MKMMA Week 23 – Service and Art

During our tribe webinar last week my guide, Luc, suggested that I put some of my paintings up instead of a written blog this week. However, I thought long about the context in which it would be appropriate for me to do so.

Haanel tells us in Part 23 that ‘The first law of success then is service, and this in turn is built on integrity and justice.’   I had always thought in the past that being of service meant that you gave your time free of charge. But of course, that was a misconception because as he points out ‘Great financiers are simply channels for the distribution of wealth….’ and they are certainly paid for their expertise.

But as an instructor was I being of service? Well, I thought about that in relation to how I came to be one. And I came to the conclusion that the instructors whose workshops I attended were certainly giving a service in respect of sharing their expertise and knowledge. When I had experienced several workshops and asked the advice of the instructor whether she thought I would be able to do this, her reply was certainly, go for it. Therefore, by ‘… having the necessary insight to perceive and utilise opportunities and favourable conditions and recognise values, you can put yourself in a position to take advantage of them, but your greatest success will come as you are enabled to assist others.’ So I went for it and booked myself onto a training course which would give me Certified Instructor status.

So in that sense I recognise that I am being of service inasmuch as I am enabling my students to release their own creativity and run with it in whatever direction they choose. And should anyone want to go on to become a Certified Instructor I will certainly give encouragement to ‘go for it’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MKMMA Week 22 – I’m Thinking of Good Vibrations! (courtesy of the Beach Boys)

We all know by now that our thoughts affect our outcomes. Therefore, our current lives are the results of our past thoughts. Sometimes that’s hard to accept. It doesn’t seem feasible that I brought the accident into my life. After all who on earth would knowingly bring something like that into their life.

But I have always had a sort of sixth sense in anticipating when somebody was going to pull out into my lane. So in that sense on the occasion of the accident because the road ahead in the middle lane was clear it was perfectly safe for me to overtake. And because the vehicle I was overtaking was so big, with huge wing mirrors it was also logical to expect that the driver would have seen me coming alongside but hadn’t seen me pass. What I didn’t do was anticipate the unpredictability of the driver or why he wasn’t keeping an eye on the road. I was level with his cab when he pulled out and I had nowhere to go. So on that occasion it would seem my sixth sense didn’t work for me. Or did it? Because I had anticipated that manoeuvre so many times perhaps I had brought the reality into my present. Fortunately, although my car was written off, I walked away without a scratch. My guardian angel was certainly on the job that day.

So now instead whenever I get into the car I asked the Universe to help me to be a safe and considerate driver so that I meet only safe and considerate drivers and I also say, whatever mode of transport I use I am safe and secure (courtesy of Louise Hay).  And I am.

Haanel tells us that:

It is through the law of vibration that the mind exercises the control over the body. We know that every mental action is a vibration, and we know that all form is simply a mode of motion, a rate of vibration. Therefore, any given vibration immediately modifies every atom in the body, every life cell is affected and an entire chemical change is made in every group of life cells.

That is huge. Because our current state of health/weight etc is also the result of our past thoughts. The idea of monitoring every thought is pretty daunting and bearing in mind that we have thousands of thoughts a day it would be impossible anyway.

So what do we do?

It is our feelings that give us a clue. Negative thoughts give rise to negative feelings and positive thoughts give rise to positive feelings. So just being aware of negative feelings means that we can replace them with positive feelings – think a happy thought, or about someone you love. Visualise and run a mental movie of how you want your life to be. Get up and move, dance or sing. It’s not possible to move your body or sing and still feel down in the dumps.

So put on The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Abba or whoever floats your boat and dance or sing yourself happy.

MKMMA Week 21 – Freedom

Haanel tells us that freedom is the result of consciousness of power, which is the real secret of power because then we are emancipated from our previous limitations.

Although we have always had a ‘direct line’ to the Infinite Mind it is only when we become conscious of that do we become a ‘live wire’ to the Universal Mind and the possibilities that have always been open to us. This consciousness allows us to use the world within to visualise our dreams with the knowledge that what we think about becomes our reality and we begin to experience the manifestation of our dreams in the world without.

