Stress Free Living, Post 3: Activity & Silence

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So we’ve talked about eliminating stress by cleaning up our diets. This is really one of the most effective steps you can take if you really mean it when you say you want to live a stress-free life. Now we’re going to add two more important and effective choices you can make, and they are opposite ends of the spectrum from one another. These two things are activity and silence.

 

ACTIVITY

Your body is made up of energy. So is the food you eat and so is every situation to which you are exposed. Energy that enters your body doesn’t just disappear. Energy cannot be unmade. It can only change forms.

You choose the sorts of energy that you allow to enter your body in ways you may not have even thought of. You choose it by the foods you eat, as we’ve already discussed. You choose it by what you watch on television, what books you read, what kind of people you surround yourself with, what you think about, what your hobbies are, etc, and we’ll talk about those things in an upcoming post.

But you also choose it by what you do, because the best way to transform energy is deliberately. We mustn’t just let the energy we take in become whatever it wants to. Instead, we get to decide what we want that energy to become. Activity is one of the ways we can do that. Instead of high blood pressure, fat, cholesterol, cancer, (all contributed to by stress) we can choose to transform the energy we imbibe into strength, into power, into lean muscle and dense strong bone and an empowered immune system. How? By activity.

When you use the energy you take in to move your body around, your body becomes stronger. All of the stressers that you take in every single day, can be channeled into motion, into a stronger, healthier body simply by expending an equal amount of energy (or more) into activity. Into motion. We call this transmutation of energy exercise, and it can take on many forms, from a daily walk, to a daily jog to a daily swim to a daily bicycle ride to a daily workout. But whatever form it takes, the key word is daily. You take energy in every day, and you need to expend energy every day as well. If you are serious about leading a stress free life, you will invest a set amount of time every single day to exercise, whether it’s playing with the dogs, paddling a kayak, or dancing around your living room.

 

Exercise raises the heart rate, which makes the heart stronger, and trains it to return to its normal rate more quickly. It makes your resting heart rate lower, so your heart will last longer. It rids the body of cholesterol and prevents fat cells from forming, in addition to removing the ones that have already formed. (Not all of them.) It prevents high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, stroke and just about every other ailment I could name. It promotes digestion so you don’t end up with acid reflux or IBS, and so that the food you eat gets properly divvied up between energy and waste. It keeps you regular. It helps you sleep at night. It makes you feel better all over because it releases endorphins in the brain, making it an excellent and all natural anti-depressant.  It makes your skin prettier as it sweats out toxins and pump blood through it more efficiently.

If everyone exercised in their target heart rate zone for 30 measly minutes a day and ate a clean, healthy diet, our hospitals would be all but empty. 90% of patients in hospitals right now wouldn’t be there if they were at a healthy weight and living a healthy lifestyle. That’s a fact. Very few of us are actually sick because of a physical defect that we didn’t cause ourselves with our own behavior. A few are, but they are precious few. It’s time to take responsibility for our own well being and face the truth. We’re making ourselves sick, and we don’t need medicine anywhere near as much as we need to just start living a healthy lifestyle. It’s really that simple.

 

STILLNESS

The polar opposite of exercise is also essential to our well being, and that is stillness. Absolute stillness, in body and in mind. The silencing of that endless mind chatter always swirling through our heads. A gentle disconnection from it, a pulling back into our higher selves. This is an act we call meditation and it’s not hard or complicated. You don’t need a guru to learn to do it.

Find yourself a nice instrumental piece of music. No vocals, as they are distracting. It can be any kind of music that speaks to you as long as it doesn’t wrap your brain up in it. Your mind needs to wander free, so the music, while pleasant, needs to function as white noise. It keeps the mind chatter quiet because that chatty part of your brain is busy noticing the music, leaving the real you, the higher you, free to commune with spirit. Recordings of nature sounds are also great to use for meditation. Waves crashing on the shore, birds singing, crickets chirping, all of these make great white noise.

Music is also great because you can choose (or piece together) a selection that’s exactly the length of time you want to spend in meditation, which keeps your busy mind from worrying that you’re taking too long or wondering when your timer bell is going to ping.

So here’s meditation in a few simple steps:

1. Wear loose fitting, comfortable clothes. Nothing binding. Be sure you’ll be warm enough, but not too warm.

2. Turn off the phones, TV, computer, etc, and go into a quiet room where you are unlikely to be interrupted.

3. Sit in whatever position is most comfortable for you and turn on your selection of white noise.

4. Inhale and exhale, slowly and naturally, relax your body and close your eyes.

5. When thoughts come flitting by, just let them keep on flitting. Don’t latch onto them, just notice them and let them keep on going. Pull your attention gently back to the feeling of your breath moving in and out of your nose and lungs.

6. Continue until your song ends, and then try to settle yourself back into the physical realm. Open your eyes. Get up when you feel ready.

7. Jot down any thoughts that floated by you that felt of particular interest. (Not the laundry list of things you should be doing, but anything deeper, more meaningful.) If nothing came to you that’s fine. The object is stillness, not deep revelations. It’s just that sometimes, when you silence the mind enough to hear it, Spirit (God/Goddess/Source/Higher Self) takes the opportunity to speak to you.

 

As Deepak says, “Prayer is how we talk to God.  Meditation is how we listen for the answer.”

 

 

 

Stress Free Living, Post 2

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If you really want to learn how to live a stress free life, read this series of blog posts and put as many of the tips into practice as you can. Try it for six months. Try it for three. I guarantee, you will see improvement.

So now we’re on to Post #2 of my series on Living a Stress Free Life. Since I know you are all expecting me to begin with talk about meditation, positive thinking and ritual, I thought I’d hit you out of left field and begin by talking about our diets.

What we put into our bodies can have a powerful impact on our moods. We already know that things like lots of sugar, salt and caffeine can increase our stress levels. So it stands to reason that there are foods that can lower them, right?

Of course it’s right. Food is medicine. It’s the only medicine we ought to need. Eating right can keep us healthy so we don’t need to rely on the other kinds of meds.  So what foods actually reduce stress?

 

Complex carbohydrates (all carbs actually) stimulate the release of serotonin in your brain. This is the feel-good chemical. When you don’t get enough of this, depression, anxiety and other nasty things result. So carbs in moderation are good, and complex carbs, anything whose first ingredient is a whole grain (it wills say “Whole” in the ingredient list) are the best. They will give you a boost of serotonin and help balance your blood sugars, improving your mood. Whole grain breads, whole grain cereal, old fashioned oatmeal, whole grain pastas, these are good for you.

 

A sugary sweet can reduce stress in a pinch. Don’t use on a regular basis, but isn’t it good to know you have reason for that small piece of chocolate now and then? Chocolate releases serotonin too.

