by Angela Blaha | Apr 2, 2015 | Meditation
July 18, 2014
by: Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Without taking a poll, it’s safe to say that people who believe in God also believe that he answers prayers. If he didn’t, one would be left with an indifferent, distant deity who pays no attention to human affairs. This alternative is hard to reconcile with faith, and so believers are left with a God who seems to answer prayers selectively. It’s as if there’s an invisible telephone line to Heaven, and when you call, sometimes God picks up and sometimes he doesn‚Äôt.
I‚ love simplified the scheme the theology of prayer gets very complicated because for most believers, praying is simple. You entreat God to do something special for you, and you take your chances. For every answered prayer, millions go unanswered. God must be a selective listener, or else there’s something wrong with the person who is praying.
Despite this frustrating and irrational setup, who hasn’t turned to prayer in times of greatest need?
To get to the heart of this question, we should start with a blank slate. Set aside your image of God as a father sitting on his throne somewhere above the clouds. Such images differ from one religion to the next and are clearly projections of the human mind validated only by cultural myths and traditions. Second, lose the notion of the invisible telephone line. If God is omnipresent, there is no distance between you and the one you pray to. Finally, strip God of all human attributes, including gender. Whatever God is, the reality must be superhuman, however you define the term.
Mundane Intentions Versus Deep Desires
In the Indian spiritual tradition, these first steps were taken thousands of years go. The slate was completely clean, and therefore one could ask the most basic question: Why does any desire come true? For a prayer is essentially a desire or intention. It differs from mundane intentions like wanting a candy bar or intending to do a good job in one thing only: the desired object seems out of reach. We invoke a superhuman power when human powers fail.
This is where the Indian sages had a brilliant thought. What if mundane intentions are not different from prayers? This possibility defies the logic of prayers if you think you are telephoning God. What links all intentions, no matter how extraordinary, is that they happen in consciousness. So the mystery of prayer turns into a more fundamental investigation into how consciousness actually works. Clearly the intention to eat a candy bar or to do a good job at work brings the mind into contact with reality in such a way that intention is connected to outcome. So why isn’t this true when you pray for a friend to recover from cancer or for peace in the Middle East?
Samyama
The answer, according to the Vedic rishis, who explored consciousness more deeply than anyone else, comes down to three aspects that enter into any intention, indeed into any thought.
How deep into the mind is the intention coming from?
How steady is your focus?
How fluid is your intention?
In Sanskrit these three elements are known as Samadhi, Dharana, and Dhyana, and when all three are fused, the entire mechanism is called Samyama. There’s no need to dwell on these terms, only to point out that the success or failure of an intention depends on the effective use of one’s awareness, not on a request to a deity who may or may not be listening. Samyamabasically means to bind or hold together, and when all three of these components are unified, that’s what makes for the strongest intentions. You have gone deep enough into your own self-awareness that you can affect what happens in the outer world; your intention is one-pointed rather than scattered; and your mind is steady while remaining fluid and flexible.
The Obstacles in Prayer
If this explanation is correct, it describes unanswered prayers as the product of a mind that is restless, shallow, conflicted, or unable to focus. All of us suffer from these obstacles.
Answered prayers, on the other hand, represent a kind of total clarity that may come at any moment, like the sudden parting of the clouds, and at such a moment the mechanism that fulfills intentions works smoothly. Although Samyama is identified in the tradition of Yoga as a high attainment, it seems reasonable to say that the same mechanism exists in everyday consciousness. After all, to live is to carry out intentions.
Once you understand how the mechanism works, you have a choice. You can meditate or pursue other spiritual techniques that bring the three elements of intentionality together. The results will not be the same on every path. Some people will experience a prayer coming true, others will be able to live in the present moment, and others still may feel that they are connected to God.
As straightforward as this description of intentions is, it gives rise to its own questions, which we’ll explore in the next post.
To be continued
by Angela Blaha | Dec 31, 2014 | energy, Featured Events, Uncategorized
It is important to start off your new year on a positive note!
Today I spent the day cleaning my personal space, my home. I spent a considerable amount of time de-cluttering in order to usher in the New Year. Why? Because it is a new beginning, just as you would usher in a new child into the family, a new year is a sign of new energy of new life. So do it in a grand way, just as you watch the ball drop and firework displays, so should your home or office be treated with such distinction.
Here are some recommendations for ushering in this grand new energy!
1. Today I cleaned – first I started with the clutter. I picked up everything and returned it to its rightful spot in the cupboard, closet or drawer. I cleared off my work desk in preparation for new creative energy to flow in.
2. Then I moved to the bathrooms – cleaned them until the sparkled. I washed the rugs and emptied all the trashcans.
3. Moved into the kitchen and living space – I dusted, vacuumed and scrubbed the floors.
4. Then I went to the bedroom. I de-cluttered the closets; I even threw away a few items that were tattered. Vacuumed, dusted and washed all the clothes and the sheets.
5. Then I moved outside and cleared all the snow from the front sidewalk and deck. My daughters were home for the Christmas holiday and they made ice balls to decorate for the New Year, they add a beautiful touch to the entrance.
6. When I finished with moving the old energy within the house I turned to my personal energy. Taking extra care with my daily massage with coconut oil, being sure to thank every moving part inside and outside the body. Took a little extra time with my hair and picked out some new clothes to wear for the family New Year’s Eve party we are attending tonight.
Wow! What a difference cleaning and de-cluttering makes not just on the energy flow within the house but also on the mind. Cleaning and clearing for an expansive new year, allowing abundance to flow with ease.
Tomorrow, New Years day, I will hang my 2015 calendar, try some new healthy recipes, and fill my cupboard and refrigerator with food. Bringing in the new energy with healthy, good choices helps pave the way for a very abundant year.
