Choices matter. The attitude you adopt matters. What you believe matters. How you decide to view the world matters. All of these things are changeable. Each new day choices are available, new attitudes are possible, and the opportunity to view the world in a different way presents itself. Choose a path of heart, be optimistic for a change, view the world as a beautiful, loving and caring environment in which to live. Influence yourself for a change, with new ideas, and see what happens. Begin with love in your heart for yourself first and take it from there. You can’t go wrong with love as your guide.
Find stability. In times of chaos a stable mind, body, and spirit will bring the needed balance. No matter what is going on outside of you bring your inner self into calm balance and alignment with a higher purpose, for it is everyone’s job to grow and evolve from a child to an adult, from unknowing to knowing, from fear to fearlessness, from selfishness to selflessness. It is the job of everyone to learn to love, to give, and to aid in the evolution of the planet, as well as humanity. Do it with stability of mind, body, and spirit, so that your journey of evolution may proceed without issue and so that love may flow through you, within and without.
Remain optimistic, and yet balance requires acknowledgement of all that is and attention to all details, so do not shirk from your duties nor neglect your responsibilities. In order for order to reign chaos must be averted. In order for chaos to be averted all that approaches must be dealt with in a proper manner, with a strong and loving heart, with compassion and kindness but also with ruthlessness when necessary. Practice optimism while simultaneously preparing for all contingencies. In this manner, be prepared for anything while remaining hopeful that good, light, and love will prevail. Be part of the solution; it’s the right thing to do for the greater good of all.
Remain heart centered and nonjudgmental toward the self so that you may remain heart centered and nonjudgmental toward others. Use the self to practice loving kindness and compassion. Without blame or shame, teach the self to be gentle and kind toward the self while simultaneously asking the self to take full responsibility for the life you are in. There is a delicate balance where all is acceptable and all is acquiesced to as well, where you are both responsible and without fault for life’s unfolding adventure. Learn to accept and fully love the self in order to fully accept and love another.
The intricacies of reflection and refinement… – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Emotion and thought are often experienced as polar opposites, warring Titans vehemently struggling for supremacy in human life. This is often illustrated in standoffs between thinking people devoid of emotion versus emotional people devoid of thought.
Interestingly, in both Hindu and channelled descriptions of the multiple bodies that comprise the full human form, which includes the physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies, the mental body is depicted at a finer or higher level than the emotional body, as one moves up toward the coveted spiritual dimension.
At first glance this would appear to cement the argument that thought is of superior value to emotion. However, if one observes such a clash of ‘opposites,’ in the form of an argument, one will be struck at how powerful emotion accompanies the ‘thinking type’ in their defensive argument as to the superiority of pure reason, as well as the amount of mental programs that defend the ‘feeling type,’ who digs in firmly behind the value of pure emotion.
Thought that lacks distilled feeling is not grounded or related to real life. This is like intellectual philosophy that dismisses spirituality on purely rational, non-experiential grounds. Intense emotion, driven by unprocessed experience or unreflected thought, overwhelms the circuitry of the central nervous system and also precludes spiritual advancement. To arrive on the spiritual plane, one must refine both emotion and thought, as they become companions on the journey toward wholeness.
Emotion is an energy that comes into prominence at the level of the solar plexus in the human body. This is the coming of age chakra for the ego, which establishes its separate sense of self by creating a moat out of defense mechanisms. Projection is prominent: It’s your fault, not mine. Denial is clear: Ididn’t do it. Grandiosity fuels the ego’s narcissism at this early stage, as it takes its first solo steps on the human stage.
Tremendous emotional energy attaches itself to these defensive structures as one vehemently protects the sanctity of the ego. The ego, thus empowered, feels the necessary strength to hold its own as a separate being. As well, the will is established as the ego develops the ability to achieve and create, channeling its energy toward the satisfaction of its own goals and desires.
For emotion to rise to the level of the heart chakra one must first burn off the impurities of unregulated emotion. Rages, tantrums, and moods are heavily laden with disappointments stemming from the ego fixated at the early stage of narcissistic entitlement. This ego must first go through the refining process of controlling its outbursts and safely releasing its emotions. This develops a rudimentary respect for acceptance of the needs of others.
Arriving at the heart chakra with this control, one is impacted by the call to greater connection with self and others. This also manifests as the concretization of the spiritual drive, perhaps in the seeking of relationship or discovering of one’s soulmate. Both ecstatic and sad emotions accompany this pursuit of wholeness through relationship.
The distillation of emotion at the heart chakra—that arrives at pure love for everything and everyone, including oneself—allows this emotion to smoothly proceed to the throat and third eye chakras, the home of the mental body. If the throat becomes constricted as emotion rises, that emotion must return to the heart and solar plexus chakras to process what it is attached to. Until it is released, love cannot rise above its fixation.
Thoughts issuing from the mental body chakras, imbued with love, will act from right action and for the greater good of the interdependent whole, within and without. Thoughts lacking love are either dissociated from the human form or may be serving the wants of emotion at the level of the solar plexus that have circumvented the heart.
To develop the mental body, the home of thought, one must learn control of thought. Here meditation practices can help one develop the ability to control the randomness of thought and the ability to focus attention. Thought, like emotion, is a powerful energy, that must be regulated to journey into the spiritual dimension.
The spirit requires truth and total transparency to navigate freely. Uncontrolled thought lacks the steadiness and sobriety to ground one in spiritual discovery. Unbridled emotion is likely to waylay one in bardos of discontent or illusory worlds on one’s spiritual journey. These are the fantasy worlds that accompany elevated emotional states that end in empty imaginings.
Refined thought and emotion are able to merge at the spiritual dimension, the crown chakra, as one ventures into greater connection and discovery within and beyond the human form. Thought and emotion at this level are hardly warring Titans but true loving companions on their journey in infinity.
