Love. Everything is Love. Your speech, your actions and behaviors, your thoughts - everything must come from love. From deep within you is a knowing of how you could choose to show up in the world. From deep within our hearts we are connected to an unlimited source of love. We have forgotten and thus, we must remember. When we choose to come from love in all we do, even the biggest struggle can be seen and felt by the heart as a gift, instead of the travesty we make it out to be. Because everything happens for us, not to us. And it happens for us, for our highest and best truth in all time and space. Yes, it sucks sometimes, to be human, to live in the world that tries to control and manipulate us. This too, is a gift. Because when we see everything as a gift - it changes how it feels inside. It changes how we may respond with it, rather than react to it. When it feels heavy and overwhelming and hard - go deep within your being. Not to ask why, but to ask what is life wanting you to see, in this moment? What is this very moment attempting to teach you, so that you can grow and expand into awareness of your own existence. Love is the answer. It never matters what the question is.
Brush your teeth. And floss, everyday. This human costume we don is only for a very short blip in the scheme of the universe. But while we have it, we are the caretakers of it and in being such, we owe it to our creator, to take the very best care of it we possibly can. These suits we wear - full of cells and fibers and muscles and tissue and fascia are powerful beyond words. They are literally self healing mechanisms. Get a papercut and find out. What does the body immediately do? Cause inflammation around the cut so that new blood can flush in and begin the rebuilding process. Amazing! And yet we do not trust our bodies to provide the healing we so desire. Why is this? Somewhere in our history we have been convinced that we are not powerful, that we are not magical beings of light and that we have the ability to heal ourselves. We played along and now we have industries built around this idea. We run to a allopathic doctor every chance we get to see whats wrong, to hear from this “professional”, who is merely practicing the art of medicine, for a quick fix and they have the motherload. We have also been conditioned to fall in line that there are referrals to acquire, and diagnosis to learn and all the while pay insurance to tell the doctors how much time they are allowed to spend with us. When you are not feeling well, yes, something is wrong. And perhaps its been a long time coming, as in chronic illness, and one day, it just pops up. “I have no idea how that happened” people will say. Its our lifestyles, its our mass food consumption, its our distrust in the intelligence of our own bodies. All pain - is nothing more than a white flag from the body that screams, “Hey, I need you to notice me!” Brush your teeth. And floss daily.
Catch yourself. If you ever find yourself addicted to something - shopping, gambling, love, sex, food, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, stress, other humans - catch yourself. All addictions serve a purpose, there is a reason we act out these cravings. Your job, your responsibility, is to figure out why you are craving this or that. Sometimes, its because we need to escape a life we have been strong armed into living. Sometimes, it is because of specific social pressure to belong. Sometimes, like with stress, we have no idea we are even addicted to it - this is the worst addiction of all. The most deadly, the most widespread epidemic of our time isn’t drugs and alcohol, it’s stress. Why? Because you can’t see it, or feel it or taste it or smell it - until you do. We are conditioned by our culture to speak, act, live, even play a certain way - according to anyone that isn’t us. Each of us are so unique and individual - like delicate pieces of a puzzle. We each have a unique reason, spot to fill - and yet we are constantly striving to be like everyone else. When we betray our own true nature - our gifts, talents, ideas and beliefs - our bodies tell the story of such betrayal by way of chronic illness and life long dis-ease. The body has been equipped to handle stress - it’s called Cortisol. This nervous system hormone is the most addictive substance known to humans. It is very handy when the need to flee danger arrives at your door. However, because we are not living in our truth, according to our unique puzzle piece, the mind and body are out for defense. The entire system knows it’s not living according to it’s truth, and so the nervous system is always on, always begging for another hit so as to calm the system down long enough to make it through another day. This is the very reason stress related illnesses run rampant in our culture and are the leading cause of death - among every population. They won’t stamp cause of death: STRESS, instead they will label it, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, RA, IBS, Crohns, MS… the list goes on and on. When are we going to wake up and start catching ourselves?
