The Anne Report, Tips for Cheating Old Age, provides some inspiration for prolonging healthy living. The Main article, Identifying and Owning Our Dust, talks about ways to deal with our human foibles. The Healthy Living article, I Love YouTube, shares some examples of why she loves videos on Youtube. The Anne Talk is Worry is a Racket. The Featured Product This Month highlights Anne's third book, Standing in the Dark. Click for Anne's Books. Click for What is EZosophy? Click for Abundance Affirmations.

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

Living EZosophy, March 6, 2017
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

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

Anne's Websites:

  The Anne Report

Tips for Cheating Old Age

Dear ,

Sunday morning I attended my 7:30 AM yoga class. Talk about classy. It's at the Hindu Temple and the class is led by Indians. What a treat. That day our instructor had us doing a new warm-up exercise. It was tough. He said he had recently been in Rishikesh, India, known as the yoga capital of the world, and he learned the movements from a 96-year-old man. It was a squatting to the floor and jumping up in the air movement. We did it several times. He said the man could do 100 of these and that he could barely keep up with him. "He was my inspiration. He started doing yoga when he was 70. There were many people there practicing who were in their 80's and 90's." My teacher is a young instructor who has relentless stamina. He said there were many teachers there and all were eager to share their knowledge. What a wonderful story. I plan to be hopping around at 96 too.

It's important to fill our minds with the right kind of possibility. I always love Ernestine Shepard's story. She retired from competitive body building when she was 80. I see so many 80-year-olds creaking around. There is a better way. It's important to look for older healthy role models so we don't buy into it the belief that old age, fragility, and illness are synonymous.

My friend, Linda McQuinn, spent Friday night with us. Girl talk is so much fun. She came in from Fischer, Texas to drive a special speaker to our Theosophical meeting Sat. morning. We had a wonderful morning with Joyti Ma, our speaker, who gave us special blessings. She is a humble woman who lives her life in prayer and contemplation. There was a little trip to the big market in Houston (it's like being in Mexico) and a wonderful concert with Emily Elbert Sat night. Emily is a delight. She toured the world with Esperanza Spalding and was even on the Stephen Colbert show.

Images from the Houston Market
Click the image to see a larger view.

That's it for the Anne Report. Have a wonderful week, and join with me in making life EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Main Article

Identifying and Owning Our Dust

There's an old saying in 12 step programs: "You are as sick as your secrets." While keeping a secret about an affair or clandestine meetings is difficult, it is equally as difficult to keep emotional secrets. We try to act big when we feel small or act cool when we are shaking in our boots. Our secrets can be so stealthy that we forget we have them.

I once had an opportunity to meet with a celebrity. There was talk of us doing a TV pilot. Some friends watched a show I produced and thought I should be on TV. The show was to be centered around me, but since I was an unknown, we needed someone with a name for the show. The big meeting was in a restaurant. We met: the real bigshot and I. I felt less than, being the nobody I thought I was. We made small talk. I was full of myself, but underneath, I was afraid. Someone who did not take on new talent had offered to be my agent. Of course, I slung that fact around. I came off like a braggart. No, I actually was a braggart. Later, I asked my friend how the star liked me. She replied, "He didn't." She went on to say, "You were boastful. You were bragging. What was going on with you? We want you to stay, but we'll have to find something else for you to do. Maybe you can find the guests to be on the show." She was right. The meeting had been important to me. It could have been my big break, and I acted like a stuck-up jerk. I drug shame about the incidence around for years. Every time I thought back on the event, I could feel may face turning red. I wasn't broken up because I didn't get to be a star; I was embarrassed, to the core, that I had been so full of bravado. I didn't want people to know how low I sank. I wanted everyone to love me, and if they knew, they would think I was a charlatan. "Some spiritual person she is." As a full-time minister, the whole event gnawed on my self-image, which, I admit, was quite overblown.

I kept a deep secret from myself. I was not aware of how afraid I was, and because I swept those feelings under the rug, I blew it. If I had been in touch with my feelings and been vulnerable, the meeting might have gone differently.

I've grown since then. I frequently reveal my weaknesses without identifying with them. Who I am is clean and pure, but my body, my past, my hang-ups, my emotions, and my behavior – not so much. I remember someone saying to me, "You are like me. You put yourself down a lot." I just smiled. It wasn't easy to explain that when I remain vulnerable and don't hide my faults and fears under some pseudo self-confidence, I disarm my ego. I don't talk about my weaknesses to put myself down. I often think my weaknesses are funny or somewhat universal; therefore, understandable. I talk about my foibles to fertilize my compassion, not to denigrate myself.

When I am around people who brag, it is tempting to one-up them. Rivalry is alluring, but whenever I try to show off my knowledge, I feel crummy. It's my ego. It has to show off, but I find it better to stay quiet, even when I'm hooked into a baseless competition. Not that I can always do it.

