Gianna

Thank you And so are you. Which is why we see each other's beauty. We are One! Hehe <3

Do thoughts reflect feelings or do feelings reflect thoughts? Which starts the cycle? I realize that this could be a chicken and an egg problem... because both feed into each other. But from what I understand about shadow work, certain feelings and emotions can get trapped in the body and trigger automatic responses from the mind (the responses you crafted for survival as a kid). Then with techniques like Byron Katie's The Work, you can simply change the thought/perception and it will change the accompanying feeling. But is this an avoidance strategy? Are you really working with the emotion– processing the feelings– by merely changing the thought? Or are you not really developing awareness around the feeling by doing this? I guess I am asking this question to better understand the contents of consciousness and their mechanism.

@Marcel Exactly. Just shows how deprived we all are of validation, love, touch, support, etc.

It made me feel empathetic, love, connection (through relating), and sorrow.

@RickyFitts <3

Woah Super interesting contemplation. Brings it to light.

This is so well said! Spot on. Thank you for sharing your contemplation and its link to Tolle's quote! Super insightful. Wow. This is so incredibly beautiful and helpful. It really helps me to understand Bryon Katie's Work. But it helps me understand much more than that– it helps me understand understanding itself! Lol! And its influence over thoughts and feelings. It makes me think that Understanding is like Consciousness; as soon as you shine understanding/consciousness onto something, it brings Truth to light.

@undeather Thank you! I agree with you. The best way to know, is to know myself. I'm going to check this book out right now!

Ooooo very interesting! I love that take on it. The simplest answer is usually the most profound. I find that here!

@WelcometoReality Love this! Thanks for sharing.

How do you know you are suffering if suffering is all that you have experienced? It's like if the entire globe was blue you wouldn't know that it is blue because blue is all that you see and all that you have ever seen. So realize that it is the same with suffering. If suffering is all that you have experienced then you don't know that you are suffering. You can't recognize suffering from non-suffering because they are one in your reality if you are experiencing it. This is why victimhood is so taboo in our culture. It's because we can sense inauthenticity and we don't like it. When someone is claiming to suffer (i.e. acting like a victim), we can see in that moment that they are not actually suffering because they have to be beyond it to recognize it. So we get annoyed because it's like, "Why are you decieving yourself? Can't you see how unproductive this is? You are letting yourself follow falsehood. Change directions. Wake up. What are you doing?" Of course, this is coming from an attitude with very little empathy, and thus, understanding. But the point is that it's easier to see other's deciet than it is our own. Because true suffering goes completley unnoticed and that's what makes life scary. Because it is when we suffer that we engage in the most deceit. You are so in the dark about yourself that you don't even know that you are in the dark because you have imagined an entire reality in the dark and lost yourself in it. So your darkness actually looks full except you've dreamt up a miserable reality because misery is all you've ever known. That's true self-deception right there. So how do you pull yourself out of it? Well, deceit erodes when you erode and everyone dies. And the Truth is what stands because it is all there ever was. But how do you go an entire life without recognizing it? It's scary to realize that we don't know what we don't know. We can't see what we can't see. We cannot become aware of something that is outside of our awareness. But yet, we grow? So how do we grow? Growing happens from outside of you but realize that nothing is outside of you because you are everything. So when little blessing happen to you– either from outside of you or from inside of you– know that it is a gift from yourself to yourself. Let me ask you this, has anyone ever changed your life? How do you know it is them who has changed your life or if it is yourself who has changed your own life? For instance, if someone gives you something to understand, they are not giving it to you because you are the one understanding it! You give yourself understanding; no one can give you this? If there is an insight to give to a group of 10 people, who decides out of that group who will get the insight? They decide. You decided whether or not you get something. You are always the one to decide how much you will allow yourself to know. This is why true learning is a process of unlearning– because you already know everything! So when you come to know nothing (i.e. you come back to your most primal state of being) you will suddenly realize everything because you are everything. You can be downloaded with this understanding in a nanosecond because you are the thing that's being understood. You just can't hold on to it for long because it is infinite. So the nanosecond you understand it is the same nanosecond it is gone. It is fleeting, like time. But time doesn't exist. And yet you do. You are eternal. Eternity is always present so it is always there to realize. But we forget this because we love the remembering of it. We are living on the other end of the contrast so we can dip into it whenever we feel like it and be blessed with both of everything we desire.

