Friday 25 July 2014

The Word of the Week 2014 Be Happy



AFFIRMATION
I take time to notice that nature is a beautiful reflection of ME.

Sometimes you have to stop all the juggling of the balls you have in life, all the issues that demand your attention, all the anxieties and worries that dominate your thoughts and just say “to hell with it all.” (I would have used a more stronger term here which is the title of a book, those of you who know It can fill in the gap (smile)) Today is such a day; give yourself permission to be in this moment and just BE HAPPY. 

The amount of time wasted on worries, concerns and constantly seeing lack in various areas of your life, you end up missing the best part of living.  Those worries will still be there tomorrow, hell they could still be there next week or next year, so what, take a day off today from all your stresses in your life.  Make a conscious choice to choose NOT to be woeful or unhappy. Look for your joy in the little things you observe today.  Hearing a child’s laughter….feeling the sun warm your skin, a smile from a stranger, watching ducks swimming in a pond or just noticing the glorious nature that surrounds you even if it is just one tree or a few blades of grass.  Get out of your head for today and just be.  Nature is fabulously therapeutic when you need to reconnect with life; unfortunately, we fail to notice the beauty that surrounds us every day.

When you observe nature, you are observing an abundant universe.  Each blade of grass that replenishes all year round, each leaf on the tree that goes through its life cycle, to each grain of sand found on each beach around the world, all of this is here to remind us of the plenitude of life.  When you then turn this feeling of appreciation inwards, you recognise in yourself the same beauty and magnificence of nature and for that moment, you remove the enormous pressure that you place upon yourself. 

Just for today, use nature as your anchor to turn your thoughts around and be happy…it is not as difficult as you think.

Nameste

May you all be blessed with light, love and happiness xxx



Friday 18 July 2014

The Word of the Week - Receiving Validation and Trust



AFFIRMATION
I trust the Divine within me to guide me where I need to go.

The greatest hurdle towards my journey to my Big Self was always an enquiry that began with the question “Can I trust the guidance that comes from within me?”  As I grew more confident in learning to navigate my way through the differing voices in my head, the next question was “I need proof in the guidance that I am being given!”  I failed to realise, until recently, that in order to trust the guidance within, you need to learn to trust it implicitly.  I realised I negated that trust in asking for validation, because I placed conditions and expectations as to how this proof was to be received.  I have since managed to kick off at least one of my trainer wheels in this area because I understand trust builds slowly.

Your inner guidance system shows you in the most imaginative of ways confirmation that you what you have received is correct and it does so without you having to ask.  It is in these situations that you slowly build your wall of trust, brick by brick with the guidance within.  It does not happen overnight but it is a process of developing the art of communicating with your Big Self, just as you would take time to develop a friendship physically, the only difference being is that this particular relationship is done with your inner eye and not the physical ones.  However, this element too can be challenging because you sometimes miss the validation by not paying attention to your present moments. 

Guidance is however repetitive when your Big Self wants your attention.  This could result in a myriad of ways, such as persistent feelings of discomfort in a particular situation or speaking to friends and loved ones who suggest the exact same thing your guidance told you.  It could be by reading parts in books that speak to your predicament precisely or by grabbing your attention by getting you to notice the lyrics more intently to a particular song.  Guidance gets you to notice that which you would ordinarily ignore in the hope that you will join the dots yourself and discover the “Aha” moment.  The key word in learning to trust is to notice what is going on around you by being present ALL the time.  When you put conditions on validations you will end up disappointed or deflated when it does not meet your expectation, thus you move further away from trusting and tend to lean upon your own understanding or rationale in regards to occurrences in your life.

Just for today, try to remember that developing a relationship with your Higher Self tests your awareness of your now moments consistently, this in turn teaches you to remain present so that you can notice the signs that tell you what you heard was indeed right!

Have an observational weekend.

Nameste



Friday 11 July 2014

The Word of the Week - Embracing the Shadow (Pt 1)



AFFIRMATION
I am open to embrace the shadows within me in order that I can reveal more of my light.

