By Bart Sharp

I recently saw the movie/documentary “In This World”.  It is a story of two Afghan boys who are smuggled into London from Afghanistan.  During this dangerous ordeal the viewer in shown the struggle of the poor in Afghanistan.  They are people just like anyone else that live in a land that has few resources therefore hard to make a living in.  Despite the intense struggles the people described are kind, loyal and loving to their family.  There is camaraderie between the common people all living in refugee camps.

“In This World” shows us the general Islamic culture is not one of Jihad, or mindless violence but of kindness.  They are people struggling to receive what first and second world countries take for granted such as shelter, food and clothing.  Despite the hardship their connection to a higher source and love of each other is what holds them together.

As I reflect on the movie I can understand why such poor countries can harbor resentments to countries such as the United States.  These people have nothing and we have everything in their eyes.  They see that if only they had the comforts we had they would gladly share them.

On the other hand when a culture is abused by a stronger country or the buerarchy of its own people we are creating a slow growing resentment.  It is a barrier between the people who and have and those who do not have.  Could a group such as the Taliban really be an expression of something as simple as that?  A group of people downtrodden for generations rallying together in anger and using the label of Jihad as their rationale.

The next question is, “Will fighting and destroying these armies really solve the long-term problem?”  I would think not. Maybe instead of soldiers it would be better to send engineers, machinery and seeds.  To assist in the process of re-building countries.

There is a new principal called “The McDonald’s Law” which is simple, No two countries that have a McDonald’s in them have gone to war with each other.  What it means is that no two countries that are industrialized fight each other but instead create trading relationships.

It is easy to label another race that we do not know as the bad villains in the world and there may be some of those in the group.  However in most cultures the common person is not bad or evil, they are most likely just like us.  This is the message of “In This World.”

By Bart Sharp

What I like about a more conscious life is that each day is new. The inner journey is one that is always evolving and changing therefore each day feels very different than the last one. 

You get to move into a new reality everyday if you resolve the issues that yesterday brought up for you, otherwise you will be presented with the past again until you learn what you greater self requires of you. It is a life of listening, confronting without judgment and gratitude. 

If you are concerned that you are not changing enough, simple, listen to your body and soul not so much your mind and ego. It will guide you to what is next.

By Bart Sharp

As adults we often have a different perspective than children do with the world of play.  We adults use play as forms of exercise, sports, competition, self-improvement and the most popular stress relief.     In the strategy of play as stress relief we have fun and/or are entertained as a way to escape our adult world.  It also serves us in that we adjust out of the tensions that our body is locked in to soothe us, relax.  It creates excitement within us that is energizing.  We need to play.

There is much that adults can expand upon in the ways a child plays.  Children play in a more creative way.  They are open to experience playful fun in a wider variety of ways.  They relish it.  A child has a more concentric point of view towards play in that they do it in 360 degree perspective where as adults lean to a more linear perspective, “I play when I bicycle and meet-up with my friends.  When I work I only work.”

A normal child can find play in almost any situation.  They crave it and intrinsically know that it is very important.

What we can learn from children is how creativity is an integral part of play.  It is an important vehicle to explore, imagine, build and be sensual.  We forget the creative side of play by doing things like painting, photography, building a decorative garden or writing a story for pleasure.  It ignites something inside of us that turns us on to living.  When we are turned on in such ways we become more opened, curious and less predictable.

How many adults do you know that do not play well are frightfully boring?   How many adults do not seek play intrinsically but wish to be entertained?  We often misidentify that we need to seek entertainment outside of us instead of activating our creativity within and as a result our selves to find something better than entertainment, joyful satisfaction.

Sometimes it feels good to do sensual playful things, to simply rub our bare feet on the warm earth.  Walk in the rain or snow. Sensuality is an important part of play.  How many adults would relish walking barefoot in the mud and enjoy the squishy sensations between out toes.  Yet if we had that attitude would lovemaking be different.

As adults we would be more whole persons if we sought play and relaxation too not only fulfill our adult needs but the child within us as well.

By Bart Sharp

Are you happy or joyful?  Do you know the difference between the two concepts?

Happy is more of a state of doing while joy is a state of being.  We do things that make us happy.  Joy is a perception when all of us feels complete.  For most people joy is a transitory emotion because somewhere in their childhood they lost their connection to joy.  Somewhere they bought a lie that they not wonderful and lovable. As a child our natural state is joy but somewhere we believed it was not so.

Happiness is the satisfaction of doing, having things and/or life being successful.  What is most misidentified with happiness is that people seek joy through happiness.  Thus they require them selves to seek activities, things and relationships that they like. They feel better in the activities but the experience does not permanently fill them.  So they seek more happiness provoking experiences.

