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What Gifts Do You Have to Offer?

What Gifts Do You Have to Offer?

At this time of year, different traditions and cultures extol the virtue of giving and receiving gifts. Now that we have moved into the New Year, many observe the Feast of the Epiphany, which traditionally is celebrated as the moment when the Three Kings or Wise Men came bearing gifts to honor the birth of Jesus. Each brought valuable presents to show their adoration and love: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

Fast forward a few millennia, Spirit is asking us what gifts we have to offer, not to Jesus per se, but to the energy of Love? What innate abilities, proclivities and gifts do we have to offer each other as Love? How can we show our adoration and love for each other? How can we show our adoration and love for ourselves?

Take the time to remember what matters most to you and what talents you have that can move that energy forward in the world, even if that movement is “simply” sending and receiving energy in your meditation practice. Your gifts don’t need to be material and they don’t need to be what others would consider a gift. Your gifts and talents are needed to help Mother Earth and Humanity at this time. But, most importantly, your gifts and talents are needed for yourself.

Shake off any insecurities or lack of confidence that you don’t possess all that you need to help yourself to evolve. You possess all that you need to remember who you are. Look for it. Embrace it. Give yourself the gift of your conscious intention and self-love. As you embrace your own self-love, your gift for each other will flow easily and your adoration will surely show you as the wise one you are.

Gratitude to Natalja Dauilchenko from Pixabay.com for the image above.

It’s Okay to Feel Stuck… Really!

It’s Okay to Feel Stuck… Really!

Like many people these days, you might be feeling a little (or a lot) stuck. Globally, we’ve been in a phase of deep review of old beliefs, old patterns, old paradigms. This can sometimes feel like a tedious, even painful, process. Yet, it’s truly necessary for new life, new patterns, new creations. This global pandemic is giving us, collectively and individually, the opportunity to re-evaluate many aspects of our lives, culture and institutions. It can bring up fear, resistance, anger, blame, judgment and even violence or abuses of power. We may feel like we’ve been staring at these issues so intently that we’re ready to just be done with it, but if we’re still not seeing significant outer change in our situation then feelings of doubt and confusion may come bubbling up. So, we might be feeling stuck right about now.

And it’s okay to feel stuck. Really. Our natural instinct is to struggle against feeling stuck by reaching for the nearest action or “solution” just so the lower self/ego can feel a little bit more in control again. We may even understand intellectually that what we’re doing is just a band-aid that will have no real, lasting effect, but we reach for the temporary relief anyway.

What if you give yourself permission just to allow your stuckness? I don’t mean to just sit in your living room perpetually doing nothing. I mean, taking time each day to be quiet with yourself, including the scared, stuck parts, and allow them to just be without trying to fix or change or solve them. Just be present with those emotions. Breathe them in, really get in touch with all the emotions underneath the stuckness, then breathe out with release. Then breathe them in again. And so on. Allow what comes.

I’m not suggesting that this is a magic formula which will instantly stop the feelings of being stuck. You might feel stuck for a while. And, your particular situation may require some form of more immediate response in the outer world. Of course, you should do what you need to take care of immediate needs. But, instead of taking blind action to get it over with and then burying the emotions so that you can feel “done with it”, try staying conscious of those continuing feelings of confusion and ambiguity. Wherever we bring our awareness, our consciousness, we bring healing and light. This way, we help to release the emotional charge of fear and judgment as we open ourselves to deeper understanding. When we remain present and conscious, even in times of self-doubt, we activate our own inner creativity and discover inspiration for moving forward in ways we weren’t even able to imagine previously.

So, commit to remaining open and accepting even when you don’t immediately see the way forward. Take an action step when you need to but stay receptive to new directions and course changes as the way becomes clearer. Allow the feelings of being stuck to teach you and guide you rather than trying to get rid of them. Being stuck may seem like a weak and helpless place to be, but when we let go of resistance we find great power and potential within. Our emotional blocks can be useful teachers if we allow ourselves to be still and listen.