 

Fresh fruits (especially those high in Vitamin C) are known to improve mood and fight cortisol, the dreaded stress hormone. Berries are good for you, and chock full of antioxidants.  The old “apple a day” advice is absolutely true. Eat fruit every single day.

 

Fresh veggies, especially soybeans and green leafy vegetables like spinach, contain lots of magnesium. Magnesium depletion leads to headaches and general fatigue. So eat lots of these. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages have cancer preventing properties. Sweet potatoes and carrots are great for your night vision. All veggies are good for you.

 

Fish like Tuna and Salmon contain omega-3 fatty acids. Ladies, Omega-3 (in proper balance with Omega-6) fights PMS! You need this stuff.

Pistachios, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, all protect your body from the effects of stress. They’re good for your heart and cholesterol levels. Eat in tiny amounts as 1/4 cup runs around 140 calories with most of these. But eat a tiny bit a day, every day. I’ve discovered “Cocoa Roasted Almonds.” They come in 100 calorie packs and are sinfully delicious.

Better Sleeping Tips: Web MD says a small serving of carbs before bed can help you sleep better.

Another key to good sleep is a glass of warm milk. The calcium in it eases hormone related mood swings, PMS and general stress.We’ll talk more about getting a good night’s rest in future posts in this series.

Black tea is another drink that is a known stress buster.

 

Water is CRUCIAL. Get a favorite water bottle and keep it with you everywhere you go. Since giving up soda, I drink water all day long. Coffee or tea in the morning, but that’s it. Nothing else. My hair is shinier. My dry skin issues have vanished. I’m healthier. Just keep sipping all day, every day. It adds up and your body will thank you.

Supplements like St. John’s Wort and Valerian Root are both believed to help relieve stress and ease anxiety. (With the St. John’s Wort, take it for a few weeks, then skip a week, for best results.)

 

Try not to get your vitamins and especially your calcium from artificial sources (multi-vitamin tablets, I mean.) Get them from what you eat, instead. We’re already learning that calcium supplements appear to increase women’s risk of heart attack. If you’re not a dairy lover, drink almond milk like me!

 

What NOT to Ingest

Okay, you already know this stuff but I’m going to tell you anyway. The quickest way to ease your stress and get your body feeling great, is to change your diet, and not just by adding the items listed above, but by reducing to the greatest extent possible, those listed below.

Caffeine: Stop yelling at me. This isn’t as impossible as you think it is. Start by buying a pound of decaf and a pound of regular coffee on your grocery shopping trip. Then just mix in the decaf. Maybe use 1/3 decaf at first, then 1/2, then 2/3, then 3/4.  (That’s as far as I’ve made it.) Take several weeks to ease into this. This way you don’t miss it, you don’t get the infamous caffeine withdrawal headache, and you barely notice the change–except that you feel less nervous and you sleep way better.

 Processed Foods: These are just poison. They shouldn’t be called food at all. Your diet should be made up of mostly fruits and vegetables (fresh whenever possible, frozen when not, never with sugar added, canned as a last resort,) whole grains and nice healthy lean meats and fish. Daisy is entirely optional.

 Sugar Substitutes: Giving up diet soft drinks was the hardest for me, but my jeans fit way better since I have, and I feel great. The reason diet beverages make you fat is that the taste of sweetness in the mouth triggers all sorts of chemical reactions in your body. The pancreas releases a burst of insulin to digest the perceived sugar. The body gears up to process it. But no sugar is to be found. Now you have all this stuff going on that’s meant to deal with sugars, so you crave them, along with carbs which convert into sugars in the body. That’s Side Effect Number 1. Side Effect Number 2 is this. After being fooled often enough, the body stops reacting. So then when there is real sugar around, it refuses to deal with it effectively. So “diet” products that taste sweet but contain no calories are really screwing up your entire system. Carbonation has its own set of harmful effects, but the fake-sugar damage is done even by non-carbonated drinks, even so-called healthy ones like the Vitamin water drinks. Anything that tastes sweet, but has no sugar, is messing you up.

 Alcohol and Tobacco: It goes without saying, doesn’t it?  I practice absolute abstinence from these toxins.

So if you are really serious about wanting to live a stress free life, you can begin by joining me in what I like to call “Clean Eating.”  Love your body and take the best care of it that you can by putting into it only things that will help it thrive. Food isn’t recreation. It isn’t love. And it isn’t life. It’s fuel. Putting things into you gas tank that are not gas, will destroy your car. The same is true for your body.

Come back for the next part of this series, Daily Practices

And meanwhile, join me for Oprah and Deepak Choprah’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge, beginning today (Monday March 11th, 2013.)

 

 

 

 

When Other People Stress You Out (Stress Relief, Part 1)

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Life is like walking through a giant shopping mall. Every store is filled with life experiences. And the entire mall is filled with other people. All of them are finding their life experiences too, and most of them are so wrapped up in them, they think they are the only real experiences in the place. They shout at you as you pass, trying to get you to buy into their personal life experiences. They do this because if you do, it validates them.

 One is shouting that the planet is dying, and that we have to take action now to save it.  That’s his personal experience, it’s what he sees when he looks out from his perspective. He wants you to join him there, because he feels the more who believe in his experience, the more likely he’ll be able to change it. (Sidebar: He’s wrong. The more people who believe in it, the more real it will become. But that’s another blog post.)

Another person is shouting that all men are pigs and cannot be trusted, because that’s the life experience she bought into, the one she’s now living (because she made the purchase) and the one she wants you to join her in. If you do, then that means it’s not her fault. There’s nothing wrong with her. All men really are pigs.

 Every person who loves his religion is yelling at you as you stroll through the mall of life, “Join me! I’ve found the right path! This is The One True Way. Come and buy it and you’ll be happy like I am.” Because if you believe it too, it must be true.

Every person with a disease wants you to join the fight against it. Every person with a cause wants you to help them support it. Every person who believes anything about anything, wants you to believe it too. That’s a lot of people with a lot of beliefs about a lot of subjects, all shouting at you at once.

And there’s more. There are little people running around inside your head also shouting at you. They are made out of moments you’ve already lived, things you’ve observed. They’ve made themselves into truths in your mind. You believe them without even knowing you do. You bought them by believing them.

So here’s the thing. Just like when you’re in a real shopping mall, where there are countless shops full of countless things to buy, you aren’t obligated to buy all of them.  Not even the ones in your own shop inside your head. And you certainly aren’t obligated to buy the items you find appalling, horrifying, frightening, disgusting, distasteful, ugly, or otherwise unappealing.

You don’t have to walk into the store where the pear shaped middle-aged women are all shouting, “You put on weight when you age! Your metabolism slows down. Your joints get weaker. You start to sag! Come on in here and buy into this with us so we don’t feel so badly that we did!”

