You might have noticed a lot more stress in the world, and maybe also a few more challenges for each of us to handle personally. By now you know there is a shift happening. We are at a crossroads moving from one ‘operating system’ of reality to another more expansive one. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…life is but a dream. Imagine that you’re experiencing a night dream. You are walking on the sidewalk of a busy street after a heavy rain. Suddenly a bus comes along. The bus slams into a pothole sending a cold sheet of mud and water flying your way. How are you feeling? You are drenched to the bone, filthy and cold. Maybe you were rushing to an appointment. You might even believe the blankety-blank bus driver soaked you on purpose. That’s when the alarm goes off and you wake up in your bed. From this awakened perspective you say with relief that it was just a dream. But let’s look a little further. What do we know now? YOU were the dreamer who dreamed the story. YOU were the unfortunate character who got soaked. YOU dreamed the bus driver. The streets are YOU. The bus is YOU. The pot hole and puddle, all YOU, as well. You were the director of the dream. You wrote the script and played all the parts. You chose to stage the story one way, and not another. From the limited perspective of the walker who got soaked, life is one thing. From the more expanded perspective of the awakened dreamer it is something else. We create it all. The most important key to reducing the stress begins with accepting that we each write the script of our lives completely. We always have. To explore this idea a little deeper, WRITE OUT two or three areas of success, or joy in your life worthy of celebration. For example, maybe you have created a beautiful and intimate relationship with a soul-mate, or achieved a promotion at work or won a Golden Globe! Next ask yourself “What would someone have to believe or feel about herself in order to dream this success?” Then write down two or three areas of failure or disappointment, and ask yourself the same...
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From time to time I am asked what makes a ‘spiritual’ movie? I would love to hear from anyone who can offer an answer. Until then I hope this will do. For all of us learning to generate magical lives, do movies reveal a clue? If the primary reason we are here in the first place is to remember who we are; to ourselves, to each other, to the whole She-bang, then maybe it is our destiny, I hope, to understand and achieve success. To learn to consciously create it. So I am always alert for tips. Here then, some clues to enlightenment I found in the dark. From ACTION HEROES I get what it means to live every moment as if it is my last. To be engaged, involved and committed to a cause. To participate with honor. And the importance of get-up-and-go. LOVE STORIES unfold in enchanted pockets of gracious giving and receiving. They foster my compassion for the loss and hurts of others; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Very different from opportunism and entitlement. They tease open my heart and mind. SPACE OPERAS AND SCI-FI help me see past the world of form. Beneath the veneer of every alien civilization and dimension await shared universal tests. How do I make a difference? What maps do I make to ease the way for myself and others? To be More. Live more. Stretch more. Forgive more. And what am I prepared to move beyond (or leave behind) to access the Force within. To go boldly into the unknown. From DRAMA I connect with the feelings of others. How do I deal with my own relationships: spouse, children, friends, boss, colleagues? With myself? Higher Self? God/Goddess/All That Is? When I can recognize myself in another person it increases my response-abilty. COMEDIES always force me to wonder why I take myself so seriously. Funny movies remind me to laugh. To find humor in the frantic dance I do for love without remembering I am loved all along. To shrug off mistakes, and lighten up. HORROR MOVIES AND WAR FILMS have lots to reveal about what is dark in me as well as what is light. Often pointing to judgements or emotions that are not fully expressed, or I am denying altogether. Movies that arouse strong feelings of antipathy in me are always a sure sign of resistances, fears, and blockages to my growth that persist below the waterline of my awareness. What I resist...
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Drama. What is drama anyway? In the language of entertainment, drama is conflict. It’s what happens when one character’s set of hot-button adrenaline charged themes, beliefs or values comes into direct opposition with somebody else’s tightly held and equally charged themes, beliefs or agendas. The primary ‘player’ in dramas, the one with a vested position to protect is usually the ego. The ego always tries to protect its noble opinion of itself, its position as ‘opinionator in chief.’ I’ve been wondering why we tend to remember big dramas more often than the pleasant stories, and I think this is just as true in life as it is in the movies. Pleasant stories get a bad rap in our world. How often do we hear the words ‘chick flick’, or ‘soft’, or ‘lifetime weepie’ used as a form of put down? It’s code for unmanly entertainment. In fact, we can easily become addicted to our drama. Conflict dumps cortisol, adrenaline, and God knows what else into the blood stream. So why do we tend to obsess on drama, focusing relatively less attention on the flowing, pleasant experiences of life, those devoid of rife and conflict? If this question rings true for you, and it’s a situation you’d like to change, here is a helpful technique. WRITE OUT one or two dramas from your past. Look for the distressing stuff, things you find yourself remembering obsessively over and over again even though the incident itself may be water long under the bridge. Maybe there’s a theme that’s tended to repeat itself with other players in other situations over the years. For example I once had an old business relationship that came to an end after a lot of drama. Years later I was still reviewing it over and over in my thoughts. At last I understood I was hooked on the ego rush of righteousness and nobility. The next step is to write down an inventory of your pleasant experiences. You may find yourself recalling memories you’d almost forgotten. Take note of how it feels to remember them. Finally each time you catch yourself replaying or caught up in drama, remember to make a conscious choice to revisit and respect the pleasant, beautiful experiences of your...