Try the following e-book for more insights about working through feelings of being stuck:
Getting Unstuck: The Inspiration to Move Forward Again! by Lori Rock

Blog image courtesy of Pixabay

Festival of Inner Light

Festival of Inner Light

Many traditions include some version of a festival of lights around this time of year. We are going into the darkest season, so there is a natural desire to balance that out with more light. This season is also a time of quiet and going within, into the creation void, so it’s also a great time to see where we can reflect more of our inner Light out in the world. Are you willing to let your true Light shine?

For many, the answer is an emphatic “yes” until the realization surfaces that shining our Light more brightly may also highlight our shadows. Fear comes up that others will see our darkness, or even that we will see our own darkness more clearly, and we start to pull back within. Yet, that is also the gift of shining our Light – to more easily identify that which is still unhealed within us, that which is still in the illusion of separation. So, it may feel safer to hold back, but that also holds us back from our greatest healing.

Our Divine Light is of Source, the One Source, the source of what we believe is our light and also our dark. They are One. It is only in the illusion that we see them as separate. In order to fully actualize our healing light, we must acknowledge that this is the same creative power that created our belief in our dark. It is the same creative source.

This season we invite you to celebrate your own festival of lights- to truly honor your inner Light. Allow your Light to shine and if you also see your dark, let go of the judgments and hold gratitude for the opportunity to see all that much more clearly in order to allow healing. This is not about excusing or glossing over that which is out of alignment within ourselves, what we might call our dark, but about forgiving our self-judgment, owning our responsibility for creating it and beginning the healing process.

So, are you willing to let your true Light shine, unconditionally? Take a deep breath and take a moment to ask this question sincerely. Make a commitment to let your Light shine and feel the freedom of releasing yourself from all expectations of where that will lead you. May your inner Light shine with radiance and joy!

picture courtesy of Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay“>Myriams-Fotos on Pixabay

The Mastery of Gratitude

The Mastery of Gratitude

At this time of year, we are encouraged to count our blessings and to be grateful. Even in 2020, this “unprecedented year”, people are expressing gratitude for the things that are going well in their lives. Some people are expressing gratitude for family, friends, nature, abundance, and good fortune. Others are expressing gratitude for frontline workers in the medical fields and distribution chains, emergency first responders, food banks and their volunteers and contributors, and others who are making a difference in their daily lives.

Spirit urges us to continue to review all of the positive aspects in our lives. However, we are reminded that it isn’t that difficult to be grateful for these things. It is harder, and perhaps more rewarding, to be truly grateful for the situations in our lives that we don’t find to be particularly pleasant. Being grateful for when a situation pushes our buttons is the sign of someone mastering their experience. This is what we are calling the Mastery of Gratitude.

If we are only grateful for what is going well in our lives, then we are missing out on the gratitude that comes from knowing what is still dense inside of us and recognizing that it needs to be healed. Until we understand what needs to be healed, we will founder. Once we have the awareness that something makes us mad, frustrated, sad or hateful, then we can seek guidance in order to heal the discordant emotions that we still feel. We may be guided to look at the situation from a different perspective or from a larger point of view. We may be guided to look at our belief system or old patterns of behavior which are contributing to the discordant emotions. Then, we ask to clear / heal the issues. When we do this, the situation no longer triggers the negative response or at least, doesn’t trigger as negative of a response. The more we allow for this healing, the less and less we will be triggered.

After she traveled to India for a spiritual journey, according to Wikipedia, Alanis Morrissett and her writing partner, Glen Ballard, wrote the song Thank U. The lyrics might not sound like the things you normally hear at a Thanksgiving Day gratitude circle with your family members. Here is part of the song.

