PAUL LENDA: “How to Maintain Awareness Even While You Are Sleeping”

“Mindfulness doesn’t have to end when you go to sleep. You eventually reach a moment when you don’t seem to be sleeping at all. Your body will still rest and rejuvenate, but your mind will remain aware.”

~Paul Lenda

 

You probably know how helpful, and even crucial, mindfulness is to a balanced, calm, and fulfilling life.

Far beyond just something you do while sitting in lotus position with your eyes closed, mindfulness can also be done standing, walking, and lying down. You may not even get the inner calm and visionary insight you would expect from sitting in a traditional meditation posture.

It’s not practical to sit in meditation for more than a few hours a day. What do we do then, in order to stay in conscious awareness of our thoughts? You bring that mindfulness into everything you do during your waking state: mindful eating, mindful drinking, mindful driving, and any other action we experience in our daily lives.

Great! Now you have figured out that you can have continuous conscious awareness of your thoughts in the present moment during your waking life. What will happen when you go to sleep though? You will lose conscious awareness and your subconscious will take over. It seems like all hope is lost, right?

Nope!

Mindfulness doesn’t have to end when you go to sleep. Once you train yourself to maintain conscious awareness during sleep, you will only have a short period when you are in deep sleep (around 15% of the sleep cycle). Once you have developed conscious awareness, the more you train yourself, the more awake your mind feels. You eventually reach a moment when you don’t seem to be sleeping at all. Your body will still rest and rejuvenate, but your mind will remain aware.

How to Stay Mindful During Sleep

To start practicing staying mindful while asleep, start by lying down in your bed.
Close your eyes and focus on the in and out breaths right up until the moment you fall asleep.
Perform a sweep with your awareness over your entire body until you’re asleep.
As soon as you wake up, continue your simple mindfulness practices of sweeping and breathing.
Once you master this, upon waking up you will be in a state of mindfulness. You will be attentive and watchful of your thoughts as they come and go and as you go in and out of the state of total calmness, samadhi. With your conscious breathing, you will ebb and flow with the Universe itself.

What’s more, you will stop having night terrors and talking in your sleep. You will sleep and wake up peacefully without anything bothering you.

Even though you lie down in bed and go to sleep, it will be as if your mind didn’t. You will maintain alertness and attention. This is why, once you start maintaining mindfulness during sleep, you will barely ever even dream. If you do have dreams, they are exceptionally lucid, surreal, and vivid ones that don’t feel like dreams at all. Instead, they feel like significant messages or true experiences.

While you watch over your mind with conscious awareness, there doesn’t seem to be any mental processing which needs to be done that is the usual fuel for dreams. You sustain a deep presence and mindfulness within your mind.

When you wake up while being in a state of mindfulness, your mind is bright, lucid, and well-rested. You will find that you are even less irritable and bothered by whatever life may throw at you.

Since your mind stays sharp and responsive, the continuous mindfulness will allow you to examine and explore with ease. You will find it pretty easy to deal with anything that would potentially arise moment to moment.

Cultivating the Mind for Conscious Awareness

You may have previously thought that it would be impossible to have a mind at total peace and serenity while asleep. After all, dreams sometimes seem like such a mishmash of abstract symbols that create intense scenes that makes us forget we are even in those dreams (unless we are lucid while dreaming, which is a fascinating way to play with the dream world).

Once you learn to cultivate mindfulness in both waking life and during sleep, people and situations won’t disturb your peace. You will maintain your clarity of insight into all situations, no matter what they are.

If you do still find that certain situations and circumstances disturb your inner calm, that’s alright. As long as you can become aware of how you are reacting, you can take conscious control over your reactions. You can bring your awareness back to the present moment and remind yourself that whatever is happening, is impermanent and will pass.

There is a sense of empowerment when you truly realize that you have conscious control over your awareness, even in sleep. Start practicing this method every day and night and begin to notice an increase in lucidity and inner peace.

 

~via WakeUp-World.com

PAUL LENDA & CHRISTIE SHELDON: “16 Ways to Bring Positive Energy Into Your Life”

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You’ve felt it.  You’re in a group of people, and somebody walks in with a black cloud hanging over their head.  Their energy repels you, and you may find your own mood affected by it.  So how can you NOT be one of those people?  We all have bad days, but with a few simple tricks, you can avoid letting that black cloud grow and hover over you.

1.  Do not dwell on the negatives.

Stuff happens.  It’s how you respond that matters.  If you choose to be victimized by what happens, your negative energy will gain momentum.  Instead:

 —Stop thinking about it if there’s nothing you can do to improve it  (if a thought comes up about that situation, do not allow it to continue — force yourself to think about something else).