There is a fine line between putting ourselves down and owning up to our character flaws. I may cross that line at times, but since I am not omniscient 100% of the time, it's okay to flail. I can be wise and still not be in touch with my entire psychological portfolio. We demand too much from ourselves. Our human part is but one piece of the large tapestry of being. In this tapestry there are large swaths of sky and specks of dust. We are the sky and the dust. When we are in our dust moments, we can't pretend we are the sky, but when we are in our sky moments, we can fly. And when we do, life can be EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Anne Quotes

"How important are the what happens in our lives? Only 10% of what happens determines our lives, because 90% of life is determined by how we respond. It's not what we see, it's how we see, that determines the fate of our lives. Do we react or respond to life? When we heal our emotional wounds, we react less and respond more. Do you encourage respond–ability (responsibility) or reactivity in your life?"

"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."

"One of our missions on earth is to learn to live with the infinite and the finite. We have to be in this world but not of this world, yet we can't pretend that the world doesn't exist. We are sometimes expanded and generous, yet moments later we feel afraid and contracted. One day we are saints, but when someone makes a crass remark, we feel like a wounded child. It's all a part of this adventure we call life. These extremes, that hurl us from humanness to divinity, are the ones we must integrate so we can be fully functioning people. We are spirits in form, and even though the spirit part defines us, the human part provides a unique vantage point for spirit. To complete our mission on earth, we need a kick in the butt, a shoulder to cry on, self-trust, and a sense of humor. None of this is serious, and if we are somber and serious all the time, we have missed the point of life. We don't need to be serious about our faults; we just need to set ourselves back on course when we miss the mark. Life has demands, and when we meet them with common sense, without judgment and resentment, we always find that life can be EZier and EZier."

  Shareables from Anne

The World's Best Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

40 Days to Abundance

  Featured Product This Month

  Abundance Affirmations

Join Anne's New Facebook Group

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.

  Anne's Books

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  What is EZosophy?

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NOTE: If you are viewing this on a cell phone, be sure to scroll to the right to see the other column.

  Healthy Living

I Love YouTube

I love YouTube. When I want to find out how to do anything, I consult YouTube. I watched a TV show where a person learned, from a YouTube video, how to glue a wound shut. Seriously, it's on there! I listen to music on YouTube. Here's one worth listening to. And I watch Susan Boyle's first audition frequently. I find it uplifting. I love to watch Simon's face when Susan sings the first few words.

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent 2009

I listen to meditation background music when I'm working. My favorite are the workout videos. Think yoga, stretching, acupressure, and reflexology.

Movement is one of the most important elements of living. Movement is flowing life energy. We have to move. Lying in bed for long periods of time is harmful. NASA paid a man $18,000.00 to stay in bed for 70 days. During those 70 days, the man lost 20% of his blood volume. After the 70 days, his heart rate jumped to 150 beats per minute, and he struggled to keep from fainting when he got out of bed.

Staying in bed brings on bedsores, anxiety, and depression. If you can get up and walk around, you are lucky. My friend, Bob, who was in a wheelchair, got up to try to help his wife, who had fallen. He fell and hit his head, and now he is quadriplegic. This is not said to invite guilt; it's said to invite appreciation. Visiting him in the hospital, put my aches and pains in perspective.

I've found a wonderful five-minute video that includes brain yoga, tapping, and balancing energy. It's easier to move with someone than alone. The video makes me feel as if I have a friend by my side. It's very energizing. It works on the body, the brain, and on our emotions. I like to bring the best to my readers. Check it out.

5-minute daily routine: Super Brain Yoga

Move, move, move. These are the three most important secrets of living a healthy life. Yikes! It's time for me to move. Goodbye.

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

  Anne Talks

Worry is a Racket

In Worry is a Racket, Anne reminds us that we worry on purpose, habitually, but we can change that if we're aware of it and choose to change it. Time: 2:23

  Anne Art

Click the image to see a larger view.

Click the image to see a larger view.

  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Sunday, March 18, 2018
10:30 AM: "Synchronicity"
After service: "Synchronicity Workshop"
Centers for Spiritual Living, Clearlake, TX
18096 Kings Row, Suite D
Houston TX 77058
The Center opens at 10 AM for community, in the Common Room.

Sunday, April 8, 2018
10:30 AM: "Synchronicity"
After snacks, at 12:30ish:
"Synchronicity Workshop"
Unity Circle of Light
25817a Gosling Road
The Woodlands, TX 77389
281-681-8883

Sunday, April 22, 2018
11:00AM-12:00PM: "Emerge and See"
Unity of Brazosport
507 S. Brooks St. (Hwy. 36)
Brazoria, TX 77422

Sunday, May 13, 2018
11:00AM-12:00PM: To be announced
Unity of Brazosport
507 S. Brooks St. (Hwy. 36)
Brazoria, TX 77422

Contact Anne to book your event:
281-419-1775 or anne@annegillis.com.

  Schedule Anne

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

You may reach Anne by phone at 281-419-1775. Click here to contact Anne by email. Anne is also available to officiate at weddings and funerals.

  Anne's Services

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Interested in getting ongoing support? Try life coaching with Anne. Anne offers both short-term and long-term coaching. Contact her for details. Click here to contact Anne by email or Click here to view information on Anne's One Year Seminar and other training too.

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