LOVE CONSCIOUSLY

We have to Love consciously from now on and not unconsciously.

I'm sure most of you have experienced this, but it's like we drive from the mall to our home and we don't know how we got there. We do most of our thinking unconsciously - not knowing how we got from point A to point B. The heart works in the same way but by the time it gets to point B, the unconscious thoughts on its travel affect how SWEET home will be when you arrive.

The heart only knows to LOVE and it knows no discretion. It's time to follow the movement of our hearts with our thoughts...consciously.

I've had Love where my thoughts of it stemmed from an unconscious fear of Love's perfection. My unconscious made limiting decisions on the infinite ecstasy of Love. If I were Loving consciously and with conscious positive thought, then nothing would have stopped my desires from manifesting with this man. God wants all of our dreams to come true; we just have to believe that our dreams are real and not figments of our imagination. Heaven is here on Earth as God permeates in and through all things.

Love is "perfect" but having unconscious thoughts of it can taint it because we tend to have NEGATIVE unconscious thoughts because they stem from our memories of the past. Memories of past Love can bring about doubt, fear, and confusion.

If we begin to have conscious thoughts of Love then we can supervise their authenticity and validate them with feelings of happiness and assurance that Love is perfect - just as God intended. If negative feelings arise say, "God is Love and Love is flowing through me as I give it and receive it abundantly."

Unconscious Love does not care about the illusions. In fact, it actually magnifies the illusions in our minds and creates fairytale versions of reality. Say love affirmations to erase and correct them.

Conscious love will stem from thoughts that your spirit has ordained and it won't rob you of energy, but instead you will gain strength from the positive reinforcements of your thoughts once you have trained them to remain positively centered.

Find the Time to Honor Yourself

My visions are unfolding almost faster then I can create them. I see clearly my destiny as it spirals in control and aligns my life with purpose.

I am usually really good with taking time to honor myself in prayer, yoga and meditation but lately, on the edge of literally speaking, it seems the days run into each other and it's a month long day. The times I honor myself are coming far, few and in between. I don't want to forget my divine purpose is spiritually based and my body is a merely a fulfilment vehicle.

So needless to say, business is running smoothly and we are getting a lot done. To give myself balance and continue the flow of my purpose I'm going to FIND time to honor...me. This business is allowing my creative juices to pour our so in that sense, yes, I am honoring the creator, my God. I just have to remember to anty-up and reconnect with my soul-self that governs my existence.

Marcia & Joseph gave me some bath crystals and I can't wait to honor myself with a luxurious warm bath. There are so many ways you can honor yourself and it doesn't have to take all day. Any exercise, reading a book, sitting alone for a few minutes, lighting your favorite incense (mine is nag champa) - or really anything that kicks one of the senses into high gear. And believe it or not, just a few deep breaths can help center you and allow your body to release stale air in your lunges while breathing new air into the cells in your body.

Discover ways to honor yourself if not daily, then definitely weekly.

MAKE LOVE WITH ME...NOT TO ME

I've often wondered where the term "make Love" came from. People, especially women, always want someone to "make Love" to them. This thought just popped in my head the other day: THE ONLY WAY TO "MAKE LOVE" IS TO MAKE A BABY. Maybe the root desire for men and women to want to "make Love" is because instinctively they are ready to procreate. It's an animalistic desire we're all born with; the need to leave a legacy.

Follow me for a second. I believe God is Love and Love is God and as a child of Love and God, I am incarnated and created in the likeness of Love and God. So the only way for me to "make Love" is for the semen of a man to fertilize one of my eggs. The initial contact of the two is a cosmic divine creation and the only way the two of us can"make Love".

Now love can be shared and I would never deny that. Depending on the energy between the two people, I believe a man and woman can have sex and can actually EXPRESS and EXTEND Love but Love was made the day you were born. People need to know that sex and making Love are not one and the same; you can have meaningless sex, sex with extensions of Love, or sex that leads you to make Love by way of producing a child.

There are a lot of people making babies but not realizing they are "making Love" ordained by the most high. All human being on this Earth are perfect and in the likeness of God and Love. We are born with the ability to create an abundance of any and everything we could ever dream of because we ARE Love...we are God.

