Favorite Blog Posts Cookin With Luv

Cookin With Luv

I'm going to highlight different blogs that I see throughout the month and give a little insight as to why I enjoyed the blog.  It will be random blog posts that I come across through my travels on the internet or social media.  There are many good things out there that are written each day and sometimes they just need to find a way to spread.

Here is the blog that I have found throughout the month of August that just made me smile, or think, or challenged me.  They may not necesarily have been written in August 2012, but that is when I found them.

Blog:  Javelin Warrior's Cookin With Luv

Topic:  Just Say Love
URL:  www.cookinwluv.blogspot.com
Date Posted:  7/19/12

The author of this blog is one of my long time friends on the internet.  Although we have never met in person, we've known each other for some time on the world wide web.  I love reading his insights into life and I love learning from him when it comes to cooking.  He has such a zest and zeal for life, that it is catchy! 

Onions And Garlic Hurt My Stomach

Even though I try hard to stay away from certain foods, sometimes it is unavoidable.  It seems like everything in this world has to have onions and garlic in it to be called food.  Yes, I know how healthy and beneficial these things are and how great they taste.  However, if your stomach becomes upset from them, it is hard to accept the health benefits.

I know I have written about this subject before, (see Phantom Smells Of Trauma, Onions) but yesterday I had some foods that had onions and garlic in them.  My stomach hurt with pains that felt like someone was inside of me punching the exterior wall of my abdomen with as much force and frequency as they could.  Normally I get very warm and a headache starts, but this did not happen this time.

In fact, I think I have actually gotten better with this food allergy or food sensitivity with onions and garlic than I was not long ago.  I have virtually cut out diary and I actually believe that has helped me.  In addition to that, I've been doing some intense healing work on myself, which is probably accounting for the change.

Tapping Into Your Abundance Webinar Follow Up

Hopefully you were able to catch the first webinar on August 22, 2012.  The subject of this free webinar was Tapping Into Your Abundance with Carol Look.  On August 29, 2012, there will be the second webinar happening at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

In the meantime, you may want to take the three minute test on what is sabotaging your abundance.  Don't worry, it is free and there is no obligation to do anything other than take it and see what it says.  No, you don't have to study for it either!

>>>  Click here to take the free test

If you want to find out more what this is all about, you can watch the following video of 5 people who went through this experience and they share how it transformed their lives.  Again, it is free and there is no obligation of any kind to view it.

The illusion of Suicide

There are so many people going through extraordinarily difficult moments in life right now.  From the financial crisis and the struggle to find work to the mass murders and angry discourse in our country, hope and brighter days are sometimes hard to find.  When it gets difficult, people who have been struggling for an eternity it seems, almost think the illusion of suicide is the answer.  Deep down, they know it isn't and most people would tell them it isn't so, but in times of despair it can look differently than it does to a mind that is functioning logically.

The illusion of suicide is that it solves all the problems the person has.  They often feel that life is beyond their control and that no matter what happens, nothing will get better.  They get tired of the struggle and tired of fighting each day.  With their body weary and worn, they desire an escape from reality and often suicide is the only option they see.

In society, we don't want to talk about suicide.  Most people are able to see that it is an illusion, and not reality.  However, that is for the mind that is functioning in a healthy state and able to see reality instead of fantasy.  We as a society need to talk more about this because right now to even mention the thought is considered taboo.  I realize it is hard for people to talk about this or be there with someone that they love who is fighting through thoughts of suicide.  It is not easy for anyone involved.

Daily Angel Meditations August 12

Another website that I have created and write for daily is filled with positive and uplifting messages of growth and awareness.  It is called Daily Angel Meditation and is created from my morning meditations with the angels.  As I take time out in the beginning of my day, I record whatever comes to me.  I start out with a blank piece of paper and no preconceived ideas of what to write.  I then allow the words to fill the page, connecting with what my angels have to say.

Here are selected blog posts beginning the week of August 12, 2012.  I have tried to summarize them briefly and give the actual link to them.  To visit the website, just go to DailyAngelMeditation.com .

