Barbara Bennett

A Critical Move: From head to heart

As we’ve seen in previous blog posts, most of the time we humans are living from our heads. (see Mind Games). This is not what we want. We want to be our most authentic selves. We want to allow our hearts to lead us through life because the heart is the most powerful tool on the planet.

So, now we will take a look at what contemporary science, and deep human experience, knows about the heart. We are not going to talk about heart in the usual colloquial way, although we humans do use phrases like, “it would break your heart”, “take it to heart”, “my heart’s not in it”, “he is heartbroken”, “I just ‘love’ this or that”, or “get to the heart of the matter”. No, we’re going to take a look at the actual power of heart frequency, which is much greater than any of our usual heart-based understandings. Let’s begin with some contemporary heart facts.

The heart has its own intelligence. It turns out that the heart contains thousands of its own brain cells. It has an electro-magnetic field that is the most powerful, and the most extensive, field in the human body. The heart’s potent field is about 5,000 times stronger than the electro-magnetic field of the brain. The energy frequency that the heart broadcasts can be detected several feet away from the body, between people, and throughout the Earth’s atmosphere. (Make sure to watch the video below.)

Research shows that our heart directs what happens. The heart sends its messages to the brain and the brain responds to that message, even before we actually act on the physical plane. An example of this is how our non-physical, invisible, heart-intent trumps the intent of our mind.

The heart does it all. It powers all levels of existence—from the most compact, physical, 3D Shadow level, through the lightest, non-physical, 5D Gift level, and far beyond.

Neuro-physicists have discovered that the heart is able to facilitate or inhibit the brain’s electrical activity. This aptitude is why I think the following quotation from Jack Kornfield is of particular importance,

“The Heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment, or love. What seeds will you plant?”

— Jack Kornfield

This is a great question. We’ve seen how our mind is often in an over-active mode, functioning on automatic pilot (see my post Let’s face it, we’re on automatic). This behavior is based on fear because our mind has learned to protect us. But we want to learn how to come from love, from the heart.

The problem is that many of us have not yet learned to engage the sensitive guidance of our heart’s intuitive intelligence. Magic happens when the mind finally realizes there is something much more significant that it can be doing to help us in our life experience. As Dr. Sue Morter (see her Fear Into Fire course) says:

“The human heart has the capacity to transmute anything. You can pour love on any situation, and it will change.”

— Dr. Sue Morter

The heart has a GPS

The heart has an Intuitive Guidance System which uses non-local, or non-physical, energy. This intelligence comes from another dimension. It comes from the higher, creative, intuitive part of us. It comes from our Gift dimension—from the quantum field.

This heart intelligence brings with it a gentle, direct, instantaneous kind of inner knowing. We may sense that someone is staring at us or know who is on the phone when it rings. We may be able to detect the mood of another person across the room or feel their energy. This heart-knowledge responds to difficult life situations with less tension and more expertise. The good news is that we can anticipate and learn to follow the prompts of the heart before we say or do something that we may later regret.

Intuitive heart-energy is based on love rather than on fear, and it is filled with possibility. This kind of love is not syrupy. It manifests as needed—soft, gentle, sweet, courageous, or ferocious. This kind of love simply uses the power of our heart to enhance our intelligence. When this occurs, something magical can happen. This is when we get that “aha” experience. Knowing comes to you. You just know.

When we work in partnership with our mind, the heart pulls in intuitive information which selects the best option for the situation at hand. With practice, our heart can help us get to the underlying understanding of our thoughts, feelings, circumstances, and problems faster than anything else.

For example, I had been struggling with a difficult emotion for days. I didn’t like it and I didn’t understand it. Then, as I was stepping into the shower—flash—the answer appeared with a zap: This is the exact feeling I had as a child every morning! I was not loved. I wasn’t allowed to give love to my parents. There was to be none of that mushy stuff. My love was not noticed or accepted. It was tossed aside. I was alone.

The next zap came when I realized, as a child, I had built an emotional prison for myself, locked my heart down. I had dreams of a bright red lobster. Oh my, this represented my safe place! I hid inside the shell; the lobster was keeping me safe.

Another zap, I was creating the same shell in my current family environment! (Wow, I never would have figured this out with my usual mind.) The lesson is, when we allow the heart’s information to surface, the heart sends wisdom to the mind.

The heart can change our lives

Current research shows that we can take charge of how we respond moment-to moment. That means we humans need to understand how to make this shift so that we can use the most powerful tool on the planet!

Watch this 7-minute video from HeartMath to see the extent of the power of the heart—from an individual’s perspective right up to adding value to the collective frequency of humankind.

For training your own Heart Core Power try this course offered by Henk at Crack Your Egg ($19.00 while the offer lasts).

I’ve been chomping at the bit to tell you about this life transforming practice; but my guides kept saying, “Not yet…not yet.” Now they say “yes.” (That means we must be ready as a group to understand, accept, and follow through with this life-enhancing practice.) What I am about to share with you is deceptive. It is simple and yet profound. When practiced with intent, it is amazingly powerful. So, let’s get to it…

Heart Centering

Step 1: Focus your attention on your chest and keep it anchored there as long as possible.

Step 2: Release any thoughts or feelings that arise which cause you to move away from your heart focus. Every time you wander away from the center of your chest (your heart center), say the following sentence to yourself: I love and accept the part of me that (fill in the blank). This could be a feeling, a thought, a sensation whether it’s positive or negative. For example, you might say to yourself, “I love and accept the part of me that moves me away from my center.” You may not like to say this, but it is a human part of you and each part needs to be accepted so that it can be seen and released.

