Spirituality Guide

I had a regular, average morning this morning. Coming back home and settling in for a day of work. However, I received an email and immediately started feeling stressed, rushed, and under a deadline. Given that my deadlines are primarily self-imposed, I didn’t actually have anything to be worried about. In fact, I had a calm, relaxing day of work ahead.

I exchanged emails back and forth most of the morning and found myself getting increasingly stressed even though the emails in themselves had no stressing content.

So what was the problem?

Beth Turnage at Astrology Explored recently posted about being psychic and the New Age line of thinking that we are all connected and can sense things based on these connections. While I do not claim to be psychic, I do believe that some people have an increased level of sensitivity when it comes to feeling other people’s feelings.

After I realized that I had no reason to feel rushed or stressed, I calmed myself down enough to help the other person. He apologized and said he was feeling rushed and stressed, going all different directions at once and he had to collect himself.

I smiled and wrote back, “I know how you feel.�?

In her post on being psychic, Beth advises that if you find you are psychic or sensitive, you need to set your boundaries. “[Y]ou need to learn to create your boundaries. Unconsciously, you connect with everything, but in doing so you lose your sense of self.�?

I agree completely. Learn to identify what is yours and what is not. You should not own other people’s feelings. If you find yourself getting caught up anyway, like I did, you need to learn to identify when feelings are not yours.

Have you ever been caught up in other people’s feelings? Have you ever found yourself confused over why you were feeling certain things about other people?

Lately I have been talking about finding the meaning of your life and finding what you want to do with your life. It was in thinking about these subjects that I got to thinking about how easy it is to get overwhelmed, not only with these big subjects but with life in general as well.

I, too, have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with ‘it all’ lately and have been seeking ways to find happiness and peace both emotionally and mentally. When I try to ignore the feelings of being overwhelmed and don’t address the problem, all that leads to is a breaking point where I am forced to take a break to refocus.

The forced break doesn’t always happen at the most convenient times, so you can imagine why it would be a problem.

There are things you can do, though, to help yourself.

Like when trying to sort thoughts out, you can always turn to mind mapping. However, that can lead to you getting even more frustrated than you were.

Try meditation which will not only help you relax but will help you learn to clear your mind, which is a useful tool.

You can also try drawing, painting, and other sorts of are. Anything that gets you out of your mind for a while and focusing on something else – preferably something you like – is a good thing.

Doing something physical is also a good idea, as it helps expel the stress energy and helps you feel grounded.

Try these things, not just as a one off, and see how they help you.

Sometimes it’s not that we are searching for a meaning of life but more a little direction. How in the world can we be expected to focus on something so huge as the meaning of life when we aren’t even sure what we want to do with our life?

Sure, it’s all fine and good for people who know what they want to do and where they want to go, but what about those of us who have no idea?

First, don’t worry. Relax. Some of those wonderful forty and fifty year old people I know still don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. They are still figuring things out and, in fact, enjoying life all the more for it.

But that still doesn’t answer your question or help you on your way to figuring things out, does it?

One thing that might help you is to do some mind mapping, which I have talked about before (part one, part two, part three) on this site.

Mind mapping is a great exercise, especially for those who are visually inclined. You can create all your connections and associated feelings somewhere other than your mind and then will be able to get a better perspective on everything as a whole.

Start with your hobbies or possible career choices. Associations you make could be the pay, the benefits, the disadvantages. Weigh it all out on paper.

Another thing that will help you (in one way or another) is some regular meditation. Meditation is great for regulating stress, centering, and helping you to have time to figure things out as well.

All the best to you in your journey.

In a previous post, I said:

“I believe there is more than one ‘meaning’ to life and that different meanings apply to different people. It’s a very personal experience to find this meaning. But I won’t take the easy route and say, “You have to find your own meaning�? and then be done with it. Ultimately you do – it’s all part of finding your personal truth – but it’s entirely too easy for so-called gurus to simply leave it at that, and I won’t do it. Instead, I’ll share part of my personal Truth.�?

Like it is all too easy for people to say that you have to find your own meaning of life, it is also easy for people to say, “Well, I believe the meaning of life is…�? and then leave you with that. What are you supposed to do after that? Just because someone tells you that two plus two equals four doesn’t mean you know how to do addition.

