EDITOR'S COMMENT:
"That's a wrap!"
After almost eight years of cranking out 13,373 messages, NHNE's freebie "News List" has now transformed into the subscription-only "Wavemaker List". A preliminary count looks like we'll have about 90 folks -- including both monthly and yearly subscribers -- to begin building our new lean, mean, NHNE-funding machine. While this is not yet enough subscribers to allow me to leave my day job (or bring in other NHNEers as regular part time helpers), it is a serious step in that direction.
My sincere thanks to all of you who decided to stay put and become NHNE Wavemakers. My thanks, too, to those of you who decided to reduce your email clutter by migrating to NHNE's more inbox friendly News Brief, but still sent in some green love to help with the transition. Much appreciated!
What happens next?
After this message is sent out, I will delete all the email addresses from this list that did not become subscribers. That means some 1,344 email addresses will be removed from the 1,444 we currently have signed up. Talk about a dramatic restructuring!
Once I've got Humpty Dumpty put back together again, you'll need to keep a lookout and be sure you receive future posts (if you signed up for them), or that you are no longer receiving Wavemaker posts (if you planned to leave this list). If something is not right, drop me a line <nhne@nhne.org> and I'll sort it out.
The first message I will send out to the new Wavemaker list will be called "How Sleep Works". Receiving, or not receiving that message will help you determine if everything is working the way it is supposed to.
Meanwhile, the first edition of our fancy, dancy News Brief will appear September 1st. That means there will be a few days of no news for those of you who are leaving the Wavemaker List.
And that's it from me. What follows is an updated version of "Twelve 'Any Time, Any Place' Survival Tips", which I thought would be an appropriate way to end one phase of NHNE's work and begin another...
With Love & Best Wishes,
David Sunfellow
------------
TWELVE "ANY TIME, ANY PLACE" SURVIVAL TIPS (v3.0)
By David Sunfellow
nhne.org
August 27, 2007
So, you live on Planet Earth and are wondering what you can do to insure a graceful passage through whatever changes may come your way. And you want advice that you can use any time, any place, even when faced with the kind of apocalyptic changes that are presently knocking on our global door.
Here are a few practical suggestions:
...
1. Spend time daily praying and meditating.
One of the most important things we can do to live a graceful life on this planet is to establish and maintain a direct relationship with life's unseen forces. Spending time daily connecting with the deeper aspects of ourselves helps loosen the powerful grip this world has on us. It helps us remember that we are more than flesh and blood and that there is more to life than we can see with our eyes. It helps us heal faster; find answers and solve problems more quickly; make changes more gracefully; feel guided, protected and looked after by forces greater than ourselves; sense the larger, grander scheme of things, which helps put the drama of daily life into its proper -- not as real, dire, or all-important as it seems -- perspective. In short, spending time turning within on a daily basis provides us with a rock-solid foundation upon which to stand and face whatever experiences may come our way.
NHNE Website Archive On MeditationNHNE Yahoo Archive On Meditation...
2. Learn how to receive guidance from within.
Holy Books, friends, spiritual teachers, counselors, advisors and gurus can be very helpful, but in the end they are no substitute for our own connection to Spirit. Anyone who wants to find their way through the diverse, oft times perilous paths of this world is going to need a direct pipeline to the deeper forces within. We all have it, of course. But few of us know how to use it. And no wonder. The business of receiving inner guidance -- through intuitions, dreams, visions, inner voices, or what have you -- is full of dangers. Our personalities, inner blocks, karmic patterns, biases, belief systems, cultural conditioning, practically everything about us pollutes the wells of inspiration that continuously bubble up from within. Be that as it may be, in the end, if we really want to safely find our way through times of change (especially through the kind of changes our world is presently facing), we need to learn how to receive guidance from the deepest parts of ourselves.
NHNE On Dreams & Inner GuidanceThe Unconscious Mind: A Great Decision MakerRay Kurzweil On Using Dreams To Solve Problems...
3. Strengthen our belief that spiritual forces regularly intercede in the affairs of men and women (especially in times of great need).
While charlatans (and overactive imaginations) muddy the waters, the evidence that otherworldly forces regularly intervene in the lives of human beings is overwhelming. Typically, these forces clothe themselves in trappings (and personages) familiar to the person they are responding to. Some are dramatic -- Jesus speaking to us in visions and dreams; Mother Mary appearing to poor children in Medjugorje, Fatima, and Garabandal; angelic visitors rescuing us from dire circumstances -- but most are subtle, fleeting, and difficult to pin down. Whatever their form, and however overt or covert their appearance, these spiritual forces remind us that we are not alone and the terrible holes we occasionally fall into are not as deep, real, or inescapable as they seem.
