Here is a channeled message from Jeanne and Jan to start off a new week!
Study what lies on your shore… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
As the waves of the ocean wash upon the shores so may you live your lives. Envision first gentle waves, the waves of childhood and youth, the waves of learning how to be in the world, the waves of knowledge and potential emerging out of the greater potential of nature from which you all come.
Sometimes the waves of the ocean are fierce and forceful, and sometimes it is appropriate for human beings to also be as forceful as nature. At times, it is necessary to barrel ahead, to push forward into life with liberty and freedom.
All must find their way through life, letting the energy of nature full expression and release. In order to progress in life one must allow nature to play its part—nature inside of you in relation to nature outside of you—if one is to evolve. Eventually new energy comes, the waves of moderation and progress, the waves of maturity.
Look upon the self as like the ocean. Study what that might mean for the self individually. Look at what lies in your deep. Look at what rides your surface. Look at what churns in your foam. Look at what crashes upon your shores. Look at what brings you to your true self.
As ocean, so are you like a force of nature, boundless yet contained, free yet controlled by other forces of nature, allowed expression and release yet also within the self complete with no need to expand too far. As ocean you are powerful, yet you are also gentle and calm. As ocean you are fruitful and bountiful, yet you must also preserve and care for that which you are.
As ocean, you are one with all of the energies of nature. You are nature itself. Remember this always: You are nature itself.
Allow the natural flow of you, as ocean and as nature itself, to guide you more fully through this phase of your life. What stage are you at now? And why must you be here? Learn from the self every day, so that you may achieve a new phase. That is what life is all about, constantly changing like the ocean. That is you!
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Those seven words form the basis of Michael Pollan’s little book, Food Rules. It’s one of my favorite books about a simple fact of life, that we all must eat. However, something about this basic fact of life has gone seriously awry in our Western culture. Our Western diet is killing us.
I’ve been on the search for the perfect diet since I was about fifteen. Seeking individuation, refusing to eat what my mother put on the table became a means of rebellion. No compensation was ever made for my dietary decisions. The fact that I would not eat the lamb that came from my grandfather’s herd of sheep because I knew some of those sheep intimately was ignored. I’ve been a vegetarian, a vegan, a macrobiotic, and for a time ate only raw foods. Now I eat just about everything, in moderation, though I’ve learned to listen to my body, as it tells me very clearly what to avoid. As Pollan states in his book: “…nutrition science, is to put it charitably, a very young science. It’s still trying to figure out exactly what happens in your body when you sip a soda, or what is going on deep in the soul of a carrot to make it so good for you, or why in the world you have so many neurons—brains cells!—in your stomach of all places.”
Studies of how the human body reacts to trauma reveal the presence of these brain cells as well, as during trauma the brain is the last part of the body to receive the message that something is happening. If we start paying attention to the messages from our stomach-brain we might just survive. Chuck wrote in his blog the other day about the serious state of the earth due to our modern world’s dependence on petroleum. We’ve destroyed the environment, and continue to do so, even though we are fully aware of our gross neglect. Greed is more powerful than truth. Greed is also inextricably linked to our Western diet—corporations are growing fat while our bodies are suffering. We take pills to correct what our diet has done to us, and somebody else makes a lot of money in that area too.
We’ve stopped thinking for ourselves. We aren’t using our brains or our stomach-brains. I laugh at the sign in the vegetable section of the grocery store that proudly states: Our organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical additives! That simple statement clearly states the other truth, that what is not organic is grown with pesticides, herbicides and chemical additives.
A lot of people start off the New Year with the classic resolution to lose weight and get fit. In order to really do so we have to change not only our diets but how we think about food and how we treat the environment—the health of our planet is just as important as the health of our bodies. There’s a lot of information out there about food and diet, but as Pollan suggests, the science of nutrition is very young. I propose that no one really knows what they’re talking about. We’ve made some serious blunders, a lot of them connected to money. Crisco, corn syrup, and margarine have destroyed our bodies, but fattened a lot of wallets.
Fermenting beverages… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
We must learn to go easy on our bodies, to not overtax or wear them out. It’s our vehicle through life, but a lot of people treat their cars better than they treat themselves. We must learn to love ourselves as much as we love material things; treat our bodies kindly by eating real food. “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t,” Pollan states. Wise words. Something to think about as we head into this New Year with our resolutions to get fit and healthy. Time to listen to our other brain perhaps?
Here are some basic food rules from Pollan: Eat fresh food. Eat leaves. Eat wild foods and plants. Stick to the small fish; herring, sardines and anchovies. (They can’t be farmed and their oils are good for us.) Eat animal food that is free range, raised without hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals. Eat fermented foods. Buy as much local and in-season as possible; this cuts down on the amount of petroleum products that are needed to get things into the stores from great distances but is far fresher and more nutritional as well. Plan to start a garden this spring. It’s healthy in more ways than one!
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year,
Jan
Here is a channeled message from Jeanne and Jan to begin the New Year, as we go through this time of transition and great potential for change. Time to take control of the self in a new way!
Even though the world may be reflecting something else, remain aware of the self at all times… – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Be aware now of every step you take. Assert consciousness as your main motivator, as your main discipline and intention, as you go about your everyday lives. It is only in being consciously aware of the physical self at all times that one will grow with awareness.
Awareness involves not only asserting intention and discipline, but making a concerted effort to start a new practice. Begin this practice simply, by constantly bringing attention to the present, to your place in the world at each moment of life. Ask the self to remain aware and cognizant of what is truly happening, of what you are supposed to learn, and of where you are to go next.
