Just Maybe?! by Shayna Abrams - HTML preview

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The Power of Communication

After a while, once you realize you’re not doing anyone any favors, you may be brought to a place where you can find the power (energy) to open up to that person and explain to them in the most diplomatic way possible what it is you have to say to them.  By being honest with them you are preventing your “good” or well intentioned energy from being wasted, or, becoming like a drug to their ego.  Instead, you slowly introduce them to your form of energy, which is loving energy.  Be prepared that this is a source of energy they may reject because they have for so long.

This is where the power of communication comes in handy.  The power of effective communication has a much stronger influence than you might believe, but it is definitely real.  Everyone has this power, you just have to know when and how to use it.  If you are clear about how you feel and why and express yourself without being accusatory to the person that is causing you to have “bad” feelings, you may be surprised at how easy it is to clear the air.  At first, the idea of telling someone how you feel seems frightening, but, after you take a deep breath and do it in the kindest way possible, you will be amazed at the results and the fights and uncomfortable situations that you can avoid. In fact, you’ll probably wonder why you were never this honest with people before.

Sometimes, like in this case, where the person you are trying to help is only taking advantage of your kindness, you will not be able to communicate effectively unless you withhold your kindness.  This may seem unloving, but because it definitely contributes to your eternal happiness and could potentially contribute to the other person’s eternal happiness, you can be assured that what you are doing is “good” or loving.

If you communicate your concerns to this person and they become defensive, immediately you should understand that their system is not used to this feeling of loving energy.  It has not accepted loving energy often, or possibly at all, until this moment.  Too much loving energy too soon supplied to a human that does not accept loving energy as an acceptable exclusive energy source, will often manifest itself as fear.  They most likely will not be able to accept this source of energy because they tried to consume too much of it all at once and find it repulsive.  Most likely the person who you are trying to supply a large amount of loving energy to all at once does not trust this energy because he or she does not recognize it.  Don’t forget that the only type of energy that this person generally consumes is anything but loving.  They have dabbled in several types of energy but loving energy is not familiar and the only feeling they can recognize is a feeling that is not love.  Since this is the only feeling (energy) that can be felt (digested), this is the only feeling (energy) that can be released (used).  This is when Life Force intervention is necessary and “ego-detox” comes into play. 

You can think of it like overdosing on a drug or drinking too much alcohol.  Just the same as a person who needs regular detoxification of any sort, you have to take them off the “wrong” drug completely and then provide them with regulated amounts of the most effective alternate “drug” in order to minimize the withdrawal effects.  In other words, you are providing “ego-detox” to this person by telling them exactly how you feel as gently as possible, and in a way that they get the point without feeling terrible.  Hopefully, they will remember this point in future situations; that is their decision.  Ultimately, that is not your concern.  You only have to worry about what kind of positive effect on the Universe you are going to have, and, if you are a fully well intentioned being, you will have no energy to give but the energy of love.  So, ultimately this is not under your control either.

What I want to bring out is that there is no way that is wrong or bad or right or good, there is only how you feel, why you feel that way and if you can successfully (or unsuccessfully) express those feelings to those around you, bringing out as many positive results as possible.

Is Hollywood “good” or “evil”? 

If we pay attention to Hollywood and all of its antics and infamous backstabbing, we can see the truth much more clearly.  We can also see a larger scope of reality.  As low as we watch some of these celebrities go, there is also a level that can be attained by celebrities that almost no one else has the ability to attain.  As a celebrity, in exchange for living a lifestyle that most of us can only dream about, they can use their celebrity status to make great changes in the world.   Oprah, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, U2 are just a few examples…. I could keep going on but the list is endless.  As bad as our society portrays celebrities, how many of us “regular” people can stake claim to raising awareness of significant issues like world hunger, disease and war?  Not only do celebrities have the power to raise our awareness of important social issues, but they actually contribute tons of money to these causes, which means that they are actually giving back to the Universe. 

Not only are they giving back monetarily, but they give back in joy as well.  Without the entertainment industry, life would be a whole lot more boring.  Don’t ever deny the fact that you need people like Britney and Lindsey in your life.  You may think it is because they are a reminder of what not to do with your life but actually, you can be your own reminder of what not to do with your life.  They are reminders that we often do not appreciate, consider and/or respect other human beings.  They are young, inexperienced girls struggling with huge responsibilities and deal with issues many adults won’t face in their entire lifetime.  They are young and ill equipped to handle the pressures that society places on people like these talented young girls.  Yes, they are suffering the consequences of a system we are all responsible for.  Yes, they are one of the effects of the original cause, but they have to figure out how to find the answers they are looking for on their own.  It is their journey.  Our journey involves having empathy for suffering.  I too am guilty of reading tabloids and watching VH1 reality shows.  I actually love these guilty pleasures, as some may call them.  I learn a lot about human nature from Hollywood.  You may think everything is fake in Hollywood, but in my opinion, the essence of a person cannot be faked.

