Articles by Verónica Muñoz:
No matter how much one reads, prays or does, it seems that whatever one is doing is never the right thing to do or that somehow it is never good enough. It always seems as if there was more to achieve. As a result, one feels always a victim of this constant turning wheel of desire which pulls one from one craving to another, from one action to the next in desperate search for the right answer. In this way, one constantly leaves one activity in frustration to take on another in the hope that this latter one will grant a dose of 'peace.' As a result of this never ending search one leads a life of uncertainty jumping from one person to another, from one relationship to another, from one activity to another and from one place to another only to find that none of these choices will deliver the satisfaction craved and expected by one's confused heart.
In this way, we all go on leading our confusing lives as we are tossed around by our impulses, our old habits and our repetitive behaviors. Needless to say, this approach to living very often disrupts our inner peace and our sense of harmony and belonging. This battle within ourselves occurs as a result of that inner conflict caused by our constant sense of separation and of not belonging. Somehow, no matter what we do or excel at doing what we are engaged in doing, nothing seems enough. This rat-race lifestyle causes frustration and an enormous amount of negative energy which is nowadays commonly known as 'stress.'
Most of us are constantly hoping to find happiness hiding just around the corner, only to find that in spite of our eager attempts, at every new turn, happiness evades us over and over again. It is like trying to trap a shadow, it seems feasible but in practice it is impossible. The truth is that happiness is not somewhere outside ourselves hiding from us. It is actually hidden in the most sacred bottom of our hearts. The only way to stop the race and all the insanity is by stopping, pausing and searching inwards. The only path to experience eternal and long-lasting happiness is to turn within to find the answers that we frantically look for in the outside world. When we take a closer look at our hearts, when we stop, relax and let go of such frustrating rushing race, we can finally realize our innate state of inner peace and we realize that this state of inner and interconnection was always there. We were jut too busy looking outside to feel it or see it. The idea is not to do so much but to stop doing and just let life be and speak to us for what it is, simple, pure love and never-ending bliss.
If you have felt at any point in your life any of the above described emotions or feelings probably you might find the following information beneficial. The following articles will give you brief tips and ideas as to how to reverse this endless tail-chasing situation in order to turn our everyday meaningless existence into a very rewarding field of constant spiritual practice and gratifying work of service.
2. FIRST STEPS TOWARDS MAKING THE MOST OUT OF THE ORDINARY OCCURRENCES OF OUR EVERYDAY LIFE.
In order to enhance the meaning of all occurrences in one's life, one has to be able view oneself objectively wherever one happens to be at the present moment. Stop for a second. Look at yourself and allow yourself to be there. Allow yourself to accept where you are and stop your impulse to react to your present state by responding to it with anger, frustration and/or rejection. If you can just observe yourself there, allowing yourself to be who you are and to stay still where you happen to be, then there is a chance for positive transformation. If you can breathe in your present conditions in spite of how horrendous they seem to you, if you can observe yourself engaged in whatever you are doing in spite of how useless that might seem, then you might find within that state of open awareness a way to reverse all your feelings and conditions into a joyful and loving spiritual experience and human service.
I know that you are thinking about quitting reading right now! I also know why! I am sure that you were expecting some magical solution! Actually you might be surprised to find some miracles working when applying what I am going to describe. To make it easier for you to understand let me relate this information to our own lives. Let me set as an example any given day of one's life. Usually one gets up and follows one's regular sequence of actions, called our everyday "routine." Most of us perform this routine without giving it much thought at all or reconsidering wether we would like to keep it that way. For example some of us might go straight into the shower, others might give ourselves a few minutes to receive the new day with reverence and a commitment to improve ourselves and yet others might walk straight towards the coffee machine to get the caffeine going so as to get some energy pumping in one's system as soon as possible.
Most likely at some point among your favorite list of early morning chores, you afford to take a split second to look out the window. This can be your first opportunity for practicing of unconditional acceptance, joy and love in whatever your life brings you to this day. Let's say that you go to peek out the window and you immediately see the shining sun...Will this put you in a happy mood almost instantly? But what if the first thing you see is a brutal storm and rain gashing down from the sky?... Will this make any difference in your mood?
Whatever your answer was to the above questions, the truth is that most of us have been trained from early childhood to think in a dualistic way. That is to say, we tend to divide things within two categories: right or wrong, good or bad, happy or sad, etc. Taking the rain as an example, this natural phenomenon would most certainly fall into the 'bad' category. This is just a negative way of looking at rain which has been passed down from generations. Why? Because on rainy days fun things get canceled, because we are afraid of getting our hair wet, because everybody is in a bad mood on rainy grey days and the list can go and on.
Now, if instead of going on automatic and allow your usual reaction of anger and frustration when looking at the rain, one can decide instead to stop oneself right then and there. Only then from that place of peace and quiet look at the rain objectively, breathe in and accept it. In this way one can see the rain for what it is, beautiful shining water dancing in the streets, marching down the roads like streams of silver. Only then one can decide that the fact that it is raining will not ruin one's day. One can simply do this by changing one's views and inner feelings about the rain. When one finally goes out, it will still be raining outside but one will still be able to smile to all the neighbors as they pass by your path.
From the above example it is obvious that one's inner peace cannot depend on the forever changing flow of external circumstances. One's inner peace needs to be centered in one's own state of harmony, love and compassion in spite of the external conditions and circumstances visiting one's daily life.
The truth of the matter is that we only get stressed out because we fall victims of our automatic reactions. We only suffer because we do not stop ourselves before falling into our old habits. Circumstances will constantly change. Life is full of great and terrible things on any given day. The difference is that it is the choice of how to look at those things is only yours. You cannot change most things happening around you at your instant will. However, you can certainly change how you respond to them! And that simple act can change everything! It can actually change the world one step at a time by creating more joyful, smiling and happy people who can spread their spark around.
So now you are in the street and your learning experience just begins. All throughout your day you will find endless opportunities for servicing and practicing random acts of kindness and love towards yourself and others.
How's that? I can hear you wondering...
It's simple! All you have to do is to be completely alert. You have to be aware if you want to excel at this game! You have to embrace your life with your eyes and your hearts wide open at all times. As you are walking or driving down the street you will see that some people were not able as you did to be happy in spite of the rain. Here is your first chance to start spreading some of your overwhelming happiness. You can smile as you look straight at the eyes of every passerby. As you go on with your day you might see a street person sitting in a corner getting wet. You can now let this sight make you feel down, useless and sad or you can do something about it.
I am sure that you are now wondering... Do what?