That’s it! It’s that simple. And yet, when practiced with intent, it has the power to change your life. Why? Because…

• It takes you out of your head.
• It clears and releases old, learned, accumulated stuff that you’re still carrying around in your subconscious.
• It re-directs your invisible energy to your heart, which is the higher command center of your actions.

In essence, this practice is almost like a fast-track practice for waking up.

It just depends on the amount of time you put your focus on your heart and the amount of time you practice. You can practice anytime—in the morning upon waking, at night when going to sleep, during the middle of the night if you find yourself awake, or any time throughout the day.

The thing is that switching your focus from your head to heart changes everything. It’s the difference between living life through the lens of the separate, automatic, body/mind system or experiencing life through your higher Self, the quantum field of which you are an integral part. In reality you, are not separate. You are actually made of the raw magical substance of love. You are always connected to this invisible energy Source.

To live in this way is our fondest desire—to integrate our higher self into everyday life, to live our most authentic self, to participate in the flow, and to co-create with Source.

“The heart is the master that the mind seeks.”
Barbara Bennett

— Barbara Bennett

What you may experience in this practice

As you engage this Heart Centering Practice, there are some things you may experience:

This practice is simple, yet it may seem impossible at first. (That’s what happened to me.) After some practice, you will begin to be more nuanced in your observation. You will notice that you are continually being drawn away from the center of your chest. You will very easily lose your heart-focus and migrate into your usual mind-focused habit of conjuring up tidbits of information that are seeking attention. When you do this, it means that you are not totally coming from your heart. So, when this happens, just say, “No thank you; I’ve been going off center all my life, now I want to experience my heart’s information.” But each time you notice you’ve wandered off you will be reminded to return to your own Heart-Center.

Your sense of gravity may seem to deepen. Through the heart lens, you become an objective observer. There is no judgment, no expectation, no tension. It’s just “right-on” present experience which is guided from the field of infinite wisdom. This is the lens which yields the most delicious love and joy.

Some days this practice will be easier than others. Try not to look ahead at what you still want to achieve. Instead, give yourself credit for each time you return to center. If you find yourself spontaneously going to your chest at any time of the night or day, congratulate yourself even more on the success you’ve already achieved. (After a lot of practice, your mind will be very happy to let the heart do its work.)

“It’s much easier to act your way to a new way of thinking than it is to think your way to a new way of acting.”

— Henk J. M. Schram

When you find yourself getting down on yourself (as we all do) just say, “I love and accept the part of me that gets down on myself”, or “I love and accept the part of me that can’t do this today”, or “I love and accept the part of me that feels hate, or grief, or shame”, or “I love and accept the part of me that is burdened with the world”. Remember, these are all just parts that have been crammed into your subconscious, and they are coming up to be made transparent and cleared.

The good news is these troubled parts are chock full of life-giving energy which is now consciously coming up to be cleared. This is exactly what we want—old energy transforming into new energy that can be used in a positive way in the world.

So, go ahead, start practicing today, right now. In the end, you have nothing to lose, and so much to gain by engaging with this mind-blowing, heart-opening practice.

For a fuller explanation and demonstration, you may choose to watch Georgia Jean, who channels the Circle of Light, demonstrate this practice in a 22-minute video.

Am I brave enough to come out of my box?

Last time, we talked about all the hidden things that have prevented us from being our authentic selves. We also gave contemporary evidence that we can learn to overcome our Shadow limitations and move into our Gifts. But now we face a decision.

1. Are we going to keep trying to ignore the hurtful things that come up inside? Are we going to continue to store them in our basement and try to deny them? Yes, we can stay in our old, familiar, subconscious perspective (even if it continues to make us feel lousy) simply because it’s what we’ve been used to doing all our lives. Or…
2. Can we decide to come out of our comfort zones and do something different? Do we have the courage to dive in and resolve our recurring aggravations? (You know, the usual ones that keep coming up to hold us in place.) This is the tough choice. Change takes effort, dedication, and courage.

But here’s the thing. The effect of this choice determines the course of the rest of our lives. Think about it. If we decide to keep things the way they are, our Shadow-selves will continue to haunt us.

Fear and distress will become themes in our daily lives. Denying the underlying disturbances that keep us in status quo will prevent us from experiencing our Gift-selves. We will be unable to come out of the box and fulfill our Source-given potential.

To help you discover what the right choice is for you, I offer you this personal inquiry. Please read each section slowly. After each section, close your eyes and take the time to contemplate what the words bring up for you.

Personal inquiry: Am I brave enough to come out of my box?

Stop for a moment. Pause. Feel the space inside your hands. Feel the space within your feet. Feel inside your head. What’s there? Space! Oh my, who am I?

What have I done? Have I accidentally learned to live inside a familiar, confining box! It’s no one’s fault. My parents and teachers didn’t know how life really works. I didn’t mean to create this close-fitting garment, this capsule, but here I am, same old feelings and concerns, coming up again and again.

If I’m honest with myself, I can feel some fear inside, some sadness. Underneath, there are very subtle feelings of which I’m not usually aware. How did I get here?

Since I came into this world, my energy has splintered. A lot of my energy goes into my head. I can feel some energy in my body. But somehow, I sense there is a great deal of energy that’s still hung up, waiting to see if I’m ever going to feel safe enough to come out of my box.

