by Ginger | Jun 2, 2023 | Blog
Have you ever wanted to make a big change but weren’t sure where to start? It can feel overwhelming trying to figure out where to start on the road to a major shift. In Standing in the Light®, we teach that the best source of guidance is your own soul. Checking in with your soul at each step of the way will reveal the highest frequency path. But trusting that each step will lead you to your ultimate destination, even when you can’t see how the steps relate, can be its own challenge.
Sir David John Brailsford made a name for himself in the cycling industry with his “marginal gains” philosophy. Within several years of becoming the British cycling team’s performance director, they won their first Olympic gold medals in almost 100 years. Four years later, the team won more Olympic cycling medals than any other nation and continued on a years-long winning streak in various world championships and international races. Brailsford’s philosophy was that making even a 1% improvement in every aspect of cycling, no matter how small or mundane, would combine to create a significant overall improvement in performance. No aspect of cycling was too small to consider, right down to reducing dust particles on the equipment. And it worked. His philosophy was discussed in Great Britain for years and used in many fields outside of athletics, including business and education.
In spiritual mastery, even a subtle shift in our energy field and intention can create a significant change in our experience. The higher our frequency, the more powerful each choice we make in how we resonate and how we focus our intention. We can each do our own version of reviewing our choices, including the seemingly inconsequential ones, to see where we can shift another 1% more into alignment with the divine plan. Much of our spiritual journey is the accumulation of small choices made to become a little more conscious of our creations and allowing a little more Light. The big leaps forward can be fun and exciting, but there are also significant opportunities for lasting change in the commitment to a steady approach and attention to detail.
We will soon reach the halfway point in the calendar year. Many people do some form of visioning at the beginning of the year but lose track of where they are with those intentions throughout the year. This mid-point is a perfect time to do a self-evaluation with your soul and see where you can make your most effective changes to either get back on track or even expand what you’re working toward creating. Little changes now can create miracles further down your path.
Image courtesy of:
Adrian on Pixabay
by Lori | May 31, 2023 | Blog
Some people like to say that we are humans having a divine experience. Lightworkers like to say that we are Divine having a human experience. I believe we are both.
We are being guided to remember that we have incarnated as a human in this lifetime in order to experience our divinity in human form. Our divinity and our humanity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, our divinity and our humanity coexist, because we need both to understand each aspect and to understand the whole.
My divinity is my humanity. My humanity is my divinity. My humanity and my divinity are together like oxygen and hydrogen in a water molecule – both are required for the essence of water to be water. Whether the water molecule presents itself as ice, or as liquid, or as steam, it is still H2O. It is the combining of hydrogen and oxygen that makes the whole of the water molecule, not the physical form it takes. Ice is not better or inferior to steam, it is just a different manifestation of H2O.
As I evolve from only knowing myself as the 3D Lower-Self Ego to the 4D Self into the 5D Being – I AM LORI. I am just different versions and different frequencies of Lori – both human and divine. My divinity and my humanity will hold the key to why I volunteered to be in the experiment and this knowingness is what will allow me to continue to clear my issues, raise my frequency to the point I no longer need to be in the experiment. No matter where I go from there, as I absorb more light, I will evolve into a higher frequency being, but I will always have the essence of Lori within me. No physical transformation will take away the experiences I have had as Lori – human, divine, both. I am all. I AM SOURCE.
May you know yourself as Source,
I AM LORI
Gratitude to Willgard with Pixabay.com for the above image.
by Ginger | Apr 30, 2023 | Blog
Have you ever found yourself contemplating buying something you might not otherwise have purchased in order to take advantage of a special marketing offer? It can be tempting. We live in an age of consumer culture which showers us with sales, discounts and coupons if we act now or just add a little more to our shopping cart. Intellectually we know it’s all designed to get us to buy more, but emotionally we can get sucked in. While some offers can be a helpful windfall, it’s important to remain discerning of whether it’s the best offer for you right now.
