When the guru is wrong...

Today I learned a lesson so cruelly cutting, my stomach hurt from it.

Now, being on the other side of it, it has opened my eyes to so many things, I am surprised.

I found out that some of my carefully crafted assumptions based in decades of education might be wrong.

I have been fighting it for more than a week now... and finally, today, I had to face the piper.

The polar pitcher, the equipment I use for energizing water, has changed: the pitcher you get on Amazon today are slightly smaller than what I own and have based my water energizing system on.

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5 Characteristics Of Grit -- How Many Do You Have?

Reprinted from Forbes... ((by Margaret M. Perlis I write about Excellence in practice, people, places & product.))

Recently some close friends visited, both of whom have worked in education with adolescents for over 40 years. We were talking about students in general and when I asked what has changed with regards to the character of kids, in unison they said “grit” – or more specifically, lack thereof. There seems to be growing concern among teachers that kids these days are growing soft.

When I took a deeper dive, I found that what my friends have been observing in-the-field, researchers have been measuring in the lab. The role grit plays in success has become a topic du jour, spearheaded by Angela Duckworth, who was catapulted to the forefront of the field after delivering a TED talk which has since been viewed well over a  million times.

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The only spiritual practice that raises your vibration, and can take you all the way

If you live a fragmented life... your life is full of wanting to, having to, needing to and should.

The common thread that can unify your life, the different areas, is who you are.

But if you don"t know who you are, then you consider yourself the different roles you play in different circumstances, with different people... and there is no YOU to unify your life.

Life is horrible for a person like that. Disease settles in the space between what is real and what is pretended. The inner tension uses up all the energy that could be used for life, for the immune system to kill the nasties, invaders, viruses, cancer cells, toxins.

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The chemicals in your food: are they a big threat?

The biggest threat to "them" is the man who stops jumping
There is an issue that I need to address: your trained Chemophobia.

You have been trained to bark up the wrong tree.

You have been trained to have Chemophobia, and it is bigger threat to your health than the chemicals themselves.

Why? For the same reason that you are attracted to film stars" sex life... You don"t know chemistry, but you understand some words. So you are morbidly curious...

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Abilities that are not available until your health number is above 50%

When you are not well, you are in survival mode. Everything is an is, and the questions you ask are from that "is".

When you are well, you can start to ask different questions, that widen your cone of vision, that deepen your field of depth perception.

Questions like:

What am I missing here? What else could I/should I be asking?
What am I not looking at? What is outside of my survival, business as usual narrow cone of vision?

But there is a caveat: Even after people getting healthy or healthier (above 50%), changing habits, even though you can, doesn"t come naturally.



Survival mode is most recognized by the narrow cone of vision.

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Back into light... The counter cultural way to become your higher self, no matter where you are.

Living in the three levels of value, the systemic, the extrinsic, and the intrinsic, lived fully, and balanced, is the secret to the good life.

The Indian sages, including the Buddha, skipped the extrinsic. They taught people not to live there. They had a disdain for it.

But work is on the extrinsic level, making money is on that level, so skipping it means living a life of charity. Living a life where you cannot value another person on all levels... because you don"t value the values of that level.
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Why getting well is so difficult for us, people without a Self

There is never a better time to experience what you experience, than right when you experience it.

This morning I was hit with a strong feeling of despair, loneliness.

I didn"t have time to hang out with it, I was in the middle of something. I wanted to shoo it away, and I also wanted to indulge in it.

But then I decided to just feel it, acknowledge it, and let it go. I paid attention to what it said... nodded, wept a little, and let it go.

Is this familiar to you? I didn"t think so. You don"t know who you are, and you don"t want to find out.
There are many reasons you don"t know yourself.
One of these reasons is that you resist your emotions.
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The wider the availability of food, the less healthy people become

Every plant is toxic. Every animal is toxic. To one degree or other.

The difference between plants and other plants, from your point of view, is what plant your body can use without much harm, because your body has evolved to handle the toxins in the plant.

Just like high altitudes are deadly for some people, and natural for others, for example the Tibetans, your body can handle some things and can"t handle others.

It takes thousands years of exposure to develop the ability to eat one food and be well, even though it"s toxic.

But no matter what, you"ll always pay the price...

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What is health?

A German who escaped just before all the Jews were hoarded into concentration camps in Germany, came to the United States.

His name was Robert Hartman.

His experience with evil uniquely qualified him to set out to deal with the age long question: what is evil, what is good?

He took on himself to define good... the strait and narrow. Many philosophers failed in that: after all the strait and narrow is delineated by the land that encloses it, not by itself...

But he succeeded.

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Yesterday I sent out a request to my subscribers asking for

a health question that you have answered to yourself and you live that way
one or more actual health questions that concern you, with regards to your health or your loved ones" health
Please let me know if you go to the doctor regularly... it will let me know something about you, that I"d like to know.

It is a holiday weekend and I got surprisingly quite a few answers to my request.

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That which does not kill us, makes us stronger

A few years ago I lost my sense of smell.

Then I changed my diet and the sense of smell came back.

Surprisingly I often smell things that didn"t seem to be there... Bringing up memories of the times I smelled the same... good smell, bad smell, neutral smell.

It"s hot here, unseasonably hot, and to accommodate it I am taking cold showers and I am eating differently.
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Against self criticism and the 4-day weekend

One of the rarest and most functional capacities is the capacity to allow... without resistance.

