What are we all really seeking as a fulfilling life?  Nirvana? Freedom? Peace? Health?  The word the best describes it for me is joy.  When everything is complete within us we experience joy.  I find joy never permanent. It feels like a peak or a plateau that I get to enjoy for a period of time.  Then another challenge comes my way that brings the perception of an incomplete reality and I lose the connection.

There are ways that I can help direct us back to joy.  Below are some of the things that I do that help me break through to the reality of fullness in my life.

Completion:  Whether it be a project on something that I am working on within completion of it is personally fulfilling.  It is always important to stop and smell the roses when we are finished with a project or resolved an issue.  Allow your vision or visualization of it to be seen beyond your eyes and felt in your heart and body.  Joy is a sensual body experience the mental fulfillment is not nearly as satisfying.

Discovery:  Finding something new energizes us, especially when the discovery is related to something within us or personal accomplishment.

Laughter: Laughing releases.  If we are laughing at our own life, own creations or with someone else it is a more direct possibility for change. To laugh at our own mistakes is a great power.  I open my perception to laugh at movies, books or media experiences is beneficial but is not as powerfulas laughter within us.

Crying: Crying or screaming is a great therapy to release our emotions such as sadness, anger or rage.  It is not screaming at someone as that is aggression but to scream in order to release (such as rage).  The same applies to crying, when we feel the loss within crying while relating to the emotion we release allows it more fully. This perspective of release is not about the story or the person we relate to but the direct feeling of it.  The release of the emotion can be so directly powerful that we come out on the other end feeling joyful.  I never enjoy screaming into a pillow but I always feel better afterwards.

Openness:  The more I can see the world without judging it right or wrong, good or bad I maintain an open ended attitude.  It allows me to see the world in a detached way.  Through that I am more open minded to see the world around me in different perspectives than my own.  I am in an attitude to receive from others as well as myself by the open perspective.  As a result there is less opposition to everything in my life therefore a joyful feeling of wholeness is more of a possibility.

Forgiveness:  Forgiving self and others in a heartfelt way creates the possibility for a release of limiting emotional beliefs.  The deeper we can forgive the greater the possibility for joy.

Gratitude:  The attitude of gratitude generally includes a state of non-judging, non-definition and non-justification.  We are grateful.  Our hearts are opened.  This is a powerful condition of joy.

Movement:  It is the quality that all of the above have. When we move or resolve barriers, overcome conflict, see a new perspective, change an attitude come to terms with something inside of us we have movement.  Change and movement open us to the reality of joy.

In general, the more we accomplish, change, grow and seek out what stops our life we will find joy.  As we know ourselves better we learn to have joy within on an everyday basis.  The beauty of joy is that has a very broad base of how it can happen.  One aspect I did not cover is faith, a process of surrender to a concept, an ideal or higher power.  It is finding joy beyond you.  It may be a topic from another article.

By Bart Sharp

In generating our dreams we cannot follow but find.

In finding our dreams I do not like the symbolism of climbing a mountain, or a journey out to the sea in the unknown.  How about sitting still and a butterfly lands on your knee and gets your attention.

Dreams can change at any given moment.  Are you willing to give up “the dream” and have many dreams?

When you dream does your energy gently drift out of your body or do you stay inside of yourself.  It is the difference of dreams embodied and disembodied.  The power of generating a dream in this reality lies in you staying inside of you.

I like to envision my dreams in my heart and belly with my mind facilitating the parts of the creation deep inside of me.  Vision of the heart and power of the belly working in harmony, planting seeds of creation, not knowing when they will sprout!

Are all of my dreams created or brought to fruition? Not all in this reality.

Can we still be happy if some of our dreams are not created in this reality?  Our choice.

Some of our greatest failures are wonderful victories if we stay open and not close the door in regret.

By Bart Sharp

I like to entertain the thought that being in love at the age of 50 or above is a more powerful kind of love than young love.  A lot can be said about the merits of young love in it world of freshness, naivety, physical beauty and hormones as the world has traditionally focused on that era of romance.  Purity is a wisdom that comes from the lessons of introspection, completion and experience.  Of course this article may show the younger audience what they have to look forward to.

If someone can love at age 50 requires them to resolve their guilt because they have made almost every mistake in the book by then.  If they are still willing to love openly again like the innocence of your love a huge forgiveness of self and of others must occur.   Otherwise the weight of those unresolved and unforgiven parts of us will kill any ability to reveal ourselves deeply that is required in mature love.

