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J.C. LITTLE

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">J.C. LITTLE is a Canadian artist and former animator known for her expressive watercolors and <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-new-storytelling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">storytelling</a>. Here, she is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN. She shares how art serves as meditation and reflects on two of her standout works—Momentum, a celestial painting on inner transformation, and Deadline, a poignant take on time and womanhood.</h4>Q: Do you see art as a form of meditation? When I look at certain art, I feel a kind of meditative stillness in it.JCL: I think so. There’s a popular way of describing it, where you get in the zone as you’re executing art.For me, it starts before that. I’m one of these people who suffer from an overactive imagination. I’m always being assaulted with ideas and concepts, and in my mind, I’m turning them over and seeing how to tell that story. Is it funny? Is it wordplay? Is it emotional? At the back of my mind, I’m percolating on these things that I want to turn into images.When you finally get to the point where you’re executing something, there’s an element of discovery in it. We may not have completely worked out the solution to what we are looking for, the actual creative expression, but most of that work is already done in my head. That can become extremely meditative. It can also be problematic because we can get lost in it.I have a little escape hatch, which is my dog. It keeps me from working on and on into the small hours of the night. The answer to your question is yes, definitely, there is a meditative aspect. Several aspects.Q:&nbsp;How was your journey from being a cartoon artist to a person who does beautiful paintings? Has your creative process changed? How has this evolution changed you as a person?JCL:&nbsp;I have always mixed the two, ever since I was a small child. My parents knew I could draw, so they were always getting me art supplies for every birthday and Christmas. Whenever it was time for presents, I got art supplies. I was given art lessons, lots of art lessons. As a kid, I just wanted to do funny drawings.When I was a child, we lived in Montreal in Canada. When I was 11, we moved to Hong Kong. A couple of things happened. The first was that my parents immediately put me in Chinese brush painting classes. That’s where I was very impressed by the dispersion of pigment in water. That was my first real structured introduction to watercolors. The second thing that happened was that my little brother went to the hospital for surgery on his legs. Seeing him in recovery was a great motivation for me to draw funny pictures for him, to make him laugh and cheer him up.I grew up and went to university to study graphic design and illustration. Later, I met an animator and became an animator. For decades, I worked in animation, and that’s a different kind of creativity.All the while, I was still drawing and sketching, but not focusing on fine arts. My animation career turned into The Animated Woman, which was my blogging site where I finally did my own TV series. I worked for three or four years, 90 hours a week. I just needed a break from that and wanted to get my little creative ideas out. The fastest way to express all the ideas from my overactive imagination was to do stick figures digitally. I did conceptual things, little jokes about family life. That became my blog.I did quite a few short animated films using these stick figures, but I also did a lot of what I call sequential art, illustrated books for children, my own books that I self-published. A lot of that art was on my blog. My blog, The Animated Woman, was drawings like that.I was forced to simplify a concept or a feeling or a story into the most poetic form. They weren’t always funny, sometimes they were quite tender, playful, or sad, evoking tears. When I went back into watercolors, it was a natural progression for me to take these single-image stories and turn them into full paintings. &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_honest_medium2_ae21b42bec.webp" alt="art-honest-medium2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;All my concept drawings start as these very simple stick figures. Let me show you my sketchbook. I did a lot of color studies. You can see how I started with a very rough face and then refined it, how I was going to handle the gold leaf, what pigments I was going to use, how I was going to do the dress. I work all of that out in my sketchbook. My painting, <a href="https://www.jclittleportraits.com/fine-art-shop/momentum" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Momentum</a>, was special because it’s really big for a watercolor.Q:&nbsp;Momentum is one of the most fabulous paintings I’ve really seen.JCL:&nbsp;That’s good to hear. That painting was special because I had the idea and was thinking of using my friend Tracy. She agreed to pose for me. It started out as just the woman on the sofa. There are many paintings of a woman on a sofa, many, many paintings. It’s a popular subject. But I wanted to show her imagining the planet, imagining the world, maybe even reimagining the world. Contemplating the world, and showing a kind of transformative, contemplative state with the butterfly.To make her more of a creator or give a kind of celestial vibe, I decided she should have all the space she wants. I literally put her in outer space. This painting was different from everything I had done before in its size, but it was a continuation of the painting Deadline with the clock. That was going more in a direction of magical realism, where you depict things rendered in a realistic way, but there’s no way they could be real. There’s no way a woman sits in outer space on a sofa imagining.I don’t want to be limited by reality because I come from the world of animation, where we can do anything. The scope of it, the size of it, meant I couldn’t use my usual brushes for the background. I had to use a completely different technique to approach the background, because I didn’t want to see brush marks. In fact, I painted the painting three times, not the full painting, but mainly the background. The first two times, it wasn’t what I wanted. I discovered a way to move the paint around without using brushes. I used a special technique. I put a lot of water on the paper, then put the pigment on top and moved it around. It worked out in a way that gave this beautiful galactic feeling. The background is pretty much done in one layer of paint.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I think a lot of people really related to this painting&nbsp; because it talks about several themes: women, our bodies, and how we are running out of time.</h4><hr>With watercolor, it’s really difficult to make larger <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/thoughts-about-painting-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">paintings</a>. When they’re small, you can use a certain sized brush. The hairs on a brush are a certain thickness, and if you get a bigger brush, it doesn’t behave the same way. This is all technical stuff about watercolor, getting things to behave, inducing behavior in watercolor, which really just wants to do its own thing. You want to let it do its own thing.It lends itself to magical realism very easily. I just love that about this medium. It’s a very honest medium. It’s impossible to lie with it. You can’t cover things up. There is not a drop of white paint on that painting. It is all the whites of the paper shining through, the stars, everything. That makes it really luminous. That’s what I love about that painting.Q:&nbsp;I also liked your painting Deadline, this lady sitting between the minute hand and hour hand. Somehow I felt that was me, and then I thought, perhaps everyone thinks that is them.JCL:&nbsp;I think a lot of people really related to this painting because it talks about several themes: women, our bodies, and how we are running out of time. Society places a lot of pressure on us to stay young or be reproductive. We have our reproductive deadline, your body clock is going to run out. There’s also work, and how we impose these deadlines upon ourselves, to finish things on time or to achieve things. I think it has universal appeal in how people relate to it.To purchase J.C. Little’s paintings directly from her website, please visit <a href="https://www.jclittleportraits.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.jclittleportraits.com/</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Artwork by J.C. LITTLE&nbsp;</h4><hr>

