An Example of What Happens When You Move Your Attention Away From You
Topics:
Session 20070120-2 (2183)
“An Example of What Happens When You Move Your Attention Away From You”
“Taking Two Steps Back to Appreciate or Reassess”
“The Real Object of Games Is the Playing”
“Black-and-White Associations with Words”
“Experimenting in Listening to the Body Consciousness”
“Training Is Not Necessary for Creativity”
“Energy Fields During Sharing versus Instructing”
Saturday, January 20, 2007 (Private/Phone)
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Ester (Ashule) and Anon
ELIAS: Good morning!
ESTER: Good morning, Elias!
ELIAS: (Laughs) And what shall we discuss?
ESTER: Ohhh. I'll just flow with it. (Laughs) I had an agenda before, but now it's like it's all gone. (Elias laughs) So I have no idea.
It's always good to hear your voice and talk to you.
ELIAS: And you also.
ESTER: This way. I guess we could start with… I really liked the last time you did like an energy read on me, like just tell me how my energy is reading in general? I really enjoy that.
ELIAS: (Pause) Quite well! I would express that you are engaging challenges more calmly and that you are allowing yourself to express fun.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: And I would express that I also recognize that you are generating somewhat of a playfulness with perception in allowing yourself to engage it in a more curious manner than serious as you have pastly. (Chuckles)
ESTER: Yeah. (Laughs)
ELIAS: I would be acknowledging of you, my friend.
ESTER: Thank you, yes. I have been having more fun.
ELIAS: And what of your games?
ESTER: Ohh, my games! (Laughs) You know, I had an interesting experience this week, and I kept thinking… I was telling [name], saying how it felt like in my game I had rolled the die, and he said I had my [inaudible] that said take this [inaudible] back and feel sorry for yourself or feel judgmental of yourself. (Both laugh) Because it sure felt that way for several days there. And it was one of those things where I felt overwhelmed, I think because I was very, very fatigued, really fatigued, but at the same time it was like a moving place because I was also very angry.
ELIAS: And what was the source of your anger?
ESTER: You know, at that moment everything was making me angry, but I think in particular it was my relationship with [name]. I realize now, looking back, how angry I was and I hadn't been able to figure out… But at the same time I just felt like my anger, it was almost like I wanted to hurt her, you know? Like “stay away from me, or get away from me” or something in that sense.
ELIAS: And what do you perceive—
ESTER: Like she wasn't meeting my expectations somehow—you know, in a strange way, but at the same time on the other side of that was also “Why am I doing that? Am I being that angry?” I’m almost like I moved… like finding myself again. Because that was my experience of it, you know? I was so angry but then I became quiet, I spent time alone, I slept a lot, and I started doing things that I wanted instead of waiting. You and I have talked about this before too, you know I told you like I was waiting— everything I wanted to do I was still waiting on what she was going to do or not do?
ELIAS: Ahh!
ESTER: But those few days there I was like, “Not waiting anymore.” Like I went and did my things, and I... So it was this very transitional, interesting time, and that's why I started… And I noticed that I had spent so much time with him but when I’m with her—not so much now, but like before there was so much judgement about me, you know. Everything I did I was so paranoid. And sometimes I could say, not in comparison but then by the end of that couple weeks that we spent so much time together I couldn’t get away from it. I was so upset with everything I did, I was judging and doubting and questioning.
ELIAS: But this can be a very valuable experience.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: For it offers you a reference point in which you can recognize what you were doing and what motivated that, and you can more clearly understand and implement choices that will allow you to not express that type of conflict. And it is a valuable example of what you generate when you move your attention away from you.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: When you become preoccupied with the expressions and choices of another individual and are not listening to yourself, and how strongly that alters your perception, and therefore how strongly that alters your reality.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: And when you ARE paying attention to you, and you are allowing your own expression and are directing of yourself, you avoid that type of entanglement with yourself.
ESTER: Yes. That's exactly how it felt: entanglement—with myself. (Both laugh) The funny thing is, at the end of all that I was like, “I think it was all about me.” (Laughs)
ELIAS: But, at times, as I have expressed, it can be quite valuable to generate that type of action in your game to pull the card that expresses that you may move two spaces back and re-experience some experience that is familiar to you, to remind you of the significance of the movement you HAVE generated.