Need an inspiring example to boost your faith? Here's one of my favorites:
The Near Death of a ChildBy Helena Rocca
NHNE On Spiritual Experiences...
4. Make as many good friends as we can.
It may be possible to survive completely on our own for short periods of time, but not forever -- and who would want to? Human beings need other people to love and be loved by. We also need other people for the help and resources they can bring into our lives. Establishing and maintaining relationships with other human beings should, therefore, be one of our highest priorities. We should invest in human relationships as if our lives depend on them (because they do).
NHNE Male/Female/Relationship ResearchThe Secret to Happiness...
5. Help others. Lighten their loads and make them happy.
Helping others is one of life's most powerful elixirs, good for curing almost anything that ails us. Our personal happiness, for example, is directly connected to how much we make others happy. Helping others also infuses our lives with purpose, which, not surprisingly, is a powerful antidote to depression, despair, and unhealthy self preoccupation. So spend time, daily, giving to others. Our giving doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to change the world. It can be small, simple, perhaps even invisible. The important thing is that we make helping others a major part of our daily routine. Like breathing. Eating. Sleeping. Meditating and praying.
Not convinced helping others is the life-changing potion I claim it is?
Give Buddhist Scholar Robert Thurman 14 minutes to enlighten you.NHNE Male/Female/Relationship Research
The Secret to Happiness...
6. Deal with our fears about death and dying.
For most of us, the fear of death is a major source of pain, stress, and worry. Although this fear may not occupy our day-to-day thoughts very much, in times of change, in particular in times of change that include the death of ourselves, someone we love, or even strangers, the fear of death can be paralyzing. Studying near-death experiences, pondering empirical evidence that strongly suggests life continues after death, tapping into our own eternal natures, and internalizing philosophies that promote a view that life is eternal are all practical ways we can take the sting out of death. And once the sting has been taken out of death, it will be much easier to deal with WHEN (not if) it pays us a visit.
For help boosting your belief that life continues after death read these mind-tweaking reports:
Current Near-Death Experience Research & Discoveries (05/26/07)
Summary of 'Life Before Life' (01/06/07)
NHNE Near-Death Experiences Resource PageNHNE Death & Dying Resource Page...
7. Remember that change, which occasionally includes pain, is what life is all about -- and relax.
It's important to remember that "change" is the nature of life. Because of this, the only kind of posture we can realistically adopt is a posture that is always ready to change. We need to expect change and learn to be comfortable with it. Those of us that cling to old ways are eventually ripped loose, often traumatically. While those of us that gracefully surrender and go with the flow are able to adapt to change much easier.
Along similar lines, philosophies that teach us that pain and suffering are not a natural, normal part of life, or that such experiences are only signs that one's life has gone askew, do not serve us well during times of painful change. Whether we have, in fact, created a painful experience in our life or whether a painful experience has come to us because it happens to be a part of the particular change we are going through, we need to be able to accept these experiences. Instead of feeling guilty and condemning ourselves, we can relax, take a deep breath, and acknowledge that pain is sometimes part of the program down here. It's all right. We're all right. We'll learn our lesson (we'll figure out whatever we did to cause ourselves the pain we are experiencing) or we'll just let the pain flow through us (we'll accept it as a part of the natural process we are passing through). Pain comes and pain goes, if we let it. If, on the other hand, we resist, fight, or run from it, it tends to hang around and grow stronger, making everything more difficult than it needs to be.
...
8. Study the changes that other times, places and people have passed through -- and our reactions to those changes.
Another practical way to prepare ourselves for times of change is to become familiar with what other people have experienced. What was it like to live in Nazi Germany prior to, during and after World War II? What was it like to pass through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami, Katrina, or other times of great change? What can we learn from people who survived various man-made and natural disasters? How do these events make us feel? What kind of fears are triggered in us? How would we deal with similar situations?