Art is an honest medium

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J.R.R. Tolkien

Value food and cheer

Jack Canfield is a bestselling author, professional speaker, trainer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Canfield Training Group and coauthor of more than two hundred books, including the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series.

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JACK CANFIELD

Jacqueline is the author of two books on spirituality, Wonder and Words and Oceans and Clouds. She has been practicing Heartfulness meditation for over thirty years and is also a Chinese medicine practitioner in France and Switzerland.

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Jacqueline Camisa

<h5 style="text-align:justify;">JACQUELINE CAMISA explores the nature of the heart, and invites us all to experience its wonders.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;The heart is a fascinating organ to explore, not only for cardiologists. Because of its central position, its role is paramount for physical health, but who amongst us knows that it also has the upper hand over intelligence, thought, judgment, discernment and caring about others? Even more, it manages in a masterful way a third, even subtler level – our evolution.In these days of globalization, with the problems that have arisen, is the current instability that we see among human beings being addressed? If it is possible for a good gardener to care for and save plants that are threatened, is it not possible to do the same by going directly to the heart of human nature, and so treat and care for man’s heart? This is certainly an ambitious initiative, yet pragmatic and urgent.We all feel our heartbeat, this relay point between the animate and the inanimate. The heart beats, gets excited, and sometimes misses beats. A doctor checks blood pressure and pulse rate, monitors the heart through an ECG,&nbsp; performs ultrasound echography, and sometimes does deeper functional exploration to secure our physical health, and physical exercise and diet contribute to fitness and well-being. Despite all our care and efforts the day comes, however, when the heart stops. This is the end of our earthly existence. But is it the end of life? This life has been infused by the heart, because it is through the heart that life is transmitted.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">This life has been infused by the heart, because it is through the heart that life is transmitted.</h5><hr>This was revealed in Chinese documents several thousand years ago, in which the heart is presented as the conductor of our body symphony. From the third week of pregnancy, a ‘little heart’, known as the heart tube by embryologists, is already active, generating our organs and organizing their physiology, and transforming us continually. Ultimately it is helping us evolve. Elaboration and organization, transformation and, finally, evolution are the three stages attributed to the heart.By giving ‘the little heart’ the name ‘the door of destiny’, Chinese philosophy attests the possibility of evolution beyond the physical body. So let’s look at the heart in its various stages and rhythms.<h5 style="text-align:justify;">The physical level</h5>Physical evolution in human beings has been very slow and rather limited. On one hand it has taken thousands of years for human beings to reach the stage they are today. On the other hand our parents and their descendants’ genetic data continue to impose their limitations. Even in the most favorable conditions we can only hope to be a little taller and a little more developed physically than our ancestors, as this will always be within the limits of a genetic program. To change the color of our skin or to stem old age is impossible for us, despite all the creams, cosmetics and vitamins displayed on the attractive shelves of health food shops.The physical body is a temporary but necessary vehicle to carry us further through this adventure of life towards another more subtle level. And what is that? Perhaps it is the mind level. We are tempted to believe so.<h5 style="text-align:justify;">The mind level</h5><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/globalization_through_the_heart_img1_ba96eb5b6b.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T13:00:34.248Z" alt="spiritual-relationship">Since the Greeks, the mind continues to be the favorite playground of the Western world. We just have to look at our bookshelves. This academic affluence is proof of an interest to educate and instruct over the long term. However, has it really brought about real human transformation?Fascinating as they are, have all the mental speculations helped us to develop simple wisdom embodied in our daily behavior? Or, even more modestly, do we now find a simple state of balance in human character in general? The present human context raises serious doubts.Besides this already distressing observation, we know that we only use around 10% of our mental capacity. This&nbsp; compels us to humbly acknowledge that our most ambitious and remarkable initiatives are accomplished within such a narrow