 —Do not talk about it anymore than you absolutely have to.  Don’t give it energy!

 —Find the blessings and lessons in the situation.  This may take some time, but if you stay busy looking for them, you won’t dwell on how something negatively impacted you.

2.  Do not speak of your problems, diseases, illnesses or worries.

The more energy you give what is wrong, the more it persists.  Yes, we all need to vent once in a while but if you vent, or even when you’re just thinking about what’s wrong, here are some rules:

 —Don’t think or say: “I’m so sick, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck!  I don’t know how I’m going to get through the week!”  Do think or say: “I caught some bug but I’m taking good care of myself and I’m feeling better every day!”

 —Don’t think or say: “This job is terrible! My boss is a jerk and nobody appreciates me!”  Do think or say: “I’m looking for a better job and meantime I’m trying to learn as much as I can so I benefit. In fact, my boss is the perfect example of how not to treat employees!”

3.  Love and accept yourself.  As you are.  NOW.

It’s easy to beat yourself up about what’s wrong, but how much energy do you give to your positive qualities?  Do that more.  For every negative comment you make about yourself, give yourself FIVE compliments.

4.  Let go of the past.

You can’t undo anything.  It’s done.  Forgive others, forgive yourself… learn from your mistakes, learn from others’ mistakes, remember that NO unkind or thoughtless action ever comes from love but from a place of deep inner pain  (you can be compassionate to that pain without condoning the acting out of the pain) and release the energetic burden you carry: grudges, resentments, pain, hurt, disappointments, sadness, anger, guilt… let it all go.

5.  Don’t give away your power or your happiness.

Remember that when you criticize, judge or blame others, you are choosing to focus on what they’re doing wrong or what’s wrong with them — and you give these people the power to control your mood and state of mind.  Ask yourself why somebody’s behavior irritates you so much that you allow yourself to get upset about it.  Why let others’ behavior affect your mood?  Why give them the power to control your happiness?  Instead of criticizing, judging or blaming, find something you can compliment them on.

6.  Do not say yes when you mean no.

Honor your needs, priorities, time and energy!  You’ll resent it.  Save your precious time and energy for things that are meaningful to you, or in instances where others ask you to do something, make sure that it brings you satisfaction and joy.  Otherwise, politely decline.

7.  Laugh!  Smile! 

Surround yourself with upbeat people who make you laugh.

8.  Be grateful.

Appreciate the many blessings, but also appreciate the struggles and frustrations.  How have you become enriched because of them?

9.  Don’t worry.

Use your imagination to visualize what can go right, instead of what can go wrong.  Train yourself to visualize the best-case scenario.  Be solution-oriented, not problem-oriented.  Think only about the ideal situation, not the current problematic situation.

10.  Run it off.

Exercise physically removes you from your problems, and it also removes you mentally.  If you’re worried about something, you need to give your brain a chance to process things.  Exercise will flood your system with feel-good endorphins, release stress and in the middle of a long bike ride, walk or swim… or in the middle of the climbing wall, you may suddenly have an epiphany.  Or, at least for a while, you will be fully present and not worried about the future.

11.  Be present.

Speaking of being present, be interested in what you’re doing, no matter how “boring” or “mundane” it may be — quotes intended, because any activity can be made as interesting as you are willing to make it.  This will keep you in the moment and will keep your mind off your troubles and worries.

You have the power to control your mood.  Use these positive-energy-boosting exercises every single day.  Before long, you will be the high-vibrating ray of sunshine that brightens everyone’s mood!  We all have the ability to look to our mind for ways to not only dissolve that sadness, but to cultivate such a positive state of mind that we won’t fall easily back into melancholia.

There are many ways in which we can cultivate positive energy five ways to transform your mindset from darkness into light, sadness into happiness.  May they also help lift up your soul.

12.  Appreciation

When you appreciate someone, you’re tuned into their positive qualities and express your empathy and gratitude for them.  It’s a simple way to refresh yourself and establish heartfelt connections with ourselves and others.

With so much beauty all around us, it is easy to show our appreciation to others, and nature, on a daily basis.  Try appreciating the simple things you might take for granted, for example, a deep relaxing breath of crisp outdoor air or the pleasurable radiant warmth of the sun at noon.  Or the thing we should be the most grateful for  (but the one we often forget) — that we’re alive and so fortunate to experience each and every day.

As you do this, try to focus completely on the good this experience offers you and acknowledge that you — and only you have created it — no matter how it came to you.  Regardless of your condition or circumstances, there will always be something that you can find to appreciate.

