From the heart

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For as long as we can remember it has been reason that is important. The logical, even scientific approach has been more important than any other perspective. And as such we have grown up in a time in which we have had the opportunity to fully explore the power of our mind.
And in all likelihood we have discovered that the power of our minds in enormous!

But over the decennia through which we put this great, in a sense exclusive importance on our thinking, our reasoning ~ we may not have seen much significance in that other part of us. The heart, our feelings, and with that our intuition. As some would say; our ‘High mind’.

Then the energy started changing. The energy of ourselves as well as the energy we are living in, and even the energy of the universe... And with that our priorities changed. Where up to then we had been pretty much mental beings ~ as started changing we got more and more in touch with our feelings. We started to see the value of how we felt about things that happened, and with that we began to develop our intuition, our intuitive awareness.
And pretty soon that which comes from the heart began to carry more weight than the reasoning we had grown up with.

It has given rise to a new awareness. Bit by bit we have moved from a mental awareness, to an intuitive awareness (which as it emerged seemed ‘airy-fairy’), to where we are at now; a situation where both our mental as well as our intuitive awareness are coming together in a greater, merged awareness.

So nowadays it is most important to see ‘how you feel’ about a situation. How you feel about it within yourself. How you feel about it outwardly. Gut-feel. To recognize the emotions any given situations brings up, and to use the emotions as signals, as tools that indicate how to best handle the situation at hand.

It is a new way to experience our emotions and our feelings. It doesn’t mean that as our feelings gain importance they start ruling our lives. It means that our awareness of our feelings and emotions give us that extra bit of information the logical, mental perspective doesn’t have.

And with that comes ‘living from the heart’. To recognize the feelings you have, and to act on them in a loving way.
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You've made your bed, now lie in it

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It means that you have made a decision and now must accept its consequences.
It means that you ‘own’ your decisions and your actions. Whatever you have decided, whatever it is you are doing ~ it is your responsibility.

The situation is quite clear when you look at it this way...
However, we live in a time when so many things are not quite what they seem.

For instance ~ someone may have made a decision without having had the full grasp of its consequences. Or perhaps between the time the decision was made and the way it all played out arrived ~ something changed. For instance something concerning health, relationships, where you live, work... The list could go on and on. But so many things can change so fast, nowadays ~ even without any active input from us; let alone actively deciding to do or change something. And sometimes you choose whatever you think is best for you at that moment; you make your decision fully intending to see it through; to do all the work that comes with that decision ~ and before you know what is happening, everything starts changing around you; and sometimes even inside of you...

When that happens, is it still fair to stand on the sideline and to say, ‘well, you’ve made your bed, now lie in it’? Or would it be kinder to take the whole situation into consideration and to lend a helping hand?

Come to think of it; even when someone makes a decision of which they can totally envision how much work it is going to entail, and are fully prepared to own it; to do the responsible thing... Should we just keep looking at it from the outside in, seeing how that person is doing the best he can, yet that doesn’t seem to be enough and things seem to start breaking apart...
Is that the time to say; ‘well, you could have seen that coming’, indicating that the decision made was not a wise decision ~ and making that the excuse you need to not help out?

Or is that the time when you walk up and say; ‘What can I do to make this work out for you?’ ‘How can I help?’

Is this the time to still have an attitude that says ‘you’ve made your bed, now lie in it’, or is this the time in which we reach out to others and see how we can help?

After all, as we make the world a better place for the other person, it will also become a better place for ourselves....
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Changing Priorities

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There are many ways in which the Universe can nudge us into changing. Whether it is about inner changes or about changes in jobs, houses, or relationships... When something needs to change and we are not quite aware of it yet; chances are the Universe will find a way to bring it to our attention ~ if not prompt us to start doing things differently or to change directions.

Either way, our priorities will change.

One could even say that the reason for being pushed to change things in our lives is to change priorities. Whether it is job-related ~ for instance putting a higher priority on fulfillment rather than money ~ or is more focused on our home, clearing out things we may have had for years that slowly started to own us rather than just being our belongings... Even ‘upping’ ourselves on our priority list, putting us in a position where we may take better care of ourselves.