A MAN OF LOVE
PLUS
A WOMAN OF LOVE
PLUS
THE DISCOVERY (OR REMEMBERANCE) THAT THEY ARE SOULMATES
EQUALS
THE BIRTH OF THE MOST SUPREME BEINGS

“Make love” with one you LOVE.

IT'S ABOUT MORE THEN VOTING!

I wasn’t going to vote…

…and God, divine Creator, please forgive me for feeling hopeless when the reality is, thought consciousness can change millions of people in the twinkle of an eye and uplift our souls everlasting. You know what? I’m going to eliminate the word hope from my vocabulary because to feel hope is to have expectations and expectations are rooted from your past on the way you think things should turn not and not necessarily how they should turn out. Now, let’s examine the feeling of being hopeless. You can only feel hopeless when the things you hoped for – which are rooted in your past expectations – fail. Expectations lead to hoping and hoping can lead to despair. Let’s BE faith! We don’t need hopeful expectations; we get confirmations from God to show our faith has a foundation of LOVE and PEACE. Love on you ideas and aspirations, don’t hope for them because that implies there is a sense of doubt. Send them love and God will manifest your dreams right before your very eyes.

I had given up on our government and as I mentioned earlier, really had no solid plans to vote. It was a fleeting thought that would reappear occasionally. Actually, I only voted because my mother was really adamant about it and I didn’t want to disappoint her. I still think our government is corrupt and in the interest of big corporations and millionaire bureaucrats but a historic event was in order to change us ALL individually so that we can change the world collectively – and that event was the elect of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America. The world watched, the world rejoiced, the world gained faith.

I am transformed from a conspiracy theorist to an energy theorist.

And it’s not because Obama won; he has been predicted to win for quite some time, but it was the shift in energy consciousness around the world that I felt, saw and heard. People, there was a shift in energy consciousness last night. I had to repeat it because the depths of that needs to be relished in the hearts of everyone. We may not get a new government system but if we become new in our own right – we affect those around us and that in turn will redirect ideas and actions. You may have noticed that the top of my blog page says, “Thought travels faster then light. We are all one on different missions, nonetheless, but reaching for the same star in the sky that connects us to the Source.”
WE CHANGE OUR THOUGHTS, WE CHANGE THE WORLD.

Now I want to share with you some pictures from our grand celebration last night. You had to be there to understand the full experience but I have faith you’ll feel the energy just from the pictures alone. People where celebrating on the streets onf downtown Atlanta til the wee hours of the morning.

SEASONS CHANGE & SO DO WE

The Fall has settled in and I have pack away the sandals and flip flops. It's like saying see-you-later to a good friend for six months. LOL Being from California, I grew up with one season year around. Yes Cali can get cold, especially at night, but never in the 20's like it does here. I've been in Georgia over five years now and I still prefer one monotone season but in the last year I've grown to appreciate WHY the change of seasons is so important.

In the Fall I literally fall....WAY BACK. I believe God designed this time for us to reacquaint ourselves with the things that are important to us and most of all, to grow. This is a time of deep reflection for me. I still go out; I guess that's expected from a semi-social butterfly but my soul is in Fall mode so I honor that with more quiet time. I can actually feel the difference within me. Can you feel it? It’s like the end of a roller coaster ride; you heart stops pounding and the adrenaline subsides. The Summer was the sensual climax that stopped my breath; the Fall is the morning after and I can breath again.

In the Fall I am settled.

I have a different regimen during this time of the year and I’m more shut off from the world. I get home from work and head straight to my bedroom. In my sanctuary I read, write, meditate, pray and listen to music. There is purposely NO television in my bedroom so I don't get an urge to be entranced by the idiot box.


Do you have a Fall and/or Winter rituals? I want to hear all about it.

TAKE OFF YOUR COOL

Baby, take off your cool
I wanna see you, I wanna see you
Baby, don't be so cool
I wanna see you, I wanna see you
Baby, take off your cool
I want to get to know you
Take off your cool



“Take off your cool” is a short song but it’s one of my favorites on the Love Below album. The message is short and precise: just be yourself.

