The Anne Report brings you up to date with Anne's latest activities. The Main article, The Excuse System, reminds us that we create excuses to get sympathy and to hide the fact that we haven't yet handled our genuine needs. The Healthy Living article, Three Ways to Reduce Stress, provides some practical ways to lower our stress levels. In the Anne Talk, Happy Wait Day With Anne Sermons Gillis, Anne reminds us that we don't need to be hardaholics about waiting! 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 18, 2019
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

The Anne Report

Dear ,

We arrived home last night from our SC trip. As we pulled out of the drive, our grandson, Thomas, cried, and Reynolds was sad as well. It tears at our hearts to see them sob when we leave. We left on Father’s Day, and I’m sure the helicopter ride later in the day took their minds off our departure for a while. I did receive a report that they talked about our leaving much of the day. We spent the summer in Charleston last year and got to spend a lot of time with them. I'm guessing they expected we would be staying longer than two weeks this summer. While it’s sad to see them cry, Grandpoppy and I are secretly happy that they miss us and that they look forward to seeing us.

My tooth saga should be coming to a close today. My noon dental appointment consists of putting a bridge in to see if it fits. My broken toes are better. I wore shoes for the first time on Sunday. Life may not be convenient, but when I let it, it stretches in all the right directions. I’m sure of that!

As some of you know, our house is on the market. We get varied feedback responses from our potential buyers. Some think the back yard is a jungle; others think it is a paradise. Some think the multi levels in our bedroom are unique; they add character. Others think the whole room needs a redesign because of the levels. I guess the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” fits this situation. I think our home is lovely. It could stand an update, but I think we’ve gone mad changing the style of a home every few years. Some love the house; others think it’s less than charming. There’s a lesson in this.

We spent several days looking at properties in the area to buy. House hunting is always interesting, confusing, and tiring. We got the lay of the land and think we’ve found some possibilities. I’m still trusting perfect timing, and I’ll let you know how it’s going. And that’s it for the Anne Report.

  Main Article

The Excuse System

“Fear says, ‘I will keep you safe’. Love says, ‘You are already safe.’” -- Pat Rodegast

Does your personal pain overwhelm you and keep you from the life you desire? We all want happier, easier lives, but our follow-through with our deepest desires is sometimes flimsy. We routinely commit emotional suicide and pledge allegiance to self-generated pain. While there is genuine pain and suffering, our ego driven suffering (EDS) likes to lead the way. EDS provides structure for our excuse system. “I can’t do that because I am in so much pain.” “I can’t possibly do that; I’m too raw, too old, too sick, too dumb, etc.” We have an elaborate excuse system that uses made up stuff (MUS) to justify our fear of life. And when we are afraid of life, we do everything we can to hide. Our excuse system is crafted to get sympathy from ourselves, so we can justify almost anything that excuses us from life.

Genuine suffering has a beginning, a middle, and something that resembles an end. The end is a closure. It doesn’t mean we don’t miss our loved one or that a piece of our heart is not still missing; it means that we reenter the world of creating meaning in our lives and can resume our roles in our communities, the workplace, and in our families. Genuine pain will arrive at a place where it no longer jeopardizes our daily lives, but ego driven suffering drags on forever. When genuine pain segues into ego driven pain (EDP), it can be fueled by a sense of entitlement, a poor me attitude, unrequited anger, cynicism, or angry righteousness.

Why do we even have an excuse system and what does it take to tone it down? We have an excuse system because we are not addressing the deeper needs of our spirit. We know something is wrong, but because we don’t know where to go and how to address the longing of our souls, we come up with a plan – it’s the excuse system. We need to pursue calmness and inner rest if we are to reset our bodies for deep healing.

I have a friend whose life was steeped in crisis. She lived under tremendous pressure. She lost her home, lost her dream business, and released a relationship that she had clung to for years. She sat in her apartment, with curtains closed, waiting each day out, with only a prayer for deliverance on her lips. Eventually, she met a man and the relationship served her well for a time. It moved her out of depression, but it was not until she started a regular meditation practice, that she began to understand what she wanted from life. The answer for her was simplification. She had been forced to give up most of her material goods, and because she no longer had them, she found a new freedom.

