Fall Sunday Creativity Circles

The storm of stories, tragedies and misdemeanors that the egoic mind conjurers up on a moment to moment basis creates more negative emotion and pain than most events that actually happen to us. The negativity and pain are stored in our bodies and activated on a regular basis, sometimes as low level irritation or undefined malaise, sometimes as a tsunami.

How do we know when the ego is doing its dirty work? Here's a simple measuring stick.

When the body feels constriction, most likely the egoic mind is at work, taking us out of the moment and into a story, memory or catastrophic vision of the future. The sun might be shining, the birds singing, lovers loving, but we feel scorched; bird song is a viscous cawing and love is coated with poison.

When the body feels flow, the ego is absent, we are present, without story, immersed in life, moment to moment. We open without thought to a glorious day, a bird singing or the touch of love. The channel to our creativity is unblocked.

When we no longer confuse our True Self with our ego and its storm of stories, wants, and judgments, we become present to life in ways that the mind is incapable of understanding. We open to compassion, self-healing and a deeper creativity. We take responsibility for our inner state and, in so doing, stop blaming others for our suffering. This is one of the most empowering, freeing aspects of the process. For if we alone are responsible for our suffering, we have the power to cease suffering.

True Self, as large as the sky, holds all parts of self in Acceptance and Love; it never struggles against what is. Join me on this creative exploration of the sky of our being!