Now, I am off to make some of my Mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, a special gift for the family New Year’s party we are attending tonight.
Happy New Year to each of you! May 2015 bring you much joy, grace, happiness and most of all Love!
by Angela Blaha | Dec 24, 2014 | Featured Events
I am so excited about the energy that 2015 is bringing in!
This is going to be a very expansive year for Angela and I want you to be the first to know what is happening.
Retreats will be my focus for 2015, and they will offer wisdom along with practical exercises and practice, so you will leave feeling totally in control of the new knowledge and will have a plan to use what you learned as soon you leave the building. The first of the retreats will be a day long Meditation retreat. Then we will move into an emotional retreat where the emotional body will experience a healing, you will leave this retreat with a new understanding on how to deal with emotions. And then we will finish the year with a forgiveness retreat. As most of you know I am constantly telling people to forgive themselves and reminding them that forgiveness is about the self not about someone else.
I am also teaming up with some special people to teach and mentor standing in your power and to speak your truth workshops. These workshops will focus on empowering people to be who they came to earth to be with self-esteem, beauty and grace.
Expansion is my focus this year and I have many great trips planned and some new venues to speak at.
Feng Shui is also in the spotlight this year and if you have always been interested in learning Feng Shui or having your home, office or business energetically balanced this will be the year. I have a few speaking engagements already lined up and will be teaching some basic Feng Shui principals, sure to help the energy of 2015 move and flow with ease.
Angela has also been working on Trance Channeling and will introduce that information a little later in the year.
I am also scheduled for blog talk radio with Alexander Kriech & Tracy Wallace on January 12th. Be sure to stay tuned for http://blogtalkradio.com/numerologymoonlighting
As you can see there are many things happening in my world. I have many beautiful memories of 2014, however 2015 is going to be awesome!!!
I am most grateful for being able to share this beautiful life with each of you! Namaste!
by Angela Blaha | Dec 18, 2014 | energy
What an expansive and magical time we are in right now. Feeling of such love, such self-expansion, so much light, so much joy and so much grace. Yet there is a feeling of too much, of struggle and possibly even pain.
So much energy flowing and moving, it’s hard to know what is up and what is down. As trying as this expansion period of transformation can be, there is a certain comfort in allowing the peaceful rest of what some may perceive as being stuck take place.
The edge of the transition comes when boredom sets in and heavy feelings of searching, trust and fogginess takes over the mind, body and spirit.
During this time we are the most vulnerable, vulnerable to others but more importantly to ourselves. The emotions are strongest during this time and feelings of struggle settle in. Creating an emotional fog that is wet and heavy, it can feel almost paralyzing in our ability to see clearly what our wants, dreams and desires really are. During this time we may find ourselves blocking any action steps we need to take to release these feelings. An expansion period can be very trying and somewhat overwhelming when we allow the energy to move too slowly.
Once the new expansive energy moves further through the emotional, physical and mental bodies, the fog burns off and we begin to release and lighten, the clarity to take the action steps has arrived. Sometimes we gather so much energy and take off with so many ideas, creating so many action steps we almost put ourselves into a tail spin.
It is the resting period that is most bothersome for many people. Having the patience to allow all this movement to take place is exhausting and can be very difficult for the mental mind. Anxiety and depression can appear, creating more havoc in the process.
One thing I do to allow the transitional energy of expansion to flow is to allow the awareness of the process to come into my energy field. I try to be hyperaware of expansive energy, mainly because I do not like the resting period as sometimes I go too far into resting only finding myself buried under a wall of resistance, never to surface again.
When I notice my energy field has this awareness of expansion I automatically go into action. Sometimes my action step is as simple as going for a walk in nature; sometime it is calling people to brainstorm. Other times my action step is creating a class around the expansion process itself, many of which sit on my bookshelf never to be seen again.
The point I am trying to make is to allow the process, but do not allow the process to get stuck. Action steps move the energy quicker, allowing less time for the fog to settle in and get comfy. Find what works for you during this very expansive energy flow that we are being graced with. Expansion is so energizing when we pay attention to it and allow it to work its magic.
by Angela Blaha | Dec 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Feng Shui is a Chinese art or science to improve the energy or quality of life by making specific changes to a room, a house, and your landscape or individual rooms. When we change the flow of a room we know that it changes the life energy of the space. Feng Shui is concerned with ch’i energy, which is affected by 6 things: direction, alignment, water, the 5 elements and the earth’s magnetic flow.
Today we will talk about the 5 elements of Feng Shui. They are water, earth, wood, metal and fire.
Metal affects our mental clarity, focus and logic. When we place metal in the room we feel the effects in organization abilities, our righteousness and our ability to reason analytically. When there is little metal we may notice a feeling of quiet and lack of focus. When we surround ourselves with too much metal we can become overly critical and speak without thinking.
Wood is great for the creative mind and our expansion; it represents growth, birth, strength, and intuition. When we do not have wood present there is lack of creativity and stagnancy. When there is too much wood we can feel overwhelmed and inflexible.
Fire is our hot spot. It increases our leadership abilities, our inspiration and boldness. When we have too little fire we can seem cold and have little self-esteem. When there is too much wood it can express itself as anger and irritability.
Earth represents our physical strength by allowing us to feel grounded and balanced. When there is too little earth we may feel disorganized and spacey. If there is too much earth we may be affected with being sluggish or feeling heavy.
Water is a representation of our spirituality, emotions and wisdom. When we have too much water we may feel like we are drowning with too much emotion. When we have too little water we may feel loneliness, isolated and stressed.
Look at your space, if something feels out of balance check to see what elements are in the space. When we create a pleasant balanced environment our energy flows without hindrence, peace and calm become our natural way of being. Angela is a Master Feng Shui Consultant and can help with your home, business or personal Feng Shui.