Well, you can give this person some money to go into a store and buy a warm drink, or you can give him your umbrella. But you might also not do anything material yet helped him and yourself by breathing in this cruel picture unfair and sad as it is and then releasing a warm bath of light and love towards this being. In this way your will be healing his and your pain by wishing him well and intending for him to overcome his situation and for the world to become a better place. In so doing you are contributing to spread love into the overall consciousness of the world and you are healing yourself and others in the process. This is a simple practice which you can practice at all times of the day when you experience or witness things that might get you off-balance or upset you. In this way you will be moving away from your old pattern of constant pain and suffering towards a new one of continuos love and service.Now, this seems easy to say but not so simple to put into practice at the beginning. For example, suppose that you keep walking and all of a sudden as you are crossing the street and a car turns almost running you over and splashing a wave of mud and dirty water on your coat. What are you going to do? I would guess that the initial reaction would be to curse at the person or get angry or fall into your old victim habit of thinking that these kinds of things always happen to you. However, I suggest a much better alternative. Try stopping yourself just before your automatic reaction. Then try imagining yourself at the end of the day or a year or two down the line... Will this event really matter? Will this brief moment have any importance at the end of your days? Is it worth for you to get all angry and upset over it? Maybe this critical view can give you enough time to reconsider and just observe your old feelings arising but instead of identifying with them, this time you can try to let them go. Once you can do that try sending loving energy and forgiveness towards that person. See his/her action with compassion. Take his/her carelessness as if it was yours and then see if there are any bad feelings left after that or if you feel recharged with more energy and loving luminosity.
Now, the way is not going to be smooth and easy. No matter how much you try you cannot change these little episodes of fate. You cannot prevent all these kind of unpredictable events from happening. But you can change your attitude towards everything that happens to you and comes your way. You can decide to smile at life and look at it under a positive light. You can decide to embrace all moments as open opportunities to forgive others and yourself for what's happening. In so doing, instead of poisoning yourself, you will be healing yourself and the world by pouring love and compassion towards everyone and everything that comes across your path.
If you can do this, your life will become a game full of surprises and prizes. Your life shall be happy and you will find a purpose for getting up and making sure that you win the first prize at smiling and loving whatever circumstances life bring to your side.
So if you really want to hear my advice. First, take a look at what you are doing and where you are. Then relax with it! If you cannot change what's bothering you, then accept it and transform how you feel about it into a loving and compassionate sensation. If you feel that you are not good enough or that you can never do enough, then remember that it doesn't really matter which path you choose. Anywhere you are enables you to apply the principle of accepting and loving your life for what it is right now at this very moment which is the only reason to live for.
After all, love is all there is to ever strive for or to accomplish. It does not matter which way you go, life will always offer you endless beautiful and terrible situations. With this new outlook at life you will be able to find in each of those situations opportunities to redeem the world and yourself from all evil and suffering by taking it all in and then letting it go. In this way your will bring to life loving compassion as you embrace the world and all people with a magical hug.
Love and Peace
Verónica Muñoz
3. WORDS OF WISDOM ON BEING AUTHENTIC
Wisdom does not just come directly from one same person in the oral form addressed directly to one. It comes in the most unpredictable of ways. Maybe as we are overhearing a conversation, or as we pass by somebody on our walk by the beach, or by observing words, actions, behaviors of those who surround us and learning from the invisible connecting thread which ties together their words or actions in a way that personally speaks to us at the right time. We can also tumble by it when picking up a book and opening and reading something which seems very relevant to our present set of circumstances.
Well, I have experienced and injection of wisdom through all these forms and they all seem to be equally valuable and effective. Lately all these hints given by strangers, from authors of books I have been guided to read to people whom I have come across and had the pleasure of sharing a conversation with have been pointing in the direction of cherishing and completely embracing one's own authenticity.
Most of us have never stopped to consider what this word truly means. I myself have come with a very strong seal stamped on my heart showing me this word as my true identity but still I have had a hard time coming to terms with being authentic at all times. Being authentic means thinking for oneself, knowing oneself fully, understanding one's path and reasons for being on this earth. Being authentic means very often being aware, being conscious of what goes on in our surroundings. That is: within ourselves, in our bodies, in our lives, in our families, in our interactions, in our society in the world. So being authentic implies a comprehensive conscious outlook at reality which places one in the position of being fully aware of our will to choose to think and be of our own. This in turn means that we do not go about leading our lives on automatic pilot.
We ought to realize that there is something deep inside all of us which we carry since we are born guiding us towards our own individual choices and path of action. As we have grown older those areas of ourselves have been repressed, censored and told off leading towards us realizing that were better off in terms of getting social and family approval to forget about our essence and choose to follow mainstream leading parameters instead. I do not mean to generalize and say that nothing which is done in everyday society by most of the population is unsuitable and to be disregarded. However, I do believe that much of what we think, believe and say is a reproduction of what we have been taught or shown to do, think or say. This means that our thoughts and actions have not been necessarily screened through the filter of our true essence and put under unique consideration by our soul and personal conscience.
Personally, I have discovered that my inner voice which would always have something to say about all that came through my mind never shut off completely and would keep playing its nagging voice whenever I would act in disagreement with my innermost being. Eventually, the degree of inner noise and conflict this produced became overwhelming. This continued on and on to such and extent that it became easier for me to start making changes to align my thinking, my believing and all of my practical being with the contents of my heart and soul. This might sound very simple spelled out just like this. Yet, let me tell you that it is not an easy task. It involves discipline, persistence, determination and devoted inner commitment and willpower to fully engage oneself in pursuing the true guidance of one's heart. The minute we start paying closer attention to what our inner voice is telling us, our entire life need to be flipped upside down and all of our self changes inside-out. Needless to say, this can be a very painful yet somehow extremely rewarding and gratifying process.
The point I am trying to make with all this is to helping others embrace their uniqueness by sharing the contents of my own heart and the struggles and hurdles I have had to face and I am still facing daily along my own path. In other words, I would like to empower all people to stand up for who they are, to embrace what makes them different and unique, to speak there minds openly and sincerely, to express everything springing from within their hearts, to give freely of themselves as per the mandate of their souls, to resort to action called for from the bottom of oneself and not as per what is expected or demanded from the outside. This is so because we are all different yet all beautiful beings. And, the more we don't allow our differences to shine, the more we hide our true selves and the more we try to blend with the crowds, the more you and everybody else is prevented from getting a generous dose of one another's own inner wisdom.
I strongly feel that each person has a contribution, each person is a messenger of something or other, each human being is an open giving soul ready to flourish and spread its scent into this beautiful canvas painted with colors of love, compassion, peace and genuineness. There is a huge evolving collage being constructed at all times. We all use the same brush and the same colors while being afraid of revealing the tools and blends which reflect our essence, we are literally depriving others of the gorgeous insight we can bring forward to the evolving global and universal picture. Going about our lives without showing ourselves as we truly are is somewhat like hiding the pieces, like cheating in the natural evolution of our entangling lives.
