Transcend Gossip

“Many Awakening people get lost in the Enlightenment Olympics. Expand or contract Heaven… choose wisely.”
~ Jennifer Hough

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Dear You:

So many people in the world of Awakening can get lost in playing the Enlightenment Olympics, comparing, trying to one-up, or trying to diminish another’s work.

What I notice is, so often, the perspectives we make up are there to protect ourselves. They’re there to make it difficult to let other people in; they’re there so we keep people away and, therefore, don’t get hurt (again).

We are all connected, all of us… and we create the world around us and how it operates in every moment. This video contains 2 stories that powerfully offer a way to transcend the mean-ness, judgment, and fear, while flying forward….

Watch on…

With an open heart,
xoxoxo
Jennifer


Transcript

Transcend Gossip

Hello there, everyone! Well, I am here in beautiful Virginia, Hot Springs, VA, looking at a very pink sky above and, just looking at a lot of the stuff that’s going on in the media, and a lot of the stuff that goes on between all of us.

So many people in the world of Waking Up can get lost in playing the Enlightenment Olympics, or comparing, or trying to one-up, or trying to diminish another’s work.

I have to say, probably 10 years ago, in a state of my own insecurity, I remember a couple of times where I said some things on stage that I thought, “Why did I even say that? I can’t believe it, it’s so… young.”

Ever since then, even I’m not even surprised that I attracted my friend, Shawn Duperon, the Gossip Expert…

And, it’s come to my mind today, there’s been a few posts that I’ve seen; one was about Socrates, and that particular post, I think, was by David Wolfe. That particular post was about the Socrates test about whether he wanted you to share with him; it was like a filter for whether he wanted to hear what you had to say or not.

So, his test, his filter, for whether something was worth saying or not, and I’m going to paraphrase, but I think it’s pretty profound: Someone had come up and told him, “I would like to share with you a little bit about one of your friends…” And Socrates said, “Well, let’s put it through my test. First of all, is what you’re about to tell me true about my friend? Is it actually true, have you checked the facts? Is it an interpretation, a perspective, or is actually THE TRUTH? It may just be ‘A TRUTH,’ based on whatever it is.”

From my perspective, often the perspectives we make up are there to protect ourselves. They’re there so we don’t let other people in; they’re there so we keep people away. I find a lot of people that speak mistruths… it happens a lot when you put yourself out there like I do, and maybe like some of you do. They speak mistruths out of misunderstanding, and a lot of them have actually never even experienced the work.

So, the first one that Socrates asked was, “Is this true?”

“The next,” he said, “is the test of ‘goodness’. Is what you’re going to say kind?”

The man said, “Well, maybe not, I don’t know.”

Socrates said, “Well, then still, but there’s still a chance, there’s one more test…”

And, again, I’m not going to give you the third test until I say this about “Is what you’re saying kind?” Is what you’re saying at least NEUTRAL?

The last test, however, was, “Is what you’re going to say useful?”

Now, I thank my friend David for doing that post today, because I’ve heard this before and I think it’s just really, super profound, I love the reminder…

“Is it useful?” Is what you’re going to say actually usable, going to add to my life, going to make my life any different?

So, these are some amazing tests to check out whether you’re gossiping.

I want to share with you another story that I heard today.

I just briefly turned on, I wanted to look at the Olympics today, because I love watching synchronized swimming… go figure, I don’t know! But, in the world of creating communication that actually expands what it is that we want, we have an opportunity in every day to slow down enough to hear our hearts’ call… to come from the reason why we’re on the planet… to look at what we’re really here to expand.

And as we do that, we might take on an act of creativity. We might take on an endeavor where we’re speaking, or where we’re on the radio or we’re on the TV, or whether we’re with our families. When we’re with our colleagues, when we’re with people that we work with, in our teams… all of the people that are in our lives.

And I was watching a movie called “No Doubt,” or maybe it was just called “Doubt.” It was about a priest, so you can imagine the subject matter of the film. But regardless of the outcome of the movie, the sermon was profound, because he was talking about gossip, and the effect of gossip.

Sometimes, stories actually purvey the message much better than we can do when we just talk about stuff, when we just lecture. So, let’s talk about the story:

One day, a leader, a spiritual leader of some sort, was talking to one of the women and he had overheard her speaking of someone poorly, or badly. So he said, “come here, let me talk to you fo ra minute.” She said, “What?,” and he said, “I heard what you were saying about your friend.” And she said, “Yes.”

He said, “Do you know that’s very hurtful? And in fact, it’s kind of against the flow of expanding love and consciousness and making the world a better place, which is kind of what this teaching is all about, after all.”

And she said, “I suppose… you know, I kind of feel bad now.”

He said, “Would you like to do something about it?”

She said, “Okay.”

He said, “Go to the top of your apartment building at home. Stand with your feather pillow and take a knife. Stab the pillow and open it up,” and, by the way, I wish I knew whose story this was, but it was in the movie… “and slice it open.”

She said, “OK, I don’t understand why, but OK.”

And she did it that night, and she came back to him afterwards, and she said, “Listen, I don’t understand why you had me do that.“

And he said, “Well, listen, what happened when you stabbed the pillow?”

She said, “Well, when I stabbed the pillow, the feathers came flying out, they went everywhere.”

He said, “Oh, they went everywhere… Now, what I want you to do is I want you to go and try to pick up all of the feathers and try to put them back in the pillow to make a whole and complete pillow again.”

She said, “I think that’s impossible. I don’t think I can do that.”

He said, “Oh, you don’t think you can do that? Well, that’s kind of the effect of talking badly about someone else. What happens is, in many ways, it’s very difficult to take it back; you can do your best.”

Just watch what you put out into the world.

The last thing I want to share is about my dad.

My dad, one day at dinner, he was kind of agnostic, he was trying to understand the world in a different way. And, he always surprises me at the wise things that come out of his mouth, despite the fact that he’s such a guy!

He’s just a man from a certain era, that’s very thoughtful, and I love that, so he, although he fits some of the “old ways” that we might think men of that era have been. He’s also forging ahead by asking all the questions. Just like me; wonder where I get it from, huh?

So, one day he said to me, “Jennifer, here’s what I know… the air that I’m breathing in was probably processed through a tree at some point in the Amazon rain forest, and breathed back out again by the tree and breathed by somebody else, and I’m made of those ingredients. The sand from the Sahara: I just found out that those particles of sand can end up in the dirt right here in Ontario, so that means that we’re made up of all of that stuff. I’m made up of what someone was made up of 10,000 years ago. So everything I do affects everyone else. How their body is, how healthy they are, how able they are to process stress… it’s pretty amazing, how we’re all connected.”

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