Okay, first of all a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who donated the past few days. I am tremendously grateful to each and every one of you and I’d like you to know that yes, your gift makes a big difference. Not only that, it’s been really cool to hear some of the stories that have come forth after donating. For example, one reader/friend donated to me and also wanted to get a new pair of dance shoes. She then shared with me that the very next day, her dance teacher flat out gave her exactly the dance shoes she wanted and wouldn’t let her pay for them. Get this… the cost of the dance shoes was exactly the amount she’d donated! It’s really cool to see this flow of giving and receiving, how it works in both directions, and it’s on this note that I’d like to begin this post.

It seems like a big part of “being in the flow” is not only being open to receiving abundant blessings from the universe, from other people, and from every which way, but also being open to give what you have to offer. It’s important for both ends of the giving/receiving pipe be open for the best experience of flow. Now by giving, this doesn’t necessarily imply giving physical stuff like money or your possessions, although that’s certainly just as much a part of it as anything else. Less tangible things like a helping hand, a kind smile, an encouraging word, or even your time… these things can all be HUGE gifts… It seems like the greatest gift you can give is the gift of yourself in whatever form you show up. I don’t mean to make this sound like “I’m all that” or “I’m God’s gift to humanity” in an egotistical sense or any of that nonsense, but it seems like when you just naturally show up and shine your light, that seems to impact people more than anything you could possibly do by trying to give for whatever reason. It’s pretty surprising to me still to see over and over that life, for whatever reason, simply works best when I just give up trying to manifest this or make that happen or get this person to respond that way or any of that effort-based stuff… When I say “enough already” and just be myself and enjoy and appreciate what I already DO have, life is FAR more enjoyable, new things and people show up much more easily, and everything just works BETTER.

Since I’m enjoying just being myself more and more these days as opposed to trying to deliberately play the role of teacher or student as if this was all so serious :lol , let’s have a little fun here. Let’s tell a little story today… and since we’re playing like children, let’s make this story like a picture book. How ’bout that?

Off to the Mountains!

Okay, so the weather forecast this week called for sunny and clear skies up in the mountains, so I headed to the local REI to talk to people about places to go camping. Sure enough, I stumbled right into a couple talking to a guy about this exact thing, so I mozied right on in to the conversation. Synchronicity, you rock! The guy suggested two different places, one of which intuitively lit up more for me than the other. After picking up a detailed map of the area, I hopped into the car and started driving. The trail I was going to visit was actually a snowshoe trail and I don’t own a pair of showshoes yet, but the intuition said go anyways so off I went regardless!

There’s a road that heads up into the mountains through a canyon from Boulder to Nederland. You gain about 3,000 feet of elevation here. At the bottom of the canyon there was a guy thumbing it so I pulled over and picked him up. Turns out he was a really cool guy, lived in Georgia as well, and even knew my friend who lives up in Ned. Small world!! Apparently it’s really common to hitch between Ned and Boulder. He told me that the nickname for that road was the hippy elevator and I had a good laugh about it… At one point during the drive I happened to glance over and notice the two cup holders in my car, only one of which had a bottle of water, the one I drink from when driving. I naturally asked if he wanted one and he eagerly accepted, saying that he just had some cocktails with his friends and could use some water. I reached back behind my seat and pulled out a fresh bottle for him. With this experience I really took note of how easily the water I had available blended with his desire for water, like two pieces of the puzzle. The link between the two was a very natural flow that really didn’t take much conscious thought. It’s as if I was guided to look in a certain place which triggered an idea within me.

Questionless Intuition

This is a big part of how I am now transitioning to experiencing intuition.

You see, it used to be that I’d have a few options in front of me and I’d stop and picture myself doing one of the options. Usually one of them would feel more light, expansive, spacious, joyous, exciting, free, light-hearted, easy, and fun. That sense of openness would be my answer. Yet doing it this way, I’d have to stop and deliberately ask and try out a few things, waiting to get that feeling of expansiveness before continuing.

After a while, you start to develop the ability to make that feeling of expansiveness your home. It’s not just your answer to questions, but because a feeling-based way of life. When you start to spend more and more time in this empty expansiveness, you find that there’s a natural arising of things to do, words to speak, places to go, and so on. It’s not just about big things like “Should I move here,” but it also helps guide conversations and the next topic to bring up as we speak. Certain topics have a sort of “vibrational signature” of expansiveness, openness, and light. I like to allow conversations to flow by maintaining that feeling first and foremost and bringing up words and ideas that also “fit” with this feeling.

