Retain awareness of your higher self. Remind yourself often of who you really are, why you are there, and where you are going. If these things are not yet clear to you remind yourself anyway. Eventually all will be revealed. In the meantime, do your best for self and other, for your inner self and your outer self, for those you love and those you don’t know. For you never know where your higher self will lead you next and it is best to be prepared with an open and loving heart for whatever may come. Ask your higher self to guide and teach you, and be open to its guidance. It will always respond with what you need the most and often with what you least expect.
Such a tangled mess our thoughts do make! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I decide to pursue an empty mind. Thoughts become the target. There are, I notice, different kinds of thoughts. One kind is worry. Worry tends to take over, spinning, attacking, and defeating even the most intentional of counterattacks. Another kind of thought comes suddenly. I notice a tiny bump on my little toe.
“Uh oh,” is my first thought. “What’s that bump?”
“Calm down,” another voice interjects, “check out the other little toe.” And so I do and I see that I have another similar bump on the other little toe.
“Oh, that’s funny,” I say to myself, “how easily I jump to a conclusion, how I immediately think something is wrong.” Just to prove that nothing is wrong, I check out both little bumps simultaneously, judging them to be exactly the same size and shape, nothing more than the structure of the bones of my toes. And then I laugh at myself for even this need to check as I let the whole thing go, but not before I take note of that other voice that spoke and told me to calm down.
“Don’t obsess!” I tell myself, “you just create a situation that doesn’t exist in reality, but you sure could create it in your mind. Empty the mind!”
And so, I’ve become aware of my thoughts. There are, however, thoughts, and then there are another kind of thoughts. The kind of thoughts that don’t belong in an empty mind are usually pretty recognizable, such as the ones described above, worry, fear, etc. I also notice how even seemingly good thoughts are not so good. They imply that something is wrong, that I need to insert positive thoughts when in reality all I need is to spend my energy on emptying my mind of all thoughts because they are all intrusive, inserted intentionally or coming as a result of issues or circumstances arising in life.
The other kind of thoughts that come are non-intrusive, like the voice that told me to calm down. These thoughts come from the higher mind, from the higher self, and they come in a different way. They come from the observer self who knows all, who is present with us while we live our lives and struggle with our thoughts, our obsessions, our desires, our truths, our fears and our memories.
Such thoughts have a completely different feel from the intrusive thoughts of worry and obsession. They speak to us very calmly, very soberly. Devoid of emotion and feeling, they deliver us messages that we know, deep down inside of us, are so right. The place where these thoughts come from, the higher self, is the place we want to connect with and be guided by more often. This is the place where we yearn to reside. We can consciously choose to listen only to this voice to deepen our connection with this higher self.
We learn to trust the thoughts of this higher self as we test it, letting it into our lives, asking it to help us. It tells us to be calm, to step back and wait a second, to not get all riled up, to not act out or lash out, but to simply pull our energy inward and maintain our equilibrium. Depending on our circumstances, how in-tune with this other producer of thoughts we are, we might hear this voice often or only rarely.
Our heart always recognizes the calming voice of the higher self… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
As we work with it, we soon find that this higher self tells us everything we need to know. We get to a place where worry comes only occasionally, where obsession hardly at all. We may not have empty mind all the time, but it becomes easier to get there the more we train ourselves to recognize the types of thoughts we entertain. We quickly discern between welcome thoughts and unwelcome ones and get pretty good at getting rid of the unwanted ones.
Thoughts are entities. They are looking for a nice juicy unguarded mind to enter and feed off. They are looking for the unaware, the inattentive. They are looking to sneak in and plant themselves and get as much energy as possible. They circle around the universe, the same thoughts endlessly seeking sustenance. We can consciously decide whether or not we want them inside us. They are no better than a disease. An aware mind recognizes them and gets rid of them, refusing them immediately.
One day, author Doug Boyd was gathering herbs with Rolling Thunder and his son Spotted Eagle. Doug was assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes. Rolling Thunder and his son were not interfered with at all, but Doug suffered unrelenting attacks, being bitten and then itching like crazy. It wasn’t until evening that Rolling Thunder said to Doug, “Maintain your good feelings.”