For those who lost their joy and seek to find it we begin a process of discovery.  It is the process of finding where we have become separate from that joyful self in our past. For many it is looking at our childhood at the pains, abuses, disappointments and more where we lost faith and believed we were not love or deserved love.  With each part we heal we experience a new level of wholeness and joy again.  The more that we resolve joy comes into our life.  Through the process of uncovering many of these misidentifcations we reach a critical mass that we go over the top and joy becomes our state of being.  It is naturally inside of us.

The critical mass is a place that is a level of change that is different for everyone.  Something shifts inside of us that we relax into our selves and joy is us.  It is no longer a state that we achieve and then lose it.  Then doing things that makes us happy are different, we no longer need them as much.  We can enjoy them but they are not to raise us out of a deficit.  We are no longer lacking, we are joy.

In addition, there are experiences that do bring a deep sense of completion inside of us whether we have joy within us or not.  I find this when I commune with nature, sometimes in mass, meditation, a heartfelt experience with another or an inspiring movie.  Just to name a few that I have experienced.  However if you experience these things and it feels like a plateau of joy.  Then later goes away and you return back to a place that you feel lacking you have yet to hit the critical mass where joy is permanent.  However, these experiences are worthwhile as they show us what we have to look forward to.

It keeps coming back to letting go of our pains and discovering who we are underneath our anguish.  It is well worth the adventure.

By Bart Sharp

Psychologist Carl Jung worried that the people around the world could not save themselves from the most destructive force on the planet.  Their own shadow, Jung defined the shadow as the suppressed parts of a person.  Carl Jung saw that if the shadow side was not discovered and resolved people would continue to make the same self-destructive mistakes time and time again.

Carl Jung saw that people desperately needed to evolve by resolving the fears of suppressed anger, sadness, abuse that they held within them.  These shadow parts unresolved will find a way to be expressed through aggression, being abusive, controlling others unfairly, addictions, depression, acting inappropriately with other and more.  Then the cycle perpetuates itself by us recreating the behaviors again or projecting them onto someone else and thus influencing another person to live a more painful existence.

It has been over sixty years since Carl Jung made this statement but his message still rings true.  If we do not resolve our shadow it will come out in a more destructive way.  We cannot hide from our pain.

The more that our world lives in a place of suppressing their disappointments in life and not learning how to process their feelings they become a more aggressive and crueler society.  Jung witnessed this first hand by the punitive child rearing techniques that were encouraged in Germany before the Second World War.  That pain-suppressed culture’s shadow eventually was expressed through Nazi Germany and their own anger from childhood numbed them from having a conscientious side.  There fore they could go out and commit the atrocities without feeling guilty.  Their own pain numbed them from feeling the consequences of their actions.

Around the world we see cruelty in epic proportions in all through out our planet.  Whether it is third world or first world countries or it has no boundaries due to socio-economic situations.  People are not facing what crimes they are committing and within their hearts.  It is the pain of their own shadow being expressed.  The pain of their childhood recreated.

We cannot directly change these people to a more gentle and fair society.  Changes begin first with us.  Our personal growth does transform the world.  The world has grown since the era of Carl Jung in a positive way.  However, we still have more to evolve to.  The deeper we go into our selves the more that our growth influences those around us.  It was Jung’s vision that the joy of being whole for one person influences everyone in a neighborhood or city.  We give a huge gift to the world by learning to become our selves.

By Bart Sharp

Sometimes relationship teaches us lessons that we would never imagine, it is the beauty of it.  To receive the gifts that relationship may offer generally requires us to listen beyond our ears.  To listen with our heart may be one of our best tools to perceive what is occurring with the one we are relating to.

I was once in relationship with a woman who was quick to become angry and would often verbally confront me for a variety of reasons. It was often for the smallest things. Although I cared for this person it was painful relating in such an aggressive way. Of course I would not have attracted such a person in my life if I did not wish to confront this.

When my girlfriend would become angry my immediate reaction was to defend myself. My mind would start to beginning trying to find reasons why it wasn’t my fault. I would go into my head and a process of insulation would occur while I planned my response. My body seemed to lock up and what arguments that I could present were never that powerful.  It became a force vs force situation.

A friend suggested that I try to let down my defenses when someone attacks. Ultimately no one can really hurt you with aggressions. If we look at our selves from the perspective within our soul is someone who is truly expanded in an infinite great way no one can really harm that within. Yes they may physically hurt your body or bruise your ego but the spirit within can never be damaged. All of us have this kind of greatness deep within us as our core being.