ESTER: Yes. You know, it's fascinating that you state it that way, because when it was happening, that's how it felt. Like, it’s part of the game, you know? (Both laugh) It didn't feel like I was in the game any more you know, or that I was so serious. I go like “Okay, this is the part of the game where I [inaudible].”
ELIAS: And in that, you can also be acknowledging of yourself, that although you were generating discomfort you continue to be aware, and you were aware of what you were doing.
ESTER: Yeah.
ELIAS: And you were aware that you were continuing, that you were not stuck but that you were engaging a different type of element of the game. This is actually significant, my friend, for many times individuals will express to themselves or to other individuals, or to myself, their confusion with why they will generate what they perceive as a forward movement for a time framework—perhaps even an extended time framework—and then they will generate some experience which they perceive to be a setback and an interruption of their comfort, and this becomes confusing. But—many, many times the reason that that occurs is that, generally speaking, when individuals ARE generating consistently in a comfortable and neutral direction, they begin to become complacent, for there is not enough stimulus. Therefore, in that complacency they generate some experience that will be uncomfortable or conflicting to remind them of their own appreciation of their natural movement.
When an individual becomes complacent, they stop paying attention.
ESTER: Yeah.
ELIAS: And when they stop paying attention, expressions go awry.
And in this, at times it can be a very effective reminder that it is not necessary to generate conflict or discomfort to create excitement or to create an elevated energy expression, that that energy can be expressed in other manners, channeling it into passions and channeling it into new adventures rather than creating discomfort. But as I express, generally speaking that is created when the individual becomes complacent concerning their comfort.
ESTER: Okay.
ELIAS: But in this experience, what is to be greatly acknowledged is that you did not lose sight of the game, and therefore you were not stuck.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: Congratulations!
ESTER: Thank you. (Both laugh)
Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun discovering my natural flow and my natural preferences. It’s just amazing, I guess because before I kept thinking how am I going to do that, how am I going to know? I was always worrying about it, you know? And like was it going to be good enough? What would I have to change? And now I'm just so excited to find what it is. (Elias laughs) It's such a different feeling to it.
ELIAS: Discovery can be quite fun and exciting, and can be quite inspiring and curious also.
ESTER: Yes, yes.
ELIAS: This is the reason that treasure hunts are fun.
ESTER: (Laughs) Yeah! (Elias chuckles)
ESTER: And I also recognize something that I have about games that I hadn't realized before clearly. I mean, I knew about it but hadn't realized it, that I have this almost aversion to games sometimes because I hate to win. (Elias laughs) You know? This discovery has been amazing to me, like I knew that before but it’s… wow, it’s so strong. My fears – I wouldn’t call it fears…. some of my emotions associated with winning, you know? Like I was playing this game with this guy, and I actually didn't make a move to win.
ELIAS: Yes.
ESTER: Yeah. Like I didn't make one move because I felt sorry for him or something, some weird emotion there, and then because of that move I lost the game and I'm like, I do this all the time, like I'm terrified to win. I'm afraid because it's so easy for me to do it, you know?
ELIAS: But in that, you are also offering yourself valuable information, for the general association with games is that there is a beginning point and an end point and that there will be a winner and a loser. But in redefining, you can recognize that games can be generated in many different manners and not necessarily incorporate an end point, and that the object is not about winning or losing; the object is genuinely about the playing.
ESTER: Yeah.
ELIAS: And in that, generating interesting and new and innovative moves in the playing of the game but not necessarily to create a wining outcome.
ESTER: Mm, yeah. That's how I like to play chess. That's why I don't play that much because it kind of goes against the grain kind of thing.
ELIAS: I am understanding.
ESTER: Yeah. But. I don't know. Okay. (Both laugh) I think that's the conflict that was directing me to know what I like and how I play games and what I feel is supposed to be happening.
ELIAS: (Chuckles) In this, it allows you to also explore your own creativity and your own strategies, in which you can be playful and you can also be cunning.
ESTER: Mm, yes.
ELIAS: (Chuckles) And it can allow you a tremendous avenue for experimentation, which is always intriguing.
