It's easy to forget that we are all perfect in our own design. Sometimes we muck it up with habits and choices that do not serve us. 

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Stop Animating What Makes You Ache

If we see how much of our unhappiness is self-created, through being inattentive to our own interior life, then accordingly, we can learn to re-direct our attention, placing it where we will within what is right and bright. But, there is only one way to realize this reversal: we must work to see how wrongly directed attention works against us.

Perhaps a thought pops into your mind about a problem that’s been bothering you. Appearing with it is some emotional disturbance. Now the thought starts rolling, growing in its demand for your attention. Almost instantly it has defined what needs to be done, or what you are powerless to do. And both states accomplish the same dark end: you’ve unknowingly animated that thought and given it a life -- and the life you’ve given it is your own! Here’s an example of how this scene might unfold:

A man is walking through his office when his boss walks by and gives him a blank look. The thought pops into the man’s mind that his boss is criticizing him or doesn’t like him. Now, as he starts to fear this idea -- a negative picture produced by his imagination -- his mind focuses its attention on this disturbing image. And the more he attends to this dark dream, the further into its labyrinth he descends, strengthening its presence and power to further irritate him. A heartbeat later, he has no doubt: the boss has it in for him! This thought grows in authority for him, tormenting him for the rest of the day and causing him to snap at his family when he gets home. And all of this suffering is born of what? The conjunction of a passing glance and a moment of misdirected attention!

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Locked down While the Earth has this Chance to Heal Itself

Humans are on lockdown to give the planet a minute to rebirth. Turtles are able to lay eggs on the beaches without human interference, polluted skies are clearing, fish are jumping, birds are singing, the deer and the antelope are playing. Look at us.

We will be back but maybe we have learned a thing, or two. The universe is gifting us with a second chance to get it right - to discover (or rediscover) what is truly important to us. The gift is an equalizer. Everyone is affected equally - rich, poor, white, black, gay, straight - Finally.... We are one. Finally we are in this together and for each other. It is not your thing, or my thing - it is our thing.

It is as if we were spinning out of control - faster and faster and faster and the universe hit the brakes. Just stop, take a breath, begin anew. Begin anew with new and fresh and fair paradigms.

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Take Care Of The Now

"Take care of the now for the sake of tomorrow." -Pope Francis

I've Been Thinking...

Happy Easter and Passover to you!


I know many of you are not feeling very happy at this moment. I know this is not the way you wanted to celebrate the holidays and for that I’m really sorry. I know millions of our fellow human beings are feeling anything but celebratory today.

Many of you have been separated from loved ones. Millions of you have lost jobs. (The numbers are so staggering I can’t even wrap my mind around them.) Many of you have also lost loved ones. You’ve been forced to say goodbye on the phone or attend funerals, like I did yesterday, on Zoom. (I gotta say, I never thought I’d experience that. But it was very moving, very special, and weirdly comforting.) I know so many of you are anxious, mad, scared, and ready for this all to be over. I know.

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A New Fearless Self: Living The Life Of Joy & Freedom

Stress is building up everyday. In the days of the Pandemic, when the entire Globe has come together in terms of their own existence, when individuality has stopped having a meaning, when people have come to understand that, now all their petty issues have submerged into the common pool of human existence.

Life itself is the only issue that has meaning, all else comes later. Humanity has come to understand that only when there is life, only then the concept of issues has a meaning and relevance.

FEAR RULES THE HEARTS

With the influx of messages from the media, fear is looming large in the lives of most people. In the average man, who has been conditioned to believe that his life revolves around making money. He is at a loss on how to do his daily activity amidst the current environment.
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Be Home

What’s your deepest nature?

The Practice:
Be home.

Why?

Throughout history, people have wondered about human nature. Deep down, are we basically good or bad?

When the body is not disturbed by hunger, thirst, pain, or illness, and when the mind is not disturbed by threat, frustration, or rejection, then most people settle into their resting state. This is a sustainable equilibrium in which the body refuels and repairs itself and the mind feels peaceful, happy, and loving. I call this the Responsive mode. In a sense, this is our “home base,” our fundamental nature as human beings. (Obviously, I am not talking about the physical location where a person lives.) We are still engaged with the world, still participating with pleasure and passion, but on the basis of a background sense of safety, sufficiency, and connection.

