My second drumming session with our friend Francis Gaspar was an experience of freedom. For some minutes I did not mind not being in control. I even allowed my body to move with the rhythm.

But better yet was the freedom I experience moving from the intellectual thoughts to what would pass as mundane thoughts but expanded. My thoughts went beyond my aches and pains to embrace with compassion the people around me. I felt I was one with the security guards of Grand Towers for whom my husband and I were hosting a party.

It was a good Christmas experience celebrating with a friend from SJDDIOS, with the happy sisters:Oding and Beng, with our adopted son, Marc, with our godchildren Marivic and Rois and of course with Bernice the wife of Francis.

A fitting quotation from Life Is a Gift says: Freedom means loving yourself enough to be true to yourself and trust your emotional guidance. It means not giving in to what is socially expected or what others demand of you or what the inner voices of fear exhort you to do nor feelings bound by past choices that are no longer serving you. It means making choices that express more of who you are. It means feeling your way into the flow. It means having faith in a loving cosmos.

Similar to the statements of Esther Hicks, Mike Dooley in Infinite Possibilities says: Whenever [emotions] are unpleasant they serve as a reminder that our present perception is not based on truth but misinterpretation of the truth.

So I give myself permission to quickly change my thoughts. The change in my feelings doesn’t happen automatically – not yet.

Slowly as I allow myself to look at the bigger picture, I see my limiting beliefs and self-doubts. I realize I have the power to choose my thoughts.

I then stretch my imagination to expand my world. It creeps but slowly my mood changes into a pleasant one.

Similar to the statements of Esther Hicks, Mike Dooley in Infinite Possibilities says: Whenever [emotions] are unpleasant they serve as a reminder that our present perception is not based on truth but misinterpretation of the truth.

So I give myself permission to quickly change my thoughts. The change in my feelings doesn’t happen automatically – not yet.

Slowly as I allow myself to look at the bigger picture, I see my limiting beliefs and self-doubts. I realize I have the power to choose my thoughts.

I then stretch my imagination to expand my world. It creeps but slowly my mood changes into a pleasant one.

According to Gill Edwards, “Darwin, Marx and Freud all saw progress at the cost of conflict, suffering of  ‘going for the burn’ , the idea is that if it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t doing us any good. ”

I grew up believing that if the antiseptic used to cleanse a wound doesn’t smart, it won’t do the cut any good. The same rule was applied to various life incidents. We were scolded harshly because it was good for us.

But we saw through our mom; she was too kind and lowing to scare us. I think we behaved not because we were scolded but more because e waned to make her happy.

In school it was slightly different. Some of the nuns had the gift of tongues for scolding. I believe the sandwich method of dealing with mistakes was not discovered yet. The nuns hardly used affirmations nor praises; the were afraid students would become proud. Thank God we grew up with strong self-esteem in spite of everything.

To paraphrase Gill Edwards, my education and social conditioning ennobled struggle and hardship. “No pain, No gain” was the mantra. Even in our prayers we lived in “the valley of tears” according to a prayer recited to the Virgin Mary.

The new spirituality according to Gill Edwards suggests that we can grow through love, joy, abundance and laughter! We can grow by learning how to create our own reality.