Alysse Aallyn

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  • Purrsiflage – Daily Zen for Cat People with Alysse Aallyn

    Feb 3

    Today the Universe Delivers the Secret – At the same time you are Lonely for Light; the Light is Lonely for You. Do you dream of other-worldly events? Parapsychological and out of body experiences? Flying and underwater breathing? 

    Freedom dreams of otherworldly mastery tell us much about who we are. In the Purrson Horoscope, the sunflower represents our spirituality – a natural inborn turning toward Light, a reaching out for connection with something others might insist is not there. But we feel – very strongly – that it is. Who’s right?

    Sunflowers Need Light and So Do Purrsons – Hundreds of years ago Blaise Pascal argued that we have so much to gain if the supernatural is true, and nothing to gain if it isn’t, so that the calculus is simple. When you act as if the universe was richly designed by a Carer who promotes Goodness and rewards Love, you create the ideal conditions for human flourishing, whereas, as we all know, and has been conclusively proven scientifically, pessimism about outcomes dramatically lowers future benefits. Certainly, one could argue that our communications with each other are fraught with mistake and misapprehension, but that’s an argument for increased effort and insight and hardly a quitter’s mandate.

    Cats & Purrsons Cultivate their Sixth Sense – Some people are born color blind – others are tone deaf – so it’s perfectly possible some are unable to access the extra dimensions. But the lucky few that identify as Purrsons know that there is a universal resource to be tapped into when we can maneuver ourselves to the “right wavelength.”

    Purrsons Follow the Sunflower Path – What IS our mandate? Focus on increasing your ability to tell health and growth potential from sickness and disease enhancement. This will help you find the right path and the right people. Goodness never seeks your diminishment and constriction – the ruthless pursuit of human power does that. 

    Test all wavelengths for generosity, balance and liveliness before venturing out upon them, just as a cat would; this sensitivity is your Cat Whiskers.

     Contemplate what is beneficial in the universe. Bask in the flow of reassurance, resilience and recovery that intense spirituality provides.

    Purrson Challenge – Fully explore your fears with a view to answering Immanuel Kant’s timeless question, “What can we hope?”  Jesus focused his ministry on healing and met virulent rule-focused pushback. He found himself in a world of frenzied status-seeking, abject power submission and denigration of minorities, women life-givers and the poor. His life as well as his words teach us that the “Letter” kills, but the “spirit” gives Life. 

    It is up to us to find and nourish the spirit that shares unafraid, realizing that commitment causes our resources to double and triple stratospherically. Once you can feel the “angels” – i.e. virtues – around you – (I picture them as nosing deer!) your fear subsides.

    Purrsons Never Surrender Their Ability to Scent Danger – No journey can be free of risk. Trust requires us to follow where we cannot see the path, and so sometimes we lose the path. Sometimes we realize our “guide” is REALLY looking to capture & constrain, not enhance & liberate. We must maintain our ability and reserve our right to recognize this so that we can  reverse course before the cliff edge,  telling malignant spirits “You no longer represent me” and to seek out a healthier program of progress.

    Purrsons Enhance Opportunity for Everyone – We are never alone.  All around us are pilgrims struggling with the same things we’re struggling with. Sharing and caring knits us together. The American two party political system benefits from stirring up hatreds to protect itself from change. Don’t accept it. We are not each other’s enemies. The possibilities for friendship and connection are huge, but hatred and anger lead in only one direction.

    Models & Mentors – “The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper”- W.B. Yeats

    “You need not work to become spiritual – you are spiritual. You need only to recognize that fact” – Julia Cameron

    “The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love” – Marianne Williamson

    “Happy people build their inner world – unhappy people blame their outer world” – Dalai Lama

    “The power of God is with you at all times, through the activities of mind, sense, breathing, the emotions , doing all the work, using you as mere instrument”  – Bhagavad Gita

  • Purrsiflage – Cat Zen for Your Inner Artist’s Soul with Alysse Aallyn

    Feb 2

    In An Unfeeling Universe Your Soul Cries Out for Definition –

    Birds gotta sing. It’s who they are. And it’s who YOU are, as well. Some inchoate thing within you longs for expression.

    Do you dream of artistic products – paintings, sculpture, film – or artistic endeavors such as performance and construction? Do you get ideas for fresh pieces and experience exciting nonconformist thinking that seem to evaporate upon waking?