Looking at it from this perspective, the changes we are facing in our lives all have to do with changing our priorities. With aligning our priorities in such a way that we can use our energy and our time to our greatest advantage. In a way that is most beneficial to us.
This also means that when we feel like we are being pushed beyond our limit ~ it is time to have a close look at our priorities. What do we deem is most important in our lives, and how much of our time and energy are we putting into that most important thing...

For instance, if we feel our personal health is most important ~ physically as well as mentally and emotionally ~ then how much of our time en effort do we spend to stay healthy?
Do we eat healthy ~ or do we take the easy way out and eat some kind of fast food on a regular basis?
Do we take time to relieve the stress that may have built up in a situation at work ~ or do we just keep going and going until we are burned out?
Do we express our own inner needs and desires in such a way that they can be met ~ or do we keep muttering inside ourselves that no-one ever has any consideration with us?

Perhaps we would find that especially in the areas that we feel are most important in our lives, this is not reflected in how much time and energy we give it.

It is a ~ sometimes not so little ~ discrepancy that in today’s energy needs to be brought into alignment. And as we do that, the changes that make our lives easier and more fun will come naturally.
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Truth

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Watching the news, forums, and social media it seems that truth is becoming more important. As the saying goes in my native tongue: “Truth takes longest” which means something like ‘it may take a while, but given time the truth will come out’. And this seems to be the case pretty much wherever you look, nowadays.

No longer is it possible to hide the truth; at least not for any length of time. And when it comes out, it comes out with a vengeance ~ or, in the vernacular of the social media, it goes viral.

And where ‘truth’ is looked at as being the polarity of ‘deceit’, this is a good thing.

On the other hand it makes me think: what is truth?
Surprisingly enough, there are many truths.

• There is the factual truth.
• There is what is believed to be true.
• There is cultural truth.
• And it appears that as we grow older, what we consider to be ‘truth’ changes.

The factual truth seems easiest to distinguish. We quite literally look at the facts and see if everything truly adds up. Whether all the information is there, with nothing left out. It is a logical process through which we conclude if what we are presented with is true or false.
What we believe to be true is much more intricate. It comes from the subconscious, as the subconscious holds not only our dreams and intuition, but also our belief-system. And suddenly we can find ourselves in a situation where we believe something to be true (for instance because we were told as we grew up that this was so), whereas when we look at the facts from a logical perspective, this is clearly not the case...
Cultures can have their own set of rules and mores that say something is true or false ~ and so what is truth is one culture doesn’t necessarily have to be true in another. Clear examples can be found in the separate legal systems, for instance when looked at the acceptability of the death penalty.
ANd then there is the phenomena that truth appears to be changing as we grow older... When we were 5 years old, truth was that we were not allowed to have a cookie right before dinner. At 20, for most of us this is no longer true; it is our choice whether we want to eat a cookie, and when we would want to eat it. And at 30 truth may be that cookies make you gain weight and should be steered clear from at all cost.

So, pondering truth... What exactly is truth?
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What we can speak for

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In this age in which it is so easy to get information on pretty much anything you can imagine, most of us can speak about many things. Not to mention, have an opinion on anything that comes up ~ whether it is something that directly affects us personally, affects our lives; or if it is something that has nothing to do with us whatsoever... We sure know how to voice where we stand on it.

This, of course, is a good thing. The better informed we are, the better decisions we can make; and the better we can prioritize and organize our lives. In theory.

Like it is with almost anything in life at the moment, polarities are important. When our only focus is on voicing our opinions, on speaking up, on giving others the information we already have ~ there is the possibility of falling a little short on listening. On truly hearing what the other person has to say, on taking in the information that is offered ~ perhaps in a different manner than we anticipated.

Yet ultimately, the thing may be most important is for us to differentiate between what we can speak about and what we can speak for...

What we can speak for are those things we actually own. The things that are our responsibility. Whether that is our behavior, our work, our home, family, car... In a sense they are the things where it is up to us as an individual to make decisions about, to follow up on, etc.