August 12, 2012 (Sunday)

Topic:  Acknowledge And Embrace Challenges In Life

Challenges are never easy and so if you try to stop and see them as something that helps you grow, learn, and discover more about yourself, it helps them not appear to be as difficult as they might be.  They help to bring a greater awareness to our life and through joy and gratitude, we can find our way through these challenges.

How You Make The Horse Feel

From Buck's Facebook Page: 

The horse is a great equalizer, he doesn't care how good looking you are, or how rich you are or how powerful you are-- he takes you for how you make him feel. - Buck Brannaman

Joy And Gratitude In Our Heart

Connect with your heart through joy and gratitude, and life will look much different.  For when we embrace joy and gratitude in our life and we touch the depths of it in our body, we are united with a force stronger than any situation we may be up against. - Don Shetterly

Allow The Process To Unfold

All too often, we try to hurry up parts of life that we should not and then we hope for the best.  Of course, dealing with pain, loss, or other trying circumstances in life is no fun, and it is natural as humans to just want to get it over with.  You know, move on!  Even though the human species is very good at just trying to speed through the process, we need to allow the process to unfold in the way that it needs to and at its own pace.

I remember back to some of my early days of healing and people would just tell me that I need to move on, forget about it and basically put the happy face on to the world.  I'm sure my pain made it difficult for them to embrace or to even connect with me in those moments.  Often when we feel pain in our life, even subconsciously, the first thing we often try to do is move on and flee from it.

Yet, little did people understand that all of my life, I had tried hard to put the happy face on and act as if I had put it all behind me.  In fact, I could not even have described all that it was about, but if you knew me back then, you would have had no clue I was dealing with absolute terror and hell in my life.  I was so adept at hiding it and acting like everything was okay!  I'm surprised I never got an award for my acting!

Notes From Tapping Into Abundance Webinar

Wow, that was an awesome webinar last night!  In case you missed it, I have a feeling they might be replaying it again very soon.  Keep an eye here for updates or watch your email.  At any rate, I tried to take some notes during the webinar and just wanted to share a few of them with everyone.

• There are 5 main fears working against us or sabotaging our abundance.  These are subconscious fears.
• Most of the time we never realize just how much these fears are impacting our life.
• Fears are embedded into us and so just by using determination or positive thoughts, we won't necessarily get rid of them.  You need to go to the root of the problem.
• Tapping is a technique that connects our mind and body together.  
• By tapping on the meridian points of your body, you can unblock these subconscious fears.
• Tapping has been around since the 1990's.

We Can Change Our Difficult Moments

It is amazing how much things have changed in my life in the past week.  A week ago, I was having some very difficult moments in life.  In fact, I wrote a blog post about this on August 17, 2012 called I Am No Longer Alone.  In this blog post, I detail some of the difficulties I was facing.

Life was extremely difficult in that moment and I thought there was no way I could go on.  I struggled each day with a deep depression and despair, suffocating myself from all that I longed for in life.  It wasn't pretty and for those close to me, they saw the pain and felt the downward spiral I was in.

After the healing session, my life turned around.  My life changed in one moment.  No longer did I see my life as one of despair and hopelessness.  I had been reunited with my true authentic self.  I had found myself again.  Even in the midst of those difficult moments in life where we feel like there is no hope, we can change our difficult moments.  We truly can!  It may be hard to believe, but I saw it play out in my life.

What's Sabotaging Your Abundance?

In case you missed it, there is a free webinar on August 22, 2012 (Wednesday).  The topic is "Tapping Into Your Abundance" and the host is Carol Look.  If you have not read my blog post on this subject, please click the following link, Does Tapping Into Abundance Work?

I am highlighting a free 3 minute assessment test on those hidden things that are sabotaging your abundance.  We've all got them in one way or another and hopefully by taking this test, it will help you begin to think more about the hidden subconscious fears that hold back your abundance.  Who knows, you may learn something about yourself that you didn't know and it only takes a few minutes.  Plus, it is free!


