Simple Soul Food: Creative Thought Seeding

It can be pretty easy to let an untrained or unconditioned mind wander on autopilot, reacting to whatever may stimulate it.

Affirmations, meditation, stillness, decluttering, correcting, choosing a different thought; all great ways to discipline your mind and stay focussed within as well as on the positive.

Sometimes getting creative with it can get in the way, afterall how creative is discipline when repetition is the key to mastery of anything?

At the same time, to ignore your creativity, your intimately personal capabilities and potential contribution is, well, ignorant.

Everything must balance.

"For every little action there is a reaction" ~Bob Marley

Try this for a change of pace. I'm calling it Creative Thought Seeding. Too many years of designing computer networks is tempting me to assault the world with another acronym, but I shall resist.

This method is simple, involves your thought and can produce results in less than a day, perhaps a few, depending on your diligence and intention.

Take very simple affirmations such as "I love..." or "I am grateful..." or "I am joyous...". Choose a few, make up a few. They are beginnings of a thought, yet complete on their own - this is key.

Start affirming within, in thought only. To start, stick with only one. Repeat it as often as you are able to remind yourself, without any force or compulsion to repeat it a certain number of times, just let it roll off your mind. "I love.. I love".

As you wander through your day, repeat it however remain open minded. Allow it to linger. "I love...". Anticipate an ending without pushing for one. Permit your thought to complete itself, and it will. Give it a chance, for some it takes longer than others.

Suddenly "I love" becomes anything: "I love myself" "I love my partner" "I love the world" "I love daisies", anything.

Give yourself permission to create and it will flow. Naturally your state of self and mind will play a large role in your success with this method, stress or anger will surely snatch any benefit from your efforts.

Try it, it works. Leave me a comment with your results.

Set Your Self Free

Set yourself free,
Set your self free.

I love my self,
Love your self,
Set your self free.

Unleash your self,
I love my self,
Set your self free.

I am the wave,
We are the wave.

The greatest teachers,
Are the most diligent students.

Simple Soul Food - Affirmations as Passwords

Affirmations are one of the easiest ways of reprogramming negative beliefs or ingrained thoughts that no longer serve you.

Repetition is a simple way to overwrite your internal software code, line by line, and rebuild your beliefs and perspective one step at a time.

Why is then that we see so few people carrying their affirmations around, or displaying their latest ones in obvious places that they will be reminded of them frequently?

Maybe theres a social stigma attached to not believing that others use them as frequently as yourself or not wanting to air something that can be intensely personal.

What other ways are there then, to be reminded of affirmations, to feed yourself as regularly as you feel is useful to you, without exposing your innermost positive thoughts to scrutiny?

One is passwords. Most of us work with computers in some way these days, or have a personal computer, or use passwords that only we could know to access online services like banking, auctions, dating sites, email and on and on.

You could substitute you regular banking password with something exclaiming your love for money or mankind. The best way to do that is to drop the spaces between the words which will make the password, and thereby your subtle affirmation, legal according to the computers sitting behind that application. So "I love money" becomes "Ilovemoney", or "I am grateful" becomes "Iamgrateful".

The benefits are myriad, you are typing the affirmation, and saying it to yourself at the same time, its not exposed so no one knows and you get the benefit of the positive energy and from repeating it as many times as you access a system.

Often these systems require us to create complex passwords with uppercase and lowercase characters and number and... No worries, just swap letters for similar characters... It will still interpret the same in your mind. So I = 1 or 0 = o and so on.

This is a great way to get your choice affirmations repeated throughout your day with very little effort and a lot of upside.

Self-Editing: You Are Your Worst Critic

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with.
~Plato

Everyday most us turn away from who we are, get into a car or on a bus and head off into "reality" while switching off from what we most desire to experience, whether we are aware of it or not.

From the time we wake till the time we sleep, we are either consciously or unconsciously editing our thoughts. Regardless of your surroundings, your first thought of a thing is virtually always the highest thought you can have. The highest thought being the most noble, the grandest vision of it.