As for myself, I have gradually dared choose actions guided by my soul and they have made all the difference. Sometimes I am aware of them pushing me along an alternative path because other humans and / or beings directly express that to me. Yet others, I row along my own current without being certain if I am making a difference at all... In spite of this, I keep gliding along the tide hoping to see the result in some near or remote future trying to find reassurance of my choices within and letting them come forward without any restrictions. Sometimes the waters get rough and it seems as if everything was a constant struggle and advancing becomes really hard. Yet somewhere from deep inside I always seem to get an extra dose of energy for the next push, for peeling yet one more layer of conditioning to reveal an aspect of myself I might have been keeping away from others.
In each of these authentic acts of giving away of our true unique selves there are hidden messages and lessons for one another. Sometimes those messages are clear yet others they are encoded in an unknown format. Just as it happen with our own ongoing and ever-changing journey no always the meaning is clear and we have to have faith to continue until we get to look back and make sense of all the little messengers sent our way and of all the wise messages they might have delivered.
So next time you are reconsidering the meaning of your life, make it a point to think about what is inside you: what is it that moves you? What things are you passionate about? What speaks to your heart? What pulls you from your chair and forces you to act? What makes you cry? Which things make you laugh? What makes you frustrated or angry? The answer to all these questions ca be pointers in the direction to send you back to you inner heart. From there you can make new decisions which in turn can completely change your lives and others for the better.
By doing this and from that very center of yourself you can strive for true happiness which literally means being yourself and expressing the divine in you in whichever form shines the best to others. In this way you can be guided to speak, act and think without hesitation, knowing with certainty that each of your steps is genuine, pure; and therefore, full of divine meaning.
Do not hold back on your love, do not hold back on your inner beauty, do not hold back on your giving because you will be only starving your own soul and depriving others of your incredible personal gifts.
So if you feel that your life is not in synchronicity with your heart and soul think twice about what is the point of living if you are not letting yourself be fully human and in so doing express your full divinity.
If you think there is something in all this speaking to you personally, please stop and think what you can do to lead a more unique, genuine and consequently meaningful life to enrich the world with your unique light.
If you have found this article interesting you may want to read The power of Personal Choice.
4. INNER AND OUTER TRANSPARENCY
For a long time I have taken my life as an struggle. And even when I have not had such focus in mind, somehow life kept feeling as if it was more of a pain and something to be conquered, achieved, pursued and overcome than something to be enjoyed and lived fully.
Hardly ever did my life just feel like a flow where the current met no resistance and everything was just left to be as it was meant to be. I tried positive thinking, meditation, mindful awareness in the now and all the various techniques and activities one can possible imagined. Yet somewhere within I kept having this sense o dissatisfaction. As if there were something not quite right, or missing, or bothering me constantly causing me unnecessary grievance.
I spent years of misery while I kept looking outside and inside myself yet I could not quite detect what was exactly the thing causing me this state of constant turmoil. Until all of a sudden by looking at the conditions surrounding that feeling of uneasiness one day it came to my clear realization that my inner frustration would always happened as a result of my disobeying my intuition or inner self essence.
Now, this is not something simple to describe in words since its expression by means of one's limited vocabulary is almost impossible. This is something which one feels within. It is something each person is responsible to tune into within themselves, usually in silence and solitude in order to learn to recognize that inner voice always directing us and giving us guidance as to what to do, how to behave in each particular situation, what to say and how to be each second of our lives.
The problem is that somehow we learned not to pay attention to this inner voice or obey it and it got overpowered by other voices which are mostly influenced by external conditioning, by the desires of our craving minds and by any distraction coming from the outside. So as a result of this habitual created pattern, we become unable to hear it anymore. This in turn, means that we have to make an effort to really pay attention to distinguish its sound and catch that second of its attempts to guide us which can be hardly recognizable because it is so rapidly followed by a million other voices commanding us to do otherwise. The interesting thing is that as it turns out this precise disobedience or lack of ability to act according to that voice from the heart is what causes all the inner turmoil one often experiences. This is indeed the very first voice one would naturally hear but it does become almost imperceptible through the years as we overlook it completely and move on to answering other voices which make us choose things which are incongruent to that initial, intuitive purer voice struggling to be heard.
The end result if this, is total incongruence between our true genuine inner being or essence and our outer life, behaviors and ways of living. Even when we are not aware of this happening, still the soul knows and it is mourning and unsatisfied. This overwhelms our entire lives with frustration, disappointment and unhappiness. I've found that when I am at my happiest moment is when I am responding accurately to that voice and I am allowing myself to match my inner self with my outer self so that there is complete transparency between essence and exteriorization into my being, actions, etc. This sounds simple but it si not something so easy to accomplish. This is because somehow we are always letting our mind and other influencing thoughts take over control and we forget to listen to what our inner self really is telling us to do.
The most successful way to achieve long term happiness is by incorporating a plan including various techniques which work for us to connect us back with that inner teacher and guide. For me it is though daily walking in natural settings such as walking by the lake and exercising peacefully while immersing myself in the beauty of it all that I can gradually tune out of the outside noises of the world and into my inner self. I have become almost addictive to this routine which replenishes not just my physical energy but also provides food for my soul to keep an emotional stable life. Making sure I incorporate at least 2 hours of exercise daily, which include my walking along with some time for my yoga practice, I ensure that throughout the day I am more likely to be receptive to my inner guidance and respond accordingly in tuning my actions with my true feelings and beliefs.
Of course, I am not perfect at this quite yet, and I do not know if I'll ever be. All I know is that the more efficient I am at being loyal and making sure that there is congruency in all I say, do and think with my inner true being, the more I feel at one with the universe, with all beings and with the divine. It is as if one really becomes an instrument or messenger of God. All of one's actions and words when allowed to spring genuinely and purely from the heart and soul carry the energy, love, compassion, and light of the divine. This in turn, makes us embody our full divine potential as well as act and become at all moments beings of light, messengers of love and peace.
I must admit that I have never acted in response to my inner guidance and had wrong results. All the contrary, I have full faith and conviction that whenever I am willing to respond whole heartily to that voice from within I am being guided towards the path of the soul and I am 100% in tune with my inner self; and therefore, with it all. This does not mean that I am oblivious to the subtle differences and all the variables in the world. What it means is that I have respect and overwhelming devotion for those things which make us each unique as a result of being able to see behind all the diversity the common uniting essence while feeling the communion of it all.
As a human being, it has taken me many years of trying to achieve happiness by accomplishing things, by setting goals and by conquering through my choices and actions to finally realize that the key to a fulfilling life lies in the understanding of this unity. The joy comes from the process of living each second of our evolving lives devoted to spreading this truth by just being ourselves and letting our divine light shine through us with whichever qualities or masks we happen to be gifted with. In this way, our job as human beings is reduced to the mere act of being human. All we have to do is allow our true selves to flow though us and guide our existence at all times so that our lives may become the message. And as we move we leave signs of beauty, peace, compassion and love all around us springing in turn the best in others too.
