What Being Authentic Means and What Gets in the Way

by  Trinity  Bourne -

Authenticity is one of those fascinating subjects that spiritual seekers love to sink their teeth into. The egoic mind feels threatened by it, because the true energy of authenticity means the demise of ego led behaviour. If we logic it solely through the intellect, then we can rapidly lose the meaning behind it.

Authenticity is a simple way of being that rises spontaneously, without control, from the core …

What Does ‘Being Authentic’ Mean?

‘

Authentic’ is a descriptive and powerful word, deserving the space to breathe.

So here I feel to shine a little light on the subject by sharing a perspective on what being authentic really means, perhaps even dispelling a few myths in the process.

‘Authentic’ means from the source or origin. 

Being authentic in a spiritual sense means ‘as expressed directly from the source’, through the soul. It is the raw, naked, unhindered expression of beingness of the soul. Authenticity is a quality of being. That’s why we say ‘being authentic’ not ‘doing authentic’.

Observing Authenticity in Others

One of the easiest ways to observe authenticity is to notice creatures in nature: a hedgehog, a squirrel or a butterfly. They have no agenda other than to be ‘who they truly are’.

They have an advantage over many humans, without the hindrance of an ego, showing us a great example of what it means to be authentic. Another great example would be a small child. There is often a time in a child’s life, before they are washed through with conditioning, fears and expectations, where they are free to simply be. They are real, liberated and authentic – for a while at least. People within indigenous cultures often exude authenticity – especially if they never lost their connection with the soul and the source.

We see authenticity in people from all walks of life – people who are just really comfortable in their own skin. They feel real and natural. They say it ‘how it is’, yet with compassion and awareness. These are the people we trust in life – because they are real.

You can’t ‘try’ to be authentic. 

You can’t train yourself or follow a technique to learn. You can however, self-realise and allow your layers of baggage to fall away. In so doing, authenticity will arise more and more as a divine expression of your being.

Authenticity is all about the moment. It’s about now. It’s about presence. It’s not only seeing beyond the veil, but  being  beyond the veil and bringing that through to the experience of being human.

Authenticity is what is left over when the mind steps out of the way and let’s the soul shine through.

Authenticity is when you are being you, from the core.

Authenticity is pure beingness.

Accepting Our Darkness

It may be that you can’t be fully authentic because a distortion is coming through.

You might feel an authentic impulse, that becomes distorted by a filter. In which case, you have the option to be real at least.

Being as real as we can possibly be, distortions n’all is a powerful precursor to authenticity.

This means we are able to see how we are not being authentic and peel away those layers – leading to authenticity.

It’s acceptance of all our inner darkness – each of us have it – and not being afraid of what others may think of us. It’s not placating others, at the expense of being true to ourselves. It’s not showing others our likable traits in order that they accept us, because of fear of being rejected.

It’s having the courage to be true to ourselves.

It’s Not a Doctrine of Spiritual Correctness!

Authenticity doesn’t mean that we always have to bare all either. Honesty doesn’t necessitate splurging everything out in a mighty torrent of emotion.

It might mean that we have to be silent, to say nothing or that we are meant to contain our emotions; work with them ourselves, because it is not the right time to share.

This is different to withholding because we are afraid of the consequences – but rather honouring what is divinely given in the moment. It may equally at times be totally in the flow to bare all, yet consciously, despite the perceived consequences.

Being authentic means that we observe what is appropriate for each given moment.

Our actions are not dictated to by conditioning, fears or expectations. Every moment is unique and cannot be predicted, nor can the outcome of our actions.

True Compassion

Sometimes being authentic requires being the bearer of undesirable news. True compassion is finding the courage to do this because you know that it is the ‘right’ thing to do.

It can be really tough being a messenger in the face of opposition, yet, that honesty may hold the key for a greater spiritual unfolding for others. It might be the most loving thing that you can do. (A little tip  – letting go of the need for thanks, appreciation, the need for approval or to be liked helps a lot… The Importance of Feedback Loops for Energy Workers)

Authenticity will determine exactly what is meant to be shared. It will determine exactly how the energy is given.

