Archive for the ‘Change’ Category

As a survivor of attempted suicide, I have been a writer and inspirational speaker on depression and suicide for several years.  Since both subjects continue to have stigma attached to them they don’t get the public attention they need. However, whenever there is a suicide by a public or media worthy person, it presents an opportunity.

Such is the case today with the suicide of convicted financier Bernard Madoff’s eldest son, Mark.

There will be broad conjecture on the “why” of it.  Some will suspect an unrevealed personal embarrassment, or will find perverse satisfaction in Mr. Madoff’s tragic loss and suffering, or, will conclude it’s the “sins of the father” visited upon the son.

I leave those judgmental meanderings to others.

For me, it’s about the two things depression and suicide are always about. The abandonment of trust in one’s ability to handle life’s challenges and the temporary misplacement of hope.

Depression is rooted in the fear that somehow “I am not good enough, capable enough or lovable enough” to live a joyful and productive life.  Its weapon of choice is fear… dense, sluggish energy that manifests as immobility.  A depressed person lacks motivation, initiative, passion and staying power.  They become weighted down by inertia.

When one is depressed, it often follows that feelings of hopelessness accompany feelings of inadequacy resulting in an irrational, but seemingly logical, conclusion that things will never change.  The thought of living an unchanging, inert life becomes unbearable.  Unable to stand the pain, ending one’s life seems a viable option and a “constructive” step to take.

What I share when I speak about depression and suicide is that the only constant in life is change.  For we humans, change is frequently challenging and often uncomfortable.  It’s not so much about learning to overcome feelings of inadequacy and inertia as it is about learning to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.   Then everyday can be seen for what it is: an endless opportunity to create, anew, the life we imagine.

There are two steps I am certain move depression in a positive direction and mitigate the likelihood that it will lead, unaddressed, to attempted suicide.

Giving: Feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness simply dissipate, or disappear, the moment we step outside ourselves and provide assistance to another in need.  When you’re depressed volunteer, or just reach out within your immediate environment, and provide some form of help or caring for a family member, friend, neighbor or even animal. The warmth that flows through your system in realizing you are needed and appreciated thaws the freeze of inertia.

Doing something you love:  Every cell in your body stores memory as well as the emotion attached to it.   So, when you’re depressed and force yourself to do something you love to do… cycling… planting… painting… walking in Nature… whatever… even though you may start out depressed, the sheer act of having your cells call up the emotion stored in them, along with the memory of that thing you love, causes a crack in the door to the place where the darkness of depression sulks. Once that crack occurs, the frequency of Light energy bound to that pleasant memory begins to enter the darkness.  The Light energy, seeping in, will elevate and brighten your outlook.  Literally.

Mark Madoff left a suicide note.  It may not be a literal note, on a physical piece of paper, but it’s no less instructive or important.  The note said: “I was lost in doubt and hopelessness. I thought I was not good enough. I didn’t see a way out. I could not bear the pain.”  I know that’s what his note said because anyone who has ever been depressed, attempted or committed suicide would leave the same note.

Treating a  suicide as “newsworthy” is to make a distinction without a difference.   All suicides are newsworthy as they represent the loss of the infinite potential each of us is born with to create a better world.  I hope we can shine a bright light on this topic and, by so doing, illuminate the way for all of those who may be temporarily lost in darkness.

This is why you cannot believe what you read.

Tonight the headline on Fox.com is “U.S. Drops Demand for Israeli Settlement Freeze.” At the same time, the Haaretz.com headline (the Israeli newspaper’s web edition) reads “Israel-U.S. Talks on Settlement Freeze reach dead-end.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I read the Fox headline as implying that the U.S. is okay with Israel proceeding in building their settlements on the West Bank.  That is clearly not what the Haaretz edition is announcing.  That headline reads as if the U.S. and Israel cannot agree, continue to hold disparate positions, and talks are going nowhere.

While I’m generally aligned with how Fox sees things, this is a perfect example of why 1) you have to read beyond the headlines; 2) you have to draw your conclusions based upon your own thorough investigation; 3) you have to check multiple sources and, 4) after you do all of that you may still find yourself either misinformed or totally hoodwinked by a particular agenda.

What in the world do you think you can reply upon say, for example, in the WikiLeaks-Assange stories?   They are, more likely than not, no matter what media outlet you are using, just that!…. stories.  Who knows the truth of that mess and will we ever know?

