Hello and welcome to the November 2014 edition of Horizons Magazine. It’s  finally cooling off and we’ve had all the windows open here at the office since mid October. It’s such a relief when the first cold fronts of the season bring drier  air. Being in the subtropics as we are in Florida, half the year our humidity is above 80% and in the summer it can be oppressive. Visitors remark that walking out of the airport in Florida for the first time, the humidity hits you like a wall of water, and you feel as though you’ve gained 50 pounds and are moving in slow motion. So when we get the first cool days of fall, everyone I know perks up and feels like frisking around in the outdoors.  The cooler weather also signals the end of another year, a time when many of us reflect back on the past 12 months and consider whether we’ve made progress toward those things we set goals for last year. I counsel with dozens of people each week, so it’s easy for me to see patterns of thought and behavior before others are aware of it. Many who set their goal last year of finding their calling, are frustrated that they haven’t made much progress. They’ve been buying all the right books and listening to the right tapes and attending the right seminars and still they feel stuck in a job they don’t enjoy.  

Ma Yoga Shakti says, “Wherever you are, make a heaven of it.” Alan Cohen says, “Take what you’ve got and make what you want.” Abraham-Hicks says to find something to appreciate about the job you now have, and bring to mind all the reasons you took the job in the first place, and how excited it was to have a new beginning. Recreate that in your mind until you can feel new enthusiasm for what you do.

Monastic traditions suggest doing all work as though you’re doing it for God alone. You’re cleaning the house for God (uh, oh, get those corners.) You’re typing that report for God (who’s cleverly disguised as a grumpy boss – see through the disguise and give him your best!) You’re waiting tables on God (again disguised!) and you’re building that house for God. You know you’ve been placed where you are for a reason, and as long as you’re there, you might as well give it your all and do your absolute best every day.

When you can begin to really get into your job and find it fun again, that is when you will have shifted your consciousness so that you’re ready to move on. Remember, you can’t make a shift until you’re vibrationally in harmony with the goal you’re moving toward. And if you’re hating your job or complaining about it to friends, that’s a clear signal that you’re not going anywhere “better” anytime soon. Criticizing and complaining about something only makes it continue in your experience. What you resist, persists. What you focus on remains in your experience. You don’t have to change what you are doing, you just have to change how you think about what you are doing. You just have to change how you feel about what you are doing. It’s a scientific fact, that as soon as you change how you think and feel about something, a change in your physical experience is the next logical progression.

A lot of my friends have been travelling to Peru, France and India, to sacred sites such as Macchu Picchu, Lourdes and Puttaparti. I agree there is a special presence and energy in these places and I believe much of it has to do with the faith, belief and expectation of the ones who make pilgrimage there. It’s a predominant thoughtform that encompasses the location. A thoughtform can be as tangible and sensation-al as high humidity. It can weigh us down or lift us up. I hear others talk about “there’s a special vortex here or there” however it’s my experience that I AM the vortex. That WE ARE each the powerful vortex that we seek. It’s interesting; we’ll make a pilgrimage half way around the world before we’ll sit alone with ourselves to make the journey within. Go figure.

Wait, that’s not fair. I know it’s not that easy. I know that being in a power place, where others have gone before us, can inspire us to relax and release resistance so that we’re able to experience our Self more fully. The beliefs of the other pilgrims adds to the overlying thoughtform, and we can be lifted in consciousness and carried on the wave of their faith and expectation to a higher place. Yes, we can do that at home in the bathtub as well, but “getting in the mood” can be a helpful motivator to make us relax and be receptive to a fuller experience.

There are also times that you DON’T want to be carried along on the wave of someone else’s thoughtform, that perhaps YOUR thoughts are the higher and more inspired of the group. These are the times you get to practice being the visionkeeper for the group. When you can keep your head about you when those around you are losing theirs. And the power of just one person with focused thought and intent can override the doubts and fears of an entire community. We’ve all seen in happen. And you can be the one person who remembers to hold the higher vision, wherever you go, whatever you see before you. You can be the one who remembers you are a powerful vortex of creat-ive energy and wherever you go, you take your power with you. When you show up shining, others reflect your light back to you.

And talking about riding the wave of someone else’s belief and expectation, and buying into their thoughtforms, I received this from a friend:

HOW DID WE SURVIVE?
Looking back, it’s hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have. As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda, but we were never overweight; we were always outside playing. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren’t as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

This is clearly an example of the power of mass consciousness, and how we are influenced by the thoughtforms which have been programmed into mainstream society by the media. Someone suddenly points out ingesting lead is bad for us and many start having symptoms of lead paint poisoning. The more the news talks about it, the more people start worrying about it, and then science “proves” it and then more people have evidence of it and it all gets added into that giant thoughtform called LEAD PAINT IS BAD FOR YOU. Which is conveniently located right next to the thoughtform that says IF THE LEAD PAINT DOESN”T GET YOU, SOMETHING ELSE WILL *hehe*

So what’s the solution to make sure you aren’t subliminally programmed by what the media wants you to believe (and buy?) The solution is recognizing your own power. The solution is finding out who you are when no one else is around. The solution is to become that powerful vortex of creat-ive energy which you came into this life to be, and to be that uplifter, and to be the one who can hold the higher vision for those around you who are unable to.

And this isn’t just about holding a vision of peace and unity while the media talks terrorism and war; it’s about making your immediate environment free of complaint and criticism and disharmony. It’s about making a heaven out of where you are right now, with whoever is in front of you. And when you stop to realize that there is LOTS MORE WELL BEING AND HARMONY in the world than there is disease, terrorism and war, you begin to put life into perspective. Don’t be nervous when 95% of the media repeatedly reports to you the horror that only 5% of the world is experiencing. This is how fear is perpetuated. One station reports it. Another picks it up. One person sees it, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends… See where this is going?

We are our brothers’ keeper. We can help hold the higher vision for the world. We don’t hafta talk about it. We don’t hafta join a group to do it. We don’t hafta all do it at the same time. But WE are the people and NOW is the time. Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.