“FREE yourself from what you know,
and become ONE with the unknown”.
~Justine Paige
Mindfulness as Creative Healing
Mindfulness: “The Natural State of Mind”
The beginner’s perspective
The open mind
The way to the Self
With no worry about Time
Because all is HERE all is NOW
all is, not “I”
~Justine Paige
Living Beyond the False Self
Underneath all of our coverups, avoidances and compensations we all have secret negative beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs may seem invisible because they are so innately grounded into us as we developed them around the age of two. This core pain is coined as the “narcissistic wound” which develops when we realize we are separate from the unconditional love and security of our parents. Therefore we innately establish a “false core” or a reason to cope with the emotional damage. The reasons or assumptions can look like…”I am serparate because there is something wrong with me…I have no value…I am inadequite…I cannot do…I am powerless…”. On the other side of this “false core” we also develop a “false self” which compensates for this wound by telling ourselves, “I HAVE to prove that I am perfect, that I can do it, that I am powerful, that I am worthy…”. Now these statements may seem like a positive, but they are only feeding our false self more and more and simply distracting ourselves for the root cause of this tug-a-war. To give you an example this is my core representation of my false-core and false-self…
A great way to bring your unconscious “false core” or “voice of judgement” to your conscious awareness is to draw it!…This is an important exercise to realize that your voice of judgment comes from “without” and is NOT you. Take a moment to sit and think about what your voice of judgement is saying to you. Observe it, catch it in the moment, name it, and LET IT GO.
The purpose of this exercise is to understand your voice of judgment so you can acknowledge when it arises and eventually LIVE BEYOND IT. This part of the self in called “false” for a reason. It is a the limited part of the ego or “I”. IN the True Self there is no “I”, we just ARE. There is no way completely “heal” this core pain except for understanding that it comes from “without” us and if we live beyond this limited self we can understand that we still are and will always be CONNECTED TO THE ONE SUBSTANCE further protected by the unconditional love of the universe. Each of us are uniquely important, but there is no need to prove that. To reach our fullest potential we just “have” to BE.
Inspiration for this blog came from Steven Wolinsky’s III Volume series: The Way of the Human which goes into detail about his theory of quantum psychology and how to live beyond this limited self and reach our fullest human potential.
Inspiration Campaign
If you could send any message to the world what would it be? Would you send words of love, equality, kindness or respect? Now, for moment think about the messages you receive from media on a daily basis. Think of TV ads, billboards, News, or social media sites…do they promote love or respect? Unfortunately for the most part we are bombarded gossip, propaganda, fear tactics and ads for unnecessary material goods.
Thankfully the Inspiration Campaign is taking an initiate the change these manipulative and disempowering messages with their People Powered “Advertising”. This campaign allows people to vote on statements to be shared on billboards around our country and gives you a chance to submit your own statement to help inspire human greatness and connection!
VOTE NOW and be part of the collective change to give a voice of empowerment back to the people!
“Conspiracy” Against Humanity
I’m sure ya’ll have either played or heard of the game, Cards Against Humanity. This game had personally seen me through high school and college, and the many outrageous outbursts of hysterical laughs. I have always thought this game was ridiculous, but it wasn’t until about a week ago while playing CAH that I realized the title implied a game that is “anti” humanity. This thought triggered an interesting insight of observing our rude, judgement, playful and extreme nature. I thought have people always been this extreme or has our society developed this behavior?
This game is all about gimmick’s. It’s all about making fun of the normal, the famous, the unknown and the most absolute random things possible. The guys behind Cards Against Humanity even produced a controversial gimmick to protest Black Friday. They think the holiday is bullshit, so just to prove their point they chose to literally sell boxes of bullshit for $6 in which 300,000 people fell for their prams and received a box full of poop. More often than not humanity astounds me at our creativity to be as absurd as possible.
Currently our American society lives to make fun and judge others, this may be entertaining, but what affect is it having on our collective-consciousness and social interactions? Due to the divergence of the victim and the bully we are living in the extreme, resting on the poles of our dualist reality causing disorders, disease, disconnect and disempowerment. The “fool” has always been part of our nature, but where is the balance of entertainment and insult?…Unfortunately bullying is an increasing problem in our world today, which arises the question of the role of humor in our youth and the over all development of the Self.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” ~ William Shakespeare
Creative Insight Journey
Ever ask the questions “who am I”, and “what is my purpose?” First off, thank yourself for asking those questions, and continue to ponder your search for meaning in this life because we are always growing and evolving so our focuses will change as well. My long time family friend and practically my second mom, Kim Herrlein has always been inspired by these questions in the ups and downs in her life and has made the best of her quest by fulfilling her purpose to help others find their own “way of life” through instructing the Creative Insight Courses.
“My teacher, Jennifer Grace, the headliner of this wonderful program first introduced the power of intentions by having us focus on breakthroughs we wish to see in our life. She then told us to attach a feeling to the intention being completed and work backwards to achieve this personal goal. My breakthrough by teaching theses classes is, ‘I feel fulfilled now that I am using video to share these tools of insightfulness with young adults’.” ~Kim Herrlein
The Creative Insight Journey was originally developed in the in MBA program at Stanford University by Dr. Michael Ray
who observed a shocking average of young adults who did not quite have a sense of self and authenticity in the realm of the creativity and open-mindedness about their ideas. This program has revolutionized the art and success and is now used as transformational journey of self-exploration that has spread across the country serving people from the comfort of their homes while pushing their emotional and physcial boundaries to reconnect with their deepest values and goals.
“In this 8 week course you will be unraveled, given tools to apply to your reconstruction, and then you will be put back together as a new you, with new intentions, and a new knowledge of answering your own questions by finding what works for you.”
