To me, what this film is documenting is the very thing that can bring transcending and fundamental changes in the world.  More than EVER, we need to spread awareness of this message…get involved in it…and encourage our friends, families, colleagues to join in.

I will tell you that doing this work for the past year has been an incredible experience.  Millions of people are shifting their habits, careers, and even their worldviews, and we need to rejoice in this global awakening!

Have you seen the Paul Hawken clip that describes THE SHIFT?  If not, check this out and begin seeing how real it is:

World’s Largest Social Movement

OK, so this is just a short post to ask that you to go to THE SHIFT site, http://www.theshiftmovie.com and sign up!

Today, the message for this powerful film and movement was finally released to a very large audience! Over 4 Million people know now about THE SHIFT…so lets give this movement some legs!

Also, for those of you bloggers, list owners, or just very popular people…please send this message around.  Vote on it on Digg, Stumble and all social networks!

Here are some links:

THE SHIFT on Digg

BRAND New Facebook Fan Page

Thanks everyone…this is going to be huge…it needs to be.  Let me know if there is anything I can do for you!

Todd

I have gotten several emails from blogger friends and concerned readers asking “is everything OK with you”? The sentiments have been heart-warming, and I appreciate your interest in my well being.

First off, the answer is ‘yes’, everything is OK with me. The reasons for my taking a break are very personal, but in honoring my mission for complete transparency concerning my journey in life I would like to share with you the experiences I have had over the last 6 weeks.

The goal: to help you garner a few nuggets of wisdom and start seeing that it is OK to have down cycles in your life. To help you see these times are very necessary and often set the stage for a greater ‘you’ to emerge. Let me explain:

Start of My Downward Cycle

Towards the end of March, my long-term girlfriend Irina and I decided to split up. After 3+ years of beautiful time together (and 2 years of living under the same roof) we mutually agreed that the best thing for us to do was go our separate ways.

I am not ready to get into the details of why we broke up, or my philosophy concerning relationships and ‘life partners’. I am sure I will have more to say on this in the future, but now is not the right time.

I will say that the split is very tough for me (and I imagine for her too) because we never fought and had no animosity between us. In a nutshell, we wanted different things and simply began to ‘grow apart’.

The morning after we made the official decision, my front tooth (which is a crown) cracked and broke off. This particular tooth has been my nemesis since I was 9 years old when my best friend (still to this day) inadvertently hit me in the face with a bag filled with silverware and broke my natural tooth to the base.

I haven’t had a problem with that tooth in 8 years, but the day after a traumatic and emotional decision was reached the thing decides to crack off. Funny the way life works. I believe that coincidences like this hold great meaning (as opposed to random, dis-connected occurrences) and I sought to understand what was going on.

In this case I believe my tooth breaking was a physical manifestation of the breakdown in my life that was underway. The universe was telling me ‘things are becoming undone’. I just didn’t know how far it was going to go…

The Downward Cycle Continues…

After going through the very uncomfortable process of getting a new front crown, I was traveling back from Los Angeles on a red eye after extensive and exhaustive business meetings regarding The SHIFT project I am working on.

I was excited to get home and just chill. Upon entering my apartment Sunday morning I immediately switched on The Masters golf tournament (one of my favorite sporting events of the year). As I began to unwind I felt a little twinge in my throat. I got up to make some tea, and it hit me all at once: I was sick. My body felt completely broke down.

The next several days, I chose to honor the intelligence of my body and slept late, drank plenty of fluids and relaxed as much as possible. This was tough, believe me. I had a lot of important things going on in my life, and I felt that it was the worst possible time for my body to break down.

For one, I was turning 35 that week. A BIG birthday mentally and I really had intentions of spending it with some good friends in light of my recent break up with Irina. Second, there was a ton of work that needed to be done for The SHIFT and some other projects I am working on.

But none of it happened—my body was speaking loud and clear. Although I was trying to listen, and was giving myself requisite time to heal, I did not fully realize the greater context of these congruent events. In fact, I think I am just starting to realize the life lessons inherent in the ebb and flow of the last 6 weeks.

Bottoming Out: Downward Cycle in Full Effect

About 6 days later, a newly single, very ill, new tooth wearing, and exhausted Todd went to his parent’s house for a family dinner and gathering. I walked into the house, my mother took one look at me and said “what in the hell is wrong with you…” and “do you have any idea to take care of yourself”! I guess I looked pretty terrible.

