Monday, March 30, 2015

Step Into the Magic of Your Right Brain



We live in a left brain dominant culture.  The half of our brain that is located in the left side of our heads holds the perception of the analytical, linear, sequential and time-bound aspects of our reality.  In this part of our brain our thoughts are filled with language and numbers, worries about the past and fears of the future.  Our left brains like established routines and well-known solutions to our problems.  Whereas, the thoughts in our right brain are much wider in scope.  Our right brain thinks in terms of the whole forest rather than just the tree.  The knowledge held in our right brains is way more astute in many ways, not only socially and emotionally but also psychically, being able to see the entire context, like the whole shoreline instead of just one grain of sand.

Dropping our left brain dominance and embracing the thoughts that we hold in our right brains has great implications for our collective and global good because our right brains are so much broader in  perception.  In the right brain it is all about 'We,' rather than 'Me.'  And, when we enter into the right brain, we stop all our busy little left brain internal chatter, it just goes away, even if for only a moment and we begin to move into a consciousness that embraces more than just ourselves. We see that we are vast and a part of everything.  Our right brains also hold the consciousness of peaceful euphoria and pure love.  This is how we think while we are in the right side of our brains.

It is our right brain awareness that we are striving for and practice achieving in meditation, but this quality of awareness can also happen spontaneously whenever we are taken with the beauty of something, find love, listen to a melody or move into the present moment.  In his book, Polishing the Mirror, Ram Dass says that love is the doorway to oneness with all things, to being in harmony with the entire Universe.  He says that this is what we all long for and that once we touch this state of pure being, you can never completely forget it.  He goes on to say that 'being here now,' which is the quality of our right brain awareness, is never more than a thought away.  One of my favorite ways to access my right brain is to step outside to listen for the song of a bird,  Here we find a calm, self-assured presence from which we can access the state of oneness with everything.  It is from this inner perspective that our inner guidance arises.  As Rumi said, "Everything in the Universe is Within, Ask all from yourself."  

In her epic journey into the right side of the brain, Jill Bolte Taylor, who wrote My Stroke of Insight, found the potential for a world full of beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time.  She saw how we could all purposefully choose to step to the right side of our brains and find this beautiful peace.  This motivated her to take that long eight year journey of recovery from her stroke, so that she could share this, so that we could each see that all of us together, can embrace peace, which I personally feel is humanity's greatest desire.  

When we are in our right brains we know that 'All is Well, All of the Time.'  It is from this standpoint that we can connect with spirit.  It gives us access to our God Space or our Collective Love Consciousness.  This is how we can commune with angels and nature spirits or deceased loved ones.  It is our Higher Self, our Super conscious mind of compassion from whence we are totally interconnected with everyone and with everything through all time in the eternal moment of now.  It is this aspect of our awareness that lets us receive inspirations that bring us into harmony and joy.
When we are in our right brain consciousness, we find that we are spontaneously fulfilling all of our needs while serving The One.   This is our right brain.  And I think it is time that we all start regularly practicing the fine art of freeing ourselves to step into the magic of the right side of our brains.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Monday, March 23, 2015

Spirit Guides and Totem Animals


When we pay attention to the animals that show up either in our lives or in our psychic awareness, we can gain greater understanding about ourselves and find guidance for our lives.

 Please enjoy this short video on totem animals and spirit guides.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

Thinking of You!


This past weekend I was in Los Angeles at my Aunt's Young Artists Award Ceremony.  Maureen Dragone passed away a year and some months ago, but her legacy lives on through the honoring of young actors and actresses for their achievements in theater and film.  Her mother, my grandmother, Nora Laing, had founded the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Golden Globes Award.  She did this some seventy years prior with a handful of friends, while my aunt was in her teens.  In her young years, my aunt was inspired by Jackie Coogan and others young professionals whose efforts as child stars went either largely uncompensated or largely unrecognized.  So she followed in her mother's footsteps and crated an organization that would let young performers meet on a more equal playing field, separate from the adults, one that would fully acknowledge their noteworthy contributions to entertainment.  Now, here I find myself, in a ballroom full of very talented young people, tomorrow's big stars, wondering what amazing things they will accomplish in the lives that lay ahead for them.

Most of these young people know each other very well.  They follow each others careers and work very closely.  And they are all so supportive and encouraging, cheering each other on.  As the names of the nominees were called out, whoops and hollers of joy and commendation would arise from different areas of the room, simmering down to an overall applause from everyone.  Then, as the winners were announced, after the celebratory din died down, the text messages would begin to fly.  Congratulating, consoling, sending thoughts and words of support and love, not only to each other, but also to family members at home and friends around the globe.

It reminded me of telepathy and what Einstein called, "Spooky action at a distance."  This is where particles from the same atom are separated by a vast distance.  Then something is done to one of those particles and it results in a reaction or response.  But the particle that had the experience is not the only one that reacts.  The other particle, the one that is connected but far away also has the same reaction.

This is where physicists and metaphysicians meet, the realm of telepathy.  An event occurs to a loved one on a distant continent, and we wake up, knowing that something has happened.  And here are all these children in this ballroom texting their messages instantaneously around the globe.  It's very like telepathy and right in keeping with the patterns we find in quantum physics.

As I sat there remembering my aunt and my grandmother before me, basking in their legacy, it occurred to me that with cell phones and texting, we have all moved one more substantial step farther along the road to recognizing our oneness and our interconnectedness.  The only step remaining is realizing that we can do this without a device.  We already have within us the Quantum Entanglement  of our deeper knowings, where two particles or people are so deeply linked that they share the same existence.  This is spooky action at a distance, that ability to know instantaneously, just like texting, but it's telepathy.   