frame that our mental vision exists within a very thin beam. We focus upon this thin beam to the extent that we are blind to everything outside its sphere.If we add to this the intense and accelerated media frenzy bombarding us day after day, the question of us having a mind capable of raising us is under question. How can we evolve when the mind is becoming heavier and heavier? Sensations, passions, urges and desires generate prejudice, habits and thought patterns. As the mind becomes heavier, it is less qualified to help us reach a higher level of consciousness.The brain does, however, have a constant regeneration capacity. So is it right to keep it functioning at an optimal level. Reading, attending lectures, doing crosswords, mental calculations, games, art therapy, yoga, tai qi, chi gong, music and other activities boost our physical and psychic energies, but is all this sufficient to lead us to a more subtle level? A change of paradigm is required to rise vertically. As Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”So we must pass on to another stage, subtler than the mind level, for our evolution. This is the level of the soul, or the&nbsp;cause of our existence.<h5>The causal level, the soul</h5><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/globalization_through_the_heart_img2_36902042c3.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T13:01:15.307Z" alt="spiritual-relationship">To consider the soul as being only within the domain of religion is another obstacle on the path of a well understood evolution. This understanding appeared during the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.When the scientific, rationalist mind tried to free itself from religious dominance, there was significant collateral damage: that of assigning the soul only to the field of religion. For a certain time this prevented any serious observation and scientific experimentation on the causal level of our existence.But the human soul belongs to no domain, no institution and no religion. It belongs to each one of us because we all have a heart. Wherever we were born, and whatever our previous cultural, religious (or nonreligious) and community background, the soul level is our common identity card. It is our only passport to exit from this life to the next stage. Today, research on the world of the spirit is evident everywhere, in all cultures, and more and more there is a call for inner experimentation, even scientific experimentation.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">The human soul belongs to no domain, no institution and no religion. It belongs to each one of us because we all have a heart. Wherever we were born, and whatever our previous cultural, religious (or non-religious) and community background, the soul level is our common identity card. It is our only passport to exit from this life to the next stage.</h5><hr>All ancient traditions were aware of the spiritual level of existence. The ancient Indian tradition claimed that a regulated and clear mind allows access to spiritual spheres. For example, in Raja Yoga, as a first step we go deep inside ourselves through meditation to experience the vast inner world, and then make use of these discoveries to embody them in daily life in a pragmatic way. A mind conscious of the unity of everything through experience, and no longer influenced by dogmas and theories, becomes calm and keen to care about others, while assuming its personal responsibilities.Ancient Chinese wisdom recommended meditation, so that men could become “true men,” “real men”. Chinese medicine is the practical application of these discoveries in the health field through inner experimentation. Wise men, real men, of all cultures have always condensed their experiences into a few words, such as sutras or aphorisms. Here again there has been collateral damage throughout human history, as disciples and commentators who have not had the same personal experiences have distorted their meaning through interpretation and created dogma from their contents. This shows just how much the still narrow beam has remained powerless to infuse a rise in consciousness. This is also the reason why everywhere in the world the subtle essence of spirituality has remained hidden under various and numerous religious expressions.Between the spirit, which surpasses our earthly destiny, and the means we have to determine our destiny, the heart is our laboratory where wonders occur. To put it simply, we can change everything through the heart. The heart is joy, laughter, gratitude and love.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Let us dare to experience this heart globalization. We all have the opportunity to experience this realm, a space with no right of property, with equal access by all, to be shared fraternally. In fact this is its universal value.</h5><hr>Let us dare to experience this heart globalization. We all have the opportunity to experience this realm, a space with no right of property, with equal access by all, to be shared fraternally. In fact this is its universal value.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Article by JACQUELINE CAMISA</h5><hr>

