Know your own heart, and trust it.

Animals instinctively know they cannot trust a person who is in fear. It’s amazing when we are able to truly grasp this understanding, this deepest knowing of the truth and make choices from that knowing. Any person who seeks to draw others into their own struggle with fear is going to spiral that fear, because actions from fear as the underlying emotion are not Divinely Inspired. Fear begets fear, and love begets love. Until we get back into our own heart and listen for what feels like light, and love and trust in ourselves, and in love being the foundation of everything. Creating a foundation of trust and faith in love and light as the fabric of everything is the only remedy to those spirals within each of us.

When we embrace the understanding that every human being has the best understanding within their own hearts to choose their own path, we stop ourselves from drawing others into our own fear based spirals. Only when we look within our own hearts and support, or at least trust, others to do the same does Divine Grace shine the light on inspired solutions. And, at least in my own experience, if a solution is divinely inspired, others will join in from their own internal seeing... that’s how it works. Like the field of dreams, if you build it they will come. If it’s built from fear, the results will show immediately. If it’s built from love it will flow, grow and flourish. That is not actually rocket science. I am not saying that difficult times do not present themselves, but that we are the only ones who are capable of knowing our own path through, and what it all means to us.

Boundaries and doing what it takes to get others to cease and desist from anything that feels not ok to us, that is self love that when practiced vigilantly builds up an internal store that enables a feeling of infinite love for others, regardless of their behavior. That is what it means to be a warrior of the heart... to me anyway. People, all beings, who can’t trust and honor boundaries are living in fear, and cannot be trusted. That’s pretty much common sense in my world. My body, my choice... my life, my choice... my mind, my choice, period. ✨💝✨🙏🏼✨💝✨

A golden key to freedom...

It has been my experience, in my own life and also working with others as an intuitive healer, that even just looking for a positive light new perspective, and/or a positive new possibility or two, can bring a shift in any situation, sometimes a big one. 99.9% of us have brains that can spin out negative thoughts at any given moment… so what. Truly, no matter how negative our thoughts get, it only takes a few light thoughts to keep the momentum floating up, because consciousness truly is the foundation of everything and consciousness is love. So even your negative thoughts are consciousness, just like everything else. A bit like the poem Footprints in the Sand, even when we feel we are in our darkest times, Divine Grace will always float us up.

Worrying about negative thoughts is a bigger problem than the negative thoughts themselves, in my opinion. For me, when I am able to accept them as simply a part of my thought process I feel much more at ease immediately and I can then process and release them more quickly. Knowing that my faith, the many positive thoughts I have and all of the moments of love and gratitude that I feel throughout my day already float everything up feels most accurate in my heart. Nothing will keep us from having any negative thoughts, or difficult times, contrast is an important part of our experience. Trusting in the nature of consciousness, trusting Divine Grace in any form, trusting the love and gratitude in our hearts… no negative thought can weigh down the light that even one tiny drop of that kind of thinking creates in our lives. That is my experience anyway. Nothing is more powerful than asking Divine Grace, in whatever form feels close to our heart, for help to keep our lives on track and trusting that it is. 

I learned from my gurus to believe that everything happens for a reason, for my highest good, as a child. Holding that belief is a brilliant antidote to any negative thinking because it spirals literally everything up. It inspires ultimate trust and gives us the space to be human, to make mistakes, to have negative thoughts and experiences and still have wonderful amazing light filled lives. In my experience, the beliefs we hold have a lot more power in what creates our world than our thoughts do. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for reframing, finding new perspectives, and opening doors to new brighter possibilities, but finding and maintaining foundational understandings that support us to have faith and to trust the world that we live in is a golden key to freedom.

The joy of being wrong.

Earlier today I was having a wonderful conversation with a dear friend of twenty some odd years, who I’ve also worked with a lot over the last eight years, and a bit of our conversation inspired me to write. 

One of the many things that this friend let go of years ago was a deep-seated feeling that ‘being wrong’ was... well a threat to their life, it really was that intense for them. The freedom of letting that go was incredible. As we spoke of this they told me that they thought the flip side of it was they wanted to make other people wrong. Having known this person for many years and working with them in this way I was able to say, nope, that is not even a little bit true! I told them that I knew with 100% certainty that they truly did not like to hurt others, that they, in fact, loved to uplift and bring joy to others, and that told a very different story than the one they were telling themselves. They could not deny that they do love to uplift and bring joy and they were able to let go of that piece of old baloney, thankfully!

