Personally...from the President

Finding Now

We humans struggle so with such earnest and angst about problems, issues, decisions, and judgments, when 99% of it is an illusion. And even that awareness can be equally upsetting.

I've found in my research that this 99% illusion is primarily composed of our inability to or lack of focus on the present moment. NOW is who you are. NOW is where heaven is. NOW is simultaneously the way and the destination. NOW is home.

Take a look at what you have been worrying about. Is any of it actually happening NOW, or is it really happening in the past or the future? One double-edged capability we all have is to put our thoughts and our feelings into the past or the future. If I was to ask you if you are in the present moment when you are crying, you'd say "yes" because that sorrow seems to be heppening right now. If you are in physical pain, you would most certainly claim to be in the present moment, if for no other reason than the pain itself seems to force you there. But this is, once again, an illusion.

Pain, suffering, grief, jealousy, anger, and the rest of what we refer to as "negative" emotions are really all connected together in a sort of past-experience matrix. The fear of pain, suffering, etc. is a future projection connected to that matrix. Pain, especially if it is excruciating, convinces us that the NOW is painful and forces us into a "future" where that pain is gone. And with chronic pain, depression sets in from living in a desperately desired future that never comes.

The big "SECRET" is that we are all hard-wired for joy, and that joy is only found in the present moment. I say "hard-wired" because joy is the basic and primal driving justification for existence. ALL of our attention, intention and our striving is for one purpose, and one purpose only: JOY. As famed mystic and intellectual, Alan Watts said, "Ecstasy, by one road or another, is inevitable." I would venture to say that the reason this is hard-wired is because THAT is WHO WE ARE, and this is reflected in our brain-body-mind.

The "road" Watts refers to is made of decision and intention. We decide to leave the past and the future, and intend to experience joy. The space between leaving the non-present, and entering into the now, is what we call "time". Have you noticed that when you are fully in joy, or even just really happy, time fades away. And yet, when we are in pain, time seems to go on forever.

One conundrum of human existence is that joy is the only thing that brings us into the present moment. It is always an option, and as such is just a decision away. It may be a chirping bird, the sweet scent of a rose wafting through the air, fluffy clouds in a deeply blue sky, infinite stars in a cloudless sky... or, the sense of breathing in the sweet, living air, the faint pulse of your heart in your knees, the wonderful healing heat of rubbing your hands together. Whatever it is, it can immediately bring you to now.

This is a skill. But there is an over-arching principle here that is important: What you pay attention to expands. The more joy you decide to perceive, the more joy becomes apparent, and will crowd out any pain and suffering. Continue to be with joy, and soon your life will reflect back to you more and more reasons for joy. And because joy is who and what you are, this can happen very quickly. Appreciation and gratitude are more skills to apply in getting to now.

The other "secret" that we all really know is what some call "faith", others call "contextualizing". We have "faith" that what we think is happening to us is positive and leading us to more joy, more healing, more happiness. Referring back to Watts' statement that "ecstacy is inevitable," we all get there, either in life or by death.

For example, one person is coping with an aching knee and "has faith" or contextualizes that he is "getting old" and the knee is breaking down. Alarmed, he visits his doctor who runs a couple of tests and although there was nothing conclusive, the knee may be arthritic, and subscribes various drugs for the pain and inflammation. Further alarmed, this person has now decided he has arthritis in his knee, and if he doesn't take the drugs the pain is worse. Soon, x-rays show that the cartlidge in the knee is shrinking, and soon the doctor recommends surgery.

On the other hand... a person with a pain in his knee has faith that it is a new energy pattern to improve or heal a weak knee. The person is excited about having a healed knee, and in a few days, the pain is gone, and the knee feels stronger.

In the first case, the person has stepped away from the present moment into futures of pain and suffering. In the second example, the person has chosen to step into the joy of the now and the healing of the knee.

In both cases, where the attention went is what expanded.

Allow the option of joy at every opportunity. Exercise that skill and it will grow stronger and more effective. Let the pain and worry of life be a cue to find the joy, and soon the Real Ecstatic You is revealed in all its wondrous healing glory.

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com

Personally... from the President

The Feeling Imagination

A good friend of mine--we'll call her Frieda--recently found out that her car was on the verge of breaking down, needing a transmission, new suspension and brakes. But these repairs would more than total the car's worth. Because she is nearly 80, her friends and family, along with me, pleaded with her not to drive the dang thing as it just wasn't safe. Frieda gave in, and in the next few days came to me very excited about being able to get a monthly city bus pass discounted for seniors.

