Dopamine

Dopamine is the brain’s master 'pleasure' chemical. This single neurotransmitter is responsible for a plethora of mental and physical processes. By learning how to stimulate your own dopamine levels naturally, you can help depression, anxiety, apathy, and fear, while boosting feelings of pleasure created by this amazing little neuron.

💕💖Here is a nice list of ways to increase Dopamine in your brain -- besides reading your nice uplifting lessons and visiting your nice uplifting classroom😊💖 I borrowed it from this site: http://themindunleashed.com/2017/12/increase-your-dopamine-levels-naturally-and-never-feel-depressed-or-anxious-again.html

Singer/songwriter Hirth Martinez turned the blues into a song, "Oh, the blues is a terrible thing, but it's beautiful to sing." So you can also sing your blues away, or ✎ write a song🎶, a poem, or a letter💌 to your 😇angels. Click below for more ideas...

Butterfly

“Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is no different from taking off a suit of clothes one no longer needs. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.” —Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross --Life Lessons, 2000

HERE IN THIS PRESENT MOMENT

HERE IN THIS PRESENT MOMENT
There are no worries
in the presence
of the heart.

Just for fun

What is your Solar Eclipse Identity? Mine is Creator of Magnificent Truth. Ha —I don't think anyOne but God is the Creator of Magnificent Truth — so it certainly is not the ego me — but the true me, the real me (as our School Song, by Hirth Martinez says). Speaking of Hirth, his would be Angel of Radiant Strength. Yes, that fits him.

Thich Nhat Hanh

I am posting these words from Thich Nhat Hanh in case you find them helpful. The angels say, "Often we want to blame other people or the world for our unhappiness. When we look deeper, we understand that we cause our unhappiness. We cause our unhappiness when we are not present in our  life. When we do not show up to take care of our life, we give permission to someone else to do it for us. We give unconscious thoughts permission to run our life.

And the angels say, "When we speak without conscious thought, without empathy, without considering another person’s feelings, we are like someone throwing a ball repeatedly against a wall — we might be enjoying it, but does the wall?"

empathy:
    1. the quality or process of entering fully through imagination into another's feelings or motives, into the meaning of a work of art, or the like.
      2. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

The Lotus

The lotus is a flower
That grows in the mud
The thicker and deeper the mud
The more beautiful the lotus blooms.

Just because darkness threatens our world and tries to destroy us, does not mean we are destroyed. No matter what you face, you can continue to grow like a lotus towards the light. You do not have to know how to get out of the darkness. You cannot know with your mind. Fortunately, you do not have to know. There is a part of you that longs to be free. Never mind the mud! Stay focused on the light. Stay focused on your inner longing to know something higher and finer.

The main thing is to keep your wish for Truth alive. Understand that ego knows nothing of this wish. The wish to grow upward towards the light does not originate with ego. This wish of yours, the wish that brought you to the school, is pure and innocent. This purity and innocence is your true nature. Keep it alive! Keep it alive by showing up for your lessons and all the lessons of your life. Stay committed to Truth, and Truth will stay committed to you.

In this way, beautiful results will be created in your life. Show up, do the work, and leave the results in the hands of a higher power. When you worry about the future, you are holding hands with darkness. You have already forgotten the purity and innocence of the present moment. You have forgotten that all the mud in the world cannot touch the pure lotus blossom of Love. You have forgotten that the thicker and deeper the mud, the more beautiful the lotus blooms.

from a seeker

Dear Students, I am posting part of an email from someone, which might interest you. Someone on a path, still seeking, not yet finding, but on his way...
Judy, Thank you for responding to my email seeking information about your near death experience. Your beautifully written account of that remarkable event.  Thank you for sharing with me details of this profoundly spiritual and mystical experience.  It filled me with hope, anticipation, and optimism about the future.

I have been a seeker most of my life, but I have lacked a sense of direction and purpose as to what I needed. Your writing described well the emotional and spiritual fulfillment I have been pursuing, often through earthly means that have left me feeling depleted, not joyous.

I just am so impressed with your daily messages.  I have been seeking inner peace for years and have made progress, but your description suggests a higher level of attainment which is so desirable.

Sometimes

Sometimes we can only breathe
with someone
through the pain
sometimes that is all that is necessary
just to breathe
and remind someone of the steady rhythm of life
the rhythm that is always here
in birth, in life, in death
our fear of having no breath
is the greatest fear

the angels say, you are breath
you are life itself
how can what you are ever cease to be?
therefore, fear not, though the earth be removed
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea
God is your refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble

Sometimes all we can do is breathe
through the great grief
through the great hole that opens
through the great despair
sometimes we can only breathe

Good Morning Dear Classmates

I have not checked in here in awhile--well, yes, I come everyday to read with my morning coffee, my favorite time of the day--just me and the angels and all of you who may be here silently reading along with me in our schoolroom--but I don't so often take the time to post a message, so here is an update on me and my spiritual life.

I continue to read and benefit greatly from the lessons. I find that when I take the time to do the homework that I experience even more benefits.

I have also started meditating--a practice I once followed, but lost along the way. Sitting in the silence has become one of my best friends--though I can't say my mind is always silent. Fortunately, I have all that I have been learning in our school to help me along the way, teach me how to sit with my mind, watch the thoughts, even be with the pain that comes along with thoughts.