ESTER: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what I noticed too when I noticed about the winning thing. It was that every time I played the game sometimes I was ultra conservative, sometimes I was all kind of crazy with it, but it was fun to feel those kind of energies.
ELIAS: Yes.
ESTER: How I felt when I was ultra conservative and what I was thinking and feeling, and when I was kind of wild and just whatever and everything in between, kind of just very playful, yes. I can see that, yes, that it’s all very playful to me. (Elias chuckles)
I’m really enjoying this game and this reflection, and there’s so much information and all this that I'm doing with [name]. It's a very fun and effortless and intensive moment way of doing it. It’s like really amazing. (Elias chuckles)
ELIAS: And allowing yourself new discoveries.
ESTER: Yes, yes. That’s something about new discoveries. She has these those little angel cards, and they give you a word, and for the last few times that I've drawn the cards, every time the word “forgiveness” came up. And of course me, I was like fighting them, like “Forgiveness, I don't believe in forgiveness,” blah, blah, blah. (Laughs) But it’s been interesting in the last two-three days, you know, after all that happened [inaudible] kind of thing, and I’d like to be using it in an interesting way because I was thinking, “Okay, it keeps coming up, it means I have to look at it,” you know? Now I realize that I can use it or it can be helpful to me, because it’s almost like a path for acceptance to me right now, you know?
ELIAS: I am understanding.
ESTER: It's such an amazing experience that I’ve been having the last couple days, and [inaudible] yesterday used it a lot. I was driving, I was in traffic and I was… almost like the EFT, you know? saying even though this is happening I’m accepting myself. But I was just saying, “Okay, I forgive myself for this.” So every time I felt tense or I felt a judgment, I would say I forgive myself for that. And it was wow! It was like a powerful tool, and I was quite amazed.
ELIAS: I am understanding. This is another example, my friend, of allowing yourself to move out of the black and white. For, generally speaking, most individuals within your reality generate associations with words.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: And the association that they generate with words many times can be very powerful. And that can also be restrictive, for that influences the individual to move into very black-and-white terms: generating an association with a word that will be generated only in one manner – such as this word “forgiveness,” generating a strong association that the word is bad. But in that, you generate restrictions with yourself, for you are viewing this word in very black-and-white terms, very absolute, and that does not allow you to manipulate it in different manners. This can also be associated with beliefs. In not viewing them in such black-and-white terms, it allows you to engage them in different manners and experiment with how you can incorporate them in a beneficial manner.
This also occurs with many, many individuals in association with words that I express, such as “expectations.” Individuals many, many, many times generate associations with certain words that I express, but they generate them into absolutes. Rather than genuinely understanding and applying the information individually to themself and experimenting with what is effective and what is their natural flow, they generate an absolute association with certain terms.
I have expressed many times to individuals certain identifications of expectations. This is not to say that expectations are always bad; it is a matter of recognizing what TYPE of expectations an individual expresses, and in the recognition of the TYPE of expectation, whether they are generating an opposing energy or not.
ESTER: Yes.
ELIAS: But when you can actually engage a word that you have generated a very strong association with and allow yourself an openness to experiment with it and manipulate it in a different manner than you have previously, you open new vistas, and you allow yourself new directions to explore.
ESTER: Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely how I felt. I was very excited that I could do that with that idea and that concept.
ELIAS: Congratulations!
ESTER: Yes, thank you. (Elias chuckles)
ESTER: I wanted to ask more specifically about I've been struggling personally with my body and eating habits lately, and I know you and I have talked about it before somewhat. It's like I believed for so much of my life that I had to eat some way and exercise certain ways, and I think I still believe that because it’s bothering me and I’m not sure exactly where the conflict is, because suddenly, especially lately, my eating habits have been so hectic. Like some days I'm not hungry and I don't eat much, other days I am extremely hungry and maybe just for one type of food, not like a balanced-type food but it's just one type of food, and I eat that and then the next day after that I’m like hmm, eating some [inaudible] stuff and…
ELIAS: Let me express to you my friend, this is another new exploration. And in this, rather than distressing yourself—
ESTER: That's what I've been doing, yes. I need help. (Laughs)
ELIAS: -- allow yourself to recognize that you are generating another new experiment, and that is not to say that it nullifies your expressed beliefs but that once again, in similar manner to the word of “forgiveness,” you are allowing yourself to experiment with different manners of expressing that belief, that it is not as black and white or absolute as you have associated with it pastly. That you are continuing to be exercising in a different manner; you are not being sedentary, you are continuing to engage activities, and therefore it is merely a matter of recognizing that your exercising is being expressed in a different manner.