My sickness had progressed and I could barely hear out of my right ear. I definitely had a pretty strong sinus and ear infection…potentially worse! But I somehow made it through the dinner, and promised my mom I would go to a doctor immediately the next day.

As I went upstairs to my parent’s guest bedroom and prepared for a lengthy slumber, my newly crowned tooth (which cost me $1,800 by the way…I do not have dental insurance) cracked again. I sat there looking in the mirror at myself, and what I saw was this: a tired, sick, one toothed, un-motivated, confused, scared, lonely, and sad little boy sitting at the edge of his parent’s guest bedroom bed in pajamas.

What in the hell was going on with me? How could all of these things be happening at once? I allowed myself to soak in the feelings of self-pity for a few moments, and I wallowed in the unfairness and pain of my present circumstances.

But a funny thing happened: right in the middle of my deepest despair I began laughing at myself.

I had a sudden realization that my mind had totally taken control of me, and was perpetuating a story of being a victim of all these occurrences. Although I was still ill, single, and with one tooth, this very awareness snapped me out of it. In a sense, I awakened for a moment. This was the start of the upward cycle…

Putting It In Perspective, And What It All Means!

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article concerning what happens when a Caterpillar turns into a Butterfly. If you have not read this one, please take a moment to read it because I think it applies very mightily to the downward cycles I recently experienced.

I feel as if the last 6 weeks served as a very necessary and important stage of what needed to happen in my life at this time. In retrospect I experienced a great clearing in a myriad of areas including intimate relationships (Irina) and physical health (infection), and was forced to deal with a variety of emotional, physical, and spiritual realities.

A big nemesis showed up again (tooth) and passed through the physical milestone of a ‘new age’ (35). I was forced to slow down and rest even though my mind wanted me to move, move, move and act, act, act!

Everything in the last few months has pointed to a clearing of the past and setting the stage for a greater future to emerge. I feel like the last 6 weeks of my life were similar to the Caterpillar’s time as a big blob of goo right before it takes form as a new realm of being: a Butterfly.

So where am I right now? In one word: re-emerged. I feel very clear headed and empowered. I am traveling out to Los Angeles next week for work and am crystal clear about what needs to get accomplished. It was also very apparent to me that now was the right time to publish a We The Change article again, and that I needed to share this specific story with you.

(In fact, I started writing this piece last week, but it just felt ‘off’. I wasn’t quite sure what I was trying to accomplish. The big blob of goo that was Todd was not ready yet).

I also know what I need to do to honor my wonderful relationship with Irina, and insure that we both are able to create the greatest future that wants to emerge for both of us.

TIPS For You

In all, my downward cycle was a necessary stage for the beautiful upward mojo that I now have. Here are some things that I hope you can take away from my story:

– Shed the light of awareness when you are in a down cycle. Don’t force yourself out of it, just be aware that these times exist for a reason and accept them. Have ultimate faith that you will inherently know when the time is right to re-emerge.

– Appreciate the uptime, but understand that it is also fleeing. No human being can sustain feelings of true contentment forever. Again, awareness of the cycles is the key.

– Notice coincidences and synchronicity: they are telling signs that clue you in to inner intelligence. Put value on them!

– Honor the intelligence of your body

– Never have your nest friend knock out your front tooth

– Realize that the sentiment ‘I have not been myself lately’ is foolish. You are always yourself, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, etc…

So I am BACK. Tune in for continuing We The Change pieces!

It began last Sunday as I relaxed on my couch watching the Master’s golf tournament. I had just flown back from Los Angeles where I spent a hectic 4 days in full work mode. As I got up to make a sandwich, I felt a twinge in my throat and a weakening in my legs. At that moment, I knew that some form of illness fell upon me.

Although this ‘immediate awareness’ to my sickness may seem pretty cool to you, the truth is that my body was breaking down for several days before this. I just didn’t take notice. Here are 4 great suggestions for sickness prevention and care:

1. Prepare for Airplanes

The human body is not used to being at 30,000 feet of altitude for several hours. It has been scientifically proven that we are much more susceptible to illness, particularly infections, when flying.

What I ended up contracting was a pretty serious nasal and ear infection, and I am sure this manifested through a combination of lack of sleep, work stress, and high altitudes. Therefore it is imperative to prepare your immune system each time you fly by securing adequate rest, eating healthful foods, and limiting anxiety before and after your trip.

You can also go a step further and load up on vitamins and products like Emergen-C to prepare for flying. The point is, don’t be like me and learn the hard way…

2. Understand The Nature of Your Illness

Another mistake I made was not understanding the true nature of my poor health. For some reason, I was under the impression that I had contracted some type of virus while in Los Angeles, while the truth was a pretty hard-core bacterium had taken hold of my head, neck and chest.