While we always thought we were living in the Information Age it turns out its the Misinformation Age.

What to do?  What to do?

Start with bringing integrity to what you deal with personally in your everyday life.  Much of what is going on in the world at this time is not something you can affect otherwise.  Yet, don’t underestimate how powerful you as an individual are.  Remember, when a butterfly flaps its wings in New York City wind patterns change in Singapore.   Its just a matter of time.

We are all connected through consciousness.  Thoughts travel and manifest in ways we as yet do not fully comprehend.  What you think and how you think about things changes how the world works.  Literally.  So, leave the global intrigue to those who aspire to false power and exercise true power by being the change you want to see in the world… if I may paraphrase Gandhi.

In the meantime, my father said it best.  Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.  In this Internet Age of Misinformation, I would add “and very little of what you read until you have done your homework.”

P.S.  Don’t believe a word of this post until you…

Well, let me say this from the outset:  If you’ve misplaced, or totally lost your sense of irony and humor in the midst of all the chaos, don’t read any further.  You simply won’t get it.  But if you’re still holding out for some sweetness and light, here it is.

The connection between the newly discovered Star of David on the roof of the Iranian National Airlines building and the chaos resulting from the WikiLeaks disclosure of classified documents is Cosmic Humor.

“What’s that?” you want to know.

Cosmic humor is when God (sometimes referred to as the Universe or Source) is having a good old time doing what it does best… creating.

What is being created at the moment is so obvious one could almost miss it in its simplicity.  Chaos.  Chaos is being created in order to affect real change.  Now there are two plots being acted out here.  I’ll refer to them as the “lower” and “higher” vibration scenarios.

In the lower vibration scenario, individuals and organizations with money and/or power think they are manipulating the masses in order to acquire yet more money and more power.  They are deliberately creating chaos (with a small “c”) to reach their desired ends.

Simultaneously, the higher vibration scenario, commonly referred to as God, is orchestrating (perfect word since we’re literally talking about a higher frequency of energy) events and occurrences that are, in fact, using the lower vibration energies to effect an outcome that moves humankind to its highest and most expansive role ever in the history of the world.  Chaos with a big “C.”

How?

NO MORE SECRETS!

So, back to WikiLeaks and the Star of David on the top of the Iranian National Airlines building.

The information that WikiLeaks is now disseminating has been suspected, and in some cases, known for awhile.  Yes, we now have details… names, dates and places that were heretofore only vague suspicions… but it is really all that startling?   Hasn’t common sense and good old instinct told you this stuff has been going on forever?

And the Star of David?  Really? Come on.  Google Earth just spotted it?  No one knew of it before or saw it?  It’s been there for 30 years!!!  It’s so ironic…funny, actually… that I’m smiling as I type.  A Star of David on the roof of a government building in the center of a country set out to destroy a country and an entire people represented by that star?

You tell me God isn’t having a whopper of a time!

So, while I know the DOW is rocky and the dollar is heading for the dumper and Congress is a joke… take heart.

NO MORE SECRETS.

God is busy reorganizing things.  While He/She is busy cleaning house, let us put up with a little inconvenience for humanity’s sake.  And while we’re patiently waiting, let’s look on the bright side.  The Star of David is watching over everything.

Wasn’t that the original deal?

An awful lot of people are on edge (and that’s putting it mildly) over the latest release of classified government documents by WikiLeaks.org.   It’s no wonder.  The documents reveal conversations, intentions and strategies that were intended to be kept secret not only from the public in general but also from our enemies and allies alike.

Is the content shocking? In some cases, yes.

Is the release itself shocking? Only if you’ve been unconscious for the past several years… or    not reading my posts.

You see, for at least that long I have been writing about the paradigm shift and its concomitant effects.  The most reliable of them being that with the shift there is more high frequency energy inundating our consciousness.

Higher frequency light energy.

What happens when you bring more light into a darkened (a/k/a/ denser) environment?  The light illuminates the environment and the result is less darkness… fewer places where you can obscure or hide things.  Things are brighter, clearer, and more easily accessible.

Now if you apply this principle to the obfuscation of facts, the obvious conclusion is that with higher consciousness there will be fewer secrets.  Less ways and means of obscuring the facts as they are.  The “behind the scenes” disclosures being disseminated by WikiLeaks are simply the result of the presence of light.

No more secrets.