Take off the uncertainty of your perfection…take off the fear of rejection…take off that fake smile if what he/she said really wasn’t that funny…take off the expectations to be more or less then who you are…We tend to fear how people will judge or view us but they are going to have an opinion regardless so you may as well be observed in your authenticity. Lauryn Hill summed up my sentiments on interlude # 5 (part 2) of her MTV Unplugged album:

“…It's like, we date people, like let's say, you know, we're interested in somebody and we put on the perfume and dress up and then we do things that we will never ever ever do again! You understand what I'm sayin?...And that's why so many marriages end up in divorce. It's because people wake up next to a stranger. They say, Who the hell are you? What are you doing in this bed?...And I'm sayin let's give them reality from the door because you're going to attract love, and the one that really loves you. And then you don't have to pretend and falsify, and you know, keep that posture..."

(sound bite on the video starts at 3:18)
I wrote this poem today. It’s short but sums up how I feel about being so cool your feelings just FLOW so LIFE, LOVE AND GOD move easily through every moment:

My cool is off and on the floor.
Don’t pick it up I want it to stay there
so you can see me bare.
See through me, past the cool on the floor,
to the fiery pulse that floods the blood.
That cool...it’s not me and it kept me from you.
Can you see me now?
No matter the miles, you should be able to see me now
My cool is off and on the floor.
It melted as I walked through Love’s door
and surrendered to what God has in store

-Shelli Tinae Price

IN DEBT FOR LIFE

I will never forget Professor Widner. He was my Black history professor in college and he told our class something that I will NEVER forget:

If we all stopped paying our credit card bills we would end capitalism.

You see, our entire monetary system is based on credit and it would crumble if we didn't continue to feed the system. In essence, the system could not exist without our debts to financial institutions.

Are you tired of being in debt? Do you think most people want to be free of debt or would they rather be in debt then be free of it? And let's say we all got together and stopped paying our debts...then what?

By the way, very soon after that conversation in class, Professor Widner stopped teaching at my university. I've always wondered if his strong political views got him fired.

HIT DELETE

I deleted every text in my phone today. Some I had been holding onto since April! Looking back at them kept me in April, when it's clearly October.

Delete something today people! Whether it's an email, text, a thought, a mind set, a negative feeling, a habit, etc.

Clear up some space for new things to enter your life.

Delete Synonym's:
Synonyms:
annul, cancel, edit, elide, eliminate, erase, excise, expunge, obliterate, omit, purge, remove

Hit me back and let me know what you purged; anything it don't have to be a lot - but get rid of something.

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BESTFRIEND....RIGHT?

A few years ago the movie Blood Diamonds opened my eyes to what are more commonly known as conflict diamonds because they are mined in mainly West African countries in very subpar conditions and controlled by militants to fund their war efforts. They typically enslave the local people in the area, including, women and children, and force them to mine diamonds that are then sold to various countries including London and the United States. Our African brothers and sisters are being killed for “precious” diamonds, you know, that bling-bling which has become a staple symbol of love and wealth. Kind of ironic how Africans are being killed which is a HATEful crime – just so we can offer diamonds to those we LOVE.

Now, they say there are places like Botswana where they actually hire miners and the diamonds are not conflict originated.

So my question to you is: Are diamonds the only stone that is a symbol of love?

Single Ladies
Real talk!!!!! Would you be heart broken if your fiancé didn’t buy you a diamond?
Is there another stone you find just as or even more beautiful?

Single Guys
Are diamonds the only ring to show a woman you love her?
Do you feel you must buy your fiancé a diamond? If so will you look in buying conflict-free diamonds or will you look into purchasing an alternative stone?

Married Women
How would you feel if the ring you wear every day was possibly a conflict diamond? Would you have been upset if your husband didn’t buy a diamond?

Married Men
Is it important to you that your wife wears a diamond? If you could do it over, would you buy a different stone for her?

