Hello and Welcome! Many years ago a book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz was released. It spoke to me. I thought it was a must-have for everyone I knew. It had this simple message to live with integrity and to live in a way that centers internally, harmony with your inner knowing, speech and actions. I felt the simplicity was perfect and that it was written with clarity to guide anyone who chose to read it toward a centered, existentially responsible style of living.
The agreements he wrote about are simply:
Be Impeccable with your Word
Don’t Take anything Personally
Don’t Make Assumptions
Always Do your Best
It was my holiday gift that year to every one of my family members, and all the people that mattered to me. I wanted to share this truth with everyone, because I thought it would assist them in upleveling their consciousness. I felt it held information that would unlock the prisons in which people lived.
I was a younger therapist then – enthusiastic, earnest, passionate – I really wanted to make a difference and change the world. I gave this book in this way with heartfelt love, and a deep desire to help. I thought it held a treasure worth more than a typical holiday gift because it offered freedom and a deep inner peace.
I am pretty sure none of these important people in my life read that book, at least not that year. For whatever reason it wasn’t the time for that kind of transformation then.
This had been the story of my life, for many years; I could see the way but what spoke to me so clearly did not always speak to others.
Over the years I have had unusual success as a therapist through my neutral clarity, and compassionate communications. Those who have chosen to seek my guidance have discovered a wealth of effective, compassionate, and life-changing counsel. Recently, I have noticed that those in my inner circle are too experiencing the positive effect of my writing and guidance… this is a sweet gift to witness the positive growth and happiness of those I deeply love.
Reference to the four agreements are also on the rise in spiritual teachings, in Yoga articles, and other pieces on spiritual growth. Perhaps the time is now, for a more comprehensive alignment to take place. I noticed in these references that there is a new book which identifies a new agreement:
5. Be skeptical, but learn to listen.
So apt for the capping to the first four – it aligns the focus even further within, it allows for a deeper inner review and a consolidated expression of love, acceptance, mindfulness, and responsibility for knowledge, speech and action.
For me these simple statements refocus power and energy within; they are the opposite of projection and divisiveness.
These four agreements, plus one, are an easy way to center yourself and focus your energy where you actual have power, in the here and now and within yourself. The energy behind these agreements is to shift your focus and awareness inward, with integrity in speech and action, while through self-love and compassionate action toward others you can increase your mindfulness.
Here is a lovely site about this work and more information about how to use these four agreements to guide your life, http://www.toltecspirit.com/.
And remember be skeptical – listen with your inner ear and through your internal sensory guidance system of five plus one senses, seeing in 4-D. In this way you will be inthe driver’s seat of your life and creating precisely what you want and consciously mean to create. in love and light, beth
Listening is an active process. It is active in that it requires focused attention and neutral or accurate interpretation.
Hearing is a function of this process of focused, unattached listening. Meaning is the by-product – it is what you hear.
When you listen fresh, and without attachment, you free yourself to hear the meaning sent versus your internal negative dialogue or grandiose spin on either the speaker or your self perceptions.
What you hear reveals information about yourself when you hear through the filter of this inner dialogue.
In addition when information is heard through this inner dialogue filter, what another hears you say has more to do with him than with you.
There are levels of information sent in communication. This can be clarified and understood in context when your own filter is removed.
Knowledge is not an inaccurate filter. So that placing the message sent within the context of the sender allows you to accurately interpret the sender’s meaning.
The personal filter through which you hear can interfere with your capacity to do this, your capacity to be neutral.
Fears, misperceptions about yourself such as insecurities or historical relationship information that do not apply to the current relationship are all filters which will interfere with accurate hearing, and will result in inefficient meaning making.
Follow these steps to create clarity and move yourself into a neutral posture for active listening.
Be open to clarity. Clarify what you heard – Repeat what you heard including the hidden message, and request if that was the message sent.
Be neutral – face your inner fears, inner insecurities, and inner mis-perceived paradigms or pictures by questioning yourself about their veracity.
Utilize an integrated listening and hearing system – integrated spirit, mind, and body. Do this by paying attention to what you feel, sense, and experience when listening to the message. Does the information feel right in your heart, does it cognitively go in straight, do you have a physical catch or block to the information?.