Even though we, ourselves, may never experience the same kind of events we study, if we encounter something that upsets us in these events, then we at least have the opportunity to work on areas of ourselves that are undone. Refusing to expose ourselves to things that may trigger our fears doesn't protect us from them. Nor does it prevent them from manifesting. Quite the contrary. The more undone and unfinished forces there are roaming around within us that we don't know about and/or refuse to acknowledge and deal with, the more likely these forces are to eventually project themselves onto the canvass of our outer life. Beginning a fearless inventory of ourselves, and then dealing directly with whatever fears we find buried deep inside, may well save us from having to externalize these unresolved issues. And if such experiences still come our way, we will be better able to cope with them.
...
9. Keep open, inquisitive minds, stay informed and don't allow new things to send us off the deep end.
The more open and informed we are, the least likely we will be to be caught by something unexpected. Similarly, the more careful we are at making snap judgments, the more likely we will be to make wise, well-balanced decisions.
When Europeans first came to the Americas, many Native Americans were completely disoriented by the inventions they brought with them. Because the Native Peoples were so dazzled by the white man's "talking leafs" (books) "smoking sticks" (guns) and "iron horse" (train), many Native People's were cast adrift. They no longer knew how valid their culture, beliefs and practices were. In the end, many Native Americans prematurely concluded that the white man's ways were superior to their own. Some, of course, were. While others weren't. Since I'm convinced that we are going to be dazzled by more and more incredible events in the days ahead, one practical survival tip is to stay open-minded, well-informed and level-headed. More likely than not, most of us will be called to incorporate new discoveries into old ones, rather than abandoning old discoveries altogether.
...
10. Enjoy life and live each day as if it were our last.
Our lives on this planet -- both individually and collectively -- will be over sooner than we think. So while we're here, immersed in a universe of marvelous experiences, let's spend as much time smelling flowers, playing with kids, and enjoying the ride as we do trying to understand and cope with it. Let's not waste a single second. And let's check in, daily, to be sure we're aren't.
If we died today, what would we feel undone or unfinished about? What regrets would we have? And what would we feel good about? What fulfilling things would we wish we had done more often? If a disaster of some kind laid waste to our lives today, we wouldn't want to be carrying around the additional burden of feeling we had lived our life poorly. As much as possible, we should, therefore, live life to the fullest. We should keep everything up-to-date. Settle arguments. Resolve conflicts. Maintain healthy relationships. Show and tell those we love how we really feel about them. Keep our lives in order. Respond, promptly, to inner nudges and callings. Then, if our lives are changed in the twinkling of an eye, we can spend our time adapting to the new circumstances rather than feeling guilty about all the things we left undone in our past.
The Secret to Happiness...
11. Keep our bodies strong and healthy.
Strong and healthy bodies makes life easier. In times of great change, strong and healthy bodies may do more than make life easier. They may make the difference between graceful passages or painful ones. Also, since dentists, doctors, and normal medical care may not be available, we should try to take care of whatever physical needs we have as they arise. Putting them off may mean they are never taken care of, or at least not taken care of before they cause us more trouble than they should have.
What To Do Until A Cure For Aging Is Found...
12. Be physically prepared.
There is no safe place on planet Earth. Some places are, however, more dangerous than others and we should act accordingly.
Do we live in an area prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, fires, floods, and other natural disasters? Are we located near military bases, nuclear reactors, chemical plants, or other manmade danger zones? If we are, we should do what we can to prepare for potential disturbances.
If our power goes out, or water stops flowing, or food runs out for a week, what will we do? If the system we rely on everyday to meet our basic needs has been temporarily knocked out, how prepared are we to "wing it"?
Here are three good questions to ask ourselves:
- Do we have the resources we need -- water, food, clothing, blankets, matches, flashlights, candles, radios, first aid kits -- to survive short-term emergencies?
- Are we personally knowledgeable and resourceful enough to take care of ourselves, and our loved ones during times of change?
- How many friends do we have that we can turn to and rely upon during times of change? What kind of resources can we share and pool? What kind of resources and expertise can we offer one another? How prepared, how reliable, how resourceful are our friends? Have we discussed such things with them?
...
Summary
Life is unpredictable -- and short. We can make the most of it by staying connected to our inmost center, surrounding ourselves with good friends, helping others, enjoying the ride, keeping an open mind (and heart), and being as physically prepared as possible, without going overboard, for the unexpected events that are bound to come knocking on our door.
Life is also not what it appears to be. Remember that. It's like a movie that has been masterfully designed to scare, thrill, captivate, teach, jostle, cajole, and inspire human audiences. Enjoy it, but don't get too carried away. Keep one eye on the screen, enjoying the drama of it all, and one eye closed, looking behind the scenes for what's really going on...