I know I have my own patterns, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, but are they really who I am? It’s not like I actually choose them. They just come up unbidden. Automatic.

Wait a minute, let me contemplate this for a moment. When I close my eyes and really feel into the space inside me, I don’t think that I’ve actually discovered the whole truth of who I am, or who I could be.

There is more. There is a deep part of me that knows I’ve been living from within a confined place. It’s stuffed with beliefs and patterns, like a default mode that runs on auto pilot.

Yet, if I allow it, there is another part of me that feels more expansive, spacious, and empty. If I permit myself to go to this place, I can sense emptiness in my hands, my feet, my head. This emptiness is also a part of me. And it doesn’t feel scary, even though I don’t know what it’s about. Curious.

I think I may have actually lived myself into a box. Do I dare come out? Do I dare to look, feel, and explore more deeply? Who knows, I just might be one of those “energy beings” that I’ve been learning about. Really, what’s the worst thing that can happen? This could be an adventure, a branching out. Do I dare?

Note: Now is a good time to write down, or say out loud to yourself, what you’ve discovered during this personal exploration. Who knows, there may even be more that wants to come up. Go ahead, allow, be surprised—for better or worse. Take the chance.

Our automatic selves

So far this year, we’ve been looking at the latest and greatest information on waking up—the underlying nature of how things work, and the hidden dynamics that make up our day-to-day reality. We discovered that:

• Our energy is what animates us.
• Our DNA determines the frequencies in our bodies. Our genes drive our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors—from our Shadows to our Gifts.
• Our feelings are running our body/mind systems.
• Our minds are leading us around by the nose.
• Our subconscious is keeping us trapped in the past.

Let’s face it, most of the time, we are operating on automatic!

This is not a surprise

When I first realized that most of my life was running on auto pilot, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was appalled. Disappointed. Angry. But now, after learning about the underlying dynamics of how our body/mind systems work, this fact is no longer surprising, especially when contemplating what Dr. Nilesh Jain (a microbiology researcher) has to say…

Five minutes after your birth, they decide your name, nationality, religion, sect, and you spend the rest of your life defending something you didn’t choose.

All our lives we continue to look outside ourselves to learn how to behave in the world. This restricts our development further. In fact, looking to the outside even determines our moods.

Richard Rudd, author of The Gene Keys: Embracing Your Higher Purpose, says:

The human tendency to look outside is the greatest addiction on our planet…this addition sets up a low frequency pattern which keeps us locked into a web of our own making. This pattern gets reinforced over and over again.

All of the above sounds pretty grim, but don’t worry, contemporary teachers and researchers have shown there are many things that we humans can do.

We have a choice

We can break through the shells that we’ve built around us. These shells keep us disconnected from our higher selves and from our true desires. A good way to learn how to break out of our shells is to take courses given by Dr. Henk J. M. Schram. Henk is a down to earth teacher who provides simple, yet effective information that I’ve never run across in all my years of studying psychology or spirituality. I highly recommend a deceptively simple course given by Henk @ Crack Your egg. And this course is free!

We can ditch the old patterns that bog us down. Bruce Lipton, a noted cell biologist (way before epigenetics was even recognized), says, “We have all been programmed. That’s the nature of human development.” But when he discovered how our cells actually work, he was over the top, “Oh my God, we’re controlling our genes…Stop running the program! We have a choice.”

Lipton explains that ditching the old program is a bit like choosing to take the red (expansive) pill, instead of the blue (programmed) pill in the Matrix movie. With the red pill, the old programing disappears, and we can handle whatever comes up in our environment with ease.

He also tells us that choosing to drop our program is like experiencing the euphoria of love. (I love how Bruce Lipton explains things.) “This is what happens when you fall in love. You meet someone and 24 hours later you say life is beautiful! This is because people stay mindful. If you’re not thinking, you’re not playing the program.” So what’s not to like about dropping our old programs?!

We can change our entire body/mind systems. With today’s brain imaging tools, we can actually see what’s going on in the brain. We can develop techniques, ways to change our systems for the good.

We can re-program our brains. Dr. Joe Dispenza uses the technique of rehearsal to emotionally train our body/minds to experience the future that we actually desire.

We can learn to go way beyond our automatic behaviors. Dr. Joe has already trained thousands of ordinary people to attain extraordinary states of consciousness. (The research on this is truly amazing.)

When we decide to go beyond our automatic behaviors, we go outside of our comfort zone. We take the risk of going into the unknown. We can’t predict what will happen. This feels uncomfortable, scary, but as Dr. Joe explains, this phase of discomfort is well worth it because “the more you start becoming aware of your unconscious thoughts, the more conscious you go.”

Note: For hard-core “wake-up-ers,” listen to the first hour of this video interview. Dr. Joe explains what’s involved in reprogramming ourselves to live our new future dream.

Upcoming blog posts

So far, we’ve examined the underlying nature of how things work and the hidden dynamics that make up our day-to-day realities.

In upcoming blog posts, we will dive in a bit deeper. We will explore the invisible non-physical reality that actually shapes our lives, the importance of moving from our heads to our hearts, learning to direct our energy, and aligning with our higher, natural, creative energy. After all, we want to wake up! We want to live more joyous and productive lives. We want to contribute to the good in the world.

