Steps for Nurturing Higher Consciousness

by Dr. Annette Colby -

As many of you are already aware, we are living in an extraordinary time of great evolutionary change. We are in transition from one stage of consciousness to another. The old way of life is ending and new way is being born. 

This transition is occurring not only in the external world, as witnessed by our rapidly shifting reality, but also within our internal world. 

These challenging times ask us to look within, and to think more deeply about who we are, why we are here, and where humanity is headed. We are living in a time where a higher stage of human awareness is unfolding. 

A higher consciousness means moving beyond our tried and true ways of seeing the world and gaining a greater sense of clarity with new insights and understandings. 

What this really means is that we have reached an age where the old is going, and the new is in the process of being built. There is a future being created that we are all a part of.

This evolution of change is happening not only around us, but also within us. It’s a transition where we leave behind the sense of “who I am” to become something more. 

We release our self-image of needing to be a “good” person, step beyond conformity and structure, and discover our true nature. With this new awareness reality is seen differently and new possibilities emerge. Changes in patterns of thought, emotions and behavior occur. 

With higher conscious awareness we allow our light to shine through.

This transition and transformation is personal and can often be painful. We release the residue left by childhood wounds, the influence of society, and the fears held within to uncover the divinity within. 

By understanding what is happening to ourselves, humanity, and Earth, we are able collaborate with evolution with a measure of self-assuredness—becoming conscious participants and helping to ease the process. 

Below are several ways that we can lead ourselves into an awakened state of future possibilities and expanded love.

1. Pay Attention to Your Senses 

Higher consciousness is about being more aware. We’re used to seeing the world around us in a certain way. Increase awareness by keeping your senses open. 

• Look around and seek the possibilities. 
• Listen to the sounds around you, in you, inside and outside. 
• Smell the air in the room and notice if it feels alive or stagnant, warm or cool, heavy or light.

2. Look around and notice your surroundings, both near and far. 

• How far out onto the horizon do you typically look? 
• How often do you notice the ants or a tiny grain of sand? 
• What looks different since you last noticed the things around you? 
• Have the plants grown? 
• Are the bookshelves dusty? 

Notice the different colors, textures, and shapes. 

Touch a few of the objects around you and notice how they feel. Slow down and taste your food more fully. Inhale the aroma, enjoy the colors, feel the temperature, and taste the subtle flavors.

3. Pay Attention to the Choices that Feel Good and Right to You 

We often live our lives on autopilot, doing things the same way because that’s the way we’ve always done them. 

Our thoughts and actions are reactionary, keeping us locked within the same level of consciousness. To expand your level of awareness, check in with yourself before making your next choice. 

• Do you really want to say “yes” to that unexpected request because it feels right inside of you, or are you saying “yes” because you think you are supposed to? 
• Do you like how your furniture and pictures are arranged or is it just easier to keep them the way they are? 
• Does your body want to eat that next bite of food… and if so, how do you know? 

Paying attention to the choices that feel good and right to you is how you learn to trust your heart and your spirit.

4. Pay Attention to Nature 

Your spirit is the feeling of inner peace that exists beyond your everyday aches, pains, and so called negative emotions. 

Your spirit is the love that you seek, the connection that you crave, and who you really are. 

If you are wanting more connection with your authentic self, then being outdoors is a powerful way to nurture your spirit. Being in nature allows you to see beyond your human condition and remember that there is more going on than the current immediate drama of your life. 

 There is more to who you are than the non-stop mental chatter going on in your head. When we’re in nature, we breathe more deeply. We inhale life and recognize that we are a part of life itself.

5. Pay Attention to Your Intuition  

We can’t think our way into higher consciousness. It is gained as we embrace and nurture what is authentic within. 

We step beyond the patterns and cycles of our lives, and move beyond our short-term survival mode by learning how to listen to, and act upon, our intuition. 

Intuition is our ability to get a sense, understanding, or feeling about something. Intuition is about making new choices that move you forward into advantageous possibilities. 

As you pay more attention to your intuition, you are able to make heart-based decisions that lead to greater self-respect, uncover your natural talents, and enrich your relationship with yourself and life.

Conscious awareness is a feeling of being alive and bringing your spirit into your body, into life, and into humanity. Calmness, peace of mind and decreased worry, anxiety and stress are some of the byproducts of becoming more conscious. 

Follow the steps above and lead yourself into a world of new possibilities and expanded love.

annettecolby.com

The Truth About Judgments

by Gina Lake -

Judgments undermine our relationships with others. 

They undermine our own happiness as well, since how happy are we when we are feeling judgmental? When we are judging or being judged, we feel contracted, tense, small, and petty.

If love and happiness are important to you, then eliminating judging is a good way to bring more love and happiness into your life and into your loved one's lives. It isn't as difficult as you might think to stop judging. The key is in seeing the truth about your judgments.

The biggest truth that needs to be seen is that judgments kill love, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly over time. 

They do not serve anyone. They serve only the ego, whose goal is to be right and get what it wants.

To free yourself from judging, one of the most important things to recognize is that your judgments are not yours. What I mean by this is that judging is an automatic response to others and to life on the part of our ego; judging is not part of our true nature or necessary for our survival, but belongs to the ego, which is an archaic, conditioned and negative aspect of ourselves.

The ego is the aspect of ourselves that we know as the voice in our head. 

It comments on life, tells us what to do, evaluates, judges, criticizes, strives, pushes, is never satisfied, and causes us to be fearful and experience other negative emotions.

We think of it as our own voice and who we are, since it is experienced as our own thoughts, but this voice is not our true voice nor a voice of wisdom.

