Lisa Colón DeLay | Spiritual Formation and the Way of the Desert Elders
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New 3D brain scan technology has changed even recently-held theories about how the brain works.
On the positive side, many brain injuries, learning disabilities, paralysis from strokes, mental disorders and addictions can now be treated with targeted exercises that cause brain re-mapping. The subsequent brain scans evidence the improvement.
Also proven: Things like prayer and meditation are verifiably shown to improve not only health and well-being but to alter brain mapping not just down to the cellular level but to the level of DNA itself.
The area of study is termed neuroplasticity.
Even into very old age, the brain now shows us its ability to continually adapt to the environment, and improve depending on how it’s utilized. Certain thoughts alter us. The proof is empirical.
On the negative side certain things the brain engages in make future change very difficult because chemical changes from events can permanently alter the brain’s structure. Nevertheless, the idea that the brain works like a computer or that it “hardens” like wet cement at around age 6 have been debunked.
Of course most of us already knew at some level. In spiritual formation we study this historically as well. The anecdotal evidence has always been there.
Proverbs 23:7a “For as a man thinketh in his heart [mind+will], so he is.”
In his book, Dr Norman Doidge gives us many case studies that appear simply miraculous at first blush. It’s worth the read.
• An eye surgeon paralyzed by a catastrophic stroke is give a rehabilitative treatment that allowed him to be a successful surgeon again.
• People born with congenital blindness are able to re-map their brains and perceive vision through through–of all things–their tongues!
• Wounded soldiers with phantom limb pain find relief for the first time.
(and much more)
Re-mapping is not science fiction nor is it fluffy positive thinking. Re-mapping just requires effort and specific therapy.
So if you could re-map your brain what would you like to change?
Don’t give up.
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Fear is jail.
The world has so much information to offer.
Libraries, schools, experts, and the troves of resources on the internet make learning almost anything possible.
But is success probable? Only sometimes.
Education and information don’t create success. If it did, success would be simple and assured.
Since it’s not, there’s always some psychology to understand first.
Namely, fear.
Despite the resources, we hit bumps. We stagnant. We get discouraged. We give up too soon.
We are both afraid to fail and afraid to succeed. We fear the unknown and the too familiar. We fear change and we fear sameness.
Just knowing this can take a few teeth out of fear and can give us a cell key.
Information can help us through our fear. It’s a tool, key. But, we can sit in a cell whose door is wide open.
We assume information is the solution sometimes. It’s certainly not.
That’s why when you make resources and opportunities available to a frightened population success is still rare.
People–whether they know it or not–get stuck being afraid. Jailed.
But, back to the key: Information.
We live in a time were we can pick so many things for ourselves. The rich and powerful used to corner this market. Not just recently in the Industrial Age, but in every age. Social classes, gender, skin color and many other inescapable factors determined what you could accomplish in a lifetime. No more.
But so much will stop us. So, back to fear. It must be tamed. Always.
A path, a formula, or expert advice make wading through a bit easier. But here is the best key: As we utilize our resources we sill have to be honest that we are fearful and it affects us greatly.
If you sense that you aren’t moving forward, or you’re distracting your self routinely, ask yourself some hard questions about what you fear.
Armed with those answers you can push through if you get brave. Fear will be back of course, but you’ll be more prepared for it. You’ll do battle again and again. Know your enemy. Use your tools. Work your key.
I landed my first international client. These handmade trackable gemstones are on their way to France. oui oui and wee wee
They will serve as Christmas gifts and the recipients will get to see all the places the stones go as they trek the globe.
This was a fun project.
If you’d like some for you, your kids, for geocaching, or for gifts, visit this page. 100% free shipping in the U.S. puts them well under $2 each. Or, just go to Geotrackable.org to start your own project!
You’ve heard “follow you bliss,” right?
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
― Joseph Campbell[This is wiki link for the scoop on Campbell]
Campbell wrote “The Power of Myth”, “The Masks of God”, and “The Hero of A Thousand Faces” among many other works and was an American mythology professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion.
Follow your bliss refers to a path you take. The journey and the making of a hero.
(video is cheeky and humorous summary of what happens in a Hero’s Story)
It’s the journey of every great person and every life well-lived also.
(photo source)
My offshoot and focus is “KISS your BLISS”.
Why? Because nothing’s more active than that (and it rhymes, which is a nice mnemonic device).
This is the name for the moment you cross the threshold to adventure and finding your purpose. It’s when you decide you have a deeper calling in this world and living from your core is what counts most. I’m crafting a book on this right now and it’ll be out this fall. I hope you’ll come back for more details soon.
You will find that once you embrace your passion and gifts and kiss them full on the mouth a switch happens. At that point the sides fall off your holding cell and it turns into a go kart. You pick up speed, scream in delight and your passion is infectious.
Make no mistake: It is a risk.
There is true danger involved.
At the KISS POINT you will gain two things:
1. A following–people you splash with your passion who come for the ride, guide you, or cheer you on.
It is also characterize by new and better-fitting opportunities unveiling themselves and new connections and relationships emerging. You’ll “be on to something” with all kinds of vague but palpable mystery that whispers of the divine. You’ll feel “in the flow” with new energy and a revived sense of purpose.
2. The devils–people (or systems) who are threatened by your passion or jealous of it because they are lacking it and feel empty.
The obstacles will be new too and formidable. You’ll feel a target on your back and a strange level of animosity that has no proper explanation except that which points off the map to something cooperative and moved by the otherworldly trying to thwart you and divert your path. Weird, I know.
This is the Kiss your Bliss Effect.
Sound at all familiar?