MUSIC LOVER

Music can inspire you, fire you up, get you down – and most of all it taps into your emotions and will send you wildly into portals of your memory where fleeting thoughts are waiting for the melodic recall. Once there, you may find pure sadness or pure joy but the ride music takes us on is always worth shot gun.

Below is a list of some of my mood music. What’s your mood music of choice?

“I’m gonna be okay…no matter what”
Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun
Bob Marley – Legend
Amel Larrieux - Bravebird

“I’m angry and need to calm down”
Kem – II

“I’m angry and I like it”
Dead Prez – Let’s Get Free
Makaveli – The Don Kiluminati


“Love is in the air, do you smell it?”
Me’Shelle Ndegeocello – Comfort Woman
Mary J Blige – My Life
Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing
Carl Thomas – Emotional
The Whispers – Love Is Where You Find It


You can use my categories or you can write down your mood music any way that you chose.

NEW AGE DESPERATE WOMEN

Why are women acting so desperate?

If the collective of women are desperate, it HURTS the position for the women who feel a man should pursue her - and not the other way around.

On the flip side, the collective of men are not exercising chilvery and doing the bare minimum to get the women they seek. This actually HELPS the position for the few men that are rightous because women aren't used to seeing "real" men anymore.

Will women ever stop acting desperate? What do we have to do to get our respect back?

AND…

Will men ever go back to courting women? What will it take for them to recognize the beauty and admiration they have for their mothers, is within all women and should be honored?

DO YOU TRUST EASILY?

It's been said you should believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

How do you deal with trust? Do you instantly rely on your intuition or do you believe it takes time and everyone should have a chance to prove themselves to be trust worthy?

I TEXT YOU TO DEATH

We are so inundated with the speed of transmitting information that the meaning and validity of the messages are lost in transmission.

People will text each other to death before they love each other to death. I don't care what anyone says, if you have the time to text, you have the time to call. Now of course no one can deny how convenient texting is and how very useful it is in situations like just letting someone know you're on your way to meet them or just to say hello. What I refer to as text death are for those of us who build relationships via text. The irony is we are texting....on a phone, the very phone that was designed...to talk on. No text can replace the sound and vibration of a persons voice.

Now, I've always preferred typing over talking. Remember the skytel two-ways from back in the day? I absolutely loved that little gadget but at that time only those of us in the entertainment field and the entertainment wanna-be's had one. In fact, the word "texting" hadn't even been coined. We were just happy to meet people with them so we could "beam" our contact information to one another. I was only able to contact those in my circle as the rest of the world was still getting acclimated to email and analog cell phones.

Now I'm having people text me books that come in 3-parts; expressing ambiguous thoughts and I can't tell if they are legit or bogus; using acronyms that I have to google to discover its connotation before I can even respond; getting dirty jokes that come equipped with perverted photos; and my favorite are the texts from men I haven't talked to in 2 years who just want to spark a text conversation.

I had dinner with a friend yesterday and her phone rang from a guy she's been, for lack of a better word, "text dating," and she didn't know what do. She let her phone go to voicemail to buy herself time to try to decipher what a call from him might mean. Does he want something? At this point his very voice is unfamiliar.

Again, I'm all for texting but texting can be abused.

Here are some texting DON'TS:

• DON'T CONTACT A PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME VIA TEXT. CALLING SHOWS INTEREST, TEXTING INDICATES YOU DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO GET TO KNOW THE PERSON.
• DON'T SAY I LOVE YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME VIA TEXT. MATTERS OF THE HEART SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN PERSON OR LAST RESORT WOULD BE TO VERBALLY EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS OVER TELEPHONE.
• DON'T TEXT A QUESTION IN ANGER, THAT COULD GO ON FOR 12 HRS INSTEAD OF A 12 MINUTE CONVERSATION. BESIDES, IT FEELS BETTER TO BITCH ALOUD.
• DON'T EXPECT A RESPONSE IF YOU DIDN'T ASK A QUESTION. THE PERSON IS NOT OBLIGATED TO RESPOND TO COMMENTS SO DON'T KEEP CHECKING YOUR PHONE WAITING ON A REPLY.
  Now that you are well versed on some texting etiquette please say this aloud:
  
  ON MY HONOR, I WILL TEXT RESPONSIBLY. I WILL "MAN-UP (OR WOMAN UP)" AND CALL AND NOT HIDE BEHIND MY TEXT MESSAGES. ON MY HONOR, TEXTING WILL NOT SUBSTITUTE VERBAL COMMUNICATION.