 True wisdom is experienced as a knowing, an insight, an intuition, or a big yes, not as judgmental thoughts or opinions about ourselves and others.

The ego is a cruel and petty inner tyrant, and if we let it, it will make not only us unhappy, but also everyone around us.

When we are involved with it and giving voice to it, we feel contracted and tense, which is the opposite of how we feel when we are following our Heart, aligned with our true nature, and sharing with others from there.

Since this voice in your head is not really your voice, but your conditioning, your programming and since it isn't a wise voice after all or one that leads to more love and happiness, it can be ignored and your life will go much better because there is something much wiser here that is guiding us and capable of expressing love, acceptance, and kindness toward others.

We seem to have two sides to ourselves—the good or nice "me" and the bad or mean "me."

The good news is that the unkind "me" is not you at all, but the false self, and the loving you is the real you.

 Judgments belong to the ego and not the true self, which responds to life with acceptance, love, compassion, and wisdom.

You can express your true nature rather than the ego in every moment, but our true nature gets covered over by paying attention to the voice in our head and identifying ourselves as that rather than recognizing the beauty and love that is ever-present within us.

Judgments come from the ego and serve only the ego. 

We tend to feel that our judgments are true and valuable but that is an illusion. They don't make life better or protect us from life, and they don't do anything but harm our relationships.

Judgments have never changed anyone, which is one of the things we are attempting to do when we judge someone, but only alienate others and bring out their own egos in retaliation.

We try to get our way in our relationships by judging others. We assume a superior position through judgment as a way of trying to get others to comply with what we want.

This is not a winning strategy for relationships. It causes people to withdraw their love, not comply with us or love us.

The antidote to judgment is accepting people the way they are and not imposing our desires, demands and expectations on them. 

Our desires and how we would like someone else to behave are not more important than love, and if we make them more important than love, then we will lose love.

Our desires and expectations in regard to others are part of our conditioning.

When we try to impose our conditioning on others, we lose love. But when we accept others as they are, love flows and that can only be good for us and for our relationship.

We have the power to not let judgments, which are just thoughts, interfere with love by simply not giving voice to them. 

Notice judgments as they show up in your mind, and then choose to put your attention on what you love about that person or on anything else but your negative thoughts or judgments.

We have the power to choose love and relationship over judgments once we see how very damaging and counterproductive our judgments are.


radicalhappiness.com

The 3 Pillars of Personal Power

by Keith Varnum -

What's missing? I don't get it! I chant and pray. I meditate, exercise and do yoga every day. I go to a godzillion workshops. Why don't I feel better? Why don't I have the love, money and health I want? Where is the direct connection with Spirit I crave?

Sound familiar? If so, help is on the way.

I've spent the last forty years exploring techniques to awaken the abundance of life for my clients and myself. I've identified three vital ingredients for happiness and success that are often missing in people's pursuit of Nirvana.

I call these key elements "The 3 Pillars of Personal Power".

Passion, Clarity and Self Love

Three dynamic sources of Universal Life Force that are often blocked-or underdeveloped-are Passion, Clarity and Self Love.

I find that these three qualities are necessary for a firm foundation on which to build a personal Crystal Palace of Creative Power.

Personal Power increases exponentially when its supporting pillars are developed in a systematic, synchronistic and simultaneous way. When one or more of these grounding posts are frail, the whole structure is weak and can fail or collapse.

When one or more of these essential cornerstones is missing, it's very hard-if not impossible-for us to create-let alone sustain-prosperity, physical vitality or fulfilling relationships.

Lacking one of these pillars can abort your whole lift off. But once you firmly install these foundational qualities into your being, you can take off and fly as high as you want to go!

1. Passion for Pizzazz 

Personal power is the ability to attract what we chose to have in life. It means that we have authority (authorship) over the script of our life-as in the head screenwriter of a movie.

We are in command of our earthly dominion, master of our destiny.

Being the ruler of our world-in charge of our fate-requires energy, might, strength, stamina. 

 In other words, power in its basic, raw sense. Your cosmic destiny rocket needs fuel to take off. You need a source of energy that can propel you into permanent orbit.

You need a source of thrust to overcome the gravitational pull of cultural and personal programming-the limiting beliefs and feelings that keep us earth-bound.

And to generate a whole lifetime of adventure and wonder, we need a vast source for this energy, a deep well of power. Fortunately, we all do possess such an infinite reserve of creative power-the passion we feel for our true calling, our life purpose.

Your deep excitement for expressing your unique spirit can lift you to the heights. 

This passion provides the power to reach your dream. Enthusiasm funds the dream. Exhilaration feeds the dream. Your exuberance attracts the people and assistance to build your castle.

The electricity of your enjoyment of your special adventure lights you up from the inside. Your inner radiance shines through. People are enticed by your eagerness, your inner fire, your glow. The joy of self-expression is your secret juice.

 Natural charisma acts like a magnet to draw in the human and financial support you need to soar. Authentic aliveness is very contagious.

As you take off, you feel ever more vigorous and enthralled. 

High on life, you have the vitality to meet any challenge. And your ever deepening delight fills up every pore of your being so that doubt and fear cannot find a place to reside in your holy temple.

Haven't quite figured out where your passion lies? Focus less on your skills (what you can do) or your resume (what you have done). Instead, tune into the aspects of your life that feel light, easy, flowing, open and fun.

• What activities fascinate, intrigue or thrill you? 
• What types of things did you love to do as a child? 
• What activities have spark and aliveness for you now?

2. Open to Clarity 

Your personal dream links the key passions that drive you forward with the core message you are here in this life to express. To reach your intended destination, your space mission needs clear direction, clear vision.