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To an actor or director, subtext is a word for all the unspoken thoughts, feelings and motivations a performer brings to her role. Subtext is always unspoken, yet it is the most eloquent aspect of an actor’s performance coloring every speech and action. But subtext is not to be found in the script. It comes from the actor’s unique interpretation of the story, mined from personal memory, life experience, and imagination. That is why the same script or play can be performed again and again by different actors and still remain fresh. A musician calls his fiancee from a tour date on the road. “I love you” he declares to her. Does he say it with his full attention, or with one eye on online poker? Is he planning a date downstairs in the bar? Is he wanting to flirt with her, provoke her, or rush her off the phone? The same words can be said with an infinite variety of intentions. The subtext always expresses our deeper motivations, the ‘under the table’ and subconscious intentions that truly run our lives. This is the level of communication we sense when we are ‘reading between the lines’. Just as the characters in a movie know very little about the underlying intentions that drive them, we don’t generally start out aware of the power of our own subtexts in our lives, sometimes turning to personal growth or spirituality to seek understanding. We soon learn by experience that even small changes to our inner lives changes our life stories as well. Inscribed on a small bronze sculpture of a writer’s pencil that sits on my table are the words of Jean Renoir, the great French movie director and son of Pierre Auguste. ‘One only ever makes one film in his life’ said Renoir. I believe that is as true in life as it is in movie-making. It is a reference to the power of subtext. Without the ability to discover and change our personal beliefs, feelings and conditioned thinking, we repeat and respond to every experience life offers us from the same set of intentions. Nothing ever changes. Fortunately one of the gifts of the spiritual journey is the power to become ever more conscious. Here is some technique I practice. Pay attention to what you are feeling. Listen to your thoughts, and beliefs. Notice if what you are thinking is original with you, or part of conventional wisdom and hand-me-down thinking. Even though I was raised in a small village in Northern Quebec, both my parents loved and admired the American President Kennedy. No surprise that at ten years old I was already identifying as a proud Democrat, never mind that I knew nothing of politics, and, oh, yeah, we were all Canadians. That’s a hand-me-down...
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I hope you had a beautiful holiday season celebrating the past and future, and connecting with loved ones. You might have noticed a lot more stress in the world, and maybe also a few more challenges for each of us to handle personally. By now you know there is a shift happening. We are at a crossroads moving from one ‘operating system’ of reality to another more expansive one. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…life is but a dream. Imagine that you’re experiencing a night dream. You are walking on the sidewalk of a busy street after a heavy rain. Suddenly a bus comes along. The bus slams into a pothole sending a cold sheet of mud and water flying your way. How are you feeling? You are drenched to the bone, filthy and cold. Maybe you were rushing to an appointment. You might even believe the blankety-blank bus driver soaked you on purpose. That’s when the alarm goes off and you wake up in your bed. From this awakened perspective you say with relief that it was just a dream. But let’s look a little further. What do we know now? YOU were the dreamer who dreamed the story. YOU were the unfortunate character who got soaked. YOU dreamed the bus driver. The streets are YOU. The bus is YOU. The pot hole and puddle, all YOU as well. You were the director of the dream. You wrote the script and played all the parts. You chose to stage the story one way, and not another. From the limited perspective of the walker who got soaked, life is one thing. From the more expanded perspective of the awakened dreamer it is something else. We create it all. The most important key to reducing the stress begins with accepting that we each write the script of our lives completely. We always have. To explore this idea a little deeper, WRITE OUT two or three areas of success, or joy in your life worthy of celebration. For example, maybe you have created a beautiful and intimate relationship with a soul-mate, or achieved a promotion at work or won a Golden Globe! Next ask yourself, “What would someone have to believe or feel about herself in order to dream this success?” Then write down two or three areas of failure or disappointment, and ask yourself the same...
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