Warped sense of values

Do you dream of a good night's sleep, but just don't seem to get it? You have your reasons.  We each have our own idiosyncrasies. Some people's choices of mattress wouldn't be your choices. You may even go so far as to think other people have a warped sense of priorities or values because they don't behave like you would behave or, they don't share your particular sense of humor.

Consider a couple I know who decided to buy a brand new car while at the same time, were adamant about saving money so they bought a second hand mattress. This may not seem logical to you. They exerted considerable effort sorting through the want ads, and fiddling with a map to find the home of the mattress owner. On the way, they decided they wouldn't buy the mattress if it was found to be owned by an obese person, because this would imply there would be damaged springs. After haggling the price down from $140 to $110, they triumphantly tied the Sealy mattress to the roof of their temporary rental car for a shaky trip across a new city.

The plot thickens. Once back in their new apartment, the couple discovered that in their haste, they hadn't noticed the underside of the mattress emitted a rather pungent odor. Apparently, they forgot to ask whether the previous owner had pets? Figuring the odor and discoloration would dissipate after a good airing, they put the mattress out on the balcony for a few days and hoped for a good breeze.

Amidst all the delirium of their move, would you imagine they overlooked the superintendant's flyer in their mailbox about a planned rooftop cleaning? Three days later, they returned from work to a surprise. The mattress on their balcony was coverd in brown sludge that had been dripping from far above. Even so, rather than throw it out, they decided to take a wet sponge and clean it off. They had had enough of their air mattress, but decided to stick it out just a bit longer. ..

"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable." ~Maya Angelou

"A penny saved is not a penny earned if at the end of the day you still owe a quarter." ~Mary Landrieu

Release negative energy

If you think negatively about other people, or hesitate to forgive them for any pain they may have caused, you're actually carrying that negative energy inside yourself.  To learn to release that negative energy is the way to unburden yourself.  It would be as if you were able to see and understand everything that's going on around you, even when you don't choose to understand the language they speak or their courses of action.  This is a script you will draft for yourself to intend and spread happiness.

1) Send the person a 'good word' instead.

2) Let go of negative projections you have attached to yourself.

3) Read positive affirmations and express them with sincerity.

4) Consider the possibility of telling the person everything you sense is happening.

5) Write a letter about uplifting visiond. Seal it in a bottle. Toss it into the sea.

Lessons to grasp in your physical form

Goals are like visions we create as we the narrow the focus of our energies. In general, people evolve from general to more specific plans.  Often, people model themselves on goals realized by others before them.  Consider what it would be like to unleash the power of your unlimited visions.  Take steps to clarify what each of these points would mean for you in your own world:

1) Relish the intensity of experiences that delight your soul.

2) Accept everyone and everything to be your teachers.

3) Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone.

4) Let go of attachments to people and things.

5) Recognize choices you make or exclude due to fear.

6) Explore and seek to understand all emotions.

7) Live life to the fullest without regret.

8) Heed your intuition.

9) Express love and self-love with sincerity.

10) Learn to distinguish between your conditioned mind and other realities.

Dissolve it away

If thoughts are pre-matter with substance and mass, then why is it so hard to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we form everything at will?  Since everything and everyone has substance and mass and a kind of reality, why doesn't everyone sense they take shape according to pleasure and perception?  Why don't more people believe they dissolve or think away circumstances when it feels right for them to disappear?  Why would you choose to re-create what had already dissolved?

"Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar." -Pablo Picasso

"It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all."-Emmet Fox

Are humans simply underchallenged?

As a follow-up to the popularity of the posting, "Past the breaking point," let's reconsider success.

Some human beings are motivated to work to break human records for endurance, speed, stamina, resilience and other qualities.  Success in this sense may relate to shattering what has already been done in a specific race or sport, being a pioneer in your field or, at least bettering yourself by personal efforts.  After all, everything you do can bring you a sense of success.  Even the intent to act is a positive move. 

You may not realize that what human beings consider to be the "toughest races" in the world, are often annual competitions for professionals or elite go-getters who do the races for fun. For those people who finish these races, results may seem impressive.  And they are.  However, its wise not to rest on any laurels.  No matter what goals you set out for yourself and realize, different challenges always await you somewhere.  If you start to feel smug, you might compare your  accomplishments to these startling efforts made by animal, fish and insect species simply to survive:

1)  A group of humpback whales seeking balmier waters have traveled a record-breaking 5,100 miles, the longest-ever documented migration undertaken by a mammal. http://www.livescience.com/animals/070410_whale_migration.html

2) Sooty shearwater birds migrate nearly 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) a year, flying from New Zealand to the North Pacific Ocean every summer in search of food, according to a new study. (The extensive summer trek is the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically).  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060808-bird-migration.html

3) Nicole, as the shark is being called, traveled from Africa to Australia and back—a total of 12,400 miles (more than 20,000 kilometers)—in nine months. The feat also set a second record: fastest return migration of any known marine animal. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_shark_fastest.html

4) The arctic tern has the longest migratory flight. "It breeds mainly around the shores of the Arctic Ocean and then flies to the other side of the world to spend the remainder of the year in the Antarctic - a total distance, if it were to travel in a straight line, of at least 16,000 kilometres. In a lifetime, this is equivalent to flying to the Moon and back". (Guinness Book of Animal Records, p. 127)  http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/magazine/animal_migration.html

5)  Every year millions of the orange and black morach butterflies fly 4828 km (3,000 miles) from Canada to Mexico for the winter.  When the butterflies fly north, they lay eggs and then die near the borders of Mexico and the US, and the US and Canada. The next generation of insects then continues the journey.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4745300/4745315.stm