How bout me not blaming you for everything
How bout me enjoying the moment for once
How bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
How bout grieving it all one at a time

 

Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence

 

The moment I let go of it
Was the moment I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down

 

How bout no longer being masochistic
How bout remembering your divinity
How bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How bout not equating death with stopping

 

Thank you India
Thank you Providence,
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence…

 

Perhaps we should start a new tradition – expressing gratitude for the potential to heal after recognizing issues that underlie the pain we feel. The more we master gratitude, the more we will master the illusion, and the more we will be the Masters That We Are.

Gratitude to Swmiananda with Pixabay.com for the above image “Namaste”.

To Live a Life in Each Moment

To Live a Life in Each Moment

One of my spiritual teachers, Kris Duffy, used to tell a parable she learned from a Native American tradition. It went something like this: Every morning, a man would wake and ask Great Spirit, “Is today a good day to die?” and every morning he would hear “No” and then go about his daily routine, living his life as usual. One morning, he awoke and asked, “Is today a good day to die?” and he heard, “Yes.” The man went about his daily routine, living his life as usual, and then he died.

That’s how she would tell the story, in just that kind of spartan language. And I remember that I really didn’t like that story the first few times I heard it! It seemed so stark to me. I wanted more. Intellectually, I believed that I understood the point of the parable but I didn’t fully know what it meant from a place of true wisdom.

One day, I was inspired to ask the same question of myself and I heard, “Yes.” Now, my Soul didn’t literally mean that it was a day for me to die. To me, that “yes” meant that I was in a place of peace and balance and if I did leave this physical life in that moment, I would do so with ease and a sense of completion. That’s when I understood the deeper truth of that parable for me. My desire to hear some profound revelation the man experienced before he died or some great deed that he did came from the energy of incompletion and lack. The man in the parable didn’t need to do anything special on that day because he had no regrets and no unfinished business. He had lived a life that was aligned with his divine purpose, in sync with All That Is, so when it was time for him to leave his earthly life, he was already in perfect surrender.

Viewed from this perspective, asking this question of ourselves can be empowering rather than deflating. It can be used as an internal barometer to check in with your own energy field. Are you in balance? Are you at ease? Are you living in your divine purpose? If not, you can ask your Soul what you may still be holding onto and what you need to do in that moment to shift your energy and come back into alignment.

By living in a way that keeps us in divine peace and surrender at all times then any change in our lives becomes a simple transition into another phase. It becomes just another experience. May you find that perfect balance within!

Image by Ralf Kunze from Pixabay

Three Deep Breaths for Divine Patience!

Three Deep Breaths for Divine Patience!

Many lightworkers, Ginger and me included, have been encouraging the resonance of Divine Patience in recent months. We have channeled the benefits from a metaphysical standpoint. Ginger’s channeling from earlier this summer is particularly powerful. In her channeling called The Power of Patience she writes, “Patience helps us to stay balanced in chaos, calm in turbulence, hopeful in darkness, and powerful when we feel helpless.”

The truth in that wisdom is enough to coax us into working with the energy of Divine Patience now and always.

If that is not enough to convince us, however, let’s look at the 3D Physical benefits of the power of patience. One recent article addressed this issue better than I can. Thus, I will quote it here. It was first shown as a story on CBS Sunday Morning on Oct 25, 2020. This is the link. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/impatience-why-we-dont-want-to-wait-what-we-can-do-about-it/

As evidenced by pictures of Americans from all across the country, wherever you vote this year, there is a good chance you need to be ready to wait.

 

Waiting at the polls, at the grocery store, and in traffic, Americans are weary of waiting in today’s exasperating times. However, even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, we spent an estimated two years of our entire lives waiting in lines.

 

With COVID-19 cases rising, it is fair to say many people can’t wait for things to get back to “normal.” But as Barry Petersen found out, impatience may be more harmful than some would expect.

 

“You know, there was an interesting study where they gave people the choice to sit alone and get bored, or give themselves painful electric shock. And about 70% of men chose to give themselves painful electric shocks versus sit alone and get bored,” researcher Amit Sood said. “People do not like to be controlled. People do not like uncertainty.”