If you're not certain where you want to go, you end up in the wrong place. 

And, if you can't see your way distinctly, you'll go off course. Without clarity of mind, you'll make bad decisions. Bad decisions = bad outcomes.

Clarity is purity of mind-lucid thinking or intuiting. With true clarity, the way to act is apparent, definite and unmistakable. It's evident and easy to discern what to do. Clarity is free from ambiguity and confusion-the right path is unencumbered, unobstructed, unclouded. The best options are obvious when we are super clear-headed.

Each person arrives at clarity in her or his own way. 

Some people "see" the correct direction to take. Other people "feel" their way through the myriad of life choices. Others "intuit" their best course of action. Some lucky folks simply "know" what to do each step of the way without any kind of process.

When you are clear about your life calling, then you are really listening to your soul, which lets synchronicity operate in your favor!

• What is your current vision for your life? 
• What do you hold important and sacred in life? 
• What would give your life a sense of meaning and purpose? 
• In what ways do you already create, improvise and express naturally and easily? 
• What daily activities help you keep your head clear?

3. Enjoy Self Love

Feeling good about yourself is perhaps the most important ingredient for Personal Power and Success. Why? Because without loving your self enough to feel you deserve happiness, you won't let yourself have it.

When and where did you decide you weren't worthy of love, prosperity or vibrant health?

As a coach for 40 years, I'm shocked by how many of my clients share with me that one or both of their parents told them daily "You'll never amount to anything!"

What did your parents, siblings and schoolmates tell you that invalidates your sense of worth? Listen to your own self-talk. What self-limitations do you find yourself unconsciously repeating to yourself silently or under your breath?

Are you willing to open to the possibility that your life could be fun, easy and abundant? 

Do you possess the drive, clarity and power to re-choose a better destiny ? to choose to be compassionate with yourself? ? to know that you do deserve the good things in life?

It's vital to undo the unconscious judging of yourself. 

It's helpful to hang with encouraging people who support your true spirit and nature. Spend time with folks on the same wavelength, with similar values and aspirations for life.

Be accessible to the richness of energy-giving situations. Be inaccessible to energy-draining people and activities. 

Enthusiasm is contagious, but so is pessimism. Avoid the Nay Sayers and seek out others who share your passion for living life on your own terms.

Can you give yourself acceptance, patience and understanding right now?

 This means deciding to love yourself for who you are, instead of who you wish you were. This is the greatest gift that you can give to yourself. And with this gift comes the power to create all your dreams.


thedream.com

Collective Consciousness and Duality

by Dean Noblett -

There is no doubt that the collective consciousness has had a major shift that has been felt in most nations of the world. Through our own past struggles and judgments, we decided at some level that enough is enough.

It was time to take responsibility for our own lives and seek unity, acceptance and equality to set ourselves free from the struggle we have been experiencing from within our own being. At least, we dreamed these ideals were possible.

While the physical manifestation of such a shift in the collective consciousness always occurs as the effect of our own actions, it is a wonderful confirmation that we are realizing we are at cause and know that we each play a powerful role in the changes taking place.

The job at hand still lies with each of us and as a collective we will ultimately continue to be responsible for the direction we take and the healing that is required bringing about the next level of change.

A WORLD OF DUALITY 

Living in a world of duality has made it challenging and difficult to understand why we have experienced and witnessed such an array of human behavior throughout our history.

With constant introspection and the continued judgements of right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust it has been a constant challenge to find a balanced viewpoint and to truly understand the gift that duality actually presents to us.

This subject is super sensitive, yet if we are to continue on our path of ascension it is a crucial concept in need of our assimilation.

Let us use an example of duality that represents many definitions, including the very nature of our own composite structure, not to mention the entire universe.

Symbolically, the notion of the “light” and “dark” conveniently expresses the broad spectrum of contrasts we all inevitably have to deal with in every aspect of life. Under the guise of the light resides all the so-called higher attributes of peace, love and hope, to kindness, joy and integrity.

Every human being possesses the ability to express any or all of these qualities whenever we choose.

Obviously, in contrast to the light is the dark side representing conflict, fear, despair, judgment, anger and deceit, etc. This is where the ugly side of our reality is founded. And just as we possess the ability to express the light, the dark side is constantly lurking in the background ready to pounce when we least expect it.

The source of the pain of our dark side is usually buried deep within our unconscious mind. As it quietly and patiently waits for an opportunity to make itself known, life will always find a way to give it a voice, often in very subtle ways, but in many instances in the most blatant and painful ways imaginable.

The dilemma we are faced with is this: 

How do we reconcile the duality of the light and dark that is at the core of this reality so we can actually transcend our consciousness beyond the limitations that confront us daily through these two contrasts? A big question for sure, but one to which an answer is essential for us to be able to fully bring in the new world.

Each of us is confronted with our own fears amidst our efforts to live our best possible life.

Best Life Scenario

A best life scenario could be one of fulfillment, sense of purpose, excitement, joy, abundance and well being, peace and of course - love.

We are all aching to fully experience ourselves in this light and while we are moving towards this reality, the dark side of our nature continues to question our worthiness and does what it can to convince us otherwise.

Our fear-based human egos have had its way with us for so long now, the very notion of it losing control goes against what the ego represents and it refuses to lie down and die without a fight.

Just using the word “fight” conjures up a feeling that appears to question the nature and value of why we choose to oppose any given situation.

To be in conflict with another immediately indicates that we are in judgement of them and have the need to somehow convince them that they are wrong. In that moment our ego has us just where it wants us. This all too familiar example of fear and conflict that subtly rises from the depths stems from the need to be in control.

