Quote Of The Week

Mindfulness is deliberately paying attention,

being fully aware of what is happening

both inside yourself - in your body,

heart, and mind - and outside yourself,

in your environment.

Mindfulness is awareness without

judgment or criticism.

Jan Chozen Bays, MD

Mindful Eating

A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy

and Joyful Relationship with Food

GOING WITHIN: A SERIES ON MEDITATION

Meditation is one of the greatest Arts in Life, perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from someone else.  That is the beauty of it.  It has no technique and therefore no authority.  When you open up to learn about yourself -  observe yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate the jealousy.  If you are aware of all that is within yourself, without any judgement, you have achieved an essential level of your meditation practice.  Meditation can take place any where -  when you are sitting in a bus, walking, washing dishes, sitting in a yoga position or looking into the face of a friend.


Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all its activities, all its experiences can be absolutely quiet.  Not forced, because the moment you force there is duality.  The person who thinks, "I would like to have a marvelous experience, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet", will experience difficulty.  It is as you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures and watch how the brain operates, that you will feel the brain quiet.  That state of quietness is not sleep. In fact, it is tremendously active, a large dynamo that is working perfectly yet hardly making a sound. Its only when there is friction that there is noise.


Meditation is a state of mind that observes everything with complete attention, not just parts of it.  When you give total attention there is complete silence.


If you deliberately take an attitude, a posture, in order to meditate, then it becomes a plaything, a toy of the mind.  If you determine to extricate yourself from the confusion and misery of life, then it becomes an experience of imagination and this also is not meditation.


In meditation, it is not the organism that one must begin with, but rather the mind with its opinions, prejudices and self-interest that must be seen to.


It is far more important to understand yourself - the constant changing of the facts about yourself - than to meditate in order to find God or have visions, sensations and forms of entertainment.


Meditation is not concentration, which is an exclusion, a cutting off, a resistance - and so, a conflict.  To have no resistance, to have no barriers towards anything, to be completely free of all minor urges, compulsions and demands with all their little conflicts and hypocrisies, is to truly know Life.

Meditation is hard work.

It demands the highest form of discipline,

awareness.

J. Krishnamurti

 Going Within begins a series on the art of meditation.

~ Elizabeth Botta Brandes ~

Quote Of The week

 

There's no need to make

things happen; only to be

present when they do.

June Graham Spencer
Co-Founder of the Let Go & Live Institute

Quote Of The Week

The greatest gift we

can give to someone is our

complete attention.

June Graham Spencer

Co-Founder of the Let Go and Live Institute

The Book Shelf

Food plays such a major role in our growth; body, mind and spirit.

I have just finished reading a book that has enlightened me on many issues surrounding our "western diet" and the effects it has on all of us.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michale Pollan

Here's to a nation that digests its food well!

~ Elizabeth Botta Brandes

ATTENTION CAPRICORNS BORN BETWEEN 12/26-12/30

For all Capricorns born between 12/26 - 12/30 of any given year:

Pluto is conjunct your sun from January through August of 2011. You can expect many changes in your life this year. Pluto is a planet (yes, astrologers still respect Pluto as a planet) of great transition. Therefore you will be experiencing major transition in your life. You may think the transition or change is sudden or unexpected but I've found these changes were waiting there to happen but you ignored the signals or were afraid of looking at them.

It's like a volcano with a village built around it. The villagers look up at the volcanic mountain everyday but don't pay much attention to it. It's always there, harmless. They know there's great turbulence going on inside and sometimes they even hear some rumblings and watch a few boulders tumble down but when they wake the next day, it seems to have settled down so they continue to ignore it. Until one day it erupts.

When Pluto conjuncts your sun, you may experience a major eruption in your life but, if you are honest with yourself, you've expected or suspected this may happen for a long time. Sometimes these events are difficult even life changing. I've seen people totally change their careers, loose their money, re-invent themselves,  become ill, get divorced, even experience the death of someone around them.

Pay attention to the undercurrent of feelings you've been experiencing for a long time. (the volcano). Do you dislike your career and want to change? Have you been worrying about your investment portfolio and wondering if you should look into it? Have you felt your life path does not represent who you really are now? Have you been feeling some complaints in your body but haven't gone to a doctor? Do you feel your partner is not happy but you're afraid to ask? Are you watching someone around you not take good care of him/herself?

Pay attention to these warning signals. Pluto is letting you know where you need to (or will) experience transition in your life this year. Don't keep your head buried in the sand. Pluto is a fearless investigator. Begin to investigate these troublesome areas of your life.  Take action to redirect your life path, go to the doctor for a complete physical, ask your partner if he/she has a problem with the relationship.

Pluto is all about power. You have tremendous power around you now to make wonderful, transforming changes in your life! Be aware that when you ask the questions you have been afraid to ask for a long time, you must be prepared to accept any changes that come to you with the answers. Pluto is fearless and you can be fearless now too. Take control of your life. Make your life truly yours!  Areas of your life will be changing now. Choose the changes you want!

And then also keep in mind another Pluto message. Sometimes you need to simply trust the universe. Don't waste all your energy trying to hold on to something or someone when it's really in your best interest for this to leave your life. If you are struggling to stay in control and only exhausting yourself...perhaps now is the time for you to simply let go and let the powers of the universe pick you up and take you where you need to be. 

This is a time of great opportunity for you. Change may be scary at times but it's also the best way for you to grow.

Some of my clients may already know this story. I've repeated it many times in my readings. But it's a clear example of Pluto-power.

I was watching TV years ago and there was footage of a group of people in a raft enjoying the thrill of riding down rapid waters. Their friends were filming it from the shore. All of a sudden the raft flipped over and the adventurers all fell into the white water. One by one they surfaced and held on to the overturned raft. Suddenly, one woman let go and was carried down about 100 yards where she popped up again and grabbed onto a tree branch. The friends on shore ran to her and pulled her ashore. The other boaters saw what happened and they also let go of the raft and were all safely pulled ashore....except one woman who continued to hold on. Now, all the people on shore were begging her to let go but she refused. Her fear wouldn't allow her to let go of what she felt was her power until finally she became so exhausted, her hands slipped from the raft and she too was successfully pulled ashore.  Of course, me being a zany astrologer, I kept yelling at the TV screen..."Let go. It's a Pluto transition. Trust the waves of the Universe." (My children still refuse to watch television with me and that was over twenty years ago).

Take charge or your life. Decide for yourself what you want out of your life at this time. Investigate anything you feel needs to be looked at. Know that even if things don't seem to be turning out the way you planned them, this transition is beneficial to you. And, don't be afraid to trust the powers even greater than yourself.  Pluto is on shore ready to pick you up from any troubling waters.

~Joan Kilgen

The Book Shelf

So many of my clients, including myself, suffer from fibromyalgia. A thoughtful client of mine, Marie, sent me a copy of a great book which I'd like to share with you.

Fibromyalgia: Up Close and Personal  by Mark Pellegrino, MD ( who also suffers from it)

This book is so easy to read and understand.  I call it: Fibromyalgia for Dummies!!!
Dr. Pellegrino answers all of our questions and calms many of our fears.

I highly recommend it.  Thank you Marie.

~Joan Kilgen