Awareness requires maintaining alertness to the conditions of the self at all times, not in judgment, but only in asking the self to remain fluid at all times, knowing that this fluid self is the true self. Physically this means consideration of your inner state of being, bringing the self to calmness and balance within, while simultaneously attending to the physical self in appearance, composure, and mental attitude—in how you present yourself to the world.
Be guided by your inner knowing that the self in the world is comprised of physical self and spiritual self. The mental self is an aberration, not necessarily evolutionary, except in how you are able to control it. The mental self is the cause of much anxiety and trouble. Thinking that one is this way or that, in settling upon judgments and critiques of the self, one limits the capacity of the self to evolve. However, the physical self and the spiritual self, once the mental self is removed, will be freed to travel onward together in a new way.
For this time of transition that you now live through, I suggest deep work be accomplished on freeing the physical/spiritual self of the confines of the mind, what I call the mental self. In truth, this mental self is extremely limiting, though it also has great capacity to grasp and understand, and this is necessary for a greater understanding of how the physical and spiritual selves unite and work in tandem.
In order to free the mental self to be available for greater exploration, and so that it may work alongside the physical/spiritual selves, one must prepare the mind by first getting to know this mental self far more intimately and deeply. One must become aware of how it works; its machinations, its tricks, and its habits that you so easily latch onto, but that do not help the physical/spiritual selves to align and evolve. So, set the intent, as I mentioned, to remain consciously aware of how tricky this mental self can become. How it will make you think and believe things about the self that are limiting—making you conceive of the self as this or that—when in reality you are a physical and spiritual being largely captivated by the machinations of the mind, this mental self.
Free the self from the machinations of the mind… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Study this mental self. Set the intent to continually question it, especially as to what it tells you about the self. Especially question the negative thoughts, the inflated thoughts, the big baby thoughts, the hateful and disgusting thoughts. You are not your thoughts, unless you allow them to control you! And so, I say: It’s time to free the self of the controlling mind. In order to do that you must get to know it VERY well! As your process proceeds, take over your mind. Allow it to be controlled by you, by your physical/spiritual self. Replace the old mental self, with a new mental self, by embedding new thoughts and positive information that is truthful and engaging of the true self, in alignment with the life you live, the life you have the potential for, and the life your physical/spiritual self so clearly desires.
In other words, get REAL with the self in all aspects of life. A transition time means that you have the opportunity for great strides to be made and that you can actually take advantage of this time to advance the self. You will not be held back by nature, as nature is in alignment with this transition too!
In order to get the self in alignment with this advancing energy, remind the self constantly to pay attention to each step you take, each thought you generate, and also of what is happening inside your physical body. You may not know it, but your physical body alone has far greater capacity to guide you through life than your mind. So pay attention to it!
Your New Year’s resolution should be this:I intend conscious awareness of self at all times, in all situations outside of the self, without distraction from the old mental self. I will pay attention to the body self and bring it into alignment with the spiritual self, the knowing self, which I will now free from bondage by letting go of the old mind speak.
This is what you are all charged with now: to free the true self to live more fully by shedding the old machinations of the mind—resentments, regrets, habits, and behaviors alike—as you learn to embrace a new mind and a new physical/spiritual self in alignment with each other and the world around you. You will discover that the world is waiting for this.
Just as nature knows exactly what to do every minute of every day, so do you. In physical/spiritual alignment you will be more flowing. Like nature, you will know how to be, act, and react. You will progress through your life without the constant barrage of input from the mind, which, as I said, is mostly limiting, negative, and unempowering. Until you free yourself of it, it will hold you back from your true self and your true potential to fully live.
Become like nature. Even in confinement it knows how to grow upwards and blossom! – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Lose your mind in a new way. Consciously dismiss its old speak and open up to new waves of body thought, as well as new insights from the spiritual, knowing self. In removing the blockages of the old mental self, there is potential for new energetic information from the physical/spiritual self to flow into the self, resulting in better alignment and balance.
Do not be afraid of this new way of living and attending to business upon that earth. In this new practice of conscious body awareness, you will discover your true potential, and you will be less afraid to more fully become the physical/spiritual self that you truly are.
And so, I end with this final missive: Only in releasing the relentless grip of the mind will you and all of mankind evolve. Free the self, one step at a time, to accept a new way of thinking, acting, and being in the world. It’s not really that hard. Once you begin, you’ll find yourself accepted and received in the world differently, for you will be like nature itself, more flowing, naturally in alignment, within yourself and within the world.
If you truly desire to make an impact in your own life, in your body self, and in the world around you, the first step is to change the self in this natural way. With practice and discipline you will achieve your goals. Pay attention to your body. That’s where to begin!
Happy New Year and Happy Travels as you begin the next adventure of your life!
We are like fire, constantly in motion, always changing… even if not aware. Time to become aware! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Here is a soulbyte to begin the transition into the New Year.
As we come to the time of completion of one year, remain aware during this interim phase, before the next year begins. Each moment in time is just as important as the big endings and the big beginnings.
A moment’s pause before transition. With reflection, we can see the typical course of our personal history and steer a new course instead. Everything is possible!
A simple symbol celebrating the season… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I wake out of dreaming with the following words flowing through me. They offer guidance in how to approach this season and, really, how to be through all of our days, through all of life in this world:
Rather than wish for, give.
Rather than take, receive.
Rather than too much, just enough.
Rather than withholding and withdrawing, be open.
Keep it simple.
Be present.
Sending Love and Greetings to Everyone! Yes, keep it simple!
Jan
