the childlike wonder, that I couldn't even feel as a child! Then I smile more from... smiling!  From the corner of my mind, my childhood self is looking at me perplexed as if to say, You're crazy. 

Then I loop in and out of the feeling and mental inquiry of, why couldn't I feel this as a child? Because we're not taught how to feel. We're taught how to act, how to behave, what to say. But how on earth can we foster a sense of wonder, awe, and honor in God unless we cultivate that capacity in ourselves?

It has taken me YEARS to open my Heart. And even after opening a center of awareness (or a chakra), it takes practice to continue operating at that level until it becomes inherent. Even when this is achieved, there's more work to be done, because life is still happening. We have to continue to move forward even when we're healing old wounds or examining old behaviors, while trying to not let our brains get in the way... or the psyche, or socially and culturally imposed behaviors, attitudes and perceptions, on and on the list of possible, probable, and futile blame goes. 

I digress... the point of all that is, I had to learn what it was to LOVE in the first place, before I could truly understand God's love. And understand that God is within. 

Then with another exhale, of understanding and of some sadness, I looked up at the beautiful altar before me, in admiration and sadness, thinking: If we put as much effort into developing our inner temples, our inner selves, as we do our outer temples and altars, just imagine how beautiful and brilliant our world would be!

Memories help trigger these points of awareness and exploration. The desire to change comes from within.

I've moved back to my home town, my physical place of infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. Now I return as an adult; what an amazing evolution I can see spread before me, while still being present. Wow.

I stand up, I bow thank-you and good-bye to the divine beings in my midst. Knowing that the presence never really leaves -- it's just our sense of awareness of them that fades. So these beautiful churches, these temples, these places of worship ... may they remain, may they be an outward manifestation of the devotion we give to our inner selves, our spirit, our divinity. 

Peace, Blessed Be, Namaste, Sat Nam, Aho, Ashe, Shalom, And so it is. 

Journal Entry, January 2005: Astral Travel

I felt compelled to share this experience. It is a really clearly documented experience of astral travel -- one of my first experiences and definitely quite impactful. Edited slightly for clarity. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 2, 2005

I astral traveled last night.

It was about 2 am, I had just finished writing in my journal, and I fell asleep. I wasn’t necessarily even trying to meditate or leave my body. I started dreaming. At some point, I took control of myself in my own dream. The weird thing is, whenever I have done this from a dreaming state, it’s almost a scary experience leaving my body. In my dream, I was thinking to myself, “Ha ha, look at me, I can go wherever I want!” while I was moving about. The surest thing I remember is zipping towards my window, and falling through the face of a screaming (didn't hear sound, though) woman. I fell. And I was out.

I was looking at myself sleeping. I was looking at my nose and left side of my face from below; then the other side. Then I zoomed upward and turned over, looking at myself. I dipped forward and back, forward and back. While all of this was happening, I was having thoughts -- I didn’t know this was possible. I felt like my spirit was in the form of my body. I felt my hands. I had them clenched in fists. I clenched and unclenched them, each time, feeling the energy of them. It felt like my hands were electrical static.

I also felt pulls. I felt like my hair, or the top part of my head, was being pulled. It actually felt like my head was being stretched. Since all I know is experience in my earthly body, I kept expecting to feel pain. But all I felt was this electrical sensation.

I could see. It was as if I had my eyes. Everything was gray and fuzzy-like, as I remember from before. (note - I had astral traveled previously)

And there was no heat – as before. It felt cold, but it wasn’t cold. You don’t really hear anything, either.

I felt electrical surges in my legs. At one point, I willed myself to spin in the air, and I did. All I felt was my astral body surge with energy, up and down, and the slight view of surroundings twisting around. But, again, since in the earthly body you feel wind across your face to know you’re spinning, I wasn’t completely certain if I had done it or not. There’s no wind. Just a feeling of being connected to everything.

And all the while I was having thoughts. I was a little afraid. I kept wondering that maybe I wasn’t in control of my hands – and at the sensation of my head being pulled I wondered if the devil was doing this; If he was keeping my hands hostage and from moving, and if he was pulling me.

Well, I didn’t want to do this anymore if such was the case. So I thought to myself, "I want to go back to my body." I did. I woke up.

It was 2:40. It had felt like an eternity – at most I had probably been sleeping for a half hour. 

Then I lay in bed. And I asked the universe, as always, to watch over me, and help me see the light. I swear, I thought I saw an orb float across the ceiling. I saw circles of light – faint colored light – over me. I knew they were there. It was hard to fall asleep though. I didn’t know whether to close my eyes or keep them open – I didn’t know what I was going to see.

I keep wondering, why did it seem so cold, so dark? Besides the obvious fact that it was night, why was I not seeing beautiful light in my astral body? Why did it seem so scary – and why did I have dark thoughts beforehand and during while I did it? (note - now I realize I was exploring the lower astral planes)

Maybe it takes a traumatic experience to jolt your astral body from your body. Or at least while dreaming. The first time I astral traveled – it was freshman year high school – I just laid in my bed, willed my spirit to go to the mountains and elsewhere, and I lifted from my body. That was from a meditative state. The last couple times, it has happened from a dreaming state. So, this last experience has proved to me that both ways are possible. 

I’m just not quite used to it yet. I expect to be transported to a surreal world of color and light and beauty. Then I am reminded of the quote from Peter Kingsley’s book, “In the Dark Places of Wisdom":

 To ascend to the heights of Heaven, you must first descend to the depths of Hell.

Maybe this is all the world is – it’s not just light, or dark. It just is. 

It really is quite a unique feeling. All electrical, all a buzzing-like feeling. I wonder if I was really being pulled toward something. 

I’d like to astral travel in the daytime. I’m sure I’d see things differently.

The moment I was free, I was just floating. 

It truly was an out-of-this-world experience.

Why Do We Wanna Meditate, Again?

Need a quick reminder why to meditate? Give me the bottom line, you say. I'll be honest, sometimes I'm impatient and totally ADD. So I'll make it quick.

1. Get clarity

Why do we need clarity, you say? Well, it simply makes life easier. Our vision is clear, our goals are set, we have a strong set of principles. Therefore all decisions in life are made much simpler and easier. Less time wasted.

2. Cut the crap

Get rid of the brain chatter. Clean out the inbox. We don't need all those messages ricocheting around our head from ourselves, from others. There's enough to deal with. Get clear and focus on the stuff that matters. 

3. Be Productive; Manifest!

What's all the clarity and visioning for unless we make something good of it? It's satisfying, especially when aligned with our values. That is the point. 

It comes down to being more efficient and effective. Ultimately less time and energy are wasted and so there's more time and space available for other things we love. Yay!

Another cool tidbit... when we use our whole mind to create, we fulfill our destiny as a human being. In case any of these other points aren't enough ;-)

Now, go! Meditate, do good, repeat.