Fasting and Personal Choices

There was a debate in a recent Greek Orthodox meeting on fasting before Holy Communion. I see the importance and discipline of fasting. However, those that emphasize it too much miss the forest for hte trees and come from conceit, ego and judgment, much like many who meditate and stay calm put down those who get angry or show other emotions. Often, these people are not spiritual, and doing things in order to do them correctly, often missing the point, and do such things as concentrate on and gossip about others rather than expressing emotion directly.

Here is a passage I happened to open to in church for Saint Demetrios Day yesterday: n the subject: Romans `14:2-7A man of sound faith knows he can eat anything, while one who is weak in faith eats only vegetables. The man who will eat anything must not ridicule him who abstains from certain foods; the man who abstains must not sit in judgment on him who eats.  After all, God himself has made him welcome. Who are you to pass judgment on another's servant? His master alone can judge whether he stands or falls. And stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand.One man regards this day as better than that; someone else considers all days alike. Each should be certain of his own conscience.The man who observes the day does so to honor the Lord,. The man who eats does so to honor the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. The man who does not eat abstains to honor the Lord, and he too gives thanks to God..."

I see this passage as having people exercise choice in their personal lives, ultimately having God be the Judge.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Great article by Father Mark Sietsema on page 12 of the latest Orthodox Observer: "Prune" Juice: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People
www.goarch.org/news/observer/

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.  

Three Bucket Lists

There is a wonderful article in the June 2012 issue of the Orthodox Observer by Bill Marianes: There are three groups of "things" (I'd add at any given time): Things we control, things we influence, and things we can't do anything about. I think we can control and influence more than we think, but getting in to the mindset that our being or thoughts can control everything may lead to lots of figuring out, taking too many courses, making ourselves wrong, and wondering what others have that we don't. Of course, you don't want to go the opposite route of thinking it's being a victim or "luck". It's all about balance.

Check out page 9 of the pdf. http://www.goarch.org/news/observer/

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.  

Martha Beck in O Magazine: Heart or Brain

As I have written before, I believe you always need balance. You need to be logical sometimes, but modern society usually emphasizes a logical or perhaps male way to go about things. Often we are told not to go with the heart or to be emotional. Recently my heart was telling my legs to go talk to someone whom I haven't spoken to besides texts for the most part for months. I wanted to also show or give him an autograph he'd find valuable. For two hours at one venue, and two hours at another venue, I did not go up to him. He was with two friends whom I was comfortable to be around, and he kept looking back at me. We have lots to talk about and blame each other for, but he seemed open at the time to talk, and it may have been the first step in a beautiful unfolding that would lead to closure or to a wonderful relationship, friendship and/or love. Yet I did not do it, even with someone pressing me to do it so I would not regret it. He seemed to stop in front of me while moving to another table, and I shot him a glare, thinking of all his past wrongs, as I did when he found me flirting with another at another venue. (I really did not like the second person but I had arrived alone.) He seemed hurt and I realized the next day that I was angry he did not text that he was willing to talk and would drive me home.

I "have to" forgive myself. We often know or read things, yet don't carry them out or act according to them. Martha Beck, in the July issue of O Magazine wrote the article "Decisions, Decisions". She wrote about one woman who spent her life avoiding what economists call opportunity cost: if you chose one mate, career, etc., you rule out others. She was deadlocked. She wrote how Spock on Star Trek would make a cost and benefits analysis, while Captain Kirk would go with the heart. One or both are appropriate at different times. I'd say to use your intuition, hopefully at its best at a given time, and go with it, or at least the next day think it over and ask your intuition again. It seems intuition can be bogged down by the past, stress and emotions, or at times it may even be helped by these. There is no clearcut "answer", but sometimes you know if you've made the best one.

She went on to write something similar to what I wrote before: "Great strategists trust both intellect and instinct; they gather information until they feel they can make a good decision. But people who try to decide with the mind alone, who place no faith in their heart's desires, are doomed to stall and fuss, compare and contrast, forever insisting that just a little more knowledge will make the choice clear." She also wrote that those who trust only their intellect take forever to make a choice, those who trust only their gut may take too  many risks, and those who trust neither their intellect or gut take the path of least resistance.

She recommends the following for making decisions: 1. Check in with your body to see how you feel. She shared a yogi quote: "The body truth is ahead of the mind lie."

2. Your body may tell you that you are not spending your energy well at thinking about it at this moment or in what you are investing time in your life at this time.

She quoted from Faust: "Seize this very minute. What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in  it."

