Messages from Lisa

A Special Gift for YOU!

2011-12-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and may your New Year be filled with love, joy and many blessings.

Thank you for the opportunities to serve and help you and the fulfillment you have brought into my life through our relationship.

For the new year the newsletter will be quarterly rather than monthly. I am grateful for the changes in my life and no longer have the time to write articles monthly. Thank you for all your feedback and support. I have enjoyed writing the articles and hearing the differences they have made in your life and that many of you have forwarded the newsletter to your friends. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to serving you.

And here's my special gift to you:

Now you can give the gift of health and healing this holiday season.

Give someone you love a session at Fulfilled Living Wellness Center for the holidays. One can receive their first visit which includes a comprehensive history, exam and their first Network Chiropractic and Intuitive and Energy Healing session or an Animal Communication and Healing session.

I look forward to serving and helping those your love.

Love,

Lisa

2011-11-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Have you ever met someone who has changed the course of your life and deepened you as a human being? For me Thich Nhat Hanh is one of those people. His impact continues to ripple through me forever altering my life. Yes, this monk through the humble simplicity of his being and by witnessing his actions and his teachings has shown me the path of love.

Love often has felt vague and empty to me, like ways one should be, mere words. Nothing in all my learning as truly settled in. Being with Thich Nhat Hanh I felt love embodied, flowing through his words, his being and his actions in ways that awe struck and moved me. He felt like a mountain solid with unwavering integrity and presence and vast and clear like the open, blue sky. The balance, groundedness, presence and love he is is forever etched in my being and will beneficially direct my life.

His ability to love and embrace all human beings and situations is the exalted expression of love. It touched me so deeply to be with him. I sat riveted hearing his responses to people and the stories he shared. What struck me powerfully was his loving, unbiased receptivity to horrific experiences people had committed. He would receive and hear another calmly, without reaction and respond with practical, heartfelt insight and wisdom. At times I found myself in tears, moved by the depth of his compassion and ability to love.

You know that quick that happens automatically to most of us where we judge, categorize and energetically either reject or like something or someone? How beautiful, spacious and refreshing it is to experience this automatic response not operating in Thich Nhat Hanh. His openness engenders trust and safety. His presence creates a whole other atmosphere and reality where love flourishes. I drank that in deeply and found myself feeling nurtured, healed, restored, opened and inspired by who he is.

I pray to be that open hearted and to truly know and live the reality that we are all one, that one persons suffering is our own. I know life is a mirror and to shut down to another's pain is to shut down to and fear my own. What I witnessed in Thich Nhat Hanh was an intimacy and presence with each person and the true ability to hear from love, compassion and equanimity, rather than taking on someone's suffering or being a martyr. I experienced in him that there is never anything to reject or avoid. He lives the knowing that we are all connected. I am eternally grateful to have seen this wisdom in action and have been shown another ground to live from.

Being around Thich Nhat Hanh allowed painful places in me and stuck perspectives to release that I didn’t even know I was holding onto. I felt such relief and forgiven for mistakes and poor judgments I had made in my life. Nothing more needed to be said or explained. His depth and ability to understand another and compassionately see the roots of one's circumstances is freedom.

As I was sitting right in front of him for an hour and a half receiving his teachings and imbibing his presence, many times he looked directly into my eyes. For one of the first times in my life I felt what love was. I felt a wall of fear around my heart and a protection in my body release that I have felt throughout my life when relating to people. I felt loved for simply being, no reason, no attraction, desire, agenda or need. The depth! So rare and what a treasure. I experienced the delight and pure bliss of simply being love with another. Something I will never forget and has profoundly impacted my being forever informing the way I see and live.

We have been taught whether we are conscious of it or not to love for reasons. I invite you to love simply for the sake of love. It is so freeing, fulfilling and our true nature. I feel more confidence in moving from courage, trust, groundedness and presence no matter the circumstances for Thich Nhat Hanh showed
me that possibility.

I have a profound respect for Thich Nhat Hanh, for who he is and what he has actualized. I realize, for me, he is a living, breathing example of what I value, love and aspire to become. For all of us there are people like this who can make this kind of difference in our lives. They are on our path no matter our interests, values and passions. I invite you, if you do not have someone like that in your life, to open to it. It is catalytic and profoundly transformational. We truly are not alone.

Again, here are the websites to hear and download Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings for free: http://tnhaudio.org/ and http:/pvom.org/.

Thank you for your time and attention, many blessings this holiday season for you and your loved ones.

Love,

Lisa

Thich Nhat Hanh

2011-09-28T14:21:00.001-07:00

I went on a five day mindfulness retreat in Southern California with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It was life-changing and an honor to be in his presence and receive his teachings. It has opened me, touched me deeply and brought about transformation and awakening.

His presence is profound, it allows and dissolves all inside of us that is not real or significant. He emanates peace, depth, tranquility and so much more. He is a true walking, talking, breathing example of how to live and be peace without pretense or shutting down to what is around us or inside us. He embraces everything. His love, compassion and understanding is like an ocean of endless waves with no boundaries or borders. It was amazing to feel how rooted he is in the present moment and stable and unshakable like a mountain.

This trip was a heart calling come true. I look forward to sharing what I learned, the insights and his teachings with you next month.

In the mean time, here are two sites where you can receive many complimentary teachings. They are http://pvom.org/ and http://tnhaudio.org/.

Enjoy! He is a true blessing and gem in our world at a much needed time.

Love,
Lisa

Forgiveness

2011-08-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

Are there places in your physical, mental and emotional bodies where you feel stuck, that are repetitious and hard to get past? There are those places in me and I would like to share my experience with you.

For the last ten years in my meditation, I have connected with this place on the right side of my body where I have felt intense physical pain, mental and emotional anguish, hurt, anger, sadness, numbness, isolation and loneliness. In being present with this part of me, I have seen many events in my life associated with this place. With time, I have felt peace and acceptance with the causes of my pain. I have been able to experience settling within the "storm" of voices, emotions and bodily sensations. I have learned to rest in the experience and allow the physical, mental and emotional pain to naturally release. What I have discovered is the myriad of energies of this pattern are actually love.

Over the last 10 years or so of consciously working with this pattern, I have healed in many ways. I have received healing as well as help from friends, gaining understanding and perspectives that have helped me experience some temporary relief. In forgiving myself and others for the events that caused my discomfort and pain, I have felt progress. Many times I have experienced life beyond its limitations. However, the pattern would return like a set point and foundation which I unconsciously saw life from. I now know I can live, engage, be happy and successful even while in pain.

This morning in meditation I had the most astonishing experience. I began my meditation feeling stuck on the right side of my body, once again, experiencing the familiar emotions and associated mental states. The day before I had a profound breakthrough in this terrain, so, as we always do, I wondered why I was experiencing this pattern again so vividly. After about 30 minutes of being intimate and present with this experience, at times asking questions about it and feeling impatient, I felt this breath of forgiveness pass through the right side of my body and the emotions that were held there. It was like a refreshing breeze coming out of nowhere. It allowed me to let go of the pain I was holding onto. Tears flowed and I was shown in that instant all the mental and emotional positioning, based on past experiences, I had been living my life from. Despite all my healing, I had never met this place within my body, mind or emotions with forgiveness.