So click on the following link, What's Sabotaging Your Abundance and find out for yourself what you are missing.  You'll get a personalized report on the subconscious fears holding you back.  On top of that, you'll find out how these fears influence your life and what you can do to liberate them.

>>> Click this link for the Assessment Test

When I first started to work on abundance, I learned that there were all kinds of fears that were holding me back.  Some of them were familiar, but some were also a surprise.  I did not realize just how much my present life was influenced by how I was raised and the way my parents viewed money.  There are so many things that can affect us in life, and if we don't make a conscious decision to do something about it, we'll always be struggling.

I urge you to take the free assessment and see what you can learn about yourself.  You may very likely be surprised like I was.

Then go to the link on "Tapping Into Your Abundance" and sign up for the August 22 free webinar if you have not already done so.  You can also read my previous blog post for further information from August 15, 2012, "Does Tapping Into Your Abundance Work?".

Please feel free to share any thoughts or observations you have after you have taken this assessment test.  I'm sure we can all learn from one another and who knows, you might be helping someone in a way that you can't even imagine!

>>> Click this link for the Assessment Test

 

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Blog Post And Images (c) 8/20/12 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Use Healing Language In Everything

Something I saw Doreen Virtue post on twitter today made me smile with joy.  It was a simple statement, but one that I think we all need to embrace and constantly think about in our day.  All too often, we use words that don't help advance our world or help others heal the difficult moments of their life.  What we say is often a reflection of what is going on inside of us and we are either helping advance the world, or we are part of the problem.

The statement that Doreen Virtue made on twitter is, "Work with the angels to use healing language in everything that you say and write.".  (Source:  twitter.com/DoreenVirtue444


While I know just about everyone reading this would want to agree and say this is what we do, I've got a feeling, not everyone would be honest with themselves.  You see, we often do not consciously connect with what we say and so many times we really don't listen to what we say.  We state things that just come out of our mouth with little thought.

Relax To The Ocean Waves

Imagine sitting on the beach next to the ocean.  Feel the sun on your body and the wind on your face.  The birds soar as the air currents lift them up.  The grains of sand far outnumber your comprehension as your gaze of the blue ocean water brings tranquility to your mind.  Now, just relax in this image and relax to the sounds of Ocean Waves.  



 

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Blog Post And Images (c) 8/11/12 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Do We Change Or Hunker Down

So my question is reflective for each person who is reading this.  Do we change or do we hunker down?  Hunkering down can be a good thing, sometimes, when the hurricane force winds are bearing down upon us, but if we stay hunkered down, we'll never see the sunlight of the new day.   -Page 24, Hope And Possibility Through Trauma by Don Shetterly

I Am No Longer Alone

Lately I’ve been in a very dark and depressed place.  I have been struggling with life, knowing that financially I’m pulling us down and the rope is running out.  It isn’t a pretty reality and so the stress had taken me to a new low of almost giving up.  Lately I’ve been struggling to just get out of bed and barely had the energy or desire to do that.  I’ve pushed away just about everyone that cares about me and I was pushing, my partner away.  He couldn’t even touch me.

The other day I finally opened up to him and shared with him just how bad I was feeling and doing.  I just wanted to give up.  I was at a point where I didn’t really want anyone to help me and I didn’t want to ask anyone for help.  I thought I could survive on my own somehow.  I thought it was weakness if I asked for help.  However, I finally got to a point where I knew I could not keep this up and thoughts in my mind seemed to be saying that if I don’t deal with this very soon, it was not going to be pretty.  I have no idea what that means, but I felt it.

It felt like an issue that I couldn’t call a person I normally would either because they were a male and partly because I was feeling so low and so much like a failure, I didn’t want them to see me that way.  While I knew that they would welcome me with open arms, I was feeling so low, alone and bad about myself, it was altering reality for me.  I wanted to hide this from everyone.  I finally kept telling my partner that I wished I could go see Kathi Angeli and after several days of that, it finally dawned on me that this is what I needed to do.  I had no idea how I would pay for it, but I knew I somehow needed to go. 

