“You have to love yourself because no amount of love from others is enough to fill the yearning that your soul requires from you.” — DodinskyInviting love into our being allows us to experience our sacred connection to others and to humanity as a whole. When we are born, we temporarily forget our divine magnificence; consequently, we spend much of our lives trying to remember who we are. Before we uncover that remembrance, we spend much of our time and energy seeking out the inner connection which we crave on a soul level without even really understanding why. In other words, even before we remember what love really is, and where it comes … [Read more...]
Being Vulnerable Opens Us to Being Love
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; the word is love.”—SophoclesThe more we lean into our vulnerabilities, the more open we become to love. The areas of our lives in which we feel most vulnerable are health, relationships, and finances. Whether or not we had a healthy and loving childhood, we all experience some form of emotional pain as a reflection of the human condition. Our subsequent pain, when left unresolved, keeps us living in habitual, protective ways and inhibits us from co-creating a fulfilling and happy life.Leaning into our vulnerabilities requires spending time alone so we can confront the source of those … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Cultivate Self-Compassion
“Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source of both internal and external peace, they are fundamental to the continual survival of our species.” —His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Cultivating compassion for ourselves is our best pathway to inner peace and our true source of happiness. Compassion infuses love into every encounter we experience with both ourselves and others, supporting healthy relationships. Living as compassionate beings, we can bless and release the suffering of life by trusting that every human being is on their own spiritual path. This increases our capacity to create peace and harmony in our lives … [Read more...]
Stepping Out of the Shadows of Shame
Disconnecting from ourselves early in life is often prompted by feelings of shame. Researcher and author Brené Brown identifies shame as the “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and, therefore, unworthy of love and belonging.” Throughout our lives, we absorb shame messages, such as, “I’m unlovable,” “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m unworthy of love.” Doubting our worthiness to be loved and not wanting to feel the shame of our lovelessness, we often disconnect from ourselves and others.Wearing this cloak of shame keeps us from knowing the divine essence of who we are and being connected. It makes us feel … [Read more...]
Having Courage of Heart
Courage comes from the Latin word cor, which means “heart.” Courage sources deep within our hearts as self-acceptance and compassion. It encourages us to engage in every life situation no matter how scary as an opportunity for spiritual transformation.To be courageous is to lead with your heart, and reveal your truth―your inner thoughts, feelings, and experiences―honestly and openly. It dares you to fully express who you are as love.When you express yourself as love, you venture into the unknown territory of your own being. Being courageous doesn’t necessarily mean performing feats of external bravery and strength, but rather acknowledging … [Read more...]
Disengaging From Negative Energy
Establishing healthy energetic boundaries with family members, friends, associates, coworkers, and even strangers is important in disengaging from negative energy. Some highly sensitive individuals struggle to keep their energy from bleeding into the energy fields of people around them, or strive to prevent other people’s energy from infiltrating their energy field. If there are toxic people around us on a consistent basis, and we are allowing their negativity to affect us within—like a slow moving infection—this alone can bring on disease by weakening our defenses. Even if the negative energy created by others in our lives is at a very low … [Read more...]
Blessing and Releasing: A Mantra for Letting Go
“The cure for pain is in the pain.” RumiHere I was walking the beach in Antigua surrounded by such natural beauty, a cherished and connected relationship with my husband and a life that I only imagined in my dreams; yet, I was unraveling, falling apart, and disintegrating into little pieces like the grains of sand I walked upon. For weeks since my beloved dog Cammi’s death, I felt fragile and vulnerable as if my heart was flayed open. The grief felt like an anvil pressing down on my chest. “It was too much pain to feel for my sweet dog,” I thought to myself. So I tried to grieve whenever my busy schedule allowed and then held it together … [Read more...]
Releasing Resentment
Inviting in a new year gives us a natural place to clear our life of resentments and grievances, and begin with a clean slate. Confronting and clearing such negativity unleashes a flow of positive energy within us that we can direct toward shaping a more fulfilling life. At the beginning of 2015, we may have paused, reflected, and even made new resolutions for the coming year. This is beneficial, yet, for our new intentions to manifest, we have to clear our lives of any resentments that we may be holding toward others and even ourselves. Like a cosmic cow catcher in front of a locomotive, we have the ability to clear the track of any … [Read more...]
Breaking Free of Our Comfort Zones
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. —Maya Angelou Breaking free of our comfort zones challenges us to expand our range of spiritual understanding and stimulate growth. Perhaps an apt visual metaphor for such an expansion is the dispersal of a shipment of rubber duckies around the world’s waterways. In 1992, a Chinese freighter accidently dropped a crate of thirty thousand rubber duckies into the Pacific Ocean, which were later discovered on the coasts of Indonesia, Australia, South America, Alaska, the Arctic, and England, resulting in scientists gaining a better … [Read more...]
Tapping the Power of Intention
Using the power of intention is not about setting a specific goal and focusing so much on it that you lose sight of other possibilities. On the contrary, it is about setting a goal, being open to the many choices that present themselves in reaching that goal, then selecting the ones most likely to bring about the desired outcome. Just as a plane is guided onto the runway, into the air, and to its destination by airline personnel and air traffic controllers, you, as copilot, can guide your intention into reality by co-navigating with your source. Making your flight plan a reality, however, necessitates being out in front of your … [Read more...]