Personal Growth

True Power

/ Tim Custis / 5 Comments

When you are in your true power, you do not lash out at others. It is only in the present moment that you can access your true power and feel empathy for others. Therefore, when you see someone lashing out, know that this person is hurting and cannot access his or her true power. They can only lash out to make themselves feel powerful. Since this is a temporary feeling, they will have to keep repeating the behavior to keep up this false sense of power.

Remember when you see this behavior in someone else, stay in your true power and show him or her compassion rather than expressing the same behavior back to him or her. This is how we can begin break the cycle. You cannot fix someone else; you can only be the highest expression of yourself in each moment. When we put this energy out into the world, it has the power to change everything!

External Pursuits

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When our external pursuits become more important than our internal exploration, we will eventually feel lost in life. Even when we follow the path of external pursuits and our life seems good, we will wake up one day and feel that something is missing in our life. If we continue to pursue this missing thing “out there”, then we will begin to feel stress, melancholy, worry and other uncomfortable feelings.

Our sole purpose is to reconnect with our God energy, the True-Self. Without this awareness, there will always be internal disturbances that create external upset in our lives. It is important to know that religion alone will not offer you the answers you seek, unless it teaches you this truth. Otherwise, it too is just another external pursuit.

Therefore, whether you are religious or not, believe in God or not, LIFE requires that you let go. It is only through the process of internal exploration and letting go that we can ever finally find what we are looking for and in the end, you will realize that what you were looking for was never lost, just covered up by the thoughts that you believed to be true, that said otherwise.

The World’s True Enemy

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The world’s true enemy and that of every person on this planet is not who or what you might think. It is not our governments or the lobbyist. It is not the corporations, banks, military or even terrorist.

How do I know this to be true? Because these organizations have one thing in common, they are made up of people just like you. Yes, they may have different beliefs, politics or even religions, but none of them would exist without our part in creating them.

We like to place blame elsewhere for our problems. Even as much as we would like to THINK it is true, our real opposition never resides out in the world. The real opposition resides within and is often invisible to our conscious awareness. We find ways to distract, ignore and resist the truth. In fact, to hide its very existence, the False-Self convinces us through our thoughts that the problem is always somewhere else; we are never our own worst enemy, “they are”. Who are they? Well it turns out that “they”, are just another human being.

Without careful observation to build our conscious awareness muscle, we will be forever under the influence of the False-Self. Once we start to notice this influence, it is the beginning of awakening. Our suffering increases anytime we resist the call of the True-Self and only follow the guidance of the False-Self.

When you find yourself blaming someone else or something else for your upset, stop and pay attention to your thoughts. This is the only way to shine light of awareness into the darkness. What are you saying to yourself and are these thoughts making you feel better or worse? Do they actually help you resolve the issue or perpetuate your uncomfortable feelings? It will only be through this careful observation that you can awaken to this covert influence of the False-Self and begin let it go.

When our leaders, voters, the people who make up our corporations and military are coming from this alert and conscious place, then we will begin to see the change we wish for in this world. Until then people will be led around by their False-Self. This can only lead to one place, the destruction of our home, Mother Earth and our continued collective suffering.

To those of you who resonate with what is written here, I ask that you continue on your path. Remember to breath and let go. Live your best life. Pray, meditate or practice any pursuit that brings you peace. Then spread this peace throughout your life to those people you meet with acts of kindness, compassion and most importantly love. Forgive yourself when you are not able to follow through on this intention and then begin again. Remember there is no act to small and the collective power of these acts will change your life and the world. We can only do our best each moment of each day. Remember when we know better, we do better. Let us help everyone know better by example, so we can all do better for our children, grandchildren and all the future generations that come after we are gone.

 

Loneliness and Other Difficult Feelings   

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Have you ever felt lonely? Many of us have been conditioned to think that we should never feel lonely and if we do, something is wrong with us. This is simply not true. Everyone at some point in their lives will feel lonely and many of us will feel this way at different times in our lives. What I would like you to know is that this is normal, it is part of the human condition and there is nothing wrong with you if you feel occasional loneliness.

Loneliness is not something you should try to avoid when it shows up in your life. In fact, you should get to know your loneliness. This is how you take the power out of it, by listening to it, learning from it and feeling it. Eventually getting to a place where in the midst of it, you know that you are OK and that what you are feeling is temporary.

Unfortunately, society often teaches us that any feelings that have a negative connotation, like loneliness, we should not have to feel or even experience. With this kind of conditioning, we often feel worse because we think that it is wrong to feel the way that we do. It should never be wrong to feel our feelings, no matter what they are; this is your truth in that moment, so be with them and stop resisting.

