Whole Living Today

I’ve mentioned in several other posts the importance of watching for signs and listening to your heart (intuition) as a way to find your life’s path. It’s also important to listen to those signs and act upon your intuition. This can be the hard part.

Changes are frightening. We leave the safety and security of the known for the unknown. If we fight change, we develop energy blockages in our life. Life doesn’t flow as it should any more. Free flowing energy is joyful. Free flowing energy is freedom. Love replaces fear. Abundance flows.

I don’t usually but I’m going to use a personal example to explain messages or signs and intuition. I “know” that I’ve been blocking and ignoring change. I also “know” what facets of my life I need to change. I also “know” that the time has come that I finally need to let go and allow the changes to take place. These I feel in my heart. They show up during my times of quiet and journaling. It’s tough to listen to yourself and take action, but when the universe speaks…

Messages will show up in all different ways. It’s time to listen and take action when they really become strong and consistant. This is surrender. Letting go and trusting.

I’ve been receiving messages for some time now but it is only lately that the intensity has changed. Here are some of the “messages” I’ve been receiving the last couple of weeks (I’m sure there were many more that I didn’t pay attention to, and some of these may appear insignificant).

From my teabag tag, “Empty yourself and let the universe fill you.”

From a reading with Ben at The Beautiful Ego:

“So you need to reconnect with what excites you and what stimulates you. It has moved and will continue to move, simply follow your excitement and joy, and you will be in a state of constant evolution. So if you feel blocked in some area, move to another one where there is flow, where there is effortless excitement.”

A piece from a reading with Michael at The Spiritual Ascent:

“I think you see your potential but you get frustrated with yourself because your body will not properly manifest what you see in your minds eye. You know your potential, now you need to make all the connections work to move on to the next phase.”

And an unexpected reading in an email from a friend I haven’t seen in a few years:

“life and unknown areas sometimes tend to be scarey and open up old fears and doubts……..just go with the flow………….its like standing in a patch of mud …….we feel like our feet are stuck but when we are ready to move we just lift our foot up and out and amazed at how easy that was and just go step by step until we are where we want to be………..and smile at how all is well.” 

My dreams are becoming more consistant and symbolic of change and transformation. 

I was talking with a friend yesterday morning about freedom, change and anxiety. We discussed what I need to change in my life. She asked if I had read The Witch of Portobello and if I remembered the part about the bookshelf. I did but I would have to re-read it. I went out to my studio to turn up the heat and pulled my daily oracle cards. The cards that came up were “Stay Focused”, “Nurture Yourself” and “Freedom”. Hmm. A brief meaning of the freedom card reads,

“Walk away from restrictions and be free! You have the power and the right to change your life so that you experience more freedom. This card signifies that your soul is crying out for more freedom, especially as it involves your life’s purpose.”… “It’s time to leave a situation that you’ve outgrown. Allow the universe to support you while you make desired life changes.”

So, I grabbed The Witch of Portobello and I opened it right to page 153, the part about the bookshelf… (another synchronicity)

“Is learning just putting things on a shelf or is it discarding whatever is no longer useful and then continuing on your way feeling lighter?”

On the shelves were all the books I’d invested so much money and time in buying, reading and annotating. There were my personality, my education, my true teachers.

“How many books have you got? Over a thousand, I’d say. But most of them you’ll probably never open again. You hang on to them because you don’t believe.”

“I don’t believe?”

“No, you don’t believe, full stop. Anyone who believes will go and read up about theater as I did when Andrea asked me about it, but after that, it’s a question of letting the Mother speak through you and making discoveries as she speaks. And as you make those discoveries, you’ll manage to fill in the blank spaces that all those writers left there on purpose to provoke the reader’s imagination. And when you fill in the spaces, you’ll start to believe in your own abilities.

“How many people would love to read those books but don’t have the money to buy them? Meanwhile, you sit here surrounded by all this stagnant energy, purely to impress the friends who visit you. Or is it that you don’t feel you’ve learned anything from them and need to consult them again?”….

“Without them I’d feel naked.”

“Ignorant, you mean.”

“Uncultivated would be the right word.”

“So your culture isn’t in your heart, it’s on your bookshelves.”

The Witch of Portobello: A Novel by Paulo Coelho 

What are you holding on to? What is creating your stagnant energy? What is sitting collecting dust? What is holding you back?

To be free, we need to let go of fears. Trust.

Related Posts:

• Life is Change
• and I give thanks…
• Snuggling into the Solitude of Winter
• The Journey
• Moment of Freedom
• See beyond horizons
• Mr. Squirrel tries his hand at gardening
• Reading the Signs
• Signposts Along the Path of Spiritual Growth
• Where are we going from here
• The Trusting Bud

I want to point out something that I had written back in November in an earlier post, Rhythms of Nature - Winter:

Winter should be a time of personal growth, a time to go within, a restful break, a time to replenish energy for the start of the “growing” season – Spring. The cold and dampness, a hint to stay home where it is warm and comfortable.

