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From My Heart to Yours

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Warm Holiday Greetings from my heart to yours! I hope that the end of year festivities have an opportunity to provide some inner reflection, even in the midst of stress that the season may bring for some.

My sincerest wish for everyone is that they continue to further their unique path of growth and evolvement, as that as what we are doing here. Because in doing so, we begin to further wake up to who and what we truly are while living this human life. And the further we awaken, becoming more steeped in this higher dimensional Truth of ourselves, you’ll notice all sorts of “pleasant” trickle-down effects that happen as a result.

To name a few, you begin to feel an overall sense of well being that you know deep down is more real than even the strife, challenges and chaos around you…the thoughts, feelings, fears and beliefs from past programming and conditioning that used to hold you back are now fully seen through and no longer believed, and therefore no longer limit you…you no longer are identified with the mind’s negative messages, and may even be amused by them because they are so ridiculously untrue!…you become the love and compassion that you are at your core, as you sense the interconnection of all of life beneath the surface…you feel the freedom of not really needing anything from anyone outside of yourself. Your needs become elevated to preferences. Instead of looking to attain something from outside of you, you feel a desire to give, whether it be a small gift, an act of kindness, a complimentary word or a silent acknowledgement of a person’s divine Self.

These are just a few positive side effects, of course, so “evolving and awakening” is worth looking into if you’re wondering what to do with your life. And, truth be told, that’s what we’re doing here anyway, whether we’re conscious of this or not. But it moves along much faster as we become more conscious and deliberate on our life’s journey.

A powerful exercise for growth is to spend a few minutes to center yourself and quiet your mind. Then ask your angels and guides (of which you have several) to give you a thought, insight and perspective that would most give you joy and align you with your higher self. Then be watchful over the next few minutes, or even the next few days…the answers may come through a chance conversation with a friend, or a podcast, or an article you come across.

Warmest wishes to you and your continued unique journey of growth and awaking…a journey which we all share together…and the good news is that life generally gets much easier and more enjoyable the further along the growth path we go, even if it feels like two steps forward, a step back, two steps forward again, etc. That is the growth process.

In closing, here is an Asatoma prayer that a friend shared with me:

Lead me from the unreal to real

Lead me from darkness to light

Lead me from time-bound consciousness

To the timeless state of being that I am

-from the Upanishads

sunbeam

The Key to Unconditional Love in Relationships

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Several months ago, I wrote an article for The Edge Magazine. The Edge is a valuable resource for anyone on their journey of personal and spiritual growth and expansion. As souls, we are all on this journey. However, as humans, we are seldom conscious of it. When we finally become conscious that we are here mostly to learn and grow towards awakening to the unconditional love that we already are, we have reached a milestone in our soul’s development. It may happen early or late in life, or not at all in this lifetime. But it’s probably a good sign that you’re on your way if you’re reading this blog.

Each month, The Edge Magazine features a new topic. This month (July, 2019) is about: The Present Moment — Maintaining This State of Being. Last March, The Edge’s featured topic was about how to move toward unconditional love. Below is my article….please enjoy!

In their 1974 song “Already Gone,” The Eagles sang, “So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.”

I don’t know whether or not The Eagles meant it, but it perfectly fits to interpret the “chains” to be the identification with our ego. The ego is based in separation and individuation. Think of the ego as our body/mind self, which contains all of our programming from early on in life. Limiting thoughts, feelings, beliefs and fears are based in the ego.

Our lives can become imprisoned and unconsciously governed by limiting ego beliefs such as “not good enough” or “fear of failure” or “it’s too scary and painful to open up and fully receive love.” The ego works overtime to protect us from possible emotional pain, yet it is also striving hard to find love, joy, peace and security, mostly outside of ourselves.

When we incarnate here, the dance of the ego begins with the trauma of separation. We are dependent on our caregivers for love, security and a sense of well-being. We become conditioned to search for unconditional love outside ourselves, and if we don’t find it, limiting beliefs about our self can form and we can develop a tendency to guard our hearts.

Yet, we are multidimensional beings. There’s another part of us — the soul. The soul comes from Source. Like drops of water which form the wave that belongs to the ocean, we are a human, a soul and we also belong to the one creator Source. In other words, we are not separate from Source energy — and we are not separate from the love, security, peace and joy that we are searching for outside of ourselves.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Not only does love lie within us, but we are unconditional love. As Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, once said, “We come from love, we go back to love, and we are love.”

Going back to The Eagles’ song, telling us that we live our life in chains, never even knowing we have the key, “the key” is a mere perception shift. Adyashanti, another spiritual teacher, equates human life to “the greatest slight-of-hand card trick.” He says, “Enlightenment is really just a radical shift in identity.” He means that spiritual awakening is about identifying primarily with the pure light, energy and consciousness that animates all of life, the part of us that can never be harmed or die.” Another name for this level of consciousness is Christ consciousness or Oneness consciousness.

When you operate from Oneness consciousness, you see yourself in others. You see through other people’s ego state of consciousness, which is unconsciously striving for love and connection or else protecting itself from love and connection, and instead view all beings with love and compassion. It is automatic. “Oneness” needs nothing from another, and instead is motivated and fueled by giving and being love.

Experiencing this level of love is a subtraction process. As we quiet our thinking minds and go within through meditation or an inner journey, or by simply becoming fully present, we can experience peace and love within ourselves. When we let go of the mind’s filters and programs and are truly present, we can feel a reservoir of deep peace beneath our fears.

Another way of experiencing ourselves as love is to practice what Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversation With God series, suggests: “If you want more joy in your life, be the source of joy for another. If you want more love in your life, cause another to feel loved.” Experiment with it. Relationships go much smoother, he says, when we view them not as a cookie tray to grab something from, but rather as a container to pour something into.

Here’s another experiment: Adyashanti writes, “When the divine part of you silently acknowledges the divine part of another, their divine self knows that it’s being acknowledged and it will feel good being in your presence. They may not even know why.” To be the unconditional love that we already are requires a perception shift out of our ego consciousness. Practice identifying as the love that you are, and then begin to view others as that same love behind their human form and their ego consciousness. It’s like a muscle that you exercise. Over time, it becomes your natural state, mainly because it is your natural state!