 

Dr. Amit Sood founded a department that researches impatience at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, he spoke to Petersen about why humans “don’t like to get bored.”

 

As he explained, people are “designed to be impatient.”

 

“When little babies are born, they don’t just wait for you to clean their diapers, you know? They cry,” Sood said. “When was the last time you really preferred a slow elevator, or you loved, you know, slow internet connection?”

 

It turns out, how we handle ourselves in these uncertain times comes at a price.

 

Impatience is not simply the opposite of patience, Sood explained. Rather, the absence of patience brings anxiety, illness, injury, loneliness — and even death.

 

“An episode of explosive anger, stress or impatience can increase your risk of heart attack and sudden death by two to eightfold for the next few hours,” he said.

 

Impatience, or a lack of patience, can even have a long-term effect on one’s DNA.

 

“If we were to take your blood sample and measure your… telomeres, which are at the end of chromosomes, the shorter they are, the smaller they are, the older you are. And people who are impatient have shorter telomeres,” Sood said.

 

Stress is another negative emotion related to impatience. To see its effect on the average American, Petersen took the Mayo Clinic stress test, which is designed to simulate the stress of everyday life.

 

The test includes activities such as squeezing a grip, and submerging a hand in ice-cold water for three minutes.

 

Petersen’s results showed dramatically higher blood pressure and changes to the heartbeat.

 

Dr. Michael Joyner, who oversaw his test, explained that Petersen’s “big rise” in blood pressure was tied to being in “imposed situations, where you weren’t in control.”

 

Joyner agreed when Petersen compared it to the feeling of “being on the phone trying to get customer service… where you feel like you’re endlessly waiting.”

 

He said it could “absolutely” have the same effect on one’s body.

 

“People have a very hard time understanding what they do and don’t have control over,” Joyner said.

 

While one might be inclined to feel like the world is out of control, especially at the current time, Dr. Sood said it was important to remember the ability to control oneself.

 

“If you choose to be patient, you are helping yourself. You’re living longer and happier. And you’re helping your loved ones. Being patient is a choice,” he said.

 

Another word Sood said would help us through the pandemic: Resilience.

 

“You do not have any bullets, you do not have any swords. You can’t fist-fight with this virus,” he explained. “You can empower your billions of immune cells to fight with this virus. And when you are resilient, your immune cells are stronger in waging that war.”

 

Boosting resilience could be as easy as a walk in the park — something writer Florence Williams proved to be a literal reality.

 

“The science is pretty clear on this,” Williams explained. “Even after just 15 minutes of walking in a green space or a park, our blood pressure drops a little bit, our heart rate slows down, and even our stress hormones like cortisol lower.”

 

Williams traveled the world writing about how nature can help us master impatience and make us healthier. She said there are “many elements” of nature that people respond to.

 

“It boosts our moods very dramatically,” she added.

 

It is not surprising that the frustration of lockdowns quickly gave way to people flooding the outdoors when they could. People like psychologist Jane West took it to new lengths with the Japanese-invented practice of “forest bathing.”

 

Forest bathing is essentially hiking in slow motion. “The benefit of slowing down is that your life isn’t passing you by,” West said.

 

West, who leads forest bathing sessions in the Colorado Rockies, said being in a forest and its “wonderful smells” allows people to “be lost in this moment as if nothing else exists.”

 

“I know that’s so hard to find these days,” she said. “But it is doable, it’s reachable — and I do this because it gives me those moments.”

 

While the pandemic may not be ending anytime in the near future, Dr. Sood insists we can turn our impatience to good use, if we really want to:

 

“There is tremendous opportunity during this pandemic to rise because of it.”

 

Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Carol A. Ross. 

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

There is a lot of good information for us to consider in this article. It might help us view the need to be patient for more than just a metaphysical platitude. It might help us see the value of ourselves as Source at the physical level as well as the emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

May we all embody Divine Patience. May we all just breathe.

Thanks to Peter Fischer at pixbay.com for the image.

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