    Some of Us Are Purrsons Because of Art – Art is the judge of our poetic confrontation with the world, the cure and the cause.  It is also our prime avenue for non-verbal healing. Only non-verbal healing can address the pain that can’t be quantified.

    Learn A New Language Or Develop Your Own – Your inner self is signaling to you that it is time for you to explore other languages – art expression – mastering its terms, and to start inventing terms of your own. Only art can establish the secure connection with others required to nourish you now.

    Purrsons are Artists Whether They Like It Or Not – Every single one of us chooses modes and objects of expression, consciously or unconsciously, every single day. We buy one object over another because it gives us pleasure; we arrange our living spaces to express some intangible quality about ourselves – a self-definition that signals to others who we are and where we are on our journey.

    Purrsons Yearn for Freedom and Artists Are Free – Art demands individuality. We begin by copying but we must move on to expressing our uniqueness or our soul can’t evolve. If we are happy being part of an unthinking mass we are truly “unborn.”  This exploration will grant you a deep peace about being alone with yourself, a strong confidence in who you really are and a feeling of spiritual value.

    New Battles to Fight – This journey is awkward at first, and in other people’s eyes it may remain awkward forever. Why wouldn’t you just copy whatever is popular? Why not mimic the uncontroversially successful? The problem is, while you are doing that the core of your self-hood is dying like an unwatered plant. And if your soul is dying, you are dying. Also, being bullied by the “art enforcers” is not what Purrsons are about.

    Sometimes We Bully Ourselves Worse – Perfection is not the answer – it is the enemy. Remember – we flee stagnation. Our soul’s “perfecting never reaches an end” – that’s our definition of immortality. Constantly shaming yourself as a no-talent, pretending poseur is horrifyingly destructive to your precious infant specialness struggling for expression.

    Make a Resolution to Start Supporting Yourself. The fact that a work is unsuccessful, even a horrific mess, doesn’t mean it isn’t an advance for your vision, insight and style. These are the building blocks of creation. Don’t get hung up on approval. You need teachers, not fans. Read the brilliant War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

    Models & Mentors – “Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse

    “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau

    “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight without vision” – Helen Keller

    “You were born an original, don’t die a copy” – Jon Mason

    “Life beats down and crushes the art in your soul to remind you that you have one” – Stella Adler

    “There are no rules, only confidence, aplomb, style & joy” – Neil Gaiman

  • Purrsiflage – Daily Zen for the Cat in You with Alysse Aallyn

    Feb 1

    Fate is Calling – You are about to go through some things. Prepare yourself.

    Do you dream of costume drama? Historical characters? Ancient books? Do you consult tea leaves? Are you superstitious? We are all caught in the mesh of history. The field is too large for us to see it clearly. We can feel the pull of forces too vast to resist or even rise above and visualize. Those caught in wars, in genocides, in natural disasters, are brutally unlucky. But the techniques of the Purrson can substantially save, improve, even alter our fates. Naturally we yearn for a trustworthy clue to extract us from this maze.

    Purrsons Are Caught and Called – by History. Sometimes we feel crushed by the gears of chaos.  According to the philosopher Hegel, “Heroes are singular figures whose vocation is to be the agents of the World-Spirit.” Such heroes interfere in and remake the world; their deeds produce “a complex of historical relations which appear to be only their interest, and their work.”

    Remember, the Purrsons’ Code is “Never Surrender”. Never consent to the misuse of human dignity.

    Purrsons’ Challenge – Always try to comprehend the bigger picture by comparing it to several other proven scenarios. Were those who fled Germany before Hitler shut it down, France before the Terror or Indonesia before the tsunami just “lucky” or had they learned to read the signs? Rulers by whim are even more dangerous than the weather, for their brains inevitably become echo chambers rotting from within. The larger the council of power the better – true democracy is best, but even then there are those self-destructive ones among us desiring to “shake things up”; loving chaos for its own sake. They may dream of riding a whirlwind but no one can ever truly tame a whirlwind. As the Chinese say, you can ride the tiger but you can’t get off. The challenge is to see the whirlwind – and the tiger – coming.