In our recent talk Kim was bewildered on that fact that, “Statistically America is one of the most educated and privileged societies, yet it has some of the highest rates of depression and suicide among young adults and teens…we are missing something…it is a disconnect with the self. Currently were are diagnosing people with some sort of label, then giving them some sort of substance, instead of sharing tools with people that can help them balance their whole self from within…” I find it to be our weakest link that as a society we don’t take care of the “Self”. We search for external goals brought by external expectations and further seek for healing from external aids. This program and the overall shift in self-awareness is a revolution that brings back the holistic approach to medicine of understanding the importance of the mind and body connection.
“You make the choices in your life. Always assess where your life is at in all aspects and ask, ‘is this where I want to be?’, and if not, ‘how can I change it’, if so, ‘how can I maintain it?’. Create the life you want for you and everything will fall into place.”
Music as Medicine
This weekend I had the honor of attending a weekend workshop with Music Therapist and Yoga teacher, Craig Cenedy. Craig has devoted his passion and talent for music by giving back to his community through offering various education and self-exploration programs in music therapy and other wellness practices. His Community Inspiration Center, Muse for Life, focuses on connecting to the self through music and movement. Furthermore, this center is based on the connection to nature and the universe. He explains the latin root of Uni-verse which translates to One-song; meaning that we are all interconnected between the energy and movement of each thought and action which creates various frequencies, culminating to the melody of existence that ultimately searches to obtain harmony.
Over his weekend seminar we explored the different populations music therapy serves and certain exercises that correspond to each treatment assessment and plan. With a background in Kundalini yoga and an intensive study in Shamanism, Craig emphasized the point in time where medicine diverged from a holistic approach of including the whole self (mind, body, spirit) in the treatment of disease to an analytical, mechanistic approach of diagnosing and treating separate parts of the self mainly through the aid external sources. This divergence came about in the time of Aristotle and his descriptive analysis of arithmetic which moved away from the previous belief of the Pythagorean view and Platonic forms which describe math and music as divine and integrated. Today, Western’s medical approach is still an individual mechanistic method and unfortunately has lost the belief the we have the capability to heal ourselves, so instead we rely on external factors to cover up our pains instead of healing them at their root cause. In his practice Craig strives to bring awareness to the power of the self through intention and TUNING in to personal and collective issues. After being educated on the wide application of music therapy, I too beleive that it is a great way to bring a person to the here and now and create and intergrated balance to our mind, body and spirit helping us reach harmony within our intrapersonal selves and our intrapersonal connections to the world around us.
Uncertainty Principle
The search for the true meaning of life has always boggled my mind because I know that I simply know nothing, and that everything I think I know is just a perception based on memories that I have conceived before. This all seemed like a jumble of trippy hippie talk until I discovered the uncertainty principle which basically describes that the position (x) and momentum ( p) of the smallest quantum particles in nature cannot accurately be located because the simple act of consciousness observing a particle changes its nature (appearance in space). Therefore the fundamental nature of our universe is fuzzy because it’s location can never truly be found. Furthermore, this quantum physics law brings to light that nothing can ever really be known because it is all subjective to the perceiver, suggesting that everything is essentially theory.
If you are intersted in this concept, The Hologprahic Universe is a beautfil read that describes our universe as, “a consciouness holorgram and reality is just a projected illusion within the hologram“. A hologram in its basic sense it an energetic grid made of patterns of sacred geometry that govern the form and reliationships between objects.
Everything is interconnected, shared and exchanged…It’s not a matter of “is this possible” but rather “are you ready to comprehend it”?
Find Balance Through Your Diet
I’m sure you have heard the classic saying, “you are what you eat”, as simple and silly as this statement may seem it actually rings quite true. Our mind and body are delicately connected through our instincts and logical choices. Hunger lies on the foundation of our instincts as it governs a major aspect of our survival. Therefore if this instinct is not mindfully moderated, our drive for hunger can take over our behavior leading to over eating, emotionally eating, and a lack of knowledge on what we are eating and what the energetic consequences are of said “food”.
Balance between the mind and body can be found by mindfully bringing awareness to what you eat by paying attention to:
How the food makes you feel ~
- About fifteen minutes after you eat take note of if you feel tired/energized, depressed/content, bloated/satisfied…
How fast you eat ~
- Take a moment before you eat to “bless your food with gratitude” as I like to say, and enjoy every bite as you bring your awareness to the taste, texture, smell and color of your food!
Why you are eating ~
- Often it is in our habitual selves to binge out on salty, sugary snacks to kill the cravings after a stressful day. Begin to acknowledge when you fell this way and ask yourself, why am I eating? Am I actually hungry? and most importantly, will this food actually satisfy my hunger and fill me with the proper nutrients?…If not rethink your snack choices.
Our energy, mood, and overall healthy is hugely determined by our diet. Use food and your medicine, and eat the right dosages for the right treatments for your nasty eating habits!
Forgiveness is key when changing a habit, and remember that knowledge and balance are the keys to heathly living 🙂
Eastern Body | Western Mind
Ever pick up a book and miraculously have every page you open to synchronize with your life? Well that is happening to me right now with this revolutionary book called, Eastern Body Western Mind. The author, Dr. Anodea Judith is well renowned for her writings on psychological, mythological, historical and spiritual insights on the sentient human potential. In this book she ties all her lifelong studies and passions into one educated theory on the development of consciousness through the Chakra System. Not only does she go into depth about each chakra and what it governs in the different aspects of the Self, but she also explains how excess and deficiencies of each chakra based on our development through life can cause certain disorders and imbalances both physically and mentally. To top it off, she gives insights on how to heal and open our nervous system so every part of our Self can flow in harmony. I reccomend this book to anyone who sees themselves walking the path to their higher self and searches for knowledge and balance.
My Theory of Mind 