Thereafter the values, beliefs and other opinions you wear come in to cloud your original impression, to change it, make it more acceptable to yourself, your surroundings and the those around you. Perhaps then it is acceptable to express it as a word or an action.

A conversation like this could easily drown in the other aspects of self that can muddy a clearer explanation. Despite your ego, your surroundings and your reality-based perspectives, the fact is that few of us have enjoyed the luxury of unlimited inner exploration or learned how to control our thoughts and express ourselves at a higher vibration on an on-going basis. Less of us have learned to practice gratitude and non-judgement on a more than cursory, once-in-a-while level.

The root of all these and more, is our thoughts. Our biggest enemy in achieving pure thought, and therefore the purest word and deed we each indiviually can offer, is to end self-editing of our thoughts.

Layer upon layer of self-judgement, assumed-judgement-of-others, worldview-judgement of those surrounding us, perceived judgement of friends and family and more, hold us back from reaching a state of mental purity. Taking purity not to mean good or bad, since these are concepts of the relative, or the very "reality" you are attempting to unravel.

Judgement, personal beliefs, fears of rejection and more, all hold us back at one time or another, from accessing that pureness of thought that is the beginning of our surrender to our greater selves. Mastering our thoughts, and therethrough our words and actions, help each of us to plot a very different course and perspective.

Stripping away at each of these layers is never easy, but the concepts are simple, the tools are many. Endurance is a virtue, for if you don't endure the path to knowing your-self and taking charge of your mind, you will surely come back to start again at a later time.

From all my past articles, here are 3 recommended articles on mastering thoughts:

-> Master Your Thoughts

-> First Thought, Highest Thought

-> What Is Highest Thought?

Enjoy

Negative Thought Energy

A great piece by Ed P.

Negative Thought Energy

-Mikel

Today I

Today I free myself from any and all hate,
Today I free myself from any and all fear,
Today I free myself from any and all jealousy,
Today I free myself from any and all greed,

Today I embrace joy,
Today I embrace peace,
Today I embrace love,

Today I free myself to embrace and manifest the highest vision of the highest thought that I have.

Forever and always,
-Mikel

The Great Illusion

It's not often that I come across a site that I feel is worth mentioning but this one by Victor Kahn is well worth the journey. Enjoy.

The Great Illusion

Peace,
-Mikel

You Know The Way, Travel It

It's been about 15 years since I started consciously walking my path of self-discovery and inner knowing, in between the daily interruptions of life. I can say interruptions now, but back then I didn't feel that way. Contemplating the Universe and its Creator was something I did in dark times, when I needed solace and had no company. A few times I was touched and touched God back, even being one for a time. Fleeting though it was, I could not escape the experience and have been compelled ever since to travel further on this path, finding myself where I now stand.

Where is that exactly?

In between the random posts I make here, there is a fuller picture you cannot readily perceive. I could send you a photo but you still wouldn't get it, because that encompassing image of who I am includes much more that just the visible spectrum. I'm sure you would feel the same way, especially since we all are one. What you see is just a thumbnail of what you really get.

For now let me speak of the view from where I stand, let me give you some perspective, since that is everything, always. When I started writing (this is before I started blogging) I did so to evolve, this was one of my purposes in doing so. To lift my head above the clouds and see into space. To have self-knowledge and awareness. It was a peak, a point to reach.

Within that journey I learned of course that there was no peak, and only one continuous ride. Kinda like paying once to go on the roller coaster at the fair, and never having to get off.

Along the way, amongst realisations and epiphanies that have showered upon me and within me in greater numbers than the stars in a countryside night sky, I unlocked a deeper memory. That there was no end.

Our journey is just like driving a car to a distant location at night. Perhaps it's hundred of miles away, but all you require to get there is headlights that will let you see a few hundred feet in front of you, to make it all the way there.

So too with our ongoing enlightenment, it never ends, once you know and experience what you thought you knew to be the answer, you will no sooner ask a better question from that perspective, just like the headlights and again see a little further.