Being authentic requires the courage to deliver.

What Gets in the Way of Being Authentic?

1. Fear of what other’s think of you
2. Being swept along by other people’s energies
3. Being trapped by others expectations – ‘being labelled’
4. The spiritual identity

1. Fear of What Others Think of You:

It’s difficult to be authentic if you are living in fear of what other people think of you. It may be a natural expression of your soul to be considerate and kind to others, but if you adjust your behaviours to keep the peace or please others so that they’ll accept you, then you aren’t being authentic.

Being authentic might mean that the relationship no longer serves either of you and you go separate ways – an essential step forward to make space for new, more suitable friends who meet us where we are at.

It may equally mean that the relationship evolves and you both evolve to a new level of connection together. Who’s to say!

When we live in fear, we don’t get to evolve, we just run around in circles, recreating the same suffering for ourselves. We don’t get to be the authentic us.

When you live in fear of honouring your true expression, you create a dead feedback loop for your soul. Your energy is drained, because, energy that is not authentic can only ever be replenished by the mind or emotions (which are a limited resource) – whereas energy from the source is ever-present.

2. Being Swept Along by Other People’s Energies:

Some people are highly sensitive and lose themselves when around others. It may be authentic to harmonise and align with others, but their own vibration gets drowned out. They can no longer hear the voice of their own soul. They are swept along by the strong current of other peoples energy, unable to find their own flow.

It might feel like you have no choice, or that it’s just your configuration, that it’s just the way it is – but there IS a choice.

It’s a matter of awareness and learning to honour your boundaries. Boundaries are important for highly sensitive souls. 

This takes practice. It involves continually bringing consciousness to your own soul and energy field when around others and then learning to tell the difference between you and them. It’s knowing what’s yours and what’s someone else’s (See article: Are You an Empath? for tips and advice for highly sensitive souls)

3. Trapped by Others Expectations – ‘Being Labelled':

In personal relationships with family or at work, people often find that they’ve been categorised and labeled. People are typically hemmed in and related to by the people around them, by certain behaviours, traits, gifts and faults, with very little room for change. Every engagement with you will confirm their expectations as they subconsciously re-affirm them.

I am incredibly blessed to live in a house where we respect one others constantly unfolding nature. We are continually evolving and growing, accepting change as a natural part of our evolution.

A funny thing happened to me last month though, when I went to stay with my Mother. She’s a beautiful soul and very accepting of ‘me’, yet something from the old days slipped back in to highlight the incredible power of expectation – to keep me on my toes, I think!

I had jet lag and was feeling a bit wobbly after traveling half way around the world and flipping my body clock upside down. I’d randomly bumped into the door frame as my spatial awareness went to pot, to which with a smile, my mother cheerfully said: “You’ve always been clumsy haven’t you?”

It threw me back momentarily. Have I always been clumsy? Am I clumsy? Something from my childhood perhaps. But is this really me?

Something didn’t feel quite right, yet my reality was being presented to me under no uncertain terms. I sat with the notion, paused for a while and then replied…  “actually, I haven’t really been clumsy for a long time now.” 

The truth is, I DID used to be clumsy though! At home I had a reputation for bumping into things. It was expected and reaffirmed light heartedly throughout my childhood.

It was my reality. I even remember being given a mug with Mr Bump on it (Mr Bump is a sweet clumsy cartoon character, who bumps into things a lot, covered with bandages). I used to smile all the time too, I had many positive attributes, but I didn’t get ‘Miss Sunshine‘ – I got ‘Mr Bump’! So, I  was  clumsy.

At the age of 26, it suddenly dawned on me that I had a choice. I didn’t feel at home here on earth. I was ethereal in nature and had little reason to be embodied, naturally living out of body, ungrounded, living in the ‘clouds’.

Expectations of who we are, as projected by those around us, can silently bubble in the background without us realising it. We are all aware that if you tell a child he’s naughty enough times, eventually he’ll believe it – the same can be said for just about anything.