TRANSCENDING DUALITY  

The question arising from this is how can we best serve the collective consciousness so we can overcome the struggle of duality and transcend into a new world of total unity and peace?

As mentioned earlier this is a sensitive subject and one that does not encompass a winner or loser, a victim or perpetrator, but rather embracing the ideal that there is no right or wrong, good and bad or even any victims.

To transcend duality we need to know that everything just “is” and every human being is where they need to be and is experiencing what is necessary for their highest good. Our job is to find the lesson within the experience which then becomes a gift to ourselves.

PURPOSE OF DUALITY 

While the highest good for all concerned is a mantra many of us use in our prayers and meditations, that does not mean what we see and experience is always pretty.

In fact the purpose of duality is for us to experience both the light and the dark and then to emerge from the illusion knowing everything is as it should be and always for our highest good.

For those still caught in the illusion, this concept is usually not received well, but until we choose to expand our awareness and truly embrace the journey completely, we remain trapped in judgment and blame.

There is nothing in the universe that is separate from the creator. 

In other words, even the dark side is not separate from the light, for it is only a perception and only has power when we give it sustenance to make it real. As soon as we bring light to any darkness it dissolves like a lantern in a cave.

The darkness is still there, it hasn’t gone anywhere, for as soon as the lantern is extinguished it appears just as easily as it dissolved.

If one happened to be lost in a cave, the situation does not change by lighting the lantern, however, it allows one to see the situation with a clearer vision to find the way out.

In this scenario we are neither the light nor the dark, but the observer who has transcended the duality of the experience.

PERCEIVED ILLUSION 

The intricacies of our experience of this third dimension reality are far too complex to comprehend why it is that some people find themselves in dire and tragic situations.

If we take into account soul agreements, soul contracts, balancing karma and our desire to find love, happiness and freedom, then we know there is something unfolding beyond our reach of understanding at this level of the evolutionary ladder.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE 

God does not judge anything, as the Creator allows the gift of free will for humanity to wake up to who we really are through the experience of duality.

When we as a collective can also live from this place and look down on the duality in our own lives and shine our light on the dark side, it is in that moment we have transcended into a higher level of consciousness.

This act of unconditional love ultimately frees the world from this perceived illusion, but it has to start with our own lives. It is the love of self which is the love of your life.

Our ability to ignite the lantern to disperse the darkness with the knowledge that everything is in order no matter where we find ourselves is the path to freedom. It’s up to us to find our way.

CAUSE AND EFFECT 

Collective consciousness is the greatest power we have as human beings. Each is connected to the other, making up the ocean of humanity. As the waves rise and return to the ocean, we realize that we have never been separate from each other.

Rather, the duality of the land and the sea, the expanse of the sky and depths of the ocean are but a different experience of the one creation. When we see through the eyes of the creator a knowing arises that nothing is neither good nor bad, but just is.

If we do our best to rise above duality and lovingly embrace the darkness it will lose its stronghold us.

Ultimately, we have the power through cause and effect in the light of the collective consciousness to strengthen the foundation of the new world now being created in the minds of humanity. The exciting thing is we are well and truly on our way!

heartlight.ca

 

Transmuting Others Negative Energies

by Lynette Leckie-Clark -

I come to guide you through the great changes of your evolutionary process. You have entered a new creation of being. There is no going back, that is not possible.

Indeed it is time now for much of your past experiences to be released from your emotional bodies and held only as a distant remembrance on the mental body. In this way any emotion is overcome and released.

This is essential on your path of awakening and empowerment, for old emotions of resentment, pain and anger will merely hold you where you are now in your progression process. You will not progress forward, but stagnate. This will lead to depression and great loss of vital energy and Light.

It would be a very wise exercise to sit quietly and take an overview of your emotional body. Ask to be shown that which your sub-conscious mind holds deeply.

I can tell you that you will not like what you are shown – either by your higher self or another person through comments and events. No, you will not. Why do you think it has been hidden so deeply for so long?

I remind you that you are no longer the same person who so skillfully buried that emotional event. You have grown, attitudes have changed. So do not fear.

Please do understand that the poison must be released before complete healing can take place. Think of how much lighter you will feel. Think of the higher vibration you can now carry without a hidden weight holding you back. You see in this way you develop purpose and understanding of the necessity to deeply cleanse.

You are creating a further change in attitude, in vibration, in Light. You are empowering yourself even more through this process. You may call on us here, the Council of Light, the Arch-Angels and the many spirit guides who come to assist you and uphold you in their unconditional love.

The Emotions of Others

As you gain a higher vibration in your being, you also become more aware of the emotions of others. It becomes very easy to connect to their radiant energy fields. I caution you to be aware of soaking up anothers negative emotions into your own energetic field.

You see, those who are struggling with the energetic changes are becoming easily distressed and confused. This often leads to anger.

Many are trying to cope with financial strains, the result of previous personal choices made. Governments are also experiencing this on a larger scale, which in turn accelerates negative personal finances and anguish. So there is much negative emotion in the ethers.

Fortunately the many Light workers on the Earth assist greatly in transmuting this energy, particularly when meditating. This is essential to mankind’s transition. There is much happening through these times. I have been asked how can you transcend that which belongs to another.

How can we get through these times of change on Earth? 

THE KEYS IN THREE STEPS:

Step one – Travel lightly. 

Release your own emotional clutter and baggage of past. As I have said, it is essential to keep clearing your own emotional body.

Like the layers of an onion, there are many issues. Some which are shown to you, you may think unimportant, or that you have already dealt with that issue. Yet your higher self has shown it to you again.

Therefore there is still anger or pain being retained which must be released.