For instance, we can not speak for the opinion of another person, yet we can own (and speak for) our own opinions. It will be close to impossible for us to prioritize everything going on in someone else’s life ~ and yet it is important to take time to get our own priorities straight.
It is vital to speak up on things that directly affect us personally, that influence our individual lives ~ as that is where not only our responsibility but also our power lies. The power to change, the power to enhance, even the power to empower ourselves.

And from that perspective one could argue that it would behoove us to speak about those things...

The things close to us.
The things that we, as an individual can influence and change.
The things that bring more happiness into our (personal) lives.

Of course this doesn’t mean that we cannot, or should not have opinions on other things that are going on. But in reality, the only place where we can bring about changes that make this world a better place is right where we can touch it personally.
It is in the things we can speak for.
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Pushing the Envelop

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We can take anything we do ~ even those things that are beneficial to us ~ so far by pushing the envelop, that we get into its polarity.

For instance, being assertive and speaking up is a good thing; but being over-assertive to the point that we stop listening, or even cut others off mid-sentence ~ not so much. If you don’t ask for what you desire or wish in your life ~ be it in your meditations or prayers, or from those around you ~ there is a chance your needs go unanswered. On the other hand, when you push the envelop and ask for ever more, and more ~ you may get the things you wish, yet in the process you may push away the people around you.

In other words, who would want to be around someone who is always pushing the envelop; who never seems content; for whom things are never quite good enough, as things always could have been better.

It is a fine line between testing our limits and pushing the envelop.
Especially in the energy of this point in time, when it is so easy to move from one polarity into the other ~ while it seems so difficult to keep the balance in the mid-point between these two polarities.

However, there is a difference between testing our limits and pushing the envelop...
Testing our limits ~ while this may affect the people around us ~ it is essentially a personal, even inner process. Pushing the envelop more often has to do with the interaction between people. It is more competitive, and can have a sense of winning or losing that goes along with it. To put it bluntly: ‘If I get it my way, I win, you loose.’

So while on the surface it seems that ‘testing our limits’ and ‘pushing the envelop’ are just different words to describe the same process ~ in energy they are vastly different.

Now, I am not saying that ‘testing our limits’ is good and ‘pushing the envelop’ is bad ~ as it is not that black and white. It is a good thing to push the envelop a bit as we may not always be aware of the perimeter of the arena we are working in; and pushing the envelop will often bring clarity as to the margins.
And ‘testing our limits’ can also be something detrimental when it is done to such extend that we throw away everything we have held near and dear in order to reach an unrealistic ideal...

But as long as we keep an eye on the balance between the polarities, ‘testing our limits’ and ‘pushing the envelop’ can really helps us as we start exploring new avenues in our lives.
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Testing the Limits

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If we would go about our daily business without ever looking to see what else could possibly be there, one could say that we would have created a self imposed prison. And while this place we would have created for ourselves might be comfortable, save, and secure ~ it could at the same time hold us back from achieving ever greater goals; or even from setting our sights at ever more exceptional potentials.

It is only natural to ~ every once in a while ~ test the limits of our comfortable day-to-day existence. To be curious enough to look beyond what we know; to see further than what we belief to be true at things unknown. To go in search of roads untraveled; of mountains that have yet to be explored.

Now that sounds as if we would need to travel the world to start testing our limits. However, that is not the case. Often the limits that hold us back most are a lot closer to home, and might be rooted in the belief system we grew up in.
In my mother tongue there is a saying that “if you are born to be a dime, you’ll never become a quarter”. Now, if that would be something one truly believes in, this would make it very hard to better oneself ~ to strive for that better job, that promotion, that better income... And to overcome a belief like that can very well be a mighty mountain to climb.

Other limits may have to do with our sense of security, our abilities, even our self esteem. Most of those are anchored within ourselves, and as such not only hard to discover as we tend to not see the things we are so close to. Once recognized they can be scary things to deal with.