The idea that we should always feel happy is so ingrained in our society that even out of concern someone can make you feel worse for feeling the way that you do. We must always remember that what we are feeling is valid and that we should never be made to feel less than, because of what we are feeling.

Our first instinct is to use distractions when we feel uncomfortable. The problem with this tactic is that many of them are self-destructive. We are using our mental and emotional energy to keep up a state of resistance and avoid being with our feelings. This will perpetuate your suffering and lead you further away from healing.

Think about it, what distractions do you turn to in your uncomfortableness? Is it food, candy, alcohol, shopping, binging on TV, the computer or do you find some other way to numb these feelings?

When you find yourself absorbed in one of your distractions, stop and pay attention to what you are feeling. Then take a deep breath, be present with your feelings and begin to let them go. This is how you suffer less in your life and start to awaken.

Where did you get this idea that you should never feel lonely? In addition, do you think that you should never get angry, frustrated, worried or have any feelings that you perceive as bad? When did you first begin to think this way? Can you remember or is it perhaps an unconscious or conditioned belief, leading to automatic thoughts and behavior?

I am not presenting these questions to get you tangled up in your past or your problems. I only present them to get you to wonder and be more inquisitive about why you do what you do. Pay attention, it is the starting point to finding your way out.

Know that you do not always have to figure things out to let them go. The idea that you cannot let something go or heal without figuring it out first is a trap. Having to figure it out, means you will have to hold onto it. You will do this until you figure it out. In many cases, you will never be able to accomplish this, and that means you will be stuck with it. You need to decide what is more important, figuring it out or letting it go. If you choose letting go, trust that if you need to know something you will.

In the end, letting go is always the path to healing, eliminating suffering and awakening to your True-Self. The next time you think you need to figure something out, try the path of letting go and see what happens. You can always go back to figuring out.

Acknowledging and Releasing the Conditioned-Self

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We often see the world through the eyes of our conditioned-self, not the True-Self. This conditioning creates our perceptions about other people and the world. Our perceptions then influence our thoughts and our thoughts then shape how we feel. Therefore, most of our pain and suffering is not at the hands of some outside source, but the one that reside within, our conditioning.

One way to release our pain and suffering is through the illumination of our conditioning. Without recognizing our conditioning, we are destined to see the world through the eyes of the False-Self. We will believe what we see so much that we will fight for our misguided beliefs and for some, this can even mean to the death.

For many of us, it will create a life with unneeded pain and suffering. When you find yourself fixated on a position or expressing a superior attitude, stop and look closely at why you hold this belief so tightly. Notice what you are feeling in your body, are you tense or relaxed? Tension is a sign that you are under the control of this conditioning and unable in that moment to see anything different. So you become argumentative, angry or frustrated with the other person or situation.

You may not be able to see or feel this in the moment at first, but sometime after the opportunity will present itself. When this happens, it is up to you to be present with your body and to notice your thoughts, and then take a deep breath and let them go. With practice, you can begin to notice this tension rising up in the moment, allowing you to address it sooner. Then over time, through continued observation, awareness and releasing you can finally let it go forever.

We only have to let go a little for the light of awareness to be brighter in our life once again. This requires a willingness to let go and an unbending intention to release our conditioning. Then the True-Self can once again be our guiding light.

Rescue Yourself First Before The World

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Rescue yourself first and stop watching the news. Trust that you will hear what you need to know and give yourself a rest from tragedy and heartache. Learn to be energy intelligent and literate. Be aware of how things affect you in the moment and not after you are already too sad, angry, tired, worried… A life well lived is one that comes from awareness and responds appropriately, instead of reacting out of conditioning.

The Only Surefire Way to End Gun Violence

/ Tim Custis / 2 Comments

What I am about to tell you can change your life forever. In fact, it can change the world! On the other hand, you can let your ungoverned thinking stop you before you read another word and just go about your business. That means you and your life will remain the same and so will the world. At some point, each one of us has to take responsibility for waking-up to the real issue of gun violence. What is the real issue? Well, it is not what you might think, but first let’s look at current talking points and why they have not worked.

We could say that a majority of adults, including gun owners, support common sense gun control such as background checks, bans on assault weapons, and bans on high-capacity magazines. We could say that gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws.  We could also say that the Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of militias to own guns, not the right of individuals or that the Second Amendment was intended to protect gun ownership of all able-bodied men so that they could participate in the militia to keep the peace and defend the country if needed. [1] The argument here is that this was before we had the military.

