I was raised in the church and while I struggled with many of the beliefs taught, I was a whiz at memorizing scripture which is of course, something kids in Sunday school do a lot. However, even as a child, I never believed scripture was literal. I've always looked at the Bible as an allegory for an embodied life as opposed to actual, literal instructions for how to live.
Still, every once in a while some piece of scripture I memorized back in the day pops up, and I suddenly have a new understanding of what it is telling me. That happened this morning during my meditation. I've been working on cleansing and clearing these past few weeks; I'm ridding myself of things that no longer serve me so I can make space for new energy to enter my life. I've done this not only with physical stuff (I've removed piles of garbage and things to donate from my drawers and closets over the past few weeks), but also mentally and emotionally. I've felt a driving need to create spaciousness in every aspect of my life; to make room for new energy to arrive by clearing out old energy that's cluttering up the joint. I've always viewed my closets and drawers as an allegory for my life. On the surface, my house is clean and tidy. Sure, there's a little clutter from time to time, but if you were to come to my house, it would look fairly neat and clean. Just don't open a closet or a drawer, because under the surface of clean, oy. Chaos. And that physical condition has frequently mirrored my internal or emotional life, as well. On the surface, I appear as if I've got my crap together. But if you open a drawer or a closet - in other words, if you dig more deeply under my surface - chaos. And that chaos has traditionally occupied a whole lot of my mind and emotional space. And so, as I've cleared away physical clutter in pursuit of physical spaciousness, I've also been working to clear away mental and emotional clutter into pursuit of emotional and mental spaciousness. I wish to create those mental and emotional spaces so I can allow for new energy that better serves me to enter my life. Which brings me back to scripture. In my meditations, I've been using a technique my friend psychic AurorA teaches called heart space. Essentially, heart space is entering a place of pure love and acting from that practice. In my meditations, I've been focused a lot on bringing others into my heart space - especially people with whom I have relationships that need healing (part of my cleansing and clearing has been focused a lot on forgiveness). And as I did this today, a piece of scripture I memorized as a kid popped into my head. Matthew 7:5: You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. I always saw this as an admonishment about judging others - don't judge lest ye be judged, that type of thing. But from heart space, I discovered for me it is something else altogether. It isn't about judging. It is about loving. What it meant to me this morning in my meditation was this...the plank in my eye is my inability to fully view myself with love. How can I view others with deep love love if I can't provide that for myself? With that acknowledgment, that recognition of what is, the plank starts to dissolve, and I can see more clearly than I have before. One more very important piece of clutter is disappearing right before my eyes. What is the plank in your eye? What is it you have that you can't see around? What's cluttering up the joint and preventing new energy from entering your life? As we move through the holidays and into the new year, I encourage you to allow time and space to discover your planks, to clear your clutter, and to move forward with joy into the truly empowered life you can lead if you allow yourself to do so. Image by klimkin from Pixabay
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Everyone loves their pets, but what if there are behavioral issues, health concerns, or if your pet is lost or missing? That's where a pet psychic can help. I wrote an article for LoveToKnow about animal communicators that gives all the basics but skips my personal story.
Our dog, Monkey, is beloved. You'll see her pop up frequently in my images and writing. What few people know is that for seven years, she had this little issue where she woke us up every single night several times a night barking. It was like living with a newborn for seven years, but we loved her anyway. We finally asked animal communicator Karen Anderson to help, and she worked once with Monkey (and with Monkey's pet parents, who were contributing to the issue), and within a few days the 7-year long issue had completely resolved. We sleep through the night now. Pets serve as an amazing source of love in our lives. Our relationships with them are uncomplicated, and they love us unconditionally regardless of how we act. In return, we love them unconditionally, too, even when they tear up our favorite sweater - or wake us up during the night. I've discovered that when I am struggling in a relationship with another human, when I take the time to tune into the love I have for my pets despite their quirks or behavioral issues, I can tap into a source of unconditional love that I can use to heal my feelings about my human relationships. My pets (and I have a lot of them - four dogs and a cat) are my example for love and spending time with them moves me into a vibration of love I am able to carry throughout the rest of my life. Image by Rebecca Scholz from Pixabay A few recent incidents in my life have reminded me once again of the power of forgiveness. When someone behaves in a manner that feels hurtful, it's easy to get stuck in looping thoughts of unhappiness, pain, and anger. Unfortunately, when we are mired in these thoughts, we create negative energy that can attract even more negativity into our lives if we allow it to do so. Holding on to hurt and anger doesn't hurt the person at whom we are angry, but it sure hurts us.
