appreciation
DREW: “... if a single cell in my body can appreciate its value fulfillment and its own becoming, and yet I’m sitting here as an entirety not appreciated it, is that simply a reflection of the camouflage that I’m struggling to get through to understand what my tiniest cell understands?” ELIAS: “First of all, you are NOT not appreciating your becoming and your existence. You are discounting of self within the focus, but simultaneously you are not not appreciating of your own value fulfillment. You ARE moving your attention into the direction of knowing OBJECTIVELY what this tiny cells knows. You KNOW this subjectively already, which is what creates your motivation and drive, which continues your questioning, which moves you within your accomplishing; for you DO know innately, subjectively, your value and your worth and your affectingness. Objectively, you forget. Therefore, you have chosen. You have asked for information to be helpful in remembering, and in knowing what this tiny cell knows.” [session 154, February 23, 1997] CHRISTIE: “Elias, when you were describing the transition that we go into, unmanifestation or I’m assuming when we die, it sounded very much like the transition that we have here. I mean, it’s almost exactly the same thing. I mean, you get what you expect, people come into your life to help you ... I mean, I’m kind of blown away by that! That sounds like here!” ELIAS: “Ah! One point, Oliver [Christie]!” CHRISTIE: “One point! (Laughing)” ELIAS: “Quite; this being the reason why I express to you the importance of now, the importance of your realization of your creativity and your self within the now; for you shall move into another area of consciousness within transition, but you shall be actualizing the same process, in your terms. Therefore, you have your prototype already! “Very many individuals shall look to physical focus and devalue this physical focus. They shall express to you that you are ‘less than’; to be an element of your species upon this planet, you are less than. You are not! You ARE your highest expression. There is no greater within consciousness. And how may you be appreciating of self within any area of consciousness if you are not appreciating of self within this area of consciousness?” [session 165, April 19, 1997] ELIAS: “Within relationships between individuals, there is a consistent, constant striving for each individual to feel appreciated and valued by the other individual. If you are valuing and appreciating of self, you need not value from another individual. The input is not necessary. It may be accepted graciously, but it is not a necessity. Therefore, whatever is offered is accepted for it is not a need within you, for you are understanding already that YOU are accepting and appreciating of you. Individuals create conflict as they are attempting to change another individual or holding an expectation of another individual, which is the same; for as you hold an expectation of another individual, you are within [although not thinkingly] wanting their behavior to change and be expressed differently. “In this, we are entirely forgetful of the little sapling, which concerns itself not with the other sapling. The other sapling may convolute itself in as many ways as it may possibly imagine and it affects not the straight sapling, for the straight sapling recognizes that that is its creation. It is not wrong. It is not worse. It is different; and within an acceptance that each individual creates their own reality, which IS REALITY, and that you create your reality and are not a victim, it is acceptable for each to be creating within their own expression.” [session 180, June 03, 1997] ELIAS: “Love is a truth, and the translation within your physical dimension of love is not attraction. It is that of knowing and appreciation, genuine appreciation, which appreciation is expressed in acceptance. In this, the knowing is also significant, actual knowing of yourself and knowing of another individual and expressing an acceptance which generates an appreciation. This is the genuine expression of love. “This is not to discount your feelings and your expression in relation to another individual, for you do express affection and attraction, but there are also other expressions which are generated in association with beliefs: expectations upon yourself, expectations concerning the other individual, expectations concerning relationships and how they should be generated and expressed, how you should be expressing within a relationship, and also underlyingly what you genuinely desire in your own expression, without expectations and without anticipation of the other individual’s perception or what they generate, but genuinely focusing upon yourself and allowing yourself to express your genuine offering of energy and not denying that expression within yourself. “A genuine expression of love between individuals objectively is the expression of allowance of yourself to generate what you want without restriction....” [session 997, January 26, 2002] ELIAS: “The point is appreciation. What you all express ideally that you want within this physical dimension and your physical manifestations, ultimately the one expression that you ALL express commonly is that you want to be expressing love. What is love? Within your physical dimension the translation of the truth of love is knowing and appreciation. Therefore you are continuously seeking, in your terms, this expression of knowing and appreciating, knowing WHAT you are appreciating, and this requires holding your attention in the now.” [session 1114, June 15, 2002] ELIAS: “I may express to you, appreciation generates one of the MOST POWERFUL expressions of energy that you can generate. It may be rivaled merely by an intensity of fear, an extreme of fear. But as many of you may be aware within your experiences, fear can be a POWERFUL expression of energy and it can create powerful expressions and destructive expressions, and can be expressed to such an extreme that you can even generate a physical manifestation of it. You can configure energy of fear into an actual physical being. That is how powerful that energy expression is. But appreciation is more powerful than fear.” [session 1799, July 16, 2005] DANIIL: “In fighting fear we perpetuate it, so what other beneficial habit is next to fear that will alleviate fear?” ELIAS: “Appreciation. Appreciation neutralizes fear, but genuine appreciation not artificial.” DANIIL: “Appreciation as in appreciation of one’s self as well as appreciation of others?” ELIAS: “Yes. But as we discussed earlier, appreciation is an unfamiliar action to many of you. Therefore, it is advisable that you begin in increments. For the point is not to overwhelm yourselves, and also not to snare yourselves or trap yourselves in a manner in which you are attempting to generate an appreciation and in a moment, if you are unsuccessful, that you immediately discount yourself and perpetuate this devaluing of yourself. “Fear is an expression of powerlessness. Therefore, the point would not to be reinforcing that but to be interrupting it with something that can become familiar to you, although it is unfamiliar initially. This is the reason that it is significant to practice with acknowledgment and appreciation to acknowledge what you have accomplished, acknowledge what you ARE doing – credit yourselves not other individuals.” [session 1861, October 22, 2005] ELLA: “The difference between appreciation and affection is that affection is unique about a person and appreciation is allowance?” ELIAS: “No. Affection is a genuine expression. It is an emotional expression. Affection is a signal, a feeling, that is associated with an emotional communication. Affection is associated with attraction, and in that, it is also associated with preferences. It is a feeling with an emotional communication. Appreciation is not an emotional communication.” ELLA: “If I appreciate you, don’t I feel good about you? That is an emotion.” ELIAS: “You attach the affection with the appreciation and therefore you feel.” ELLA: “So from where you are, you don’t experience emotions, and you can still appreciate us for what we are.” ELIAS: “Quite, yes. But remember, emotion is a very powerful communication within you and it is also a basic element of your reality. Therefore, it is natural for you to express and associate feelings and emotional communications with many of your expressions.” [session 1861, October 22, 2005] CHRISTIE: “... You mentioned for a moment about seasonal alignment, that we discount that and that we push it away. We discount this natural time, seasonal alignment. We push it away. How do we push it away, and why do we push it away? ELIAS: You have created your cultural time; therefore, this supersedes your natural time within your perception. You have created your civilizations and your societies to be revolving around your cultural time, your ‘time slots’. You have distorted your appreciation of time. Originally; once again, a time-oriented word; you have originally created your dimension of time for specific experiences. In your appreciation of your time element, you have chosen to be focusing upon each moment of time, with a desire to be appreciating of each moment of time. You have distorted this desire into the area of attaching a production level also to these moments of time. Therefore, to be appreciating of time, you must be utilizing time. You must be incorporating action ‘doing something’ with it. Just as you view [that] you spend ‘quality time’ with your children, you do not view spending ‘quality time’ with your children ignoring them! You are interacting with them. You are ‘doing something’ with them. In this same way, you view that you must be interacting with time itself, placing a value on each moment. Your distortion has come by equating value with action, with productivity. You may be incorporating action, in your appreciation of time and moments, simply by noticing time itself and experiencing your time element, but this is not sufficient within your belief systems now. Your animals do not incorporate this perception of time. You may view, within your domesticated animals, they do not incorporate time in the same fashion as you. They are not focused upon filling each moment with the production of action. They experience each moment. In this, the moments collide and intermesh with each other, being indistinguishable, one from the other. An animal does not incorporate seconds or minutes or hours, for these are unimportant. They simply experience the element of time within physical focus. You ask, ‘How do you experience natural time?’ Allow yourself to be natural. If it is not fun, do not do it! If you are incorporating action that is pleasurable to you, you are incorporating what we would express to you as value fulfillment. Your essence does not manifest for the purpose of experience for some mystical reason! Its fullest value fulfillment is expressed through pleasure. This is what your self strives toward, this being why you also incorporate positive and negative; negative being all elements that do not incorporate pleasure, positive being what you strive for, being pleasurable. This is your choice. (Pause) You may experience effortlessness and a pleasurable existence if you are fulfilling your desire. This is why I say to you, if it is not fun, do not do it! Incorporate fun only, and you will experience natural time. (Pause) You will not do this, though! (Smiling at Christie) CHRISTIE: I won’t? Don’t give me an unfulfilled ... I mean a ... Don’t say that to me! What do you mean, I will not do this though? A self-fulfilling prophecy ... I don’t want to hear that! ELIAS: (Grinning) You incorporate a perception of ‘needs’. You perceive your existence to be surrounded by needful demands upon your time, elements of accomplishments that must be met. Therefore, you will incorporate action, to be fulfilling of these elements, which does not incorporate fun; for you believe that necessary is more important. What you do not understand is that all that is necessary to your existence may be fulfilled in fun! (Pause) CHRISTIE: So by following the feeling of the necessary things that I need to do in life, that is pretty much what has brought me to this point, of having pretty much a mediocre life. ELIAS: Basically. CHRISTIE: And in order for me to strive to not have a mediocre life, which I’m pretty darn sick of, I need to take away ... change ... shift my thinking in getting rid of the necessity things, and just do things that are fun. ELIAS: Naturally!” [session 74, February 25, 1996] CATHY: “I want to know how a person can have an appreciation for life and its beauty, and still have a desire to croak. ELIAS: Ah, continuing with our subject matter of fearfulness! Within the fearfulness of physical focus, or of life, so to speak, you may hold these two emotions simultaneously. This is that the individual may hold conflicting belief systems. We have spoken previously at times of individuals holding conflicting belief systems simultaneously. This may be generating much conflict for an individual. You may hold one belief system that expresses to you that you SHOULD hold an appreciation for life and creation, for you have been taught within your religions and sciences and societies to be appreciating of all that is about you, but you do not hold an appreciation of SELF and you hold duplicity. You hold duplicity in both areas, in actuality. In some elements you do NOT hold an appreciation for life and its beauty within this particular physical dimension. In other areas you DO hold an appreciation, for you place good and bad upon everything, even your environment. The reason an individual may hold this conflict is that you may be appreciating of elements that appear to be outside of you, holding the belief system that you are removed from these elements. You may look to your natural environment, your ‘nature’ as you term this to be, and you may view this as separate from you and outside of you; therefore appreciating of IT, but not appreciating of SELF. You hold belief systems that you are not worthy. You create language that reinforces this. Some individuals are better, some individuals are special, some individuals are blessed, some individuals are ordinary, some individuals are ‘less than.’ You automatically place yourselves in the areas of less than, not special, unworthy; for within these belief systems of duplicity, although these are reinforcing of your lack of acceptance of self, you also look to this as good; not placing yourself above another individual, not becoming arrogant, not placing TOO much value upon self, for this is wrong. Therefore, you spin a circle of these belief systems and you confuse yourselves with these belief systems. This be the reason that I express to you many times to be not concerning yourselves with other individuals, and looking to self and acknowledging of self and practicing in the area of acceptance of self; for it is quite difficult enough to be dealing with YOUR self and your own belief systems, but you reinforce your belief systems and your circle and your intertwining of belief systems in and out of each other, as you are also accepting of the judgments of other individuals. You may express to yourselves that it matters not to you what another is perceiving of you. I shall express to you, this is incorrect. Not one individual among you is accepting of this belief system! You all hold a belief system that places a certain amount of importance upon the viewing of other individuals of yourself; how another perceives you. This holds importance to you. This is a belief system; and just as I have stated to you [that] not one individual to this present now has accepted a belief system, neither have you. Therefore, you deceive yourselves in expressing to yourselves that it matters not what other individuals think of you. It DOES matter to you, for you hold belief systems that you must appear in certain manners to other individuals to be acceptable, and therefore be acceptable to yourselves; for you look for your acceptance from without, not from within. If you are looking within for your acceptability, it truly shall not matter how another individual perceives you, for you shall be acceptable to you. You shall not be acceptable to all individuals. You rationalize within yourselves and express to yourselves that you are knowing of this. Therefore, it is unimportant to you that you are accepted by many individuals, but it is greatly important to you that you are accepted by those individuals that you view to be close to you; your families, your friends, individuals that you respect, that you are accepting of. You wish this reciprocated. You hold very strong belief systems in this area. This is what is influencing of this situation of which you inquire. As the individual may be accepting of elements outside of self, there may be moments of joyfulness and appreciation, but it is fleeting, for the acceptance is not within. It is without. In a lack of acceptance of self and your very beings and your own expressions, regardless of what your expressions are, you shall create conflict; and once again within your belief systems you shall look to, ‘Another area shall be more satisfying than this area. Disengaging shall be more appealing than continuing, for it shall be different.’ CATHY: I’ll bet it is! (Laughing) ELIAS: But I express to you that you shall be where you are! CATHY: So this accepting, can it be done in increments? ELIAS: Absolutely! CATHY: So who’s winning?? (Laughing) ELIAS: You shall not be accepting ... POOF! (Laughter) No one is winning! (Grinning) CATHY: Well, if it’s done in increments, there’s got to be a scale! ELIAS: Does there? CATHY: Why not? ELIAS: You are all moving. CATHY: This is physical focus. We have scales! (Laughing) ELIAS: Ah! We shall allow you the charge of creating the graph!” (Laughter) [session 180, June 03, 1997] RODNEY: “I understood you to say that if I did something and I thought to myself I could have done it better, that this would be a judgment. And what I hear you saying is that it would be more constructive, worthwhile, etcetera if I were to hold the question, ‘Why did I do it the way I did it?’ Is this what I hear you saying, that there are other ways of holding or looking at my actions that are constructive, and for me to say that I could have done it better is not the best way to look at my actions? ELIAS: (Chuckling) Although there is no ‘best way!’ (Grinning) But I shall express to you that you are correct in the direction that you are moving with this thought process. What I am expressing to you is that there are alternate areas to be addressing to yourself without judgment. In the lack of judgment, you do not automatically create the lack of motivation. I am not expressing to you that you are eliminating your motivation to be moving through consciousness and to be accomplishing within your individual focuses in the directions that you choose and that shall be the most beneficial within your own individual value fulfillment, for the lack of judgment and the neutralization of belief systems does NOT neutralize motivation and desire. But in like manner to your own expression in this inquiry, I am acknowledging of your expression and am expressing to you that you are correct. In moving into the direction of placing a judgment upon each individual action, expressing to yourself, ‘I am disappointed with myself, for I may have created this expression better,’ you automatically reinforce your belief system of duplicity. You automatically move into the area of discounting of self. You automatically move into the area of discontinuing your motivation, for you have already created the judgment upon yourself and moved into the area of expressing to yourself that there need be no motivation to move into a different type of expression, for you have already created the wrong expression. In this, you reinforce a LACK of movement. If you are looking to self and you are inquiring of yourself as to the belief system that has motivated your expression, you automatically motivate yourself to be investigating, which is creating automatically of movement, and in this movement you shall move forward, in your terms, in allowing yourself to experience alternative choices which you shall deem to be more efficient. If you are expressing to yourself, ‘I have created an expression with this individual. I am wishing that I had not created this expression with this individual,’ you shall automatically also offer to yourself, ‘Oh well, it is done. I may not retract what I have created.’ Therefore, your expression moves into the direction of, ‘I shall be noticing of this action and I shall not repeat this the next time.’ Oh, but you will! (Laughter) For you shall not be remembering, for you have not examined the belief system, and the next time shall approach and you shall approach the situation in the very same expression, for the belief system is still within very strong working order, and IT is what is being expressed! But if you are examining the action that you have created and you are expressing to yourself, ‘Why have I responded to this individual in this manner? What is the belief system that has motivated my response and my action?’, as you identify this belief system to yourself, you may also offer yourself an understanding of your own expression. And in this, as this same situation may present itself once again to you futurely, you have offered yourself the information in this direction and therefore have offered yourself the ability to recall and to be altering of YOUR response and behavior. Many times in this situation, it is unnecessary for your recall. You shall automatically hold a different response without a thought process, for in the very examination of the belief system and recognition of this and understanding of this, you are automatically altering your own perception, which is also altering of your expression. There be the effortlessness. In the continuation of the belief system and the non-addressing to the belief system, as the situation presents itself once again to you, you must move into the area of much effort to be remembering the previous experience, which you very likely will not. You must expend the energy to be consciously altering your expression, and then you shall be experiencing energy that is in conflict with your expression. For although you may move into an alteration of your outward expression in a similar situation, within you, you shall experience emotional qualities of disliking of your own expression, for you are in conflict with the belief system that is motivating you. Therefore, as this individual approaches you and expresses, ‘I am not appreciating of this garment that you are wearing,’ your automatic response may be, ‘Well, I am not appreciating of your expression!’ What you have each expressed is a lack of acceptance of self and of another individual, and you have not addressed to the belief system. As this individual approaches you within your next day and expresses, ‘I am not appreciating of your garment,’ you may move into the direction of recalling the previous experience, and you may move into a falseness of your own spirituality, and you may alter your expression and you may express to this individual, ‘I am accepting that you are not appreciating of my garment, but I am appreciating of my garment, and therefore I am choosing to be wearing it.’ But as you walk away, within you, you are expressing conversation with yourself in your relationship with yourself and you are expressing, ‘You are an idiot! You are not accepting of my garment!’ You are creating conflict and you have not accepted the expression, and you are now expelling much energy, not moving into the area of effortlessness, but expelling much energy in conflicting yourself and continuing to hold to your own belief systems which have not been addressed to. Now; in this same situation, if this individual is approaching of you and expressing, ‘I am not appreciating of your garment this day,’ and you recognize a responsiveness within yourself that you in your language may identify as a defensiveness, you may be examining of this defensiveness and inquiring of yourself, ‘What is motivating my response in this area? What am I not accepting within self?’ Not within the expression of the other individual! ‘What am I not accepting within self that is creating of this response within me? Where am I holding to my own energy which is creating of this response?’ In this, let me also offer you all this day a visualization that you may practice. I have offered this once only, but it may serve you each in your practicing of acceptance of self and also of acceptance of other individuals. Let us enter into an exercise presently that you may also practice subsequently. (1) Each of you now hold an awareness of yourselves. Allow yourselves to relax your energy fields. Your energy field is that energy which surrounds your physical form. Attempt to be not holding in of this energy field around you. To the best of your abilities presently, within each of your individual states in this present now, I instruct you each to attempt to be noticing and viewing your own energy field that surrounds your physical body. Allow yourselves to be connecting with your own energy fields. See your energy field around you. Allow yourself your own visual of your energy that you expel around your physical form in this very relaxed atmosphere. (Long pause, and then shouting) YOU ARE ALL INADEQUATE! Now look to your energy fields and view how they have contracted, and view what you experience within you, and view your own uncomfortableness. And why are you uncomfortable? For an energy has been projected to you and has penetrated. It has moved through your energy field. It has been allowed to penetrate your energy field. Now; in this example, let me express to you: you hold an actual energy field around your physical form. This is a reality. It is real energy. It is tangible. It also functions. In this, let me express to you three words: allowance, penetration, and buffer. Be remembering of these words. (Softly) I express to you lovingness. Although you have experienced uncomfortableness temporarily, this serves as an example to you as to how you allow other individuals to penetrate energy into your energy field, and this automatically triggers your own belief systems as to protection of yourselves and that another may be hurtful to you, and this triggers other belief systems, that you do not hold the ability to be manipulating energy as efficiently as you deem necessary. This is also a perpetuation of your own issues in duplicity. Let me express to you that any other individual, any essence, any thing may project any energy to you, and in your acceptance you create an allowance, a recognition that this is an energy ball that another individual expresses to you, and it shall move forcefully toward you, but that you hold an energy field around you which is quite powerful, and this energy field holds the ability to transform any energy which is projected to you. Therefore, as you visualize this ball of energy projecting toward you and it propels forcefully and quickly to you, it also transforms into a bubble as it strikes your energy fields, and this bubble shall pop and dissipate. Therefore, another individual’s expression has not penetrated your energy field, for you have allowed your energy field to be a buffer. This is not an expression of a lack of acceptance of another individual. This is an expression of the acceptance of yourself and your own ability and also the acceptance of other individuals in the allowance of any of their expressions, recognizing that these are their expressions which are motivated from their belief systems, but this needs not be affecting of you. For if you are accepting of self and of your own abilities and your own energy, the ball transforms to a bubble, and the bubble shall pop as easily and as effortlessly as a physical bubble that touches your finger and pops. This IS your ability, and you may exercise this continuously. It is merely your belief systems that dictate to you that you shall be hurt or discounted or that you are inadequate or that you may not accomplish, and it is the perpetuation of these belief systems that allows you to accept the penetration of other individuals and the projection of their energy. You may be accepting in the allowance. It is unnecessary for the penetration. And in this, in what you would term to be the reverse action, you may be remembering of this exercise also and recognizing that your expressions are the very same energy forms that are projected to other individuals, and they may not hold objectively the information that they hold the ability to pop the bubble, and your expression shall penetrate. Therefore, the circle continues.” (Laughter) [session 302, July 26, 1998] JOANNE: “... I wanted to talk about the mirror. I guess I better lay some groundwork here. Recently I was thinking about losing weight and how I could accomplish that. I thought about beginning to do things that I wanted to do and not worry so much about dieting and exercise but just start doing things that I want to do and I would lose weight. Then I started to notice around me – mostly with my husband Jim, but with other people also – other people were losing weight and they were doing things that I would like to do. I knew in the mirror that it was trying to show me that this is a possibility, that I can create this. But at the same time, the feeling in my stomach was this huge ‘I can’t.’ I kept looking at it, and I felt like I was standing in front of a mirror and on one side of the mirror it was happening, but to objectively do it I just had this huge ‘I can’t,’ and I don’t know what to do with that. I’ve seen it in a few other areas of my life too, where the mirror is showing me that things are possible and yet I have this huge feeling of ‘I can’t.’ I was wondering if you could give me a hint as to where to take this, the next step. ELIAS: Very well. It is significant that you are allowing yourself an objective recognition and understanding of the reflection that you are offering to yourself and you are noticing that you are generating this mirror action to be validating to yourself that you do hold the ability to be generating this type of action. It is also significant that you allow yourself to notice your communication to yourself in relation to what you are actually generating and expressing to yourself, that you cannot, and therefore denying your choice to yourself. Now; what you may practice in action is in the moment that you recognize that you are expressing to yourself that you cannot, allow yourself to stop, notice, relax, and intentionally express to yourself permission to do, regardless that you are simultaneously expressing to yourself that you cannot. In that moment, offer yourself objectively permission to generate a choice regardless of the expression of ‘I cannot.’ Once you offer yourself permission to generate the choice of ‘I can,’ even in the expression of continued doubt, allow yourself to incorporate a brief action in physically generating a choice of what you want to express, even though you continue to doubt your ability to generate it. What you are expressing, my friend, is a noticing and a recognition that you do incorporate an ability to appreciate yourself, and you reflect this outwardly through the imagery of other individuals. But as you turn your attention to you, you automatically express, ‘I cannot offer this expression to myself; I cannot generate this expression in association with myself.’ What you are expressing that you cannot generate is a genuine appreciation of yourself. Therefore, in the moment that you notice, incorporate this exercise in what you may term to be even small expressions of allowing yourself permission to generate an expression of appreciation of you physically in that moment. What you shall be accomplishing in this type of action is to be recognizing and acknowledging that you do incorporate certain beliefs, and you shall not be attempting to eliminate those beliefs or ignoring them but rather acknowledging their existence and choosing to move or manipulate your choices around them, so to speak. In this, as you continue these steps, so to speak, in acknowledgment of yourself, this shall become more and more familiar, and this obstacle that expresses to you ‘I cannot’ shall become less and less forceful. Now; what am I expressing to you in acknowledging an appreciation of yourself? In a moment that you are recognizing and noticing that you are expressing to yourself ‘I cannot,’ stop, objectively offer yourself permission to express ‘I can,’ and express an appreciation of yourself – not merely within thoughts. Incorporate some action in that moment that is a demonstration of your appreciation of self. Offer yourself a gift. Incorporate some action that is acknowledging of you, that is appreciating of you. This may be expressed in a few moments. You may choose, in your terms, to indulge yourself in any action that generates preference and pleasure within you. This shall be sufficiently distracting to allow you to discontinue concentrating upon the expression of ‘I cannot’ and it shall also offer you a reinforcement in acceptance of yourself, and this shall dissipate the expression of ‘I cannot.’ JOANNE: I’ll go with that. ‘I can’t’ was like really strong and I had no idea what to do with it; but all of the imagery, the people around me were saying, ‘You can! I can – you can!’ and that huge ‘I can’t.’ I just had no idea what to do, so thank you. ELIAS: You are quite welcome, my friend. You may choose in the moment to be appreciating of your being in an action of allowing yourself to relax within a bath. You may offer yourself a gift of chocolate. You may choose to be incorporating a walk and appreciating your connection with a flower. It matters not, but allow yourself an actual physical expression of appreciation of yourself. JOANNE: This is going to be a fun exercise. ELIAS: Quite!” (Chuckles) [session 1030, March 09, 2002] CURTIS: “... I was hoping you could get me some insight into some of the stuff I’ve been doing throughout my whole life. I’ve been kind of lost and alienated. I lost my job recently, or actually months ago. I’m having real trouble in just generating ideas or directions of where I want to go. I’ve been very confused and just really ... I’ve never been very connected to the culture, but this is really starting to become an issue with me. I was hoping you could give me some insight. ELIAS: And express to myself, what is your preference and offers you an expression of pleasure in association with your creativity? CURTIS: Oh, I don’t know, maybe growing stuff, domestic things. I’m always growing gourmet mushrooms or gardening or doing something in the kitchen with nutritious foods or something like that. That would probably come as close as anything I could think of. ELIAS: And in this, how do you prevent yourself from generating your creativity and allowing yourself to generate income in association with your preference? CURTIS: That’s a good question. I guess... I’ve kind of moved back in with my parents here for a little bit, and I’m able to do, I guess, just about everything I want here. So there’s no reason, no burning impetus, to go out there and try to make a living at it. I guess I just think in the back of my head as a knee jerk reaction that it would be very difficult to do something like this and make any kind of living. I don’t even know where I would begin. ELIAS: This is an expression of trust, my friend, allowing yourself to trust your ability to generate your preferences and what you want and to trust yourself that you shall also generate the income in association with your wants easily. For you are not acquiring but rather you are creating, and it is your choice of what you create and how you shall allow yourself to generate this. But I may express to you, in association with your beliefs your response to myself is quite understandable, for this is quite familiar to you, to be generating difficulty and struggle in association with what you want. For if you are not struggling, you do not view the value in what you generate, which is quite an expression of beliefs. CURTIS: No pain, no gain? ELIAS: Yes. CURTIS: Okay, that’s a part of my belief system. ELIAS: I am aware. CURTIS: I also feel a little bit guilty maybe when things come too easily with all the other suffering people out there. ELIAS: Ah. (Laughs gently) Therefore you choose to suffer also. CURTIS: Yes, but I’d really rather not. ELIAS: Let me express to you, my friend, there is no nobility in suffering. It is merely a choice. It is a choice of experience and does not offer you a greater expression of worth or value. CURTIS: Well, where were you when all those people in my religious past were telling me that martyrdom is virtue? (Elias laughs) ELIAS: (Humorously) Floating about the cosmos, appreciating effortlessness and the tremendous gloriousness of self and ease! Ha ha ha! CURTIS: Well, I’m on my way to joining you. I’ll tell you, there’s been a real turn around in my life recently. Could you address that a little bit? ELIAS: Offer explanation. CURTIS: There’s been less of what you would call thickness. There’s been much more of an ease in creation of everything, like just things will come to me much more easily than they used to. I am creating much less of the struggle that we were just talking about. Like a synthesizer, for example, that I’ve always wanted dropped in my lap for a really good price. The shitake mushrooms that I’m growing, there’s no contamination even though it used to be that they were always overridden by renegade fungus. Just all kinds of things that I’ve never been able to accomplish I’ve started to be able to do. ELIAS: And shall you be acknowledging of yourself in your accomplishment of more of an acceptance of yourself, and also your movement into paying attention to you and what you generate? CURTIS: So I’ve probably been doing a good job of that. I feel I have anyway. I know I shouldn’t be looking for compliments, but could you verify that? ELIAS: Yes, I shall validate you in your movement. And does this not offer you much more of an expression of freedom than you have allowed yourself previously? CURTIS: Yes, it has, and I guess one of the things is I don’t know quite what to do with that freedom or where to direct my... It’s almost as though there are too many choices. I’m not quite sure what direction to go. ELIAS: Ah, but I may express to you, my friend, you may explore, and it is unnecessary to be generating obstacles within yourself in expressing to yourself that it is necessary to choose one direction. You may explore and you may be incorporating choice in many different directions. As you allow yourself to explore, you offer yourself more information in association with what YOU want. In a manner of speaking, it is a process of experimentation. CURTIS: I need to have an income, and I have just had, as you were telling me, a really poor interaction with bosses in the past. I mean I could just... It’s been a really nasty picture. It’s been very difficult for me to even imagine going into a place and being rewarded adequately financially, given that it is rock-bottom pay, or has been in the past, or to be rewarded even emotionally for what I do. Every job I’ve had has been pretty much dismal. How do you break out of something like that? Are there any steps or objective things that I could do that would help me to get into the place that I want to go? ELIAS: Yes. This genuinely is an opportunity for you to genuinely offer yourself permission to be directing of yourself. I am aware of the challenge and the struggle that you have generated for quite a time framework in not offering yourself permission to be directing of yourself but also simultaneously genuinely expressing the desire to be allowing this expression within you, and this is the reason that you generate the conflict that you do in these scenarios of employment. Now; pay attention to what you have expressed. How do you generate being rewarded financially and emotionally in what you view as a job? This question, in the manner that you are expressing it, implies that you shall be appreciated by some source outside of yourself, and therefore that source shall reward you and this shall offer you a validation of your value. But you are looking outside of yourself; you are projecting your attention to other individuals to provide you with an expression that they cannot offer to you, for other individuals do not create your reality. YOU create your reality; therefore the appreciation is generated within you. In appreciating of yourself and offering yourself your value and your acceptance and your expression of trust of yourself, you shall automatically generate this perception which shall create the actual physical imagery in your reality, which may appear to you that other individuals shall be appreciating and valuing you also; but this is the reflection that you are creating in association with what you generate within yourself.” [session 1077, May 09, 2002] ELIAS: “... Now; let me express to you, in this forum presently this day, most individuals are common. This orientation of common naturally expresses its attention outward. It manifests outward. You offer yourself information through objective imagery. You generate objective imagery, and this speaks to you. You view street signs; you view colors. You view other individuals, but you are specific in what you notice in relation to other individuals: what they do, what they say, what garments they are wearing, how they present themselves physically. You pay attention to objective imagery; you generate objective imagery. If your equipment is responding strangely ... ah! And in this time framework if your computers are malfunctioning, if your telephones are ringing ... you pay attention to physical manifestations. This is not bad; this is not wrong. This is a natural action that you generate as the common orientation. What you are NOT familiar with is allowing yourselves to pay attention to you AND pay attention to what you generate in objective imagery. What you are familiar with is holding your attention outwardly, and not paying attention to what you are generating in your own individual communications to yourselves. Now; if I present myself to you, hypothetically as another individual within your forum presently – (laughing) as we are all aware that I am a ghost! (group laughter) – and I express to you, I dislike this red shirt. (Looking at Jon, who is wearing a red shirt) Where is your attention? JON: On my shirt. ELIAS: What do you want? JON: I don’t know! (Laughs) ELIAS: If I continue, and I express to you, ‘I dislike your eyes.’ What do you want? JON: Umm, I don’t know. (Laughter) ELIAS: If I generate a conflict with you in continuation, what do you want? JON: To leave. ELIAS: Very well. This is an automatic response – you want to leave. No, you think you want to leave, for you are responding in an automatic response. You are generating uncomfortableness, and your wish is for it to discontinue. But you are not listening to what you want. What you want is generated from within, not from without. What you want is what you wish to express, and this is quite unfamiliar. Now; your next step in paying attention to yourself perhaps may be to express to myself, ‘I want you to stop creating an uncomfortableness within me, for you are expressing to me and this is generating uncomfortableness. I am reacting.’ No, you are not reacting. You are offering yourself an emotional communication. Emotion is not a reaction. It is a communication, and it is a PRECISE communication. Your physical body consciousness is communicating intention. Your emotions are communicating a message: ‘Within this moment, you are denying yourself choice. You are allowing another individual to dictate to you what your choice shall be, and you are not directing of yourself,’ and this is expressed in uncomfortableness, for it is unnatural. Your natural inclination is to be directing of you, but what is familiar is to allow other individuals or situations to direct you in reaction. I may present myself to one of you, and I may express what you identify as tremendous excitement and joy, and within the moment, you may be expressing a different type of energy, and you may also choose to leave. This is not necessarily what you want, for you are not paying attention. In the moment that I may express to you, ‘I dislike your red shirt,’ in genuinely knowing you and understanding, paying attention to yourself and offering yourself permission to express you and what you want, you may reply to myself, ‘I like my red shirt; my energy is red this day. I appreciate your expression. I appreciate my expression.’ What you want is to openly outwardly express yourselves in genuineness in appreciation. How many of you have expressed to yourselves and to other individuals what you want is to generate love; how wondrous would our world be created if all individuals are expressing love. What is love? Your definition of love is affection. The truth of love is KNOWING and appreciation. These are the expressions of love, the knowing of WHAT you are appreciating. Now; how may you be expressing love if you do not know what you are appreciating, and if you are not appreciated? And how may you be appreciating if another individual is expressing differently from yourself? Within this time framework, you have chosen to be manifest within this society, this country. Are you appreciating of individuals that you view to be murderous in other countries? They are expressing their beliefs, with passion. They are expressing themselves in what they want. Are you in this forum this day expressing no judgment? Or are you expressing your comfort in your betterness? (Smiles) And I shall express to you, in other areas of your world they are also expressing their comfort in their betterness, in this same judgment that you express – (ironically) but your judgment is better, (laughter) and their judgment is worse, for their judgment is violent, and nonviolent is better. Is it? ROBERT: Generally. ELIAS: (Shrugs) And what does it matter? It is different. ROBERT: The difference would be if you decide to be violent enough to take a life, I think that would be a violation. ELIAS: Is it? ROBERT: I believe so. ELIAS: Ah! And this is the key: you believe so. You believe many expressions. It matters not what you believe, for beliefs are not absolutes. They are not truths. What you value are not absolutes. What do you value, life? ROBERT: Yes. ELIAS: Why? ROBERT: I think any life that is created is worth valuing. ELIAS: Do you value choice? ROBERT: Yes. ELIAS: Do you recognize that death is a choice? ROBERT: Yes. ELIAS: Therefore, what does it matter? They are choices. No individual may incur any action in relation to you that you do not choose. Therefore, what does it matter? ROBERT: It only matters to me. ELIAS: Correct. It matters to you and within your perception, which is not an absolute and does not apply to any other individual. ROBERT: It’s my truth. ELIAS: Yes, in a manner of speaking, figuratively. It is your perception. It is your preference. It is your opinion, which is acceptable. The key is recognizing that it is not an absolute, and that each other individual also incorporates their unique perception. Your perception is the mechanism that generates all of your physical reality. It is a MECHANISM that you incorporate within the design of your physical manifestation that projects an actual physical reality. What you yourself presently interact with in this moment is the energy projection of myself and all of these individuals present. Every individual that you view, that you physically visually see, you have created through the mechanism of your perception. You interact merely with their energy. You create the physical manifestations. Therefore, they are all a reflection of you. Every expression within your world that you perceive, you have created. If you incorporate an awareness of it, you have created it. Therefore, as you express judgment in absolutes, what do you judge? The reflection of you. You are not generating judgment of other individuals. Hypothetically, you are; genuinely, you are judging your own perception, your individual projection of your world. Your beliefs are expressed in strength and are tremendously influencing, and this is the significance of allowing yourselves to become familiar with your beliefs and allowing yourselves to recognize their existence. Know that you incorporate choice, for you do. You are not locked to any belief, but you also are not denied any belief. Individuals express, ‘Some beliefs are good, some beliefs are bad. I shall incorporate the good beliefs (laughter) and continue with the good beliefs, and I shall eliminate the bad beliefs,’ or, ‘I shall change the bad beliefs and create them to be good beliefs.’ Beliefs are merely beliefs. Duplicity is merely a belief. You may continue within your focus, FULLY shifted, and express within yourselves, ‘My preference is this, my opinion is this, and I express to myself that it is good.’ You may also not generate judgment, for you also recognize that no expression or belief is an absolute, and therefore in presenting yourself with a difference of another individual and their choice and their preferences, you genuinely incorporate the knowing that either expression matters not, they are preferences, and you generate this in genuinely allowing yourself to become familiar with you. And the manner in which you accomplish this is in the moment – in every moment – to be aware of the now, and to be aware of you and what you express and what you want, knowing your preferences, knowing your opinions, and knowing they are not absolutes.” [session 1105, June 08, 2002] JOANNE: Well, I sort of wanted to go back to a little bit about what we were talking about the last time, with the relationship that I’ve created with my husband and some of the things that I noticed. I noticed that I make things really, really uncomfortable for myself to the point where I just think okay, I want a divorce, I want out. I tell him that and then it’s really amazing how the whole dynamic of our relationship changes when I’m in this mode that the relationship is over. I give myself a whole bunch of freedom to do whatever I want to do. I just feel completely different and he’s completely different. It’s like night and day. The whole thing does a 180 when I do this. ELIAS: I am understanding. JOANNE: Then I get all confused because this isn’t so bad; this is actually kind of nice! I’m doing what I want, he’s being a nice person, we’re getting along better – and then I slip back into the married mode. Since everything’s going all right, maybe we should try again, not get divorced, and I create the whole thing again, the building up of the uncomfortableness. It builds and builds until I’m like, ‘Ugh, I want a divorce! I can’t take it anymore!’ I keep doing this. It’s even gotten to the point where it’s happening at the same time of year every year, and I can feel it building again. It was really interesting this last time to really pay attention to how everything changed on a dime. It wasn’t that we actually got divorced; it was just the way I was thinking, something I was doing inside. I know I’m just trying to show myself how I’m creating this, but it also made me look at other relationships that I had in the past when I did the same thing. I made myself so uncomfortable until I left and I gave myself the freedom that I wanted. I guess my question is, am I doing this and will I continue to do this until I just walk out the door? Or am I doing this to show myself my beliefs about what a married relationship is? Do you sort of understand what I’m saying? ELIAS: I am quite understanding what you are expressing. As to your first question – shall you continue to generate this to the point that you dissolve your partnership – this is your choice and this is not a question that I may necessarily be answering for you, for this is dependent upon your choices and which direction you choose to move in and what information you offer to yourself. Now; you are offering yourself more noticing, which is offering yourself much more information concerning what YOU create. In this, there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. You are correct, you generate this type of expression in similar time frameworks in association with seasons, which is also not a coincidence, for in other time frameworks throughout your year you offer yourself more distractions, which are associated with beliefs in relation to seasons. This particular season that you engage now, that of winter, individuals incorporate a strong mass belief that this is the time of year in which movement is slower, you are confined more, you do not incorporate as much allowance for fun, and you feel more restricted, which is a matter of perception in association with mass beliefs. As you are aware, not all individuals express these mass beliefs. There are some individuals that allow themselves quite a different perception in this particular season. But many individuals express similar associations with beliefs, as do you. Therefore, this is an interplaying factor also. But the most significant factor is your beliefs associated with different types of relationships, friendship versus partnership. Your beliefs express different associations with these different types of relationships, and you express different allowances and different expectations of yourself in association with different expressions of relationships. Now; in the time frameworks in which you express to your partner that you wish to dissolve your partnership, you allow yourself to pay attention to you and to express more of your freedom. You do not concern yourself with his perception and you allow yourself to continue generating a friendship with this individual. In this, you do not express expectations of him and you do not express expectations of yourself. For if you are experiencing a friendship, you are standing upon equal ground, so to speak, and you are both concerning yourselves with yourselves and not each other. Therefore, you also allow yourself a freedom to be appreciating of the other individual, for you are appreciating yourself more and the appreciation of the other individual is a natural by-product. Now; what becomes confusing is that in this allowance of yourself and the discontinuation of expressing expectations of yourself and the other individual, you generate pleasurable or comfortable experiences for you are appreciating yourself, you are appreciating the other individual, and you are offering yourself permission to be creating what you want and to express yourself in the manner that you want. As you experience that pleasure and comfort in the appreciation of friendship without the expectations, you begin to doubt your choice, and therefore you express to your partner that perhaps you shall attempt again to be engaging the relationship of partners. But this is all that is required in association with your beliefs – and his – to instantaneously change the relationship again. JOANNE: And it is instantaneous! ELIAS: I am aware! JOANNE: Seeing that last time just totally blew my mind. It was going to bed furious and waking up friends. ELIAS: Correct. JOANNE: Everything was okay; divorce would be fine. There were no problems. Then we could laugh and talk and I could say what I wanted. The minute we were going to try it again and stay married, it was instantaneous – he comes first, the kids come first, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. ELIAS: Correct, for you instantaneously alter your perception associated with the other beliefs and immediately move once again into these automatic responses and discounting of yourself and generating expectations in relation to yourself and to the other individual. You allow yourself to dissipate [those] rules in the friendship. But once you incorporate the idea of the partnership, the rules are once again expressed in force. It is, in a manner of speaking, figuratively, an action of erecting an immense wall immediately. (Pause) Now; in this, as I have stated, it is your choice in association with information that you are offering to yourself what you shall create, whether you view in this present time framework that you may incorporate the ability and allow yourself to generate the friendship and continue to be interactive with this individual and continue to incorporate the perception of friendship and incorporate the same dwelling, or whether you associate in this present now that this may be satisfactory temporarily but that you are not quite in a position with yourself that you can continue that type of expression if you continue to be occupying the same dwelling as the other individual. Let me caution you, my friend. Examine yourself carefully, for it does not serve you to force yourself to attempt to create a particular type of relationship that you may not necessarily be ready to incorporate yet. I am not expressing to you that you do not hold the ability to create this type of action; you do. But it matters not whether you incorporate an ability or not, but whether you REALIZE that you incorporate the ability. You incorporate the ability to levitate, but you do not express that. This is not to say that you cannot generate that action, for you can. You do incorporate that ability, but you do not realize that you incorporate that ability objectively yet. Therefore, the reality remains that you will not create that action. In similar manner, in any expression within your focus, I may express to you repeatedly what abilities you incorporate, and it matters not if you do not realize your abilities. (Pause) This is the significance of noticing, which you are doing, and paying attention to yourself and allowing yourself to evaluate what you may express in your freedom, IN COMFORT and without conflict or trauma, and what may be overwhelming. JOANNE: Right. I guess I’m sort of getting to the point where I realize that the relationship that I have created was working out exactly the way I believe relationships work out – marital relationships, partnerships. Even the relationships that I had in the past kind of took the same path, and I would make myself uncomfortable and leave. So then I was just sort of thinking that because of my beliefs maybe this is just my natural flow of energy, that after a period of time of being in a quote ‘relationship’ something inside says okay, it’s time to move on, and I make myself really uncomfortable until I give myself permission to do that, to move on. I just was thinking that maybe I’m doing this, and I’m doing it over and over again. But now I’ve added ‘married’; I’m not just dating. I throw the married thing on top and I’m making it virtually impossible to give myself permission to just do what I want. But if my natural way of creating is staying with a person for a certain amount of time and then wanting to move on, if that’s just me and the way I create, then maybe I should just stop beating myself up and stop forcing myself to do what I’m doing and let it just happen. ELIAS: I am understanding what you are expressing, but let me interject and express to you, you are partially correct and partially not. You are partially correct in your assessment of allowing yourself to create naturally and not fighting with yourself or discounting yourself or forcing your energy in a different manner. Also I may express to you that you are generating an association with past experiences in absolutes, expressing to yourself, ‘This is a pattern that I recognize that I have incorporated; therefore, it is absolute. It is just me, and this is the manner in which I shall continue to naturally move.’ No, that is incorrect. You have generated patterns, in similar manner to many other individuals, but they are not absolutes. They are choices and they are motivated in familiarity, for you generate a belief that you must be justifying that type of movement. If you are experiencing a lack of your own freedom in your expressions and you are wishing to express yourself differently, and you are wishing to express your desires and there is an involvement of another individual, you must justify that action. Therefore, you generate conflict and uncomfortableness to offer yourself that justification to dissolve the relationship. But it is not necessarily the relationship that is stifling. JOANNE: It’s just me creating it, doing it. ELIAS: Correct. JOANNE: So even if I left the relationship, I wouldn’t necessarily stop stifling myself. ELIAS: One moment – I am aware that my response to other individuals may have been affirmative, but in relation to YOU individually I may express ‘not necessarily.’ For in dissolving the partnership, you may offer yourself more freedom and you may also continue in your friendship and generate a different expression, which does not fit your pattern. Now; I am not advocating dissolving your partnership – it matters not in either direction. What is significant is what you offer to yourself in your choices. I am not expressing to you a direction to continue or discontinue. I am merely offering you information concerning your choices and the motivation of your choices. In this, in the strength of your beliefs and your automatic responses in relation to the relationship of a partnership or a marriage, so to speak, it is not impossible for you to be changing your perception and engaging different beliefs associated with friendship – but in this present now it is also unlikely. Whereas, in not expressing the partnership, as you already have evidenced to yourself, you immediately allow yourself your freedom, and you immediately turn your attention to you and discontinue concerning yourself with the relationship itself as an entity and with the other individual. MARJ: In other words, Elias, if she stays in the now and pays attention to what she wants and gives herself the freedom to have what she wants, these things will just fall into place? ELIAS: Correct. But I am also expressing the recognition of the strength of the beliefs that are being expressed presently. Therefore, this generates tremendous challenge. It is not impossible, but I am recognizing of the challenge which is involved in this type of action. In this, my friend Gildae [Joanne], allow yourself not to judge yourself but merely to recognize that whatever direction you move within it is merely a choice, and one choice is not better or worse than another choice. Some choices may incorporate more of a challenge in some expressions than other choices, but this does not make them worse. JOANNE: I guess I have seen how strong this particular belief is. ELIAS: Correct. JOANNE: It’s kind of like I just want it to go away. (Laughs) So I guess I’m looking for a way around it. ELIAS: Let me also express to you that you are generating a tremendous potential in this present now in relation to your choices of interrupting this familiar pattern, for you have created a foundation in the relationship that you express with this other individual and that also incorporates a strength. It may change, but the potential that you are expressing now is not to be moving in some of the residual familiar experiences associated with this pattern that you have established. In this, if you choose to be dissolving your partnership, the potential that you express presently – which is quite strong – is to continue in your friendship, which merely, in a manner of speaking, changes your partnership – which is not an action that you have incorporated previously. JOANNE: So with what I’m doing now, I’m creating the potential to stay friends? ELIAS: Correct. JOANNE: And before, I wasn’t? ELIAS: Correct, in an intimate friendship. For you have allowed yourselves both to be knowing of each others’ energy quite well, have you not? JOANNE: You know, it’s really funny, you’re talking and every now and then I can’t hear you. (Both laugh) Mom’s sitting here nodding her head and I’m like, ‘I’m not hearing anything! What am I blocking out?’ (Laughs) ELIAS: You shall, when you are ready. (Pause) JOANNE: All right. I’m going to stop there with this because evidently I’m not ready to hear something. ELIAS: Very well. JOANNE: You had said something last time about automatic responses. I have noticed with my children lately – I’m having a really hard time with them, too – that what it feels like to me is whenever they talk to me it’s because they want something. They want me to do something for them or they want me to take them somewhere or get them something or do something. After you had said something about automatic responses, the other day one of them asked me to take them somewhere and the feelings that I had were unbelievable. I was so mad and so upset. This rage just came from out of nowhere, and I had to turn around and walk away from them. At that point I noticed that that’s pretty much my reaction whenever they ask me for something, only I wasn’t paying attention to the feelings so much as automatically saying either yes or no or I’ll think about it, or just saying something to get them to stop for a minute. But I never really paid attention to that feeling inside, and I was so mad. The only thing that I could think of in relation to that was I have really strong beliefs about wanting things and that you shouldn’t want things, if that makes any sense. ELIAS: This is partially correct, and this is a strong association that you generate in relation to your beliefs. It is also influenced by your desire to not be incorporating the demands of other individuals. You have denied your choices for an extended time framework, and you are expressing quite loud communications to yourself in relation to acknowledging yourself and offering yourself your freedom and allowing yourself to direct you and not succumbing to the demands and the dictates of other individuals. Therefore, in any moment that any other individual requests some action from you that you be engaging, you trigger that immediate association with your own communications in not allowing other individuals to dictate to you. JOANNE: I heard that one loud and clear. It was just that I couldn’t believe the depth. Then I thought about the fire and the explosions, and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah – this could make me explode!’ ELIAS: Quite! I am quite understanding. Let me express to you also, my friend, these signals and these communications merely grow louder and louder and louder. For your attention is directed now in a manner in which you are acknowledging your desire to be paying attention to you and to be expressing your freedom. Therefore, each time you deny yourself, you express a louder communication to yourself identifying that. JOANNE: It is getting louder. It feels like it’s getting harder and harder to control myself. Before, if somebody wanted something and I believed it was something I should do, I could pretty much get myself to do it right away. But now it’s so hard to do just the everyday things that I always did without that feeling of the explosion thing, the rage. ELIAS: I am understanding. JOANNE: I get so angry and try to keep a lid on it and do the things I believe I have to do. ELIAS: And the more that you generate that type of action, the stronger the signals become. JOANNE: I guess I’m asking for permission here. (Elias laughs) When I feel that and I really don’t want to do whatever it is that someone’s asking me to do, is it okay to say, ‘I don’t want to do that – I’m not doing it’? ELIAS: Yes! If you may not offer yourself your own permission, accept mine, for I offer it freely to you. JOANNE: (Quietly) Thank you. That’s a toughie. It sort of goes together with the weight that I’ve gained over the last 15 years, since I got married. Is that a reflection or a projection of me pushing down these feelings of denying myself the things that I want? ELIAS: Yes, and discounting yourself and therefore projecting an image of yourself that reflects how you associate with yourself and devaluing yourself, for it is an image that you do not like. JOANNE: I had sort of thought about diet and exercise, and I hate that because that immediately falls into an ‘I have to’ category and I want to turn away from that. But then I started to think about appreciating myself and of a method to begin appreciating myself. Although it feels like I ‘have to’ with exercise, if I begin doing that and try to keep my attention on doing this – even though I don’t like it, I’m doing it – to begin appreciating myself, to show myself in an objective manner that I appreciate me, my body, who I am. I don’t know if I’m expressing this... ELIAS: I am understanding. I shall offer you a suggestion that shall incorporate both without effort and without the perception of work. Allow yourself to incorporate a walk, a time framework in which you may be experiencing aloneness with yourself, a time framework in which you may appreciate yourself. You may observe your environment. You may be incorporating a walk through town and viewing your shops. You may incorporate a walk through your countryside and appreciate the landscape. Appreciate your time with you, allowing yourself to express yourself in whatever manner you choose, but incorporating the movement of walking. JOANNE: Whenever I thought about anything that has to do with me, like getting my hair done or clothes shopping, I always come up with this automatic response of I don’t feel like it, I’m too tired. I realized that to begin appreciating myself and feeling my own sense of self–worth I was going to have to force myself to do that, otherwise I would just keep saying I’m too tired to do it. ELIAS: Not necessarily. You may not necessarily incorporate any particular destination or any particular outcome or any particular action that you view as an outward expression of appreciation of yourself, but merely an incorporation of time with your own presence. JOANNE: Okay, I think I see a glimmer of the difference between them. ELIAS: Incorporating walking and paying attention to yourself and allowing yourself to move in whatever direction you choose expresses no preconceived destination and no intentional action that you must be forcing your energy to accomplish to express your appreciation of yourself – which in actuality you do not accomplish, for it is a false accomplishment anyway. For you may be incorporating your salon, engaging a new style for your hair, and momentarily it may seem pleasurable, but it is not a genuine appreciation of yourself. It is an attempt to be expressing some outward manifestation that SHOULD be appreciative of yourself, but the underlying is not. Whereas, if you are not offering yourself any preconceived destination or action of accomplishment and merely allowing yourself to walk and be present with yourself, you offer yourself the freedom to move in whichever direction you choose. You may incorporate one direction and in the midst of that direction choose to alter it, and this is acceptable also. It is a matter of freedom and allowing yourself to appreciate the time framework in which you are incorporating a presence with you. (Pause) JOANNE: It feels really sad to say, but I have no idea how to do that – but I’ll figure it out. (Both laugh) ELIAS: Merely point yourself in a direction and move your feet! (Laughs) JOANNE: It’s funny. I’m not even the kind of person that could just get in the car and go for a ride. I have to go somewhere and have a destination. ELIAS: I am understanding. JOANNE: I guess I have to learn how to just do it without a destination or a goal, just what I feel like. ELIAS: Experiment – you may be incorporating fun. There is a generation of great pleasure in simple movements.” [session 1241, January 09, 2003] ELIAS: “Good morning! DALE/MARY: Good morning! ELIAS: And how is your adventure proceeding? (Dale and Mary crack up) DALE: Isn’t that ‘adventures’? ELIAS: Very well! DALE: I think first I would like to try to identify my most familiar automatic response. ELIAS: Very well! DALE: I had a ‘top ten’ list! I’m not really sure if this is what it is, but I think it’s disappointment and frustration in that I’m not allowing myself my freedom and the use of all of my abilities NOW. ELIAS: And how does this manifest in automatic response? DALE: I feel like I’m not getting it all now... ELIAS: Correct. DALE: ...connecting to all of me now, and so I feel like I’m separated. ELIAS: And your automatic response is to be associating that you are not good enough yet and that you must continue to strive to be better. DALE: Yep. ELIAS: Correct. DALE: There’s a confusion, in that part of me gets the connection to my thrifty method and halting it now, and the confusing part is... It’s not confusing. (Elias and Dale laugh) It’s not confusing, but it is frustrating. (2)
ELIAS: And your frustration... DALE: I mean, I’m just very... Why won’t I? That’s the frustrating part, because I do recognize that it is me and that I’m preventing myself, but I also am not identifying, other than fear, that I don’t allow myself. ELIAS: Your frustration is expressed in the lack of appreciation in the moment. You understand the concepts, you actualize the reality, but what you do not engage is acknowledging an appreciation in the now for what you ARE doing. You appreciate the past – what you HAVE done – and you acknowledge yourself in what you HAVE accomplished pastly, but in the now you are not acknowledging and appreciating what you are generating now. This is what creates your frustration, for this is what motivates your automatic response in expressing to yourself that you could be accomplishing better, which is an expression of the future in anticipation. DALE: I’m sure you saw at least the three different ways I went there. I do recognize that, because I notice that somebody will say something that they accomplished and they’ll be very appreciative of themselves. And I notice that when I accomplished it, my thought was, ‘It’s about time!’ ELIAS: Correct. DALE: I mean, to myself. I don’t acknowledge that it was anything to be feeling appreciative of, because I feel like I... You know, oh well. ELIAS: Correct, for your automatic association is that you should have accomplished that action sooner. DALE: I do get the discounting in that, but then there’s also the part of how do I, not accomplish better... It’s not all related to discounting, though. You know what I mean? ELIAS: Yes. DALE: And so there’s the other part of a huge desire to shift NOW. ELIAS: Correct, but you accomplish that action not merely in paying attention to the now but paying attention to you. What is meant in this statement of ‘paying attention to you’ is not merely being aware of yourself, your preferences, your influences, your beliefs, your perception, but also acknowledging and appreciating what you are generating now, regardless of what direction you are moving within. This is the one expression that you continue to not incorporate, the appreciation of yourself in what you are generating now. You do, as I have stated, incorporate a considerable appreciation, Jene [Dale], of what you have offered to yourself in information and accomplishments with regard to the past, but each of those past accomplishments have been expressed in a moment of the now. What you seek to shift is to be appreciating of those accomplishments in the now, not in the future. DALE: Yes! I feel like another aspect of this is in my explorations of the trying to feel self worth or feeling accomplished. In the trying of it, I also noticed that the whole idea of accomplishing or getting worth also creates the duplicity of that; that within just being, there is no accomplishing. Not to say that there’s no value to existence, but that I see through duplicity that those terms can be used to justify... ELIAS: Correct. DALE: ...what is, rather than it just being. ELIAS: Correct. Although, in association with the term ‘accomplishment,’ you may associate this term with manifestation. It is not an acquisition, it is not an action of aspiring to, but rather the manifestation. And manifestation is not always a creation of a thing. It may be a realization of a concept, or it may be a realization of a belief or an aspect of yourself. It may be an expression. Not necessarily a physical thing, so to speak, but regardless, accomplishment is the expression of the manifestation. DALE: I get that! That’s like a bridge. ELIAS: Yes. DALE: I mean, in my objective thinking. I would say outside of my objective thinking, too, but I am trying to do this in objective reality, so... ELIAS: Correct. DALE: Oh, that just lets go of the conflict that I can create about it. (Elias laughs) I sure like to make things difficult! I would like to talk to you about an experience that I know happened twice, possibly three times, in the last couple of days. Last night I really paid attention to it. The whole room – I really wouldn’t like to say my room – my physical vision completely fogged, and then you started blinking the light on and off in the living room and then in the kitchen, and then I danced. What exactly was that? Or does it even matter? (3) ELIAS: And what is your impression? DALE: My impression is that it was an allowance of connection and that the details really don’t matter. ELIAS: In a manner of speaking, you are correct. In this, the exchange of energy was expressed to offer you information concerning the action of flexibility and the allowance of yourself to relax the rigidity of your focus. (Pause) Many times, let me express to you, Jene [Dale], you incorporate a rigidness, which contributes to your frustration. Allowing yourself to incorporate more of a flexibility in relaxing your focus in any direction may generate more of an ease. Now; I shall express to you, although you are quite correct that you do incorporate a preference associated with difficulty – and therefore this also is to be recognized and acknowledged that in some situations that you generate you do create difficulties, for this creates an emphasis within you in which you concentrate your attention in what you are manifesting – but at other times, you may be generating much less frustration if you are allowing yourself to incorporate more flexibility and allowing yourself to relax your attention in the direction of what you may be focusing upon in the moment. Are you understanding? DALE: I believe so. I’ve been exploring this for quite awhile and at times I do get the difference between not the trying to do anything but allowing it, and how trying to do it actually is creating the obstacles. ELIAS: Correct. DALE: It’s quite challenging! ELIAS: I am aware! DALE: But I have done it! ELIAS: I am aware of this also! Now perhaps you may begin acknowledging and appreciating this doing in the now rather than merely expressing your acknowledgment of what you HAVE done. DALE: Yes! (Elias and Dale laugh) Yes, yes.” [session 1276, February 19, 2003] LYNDA: “... we’ve heard from our brother Abel [Jerry]. He’s in a pickle. I’m going to read some of his stuff and he asks for your input and comments. ‘Today is a much better day. I think I’m standing on the edge of my shift and I know I need to jump into it. Elias will tell me to quiet myself and listen, and of course I don’t want to. It’s been an ungodly 14 months, a lot of loss – step-dad who raised me, step-mom, my French lover broke up with me, and no movement in my career possibilities. My addictions are kicking in – always a bad sign – but also a sign of uneasiness and therefore movement. I’m just in that miserably self-involved place that screams, ‘What am I doing here?’ I also want to move from New York City, but I can’t see financial viability for that for at least a year. I know I’m to write; I’ve always known that. Through that writing comes both healing for others and myself, but that isn’t taking off. I’m spending all my time making money in areas I don’t particularly like. So I will continue with my meditation, stay quiet, and see what answers come. Jerry’ (Pause) ELIAS: Let me begin in expressing in conjunction with your first request. In your traditions in your reality, in this time framework of each year it is a time of reflection. In this season, that may be especially significant. For as I have expressed throughout this time framework of this particular year, many times this has been and continues to be a time framework of extremes and they are quite easily generated. Most individuals within your reality are generating some type of extremes and have been throughout this particular year. It has been a time of tremendous movement. It has been a time of tremendous acceleration in shifting. It has been and continues to be a time of significant change, but also a time of great revelation. It is significant to allow reflection of the movement that has been generated in this year and to acknowledge the accomplishments and the revelations that have been experienced and expressed. It is easy to focus attention upon experiences that you view to be negative or uncomfortable. It is easy to discount yourself and forget the acknowledgment, and it is easy to forget that even in generating uncomfortable experiences you continue to offer yourselves information. With each uncomfortable experience is generally also an open avenue to be exploring different elements of yourself and examining your truths. Therefore, it is also an opportunity to be accepting. Loss is one of your most challenging experiences, for it emphasizes your belief of separation, and in that emphasis, it is not merely intellectual but experienced. In reflecting, it is important to remember what you are doing: shifting. It is important to remember what that shifting is and means. One of the actions of shifting is thinning these veils of separation and in that generating more of an avenue for the continuance of interaction between individuals that continue within physical focus and those that have disengaged, perhaps remembering that the term ‘dead’ is merely a term for an action, not an ending. It is an action of a choice, a direction, but not an ending. The energy of each individual continues merely in another direction, but also continues to be available. In this thinning of these veils of separation, the individuals that have disengaged are also becoming much more aware of their ability to project energy through layers of consciousness to be interactive with individuals that continue within physical focus. Therefore, it is an exchange as it was in the participation of both individuals within physical focus, rather than merely an interaction with an energy deposit. In association with loss of relationship, I am understanding of the challenge that is presented in that scenario and the difference. For although you perceive it quite similarly, there is a knowing that the other individual is continuing within physical focus. Therefore the difference that may be expressed within the individual is that of discounting of self rather than merely grieving, and questioning of self of what the individual has expressed in wrong manner to cause the dissolvement of the relationship. This is another situation in which it is significant to be remembering – remembering information, remembering self and acknowledging self – and rather than generating the doubts and discounting of self, to be acknowledging of the accomplishments, appreciating what you have presented to yourself, what you have allowed yourself in the offering and the receiving of the relationship, and to recognize that as the relationship dissolved, it is not a matter of wrong-doing or blame but that each individual may be moving in a new direction. As to Abel’s [Jerry’s] direction, it would be one of genuinely moving into an expression of more focus upon self, generating a time framework to be becoming more intimately familiar with self and preferences and abilities, to be acknowledging and appreciating self and thusly allowing more freedom, rather than projecting attention to another individual and acquiescing to the wants or the directions or the choices of the other individual and placing the value of the other individual above own. As to the writing and feeling stuck and expressing impatience and forcing energy in directions that are unwanted and disliked, this is another opportunity, as you are aware already, to generate that quietness and listen to your own communications, to be exploring your own preferences and discovering what they are and allowing the expression of those preferences, and also remembering that the accomplishment in the writing shall be expressed if the writing is not forced and if it is engaged as fun, not as a chore – without a mission and without focusing upon the outcome – but remembering the process and acknowledging and incorporating fun in the process, and in that process to be remembering to acknowledge rather than discount – the more the discounting, the more the discomfort. Therefore in the time framework of recall and remembering and acknowledging and appreciating, my suggestion is to be aware and not to be forcing energy, to be aware of the hesitations that are experienced and acknowledge those hesitations and examine them, and to allow yourself an awareness of what you are denying yourself and therefore allow yourself new choices. You may express to this individual also that I shall most assuredly be generating my energy in strength, in power, in supportiveness and in tremendous encouragement, but most of all in friendship. LYNDA: Okay. I think I’ll call him up when we’re done here and play him the tape. That’s awesome. Thank you. ELIAS: You are quite welcome. [session 1670, December 05, 2004] ELIAS: “... What would you each identify as an expression of opposition? How do you oppose in any manner? PAUL: War. ELIAS: You, yourself. PAUL: Oh. (Group laughter) Sometimes! SUSAN: I get quiet and withdraw from the conversation. ELIAS: Yes, that can be – not always. It is dependent upon the motivation. But that can be an expression of opposition, although surfacely it does not necessarily appear to be. GEORGE: I get angry. ELIAS: That is an obvious expression of opposition. RONDA: I don’t hear. ELIAS: That can be another expression of opposition. GEORGE: I get confused. ELIAS: At times. HOWARD: Frustration. ELIAS: That can be, but once again is not always an expression of opposition. But it can be. LYNDA: Defensive. ELIAS: Defensive – most definitely, ALWAYS an expression of opposition. ALICIA: I become impatient. ELIAS: Impatience can also be an expression of opposition. PAUL: Passing judgment. ELIAS: Definitely. MICHAEL: Aggression. ELIAS: Definitely. Comparison is an expression of opposition. NAOMI: Denial. ELIAS: Yes, at times. Concerning yourself with what other individuals’ perception is is another form of opposition, for it is a form of defense, and any form of defense is opposing. There are many, many forms of opposition that may be expressed in many moments in each of your days. At times even compromise and even acquiescing can be a form of opposing. Agitation can be a form of opposing. The point is – especially in this time framework, as I have stated, as it is so easily expressed to be opposing – it is highly significant that you pay attention and be aware of yourself and intentionally cooperate. Cooperation may be expressed in many avenues, and it does not include compromise. Once again, compromise is another form of opposing and therefore is not the point. Cooperation is an action that may be expressed and does not require agreement or like. It is not necessary for you to like certain expressions. I may express to you now, it is not even necessary for you to like other individuals. (Laughter) You all incorporate some individuals that you do not or have not liked. If you have not experienced that in your focus, which is HIGHLY unlikely, I may almost guarantee that before you choose to disengage you shall encounter someone that you do not like! (Group laughter) But ‘like’ is not necessary for cooperation. Agreeing with another individual or situation is not necessary for cooperation [and] in similarity to agreement or liking, is not necessary for acceptance. You may be accepting and continue to hold to your own individual guidelines, your preferences and your opinions, and hold to yourself in an appreciation of yourself and your choices but not discounting differences and what you do not like or what you do not agree with. It is a matter of being present with yourself, recognizing that your dislike of some expression or manifestation or individual is associated with a lack of preference of that particular expression, but it does not necessarily express that it is bad or that it must be eliminated. In the appreciation and the presence of yourself, what you alter is the threat of what you do not like or what you are not in agreement with. Generally speaking, there is an element of threat associated with what you dislike. In some manner, it threatens you. There is also, generally speaking, some element of threat in what you do not agree with. If you are generating cooperation and presence with yourself and an acknowledgment in appreciation of yourself, the difference, the dislike, the disagreement shall not threaten you, and therefore you shall incorporate the objective ability to not oppose it or to not oppose yourself, of which you do both. You do not merely oppose outside of yourselves with other individuals; you frequently oppose yourselves. You oppose yourselves in what you create, in what you manifest, in what you do not manifest, in what you cannot manifest in your perception, in what you are not manifesting well enough or good enough or fast enough. You oppose yourselves in many, many manners quite frequently. But if you are genuinely present with yourself, you shall know if you are opposing, for that type of awareness of your actual existence encompasses all of yourself. It is not the identification of any of those individual elements that each of you expressed in response, but it encompasses all of them. Therefore, you shall incorporate an awareness of you. You also shall begin, in that awareness of you, to genuinely appreciate the magnificence of the being that you are, for you shall allow yourself to experience your beingness in a more continual manner, not merely in situations in which you have shot your foot! (Group laughter) Now; I shall open to questions in relation to YOUR experiences of being present or not being present and more so – for I am quite aware that most of you do not incorporate many examples of actually being present YET, but you shall! – but more so sharing, and we shall discuss examples of opposing, for this is very significant in this time framework. Let me express to you, my friends, it matters not whether you actually participate in some mass event that is disturbing to you; physically, you are participating regardless. Therefore, it is the manner in which you are participating that is significant. I am aware that all of you would choose, in your common terms, in your perceptions, to generate what you would term to be the perfect world. In actuality, it is already perfect in the manner it is expressed. But your idea of the perfect world would be Utopia, one of continuous harmony, or at least one in which there is not severe violence and one in which you are not generating such severity in extremes in opposition. But masses are comprised of individuals; there can be no mass without individuals. Therefore, it is the energy of the individuals that create the mass and the energy of the individuals that ripple throughout consciousness that create opposition or cooperation. As you perceive extreme situations and extreme expressions occurring within your reality, what type of energy are you projecting and which are you contributing to? Opposition or cooperation? Do you cooperate or do you oppose in your interactions with the individuals within your environment? Are you cooperating or opposing with yourselves? What type of actions and interactions are you yourselves generating? For that is not merely confined to your individual environment. Consciousness is consciousness, and it is all interconnected. Whatever you express is connected to all other expressions of consciousness and is generating a contribution. What you do not like within your world presently and what you do not agree with presently you can express cooperation with and generate alterations. But if you are opposing in equal measure to what you oppose, you merely perpetuate that type of energy being expressed within your reality. If you express similar energy in opposition to the actions of other individuals as has motivated them, you are expressing no differently in your energy. KC: I have a question then. I live in Kentucky and we have the expressway, and it pretty much encircles my house. There are two expressways. But there’s my little back street, and I have the trees overhanging. I’ve always taken the little back streets and felt so glad they were there. There was a mobile home park, and it was old and just loaded with trees; you didn’t even know it was there. Well, they tore all the trees down and they moved all those people away and they’re putting in a big shopping center, big hardware stores and everything. It’s right on the other side of the train tracks from my house, which are right on the other side of the expressway from my house. My belief is, of course, that the hill they’ve built up and the trees they’ve taken down and the buildings they’ve put up are going to bounce all the sounds over to my house. So I’ve been opposing. I haven’t said anything to the city, but I’m saying to people that I’m going to go to the city meeting and just keep my mouth shut and just listen and see what they say, and see if I can get a wall built up around the expressway. I’ve been opposing, haven’t I? ELIAS: Yes. KC: It dawned on me, because they, the big ‘they,’ which is me, are defining progress one way and I’m defining progress another way. But I’ve been kind of laying low, because I’ve been half noticing that I’ve been opposing and not quite knowing what to do. Knowing there’s a shift really is helpful, because I’ve been thinking, especially during the truth wave (4), that our energy’s going to draw what we need right to us and show us. Sometimes it shows us what we don’t like. ELIAS: Correct. KC: I think in the back of my mind it’s kind of sneaky and tricky, because I know I can create the trees and the back roads and I kind of know I don’t have to move in order to do it. But then I’m kind of stuck, because I really don’t want to move. See, moving is one of my options. I could move to the country and have all the trees I want, but that’s not really the point because that’s not really what I want. I really like where I live. I think I can create it quiet like I like it with enough trees that I’m happy and still have the expressway representing the energy highway and still have the stores handy that I can go to and get hardware. ANNE: Do we have a question to ask? LYNDA: She’s getting to it. KC: Well, the question was, was I opposing or not, because I do know that I was. But I’m trying to ask am I on the right track with creating what I want and learning not to oppose? Because I’m really opposed to this shopping center. ELIAS: I am aware. KC: I really am! So what do I do to stop opposing it? ELIAS: I am aware. This in actuality is an example that may be quite helpful in presenting a situation in which there are other individuals that want one manifestation and you want another manifestation. You are aware that you incorporate options and that you can generate different choices, but as you have expressed, that is not the point. For you have moved into a perception of either/or – there are two choices, either they win and create what they want, or you win and create what you want. There is no cooperation. It is a matter of compromise at this point. Perhaps you can compromise – in your perception – allowing them to create what they want partially, but compromising also with yourself, allowing you to partially create what you want. This also moves you into automatic types of associations in different manners. One is that you are not creating all of your reality, but also another dangerous avenue, that if you are creating all of your reality, you should incorporate the ability to create whatever you want irregardless of any other individual within your reality. KC: Yes. Shouldn’t I? ELIAS: Interesting question! One element of that question would be to define precisely what you actually want, not merely in the black and white terms of trees versus shopping. (Turning to look at Lynda) No, we are not incorporating a shopping wave! (Group laughter) But in this, you are moving into an expression that is quite commonly expressed by most individuals. You narrow your perception, you focus strongly upon the obvious imagery, but you are not necessarily incorporating a presence with yourself to understand all of what motivates you and what you are presenting to yourself, what information you are presenting to yourself in creating this, in generating this new insertion into your reality. For once again, moving in the other direction, there is the automatic association that YOU are not inserting this into your reality. Other individuals are inserting this into your reality and encroaching upon your reality. But YOU have presented that in your reality and you have presented it for a reason, to offer yourself information, to offer yourself an avenue to be exploring different elements of yourself, to be exploring your abilities, your preferences – not merely the preferences that are the obvious surface preferences, but also to genuinely become more familiar with what YOU are actually doing. You inserted that into your reality. Other individuals did not create an intrusiveness to you. Had you not created that and presented that to yourself, it would not be. KC: Sometimes I almost believe it. (Group laughter, and Elias grins and nods) Because I know the words, and I’ve read the words over and over and over and over. ELIAS: Yes. KC: I precisely and immaculately draw these things to me, and if I wasn’t, they wouldn’t be