December 23, 2012

  

The Christmas season has become an interesting testament of our times.  Even in pre-Christian days this time of year was celebrated as a time for renewal of hope, as the sun returns to the sky to once again to warm the earth.  The early Christian church saw the obvious symbology and pre-empted the old solstice celebrations with their new interpretation - the  coming of the Son of God to warm the hearts of men.  Just as the return of the sun was the gift of the gods, so too was the birth of the Son of God a gift to man.  The feeling of being gifted by the divine with another year of life was the basis of the holiday celebration for this time of year.

Somehow the gratitude for the gift of life has gotten lost.  Somewhere along the line the desire for filling personal emptiness - the hunger of wanting - has become the reason for the season.

How has this happened and why should we care?

We care because our happiness depends upon it.  We have developed the belief that we will achieve happiness once our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wants are all fulfilled.  The truth is far different.  Wanting is not quite what we think it is.  But let's look at how we may have gotten to this state.

The first and most basic want that brings us happiness is the hunger we experience once we are born.  We want nourishment.  We need to be fed.  We demand nourishment and it is provided.  If it weren't, you wouldn't be reading this now.  

A funny thing happens when we get something that makes us happy.  The first time we receive it we are surprised, delighted, and often grateful.  We like it so much we begin to anticipate when we will receive it again.  If we receive it a second time we immediately try to figure out the circumstantial pattern that surrounds and evokes the arrival of what we want.  Based on what we imagine we have determined about the arrival of what we want we now begin to expect its arrival.  If it arrives a third time we become convinced that we now know the truth of things and are therefore now entitled to receive what we want.  Pattern recognition produces feelings we are entitled to pattern repetition. We move from gratitude to entitlement just that fast.

The problem is we are not entitled to anything at all in life...nothing.  If we were, then nothing would ever be taken from us.  Everyone on the planet would live in abundance.  The truth is everything is taken from us eventually.  Even the air we breathe is eventually taken from us.  All entitlements are lies.  They may be socially supported lies, but they are lies none-the-less.  We are not entitled to be treated nicely or well.  We are not entitled to be cared for because we are old, disabled, sick, or incapable.  We are not even entitled to the fruits of our own labors.  And we are most certainly not entitled to be made happy by others.  It is no one's job to make us happy or be the way we want.  This is the reality of what most people experience on this planet every day.

"So what" you ask?  The "so what" is that when you base your life on lies, it doesn't work out for you.  You can not effectively participate with life when you insist in believing lies any more than you can effectively drive a car with a blindfold on.

What we confuse for entitlements are actually social contracts.  Contracts involve an agreed upon exchange of value between individuals.  Everything you want to believe you are entitled to you actually have to pay for in some way with something that is of value to the provider.  The most common exchange is trading power for goods.  This is the basic parent-child contract - I will provide you the goods for your survival and in exchange you have to mind me and do as I say.  Many other exchanges are possible, but the key concept is exchange.

What does this have to do with Christmas?

Do you know any children that feel entitled to get what they want for Christmas?  When I was young there was this whole "naughty or nice" thing that had to be navigated in order to be assured of getting Christmas presents.  That was the basic parent - child social contract in effect.  Do you know any children, no matter how naughty they were all year that don't feel entitled to presents today?  Remember the gratitude to entitlement steps I mentioned earlier?  All it takes is giving in to their demands twice to establish entitlement.  We foster our children's belief in lies, and by doing so we guarantee their lives will not work well for them.  We are teaching them to believe in the lie that they can get something for nothing; that they deserve to get what they want just because they exist.

So what can we do that will work?  Of course we can focus on goodwill towards each other and positive feelings of connection and cooperation.  But what can we do with the whole presents under the tree tradition?

To understand that we have to understand why we have wants and their true and useful purpose.  First lets dispense with the difference between wants and needs.  We need air, water, food, and protection from the elements/harm...that's it.  Everything else is a want.  Needs are met by trading our efforts for others efforts, and by making connection to be able to work collectively to meet the collective groups larger needs.

Wants are rooted in our desire to manifest our happiness and our expression of our uniqueness.  I like to think of each of us having a unique blueprint inside us somewhere that details how our life will look and feel once we have brought our blueprint into manifestation.  We want to make that blueprint real - to realize our potential.  For those of you in the spiritual community, this is the drive for self-realization.