After three days of resting, taking vitamins, and ingesting bowl after bowl of chicken soup I should have seen a health professional. Not doing this caused the infection to grow much stronger than it should have and left me sick for much longer than I anticipated.

When you are unsure what your sickness really is, go to a doctor.

3. Use Modern Medicine After Holistic Measures Fail

I always try and heal my body with holistic measures first. 95% of the time I find it works, but there is always the 5% chance that we need the genius of modern medicine to help us.

Believe me, I hate going on antibiotics. They cause much damage to the body, particularly to the large intestines where they kill off millions of disease fighting bacteria that we need for optimum health. However, sometimes modern medicine can be wonderful, and my recent bout with infection was certainly one of those times.

The important thing when taking a dose of antibiotics is to build the immune system back up afterwards. I am currently taking a daily dose of probiotics to build my large intestines back up, for example.

4. Use Exercise as a Means to Gauge Your Sickness

Everyone says “rest, rest, rest” when you start feeling sick. But I always find it more useful to ‘test’ my body when it is not feeling well is by exercising. I am not talking about running a marathon but doing some moderate cardio workout to gauge the nature of your sickness, and even flush it away.

After two days of feeling ill, I went to the gym and jogged lightly for about 15 minutes. Afterwards I went into the sauna and envisioned the sickness being soaked out of me. This process usually works quite well. In this case, it didn’t work as I still felt ill the next day.

At this point I was quite sure that whatever I had, it was more serious than the common cold. I still didn’t go to a doctor (like an idiot), but knew I needed to take it real easy.

In The End…

Because I rarely fall ill, I have learned it usually means the divine wisdom of the body is communicating with me that I need to slow down and take a break. When I was younger, I used to fight and ignore sickness. Now, I look at times of physical weakness as a check point in the continuous cycles of my life.

SO, honor the wisdom of your body and pay attention to the signs if illness. Then, take proper care of yourself. I hope you found these four recommenndations useful…

Even though this practice is primarily used during meditation, I have found great use in utilizing body awareness in my every day life as well. For those of you who already have a meditation practice, I highly recommend trying the following steps.

For those of you who do not currently meditate, the practice brings a great sense of peace, joy, perspective and fulfillment into your life. I highly recommend you giving it a whirl and have written two excellent pieces on ‘meditation for beginners’. I encourage you to check them out:

How To Meditate For Beginners
20 Steps for Quieting The Mind

Body awareness is extremely healthy and initiates the flow of fresh oxygenated blood to body areas that usually fall below the radar of your consciousness:

Using the Body

The big question for beginners is: where do I focus my attention during meditation? There are myriad schools of thought which answer this question. Many teachers suggest using the breath as a focal point to deeper awareness.

I have used the breath to some degree of success, but have always found deeper experiences through focusing on my body parts. Here is how:

First, it is always helpful to make your practice of meditation ‘formal’. Meaning, set aside at least 15 minutes every day to practice meditation. Make sure you will not be disturbed and commit yourself to sitting in stillness with your body, breath and even your thoughts for the allotted time.

After taking a few deep breaths, begin noticing the air as it travels in and out of your nostrils. Notice how the air feels colder during the inhale and warmer during the exhale. Focus your attention on where you feel the air most prominently.

Next, follow the breath inwards and notice it in the belly. Begin feeling the sensation of your stomach expanding with each inhale and deflating on each exhale. Really be there with your stomach as it goes in and out. Try and feel the air enter your domain and sense the space it is taking up.

Lower Body Awareness

After a few minutes of conscious breathing, you will have greater control on your attention span. That is the goal, and the next place I suggest bringing your attention is to the feet.

Start feeling your toes, heals, and arches in whatever position they are currently in. Notice a tingling sensation that seems to follow your attention, and bring your full awareness to it.

Next, lead your attention up the leg, through the ankle and on the calves. Stay there for a moment and breathe into the calves. Feel the blood flowing in your lower legs, and then bring your attention upward to the knees.

I love focusing awareness on the knees. They are a mystical and sensitive part to the body and bringing awareness here also brings health!

Follow the path upwards through the thighs and focus astutely in your pelvis area. Allow the tingling sensation to emanate throughout the pelvis and massage the internal organs that work so hard to keep you healthy.