Beyond this, letting go of reality while still participating in it as a productive human being, is less of a challenge each day. Seeing past the ego attachments of others, and releasing my own, is a passionate hobby of mine. I slip and fall with great regularity but less than the day before.

In between all this I recognize that the purpose I indentified years ago, is becoming reality. Benefiting others through teaching and creating a school for people like us, that exists in my mind. It is a ranch of some 100 acres with a large log built ranch house, set back in the woods, in a private quite setting.

The purpose of the school is to provide people like ourselves the opportunity to disconnect of the "real" world for a time and practice the arts and skills required to expand and maintain our inner vision without any of the outside distractions that keep holding us back from progress, from mastering the skills we need to see and live life the way we could choose if we permitted ourselves.

There are many metaphysical schools out there, you can look them up. Even metaphysical qualifications you can study for that may help your knowledge. However, my journey has always been a deeply personal one, and just like my career, is based on experience of life, not experience of books or theologies.

I believe that everyone has something to offer, a part to play in our infinite puzzle, so it should be with such a school. We are all students and teachers. Those that wish to teach what they have to offer of their mystical experience, could do so alongside a simply curriculum that anyone of any religion or creed could learn, for accessing the tools they need to create their own reality.

This is my dream. It is also the reality I create.

-Mikel

If anyone is interested in the school or theses ideas, contact me separately at replic8ster AT gmail DOT com.

Inner Architecture

A person's life consists of a collection of events,
the last of which could also change the meaning of the whole,
not because it counts more than the previous ones
but because once they are included in a life,
events are arranged in an order that is not chronological but, rather,
corresponds to an inner architecture.

- Italo Calvino

You Must Be

You must be the change

you wish to see in the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Get Rid Of The Idea

You must get rid of the idea that
you are yet to realize the Self.
You are the Self here and now.

- Ramana Maharishi

Many People

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Anger is only one letter short of danger. If someone betrays you once, it is his fault; if he betrays you twice, it is your fault. Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. He who loses money loses much; he who loses a friend, loses much more; he who loses faith, loses all. Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Friends, you and me... you brought another friend... and then there were three... we started our group... our circle of friends... and like that circle... there is no beginning or end... yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, thats why they call it the present.

- Unknown

Comment Commentary

Cheryl brought something up this morning which I had been pondering, being some of my replies to comments of late, which helped me and may help my readers understand my perspective.

We are all multi-faceted, self-experiencing entities flowing through this existence we chose. We are free to express ourselves whether anyone will listen or not. We are free to be ourselves whether anyone pays attention or not. We are free to act and be as we choose, whether it is judged as right or wrong by those that choose judgement as their filter to communication between ourselves.

In my daily life I make judgements all the time.

Dropping my hot coffee on my foot is not a good thing so I judge not to do it, neither approach is right or wrong.

Driving in traffic I may judge the actions of another to be dangerous and take, what is to me, appropriate action, which may include cursing at times (yes, lots of room for improvement there) however this is to me neither right nor wrong.

On this blog, when I reply to your precious comments, and they are all precious to me, I may disagree with your perspective for any number of reasons, but this is no way invalidates how you choose to perceive your reality. My experience of it, is simply different. So, my opinion is not invalid and neither can yours be, there is no right or wrong, as I've stated in past articles.

There can be no judgement for an effective conversation on matters of the metaphysical since contradiction, dichotomy and paradox are all constant bedfellows on this journey. Everything I've written is based on the premise of sacrificing judgement to gain insight into the bounty within.

This is part of the beauty of our human experience. That we may individualistically experience the world around us and the universe within us, at a very personal level, being our own. Overcoming our own personal fears of rejection by others that we allow to see our true feelings regarding who we are and choose to be, can be a multi-faceted obstacle. It is and has been so in my case.

In summary, I wish you to know that those that post comments have my attention, serve as input into my writing and cause me to think, ponder and feel. I admire those bold enough to place their own personal thoughts and feelings on virtual paper and commit to a perspective, even it only is a temporary one, since we are always evolving. All I ever hope is to illicit the same from you.

