21 Traits Of An Awakening Soul

Waking Times first published at  ZenGardner.com on May 23, 2013

You can say its because of a global shift in consciousness, a destiny we have arrived at due to spiritual evolution, or the outcome of strange times, but, many people all across the globe are going through intense personal changes and sensing an expansion of consciousness. Personal changes of this magnitude can be difficult to recognize and to understand, but here are 21 traits of an awakening soul, a ‘sensitive’, or an ‘empath.’

1.  Being in public places is sometimes overwhelming. Since our walls between self and other are dissolving, we haven’t really learned to distinguish between someone else’s energy and our own. If the general mood of the crowd is herd-like or negative, we can feel this acutely, and may feel like retreating into our own private space. When we have recharged our batteries with meditation, spending time in nature, far away from other people, or just sitting in quiet contemplation, we are ready to be with the masses again. In personal relationships, we often will feel someone else’s emotions as our own. It is important to have this higher sense of empathy, but we must learn to allow another person’s emotions while observing them and keeping our empathy, but, realizing that not all emotions belong to us. Social influence can dampen our own innate wisdom.

2.  We know things without having to intellectually figure them out. Often called intuitive awareness, we have ‘a-ha’ moments and insights that can explain some of the most complex theories or phenomenon in the world. Some of the most brilliant minds of our time just ‘know.’ Adepts and sages often were given downloads of information from higher states of consciousness after meditating or being in the presence of a more conscious individual; this is happening for more people with more frequency. As we trust our intuition more often, it grows stronger.  This is a time of ‘thinking’ with our hearts more than our heads. Our guts will no longer be ignored. Our dreams are becoming precognitive and eventually our conscious thoughts will be as well.

3.  Watching television or most of main stream media, including newspapers and many Hollywood movies is very distasteful to us. The mindset that creates much, but not all, of the programming on television and in cinema is abhorrent. It commodifies people and promotes violence. It reduces our intelligence and numbs our natural empathetic response to someone in pain.

4.  Lying to us is nearly impossible. We may not know exactly what truth you are withholding, but we can also tell (with our developing intuition and ESP skills) that something isn’t right. We also know when you have other emotions, pain, love, etc. that you aren’t expressing. You’re an open book to us. We aren’t trained in counter-intelligence, we are just observant and knowing. While we may pick up on physical cues, we can look into your eyes and know what you are feeling.

5.  We may pick up symptoms of your cold, just like men who get morning sickness when their wives are pregnant. Sympathy pains, whether emotional or physical, are something we experience often. We tend to absorb emotion through the solar plexus, considered the place we ‘stomach emotion’ so as we learn to strengthen this chakra center, we may sometimes develop digestive issues. Grounding to the earth can help to re-establish our emotional center. Walking barefoot is a great way to re-ground.

6.  We tend to root for the underdog, those without voices, those who have been beaten down by the matrix, etc. We are very compassionate people, and these marginalized individuals often need more love. People can sense our loving hearts, so complete strangers will often tell us their life stories or approach us with their problems. While we don’t want to be a dumping ground for everyone’s issues, we are also a good ear for those working through their stuff.

7.  If we don’t learn how to set proper boundaries, we can get tired easily from taking on other people’s emotions. Energy Vampires are drawn to us like flies to paper, so we need to be extra vigilant in protecting ourselves at times.

8.  Unfortunately, sensitives or empaths often turn to drug abuse or alcohol to block some of their emotions and to ‘protect’ themselves from feeling the pain of others.

9.  We are all becoming healers. We naturally gravitate toward healing fields, acupuncture, reiki, Qi-Gong, yoga, massage, midwivery, etc. are fields we often find ourselves in. We know that the collective needs to be healed, and so we try our best to offer healing in whatever form we are most drawn to. We also turn away from the ‘traditional’ forms of healing ourselves. Preferring natural foods, herbs, and holistic medicine as ways to cure every ailment.

10.  We see the possibilities before others do. Just like when the church told Copernicus he was wrong, and he stood by his heliocentric theory, we know what the masses refuse to believe. Our minds are light-years ahead.