    Purrsons Inhabit Danger – Is the danger learned helplessness, our old enemy? Or is it comfort – we’ve created a berth for ourselves that’s just too cushy to leave? Sometimes the danger is an inability to imagine evil: “it CAN’T get that bad” or “These people are my friends.” Famous last words. Or is panic the enemy? Don’t risk becoming too terrified to think.

    Purrsons Seize Opportunity – Have you noticed, yet, that it’s always the same opportunity we must accept? To grow up. To embrace maturity. To become more like God, or as the Gnostic gospels call the Creator, “Good”. To regard each other with the wise generosity of compassion. Study all input intelligently. Learn to recognize and repudiate garbage. Don’t be lured by fantasy thinking of effortless achievements. In order to claim our opportunity we must seek out and create safe spaces to grow, think and learn.

    Models & Mentors – “We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone” – William James

    “No matter how dirty your past, your future is spotless” – Drake

    “Our destiny is not written for us, but by us” – Barack Obama

    “If you can influence, direct or control your environment , you can make your life what you want it to be” – Napoleon Hill

    “Life is choice, not chance,” – Jean Nidetch

    “Winners fail until they succeed” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

  • Purrsiflage – Today’s Kitty Horoscope with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 31

    Universal Warning – Uh Oh!  The stars shiver in their courses. Do you dream of masked balls? Betrayals? Loved and known faces inexplicably turning demonic? People becoming animals? Mazes and puzzles that melt and change? They don’t call it “catfishing” for nothing.

    Cats are not the only creatures using illusion for the purposes of seduction, and seduction is not the only advantage offered by False Love.  The Target is unilaterally disabled by relying on something that isn’t real. The False Lover lives in a shifting Potemkin Village of mirrors.  Often, we feel in our gut that “something isn’t right.”

    Purrsons Stay Alert – Face it, cat-like as you are, you’re still human. You’ve been catfished. You’ve been gaslit. “All’s fair in love and war” means the Purrson must always be on game. 

    Pretenders want to drag you into their web of deception by making it seem alluring.  You’ll get so many benefits if you just step inside! But once inside it turns out they want you to feel complicit; you can’t escape, you can’t let anyone know, because it’s too too too humiliating. You are fated, now, only to deceive others in your turn. Reject this. Remember: resistance is never futile.

    Purrsons Know When to Cut Losses – Just as the deceptive catfish forces the lazy cod to keep moving (and improving!) when they would rather lie sluggishly on the bottom, the False Lover actually IMPROVES our game. Time to realize we are part of a complex universe where wings disguise themselves as eyes and flowers turn out to be chameleons. Conserve your energy. Others wish to capture your power and use it for their own fuel. Get smart. Don’t let them.

    Purrsons Are Careful with Deception – You can’t tell the truth to everybody, all the time.  Conserve your facts, reserve your strategy. You are entitled to privacy and security but be careful with deception. Deceivers restrict everyone’s options.

    Purrsons Battle for the Universe Itself, Not Momentary Gain. Humans are more than energy. Love is more than fuel, it is living water as well as unquenchable fire. It is more than worth your while to hold out for the Real Thing. Real Love stands the test of Time. We are playing this game to get to the next level, and you can’t do that with such a narrow view of existence, where all of Creation is means to an end – the end being You, slick and fat, lying sluggish at the bottom of the Universe. Purrsons are commanded to Rise, and so we will.

    Purrsons Seek Ultimate Reality – Expand your inner and outer vision. We are multidimensional beings and our emotions – our very orgasms – can become multidimensional as well when we appreciate the historic, the inter-generational, the cosmic ramifications of everything we do and think and are. The marriage service talks about hanging in there through sickness and poverty, and it is a proven fact that people who have been through terrible experiences have a deeper connection. It becomes a secret language others just don’t “understand”. When you have children, you gain the ability to live through them – this is a multi-player, multi-avatar game! Life itself can be a terrible (as well as wonderful) experience. So buckle up! Those who are not alert will be eaten.

