The Anne Report, Lighting Up the New Year, reminds us that we can choose the quality of our new year. The Main article, Awareness of Being (AOB), shows us how we can create a wonderful new year by being aware in the present moment. The Healthy Living article, Creating a Foundation for Healthy Living, provides insights for establishing a sound basis for great health. The Anne Talk is Who Am I? The Featured Product this month highlights Anne's first book, 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, January 2, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

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

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  The Anne Report

Lighting Up the New Year

Dear ,

The new year marks a time for change. The first change comes when we change our minds. There's a Greek word, metanoiein, that means to change one's mind. The word metanoia, which was derived from that Greek word, means a transformative change of heart or a spiritual conversion. We can change our minds, but if we don't change our hearts, there's no transformation.

Can we precipitate a change of heart, or do we have to stand on life's sidelines, hoping that the light will strike us as it did Paul, on the road to Damascus? While ole Paul had a spiritual conversion or metanoia, we can't sit idly by waiting for the light. We are in a different era. Paul was struck by the light, but as for us, we must be the light. We must be the light of love, the light of compassion, the light of justice, and the light of generosity.

We can't hide, like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, because we are called to do so much more. Adam and Eve represent the beginning stages of consciousness, but Jesus came to say, "I am the Light," and as we stand in the light, we reflect light. We are like the moon that reflects the light of the sun. We become what we associate with. If we show compassion to others, we become the light of compassion. As we treat people justly, we become the light of justice. So yes, we can create a change of heart just by treating others with love and all that love embraces. It's a simple formula. The way we treat others determines the amount of light we radiate.

On a personal note, we head home Thursday, after a wonderful visit with our three-year-old grandchildren. They loved Christmas morning. They loved opening presents, but weren't too taken with the actual gifts. You heard the axiom, before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water, and after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. It was like that for the kids: before Christmas, play with their train set; after Christmas, play with their train set. They went to the living room to get their Santa presents and open gifts, then fled back to the den to play with their old toys. There's a lesson about simplicity somewhere in there.

Happy New Year.

Anne

  Main Article

Awareness of Being (AOB)

It's easy to get caught up in the doing of life. Some doing is fun, some obligatory, and other doing seems like effort. Doing is part of being human, but doing, when done without Awareness of Being (AOB), is effort. Doing without AOB is a struggle. How can one tell whether they are doing with or without awareness? Here are a few guidelines.

Doing without AOB involves these attitudes and feelings:

• Feeling resentful.
• Feeling sorry for oneself, AKA "Poor me."
• Not being present while doing the task at hand; being methodical. When we are not present, we are just passing time and losing the vitality of life.
• Longing to be somewhere else.
• Complaining to oneself AKA as a lousy internal dialogue.
• The sense that we are too good to be doing this activity. It is beneath our station in life. We are wiser, smarter, and life should treat us better.
• Feel like what we are are doing is a waste of time.
• Living in the past or the future.

Doing with AOB involves these attitudes and feelings:

• Being fully present. When we are fully present, nothing is a waste of time. Life offers pleasure and treasure at every turn, and even losses bring their own salve for healing.
• An underlying feeling of fulfillment.
• A sense of gratitude for life itself.
• The experience of freedom.
• A sense that we are right where we need to be, doing exactly what we need to be doing. This is known as dharma or right action.
• A lack of narcissism. There's no action for self-gain. Rather, the action is part of life's flow.
• We don't own the action and the action doesn't define us. All doing becomes the backdrop of who we are. We realize it's not our performance that makes the difference; it's our attitude toward what we do. Our treasure lies in our perception, not our performance.
• We feel a connection in all our action, as if it's guided by a bigger cause. Regardless of whether we are baking a cake, dusting, or inventing a new gadget, we know we are a part of the whole.

The new year brings a clean slate. We can start anew and look forward to awesome beginnings, new experiences, and untold blessings, but before we go off into the idealistic notion that the new year has anything to do with what's given or taken away, we must examine ourselves. If we bring the same thoughts and beliefs into the new year, it's going to be a repeat of last year. Only about 20 percent of our lives, maybe even 10 percent, involve being on the grand stage of life. The rest of our lives are taken up with maintenance. We eat, sleep, take care of our surroundings, drive to and from work, pay bills, and take care of our homes and our yards. We go on doctor appointments, see the dentist, and take care of our children and pets. We get the oil changed in our cars, plan for vacations, wash our clothes, go to the cleaners, buy new clothes, and discard worn out items. Some work to earn a living. All this is a lot of doing! And it's ongoing. Much of our doing can't be eliminated.

