Fractal Enlightenment

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Catharsis, a Path to Self-Realisation

“The method of repression is to not express. If you feel angry, you don’t express it. You suppress it, you don’t allow it to come out. My method is quite the contrary. If you are angry, express it.” ~ Osho

Powerful negative emotions, if not released, remain trapped in your body forever, and this in turn, leads to disharmony in the body, pain, malfunction and eventually disease. Catharsis is a powerful tool for accessing and releasing pent up emotions; a process of healing, cleansing and purification that affects us on both, emotional and cognitive level.

Originally, the term was used as a metaphor in Poetics by Aristotle to explain the impact of tragedy on the audiences. Catharsis was also used in psychotherapy practice – Freud & Breur described catharsis as an involuntary, instinctive body reaction for example crying.

Reenacting scenes from one’s past, dreams, or fantasies helps the person bring the unconscious conflicts into consciousness and eventually experience catharsis. With increased consciousness comes more relief and positive change (Moreno, 1946).

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Bone Breathing: Making Your Breath Reach the Bones

“Remember to breathe. It is, after all, the secret of life.” ~ Gregory Maguire

Prana or life force is the vital energy that keeps the body alive, and channeling that energy to the different organs in our body is equally important to maintain a state of good health. Our bones are living organs too that provide structure for our body, protect all our important organs and help us nourish our entire body by producing red and white blood cells.

An ancient Taoist practice that uses this life force to restore health and give strength to the bones, is ‘Bone Breathing’. The practice uses breathing and visualization to bring more healing Qi into the bones and joints.

Mantak Chia, a taoist master known for his teaching Taoist practices under the names of Healing Tao, Tao Yoga, Universal Healing Tao System and Chi Kung, in his book, Iron Shirt Kung I, Chia spoke about the potentiality of Bone breathing, “Bone Breathing or bone compression is the method of “Cleansing the Marrow”, or cleaning out fat in the bone marrow so that you can direct and absorb the creative (sexual) energy into the bone to help regrow the bone marrow.”

He also mentioned that bones are highly porous and are always breathing; just like a sponge sucks water, bones suck in oxygen, nutrition and blood.

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Stretch Your Comfort Zone, Stretch Your Life

“Sound when stretched is music. Movement when stretched is dance. Mind when stretched is meditation. Life when stretched is celebration.” ~ Ravi Shankar

The concept of stretching comfort zones is fast becoming a cultural cliché. And it’s typically just something people say to placate themselves from actually doing any real stretching. But it’s still vitally important that we do so. Stretching comfort zones isn’t supposed to be comfortable. It’s supposed to be challenging. There is pain involved, but it’s more like eustress, a beneficial stress.

If you’re not being challenged, then you’re probably not stretching yourself enough. If you’re nice and cozy in the kingdom of your ideals, surrounded by the moat of your precious worldview, then chances are your comfort zone is more akin to a boundary than a horizon. Time to do some stretching. Perhaps some traveling is in order. Or maybe find a giant’s shoulder to stand on.

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5 Ways to Awaken the Master Inside of You

masterstudentimage1 “A master awakens the master in others.” ~ Matt Kahn

I have yet to come across one teacher on the spiritual journey that has not at one time been a student. In fact, it’s the discovery that there is so much that is not known and so much to be learned that inspires most of us to start our spiritual journeys in the first place. The countless questions and thirst for more understanding is what characterizes a student whereas a master is characterized by the one who has the answers.

Often many spiritual seekers take on the role of the diligent student. They read the material, listen to the teachings, perform the rituals but at some point their own inner wisdom and knowing must trump everything. And while both archetypes, student and master, are required to be experienced in any journey (meaning one is no ‘better’ than the other, but simply stages what any seeker goes through), we would all be lying to ourselves if we said we wanted to stay a student forever. So how exactly does this switch take place? At what point does the student turn into the master?

