Optimism and Pessimism
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute…. George Bernard Shaw
Do you view the glass as half empty, or half full? Or have we got the glass-half-full metaphor all wrong?
Our Perception is a Matter of Perspective.
We were taught that pessimists see the glass as half-empty while optimists see it as half-full. Perhaps it has more to do with what YOU DO than how you see the glass. For example: does thinking positively make us healthier? Or is it that being healthier leads us to think positively?
We all have ‘sunnier’ days in which we wear the rosy and bright glasses, and ‘rainier’ days when the world is seen through the gray and dark glasses. Some people, have a consistent tendency to think, feel and behave, in a way that is unbalanced and inclined toward one of the extremes on the optimism-pessimism continuum.
Value and Validation
“Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them.”…. W. Clement Stone
DS: I have been pondering the concept of value and validation. For example, why do we allow others to tell us who we are or live in accordance to their standards. I truly believe that we don’t need anyone to tell us, who we are. There is no need to base our value on how much we make, how big our home is compared to others or how important we are.
Our true value is based solely how we live our life with authenticity and how we embrace our inner self. Awareness, consciousness and emotional intelligence can empower us to live our values independent of what others think.
What Does it Mean to be Living Love?
Corinthians 13
“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing…….. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Let us listen to the words of Eric Pevernagie: “Love can crystallize things. When love is in the air, distressing rain can become a wonderful avalanche of shimmering diamonds. Raindrops are transformed into a flood of sparkling crystal pearls. The power of love can convert rain into a multitude of glittering prisms. The mental seduction of love and a boundless illusion, inflamed by a profound uprising emotion, can change any ordinary incident into a radiant, luminous voyage.”
DS: For some time now, and like many others, I have been pondering on the meaning of love and although love is not easy to define, it is our biggest and greatest investment on Earth. Our desire to love and be loved is deeply imprinted within us. The only way to experience love, is by loving one’s self. This is what is known as “becoming love.” It is about keeping our hearts open for loving others and life itself. Christina, during some difficult moments, I have heard you say, “What would love do now?” And my question to you is, “Why Choose love and how does it benefit each situation?”
Choosing Love
CR: Conscious love is the highest quality of love. It is a level of love whereby you have found that sacred place you speak of within yourself and then you become this love. You are a statement of that love and every action is not consciously designed to assert your love by saying you love everyone and everyone must love you. You have become love and have no need for anyone to love you.
You will experience a feeling of being in tune with the Universe energy of love. Look at it this way, you are not actively loving, but you are “in” love; living within the space of conscious love, which is Christ love. For me that’s what love is all about. To become this higher love, you will need to shift within you whatever it is that keeps you from being love.
Dimitri, yes, I have learned to ask this question, “What would love do now?” whenever I feel blindsided by an experience I was not expecting or confused as to how to respond. Choosing this one action allows love to mature emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It enables us to achieve higher levels of consciousness, spiritual perception and energy. It allows love an open space to express itself, and gives us the energy to free ourselves from attachments and habits that obstruct our energy and love. I have found that rather than being reactive, this one choice also seems to inspire others to do the same. It brings us peace, because we experience harmony with our conscience and highest ideals. We feel good about ourselves and our lives. It makes us wiser and stronger on all levels.
Experiencing Love
DS: I totally agree with you dear friend. Choosing conscious love begins by loving ourselves. If you want to achieve it, just try to be right here, open, honest, straight. Take everything that happens to you and use it in relation to your awakening to LOVE. And when you go about your day, take in the feelings in your body, the lights, the walking on the cement, the water, or whatever is around you take it all in, in love. There is no need to worship the feelings of love and no need to run from them either. Acknowledge them, allow them, they are all a part of the dance.
I remember a number of experiences that brought me closer to the essence of conscious love.
A couple of years ago I was dealing with some major challenges and during that time I found myself surrounded by the beauty and magnificence of a Lake. While reflecting on the lakes water and surroundings, I felt a deep need towards loving, accepting myself and my inner feelings, forgiving my past actions and moving forward.
A few years later, I recall a second heartfelt memory that remains forever engraved in my heart. Again, it was next to a lake that I experienced a deeper sense of love’s presence. I started to live in a vibrational field of true love that was flowing permeating everything. It felt like a different state of being… beyond the mind, from heart to soul. My love was no longer contained within me but begun to flow out and change the immediate environment, the cosmos and the Universe. This experience opened me up to Universal Conscious Love and gave me the opportunity for further growth. It was a moment full of fascination, enthusiasm, passion and the energy of love that became an experience of complete freedom, fulfillment and abundance.
The Power is to Love with Intelligence
CR: Yes, my friend, this is a great topic to explore, thanks for bringing it on! This higher love you speak of can only flow from wisdom and strength. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life – and one I wished I had learned in my twenties or thirties is that Love is an emotion and Wisdom is the antithesis of emotion. Whereas love can be foolish and blind, wisdom is intelligent, clear-eyed, and directed. Love simply happens; but wisdom is gained through experiences that lead us to a much deeper understanding of love.
When love is guided by knowledge, we are not led down blind alleys by emotion. Wisdom and love could not be farther apart, which means they cannot be one in the same. The fact is that love and wisdom are related – very closely related. The heart can and does inform logic. It can make us wiser. It is our refusal to let our emotions run wild. We can create peace in our lives regardless of what’s happening in our experiences. Simply loving for loves sake our lives become much more peaceful and rewarding.