An exercise that I like especially which I learned here is the slow down exercise. Thank you for teaching that Indira. I appreciate that the lessons offer so many different practices to help me on my way.  The School just keeps on giving and giving...what good fortune to have discovered it!

I would always like to hear from other students, but like Indira told me--they are probably too busy writing on Facebook -- ha-ha. Me, I am not on FB, but my sister is, so sometimes I sneak a peak. 

And I just had my 2018 Angel Reading with Indira, which will help guide me. Thank you. I love this School.

Jalaluddin Rumi

Knock, And He'll open the door
Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun
Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.

—Jalaluddin Rumi

Watch your reactions

In an unhealthy relationship people are constantly reacting off each other’s reactions. When one person gets angry the other person gets more angry. Or hurt. When one person gets distant the other person gets angry, hurt, or more distant. The scenarios are endless and lead only to endless dramas. So be aware of your reactions. Notice when you are being controlled by reactions.

MORNING COMES

Morning comes
as cool as a cucumber
as ordinary as a day
as sacred as a song
as calm as The Way

There is nothing to do
just be in the stillness
of morning stretching itself
across the earth

Nothing to do
just stretch in unison
with the morning
let myself be enveloped

If something as vast and simple
as a morning
can come without me
then so can the day

All I must do is breathe
until there is no breather
only breath
breathing me.

THIS MORNING THE ANGELS CAME

 

This morning the light fell 

through my window 

like a blessing across my skin 

turning my room into a cathedral of light 

and I saw the angels talking to God 

and they were laughing  

Hallelujah
Praised be God
Hallelujah
God is here

and they lifted me

from the deep sleep of the world

and when I looked back

my body lay like a baby 

in a lullaby of love

and the angels called me

by my secret name

and turned me to face the face of God

this is the face of your Beloved

they whispered in my ear

and the Light descended

like a snow white dove

like a veil of lace

like apple blossoms

and I tasted the sweetness of God’s breath

I drank the honey of God's love

until there was no me

Hallelujah
Praised be God
Hallelujah
God is here

when my cup was full and runneth over

the angels turned me back onto the river of life

flowing golden from the Center 

of God’s love back to earth

where my body lay helpless and small

like a newborn baby

This is my body which is given for you

Go back, they whispered,

go back and take care of it
go back and let gratitude
melt everything you are not

This do in remembrance of God

until there is nothing
nothing but light
and the body surrenders 

its needs and desires

because you have loved it,
and honored it, because
you have given it only
gratitude and sweetness

for this is what makes a body holy
this is what makes a body pure enough
to relinquish its hold

nothing, nothing but gratitude
breaks the cycle of revolving
on the wheel of karma

This is my body which is given for you

This do in remembrance of me.

Suggested Homework

Be Naked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRUErh47sao 
Sit with your body and be naked. Completely naked. In mind and body. Be open. Open to Receive.
Turn your attention to any scars, imperfections on your body, places of pain that need your attention.

Lovingly turn your attention towards that scar. Caress it. Hold it. Hold it with all the love and care you can. Feel its need. Feel your need. The need to love and be loved. The need to accept and be accepted.

Feel that scar or imperfection or pain as part of your being, not separate. Nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. If there is anything or anyone to forgive, allow forgiveness to arise—just to arise—no need to know what forgiveness should look or feel like. Just let it arise like a soft touch bringing healing and release.

Let the past, the past that created that scar or pain, let it go. Let everything go. And be here now in loving acceptance of what is.

Repeat this as often as you need. It is better to send love and acceptance to places of pain and sorrow than to send hate and anger. Love and acceptance bring healing. Just as the angels love and accept you and so bring light unto you, so be here now with yourself in loving acceptance and peace and so bring light unto yourself.

Without masks. Without barriers. Without resistance. At least try.

The Lotus Flower

Love is stronger than fear.
Light is brighter than darkness.
Truth endures when all else fades.

When you worry excessively about the future, you are holding hands with darkness. You have already forgotten the purity and innocence of the present moment. You have forgotten that all the mud in the world cannot touch the pure lotus blossom of your true nature. You have forgotten that the thicker and deeper the mud, the more beautiful the lotus blooms. 

The lotus is a flower
that grows in the mud
the thicker and deeper the mud
the more beautiful the lotus blooms.

 

Past, Present, Future

Here we are, having just moved from the "past" -- 2017 -- into the "new" -- 2018. Many people have, will be, or are making New Year Resolutions. People may start out the 'new year' with inspiration, but most often, for most people, the new soon becomes old. Resolutions are forgotten. Soon one is just slogging along in the same old way.

I always find it fascinating, this idea of past and future—that our present ways of thinking and being are what we carry with us into the future. When we really understand this, we will want to be very careful with our present moments. We will want to be aware of what we are thinking, feeling, and doing right now. We won’t be worrying so much about the future because we will be focused on where we are now. In this body. In this moment.

Ask that the angels burn away everything that you are not. Be willing to offer yourself, the false self, upon the altar of God. This is the only sacrifice God wants—that you surrender everything you are not, so you can be everything you are.

Gurdjieff

2018

I wish you an amazing slide into the New Year.  Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

Yogananda