    Models & Mentors – “Remember sometimes not getting what you want can be a wonderful stroke of luck”

    – Dalai Lama

    “Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. Let it go.” – Nikita Gill

    “Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it” – Wm Shakespeare

    “Temporary people teach permanent lessons” – Alysse Aallyn

    “Love dies of wounds, errors and betrayals” – Anais Nin

    “Attitude toward gratitude defines a person” – Eli Wiesel

  • Purrsiflage – Daily Horoscope Honoring Your Inner Cat with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 30

    Today the Universe Wants You to Answer a Question – What kind of cat are you? Are you the rarest kind, that hides in the woods and can never be tamed? Are you a ragdoll, a Siamese, a lynx, a bobcat, a Burmese Blue? 

    Purrsons Know They Are Special. That’s why we are Purrsons. But in the hectic heyday of this life even cat power wears thin.

    Maybe you have been running with the crowd too much – people who don’t appreciate you. Feeling depleted, even exhausted? Are you waiting for someone to celebrate You? Maybe it’s time to celebrate yourself.

    Purrsons Are Always Alone in the Crowd – Like cats! The joke about herding cats – ie you can’t – is spot on. Do you frequently find yourself walking in a different direction from everyone else? Do you often feel ganged up on, bullied? 

    The Universe requires every bit of Uniqueness out there, and because so many of us choose to be Purrsons, that’s a lot of singularity! If you doubt that so much uniqueness could possibly exist, consider the humble snowflake. Always different, always special.

    Each Purrson is Unique – We may be civilized into groups, but society only advances because of its singletons. Becoming a Purrson means insisting on the right to make your own special contribution.  Recognize how much the world needs you, and congratulate yourself for it.

    Purrson Danger – The powerful are only powerful because they have an army. They want you fighting for them, not for yourself. Consider your best interests. Armies PLAN to “use you up.”

    Purrsons Will Not Be “Used” – Purrsons train themselves to out-think people and situations.  Confronting Narcissism is a real danger in our society. People are encouraged to perform, push themselves forward and try to harvest “likes” from absolute strangers by sheer outrageousness, rather than by developing their real, immortal Selves. Honoring your uniqueness begins in absolute privacy as you face your soul, contemplate your real self and consider pathways to strengthening these assets.

    Purrson Pride – Humility sharpens our edge and keeps us light on our feet. It’s never too late to change direction, especially when you find out you’ve been traveling the wrong way. Consult your maps and Training Journal. Time for a redesign?

    Purrson Opportunity – The Purrson path is independent of criticism from those not making our journey. Critics wrestling for control won’t like that. We all need to consult different perspectives & check our placement and effectiveness but much criticism is sharpened to spike & derail. Recognize the techniques designed to harvest YOU and feed off your power, re-direct all your efforts to the critic’s own ends: undermining your thoughts, bullying your actions, devaluing your worth. 

    Purrson Freedom – Much human interaction is a subtle or unsubtle jockeying to divide people into camps and to enlist you to carry someone else’s banner. But Purrsons own their own souls and battle for abstract principles of fairness and goodness, health and growth.

    Models & Mentors – “What sets you apart can feel like a burden, but it’s what makes you great” – Emma Stone

    “If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be” – Maya Angelou

    “Always remember you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else”

    – Margaret Mead

    “Be yourself – everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde

  • Purrsiflage – Today’s Horoscope for the Cat In You with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 29

    Today the Universe Reassures You – All suffering comes to an end.  Your depression will lift. You can master the cycle. The future awaits.

    Purrsons Know “This too shall pass”  – Like it or not, we serve the future. Every dream is followed by an awakening which is followed by another dream.  In the moment of relief from the fear and the tension that preceded it we are still shaking from the experience we went through. We are in no condition to make decisions. We are just so grateful that it is over. What is required of us, however, is appreciation and understanding of the cycle. We are surfing, whether we like it or not. Another wave will come. Purrsons learn how to ride it.

    Purrson Challenge – To rise above the cycle, take an honest look at it. This is hard to do when we are quivering and feeling victimized but it is necessary. What pattern do you see?  The surfing analogy is a good one because the tides are not rhythmic nor perfectly predictable, and they are CERTAINLY not “personal” plus we always know another wave will be coming along soon.

    Purrson Strategy – Sometimes there’s a way out; we can change jobs, switch professions, get a divorce. Figure out where the pressure is coming from. Assess your abilities. What parts are you good at? Where do you suck? Can you enjoy any of this? How can your performance be improved? Most of us take pleasure in things we are good at. Can your enjoyment be deepened?

