The Anne Report, Making Allowances for Life, reveals some simple ways to adjust to life with greater ease. The Main article, The Mind Guide, shows how we can avoid the mind traps that can distract us when seeking to answer life's most important question. The Healthy Living article, We Become What We Focus On, shows how we can get back our health. In the Anne Talk, EZosophy - Emotions, Anne teaches an EZosophy approach to handling our emotions. The Featured Product This Month highlights Anne’s third book, Words Make a Difference. 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, June 4, 2019
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

Making Allowances for Life

Dear ,

We drove to SC last Friday and Saturday. It is always a long trip, but three strategically placed wrecks solidified our ability to arrive in less than record time. Jim drives when we travel. He likes to be in control. No problem for me; I can read or listen to podcasts while he faces the stress of driving more than one thousand miles. Years ago, he looked at me washing dishes and placing dishes in the dishwasher and said, “It looks like I am going to have to wash the dishes.” My reply, “No problem.” It seems that my less than perfect dishwashing skills provided a major benefit. It was a win for me. My sister, Jo, looked at me during the women’s revolution, a time when feminism took hold, and bequeathed this advice, “If a man wants to do something that makes your life easier or shows respect, let him do it. Men love to carry boxes and open doors. Why not let them do it?” During that time, I let go of my southern belle ways, but I was able to do it with ease, not with anger. Yes, I still bristle at the marginalization of women, but I love it when someone opens my door. Thank you, sister.

My grandchildren, Thomas and Reynolds, brim over with zeal and excitement. Imagine listening to “Zippity Do Da” and “Deck the Halls” all day long. There’s running, playing, screaming, and someone receives an injury every two hours. The injury results in heavy crying that lasts about two minutes, then the cycle starts anew. Youth is a mystery to older adults; that’s why we must lean close to the little ones, lest we forget what they so freely offer. We don’t have to get old and shrivel up, but it is tempting to move from joy, to comfort, to complacency, to cynicism. It seems to be the way many choose to go. It’s a life deadening choice. We play it safe; we guard our hearts and our knees so they won’t get scraped. That’s why we have grandchildren: they reawaken us to life’s wonders.

I attended Unity of Mt. Pleasant on Sunday and stayed for the study class. They are studying A Course in Love. It could be called a sequel to A Course in Miracles. It was fun to participate, and there are plenty of YouTube videos to explain or expound on the work. I used to be up on the latest spiritual narrative, but now, fortunately, I’m just happy to be up. That's probably why I had not heard of this pertinent work. And that’s it for the Anne Report.

  Main Article

The Mind Guide

The seminal question on the spiritual journey is, “Who am I?” It seems simple, and it is, but we take the long route to find the answer. We look for an idea, a value, a preference, an emotion, or a reaction, and while these things may be breadcrumbs along the trail of self, they are only objects of the mind.

It’s like sitting on the road to New York City rather than getting in a car that will take us to New York City. Maybe we tire of the road and get in the car. Wow, now we are getting somewhere. But the road and the car are only a part of the process of getting to New York City. Finding the road, getting in the car, and driving, are not the same thing as being in New York City.

We like paths; we like journeys; so we settle down and arrange and rearrange the mind’s content. The activity keeps us busy and gives us purpose, but what we regard as meaningful activity is often the very process that obscures our true identity. While it can be helpful to change our wording so it can be more effective, the oversight it requires to have the perfect word and attitude is crippling to our intuition, spontaneity, and life force.

The New Thought Movement, The Law of Attraction teachings, positive thinking, and multiple therapies are roads to the self, but it is easy to slip, when we become enamored with the tools of enlightenment. If we’ve never seen a car and we use one to go to New York, it might be tempting to examine the car to try to see how it works. If we fall in love with the road and study roads, then fall in love with gas stations and study fossil fuels, and fall in love with the bridge and then study bridges.... See where I’m going with this? There will always be something for the mind to play with. When we ultimately arrive at who we are, we don’t need the tools of the mind anymore. The mind doesn’t like that. When the mind is invested in a tool, it may want to carry it around forever.

People say it’s the journey, not the destination. That’s important, and that is true in one paradigm, because that means being fully present to what is at hand. But if we are truly present to an agenda set out by the egoic mind, we are not on a path; we are on a goose chase.

There is a secret to finding out who we are. We think there is an answer to the question, “Who am I?” but it’s a trick question that the mind leaps to solve. We cannot find who we are with our minds. Who we are can only be experienced, and when we experience who we are, there are no words that can describe it. That’s what all the razzmatazz today points to: the stillness, mindfulness, meditation, contemplation, and the breath. These are the tools that take us to the side of the mountain so we can soar in ourselves. When we are soaring, we aren’t trying to solve anything. We aren’t looking for who we are; we are just being who we are. Who we are is an experience, an awareness; not a description.