The tingling sensation I describe is SO important in body awareness. It represents your life flow, your vibrational force, and the very essence of your being alive. Bring your attention to it over and over again.

As you continue to move upwards combine your attention with love and appreciation of the body parts you are feeling. When you begin this process, it might be as if you are feeling your body for the first time. Awareness is love, and love is wellness.

Upper Body Awareness

As you work your way upwards, feel your stomach and internal organs hard at work. Just sit with them, notice them, and appreciate them for what they do.

Sense the beating of the heart and bring your full attention to this beautiful masterpiece. Really feel the beating and begin to understand that this is your life, and not all the stresses of your every day ‘life situation’. Right here, right now, you and your heart.

Be still, and be at peace. No where to go, no where to be…

As you follow your awareness up your chest and shoulders, and down your arms into your hands notice how gentle and light your fingers feel. They are delicate and beautiful, and allow your awareness to wash freely over them.

As your attention creeps up the neck, bring it to your lips and mouth. Sit in pure silence and stillness as you feel the sensation of having a mouth. Next, follow the tingling to the nose and again feel the sensation of the breath as it travels in and out of the nostrils.

You may feel much more alert to your breath then when you first began this process. That is great, and appreciate how easily you have become an observer to your body.

Go to the eyes and allow your awareness to spread appreciation to your vision. Go behind the eyes and feel the brain working and sense its vibrational frequencies. This is a very powerful part to the practice, and I love feeling the sensation of my entire head hard at work as I sit here, in silence, observing it.

Full Body Awareness

Once your attention has traveled from toes to head, get a sense of the entire body. Feel everything all at once and spread the tingling of awareness throughout the wonderful organism in which you live. Feel your life force beating, breathing and flowing within you.

Appreciate with loving kindness all your body does for you. Say thank you. Say it again.

What a transcending way to start a day, and I hope you cultivate the thirst to feel your body. I have found higher levels of consciousness by learning how to focus on my physical body during my meditation practice, and I hope this experience is useful for you.

As always, I look forward to your comments!

Here are six reasons why hiking in the woods is a great thing to do, along with a few practical recommendations for getting the most out of the experience:

1. Notice How Everything is Perfect in Nature

As you become ensconced in the beauty of the woods, start noticing how there is no complaining.  Everything is the way it is, and there is 100% acceptance between all things.  And it’s a beautiful thing to realize. 

In my walk this morning, I came upon a massive rock that was somehow lodged underneath a huge tree.  When this first happened, it must have disrupted the natural energy flow of the tree.  But there was no animosity, and the tree continued to grow around and above the rock. 

The tree flourishes and beautiful moss now surrounds the rock.  I sat there for a long time looking at this incredible display.  What can we learn from this?

2. Notice How You Get Through It, No Matter What!

When walking in the woods, you will no doubt encounter rough areas where you have to be a little more careful.  Sometimes you may even lose your footing and fall.  But you always seem to make it through, don’t you? 

No matter how confused you are where your next step is going to come from, you consistently find a way and keep moving forward.  Such is the way of life, but we rarely see it that way. 

Learn from the microcosm of your hike that life always ends up OK—it ends up exactly the way it should be.

3. Go Wherever Your Feet Take You

One of the things I love to do is to let my body guide the direction.  Unless I am in real danger of getting lost, I allow my feet to just follow the path they desire without thinking “is this right” or “maybe I should go this way”. 

This is a wonderfully freeing way to go for a walk, one that re-establishes connection with that little thing inside of you called intuition.  Your body is smarter than your mind gives it credit for…so give the chatterbox a break for a few hours and let the intelligence of your inner you lead the way.

4. Follow The Path, OR Don’t Follow The Path

When you follow your feet, sometimes it leads off the pre-existing path.  This is OK, and if your body is pulling you in that direction I encourage you to go for it (unless, of course, it is potentially unsafe)!  Think about your life—isn’t it sometimes beneficial for you to create a new pathway for greater fulfillment and success to abound? 

Other times it is certainly better to stay on the path.  The important lesson to learn is how to listen within, and cultivate powerful instincts about things.  A walk in the woods can help you do this…

5. Are You a Leader or a Follower?

If you walk with someone, notice the difference between leading the way and following behind.  Which do you like better?  Sometimes I love leading the way because then I get to choose the direction and see new phenomena first.  Other times I enjoy being behind someone and letting them make all the decisions. 

Notice how your preferences constantly change, as they do in your every day life.  Realize that you are neither a leader nor a follower, but a little bit of both depending on the situation.

