Lately, streaming into the ears of the general public has been talk of a new movement. This is not a movement like others prior. It is not a movement to change the general direction of our politics. It is not a movement to end a false flag war over seas. No, this movement is for something more fundamental. There are no marches in the streets or protests. It is a movement of consciousness. It has been subtle, but it is there. It is not designed to change your ideas or switch your religion. This movement is designed to open your eyes. There seems now a planetary shift in the global consciousness of people. We do not commonly here about this on the news because it is not the sort of entertainment that keeps us bloodthirsty and wanting to shop. But, within our species is shift, a shift of awareness. For thousands of years our habits and addictions have ruled our lives. Now, we understand that that road leads only to doom. We are seeing that if we change our mode of living from unconscious to cognitive we can make a powerful change. And change is what we all seem to want.

Many of us carry along a variety of fears. Some fears are more severe than others and some fear are more legitimately understandable the others. All fears, however, carry at least one similar trait; the fear is only eliminated by facing whatever you are afraid of. I cannot tell you how many women I know that are afraid of spiders…? Spiders??? Okay, I can see how they are a little creepy to the fragile mind, but to run away from something relatively harmless and then proceed to scream at the top of your lungs is frankly ridiculous. Many people are afraid of dogs. Many people feel that all dogs are inherently vicious and will bite you if they "smell" fear, which in turn, makes some people even more afraid of dogs. I can confidently say that whatever odor secretes from your body when you are afraid is not enough to turn a tame dog into a ravenous bloodthirsty villain. No one truly enjoys their fear. Some of us might unconsciously want to hold on to them for a backward sense of identity, but that is a different story. If you do have an underlining fear here is my advice:

When you are calm, approach whatever you are afraid of (make sure if it is an animal that it is calm too) and study it for as long as possible. Find a spider in a cage. Play with a big hulky dog at the human society. Pull out a box of matches in the parking lot and light them all up (I recently encountered someone afraid of fire). When you experience the fearful object under conditions of your control, I can guarantee the fear will be eliminated.

Amidst the constant influx of external noise (other people, television, radio, billboards and so on) it can be tough to take a break. Often people feel overwhelmed and inundated, as if they cannot get away from it, even if they are alone. Often people try to run away in some sense. Often, people turn to other sources of distraction, sources like alcohol, television, shopping and much, much more. But all these distractions serve to do is temporarily distract, and often they leave you with a bigger problem. How then, can we get away from this "influx"? Perhaps, the way cancel out the noise is to get rid of the noise. Perhaps, instead of adding to the noise with cheap supplements we should get away from the additives and deal with our boredom. Maybe, that is part of the problem; that we have a hard time dealing with boredom. Maybe this is where most of the noise comes from…….

As human beings, we are all trained to conform to whatever society we grow up in and so inherit the surrounding traits. We are like sponges becoming whatever liquid we soak up. Studies show experiment after experiment that most humans even act differently depending on what they are wearing. Yes, an outfit can and will change your attitude towards the world around you. It is fairly common knowledge that people react differently depending on how others are reacting to you. But someone acting differently based on what they are wearing, that is a bit of a shocker. Perhaps it is the drive to play the role our clothing seems to suggest. Perhaps there is a subconscious switch that flips on when reminded of a classic figure or model. Next time you go out on a casual outing, put on something you normally wouldn't wear and observe not only others, but yourself. Pay attention to your mannerisms and responses. Detect what has changed from your normal activity. You might find that you do far more acting in your life than you thought.

Belief, what is it? Probable knowledge, confidence in another's veracity, and acceptance of something as true or actual all turn up in my dictionary. To sum it up, the word implies a lack of fact and a lot of assumption. Why then do we humans fight over our assumptions? Why do we kill in the name of an assumption? Now, I am not solely speaking about today's dominant religions. Atheists, Agnostics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists…(and on and on) have all had their claim over the "truth". And while some are less violent than others, there is still a possessive quality inherent within the notion of "my belief", as if somehow your belief holds more truth than someone else' belief. The truth is no one knows what will ultimately happen when we die. We can assume and believe all we want. We can gather supporting data and statistics for years. However, we will know what happens only when we experience death. And even then, will we truly know what is happening?