Love is too heavy of an experience for cynicism, it can severely wound a heart.  Time will always tell us that our freedom requires us to learn the lessons that regret presents to us.  Maturity guides us.  The only blame that cures is looking at our own faults to uncover where we went off the path, then we can find our way back to the richness of loving us. Then another.

To be refreshed in our own hormones and the joyful vitality of loving someone over 50 it is required to let go of our resentments.  The anger that have has complied deep inside and layered our libido to create a stalemate inside must go.  Loving over 50 requires us to unfold our pains and expose them to the light to be free of our past and our life force of sexual energy flows freely from the genitals up to our heart.

What we learn from aging is vulnerability, a softer side that opens to the world. Knowing we will be protected by our wisdom we go more naked into the world.  In that defenselessness we are more of an invitation to receive love of all kinds and see it in its multiplicities of expression.  We can cherish life in all of its moments.

We have seen so many kinds of fear by age 50 we know it is not real, so why buy into it?  Anything depleting is created in a lie.  Love always fills and replenishes.  With maturity we know how to nurture love so that it stays alive.  Each stage of life can be honored in love, loving relationships and heart filled romance.

One of my favorite movies, “Star Wars” uses the concepts of “the force” an energy that the Jedi knows and uses that consciousness for his/her source of power.  Once while in nature I asked the question, “Is there such an energy like the force in nature?  If so can I perceive it?”  I began to feel the forest differently as it was an opening to begin perceiving nature in more of a vibrational awareness.

I sat in my favorite area on the Barton Creek Greenbelt with my eyes closed wondering what the force felt like.  In the process of observing the energy of the trees I felt the trees energies trickling out of it to connect with the air and the other trees in the area.  It became quickly apparent that the trees, other plants, the sky and the earth were all connected.  It was just like “the force” that flowed through everything. We can take far fetched and simply ask our body to embody them.  Then we wait and see what happens.

Science fiction in the business community is a valuable tool.  When brainstorming sessions are open to all possibilities without judgment suddenly minds have permission to function outside the box.  Wild ideals can be thrown out and if one sticks then the practical perspectives can begin conforming it to something more applicable.

The key element to this type of creative process is allowance to let everyone be them selves and not to judge anyone for being outside the mindset of conformity of the business setting.  Providing this safe atmosphere where all aspects of a person to be revealed is more of a holistic expression of ideals.  Sometimes professional, other times playful and even the far side.  It opens a atmosphere of all possibilities like a science fiction novel.  After all we are looking for that one unique ideal that no one else has developed.

Why do some change quickly and others do not? Is the person ready to make a choice to receive a different life from a grander scale? Are they really ready to let go of their past? These are common questions that may be explored in finding out why.

There are a many reasons but one that stands out more than others is, “How connected a person is to their own body?” Or. To what degree does the person feel and perceive inside of them self? The more we are deeply connected to our self in a physical/energetic sense and feel what is occurring within us we make transformation much easier.

When we see a therapist, receive energetic therapeutic work or personal work to change us it is important to look as clearly as we can to what is occurring in our body when we are doing the work. The limitations that are stored away maybe processed by our mind but we also have recorded them in our body. The body is where the more profound changes occur. For example, when we relive how we felt about an incident with someone like a parent we may feel the visceral sensations of the emotions experienced in our stomach. As we come to terms with them the deeper we can clarify and re-experience what it was like in the past limitation we are able to release it.

After we have done the therapeutic work it is important to feel into yourself to discover how you have changed. Releases from the body create a new space within us to be something different. You have choices to what you wish to fill it with. If you begin seeing your life as different after the therapeutic work and then begin doing the things that make that happen you create a new possibility in your body to become something you have never been before.

I know a man who does a variety of workshops and private sessions and receives significantly less benefit than others and then blames his teachers for his lack of progress. This man is always expecting someone else to create the miracle for him. The workshop or private session only opens the door for you to change. If you go back to your normal routines, return to more of a mental processing of the situations instead of embodying the changes it is more likely less will happen. Applying what we learn is essential. Our fears, ego and limitations like us to remain in our old similar past and not break free. We can quickly become seduced back into what we really wish to change.

Living our life in an open state of being where we are willing to choose differently is our best tool for transformation. I have worked with a few people for twenty minutes, given them some handouts to practice and they tell me later the session changed their life. These people actually practiced the lessons presented to them.

When we welcome the change of our personal or energetic work and are willing to listen to the changes that they present to us. This concentrated focus will generally lead us out of the box our limited life has confined us to. Therapeutic work is only a part of the process, we then begin the process of accommodating the changes. The magic really begins when we see what we can change, healers, therapists or the inspiring books we read open those doors to change. We are asking for the adventures that change presents to us, be willing to be guided by the inner sources within you that are ready to divulge what you are ready to receive.

The shadow is an equally important part of us to the persona that we hold in the front and show to the world, it is equally a part of our personal power.  The shadow is the parts of the past that have been suppressed or unrecognized.  It can also be oppositional to the image of us that we actively present to others. We live in a duality of our life of light and dark and our power goes to both places.  As much energy as some project out to the being they wish to actively present in the world the we supply the shadow side an energy as well.

Psychologist Carl Jung, creator of the shadow concept said,  “The Shadow must always have an avenue to be explored and expressed otherwise it will come out in a more animalistic way.”  The evidence of the shadow in an animalistic expression would be someone attacking another in a ‘road rage’ incident or beating his wife whom he loves yet cannot control his expression of anger.   It would be easy to assume that there is anger suppressed and unresolved in these attackers that suddenly comes out when triggered.

The expression of the shadow comes out in other ways than direct aggression.  Some may be passively expressing the aggression, obsessed, have addictions, depression and other behaviors.  It is our psychi’s way of using a behavior to not feel the suppressed parts of us AKA the  shadow side.   However, the unresolved pains of our past that are the creation of our shadow are the driving energy of our dysfunctional behaviors.  An important ingredient of resolving our negative behaviors is knowing how the creation of our undesired patterns is an expression of our shadow.

The more that we can look into the stories of our past and see the dynamics of how we created our shadow sides we can begin to integrate these parts within us so our life feels more whole.  We begin to see the shadow part that once came forth as intense, destructive anger is now a strong energy that can firmly advocate for a cause or tell another “No” in a firm way that no longer requires a physical force to back it.  Or someone who is addicted may come to terms with their shame so that now they have more self-esteem.  Though their awareness of  how they created themselves as feeling lesser than the humility that they have is an heart opening that opens them to be more aware of others and confront their addictions.

When we suppress an experience we often do so because it is too overwhelming and/or we do not have the tools to process the information.  When we judge the situation as bad because it is unbearable; a part of our self splits apart from us on an energetic level creating the shadow.  This memory separates as a sub-identity from us, as it is a part of us but exists as a wounded side of us in partial integration.   This is why after a traumatic experience we do not feel whole and a part of us incomplete.  All of this could be avoided if we could process this experience and reconcile it within us beginning in our childhood.

The shadow remains as a submerged part of our consciousness holding a anguished part of us hidden away in a suppressed state.  This past energy is not totally passive. When we encounter situations that are similar to the suppressed experience the behavior recreates itself in the image of the past emotional trauma that we originally had.  So we feel the same past intensity as the shadow part becomes alive and sparks the body to relive the sensation again.  Most people react in a negative way when they feel these old memories not knowing it is from their past.  For many they are reliving these past tape loops time and time again.  Worst yet, they judge something is wrong with them resulting in re-traumatizing themselves.

It is important when we encounter a situation that we feel distress and know that it is unreasonably greater than the present stimulus we may have memories of our past influencing us.  It is important not to react in a fearful way or judge us but to perceive the sensations occurring in our body.  When we observe what is occurring inside of us we begin the process of uncovering and dissolving the fears and energies that surround this past memory.

By paying attention to the uncomfortable sensations in our body be begin the process of identifying the body memory of our trauma.  Next ask your self what was it that stimulated the trauma to reappear.  It may have been a thought, comment or place that is associated with a past experience.  I find that people will often represent others that I have had unresolved conflicts with whose memories are stored away.  When I feel these emotions in my body I ask, “Where is the source of this from?” or “Where did this come from?”  Often a vision or short message comes up into my body, not from my mind that will let me know where the stress originated.

The more clarity I have with the situation where the suffering originated I can recall the event.  By identifying our self and the others in the event we can begin the process of forgiving our self and others.

When we experience events in life that overwhelm us a part of our psychi splits apart from us.  The trauma of the memory of the event is too much for us to hold in our body and/or we are unable to process it.  An example would be someone who is physically abused, the pain and suffering of the event creates the separation as a part of them begins to exist outside of themselves.  However the anxiety does not completely leave the body only a part of their persona.  However, the anxiety is directly connected to the split-shadow part of the person.  When the abused person encounters someone or thing that they associate with the abuse their body recreates the memory from the anxious wound of the split part of themselves.

In my work I help the person identify the trauma in their body, trace it back to the incident and identify this shadow part that has separated from them.  Once the split self is found it can be easily re-integrated back into the body.  Then the uncomfortable sensations immediately leave that once existed in our body memory.  More importantly the person feels that part of their life is whole and the fears that the original trauma has created in the person’s life disappear.  The split part re-energizes the body with a part of its innate intelligence or being that it has not known since the original incident.  The re-occuring patterns of anxiety, anger, guilt that are unconsciously created from that specific trauma go away.

The shadow is reintegrated more fully by realizing the suppressed traumas in our body.  When we become more aware of all the unconscious parts of us and the shadow becomes an inner strength instead of a undesirable part of us.  In addition, the fearful parts of the suppressed memories are no longer there giving us subtle and not so subtle negative messages about ourselves.

Without an aggressive or fear based shadow the joy that we all innately have becomes a regular aspect of us.  We find it easier to move forward in all parts of our life.

By Bart Sharp

A friend of mine told that corporate America is facing burnout.  Life has become to fast for the working world with emails, twitter, and constant technological, economical and global changes.  People have become over-stimulated and as a result it has become more difficult to maintain their focus.  Life at a faster pace creates a mindset that makes it more difficult for the worker to slow down enough to be able to concentrate long periods of time as well as leaves the worker mentally frazzled at the end of the day.  The toll is a mysterious case of large numbers of burnout.

The story brought me back to my days at the university in psychology classes during the late seventies exploring the book “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler.  Toffler explores a future world that has changed so rapidly that people have lost touch with their inner guidance.  In this a highly stimulating world inhabitants become seduced by so many inventions that they forget to maintain their own identity within themselves.  This gloomy perspective predicts high rates of addiction, depression and crime.  Toffler predicts a society scattered and diffused in a variety of ways.

Was Toffler correct?  Was he the Nostradamus of the seventies? Does this reality sound familiar?  Are we dancing on the edge of Future Shock or right in the middle of this futuristic world?

What Future Shock does not take in account is the adaptability of humanity.  Toffler was correct in some of his predictions however we have tools to improve the way we interact with high-speed living.

I am sure many of you have read articles giving guidance on how to live with stress and have an easier life.  The problem with many of these recommendations is that they require a mental and/or physical discipline.  It is a schooling of your mind.

However, the anguish stress, anger, frustration, etc… is actually held in your body not your mind.   An approach to help our body adapt with what it carries is much more effective in changing our relationship with stress.  Here are some ideals that your body would love.

Nurturing Happy Hour.  Spend at least one hour a day doing something that fulfills you.  Be creative.  Look to stimulate the other side of your brain that satisfies the soulful part of you.  Do not confuse this with relaxation activities such as television or reading.  This is a time to interact on the creative side, whether it is writing, art, gardening, meditation, walking in nature these ventures into a world of possibility enlivens and nurtures something more heart-felt.

Rituals of Release.  Find a process that allows you to let go of all of the energies of all of your interactions as a daily routine.  A prison counselor told me she let go of her issues in a daily ritual.  The first thing she does after returning to her car at the end of the shift is to have a vision of her day and place it on an alter guarded by her angels.  A fast forward visualization of what happened. She gives herself full-permission to let it remain there until the next day.  When we give our body permission to let it go or to process the issue differently our mind follows the suggestion.  Thus our body is more comfortable.  It is important to learn from our past in order to be better but it does not mean we have to carry the energies of the emotions that we experience.  I like doing a simple clearing statement “I destroy and uncreate all energies I took on in _______ situation today.”  It tells my body to let it go and through practice I actually feel its release.  It is a form of prayer, which is an effective tool to use as well.  In letting go we particularly need to be clear on what it is that we wish to release as well.

Life Is Certainly Interesting.  Living a detached point of view keeps us from getting overwhelmed with everyone’s problems.  Never align with or react to others. This is a judgment that you make that their world is good or bad.  As soon as you do that you become connected to their emotional challenge.  You literally pick it up and it begins the process of depleting your energy just like it does with the person who you are conversing with.  Listen to a person intently without siding with them, be compassion for them, even offer counsel but do not jump into their problem.  It can be done by making a judgment such as, “that’s horrible what he did to you or you really screwed that up!” By aligning or reacting with them you become attached.  It is an attitude perspective as much as it is a use of language.  Buddha would call it “Detachment with compassion.”

Carry No Old Baggage.  The more that we resolve the conflict we have in daily life the happier we are.  If it is not resolved we carry that memory within us.  If we seem to be recreating the same kind of struggles the issue we carry I most likely an older unresolved part of our past.

Surrender To A Higher Power. Our humility is one of our greatest powers.  Identifying your stresses, shortcomings and challenges to the hands of a higher power (what or whoever that be) always takes it to a greater source than your mind and ego.   A friend of mine reminds me ego is an acronym for Easing God Out.  Faith is a great partner is the workplace, it is most powerful when the creation of god is your visualized creation not someone else’s.

