Consciousness and the Book of Joy

My 62nd birthday was yesterday. On Friday I walked into our favorite bookstore and the first one I registered visually was The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. I opened it up and read a few lines and tears started running down my cheeks standing there. I read that in honor of his 80th birthday,the Dalai and Rev. Tutu wanted to share with the world how to take the years of suffering both these great men know personally and be joyful. Because they can. It was their birthday gift to us. It certainly was their birthday gift to me.

I had an angiogram a couple of weeks ago and it was a remarkable experience. I appreciate angel energy when it shows up which it often does in these situations for me. I am so glad I was present to notice it. My wellspring of humor was overflowing and I was cracking up the crew and myself. (Don't get me started on Groin Prep and Management). All from Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah 7 minute song playing over the loudspeaker in the surgical room to the sense of my heart being held in an uplifted hand under a spotlight as the pressures were being measured going into my heart.They did find congenital small arteries and a narrowing from plaque in the main artery into my heart. The nursing staff invited me to come back every morning, not as a patient, but to set the tone in the room for them every day. That was a lovely compliment.

Since then I have had moments of emotional releases and I have found myself to be in Joy. Joy that I wasn't able to label as such as I have not known it often in a physical sense. Joan, my radio partner was able to articulate for me that it would seem that I was in the transcendent state that heart attack survivors can comment on. Something is different. And without the heart attack!!!!!

I will look to avoid the 5 drug combo the docs can only suggest and the stent.  They are always an option but nothing i want to invest in. I am told that plaque never goes away. Really? Well, we will see. I will continue to play as Consciousness and see what is possible.

This embodiment of Life for me and many others is all about transcending Suffering into Joy.  How do we take what we have called the Wounded Healer in each of us and allow for it to transcend? Why do we suffer, why do we hurt others, why do we hurt ourselves? Because we can. It is as simple as that. It is not about right or wrong. It is about what we do with the suffering from within a neutral, non attached place. What greatness we each have inside of us that comes from within that awareness?

Get the book. It is a testament to all of us on our path or journey of Enlightenment. The combination of wisdom and grace and humor these men offer enriches all. So do the techniques they offer.

 And the best technique will always be going to Heart Centered Awareness, the field of Unified Consciousness and allowing for the wonder you hold inside to express.

Janet Barrett
janetb@janetandbeyond.com
www.janetandbeyondl.com    

Journeys Into Enlightenment

Consciousness and Another Look at Competition

When you are in the win/lose paradigm, competition is present. And is that a good thing? Between watching the Olympics, all levels of football this week, sports channels, video games, politics, business news and my own self as I drive around town, I wondered. Friendly competition, hostile competition when is any of it good or out of balance? Family life of siblings and parents can be filled with competition as favoritism or to toughen you up that is never ending and sets the direction in our adult lives.

Maybe competition starts with survival of the fittest awareness. Testosterone levels can determine the win. Only the best survive and propagate. Big guy or the smartest guy or the big, smart guy gets the girl. Competition is full of judgments often arbitrary and personal bias. It is at its basis.

Then there is sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is important. It is how we get along with each other. Everyone deserves a turn, a chance to play, no matter how they play. Each deserves respect. What would it be like to give equal time, equal attention that supports enjoyment not accomplishment?

A television commentary followed a college game about a children's game somewhere and the panel was upset with the coach who presented to both children's team a trophy to every member, winners and losers alike. The panel was sort of horrified. What were we teaching our children if they didn't learn how to lose and the cost and how important a sense of failure was to learn early in life? Why strive to do your best if everybody gets credit? We are failing as good shepherds if we don't set them up for what Life will be like etc, etc. Do you feel the mindsets setting up?

How much is our business culture set up about competition and lack of resources and hoarding? How much of our political atmosphere is built around competition and not real issues? Religion is full of competition. Mine is better than yours. Mine is the only way.

