I opened up "Simple Abundance" tonight - a book my Mom gave me over ten years ago. Anyone have it? It's by Saran Ban Breathnach. It's a wonderful book. Tonight, I opened it up to the following passage. No joke.
START OF PASSAGE
Spinning Straw Into Gold
"Stories are medicine....They have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything - we need only listen. The remedies for repair or reclamation of any lost psychic drive are contained in stories." ~Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Next to knowing what to do with a few loaves and fishes, knowing how to spin straw into gold is probably the most important talent a woman can possess. It can make the difference between living a life of lack and living one of Simple Abundance. Gratefully, this gift was bestowed on all of us. But, like any other talent, the gift of alchemy must be called forth, treasured, owned, respected, and nurtured.
In the story of Rumpelstiltskin, a poor miller who is given to bragging meets a king who is known for his interest in accumulating riches. Wanting to impress him, the miller tells the king that his daughter possesses a rare talent - the ability to spin straw into gold. Skeptical but intrigued, the king orders the maiden to his castle, where he commands her to transform straw into gold by the next morning or lose her life.
Because this is an impossible task, the young woman succumbs to anguished weeping. What can save her? Suddently, a strange man appears in the room. " I can spin straw into gold," he says. And this strange man whose name is Rumpelstiltskin helps her spin straw into gold every night until the king marries her. (In today's day and age, the reward would be freedom, but in any case, the point is that Rumpelstiltskin helps her realize her dreams. )
Do you know who Rumpelstiltskin represents? He is the young woman's subconscious mind. You can bring into your life more health and happiness....and more joy by learning to contact and release the hidden power of your subconscious mind than any metaphysical principle. Just as there are two sides to the brian, there are two spheres to our minds. The conscious mind is where reason resides and the subconscious, or deeper mind, is where our emotions and creativity dwell.
Once the subconscious mind accepts an idea, it begins to execute it, Dr. Murphy explains. It works by association of ideas and uses every bit of knowledge that you have gathered in your life-time to bring about its purpose. It draws on the infinite power, energy, and wisdom within you. It lines up all the laws of nature to get its way.
If we try to spin straw using only the skills of our rational or conscious mind (i.e. reasoning and experience), it will not work. That's because when we rely solely on reason to manifest dreams, all we end up with is straw. What we don't realize is that we have a strange creative collaborator who knows how to spin straw into gold. It is Rumpelstiltskin, our subconscious mind.
END OF PASSAGE
To give you an idea how powerful the subconscious is, compare it to the rate at which we speak. Our subconscious operates at a rate four times faster than we can speak. This is how we can multi-task and walk and chew gum at the same time. It is also how something we were trying to remember a few days ago suddenly pops in our head out of nowhere. Have you ever forgotten someone's name or title of a movie? You can't think of it and tell yourself that you'll think of it later. When you do remember, it's while you're doing something else two days later? Well, that is your subconscious mind working.
Have you ever started crying when you heard a song that reminded you of someone from your past? That's your subconscious. The subconscious is where all of our emotion and creativity is stored, but we rarely tap into it. Heck, at times we avoid it. I believe if we harness the power of our subconscious we can help manifest our dreams to create a better life for ourselves.
I use both sides of my brain (left & right), why not use both hemispheres (the conscious and the subconscious). In fact, did you know that females process language from both sides of the brain. Men only process language from the left side. This is why women recover more quickly from strokes because we know how to shift and begin using the other side of our brain if we need to in order to process language. Men don't have that ability. They only process language from one side of the brain. Doesn't surprise me. Explains a lot actually. Oh, I just finished reading a great book on this topic called "The Male Brain" by Louann Brizendine. It's fascinating and amazing how differently the brains of men and women are wired. Good read.
In any case, my point is that we all have the power to tap into and engage our subconscious mind. Not only do we have the ability, but we're learning from advances in technology that our subconscious mind is much more powerful than we ever knew.
Great post and comments
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"The deeper that sadness carves into your being, the more joy you can contain." ~ Kahlil Gibran
"That which we do not confront in ourselves we meet as fate" ~ Carl Jung
http://www.storyofmylife.com/KLARITY4
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