Everybody Knows That

Everybody Knows That. . . Posted: 10 Oct 2016 05:00 PM PDT You can't be all things to all people. You can't do all things at once. You can't do all things equally well. You can't do all things better than everyone else. Your humanity is showing just like everyone else's. So. . . You have to find out who you are, and be that. You have to decide what comes first, and do that. You have to discover your strengths, and use them. You have to learn not to compete with others, Because no one else is in the contest of "being you." Then. . . You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness. You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions. You will have learned to live with your limitations. You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due, And you'll be a most vital mortal. Dare to Believe. . . That you are a wonderful, unique person. That you are a once-in-all-history event. That it's more than a right, it's your duty, to be who you are. That life is not a problem to solve, but a gift to cherish. And you'll be able to stay one up on what used to get you down.

Disarming the Know-It-All A Chance to Contribute

by Madisyn Taylor People that are know-it-alls are simply stuck in a pattern and may actually have feelings of low self worth. Most of us have encountered a person in our lives who can accurately be referred to as a know-it-all. This person seems to know everything about anything that gets brought up and tends to dominate the conversation. They don’t take well to being questioned, and they have a hard time ever admitting that they were wrong. Being around a know-it-all is inevitably tiring because there is no shared energy between the two of you. Rather, you become an audience member to this person’s need to be the center of attention. Attention and respect are probably the two things this person most longs for, and at some point in their lives, they learned that knowing it all was the way to get those needs met. Over time, they have become stuck in this pattern, regardless of the fact that it is no longer working. They may feel afraid of the experience of listening, being receptive, or learning something new, because it’s so unfamiliar. On the one hand, when we see the childlike need underneath the know-it-all’s mask of confidence, we feel compassion for the person, and we may tolerate their one-sided approach to conversation out of a desire not to hurt their feelings. On the other hand, we may be feeling drained and tempted to avoid this person altogether. In the middle of these two possible ways of feeling, we may actually like this person and wish for a closer relationship. If we come from a place of kindness, we might attempt to bridge the gap that this person’s habitual way of relating creates. Simply expressing a desire to be closer may open their heart, and give you a chance to ask for what you need in the relationship—a chance to contribute.

Life's Natural Rhythm Universal Timing

Life's Natural Rhythm Universal Timing by Madisyn Taylor Slowing down and listening to your own natural rhythm can quickly connect you to the Universe. Nature’s natural rhythms orchestrate when day turns to night, when flowers must bloom, and provides the cue for when it is time for red and brown leaves to fall from trees. As human beings, our own inner rhythm is attuned to this universal sense of timing. Guided by the rising and setting of the sun, changes in temperature, and our own internal rhythm, we know when it is time to sleep, eat, or be active. While our minds and spirits are free to focus on other pursuits, our breath and our heartbeat are always there to remind us of life’s pulsing rhythm that moves within and around us. Moving to this rhythm, we know when it is time to stop working and when to rest. Pushing our bodies to work beyond their natural rhythm diminishes our ability to renew and recharge. A feeling much like jet lag lets us know when we’ve overridden our own natural rhythm. When we feel the frantic calls of all we want to accomplish impelling us to move faster than is natural for us, we may want to breathe deeply instead and look at nature moving to its own organic timing: birds flying south, leaves shedding, or snow falling. A walk in nature can also let us re-attune is to her organic rhythm, while allowing us to move back in time with our own. When we move to our natural rhythm, we can achieve all we need to do with less effort. We may even notice that our soul moves to its own internal, natural rhythm – especially when it comes to our personal evolution. Comparing ourselves to others is unnecessary. Our best guide is to move to our own internal timing, while keeping time with the rhythm of nature.

