Several years ago one of the members of our Toastmaster’s Group gave a speech that told the audience that not only do we have brain cells in our brains (of course!) but we also have brain cells in our hearts and guts as well.

I’ve since learned that he was almost (but not quite) right about that.  According Steven Novella, M.D. in the NeurologicaBlog, what many have actually confused is that brain cells and or neurons are the same. According to Dr. Novella they are not because of where and how the cells are located and most importantly how they function. Dr. Novella says, “There is a certain flavor of misconception that occurs when a cultural belief intersects a scientific factoid that superficially seems to support the belief. A powerful meme emerges to the effect of – science now proves what we have known/believed all along. Gurus latch onto this idea to provide apparent credibility to their mysticism. The media eats it up.”  Although I am not a doctor nor a student of neurology I can understand what Dr. Novella is saying and concur with his information.

With that said.  To me, our paying attention to the cells that communicate information to us kinesthetically is the most important piece to take away rather than whether those cells are brain cells (so they directly interact with our thinking brain) or neurons that relay information within our body to keep it running smoothly.  W H A T E V E R.   In my mind, the most important thing is for us to pay attention to our minds and bodies and listen to them. Information is being sent to us in all kinds of ways by our body all the time.

I would encourage Dr. Novella and other scientific thinkers to embrace the idea that, as he terms it, “mystical metaphors” and science can sit quite comfortably with each other in the same space.  It’s all about the language of how we communicate what we are experiencing to each other. So, if Dr. Novella and I were to get into a friendly chat over a cup of proper tea, I wouldn’t say to him what are your heart or mind thinking  and conveying to you but rather, do you notice if your body expresses feeling in a certain locale (heart expanding or constricting, guts tightening or loosening) when you experience certain incidents in your day-to-day life.  All of this information is connected and useful and worthy of finding a common road for sharing information with each other.

What is your brain and body telling you?

Thought for the Day:  Could you be preventing an interesting idea from taking root in your awareness about the world around you because of how it is conveyed to you?

Helpful Hint for Being Human:  We humans (dare I say all life on this planet Earth) are a glorious combination of so many things that we still have yet to uncover much less discover.  Be willing to keep an open mind for learning new ideas and find ways to transfer what you’ve learned that inspires other to consider what you have to say.

I’m sure someone (probably many someones) have come up with a more elegant way (see IONS article by Michael A. Jawer) of describing this particular manner of extra sensing that I have, but as my mind is want to do, my imagination has its own unique way of visualizing what it feels like when some extra sensory something “pops” open inside of me . The pop usually happens when I’m talking with someone about a person, pet or thing they care about.  In a matter of seconds, I feel flooded with a “knowing” about the subject of their concern and also a perspective about how said subject experiences life.  Thank God this usually happens with someone who knows me pretty well so that my sudden 3-D understanding doesn’t freak them out. Still, there have been a few times when it’s happened with someone who I don’t know very well. Like the time members of a group I belonged to had gotten together for a meeting to turn over responsibilities from older to newer members of the group. During the comfortable, easy chit-chat at the beginning, one of the Dad’s began talking about his son and spontaneously I was able to add in affirmations about what he was saying and include his son’s perspective.  It’s a good thing this Dad shares my same faith tradition and has a fairly open mind because he was pretty amazed that I “knew” his son so well without really knowing him.  Call it what you may, but I think that’s an example of when my pop-open-window ESP goes into effect.

Most likely there is all kinds of evidence that can support whatever is the most comfortable theory you have for explaining this phenomena of knowing.  Use whatever works best for you. The point of my sharing this with you is not only because I think it’s way freaking cool and fun when it happens but also for me to remember and in turn help you to remember that it’s important for us to ask permission first if we may share what we are sensing.  Really, it’s just good manners and might help you to not freak out others as often as you might otherwise.

Thought for the Day:  All kinds of special “gifts” come to us and can be used through us to help ourselves and others.  Hopefully, we can recognize them as gifts so that we can respect them for what they are and their effect upon ourselves and others.

Helpful Hint for Being Human:  We have just begun to crawl towards the edge of our awareness of what it means to be human.  Keep an open mind and embrace the everyday miracles of being us.

To be sung to “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” of course. Not to make light of depression, for I have suffered and recovered from it for many years…..and sometimes the only way I can surface out of denial is through the shroud of very dark humor.  Mind you dark humor is not instead of meeting with your doctor, therapist, clergy-person or guru but rather something that can roll you up and out of the black tar pit of despair through if not a few chuckles then at least a  harrumph or two.