If you have not brought yourself to experience the great happiness of embracing your divine nature and being fully your perfect self, this is the time to give it a try. All you have to do is stop doing things of your own will, stop listening to your controlling mind and responding to patterns imposed by society to finally give voice to your inner true self waiting to express fully the divine which is the essence which makes us all separate beings in appearance, one in Spirit sharing the flow of eternity as we flow through our lives.
I hope we all move closer and closer to being fully divine beings and embracing our true nature to create not just happier, more prosperous and peaceful lives for ourselves but also for all those who come in contact with our lives.
Happiness is not a matter of doing or achieving something but of leaving room for life to evolve freely and for the spirit to overflow the content of our hearts and shine through with its full splendor.
So if you need to make a conscious effort to bring yourself to this state. Remember just make it a moment to moment awareness exercise to check if the intention and nature of your thoughts, words and actions spring from within and are loyal to this inner voice or if at some point along the line they have got corrupted by voices calling from other areas outside ourselves. It's simple, all you need to do is tune in, listen and move along wit the flow of your inner guidance.
Let's all be beings of light, let's all be fully happy!
Verónica Muñoz
5. TRUE HAPPINESS FLOWS FROM WITHIN AND IT IS EVERLASTING
All that comes our way ought to be transform intoa moment of inner joyand in so doing become part of our ongoing happiness
True Happiness, what an unreachable concept and dream that seems to be at certain times in our lives. For many years I struggled to pursue an idea of happiness which was based on an ideal vision of living in a constant state of perfect bliss, where there is complete absence of suffering. It took me a lot of walking an falling and getting up again to learn that the kind of "happiness" which I was so naively envisioning was not practically achievable and that it was actually an impossible human pursuit.
During those years where I would feel ecstacy when life seemed to be on the go and everything seemed to be coming the right way, I would fall into the trap of believing that" "that was it!" I would feel as if I had actually reached that point of no return where forever I would be high up there flowing upstream.
Well, the truth of the matter is that time and time again I had to learn the hard way that all the ups are followed by downs and all the periods of regression and crisis are necessarily eventually followed by a natural and quite spontaneous course of progression.
Now, realizing this did not come easy and it did not per se solved my anxiety to achieve perfect "happiness" as I always had conceived it. As a matter of fact, the greatest insight as to the true meaning of happiness came from observing nature: my greatest, most loyal and wisest teacher ever. I would sit for long periods of time observing the outside world of nature, where all the cycles come and go and where the days do not stay sunny forever and eventually according to whose perfectly in tune self-governing laws of nature the light is covered by the darkness of the night and the moonlight gives way to the sun and the clouds sooner or later take over the blue skies giving us warning of the rain to come. I carefully watched the silence and the stillness prior to the unfoldment of a huge storm and the winds blowing once the rain got started and the I personally experienced the change of seasons with all the mutation that each of them entail and bring along.
Out of my detailed observation and study of nature I realized that at no point I could see any part of it resisting per se or offering signs of resisting its natural changes. On the contrary, the clouds seemed to blend perfectly as if in a beautiful paint as the blue skies gave in to its brushes of grey. The tree branches would dance as if in synchronous compatibility with the wind coming from afar... Wherever I would look, nature seemed to have this innate wisdom to flow with the changes and glide with the transmutations which accompanied each natural regression or progression.
It did not take me long to draw an analogy between this obvious process and our own lives. I was able to see that our problems as humans is that we are the equivalent of an entire forest of trees that constantly refuses to let go of the leaves when autumn comes and obstinately reuses to go to sleep when it is time to remain dormant for the winter time. Imagine the state of crisis nature would be in and how it would affect the entire cycle of the ecosystem if some parts of nature would arbitrarily decide to be in control and to take charge of their own desires and would refuse to go with the flow and to finally let go and let the natural unfoldment of things flow. Yes, we never see this type of thing happen in the natural kingdom. However, we instead, believe ourselves to be capable of being in charge of our own process and in so doing we escape our own happiness. I realized that my conception of happiness as for instance a perfectly sunny day was unrealistic and that a more real way to view it would be to include and respect, accept and embrace all the changes that coming one's way. I was able to perceive that the more I could let go of my need to control and let my life be and flow, the happier I feel.
Now this does not come easy, it take lots of concentration to stop the mind from constantly trying to take charge of one's life. So I had to make a conscious effort to get my thoughts out of the way and allow my days to flow and all my feelings to come and go and cause whatever emotions they needed to cause. So viewed from this perspective, true happiness was not to always be in a state of "happiness" in the literal sense of the word but to allow all emotions whatever their nature flow in and out as they need to be felt and expressed without needing to react nor repress them. I found that this could be achieved by simply having an open awareness of what is; just as nature respect its own winds, storms and cycles.
In this way, I started to recover some peace and to relieve some of my tension and stress caused by trying to hold my entire life in such a tight grip. The more I tried to let go the freer I felt and the freer I allowed myself to be the happier I would feel. This made me reflect on my days of being a little girl, when the entire world seemed to always be full of yellow colors and somehow where everything was seen anew, somewhat like an ever-unfolding miracle. I realized that all kids naturally spread joy from within. That joy comes form their intrinsic natural state of being. After all, this is simply all we have to do: "just be." How something so simple has become such a difficult task. I started having memories of being a kid and reliving those moments of bliss which sprung from that inner connection to the divine. It is as if while being kids, we still would have not been corrupted by the commanding and controlling tendencies of our minds; and as a result, we could just be ourselves as we naturally are meant to be: simple human beings. Beings of light, beings of joy: divine and spiritual beings having this human experience. That is why kids are always happy because they are like the branches in the trees and like the waters of the rivers, they are just what they are and they flow with the wind and they stream without offering any resistance because they know that they can only be what they are. So, all of a sudden my entire conception of happiness changed to perceive the possibility that things did not have to be perfect in the term of never having crisis, or not ever falling down or ever suffering. Not at all, because not embracing that would equal to resisting whatever we happen to be. This is to say, it would imply rejecting our human nature, which would equal the same as if a leaf wanted to be a dog or a cat. The leaf would be forever miserable! So what has made us think that we can refuse to be human and experience bliss at the same time. Denying who we are is definitely not a successful formula for Joy. On the contrary, it is a formula for frustration, sadness, anger, hatred, and all the negative feelings many of us know.
So happiness does not exist per se but what does exist is an ongoing state of joy and bliss from completely embracing our state of beingness, that is to say our humanity in its full meaning and length: with its ups and downs, with its imperfections, with its rising and falling emotions, with all that we are and comes our way without resisting any of it. Simple but not easy to do! Maybe this is why in the Bible it says that we have to become kids to enter the Kingdom. Maybe it means that we have to let go of controlling and allow ourselves to not know anything more than letting our intrinsic human essence and natural state of beingness flow without any grudges, without offering any resistence or fights. Then instead of tightening up, we can feel that we can finally distend and let go. Only then, we are free to be joyful as we are!