And yet, testing the limits ~ perhaps especially these kinds of limits ~ can result in a great sense of freedom.
For instance, if you never dared speak in front of a group, yet you set yourself to do so anyway ~ you may actually discover that you are pretty good at it. And not only that, you may also find that you have a lot of wisdom to share with the world.

One thing is certain, testing the limits often is scary.
Walking a path that is untraveled, surely is not ‘the easy way out’.
It will however allow us to truly express our authentic selves ever more fully; bringing us to expressing our greatest potentials.
And from that perspective, testing the limits is without a doubt beneficial to us.
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Plans

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At one point or another we all make plans. Whether they are plans for an outing, or for something we want to accomplish... Plans for the future, or plans for a next step in a process or situation...
These plans keep us on track. They keep us pointing in the right direction.

And then suddenly things start happening that ~ at least at that point in time ~ seem incompatible with the plans we have made for ourselves, for our path, for our chosen direction in life.
Sometimes it is just one situation, one event that throws us off ~ other times it is a series of incidents, one following the other, keeping us occupied to such extend that we may not have either the time or the energy to keep any kind of focus on our plans, our goals.

So then what?

The first reaction may be to become discouraged as things keep getting in the way of fulfilling our plans. That one distraction after another steer us away from where we want to go.
As this continues, there perhaps also comes a point at which we realize that the distractions aren’t truly distractions at all. They may be pointers, ‘attention-getters’ that tell us to change direction, to change priorities, and yes perhaps even change plans...
At least for the time being.

So, does this mean that our plans, our goals, or even the direction in which we has taken our journey through life are wrong? Or that our timing is off?
Not necessarily so.

Often a string of occurrences like that comes in to our lives to give us the opportunities to re-examine what is truly important in our lives, and what is not. To see whether we might be putting time and energy into work or relationships that were important at one point in our lives, but have since outlived  their purpose. And the longer we are holding on to them, the more we are holding ourselves back from those things that are important to us now, at this point in our lives.

In other words, when, over a period of time there are things that continuously get in the way of our plans, chances are that we are holding ourselves back from the very things we want to accomplish. Often in ways we are totally unaware of at the time, until something happens to bring it to our attention.

Once we know how we hinder ourselves in achieving our goals, we can plan for that!
And in doing so reset our direction, our priorities, only to reach our goals more easily than we thought possible!
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Committees

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There is a saying that when a committee would set out to design a horse, what you would end up with is a camel. And I am not saying that a camel isn’t a beautiful animal. But is is a far cry from a horse...

The saying touches on pretty much any work done in a committee, especially when a committee operates from the perspective that there needs to be full consensus as to how to proceed with the project at hand.
However, the other extreme is true also... When a committee advices a person, group, or even a government and nothing is done with the advice ~ the committee is equally ineffective.

It is a situation that seems to come to the surface more and more in the energy of this point in time. On one hand it is clear that just relying on our own knowledge, capabilities and perhaps even awareness is not enough to cope with everything that is happening (or to get anything done). On the other hand, as soon as a committee gets involved it seems that the process of resolving the situation grinds to a halt. Certainly when there is a lack of leadership. When no-one is willing to make the ~ sometimes hard ~ decisions, guaranteeing a position of perpetual stagnation.

All of this doesn’t mean that committees can’t work. Especially in the energy of today it is more and more possible to indeed design a horse in a committee ~ and a race horse at that!
What is needed to do so is:

• A modern-day-leader who is respectful to not only the task at hand and those directly involved in the process of getting it done, yet also to the people it is done for ~ the public or audience.
• A modern-day-leader who is not afraid to ask for help when he or she needs it, and still is willing to step up and make the hard decisions that need to be made.
• A modern-day-leader who gives clear directions as to what is expected from every person in the committee and what the outcome should look like, and who moves forward to accomplish the overall goals.

And while the ultimate decisions are still with the modern-day-leader, the committee now can work as a well oiled machine. Without the leader or any of its members getting to be overwhelmed by the task at hand, or lost in the details of what needs to be done...

In this day and age, I believe a committee indeed can design a race horse!
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