A Case Against Empathy: Through Understanding

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Where ever it is you are looking, so there it is you will go, the thought came seemingly out of the blue.

I let the thought coalesce fully into my barely awakening mind as I laid there in the dark and cool of the morning.  How many times have I experienced this very lesson?   

Admittedly, in some matters I’m apparently a little slow in spotting the theme of a life lesson when it is woven so subtly and intricately throughout my every day existence.  But, when you find a way, a tiny space in time to step back from your life and re-focus, there it is – the theme and pattern of the true life lesson emerges.

We are unconsciously seeking many things for a very good number of reasons and seek them we will until we gather from our seeking, that which satisfies our hunger for life lesson learning.

The words beg for my consciousness again, Wherever it is you are looking, so there it is you will go.   

What have I been observing lately?  I can tell you it has been disharmony and it’s all around me but not me.  I see it and feel it in those who are near and yet there is nothing that I can or should do about it.  That might sound callous or harsh but there is a point to my mental meandering so stick with me a moment if you can.

I’ve realized of late how silly it is of me to think that it is my job or role to empathically take on the emotions of others.  It does nothing for me or for them except double the chaos of emotion even if shared from alternative perspectives.  All those egos fighting for an imaginary pole position in an illusive race are thirsty but what they reach for will not quench them.  It will only leave them dry and parched and that is where the guilt rises within me along with the empathy. 

I see what is happening inside of them and I feel it and have this warped sense of obligation to do something just because I see and feel it.  It seems like the right thing to do but then I wonder about the concept of the thought of right?  Who decides if it is right to interfere if even via my own emotions as I watch the roles played out before me.  Where I look, I will go.

I do not like where I have been as the burden has been too much for me to carry.  I didn’t realize the answer was there all along.  It is not that I should stop seeing what I am seeing but rather how I am seeing it and taking in the experience of it in empathy.

Now with understanding, I can look and see the shining souls rallying to experience this dream as they intended without my emotional interference or empathy.  Rather, I can hold a space of compassion and understanding for their life lessons as others have done for me.

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© 2015 Photo and Words

If you enjoyed this piece, you might also enjoy my books:  http://www.jaiehart.com.

 

Hanging on a Moment

What are the good things in life?  A good cup of coffee? Watching the sun rise?  Seeing dandelion seeds twirl in the breeze as you gently blow them into oblivion and unwittingly end up supporting the circle of life while you make a wish like an innocent child of the universe?

All of the little life moments we experienced have mattered and will matter in the future perhaps, but what about right now?

The reason this moment or point of focus matters is that when we are not busy worrying about what we should, would or could have done or what we could, would or should do tomorrow, we can settle into feeling what it feels like to be a real living and breathing human being inside our body observing all these important seeming things that really amount to lessons in a text book that is our life.  Weird and anticlimactic huh?

Sometimes it is just that and well, even that is precious but we just don’t understand that for every yin there is a yang, every action an equal and opposite reaction – it’s life – it’s amazingly, incredibly, wonderfully perfect even when it feels very much like it isn’t.

So, then, what to do with a thought or a feeling in a moment?  I guess we judge it and decide whether or not to hold it.  It doesn’t really matter what we decide unless we have expectations.  With expectations one must be cognizant of choices ahead of time.  Other than that, we think what we think and we feel what we feel until we wish to think and feel something else.  And then, we do.

Life is not so complicated in some regards but one tiny little thought or action can turn it on a dime in terms of experience.  So, what kind of experience do you most wish to have? Do you at least know that you have a choice in how you experience it even without the control to manage outside actions?

Peace!  :)

2015 Copyright Jaie Hart both photo and words

The Now Age: It's Likely Not What You Think.

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This post represents the expansion of a thought I shared with a friend recently.  But that exchange got me to thinking and I like to think.  I also love the experience of living my life the best way I can.

