Anne's Note, We Got the RV, tells how she handled the experience of getting their RV. In the Main article, Thought Blessings - Thought Curses, Anne shares how our thoughts can help us or hurt us and how to handle them with EZ. The Healthy Living article, Curried Garbanzos, provides a quick recipe from Anne's favorite cook book. The Anne Talk, What Are You Thinking? The Nature of Thought, is a recording of a teleseminar she gave on April 4, 2012. The Featured Product this month is Anne's reprint of EZosophy:The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living.

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

Living EZosophy, October 4, 2016
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 281-419-1775
Email: anne@annegillis.com

Anne's Websites:

  A Note From Anne

We Got the RV

Dear ,

We found a 26' RV trailer that suits both Jim and me. We leave this week to see the grands in South Carolina and we won't have time to play with it before we leave.

I lay awake the night after we purchased it, wondering what we had done. We've been dreaming of buying an RV for years and now the time has come and it seemed like a surprise to me. I thought, "What have we done? We don't have a clue how to do this.

Getting the RV to our storage space was stressful. The brake light and turn signals didn't work because of some malfunction in our truck plug and we drove with the RV attached during the afternoon traffic rush. Since we couldn't get the electricity to work, we had to do everything manually, which turned out to be a lot of work. It took about an hour just to park and then detach the RV.

I awakened in the middle of the night, my body filled with fear. My mind wasn't upset, but I had those visceral, wordless feelings coursing through my body. I remembered the eight-word miracle mantra, "Everything can be EZ or at Least EZier." I rested in that thought. I clung to it in my mind and felt an amazing relief. Even though I didn't fall back to sleep immediately, I was filled with a calming feeling. I am the greatest fan of the mantra because I find that when I am under stress, that mantra is miraculous. It has the power of Sanskrit mantras of old. We all need an emotional blanket, and for me, the eight word miracle mantra is mine.

Anne

  Main Article

Thought Blessings - Thought Curses

Thoughts are unpredictable. They pop up like corks in a lake and lead us from mood to mood. Thoughts consist of energy and information. Some thoughts are conscious. Some thoughts are preverbal. They haven't attached themselves to words yet, but they still affect us, perhaps even more than thoughts that have words. These nonverbal thoughts developed before we could talk. We also have thoughts that synthesize information and emerge as feelings without words. These are feeling thoughts.

Thoughts can control us, we can control thoughts, and we can transcend them. Thoughts cause all suffering. They pull us in many directions. They can be petty, manipulative, or gaudy, but their least attractive characteristic is that they are repetitive. The come to us over and over, reminding us of useless information and hammering us into rage, boredom, sadness, and fear.

When our thoughts go unchecked and determine our outlook on life, we are unconscious. This doesn't mean we passed out. The term "unconscious," when used in spiritual circles, means that we are unaware of what we think and feel.

The first step out of unconsciousness is referred to as waking up. When we "wake up," we "go conscious." Waking up is a phase in the process of enlightenment and it involves being aware of our thoughts and feelings. When we wake up, we move from reactivity to creativity. This is often a shocking experience because we have so many life-denying thoughts. In this phase, we see our brilliance and power, but they emerge hand and hand with petty thoughts, revenge thoughts, self-criticism, and crass thoughts about others.

We can use our awareness to pull ourselves up or put ourselves down. How can we keep ourselves from being dragged down by such unloving material? The following suggestions offer mind taming ideas.

• Watch our thoughts with loving awareness. Some call this the witness position. We can switch from disapproving of our thoughts to letting them be. This is a step in the realization that we are not our thoughts nor are we our minds. What we call our mind is actually our thought process, but between thoughts lie brief, thoughtless moments of stillness. When we watch the mind, we find we still exist even when there is no thought or feeling present. When I am with someone and I have a critical thought about them, I can respond internally, "I am such a bad person." I am also free to watch the thought and say lovingly to myself, That's just what the mind does. I am not what I think. I am a spiritual being regardless of any thought or feeling I might have."
• We can purposely place good thoughts in our minds. This action is called "affirmative thinking." Affirmative thoughts are seeds in our mind that, when nurtured, grow into fruits of well-being.

The following affirmative thoughts come from my new book, Words Make a Difference.

• I am an open-minded person.
• I don't believe all my thoughts; I just watch them pass through my mind.
• My mind is free from limiting, harmful thoughts and beliefs.
• I am safe and sane.
• My mind is bigger than its conditioning; therefore, I am freer than I think.
• My mind contains sensitive data that can harm me when taken seriously.
• I am aware of the sinister parts of my mind, and I don't have to take its information seriously.
• I am no longer frightened by my mind.
• I have a brilliant mind.
• My mind taps into expansive states of consciousness.
• My mind is a reservoir of joy and happiness.
• My mind is quick and nimble.
• My mind is open to my highest good.
• My mind is brimming with all things necessary to live an abundant life.

