> Are you Juiced or are you Zapped?

The short, direct answer, Alicia, is "Sometimes one, Sometimes the
other and Sometimes neither".

The longer answer follows...

>>>
I encourage you to notice what Juices you and what Zaps you!!
Meaning what drains your energy and what lifts your energy?
Is it coming from Love or from Fear?
>>>

There is a view that Love and Fear are 2 sides of the same coin, i.e.
that, as the yinyang symbol of wholeness predicts, within the
experience of love, lies the seed of fear (of losing love) and within
the experience of fear, lies the seed of love (re-connecting with the
non-fearful).

As one side of this coin expands, so too must the other, until the
point is reached where we can no longer ignore the opposite side of the coin and
so our attention flips over from experiencing one side to experiencing the other
side.

This coin is called "attachment".

Attachment is one side of a bigger coin called "consciousness", the other side
of which is "Non-attachment". Again, within each experience lies the seed of the
other, as the yinyang wisdom predicts.
Thus as we become increasingly "attached" we become increasingly
complacent (accepting, "taking things for granted") and the seed
of "Non-attachment" grows. As we become increasingly non-attached we
are in fact becoming "attached" to "Non-attachment" (one of the
perils on the path to enlightenment/self-realisation/gnosis!).

"Juiced" versus "Zapped"
------------------------
We can love (become attached to) being "Juiced", to the point where
we fear, hate and avoid the experience of being "Zapped". Herein lies
the road to what is often called "bipolar disorder" (manic-depressive
lifestyle) - extreme attachment (stickiness) to "feeling juiced",
alternating with being stuck in "feeling zapped" (depressed). An extreme
experience of one side of the coin inevitably, in time, must become balanced by
an extreme experience of the other side.

In a more moderate and balanced lifestyle we accept the "inevitable
ups and downs of life" without undue attachment to either "up"
or "down". In Buddhism, they call our inevitable ups and downs: "The
Winds of Life!". In modern terms we can call it a "Soap Opera"
or "Drama" of life, and who does not love a good
drama! - yet we also fear that a drama may "get out of hand"!

Balance & Transcendence
----------------------
In a balanced lifestyle, our coin can roll along freely "for a while"
without falling over. The cost of this is that it may become a bit
boring and we may want to experience the exhilaration (juice) of a
bit more "drama"! I say "for a while" because the path of life, as
Alicia alludes, repeatedly meanders and changes direction,
potentially throwing our coin off-course or off-balance such that it
may lose impetus and fall over (zapped!).

An alternative to balancing the ups and downs of life, is to
transcend them, thereby losing the juiced/zapped drama but gaining
stillness and peace. Eckhart Tolle describes this well:
http://www.brothermichael.org.uk/resources/tolle.htm
Deep meditation, trance, death and enlightenment
are forms of Transcendence.

Sometimes folks confuse Transcendence with "Attachment to being
Juiced" - believing that we can have a "juiced transcendence" which
is eternally juiced and free from any "zapping". Karen Bishop's "Energy Alert"
(http://www.CHEAL.org/message/598) may be straying into this area.

An alternative aspiration, if we want something more than just the
roller-coaster ride of juiced/zapped, or the mundaneness of "balance", is to
"have it all"...

We can have the "soap opera" drama of life PLUS the stability and security of
"balance" PLUS the stillness and peace of "transcendence". Glastonbury
philosopher, Timothy Freke, refers to this as "Lucid Living":
http://www.Amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0952632098/sunflowerheal-21

In Buddhism they refer to this "have it all" approach in these
terms: "Before enlightenment? - chop wood, carry water!; After
enlightenment? - chop wood, carry water!"


Where does all this take us?
---------------------------
I can only speak for myself, this is where it takes me...

"Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul into even to your smallest
acts. This is the secret of success." [Swami Sivananda]

To which I would add "There is no cure for life, except death, and no cure for
death, except life!"


Wishing everyone a full(-filling) life!

Mike