11.  We are creative. We sing, dance, paint, invent, or write. We have amazing imaginations.

12.  We require more solitude than the average person.

13.  We might get bored easily, but we are really good at entertaining ourselves.

14.  We have a difficult time doing things we don’t want to do or don’t really enjoy. We really do believe life was meant to be an expression of joy. Why waste it doing something you hate? We aren’t lazy, we are discerning.

15.  We are obsessed with bringing the truth to light. Like little children who say, “that’s not fair” we want to right the wrongs of the world, and we believe it often just takes education. We endeavor to explain the unexplainable and find answers to the deep questions of life. We are seekers, in the Campbellian paradigm. ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”

16.  We can’t keep track of time. Our imaginations often get away with us and a day can feel like a minute, a week, a day.

17.  We abhor routine.

18.  We often disagree with authority (for obvious reasons).

19.  We will often be kind, but if you are egotistical or rude, we won’t spend much time with you or find an excuse to not hang out with people who are obsessed with themselves. We don’t ‘get’ people who are insensitive to other people’s feelings or points of view.

20.  We may be vegan or vegetarian because we can sense a certain energy of the food we eat, like if an animal was slaughtered inhumanely. We don’t want to consume negative energy.

21.  We wear our own emotions on our sleeves and have a hard time ‘pretending’ to be happy if we aren’t. We avoid confrontation, But will quietly go about changing the world in ways you can’t even see.

These 21 traits of an awakening soul are a reminder of how important it is to maintain awareness, clarity and strength in these interesting times. If you are experiencing something that is not on this list, please add it to the comments section below.

About the Author

Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.

Zen teaches us to live in the present

I am interested in the world of Zen and I thought the following article was interesting and it was written  by Tim Lott of the Guardian on Friday 21 September 2012  For the full article is here

The word "zen" is a Japanese way of pronouncing "chan", which is the Chinese way of pronouncing the Indian Sanskrit "dhyana" or "sunya", meaning emptiness or void. This is the basis of zen itself – that all life and existence is based on a kind of dynamic emptiness (a view now supported by modern science, which sees phenomena at a sub-atomic level popping in and out of existence in a quantum froth).

In this view, there is no stuff, no difference between matter and energy. Look at anything closely enough – even a rock or a table – and you will see that it is an event, not a thing. Every thing is, in truth, happening. This too, accords with modern scientific knowledge. Furthermore, there is not a multiplicity of events. There is just one event, with multiple aspects, unfolding. We are not just separate egos locked in bags of skin. We come out of the world, not into it. We are each expressions of the world, not strangers in a strange land, flukes of consciousness in a blind, stupid universe, as evolutionary science teaches us.

The emphasis on the present moment is perhaps zen's most distinctive characteristic. In our western relationship with time, in which we compulsively pick over the past in order to learn lessons from it, and then project into a hypothetical future in which those lessons can be applied, the present moment has been compressed to a tiny sliver on the clock face between a vast past and an infinite future. Zen, more than anything else, is about reclaiming and expanding the present moment.

It tries to have you understand, without arguing the point, that there is no purpose in getting anywhere if, when you get there, all you do is think about getting to some other future moment. Life exists in the present, or nowhere at all, and if you cannot grasp that you are simply living a fantasy.

For all zen writers, life is, as it was for Shakespeare, akin to a dream – transitory and insubstantial. There is no "rock of ages cleft for me". There is no security. Looking for security, Watts said, is like jumping off a cliff while holding on to a rock for safety – an absurd illusion. Everything passes and you must die. Don't waste your time thinking otherwise. Neither Buddha nor his zen followers had time for any notion of an afterlife. The doctrine of reincarnation can be more accurately thought about as a constant rebirth, of death throughout life, and the continual coming and going of universal energy, of which we are all part, before and after death.

• This is an extract from Aeon Magazine, a new digital magazine which publishes a free original essay every weekday on science, art, nature and culture. You can read Tim Lott's essay on Zen Buddhism and Alan Watts in full here.

