Consciousness and The Welcome

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Rumi 

There are many different ways to describe what and how stuff as events and things and people shows up in our lives. Consciousness is always at play. And sometime we, as human, may not like what is going on. 

But as everyone from Esther Hicks and Abraham to Rumi and wise others will tell us, we want to welcome equally the misfortunes, the challenges, the delights that come our way. We want to be good hosts and not play favorites, though we will have our preferences. This is Consciousness. 

These judgements are self created. This is Human. They are just expressions wrapping up and putting a face on in our lives creating our sense of who we are. We are Consciousness in action. We actively, knowingly and unknowingly create. Both creativity and boredom and everything inbetween provide meaning to being alive. 

The Infinite Sea of Potential allows for nuances of duality, polarity and scalar reactions and breaks them back down into the resonances, vibrations and frequencies of the quantum world. There is no personality. Realities shift, our guests transform.

There are no victims in this realm. Only senses and values we place on those experiences. Which only serve as ways to focus and ending points where focus shifts. There is only the ebb and flow that comes from limits and limitless, transitions and transcendance, birth and death on all levels, the mix of human awareness and as Consciousness.

( Take the conversation about choice out of the picture and feel the freedom that comes. When we engage the word "choice" you might find it is embodying more egoic in nature and not truly neutral.)  

Welcome what comes forward into your awareness. Pay attention. Consciousness reflects what we each think is important and allows for all.  In our individuality we are selective about our interface. Wakeup calls, validations of viewpoints, reflected biases are powerful moments in awareness. 

Welcome all that comes to your door. Soon what comes will shift as you do. Realize that it is our attachment to our biases that dictate what and who shows up.

And, don't be afraid to leave the light on. 

Janet Barrett
Journeys Into Enlightenment
janetb@janetandbeyond.com
www.janetandbeyond.com

Consciousness and the Fog

Fog has been in the air this last week or so around here. It does wonderful things to the light and perception. In the narrow confines of my mind it brings a different sense of where I am. I am on my journey and it keeps me focused close, not too far outward.

The details will loom large. Color will stand out against the grey tones. The colors of fall delight the eye amidst all the green. The light is absorbed as it touches on surfaces not usually seen without contrast. It can make the world small and immediately take away what is beyond. There is only a few feet of perspective.

It is good to see differently. Looking at our stuff in the same way is habit. Things might be created to shake us out of our expected outcomes and complacency. This allows us to realize different things.

Sometimes it is about self care and our lack of it. There has been a lot of this around me lately. Which offers me the chance to notice for myself: How am I doing with self care? Do I need to create the loss of a foot or a skin cancer where the sun doesn't shine in order to wake up in some way? Visiting others in the hospital makes me appreciate that I will walk right back out after my visit. Sometimes it take a big thing in our lives to make us stop and recalibrate. We have a remarkable ability to compensate, over compensate, cope and tolerate and we keep going and then finally, Bam! Down we go.

Being able to notice what is present for me while still in the experience or close to it is much more useful. Hindsight the same day or a day later is much better than a year from now for me personally. I tend to notice things happening in my outside world as related to me.  

Two approaches. Learning sooner than later and learning later than sooner. Both approaches have merit due to our state of awareness. 

Take some time out of your busy day to access Heart Centered Awareness. It is nice when you can sit a bit but that is not necessary. Don't allow that to become an excuse. Just bring your awareness to your physical heart and be thankful. That it beats and that you are alive. Then notice your emotional terrain. Be grateful that you feel connected to yourself and those around you. Then notice in a bigger sense our connection, where we are One. Free of form, just light photons, bio photons, resonances, frequencies and vibrations. Information abounds and all of it loose in the Infinite Sea of Potential. This is Consciousness at play. All of this can happen in the blink of an eye but usually we like to linger and pay attention. Which is fine. 

Metaphysical trainings, religious trainings, life school trainings, medical training, business trainings. There are lots of different trainings about being. We can set up routines and routes to explore and to know ourselves and to know ourselves as something bigger. To feel our connection to what is important about being One. Meditate, paint your toenails, eat dinner. All have value with the right focus. Be present and Celebrate. Embrace the fog.

Janet Barrett

Journeys Into Enlightenment

janetb@janetandbeyond.com

www.janetandbeyond.com

Consciousness and the Words

We are noticing that within the unfolding of ourselves these days, we are getting in touch with our base concepts of being. How very exciting when you think about it. In group the words that came up reflected this.

The English language can often provide more than one meaning and often the totality of associations found within one word. There is often duality present.

The following words presented themselves as we looked at the energy before us. A new story was making itself present but being held back from engaging by her old story baggage. Another story of the neighborhood feeling safe when threatened by people not respecting the rules of community and then another story of not remembering that one was okay, always, no matter the surface upset. All sort of related even though they were from three people. All three stories of thinking and feeling had at core the flow of these words:

Innocence  Entitlement  Worldly  Sophisticated  Naive

It was all about how they were in each of us. Who knew? That is the fun of group as we explore life.

Entitlement is about the amount of right to something or the deserving of privileges or special rights. Which is about separateness really. Worldly and sophisticated were more about the concern of material things than spiritual awareness. Naive is about lacking judgment, perspective, natural and unaffected. We could see how the push pull of conflict was present in the words themselves and how we use them. How do they reflect and work within us?

In our work as Consciousness experiencing itself from a more knowing position, do we celebrate innocence and naive or judge them for being so? The story of Adam and Eve and the Apple of Knowledge came up. And how we might be still beating ourselves up 2000 years later. Sin and suffering were part of it all.

