Bo Sebastian's Finding Authentic You!: September 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

10 Minutes of Laughter

10 Minutes of Laughter

You’ve heard that laughter is the best medicine, but did you know that one hardy laugh can be just as effective as a pain medication, sustaining pain relief for almost two hours? Of course, this is hard to prove medically, but many people have reported total healing has occurred when watching a series of funny movies and programs and staying positive and out of a depressive state.

This, of course, doesn’t work when you have had your stomach muscles cut, such as with surgeries such as a Caesarean birth and hernia surgeries. In these cases, laughing actually exacerbates healing. When I began recovering from my hernia surgery, I actually had to send my mother home, because she kept trying to make me laugh, which was providing more pain than comfort.

After a few days I invited her back as laughter became a great relief and healing factor. If you go to the Internet for studies about how happiness and positive living provides the necessary environment for a healthy body, you’ll find a myriad of advice and stories of miraculous recovery.

In my own life, I can tell you that the healthier I feel mentally, the better my body feels, almost inevitably. I notice that during days of beautiful sunlight and clear days that my body also feels better and healthier. On the contrary, my sensitivity to the weather makes me have more challenging days when it rains or is considerably overcast. This illness is called SADS (Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome). Plenty of my friends have the same reaction to weather as I do, as do many of my Sensory Defensive Clients.

Sensory Defensiveness—the feeling of being overloaded by light, sound, and touch is a difficult disease to shake, because you are affected by people and environment that you can’t change almost every day. For instance, I am waiting for my friend Sharon to have eye surgery. The waiting area has overhead lighting that is annoying and causing a migraine. I had to go to my car for a pair of sunglasses to keep from getting a headache. Even now, I’m having to rest my eyes periodically to keep that feeling of an angry claw clamping down on my head from happening.

Other ways to help SADS and Sensory Defensiveness is to do actions that change the neural pathways firing in the brain or, at least, slow them down. You can wear a weighted vest or ankle weights. This has proven to be one of the best solutions for me. I know it looks a little odd for the weighted vest, but I can usually find a pair of pants that will cover ankle weights, if I have to be in a place such as a bar, theater or department store, where the environment is often frenetic and challenging for me.

Of course, if your problem is bright light, carry a pair of wrap-around sunglasses with you at all times. I’m thanking God right now for the sunglasses I’m wearing now. The headache is subsiding slowly, especially since I am doing a few yoga stretches to my neck and shoulders intermittently as I finish this blog.

Yoga is also a great way to get to know your body. In theory, the yoga movement practice was developed to experience every part of the human anatomy. This experience is actually for a different reason than you may think. The asana or movement portion of yoga was actually practiced to discover every part of God in you. As the scriptures say “that we are made in the image of God,” the yogis believed that discovering God could be helped by challenging the breath of life by creating different breath exercises. Each exercise helps the mind to control that body and the breath, which, in turn, helps you discover more of God.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com. Please feel free to comment and/or sign up to receive your blog sent to you directly or stream with an RSS Feed.

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header.

Also, be looking for “Finding Authentic You, 7 Steps to Effective Change” with a Year to CLEAR (Compassion, Love, Enthusiasm And Relationship-Ready) in Early 2014. Thanks!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Emancipate Your Mind

Emancipate Your Mind

Are you a slave to your mind? Do you hear a voice inside saying: “You’re not good enough! You’re not pretty enough! You’ll never be successful! You are innately a bad person!”

If you do, it’s time to emancipate your mind!

I woke up today feeling as if I had overcome the world. Why? Because I am not a slave to the antagonistic thoughts of my mind. Hallelujah!~

You’ve heard me speak of Attachment Disorder before. I described attachment as the image of a computer. In the computer is a hard drive, empty of information, until you or someone else inputs information and formats the drive.

The computer is your body. The hard drive is your mind. And the information that is on the hard drive, primarily, has input on it from the beginning of your human life until now. As you didn’t have the knowledge or the design to create input from birth to four or five years old, then most of the format and original input was placed there by parents, teachers, guardians and ministers.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust a thing that was originally on that hard drive. I’m attached to it by virtue of neural pathways that get triggered by life circumstances, but I am NOT prone to act on these temptations much any more, making me feel emancipated from slavery.

Ten years ago, a computer tech convinced me to change from an Apple computer to a PC. He told me he would help me with the changeover and lead me through all the problems I might face. At that time, Apple wasn’t as ahead of the pack as today, so I told him I’d try.