ALONE WITH GOD

ALONE IS TO BE STILL
LONELY IS TO BE RESTLESS

To be lonely, a gut wrenching hollowness, comes from a place of spiritual emptiness. So you call up a "space filler," only to feel empty again the moment they leave your presence. Lonely only enhances your problems because its only purpose is to seek temporary resolutions. To be alone with God offers eternal gratification.

Lonely is not reserved for the single; married men and women are just as susceptible because what I speak of here is spiritual, not physical loneliness. When the restless settles in, you may blame your mate for the impeding doom of your psyche that was masked by the love and comfort of your mate. Your soul will recognize the masquerade and the truth will play itself out.

It’s okay to feel lonely if you recognize it as a time you should be more involved in nurturing your soul. Lonely can surely be transformed into alone because alone is your place with God and, after all, God will never leave you. You will always be one with the creator. The creator can not exist without that which it created. You and God are one and the same but when you feel lonely you have emotionally lost acceptance of your divine connection.

Often we look for people to complete us because we are afraid of that intimate relationship with the God-self. We end up with someone with the same flaws because it's the only way to acknowledge your own character blemishes, so instead you project them onto someone else, denying their reflection of you. So the ego boasts without personal acceptance and never reconciles the inner conflict.

I have to laugh now, but many years ago I asked a man, "Do I complete you?" I feared losing him so I asked the question, hoping he would fear never being complete without me. I was emotionally and spiritually lonely; protruding my emptiness into his space, of course at the time not realize what I was doing. The lonely seek other lonely people for comfort because they feel ignored by the people simply seeking personal alone time. Intervals of alone time will give you balance, energy and clarity.

Now is the time to be alone with God. Don't fear the stillness within because that is your Being surrendering to the light of God. Submerge in the light and you will find spiritual clarity and emotional stability. You can be alone and happy; alone and fulfilled; alone and single; alone and married.

I suggest making time to be alone because it will actually enhance the relationships with those you love. What good are you to them if you are not any good to yourself? Light can not penetrate through loneliness, although it's inside of you waiting to be exposed as you surrender to alone-time with God.

Are you able to find "alone-time" with God? If so, describe to me one of your "alone-time" experiences.

Shelli Tinae

VIVA COSTA RICA

"Are people really this nice?" That’s the question I kept asking myself during my stay in Costa Rica. By the end of my seven day trip I discovered the answer is a resounding, “yes!” I expected the staff at the resort to go above and beyond courteous – but the people in the neighboring towns of Montezuma, Playa Carmen, Santa Teresa and Mal Pais, were just as organic.

There is a collective consciousness in Costa Rica and it’s centered on love and compassion. It was not just the native Costa Rican’s but all the world implants that showed me a peaceful world is possible. In the U.S. the idea of peace sounds more like a Disney inspired fairytale then a foreseeable reality. Countries that are not founded on the ravishes of racism have a different idea of how to live. There isn't a group of the shamed, intermingling with a group of the resentful.

In Costa Rica they often say “PURA VIDA,” which means “PURE LIFE." I think a lot of us get trapped in the day-to-day demands and the idea of a pure day is far fetched, let alone the idea of a whole life that is pure. What’s considered a pure life is relative and unique to each of us but we can not follow a plan to experience pure life, we have to create it.

I highly suggest traveling abroad to see what the world has to offer. America is only the land of the free in theory, clouded by a matrix of obstacles to keep us confined and stagnant.

