stardust

March 22, 2019

hearts reflect stars
the dust fossils on souls
their stayed truth
will not falter to fear and crowd

peace begets hope
hope begets love
love is a strength
that conquers separateness

we are one

jesus weeps
buddha smiles
mohamed sings
ali akbar

god is one

———-/-/-

Gift of Life

October 18, 2013

Here’s a great story for you!

A group of scientists who having discovered the secrets of cloning decided they would have a conference with God to tell God He was no longer needed. Yes, God had created humanity and all of life, in fact, from the very dust of the earth. But now science had taken over the job and God could retire.

 

So the top scientists in the world gathered together and they called God to a conference having told God, He/She was no longer required.

 

God said, “Explain this to me.”

 

They said, “We now know how to make life out of dust ourselves.”

 

God said, “Well then, okay, you go ahead and show me how you can do that.”

 

So they reached down for some dirt and God said, “Uh, uh, uh, get your own dirt.”

 

I love that story because it just reminds us we get confused at times and think things really belong to us even our life itself.   We begin to forget at times how precious the gift is of our daily life.

 

In everything we call ours, even our children, our spouses, our friends; they’re gifts on loan from the Universe.

 

How precious it is to have these gifts in our lives this day; to have eyes to see and ears to hear. This day is a gift and it all belongs to the one who sources all of this.

 

So this day let’s walk around in appreciation that we get to walk in the abundance of the gift of this life.

 

To Your Gift of LIFE,
Bryan

 

P.S. Want support in discovering and building your dreams?

In between my coaching and speaking schedule, I carve out a few strategy sessions each month.  If you would like a complimentary strategy session (Value = $250), simply contact me here bryan@evolution.me .

 

Accessing Your Genius

September 30, 2013

There was a study done recently at Harvard called the Zero Point study that was a ten year study on genius.

 

The genius capacity is demonstrated by certain individuals that bring forth great ideas, transformational thinking, movement, social change, innovative ideas that transform and transpose us to a whole new height of living.

 

What is this capacity?

 

The researchers began to define genius as the number of modalities with which one takes in information, synthesizes that information and makes use of it.

 

So you and I have many modalities with which we can take in information — auditorally, visually, kinesthetically, intuitively, etc.

 

But what they discovered was that 99% of babies—99% of you and me–operate at a genius capacity during the first eighteen months of life.

 

By the time we are five, only 22% of us are still operating at our genius capacity.

 

By the time we are twenty only 2% of us are still operating at a genius capacity.

 

What happens to us?

 

What they discovered in their research is that the shutting down of our capacities; the distancing of ourselves from our Genius Self happens through the learned voice of internal judgment.

 

We begin to doubt ourselves. We begin to question ourselves. We begin to look into other peoples’ eyes for who we are; for approval; for permission.

 

You have genius capacities in you.  Today, connect to that genius.  Trust your genius, and believe in the power of your dreams.

To Your Genius Self!

P.S. Want support in discovering and building your dreams?

In between my coaching and speaking schedule, I carve out a few strategy sessions each month.  If you would like a complimentary strategy session (Value = $250), simply contact me here bryan@evolition.me .

Absolem’s Question

September 21, 2013

ABSOLEM

One of the memorable characters created by Lewis Carroll in the Alice in Wonderland story is the hookah-smoking blue caterpillar with the name of Absolem.  In Alice’s encounter with him he sits atop a large mushroom and blows smoke rings in her face as he asks the question “Whoooo are Yooooou?”  When she answers “I’m Alice” he responds “we shall see” – “what do you mean by that – I ought to know who I am” “yes, you ought, stupid girl”.

How would you respond to Absolem’s question.  Who are you?

Are you the name on your driver’s license?  Are you the roles you play (father, mother, son, daughter, boss, employee, friend)?  Are you your job title? Your political affiliation?  Are you part of the 99% or 1% in the occupy movement?  Your physical characteristics, gender, skin color, nationality?  Your Facebook profile?  You ought to know who you are, but do you?