Once I understood that happiness was not something to accomplish in terms of actions but something to do I also came to terms to expressing this feeling of bliss as part of my overall life purpose to reflect and radiate our divine nature and let it shine though at all times. I realized that happiness does not depend on the external flux of circumstances, on other material things or people who surround us or on something outside ourselves. It is a joy which springs from deep inside, from diving into that connection with the divine and recognizing ourselves as part of the whole and embracing our divine nature. It is a joy which is unexplainable; and therefore, make if we are not ready to allow ourselves to experience it, may gives us a sense of confusion or frustration which pushes us to rush to try to justify that natural state of joy by searching for some external gratification. It becomes scary to jut let that communion be, to just experience it for once and, as a friend so wisely told me, to just stop, to simply stop. And when we allow ourselves to stop all of a sudden, in the infinity and magnitude of the sacred moment everything suddenly makes sense and falls into place as if resulting from an art of magic. It's when our minds get on the way not believing that experiencing happiness can really be so simple and easy that in its pursuit, the pleasure seeking cycle seems to start again.
To avoid this constant need to achieve happiness instead of just being it, I try to recognize and be aware of this tail-seeking pattern and watch it fold and unfold endlessly. Yet somehow, behind it all, I manage to remain conscious of what's going on and allow the true joy to come forward and take over the apparent disorder and frustration of not being able to control what is. The interesting thing is that there is not an actual need to do that because the joy can't really leave us. It is our very essence, it is part of us and by denying it we are really rejecting our essence. This is what initiates the feeling of complete frustration and lack of life-purpose and meaning in one's life.
Once we can experience such unexplainable source of constant divine joy even tears might naturally roll down our eyes from such incredible sense of communion. At that point, all one desires is to flow with the divine in us and radiate it in all directions to spread it all around. In this way we feel as if we bathe people animals and all beings in that bright light and energy and wish to all of them to return to that beautiful home of peace, love, global understanding and immense radiance where we innately belong to.
What still escapes me is why something so simple feels so complex and hard to live by on a second to second, moment to moment, day to day basis. If it as if an ocean opposed its natural course and refused to let the waves turn with their own pace. After much observation to this constant impulse and need for the mind to control everything that happens to us: to control our purpose, to control who we are or what we are supposed to be I tried to find the secret to understand it. It seems as if pushed around by the mind and the ego we get twisted inside in great inner turmoil without knowing which way to go, which direction to trust or path of action to follow.
I wonder at one point if being originally spiritual beings we got so absorved in being human and in our animal nature that we forgot to recognize our divinity and embrace our essence. It seems to me that we should have never got ourselves away from our source at all and it should be our nature to just keep ourselves simply divine and loving as our very nature originally is... Yet for some odd reason most of us go from being kids to being adults all wrapped up in our convoluted minds, our mixed-feelings, emotions and directions about life and our egos. So that by the time we start wondering about the real meaning of all this game we find ourselves victims of some sort of joke or bad humor game which we need to get out of or wake up from... And from that point onwards the journey to self-realization, to coming to terms with all we already are and have inside, that we are indeed divine and complete, that we have all we need and we suffice with just being fully our unique selves becomes a long process of unlearning all we were told we were by our culture, society, family, and own acquired preconceptions... It is not an easy path but sometimes it can become simpler as this realization is triggered by certain circumstances in our lives which make this trip faster and more abrupt so that all of a sudden we find ourselves face to face with our soul. Then, there is only one option and that is to accept that which is, and learn to love all we are just as we happen to be at each perfect yet forever evolving and vast present. That day if we can manage to keep that ongoing inner and outer awareness that: 'we are all and all is us going,' we suddenly can reach eternal flowing joy, bliss, happiness and universal compassion. Only then, we can breathe and share our smile and give to others of our own peace so that they may realize the truth within themselves as well; and all those we come in contact with in term, also can radiate it and share it with others.
It is important to deeply consider in our own lives why so often we tend to perceive happiness as placed somewhere outside of ourselves and as something external which gives us temporary relief from our suffering and then suddenly escapes us. The truth of the matter is that genuine happiness is caused by joy and by that bliss which preexists and it is innate to us all. It is that experience of inner happiness for no reason more than from embracing our own human nature with all our traits, weaknesses and strengths. Experiencing fully our complete connection to our divine source which continually replenishes us with all the love and tender compassion we possibly need brings us that happiness which used to escape us. While we think of happiness as something which we pursue, which we so desperately try to grasp and hold on genuine joy is something which has always been latent in us. It is the full expression of who we are: divine beings having a human experience.
Most of us have grown detached from the source of that natural state of joy. Therefore, we desperately look for it outside ourselves, elsewhere: in activities or interactions which give us pleasure and help us escape from our suffering. When we depend on this temporary pleasurable activities, we run the risk of developing quite serious addictions. In order to get out of this pattern which feed us only temporarily and then leaves us empty we need to work towards reaching within and regaining that intrinsic joy which springs from the discovery of an intrinsic and deeply felt inner spirituality which loves to spring out, shine and be spread around to all and everyone.
For years I would search aimlessly, always falling in the trap of believing that another person I had just met and connected with, a new demographic location, a new acquisition, a new friend, a new circumstance, a new job or whatever external new thing which seemed to bring me some sort of pleasure would be synonym of constant and permanent happiness... However, now I have finally come to accept that all those things would never really last for long and the second they would leave me or wear off somehow the old feeling of frustration, helplessness and sometimes inner anguish would settle back in. So, I finally came to realize that in the end, the only contentment and lasting, absolute happiness we can always, forever and continuously count on is the one springing from our own inner relationship or connection with something beyond ourselves, with the divine, with that higher energy, love or whatever one wishes to call it, which continuously feeds us with tender, compassionate and understanding love, joy and peace.
The minute I found this I realized that in order to constantly experience this I had to give up on the previous endless search for happiness. I had to have faith that the fountain of love is infinite and inexhaustible... This was the hardest thing to put in to practice because I realized that I one cannot lose faith and start running aimlessly for some external source of happiness and thinking that something one does will make one happy while simultaneously 'being happy.' Because, as already mentioned, happiness is not something one does it is something one 'is' second by second. It is a personal choice to let the light, love and energy spring from within. So it's more a process inside out rather than coming from the outside inwards.
So, my final step which I am currently working on and I will probably continue to devote my days towards perfecting it, is to give up on my need to control what happens. Instead I am trying to concentrate on having constant faith on the natural and divine unfoldment of things and letting my life magically unfold as I take each step guided by my blind faith, knowing that the joy will continue to spring endlessly. This is not easy because the ego constantly tries to get on the way and tries to convince one that one needs to pursue something or do something. It is so hard to just allow onself to be and feel peaceful walking one's life while learning and discovering what comes up as one moves along one's ascending path.