 You don’t have to walk in there. You can hear it, you can notice it, and you can keep right on walking, looking for the shop that has the gorgeous knockouts in it who are shouting, “You’re as young as you feel! Fitness doesn’t have to stop at 45! Aging is mental, not physical! Get in here with us so we can reaffirm these beliefs with one more living example!”

You don’t have to stop at the shop where they’re screaming “Your toothpaste causes cancer. And so do the sun, the moon, the stars, tuna fish, soap operas, computer screens, your drinking water and probably petting your cat! Be afraid! Be very afraid! Cancer is coming for YOU!”

 You can instead, wait until you pass the shop that says, “Good health is your natural state of being! All disease is just that healthy energy being blocked, and the only one who can block it is YOU. And guess what? Being happy is the block-buster. It’s that simple.”

Now that’s a shop I want to visit. And I want to buy what they’re selling there.  How do I do that? What is the currency I use to pay for my purchases in this shopping mall of life experiences? It’s my attention. I “PAY” attention just like I pay with money or its plastic equivalent for a new pair of jeans at Aeropostale or a new kind of lotion at Bath & Body.

All that others say or do, even if they’re saying it or doing it to you (or about you,) is their experience. You may hear it shouted at you as you stroll through your day, but it cannot belong to you unless you stop and go into that store, and put your money on the counter by putting your attention on the experience. Once you do that, you own it. That experience that was someone else’s, now is yours. You will carry it around with you until you take your attention off of it, forgetting all about it like you sometimes forget a shopping bag in the mall restroom.

 As you walk through the shopping mall of life, know that your supply of cash (attention) is pretty much limitless.  You can buy whatever you want.  Isn’t that a wonderful thought? You can buy whatever you want.

 So hunt for the experiences you dream of, and buy only those. When you hear the hawkers shouting at you about things you’d rather not experience, walk past them very quickly, looking the other way. (Like you do with those people in the mall doing surveys. Or the ones who just want a minute of your time to show you what they can do for your nails. Don’t stop for them. I did once. Cost me three hundred bucks.)

 Now, take this silly mall analogy and apply it to whatever is bothering you in your life. What experience are you buying into? Is it the one being shouted at you inside your head? “There’s too much to do! I’ll never get it all done! Why do they expect so much from me? Why can’t I get any help around here?  How am I supposed to handle this?”

 You can buy into that if you want. Or you can make a deliberate choice to keep walking through that mall in your mind until you come upon some laid back easy-going voice in your head that says, “Hey, take it easy. It’ll get done, or it won’t get done. The world won’t end either way. I’ll do what I can, but I know that my purpose in life is to ENJOY it. So that’s what my top priority is. Having fun.”

 We’re going to talk more about stress and ways to get your attention OFF it, in the coming days, but I thought this little mall story might give some of us a jump start on things.

Love: What is it, and How Can I Get Some?

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Yes, true love is real. And yes, I would say that. I’m a romance novelist currently engaged to the love of her life and blissfully happy. If I didn’t believe in love, I wouldn’t be here, blogging at you. More importantly, I wouldn’t be here, in this life.

 Love is when you recognize yourself in the eyes of another. Never is this more obvious than in the love between a mother and her child. She looks into the eyes of this child that she herself has brought into creation, a child that for the past nine months has been a part of her own body. How can she not see herself in those eyes? This child is an extension of her. A literal, physical new extension of her own body. It can’t separate without the cutting of a cord. This is powerful stuff. 

And there’s a reason why it is so powerful. It’s because this is the closest we humans usually come to understanding the relationship between us and that which we call God.

We are extensions of Spirit. When we manifest in bodies, we step apart a little bit from our Source in order to become physical. Just like a baby is born from its mother, we are born from God (The Whole, Source, Spirit) but unlike the baby’s cord, our cord is never cut. We just forget it’s there.

So when you hear “God loves you,” stop for a moment, and picture God (or Goddess, which works better for me in this analogy) looking at you the way you looked at your newborn, the way every mother looks at her newborn. That’s how much you are loved.

When you get that, really get it, the next step is to try to wrap your head around the fact that you are both the lover and the beloved. You are both the baby and the mother. You are both you, this being with the eyes and the brain that are reading this, and YOU, the Goddess, beaming down on “Little You” with love in Her eyes. You’re not just from Her, you are Her. 

In meditation I often envision leaning back, out of my body, into that higher self, and then settling there, I open my eyes and look through the eyes of Bigger Me, Goddess, I gaze down at little me. 

The third layer of understanding love is this: Just as each of us is Goddess, so all of us are Goddess. When we’re in that higher self, leaning back into the Divinity, our Source, we have to realize that everyone else is a part of our Mother too. And from this vantage point, we can look down on each of them in their human forms and adore each of them, and even look through the eyes of each of them, briefly. And then leaning back from them, we realize that they too, are Us. We’re One.

When you fall in love, deeply and lastingly in love, it’s because you can recognize that oneness in the other person’s eyes. They are familiar to you. They are your mirror image (not physically, but spiritually.) 

If God (Goddess, Source, the Whole) is an ocean, then each human being is a bottle of water, dipped from that sea. The bottle is our physical body. The water is our soul, the soul that fills it. It’s separate (apparently) from the ocean, but it is, in its every molecule, the sea. When we die, the glass falls away, and we return to the Whole–that loving mother or father who beams at us, and who is us. 

My theory about love, is that often,  Bottle of Water A (a person) meets another bottle whose water was a part of her own bottle the last time around. One bottle died. Its water mixed into the sea, and in the next lifetime, part of Bottle A went into two different bottles. One soul, split into two humans. Do you see?

Two People who both have water that was in the same bottle some other time around, recognize eachother. And because there is consciousness and desire and choice and will, even in spirit form, some of those bottles of water might rejoin each other lifetime after lifetime, reuniting over and over again. Dancing and mixing together as one in the sea, at death, and then splashing forth into separate bodies again, for the sheer joy of reuniting, of loving each other, forever.

That’s what soulmates are. At some point in some lifetime, the two were one soul, occupying the same body. This is the deeper meaning behind the myths in many cultures of an ancient goddess who created Her mate from Herself, promptly fell in love with what She had created, and how Their union created all life.  

Of course, going back far enough, we’re all one. We’ve all intermingled over and over in the Sea. If that’s not a good enough reason for peace on Earth, I don’t know one.  We shouldn’t just get along, we should be beaming with love for each other.

So now, when you understand that your purpose in being here might be  to experience the joy of reuniting with a part of your own soul, you can know when you’ve found it. Because it will feel good. It will be so blissful that you can’t stop smiling, not just at the beginning. In fact, sometimes beginnings are rough while the two still labor under the delusion that they’re strangers, separate beings. 