Your spirit, mind, and body sensory guidance system guides you to the truth – it cuts through the internal negative or grandiose dialogue and allows truth to be revealed instantly when you are willing to actively listen and remain mindful and present. This is a type of listening with your third or inner ear. It is a hearing, feeling, knowing experience. It is multidimensional in that you know it in your mindfulness or unattached cognitions (understanding), feel it in your body (a sense of flow and ease) and hear it in your heart (a sense of ringing true).
Being present, connecting to listening, and the information, in a present-moment way that incorporates what you know (but discards insecurities, historical patterning in your relationships, and what you fear) is listening without attachment.
This uplevels your consciousness, truth is revealed and you may take action from an enlightening and powerful place to create relationships and environments that are prosperous. in love and light, beth
Having a long history in the study of human behavior I am intimately aware of the strong urge and pull toward following the group. Simply observing toddlers in preschool, young children in elementary school or witnessing the popular movement of music, clothing, and behavior of high school and young adulthood results in the observation that the in-group in society telegraphs to the human psyche how to be, what to think, who to follow and what will keep you in the clique.
This is built into the developmental structure of humans.
This draw to follow the group mind and to be inculcated into belief systems is the basis of societal strength. Unfortunately it can become the downfall of society over time and can become a tool to control people without their overt knowledge.
In the 1960’s psychologists studied university students to discover if an individual will follow the group and conform under various conditions. It was called the Asch Experiment (Wikipedia). And what they found was that when students were presented with a group of peers who offered the incorrect response they conformed to answer with the incorrect answer 75% of the time for at least one answer.
Also in the 1960’s psychologists studied whether a person would act against his or her own inner sense that something was wrong when told by an authority person or person in a position of power that it was necessary to act in this way against that subject’s inner sense that something was wrong. This was called the Milgram Experiment (Wikipedia). This study’s results provided serious information that seemingly “good people” with reasonable skills to evaluate the serious negative effects of an act would still follow through with causing harm to another person when told by an authority person (person in a position of power) that it was necessary and deferred responses to the effects of their actions.
The best way to avoid this is to use critical thinking in all of your decision-making. Critical thinking questions the basis of your belief systems and the underpinnings of powerful people’s opinions and positions. Rather then saying I agree with that icon, hero, politician, or cool person, critical thinking encourages an inner dialogue that questions why do I agree and what does that statement, philosophy, or belief system mean down and up-stream. This increases an individual’s chance to be congruent in his beliefs and it increases the specific individual freedom and empowerment that person can experience in his life course and development.
What is popular is not always what is best for a society. How those in power get their message out is a through subtle coercion. All groups have rules of inclusion and exclusion. The human goal is to feel included, liked, accepted and specifically to be part of the cool in-group.
A great tool is to pay attention when you feel you are being pulled along a flow toward something as if it is the only answer and that feeling is a pressure from the outside, cool in-group, not from an internal sense of knowing from within. This is a cue that you are caught up in something that may have propaganda in it.
When individuals become overly stressed or lack critical thinking they accept propaganda as truth, swallowing it whole. This is a shortcut due to stress or due to an unearned trust toward the group or those in power, thinking thay are indeed going to direct the society to the society as a whole‘s best interest.
Sociological theory and psychological theory, both, have shown that under various conditions those in power want to maintain that power. Power is the means to make money. The place wherein there is little critical thinking with respect to how groups are using propaganda to promote their money-making opportunities is through marketing, media, and what is cool.
The best response to your environment is to use your own critical thinking skills to evaluate the truth of what is being said. Examine how you know it is true, without accepting whole what someone says whom you perceive as a guru, leader, hero, or cool person.
There is power in being famous, this is related to the latent pull to follow the leader of the group. Following what a famous person says or does gives your psyche the sense that you are somehow connected to them, which feeds that hidden inner pull to conform and align with the group.
This is precisely the process that allows for odd or different children to be bullied in school. The cool person or the person perceived to have power, is followed, rather than an individual standing up and saying that it is wrong, or simply standing with the odd or different child. The latent quiet allowing of maltreatment for fear that the maltreatment may be directed at yourself is a way the in-group wields control.