Life is like a little game of hide and go seek that you play with yourself. It's so annoying. But kind of fun. It depends on what side you are on. If you are the one who is looking it's confusing and emotional and it breaks you down because you can't go long without yourself. But if you are the one hiding, it's funny. It's funny watching you struggle. Because there are no worries! All is good and all will ever be good and can only ever be good. Can't you see? Nothing bad can happen it's just me and you playing hide and go seek; there is no one actually here??? But we're freaking out and it's funny. You'll see me soon enough. Can't you see me? I'm right in front of you! We'll be together soon and the union will feel ecstatic– something we can't feel unless we're playing. Except, we are already together because we are already one. We never actually left ourself we just pretended that we did and then let ourselves forget. This isn't a game of hide and seek this is a game of forgetting and remembering. Don't you feel the Love we've always had? It could never leave you because it is you. But how would we ever know that if we didn't let ourselves forget it? I'll always try to give you the most I ever can. And this is how we're doing it!

ooo Leo should do an episode on this; kind of like how he did one for What is Art. I love the What is episodes.

You may be going into a dissociative state. Start doing shamanic breathwork, you need to be working on your trauma.

Maybe try a focusing meditation– like focusing on an object, your reflection in the mirror, or, you can try an allowing meditation practice. Here's one you can check out:

If you haven't done any shadow work then get ready for some unresolved trauma to surface. As far as safety, with shamanic breathing, you're obviously just working with higher amounts of oxygen in the brain. But how this coincides with LSD in the brain I am unsure. It is something to think about and/or research!

Maybe through reframing. For instance, think to yourself, "Each new aspect of me that I come to through change, is a different version of myself I get to learn from and spend time with. Each new experience I have gives me a new way to experience myself, love myself, and feel grateful for myself." This is thinking like God. God desires expansion– infinite diversity– a continuous search through infinity. God wants to explore the depths of its own Love. The capabilities of its own Love. You need to reframe your idea towards Love. Love doesn't mean stagnation. Love is unconditional openness, willingness, welcoming, and allowing. To want to stay the same is to resist growth because growth is your nature. Expansion is your nature because it is the nature of God. Resisting (especially resisting growth) is not your nature because it is not God's nature. God's nature is allowing, not resisting.

@RickyFitts Beautiful

I understand. Of course, only to the best of my ability. But I am excited for you. Follow whatever you desire and don't ignore discomfort We all are on the path of fulfilling our needs... of expansion!

Childhood is a prison where we are basically force-fed ways of being and thinking in the world. But we don't see it like this at the time. As children, we are so allowing, so open, so loving, that we'll take anything as a part of ourselves and reflect it back to ourselves... to reality. Have you noticed this? Kids will mimic anything they see. Kids are nothing but mirrors. They don't stop to consider, "Is this me?". They simply reflect reality back to itself unconditionally so that anyone looking can be with themself, love themself. Except, people are not receptive towards this love. When people don't like the reflection they see, they try to distort the mirror. They create cracks in the mirror so as to distort it. And so they create cracks in the child. The child becomes fragmented and learns to love certain pieces of itself and denies other pieces. They can no longer see themself– be themself– because they are no longer whole. They have to spend the rest of their life trying to find the missing pieces of themself just so they can become whole again. All because people didn't like the Truth when they saw it.

Yes they are. Because how would you be? @kras If you struggle with what Ricky is describing, know that all people operate the same because all people ARE the same. We are ONE.

What do you think will happen if you do open up and communicate fully with someone?

I wish you could come live with me :(( @Preety_India Would you consider moving?

Legendary series.

Shamanic Breathing