He took me to Office Depot, and we bought my first PC. He gave me some free software. Eventually, I was on my way to recreating my computer life. One day, though, I was on the Internet talking on AOL Messenger. As I was closing the window, a pop-up appeared and, without thinking, I pressed the return key. The window said something about making AOL my home page.

From that point on, AOL took over my hard drive. I couldn’t get rid of it. I took it to my tech friend. He wrestled with it for a day only to tell me, “I’m going to give your hard drive a washing.” In other words, he had to clear it of everything, including the data. When he returned my computer, I had to start at the beginning with all new software and date.

I have learned that the behavior of my mind is basically rehearsed by prior activity and the past—let’s call it AOL. What I desire in my life is for the hard drive to be completely washed clean, just like the PC.

When you realize that each neural pathway has an inception point, triggered by an act or an emotion. A behavior follows the trigger.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to get the computer washed clean. But you can, change how you react to the neural pathway triggers. This can be done in the inductive mind with meditation or hypnotherapy.

By doing so, you convince the deductive mind it has less power. Eventually, it will start to leave you alone, just like a bully would when you stand up to him.

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I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. If you are looking to enter the RSS or Atom Feed, you have to go to the home page of the blog to get there. And I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket

I love to decorate. I believe the gay gene presents itself strongly and firmly in that area of my life. I have more knickknacks than I have clothes. Of course, people come into my house, and the first thing they notice is a sense of peace. But I believe it’s because they sense my things are placed correctly and in order. How does one find that order without having this particular designer sense?

Feng Shui is the Chinese art of spatial arrangement. Much of this art is about intention and drawing positive spiritual law into your life. Even if you don’t believe in the art, you can imagine that if you put a picture of a man in your relationship corner, intentionally, then every time you look at that picture, you will know that your intention is to find right relationship. I went one step further. Not only did a put a picture of a handsome man in that corner, before I met Allen, I put articles that represented love and respect and compassion also in that corner.

Every day I would remind myself, simply by taking my prayer time in that space, exactly what I intended for myself. Intention is power spiritual action moving forward toward positive results!

The law of mind and spirit would state that what you believe in your mind will express itself in form and matter in your life. So, if you create intention in your home and in your surroundings, you are likely to attract exactly what you ordered from Spirit.

I’m not a “name it and claim it” kind of minister. I have always believed in the laws of spirit. I believe they work for everyone. But one law trumps all other laws. That law aids you in your spiritual growth. So, if you thought it would be wonderful to be rich, perhaps, that might not be in your present paradigm, even though you pray about it every day. Well, maybe “rich” isn’t a part of your spiritual path. Perhaps, spirit wants you to trust that all of your needs will be met, first, by learning the great gift of Faith. This spiritual law will trump your physical intention every time.

When you learn faith, then maybe Spirit will allow the greater gift of financial prosperity in your life. I can speak from this place from experience, because I always pray for prosperity in every area of my life. In fact, this is a daily practice. However, I truly don’t have a lot of savings. Every need is met. I have a beautiful home. I drive an expensive car. I have everything anyone would want, but I don’t have the benefit of knowing this money will be present over the long haul.

I ask myself why is this so, many times. The spirit keeps reminding me that I have never had to worry about money or things. I simply “choose” to worry about money. When I need it, the allowance is always there.

For instance, I thought I would have enough to pay off my BMW at the beginning of the year. In fact, I intended that. But from December to February many things went wrong in my life that caused major bills to the tune of 21 thousands dollars. My roof blew off in a windstorm, my car had two major problems, my plumbing went kaput, my front tooth broke off, a friend I loaned money to lost his job, and two major appliances had to be replaced.

As I attended to all the problems, of course, my desire to pay off the car went on the back burner. I tell you this because, intention is wonderful, but don’t get caught up in the results. You must stay present and allow spirit to lead you through the hard places to get to the joy and ease of the soft places. You intention should always be to learn the lessons that will move you forward in your spiritual life.

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Friday, September 27, 2013

Why "I'll Try!" Simply Isn't Good Enough

Why “I’ll Try!” Simply Isn’t Good Enough!

Most of us have heard the saying from Star Wars: Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back when the character Yoda explains to Luke Skywalker: “No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try!”