Align all the parts. If at any time if you are not coming from a place of love, joy, ease and compassion and peace, you are out of alignment with your true nature. If you experience overwhelm and anxiety, you are out of alignment with your souls deepest desire, and that of your creator. The range of emotions we get to experience in this life are either low frequency vibration emotions or higher frequency vibration emotions. Since we are all made of energy - quantum physics proves this - this is where are attention needs to be focused when we are feeling blue. The most beautiful process is right in front of us and yet we still don’t see it. All emotions emit a frequency that either makes us feel good or makes us feel unwell. The lower end vibrational emotions are there to guide us when we are straying from our true north. Thats all. And, they are temporary. The gift is in the decoding what they are bringing to our attention - because they are all gifts. Emotions can be likened to an invisible dog fence. Imagine this invisible fence has guideposts surrounding you at all times. You can call them triggers, conditioning, beliefs, patterns - these are your “limitations” set up by our ego. When one of them, say triggers anger within us, an electric jolt, it sends us a message to respond in order to understand what is happening. Anger is a very important emotion and completely 100% okay to have, express and own. Its message can be “you are not in front of the right person for this”, or “where can you find more compassion” or “what is this teaching me in this moment”. Emotions teach us on the daily about how our inner landscape is either lined up with or out of alignment with the task, person, thing, event, situation at hand. And when we are out of alignment it is nothing more than an invisible guidepost alerting you that you are not where Source intended you to be in the moment. We all have an invisible fence that our ego created for us to, tada… be safe. And the guideposts are very sneaky, so conniving or so it seems. I liken the ego, to a jealous best friend, who really really wants you happy and safe, but is super jealous or afraid of you and your life choice at the moment. Because it feel threatened and all the ways it has bent over backwards to keep you safe, it will take this one lying down. But, the beauty within this, is that it is an opportunity for us to receive the message, decipher its coding and learn how to respond with it so that in the future our neuropathways have been rerouted to a better feeling, like ease, understanding, empathy. And we all could use more empathy.
Laugh. Laugh. Laugh long, Laugh hard. Laugh until you pee your pants and tears run down your face. Laugh every single chance you get, so long as it is including those around you and not focused at them. Laughter is one of those actions that release serotonin in the body - the arch nemesis of Cortisol. It sends the message to the body that we are good, soooo very good right now. Think back to a time when you and your best friend were simply hanging out and one of you said something, not even particularly funny, but you both glanced at the other and busted out laughing so hard and long that you fell off your chair and rolled around on the floor. Your stomach hurts, your cheeks hurt because you were so present in that moment and for one split second everything as right in the world. In a world where we LOL and ROTFLMAO, we must, we must bring laughter back to our space and time and do it more and more and more. Actually do it, not type it. Take my word for it, it does not create the same internal landscape that the physical act of laughter will ever bring. You simply cannot be stressed and laughing out loud at the same time. How can you bring more laughter into your body? Laughter makes us feel happy, connected, light and free, if only for the moment. But then, all our experiences only last but a moment - it is us, our minds, who have been trained to cling to the crappy situations in life long after they have been finished. We get to choose. We get to choose what we focus on and where our attention goes. We have that power. We’ve always had that power but the problem lies in wishing things were different, trying a new way - there is nothing useful in wishing or trying. One must practice what we want to live. Practice drinking more water. Practice laughing - out loud - just as an exercise. Practice seeing things for what they are - temporary - and move on. Practice not for the sake of perfection, but for the sake of your soul - to come back into alignment in the moment.
Have favorites. Have some favorite experiences in life. Cultivate your favorite smell, your favorite sight, your favorite sound, favorite taste, and your favorite touch. Pay real close attention to those favorites, and indulge as much as you can with zero guilt. When we remember our favorite aspects of life, the experiences that brought us joy-filled hearts, satisfied bellies or calm nervous systems, our bodies get a chance to relax, to come back to center. Cultivate your favorites, curate your life around them and call them to mind every time you hit an invisible guidepost. Crappy things are going to happen in this impermanent life of ours, that is true. But we do not have to suffer them, we do not have to make them part of who we are. Gifts that they are, allow us to reach deeper fields of expression and expansion, of experiencing life on such a deeper more profound level. Our sense of smell is connected to our earth element. Our sense of sight is connected to our Fire element. Our sense of touch is connected to the Air element. Our sense of taste is connected to Water. And our sense of sound is related to the Ether element. The favorites you choose and that are in harmony with you will always bring you joy and a sense of contentment, which is why they must be cultivated, daily if possible. Who wouldn’t want more joy in their lives?