But as soon as the two begin to reveal their true selves to one another, to look beyond the physical, to open fully, that’s when the bliss sets in, and it’s still there in 5 years in, and 10 and 50.  

One more thing, I know this is getting long. 

If you haven’t found this kind of love and you want it, you can create it.  The good news is, you don’t have to die and reincarnate to do it.  Any time you long for anything, truly want it from the core of your being, a part of  your soul, your Higher Self, Goddess, God, shoots forth and becomes it. Remember, you’re a part of the Sea, and a bottle of water can be dipped out just for you, anytime you want. As you long for this mate, you create him. And don’t worry about issues of time (i.e., “If I’m creating him right now, won’t he be an awful lot younger than me?”) because time only applies here in the physical world. Time does not exist to God. And if it does turn out he’s younger than you, I wouldn’t worry about it. And I speak from experience. Also, there’s this. You’ve mingled many times in that Great Sea that is God. There are parts of you in many people already alive and walking around the planet.  You just need to find the perfect one, the one that contains all the pieces you’re most missing. Your request has beamed out into the great mind of the Whole and your special one has already been located. Circumstances have been orchestrated by the power of your desire, and they are now ready to fall into place, to help you find each other.

So your longing is what creates him and/or locates him. But the longing has to be released before he can come to you. He exists. You’ve done it. Focusing on the longing now, means focusing on the lack of him, the fact that he’s not here yet, on feeling lonely and sad. And feeling those things can only bring you those things. Think of all the little circumstances that create the events of our lives as Lego blocks. Feeling badly snaps the together the blocks that build a bridge between you and things that feel bad.  Feeling bad creates circumstances that will keep you that way. 

The only way you must think about your soulmate now, is to think of him from a state of joyous, excited anticipation, while imagining the way you’ll feel in his arms, the relationship you’ll have, the happiness on your face. Imagine it until you can feel it all right here and now. This the way to train yourself to be. Why? Because it feels good. Feeling good snaps together the Lego blocks that build a bridge between you and things that feel good, and he is one of them.

Eventually, your wish becomes real enough to you that you no longer have to think about it. It’s always there, in the back of your mind and you can give your attention to other things in absolute, serenely unshakeable faith that it is what will be. And you strive to lead the happiest life you can, because you know that’s the bridge you want to build–the Happiness Bridge, the bridge to him. When you get to the point where your happiness isn’t made up, isn’t forced, takes no effort, that’s when you’ve changed who you are. You’re happy. You’re having fun in this life. You’ve become that woman you dreamed you would be. You will honestly be as happy as you dreamed finding him would make you. When you achieve this, he’ll appear to you as magically as if he came in on a puff of purple smoke and glitter. 


 And that’s Maggie on love. 

The Care and Feeding of Spirit

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Do you ever think about your higher self? That part of you that is bigger than this small bit that fits into this tiny body?  The Whole of you? I do, I think about it a lot. One of the things I wonder about most is why? Why did something as big and vast and powerful as Spirit, decide to send itself forth into a physical container (body) anyway? It has to be because Spirit wanted to experience being physical. But why?

As I pondered on this question during meditation I received an answer that has become a regular one.  Almost all my answers begin this way. In my head, my Higher Self whispered, “It’s all mirror. Look at the mirror to find your answer.”

Okay, it’s a mirror. What can I look at that’s like Spirit creating a physical form for itself? And I realized, it’s mirrored by me, when I create something. What I create most often are stories. And so I asked myself why? What is it that compels me to fill pages upon pages with fictional characters living our fictional lives in worlds that exist inside my imagination?

It’s for the fun of it. It’s for the same reason people read those stories. The same reason people watch movies and TV shows. To experience life through the characters, to live their adventures with them, to take the thrill ride. Why? Because it’s fun, it’s exciting. 

 

So I thought okay, if it’s all a mirror (and it is) then Spirit creates worlds and characters to fill them for the fun of experiencing life through them. I also expect my creations to return to me the energy that I give to them by creating them. I expect them to bring me love energy, from all those who love the stories I create–which feeds my soul, and also, feeds my family in the form of the dollars that result.  

So what does Spirit, our Higher Self, expect us to give back to It?  The answer came to me very clearly. Spirit needs the experiences we have in life. These experiences are what feed It. When we have adventures in this physical world, Spirit thrives on them. When we experience love, (giving or receiving it makes no difference, love is love) Spirit grows stronger. When we experience joy, excitement, delight, bliss, pleasure of any form, Spirit beams brighter with it. The more we feed Spirit with these things, the brighter and stronger it becomes. 

We are both creators, my Higher Self and I. So the more I feed my Higher Self with pleasure, the more my Higher Self is able to beam pleasure back down to me, and the more It’s able to help me breathe life into more of my creations. (And my creations include every one of my desires, my wishes, hopes and dreams. 

When someone lives a life of misery, they are feeding their Higher Self experiences that are miserable. The Higher Self can then only beam down on them more miserableness. It breathes life into their fears, hopelessness and despair.

 

This is the meaning of the Lemniscate symbol, the symbol for infinity. 

Energy is constantly flowing from us to our Higher Self, and from our Higher Self to us. What we feed to our Source becomes empowered and is poured back down to us.

So now, let’s take this down a level to the relationship between us and our creations. For me, that’s my books. They too, can only feed back to me, what I give to them as I create them. If my work is something I have to do, but wish I didn’t, if it seems like a chore, if I feel resentful and am unhappy while I’m doing it, then my creations can only bring me feelings that match those. And misery fills the pipeline.

But if I fill my work with love, if I stop working it into being and instead, love it into being, if I thrill with giddy joy every time I sit down to write, and pull out all the stops and and truly just flow my very best energy into the stories, then my creations have to flow the same back up to me.

 

Now let’s expand this one more level.

The relationship between my Higher Self, (that which created me) and my stories (that which I create.) If I am feeding my higher self with the very deliciousness of my life, and if I am creating things with that same sense of deliciousness, then the things I create feed me with that same energy. I become the middle part of the Lemniscate symbol. The energy of my creations flows through me, to my Creator, and the energy of my Creator flows through me to my creations. We all feed each other with deliciousness and with love.

This applies to so much more, I realized, than the stories I create. It applies to the home I create, the relationships I create, the body I create for myself, every hobby from my aquarium to my bird watching, every task from cleaning the bathroom to weeding the garden, everything I do in every moment of my life is all part of my creation.  And so is everything you do a part of yours.

If we can approach everything from a place of absolute love and absolute joy, if we can find fun in even the most unpleasant tasks, then everything we do will be blessed. And the more pleasure, the more fun, the more love and joy and laughter we can fill our lives with, the stronger our Spirit beams.