In relation to what you eat, this is being expressed in a different manner also, for you are allowing yourself to experiment in listening to your body consciousness. And in that, listening to your body consciousness and allowing yourself to respond to it may appear surfacely to be somewhat unstructured, or it may appear to be lacking nutritional quality, but there is genuinely a difference between listening to your body consciousness and responding to it and consuming types and quantities of food for other reasons or for other motivations.
In listening to your body consciousness, logically at times what it is expressing to you that it wants may not necessarily make sense to you, but your body consciousness knows how to function effectively without thinking. Therefore, it may be expressing to you that it wants ice cream, and it may appear to you that there is no logical reason or no nutritional value for you to be eating ice cream, but in actuality there is a reason. There will be some specific element in that particular food that your body is requesting. You may even notice at times, if you are genuinely listening to your body consciousness, that it will actually change your taste temporarily. You may receive a recognition from your body consciousness to be consuming some type of food that you actually do not like.
ESTER: Oh yes, that has happened.
ELIAS: And temporarily you will like it. You may return to NOT liking it, once you have satisfied what the body consciousness is requesting, but within that time framework of responding to the request, you will enjoy it. And, the body consciousness also is very effective and efficient at PREVENTING you from consuming some foods, for you will not like them. Or, the body consciousness will generate a reaction to it, which will prevent you from consuming that again.
Therefore, it is not that you are not continuing to express your beliefs concerning food and consumption and exercise; it is merely that you are experimenting with different manners of generating that. And you may or may not choose to reincorporate your structure in what you consume and how you exercise, but it matters not, for you are offering yourself the opportunity for a new reference point once again, in generating different experiences. And that also allows you to define more clearly what your preferences are in relation to a particular belief.
ESTER: Yeah.
ELIAS: For with any of your beliefs you do incorporate SOME preferences.
ESTER: Oh yes. (Laughs) Yeah, I can see that with everything that you said, that that has been my awareness of it. You can go like, “Oh, this is what's happening,” but I had that self-doubt. (Elias chuckles)
Thank you for your information.
ELIAS: You are welcome.
ESTER: [To Anon, in background] Do you want to talk?
ANON: Mm-hm.
ESTER: Elias, are you there?
ELIAS: Yes.
ESTER: Okay. Hold on. Let me pass to [name].
ANON: Hello, Elias!
ELIAS: Good day!
ANON: Wow! I've been listening to you on Ester’s CDs, and I feel a heart connected to you. (Elias laughs)
ANON: So, who are you? (Laughs) Is that an appropriate question?
ELIAS: I am myself. And who are you? You are yourself. (Both laugh)
ANON: That's true.
You have a great laugh.
ELIAS: And what are YOU creating in YOUR adventure?
ANON: What am I creating in my adventure? Wow. Um, expansion out of boxes, I guess?
ELIAS: Ahhh!
ANON: Like a capacity for love in many faces and facets to that?
ELIAS: I would be very encouraging of that.
ANON: Oh, thank you! (Elias laughs) I feel like Ester and I are both trying to know things beyond whatever [inaudible] we thought we had, and that's really exciting to say that to you now. I still keep positioning a healing center, because I feel like that's what I’m about in the world, and I do that in terms of psychotherapy now and massage therapy and women's goddess ritual healing work, like sacred women’s space. That's where my energies go now in terms of creativity and healing. But I have a wall around… right now I’m doing my own art, like figure drawing and watercolors, so this is [inaudible] time and energy and it's going one direction, it’s going that direction.