Sometimes there are things I could say that feel like closure, judgment, and egotism. I’ve noticed that every time I bring up those words or ideas, conversations hit a snag. People don’t react as well. I don’t feel as good. It’s like anything that doesn’t match that feeling of openness and expansiveness doesn’t fit as part of the flow.

And so instead of stopping the flow to ask the intuition ahead of time if this or that is better, it becomes more of a natural continuous flow that you fall into, and you allow every action, word, and movement to be a natural expression of that expansiveness. Instead of a clear “this way” or “that way” that practically beats you over the head with an answer, it starts to become far more subtle so you really have to tune in and pay intention.

That feeling you get from your intuition becomes more than just an answer. It becomes a way of life…

Hiking Out Into the Woods

and so it is on that note that I headed out into the woods. Putting on my snow gear, I headed out into the woods to find a place to set up camp. One of the first potential camp sites I came to was this big clearing which looked to be like a meadow. I considered setting up my tent here, but got a feeling that I should keep walking. It wasn’t until afterwards that I remembered from the map that that wasn’t a meadow, but a frozen lake! Yikes.. that wouldn’t be a comfortable feeling to sleep on top of that…

Continuing to walk along the trail, I spotted this little area next to the trail that offered a perfect place to throw up a tent. It was surrounded by trees which offered a natural windbreak and was still right next to the trail which made for easy access.

That first day I simply sat back and relaxed. In the mountains. Finally…

Above is an afternoon shot. If you look at my boot, you’ll notice how the sun shines in from the side, from the southwest. In the mornings, it would rise from the southeast, right in the dead center of this shot. It would make for a brilliant morning…

One amazing thing about this area is the sound… Atop the spectacular limitless silence you have the wind as it blows across from peak to peak, rustling my tent as it blows by, the very occasional hikers (and dogs) that walk by, the rustling of my gear as I move around, the occasional plane that flies overhead, and the little birds that like to come by. Not much else…

I loved these little snow birds that were super friendly and curious. They’ll fly on over and land on a branch right over my tent or even come down and hop along the snow right next to my tent. I loved the little footprints they’d leave… You know how humans walk one foot in front of the other, leaving a trail of left, right, left, right? Well these little guys hop with both feet together so their tracks are a series of parallel lines that jump across the snow. Here’s one of the birds as he hopped right up to my tent and shared my view with me.

What Happens When You Don’t Get A Response From Your Intuition?

A little backstory about how I wound up coming to Colorado in the first place…

I’d been wanting to go set out and move somewhere more outdoorsy and spiritually open for a while now. Years even. The thing is I’d been too flat out terrified of doing so. Scared of life, basically.

Eventually I worked out the courage to go for it and started considering places to go: California, New Zealand, Colorado, etc. The synchronicities started popping up everywhere… Colorado. Colorado. Colorado. A friend of mine suggested I come on out to Boulder. Of course I’d still have the option to go somewhere else if I didn’t like it, but at least I’d be taking that first step. It sounded like fun, but for some reason I met a lot of resistance to the idea. A lot… I’d really like to do something like this, but could I really do it??

Since I’d been developing my intuitive capacity, I decided that I’d ask it whether or not now was the right time to go, and I’d go with what it said either way. The thing is, I COULDN’T get an answer from it no matter what I tried. How frustrating! It wasn’t fun feeling so indecisive, especially when another person’s plans depend upon your decision…

That whole thing fell through. It wasn’t until later that another friend suggested I check out Telluride, a small skiing town in southwest, CO. That sounded superexciting and when I checked it out, it felt like all systems go! Alright! Got a target! As I started making my plans, selling off the things I didn’t need, my excitement slowly started to fade from Telluride for some reason and Boulder started lighting back up for me. Fine! Alright! You’ve got my attention now. I now see that Telluride was simply being used as bait to get me to MOVE in that general direction. Once I did, it was easy enough to change to Boulder instead.

Here’s a map pointing out the two cities:

I bring up this story because on the second day of my trip out here to the mountains, I was wondering what I should do that morning after waking up. Should I get up and go hike out, hopefully not encountering deep snow along the way? Should I spend time meditating? What would be best for me to do right now? Again, no answer from the intuition…

As I sat in my tent, a few sets of snowshoers hiked past my tent along the trail. Most of the groups were your typical looking hikers, just kinda in zombie-mode as they walked through the woods. Then these two women walked by, both utterly radiant and beaming with joy. One was practically bouncing along the trail while the other looked over at my tent, smiled, and simply said hello. There’s my answer. I quickly put my shoes, grabbed my pack, and hit the trail.