We can tend to our minds as one tends to a garden. Mind maintenance usually includes meditation, an optimistic, trusting attitude, conscious breath work, prayer, and taking care with the material we feed our minds.

When we care for our minds, our minds learn to slow their frantic pace. At this point we have the ability to surrender our word thoughts and feeling thoughts to the Great Stillness. The more we can let go and not know, the EZier our lives become. There is a Source that beckons, and from that Source, Stillness emerges, and from that Stillness arises Source thoughts that are creative, soft, kind, artistic, compassionate, and comforting. Mending and maintaining our minds moves us from Mego (me+ego) to Amigo (friend.) We move from the aspect of mind that relives our brokenness to the aspect of mind where thoughts come from the purity of being. It seems like a long journey from the outer world into the inner world of love and kindness, but it is a journey worthy of pursuit. And when we consciously chose this path, we always find that our lives become EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Affirmation
"The universe flows in perfect orchestrated harmony. That flow provides a moment-to-moment individual plan for my life. The plan is already active. When I rest in the stillness, my plan reveals itself. I am pursued and captured by divine impulse and that impulse creates right activity and perfect timing. It is so and I am so blessed."
-- Anne Sermons Gillis

"Since the mind has no way of knowing how the Universal Law (aka GUS God/Universe/Spirit) is going to deliver your miracle, don't just waste time trying to figure it out; just know! Your thoughts should be like acorns that develop gradually into oaks. If you dig them up to see how things are going, your tree will perish. It's important to avoid fretting. Center on the feeling that someway, somehow, the Universal Law will not let you down because everything in the universe is energy."
-- Stuart Wilde

"The mind paralyzes; the heart realizes. The mind intellectualizes; the heart experiences. The mind dictates; the heart allows. The mind dictates; the heart allows. The mind rebels; the heart consoles. The mind narrows; the heart illuminates.” (All references to the mind refer to the “egoic mind.")
-- Anne Sermons Gillis

  Featured Product This Month

At last, the reprint of EZosophy: The art of EZ or at Least EZier Living, is out. If you've been wanting an EZier life, this book provides a clear path toward EZ.

EZosophy:The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living is a simple philosophy that radically changes lives. It is a book for the spiritually-based reader who no longer values the ego driven struggle of contemporary life.

EZosophy will help readers:

• Give up Hard Attacks. Hardaholic no more.
• Drop the drama.
• Make your life EZier. Ease is not indolence. Rather, ease is the art of accomplishment without struggle.
• Learn to identify ego driven suffering (EDS).

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to learn about EZosophy.

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

  Healthy Living

Curried Garbanzos

I like to eat a mostly plant-based diet. Sometimes I find a recipe that becomes a favorite. Here's the recipe I love and one that everyone wants, once they've tasted this treat. It comes from my favorite cookbook, Romancing the Bean, by Joanne Saltzman.

• 2/3 cup of coconut milk
• 1 1/3 cups of garbanzo bean juice or water
• 3 T. unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup of shallots (I use yellow onions if I don't have shallots)
• 2 t. curry powder
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups of cooked garbanzos
• 4 cups of raw spinach (I don't use if I don't have on hand.)

Combine coconut milk, juice or water, and flour. Cook until thickened.

Add shallots, curry, and salt mix. Add beans. Cook 10 minutes.

Five minutes before serving, add the lemon juice and spinach. Serve when spinach is bright green. I've used green beans or celery and even omitted the greens from my recipe.

Serve on brown rice, quinoa, or cooked grain of choice. Yum. Yum.

Anne

  Anne Talks

What Are You Thinking? The Nature of Thought

Today's Anne Talk, What Are You Thinking? The Nature of Thought, is a recording of a teleseminar she gave on April 4, 2012. Time: 28:20.

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Sunday, October 9, 2016
1:00 PM EDT Workshop:
EZosophy – The Art of EZ
Lunch will be provided for participants after the service. Donations accepted.
Unity of Charleston
2535 Leeds Ave.
Charleston, SC 29405
Phone: 843-566-0600

Sunday, October 23, 2016
11 AM Service: "Living in Ease"
Carmel Temple
1208 Pennsylvania St.
South Houston, TX 77587
Phone: 713-944-0014

Sunday, October 30, 2016
10 AM Service
Unity of Brazosport
507 So. Brooks St. (Hwy 36)
Brazoria, TX 77422

  Call or Email Anne Now to Schedule
  Your Next Meeting with her.

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.