METTA CENTER

"A Child of Crossing Places." I simply love this phrase! It touches me in such a beautiful and moving way. I first heard this phrase when reading "The Seeing Stone," by Kevin Crossley-Holland. It's a young-adult book, and it's about a young boy named Arthur who is given a magical seeing stone. In the book, “crossing places” refers to places where one aspect of life meets another, such as the shorelines, sunsets or sunrises, butterfly cocoons, seasons, and others. Crossing places are mysterious, full of potential, unpredictable and transformative. Our inner conflicts are like these crossing places: two seemingly different and conflicting forces of interests. Unlike nature, however, we often feel uncomfortable with our “crossing places,” wishing that they were not there. We can learn from nature’s ample examples to help us resolve our inner conflicts gracefully. Instead of having to choose sides or somehow force both sides of our inner battles to work...

(This article was first published in the Oct/Nov issue of Metta Center email newsletter.) When I first heard "Energy follows thought," it was all "hocus-pocus" to me. Life, however, is a great equalizer and teacher. After several "unhappy" life conditions (illness, relationship issues, etc.), I looked deep inside myself and, sure enough, I found that I held many negative beliefs that matched these "conditions". Apparently, I had been manifesting negative thoughts. When I decided to shift the thoughts connected to the issues, I noticed that my outer situation changed as well. Often times we manifest negative results unconsciously. What we feel, think and believe the most is what we will attract. Have you found that your positive affirmations don't always work? The problem is that these affirmations are not your prevalent thoughts. They are just a very thin veneer over a bunch of outdated and perhaps negative habitual thoughts. Just saying...

(This article was first published in Metta Center Newsletter, April 2005) I would love to introduce you to the term "writing on the wall". Coined by Gary Craig, the founder of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), it refers to the sets of beliefs, shoulds, shouldn'ts, can, can'ts, etc. that we have agreed to, consciously or unconsciously, as "truths" in our individual consciousness. How did the writing get on our wall? In childhood, we received numerous messages from our well-meaning parents, teachers, friends, leaders, media, etc. We often formed our self-image and hoped to make sense of the world based on these "truths". We consult the writing on our walls to determine whether something is appropriate or acceptable to us, whether it is a "good" or "bad" idea, etc. The writing on the wall can be very positive and supportive in helping us achieve success in the world. At the same time, many of these "truths" limit n...