One could expand on this meditation much much further. Since my Higher Self has a Higher Self too, One that is the sum total of all our Higher Selves, (and all the Higher Selves of all that exists,) and that One has a Higher Self as well, and that goes on ad infinitum. Each is a creation of the One before it, all the way back to the beginning–if there is a beginning.


We can take it in the other direction, too. It becomes mind boggling when we think about our creations becoming creators, and how that works, and how far one can take that. (It’s also infinite.) Can you wrap your mind around that one? Our creations do create! Novels create readers, fan clubs, merchandise, films, spinoffs,  derivative works. They create the authors’ incomes and an entire industry. They feed their readers with joy and pleasure and adventure, and those readers feed their higher selves with that pleasure.  And on and on it goes. The love and insatiable hunger of those readers has created a whole new phase of publishing that is turning the industry on its head today (the ebook phenomenon.) Some of those readers are inspired to become writers themselves, and that starts a whole new web of interaction, of giving and receiving. And that’s just the stuff we know about. I wonder what else my creations might be up to, out there in the worlds I created for them?

I wonder what yours are up to? Because everything you create is also creating an entire world of things beyond it, and on and on.


I know this is out there, and it’s a lot to take in. But think on it a little. Think about how every single thing you do, every miserable moment and every joyful one, sends out ripples that reach into all three worlds; The Great Above, The Great Below, and Middle Earth, the world in which we live. Look at the illustration to the left as you mull on this. Look at the three worlds, and how each impacts the other, and how each is reflected in the other.


 

 

 Experiencing all the joy and love you can in this life, is more than just the best thing you can do for you, it’s essential to the well being of the Whole, of all of us, and All That Is.



 

 

How to Live in the Moment if the Moment Sucks

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live-in-the-moment-sourceOver and over we’re hearing an almost universal message from the spiritual leaders of our time, and that message is to live in the moment.

Eckhart Tolle calls it the eternal now, and says, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you will ever have.” (Cause it’s always the present moment, get it?)

Abraham, through channel Esther Hicks says, “Life is a series of delicious moments.”

Wayne Dyer adds, “You have everything you need for complete and total happiness right now.”

And a lot of us scratch our heads and say, “Huh?” Because let’s face it, sometimes, our “right now” stinks on ice. So how do we go from a present moment that is rather miserable, to being happy in the moment? What if our “now” includes a horrible disease, or the loss of a loved one, or something awful like that? How does anyone find any sort of contentment in moments like those?

And why would anyone want to?

Well that’s the first thing to tackle, isn’t it? Why would you want to find contentment, peace, even happiness, in the horrible moments of your life? I’m going to tell you why, and the short reason is this. Every single experience in life comes to us for vital reasons. The bad times come to teach us. They come to push us forward to where we’re supposed to be. They come to bring clarity about what we really want. And they come because they have to come. The reality we live in this moment is the only way things can possibly be in this given space, in this given moment, in this particular reality. And everything that happens fits together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. If one piece was shaped differently, the entire puzzle would fall apart.

So the bad moments, the challenges, the losses come because they can’t not come. But these moments can last for as long or as short a period of time (time being an illusion) as we choose to allow. The more miserable we are in the bad moments, the longer we’re stuck in them. Only by finding contentment and peace within the moment, can we ever hope to move past it.

So that’s the why, that’s the reason to find contentment and peace in the horrible moments of life: because they’re going to stay with you until you do. But what about the how? How do you make peace with something awful?

lifelessons1. Look for the Lesson

There’s always, always a deep spiritual message being whispered to us in everything that happens. In the loss of a loved one, something I’ve experienced many times, I’ve found more spiritual growth than at any other period of my life. (We’ll do a blog on death and dying another time, soon I promise.) But the core to remember is that this is that person’s journey, not yours. There are reasons they came, and reasons they went when they did. Reasons that involve the fulfillment of their own purpose, their own plan. And in fact, everything that comes to you in life is a part of your own journey, your own plan. Everything. If you can accept that everything happens for a reason, and then begin to seek the lessons within the hardship, meditate on them, peel away the layers and get deeper and deeper, journal it all, you will in short order begin to realize that this hardship brought a lot of blessings with it.

powerofjoy2. Look for the Joy

There was joy in your life before the tragedy or illness or loss, wasn’t there? That joy didn’t come from outside of you, it came from within. Your capacity to feel happiness is your own. You hang it on events and circumstances beyond yourself, but the truth is, it’s all yours. That capacity for joy is still there, and the earth is still filled with things that can bring you smiles, here and there. Look for those things. Make it an absolute quest to find things that help you feel a little bit better, that give you a little relief, that take your focus away from the awfulness. The more you do this, the easier it will get.

surrender3. Surrender

Instead of struggling against the bad thing, (we all talk about battling cancer, fighting addiction, beating depression) just relax into it. Know that it came for a reason, that it will stay for as long as it has to, and that it will go when the time and your vibration are able to release it. Relax into that. Really accept it. Trust that there is a plan, and that all is exactly the way it’s supposed to be right now. It is what it is. It is the only way it can be. And we’ll understand the reasons eventually. The more we can stop pushing against our obstacles, the more at peace we are, and the more at peace we become right here and now, the more easily we can expand on to the next phase, and the next.

Gregg Braden talks about this very subject and more in this half hour interview that will be a blessing to all who watch it. It’s worth the time, I promise.

 

Re-Ignite the Fires–It’s Imbolc!

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It’s February 2nd, and aside from it being Grounhog’s Day, it’s also Imbolc, or “Imbolg Brigantina” also known as St. Brigit’s Day. Brighid is known as the Goddess of the Forge, and on her day, she awakens the sleeping earth with her power of creative fire. She’s known as the inspirer of poets and writers, artisans of all kinds. The church adopted her and changed the holiday to St. Brigit’s Day because it was easier to do that than to get the Pagans to give up their Goddess. The mass celebrated on this day is called Candlemas, and St. Brigit is depicted with a crown of glowing candles.  A temple to Brighid that existed in Kildare, with 9 priestesses in charge of tending an eternal flame, was converted to the church. There are now 9 nuns there tending that same fire, and they wear red nail polish as did the priestesses of Brighid before them. (By the way, the correct pronunciation depends on who you ask, many say “Breed” and others “Bride” but natives of the Celtic lands say, “Bree-yah.”)

 

 This is one of the High Holy Days in the ancient Wheel of the Year, which includes 8 Holidays. Winter and Summer Solstice, Spring and Autumn Equinox, and the four days that fall exactly halfway in between each of those. The “in-between” days are known as the High Holy Days, because they are times of change, and in the mystic traditions, things “in-between” are always considered more powerful. (Doorways, wells, dawn and dusk, midnight and midday, swamps which aren’t quite land, but not quite water, you get the idea.)