Globalization Through the Heart

Allen (1864-1912) was a British mystic and philosopher, known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of the self-help movement. Born in Leicester, England, to a working-class family, he left school at fifteen to support the family, after his father died. In 1903 he retired to devote himself to writing and moved with his wife and daughter to a small cottage in Devon, where he spent the rest of his life. As A Man Thinketh has influenced many contemporary writers and has inspired millions to recognize that our visions can become reality, simply through the power of thought.

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James Allen

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 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/collectorsedition_img_97d38e9149.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-29T11:43:31.955Z" class="has-img-center" />
</div>
&nbsp;
Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no
 intelligent accomplishment. With the majority, the barque of thought is allowed to ‘drift’ upon the ocean of life.
 Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and
 destruction.
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries,
 fears, troubles and self-pitying. All of these are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as
 deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot
 persist in a power-evolving universe.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it.
 He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it
 may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being. But whichever it is, he should steadily focus
 his thought-forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and
 should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings
 and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.
Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until
 weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form
 a new starting point for future power and triumph.
Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix the
 thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in
 this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done there is
 nothing which may not be accomplished.

<h4 class="fs-5 lh-lg">Read the complete article in Issue 14 </h4>
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 href="https://www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE
 &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>
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<h4 class="fs-5 lh-lg text-center">From As a Man Thinketh by JAMES ALLEN</h4>
<hr />

Thought and purpose

<h4>JAMES ALLEN is known for his simple and clear explanations of the human condition. In this excerpt from As a Man Thinketh, Allen explores the nature of thought and purpose.</h4>&nbsp;Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority, the barque of thought is allowed to ‘drift’ upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles and selfpitying. All of these are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being. But whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought-forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.</h4><hr>Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded. They are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual and useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.</h4><hr>He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground.<h4 style="text-align:center;"> Chapter 4, As a Man Thinketh,&nbsp;1902</h4><hr>

Thought and Purpose

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 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/collectorsedition_img_92a76863f3.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-02T05:31:52.018Z"
 alt="Collectorsedition-img" />

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought
 to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that man is
 the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment and destiny.

As a being of Power, Intelligence and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds
 the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may
 make himself what he wills.

Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state, but in his
 weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his ‘household’. When he begins to reflect upon his
 condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise
 master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the
 conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is
 totally a matter of application, self analysis and experience.

<h4>Read the complete article in Issue 14 </h4>
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 target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">From As a Man Thinketh by JAMES ALLEN</h4>
<hr />

The conscious master

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James Baldwin

Facing our wounds

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James Clear

Mastery

Jamie is a natural medium, clairvoyant and clairaudient. She uses her abilities as a mediumship teacher to help people evolve and awaken to their own psychic abilities. In 2011, she created <a href="http://www.withloveandlight.com/">The Center for Love and Light</a>.&nbsp;The Center continues to evolve and host teachers, healers, and lecturers from all over the globe. Her latest venture is <a href="http://www.thelightersidenetwork.com/">The Lighter Side Network</a>.&nbsp;

