Secrets from My Macrobiotic Kitchen with Julie S. Ong

Eat better. Live better. Love better.

Tag Archives: perception


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Loving What Is

Resistance is thought transformed into feeling. Change the thought that creates the resistance, and there is no more resistance.
~Robert Conklin

Is it difficult for you to love yourself and openly express your truth? Holding onto the past and feeling unfulfilled can be a safe route for you, if that is what you are familiar with. But to life your life to the fullest, your success lies in releasing resistance and staying in your authentic energy.

If you choose to hold onto grievances, you fulfill a story of yourself, which is that you are limited, worthless, unloved, etc. Focusing on your limitations can help you stay in your comfort zone. However, resistance is often an indicator that your true needs are not being met. This is an unnatural state, because you are not living your truth and energy is blocked. Have you ever heard of a flower saying, “I cannot grow today, because I’m not good enough?”

Yet, when you focus on your inner beauty and unlimited potential, you surrender to BEING and your potential expands. If you want to be greater than your self-image, ask yourself what is holding you back, and speak your truth about what you really want. Are you ready to let go of past grievances and live your dream?

Remember, thought is the precursor of manifestation, so think yourself into your dream–visualize the story that represents your truth. Ask yourself what is the path of loving what is and go with the flow. My client, Lumina, did just that, transforming a limiting situation into a beautiful journey of healing and self-acceptance.

Ready to begin a sacred relationship with herself, Lumina received divine guidance telling her that uterine cancer (BeaUterine cAnswer) was the beautiful answer. Here was her opportunity to walk her path and connect with Love. Through macrobiotic cooking, Lumina was able to reach inside herself for the answer to healing. This was a transformative experience that allowed her ultimately to love herself.

“I had no idea that literally letting go of crap would also be a letting go of ‘crap’ on so many levels,” she says. “That night, subconsciously I wanted so badly to hold onto all that I felt was holding me together. Where would I be without my angers, fears, heartaches and resentments? Who am I without all the walls and protection? I’ve learned that without them I am nowhere near empty or dead but am full, whole and more alive than I have been in years. Being able to still love myself through all of my fears, angers and resentments I’ve found that I can love my family with theirs and that today, tomorrow or next lifetime-I will be there for them. That old vision of payback is no longer where I get another day’s strength to go on without the support of my family. It’s the new vision of my heart no longer being broken that gives me all of that and more.”

Through the blessing of cancer, she chose to manage her thoughts and behaviors to align with her truth. By acknowledging that her old stories were no longer serving her, she could release them. She chose new stories that more accurately reflected her inner beauty and unlimited potential. Her blog (http://www.beauterinecanswer.com/) is her way of journaling positive evidence that reflects this new change in perception.

Lumina’s journey shows that life is about choices, not chances. It really is very simple; it’s about being open to living your dream. And don’t worry about what other people think of you, just think about what you want. Life is an exercise in staying in your own authenticity.


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Unveiling Your Authentic Self

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
~William Shakespeare in Hamlet

Some people say that we must not be attached to our expectations. However, it is important to think about the end result, because the level of thought is how the visualization materializes. There is a difference between being attached to the end result and being focused on creating. Focusing on creating the goal with passion and emotion allows universal energies to flow, bringing about circumstances for the image to appear on the physical plane. But attachment to the goal with fear that it will not materialize creates suffering and blockages in the flow of universal energy through the energy centers of the body, called charkas. Focusing on what you desire rather than how it may appear moves you ahead with greater efficiency.

Move from holding onto the past to creating new opportunities and experiences in the present moment. Live from your true self, which knows no judgment and preconceived limitations. This your Life, and you are one with the Divine, living in the eternal present without boundaries of any kind.

There are four levels of living your truth. First, do what you can, setting aside the time and energy to create your dreams. Second, do what you must, performing the actions and priorities that define your life as you see it. Third, do what you love, following your calling and reason for living.  Finally, be Love, just resting in your being-ness as human being, not human doing. At the fourth level, you realize your true self and co-create with the universe. What is your passion? Passion drives your soul to choose your experience. If you determine what you are passionate about, you will have the motivation to see it manifested.

Actors have the great challenge of incorporating a role so well into their being that they become the part. They take on the core character and identity so well, in fact, that they think, feel, and behave as if they had been born for the role. People who live from their passion are open to universal energy, and thus integrate their power and confidence to manifest their dreams. To create your vision, you must take on the core character, the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, of your true identity. The first step is to unveil your authentic self.