My friends have been listening to me say that phrase repeatedly for the past several years.  Mainly, because I somehow knew that the unfolding paradigm shift would bring with it real change.  Not superficial change… not slogans about change… and not change for the worse, either.

While these disclosures, on their face (prima facie as we lawyers like to say) seem damning, they are, to the contrary, liberating.  They will help free the world from strategies and backroom deals that have perpetuated, for millennia, deception and greed.

As I have also said, while the transition may be difficult… it’s always difficult to move from one way of doing things to another… to change a pattern… in the long run we will be better off in a world where the Light shines brighter and there are fewer dark corners in which the least of what humankind is capable of has a chance to fester and breed.

Out of the shadows and into the Light.  A paradigm shift worth the effort.

For sure.

I am a Jew.  It’s one of two reasons why I feel compelled to weigh in on Glenn Beck’s recent three-part presentation about financier George Soros and the puzzling response to Beck’s presentation.

I am particularly intrigued today by the New York Times piece painting Beck as an anti-Semite while actually holding out the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a source for that conclusion.  The glaring inconsistency between quotes from Abe Foxman of the ADL in the Times article versus a personal letter from Foxman to Beck implies behind the scenes intrigue.  The Times quotes Foxman as calling Beck an Anti-Semite while just three weeks prior Foxman wrote Beck acknowledging his stand for Jews and Israel and calling Beck an obvious “friend”of both.

So what’s up?

As I said, my Judaism is the first reason I’m writing this.  The second is that I am a lawyer by education and so the facts matter to me.

I have watched and listened to Beck for several years now.  My impression and conclusions about him are derived first- hand.  He has been unequivocal in his support of Jews and rationally wavering on his support of Israel.  I say “rationally wavering” because even Israel makes mistakes and when Beck, in his opinion, perceived one to have occurred he has been vocal in his criticism.  Such criticisms have been the exception rather than the rule.

On the Soros airing and analysis, Beck could not have been clearer that the issue was not Soros’s choices and behavior at age 14 in working for the Nazi’s in confiscating personal property of Jews being condemned to the concentration camps, but rather Soros’ audacity, insensitivity and obvious lack of conscience in stating, after the passage of almost 7 decades,   that he had “no regret” about his behavior and that it has been “the best year of his life.”

I think Beck’s synopsis of Soros’ life experiences and financial dealings was less about an Anti-Semite than about a sociopath.

Quite frankly, any interpretation that paints Beck as an Anti-Semite for his having aired Soros in Soros’s own words has to be based in either 1) ignorance of what was actually presented or 2) a masked agenda to distort the facts in order to denigrate Beck.

Either way, as a Jew and seeker of truth who is trained to base her conclusions in fact, I can assert with certainty that Glenn Beck has consistently been an advocate for Jews, a supporter of the Jewish homeland, and a darn good investigative reporter (my characterization of him… not his own).

The New York Times could learn a thing or two.

I have a friend who has conquered several addictions in her life.  It has taken much effort and courage on her part to do so.  And yet, she is still plagued by an incredible amount of fears that sometime nearly immobilize her but, more commonly, pop up just often enough to just keep her from actualizing her full potential.

Today during a phone conversation with her it dawned on me she’s addicted to fear.  It’s a strange statement to make, I know.  Why would anyone be addicted to fear?  Well, if that’s pretty much all you’ve ever known… it would be easy.

So I got to thinking how we in this country have been so conditioned with “manipulation by fear” for so long that, like my friend, we’re addicted to it.  We can‘t seem to get along without it.

After all, almost all media to which we are exposed can be summed up in the adage “Dog Bites Man” doesn’t sell.  “Man Bites Dog”…now that sells!  Why?  Because for a lot longer than I can attest to personally (hello? original sin?) we have been conditioned to respond to a negative rather than a positive.  And, like any conditioning, we’ve become used to it.  Like hanging.  Isn’t that how the saying goes? “If you hang long enough you get used to it?” Problem is, when you get used to hanging its death you’ve grow accustomed to… not life.

So it is with fear.

Whether it’s an erratic Dow Jones Industrial Average, a potential terrorist attack, a category 4 hurricane, possible flu pandemic, toxic green house gasses, or the endlessly broadcast, telecast and webcast stories of tragedy, thievery and criminality… we are hooked on being afraid.  And left unchecked, fear gets in the way of movement in a positive direction.  In fact, in the extreme, fear gets in the way of movement.  Period.