They are not the only person I’ve worked with who have had that fear of 'being wrong', that fear drives the feeling of needing to prove... well probably anything, really, right? I think we learn this in many areas of our life, that being ‘right’ is a goal that yields great rewards. That can be learned at school, from watching others, from positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, it's so subtle. I think the only way to open it up and shift it in the world around us is to openly practice embracing being 'wrong' as much as being 'right', in the many ways it can show up as a gift to us. The times when being wrong was a happy surprise, or resolved an issue even!

I recently thought I had an issue with Comcast and spent hours on the phone with various agents who could not figure out why I was being overcharged. I finally had a friend offer to get on the phone with me so I could get to the bottom of this issue, what a blessing that was! Having her on there helped me feel steadier and more relaxed and I think it helped the guy drop the script and really listen. It also helped that he really knew his job and I was so grateful for that! It turned out it was my own mistake! He was the first person to see that I'd missed one of my bills and so there was no overcharge after all! I was so relieved and grateful and thanked him profusely and praised him for finding the issue for me! It turned the whole experience into a positive feeling and then he actually helped me get a better deal on my internet too, so it was a win in my book!

I can think of many many times in my life when I was intensely grateful to be totally fucking wrong, lol. I recently have thought to myself, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I am wrong about all of the things I believe that are not serving me and right about all of the things that are? I only want to be right about the things that will give me joy, that support my heart, that prove to me that love is the foundation of everything. Those things are the only things worth being right about, everything else... well those things can set the stage for me to feel wonderfully surprised, to be able to laugh at my silly inner critic when they’re proven to be inaccurate and to remind me yet again of the joy of being wrong! 😂💝

A short and winding road...

...from self-appreciation and forgiveness to freedom and a generous heart! lol

I just saw a post of someone offering beautiful amazing heart inspired action in the world and then I read a comment, "Why can't we all be like this girl?!" My first internal response was, "We can! There is nothing stopping us!" 

As I was contemplating the question that was posed though, just now... "Why can't we all be like that girl." A response came up from my heart, "For the very reason that you ask the question." When you appreciate and celebrate the wonderful beauty of inspired actions from the heart you honor them and that can inspire more of those actions in the world. Bringing the vibration of not enough, well... not as inspiring, lol.

But the thing is, thank goodness we aren't, that is for the best! If we were all like 'that girl' *insert the last beautiful inspired action you saw here*, if everything we did was beautiful inspired action from the heart, that would make those moments less amazing, less magical, and our world would become a dull place. In fact, we could not even have those moments if that were the case, and obviously, we all learn and grow from both our joyful and our painful experiences, as well as from times we were awesome, and times when we have been not so awesome... so maybe we are all in fact exactly 'like this girl', at just the right times for us and the people around us. 

And that way, we all get to have our own moments to shine! So I say, wouldn't it be amazing if we could all appreciate the times when we have been awesome and forgive ourselves for the times we haven't? And furthermore, let's forgive ourselves even if we don't feel like we have learned anything, why not forgive ourselves anyway, as a kindness. Maybe that is enough of a lesson, and it may even be what we were meant to learn all along. Forgiveness can be given as a gift, it does not necessarily have to be earned. And whoever we give it to, ourselves or others, we will feel freer and become more generous as a human. Because forgiveness is always a gift of freedom for the one who gives it and freedom gives the gift of a generous heart.

No is the new yes.

I truly believe that working on feeling love for everyone and everything is possible and it is the road to freedom. However, loving and resonating with is certainly not the same thing. If loving everything meant liking and choosing everything, if there were no contrast to give us all different tastes and flavors, life would become incredibly boring don’t you think? Loving is about seeing the light of consciousness in all beings, and in the world around us. Liking is figuring out what resonates with us, what floats our boats, finding the things that feel like love light and solution for each of us. Whatever feels accurate and inspired in our own heart, that is resonation, and that may shift at any given moment... and that is a-ok. 

I love this crazy meme because it takes that understanding and can help to release us from taking another person’s opinion of us personally. It can also help us accept and honor our own feelings and preferences, and free us from self-judgment. Loving and respecting others does not necessarily mean inviting them, or their thoughts and opinions, into our lives. It means appreciating everyone as reflections of contrasted consciousness, and deciding for ourselves how close or far we’d like to be from them. That’s why healthy boundaries can really help us feel more loving towards others. It's been my experience that trying to force myself to resonate with something that I do not resonate with does not yield a positive feeling result for me, quite the contrary in fact.