I tell you, when you can look at an old hurt or a person associated with it, when you can view the incident and feel nothing, no emotion, it was merely something you experienced – a distant memory – then you have completely released and you are free of it. I urge you not to act impatiently through this clearing process. It cannot be rushed.

Allow your higher self to guide you, to show you, usually in a meditative state.

Sometimes it is an issue from a previous life time that has still not been healed. These are usually held very deeply within you. Yet your soul has chosen to carry them to this lifetime to be cleared, healed. So rejoice when you begin positive steps to understand and release these old issues.

You are undertaking what you agreed to do before you incarnated in this life time. It is important that you regularly clear the emotional body. Do not allow fear, resentments or judgments to take root on your emotional body.

Step two – Recognition. Own or throw it out. 

This is a very simple, yet essential step in this process. Ask yourself this question, “ Is this emotion mine or someone elses?” Simple is it not? Yet so important.

I give you some examples my friend. At work, is it your anger, frustration, or anothers? Is it your opinion, or someone elses? Your choice, or anothers? Has another hurt you through their actions or words?

Therefore it is anothers attitude or behavior is it not? Recognition. Yours or someone elses. Now you must choose your action. Do you store it – usually on the emotional body, or release it? Please release.

Step three – Transmute, transmute and transmute again. 

This is the key to surviving these transitional times. As I have said own it or transmute it. Understand all is experience.

Understand you are now ending the experience of duality. Old karma is now ending. Any new karma you create will be dealt with instantly. Yes, instant karma, a final learning of treating others as you yourself would like to be treated.

Soul Living

My friend, these simple steps have the power to assist you greatly in all areas of your life. As your vibration is raised you are readily able to pick up the emotions and energies of others around you. Much of what you transmute will come from others, at work, at home, in business.

You see some of you are more evolved souls than others. Therefore some are able to recognize and clear themselves more easily. Yet these evolved souls are very much needed now on Earth.

The work they do in transmuting and clearing is vital to all on Earth through the Great Shift you are experiencing.

If you can follow these guidelines I give you now, you will experience a faster and smoother conscious awakening of Soul. You will experience the first steps of the New Earth. A higher vibration through soul awareness – soul living.

kuthumischool.com

Bring More Love Into Your Life

by Lisa Weseman -

Opening Your Heart:

You are not alone if you want a little more love in your life. Yet you may be forgetting the one person who can fill your whole life with love - you! 

By opening your heart to life, to others and to yourself, you'll grow love in every corner of your world.

Love life 

If you want to get the most out of life, you really have to love it. It's easy to be overwhelmed by challenges and lose site of the beauty and joy life has to offer. But you don't have to let painful issues in your past or present get in the way of happiness.

Part of embracing life is changing your expectations and realizing that problems in life are not always able to be "fixed" - but they can be managed. 

Through supportive relationships and self-love, you can learn to cope with your problems in a way that makes your life happier and healthier. 

Once you've learned to overcome your challenges through managing your issues, you can finally begin to appreciate life as a gift and really learn to love it.

Love others 

Loving others isn't necessarily about serving soup at a homeless shelter or donating money to your favorite charity. Those things are great, but they aren't the only ways you can love others. 

Loving others means seizing opportunities in your daily life to be more thoughtful, helpful and caring. It means taking the time to consider how someone will feel before you say or do something. It means being sensitive to people who have different needs than you.

Friends and Family

It's also important to find the best way to love our friends and family. Some people like to hear words of love, while others appreciate small gifts as gestures.

Others want to see the love expressed in thoughtful action. And still others value physical affection above all. Take the time to discover how they are comfortable receiving love and then make an effort to share it with them in that way.

Yet the greatest challenge really is remembering to be loving every single day. It's sometimes difficult, but you must approach all things with a loving attitude.

 Whether you're dealing with a stranger who cut you off in traffic or a partner who really hurt your feelings, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. 

Just as light changes when viewed through a prism, a situation can be completely transformed when viewed through the prism of love. Try to see the world through a prism of love and all aspects of your life will be transformed and made more beautiful.

Love yourself 

But before you can really love life and others, you have to start at the center of your world: yourself. It sounds so simple, learning to love yourself, but it's really one of the most difficult challenges of life. Learning to love yourself is not just about treating yourself to an ice cream cone after a bad day - though that's not a bad idea! 

Loving yourself is being at peace with your flaws and gifts. It's forgiving your mistakes and cherishing your triumphs. It's taking care of yourself for the short and long term.

Loving yourself is the most dramatic way to bring love in to your life forever. When you love yourself, there's always someone who will love you unconditionally: YOU.

lisawesemanwriter.wordpress.com

Why Do We Settle for Less?

by Caroline Myss -

As someone in the healing arts, I am always engaging in conversations with people about the challenges confronting their lives. Difficulties enter our lives through any number of doorways—illness, job loss, accidents. The possibilities are endless, as we all know.

Often, we feel powerless over the dilemmas we find ourselves in, causing us to hit our inner pause buttons and ask, "How did this happen to me?"

Obviously, we don't have control over all the events of our lives, but upon reflection, we discover that we do exert quite a field of influence because we have the power of choice.

There is no such thing as a small choice—not really—not if you truly reflect upon the short- and long-term consequences of even one choice, whether that is what you choose to eat or what you choose to say or not say to someone or whether to follow your intuition and phone an old friend.

Every choice matters, and deep in our intuitive gut, we know it—which explains why we anguish over making choices ranging from what to order on a menu to who we should be with in a relationship.

When it comes to the choices we make in our relationships, however, my experience with so many people is that they admit to "settling" for someone who is not really what they wanted, but at least they are not alone.

