Diet and Awakening

images from Chris Court

Is it possible that a diet could offer you much much more than weight loss? Could a person on a diet gain something incredible and truly life changing while on a diet?

I do think it is possible to gain wisdom and strength in many unforeseen areas in our lives, even while releasing weight . In fact I have experienced tremendous awakenings in every single area of my life, whether I have intended it to happen or not, so for sure, I would find illumination while on a diet, and I have.

I have been on a food diet for several months now. I have missed out on birthday cakes Easter eggs, Christmas delights, Valentines day chocolates and many many other yummy dishes. In all this missing out I was compelled to ask myself the question what have I gained? What really has been going on while releasing this weight? Sure I have altered my dress size and feel great AND yet there must be more that I could have gained out of all this lack of yumminess.

In the moment while I am eating my “diet meal” I feel happy and contented. After I eat I am satisfied. It is only when my emotions and my mind go hay wire that I feel like I am missing something. In that moment it is as if I have lost sight of my intention, my bigger future. At that moment I am not “claiming” my future in this NOW and I am getting lost in my emotions and in my mind. I believe that what I am experiencing that second is more important than anything. In this emotional outburst I loose sight of everything that matters in my world and my true intention is now lost. Whether on a food diet or some other new transformational process, watch the emotional and mental state and endeavour not to be a victim to old thoughts but rather open up to new options and opportunities.

Day to day a diet can feel like nothing is happening. It seems like there is no progress and little if nothing has changed. It isn’t until you put an item of clothing on that you haven’t worn for a while that you might notice things have altered. Soon after that people start saying ” hay have you lost some weight?” then you know that all that effort is actually working. This is also the way in your spiritual practice. As you begin you see no change and then you notice that there is a difference in your reactions or attitudes perhaps there is peace when there never was peace. Your world becomes wider and deeper and you begin to see things you have never before seen. Others may also this change in you.

Durning this weight release time I have been challenged by one of the hardest times in my life. I noticed how desperately I wanted to eat something like bread and butter, or something sweet and oozy or something hearty and filling. I just wanted to be filled up from the outside. I wanted to feel but under my terms, only to a point, “my point” and not the whole way (funny, I never thought I was a comfort eater).This time instead of of eating and filling me up so I couldn’t experience the “ALL” that I was feeling, I decided to go for it, to “feel” totally. And so I did.

It wasn’t easy and many tears fell, but I let it rip, all the while standing firmly in the container of my diet. I discovered that I was clearer than I realised, that I was more powerful than I had ever known and that I was unequivocally standing in Spirit.
I felt that the diet allowed me to be present in this “NOW”. I could be in this now yet
“intend” to have a glorious future. Stopping my diet, would have buckling into the loss and fear and the pain whilst continuing with my program was about feeling, and experiencing all that I could. I could stand in the grief and the light, I could be empty and full at the same time. In Spirit work when we decide that we want this opening we must claim it just like when we claim we want to drop a dress size. The spiritual process is a dynamic one.

Do I like being on special food diet? Well…., no….but have I been enriched because of it….? Well…yes. I am still a work in progress but I remain ever in gratitude to Spirit for offering me yet another opportunity to find merit in all that exists in this realm. I shall continue to be the dutiful daughter to Truth and Light regardless of what is presented. Diets can be awesome.

For a little while you may choose to start a diet of “Spirit thought” open into Light and open into Spirit. This diet is about not limitations but expansion. Walk with intention to connect to all and see with sweet soft eyes of non judgement. If you fall off the wagon on this special diet notice why and get back on again. There maybe miracles afoot.

p.s I received a lovely comment when I posted this on the Kora Blog and wanted to share

"Its like this article was meant for me. Thank you for sharing this...you have changed the way I thought today and well everyday. About an hour ago I had one of those emotional outburts and I too felt it...I didnt go for the ravolis I smelled cooking in my house...I too stuck to my diet. However I felt a little guilty about the outburts but after your article I feel like maybe this is where I am suppose to be. THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS SANNA...these words spoke loudly to my heart, to my soul. I dont think it was a concidence I found it either. You should write books."