    We’re Never Helpless –  Learned helplessness is real. People give up, stop trying to game or even understand the system. They lie down under the shocks, no longer even trying to escape, waiting for death. Never believe “Resistance is futile.” Don’t succumb.

    Purrsons Win –This game is bigger than our mortal understanding.  Nevertheless, you can comprehend the majesty of what we are up against and appreciate it as a knife appreciates the whetstone.  We learn through analogy, we remember through stories.

    Purrsons Are Free – Purrsons can always improve, becoming graceful, competent athletes of this mortal existence until we graduate into the next sphere.

    Purrsons Roll with the Punches – You can change and affect your fate. But you must roll with the punches. When Jesus says, “Resist not evil” he means, allow evil to roll over you and smash itself against your non-resistance. Studying martial arts increases our knowledge of how to manage, subvert, outwit, outwait and overcome Superior Force.

    Buddy Power – Friends, allies, buddies, sensei, even dead or fictional characters can be summoned to your aid. People choose such different characters as St. Francis, Sherlock Holmes, Mother Theresa, Joan of Arc, Mulan, Buddha and Jesus to be their “Dream buddies.” Some are more comfortable with an animal – your personal power creature; the jaguar, wolf, eagle or wolverine.

    Change Dream Buddies based on the problem confronting you. Ask their help before you go to sleep, solicit them to come to you in dreams to shed light upon your difficulty. Then the next morning, start writing and remembering the moment you wake up. Some key dreams take a lifetime to decipher.

    Models & Mentors – “Worry is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but you never get anywhere”

    – Erma Bombeck

    “For fast acting relief, try slowing down” – Lily Tomlin

    “Happiness is the relief after extreme tension”

    – F. Scott Fitzgerald

    “Laughter is the tonic, the release, the surcease of pain” – Charlie Chaplin

  • Purrsiflage – Today’s Horoscope for Your Inner Kitty with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 28

    Listen to the Universal Warning –  Something in you is out of whack today. Balance is a key law of nature to help us avoid the dreaded stagnancy that we experience as a kind of living death.   Once our conscious is in harmony with our subconscious, our dreams begin to balance our waking life. Even the worst nightmare can be looked at objectively in the light of day, as a warning story with curative potency and significance.

    Purrsons Seek Balance – Unfortunately our contemporary life has become a competitive pursuit of “highs”. A good life well-lived provides natural highs – learning a skill, reveling in physical and sensual gifts, falling in love, listening to music, sharing with children, enjoying the grandeurs of nature. Plus, our intellect teaches us that every “high” is dramatically enriched by thinking about it! That’s why we are called “homo sapiens.”

    Balance is a Law of Nature – The pursuit of competitive highs without the thinking and enshrining stages always leads to excess and grief. Highs for their own sake inevitably disappoint, leading to a pursuit of more and more dangerous highs, which, if we are not thinking about them, sharing them with others and incorporating them into our personal history and philosophy, damages our ability to experience joy. Understanding and managing our “emotional highs” is the key to future joys.

    Purrsons, Just Like Cats, Live on All Levels At Once – Purrsons learn to give thanks for and pay tribute to the Past, to enjoy and understand the Present, to anticipate and strategize for the Future and to revel in and be comforted by the promise of Eternity.

    Balancing the Levels – Joy that is held in the mind is joy endlessly re-experienced. It will be yours forever, and you will be able to share it with all the people you love for the rest of your life. Each of us briefly experiences heaven during our lifetimes; prolonged, immortalized and enriched by experiencing and re-experiencing with each other.

    Purrson Challenge – We need to personally set up our brain’s “reward system” to handle pleasure and suffering or we will be prescribed drugs in an attempt to achieve the same effect chemically. Drugs can be useful as training wheels; ideally we want to teach our systems to achieve the same effect naturally. Calm is the first step to balance, so we must learn how to soothe ourselves. Meditation, sleep and yoga offer the best methods for reliable self-calming. First, we assert calm over our breath, then our bodies, lastly our thoughts. It’s not that difficult! Reminder: this occurred naturally every night of our lives before we started stressing about it!

