Reflections of peace by FlyNutAA

Stand Like Mountain Flow Like Water

Brian Luke Seaward

ISBN 1-55874-462-2

Amazon link

Stand Like Mountain Flow Like Water has been one of my “textbooks” since 1998. I have used it continually for my basic lesson in the differences between the ego and the soul. I’ve come to believe what the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes 1:2:”Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”.

All my troubles happen when I confuse my ego with my soul. It is sometimes very easy to believe that God is helping me when instead my ego is running the show

The contents for this book:

1) Stress with a Human Face

2) Spirits on a Human Path

3) The Dance of Ego and Soul

4) Seasons of the Soul

5) Words of Mercy Words of Grace

6) Health of the Human Spirit

7) A Spiritual Renaissance

Excerpt from “The Dance of Ego and Soul”:

The illusion of separation:

“The ego is a bodyguard for the soul. Not satisfied with this supporting role, the ego, encouraged by the Id (our base desires), demands more attention. This tendency to dominate is so strong, it can eclipse not only the ego’s true purpose, but shadow the intentions of the soul.”

“Like a military coup, this small rebel faction of the ego claims autonomy every chance it gets, thus denying a connection to our higher self. The result is a perceived loss of our divine connection; a separation from God. From a holistic perspective, stress is defined as “a perceived separation from God”. This definition has gained greater acceptance by those in the field of mind-body-spirit healing who see the disconnection played out. The illusion of separation is a breeding ground for more fear, thus repeating the cycle again and again. In times of stress, ask yourself if it is anger and/or fear that blinds you to your divine connection.”

“Mystics talk about transcending the ego through meditation to gain insight, intuitive wisdom and enlightenment from our higher self—which then guides us further along the human journey. The practice of meditation quiets the incessant chatter of the alter ego so that the mind becomes open and the connection to the higher self is realized. Some Western religions scorn meditation as the work of the devil, but Christian theologian C.S. Lewis hit the nail on the head in his book, The Screwtape Letters. The devil, he wrote, says, “It’s funny how mortals always picture us putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.””

From “Health of the Human Spirit”:

“Helping is rooted in inequality; a type of superior/inferior relationship. Those being helped can feel this inequality. Helping infers a sense of debt. Service offers a dividend of love to all parties involved. Compassion includes empathy, the ability to feel another’s pain, but it doesn’t stop there. To engage in true compassion is to move with the feelings, which is why the expression “compassion in action” has so much more meaning than the word compassion itself. Compassion in action is service.”

“Compassion begins with ourselves. This is why the art of self-renewal is so important as a precursor to coming from a place of compassion. Compassion in action and the art of self-renewal are the actualization of loving your neighbor as yourself.”

Mosaic of Hamadan Gathering by Hamed Saber

“Play us a tune on an unbroken spinet, and let the bells ring, let the bells ring! Play music now: play us a tune on an unbroken spinet. Do not make echoes of forgotten time, do not strike music from old broken keys, do not make ghosts with faded tinklings on the yellowed board; but play us a tune on an unbroken spinet, play lively music when the instrument was new, let us see Mozart playing in the parlor, and let us hear the sound of the ladies’ voices. But more than that; waken the turmoil of forgotten streets, let us hear their sounds again unmuted, and unchanged by time, throw the light of Wednesday morning on the Third Crusade, and let us see Athens on an average day.”

— Thomas Wolfe, Of Time and the River

Dr. Tian Dayton writing for The Huffington Post explores the “biology of codependency“.  His study of the neurological findings about codependency found that codependency is fear-based. He further believes that the stress of living in a home where the children learned to be more vigilant to the adults’ moods rather than their own taught the children to access mood from outside them. What happens to the child’s moods? The child loses touch with what he/she is feeling.

