Headline News

I've decided I am going to choose my own headlines from now on. 

Although I always wake up happy and excited to greet the day, by the time I have scanned the headlines of the morning news, read my emails, and returned a few telephone calls I realize I have  already become negatively affected by the sufferings of the day. Flooding. Fires. War. Recession. Lost Dogs. Sick Children. Insensitive Jerks. Arrogant Bullies.  With just a bit of exposure I can quickly feel tired and drained –  both physically, mentally, and emotionally – even after a good night's sleep. 

We all have a certain amount of chi, or life force energy, that is ours by nature of our karma, our spiritual practices and life habits including diet, exercise and environment. But that life force can get used up pretty quickly if we allow our emotional responses to dictate its stewardship. As an empath, when I get caught up in the drama and illusions of the world stage it is very easy for me to end up without the energy I need to work and play.

We all tend to see the world through the emotion we happen to be feeling. If you are exposed to the feelings of sad, or angry there is a good chance that the world will seem that way to you. Everyone has unhealed emotional wounds that open and weep when the world touches them. And this disease spreads when left untreated.

The cure? Forgiveness.

We really can heal all emotional wounds by forgiveness... of ourselves, our parents, family, friends, our systems and nations, and everyone who has wronged us. When you have forgiven you'll no longer have any emotional reaction to like-persons or to events which trigger the emotions that feed it. Forgive but don't forget, wisdom is learned only by experience.

But the moment anything happens in my life that is challenging to my balance, or generating an emotional response in which I am losing power, moving into fear, I pause and ask, “What did I do to create this opportunity to grow. What is the lesson here. What do I need"?

Knowing that fear is "my needs announced" usually, when I ask that question, the answer comes pretty quickly and easily.  I run down my fears, doubts, concerns... identify my victimization, my open wound, and recenter in forgiveness and gratitude for the lesson. This recharges me. Instantly.

I have learned that I am a co-creative force in the universe, and that when I get clear about what I actively create, I experience harmony and peace. It all comes down to perception. Am I looking at life from the viewpoint of empowerment or victimization? If I see myself as a victim of circumstances, I have decided that someone or something else has the power, and I am helpless.

When I stand in a space of confidence and assuredness, I see everything as an opportunity to learn and expand.

I am willing to take responsibility for my life and stop looking outside of myself for reassurance that everything will be all right. I absolutely knows that I am in charge of my experience, and therefore I can choose to be all right no matter what is happening around me.

I take a deep look at my beliefs around being powerless in the moment and I realize that is a lie. I can always choose to live from a place of deep peace and profound joy.

"I release anything that does not serve my higher good. I focus on what is working in my life. As I do, I draw even more good things into my life."

It's a choice. Spread the news.

May you be blessed!

Installed and Running

Tech Support: Yes Ma'am... how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart ma'am?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running ma'am?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past/Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past/Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of it's own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ma'am?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - program not run on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry ma'am. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Can you pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey!!! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: I promise to do just that. By the way, what's your name?

Tech Support: Just call me the Divine Cardiologist, also known as the Great Physician, or, just "I AM." Most people feel all they need is an annual checkup to stay heart-healthy; but, the manufacturer (ME) suggests a daily maintenance schedule for maximum Love efficiency.

Thank you for sharing this! (author unknown)

Reach for happiness! Smile!

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure, but, scattered along life's pathway, The good they do is inconceivable." - Joseph Addison

Want to be happier? Just smile. A smile is usually contagious and will often be returned, so that the positive feelings flow both ways. Cheerfulness is a state of mind in which we feel content and confident and are free of stress, anxieties and fear. A prolonged state of being cheerful is called happiness. And you can choose it, no matter what is going on on your life.

Jon Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis, teaches positive psychology. He actually assigns his students to make themselves happier during the semester.

"They have to say exactly what technique they will use," says Haidt, a professor at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. "They may choose to be more forgiving or more grateful. They may learn to identify negative thoughts so they can challenge them. For example, when someone crosses you, in your mind you build a case against that person, but that's very damaging to relationships. So they may learn to shut up their inner lawyer and stop building these cases against people."

Be grateful for life's simple pleasures, and be accepting of life as it is in this moment. Focus on what is beautiful, miraculous, magical. Simply by cultivating an attitude of gratitude and non-judgement you will be so much happier! Once you've decided to be happier, you can choose strategies for achieving happiness. I recommend performing a daily "gratitude exercise." It involves listing a few simple things that you are grateful for. This shifts your energy away from draining negativity and promotes a wellspring happiness vibes. It is most often our response to a situation—not the situation itself— that is responsible for our unhappiness.

Unhappiness doesn’t lead to anything positive. It does lead to negative feelings of powerlessness. The more unhappy you believe you are, the greater your feelings of powerlessness. This contributes to even greater unhappiness. The cycle goes on and on, getting stronger with each go-around.

We don’t have to spend our lives troubled by feelings of unhappiness, sadness, powerlessness or low self-esteem. We can learn to take greater control of our thoughts and feelings, and thus to exercise greater control over our lives. We can choose to be happy.

