Spirit In Gear

Out of Balance? Remember to Connect Within

Like the doctor who smokes and doesn't follow his own advice, I find myself in a similar waters.  I wonder why I feel out of balance, experiencing resistance instead of well-being.  I've gotten into the habit of relying solely on my head and logic to run my life.  Soldiering on, I forget to connect within, pausing to hear the wisdom from my Higher Self.

This morning I take the time to listen.  I can take in the messages, the reminders of what I know and forget.  I find myself feeling better, lighter.  I print out the message and vow to read it at the start of my days to come.

Connecting within is as easy as slowly inhaling and exhaling.  I find the slow breathing loosens my connection to my head.  As I continue breathing, feelings rise up as my heart comes forward.

I do my connecting via writing.  I select a quiet private place.  I play evocative music in the background.  I may light a candle and say a brief prayer.  I like to write using my laptop because I can type faster than write.  I typically will pose a question, and as a response begins to emerge, I type, with my eyes closed.  I keep my eyes closed simply to keep the flow going.  I usually type fast, and make typos.  If I had my eyes open I would want to fix the typos immediately, instead of waiting til I'm done writing.

This response to my sense of restlessness and loss over the death of my parents came through earlier this summer.  The wisdom remains as relevant today as several months ago:

We tell you to be still, to breathe deeply.  You long to know with your head.  But first you must know with your heart.  It's a similar struggle that your brother is going through.  Be still.  Practice listening for your heart voice.  Bring yourself back to this moment, over and over again.  Be okay with feeling what you feel in this moment.  Be okay with what is.  You use up a lot of energy resisting what is.  And trying to use logic and force to create impact in your life, rather than allowing, and understanding that life unfolds - much easier than using resistance to fight or to force.  Again we say to you to practice staying in the moment, for a moment.  You do realize that it was your heart that guided you to Hendersonville that day, to that bookstore, to that very book that you need in order to be in the moment.  Please do not sweat this.  You keep forgetting that you are loved and cherished.  You feel that lacking, because your mother and father, the first source of your earthly love, have passed on from  this physical plane.  If only you knew how your loved ones hover and love you from above, you would bask in that warmth and feel the soothing coming your way.

We say this lovingly to you - do not stop feeling what is coming tthrough - do not stop the feeling, even when it's sad or painful.  The more deeply you can feel what is painful, the more deeply you can feel the joy and the love.

As I mentioned above, I type with my eyes closed.  I have no idea how that last paragraph got underlined.  Apparently I hit something on my laptop. But it's obvious that my Higher Self felt that those particular words needed extra emphasis!

Sending Well-Being to the Gulf

Japanese scientist, Dr. Masaru Emoto, has published extensively on the characteristics of water.  His research reveals that water responds to emotion.

Taken in that light, he offers this prayer to set an intention of love and healing, amidst the anger and turmoil raging in the current Gulf oil crisis:

I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.  To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae, and all living creatures . . . I am sorry.  Please forgive me.  Thank you.  I love you.

I invite you to join in this prayer, or in words of your own making, to begin to send our waves of love and positive intent to Mother Earth.

 

Moving at the Pace of Guidance

Speed is some guy running through the airport shouting into a cell phone.  Pace is going around the block with a three-year-old and noticing everything the child is noticing.

- Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers

I may not be running through an airport, but I feel like I have been running on life's treadmill the past two weeks.  The pace of my work life has accelerated, some due to good things happening.  Nonetheless, I feel harried and stressed, and earned a speeding ticket for my own inability to create a pace that works better for me.

To move at the pace of guidance is Baldwin's second whisper of seven whispers.  The first I addressed in Making Room to Hear Wisdom.  The remaining five whispers are:  Practice certainty of purpose;  Surrender to surprise;  Ask for what you need and offer what you can;  Love the folks in front of you;  Return to the  world.

Technology makes things work faster, and we've grown to expect and desire that.  We've learned to adapt to speed.  We can drink coffee and text at the same time.  But somewhere along the line, we've become the servant to speed, rather than determining how speed will serve us.

Baldwin notes that "Speed tends to cancel out guidance."  Ego steps in as speed pushes Spirit out.  I know that when I do that, my will takes over and I go into my "make it happen" mode, which requires a "push" energy.  Definitely more exhausting, (adrenaline wears me out), not to mention that I'm less able to work with the forces of the Universe on my own behalf. 

I look back on my previous career in life coaching, where I had control of my schedule, and regularly practiced some form of stillness and centering.  I routinely tapped into guidance. 