"I just love the bus!" she'd say, and then head out all over town with this new found freedom. Her enthusiasm for having that freedom impressed me.

A few weeks later, Frieda excitedly strolled up to me, "I've got some great news! A friend of mine has three cars and is letting me use one of them--she's paying the insurance for me!" She had also talked to another friend who owned a garage and had said he would give her $500 for her old car. "But, I decided it felt better to give it to Father Joe's Ministries--they'll tow it, you know!"

At first, I wondered why she didn't want the $500, since she's on a very restrictive fixed income, but then Frieda's story was dawning on me. She was doing what felt abundant and right. And, the bus pass to car transition was equally interesting. She was so into the feeling of freedom with the bus pass, she ended up magnetizing even more freedom in the form of a new car.

Frieda's story is a perfect example of how feelings and the imagination team up together to create a personal reality. And it truly is a team effort. Imagination without feeling--light daydreaming, or escapist fantasizing, does little to move the physical events in any particular direction, except maybe to create more opportunities for escape.

But, imagination WITH FEELING, is a whole other animal, and I know this from personal experience, but now and then it's a good idea to remind myself of it, because it's a two-edged sword to say the least.

The Universe is a neutral medium. As Manuel Ruiz, Jr., the Toltec shaman says, "Life is a canvas. You hold the paints and the paintbrushes. Make your life your masterpiece!"

The Universe is constantly responding to your decisions, your desires, your fears, but most directly to your feeling imagination. Quantum physics became famous for the discovery that the Observer (in an experiment) changes the outcome of an experiment by simply observing it. The implications of this discovery are vast. This ultimately means that you, simply by the act of perception change the way atomic and sub-atomic particles behave.

Research done by the HeartMath Institute has further shown that imagination directly changes DNA, and is able to turn gene expressions on and off. Add to this the discoveries of Dr. Masaru Emoto that water responds directly to human feelings, and that the human body is 93% water, AND, that negative human emotions disrupt the geometries of water, and positive emotions enhance the geometries of water... Well, you've got a deep connection there between how you feel and what manifests in your life.

The way we change our inner emotional state is by purposely using our imagination. Think about that. Now consider Frieda's inner life. She lost her means of transportation, which equated to a loss of freedom to her. Rather than feeling restricted, she chose to feel freedom, and got herself a bus pass that made her feel even more free. As she rode around in the bus, she continued marveling at the freedom she had, and, bippity-boppity-boo, she manifested a car.

The power of the human mind is in the imagination. The imagination is the direct sub-atomic driver of physical reality, and feelings are the amplifiers of imagination.

Note that nowhere here are we talking about doing anything to "make stuff happen." We're just imagining with feeling and then responding. If that ends up being action taken, then it is action in alignment with how the universe is responding to the feeling imagination. To only take action in order to "make something happen," is an uphill battle, because there isn't any power of imagination or feeling (other than maybe frustration, which just slows things down more).

So sit quietly in your heartspace, imagine what your life could look like. Feel what it would be like. And before you know it, you'll be dancing in that world, and it didn't feel like you had to do anything!

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com

Personally... from the President

The Power of Gentle

My yoga teacher has been on a big campaign lately with his students to make changes slowly. Why? Because if you try to "change everything today", you're going to fail.

This is certainly NOT to say that change is a losing proposition (and the cynical among us may say "people never change"), but it is to say that change, when it does successfully occur, is due to persistent, small advances.

In the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, there is a hexagram (symbol pictured right) that is relevant here. It is "The Gentle", and it arises from the concept of wind, and the energy of penetrating. The admonition within this hexagram is: "THE GENTLE: Success through what is small." And in the discussion, Wilhelm says, "Penetration produces gradual and inconspicuous effects. It should be effected not by an act of violation, but by influence that never lapses." I love that. Influence that never lapses. It is the gentle, consistent, ever present influence that carves down mountains into hills, and polishes river rocks into smooth discs.

Thus, in this way, as my yoga teacher has been saying, it is the only way to lasting change. To try to change a lot of things quickly is essentially a violent act, and those conditions holding the circumstances you want to change in place will surely and shortly reverse this violent attempt. Diets are a perfect example. Sure you can lose weight really fast in several ways, but all of them, because they are fast and require rapid change, are almost certainly doomed to fail. There is simply too much counter habitual momentuum to offset without a great deal of force.

David R. Hawkins, wrote an entire book about this subject: Power vs. Force. True power, he says, is staying power, and staying power is achieved by steady, unwaivering energy that is in harmony with the forces of your life. Force, on the other hand, is essentially violence. It goes against the flow of momentuum, and requires a lot of energy.