When we become aware, we can do something about it. So, in my twenties, I stopped letting others determine my reality and over time became present, aware and you guessed it, embodied. The clumsiness (which was never ‘really’ me, but a tool of deeper self realisation) fell away almost instantly.

4. The Spiritual Identity

This is quite common in the spiritual world.

I’ve often seen the spiritual identity acting ‘authentic’. This happens when an ego/false self or shadow of the soul, knows exactly how authenticity ‘should’ look like and emulates it.

This is one of the biggest pitfalls in the modern spiritual movement. The problem is that a spiritual identity emulating authenticity may carry a vibration that is closely aligned with the real thing – because a fragment of the soul is embedded. It always has a fabricated undertone though and from presence can be spotted a mile off.

Swinging Too Far The Other Way

Of course, it’s common that when people realise they are ‘people pleasing’, ‘trapped by expectations’ or ‘washed through with other peoples energy’, the spiritual identity can then swing in completely the opposite direction, in a valiant effort to rebalance and make up for lost time.

So I have seen people pleasers become incredibly selfish. I have witnessed people who have been brain washed or hurt in some way, reject just about anything with authority.

People liberated from being trapped by others expectations also run the risk of becoming thwarted by a false sense of self empowerment.

Beware of over compensating with stubbornness! It’s understandable, but not authentic.

It can be useful to swing the other way for a short while, to feel the polarity of the distortion. It can help to shake off the distorted behaviours. Although why replace one distortion with another?

Natural Evolution of the Soul

The wonderful thing is that authenticity is our natural state of being. It is boundless. It’s the return to who we truly are.

Our soul will, one way or another, always urge us back to our true and authentic origins.

If we can allow anything that is not us, simply to fall away, we can be who we are divinely given to be.

Once we realise, we need not wait a moment longer.

About Author: Trinity is an experienced, empathic energy worker. Around 18 years ago, during a profound spiritual awakening,the world around her shattered. At the time, she became engulfed in a white, universal, timeless, formless light until nothing else existed, other than the nameless truth at the core of all sentient beings. Following which,  her path rapidly became one of deep compassion for the Earth and environment. During her journey, she has integrated a wide variety of multidimensional gifts including clair-sentience, kundalini awareness, inner child healing, removal of energy blockages, past life regressions and karmic healing. She works hand in hand with the Angelic Realms. Trinity is the co-founder of the  Openhand Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the evolution of humankind. She works as the divine complement to her soul mate Chris Bourne to help facilitate the global Ascension process and feels incredibly blessed to be of divine service.

openhandweb.org

wakeup-world.com

Altered States: Awareness of the Dance

by Jack Kornfield -

A Principle in working with altered states can be called Awareness of the Dance. 

When such experiences arise, the practitioner’s primary responsibility is to open to the experience with a full awareness, observing and sensing it as part of the dance of our human life.

We may become frightened by altered states, so that as they arise we resist and judge them: 

• “My body is dissolving.” 
• “I have prickles all over.” 
• “I’m burning up.” 
• “I’m too cold.” 
• “The sounds are too loud.” 
• “My senses are too intense.” 
• “I cannot tolerate the many inner pains or waves of energy.” 

Through fear, aversion, and misunderstanding, we can struggle with them for a long time, trying to avoid them, change them, get through them, or make them go away, and this very resistance will keep us caught in them.

Compassionate and Balanced Attention

Yet just as in beginning meditation we can learn to touch the pains and tension of the physical body with a healing and compassionate attention without resistance or grasping, so too the frightening and difficult altered states that arise can be met with the same compassionate and balanced attention. 

Just as in the beginning practice we learn to notice the seductive voices of the waiting mind without getting entangled, so too must we bring that balance awareness to the sweet and powerful seduction of rapture, lights, and visionary experiences.

Our grasping or resistance to any experience stops our practice in that spot, stops our opening to the truth. 

One student had great fear of the sense of empty space that came to her in meditation, thinking she would lose herself, go crazy or be unable to function. 

