June A 2017
Cover Story
Relationships
22
86
Beatriz at Dinner - An Interview with Mike White
Health & Healing 36
Honoring the Darkness on the Healer's Journey
Spirituality 42 46 50
The Dial to Nowhere The Return to the Goddess Do You Want to Infuse Your Soul?
OM Living 58 62 66 70 74 80
Top 7 Feng Shui Ways to Make a Better Bedroom The Energy You Need to Discover Yourself How to Shift Away from Victim Consciousness 8 Ways to Be Super Productive Tools for Powerful Wealth Creation OMTimes Radio Host Spotlight - Sandie Sedgbeer
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Knowing the Best Way to Connect With Others How to Make Friends with Your (Inner) Enemy
Metaphysics 98
The Power of Energy in Motion 102 True Soul Mates - Who Are They?
Personal Growth 110 3 Tips to Forgive & Forget
At an elegant dinner party in a swanky hilltop home, conversation between a softspoken holistic healer and a hard-nosed businessman explodes into a bitter clash of culturesÂ
BEATRIZ AT DINNER WHEN THE WORLDS COLLIDE
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MIKE WHITE
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OMTIMES | JUNE A 2017
Beatriz at Dinner addresses contemporary controversies, from economic inequality and conservation to the necessity of simple human kindness. How it all Began The project began when Mike White, an outspoken supporter of animal rights and a committed vegan, was outraged by the 2015 killing of Cecil the lion by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe. What, he wondered, would he do if he were ever to meet that man? He began to build a script around that idea. Before he had a single scene on paper, Mike White knew that his friend and colleague Miguel Arteta would be an ideal director for the project. “I’m very particular about the people who interpret my writing,” he says. “Miguel is so respectful of the contribution of the writer. He has a humanistic impulse and comes at things from a heartfelt and hopeful place. "My work can be read as satirical and acidic." His empathy enriches stories that in the hands of someone else could fall into a darker hole. I am always confident he’ll get great performances and be protective of the script.” When White brought the idea to Miguel Arteta, he also suggested an actress they both had been wanting to work with to play Beatriz: Salma Hayek. “Envisioning her in this role was very clever on Mike’s part,” says Miguel Arteta, who counts the actress as a good friend. “She’s a real animal lover and a very political person. She is also extremely empathic, like the character. It’s a different kind of role for her and she loved the idea from the beginning.”
Honoring the Darkness on the Healer’s Journey by Lisa Shaw
The Darkness on the Healer’s Journey In the “Hero’s Journey,” Joseph Campbell provides a roadmap of the stages we go through to carry accomplish missions not just for ourselves but for the greater good:
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Separation, Initiation, and Return, all necessary stops on the healing path. Each includes sub-stages none of which would be possible without first accepting “the call” –a sacrificial dare from the Universe. The hero undertakes this challenging journey with the assurance that God’s, then emerges enlightened. Two critical stages are Crossing the Threshold and Entering the Belly of the Beast. All mythological and religious tales follow the pattern but take on the local characteristics of the culture that created them: Jesus in the wilderness, Buddha venturing into seclusion and solitude, Moses in the dark desert confronting the “burning bush,” Mohammad seeking personal refuge in a cave. The common thread is darkness and isolation, which we in contemporary life seem to fear. Bhante Shravasti Dhammika (The Buddhism Guide A to Z) explains the delicate balance we must strike to use refuge wisely: “A person can choose to be solitary or be forced into it by others or by circumstances. When solitude
is unwanted it can result in loneliness, anxiety or fear. When used at the right time and in the right manner it can have an important role in spiritual development.” Darkness - We Must First Heal Ourselves If we intend to heal others, we must first heal ourselves. A good starting point is our willingness accept separation and embrace the darkness. In stillness, there is wisdom. In darkness, there is stillness. There is peace in stillness. In peace, there is capacity to heal others. The Dalai Lama teaches, “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” If we did not have darkness, how would we recognize the light? Anne Frank wrote, “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” The duality exists in the Taoist yin/yang symbol, darkness/ brightness, which illustrate the interdependence of opposing forces. Our very breath exercises this: on the yin (inhale) we receive; on the yang (exhale) we release. Omtimes.com