Why is the matter of Luke Skywalker “trying” not good enough for Yoda? In a world where the best you can give sometimes is simply trying your best, it would seem that any effort would be considered a good thing. But Yoda understood that to make effective change you had to be committed to a goal—completely. When all you can say is, “I’ll try,” you have not given your heart and soul to the process. Therefore, failure is impending.

I use my own midlife struggle with ten pounds as an example often. But, I do so, because most of us struggle with weight—some more than others. These damn ten pound have been like an anchor for over a year. I lose five and gain five back. I lose ten, then slowly, I gain it all back. I keep saying, I’m ‘trying’ this and that diet and exercise plan. But the truth is, I have not committed to losing the weight. If I had committed, I would have already lost it and kept it off.

Today, a client cancelled, which gave me two hours in the afternoon, which I normally don’t have. Since I was caught up with my work, I decided that I would do my yoga practice. Normally, I do it three times a week, not five or six, which would be required to lose weight. Instead, I have been “trying” to get to the gym and do 45-50 minutes of aerobics. I have made it to the YMCA a total of three times in two weeks, but also have bounced on my fitness ball two more nights. Though that would be considered a good try, it is not enough of an effort to lose weight—not hardly enough.

After my yoga practice today, I took a much-needed shower. I felt invigorated and empowered, because yoga is my exercise and spiritual practice of choice. It provides me with everything I need. As I got out of the shower, I heard myself say, “I ought to TRY and do yoga every day. Make a serious effort to do it at a specific time.”

As I observed my error in ways, I asked myself another question: “How hard would it be to say: ‘I will commit to my yoga practice every day at 8 a.m.?’”

I actually muttered the words, but couldn’t commit to it completely. Immediately, I thought, well, what if I’m sick. How can I say I commit totally to something without knowing how I’ll feel each day?

I realized, then, that I could easily say, “If I’m not sick and feeling well enough, or if time constraints allow, I will commit to doing yoga at eight every morning.”

After I said that allowed, I felt sick to my stomach. It was as if a little boy inside was mad at me. He didn’t want to have to do anything he was told. In fact, that little boy inside probably was the one who has been eating the sweets and extras, even when I’m not hungry. He probably takes over my mind. And I let him.

How many times have you picked up something sweet after something salty, even when you weren’t hungry, just to make a presumptive balance in your taste palate? Or have you done what I do and continue to eat, even when you’re not hungry, simply because the food tastes so good. Or, even worse, eat because you’re bored and chewing feels like an action worth doing?

Oh dear. Effective change takes way more effort than that. I tell my clients this every day. But I know the real reason that I don’t lose the weight. It is because I believe that I look fine with a few extra pounds. And fine simply is good enough, especially when you have a partner who loves you, even with a few extra pounds.

When I come to the resolution that health is more important than actually losing the weight, I will probably easily take the pounds off, simply by changing my behavior about taking care of my body.

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Thursday, September 26, 2013

What Should You Discuss on a Third Date?

What Should You Discuss on a Third Date?

In considering new relationships and dating, the primary goal is DO NOT keep dating the same type of person over and over again and expect a different result! When you search for someone to date, you may need to begin by considering a completely new paradigm for relating.

One very good goal is to balance transparency with securely attached behavior. I’ll explain:

Say, on a third date, you may not want to share intimate details about your life, because you are not secure enough or feel safe enough with the person yet. So, instead, you may ask questions that don’t risk revealing too much of his personal identity, but do reveal whether or not he is someone who has the ability to be transparent enough to be in a secure relationship.

An example of the difference in the type of question is this: If you asked, “Where do you work or where do you live?” this kind of question may lead to discovering information about the actual location he works from 9-5. That information may be too risky to reveal on a third date, especially for a woman. So, avoid that kind of interrogation. You could, however, ask, “If you could pick any job in the world, what would you do and why?”

This kind of questioning opens up into the character of the individual, instead of revealing specifics about who and what he or she does. I’d would much rather know about the character of an individual I’m interested in dating, anyway, than the precise details of his life. That will come later.

You may not want to answer the question: “What is your last name and the street you live on?” But, you could easily ask a person on the third date what relationship looks like to her.

You might follow that up with, “In the past, what kind of things would you do differently in relationship, or what have you learned from past relationships?” (Notice that I keep the questions positive. I wouldn’t ask, what did you do wrong? Or why didn’t your last relationship work out?)

