Ten Distinctions
Filed Under Holistic Law | Leave a Comment
When a lawyer applies a coach approach to the practice of law, the lawyer works collaboratively with the lawyer’s clients to assist them in transforming their legal problems into opportunities for positive change and spiritual growth. The coach-approach lawyer achieves these goals by engaging the client in profound conversations about choice and the freedom to choose the client’s own interpretations of events and the significance to the client of those events and by inviting the lawyer’s clients to place their legal problems into the context of their lives and of their goals, aspirations and dreams.
As part of the process of providing the client with legal services, the coach-approach lawyer coaches the client to choose among ten key distinctions that will assist the client in moving forward. The coach-approach lawyer invites the client to distinguish:
• Between perception and reality, story and fact, and the consequences of confusing the one for the other
• Between emotions and feelings and the consequences of confusing the one for the other
• Between “the truth” and beliefs, between disempowering beliefs and empowering beliefs, and the consequences that arise from choosing one over the other
• Between affixing blame and accepting responsibility for a legal problem and the impact that choosing one response over the other has on a client’s ability to move forward toward a workable solution to the client’s legal problem
• Between sin and mistake (generating either guilt or reasoned regret) and the consequences of believing that a past act was one or the other
• Between thoughts that generate adrenalin/cortisol and those that generate endorphins and the impact on the client’s health of the presence of one or the other substance in the client’s body
• Between motivation and inspiration and the pressure or the vacuum that results from choosing one over the other
• Between illusionary force and true power of unattached intention and the consequences of choosing thoughts and actions that create one or the other
• Between acting from a domination paradigm and a partnership paradigm and the consequences of operating from one or the other
• Between what cannot be changed and what can be changed and the implications of focusing on one or the other.
Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
Envy
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
— The Tenth Commandment
[Addendum to number 10: . . . or his or her girlfriend or boyfriend, their vacation home, their hot tub, their sports car, their computer system, their high paying job, nor anything else they’ve got that you judge better than yours.]
“Who is poor?
He who is not contented.”
“How is heaven attained?
The attainment of heaven is the freedom from cravings.”“What destroys craving?
Realization of one’s true self.”— Shankara (687–718)
Imagine you are alone in the world. Everyone else has disappeared and all the possessions of others have been left behind for you. You could go into any building and possess any object. You could claim ownership of any building or vehicle or piece of land.
How long would the novelty of possession last? What good would an abundance of things do you in the absence of people? What would you value? How long would you be happy?
Now imagine you are surrounded by people, but you have absolutely nothing. Perhaps you are in a refugee camp with thousands of others and there is no food and no shelter. Maybe the sun beats down on you all day and the nights are cold. Your possessions are gone, but you have relationships. You are surrounded by family. A child sleeps in your arms. Now what do you value?
Imagine you live a life where you have enough to eat, you have clothing that protects your body from the cold, you have adequate shelter from the weather, and there are people in this life who could use some love. What more do you need?
Envy is desire for or attachment to something that is not yours. It is a form of craving. It is a thought—a delusion actually, a delusion that what we have is inadequate, but that something someone else has will bring us happiness.
How happy can an envious person ever be? If we aren’t happy with what we have now, can we ever be happy? Envy prohibits satisfaction. It creates an emotional force field around a person that prevents satisfaction from occurring.
Envy is a signal that we have not yet learned to appreciate the sufficiency of our life. It tells us and those who observe us that we are entangled in a condition of lack. It tells the world that we have not fully accepted ourselves as ourselves. It signals that we are cut off, separated from the oneness of creation.
We never experience envy when we understand that we are part of the whole and all that is is part of us.
As the 8th century Hindu mystic Shankara said, realization of one’s true self destroys craving. When we meditate upon the nature of the self we come to understand that an independent self is an illusion. When in meditation, our frame of reference expands out beyond the horizon we realize that there is no independent self. We are all in this together, each a part of the whole. What is mine is yours. What is yours is mine. We have no reason to be attached to desires for more. We have no sense of not having enough.
A good description of a basic meditation to practice each day is A Sitting Meditation found in Buddha’s Little Instruction Book by Jack Kornfield.
Tom Barrett
Stop, Drop, and Roll with It
Filed Under Law of Attraction | Leave a Comment
Having no direction is not a bad thing; it is a sure sign that you’re free to get the call.
In this new paradigm of life, having times where we don’t really know where to head is not necessarily bad. It’s just something we’re not used to, and it seems unfamiliar.