Back In The Flow…

Again, this was another example of not needing to ask and get an answer, but simply relax and allow life to show me the flow in its own perfect time. I met up with these two women along a frozen lake at the end of the trail and sat down with them while we all had lunch together. Turns out that like most people I’d met here in Boulder, they were amazing! It’s soooo common here to be able to approach most anyone and be dive right into a conversation about energy, living in the moment, consciousness, spiritual awareness, following your joy, intuition, and so on. Back in Georgia people like this certainly existed, but it seemed to be more in small pockets within a larger bubble of Christianity. Here finding people who are more open-minded is basically the norm! It’s not that you have to deliberately talk about spirituality per se. You just be yourself, talk about how you live your life, ask them how they live theirs, talk about what you enjoy, ask them what they enjoy, and just talk about whatever comes up in the moment… Remember what I mentioned earlier about being in that feeling place of expansiveness and talking about whatever seems to naturally come from that space?

The three of us had an amazing time together and I really enjoyed their company… It’s so much easier to find people I click with out here.

Another great thing I love is how free and playful people can be out here. It’s so common to see dirt-covered cars out here. You can tell they’ve been out playing! The other day I was out hiking closer to Boulder with a meetup group. We were walking through a muddy patch and looking down at our footing to make sure every foot was placed in a good spot when I heard the familiar sucking sound of someone making impact in the mud. I look up to see this one woman laughing, having landed butt-first right in the mud, just covered in a splattering of brown goop. Since she was down, she played around in the mud a bit and made sure to get some pictures before finally getting up and out of the mud. People aren’t afraid to get dirty here…

On that note, here I am, sitting in a coffee shop back in Boulder, smelling like, well… smelling like you’d expect a person to smell after a few days of being out in the woods.

It was a wonderful drive down out of the mountains… after 3 days and 2 nights. The roads were nice and clear and the drive was so scenic and enjoyable…

It’s great to be down at a lower elevation. It was a bit tough to breathe at times up at 10,000 feet, especially the very first day. Coming back down nearly a mile in elevation it’s a bit different. It’s kinda like when you fast for a few days and then try eating again. Even though you haven’t eaten for days, you can’t eat a normal sized meal. It’s almost like your stomach shrunk. Coming back down from 10,000 feet, I could take a deep breath but it’d be slightly painful with my lungs expanding a bit more than they were used to. Fortunately it doesn’t take very long to acclimate.

Giving and Receiving

It was a really cool couple of days… I got to experience receiving from a lot of people and giving to a lot of people, giving out rides to those who needed them, giving time and sharing joy with those around me, giving food to the homeless on the side of the road, receiving food and snacks from others… There definitely seems to be a sense of liberated and open balance when you’re in the flow. When you need something and ask, it is given. When you have something which someone else needs, it feels great to give. You get to enjoy the way it feels to give and experience what it’s like to have enough NOW.

Also, there’s DEFINITELY a difference between giving from a place of abundance and having more than enough versus giving and feeling like you have less in the end but you do it anyways because it’s the “compassionate” or “spiritual” or “loving” thing to do. It seems like when you give from a place of lack, you experience yourself having less at the cost of the other having more. Win/lose. That’s a good start and it’s well-intentioned, but there is something better. When you give from the feeling place of having enough, the other experiences having more and you (seeing yourself as a Source with yet even more to give) experience having more as well. It winds up being win/win. Again, the key is to come from a feeling place of having enough. It’s not about what external circumstances are showing you. It’s about what feeling place you come from. That’s the key here.

So getting yourself into a place of abundance, well-being, and having enough, that seems to be super-important when it comes to giving. Giving seems to be most enjoyable and most beneficial to everyone when people choose to be in a place of abundance and are open to both giving and receiving. Life flows both ways. In truth, there’s really only one flow happening here, and we’re all open vessels allowing (or resisting) the flow, but never controlling.

A Final Note: Gratitude

Gratitude… gratitude is awesome. Being thankful for what you do have… it’s like this one simple state of being opens you up to the flow, thereby opening yourself up to receiving even more and being able to give even more. It’s almost like gratitude and appreciation (and I’ve never heard anyone say this this way… it’s just coming to me now) opens up a valve for the flow. Saying it now and understanding the LoA, it makes a lot of sense. Abraham calls it “being in the vortex” and this is basically the same thing. This is that.

