In Defense of Ego: "The Power of Strength"

Photo Credit: Labio Guia. This image demonstrates strength that goes way beyond the physical.

I've been working out at fitness centers for decades now. When I go two-to-three times a week, sometimes only once, I always get energy from the guys who pump iron. They pump iron and grunt, as they pile on more and more weights. No one at the gym thinks them strange for making these animal sounds; we all understand: lifting weights and building a strong body is hard work.

I admire these guys, and women, too, who are growing into stronger and more powerful bodies. We admire them for their strength and physical fitness, and this is rightly so for all the time and attention and love they give to their bodies.











But were I to whisper this to you, "these folks ain't seen strength yet," would you believe me?

The truth is that whereas our physical strength comes from building muscle and equipping ourselves with the best tools necessary to sustain a healthy body, the real power of our strength comes from within. 

No one...repeat...no one...including world-class athletes, bodybuilders and/or muscle-bound aficionados can lift a muscle and grow forward, if they didn't have the inner strength and constitution to keep believing each day that they could do it. All of these fit people know one thing: they must dedicate and commit to going to the gym as often as they feel necessary to keep growing stronger and stronger, bigger and bigger. They may take it for granted that this is required. What many may not know, though, is that they could be stronger still, with perhaps less effort, by first going still within and connecting with the source of their being. 

(EDITOR'S DISCLAIMER: Any commercial enterprise promoted on this blog is done freely and because of admiration and appreciation for the work and/or business. Namaste' Wholistic does not have direct contact with any management personnel at Planet Fitness.) 

We must first acknowledge the positive role EGO plays as the impetus for us wanting to look, and be, our best. Yet, it is by getting past the motives of "looking good," or "being bigger" that allows us to truly succeed.

Getting beyond self and visualizing the strong presence we want to manifest can be just as powerful as piling on more weights. The owners of many of the gyms seem to know this, too, as scattered throughout almost all of the gyms I've had membership are several powerful images and motivational pieces. Planet 
Fitness, a very moderately priced fitness center, appeals to the masses and offers more than just equipment and good management. Scattered throughout Planet Fitness gyms, and on every machine, are motivational pieces to keep members focused on the goal at hand.

Of course prices at Planet Fitness locations may vary and depend on time of year. 

On every machine, Planet Fitness has these these words: "You Belong." "No Critics. " "No Judgement."  The walls are beautifully complemented with images of perseverance, strength, courage, stamina and much more. The  color scheme of purple, black and yellow on the machines and walls also adds to motivation and the ambiance at this very well presented fitness center.

On Planet Fitness machines, members find motivational words. 

We can look at the cover photograph (at the very top of the blog) and wonder all day how these women and one man manage to stay up without falling, leaning their bodies on top of, and intertwined, with each other. We may never get an answer. We can only imagine the inner strength, coupled with their physical fitness, that allows them to stay centered, strong, focused and connected. There's lots of trust there, too. Trust in one another and themselves. Teamwork. Trust. This is powerful stuff. (See this too: Collaboration at Its Best.)

The spirit within us is the strongest part of ourselves. Lizzie Velasquez clearly lives this truth. ("The 'Ugliest' Woman Speaks Against Anti-Bullying.")

When our lives would want to crumble all around us, the way we pick ourselves up is by going quietly within and reconnecting to the source of our being. Sometimes, we are so far removed from this connection that it may take years for us to reach back into center. Like the athletes and others who slowly build muscle through exercise and discipline to reach their goal, we, too, must practice and prune ourselves to go further in and build stronger spiritual muscle. It is not an "overnight thing."

Photo Credit: Dado Ruvic, REUTERS. Imagine the determination and strength it took Momir Bojic of Bosnia to build this  Volkwagen Beetle.  Bojic sculpted 50,000 pieces of oak to build the car's exterior  and interior. 

Building spiritual muscle is the hardest job you'll ever have on Earth. Life constantly tests us, and we fall backwards sometimes. But if we can keep on the road...that inner road...to strength, our "salvation" to "the promised land" will be the prize.

Only you can decide how many hours you want to dedicate to building your spiritual muscles. Only you can decide whether it is worth the reward or not. But I promise you this: if you are miserable and feel lost today, the only way you'll get out of that feeling is to slowly hold on to the wall of spirituality around you and keep inching your way back home.

Gradually and steadily, holding tightly to the wall of prayer, meditation and commitment to God, you will make your way.

Just hold on.

Keep holding on.