What Would Unlimited Abundance Take?

I've been listening to the recordings by Christie Marie Sheldon on Unlimited Abundance.  One of the questions that she offers to consider is "what would it take to bring about unlimited abundance in your life?"  While that question sounds almost too good to be true, I have begun thinking about it and saying it to myself.  After all, if I am thinking about the possibilities rather than where I am currently at, I have more hope of finding unlimited abundance.  If I focus on that which I don't have right now, it most likely will get me no place.

While everyone wants to just focus on money when it comes to unlimited abundance, I believe you are doing yourself a disservice.  Yet, I don't want anyone reading this to think that focusing on abundance is a bad thing.  I'm only trying to get you to step outside of the box and broaden your thoughts in how this works in real life.  I'll share the following story to give you an example of the point I'm making.

For the past several weeks, I've been struggling in life.  Financially I had made progress going through the Unlimited Abundance course with Christie Marie Sheldon, and then all of the sudden I hit a brick wall and dropped way down.  I could not figure out what was going on and with other stresses hitting me, my life started to resemble one of hopelessness and despair.  Each day that went by, I got a little more depressed until I could just not take it anymore.

Does Tapping Into Abundance Work?

On Wednesday, August 22, 2012, there is a free webinar by Carol Look, sponsored by Mind Valley.  The title of this webinar is "Tapping Into Abundance".  During an internal launch at Mind Valley in May, over 20,000 people signed up for this webinar.  Now, they are launching the program to the world.

While I do not know Carol Look, according to Mind Valley, she is one of the world's top Tapping experts and a pioneer in the field of energy psychology.  I will be anxiously waiting to view this webinar along with everyone else, as I have not seen it yet either.

Take a few minutes and check out the following video on Tapping.  The video is from our friends at Mind Valley.  Through this video, you will see how Tapping transformed the lives of five people.

>>> Watch the video here

Negativity Makes Us Less Than Human

It is sad to watch how the world behaves these days.  It seems that everyone is caught up in the fear, the loathing, the hatred, judgement and criticism of one another.  I can't speak for all countries and nations of the world because I do not live or travel there, but in the US, it is a very toxic place.

All you have to do is take a moment and observe what is going on around you.  If you watch the news or follow it along on the internet, you'll see just how toxic it has become.  We are not doing anyone much good these days and if we don't reverse this, I fear we will completely lose our sense of humanity.

Take for example, the Olympics and Michael Phelps.  The other day when he did not win the gold, I immediately saw a twitter trend of many negative comments towards him.  It was almost like people reveled and took joy in his demise of not winning the race.  One person even tweeted me as if to enlighten me that while Phelps had done great things, he is very douche like.  While I'm not sure exactly what she was referring to, my response was that I try to find the good in all people.  After all, this is a competition and yet, we feel the need to hate and criticize with negativity something that someone does who we barely know or interact with?  It still boggles my mind just how hateful these things were.

Financial Struggles

So, how do I be just in this moment with all my stuff, my problems, my difficult moments in life and go on?  This is the thought that seems to be from those enlightened enough to not struggle financially.  Yet, I often wonder, do they really not struggle, or is it that they project a set image to everyone, while hiding their own difficult moments.

I'd like to believe that these financial gurus and all the others that seem to sail through life, really are sailing in life and rolling in the dough.  I'd like to believe that.  It is almost impossible when I keep trying and trying in life, only to come up for a breath of air and once again, get slapped in the face.

Maybe those that are brave and reading this are thinking that I'm out for a pity party.  Unfortunately if you knew me well, you would know that isn't true.  I usually don't ask anyone for anything and I try to find my own way through.  However, I feel so frustrated with life at this moment, that I'm not sure which way to turn.

