Truly Connecting With People

There is a way to interact with other people.  All too often, we just go through our day sharing our likes and happy slogans online and in everyday life.  Unfortunately in those moments, we are not truly connecting with people.  We are just talking at or to people.

A long time ago, I learned that in order to truly connect with people who needed help and were hurting, preaching to them or telling them what they should do added very little to their life.

In fact, it often turned them away and hurt them to the core.  I see this happening so much in the world.  We are all too quick to tell others what they should do instead of really offering them a hand to hold and a ear to listen.

Do you really want to know how to truly connect with other people?  Begin by sharing yourself and your journey.  Share your pains and struggles.  Share your ah ha moments that changed your life in ways you could never imagine.  Share the rocks you stumbled over in your path and how you managed to crawl up out of the hole after being weary and bruised to the bone.

Connecting With Angels And Things Unseen

One of the things I have come to realize is that somehow I just pick stuff up in life.  I either just seem to know it, sense it, feel it, or somehow just know it is what it is.  At one time some friends of mine called me the "space cowboy" and at the time, I was confused as to why they did this.  They would often tell me that you just know things.  I would respond with a deer-in-the-headlights look.

If you come up to me and want answers from me about some futuristic event, I will probably stare at you with absolutely nothing to say.  However, if there is something going on that I connect to, it seems like information readily shows up for me.  I cannot wish for it to happen or show up.  It just does or sometimes it doesn't.

There are many people who would try to paint me into a box and put all kinds of dimensions, colors and shapes to the box.  However, I don't really feel like I fit in a box and I'm not sure I want to be placed into a box that fits everyone's perception of what goes on in life.  So while I understand the need for people to fit things they do not understand into a defined space, it won't get you very far with me.  I tend to be the one outside the box.

Connecting And Observing A Cardinal

Throughout the day, I love to look out the windows from my office and just observe what I can see. I can't imagine being locked up inside a building with no windows. I remember an office in Miami that I worked in that was located by the airport. The outside walls were large windows all the way around and so you could not only see the airplanes landing, but you could observe so much.

When I looked out the window yesterday, I saw this amazing colored bird perched up in the tree. The color of it almost was a deep orange with a hint of red. The beak and head area looked as if it had a full black beard growing. At the top, it almost appeared to have some type of plume or fancy hat. Later, I found out it was a Cardinal and most likely a male Cardinal.

The bird was so beautiful to watch and it stayed in the tree for a long time, only to briefly move to the fence before it was scared away by a noise. I rarely see a bird like that and I don't think I've ever seen a Cardinal that close. The colors were so deep and rich on it. It seemed like nothing else mattered that day for this bird.

Connecting With Our Body

I am always amazed at how much stress and tension we store in our bodies. All too often, we do not even recognize this. Sometimes what we sense in our bodies is far less than what is actually going on. We do this because we have not learned that it is okay to connect with all parts of our body.

Past issues, current issues and a hurried pace in our life, dull the senses. As humans, we do not take time to connect with our bodies. We often inhabit our body but most of the time we truly don't live within our bodies. Many times, we do not even notice the pain that is clamoring for our attention.

If we feel the pain we are experiencing, we tend to ignore it, find some way to take it away or seek out someone that can give a plausible explanation as to why the pain exists. The part that we often miss though, is going into the pain. By going into the pain, it means we need to actually slow down and notice everything that we can about the pain. While that may sound strange, or frightening, it is the way to really travel to the root of the pain.

I can recall so many people that I have worked on as a massage therapist and I can easily see how little most were truly connecting with their body. Sure, they might have noticed a tense muscle, a painful back or a stiff neck. They might have had a long list of conditions that a doctor was treating them for complete with their own line of medications. Just knowing you are in pain or that you have some stated condition will not necessarily bring resolution to your soul.

Because of fear, upbringing, and being misled by advertising, most humans today do not understand just how much can be done within themselves to bring about true healing. To often, we give up the power to various products and others in our society that we convince ourselves that these things offer us true healing. Fear is a very gifted illusionist that can trick us into believing things that otherwise we would not normally consider. Our goal in life is to challenge those fears and to become more aware of ourselves that will lead us to a greater consciousness of our self. To just allow our self to continue being willfully led along in life, it will keep us stuck in the same loop that repeats day after day and year after year.

