It Takes Courage to be the Only One

Have you ever heard a tiny little voice inside urging you to speak up or to make a decision that you know is right, but you have feel some resistance (usually rooted in a deep-seated fear)? Often we ignore this voice, especially if it is asking us to make a hard decision that may bring up fears of "rocking the boat," or of the scary unknown.

I personally have experienced this in recent weeks. I knew what was happening - there a course of action that seemed to make sense for the education of my son, but my own associations and past experiences/fears were creating an ego-based desire in me that caused me to question it. Eventually, with getting quiet, I was able to see my own resistance and the lesson there for me to learn. My inner guidance was with me, but it had been clouded with what I wanted, instead of what might potentially benefit him. I had to process some sadness, and release some negative emotions, and tap into my intuition to help show me the truth that lay beneath.

Our intuitive voice is always with us, always guiding us along, nudging us toward goodness. Some of us call it our higher self, or even guardian angels/spirit guides/God. Some of us just call it our gut. I view it as all coming from the same place.

When our intuition is telling us something that causes a fear deep down, we often push it aside. We don't like to be stand out or face something that is potentially risky.  I'm perfectly fine here in my safe (but confining) space, thank you. I'd rather not venture out into the great unknown, even though I suspect it is where the ultimate freedom and bliss lies, for fear being attacked or being different.  

Our ego thinks that it means we will unsafe - like the lone antelope in the herd that is visible to the wolves over the hillside. It's in our wiring. But here’s the thing: we aren’t antelopes. We have more resources to survive. We can move beyond the survival instinct toward self-actualization (not really possible for antelopes). But still, our human brains still have that parts of that primal wiring that doesn’t want us to stick our necks out or put ourselves into unsure situations. We want so badly to dive into the cool ocean on a hot summer day, but we often avoid plunging in out of fear.

It is not always easy, especially when the ego self so badly thinks it knows what's best for us. If you have a feeling that something is right, but you are not sure, close your eyes and ask your heart what feels right. If you are making a decision and are uncertain of what course of action to take, notice where there is flow. Where is there a lesson that you might be learning?

It takes courage to change our lives and even the world. It takes courage to make hard decisions that may not feel good at first and might upset some people, but that we know deep down are right. It takes inner strength, of seeing the fear and doing it anyway, knowing that it is for the benefit of all, trusting our gut to guide us.

It takes courage to listen to our quiet voice. Especially since our society likes noise and likes us to believe that we do not have the answers within, that we need to get someone else to help us and that we are not capable of great, amazing things on our own. Our society likes to give out advice and make us think that we don't have the inner wisdom within ourselves.

I want to tell you that is no one out there, no therapist, psychic, friend or coach, that can give you better advice than you can give to yourself. It is through meditation, getting quiet, sometimes doing targeted writing, and learning to hone our inner voice that we can learn to heed the quiet whisper of our internal compass.

When I give intuitive readings (Akashic Records these days), I often end up affirming what the person already knows, or had a hunch about. It is just that it's not always the easy path. Spiritual growth isn't about taking the road of least resistance. Sometimes it's making the hard choices that lead to the highest result for our soul evolution.

My recent struggle came to a happy conclusion when I intentionally tapped in to my intuition and asked for help. Then I was able to find a place of acceptance and of understanding, of potential and hope, with the help from my own children helping to teach me these lessons.

Take the time to quiet your mind and look for any fear that might be there. Notice any resistance. If something just feels like it is not working, like it is stuck, that’s maybe because it is, and a new approach is required. There may be something beneath the surface that is there to be acknowledged. Imagine how exhilarating and refreshing it will feel to go into that cold ocean water. It might be scary at first, but ultimately diving in to the depths of the unknown, to what simply feels right in our hearts, will set us free.

And so the cycles of life continue. Happy spring to all.

You Are Not Broken.

Many of us feel very conflicted about social media and the internet. There is so much information, too much, that it can feel like trying to drink from a garden hose when you get on. And there are many people scrambling to be seen in this haven for narcissism. Is it their fault? Not necessarily.

Some take advantage of the idiosyncrasies in human psychology to get people to follow or buy stuff from them. I myself fell prey to this for a while.

When we get convinced that we are not enough, that we don’t have inner knowing, then we give our power away to others. There is a very subtle mechanism out there with the obsession with the unrealistic lives of celebrities, with comparing our lives to the lives of others, that is designed to make us feel bad about ourselves. And believe that we are less than perfect. Yes, of course we are all growing and evolving and there is help out there, but I don’t believe it should come at the cost of our self-esteem or trying to convince us that we are broken, when in fact we are perfect and whole and just human.

I try to use social media to share light and help people evolve beyond the confines of ego and to then share their own unique gifts with a world that badly needs all the help it can get. But it’s tricky for me even to not fall into the trap of giving my power away and not trusting myself. And for you out there reading this, I believe the same for you. You are not broken. You are filled with wisdom and light and much to give to the world. But it’s just about clearing away the clouds of societal programming and shedding the layers of fears/worries/false stories so you can fully emerge.

For me, it all comes down to quieting my mind in meditation every single day and learning to trust my intuition in all that I do. And of course working through the negative thought chatter and internal limiting beliefs to re-program my brain and my energetic self. It’s a gift to be in this new flow and I hope the same can be true for you.

Living in the Great Expansion

The following is a talk (actually a sermon) that I recently gave at First Parish UU in Portland, Maine. Several of you have asked to see this, so here goes!

There is something magical happening right now. Many of us are awakening to the understanding that we are so much more than we have been taught. That we are beings of light, we are creators, we are healers, we are manifestors. We are connected through a web of energy that cannot be seen (by most) but can be felt with the eyes of our hearts.

The indigenous people of the world understand this. They know how connected we are (especially in spiritual communities).

When a red-tailed hawk eats a snake, it starts with the head first. Many believe this is because it is intuitively consuming the most vital energy of that animal, which lies in the head, where our crown chakra is also found (our direct connection with the Divine).

The hawk is absorbing the energy of the snake and all that the snake has eaten. And so it goes up and down the food chain.

How often do we stop to consider this web of interconnection and its effect on our own lives as we cohabitate a world with other living beings? How do our daily actions affect their lives? How the experiences of animals and plants affect our own?

The Interconnection of Life

We are all linked, more intimately connected than we may realize.

When we hurt the Earth with pollutants, we are also hurting ourselves. Now, I know you may have heard that before in a figurative sense. But what if it is literally true? That chemicals from our food that end up in the Earth actually make it back into our bodies, rising up the food chain? That when we spray our lawns with pesticides, and a bee lands on that lawn, that we are effectively poisoning our own food supply?

When we scream in pain outside, does it hurt the heart of the bird that hears our cry? Maybe it does more than we know. Maybe the Force is more real than some may think.

So what does this mean for our lives? Many of us have heard about the interconnection of all beings, and it sounds great on the surface. But do we actually stop to consider how literal that is? Most of us have never been taught about how energy really works. Like many of you, I was raised mostly in traditional public education and in the modern workplace. I was taught to follow the rules and to draw inside the lines. This created lots of blocks that show up in many ways (thankfully there are ways to work through these). In school, I was not encouraged to follow my active imagination into a world of intuitive knowing, maybe into other dimensions, and trusting my inner voice (and my guides from a higher, Divine realm) to guide me. In fact, the system that I grew up in poked fun at that, as if anyone who did this were crazy, weird or just plain lying. (You're not - it's our universal awakening - I'll be giving a talk on this in a few weeks!)

Sound familiar?

Shifting Energies on Earth

Thankfully, this is all changing. The energies of the Earth are shifting. We are receiving frequencies from beyond our planet that are activating our DNA. Like a radio antenna that was broken in two, we are piecing that antenna back together to receive light, which is information. Through meditation (join us for free meditations!), we are re-wiring our brains to learn to listen to, and trust our inner guidance, our intuition, our spirit guides, angels, masters, teachers, loved ones, Source/Spirit/God.

And we are coming to understand that our universe actually exists on vibrations, on the space that is in between the protons and neutrons and electrons in every atom which makes up every piece of matter on Earth. And in that space is energy, waves of frequency upon which our thoughts travel and create vibration. Waves that connect each of us, through our emotions, to each other.

I had never understood that there is a net of energy, like the threads of a spider web, linking every living being, plant, human, animal, rock, dirt on this planet and beyond this planet. I knew a bit about quantum physics, and was fascinated with theories about the existence of God, but I never really connected the dots.

Releasing the Old Pattern

It wasn’t until I took some bold steps in my life and left my stressful job, started meditating again, talking to higher guidance (I particularly like angels) and doing some research that the lightbulbs began illuminating in my brain. I started seeing through the illusions of mainstream media, designed in large part to foment fear and anger and keep us separated from our intuitive, Divine essence. I started to understand what has been happening in our world. It was, one might say, an awakening.

I began piecing together why things are the way they are, and believing that I have, within me, just as you have within you, a piece of the Divine Source Energy commonly known as God. I started to see that we have all the answers we need within ourselves – we just need to unlock them. That we can heal others with our minds and with our hands, using light, just as Jesus, Buddha and other Masters did. And that we are powerful creators, and with our free will as humans, we can manifest realities and situations with our own thoughts (not as simple as it sounds since our subconscious thought patterns, often based on years of conditioning from a young age and many lifetimes, often block our high-vibration thoughts!). This includes aligning with a flow of abundance and re-framing our view around money.

From a global perspective on the connection of our spirits to each other, maybe this makes sense to you. But what about from an individual perspective? How does your soul, with its unique qualities, contribute to what’s happening on Earth energetically?