She spent two years resisting it, until in one guided meditation she finally let herself open to the fear and the space. It was marvelous. Her mind quieted, her heart softened, and her meditation opened to a new level of peace and ease.

All Part of the Dance

As we encounter new experiences with a mindful and wise attention, we discover that one of three things will happen to our new experience: it will go away, it will stay the same or it will get more intense. 

Whichever happens does not really matter. 

Trust in the Process

When we expand our practice to notice whatever states arise and our reactions to them, we can make them all a part of the dance. A great support for this perspective in practice is the tool we have worked with in naming what's present.

Now we can consciously name the altered states as well, “rapture, rapture,” or “vision, vision,” as a way of acknowledging what is present, noticing it and calling it by its true name. The moment we can say its name and create space for this experience to arise and pass, there comes a sense of trust in the process. 

Wisdom of the Ages

We are reconnected with the understanding that seeks not to capture an experience, we open to what Alan Watts once called “the wisdom of insecurity,” the wisdom of the ages.

A path with heart brings us to experience the phenomenal world in all of its infinite richness, to see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think and to find freedom and greatness of heart in the center of it all. 

Because each of us as a human flower will open in our own unique way in our own particular cycles, we need not direct the specific energies of our body and heart. Our path is neither to desire them nor fear them. 

The true path is one of letting go.

When we cultivate spaciousness, faith and a broad perspective, we can move through all states and discover in them a timeless wisdom and a deep and loving heart.

excerpt from 'A Path With Heart: A Guide Though the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life'

 jackkornfield.com

Experience the Planetary Shift on an Uptilt

by HeartMath -

A planetary shift is under way. Many sense this shift internally and we perceive that time is accelerating. It's hard to keep up. We're constantly bombarded by an ever-increasing number of choices. Emotions peak and ebb to extremes in the span of hours, even minutes. Uncertainty seems to be on the rise about our personal direction and the world's.

Amid the stress and chaos, concern mounts over climate change, rising oil prices, economic instability and global insecurity but people are coming together.

A momentum is building among those who want to give back to society and take care of each other and our planet. Social networking is bringing these people together and there is an energetic sparkle in the air and a sense of hope that something new will emerge.

Scientific research shows these flickers of hope are qualities of the heart and spirit.

The heart feelings of happiness, care and compassion are enhanced by:

• Spiritual practices like meditation and prayer that connect us to something greater than ourselves.
• Heart connection with others, close friendships within and outside the family.
• Gathering with others frequently for uplifting purposes: church, social causes, etc.

We call these actions that help nurture us emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually aspects of heart-based living. As the planetary shift continues and people experience greater stress, overstimulation, overload, stress-induced physical and mental health problems, the imperative to shift toward heart-based living increases.

As life's pace continues to accelerate, we'll be presented with even more choices and have less time to make them.

The good news is that when we approach our choices with sincere heart intent it's easier to access the energy required to shift quickly into the most beneficial mental and emotional states.

Incoherence — When a person feels stress, overwhelm, anxiety, uncertainty and fear, the heart is sending chaotic and incoherent signals to the brain/mind, triggering stressful responses.

The higher cortical functions are inhibited, meaning the heart and brain are out of alignment, so solutions to personal or world problems elude us.

Collectively, these negative emotions are registered in the heart and brain's electromagnetic fields, generating a global stress and incoherence wave that goes out to those around us and around the globe. Stress and incoherence are intensified by instant massmedia reports — the natural disasters, social upheaval, economic turmoil and more.

Coherence — When you feel genuine hope, care and compassion, your heart is sending harmonious and coherent signals to the brain/ mind, replacing feelings of separation with a sense of connection. The heart and brain are aligned and in sync.

The higher cortical functions are enhanced, facilitating objective, sober assessment and intuitive perception. You perceive more wholeness, and solutions to problems are more apparent.

Collectively, positive emotions such as hope, care, compassion and appreciation generate a global coherence wave whose electromagnet field goes out to those around us and across the globe.