So how exactly do you find your meaning of life?

Well, it all depends on you. For some people, the answer comes quickly. This is the meaning of their life, it always has been and it always will be.

Other people, like myself, need to do a bit of searching and take some time before the answers show through. I have only very recently settled on my meaning of life (knowledge) and I know many people who are older than me an do not yet know their meaning.

If you are on the path of searching for your Truth, your meaning of life, take some time to meditate and reflect on what is important to you. Whether you believe you have one lifetime or many, it’s still what is in this life and what you have learned here that will help lead you to the answers you want.

I was going through videos and found this video today on critical thinking. I’m always interested in videos of how the mind works and how we perceive things, so I watched it. I’m sharing it with you because I’d like to get your opinions on things.

Watch the video, and then read a few of my thoughts below.

“Beware of any product said to be based on ancient wisdom.�?

While I agree that the ‘ancient wisdom’ label is applied to many gimmicks, I don’t think he supports his warning very well. The reason advertisers use that phrase – or one of the reasons – is that the ancients knew things that we don’t know. Science has yet to answer even the basic question of how the pyramids are made.

As far as not knowing much about human anatomy, I have to laugh a bit. If ancient people didn’t know much about human anatomy, then the Egyptians who performed mummification, the tribes who performed human sacrifice rituals involving taking out the heart (and sometimes other organs), and many other civilizations must have just been lucky.

Right.

He presents a lot of things people should truly think about when it comes to advertising and mystical claims, that one point leads me to be skeptical of him.

Overall, while he has some excellent points that you should heed, what amuses me most is that he uses his own advertising gimmicks. All you have to do is listen to the music in the background of the beginning of the video (when people are talking about what they believe in) to know that he wants you to laugh at these people. He wants you to think they’re silly.

What do you think?

Yes, I had to touch on this sooner or later, didn’t I? There are plenty of answer out there to the question, “What is the meaning of life?�? but going by how many people are still asking, no one has found the all-encompassing answer yet. I’m certainly not here to tell you I have the answer either.

However, I can share with you my meaning and hope you derive some worth or meaning out of it yourself.

I believe there is more than one ‘meaning’ to life and that different meanings apply to different people. It’s a very personal experience to find this meaning. But I won’t take the easy route and say, “You have to find your own meaning�? and then be done with it. Ultimately you do – it’s all part of finding your personal truth – but it’s entirely too easy for so-called gurus to simply leave it at that, and I won’t do it. Instead, I’ll share part of my personal Truth.

If there was any one meaning to life that I think could possibly encompass every life, learning would have to be it. There is a quote from the Emerald Tablets of Thoth (if you don’t know what those are, don’t worry; I’ll talk about them later) that says it better than I could (even if it is my personal belief):

“The connection between the material man and the spiritual man is the intellectual man.�?

And there you have it. I believe we are here to learn, though our lessons are different, and that knowledge is a powerful force. Knowledge is to be pursued and willful ignorance is to be pitied.

What is your personal meaning of life?

The past, like the future, is what we make of it. However, what we make of it is applied different ways. In both, there are circumstances beyond our control which have influenced or will influence our lives. That is a given. However:

In terms of the past, ‘what we make of it’ can be taken as we either learn the lessons and take the knowledge, or we simply repeat what has likely been repeated by those who came before us.

In terms of the future, ‘what we make of it’ can be interpreted in a more expansive way. What we make of it, while still being subject to outside forces, the future can still be shaped in one way or another. Even in the cyclical time beliefs, there are still only overall prophecies that come to pass, not absolutes for every individual. Perhaps there are times of strife ahead, but you can shape your personal future by saving, learning, and preparing as much as you can.

But what is the point of all this? Why not just live for today and forget what the past and the future are all about?

Well, doing that is certainly a personal choice and I won’t fault anyone for deciding to do that. However, I choose to believe that both the past and the future, no matter how you choose to interpret time, have things to teach us. Those valuable lessons are there for the taking, so I choose to take.

How about you?

