Our Hearts Know Best

Our dear friend Bob Banner of HopeDance Magazine brings so much awareness and wisdom to those of us who live on the Central Coast.  He recently showed a film called "The Power of the Heart" which left a profound impression on me.  There was so much goodness in it that if you get a chance, you really must see it.  I'll share a little of what I can recall with you here.

The HeartMath Institute has been researching the intelligence of our hearts for nearly twenty years and not long ago they conducted an interesting experiment.  In it, they showed volunteers different randomly selected photographic images that were chosen specifically to elicit strong emotional responses.  The photographs ranged from puppies and sunsets to violence and destruction.  Electrodes were placed on the bodies of the volunteers which could read the responses of their nervous systems.  Information was gathered from several areas on their bodies: the heart, the brain and the gut.

As the volunteers watched these images, a very intriguing pattern began to reveal itself.  Several seconds before an image was shown, the heart responded either positively or negatively depending on what the image would soon be.  This heart response immediately sent a message to the brain which would then send the information to the gut.  When this happened, the subject would feel the result, either relaxed or agitated.

The experiment showed that not only are our gut feelings accurate, but our heart knows the truth of our feelings first.  The brain is next in line.  And the gut brings it to conscious awareness. 

Our hearts tune us to our life.  They are faster and wiser than our heads.  They let us know if we are loved and welcomed.  Our heart knowledge pervades the Universe.  It teaches us that our soul is not in the intellect.  

The Sioux nation has a saying, "The longest journey you will make in your life is from the head to the heart."  And there is a lot to this.  Here in the west, we constantly defer to our minds.  We dwell in the past and in the future, always trying to figure things out.  But it is the heart energy, which knows the power of the present moment, that is meant to guide us.  My teacher and mentor, Jana Massey used to remind us of this.  She would say, "The heart is meant to be the true leader in our lives."

Maya Angelou said, "I believe the heart is the only thing you can trust."  Deepak Chopra said that we need to ask our hearts everything.  "Where do I want to go?"  "Who should I spend my time with?"  "What should I do with my life?"  Your heart will bring you alive.  It will guide you true by the voice that comes forth from inside of you.

© Josephine Laing, 2014


                  (The amazingly beautiful begonia in the photo was grown by Paul Carlisle)

Tending to the Shift by Embracing our Natural Psychic Ability

One of the under acknowledged ways that human consciousness is growing and shifting is in the acceptance of our innate psychic ability as a powerful source of inner guidance.  As we step out from under the influence of others and begin to follow our unique path in life, guided by spirit, we find our way, one by one into a new paradigm.

When we open to our interconnectedness with everything through our psychic ability we can not help but become deeply steeped in reverence for all of life.  This helps us to embrace the next phase of our great human evolution.  Join me this week in watching this half hour long video where I share my story of how my psychic ability arose in me and how yours can easily arise in you.

Together we are forming a groundswell of unstoppable positive change.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014

Communicating With The Natural World

 
We humans have been reading the subtle communications of nature ever since time began.  From the simple request of a cat wanting to be let outside to the complex structure of weather patterns, if we pay attention, we can tell what nature is saying.  We can also receive intent, inspirations and even energy from nature.  This does require a shift in our awareness and our beliefs.  Whatever we believe is true, whether it is that the glass is half empty or the glass is half full.  If we allow ourselves to believe that we can, we can!  This simple but profound shift is what lets us sense subtle energies from the worlds of animals and plants. 

Contemporary research has shown that plants communicate with each other, they cooperate, they eavesdrop on their neighbors, call out for help, and even nurture their young.  Plants do have a social side.  They behave more like animals, and thus like us humans, than we have formerly believed.  They don't have eyes or ears, but they do interact with their environments, and that includes us.  Not only does this happen on a purely physical level, but it can also happen on a more etheric level.

When we stand outside in nature, rooted in the present moment, we can enter our right brains.  This lets us be interconnected, nonjudgemental, expansive, open, creative, subtle, nuanced, and insightful.  We become filled with new and novel perspectives.  This lets us realize that we are full of possibility, while being completely aware of everything around us and one with all.  When we let ourselves do this we can easily hear the voices of nature.  

We use our right brain all the time.  When we walk, when we talk, everything that we do involves some of our right brain skills and function.  But it's our left brain, our analytical brain, that is dominant in our contemporary western culture.  This hasn't always been the case.  Ancient peoples the world round were well adept in right brain function.  They have long communed on deep and profound levels with nature.  We can reclaim this skill, quite easily, if we try.

I first began this exploration when I wondered, How in the world did people of old discover the medicinal qualities of the plants around us?  So I decided to go out into the garden and try it for myself.  I sidled up beside a Hypericum plant and sat in meditative silence.  I knew nothing about the medicinal qualities of these plants at the time.  But I decided to have a go at listening.  Why not?  And before I knew it I was feeling things in my body, I was receiving ideas as if they had been planted in my head.  I just let the Hypericum talk to me, and it was delighted to do so. To my great and pleasant surprise, everything I received was accurate. 