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Jamie Butler

<hr><h4>JAMIE BUTLER, healer and medium, founded The Lighter Side Network in 2017. Here she speaks with EMMA IVATURI about consciousness, belief, feeling stuck, growing pains, intuition and synchronicity.</h4>&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations2_f9a0a247f3.jpg">&nbsp;Q: Can you elaborate on how the brain works as a receptor and filter for the countless vibrations around us every moment?JB: Our brain is not just an organ that runs neurons and sends messages throughout our body. It is also a great transmitter and receiver, much like a radio. In fact, many of our thoughts are not originally ours, but come because of our ability to receive the energy vibrations from all around us. Working this way, our brain can easily be overwhelmed and bombarded with information. Our ability to focus on what we want to attract is how we filter out all the unwanted vibrations on a daily basis. But it is also the way we are able to attract all the things we don’t desire, because we spend time worrying, living in fear and feeling victimized. What you are focused on is what your energy field resonates with. Like attracts like.Let’s say you are pretending to ‘play small’, whether you are pretending to be a mouse or you are pulling in your great charisma to allow someone else to shine. When you do this, you are saying you are willing to receive all the energy around you – from people, from the room, from conversations, from the history of the room, from plants and animals that match this version of ‘playing small’, even though it is not your true nature. The energy you are receiving is going to be the energy you are putting out. We can see now the vicious cycle this can create.We can take this in another direction too. Let’s say you are pretending to be confident, to earn a position at work or to impress a love interest. You adopt a confident posture and spoken language and your energy patterns follow suit. Now, your energy field is vibrating with confidence. All the worry energy in the room is unlikely to vibrate with you any more hence you won’t receive it nor process it.I like this example better. Even reading it allows my energy to fluff up and feel better, however, I have free will and can immediately change this feeling by thinking of all the difficult situations in life and at work. As soon as I begin to focus on all the things going ‘wrong’, I vibrate with things going wrong. I air-quote the word ‘wrong’ because I don’t necessarily believe there is a right or a wrong, but this is the way we use our language to express the situations we don’t want.To help filter and attract the vibrations needed to grow, we must be conscious of our energy. This means being aware of our intent, emotions, thoughts and imagination. What are they expressing? What are they attracting? This simple act gives us insight into the subtle light world around, which is constantly offering information to better our lives.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Through my decades of working with subtle light energy, techniques are nothing unless we believe in them. It is time to detangle ourselves from being triggered to stay within the same patterns that hold us hostage.</h4><hr>Q: Our conscious experience is but a small bandwidth of what we pick up on. How can we expand our awareness to integrate information we perceive less clearly that would otherwise create a cognitive dissonance?JB: Expanding our bandwidth of consciousness begins with understanding who we believe we are. In this current lifetime, our body is our instrument and our belief systems are the dial to broaden or narrow how we use this instrument. If we want to receive more clarity it is time to get into the gray areas, to step away from right or wrong, black and white, and the learned belief systems that are not working for us.Through my decades of working with subtle light energy, techniques are nothing unless we believe in them. It is time to detangle ourselves from being triggered to stay within the same patterns that hold us hostage.Next time you feel stuck try this:Center your energy into a neutral space. You can do this through a few minutes of steady breathing.Imagine you are without any attachment. Seriously, use that incredible imagination of yours! Imagination and intuition are roommates and share the same space. When you engage your imagination you are creating more room for intuition to use. Once you can imagine that there is any possible outcome, you are allowing new truths to enter into your consciousness.Mantras can help you create a single focus and allow different energies to come into your energy field to create the changes you are seeking.The mantra I use is: deep breath, re-access, change your perspective.Another mantra is: if you want to remain constant, always change.From this space begin to assess the images and messages coming to you. Please keep disciplining the monkey mind to stay in the ‘gray’ and un-triggered by the images and messages. Grab a pencil and paper and start to document what is coming through.Once you are done writing, walk away. If you can go into nature, allow the outdoors to calm and soothe your energy while continuing to hold the flow of ideas expanding your understanding, connection and energy. When you are activating your body with movement, you are helping these energies to merge with your new discoveries and belief systems.When you feel full or done, go back to writing and jot down your discoveries. Be sure to write keywords that will reconnect you with the ‘ahha’ moments. Re-read your notes frequently. This will help you incorporate your discoveries instead of them being fleeting moments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">When life presents you with chaos,&nbsp; congested energy, a feeling of being stuck,&nbsp; hitting walls or whatever you feel awful about,&nbsp; reach in and pull out acceptance, kindness and surrender and see where the nudge takes you.&nbsp; I bet you will find there is ease to this enlightenment.