Shine like the sun.  This is the message spirit has been giving me forever.  What it really means and how to do it has been a slowly unfolding mystery.  The sun shines out in full radiance all the time giving out its essence freely without a care as to whether anyone receives it at all.  It shines because that is what it does.  It does not need a reason to shine.  Shinning is its purpose.

That is a great image and model, but I am not a thermonuclear ball of hydrogen gas in the middle of nowhere.  I exist within a context of other beings  that I participate with

.  So like most messages from spirit some level of interpretation is required.  It needs to be translated into language that relates to me.  Shine like the sun.

Every star is a sun.  And each star shines out a different color.  The color the star/sun shines is a consequence of the nature of the star, the age of the star, its size, and its composition.  You could say that a star shines out its truth.  It shines out what is inside it.  Much of its light never makes it to the surface as vast currents of energy boil and rumble around inside.  But what does make it to the surface shines out as brilliantly as the sun is able to shine.  The sun is always doing its best.

Some suns are brighter. Other suns are weaker.  Some are larger and some smaller, but the brightest are not necessarily the largest.  Most suns shine as a natural part of their beingness.  But a few suns are overachievers and shine so brightly they implode on themselves and then blow up.  So overachieving too much seems like it is probably not a good choice, or maybe not.  Maybe going supernova is a good choice.  

That is the biggest difficulty with interpretation of spirit's messages; there is no one to tell me if I have gotten it right; at least no one I can really trust.  There are lots people and entities happy to give me their opinion about what is right.  But you know what they say about opinions. The only thing I have is the feedback from trial and error; what works and what doesn't.

When I shine out and share my essence freely I am joyous.  It feels really good to be free in this way.  I believe this radiating out who we are to the world is a primary drive within us.  We want to be and do what is our nature without concern or restraint.  Our brains want to fire freely without inhibition and our bodies want to move and express without consequence.

Doesn't the sun do this?  No it doesn't.  It keeps its rumblings and violent churning internal and only lets out the light.  Occasionally a little flare of some rumble makes it to the surface, but not very often.  Only the highest and lightest is expressed by the sun as its gift to the universe.  It has a massive internal gravity to inhibit any outflow of coarse denser matter, to keep it from escaping out from its surface.  If the sun is my model, then I am to keep the coarse contained within until it is transformed into light.

The sun has the advantage of being isolated so it is able to shine full spectrum all of what it is at all times.  I live within a context of connection to others where full spectrum shining will quickly get you isolated.  Society is full of inhibitions on expression.  You don't sing in a movie theater during the movie.  You don't laugh at funerals.  You don't kiss passionately in the checkout line at the grocery store.  The list is endless.  But you can shine out appreciation at the movie theater, reverence at the funeral, and friendliness in the checkout line.  There is light to be expressed in every situation.  And it feels good to shine out that light.  It is the essential action that brings us joy.

Some people think joy is something that happens to us as a gift from the outside.  But it is not.  If it were, than everyone who receives that same gift would feel the same joy.  But that is not what happens.  Everyone takes life differently.  An experience that brings one person joy might bring terror to another person.  Joy comes from within.  It is the feeling we have when we are lit up.  And those who see us lit up will see us shinning.

We all want to be valued and appreciated.  From an evolutionary perspective, being valued and appreciated increases our chances of survival and improves our chances of reproducing ourselves.  As a communal species we rose to the top of the food chain through our ability to cooperate.  Being strong and fierce certainly gives one great survival advantage, but the cooperative efforts of many weaker beings will take you down.  The evolutionary dictum is not "survival goes to the strongest" but rather "survival goes to the most adaptable".  Community is the highest adaptation yet evolved.     

This means we have a built in desire to please others.  When others are pleased with us they welcome us into their community.  That is a good thing.  But if we have not mastered shinning out with only the light, we frequently run into others not being pleased with our outflow.  They don't want to deal with our crap, just as we have no desire to deal with theirs.  The crap we are talking about is the immature ego's desire to be the center of attention, to get its way, and to control the largest portion of available resources.  The "I win and you lose" drive of the immature ego does not work in a community.  Only win-win thinking works to sustain the strength of the community as a whole.