DS: I agree! Love has everything in life and we need to get this right. We need to realize that love is the most powerful thing that we have. By cultivating the higher energy of love, we can change any experience. Imagine that Love creates a vortex of purpose that allows positive energy to flow to everyone. The reality is, we’re here to grow physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. When growth stops, we automatically feel like something’s gone wrong. Because it has. Without growth, we aren’t fulfilling our soul’s purpose.
Love is a practice of acceptance, being in the present moment and reaching out into vulnerable territory. What it is NOT is a destination. I see it as a journey, an exploration. Christina, my response to the question of “What would love do now?”, is that the answer will be different every time and because of this we will all grow in ways we never have before.
Love thrives within its own space. The magic of living and loving is found in our own garden of love. This sacred place gives birth to our own perfect nature and becomes an embodiment of love. The path of Love leads you from the outer vision of physical beauty toward the inner vision of expanded, contemplative insight. It conquers, endures, becomes boundless. Love’s transcendent power raises our soul to divine awareness. I consider love to be the offspring of spiritual affinity and our heart’s true commitment to the Universe.
There is nothing higher, nothing more beautiful, than love and it is worth all sacrifices and illusions. LOVE allows us to experience our higher self. No amount of knowledge, wisdom or discipline opens the door to higher levels of consciousness, peace and happiness as easily as love.
Blessings of love, Christina and Dimitri
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Appreciation is the Highest Form of Prayer … Make it Your Gift
“Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it.” … Ralph Marston
Not Feeling Appreciated?
We all experience times in our life when we do not feel appreciated. Have you ever wondered why we all like to be appreciated? What is it about appreciation that creates value in our life?
William James, well-known psychologist and philosopher, said,
“The deepest principle of human nature is a craving to be appreciated.” If we are honest with ourselves, we all want and need to feel valued for who we are and recognized for our contributions and accomplishments.”
How Embracing Vulnerability Became One of my Greatest Strengths on the Road to Happiness.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy and creativity.”…Brené Brown
Love is vulnerability. Happiness is vulnerability. The risk of being vulnerable is the price of opening yourself to beauty and opportunity. Vulnerability became one of my greatest strengths in life; being vulnerable is not about showing the parts of you that are polished; it’s about revealing the unpolished parts you would rather keep hidden from the world.
“It’s about looking out into the world with an honest, open heart and saying, “this is me. Take me or leave me.” …. Unknown
We are all vulnerable, no matter how we much we try to hide it or avoid it. In one way or another we try to conceal our emotional sensitivity and fragility and avoid showing our weaknesses or our emotional wounds to others.
Connect to the Amazing Power of Divine Love
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
… 1 Corinthians 13 4-8
Love with Enthusiasm and Fascination
When you are able to love at the deepest and yet the higher levels, this love creates an atmosphere of energy that can transform your life. Extraordinary amounts of love begin to flow to you, through you and outward towards others around you. You become this love; a source of holy love that conquers and becomes boundless. You will find that this love is like a beautiful colorful painting. The work of art depicts the essence of Peace, Joy and Abundance creating a sacred space. A place where love and beauty thrive and opens hearts to the splendor and mystery of true love.
What Does it Really Mean to Win or Lose?
“Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.” … Denis Waitley
What is it that makes one to win and another to lose accepting defeat or failure? There are a lot of self-help books and self-help workshops that speak to us about self-esteem, self-confidence and personal growth. These are certainly useful tools, however without passion for life they may not be very helpful. Passion is the flame of our life and our daily fuel of energy. Passion is what allows us to live life to its limits, realizing that there are always plenty of opportunities for more creations. Winners have passion, courage and enormous natural capabilities that allow them to shift from the mind’s programming to the hearts’ cosmic capability and constantly keep shifting their energy to experience their goals more intimately and through awareness.
Devotion and Love
“True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.” … Ellen G. White
Devotion and Love go hand in hand. When it comes to truly loving someone, devotion becomes our dedication towards their good. We wholeheartedly give our attention to this individual and in all levels of our being. We begin to live in continuous moments of awakening, guided by the virtues of devotion, balance, selflessness, equanimity and love.
We can determine what is important from superficial, what is true from the false and just like a bird that has developed wings of perfection, we create a space that Love has no purpose but to fulfill itself.
What is BEAUTY?
“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”
-Sophia Loren
“Remember that there are two kinds of beauty: one of the souls and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Some people say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, an experience of something held inside of us as beautiful. Others say that beauty is something or someone that appeals to the eyes or the heart. Yet there are others, like Christina and I, that believe that something is beautiful because of its relationship with the environment. The way it forms or unfolds itself among its surrounding elements just like a radiant rose or a sunset.
Re-Awakening to a New Reality
Most of us would like a happier, healthier, more harmonious reality. In order to improve our reality, we must understand the mechanisms of its creation. Most of us feel that “things simply happen in our lives,” or that we just feel “this way” or “that way.” Few of us investigate how our reality is created. Our behaviors come from complicated belief structures. Reality is different for each one of us, but how we perceive reality is how we create reality. Although it is difficult to define what is truth for us, we need to keep examining our beliefs and assumptions towards the intended outcome.