We Are All Super Humans.  Our body can do amazing things naturally when we ask it and not judge it.  My mind requires a disciplined rationale to develop it talents. Abilities for the body are naturally there, it is a process of uncovering.  For example a client was having tremendous bowel and stomach pains, she knew that it was her process of resolving a divorce.  But it was a major obstacle in her life.  I counseled the grieving woman to tell her body that she could still honor the grieving but her body did not need to do it in such a rough way.  She then asked her body to process the emotions in a way that was not physically so painful.  The bowels changed within thirty minutes to calmer state.  Of course she needed to honor her body as well by continuing to process the separation.  Our body has an infinite ability to do things.  In order to access those talents we begin by asking.

A Meditation Of Enjoyment.  When we actively enjoy the sensual side of us with the full intention of feeling the pleasure of it our body turns on to a higher vibration.  Our body becomes more alive.  The obvious activities that most think about is sexual or a massage and they do fall into this category, but there are many more options.  To receive the full benefits of this meditative practice requires you to be fully attentive to your body.  Your body may enjoy someone touching you or you touching yourself with the lightest of strokes so they you feel your body beyond the sensual zones.  Eating foods very slowly so that you taste every bit fully.  I like walking a very slow pace in the forest so I feel my muscles moving and enjoy viewing the woods on a fine level.  Even a simple activity as rubbing my bare feet in the dirt on a hot day grounds me and is very pleasurable.  All of these activities involve you getting deeper into your sensual aspects of feeling.  Turn off the music, television and allow yourself to focus on one simple pleasure at a time.

We are coming to an era of wonderful possibilities of living longer lives, better health, more prosperity and magical technology.  Our bodies are developing in magical ways as well.  What it requires of us it to see the possibilities of what we could become and the world from an ever-changing perspective.  The world and we as individuals are growing faster than we ever had before.  Lets honor that.

By Bart Sharp

I just saw the movie “Avatar” and like everyone was mesmerized with the special effects of the movie witnessing the beauty of the jungle world.   The magic of the movie was beyond the special effects but the connection the jungle Avatar people had to the land.  They knew the communion and respect with all life was the key to their paradise.  The human earth beings were unaware of such a paradise but saw it as a place to exploit.  The opposition of the two species told of an old archetypical challenge of a new state of mind challenged by the more traditional opinion.

In this day and age it seems like there are two kinds of people, those who wish to awaken and the others that want the best riches this world has to offer without concern of the repercussions.  Like a wide range linear scale we have those who are expanding the planet in a wide variety of ways from environmentalism to expanding consciousness on one end and at the other end those who take advantage of resources, terrorism, living life in a numb way and many more.

What can you do if you wish for our world to awaken?  The answer is simple.  Keep stretching the scale by growing our talents and awareness.  It is a time for pioneers to be more courageous to break open new boundaries.  The more we develop inside we invite others to expand by our changes alone.  We do not have to directly teach another with what we know in order for them to receive the benefits of our talents.

In the book “The One Hundreth Monkey” the author explains when a certain percentage of people or species learn a concept the information is easily comprehended by everyone.   It is important for us to remember to continue to teach, speak and become the energy of an expanding consciousness as the concepts will become more accessible to the masses.

I began my practice of Access Energy Transformation eight years ago and when I shared the concept that words could actually release emotional limitations through the use of a clearing statement I would see most people’s eyes glaze over as they did not have a reference for the work.  They basically found the ideals unbelievable.  Since that time there are a variety of modalities in the field of energetic psychology and it seems to make the ideal of clearing statements a plausible topic.  People may not understand the concepts but they are more accepting, eventually those same people who once rolled their eyes are trying a session.

In my opinion it is not a totally rational decision but a general acceptance of a concept that makes it widespread.  I dare say that there is a vibrational component to the acceptance of a concept, when enough people know it the consciousness spreads forth from them to influence others.

Joseph Campbell said the one breakthrough message that brought the concept of UFOs from skepticism to acknowledgment was the movie “Star Wars”.   We get a message and spread it forth to the world.  With that in mind could social media tools like Facebook or U Tube be the greatest promoter of world peace?  This planet is a bit smaller due to their presence.

What can save the world is awareness.  The more we gain our own inner clarity of our own evolution we spread that forth.  Is the concept that “everything on the earth is connected and have the consciousness to perceive it all” has its time come?  If “Avatar” affects the world like “Star Wars” did then the answer is yes.  This is a time to grow.  Being open to perceive your surrounding and become the possibilities requires you to be willing to go forth.