Awakening in Death

In my youth there was a bookshelf. It was filled with interesting and compelling books; though one book stood out. Not because of the fluorescent cover but because of the thought provoking title; "Death Be Not Proud." 

Decades have passed, yet the title gently lingers in my consciousness as if it was imprinted for evermore. These words were never more poignant than when I began to explore the consolumentum, which was a practice of transformation offered by the Cathar of medieval France.

A few of my clients approached me with the very human dilemma about death. Some were in grief about the loss of another. They wanted relief, or a foundation to continue on their path; this was an honorable request. Others were faced with their own imminent death. It is this quandary that many humans face at some time.

The deep exploration for Spiritual awakening requires us to be open and courageous, yet remaining still in the face of the deepest, most painful situations.

This is the Spiritual journey.

Understandably, facing death may cause any human to race from one modality to another. Regardless, for many, death remains imminent.

I have been blessed with a client who was given a few months to live. She entered my rooms like and angel, radiating health, vitality and awake-ness. I was stunned by such energy, yet confused by the illusion presented. The quintessential question – what is the illusion, the healthy glow or the death? Or perhaps was health, life, death, outcome and success ALL illusory?

Perhaps it is through releasing all personal ‘hierarchy’ judgments such as right / wrong, healthy /sick that we arrive at peace. Perhaps, when we are in the realization that the Spiritual path is not a results driven activity but a “NOW” activity, that paradoxically we have peace, which allows for healing.

Death seems to be the enemy. We have the angels, which seem to be protectors, and holy. In contradiction there is the grim reaper who is death. What if death was as an angel? What if we learned to gaze deeply into the eyes of death from the point of non-judgment? How could we awaken?

In my Spiritual exploration I have found that hierarchy is a curious beast. In the Christian paradigm we note that heaven is good and hell is bad, success is good and failure is bad. We live our lives in the experience of separation, which may just be analogous to the separation we feel from our true self. In other words the difference between heaven and hell is IN US.

What if we began to see it from the impersonal nature of love? Is it possible that we could open up to the ‘space between’?

My young client and I began plumbing the depths of all these questions. A remarkable thing occurred. First for her was peace, the removal of suffering – the space between. There arose joy – regardless of life or death. This was followed by an openhearted acceptance of life from a non-judgmental place.

Ironically in seeing all illusion we had healing and ultimately love. The grim reaper doesn’t exist; it is the angel of transformation, without pride, or agenda.

Death be not proud.

love and light

Sanna

http://www.koraorganics.com/blog/author/sannapurinton/

Walking in your Own Espadrilles.

….a conversation about comparison.

Comparing yourself….What does it accomplish?

What if the simple act of comparing yourself to another person actually repelled the very thing that you sought….or were attracted to in them to begin with?

Well the short answer is that it does. The very thing that you want is pushed farther away in the act of comparison!

So you can stop reading now if you like, or you can really explore a bit more around the Anatomy of Comparison and why we might choose to be awake to the damage and harm it can do to us.

You may wonder why I called this article “Walking in your own Espadrilles”. I did this because these fun shoes can be purchased just about everywhere from Kmart to Christian Louboutin…. and once you find the pair that you like….you can just enjoy the walk – your unique walk..

In the world I work and live in, I see how many people often compare themselves to others. I see the sorrow that comparison can cause and the disconnection that people feel from their possible, wonderful, delightful life that they have imagined for themselves in the act of comparison.

While reading a magazine, one may notice a picture of a model or celebrity and then say to themselves ” look at her legs! oh my goodness I want those legs….she’s so lucky, I have short stumpy legs and everyone notices that…How come she got a body like that and a face like that? It is so upsetting… and a bit unfair if I do say so myself.” ” I think I hate her”….

You may see a couple at a party talking and sharing together. You begin to converse with yourself saying…” I wish I had a relationship like those two, I guess some folks have it all and I hope one day I too can attract the relationship like theirs” ” Maybe if I was fitter or prettier, or my parents had not divorced when I was 12 I could have a relationship that was just like those two lovers…..but maybe I should just get what I can get and have another bit of chocolate cake.”