Be Honest. Say what you mean. Everytime. With Everyone. People don’t need to know everything about a situation but they do deserve to be spoken to with honesty. And honesty in this culture is hard. So hard. We don’t want to offend, we don’t want to appear smug, we care what others will think of us, we use our words like swords when they serve our purpose. And why? Because of a perceived thought, idea or threat from another? Being honest starts with yourself. If you cannot be honest with yourself you will most likely not be able to be honest with others. Honesty requires you come from integrity, from authenticity. We would rather appear small and undervalued than speak our truth. Speaking your truth must be done now. It must be done with grace and humility and integrity. When we speak ill of another, think ill of another, we are only damaging our already fragile ego-centric subconscious, creating more untrue stories for the mind to wander around amidst. Words are spells if nothing else. What you say and think are like boomerangs that will eventually all come back to find you in one form or another. Being honest is a skill most of us must cultivate and practice daily. Start with yourself. Being honest with your feelings, your choices, your actions and speech will bring you many gifts to bring clarity and harmony to your life. It will be challenging, since we have been brought up in a culture where it is “safer” to be quiet and lie than to be outspoken and honest. But this too is part of the reason we are in the place we find ourselves - stressed, overwhelmed and fatigued. Our bodies and minds were created for a purpose and when we are not living that purpose, out of integrity, we will invite dis-ease in the body and mind. You have nothing to lose but your health.
Breathe. Ah yes, Prana. Life Force. The one thing we require above all else to exist. Air to Breathe. And we do this act of survival, like most of our tactics for survival on autopilot, completely involuntary. And therein lies a major issue with our life span and longevity. These bodies, these organs, have a limited warranty. Some people have a longer warranty on how many breaths your heart and lungs will provide. Some people have limited warranty on their liver and brain. My point is that we have the opportunity to make every breath a conscious act of thriving for ourselves. Most humans have a very shallow breath pattern. Whether its because they talk a lot, or have to for a job, or are overly anxious and hold their breath too often. When we breathe shallow, many physical ailments arise. From chronic headaches, neck and jaw pain, upper back muscle tightness and I could go on. The somatics aren’t important for this conversation suffice it to say, please practice steady, long deep breathing, every day. We will end up taking less of them, thus keeping that warranty good for years of breathing to come, more years than with the shallow breath we are accustomed to. Long deep breathing immediately calms the nervous system and sends the cortisol drop into shut off mode. It enhances the immune system by bringing in steady and slow oxygen particles into itself. It helps digest our foods and carry the nutrients to the proper places. Long deep breathing strengthens the lung capacity. It also allows for muscle growth and fascia expansion. It gets carried into our blood stream, which eventually also reaches the bones to build new blood for the body to pump by the heart. The mere act of drawing in a long deep breath from the belly also opens up the chest and allows space to enter the body. Space allows things like muscles, tendons, tissues, fibers and cells to regenerate and fluid to move quicker and with ease. Step 1 is to notice how you breath during your day. Where can you bring in more moments of quiet long deep breathing?
Authenticity. Accept that this path of awareness, unpacking and our flow state is a journey into the true self. And never underestimate the fact that being authentic, living authentically will force others from you and you from them. We want to belong so badly that we will do anything to prevent being cast out. Cast out from our birth families, our friendships and business relationships. Being Authentic means to accept that you must choose between it and belonging to the group. Have no fear - you will find a tribe that resonates with you so hard that you can’t help but be your true authentic self. This will take practice and patience. Lots and lots of patience. How much longer can you go on in your chronic pain and keep parts of you hidden or buried? What will it take for you to dig deep and find your voice, your true north and start showing up as that being? Since most humans don’t even think about it, its likely you will spend your entire existence here in a loop of suffering your own truth for the sake of belonging to a group that does not see you, does not hear you, does not support you, does not resonate with you. It takes courage and bravery to be authentic. And we trade our authenticity for approval time and time again because we have been conditioned to do so. Take a moment and write down all the ways in which you feel you are being authentic in your relationships, in your job, in your family. My guess is it will be a very short list. So now, make a list of all the easy in which you betray your authenticity for the sake of the feeling of belonging. This will be a much longer list and will give you a sense of where you can start your inward journey. That is, if being authentic is an important core value of yours.