Fast forward a few years to a career change - to a business in real estate investing.  I have less control of my schedule.  This business is very "response oriented."  When the phone rings, I can make money, so it's important to get the phone to ring, and to respond promptly to calls.  My people skills, honed over the past 30 years, come in handy.  Now I need to return to the practices that can help me adjust the pace I bring to the moment.

Recall the famous one-liner -  "If you build it, they will come," in the movie, Field of Dreams.  Baldwin encourages us in a similar way -  " . . . if you have a sacred place and use it, something will happen."

I am herby declaring that I will practice a few minutes of silence/stillness first thing in the morning.  The egg timer will be on my nightstand.  My initial aim is not to solicit guidance.  I just want to practice quieting my thoughts.  If I can slow down my thoughts, and allow my observer to take over, I can rein in the speed of my life to a more manageable pace.  Then Spirit has a chance to get a word in.

Once I can slip into a centering mode more easily, I can resume my automatic writing, a practice I did regularly over the last decade.  It's as simple as lighting a candle, getting centered, and asking a question, then writing or typing out the answer as guidance comes through. 

Baldwin reminds us that "listening to the voice of guidance is not a one-time, okay-now-I-got-it, don't-have-to-practice-it kind of skill."  We are called to notice whose voice we are listening to in each moment.  Our job is to let "the Divine blow in our faces and guide us home."

[Photo Credit:  Ariel da Silva Parreira]

Iced In

This is my 6th winter in South Carolina, and my 3rd ice storm.  As I look at the wintry landscape outside, I scratch my head (in the figurative sense) and try to reconcile the weather with the state I live in.  I'm no longer in Ohio, but it feels the same on this particular day.

Plans have been cancelled.  A national speaker we were bringing in to present a seminar over the weekend has been rescheduled.  Our trip downtown for dinner with friends has been postponed.

Yet I sense the hidden gifts that come with the icy roads.  I hear quiet!  No cars move down the street.  Everyone is hunkered down in their homes.  I sense life slowing down to a pace I don't often operate in: in the moment.  We are blessed to have our heat and power on.

I find myself in a puttering mood.  I sit on the floor in my bedroom and pull out journals from my nightstand to read about my life over the past 2 years, while a load of wash runs in the other room.  I look in the pantry and find something to bake.  I call neighbors and invite them over for an evening of wine and conversation around the fireplace.

The icy weather outside helps me chill out emotionally and mentally.  I think to myself that it would be a good thing for me to show up more often like this on non-icy days too.  Perhaps we humans could benefit from brief periods of "hibernation."  Thanks to Mother Nature, I find my natural rhythm again.

Summer is Rest

Every time I pull into this rest stop in North Carolina on our way home from Ohio,  I want to stay and linger for an indefinite period of time.  The area is beautiful, providing a restful oasis.  Yet we rarely linger.  It's our last stop and home is 2 hours away.  It's also the time when I feel the most fatigue, at the tail end of a long trip.

Yet there have been 2 occasions out of many when we did give in and stay longer than the time it takes for a visit to the restroom.  One of these occasions was "forced" - my husband had a business call he had to be on for about 1/2 hour.  Lucky me - I laid on the grass and journalled - we had just returned from our older daughter's college graduation and I had many thoughts and emotions swirling around in my head and heart.

On the other occasion I was driving by myself and made a conscious decision to take time to rest and be present, giving up the self-imposed deadline of being home at a certain time.  Instead, I walked around, inhaling nature's beauty.  I later sat and did some writing.

I hope that I take more opportunities to rest.  That could be the most important "action" I take in that moment in adding to the quality of my life.

Photo Credit:  Debbie Call

Cinderella Breaks Free

It occurs to me late this afternoon, while doing a Jazzercise class, that my "inner Cinderella" has broken free of her imprisonment.  My energy on every level skyrockets!  I work out at my best level.

I recall that it begins last evening when I attend a monthly business association meeting.  I am feeling very energetic.  Filled with well-being, I network like a pro and enjoy meeting new people.  I continue with friends in the hotel bar after the meeting.  I don't remember the last time I feel this kind of energy.

My enthusiasm continues today at work.  I face all the same problems and issues present yesterday, but today I do so with levity and fun.  I have patience with myself.  I have patience with the people on the other end of the phone line.  I have patience with traffic.  I feel like the best of myself.  More compassionate, less interested in being judgmental.

What a switch.  For the past couple of weeks I've been feeling tired, jaded, resistant.  I felt uninspired to write a simple blog post.  I felt like a drudge, like Cinderella working with no reprieve in sight.  But instead of sweeping floors like Cinderella, I was feeling suffocated by unexamined, absurd expectations of myself.  Such as, "I can't relax until I'm a financial success like the gurus I listen to." or  "I have to figure out the magic bullet."  Pressure, pressure, pressure.