There is a small set of individuals who choose to go outside of the norm. Sometimes this is someone who is following his inner sense of what is right. This small set of individuals can stem the flow of the propaganda. There is risk to this individual as he is often attacked. The first response of a powerful in-group toward this individual is to focus a spotlight on this set of individuals, to discredit them, and to divide and conquer the opportunity for like-minded people to collaborate or simply dialogue about other ways to behave.
Your critical thinking skills can best guide you. And the more you use these and model to your child their use, the more your child will use these. It is in this way that bullying, subtle power coercion, control through group-mind, and propaganda will be extinguished.
Innovation is a natural by-product of critical thinking. It comes as a result of questioning:
is that statement true?
how do I know the belief or statement is true from my own experience?
and what is the other side’s argument and how is it true?
what might be the reward for the person in power to deny the truth?
what is wrong with a statement or belief?
or what needs to be changed in a situation or environment?
Critical thinking is mindfulness.
The force through which someone states a thing is not truth. Truth is. And truth can be felt as an internal alignment – not in the agreement to the belief – but in an integration of the truth of all the positions and how that truth lines up. It is an internal heart sense and has a lightness to it not a loud booming voice. The latter is just a technique of coercion. The more punch and loudness in the argument the less critical thinking.
Critical thinking allows for the truth of all the sides to be accepted and incorporated into the solution or belief system.
Subjectivity is loud, forceful, emotional, and pulls to accept, it blocks mindfulness and the critical evaluation of all sides.
Objectivity is quiet, light, and non-emotional, it has an opening to reveal the truth of all sides.
Discover your truth through critical thinking and mindfulness. Model this behavior and thinking style for your children. This will result in bringing to light propaganda so that real solutions can be found to the difficult problems facing you.in love and light, beth
Thank you to the sweet and loyal followers to this blog! You are each a treasure in my life! It has been such a lovely collaboration, to write and create a space for support and learning regarding self-development, mindfulness, paradigm shifting, mindful parenting, and an evolution of consciousness.
A number of people have asked for a book on relationship/partnering that offers useful, insightful guidance. So it is almost here.
Here is a preview: Turning ME to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness; Shifting competition and narcissism (ME) to collaboration and connection (WE). It delineates quick and easy tools for developing profoundly successful relationships in work, home, and love.
Intertwined within these strategies are ways of re-setting, re-focusing and re-aligning your internal compass to create a new space for collaboration and connection while allowing space for your personal self to grow along with your relationship/partnership. It focuses on an integrated spirit, mind, body approach dealing with communication, context, paradigmatic beliefs, and form. And, it offers ways to shift out of various forms of thinking/seeing/communicating and contexts that are unhelpful, do a disservice to you in relationship, or interfere with connecting and collaboration.
When you look at the letters M and W you can see that within their form you find a closing off (M) or an opening up, connecting quality. This is a synchronous image. The general characteristic feeling of the words ME and WE and the behaviors of dependence, independence and interdependence are represented in this synchronous view of the letters. This offers an imprint image to show you how to shift your perspective. Me is singular, self-oriented, and individualistic, even narcissistic or competitive (consider the statement standing on my own two feet); while, We is plural, inclusive of other’s needs, open to information, and collaborative (consider the statement We can get through this together, each pitching in).
ME is an important developmental station in development. It is a required station. You can’t get to WE without developing ME, first. In childhood, your first developmental relationship is Dependent in nature. Then in young adulthood you develop a sense of Independence. Partnering requires that you have developed a sense of Interdependence.
Unfortunately some people get stuck at ME unable to continue their development to incorporate a sense of WE, or interdependence. This requires a wholly formed sense of Me that is not rigid or intractable but rather is solid and firm with an openness and flexibility. Negotiation is a WE interaction. Compromise is a ME interaction. There are different forms of how WE can relate in groups and some of these do not fit outside of certain developmental stages or are related to habits that don’t serve you. Co-dependence is a skewed perspective of WE, it is not a true WE experience. This is a situation where the core ME has not efficiently developed – so it’s really two incomplete MEs with a tenuous thread between them.
Shifting ME to WE is a paradigm shift like an inversion in Yoga, a head stand that allows an evolution of consciousness development.