13.  Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the moment-to-moment experience of peace and understanding that occurs when the suffering of someone who feels injured has their suffering reduced as they transform the grievance that initiated that suffering.  By embracing the feeling of forgiveness as something that can help us, we accept it as an aspect of acceptance, love, peace, and truth instead of experiencing hatred, negativity, and falsehood — all of which are faces of resentment.  By being forgiving, we acknowledge that people make mistakes and release the emotional burden that holding a grudge has on us.

14.  Selflessness

When we are selfless, we shift our focus onto the needs of others, rather than keeping it on ourselves.  It’s the practice of being unselfish and minimizing the gratification of the ego’s wants and desires.

In order to make the life-redefining shift from selfishness to selflessness, go and focus on the well-being of others.  This can be done in countless ways.  You can clean up your life and surrender a fully healed body, heart, mind and soul to others when entering a relationship.

You can also be ready to share any amount of time needed by others whenever they need it  (don’t allow yourself to be used, however).  Be happy with your life and with whatever you are offered by others.  Whenever you are sure to give your very best, you are receiving exactly what ever you need for your greatest possible benefit.

15.  Wonder

Experiences of wonder can lead us to a sense of transcendence and realization of higher states of consciousness.  From a mystical perspective, it relates to affirmation, as wonder openings reveal the infinite and the source of all that is, which operates as gateways to uniting experiences.

Buddhism muses that distinctions limited to relative or empirical reality are just an illusion; resulting in the continuation of anguish, pain and frustration because we become alienated from experiencing reality through the eyes of a child where everything was wondrous.  In short, wonder leads us tasting a unified and infinite existence that enriches our life experience.

16. Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a yearning for a return to some past period or seemingly irrecoverable condition that’s seen in a positive light.

Studies have found that people who have a heightened level of nostalgia have higher self-esteem and are less prone to depression.  Thinking of good memories for just 15 or 20 minutes a day can make you more cheerful than you were the week before, and happier than if you think of your current life.  Nostalgia is a very potent mood booster, so if you seem to be in a bit of a funk, think about good memories of times past and you will experience higher self-esteem and feel more positive about friendships and close relationships.

~via In5D.com

PAUL LENDA: “How Solar Flares Directly Affect Human Consciousness”

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Everything within this dense configuration of Reality that we call the Universe is interconnected. Through this interconnectedness, everything affects everything else. From the dawn of human spiritual experiences to present-day scientific discoveries, the reality of oneness and interconnectedness has continued to permeate as a recurring aspect of existence within the vastness of what we refer to as Reality. We are realizing, with a continuously-growing conviction, that change and transformation, whether it be in society, consciousness, or otherwise is directly affected by other elements of our universe that we sometimes fail to realize have the ability to affect us in transformational ways.

These connections, which many times are unable to be seen through the limited field of human awareness act as two-way portals and tunnels through which energy particles and fields travel through. This may seem like something out of a sci-fi story but has time and time again been proven to be a very genuine part of our reality. It was only in 2008 that it was publicly stated that there are magnetic portals that connect the sun’s magnetic field with the earth’s. A year earlier scientists uncovered an elaborate and vast web of cosmic filaments hundreds of millions of light years long that connect galaxies to each others. Not only are the sun and the earth linked with each other but so are galaxies light years upon light years away. Distance is no obstacle for the interconnectedness of our universe.

Getting back to the sun and the earth, we come to a very significant and important realization…that solar flares have a direct effect on everything that exists on our blue marble…even human consciousness. Solar flares were found to directly affect the mental and physical state of humans in 2008 and three years later, we are seeing just how true that finding truly is. The sun has such incredible power that it is able to send solar flares shooting into the Earth’s atmosphere and affecting its electromagnetic energy field, as well as affecting each person’s electromagnetic energy field.

When looking at profound shifts in society and consciousness, we can find the pineal gland to be of particular importance. Yes, this tiny part of our brain that has been professed as being a DMT production laboratory acting as our gateway into more subtle planes and dimensions of Reality also regulates circadian rhythm and melatonin production…it is incredibly sensitive to magnetic fields.

The case for solar flares directly affecting human consciousness is of the utmost important right now, since we can see all around us and within our own lives the intense changes and transformations occurring. These changes are exasperated by the electromagnetic forces at play around us. The Russian scientist Tchijevsky put together the histories of 72 countries beginning at 500 BCE and culminating in 1922 within the present era.  He constructed an Index of Mass Human Excitability, in which he found that 80% of the most significant human events occurred during a 5 year period surrounding the peak of solar activity. What this discovery shows us is that when solar-geomagnetic activity is changing the fastest, it has the greatest potential to affect our moods, behavior patterns, creativity and trends. We are in for quite an interesting next few years.