I recently received a coupon from a grocery store that I frequent for a significant discount on my next order. A nice, unexpected bonus, but I had recently made a grocery shopping trip and didn’t have a lot on my list for this next order. As I put my order together, my total fell short of the minimum purchase for the offer and the expiration date was only a few days away. I went back to see if adding a few extra non-perishable items would get me to that total. After re-calculating, I saw that I would need to add still more to my order. In that moment, I realized this offer no longer felt like a gift. I was going to have to buy more and more to fit the requirements and I just didn’t need those extra items. The mental body might reason, “But if they won’t go bad before you eventually use them, why not?” But the energy of stocking more and more beyond my true needs just didn’t feel good. So, I checked in with my soul about whether I should try to use this coupon and heard to let it go. If the coupon didn’t fit my needs, then it wasn’t really for me. I downsized my order back to its original size and felt lighter again.
Did I really check in about a coupon? You bet! The moment something feels discordant within is our signal that we are likely stepping out of alignment with our divine selves, and we should immediately take a pause, take a breath and check in with our divine guidance. This is how we heal ourselves, one moment at a time. Small steps count! In this case, I would have been coming from scarcity if I made myself buy things I didn’t really need in order to get a discount. Again, the mental body might question this: “But isn’t being able to get more things for less money an example abundance?” Not necessarily. If we have to scramble and jump through hoops that we weren’t otherwise going to jump though, then we’re re-enforcing the fear that we’re going to lose out on something. This is not Divine Abundance! It is lack and limitation. Anything we manifest in our lives from that energy, will carry that energy. Do we really want lack and limitation radiating all around us?
Author Lynn Twist, who wrote The Soul of Money, has a wonderful saying about abundance: “What you appreciate, appreciates.” When I’m getting my needs met while focusing on joy, flow and ease, I’m holding that energy of gratitude which expands and creates more abundance. That consciousness leads to many wonderful new creations when we’re open to how and when they come into our lives. When I let go of that coupon, I felt abundant because I could let it go. A week later, I received a new coupon with another significant discount, this time with an expiration date much further out. Maybe I will have enough in my next order to get the discount. Maybe not. But I feel at peace and whole either way and that is the true gift.
Marsha Hankins recently posted a blog with some great insights about abundance.
10 Keys to Unlimited Abundance
Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay
by Lori | Apr 28, 2023 | Blog
When I feel anxious and unsettled, which has been happening more than I would like to admit recently, I focus on breathing slowly and it helps immediately. I have also noticed that I start to sing to myself a calming and repetitive chant. I have some current favorites that bring about a peaceful feeling. But really, any chant seems to work.
When I was a child and I was having trouble falling asleep, I would pray the rosery. I would wake in the morning with the rosary in my hand knowing that I had fallen asleep within saying the first 10 Hail Marys. I do not discount the intersession of Mother Mary. But, I also postulate that the repetitive nature of the prayers stopped the “monkey mind” from spinning, allowed relaxation to take hold and sleep was finally accessible.
Now, I access the peace and relaxation through chanting. Most of the time I chant silently but sometimes I belt out the songs as the universal energy calms me.
In Standing in the Light® we have some old standbys that we use for meditations. “Eternal Om” by Robert Slap is a favorite of ours.
Over the last few years, we have added some lovely chants to our Sunday Night Healing Circles. These contemporary songs lend themselves to higher feminine energy which is a nice balance to the chants that have traditionally held more masculine energy.
The beauty of chants is in the simplicity and accessibility of the words, the music range and the repetition. The chants that I am using the most right now are by the artist Alexa Sunshine Rose. You can access her music here at this link for Bandcamp. I have noted some of my favorites.
“Every Step a Prayer”. Lyrics: Every step a prayer. Every breath a new beginning. Every Step a Prayer | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
“I Release Control”. Lyrics: I release control and surrender to the flow of love that will heal me. I Release Control | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
“Come Receive”. Lyrics: Calling all the people of the world. Come Receive the Light and Love. Come Receive | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
“Open My Heart”. Lyrics: Open my heart so I can hold all I need to hold. Open My Heart | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
“Center of the Center”. Lyrics: From the center of the center, the light that never ends. Shining from the center, the light that never ends. Center of the Center | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
“Arms of Love”. Lyrics: Come now, child, lay it down. Just breathe, just be. Come be cradled in the arms of love. Just breathe, just be. Arms of Love | Alexa Sunshine Rose (bandcamp.com)
It is interesting when I find myself chanting a particular chant. When I am hiking uphill, I chant “Arms of Love” to help me keep a steady pace. Recently, when I wake up at night, I am usually humming “Come Receive” to myself. It definitely helps me go back to sleep.
