Tag: mindfulness

New Beginnings

YouTube: New Beginnings

Life unfolds in cycles. If you observe these cycles closely, you will notice there are times when things seem to be falling apart and other times when they are falling into place. We are often confronted with the familiar question: Is the cup half full, or is it half empty?

This question points to an important truth. The answer is not determined by the condition of the cup, but by how you are feeling at the moment you are viewing it. If you are optimistic and full of expectation, the cup appears half full. If you are feeling weak, vulnerable, or worn down by circumstances, the same cup will appear half empty.

Many spiritual teachers have embraced a simple principle: life is consciousness. The condition of the cup does not need to determine how you feel. When you determine how you feel, the condition of the cup often takes care of itself.

Have you noticed how, during a low moment, a single encouraging word—a phrase from a book or a line from scripture—can suddenly inspire a new way of seeing? A cup that looked half empty moments before now appears half full… and filling. Do not be discouraged during emotionally low moments. Refuse to set your course by these brief seasons of diminished vision.

Always remember that in the twinkling of an eye everything can change, simply because you allow yourself to change the way you see.

Each new moment holds the potential for a new beginning. It does not matter how negative you may have felt just moments ago—you can begin again now. Set a new energy in motion. Create a positive, encouraging affirmation and begin speaking it with joy and expectation, for these emotions lay the groundwork for transformation.

Refuse to see yourself as a victim of circumstance or personality. And when you slip back into a half-empty way of thinking, remember that life is dynamic. There is always reason to hold even the smallest glimmer of hope, affirming that the good you desire is already coming forth.

As we stand at the threshold of a new year, choose to see it not merely as half full, but as brimming with possibilities—many of them still unimagined.

Visualization

YouTube: Visualization: Two Sides of the Same Faculty

Visualization is one of the most powerful tools of spiritual growth, yet it is often misunderstood. We tend to think of it as an exercise of the imagination—a mental picture we hold in mind until it somehow materializes in the outer world. But visualization is not just about what we see in the mind’s eye. It is equally about what we feel. These are not two separate processes, but two sides of the same inner faculty. Seeing and feeling belong together.

The imagination provides the picture, the emotional nature supplies the vitality. Together, they create a magnetic field that draws corresponding conditions into our experience. When imagination works without feeling, our visualizations are lifeless—colorless outlines that never take form. When emotion works without clear vision, we experience a surge of energy without direction. The union of the two brings both clarity and power.

Every thought we hold has an emotional tone. When we visualize a desired outcome—health, harmony, abundance—it is not enough to see the image as if it were projected on a screen outside ourselves. We must inwardly feel the reality of what we are picturing. The emotion is not mere excitement or wishful enthusiasm. It is the quiet confidence that what we are envisioning already exists in spiritual substance, waiting only for our conscious recognition.

In this sense, visualization is not about trying to make something happen. It is about aligning ourselves with what already is. When imagination and feeling are coordinated, the heart and mind become partners in creation. The picture is the form, and the feeling is the life. Each without the other is incomplete.

To practice visualization effectively, begin by relaxing the body and calming the mind. Picture your ideal clearly, but more importantly, enter into the emotional atmosphere of that vision. Feel gratitude as though the good you seek were already yours. Allow this feeling to saturate the image until it becomes alive and radiant. Then let it go in trust.

Visualization and emotion are two expressions of a single creative power. When they move together in harmony, they awaken the deeper law of manifestation that Jesus called “believing in your heart.”

Event and Experience

YouTube: Event and Experience

A Simple Approach to Mindfulness

J Douglas Bottorff

Imagine we’re having one of our beautiful fall days. You step out your front door and are greeted by the warmth of sunshine, a cool breeze, and the beauty of fall colors. You take a moment to take in the sensations of the day. Now imagine you’ve just received some unsettling news. You step out the same door into the same fall day, but you don’t notice the sun, the breeze, or the colors. You are absorbed in the news.

In both scenarios there are two things going on: an event and an experience. The event is you stepping out your front door. The experience is what is happening within you. The first time you are carefree; you have a pleasant experience. The second time you are preoccupied with your unsettling news; your experience is completely different.

This simple illustration shows us that while events can influence our experience, our experience can also color the event. We cannot always choose what happens, but we can become aware of the inner lens through which we interpret it. This is the essence of mindfulness.

When we pause long enough to notice what is happening in us rather than to us, we step into a deeper level of awareness. The mind begins to settle. Our attention shifts from reacting to observing, from judgment to acceptance. Even a difficult event can become a teacher, revealing where our peace depends too heavily on circumstances.

We all know that life brings both calm and storm. Yet the power to choose how we meet each moment is never taken from us. By remembering the distinction between event and experience, we create space for a more conscious response. We may still prefer sunshine to rain, but we no longer feel captive to the weather.

Each moment, then, becomes an invitation to live awake. When we meet life from this inner steadiness, the event—whatever it may be—ceases to define us. We begin to taste a quiet freedom, the awareness that peace is not found in the changing scene before us but in the still presence that observes it.

