To forgive our past, we first have to face and resolve any unfinished business from our past choices. This means every pattern, choice, and grievance must be examined, like turning over river stones, without hiding behind the facade of excuses. Then, to attain closure, in addition to spiritually releasing our patterns it is also necessary to clean up any physical residue associated with them by getting rid of emotionally charged possessions or gifts, closing bank accounts, changing titles on properties, and letting go of old wedding rings. Releasing the layers of patterns is a lifelong process because their residue never completely goes … [Read more...]
Clearing Unresolved Grievances Opens Us to Spiritual Growth
What I love about inviting in a new year is that it gives us a natural place to begin anew. As the clock ticked down to 2010, many of us paused, reflected, and made new resolutions for the coming year. This is beneficial, yet, for our intentions to manifest, we have to clear our lives of any unresolved grievances that impede the flow of our energies. This healthy clearing process is an essential element of our spiritual and personal transformation.As my husband and I celebrated the new year, we reflected on past grievances and how their resolution had transformed us as individuals and as a couple. We thought of an old "Seinfeld" rerun where … [Read more...]
Reflecting on Your Intentions
Here it is, the winter solstice and a time for reflection and celebration. In many Native American cultures, tribes and families would gather to start up a new year at the solstice and have a special celebration where they would make a request to the Great Spirit to eliminate certain things that they no longer wanted in their lives. As a way of representing this, they would craft six arrows: three to represent the things they did not want and three for the things they did want. They called them "death" arrows and "life" arrows because they held respectfully, the things they wanted to be out of their lives and those they wanted to bring life … [Read more...]
Letting go as the Pathway to Creating Intention
I just spent the last several days with my dearest friend, Debbie at Sunset Beach in NC. On Saturday, as we took a long stroll on the beach, we both had the intent to find some unusual shells. She wanted ones she could place in a "healing" fishing net she was making to represent everything that she had let go of this year. I, on the other hand, desired a sand dollar to grace my path, signaling abundance.Combing the beach for special shells, we had to sort through and pass up a myriad of broken sand dollars and typical shells before making a final choice. When we came across a particular shell, we picked it up, examined it, and decided if it … [Read more...]
Building Intimacy and Connection in Our Relationships
Permission to break with tradition: Give each other permission to take time for yourselves and each other. Be open to creating new experiences and breaking the predictable patterns of what you've always done around the holidays. Take a short get-away, give each other massages, and spend more relaxed time together.Communicate your needs: Take turns sharing your vision of the holiday season. Listen to each other with non-judgment, acceptance and respect and without interruption. Create an atmosphere of safety where each of you are able to be vulnerable and speak from your heart what your needs and desires truly are at this time of year.Be … [Read more...]
Autumn’s Beauty Reminds Us to Look Within
"Oh God, make me an autumn tree if I must die." - Esther PopelAs I looked out my front window this week, I witnessed the blazing scarlet leaves of my Japanese Maple tree. Excited to experience this gift sensorily, I stepped outside and let the color wash over me and fill me with its life force. In that moment, I reflected on the beauty and transitory nature of life itself.Through an act of divine synchronicity, I was talking with a friend and he shared a similar experience with walking through a magnificent golden leaf pile and feeling overcome with its beauty. He reflected on the leaf's life cycle and how he had read somewhere that it mimics … [Read more...]
Sustaining a Positive Flow of Energy
"Heal the World, Make it a better place, For you and for me and the entire human race..." - Michael JacksonWhen we sustain a positive flow of energy, we hold steady in the midst of the natural twists and turns of life. There will always be external circumstances that challenge us in ways beyond what we think we are capable. However, when we pause, open our hearts, and release all reactivity, we realize these moments are divine opportunities to transform our lives.We are the source of the inner and outer landscape of our life. The quality of it is determined by how we direct our energies especially through the choices we make every moment. We … [Read more...]
The Power of Choice
Throughout our everyday lives, we need to make choices all the time. Sometimes, we may find making any choice an overwhelming experience. Because we have so much going through our minds at once, it is often hard to sort through this ricochet of ideas, thoughts and information and make the choice that resonates with us. Then, feeling bogged down in the fear that we'll make the "wrong" or " bad" choice, we often become paralyzed or avoid making a choice altogether. Unfortunately, not making a choice through fear or avoidance is still making a choice. This is when fear blocks the flow of our creative energy that we have available to us to make … [Read more...]
Being Accountable For Your Life
We are experiencing a time of unprecedented individual and global transformation. It is time to affirm trust in a higher power whatever that happens to be for you and connect to this source through your heart. Sustaining this energy inspires new ideas and thoughts beyond the physical so that we open to love in ways that truly express our heart. These new ideas that enter our consciousness source from spirit guiding us in our lives rather than the way you think, believe or act from these past mindsets. It is often referred to as the light of God or the divine energy that resonates a deep knowing within us.Focus on the positive aspects of this … [Read more...]
A Time of Reflection
Decorating my Christmas tree gives me the quiet opportunity to reflect on my life at the end of another year. As I was putting up this year's tree with my family and friends, I was struck by how each special ornament symbolized a particular moment, period, or season in my life. When I stepped back and looked at the tree, I had glimpses of my past, present, and future.I noticed my children's journeys beginning with the hand-blown Lennox ornaments inscribed with "Baby's First Christmas." I watched their lives unfold as I touched handmade preschool creations, school pictures inside tiny holiday frames, and their once favorite pastimes like … [Read more...]