When we sit in a concert and are taken away by a symphony, our minds jump ship and we rest in the self. It might happen when we look on a vast ocean, or see a baby kitten. What we experience when we see a baby kitten cannot be taught. How to be taken away from the mind’s chatter when we listen to a symphony can’t be learned. Who we are can only be discovered in a momentary realization. It can’t be taught and there’s no path to it. We either experience who we are, or we don’t.

Unfortunately, our minds have more food than ever before. Technology makes it possible to have an instant feed to tragedy, information, and entertainment, but if we are to survive the barrage of intensity hurling toward us, we have to know who we are. Who we are is the center that keeps us steady in the storm, and it’s the only existence we have. Everything else is made up, or, as we say in spiritual circles, it’s an illusion. Once a friend of mine told me she didn’t have the answers. She admitted sheepishly, “Anne, I don’t even know the questions.” I didn’t know what the questions were at the time, but now I know. There is only one ultimate question, and that is, “Who am I?” When we allow that question to guide us, source our purpose, and to define our lives, everything becomes EZier and EZier.

  Quotes

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  Featured Product This Month

"Books are waiting to be written. Thus, it was my privilege to bring this book to the world. It brought with it such grace and love. Words Make a Difference sparkles with aliveness and blessing and delivers the perfect information under perfect timing. We are called not only to heal ourselves and those around us, we are destined to hold a vision for the world. This book commands us to be architects of a brave new future and lights a path for us to follow." Anne Sermons Gillis

Order Words Make a Difference from the website or call me at 713.922.0242 to order directly from me. The price is $16.95 plus $3.99 shipping, for a total of $20.94.

Click for the Kindle version on Amazon for $5.99.

  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

We Become What We Focus On

Do you want to live a healthier life? I’ve heard people repeat this phrase many times: “I know what to do; I just need to do it.” Sometimes that means cutting out foods that we think aren’t good for us. It may require exercising more, and it may necessitate changing our thought or our attitude about health. All those things are important, but they miss some of the most important aspects of health. Here’s a list of some less visible aspects of personhood that impact health.

• Self Esteem – When we don’t respect or trust ourselves, our health suffers. When we think we are inadequate, wrong, or not enough, our health suffers. These are aspects of self-esteem: self-trust, respect, feeling adequate, and self-care. When our self-esteem is lacking or low, we often think we don’t have the right to exist, but because we do exist, we run ourselves ragged trying to earn that right. We don’t trust ourselves to do what’s good for us and we can’t trust trustworthy people.
• Belief in ongoing health – I used to believe that as people aged, they developed all kinds of disease, like old age itself was a disease. After reading and keeping up with the latest in research, I found that to be untrue. While many older people do get more illnesses, it’s not because they are old; it’s because they have so much toxicity. I decided to change my mind, and even though I’ve had my share of physical challenges, I’m sure that if I still believed aging was a disease, I’d be in much worse shape.
• Belief that the body can be healed and following though – I read about a man, Lew Miller, who was on his death bed. He was gravely injured and lay for months at the brink of death, in an army hospital. He went from 192 pounds to 90 pounds. He began to think about his high school years and his victories. Every time he scored or won an event, he always had a clear picture of his goal in his mind. He wondered if that would work with his healing. Prayer had failed him, but maybe prayer was not what he needed. He began to picture his life as he wanted to be. He saw himself fit and working. He keyed in on the feelings he had when he achieved something. He began to heal rapidly. He began giving thanks that the healing had occurred before it actually happened. He had what the doctors called a miraculous recovery. He credited it to the power of mind and faith. When he believed that health was possible, he discovered the tools he needed to accomplish healing. His prayers were answered, but not in the way he expected them to be.

Good health is more than eating the right things, thinking the right things, and exercising. It involves loving ourselves enough to want to be healthy, and feeling like we deserve it. Good health involves a belief that we can age and remain healthy, or at least healthier, and that healing is possible. We can’t think a few affirmations about health and expect our bodies to respond with health, but if we marry our affirmations, our inner work, and our beliefs,  we will find that our health is on the horizon and that life will be EZier and EZier.

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

  Anne Talk

EZosophy - Emotions

Today’s Anne Talk is EZosophy - Emotions. In it, Anne describes an EZosophy approach to handling our emotions. Time: 3:38    

  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, AKA Dr. Money, posts a nightly goodnight for the prosperity team, and everyone who watches them becomes a part of the prosperity team.

  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