When you feel wronged, it can be so darn hard to forgive. I get it. With my recent situations, I wanted the people with whom I was upset to acknowledge my pain, understand they'd done something deeply hurtful (at least in my opinion at the moment), and let me know they recognized the impact of their actions. That was my ego talking. As I've spent the past few days examining the situation as pain or anger has arisen anew, these are the conclusions I've reached:
This morning I woke up with the residual of both of those incidents tugging at me, and for a minute I felt myself slipping back into those moments of pain. Then I realized as I wallowed (just a bit) in the pain, I was attracting more negative thoughts about other things, and I know I can never create joy from a negative space. Since joy, freedom, love, and compassion are my current primary focuses and allowing these thoughts pulled me out of that space, I took a few moments before I got out of bed to change what I was thinking and release the negativity. That allowed me to experience joy where I could meditate on things that moved me into a loving heart space that allows me to sustain my primary focus. It is an act of self-love because focus and intent shape experience, and I wish to have positive experiences in my life. In every situation that arises in your life, you assign its significance. When an event initially occurs, you react authentically from whatever emotion you have in the moment. I'm not suggesting you should not allow that initial authentic reaction because when an event occurs, you feel how you feel. However, after that moment has passed and the event is in your rearview mirror, you decide whether you carry that negative emotion with you or if you let it go. It is always your choice to carry it; and just as that is your choice, so it can be your choice to let it go. Holding on to hurt, anger, and other negative emotions never puts you in a positive space. It never attracts joyful things, and it often blocks you from achieving your deepest desires because you are stuck in pain or anger instead of creating from a space of joy and empowerment. Choosing to forgive is always about loving yourself enough to move back into a space of positive vibration from which you can attract more positivity to bring about the things you truly desire. Choosing to forgive is an act of self-love. Image by Tomaž Jevšenak from Pixabay Some days and some moments are more difficult than others, but unconditional love is always is a choice. Here's the good news. If you're not choosing it right this moment, you have another moment and another so as soon as you recognize you're not choosing unconditional love, you can make the choice anew.
Image by TanteTati from Pixabay Image by Thanks for your Like • donations welcome from Pixabay
In my work, people often seem most interested in improving certain facets of their lives, and relationships (romantic and otherwise) are usually a biggie. I often hear questions like the following: -How can I find a romantic partner? -How can I have more friends or more meaningful friendships? -How can I heal my relationships? -How can I get people to treat me better? -How can I forgive? These are all offshoots of the same issue, which is how you relate to others, and the answer always starts in the same place. It begins with your relationship to self. Every person with whom you interact is, for you, some reflection of yourself. Other people are giant mirrors for us. We are drawn to people who have character and personality traits we admire, we wish to have, or that mirror aspects of ourselves we like. Likewise, when we don't like something in another, it is because we see something in them we also recognize in ourselves, but we hide it in the shadows and hope nobody ever notices. The answers to the questions above (in order asked), then are: -First, love yourself. -First, love yourself and develop a meaningful relationship with self. -First, heal yourself. -First, treat yourself better. -First, forgive yourself. Your issues in relationships are always about you, the beliefs you have, the choices you make, your desires, and the thoughts you think. What you believe and think about yourself and others fuels your interactions. So to attract love from others, first love yourself. Chakra Work Self love and self-worth begins in your third chakra, which is your solar plexus. It is here where you develop and maintain feelings of self-esteem. Focusing here and truly learning to love yourself is a necessary step before you can bring that energy up into your heart chakra, the center of unconditional love, where you can share the love you have for yourself with others and the world. Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay Concentrating on your third chakra as you meditate and using crystals like citrine, yellow tigers eye, and amber can help strengthen this key area to build self love. Using mantras during meditation for self love can also help. Consider mantras such as:
Vajrapradrama or Thunderbolt Mudra Mudras offer another way of focusing and setting attention during meditation, visualization, and affirmation. These hand positions can help improve focus and stimulate energy flow. For self-confidence and building self love, try vajrapradama mudra, which is also known as thunderbolt mudra. Interlace your fingers as shown on the right and rest your hands over your heart and solar plexus chakras as you affirm self-confidence and self-love. The mudra represents and strengthens unshakeable self-confidence, which is key in building self-love. The Secret to Self-Love: Remember Who You Are We spend all day in contemplation of our selves: what we want, how others relate to us, how we are doing at our jobs, what we feel like eating, what we want to wear, how to care for ourselves...the list goes on and on. It's surprising, then, that with so much self-contemplation, we often arrive at conclusions about self that are less than loving. And when we reach these conclusions, we drive ourselves more deeply into forgetting who we are. We believe such terrible things about ourselves we forget our very essence is love. We come from love, we bring that love with us when we arrive in these bodies, and then we spend the next several decades forgetting that about ourselves. So here I am to remind you of who you are. I see you, I know you, and I know who you truly are. You are love. You come from the love and the light, and someday you will return to it. And while it may seem your light or love is hidden right now, it's just covered with a little dust. But even with that light, dusty coating, the essence of you shines brightly. You are love, and you deserve to remember that. So until you remember, I will remember for you. You are love, and nothing can do will make me believe anything different. |
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