I receive at least five calls each week on my weekly radio show from women and sometimes men who are desperate to figure out a way to fix a relationship that is simply not holding together.

You don't have to be a medical intuitive to recognize that these callers are not being driven by love but by the fear of being alone and that they will do anything just to avoid an empty house—or an empty bed.

For these people, their choices can only lead to that inevitable moment of heartbreak when they will find themselves asking,” How did this happen to me?" How? By settling for something other than what you really want.

But here is where this dynamic gets "spiritually sticky": Whether you "settle" for less than you want in a relationship or in any other area of your life, the knowledge that you have compromised your heart and intuitive truth will consciously or unconsciously lead you to sabotage your own choice.

If you hit your inner pause button for just a second right now and reflect on this, you will connect with the truth of this statement.

Why would you sabotage your own choice? 

Your actions may not be conscious, but no one can live with the pain of self-betrayal and not find an outlet for that pain. That pain may get routed into an addiction or into depression or into anger at the other person for becoming a constant source of disappointment, but that pain has to go somewhere.

In a very real sense, this negative behavior is actually a form of survival in that a part of your psyche is deliberately trying to break out of a situation that you cannot survive in, much less thrive in.

Your conscious self may be too frightened to take charge of such bold steps directly. Therefore, you take these steps covertly through anger or food addiction or becoming more withdrawn and depressed.

If you think the resolution to this pattern is easy, think again.

Settling for something less than what you want is something you can't avoid, because always getting what you want is impossible. You would become an uncontrollable narcissist living among a society of narcissists.

So how's that for a dilemma? 

Given that, how can you make choices that are not self-sabotaging or narcissistic but truly reflect your inner guidance?

The Difference Between Settling and Choosing

1. First, it's important to understand that the subtle difference between "settling" for something and "choosing" something is that settling is a passive choice that lets you off the hook in terms of taking responsibility for the consequences. 

If you feel you settled for something, you could tell yourself you did so because of pressures weighing upon you or fears—in other words, "you had no choice," but your gut will never really let you off the truth-hook. 

Making a choice, though more intimidating, puts you in the driver's seat of your own life and the consequences of each of your decisions. 

We have an inherent understanding of this, which is one reason we so often avoid making choices. We do not fear our choices; we fear managing the consequences of them by ourselves. 

Yet, in spite of the fear of the consequences of a personal choice, you will always find it easier to live with than settling for a situation in which you feel compromised. 

2. Second, as a personal exercise, take note of how often you have "settled" for things in your life as opposed to chosen them, whether that is a relationship or not. Was settling for something driven by the fear of survival or the fear of nothing else (or no one else) coming along? 

Was a decision to settle for something driven by lack of resources? And is your situation different now? More to the point, are you different now and capable of challenging fear-driven choices? 

3. Third, take time to reflect upon what really matters in your life. Though all choices have the power to shift the direction of your life, some choices are far more significant. 

Ending the chaos created by settling for the less authentic choices begins by discerning the difference between what you want and what you need in your life, whether in relationships or other life choices. 

Following what you want is often a path filled with disappointments because it operates on a pain-pleasure scale, easily tipped and easily broken. 

The path of what you need, on the other hand, is a far deeper soul path that often anchors us in challenges that serve as depth charges. 

Through these challenges that seem to eclipse our wants, we so often discover our greatest talents and inner resources precisely because the path of what we need is the one demanding the most of us. 

Ironically, it is the path of what we need that leads us to that place of saying, "I would never have chosen this, but I am so glad I'm here."

Being able to say to yourself, "I may want to do this, but I need to do that," is an indication that you are shifting a value system to one that is far more in harmony with your inner life.

Such an approach to your life may not make your decisions easier, but inner clarity and wisdom most certainly will make navigating your life a much more fulfilling experience.

A wisdom jewel: 

It's better to want what you don't have than to have what you don't want.


myss.com

Intuitive Awareness

by Owen Waters -

Recognize your spiritual nature. 

Know that you are a spiritual being living in a physical world. The real, immortal you is your inner being or soul consciousness. Several times each day, take a moment to turn your attention within and remember your true nature as a spiritual being.

Once you make a habit of looking within and focusing on your spiritual nature, you open up your awareness to the intuitive information that comes from your soul consciousness.

Intuitive insight is available to both men and women and, with it, you can achieve more than you had ever imagined possible.

Intuitive Reasoning 

The conscious, reasoning mind assesses a situation using the physical senses as well as past information. Intuitive reason is possible when you include intuitive information in the process.

Intuition comes from your inner, soul consciousness and it is tuned into the thoughts and energies that surround any situation. Intuition brings direct information on the nature of any situation.

With intuition, you know what will best work and when.

Intuition adds to your knowledge and understanding of a situation, allowing you to achieve objectives with greater ease and harmony than before. Intuition can warn you about danger ahead and reveal what hidden risks you can avoid in order to stay safe.

Intuition prompts you to take actions which will help you in ways that you had not been able to detect using the physical senses alone. It also puts you in touch with the natural flow of unfolding situations.

Effortless Action

There is a flow to events; a timing that, when understood, makes tasks much easier to achieve. 

The key to gaining this information is to tune into your inner, soul consciousness. This inner work need not be a one-way street of receiving inside information.

You can also take the initiative by using the principle of effortless action. Instead of trying to make something happen by the usual efforts of planning, willpower and determination, you begin by going within and seeing the action as accomplished.

When you begin by seeing the action as completed, something very different happens. The action doesn’t mysteriously become accomplished by magic or by non-effort, but you experience a state of flow which enables you to move through the task with ease, grace and incredible efficiency.