What is the shadow side of ourselves?  This is the energy that is fuelled by fear and the ego that causes us to expose our frustrations, anger, negative behaviours, unskilled outbursts and generally the darker side of our nature.  It will also cause us to have unkind thoughts and possibly follow through with acts of wrong doing.  We all have a darker side to our nature and contrary to belief it is not for us to totally eradicate this part of ourselves but to actually embrace it.  The spiritual journey is one of paradoxes, statements that seem to contradict each other but are in fact the duality of all life , for example how can you know good if you do not know bad or that the idea of beauty depends upon something being identified as ugly.

Such is the place of our shadow side and our light side, the two that generally oppose each other but could not possibly exist without each other.  When I use Louise L Hays phrase of “You are perfect, whole and complete,” it means that the duality that we perceive of ourselves is in reality just one.  All from the one mind and the one consciousness, living in perfect harmony.   We can exist happily within the duality of life, once we have learned to recognise our shadow thoughts and habits.  Our higher mind can view the shadow side of ourselves impersonally, by acknowledging the dark.   For example, you get frustrated by a loved one’s behaviour which irks you and you  become angry or unkind in your thoughts.  You embrace the feeling of this anger rather than supress it and you acknowledge yourself in that moment that the angry side of you feels hurt or annoyed.  Now instead of voicing your anger and annoyance which will result in only talking to the other person’s ego, you direct the feeling more positively.  This is where all your practice with choosing higher thoughts come into play because with an unskilled mind this will not work.  Whenever you are pointing the accusatory finger at someone else always remember that three fingers are pointing back at you, this observation taught to me many years ago, is a helpful reminder that instead of looking at someone else’s shadow, you have three major reasons to look at your own shadow….so look at them. 

Flipping the negative to a positive means that the energy of anger you feel can be redirected with your thoughts and dialogue with your higher self that enable you to take a wider view of the situation rather than your current narrow egoic view.  You ask the question, are you really angry for the reason that you think or are you really frustrated at yourself and taking it out on someone else?  When you answer honestly, this energy is redirected from dark into light because your authentic self takes the reigns and steers you towards healing, towards love and towards the ever increasing light that resides in you.  More often than not in my own personal experience, I release any pent up emotion by either punching a pillow and screaming out loudly or I exercise by giving my body a good work out.  The point is in the first instance I give my emotions a safe outlet for expression

Just for today, have courage to acknowledge the shadow side of yourself, for it is only when we truly look at our behaviours that we diminish the illusionary power it has over us.

Nameste    


Friday 4 July 2014

The Word of the Week - Releasing the Past



AFFIRMATION
I now release my past and change my story to this present moment which is fresh and brand new.

We all have a past littered with what we define as  “good” or “bad” experiences.  Some may have suffered abuse as a child, domestic violence, trouble with the law, deep emotional trauma, victimisation or some other ordeal that we now create our life story around.  We tell ourselves this traumatic story from the past until it somehow defines us and we incorrectly make it who we are.  This is not to negate any trauma one has suffered in one’s life, but the key to growth is how we view these experiences and what it is that we tell ourselves about the occurrence. 

The story that we tell ourselves from the past detaches your spiritual energy from the present causing it to fragment.  This means that you can never fully enjoy your present moment because your energy is attached to the story you tell yourself of the past.  In order to heal and become whole, you need to pool your energy fully into one moment in time and that can only be and will ever be the moment of now.  When you dwell on the past without letting go of any hurt or pain that it caused you, your attention remains in that area.  To heal, you have to forgive and let it go, irrespective if you or someone else was the cause.

Forgiveness does not mean that you are exonerating anyone’s behaviour, the forgiveness is for you; for your own mental anguish and pain the hurt has caused YOU.  Forgiveness is a HEALING and it takes repeated effort before you can fully heal from the pain of the past.  As part of my own spiritual program I offer forgiveness daily.  Against any transgressions that I have made towards myself or others, any unkind words or thoughts  that I say to myself or about others, I cleanse and heal every single night and affirm to do a little bit better the next day.

Just for today, really listen to the story you tell others and more importantly to yourself and make a note if you are fragmenting your spirit.  You are indeed perfect, whole and complete.  So step into your big self, let go of your past with forgiveness and begin anew.

Have a blessed weekend.

Nameste.