Come Present

Hello Friends!
It has been a while; life is full and I was delayed in connecting with you. Today I feel compelled to blog about coming present with what is.

We find ourselves midway through October 2017 and quickly approaching Samhain (pronounced "sow-in") - the celebration behind All Hallows' Eve and modern-day Halloween. Samhain was originally celebrated to honor the spirits of the dead, for it was believed they visited the Earth on October 31st and provided insights into the future. Sacred hearth fires were burnt all night as a gesture and request for protection through the approaching darkness of the cold, harsh Winter months.

Photo by Olivia Henry on Unsplash

 

Samhain comes at an auspicious time of year when the season shifts from long, warm Summer days to long, cool Autumn nights. The color of the leaves on the trees signals the change most prominantly. Traditionally this meant the energy and activity of the season was shifting too: crop growing was done and harvesting began.

Photo by Evgeni Evgeniev on Unsplash

Though our context may be different, these same shifts apply to us today, if more to our internal world than our external one. Our body wisdom responds to the energetic shifts inherent in the change of seasons. And if we pay close attention, we may feel a shift in what we long to do that mirrors this change.

While Summer is typically filled with a lot of external busyness and play, Autumn beckons us to start slowing down and bring more presence to what is...to take stock of what we've created in our lives, trash what didn't work, harvest what did, and be grateful for it all.

Today we can use the symbology of Samhain this way:

• honor and release what no longer serves your life (the crops that did not grow or no longer serve your life; your "dead")
• claim what does (the crops that grew to enhance your life; your "harvest")
• be grateful for what is (all the gifts born of your year and your life so far, both tangible and intangible)  

 

Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash

 

You might want to write down the things you are releasing and ceremonially burn the paper; you might also want to make note of the gifts of your harvest and ceremonially bury the paper. By honoring the ancient Samhain tradition in this way, you can clear your energetic field, gain perspective, and better prepare for what approaches next.

This placement of your attention is a powerful tool to keep you present with what is, in a way that leads to the next aligned step toward right action in your life, rather than getting caught up in messy distractions and distorted reactions that don't serve. I define right actions as those based in love, and distorted actions as those based in fear. For what it's worth, now is a great time to be curious, to stretch beyond your comfort zone, and to choose love above fear.

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

Each and every one of us is called to stop being shy, and to step into right, aligned action for ourselves and for the greater reality of which we are a part. For what better purpose is there to life than serving the world in a way that leads to positive changes for you and for all the beings you share this Planet home with? I can't think of any...

Until next time, fare thee well my friends,
Dr. Ceci Zuniga

Burying the Triangle

Ah, the refreshing feel of a cool breeze. Fall has arrived in Central Texas and you can feel it, at least in the early morning hours. The air is crisp and carries more moisture. The clarity of the night sky has shifted, too, giving the Moon and stars a sharper image, reminding me of the bigger picture.

How are YOU feeling these days? How are you managing the tension? You can't avoid it, really. It is everywhere we turn: politically, financially, emotionally...Everyone I know seems pushed to their limits of coping.

Big questions are arising as societal illusions crumble beneath the weight of transparency. The underbelly of our lives - secrets that have been hidden in the shadows for decades, some maybe longer - are being exposed, creating waves of conflict between what we thought things were and what they actually are. It's unsettling, to say the least.

When the people we give our trust to are exposed as frauds, who do we trust? When the systems we rely on are exposed as manipulative, what do we rely on? Where do we find comfort when the shadow aspects of our humanity are exposed - those ugly truths that remained safely hidden from our view for so long? Once we've seen them, trying to ignore them is like trying to forget someone you've known your whole life.

It's not possible or pretty. In fact, it's downright ugly. Messy. Scary.

Fear is a funny thing. Fear seduces us into a mode of defensiveness, judgement, and blame. We fear being victimized; we also fear being responsible. We don't want to be victims; nor do we want to be perpetrators of persecution. Yet where we find one, we find the other, plus a third: the rescuer. These three energies feed on each other and thrive together.

It's the ever-living Triangle of Victim-Persecutor-Rescuer...the essential fabric of our most beloved tales.

The funny thing is, until we face what is lurking in the shadows - all the things we fear and reject - until we accept their existence and take responsibility for calling them back to the light, to a place of love, we will suffer. Because until then, we will continue to play out the Victim-Persecutor-Rescuer Triangle, ad infinitum, within our psyches and our lives.

To break free of this Triangle, each and every one of us must recognize our role in it. How do we perpetuate this Triangle? How does it play out in our lives, in our relationships, communities, and society? Which of the three are we - Victim, Persecutor, Rescuer - and how can we stop it? How can we put an end to the Triangle template that currently rules our lives? There is no denying that it does. It's a psycho-emotional epidemic within the human race.

