Anne's Note reminds us that EZosophy deals with both negative and positive thinking. The main article, Kiss My Grits, shows how that life can still turn out well no matter how it got there. Healthy Living shows how we can Create a Good Day, regardless. The Anne Talk is her The Hardaholic Mantra. The Featured Product this month is all of Anne's products.

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

  A Note From Anne

Dear ,

When we are cynical, jaded, and see the world as a hopeless cesspool of dishonesty and pain, positive thinking is an invaluable discovery. When the grin on our face is as permanent as a tattoo, it’s time to come out from under a rock and see things realistically. Positive thinking and negative thinking can, at times, be destructive to the heart. Each can be used as a cover-up for authentic living. When one is dehydrated, s/he needs to drink water, but s/he doesn’t need to drink two gallons of water. So it is with positive and negative thinking. A little salt and pepper go a long way, but either, when overused, can ruin our grits.

EZosophy is a philosophy that is big enough to house both the pleasure and pain of life without denying that either exists. While positive thinking is a spiritual stepping stone, it is not the place we are destined to land. We are called to a higher place which involves a panoply of actions and beliefs. The dirt holds the stone steady so we can move forward in our journey, but stopping to worship the stone will keep us stuck and yearning for more. Thank you for joining this journey called EZosophy. It is based on neither positive or negative thinking; it is based on recognizing and releasing the egoic thoughts and feelings and returning to the flow. And we all know by now, “There’s no business like flow business.”

Anne

  Kiss My Grits

When I was young, I thought success and fame would lead to fulfillment. I was so good at the getting game that I lived my dreams and achieved my life goals by the time I was 25. Many people hit bottom and are forced to find a better way, but I hit top and found the world of power, a grand home, country club membership, and travel were not the solutions they promised to be. It was a time of great crisis. I was empty and miserable. Finally, I surrendered. I couldn’t figure out how to make my life meaningful and I couldn’t do anything to make things right. I just gave up, and some part of my ego flat-lined long enough for me to have an awakening. I lived in some kind of heaven on earth for months.

In my naiveté, I thought my life would never be the same and that heretofore every life experience would be underpinned by that peace that passes understanding. Little did I realize that experience was to give me insight into a mystical state of consciousness that would see me through some of the toughest times of my life.

I eventually got divorced; maybe that was the problem--an unhappy marriage. I was shocked by the depth of my despair after my divorce; my husband had been such a big part of my life. I remarried on the rebound with tears that were still wet on my face. My small nest egg was swiftly depleted by a less than honorable second husband. I found that not having enough money to meet life’s demands was even more frightening than the emptiness I experienced when I had plenty of money.

The man I married was a compulsive liar. He lied about little things and I could never figure out whether I was standing on the ground or in quicksand. I couldn’t believe he would lie to me. He was such a master at weaving fact and fantasy, that I couldn’t tell the difference. I began to doubt reality, because I was desperate to believe his lies. I made myself wrong in order to make him right. I almost went crazy. I ran the numbers and figured that if I really went crazy, it would be so expensive, I might never get out of the hole. Finally, in a fit of sanity and self-preservation, I divorced him.

Then came many years of life experience, relationships, travel, a thirst for spiritual truth, and a journey that continues. I’ve done more in my life and with my life than I ever expected to do. I look back and can’t believe the experiences I’ve had and that I have touched the face of love again and again. Life has become a friend that holds my hand and comforts me.

Waking up was not a guarantee of a perfect life; it was the door that opened the understanding not to take life so personally. Tragic events come and go, wonder and happiness come and go, but all these events were external to me because who and what I am cannot be defined by events. Events are the toys on the playground of life, but they are not life itself. This insight was not apparent at the time. I had to grow into it. And grow I did.

This was my life, and what I’m sharing is not a prescription for anyone’s life. I just want to mention that life was not what I planned it to be, it was not what I expected it to be, but through some twist of fate, it was and is better than my expectations. Events in life are not life itself, and the more I’ve come to understand that, the easier it’s been to appreciate the magnitude and fortune of my life. There’s an old saying, “Enlightenment is just a recognition, not a change at all.” And as I’ve recognized what is really present, I find myself at the starting place of my journey. The difficult and joyful events in life were stepping stones that took me back home. They were the grit in my "grail" and the thread in my life’s tapestry. The grit is still here, but I don’t have to sweep it under the carpet anymore. I can add it to my garden and it will soon support a flower or tree. I guess you could say I’ve learned to “kiss my grits,” and, as Robert Frost would say, and that has made all the difference.

Anne

  Anne Art

Expression is to key to personal art, not talent. I like art as an expression. Art to me is also play, and it is relaxing to create pictures with no need to make them great or perfect. Adults get too serious about art and often don’t participate because they have judgments about the end product. My doodles and dabbles are not serious. They are just fun things to do.

Flower-Pink
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Two Trees
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  Featured Product This Month

Click graphic above to learn about Anne's Products.

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to learn more.

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  Healthy Living

Create a Good Day

Want to have a good day today? You can do it. Start with this thought, “Today, regardless of the situation, I will not get irritated, upset, or have a Hard Attack.” Sometimes it takes an intention like this to turn us from our familiar and habitual mind traps. Much of our struggle is almost imperceptible; we suffer just enough to keep down our enthusiasm, spontaneity, and creativity. You can tell when you are having a Hard Attack by the tell tale Hardaholic mantra. Watch an example of a "Hard Attack" in the Anne Talks video below.

So, just for today, set your intention to have a good day. Give up your hard attacks, do away with those sighs of struggle, and you will not only have an easier day, you will open the door to healthier living. And if you like how your intentional day went, you may want to create another good day tomorrow.

Anne

  Anne Talks

This week's Anne Talk is The Hardaholic Mantra. In it Anne demonstrates an example of someone using "The Hardaholic Mantra." Remember, life can be EZier than this. Time: 1:06

  Quotes

It's high time for you
to claim the rewards
that were promised you
at the beginning of time:

not just any old
beauty
wisdom
goodness
love
freedom
and justice

but rather
wild beauty
that excites your curiosity

crazy wisdom
that makes you allergic to dogma

outrageous goodness
that drives you to perform
heroic acts of lusty compassion

insurrectionary love
that endlessly transforms you

ingenious freedom
that is never permanent
but must be reinvented
and reclaimed every day

and a totally-serious-yet-always-laughing justice
that schemes and dreams
about how to diminish the suffering
and increase the joy
of every sentient being.

-- Rob Brezsny

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