Coming alive links:

1.  Give me a break: Are you busy for a reason?

2.  Formation–“to be nobody but myself— in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me somebody else— means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight, and never stop fighting.” e.e. cummings

3.  It’s the perfect day to be alive.–includes “Wonderful Life” by Natalie Grant from her CD Relentness.

My heart in your hands by aussiegall

When beginning a new job or getting married or other life challenges, extra stress helps to solve these experiences.  But often we experience stress that is non-productive and is robbing us of our energy.

Some and even great stress can be beneficial. The added energy from stress helps us to more to more and better solutions for our lives. Changemaker is aimed toward finding the repetitive non-productive stress that robs you of energy.

Since stress has been found to contribute to most of human illnesses, Changemaker encompasses mental, physical, emotional, behavioral, social and spiritual reduction techniques.

Your mind, body and emotions either work together to help you experience your life more fully or are each using energy in avoiding behaviors. The way to control your life is to control your thoughts and your words. So many of the techniques you will learn from Changemaker will introduce you to ways to stop over-reacting or avoiding behaviors.

When we were children, we often had to learn self-defeating or self-limiting behavior to appease our authority figures. Many parents confuse discipline with punishment. To avoid punishment, we often learn ways of avoidance or delay that rob us of our true being. So in continuing these behaviors we are using our energy non-productively.

We tell our bodies how healthy we want to be by the choices we make in using our energy. The Changemaker goal is for you to learn how to tell your body that you want to be completely healthy. By learning how to reframe your thoughts in order to choose positive thoughts, you are telling your emotions that you want to be healthy.

By learning convenient and easy ways to exercise, you are telling your body that you want to be healthy. By learning how to incorporate meditation, relaxation, visualization, and other coping techniques, we tell our minds and our soul that we want to be healthy.

You can learn all these techniques by using the Changemaker Blogs. Each blog is about an individual topic that you may choose to focus on.  If you’d like to find out what directions you may like to explore, you may choose to email us at changemaker.kathy@gmail.com.

Stress should lead you to exercise–

“Take a Break! A few quick tips -”

“Get up out of your chair or leave your workbench and walk over to an open window. Change your point-of-view. Breathe some fresh air. Go for a five-minute walk, either in the corridors of your building or out-of-doors. Call a friend and chat for five minutes. Close your eyes, clear your mind, and take an imaginary vacation – relaxing on a warm beach, deep-sea fishing on a beautiful yacht, or skiing down a gorgeous mountain.”

“These short, focused breaks can help reduce muscular tightness and physical stress, and also help your brain recharge so you can be more creative and productive!”

Making stress a positive:

“How to transform anxiety into something productive and positive? Here are some suggestions:”

1. Simplify everything you can. Pare down and get down to the bare bones in life. Eliminate as much of the “fluff” as you can.
2. Keep a complete calendar and list of everything you have to do and all appointments. Trying to carry all this information around in your head adds to frustration and a “muddled” feeling. Let it go, get it out of your brain, and record it somewhere else!
3. Relax when you feel stressed. Make a conscious effort to take deep breaths and physically relax your body.

I know that this is true because one of the ways I worked through my clinical depression was to print a list of things that made me happy. I made the list of bright yellow cardstock and used many different colored markers so it would be eye-catching and fun. I wrote about it last March and titled it “Good Feelings Action List“.

On the “about page” of Work Happy Now, Karl Staib writes about how he spent years being discontent at work until he learned to enjoy the process. He says that it all stems from communication and the person you communicate with the most is yourself. Being happy is a process that often times takes making a conscious choice to be happy.

In a 1998 study in the Review of General Psychology, Barbara Fredrickson examined “What Good are Positive Emotions?”. She found that the positive emotions of joy, interest, contentment, and love did not fit existing models of emotions. In this study she explored defining these four positive emotions. In the 20 page reprint of her study, she found these benefits for having positive emotions in daily life:

1.  Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention

2.  Positive emotions broaden the scope of cognition

3.  Positive emotions broaden the scope of action

4.  Positive emotions build physical resources

5.  Positive emotions build intellectual resources

6.  Positive emotions build social resources