The subconscious mind

Today, we’re going to take a look at the subconscious part of us. I’ve discovered (through research and experience) that what our subconscious mind can do is both unsettling and astounding. The power of this hidden dynamic is enormous. Our subconscious mind holds a key which can unlock a trap door which keeps us stuck. Let’s take a look at what the subconscious is, why it’s important, and how it works.

What it is

The subconscious mind is the part of us which is not in our conscious awareness. Research shows that we humans are actually conscious only 5% of the time; 95% of the time we are functioning through our subconscious mind. And to think, most of us haven’t got a clue.

The subconscious mind is a subterranean operation, which lies deep within the recesses of our body/mind systems. It is constantly working behind the scenes, under the radar of our physical bodies.

The subconscious is a product of a hidden agenda that tells us what to do or not do, what to want or not want, what to feel or not feel.

The subconscious mind functions as an involuntary process. It is an entire structure which is filled with its own set of learned ideas, fears, and expectations of the world.

Why it’s important

Despite the fact we’re not aware of this operation, the subconscious is a controlling force in our lives. It is a determining factor in how we make our moment-to-moment decisions.

Our subconscious mind wants to keep us safe. It urges us to hang on to our old, limiting beliefs and behaviors. It keeps us locked in the past. In this way, we continue to live in our fixed, personally crafted, bubbles.

Understanding, and opening up, the subconscious can make the difference between experiencing life as heaven or hell.

The problem is that this reflective, fear-based process is all pervading, encompassing, and controlling, so it’s almost impossible to detect unless we know how it works.

How it Works

Our subconscious mind is baked into our DNA. It is designed to respond to present danger. However, because we humans have experienced fear for eons, our accumulated fear has turned into a maladaptive fear response. Many humans are now living in a constant state of anxiety. This keeps us on the alert long after the danger has passed. As Dr. Sue Morter (a master of bio-energetic medicine) explains:

Long after the bear is gone…the autonomic nervous system doesn’t flip back…the last message that got through was [interpreted as] emergency and then the door shut…emergencies can be gone for 5 minutes or 50 years…the body will continue to respond as if the emergency is here even when there is no actual threat…So, you can see how we can get stuck.

When we feel threatened in any way, consciously or unconsciously, our subconscious springs into action. It is a master of avoidance. It wants to steer us clear of anything that feels uncomfortable. It uses all the old, accumulated, information, the hidden agendas, to get us to deny, avoid, or bypass any discomfort as it comes up. And then it refuses to open the trap door, denying us the stockpile of personal material which we actually need if we are to process all this old junk. Like it or not, our behavior is subtly being maneuvered by our subconscious mind.

Conclusion

The good news is that we are not our subconscious; we simply have a subconscious. Behind the scenes rests our higher selves, our deeper Life Source Energy, which is always whispering to us, “We are waiting for you. Please come on board.”

For those of you who want to learn more about how to understand, deal with, and release the trap door, you may wish to follow the B.E.S.T. Release Practice that Dr. Sue Morter outlines in, Energy Codes: The 7-Step System to Awaken Your Spirit, Heal Your Body, and Live Your Best Life. This is what I did. (Note: this practice requires using muscle testing to find the belief and emotion that is stuck, assuming a yoga position, and simultaneously holding your breath—not the easiest practice in the world.)

How we come to play mind games

We learn

When we were very young, we had no mind games. Life just flowed through as is. There was no past or future, only the present. We watched in wonder as ants marched across the sidewalk or a shiny object or smiling face appeared. We were fascinated. We experienced the joy of a flower, drank our milk with gusto, and hurled cereal onto the floor. We lit up with delight at the simplest thing. There was exploration, discovery, joy, pain, discomfort, dismay. We just flowed with it all.

As we grew, everything changed. The flow that brought us wonder and joy became conditioned and was reinforced by parents and society. Our direct experience became corrupted. The wonderous “ant” became a concept, which developed into the “problem” when we had to keep them out of the house. (But I’m getting ahead of the process.)

We adopt early strategies

We needed to keep our little selves safe. We needed to develop adaptive ways to function within the environment in which we found ourselves. For example, as a young child, I came to believe that I was not safe. I couldn’t trust life. I came to believe that I was not lovable. My parents were into their own ego bubbles, with little awareness of me or my needs.

These early, unconscious, beliefs led me to develop unconscious strategies:

• I made myself invisible, kept quiet, and stayed in the background. I had to keep an eagle eye out for what was going on or else I could get hurt.
• I took stock of people before I engaged. I had to test them out to see if I could trust them to stick by me.
• I worked hard. I took care of myself since no one else was going to be there for me. I learned to play these mind games to judge the world — and ultimately myself.

In essence, we’ve each created our own little world, our own little bubble of reality. However, this early information is an outdated, distorted, view of the world. The problem is that it continues to color our interpretation of how things need to be for us to feel ok. Unfortunately, this is the lens through which most of us continue to look, and so….

We judge

We judge things—everything, people, places, attitudes, opinions. We are master judgers. Our mind is continually interpreting whatever comes into our surroundings. What does the mind think? Does it like that color, that meal, that tree, that person? Is our nose too big? Are we too fat, or skinny? Did we behave all right at the party? What do we think about the folks next door, our community, our country? How do we feel about our partner, our children—yesterday or in this moment? How do we feel about ourselves? It just goes on and on.