We are so used to needing to be in control, needing to know what’s next, needing to have a direction. The truth is, the direction is provided you in every moment—if you just slow down enough to listen. I know, it’s sounds hokey pokey, but I am telling you: slowing life down enough to hear about your path of most allowance is worth feeling a little uncomfortable about. The more “in control” you are used to being, the more scary it will feel. I suggest you call it “unfamiliar” instead of scary because the unfamiliar can always become familiar!
Whether you knew it or not, you are waking up. In this time of great change, you will notice that whole countries are starting to wake up. But along with waking up comes a need to listen. Ask yourself today if what you are doing is for your highest good and most joy, and then listen for the answer. (And following it would also help.)
There is no land of Oz, just this fabulous “home” that has always awaited you.
Jennifer Hough
Daily Shower Cleaners
Filed Under Clean Quick and Green | Leave a Comment
Are those daily shower cleaners just a marketing gimmick? Not really.
The amazing thing about this type of product is that it reduces the need to clean your shower on a more frequent basis. Why is that? Well, the ingredients used are present to negate soap scum from forming at all—they collect the excess dirt and grime and don’t let it have a chance to stick to your walls. The best part is that it doesn’t need to be wiped off! Spray and go, and your shower stays clean.
You have to start with a clean shower, though! It also helps if you use a soap that does not leave scum behind.
There are some great eco-friendly brands available. You can also use some tea tree oil and water. Or try 1 part vinegar, 5 parts water, and a capful of rubbing alcohol to do the trick.
It also helps to squeegee the shower walls and glass after use. That way your shower looks spotless and the need to clean is greatly reduced. It takes about a minute, and squeegees are available at your local dollar store—it’s worth the effort!
Melissa
You Ain’t Broken!
Filed Under Law of Attraction | Leave a Comment
If you have been reading these blogs in order to fix your broken life, today’s the day to stop! Why? Because if you are in the energy of trying to fix something, that would guarantee that your life is endlessly broken in your perspective. From this day forward, assume that everything that is happening in your life right now is perfect. Just stop taking score, my friend.
What do you look for everyday? I hope it’s evidence that you are magnificent. Oh, sure, sometimes you will do, say, and act on things that seem a little less than magnificent. You’ll know because you are struggling. Just know that the only reason you struggle or feel bad is that you have forgotton your incredible capacity for joy, creation, and love.
Funny how our first reaction in these instances is to fix what we think is broken. A far more effortless way to proceed is to simply remember that if you feel bad, you are thinking and acting on untrue thoughts—like “this is hard,” “I’m not smart,” “you have to struggle before you accomplish” etc. All untrue thoughts.
When you act from Truth, everything becomes effortless. Take courses that help you remember the Truth. You will thank yourself. Reading books and taking courses to “fix yourself” presumes that you are broken. Look for the courses that inspire you, not the ones that identify your flaws. You are perfect. Find something that will help you remember that.
Today, name 4 accomplishments, miracles, or serendipitous events that have happened in the last 10 years. How incredible would you have to be to have manifested those?
Jennifer Hough
Hara Meditation
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
When you meditate, sit with the dignity of a king or queen; when you move through your day, remain centered in this dignity.
— Jack Kornfield, Buddha’s Little Instruction Book
Back in the 1950s and 60s, meditation was frequently described as “contemplating your navel.” I tried this. “OK, it’s an innie. Got a bit of lint. Now what?” It didn’t seem like a very satisfying spiritual practice. In fact, the idea of contemplating one’s navel seemed so silly that the phrase was popularly used to deride meditation and poke fun at Eastern religion. Possibly I missed something in my initial attempt at meditation.
Later, a football coach would teach me about being aware of my “center of gravity.” He would say, “If you run around with a high center of gravity your opponent is going to knock you on your kiester. So move as if your center of gravity is a couple of inches below your belly button.” It turned out that if you maintained mental consciousness of your weight centered in your abdomen you could flatten large young men moving at high speeds. It was better to be the flattener than the flattenee.
Further down the road I encountered an Aikido master who taught about keeping one point of consciousness at the hara. Hara is the Japanese word for a point in your body about two finger widths below your navel. It is a major center of ki (chi, life energy). He demonstrated how maintaining “one point” was useful, not only in Aikido, but in daily life. When he put his consciousness at his hara he became immovable. Several men much larger than he could not lift him, nor could they push him off his base stance. Yet in demonstration he could throw six attacking students in what appeared to be a graceful and nearly effortless dance of martial art. I found that by putting my mind at my hara, I was more balanced, and activities like opening heavy doors, pushing a car, or even just walking and running were easier and more graceful.