The Dial to Nowhere by Alan Cohen
Recognizing a Lot of Busy Work While Dee and I were waiting for service in a restaurant, I picked up an Etch-a-Sketch-like toy on a rack near our table, a plaything designed to keep little kids entertained while
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waiting for food. Curious, I began to write on the screen and tinker with the dials. I discovered a large knob that turned like a dial and moved in a slot horizontally back and forth across the entire bottom of the device. “What does that dial do?” Dee asked. “Nothing,” I replied. “It is not connected to anything and does not get anything done. It just gives kids the illusion that they are getting something done.” Dee laughed. “Sound like a lot of the office work I’ve done.” She was kidding, but serious. A certain amount of business work is productive and meaningful. A lot just feels like busy work. Filling out forms; fixing website issues; jumping through multi-layered security hoops; getting stuck in voicemail loops; fending off hackers; dealing with people who don’t pay attention to instructions. While on some level these activities may be necessary in
an increasingly complex world, a lot of them feel boring and a waste of time. A Big Waste of Time, the Dial to Nowhere At the end of the day, you lay in bed and wonder, “What did I do today, anyway?” Perhaps you, like me, would rather do what is meaningful than busy work. I heard that some doctors spend one-third of their time healing people and two-thirds of their time doing paperwork and administrative tasks. Where are our priorities? Soon afterward, we watched one of my favorite films, Lost Horizon. The movie contains a poignant scene in which high-ranking statesman Robert Conway finds himself in the remote paradise of Shangri-La, where he falls in love with a delightful woman who invites him to stay there with her forever. He explains that he has important work to do back in society. She tells him, “Come now, you know you are going nowhere-admit it!” Conway thinks for a moment, smiles,
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Top 7 Feng Shui Ways to Make a Better Bedroom by Kartar Diamond
Better Bedroom Options for Improvement On a higher level of Feng Shui, which requires knowing when the house was built and it magnetic compass orientation, we can predict all kinds of nonOmtimes.com
obvious results from sleeping in a bedroom. Is there any way to have a better bedroom? Each house and bedroom are truly unique, and we can find out how your sleeping room influences your health, relationships, and even your career. When I think back on some of the bedrooms I have slept in during my life, I know now that the childhood bedroom I grew up in indicated a potential for glandular problems, which I did have. My marriage ended with a bedroom that could trigger bickering and gossip. And the room also indicated the miscarriage I would have. Soon after that, I learned traditional Feng Shui and made sure I found a new place with good “flying stars” in my bedroom. I moved into a place where my career advanced in leaps and bounds.
Feng Shui Influences for a Better Bedroom With these unseen, non-
obvious influences, this is when and why we add or remove certain natural elements from the room, such as water, metal, fire, wood or earthen objects. Consider the many elements that go into having a better bedroom experience. But on the immediate or palpable level, without knowing these unique details, there are some basic Feng Shui principles which apply to almost everyone and their optimal sleeping conditions. The goal is to create a healthier bedroom environment since that is the most important room in the house. We sleep there about a third of our lives, so the bedroom takes priority over every other room. The exception would be a home office that you spend eight or more hours a day in. 1. Sleep with the bed away from direct alignment with the room’s door. This provides a more harmonious qi flow in the room. The operative word
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Knowing the Best Way to Connect with Others by Marcia Sirota, MD.
Connect with Others through Empathy It seems that people have become more and more alienated lately. So, what does it take to connect with others? Often, our mode of interaction is transactional, as opposed to empathetic.
