The Anne Report, The Blessing of Life, reminds us to stay present to life. The Main article, Communicating Love, provides some examples of how to "do love" in actions. The Healthy Living article, Ho'oponopono, tells the story of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len's unique method for curing criminally insane patients in Hawaii. The Anne Talk is The Power in Other People. Learn about Anne's newest book: The Living Book. The Featured Product this month is Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic. Click to read What is EZosophy?

The EZ Mantra: "Everything can be EZ or at least EZier." – Anne Sermons Gillis

Living EZosophy, October 3, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 281-419-1775
Email: anne@annegillis.com

Anne's Websites:

  The Anne Report

The Blessing of Life

Dear ,

Friday, I road my bike to the grocery store. It's a couple of miles away and a lovely ride down a tree covered trail. The trail opens into a more commercial zone. No signs are allowed overhead, to keep the natural feel, but there's a low, tastefully crafted sign that reads, "Life's Storage" on my ride. It is for storage units. I laugh every time I pass the sign and think, "They believe our memories are our lives, that our stuff defines us." Advertisers think the same thing. They coax us to buy more stuff, to have a higher standard of living.

The mind advertises too, but, for the most part, it is false advertisement. The mental ads warn us against things that never happen and promise things they can never deliver. It's time to stop giving the mind so much attention and to focus on what is present. So as I continued my ride, I took my advice and, rather than trying to conjure up my next move or fix some possible problem, I focused on the trees. I breathed in the fresh air. I felt my body pumping bike pedals up and down, and soon, I grinned.

All cares, all worries, all imagined conversations ceased. The experience kept intensifying and the air felt alive. It was as if liquid love was in the wind. I relaxed and thought, "Much better." The move from mind to miracle was swift, and, as I look back on my trip, I give thanks. Life is more than a trip from place to place; it is a blessing, and for this I give thanks.

NOTE: It's my birthday on Monday, Oct. 9. I'd love having a birthday present of a short or even long review on any one of my books. Thank you for reading and buying my books. Amazon has a new policy. You can write a review for a book even if you didn't purchase it from them.

That's it for the Anne report.

  Main Article

Communicating Love

Last week's newsletter referred to the love of being as a noun. I am love. You are love. Love is what we are. When we are in touch with the love of our being, it is easy to move that essence into our communications, actions, and activities, but when we are not in touch, we falter. We offer ourselves, but when the offering is filtered through our wounds, our words and actions fall short of our ultimate loving intention and purpose.

When we are grasping for better ways to fulfill our mission on earth, it helps to have some suggestions. How do you "do" love? What does it look like in action? In case you wonder about our mission, I'll spell it out! We are to be who are, which is, love, and to pass that on to others.

Love is bigger than anything we can describe. It's like 3-D art. You can exactly tell someone how to see 3-D art in 3-D, but seeing it requires more than directions. (Here are ten 3-D art pictures.) However, all those 3-D art pictures come with directions. In that same vein, I have decided to provide love directions.

Here's how to you convey love to family, friends, and even strangers. These are not black and white guidelines; there are always times when they won't work, but usually, when done with clear intention, they work. Clear intention means to perform our actions with a giving heart, not with a getting heart, or with a personal agenda. We don't do it to earn points, get favors, or even to get the other person to reciprocate. We don't do it to prove that we are worthwhile or good. We give love and act with love because we want the best for those we love.

These activities are examples of love in action:

1. Offer a kind word to everyone you talk to. If you walk past them, if it's a stranger, send them a kind mental thought, "May your day be easy and full of acknowledgement, love, and grace." I like to love bomb people I don't know. I will pick out someone walking down the street and send thoughts of well-being to them until they disappear from my sight. I begin to feel an intimacy with the person and find myself caring that their lives go well. It is a radical act of connection and a reversal from feeling estranged from life.
2. Be present when you are with someone. This means no texting or being preoccupied. Be totally there. Feel your body, your feet. Be mindful and stand in presence. This stand in presence brings a stillness from beyond the normal mind chatter, that makes it safe for two people to relate. Presence is the birthing ground for trust.
3. Listen. When you're with someone, be sure to give them equal listening time. You talk half the time; they listen. You listen half the time; they talk. Don't try to fix them, refute what they are saying, or try to solve their problems. I was once at lunch with a group of people who knew how to be fully present and listen. Each person looked at me when I spoke. No one interrupted. I started thinking maybe I had said something wrong or that my hair was out of place. I realized the sacredness of the situation. I felt uncomfortable. I was so used to begging for someone to really hear me, that I stumbled and implored my mind to keep me present, and to help me put together a few coherent sentences.
4. Keep your commitments. If you cannot do what you said you were going to do, then renegotiate. It you don't do this, love will never live, because, when it comes to people loving people, trust is the foundation. For example, if you owe someone money and can't pay them back, don't just forget it. Set up a payment schedule, even if it is only ten dollars a month. This shows good faith, and sometimes the universe joins with your intention and brings more money in so you can pay more. Owing people, and not addressing paying it back, ensures a block in your incoming money flow and damages your relationship with the lender, who is probably a friend or family member.
5. Be on time. Once a woman was 30 minutes late for our meeting. We were trying to develop a friendship. She did not apologize, but said "I had this business thing come up, and I just thought, she'll just have to understand how important this is. I'm looking for a job." No "I'm sorry." These are the tools we use to create unsuccessful relationships. Bailing out without an explanation. Borrowing money, not paying it back, and never mentioning it. Love is earned, because it happens on the heels of trust. She could have called and said, "I had this opportunity come up in my job search. It means I am going to be late. I am so sorry. I hope you can understand. Please forgive me." That would have done it, but, with no word from her, I chose not to develop a friendship. We live as our word. When we give it, we must mean it. People count on us to do that.
6. Don't try to get anything from people. Don't do something so someone will owe you something. Don't help others, expecting them to reciprocate. Remember Eddy Haskell, from the TV show "Leave it to Beaver"? He was always complimenting Beaver and Wally's mother, to ingratiate himself to her. She always called him on it. Don't "Eddy Haskell" life. It will come to haunt you.
7. The most important aspect of communicating love is nonverbal. Like the person while you are communicating with them. If you don't like the person, but you are trying to be nice, you put out vibes or signals that they can read. Our body odors even change when we don't like someone, and even though they don't smell the odor at a conscious level, their complex mind and senses pick it up. People can tell when we are irritated or mad with them and when we don't like them, even when we are acting with civility. The easiest way to like someone we are close to is to mentally make a list of the things we like about them.

