Reality Check

In case you haven't stopped to notice it, we are already midway through August, 2017, two-thirds of the way through the year. This is stunning for me to consider, as it feels just last week was the new year's beginning.

If you read my last blog, "2017 - The Year of the Ten Fire Rooster," you may be feeling the truth of what was predicted based on ancient numerology and Chinese Calendar lore. Though perhaps a tad less tense than last year, 2017 comes packed with its own set of opportunities (or dramas, depending on how you choose to look at it). 

At this point in the game, it is important for you to find your inner balance. With strong beliefs and opinions streaming out from every arena, you'll need that inner balance to stabilize you through the rising and falling of emotional waves that pass through your personal space - those belonging to you and those belonging to others. It is human nature to have reactions to things, but it's not your inner emotional reactions that are the problem; it is what you do with them.

   

If you use your reactions to justify blame, shame, judgement, or separation, you are missing the truth and a powerful opportunity. Whenever you slip into this type of justification, you are actually passing off your responsibility for yourself onto others, where it does not belong. Your emotional reactions belong to you and you alone. 

Let me say this another way: Others are not responsible for your feelings - not now, not ever. 

It does not matter what they did or didn't do; you are the sole proprietor of your feelings today, in this moment. They happen inside of you, not outside of you. They are created inside of you. They exist and are managed inside of you. They dissolve away inside of you. They do not belong to anyone else; they belong to you, even when what you attribute them to happens outside of you.

This means that you are also 100% responsible for your reactions to the experiences of your life - how you deal with your feelings. Nobody makes you do anything, unless someone threatens your safety or your life if you do not comply with their demands. And even then you have choices; limited ones, but still choices, either in that moment or sometime later. Other than that extreme situation, you make your life choices from a place of freedom. You are nobody's slave, nobody's prisoner.

If you insist on blaming others for your state of being, you try to make them responsible for your choices, your feelings, and the quality of your life, when in reality you are. You hand them all your power by sacrificing to them how you feel and what you do in your life. And then you blame them when it doesn't turn out like you want. That's messed up. That is part of what Marianne Williamson refers to as error thinking.

As a free adult living in this country, you have the luxury - and it is a luxury - to choose for yourself who you want to befriend, who you join in partnership with, where you work and live, what you eat and drink, where you go, what you do, how long you stay, what you believe in, what you reject, how you feel, etc. No one else makes those choices for you. You make them for yourself, each one adding to the creation of the story of your life.

That means when things "go wrong" in your life, so to speak, or don't go as you hoped, you have the choice to change something to bring it back into alignment with what you want. Whatever happened in your past is past; whatever wounds you carry forward from that past can be healed. You have the choice to stop blaming others and take responsibility for your life now, starting today. There is no one to blame for your current situation, or for the feelings you hold in relation to it.

Instead of blaming others when you make a choice or a string of choices that do not bring you the outcome you want, or when you disagree with what is, or when you let your emotions get the better of you and react destructively, step off the road you are on and find a new path to walk. It really is that simple. 

You are the captain of your ship; the star, director and producer of your movie; the King or Queen of your life. You have the power within yourself to change the course of your ship, to manage the contents of your movie, and to make rulings about the direction of your life. But first you must stop blaming others and take full responsibility for yourself. You must reclaim your freedom to choose, for you alone can truly change your life.

And the sooner, the better. 

Why Am I So Tired?

 Many folks are telling me they feel tired. Are you among them? It's no wonder, what with all the intensity around the recent Presidential Election on our North American soils.  

 
Whether your choice of candidate won or lost, the election process had an impact on you...months and months and months of an impact, and it's still going. This was the most highly charged election in many decades, so everyone continues to carry strong preferences, opinions and emotions about what they want and do not want.

Now that the election itself is over, people are expressing their glee or dissatisfaction openly. Some are afraid, some are elated, and some are emboldened by a President Elect who supports a "power over" model of leadership. Others are choosing to shine more of their soul light for peace, compassion and union than ever before.

Whatever your response, the reality is that the future is an unknown. It is always an unknown, no matter who our President happens to be, because there are infinite possibilities of what the future can be.

Do not get trapped into the misleading projections of your mind. The mind is ego-based, ever desiring, never satisfied, generally fearful, protective and defensive. It tries to project the past into the present and future, but this habit is useless, inaccurate and untrustworthy, leading to unnecessary suffering. There is no good purpose to indulging in such energies; such an indulgence only serves to magnify and intensify them.
 