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“Empathetic” and “transactional” are two of the ways that people behave with one another, and they’re quite the opposite. The former is about enjoying and appreciating the other person’s company. The latter is about what we can do for each other. In the transactional model, I do something for you (for example, be super nice and helpful). This is done with the expectation that you’ll do something for me in return. (For example, give me validation, reassurance, affection). Unfortunately, this way of dealing with others is dehumanizing. Instead of each person appreciating the other, just for who they are, transactional relationships take advantage of what each person might be bringing to the table. Relationships Thrive on Empathetic Interaction The transactional mode of relating turns both parties into objects. Their purpose is to serve one another,
rather than people whose goal is to connect. This style of interaction makes it increasingly difficult to form and maintain positive, empathetic relationships. In my weekly women’s groups, one of the main things I teach the participants is how to “just be” with each other. They learn that analyzing, interpreting, entertaining, cheer-leading, educating, helping or rescuing each other are not the ways to create meaningful connections. The group members learn to simply enjoy spending quality time with each other. Through their sharing, they learn and grow and most importantly, they form deep and meaningful bonds. The participants practice kindness and build empathy, and the groups quickly become cohesive entities that are greater than the sum of their parts. More and more, we seem to have the idea that relationships are about “doing” for one-another. We don’t realize that a better model is simply being together and appreciating each-another.
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The Power of Energy in Motion by Crystal Presence
Energy in Motion is Important Energy in motion is important to processing life experiences. Have you ever been struggling inside, and someone says, “Oh, just snap out of it! Stop
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thinking all that negative stuff and be positive!” Sounds like a great idea, right? But for many of us it is not that easy. Thoughts and feelings are an integral part of us. They sometimes get all wrapped up inside and drain our power to make the changes we want. No matter how many positive thoughts we conjure up, when our energy is not moving freely, stagnant energy lingers in the background. People often call it “being stuck” for a reason. Without our energy in motion, the miserable thoughts and feelings we wish would go away, keep popping up repeatedly. Yep, the same old thoughts and emotions keep circling round and round again!
The Ease in Letting Go People often say, “It’s hard to let go” when letting go is the easiest thing we ever do. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and personal power to
hold ourselves back. Letting go is our natural ability to free up our power to do the things we love. Moving our energy opens space for the release of depression, repression and the struggle we feel. A good example is when we constrict the muscles around our lungs and heart. We literally suffocate ourselves with shallow breathing and compression of our blood flow. This stresses our bodies and makes us feel uneasy, dis-easy. Dis-ease is an early warning sign of what we commonly call “disease”. Try this exercise as way to better understand: Hold your arm out in front of you. Squeeze your fist as tight as you can. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze tighter and tighter…and do not let it go! Keep holding it as tight as
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3 Tips to Forgive and Forget by Julie Geigle
Is It Difficult to Find Forgiveness? Has someone wronged or hurt you? Been insensitive or inappropriate? If that weren’t bad enough, then the mental mind keeps Omtimes.com
replaying the story over and over in our head until the body oftentimes becomes physically ill. How can a person break this cycle of pain? The #1 rule to forgiveness is to understand: It is never about the story, it is always about how the story makes a person feel.
3 Tips to Forgive and Forget - Move on with Love
there to uplift and inspire us. The mind’s automatic response to pain is to keep repeating it over and over in the head trying to make sense of it and rationalize who did what and why. While there is some value in processing the experience so it doesn’t happen again, the mind tends to hang on much longer than necessary and often to the detriment of one’s health.
Here are three tips on how to forgive and forget so you can move on with love in your heart and joy in your life.
This is why being on guard like a soldier with positive affirmations can mean the difference between a miracle or more of the same.
1. Be vigilant. When the mind keeps wanting to drag you back into the story be prepared with a mantra or prayer to stay grounded in your power.
2. Be a victor, not a victim. Victors rise in love. Victims stay stuck in pain. Choices allow freedom. Choose again.
It is easy to lose oneself in the story of pain, but we all have a story it is part of being human. Utilize all the tools and resources available to get out of that hole. YouTube has some great free videos to help shift a person’s energy. Many spiritual teachers offer free meditations and classes to expand our thinking. There are great movies out
Sometimes being a victim gets people a lot of attention, even if it is negative attention. Be careful to only tell the pain story one time. Repeating the story again and again to anyone who will listen can be a sign that there is a payoff for staying stuck in victim mode. The good news is that we can choose again at any point in time. Omtimes.com
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