The shorter days that winter provide should be used as an opportunity to get more rest, sleep and dreams. Personal growth requires a lot of quiet time and solitude. Solitude is always an interesting period in our lives. It can be a time of independence, loneliness or a time of reflection and growth – the choice is ours. Winter is the time to go within. Time spent alone has the ability to open creativity. It allows us to become our real selves, true to ourselves. A time to explore who we really are; our strengths and weaknesses. We are all complete as we are but we don’t usually realize it. No one can provide true happiness for another person; that is dependency. True joy and happiness comes from within when we take the time to be ourselves, to discover who we are.

Since the beginning of the year I have been taking full advantage of my solitude and the silence. The silence is important, the removal of outside negative influences. I’ve just been letting the negative roll by me. Denial? No, negativity is just not something I wish in my life. And by the Law of Attraction, our thoughts draw more of the same to us. Wouldn’t you rather be in a state of joy and attract more joy? It’s interesting because I’ve been feeling a deep level of contentment. Yes, business has been very slow but I’m still looking towards the positive. I’m using this time to build upon myself, strengthen my foundation, challenge and adjust my perceptions, and develop a deeper understanding and commitment to my healing arts.

Many people feel optimistic that 2008 is going to be a year of positive changes and transformations. Take full advantage of this season to lay the groundwork for the new.

One project that I am working on is to create a new vision board. Although visions boards have been around for some time, the movie The Secret is what brought them more to light. I put together my first vision board a year ago, they are amazing. Just to take the time to put together your dreams or visions is very enlightening in itself. But to actually start seeing the results happen…. just one example on my board was a photo of a horse and I placed the words “whispered wisdom” across the photo. This wasn’t what I meant by it, but since then I have met a very dear friend who is a horse communicator. Has to make you think. Here is a post for more information on creating vision boards.

Thoughts are energy, we can change our lives by changing our thoughts!

Related Posts:

• The Voice of Solitude
• The Journey
• Moment of Freedom
• But this is your path
• Transcend Limitations
• I took the one less traveled by

Here is a simple yet very effective meditation that I use in my classes. The meditation is easy to visualize and makes it easy for first time meditators. It is a powerful healing and empowering meditation.

Find yourself a comfortable, quiet location. A straight back chair is most effective as the position allows energy to flow more freely though your body.

Sit with your feet flat on the floor, arms relaxed and with your eyes closed, just feeling your breath as you inhale and exhale.

Imagine yourself as an acorn, buried just beneath the soil. Feel the warmth of the sun warming the moist soil.

The warmth and moisture stir your energies. Imagine your root starting to grow, straight down  into the nourishing soil. Growing and starting to branch out. You sprout a stalk, pushing through the soil and finding the sunshine. Reaching towards the light and air, you grow stronger and taller. Feel the energy of the sunshine being drawn into you. Breathe it in. Breathe in love and healing energy. You start branching out, filling out with leaves, reaching for the limitless sky. Your roots drive deeper into the soil, spreading out and grounding you. Feel yourself pulling the nutrients from the soil, absorbing them and sending them all though you, reaching your farthest leaves. As you exhale, release all tensions and negativity. Feel the energies moving through you, grounding and strengthening, healing. You are now a magnificant oak tree. Enjoy the warmth of the sun, the gentle breezes through your leaves and the soft rains refreshing your leaves.

When you are ready, slowly become aware of your self and surroundings. Stretch and slowly open your eyes. Experience how refreshed, grounded and empowered you now feel.

Balance and being whole. Balance is more than just balancing events and emotions within our lives. Balance is about finding the balance of our feminine and masculine. The balance of energies. Until we reach that point we search for that balance outside of our Self. Although we are complete as we are, we may be suppressing aspects of our Self.

I’m not talking males and females but those aspects of the masculine and feminine within.

Let’s use an example. If we are denying our Self of our masculine aspects, we will seek that in another. Is that why some women (or men) wind up drawing controlling, dominating relationships into their lives? To balance out their nurturing, gentle side? And in doing so, fulfilling the suppressed feminine side of the other as well? This isn’t balance, or love, this is co-dependency.

Love will be found within the balance of Self.

 Related Post

• Finding Balance

“Preconceived notions, dogmas, and all personal prejudice and bias must be laid aside. Listen patiently, quietly, and reverently to the lessons, one by one, which Mother Nature has to teach, shedding light on that which was before a mystery, so that all who will, may see and know. She conveys her truths only to those who are passive and receptive. Accepting these truths as suggested, wherever they may lead, then we have the whole universe in harmony with us. At last man has found… that he is part of a universe which is eternally unstable in form, eternally mutable in substance.” ~Luther Burbank