The Anne Report, InJoying Travel, reminds us to focus on staying in joy as we travel. The Main article, A Pretty Face?, explores three factors we need to explore to make our lives EZier. The Healthy Living article, Belonging is an Art, provides tips for how Anne helps facilitate communication in groups she attends. The Anne Talk, Happy Mothering Day, invites us to use this simple exercise to help us imprint happiness at a deep level in the primal brain, the spinal cord. Through images of your mother, you can re-imprint old, limiting emotional patterns, with better images. A couple of minutes a day can change your life. The Featured Product This Month highlights Anne’s third book, Standing In The Dark. 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, May 7, 2019
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

InJoying Travel

Dear ,

We are spending a few days in Galveston in our RV. It is nice to get away. I read an article about travel. It said, “Money might not make you happy, but travel will.” I must stay focused when we go on a trip because it is easy to start suffering about all I have to do in what usually turns out to be not enough time. I think, “If I feel burdened when I travel, the universe is going to try to protect me by keeping me home, I’d better turn my mind around.” I start thinking about the luxury of travel and the fun I am going to have. I believe that joy surrounds us, and sometimes, even in my tensest moments, I turn to that inner joy and am startled by how readily available it is.

Back to Galveston. We are staying at the State Park and have a beautiful view of the bay. I was taken aback by the signs warning us to watch for alligators. Alligators and snakes are not my thing, and, of course, I saw a snake while riding my bike this afternoon. Time to tune into that joy!

I am on a one-year saga with a tooth. My dentist tried to do a root canal. He failed and sent me to an endodontist. Looks like the endodontist failed as well, so maybe the next thing is an oral surgeon. Time to tune into that joy.

The events in life will no doubt throw us, but our ability to see past the twists and turns of living sanctify the moment, and when we begin to see life’s holiness, then everything becomes EZier and EZier. And that’s it for the Anne Report.

  Main Article

A Pretty Face?

We need three things in life: a pretty face, common sense, and reality. What an odd thing to hear as I awakened. “A pretty face? No way.” “Yes,” I hear, “the face of love, the face of peace, the face of compassion; these are the pretty faces.”

I understood. The book and movie, Dead Man Walking, chronicles the interaction of Patrick Sonnier, a convicted killer, and a Catholic nun, Helen Prejean. Prejean came to know this man who once terrified others and who was now terrified. The book addresses this society’s fear of violence, the rage of the grieving families, the perpetrator’s point of view, and the Christian imperative of love. Prejean was present when Sonnier was executed. The most poignant line in the film was delivered by Prejean: “Keep looking at me. I want the face of love to be the last thing you see.”

Most of us will not be called to be the face of compassion and love for a felon, but we are called to be face to face with our friends, families, and myriads of strangers. What face will we present? What kindness will be transmitted? Will we be so self-absorbed that we cannot think beyond our own needs?

What about common sense, the second item of effective living? My intuition tells me that being a visionary and an intuitive has its advantages, but the downside is looking at the world with a certain kind of naiveté. My husband worries I will be taken advantage of, and it does happen. My sense of timelessness, my trust in life, and my belief in good, can blind me to common sense.

I used to be the minister of a spiritual center in Memphis, TN. One day a woman ran into the center and yelled, “My purse was stolen.” I was shocked and asked compassionately, “Did they hurt you?” “No. It was in my car.” “Did they break your car window?” “No. My window was open. I trust God: my car was unlocked.” It didn’t seem like the time for a lesson in common sense, but this was a blatant example of the lack of common sense. It's like saying, “I'm going to step in front of a train, and if it doesn't kill me, it's God's will that I live.” As Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without vision, the people perish.” Proverbs, which is filled with wisdom teachings, could use another proverb: “Without common sense, the people perish.”

I've seen people start businesses and fail miserably because they didn't use common sense. I had a client who took a course on motivating businesses. He was soft spoken, introverted, and wasn’t a people person. This was not the right skillset for someone who had to sell a service. He wanted a career so badly that his desire occluded his judgment. He took an expensive course and purchased their franchise. Their marketing touted that anyone could do this business and that these skills were highly needed in the business world. He rented an office and sat there day after day. He never got any clients. Had he been my client at the time, I would have called his decisions into question.

Common sense is king or queen. We must be practical mystics. While MLK was a visionary, he also had a strategist on his team!

What about reality, the third item dictated by my inner voice? Have you heard, “You have to live in the real world”? This means reality is serious, passionless, and drab. These somber words are routinely recited to reel in our visionaries and dreamers and to dull enthusiasm. Thank goodness Helen Keller and Martin Luther King didn't live in that reality. Reality is neutral. It’s our feelings that turn reality into what it is not.