What was then revealed to me was that I was more committed to understanding this pattern, its origin, living within its confines and healing from it, than I was to letting it go and moving on. I was shown that I was committed to seeing life through that pattern’s lens. Without blame or anger toward myself, I felt a sense of relief in this realization and experienced a new sense of openness and readiness to truly let it go and make a fresh start. Who knows how this will affect the physical, mental and emotional pain, but I sense I will have more resiliency, agility and freedom.

I know life is a journey and with each step we learn, grow and open. This journey has taught me so many precious, life-changing lessons that have enriched and expanded me as a human being. I continue to learn of the power of attachment and realize the internal suffering is no longer from the actual events, but from the "I" created from the experiences. The act of forgiveness dissolves mental fabrications and boundaries of me and you or right or wrong and brings us into contact with the emptiness of all experiences. Forgiveness truly releases attachments and habits opening us to the spaciousness and vastness of consciousness we all are.

I give thanks to this experience for it continues to offer me the opportunity to ripen into a kinder, more loving, more open, sensitive, compassionate and forgiving person. I have learned the fruits of perseverance, faith, trust, humility, acceptance, patience and invaluable truths about life, love and happiness.

May you let the sweet warmth of forgiveness into all those places that need love, so you can take your next step toward a brighter future.

Sincerely,
Lisa

Is Life Truly Difficult?

2011-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

In my experience what is happening in our life is one reality and our relationship with it is another "story". The difference between how we perceive and relate to events, people, situations, and circumstances and what is actually happening is what makes our lives difficult.

In being honest with ourselves and examining our experiences, we realize how we place our own perspectives onto life, which reveals our belief systems, not what is truly happening. This creates dissonance that we feel as internal resistance, communicating to us that we are not in harmony with life.

Imagine for a moment that all experiences are neutral. From that view point you can begin to see more clearly what beliefs and conditioning you hold around certain events, people, emotions and situations. If you find yourself blaming life for your challenges and tribulations or feel unable to assimilate or process life circumstances, you are in resistance. When you realize this, you awaken to the power of choice. You can choose to have a relationship of ease, flow, acceptance and grace with life, instead of resisting what is.

Your real power lies in choosing your perceptions wisely, by analyzing clearly your association and your relationship to whatever is occurring. Utilizing your focus and concentration like a sword helps bring light, truth, acceptance and well-being to whatever is happening, rather than being unconscious and repeating old patterns of thought that create harm and suffering.

No doubt in your lifetime you will experience many things that seem beyond your control. In many cases you will not have the capacity to change what is occurring. In those moments, I invite you to acknowledge your habitual perceptions and be fluid with them. Open to life and what is happening rather than resisting it with your thoughts and emotions. Resistance manifests as pain and suffering, a clear signal from your internal guidance system signaling you to change your approach. Remember you have the ability to accept and choose a new relationship with what is happening.

I am not encouraging you to be in denial, nor do I expect you to be without emotions. I am encouraging you to be clear how your misguided perspectives create suffering and resistance and generate feelings where you are you no longer in sync nor present with what is happening. You are, instead, in an artificial world made of old conceptions placed onto your life circumstances. This suffering is needless, and it is well within your power to control and alleviate it by eliminating the habits of thought that make your relationship with life difficult.

I feel it is all of our greatest challenge to be at one and at ease with what is happening in our life whether we like it or not. We usually kick and scream mentally and emotionally when we do not like something, creating pain and suffering for ourselves. When you bring awareness to your relationship with life and see your beliefs, thoughts and emotions as fluid, you experience agility and the power to choose. You learn to go with the flow of life rather than resisting and "rowing your boat upstream".

One powerful example of this was when I was in India. I observed the relationship the people there had with death. It floored me. It was such a contrast to my own view of death. In that awakening moment, I realized my relationship with death was not "how it is" rather it was what I saw and how I was taught. How liberating.

I know there are many such stories in your life. Dispel the illusions you believe in and see clearly the truth about your life. Like Sleeping Beauty, wake up to your power. The fearful reality that her wicked Step Mother created actually had no real power over her. The poison apple she ate that rendered her lifeless is a symbol of the programming we think of as “real”.

The kiss that woke Sleeping Beauty is a symbol of the magic and wonder of love that exists within our own mind, heart and being. The truth is that when we are absorbed in our false perspectives we are merely asleep, not dead. Through the power of love, of truly and passionately loving whatever comes, we awaken to the beauty of life and break the spell of our habitual thinking.

We have endless ways to be in relationship and harmony with what is. Open yourself. Let the doors of your perception open wide and reveal a new reality.

Illusory Dream

2011-04-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

We create our dreams each night. They vanish upon our awakening. We create our waking life too. This is the true nature of reality.

We take ordinary life seriously. We think of our waking life as concrete and real and our dream life as merely a dream. Our dream life is a creation of our thoughts, emotions, unconscious and subconscious energies playing out on the screen of our awareness.

Our waking life is also a manifestation of our attitudes, perspectives and energy. Both dreams and waking life are reflections of our mind. They are an expression of what we are attached to and think of as real. They simply reveal our fixed and rigid view points and the energy associated with them.
Like a dream, we project onto life what we believe rather than experiencing it as it is: illusory, dream like and temporary, like a water moon. Dreams and waking life are out picturings of our habits of thought formed from the information we receive through our five physical senses.

When you have a bad dream and become frightened, what do you usually do? Most of us try to wake ourselves up. We remind ourselves that the dream is not real.

Our waking life is similarly "not real". We need to remind ourselves and awaken to this truth. We’ve created our life from the fabric of our own mind stream. Our misconceptions of life, what it is and how it operates, is because we do not know and directly experience the true nature of reality. We identify so strongly with our thoughts, ideas and a sense of self that we have forgotten our experiences are a reflection of our mental interpretations.

So how do we "wake up"? We can wake up when we regain the awareness and remembrance that our waking life is illusory, dream like; no more real or fixed then our dream state.

When something happens to you in your waking life see if you can own and realize your mental interpretations and projections. Open to the idea and realization that life is fluid, energetic and illusory. Remember that life is all a projection of your mind and, like a dream, changes moment to moment. The old saying you can never step in the same river twice is an example of this teaching. When we deeply see and understand this truth we will wake up and experience the true nature of our reality.

Our experiences appear as solid and real because we have fallen asleep. We feel secure when we plaster our fixed perceptions onto life. True reality is constantly shifting and changing, alive, luminous and empty. This is also the true nature of who we are beyond our sense of self. Align yourself with your true nature and recapture the fluid, energetic and ever-changing relationship with life.

