Last year my Dad passed on to a better place. He technically died of Bone Cancer, Kidney Failure, Sepsis, and a variety of other complications. Due to limited availability of hospital beds and competent staff, he was placed in a subpar facility. He had an infection for many days where he was delirious, that triggered the beginning of the end. The nursing staff did not notice that he was completely lucid one day and the next could hardly make a sentence or know where he was. We were not able to visit him due to Covid. For three days, we were not able to reach him via phone. When we did, it was obvious in a few minutes of speaking with him that something was terribly wrong and we demanded the doctors take a closer look. But, it was too late. A sepsis infection had taken root (which also killed my Mother by the way a few years back) and he was not able to recover from the complications that caused.
Now, I could blame and sue the hospital, which seems to be the American way. But, I recognized that they were overworked and did their best. They did not know him, so what was obvious to us in a couple of minutes, was not to strangers. The isolation policy that didn’t allow us to see him in person was truly the kiss of death. Over the course of the prior years before this transition, he was hospitalized off and on for a variety of issues. Whenever he was separated from the people who loved him, his health would significantly decline. The longer his incarceration, the worse it became. When we could get him home, he would more quickly recover. I am not necessarily arguing with the policy of banning people from the hospital to prevent immune compromised people from exposure. I am pointing out my belief that most people significantly underestimate the stress and negative impact on our immune system caused by isolation and that we could do a better job of focusing on connecting with loved ones during these difficult times.
Mindset was by far the most critical factor affecting his health. This became crystal clear to me in the preceding years. When I visited with him and encouraged him to focus on his desires and happy thoughts, his physical health would significantly improve. When left to his own tendency to spiral down into negativity, his physical health would obviously deteriorate. This is why the practice of training our thoughts is so important, especially during these perilous times. What we focus on grows. This is science.
Neural plasticity is the changing of the structure, function and organization of neurons in response to new experiences. When you fully focus your attention on something, neuroplasticity is heightened. Think of turning a little used trail in your brain into a super highway. It becomes easier and easier in the future to re-experience whatever you are focusing on. One of the reasons practicing Tantra is so great is that by flooding your system with joy and orgasmic pleasure, it sets up a pattern of increasing your capacity to feel more bliss, as well as, the momentum of it continuously improving.
Every human mind has a finite capacity for processing and storing data. In today’s modern age, we are bombarded with far more information than we can possibly process. We experience inattentional blindness and deafness even to critical information that we really want or need to be aware of. We train our brain what to notice via our reticular activator system. Your RAS looks for situations that will validate and prove your beliefs. So our thoughts build on themselves to create self-fulfilling prophecies. This is why placebos can be just as or even more effective than an actual medicine. The brain believes it is getting healthier, so it does. The nocebo effect also occurs. If you believe you are going to get sick, your brain will accommodate and compromise your immune system to help make it so.
Emotions or energy in motion heightens these effects. It is the fuel that dictates the speed to which your thoughts will be realized. Like the Law of Attraction in Think and Grow Rich, the best way to attract what you want quickly is to focus on it and then get emotional about it. The more excited we are, the more we tell the brain how important it is. This is why it is so effective to feel the joy and pleasure of already having what you want while visualizing it. The daily practice that Ecstatic Hearts™ recommends begins with Gratitude, as it is one of the best ways to attract more of what you want.
Gratitude also has a dramatic effect on your health. It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep. It reduces lifetime risk for depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorders, and is a key resiliency factor in the prevention of suicide. Grateful people engage in more exercise, have better dietary behaviors, are less likely to smoke and abuse alcohol, and has a host of other benefits which translates into a healthier and happier life.
What we resist persists. Just as “positive” emotions reinforce and magnetize the speed of attaining our desires, “negative” emotions do the same. So when people get upset and positional about things they do not like, when they argue and put energy into anything, they are actually reinforcing the very thing they do not want. Mother Theresa refused to go to any anti war rally, because she was devoted to peace. This is why acceptance of others perspectives is the only way we are going to be able to move forward with positive change.
Fear is the mind killer. One definition of Fear=False Evidence Appearing Real. If we start listening to and operating from fear, we begin manifesting the very thing we don’t want. Our worldwide news media establishment leverages the fact that sensationalism sells; it is their primary way to get our attention. In order to be profitable, the vast majority of media does it’s best to continuously pump the most fear possible into our consciousness. I do not personally listen to news as I find it counterproductive. I hear everything I need to via other people and when necessary I do research. It is also important to note that fear is one of the primary tools that people in power use to maintain control throughout most of history. It has been very disheartening over the last couple of decades to witness how our government has been systematically taking away our rights and freedom through fear. My opinion is that most people seem to be thinking for themselves less and less, blindly trusting a system that is not actually set up to promote the greater good. One the primary purposes of Ecstatic Hearts™ is to assist people in Awakening. For me Awakening means to stop operating out of limited patterns and programs, and begin operating out of long term vision and the understanding that we are all connected to each other and our planet.
The biggest danger I see with Covid is how much inordinate attention, emotion, and energy is being focused on it. COVID is obviously a tragedy and I feel for all the people who have died and suffered from it, directly and indirectly. We are more in danger of other diseases, strokes, and infections. Obviously, the thing that makes COVID more dangerous than many illnesses is it spreading faster than hospitals can treat the worst cases. But once we take basic precautions, what is the value of continuing to focus on it? Tracking daily deaths or watching the endless debates about all the different opinions on this is perhaps the worst thing we can do for our health. I have not written about this topic until now, because I did not want to contribute to this perpetuating problem. But, we have all been dealing with Covid for over a year and a half, and with the Delta variant, people still seem to me to be operating disproportionately out of fear.
Metaphysics is now proving much of what ancient mystics have known for thousands of years. Our brains and bodies are not just interpreters of reality, but creators of it. We are beings of energy all connected to everything. We are far more powerful at manifesting our dreams and desires than most of us believe. I embrace pronoia, knowing the Universe/God is supporting me in the best way possible. I believe everything is perfect. The more I practice Tantra, the more I see that I am the creator of my reality. I increasingly experience miracles and proof that we are all divine. I do not fear death, for I have had numerous visceral embodied experiences of being eternal. When my Dad passed on, I believe it was his time to go. I actually experienced a surge of joy from him a couple of hours after he passed, tinged with surprise and then an hour later flavored with joy of reuniting with my Mom. We will likely all die from this life, what is important is how we choose to live.
I believe the best thing we can do for our health is focus on being healthy. Exercise regularly, eat well, breathe deeply, relax and lower stress, enjoy nature, and practice Tantra. Hug and communicate deeply with our loved ones. Connect with our community. Make extraordinary love with our romantic partners. Focus on our passions and purpose. Increase our joy and pleasure. Fully feel our feelings and continuously open our hearts to unconditionally love.