The Anne Report, Get Your Imagination On Your Side, shows the benefits of consciously getting our imagination working for us, instead of against us. The Main article, Spiritual Awakening, describes some ways Anne found to awaken herself. The Healthy Living article, Self-Care Fear, explains how positive self-care can be sabotaged by self-care fear. The Anne Talk, Don’t Feel Sorry For Others, reminds us that feeling sorry for people is different from feeling compassion for them. The Featured Product This Month highlights Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic. Click to read What is EZosophy? Click to join Anne's Abundance Affirmations. Click for Shareables From Anne.

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

Living EZosophy, March 12, 2019
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

Get Your Imagination On Your Side

Dear ,

We are coming into spring, and even though it dipped into the low 30’s this week, spring is in the air. I love this time of year, except for the yellow film of pollen that blankets everything. Life is blooming where I live. It’s been so warm that we’ve taken a few bike trips to enter the state lottery. I love to play the game, “What will we do if we win the lottery?” Jim and I joke and play the game all the way to the corner store.

Our imagination is fun, at least when it’s on our side. When I was young, I imagined all kinds of good things happening when I grew up. Most of them have happened. One of the more unusual thoughts was to imagine what it would be like to be old. I would think about how I would feel when I had white hair and wrinkles? Would I love myself? When I was 23, I thought that was the best age I could imagine, but now, at 70, I’m thinking 70 is the best age. Fortunately, I do love myself with white hair and wrinkles. When I was 23, I thought I was my hair and smooth skin, but at 70, I’ve learned that, while I have hair and skin, they can never define me.

When I was young, I imagined traveling and staying in exotic places. Now I imagine being happy and running. I see myself as healthy. I see myself contented. I guess 47 years does make a difference in the thoughts I play with! I have learned that, no matter what I think, life is much EZier when my thoughts are on my side. Join the revolution and make a resolution to be on your own side, because when you do, life will be EZier and EZier. P.S.: When I say I am old, people often correct me, “You are not old.” While I know what they mean, this is what I mean: “I feel ageless. My mind is ageless, but my body, not so much!” Since I don’t worship at the altar of youth, I don’t mind saying, “I am old!”

  Main Article

Spiritual Awakening

When I was in my twenties, I suffered a crisis of identity. I had done everything I could to undo my misery. I realized that I would not be able to make my dream of peace and happiness happen, so I surrendered to something, anything, that might bring relief. I didn’t know if anything outside my cognition existed, but in a frantic moment of misery, I let go. I stopped. I gave up. Something snapped and a veil lifted. It was as if the sun shone for the first time. My life was illuminated by grace, peace, and a sense of omniscience.

This experience carried me through for several years, and even though I experienced mini awakenings, there were two more emergences (not emergencies!) that stand out. They occurred in ten-year intervals. The final one came unexpectedly, gently, and easily, in 1997. My tradition was to do something special for my birthday. I travelled to Nashville for a meeting with Gangaji. The meeting was called satsang. The teacher gives a short talk followed by a question and answer period. It was held in a Unity church. I had never heard of the woman. When she came to be seated in front of the audience, my mind kicked in. “She’s about my age, attractive, well-spoken….” But something else stirred in me. The movement was quiet, soft, and unknown burdens shifted then lifted. There was a freedom I’d never felt. Her words touched my soul and penetrated my ego. Everything I thought I knew dissolved as my belief systems collapsed. Life was pleasurable. All the stringent standards of spirituality I clung to were gone. There were no words to change, no affirmations to recite, no need to change anything. Life as it was, was the kingdom of heaven.

I returned home to my life and found that with my new-found freedom, most of what I thought was important, was irrelevant to life. It was as if my life had been a militarized zone, and the troops pulled out. I didn’t know what to teach. I spent years as a teacher, and suddenly I could not identify with the content of my message. I closed my spiritual center and felt guided to move to the Houston area. Eventually I spoke publicly. I always distilled my message to one main point: the only time to awaken to our true identities, is now.

People loved the message, but I could tell there was something missing. How could there be something missing from the ultimate? I realized that people can’t see the ultimate when they are standing in front of a boulder. People can awaken suddenly, as I did, but I had worked ceaselessly to remove the boulder from my mind’s eye.

Paul woke up on the road to Damascus, but who knows what events occurred before he saw the light. He may have searched for a better way but was stuck in familial expectations and the customs of the land. We will never know, but his story reminds us to keep trucking along life’s highway, because waking up, even for the hard-hearted, is possible. I’ve seen it happen, especially as people age. There’s a realization that smacks them in the face, and this realization changes them deeply. It could come from a near death experience or a moment of inquiry, when they just let go.

