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Vibration – the key to our wellbeing

May 18, 2024 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Vibration affects every second of our lives

Vibration is the key to all life. Everything in the universe, us included, is energy and takes and maintains its form due to vibration. A significant factor for our wellbeing is the effect of the vibration of things around us, and of the people and organisations we associate with. We similarly have a vibrational impact on others and our environment by the way we think, speak and act. To use a modern idiom, each one of us is an influencer, whether we use social media or not.

Vibration to make a difference

Many people can feel the “vibes” or energy a person or place gives off. These may be uplifting, which we could say are positive. A comparatively negative quality, on the other hand, might make us feel uncomfortable or even pull us down. If we want to make a difference to our world, we can. We can do it by aligning or associating ourselves with higher quality energy, and the highest form is love – unconditional, non-judgmental. The universe has an unlimited supply of it – we just have to be open to it. It really is that simple.

The best vibration is the simplest

Simply by being kind and by loving, we raise our own vibration – of our mind, emotions and our entire energy field. That’s all we have to do. When we love, our body heals faster because all our energy channels open up. Loving those around us helps them heal faster, too. When we love unconditionally, we help the world because all tension eases, both in us and around us. Everything responds to love. Whatever our day to day responsibilities, grand or small, spreading “good vibrations” is our role, too. Cheers to that, I say!


Awakening Heart – The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation

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Filed Under: Happiness, Health Tagged With: awakening heart, body, cause and effect, chi, choice, compassion, consciousness, earth, emotions, energy, environment, family, freedom, happiness, healing, humanity, inner peace, joy, kindness, love, loving kindness, mindfulness, non-violence, qi, wellbeing, world peace, zen

Happiness or joy – which is better?

December 2, 2022 by Andrew Marshall 4 Comments

Happiness or joy, which is better? Of course we all want to be happy but joy doesn’t get a mention quite so much. Rather like a pleasant tinkling bell, happiness can rise up quickly but can then fade almost as fast, so we have to keep renewing it. Joy is a much deeper affair, like a very large bell whose resonance continues for a long time.

Happiness and joy are both excellent medicines

Happiness is delicious and thoroughly recommended. It is light, tasty and easily digested. It comes in all sorts of flavours and is available right now in your local universe. All we have to do is select it. If we make the choice to be happy now, the delivery is automatic and completely free of charge. We just have to keep our head up and flick our happiness switch. As we smile, the energy channels in the body open more and allow our vital energy, qi, to flow more easily. The more we smile, the more our vitality improves, which is brilliant for health and our sense of wellbeing. The bonus is if another person sees us and smiles in return, their channels open a little too. When we smile with our face and with our heart, the effect can be quite profound.

Appreciation creates joy, and joy heals

Our world is a very beautiful place and if we choose to appreciate what we have and what is around us, we will see that. Even though we are deluged with messages telling us that everything is wrong, we should not rely on news and social media to create a world picture for us.

Balance is essential and each of us has the ability to choose to see what we have in a positive light. Nothing is what it seems and this world has many dimensions, as do we. If we appreciate and are grateful for everything, we will be a friend of the world. We will generate great joy, whose vibration, like the waves from a resounding bell, will travel far and wide. Everything in the universe is energy, and to love, to vibrate joy and happiness are the most wonderful things we can do.


Thank you for taking the time to read this. There are many short articles on this blog and some books available, too. Some guided meditations are still available – they were put together some time ago but they still work!

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Filed Under: Awakening Heart Tagged With: anxiety, balance, bliss, change, climate change, consciousness, energy, environment, fear, happiness, healing, inner peace, joy, kindness, love, mindfulness, peace, positive thought, qi, spirituality, vibrate happiness, wellbeing, wisdom, world peace, zen

Healing energy, the Universe and You

September 9, 2022 by Andrew Marshall 4 Comments

Healing energyHealing is not a great mystery – everyone has healing energy and the ability to help heal themselves and others. Everything in the universe is energy, from a star to a rock to a speck of dust. Your body and mine are both energy, as is the plastic waste in the sea. Energy is not destroyed, it just takes different forms. Problems arise when there is an interruption to the  flow of energy and too much accumulates in a particular place. In the environment, this excess gives rise to pollution and imbalance, and in the body to congestion and disease.

Healing is dealing with excess energy

When we are ill or simply out of sorts, it often feels as though we are lacking energy in some way rather than having too much of it. We may feel lethargic or headachy, or there may be pain or soreness. Whatever the symptoms, there is inevitably a blockage or blockages somewhere in our system. If a river is flowing well, everything along its course is fine but if something blocks that flow, silt builds up and flooding occurs in that location. Elsewhere, there may be a shortage of water. Our energy or qi is rather like that – too much in the wrong place throws everything out of balance.

Giving it back to the Universe

When too much energy has accumulated, it does not stay still, hanging around until someone invites it to a party. By its very nature, energy is always moving and, like water, will always find somewhere to go. If there is no outlet, it will form unwanted complex patterns and it is these that can cause health problems, possibly severe, over time. As the body is energy, the essence of healing is to create the right conditions to allow the excess to return to the environment – the Universe – and restore balance.

The healing power of the mind – and a smile

The flow of energy, qi, in the body is directly affected by our awareness, by our thoughts and by our feelings. In traditional Chinese health systems, it is said “the mind leads the qi”. It is difficult to feel cheerful in every waking moment, perhaps, but the more positive we are, the healthier and happier we are likely to be.