Allow Learning From Your Mistakes

You allow a horse to make mistakes, the horse will learn from mistakes no different than the human. But you can't get him to where he dreads making mistakes for fear of what's going to happen after he does. - Buck Brannaman

The Day We Stop Exploring

The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams.  Quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson    (August 4, 2012) on Twitter

Vegetarian Green Bean Tater Tot Casserole

I'm sure I am not the only one that has created this dish and most likely there are a million and one ways to create it.  This recipe is my version that I like.  Of course, each person is free to make it the way they enjoy it, but at least this gives you a starting point.

It is a relatively simple dish to make.  Most of the recipes out there that I saw used some type of cream soup.  However, in my version, I use gravy that I make and I think it tasted very good this way.  So here's the recipe for Vegetarian Green Bean Tater Tot Casserole made Don's way!

Ingredients:

1 bag of MorningStar Burger Crumbles
About 1 pound or so of green beans
About 8 ounces of cheddar cheese
1 - 32 ounce bag of tater tots.
2 to 3 cups of gravy

Hiding Behind The Image We Project

Breaking The Habit
Of Being Yourself
By Dr Joe Dispenza

Recently I was reading a book by Dr. Joe Dispenza titled "Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself".  In one section, he was talking about how for a time, he started to lose site of who he was.  He had been riding high in the wake of a movie and becoming a highly recognized lecturer.  In the process, he began to lose himself and portrayed one thing to the public, but kept his true self hidden.  It wasn't until he stopped and recognized what he was doing, that life began to turn back to normal.

On page 151 in his book, he stated something that I thought was very profound.  It talks about how we hide behind that which we project to the world.  When we can't cope, it is then that we become someone different than our authentic self.  The following quote says it clearly.

This is who we truly are, the real self hiding behind the image we are projecting. We can’t face exposing that self to the world, so we pretend to be someone else. We create a set of memorized automatic programs that work to cover the vulnerable parts of us. (pg 151, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself ).

I think we all tend to hide ourselves and we only show the parts to the rest of the world that we want to see.  The image we project is often times what we are hiding behind.  I'm sure that some of the reason we do this is survival, but in many ways we lose our authenticity.

Self Confidence And Believing In Myself

Sometimes I struggle daily with myself.  Sometimes, no matter what I feel like I'm biologically wired to see the negative, instead of the positive.  Self confidence and believing in myself often take a beating.  One such example happened yesterday.  Instead of burying into this like I normally do, I'm going to write about it and shine the light of day on this struggle in my life.

What may seem like a routine repair to some, is like an accomplishment the size of flying to the moon for me.  Our pool pump motor had gone out in the lightening storm a couple of nights ago.  After much time trying to figure out what I needed to do and not wanting to spend any more money than we absolutely needed to, I realized I had to replace the motor.

I'm not a mechanical person and I dislike doing repair work so much that I'd rather not do it.  On top of that, I'm often afraid that I will just mess things up and so I can talk myself out of doing the repair work quicker than a snake can shed its skin.  Ugh.. I hate that analogy.  However, I am usually able to figure out many things and will generally find a way to fix something, within reason of course.

Shoot Them And Problems Disappear

In my house, if the authority figures needed to make a point, they did so in a dramatic way.  It happened so many times from an early age in my life until long after I left home, that it seems like the way problems were dealt with.  In fact, the Colorado shooting brings this subject back up for me.  It isn't only the killer that I think about, but all those going out to protect themselves and buying guns like there is no tomorrow.

I'm not hear to write about gun control.  That is a subject for some other blog, but not mine.  What I am here to discuss is how my father and older brother used the shooting, killing, mutilating and suffocating of my pets in order to get rid of problems.

From my little kittens that got shut in the basement cellar door and killed, to my kittens that were drowned in the river, I remember crying my eyes out silently for them.  I was not allowed to show any emotion on this or make those who did it feel guilty in any way.  There were the innocent frogs that I would see being mutilated just for the joy of it while I so badly wanted to rescue the poor critter.  Yet, if I had tried, my body would have been beaten to a pulp.