&nbsp; I trust you will begin to notice how the world around you is supporting you</h4><hr>Q: Sometimes we misread the growing pains as we outgrow our current circumstances and are pushed into the next level of evolution. Perhaps the next step may not be clear and a leap of faith is needed to let go and surrender to where we’re going. How do you bridge the gap between these life phases?JB: Bridging the gap between life phases requires the art of acceptance, kindness and surrender. Each shift in our evolution is asking for us to change our beliefs. This can be a tremendous burden to the ego and the heart. I have noticed in the last 27 years of being a medium, there are certain ideals to which we hold strong culturally: these include gaining knowledge, loyalty and politeness. These ideals often lead us into shame and dissonance. When we are trained to value these ideals we create suffering and pain when it is time to grow.Let’s look at acceptance, kindness and surrender, and how these three actions can shift our cultural ideals and ease our way while we are becoming enlightened.When we are taught acceptance from a young age, we transcend loyalty to provide self-care, we transcend the need to gain knowledge with the comfort of the unknown, and we transcend politeness to find authenticity over.When we show kindness to ourselves, we find that loyalty is actually an expression of love not discipline, the act of gaining knowledge is an expression of curiosity, and the use of politeness is the desire to create peace.When we surrender, our truth is found. Surrendering allows us to accept not only possible outcomes but also the very real impossible outcomes. It allows us to walk away from loyalty when it was created out of guilt, regret or fear, and break commitments that no longer serve us. Surrendering allows us to stop comparing and contrasting our every move, to understand who we are and look at the very deep inner light for guidance. It also allows us to see that true politeness can be based in honesty and not the lens of praise.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations3_a518152a4c.jpg">&nbsp;When life presents you with chaos, congested energy, a feeling of being stuck, hitting walls or whatever you feel awful about, reach in and pull out acceptance, kindness and surrender and see where the nudge takes you. I bet you will find there is ease to this enlightenment. I trust you will begin to notice how the world around you is supporting you.Q: Can you speak about the energies we take on from other people and act out with them in relation to our own character work?JB: When we are in communication with someone else it is natural for us to connect to them empathically. This helps us understand them. Our own energy will mimic what the other person’s energy is vibrating and therefore we will hold their pattern in our energy field. Sometimes people will continue to hold that pattern even after the communication is over. They can even take on other person’s energy.I have seen through the years of working as a medium and healer that we are emotional beings. Our first and foremost ability is to feel emotionally: the rest of life follows suit. Once we can identify that we are emotional beings, we begin to observe the amount of energy it takes to maintain our emotions. Everything we do, think and feel is all empowered by energy. Our chakra system, the energetic highways and byways, contains all the possible energetic vibrations and the way we use our emotions dictates the responses of the chakras. Knowing this we can see how natural it is for us to be empathic, having the ability to connect to how others feel.Empathy is a powerful tool but sometimes misused. When we are feeling what another is going through, we often come to believe it is ourselves feeling this way. Our brain is not trained to ask, “Is this feeling mine?” so we begin to believe whatever we are feeling must belong to us. However, I feel there is no guideline on the kind of work we need to do to evolve. There is no one judging your performance except you. This life is a very personal experience and only you can decide what needs to be done to reach the goals you have aligned for yourself. The only true common denominator I can speak to is our ability to feel emotions and have our needs met.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Synchronicities pop up in our life when we are agreeing to align ourselves with our truth, that is, when we are ‘in the flow’. For me, synchronicities are not road signs directing us to change directions, but gentle reminders to stay the course.</h4><hr>Q: How can we cultivate a more natural alignment to our intuition?JB: Start building your trust with your intuition through these little activities:THE REAL YES AND NOTake the time to acknowledge how your five senses react to the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. What color, feeling, location, sensation, taste, sound and more do these words evoke in you? You can use simple yes or no questions to engage your intuition on the myriad of decisions you make on a daily basis.DOCUMENTATION PLEASEWrite down in a list all the intuitive experiences you have throughout the day, even if they are very small and do not seem to be worth much. At the end of the day, go back and put a checkmark next to the ones that played out to be accurate with good insight. You might find it is a full day or week later before you get your validation. Having this on paper allows your brain to see it documented.&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:602px !important;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations4_4931e8f75f.jpg">&nbsp;WORD ASSOCIATIONPay attention to your words. Most of the time we’re trying to express our intuition, yet our language does not provide accurate words to convey it. Words like ‘lucky’, ‘coincidence’, ‘bright idea’, ‘ah- ha’ are all indicators of intuition. Be confident to share information without knowing the source of its origin. For that is a very intuitive thing!TRUST FALLBuilding trust in your intuition allows it to be stronger. When you find yourself doubting, step back. Claim your intuitive place as a no-doubt zone! When you are doubting, you are not connecting and you are not trusting your experience. Step back, take a breath, and begin to ask very simple yes and no questions about what you are experiencing.BE EFFORTLESSIntuition does not need you. As soon as you insert your voice, you could be wanting to control, compare, contrast and measure your intuition as if it were a logical experience. When you let go and become effortless with answers or intuition, your accuracy level increases.Q: How do synchronicities point us in the right direction in our lives? What are some you’ve experienced?JB: Synchronicities pop up in our life when we are agreeing to align ourselves with our truth, that is, when we are ‘in the flow’. For me, synchronicities are not road signs directing us to change directions, but gentle reminders to stay the course. Synchronicities have helped me create my businesses, especially The Lighter Side Network. I did not have a vision to create an online network, but the universe kept putting people in my path who brought out the creative in me. Once I acknowledged this, I began to see my path clearly. The Lighter Side Network is now over one year old and growing.<hr><a href="http://www.jamiebutlermedium.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.jamiebutlermedium.com</a> <a href="http://www.thelightersidenetwork.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.thelightersidenetwork.com</a> <a href="http://www.withloveandlight.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.withloveandlight.com</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by EMMA IVATURI</h4><hr>