Use whatever tools and equipment you have around you. The journey does not require expensive props.

Gospel music on the radio, preachers on the radio or television who touch your Soul, music in church, friends you admire and love all bring messages that can help you.

Walking in the park, in nature, tending your garden, playing with your cat and/or dog are all ways to connect and go deeper within.

The main thing, the key to living a fulfilled life, is staying Present and Aware in each moment. Know that you know that you know this moment is special every time you're having one. Pay attention to yourself, your thoughts, your feelings when you're in the presence of another or in a certain place.

If you have feelings of discomfort when in a place or in a person's presence, move

quickly away. If not, you'll end up chasing your tail and getting distracted from your goal.

Make your home a sanctuary for your Soul. Make sure your surroundings are pleasing to you. If you're seeing chaos, that is a metaphor for your life. Start cleaning up your act!

Use candles, incense, an aquarium, flowers, aromatherapy and other soothing "instruments" to relax and soothe you.





Love yourself. More than anything or anyone else: LOVE yourself!

Loving yourself does include pampering...but also means getting beyond the exterior of self. This is where many of us fall short. 

"To thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." William Shakepeare 

The truth is this: if you can't love yourself, then how can anyone else love you?

Getting to the self beyond the Ego, i.e. the inner journey, is the longest one you will ever undertake.

 But "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a simple step." -Confucius

Make a commitment to grow stronger by connecting within.

All the strength you need resides there, muscle-bound or not.

May God Bless You on the Journey Within!

Namaste',
Che'

In Defense of EGO: "The Power of Will"

Photo Credit: Breathtakingly Beautiful. Actor Blair Underwood helped this photo go viral. More than 600,000 people had liked and almost more than 425,000 had shared when Namaste' Wholistic found it on Facebook about a week ago. This is "POWER OF THE WILL" in man. Often, something greater is at work.

James Dillet Freeman, (1912-2003), one of my favorite Unity (http://unityworldhq.org) poets and authors, wrote once of finding fish he thought was dead at the bottom of his lily pond. When he found the fish, it had been beaten and battered by many "seasons" ... first, little or no water, then rain, and finally snow. Thinking the fish was dead when he found it, Freeman nonetheless picked it and took it home, placing it in a bowl. After seeing small sparks of life, Freeman continued to nurture the fish over many days; it finally bounced back to full life after about a week. Read the full story here:          
   "A Fish Not Even Gold." 

Simple and small as it may be, this "fish not even gold" can teach us much about the Power of Will within us: when we think all is gone, there's a momentum within that keeps us going.

"The Power of Will" is within us at all times, but we only exercise it, when we fail at everything else. Finally, exhausted and spent, we release everything and wait for death. Often, this release leads to our resurrection.

Stockpile of ammunition in a recent public fight.

The human will can be summed up in four words,"By any means necessary."  This often is our only way and walk in the world.

Look around you and see how many people fight, push and struggle to make things happen in their world. Sheer Will accomplishes many things for them, and the more they succeed, the more they continue on in this way, journeying through life, pushing and pulling, planning, even scheming and plotting, how to get their desires fulfilled. The means to many don't seem matter; the end is the only concern.

Truthfully, we need the Will of our humanity, albeit, EGO, to keep walking the sometimes troubling walk of life. Without this Will, when we have not yet awakened to Truth within us, we simply would give up and not even try to get to the next step.

In many cases, it is the human will, coupled with faith, that we urgently need "to get us home." We can look at this last statement literally, too, as we read the story of Elizabeth Smart, the 14-year-old kidnapped from her bedroom in Utah in the middle of the night. Smart recently shared in the media how she has managed to put her nine-month travail behind her and is now able to live a full life. (Elizabeth Smart Speaks Of What Keeps Her Strong.)

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." James 2:17

Human will, in itself may allow us to survive. It is this will, coupled with Faith, that allows us to thrive.

The human will can lead us down paths we did not expect; often it comes from our thoughts and hidden desires to find more meaning out of life. Here's the story of how a BBC financial reporter became homeless and bankrupt. (BBC Financial Reporter Became Homeless And Bankrupt).  Although he never says it directly, Ed Mitchell in this pieces alluded to the fact that he wanted "to be free of it all."

Yet were we to get closer to the truth about The Power of Will within us, i.e. our Soul, we would find an even more excellent way of co-creating the life we truly want to live.

Photo Credit: Rosacruz Aurea

Life always leans towards simplicity and ease.