Resistance uses a lot of energy, mostly the energy that you need to become successful, to do the right thing, to be well, and to treat people, including yourself, right.

Resistance is normal, but harmful. Just like self-criticism: normal but harmful, with no upside.

Upside is the benefit you gain from a harmful or painful action or experience.

Neither resistance, nor self-criticism, self-judgment have any upside, only downside.

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What is the vibration of being right?

One of the most desired possibilities, one of the most desired life anyone can have is a life where you are free to be yourself, warts and all.

It is human nature to be self-critical, it is because of our ambivalent nature of feeling everything and the opposite.

There is no one on the planet who is all good. It is not possible. It is a physical impossibility. It"s unnatural.

You have to be good and you have to be bad, and you have to have high thoughts and you have to have low thoughts. Actions: you have a choice about. But feelings, thoughts... no choice.

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Osho on Knowledge and Knowing

ASCENDING TO THE HIGH SEAT, DOGEN ZENJI SAID: "ZEN MASTER HOGEN STUDIED WITH KEISHIN ZENJI.
ONCE KEISHIN ZENJI ASKED HIM, JOZA, WHERE DO YOU GO?"
HOGEN SAID. "I AM MAKING PILGRIMAGE AIMLESSLY."
KEISHIN SAID, "WHAT IS THE MATTER OF YOUR PILGRIMAGE?"
HOGEN SAID, "I DON"T KNOW."
KEISHIN SAID, "NOT KNOWING IS THE MOST INTIMATE."
HOGEN SUDDENLY ATTAINED GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT."
ZEN IS JUST ZEN. There is nothing comparable to it. It is unique -- unique in the sense that it is the most ordinary and yet the most extraordinary phenomenon that has happened to human consciousness. It is the most ordinary because it does not believe in knowledge, it does not believe in mind. It is not a philosophy, not a religion either. It is the acceptance of the ordinary existence with a total heart, with one"s total being, not desiring some other world, supra-mundane, supra-mental.

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The importance of knowing what you want

Knowing what you want to achieve, is one thing that is missing in you. Another name for that is called "mental representation" of what you want to achieve.

Mental representation is a detailed picture, so detailed and so tangible, that you can pinpoint where reality is deviating from it... and how.

Mental representation is a spiritual capacity that sits squarely on a lot of other spiritual capacities, so obviously it is not part of the first seven most people have, not even part of the first 13, many professionals have, not even part of the first 20, that doctors have. And, believe it or not, it is not even part of the first 30, that most millionaires, billionaires have.

Bill Gates doesn"t have it. Warren Buffet has it.
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From my correspondence: Astrological Signs, Are they preventing us from changing lanes?

I stumbled on this old post... and it is exactly perfect for the "What"s the truth about you" workshops, so I thought I republish it...

Question:
Hi Sophie, I have a question. I would like to know your advice. I recently found an astrological site with natal chart sun decrees interpretations which are scaringly accurate.

I bought your Effortless Abundance Book, three days ago, I do believe one can get much more. My doubt is, can we change lanes? concerning those astrological imprints for a better life?

All the best,
My Answer:
it all depends on your mindset.

if you are trying to change lanes to fix anything: the answer is no.
if you manage to not make anything wrong in the present or in the past!!! not easy, then yes

astrology and such are the mind"s effort to understand the world so it can control it.

the world can"t be controlled, moreover when you want control for safety etc. you are making something wrong.

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How could you become ready to grow?

I am using Rob Brezsny"s words here... maybe his English communicates better than mine:
ANTI-INSTRUCTIONS

Exaggerate your flaws till they turn into virtues Pretend your wounds are exotic tattoos Refuse the gifts that infringe on your freedom Shun sacred places that fill you with boredom Keep in mind it"s bad luck to be superstitious The official story"s always fictitious Pump up your karma with idiot laughter The promised land"s here, not in some hereafter

We are searching for the answers so we can destroy them and dream up better questions

Here are two attitudes that will be useful, invaluable, and mandatory if you want to grow through my programs

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Life is a lot like traveling by train...

Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front... but it won"t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.

Most of us live this way most of the time.

We do our jobs, we do our relationships, we do our projects, we do our lives this way.

Fulfilling? No. Enjoyable? It depends...

Ultimately we are plagued by a nagging sense that we are out of control, that no matter what we do won"t change anything. Some of us feel doomed. Some of us fight it tooth and nail... with bloody broken teeth and broken nails to prove it.
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How can you tell what is your level of consciousness, what is your vibrational frequency?

The only reliable way I know is to tell someone"s vibration accurately is to muscle test while truly connected to Source, by a person whose vibration is past ego... on or above the level of unconditional love.

About that doesn"t mean you can"t have pointers...So you can get a ballpark estimate of where you are or where another person is...


Stages of consciousness... metaphor

.buried
.
.in the basement
.
.street level
.
.street level but inside a house
.
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The Pleasure Principle and winning in life

Psychology, as a science and as a practice has some tools: Observation and brain scans.

But the problem with either is that the human element, the interpreter between what is being seen, their mindset, their attitude, their approach, is crucial.

But, of course, this is true everywhere, except with psychologists, we expect them to interpret what they observe accurately... except they don"t. As a rule.

And then there are some outliers... like Freud.

I am observing myself, and I am observing my students.

And I am getting clearer and clearer, that The Pleasure Principle is indeed one that has to be taken seriously.

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