Shaltazar speaks often about letting go of the mind, connecting to the senses, and getting to the “feeling” of our desires.  Visualization is a first step, believing a second, but feeling as though you already have what you desire is touted as the key to manifesting.

Personally, I’ve never had much use for emotions.  Growing up, emotions were generally considered a weakness to be squelched, suppressed, or ignored, as my parents were all yang and no yin; mind minus heart; logic unencumbered by feelings.

It could be because my parents were both teachers.  My father hung up his whistle after 40 years as a high school football coach, PE teacher, and administrator.  My mother left her job teaching high school to raise her family.

Having teenage children of my own and being around teens often, I can see how this age group is programmed to test and probe adults, looking for chinks in their armor, perceived weaknesses they can exploit as they learn to understand themselves.  Considering my parents chose careers where they were locked in a classroom with teens every day, I can see how learning to hide their emotions could become a mainstay of survival.  My brother, sister, and I were no doubt the unwitting beneficiaries of that coping mechanism.

My father rotated out from his earthly tour of duty in 2013.  My mother stayed behind to both cement her victory as the last man standing and because she still had much to complain about.  We spent this past summer living with her while our house was being rehabbed.  Prior to that experience, my kids didn’t care much for their grandmother.  Now that they’ve lived with her, they believe her insane.  She isn’t insane.  She is schizophrenic, however.

My mother continues to engage in an epic, lifelong battle between her mind and her feelings.  For reasons unknown, her mind is entirely predominated by judgmental, critical, and negative conclusions concerning most everyone and everything.  Ironically, I truly believe her heart is filled with love.

Owing to her disconnection from her emotions, her head dominates her heart, and what comes out of her mouth is often the harsh and hurtful byproduct of her overly critical mind – her verbalizations reeking with scorn and disapproval.  When I confront her about the things she says, she denies saying them, supporting the consensus among our family that she’s mentally ill.

Since we moved out, we haven’t seen her much.  We went back this past weekend to retrieve a few left behind items, during which she accused us of stealing a blanket.  We told her we didn’t take her blanket.  In the first place, we have blankets of our own.  What’s more, we’d need to have stolen two of her twin blankets to cover one of our queen size beds, thus doubling the jeopardy of our heist.

She insisted something probably happened to it, and we just didn’t want to tell her.  I told her that wasn’t true.  She persisted.  I asked why she believed I would lie to her.  She said she wasn’t accusing me of lying, just that I wasn’t comfortable telling her the truth.

Although this conversation began with harsh accusations, a nasty tone, and the sort of finger-pointing one might expect from an overly theatrical prosecuting attorney, subsequent to my patient cross-examination, she was in tears and completely befuddled how anything she said could have caused anyone to be angry or upset with her.

Shaltazar says feelings don’t argue; they don’t bicker or disagree.  Feelings have no desire to be right, whereas the mind does.

It later occurred to me there was a war going on inside between her mind and heart.  After the mind- sponsored words left her mouth, her heart mounted a counterattack in an attempt to restore balance, momentarily seizing control of her intellect long enough to supplant the evil thoughts with feelings of love.  Her now heart-informed mind convinced her to believe it was her heart speaking all along and not her hate-filled mind, causing selective amnesia with respect to the things she said and reinforcing her self-image that she’s a warm loving person who would never say the awful things we accused her of saying.

So what on the outside appears as denial or delusion is in truth two personality traits at war with each other; the more highly evolved yang or thinking consciousness vs. the smaller and weaker yin or feeling consciousness.  The non-clinical definition of schizophrenia is a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory, incompatible, or conflicting attitudes, behavior, or qualities.  Sounds about right to me.

We, humans, spend most of our lives developing our minds, and very little time connecting with our feelings.  It is said that two ancient civilizations which once inhabited this planet met their demise as a result of losing touch with their feelings and allowing their thinking minds to take over.  As their minds developed, they began to disagree and argue.  Their destruction came about because their thinking and feeling tilted out of balance.

Shaltazar thus challenges us to quiet our minds, drop our attachment to our thoughts, and connect with our senses.  In order for our planet to continue to expand and evolve, we MUST balance the masculine and feminine, the yang and the yin, the feeling and thinking consciousness.

“Once again, the choice is yours. Start with yourself. Look deep within and get a sense of your Yin / Yang equilibrium. If it is out of balance use your awareness to bring it back. Work on ensuring that you practice feeling as well as thinking. Share this message with others. If you want your world to continue to expand then it’s time to Feel more and Think less.” – Shaltazar from the message The Importance of Your Yin Yang Balance

Mark Layne

Applying the Wisdom:

It is very difficult to think and feel at the same time.  They operate very distinctly and differently. In order to connect with your feelings more, it is important to take a rest from thinking.  That’s why meditation, or quieting the mind is a great way to create space for you to feel more.

In your meditation, try to focus on how you feel in each moment.  Are you happy, sad, frustrated, excited, depressed, angry, joyous or calm?  Keeping your attention in the present moment helps you connect to your feelings.  Don’t get too hung up on the words you use to label the feeling.  Just get a sense of the feelings that come up.  No judgement and no censoring.  That means don’t label your feelings as good or bad.  Don’t try to push them away.  Instead get a sense of whether they feel comfortable or uncomfortable, pleasant or unpleasant.  As Shaltazar says, acknowledge and accept them as your truth.

The more pleasant they feel, the higher you are vibrating.  The more unpleasant they feel, the lower you are vibrating.   The more you begin to master working with your feelings, the more you will learn how to shift your vibrations when your feelings are lower and slower by reaching for a better feeling thought.

Watch the feelings as they come up and disappear.  Notice how feelings are in and of the moment.  They come and go without logic.  It’s as if they have a mind of their own.  Often, we try to control them instead of just observing them and feeling them fully, thus allowing them to pass through you as they were meant to do.  Emotions = energy in motion.

Notice how your feelings are connected to your thoughts.  What comes first – the feeling or the thought? Just observe both and see if you can recognize a pattern.  If you shift a thought that pops up, does it change how you feel?  If you shift how you feel, does is change the thoughts that come up?  By observing this process, you heighten your awareness of how your thoughts and feelings are interconnected.  This can be a very powerful practice and one that helps you become more conscious.

When you take time to reflect on what you really want in life, you will discover that at the root of everything you desire is a feeling.  You don’t really want that dream job – you want the feeling that dream job will afford you.  Often it isn’t about finding the ideal partner, it’s about finding someone who makes you feel a certain way. Take some time to reflect upon and contemplate this concept.  If it resonates, then begin to set an intention to have more of the feelings you truly want.  I have done this with hundreds of people, and it really works.  Begin to check in with your feelings more often to see if you are getting closer to what you want to feel in your life.  By doing so, your feelings will become the compass of a new guidance system which will lead you towards your greatest desires.

Jeffrey Eisen

Here is the Message from Shaltazar Mark referred to in this article: