Online Gratitude Journal New Home Edition #33

Yeah, new home! As I wrote in this post, I just moved to Eugene, and I love it. It’s like Portland, but made more compact, less crowded, and easy to handle. I’ve been enjoying myself just driving around and exploring the town. I’m so full of gratitude! (Photo credit)

This picture is my loot from a trip to Saturday Market. The stuff in the brown bag behind the little bonsai tree are wild huckleberries. They were like blueberries without the star-shaped ends. Then there are beets, new apples, a tomato, salad mix, and lip balm made of honey.

Eugene Saturday Market has a rule of “Sellers are makers.” So these are all local products. The market presents probably a hundred or so booths that cover several blocks in downtown, selling not only produce but also hand-crafted cosmetics, clothes, jewelries, artwork, etc. And it’s only five miles from my place, and downtown parking is free on weekends. So sweet.

September in Review

I didn’t post so often this month. I love my post about soul’s purpose. I also enjoyed interviewing Janni about physical immortality. Thank you, Janni!

I will resume my Starseed series next month, this time about Blueprinters.

Further, I appeared at two of my favorite blogs. Evita shared her experience of my Akashic Record Reading. If you’ve been thinking of having my reading but just wasn’t sure, please check it out.

And Lisa, the mommy mystic, interviewed me about Akashic Records, Ascension, and 2012. Thank you, Evita and Lisa!

Fun

Do you get to have fun? Like you did as a little child?

When I do Spirit Guides Coaching, quite a few spirit guides urge us to be more like a child. As children, we had better intuition, and by nurturing our inner child, we can develop our intuition.

Sadly, many of us forget what it was like to be a child. Now my friends Kim and Jason, who specialize in the art of being childlike and gave us an excellent interview last year, published a new book called “There’s An Adult In My Soup”. It’s packed with great ideas on how to get in touch with our inner child and regain the sense of wonder and passion. Thank you for a delightful book!

Challenges

I got off caffein earlier this year. Now I’m trying to get off sugar completely.

When I quit caffein (coffee, tea, and chocolate — I never had soda anyway), I had weird headache for several days, but once it cleared, I never went back. I even wonder why I had coffee every day. (Chocolate was a bit different because it’s also about sugar.)

Getting off sugar (and other sweeteners) seems to be harder. It’s in so many stuffs, and as I get low on sugar and therefore more sensitive to any sugar intake, even a tiny bit of sugar seems to whack me off balance. I’m looking forward for the day that I’d wonder, “Why did I crave sugar anyway?”

My gratitude to those who sent me supportive tweets when I was quitting caffeine — please support me in this new no sugar challenge, too. Thank you.

Lucky Synchronicities

I made a day trip to Ashland just for fun last Thursday. When I opened my door early morning, there was a group of wild turkeys strolling, so I got the camera out right away.

Oh, how was Ashland? It’s a cute little town. The vegetation changes in southern Oregon, so it felt more like California than Oregon to me. It’s also a tourist town, with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival being so big there. Nice place, but I don’t see myself living there. I love the redwoods around here.

A year ago at Yes to Me

That’s when I started the five post series called Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship. This year, I’ve been working on an eBook called Lightworkers Guide To Self-Employment. Feels like a deja-vu of some sort.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has been

So I’ve been exploring the idea of physical immortality. If we are spiritually immortal, can we be physically immortal as well? Why and why not? And in such a timely manner, Kathy Dobson started a new blog called Physically Immortal. Her first post is about open mind, which is essential if you want anything new and valuable. So whether you want to live forever or not, do check it out — it’s a great reading.

Word of month

A grown-up is someone who is done growing. — Jason Kotecki from the aforementioned book

And when you are done growing — when we stop exploring, when we stop asking questions, when we close our mind — we become obsolete. It’s death, if not physically, then symbolically. Don’t go there. Hey, this resonates perfectly with the idea of physical immortality

How did you spend this beautiful month of September? Let me know in the comments ^_^

Interview With Dr Janni Lloyd On Physical Immortality

I first learned about Dr Janni Lloyd and her philosophy on physical immortality at my friend Robin’s blog Let’s Live Forever. I was intrigued and read her discussions on Oprah’s website (the link is provided later in the interview).

Today I’m excited to interview her here. Whether you currently think physical immortality is possible or not, please take note because she has a lot to offer for our spiritual development — which is tied to our physical being.

Dr Janni Lloyd’s background

Akemi:  Janni, I am honored to have you here at Yes to Me for the interview.  I am also very excited to learn more about physical immortality.

Well, first things first. I wrote about you in my article about death and immortality, but I guess most readers don’t know you yet.  Will you introduce yourself to Yes to Me readers, please?  I heard you were a medical doctor before you turned to alternative health.  What is your background?

Janni: Yes, I was a medical doctor in general practice then I moved into Aura Soma therapy. I was always very interested in the psyche and emotions and how they were involved in dis -ease. I have been giving seminars on physical immortality philosophy for several years now, have written a paper entitled Physical Immortality – the mass possibility and am currently writing a book called ‘The Fun Way of Physical Immortality Philosophy’. I also love raising awareness on the internet and connecting with people all over the world, so thanks for this opportunity.

Is death inevitable?

Akemi: I guess most people see death as inevitable.  But from the medical perspective, are there reasons we must die, except in situations like disease, accidents, murder, or war?

Janni: If we take out disease, accidents, murder and war – all we have left is ‘aging’ which is a very vague collection of symptoms…  Gerontologists have not been able to determine the precise markers that define biological age.  We tend to put into the ‘aging’  symptom box things like memory problems – read Harvard psychologist Ellen Langers book Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility and you’ll think again about that one and most of the others you put into that category.

Gerontologists have developed several different theories of aging.  However they are just that – theories. The human body is amazingly complex. The life intelligence that orchestrated your development from a single cell into a baby is still operating within us and is AWESOME. What if that life intelligence responds to our desires? If we desire our body to rundown and decay, then maybe that’s what we get. What if we are running on a program we can change?

My feeling is that what we call ‘aging’ is actually a chronic dis-ease that we have accepted. Because we believed “death was inevitable” we created a way of fading out of life slowly – “aging”. If we liken our life force to a fully open stream of water – we turned the tap off slowly. Maybe it’s time to challenge this chronic dis-ease by releasing the ‘decay’ program.

Awakening to physical immortality

Akemi: When and how did you first get the idea of physical immortality?

Janni: My deep interest in the psyche and emotions led me to commence meditation in 1992. In October of that year , I had an inner awakening to ‘physical death is a choice’ and chose physical immortality almost immediately. Then the synchronicities began and it wasn’t long before I found How to Be Chic, Fabulous and Live Forever by Sondra Ray. And the synchronicities haven’t stopped, and still take my breath away at times.

Ways to physical immortality

Akemi: In your view, what does it take to achieve physical immortality?  Are there certain requirements physically (such as diet, exercise, lifestyle, etc.), mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?  Or is this about special medical procedure?

Janni: I feel there are many ‘ways’ of physical immortality, each will be as individual as our fingerprint. In my paper ‘Physical Immortality – the mass possibility’ – I share what I feel has enhanced my life force and my knowing.

There are probably some common steps – I certainly feel praise, love and gratitude are important to move to an open, unconditionally loving heart.  As always, I feel the pioneers will use a lot more techniques etc – once the path is more visible to people it will be a lot easier for those who make the choice in times to come.

I feel the medical science pathway is an important one for our awakening. Will we need medical procedures? maybe –  however with the speed of our awakening it’s unlikely.  We’re all in this together and all have valuable pieces of the divine jigsaw puzzle to share – the co – operative whole will bring in greater levels of life for all of humanity.

Immortal body

Akemi: And what does physical immortality look like?  Does our physical body remain basically the same?  I personally tend to think of it as lightbody.  Do you think we will still eat, excrete, sleep?  Will we have reproductive function?

Janni: I feel most of those will remain for a while. And we will only release those things if it is our choice and our joy to do so. I feel in time we will learn to teleport and maybe flit from dimension to dimension – we have eternity, there is no hurry and I love plane travel! …..although a somewhat quicker plane from Australia to just about anywhere would be nice.  lol

Reversing aging

Akemi: You also mentioned about human ability to rejuvenate.  Will you tell us more about this, please?

Janni: Rejuvenation is linked with letting go of the ‘aging’ chronic dis-ease – although some may choose a mature looking body that is flexible and vibrantly healthy. I feel this is the place where I would like to share a wonderful study. This study was done in 1976, by psychologist Ellen Langer and her team at Harvard, it demonstrates the power of the mind to reverse aging. Deepak Chopra describes this study in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old.

“The subjects, all 75 or older and in good health, were asked to meet for a weeks retreat at a country resort. They were informed in advance that they would be given a battery of physical and mental exams, but in addition one unusual stipulation was placed upon them; they were not allowed to bring any newspapers, magazines, books or family photos dated later than 1959. The purpose of this odd request became clear when they arrived – the resort had been set up to duplicate life as it was 20 years earlier. Instead of magazines from 1979, the reading tables held issues of Life and Saturday Evening Post from 1959. The only music played was 20 years old, and in keeping with this flashback, the men were asked to behave entirely as if the year were 1959. All talk had to refer to events and people of that year. Every detail of their week in the country was geared to make each subject feel, look, talk and behave as he had in his mid 50′s.

During this period, Langer’s team made extensive measurements of the subjects biological age. Gerontologists have not been able to fix the precise markers that define biological age, as I noted earlier, but a general profile was compiled for each man using measurements of physical strength, posture, perception, cognition and short term memory along with thresholds of hearing, sight and taste.

The Harvard team wanted to change the context in which these men saw themselves. The premise of their experiment was that seeing oneself as old or young directly influences the aging process itself. To shift their context back to 1959 the researchers had their subjects wear ID photo’s taken 20 years before – the group learned to identify one another through these pictures rather than present appearance, they were instructed to talk exclusively in the present tense of 1959 (“I wonder if President Eisenhower will go with Nixon next election”); their wives and children were referred to as if they were also 20 years younger; although all the men were retired, they talked about their careers as if they were still in full swing.

The results of this playacting were remarkable. Compared to a control group that went on retreat but continued to live in the world of 1979, the make believe group improved in memory and manual dexterity. They were more active and self sufficient about such things as taking their own food at meals and cleaning up their rooms, behaving much more like 55 year olds than 75 year olds (many had become dependent on younger family members to perform everyday tasks for them).

Perhaps the most remarkable change had to do with aspects of aging that were considered irreversible. Impartial judges who were asked to study before and after pictures of the men detected that their faces looked visibly younger by an average of three years. Measurements of finger length, which tends to shorten with age, indicated that their fingers had lengthened, stiffened joints were more flexible and posture had started to straighten as it had in younger years. The control group also showed some improvements (Langer explained this by the fact that going on a trip and being treated specially made them feel younger too). But the control group actually declined in certain markers such as manual dexterity and finger length. Intelligence is considered fixed in adults, yet over half of the experimental group showed increased intelligence over the five days of their return to 1959, while a quarter of the control group declined in IQ test scores.

Professor Langer’s study was a landmark in proving that the so called irreversible signs of aging could be reversed using psychological intervention.”

This result was achieved in under one week!

Pioneers in physical immortality

Akemi: Do you think there are already people who have achieved immortality?

Janni: Yes.  I feel our body has always had this remarkable potential, we have just been asleep to it. When you remember the awesome and miraculous life intelligence that orchestrated your physical body from a single embryonic cell, that life intelligence is always there and has always been there and just KNOWS how to give us ongoing healthy life – we just needed to wake up to what was right in front of us.

So there will have been those who have woken before. However physical immortality is non hierarchical – most of them would probably not have said much. And humanity as a whole was not ready to wake up – my feeling is that humanity as a whole is now ready.

Is there a dark side to physical immortality?

Akemi: In my home country, Japan, there is a legend of a priestess who lives 800 years (I guess that is pretty close to immortality.) But the legend is a sad one.  She survives all her loved ones and is very lonely.  Life is like a pointless repetition for her.  Do you think there could be negative sides to physical immortality?

Janni: People are always coming and going in our lives, we quite often feel sadness when we are seeing people off at the airport – often tinged with excitement of the stories they may tell us on their return!  Life is always about the filter we interpret and perceive our life through. My feeling is that with many people choosing physical immortality and also how easy it is to make new friends now from all over the world , I don’t feel physical immortality will be lonely or sad.

My experience of physical immortality philosophy in my life has created much interesting creative flow, certainly not pointless repetition. Being the powerful creative beings that we are, if after a couple of hundred years, we did find ourselves ‘bored’ we could always create physical death again! My feeling is that the choice never gets taken away.

Check out the vision of a physically immortal world that I’ve shared in my paper – all feels quite joyful and interesting to me. Your readers may also like to check out my thread in the Oprah community ‘Do you choose life?’

Akemi: I totally agree that life is what we make of it, and we each have a filter. With dark filter, anything can look negative, and the opposite is equally true. I see huge amount of untapped possibilities with life that goes on just as long as we want it.

Physical immortality and Ascension

Akemi: Okay, here is my last question, and for this question I need to explain what I do.  I read people’s soul records (called Akashic Records) and clear the energetic interferences.  I take clients from all over the world because distance doesn’t matter.

Earlier this year, I noticed some people are receiving new souls.  Their vibration rate rose so much that they receive updates from their Higher Self (oversoul).  The new soul is the same kind with the old, but is brand new, with no past lives, and therefore no negative energetic issues carried over from past lives. I call this evolutional phenomena “Ascension soul shift”.  Some people had Ascension soul shift before this year.  And I think this is related to the Earth’s change.

I feel that the mass interest in all things spiritual, including physical immortality, is related to this Ascension.  What do you think?  And do you have any opinion about reincarnation?

Janni: I feel using praise, love and gratitude energies is bringing in GRACE so karma is being transcended. Grace simply erases any ‘baggage’ and grants new perspectives. Maybe what you are seeing is part of the ‘clean slate’ that grace produces.

I feel re-incarnation may well have been our previous way of ‘re-inventing’ ourselves. We can now re-invent ourselves, have many different life experiences and bring out different aspects of our personality without needing to drop our physical body.

Akemi: Interesting. That is how I feel, too, that death and reincarnation had its place and function in human evolution, but we are getting into a new game, to a mostly uncharted sea of possibilities.

Thank you, Janni, for this inspiring and informative interview.

Janni: Thank you Akemi. It’s been an interesting and very enjoyable exchange.

Akemi’s takeaway
I’m impressed at the clarity and empoweredness of Janni. I gather that, if someone chooses physical immortality from the place of fear, like the fear of death, it’s not going to work well, because you’d be caught up in the illusion of duality. Choosing life and immortality is an absolute choice, not a choice on comparison, I think.

I also find it so encouraging that she comes from science background. It’s refreshing to hear ideas that resonate so well from someone with different background.

So what do you think? Please share in the comment.

What If Everything That Happens To You Is Good?

I guess the common sentiment we have about life is, “Well, there are good things and bad things that happen in life. We can’t help it. Just enjoy the good and lie low when bad things happen.”

So we are grateful when we receive “good” things like loving relationships, friends and family, foods on the table and the roof over the head, the money that gets these good things, the job — the income source, health, long life, and so on.

And we don’t like “bad” things like loneliness, relationship problems, hunger, poverty, job loss, obesity, illness, disability, aging, and death. We don’t even like thinking about them, and when it happens, we are upset, confused, resentful, and wish they go away ASAP.

This is just natural, right?

The challenge of the hypothesis

My spirit guides challenged me a few weeks ago (the week before my moving, to be exact) with the question, “What if everything that happens to you is good?” I immediately knew this is right, but it took me a while to put it into reason.

“Like EVERYTHING?” You may be thinking. “What is good about a psycho boyfriend / girlfriend, or hopeless poverty, or painful disease?”

Well, yes. They are good because they are great learning opportunities. You didn’t bring it up to reality if they were no good. (Remember you are creating your own life and the world?)

Now when I say “learning opportunities”, there are mainly two things we can learn. One is the life lessons and associated lessons. We don’t have to learn them the hard way, but many of us do choose so. We have discussed this into detail already on this Yes to Me blog.

Another is the crooked thinking patterns we have. These “bad” things are like an alarm going off, “There is something kinked up in you, please take a look!” Alarm is annoying but not bad.

Let me put it this way. God sends us love, love, and more love. Unconditionally. They are all good. But some gifts are a bit different. God may be sending you a bit of herbal medicine or a gift card to chiropractor because God noticed there is something about you that needs care, even if you may not have noticed. And you complain that the medicine tastes bad or you are too busy to go to the chiropractor.

Now I got tested about this hypothesis right away. . .

What is a traffic ticket trying to say?

On my first moving day (I spent two days moving, first doing the move in, then doing the move out with movers carrying my furniture), I was driving on a freeway and just casually tried to change my lane. I guess I wasn’t looking well enough. The car on the fast lane horned, I got back to my lane, and . . . well, the police car was right behind me.

Few things are more embarrassing and annoying than getting a traffic ticket. And seeing an angry cop’s face in the rear-view mirror.

So what is good about this? I need to learn how to drive safe? Well, maybe that’s included, but that’s not all.

After I was released, I was talking to myself. I actually talked aloud in my car because I wanted to see how this worked:

Akemi 1: So what is good about this traffic ticket? This just sucks.

Akemi 2: Well, let’s see. Why do you think it’s bad?

Akemi 1: Because I hate cops.

Akemi 2: He wasn’t too bad. I’d say he treated me quite fairly — he didn’t yell or do something intimidating. He was just doing his job, and even if you don’t like him, so what? It’s not like you have to marry him.

Akemi 1: This is going to be on my driving record. (And on my Akashic Records, too!) And I have to pay the fine.

Akemi 2: Yes, it will take up some of my time, depending on what you want to do with it. We can go to the court or we can just pay it.

Akemi 1: I hate paying the fine! And it’s not just the fine, the auto insurance premium will go up, too, you know.

Akemi 2: Yes, but we can pay.

Akemi 1: I . . . I’m afraid. It will cost a lot. Insurance is expensive.

At this point, I stopped and thought. So aside from the emotional unpleasantness (which is only temporary), what’s really bothering me is the financial concern? Really?

Our hidden fear and why we hold onto it

Now I know that, when we have fear, it’s because we are holding onto it. Most fears are temporary — like, you may get serious fear if another car comes too close to you, but that goes away pretty quickly. And we are holding onto the fear because we are afraid of something else that may come if we let go of the first fear. So in this crooked logic, holding onto the first fear feels safer.

Akemi 2: Are you afraid of becoming poor? But it’s not likely we become poor with one traffic ticket. What is the real issue? Am I getting something by holding onto this fear of poverty?

Akemi 1: . . .

Akemi 2: Does being concerned about money make you feel safe? What’s going to happen if I release this fear of poverty?

The answer that came out of my own mouth surprised me.

Akemi 1: . . . I might become wildly rich.

Gee. Really. But it seems true. Fear of wealth is far bigger than fear of poverty. I wasn’t aware of this before.

Opportunity to examine your fear

Fear of wealth or fear of success is a tricky one. We use lack of money or opportunity as an excuse of not living a great life. I think many of us are secretly afraid of living a full happy life even when we say the complete opposite. It involves a huge responsibility to oneself (to God) to live that way.

Are you doing something similar to what I was doing? Are you afraid of releasing your crazy partner (or afraid of getting out of the pattern of having relationship with crazy partners, therefore switching from one crazy one to another) because without them, you are faced with yourself, and you have no distraction nor excuse not to express your great self and live your life purposefully?

Are you holding onto your health problem and your fear of recovering to great health because, without the health problem, you have little to complain and commiserate, and you are afraid of losing people’s attention? And because you are afraid you may have a miraculous healing power science hasn’t uncovered yet? And again, without the disease, you have no excuse not to live a great life?

I guess I may be upsetting some people especially with the last one. I’m not a doctor and I don’t claim to know your health condition nor your possibility to recover. I do have a feeling many people cling to their condition as an excuse. One of my Spirit Guides Coaching client was this way. Her spirit guides was urging to let go of certain things, but she was absolutely against it. Just to be sure, I asked her about her medical diagnosis, and all she could say was something that happened more than 20 years ago. She was taking full advantage of her (past) health problem and was nowhere near releasing it, even though she insisted the opposite.

So what really happens if everything that happens to you is good?

Then you just have to accept this universe is absolutely benevolent and loving. There is just no way you don’t live as an empowered free soul, expressing your gifts and strengths, and living a full life of love and joy. No point about complaining, fighting, accusing, or even “working on the problem” — we can just go straight to the point and live our life fully.

My feeling is that, in the past, our awareness was not clear enough to see this so we perceived certain things as “bad” based on superficial consequences. However, we are growing up to see the bigger picture.

When our awareness really grows, everything starts to look really good, even without thinking, “Okay, this may be a learning opportunity. . .” We get to be grateful for everything there is. We get to see everything as the divine gifts that they are. That, my friends, is the entrance to the heaven on Earth. (Photo credit)

Next Page »