"Andy Pandy puddin' head pie - kissed the boys and made them cry" - Though sung to me as a child by my grandfather with the sweetest of intentions, I often joke that this song has affected my most intimate relationships. I somewhat jest here, but all kidding aside, I have recently seen (even after all the work I have done), how one particular story (unrelated to relationships) I was told throughout my childhood is still playing out in my adult life. Our stories become a part of our makeup, whether they are true or not, and for whatever reason we choose to continue to allow them to inform us.
Recent research into neuroplasticity of the brain has shown that the gray matter does not know the difference between something real or imagined. Our consciousness does, but when it comes to the brain itself, the same grooves are created whether we imagine something or it actually happens.
The Shaman works with this concept in a different way. In the west, we look at time and consider it to be linear. That is, the past determines our present - which determines our future. The Shaman sees times as circular. This means that we can work beyond time and space to heal the wounds of our past today. This is not to say that we can change what has happened to us, but we can change the way the memory lives within us; we can go back to the experience in our minds eye and give ourself what we really needed in the moment to complete the experience in the present, instead of repeating the karma over and over. We can find the gift through what we've learned and turn it into a source of strength instead of wounding.
I recently attended a workshop with one of my favorite teachers from L.A., Lorin Roche, one of the foremost experts in meditation. Lorin is one of the pioneers of meditation research, he worked in the labratory at UC Irvine doing studies on the effects of the practice in the late 60's, has a PhD in the subject and has traveled the world teaching meditation for decades.
Lorin lectured for some time about how whatever stress we are carrying will release during meditation and that it is completely natural to go in and out of a relaxed state to an epic daydream during the practice and how important it was to accept these rhthyms.
When Lorin led us in meditation, he guided us to recall our most favorite, enlightening experiences and to experience how they felt in our body. He had us recall the sounds, movements and visceral memory of the experience to bring us to a heightened state; it is here, in this place that we create the radical rest and relaxation in the body mind and change our cellular structure, brain waves and blood chemisty.
As I drove home enlightened by the evening it occurred to me how life is truly but a dream and how all the tools are available to stop on a dime and shift if we choose to. At the same time, I recognize those places my mind gets caught in churning over and over, it feels like there is no way out even with all my tools. So often we resist being in depressed or saddened states as if we are not supposed to be there. If we are truly dreaming our world then whatever is present in a particular moment is part of the dream we are creating. If there is no I, then everything around me is a reflection of my inner being and is as it should be, to assist me and show me where I am on my journey.
Every answer we seek lives inside of us, and now more than ever, it is so important to be quiet and still to access our deepest truths and recognize why and what it is that we are creating in our lives...Remember the nursery rhyme says to row the boat gently down the stream so be gentle with yourself as you flow and evolve through life's ever changing landscape.