To help me realize how often I analyze and judge, I invented an imaginary neutrality meter. Instantly, in a blink of the eye, I can notice where my needle is pointing. Straight up means neutral. To the right is positive. To the left is negative. (My husband can make the needle go maximum left or right.) This silly little meter catches me time and time again. When I’m complaining, criticizing, or blaming, the needle goes left. When I’m content, or coming from my center, it goes to the right.

Why does all this matter? It matters because we’ve learned to become victims of our own minds. I know this sounds awful, but just think about how often we become victims of our own feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. We’ve learned to react to what others say. We react to what we see on the news. We react to what we think of ourselves. And….

We suffer

I’ll give you a personal example. This morning, for the third day in a row, I woke up with a grumpy attitude. Something weird is going on. The more I look into this, the more disgruntled I become. Then it hit me, right now, underneath everything, I am feeling hate! My mind grabs on to this idea and quickly branches into criticism and self-sabotage. I hate my routine behavior. I hate the robotic behavior of other people. I’m supposed to be a loving and compassionate human being, but here I am filled with this hate! I am a phony, a failure. I’ll be honest, in this moment, I hate the very “self” that I’ve created for myself. Ugh. Treason.

We learn more

I find Karla McLaren’s book, The Language of Emotions: What your feelings are trying to tell you, and read with great interest:

We all come into this world with a 360-degree soul, which is brave and cowardly, brilliant and stupid, gentle and murderous, caring and selfish, graceful and clumsy, and so on into infinity…if you aren’t aware of your hatreds, your name-calling, your pettiness, you won’t be able to discover ways in which your psyche has been diminished…you won’t be able to integrate the suppressed and lost parts of your whole, 360-degree self and you’ll miss the profound movements your psyche is trying to make.

What profound movements is my psyche trying to make? My old strategies may have been brilliant in my young life, but they certainly are not helping me now. I realize I have unconsciously created judgments of what I think an ideal spiritual life should be. And I wasn’t living up to them. (This seems crazy because I believe I can’t possibly know what’s to come, any more than a child can know what it’s going to be like as an adult.) There is a wide gap between what I’m feeling right now (hateful and miserable) and what I’d like to be feeling (loving and compassionate). I realize that, when I identify with my mind, then something is not right. It feels like something is missing. I’m tired of these mind games. I’m giving up on this whole mess. Then, out the blue, a question floats in…

What’s awesome about this moment right now?

WHAT? Right now, when I’m in misery? But the question stops me in my tracks. What is actually awesome right now? Hmm…It’s the fact that this question just floated into my head. It’s like I received a particular call on my cell phone. It’s the fact that I can stop in this moment. Bam. I can step above, or beside, my current experience. This is the Gift! I can slow down. I can consciously witness where I am. I hold this space and wait to see what happens.

Even though this hate feels like a call from hell, I can love and accept the part of myself that feels hate. Wait, I’m not going to accept this call. It’s from an old program and I’m sick of it. This is a spam call. I didn’t sign up for this message. Been there, done that. Screw you. I’m, blocking this call right now. (I love this new technology!) I’m sending a text to hate, “Thank you for another life lesson.”

Note: this experience reflects some of what I’ve learned from Henk J.M. Schram and his Crack Your Egg program. I highly recommend this program.

What about you?

What early strategies did you adopt to get through life?

How do your strategies still color your judgment, affect your life? How do they call in suffering?

When you contemplate your world right now, what’s awesome about the moment in which you find yourself?

Oh boy. In the last blog, I said that we would take a look at what’s going on in our heads. Well, I’ve been taking a look at what my mind is doing and it’s not a pretty picture. My mind is constantly busy. It makes me think of the comedienne Lucy Arnaz when she played a worker on the assembly line of a chocolate factory. When she couldn’t keep up, she did what she could, stuffing chocolates into pockets and mouth. Overload! This is funny in a comedy sketch, but not in real life. The mind is a bit like this, constantly producing product which quickly passes by.

I’m also noticing that the mind wants to dominate. The mind likes to make us “think” that we are in control. But try this: Don’t think of a blue giant with wings and flowers. (OK. Be honest, what just happened?) Chances are, that despite the fact you were explicitly told NOT think of something, you did anyway.

In essence our minds are both busy and automatic. This is the state of the current human condition. Michael Singer, teacher, and author of The Untethered Soul wants to make us aware of this condition. He says, “You have a mental dialogue going on inside your head…it just keeps going and going… and if you think you don’t, just listen to what your mind is saying right now.” Yes, we hear you Michael. It’s our constant commentator.

Singer goes on to explain that the reason we humans have troubles is because, underneath, we don’t feel good about ourselves, “People are not ok inside…your mind has decided how things should be in order for you to be ok…you can complain about this…or you can take a look at what’s going on inside. Let’s be scientists.” Ok, Michael Singer, we’re up for the challenge. We’re going to take a look.

Exercise: Watching and catching the mind

• Keep track of how many times your mind takes you over. Watch. Breathe. Keep paying attention.
• Each time you find your mind starting to go off on its own, give yourself a check mark. (You know—1-2-3-4 ticks and then the payoff, the slash mark.) See how many points you can rack up. I know people you have accumulated over 80!)
• Notice how your mind moves, how it darts around, it’s demanding to be front and center. That’s how it rules the roost.
• Watch how your mind distracts you—taking you out of the moment and into the past or future.
• Watch for opinions. Watch for judgments. Watch for stories that start with one thought and then branch out in all directions. (Don’t forget to give yourself a check mark for each event you notice.)
• Give yourself an extra check mark every time you realize you’re going off, and then come back to center.