As I once wrote one should trust the universe and feed from its magical gifts because our plans are human; and therefore, limited and structured yet the divine ones are perfect and can incorporate twists of fate and surprises we could not possible imagine. So, in my personal case, it's time to stop fighting and offering resistance to my life and move out of the way for once. It's actually working for me! So my advice is to try it! Trust me that one feels automatically more peaceful as joy starts to flow endlessly from within and magical things come one's way and even those which in appearance seem not so wonderful, come disguised as hidden opportunities to help us along our journey.
As Peace pilgrim once said: "We are each a cell forming this universal human body." Indeed when one dissolves into the whole and identifies not just with one's own self but with all the universe and everyone and everything in it, all of a sudden every person, every smile, every episode of life is of a divine nature and speaks to us of something relevant to whatever stage we happen to be at.
So next time you fall down or lose your sense of direction, close your eyes, find your center, go within until you meet the very source of the divine and let that peace and joy overtake you. Only then open your eyes and continue your day offering your full gratitude and a smile to all those around while embracing the magical gift of life.
As these famous phrase suggests: "Don't worry, be happy" and "smile even though it's hurting." We should all smile at all times and say Yes to life to receive more joy than one can possibly give since it is contantly being replenished each step of the way! So if in doubt just flow along and find inspiration in John Lennon's wise words when he said that "life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans."
Love and peace to you all and a life full of abundant and neverending joy and happiness!
Verónica Muñoz
6. A MAGICAL GIFT FROM THE UNIVERSE: A STORY OF THE BINDING FORCE OF LOVE
AND THE INTERCONNECTION OF IT ALL
All my life I have felt that when I was not completely alone in the universe. Most of the time I would have an underlying awareness of this interconnection. As a matter of fact it was only in situations when for some odd reason or set of circumstances I would start to focus on my actual apparent separation from others and my surroundings that I would get down and fall into desperation resulting in a desire to escape from the fear of not being whole.
However for the most part it was as if somehow I had always known that deep within there is a binding agent, an invisible thread tying it all together: all places, all people, all circumstances, all events, all beings. This did not mean that at times I would not fall victim of the illusion of "me" as a separate and individual entity totally disconnected and interdependent from it all. Yes this would eventually happen; however, those moments of deception would not last very long, since even when I would escape from the agonizing feeling of alienation by trying to fill the hole of desperation resulting from the fear of being all by myself in a foreign mass of beingness, I would sooner or later end up hanging out in nature. And, the moment I would be immersed in the divine presence and gorgeous radiance of our green and natural paradise surrounded by all the beings living in it, by all the colors and all the fragrances springing from mother earth, I would gradually recover my composure and feel whole again. From that place of belonging I would experience peace, harmony and infinite love would flow naturally and incessantly as water does from a fresh spring. However, sooner or later, I would face the world of cement, the buildings, the pollution, another inconsiderate being or whatever happened to come my way to challenge my state of integral bliss, which would make me once more forget about this underlying and divinely intrinsic interconnection and interdependence among it all.
So knowing all this at heart I was recently blessed with further reassurance as to the ever existing melting pot of spirits united in this world. At the time, I had been struggling with this frustrating and overwhelming feeling that since I was aware of so many of the injustices and misconducts which we human-beings tend to create and participate in this planet, it should be my responsibility to clear up the mess and wake every other being up from the overall habitual state of negligence and disregard we show for our land, for our air, for the animals, and for each other. I felt this need to be an agent of transformation as my calling but also as my exclusive task as if I was going to be the savior of the world. I was at some level aware that it was not going to just be me the one to carry on this load and do this work of revealing and exposing the true essence of our most compassionate and lovingly tender and caring human and spiritual nature. Yet at the same time, I would keep falling into the trap of trying to do too much, of trying too hard, of doing from a place of almost desperation as if trying to meet some universal deadline. I guess in the process I would fall back into the illusion of my individual solace and separateness and miss the point of conveying integration and oneness by the mere act of behaving so frantically.
Well around those spiritual circumstances of my life is that this most magical little gift from
the universe arrived in my path as I was taking my daily walk by the lake by the beach where I live in Toronto. As I was strolling along immersed in my thoughts I came to my usual spot where I often sit to meditate and refill my spiritual vessel with all the wisdom freely given by mother nature and stayed there surrounded by all the amazing energy emanating from that gorgeous and most vibrating place. I was again thinking of how we are all so interconnected and how when I feel that sensation of frustration which I was earlier trying to describe and when resorting at trying way too hard to do too much all I get as a result is plain discouragement. While all along what I should be doing is working on regaining my inner and divine confidence by reminding myself that the work to be done does not lie all on one person's back but it is universally shared among many: amongst many individuals, amongst many beings, actually amongst all of us. It is just that some of us do it in a more conscious and aware or willing way and others don't.
Suddenly at that exact point in my train of thoughts I felt overwhelmed by this incredible sense of bliss resulting from actually perceiving how all the people who care to think, to feel, to question and to be from deep within are all transforming, shifting and molding the universal consciousness even when we cannot see it all happening at once in front of our human eyes... Still our work is being done not necessarily at a visual physical level which we can witness in actual reality but at a deeper consciousness one. From the awareness of this shift taking place at this higher level of interconnectedness we can perceive it all happening and unfolding with the eyes of the spirit. Deep inside one can feel that it is all there obvious to the intuitive eye yet visually unseeable.
Soon after I found myself thinking of all the amazingly inspirational people spread all over the world and how all that joint-energy and simplicity is constantly reaching the entire planet and in so doing, affecting the whole I started to ponder about all our attempts made and the positive intend of so many beautiful and incredible people sowing their seeds of compassion and genuine love in different areas of the planet. I was thinking that although we are all in different places apparently so separated and apart yet still we are so connected and working together, as if almost caressing one another's energy fields and jointly building this most gorgeous human, spiritual and divine global collage.
So in the mist of that unifying experience sitting under the pouring rain I dived into that beautiful energy of interconnectedness and sent a profoundly felt prayer from the bottom of my heart asking for all of us to be able to continue doing whatever we are called to do from the heart: to keep writing, to keep giving, to keep discovering, to keep be-ing, to keep smiling or whatever is that we do inspired and fueled by the power of genuine love. At this same time I was also feeling the energy of spirits such as John Lennon and thinking of his words in "Imagine": "Imagine all the people, it's easy if you try... etc... etc..." And as I sent that prayer for a vision of a world in which we would all feel that connection and divine oneness and act and give and receive accordingly, I looked down and on my side as if magically placed there for me, I saw nothing else but a candle: a real lighted candle! And the flame was moving, dancing as if magically avoiding each drop of heavy rain as if miraculously sustained there by divine intend. I was stunned by this image and by its symbolism and I instantly felt incredibly insignificant in the middle of all this immense ocean of universal love...
Then there was complete silence and my spirit was soaring high amongst others and tears started
rolling down my eyes: tears of bliss, of joy, of universal communion and of a subtle transcendence impossible to be expressed by mere words.