Your Conscious Thoughts Regulate Your Health

Your conscious thoughts regulate your health. The persistent idea of illness will make you ill. While you believe that you become ill because of viruses, infections, or accidents, then you must go to doctors who operate within that system of belief. In addition, because you believe in their cures, you will be relieved of your difficulty. Because you do not understand that your thoughts create illness you will continue to undergo it ... and new symptoms will appear ... While you are in the process of changing beliefs - when you are beginning to realize that your thoughts and beliefs cause illness - then for a while you may not know what to do.... You may realize that the doctor can at best give you temporary relief, yet you may not be completely convinced yet of your own ability to change your thoughts; or you may be so cowed by their effectiveness that you are frightened.

When traditional practitioners of the ancient eastern religion of Zen Buddhism want to achieve greater spiritual insight, they turn to a technique is called "meditation.

Today more and more doctors are prescribing meditation as a way to lower blood pressure, improve exercise performance in people with angina, and help people with asthma breathe easier, relieve insomnia, and generally relax the everyday stresses of life. Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. It is simple; but can benefit everybody. When you feel joyful, your body benefits and becomes stronger.

While you believe that only doctors can cure you, you had better go to them.... While you may be cured of one difficulty, you will only replace it with another as long as your beliefs cause you to have physical problems....'The healing energy [is] always within you.

A review of scientific studies identified relaxation, concentration, an altered state of awareness, a suspension of logical thought and the maintenance of a self-observing attitude as the behavioral components of meditation; it is accompanied by a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body that alter metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain chemistry. Meditation has been used in clinical settings as a method of stress and pain reduction. Meditation has also been studied specifically for its effects on stress.

Studies have shown that meditation can bring about a healthy state of relaxation by causing a generalized reduction in multiple physiological and biochemical markers, such as decreased heart rate, decreased respiration rate, decreased plasma cortisol (a major stress hormone), decreased pulse rate, and increased EEG (electroencephalogram) alpha, a brain wave associated with relaxation. Research conducted by R. Keith Wallace at U.C.L.A. on Transcendental Meditation, revealed that during meditation, the body gains a state of profound rest. At the same time, the brain and mind become more alert, indicating a state of restful alertness. Studies show that after TM, reactions are faster, creativity greater, and comprehension broader.

Research has also shown that Meditation can contribute to an individual's psychological and physiological well-being. This is accomplished as Meditation brings the brainwave pattern into an alpha state, which is a level of consciousness that promotes the healing state.

Physical Benefits

• Deep rest-as measured by decreased metabolic rate, lower heart rate, and reduced work load of the heart.
• Lowered levels of cortisol and lactate-two chemicals associated with stress.
• Decreased high blood pressure.
• Low skin resistance is correlated with higher stress and anxiety levels.
• Drop in cholesterol levels. High cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular disease.
• Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing. This has been very helpful to asthma patients.

 Psychological Benefits

• Increased brain wave coherence. Harmony of brain wave activity in different parts of the brain is associated with greater creativity, improved moral reasoning, and higher IQ.
• Decreased anxiety.
• Decreased depression.
• Decreased irritability and moodiness.
• Improved learning ability and memory.
• Increased self-actualization.
• Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
• Increased happiness.
• Increased emotional stability

Meditation is a multidimensional phenomenon that may be useful in a variety of ways. First, meditation is associated with states of physiological relaxation that can be utilized to alleviate stress, anxiety, and other physical symptoms. Secondly, meditation brings about cognitive shifts that can be applied to behavioural self-observation and management, and to understanding limiting or self-destructive cognitive patterns.

Meditation may also permit deepened access to the unconscious. Meditation techniques help us to focus attention on the manner in which unconscious conflicts are being processed and recreated in the mind on a moment-to-moment basis. Thus, it offers the possibility of not just understanding such conflicts conceptually, but of actually penetrating and gradually dismantling them through meditative insight

Out of knowledge of the contents of your own conscious mind by using meditation, you can definitely start to use your mind to be more aware of stresses on your body and move toward a place of healing.

ZEN AND GARDENING

Many of us find ourselves caught up in the stress of modern life as we struggle to achieve our goals in business, social and emotional lives.  I found this post by  by  Surabhi Johri posted at Friday  On October 7, 2011 and thought as we move closer to Xmas I would share it.

