The Fascinated Observer: A Guide To Embodying S.T.A.R. Philosophy

By Kristy Sweetland and Nina Brown

DIVINITY IS INSIDE OF US. 

This book rests upon the profound richness of a non-dogmatic philosophical and spiritual foundation. A labor of true love, this is a guide for declaring our sovereignty, and learning to accept complete responsibility for our lives. Using the simple S.T.A.R. formula of Surrender, Trust, Allow, Receive, a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cauda Pavonis
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9780982676943

Kristy Sweetland

Kristy Sweetland is a writer, teacher and coach of transpersonal growth and transformation. She holds a master's degree in psychology and is professionally credentialled as a transformational life coach. Kristy writes exclusively on the subjects of freeing the human spirit, and healing and growth through creative expression. She considers Mother Nature to be one of her greatest teachers, and utilizes eco-psychology, animism, and feminine mythology in much of her work. Kristy has a private practice in northern New Mexico where she assists others through their own spiritual transformations. When not writing, teaching, or coaching, Ms. Sweetland can be found with her husband and cherished dogs, hiking the gorgeous canyons around her home, day-tripping to the glorious Sangre de Cristo mountain range, weekending to the Colorado Rockies, or scrambling around Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the Jemez Mountains. She also shares her life, if not her hiking adventures, with two magnificent indoor felines who appreciate being mentioned. Kristy Sweetland has previously co-authored a book with Nina Brown, called The Fascinated Observer.

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THE FASCINATED OBSERVER

From S.T.A.R. Philosophy by Nina Brown

On the Fascinated Observer, the following section introduces this idea:

With fascination is the most empowered manner in which the observer experiences the soul’s journey on the spiral of life. From the vantage point of fascination, one is participating in what is presented—from experiences, to events, to conversations and in relationships, with the delight of watching what shows up. Fascination allows one to ask, Wow, why did I create that experience?

As an observer of one’s life, circumstances lose their power to effect negative emotions. My favorite example is when one goes to the supermarket and stands behind a person who has eleven items in the ten-items-only, check-out aisle. The typical reaction is to hold an internal dialogue that goes something like this, He ought to go back to school and learn how to count!!!!!! I’m going to be late for my dog grooming appointment. How could he do this to me?

The situation is really all about us. Why am I getting so disturbed? Why am I feeling this way? The event, whatever it might be, just is. It is how we react to it that is causing thought, feeling and behavior. A different way to respond, as the observer, to seeing eleven grocery items in front of you, is to ask, How is my life going to be different because of this perceived delay? Could it be that you are still in the store when your best friend enters?

Perhaps being put on a different time schedule allowed you to miss a negative event that you would have been involved in had you exited earlier. Or did the quiet time standing in line allow you to have an Ah-ha! thought that would not have occurred had you rushed out the door?

To expand on this thought, let me share a personal experience which happened in the Santa Fe post office. The time was about ten o’clock and the line of customers was unusually long. I [Nina] had an overnight letter to post, so leaving was not an option. The woman two people ahead of me had a shopping cart filled with what seemed like thirty-five boxes. I learned from overhearing her conversation, how she sold her products through eBay, the online shopping and auction network and this was her second visit to the post office that day.

While I was standing in the line, which turned out to be for a little under an hour, I shifted my mind to the question, Why am I in such a slow line, just standing here? Then a thought came to me, Stand up straight. Curious, I pulled my shoulders back and held a very erect posture. The muscles in my back began to ache, but I held firmly. Then I remembered that I had spent the last week crouched on a sofa watching hours and hours worth of the 2012 Olympic Games being televised from London, England. No wonder my posture was poor. After a half hour, the muscles stopped hurting and it felt natural to stand so straight. What had possibly seemed like a disruption to the flow of my day had turned out to be a gift in disguise.

To be an observer in the octaves of S.T.A.R. removes judgment. The eBay vendor was not wrong. The line of people wishing to use the postal service was not wrong. The event that appeared in my life just was. One might call this mode of observing a form of innocent perception: to be aware without bias.

For example, when we meet a person wearing a black leather jacket, it is easy to assume that they are a motorcycle rider. Innocent perception allows us to merely observe that the jacket is black and leather, without assigning a quality, characteristic and behavior to the person choosing to wear the jacket. We are merely allowing the identity or personality of the individual to unfold. We know that, under all the signs and symbols, we might observe that the true identity of the person that we have just met is an individual aspect of All That Is expressing and experiencing in a unique