By the time Saturday arrives, a touch of food poisoning grounds me and forces me to rest.  I'm still in my pj's at 2:00 p.m. and I don't get any chores done, nor do I "accomplish" anything.  I sit on the couch  and read fiction.  I play a subdued game of bridge with friends that evening.

Being "benched" gives me the opportunity to do some reflection and meditation.  I find myself hanging onto Dick Richard's words about taking ourselves less seriously,in his response to a comment at his post, Let It Go! Let It Go! Let It Go!.  He recommends laughter and silliness to offset the seriousness in life, and in particular in the field of self development.

I'm not sure quite how I make the leap from tired and resistant to energetic and positive.  And really it doesn't matter.  But I do think Dick's words influenced me.  What I do understand is that somewhere along the line I decided I can feel good without external situations changing. 

And the wise Cinderella within who broke free knows that I can go far if I do these two things at this time in my life:  follow my energy (rest when I'm tired; go in the direction that feels good, as opposed to resistant); and build in a couple of brief times per day to be still and get in the space of "allowing" myself to be.  Practicing these two things can "grease" my receptivity for guidance and direction around business goals without anxious exertion on my part to find the answers.

I guess I don't need Prince Charming after all. 

Life in High Definition

What I see and experience in life depends upon the speed at which I'm moving.  There's "future" speed, and then there's "present" speed.

Too often than I care to admit, I operate in "future" speed.  Maybe you know what I'm talking about.  When I leave the present, I splinter myself apart.  Here's how it happens:  My mind races ahead to the future, while my physical body is left behind, and my spirit hovers about, outside of my awareness.

As I am doing one task, my mind trolls ahead like a search engine, thinking of all the things I have to do beyond this task ('gotta get this done, and then gotta do that, and then . . .").  Or I jump into the future with "what if" thinking, pulling in needless worry and fears about things that may or may not happen (what if my husband loses his job . . . what if my younger daughter does not find work when she moves to Chicago this summer, what if . . .).

Meanwhile my body starts to feel less grounded.  Instead of feeling a sense of rootedness, I feel tethered by adrenaline and sensations of being rushed.  My sense of creativity and mental expansion become pinched off as my access to intuitive guidance diminishes.  Been there, done that, right?  Welcome to life in the speed lane of Western Civilization.

This past week something different happens to me.  I experience a sense of "high definition" in my life.  All around me colors stand out with greater vividness.  I notice shapes and patterns - from the clouds in the sky above, to how the ground lays below.  Instead of scanning familiar objects in the landscape, I view them with that extra edge of sharpness and clarity, like our television screen in high definition. 

Results Revisited

Getting attached to results is a slippery slope going nowhere.  Yet I often cling (clutch is more like it ) to my attachment as if my life depends upon it.  Like worrying about some possible future event, attaching to results creates its own misery and has little to do with the outcome.

This past Monday I receive a short message during my prayer/reflection time: 

"Trust.  Take Appropriate Action.  Let Go."

Simple words.  Familiar words.  What is different now?  Impeccable timing.  I'm ready to receive this message.  My business partner and I need to find buyers for several investor properties within a 3-week deadline.  It doesn't help that funding for 2 of these properties got unexpectedly pulled out with no warning.  I feel the pressure, the panic.  How can I market these differently to attract buyers in time?

I step back from the emotion.  I decide to sandwich in my actions between trust and letting go.  I experience an odd sense of calm.  I create a little marketing twist to get people's attention.  I present these properties in an investor meeting from a different angle than previous meetings.  As a result, several serious buyers come forward with an interest in looking at those properties. 

By week's end, I begin to imagine other scenarios and outcomes I hadn't even considered when I was fixated on a specific result.  I discuss these other options with my business partner - options we can pursue if our buyers don't all come through at the same time.  I feel amazed that practicing non-attachment, giving up the clinging and clutching, creates a sense of clear-headed expansiveness in the absence of drama! 

My learning continues during the week when I receive Suzanne Falter-Barns' latest issue of her Expert Status Ezine in my inbox - "I'm Done with Results . . . How About You?"  Pretty enticing title, isn't it?

My big takeaway - the meaning we attach to results creates the problem, not necessarily the results themselves.  In Suzanne's words:

For instance, recently I started really getting into how many folks were visiting my blog every week. I worried if the numbers were lower than usual, and had surges of delight when the report swung high. And then I’d try to figure out what I did right or wrong that particular week … and consequently mull it over, tease it out, analyze and just generally fret.