Many argue that eliminating guns will solve the problem, but this is just not realistic and will never happen at our current level of consciousness. Thinking that adding more background checks will solve the problem is also not a complete solution.

When we reach a place where all sides have valid points and we are unwilling to see the other side, it becomes polarizing and this makes it impossible to move forward. Therefore, we have to find another way, because we have not made any real progress in years. Gun violence is getting worse and not just in the US, but in many places around the world.

“Peace is not an absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, trust, and justice.” – SPINOZA

So again, what is the answer? Now be careful because this is where your thinking and conditioning might raise objections. The true answer is that this is a spiritual problem and it will take some inside work to solve it. Logic alone and outside blame will not work. If they did, then I would have no need to write this article because there would be very little — if any — gun violence in the world today.

We have to recognize that the problem is not what we think it is and we have to approach the solution from a different place. Then and only then will we be able to find a solution that works.

When we look at our problems, we often look at what we think we need to change in the world; this means, outside of ourselves. We point at this person or that thing as being the problem. We do not see the real problem, because we are too busy placing blame elsewhere; we think it is out of our control or we feel so removed from the problem that we do not engage.

We fail to see that the real problem does not reside out there, but instead it resides within us. This is the last place we want to look, but I have learned it should be the first. No matter what the issue is, if we trace it back to the real source, we will find it has something to with one or many of us.

For example, we want to blame Monsanto, the pharmaceutical industry, our government, or a terrorist group. What do these examples have in common? Individuals, just like you and me make them up. We can always lay blame at someone else’s feet, but it is only when we awaken to our own participation or lack thereof that we will begin to find our way to the truth. Ignoring something that we are aware of is indirectly participating in the problem and therefore, not a valid excuse for not getting involved in some way.

Getting involved means that we look inside first, which makes this a spiritual issue. Once we recognize it is a spiritual issue, we will eventually see that it is rooted in fear. We keep it alive by not questioning our lives or taking the steps to let go of who we have become. Too many of us are stuck in routine and mediocrity; this of course leads to being passively involved in the problems of the world. We feel our lives are too overwhelming and life is complicated. This is not because we are not capable of more, because we are all capable of living happy fulfilling lives. However, we have stopped going deep into our own lives; we live on the surface, repeating habitual patterns in our daily lives. We are too afraid to let go of the person we have become and we are too conditioned to see, feel and connect with our True-Self completely.

Once we become connected with our True-Self, we would not want to shoot other people, take their money, seek power for personal gain or do anything that was not supportive of the whole. It is simply not a possible or a soulful action.

Is it OK for a Christian to shoot another person or a Muslim to blow people up in the name of religion, personal gain or even protection? I ask you, would Jesus or Mohammad do these things? Of course not, they would forgive and they would act from love. Furthermore, this is the only place we would act from if we were connected more deeply to our True-Self.

We are mistaken to think that peace will come to the world through outer pursuits and at some future time because of these pursuits. The only way to have true peace in the world is to be peaceful ourselves and this will only happen when we wake up to the peace that already resides in us, which will only occur when we let go of who we have become.

This is not some lofty idea. This is in fact the only way. Some of you will immediately become angry, defensive or think I am just another kook who does not know what he is talking about and people like me are the problem. I would only ask if you feel this way to stop and question why you are thinking this thought; where did this belief come from and is it still valid? Likewise, if you agree, ask yourself the same question. Find a way to go deeper and do not move on so quickly to the next thing, just because you agree or disagree with someone.

As long as you are on this planet, you can connect more deeply with your True-Self. Be grateful and know that no matter your situation there is always something to be grateful for in your life. Know that you can create what you want in this life without doing it at the expense of another person. In fact, being of service to another or to the world in some way will bring you your greatest blessings. Follow your heart, be kind and act from your True-Self. Some day when enough of us do this consistently, we will put an end to gun violence and all the things we see and experience in this world that do not come from love.

Remember, problems like terrorism, human trafficking, war, and of course, gun violence, will never be solved as long as we perceive the problem to be out there. Just look back through history, the landscapes may have changed, but the problems have been here for centuries and as Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”[2]

I say, that we will never solve these world problems with thinking alone. In addition, as long as we are led around by our egos seeking power, greed and control, we can never live in the kind of world where we give more than we take or want. Since you cannot fix someone else, the only thing that you can do is become more awake yourself. If you are on this planet, then you are actively or passively participating in our problems. We are all good people at heart and everyone is doing the best that we can at their current level of awareness. However, you can always wake-up to a greater level of awareness. So I ask you to take an honest look at your life, what part are you playing in your current level of evolution? Are you actively involved or just passively letting life go by?