So “be happy for what you have”… It’s not something your parents tell you when you used to whine about what you wanted and they wanted you to quit whining… Okay, so it may be a little bit of that too but there is a deep wisdom in that statement. “Be happy for what you have.” Really. It’ll transform your life…

and last but not least, let’s play a game called “Spot the Picnic Table!”

There are times when energetically you may feel drained, exhausted, empty, and essentially unable to give. I don’t mean being empty in the sense of recognizing there is no self, but empty as in feeling spiritually fatigued.

I know I am going through such a period now. I have really nothing to offer you guys. I have basically nothing to teach or give. I myself am running on empty and there is no overflow from which to offer my gifts. I even feel somewhat cut off from my inner source of wisdom so even if I wanted to say something wise, it feels as though I am unable to access that source of wisdom. And so it is.

Interestingly enough, it seems as though this is a common theme happening among many lightworkers right now. Albert of UrbanMonk.net, for example, recently posted a status update that is along these same lines.

Mary, a friend of mine, recently introduced me to Karen Bishop of Emerging Earth Angels. Karen is an intuitive who, from what I understand according to her website, has the ability to telepathically travel into higher dimensions and see what is happening overall with the ascension process of mankind, this whole mass awakening that is occurring on this planet at this time. Pretty cool, eh?

In any event, in her most recent update on August 22, 2009, she talks about the shifting of lightworkers’ roles on this planet, the energetic shifts we experience associated with these changes, changes in our finances, and so on. I’d definitely recommend reading her article if you’re curious as it helps put our energetic fluctuations within a larger context, giving us some validation that no nothing’s going wrong and no there’s nothing broken that needs to be fixed. These are the natural ebbs and flows of life.

As for me, I’m spending a lot of time just being quiet. Not really hanging out with people. Even the meetings I do schedule *just so happen to* (conveniently enough) wind up falling through. Over and over again. You’ll notice the decreased frequency in posts that are showing up here recently.

We could say that whatever you want for yourself give to another. Since we are all one, by virtue of creating it for someone else, you open yourself up to the flow of that energy within yourself. You are essentially being the source. That’s all well and good, but right now I prefer to simply just be still and relaxed, peaceful and at rest. Feels like, to some degree, a time to return to the source within.

What’s up with you guys? Is anyone experiencing anything similar?

When we talk about the idea of “living in the moment,” so often the emphasis is on being in the moment. On being present in the now. How ’bout the other half of that statement? LIVING in the moment. Fully. PASSIONATELY!

I go out hiking 1-2 times a week minimum these days. Water hikes are my favorite. Where I went today, at the top of the waterfalls there was this rope swing. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to ride one of those! For this one you climb up a tree, swing from a branch, and get launched towards the water at least a good 15 feet up above the surface. Basically, AWESOME. Did I do it?

YOU BET I DID! Over and over and over again!

To be honest, I’m getting tired of trying to be spiritual all the time and living up to some ideal called loving, non-attached, peaceful, open to what is, or whatever the heck we’re “supposed” to be when we’ve gone beyond our ego. If whatever this is is our natural state, why the heck am I trying so hard to accomplish it!? Seriously!

The transition I’m making now is to really EXPERIENCE life. FEEL it. Let it MOVE me.

Emotions

If you’re happy, be ecstatic! Why the heck would you half-ass it? Really.. WHY?

If you’re upset, be angry! Let the anger show you what you’re not okay with, what really IS NOT YOU, what you tend to overlook when things feel honky dory. In the forums I was recently doing just that, and BOY was it helpful for me to get clear on where I’m out of integrity.

If you’re feeling emotional, cry! As a guy, it feels GOOD to cry! I tear up at movies now which I haven’t done for YEARS and it makes for such a RICHER experience of life. I’ve been missing this aspect of emotional expression for far too long…

If you want to judge, judge the heck out of people, Byron Katie style. If you KNOW that everything you’re judging about others is really something about YOU, the more you can judge others and then consciously look at how YOU are not at peace with those energies. Then everyone who pisses you off and gets under your skin suddenly becomes your greatest teachers! Thank God for idiots, assholes, and retards!

If you want to be peaceful, allow yourself to be peaceful. Nothing outside of you has to change. You can just be. at peace. Set everything down and meditate quietly or pick up whatever you want and bring peaceful energy into that. Whatever. Just be the presence of peace in whatever you do.

If you’re feeling insecure in public, allow yourself to be the most insecure person ever. Maybe it’s reverse psychology or something, but when you allow your ego to be itself without resisting it, somehow its crap just dissolves right then and there before your very eyes and you naturally wind up at rest again.

