The Giant Oak Speaks Wisdom: Listen With Your Ears and Heart

By Marti Eicholz

Are you frustrated with the pace at which you live and despite the rapid pace, you don't seem to be getting any closer to your dreams?

Do you exhibit any of these classic symptoms that indicate a life out of balance: anxiety, depression, irritability, insomnia, hopelessness, and even chronic physical ailments.

Are you wishing to establish a healthy lifestyle that will last a lifetime?

Then you are ready to hear the messages of the giant oak tree.

The giant oak has witnessed great strength, limitations, fears, courageous moments, love, hate, and disappointments.

The giant oak offers wisdom and solace. It buffers and shades from the storms of life. It has experienced the beginning phases of life and has endured, has flourished, and has triumphed over adversity.

This healthy oak tree is a loving presence that will lead you on an adventure, tapping the rich realms of your heart, mind, body and soul and guiding you toward balance, health, harmony, and love into your life.

Bring with you, nothing more than a pair of ears for listening, a mind willing to learn and an open heart. You will be given ongoing inspiration and the practical tools you need for the adventure.

Be prepared for stunning surprises and wondrous awakenings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Sep 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456627409

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

This is a book of exhilarating discovery, where you can consider the pathways of your heart, mind, body, and soul. Explore a new dimension of yourself, and see what unexpected treasures you might find. Are you prepared for a route of rich surprises and wondrous awakenings? Enter the following pages, bringing with you nothing more than a commitment to courage, self-honesty and a spirit of serendipity. You are about to embark on a great adventure with the giant oak.

Let the child within you play with the ideas you will find here. Free your imagination, and let it dance like a breeze. Read slowly and thoughtfully, asking for a quickening as you transcend words and journey into deeper meaning. Your wise inner voice may respond and speak to you, helping you to know instinctively which path to follow next to offer you true joy and well-being.

This book is designed to be both inspirational and pragmatic. The giant oak will lead you down roads, trails and paths to experience all of the dimensions of you: Your physical self, emotional self, mental self and spiritual self. You will also notice sections entitled, Stepping Up. The giant oak is providing suggested action items, which you can use to put new concepts into practice.

This adventure with the giant oak will lead you on a multitude of paths, beckoning you to pause, take your time, don’t rush, savor and look inwards. At other times the adventure will urge you onwards, inviting you to discover new treasures. There are many mysteries on this adventure.

You may want to begin a journal as you embark on your adventure. Make your journal a place of quiet beauty where you can record your most intimate thoughts and insights both from yourself and to yourself.

OPENING

Are you thinking about ways that will make your life better?

Are you wishing for a fresh start?

Are you wishing to establish a healthy living lifestyle that will last a lifetime?

First, you need to have a firm foundation. Why? Imagine a rocket getting ready to blast off into outer space. Think of the thrust of energy that’s involved in getting the rocket launched. Now consider just how strong the launch pad must be beneath it. Obviously, you wouldn’t situate your rocket on sand, or on shaky fill. Instead, you’d want it on a rock solid structure, so you’d get the best possible lift-off for your flight.

The same is true with your quest for a healthy living lifestyle for a lifetime. You are never going to get anywhere if you are starting from a place of self-doubt and worry. If you are a stranger to the person you currently are today, then there’s no hope of advancing any further on the path of discovering a healthy living lifestyle. You are trying to blast off from quicksand! You are trying to steer a clear course in a dense fog!

Getting to know you – then believing in yourself – is what will foster permanent and positive growth toward happy, balanced, harmonious living.

You will need to think, listen, look and keep an open mind to the choices in life. You do have choices. You are not fenced in by your responsibilities or by your past choices. You are not stuck, hopelessly so, in circumstances that are beyond your power to change. You do not have to believe that the only avenue open to you is a blind acceptance of what fate has handed you, giving you a feeling of resignation, bitterness and despair.

I challenge you to change the course of your entire life. Be willing to give up your despair and hopelessness, and open your mind to a new set of ideas.

This is not an idle commitment. It is a willingness to change the most fundamental aspects of your being, and opening up to an area of the Great Unknown within you. I am asking you to commit to something that is not at all guaranteed, and certainly not fully explored. It is more like asking if you are willing to explore in uncharted waters, to what treasures might be buried deep beneath the surface there.

Are you up for it?

If so, perk up your ears and open your heart.

Invest an hour or more every week, and diligently explore the many aspects of you to create a balanced, creative, healthy, harmonious life filled with love.

You will be exploring and practicing some extremely important concepts.

Your guide is a mature healthy oak tree.

Take it on faith that this mature healthy oak tree is a loving presence guiding you toward balance, health, harmony and love into your life.

It is time to get started on your self-inquiry.

Go to a quiet place, where you can be alone for a while, and set aside all distractions. Turn off the music. Shut the doors. Unplug the telephone. Find an inviting place to sit, maybe on a puffy pillow, or a Lazy-Boy reclining chair. If you are lucky to have an oak tree nearby…take a pillow and prop yourself up and sit at the foot of the tree. Grab this wonderful place of comfort and claim it as your own.

Take this time to learn and grow from the wisdom, the discernment, the compassion, the tact and patience developed and still blossoming anew in ways you never dreamed possible and therefore expressing your own beliefs and values in ever-spontaneous way.

The giant oak is joyful and anxiously, willing to renew a source of hope in you and those around you.

CONTROL ISSUES and YOUR PHYSICAL SELF

Ask: What do I need to become aware of in myself right now?