Evaluating Our Relationships The Friend We Want To Be

by Madisyn Taylor Be the friend to others that you wish them to be to you. There comes a time in all our lives when we may need to evaluate our relationships, making sure that they are having a positive effect on us, rather than dragging us down. Without realizing it, we may be spending precious time and energy engaging in friendships that let us down, rather than cultivating ones that support and nourish us along our path. Life, with its many twists, turns, and challenges, is difficult enough without us entertaining people in our inner circle who drain our energy. We can do so much more in this world when we are surrounded by people who understand what we’re trying to do and who positively support our efforts to walk our path. We can begin this evaluation process by simply noticing how we feel in the context of each one of our close relationships. We may begin to see that an old friend is still carrying negative attitudes or ideas that we ourselves need to let go of in order to move forward. Or we may find that we have a long-term relationship with someone who has a habit of letting us down, or not showing up for us when we need support. There are many ways to go about changing the status quo in situations like this, having a heart to heart with our friend showing through example. This process isn’t so much about abandoning old friends as it is about shifting our relationships so that they support us on our journey rather than holding us back. An important part of this process is looking at ourselves and noticing what kind of friend we are to the people in our lives. We might find that as we adjust our own approach to a relationship, challenging ourselves to be more supportive and positive, our friends make adjustments as well and the whole world benefits.

Connection...The Truth To Interdependence

September 27, 2016 Connection The Truth of Interdependence by Madisyn Taylor Earth is home to a web of living things that are connected to each other through a kaleidoscope of relationships. Picking a leaf off the ground and contemplating it as an object in and of itself is very inspiring. Its shape and color, the way it feels in your hand, its delicate veins and the stem that once held it fast to the branch of a tree—all of these qualities reveal a leaf to be a miniature work of natural art. As we contemplate this small object more deeply and consider where it came from and what purpose it has served, we find that the leaf is one small but essential part of a system that harnesses the energy of the sun, plumbs the depths of the earth, and in the process brings into being the oxygen many living things rely on to live. A leaf transforms the elements of its environment—sunlight, carbon dioxide, rain—into nourishment for its tree. This beautiful, nearly weightless, ephemeral piece of nature is a vital conduit to the branch that is a conduit to the trunk that is a conduit to the roots of the tree. The roots, in turn, draw nourishment from the earth to feed the trunk, the branches, and the leaves. The living beings that inhale the oxygen that comes from this process exhale the carbon dioxide that feeds the leaves through which the tree is fed. It is difficult to know where one cycle ends and another one begins. One of the many gifts that nature offers us is a clear demonstration of the interdependence between all living things. The person who exhales the carbon dioxide, the clouds that produce the rain, the sun that gives light, the leaf that transforms all these things into sustenance for a tree—not one of these could survive without being part of this cycle. Each living being is dependent upon other living things for its survival. When we look at the world, we see that this is not a place where different beings survive independently of one another. Earth is home to a web of living things that are connected to each other through a spinning kaleidoscope of relationships. We need each other to survive and thrive.

Every year, on 22 September, the sun enters the sign of Libra, beginning a new period. This is autumn, the time when ripe fruit is gathered, grain is sifted to be eaten or stored to be sown later so that the cycle can begin again. But this work of separating and sifting that occurs in nature applies not only to vegetation but also to human beings. For autumn is the time for the separation that Hermes Trismegistus speaks of in the Emerald Tablet, ‘You will separate the subtle from the gross with great diligence.’ You will separate the subtle from the gross, meaning the spiritual from the material. And so initiates, who participate in spirit in all of nature’s work, know that the time has come to let any dark matter remaining within them die, to allow true life its freedom. And just as fruit is separated from the tree and stones or pips are separated from the fruit, so one day the soul will be separated from the body. The body is the soul’s covering, and the soul is the seed that will be sown above, in heaven. Once the human fruit is ripe, it does not fall back to earth like the seed of a plant, but flies up to heaven. » Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

« If you know how to observe nature, you will see that it continuously offers us ways to solve our problems. For example, how does an oyster make a pearl? First of all, a grain of sand falls into its shell, and this grain of sand is a problem, an irritant. ‘Oh’, says the oyster, ‘how can I get rid of this? It is scratching me, it irritates me, what can I do?’ It begins to think, it concentrates, it meditates! And one day it begins to secrete a special substance that envelops this irritating grain of sand in such a way that it becomes smooth, polished and velvety. And when it has succeeded, it is happy and says to itself, ‘Not only is this grain of sand no longer bothering me, but I have also produced a magnificent pearl!’ This is the lesson of the pearl oyster: it teaches you that by means of thought you can envelop your worries and irritation in a luminous, iridescent substance, and in doing so you amass extraordinary riches within you. True spiritualists are those who know how to work on their problems and turn them into precious pearls. » Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov