The Reason for the Season: Who is this Jesus? - Part 1

 As December is now upon us, the stores are filled with Christmas stuff. The sales ads beckon us to spend, spend, spend. But in the midst of all the materialism, where do we make room for Jesus? Will we answer like the innkeeper who said "There is no room at the inn?' when Mary and Joseph arrived? Or will we be more like the shepherds on the hills who gazed in awe and wonder and make time for the precious Christ-child to enter our lives once again in a real and amazing way? 

This series is drawn from the passage in John Chapter 14 verse 6 where Jesus states "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except thru me."  To some this may be off-putting and divisive. What do you mean Jesus is the only way? I'm going to do my best to present to you a bit of a different perspective on what this verse really means. It will be a bit deeper than my usual posts but I will break it down in pieces so we can really understand who this Jesus is and what he really means by this statement. 

I Am

This is a crucial concept to understand. When Jesus stated "I am", what did he mean? When else can you remember God saying something similiar? Remember the burning bush? When Moses asked "Who shall I say sent me?" God replied " I am who I am". The translation varies and there has been much discussion on the true meaning, but doesn't that sound a bit curious? From what I can determine, God is saying he is the eternal existence. To put it another way - consciousness or awareness. The words "I am" are an attempt to identify who we truly are in the flesh, but Jesus was more than flesh. He is also Spirit. So when Jesus said "I am" could it be that he was referring to the universal consciousness rather than merely himself as a human being? Puts things in a different light now, doesn't it? 

The Way

What does Jesus mean by "the way"? The greek word used in the New Testament means the journey, the path, the road. Jesus, as you know, came to earth in human form to show us who God is and teach us how to be like him. He is God incarnate. A deity represented in human form so that we humans could identify with him. Now consider this. 

Jesus spoke in parables. Parables are short simple stories using everyday situations that had deeper, spiritual meaning. What if Jesus himself was kind of a parable? A representation that has deeper meaning? When Jesus said he was the way, could he be saying he is the path to consciousness and awareness? 

Remember Adam and Eve? They were told not to eat of the tree of knowledge, the awareness of good and evil. They became AWARE that they were naked. Could it be that "the way" is the process of becoming consciously aware? Aware of our thoughts and emotions, aware of our words, our actions, and their impact on others? I submit to you it is. 

For Reflection 

How do you think of Jesus? What does he represent to you? Do you feel you are on a path to more being more conscious? More aware? Doesn't that make knowing Jesus even more appealing?

I'll stop here for this week and leave you to ponder these ideas. Jesus is more than meets the eye. He is more than just a figure in the Bible, a prophet or a teacher. We'll continue next week on this thought-provoking perspective. I hope you'll stay with me and I do covet your feedback so send me an email. 

If you are not a member of our community, consider joining us. Enter your email in the box provided. You'll receive my free eguide "7 Steps to Finding Your Spiritual Path" in addition to receiving my weekly posts. 

Until next time, enjoy this first week of Advent and the gift of Hope. 

As always, keep looking up!

Ariel Paz 

On Becoming More Successful Every Day

Success is a goal most of us strive towards; success in our businesses, in our relationships, and in our personal lives. We often focus so much on the external things we need to do to be successful, we neglect the basic daily practices that are foundational to becoming truly successful at life. 

At the end of the day, when your head hits the pillow, do you make time to reflect and evaluate how it went? Many of us mark the day as a success if we have checked off everything on our to do list.  There was a time when I was like this too. My then husband used to tell me to "Just put less on your list". Yeah right and I was a working mom with two kids, a husband, a house, and a career to take care of. Do less - right. 

Since those days, I've learned that the to-do list is not what really matters most because we will always have a to-do list no matter what stage of life we are in. We can't sleep at night because there are so many things on our minds, so we drop off to sleep listening to the television, reading a book, or playing a video game and start tomorrow without gleaning the nuggets of wisdom from today.

If we want to grow, move forward, and be the healthiest, most loving person we can be, it is imperative that we take time to reflect every day. Was I calm or anxious? Happy or depressed? Kind or rude? Patient or short-tempered? Did I take time to be a blessing to someone? Was I angry at the grocery store or on the road? How did I speak to my spouse? My kids? And even more telling how did I talk to the customer service rep on the phone?

If we want to increase our personal power and move forward into our destiny, it is important to make time to reflect on our day every day. If we don't we will stay stuck, repeating the same patterns over and over and, as I like to say "Keep repeating the class." 

Many go through life on auto-pilot rushing and reacting. It is easy to do in the fear-based fast-paced culture we live in. We are in such a hurry to get more and more done, yet this stress-ridden lifestyle can kill us. Perhaps the slowing down forced on us by Covid is not such a bad thing. Perhaps it is an opportunity to  figure out what really matters in life at this juncture. 

We were not made to live under constant stress. We put unnecessary pressure on ourselves for what? We only have one life and if we don't enjoy it on a daily basis, what is the point? On my tombstone, I don't want it to read "She got a lot done." 

Personal Story 

A new neighbor I tried to befriend a few years ago, said to me recently as a sort of apology for cancelling on our get togethers several times, "Most people are unaware".