May we wake up from our slumber and once again be in direct experience with reality.

Love,
Lisa

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Joy

2011-03-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Joy is all about us, is us. Joy is the endless waves of the ocean, the infinity of space, as vast as the sky and as ever present as the air around us. It caresses us, soothes us, uplifts us and connects us with the good in life. When we feel joy we naturally feel happy, alive, open and at one with what we are experiencing. Imagine yourself experiencing joy, feel the smile in your being, the aliveness, the flow of energy through your physical, mental and emotional bodies. Joy is unlimited, we have everlasting access to it and are joy itself.

Most of us need to get accustomed to feeling and living joy because it is not something we live frequently. Our mental and emotional habits often keep us in some degree of numbness or lack of aliveness. We have learned to exist in certain familiar, acceptable and predictable emotional realities. We, unfortunately, find some degree of comfort or belonging living in these known and culturally acceptable emotional realms, but there is a broader spectrum of human emotions available to us.

We can retrain our mind, body and emotions to be more in tune with the flow of joy. Like any energy we want to be in harmony with, we need to become accustom to how joy feels. To reacquaint yourself with joy, start by simply contemplating this energy. Tune into the times in your life when you have experienced joy.

Another simple exercise is to train yourself to delight in another's happiness, successes and accomplishments. This is called "sympathetic joy". This might be difficult since our culture encourages other approaches, like envy, jealousy, negative comparisons, feeling lack, etc. Accept and allow these predictable emotional responses, than do
something different: simultaneously open to joy by relishing and deeply celebrating that person's triumphs and fruition. This approach is much more fun and it stimulates your oneness with all of life.

Through opening to joy in all its expressions, you'll powerfully feel your creative life force flowing through your body while simultaneously experiencing your connection to life more deeply. From that place of deep connection, you'll more easily attract your heart's deepest desires and joys into your life.

In Tibetan Buddhism Sympathetic Joy is one of the Four Immeasurables, a quality that is never ending and unbounded. It's immeasurable because its benefit and value is a pearl beyond price. Attune yourself to joy and live the flow of unending happiness and love.

Love,
Lisa

Manipulating Phenomena

2010-11-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you don’t like something?

Most people complain, resist, become emotional and go into opposition with the experience. We do this because we internally and externally label all phenomena, meaning thoughts, emotions, sensations or external events, into two categories: experiences that we like and experiences we don’t like. We then mentally grasp, attempt to hold on to and search for those experiences we like and avoid, reject and deny those we dislike. This fundamental, often unexamined, mental habit creates suffering and fools us into believing that we can actually manipulate phenomena. This exhausting approach obscures our true nature and the true nature of reality and phenomena.

We need to accept all phenomena first, then realize both conceptually and practically that all experience, no matter what mental category we've put it into, is impermanent. Then we need to come to the direct realization and integration that we are not the thoughts, emotions, body, identities, experiences, this "I", etc that we project onto reality. We ultimately are awareness; fluid, expansive and boundless. Awareness births, breathes and is all phenomena without any mental separations.

When we move beyond the fixation of dualistic thinking and functioning, we realize and experience all phenomena as variations of the one source, love, or as defined in Tibetan Buddhism “bliss/emptiness" or "awareness/emptiness”. This seems far-fetched to someone who has never experienced it. It is a hard concept to understand if you habitually take all experience at face value and live from a solid sense of self that depends upon permanence and labels. It takes exposure to these teachings, time, dedication, contemplation and meditation to truly understand and actualize this truth.

Manipulating phenomena is futile and an unskillful use of our energy. Try to stop or change a thought or an experience and you’ll see what I mean. We habitually function from the basis of ignorance and confusion about the true nature of all phenomena because of how we’ve been taught relate to life. What if we could be in harmony with all of life and its endless variety of experiences and from that place wisely respond and act rather than clinging to what we like and denying what we don’t? How differently we would relate to our lives!

I encourage you to practice. Life gives us endless opportunities, since many of our experiences are not exactly how we would like them to be. Be the wide open sky, accept and experience your vastness and unlimited potential and you will be in the flow with life. From this place, you will be able to intelligently use your mind and physical capacities no matter what phenomena you experience

Love,
Lisa

Pain

2010-10-07T10:30:00.001-07:00

How do you relate to mental, emotional and/or physical pain? Most of us have been taught to run from it, fix it and/or try to get rid of it. We instinctively want to remove pain from our experience as soon as possible. Understandably so; however, when we relate to ourselves or others through this “primal brain” approach we are narrowly focused, short-sighted and blindly living our life. By not being in a dialogue with our pain we excise ourselves from the full breadth of interaction and communication with our deeper selves.

Pain is a form of communication. It is a link to something within us that needs to change. Like domino's the source of our pain may be far removed from the actual site of pain and is usually more in depth then the physical symptoms. A part of us is demanding our attention. Usually it is the subtler parts of our self, like our habits of thinking that the body is expressing through the symptoms of pain. For example, in the case of an injury life may be communicating you need to slow down, change your lifestyle, behaviours and/or simply reveal to you your relationship to pain. This is the case for diseases and/or emotional pains.

Pain is a language like French or Italian. It is a world in itself. Pain acts as a signal, a clue to discover what we believe, how we habitually behave and what we are investing our precious life energy into maintaining that is not in harmony with who we are. This disharmony shows up in our physical experience. To make the necessary changes to come back into harmony, we need to train ourselves to be present with pain to be able to hear its wisdom.

As a culture we have generally forgotten how to honor and decipher the language of pain. We tend to give our power to an outside authority that helps us numb, dull, or diminish our pain. That approach is analogous to taking the battery out of a fire alarm going off inside a burning home. Pain is the alarm system that tells us that something is wrong. Within our pain lies answers, solutions and cues; truths that help us change our trajectory in order to lead our life more successfully.

We have lost touch with the art of listening, understanding and respecting the communication of pain. We have forgotten how to be our own physician and act wisely. When we experience pain we tend to numb ourselves through a variety of approaches based in fear and ignorance. We need to be willing to listen to ourselves and our pain so we can learn and grow from it. We need to reacquaint ourselves with its language, be patient and know that pain is a doorway that invites us into self-discovery, healing and greater self-understanding.

The first step to opening that door is to not run from the pain. Be present, sit with it and befriend it. Listen to it and what it has to say. At first it is screaming for attention and you will have very little discernment as to what it is communicating. As you stay with it you will begin to decipher the wisdom within its voice. As you learn to be present with the discomfort and listen, you will discover what internal pattern(s) the voice is embedded in and what you need to change. You will find the root cause of the voice of pain.

This is a crucial step. Most look for external reasons for their pain. It is instinctual and habitual to blame and want to point the finger at a person or occurrence, thinking that is the cause or if something external changes then the pain will disappear. This is a temporary truth. An enduring truth is that it is ones interpretation of oneself and life situations that create pain. This truth seems much more obscure, because as a culture we have not been taught to take responsibility for our reality, emotional reactions and views. It requires growth and contemplation to experience what I am saying.

I encourage you when the fire alarm inside is going off, listen, pay attention, be present and let your inner knowing and life communicate to you what you need to change, to let go of. Be open. Be a student. Be wise. Heed the call of pain at once so it doesn't require a more drastic form of communication to get your attention; like a serious disease, a car accident or a divorce.

Honor your pain. It comes to you as a friend. Listen and heed its words and your life will change.

Love,

Lisa

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Release Preferences and Trust the Flow of Life

2010-09-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'll begin by sharing the inspiration for this subject. I heard the title as I was leaving the Marin Court House where I was called for juror duty. As we all know this is usually not people's preferred place to be. I was aware of my preference and agenda to not serve and simultaneously accepted the opportunity life was giving me and engaged happily and with curiosity. From this attitude and agility, I was able to be present and appreciate each moment.

They showed us a video on the process of being a juror, which unexpectedly inspired enthusiasm for me around what justice means personally, in my relationships, in healing and how I experience it. Then it came time for the selection process. I knew what my agenda was, and at the same time I heard the prompting from life to simply be open and trust the flow. In surrendering, I further heard and understood to align my energy to the highest and the best for all concerned. I knew that if the greatest benefit was for me to serve on the juror, then that would happen and if my energy was needed for my clients, then I would be there. No matter what, I was in life's hands. As I let go of my personal will, I felt life's guidance and trusted it. My anxiety vanished. Manipulation and force dissolved. I was not trying to make life happen my way, for as we all know, trying to control our lives is exhausting and even debilitating at times.

Through synchronicity and the intelligence of life, I did not serve. In not pushing my agenda, but rather trusting and following life, I experienced ease, effortlessness, true integrity and fulfillment. I left feeling immense joy and connection with life. This connection and relationship with life allowed me to flow with each moment, learn, synthesize and create my experience from an empowered place.

How often in each day do we have these opportunities to create and live from enjoying and partnering with life? Each moment, each situation and experience offers us this. More often we are attached to our preferences and stuck in our heads, for this is how we were taught to view and relate to life through dualistic thinking such as likes, dislikes, good, bad and labels, etc. We come to a place where we believe that life should conform to our desires. If it doesn't, we are miserable, unhappy and/or fighting what is happening. This futile approach creates struggle, suffering, resistance, exhaustion and at times helplessness, because, as we all know, life sometimes goes as we would like and sometimes it doesn't. We end up feeling like a victim. Life feels like an emotional rollercoaster ride of highs and lows.

For many, this is their experience of life. They often feel defeated and come to the conclusion that life is not for them. This is not true. This is only a belief, a habit.

As we empty ourselves from strong attachment to preferences, from life needing to look a certain way, we free ourselves and we lighten our emotional load. We become trusting of life and enjoy it's flow. For ultimately we are life when we are not in the habit of experiencing ourselves as a separate "I". This does not mean we have no preferences or direction, rather we hold our preferences lightly and instead have clear intentions and collaborate with the intelligence of the universe as it moves through us as us.

Preferences act as a barrier to reality, a veil. Depending upon how identified and attached we are to our preferences will determine how much of life's communication and flow we will occlude and how much we will suffer.

True happiness exists in the moment, in being awareness and presence itself. It does not lie as we've been taught in situations, circumstances or people for that is all transient. Yes, we are mean't to enjoy and delight in life's offering, but not to be attached, defined or relate only through preferences. Life is constantly changing and if we identify solely as the water that passes over the rocks true, enduring happiness will elude us for actually we are the river of life that experiences and expresses all.

Honestly, it is humbling to see how pervasive this habit is in our lives, how strongly and stubbornly we cling in certain situations and to release it, but it is possible with patience, presence and persistence. As we become mindful and train the mind to recognize who we truly are which is awareness that is unbias and inherently awake and happy we realize we can be present and happy in any situation. The unconscious habit of making ourselves into an "I" which is full of preferences that drag us from extremes to extremes, opinions to opinions loses its grip.

Life is intelligent, it may not always give us what we want, but gives us what we need. Open yourself to learn, grow and to ease. Learn to live the unexpected!

Love,
Lisa
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Good News and an Update

2010-09-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Professional holistic healthcare at an affordable price!

Lisa is now a part of the Walk-In Low Cost Clinic at The Common Well. She will begin September 23rd, Thursdays from 2-5pm. Lisa will be offering Network Chiropractic, Intuitive Healing, Energy Healing and Spiritual Counseling. Sessions are $20 for a 20 minute session and are in a group room. The group room honors that healing is a community experience, as one heals it activates another.

The Common Well is a resource for holistic health services and education that support a deeper trust in our body’s wisdom to heal and authentic expression of our true selves. Services and education offered at the Well address physical, mental and spiritual health from a holistic viewpoint.

The community clinic model is designed to enable those in need of health care access to it. Access to affordable, regenerative treatments and quality professional are an essential component to our wellness, vitality and quality of life.

I look forward to seeing and serving you.

The Common well is located in the North Bay, just 10 minutes west of San Rafael, in downtown Fairfax California.

The Common Well
85 Bolinas Road
Suites 6 and 8
Fairfax, California

Rocket Dog Fundraiser was CANCELLED
The Animal Communication Sessions at a fundraiser for Rocket Dog Rescue originally scheduled for
Sunday, August 22, from 5pm to 10pm

Were postponed due to a fire. There will be a new date and time sometime in September.

Faith

2010-08-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

Would you like your own magic carpet or genie in a bottle? I believe we all would like what this represents which is the ability to help ourselves be happy and to feel the beauty and experience the ease and aliveness of this life. Faith is that magic carpet. When we open and surrender to faith in our hearts, minds and bodies, we enter into a world of unlimited possibilities where history fades, suffering dissolves and concepts of past, present and future are merely illusions.

Faith is a feeling and an act. It is the ability to believe and be open to the unknown. Faith is an energy current and a feeling we can experience and ride on. It is neither personal nor historical. Faith opens our system to the moment and expands our minds, emotions and bodies to broader vistas and all inclusive perspectives, so you can relate and move successfully through your life and our world. Faith is literally like a magic genie that benefits us and that appears once we open, acknowledge and choose it.

Faith moves us beyond our personal beliefs, fears and investments to align and unite with a higher power, a universal energy and awareness. Our system becomes locked from mental, emotional and physical habits; a closed, predictable loop of energetic patterns. This creates unhappiness and disease. Faith offers us the opportunity on a relative, personal level to look at oneself, another, the world and situations from a holistic, all encompassing viewpoint as well as on an ultimate level to experience our inherent wholeness, connectivity, oneness and unity consciousness.

We tend to view life and make decisions from personal reference points like self-interest, self-preservation and/or self-depreciation. This is the cause of our suffering. We can free ourselves from this limiting, constrictive habit through the magic carpet ride of faith. Faith uplifts us and connects us with our own magic genie, our own inner guru. It enlightens us and inspires us to experience and live our highest ideals, aspirations and fullest human potential moving us beyond the entrapping barriers and veils of egoic thinking. Living faith, happiness, well-being and fulfillment flower and blossom.

Welcome to a world of unlimited possibilities where delusions, suffering, concepts of I, me, you and mine disappear. Duality and polarity vanish and the concept of enemy is seen for what it is, a mere reflection of the mind's attitude, an illusion, a habit to polarize experience rather than live our interconnectedness. With faith, the belief prison bars fade into an open, vibrant, aliveness where you breathe in coordination with the pulse and essence of life.

Attune yourself to faith. Awaken your destiny.

Love,
Lisa

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Contemplation: A Time for Reflection and Its Purpose

2010-07-15T09:15:00.001-07:00

We are often run by our thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations which are usually based in an egoic identity. Our attachment to these patterns gives rise to the person we believe our self to be and how we speak and act with ourselves and others. Have you ever entertained the possibility that these patterns and responses are only a conditioned version of who you are? They are cultural agreements about what self is and how to respond to life. What resides beyond these boarders of habits and attachments?

Contemplation allows one time to be with oneself and to reflect. To ponder upon our life, its meaning and direction, who we believe our self to be, our actions, speech and reactions, the nature of reality or simply a new idea or spiritual concept. Contemplation is a time to sit with grievances and injustices and allow for clarity, forgiveness and resolution so we can move forward. We bare witness to the places in us where we are stuck, identified with certain perspectives, ideas and beliefs, or have a stance or position with life or another person. It is also a time to sit and be with pain, physical and/or emotional, and allow transformation, rather than feeling victimized to the repetitive pattern and its voice that speaks of being unfulfilled, isolated, sorrowful and sad.

For 8 years I have been present with intense and sometimes unbearable hip and body pain. It has been a process and learning to accept and be present with this physical and emotional pain. As I have honored it, I have availed myself to discovery, growth and enlightenment. The pain has illuminated me, motivated me, been an agent of immense healing, helped me become more conscious, kind, loving and sensitive to others and fueled my spiritual path and awakening. Pain has been my teacher. Contemplation combined with determination, patience and perseverance will transform any external or internal relationships into love, peace and acceptance.

Contemplation is like the seasons. As we sit with what is inside us, it naturally starts to change. Our relationship with our self, or whatever we are focused upon, transforms as surely as summer turns to fall. Contemplation needs time and space for this alchemy to happen like a tree needs soil to be fed, grow and stable. Without practice, contemplation’s power and value will elude us. We will continue to live our life like the movie "Ground Hog Day" falling into the same ruts mentally and emotionally over and over again never allowing change, transformation, rest and renewal.

Time to oneself is essential. Contemplation balances one mentally, emotionally and energetically and gives one time to process life experiences and for the body to heal. It also allows one to discover, listen and attune to ones inner voice, intuition or spirit, and develop clarity, discernment and wisdom. Some discover this jewel and others miss it altogether, using the excuse that "I don't have the time". Some are simply unaware of it.

As we give ourselves time to sit and be quiet, we meet the "self" we experience day in and day out in our heads. We hear the constant dialogue, habitual voices and feel the emotions and bodily sensations. We are given the opportunity to see our self clearly; what motivates us and what our emotions, thoughts and actions are rooted in. As we are present with this play of consciousness we have learned to identify with and call our self, we discover something uncanny: we are not our thoughts, past, memories nor emotions, reactions or status.

Contemplation gives one the time and space to sit with one’s mind and internal landscapes. You learn to not be dragged around by your thoughts, emotions and sensations. Instead of being a slave to them, you bear witness to them while simultaneously realizing you have a choice of how to behave. You can begin to see other possibilities beyond the egoic patterns. You develop objectivity, presence and equanimity which allow you to experience your vaster, undefined, energetic nature beyond concepts, an “I”, past, present or future.

Alchemy happens through the power of presence or awareness. Awareness effortlessly and naturally releases our hold and attachment to our habitual sense of self, our past, our opinions and reactions. Contemplation gives rise to understanding, insight, healing, reconciliation and wholeness.

As one is patient and present, one discovers a vaster, energetic, more universal sense of self from which speech and action arise from presence which knows what is needed in the moment based on the situation and circumstances. Presence is inherently loving, understanding, inclusive, kind, compassionate, fierce and firm if needed and balanced. It is not based on an "I" identity, a predictable pattern, conditioning nor the past. Presence is spontaneous, intelligent and wise. It is a whole new world from which to live and act from.

Welcome to a world where unity lives and breathes. I will meet you there.

Love,
Lisa

Fear

2010-06-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

What is your relationship with Fear? How do you experience it?

Most people identify with it, take it personally, and have a story or an event attached to it that gives it meaning. They don’t realize that this makes it seem real, solidifies it, and turns it into “something”, rather than experiencing it as it truly is, impersonal and a passing emotion.

Fear, like any other emotion, sensation or thought, is energy. All too often when we have a painful or scary experience we allow fear to become a part of our personality. This shapes how we see, interpret and relate to the world. Fear and its responses becomes a habit.

On a relative level, if you are holding onto fear due to past experiences or an event, your body will become hard, less flexible, agile and resilient. This tension overtime will leave you feeling drained and no longer in sync with life. You will feel disconnected, less flow energetically, vital, balanced or grounded. The vital prana, energy that circulates and sustains the physical, mental, emotional and subtle bodies, locks into a posture called "fight or flight”.

In my journey with fear, this resulted in me being less present in my body and my life. On subtle and often unconscious levels, my body became paralyzed, numb and less responsive. I felt disconnected from the lucidity, power and intelligence of my spirit. I felt dead, lifeless and empty inside. A sense of vagueness pervaded my experience of myself which was difficult to notice or pinpoint as time went on.

For many, their experience of reality before the affects of fear is long forgotten. Prolonged fear leaves individuals feeling isolated and in their own world, separate from the people and circumstances around them. The mind becomes agitated, overactive, distracted, unclear, foggy and incoherent. The mind, body and spirit become disassociated, stuck in adaptive behavior patterns and split from present day reality; no longer functioning in coordination and collaboration with the flow of life.

Survival becomes the baseline of one's existence resulting in behavior patterns like rushing, efforting, guardedness, aggression, skittishness, hyper-vigilance and many more leading one's actions. Wisdom and intuition are elusive. It's no wonder people feel unhappy, powerless and not aligned with their purpose. Our remembrance of the delight and joy of living connected to self and in concert with our spirit and the river of life is fleeting or gone.