Holding a grudge and nursing grievances can affect physical as well as mental health, according to a rapidly growing body of research. One way to curtail these kinds of feelings is to foster forgiveness. This reduces the power of life's challenges and the people who perpertrate negativity to drain you of your happiness.

In his book, Five Steps to Forgiveness, clinical psychologist Everett Worthington Jr. offers a 5-step process he calls REACH. First, recall the hurt. Then empathize and try to understand the act from the perpetrator's point of view. Be altruistic by recalling a time in your life when you were forgiven. Commit to putting your forgiveness into words. You can do this either in a letter to the person you're forgiving or in your journal. Finally, try to hold on to the forgiveness. Don't dwell on your anger, hurt, and desire for vengeance.

The alternative to forgiveness is mulling over a transgression. This is a form of chronic stress, says Worthington.

"It's associated with almost everything bad in the mental health field includiung obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, probably hives, too."

Who wants hives?

image credit: www.shootstudios.com

Bathing in Blessings Lesson One: Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the basis of all unity in that all is allowed; yet all is healed. In using the vibration of forgiveness, nothing sticks, and therefore all karma is released. As forgiveness is made a part of the aura, all interactions become a blessing.

In this Sunday morning series, "Bathing in Blessings," I will teach you how to make wonderful elixirs that combine energies from minerals, herbs, and essential oils that you can use to improve the quality of your life. The first one, Forgiveness, will help you to raise your own vibration and allow this quality to manifest as a primary signature in your life.

Traditional gem elixirs are made by placing cleaned stones chosen for their vibrational signature in a clear glass or crystal container with pure water and placing this in sunlight for several hours.
Herbs and essential oils may be combined with minerals to boost effectiveness.

The mineral we will use for our Forgiveness Elixir is Rhodocroshite. Rhodocroshite holds all tones of forgiveness and will assist one in releasing the past allowing one to create a new future founded upon unity. Always clean your stones with water and a clean brush to get rid of any organic matter before using them. A new hard bristle toothbrush works great for this. Next, clear them of any psychic residue by putting them in open sunlight for 2-3 days.

It is also important to minimize your direct physical contact with the stones and water in order to keep the crystal energy from absorbing your own energy and effecting the elixir. You should always have a calm and focused emotional state while making elixirs, because strong emotions can effect the energy.

Conventionally made elixirs are made outside on bright sunny days in the morning or at noon. Many practitioners keep the gemstones in the water for a minimum 24 hours. I usually create a 21-day grid to make an elixir, spending some time each day in meditation to reinforce the intention. You can experiment with techniques and see what works best for you.

Please take note that it might be possible to do some real damage with elixirs made in the conventional way from some kinds of stones. Soaking the stones in water can cause the leaching of toxic components into the water. These include but are not limited to, Copper, which would include Azurite and Malachite. Cinnabar contains Mercury for example. "Love is in the Earth" by Melody is a good source of information as to whether or not a stone can be used to make conventional elixirs.

For stones which are not suitable for soaking in water, alternative methods can be used to make elixirs. These methods include: placing the stone in a smaller container which is placed in the larger container of water, and placing stones around the container being charged. I recommend that you have at least six stones of the same type to place around the container in a grid, using quartz points to amplify and direct the energy of the stones you are making an elixir with into the water.

There is no set requirement for the type of the container but I prefer an undecorated clear glass or crystal container which is held sacred to creation. Cleansed baby food jars also work great for this. Never use plastic bottles or jars for elixirs, and NEVER use city or tap water. The chemicals in city or tap water can destroy the vibrational energies of the stones. Use distilled or reverse osmosis or Tachyon water for your elixir preparations.

After the water has been charged by the gemstone, it is filtered and usually preserved with alcohol (I use a few drops of vodka). The alcohol is used to inhibit bacterial growth and may also help to " fix" the vibration.

We will also add a few drops of organic, therapeutic grade Geranium essential oil to our elixir. Geranium flowers have a beautiful and powerful scent, and their energy assists in allowing for the release of karmic ties that bind, along with contracts and agreements that have been forgiven.

Finally, we will be adding a sprig of the herb Echinacea Purpurea into the container. You can purchase dried organic material or use fresh from your own medicinal herb garden. Echinacea assists initiates in releasing cellular trauma during the transmutative process of ascension. In essence, this herb assists initiates in the act of biological forgiveness. Cellular trauma is recorded in a particular biochemistry that is often related to viruses and disease. As such trauma is released, some people become ill or feel ill. Echinacea will assist in boosting the immune systems at such times for a more rapid biological transcendence through the trauma.

Elixirs can be used by drinking glasses of the charged water, by placing drops of the elixir in a glass of water or directly under the tongue two to four times a day. 3 - 6 drops taken 3 - 4 times each day is usually recommended.

They can also be used topically on the skin or put in bath water. A great way to absorb the elixirs is to mix them into your body lotion. These are both excellent methods of absorption into the body. You can also add them to sprays that you use for room or aura clearing.

Forgiveness made manifest is the thousand-petal lotus in the heart of the Bodhisattva that projects joy and compassion upon all. May you be blessed.