Hollywood is also famous (or infamous, however you want to look at it) for creating the standard of beauty.  My husband thinks I am beautiful.  I am definitely not up to Hollywood’s standards by any stretch of the imagination.  For too long, we have listened and actually accepted as truth, Hollywood’s standard of beauty.  Who came up with this standard and why are we subject to it?  Why should we have to feel that just because someone decided Pamela Anderson is the way women should look, that is the way a woman should look?  Don’t get me wrong, if I looked like Pamela Anderson I would not complain.  But that’s not my point.  I don’t look like Pamela Anderson and my husband still loves me. And, get this; he doesn’t think Pamela is that hot.  Sorry Pam, but if it’s any consolation, the rest of the male population is all yours.

I know many of you think that it is crazy that I would have to convince someone that they are acceptable enough to be seen in public, even if they don’t look like a Hollywood celebrity, but I had to convince myself of this, so it is very hard for me to believe that in a world of 7,000,000,000 people, I am the only one who has encountered this problem.

Our physical self image is essential, but if it interferes with our confidence as a human, than it becomes “evil.”  When we believe that our identity revolves around what we have, what we wear, how well our make-up is applied or how thin we are, that’s when we get into trouble.  We are screwing ourselves from the get go.  We are not even giving ourselves a chance to be special.  We have just allowed ourselves to be convinced by other people that we don’t even know or care about that we are not as important or that we are more important than someone else, just because we have shiny long hair or we weigh under 110 lbs.  What about the real reason why we are unique?  That is the question we need to answer in order to align our egotistic desires with the deep desires of our soul.

In Summary

The definitions of “good” and “evil” can only be created by the person who wants to live by those definitions.  No one can decide what is “good” for another person or what other people shouldn’t do because it is “evil.”  Different circumstances create different experiences from which each of us build our own unique set of perceptions.  These perceptions combine to create our individual perspective of life which becomes the tool we will use to navigate through this crazy thing called life.

The Life Force of the Universe has a plan for all of us.  We all have a place, we just need to know where it is, how to get there and what tools we have to take with us on our journey.

Chapter 3 Life Work

Before moving on to Chapter 4 – “Building Trust and Respect Within Our Relationships,” try to think about everything that you, at this point in your life, consider to be “evil” and everything that you consider to be “good” (or “holy”).   Now, think about how that same thing that you consider to be “evil” can be thought of as “good” from a different perspective and vice versa.

Try and erase the concept that “good” and “evil” must be defined collectively.  Create your own set of rules that enable you to distinguish whether or not your own behavior is “good” or “evil” according to your own standards.   Practice sticking to your own rules.  Practice the art of not worrying about what other people think or do. 

Sometimes your own rules might ruffle someone’s feathers even if that wasn’t your intention.  This is because, although your rules are for the benefit of your eternal happiness and though you may know that your eternal happiness relies on the survival of the Universe, others may not realize where your intentions lie.  In fact, if someone is particularly self-centered, if that person is not being serviced in some way at every moment, their feathers will inevitably be ruffled.  So, if by serving your purpose of eternal happiness ruffles someone’s feathers, don’t worry – that is not your problem.  However, be careful that you are not just unconsciously ruffling other people’s feathers.

Introduction to Chapter 4 – Building Trust and Respect Within Our Relationships

In the next chapter I will focus on how to put together everything up until this point and apply what we have learned to our personal relationships, which, I don’t have to tell you, is really the hardest thing to do.

We often spend many hours a day with certain people, and when you spend that much time with any one person, lots of character collisions will occur.  It is so important to be conscious of these personality clashes because through these areas of strife, the Life Force of the Universe is trying to make clear to us that we need some improvement.

Again, this does not mean that we are “bad” or “evil” if we don’t find it easy to adjust to the perspective of our peers and family members.  We only want to make adjustments for the sake of our eternal happiness.  If putting too much energy into what someone important to you wants does not have the effect that you were expecting, sometimes we must maintain our position and do things our way if there is a chance of changing the negative effect that trying to please someone may have had.

I know that a lot of this sounds a little confusing, but the basic idea to keep in mind when it comes to all interaction with others is quite simple:

Do everything and anything that you want to do as long as you are contributing to our evolution into the Era of Peace.

Do NOT do anything that affects another person negatively, unless you are contributing to our evolution into the Era of Peace.