As long as we keep this Triangle in play within our lives, we will live in fear and we will suffer. It is that simple.

During these heated times of debate, opinion, perspective, preference and emotional acting out based in fear, it is important to practice the one bit of wisdom that flows through every channel: LOVE.

Finding LOVE for those we respect and trust is one thing. But can you find LOVE within your heart for those you fear and reject? Disagree with? Detest or loathe? Feel victimized by? Can you recognize that even they are held in the hand of the Divine (because nothing and no one is excluded), and that you are as much a part of the Triangle messiness as they are? 

Perhaps you feel like a Victim at another person's hands. Interestingly, the roles in the Triangle are fluid, meaning each player at some time or another takes on the other roles. We are all Victims, Persecutors and Rescuers to some degree, moving in and out of these roles in different life situations. As an example, consider that if you fear and blame someone for something, you make them a Persecutor and yourself a Victim. By blaming them, however, you become a Persecutor and make them a Victim. If you then set out to protect others from this person, you become a Rescuer and make the others Victims...and the Triangle paradigm continues.

The many problems with this paradigm are obvious, but one big issue with it is that playing these roles is a waste of our time and energy. It gets us nowhere worthy. Nothing will settle into a place of stability as long as we keep this Triangle going. Our time and energy are better spent building a collaborative Circle with others rather than deepening the divisive nature of the Triangle. Yes, life can be a collaborative Circle of peace and LOVE.

Now more than ever, it is time to step out of this exhaustive, destructive Triangle and into a new paradigm of peace-filled co-existence. All we have to do is give up this Triangle game - stop feeding it within ourselves and in our relationships. Yes, if you look, you can identify your very own places of being a Victim. Persecutor, and Rescuer. Remember - we are all all of them. We must ditch our willingness to play this game if we are to have a hope of shifting the ugliness of its drama within our culture at large.

Grab a shovel - a BIG one, not a wimpy gardening one. It's time to put this Triangle to rest six feet under.

Crazy Cloud of Crap

We are now technically into the third week of September and...

Wait a minute...how did we get to September...NINE months into 2016...already??

Don't get me wrong; I will be uber-happy to move beyond this crazy-ass, Nine Fire Monkey year (See my blog from February). But seriously, how did we get through 3/4 of this year already...? It feels like we just celebrated the new year. 

Anyway, moving on...

This month, the heat of Summer is beginning to (subtly) recede as we round the corner toward Autumn. But wow, are things boiling hot! The election hype, the Olympic hype, the violence hype...It's all spinning around us like a tornado, creating a crazy cloud of crap we have to navigate our way through.

Don't delude yourself into thinking you are not impacted by these things. We live in a single, unified field of energy, as all the fish in the ocean do. Waves of energy in the form of vibrations and impulses gently nudge or harshly slam into us, just as they would if we lived in the ocean.

So not one of us is insulated from anything that happens on this planet (or beyond, if you want to go there). What happens, even if on the other side of the globe, impacts us, though we may or may not be consciously aware of it.

How do I know this? Because quantum physics has finally proven it to be so. When stimulated, particles of matter respond to each other, even when separated by thousands and thousands of miles across the globe. We - you, me and everything else here - are particles of matter, constantly responding to the experiences of those around us.

"So what?" you may ask. "What does this mean?"

It means if you find yourself feeling tired, sluggish, overwhelmed, blah, uneasy, perhaps even exhausted or depleted, irritable, angry or ill, your body system is likely struggling beneath the crazy cloud of crap I mentioned earlier. There is no way to escape it...

Well, that is not exactly true. There are things you can do to shield yourself from the influences of these more dense energy vibrations. But they take practice and to practice them, you have to learn them first. Then, you have to do them regularly. The more you do them, the better they work for you.

Some of these things are simple; some are more complex, coming to us from the indigenous, deeply connected cultures of the world. And they work. Really well.

Managing the impact of the crazy cloud of crap on you is twofold. First, take steps to minimize your contact with it. Second, take steps to minimize its impact on your body system.

Here are some things to stop doing to minimize your contact with it:

• Stop bombarding your system. Unplug from screen technology (TV, internet, phone, etc.) as much as possible. If you choose to engage with them, be very specific about why you do and with whom you connect. Don't drown yourself in other people's rhetoric, spin, drama, opinions, and emotional energies. These things penetrate your personal energy field and pollute it with gunk, leaving you feeling low, sluggish and off-balance both physically and emotionally. If anything significant happens, you will hear about it anyway.

• Stop taking things personally. Every single person on this planet has an opinion about what is going on, including you and me. Whether people's opinions are right or wrong, true or not, is irrelevant; they are just people's opinions and people have a right to them. Arguing, rationalizing, explaining - these are all antics of the ego and probably will not change someone else's opinion. Your energy and passion are better spent elsewhere. So let others be, without taking their opinions on as a personal affront.

• Stop neglecting yourself. Your body needs to be energetically nurtured just as it needs to be physically nurtured. When you get "slimed" by crazy clouds of crap, your energy body needs a good cleaning to restore its vibrancy and re-balance its functioning. The better it functions, the less vulnerable you are to the impact of such clouds, and the better you feel.

Here are some things to start doing to minimize its impact on your body system:

• Start spending more time doing things that inspire your senses, like playing, creating, dancing, singing, visiting with others (face to face, not via a screen), or anything else that awakens you (hiking, biking, spending time outdoors, listening to favorite music, cooking, meditating, road tripping, doing yoga, bubble baths, writing, napping, snuggling, etc.). 

• Start trusting in something larger than yourself. Trust that there is more to what is happening than you can possibly comprehend. The tapestry of Life reaches far beyond our full comprehension, so find something bigger than yourself to entrust its design to. Trust that the Divine Source of all things always works with us and never against us, even in the midst of a crazy cloud of crap.

• Start soaking in a hot bath with lots of Epsom salts. This is my favorite way of cleansing the body's energy field of slime. Emerge feeling more vibrant and radiant.

If you find yourself suffering from the crazy cloud of crap spinning around us, give me a call. I've got lots of tools in my toolbox for just this sort of thing.

Happy New You!

Ah - January. We can all take in and release a deep breath, having made it through the activity of the holidays and wrapped up 2013. As testament to the fabulous holiday busyness and subsequent desire for "down time," this eNewsletter is late! Pardon me for that; I took a retreat that was both fulfilling and renewing...

Although we are still in mid Winter, the Solstice is behind us. Our days are growing longer and warmer overall, beginning to reach tentatively toward Spring. January is the perfect month to begin shifting from planning and preparation into action.

Now is the time to get clear about your "seeds" of intent for the year (and beyond if you choose), and to determine what preparation is still needed to make their future expression as likely as possible. This month you can begin (energetically) sowing your seeds into the soils of your life. There they will incubate until it is the perfect moment for them to break forth into the Sunlight!

There are many ways to change your life and even to create a whole new one for yourself if you want to. Rather then expending your energy on resolutions (which often amount to little more than an annual "to do" list), follow these simple steps to get started on a Happy New You!

• Step 1: Get clear about what you want. Make a list of all your "seeds" (intentions, ideas, dreams, wishes, projects, etc.) and decide which ones you are really ready to plant and grow into your life. Not all your seeds have to be planted this year; feel free to set some aside for another time. Consider too that you may plant seeds now for things you imagine in future years. Those seeds will rest in the loving soils of your Being until their time has come.
• Step 2: Meditate on the seeds you select for this year's life crop. Meditation is a great way to connect with the feeling of having what you want to bring into your life. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, slow your breath, get still and imagine how it will feel to have the thing - how might you and your life change or be different from what they are now? Do you feel full, happy, safe, empowered, excited, relieved, etc?? Is your life richer, more active, more restful, more free? These are the kinds of feelings to invoke as you imagine having your intentions already met. Use your strongest sensory skills to make your imaginings as real and visceral as possible.
• Step 3: Make a Vision Board. Vision Boards are a powerful way to take things in your inner Being to a physical level. They are an outward expression of your internal imaginings and energy. Your Vision Board can look however you want it to and can be made of any materials you choose. I use images and words collected from magazines, cards and catalogs glued onto a salvaged piece of cardboard. Your Board can be one dimensional or multi-dimensional; it can be one panel or several. It can contain a single image or word, or several. Be creative and open, and most of all, have FUN!
• Step 4: Make it real. Move through your life with awareness of your intentions and what you can do now to support them. Walk around each day with the sense of your intentions growing and manifesting before your eyes. Notice what arises in your life that may be linked to them in some way. Pay close attention to any sign of support that crosses your path during the day as well as in your dreams. Perhaps someone unexpected calls who has a skill you need. Perhaps you find yourself in conversation with someone who inspires you around your intentions or even offers to help you in some way. Maybe clarity or direction comes in a dream. Support can show up in magical and unimagined ways. Consciously accept that support by saying "YES!" to it, and open yourself to receive...