We have become a society that celebrates things and having things and that is our measurement of accomplishment as human. Not our heart and connection but our things and selection and inclusion of only a few. We celebrate the doer not the being. We frown upon the innocent and naive when that is what is at heart within each of us. How do we honor self?

How does innocence know itself? How do we be innocent and worldly? Does naive suffer in comparison to worldly and sophisticated? How do we hold our own in the face of the power of the disbelieve and lack of respect surrounding us and ultimately in ourselves?

In our open state of heart centered awareness we could feel our words flowing free, resistance shrinking. We go for a state of wonder and wonderment.

Courtesy of Merriam Webster

won·der

noun

1. 1.

   a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

   "he had stood in front of it, observing the intricacy of the ironwork with the wonder of a child"

   synonyms:

   awe, admiration, wonderment, fascination; More

verb

1. 1.

   desire or be curious to know something.

won·der·ment

noun

1. a state of awed admiration or respect.

   "Corbett shook his head in silent wonderment"
2. 
   

What state do you live in? 

Janet Barrett

Journeys Into Enlightenment 

janetb@janetandbeyond.com

www.janetandbeyond.com

Consciousness and the Day to Day of Stress

A long, clean and shiny red firetruck was in the lane next to me as we waited at the signal light. I got to contemplating about the ability of the firemen who drop everything at a moment's notice and then take their truck out into the neighborhood to do good of all kinds.

I thought about the stress that is incorporated in every action along the way, from keeping the truck in working, pristine, ready condition, the maneuvering of the big vehicle through traffic and tight road spaces and what all they will find engaged at their destination. They may not sense it as stress but it is inherent and what do their bodies, minds and heart do with it? Anything can become a stress. Being of service may take a toll.

Tension is inherent in any living dynamic. Stress is too much tension and Rest is less tension. Healthy is our ability to reset the tension levels. We all have different set points. Our modern societies and how we live now are full of stress we may acknowledge or not as such. Most of what we do day to day is no longer seen as stressful and worthy of paying attention to. Symptoms and illness follow. The level is allowed to keep rising. Ask any single parent and all they must take care of in a day and you know what I am talking about. Even with a partner shared burdens are still burdens.

Most of us don't want to admit to anxiety, panic or overwhelm or being beyond our means when we feel so. We would feel less than and we may think less than of someone else. To do so may compromise our ideas of who we think we are and expect ourselves to be. American culture is filled the notions that we are independent self supporting creatures and it is not true. Look at the power today of ethnic communities holding together by the past shared and current labels? There are many layers of community. How much do we appreciate the community found when the firemen arrive to help out? How much can we use the support of our neighbors or mental/physical health or city level services in times of strain? How many of us don't use them?

What is stress to you? How jaded have you become in your daily life? How often after work does one drink do the trick to relax or do you need more? Much of what we experience as stress and suffering is self created. Firemen and others deal with life defining man made and natural disasters of all sorts as part of their daily routines. Most of us don't.

The bulk of our challenges come from our daily choices and the difference between what we want to have happen and what does. It is the power of our expectations that is causing undo stress and suffering and anxiety and is self created. Or by someone else's unreasonable expectations and our willingness to play along. We control this.

First responders are trained to put aside their own emotional personal connections and respond with logic and a cool state of empathy and compassion. It is hard to do so when running hot emotionally. Any thing can be a trigger to a deeper hot running emotion. If you find yourself reacting without pause there is a trigger at play.

The best way I know to deal with sorting all of this out is accessing Heart Centered Awareness. Sit for a bit and let your awareness about something pushing your buttons come into play. You might surprise yourself.

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

Journeys Into Enlightenment

Consciousness and Being Open

There is no effort in Being. You relax and open up. Information flows. There is no judge, no attachment to outcome. You are free to observe inwardly and outwardly. That is the true gift of Heart Centered Awareness. Being nothing, no thing. Sometimes it is a challenge.

Open up to who you think you are, no matter what that might be, warts and all. Let yourself, as Consciousness embrace the Self as friend and visa versa. The words forgive and forget are about judgment and bottom line, we all are Consciousness expressing through the individual prism of Self. It is so easy to judge. It is important to be able to make distinctions to keep safe. So, let it be from a non attached place when you use those words. Open yourself be more aware of who you are and what is important to you.

Value Potential, not as something your grade school teacher and parents may have beat you about the head and shoulders with but as a neutral reality to play in. If you were open and there were no limits, and you were comfortable inside AND outside of the box, what is possible? The box may be what your parents, family, community put you in. You can still navigate your present collective reality we all share and still be comfortable being your own person.

It never is too late to open up to a new choice. For all the dynamics we each embody, usually from an unaware state, don't let yourself think that is all that you are. You may have been that for a moment or maybe for many moments but those are the past already. What do you choose to be open to in this moment is the question. Open for potential, make a choice, and let the energy reveal itself.

  

Do no harm, whether bug or neighbor. or stranger. How many of us kill bugs and help the old lady cross the street? Is there any difference? Both are living, just at different levels. If you talk to the ants can they let you know why your paths are crossing and maybe something else is possible? In heart centered awareness you can ask and get an answer.

Open up to appreciate and demonstrate kindness, gentleness, affection, care and love.

Open up to heart centered awareness.  Allow who you are to open and unfold.and unfold and unfold some more.

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

Journeys Into Enlightenment