The power in the power outage Suzan From Lake County News Chronicle Published Thursday, February 28, 2008 Suzan From of Finland has been a long-time contributor to the Lake County News-Chronicle as columnist and as source of contacts and information. It all started last Friday night when I read a study reported in the Duluth News Tribune. The study revealed cat owners are 30-40 percent less likely to die from strokes and heart attacks than dog owners and non-pet owners.
Since strokes and heart attacks are often associated with stress and hostile and negative emotional reactions to life, I could understand the cat thing. Cats make me pause to smile. They cheer me up. I have watched one of our cats latch on to my daughter when she has cried or become ill. I have watched how another one of our cats had to be right in the middle of the wonderful short lived healing group at my home. Cats seem to be great energy absorbers, not just the good energy maybe the bad energy too. RELATED CONTENT Add a comment Suzan From Column Archive Happy moments and powerful events 02/14 Suzan From Complete Archive Suzan From Archive Last Saturday when our home had two periods of two hour power outages, I curled up with my cat and read a book about real peace by The Power of Now author Eckhart Tolle. This book, called The New Earth--Awakening to your Life's Purpose, is in alignment with the cat thing. In some of the most peaceful aware moments of my life a cat was near by. In a nutshell, Eckhart Tolle writes how our thinking and feeling drives us nuts and keeps us from awakening and experiencing life in the now. The chief obstacle to awakening is our ego. The ego is the thoughts and feelings about who we are. Fear is the emotion that drives the ego. Tolle defines the ego as having a "dysfunctional relationship with the present moment." When we get wrapped up in thoughts and feelings about who we are, past and future, we forget our now, the present moment. Our life is strung together by present moments. When we learn to accept this way of experiencing our life we awaken and life becomes a life we accept, enjoy and become enthusiastic with. In the The New Earth, Tolle writes about what he calls the "pain- body." The pain body represents our reactions. It has to do with not being at ease with ourselves. Many times the lack of at ease moments in our life can give rise to disease and unhappiness. According to Tolle people with heavy pain-bodies have a better chance to awaken because their pain causes them to move out of suffering. However, many people in pain perceive it as pleasure and become addicted to it. Their pain-body feeds on drama. They are easily upset with what happens. To change, people need to realize they have a pain-body comprised of all the unhappiness they carry with them. Then people have to experience their own pain-body in an alert way as an "Influx of negative emotions when it becomes active," according to Tolle. When the negative emotions become conscious they can't feed off you as easily and control your thoughts and feelings. One of the gifts of Tolle's book was a story about the spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti. After many years of teaching Krishnamurti was all set to tell his students his secret. He said his secret is, "I don't mind what happens." It's one of those great secrets to experience while you are curled up with a cat during the second power outage of the day. view all deals sign up for email deals TODAY'S DEAL Buy One Get One Free Potato