You will notice immediately if a person gets uncomfortable with intimacy. If he or she avoids answering questions like the above, you can be fairly certain you are not dealing with a very securely attached individual. Your goal should be to understand how a person would act in each of the six important dynamics of relationship: Attraction, Availability, Intimacy, Transparency, Security, and Trust.

1. Attraction, you can perceive the moment you meet and talk. If it’s there, it’s there. However, if you know what to look for, you may be attracted to a different type of person completely, than you had in the past.

2. Availability is discovered when you find out if the person is actually unmarried, unattached, or has enough time off of work to actually have a relationship (an important attribute to have).

3. Intimacy is fairly easy to achieve on a physical level. But you should be more concerned about achieving intimacy with your heart and mind first. Usually, intimacy comes with spending time together and finding things in common.

4. Transparency is what we discussed above. Is this person willing to share his/her heart with you and tell you what matters most? If your date is not willing, then I wouldn’t go on another date.

5. Security and Trust are developed over time. No one can predict how safe you will feel with someone, until you have spent time together in many different situations. That’s why we date, and we date for about a year before we get married or live with someone.

I am one to not waste time. So, if by the third date, a person hasn’t shared enough information or heart time with me, I’m not available to move forward. I have learned far too much in the dating process to waste my time with unavailable people with no desire or understanding of true intimacy.

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Don't Eat That!

Don’t Eat That!

I awoke to my first action today, taking my puppy out for his morning “release and let go.” The ground was wet with last night’s rain, a musty odor filled the air, and a dead animal was eviscerated in the middle of the road by cars continually running over it. Before I cold stop him, Coco ate a piece of the slimy dead one. “Ugh,” I cried, “No, Coco, don’t!”

Yet, he slurped up the remains. I couldn’t eat my breakfast. And you’re probably thinking, thanks for sharing—now, I can’t eat my meal!

I have learned a lot from my dog. I love him unconditionally. I believe that he loves me unconditionally. He doesn’t care if I clip his toenails, and he growls and cries. He still greets me at the door and jumps on me every time as if it’s the first time he’s ever seen me. Yet, he is an animal, working with only the reptilian mind—fight or flight mentality. He does what he needs in the moment to survive.

When he sees the opportunity for something he wants, he takes no time to decide to go for it. His actions are spontaneous when it comes to fear, food, and play. He can be dead asleep. If he hears the word squirrel or kitty cat, he will jump up, run to the window and bark. He can be eating or curled up with my mother on the couch completely comfortable. But if I say, “Coco, you wanna go for a ride with Daddy?” He will jump up, run to the door, and leap for his leash.

The reptilian mind of the human is similar to a dog’s brain, if not coerced and observed by the deductive mind and spiritual force of a person.

We have three decidedly different and diverse functional parts of the brain:

1. The Reptilian brain

2. The Deductive brain; and

3. The Inductive brain.

The reptilian brain will function on its own like a child without proper care and instruction. It will rant until it gets what it wants. It will cry when it’s afraid. It will find a hiding place if its afraid. This part of our mind needs constant and consistent direction.

I believe that when the Apostle Paul was talking about “taking every thought into captivity,” he was considering that our thoughts are not always conducive to a spiritual and loving path. He knew that our thoughts left free would cause most of his disciples to do things he wished they wouldn’t, or that wouldn’t be prudent to their own growth or others.

The other two parts of the mind are the deductive and the inductive thinking of the mind. The deductive is the part that is considered the awakened brain. We deduct, add, subtract, and create thoughts from that which already exists. Staying in this part of the brain will keep you sleepless at night and probably form insomniac tendencies.

If we find that we are traveling on a path that is not conducive to our spiritual path, we might advise our body to act differently with the deductive mind: “If you eat that cake, Bo, you are probably going to gain back the pound you lost yesterday!”

The inductive mind is the observer or the dreamer. We can fall asleep using this part of our mind.

If you find that your deductive mind isn’t as strong as your reptilian brain, and your face is inside the cake before you can extract yourself, then it’s time for the observer mind to begin to work.

The observer mind is the overseer. It watches and commands from the God Mind. This part of our mind can become incredibly strong, but only if you practice getting it strong by meditation. If you can’t get quiet, you are likely unable to control addictive behavior and have trouble sleeping.

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Happy Appearance Day

Happy Appearance Day

Some smarty-pants wished me a “Happy Appearance Day” on Sunday instead of Happy Birthday. I ended up responding, “That was the most profound response I have had.”