Vibrations

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English author, who 6 major novels are still some of the most popular in the English language, and have been made into films and TV series. She particularly used realism, irony, and social commentary to highlight the standing of women at the time.

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Jane Austen

Being with trees

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Jane Goodall

Each one of us

What you do makes a difference

Dialogue

Janine Burke And Mirta Valdes

Janmarie is the CEO of a construction company. A wife, mother and grandmother, Janmarie has spent her adult life bringing heart into predominately male spaces. It’s a continual journey of exploring the heart’s capacity to open, uplift and transcend life’s circumstances. She enjoys seeing this unfold through her volunteer work serving underprivileged Latino youth, and in her work as a certified trainer with the Heartfulness Institute.

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JANMARIE CONNOR

<hr><h4>JANMARIE CONNOR explores some practical ways to create harmony and balance where there is tension, conflict and disagreement. How can polar opposites coexist?</h4>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Years ago, I facilitated a weekend workshop with a group of Catholic Sisters. They were having great difficulty envisioning a way forward for their religious community. From their vantage point, the world they knew, including the Church and their place in it, was on its head. Their capacity to meet the needs of the inner-city population they served was strained. The Sisters’ advancing age and shrinking numbers made it increasingly difficult to fulfill their mission. And their mission was bound to their reason for being – their purpose in life.The complexity of the situation and the chaotic circumstances around them had taken a toll on these dedicated women. Fractures began to appear within the group, resembling the fractures in the community they served, and in the broader societal landscape. Individual perspectives on how or how not to advance had become hardened and polarized. Even simple decisions, like where to have lunch, required facilitation. By their own account, the group members were feeling isolated, angry and sorrowful.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Sound familiar?</h4>The sisters might have been channeling the voice of our present collective experience. You don’t have to go far to find an angry disagreement on just about anything under the sun. Rigid perspectives and emotional outbursts are no longer confined to topics on religious, economic and political power, although they remain root culprits. For example, an online forum of neighborhood birdwatchers that I previously enjoyed is now off my list after several group members came to verbal blows. Was it a Black-headed Grosbeak or a Spotted Towhee? It wasn’t a battle over the birds, per se. It was a battle of who was right and who was wrong, and neither side would relent. Whichever side you were on depended on your vantage point – quite literally.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">How have we come to this?</h4>We are under an extraordinary amount of pressure as a society, with problems so big they boggle the mind. No need to name them as we can all fill in the blanks. If left unchecked, this sort of pressure short-circuits our ability to stay grounded and make space for a variety of perspectives which are needed for creative problem solving. The greater the pressure or complexity, the more polarized the reaction.<hr>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h5 style="text-align:center;">If left unchecked, this sort of pressure short-circuits our ability to stay grounded and make space for a variety of perspectives which are needed for creative problem solving. The greater the pressure or complexity, the more polarized the reaction.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zero_balancing_point2_f3764c524c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T12:55:26.202Z" alt="zero-balancing-point2">&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Fortunately for us – an expanded vantage point on polarity</h4>It is our good fortune that there is a principle inherent within polarity that eases the pressure and provides a bridge which unites divergent poles and perspectives. When we think of a polarity, we think in terms of dualistic pairs: up-down, good-bad, right-wrong, etc.Polarity can be described as two sides possessing a high degree of contrary tension, as in the positive and negative poles of a magnet or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In cases of extreme polarity, it is easy to believe that polar