6. Pay Attention To Your Internal Body

After walking in silence for some time, I enjoy turning my attention inward and feeling my breath, heartbeat and feet as they hit the ground.  This can be a transcending experience and often leads to a moment of clarity for me. 

Why?  Because when the peacefulness of nature enters the bodily domain a sudden flash of awareness strikes that reminds me that we are not separate, lonely entities roaming the planet for a short and meaningless time. 

On the contrary, I get the sense of ultimate connectedness with all things—with nature, with myself, and with my inner purpose. 

Now that’s what I call a nice walk in the park…    

Picture above by Photocello2006

Our food has a limitless supply of “energy power” that most of us barely tap into.  We can all become more efficient eaters, and the purpose of this article is to provide 6 easy, practical tips for getting the most out of the fare we consume.

After each recommendation, I provide a “7 day trial” that you can implement for the next week.  Try these exercises and begin to feel increased energy, greater focus and heightened awareness:

1. Chew

A few years ago, I attended a nutrition lecture that I will never forget.  The speaker told the tale of his father, a Holocaust survivor who claims that chewing was the one activity that saved his life.  Apparently, he and a few friends made a pact to chew every piece of food and drink a minimum of 150 times.  No matter how small the bite or sip of water, they chewed and chewed.  And they lived.  Ask yourself: how often do I swallow my food almost whole, and what am I missing out by chewing more proficiently? 

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, chew all of your hard food a minimum of 50 times.  This is beneficial for so many reasons: it will slow you down, bring greater awareness to your eating, and also help your digestion significantly.  Make chewing a habit.

2. Go for a walk after you eat

A lengthy walk after eating can do wonders for your energy.  Walking stimulates digestion and encourages gravity to do its natural work.  People in the U.S. wonder how Europeans can eat so much butter and fatty foods, yet be so thin.  One of the reasons is that they tend to go for long walks after a meal.  This one activity can vastly improve your health.

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, make a point to walk at least 15 minutes after you eat.  Even if you have to walk around the block 5 times, do it.  Even better:  take a walk with a friend, be in an open space, and enjoy the outdoors…then go back to your daily life.

3. Drink more water during the day

Most Americans, and most people around the world, are completely de-hydrated and do not even know it!  Water keeps the body lubricated, so that when a meal enters the system it is ready for work.  How much water should you drink?  I recommend at least 4 Liters a day and it is very important to drink at least 1 liter upon waking up in the morning, as this is when you body is most de-hydrated from a long absence of water.

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, drink a big glass of water first thing in the morning (before you do anything else).  Also, make a point to drink at least 4 additional 12 oz bottle’s worth during the day.  You will see an immediate increase in energy. 
 
4. Limit your eating after 7pm at night

I am not sure about the rest of the world, but this is where most Americans fail.  Eating late at night is unhealthy for a myriad of reasons, but predominately because it disrupts digestion.  At night, the body is ready for rest, and digestion is a process that requires a lot of hard work.  Eating before bed time is simply not effective, as the food just sits in the stomach and causes grogginess and lack of energy the next day.

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, do NOT eat anything past 7pm.  You might be surprised how difficult this is, but I can assure you that you will a) sleep better and 2) experience a tremendous increase in energy.

5. Start your day with high protein breakfast

Simple carbs release sugar in the body at a faster rate than complex carbs, fats, and protein, and give the body an immediate “up” feeling.  But it is short-lived, and if you are in the habit of a high carb breakfast you are constantly fighting a battle for energy during the day.  Start the day off more balanced, and ingest a whole-grain cereal, eggs, or even an incredible nutritious health shake.

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, eat NO carbs in the morning.  Also limit, or stop completely, caffeine intake.  You might feel drowsy for the first few days…realize this feeling is literally a withdrawal from a bad habit.  Stay with it, and fill your body with complex carbs and protein to start your day.

6. Create the habit of Cardiovascular workouts

A minimum of 30 minutes of cardio workout, at least 4 times a week is a fantastic way to get the most energy out of your food.  Regular cardiovascular exercise optimizes your food intake, and helps create vitality, resilience and health.  Food is energy, and exercise is a mechanism for purposefully creating the flow of energy in your body.

7 Day Trial:  For the next week, force yourself to get in at least 120 minutes of cardio (not straight though).  This is especially necessary in the winter, when many of us become “lazy” and do not want to go outside, or go to a gym and exercise.  However, if you want to get the most from your food, exercise is a necessary component.

TRY these exercises.  They are simple, and can provide you unbound energy from the food you consume!  