It comes down to choosing, as she wrote, choosing actively. "Feel your mind, but feel your heart. Trust in your truth. It will be the best investment you'll ever make."

It's this one word:  Choosing. Argh!

Movie Hysteria

I am so happy the new movie Hysteria was made. It tells of:

How women were and often are labeled due to their intuition, emotions and rightful plethora of reactions as "hysterical", "crazy", "needy", "slutty" and more;

How technological innovation is sparked by a light inhuman consciousness;

How some old traditional values, even fatal ones, often have a hard time going away, but do go away with committed individuals; and

How sometimes the one who vexes a man the most ends up his Love.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

Piña Movie

Piña, an Oscar-nominated 3D movie I saw recently, was an experience. I did not like the first third of the film, with the dance seeming like some kind of comment on menstrual pain (for some women). It seemed like the choreographer or dancers seemed to try to be "dramatic" instead of finding it inside and bringing it out authentically. I think that our 3D technology leaves a lot to be desired. I did enjoy comments her students said she made, the earthy, passionate performance of the dancers, and the beautiful, diverse male dancers.

Some of what she has said:

Keep searching.
Be a stand for each step you take.
What do you long for? Where does it come from?

For the movements, including psychological connotations and interpretations, you will have to see the movie. The dancers seemed ordinary at first, and then came to life.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

Great Post on Chakras

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=1005501598&gid=99695&type=member&item=95774205&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Falphabodyhardening.com%2F%3Fp%3D265&urlhash=GDHV&goback=.gde_99695_member_95774205

Karma or Luck from March 2012 Yoga Journal

I have posted before that I have a Taoist approach, and a sense of mystery — that no one knows how the Universe fully works — when it comes to Karma, the Law of Attraction and such and "luck" or that bleep happens. I was happy read in Yoga Journal that even within the concept of karma, there is room for circumstantial effects and "luck". Here is an excerpt from Sally Kempton's article "Seeds of Change".

"I can't tell how many times I've heard someone tell a friend who has suffered a run of tough circumstances in his or her job or personal life, ‘You must have done something to bring this on’...Of course, if you text in traffic, you could very well cause an accident, just as if you persistently snack on junk food, you're likely to gain weight. But in many situations, the workings of karma are not so cut and dried. There's no simple, one-size-fits-all answer to the question of why bad things happen. Sometimes we are simply caught up in the collective karma of our time and place. For example, if you live in a war-torn country, you will be affected by the collective karma of that place. If you live in a prosperous country, you will have opportunities that aren't available in other parts of the world. Some things that happen to us are simply accidents or are the result of interweaving circumstances involving other people, political or economic situations, environmental factors, and so on. Any sensible understanding of why bad things happen has to take into account many factors, including events of weather ,other people's mistakes, genetics, and, quite simply, sheer bad luck."

I would add there are also God, ancestor influence, and the influence of other people's intentions. Through working out, introspection, thought, art, expression and relaxation, you will gain more insight for yourself. Then again, there are no guarantees.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

From Where Do New Ideas Come? A Taoist View

Copied from an email by coach Michael Neill www.supercoach.com

1. Get quiet

If you flick through the stations on your radio, you'll notice that there are certain frequencies at which you are receiving multiple stations, with the result that you can't really hear much of anything but static and noise. When it comes to the human mind, the static is the competing frequency of our own thoughts. When our own personal thinking gets quiet, it's easier for the possibility thoughts to be heard clearly.

2. Hang out in the unknown

"I don't know" is neither a badge of shame nor a badge of honor - it's the gateway to new possibilities. But because many of us get uncomfortable hanging out in the "I don't know" place, we start making believe that we know, which is, as a point of interest, how we make beliefs. These "make beliefs" fill up the possibility space in our minds. The more beliefs we fill our minds with, be they positive or negative, the less room their is for a new possibility to emerge.

3. Look where you don't know where to look

One of my mentors, the lovely Leslie Miller, told me the story of suggesting to one of her clients that if he wanted to see new possibilities, he should look to their source - that field of pure potential out of which all things arise. "I don't know where the source is", he said to her with some frustration. After a few moments reflection, she told him to "look where you don't know where to look". And while that may be a little bit zen for some people, it makes a lot of sense to me.

If a new possibility is invisible to us until we see it, then the one thing we know is we won't find it by looking at what we already can see. And while looking to the invisible may feel a lot like looking at nothing, everything arises out of that no-thing.

As it says in the Tao Te Ching:

Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.

Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

Hugs Go a Long Way, Even in Poverty

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-poverty-solution-that-starts-with-a-hug.html

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.