Although we may achieve tremendously successful results, fighting and plotting our way through is not the easiest...and best...way. Sometimes, too, even with all our plotting, scheming and fighting, we may eventually fail.

What then?

Credit for Graphic: Tantra

Like the fish, we may lay exhausted waiting for the end to come. With little spark of life within us, we dread and fear the days ahead. Yet we can come back to life by connecting to the Power of Will within us.

The Power of Will is like a plug waiting to be connected to the outlet. It can only send through its charge of power, when we plug it into the wall. But we keep walking around the plug lying on the floor, or tucked away, until we've exhausted ourselves.

Finally, one day, we may wonder why that plug seems to be calling us. We stop and to plug it into the wall. It's within that hour, when plugged in, we find the truth.

"The Answer"

When for a Purpose
I had Prayed and prayed and prayed
Until my words seemed worn and bare
With arduous use ,
And I had knocked and asked and
knocked and asked again ,
And all my fervor and persistence
brought no hope ,
I paused to give my weary brain a rest
And ceased my anxious human cry .
in that still moment ,
After self had tried and failed ,
There came a glorious vision of
God's power ,
And , lo , my prayer was answered in
that hour . ~ Lowell Fillmore

(For a complete list of Unity poems, go to: Unity poems) 

This is the Power of Will.

It asks not for great striving or struggling but simply to be connected to the within.

Photo Credit: Sociedad Argentina de Horticultura. All other things in nature, like a flower, do not plot and scheme to grow as humans do. They simply do it. This is "will" i.e. an openness to  receive the gifts of life.  

Gabrielle Giffords' congressional career may have been cut short by a malevolent force, yet she's  found new ways of operating in the world. Her *Strength keeps moving her forward into a new and just as meaningful life.

(Gabrielle Giffords Exemplifies A Person Utilizing Many of The 12 Powers Within Us.)

 The way to activate The Power of Will within us is simply to keep reaching in until we get a real connection.

Meditate... daily. Pray ...sincerely. Believe... faithfully. Don't give up!

Photo Credit: The Africa Shop

When The Power of Will within you, i.e. the power emanating from the Soul, begins to manifest, we must learn to act with humility. By then, though, we should have learned that whenever we accomplish most big things with ease, it is the
"... the father that dwelleth within me, he doeth the work." John 14:10 

Photo Credit: Angelo Alagon

Photo Credit: Lais Almeilda

Photo Credit: Nefes & Breath 

You will then understand that this Power of Will is at work at all times. It's at work, with the Power of Imagination (See January 2014), allowing people to create simple tools of joy. Above, you see "bicycles" made of wood, and a simple concrete home built  to house children who smile beautifully and feel joy with simple little items as their toys. You will understand that this Will is at work, allowing the poet to hear with different ears and the photographer to see from different lens. You will begin to understand and know...this Will is always at work, moving relentlessly to change and rectify conditions in the world, and to deliver to you all you need and want, in your life. 

Photo Credit: Francisca Najera

May you be blessed by the Power of Will in your life!

Namaste',
Che'
*NOTE: In June, we'll cover the "Power of Strength" in our lives.

In Defense of EGO: "The Power of Understanding"

Photo Credit: Gorgeous Picture. 
 "The Power of Understanding"  is like a protective covering that shelters us when we encounter pain.

"Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom;  and with all thy getting get understanding." -Proverbs 4:7

If you watched the March premiere of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey," a science program on FOX and National Geographic, you would have learned a few things about the formation of the universe and our planet and where we, as humans, fit into space and time. 

Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson serves communicator on the new Cosmos show 

Much information was provided on the show, but the line that stayed with me  for a long time afterwards was this:
"There comes a time in our lives when we realize that we're not alone in the universe...that we are part of something greater than ourselves. It's part of growing up."'

The show's writers seem to take this "growing up"  as truth. But this isn't necessarily so for many people.

We should acquire wisdom as we age and acquire more of life's experiences: the more we live, the more we should learn. But this entire process of learning and growing with age can elude us, if we're not aware, paying attention and truly "listening." 

Why?

 It's simple: 

We grow up knowing A follows B, C, D, E, F, G. But somewhere along the "I" to "J,"  things begin to warble and we lose our footing.  
Instead of stopping to take stock of what is happening, we try to force the results to go back to where we were: Let me "fix this!" Let me "handle this."
We want to quickly get things back to normal, and through our  human will*, we may be able to execute a change to get things back to normal. Everything seems fine...We think we're fine. 
Then another battle ensues.
We fight that one too, through sheer will, and we keep covering over and covering over things, one battle at a time.
That's how we can wind up...aging... without learning anything different about life than where we started out.  Indeed, we may never go further than where our parents and grandparents started out. 

