The Anne Report, Spring Update From Anne, shares some current news. The Main article, Waking Up From Ego Land, provides some tips for waking up from our ego state. The Healthy Living article, Healthy Planet: Earth Day, discusses Earth Day and how you can help Mother Earth. The Anne Talk, Wisdom, shows you the wisdom of EZosophy. The Featured Product This Month highlights Anne's second book, EZosophy: The Art and Wisdom of EZ or At Least EZier Living. Click to read What is EZosophy? Click to join Abundance Affirmations. Click for Shareables From Anne.

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

Living EZosophy, April 16, 2019
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

Anne's Websites:

  The Anne Report

Spring Update From Anne

Dear ,

This week we went to Austin to see our son, Ed. We met his girlfriend and had a wonderful day. Ed and Jenna live in Colorado and were in Austin for a few days on vacation.

Jenna and Ed

Austin is amazing. We made the trip in only 2.5 hours. The change from flat land to hills came quickly as we sped down the road. We played with Ed and Jenna, and then returned home. It was a whirlwind day. It is interesting to consider that, years ago, this would have been a long journey by wagon. Now we can zip over and back in one day.

Lake Travis in Austin, Texas

Our house is showing well, and we are getting great feedback. It has been on the market a week and all my prognosticators think we will sell it this time. These are my friends and family. We had it on the market a couple of years ago, when the market was so soft one could sleep on it. Fingers crossed.

Next Monday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. Do you remember your first toothbrush? It’s still out there somewhere in a landfill, as is almost every piece of plastic that has ever been made. Only 9% of our plastic waste has been recycled and 12% incinerated. While recycling is important, reducing the amount of plastic we use is vital. Do your part. Read more about Earth Day in the Healthy Living section. We need to coexist with nature, not blanket it in waste.

  Main Article

Waking Up From Ego Land

The mind is a traveling circus. It has only a few acts, but they are well-rehearsed and perfectly executed. All acts are constructed to keep our lives at a balance point - not too hot, not too cold. But this is not a true balanced position. It is a defended position. It is the land in which we take no stand. We push away the good and the bad. This land is beige. You know about beige. The color beige is neutral. It goes with everything. In beige land, there are no passionate shouts of grace or recriminations. Here there are no waves, because those who walk on eggshells are sure not to rock the boat. This is a safe space, but only for the dead of heart.

Perhaps this sounds cynical, but it's not. One of life’s essential arts is to be aware of how the egoic mind works. We need to know its traps, upsets, and setups. We can’t be fully alive living in the dry and desolate land of our mind traps. We can’t find freedom when we don’t know we are ensnared.

Waking up can be terrifying. When we’ve spent time and energy keeping negative thoughts and feelings away and using the perfect words, seeing how the egoic mind runs our reality is startling. How many times have you heard someone say, “I wish I had never awakened? I wish I could go back to sleep. This is too much.”

I did everything I could to stay asleep. I disappeared into relationships. I over-worked. I bought things I didn’t need because they were a bargain. I had a bad relationship with food. During some periods I drank too much alcohol. I lived in beige land, trying not to make waves, and then numbing out the pain caused by living an inauthentic life. Fortunately, the Universe came banging on my door. It aroused me from my somnambulism. Waking up didn’t keep away the riffraff; it made me aware of the game.

Have you ever had a friend that kept stealing the conversation away from you? You couldn’t get in a word. That’s the way the egoic mind operates. Regardless of how much healing we do, the egoic mind tries to take over. It’s a hostile take-over. The mind spits us out in the land of beige or raises hell with us, until we either take charge or let go.

I had three wake ups. The first once came when I stopped trying to dull my pain. The second came when I decided to deal with my pain, and the third came when I surrendered to a higher power. After going through the ups and downs caused by my mind, I found a rhythm. These ego upsets weren’t permanent. Why, because the egoic mind is not as powerful as the flow of life.

Here’s the threefold flow:

• Despair – The egoic mind does its thing. We get off kilter, and we are upset, hopeless, or miserable. After we wake up to the mind’s tricks, we can easily spot its antics.
• Repair – Once we realize that the mind has us in a joke that’s gone awry, and that our lives are, indeed, okay, we go into repair mode. This step might be instantaneous, or it could take a while. Though there is no real threat, the ego pumps up our adrenaline and the chemicals in our body are going wild. We must settle them down. Here’s where our tools come in. We can call a friend and talk it out. We can meditate, exercise, work with affirmations, read sacred literature, or sing silly songs. We use whatever tools we have to balance our emotions. We do the work.
• I Declare – This is the place where we look back and say, “I declare: what was that all about? I feel fine.” The “I declare” phase is the place where we realize that the seeming upset/setup we were dealing with, came to pass; it didn’t come to stay. We are home.