It all sounds a bit fantastical – how can we just think about what we want and it appears. That is difficult to accept. But many people experience the excitement of this phenomenon and it is easy to fall into the trap of ‘If other people can manifest their heart’s desires, why can’t I?”.

This is where the trust comes in and the ‘yeah but…’ whispered in your ear by your Old Blueprint needs to be acknowledged with a

‘Thank you for trying to protect me from disappointment, but

I have Asked,

I Believe that what I desire will manifest because I’m doing the work I need to do, and

I am ready to Receive.’

Persistently chipping away at the Old Blueprint will diminish its hold on your consciousness and will in turn create a new Blueprint and you will have knocked Jiminy Cricket off his perch.

Haanel also tells us that if there is no difference between small ideas and large ideas, it makes sense to go for the big ideas because

When the individual mind touches the Universal Mind it receives all the power it requires.

Therefore,

You also become conscious of a larger world of thought, thereby increasing your mental capacity as well as placing yourself in position to accomplish something of value.

The Law of Attraction is the law of like attracts like, so the way life is now is the result of past predominant thoughts so if a different future is desired, whether it’s health/weight issues, a healthier bank balance or anything else then it is important to change the thoughts. That’s not necessarily easy because we are creatures of habit and changing a habit of a lifetime takes a major shift.  As it takes about 21-28 days to change a habit, or rather form a new one, this is quite a commitment to consciously monitoring negative or old perceptions, but unless that happens, nothing will change.

So Haanel says:

Do not hesitate to aspire to the highest possible attainments in anything you may undertake, for the mind forces are ever ready to lend themselves to a purposeful will in the effort to crystallise its highest aspirations into acts, accomplishments, and events.

Because:

There is no limit to what this law can do for you: dare to believe in your own idea;…..think of the idea as an already accomplished fact.

It’s the call to the hero’s journey and to remember that we are all nature’s greatest miracle and to live this day as if it were your last.

 

 

MKMMA Week 20 – The Spirit is You

Haanel tells us that “The spirit of you is — you; without the spirit you would be nothing.”

To me the spirit is the soul, because there can be no existence without the soul.  And this is not taking a religious stance on this interpretation; to me it just is – they are one and the same.

It is our spirituality, whether acknowledged or not, that separates us from all other species and gives us our ability to think.  This means that we have control over our thoughts.  But to take on board that if you change the way you think, the things you think about change can be a scary concept.  Because then you have to take responsibility for what is happening in your life when it would perhaps be easier to blame circumstances or other people for the way things are.

But accepting that the world within manifests the world without means that the buck very definitely stops here.  Because as Haanel says:

“Thinking is the true business of life, power is the result.  You are at all times dealing with the magical power of thought and consequences”

and that this power

“… is the fuel which fires the imagination, which lights the torch of inspiration; which gives vitality to thought….”

 and

“It is this power which will enable you to plan fearlessly, to execute masterfully.”

The way to connect with this power is to go into the silence and let your imagination have free reign because

“Imagination is your workshop.  It is here that your ideal is to be visualised.”

Visualisation doesn’t necessarily mean conjuring up static images of your dreams and desires fulfilled.  Making a mental movie in which you are the director, have written the screenplay, and are also the star is more dynamic and fun.  And the only critic is yourself  (the Old Blueprint) and you either allow it have a voice or kick it into touch before it has a chance to wreck your movie.

So the choices are, either crumble under the apparent enormity of this power or take up the challenge of the hero’s journey and slay your demons on the way to victory.

MKMMA Week 19 – In search of Truth

I’m reminded of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland who goes rushing by looking at his watch saying ‘I’m late, I’m late…’ – he’ s living by the clock.  Or the cartoon characters trying to run away, the movement of their legs expressed as spinning wheels but not getting very far.  Both are comical visual images of fear.

That is where I have been stuck recently, in a perpetual state of catch up, of being stuck behind the boulder in the path, trying to push it out of the way (fear that it’s an insurmountable problem) instead of going round it.

Haanel says in 2 ‘In seeking the truth we are seeking ultimate cause… and if we shall find that this cause is one we can consciously control, the effect or the experience will be within our control.’

So what is the truth of the situation.

