What does it mean to Live Lightly? I’ll begin here with a simple definition of Lightly. It means with little weight or force—without care or concern—in a way that is not overtly serious—in a quick and graceful way.

I learned to Let go and Live Lightly while on two-year sabbatical in Greece many years ago. Yes, I literally let go of everything I had ever owned and was looking for a new beginning. I had everything I could want as far as material goods, but I was never going to be indicted into the “happiness hall of fame” by pretending I was happy when I was not.

Greece is beautiful and I had been there many times but one of the things I realized quite quickly, is that I didn’t need to go to away anywhere for my spiritual quest.  Why?  Well first off, we always take ourselves with us…. interesting that I never thought about this before I left!

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“The way to do whatever you want to do already exists. You just need to tune into it.”

If you are going to change your habits and your beliefs, you’re going to have to do it where they reside, in the subconscious mind. Until we relay the order to our subconscious mind, nothing will happen. Setting goals is a conscious exercise; achieving goals is a subconscious exercise. So, why do we set goals and don’t reach them?  It is because 95% of all your behaviors and perceptions are automatic, and you need to tune in!

“The Antenna” is my metaphorical name for the part of our brains called the Reticular Formation, sometimes known as the RAS. It is a marble sized piece of “grey matter” that is responsible for filtering the massive amount of sensory input. It has a way of bringing to our awareness only that part which we deem important. This antenna is a gift that we usually take for granted. Fortunately, the appropriate use of affirmations, goals and daydreaming serves to orient our Antenna so that we begin to “tune in.”

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The difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life is only a matter of perspective. Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you can start.

Change can enter our lives silently and this change can be just as important as change we have worked hard for. Sometimes, without any big announcement or momentous shift, we wake up to find that change has happened, seemingly without us. This can feel like a miracle as we suddenly see that our self-esteem really does seem to be intact, or our partner actually is helping out around the house more.

We may even wonder whether all of our hard work had anything to do with it, or if it just happened by way of grace.  This doesn’t mean that our efforts play no part in the miracle of change—they do. It’s just that they are one small part of the picture that finally results in the softening of our hearts.

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During these Chaotic Times, one thing is extremely important in order to overcome any temporary crisis. In particular, it has to do with YOUR POWER to bring peace and harmony to yourself and the world around us.

For instance, there are periods in life when certain events and situations demand greater inner strength, courage, understanding, and optimism. Furthermore, they may be of a personal, familial, social, political or even planetary nature. For example, as a planet, we are going through multiple crises in which many of us are being tested in a myriad of ways. Each of us is being or will be affected to a different degree. And as a collective humanity, are experiencing concerns which affect the economy, the environment, global peace and stability.

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Our Childhood Experiences can leave wounds and scars that make their presence felt in clever little ways, long after we’ve “grown up”.  If you find you have difficulty having healthy relationships or being successful at work, this may be what’s holding you back from having the life you want. A difficult past doesn’t have to cast a shadow over your life.

Our lives can be forever changed if we experienced a dysfunctional or traumatic childhood. Children who felt the pain of abuse or neglect or the loss of someone they loved continue to suffer even when they are adults. Sometimes we don’t recognize the signs of abuse, neglect, or some other kind of trauma or dysfunction in our childhood. Other times we tend to block out the memories or minimize them because of the pain we feel.

Your wounds may not be your fault, but your healing is your responsibility for living a happier, healthier life. (more…)

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.

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Our thoughts are an integral part of our humanness and play an essential role in determining our sense of peace and harmony. Did you know that as humans we have on average about 60,000 thoughts a day?  The problem is that most of them are reoccurring thoughts. The same thoughts day in and day out!

The good news is that we all have a feedback loop that informs us whether the mind is peaceful, quiet, noisy, conflicted or disturbed.  Our thoughts are beyond our conscious mind but they can assist us if we but pay attention to the feedback loop. A lot of our inner struggle and conflict happens when we avoid the negative thoughts. We all tend to do this to keep us from going into overwhelm because we are influenced by their content.

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“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.

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CR: I’ve been pondering desire, its essence and its forms. There are positive, the negative and the natural everlasting state of perpetual desire. I think the concepts of desire deserve more than a passing glance. It’s worth contemplating where there is value in desire and different degrees and flavors.

One aspect of desire is that it is instinctive and natural. When we look around at nature, we can see that for survival. All living things, desire food, water, rest and reproduction. Human desire is often criticized when it comes to ones that are connected to expectations, attachments, addictions.

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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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