Well the answer to question “who are you?” may come as a surprise.   In the movie “The Matrix” the main character Neo is given the choice between a blue pill and a red pill.  The blue pill guarantees the subject will remain blissfully unaware of reality but will be happy.  The red pill will reveal reality and how things really are – and may not be a happy result.  Morpheus says to Neo: “You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
According to neuro-scientists our identity resides in a little area of our brain right about where you would wear a ponytail. And the neuro-pathways that make up our identity are stories that we have made up about ourselves.  So who we are – all we are – are a series of stories we have made up about ourselves.  Now to some of you this may be really bad news.  Who you think you are is just made up – it’s not reality with a capital R.  Your identity doesn’t exist anywhere in the real world – only in your imagination.  You are a fictional character.   Now granted, your stories are made up from things that are true about you – your relationships, your job, where you live, etc.  But the interpretation of what those facts mean is all made up.  Being married is a fact – Being married to a jerk is made up.  Weighing 250 pounds is a fact.  Being unattractive and unlovable is made up.
Now Buddhists, mystics and other gurus of the inner landscape have known this for centuries.  The goal in their practices is to strip away the stories to get to the true “I” that is the one observing and creating the stories.  Once the stories are stripped away one can see reality as a blank canvas and without the stories the “I” merges with this blank reality and becomes one with it.  Stories in this sense are what create separation from reality with a capital R.  Rewarding as this is, most of us have not established the habit of daily meditation and can’t see through our stories.  Our stories are like the water our fish brains swim in.
Where do our stories come from?  A lot of our identity is created from who others say we are – especially when we are young.  I have twin daughters now age 12.  Since they were infants to this very day I ask the question probably multiple times a day “are you the sweetest thing in the whole wide world?” to which they both answer yes.  Now even if there were only 2 of them – let alone 7 billion other people on the planet they both couldn’t be the sweetest thing in the whole wide world.  It’s not literally or logically true.  But in my world and their world it is creating a story of who they are.  Parents have a major impact of forming the identity of their children.  They are defenseless and don’t know any better than to take the parents word for it.  The biggest gift a parent can give a child is a healthy sense of self.  A self that is confident, considerate and capable.  In the movie “The Help” Abilene, the caretaker to young Mae Mobley tells her “You is kind. You is smart. You is important” with the hope that it will offset some of the negative messages she is getting from her mother.   Children believe what we tell them.
Our identity is also formed by how we interpret things that happen to us.  One formative story for me took place on the baseball field.  I grew up with five sisters and would rather play with them or play the piano than go outside and play baseball with other boys.  My parents, doing what they thought best, signed me up for little league.  I didn’t know how to catch, throw or hit the ball so needless to say I was the MWP (most worthless player) on the team.  The other boys didn’t want me on the team and I was bullied.  The story I made up about this was that for some reason I was abnormal – there was some fundamental flaw.  My parents wanted me to be normal and were doing their best to make me normal.  I failed – something was wrong with me.  It wasn’t just a case of not being good at one thing (baseball) I was defective, a failure, and incompetent.
But there is good news in all this.  Since we are stories we have made up about out ourselves we are not stuck with stories that are not working for us – we are not sentenced to live out a story we no longer want.  I am not sentenced to be defective, a failure and incompetent.  I can rewrite my baseball story to say I wasn’t trained to throw, catch and hit.  If I was trained, maybe things would have turned out differently.  Or I can say I don’t really care about baseball and I don’t really want to do what it takes to be good at it.  I am probably not a very good ballet dancer but I don’t care.
Psychologists call this identity story making a “personal narrative”.  They have analyzed personal narratives and how they correspond with mental health.  One interesting finding is the idea of what they call “agency”.  Agency is how much the main character in the story (you) is in the driver’s seat.  How much control the main character has in his or her own fate.  The stronger the agency, the stronger the mental health.  The opposite is the victim story.  The main character is batted around by circumstances and is powerless to do anything about it.  The victim can let themselves off the hook by blaming other people or circumstances for who they are and what they have become.  Armed with this knowledge we can begin to examine and critique our own stories and create ones that have us showing up as powerful in the shaping of who we are and what we can become.
Byron Katie is a speaker and author that teaches a method of self-inquiry called “the work”.  It is as simple as asking 4 questions geared to break through beliefs and stories that are not working for us.
Is it true?
Can I absolutely know it’s true?
How do I react when I believe this thought?
Who would I be without the thought?
After Absolem says to Alice “you ought to know who you are stupid girl” he unrolls the oraculum which is a graphic display of a calendar of the future which shows Alice slaying the Jabberwocky on Frabjous Day.  At this point Alice doesn’t know herself to be someone capable of such a feat.  She doesn’t believe it to be true.  As events unfold and more and more characters let her know she is the one she starts to believe the story and lives into it.  Absolem knows who Alice really is and calls her stupid because she can’t see it.
So who are you?  What stories are worthy of you and this one life you are given.  We are given agency over our stories and how we interpret what happens to us.  You is kind. You is smart. You is important.  See yourself as the hero of your own stories – because you are.

The Power Within You

September 17, 2013

I’ve heard it said that some people live ninety years and others live one year ninety times. The difference is that those living their years to the fullest are living their dreams. We are all capable of living our dream lives when we open ourselves up to possibilities and opportunities.

We have been trained to look at conditions to determine what the opportunities and possibilities are for our lives, though these conditions can be limiting when viewed with just the five senses. When we live outside the standard senses and use intuition, imagination, and perception we are able to more clearly see our heart’s desire and the dreams that will bring us the happiness we yearn. We all have an inner voice but it is not one of reason or logic…it is the voice of guidance. This voice may not make sense to anyone else but it is there to help us recognize and nurture the thoughts that build dreams of our very own.

The underling principle of dream building is this: The power that is within each of us is greater than anything that is in our surroundings. The power that is within each of us is greater than any circumstance of our life. The power that is within each of us is greater than our history. There are all sorts of things that we can hold as ideas that will keep us from our dreams or, instead, we can use our thoughts in service of dreams instead of thwarting them.

Changing our thoughts to best build our dreams is a two-step process. First, we must release condition-based thinking. If we focus our thoughts on what we don’t want to happen, we bring about those circumstances. For example, if you want to lose weight and concentrate on not eating pizza, then you crave pizza and ultimately give in to it.

The second part of the process is to focus on what you do want to create, regardless of our conditions. Using the weight loss example, if you think about the delicious salad you are going to have for dinner then you look forward to that salad and do not think about the pizza that would thwart your efforts. This is true even if you work in a pizza parlor!

Each of us is the author of our own thoughts. The past or present does not need to dictate the future. Allow yourself to explore the possibilities of your dreams and fill your mind with what you would like to be and do and create and give. Use your inner power to write the future in a way that supports your dreams.

To Your Greatness!

Life is an inside out game.  Through our own volition or will we can create a life we would love living.  Take a look at this quote by James Allen from his book “As a Man Thinketh” and ask yourself if you are living according to Environment, Circumstance, and Chance or by Spirit and Will.

You will be what you will to be;

Let failure find its false content

In that poor word, “Environment”,

But Spirit scorns it, and is free.

 

It masters time, it conquers space;

It cowes that boastful trickster, Chance,

And bids the tyrant Circumstance

Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place.

 

The human Will, that force unseen,

The offspring of a deathless Soul,

Can hew a way to any goal,

Though walls of granite intervene.

 

Be not impatient in delays

But wait as one who understands;

When Spirit rises and commands

The gods are ready to obey.