For instance, one of my favorite holiday cartoons is Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Which, by the way, although I loved the cartoon, the part where the scary abominable snow man was introduced always terrified me.  Well, thanks to friend comedian Rob Nash, I now have a whole different way I can think of the holidaze and the hustle-bustle of this time of year:

In case some of you out there missed the reference, this is a pun on the movie Silence of the Lambs.   Humor can get us laughing when it catches us off-guard.  And I don’t know about you, but in my past depression could also sneak up on me and catch me off-guard and before I knew it I’d be feeling hopeless because something benign as the oatmeal being almost at the end of the big container or that the expresso didn’t foam when I made it.  Forget about the big earth crashing horrors of living that can come up, it’d be the little things that would start signalling to me that I needed to reach out and ask for some help, such as upping my meds, or making a phone call and just taking care of bidness.  But, only you fellow depressants understand that feeling such as being in a state of mind when you could compete with a sloth for the center of gravity on the floor, gathering yourself up to get help can feel like swimming in molasses.  That’s why I’m reminding you about humor and that it can help us to get up and moving.

Seriously, I’ve spent hours on YouTube listening to some of my favorite comedians, like Louis CK … til I find those fellow humans that understand what it’s like to see and feel the under belly of life.  Here’s Maria Bumford talking about the Crazy Office Myth.

You’re right of course, being depressed is no laughing matter BUTTTTTTT, laughter can help us realize that we’re not alone and there are probably more of us out there like each other than some would care to admit.  For the record, I’m glad you’re out there!  Now, go find something or someone to laugh at and get some help. One of us surely needs it!

Recently one of my favorite “Psychic Counselors”, Paxton Robey, posted the following thought:

Which is all about non-action that the core of my values holds so true and yet lo these many years after first hearing this concept, I still seem to forget. In other words, I cannot be reminded too many times that the best thing that I can do is not to think and obsess but to breathe and believe.

Enter in the walking paradox that I am.  Last night we watched the 60-minutes episode interviewing Craig Keilburger, who at age 12 set out to change the world and by gum, here it is 17 years later and his mission, “Children Helping Children”  has over 2 million volunteers.  And my mind says, “so what would have happened if Craig had just breathed and let things fall into place?”

My higher self reminds me that although as a human being on this planet now, I experience life in dualities as either or, right or wrong, good or bad, etc. that actually there are usually more than three options (think about the string theory concept). Furthermore, from the interview it did not seem like Craig had gotten lost in obsession but rather had stepped into the flow of something bigger than himself and stepped out in faith.  Somehow, perhaps Craig was able to let go and breathe, have faith and step into action which may be one of the reasons so many kids have been attracted to his non-profit.  They sensed that something bigger than Craig or themselves was at the helm.  Hmmmm. How many times have we heard about keeping a child-like attitude about the world?

Somewhere recently (and I have no idea where I read this or I would acknowledge them), I read that there is an actual physical phenomena for most people when we study math. Especially if the math is the harder more theoretical kind such as Algebra, Calculus, and on.  Evidently, learning new intricate math concepts can be painful for our brains and is often experienced as headaches.  Now studying intricate math concepts is a great thing to do. Personally, I believe EVERYTHING can be explained mathematically; however, I have never been very good at higher math.  But I wonder if it would be helpful for us to remember which side of our brain is hurting and what that feels like so that when we are obsessing and thinking about something (or someone) ad nauseum we can remember that we’re not solving an intricate math theorem.  We are trying to take control of a situation that we do not have control over and the best course of action is to let go and breathe.

Remember when you were a child finding something that could grab your attention for hours?   That is what being in the flow feels like.  Very simple, but not easy to practice in our complex world.

I bet what I’m trying to say here could be written into a mathematical equation, that when resolved would make you feel very relieved…..but unless your a math whiz, I’ll tell you the shortcut to the results:  Let go and breathe. And then follow your breath.

If you’ll watch at least two episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s new television show, Newsroom, I am confident that you will remember how to feel inspired and hopefully, will remember what we humans are capable of being (in a good way).

On the second page of the Austin Daily Planet is a photo comparing the mass of ice in the Arctic in 1979 to the shrinking mass in 2012.  The blurb below predicts unpredictable weather caused by the shrinking mass of ice causing the temps to raise around the world.

I remember several years ago hearing Deepak Chopra speaking in front of the Austin Women in Technology group about global warming and the hole in the ozone.  What he said that made an impact on me then and still lingers in my memories today is that we (humans) have scientists and technology available today (that must have been back in 2006) that could heal and fix the hole in the ozone layer, cure major diseases, etc.   I believe this is so.  At least for the half century I’ve been a visitor to this planet, I’ve certainly come across some amazingly capable people who are doing incredible things for our planet that doesn’t always make it up to the air of the popular media.  This requires some digging into the matrix.