Recipe for Success: Unveiling Your Authentic Self

Ask yourself these questions to help you uncover your Authentic Self. Remember to write your answers in your journal.

  1. What is your passion? If you had all the resources (money, time, etc.) in the world and could create anything with your life, what would you do?
  2. What is stopping you from living your life to the fullest now? What are your fears and limiting beliefs?
  3. What are your perceptions of who you are? What role are you playing now?
  4. What role do you want to play? Who is your role model? Tune in to the energy of the person. As if you were researching a role for a play, observe how your role model acts and lives. Take notes and pictures. Practice that person’s movements and dress in every detail.

Remember to follow the great Indian Guru Paramahansa Yogananda’s advice: “Do not take life’s experiences too seriously. Above all, do not let them hurt you, for in reality they are nothing but dream experiences. If circumstances are bad and you have to bear them, do not make them a part of yourself. Play your part in life, but never forget that it is only a role.” Now is your chance to let your true self shine. You are beautiful!


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Transforming Thoughts

A man should learn to watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament, of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more abiding lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our own spontaneous impression with good-natured inflexibility when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you identify with your past and all its events, you can become like a robot, performing roles that are created by society. You may identify with the tribal stories that have been told to you from childhood. You may limit your growth, weighing every choice you make against the beliefs you perceive are true. You may be afraid to venture out into the wild blue yonder, creating imaginary boundaries about how you are not good enough, not old enough, etc. Behind these stories and limiting thoughts is the foundational thought that represents who you think you are, the underlying thought of love or fear. This thought creates corollary thoughts, such as “I can’t afford that,” “I am not worthy,” or “there isn’t enough”. However, when you connect with your higher self and receive the true foundational thought that represents You, you know that Love, Peace, Joy, and Freedom are the truth of who you are. As you become more aware of the limiting thoughts you have been carrying around, you can choose to release them and create new ones that reflect your true self.

How you see the world and what opportunities appear to you depend largely on the way you are thinking. When you see the world as a hard place, you will tend to see your life as half-empty. But if you see problems as opportunities, you will tend to see your life as half-full. Depending on your point of view, you can choose to be open to receiving the gifts from the universe or limit yourself by seeing only hardship and suffering. Your potential is unlimited. However, if you perceive yourself as small, you will remain unaware of your power and your connection in an expanded universe.

Perhaps this can be described best by Vilayat Khan, an Indian/British Sufi Master and writer who once said, “Those issues that you face are not fixed in time and space; they are relative to your particular viewpoint and subject to constant change. In fact, much of the pain caused by our problems stems in part from our own unchanging biases in terms of how we interpret our personal difficulties to ourselves.”

Philosophically, the cause of illness is the disconnection from your source, and as the ego’s thought system separates you from others, you tend to make judgments and conjure up stories that you believe are true. When your ego defends itself and you think you are your stories, your body becomes sick trying to maintain this illusion.

It is well known that prayer and laughter have been shown to reverse illness and diseases without resorting to conventional treatments that are relied on in Western medicine. Though there is not a concrete scientific explanation to describe this phenomenon, the fact still remains that prayer and laughter do wonders for the soul. So if you are feeling sick or sad or even helpless, remember that doctors do not hold the cure for everything. In fact, sometimes the best medical cures lie within yourself.

In reality, you are not your body, and so you cannot die. There is nothing you can do that can hurt your body. Attack comes from within, and when you attack another, you attack yourself. Through judgments on others and yourself, you have created the opportunity for attack. These judgments and stories give you the illusion of power, but real empowerment comes from within when you realize that you are not separate, that you are one with your absolute source.

Your thoughts create your reality, so that what you experience is how you perceive the situation. If you believe that you can die, you will perceive the world as attacking you, and your body reacts to your beliefs by growing old and becoming sick. It is your stressful thoughts along with unhealthy diet that cause your body to become weak and vulnerable to attack from pathogens. Furthermore, universal forces are attracted to like frequencies, and if your thoughts are vibrating at a frequency of death and despair, the universe will provide the forces that support death and despair. However, if you think thoughts of peace and well being, the universe will provide situations in which you are at peace.

Often, self-limiting thoughts or judgments create blockages in the flow of universal energy in the body, which lead to stagnation and illness. Holding on to the past and playing a role of who you think you should be leads to live a life that is disconnected from your truth. Self-love, forgiveness, and speaking your truth are the keys to opening up and releasing blockages to healing.

Recipe for Success: Changing Limiting Thought Patterns and Beliefs

This is a very important exercise that will leave you with a much deeper understanding of what holds you back and what you can do to move forward. Remember to write down your answers in your journal.

  1. What limiting thoughts and stories do you have?
  2. What feelings do you have associated with these thoughts?
  3. Examining each limiting thought, what choices have you made based on that belief or thought?
  4. What new thoughts or mantras do you want to hold that reflect your true self?
  5. What choices do you desire to make to live the life you create?
  6. What inspired actions do you have to amp up the energy and carry you forward?

Throughout the day, notice your thought patterns and write them down. What is your foundational thought? Notice your feelings and how your feelings change when you change your thoughts. Praise yourself each time you create a new more positive thought pattern. Keep a journal and note how often you give yourself permission to love yourself. After a while, you will notice positive changes in how you perceive yourself and others. Your transformed thoughts will reflect your authentic self. Welcome to the new YOU!


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Healing Inner Child

My sister came rushing into the room. “Where are the things in the garage that I was going to give to my friend’s husband?” She was agitated and upset.

“I thought they were garbage so I threw them out,” I said.

She shook her head. “I’m working on cleaning out the garage. That’s my project. See? I have everything organized, so I know what to give away and where everything goes.”

“Tell him I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I said.

After she left, I re-lived that event over and over in my mind, feeling defeated. I felt as if I had done something wrong. What I was actually doing was experiencing the event as real through my perception.

Because you determine what is real through your perceptions, you may also hold onto the past by re-living experiences in your life. As if they were purple hearts won on the battle field with your suffering, you pledge allegiance to memories of hurts, identifying with them, and building your life around them. You may think that the past is who you are. Yet, the past is only what you remember and is subjective based on your perception. The past is filtered through your thoughts and feelings when the event occurred and becomes real when you re-live it over and over again. Doesn’t it wrench your heart out when you tell people about something so meaningful that happened in the past, but they don’t even remember or acknowledge it? Time is an idea held in the human mind, so when you allow a shift in perception to change your experience, the past changes, too, which allows you to let go of your need to hold on to the past. Playing with your inner child—recreation (re-creation)—allows you to heal that place of hurt in your soul. By re-living the event the way you would want it to happen, you can re-create new energy that you carry and perceive as real.

If I re-lived the event the way I had wanted it to happen, my experience would be different and my feelings would change. That I felt defensive when my sister scolded me showed me that I had metaphorically handed my power over to her. When I perceived myself as powerless, she treated me as such because she was mirroring my energy. Whether my sister was upset or not was irrelevant to how I perceived the event. I was acting as if I had been scolded, so the experience of being scolded became a reality for me. She could be upset based on her perception of the event, but how did I want to re-live the experience? I decided to act as if she had no power over me and I hadn’t been scolded. I immediately felt better as the new reality became my experience.

When I saw my sister later in the kitchen, I said, “You’re doing a great job with the garage.”

She looked grateful for the encouragement. “Thanks,” she said. She gave me a hug. “I moved some things against the wall, so it’s coming along.”

We were bonding once again on a more aligned level.

Recipe for Success: Changing Perception and Recreating the Past

Think of a situation you would like to re-create. List in order the events that occurred. Then answer the following questions in your journal.

  1. How are you feeling?
  2. What was your perception of the events?
  3. How did you hand over your power? What was happening before the situation occurred?
  4. What do you want to experience now? What is your power, your truth?
  5. What thoughts can help you shift your perception? What can you say to yourself to help you perceive the situation differently? What is the truth of the event?
  6. What is your next action to reclaim your power? What guidance are you receiving?
  7. What intention can you set before the next event?

You may have learned to hold on to your past and identify with your experiences, even feeling shame or sadness which brings on suffering. You may have not learned to forgive yourself very well. However, through forgiveness, you can release yourself from your perceived images and realize your true nature, which creates itself as “new” in every moment. To learn something, you must teach it; as you hear yourself speak your truth, you become the truth, because you are what you think. The more you speak your truth, the more you grow closer and closer to your true nature. Every action and thought focused on the absolute source brings you back in alignment with universal truth. This is one very powerful way to achieve balance, to avoid suffering, and to become centered and eternally at peace.