Please let me know how you do with this practice.

This mind-check practice is a good way to see what is actually going on in our heads. This is important to understand because we want our minds to be of service to us, not to be leading us around by the nose.

“If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.”

–Lao Tzu

We want to be able to witness, and switch, ourselves back to center. We want to learn about the hidden awareness which can, and is, constantly changing our bodies, feelings, and minds. (Much more about this in future blogs.)

Further ways to build your “muscle of awareness”

Dawson Church, teacher, author, and researcher (here’s his 21-day Tapping Challenge) recommends times that are especially good for viewing, catching, and shifting awareness back to self:

• When you first wake up in the morning
• As you’re falling asleep at night
• When you realize that your thinking is being pulled into negativity
• When you’re tempted by an addictive habit
• When you’re awake in the middle of the night
• When you are expecting to go into a difficult situation
• When you’re tempted to think negatively about another person
• When you’re being self-critical
• When you feel anger rising in your body
• When you’re experiencing physical pain or symptoms
• When you’re focused on breaking an unhealthful habit

When we strengthen our “muscle of awareness,” we can learn to coax our authentic selves back. (Remember, it’s not how many times we move away from ourselves, it’s how many times we come back.) With practice, we begin to notice when we are “off our game” or absent from our life, rather than present. And when we do notice, Ahh, we are starting to come Home. Let it feel good.

Remember, there is light for you, and your mind, at the end of the tunnel. Together we will work on building our awareness, mastering our minds, and moving into our inherent gifts. In this way we will be sending our positive vibes out into the world.

Prologue: In the previous blog, my lower self was hoping that this blog would be about the mind. But, at 5:30 one morning, my guides whispered “reverse engineer” the process. So, we need to start with feelings instead of mind. This is because feelings are the first to activate our body/mind process. So here goes; we’ll take a look and see what we find.

Feelings are running the show

We all have emotions, feelings that come and go. We have subtle feelings, intense feelings, positive feelings, and negative feelings. Turns out we have feelings that are seen and unseen, felt and unfelt, heard and unheard. All of these feelings have a huge effect on our minds, our bodies, and how we behave every day. Some emotions are readily apparent. We’ve all experienced fear, anger, guilt, shame, sadness, grief, confusion, boredom, happiness, contentment, and sometimes joy. Other emotions are buried deep within our subconscious.

Emotions have consequences. Brain science now shows that every three seconds we are unconsciously scanning our bodies, asking “am I safe, am I safe?”

And even a slight shift in mood “will trigger our DNA into some form of biological response.”

This is the reason that, when we are having a bad day, we find ourselves in a negative (low frequency) frame of mind, and when we are in a positive (higher frequency) frame of mind, things are more likely to go our way.

When we take emotions, behaviors, and the body into account, things really get wild. Dr. Joe Dispenza, a noted teacher, writer, and neuro-science researcher, tells us…

“Emotions have more power over us than our minds… Emotions from the past drive your thoughts… Over the years, the body becomes the unconscious mind.”

Yikes, this is amazing. So, I set out to study Dr. Joe’s work. Here is what I learned:

• When we have emotions, or feelings, it means that we are thinking in the past. We are not living in the present. In this way, we just keep creating the same past over and over again.
• Then our brain starts to generate more and more thoughts that correspond to those same emotional states. This is what causes us to stay in our rut.
• Our past emotions drive our present-day thoughts. After years of following this same protocol, the mind actually becomes conditioned to be the body; it becomes the unconscious mind. Most of us are completely unaware of how our moods, thoughts, and beliefs literally mold our attitudes and even determine the electromagnetic signals that reach the DNA in our bodies.
• Science shows us that the body does not know the difference between an actual present-moment experience and one that we imagine, or re-create, from the past. Each time we have a feeling, the physical body believes it is living in that same experience, whether it is in the present or past.
• Because our body has been conditioned by our mind, it’s very difficult to change. We make a decision to try something new. Things go well for a few hours, or a few days, and then the old body-mind response creeps in. We start to make excuses. I don’t have time. I’m too busy. I’ll do it tomorrow. I have to answer emails, wash my hair, weed the garden. The old, familiar protocol kicks in and we are back where we started.
• But wait, we want to step out of all these shenanigans. We want to go beyond our conditioned feelings and brain patterns. We want to learn to be our fullest, deepest, most authentic selves.

The good news is that can change. We can step out of our old patterns. We can step into new realms. Neural brain science is showing that we can train our brain and change our experience—giving us a whole new outlook on life. Researchers such as HeartMath, Dawson Church, Dr. Joe, and many others are discovering that higher frequency brain waves, stronger heart-coherence, and new life-environments are happening in real-time for regular people. This is what our journey is all about—experiencing, expanding, learning, and growing in real time.

We can learn specific ways to mentally rehearse our future. Mental rehearsal installs new neurological hardware; the brain then responds as if the future has already occurred! Dr. Joe explains that when this happens, “the brain then is no longer a record of the past. It’s a map to the future.” (I think this brain-entrainment thing may be what’s happening during my walks, when my environmental surround turns into a wonderland, broadcasting love, beauty, and joy everywhere, despite what is occurring on the outside.)

As Dr. Joe explains, “The moment you made the choice to go from the old self to the new self, you are stepping into the river of change.” He advises us not to wait, “you can’t wait until you heal to feel wholeness…you can’t wait for wealth to feel abundance…for success to feel empowered…for the mystical moment to feel awe …for a new relationship to feel love…that’s the old model of reality…you can’t wait for something outside of you to feel something inside of you.”