opposites cannot co-exist. But the integrative principle is operative at every level, until such a high level is reached where opposites no longer exist. Nature provides endless examples.We find it easy to accept tension in contrast when appreciating color or pairing flavors in a recipe. Opposing colors on a chromatic wheel are called complementary contrasts. Our sensory perception heightens the contrast while our brain works to unify it, resulting in a coherent experience. It’s a hard-wired response.According to The Art of Color, by Johannes Itten, “Two such colors make a strange pair … they require each other. They incite each other to maximum vividness when adjacent; and they annihilate each other, to gray-black, when mixed – like fire and water.”&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zero_balancing_point3_fd40f0b08a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T12:55:26.133Z" alt="zero-balancing-point3">&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Bringing water to the fire is a nice analogy for finding balance in our polarized world. From this expanded vantage point, we can have faith in our and others’ inherent ability to integrate what presents as fixed positions and polarities. In the material realm, we are crossing the bridge from reaction to response. Now we have possibilities for a more balanced way forward.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Even greater fortune awaits us</h4>Even greater fortune awaits us when we begin exploring this same inherent principle, but now in the subtler realms. Take another look at the color wheel. Consider again that opposites require one another when divining a more holistic and balanced life flow. Now look at the gray circle at the center and consider it as the heart of the wheel. And the white space around it as the field that supports the wheel. Has the gray circle in the center been formed by the opposing color pairs, or vice versa? And could the color wheel even exist without the field?Dr. Joe Dispenza beautifully describes this:“The heart serves as our connection to the unified field and represents the union of duality or polarity. It is where separation, division, and polarized energy merge to become one – where opposites unify.”The heart waits patiently for us to shine the light of our attention on it. When we do this, through heart-focused meditation, we begin to experience the union of polarities that Dr. Dispenza describes. And when we approach the heart with humility and an openness toward what we might discover, our union can take us to indescribable heights. It’s as if the loving light of our attention is mirrored in the heart, and the heart shines back on us.From this vantage point, balance is very real, and practical. We are released from the play of action and reaction. We are given divine resource, allowing the heart, the field, and all of the contrast to carry out their unified purpose.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zero_balancing_point4_89ae8fe029.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T12:55:26.245Z" alt="zero-balancing-point4"><hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h5 style="text-align:center;">“The heart serves as our connection to the unified field and represents the union of duality or polarity. It is where separation, division,&nbsp;and polarized energy merge&nbsp;to become one – where opposites unify.” – Dr. Joe Dispenza</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4>What happened to the Sisters?</h4>You might wonder what happened to the Sisters. Me too. I can tell you this much. They came to the weekend with pressure to consider ten vital questions and to make movement in some direction. We spent the first half of our weekend in silence, standing side by side on a masking tape line. The line represented Zero. It was the position in the room without a position. It held the heart, the field, and the Sisters. It was where they were silently reacquainted with the Essence of their mission – their reason for being. It was the place where they stood together, with open hearts, tenderly receiving come what may.And from this line, vantage point zero, they moved. There were ten lines in front of zero and ten lines behind. They allowed their hearts and bodies to move them to the place on the scale which matched their degree of resonance with the question. And between each question they returned to vantage point zero. Not long after the weekend, I received a letter from one of the Sisters. She ended by saying she would carry the experience with her for the rest of her life.<hr>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by JANMARIE CONNOR Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;

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