Healing is an inside job, so look there first before you point the finger somewhere else. Always ask what you can let go of to become more connected to your True-Self. Ask how you can be more loving, kind and accepting. We all have purpose and we all come from the same source; so no one deserves to be killed, mistreated or unloved. A tall order I know, because our conditioning runs so deep, but one we are all capable of doing better and when we know better, we do better. That is a fact!

We say, “Oh, Can’t we all just get along!” However what we really mean is, “Just do things the way I want.” Then we will have world peace. Do you think that conformity is what creation has in mind for us? If that were true, then everyone and everything would be the same. Would that be a fun world to live in?

Remember, the only solution to this problem is a spiritual solution. We need to let go of who we have become by becoming more aware of our thoughts, questioning our beliefs and letting go of those things that we recognize are no longer true for us. We need to make choices that are not only in our best interest, but also in everyone else’s best interest. This is how we end gun violence and improve our lives individually and collectively. This is how every problem that started in the past, that still exists today is finally solved. Moreover, it is the only way that we will not create problems for future generations and avoid self-destruction.

[1] http://gun-control.procon.org/ [2] http://www.thequotepedia.com/

False Perceptions and Beliefs

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The way you are feeling is not the fault of what someone has done to you, but your perception of his or her actions, you must recognize that the problem is not out there. Once you do, then the real work begins uncovering the false perceptions and beliefs that led you to feeling hurt. When you let this go, then you can see the truth. You will see the pain and suffering that caused the other to act out. You will recognize your own role in this story and then you can rewrite it. With experience, we find that it is not what happens to us in life, but how we respond to it that dictates how much our life is filled with pain or joy.

Are You Living a Conditioned Life

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Life becomes uncomfortable when we are not living from our True-Self. What does this mean? We all have become conditioned to some degree by past events and people in our lives. When this conditioning becomes our guidance system, then we no longer act from our True-Self. If we are lucky, we wake up one day and realize our suffering and unhappiness is because we did not follow our soulful guidance. Instead, we made choices from our conditioning and the thoughts produced by it. In other words, we unconsciously followed the guidance of the False-Self and we went against our inner guidance and true feelings.

The beauty is the suffering and unhappiness that comes from this false guidance has the capability of waking us up, and then we can begin to live from our True-Self. If we do not begin to wake up, we are destined to live out our lives from this past conditioning and the False-Self.

Living from our True-Self and being in the NOW is not so much about becoming more spiritual. It is about being more human. We are inherently spiritual beings, we do not have to learn this, what we have to learn is how to be a better human being. We must start to pay more attention to why we make the choices we do and bring to light our conditioning. This act of awareness will open the door to letting go.

If we embrace this challenge wholeheartedly, the guidance of the True-Self rises to the top and our lives begin to change for the better. Why, because we are finally living a heartfelt life, making choices in the present moment, no longer guided by the past, our incessant thoughts or responses from outdated conditioning.

Begin to use your struggle, suffering and unhappiness for what it was meant to do, to wake you up. To become more human and thus exposing your spiritual beauty and start doing what you are suppose to be doing in this life. Do not just settle for the life that you have ended up with, instead uncover the one you were destined to live.

We have all had those moments where we look back and say, what if; well I say there is no more time to waste. Leave the “what ifs” in the past and begin to create a future that is not from your past conditioning, but from that place within you that is connected to the source of all creation. Where all things are possible, even the impossible becomes possible from here. You were born from this place and someday you will return to it. So I ask you, why not begin living there now, in your truth, in the present moment and stop resisting what is. This is our hope for the future, this is our birthright and this is what you are meant to do in this life.

 

Beginning the New Year Rightly

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As the New Year arrives, many feel a sense of hope that things will change, that they will get better. Do you see how this thinking says that things are not the way they should be? That you are resisting what is; that you are resisting the truth. By recognizing this, we open up to a new awareness, one that if you are willing can change how your life unfolds and feels.

We all struggle from time to time in life. The struggle itself is not from the events that our occurring, but how we perceive those events. Do not resist what is happening, but become aware of your perceptions about what is happening and then begin to change them. Begin to see the opportunity that this so-called problem is presenting you.

This is how you change your experience and then no matter what happens to you, you will be able to stay centered and peaceful. You do not have to fall out of joy every time something does not go your way! Will you be perfect at this, probably not at first, but with practice who knows just how peaceful you will become. Perhaps one day you will awaken to the person that you truly are, instead of the once you have become. When we all take responsibility for our own peace, the world will certainly change and maybe we will finally see the peaceful world we all want so much.