Being Present with Change
It’s been quite a while since I last wrote. I haven’t forgotten you, by any means. I’ve been quite busy doing individual sessions with many of you throughout the pandemic. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to be that channel for Spirit’s guidance, which writing blessedly affords me. It’s just that I was rendered kind of bafflingly speechless, for long stretches at a time, while Spirit was busy transforming me, and all of us. Things were changing at lightning speed, too quickly to even capture in words.
Now, at harvest time here in the midwest, I am in appreciation of the fruits of transformation, both ripened, and still ripening in my clients — and in my own life. It’s been a very long, and deeply dark, gestation period and there’s more to go on this path. We are still globally, politically, and environmentally in turmoil and frustration over whopping doses of reality continuing to pour in. But I’m hopeful, based on what is happening in my experience with clients, that we are profoundly evolving on the individual level. I know that when we change individually, the external can not help but follow suit.
Change is not easy to handle, typically. We’ve had so many changes surrounding the pandemic’s effects on life, spirituality, and each individual. Like many of you, no doubt, I’ve seen businesses close or move in my area. I’ve seen prices, in many cases, really escalating. I’ve spent hours on hold for customer services, because labor shortages are affecting everything and everyone. It’s natural to feel unsettled or resistant, as life mirrors back abnormality and change.
PRACTICES THAT HELP
How do we manage this huge transition of reality and collective consciousness? It’s easy to lean into old, basically escapists habits and addictions, but not ideal in the long run. Compulsive habits are human, don’t worry. You don’t have to be perfect. However, I’d like to remind you of some grounding and transformational practices that are both timeless and also hugely relevant to successfully living in these challenging experiences which we now face - practices that feed your soul’s growth and bring true joy and miracles into your life:
1. Establish a daily meditation time - any kind of practice that takes your attention away from the external world’s shiny objects and demands, and redirects your focus within. You don’t have to do these things perfectly either! Just create an intention, slow down your breathing, and do your best. It’s easy to download an app like Insight Timer on your phone if you like guided meditations. Or turn to YouTube. Or chant, pray, or and/or visualize. Or learn one of the many forms of mindfulness meditation that lower stress and cultivate an awareness of the Witness Self. Be sure to breathe deep and slow with all of these modalities. For the authentic Self is not that mental chatter. It’s that which is quietly watching all the mind’s chatter, the Witnesser — your sacred essence. All these practices will help one to stop being dominated by the fear caused by identifying with our thoughts. These practices encourage residing in our hearts. Living through the heart is magical, fulfilling, contributing, compassionate, and definitely transformative.
2. Perhaps the most crucial, fundamental practice: Get in touch with what you’re feeling in your heart. Get present with yourself and life itself. Stop the constant running and distracting, and honor your feelings that arise in the process of living. Stay in your heart. This isn’t easy because we have been so conditioned by our parenting, schooling, and culture not to honor our feelings! When I say “feelings”, I don’t mean reactive emotions. I’m speaking of the vulnerable feelings like sadness, terror, anger, loneliness and grief fhat have been buried for years. The mind is judgmental by nature and it triggers reactivity rooted in our old wounds and buried feelings. When we believe the mind’s criticisms and judgments, we are not present; we are in reactivity and distraction mode. We are in flight or fight mode, which is so hard on the nervous system. So stop, breathe slowly, feel and honor your feelings. In doing so, you’ll be giving yourself the self-acceptance, compassion and love that you’ve always been looking for outside yourself.
3. Keep working on letting go of the past. The past is only real in your thoughts. Bring yourself into present time through the previous two points. The present moment is what is real.
4. Get close to whatever your God is. You may call it whatever you choose to call it. All forms of God, all names of God, and all representations of God are perfect, if they are personally meaningful to you. Put simply, you would benefit greatly if you give the Divine a name and relate to it in all your doings - please trust me on this, and if you need help doing this, reach out. For how deep, miraculous, and real could the relationship with your personal Divine be if you don’t have a name for it and don’t check in with it often? It’s like being married to someone whose name you didn’t know! And how truly fulfilling your life will be if you call on this eternal Source to guide you, protect you, help you manifest your heart’s desires, and help you to serve the world in the best ways possible.
WHY NOT ESCAPE WHAT DOESN’T FEEL GOOD?
Why not just escape reality that is too hard to handle? First, let me stress that it’s okay to escape reality in moderation!
But knee-jerk escapism when we feel any discomfort easily gets out of hand and can become entrenched, self-defeating habits — and addictions. Without fully honoring our feelings, they get repressed, causing energy blockages and sometimes disease.
WHAT WE MISS!
On the sensory level, in escaping reality we miss the magnificent, subtle artistry and divinity of life. We rush by the small details: the gentle sound and sight of rustling autumn leaves, the rich redness of a passing car, the play of window light on the walls of a room, the many subtle expressions on a loved one’s face. The moving sounds of various instruments, notes, and themes in a music concert. When we’re busy thinking of the next thing to say, we can miss the nuanced, clever joke someone just made.
When we quickly react in anger to someone’s accidentally insensitive comment, we’ve missed the deeply buried, hurt feelings of childhood that unconsciously got triggered and just need to be honored. We miss complexity. We live dully, on the surface of life. In other words, we miss the unique experience of being truly alive, authentic, creative, vulnerable, evolving, and loving. We miss connecting deeply to our essence and to others.
We can go through life half-asleep…or we can breathe deeply, feel fully, call on what is sacred to us, and abundantly know this mysterious experience of being a divine spirit having a complex, human lifetime.
GOING DEEPER