As I think about where I am and where I am going, I inevitably think about where I have bee. We tend to judge out future in accordance with our past. This can be useful in some ways. It’s how we learned not to touch a hot stove or mix a big dinner with a night full of drinking.

However, it can also be a hindrance. We don’t want watching daddy hitting mommy as a child to teach us that kind of behavior is acceptable or normal. And yet we live in a society that declares ‘if one does it – they all do it’, which is neither fair nor even correct. Our past is filled with classifying ‘them’ and ‘us’ as if it was normal, even good behavior.

But if we speak up to point out that it’s not good behavior to mistreat ‘them’, we are simply accused as being one of ‘them’ and thus ignored.

We live very much in a ‘them vs. us’ culture that almost encourages the prosecution of those who are different. Normalcy and herd philosophy are to be encouraged and admired. Those who ‘dare to be different’? Well, good luck to them.

I could, based off my past, declare that all ‘those’ religious people are blind and will do anything to convert those around them.

But I don’t.

I dare to be different.

I accept my past, but I don’t let it rule my future. I don’t let it throw me into yet another ‘them vs. us’ match that can never be won. I accept that there are good and bad people in every culture, colour, and creed.

I do it for my heart. And for my sanity.

And I do it because I feel the sooner I move past the ‘them vs. me’ mentality and other negative traits of my past, the sooner I can move past the scope of my immediate reality and on to greater things.

This came through an email, so apologies for not being able to credit its original author.

Finally, I’d like to offer up the following, slightly modified, version of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Oh, and if you forget any of the names in the above list, you’re not a real American. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit you in the back as you’re leaving for Canada.

In examining the forms of religion, divination, and alternative thinking, the next step from astrology is probably best in the direction of numerology. However, when it comes to numerology, things aren’t quite the ‘school of study’ Western and Eastern astrology are.

There are many types of numerology. Some focus on the letters of your name corresponding with the numbers one through nine. Others focus on your birth date and/or time. Both types, for the most part, focus on the numbers one through nine and the corresponding personality traits of those numbers. You usually find out which number/s you are by adding things up repeatedly until you get a single digit number.

When it comes to numerology based off letters in your name and whatnot, I don’t look at it as much more than entertainment. I have a hard time thinking that a name chosen by your parent(s) or others could tell you so much about your life.

On the other hand, numerology that has more to do with your birth date and time is, to me, more in accordance with an astrological side of things. Thus it’s easier for me to be inclined towards listening/reading to what that type of numerology has to offer.

That’s not to say, though, that I don’t believe in the power of numbers. I do. Many ancient cultures also believed in and relied on the power of numbers. There is also a natural human inclination toward the number three and its multiples. And one needs to mention all the numeric symbolism that can be found in the sacred texts of many religions.

However, there is so much involved in numerology and all the types of numerology that I feel, for now, I must pass over the subject having only offered my thoughts on it. At a future time when I have been able to study and learn more, I will touch back on the subject.

No matter what people say about how ludicrous or silly astrology is, there is no disputing the fact that our ancestors were focused – even obsessed – with the movements of the stars. With their many calendars and astrologically aligned monuments, the knowledge they held is still beyond us today.

The pyramids of Egypt are aligned to constellations. As are pyramids in South America. Stonehenge can be used as a calendar. Again, as can the pyramids in South America. All these massive structures that were built in a way we can’t replicate today (that’s right – we can’t) were set to star patters, solstices, equinoxes and much more.

So with all this massive effort in manpower, knowledge and construction, why do we so easily disregard the power and meaning of the stars in this day and age? What did our ancestors know that we don’t?

A whole lot, in my opinion.

The stars and their movements are still mysterious to us even today. Did you know that our laws of physics aren’t constants over the universe? The math breaks down at certain points.

Are we cutting off our noses to spite our faces just to remain in the ‘normal’ like of modern living and thinking? That’s up for you to decide. I for one, though, think there is a lot our ancestors knew – a knowledge we have lost for one reason or another and would greatly benefit from relearning.

The stars and how they affect us are not evil things. Studying it is not a bad thing.

Any belief that condemns curiosity and study doesn’t have a lot of faith in the faith of its followers.