So, I guess my question is: Why fight over it?

Have you ever noticed in this country, and other countries for that matter, that we are largely accepting of brutal violence and mayhem, but are oddly judgmental and damming when it comes to sexuality? Sure, no one wants to plop their child in front of a horror film and watch someone get their eye sucked out, and certainly I can understand that gratuitous sex is a bit mature for the wee ones. However, the simple sight of a penis on film is often met with unease, upset and upheaval. Breasts are a bit more common these days, but still there is largely an issue with sexuality displayed on television, and not merely the act of sex. Often all that is needed to stir a fury is the sight of genitals. Are we not all born with genitals? Do we not see them when we go to the rest room? Perhaps, instead of hiding people from this very basic, very natural sight we should accept the reality: we all have them and they are ok to have… and see!!! Perhaps, this is the cure for the large amount of perversion pervading our society.

There has been a long standing debate as to whether or not religion causes violence. A popular argument is that due to the secular nature of the many belief systems out there, even the highly positive ones, religions will always create a polarity between people. Religion, however, is a mental mechanical construct with the purpose of explaining the realm of the nonphysical. It has no function of its own. Whether you believe in a higher spirit or not is irrelevant to this fact. The point is that saying religion causes violence is like saying a gun pulls its own trigger.

The design of the human mind is to categorize, configure and separate. By nature we are pack animals because of this fact. Thus, violence is a function of the human mind, not what it constructs. The way to cure the chaos is to balance the mind, not remove specific thoughts. After all, it is not the thought that is the problem it is our reaction to it.

With the many charitable organizations and good intentions in the world, one might become confused we he turns on the evening news. Where did we go so wrong? This nation holds some very high minded ideals about how to treat people, yet every time we turn around we are faced with a horror story of society.

Is the problem we are doing too much? No, that's a silly notion. There is plenty more to do? So, is it that we as a society are doing too little? No, that concept is as fallible as the first.

Perhaps the underlining issue is that we are trying to change the world around us. Perhaps, in order to make true change, in the way we want it, is by changing ourselves. Meaning, instead of blaming someone else for our issues we take a deeper look at ourselves.

What is it about me that I can change?

I was recently asked if I could go to paradise and forget about everything, stop thinking about my problems and simply enjoy the rest of my days, would I do it. My answer to this was there is no paradise. And, yes, I know the question was a fictional hypothetical one, however, the reason I responded with such cynicism is because paradise is where you make it. If you took the above option it would not be long before you began to question "why?" or desire something that is not there. That is not to say that desire is bad, but it leaves you feeling empty and craving. Craving, not to sound like a Buddhist, is the beginning of your problems; you crave for something to be different or to have this or that. Perhaps you will crave more coconuts or you will crave a new woman dressed in banana leaves each morning. Let's even say that you have everything you wanted and every desire is fulfilled, how long do you think it would take before you began to crave a different environment? How long before you wanted some excitement. The only way to get that excitement is to do something that you haven't done before and you can only do that with something you don't have or by going to a place you've never been. Soon you would ask, what if you could go to paradise?

As I said in a previous blog, I am going to provide a few examples/reminders of how you can incorporate stillness in your very busy life. First, let me tell you that stillness can entered even while in the midst of an activity. The stillness I am referring to is inner stillness; a sort of stillness often overlooked and underappreciated. So what I am about to suggest are ways that fit into your everyday life.

1. Pay attention to your breathing. This will automatically calm you down and slow down the random/useless thoughts that are causing much of the stress in your life. You can do this while:
   
   1. Driving.
      
   2. Working. (Whether while behind the desk or out and about)
      
   3. Sitting on your couch watching television or
      
   4. Any time. You are always breathing so you can always pay attention to it.
      
2. Feel within your body. Within that wondrous biomechanical object you live through is a flow of energy. Everything from blood to electromagnetism is surging through you and you can feel it. For times and locations to feel see above. If you are having troubles feeling the flow within see below:
   
   1. Feel anything within, either a slight buzz in your fingertips or a faint pulsating pump on your toes, there is something there to feel.
      