By making small changes, easily incorporated into your daily routine is the best way to effect total change over time. And when you are changing, you must make time your friend.

For example, you've finally become fed up with your level of physical fitness. The worst thing to do is to run to the local gym, spend a thousand bucks for membership and shove aside everything else to make room for 2 hours a day of workouts. Even if you were able to do this for a short period, 1. Your muscles would be sore and in shock, 2. Your family and friends will start whining about what you're doing--or downright ridiculing you, and most importantly, 3. There will be days when you logistically can't make it happen, or just don't feel like it, and then become discouraged and shortly you'll conclude it was a "dumb idea in the first place."

Here's a better way to ensure success. First, chose the smallest thing you KNOW you can do EVERY DAY. Maybe it's walking for 5 minutes, or spending 1-2 minutes when you first wake up in the morning doing stretches. Then, once that has become a habit, move up to 10 minutes of walking, or 5 min. of yoga in the morning. Before too long, you'll be doing these things effortlessly and starting to feel your level of fitness increasing. This may spur you on to wanting to make a bigger change. Don't do it. Choose the next smallest thing that seems like barely nothing, and do that day in and day out. You'll know it's become a habit when if you skip a day, you really miss it. If you DO skip a day, do so without judgment. Simply return to the routine.

This approach is how Nature herself changes. Sure, there are storms and earthquakes and landslides and such, but they are violent, extreme events that once they are over, the effects are slowly and surely worn down by the gentle routine of water and air moving inexhorably around the Gaia sphere.

As Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, advises: "Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves--slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future." And so by also making changes in this way, you harness the true power of momentuum that is already available to you to become everything you want to be.

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com

Personally from the President

Re-assembling the Scarecrow

Several of my neighborhood friends embarked on a "group date" the other day for lunch and a movie--"Oz the Great and Powerful." It was a very enjoyable romp through a seamless continuation of the Oz world created by Frank Baum and famously unleashed upon the world in the 1939 movie, "The Wizard of Oz."

I personally was relieved that the 2013 movie was not a cynical, dark, overly polarized version Hollywood seems to think sells. Yes, the characters are one-dimensional and the drama is milk toast, but, hey, it's OZ, people! ...and it was particularly fun in 3-D.

Lately, I've been continuing my adventure with certain pain issues, and in my quest, I returned to a shaman friend of mine for some cranio-sacral therapy and her unique brand of seeing. After the session, I suddenly saw myself as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, during the scene where he has been attacked by the flying monkeys and ripped apart. "They took my arm and they threw it over there! They took my legs and threw them over there!"

The spiritual metaphor for me, is how the soul can also get ripped apart, leaving a part in a 1980 trauma, a 1993 ecstasy, or a 2001 earthquake--or even in past lives. Over identification with traumatic or dramatic events can "stick" attention, preventing fully coming into present time.

My intention for the shamanic session was to retrieve my creative center, which I felt had been scattered. It has been like having all the equipment to create a painting, but the brushes are in the bathroom, the canvas is under the bed, and the paints are in the garage. But you don't know that, so when inspiration strikes, there's no way for it to express. I said to my shaman friend, "I feel like I have an entire warehouse of amunition, but nothing to fire it with, or at!"

Many of the processes or life lessons I've gone through end up being about freeing unconscious attention from some past event where I was deeply affected, but didn't realize it. I usually spot a sort of disconnect between outward and inward experience. It is as if one movie is playing out within me while another one is playing outside of me. This is the realm of the ego and its trusty cohort, the mind. All the socialization, past judgments, and past decisions about "how life is" all go into this inner movie we mistakenly call "life."

Sages through the ages have all told us that Life itself is without judgment, without decisions about what is "right" and what is "wrong." These are entirely human-created and it all rolls into one big common movie we call Life on Earth.

Can we truly know what Reality is? Yes. Just by being aware of the question, it proves it is knowable. The thing is, we get so distracted because as in the Scarecrow, "they threw my arm over there, and ripped off my leg and threw it over there" that we think that is what life is about.

In this episode of the Scarecrow for me, I did retrieve arms and legs and my creative center. And I gained a new mindfulness about where my mind automatically goes in the course of any given day. Where does my attention go? How do I feel when it goes there? By paying attention, more of the Self is retrieved and now available to pour into the beautiful artwork we all can be creating called Life.

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com

Personally... from the President

Embracing Pain

I've had the occasion recently to re-visit through experience the subject of Pain. I've observed that many of us in the energy healing field most often come into the field in search of a resolution to our own pain. We inevitably conclude at some point that while pain, like death, is part of life, it need not be feared or avoided. And that seems to be the explanation of and the resolution to the problem of pain.

