A bit of truth.

" We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” - Ayn Rand

Evolution

The Evolution of ideas and how we got here is only significant to understand where we are. To alter the course is also part of an ongoing evolution. We are past the crossroads of man's dominance on earth and we will adjust downwards as we are able to alter the evolution of ideas that have brought us here. If we do not share appropriately with the earth then it will devour us and starve us to death.

The usefulness of IDEAS

This is very mind provoking and the end caused me to think far beyond my daily life and into the clarity that we are indeed all joined together. We even share the same energy. Marvelous!!!

FEAR - THE NEW WORLD EPIDEMIC

Over the last few years our lives have been driven by fear. Fear after 911, fear of SARS, Fear of Flu and have spent billions on vaccines which are questionable as to their efficacy and can have dangerous side effects. In some states it is mandatory to take flu shots if you want your child to go to school and in one state even preschoolers are obliged to have them. The pharmaceuticals of the world use fear continually to get people to buy their wares. It is a shame but true.
Because of the problems with our current economy and the downturn in the stock market our fear is poverty, even destitution and abandonment. It has thrown a negative pall on our entire society. It chokes our media. We are swallowed by it.

On Wednesday I went to the Toronto Sick Kids hospital Toastmasters Club open house. It was great fun. I can see why so many men and women use the club to hone their public speaking skills. It would be good for me to go regularly and improve my speaking skills.

The guest speaker was Marilyn Daniels MA,MEd,CPCC who is the Principal of VisionLegacy Coaching and who coaches business people and normal folks like you and I, how to be a positive influence in the world we live in. Her topic was Creative Chaos in Uncertain times. It was fascinating.

With the recent financial problems the world is having Dr. Daniels broke down the kinds of personal views we have at the present time.
Some feel the downturn is part of a normal cycle.
Others are negative and some hopeless and their language supports this: meltdown, depression, collapse, are some of the words they use to describe where we find ourselves right now.
There are many who believe we are in new and unknown territory due to Technology and how it has changed so many of our financial dealings. The future is truly unknown.

I was a cage clerk in a Brokerage house in 1953 and if you bought stock I was the clerk who sent the stock certificates out to you after they were processed. Now all the functions of trading are on line and even the exchanges are more and more out in space and not in huge markets with men and women running about buying and selling.

Fear influences our psychology. Our daily performance at work and our relationships at home suffer in an environment of personal fear. This only makes matters worse.

Answers as to how each of us can change this epidemic are clear; Awareness is the key.

Awareness of the words we use, like meltdown, collapse, depression. Rebuilding our patterns of thinking: Be aware of the scare and build a new vision.

Begin to take care of yourself through exercise, meditation, and getting out into nature. Exercise for your body, meditate for your balance and awareness of the present through proper focus, and nature to feed the spirit and allow yourself to experience the world in its simple and beautiful form.

In the end no one is secure and even the safest people may be overpowered with one or another of the fear symptoms that are mentioned above and can find no way to get yourself balanced again and needed something just to get started. It is not that you do not see the negative situation you are painting. It is that you cannot seem to get started to deal with it.
Dr. Edward Bach (See my post November 19th, 2008 for a good review of Dr. Bach and the 38 flower remedies he examined.
All for the negative thoughts we find ourselves in from time to time.

I use them very effectively and his Rescue Remedy formula is brilliant for calming all negative situations; stage fright, fear of exams, a death of a loved one, marriage jitters, a job interview, impatience to name a few.

Following are some of the remedies for the various fear symptoms in our current Epidemic. The remedies do not mask the feelings but rather balance the mind to accept the situation and move through the experience positively.

Below I am quoting from The Bach Remedies Repertory by F.J. Wheeler. It is just 13 pages of emotional words and beside each a suggest flower remedy. I have used this pamphlet using Gorse for a long bout of hopelessness and Larch for a lack of self confidence on the job. I was amazed how quickly the thoughts disappeared and I just got on with living and enjoying my work and life. These were acute situations and for deeper longstanding problems combinations of the flowers are put together and taken for extended periods and over time help to bring new balance and a positive outlook. The flowers have no known side effects and are not addictive. Simple and straightforward.

http://www.bachcentre.com/centre/remedies.htm is the site of all the remedies.

Press any of the Flower remedy buttons and go directly to that remedy. You can read what Dr. Bach said about each.


LOSS OF CONTROL - RESCUE REMEDY - A 5 flower combination that works as quickly as you take it.

Cherry Plum - fear of the mind giving way

Clematis - dreaming of the future without working in the present

Impatiens - impatience

Rock Rose - terror and fright

Star of Bethlehem - shock
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Other symptoms and flower remedies in the area of our collective fears:

Fear of the Future, poverty, - Agrimony - mental torture behind a cheerful face, Mimulus - fear of known things

Fear for themselves, health, Heather - self-centredness and self-concern

Depression - Mustard - deep gloom for no reason, Gentian - discouragement after a setback

Despondency has many sides Larch - lack of confidence, Pine - guilt,

Dissatisfaction, Oak - the plodder who keeps going past the point of exhaustion, Walnut - protection from change and unwanted influences

Grossmuter said it!!!

"Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are." I was maybe 12 and living in Hamilton, Ontario. when she said those words. That was 1946.
I was hanging out with a great group of friends and a couple of the boys had been in reform school. We got into little troubles like cutting through back yards and stealing apples off trees. But my grandmother after some incident said this too me as dire warning as to where I was headed. One of those boys saved me from a terrible beating by a bully who I challenged because he was picking on a smaller boy. I was on the ground being booted when he came around the corner just by chance. I was screaming in pain. I watched him grab my assailant by the pants and shirt collar and throw him right up in the air and into the middle of the road. And then he picked me up in his arms and carried me three blocks home. It remains one of the kindest acts anyone ever did for me.
Lately, for the last about 15 years, I have thought more and more about the idea of Friend and extended my grandmothers statement beyond the idea of human Friend. For me the idea, "Friend", has evolved to mean anything that I embrace, whether it is the food I eat or the music I listen to, the books I read or the politics I tout. And that is just a start of the idea and the importance of personal Friends for these Friends are in my brain and body define me. If I hate some person or group it defines me. If I follow the lurid details of a murder trial or watch only movies of violence or a SWAT team lock-downing down a street and having a shoot out, it pervades my thinking until I can become fearful and wary of people around me and become defensive in my thoughts and actions. I think this isolates me and so I steer clear of those kinds of programs as continual inputs. CNN from my point of view gets everyone crazy with fears and like the first news papers and those today as well, thrives on the disaster and news that has negative connotations. So Friend is what we put into our minds and dwell on, and export to others as to who we are. We all have choices about these things if we are aware and take a few moments to review our thinking. Examine if you will who we are. Just like changing your food intake from a high starch diet to something else to lose weight. so we can change what we are thinking about in the front of our consciousness if we choose all our Friends. I can get obsessed sometimes by input that I really don't think helps me be the person I want to be and maybe this happens to you too. Look at yourself and see what is dominating your own thoughts and ask is this how I want to define myself. How I want myself and others to think about me.