I hope at some point each of us will stop and take stalk of who we are and about the world around us and be able to choose where we will put our thoughts and energies.  Do we really care so much about what housewives are doing to themselves in various genres on the boob tube?  I feel sorry for the people who were born years after me who often don’t know what “normal” weather is like where they live.  But I do believe they could. We humans can create amazing results when we put our minds and our hearts to it.

Where will you focus your thoughts today?

Doesn’t “Piece de resistance” conjure up images of a fancy Frenchman talking passionately using his hands to talk and raising his right hand as if conducting a symphony to say “piece de resistance”  va! va!! va!!! vaaaaa!!!!

For those so interested Piece de resistance : is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as “piece of (or for) resistance,” referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight. It can be thought of as the portion of a creation which defies (i.e. “resists”) orthodox or common conventions and practices, thereby making the whole of the creation unique and special. The phrase gives the sense that the referred-to element is the most outstanding, notable, or defining of the collection.

But really the kind of resistance I felt inspired to write about tonight is not this kind it’s the other kind.  The “War of Art” kind.  In the beginning of Steven Pressfield’s book there is one page that has smudge marks from me returning to it again and again when I find myself ONCE AGAIN resisting a writing project. That page says this:

“Look in your own heart.  Unless I’m crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone.  You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow.  You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist.  At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture.  Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I’ll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.”

Ooooh I so relate to this page. Not that I’m Hitler, but I have been known to accomplish great projects during avoidance.  Steven Pressfield so understands what it is like to not do the work that is calling from our soul.  I’ve been resisting getting going on my writing project lately.  It is my eBook about Energy Surfing which will entail digging into past communications and creating a structure to put them in and then write around and about them.  In the meantime, a very good friend of mine gave me a book that a good friend of hers (Donna Johnson) wrote called, “The Holy Ghost Girl” which is a memoir about Donna growing up in a tent revival family.  I loved the book and have it on my “keeper” book shelf, but boy did I allow it to add ammunition to my inner critic for resisting beginning my own book.

I won’t even let the tension of resistance enter into trying to define why I’m not creating a structure for my eBook right this minute because at least I’m writing about it now.  I’ve put off writing for 48 hours which I knew was going to get me into trouble and keep me from writing anything, much less moving forward on my eBook project.  What I will do tomorrow is keep “the War of Art” out on my desk as a talisman to remind me of what I am dealing with inside.  And perhaps I will begin ever so slowly putting together the remnants of communications and words even though I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.   At least I will have you, my reader friends, as witnesses to this process because I know that at least of a few of you have the same word-calling as I do.

Fight on my friends so that what we resist today will become our “Piece de la resistance” tomorrow!

What is your first step as you face the winds of doubt?

Right away I have to admit to you that I am not an artist….at least in the traditional sense.  I mean, I can sketch trees pretty nicely and grasses.  I can even come up with some interesting water color composites but I wouldn’t try to pass myself off as a good sketcher or painter.  And don’t even get me started on things that I am unable to make by hand (although I can still put together a little board with nails and thread strings through to make a dang good bookmark or pot holder!). Even with all of these things that a traditional kind of artist can do very well that I can’t do, I still know when I see something that is beautiful, well-made and has that extra oomph to it and I bet you do as well.

I love watching Project Runway because of the gorgeous and unusual clothes the designers make.  I can barely sew on a button much less hem long pants but I can really appreciate a beautifully designed and well-made outfit.  I’m amazed at the ideas that the designers come up with and make in so little time.  Reminds me of a student in my boarding school who was a year behind me with such a gift for designing and sewing clothes.  For one of our balls, she made the most extraordinary dress.  It’s so many years later I can barely remember the gown I wore, but I can absolutely remember the gown she made because it was unique and it was stunning. Of all the “pictures” in my mind’s records that could have been held on to her dress is permanently ensconced in the archives.

The point of all this is to say if you’re an artist, fantastic, you’re already aware of how to look at everyday things differently.  But if you’re not an “artist”, like me, you can still have an artist’s eye.  I suppose back when our bodies and minds were being put together we somehow did not come with that piece that helps our brains and bodies carry out what we “see”.  Still,  you can use your gift of artist’s site to see the world differently.