The next time that my girlfriend became angry I was fortunate enough to remember what my friend said. I stopped my calculating mind from reacting. I paid attention to what my body habitually was doing around aggressive people. I perceived energy like a wall that was around me that was building up in reacting to her.

I simply asked my body to let the wall down.  Immediately the defensive energy dissipated. Next I sat and listened to my girlfriend express her anger. My mind was not plotting my rebuttle but focused on her. I listened but what I heard was beyond my own personal references. What I heard was her feelings beyond the story she was expressing. I was hearing her pain, her fears and insights of how they came to be.

I was actually listening with my heart and not my head.

When I finally spoke it from a different perspective. I said, “It sounds like you are in a lot of pain with this?” 

She felt heard and suddenly a potential argument was transformed to us being on the same side.  It was a huge lesson for me. It showed me how my own defensive posturing shut so much out of my life. I could be aware of and receive so much more.

There are three aspects in listening with your heart:

It begins as a cognitive recognition that you wish to let down your defenses. In addition, to tell your body to let down your defenses in each stressful situation.

Secondly pay attention to the sensations in your body. When your defenses go up you may feel the focus go straight up into your head and/or your body tense in some way. When we let our defenses down the focus goes out of our head into a more relaxed whole body awareness. We are more open in perceiving our environment.

Thirdly feel the energy around, outside your body. When I ask my body to let down my defenses I perceive the space surrounding my body get lighter.

As an experiment.  Think of an experience or situation that is stressful. Pay attention of the sensations that occur inside of you and surrounding you. This gives you an ideal of where you tense, how your mind feels when defensive and see if you can be aware of the sensations outside of your body. This gives you an ideal of what you experience in real stressful situations. Of course it is probably more intense in the present moment of the conflict. Then simply ask your defenses to come down, relax your mind and allow the body to follow. Practicing can be very helpful if you have difficulty feeling your body processing.

When we fall into those conflicts when our defenses go up those situations most likely has occurred many times before. We have trained our body to go into fight or flight. It takes real presence in your self to begin to break the habit. Reliving old conflicts or requesting your body to do it differently may be a good way to begin reorienting our selves.

I like to live my life in the non-defensive perspective. It is supporting the reality that I am truly infinite and nothing can truly hurt me so I do not need to defensive systems to protect me. The thing about defensiveness is that it is an automatic system that turns on to begin a chain reaction of events that narrows us into a thinking and attacking mentality. It diverts us from being aware of what is really going on in a situation. We stop listening with our heart and begin thinking in a defensive reaction.

A good practice is to let down our defenses where ever we go. You will enjoy the relaxed posture instead of the stress that most others function in. The more that we stay non-defensive we find that we receive more.  Obviously so because the defensive barriers that we create also do not let other energies inside of us.  When we are defensive we block our selves from all.  Everything on the planet emanates some kind of energy so we are not receiving all of what we can have. We are disconnecting ourselves from the world around us by being defensive. When we do open ourselves we see our generous the world really is which opens us to the same state of being.

When we are in a non-defensive frame of awareness we are opened to receive.  We see situations and life in a different way.  It seems like less bothers us. Opportunities may arise that were not there before because we are energetically pulling them to us instead of blocking them out with a defensive attitude.  Staying opened and staying opening in our heart can change our life.

By Bart Sharp

Listening To Trees

The forest is a great place to learn how to perceive energies because plants have no resistance to us entering their world or energetic field.  There is the practical matter that you can touch the plant and begin with a physical connection which makes it easier to get in touch with another being’s energetic presence.

It is best to start with trees as they are the older beings in the woods and obviously have the most experience.  I approach the tree and ask myself,  “What does the energy of this tree feel like?”  What usually happens next is I will feel a different sensation in my body after I ask the question.  That change in our frequency is the trees energy. I generally feel the tree as a sensation that moves into my entire body and all around my head.

People experience this in different locations and perceive the information differently.   One is not more perceptive or better than the other as each body is simply different.  Some begin by feeling nothing, but as they patiently wait something does happen. These messages have a different feel than our mental thoughts and often come from places other than our head.  For example, a voice comes up from the earth, up through their stomach to awareness.

The most important part is to trust your perceptions.  These energies generally begin subtly so any slight change in your body may be the tree signaling to you.  Be patient, this may not occur quickly.

Once you have gotten the feel of the tree, be open to any messages.  If you wish to create a conversation ask the tree a question.  It is best to ask something relevant to his/her life.  Then wait for a few minutes.