Instead, stay anchored in the present moment where all is well. When feeling challenged, I like to use a tool provided by spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson in which she encourages us to allow for the possibility of a miracle to enter the situation. How simple and beautiful is that...? Opening to the possibility of a miracle brings spaciousness for the heart of the Divine to enter and a sacred love-light to emerge within us, shattering the darkness we held.

Whether you were disappointed or excited the day after the election, the world still turned, the Sun still shone, and people still lived their lives like every other day before it. The only drama experienced was what people allowed through their emotional reactions. And the only way reactions can lead us to anything good is if we examine them to find the wound or fear within our Selves that they are tied to. Our reactions are rooted in something within our Selves that is seeking to be healed or resolved. Our reactions are not the fault of anyone or anything outside of us, though the ego likes to drop into such blame...

From a spiritual perspective, there is no need for drama. If all things are in alignment with the Divine, than this, too, is in alignment with the Divine. Something much bigger is happening than our minds can comprehend. But it is our mind's mission to fill in gaps in its comprehension with "fluff and stuff" that does not or need not apply.

The mind likes to believe it "knows" so there will be no surprises and it can protect us. Yet the mind can never "know" since it operates in the past and future. Pulling memories of past experiences into the present moment is the mind's attempt to "know" something it doesn't. It can't know it, because it has not yet happened in this moment. The mind only "knows" how it went in a past moment. 

But the present moment does not have to look like similar ones did in the past. Each present moment is a fresh breath, an opening, an unfolding into the infinite realm of possibilities...unless you allow your mind to lock it into a singular form through its memories. When you allow your mind to lock your thoughts and feelings into a singular past form, you shut yourself off from the glory of the infinite realm of possibility in the present moment.

The mind plays the same game with the future, projecting the past into an unknown realm. But the flow of life force energy through this Universe is dynamic, not static. Everything is always in motion, rendering the future impossible to predict. We can guess and imagine and theorize and hypothesize based on past experiences, but we cannot "know" what the future holds, for like the present moment, it resides in the realm of infinite possibilities, if we honor it as such. This is worth repeating: when you allow your mind to lock your thoughts and feelings into a singular form by projecting the past into the future, you cut yourself off from the glory of the infinite realm of possibility at the hand of the Divine.

Therefore, it is not the mind that bears the truth; it is the heart.

The heart resides in the present moment. It is attuned to the energies of life and linked directly to the Divine. When open, it connects you to the infinite realm of possibilities. As such, listening to your heart leaves you more empowered and less vulnerable than listening to the ranting reactions of your mind. Heart wisdom guides your actions from a place of empowered presence and awareness, rather than outdated memory or imagined fears that define you as a victim. Your conscious, aware presence serves the rest of the world better, too.

So if you are feeling tired, it may be from struggling to make sense of what feels out of alignment with your ego which has abducted your mind. The ego's perspective is exceptionally limited; it leans toward protection and fear. It believes that it knows what is best for you. 

Stop leaking your energy to your ego stories and fears; this only magnifies them and feeds your energy to the ranting reactions of your mind's projections. Make this action instead: shift your awareness from your ego to your heart, allowing new possibilities to arise from the infinite. 

Take your mind back; energize your infinite heart wisdom rather than your finite ego reactions.

Redirect your attention to the center of your heart. Let the past go and drop useless future projections to come present in the now. Change is here; that and death are the only certainties in life because we live in a dynamic, ever-evolving Universe. We cannot stop change but we can accept that it happens and continue to make conscious, aware, heart-centered choices about what we stand for. We cannot force others to change, but we can hold to the truth of our eternal light in the face of perceived darkness.
 
Here are some ways to nourish and center your Self during life's changes:

• Meditate in silence or with your favorite, peace-filling mantra. Sunrise and Sunset are the most powerful times to do so.
• Spend time in nature, replenishing, releasing, listening and learning.
• Bathe yourself with the purifying smoke of white sage to clear heavy energy from your personal energy field.
• Rekindle your curiosity about the infinite possibilities of the future by opening your heart to them. 
• Find a daily practice that centers and nourishes your Being, such as hiking, dancing, making art, gardening, yoga or meditation.
• Drop habits that hinder you and devote yourself to habits that elevate you. Nothing will change unless you change your habits in thoughts, feelings, and actions to align them with a higher vibration.
• Commit to putting love above fear.

May we as a human race choose to walk a compassionate, peaceful, and loving path with one another that serves the present and future of our existence in heart-centered ways. Namaste'