This book has a lot of innovative, new information not previously published. Although there are a few expansions on blogs previously seen on this site, the majority of the information is a new vision about relationship incorporating information on how we view and look at partnering in relation to security, belief systems, support, connection, exchange patterns, and paradigmatic belief structures (like romantic love).
It is a lovely companion to my first book, Turning NO to ON: The Art of Parenting with Mindfulness. For those of you who have read that book, thank you for all of your supportive comments. A few of you have left comments on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com about that book, thanks, these are great support for others to see the benefits of the book. Anyone who has read the book can leave a comment and the site appreciates them, as do I. Another way you can show support is to like my page for the book on Facebook.
So the arrival date for Turning ME to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness is just around the corner. Thanks for your support and I hope this new book meets your needs and offers the information you desire – I think it will. in love and light, beth
Energy (read creation)follows vibration and intention. This theory implies that if you think about something efficiently and powerfully you can create that thing. When living by this theory it’s important to remember fears, worries, and habits are efficiently and powerfully energetic. So that if You DESIRE to be A and you worry, fret or fear that many things may interfere with you creating A, then, you are actually working against your own desire via these energetic worries/fears. In psychological terms, this may be called anxiety. So that anxiety interferes with the process of creating A, whereas self-confidence enhances the process of creating A.
Self confidence enhances the process through vibration and intention. When you are self-confident your vibration and intention are stronger and more clear so it directs energy to the creation desired.
The fear neutralizes your movement toward the creation of the thing. Fear creates a current away from the desired thing. In this way you are energizing two currents, one toward your creation and one away from your creation. The result is either to move toward, and away from, in an alternating fashion or to remain stuck in place. The pragmatic person says this recognition of problems is an important part of being responsible but the more effective concept of responsibility is the ability to respond. Such that, although you may be aware and note through non-attached observation that there may be conflicts or bumps in the road in creating A, you feel that you can respond to these effectively and persevere to create A.
This behavior/thinking/faith is a current toward self-confidence and the desired creation and a diminishment of the current of fear or worry.
You can see this in the process of learning Yoga. Correct movement into the position (asana) requires a working with your body. Your focus is in creating an asana that is correct and to get there you must have non-attached concentration, attention, and breathwork. The non-attached component is the part that observes and corrects posture and placement without an evaluation of good or bad (non-attached). Focused breathing while attending to your posture and release of tension is the intention the energy follows, for the practice. Being in the present moment, with your breathing and body, is the non-attached attention and concentration.
It is an accepting and allowing process of breath and movement. Fear blocks movement and binds the energy from flowing. Deep, intentional breathing shifts the energy and releases blocks, both physical and emotional.
You can see this in the practice of mindful meditation. Breath, non-attached observation, in the present moment expands your understanding and your access to fuller information. It deepens and broadens your perspective. So that rather than, proving your point and digging in, you clarify your understanding and deepen your compassion. From this place you may focus your energy toward your desire and focus your intention and energy. Breath, along with present moment attention, and non-attached observation, focuses intention and allows balance.
Since energy follows vibration and intention, creation of desires happens most easily and quickly when the desire is unopposed, which is to say clarifying your intention and vibrating in a space through breath of present moment awareness and clarity of intention, assists the process most efficiently. Actions taken from this space will give rise to information about how you are interfering with your intended creation through fear, worry, anxiety and/or insecurity.
Standing in your center
mindfully through unattached observation and acceptance of truth,
spiritually through your faith and clarity in your capacity,
and, physically through breath and confident action
allows for energy to flow directly toward your intended creation and result in delivering what you seek.
This allows for enlightenment through the acceptance, reframe, and release of perceived flaws. Energy follows vibration and intention so when you find you are stuck, look to reset your intention and your vibration through mind, body, spirit alignment and centering.
Visualize yourself in the intended creation. Feel it, see it, accept it and stand in gratitude of it – this amplifies your vibration by removing the worry, anxiety, fear, and insecurity. Once you allow the removal of the current which pulls you away from your intended creation, you will immediately observe an elevation in your progress toward your intended creation.
Being grateful for where you are and for the intended creation as if it has already taken place will serve to strengthen your vibration, and intention and your self-confidence. BEthe change you wish to see in the world. in love and light, Beth
Hello and Welcome!Partnering is one of the most important and trickiest of ventures. I have been watching partners break apart for years but recently I have been noticing an interesting pattern.