But when body or mind are disturbed – perhaps by overwork and fatigue, or by the cough of a nearby lion a million years ago or a frown across a dinner table today – Mother Nature has endowed us with hair-trigger mechanisms that drive us from our resting state. Fight-flight-freeze systems in the body get activated, and related experiences of fear and anger, disappointment and drivenness, and loneliness, shame, and spite occur in the mind.

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Mark Nepo's Weekly Reflection: The Context of Every Struggle

We spend so much time anticipating what will happen next that we miss the whisper of Heaven that unfolds wherever we are. Though I have known and survived many forms of pain, fear is the troll in my mind that anticipates more. And just as a loud noise prevents us from finding the peace in the center of silence, fear prevents us from finding the inch of Heaven in the center of whatever moment we are in. Yet, no matter how much I’ve been through and how much I’ve learned, I can’t stop the wave of anticipation. No one can. It is part of being human.

But I can escape it from time to time. When fully engaged in learning, or caring for another, or in a moment of devotion to all that I believe about the Mystery of Life—in these openings, the anticipation loosens and I am completely present, at least for a while. The practice of authenticity is building on these moments until they open up our days.

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“I Don’t Know Anything!”

What if you knew that, not only do you know nothing, but that you don’t need to know anything?

“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” Socrates

One of my all-time favorite movie lines is in the Alastair Sims version of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge has just returned from his night with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. He is thrilled that it is Christmas Day and that he has an opportunity to act on his new understandings of life and love. With his new awareness of what life is really about, he delightedly states, “I don’t know anything! I never did know anything but now I KNOW I don’t know anything!”

This is actually a very profound statement. What it means to me is that our ego mind always thinks it knows stuff, but the truth is that it doesn’t know anything. A turning point in my life came when I KNEW I didn’t know anything—when I knew that truth doesn’t come FROM my ego wounded mind, but rather THROUGH my mind.

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Creativity is Your Destiny

When it comes to the idea of creativity, many operate from a very limited view of what “creativity” entails. In the 30-plus years working with patients and students, I’ve heard people say: “I’m not very creative. I’m not really the artistic type.”

Creativity is so much more than artistic talents or mindsets associated with painters, musicians and other creative types. The truth is, the entirety of the universe is made of creative energy. There is nothing that is not made of creative essence.

If you take the entire universe and begin compressing it down, science shows us this compressed version of energy is you. This means, you’re not only intended to be creative; you are made of creativity. Additionally, if science were to break down the physical world we’re living in, it would find that photons, the smallest, tiniest particle known, are completely influenced by our very whims. Each time we think a thought, those photons move and rearrange in accordance with that thought.

That’s how creative we are. That’s how creative you are.

The following story is an example of how powerful our creative force can be when we choose to live from that truth.

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We’re All Connected … Especially Now!

A few short weeks ago, we were going about our normal lives … driving to work, picking up groceries, dropping our kids off at school, meeting friends for dinner, taking trips to see our relatives, attending a live event and catching up with our neighbors at the dog park.

Then it all came to a sudden and unexpected halt that shook the very foundation of our lives!

Now, we’re being urged to practice social distancing and isolation. Residents in many states have been mandated to stay at home. Businesses have shut down. Some cities are closing their beaches and parks. Some countries, such as Italy and Spain are virtually at a standstill.

Like you, I felt a pang of fear in my gut and my head was full of questions as this news was unfolding. Why is this happening? What’s the message we’re supposed to get from this? Will the world as we know it ever be the same?

Weeks earlier, we yearned to step away from our overwhelming schedules so we could spend more time with our loved ones or by ourselves. Now that we’re forced to do it, it’s scaring the heck out of us.

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Lower the Pressure

Is it truly urgent?

The Practice:
Lower the pressure.

Why?

Things come at us with so much urgency and demand these days. Phones ring, texts buzz, emails pile up, new balls have to be juggled, work days lengthen and move into evenings and weekends, traffic gets denser, financial demands feel like a knife at the neck, ads and news clamor for attention, push push push PUSH.

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Honoring Our Connection

What a gift we have, when we recognize the connections.

Several years ago I met an elderly woman, who I will always remember. Her name is Elli. She was strongly connected to the other side, but not yet ready to go. She shared how she has always experienced angels in her life and also how much she loved her family. Physically she was petite and frail with a tiny patch of purple in her hair.

All through her life brilliant showers of light would show up, reaffirming her awareness of God and her connection with the Angels.

