Got a Minute    

I sat on the bus the other day and found myself getting sucked into a conversation I didn't really want to be part of. I tried not to read the billboards out of the bus window but my eyes read the words even though I did not want the message. I needed to buy a pair of shoes but I don't like this years style and suddenly I realized that if I want a new pair, this style is what I have to wear because the sellers dictate what is available. And it came to me that i am being pushed. It seems harder and harder for me to be to be true to my own self to stand in my own truth.

There are a multitude of messages received by our bodies, through our senses hearing, sight, tactile stimulus, taste, smell and intuitive faculties - that are beneath the threshold of our consc:iousmind. And, all of these subliminal stimuli affect our moods how we behave and the thoughts that run through our chattering mind. Given this bombardment and other programming it seems likely that we can perceive consciously only what our subconscious mind permits. This in turn rules our behaviour. We are robotized. We react and respond against our deeper knowing.I sometimes watch myself do or say something that come.s from this robot state.

Quite frankly it shocks me and almost always it is not at all what I wanted to do or say, The only hope comes from the fact that at least I recognize what happens and have the choice to correct the error. Often it is my mother's voice speaking a phrase, or cliche, or platitude that generations or her family have mouthed. Ur it may be the voice of the mass mind. Either way, I don't want it, but it's hard to stop especially when you want to open up to deeper level of awareness.The task is therefore, to become consciously aware of subliminal stimuli.

This is crucial. Without it we will be nothing more than puppets responding and reacting to every whim, habit, trend, thought,mood of everyone around us. Once we are aware of the subliminal stimuli, we can recognize that which comes from a natural source. i.e. environmental, wind, sun, moon, earth, plant, stone, planetary gaia, from that which comes from an artificial source, such as propaganda, i.e. political, religious, social, merchandising, material gain, and programming such as what our family taught us, what our school taught us, what the media teaches us. 

Once we are aware, the confusion is still present but we can see why we feel this way. This is when we need to decide ' Who am I'? ' Was that me or it'" and so the cycle will begin. Sometimes it is too hard and we will slump back into remote control. Robot control. Other times we will get mad and may even find ourselves taking it out on others. Blaming them because 'They' are of course pushing in on us. Then we will move on around the wheel and will feel it all, will begin to hear the words of the songs we have been listening to, and singing along with, in a way that we have never heard them before and will recognize the programming subtle and not so subtle that did not even register on our conscious minds but was going deeply and regularly into our subconscious.

This is when we are aware of the news, Television programs. Movies, molding us. At the shops we see subliminal messages, everywhere. You - all of you, must look like this, be this height, weight, size, shape, color. You must read these books, live in thin type of house, eat this type of food, believe this, BE this. If any of this sounds familiar. If you sometimes feel that you are not quite yourself' then go out and look. Look everywhere and see and feel the pushing. Experience the bombardment, and in the seeing you will be a little free-er and able to make a conscious decision to find whom you really are. For I believe that one of the greatest gifts that we have in life is our individuality and that one of our greatest needs is to be truly ourselves.

 Clarys