Increasing heart alignment and focusing on heart-based living have the potential to create a global coherence wave to facilitate new solutions for the world's problems.

More than ever people need to understand the physiology of coherence that underlies heart-based principles and the science behind global coherence. Click here to learn more about global coherence and the Global Coherence Initiative.

Tips for Heart-Based Living

1. Increasing the textures of your experience: Positive feelings such as genuine care and appreciation add greater texture and richness to our lives: Sunsets are more beautiful, spring days feel fresher, and even food seems to taste better.
2. Practice genuine appreciation for everything in your life, especially anything you may take for granted. Increasing heartfelt positive emotions like care and appreciation helps you move through difficult times with greater ease, security and grace. When you're not aligned with your heart, the textures and richness of life can quickly diminish.
3. Practice care, not overcare, for yourself and others going through the shift: Ask yourself: Is my care producing or reducing stress? Be aware of how you feel about an issue at hand, place your focus in the heart area and breathe in a positive feeling or attitude. Be objective, as if the issue or problem is someone else's. Relax in the heart area and become neutral about the issue, allowing your heart intelligence to offer new perspectives and possibilities.
4. You can increase the potency of your care and intentions and the effectiveness of your choices and actions. Listening to what your heart prompts you to do can make your caring more effective. Excessive care, or overcare related to an issue or situation can create stress and negative emotions, so it is important for your care to be balanced.
5. Watch out for negative projections — the down slant: Negative projections actually are negative thoughts and feelings about you, someone else or the future. Say you're planning to meet someone with whom you have a hard time communicating. Instead of projecting judgment or anxiety, generate appreciation, care and calm. You'll enter the meeting with a more balanced and intuitive perspective.

More Ideas From HeartMath

• Read an in-depth discussion about care versus overcare and learn about HeartMath's stress-clearing tools and techniques in Transforming Anxiety, The HeartMath Solution for Overcoming Fear and Worry and Creating Serenity, by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman.

• Heard about HeartMath's newest heart-based-living tools yet? You and people around the world can track your personal stress levels with our online Stress and Well-Being Survey™. It's free!

• HeartMath's scientifically developed and tested emWave® technology is helping people around the world monitor and manage stress levels, self-regulate emotions and increase personal coherence. Learn more about this highly effective and widely acclaimed technology at emWave® Pro for Mac and PC, emWave2 orInner Balance™ Trainer.

heartmath.org

The Magic and Wisdom of Dreams

by Jocelyn Mercado -

Dreams are a mystery. 

Scientists still cannot explain with any certainty why we dream. Dreams are magical, linking us to another world full of wisdom and symbolism. 

Our dreams reconnect us to our true wild self. They reveal to us the wisdom of our intuition, not easily accessible by the conscious mind. 

Dreams play with our fears, testing our limits. They link us back to our ancestors through the shared collective knowledge of all humankind.

Cultural Interpretations of Dreaming

Different cultures have widely varied interpretations of dreams and the importance of dreaming. The Dreamtime of Aboriginal Australians, for example, is “A kind of time out of time … That time before the world itself was entirely awake.” 

During that time, the Ancestors emerged and made their marks upon the land, forming mountains and valleys, rivers and forests. When a baby is born in their culture, she inherits a particular stretch of the Dreamtime song—a stretch of the Earth—as her own personal property, which belongs to no one else. 

The child is one with the Ancestor who shaped that tract of land. No matter how far away she ventures over the years, at the end of her life she will return to the place of her conception, “to sing [her]self back into the land.”

Another culture, the Sng’oi people of Malaysia, believe that the dream world is real and the waking world is an illusion. They believe that they travel to the real world each night in order to bring back experiences that will help them to know what to do in the shadow world, the waking world. 

They gather together at dusk in small huts, softly touching, leaning against each other, arms draped over one another as they fall asleep. In the morning light, those who slept near each other form a small circle and, while still drowsy, share their dreams with one another. 

Often it occurs that several of them have the same dream, or similar dreams. What they dreamed about will frequently come true in some way during the following day or provide needed guidance to the community.