Whether we are on a bike in a group or concepting something new we are challenging and often competing with only ourselves. The other is just to stir us on.

Considering how often results between first and second place is in milliseconds, does it matter? We want to be fair. Do we take it too far? When the stakes are high it is good to see athletes acknowledge that today I won. Tomorrow I might not as we are all playing at a similar level.

We want to celebrate the accomplishments and the remarkable.  We can also glorify them which leads to issues. Variety makes life interesting. What is gained by making someone feel bad for not meeting some arbitrary standard? We are individuals and all have merit on the curve. Or it would not be a curve. What if the guy who is forming the curve was valued as much as the guy at the top of the arc.

I was struck with appreciation when the opposing team brought flowers to lay down on the 50 yard line to share in the awareness of the loss of a player from the home team. It was a good game that followed full of history and passion and close to the very end. It felt good to witness on Facebook when a children'soccer team consoled the losing team in compassionate not overlord behavior.

Do we play with or do we pay against? You with me or against me? Good questions to check in about from within Heart Centered Awareness. Allow for play and see what shows up.

Many can be best in the world. Me being the best I can be really has nothing to do with you being the best you can be. What if it was okay to admit that you were lousy at something and you didn't care and did it anyway? Like singing and we all got excited to witness you enjoying yourself?

What if the paradigm was win/win?

Janet Barrett
janetb@janetandbeyond.com
www.janetandbeyond.com 

Consciousness and Buried Truth, Buried Treasure

Each of us is a many layered energy creature acting in dynamic fashion, all at once, incorporating, integrating, releasing information through our perceptual biases of stories and experiences. That is what Life is. That is what we are.

Sometimes, most of the time, we don't notice ourselves as such. We keep focus on the stuff going on around us in this culture. Mental health, physical health, emotional health are not always valued for what they represent. People are busy in what ever state of being they find themselves unaware or closed off to the realization that they are what is driving their experience of Life and not other people. Much of our sense of self is coming from triggered reactions unnoticed and long buried. 

If you can notice that you are stressed, not feeling well,or not happy you are aware that you have a sense of Well Being that is feeling compromised. If you are unable to notice in some way that you are stressed, not feeling well, not happy. it may be because you can't tell that you are. From within the state of Well Being you can notice these ripples and still be okay and allow for what is disturbing the "force" to bring you into awareness and new alignment if wanted. And still be okay. Otherwise we can just feel stuff and not feel okay as our norm. 

Let me share what is Heart Centered Awareness and why is it important. It is the gift of awareness that we each can enjoy and transform our lives if we so choose. It is our ability to connect beyond our limited physical senses to information that is available to all of us. It is Potential. It is a field of reference whether it is called Unified Consciousness, Heart, Zero Point etc..  

The word heart has three meanings: physical organ, emotional terrain, and core essence of all. 

This is what we do in Heart Centered Awareness. We make the time and space in this reality to allow for our connection as Consciousness, which has no time or space, to be present. We are all working at deeper levels these days. The hidden and buried is our old sense of how we have organized our self as Self.  Only deeper from the sense that what usually feels hidden or buried is available now. It is present to play with and become dynamic in new ways.  

If there is no reason to avoid or deny our truths that are deeply buried then that information is easily accessible. Observing ourselves alone or in group is not the trial that it might have been in the past. There is not so much a sense of having to do something or fix ourselves as is observing with a neutral bent what is going on within and around and what the reward is. What are we each in agreement and alignment with? Our emotions pull us in directions and form attachments that may not serve as they once did. 

Just being present, sitting in the now, not obligated to fix, or judge but just sit in the quiet and subsequent conversation from within that will be felt or acknowledged is priceless and new. We love the show of navigating through our being. We all like knowledge. Yet there is present the bliss of just being. and seeing all of Life as a vehicle of flow filled with eddies of movement. No attachment to the uproar of the flow but in rhythm. 

Buried truths and buried treasures are easily found. Life is good, Life is rich, Life is.