Communicating love takes effort, because it's often unfamiliar to us. After the honeymoon phase of any relationship falls away, we have to be on our toes not to be insensitive and to not take others for granted. Let's get out there and blast our love. We can do it, and when we do it, life gets EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Anne Quotes

"Words capture reality and set it aside. We follow the words, hopeful they will deliver us from our angst. We have faith in these words; therefore, we follow their trail with misplaced loyalty. Remove the words, for just a moment, and reality reappears. That's what all masters point to, to that which has no word filters, to that which is unmanifest, and to that which we are. Words are not a problem. They will come and go. The problem is that we identify with words and let them define us. That's how the separation occurs. We don't experience our essence. When we look with awareness, rather than through false definitions, we identify with that which we truly are. When our identity is with Presence, the journey ends, and our words begin to serve That. Our words become servants to the heart master, and our words bless. When words are blessings, we can be assured of their source."

"We stay in misery (ego driven suffering) as long as it is comfortable, and continue suffering, if we get the payoffs we're looking for."

"Worry and fear are powerful masters. They lead us into temptation and deliver us into mayhem. They favor inactivity, and serve as a wonderful excuse to do nothing. No more excuses. Do it, even if you are afraid. It's yours to do. Own your life and live it."

  The Living Book

The Living Book, by Anne Sermons Gillis

• Suppose someone told you that you could change your life radically, for the better, if you spent just three minutes a day doing inner work? Would you believe it? Maybe not, but wouldn't it be worth an investment of three minutes a day to try it?
• The Living Book offers just this. Devote three minutes a day to this process and your life will become a living testimony to the seed principle. A tiny seed can grow into a mighty tree, but it must be planted. Plant your daily seed for three short minutes and notice both subtle and miraculous changes in your life.
• In addition to the daily practice, one can use the process when they are stumped or afraid or angry. This process transforms anger into love. When we plant seeds of light into our thoughts and emotional bodies, we move into higher frequencies of well-being.

The Living Book, by Anne Sermons Gillis
Paperback $5.00. PDF Download $0.99. Kindle Book $2.99.

  Featured Product This Month

  Healthy Living

Ho'oponopono

Years ago, I took a class from Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. He teaches a spiritual art named Ho'oponopono. That's pronounced Ho'-opono-pono. He worked in Hawaii for four years, on a ward for the criminally insane. When he first arrived, there was a high rate of employee turn-over. Everyone feared for their lives because they worked with such a violent population. Employees walked down the hall with their backs to the wall, afraid of being attacked.

Dr. Len had an office in this hospital, yet he never saw patients. He reviewed their files and, watch out for this one: he took responsibility for them, as if had caused their illness and behaviors. His theory was that he had created everything in his life – and in the life of everyone he encountered. If he saw any problem, it was due to his choices. After a few months, miraculous things happened, and patients who were restrained were set free to walk around. The staff willingly came to work and enjoyed their work. His work not only affected the patients; it also affected the staff.

What did he do? He held each patient's file in his hand and simply said, "I love you. I'm sorry." He did this repeatedly for each patient, until he felt complete for that patient.

This seems weird, but I found that life and its results are not always as I expect them to be, so I tried Dr. Len's approach. It works. Do I have to know why? No. I may know some of the puzzle, but while I'm trying to figure it out, I could just be using the process. After all, I do not know how my computer runs, but I'm not going to take a class on how to engineer a computer to use it. I know the basics of how to use my computer and that's enough.

What are the basics of Ho'oponopono? Dr. Len suggests we follow this easy process when we have a problem in our life. Begin to say to yourself:

• I love you.
• I'm sorry.
• Please forgive me.
• Thank you.

I have done this silently, when someone was upset, or out of bounds when talking to me, and found it very effective. I either think of the right way to talk them down or they drop their upset – sometimes mid-sentence!

In therapeutic circles, we speak of clinical interventions. This may be the most creative clinical intervention invented. For more information, go to the Ho'oponopono website.

If you have any healthy living tips for the newsletter, send them to me at anne@annegillis.com.

  Anne Talks

The Power in Other People

  Anne Art

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NOTICE: Here are two shareables from Anne. Feel free to pass them along.

The World's Best Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Friday, October 6, 2017
Workshop, 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM EDT
"Building Self Esteem and Courage"
5 hours CE credits
Location: "Phoenix Center"
1400 Cleveland Street
Greenville, SC
Click Here for Registration

Sunday October 22, 2017
10:30 AM Service
Rev. Anne Sermons Gillis speaks
Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church
1370 Millbend Drive
The Woodlands, TX 77380
281-298-2780

Call or Email Anne Now to Schedule Her for Your Meeting.

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