Unfortunately our desire to please others begins while we are very immature.  Consequently we are likely to receive a lot of negative feedback for our ego-based expressions of self.  We largely have not learned how to shine out with our light yet, so the "truth of our self" we put out is full of ego crap and we get put down for that.  We may get the message and learn to adapt and grow, or we may simply inhibit ourselves and try to get by through pretending to feel what "they" want us to feel, or we may go into resistance to connection all together.  We may decide we don't want all their judgment and so to heck with them.  That is actually a good choice because the resistance people isolate themselves, which is basically what the community does to them anyway.  The message is "If you can't play nicely, then get lost.  Go wander in the desert until you grow up enough to join civilized society."

The sad folks are the ones that shut themselves down and pretend to be like everyone else.  They live in self-judgment and pain until they learn how to express their truth in a light enough form that it is appreciated and enjoyed by the community.

How do you know when you are "in the light?"  My current belief is that you feel the outflow of light as joy.  When each day is joyous to you then you are shinning like the sun.

Be careful to distinguish between joy and hope.  Joy lives in the heart while hope lives in the gut.  Joy comes from the inside out and is not dependent upon circumstance.  Hope lives moment to moment constantly checking to see if it is going to get its way.  Hope lives to get something from the world.  Joy is only interested in simply being and shinning.  People often confuse getting their hopes up with joy, but in fact they are almost opposites.  They are both feelings of excitement, but hope is outside in while joy is inside out.  Hope always carries a fear of losing what it wants while joy has nothing to fear.

Even though it feels really good, I am not a fan of hope.  Hope is made out of egoistic desire and false expectations.  It is necessary to motivate us to walk through the pain of growing up, but ultimately it proves to be false.  With perseverance it will gradually be replaced with joy.

On a practical level shinning like the sun is really about learning to be virtuous every moment.  Virtues are skills.  Virtues are ways of relating to life that work.  Virtues express your essence and your truth in a way that works for those around you as much as it works for you.  Virtues are the highest light we can express and the most functional and adaptive skill set that supports both our community and us.  Virtues work well.  

Compiling all this says to me that spirit's message is telling me to let go of my immature ego desires and replace them with virtuous skills that get my real needs met while also supporting my community.  Doing this makes me both joyous and luminous.  It makes me shine like the sun.

Shine like the sun,


David

Relevant note:  Learning to let go of the immature ego and replace it with functional virtues is hard to do.  Supporting individuals to make these shifts is exactly what Heartflow does.  Your body knows what you are trying to learn in each moment and it is the perfect guide through this process.  Heartflow is the technology and the philosophy to access that guidance.  Make an appointment with Ellen for Heartflow today.

Tuesdays and Fridays

Self-affirmation improves problem-solving under stress

Stress not only degrades your health, but it also inhibits your ability to be creative in solving problems.  A recent university study showed that stress decreased students ability to creatively solve problems 50%.  A few minutes of focus on why a personal core value was important was found to completely reverse the  loss of creative problem solving.  Focusing on core values is a classic self-affirmation technique.  Lesson: focus on your core values and why they are important to fight off the effects of stress. 

              __________________________________

Genes altered during relaxation response practice 

Practices such as deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and prayer produce what scientists call a relaxation response.  New research shows that this response produces immediate changes in the expression of genes involved in immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion.  The longer study participants had practiced these relaxation response activities, the greater the change in their bodies.  Pathways involved with energy metabolism, particularly the function of mitochondria, were upregulated during the relaxation response. Pathways controlled by activation of a protein called NF-κB - known to have a prominent role in inflammation, stress, trauma and cancer - were suppressed after relaxation response elicitation. The expression of genes involved in insulin pathways was also significantly altered.  Message: do your daily prayers, meditations, yoga, and deep breathing.

          _______________________________

Dwelling on stressful events increases inflammation

 "You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

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

 

New Products

 

Coconut Milk

 

 

Avocado Oil