Reality is a word we use in many ways, but, for the most part, we live in a false reality fashioned through our learning filters. That's why we are awakening, as a culture, to other realities:

• We’ve found that living in the now is the only place to live. Everything else is a fantasy.
• We’ve found that living in the past or the future is a mind trip.
• We've discovered that meditation, conscious breathing, and mindfulness are tools that dissolve our mental filters.
• We've realized that until we experience who we truly are, we cannot experience reality as it is.
• We've learned that the I that we think we are, has little relevancy to the I we really are.

The word reality describes the framework in which we live our lives. Living a full life requires that we keep shattering our false sense of reality until we arrive at one that is not defined by our belief systems. Some call this a spiritual journey.

A pretty face, common sense, and reality. It makes sense now. While I can’t count on all my thoughts to be helpful, it seems that my intuition likes to keep me on my toes by delivering the truth in some curious packages. I’ve come to realize that the Universe is out to get me, and it’s out to get you too. That’s good news, and when we come to terms with the harmonious nature of the Universe and its ability to inform and inspire us, everything is EZier and EZier.

  Quotes

  Featured Product This Month

  Abundance Affirmations

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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

  What is EZosophy?

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  Healthy Living

Belonging is an Art

Did you know that people who meet regularly with a group, over a long period of time, live seven years longer than those who don’t? Humanity is a team sport. Fortunately, we are not as isolated as our ancestors. Can you imagine living on a farm and not seeing anyone other than your family all season?

I am in a Master Mind group. We meet on the phone every Tuesday morning. We’ve been meeting more than two years now. Our number has dwindled from seven to three, but we still have a blast. We call it Tuesday morning church. Between asking for our highest good, supporting each other, and sharing details of our lives, we always leave the call feeling better, and most of the time we are uplifted. I have been attending a weekly potluck meeting for 14 years. While few of the original members are still in the group, new members replaced the old ones when they left, and we continue to be a close and cohesive bunch.

It takes some finesse to have a successful group and to keep it going. What are some of the qualities that turn off people? What are some of the things we want to avoid when in groups? Here are a few thoughts.

• No hogging the entire time. Each person should be valued and given the opportunity to express themselves. The talking stick is a great way to accomplish this. The talking stick is passed from person to person and the person who is holding the talking stick is the only one who can speak. This is not practical for all groups, but it works well in many.
• No yelling. Don’t shout or use a loud voice if you get upset. Nothing turns people off more than angry, righteous behavior. No wagging the finger at others!
• Don’t go off about something you don’t like. It might be okay to say something one time, but repeatedly going off about a situation or circumstance, particularly the same one, is the perfect way to lose friends and negatively influence people.
• Show up on time. Don’t be consistently late. People who make the effort to be on time, resent those who are late, unless there is a good reason. We have a doctor who comes to one of my groups. He doesn’t get off work in time to make the beginning of our meeting. We all understand and embrace this.
• Put away your cell phone unless you are looking for something to share with the group.

Now that we have a few ideas on what not to do, what are some things we can do?

• Be sure everyone is clear on the meeting time and place. We once changed our Master Mind Meeting from 9:30 AM to 10 AM. A year later we changed it back to 9:30 AM. It was invaluable to receive am e-mail for several weeks reminding us of the change.
• Draw people into the conversation by asking them questions. Some people are shy and need some prompting.
• Give the person speaking your attention. Look at them when they are speaking. We all need acknowledgment of our existence and want to know that what we are saying is valuable to others. Listening shows respect.
• Learn a gracious way to shut down those who take too much time. It’s the guys at pot luck who often grab the floor. When I’ve had enough of two or three people talking about something that the whole group is not interested in, I say. “Okay guys, I’m going to change the subject, and let’s let the women have time to speak.” I say it lightheartedly and I do not use a critical tone.
• Let someone know if you can’t attend, and why. It helps the group cohesiveness and it keeps people from wondering or guessing if you are okay. We have a group text for pot luck, and we share what we plan to bring and whether we can make it that week.

Many of us grew up in unhealthy families. There were no guidelines for healthy group encounters. We often emulate the crazy things we learned in our family’s interactions. Twelve Step programs offer a safe and healthy format for people to learn how to interact with others. I wholeheartedly recommend them. While I am no longer in the Program, I spent years going to Twelve Step meetings. They teach us how to live healthy lives. There’s a Twelve Step meeting for everything you can imagine, but Codependents Anonymous, or CoDA, offers something for everyone.

When we learn how to be in groups in a healthy way, it not only enriches our lives, it also gives us a family of choice, and when we have a good family, everything becomes EZier and EZier.

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

  Anne Talk

Happy Mothering Day

Today’s Anne Talk, Happy Mothering Day, invites us to use this simple exercise to help us imprint happiness at a deep level in the primal brain, the spinal cord. Through images of your mother, you can re-imprint old, limiting emotional patterns, with better images. A couple of minutes a day can change your life. Time: 4:57

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

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

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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:
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