The other day, my pulse was high and my shoulder, neck and back were tense and painful. My hip was feeling like it was not lined up and so walking was a challenge because of the pain. Of course, the easy thing for me to do was to blame it on all my hours sitting at a computer. While that would have been a convenient excuse, I knew that the tension and stress were building up for a reason. The anger level was rising within my body. My body was sending me messages to get my attention.

Instead of reaching for some type of pain pill, muscle relaxant or running to an alternative healer, I stopped and listened to my body. By doing this, I then could see that if I did some release work connecting with my body (SEE POST on TRAUMA: RELEASE ANGER IN THE POOL), that physical changes were almost instantaneous. It did not take much to drop my pulse rate down and to free my body of pain.

All this happened because I stopped and went into the pain. There is no story of course that came out with the release because it was not necessary. Just allowing myself to connect with my body and going into the fears was all that I needed to do. It was that difficult. It was that simple.

In our society, we have been sold a bill of goods that we need all of these medical procedures, prescriptions and healing methods to function in life. While some of these things may be necessary at times, we often forget or we don't recognize, that the power to heal ourselves comes from within us. It does not come from outside sources. Sure, there are people that can help us in our healing discovery, but ultimately we have to connect with our bodies to heal ourselves. We all know this deep down in our soul, but we have succumbed to the fears that society has led us to believe.

We can do so much for our bodies if we allow it in our lives. If we hold fast that none of this is possible, then I will assure you that you will find this to be true in your life. However, if you challenge yourself and connect with your body, the potential for great things does exist. It is up to each one of us as humans whether we just inhabit our bodies or we learn to truly live within our bodies. The miracle of life is to become more aware and conscious of our body, not to run away from it in fear.


(Above Picture taken at Daytona Beach, FL - (c) 12/21/04)


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A Meditation Exercise

Sometimes there is so much going around us as we are sitting out in nature. It is easy to miss it if were not paying attention or just connecting with it. In all reality, it isn't that hard to connect either. We just have to stop and slow ourselves down and allow the connection.

For a simple meditation exercise, find a nice, comfortable place outside. Take some paper and something to write with. Sit in a moment of silence and meditation as you center yourself and allow yourself to open up.

Then, begin writing down short and simple thoughts of all that you observe, feel, see, sense, smell of what is going on around you. Record the individual things as simple thoughts one line right after another.

If you are visual, you might draw little simple pictures if that helps or you might color a picture. Connect in the way that is appropriate for you.

As you keep doing this, you will notice that you hear more, see more and observe more. What may have been there before, might have been hidden from you as you were not in the space to take it in. But, as you keep tuning into that which is around you, an amazing thing happens. It is like someone turns up the observation and you experience so much more.

There is much going on around us and we miss so much of it. Stopping to connect with it, helps us center our lives, find truth for our day and keeps us in the flow of gratitude and life. Without it, our lives can feel like the glass that is half empty. Nature is here for us to be a part of, not to just exist as if the day is hurrying by. Let us all stop and say hello to nature. It wants to be noticed.

For an example, here is my list of what I wrote today. It is interesting how it really flowed together as I went back to read it. And I especially like at the end, how it came together into words that I needed to here - all seems to fit together.

Just sitting here
Listening to the birds
For they are many
One single chirp
One triple chirp
The light shines on the wood
The colors vary
Greens, browns, reds, white
Against a deep blue sky
Soft gentle breeze
Air feels humid and warm
Shadows cast by the morning sun
Tree branches wiggle slightly
Water shimmers as it rests
A dog barks in the distance
Another answers close by
Faint sounds of trucks and cars
The pin wheel goes round
Another bird joins in
The grass glistens with morning dew
A jet flies overhead
Wispy thin clouds drift by
A squirrel plays close by
A butterfly floats along
Birds chirp in chorus
Time for another day
All seems to fit together
In nature all is one



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