SHELLI TINAE – YOUR COSTA RICAN TOUR GUIDE
As your official tour guide, I would like to highlight some of my favorite parts of my Central American adventure:

TORTUGA ISLAND
We took a 30 minute ride on a speed boat across the Nicoya Peninsula to Tortuga Island. It is owned by the Costa Rican government but leased to a family for 99 years. The family is the only inhabitants of the scenic island and their livelihood is based on tourism, as several boats enter their bay everyday loaded with attentive tourists.


MAL PAIS CANOPY TOUR AND SUNSET
If you are looking to have the time of your life, you have to canopy through the rainforest. At Mal Pais there were 11 platforms. The thrill of ziplining 11 times through the lush rainforest was amazing. There are just you, the cord you dangle from, the beauty of the rainforest and the Howler Monkey’s that occupy the region.


After the canopy at Mal Pais we went to the ocean shore and watched a captivating sunset. It’s amazing how the Sun, with the ocean as its background, put me in a mood to pray and give thanks to the Sun for being so faithful each and every day. Think about it; have any of us ever been this faithful? Well, we can sure try.

MONTEZUMA

We took a taxi to Montezuma, a small town about 20 miles from our resort at Tambor Beach. It's a Bohemian influenced area with great food, people and a beautiful beach. A lot of American's have claimed this small piece of heaven but it still has its Costa Rican authenticity.



NEW AND OLD AMIGOS
I went with my girls and loyal travel buddies, Sahsha and Marcia. We always have a good time on our excursions and Costa Rica was no different.




We also linked up with some cool people from Toronto, Canada and Tampa, Florida. We met many people that I will undoubtedly keep in touch with but these guys are definitely worth mentioning. We met Adrian, Gemma, Brian “Bubba”, Steve and Paula on the second day off our voyage and I think we spent the rest of our trip with them!


I am so very thankful for the Costa Rican energy. I somehow feel renewed which has prompted me to take their idea of "pura vida" with me so it will infulence my life.

Share your mind with me! I'm also here to answer questions for any of you interested in taking a trip there.

Blessings!

GROWING WISER, NOT OLDER

One of my younger girlfriends said to me, “you don’t look 30." She was kind and matter of fact but my response to her was, “I don’t look 30, but I feel 30, in terms of my growth as a woman.”

Age is not about the growing number of candles I have to blow out on your birthday cakes; it’s not those stubborn grey hairs because I’ve had those since I was 19; it’s not about my physique because a fitness test revealed I’m in the shape of an 18-year-old woman; it’s not about my not-so-great eye sight, considering I’ve been wearing eye glasses since grade school.

Age, rather, is a timeline for WISDOM.

I’m going to wear “30” like a badge of honor because I have grown a lot to get to this point. I haven’t grown in height, I think an inch shy of 6 feet is where I’ll remain, but I’ve grown to see my place in this nonsensical world. When you can make sense out of nothing, you’re really growing and learning that nothing is everything at the same time.

My age means patience and with patience comes understanding. Yes, the compensation for patience is understanding. In my youth everything was rush-rush, which left no time to process the experience. So I spent a lot of time repeating the past, trying to catch up to the lesson, which can be easily missed when you’re young and careless.

The journey to 30 has meant learning to forgive myself for the emotional dead weight I’ve carried around for way too long. Everything begins and ends with the nakedness of my mind and soul, so I’m exposed for the first time and what I’ve found is love and happiness.

I work on ME everyday and I still have my “off” days but those moments are growing shorter and shorter.

They say that 30 is hardest year of your life so I’m hoping that I’ve begun to plan for the unforeseen circumstances associated with this time period.

Astrologically, Saturn returns to the same place it was when you were born, your “Saturn Return.” Saturn, being the planet of growth, is the reason why so many people have a volatile time aaround the ages of 29 - 30. It forces change in your life in order to promote growth and this force can not be denied or ignored. Whether you believe this to be the reason or not, I’m sure you can attest to this time being marked by times of upheaval. I can honestly say I’m training myself to embrace this metamorphosis as I cyclically shed skins of the past and breathe life into my renewed spirit. I will prevail and weather the storms of change.

Do you remember 30? What advice would you give to me or others about to join the “30 and over club?"

SHARE YOUR MIND WITH ME.

In light and happiness,

Shelli Tinae