Don't Get Hung Up On Trauma

Everyone seems to sometimes have tunnel vision when it comes to health.  It is like one little narrowly focused answer solves all the problems of the world.  Especially on trauma, people get so hung up on the word "trauma", that they can't allow themselves to even understand what constitutes trauma in the body.

The build up of daily stress can bring about the same effects that a traumatizing event would bring out in a person.  It does not always take some horrific act to mimic trauma.  Stress, which we as a society often fail to understand can be very little moments that build up day in and day out without any way to release them.

Before you think about stress as just going to a job and worrying about what you will do, or how you will pay bills or all the other things we consider as stress, open your awareness a little.  Stress comes in many ways and it connects in many ways.  For children, it is much different than adults.

I see people so concerned that conversion disorder is at the hands of some known trauma or not.  It is like this is the only thing that matters.  In other words, its like the person who fails to see the forest because of the one tree standing in front of them.

Breathe And Choose A Different Thought

When you are faced with difficult moments in life and you are struggling to find your way, just stop and a take a moment to do the following.  Check in on your thoughts, breathe full, deep and connected.  Then, choose a "feel better" thought.  - Don Shetterly

You Can Do It

Often we come up on times in our life where we doubt that we can do what lies before us.  The task may seem too big, or we may feel inadequate.  Often, this is the time when we need not lose site of the vision we see, and give every ounce of energy we've got, as we embrace our courage and our strength.  In the end, you can do it!

Addicted To Fear

We have just witnessed some horrible acts of violence at the hands of a shooter in Colorado.  My heart goes out to the survivors and family who remain behind.  I can only imagine the horror they are facing in the quiet moments.  The depth of their pain is great and unless you've been through this, it is hard to imagine the fullness of it.

One thing I find sad though is how addicted to fear we have become in our country.  As a result of this tragedy, we had the nonstop coverage on the news regarding this story.  Even when the news had nothing to say, they invented things to say.  One reporter thought that the shooter was a member of the tea party when in fact, this "investigative" reporter failed to fully do his job.

In these tragedies, we all expect our news programs to run continuous coverage of these events.  Whether they have anything to say or not, we as a nation are sitting on the edge of our seats just in case they have something new to report.  In my opinion, this is some of the most destructive behavior we can engage in. Yet, we drink the news as if it is our favorite alcoholic beverage.

Pain Of The Paterno Statue

This is written for all child abuse victims that know far too well the pain of what they endured.  It is also written for those that choose to stay in the dark, when it comes to the issue of child abuse.  There is no greater pain, then the betrayal as a child, of people you look up to or trust.  The pain is greater than anything one can imagine and it isn't like it leaves you alone for the rest of your life.  The pain of child abuse becomes your constant companion throughout your life as you try to heal and move on from it.

Seeing people talk about the penalties that Penn State received in regards to their football program as if they were excessive, is somewhat shocking to me.  As I tweeted yesterday, they must not realize the pain of child abuse.  While I know Paterno did not abuse the children, he held a position where he could have put a stop to it.  However, the almighty sports program and money making donation machine was more important than the welfare, safety and respect of children.

Struggling To Make It In Life

Many people throughout the world are struggling to get by and function.  Economic tough times have spread across this planet and forced people into moments they never expected.  Many struggle to make it in life.  Yet, if we look far and wide, we'll see just how well many people have it in life, compared to those that scavenge trash sites for food to survive.

When we struggle to make it in life, everything seems difficult.  Often we feel hopeless and full of despair.  As someone told me not long ago, storms never last.  We constantly have to keep perspective in our mind, because if we succumb to the despair, we'll write our own prophecy that things won't get better.

I've gone through some pretty tough times in my life.  Growing up, I can remember living in cold Iowa farm houses with inadequate heat, not having enough food to eat at times, and where buying clothes was a luxury.  Most people would not understand some of these things.  In college, I was inbetween jobs and trying to support myself when I had to find a way to eat on $20 of groceries for the month.  Even now, I'm in the midst of difficult times just like many others in our world.  Struggling to make it in life is no stranger to me.