To invoke a state of flow, go within and attune with your inner being and the intended task. 

 Then, come out into the world of action and follow your intuitive guidance every step of the way until the task becomes physically completed.

This is how synchronicity happens and you will notice coincidences becoming commonplace in your life. People, ideas and resources all come together at the exact right time and in the right place because flow is an orchestration of the many, not just the one.

Like water finding the shortest and easiest path down a slope, your intuition will reveal the shortest and easiest route to the successful completion of any task.


infinitebeing.com

Speaking Up for Yourself

by Dr. Amy L Johnson -

How to Speak Your Mind and Still Be Enlightened:

A question came up the other day. It's one I hear from clients pretty often, too. "How do I speak up for myself and still be Enlightened?"

First, let's define Enlightened. Enlightened is when you've been working on your stuff for a while and you realize that you are the only one responsible for your happiness. It's embracing your power; when you've finally dropped the victim stuff. You don't rely on anyone else or any specific circumstances for anything.

It plays out in many ways, but one way is that you come to interactions without a plan to change the other person. (That's big, you might want to read that again).

It means you have no agenda, except maybe saying what you want to say. How they react, what they think of it, what they do as a result...none of your business. Because, you are responsible for your happiness and they aren't (see above).

When people first start to dabble in Enlightenment, they invariably run into confusion about how and when to assert and speak up for themselves while remaining Enlightened.

For example, let's say your brother-in-law is a really negative person who triggers the hell out of you. He believes in lack and that plays out in fear. He tells you that you should be happy to have any job in "this economy"; you might as well suck it up.

You know better. His experience is consistent with his beliefs (duh), but you don't buy his scary story. BUT...you're human and you have a little fear too, so hearing him rant about how scary the world is triggers you. You're supposed to spend an entire weekend with him.

If you bite your tongue, you feel inauthentic. It reminds you of being a little girl and being told that your opinions don't matter. But if you tell him he's crazy, that starts a debate and that's always a losing battle.

Q: What to do?

A: If you can't just walk away, speak your truth but do it with no agenda.

Say what you want to say-whether that's your brief opinion or a simple statement that "I disagree so I'd rather not discuss this topic with you"-and expect nothing in return.

People tend to focus on the "what I say" part and ignore the "expect nothing in return" part. My clients say, "Wait a minute...so what should I say? How should I say it? Should I be assertive or nice or bold, smile or be serious?" Really, that part is so much less important than the other part.

Expect nothing in return.

No agenda. You're going to say what you believe and he will absolutely, positively not be affected by it.

You aren't going to change his mind. You aren't going to "take the high road", making you better than him. He is just as good as you. His opinions are equally valid. In fact, you wouldn't want to change his mind if you could. He's perfect as he is. His viewpoints are perfect. They're awesome. You love them.

The bottom line: you accept reality. And you got to express your personal reality so there's no inauthenticity. Perfect.

dramyjohnson.com

Living With Vitality

by Dan Gabbert -

Recently the idea of "vitality" was being tossed around in a conversation I took part in. It was interesting to hear different points of view about what vitality is and more importantly, what it means to live with vitality.

Vitality. 

It seems like a good thing, doesn't it? Like the energy of a puppy inspecting new things, bounding from place to place, a fun-loving, almost contagious attitude.

For our purposes let's define vitality as "Living life to your fullest extent possible in the present moment and being fully engaged." Does that bring up a sense of positive energy, of engagement and involvement? It does for me.

Notice that the definition is "living to your fullest extent". Like so many things in life, you get to decide what that means. Your version is not the same as your neighbor's or even your spouse's. That doesn't mean that you can't both live with vitality. In fact, it means that you can do it differently. A key part of the definition is that you are empowered to live with vitality however you want.

Some of the things that empower vitality are curiosity, thirst for knowledge, love of self and others and finding humor in every day events.

There's a power in child-like curiosity that is energizing. 

Think about a child you know and the countless questions they ask about the seemingly simplest things! Or the energy they have in playing with a toy or a cardboard box - just playing and being creative and curious. Somewhere along the way many adults lose that curiosity and, with it, some of their vitality.

Spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth are part of that thirst for knowledge.

Do you take time each day to learn something new, question an existing "rule", search for clarity or calmness? Each of these ties to and creates a continuing "newness" that improves our quality of life and vitality.

Consider your support system or network. 

Is it big or small, close or distant? Are you connected to these people or do you simply "know" them? Do you seek connection to others - maybe even just 1 or two people - or are you distant and private?

Different people energize differently, but everyone needs the contact and connection of others.

There is something fundamentally humorous about the human condition. 

Keeping a light-hearted attitude about life and easing up on the criticisms not only engages those around you more, it also lessens your stress. Finding ways to reduce internal tension will automatically lighten the external tension. And, it tends to work the other way, too.

So what can you do to live with more vitality? 

First, rate your level of vitality from 1 to 10.

Now consider this: 

What can you start doing in one or two of the four areas that will move your "vitality rating" up just one point? Pick a couple tactical things you can do and start doing them this week. Are you curious to see what happens?

kclifecoaches.com

Putting Up Your Sail

by Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda -

For most devotees the religious or spiritual life is part of their ordinary life. It may be the most important part of their life, but it is part of their normal living. It is only when God’s grace comes into our life that our spiritual life takes on another dimension.

We could call it a vertical dimension because we seem, in one way or another, to be lifted out of ourselves. It may be the result of a meeting with a teacher; it may be some book we read; it could be a spiritual experience; but something changes. Something new has come into our life.