there. At least I just relax me, because I do believe I will not betray myself. I do believe that most of the time, even when I oppose these things that I think other people are doing to me! See, these real wants and their real value, besides the surface imagery of expressways, trees and shopping, is we are inserting the shift. My real, real, real strong desire is to get to know me, despite everything else. ELIAS: Precisely! PAT: That’s what you’re doing! ELIAS: Precisely, and therefore you insert into your reality certain imageries that challenge you and that motivate you to be evaluating and examining. Remember, value is not always expressed in comfort. Yes? ALICIA: I’m Alicia/Tisara. I have been, I think, opposing myself a LOT lately. I wasn’t at the New Orleans session (5) but I read the transcript, and what became clear to me about myself is that I fear myself and I also irritate myself. I’m really struggling right now trying to pay attention to myself, but I’m not doing a very good job... ELIAS: Stop! Acknowledge. ALICIA: What I just did? I discounted myself. Well, I know that I do that, but I do it anyway! I feel like in the last six months I have presented myself with really harsh imagery. Right now I’m really feeling financially destitute. I don’t like my job. My kids are constantly screaming and yelling and fighting with each other. I don’t feel like I’m moving in the direction that I want to be. I feel like I have all these lacks. The kicker is that I’ve been trying to have sessions with you since March and I think that I’m opposing them, which I don’t understand, and I get really angry with myself. My question is, can you clarify or help me clarify what I’ve been doing these last few months that seem to me to be harsh and frustrating? ELIAS: Yes. You are generating considerable opposition with yourself and with your environment and with most of what you create. In that opposition with yourself, you are not allowing yourself any expression of appreciation. You are merely continuing to reinforce a discounting of yourself, which moves in an extreme to the point in which you do not deserve to be engaging conversation with myself – within YOUR perception – for you are undeserving of much of anything in this time framework, for all that you do appears to fail. Let me express to you, my friend, first of all I shall offer to you a simple exercise that I am instructing of you to be incorporating within a time framework of two of your weeks. In this, within each day you shall express in different moments three different elements of yourself that you appreciate. ALICIA: (Softly) That’s tough. Here’s the opposing part, that I can feel myself resisting it... ELIAS: Yes! ALICIA: ...and I don’t want to resist it! ELIAS: I am aware. But do not attempt to oppose further in opposing the opposition! Acknowledge that this is what you are experiencing and allow yourself to note that. It is not a matter now of attempting to change that. It has become too familiar and too extreme. Therefore, engaging the exercise shall interrupt that automatic discounting of yourself that is continuously occurring. In interrupting that, it creates a different type of energy. I may express to you, at the closing of one of your weeks you shall be noticing [differently], and you shall be experiencing [differently] and expressing [differently]. But continue the exercise regardless, for that reinforces your acknowledgment of yourself and generates it into much more of a familiarity. In the moments that you notice yourself opposing, which is frequently, do not attempt to push away; merely acknowledge that that is what you are expressing. Attempting to eliminate or push away reinforces, and reinforces your discounting of yourself. ALICIA: Let me give you an example, I think, of what you’re saying. Let’s say that I’m working at thinking of three things that I appreciate about myself in the day. I’ll say something to myself like I think I appreciate the fact that I was better organized. Then I’ll feel myself saying that’s so stupid! So what you’re saying is when I do that, don’t say that it’s stupid that you think that it’s stupid. ELIAS: Yes, yes. ALICIA: I’m just noticing that I said it’s stupid, so it’s out there but I’m doing this anyway. ELIAS: Yes, and release, yes. For that also is a release of energy and allows you to move eventually more easily in that appreciation and acknowledge it and not automatically discount your own appreciation. Initially that may occur, but eventually you shall present to yourself enough expression of appreciation that you shall notice you are not automatically expressing to yourself ‘oh, that is stupid’ or ‘that is not a good enough appreciation.’ It matters not what the appreciation is. It can be that you appreciate the shoes that you are wearing this moment. It can be that you appreciate the shape of your fingernails. It can be ANY expression of appreciation; it matters not. (Strongly) That automatically changes your energy. You may be opposing in the next moment, but in the moment that you are expressing that genuine appreciation, you cannot be opposing. ALICIA: Even if I’m discounting it as I say that appreciation to myself? Even if I try to take it away in the next step, it’s still out there? ELIAS: Correct. You have already expressed a different energy. Even if within the next moment you return and continue to express the familiar energy, it matters not. The point is that you have interrupted it momentarily and you are offering yourself the experience of interrupting it, and that becomes more familiar and it becomes more powerful as you continue to do it. ALICIA: Are there reasons why in the last six months out of my 49 years I’ve been in such intense opposition with myself? ELIAS: And what is your assessment? ALICIA: There must be a reason... ELIAS: What have you noticed? ALICIA: What have I noticed in terms of what? ELIAS: Of yourself. ALICIA: I could tell you I don’t notice enough about myself, but that’s discounting! ELIAS: What is changing? How are you assessing yourself to this point differently? ALICIA: I’m not sure I am, but I must be. But that’s where I don’t notice. I’m not paying attention to something. ELIAS: In actuality, in similarity to many, many, many individuals, you are not paying attention to many aspects. In this, there are underlying issues and beliefs that are being expressed somewhat subtly but in some overt manners also. [It is] merely a question of paying attention and recognizing what they are associated with. In this point in your focus, one element concerns age. One element concerns age in relation to accomplishment – what has or has not been accomplished. One element in association with age concerns generating what YOU want rather than acquiescing to what other individuals want and generating a perception that that is nearly impossible, not wanting to participate in demands but perceiving that it is almost necessary, NOT SEEING YOUR FREEDOM, moving to a crossroad within your focus in your experience and standing upon that crossroad and being unsure of which way to move, somewhat knowing what you wish you could do but not acknowledging that you actually incorporate the strength and the power and the ability to do it and accomplish. Concentrate upon this exercise first, and we shall be discussing. For this is significant that you allow yourself this exercise to interrupt that movement and initially offer yourself some expression of ease, some expression of acknowledgment to not be generating this intensity of agitation, which is difficult to penetrate. ALICIA: Thank you. ELIAS: You are welcome. One more question and we shall break. GEORGE: I have a general question regarding this – I’m George, focus of Gregor – that if we do this exercise that you just suggested, that in general if you’re doing things they become more familiar. As they become more familiar, they become more powerful, actually. ELIAS: Yes. GEORGE: So this would be useful for anyone... ELIAS: Yes. GEORGE: ...to engage in to develop a more powerful sense of appreciation. ELIAS: Yes. I may express to you, appreciation generates one of the MOST POWERFUL expressions of energy that you can generate. It may be rivaled merely by an intensity of fear, an extreme of fear. But as many of you may be aware within your experiences, fear can be a POWERFUL expression of energy and it can create powerful expressions and destructive expressions, and can be expressed to such an extreme that you can even generate a physical manifestation of it. You can configure energy of fear into an actual physical being. That is how powerful that energy expression is. But appreciation is more powerful than fear. GEORGE: Appreciation is, you might say, the antidote to fear. So if we deliberately chose to appreciate ourselves every day, at least three times a day, that will become much more powerful in our experience. ELIAS: Yes. GEORGE: Thank you. ELIAS: You are quite welcome. KAREN: ... Elias, my name is Karen. I have a question about when I’m experiencing opposition with another person. To incorporate ease, should I put the focus on myself and appreciate myself in those moments and the magnificence of my being, or should I focus on the other person and appreciate some aspect of that person that would allow me to break the connection of opposition? ELIAS: Both. KAREN: Could you please explain? ELIAS: Yes. If you are generating some element of conflict or opposition with another individual, first incorporate a moment – and in actuality it merely requires a moment – in which you momentarily disappear the other individual. They are no longer standing before you. Whether you are viewing them physically standing before you or not, in a moment pretend that individual no longer exists. Therefore, it is now a question of what is triggering and motivating the opposition or defense or whatever you are experiencing within you. It is not being projected by the other individual; they are not causing what is occurring. Some element within you is being triggered and threatened and therefore is generating an automatic response of threat. If you cannot evaluate in that moment what is motivating that opposition within yourself – what is your fear, what are you defending, what are you being threatened by – do not dwell and continue to attempt to evaluate, but merely acknowledge and accept: this is what I am experiencing; now move my attention to some element of appreciation of myself in this moment, regardless of what it is. Once you have generated some expression of appreciation with yourself in that moment, reappear the other individual. Focus upon the other individual visually, not entirely, with your attention. Allow a balance in which you continue to be aware of yourself but you are also including an awareness of the other individual. The exclusion of attention in either direction is an extreme, and this is not a balance and to be avoided. But once refocusing upon the other individual, generate some element of appreciation of the other individual also, regardless of what it is. That instantly changes your energy. If the interaction or the opposition or the conflict is to a degree of uncomfortableness and appears to you that it is more exceedingly challenging to reconfigure that energy, allow yourself to actually express that appreciation to the other individual. That interrupts the conflict, for the subject is altered. It interrupts the other individual’s concentration in the conflict, it interrupts your concentration of the conflict, and it projects a very different energy, which the other individual shall immediately respond to. KAREN: That appreciation can be similar to the appreciations you listed for the appreciation exercise, even something like ‘I like your shirt’? ELIAS: Yes. KAREN: It doesn’t have to be grand. ELIAS: Yes.” [session 1799, July 16, 2005] DANIIL: “In fighting fear we perpetuate it, so what other beneficial habit is next to fear that will alleviate fear? ELIAS: Appreciation. Appreciation neutralizes fear, but genuine appreciation not artificial. DANIIL: Appreciation as in appreciation of one’s self as well as appreciation of others? ELIAS: Yes. But as we discussed earlier, appreciation is an unfamiliar action to many of you. Therefore, it is advisable that you begin in increments. For the point is not to overwhelm yourselves, and also not to snare yourselves or trap yourselves in a manner in which you are attempting to generate an appreciation and in a moment, if you are unsuccessful, that you immediately discount yourself and perpetuate this devaluing of yourself. Fear is an expression of powerlessness. Therefore, the point would not to be reinforcing that but to be interrupting it with something that can become familiar to you, although it is unfamiliar initially. This is the reason that it is significant to practice with acknowledgment and appreciation to acknowledge what you have accomplished, acknowledge what you ARE doing – credit yourselves not other individuals. Many individuals also generate traps with themselves for they may be experiencing a time framework in which they are expressing tremendous freedom and allowing themselves to genuinely be expressing of themselves in association with another individual, and they credit the other individual for allowing that. It is not a matter of the other individual has allowed you to express yourself. It is a matter that YOU have created a scenario with another individual that you have allowed yourself. It is YOUR credit not the other individual’s. You have created that. ELISE: Kind of going back to something we were speaking about before, as we become more aware of what’s happening within us at any given time and our capability to do that increases, there’s talk about human beings are multi-dimensional and experiencing on many different levels, and so does this just keep going on? As you master this awareness then whoosh, then there’s a whole other realm after that, where you’re more aware of yourself, possibly? You’re experiencing your different lifetimes consecutively, that multi-dimensional aspect...? ELIAS: Quite definitely. ELISE: Is this sort of the first step on that path? ELIAS: As you continue to widen your awareness, yes, you can quite definitely tap into other focuses of yourself, that which you term to be other lifetimes, past and future. You can also tap into other-dimensional focuses. You are not merely expressed in this one physical dimension. There are countless physical dimensions that you also participate in and incorporate focuses in those. As I have expressed previously, individuals that encounter extra-terrestrials are encountering other focuses of themselves. Therefore, you allow yourself to physically meet another you of you. The vastness of essence is beyond explanation. You are one focus of attention of essence that is physically manifest in this particular time framework, in this physical reality. There are countless yous within countless physical realities, and you incorporate many, many focuses of attention in this physical reality and in nonphysical areas of consciousness. You are incredibly vast expressions. RODNEY: Elias, in developing a sense of appreciation, which I find I’m not too familiar with, it’s one thing to say thank you or to express thankfulness for one’s self... Let me give an example. Let’s say I prepare a meal and the meal is quite good and I enjoy it a great deal. Instead of just thanking myself for preparing a good meal, is my enjoyment of that meal an expression of appreciation? ELIAS: Yes. RODNEY: That helps. Thank you. EDWARD: Jealousy ties into fear, right? Jealousy becomes that multi-dimensional part of fear, because you’re projecting out jealousy either of another human being or possessiveness or you’re jealous of somebody’s success. It’s part of fear, right? ELIAS: Yes, you are correct. EDWARD: How do you fight that? Is it back to appreciation, like you appreciate yourself then and realize you’re doing just fine? ELIAS: Yes, and also evaluating what is the perceived threat. What do you perceive the other individual is doing to you that generates that expression? For the other individual is not doing to you. You are generating those responses within yourself. You are doubting and skeptical and untrusting within yourself, and what you do is project that outwardly and focus it upon another individual and therefore express the suspicion and the doubt with the other individual. That is also associated with your truths and your guidelines, for if the other individual is engaging what you incorporate in your suspicion, you are already projecting an expectation of the other individual – which once again is another expression of threat, which is opposition – but in that, you are projecting your absolute to the other individual. You would not engage in certain actions and therefore you generate an expectation that the other individual will not either. In this, if the other individual is not compliant with your expectation, that can trigger jealousy. But as I have stated, it begins with you, your truths and projecting your truths to another individual and generating the expectation that they shall absolutely comply with your truth, not allowing for difference. In this, individuals at times may generate this type of situation to offer themselves information concerning what they are projecting and to allow them the opportunity to become familiar with what their truths are, objectively recognizing ‘my truth is I shall not be engaging an action of infidelity, but I also expect that my partner shall not either.’ This is an absolute. This is information to you concerning your truth, which is not bad, and the other individual is not engaging an action hurtful to you. What becomes hurtful is that it is not a compliance with your truth, and therefore you generate an automatic association that you cannot express yourself freely any longer. As example, if your truth concerns fidelity and your partner is not expressing fidelity, that challenges your truth. They are not complying. They are not complying with your expectation. In that, you experience hurt, for now you automatically express to yourself a denial of yourself. You cannot freely express with this individual any longer. You cannot express your appreciation with this individual any longer, for they are not complying with your expectation; therefore, it is a denial of your choice and that is what generates hurt. When you are denying your own choices and your own freedom, that creates hurt within you. The other individual and their actions and their choices are not what is creating the hurtfulness. It is your own denial of your own freedom and your own choices, preventing yourself from the continuation of expression that you want to express that creates that hurt within you. That hurt can also trigger opposition, which can be expressed in the form of jealousy. ELISE: So in other words, we have the choice to change our own personal guidelines at any point in order to create freedom for ourselves. ELIAS: It is not necessarily a matter of changing your guidelines but recognizing that each of your guidelines incorporates many different influences. The freedom lies in recognizing the different influences and incorporating the allowance of yourself to choose different influences, rather than incorporating the automatic response that infidelity is bad and that automatically means that the other individual does not appreciate me, the other individual does not love me, is not expressing loyalty to me or they would not be expressing in this manner. That is one influence. Another influence may be, in actuality, you yourself may not actually want to be engaging certain activities with your partner continuously, and therefore your partner is receiving that energy and may be seeking outlet in other directions, which alleviates pressure with you. Another influence may be that the individual is not expressing that they do not love you or that they do not appreciate you, for that is not necessarily expressed in certain actions. They are not absolutely associated with an expression of love. It is not absolutely expressed in intimacy, either. Sexual activity can be associated with love. It can be associated with sexual activity, but intimacy is not synonymous with either of those expressions. Therefore it is a matter of perception, once again, and what influences you are allowing to be expressed in automatic response to the actions and choices of other individuals, and concerning yourself with the actions, behaviors and choices of other individuals rather than paying attention to what you are doing and manipulating energy in the manner that you want. For as I expressed previously, you can create and do create all of your reality, and you can be interactive with another individual. What you are interacting with is their energy; you are not actually interacting with the physical individual. That is your own creation. That is your projection. You receive the other individual’s energy, you thusly automatically project it and configure a physical form. YOU do that. You interact with that physical form that you are creating. You are interacting with the individual’s energy, for the most part. At times, you may be interacting with an energy deposit of the other individual, which does not necessarily contain the attention of the other individual. In those situations, you may notice that you and the other individual are participating in the same physical location, in the same interaction, and your perception of it is in one direction and the other individual incorporates an entirely different account. This occurs more frequently than you realize. You each are individually creating all of your reality. There is no one official reality. The official reality is what each of you create. In that, one individual may be creating one scenario and the other individual is creating a different scenario, which in actuality is quite efficient, for it is very validating and acknowledging of you that you actually can create whatever you want regardless of the other individual. And you can participate with another individual. In this example, you may create that your partner is entirely faithful in your terms, and in your partner’s reality, they may be interacting with many other individuals. This is not a situation of denial. This is not a situation of being what you term to be oblivious. This is an actual situation in which you are creating two very different realities, but you are continuing to participate with each other. Therein lies your freedom. You can create whatever you want, regardless of any other individual within your physical reality, for you are already creating all of it. ELLA: Based on what you said, I suspect that in my interaction with my son, I get his energy deposits and that’s all. (Laughter) That’s what it feels like. Inna and I were talking recently about what we in this society term as love, and it seems that a lot of times what we term as love is possession. It’s a lot about possession. I’ve got you here, you’re mine. I think in the not-so-far future, monogamy as it is will not exist. Economically it was useful, but as we progress and we become more open in our relationships... ELIAS: It is a choice. It is not an absolute. For individuals that you perceive in future, it is a choice. They may choose to be coupling together singularly or they may not. ELLA: But the choice will not be dictated by society or government. It will be your choice. ELIAS: Correct. ELLA: You will decide for how long you will stay with this person... ELIAS: Yes, for you are directing yourself. ELLA: No one will tell you you must sign on the dotted line or else. ELIAS: Correct, and also as I have expressed previously, the definition of love is not associated with emotion. Love is a genuine expression of knowing and appreciation. You attach affection to love and many times you equate or define affection as love, but that is not a genuine expression of love. Love is genuinely a knowing and appreciation. ELLA: The difference between appreciation and affection is that affection is unique about a person and appreciation is allowance? ELIAS: No. Affection is a genuine expression. It is an emotional expression. Affection is a signal, a feeling, that is associated with an emotional communication. Affection is associated with attraction, and in that, it is also associated with preferences. It is a feeling with an emotional communication. Appreciation is not an emotional communication. ELLA: If I appreciate you, don’t I feel good about you? That is an emotion. ELIAS: You attach the affection with the appreciation and therefore you feel. ELLA: So from where you are, you don’t experience emotions, and you can still appreciate us for what we are. ELIAS: Quite, yes. But remember, emotion is a very powerful communication within you and it is also a basic element of your reality. Therefore, it is natural for you to express and associate feelings and emotional communications with many of your expressions. ELLA: I’d like to ask you more about self-appreciation. I had an experience where for almost an entire week I had a sensation that there was a cloud of energy around me. It felt very sensual, like all of my body was aware of itself and it felt very pleasant. I was trying to figure out whose energy it was. Eventually I thought it was probably my own energy but that I was more open to it, that I was more willing to play with it and allow it. Then it just turned off, but I figured out I could probably turn it on. It’s energy coming from the back of my green energy center, and I don’t understand how to relate to that. I could turn it off but I can’t turn it on full speed. So I started opening up to my own energy, but...? ELIAS: And offering yourself an experience that offers you an example of what is possible and that you can generate this if you are generating... ELLA: But why did it stop like that? Did I stop it, did it overwhelm me or why? ELIAS: Not necessarily to not overwhelm you, but moving into the familiar once again in not entirely paying attention to yourself. ELLA: I know when it shut off. It’s two months later, but I remember a situation where I generated a lot of tension and I was out of balance, maybe. It just went out like that. BONNIE: ... Elias, you talked about dissipating fear by using appreciation. Do you have a suggestion about how to dissipate an argumentativeness or an opposition that you feel rising? ELIAS: The same, appreciation. In the moment that you are experiencing that rise within yourself and you are beginning to generate a conflict with another individual and you feel yourself becoming agitated and judgmental and are moving into that argumentativeness, allow yourself momentarily to disappear the other individual. They do not exist momentarily. Turn your attention to you and evaluate what the threat is – why you are being argumentative, what is motivating that, what are you attempting to instruct or prove? Allow yourself to appreciate some element within yourself, regardless of what it is – that your hair may wave in a particular manner in that moment. It matters not. Reappear the other individual in your perception, which you may generate this action in merely a moment. Once you reappear the other individual, move your attention to an appreciation of any element of that individual, regardless of what it is. Perhaps you appreciate a button upon the other individual’s shirt; it matters not what it is. The expression of genuine appreciation itself interrupts aggression and it interrupts your attention. It immediately alters the energy. It immediately alters your energy; it immediately alters the other individual’s energy also. BONNIE: Thank you. ELIAS: You are very welcome. GAIL: When I’m around people and I pick up how someone’s feeling, is that me projecting that feeling and I’m just picking it up as that person’s feelings? ELIAS: Yes and no. You are actually interacting with other individuals’ energy. Therefore, you may be receiving the actual expression of the other individual, but you also have drawn that individual to you specifically in that moment to reflect some element of yourself. GAIL: It can be both? ELIAS: Yes. (Looking into the audience) And yes? Very well. LORRAINE M: Kind of in conjunction with what we were talking about earlier, I don’t want to go to work. I’m sure there’s other people who feel the same way. But I go to work and I’m really unhappy there. I know that I believe I have to work to have money, so in kind of keeping with what you said earlier, is there something I could do to change that, more like appreciating the job I have? Is it a matter of appreciating what already is? Will that change the situation? ELIAS: Partially and also allowing yourself to incorporate a different perception. Rather than viewing or incorporating the perception that your employment is a chore and work, allow yourself to engage imagination and create the employment as a game. Express your creativity. The actions and the tasks that you incorporate in your employment, configure them in a manner that becomes a game and fun rather than a chore and work. That allows you to interact with your employment quite differently and it also reinforces or encourages an appreciation of what you are doing. Very well, my friends! I express TREMENDOUS appreciation for each of you and encouragement that you express it of yourselves also! I offer to you a genuine energy of encouragement in all that you are engaging and an encouragement of your success in paying attention to your energy. As always, I offer my energy to you all, which is always available. In great lovingness, in great acknowledgment, in great friendship to each of you, au revoir. GROUP: Au revoir, thank you.” [session 1861, October 22, 2005] Exercises: energy fields; allowance, penetration, buffer. Exercises: the no-conflict game. Exercises: engage conflict: holding attention upon self. Exercises: generate an expression of appreciation. Exercises: appreciation. End Notes: (1) Paul’s note: Elias outlined a simple exercise in which to explore how we use our energy fields. We can block and pop the bubbles, or allow energy to penetrate and affect us. Many of our automatic responses can be traced to chronic penetrations and knee-jerk reactions. Ironically, this is a variation of something we learn as children, namely, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me” (unless we ALLOW THEM TO penetrate our energy fields). Exercises: find out more about allowance, penetration, buffer exercise. (2) Dale’s Note:
(3) Dale’s note: A few days prior and the evening before my session I experienced my entire surroundings dissolve. The evening prior as I stood in my kitchen I observed my son watching TV in the living room, totally oblivious to the living room light flicking on and off. (I knew this was in connection with Elias.) Then my kitchen light began flicking on and off and I stopped and simply observed what I was experiencing. I watched as the dissolving began with my immediate surroundings and then spread to my entire surroundings until I was surrounded only by “air,” so to speak. There was a classical waltz playing on the radio and I began to dance from a place of remembrance. I felt in three places at once; in my kitchen listening to the radio, perhaps in Victorian England dancing a waltz with a focus of Elias at a grand party and from a place of observing both simultaneously. One aspect I was quite delighted by was my allowance of my remembrance of how to do this particular waltz, for I definitely don’t know how to do it in my present focus. It certainly did relax the rigidity of my focus! (4) Paul’s note: referring to the truth wave in consciousness, which according to Elias was in full swing at this time. Digests: find out more about waves in consciousness. (5) Paul’s note: referring to session 1742, April 02, 2005. Digests – see also: | absolutes | accepting self (belief systems) | being in the now | belief systems; an overview | camouflage | choices/agreements | cultural/natural time | desires/wants | dimension | disengage (“death”) | duplicity | effortlessness | energy deposits | energy fields | essence; an overview | extraterrestrials | fear | forum | focus of essence; an overview | fun & pleasure! | imagery | information | love | mass events | noticing self | perception | separation | sexuality; gender, orientation, preference | shift in consciousness | straight little sapling | transition | truth | trusting self | value fulfillment | victims/perpetrators | waves in consciousness | widening awareness | you create your reality | The Elias Transcripts are held in © copyright 1995 – 2024 by Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved. © copyright 1997 – 2024 by Paul M. Helfrich, All Rights Reserved. | Comments to: helfrich@eliasforum.org |