There is a positive side to the increase in sun activity. Periods of increased solar activity don’t just correlate with societal unrest, but also give rise to innovation and enhanced imagination in architecture, arts and science. The old social structures which are not helping humanity become more consciously evolved might be replaced with more suitable and sustainable models. Above all else, this is a time of opportunity and possibility and the chance to use these rushes of energy to create humanitarian advances and a sustainable living environment.

Something that each and every one of us can do is to increase the emotional balance and coherence within ourselves. Harmony is essential in times of chaos. This will enable us as individuals to use these influxes of energy to our advantage. When we raise our internal coherence, we can positively affect our personal relationships and our social environment, which will also be positively reflected in the collective consciousness of humanity.

We are all affected slightly differently by these cosmic forces, such as solar flares, which is why one person may be affected negativity whereas another in a more positive way. Those individuals who have compressed anger, fear, and jealousy will see their energy fields weaken. Our thoughts help shape and create our reality so it should be of little surprise that the toxic emotions and feelings that we may choose to marinate within our minds may result in the weakening of our energy fields, leading us to become more vulnerable to the negative effects of these electromagnetic solar energy influxes. In order for us to not get into such a downward spiral, we need to identify the negative emotions before we are able to resolve them. If our electro-magnetic energy field is weakened, we become more likely to be significantly affected by the increasing solar activity.

The increase in solar activity activates compressed jealousy, anger, and fear in our minds, no matter if we are conscious or unconscious of this process. If people have not been working on healing these issues, the issues become stronger and magnified when there is a period of increased solar activity as there is now. We are living in a difficult period of our timeline, yet we should not allow ourselves to become sad about the state of everything because we can use this period to our advantage. Let’s use this period of increased solar energy to create great opportunities for positive social transformation… the world desperately needs it.

 

 

~via shift.is

 

PAUL LENDA: “20 Transformational Truths From Sages Throughout the Ages”

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Throughout the ages, there have been many who have had gotten a taste of incredibly mesmerizing higher states of consciousness. Rather than keep their experiential knowledge and wisdom about the higher and deeper elements of existence to themselves they spread the word to others, be it through spoken word, written works, or other methods. Thanks to the sages, luminaries, spiritual teachers, thinkers, and every-day people who had an enlightening experience we can ignite the light of expanded awareness about the higher and deeper aspects of the human experience and of existence itself from such people. When the future looks bleak and the motivation to excel and advance seems pointless we can look up to those who have lived and are still alive who possess that inner wisdom which they had realized through their own personal experiences of an enlightened state of awareness.

The transformational truths that such guiding lights to humanity express to us can raise our level of hope once more to the domain of energy that makes us more proactive. Reignited excitement and passion can drive us closer to the successes we imagined and dreamed would come true. We are all capable of incredible feats. Ask yourself if your state of mind is stopping you from realizing that realized life success story that you undoubtedly had played within your head so many times before.

Don’t let it stay a dream, let it become a reality. Living in the 21st century of our archaic timeline we have the amazing opportunity to taste such consciousness-shifting words of wisdom and we will take a look at 20 such enlightening truths from sages throughout the ages. Allow for these timeless words nourish your mind, heart and soul.

Transformational Truth 1

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  

~Albert Einstein

Transformational Truth 2

You should be an island to yourself, a refuge to yourself, not dependent on any other but taking refuge in the truth and none other than the truth. And how do you become an island and a refuge to yourself? In this way. You see and contemplate your body as composed of all the forces of the universe. Ardently and mindfully you steer your body-self by restraining your discontent with the world about you. In the same way, observe and contemplate your feelings and use that same ardent restraint and self-possession against enslavement by greed or desire. By seeing attachment to your body and feelings as blocking the truth, you dwell in self-possession and ardent liberation from those ties. This is how you live as an island to yourself and a refuge to yourself. Whoever dwells in this contemplation, islanded by the truth and taking refuge in the truth–that one will come out of the darkness and into the light.  

~The Digha Nikaya

Transformational Truth 3

“Life is what you make it,” this is very true.
Find beauty and magic in all things,
and the Love that sees you through.
When you look at the world where you live,
seek not your gain, but what you can give.
When a man is poor, and hungers, and thirsts,
serve not yourself ’til you serve this man first.
When a man is down and seeks shelter from cold, give him shelter.
You’ll receive blessings untold.
Live by the Golden Rule:
Do unto others as you’d have done unto you.
And always remember:
When you destroy, you destroy a part of you, too.
Life is what you make of it.  