Holding Back, Letting Go

I could get into how society doesn’t expect us to embrace ourselves fully. “How are you? Fine.” or “Don’t cry! Suck it up and don’t do whine around me. Be a big boy or girl!” I could talk about the tendency to not be too happy in case it makes other people uncomfortable with their own crap. But it’s not about that. It’s about ME taking FULL responsibility for who I choose to be.

And on one level, this character is not really who I am in my very essence. “Ariel, you used the word me. But, but, there is no me there! AHHHH!” I know that. Blah blah blah. Don’t miss what’s being said because it conflicts with some spiritual idea. I’m talking about how deeply is life LIVING itself in this moment? How freely is your energy flowing without self-imposed limitations?

Is this the ideal way of living when we’re super enlightened and walking on water? I don’t really care. This is how this energy wants to experience itself now and by golly it feels great to let go of yet another layer of bullshit and limitation.

Am I the most passionate person on the planet now? I don’t care! Doesn’t matter one way or another. I’m just experiencing whatever life has to offer right here, right now.

Am I fully open? I’ve noticed more and more areas in life that I still have yet to open up to and embrace, definitely, but it’s not about the past. It’s about NOW. Is there openness to life IN THIS MOMENT?

Is the way I’m living right now what I’m recommending to you? Nope. You do what you want. It’s your life and you are wherever you are on your path. This is simply where I’m at now.

Could my perspective change in the next moment? Sure!

Could I discover one day in the future that we’re meant to be totally zombied out, experiencing no extremes in emotion whatsoever, positive or negative? Sure! I’m totally open to experiencing life in new ways, discarding my old truths, and discovering something deeper. There’s no attachment to what I’m experiencing now or how it’s being experienced. It’s simply another way.

I don’t care about what’s to come in the future. Right NOW it’s about NOW. Nothing to accomplish or realize. Nothing to become, including enlightened! Just experiencing life NOW. It’s THAT SIMPLE.

LIVING NOW.

Thank you and goodnight.

Let’s talk about something awesome.

Feeling amazing! Raising your vibes! Improving your mood! Raising your level of consciousness!

I encourage you to try out the ones which excite you the most, try them out and let your experience guide you towards which methods are most conducive to your own joy and happiness.

1) Love

• Place your hands on your heart and really love yourself
• Name 10 things you love about yourself
• Tell your friends and family you love them, both through your words and your actions
• If you have a pet, hold them, pet them, stroke them, enjoy them
• With your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend, spend time in gentle embrace

2) Appreciation

• Thank yourself for being exactly who you are
• Write out a page-long list of things you’re grateful for
• Feel appreciation for life exactly as it is now
• Thank the Universe for supporting you in all that you do
• Feel grateful for having the opportunity to create what you want
• Feel appreciation towards everything you desire

3) Do something you enjoy

• Find something you really enjoy doing and do it, even if it’s something small
• Treat yourself to something special
• Do something you’ve always wanted to do
• Find an activity that feels very ‘you’ and do it
• Perform a random act of kindness to a complete stranger
• If you enjoy creating, enter a state of flow and allow creation to flow through you

4) Meditate

• Spend time meditating in silence
• Find the peaceful stillness within
• Allow the world to be as it is while you dedicate this moment to meditation
• Feel the inner peace that is always present at your core

5) Breathe deeply

• Breathe deeply, fully into your belly
• Breathe slowly
• Notice the breath going in and out of your body
• Breathing deeply will make it literally impossible to be anxious

6) Center yourself

• Feel present in this moment
• Feel the inside of your body
• Meditation and deep breathing are also forms of centering yourself
• Focus yourself into the Now without resisting the mind in any way
• Notice what’s being registered by all 5 senses

7) Spend time in silence

• Go for a walk in the woods, or barefoot out in nature
• Gaze at a flower
• Spend some quality time with yourself, just yourself
• Pay attention to the silence from which all sound arises and falls back into

8) Watch something funny

• Put on a funny movie and spend time laughing and enjoying yourself
• Watch some funny videos online
• Share jokes with your friends

9) Smile

• Smile radiantly, genuinely, joyfully
• Feel the smile overflowing and flooding your whole body
• Feel all the cells in your body smiling
• Put a smile inside your heart

10) Say YES to what is

• Look around the room and allow everything to be just as it is
• Look at your life and, just for now, allow things to be the way they are
• Say “YES” to yourself while you observe various aspects of your life
• Offer no resistance to anything in life
• Accept yourself and others

11) Listen to good music

• Put on some good music
• Upbeat energetic music is excellent
• Classical music is fantastic too
• Avoid depressing, angry, or violent music

12) Exercise

• Give your body a work-out
• Run, lift weights, bike, swim, play sports, or do whichever activities you prefer
• Get the blood flowing through the body
• Feel the energy pulsating within the body

13) Dance

• Go out to a dance club and have a great time, without worrying what other people think
• Grab a partner and dance freely with him or her
• Put on some music and dance wildly in private, with nobody watching
• Be completely and totally liberated with your dancing

14) Sing

• Put on your favorite song and sing along
• If necessary, close the door and some headphones, but sing sing sing
• Singing in the car is a perfect place to sing. Who cares if you look like a nut?