Take today for instance.  I’m driving down the highway after class at lunch time so everyone else on the highway seemed to be hungry and agitated or in a rush to get to their next meeting plus on top of that a good portion of the stretch I drive has been in various stages of construction for what seems like f o r e v e r!   I could have gotten myself into a state of impatience and frustration by numb nut drivers, admittedly I was almost there, until I happened to catch a beautiful scene out of the corner of my eye. A flock of pigeons was doing that unison flying thing that they sometimes do weaving  back and forth, in and out of each others’ paths right above a La Quinta Hotel where the sunlight just happened to ricochet off as it peaked in and out of the clouds.  There was such harmony in the colors (gold of the hotel, gold of the sun, gray of the sky, silver and black of the birds) as well as  movement (strong solid object of the hotel, puffy Cumulus clouds, intricate flock pattern of the birds in flight).  It’d probably have made a magnificent short video.

As a result of that one brief moment that I saw  through  an artist’s eye, I forgot to be upset with the guy in front of me driving 55 mph in the fast lane.  Instead,  I spent most of my way home replaying what I had just seen with my mind’s eye and hoping to catch something else equally as beautiful and unexpected.

It really is how we look at things isn’t it?  Do you ever have these experiences of catching the wonder of life?  And more than that, the unexpected beauty?  I suppose many of  us, especially Americans, have been steeped in looking at the negative aspects of our world so that we can be aware in order to keep ourselves safe, that we don’t spend a whole lot of time considering that instead we could look for the beauty that’s happening around us all the time.

Love the discussion that has begun on this blog site and encourage you to jump in with your experience and comments! The water is warm!

Starstruck Milkyway - West Texas

I’m talking literally!  Here’s just a snippet of some of the words that I look at everyday when I sit down to blog:

1.  Permission to Enjoy The Traffic Around You For you Are There For A Reason.

2. I begin now, today, to open myself to ever increasing prosperity.

3. Each year the woman gathered to renew their spirits, nourish their souls & earn their laugh lines.

4. Angels are just Cairns with wings.

5. “Even or odd, thou shalt win the wager.” The friends of God shall win and profit under all conditions and shall attain true wealth. In fire they remain cold, and from water they emerge dry. Their affairs are at a variance with the affairs of men.  Gain is their lot, whatever the deal. To testifieth every wise one with a discouraging eye, and every fair minded one with a hearing ear. — Baha U llah

6. Nurture Yourself.

7. Begin

8. I’d rather be dumped by a horse than a man!

9. princesses rule

10. This way to a brand new experience

11.  May you be gentle with yourself and others. May you trust the goodness of life. May you appreciate the wonder that you are, May you discover your own special abilities and contribute them toward a better world. May you believe.

12. Surrender to God

13. You are the force that plays with your mind and uses your body as its favorite toy to play and have fun with. That is the reason you are here to play and have fun. You are born with the right to be happy and enjoy life. You are not here to suffer.

14.  My greatest gift to give is my happiness.

15. I now live in limitless love, light and joy. All is well in my world.

16. “It’s kind of funny, really, all these years, everybody has been so busy trying to figure out what life is all about, and all the while, it was just something for us to enjoy.” – Fannie Flagg

17.  The Celestine Prophecy Insights (9 of them but 8 usually pokes out at me first)…8 is “When enough of us enter this evolutionary flow, always giving energy to the higher-self of everyone we meet, we will build a new culture where our bodies evolve to ever higher levels of energy and perception.”

And that’s not counting my all the books I look up to on my book shelves, the degrees and certifications on the wall and a very special poem that a friend wrote for me when I left C&T Consulting  I figure if my brain is going to parrot back to me what I fill it with during the day and if I’m going to spend a good part of my day sitting here writing to you, then might as well surround myself with words that feeds my soul!

How do you surround yourself with words?

“We’re all in hiding” said my friend Kat this morning when we were talking about retreats and creativity.  We were talking about retreats that we’re leading (hers this weekend and mine in December) that have to do with creativity and then, of course, our conversation dipped and segued into what being creative means.  Because Kat’s retreat is being held at a Presbyterian Church, there are some religious teachings that will be interspersed throughout it.  One of the stories she shared with me comes from the Book of Genesis about Adam and Eve and how after they took the bite out of the apple (and became conscious) they hid and God looked for them saying, “come out, come out wherever you are”.