    Night Is the Leveler – Our species needs sleep to connect to the Universal Mind, and to the minds of all Dreamers, human and animal. Conscious dreaming (often called lucid dreaming) provides a trusted avenue to filter daily discoveries down to your subconscious level. Always have a joy to think about just as you are going to sleep, and another for when you are waking up. This will sharpen your connection with emotional ecstasy and deepen your life. Once our conscious is in harmony with our subconscious, our dreams will balance our waking life. Even the worst nightmare can be looked at objectively, as a story with potential significance.

    Models & Mentors – “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities” – Stephen Covey

    “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life” – Dolly Parton

    “For everything there is a season,
        a time for every activity under heaven.
    2 A time to be born and a time to die.
        A time to plant and a time to harvest.
    3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
        A time to tear down and a time to build up.
    4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
        A time to grieve and a time to dance.
    5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
        A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
    6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
        A time to keep and a time to throw away.
    7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
        A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
    8 A time to love and a time to hate.
        A time for war and a time for peace. –  Ecclesiastes 3

    “Moderation in All Things” – Hesiod

  • Purrsiflage – Daily Horoscope for Your Inner Kitty with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 27

    Today Is Up to You – The Universe puts you in charge this morning. Time to make up your mind – will this be a good day – or a bad one? Do you wake up fearful, fretful and exhausted? You’re too much of a worrier. Worry borrows trouble and erases pleasure. It’s OK to plan but it’s destructive to worry. “Rumination” is endlessly thinking over a problem in a circular way – it isn’t going anywhere. If you dream only about your problems, you are at risk of wasting your valuable dreaming time.

    Purrsons Build Workable Routines – Then Explode Them Creatively

    We construct lists and calendars in our Training Journals that are very much Works In Progress. Every effort’s an experiment. If you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, so we must build good systems. As Zig Ziglar reminds us, there’s no elevator to success. We’ve got to take the stairs, one step at a time. We will build ourselves up so strongly that ultimately we will be able to trust our subconscious, even our unconscious, to do the work for us. Purrsons create independent selves to transcend their quotidian selves. This is why cats appear so composed and self-sufficient.

    Taming Wild Mind to Focus Productively – Buddhists are fabulous at training the questing brain to calmness. This is a physical discipline and it does take practice. As in any practice, we start out needing both effort and commitment. You will have to “forgive” yourself over and over – “I suck at this” is a beginning, not an end. Learning to enjoy the process is key. Meditation teaches us how to live in the present moment. You are your own toddler, so mother yourself.  Be delighted by the effort and moved by the commitment. You don’t yell at a toddler for falling down. Study the work of Pema Chodron (libraries everywhere) for assistance.

    Your Toddler Self is Frightened by Everything.  As we meditate and the fears boil up, we talk to ourselves calmingly. Focus on small, pleasurable things, the green grass, the blue sky. In our gratitude practice, we give thanks for the green grass and the blue sky. Focus on the breath – out with the worry, in with the fresh day of joy and discovery. Now close your eyes. Are you still seeing the green grass and the blue sky? Isn’t that wonderful? Now they are yours forever. Tonight you will dream about them. Cherish them in your heart.

    How Strong is Your Negative Voice?  This is the first enemy we must defeat. We all have at least one – some of us have many. Banish them firmly. Your negative voice is belittling, angry and demeaning. It doesn’t think you can accomplish anything. It is not a helper, in fact it is toxic and we are going to tell it goodbye. Read Viktor Frankl’s wonderful Man’s Search for Meaning and Pinkola Estes’ excellent Women Who Run With the Wolves for advice on how to pluck the lotus of joy from the mud of despair.

    Purrson Opportunity – Learning to focus at our advanced age is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a daily practice of mindfulness and joy in the classroom of creation. Be proud of your effort, your commitment and the confidence you are modeling for all future generations that life itself is a dazzling gift. You are alive at this perfect moment for some perfect reason. Let us find it.

    Models & Mentors – “Your habits will determine your future” – Jack Canfield

    “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine.” – John Maxwell

    ‘Practice isn’t something you do when you’re good. It’s what makes you good.” – Malcolm Gladwell

    “It’s easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” – Benjamin Franklin

  • Purrsiflage – Your Daily Cat Horoscope with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 26

    Today the Universe Delivers a Warning – You are depressed or at risk of depression. Even in your dreams you hurt.  You feel such shuddering emptiness and loss it’s a physical relief to wake up and find your dream wasn’t real. Lots of people fear such sadness as some kind of prophecy. It’s enough to make a person fear going to sleep.