He meant, maintain his good feelings inside so that his energy outside would be calm and he would not give off smells, senses, and vibrations that normally attract mosquitoes. The mosquitos are like thoughts, entities that want what they want; in the case of the mosquito, as much blood as they can get. The way to get rid of the mosquitos, Doug learned, was to maintain calmness and good inner energy, to calm the mind, the body, the senses, so that the vibrations of the body would be calm as well.
As we change our vibrations we become unattractive to things like pesky mosquitos and meandering thoughts. By maintaining inner calmness and good feelings about ourselves, we learn that rogue thoughts have no use for us. We offer them nothing and so they leave us alone. In this lesson, we learn that we have the power to control what happens to us outside by how we maintain our inner state, and it works in reverse too.
We can gain control over everything. Sometimes it may feel appropriate to be upset and to react to something happening in the world outside of us. But if we step back from those feelings for a moment, empty ourselves of them, and get back to our good feelings about ourselves, we might find that they are actually not as important or appropriate as we first thought. We find we can let them go.
On another day, Doug Boyd was alone with Rolling Thunder’s son Spotted Eagle. Once again they were going out to gather herbs. They came upon a man in a remote area, standing next to his pickup truck, obviously angry about something. He yelled about all kinds of things, on the verge of a racist rant it almost seemed. Spotted Eagle quickly assessed the situation. He did not speak but simply got back into the car. Doug did the same and they calmly drove back out the way they had come. Spotted Eagle, a Medicine Man in training, knew it was not going to be worth an encounter.
Always on the quest for empty mind… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
We too must learn to trust that our higher self knows what is really important and where we should be spending our energy. More often than not anger or confrontation are not appropriate reactions. Our higher self will always guide us to a reaction in alignment with a greater calling, if we care to listen, and then it’s up to us to take the advice and see what happens.
Perhaps nothing is more important than maintaining our good feelings about ourselves, and our empty mind. If our good vibrations can have an effect on our thoughts, on our physical bodies, and even on how mosquitos react to us, imagine what else could happen if we all gained and maintained only good feelings about ourselves all the time. The world would surely be a changed place.
Keeping an empty mind and sending good vibrations, Jan
Excerpted stories come from Doug Boyd’s book Rolling Thunder, 1974.
This little pheasant lady, who came into our lives on February 1st, is still here! Did she pick our yard at random or is there a reason? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Today’s Soulbyte, a channeled message, poses a most common dilemma. “Interferences happen,” it says. “Even the best laid plans may have to be canned as life, nature, and even death may interfere. Learn to flow with life, with what comes.” How do we learn to let go of control so that we will flow with the inevitable, yet still remain open to the joys of the improbable? That is the dilemma.
Chuck and I decided, quite a while ago, to let the energy of life, the universe, our higher selves, etc., not only guide us but connect us to our higher potential as energetic beings in human form. Acquiescing to this idea has often been a challenge, as we do often want to make something happen, or make plans that we think are best, either for ourselves or others. In acquiescing to the energy of the greater cosmos, however, we have learned to let go of control, to not focus on outcome but to live each day in the moment, allowing unfolding life to guide us.
We practice this in many ways. We don’t rely on anyone else. We do no advertising, no promotions, no soliciting. Our lives, work, and interests are fully funded by our intent alone. Things happen. Things arrive. Things come to us. We find or discover something in perfect alignment with where we are in our lives, as we continually seek out new and deeper experiences and knowledge.
We have discovered that the key to living an energetic life is, yes, to “learn to flow with life, with what comes,” but also in the choices we make. It has not been easy to always flow with life, but it has certainly been rewarding. Even in times of difficulty we have learned to find the jewel. We have no set practice to achieve this other than our attention to the details of our life, and a certainty that everything is meaningful. We have elected to live consciously, making decisions that are proactive and in alignment with spirit, with the awareness that we are here to learn something important about ourselves.