I had decided to delve back into Pilates a few weeks ago in order to enhance my yoga practice. It had helped me before (about 10 years ago), so I was hoping for similar results this time. I was not wrong. But, "results" have changed their context since 10 years ago.

Now this is one-on-one Pilates as opposed to a class, so you get the full attention of the Pilates practitioner who then customizes a routine for your particular "situation." Well, my situation includes various misalignments of the pelvis, shortening of the hamstrings, and limited range of motion in my hips and shoulders. Pretty much everything you'd expect from someone who spends a lot of time in front of the computer.

After each session, I'd spend the next four days dealing with stiff, achey muscles and sore joints, way out of proportion, it would seem, to what we were actually doing in the session. This really perplexed me. I began in earnest dosing myself with homeopathics--arnica, rhus tox, ruta gravelens; taking extra magnesium, PureZyme, and of course, liberal use of E-3 Energy Cream. All of these helped and allowed me to avoid the pain becoming debilitating, but they weren't getting me any closer to resolving what this particular set of pain was.

Life seems to be a series of lessons, and reminders about lessons. As you get older, it's more about reminders than the lessons themselves. And this little romp through pain was one of those reminders: Pain is not so much about what is "wrong" but more about what could be "right"--or, better said, pain is about potentials. We all have a "preferred" way to feel, and it pretty much always does NOT include pain. This is an unrealistic expectation, first of all, but mainly it sets you up for a fight. No fight, especially with yourself, is ever going to result in a "winner," so fighting, resisting, ignoring, and all the other lame strategies we employ against something we don't like or want cuts us off from the value of the experience.

Pain teaches us to accept. It teaches us to be patient with process. It teaches us to appreciate the range of experience that is life. And, perhaps most importantly, it teaches us to "embrace with a smile" adversity. Because in the final analysis don't we always come out of adversity "better for it" in one way or another?

Pain is a forge, an invasion of your comfort level that makes you strive for something greater, reach for a new level, or state, and kicks your butt to evolve. Pain requires respect and honor, because if you do not respect or honor your pain, it isn't good for anything.

The irony is that when you accept and honor your pain, it transforms into a greater awareness of its opposite. It resolves into greater range, greater humility, and greater appreciation of the miracle of life. Observe pain in all its glory, observe the body's reactions, observe emotional responses, observe how it so effectively conjures fears. Then, let it be. Let it transform you. Let it be the reason for a greater future self. Let pain be a welcomed agent to a new world.

As I processed through in this way, I got flashes of the pain of my ancestors--past life pictures, and visions of events from people I don't even know. And as this continued, I saw how I was changing, and how I was beginning to embody the resolution of the pain, and how the transformation to a new self was unfolding.

Modern Western culture trains us away from "just being" into "just doing". It also trains us to identify with our bodies and our identity in society. Both of these trainings block the ability to accept and honor pain, in the same way Western society does not accept or honor death. To accept and honor our pain requires us to: 1) Be with the pain without reaction or judgement, and 2) Observe and allow what the pain is doing; what it is communicating. This takes focus, and with practice, it is every bit as good as aspirin, but with many more far-reaching beneficial effects.

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com

Message from the President

Why Are We Doing This Incarnation Thing?

January 9th marked one year since the passing of my life partner, Shay Arave. To honor the day, a good friend took me out for brunch, and because she had only met Shay briefly, I found myself telling the "story of Shay" in my life.

That inevitably led to this classic question my friend asked: "So why do you think we are here? Why do we come here?"

Usually, the existential debate centers more on the Why we exist, rather than the What are we doing by being here. The second question, for me, is more difficult to answer, but in explaining my position I found myself saying things I hadn't said before.

What occurred to me was the phrase, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." From a cosmic perspective you could say, "What kills you makes you stonger." This assumes you have perceived yourself as a spiritual being beyond the physical body and world. If you haven't gotten to that perception yet, I believe you will at some point in your life or lives. It tends to happen when someone close to you dies, or you personally have a near-death experience. I think this is because the concept of one's mortality is usually met with fear and trepidation earlier in life, yet becomes more and more acceptable as we continue our travels through the time space of this planet. Either we get tired and just want it to be over with, or we have some cognition that viscerally demonstrates the limitations of physical form and the promises of total freedom from it.