    The Depression Archetype – warns you are too “involved.” Check out life’s professional Purrsons – such as cops, firemen, paramedics – who all will tell you to “forget” the personal just to get the job done. They recommend you focus on the “healable” crisis– even though all that suffering reminds you of your Special People and the dangers they face unwittingly, every day.

    People Die. Even Worse – People Can Lose Their Purrsonhood BEFORE They Die – Better think your worldview through BEFORE the crisis happens. If death ends everything, surely you will fear it. But remember, what a caterpillar calls “the end”, Nature calls a “butterfly.”

    Don’t Postpone Grief – Even we lucky Purrsons will have reason to mourn. The same powerful forward drive we so admire in cats sometimes fools Purrsons into thinking that moving backward in the dance is a sign of weakness, when ebb and flow are laws of life for every creature, sacred cats included.

    Low Mood is Stigmatized in a society where perfect strangers feel comfortable demanding that you “smile.” Look at all these Instagram feeds with everybody showing their back teeth, grinning away because they’re having so much FUN and their lives are so PERFECT.  They never wake up shuddering with existential sadness. Cats don’t smile – they purr – but Purrsons are they are human too.  We know risk our exalted sensory advantages by trying to pretend ”everything’s fine” when all the red lights are flashing wildly.

    Mourning Postponed grinds you to a halt. Just because those

    who are better at covering up their true feelings are socially valorized we see no need to join their lonely ranks. They are lessening themselves. Admittedly some people are just shallow, and that is a misfortune we cannot envy. 

    They’ve worked hard to feel less deeply!  Narcissists may convince themselves that they can transfer their pain to others and “free” themselves by enjoying the suffering they’ve created but Purrsons recognize that trap is a Zero Sum Game. This gamble to stunt our own growth is a threat. It inevitably means we all have lots of work to do.

    First, We Sort Out “Real” from “Transferred” Suffering. Whose misery has been foisted upon you? If you’re in that position you are literally a “scapegoat” and will need all your Purrson skills to get out of it.

    DO NOT ACCEPT TRANSFERRED SUFFERING! – Even the collective suffering of history must be examined objectively. 

    Pain is inevitable but suffering is voluntary. We feel compassion for some, we pity others their willful darkness but we do not accept their world scheme of eternal punishment and torment. Every cat who finds a patch of sun to groom in turns their back on mandated self-hatred.

    We’ve Got Plenty of Legitimate, Necessary Mourning to catch up on. If you skate over “bargaining” and “acceptance”  all that’s left to you is denial and depression. Sometimes, the “causes” of your lost mourning seem inconsequential to our “adult” selves. “So your pet died when you were five,” everybody says. “Your parents got a divorce. You moved five times. Get over it, already!” But we say, Now is always the perfect time to accept the power and significance of your own feelings.

    Purrsons Feel Compassion for Everyone – Themselves Included. Begin with yourself. Why feel these things now, right before you set off on your next great, consequential adventure? Sometimes it is joy that brings to the surface those past unhealed hurts. That’s necessary, part of the ebb and flow. Because we are strong enough to feel it now.

    Purrsons Are the Heroes of the Collective Unconscious – Purrsons do battle for and honor centuries of collective suffering. (Inter-generational trauma.) It’s OK to think about that sadness, especially if it makes us feel closer to other Purrsons and their less lucky people. Everyone has these lost, wrecked treasures submerged in their lives.

    Purrsons Feel Deeply – Your power is to free the greatness of your emotion even as it protects your feelings and other people’s. Celebrate the fact that you are able to feel so deeply in a world where others feel forced to abuse themselves, numbing out, then taking risks and drugs in order to “feel something.”

    The Art of Detachment  allows Purrsons to rise above the fray, strategize, and plan. Even on the eve of battle they enjoy their lives.  Let go – finally –  of the toxic elements in your life. Time to go “no-contact” on the emotional vampires who waste, drain and suck your energy. Read up on sadism, the better to understand the people out there who revel in your suffering. Buddhists recommend surveying your thoughts and feelings from a distance, as in hypnotherapy, then setting them free.