 

 

This day, halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal (spring) Equinox, we delve deep within to examine the sparks that spirit has inspired to life within us. (Inspire = In Spirit.) The are glowing now, in response to the power of this in-between time. It’s time for us to examine them, and then to tend our inner fires and make them grow. We are holding our raw metals to the flames of the Forge, heating them, and beginning the work of forming and shaping them into our new reality.

This is a beautiful time to renew those New Year’s Resolutions. It’s also a traditional time to cleanse and bless our homes with the new energy of the coming spring.

 

An Imbolc Ritual

You’ll need: A flameproof dish or cauldron, several small pieces of paper, a red pen, 9 red candles, any size, shape or type, a lighter.

Form a circle of the red candles on your workspace or altar, placing your cauldron or burning dish in the center. Light the candles and gaze into the flames, thinking of the symbolism of the smithy’s forge, where raw metal is heated and shaped.

Sit in quiet meditation, gazing into the flame for at least ten minutes before you begin. Try to feel the sparks of inspiration deep inside you. Breathe them brighter, and let them whisper in your mind until you know what they are.

Write each idea, project or goal that came to you, on one of the pieces of paper, just one at a time. As you do, visualize it clearly and brightly, as if it is already real. See it forming, growing, expanding. See yourself at the Forge, hammering the metal of this inspiration into the shape of your new reality. Imagine yourself in the place where it is manifest, and feel the emotions you’ll feel as it comes to fruition. Feel it as if it’s happening now.

When you feel ready, really at one with the feeling of it being already complete, touch the paper to the candle’s flame, and then drop it into your cauldron and watch it burn.  Know that this act is heating your raw materials and helping them soften so that you can more easily shape them in the coming seasons.

Repeat with each idea, inspiration or goal that came during your meditation. 

Reaffirm in your mind that each of these things is already done. Your job now is to shift yourself into knowing that and raising your vibration to match the goal, so that you can bask in it as your new reality. Close by remembering each blessing you have in your life right now, that began as a raw idea in your mind, and give thanks for them and bask in them (and mean it.)

It is done.

Here’s a song I just love that you can play during this ritual if you like. (Find it on Youtube and hit the “replay” button so it can keep going while you work.) It’s by artist Lisa Thiel, one of my all time favorite recording artists. Enjoy.

Imbolc, Lisa Thiel 

 

 

 

Let Spirit Live Through You

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The reason we are here in this life is so that Spirit can live through us. And when I say Spirit, I mean Source. God. Goddess. That energy that dwells within and without all of creation, from which we emerge and to which we return.

Everything that is physical was created by the imagination of Spirit. Spirit, the single consciousness, the one and only consciousness, imagined itself having form, and the big bang happened, and the particles collected Spirit, living in the form of the particles said, “I want to be bigger,” and planets were formed. Spirit dwelled within the gasses of space and said, “I want to shine,” and stars were born.  Spirit, dwelling within the single celled organism said, “I want to be more complex,” and life began to adapt and change. And each part of creation yearned for something more, and the spirit indwelling imagined and became more.

And now here we are, modern man, and we think we’re separate. We try to live our lives, to make the things we dream of happen through the things we do.  We sweat over how to pay our bills and worry about not having enough money. We stress and push our careers forward, running ourselves ragged to make things happen. We complain about what is while wishing for something more and being sure it can never happen.

But that’s not what we were put here to do. Trees exist because Spirit imagined itself as a tree, and became a tree, and now is enjoying treeness. Dogs exist because God imagined Himself as a Dog, and is now enjoying being a dog. Oceans exist because Goddess imagined Herself as an ocean and became an ocean and is now basking in the sensations of being an Ocean. You exist because Source Energy, God, Goddess, imagined It/His/Herself as YOU, and IS you, right now, riding along in your body like a passenger in a car, so that It/He/She can blissfully enjoy the experience of being you.

Sit and mull on that for a bit. In comfort, in silence, feel yourself falling backward, away from the person you think is you, and into the real You, the Source-God-Goddess You.  As you do you’ll feel yourself grow bigger. You’ll feel yourself huge, and meld into the One watching the smaller you sitting there in meditation.

We do a disservice to our Higher Self, our Source, when we struggle and strain and strive

and worry. Our Higher Self wants to live through us. It wants to take the scenic route, to guide us through all of the wonderful experiences It had on Its itinerary when It entered us with our first breath. But we insist on taking the wheel. And so Spirit sits in the passenger seat, quietly whispering “Turn left. Turn right. Turn around. Beautiful things are this way.”  While we refuse to hear, rack our brain to make our own plan, and steer ourselves uphill, low on gas, going too fast to see the view, and then wonder why we never reach those destinations we had so hoped for.

So let’s try this for a little while, just to see.  Let’s let go of the steering wheel.  Let’s let the gentle whisper of Spirit take over our route guidance.

Instead of trying to live our lives according to our plans and intentions, forcing things to be the way we think they should be, why not try allowing Spirit to live through us. Let’s dare to be as Spirit and to imagine our own wonderful experiences, and then relax and let them become.

To allow Spirit to experience life through us, we need to quiet our mind on a regular basis. Meditation, silencing the mind, shutting off the five senses and letting our brains’s incessant chatter just float by unnoticed until it slows and quiets, is one of the key ways we can tune in and actually hear the gentle whispers of Spirit. Developing a habit of meditation, of listening, very good for us.

“Prayer is how we speak to God. Meditation is how we hear God’s answer.” ~Deepak Choprah

Surrender is also key to allowing Spirit to drive our vehicle through life. By letting go of the need to control each step and saying, “All right, Goddess, I give up. You drive,” we can create  a major shift in the way our lives play out. Instead of struggling and straining for what we think we’re supposed to be doing to make the things we want come to us, we can relax, and let Spirit lead us in the direction where those things are waiting.

This doesn’t mean we stop doing. We’re here to live life, not sit in meditation and wait for it to appear. It means we stop conniving and strategizing and planning and forcing. It means we relax and attune to Spirit, and see the things that are put in front of us and hear the songs that are being sung to us by the music of the Universe. If we can let go of our scheming and relax for a moment, we will begin to see the path open up before us. That is the time for us to move in that direction, the direction Spirit is illuminating. This is called Inspiration. We can recognize it by the way it feels. It feels like the sensation of a brilliant idea just flashing into our awareness.  It will feel Good. Great. Irresistible. Ingenius! That’s the time to take action. That’s action being inspired (which means in spirit) by our Source.