We must go into each new year and each new moment as if it is either the first moment we've ever done something or the last moment we will ever do it. This illuminates the moment with appreciation and wonder. We seek freedom and peace, but when we argue with the moment, as it is, we will always lose. The secret is out – most of life's moments are full of the ordinary, but each moment contains a gate to unfathomable peace, and that gate is AOB. Let's gift our lives this new year and this new moment with Awareness of Being (AOB), because when we do, everything becomes EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Quotes

"If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours."
-- Dolly Parton

"You cannot live when you are untouchable. Life is vulnerability."
-- Edouard Boubat

"Those who hope, by retiring from the world, to earn a holiday from human frailty, in themselves and others, are usually disappointed."
-- Iris Murdoch

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
-- Mother Teresa

"If something is going to happen to me, I want to be present."
-- Albert Camus

"There are times to stay put and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out on the world and find such a thing for yourself."
-- Lemony Sniket (Daniel Handler)

"To be alive at all is to have scars."
-- John Steinbeck

  Featured Product This Month

Order Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic from my website or call me at 713-922-0242 to order directly from me. The price is $15.95, including shipping.

Click for the Kindle version on Amazon for $4.99.

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to learn about EZosophy.

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Abundance Affirmations

This group is a place to post uplifting affirmations and thoughts about prosperity and abundant living. Let's create a right relationship with money so that we feel comfortable about money. Let's use money as it's meant to be used, and not as a way to accumulate power or to fill a void. We don't need money to buy more stuff. We need it to create a world that works for everyone. We want to cast off old beliefs of lack and reclaim our natural state of abundance.

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  Healthy Living

Creating a Foundation for Healthy Living

This healthy living section covers everything from mental health to physical health. We are whole beings. Therefore, we need various types of information to help us make informed decisions about living a healthy life. We are more complex than most of the allopathic medical community recognizes, and our physical symptoms are sign posts pointing to larger problems, not isolated illnesses that can be singled out, named, and treated.

A few years ago, I had a medical condition that was diagnosed as incurable. The doctor, who was a specialist, said we could only manage it and medicate the symptoms. I am somewhat unusual in that I don't take what a medical doctor says as being the whole truth. I consider them to be untrained when it comes to many conditions. Since I am the health expert in my life, I consult doctors for information, not necessarily for treatment. My primary care physician is great. She doesn't treat me like an idiot and has gone from doubting me to respecting me. I go in for regular checkups, refuse the immunizations she offers me, and listen to her advice with courtesy. Allopathic doctors are great for broken legs, resurrection of heart patients, and many other conditions, but they are not too good working with stress conditions. I never trust a doctor who looks like they will drop dead momentarily. Most doctors are under too much stress to be completely unbiased about anything. They are too tired!

Many of you know this story, but in case you missed it, this is how I cured my incurable illness in 6 weeks. I went to an acupuncturist. I resigned from several volunteer positions. I chanted the "AUM" sound ten minutes daily, and practiced conscious breathing ten minutes a day. These things were added to my already healthy diet and exercise program. I also started connecting more with friends. After six weeks, I had no more symptoms, and the symptoms have never reoccurred. This was a much better than the one offered by allopathic medicine.

While doctors are trained to treat symptoms, not the entire person, alternative practitioners often go off another deep end, glorifying one solution and/or thinking allopathic medicine has little, if any, benefits. Some people think yoga alone will do it; others worship supplements, certain kinds of water, or certain kinds of foods. Years ago, blue-green algae was the rage for healing any and every thing.

There is no one answer to illness or healthy living. We say, "It takes a village to raise a child." And we also need to say, "It takes a village and high self-esteem and good food and exercise and an optimistic outlook, to heal a body." A prescription drug is not enough, nor is just eating the healthiest of foods.

We develop illnesses because we have weakened immune systems. Our immune system is compromised when we carry shame, blame, and the thoughts that we are not wanted and loved. Until we heal these thoughts, our illnesses keep changing form. No doctor, either allopathic or naturopathic, can heal us unless we have the desire to be vibrantly alive. Without self-love and self-acceptance, illness is a shape shifter. When we heal our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and life in general, physical healing begins. When we heal our minds and self-constructed indictments, we naturally begin to do the things that support healthier bodies.

Let's commit to a healthier 2018 by leaving shame, blame, and guilt behind. Let's be sure we get the help and support we need in order to believe in ourselves and our future. Our choices are important, but if we keep choosing from a disadvantaged position of self-deprecation, we will continue to have parts of us that don't want to live, that don't want to be noticed, accepted, or important. 2018 is the year of love. It's time to see the writing on the wall. "We are loved, lovable, loving, and wanted; we are innocent and blessed." Embodying these principles give us health and abundant living. Another secret is out. Happy New Year.

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

  Anne Talks

Who Am I?

Today's Anne Talk is Who Am I?. Time: 0:53.

  Anne Art

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The World's Best
Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

40 Days to Abundance

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