I have been on a quest of sorts for I don’t even know what and for so long that I can’t really even remember when or why it began.  But I remember when it ended and I felt bad a few moments thinking, “Wow, all of this time I was energized by the spiritual quest, by the journey of searching and the action of seeking. So, now what?”  Now what, indeed!

One thing that never entered my mind was that one day I’d find the answers I was searching for right about the same time I grew so weary of a fruitless seeming ever illusive quest.

Well, I guess it wasn’t entirely fruitless.  What I learned is that when we finally grow tired of our searching for something outside of ourselves, we begin to understand that what we seek, we truly already have.  We just didn’t know how to realize it or find our way inside long enough to see it.

New Age thought spurred my quest sometime ago I will readily admit.  Honestly, I’m very grateful to the New Age thinkers for they brought us new ways to look at ancient wisdom as we contemplated our present day experiences but something always seemed to be missing or lost in the translation.  After further thinking, feeling and just letting the thoughts within me expand, I realized in absolute fullness and joy that the quest was over.  But now I think its time for a paradigm shift of sorts. 

I think the conclusion that I come to is that the genre formerly referred to as “New Age” has actually come and gone.  I also think that the “New Age” is in the process of being replaced by the "Now Age."  The “Now Age” is so much more important than the New Age.

Let me explain why.  The Now Age requires no guru, no dogmatic approaches to anything really or trying to embrace some doctrine you can't really warp your head around.

All the “Now Age” requires is being very present in every moment of your life and in all that you do. Being present in the fullness of the Presence of our Consciousness will bring us that which we most sought outside of ourselves. It's one of those subtle little miracles you stumble onto when you finally stop listening to the voices outside of your head, tune into the true feelings within and listening with all of your being.

The time is now.  Be here.  Be present in your effervescent numinous illuminating Conscious Presence.   Pretty simple huh?

Special thanks to all of my wonderful friends and my partner for all of the thought-provoking discourse that brought one part of my journey to a wonderful end.  How often can you say something ends wonderfully? 

I’m off to some different thoughts all-together.  So, enjoy the journey and be ever so present within it.  Just breathe, notice the pretty flowers sometimes, the way the sun etches everything in beautiful golden light or the song of our winged friends some time.  You’ll then begin to comprehend what the Now Age entails.  Blessings.

 

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© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo and words)  Now Age concept was coined by my partner, Dr. Liam Leonard. J

Can't Catch A Break?

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If you focus on peace, peace may very well elude you.

If you focus on escaping drama, it may very well follow you. 

If you focus on catching a break, you may continually find things that break you.

I used to say often, what we focus on we create.  Well, that concept truly comes with a caveat and that is what we focus on with intent, we create. 

Your intent may be conscious or unconscious but believe me when you’re focused on something, you have intent.  Discerning your true intent might seem an easy thing for one to do except for the barrier of psychological filters that always seem to hide the truth.

If, for example, you live a drama filled life that you try always attempt to escape, you are always focused with an intent on rescuing yourself from drama.  Your intent is creating an energy or vibration about you that is most compatible with that which you most wish to escape (drama).   

When next you find yourself embroiled in drama and you do not wish to engage in it, try breathing instead of participating.  You don’t have to run and you don’t have to hide.  You can withdraw your intent to focus on the negative aspect of it and instead shift your focus and intent on curiosity.  From a curious point of view you might wonder what the drama is really intended to teach you.  If you set your intent towards understanding that, my how the epiphanies may fall like dominoes from Mount Everest.

If you focus on peace because you are attempting to escape its opposite, the same idea as the above applies.  The same is true with catching a break.  You believe or it seems you can’t ever catch a break so you try to catch a break  While you focus on something good because you are experiencing something bad, it is a real challenge to shift your intent into a more congruent alignment with your truest desires.

Step back from the discomfort of such moments, breathe as I mentioned and take a time out.  Understand that when you start from a negative perspective seeking a positive rescue, you are starting out in discord.  Get yourself to a state of acceptance, balance and curiosity and then just breathe.  That’s it.  No tricks.  

