The Way of the Peaceful Vampire

Reblogged from "The Vampire Diet" blog on amazon.com for Kindle (I gave myself permission)


Of all the modern vampires, I have a real soft spot for the Cullen family in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Their "coven" reminds me of that quote from Richard Bach "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

My brother-in-law is family both ways. On the surface, he seems like a happy-go-lucky athlete. Every now and then, you catch a glimpse of the deeply thoughtful, loving intellect that lies beneath. During this summer's visit, he said something amazing.

He's quitting smoking. Thank goodness...cigarettes will kill you, and I'd like the dude to hang around for a while. This time he said he is "at peace" with the idea of quitting. There is no doubt in my mind that he will quit this time. There is an ocean of profound under that one statement. It's a deep idea that applies here too.

It is so easy to fall into the mainstream diet trap...to focus on food & exercise while forgetting about the mind and spirit. This blog has been taking that turn lately too. Time to throw some esoterica at you.

You can argue that being happy will bring a healthy weight from a purely physical standpoint. If you reduce stress, there is less adrenal gland interplay with insulin production, glucose metabolism, and fat deposition.

You can make the same case from a mental-emotional standpoint. Mind and body are utterly connected. A contented outlook, combined with good information and a sprinkle of self-awareness, can find the non-physical connections to what we choose to eat. If you figure out why comfort foods comfort you, or discover why you don't pay attention to what / how much you eat, then you can go a long way toward making a healthy change. That doesn't even touch the way mood, appetite, and brain biochemistry are connected.

But then there are the spiritual aspects that diet books, nutritionists and mainstream fitness 'gurus' seem to avoid. Being at peace with your decision to live a healthier lifestyle is truly important. In tarot, the 9 of Wands card is often associated with the idea of "acceptance". But not the way you might think. Like I tell my tarot clients, acceptance doesn't have to mean acquiescence. This isn't about giving up or giving in. It is about taking off the rose colored glasses and dealing with the reality of a situation - to accept it for what it is so you can deal with it...calmly, peacefully.

This card, and my brother-in-laws realization, is also very close to Dharma Drum Mountain's "Four Steps for Dealing With a Problem": face it, accept it, deal with it, let go of it. Being at peace with what is makes it easier to be at peace with what we need to do.

It is so easy to drop into a fearful, defensive stance when it comes to losing weight or quitting smoking. I told my brother (you can skip the in-law stuff as far as I'm concerned) that I was trying to cut out sugar. Later on he didn't offer me a sweet dessert when he offered it to everyone else. It's a small thing, but to me it was huge. It was quiet, peaceful acceptance of what I'm doing. I wish there was something more I could do to support and encourage him in his efforts. A little peaceful acceptance can go a long way.

That's where a family-of-heart, like the Cullens, give us a good role model. They have a accept what they are, and solve the problem through an ongoing lifestyle choice. Except for the occasional adventure with humans, hunters, werewolves and Volturi, they are pretty much at peace with themselves.

We welcome our heart-family into our lives, and the same spirit can help with our physical health. Instead of fighting obesity, we can welcome weight loss and fitness. Instead of fighting cigarettes, we can welcome smokeless health. It's a subtle attitude difference, but an important one. Marc helped me learn that.

Thanks man. I appreciate it.

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For a tarot reading with the author, please visit www.ModernOracleTarot.com. For Holistic Health and Stress Reduction tutorials with the author, please visit www.RondaSnow.com.

Cornerstones and Fulcrums

Reblogged from "The Vampire Diet"...continuing from Friday



In Friday’s post, we talked about ideas being the cornerstone of change.


The cornerstone I was thinking about for today is personal responsibility. It is nearly impossible to act differently unless you have some vague idea that something else is possible. On the other hand, ideas are motionless unless and until you act upon them. If you have an idea or a bit of knowledge, but do not change what you actually do, then ideas alone can’t be an agent of change. If ideas influence how you do things or how you make choices, then they are essential to change. They might attract other things that prompt change, they might set lessons in motion just by being ignored, but in the short term, ideas alone need a little help from our spine to made real.


One cornerstone does not make a building.  Just like a rock can’t make a lever without a stick. 


After thinking about it a little more, A lever would be a better mental-example than ‘cornerstones’ in this case. It was a start...ideas are so basic, so foundational, so needed to build something new. Ideas are the turning point, but more is needed.


Think about levers. We all learned about them in elementary school science. Or at least played on seesaws at recess. 


Ideas are the fulcrum...the turning point around which change begins. Personal responsibility a is the stick that gets stuff done, that makes the change actually happen. 


No matter what diet books we read, or what regulations are enacted, or what resources we have at our disposal, who is that picks up the fork or picks up the cup? Who is it that opens our mouths and who swallows? The same person who can change all of that. We are the ones who got ourselves overweight, and we are the only ones who can get as fit and healthy as possible. Knowing what to do is of marginal value until we take the responsibility for ourselves and do it. 


