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.
by Lori | Mar 1, 2023 | Blog
“When I stumble, I make it part of the dance.” A friend of mine recently said this. What a fabulous life philosophy. I believe it should be all of our intentions for ridding ourselves of self-judgment. This philosophy turns something that we judge to be a mistake into something new and creative. This turns a lifestyle from ridged and fear based into a willingness to try something out of our comfort level even if we might not be perfect from the very first moment.
Consider this. Break dancing (or breaking) started as street dancing in New York in the 1970s and went hand in hand with Hip Hop Music. I like to think that someone was trying something they had never tried before and they stumbled onto this creative dance movement which has become an art form. To that end, breaking will have its debut as an Olympic Sport in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
Just image what else we could evolve into an art form in such a short timeframe if we simply lived by the philosophy of “When I stumble, I make it part of the dance.”
Gratitude to Pete Linforth for the image.
by Ginger | Feb 28, 2023 | Blog
Each year, I check with my Soul for overall themes and areas of focus in my healing. One of the things I’ve been guided to work on this year is letting go of attachments to the past: past events and situations, past actions or words, past beliefs about who I thought I was supposed to be or how I was supposed to act. The key is to allow ourselves to integrate the wisdom from these experiences while letting go of the specific story rooted in the third dimension.
While in meditation, I was reviewing past events where I felt regret and asking for clarity about the roots of that regret. What I heard was that I wasn’t being true to my divine self in each of those examples and I was still feeling responsible for the ripple effects, however small, of not having been able to act from a higher frequency in those moments. I was resistant to letting go of what the lower self still saw as a history that made me into “me”.
I heard to start with looking at these past events not as my stories but as stories from the collective, belonging to all. I began to see these events with myself as an actor in a much larger ensemble cast so the details of my “character” became integral parts of the greater storyline in the Experiment in Duality. The potential wisdom from these events is available to all who tap into their higher wisdom and see the unfoldment from the perspective of the observing audience, what some call the silent witness. When we remember ourselves as aspects of Source, we have all of the wisdom and understanding of all aspects of Source. When we surrender the details and take responsibility for our own part in the healing, we can offer the wisdom and growth gained from those experiences to the collective consciousness.
We don’t need to have every possible experience in this lifetime, or even in all of our lifetimes, in order to benefit from the collective healing that each Source aspect experiences. We have each chosen to highlight certain experiences and work on certain themes of healing in our unique evolution but we still benefit and learn from the unique spiritual path of all beings. The more we release our personal stories to the collective wisdom, the more we open ourselves to understand more deeply from that same collective wisdom. In this way, we can continue to play our unique part while honoring our role as part of a much greater whole.
Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
