lara simmons

"The Ego needs 100% participation, if you use conscious awareness you can break the Ego's grip." -- David Pond , speaking at East West Bookshop We have heard a lot of talk about "the one percent," the wealthiest of the wealthy who often pay no taxes and enjoy privileges many of us don't even know to dream of. Friday night I heard about another one percent, a one percent that interests me a lot more, and that may even help some of us deal with the wealthy one percent, or at least our reactions to them. This one percent is one percent consciousness, which, according to astrologer and metaphysical counselor David Pond, is all it takes to break the Ego's grip. Think about it, in those moments where we are overcome by emotions of the Ego - greed, pride, lust, anger, despair, etc. - if we can just hang onto one percent of our consciousness, one percent of our positive thoughts, one percent of our connection to our Source, one percent of our presence - we...

"Wherever you are, be all there." --Jim Elliott on http://www.thehappymovie.com/ One of the things that came up for me when I started this 40-day meditation challenge was TV, one of the primary ways I go unconscious. After a long day or a busy day or a large group social event I just need to relax my mind and unwind with something totally mindless. Sometimes a book will do the trick, but most often this is when I start to jones for some bad TV. I know it's a problem (and also one of the reasons why I struggle so much with my kids' need for screen time - gotta love those mirrors!) because it is the primary way I escape from what is really going on. From my fears and my hurts, my frustrations and insecurities. I use TV, and to some extent books, to go unconscious, to black out and to escape my reality. So I half-heartedly committed to "no TV" during these same 40 days. I lasted about 36 hours. On Tuesday afternoon, my son asked me to watch something...