That is the concept that I was trying to crowbar into words last week when the perfect, elegant, simple expression of it fell into my inbox. That is where the Richard Bach quote comes in.

“It isn’t up to my parents to change my past . . . even if they want to change it, that’s not in their power. It is, though, in my power. I can let the past go! If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it. If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be its victim.”

Richard Bach

The quote, I’m proud to say, is used with permission.


It isn’t in the power of books or support groups to change our past...or our future. It is in our power to let our past go, to take responsibility for our mis-judgements and do things differently. We may have eaten poorly, been sedentary and hand a hand in our own ill health. But we can let that past go. If we continue as we are, then we that past is in vain. If we change, then we instantly transform that past from a mistake into a life-giving lesson. If we take responsibility for both what we did and what we will do, then we are free in the here and now as well.


Have you ever seen a whining, victimized vampire? If that is part of the mythos, it is in a comedy or parody. Even in camp and satire show vampires as powerful, in control, and self-responsible. They own their atrocities, whether they regret them or not. In choosing to be healthier, we are letting go of the past and leveraging ourselves into a new and better direction.


I feel lighter already just thinking about it.

Geek Girl's Movie Shelf

It is a rare treat to go to the theater to see a movie...most of the time I only see older movies on DVD, (or, more recently, stream it online). But using the DVD motif, movies can sit on part of geek-girl's bookshelf...as I call the occasional book reviews here.


I went to see "Dark Shadows" this morning. It felt like senior skip day. I'm calling it book research...yeah, yeah, that's the ticket, book research. (shhh - don't tell - in reality it was a fun morning with some really good friends!)


The whole thing was just plain brain candy fun. If you are a fan of the TV series, there was plenty of homage to the original show. The references and cameos were slick, catering to real fans.  If you never watched or never liked the original...still go see it! It is rollicking fun, amps up the humor, and is just a straight-up good Tim Burton movie. Throw in Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and it is irresistible. Some might say compelling.


But in the spirit of "book research"for "The Vampire Diet" (my other writing project in addition to "Modern Oracle" / "Today's Tarot") ...I couldn't find a single diet or weight loss analogy in the whole thing save one: Birthday cake. No, there wasn't any birthday cake in the movie. It is an example of how, every now and then, it's healthy to ease up and just focus on something else. Let yourself have fun. Stress is bad for health and weight. Spending a laid back couple of hours with a movie like "Dark Shadows" is  the mental equivalent of having a piece of cake on your birthday, no matter what diet you are on. In that sense, "Dark Shadows" is probably the best vampire-resource for this book and blog yet - the whole point is a little fun and entertainment. Dieting sucks, so why not have a little fun with it?  "Dark Shadows", on the other hand, does not suck (well, other than Barnabas having a snack). Have a little fun with that too, why don't you? I give it two fangs up.


www.RondaSnow.com


www.ModernOracleTarot.com

Today's Tarot - Ace of Swords

The ace of swords is associated with "awakening". Ted Andrews -his books have inspired, instructed, and defacto mentored me for ages...buy and read them please!! www.dragonhawkpublishing.com - but like I was saying, Ted Andrews reads the ace of swords as "new rhythms of success" (Animal Wise Tarot).

The idea of material success connected to spiritual awakening isn't as uncommon as one might think, and not necessarily for the better, but it isn't entirely evil either. Like everything, the place where spirituality and material wealth meet has both good and bad aspects to it.

Growing up in the south, I always had a very negative impression of the idea. I grew up in the most right-wing, social conservative, republican, evangelical, fundamentalist, deep-dark-ruby-red counties you'll find on the map. In the 70s (and maybe since, I don't know) there was an undercurrent of thinking that if you were "right with god" and "living right", that material needs would somehow be magically met - a sort of get rich quick by being religious scheme. No surprise, it doesn't work that way, and the only people getting money were the overly-dramatic evangelists. Even as a kid, I could see that connection between the "spiritual" and "material" spawning a toxic whirlpool of judgementalism and lack of good judgement managing money. My reflex is to steer toward logic and work when it comes to earning a living and connect wealth-meets-spirituality with ideas like contentment, releasing unrealistic desires.

But over the years I've also learned that there IS another connection between personal and spiritual growth and material needs, other than the obvious learning to be content with the way things are.

Here again we see that acceptance is not acquiescence. Just because we accept the reality of what IS doesn't mean we can't act to try and change it. As it turns out, change is the cornerstone of that place where material success and spirituality meet.

Like Master Gracenin (www.dctaichi.com) always told us...'keep doing what you've been doing and you'll keep getting what you've been getting'. If things are going well, keep up the good work. If things aren't so good, they won't get any better until something changes.

Even if that something is us. Change is big, bad, scary thing for a lot of people, which makes BOTH spiritual growth and movement toward success (however you define it) an intimidating process.

Success, both materially and spiritually, often requires change...sometimes permanent change. Never mind bank accounts...think of weight loss. To have lasting success at that, you have to change your habits - permanently.

So Mr. Andrews interpretation of the ace of swords as changing rhythms of success is spot-on once again.