Agreements are set down in relationship, I’ll do this for you, you do this for me. This is part and parcel to developing partnerships. These can be explicit or implicit but they are there.
Pay attention to what you agree to implicitly. When relationships break apart the more the agreements were implicit the more there is disagreement about the agreement. The less spelled-out, clarified, identified the equation of exchange, the more each party puts his or her own spin on the particular exchange components/expectations. This is especially true in partnerships where one party gets a lot of recognition for what perhaps both parties are doing.
This is usually a power exchange. I will do this to promote you and you do this to promote me. The one who doesn’t get the recognition feels betrayed but it is difficult to really get to what the true exchange was.
These agreements may be spiritual, emotional, or physical. Problems develop on both sides, if the individual who gets more recognition is truly depending on the less-recognized partner to make it happen, that person stops doing what is required or leaves and takes that work with him, then, the person who is getting the recognition is left unable to move forward and looks a bit like a fraud.
From the less recognized perspective if the person getting the recognition is able to use that to move into another position and doesn’t take the less recognized partner with him, then, the person who has actually been doing the work may be left with nothing.
The place where this is most painful is when someone is exchanging his hard work to simply receive love. This is a more spiritual agreement that is broken and injures the person who sees the love leave with the partner.
Identify what you see, feel, hear, want to give and get out of the relationship. When creating partnerships, avoid making assumptions that you and your partner have the same understanding about your participation and outcome.
Know yourself, know your partner, use mindfulness.
Be prepared to have a full and complete conversation about what you desire from and give to the partnership.
Look underneath the surface of what your partner is offering – pay attention to what you see has happened previously with that person, in relationship. Do not presume that if he has historically abandoned his partner that he will be different with you – unless you are aware of a fundamental experience in that person’s life that supports a fundamental change in relating.
Personally evaluate your true intention and agenda in the partnership.
Be open to the fact that you and your partner are dynamic and therefore your, or your partner’s, needs, expectations, and capacities may change over time.
Keep the conversation going, check in on a quarterly basis and make adjustments.
These actions may not keep the partnership going, but you will have a dissolution when and under circumstances that promote your and your partner’s health rather than injury. in love and light, beth
Hello. I have been involved in a lot of mediation recently. I think mediation is an art. It requires an ability to listen and see with discernment. It is part intellectual and part intuitive. A funny equation of knowing, feeling, and being present with another to hear the subtle messages of tone, shifts in energy, and word choice.
I enjoy it as long as I can keep my right/wrong brain out of the equation.
It requires you stay in that mindful, open, compassionate place that seems often unavailable in contract negotiation, couples counseling, and problem solving. The more I am willing to see everything, accept everything as truth to the speaker, and understand that in most situations all participants just want to be heard, cared for, treated with love, and be understood, the more I find healing, clarification, and solutions.
This place of being within requires you stand in your heart center. From that space you can hear and see with mindful, compassionate, lovingkindness.
I find it an interesting spelling oddity that mediation and meditation have a single letter that shifts their meaning. The letter t. It’s like a clue about how to get where you need to go, because the letter t is a wonderful picture of the Yoga standing mountain pose, Tadasana – standing feet together, eyes lightly gazing, with your arms and hands held in a prayer position at your heart.
When mediation is done from this heart centered, focused, humbling place then the mediator is creating an opportunity for meditation. Present moment acceptance and clarification of what each party wants from heart center, clarification of what each person means from heart center, and a centered present moment place from which to move forward.
A beautiful example of this image is represented in this picture by Rabbi Chava Bahle, her post at Yenyoga blog, Tadasana, mountain pose arriving in the present moment, gives a beautiful account of the simplicity and profound benefit of Tadasana, the mountain pose in Yoga. See the t. Perfect picture of light focus in the present moment from the heart.
Love, compassion, acceptance, allowing, and forgiveness are heart center emotions. Centering your attention in the present moment, receiving information through the filter of your heart, increases harmony, understanding, and Soul-utions focused resolutions in mediation.
Mediation is not just an action in the law or business, not just an action in couples counseling, it is present in parent-child relationships, friendships, and work partnerships. It is an action present in all interactive-relating between humans, even between species. Our willingness to come from this centered place, this heart space increases our capacity to understand and act in ways that uplevel consciousness, increase our interconnectedness, and increase our overall harmony in living.
Since this is a daily part of living, you can begin to practice at any time.
Increase your awareness in interactions to the tone, quality, and word choice of others – pay attention to your own word choices, and tone. Don’t just think but feel into these various qualities and practice a light attention. Practice hearing intention not just content. Shift yourself into a t, into Tadasana, standing mountain pose, allow yourself to hear, see, understand, through the filter of your heart.
Do this and you will find the most amazing gifts waiting for you. Amazing threads of understanding, depths of connection, inner peace, and clarity you have been missing out on in your interactions and relationships. The more you can be present in the now with open eyes and ears and centered in your heart, the more your life will evolve into fullness.
One letter difference, t, connects worlds exponentially….in love and light, Namaste, beth
Hello and Welcome! Staying centered is remaining balanced. Balanced within your own sphere as well as balanced in your interactions and community. Centeredness and balance infer a collaborative and open response to internal sensations and external expectations.
When you are pulled in one direction or the other this can have the effect of destabilizing you internally as well as you within your environment. It can then skew your energy and focus onto a path that is not in your best interest.
The best way to stay centered is to maintain an internal awareness of your senses. Paying attention to how you feel in each of your internal centers will assist you in staying centered. You may use you internal sensory guidance system – your five plus one senses – to remain centered. The use of mindfulness and paradigm shifting are of great benefit in developing your relationship to your internal guidance system especially through paying attention and neutral observation of your sensory guidance system responses.
One way to develop this relationship to your centers is through the practice of Yoga. This is because you will have the opportunity to connect breath, with the integration of physical body positions and energetic spiritual centers.
In the Yogic tradition there are bandha that need to remain closed or locked as you do various positions to assist in building physical strength and maintain the pose for clarification. These bandha correspond with certain energy centers in your body called chakras. What is useful for the musculature is related to the emotional component of the center – one is at the root chakra and is referred to a kegel closure – the root chakra relates to survival and may connect to issues of fear. The next important bandha that is discussed is the belly button area – holding this bandha closed is described as pressing the belly button to the spine – this is related to the second chakra which deals with creativity of all types including sexuality and procreation. The third bandha that is discussed is described as holding the chin to the chest – this has a dual effect of closing off the throat chakra while opening further the chakra at the third-eye or the brow chakra which relates to inner vision and intuition. By closing off these centers while holding the Yoga positions the practitioner is strengthening the flow of energy within his centers so that the energy doesn’t dissipate. This results in strengthening the muscles and the physical core of the practitioner as well as the energetic flow of internal connection between these centers. This is how an intentional Yoga practice can assist in the strengthening of a practitioner’s sense of being, and remaining, centered.
Any focused attention with breath to your inner sensory guidance system will produce an increase in your awareness about what and how you are feeling, and responding, in any given situation and can provide guidance about what action is in your best interest which includes a choice to not act from an intentional place.
Centering your self is simply paying attention to, observation of, gathering information from, your internal sensory guidance system (your five senses plus one, intuition) and responding from a place of compassion, love, and neutrality to that internally connected information.
Remember that centered sensory guidance information is in general a calm, and charge-free instinct and results in a sense that something is the best response – rather than a loud, pushing-through-to -the-fore, anxiety-filled, reactive response.
Simple focused breathing for 30 seconds to 3 minutes can increase your capacity for mindfulness and can re-center you.
Longer focused, breathing meditation for 15 – 30 minutes can increase your centering-practice even further and allow you a space to reconnect to your inner self and inner center, this has a lovely additional effect of reducing your blood pressure and reducing your sense of anxiety by bringing your fully into the present moment.
A focused intentional Yoga practice can also encourage you to develop a deeper centering practice. For more information check out this article on Yogi Times, connecting spirit mind and body through Yoga.
Any activity that is present moment focused with love and breath will increase your capacity for centering, praying meditation, walking, running, singing, and dancing all have the components for increasing or deepening your integrated spirit, mind, and body connection.
