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Mental Body

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Our Mental Selves

Posted on February 24, 2011

Greetings!

I have really had trouble reining my self in for each post that I’ve written in this series so far & “Our Mental Selves” is no exception.  I may have to cycle through the “Our Selves” series multiple times in order to get to say everything I’d like.  I was a little worried before starting that I wouldn’t have much to say with this one & the last one “Our Energetic Selves” but by the time I sat down, my mind was overflowing with thoughts & ideas.  I guess my mental self has been called upon.  For the purposes of this post today, our mental self includes our intelligence, intellect, thoughts, thought-forms, beliefs, ideas, words, mind, brain & thinking processes including abstract & concrete.

Our mental selves are a little like our physical selves in that they both receive more of our attention & acceptance compared to the other aspects of our selves, being of a more tangible nature than say, the energetic self.  So, for example, even though you can’t exactly put a finger on your thoughts, they appear to originate from the physical construct of the brain which gives them an aura of concrete reality & realness.  You could locate the mental self in the brain, for it’s apparent from our physical biology that much of our “mentality” is located in the brain but I don’t recommend this.  It’s probably more accurate to perceive your mental self as a body permeating your physical body.  Viewed in this way, you can see that your mental self, intelligence & mind are not limited to just your brain.  Every part of your body is intelligent.

The mental self can cause or contribute to problems in our lives & bodies just as any of our other aspects can & since “energy follows thought,” the potential is great for our mental self to cause a great deal of problems for us through our thinking & our thoughts.  Since we usually assume that our thoughts originate with us, we then proceed to buy into everything we think without discernment, believing all that we think.  You’ve heard the saying “don’t believe everything you hear”?  To this, I would add “or think” because your thoughts are not always just your own.  Some thoughts that arise unbidden in your mind are from God but some are from unhealed, wounded parts of your self, some from others in spirit whether of a pure nature or a wounded nature.  In the same way that you would weigh & measure the words of others, I would suggest that you weigh & measure your own thoughts.  Are they true?  clarifying?  accurate?  compassionate?  peaceful?  loving?  reasonable?  logical?  Do they lead you to make improvements in your life, body & relationships?  Or do they tear you or others down?  criticize?  attack?  judge?  condemn?  Do they stir up hate?  unforgiveness?  revenge?  anger?  Do they dwell on temporary negative conditions?  things out of your control?  what others are doing?  or have done?  The quality of your thoughts can indicate the source of them.  Needless to say, the loving thoughts of God feel very different from the wounded thoughts of others or of other parts of your self.  Don’t believe that you hear any thoughts but your own?  This is possibly true if you continuously occupy your mind with ongoing active thinking, although, I have heard Spirit talk to me right over the top of my own thinking so I know that active thinking is no actual impediment.  The best example I can think of, demonstrating that we can hear Spirit as our own thoughts, was one time that I was out of my body (OOBE) but heading back.  Usually, coming back into my body is instantaneous but this was one of those times that it wasn’t.  I was moving through a space similar to a hallway & up ahead of me & off to the left, I could hear a woman talking as if she were in a room off this hallway.  She continued talking as I moved past her & I continued to hear her voice as I moved away.  Gradually, as I merged with my body, her voice changed from it’s own distinct sound to the sound of my own thinking & continued on, sounding & feeling exactly like my own thoughts.  This experience, among others, confirmed for me that we have the ability to “hear” those in Spirit in our minds as our thoughts.

The difficulty with “hearing” Spirit in this way is learning to discern which thoughts are your own &  which are not.  To this end, I would suggest a few things.