Our indigenous partners, the Achuar people of Ecuador, are a true “dream culture” like the Sng’oi. They wake every morning at 3 or 4 a.m., several hours before sunrise, to share a herbal infusion made from the wayusa plant and begin a ceremony to share their dreams and plan their day communally. 

Dream sharing is considered a social responsibility, as one person’s dream may have an impact on another person or even on the entire community. The Achuar believe that the two realities—waking and dreaming—are one continuous existence and that dreaming and sharing the dreams with each other help to reveal underlying layers of meaning in their world. 

If a dream is negative, the dreamer has a chance to re-dream as many times as needed until they receive a dream that is acceptable to them or to the community. It is key to the Achuar belief system that we can all re-write our lives if we choose to do so.

In all of these cultural beliefs about dreaming, there is a softening of the edges of what we in modern society consider “reality.” 

There is an opening to powerful magic, a trusting in the collective wisdom shared by people and the Earth. There is less resistance; more acceptance of what the heart knows. 

The dream interpretations are layered and woven into a story of hope for the days and years ahead, with guidance for the people coming from an ever-present source of wisdom. There is such beauty in this way of living.

How can we incorporate this trust, this opening, into our own lives?

Perhaps the following questions will help you to find meaning and guidance in your own dreams:

• What kind of dreamer are you? 

Are your dreams infused with symbols or metaphors, or do they contain more mundane images such as a replay of the prior day’s events? Do you visit your fears? Do your dreams feel loving, playful, or stressful? Some theories state that dreaming helps to refresh our memory and aids in storing new learning. There is also evidence of touching another world in dreams, or having wisdom revealed to us.

This occurs in the case of the indigenous dream cultures, and as many people have experienced when they dream something and then a very similar event occurs in their waking life.

• Do you remember your dreams?

Or do you forget them in the rush of the morning as you wake up to your alarm clock and your mind races for the day ahead? 

If you want to remember your dreams, place a notebook and pen near your bed, easy to reach when you are half-asleep and try to jot down just a few words about a dream if you awaken in the middle of the night. These words will trigger your memory to recall more details about the dream later that day.

• Have you ever experienced a marked increase in the frequency of your dreams?

During times such as pregnancy, many people report an increase in the number and intensity of dreams. Some of the dreams may be linked to changes in the body, such as dreaming of water or fish when the womb is filling with life-giving fluids. Some pregnant women have had dreams that revealed the name or predicted the sex of their baby.

A New Dream for the World

Do you ever feel that the dream of the modern world is headed in the wrong direction, darkened by materialism and environmental destruction?

If you believe in the possibility of a new dream for our world, a dream in which love and gratitude take precedence over profit and greed; where all life is honored; where true environmental sustainability is possible when we join hands and work together … then consider participating in the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. 

This transformative educational workshop will help you discover the special and sacred role you can play in creating a new and brighter future for our planet.

“The dream of the Earth shakes us out of our arrogance and ignorance—and calls us to take our seat as co-creators and co-dreamers of a more beautiful world.”  –Laura Weaver

Learn more about the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium

pachamama.org

10 Things Children Teach Us

by Lauren Simpson-Green -

You don’t have to have children to be aware of the many wonderful ways they can light up your life, or generally teach you more than any yoda might be able to… despite the similarity in size.

Spending more time with children and being receptive as well as guiding them is like a meditation in itself, teaching us many of the following things: 

How to Let Go 

 The biggest ‘mistake’ that adults make in parent/adult-child situations and relationships is that the adult has all the answers. Our need to control and even have positive influence over a child directly reflects the egos need to be right.

Kids will push our boundaries and push them to the limit, and as anyone who’s been around kids will know, the more you tell them not to do something, the more they will, even if it means having midnight feasts under the cover of darkness.

This is a glorious opportunity for it teaches us that we hold no control – real or imaginary – over anyone and no-one has any control over us. The moment we surrender to this fact and work with it releases us from the responsibility of others (yes, even kids under our protection) and will probably help us confront the inner critic we are treating ourselves to.