Just breathe and set your intent to allow what is happening to change and then take action in a fully positive frame.

It is important to understand how we create what we focus on.  Through understanding the unconscious creation process, we can better learn to control our lives in the positive on purpose.  Just some food for thought.

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© 2015 JL Harter

 

How do you Learn How Amazing You Are?

 I created a video a short time ago that addresses a very important topic we often give no focus.  It's unfortunate because if we did or knew how to focus on this topic, we'd understand so much more about life, our lives and the purpose of all of those amazing and wonderful exchanges we have as we go through each day.  Through every interaction we have here incarnate, we have an opportunity to learn something.  Not only can we learn from those individuals we interact with, we can also learn much from ourselves.  We can learn probably the most amazing things just by tuning into what we feel and I'm not talking about emotion created by thoughts, beliefs and assumptions.  I'm talking about something much more powerful deep within the core of you.

I’ll include the video below this article as it deals with this topic and actually shows you how you can attempt to grasp a concept that might seem too intangible to easily touch. I called the video Amazing because really, the concept IS Amazing as are you.  Consider a few things I’ll succinctly put forth for your consideration:

1. Feelings, thoughts and emotions while connected are all different facets of our conscious experience. Although they all seem to be one and the truth, that isn't necessarily so.
2. Emotions and their connected thoughts do not represent facts.  Often, these represent only the culmination of assumptions we make from the data we take in through the filters of our Environmental and Psychological conditioning.
3. Our beliefs are often formed through the complexities involved in the above two very key aspects of physical experience.  If we do not understand how our beliefs are formed, we could end up unfairly judging others or worse, ourselves and letting untruthful thoughts roam free wreaking havoc on us emotionally speaking.
4. All around us are messengers great!  These messengers from within and without are all trying to tell you something about you, the world and the lesson plan you are perhaps unconsciously creating.  The cool part is that you get to decide who you will continue to learn from and how you will do it or not.
5. You truly are a miracle of conscious creation.  Consider the striations in just the commonly known levels of consciousness:  Awake and Asleep or dig a little deeper via psychology and you’ll find a few more such as:  Consciousness, Latent Consciousness and then the Unconscious aspects of our being as Dr. Freud observed and wrote extensively about.  Then consider the vast expanse of the unconsciousness and its collective as written extensively about by Dr. Jung.  Your consciousness/Consciousness is a miracle.
6. Consider again all the vast possibilities that exist in this life, your life.  Consider the messages and messengers that have represented the totality of your life’s experiences.  What have you learned?  What do you want to learn?  If you are unsure, your body will tell you if you pay attention to it and learn how to read its messages.  Your environment will begin to tell you when you learn how to pay attention to it and learn how to read its messages.  Even your unconscious mind will begin to tell you when you learn how to pay attention to it and learn how to read its messages.

Have a look at the video below. It begins to deal with the first part - understanding your own internal messaging. I created it to teach you about how your body communicates very important messages to you.  It’s about 11 minutes long so review when you have the time to focus.  If you’re curious about further exploration of the conscious self, stop by my website at Http://www.ministryofconnectedconsciousness.org.  You may find some things of interest there.  I do offer a class on the Exploration of the Conscious Self and will be working on a video shortly to tell you more about it.  In the mean time, the class is ready to go, just write me if you’re interested in it or would like to learn more.

Are you ready for a shift in perspective?  Sit back, get comfy and have a look and listen.  Let me know if you tried the exercise and what you thought about it.

Blessings for higher love and learning! :)  You Are Amazing!

© 2014-2015 JL Harter (Jaie Hart)

Painful Life Lessons: Extraordinary Teachers and Precious Moments

I wonder about life as I sit here quietly tapping away on my keyboard.  Outside my wind chimes make a beautiful tinkling sound in the sunny sea breeze of a beautiful day.  The things I have seen have filled the pages of my life with so many things.  There has been much comedy, love, disappointment and tragedy.  I’d say the most important of all was the painful life lessons.  It was those and the teachers who gave them that I am most grateful for.  I may not have thought so at the time and I might have chosen to harden my heart and mind against this world seeing only villains and victims within it.  But something within me, so very deep within me said, “stop, these are not the thoughts we wish to think and these are not the perspectives we most wish to carry.”  I listened some how to that still small voice that must have been shouting above the din of my ego’s poor me feelings.