What is waking up like? It differs for each person, but we tend to have an inflated sense of what it means. We think if we wake up to the divine, everything will fall into place. We will be smart, we will always be at peace, people will seek out our wisdom, and life will be hunky dory. But this isn’t exactly true. The more we wake up to ourselves, the more we recognize the injustices of the world and the more we see the parts of ourselves that aren’t hunky dory. Here’s the slippery part: we develop a benevolent attitude that makes us want to share the news. We want to eliminate others’ suffering and bring peace to everyone’s heart. We want to fix things. We have the world in its proper place, and we want to shout the message to everyone, but here’s something to consider. It may not be best to spread the news when the ink is still wet on our new storylines. This is the time to integrate life’s message, because when we wake up, we aren’t done yet. Some people say, “Grow up, then wake up.” But the converse is also true: we must “Wake up, then grow up” too.

I have written about our spiritual journeys many times. There doesn’t seem to be a rule book. We arrive at the airport wearing the wrong clothes and going in the opposite direction from our destination, but, through some act of grace, it all works out. We survive. We learn. We wake up. We begin to thrive.

One truth, the one we might miss alone the way, is essential; No matter where we are on the journey, no matter what life throws at us, no matter what, everything is okay, and when we realize this, we wake up.  We may see this for a moment, a week, or a lifetime, but when we know this for sure, that everything is okay, as it is, we are awake. It’s that simple. This realization is not glamorous, but it is immediate, and it is within our ability to let go in every moment. We want an easy philosophy and that’s it: “Everything is okay.” When we realize this, then everything is EZier and EZier.

  Quotes

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  Shareables From Anne

The World's Best Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

40 Days to Abundance

EZosophy Vows

Vows of Seriousness

Anne's Conscious Carols

  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 to order the Kindle version on Amazon for $4.99.

  What is EZosophy?

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

  Healthy Living

Self-Care Fear

We live in a world, where toxic chemicals show up, along with platelets in our blood. Our bodies are assaulted by pollutants. We have more junk food than ever, as convenience stores and pharmacies provide a 24-hour supply.

It is easy to get caught up in the infinite possibilities of self-care. What’s the best exercise? What foods are safe to eat? Should we take vitamins? What are we to do? Are we doomed? Oh, no!

Self-care is important, but self-care fear is more detrimental to our bodies than the chemicals we seek to avoid. Our bodies are a chem lab. We manufacture chemicals for digestion, assimilation, for immune response, and for millions of other needs. Our body’s lab is more complex than any commercial lab. Of course, we need to choose good foods and avoid toxins, but that’s not always possible. We can take a limited amount of food with us when we travel, but not always, especially when we travel internationally. When we live in chronic fear of what our pesticides and toxins can do to us, when we are afraid to breathe the air or drink water, then we become our greatest toxin.

The Serenity Prayer covers this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” When we worry about what we eat and are exposed to, when it is out of our control, we suffer. What we can control is our reaction to these things.

Years ago, I spent a month in Ecuador. I travelled the country with other students who were learning Spanish. While in Quito, I was alone. I didn’t venture far from where I was staying. I ate two meals in the house-like hotel, but the meals were not filling. I had protein bars for breakfast, ones I brought from home, but they eventually ran out. The only place for food near my lodging was a bakery. Consequently, I ate a lot of bread and pastries. I wasn’t willing to be hungry all the time. Being a healthy eater, I had to decide that if I was going to eat pastries, cookies, and breads, I would not tell myself how unhealthy they were every time I took a bite. I adopted this affirmation whenever I popped a treat into my mouth: “Everything I eat is transformed by love and creates health and well-being in my body, mind, and spirit.” I went on to enjoy a lot of sweets.

This affirmation is good in all food situations, and even though our thoughts are powerful, I still eat healthy food when I can. I don’t count on my thoughts alone to do the job. I eat pizza sometimes and a piece of pie, but my diet is not dominated by unhealthy foods.

Our health is more important than our appetites, but it’s okay to veer off a healthy diet from time to time. We don’t need to be fundamentalists in our approach to eating. What we do is not as simple as, “If you eat this, this, and this you will be healthy, and if you eat this, this and this, you will be unhealthy.’ The same is true for the air we breathe and what we put on our bodies. The mind body relationship is complex.

We need to believe in health and do what we can to assure our health, without being afraid of what pollutants can do to us. Doing what we can to keep ourselves healthy entails thinking healthy thoughts when we are exposed to poor air quality or eat junk food, because our minds are our greatest health allies, and we want to cover all bases when it comes to our health. Happy trails. Eat, drink, and be merry!

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

  Anne Talk

Don’t Feel Sorry For Others

Today's Anne Talk, Don’t Feel Sorry For Others, reminds us that feeling sorry for people is different from compassion for them. Time: 2:37

  Anne Art

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  Abundance Affirmations

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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 Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Sunday, March 31, 2019
10:30 AM Service
Lesson: "Wisdom"
Unity of the Woodlands
25817 Gosling Road, Spring, TX

Contact Anne to book your event:
713.922.0242 or anne@annegillis.com.