The Essence of Well-Being

My beautiful friend and colleague, Dr. Dicken Bettinger and I have been in dialogue about our forthcoming retreat together at end of April, Simple Principles for Spiritual Living ... as well as about our individual work, and experiences over the last several months.

Having just landed back on the West Coast from snowy Michigan, Dicken shared, in a recent phone call, that he had led a retreat there entitled "The Essence of Well-Being," and that this topic held a great resonance for him of late. And so, we decided to do another radio show together, on "On the Front Porch," and this will air on March the 22nd, with the title (you guessed it): "The Essence of Well-Being."

So I've been reflecting on this subject, or rather, this subject has been reflecting on me, and here is what I have discovered, so far:

When one steps back, away from a concept, thought, belief, one falls
Into this

Inner State

That is really pure Consciousness.

And saying "Consciousness" is the same as saying "Love."

There is nothing within this Consciousness: No thought, idea, belief, identity, goal, or memory, and yet here it is. Complete. A complete and full Nothingness ... both Nothing and the Source of all that is, of all thought.

Remarkably, mysteriously, this Consciousness is always Here. In the depths of darkness and despair, even. For it is Love itself that generates all that is. Love, loving Itself. Being-ness, encompassing all states, all activity, all "positivity" and all negativity, too.

Well-Being does not have an essence, actually. Well-Being is essence!

And so that is why it has been called,
The Father Within
The True Self
Closer than hands and feet
and
Nearer than breathing

Come closer to yourself,
then
come even closer in ...
past all of your thoughts, feelings, doubts and triumphs, habits and traumas

When you fall past all the layers of "you"

Here is what Is.

Call it Well-Being
Essence
Mental health
Heaven

You can give it a name
You can call it "3 Principles" or even
God

In the end
there is
no name
and no
way

There is only this
Is.

Only Isness!
It's a funny business!

This illusionary journey toward discovering
That which you have always Been.

With Love,
Your Mystical Mama

This that I Am, you also Are.