Jennifer Ott
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Attraversiamo

11/25/2018

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This blog is inspired by a recent follower and I must admit I didn’t follow back because their account is private. I always like to respect the privacy of others; however, I’d like to thank them for offering inspiration.
 
Curiously, they started following me the eve of Thanksgiving and the quote from the woman gave me a question to ponder, “Do you see to believe, or believe to see?” I paused to reflect on my own life.
 
I have a highly inquisitive mind, which is the inspiration for my profile name, SuperJenius. In my incessant quest for knowledge, I often get tripped up and trapped in my own wires. Yes, my wanton monkey mind always gets entangled with some twisted version of the truth. My inquiring mind HAS TO KNOW, but know what? What does it really need to know?
 
Seeing is believing, or at least that is what they tell us in the pragmatic modern world. The irony is often I need to find evidence to support what I don’t want to overcome the expectation for what I do want. In other words, I need to prove the negative of a situation so my heart doesn’t get hurt. Yes, my negative mind constantly looking out for my heart. Yeah, I know. Let that sink in.
 
Regardless of why I have such a habit, the truth is what I see, is not always the truth. It is only my perspective of the truth. We all see what we want to see, and therefore, we believe what we want to believe. We have this choice. We can choose to see life in the negative, or life as a positive, and our minds do so to protect the body, heart and spirit from pain.
 
Believing to see, I believe is not physical sight which can be deceiving. This belief of sight, is a felt one and an intuitive one. We see with our hearts and we also see with our intuitions, which would be considered our third eye in come philosophies and religions. While we can search the entire world for facts to calm the intellectual mind, it takes a lot more courage and faith to believe in what we see with the heart. Ironically, the heart has a greater gift of sight then what our eyes take in and our mind interprets.

Which of these is true? Is physically seeing to believe, or is it faith, feeling and intuiting what we see? How do we know the difference? How can we find the truth of sight – is it in the heart, or the mind?

Attraversiamo means “Let’s cross over,” in Italian. Again, Thanksgiving eve, I let that sink in, meditating on it. What does this mean to me? What does it mean in regards to belief and seeing?

Perhaps it is crossing over from what is plain sight, to felt sight, from what we think is truth, to the truth in our heart, from the pragmatic and dogmatic propaganda of the world, to an inspired, intimate version of the world. We can cross over to what is, to what can be.

We don’t need to someone to extend their hand to help us cross over. We can do it ourselves, just by changing our perspective. We can cross over just by changing our sight and our beliefs.

However, it is more than just personal relationships, humanity is at a crossroads. The pragmatic version of sight is no longer serving us. Sure, there are practical truths which are right before us, but in order to progress past the hardships and the chaos, we need faith, even if some claim to be Atheists. It’s not a religion or God we must learn to have faith, it is our own hearts and our own intuition. We need to believe in what we can’t explain and don’t have immediate answers. I come back to a quote from the book,
Serendipidus.


Maybe it’s time to set aside intellectualism

and celebrate the wonders of things that can’t be explained.

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Free the Mind, the Heart and the Soul

11/20/2018

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I have admitted this before, and I anticipate this blog to be slightly controversial. One of my biggest social media irks is people flaunting their sexuality on social media, the hot body selfies and the semi-nude pictures, some of which is used to demonstrate their liberation and their free-spiritedness. I have no problem with this, although I have to question, is flaunting one’s body a sign of a free mind, heart and soul? I don’t know. It would depend on the person. Being liberated and free-spirited doesn’t necessarily require sexuality and dancing naked around bonfires. 

In fact, in some instances, it falls into the old patriarchal expectation of sexual liberation. Many of whom prefer we liberate our bodies and not our hearts, minds and souls, simply because that is the best way to control the population and the powers above us get perverse satisfaction by the exploitations of our own bodies. It seems at times we unwittingly continue down the path of those who want to control us. A free heart, mind and soul are far more dangerous, than the exposing our bodies, which I contend is not liberating, but redefining our prison.
 
Secondly, what does it say for the youth of the world to suggest to be of value to society we must sexualize ourselves – men and women. What message are we sending to children? Do we want to empower their hearts, minds and souls, or tell them in order to gain recognition they must be sexy and hot? Think about our actions and what we are saying not just to other adults, but to the children watching us. Yes, we do want to have healthy body images, but is it always healthy to express ourselves through our bodies?
 
Not to be taken for a prude, this is where it comes to my own personal opinion. Whereas, I find the body (male and female) beautiful, I value the heart, mind and soul more.  All bodies are beautiful. All of us, well, most of us are sexual creatures. Many don’t feel the need to exploit something that is so distinctly human. Congratulations. You have a body. You are a sexual person. So is nearly every person on the face the Earth. This is why I find hot, sexy selfie pictures antiquated and over-played. Yawn.  We get it. You think you’re hot.  Show is something more. As the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang, “Show me your soul.”
 
In a world so full of hate, when leaders of all kind – political and religious tell us who we should love and who we should hate, loving all is a total act of free-wheeling rebellion, and yes, we can love all people completely clothed. (Sorry for sarcasm)
 
A simple acknowledgement of someone can be all the difference, a hug or a hello. “I see you there. I feel you there,” may be enough to make not just a person’s day, but their year.  It is telling someone good job for the work they created, or buying some poor struggling author’s book. (I know. I tried.) It is simply reaching out one’s hand beyond our immediate circle. This acceptance isn’t at all based on what we look like, who we are and what we do. We all deserve the same love and understanding.  It is the basis for human connectedness.
 