The hara has many names: t’an-tien, dantien, chi-chung, second chakra (or third chakra in some systems). In any discipline that is sensitive to the subtle energies of the body, it will be identified as an important seat of power and balance. Using the hara in meditation can help counterbalance our tendencies to be in our head.
Westerners, especially, are trained to focus consciousness in the upper energy centers. We are thinking people or feeling people. Our life energy seems to be centered in our heads or hearts. Some of us identify our egos with our brains and we experience the world through our heads. It is as if our bodies just dangle down from our noggins, never really touching the earth. Or we go through life centered in our hearts. We feel deeply. We are compassionate loving beings, yet we can be swept away in our emotion, and our hearts are prone to breaking.
As children, our attention is drawn away from our lower centers of energy. We are taught not to touch the “naughty bits.” We are instructed not to look at our nether parts or those of others. Anything below the navel and above the knees is off limits to any more than a passing awareness. Consequently, some of us become absolutely fascinated with the region and others cut off any relationship with it.
Given these circumstances, one might predict that Western civilization would develop a struggle between sexual titillation and self-righteous prudery, and that it would have some difficulty maintaining its sense of harmonic balance with the planet.
So let us consider a practice of meditation that is immanently simple, but that will allow us to bring our energy down to earth, find our balance point, and connect with a locus of balanced power.
Practice:
Traditionally, this meditation would be done in a classic cross-legged sitting meditation position. However, it may also be done sitting in a chair. Luckily, the proper position for sitting at a computer is nearly identical to the proper position for meditating in a chair. If as you do this, your boss asks what you are doing, you may say that you are performing an experiment in computer workstation ergonomics. In fact, if you find the correct meditation position and apply it to your keyboard work, you will likely experience less muscle strain.
Adjust your chair so that with your feet flat on the floor your torso, thighs, and shins roughly form the shape of a stair step. In other words, the angle between your spine and thighs is about 90 degrees and the angle between your thighs and lower legs is about 90 degrees in the other direction. It is better that these angles be a little more than 90 degrees rather than less. Your head should rest comfortably on your neck. Your spine should be erect so that your head balances there without much muscle tension keeping it in place. Sit up straight and find that balance point. Your gaze should be slightly downward.
Your nose and your navel should be in line. So should your ears and your shoulders. You may rock a little front to back and to each side to find the balance point.
When keyboarding, your hands should be in such a relationship with your body that the angle between your upper and lower arms is 90 degrees or a little more. If it is less than 90 degrees you will likely develop muscle strain in your neck and shoulders. For meditating you may simply rest your hands on your thighs. Alternatively, you can place your hands in the traditional Buddhist meditation position, the “cosmic mudra.”
Shunryu Suzuki, in his classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, says, “If you put your left hand on top of your right, middle joints of your middle fingers together, and touch your thumbs lightly together (as if you held a piece of paper between them), your hands will make a beautiful oval. You should keep this universal mudra with great care, as if you were holding something very precious in your hand. Your hands should be held against your body, with your thumbs at about the height of your navel. Hold your arms freely and easily, and slightly away from your body, as if you held an egg under each arm without breaking it.” This hand position will assist you in focussing on your hara.
Now release any remaining muscle tension and concentrate on your breathing. Let your breathing become very natural. It will find its own pace and you may notice that it slows and deepens. Allow the breath to sink into your abdomen. Imagine that the breath is moving like a wave between your lungs and your hara, that point in the center of your abdomen a couple of inches below and behind your navel.
Bring your attention fully to that energy center, that balance point we are referring to as hara. Allow all of you attention to focus at that point. It may be helpful to imagine a point of red light in the dark of your abdomen. Some people imagine a tiny Buddha there sitting perfectly still in total peace. Whatever image you choose, allow it to aid you in focussing, and then when it has lost its usefulness, let it go.
Continue to return your awareness to your hara whenever it drifts away. Focus all of your attention there. Be in that place. Own that part of your body. Note any sensations you have there and let them go. Releasing your mental constrictions there will allow the energy of this chakra to move up your spine and throughout your body. You may feel energized, yet at the same time you may feel the peace of being in balance. Experience whatever comes without grasping. Focus your attention without desire for any particular result. Check your posture and bring it back to balance when you feel it slip. Allow the emptiness of non-doing to bring you peace.