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Three Ways to be an Effective Teacher Without Preaching

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” ~ Alexandra K.Trenfor

There comes a time when we reach a level of awareness – about our selves and others – when we are able to function with love and security, slowly working on ourselves as we move towards the light. There may still be bad days, but all in all we will have dealt with the stealthiest parts of our shadows and are simply working towards being a ray of light for others; an example to follow.

With this comes great responsibility – perhaps the reason why many are avoiding it! – but this is where our true selves shine out. We become a teacher. Not a preacher. The ego preaches. The ego wants to tell everyone else that they are right and you are wrong. A teacher doesn’t need to do this. They have solved the problem of themselves and are simply existing, enjoying the experience of being alive.

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How to Remain a Zombie-slave in Five Easy Steps

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” ~ Walt Kelly

Have you ever caught yourself thinking that maybe the examined life isn’t for you? That becoming the best possible version of yourself sounds like way too much work? That perhaps the pursuit of enlightenment is for the birds and maybe MLK’s dream is nothing more than a pipe dream?

And all that peaceful warrior, rainbow warrior, and infinite player talk is just highfalutin psychobabble? Then this article is just for you. So kick back, relax, and forget about all those self-improvement articles. Here are five easy steps to remaining a zombie-slave. Brains not included.

1) Stop questioning authority
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

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5 Paths To Take When Life Has Become Stagnant

“Do not let your bread of life grow moldy or your living water become stagnant, else weevils and bugs will infest your spiritual food, leaving no nourishment whatsoever” ~ Becka Goings

More often than not, when life becomes stagnant we don’t even realize it has happened. One day we just wake up and – Bam! We understand we’re in a rut and usually have no idea how we got there. A retracing of steps and some honest soul work is usually on the cards – exactly how did I get to this point?

Invariably the answer is close to the surface and can be easily remedied. But beware. An un-examined stagnation period can turn into a life badly lived, and if we aren’t careful it isn’t long before our main regret is not that we didn’t keep our noses down and our mind on the goal but that we didn’t stop to take a look around. Life is messy. It’s not always linear. In fact there’s a lot of too-ing and fro-ing; one step back and two steps forward. Sometimes all we need to do is stop and readjust. We need to keep our dialogue with the universe open and flowing. Else our stream might dry up.

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3 Breathing Techniques for Instant Relaxation

conscious mindful breathing

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

For many of us, breathing is just an automatic function to bring in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, what we don’t realise is that breathing in a constricted manner from the chest, also known as shallow breathing, can increase our stress and anxiety levels.

The true nature of breath does not only lie in the fact that it’s responsible for life, but also, that it defines the quality of our life. David Coutler in the book, Anatomy of Hatha Yoga said, “the breath is the link between mind and body, and that if we can control our breath, we can control every aspect of our being.”

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6 Ways to Let Go of the Past and Not be Controlled by It

controlledimage1

“Everybody’s got a past. The past does not equal the truth unless you live there.” ~ Tony Robbins

Most of us know by now that holding on to the past does us no good. Can we change the past? No. Is reliving a past situation over and over in our minds ever going to make the past different? No. So why is it that so many of us spend time mulling over past situations?

It’s as if our mind believes if we keep thinking about it over and over, somehow we will have a magical thought or revelation that will suddenly make us feel better about what happened. And while this may be the case some of the time, often when we use our heads to “think” of the solution vs. letting our heart feel the feelings it needs to in order to move forward from a situation, we notice that the same issues seem to pop back into our life in one form or another.

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Interdependent Universe: Everything is Connected

“We are all connected; to each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.” –Neil DeGrasse Tyson

What does it really mean to be connected? Let’s look at some similar terminology: linked, associated, related, allied, coupled, joined, attached, fixed, tied, bonded, united, and coalescent. When it comes down to it, no single word can define the concept of everything being connected to everything else. Even the word “interdependent” falls short.

Even the term “quantum entanglement” doesn’t seem to do it justice. And, really, we shouldn’t expect our limited terminology to describe anything accurately. Our words are just tools we use to communicate an experience that ultimately cannot be communicated. And that has to be okay.

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