Imagine a world of free minds. Hmm. Where have we heard that before? Imagine all the people, living life in peace…ooh…hooo. You may say, I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Today, there is even a divide as to what is a “free mind.” With so many versions of the truth (another blog), how can we truly assess someone’s mind? Is it free, have they attached to some idea or ideology? What is having a free mind?
 
A free mind is one that has no attachments. When we align ourselves with a political ideology or religious dogma, our mind is not free. It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum we live or what our religious affiliation is, if we are too attached, and spend our time trying either to defend ourselves or impress our part, our mind is not free.  A free mind is able to walk away from any discussion with the complete confidence it doesn’t fucking matter. In the grand scheme of all the universe, our little inklings and pondering, doesn’t mean a whole hell of lot.  It only means something to us. So, we can speak our truth and have complete acceptance of someone else’s truth, even if we completely disagree. How this frees us, is those in power cannot control us. When our mind is freed, we can be of acceptance of others who have different thoughts and perspectives. They can only control us if we believe their dogma or get trapped in the division. This is freedom.
 
The soul is a little trickier. We all have one, the issue becomes have people lost touch with theirs? Is it completely gone, or screaming to come out, hoping for us to start listening the them? The soul too is not of the body, it is a spirit. So sorry, good cinematography and lighting enhancement cannot bring out the soul. I apologize again for the sarcasm. It comes out naturally. I can be a volcano of sarcasm. But I digress.  Many can “look” soulful, but are they really? Pictures can be deceiving.
 
How do we set the soul free? Simple, by getting in touch with it through meditation, prayer, singing, dancing, painting, etc. etc. The soul is freed by doing what it is called to do, which could be anything from several hours of meditation to baking cupcakes. From the soulful output we can see and feel its effects. It may not be a masterpiece to others, but it speaks volumes to us. It frees us of past karma, transforming our present.
 
This is my soul’s wish for all people…to free themselves beyond the superficial. And I hate the word superficial. It sounds so superficial and judgmental. It’s just my desire to relate at different levels, and my disappointment when I don’t see us, humanity, moving forward into a more heart-centered, mindful and soulful existence. Like John Lennon, perhaps I am just a dreamer, but I know I am not the only one. Peace.

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Phony Ass Bitches

11/17/2018

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This was the first Instagram post I read on Saturday morning - a post bemoaning phonies…to be precise, phony ass bitches. Well, good fucking morning to you too, jerk. I hesitated over the post trying not to fall into a well of negativity. We all have our bad days when the world pisses us off, so why not express our dissatisfaction publicly. Seems real to me.

Trust me. I get it. Life is not always sugar-coated gum drops and lollipops. We aren’t always leaping over rainbows on unicorns. Each day may not greet us with rays of sunshine and smiling faces. Sometimes, we just want to fucking sucker punch the world and everyone in it. Yes! Halle-fucking-lujah!

I read the post several times, and yes, had to admit I have seen my share of phony ass bitches. The thing that offends my soul most is superficiality and worse, passing sexuality off as spirituality. Sigh. Is it fucking possible to have a spiritual and mindful quote without expressing how hot we are? I see this so much. This was my comment to a person who at times made me roll my eyes and raise my eyebrows. Sigh. Really dude? Yes, there is a world of phony ass bitches out there. Be careful, we may be one, because what frustrates us in others is often a reflection of us.

Giving more thought to the post as I settled into my yoga practice, I came to realize we are all for the most part phony ass bitches. There is always a part of our private nature we hide and we develop personas especially for social media. We all wear public masks of some sort. Some of us are really kittens but present ourselves as lions. We may be a timid baby bird on the edge of the nest testing our wings for first flight, when we portray ourselves as eagles. Some may present themselves as gods and goddesses, flaunting their bodies to demonstrate their inhibitions and wildness, only to cover up the fact they are timid and terrified of life.  We rage against governments and corporations, claiming to be free and awake never to realize we are caged and asleep by our own negativity. 

Perhaps the realization is how we present ourselves, our personas represent our greatest insecurity. Do we feel unattractive and that is why we need to share so many sexy selfies to seek positive attention and reinforcement? Who are we trying to impress when we do so? Do we feel inadequate when we consistently promote our success? Who are we trying to impress with our achievements? And I could continue on. I’m not saying any of this is bad, but to be mindful why we do so.

With all this being said, how to we get fucking real in a superficial and materialistic world?

First to realize that we are not all fucking that. None of us. We all come to this life as equals no matter our status and wealth. It isn’t a competition. It’s really not. There will always be someone more talented, more beautiful/handsome, more successful…etc., etc., We are simply of value for existing and being who we are and understand that what irks us and offends is only sign to reawaken parts of us that need healing.

I will be flat-out honest with the world. Why sexy selfies irk me so much is because I am for the most part comfortable with my appearance and my body. I don’t need to flaunt it. I could do so as millions of others, but I prefer to promote my more creative and spiritual side.  Guess which people get the most attention? Yes, the sexual flaunters, the success promoters. And yes, for some of us comfortable with our own existence, this can get real fucking annoying.

But I digress, I am only being open and honest about my judgements to demonstrate where they come from. They come from my feeling of being invisible and unnoticed. Damn you, world! But this is my issue to contend and we all have issues to overcome when trying to make peace and love with the world.

So, chill the fuck out, phony ass bitches and carry on with our real awesome selves and be mindful of what pains us. It could be the clue to our healing.

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