Next go interact with different species of trees.  You will begin to notice that each species has a different vibration and there are finer differences between trees of the same species.  Experience as many varieties of trees, shrubs and plants as you can.  Annuals have a different vibration than perennials.

It amazes me that most people can decipher the language of trees so that they can converse arborbly.  Incidentally, as I have taught “Communion With Nature” classes over the years in the same location it is surprising how each tree in the class area tells the same similar message about their lives to the various people that talk to them.

My experience is that the tree’s voice feels completely different from my mental ‘mind thinking’ or my inner intuitive perceptions.  The language that is being transferred to me feels like the tree itself.  The message generally comes into my heart area then up to my head.

King Of The Copperheads

By Bart Sharp

One evening when I was a teenager I was going fishing with my father.  We were in his truck, in a large pecan field that ran along side the bank of the Brazos River.  Upon getting out of the truck my father immediately said, “Be careful there’s a copperhead (snake) around.”

Being the country farmer type that my father is, he picked a garden hoe out of the back of the truck and proceeded to use the hoe to brush the knee high plants aside.  It was only a few moments until he found a copperhead snake.   I was always amazed how he could sense this; it was not the first time that I saw the feat.

When I asked my dad how he knew there was a snake he simply said,  “I can’t explain it, I just get a feeling.  Then I go looking for the snake.”

I have never had a detailed discussion with my dad about the metaphysics of perceiving energy in the woods as Texan men of his generation don’t relate to the new age terminology.  For my father the woodsman, sensing the energy of snakes was important information.  Somewhere in his universe his body knew it was important and his body sensory system resonated an energy inside him when snakes appeared.  He felt it enough times that he was clear what it meant.

My father utilizes an ability that we all have.   Our bodies emits massive amounts of information all of the time giving us information about our surroundings.  We can access it just by tuning in.

Most of us have intuitive abilities without our recognition of them.  For example someone who grew up with abusive parents has their feelers out for people and situations that might create more abuse in their life.  Those people may be reactive to people that are violent, angry or abusive while everyone else doesn’t sense a thing.  Our mind/body discriminates what we should be on the psychic watch for.

The ability to perceive the energy of a person, place or thing is something that we can all develop.  We need to ask our body for it to appear and pay attention how our body sensing or perceiving energies around us.   Our bodies want us to learn this and will attempt to signal us in a variety of ways and messages.

By Bart Sharp

In the world of Vicky Wall, creator of Aura Soma she refers to a state of consciousness of “Head in heaven. Feet on the ground.  And exactly in between in the middle is a special place called ‘The Golden Spot’”.

Head in heaven refers to the state of consciousness of being aware of the world beyond you and feet on the ground is the ability to stay centered to do the things in the mundane world to get things done.

The golden spot is the place within us that is where our original cell is created.  All of our life beings there.  It is located in the center of our body in our heart chakra.  I perceive it in the back of the chakra square in the middle of my chest.

As I began to ask my body to activate this energy and meditate with it I found it to empower my heart chakra in big ways.  It feels like a small white energy inside but the more that I meditate with it the light grows in infinite ways.  It speculate that it may be the connection to being in touch with an infinite energy we are all privledged to become.

I once went to a blessing by the master Ammachi.  As I sat and watched her blessed people by the hundreds I began to perceive in what it was occurring inside of her.  I entered into her heart to perceive a shining light deep with her heart chakra.  I began traveling to the center but after a few minutes I came no closer to the light.  Amma was an infinite energy within.

I am not a master but I speculate that the consciousness of the golden spot is key to becoming infinite within us.  Ask your body to activate it and play.

By Bart Sharp

“The true opposite of depression is neither gaiety nor absence of pain but vitality, the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings.”  By Alice Miller from the book “Drama Of The Gifted Child’.

I always loved this statement as Alice Miller reflects to the state of being we become when we find wholeness in our life.  Being whole does not mean that we do not have conflicts or feel negative emotions.  In fact we may feel more.  The difference is that we will most likely not be over-whelmed with them.  We will have ways to process life and not hide from what bothers us.

When our dysfunction was created for most as children we were powerless over those who treated us unfairly.  As a result we had to contort ourselves to fit in and suppressed our feelings.  Those experiences lay dorment for most for years with a part of us holding those fears in place.  Those memories were not totally inactive as they were the underlying energies for depression, addictions, obsessions and more dysfunctional behaviors.

Those that willingly go forth and re-discover their past and find grace find a new freedom.  It is renewed vitality for living.  It is joy a feeling that they feel all of life completely for whatever it is, the good, the bad or the ugly.  We are turned on to living!