At work you may find your mind wandering, ” I think if I work really hard, if I go to bed early, if I read the right business and self development books and I wear the right style of clothes my boss may notice me, just like they noticed when so-and-so wore the right clothes and said such clever things. So-and-so was given a promotion, a raise and kudos….I really want what that one has….. please God/ Angels and anyone else out there listening, please hear me like you heard him/her and give me what I want? If only I could have it all!”

In my work I have even heard this extraordinary statement more than once….” If Oprah puts me on her show like that guy, well then all  my dreams will be answered. I could sell lots of books, make a name for myself and begin the life I know I should be living. I really wish I were so lucky that I could get on her show…..I have something to offer….I think maybe? I really wish she would discover me, then my dreams would be answered”.

These such statements of comparison and many more exclamations get repeated thousands of times a day, perhaps even countless times a minute, and in this case, though you may simply see words creating a story on a computer screen above…. I would like to tell you behind these paragraphs is grief, sadness, pain and confusion for my clients. It is as if they ALL are waiting for the moment when their wondrous lives will at last begin.

Some feel that life is hopeless, that they were overlooked by God and the angels and even overlooked by luck. They are victims to circumstances beyond their control. Their world is not a supportive one. Still others mask the grief with anger, acting out or being aggressive. The way they deal with the compassion is to give up any desire for a beautiful future and instead stomp to the beat of their own very noisy heavy metal drummer. Some become bullies and aggressors; this is all as a result of striving to fit into someone else’s shoes.

So let’s discuss what is really going on when we compare…..Simply put, we are disconnecting from ourselves as creators!

We are assuming that what we see is REAL. For example if we see something in a magazine we are assuming it is “real”….well  we are discovering in many cases that it isn’t. it is Photo Shopped! We assume that the lovers are so tight and clearly bonded that they will be one of those couples that are lifelong mates and perhaps even twin flames. We are assuming too much! Frankly stated we don’t know the whole story.

This is not about pulling another person down to suit our smaller perspective of ourselves; rather it is to allow more scope for observation and ultimately to gain clarity.

In our comparing we are creating a consciousness of victim and thus a dual message. The message is, “I am a victim to my life and I see everyone else around me getting what they want while I sit and wait, yet nothing comes my way, even when I try hard, use various laws of attraction still I get nothing I want!”  ”I have been overlooked again and I am so tired of it”! While in the act of comparing we are placing ourselves below others. We are not recognizing our own precious lives, nor our unique life’s purpose. We are seeing that our life is not good enough.  When we are reinforcing ourselves as VICTIM FIRST that is all that the divine and precious UNIVERSE hears first!!!! “YOU ARE A VICTIM SO I WILL GIVE YOU ALL THAT YOU WANT….YOU ASKED FOR VICTIM SO I WILL GIVE YOU’

Clearly, with messages like these, you will continue to get what you asked for….the sense that you are a victim! In other words “I am a victim, as I see others having so much more than me” is the stronger message that went forward, even before you entered the room. You may be asking for the beautiful legs, the job, the lover, the life that someone else has, but what you are stating in this now is that your life is simply not good enough; you are a victim to it…. you are sadly not able to have the life that you want. The life you had wished for eludes you.

Before you even began the statement of comparison first you stated that WHERE YOU ARE IN THIS NOW IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and that where you would like to be is in someone else’s shoes.

So here is the good news.  How do we stop this cycle of comparing? Well we just simply give it up. We stop it. Yes, it can be that simple, if that is what we truly want. To stop the comparing and taste freedom is as simple as being present to your thoughts and words, your assumptions and your feelings…..in this NOW.

Use ‘this now’, ‘this now’ and this next now etc…. to create a possibility in this NOW!

Some out there know that I have two beautiful daughters…I am their mum – what else could I think! One daughter is a working actor, while the younger one wants to become a model. It is possible….their worlds ask them to be aware of the trends….within the observations of these trends there could be the comparison….so I say to them, “darlings run your own race and walk in your own shoes…. maybe even espadrilles”

Love

Sanna

also posted at http://www.koraorganics.com/blog/author/sannapurinton/