Now this candle was green! Green: the color which most widely represents nature, the color of hope, the color of great radiance and beauty. And I immediately felt that my prayer had been answered already. And I knew for a fact that we are all indeed ONE, we are all feeling it and doing it and believing it and building this amazingly beautifully loving and compassionate world together! You have to understand that where all this magic occurred is a place of solitude; and needless to say, it is not precisely an everyday occurrence for me to find a candle. As a matter of fact, I have never found a candle before in my entire life, particularly a lighted one under the rain such as the one magically and divinely placed by my side on this gloomy weekday morning!
Isn't this whole episode magical? Isn't life full of unexpected miracles and signs of love all around us when we care to open our hearts to just feel and connect? Isn't this journey tough at times yet underneath all of the sudden storms it continues to be incredibly and so ever-evolving and beautiful all at the same time?
So if any of you ever feels alone, separate, alienated or aloof, please do not get discourage! Get up and go for a stroll by some natural setting. I promise that before you have time to think about it your heart will be overtaken by an overwhelming peace, joy and loving energy which will recharge your batteries and replenish your faith in our human and spiritual oneness between each other, between all beings and with it all.
Enjoy the path and the surprises wherever you happen to be at in your on-going journey and don's forget to smell the flowers and make eye contact with whomever crosses your way as you pass by...
Love and peace always!
Verónica Muñoz
7. ON 'LOVE' AND 'BE-ING IN LOVE' My personal views on this subject
Experiencing divine love equals to drawing freely from the universal fountain of the ongoing and ever-flowing transcendental interconnection of our very being with it all and the beyond. This is the most genuine and the purest form of love which in my opinion any being can possibly experience. There are many different ways to access this energy. It can be through inner calmness, contemplation of our constant flow of emotions, thoughts and feelings, communion with nature, any form of art or creative endeavor, natural living and pristine-pure eating practices, some drugs or whichever experience brings one closer to the divine source of our being.
Whenever we find ourselves at this state of deep communion with something beyond ourselves and there is plain and pure love flowing through our hearts directly from the universal source, our love vibrations are at their highest. It is at this point when we are automatically drawn to those beings who are in a similar state of highness or at least a similar frequency. It's very much like tuning in a radio, like waves connecting and two channels being simultaneously receptive of the same waves. When beings are vibrating at a similar frequency they are drawn very much like magnets towards those beings to connect with them and experience this mutual divine communion. It's the universal law of attraction I guess: positive attracts positive, and negative attracts negative to put it into a generalization...
Very frequently we cannot logically understand how this process of inexplicable attraction happens since it seems as if an external force literally was pushing us and drawing us together beyond our comprehension and willingness. And very often, as a result of the confusion created by such out-of the-ordinary experience we try to respond with behaviors which are the ones by which our society has taught us to communicate or express those strange yet overwhelming feelings of mutual interconnection .
The first reaction is to confuse this with love in terms of what society has labeled or understands as 'love.' What I mean is that immediately as we experience those vibes we want to grab on to this feeling, we want to personalize it or cage it by limiting it to the person whom we've been drawn to.
This is because we have learned that love belongs to a person and we need to protect it and make it exclusive. When in my opinion, the truth of the matter is that love cannot be ever owned or possessed. It can only flow freely when given total openness from two or more people's heart to flow through them in an ongoing motion not 'from' themselves per se but 'through' them from a source which transcends them both. The minute 'we' get on the way, tinting it with our personal need to own it, limiting it or interpreting it with our minds, restricting it with past-learned labels to cage it in a socially recognized relationship format and control it through the possession of that love we actually lose it instantly; or at the very least, we diminish its purity and natural intensity. This is because from the very moment we do that we are restricting and limiting what once was pure sincere and genuine universal love in its most perfect divine essence and making it "personal." By personal I mean belonging to two people and obtainable from them personally only. When I believe that love is the exact contrary of that personal ownership.
This is where I derive my theory of why love deteriorates in the large majority of long-term relationships or why the "falling in love" initial blissful feeling wears out. Usually it is a direct consequence of that trying to restrict it and put it into a shape, into a defined relationship instead of allowing it to continue to just flow freely from that same center where it first started. Most people seem not to be able to do this. I believe because they just can't trust or have enough faith to believe that it will continue getting replenished as it is allowed to flow and they get scared and just do not seem to be able to let go of the need to grab it or grasp onto it. So at the immense fear and risk of losing this great feeling of love most people right away want to claim its ownership and make it theirs. What a silly thing to do!
When two people are experiencing what in society is referred to as: "falling in love," what happens is that both of those beings were experiencing complete flowing love through them from the universal center and letting it pass though them to one another and then continue to move on at this point without judging it, without even understanding it, without controlling it, just by allowing for that connection -pure love- to be channeled and freely move from one another and through both beings and away it'd go...
Unfortunately, most people lose this natural flowing connection in a few months to a few years time from their first meeting. I personally believe that it is possible to have that original love stay and to keep it forever. But the irony is that in order to have it one first needs to let go of the need to cage it, to possess it, to label it, to shape it or to personalize it. And how many people have you met who are willing to let go of love when they feel it so intensely? So far every man I've ever met wishes to claim possession of the love we channel together. Yet, I still believe that there are must be beings out there, freaks such as me who really feel and believe the opposite to be true and are willing to practice an alternative way of feeling and experiencing love than the dysfunctional ownership and controlling model of loving we've been taught to reproduce.
I believe my conception of how to maintain love is possible based on the very same way one person who is in tune with her/his divine essence can completely and permanently be in love with life, with all the surroundings, with the earth and with all beings as a result of an inner awareness of a communion with something larger than the self which transcends the ego/personal or separate being that in appearance we each are. I firmly believe that it is possible to renew and therefore forever maintain that joy every second of our existence. When a person can do this that person's heart is always singing and there is joy, peace, calm and harmony constantly running through it. This does not mean that the person at a practical life-experience level does not have to go through the normal ups and downs and cycles of life such as the various emotions resulting from exposure to: beginnings and ends, births and deaths, reunions and dis-encounters. However, underneath all the tides and seasons life puts one through, for a person who is grounded and in tune with her/his essence, there is an overall feeling or being-ness of peace and love flowing through under the roughest currents of life at all times.
I have worked very hard at reaching the above mentioned state of permanent divine communion, when the heart is constantly in joy and melodies are continuously running through and the spark of life is shining through one and reaching in and out at all times. Sometimes I lose it for a little while but for the most part I've become quite good at keeping the flame always burning. At this point the flow of universal energy, love or whatever term one uses to refer to the undescribable, flows freely and openly without restrictions, without personal attachments.
I personally believe that being in love and continuing a state of being in love with oneself and with other beings is fully and practically possible. I have experienced from this center of ongoing ground-ness in the very essential source of my being that I can experience divine love for all beings: for all men, for all women, for all animals, for all things. This does not mean that I necessarily like or approve of all the behaviors emanating from these beings. But behind their behaviors I can see their innate love and I can understand whatever comes from them: good or bad, awful or beautiful from a place of inner compassion and love.