Yes by all means cover up the electrical sockets they want to play with but don’t stress too much about that chilli pepper they’re insisting on biting into. They have to experience things for themselves. 

How to be Present 

Time is a fascinating subject.

Not only is the past, present and future apparently happening ‘simultaneously’ in a compressed and non-linear sequence, when one gets down to the purest mindfulness and that (becoming slightly hackneyed) expression ‘being in the moment’ authenticity, one becomes like a child.

It is for this reason that kids can help us to reach that kind of awareness, simply by spending time with them. 

Innocence 

Children really do say the sweetest and most innocent things. How amazing it would be to actually be like that, knowing what we know now?

To assume nothing could hurt us, to feel protected by the bosom of the world and wrapped up in the caring grip of the universe outside of meditation or those rare moments where everything just clicks into place.

Innocence is where our creativity originally came from; from seeing things for what they are or the beauty in the smallest fragment of the world such as a bird’s nest full of speckled eggs or a kingfisher make a dive. Of course they also shine up our embarrassments with their tooth-achingly innocent perceptions.

My second cousin used to do things like loudly ask on a train-ride into London why that man in the suit across from us was picking his nose. Let’s remember our sense of humour here. The poor man went crimson, but it probably taught him not to take himself so seriously… And not to pick his nose in public again. 

How to Play 

An extension of ‘how to be present’, kids, without fail, are masters of play.

Remember when playtime (now called ‘my job or career’) was simply doing what interested you at that particular moment and becoming so absorbed and fascinated in it until it was no longer interesting and then you stopped?

Do you remember playing for hours down by the river or in the attic so that time stood still and you were literally transformed into another character or into a different time or place? How fantastic was that!

We reminisce how magical it was being young, but when you think about it, it really wasn’t so complicated or elevated as all that.

We were just true to ourselves in every moment of the day. And THAT was why we (and the children we’re nagging or telling off) didn’t want to listen. Their hearts told them what was right and wrong, no-one else. 

What Really Matters 

Are you going to go on and on about what is bad and good or are you just going to get over it and enjoy yourself?

Are you going to just sit around the whole day long or are you going to dig your teeth into every moment and be absorbed in the world?

Are you going to guard yourself in fear over past hurts in every interaction you’re blessed with or are you going to use it as an opportunity to show your love? 

How to Love 

Kids do have a remarkable gift for reminding us how simple it is to open our hearts up and just love.

They hand cuddles out like candies and it’s been many occasion when a child has spontaneously hugged me and made me feel rosy.

Perhaps they sensed I needed it, but I feel like more than anything else they were so eaten up with love they reached out and grabbed the first person they could find. 

How to Have Compassion 

It’s usually the conversation about where meat comes from and why we eat animals… or it could be the one about the homeless person in the street.

It might also be in those beginning few interactions they have; in seeing someone is being left out in the game or that not everyone has an apricot. Kids seem to have this antennae, this innate and unspoiled sensibility for the underdog. 

General Tolerance 

If you’ve ever been a caretaker for one or more children then you’ll know that at times they can be intimidating.

Not only that but they work in packs; setting each other off with non-verbal looks that seem to portray anything from one to ten on the mischief scale.

They seem to have a talent for winding you up; knowing just how to push your buttons and when. It’s as if they can see through the flaws in our egos and reach in to grab them, pulling strings here and there to transform us into antagonized puppets who perfectly dance to their tune.

Well, perhaps they’re not all that bad. The point is they can be the compacted versions of everyone who has ever riled us concentrated into one little being; they are the jokers of the tarot pack, teasing us until we explode. 

Who We Really Are 

Kids are amazing mirrors, not so much for the bad stuff floating around our lives, but for the good stuff too.

They, with their innocent perceptions and unclogged-up energy states are able – not only to look deep into our eyes and therefore our heart and souls and see what deceptions we are laying out for ourselves – but also see our magnificence and authentic selves in all their glory.

