Anne's Note reminds us to stay alive by Getting Out More. The main article, The Path to Conscious Awakening, provides a guideline of the process for developing one's spiritual awakening. Healthy Living shows us how we can feel better by simply Going Green. The Anne Talk is Happy Wait Day - how to lose your angst in situations involve waiting. The Featured Product this month is Standing in the Dark.

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

  A Note From Anne

Dear ,

This morning Lucy and I walked the path less traveled by. Jim stayed home. He’s atop the roof scraping off the algae that’s flourished since it’s turned into a rain forest around here. We saw no other walkers. Our house backs up to 150 miles of walking and bike trails, so it looks like we’d see a lot of others on the trails. The steamy hot of Texas weather keeps people closed in behind walls of comfort. In the winter or in the rain, or even the threat of rain, it’s the same; people hide inside, but not my family. Lucy, Jim, and I are usually out in the cold, wind, rain, and heat.

When the humidity is lower and the temperatures hover between 60 and 70 degrees, everyone comes out. It’s like a party, but I’m thinking how much they miss not getting out in the heat and cold. It’s like life. If the outside events are not to our liking, we tend to stay inside; we get out of the game.

I love the attitude of the African child who died of aids. His message was simple: “Do what you can, with what you have, in the time you have.” Stay in the game, even when we are old or sick or forgetful or broke or have no one to talk to. Don’t join the walks of the walking dead. And if you’ve never seen the movie Sessions, it provides a great example of staying engaged, even when one has vast physical limitations. Watch out; it's sex (R) rated!

Anne

  The Path to Conscious Awakening

Even though there are not five stages to self-realization, symbolizing the process as if it occurs in five stages can be useful. The following describes aspects of a nonlinear journey, one that keeps folding back into itself to birth a complex field of awakening.

1. The Call

Built within everyone is a call to the Self. It is a nudge or an inkling that there’s more. It’s an easy voice to ignore, but at some point each person faces the pull of the soul. We acknowledge that plea when we recognize that something is missing.

2. The Journey

People react to the call in different ways. Some go on a quest of self-discovery, while others try to fill the void through consumerism, success, shuffling through relationships, busy-ness, arguing, worry, or substance abuse. Masking the restlessness can be a delay, can be dangerous, even fatal, or it can be the spark that leads to surrender. Hitting bottom can be redemptive if one uses it as a springboard out of hell. When the heat is on, some people turn on the air conditioning to make hell tolerable, but others wake up and get the hell out. Some live their lives in this phase and never wake up. It is tragic to never really live life knowing the true depth of one’s being, and fortunate when people move on to their higher destiny.

The search for the self is known to many as the search for the grail. Knights went on quests to find the missing grail cup, but it was the Knight’s journey that stirred them and turned them into true heroes. This is the purpose of the soul’s search: to turn us into heroes or to awaken our true selves.

3. Self-Determination

We are powerful. We are not victims. We have self-determination, so therefore we can decide how we act and react. We are not at the mercy of events, what people say to us, or how we are treated. We are not defined by events, and we can be free in the middle of the hurricane of life. This discovery is mind blowing. It blows the mind into new ways of relating to people, events, and circumstances.

4. Exploration

Once we find out about real choice, we realize that our previous behaviors were driven by conditioning and subconscious programming. What we thought was choice was merely prerecorded messages from the past. Next comes the time to explore our triggers and reactions so that we are not led by our pain and suffering. We can contain and heal our reactions without bringing others into our brokenness.

We learn to:

• Set boundaries, both internal and external. We fall in love with the word, “No.”
• Forgive ourselves and others for past infractions.
• Develop an attitude of possibility and move past familiar limits.
• Expect good.
• Choose life affirming thoughts over destructive ones.
• Practice stillness exercises such as contemplation or meditation, or practice conscious breathing or mantra.
• Take care of the body and get enough rest and exercise, and eat plenty of nourishing food.

Some people never move past this phase, but it’s a good place to be. It’s all about making life work, being a better me, and feeling the desperation drain away.

5. Awakening

The final stage is the stage of awakening to who we are. We find our true identity. We are not a “me.” We are a “Thee.” We start to identify with our true self, not our personality. This is the new edge of consciousness: consciousness awakes to itself.

Awakening to the truth of who we are is the natural unfolding of life. It is a process that involves longing, surrender, and leaving limited thoughts and beliefs behind. It offers a radical shift of consciousness that can occur suddenly and repeatedly in a series of aha’s, in an upward spiral, or it can occur slowly and steadily like a trickle of water that cuts through a mighty rock. Our part is to become aware of this process and to welcome all aspects. Sometimes when we think we are at our lowest points we are really grieving the process that cuts away the old to give way to the new.

We are all on this journey. Sometimes we seem stuck in one aspect of the passage, but when we become aware of what is happening, the looking itself is what wakes us up. Radical trust in the process, understanding that what is happening now is right for what is happening now, jettisons us to a grace space of peace and calm. Fortunately we don’t have to figure out life. We don’t have to have a master plan for enlightenment. We were born with a plan and the only thing we have to handle is the present moment, and when we show up with awareness, our lives become EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

"When an emotion arises, there is the opportunity to simply stop, to not act out, or deny, but simply to be still."
— Gangaji

"You are not the content of your experience. You are the awareness that brings life and joy to every experience."
— Nirmala

"Love is the flame that burns everything other than itself. It is the destruction of all that is false and the fulfillment of all this is true."
— Adyashanti

Featured Product This Month

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to learn more.

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

  Healthy Living

Go Green for De-stressing

Want to feel better? Need a break? Need to regroup? Go green. Not in terms of sustainability; I’m talking the color green. Look at something green for 30 seconds and you will find yourself uplifted. Better still, go outside and look at the green tree leaves for 30 seconds or more. You’ll feel better.

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The color green triggers a primal sense of well-being and connects us emotionally to the nature archetype. Green is truly a de-stressing blessing, so when you gaze at a plant, it is truly a prayer for your good!

Anne

  Anne Talks

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

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time.

Sunday, July 26, 2015
10:15 AM service
"Golden Rules of Conscious Relationships"
Unity of North Houston
11738 Grant Road
Cypress, TX 77429
Phone: 281-374-7085

You may reach Anne by phone at 281-419-1775 or click the button below to contact Anne by email. Anne is also available to officiate at weddings and funerals.