Consider making this exercise a part of your daily meditation practice.
Tom Barrett
Kitchen Gardens: Chervil
Filed Under Herbalist | Leave a Comment
Another herb discussed in Mary Cambell’s 1971 book is chervil.
Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a great cook. It may be because I’m a chemist that I have no desire to spend time in the kitchen, but after reading her treatise on chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium), this hardy annual might be included in my garden.
Botanist and herbalist John Gerard (1545-1611) states: “The leaves of sweet Chervill are exceeding good, wholesome and pleasant among other salad herbs, giving the taste of Anise seed unto the rest.” You can find copies of his beautiful illustrations that are royalty-free for use in publications.
Chervil is a great addition to salads, imparting its delicately spicy hints of licorice. It’s a garnish for dishes and a flavoring for omelets, herb butters, and an important ingredient for some versions of Béarnaise sauce. Mary says that chervil’s strong suit is that it “brings out the best in other herbs and foods with which it is combined, just as some charming people stimulate the others about them.”
Herbalist Nicholas Culpeper relates, “The garden Chervil being eaten, doth moderately warm the stomach,” and so it has been used as a digestive aid for hundreds of years.
Wendy
Granite Countertops
Filed Under In Our Opinion - Naturally Savvy Guides | Leave a Comment
I was on my computer late Friday night surfing the internet when I came across an article in the New York Times with the following title: “Your granite countertops may be killing you”. It caught my attention because I just finished renovating my
kitchen. My husband and I love the look of granite and decided to treat ourselves to granite countertops. Now, I’m fully aware the media likes to scare us (I know, I know…fear sells!), but this article really did scare me!
I immediately called up Frank Haverkate (my “go-to guy” for everything home testing related) and asked him to test my slabs of granite. He mentioned a few of his colleagues had come across some granite with high levels of radioactive activity, but he has never come across any himself. He even told me he went to a few of the larger home renovation stores and brought his Geiger Counter (a device used to measure radioactive activity) with him to test some of their materials, but he has yet to come across anything with dangerous levels. Phew! Was I glad to hear that.
Frank came over and tested our granite countertops this morning. He showed me how the radiation levels we extremely low and we had “nothing to worry about”. He also told me that any material from the earth will emit some form of radioactive activity. To prove his point, he took me outside and showed me that his Geiger Counter measured similar results outside my house as it did inside.
Luckily I had someone like Frank to call in order to alleviate my fears. Of course I asked him how this experience could benefit YOU - our readers. Frank told me that there is an organization called the International Institute for Bau-Biologie and Ecology (www.bau-biologieusa.com). If you are concerned about your granite countertops or any other household issues (ie. mold, air quality, etc.) you can search their website for an expert in your area.
I highly recommend having your homes tested for air quality which includes mold, radon gas, carbon dioxide, VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), etc. I had Frank come and test our house before and after our renovation. The first time he came he told us that we had high levels of carbon dioxide (which could cause a host of issues such as breathing problems and headaches). He recommended we put in an HRV system (Heat Recovery Ventilator) which circulates the air by bringing in fresh, filtered air and disposes of the old, stale air. When he came back after our renovation, we passed with flying colors.
It costs a fair bit of money to have your home tested, but I highly recommend it. Our health is our most prized possession.
In good health,
Andrea
Pregnancy Weight Gain: Not a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Filed Under Fitmom Wellness | Leave a Comment
Weight gain in pregnancy is a controversial issue due to the varying reports on what is recommended and what isn’t.
The “eating for two” philosophy has long been dismissed as a sensible approach to healthy weight gain in pregnancy. Most health care providers don’t advocate this at all. The facts are you need fewer calories in pregnancy then you do postpartum while breastfeeding: 150 for pregnancy and up to 500 postpartum. Many first time moms to be are so concerned about getting all the right nutrients that they pack in excess calories to be safe. This, combined with the limited activity that some women fearfully subscribe to, makes a recipe for excess weight gain.
The facts are that there is not a one size fits all approach with nutrition — just like in exercise. An overweight mom, depending on her body fat percentage, may not need to gain anything at all, and an underweight woman will need to gain more than average.