~Unknown

Transformational Truth 4

Loving this world, seeing the beauty in everything.
Appreciating every moment as a beautiful, wholly contained,
pearl of eternal nature, this is the world to me.

A never ending string of pearls…. every moment is in and of it’s self a life time,
and when we have affection and let ourselves experience life without expectation…
that is when the majesty of the world opens her petals to us…
And welcomes us home.  

~Carlos Castaneda

Transformational Truth 5

We may liken truth to a mountain, and the various interpretations of that truth to different paths leading up to the summit. Many people are traveling along all of these paths and every one, while he is at the bottom, thinks his path is the only one; he sees only a small part of the mountain, and may therefore be justified in crying to his brothers, “You are wrong! Come over to my path; this is the only one that leads to the top.” But as all these people progress upward, they will see that the paths converge at the top and that they are all one in the ultimate.  

~Max Heindel

Transformational Truth 6

Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realize that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelled, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.  

~Nisargadatta Maharaj

Transformational Truth 7

Do not believe anything
because it is said by an authority,
or if it is said to come from angels,
or from gods,
or from an inspired source.

Believe it only if you have explored it
in your own heart
and mind and body
and found it to be true.

Work out your own path,
through diligence.

~Gautama Buddha

Transformational Truth 8

Every man has his woman within him and every woman has her man within her. Only the meditator comes to know his whole being. Suddenly his inner woman and the inner man melt and merge into each other. That creates an orgasmic state in him. Now it is no more a momentary experience that comes and goes; it is something that continues, day in and day out, like the heart beating or breathing.

~Osho

Transformational Truth 9

When you find the way
Others will find you
Passing by on the road
They will be drawn to your door
The way that cannot be heard
will be reflected in your voice
The way that cannot be seen
Will be reflected in your eyes

~Lao Tzu

Transformational Truth 10

When we experience the pain of another person, we instinctively want to take away that pain. But by taking away the other person’s pain, we also take away his or her opportunity to grow. To be truly compassionate, we must be able to share another person’s suffering and pain — knowing there is nothing we can do to relieve it and that we are not responsible for it, and yet knowing and understanding what that pain feels like.

~John Gray

Transformational Truth 11

How people see the world is often a reflection of how they see themselves. If they think that the world is just a cesspool of lies and deceit, then they themselves may be full of lies and deceit. Watch out for those people who are always telling you just how corrupt the rest of the world is. As the saying goes, ‘It takes one to know one’.  
~David J. Lieberman
Transformational Truth 12

Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.

If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course

~Lao Tzu

Transformational Truth 13

Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.
 
~Terence McKenna

Transformational Truth 14

Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive, because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.

~Ghandi

Transformational Truth 15

All the forms of Life in the Universe may be looked upon as being manifestations of the One and Universal Principle of Life in various forms; the whole of the Cosmos, being a product of the Universal Mind, may be regarded as universal, absolute consciousness becoming relative in separate forms. The universal consciousness of the Universal Mind forms spiritual centres of consciousness in living beings, whereby each being may feel and know its surroundings; and as the kind of living beings expands, their consciousness and power of sensation and perception expand with it; for all their powers belong to the mind. and not to the body: the latter without the mind is merely a form without life.
   ~Franz Hartmann

Transformational Truth 16
 
If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely.
If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative.
In our thoughts and words we create our own weaknesses and our own strengths.
Our limitations and joys begin in our hearts.
We can always replace negative with positive.
   ~Bettie Eadie

Transformational Truth 17

Since time without beginning, the nature of Awakened Mind and Emptiness has consisted of the same, absolute non-duality of no birth or death, no existence or non-existence, no purity or impurity, no movement or stillness, no young or old, no inside or outside, no shape and form, no sound and color. Neither striving nor searching, one should not use intellect to understand nor words to express Awakened Mind. One should not think that it is a place or things, name or form. One should not think that it is a place or things, name or form. Only then is it realized that all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and sentient beings possess the same natural state of great Nirvana.

~Huang Po


Transformational Truth 18

As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery. We have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger and attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion, a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.

~Dalai Lama

Transformational Truth 19

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.

    ~John Lennon

Transformational Truth 20

Greet everyone you meet with a warm smile, no matter how busy you are.
Don’t rush encounters with coworkers, family and friends.
Speak softly. Listen attentively.
Act as if every conversation you have is the most important thing on your mind today.
Look your children and your partner in the eyes when they talk to you.
Stroke the cat, caress the dog.
Lavish love on every living being you meet.
See how different you feel at the end of the day.

~Sarah Ban Breathnach

~via Shift.is