“If it’s not a hell, yes! Then it’s a hell, no.” ~Abraham

Trust, Faith is another of the keys.

We can’t surrender and hand the steering wheel over, if we don’t have complete trust in the driving skills of our co-pilot. If we don’t trust Spirit completely, we sit in our passenger seat clutching the arm rest, stomping imaginary brake pedals, and screaming course corrections. We make horrible back-seat drivers. If we’re doing that, we’re not really letting Spirit take control at all. We might think we are, but we’re not. We’re grabbing the wheel like we do when teaching our teenagers to drive.  We have to remember that in this case, we’re the teenagers. Spirit has been driving for millennia. Forever, even.

In my meditation this morning, I heard Spirit’s gentle assurance. “I’ve got this, little one. You just go do the work you feel inspired to do. I’ll handle the rest.” And I realized that, even still, I often grip the wheel and jerk it in the direction I feel is right. All too often forget that I don’t need to be in constant control, trying to micromanage every aspect of my life. I still try to think ahead to how this or that problem can be solved, and start worrying about whether things will work out the way I think they must in order for the solution I’ve invented in my head to work. I forget that it’s already solved. That all I have to do is let go of the problem and listen to Spirit to see the solution. It’s already done, I’m just looking in the wrong direction. Spirit will guide me to turn my head and focus my eyes and see for myself that the solution is already here. It’s done. The minute I adjust my vision to see it, it becomes.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether what you are doing, the actions you are taking, are the ones Spirit wants you to take or not, all you have to do is stop, and feel your feelings. Is this action you’re taking or considering taking, making you feel good, or is it making you feel bad? Does it fill you with the excited anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve? Or is it giving you a stomach ache? Does it feel like a hell, yes, or a hell no? If it’s somewhere in between, you’re probably doing it out of guilt or a sense of obligation which are fear-based emotions.

There are only two true emotions. Love and Fear. Everyting you do and every choice you make, is either being made from a place of love or made from a place of fear. Fear of disapproval, fear of what others think, fear of being unloved, fear of losing what you have, fear of success even.

Think from that angle to make your decisions. Or just go quiet and listen and Spirit will make them for you.

So to summarize:
Meditate to hear the guidance of Spirit.

Stop strategizing, look for the guidance of Spirit in the form of inspiration, and then take action. You’ll be surprised how fast spirit will stack things up right in front of you when you adjust your focus. People, ideas and resources will appear like magic.

Have complete faith and belief that Spirit has things well in hand. It’s already done.

Make all decisions from a place of love, never from a place of fear.

In these ways, you can stop trying to hard to live your life, and instead, allow Spirit to live through you.

"Relax, little one. I've got this."

 

Processes to Enhance Your Journey (Magical Living Series, Post 4)

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So, as I’ve been blogging about the magic back into your life, about creating the life you want, I’ve been hearing, “but how?” I say, focus on what you want instead of on what you have. I say, ignore the bad and make a huge fuss over the good. I say, release the past and look only at the future. I say, ignore reality  unless it’s the reality you want. But my readers want to know how to do those things. Because really, our old patterns of thought are habits. Habits are actual grooves in our brains, neural pathways that get deeper and deeper the more often we travel them. And soon it’s not a path, it’s a rut. It takes some powerful tools to get ourselves out of our old ruts, and consistent, persistent,  practice to create new ruts. Ruts we want to travel.

I have found some methods that actually trick our brains into helping us do just that, and I’m going to share those processes with you now. You won’t have time to do all of them every day, nor should you. Life is meant to be lived. But these processes can help you to automatically become a more positive person, and that’s going to tip the scales in just the way you need them tipped.

 So here we go.

 Process 1: The Gratitude Challenge

Get a nice journal. (Many of my suggestions will begin with “get a nice journal.” That’s because I really love beautiful blank books.)

 When you get up in the morning, open to page 1 of your journal, write the numerals 1-5 down the left hand side of the page, leaving several spaces between each one. (Use pencil, a nice freshly sharpened one, which is a rare pleasure, so you can erase and re-arrange later if you need more room.)

 Now set it aside, and go about your day, but go about it knowing that you have to find 5 positive things, wonderful things to write down in those 5 spaces before you go to sleep.

 Repeat this process every day for a week.

 Do it again for a second week, only this time, list 10 things each day.  Try never to repeat the same thing twice.

This works because without you quite knowing it, you are training your mind to look for positive things. After all, you have a journal to fill. The act of looking for positive things will result in positive things showing up for you. When you start finding them, you’ll start expecting to see more of them. Expecting positive things causes you to emit a signal that calls them to you. You can’t fake this. But the simple fact that you have this list to fill will be enough to set it into motion. And it will snowball. I dare you to try it.

Process 2: Meditation

Tips before you begin: Turn off the ringers on your phones. Turn off the television. Turn off the lights. Set the intention that you will not be interrupted. If you’ll be bothered by your endless to-do list, and unable to relax because you feel you’re wasting time, set an oven timer. Ten minutes is good. Fifteen is better. If you’re too busy for fifteen, that means you need twenty. 

Meditation is the act of silencing the mind. Sitting quietly in comfortable place where you will not be interrupted, inhale through your nose, deeply, deeply. Fill your lungs to bursting. Hold for three beats. Now exhale through your mouth, blowing through your lips like blowing up a balloon until your lungs are utterly empty. Try to hold for three beats. Repeat.  As you inhale, imagine you are breathing in the spirit from which we all come. The Source. As you Exhale, imagine you are blowing away everything that separates you from that Source. Stress. Worries. Fears. Do this three times.

Now breathe easily, just allowing your breaths to flow from one to the next without your notice. Close your eyes. “Lean back” into your truest self. Many experience the Divine that lives within us as being located in the back and bottom of the skull.  I don’t know why. Don’t worry about why. Lean back (figuratively) and feel yourself relaxing into that Divine being that is the real you, your source and your highest self, in the base of your skull. Remind yourself that you are not your body. You are just in your body. Your body is, in fact, a projection of the energy that is your spirit, that energy that is God. And so is everyone else’s.

When thoughts come, observe them as they float past. Don’t grab hold, just observe, and then gently return to feeling the breaths wafting in and out of your nostrils, blowing past your lips. Remain in this ultra-silent, ultra-relaxed state until you begin to feel restless. And then gently return your attention to your physical self. You can do this most easily, as we Wiccans have known forever, by eating a grain-based snack such as some granola, a cracker or cookie.

Repeat this meditation daily if possible. Journal any visions or words that come to you. Symbols, especially, to be pondered upon later.