   2. Ask yourself: How can I know my body is there without looking or touching it?
      
   3. Imagine what it would feel like if a wave of energy jolted throughout your bones?
      
   4. Once you do feel something, let that feeling travel from your head to your toes.

There are many things in life that most of us take for granted. Paradoxically, one of those things happens to be not a thing at all. Of course, through the use of language this arbitrary description must be explained in such a manner. I am talking about stillness, one of the most overlooked blessings or lack thereof, depending on how you look at it. Stillness, silence, peace, emptiness (in a non-negative connotation) is essential to a life of inner-peace and tranquility or at least moments of such blissful states. Stillness will help you to put in order all of the chaos that is running amuck in your life. Stillness will ease the troubles that plague your mind. Its importance is overlooked because our society, and almost all other societies, view stillness as a waste of time, as a counterproductive, lazy, inefficient way of living. If you incorporated stillness into your life you would find out what is truly beneficial and what isn't. Perhaps this is the reason so much is spent on advertising and we are bombarded with entertainments. Of course, a more prudent question is: Who is responsible, the drug dealer or the drug addict?

Coming Soon: Ways to Incorporate Stillness

Selfishness really gets a bad rep. The term conjures up a negative connotation; as if all one cares about in the world is him or she. But, if you think about it we are all inherently selfish. You need to be. There is nothing in this world that you do not do for yourself. There are definitely things we do that benefit others and that is, of course, ok.

Disagree, do you?

When was the last time you did anything beyond personal motivation? If threatened, you are acting out the particular for survival. All relationships carry some form of personal gain. Even the act of giving carries with it a personal attachment to the act. My point is that we often spend much of our time trying to pretend we don't have any personal gain in many of our life's endeavors. When we do this we forget to pay attention to the most important person in our lives: ourselves. This is not to imply that worrying about your self image is what is important, that is only another form of paying more attention to others. Ask yourself these questions:

How can you be a good parent if you don't take care of yourself?

How can you be a good lover if you don't take care of yourself?

How can you live your life if you don't pay attention of focus within yourself?

The use of the language has been both the greatest achievement of humanity and the bane of its existence. It is a great achievement in the way that language has allowed for large numbers of people to learn and expand their knowledge. We have used language to form technology and create a society so advanced it never would have been possible without it. The "bane" comes in, and I have said this before, in the way that we get lost in words. We think now almost solely through language. So when we say things like "I love you" the connotation behind the saying can mean many different things. We have idealized everything and in doing so have allowed ourselves to manipulation, mostly by our own unconscious hands. If someone can explain to me a solid definition of "Love" I will commend them. Also, what do you mean when you tell your partner "I love you"? And to reiterate a previous message from a previous blog, if anyone can tell me what a relationship is and, more importantly, where this elusive relationship resides I will, once again, commend you. The truth is these sayings and their respective meanings can have many different connotations. And often we confuse our words with our meanings. An example of which would be the following common question and answer:

Q: "What are you feeling right now?"

A: "I feel like you're being rude!"

I feel like you're being rude is not an example of a feeling, that is an opinion.

Take a look at your life and find out what forms of manipulation you take part in.

Internal power is like an automobile, fully gassed and fully tuned. The vehicle can take you anywhere you want to go. But, in order to start this vehicle, we need motivation. Motivation is often like a set of keys, held within the palm of our hands, yet, for some reason, we insist on looking for them somewhere around the house. The entire time searching, growing frustrated, the keys are there dangling within our grasp in the closest location possible. But, we often overlook the one place we never really had to look. In order to find the keys to our power, all we simply have to do is feel what is in the palm of our hands. At that point we would know that everything we needed was with us the entire time we were searching.