All her possessions fit in her car. She always wanted to try a different experience, so she moved to another state for a while. Living in a different culture was wonderful, but it brought her to the realization that her home was where the heart was, and her heart was where she grew up and where her family lived. She returned home and constructed a simple life. Her overhead was low, and she could afford to travel. Her life was now on track.

Her life exemplifies moving on from genuine pain and suffering to a new more satisfying life. Was it her inner longings that created such hardships for her? That question cannot be answered, but it was rapid fire disasters that created complete surrender. She had wised up enough to know that her egoic mind provided no viable solutions and, as a result, her egoic mind no longer tried to provide endless answers.

There’s a thin line between ego driven suffering and genuine suffering, and, no doubt, chronic ego driven pain can lead to crisis and genuine pain. Regardless of how or where my friend’s crisis began, it is certain that until she pursued her inner world, she was bound to the world of suffering. That’s why our spiritual journeys are important. It is this journey that guides us toward wholeness and takes us inward. When our lives become a series of tasks, grasping, and obtainment, we need an excuse system, but when we delve inside, we awaken a new and creative dimension of ourselves that offers the peace that passes understanding. We can plan and figure all we want, but until we let go into the matrix of who we are, we are lost. The good news is that we do not have to be lost. Maybe a series of losses or inconveniences is our true nature’s response to our prayer for a better life, and if we can graciously let go of our ego’s demands as to how our lives need to be, we will find that life can and will be EZier and EZier. There is always a path that will lead us safely through life’s real crises and there’s an immediate realization that stops the egoic mind in its tracks. This is the guarantee of the Supreme Okayness, and it’s one we can count on. Let’s take a deep breath and exhale in a collective sigh of relief, because life is stacked on our behalf. Wow.

  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.

  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?

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

Three Ways to Reduce Stress

Stress is a word on everyone’s lips. We live in a culture that demands our attention. Focus groups home in on our deep emotional and psychological needs and spit back products that speak to those needs. We are being sold something all day, every day. We often have more tasks than we have time, and we live in a culture that feeds on a collective psychic emergency mode. Here are a few suggestions for reducing stress.

1. Watch what we tell ourselves. We need to focus on feeling calm and not repeat to ourselves that we are stressed out. Once we acknowledge our stress levels are high, we need to change the way we language that stress. When we repeatedly talk about our stress, especially self-talk, we add to our stress. Our language around stress can create a stage for a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    
2. Take regular stress breaks. Here’s an easy, calming practice. Count slowly from one to four, touching your thumb to your four fingers, one at a time. Start with the index finger and end with the pinky. Do this for three rounds. This takes about 20 seconds. When our mind is on the run, it is easier to calm it down when we include the body. Touching the fingers provides a focus, and when we do the practice, we build a body anchor or body memory of calm. When we return to the practice, our body remembers it’s time to calm down. Repeated practice brings us to deeper states of calm. Add to the practice by synchronizing the breath to the counting. Breathe in on the first finger, out of the second, in on the third, and out on the fourth.
    
3. Write a Desire Journal.

• Make a list of everything you want.
• Make a list of what having these things will give you.
• Write your responses to the following question: Are your desires adding to your well-being or causing you stress or bitterness?
• If your desires are adding stress to your life, can you move them from addictive demands to preferences?
• Can you enjoy your desires rather than using them as a setup for longing? Can you enjoy your desires rather than using them to create driven-ness or workaholism? Journal about how you might accomplish this.
• How do you plan to respond if you don’t get these things? Can you give up your attachment to needing to have your desires met to be happy?

Desires can lead us to a meaningful life, but they can also take us away from our needs. Until the egoic mind is our servant, rather than our master, our desires take us to a dead end. The desire journal can help us distinguish between a desire of the heart and an egoic desire.

Living in stressful times has its advantages. A state of overwhelm can serve as a lightning rod to our well-being, especially when we react with grace and ease. Some believe that we live in an ordered universe and that there are no accidents. If this is so, then our best response would be to buckle in, enjoy the ride, and take good care for ourselves.

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

  Anne Talk

Happy Wait Day With Anne Sermons Gillis

Today's Anne Talk is Happy Wait Day With Anne Sermons Gillis. We don't need to be hardaholics about waiting! As much as possible, use and enjoy your waiting time instead of letting it frustrate you. Time: 5:00    

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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.