Monday, February 16, 2009

DEFINITIONS: WORDS NEW CONCEPTS SERIES - PART 3

It’s important to learn the vocabulary that will support and enhance your character study for your new role in The Magical Theatre, so I suggest you make an effort to add three new definitions to your point of view each week.

Belief System: The facts we have each selected from an infinite number of possibilities to justify our singular point of view and the resulting self-image that we identify as necessary to be accepted by others. Our belief systems offer us the illusion of being right so we can feel safe and justify our existence. When we originally devise our belief systems, we are often motivated by fear and typically (oops!) omit the criteria that our beliefs should support living an unconditional life based on love. By consciously choosing AGAIN what we will believe, we expand our experience of life from fearful limitation to infinite possibility.

Blame: When we place responsibility outside of ourselves for feeling what we are feeling. Blame arises in the absence of honest self-reflection. When we cast responsibility for our emotions outward, we prevent the transformation of toxic feelings by tightly holding onto our pain until they change. In this way, we miss the exit door out of our discomfort. When we are willing to see the truth, we find that we are pulling our own pain levers as it is always our own reaction that lies at the root of the discomfort we are experiencing. This point of view does not grant an unbridled permission to someone else to hurt us but gives us an understanding that we don’t have to take their actions personally—or stick around for that matter. When we remove blame from our experience, we will discover the joy that was waiting in the shadow blame was casting.

Boundaries: The use of boundaries changes with our movement through the upward spiral of our self-awareness. In the beginning of our self-exploration, we often don’t have what can be called appropriate personal limits. Because we don’t have a clear frame of reference, we slide blindly past reasonable bounds, ignoring our best interests, trying to gain love, and/or acceptance and approval. Sometimes it can be the opposite. What we think of as boundaries can more accurately be described as walls since they afford us the illusion of control, comfort and protection. Instead, this wall can have four sides that poses a trap that keeps up from enjoying the many delicious possibilities life has to offer. Boundaries are initially quite challenging as they are an easy place for our inner voices (our People) to offer more confusion. Without a greater understanding of how our wounds and false beliefs function, no safety zone/boundary will stick. For example, excessive generosity (without discernment) can arise out of a need to create a self-image of a loving magnanimous person--we don’t entirely believe it ourselves, so we create proof. In fact, if we peek behind the desire to create this image, we might find a need to look special, get attention etc. to cover up feelings of selfishness or to gain the approval we are withholding from ourselves. As we gain awareness of our underlying false beliefs and resolve our emotional fear we naturally amend our boundaries to reflect our evolving ease.

Gini Gentry - www.ginigentry.com

Monday, February 9, 2009

DEFINITIONS: WORDS NEW CONCEPTS SERIES - PART 2


It’s important to learn the vocabulary that will support and enhance your character study for your new role in The Magical Theatre, so I suggest you make an effort to add three new definitions to your point of view each week.

Attention: The ability to focus on something and differentiate what is observed. We are so used to having our attention captured indiscriminately AND having reactions, that we hardly realize the choices available to differentiate and neutrally interpret what is perceived. When we do not discriminate where we place our attention we become easy prey to fear and conditional beliefs and delay our progress of awakening to the truth of our being. By using our awareness to develop discipline, we can learn to direct where we place our attention, and take responsibility for our response. With this proficiency, we place ourselves in a position to observe and modify the basic beliefs we hold about reality and determine the position we will take in it.

Authentic Self: It is easy to be confused about who we really are with so many images projected on us. We tend to accept the positive or negative opinions that most closely align with our socialization. To be authentic involves no further training; there is nothing new to accomplish. To experience the authentic self means only clearing away the aspects that are not true and enduring: identification with the body, emotional blockages and pain, opinions, and fear based beliefs. Delightedly, an authentic person doesn’t need validation from any point of view. When we experience life from our authentic nature, we are no longer held captive by “should think” or “should act” as those thought exists apart from our integrity. It is easy to be kind and compassionate and practice forgiveness. Our immutable authenticity is the force that animates and moves the physical body.

Awakening: When we see life as it is--not how we want to subjectively see it—we come to accept that all of life is unfolding perfectly under the benevolent gaze of the Divine Mystery. The awakened state is a natural maturation of having broken the spell that led us to forget the birthright of our abiding magnificence. Awake we accept what is and witness Self as connected to, and the same as Other. This is the place where it is possible to live life in an abiding state of unconditional acceptance that feels like love and is described with gratitude. Here we no longer play in greed, doubt or limitation or are described by our fearful actions. Awakening arises out of a direct personal relationship with the Divine Mystery.

Gini Gentry ~ www.ginigentry.com