The natural world is just waiting for us to connect.  Why not step outside and give it a try? You might not be interested in medicine, but maybe you'll find that the answers to your problems, inspirations for things you'd like to do, or directions you'd like to take in life, will suddenly pop into your head.  You may even find that you like it.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014

Meeting Your Spirit Guide

The presence of spirit is one of the great blessings in our lives.  We are never alone.  Our spirit guides are always available to help us.  Please join me for this simple exercise that can help you to embrace a meaningful relationship with your guides.

© Josephine Laing, 2014

Gratitude Brings More Blessings

Years ago a friend asked me if I'd like to be president of my own division of the Life's Beautiful Club. I said, "Absolutely! How do I sign up?" And he said, "You just have to say at least once, everyday, 'Life's Beautiful.'" And I've been doing it ever since. You too can be the president of your own chapter, simple simple. Just say it everyday. And you know what? Our gratitude always brings us more blessings.

There is a branch of Hawaiian spirituality that has an invitation to see everything as beautiful.  When we are in gratitude everything IS beautiful.  

My friend Lee has a daily affirmation that goes like this, "I love my life and my life loves me." Our thoughts are so important.  A Course in Miracles says that a change in perspective changes everything.  It's not what happens to us in life, it's what we do with what happens that's important. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison he said, "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew that if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I would still be in prison." Nelson Mandela was all about forgiveness, and as a result, he lived a life of gratitude. 

One of my favorite poets, Rabindranath Tagore wrote, "The clouds that come floating into my life no longer carry rain or usher in storms, but add to the color of my sunset sky.  May you all enjoy this holiday time with grateful hearts. 

© Josephine Laing, 2014

The Power and Importance of Sanctuary

Hello everyone.

Please enjoy this little video that I created with my good friend Einar Berg.  It's called The Power and Importance of Sanctuary.

The Buddha said, "Do nothing, time is too precious to waste."  Time spent on our own is some of the richest time in life.  Join me as I discuss the many benefits that I've received from time spent in sanctuary.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014

"I Don't Know About You, but I Live in a Reincarnational Reality"

"I Don't Know About You, but I Live in a Reincarnational Reality" This was a quote from Ram Dass that I've adopted as my own.  Our lifetimes are like going to sleep at night.  We dream and then we wake up again to a whole new day.  It's just that with reincarnation it's on a slightly bigger scale. 

There was some wonderful research done at the University of Virginia in the late 1960's by a man named Ian Stevenson, MD who was a professor of pyschiatry.  He gathered 2,500 case studies of children who at around the age of two or three would speak openly about their previous families.  They also spoke about their former lives and the way they died.  Many of these children had nightmares about their past life experiences because when the volume is turned up loud (as is often the case in someone who has died relatively young by some violent or unexpected means) the memories can come through more easily.  

My dad was one of these kids.  He wasn't in Ian Stevenson's research group because he was born about 40 years earlier, however my dad did exhibit one of the characteristics that Ian covered in his research, which is known as xenoglossy.  Xenoglossy is the ability to speak in a language that you've had no former exposure to, at least not in this lifetime.  My dad grew up in relative isolation in the Arizona desert, and as a little tiny boy he spoke a few words of Hindi.  He named his cat the Hindu word for cat.  He also told my British grandmother and grandfather about his death experience in his most recent past life, where at the age of 11 he and his whole family died suddenly at the dinner table; crushed under the timbers of their home as it collapsed during an large earthquake.  

This kind of experience is common for these reincarnational children: a young and sudden death, recalled at a very young age.  Some of them have birthmarks or defects that match the wounds that their deceased former self had experienced.  Until recently,  these accounts have mostly lain somewhat dormant in family recollections or in the desks of researchers like Ian.  They were usually passed off as unexplainable anomalies, wondered at briefly and then forgotten about.  But now that nearly 3 billion of us are connected via the internet, we have access to lots of information that has formerly been unavailable, like Stevenson's research, along with other new discoveries in the the topic of the ongoing nature of consciousness.  

Though reincarnation is not readily accepted in the West, it does have a history of recognition in the Gnostic Christian texts, as well as in the ancient Kabbalistic Jewish teachings.  Throughout most of the world reincarnation has widely and wholeheartedly been embraced.  Hinduism and Buddhism both acknowledge its reality.  And the oral traditions, the numerous nature-based religions of the world,  have always accepted the cycles of life and death and rebirth.  

Lots of current research like the explorations into near death experiences show us that consciousness continues after the body and brain have died. This helps us to change our understanding about life and death.  It frees us to realize that our spiritual growth is a process and that we don't have to accomplish everything in one go.  We are reborn together again and again as we progressively embrace our interconnectedness and move closer and closer to love.  Voltaire said, "It is not more surprising to be born twice than once."  Know that love is never lost and that we all dance together again and again.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014