Well, I digress... As to Why We're Doing This? Back to the "makes you stronger" bit. As I spoke to my friend, I got a clear conceptual picture of me as a spiritual entity plowing through this life, like a snow plow pushes aside chunks of snow and ice to clear the way for others. But this is a special snow plow. The more it plows, and the deeper it goes into the snow, the more power it derives. It's got a special type of expanding engine that runs on snow. The more it runs into, the more fuel and bigger it gets.

Now, it's important to make a distinction on this wintery metaphor: The snow plow is YOU--the spiritual YOU, your soul; the snow is experiences in life; and the road is time. So the more we plow through the experiences of our life, the more powerful and expanded we become. Not only that, because we are all unique, each of us plows our own little section of the Life Road.

To carry the metaphor further and to finally reach my conclusion: Because we are clearing a path, there are others behind us who now have an easier time traveling down the road. They can choose to take the plowed road and skip along merrily, kicking up snow angels--enjoying the journey. Or, they can choose to plow a new road--their unique road that widens the path for others following. It looks hard when you first step into that snow plow. The snow is several feet deep and there is no guarantee you won't start plowing and go right over a cliff. And yet, we get into the snow plow anyway, I think because that is what our responsibility is. We have a responsibility as spiritual beings to become more than what we started with--to become greater than the sum of our parts--and perhaps most importantly, to blaze a path for others to find their part of the road to plow.

I used to be threatened by addicts, criminals, the homeless and the starving. Even though I've been homeless and starving, I still would judge them saying that they have a choice to not suffer--they have a choice to make something different happen in their lives. But this was wrong-headed on my part. People with the most difficult lives are plowing the deepest snow, and hence are doing the most work clearing the way for others to follow. They do the most important work: teaching compassion, teaching empathy, inspiring others to do their own work, and first and foremost, teaching us all not to judge. Because through judgement do we justify not getting on that snow plow and doing our own work.

Now, I'm not a fan of suffering, but I respect it. And I'm not a fan of unhappiness, as I've learned that it is a choice. But, I would not have come to those ways of thinking without those in the deepest snow.

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President Subtleenergysolutions.com

Personally...from the President

The Interconnectedness of Light

I recently had an opportunity--and blessing--to attend a couple of "Masters of Light" workshops with Michelle Leuschen here in the San Diego Area. Her purpose was to introduce the classes to the practice of "direct enlightenment," or the lighting of the brain, a practice also taught by her guru Sai Maa.

The truly remarkable thing about this idea is that it uses imagination as a tool of enlightenment. This is certainly not a new idea, but what is new, in my opinion, is that the practice is no longer strictly in the realms of spiritual teachers, gurus, adepts, mystics, or other advanced practitioners. This is something ANYONE can do--that is, if you have a functioning imagination.

The first thing we did was a diksha (DEEK-sha)--basically a blessing. This blessing is specially for the light of Sai Maa (pictured right). We picked partners and exchanged "doing" diksha on each other. Here's how it worked:

1. Center yourself into the heartspace--basically putting your attention on your heart area.
2. Ask for the Light of Sai Maa.
3. Hold the hands, palms upward, on either side of the receiver's head just above the ears.
4. Slowly move the hands so the palms are above the head about an inch with thumbs touching.
5. Slowly move the hands until palms are resting on the receiver's hairline area.
6. Remain until you stop (could be 30 seconds to a couple of minutes)--whatever feels right, or your get some sort of intuitive signal.

I received diksha first, and for me, there was a faintly bluish-pinkish light that came in through the top of my head and cascaded very slowly down through my body. It was extremely calming and I noticed all thinking stopped (this was reported by several people). There was a sense of an infinitely gentle yet powerful energy seeping down into every cell of the body.

Then, when I gave it, the same thing happened, and I noticed I was smiling broadly without really smiling at anything in particular, or smiling at any thought, since there were none.

After the diksha, Michelle encouraged the class to report what they had experienced. It was slow going because everyone was obviously blank-minded and very blissed out. I did manage to blurt out, "A bluish light. Very nice. Very nice," as I sat there with my buzzing body.

Since then, I've incorporated self-diksha into my daily practices in the morning, and have found it to be very useful for preparing myself for the rigors of daily routines and business. It has increased my calmness and my appreciation for life in general.

Although I've experienced various types of "dikshas" before, sometimes called other things, this one, for some reason, impressed me as a useful tool for expanding my awareness and well-being. And what is truly remarkable, is that we all have the capacity to call in this "light" of consciousness, and in so doing reap the considerable rewards of that calling. Just a few minutes a day can have profound effects. Try it!

In vibrant health,

Boyd Martin, President
Subtleenergysolutions.com