So, why wait? Let’s move along in our journey of discovery. In the next blog post, we will inquire into what’s really going on in our heads.

When you think about it, we are spirits learning how to be humans, and at the same time, we are humans learning how to be spiritual. Bringing these two frequencies together is what authentic living is all about. This means we want to bring our spiritual selves, our highest energies, down to Earth. We want to help our spiritual frequencies connect with our lower selves, allowing our higher selves to come into our bodies, our minds, and our everyday functioning. We want to embrace and live our fullest, most truthful, and highest selves.

These are the kinds of things I was contemplating when I noticed that my own higher self was actually trying to come down to express itself. At the same time, my usual lower, ego-self was trying to go up. Conundrum. What to do?

A talk with my Higher Self

Flash, a download comes. I realize that my lower shadow-self wants to actually talk to my higher-self! Wow, I never thought of it this way before. I decide to give it a try. I’m ready to go. I’m going to start the conversation with my usual ego-self and see what happens. Here goes nothing:

Me: Hey, Higher Self, I want to have a conversation with you. I’m perplexed. I’ve been learning all these things about energy and frequency and DNA. Sometimes I even experience myself as a body of light, but then I get all wobbly and feel off-center. I’m all over the place. I don’t know what to do.

Higher Self: Well, if you think you’ve got it bad, I am a body of light. I have many light powers. But everything on Earth is so dense. I don’t get it. How do I get this fleshy Earthy thing that I find myself in to stay on the ground?

Me: Don’t ask me. I’m trying to be a body of light; but I have all these thoughts and feelings and sensations constantly running through me. It’s maddening. I wasn’t born with an instruction manual, you know. I want to know my most expansive self. I want to be free. I’m looking for help.

Higher Self: I could use some help myself. I’ve never been in a body before. When I zoom into yours, I can’t navigate. I find that I’m flying off into empty space. This bio-body vehicle just does its own thing. I see it’s got a crazy mind of its own and it usually operates in the band of dense frequency. I can’t get through. I find resistance. What’s up with that?

Me: Give me a break. I’m just starting to understand what I am. Yeah, I know I’m me, I’m you, I’m all energy. I’m just beginning to get that my DNA actually contains hidden gifts. This is what I want to cultivate. This is the path I want to take. From past experience, I know that you, Higher Self, are a built-in part of me. But what’s a human being supposed to do with all this?

Higher Self: Well, you are right. I am definitely a part of you. I am the part of your consciousness that is pure and free. And I am here to help you wake up and move into your true potential. The thing is, I want you to use me. I want you to help me bring my wisdom-power down to Earth. I want you to fly with me.

Me: I want that too! I’m keep trying to find ways to move out of my shadow self. I do want to connect with you. I want you to flood my body, my mind, and my everyday functioning with light. But I just keep bouncing back and forth between high and low frequencies. When I mention these things, many of my friends haven’t got a clue as to what I’m talking about.

Higher Self: I get it. High and low frequencies give drastically different perspectives of life. But I think I can help you out. Are you open to let me crack through your density? Are you ready to explore reality beyond your current perspective? Are you willing to expand and step into the unknown?

Me: Yes, I am. And I’m willing to do what I need to do. I want to understand. I want to grow. I want to expand. I want to blossom into all that I can be. Maybe we could do this growing thing together?

Higher Self: Yes, let’s do it. We’ll join forces. I’ll give you tips about living as a light body with infinite potential. You give me tips about living on planet Earth as a human being within the band of density.

Me: It’s a deal! I know I can do it with your help. I hope the next blog is on the mind because mine keeps getting in the way. It’s a mess.

Higher Self: Who knows what Barbara’s guides will come up with next. It doesn’t really matter because we are in this together. Let’s just sit back and experience this amazing Earth journey.

Write or talk to your higher self

Go ahead. Have some fun. Even if you don’t think you have a higher self, imagine that you do. (The brain can’t tell the difference between what you imagine and what is true.) So, give this a try:

Decide what you want to call your higher power. It doesn’t matter what you call it, just give it a name. Maybe it’s Source, Higher Self, Universe, God, Beingness, Guide, whatever makes you most comfortable.

Do a little slow, gentle, breathing.

Begin your letter, Dear___

Tell this all-knowing and all-loving partner whatever you wish. I’m feeling_____ right now, and I would like some guidance.

Now, respond to yourself in the voice of your higher self. Just go ahead and write whatever comes into your mind.

Listen deeply. Say the words out loud. Go ahead and continue the dialogue until it ends itself.

Reflect: What surprised you? What did you learn?

PS: This exercise is even more powerful if you place two chairs facing each other. In one chair speak your own thoughts; then in the other chair, speak your higher power’s replies. Listen to each other.

I’ve done this when I’ve really been stumped or scared and have been amazed at what comes up. It’s a trip to be the higher self. I never knew it (I) could be so wise!

Last time, we examined the important whats and whys of Richard Rudd’s brilliant work, The Gene Keys: Embracing Your Higher Purpose. Today, we’ll take a look at how the 64 Gene Keys affect our individual, personal consciousness. As we discussed in my last blog post, each of the 64 Gene Keys contains a Shadow, a Gift, and Siddhi. The Shadow level equates to our usual egoic level of consciousness. Understanding, and transcending, our Shadows is what leads us to experience our Gifts. And, as Richard Rudd says,

“We are designed to overcome the Shadow states inside us so that our true genius can emerge, and we can add our spirit to the world.”