I think my phone is beeping. It may be running out of battery, so…
ELIAS: I am greatly encouraging of you in all of these directions, and remember: It is all interconnected; therefore, you can incorporate all of these different actions in one direction and integrate them together, and in that, you can be very encouraging with other individuals to share in these actions with you. And you are correct, you can share very healing energy in doing so, and I would be greatly encouraging of that.
ANON: Thank you, thank you. It's like… (Pause)
The energy coming off of you was so much heart and love and happiness, and certainly moving.
ELIAS: (Chuckles) I generate considerable appreciation, my friend, for you are worthy of it. (Pause)
ANON: [Inaudible] my ideas about [inaudible].
ELIAS: I would express to you first of all, do not compare. Your expression and your creativity is uniquely your own; therefore, do not compare.
ANON: Okay.
ELIAS: And also, do not compare in association with knowledge, for it genuinely matters not how much knowledge or training an individual incorporates. What is the most significant is the allowance of your creativity and your expression. And in that, another suggestion that I may express to you is to not be afraid to transfer into your art the exposure of you. In whatever manner you choose to express that, whether it be in form or in color or in texture, allow yourself to merely express.
ANON: Yeah, I think I do trip up about I have no training, you know? (Both laugh) I certainly have had experience of that didn't matter, either.
ELIAS: Correct, for this is an expression of your creativity. It is your energy. It is an extension of you, and therefore it is your expression, and the point in that expression is the engagement of it, the process of it.
ANON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can remember that. That feels good. (Both laugh) It always seems like time and energy is an issue, it's like going so fast. There’s so many things to do, you know?
ELIAS: I am understanding. But the more you focus and allow yourself to remain focused and be present, you will begin to notice that you do incorporate adequate time to accomplish what you want. It is merely when you generate a scatteredness and are not being present that it appears that you do not incorporate enough time. And the reason is that you are not actually ENGAGING, for you are generating busyness in projecting your attention in many different directions at once, and that does not allow you to accomplish. But when you genuinely are present and focusing, you accomplish quite easily and you generate much more success.
ANON: Yeah, I can do the scattered thing. (Both laugh)
One other question is, I’m facilitating this women’s ritual retreat on Crete in June, [inaudible] that I don’t belong to, possibly, or manifest, or… [inaudible]… I don’t know if you have any feeling on that?
ELIAS: First of all I would knowledge you in your action with this activity, and I would express a tremendous encouragement to you. And I would also express to you, allow yourself to experiment with genuinely sharing and merging – exchanging with these individuals, participating with them.
ANON: Participating in sharing and exchanging?
ELIAS: Not necessarily instructing.
ANON: Okay. Okay.
ELIAS: This will allow you to generate a great deal more openness, and that will enhance your experience tremendously and also the experience of the other individuals participating.
ANON: Yeah, because I really seize up when I think I’m supposed to instruct or lecture or teach something. I really seize up, you know?
ELIAS: Allow yourself to move in the direction of genuinely sharing, not instructing. And in that, I may also suggest that perhaps you may practice in actually viewing energy fields and the fluctuation of them.
ANON: Okay.
ELIAS: For in allowing yourself that type of activity – and you may also perhaps include your partner in that activity, for in viewing energy fields you can see more clearly how you are projecting energy and how other individuals are projecting energy, or how they are receiving energy or WHETHER they are receiving, and that may be instrumental also in your allowance of yourself to connect. For in viewing energy fields, you can also visually see how they extend from your body and how they actually connect.
ANON: Ah, on a body level, energy body level?
ELIAS: It is a field that surrounds you, an energy field, and it fluctuates and it moves. And when you are genuinely expressing an openness with another individual, you can, if you are watching, genuinely physically see the energy and its movement and how it connects with another individual's energy. You can also visually see when an energy is attempting to overpower another energy, which creates an automatic shield from another individual.
That can be quite fascinating, for when you are instructing you will notice a difference in your energy and how it is being projected, and you will notice the receding of another individual's energy, for it will be shielding.
ANON: I'm really glad that these sessions are taped. (Both laugh) It’s kind of dreamlike. It’s so real that it’s like, “Oh wait, it’s [inaudible].” And viewing energy fields, that feels very descriptive of what we do together as a group there, like we try to feel into the
(recording terminates abruptly)
Copyright 2007 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.