Self-realization is a huge amount of skill building work, but it is the only way to true happiness.  Most people would much rather be given the circumstances and people that will act out their blueprint picture without having to do any of that work.  For instance suppose your blueprint showed you as being admired for your brilliance by many people.  But achieving brilliance and then putting yourself out there in a way that that brilliance is recognized because it somehow enhances the lives of others (the real reason they would admire you) is an immense task.  Instead, most people want to be recognized as brilliant simply because they exist.  They feel the brilliance piece in their blueprint and therefore feel entitled to have that piece manifest in their lives.  That would make them happy.  Truth is no one but you can feel or see your blueprint, and even if they did they still would not care.  People want results, not promises.  

We are not entitled to happiness, only to pursue happiness (as the US Constitution says).  That means we are entitled to work our butts off trying to achieve happiness with no guarantee of success.  All that work with no guarantee of success encourages people to look for shortcuts.  But there are no shortcuts to self-realization.  But people want them anyway and this is where desperate wants come from.  We want pretty lies to make us feel successful even when we are not.  The consumer frenzy aspect of Christmas is all about feeding these lies.  The Christmas entitlement feeling is our desire to make our outer world look like our blueprint with a credit card rather than skills and talents.

So, wants are useful because they let us know that there is some part of us looking for expression. If we want an airplane, it is our blueprint telling us to learn to fly. If we want love in our life, it is just our blueprint crying out for us to learn to be loving.  If we want power, it is our blueprint telling us to learn to be confident and self-empowered.  If we want peace, it is our blueprint telling us to accept what is.

So what does this look like here and now in this holiday gifting season?  My suggestion is to forgo the pretty consumer fluff and instead gift your loved ones with your support of their unfoldment as individuals.  Support their skill developing interests.  Support their becoming self-empowered.  Foster their inspirations.  Help them to help themselves.  If your loved one wants to become strong then give them a gym membership.  If they want to learn to paint, take them shopping for paint supplies they are attracted to.  Your supportive attention is far more valuable than any thing you can wrap and put under a tree.

Christmas is for celebrating the gift of life.  It is for radiantly shining the truth of spirit in your heart out to the world.  It is for each of us to become the sun that warms the hearts of our fellow men and women.  And nothing warms another person like empowering them to also shine.  Become the spirit of the season.  Find a way to celebrate the life in those you love.

Have a good holiday season,

David      

Santa & my new grand daughter Elizain Seattle last week.

Change in holiday hours:

Greetings Everyone and Happy Holiday Season

 

This is Massage Practitioner  Lorena Morales and as my gift to you if I may?  For this joyous season I am giving $5 off of

any scheduled massage for the month of December, please call me to schedule a massage or any questions too.  You will receive this $5 discount when you have your massage.  One hour is Regularly $50 and a one and a half hour is $75.  I am available for massage Mondays and Fridays!

These are the 2 days I work at the office.  Please call for an appointment or questions ( 916 ) 521-2100  

 

Thank you Sincerely for your Patronage through out the year.  If I have not yet met you at the office please come and say hello on your next visit and feel free to look into our new healing Energy room please. 

 

Lorena Morales  Massage  Practitioner Since 1996

 - Fair Oaks Healing & Arts Center

Take care,

David            

Body language, not facial expression, tells what we are feeling

It has been a common assumption that our facial expressions tell others what we are feeling.  It appears this is not so.  When pictures of people's faces were put onto pictures of other peoples bodies, those who viewed the composite pictures consistently "read" the emotions being expressed as actually matching the emotions of the bodies and not the faces.  Yet the viewers always said it was the face that told them what was going on.  Not True.  The facial expression more closely related the intensity of the emotion, but not whether the emotion was positive or negative. 

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  Non-invasive surgery with a sonic scalpel?
 
In a tremendous step forward sound waves are being projected through tissue and focused to an area the size of a single cell that can act as a scalpel.  With this technique doctors could cut out tumors and blood clots without having to cut through the skin.  The picture is of a hole drilled into a pretend kidney stone with the new technique.

Sonic scalpel

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Trampoline Road

Looking for a new and interesting activity on your next vacation?  How about a trip down a trampoline "road"?  This 167 foot long road through the woods is one huge trampoline.  If you are interested, just hop aboard your shuttle jet to the Nikola-Lenivets forest, Russia.  This fun concept entertainment is part of the Archstoyanie Festival.   

 "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. "

~Dale Carnegie  

About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

 

Catherine Cummings

 

 

Jin Shin Jitsu

 

 

Lorena Morales

 

 

Massage Practitioner

 

 

 

 

 Is there a sweet that is not poisonous?  Yes!


 Dr Dave Supersweet Drops and 2X Sugar Substitute

 

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