When fear is left unresolved the body becomes addicted to certain foods and experiences that maintain its state of uptightness and disorientation. Fear becomes our unconscious set point, and we create a life of self-fulfilling prophecies that justify our fearful identity. This identity is a constellation of memories, experiences, mental and emotional as well as biochemical loops and psycho-physiological habituations that need to be released and healed. Once these energy configurations are freed they can reorganize. It's much like pushing a reset button. For many, this healing process is gradual and step by step, requiring patience and perseverance for full resolution of mind body and spirit to be experienced.

On an ultimate level, when looked at directly with awareness, fear can be seen for what it is, an emotion, a reaction, energy. This perspective liberates you from identifying with fear and being stuck in its mental, emotional and physiological responses allowing life and your relationship with it to flow. Without this view point, fear’s expressions become repetitive, habitual and who you are. When you no longer identify with fear, then this emotion is simply experienced as a passing cloud.

The nature of energy is change. When we are constantly making everything we experience solid through identifying with it and placing an "I" onto it, we forget that the nature of reality is energetic. Life becomes a mirage. We think we see a snake when it is simply a rope. We attach solidity onto that which is impermanent. When our relationship to fear is one of flow, then fear is demystified and becomes simply one of the many emotions in the play of life.

I invite you all to reexamine your relationship with fear, open yourself and see it beyond the habit of identifying with it and making it personal. Come to enjoy and experience it as it truly is. When one is not interpreting life constantly through the dualistic mind, of "I", likes, dislikes, rejecting, resisting, grasping, labeling, then one is free to experience the beauty of the constantly changing nature of reality.

Life is energy. May you come to know and experience life as it truly is and respond to life circumstances from that place? I welcome you into a world beyond the limitations of perceptions, ideas, opinions, labels, judgments, and objects including you and me, where the underlying nature of all phenomena is energy. When you remove all barriers and perceived separations you find that life is energy expressing itself in all its variety of forms, shapes, sizes and manifestations.

Love,
Lisa

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Impermanance

2010-04-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Coming into direct experience with reality, one realizes that life is impermanent in all its manifestations, whether it’s one’s internal experiences or in regards to situations, circumstances or objects. Impermanence reveals that life's manifestations are a play of energies and patterns that arise from the one true, constant ground of energy called love by some or emptiness/bliss by others. Life is truly like a flowing river.

As the saying goes, one never steps in the same river twice. This is the truth of impermanence. We actually live in an energetic reality that is constantly shifting and changing if we release the habit of creating a self, an” I”. As the mind opens we remember this truth and emanate and embody it in our living; rather than falling into the habit of identifying with all the internal content which then perceives life as solid, fixed and predictable. This creates suffering. The wisest approach to life is to realize and awaken to this truth, moving internally and externally with its constant flow.

Our thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions, identities and experiences are an endless expression of patterns and the one unchanging energy of life “love” or “emptiness/bliss” or “luminosity”. Our minds have been trained to fixate on what we experience or see, believing it to be all that is real and all that exists rather than as it truly is; a passing pattern or thought. This approach has us believing and experiencing life as unchanging and rigid. You often hear people say “this is who I am” or “this is the way it is” failing to recognize they are only expressing a fixation of their mind; a reflection of their training and an attachment to a perception.

The quality of flowing with what we are experiencing is vital to our sense of well-being. Imagine doing this with conflicts or emotions or what you perceive as problems. How would that affect your quality of life? We all too often have or have seen people with a fixed sense of self or identity struggle, fight, try to change, or make things happen. This results in people feeling emotionally frustrated and/or disappointed unaware that these emotions are simply feedback of our approach, our perception that is not effective. We have come as a culture to accept these emotions as a constant part of human experience which preclude a vast range of emotional possibilities like ecstasy, bliss, joy, gratitude, appreciation to name a few. People are attached to their beliefs and perceptions unwittingly creating their own misery allowing no solutions or answers to be revealed that would create ease, peace, well-being, harmony and unity with life.

Often people feel afraid when they hear or experience the impermanence of reality. It’s disconcerting to the ego, and to the mind that thinks it knows, and thinks life is predictable. This is natural and only an experience upon your path, a veil to go through. As you stay present with the fear, the joy, the freedom and love of being one with life is revealed. You are connected with the essential flow of life, rather than being in your head and imposing on life how it should be.

Impermanence is the true nature of all phenomena in reality, whether it is what is happening inside of us in the form of thoughts, sensations or emotions; or externally in situations, circumstances or objects. All things come and go in their own time. In each second and moment the impermanence of life expresses itself as well as through the cycles of life: the seasons, phases of the moon and stages of our own life. Within those cycles, each moment, when seen with awareness, is alive and new.

Life is like a dance. Wisdom realizes and is awake to this fundamental truth of life’s impermanence contributing to our sense of happiness and well-being.

Welcome to the true nature of reality. May you flow, dance and experience the endless flow of all phenomena in each moment overcoming the habit to make life solid.

Love,
Lisa

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Mental Projections

2010-03-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

The mind has unlimited power and potential. It is vast, open, spacious and luminous light in its natural state. Most only know the mind through its abilities, such as thinking, and identify with the mind's functions as themselves.

Have you ever examined the mind's capacities objectively? Some of these are thinking, creating and manifesting, imagination, visualization, logical processing and projecting. The mind is analagous to a movie projector, showing us what lives inside our heads in the form of beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions. The mind projects onto the screen of life that which it is fed.

The ability to project acts as a mirror allowing us to experience our beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions on the canvas of life. We are able to see what we are creating with our vital energy through the mind's power and ability. We are also able to see what lays hidden within us. We constantly use this precious power to project thoughts, feelings and beliefs unconsciously. However, you may use it consciously to co-create with life your truest aspirations and dreams. It requires awareness, clarity, understanding, dedication and time for reflection to master this ability and use it to its full potential.

What is inside your head? Is it a horror show one minute, a soap opera drama the next, a romantic fantasy, a self-critical sitcom, a comparing and contrasting nightmare, a litany of the past, an endless, restless chatter or complete nonsense? Or are you actualizing the true state of the mind peace, brillance, spaciousness, stillness and ecstatic, luminous emptiness? What movie do you allow on the screen of your awareness, attach and absorb your energy into, and create from? Yes, you do have power here and recognizing it is the first step.

The ability to project is inherently neither good nor bad, it responds to how we use it. Mental Projection is a creative capacity of the mind. For many, this gift and ability is unrecognized and used unwittingly. What often happens is we project onto a person or a situation what we believe reality to be. We fail to assess the person or situation clearly and come to an accurate judgement. We then create self-fulfilling prophecies, based on our historical understanding of reality, expecting and requesting life to adhere to our perspectives, and as life is generous, it does so. So what mental projections aka movies are you allowing and playing?

This power often goes unexplored. I joyfully invite you to look objectively at what you are projecting to see what belief it is originating from and to see if it is true. When you find yourself unconsciously projecting, celebrate that as an opportunity to examine your beliefs and get to know the "you" you believe yourself to be. Ask those you love if what you are projecting onto them, or onto the situation you are in, is actually true. Be willing to see things differently, from another's point of view. Often, what we think is happening and what is really happening are two different realities. Explore, ask questions and be willing to be wrong.