Elli’s daughter is a friend of mine. She was concerned about her mother’s health, pain and fatigue. Elli was diagnosed with stage four cancer. This sweet little lady that sees angels, traveled from the East Coast to Anchorage twice, while I knew her. We eventually set up a regular call on Friday mornings for her to receive some healing energy and a guided meditation. At some point the stage four cancer was completely gone, yet Elli remained very frail, hungry and exhausted.  Through it all, she was riding the wave of awareness that includes love, most don’t understand. Her body was tired and shutting down, but she still enjoyed the sweetness in life.

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You Are Enough – An introduction

Do You Choose Safety over authenticity? Most of us do. For many years I did the same – I ran from my natural gifts and pursued a path that was not my own. I was in the heart of the club scene in the underground of East London with drugs, gangs, loud music, and notoriety all becoming a part of my life at that time.

For years, I pushed my true self deeper and deeper down, creating a vacuum of emptiness – a black hole within me. I constantly put myself in the path of danger to dull the pain and unhappiness that festered inside of me, until one night, when a near death experience jolted me from my insatiable desire to fit in, and changed the course of my life forever. 

I finally drew a line in the sand. From that point on, I refused to live by anyone else’s terms but my own. I realized my life literally depended on it.

I was now intent on rediscovering the peace and spirituality of my childhood. While other kids in London’s East End were busy watching cartoons and playing with their friends, I spent every moment I could with my grandmother…surrounded by soft lights and incense in her meditation room. I decided to embrace my differences and sought to understand and develop my gifts…those differences and gifts that I first saw in my time with my grandmother as a child.

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Coronavirus Speaks – Loudly And Clearly

“Virus epidemics are Mother Earth’s way of teaching us lessons that have lasting impacts,” an Andean Shaman told me. “When we contract a disease – or worry over it – we learn about ourselves and the world around us.”

I’ve thought about the historical implication of those words during this time of the coronavirus. A couple of perspectives:

  • The Black Plague that swept through Asia, Africa, and Europe in the 14th century killed an estimated 50 million people, as much as 60% of the population. It ended up impacting ideas about contamination, the economy, environment, and the importance of science. Although the role of viruses would not be discovered until much later, people realized that removing garbage and sewage from the streets and quarantining infected patients prevented it from spreading. Because of the many deaths, labor was in short supply and gained the bargaining power to increase wages significantly. As populations shrank, so did communities and farm lands; forests were rejuvenated. Perhaps most important for the long-term, the Plague generated an interest in scientific approaches to medicine and understanding the universe. (1)
  • The most notorious virus in modern times is the one that causes HIV/AIDS, a virus that since it was first identified in the early 1980s has caused an estimated 32 million deaths. (2) The HIV/AIDs virus has had huge social, cultural, economic, and educational impacts. It has taught us about the importance of safe sex, clean needles, properly-administered blood transfusions, and timely medical treatment. It has kept many people out of labor forces, especially in parts of Africa, and thus has decreased their purchasing power and GDP growth. (3) It has resulted in many attitudinal changes previously held toward different races and sexual beliefs; these resulted in new perceptions and established new laws and cultural norms. 
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Mark Nepo's Weekly Reflection: Next to Me

Later, we’ll see Kenzie dance at NYU. She is sixteen and close to her source. She ran through my legs when she was little. I’m fifty years older than her. How did this happen? This morning, in a favorite café, a couple close to thirty. They’re signing some papers, so blinded by their love and dream of the future that they can’t see that the man waiting on their signature is not trustworthy. I want to warn them. Of course, I could be wrong. But more deeply, no one can be saved from their possibility and their path. Not I or the young couple or Kenzie. Near the window, another young man, his arms covered with intricate tattoos. Suddenly, each marking is the story of a life. He has headphones on and is lost in his computer. And I wonder if the ancient, stone Buddhas at Angkor Wat were living beings whose wounds and lessons were inked into their bodies. Like this one. I wonder if, over the centuries, they hardened into these compelling remnants of ordinary people trying to find their way, who we have turned into gods.

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The Compassion Virus

The Compassion Virus is concurrently infecting the human species along with the Coronavirus. The more you know about it, the better.

INCUBATION PERIOD

The incubation period of the Compassion Virus may be quite long. Infection can occur months or years prior to the appearance of symptoms and even predate the birth of the infected individual. In these cases, infection is deemed to have occurred in another personality of the soul of the infected individual. Five-sensory diagnosis is impossible because souls and other personalities of them are undetectable to five sensory clinicians.