Weight gain in pregnancy matters, but it is not an excuse to pack on the pounds, nor is it healthy. Excessive weight gain has been linked to pregnancy-induced hypertension and gestational diabetes, for example. These two conditions alone pose risk to both mother and baby. Eat a healthy diet and understand that with rare exception, baby gets what is needed from you. Balanced nutrition is key while quantities do not need to be excessive.
In pregnancy most woman are aware of the most advocated nutrient of all: folic acid. In the ideal world you would begin supplementing this dosage six months prior to pregnancy, the amount of time needed to regenerate the cells in the body so it can begin using it.
Iron is another nutrient that is important; however, many prenatal vitamins have dosages that are too high for many women to absorb, and this has been linked to nausea. In cases where an expecting mom notices this, she can ask her doctor for a prescription prenatal vitamin.
One of the other very important nutritional requirements that has long been overlooked is essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids are extremely important for all people but in pregnancy the benefits are numerous. Stay tuned for later posts on this “essential” subject.
In the meantime while you are thinking for two always while pregnant you certainly do not need to eat for two. Your pregnant body needs good food in more regular small meals to sustain a healthy blood sugar and keep the pitfall cravings at bay.
Cheers,
Andrea Page
Maya
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“Everyone wants to know and realize the Truth, but Truth cannot be known and realized as Truth unless ignorance is known and realized as being ignorance. Hence arises the importance of understanding Maya or the principle of ignorance.”
— Meher Baba“I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies (as a butterfly), and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddently, I awakened; and there I lay, myself again. I do not know whether I was then dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that it is a man.”
— Chuang Tzu
Imagine it is the end of a beautiful summer day. The air is clear and the sun will set soon. The rays of sun come from low on the horizon, and everything you see is apparent in high contrast. The shadows are deep, but where the light strikes the reflection is brilliant.
You are standing near a great old tree. You can see its ancient trunk with the sunlight creating deep shadows in the patterns of the bark. The limbs of the tree spread out in a canopy overhead. The leaves, moving gently in a light breeze vibrate slightly. You can see in this light that some of them brightly reflect the light in hues of green. Others are dark in shadow.
You know at this moment that your image of this tree is dependent on this reflected sunlight. You are not seeing the tree. You are seeing the light reflected off parts of the thing your mind perceives as a tree.
Your image of this tree is happening in your eyes and in your brain/mind. You believe the tree is there, but if not for your mind’s response to the patterns of light hitting your retina, how would you know it is there? You believe the leaves are there, even those you can’t see in the darkening shadows. You believe that the back side of the tree is there, even though you cannot see it. You understand that the “out there” is happening “in here.” The entire phenomenon of this tree that you experience is occuring within the confines of your nervous system.
How is the experience of seeing a tree different from dreaming it, except that the light bounced off the tree “out there” is the stimulus for the image in your mind?
How did you create the image of the tree that you just visualized? You constructed it out of your thoughts of “treeness” based on some symbols you read here. Amazing really. You can dream the tree. You can create it out of symbolic instructions, or you can create it out of light impulses striking your optical system. In any case, your conception of the tree does not exist independent of your mind.
We constantly make judgments based on our assumptions about reality. We believe that if we reach out and touch a tree that we see with our eyes it will be there, and our touch will confirm it. We normally live our lives completely convinced that our sensory experiences are real. It works so well that we assume that what we perceive is reality.
This is a characteristic of the Sanscrit concept of “maya.” Maya, sometimes described as illusion or ignorance, is the way we measure off the world separating things into categories. We think the world is out there and I am in here. Yet our world and our perception of it are mutually arising. We are in it, of it, and creating it as we go along. There is no there there. It is you and the world happening together.
Imagine that you lived your life always aware of the ephemeral nature of your experience. How would that be different? From the point of view of the ego it might be terrifying, since suddenly you become alone in the great void. But with a little more understanding, your perception of your own ego would become clear as a manifestation of maya. You would know that the boundary between what you perceive as the limits of your own personal identity and the rest of creation is false. You would attend to your direct experience of the world as immediately sensed. You would not be misled by labels. You would know that you and everything else are not separate, and in that knowing you would find an immeasurable and profound sense of peace.
Practice:
This week, and perhaps every week, develop the habit of spending some time experiencing clear awareness.
Use a simple meditation practice that will allow you the tranquility of mind to perceive the world in its pure essence unmarred by labels, limits, and conceptions.
Allow yourself to give up boundaries between what is inside and what is outside your thinking mind.
Allow the peace of understanding to fulfill you.
Tom Barrett
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