Standing up and saying no can be the most powerful loving act a person can choose. As the slightly altered Maggie Kuhn quote says, "Speak the truth even if your voice shakes." But always check in with your heart first, because that really is the only place our own truths can be found. And I have found that when I am speaking from that place, my voice does indeed often shake, and sometimes tears come too. It's as though something inside of me, something wonderful and Divine, is pushing the words out of me. And that has always yielded an amazing result in my life. I have deep gratitude for those moments in my life.

The beautiful thing is, when we give ourselves the space that feels loving to ourselves, we are more able to observe all people and things with the eyes of the heart. I am working on loving it all, knowing that it's all consciousness, and I am also working on surrounding myself with whatever floats my boat. That is how I truly can grow to feel love for everyone and everything more and more every day. And that is most definitely the road to freedom, IMHO. 

Contemplating the practice of consciously choosing our information intake.

I've been contemplating the practice of consciously choosing the information and perspectives that I connect with and the factors I use to decide. How it feels emotionally, heavy or light. Does it feel like love, solution, expansive, freedom? Is it helping me support what feels accurate and helpful in my own heart for me? Does it feel like freedom or does it feel confining? How is my body reacting to the information and what does that mean. For those of us that believe that everything is consciousness, that can really only be the one true fact because consciousness is 100% malleable, so everything that it creates is as well. Embracing that understanding changes the way we navigate. The emotions that any experience or information brings up can be shifted when the experience or information is reframed. That obviously will work in either direction, which is one reason that meditation can be very helpful. It teaches us to observe our thoughts without entangling ourselves in the story so we are able to see our patterns and decide what is still working for us, and what has become outdated and can be reframed and or released.

Consciously practicing reframing information towards lighter perspectives can be what some people call finding the silver lining, or even just realizing that our information or perspective could actually be totally wrong, or outdated. That is one reason that I love to find out that I am wrong about things, to have new information shift my own perception completely. That retrains my brain to let go of things that are no longer serving the momentum that I am wishing to keep in my life towards lighter, more fun, more easeful perspectives.

It can be very easy to open up to this when you realize that being wrong can be such a wonderful gift to us, right? It can be a happy surprise! I have worked with many people that have held the understanding that being wrong was a negative thing, that being right was always best. That is clearly learned behavior because it is obviously only the ego that cares about such things. The heart loves to learn, to grow, to be surprised and opened to new possibilities. So the heart loves to be ‘wrong’, ha ha ha. Obviously, there is no such thing as right or wrong on a higher level of understanding, but when being wrong can be a joyful experience and offer us the feeling of freedom when we find new information that feels right in the now. So being wrong is a beautiful thing!

Years ago I read about Buddha heads being cut off of statues in Asia by colonials, to make them easier to transport. What I read gave the impression that this was the only reason that Buddha heads existed. So for years, I had a bit of a weird and negative feeling about Buddha heads. I recently found out that is not true, that Buddha heads symbolize the Buddha’s enlightened state and the wisdom and wealth of knowledge that he attained. Yay for being wrong! Ha ha ha! I am not interested in information that opens me to fear but I will always welcome new information that gives me a more positive, fun and light perspective on anything!

It has been my experience that internal guidance and the enlightened beings that I have known do not tend to give warnings, plant seeds of fear, or point at anything we are not wanting in our lives. They might point out or bring to the surface fears we already have so that we may walk through them and overcome those fears. That is where practicing reframing really becomes incredibly helpful, ha ha ha. Reframing with humor is one of the best ways to lighten things up quickly. Finding the humor in any situation is a fantastic gift we can give ourselves. Think of Laughing Buddha, finding the humor in everything is incredibly powerful. It has been my experience that internal guidance always shows us where we are wanting to go. It shows us open doors, solutions, exciting new possibilities and redirects us using light and sparkle, rather than giving obstacles attention and focus. I know that I am hearing my internal guidance when I am in the throes of fear, and suddenly a lighter perspective explodes the darker one and gives me a wonderful laugh or burst of joy.

The momentum of higher perspectives is always from love and a deeper understanding of the nature of reality. The higher perspectives are obviously more planted in the knowledge of the play of consciousness, of the illusion, the maya, the vibrational nature of our world. The vibrational nature of our world makes it completely malleable, vibrating energy is not stuck, it is not solid. Solid is an illusion that we enjoy, it helps us experience our world more fully. It helps us play and learn and feel the confinement that then gives us the wonderful experience of freedom! And that is why the only truth is that everything is simultaneously true and not true. And that is why information is only as useful as it’s ability to support our chosen experiences, our goals, our dreams, our heart journeys.

That is why I try to be aware of the information and perspectives that I open myself up to and to find a way to either politely walk away, or set a boundary if necessary. If I find myself dealing with something that is creating fear I will work to reframe it, to find a silver lining or perspective that releases the fear. At times I have even been able to flip information completely, into information that actually shows me the true nature of the world as I see it… Love. When I am able to do that, it is the most wonderful experience of all. It is my understanding and experience that Divine Grace is pure consciousness, everything is made of consciousness and Divine Grace is Love, so everything is Love. That understanding gives me the ability to find my way through very difficult experiences and find my way back to my heart.

Again, that is why meditation and various present moment practices can be so useful. Being able to pause, observe our thoughts and emotions in the moment helps us figure out which information feels like it is supporting us, supporting our hearts. It actually helps us to get to know our own hearts, to find out what inspires us and gives us actual joy. Boundaries are incredibly useful in this world where we all are so excited to share our experiences and perspectives with each other. That is a beautiful and wonderful desire, however, our experiences and perspectives will not serve everyone the way that they serve us. Understanding that brings so much freedom to us, to our relationships and to our world. When we understand this, communication can be so much simpler, in both directions. Judging ourselves and others, and also taking things personally becomes more and more silly when we genuinely understand this, and that right there is such a wonderful freedom! Finding silliness can be the most wonderful cure for so many issues in life, ha ha ha.

Ok, I guess that is my piece for today so… peace out everyone! Love and silliness to all y’all.

Wellbeing radiates from the inside out and love is always the answer.

Wellbeing radiates from the inside out. The various structures we choose to interact with in our lives can reveal and support that wellbeing or hide it from us. The homes we live in, the groups we join, the Facebook pages that we like, the people we choose to give our time to, the schools of thought that we align ourselves with, and so on, these are not creating either discord or peace within us, the way that we perceive them is. The emotions that we feel when we interact with these things, that is how we know what they are touching in us. When we feel like we need to fix something, when our thoughts and actions feel heavy, we are not in alignment with solution, inspiration, and freedom, which lets us know that we are not observing from our heart. Love is always the answer, always, so the answer will always be found in the heart. This is an entirely personal journey for each and every one of us, understanding that for ourselves and honoring it as we observe others, that is truly the key to our own freedom and the freedom of all beings. ✨🌞✨💖✨🌈✨💖✨🚀

Listen for the joyful noise!

Listen for the joyful noise that is coming from your own heart! It's there, it really is. Anytime that we feel confused in our lives, we can take a moment to breathe and feel inside for the heart perspective. "What is my heart saying?" is the most useful question I will ever ask myself at any given moment. All inspiration comes from our own hearts, and it always feels light, like love, solution, playful humor and compassion.

The most important and powerful goal I feel that I wish for everyone is for all of us to be able to hear our own heart and to trust what we hear. If we are going to err, it is far far better to err on the side of trusting our own inner guidance, always. And the beautiful thing about that is that when we own that, fully own it, then we understand that we cannot know what is best for others, right? Funny how that works. ;-) <3

I promise you, it really is true that no other person can hear what is best for you, or anyone who is listening in their own heart. So get in there and start to figure out what is in your own heart, it may not be easy, but it is the key to everything. There are many awesome teachers out there that can help, I bet if you look around and listen for the joyful noise in your own heart, you will find just the right ones for you!

Love Is Always The Answer

I edit my posts, comments, etc., quite often and sometimes I even delete them entirely. I do this because I try to make sure that the things that I am putting out to the world are coming from love, from my heart, from an inspired place. I grew up with a spiritual teacher that taught me that intention is everything and that love is the highest intention, as well as the most effective way through… everything. So, when I come across something that feels like a 'problem’ I try to stay in my heart and to look for solutions. When I see things that I just really don't like, I try to simply hide them without judgement. Love accepts everything, light and dark, equally, that is the nature of love, obviously. For me personally, staying in my heart and in an inspired place means keeping my focus on the things that shine, keeping the company of people who hold love and inspiration as their intention, and not indulging my ego’s whims.

That being said, I believe that everyone's path is perfect for them, I genuinely do, I’m not just saying that. We are all beautiful works of art in a state of perpetual transformation and transformation requires cycles of both creation and destruction. Because of that, none of us can know what is best for another. It is on each one of us to feel our way through this crazy life and to either listen to our hearts, or not, if that is where we are at. I was taught at an early age that everything happens for the best, and that’s how I choose to see the world, through the eyes of faith. That choice has always worked well for me, perhaps if it hadn’t I might not feel as I do, hard to say. My choices are only what I feel are best for me though, not anyone else, unless they feel it for themselves.

I believe in all of this because it's what I learned from my spiritual teacher from an early age, but also because it is what I have observed in my life and the lives of many other people that I know as well. Holding this understanding, for me, requires being comfortable with contrast, and owning how invaluable it is, and always has been, to my own process of transformation. All of the challenges in my life help me to become more and more resilient and I value resilience pretty highly. Also, all of my experiences have made me who I am today, and I actually do love my perfectly imperfect self. I am not always successful at keeping myself aligned with my heart, and that is actually a good thing too because it keeps me humble… well hopefully! Ha ha ha.

The Thing About Love & Respect...

When you work on loving and respecting yourself, you concern yourself less and less with what other people think or do. You begin to realize that the thoughts and actions of others are only letting you know when you are listening from your heart. Your heart will only ever inspire you to love yourself and others more, it will only speak to you with a positive voice. The heart speaks from love, from lightness of being, from kind and playful humor. When I listen to the joyful noise I am hearing my heart's voice, this I know for myself for dang sure. Huzzah! ;-)

And, of course, when you work on loving and respecting yourself, you genuinely hope for everyone to do the same. When you work on loving and respecting yourself your ability to feel compassion for others grows and as that compassion grows it is like a big bubble that melts animosity for others, even those that you do not understand at all. Agenda no longer feels good, only inspiration does. Appreciation starts to feel more and more delicious to your soul, and of course, you will begin to notice more and more people in your life treating you with love and respect. That's how it works, just like happiness, it's an inside job.

Go look in a mirror and think of someone that you love very very much, someone that inspires and gives you a feeling of joy. When you have connected with those wonderful feelings, then look into your own beautiful eyes and say I love you to your own sweet self. There are many ways to work on loving and respecting yourself more, this is just one simple easy way to start shifting the inner momentum. It takes bravery for some. Try it, especially if it sounds ridiculous and feels embarrassing, in fact... just try it and see if you notice any shift at all. 

Contemplating Kindness

Kindness seems to be a bit of a theme this week, I love it. I feel like this meme from Byron Katie generally sums up my feelings about it but I felt like adding my two cents anyway, as I often do, ha ha ha. MwwwaaAH!

To me, kindness is really just love, and like abundance, love always wants to share itself. When you make love a life goal, beginning with loving and accepting yourself, and working towards living more and more in your heart, kindness is a bi-product of that work. I especially feel like a champion of love when I feel genuine kindness towards someone who has felt like a challenge in my life. For me, understanding that love and happiness always want to share themselves makes it easier to see a challenging person with love. Happy people wish for everyone to feel happy. People who feel loved, want everyone to feel loved. When I remember this, it becomes easier not to take unkindness personally, and to work towards meeting it with kindness.

Kindness to me isn't necessarily about taking care of others, physically or emotionally, it can be, but sometimes it's just about trying to see the best in people whether you like them or not. It can mean having compassion and accepting people wherever they are at, sometimes from afar, and wishing for the best for them. Sometimes it means keeping one's mouth zipped and staying the hell away from them, ha ha ha. I am always working on speaking from my heart, and with honesty, but also with discretion around what I choose to say, or not say... pausing and asking myself is this useful? Am I pushing an agenda or speaking from my heart?

Sometimes, for me, kindness really is about keeping a healthy boundary. If I feel that my presence, actions or words are not wanted or valued, or if I feel taken advantage of, or any kind of resentment, it's best to step away, clean my own internal shit up and then assess whether to talk it out or if it's best to simply offer love and light from afar. Kindness without boundaries, or showing kindness towards others at the expense of kindness to our own sweet self, well that is really just codependence, which I have found does not often end well, lol.

What is kind in any given situation really depends on the individual situation in that moment but, imho, genuine kindness always comes from the heart, it feels like inspiration, and it gives space to whoever needs it. Love, love and more love to all y'all.