The Anne Report, Rethinking the New Year, provides some tips to get your new year off to a great start. The Main article, How to Bring Miracles and Magic into Your Life, offers you another way to create a wonderful new year. The Healthy Living article, How to Change a Drain gives tips on dealing with people who suck your energy. The Anne Talk is Words Are Limits. 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 9, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

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

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  The Anne Report

Rethinking the New Year

Dear ,

Everyone loves the New Year, and my friend, Robin Blanc Mascari, has a wonderful tradition she and her family share yearly. It includes a completion, on paper, of the past year, and conscious creation of the new year. Her process is shared at Completing and Creating (a pdf downloadable file). Thank you, Robin.

This time of the year is always an "out of the groove" time for me. Travel and the holidays step on my groove a bit, but part of being in the groove includes allowing time for being out of the groove. The most precious diamonds have a flaw, and while our lives have symmetry, order, goals, and plans, there always needs to be a space for the offbeat, the side-step, for resting, and for the unexpected. Sometimes we are so caught up in our routines that we overlook the magic. We rate our performance as inferior when we are going through a time that is not meant for productivity. Productivity and creativity need a hatching period, and, like the bear, a time to hibernate. Maybe 50 hours in a car during a two-week period gave me plenty of time to hatch, but who knows how much time I need to re-emerge into productivity. Let's give ourselves a break from the stringent demands of the egoic mind and let ourselves live in nonresistance to the slack times and celebrate our times of productivity and action. As Einstein was purported to have said, "If a fish's performance is rated on its ability to climb a tree, it will never perform well." We don't need to climb a tree during the time we are destined to sit under the bodhi tree to awaken to that which is deeper. Just saying, "For everything, there is a season."

We're back home now, after visiting our grandtwins. We were unable to leave S.C. as planned, due to a snow storm. The snow was up to 5 inches in some places. It was a winter wonderland for me. I haven't seen snow like that in 32 years. It was my grandchildren's first time to play in snow. They were delighted. Eventually we did leave S.C., but not on our schedule.

   
A snowy yard & the Grands enjoying their first snow.
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Anne

  Main Article

How to Bring Miracles and Magic into Your Life

My grandchildren watched The Polar Express every day since they got out of school for the holidays. I think it's the first movie they have ever watched. They know the words as the actors speak them and can sing many of the songs. They hum with the musical scores and sit as the credits go by and listen again to the songs. I watched parts of the movie for days. This is not something I would ordinarily do, watch a movie repeatedly, but each time we watched it, I caught something new. Thomas and Reynolds are happy to watch The Polar Express anew and they squeal with delight over certain parts.

In the movie, the little boy is a nonbeliever, but after his adventure to the North Pole, he believes. He receives Santa's magic bell, an honor, as it is the first gift of Christmas. He hears the sweetest sound from the bell, but when he returns home, his parents can't hear the bell. Only those who believe in the magic can hear the sound. What a truth. Something can be in front of our eyes and we won't see it if we believe it's not there or not true.

"A miracle is generally defined, according to the etymology of the word—it comes from the Greek thaumasion and the Latin miraculum—as that which causes wonder and astonishment, being extraordinary in itself and amazing or inexplicable by normal standards." (Encyclopedia Britannica)

The words miracle and magic are similar; not magic, as in a magic act, but the magic of the moment, the magic of being in love, and the magic of suspending logic and being willing for something delightful to come forth.

The spirit of the holiday is miracle and magic (MAM), but unless we carry the MAM with us, we become dependent on events and circumstances to connect us with well-being. Let's use the mantra, "Yes, MAM." to say yes to the miracle and magic (MAM) of life. Imagine you feel lost and lonely or you feel defeated and hopeless, but then you remember the MAM. Try these steps to restore the MAM. They are, obviously, a loose spinoff from the 12 Steps of AA.

The Steps of the Yes, MAM Program

• I'm lost and alone and know I have lost the MAM.
• I come to believe that a power greater than myself can return me to the MAM. I acknowledge that the power of MAM is more powerful than my mental foes and emotional woes.
• I surrender. I now make a decision to turn my life over to the MAM, knowing that the Restoring Power of my Higher Power responds to my every need.
• I now say "Yes MAM" to life and accept the MAM of this unique moment.
• I give thanks for my MAM and go forth with a spirit of enthusiasm, expectancy, and peace.

Yes, this concept is silly, but I'll take silliness over somberness, and playfulness over the nose-to-the-grindstone routine. We take ourselves too seriously and it's time to lighten up. It is always time to restore the MAM of the moment. Let's replace the solemnity of daily living with the light of MAM, because when we do, everything becomes EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Anne Quotes

"Do you have mass-titus: too much stuff in your head? Or maybe you suffer from messy mental mass syndrome (MMMS). MMMS syndrome leads to artificial dissemination of prejudice, misinformed beliefs, criticism of self and others, and judgments."

"There's a belief that our breaths are numbered. If we breathe short breaths, we live a shorter life than if we breathe long, slow breaths. Maybe there's some truth to the eastern viewpoint. Ever notice how short your breath becomes when you are afraid, and how steady and full the breath is when you are content? Relaxed living, along with full breathing, is not only an antidote for stress; it is a doorway to a profound sense of peace."

"It is easy to get boxed into a narrow reality. When life centers exclusively on "my needs" and excludes everyone else's, it's a lonely world. Sometimes needs get refined to the point that they are narcissistic. When everything is all about "me," the box gets narrower. When we turn our attention outward and begin to serve others' needs, the box expands. This doesn't mean to exclude one's needs and become a martyr; it means to have a wide range of inclusion. I matter, others matter, and if I allow myself to be of service to that. I'll be grateful for what I see. I'll do favors for others and live my life in a way to uplift and appreciate the ongoing flow of good in life."

  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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  Healthy Living

How to Change a Drain

Recently someone asked the question, "How do I deal with people who drain me?"

Here's my answer.

Set boundaries, internal and external. Be sure you've checked out your part in this game. Are you codependent? Do you give, when not asked to give? Do you try to rescue them? I find when I get myself straight, draining people either leave or they exhibit a different kind of behavior around me. The book, I Feel Guilty When I Say No, offers some good ideas on dealing with people. "No" is a great boundary.

If you are talking about young kids who whine, then I suggest meditation. Whining does wear one out! Seeking silence equips us so we can be steadier and more patient. Also, when we meditate, everything just gets easier.

Another approach is to think of dealing with such people as a lesson. What can you learn from the situation? What do they reflect that lives in you? Do you drain others, or perhaps you drain yourself, with a draining, internal dialogue? Can you forgive them? Forgiving others from the traits that you both exhibit, releases you to a new level of internal freedom.

Another tip: Avoiding people usually serves as a magnet to attract more of the same behavior from others. That's because your thinking, which attracted those people in the first place, has not changed. As the old saying goes, resistance creates persistence. That's why we have to deal with our inner world, so that when we take action, we stand on solid ground. If this is a self-esteem issue, meaning at some level you believe you need to be punished for unresolved guilt issues, or you don't think you deserve to have healthy people in your life, then you have to raise your self-esteem.

This is a big question and a big issue. Good luck on taking care of yourself and growing from this situation, in a manner that serves you and others.

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

  Anne Talks

Words Are Limits

Today's Anne Talk is Words Are Limits. Time: 4:26.

  Anne Art

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