Turns out that the man who wrote that sentiment understands me more than you know. I don’t believe that I am here on earth by happenstance. I believe that I chose to come to earth at this time for a particular reason. That reason is unfolding in front of me as I stay on a spiritual path, keep my heart open, my mind open, and space enough in my life for God to flow through me to share with others.

Some time ago, I had a dream in which Spirit took me back to, what I believe, was the moment I had decided to come back to earth. I was with spiritual elders. They seemed to have torsos and heads, but no feet.

They were all gathered around a large table. Important people from my life, now, were also there figuring out who would be which character in this lifetime now—as if we were writing a play together, casting parts.

Who would be the protagonists, who would be the antagonists. Some said, “I’ll be your nemesis in this lifetime. Others said, “I’ll be your lover.” Some said, they would marry me and then hurt me badly, teaching me some very hard lessons. Others would come back as sisters and brothers, mother and father.

The scenario seemed to convey that the more important the person was to my spiritual family, or spiritual cluster, the more involved that spirit would be in my spiritual growth. The dream ended with all the spiritual clusters required to lose memory of the past to come back to the earth. All of us agreed.

Years after that, I had a dear friend hurt me badly. I don’t know that anyone had every hurt me in the way she did. In the midst of the turmoil, I had a dream. That friend and I were spirits in heaven. She said to me, “I love you. I’m sorry I had to hurt you in this life.”

I replied, “I love you too. You played your part well. I learned much.”

When I awoke from the dream, though I still hurt from the physical and mental pain of the circumstance, I did feel as if I could recover with more ease, knowing that there was purpose to the pain. I began to understand that the people or clusters of spirits we arrive on earth with are meant to help us on to the path of deep change. We learn lessons from these close spirits like we couldn’t possibly learn from anyone else in our lives.

So, if you have had a serious break-up or a terrible loss of a loved one, know that you have made a pact with that spirit to learn a lesson long before you have ever entered this life. The question is: What is the lesson? When you figure out what you need to learn from that person, then life becomes easier and flows from a spiritual place of understanding that “everything happens for a reason.”

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Monday, September 23, 2013

Change Is Inevitable—Part II

Change Is Inevitable—Part II

Release from Resistance to Change

I work with all sorts of different problems as a Life & Health Coach and Clinical Hypnotist. With this one specific man, we were dealing with relationship issues. He was having trouble committing.

One balmy week in summer my client told me that his mother was in town for a visit. I gently suggested that she come in with him for his next session. He didn’t think it was a problem, so we invited her.

This particular man had trouble with monogamy. So, he invites his mother into the conversation by asking her in his NY Italian accent, “Ma, did you think that you could be monogamous to Dad when you married to him?

She appeared to be a little reserved, sitting right at the edge of the couch beside him. She fidgeted her hands. “Well— you— see— hmm… Ah, no.”

Honestly, I was pleasantly shocked by her forthright answer

The son goes on, “Well, Ma, when you married Harry, did you think you could be monogamous then?

She looked at me, then at him. “Mhhh, no!”

“How about Carl?” my client asks, now incredulous.

His mother moved so close to the front of the couch that I thought she was going to fall off. “Well, honey, maybe.”

Being the good Life Coach, I smiled at his mother without judgment, then quickly focused on my client: “So, tell me, Dick, how does that make you feel?”

Richard was just about to launch into a diatribe about finally understanding why he was never able to be faithful to any of his partners, then looked at his mother and said, “Ma, you don’t understanding the definition of monogamy. Do you?”

She said, after a very long pause and a puzzled face, “Ah, no.”

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Change Is Inevitable

Change Is Inevitable

Have you ever heard the saying, “I’m like a picture, developing from the negative”? The truth of this statement in your life is the genesis of our journey together toward effective and necessary change.

I wish for everyone who is reading this blog to daily experience joy. But I don’t think joy can be experienced while a person is resistant to change. This is because change is always present and always knocking on our door, every moment, every second of every day.

“Not one moment in time exists without the next
moment in time forcing it to become history.”

Change, therefore is inevitable. It is an integral part of every human being’s life.

Sometimes when I receive a phone call from one of my crazy friends, and I know by the Caller ID who it is, I’ll answer the phone: “This is the Betty Ford Center for Inevitable Change! May I help you become less of what you want to be and more of what I want you to be?”