There are many practices that can aid us in experiencing life on an energetic level, the most common one these days appears to be meditation. Any number of practices exist to choose from, but the overall intent of a practice is to gain control, discipline over the mind, thoughts, all that they attach to and the stories they weave, which interfere with our ability to flow with life.
We hear some news. We spin a tale around it. We expect the worst, we spin a worse tale. We tell ourselves bad things, bad things happen to us. We make a wish, the wish comes true. We want something, we get it. We think and think and think, driving ourselves crazy with thoughts. But when we look closely at those thoughts we realize they don’t exist, they are mere stories in our minds. But in the spinning of our thoughts we have created a reality.
In acceptance of energetic reality we gain a certain peaceful acceptance of all that is… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
If we change our thoughts, actually let them go one at a time as they come into our minds, we free ourselves to exist in the moment. This is the practice that we have found is the most practical method of being present. It is meditation in action, all the time. The purpose being to examine the personal, the life we are in, as we live it consciously each day. Our sitting in meditation, our breathing, our yoga and other physical practices are merely tools to learn how to be in the moment and flow with what comes. But the real practice comes in implementing it, putting it to work in each moment of each day.
Once we set the intent to be in the moment, once we decide we want to live an energetic life, we must acquiesce to that intent. To do this we must learn to let go of our attachments. Attachments include desires, wants, needs, ideas that things should be this way or that way, that life should be a certain way. Letting go of attachments means letting go of our preconceived ideas, what we’ve learned about life and the world, and becoming open to new ideas.
Letting go of attachments means allowing everything to be of interest and yet attaching to none of it. If we are to live an energetic life we must allow ourselves to fully embrace the possibility that everything is possible, that nothing is impossible, that anything can happen. And when we do that we begin to have the experiences of an energetic life.
I think about my daughter. I should call her. The phone rings. It’s my daughter. “Oh,” I say, “I was just thinking I should call you and you called!” “Yes,” she says, “that’s how we operate!” It goes the other way as well. I will call her and she will say, “Oh yes, I knew I would be hearing from you because I’ve been thinking about you.” We operate on an energetic level.
We all communicate on this energetic level, with people we know and with people we don’t know. We might dream of each other, think of each other, run into each other and if we are aware we know that none of these things are coincidences, they are synchronicities, the intent of our higher self directing our lives.
If we can allow this idea, that we have another part of us that directs our life, and acquiesce to this higher self, then we are well on the way to leading an energetic life. I learned how to do this most assuredly during my recapitulation, as I learned to trust the process and found that everything that was happening to me was meaningful. It became the most important and most fulfilling journey of my life. Everything since then has been a continuation of that amazing process, as life since then has unfolded in a most magical, unplanned way.
Anyone doing deep work on the self is in alignment with energetic living, because deep work, the search for self-knowledge is the path that leads to discovery of the higher self. The higher self waits for us to find it and to trust it. But first we must discover and trust who we are in the lives we are living. We must first be interested in ourselves as human beings and how we really operate.
Many people have no interest in knowing who they are at a deeper level. Stepping into the deeper self is frightening, as often the first things we have to face are the things we have suppressed during our lifetimes, the things we consider bad about ourselves, the things we have done, the things we fear, the things that make us sad or pathetic to ourselves. But those things are our challenges to face, obstacles blocking access to our higher self.
The magical in the cosmos is ours to experience… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
In taking the path to self-discovery and self-knowledge we discover so much more about the world too. I am a big proponent of taking an interest in the self! Not in a selfish way, but in exploring the meaning of life.
Someone once said to me, “Oh, that’s such ridiculous stuff!” when I mentioned my interest in astrology. “You really believe that?” he asked, quite disturbed. “No,” I said, “I don’t believe anything, that’s why I’m interested in it. Anything is possible.”
We had two totally different perspectives on life, and although the guy was a very intelligent and warm human being, a college philosophy professor, he just could not ever get out of his head. That is really the first challenge. Can you get out of your head? Try it and see what happens! Think of someone and see if they call you, come into your dreams, knock on your door, or send you a text. Living an energetic life is about having experiences of energy in action.
As today’s Soulbyte also said: “Let the randomness of nature into your life, to be part of it all.”