I laugh gently at myself now for those glory days of tears and anger, frustration and disappointment.  I don’t think I’d like to walk through them again and I don’t think I care to venture into the future either.  I’m finding such peace in a simple moment that I care not to venture outside of it.  Breathing into the amazing wonder of the moment at hand is such a precious gift.  You don’t realize what a precious gift it is until you are breathing it peacefully.  In those moments of ragged and fearful breath there isn’t much to appreciate.  I’ve seen many such moments and I’ve felt the clammy cold terror and panic of letting the mind get too far ahead of itself in “what if.”  There is no “what if” I have learned and to consider otherwise is only borrowing trouble.  Why do we always do that?  Rhetorical question.  These days I think  I try not to let my thoughts get too far away from me.  I can let them stretch back in a few moments only to go over what I think I have learned and realize I did get the lesson and fully. 

Lately I have given much thought to teachers and students and how much we are all that in every moment of our lives.  I smile now as I realize those teachers I decided most to continue learning from and those who with gratitude I blessed as they went on their merry and sometimes not so merry way.  There are worlds from which we can gain so much understanding if you’d get yourself outside the typical paradigm of language, thinking and stretch, stretch, stretch into the beauty of the unknown within this precious moment.  We are here, there and Elsewhere all the time I suppose.  What a treasure that thought is in a moment such as this!

The leaves have begun the process of rebirth from my favorite tree and I can hear her song, Singing River.  The wind rushing through the leaves always soothes my soul like a lullaby.  Precious seconds have escaped in this moment and still here it is, right where I’ve left it.  Paradoxical or not time is sweeping and changing, perceived only and still seemingly rearranging.  It’s a fascinating thought at least I think.  I let my gaze drift from the screen to the sky.  Soon those cerulean blue skies will turn indigo and then black and the stars will be out in abundance and I will still be in this moment.  What a curious thing this moment is.  Our lives begin and end in a moment.  Yesterday was just a moment ago.  Tomorrow may be here in just a moment.  For now, I am still and time?  Who cares.? Life is too precious, too beautiful and I love it.  I’ll be back, in a moment but don’t’ wait for me.  Go have fun exploring this dream.  Just do yourselves a favor and don’t take anything but love and compassion seriously.  Bless.

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

NEW BOOK RELEASE: Understanding Forgiveness by J.L. Harter

There is nothing humanity struggles more with than the concept of forgiveness. Religious teachings paint one perspective; philosophy paints another as does psychology, metaphysics, spirituality and the more common every-day understanding. But, what if not one of them alone is wholly correct and as you move through this so very important life lesson, every path leaves you wanting, desperate, suffering and with no seeming way to get free? This book offers a strategy for understanding for it is only through understanding that you may begin to see that forgiveness is just a concept and that like learning 1 added to 1 is 2, you can learn this concept and set yourself free."

An excerpt:  

"...Finding forgiveness is sometimes much like taking a very long road trip with no map on a twisting, winding and very dark road.  There is no right and perfect way to navigate it and despite what others may tell you, there is no right or wrong way to do it.  Some would say there are things that are unforgivable.  I say, Not So!  There is nothing unforgivable.  The things we think most unforgivable are likely those very things we have not yet found a way to forgive within ourselves.  If we mire ourselves in a prison of an unforgiving world with an unforgiving God and an unforgiving populace, my what a dreary place we’ve trapped ourselves within..."

4 x 6 Paper back, full color on black and white, packed full of perspective changing ideas that may help you as you travel down the road of understanding forgiveness.  Exclusively available in print at http://www.Jaiehart.com.