15) Choose to heal yourself or others

• Allow your body’s natural intelligence to work its magic
• Encourage the desired healing to take place
• Help another on the road to recovery
• Support the feelings of wellness and well-being

16) Pray

• Focus your attention on what you desire to experience in life
• Invite the Divine energy to join you and be a part of your life
• Ask for guidance and wisdom in your life
• Pray for safety and well-being for yourself and your loved ones
• Bless the world
• Get involved in group prayer for even more effectiveness

17) Read quality books

• Immerse yourself in high consciousness writings
• Fill your mind with thoughts and ideas that resonate with your soul
• Learn new skills
• Develop your understandings regarding spirituality

18) Intend to raise your vibration

• Simply set the intention to become happier, more free, higher vibing, and more in alignment
• Your intention is one of the most powerful tools you have

19) You tell me

• This last one I’m leaving up to you
• Share with us your favorite strategies for feeling phenomenal and raising your vibes

When it comes to trusting the universe to guide your life and provide your abundance and prosperity, we could say there are 3 different models.

Let’s pretend you’re a ship in the middle of this river. Man, what a view!

Photo by Kajo Merkert

Let’s examine different ways you could deal with the swift current in this area.

Remain Stationary

• You don’t like the fact that your view keeps changing and you’re continually traveling into unknown territory. The unknown is scary. It makes you incredibly uncomfortable and you’re comfortable being where you are. So you drop anchor and sit still in the middle of the river and watch the sunset.

It takes a lot of energy to hold on tight in this current, but you do it anyways because at least now you have some semblance of “control.” You feel comfortable because you know what to expect. Nothing has to change. You can be right where you are without having to be taken by this river, be taken by a power seemingly beyond your control.

This is commonly expressed as depression, as debilitating fear. Instead of taking a risk and jumping forward, people hold on tight to exactly where they are.

The founder of McDonalds, Ray Croc, had a famous saying:

“When you’re green you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot.”

If you’re not continually growing and expanding, you’re rotting.

The movie The Shawshank Redemption put it well.

“Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”

People will generally clutch onto their anchor until it gets to painful and takes too much energy to keep holding on. The built-in human desire for variety kicks in and they want to experience something new so they’ll raise anchor up and start moving again.

Move, but Control where you go

• Life on this river seems very out of control. I’m not going where I think I want to go. There’s a cool view over there and I want to go see it, but the river is taking me elsewhere. Turn on the engine! We’re heading over there! Fight the river! Go upstream! Yes it takes an inordinate amount of energy to get over there, but I want to do it anyways!

We see this manifested as people working super hard trying to accomplish things in the world. It’s very common in the workplace where people believe that if they work harder and put in more hours, they’ll earn more money and be more successful.

There’s nothing wrong with this understanding. It’s simply not choosing to work in flow with the river. It’s choosing to use all your (finite and limited) physical energy to push and dominate your reality. Life is seen as a struggle, a battle to get ahead.

This is a very tough existence. Nevertheless, life is a great teacher.

There will be many experiences in which a person “gets a feeling” that they should take an action, but chooses not to follow that feeling and continue to butt heads with life, struggling all the way.

Perhaps the next time they get a feeling, they go with it and something magical happens. Things fall into place effortlessly. Solutions work themselves out almost magically. Synchronicity occurs and an amazing number of seeming “coincidences” start to occur that make success and accomplishment much easier.

At first these miracles seem extraordinary and infrequent.

Gradually they become more and more common. The person starts to see the correlation between trusting their own inner guidance and the elegance behind efficient and effective creation.

Trust the River of Life Completely

• Instead of constantly trying to push against the river of life, the ship’s captain lets go altogether and allows the current to take him wherever the river sees fit. Instead of feeling insecure and uncertain like before, there’s an inherent trust in the river and a knowingness that nature is designed to work things out perfectly. Things may not always look ideal on the outside, but in the end, every experience is designed as a necessary part of the final creation regardless of whether it’s labeled as good or bad. There’s trust in the process.