We all crave for time and space where we can shed our guard and just relax in a sanctuary that heals and soothes our senses. Our gardens play a vital supporting role, helping us get some respite from the pressures and chaos of the outside world and bring a sense of personal fulfillment.

Whether they are Zen gardens or Monastic Cloister gardens, throughout history gardens have played important role in healing.
The idea behind healing gardens is to create a therapeutic environment that provides a gentle stimulation of senses and act as a sanctuary. The considerations made while designing a healing garden are the same as any other garden; however these considerations take on a special meaning in healing environments.
Working with nature is central to a healing garden. It is important to keep the design
simple without much going on so that it is easy to understand and maintain. At the same time the garden should be full of sensory experiences. Lot of variety in terms of form, texture, colour, seasonal interest and scent will wake up the senses and create a new appreciation for the garden as well as nature.
Texture and foliage
Plant trees with interesting bark textures, either smooth or self patterned. Choose plants for their interesting foliage, delicate feathery ones like fennel or smooth and bold like magnolia. Ornamental grasses are full of drama specially when light falls on them and their leaves and flowers dance in breeze.
Plant the daintiest of flowers that invoke a feeling to protect or as bold and open as sunflowers. You can’t resist touching the petals of poppy or play with the snapdragons. Let the seasonal changes in the garden bring awareness to the transience in all life forms and awaken the spirit.
Get into the garden at every opportunity, day or night, and look for changes. Notice the effect of light, change in colours, sprouting of seeds, blooming of buds and fading of flowers, unfurling of new leaves and drop of old ones. This dimension of time is unique to the art of garden design and separates it from any other art form.
Sound adds a wonderful aspect. Try to keep intrusive noises to minimal. Use water features or wind chimes for calming effect or to mask the undesirable sounds. Choice of hardscaping should be subtle and not conflict with the needs of the user. Keep a balance so that the space feels stable as a whole. Make the transitions between spaces smooth. Lay out paths clearly. Do not forget to create focal points.
Create various spaces for different activities. Provide areas for varying degree of sun and shade. Make comfortable and suitable seating available.
You may choose to go with the theme of wildlife garden. Plant to attract butterflies or birds - nectar producing flowering plants for butterflies and berry producing fruit trees for birds. Keep birdbaths and bird feeders to encourage winged visitors.
Keep low maintenance fish in a pond. Watching them swim can be very relaxing. Going with edible garden theme can be benefiting in more than one way.
Not only cultivating edibles for the family will bring you satisfaction but also consuming fresh and organically grown produce will taste better. Design plant beds to grow personal favourite varieties surrounded by herb borders, interspersed with splashes of flowering plants.
Colours play a key role
Use colours for healing since they have strong associations with our feelings and memories. Choose red for vitality, orange to bring joy and optimism, yellow for the feelings of self worth and lifting depression, green for harmony, restfulness and relaxation, blue to encourage tranquility and contemplation, and violet to learn to love yourself. Do not neglect the role of aromatic plants in healing gardens. Aromas from carnation, citrus, eucalyptus, jasmine can be stimulating while rose, basil, lavender can be balancing. Cedarwood, juniper, mimosa are relaxing whereas chamomile, jasmine, rose, citrus work as anti-depressants too. Plant combinations can also be made for varying degree of fragrance desired in the garden.
Healing gardens have found special place in hospitals across the developed world. For the old age people, patients of psychiatry, cancer and alzheimer’s, and patients in rehabilitation centers the healing garden also provides horticultural therapy. This therapy may help them regain confidence. It works as a place where they can feel less pain, safe and to some level be healed by nature’s healing process. For old people, patients, physically challenged or people with limited mobility garden made in raised beds at wheelchair height become most functional. Plan to make their participation in garden easier. When living with limitations growing and harvesting bring a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Certain plants may have special meanings to them – use those. Design to engage senses beyond sight. Choose insect and disease resistant varieties to minimize pesticide use and discourage undesirable insects

