Meetings > Meeting Notes > November 4, 2007
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November 4, 2007
Finished listening to the CD of James O'Dea's Seattle address
In this portion of the CD, O'Dea addressed the impact of anger on the amygdala (the site of anger reaction in the body), the resulting cortisol that floods the body and how staying in anger -- not forgiving -- creates a breakdown of systems in the body. When we listen to another's story, he said, the amygdala calms down.
O'Dea gave us a sentence to use with a person coming at you in anger: "What do you need me to understand?"
Gratitude
Discussion led by Sheree Stewart, exploring the importance of gratitude in our lives, discussing the energetic wave frequencies associated with gratitude, and making suggestions for how to invoke the feeling of gratitude
PRACTICING ENERGETIC HEALTH -------
2 important components
1) focus on being present
- your full power lies within the NOW
- the PRESENT is the only opportunity to connect to the Universe and allow the free flow of Universal energy
discussion: past and future are just imaginary times----in fact, yesterday NO LONGER really exists, right? Can you find a time every day to “dial in” to NOW?
2) intentionally invoke healthy energetic frequencies
- everything exists as a wave energy
- waves (wave-thought) can be constructive or destructive (reference for reminder: IONS Shift, 12/05-2/06 edition, pgs. 15-19)
- we don't create our own energy for life, but we can change the frequency from the inside out
- we can invoke constructive energy waves by feeling love or gratitude; this is also referred to as “the coherence of energetic alignment”
discussion: the human mind's greatest capacity is being conscious -- being able to understand the ability to create feelings, awareness of others, and constructive thought and energy
CONCEPTS RE: GRATITUDE
- the most powerful spiritual resource we have available to us is invoking gratitude
- gratitude creates the context to allow life's experiences
to be gifts, to be most useful in our learning, processing the events in
our lives
(we thank the Universe for all experiences and then we receive the gifts that each experience brings us…) - research definition is interesting:
gratitude is defined as "the
willingness to recognize the unearned increments of value in one's experience" (Bertocci
and Millard, 1963)
discussion: key point: willingness
to recognize -- are we willing?
unearned -- referring to the concept of non-reciprocal expectations
- gratitude is geniune LOVE. It is Universal Divine LOVE. (not human "love"---we have attached other emotions to what we call love and thereby complicated and diluted its true frequency!)
- gratitude
is true medicine for the heart; it creates health within the heart tissue
- gratitude doesn't depend on others
- invoking and expressing gratitude creates a feeling of expansiveness and openness (this is what it means to have an “open heart”)
- purpose of gratitude: to free the heart to focus on the quality of the moment
- to invoke gratitude, quiet your thoughts, be present, then focus your attention of something that you feel great love for…
discussion: it may be a place, your child, a feeling of awe that you felt when you saw an incredible view in nature, a pet companion, a partner, or anything that creates the feeling of warmth and connectedness in your heart; it has been described as a feeling that makes you “melt” into softness inside; experiment to find that one thing you can focus on that instantly brings this feeling into your heart area -- this is your most powerful healing tool
Respectfully submitted,
Sheree Stewart