Photo Credit: Gorgeous Picture (Find & Follow on Facebook) 
Begin to truly see your reflection in life

Of course, it's our ego that dictates our human will to make things happen! We know what's good for us, dammit, and we will find a way out of this or that hole. In doing so, though, we are completely shutting  out the light that keeps beckoning us to come closer.
 
Through all the storms and challenges that occur in our lives, there is a whisper, if only we can listen closely enough to hear it. It's an invitation to see life from yet another perspective ...to see an even "more excellent way." 

"But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." - 1 Corinthians 12:31


But let's not immediately lay the blame on EGO. Without this need for self protection and doing what makes sense to our conscious mind to survive via EGO, we would not have gotten this far in life.

Operating with the EGO as our compass, we have navigated untold number of situations that possibly would have gotten us stuck at one plateau. It is the EGO that allows us to want to reach higher and go further than where we began in life.

Knowing and appreciating the EGO's need for achieving and getting more out of life, however, must be put in perspective when we reach that plateau in life. When we know, unequivocally, that "something greater than us is at work in the universe" and our lives, we should begin to "listen" for guidance. 

The delicate balance of self reliance and confidence must be struck with the intuitive knowing that a greater force is impelling us forward into life. Continuing to struggle, even when we realize this truth, only brings disturbance within our Soul. 

We push. We fight.  

"Dancing With Spirit": Follow on Facebook

For years...decades...we may ignore warning signs about choosing another way in almost all areas of our lives: eating and drinking things we can feel have an adverse effect on our health, choosing not to pay as careful attention as we should to our business, financial and personal affairs, and overall continuing behaviors because they have become our habits.

Whether we realize it or not, in our daily lives, we all live in microcosms of our own with values shared with family and friends and other chosen associates. We tend to see the world we inhabit from this platform of our world. 

But, it isn't so! There is a much larger world...a huge world...a bigger world... that we need to learn about. We ignore it, since it doesn't fit with our views and what we value most in life. 

Slowly...but inevitably...life demands that we do pay attention. Sometimes, it's a big BOOM, which throws our lives into chaos. 

Finally, we may surrender, and exhausted we may whisper:

 "Reveal to me what needs to be Revealed!" 


This is not resignation; it's finally deciding to work with our Soul, which has been whispering to us all our lives, always trying to show us an even more excellent way.

It's then our EGO may try to go into full gear... kicking up, creating a storm for its survival...our life becomes a hodge podge of confusion, as fear arises and panic steps in.
"What am I going to do without YOU?" 
We try to cling to our ways in life. But by now, we know there's no turning back. 

Credit:"Food For The Poor." 

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path."
Proverbs 3: 4-5 

Change is never easy, as is giving up seeing life the way we've always believed is right for our well being. Yet knowing we must change is the understanding we need to grow forward into peace. Life may not wind up unfolding the way we pictured it...but by staying steadfast in prayer and true to our Soul, we will have a guarantee...that it will be "on purpose." 

"My brethen, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." - James 1: 1-4

 We will have peace.

• We will have all we need.
• We will be able to co-create with Spirit the road ahead that works with our Soul and brings peace, wisdom and understanding to our conscious mind.  
• We will age with Grace
• We will have Wisdom, and with that, Understanding.

"Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time." -Asha Tyson, via Gratefulness.org

Credit: Africa Geographic; photo by Gary Taylor, Serengti, Tanzania 

Credit: "Inside The Divine Pattern."

We must become like the elephant, which drinks continuously from the trough of trees, seeking what it does not know, but it always leaves the trough feeling satiated and better for the contact. The elephant accepts, without asking, the gifts provided by the trees and stars and the universe itself. The elephant has been part of the universal landscape throughout the ages and has developed its own wisdom. So must we, too, trust our intuition, knowing this leads to our wisdom and understanding. We must know that we're here only for a period of time, and it is only by "listening" that we will know our divine purpose.    


The next time you get doubtful about the unrelenting movement forward of the universe and our place in it,  check out Cosmos. Neil deGrasse Tyson is waiting to teach you...a thing or two.

"Be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul."- Desiderata

Namaste',
Che'


*NOTE: **We will cover "The Power of Will" in May.