The humour of Zen

• Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.
• If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
• Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.
• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.
• It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
• Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
• Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
• If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of student loan payments.
• Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
• There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
• Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.
• Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
• The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
• A closed mouth gathers no foot.
• Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
• Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
• Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Fridays musings

In my life, was on the radio, and I thought what a wonderful song for the first Friday in August. BC day has come and gone and it is a good time to think of people who have come and gone in my life. When I was involved in networking marketing I learned that we all have a sphere of influence of about 200 people. Those 200 people that are in our lives at any one moment are not the same as we travel through time. Most of the 200 plus souls who were at my wedding 41 years ago are no longer in my life in the same way they were then, some have died, some have moved on to new areas and new friendships as have I. New friends have replaced those who have moved on and that is the way with life. The people we influence also influence us and shape who we see ourselves as and how we relate to the world.

Earlier in a post I talked about Choice Theory, and I would like to expand on this idea as it relates to our choice of the people who populate our lives:

The following is taken from The School for Quality Learning: Managing the School and Classroom the Deming Way by Donna K.Crawford,Richard Bodine,& Robert Hoglund, pp. 45 - 50:


Choice Theory is based on the assumption that all behavior represents the individuals constant attempt to satisfy one or more of five basic inborn needs. In other words, no behavior is caused by any situation or person outside of the individual. Accepting this idea requires a paradigm shift on the part of those who view life according to stimulus-response theory. According to the stimulus-response paradigm, we answer the telephone because it rings and stop the car because the traffic light is red. From the stimulus-response perspective, behavior is caused by someone or some thing(the stimulus) outside the individual; the action following is a response to that stimulus. According to the Choice Theory paradigm, people or events outside us never stimulate us to do anything. Rather, our behavior always represents the choice to do what we believe most satisfies our need at the time. From this perspective, we follow the rules of a game to achieve a meaningful outcome. We answer the phone because we choose to do so in order to communicate, not because we react to the ring. We stop at a red light because we choose to avoid risking a traffic ticket or an accident, not because the light turned red. When we repeat a choice that is consistently satisfying, we exercise less and less deliberation in making that choice. Even a quick action is chosen and not automatic.

The message of Choice Theory is that, because people always have control over the doing component of behavior, if they change that component, they cannot avoid changing the thinking, feeling, and physiological components as well. A choice of action that results in greater control will be accompanied by better feelings, more pleasant thoughts, and greater physical comfort. To get their needs met effectively, people must realize that they always have control over the doing component and can choose to do something more effective than being miserable.

This means that we consciously choose our friends because they help us meet one of our basic needs of  the need to survive, belong, gain power, be free and to have fun. Interesting to think about but I sometimes think that becoming friends is just a serendipity, not a choice. Perhaps staying friends is the real choice.
What does friendship mean to you? What kind of friend are you to the people you care about? What kind of friends do you surround yourself with?

Whimsy

The Town Turtles  of Sandy Springs

This community art/fund raising project involves seventy-five 56" tall "shelled ambassadors" that graced their community throughout the summer of 2005. Wonderful art and wonderful turtles


A few years ago Orlando had large cow statues all over town that people had painted and decorated. I wonder if other cities would be bold enough to use art to unite and apply some magic to their cities.

Zen and Buddhist thought

Since I have started to realize that I will be a grandfather, I have started to pay more attention to the simple things in life and I have also started to take stock of what is important and what I hope to pass on, if given the opportunity. To help me I have, on my I google account, a section called Buddhist thought for the day and I find reading them helps be gain some focus on life. I liked this one as I think it allows one to think about relationships:

If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your heart, I could really see you. - David Brandon (Zen in the Art of Helping)...

Really seeing someone is the first step in establishing a strong connection and helps to build strong relationships. I think small children see a person without trying to trace patterns, so I hope to rekindle the joy of life that I was had as a small child and with that joy and the wisdom of life start to look for and find ways of passing on the understandings I have gained to my grandchild that I was not able to pass on to my children because I was too busy with my career and my own self centered views on life.

I wonder do we as boomers believe in the importance of relationships or do we believe in the idea of relationships. At one point in my life I probably believed in the idea of relationships not the value of the relationship so as I mature I hope to regain the wisdom of my childhood,