In the light of my new non-attachment to results, I can see that it doesn’t ultimately matter how many people visit my blog. That number was just proving to be an ego stroke or an ego bash. What matters is actually how I’m interacting with the blog – and what REALLY matters is how effectively I’m sharing with my readers.

So now the focus has shifted to the journey, and how I choose to play it out.  When I’m excited about what I’m writing and put lots of energy into my blog posts, the numbers coincidentally go up. Conversely, when I’m lazy about it and lose touch for a week here or there, the numbers happen to go down.

Suzanne goes on to ask the pivotal questions:

Instead of looking to see how many people hit my blog so I can stroke my ego and feel powerful, I might ask instead, how truly and deeply am I sharing with others today? Am I reflecting what Spirit wants me to reflect today?*     " . . .Is my writing for this ezine teaching me what I need to know in order to keep spreading that love?

As Suzanne illustrates, we need to examine the meaning we attach to results.  When I'm stressing and struggling, my husband will jokingly ask me:  "Are we having fun yet?"  The question at least gives me pause and perspective!  Are ego's big footprints all over the meaning I attach to results?  If so, how can I change the meaning to reflect a higher purpose?  This week in my business challenge I focused on imagining outcomes that benefit all involved.  And that includes me too,  Sometimes I shortchange myself.

This morning, before I write this post, I receive another dose of reinforcement in the words of a prayer from Julia Cameron's Heart Steps:

I am able to allow situations to evolve and alter.  I am able to await outcomes.  I tolerate quiet periods of non-knowing while solutions emerge and present themselves.  I do not force solutions.  I expect the successful working-out of difficulties and differences.  My heart is wise.  It knows when to act and when non-action is the action to take.

My latest mantra - Cling Less, Live More!

Any lessons/insights you'd like to share on the meaning you attach (or don't attach) to results you seek?

[Photo Credit:  kjdrill]

Enough

I am enough.  I have wisdom enough.  I have faith enough.  I know enough.  I do not need to strive or strain. I do not need to reach or worry. I am enough.

- Julia Cameron, Heart Steps - Prayers and Declarations for a Creative Life

These words reach me this morning like a lifeline thrown to one struggling in rushing waters.  Instead of rushing waters, I find myself caught in the grips of torrential mental noise:  I need to market more.  I need to create more pay per click ads.  I need to read through all the material from my online marketing training.  I need to do each and every exercise.  I am not doing enough.  I need to make money.  More money!  I need to do it now.  Urgent, urgent, urgent!

"I am enough."  These words stop me.  The mental churning fades out.  I exhale.  I feel emotion rising up from my heart and escaping through the tears in my eyes.  I sense another part of me coming forward.  She comes not from ego, but from that part connected to the Divine.  She is calm, patient, wise,  She trusts.  She takes her time.  I sense her compassion and love.

I sit still.  I notice the relief I feel.  I watch my churning thoughts shift into positive scenarios.  I imagine what my life could look like as I embrace knowing I am enough.  I can see my grown daughters as enough, trusting them to make mistakes and surviving just fine.  I can use the knowing that I am enough to take my time and plan my marketing steps for my business.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed I can feel focused.  I can feel lighter because I make this marketing manageable.

My imagination continues to prance ahead.  As I quiet the demanding inner pressure, I can be more present to others, more positive, more caring.  Better self care leads to better care of others.  Not necessarily doing more.  Just showing up in a different way.

I start first with myself.  I resolve to lengthen my quiet time early in the morning.  To spend the first minutes of the new day in stillness, prayer, and reflection.  To ensure that the person who gets out of bed knows she is enough, and knows that her "spirit is large enough for any circumstance."

Who are you when you remember you are enough?

[Photo Credit:  Arjun Kartha]

Try This in Lieu of Resolutions

After an absence of several months, I've been quietly slipping into the blogosphere to read snippets from some of my fav bloggers.  Always . . . perfect timing!

Phil Gerbyshak's What's Your Word of the Year for 2009? caught me at a time when I most need it.  He suggests building your year around one word that resonates for you.  He gives credit to this idea to Christine Kane's Resolution Revolution post.  She supplies a lot of help if you need inspiration around words to select.  Both are excellent posts about creating something more powerful and lasting than a New Year's resolution.

It took me about 60 seconds to jot down 4 words.  My top 2 picks:  "ease" and "savor."

Why those two words?  Because I am out of balance.  I've been fully immersed in real estate investing.  It's a "reactive" business.  It feels like I have less control of my time.  I notice that I spend a lot of my day utilizing "masculine" energy - hard, action-oriented, "make it happen" energy.  I'm tired on many levels.