EARLY ONSET

Individuals in the early onset stage of the Compassion Virus appear asymptomatic. Physical symptomology is absent, however, internal nonphysical markers are self-identifiable by the infected individual. He or she begins to question why he or she performs certain actions apart from obvious benefits and detriments. Is it for the benefit of himself or herself or/and the benefit of others? At this stage the Compassion Virus becomes contagious.

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Perceiving through Pygmalion

Today I’d like to share with you a well-documented phenomenon called The Pygmalion Effect.

The name is derived from the mythical Greek character, Pygmalion, who had carved such a beautiful statue that he fell in love with it...and brought her to life.

In other words, Pygmalion’s perception of this seemingly inanimate rock as a beautiful living woman  changed its very nature into a beautiful living woman.

The effect was popularized by a study that showed that teachers’ perceptions of their students impacted their students’ innate IQ level. When the teacher perceived a particular student as an “intellectual bloomer” (even if this held no measurable validity), that student became an intellectual bloomer.

The Pygmalion Effect then can be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy…

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Meditation for Success: Unlock Your Potential with Daily Meditation

Meditation has the power to transform your life for the better and ignite your success. But how do you fit it into your busy life? 

Fact: The actions we take in the morning set the tone for the entire day.

Most of us know this intuitively — that a strong start is critical to having a good day — yet how do we begin our days?

Too often, we start by reaching for our phones to read the latest influx of work emails, disaster-filled news headlines and an endless flow of celebrity gossip.

Then, we round out the morning by filling our bodies with sugary pastries and caffeine-laden drinks as we high-tail it to work, already overwhelmed by the problems the day will surely bring.

It’s no coincidence that we’re a nation of anxious, dissatisfied people who are constantly in search of something more substantial in our lives.

For me, that something turned out to be meditation for success.

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A Message For Times Of Crisis (Dealing with Fear & Coronavirus)

“In Chinese the word ‘crisis’ means opportunity. I believe that in the midst of these times, there is an opportunity, there is something more than before seeking to emerge for not just you and I individually, but collectively as a humanity.”

In this episode, I share some thoughts, ideas, inspiration and perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that we are currently experiencing. My intention is to help you move through this time with much more insight, wisdom, resilience, willingness, openness and understanding, so that you’re able to participate in such a way you will grow, evolve, purify and cleanse your own consciousness to come out even stronger on the other side. COVID-19 is a wake up call.

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Give Over to Good

The Practice:
Give over to good.

Why?

In every moment, you and I and everyone and everything else – from quantum foam to fleeting thoughts, intimate relationships, rainforest ecosystems, and the stars themselves – are each a kind of standing wave, like the ever-changing though persistent pattern of water rising above a boulder in a river.

We are the result of multiple causes flowing through us. As Buckminster Fuller famously said, “I seem to be a verb.”

This fact is amazing, but it’s corroborated by both modern physics and deep ecology. We can get silly-cosmic about it (done this myself – not only as a college sophomore!), but the implications are very down to earth.

As unique standing waves, you and I are constructed each moment by the currents – the forces and factors, both internal and external – flowing through us. We have no choice about being lived by these currents, continually given over to them.

But we can choose to give ourselves over to the good ones.

By “good,” I mean that which leads to happiness and benefit for you and others; “bad” means the opposite. (Of course, honesty about what is actually turning out to be truly good is important; history holds many cautionary tales about people giving themselves over to things they thought were good – e.g., Nazism – but weren’t.)

Giving over to good means relaxing into, opening to, being buoyed and guided by things like your own naturally good heart, the impulse to take the high road, love, compassion, vitality, courage, the longing for justice, and the wisdom and support of good friends.

Then your life’s wave becomes simpler, happier, and more beneficial.

How?

There are two steps: knowing what the “good” is for you, and then giving yourself over to it.

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Mark Nepo's Weekly Reflection: The Signature of Being

I stop in the middle of our conversation on the street and feel those around us working on themselves and their relationships, solving problems and imagining new ways of being. For a moment, as the sun comes through, I can sense the entire city at work on their worth, unlacing trouble, looking for peace, each trying in their own way to be kind and useful in the face of storm and time. I am stopped by the sound and glow of souls being hammered in the smithy of circumstance. I lift my face to the sun, thankful to be part of an unfinished humanity, everyone trying to find the love and keep the love, everyone working as a part in the unseeable Whole. All of us like a medieval guild working in the sun: this one repairing a wheel, that one cobbling a shoe, and another repairing the path, while someone over there is baking bread. And the secret is revealed: we are never more alive than when working on the way.

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