Getting to this point in my life took a lifetime of inner work. Basically since I had consciousness I have been trying to discern and learn to separate what was true and genuine from within and what was added on by society, by culture by external sources in order to differentiate which areas or aspects were the 'true me' and which ones were not. In this way, I became a being who does not really fit into any of the stereotyped societal patterns or labels. I have my own path, which I dynamically create as I follow my own beat and inner guidance from within and choose a course of action in response to a full alignment and accordance to my soul and not according to some external rules of any kind. Achiving this required getting to a good point of balance between critical thinking and feeling at all times. The result of that equation is truth and genuineness and uniqueness at best and the rest of society believing that one is from Mars!
As a result of now being able to truly feel this universal love flowing through my heart I can now understand what 'bei-ng in love' on permanent basis with another can potentially be like. We all think of 'being in love' as something we 'do' when it is something we 'are' independently and bring together with another in silent sharing of the flow of something beyond ourselves. I still have not been fortunate enough to find somebody who would prove my theory right in a long-term joint intimate relationship with me. My insight and profound belief is that if two beings separately experience within themselves this state of joy and then are drawn together and attracted to share the flow of this love and manage to keep doing so as if channeling through one another something which is not really theirs or personal but which transcends them; then ongoing love can live and be forever among them. But this is a process of sharing and being in that mutual state of joy from that transcendental awareness rather than of necessarily doing things together or being the same. However, it takes two evolved or really surrendered souls to allow this love to flow freely without restricting it and making it personal. The minute one makes it personal, ironically it starts deteriorating or maybe a better way to put it would be it starts getting 'corrupted' somehow. In direct proportion to how corrupted it gets by blocks built by each persona and by the input coming from the ego-based demands of each of the people involved in the sharing of this divine flow, it results in the fact that eventually the love 'dies'= stops flowing because the channels are dirty.
The truth is that this love never dies. Love is infinite and it is forever flowing. What dies is the ability to let it flow and go through one or both of the people involved in the relationship as a result of ego traps, resentment, demands on each other or whatever thing of an external nature is put on the way of just allowing the ongoing transcendental flow of love to keep running through them. Most couples seem to get too comfortable and unaware and by the time they realize that the purity of their love has changed it can many times be too late to bring it back to its natural essence because it became mudded by things of the ego. It can be recovered by acknowledging and removing each of the self-imposed obstacles which have been placed in the once clear path of love.
In spite of the fact that most of our society seems to fail at maintaining love in long-term intimate relationships, including myself in the past, I still remain fully optimistic. I always rather see the glass half full than half empty and I would much rather vote for a possible life full of love in every aspect of my present and future relationships than devoid of it! So even when called an 'idealist' by many if not by almost all the people who know me I will live to the end of my days voting for universal love, wishing for the flow of this never ending infinite energy available to all those who wish to plug to it and let it flow through them to conquer the world with its beauty and power.Love in all relationships in my opinion is more than feasible. However, there is only one secret ingredient to its proper working and it is that you have to surrender all control. One cannot possess it because the second one wants to make it of one's own or restrict it to one particular being or thing it starts to put a halt to its most pure flow. If we continue this process of pursuing its domain and ownership it finally escapes us completely bringing in a much less intense frequency and eventually leading to a final separation.
For many all this which I've been describing might sound like some foreign language. Well, you are not the only one... As I told you already, most people think I am from Mars! I don't care what has been said about the beginning and end of love. I still opt to vote for its ever-existing presence in all our lives and even for the possibility that two evolved beings willing to give each other the freedom to accompany one another in sharing this universal love can continue to experience the full initial ecstacy of this connection without having to posses it and make it their own. I'd much rather die a dreamer than have led my life without the blooming and fragrant sight of all my lively visions. However, until I find such eccentric person with this universal understanding I guess I'll have to be contended sharing within my own self and spreading to the world the universal love that dialy flows through me...
Don't think by any means that I have fully perfected the art of loving... I am experimenting and searching and trying just like all of you out there wishing to give and receive love. When I met the person whom I first married almost 8 years ago I had the type of connection above described and I really thought that it was going to continue this way for ever, flowing... However, that dream went sour because both our egos and our personalities got on the way after years of losing awareness and not watering it and caring for it. Consequently, after a certain point of drought, it got stuck, corrupted and manipulated. Because nobody can possess love. Everybody has free access to its expression and free flow but the second you want to grab it, to cling to it, to make it dependent on just one person and limit love to one separate soul without sharing its true divine essence, unfortunately its path gets blocked and we experience what socially we refer to as : "the death of our love." Once more, I clarify that love did not end per se but the path through which it was running got unattended and full of weeds until love could not flow anymore.
Again, I am a true believer that love never dies it is 'us'='its channel' that get blocked. When we open the pathways to allow it to flow, when we keep our hearts open and stay vulnerable in spite of all sensitivities; then, all life shines, colors are more vibrant and we are in love not just with the one person with whom we are intimately experiencing the ongoing universal loving flow but also simultaneously with all beings, with all things, with all the planet. The trick is to keep the window of our hearts at all times open and keep emptying its vessel and clearing the channel of dirt from the ego and the personality so it may continuously be recharged and moving in a constant and free flow.
As per love in a two-intimate format is concerned, I still believe that it is possible as long as the love expressed is the flowing universal love. If this is the case, then the relationship will be in a constant process of becoming anew at all times since divine love flows continuously refreshing the vessel which it passes by. Just like a river whose waters as they pass by are never the same and flow forever a new and fresh, Universal Love can flow through two beings without every becoming boring or tedious as long as it is always allowed to flow anew and the awareness of its divine source remains clear and does not get confused as coming from the actual people involved in such dynamic and interactive exchange of love. In this case, a relationship would be like an open divine partnership formed by two people not owning or co-depending on one another but rather being fully interdependent beings sharing the full flowing expression of their freeing source of genuine universal love.
I encourage us all to allow universal love to flow freely through our entire being. Let's not restrict it to one person, let's not be stingy with it but on the contrary let's give it at all times to all who cross our path and if you can live this way I can guarantee you that you'll experience instant richness. Eventually, you and I might find other people who can choose to share with us the experience and join us in an intimate long-term universal-love-based realtionship or not... This is what will give you the most naturally ever-renewing spiritual high to last you a lifetime!
Enjoy the ride and forever love and smile!
And for those who are skeptical I challenge you to try my formula since the obsolete one being used by society has proven to be quite ineffective in its most practical form. I am not an idealist because I know this works from my own experience, if it works individually we can also make it work in partnerships. Try it and you too will find out!
Not being able to feel this flowing universal love; and therefore, trying to fill that gap with other external things or actions is what become our well-known addictions, which are nothing less than our inability to just let ourselves fully experience love and give and receive the one fundamental ingredient which runs and beautifully binds together this complex spiritual and human collage.
Love and peace always!
Verónica