Your Intuitive Compass

YouTube: Your Intuitive Compass

Have you ever said, “I should have listened to myself?” You were faced with a decision. Everything seemed fine, but a nagging feeling lingered that something wasn’t quite right. You pushed the feeling aside, dismissing it as needless worry only to regret it later.

You have also had the opposite experience of saying, “I’m glad I listened to myself!” Again, faced with a decision, others said one thing, but you felt another, and you listened to yourself.

We all grapple with the conflict between head and heart, or, spiritually speaking, intellect and intuition. In her book, Lessons in Truth, Emilie Cady writes, “Intuition and intellect are meant to travel together, intuition always holding the reins to guide intellect.” We are culturally programed to do just the opposite. Facts, not feelings, should be our guiding criteria.

And yet, we want to distinguish between intuition and feelings, especially emotion. We’re familiar with the phrase, blinded by love. We can relate to the disillusioned bride who says of her ex, “I took him for better or for worse, but he was a lot worse than I took him for.”

At its deepest level, intuition is the still small voice of the soul. It’s that inner awareness that understands we desire more because we are more. No decision, however regrettable, will diminish our soul. This understanding empowers us to live free of the fear of making wrong choices. After all, feelings of hesitation can just as easily be driven by the need to protect a weakness rather than evolve a strength.

We come to a fork in the road. We want what is best for ourselves and others. Do we turn right, or do we turn left? First, we affirm that either way will reveal something important to us. If we are protecting some weakness, we will discover it, and if we’re ready, we can correct it. If we are evolving a strength, we will know that as well. The intellect says we must always make the right choice. The intuition, holding the reins to guide the intellect, reminds us that even a wrong choice can lead to deeper understanding.     

Emotional Independence

Through spiritual means

YouTube: Emotional Independence Through Spiritual Means

When many of us think of self-help as a means of improving our life through changing our attitude, we may focus mainly on our thinking. As important as this is, we do well to consider our emotions and who or what is controlling them. Is it even possible to choose how we feel, or are we satisfied to let the world make this choice for us?

I have pointed out that we can change our thinking but still feel as if bad things are brewing, like being caught in an undercurrent that pulls us out into water way over our heads. We may scarcely be aware of this emotional riptide until we suddenly notice how far from shore we are. Then, it doesn’t take much to send us into a fear-based reaction to the smallest of things.

How do we gain emotional independence? The first step is to realize we can. The emotions we harbor are of our own choosing. If we do not accept this as a fundamental fact, then the world will choose our emotions for us. And we all know what that is like.

The second step is to ask ourselves how we would feel if this emotionally unsettling appearance was resolved. We allow ourselves to experience the emotional release into the serenity of feeling all is well. Freedom, peace, joy, and new creative stirrings take the place of emotionally induced stress. Maybe not instantly, but we can get there.  

When Jesus spoke of the truth that sets us free, the freedom we long for is first felt at the emotional level. We might think of it as unconditional emotion, feelings that arise, not because of a positive turn of events, but because we feel blessed to simply be alive. In this case, our emotion is prompted by an inner knowing, the stabilizing awareness that we are part of something much grander than our ever-changing surroundings.

We can gain emotional independence, first by realizing we can, and secondly by learning to feel the freedom we desire. Check yourself at the feeling level now. How would you feel if all your life’s burdens were suddenly lifted?

A Simple Way to Change Your Mind

YouTube: A Simple Way to Change Your Mind

We credit Donald Altman, former Buddhist monk and recognized mindfulness expert, with this quote: “If you truly want to change your life, you must first be willing to change your mind.” While most of us respond positively to such a statement, we also know that changing our mind in an impactful way is easier said than done. And yet Moses, in an absolute moment of crisis, offered his people a formula that works every time. He said, “Stand firm, lift up your eyes, and see the salvation of the Lord.”

If you are in a moment of crisis or uncertainty, the first step is to stand firm. What does this mean? You are to make the decision to get off the mental and emotional roller coaster and bring your full attention to your present mind action. If you are going to change your life, the only time you can do it is right now. Stand firm in this understanding. To lift up your eyes is not a command to look to the sky. It’s a command to stop looking at the problem and turn your attention elsewhere. Where do you turn your attention? See the salvation of the Lord. See your present concern resolved. You are on the other side of the Red Sea with your Egyptian hoard no longer in pursuit. Get the distinct feeling that your problem is resolved.

A technique like this is a little like an exercise machine. I have an elliptical machine, and I have to confess that I look at it more often than I actually get on it. I always feel better when I use it. Unfortunately, just looking at it does nothing for the cardiovascular system. The same is true with any spiritual technique. Reading about it is like setting the exercise machine in your room.

Make a firm decision to confront your situation. Pull your attention from the worst case scenario and turn it to the resolution of your issue. You do not need to know how things will work out, but just commit yourself to the feeling that they are. We are not seeking to change our life from this day forward. We are seeking only to change it within this now moment. This simple change of mind can make a profound change in the quality of your life.