The Giant Oak Speaks

Let’s look at the amount of control you want to exert over your environment. Are you compelled to take charge of a situation at any cost, even if it means offending other people? If so, you might not even notice the devastation in your wake, because so great is your need to keep a firm grip on the reins. At best, this makes a dynamic leader—forceful, authoritative and self-assured. At worst, you can be overbearing and insensitive, sometimes to the point of being a dictator. If you need to control, conflict is not a problem—in fact, you thrive on it. You enjoy the challenge and the competition, especially when you are required to deliver quantifiable results. This explains why you like the concept of a bottom line, for it allows you to measure progress in dollars and cents.

If you are non-controlling, you are gentle, peace-loving, and willing to let others assume command. You will be supportive, and put aside your own personal agenda for the good of the group. You tend to be selfless and humble. You don’t make waves. This may have a negative ramification at times when you fall into passive, dependent or submissive roles. You may seem wishy-washy, or lack courage in your convictions, which can allow others to take advantage of you. Your modesty keeps you out of the limelight.

So, where do you stand on the issue of control? Are you a control freak whose challenge is to loosen your hold on the reins of control? Or are you a person who could benefit from taking a little more control over the events in your life?

Chart your own control level. Pick the five words that best describe the person you would be without pressures from your job, family or social group:

1. Placid

2. Commanding

3. Hesitant

4. Outspoken

5. Congenial

6. Adventuresome

7. Discreet

8. Firm

9. Yielding

10. Cynical

Now count how many of your answers were odd numbers, and how many were even. The more even answers you picked, the stronger your need for control. You like to be in charge and want to be the boss. Four or 5 odd answers mean you are not controlling, but rather have someone trustworthy and strong exert control over you, rather than exerting control yourself. You seek protection, rather than authority.

The more even answers you picked, indicates self-confidence, decisiveness and responsibility. You are competitive – and must win. You like taking charge of a situation and look at the Big Picture, so as to make long-term decisions both for you and the people around you. Exerting too much control has its drawbacks as well. You become self-centered, pushy, brusque and insensitive to others’ feelings. Your need to be on top means that everyone else has to be beneath you, most people just don’t like being subservient.

We all display not controlling to some extent. For example, we enjoy being citizens of a powerful country that can hold its own against other nations (so that we personally don’t have to defend our turf). We like the idea of the police protecting us from criminals. We also tend to exhibit not controlling when we’re relating to trained professionals, such as surgeons, attorneys or even auto mechanics (this tendency may or may not be in our best interest).

On the other hand, we all have a certain amount of control within us because we all want to get our own way—at least occasionally. That’s why control tends to be problematic in interpersonal relationships. When each of you involved wants to control the other and come out the winner, there is certain to be some strife.

Some positive examples of your use of control are when you are directing your staff at work through a challenging project, or when you are refusing to take no from a customer service representative.

But if your control sneaks out when you are trying to get your husband to clean the bathroom your way, or your kids to stop fighting, take a look at the way you are using control. Just remember: We can’t change anyone else’s behavior but our own. What is more, trying to exert your own will over other people will eventually lead to resentment, irritation and loss of morale.

You may be a control freak if you require a high degree of order in your life, if you hanker for a rule book to guide you through life, so you won’t make a mistake, or if you want everything just so, and tend to be a perfectionist.

But consider you like to know how much money you have in the bank, and that your children will reliably obey the safety instructions you give them. That type of control usually makes very good sense.

On the down side, you may have problems with setting and maintaining boundaries. Because you do not like to impose your will on other people, you avoid being a disciplinarian and tend to go with the flow. When the flow leads to dangerous rapids or waterfalls, you may find yourself over your head in chaos, and may regret that you didn’t take charge of the situation a little sooner.

Have you ever found yourself agreeing to do a task, go to a meeting, or buy something you really did not want—simply because of the persuasive powers of someone else?

That person was probably friendly, outgoing, and exude loads of enthusiasm. They smiled, created a warm glow of camaraderie, and displayed an eagerness to cooperate, seemed pleasant and playful. It is control nonetheless. Think back to how you felt the last time you were influenced to do something you really didn’t want to do. Did you feel a little conned or manipulated—or maybe a little foolish that you didn’t stick up for what you knew you wanted? You may have been a recipient or you may have used these same techniques to get your own way. Remember that these techniques are a thinly disguised form of control. Whenever we exert control over other people, instead of over ourselves, we run the risk of abusing or damaging the relationship.

We’ve all heard it a million times, and it’s still very true: The only person you can ever change is yourself. While you’ll want to work toward changes in your interpersonal relationships, these changes will occur through skillful communication, not through demands, orders or ultimatums.

The more controlling you are, the harder this lesson will be for you to learn. In fact, you may get sweaty palm just thinking about letting other people take charge of their own affairs, especially if there’s any potential impact on you. But bite your tongue and focus on self-control rather than external control. There’s usually plenty of work we can do on ourselves and, believe it or not, the rest of the world really can take care of itself!

Take a moment to do a quick review of the thoughts you have entertained. Are they happy, constructive, energy-building thoughts? Or are they negative, fearful, self-critical thoughts?

While you have very little control over most of the events that come your way during the day, you have tremendous control over your own thoughts and attitudes. Make a commitment to yourself, right now, to weed out those harmful negative thoughts that hold you back, and make room for the happy, supportive, encouraging thoughts that contribute to being a fulfilled and happy person. It will take determination and persistence.

One place where control is especially useful is in managing your own physical being, acquiring the skills for looking after your basic needs.