Now what are the odds that particular story would come to me from two totally different directions (see my post from last week that refered to Ryan Torok’s blog about the same lesson)?! This is when I tend to believe “the Universe” is really listening to me and that I am being “talked” to and it is me that needs to do the listening now.  As this story of hiding pertains to creativity  it is germane to how I’ve felt about my own creativity.  For years, I felt like the black sheep of the family, the outcast, the “different” one (and I was in many ways let me tell you!?) and I was always drawn to very creative people from musicians to writers to artists yet I never felt like I was creative because my ruler stopped at my ability to create things with my hands or at least play a musical instrument (which I cannot do).  Meanwhile, I’ve created all kinds of scenarios of stories in my head for years, which many called daydreaming, and defined that as yet another reason that I was inept at life—a prisoner within the confines of my mind.

Until I began to write.  And when I wrote, I felt that creative part of me engage in an outlet that I saw shine forth on the faces of my musician friends when they would hit the sweet spot of their song and on my artist friends after many false starts when they’d come up with THE picture that was inside of them.   But even with all of this confirmation if the least little bit of attention came to me for my writing or speaking, I would hide away.  I didn’t understand or know how to handle the attention that I thought I wanted so badly.

Today, it is much easier to be who I am with my writing and public speaking and allow people who enjoy my writing and/or speaking to be who they are with how they let me know.  I get it now that it is not about me, but about them.  And I don’t need attention for my writing now (although I love it when people get it and love it!!) because I write because I have to write now.  It’s in my DNA (I bet there’s all kinds of little scrolls rolled up in there) and the synapses have been connected from that part of my brain through to my fingertips to express the ideas that only the clouds knew for many years.

Come out, come out wherever you are and let your creativity free!  It’s a beautiful thing to give wing to that song inside of our hearts that is just waiting for our own unique expression.  How will you let yours out today?

If you’re reading this and you’re younger than 50, you may want to review in your mind what you understand getting older is all about and discard those beliefs that leave you feeling negative about life.  Just get rid of those now to make room for new, better beliefs that help you feel even better about yourself than you already plan to feel.  For those beliefs that you just feel “eh” about, put them into a safe cubby hole in your head labeled “for further investigation” that you can take out to ponder every now and again when the time is right for you to decide what is a “keeper” and what can be let go.

Getting older is a total trip.  There really isn’t a good way to explain it to anyone who isn’t the age you are when you’re explaining what it’s like to be older except for those people who are your age.  I mean, when I think about the times my Mom and Dad used to tell me that even though there were xx age, they felt like they were 12 or 16,  I just kind of smiled at them and didn’t really get what they were saying at all.  Today at 53, I totally grok what they were saying.  I’m very grateful that I live in a day and age where I can get away with hopping up on to a brick wall and balance-walking to the end of it if I feel so inspired.  Partly because I can physically do it and mostly because I so don’t care what anyone’s opinion is of me doing it.  It’s great to be free from worrying about what other people think of me…..most of the time.

It’s a startling occurrence when our bodies first begin to show signs of aging, such as the tell tale signs on our faces.  I’ll never forget the first time I was flying down the highway in my red convertible at the age of 42 and just happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the side mirror.   It was pretty sobering when I caught the image of a  middle-aged woman instead of the young 20 something girl that I felt like in my heart and soul.    My husband kids me all the time for being so vain about my wrinkles—and he’s probably right—but we woman have been steeped in worrying about how we look for so many years, it’s hard to break the habit.  Not that it is wrong to want to look attractive; however, many of my male friends around the same age are certainly not as focused on their looks as I am on mine.  At least those guy friends of mine who are self-realized and have done a lot of working on their psyches.

Here’s another great thing about getting older that I don’t remember learning about when I was younger and that is how much fun it is to realize that you know more than you may have thought you knew.  For instance, I’m back in school and who knew that I would be one of the, if not THE, biggest blabber mouth in political science class? Certainly not me.  Especially when we’re covering dry subjects like taxes and the economy.  It’s also nice to know so much more about broadcast communication then I had any idea I knew and to have a real connection with the professor because we’re about the same age.  In fact, I’m going to meet with him next week to talk with him about changing my major from the very boring Bachelor of Arts and Sciences track (cuz that’s what they recommend returning non-traditional students to take) to Mass Communications.  I mean, I don’t have any grandiose vision that I am going to  the next Katie Couric by the time I graduate, but life is just way too short  to be taking classes that you don’t relish. Thank you Mom, thank you Kat.

I hope that if you are older that you realize that you can reset whatever negative thoughts or beliefs you’re carrying around about being older. They probably are really not true or they could use a real good editing job.  And if you’re younger and reading this, well hallelujah enjoy your life as it unfolds! It only gets better, really it does.

Remember, we humans are just 80% bags of water.  Might as well swim through life while we can and enjoy the journey along the way!