With that, I'll just let you all know that I'm thinking of you.


© Josephine Laing, 2015

Monday, March 9, 2015

Pray for the Healing of the Memories


In this video Josephine relates how to move through the difficult memories of our life to a place of forgiveness and understanding.  Learn how to go forward in life with clarity and understanding without the injuries and damage from the past. 

 

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Monday, March 2, 2015

Why do I keep doing that thing that I do? or Ten Paragraphs and Ten Helpful Tips to a New You!


Before the age of seven, our minds are in a hypnosis-like Theta brain wave state.  We are not yet able to reason and have not yet learned how to think for ourselves as individuals.  This is a very necessary step in our development because it lets us learn everything that we need to know by habit.  Our early childhood years, spent in Theta brain waves, set the patterns of our culture, our body movements, and our roles in the family.  This is also when our beliefs about our self are formed.

At around the age of seven, our conscious minds come on board and we individuate with awareness about our personal identity.  This lets us discover our own wishes and desires.   This is also when our habit mind, our subconscious mind really starts to come in handy as it can run the show while we are busy solving problems with our conscious mind, our thinking mind.  Because of this, we are able to walk down the hall (movement gained from habit and memory) while answering a question (fully engaging our thinking mind). 

Unfortunately, while we are very young, the adults in our lives may not realize that we are unable to use rational thought.  When adults receive criticism, they can think about it, consider changing their behavior and the experience can be constructive.  But as small children, when we receive criticism it gets recorded into our belief systems about who we are.  It becomes our truth.

When an adult says something to a small child like, "Why would you do such a thing?  or, "That's bad."  or, "No, no, don't touch that!" or,  Get away."  The child's mind hears and records feelings like, "I'm unlovable." Or, "I'm not good enough."  And, since we hear this type of information about ourselves as children, again, and again, it becomes a belief that we hold, out of habit, at the core of our beings. 

These programs stays with us into adulthood and just as soon as we are not paying attention, they can result in our beloved subconscious mind dutifully and skillfully changing things, in order to prove that our early childhood programming is right.
This can result in all of our good conscious mind intentions being thwarted.

We like to think that if we can simply become aware of our programming, we can change it.  So, we read self-help books, understand them and really commit ourselves consciously to change.   And, yes, those changes will happen, so long as we are actively thinking about them, using our conscious minds.  Unfortunately, this occurs only about 15% of the time. 

As soon as we get distracted and start to put our conscious attention elsewhere, guess who comes on board to run the show, our dutiful habit mind.  This leaves a whopping 85% or more of the time where our old programs are still running.  This is why we find ourselves so often inadvertently self-sabotaging all of our good intentions.

The good news is this, there are several tools that we can use to change these deeply programmed negative beliefs into positive ones.   In order to clear an old program it can really help to use some of the same tricks that created it, ex: a theta mind or hypnosis brain state, strong emotions and repetition.  These are the techniques that we can use to clear old beliefs about not being good enough, smart enough, worthy or worse still, not lovable.

A great way to get started is to begin, a practice of meditation.  This helps us to notice our negative thoughts and beliefs in the first place.  Then, using repetition, having some new and better replacement thoughts at the ready, can work wonders.  Twenty one days of a consistently new behavior or thought locks it in.  Powerful emotion is also good.  It was our strong feelings that created our old beliefs about ourselves.  New and different strong feelings will create new ones.  So, affirmations said with genuine, sincere, positive, loving feelings consistently over a period of time are really helpful. 

My favorite though, is using that theta mind state because it is especially effective.  Having a pre-recorded audio tape of your own voice affirming your love-ability and your self worthiness, perhaps even saying your new positive affirmations, can really work wonders.  Let this play while you are falling asleep or waking up.  It will help to create new programs deep in your subconscious mind because, while we are in that Theta brain wave state, we can access our core belief systems and change them just like in hypnosis.



Please also enjoy these additional ten great tips for cultivating self-love:

1.)  Say, “I Love You.”  Every morning, when you go to the bathroom mirror,  look deeply into your own eyes.  Say your name out loud and then say, “I love you, I really love you, just the way you are.”

2.)  Forgive Yourself.  A lack of forgiveness is a block to self love.  Just as we need to forgive others, we need to forgive ourselves. 

3.)  Practice Positive Self Talk.  Notice when you are blaming or shaming yourself. Lovingly catch yourself and then acknowledge what is good about yourself instead.

4.)  Treat Yourself Gently.  Know that you are your own precious darling child.   Realize that all growth takes time.  Loving yourself is your divine birthright.  Trust and it will come to pass.  

5.)  Think Good Thoughts.  Thoughts are easy to change.  Find good ones and have them ready to replace any negative ones.   I like to focus on gratitude.  It fuels me on my way.

6.)  Give and Get Help.  Don't hesitate to ask for help and look for ways to help others.  We all love to help each other.  We feel honored when someone asks us so it's okay to ask for ourselves.

7.)  Treat Yourself To Robust Health.  Eat mostly organic foods from the garden.  Get plenty of sleep.  Drink lots of good clean water.  Create a healing checklist and give yourself a gold star. 

8.)  Have Fun.  Laugh and take time to make new friends.  Learn some good jokes.  Let yourself be more playful.  Do something fun that makes you smile every day.

9.)  Do What You Love.  At least once a day, do what you love.  Listen to your inspirations, even if they are small, heed them all.  Give them top priority in your life.  It will make your day. 

10.)  Remember Love.   Remember that the core essence of our beings is love.  Love is what we came from and love is what we return to when we make our transition back into spirit.  Remember to look for and see the love in yourself and in others throughout the day. 



© Josephine Laing, 2015