We are awesome and wonderful beings and every single one of us happens to be in equal measure, whether we’re showing it or not. Children are able to see through the layers of amour we have built around ourselves and therefore remind us that it’s still there. 

The Teacher in Us 

Last, but perhaps most importantly of all, children help coax out the teacher in us. As we’ve already covered, the best kind of teacher knows to show others the way and not dictate it to them, to guide and not to preach.

More than that, children give us the opportunity to find our inner wisdom. The knowledge of how to take care of ourselves properly in the delayed gratification of saving the snacks on a walk to a picnic site, or how to dance like no-one’s watching.

How to uncover what we truly love in life as well as how to show gratitude to others or speak to one another with kindness. It’s a journey we can take together; adult and child on equal footing.

In knowing and influencing a child we are given the gift of making a difference in their lives. I don’t know about you but I remember every adult that imparted wisdom to me or gave me the time of day if only for half an hour at a birthday party.

Make children feel special and as if they can make a difference. Because you never know, they just might. 

About Author: Lauren Simpson-Green is an emerging screenwriter, novelist and full time mother who is interested in the art of play and imagination; using story alongside being Present in order to to deepen our experience on earth and reach our full potentials. She also writes a regular blog about spirituality, parenting and travel, as well as her experiences of being in a mixed marriage and living in Turkey.

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Who Me a Creator?

by Marie C. Barrett -

How can I be a real and intentional creator? 

This is a great question, but first let us get one thing straight. We are all creators whether we choose to be or not. Creatorship is part of who we are as spiritual beings playing in this physical universe. The definitive question is how can I create positive experience in my life more than negative experience?

The purpose of all creation is experience. 

My challenge is to become the kind of person I must be to have the diversity of experience I want; to be a person who naturally produces, deserves, achieves, and enjoys.

What I am really seeking behind the smoke screen of wonderful desires is to be a person who deserves such relationships and experiences.

I want to recognize myself as someone who is powerful enough to pursue my dreams until I experience them and wise enough to know these things do not define me, they simply deepen my self esteem and add to my experience of life.

In my life I can embrace all the colors and shades of experience possible to feel happy, to love who I am and how I am.  I can do so because I live in a world of polarity.

If I do not know what it is to be alone, how will I ever fully appreciate how wondrous it is to be in a deep and close relationship?

If I have never suffered through an experience of helplessness, how will I ever glory in being powerful and a winner?

Life offers a whole spectrum of choices within the polarities of wisdom, power, worthiness and love.

Creatorship is intrinsic to self esteem. When I believe I can be, do and have whatever I set my sight upon, when I really and deeply know greatness is my destiny, limits recede and I step up and into my role as powerful creator in my life.

I can create negativity and powerlessness if I live afraid of standing up and claiming my power to will, to focus and to achieve. Or I can create my life as a light in the dark, as a beacon in a storm, knowing that the experiences I choose can be mine.

It’s all about energizing my vision. 

I can learn to get up when I fall down and to persevere and never give up. I can embrace challenges as opportunities to grow and expand my capacity to exceed the limits my self-belief has previously imposed.

I am standing in my creator power when I trust myself to be wise, strong, generous and loving, no matter what. When my attitude to life is open and all-embracing, without judging others or condemning them or myself, then synchronicities start to point me in the right direction for more success, expansion and happiness.

The law of attraction, a profound and inevitable universal law, will send me all the experiences in life that correspond to my vibration.

What is this vibration? 

That attractor energy that fuels all the myriad of choices I can make for my life and that flows at the level of my choices.

We all make negative choices at times. These are part of the polarity of human experience and they can become stepping stones of learning.

When I make more positive choices than negative ones, my life will begin to offer a vibration that attracts joy, success, self- appreciation and love.

Yes, I am a creator. We are all creators of our life. 

The question is, will I deliberately make choices that help me grow expand my being? This is our challenge in the game of life we are experiencing.

Create your life the way you want it and love yourself into being an amazing and joyful experiencer of your wonderful creations. You can do it!

holisticwealthcreation.com