Love,
-Mikel

Fear Of Rejection

This morning I sat for 2 and a half long hours at the car dealership waiting for my truck to be fixed for a recall. Behind the scenes their computers were down and ultimately they could not fix the issue right away, but in the meantime I obliviously toured the car lot, strolled in the sun and took some time to myself in the waiting area.

There I met an older Irish gentleman and we talked about his kids, my kids and their different achievements and struggles. A common theme soon emerged through the conversation which was rejection, the fear of it and how it makes you stronger.

His eldest kid happened to be almost as old as I, and he has several grandchildren, but we explored how rejection had shaped the lives of those around us and our joint consensus was that it made one more ready to attack the world, especially when experienced in youth through common activities like sports, social activities and the like.

Thinking back to this forum, and our ongoing conversation about self-realization and creation, the known and the mystical, I contemplated writing an article and this notion took root within me.

How does the fear of rejection hold you back from achieving greater inner goals and development?

Fears in general are obstacles to be overcome, to move beyond on your path, including the fear of death.

The fear of rejection can only take hold in someone who has a vested interest in the opinions of others, in one way or another. The next question would be whether you are willing to move beyond this, to a place where instead of investing your energy and thoughts in what you cannot control, to one of relying on your own intuition and beliefs.

Many people will openly state their beliefs to all that would listen, personal beliefs, moral beliefs, spiritual and religious beliefs and so on. Few actually live them. Fewer still have moved beyond the fear of rejection, to not feel the incessant need to share their beliefs with all and sundry.

There is only one important person in your life and at the centre of your fears, your self. There is only one person who stands to benefit from your overcoming any fears you may have and this is you. Pondering this statement you may choose to differ, arguing that others indeed benefit, those around you, those close to you. While a change in your belief set may make you easier to live with or more humorous than before, the only real change is associated to you. The reality you create is still your own. Things may look rosier on the outside because they are rosier on your inside.

Although we are all indisputably connected, each individual is responsible to their own development and inner work. Outside details are just the wrapping on an inner gift, so those around you may well benefit from your personal changes and work, but this is only because they choose to.

Essentially your fear of rejection is associated with the stake you have placed in the connections you have with others. The energy you give to this fear will determine your ability to overcome it. You will be required to trust yourself at different layers.

To say that you trust your intuition, and then be anxious over your performance appraisal or a credit check or your husbands opinion of your new shoes, is not stating a full truth. The statement is layered, and this is easy to acknowledge for most of us. At some level most of us trust our intuition but there are moments of doubt.

In all of this there is no wrong, merely the opportunity to be more internally independent, which does not imply either that you require no one in your life - far from it.

Although I cannot offer a one-size-fits-all approach to working this challenge, there are some general pieces of advice you might consider:

- Practicing detachment. There are good articles on this blog relating to detaching yourself.

- Asking better questions. Another great article you may choose to benefit from. Ask the Universe better questions for you will be answered if you learn to listen with more than your ears. "Why am I stuck in this situation?" "Why am I attached to what so-and-so thinks of me?" "What steps can I take to change?"

- Imagine. Imagine yourself free of your fear. Your imagination drives your subconscious. Words alone cannot convince you of the importance of this, but my hope is that you will appreciate what I am saying and take it to heart. Learn to imagine properly, it is a form of prayer.

- Self acceptance. Acceptance of who you are, your great power and connection to the universe and a living acknowledgement of the bright light that you are, is important. All this, but without ego.

- Your internal language. Mental self-talk. To some an arch-enemy and derailer of plans, to others a gift from above. Examine the language you use in your thoughts and set about rectifying anything you don't like. There are more than a few articles here on developing and opening your thought ways.


I will never tell you to write all your concerns on paper, or keep a journal, perhaps even a blog, but these help too and in greater scope - in the overall development of who you are becoming and are now being. Each to their own, your path is not mine, but I will gladly help as I can through this forum.

At the end of the conversation about rejection, the elder gentleman in the waiting room, and I, concluded that we should write a book on the subject. Instead I decided to offer this article to you.

Namaste,
-Mikel