The egoic mind has its gospel: life is hard, we must suffer about it, and it will never change. When we wake up, we realize that the egoic mind is operational, and that it will go after us, but we can move more quickly past despair. What a relief – despair, repair, and “I declare.” And when we go with the threefold flow, we find that life is always EZier and EZier.

  Quotes

  Featured Product This Month

At last, the reprint of EZosophy: The Art of EZ or at Least EZier Living, is out. If you've been wanting an EZier life, this book provides a clear path toward EZ.

EZosophy:The Art and Wisdom of EZ or At Least EZier Living is a simple philosophy that radically changes lives. It is a book for the spiritually-based reader who no longer values the ego driven struggle of contemporary life.

EZosophy will help readers:

• Give up Hard Attacks. Hardaholic no more.
• Drop the drama.
• Make your life EZier. Ease is not indolence. Rather, ease is the art of accomplishment without struggle.
• Learn to identify ego driven suffering (EDS).

Click here to learn more about Anne's book, EZosophy.

Click here to learn about ALL of Anne's books.

  What is EZosophy?

Click the image to learn about EZosophy.

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

  Healthy Living

Healthy Planet: Earth Day

Monday, April 22nd, marks the 49th anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day is celebrated throughout the world, with events, festivals, and cleanups. Wonder how you can join the Green Renaissance?

Start with checking out this: 50 Ways to Save the Planet. Although the planet will come through the earth changes fine, what we are really saving is the ecosystem, the animals including humans, and the life forms.

Next, here’s a copy of the Twelve Steps for Planetary Recovery. Work these 12 steps alone or in a group. It stimulates great discussion.

Start your own Climate, Sustainability, or Green Group (excerpted from Words Make a Difference).

• Give your group a name.
• Meet in person or by online conferencing.
• Design projects to educate the public on how to take political action, how to reduce one’s personal footprint, or how your community (faith community, office, club) or city can go green. Provide a time for members to process their feelings about our planetary destruction. Discuss how one can overcome hopelessness or despair, to become a change agent. The Pachamama Allegiance offers an online course for activism that promotes a socially just, spiritually fulfilling, and sustainable planet. This is a powerful resource for any climate or green group. Check out their site and offer their program to your group.
• Bring up one area of climate change to focus on at each meeting. For example, if you chose drought, name some of the countries, states, or cities affected by drought. Forge a visionary statement and have each member of the group focus on it until the next meeting. Research droughts and their causes. Find out the correlation between floods and droughts.

Our earth is drowning in plastic, our animals are losing their habitats, and our oceans are acidifying. Countries, states, and towns are waking up and banning single use plastics. Let’s do our part. Please take your reusable bags on your shopping trips. Use detergents and personal care products that don’t harm our marine animals. Use paper or biodegradable straws. Do not use glitter. It is a global hazard. The ocean is downstream to every stream, and our laundry detergents, plastics, and chemicals are killing our marine life. Take a stand and do what you can to support a healthier planet.

I once heard the famous former priest, Matthew Fox, say that you can’t be spiritual without being an environmentalist. We are connected, and all living things, down to a microscopic level, are our brothers, sisters, and cousins. This beautiful chant sums it up. The Earth is our Mother. Check this out on YouTube. The art work is soul touching.

Have you heard of the Green New Deal? Watch the courageous beginning of this movement and see how our children are demanding change. They ask, “Where are the adults in the room?” We are the adults and we are a part of this New Deal. Let’s do our part.

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

  Anne Talk

Wisdom

Today's Anne Talk, Wisdom, shows you the wisdom of EZosophy. Time: 6:57

  Anne Art

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  Abundance Affirmations

Click to Join Anne's 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.

  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

  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019
11:00 AM Service: "New Beginnings"
Unity of Brazosport
507 S. Brooks St. (Hwy 36), Brazoria, TX

Sunday, May 19, 2019
11:00 AM Service: "Belonging"
Tapestry Unitarian Universalist Church
5400 Fellowship Lane
(Just off Klein Church Road)
Spring, TX 77379

  Schedule Anne

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

You may reach Anne by phone at 713.922.0242. Click here to contact Anne by email. Anne is also available to officiate at weddings and funerals.

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

  Anne's Services

Need a Coach or a Rent-a-Friend?

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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