  • Forgiveness Work or Emotional Work mentioned in a previous post “Our Emotional Selves” is also very effective with clearing & healing the mental self.  For myself, I found that as I did my “work,” I enjoyed greater & greater periods of time without any chatter in my mind.  A quiet mind can be key for many, as it was for me, to enable the voice of Spirit to be discerned.  Once you develop the ability to be quiet in your mind, the voice of Spirit is quite obvious.
  • Meditation works for some people by training the mind to be quiet & cease the chatter.  This training can then be used to listen to Spirit.  This technique has the benefit that it is available to anyone, there are many self-help books on the subject & it doesn’t require having access to a therapist.  It does require daily commitment though & it lacks the depth of healing & overall healing benefit offered by forgiveness work.
  • Practicing the Presence:  Choosing to practice the presence of God involves your willingness to be open to God, stated with intent & then sitting quietly, letting go of everything else.  It looks like meditation but is not because you are not focusing your attention on anything in the physical, you are not trying to stop thinking, you are not required to hold any particular position, chant any word or phrases or accomplish any goal other than being with God.  The Presence of God has the power to overcome all of your resistance, woundedness, fear & negative mental constructs, thoughts, beliefs, disordered & faulty thinking & rigid mind.  One of my mentors has developed a wonderful version of this technique that I am going to try to share here.  This can be done anytime but bedtime is especially good.  Say out loud or in your mind, “I choose to fill myself with the Divine Presence of God.”  This is the basic statement or intent to which more can be added such as “I choose to fill my bones, muscles, connective tissue”, etc.  Alternately you could start with your feet & move up adding your legs, etc.  You could go through the list of body systems such as pulmonary system, skeletal system or body organs & glands such as heart, etc.  You can expand this idea by choosing to fill your relationships, your different aspects such as your subconscious, emotions, emotional self, field, soul, spirit, mind, will, etc.  I always take a deep breath after each stated intent because I want to let go of all resistance to God & to receiving what I am asking.  Once you feel that you are done, then just lie there enjoying the feeling of being filled with God.  Sweet Dreams!

Love, Dawn

Blog

Our Selves

Posted on January 7, 2011

Greetings!

My main purpose for this blog, is to address spiritual experiences but as a self-professed health nut, I can’t ignore all the rest.  To ignore all the rest, is to se  e only a small fraction of ourselves.  We are so incredibly multifaceted, complex & wonderfully made, that to ignore any part of us is a grave mistake having serious consequences.  In order to be truly whole, healthy & happy, we need to become aware of & address the issues of every part of our selves including our spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, energetic & subconscious selves, leaving nothing out.  It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all that we are & all that we can perceive & this is probably what drives us to find a magic bullet cure, a quick fix, a simple answer.  I have been as guilty of this as anyone but I have discovered along the way that, usually, there is no one simple answer to the questions of life or to the problems in our lives.  So, if I only write about spiritual experiences in this blog, I will be doing Spirit, myself & you a disservice. For this reason, this website & my posts will encompass the full spectrum of our selves & our lives as spiritual beings having a physical experience.   After all, there’s more to us than meets the eye.

This is the first in a series of posts dealing with the different aspects of our selves & how best to heal them.  That I know of so far, I will be covering our emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, energetic & subconscious selves.  I am not suggesting that this is all that we are or even that we literally have an emotional self, a mental self, etc.  We are in reality, much more complicated than this but I am dividing our selves up into manageable, descriptive bits so that we can talk about them.

In many ways, we are like a house divided against itself.  How much can we accomplish in a day, a month, a year, a lifetime,  if much of our energy is spent struggling against our selves?  This is what happens when every part of our self is not in agreement.  Conflicting needs & agendas are created by unhealed traumas, wounds & issues, past experiences, misunderstandings, damaging beliefs, unclear perceptions, false ideas, negative thoughts, emotional baggage & many other things.  As a result, we are unable to perceive ourselves clearly let alone know what we truly need or want according to the desires of our hearts planted there by God.  Then there are all the external influences throughout our life that affect us such as our family, friends, teachers, caregivers & co-workers, our home, environment & culture, our relationships & connections to others, books we’ve read, movies we’ve watched & so on & so forth.  These pull us every which way & can make it difficult to move forward in our life.  Additionally, there is the chaos & confusion generated when we take on things that are not ours to take on, things that are not who God created us to be.  All of this, successfully separates us from our true selves, our wholeness, our true hearts desires & God’s purpose for us.  From this perspective, it can be clearly seen, that true healing requires that we address all aspects of our selves.

What can be done to heal & become whole?  The best & first answer to this question is, “Ask to be healed.”  This should always be the first step before doing anything – remember Matthew 7:7-8 (on my “Wisdom” page)? By asking, we bring the power of our words & our will to bear on our lives, we give permission to God & Spirit to help us, we admit to ourselves that we can’t do it all & that we need help, we open our selves to accept that help & we become willing to be healed.  Asking removes obstacles to our healing.  Asking removes obstacles of every kind & believe me, we are full of obstacles.