At first, I thought, no, people know exactly what they're doing. But the more I watch the actions of others, the more I realize, yes, some people are so busy rushing they are unaware. 

Another example recently, I brought up the cancelling issue to another long-time friend of mine, and she too, claimed unawareness. I try not to take these things personally, but after repeated occurences you have to wonder how much these people value the friendship so I just let them go. You can't make people change, you can only change yourself and I am all about getting rid of stressors. 

Many people are unaware not only of themselves, their motives, but also how their decisions, words and actions impact other people.  I'm just as guilty at times. Yet, we cannot absolve ourselves by saying we were unaware. If we want to move forward in life, we must take responsibility for ourselves and this starts by slowing down and paying attention to our words and our actions.

We are all in the process of becoming. 

Some of us work at it a bit more consciously than others but we all mess up at times. The key is to notice when we mess up, make time to understand what happened, and make changes to do better next time. This is part of developing our personal power, healing, and becoming whole.

Here are a few questions I ask myself at the end of my day and sometimes in the middle of the day when something goes awry:

- What went wrong?
- Was I fully present or was I on auto-pilot?
- Was I kind? Loving? Gentle? Patient? Joyful?
- What were my motives?
- Was I generous enough?
- Did I laugh?
- Did I serve?
- Was I a blessing?
-Did I stay connected to myself?
-Was I present?

- What frustrated me? What did I do about it? 

If we want to be better tomorrow than we are today, if we want to have more healing, wholeness and harmony in our lives, it starts with igniting the power within. And this starts by becoming more aware of ourselves every moment of the day.

We are here to grow, to love, and to shine our lights to help others do the same. At the same time, we need to work on removing the darkness in our own selves. This takes courage, effort and the grace of God. Let's not be too hard on ourselves, but let's do be more aware.

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to join our community and receive my weekly posts, enter your email address in the box provided. You'll also receive a copy of my free e-guide entitled "7 Steps to Finding Your Spiritual Path".

Stay tuned for more practical and spiritual wisdom to help you develop your personal power and live the life of your dreams!

Until next time, keep looking up!

Ariel Paz

Breaking the Impulse Habit

It's a new year and most of us have areas we'd like to grow in. Perhaps we want to get a better handle on our finances or our diets, finally start an exercise routine, or like me, make meditation a part of your day. These are all habits. Habits, as you know, can be good or bad. They can move us forward into our destiny and they can keep us from moving forward as well.

The key to becoming all you want to be is creating good, healthy, habits and unlearning bad, unhealthy ones. Today's post is on a simple but powerful chain of events we all go through many times a day and how to use this process to develop better behavior patterns that move us forward into the life we dream of and deserve!

It all starts in our minds.
We each have more than 60,000 thoughts a day which include thoughts, memories, and feelings. These are sensory inputs into our behavior and actions. These sensory inputs are evaluated - appraised - by our consciousness. This is why mindfulness practice is so important. In order to take control of our habits and behaviors, we must first take control of the sensory inputs that are causing them. This is what mindfulness is all about.

The appraisal process. 
Whenever a thought, memory, feeling, or emotion rises up, our conscious (or perhaps not so conscious mind) evaluates it as either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Each of our 60,000+ thoughts are evaluated instanteously and then what happens? We react, don't we?

The reaction. 
Reacting is usually not the proper thing to do in normal situations. We want to live a conscious life, meaning we make conscious choices including what to do about our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. They can control us and make us do or say things we will soon regret. How many times have we lost our temper because we misinterpreted what someone said and blasted a loved one? How many times have we reached for that sweet to calm our stress or heartache? These are examples of reactions and not conscious choice.

With every appraisal, our minds react with either aversion, craving, or neutrality. Depending on our level of conscious awareness, we will be manipulated by these stimuli. I don't know about you, but that is not how I want to live. I have also noticed that stress and high emotion, hijack our consciousness. We regress to child-like behavior which is never a good thing. So what comes next?

The action. 
After we have appraised the stimulus as either pleasant or unpleasant, and reacted with either a desire or a disdain for whatever it is, we proceed to the third link in this chain of events - we take action. So here's an example, I feel pain in my hip - unpleasant. I don't like pain - aversion arises. I take action; I get up from my chair, I stretch, I complain. Or here's another example. A loved one says something. I evaluate it from my own perceptions and history. This evaluation may or may not be correct. I interpret what they say as negative - aversion. Next I take action. I can either question what they mean (healthy) or I can yell at them (unhealthy). These are just two examples of this powerful Appraisal - Impulse - Action chain that we must take control of if we want to be more in control of our own lives.

What area of life would you like more control of? It's a new year so it is a perfect time to make change. Start with something small - like maybe not replying as quickly when someone says something. Most of us are too quick to answer and don't give enough thought before we do. Write and let me know how it goes for you. We can all learn from each other, yes?

If you enjoyed this post and found it helpful, consider joining our community.  For more on helping us all find healing, wholeness and harmony and discovering our destiny, enter your email in the box provided. You'll receive my bi-weekly posts as well as a copy of my free eguide, "7 Steps to Finding Your Spiritual Path". 

Stay tuned for more on this, and until next time,

Keep looking up!

Ariel Paz