Riding the Wave of the Upward Spiral. Oh the stages of growth, expansion and healing. The Stages of Awareness, Unpacking and Being in Flow State. The ego loves to keep us in its grasp, in it’s loop of keeping us safe and small. But that is all an illusion created by our subconscious to keep the peace in our external landscape. Our internal landscape however is twisted and tormented and cannot help but alert you to this fact by manifesting a condition of pain or discomfort in the body. In the Awakened and Awareness phase of our journey, we experience reality in a very different way - because we are no longer asleep. When we live from autopilot (like we are taught) - wake, work, sleep repeat - we miss everything. Our routines can either keep us captive or be the gift we need to see how things might be better if we shifted ourselves, just a mere 2*. When we become aware of whats not working or how a particular thing, event, person affects us on an energetic and emotional level we have the option of leaning in further to see whats going on - to shift your perspective. Once we are aware of our behavior, we can begin to follow the threads of intelligence back to when and where this first took place and what meaning we gave it. Life is neutral. Everything that happens is neutral. Its us, as humans who assign a label to things, good, bad, right, wrong, that can and does cause us suffering and lose our connection to Source. These must be investigated, seen, acknowledged, welcomed so as to be integrated back into the whole self. And then comes the Flow State of being - when we feel at one with the world around us, we are genuinely content and happy, and no suffering. This happens especially quick when we are actually on a path of healing and self discovery. And then, we fall asleep again. Sometimes, for decades, as in my case. Until we awake again, only to find we aren’t happy, or healthy or aligned much to our shagrin. And so, it’s back to the Awareness state. Again. Soon you will be in the uncomfortable, messy, beautifully ugly unpacking state. Again. But have faith, the Flow state is right around the corner, ahhh… there she is. This sysle does not stop. Let me repeat this for the people in the back. THIS CYCLE DOES NOT STOP. We just get better at noticing and moving through it. Life is great. But as we are learning, everything and I mean everything is temporary. Even the Awareness State. Even the Unpacking State. Even the Flow State. Why? Because this is the contract we signed before our souls made the leap back onto earth for one more go ‘round. Isn’t this fun? I must say, this is my favorite thing about being in this human body right now. All the growing and learning and expanding going on is just so exciting and exhausting.
(Insert space to Laugh out loud here. Go Ahead. Tilt your head back and LAUGH.)
Because it’s all hilarious if ya think about it.
Seeing the truth and light in others. I truly believe we each have the innate wisdom to guide our own path. I believe that when the struggle or pain becomes too much, that's when we must reach out and ask for help. Not because we can't handle our situation or emotions, but because we need reminding of how we can navigate this life - heal ourselves - with our own being, our thoughts, our actions, our moment to moment awareness. We have been so deeply conditioned and convinced we are not enough - in all areas - that we forget we are an extension of the energy of all things. And being part of the energy of all things we have the ability to shift, rebuild and transform any and everything that comes to us. What comes to us most often, I find is the very thing we need to explore deeper to allow us to see how perfectly whole we are - warts and all. I am a born phoenix, burning up what no longer serves to make way for what does serve our higher energy source. To me, it's not a being with a face, and arms and legs like I was taught by my upbringing, and definitely not one that places judgment on our actions and behaviors. Humans do that. Source does not. Source is us, living through us and how can something so magnificent and bountiful want us to suffer and be in pain? We were given the power of choice. And like the Law of Cause and Effect - every single choice we make has an effect - not only on us but in our collective consciousness because what happens to the part of something, happens to the whole. I believe in presenting myself to my colleagues (clients, patients) as a mirror, a reflection of what their truth is and how to go about locating and then dwelling in it all. All the possibility and all the magic they already possess. You already possess. I am simply here to help you remember who you are. Truth. Divinity. Eternal.
I love you so much, it's crazy. xo
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