If you are one of my close friends, you would probably expect that I will lead with something pithy or smart ass. The truth, though, I truly feel like my life… our lives… are here on this earth for an evolution of sorts, which definitely involves change.

You can be one of those people who:

1. gets coerced into change by harsh life experiences,

2. one of those people who has drama all around pushing you to change,

3. one of those people who has a huge, catastrophic life experience that forces you to change, or

4. you can be open to change daily, and ultimately be happy about it.

Personally, I prefer the latter. I don’t like to fight. Never have. I’m certainly not about fighting an unproductive battle against reality. Which one of us can plan what truly happens today and know with certainty our plans will happen exactly as we intended?

I can think of many things that look negative on the surface, but hiding beneath the surface is something new and wonderful.

I remember one specific instance, an impending operation on my foot. It was a simple procedure, but there was pain involved to get to the place where I would be feeling better. I didn’t want the pain. In fact, after having had the surgery, had I known how much pain I would have been in, I may have opted not to have the optional surgery.

However, now that I am healed of the pain, I am thankful that I went through the misery of the operation to take care of my discomfort in my foot. I’m sure you can think of hundreds of things you have done in your life that on the surface, you may not do again, but as a result, you benefitted.

I believe that Change is an integral part of life. As we are spiritual beings caught in the human experience of change, let us rejoice when the seasons beckon us to mirror that which is the only permanence on earth—Change.

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Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Silver Thread

The Silver Thread

In spirituality, the silver thread or cord in metaphysical terms is also known as the antahkarana, referring to the life-giving consciousness thread, passing from the soul or astral body down to the physical body.

If you have ever had an out-of-body experience, when you dream and feel as if you have been liberated from the physical body, you may have experienced this silver thread. Most spiritual seekers believe that a silver thread exists to pull the spirit back to the body after such experiences.

From my personal experience with out-of-body dreams or revelations, if that cord didn’t exist, I would have never come back to the physical body. Being released from the heavy confines of the physical, human body is one of the biggest blessings I have ever felt. I long for the time when my next out-of-body experience happens. In my meditations, though I don’t pray that it happens, I wish greatly that the feeling of emptiness, freedom, and peace would accompany each time I have a meditation.

When I first began to meditate in the 1980s, I remember having many wild experiences, almost as if drug induced. Angels would visit me. Jesus would come into my room as if walking through the wall. God the Father would appear seated on a thrown with angels on each side. One time a beast with a quarter head of an ox, ¼ man, ¼ lion, and ¼ ram appeared to me. He had one wing. I asked him where the other was. He told me that I had the other.

Trust me, no drug induced these experiences. I was a minister, then, and never even drank. But when I would fast and pray, my mind would create supernatural experiences that would make anyone sit up and shout, “I believe!”

At this point in my spiritual walk, I don’t shoot for the moon in meditation. I simply pray that my soul rests and refurbishes for the next day of living on a spiritual path, connected to Unlimited God and Spirit.

After about a year of supernatural events, my meditations began to get quiet and sublime. I felt as if God had abandoned me, then, because I no longer had these wonderful moments of blissful connection combined with supernatural events. But, I realized in my prayers that God had prepared me for a life of consistent belief by giving me those memorable moments. I then needed to be an adult spiritually and live in the understanding that God moves how God chooses. I don’t get to decide what kind of experience I have when I meditate. I should simply be happy with the idea that Spirit has provided a way for us to be connected to this source of good, compassion, love, and healing. Sublime is perfectly fine now.

Now, I simply find much solace in the rest that a beautiful meditation give me. I also keep my heart open for the divine leading I may get while in this state. Sometimes it comes in a dream, sometimes it comes in words, and then other times there is simply silence.

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Bo Sebastian's Finding Authentic You!

Monday, September 30, 2013

10 Minutes of Laughter

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Emancipate Your Mind

Saturday, September 28, 2013

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket

Friday, September 27, 2013

Why "I'll Try!" Simply Isn't Good Enough

Thursday, September 26, 2013

What Should You Discuss on a Third Date?

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Don't Eat That!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Happy Appearance Day

Monday, September 23, 2013

Change Is Inevitable—Part II

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Change Is Inevitable

“Not one moment in time exists without the next
moment in time forcing it to become history.”

Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Silver Thread

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“Not one moment in time exists without the next moment in time forcing it to become history.”

Saturday, September 21, 2013

“Not one moment in time exists without the next
moment in time forcing it to become history.”