Unsure of how to ask for help?  There is no one special formula for everyone.  It’s best to experiment, trying many methods, until you hit upon what works for you.  What I have found is that the below methods can all work.  It’s a good idea to hold the intent for the less traditional forms of asking/prayer that you are talking to Spirit.

  • Traditional Prayer:  This is probably the form of asking or prayer that is most familiar.  This can be a formal memorized prayer or an informal made-up-as-you-go prayer directed to God & said kneeling with hands clasped before you.
  • Beg & Plead Prayers:  This is one of my favorite forms because it has a good track record of working for me.  I know it isn’t necessarily Spirit’s favorite.  I know this because, more than once, I have been told that “Begging & pleading isn’t necessary” & Spirit one time actually said to me while I was in the midst of this prayer, “Enough with the begging & pleading!” So, it would appear, that it isn’t necessary from Spirit’s viewpoint to beg & plead but I think it can be necessary for us.  We are one of the biggest obstacles to receiving what we need & ask.  I think that by passionately praying in this way, we convince ourselves of our need, our sincerity & our worthiness to receive.  I think this kind of prayer also helps us overcome ego, arrogance, stubbornness & willfulness-major obstacles to moving forward on our path & into wholeness.  If you have children (or have seen children in a store!) then you already know how to pull off this prayer.  Just think of the last time your kids or maybe you as a kid, begged & pleaded for some special favor.
  • Meditation/Contemplation:  I consider this to be a form of prayer because it encourages communion with Spirit.  Where there is communion with God, there is communication – the very definition of prayer.  It can be helpful to set an intent for the meditation or to say a prayer before meditating if you have a specific need.  This form of prayer also teaches a very special skill that will serve you well if you desire to hear Spirit, that of learning to be still so that you can hear “the still small voice.”
  • Journal:  Keeping a diary or journal is a less traditional method but can easily be adapted to our purpose of asking by simply directing it to God & Spirit.  This method is especially helpful for getting the noise out of your head which can lead to feeling more peaceful & centered.  Many times, once everything is on paper, you know exactly what you need to do.  Writing can bring clarity to your mind & heart & offers another way to learn to hear Spirit.
  • Talk out loud or in your mind to Spirit/God:  I consider that much of my day is spent in prayer because I am often talking in my mind to God or Spirit as I go about my daily life.  Sometimes, I am specific about who I am talking to but often it is just to whoever is with me.  I think you will find that the more you talk to Spirit in this way, the more you will become aware of Spirit responding.
  • Talk to your favorite spiritual advisor in the physical or in spirit:  Directing your communication to someone you feel that you know, can make it easier to talk & get things off your chest.  This can be a minister or spiritual advisor that you know in the physical or it can be someone in spirit such as Jesus, Buddha, etc.  Simply hold the intent that through talking to this person, you are talking to God.
  • Talk to anyone in the physical who will listen to you:  This person can be anyone who loves you & whom you love.  To keep this from degenerating into gossip & to keep your words from creating what you don’t want, it is very important that you verbally set the intent with this person that you are venting, not gossiping & that you only need them to listen, not solve anything.  You must also intend that this verbal communication is to be directed to God/Spirit.
  • Write a letter:  This is similar to journaling but differs in that it is usually specific to a certain need or purpose.  It could be compared to writing a prayer down on paper & has the benefit that you can look back on it & see that your prayers are being answered.  This would also be a benefit found with journaling.  I have had the experience of praying & then forgetting about it.  When the answer comes, I almost don’t recognize it as an answer to a prayer!
  • One last final thought about asking & prayer:  Express gratitude in every prayer, no matter what form your prayer takes.  Be continuously grateful, even if it seems that you are not being heard or that your prayer requests are not being answered.  Gratitude has a similar effect as the Begging & Pleading Prayer in that it removes obstacles to our receiving.  Prayers of gratitude & thanksgiving belong in a class all to themselves, so make sure to make time for this.

What has worked best for you?  What are your thoughts on prayer?  In what other ways have you prayed that I have not listed here?  Leave a comment telling us.  Looking forward to hearing from you.

Love, Dawn