The result may not change our outward life very much, or it may change it so dramatically that we leave our old life and go to an ashram, even seek permanent entry there. But whether the result is that dramatic or less dramatic, it seems to be inevitable that after a period of time we settle down into a mundane life again—whether it is in an ashram or still in the world.

We somehow seem to have lost that vertical dimension, that dimension that was changing everything for us. And the truth is that unless we can somehow regain that vertical dimension, that dimension of grace, our spiritual life will not really move.

How can we bring God’s grace back into our life again? 

When it did change our life, it was not something that was under our control. It happened spontaneously. Does that mean then that there is no hope for us? Fortunately, Pujya Swamiji tells us that God’s grace is always blowing. But it is up to us to put up our sail.

How do we put up our sail in order to catch His grace? 

The Lord gives us a secret in the last teaching verse of the Gita: "Abandoning all dharmas take refuge in Me alone." 

Our problem is that even when we want to take refuge in God, our fundamental reliance remains with ourselves. We’re scared of letting go. We don’t really want to leave the results of our life to God. We want to keep firm control of the rudder of the boat of our life and we’re reluctant to put up the sail in case God’s grace blows us in directions that we don’t want to go.

So it is our choice. 

Do we want to continue our mundane life or do we want to have the adventure of God’s life?

Do we want to keep our life the way it is or do we want God’s grace in our life?

Do we want to keep control over our life or do we want to take the risk of going God’s way, to put up our sail and let Him take us where He wants to take us.

The spiritual life is always now. 

It is not in the future when we are ready. It is always now. So, if we want to bring back that original thrill, that original grace into our life, the answer is to put up our sail, let go of the rudder and trust God now.

sivanandaonline.org

Non-Dual Awareness

by Joseph Naft -

In certain remarkable spiritual teachings the entire path revolves around entering our inherent pure awareness, pure consciousness, pure being and residing there.

Seer and seen merge into a global awareness which excludes nothing, has no center and no separation between observer and observed. The ego, at least temporarily, evaporates. 

Unfiltered, unfettered consciousness replaces ego as the organizing structure of the person. Seeing reveals the pseudo-self of ego as an empty and illusory construction, instantly dismantled by the unifying wholeness of consciousness in which nothing can be truly separate.

Instead of our awareness collapsing in egocentric identification with some distraction or problem, we remain in the authentic fullness of consciousness.

At first, this realization of the non-dual might only be intellectual. When the true seeing opens, however, it is both a magnificent surprise and patently obvious.

Problems dissolve, joy, wonder, and compassion arise naturally.

The extremely rare saint may, on the occasion of this first taste of non-dual awareness, spontaneously enter a stable, lasting and completely effortless abiding in pure awareness, in clear seeing.

Such people inspire us with their teaching that enlightenment is at hand, is our true nature, that we need only let go and be fully in the moment.

The great majority of us, though, are not so spiritually gifted that we attain enlightenment on our first contact with pure awareness. We sink back to autopilot. We cannot learn to ride the bike of non-dual awareness without training wheels.

If non-dual awareness is our only practice, we either find it rough sledding, fragmentary and momentary or we delude ourselves into thinking we have been conscious when we have not.

We need an inner structure to enable us to balance between falling out of the present moment, back into the self-centered view on the one hand and falling off into a semi-conscious absent-mindedness on the other.

We need to contact, build and organize our sensitive energies into a vehicle capable of supporting pure consciousness in a stable manner. So we focus on practices that involve the gradual cultivation of attention, contacting and organizing energies, body awareness, radical acceptance of ourselves and our situation, seeing the processes of attachment and identification operating within us, prayer, and the rest.

Non-dual awareness is not difficult to experience. 

We need only simplify into the moment, coming to rest in pure awareness itself by backtracking within our ordinary awareness to its natural, wide-open clarity. We go behind sensory experience, behind emotion, behind thought, behind our very self, into the now.

We allow the clouds of thought and emotion and pain to float by without obscuring our presence, and we become that vast sky of unadorned awareness. Pure awareness precedes all; it forms the substrate that receives experience.

This clear consciousness appears both wonderful and seductive because the relative ease of momentarily entering the utter satisfaction of non-dual awareness is matched by the ease of falling out of it.

Non-dual awareness draws us to seek it directly. But to establish ourselves in awareness, we need a balanced path of cultivating our soul, our wholeness.

This conundrum has been widely debated in spiritual circles for millennia. In early Chinese Zen, for example, the discussion took the form of gradual cultivation versus sudden awakening.

The wise, like the twelfth-century Korean Zen master Chinul, taught the necessity and complimentarity of both. Sudden awakening into non-dual awareness bestows a first release from the egocentric grasping and rejection of experience.

With this weight lifted, we can breathe freely the air of the Present. 

When we return to our usual state, our understanding has changed. From then on, the recognition of clear awareness as our own essence informs our pursuit of practices in the gradual cultivation of our being. Doubts dispelled, our faith and confidence in the spiritual pursuit grow unshakeable.

Awakening recurs more frequently and for longer periods and we discover the satisfaction of living in Presence. No longer divided inside, no longer focused on the division between our self and the rest of the world, we arrive at rest in the non-dual wholeness of awareness.

Yet non-dual awareness, pure consciousness is not the ultimate goal. 

We are here to serve a great Purpose. Living in awareness accords with and supports that Purpose in important and subtle ways but our obligations do not end there.

Respecting both the traditions of the East with their focus on being and those of the West with their focus on doing, we see that being is not enough. Purity of being, awareness, promotes the purification of our will, the letting go of attachments and egoism.

Gradually opening our will to the Divine Will and our heart to the Great Compassionate Heart of the World enables us to discover and create our destiny through our own unique service to the All.


innerfrontier.org