A very easy thing we can do is to smile more often. Smiling helps to open the energy channels in the body and release little blockages. Breathe in, smiling to your body; breathe out, letting your smile extend beyond your body. Try it for a minute or two. It is so simple but is extremely effective at making us more receptive to healing energy.


Books

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Filed Under: Happiness, Health Tagged With: anxiety, balance, body, breath, cause and effect, chi, consciousness, ego, emotions, energy, happiness, healing, health, humanity, kindness, love, loving kindness, positive thought, qi, qigong, thought, unconditional love, well-being, wellbeing, worry, zen

Finding one’s centre is easy – and essential

December 30, 2021 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Finding one’s centreFinding one’s centre – to be at home with oneself – is the basis of a happy and fulfilled life. There is nowhere we have to go physically in order to find it. We are rarely in the wrong place; it is the mind, or rather our awareness, that is focused elsewhere. The wonderful Thich Nhat Hanh once said that there is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path. Once we find our centre, everything else naturally falls into place.

Coming back home

What does finding one’s centre mean in everyday life? We might hear someone say, “I need to find myself,” when what they really mean is that they are not happy and feel something has to change. When we feel like that, it is because our attention and awareness have become fragmented, resulting in feelings of fatigue and a general sense of dissatisfaction. Our energy, if not our essence itself, is scattered and depleted. On the outside, we may look much the same but, like a cracked vase, we can hold very little.

Go with the season

The winter is a particularly good time to do something about it because nature also tends to move inwards. Even the qi of the body is said to gravitate towards the bones in the colder months, as though consolidating and strengthening us before extending outwards in the spring. Going with the season’s flow of energy, it can be easier to allow the attention to settle so that we are more “at home” with ourselves.

The trouble with moths

Our sense of wellbeing depends on our mind and energy. These are influenced greatly by our environment, of course. The human being is not a closed system and we are not immune from modern life, which has little respect for our natural biorhythms, persistently clamouring to distract us. So many of us are drawn out of ourselves and into the world of electronic screens and the media, like moths fluttering around a light or a flame. Craving for the unreachable never ends well.

Time to stop

Inevitably, sometimes it all becomes too much. When it does, we need to take our attention off the busy world for a while. It won’t fall apart without us, so just stop. This is the crucial first step to being centred. Stop and breathe. It sounds simple, and it is. Enjoy the rhythm of the breath, feeling the belly rise and fall. Standing, sitting or lying down, enjoy just being as you are, where you are. To paraphrase Thich Nhat Hanh, there is nowhere you need to go because you have already arrived. This is being centred.


The Art of Not Doing – How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind


I wish you a very happy, healthy and fulfilled 2022!

Andrew

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Filed Under: The Art of Not Doing Tagged With: balance, body, breath, consciousness, desire, emotions, energy, environment, fear, happiness, inner peace, meditation, mind, mindfulness, self-realisation, wellbeing, zen

Fear of missing out – FOMO – and what to do about it

October 4, 2021 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

fear of missing outThe fear of missing out, “FOMO” as the social media vernacular expresses it, is bandied about a great deal these days. This week, FOMO is particularly disruptive causing panic buying of fuel and shortages of commodities. Henry Ford sometimes gets the blame for this human tendency. Because of the saturation of the automobile market in the 1920s, he created changes in the designs of his cars so that people would want the latest model. Hey presto – desire created and, along with it, fear of being left out. I doubt very much that this phenomenon can be solely attributed to Mr. Ford. He and his advisers were no doubt cashing in on something that was already known. But that is the way advertising works – create a desire and with it comes the parallel fear of missing out.

This fear is like a pernicious disease

It is not an exaggeration to say that the fear of missing out is a disease. It literally puts us ill-at-ease and it is highly infectious. One day it is not there and the next, thanks to some ill-advised remarks by those who should know better, it spreads far more rapidly than covid ever did. “There is no need to panic buy” immediately creates a fear that there is. The result is bizarre human behaviour, rather like how the body reacts when exposed to an allergen, mistaking it for a virus. Society, already not being in the best state of health, suddenly becomes even more sick.

Don’t carry on, become calm

When fear arises, it creates all manner of disturbances in body and mind. The stress response kicks in and we feel very uncomfortable. It is difficult to think straight when we are like that. If we sit down to meditate, we may find that it is almost impossible to settle as we become aware of our increased heart rate and the strength of our pulse. The mind chases one thought after another. How can we become calm when we are like that?

meditation Dismiss the fiction

Our imagination of what the future might hold creates fear and upsets our equilibrium. But instead of thinking that our fear may become reality, it is perhaps far more helpful to remember that it is just a fiction we have created. It isn’t real – we made it up.

You are still here

If we can haul ourselves back to the present and notice whether we are breathing or not, we may be pleased to notice that we are. If we stick with it a little longer, we may notice that we haven’t died yet and that one breath follows another. In those few breaths, we don’t need to buy anything or become anything or anyone else. The fear of missing out is based on the fiction that we are not whole and that we need something from elsewhere to find it. We don’t.

This is not to advocate non-action but simply to see things as they really are. Then we can respond as and when we need to. It is when we live in an imaginary future world of dread that we completely miss out on living. Now, that is something to fear.


The Art of Not Doing

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Filed Under: Happiness, The Art of Not Doing Tagged With: attachment, balance, breath, cause and effect, consciousness, coronavirus, desire, emotions, fear, fulfilment, lies, mind, mindfulness, social media, stress, wellbeing, zen

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