If you need a technique that can calm you almost instantly, in coordination with your breath work, please consider one or more of these contemporary chants.
Gratitude to Alexa Sunshine Rose for her beautiful songs. Gratitude to Myrtillemymy with pixabay.com for her beautiful image.
by Ginger | Mar 31, 2023 | Blog
“What we believe is a new movement, a new understanding as to how valuable community is… It’s an understanding that we have to move from the transactional side of thinking that we can solve these giant human problems to a relational side that says it takes relationships, you and I, one on one, human to human, heart to heart in order to really begin to move that needle.” -Alan Graham, Founder and CEO of Mobile Loaves and Fishes
What an elegant and down-to-earth way to describe the essential elements of true and lasting healing for everyone everywhere. We cannot solve our current issues just by finding that perfect action step, new system or outer world solution. This is daunting at first because true change takes time and consistent attention. The crisis of displaced persons will not be solved by simply building cheap housing. Hunger will not be solved by simply handing out food. Creating lasting change to systemic racism, sexism, agism, etc. takes more than carefully worded legislation. The outer world changes must support inner world shifts, and those inner shifts can only come from connection, mutual respect, and a deeper understanding of our true selves. Change must be inclusive and wholistic.
The opening quote in this blog came from a documentary called “Community First: A Home for the Homeless” which featured interviews with residents and staff at a community in Austin, Texas created to serve and support those who had been living long-term without a permanent dwelling. The founder’s vision was to create more than just structures to house people but a whole community to build relationships, trust, security, self-confidence and a genuine sense of purpose. Most residents were formerly chronically homeless while a few residents voluntarily left large houses to downsize and live in community and service. Residents needing help to become self-supporting are assisted with setting up cottage industries to earn a living and pay rent. Mental health and social services are provided to help some residents transition from insecure, and often traumatic, situations to a more stable environment. Residents collectively elect their peers to serve on a community council. It is a whole, integrated system for the entire community to both receive and give service.
The root word “whole” in “holistic” reminds us that we are so inter-connected and our systems so integrated that we cannot truly heal individually until we experience all healing as part of a greater whole. All healing creates ripples across the same lake, no matter where those ripples originate. If that lake becomes unbalanced and diseased, we cannot scoop out the diseased parts of the water, try to heal it and then pour it back into the same lake where it became diseased in the first place. The entire lake functions as a whole system and healing must happen as a whole. From this consciousness, even the simplest action can create whole-world healing.
image courtesy of GDJ on Pixabay
by Lori | Mar 28, 2023 | Blog
My husband and I were recently watching the movie Paul, the 2011 movie starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Seth Rogan. Rogan voices the animated alien, Paul, and Pegg and Frost are Sci-Fi geeks touring America’s famous UFO sighting areas. Paul asks the two humans to drive him from the UFO landing sites in the Southwestern states to Wyoming in order for him to be picked up by his fellow planet inhabitants. My husband was willing to suspend his critical thinking regarding the possibility of an alien living in the United States for 50 years, helping Steven Spielberg to write movies, create the characters for the X-Files and advise the government on a host of topics. However, Pat had to step up his willingness to suspend his logical thinking regarding how fast the characters were able to drive from the Southwest to Devil’s Tower in the Northeast corner of Wyoming. I love when it is the practical aspects of movies and stories that are the hardest for us to suspend our disbelief.
“Suspension of disbelief” is the term used to describe when story tellers use the audience’s willingness to overlook improbable situations in order for the audience to enjoy the narrative of the story being told.
While we were watching Paul, I realized that our relationship with the Experiment in Duality is actually very similar to novels and movies where we have to buy-in to the facts and circumstances presented in order to participate and believe the narrative being told. But, unlike with novels and movies where we suspend our disbelief, when we joined the Experiment in Duality, we needed to suspend our BELIEF. We suspended our belief in ourselves as limitless, as love, as powerful, as forgiving and compassionate. We suspended our belief in our oneness with all beings. We suspended our belief in ourselves as Source.
Like a favorite movie, we need to allow ourselves to enjoy while we are here in the Experiment in Duality and just like in movies, we need to remember this is just an illusion. We need to step out of the narrative whether we are enjoying it or not and remember what is really true. We need to remember and believe that we are Source.