As we expand in our consciousness, we are also expanding in our souls. In fact, the more we explore what it is that we have to offer the world, what our individual gifts are, the more that we can evolve toward the ultimate goal of enlightenment, or just self-actualization, and ultimately to bring healing to the Earth and all its beings!

The Journey of Soul Evolution

The archetypal pattern of the hero’s journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell and encompassed beautifully in the ancient art of Tarot cards, is a particularly effective tool for understanding our personal journey in this lifetime and the soul lessons that we set out to learn (before incarnating).

Although our modern society has not emphasized the importance of this soul growth, but I believe that it is an essential tool to our shifting into becoming the spiritual beings that we truly are. One of the most important aspects of this soul journey is the process of shedding the layers of Ego, that aspect of our personalities that makes up our fears, doubts and worries, which often exist at a very subconscious, deep level. The book Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin (gifted to me by my father) describes this descent into our shadow side as one that is often overlooked in much of the spiritual world. It’s not pretty or fun to go into the dark recesses of our childhood, excavating where our thoughts of not being enough or our fears of being seen or our worries about being judged by others. These often come from well-meaning parents or adults who unintentionally help create them! As Plotkin claims, the layers of the protective ego, like that of an onion, helped keep us safe as a child but have since evolved into a voice of “resistance.” Separating from this resistance is an essential part of clearing the debris in our paths.

We can assure these egos (often a version of our “inner child”) that it is safe for them to quiet down. That as adults, we have grown enough and have developed enough resources and inner strength to get us through life now. That they are no longer needed to protect us anymore (since their version of protection often prevents us from taking risks that help us expand in our consciousness!).

In Soulcraft, this protective ego is represented in a real-life example. Near the end of World War II, a group of Japanese soldiers ended up marooned on an island. The war ended, but they were still there, unaware. When they were finally rescued and returned to their villages in Japan, they knew of no other roles for themselves other than being warriors. But the villagers didn’t mock or criticize them. They thanked the soldiers every day, but gently suggested that they didn’t need to fight anymore. That they could put down their armor. And they told them this every day for a while, until gradually the soldiers began to accept the truth, and found other forms of livelihood and roles to fill.

Separation from the Protective Ego

Similarly, we can take this approach with our protective egos. I have found that using four tools, on a consistent basis over a period of months (maybe a lifetime!) have contributed to huge shifts in my life and those of my clients, leading to new flow and freedom. These are:

1) quieting the mind (meditation) to develop the ability to let go of the worries (of the Ego), just as we let go of thoughts in meditation

2) writing exercises (such as personifying these egos in a biography and writing “goodbye” letter)

3) visualizations in a subconscious state (to target where this ego is felt in the body and then to energetically separate from it) and

4) verbally processing to identify what the voice of the protective ego is saying to us and when it tends to flare up the most.

Maybe as you’re listening to this, you are thinking of your own life and how this might apply. I hope maybe you are! I will say, that as you can probably imagine, doing this shadow work, going into the places that are painful to explore, takes courage. Many people avoid doing this work, and sometimes it isn’t until our deathbeds that we start to see that we don’t have to listen to that protective ego version of ourselves, that we are so much more than we have been taught.

Don’t let that be you. Take some bold steps to begin listening to that little inner voice inside, nudging you to paint more, to dance, to write, to heal, to spend time outdoors or with children, to play music, or to engage in any sort of activity that is allowing your soul to fully express itself.

I’m not suggesting that you quit your job tomorrow to do this. Just take small steps, just experiment, just explore a new idea. Reach out to someone to test something out. You’re not committing to anything, you’re just moving the paddle in your canoe, as you travel down the river of life, to get closer to the flow of your true essence. Doesn’t it get tiring paddling upstream?  Find the flow, wherever it may be.

We are Guided in Our Awakening

By quieting the mind and asking our higher guidance to help us, we can receive unconditional love, guidance and support every step of the way. And listening to and trusting the answer that come, in dreams, on street signs, in number patterns, songs on the radio or just a quiet, persistent thought that keeps coming back. You probably already know what your intuition, or your soul/your guides from other realms, is asking you to do. You already hearing/seeing/feeling/knowing the messages from your soul. It’s just that we often ignore these messages, allowing the loud protective ego (fueled by the noise of the media/information overload) to dominate the conversation. Quiet your mind in meditation (even if just for 5 minutes when you can) and you will find that the noise diminishes and the inner wisdom emerges.

This is our collective expansion. The veil is lifting and the illusions are being shattered. Through our soul work and honing our intuitive gifts, we uncover the magic that lies within. We begin to feel how deeply we are connected with the energy of the Earth and its life. We long to grow food, dig our hands in the dirt, build beautiful things with our hands, share food and resources with our neighbors and heal the most vulnerable. We come together with others in communities and find joy in simplifying our lives. And this collective expansion not only will lead us to personal freedom and universal peace, but to the preservation of the human race and ultimately of the planet. After stepping through the gates of truth, it’s a whole new, beautiful world.