 Process 3: Bedtime Prayers With PUNCH

Every night as you fall asleep, repeat your I AM Exercises. Think inside your mind, I AM this and I AM that. Follow the words I AM with all the things you want to be, but state it in the present tense. Because when you say “I will be” something, that’s the same as acknowledging that “I’m not yet” that thing. And besides, the power of I AM is the power of creation. It is the name of God, after all. I AM that I AM.  As you do this exercise, imagine yourself as those things you’re claiming, see it in your mind, and feel the elation you will feel when those things come to pass. Feel it now. The emotion is the key. Believe that the power of creation is yours, because you come from God.

In his phenomenal film THE SHIFT, Dr. Wayne Dyer uses this analogy, liberally paraphrased.

Wayne: “If I showed you an apple pie, and then I cut a slice of that pie and put it onto a plate, and handed that plate to you, and asked you, what is on this plate, what would you say?”

Student: “It’s apple pie.”

Wayne: “And how do you know that?”

Student: “Because it came from an apple pie.”

Wayne: “Just like you came from God. You cannot be different from your source. You come from God, you are a part of God, you are God.”

So when you say, “I AM” you exercising the same power of creation God exercised to create the Universe. Let your bedtime prayers be an I AM exercise, and recreate yourself every night. Fall asleep with I AM whispering through your mind.

 Process 4: Lucid Dreaming & Dream Journaling

Dr. Wayne Dyer asserts, in his book, WISHES FULFILLED, that when we enter the dream state, everything we desire happens instantly. In a dream, you think of an apple, and an apple appears in your hand. You think of flying, and you suddenly find yourself airborne. This is, I believe, exactly how it works in the spirit realm, when our conscious minds and egos and left brains aren’t busy telling us what steps are required for our goals to appear. This is how it works when we leave this life behind. (The film WHAT DREAMS MAY COME is an excellent representation of this.)

So if we fall asleep saying our I AMs, we might very well enter the dream state with them still in our minds, and that will help them manifest for us far more quickly.

As kind of an addendum to this, start going to sleep every night with the intention that you will be awake in your dreams, aware that you are dreaming. I’ve done this before, gone to sleep with this intent night after night, and while it took many nights for it to actually happen (for me) it did work.  Eventually, I was awake in my dream, and able to direct it where I wanted it to go. With practice, you might be able to remember to make your I AM statements during a lucid dream and watch them appear like magic.

This is a beautiful goal to work toward.

I advise keeping a dream journal and a pen near your bed. A digital recorder would be even better, or a cellphone with a memo recording feature. Anything you can grab quickly without moving too much. When you first wake, try to record or jot down your dreams immediately. Try to move your physical body as little as possible until you get the dream down. Moving physically seems to dissolve the memory of the dream like popping a gossamer bubble.  You’ll forget all of this the first few times. You’ll forget the journal is there, or forget not to move too much and lose the memory of the dream. That’s okay. With practice, you’ll get better and better at this.  Lucid dreaming, and remembering our dreams is a way of tapping into a creative potential beyond measure. Our dreamtime is a powerful resource most of us never make use of.

With practice, you’ll become adept at this. You can then begin using your sleeping hours to help you manifest your desires. Those hours are our most powerful times because when we sleep, our resistance sleeps, and our imagination roams free.

So there are some processes that might help you enhance your spiritual journey. If you have others that have worked for you, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s All in How you Focus (Magical Living Post 3)

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old-coupleLook at this image. Then refocus and look again. Is it an old couple standing face to face? Or is it a happy couple in sombreros, playing guitar and singing? Is that a light shining down from above, or a golden chalice? Is she wearing an earring, or is that a bottle of tequila? It all depends on how you look at it.

Life is exactly like this picture, if you multiplied it by infinity. Everything that happens to you can be looked at from a million million different perspectives, the ends of the spectrum being, “Nothing ever goes right for me!” and “I am constantly being guided by my Source to move in the direction of what I truly desire. So I am absolutely sure this happened for a reason.” That is nothing more than a shift in the way you choose to look at the situation.

problem-solution-445x273Abraham, through channel Esther Hicks, is always saying that every subject is really two subjects; the thing you want, and the lack of it. Which end of the stick you grab, will determine whether you are happy or miserable. Are you holding the “I don’t have any money. There will never be enough money. I’m always broke. My bills are too high. Everything costs so much these days” end of the stick. Or are you looking at the end that says, “I’m in perfect balance. The more energy that flows out of me, the more energy has to flow into me. This large expense must be a sign that my influx of money energy will be higher this month. What fun!”  Or another, simpler example: “Where am I going to get the money to pay for this?” vs. “Ooooh, I wonder where the money for this is going to come from! I can hardly wait to find out.”

Every challenge in life is an opportunity to get excited about the answer. Every perceived problem is an invitation for you to open up to receiving the solution.  The entire experience is supposed to be a chance for growth, for new wisdom, understanding and grace, and for finding new sources of joy. We are not supposed to writhe in misery when bad things happen. We’re supposed to look at them, adjust our vibration, and move in the direction of the resolution. After all, every “disaster” in our life is nothing more than an indication that our vibration needs adjusting. That we’re focusing on the wrong areas. That we aren’t experiencing enough joy.

kayla png 02Changing the way we look at life is as simple as shifting our focus. Once we know that everything has a purpose, that everything that comes to us is coming in response to our own attitude, and the signals we’re emitting, we can begin to emit a signal of magic. Of “everything in life is magic, everything is a mirror or me, and therefore everything can teach me what I’m needing to learn about myself.”

This is why when I see an animal that seems to be trying to get my attention, I watch with care. Then I meditate on what animal and its actions mean to me. And then I go look up the symbolism of that animal in books, and then I meditate for a few minutes on what in my life right now, matches that. When I see anything in my experience that repeats over and over, a phrase, a new bit of wisdom, a song, a certain flower, or behavior on the part of others around me, I have to stop and look at what it means, and what it matches in my own thoughts and actions. What’s going on in my life that is attracting this particular thing?

sometimes-you-haveIt keeps you from getting angry at others for treating you badly, or screaming “why me?” when bad things happen, if you stop, take a breath, and say “What I have I been focusing on, or doing, or feeling, or thinking about that brought this to me? What is it telling me? What behavior of mine is this mirroring back to me?” Because that’s what it is. The Universe cannot bring to you anything other than what you are showing it. Change your focus, change your life.

Next time, we’re going to have some daily practices that you can incorporate into your life that will take very little time, and will help you shift your focus, and help you become one who sees magic in every moment, and uses it to become the person she most wants to be, living the life she most wants to live. Stay tuned.

Magical Living Series, Post 1, Returning the Magic To Your Life
Magical Living Series, Post 2, How We Create Our Lives

PS: Many of these thoughts and approaches are included in my non-fiction ebook
SHAYNE ON YOU.

ShayneonYou150

 

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