Before we dive into personal ramifications of the Gene Keys, here are a few more factors:

• The 64 Gene Keys make up a programming blueprint for our physical, emotional, and mental life.
• Each Gene Key contains a specific genetic aspect of our personal human behavior.
• Each of us contains all of the 64 Gene Keys
• Each of us also has a Personal Profile based on the time of day, the date, and the place in which we were born. (See link at end of blog.)

If we really want to know more about ourselves, the Gene Keys are a good place to look because they are driving us every day. Besides, they hold information that gives us clues as to how to move toward the natural gifts we have genetically buried inside.

Gene Key #35

Let’s take a look at Gene Key #35 to see how our genes affect our consciousness and, in fact, our entire orientation to life. The 35th Gene Key is the one that drives all human progress, not the progress of the outside, physical, world but the progress of our human awareness. So, let’s find out how the frequency of this Gene Key can either hold us back or move us forward.

The Shadow for Gene Key #35 is Hunger. It’s the inner hunger that holds us back. The Gift of this gene key is Adventure, which awakens us to a new level of awareness. This is the great possibility, but first we have to learn to move through our shadow-selves.

The Hunger of this gene key isn’t “hunger” in the usual sense. The hunger here is for a deep knowing of who we really are inside. A problem occurs because this shadow diverts our attention out into the material world, at the expense of our inner world. Rudd explains that we humans “are a hungry and unfulfilled species…When we look to the outside for fulfillment, we sacrifice potential to transform the inner nature of humanity itself.”

So, let’s take a close and honest look at how we may unknowingly be trying to satisfy our inner hunger. Let’s face it, we’ve been taught to hunger for things on the outside. Many of us focus on food, drugs, sex, technology, and/or entertainment. We may obsess about how much money we have or how others see us. We may continually long for a vacation, a new job, or a wonderful partner. We may try to keep our inner hunger unconscious by developing a profound sense of boredom or keep ourselves too busy to get bored. Many of us are constantly looking for external stimuli to fulfill our internal hunger. We all have our ways to go to the outside, this is because we are not actually feeling ok on the inside.

But, as we go through life, we begin to notice that each time we fill ourselves up, we again come to feel empty. As Rudd says, “no matter how you try to satiate your hunger in the outer world, it will never be enough because…it is not outer space you long to explore, but inner space.” At this point in our journey, most of us want to get beyond the limits of our five-senses-self because we know that we are bigger than that. See more in my blog series “Moving from 3D to 5D”.

Enter the Gift

The Gift of Gene Key #35 is called Adventure. The adventure happens when we begin to see how trapped we are within our usual low frequency perception. Feeling trapped may not seem like a good thing, but, as we’ll discover, feeling trapped holds a hidden gift because when we work through our shadows, we begin to feel the energy of our gift. Rudd explains, “A new sense of freedom begins to rise up…We learn to stop our energy from moving out and direct it back inside.” (This is where the action occurs, and this is what we will be learning in future blogs.)

When the leap of awareness occurs from Shadow to Gift, we break through the hunger barrier of the head and blossom into the heart. Rudd says, “this always involves love…because love is the connective tissue underlying all creation.” The gift takes us beyond our usual mental awareness and propels us into the powerful energy-awareness of the heart.

The 35th Gene Key stands out as an anomaly. Rudd tells us:

This is the only place within all human DNA that human beings have a choice as to how their reality is constructed…it is as though the gods who designed the machine put in a hidden short-cut through…a wormhole that leads to a vast realm beyond our comprehension.

The Siddhi, or highest energy-frequency, for Gene Key #35 is Boundlessness. Rudd explains this frequency “invites human beings to expand their consciousness ….If you can entertain the concept of boundlessness in your daily life, you are automatically drawing yourself away from the lower frequencies.”

Conclusion

Wow, I just read over this blog and I’m super excited about our journey together this year.

We’ve already seen how we, and everything else, are made up of energy which changes. We’ve explored how our DNA can remain at low frequencies or can move us up into our higher dimensions. In essence, we can either learn to flow with our invisible life-energy or get in its way.

Gene Key #35 portends that we human beings have the inherent power to move into the energy-awareness of our heart. (We have yet to examine this exhilarating process, but we will.)

We will also explore the hidden processes that keep us in our heads and tethered to our usual low-level perspectives.

We will learn how to observe, connect, expand, and act in ways that help unleash the true potential of who we are.

Gene Key #35 also tells us that we have the genetic capacity to choose our reality. This is surprising and inspiring. How will we learn to direct our intention? What will we choose to create in our process of waking up?

Yes, there is still much to learn. These are the kinds of things that we will be exploring in future blogs. Stay tuned and we’ll see what my guides come up with next.

Now, it’s time to find out about your own Gene Keys. Get your own Personal Hologenetic Profile.

It’s free. You will instantly receive a wealth of information. You will be given your own set of Gene Key numbers. You will get to read some insights about personal questions such as, What am I here to do? What am I here to learn? What keeps me healthy? What deeply fulfills me?

On the Gene Keys page, keep scrolling down. There is a lot more information. Explore the different aspects of your Gene Profile. Click on various tabs and videos. There is a wonderful meditation with Richard Rudd. There is the beginning of a course you can try out if you wish. And all of this is free.