Are You A, B or C Today?

Which One Are You Today: A, B or C?

-A-

Some days I feel so inadequate.

My heart is restless, forlorn and heavy.

Like a prisoner trapped in a cell made of flesh and bones,

I am unable to escape the dissonant noise of my own cruel mind.

My past wounds and fears keep me confined, confused and paranoid.

Life feels like a burden, my days are filled with angst.

Self-loathing, I begin to wonder if there is something deeply wrong with me.

-B-

Some days I feel so confident.

My heart is filled with joy, I feel competent and fortunate.

The world is my oyster, I have everything under control.

My mind flatters me with kind words, I feel fantastic!

My past wounds and fears have been tucked far, far away from my consciouness

I feel strong and invincible. 

I am in love with all these positive aspects of myself.

-C-

Some days I feel so very aware,

My heart is peaceful, I feel alive and present.

I hear the noise in my mind and watch the thoughts go by without clinging to any of them.

I notice the positive and negative feelings in my body and let them pass right through.

I observe my unconscious human programming and feel compassion for myself and others.

Instead of running away from them, I allow my past wounds to come up to the surface.

I fully feel the trapped emotions, surrender and release them so they can permanently heal.

Life feels more gentle and more predictable from within

I remember that I am a spiritual being living in a temporary human body.

I am not my thoughts, my emotions or my conditioned responses

It makes no sense for me to cling to these or to even want to defend them

With this understanding, I remember to be patient, kind and forgiving with myself 

Especially when I fall back into the trance of duality (A,B or a mix of both)

What I truly am is a Love so pure, so powerful, so miraculous that -when allowed to shine through the layers of ego, instantly obliterates this illusion of who I think I am. Once the illusion is shattered, there no longer is a personal self. No more suffering. Only freedom, joy and deep peace.

Which one are you now?

Peace, my friends. Peace!

Lise

www.lisevilleneuve.com

Do You Want Peace, or a Roller Coaster Ride?

Are you feeling like you're on top of the world right now? I hate to burst your bubble, but what goes up must come down. Reversely, if you're currently feeling in the dumps, it's just a matter of time until you dust yourself off and reach new, blissful heights. Some of us experience extreme variations of these polarities, while others have more moderate highs and lows on the roller coaster of life. Until we're able to transcend the illusion of duality -an illusion that has us convinced that we're trapped in an unpredictable world of polarities- we will stay on this roller coaster ride, and lasting peace will remain out of reach.

Let's face it, many of us like the ride. It's thrilling, it's entertaining, it's distracting. Peace sounds rather boring. Why not take a chance and fall madly in love with someone, even if that means that we may have to experience excruciatingly painful heartbreak down the road? Why not take a financial risk and launch the business of our dreams, even if that means we make ourselves vulnerable, we put everything on the line and even flirt with the very real possibility of bankruptcy? Well, I'm not saying not to do those things. Life is an adventure, and if you never take any chances, or prevent yourself from feeling anything, you might as well be dead.

However, there is a way to have it all. You can explore the highs and lows of this world without actually being on the out-of-control-roller-coaster. That's right, you can fully experience the complete spectrum of emotions that come from both the dark and light sides of your persona, while still being in a state of lasting peace. No, I'm not trying to sell you drugs. I'm simply describing yet another benefit of becoming more aware, or conscious.

Consciousness transcends the world of ego that is often at the root of our extreme emotions. Instead of remaining completely identified with our emotions -I AM my pain, my joy, my anger, my excitement- we begin to observe our emotions from a more detached perspective -I feel the anxiety, I notice the anger moving inside me, I observe how this jealousy is creating compulsive thoughts, I see how this feeling of positive anticipation energizes me. It may take us decades before we realize that we're getting a little dizzy from the ride and we'd like to give peace a chance. When we've finally had enough of the drama, then the curtain rises and real magic starts to happen in our lives.

Once we see that we're in fact the writers, producers and actors of our life script, we can begin to enjoy our movie from a clearer perspective instead of being totally lost in the roles we've assigned ourselves on some higher level. Instead of getting carried away by our reactions, we can pause the movie, observe what's happening and take a breath. Once we master the art of being the witness, lasting peace becomes our reward.

If we're able to rise above the polarities of this fear-based world, even for just a moment, we'll understand that we come from a place where only love is real. This week, see if you can practice being the witness of what's happening inside and outside of you. No judgements, no guilt, no shame, no resistance, just observe what's going on. See what happens...

Warmly,

Lise
Creator of Conscious Kids and Conscious Health
www.lisevilleneuve.com

Are You Afraid Of Your Shadow? I am...

Image: www.holistic-alternative-practitioners.com

I'm sure you must have heard somewhere that we are all "whole, complete, perfect beings." The feeling I got when I heard this saying was not too different from the sensations of nauseousness I experienced during pregnancy. To me, it just sounded like an unfounded statement that begged the question "what about all the horrific acts of violence that people engage in on a daily basis? Are murderers, rapists and criminals whole, complete, perfect beings?" Their behaviours are the antithesis of good.

It took me awhile to really understand this concept, and my comprehension was enhanced when I developed a better understanding of the nature of our reality. In plain English, we live in a world of duality and contrast. The way we can understand and make sense of everything around us is by comparing what we already know. I'm sure you've heard the analogy about the fish in the aquarium that had no idea what water was...until he was lifted above the water and was able to experience what an environment without water felt like. Only then was he able to say "yeah, I know what water is now", even though he had spent his entire life in the substance! It's really the same for us, we need a frame of reference upon which we can integrate new experiences and information.

The new information that comes in via our senses automatically gets compared, categorized and analysed in relation to what we've already experienced. We can't fully understand what "hot" means until we experience "cold" (damn, that Katy Perry song just popped in my head). We don't really realize what health is until we become sick for the first time. The same goes for our emotions, we can't know the meaning of happy until we've been sad. We make sense of reality through contrasts. Duality is everywhere. Yin-Yang / Positive-Negative / Good-Bad.

Credits for this image go to www.tigerfreedom.com

Once we acknowledge this, the idea that we are "whole" beings starts to make more sense. Just like the Yin-Yang symbol above illustrates, we all carry the complete array of emotions / feelings within us. Some are located on the bright, open side, others are on the dark, shadowy side of our persona. We tend to hide our emotions from this dark side from others and even from ourselves, because we've learned over time that it's not acceptable to express these "negative" feelings. We feel like we're only allowed to express positive emotions and something must have gone terribly wrong with us if negativity comes to the surface too often, right? Our sense of "balance" of these two sides is actually quite unbalanced!

Is it realistic to expect ourselves to always be happy, confident, grounded and strong? How would we even understand these states if it were not for their opposites that have a healthy place in our psyche? As I've said before, all our emotions are important, they deserve to be validated and expressed in an appropriate manner. If we deny our darker side and always repress the anger, the rage, the fear, the sadness, the resistance, the jealousy, they will inevitably blow up in our faces. That's when we are the most likely to do something really stupid we'll regret.

Yes, we are indeed whole, complete, perfect beings. Obviously, our behaviours are far from perfect, but we can improve, simply by allowing ourselves to fully embrace the full spectrum of our humanity. Let's give ourselves a break! Let's be courageous enough to face our shadow, because it's beautiful and in the end... it makes us stronger.

Warmly,

Lise
Health Coach / Reiki Master
www.lisevilleneuve.com