Translating this metaphor to real life, from the outside, it may LOOK as though the person is still making decisions and choosing where to go and what to do.

In reality, however, the person is constantly connected to the Source energy, continuously feeling out life and following the highest feelings, the greatest sense of joy, and the deepest feeling of excitement.

When it comes time to make a decision, there’s an internal knowingness beyond what the mind could ever possibly know as to the “best” direction to head.

External situations start effortlessly falling into place and it’s as if the person is just traveling as the world takes care of problems for them.

You are not in charge. Not you alone. YOU ARE in charge, but not you alone, physical mind. The Oneness of physical mind / higher self, that’s the YOU that’s in charge. Both aspects of your being is the persona.

The higher self has the higher knowingness while the physical self does the acting out.

There is Trust in the process. No the river will NOT always take you where you (the mind) THINK you want to go, along the path you BELIEVE is the ideal path.

It’s like driving a car across the country at night. The headlights only shine maybe 100 feet in front of you, but you trust that as long as you can see the next step, the curve of the road ahead, you can keep following the road and it’ll take you clear across the country. You don’t have to see the entire road at once and know ahead of time every detour and road block. Just the next step and you will have all the knowledge and resources to deal with a situation as it arises, but not before. Besides, the situation may be entirely different by the time you get there anyways.

Know your destination ahead of time, but don’t worry about the path. Your job is to focus on the WHAT, not the HOW.

Everyone is in a river that leads to the same destination, but the river doesn’t take everyone along the same route towards that destination.

The destination is Love, Peace, Freedom, Truth, Joy, God. The words are all synonymous.

The river understands that the ideal pathway is not the same for everyone, so each person takes their own personalized route. What’s best for one person may or may not be appropriate for another. That’s okay.

We’re all headed towards the same destination anyways: Oneness. “Heaven”, if you will.

It’s okay to allow yourself to be guided by a power greater than yourself.

You can trust it. It’s okay. You’re safe.

When you can learn to listen to your own inner guidance and let go of the need to use the mind to figure out the “best” answer or second-guess your inner guidance, life will become much more harmonious. This is the way life was meant to be lived. This is how the river of life is designed.

Allow yourself to let go and trust.

I’m currently sitting here feeling the inside of this body I have radiate with blissful tingling energy. It’s not the same sensation when your feet fall asleep. It’s more similar to the tingling sensation you feel when you’re very present.

For me, this sensation is typically activated when I’m in a state of deep surrender and allowing. It feels like my legs are orgasming as well as the top of my head. As I close my eyes and relax, as I allow the Now moment to be just as it is, the sensation spreads across the face, down the arms, up the spine, and all over the entire body.

It’s an inner feeling of “Yes.”

This is a physical manifestation of surrender. The more I can let go of resistance, the more the energy of Peace automatically fills my body. As I keep allowing it to be just as it is (as opposed to trying to increase it), the more I allow the personal “me” to step out of the way, the more intense the feeling becomes. It’s truly a state of allowing.

Mental chatter such as “Cool! This is awesome! How do I make it stronger?” or “How long with this last?” or “Let me see if I can verbalize a description of this feeling.” actually suppresses the feelings. The quieter the mind becomes, the more intense the feelings of bliss.

Interestingly though, mental chatter seems to suppress this feeling less and less. A few months ago when I first started feeling these feelings, the moment the mind started talking, the blissful sensations ceased.

Now it feels like there’s an undercurrent of peace and freedom on top of which is the occasional verbal thought. The key difference is that there’s full identification with Oneness and no identification with the thoughts in the mind. The silent awareness within is not affected by thought. Since my essence is that which is non-physical, the feelings that arise from essence are also not affected.

I look around the room and see everything at once, nothing in particular. Peripheral vision is starting to expand and supersede central vision. It’s becoming more difficult to separate one individual item from its surroundings. Mentally there’s no labeling going on. It is what it is and I am aware of pure essence.

Walking around shopping malls in these states is, well, it’s beyond amazing. That said, it does make it tough to pick anything out. The way this feels though, it’s not at all a bad thing.

I am the observer observing the observed, yet that which I observe is also aware of me. The observer and the observed merge into One. There is no duality. There is only One Consciousness.

There is no separate this interacting with a separate that. There is only energy flowing.

The whole world feels like a parade of form and nonform dancing, mingling, intertwining. I see the totality, am the totality, am Allness.