    Detachment is Not Dissociation – Dissociation is more like floating through life with all our systems repressed, feeling numb. Dissociation is not good. You can use your quivering pool of tears to respond more intensely to life, to art, to music, and to each other.

    Resilience is the Cat’s Most Powerful Survival Trait and so it is ours.  This means that even after blight, we can flourish more strongly, just the way pruned plants will. It’s not necessary to explore all the caverns of your being, but it will make you stronger. 

    Meditation Teaches Mindfulness, and Mindfulness Teaches Detachment. Once again, choose a buddy and a guide. Think about the “hero’s journey” story you respond to most deeply. How would you explain your hero’s journey to someone else? Feel free to use metaphors, after all, when we were children we did feel our world to be populated by monsters and the supernatural.

    Models & Mentors – “Detachment is power. Release all things that no longer work for you” – Shane Steele

    “To be detached means to dive so fully into the experience you dropout the other side… with full understanding you can say, “Now that I know, I can let go”

    – Teal Swan

    “In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty…freedom from our prison of past conditioning…willingness to step into the unknown surrenders us to the Purrson mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe…” – Deepak Chopra

    “I release the subjective thoughts, energy and emotions I am holding about people, places and things that kept me trapped in dis-ease…I can step back and allow the feelings & thoughts & energy to dissipate…I am then free to act with compassion, love & acceptance” – Angela James

    “Attachment is the fabricator of illusions – reality can be attained only by one who is detached” – Simone Weil

    “Detachment is having your life be about you, not about other people”

    – Karen Casey

  • Purrsiflage – Today’s Horoscope for the Cat In You with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 25

    The Universe Says It’s Brain-Opening Day – Let the Knowledge Pour In – You didn’t even know there was a wall there! And suddenly, you’re through it and the world looks completely different on the other side.

    Are You Battering Against Barriers in your dreams? Are you breasting tape, cresting mountaintops, shedding light on darkness? You are seeking, or experiencing an epiphany. Let’s consider those pieces of your psyche/life that don’t add up.

    Eureka! – Purrsons Learn From Epiphanies – It’s possible to have a sudden enlightenment and NOT FULLY REALIZE it. Could it be that it is too threatening? Could be that you lack the language to explain the new connection you have made. Could be that your “discovery” started down so deep in your consciousness that it’s taking its time to percolate through to the surface.  

    Purrsons “Molt”!
      Shed what no longer serves you. In the meantime, pay attention to your dreams and track them in your Training Journal.  Dreams have the power to heal the jagged edges of our fear, our incomprehension and our daring.

    Purrson Danger – We almost always quit too early. Status quo is SO attractive. Let somebody else be the adventurer, let somebody else put into words what nobody else can say, let some other poor sucker stick their neck out and mention that the emperor has no clothes. Study your fears rationally. It’s OK to protect yourself – in fact, it’s mandatory – remember making sure that oxygen mask works on YOU, first? But that doesn’t stop us from evaluating the full “reality”, which also, I remind you, contains suspicions, insights, ideas and yes, dreams. These are the whispers of the multiverse through which you can read your own future.

    Grow New Skin – Purrsons are highly accomplished, well-trained professionals who sometimes find themselves at the bottom of a pecking order.  Are you in a group whose leader is making decreasing sense and ever more self-serving decisions? If you’ve been struggling with a knotty historical, mathematic or scientific problem nobody else can solve, why not try seeking the edges of light?

    Transform Your Thinking – how often have you had that experience of waking up from a dream whose conclusions were so real they were right in front of you, only to see them melt in the sand like the escaping tide until no longer perceptible. That’s OK. They’re still on the tip of your psychic tongue, just waiting for a little more encouragement.

    Learn New Things -We are all familiar with the “sleep on it” suggestion, but anything that takes your mind off the problem can be helpful. Sports, prayer, meditation, reading, a massage, a night out, but please – not too much liquor. Hold it at two if you can, if you can’t, don’t start. Liquor affects the brain, killing brain cells.  That might keep overlords seeking compliance happy but it’s not good for Purrsons’ growth and development.

     Develop a gratitude practice. Keep dreaming. Keep seeking those epiphanies. Keep using your fears as stepping stones to climb higher. Never give up. Remember; clever – like the fox, wily as the snake, gentle as the dove.