From the 10,000 foot level we have become so ingrained with the belief that “someone else or something else can solve all our problems” that we have forgotten to look within ourselves for the answers. 

You may be scared to hear this, but the only person that can ever truly make you happy, healthy, fulfilled and at peace is YOU.  Similarly, the only thing that you truly have control over with regards to generating positive change in the world is YOU. 

There is no magic pill, no savior and no external remedy that you need now or will ever need.  Any time spent wishing, hoping and lamenting about external solutions is non-productive and reactionary. 

Healing must start from the inside—it will become transparent on the outside once it takes form from a place within.  Let me give you some tangible examples of what I mean:

Healing the Environment from the Inside Out

If you have a strong penchant for saving the planet, then the first thing you should do is look to your OWN actions as opposed to blaming lack of quality leadership, lack of funds, lack of time, etc…on existing conditions.  Every time you feel your mind being pulled in the direction that some insurmountable external factors are 100% causing the problems, pull yourself back to the present moment and ask yourself “what can I do right now to make a positive impact”? 

This is healing from the inside out, and creating the habit of being present and acting in this manner is the answer that you are so desperately searching.

Healing Your Health from the Inside Out

If you are one of hundreds of millions worldwide citizens with weight problems, you might feel that a) healthy foods are not readily available to you b) you don’t earn enough money to eat healthy c) you don’t have enough time to exercise.  Although these sentiments might be very real to you, they also levy any responsibility YOU have for helping yourself lose weight. 

“How can I lose weight amid such conditions” will be your battle cry and you will almost certainly remain as you are.  Or, alternatively, you may find some quick fix solution that allows you to lose weight temporarily but never broaches the real cause of your overweight condition.  Only through an examination of your internal thoughts and actions, and habituating the art of staying present, can you experience a sustainable remedy. 

This is healing from the inside out, and is a mindset that can be applied to your personal state of well-being as well as to more global conditions.

Healing Your Relationships from the Inside Out

Too many modern-day relationships are marked by anxiety and struggle.  We often think to ourselves, “oh, if only such-and-such person was a different way things would be better for me”.  Truthfully the only thing that will make things better for you is an honest examination of what is going inside your head.  The little chatterbox that causes the internal stress is the genesis of your failing relationships and NOT other people. 

This may be hard to understand, and hard to hear, but it is most certainly true.  Healing from the inside out, when it comes to relationships, transpires through staying present and taking note of the damaging thoughts concerning others that we have become so used to. 

Self Realization is the First Step to Healing from the Inside Out

I can feel some of you cringing in dis-belief as you are reading these words, and feeling that “yes, this is all well and good, but it is not real life—the situations that I am in, and that the world is in, are very real and need to be dealt with accordingly”.  When these thoughts enter your mind, remember that this brand of thinking is what has led you, and the world, into the situations you/we are trying to resolve.  In fact, NOT realizing this is pure madness, no?

There is a better way, and it begins with the philosophy of healing from the inside out.  Only through examination of your internal state of being can you attain personal joy, health and success while at the same time contribute to a collective healing of the world and universe we all thrive.

How do you start doing it, and living in this way?  You become conscious of your mind, and you become aware of its self-deprecating thoughts.  You begin to see how the never-ending chatterbox is always pulling you away from an examination of what lies within you, and is always searching for something on the outside to substantiate itself.  You start realizing that this inner voice has pulled a great illusion and made you believe that its dialogue is the real you.

“The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of human consciousness.  We need to go on to the next stage now as a matter of urgency otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown into a monster”

–Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Once you catch even a glimpse of this reality you start becoming more present, and you allow yourself to be healed from the inside.  This is a very real and transcending experience, and is the essence of healing that can remedy your life and the world around you.

BUT, My Life Is Fine!

You may be thinking “well, my life is pretty good, I am generally happy and I don’t really have a need to change my whole way of being as you are suggesting”.  True, the mind that we have become accustomed to as being “us” can also generate feelings of happiness, fulfillment and success. 

But these moments are temporary, and the short-lived feelings of the mind pale in comparison to the enduring peace and joy that arise through present moment awareness and consciousness.  Even if the mind is telling you that you are happy and content, it is usually a function of some external experience that it is currently ensconced and “enjoying”. 

Remember, the answers are not somewhere “out there”, they are already within you.  Healing begins with presence, right here, right now.

I hope this article was motivating and inspires you to start looking internally instead of externally when problems arise in your life and in the world around you.  I look forward to your comments!