Standing back from it I know that I have allowed things to pile up – it’s nobody’s fault but mine.  There are things that I know I want to do and have set in motion but are scary – will I be able to do it, will I succeed.  The effect has been fear becoming my dominant thought resulting in sleepless nights, which has a compound effect.  It’s like looking towards the shimmering mirage of the oasis of calm that never gets any closer.

Cause and effect.

If I want to change the effect I must work on the cause.  The moment of truth.  Now I could sit here and make a list of all that I need to do.  That involves a lot of thinking but it’s just putting off the moment to act.  The most important thing is to prioritise and I don’t need to make a list of what my most urgent priorities are.

The Mind is our most powerful tool because it enables us to Think which is all very well but nothing happens unless we act on the thought as he reminds us in 14:

‘We also know that this mind is static, mind at rest, we also know that the ability of the individual to think is his ability to act upon the Universal Mind and convert it into dynamic mind, or mind in motion.’

However I’m not going to beat myself up over my perceived shortcomings (I’ve done enough of that in the past and I’m done with it). But it’s time to get off my butt, get moving, circumnavigate the boulder and chip away the Buddha’s cement.

In other words, get a grip, and as Susan Jeffers’ aptly titled book says: ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’.

MKMMA Week 18 – Living in the Now

This month’s Og Mandino reading, Scroll V, has come as a timely reminder that all we have is now.

Procrastination is my bête noir and even though I know it is such a time waster I still fall into the mire at times.  If I know all this why do I do it?

I think I become overwhelmed by all the reading, writing, cleaning, shopping completing the art projects for my classes on time and then I get overwhelmed by the overwhelment and where to begin is overwhelming.

Then there’s the ‘living in the past and the future’ conundrum.

Og Says ‘Yesterday is buried forever and I will think of it no more’.

Good advice but easier said than done.

It’s not that I am living in the past although things happen that are beyond our control and we just have to deal with it. But sometimes the ‘what if’ question comes to mind and I wonder what if I had made that choice, gone down that route, made a different decision. However this is merely reverie because I would probably have made the same decisions.  If f I had made different choices I would have met different people and wouldn’t have the life or family that I have and I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world.

He goes on to say: ‘Forgetting yesterday neither will I think of tomorrow.  Why should I throw away now after maybe?’

Again good advice but does that mean not dreaming?  Isn’t that what we do when we create our vision boards/posters and visualise everything that we want to happen as though it already had?  But there has to be a balance.  Without our dreams life would be pretty boring, we would have nothing to strive for.  It’s all about balance and not obsession.  Dream the big dreams, do what can be done to bring them to fruition and then let them go and let the Law of Attraction work its magic.

And come back to the present because that is all we have; tomorrow never comes because tomorrow becomes today. I’m reminded of the final line of Mary Oliver’s poem  The Summer Day:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

I will live this day as if it were my last.

MKMMA – Week 17a – The Hero’s Journey

In a town near me there is an underpass that is being refurbished and local art groups and artists have been asked to submit paintings representing the flora and fauna of Cannock Chase.  For non Brits or local West Midlanders that is a natural beauty spot/forest in Cannock.

We were given a very tight deadline and I painted a fox in the forest in acrylics.  It was the first time I had used acrylics so I wasn’t all that happy with the result because I felt I’d had to rush it.  But I took a chance because acrylics dries so quickly.  Anyway I submitted it to support our art group.

Saturday 31 January we had to take our paintings to Cannock Leisure Centre to be photographed.  I asked the girl in charge if there was a second selection process and she said ‘no that’s it – you’re in’.

The photographs will be sent to a tiling company who have a patented laser method of imprinting images on tiles/ceramics.  The idea is then to create each painting with a border like a frame and each artist’s name will be on their tiles.  The tiles will then go on the walls of the underpass so when you walk through it will be like being in an art gallery.

There will be an official opening in June to which we will all be invited and local dignitaries and the press will be there.

I’m so excited that a picture of mine will be on permanent public display!  In fact I’m so excited that I’m writing my blog at 2.30 am!!

After being in the doldrums and hammered by my Old Blue Print last week I feel that my hero’s journey has begun.