As I allow these feelings to be, they increase in intensity to the point where I’m essentially blissing out. The bliss is so strong that it’s practically incapacitating. At least it used to be when I first started experiencing them.

Getting used to these sensations and allowing them to continue, the task then becomes bringing this sensation with me in every moment of every day while actually living life, not just while sitting still, free from distractions.

From this state of Oneness, physical activities such as thinking, speaking, or even moving become almost undesirable. All the stuff that would please the ego become no longer of any value. Things like doing something in order to feel better or relieve boredom become unnecessary.

I will certainly do things, but not because it’s based out of egoic wants such as gaining approval or doing an external activity to change my internal state.

Rather, it feels like external activities become an expression of my internal state. There’s a complete non-attachment to the world of form. This is being in the world, but not of it.

This is what’s referred to as bringing the kingdom of God to earth. It’s a living heaven.

The underlying motivation for all external activity is simply play with form as a part of me. I am all that is and playing with one particular aspect of form is simply bringing awareness into a part of the Allness, my Self.

Aaahhhh, exquisite bliss. This is a feeling beyond description. The physical body is melting away as the higher reality of Oneness becomes my dominant state.

Time is an illusion…

Who am I?

I AM.

I feel the I AM that I am.

Emotion and feeling are often confused as one and the same, thought to be interchangeable. However, the two are actually quite different and serve different purposes.

Emotions are used for creation. (manifestation)
Feelings are used for communication. (intuition)

Emotion:

Emotion is the power which attracts. Your emotions are created by your thoughts.

If I say “Be Happy,” notice you can grin, but it won’t actually make you happy. You need to think of an event which makes you happy and THAT will lead to an emotional response which we call happiness.

Thought itself is pure energy. Every thought you have, have ever had, or ever will have is creative and produces energy. E-motion is energy in motion. It is the by-product of those thoughts.

This energy you create goes out into the universe and because like-attracts-like, you attract more of the same frequency of energy. When enough “clumps” of like energy come together, they form matter.

This is the essence behind the Law of Attraction.

Think happy thoughts, feel happy, and you’ll attract more situations and people who vibrate at a frequency of happiness.

Why the LoA may seem to take so long is that it takes a lot of “energy” to produce a little bit of “matter”. By focusing your thoughts only on what you want, you put a lot more energy out into the universe attracting what you want and thus manifestation happens much more quickly.

So matter literally forms out of pure energy. Once energy becomes matter, it remains matter for a very long time, unless its construction is disrupted by an opposing form of energy. This dissimilar energy actually dismembers the matter, releasing the raw energy from which it was composed.

This is, in simple terms, the theory behind the atomic bomb. It only takes a little bit of matter to make a HUGE explosion. The LoA is this concept in reverse.

So, emotion is energy in motion, the creative driving force of the universe.

Feeling:

Feeling is the language of the soul.

If you want to know your truth about something, quiet your mind and look at how you’re feeling about it. This is what people mean when they say “I had a feeling that was the right answer.” Consciousness communicates through feelings.

The most magnificent feeling available is that which we call Love. When you are in alignment with the universe, you will feel love as a sort of confirmation that you’re going with the flow.

You’ll then have thoughts based upon these feelings which produce emotions such as happiness.

Putting the two together to form a how-to for creation or manifestation:

Whenever you’re wondering what path to take, visualize yourself taking that path. Listen to your intuition and notice which path leads you towards the highest feeling. Follow your intuition and think the thoughts based on this path. The thoughts will produce emotion and the more emotion you have, the faster you’ll attract enough energy to manifest matter in physical form. Take action (inspired action) based upon these thoughts and emotions and you will manifest what it is you visualized down that path.

This is what people mean when they say “Follow your bliss” or “Follow the best feeling thought.” It’s simply a result of understanding how the universe works, how energy works. It’s based on an understanding of how thoughts, feelings, and emotions come together to create whatever it is you desire.

Weren’t we “created in the image and likeness of God?” If so, that means you are God also. You are a creator.

You now know what the tools are. You are God. You realize that you can create too. You know how to start developing these tools. Meditation will help you get out of the mind and into your heart so that you can better listen to your feelings and thus your intuition.

Hearing this stuff, if you feel it resonates with you, it’s because you ALREADY KNOW IT. No one can teach you anything that you don’t already know. They can only help you remember that which you already know. This is why certain things “resonate” with you. It’s because the knowledge is in alignment with your soul and you feel the alignment as resonance, the same way two musical notes resonate together when they’re in harmony.

Trust your feelings.