Our addiction makes us slaves… no matter how democratic and free we think we are.

What’s the answer?

Well, it’s like I told my friend today.  She kicked diet pills, gambling and smoking by going cold turkey.  Like Nancy Reagan suggested… by just saying “No.”  My friend got angry at herself each time she reached her tolerance limit because the substance controlled her.  She didn’t control it.

Now getting angry is not usually a good thing.  But when you use anger-energy to motivate your own Will to overcome that which has overrun you… then anger gets put to constructive use.  And after all, isn’t anger just another form of energy?  When used correctly, all energy can be used for the highest good.

My thinking is that a nation addicted to fear needs to go cold turkey.  But we need to start one person at a time.  So today, turn off or tune out or walk away from anything that emanates or generates fear.  Say “no” to fear and take back your life.  The alternative is slavery and death.

You’ve got a choice, you know.

It’s called Free Will.

The past two weeks have been challenging.  First recovering from a virus followed by a sprained shoulder… it’s been a lot of “non-activity” to ask of someone who is inclined to always be working on something. However, since I make it a practice to walk my talk I have to ask myself, “What is the higher lesson to be learned here?”

I think I have it.  The Universe has a rhythm.  In order to successfully live within the Universe, and in harmony with its rhythm, requires us to feel it and more importantly align with it.

I have a tendency to try to move things at my own pace.  This translates into impatience.  It’s kind of funny that I still find myself impatient since I tell my clients that impatience is “the absence of trust in Divine Timing manifested as a need to control outcomes.”

You’d think I’d remember and follow my own advice.

But, like everyone else, I have an ego that occasionally enjoys getting in my own way.  When I fail to recognize or acknowledge the rhythm of the Universe (also known as Divine Timing) I am under the illusion that my will can oppose Thy will and prevail.  And while I use terminology that is religious or spiritual to make the point, it’s somewhat misleading.

Energy is the source of All That Is, including us.  When we fail to align with the Universal or cosmic flow of energy, it’s like attempting to swim upstream.  Better to move in tandem with that energy, or wait it out, until there is a change of either speed or direction that is more supportive of where it is we want to go.

Nature is great example.  Plants have no ego.  They have a time to germinate, a time to grow, a time to bud and a time to bloom.  They make no effort to impose alternate timing or an alternate outcome.  If I can take some liberty and attribute to them a quality they may not exactly have… they trust the Universe.

I think someone tried to tell us to do the same when they said “To everything there is a season…”.

So, its now two weeks into this “slow down period” and the smartest thing I can do is align with it.  Having tried to do otherwise for these past fourteen days, I’ve decided today to begin doing just that.  I meditated for half an hour this morning and now have written this blog.  It is 10:30am.  I am about to spend the rest of the day on the sofa reading, watching uplifting DVD’s and… well…  not much of anything else.

Except awaiting a change of speed and direction, that is..

Like the rest of the world I watched with rapt attention and welling emotion as the last, heroic Chilean miner was lifted from the collapsed mine after being trapped for 69 days. Defying logic and the odds, all 33 men survived an unimaginable nightmare and did so with both grace and dignity intact.

Two thoughts come to mind.  1) There are no accidents, and, 2) there are only two emotions, love and fear.

I have always been a believer that everything happens for a reason… even those things that seem to make no sense at all.  For while we may not be able to make sense of some events or personal experiences, everything that happens offers the potential for growth.  This is Life.

And so, in a world adrift economically, politically, and socially… 33 miners show us how to defy the odds, rise above limitation and scant resources, and accomplish the impossible.

But there’s more.

What the recent rescue teaches us is the power of Love.  In a world so long enamored with the love of power, this is a much needed lesson.

The people of Chile are apparently of hearty stock, with an indomitable spirit, national pride, passion for life, unshakable belief in God, and comfort with the expression of emotion regardless of gender. Love of life, love of country, love of one another and love of God.

And the complete absence of fear.

I did not hear or see fear anywhere.  Not among the trapped miners, not by the President of Chile, not by the waiting family members who camped out in the desert for months on end. Fear was absent in Chile and in the absence of fear, miracles occur.

There are no accidents.  What we have witnessed in Chile is a lamp unto the nations… the hand of God… reaching out to guide us in the direction of all that is good.

May we pay attention, set our intentions, and proceed with unbridled love.