So to reiterate; often what we mentally project and believe about people, situations and circumstances are untrue and unconscious. When we contemplate and examine our projections, we are afforded the opportunity to perceive reality clearly and refine our ability to project. We are able to choose consciously what we would like to project rather than accepting and creating unwittingly from the reality we've given our power to.

Have fun.

Love,
Lisa

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Dancing with Life through Meditation

2010-03-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to begin by sharing the auspiciousness of where I am writing this. I usually send out my monthly email newsletters the beginning of the month; however, that timeframe was not flowing this month. Now that I am here, writing this in a most auspicious place, I laugh at the intelligence of life which is always present whether we are conscious of it or not. Contrary to our training, life simply asks us to be its partner, to trust and surrender to its flow, to listen and then follow through with action.

So I am participating in a Buddhist retreat at a beautiful temple in Point Richmond called the Dakini Temple where Anam Thubten, a Tibetan Rimpoche teaches. What an honor, privilege and synchronistic that I am writing during the lunch break on meditation, immersed in the energy, potency and environment of a Tibetan Master who teaches on exactly what I was intuitively guided the month previous to write about in this month’s letter. At times I was mistrusting, hearing the voices of habit in the mind, wondering when I am going to have the time to allow the message for the newsletter to flow through me, while simultaneously listening to my intuition that guided me to bring my computer today.

What a testament to intuitive living! This way of listening will lead you and bring you to places and people that will reveal their significance in the moment. Life is actually a dynamic, alive process and unfoldment. We’ve learned and been taught that the linear or rational way of living is the successful way to live and the only way. It’s predictable and lead by planning and strategizing. Intuitive living is founded on trust and surrender; listening and allowing life to unfold and lead, giving you the cues that you then can follow through with action.

In co-creating and collaborating with life the rational mind participates in the experience and is helpful, but not the sole and only leader dominating our experience. Have you ever notice how frustrating the rational or intellectual-only approach is? The rhythm of life doesn’t always align with our ideas or plans. Therefore we become like a fish out of water, flopping around wondering why we are depressed, unhappy, frustrated and struggling with life. We have forgotten to trust and surrender to life knowing our visions, aspirations and deepest heart wishes will flourish if that is our destiny in harmony with life rather than through pushing and making life meet our timing.

The fault is simply with our approach to life. We need to learn how to dance with life rather than stumble over our feet, putting our expectations, demands and timing onto life. We have simply forgotten how to listen, flow and be in harmony with the currents of life. This doesn’t mean you don’t have purpose, intention, desire or direction; rather, all that exists in concert with the flow of life and has its timing, seasons, cycles and rhythms. In remembering
this you re-learn how to partner with life effectively. Meditation helps you learn to dance with grace, power and acceptance rather than feeling tumbled, inundated and overwhelmed by life.

Yes, meditation is challenging and requires discipline and determination to commit to it and follow through with. However, I wholeheartedly encourage you. The benefits and jewels you will discover make the effort well worthwhile. In my experience, meditation is a “pearl beyond price”. It allows us to see and experience the nature of our mind, its habitual ways of thinking and the affect it has on us, others and our environment. This is key, for most suffering we experience in life is self-created and unnecessary. This may sound like a lofty thought and to those whose mind is unexamined it is. Many do not even realize this simple truth. Meditation is like a lamp that shines light in a dark room. Suddenly you can see the mind illuminated. You see clearly how you operate and the affect that has. You realize that all the thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations you attach and give meaning to create your suffering.

As you examine your mind through meditation you discover that these negative effects are simply habits. You begin to see life objectively and see what is actually happening inside yourself. You are not what or who you thought you were. What starts to reveal itself is the space between the thoughts. You realize that you exist beyond thinking, emotions and perceptions. You begin to experience the witness, the one who observes the thoughts you call “you” and “your own”. You come to know that thoughts are not ultimately who you are.

With consistent practice in meditation you realize you are actually not a “self” created by the mind and the experiences of your life. You are a much vaster, indefinable, energetic being; the source from which all thoughts, emotions and bodily sensation exist, arise and dissolve into.

However, if you are attached to your thoughts and believe them to be yourself, then you don’t experience the true nature of reality, or realize that thoughts and all phenomena are impermanent. They are energy and the nature of energy is that it’s constantly changing, existing and passing away like clouds in the sky.

As one meditates, these realizations begin to dawn on you. They give you the certainty and confidence to know who you ultimately are and to master both the ingrained habits of thought and the habit of thinking that the body, thoughts, emotions, situations and circumstances are the self.

Beyond the changing nature of experiences you come into a direct realization of the changeless nature of who you are: awareness/emptiness, luminosity/emptiness, the bliss that is all of creation.

If you would like to begin to meditate, I encourage you to simply observe the breath and or the thoughts and sensations of the body or the emotions. Begin with 10 minutes a day first thing in the morning and before bedtime then notice how as you experience the benefits of the practice it takes on a momentum of it own. Sit upright with feet flat upon the floor with the back straight and away from the chair or cross legged on a cushion on the floor. For further details on how to mediate and practices open to a teacher who is qualified or a book that speaks to you. Follow the flow of life; let it lead you through your intention to the situation and circumstances that will support you in this endeavor.

May you be happy.

Love,
Lisa

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Some Ways To Help . . .

2010-01-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

Fulfilled Living Wellness Center
is participating in the

One Warm Coat Drive

with The Metaphysical Church of Enlightenment

in Burlingame, CA

to benefit

Shelter Network's
First Step For Families

From now until Saturday, January 23rd
We are gratefully receiving OUTERWEAR donations.
Please check your closet for gently worn, good condition items and know that they will be delivered lickity-split to those who are in NEED of warm clothing. Coats, jackets, gloves. hats. warm scarves, socks in all sizes..kids to XXXXXL!!!

Bring your donation items to my office.
P.S. If you would like to sponsor a drive CLICK HERE

The EcoSan Toilet Project
The EcoSan Toilet Project for Bodhgaya, India is headed by Sukhasiddhi Foundation. I am a committee member of this project. For more information, click here for the the Utube and here for the blog.

If you would like to contribute you may send your check to my office payable to "Whatever the Need".

Thank you for your participation.

The Nature of Identification

2009-12-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

A world of infinite possibilities, healing, vastness and more exist all the time, simultaneously, alongside the one we are living. This world lies beyond belief. For most, this reality is either unknown territory or a brief, rather than a predominant, experience.
We have been trained to perceive a certain version of reality, unaware of this truth. We live in a world inside ourselves full if ideas, concepts and identities based on past experiences, unwittingly claiming this as reality and who we are. A more honest assessment would be that we are living a self-made version of reality.
To understand this we need to understand the nature of the mind, which is to identify with what it perceives. This is a natural ability of the mind, however we are unconscious of this capacity. We have been trained to use it's power of identification to thoughts, concepts, emotions and beliefs, to resurrect a self that is solid and real. However, this tendency excludes much of reality. When the mind identifies with what passes through it's screen as a solid, real, unmoving reality, we forget that life and it's contents are impermanent as well are unaware of other realities. Life is always moving, dynamic and flowing. Therefore, we need to become conscious of the mind's ability to identify and to wield it wisely with awareness, so that we can understand that life is not solid nor static, even if we try to make it so. Most of us are unconscious of this fundamental principle of life.
We need to recognize and realize the power of the mind, and that we can direct that power consciously, like a sword. We have the power to cut through the dizzying amount of content and information that passes through it's field claiming it as a self, a me, an I, what's real and rather flow with it and discover and know our true nature and reality. When we clearly see this, we can step back from our patterned perceptions and question our identifications and mental attachments. This leaves space for us to ask ourselves if what we are experiencing inside is the ultimate truth or simply what we have unconsciously accepted and been programmed to believe is reality.
When we do this, we will awaken to the power of the mind to consciously, concisely and with skill and knowledge, discover and live in realities that lie beyond the boarders of what we think is reality. We instead will glimpse the vast, luminous, and brilliant realities of unlimited potential that exist. As in the book "The Mists of Avalon," a magical island exist beyond the mists, analogous to our limited perceptions. Only those willing to accept the possibility of worlds outside their limited perceptions can enter Avalon. True reality has many versions and dimensions. Those who understand this and become skilled mentally penetrate and pass through illusions and see them for the mists they really are. You have all that you need inside yourself to discover these terrains.
To navigate these invisible, internal realities that we are constantly absorbed in and seldom question requires presence: that part of us that is inborn, that witnesses, that can see what is truly happening objectively. There is no greater journey then to see and know what we are loyal to, what we are giving our precious power, energy and attention to. It is a noble adventure and I invite you to take a more active, conscious participation in your life rather then assuming what you think is real and is all that there is.
I encourage you to place the search light of your awareness on this capacity of the mind to identify and reveal to yourself what you are believing rather than thinking it's who you are.
May you discover and experience the preciousness of this human birth, this life, and revel in its beauty.
Have a joyous and happy holiday season.
Much love and light to you and all those who are in your life.

"Out beyond ideas of wrong doing
and right doing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense." -Rumi

Love,

Lisa

The Power of Patience

2009-12-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

Patience is a healing, harmonizing energy. Have you ever witnessed a mother's patience with her child or her crying baby and how it soothes? That is the very nature of this energy. It acts as a healing balm to thought, emotions and states of distress; a support in times of internal transformation and change and an agent of equanimity and balance when insight and clarity is needed.
Patience neutralizes, pacifies and transforms energies and behavioral patterns. Have you noticed the nature and force of habit patterns? They are repetitive, either conscious or unconscious, and have a momentum to them that at times can leave you feeling powerless and overwhelmed; like you have no awareness, presence or ability to direct and focus your mind, energy and actions. Your ability to be objective, grounded and consciously choose your actions will seem out of your control.
This is where the power of patience is experienced. Its beneficial essence alchemizes energies and one's experiences, acting as a life boat that can help us from sinking into the ocean of repetitive patterns.
Patience is a valuable resource that, as you learn to access it, allows you to witness the loops and circuitry of egoic patterning and habits, so that new realities and answers can emerge.
When we take an honest look inside ourselves, at our ways of thinking, emotionally relating and taking action, what is the result? Often we realize that there are many different patterns and ways of behaving that need transformation. Patience is an essential energy in assisting in change. It holds and embraces us so we can clearly see what is happening, use our intuition and respond differently.
This sounds simple, but as you examine your inner dialogue and behaviors you realize how challenging this is to apply to your ingrained, habitual patterns as well as how necessary this precious energy is in relating both to yourself and others.
Begin by simply picking one pattern that you would like to shift. Be intentional and mindful throughout the day, observing this particular pattern and, as it arises, see if you can be patient with it. Breathe. Observe your thoughts, emotions and behavioural loops, and then see what else exists in your field of awareness. Other possibilities and ways of thinking and acting will be there. Infinite possibilities exist in life, and in patterning and consciousness. We just need to become savvy and present in order to wisely direct our energies.
Practice in the grocery line while waiting for your turn or on the freeway in traffic or when you are in a rush or when some repetitive pattern emerges, rather than allowing your thoughts, body, chemistry, emotions and actions to be dominated by dis-ease energies. Practice while in line at the bank and when you notice judgements arising about someone or something. There are numerous opportunities.
Patience is a helpful energy in change, and is essential ingredient in living wellness and well-being in mind, body, emotions and spirit. It allows from simple, mundane activities to personal relating to be more fulfilling. Enjoy and have fun practicing.
Love,
Lisa

The Importance of Mindfulness

2009-11-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

Mindfulness is a provoking and helpful topic. Is it easy? No, but as most of you discover when you start to practice it, it is essential.
You discover that all the voices in your head and who you think yourself to be are not the essential you. They are, rather, an on-going predictable tape that reflects your persona.
They are the voices of your conditioning and your attachments to habitual ways of thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting.
What a relief to know this, because, all too often, a confusing and painful show is going on inside you. What a gift to realize that you are not those voices.
As you become objective, through mindfulness, you discover energies, qualities, and realities within you that are not based in the past, nor in your image, nor in anything transient. You experience abiding qualities of love, peace, joy, compassion, bliss, happiness, etc. When you identify with these qualities and energies, they express through your speech, emotional body, and actions so that you feel good; more in harmony with life, with yourself, and with others.
If you don't practice mindfulness, you probably will not realize your ability to connect with these abiding qualities and your power to align with life through focus and concentration in a way that is fulfilling. Rather your capacities to feel, speak, act, and create in a positive direction cascade out of control, thus reflecting both your lack of focus and the strength of your identification with who you believe yourself to be.
I invite you to become more present, mindful and objective; and from that place discover the power of your mind and who you truly are in the midst of the myriad of voices. You will discover that, up until now, you have simply lived misconceptions and miss-identifications of who you are and that your inherent power of focus and concentration is misdirected.
As you continue to practice mindfulness, the voices will dissolve and eventually disappear, and you will experience the luminous presence you ultimately are. You will discover you have the innate power and abilities to actualize this deeper, more fulfilling, everlasting, happy reality. Through mindfulness, you awaken to the realization that this is the design of life.
Give thanks to the intelligence of life, for it graciously communicates to us though our intuition, or our "gut" feelings of discomfort, when we need to make an adjustment and shift our internal compass of focus and concentration to the all pervasive, all encompassing reality where true happiness, joy, love and fulfillment exist unceasingly.

Lisa Hartnett, D.C.
Fulfilled Living Wellness Center