Staying centered increases self-knowledge, self-love, strength, and right-action. In love and light, Beth
Hello and Welcome! I thought it might be useful to write about what happens when I receive information from source that I have no basis to know – some people call this channeling, others call it psychic, Jungians think of it as connecting with the collective unconscious – it is a type of inner sight.
For me this experience has been like breathing – an internal see-knowing that is sometimes accompanied with language and verbal information about others with whom I am in relationship or have an important connection. I say it is like breathing because it is something that requires no direct attention – we breathe without focus on our breathing, unless in meditation or directed to do something different with our breath. So for me it is the same I breathe, I know or I see-know.
This has happened throughout my life – knowing information about others, often before or without the other speaking the information to me. It has served me extraordinarily well as a therapist and acupuncturist – as I am able to have access to more information when assisting in another’s healing process. It has been problematic with friends and relationships as I have found that sometimes I am privy to information hidden from that person by himself or herself and so the response to my identification and connection with it can be… less than positive. I have had to learn to manage this “gift” of inner sight.
And in learning to manage it I have also developed my skills at accessing the information in a directed way – a dear friend of mine, Betsy-Morgan Coffman, has assisted me in developing this more direct contact so that I may have a sense of control. I am cautious to use the term control, as it has a negative connotation to it. I use it here because for much of my life the information that I received I had no control over at all – it would present itself at the most inopportune times and sometimes when either I really did not want to know the information or the other did not want me to know the information. I felt more accosted by this gift than grateful. And this continues to happen now. However through focused development I have also learned to access this inner sight at the request of others. And this has increased my positive, grateful, relationship with my gift.
When the information comes it is a see-knowing; a picture with words and energy imprint; it is like a flashback of information that is multi-level but has no personal charge. Let me give an example: When I review my living room in my mind’s eye I see each piece of furniture or knickknack and each has a charge of personal story to it as well as a picture of placement and form in space. When I receive the information it is a similar thing in that there is a picture, placement and story including identified emotions but I do not actually feel the charge of the emotion of the story. This difference, this lack of personal emotional charge, cues me to know I am receiving information about another’s experience rather than a remnant from my own life.
When I experience information about something that is currently happening physically with someone then I actually feel it in my body but it is as if I am a mirror.. so if I feel it on my right side it is in the person’s left and if I feel it in an organ then this is generally that organ. And over time I have developed an understanding of how the pain feels relates to the kind of disorder with which the person is dealing – cancer for example has a very distinctive quality. Obviously I have to be able to distinguish between my own pain and that which I am receiving through inner sight so I need to have a clear picture of what is me and what is other.
When I was a young person, I did not know what was me and what was other. I had a very confusing painful childhood; my way through was to learn to clear the pain and as I cleared it through my self then I cleared it through the significant other. I believe my faith and connection to source was invaluable in saving me from insanity, or rather directing me toward mindfulness, compassion, lovingkindness and healing. It did however take a while to understand. In my twenties as a counselor I learned to simply trust the sight, act from the knowing and not directly share how I knew – not with those I was helping nor my supervisors. In my thirties I began to get assistance with developing my gift and over the last few years I have begun to openly share my experience and offer my assistance directly.
I have written poems describing the experience. It has helped me to define how to see through the multi-level inner layers of sight.
I feel at peace now with it and am grateful for this gift.
I share this in hopes that in reading this you may feel empowered to not cover over your true self out of fear or harm or ridicule or simply out of a lack of confidence and may be supported by these words, to reveal yourself to those you truly love and stand in the center of your true self.
We each have amazing gifts, unique and empowering. If you allow yourself to act from your heart center and be guided by your internal sensory guidance system you can transform obstructive, negative situations and create the life you want.
Embrace your true and full self; it may take a shift in perspective, it may take a willingness to accept yourself at a level you have not allowed before… your ability to accept yourself and treat yourself with love is directly related to your capacity to receive love…
Hello and Welcome! I love the name of this post because it could be read inner guidance intravenous (IV) and I think that is the whole thing in a nut shell. Infuse yourself with your own inner guidance and your cells will swell with real joy, strength and the necessary resources to create anything you desire.
Remember two things: that mindfulness, compassion, and love are your best tools AND following your inner guidance simultaneously supports you and your community. This is a different notion than scarcity of resources where competition for resources is required – this notion is that inner guidance will increase opportunity for all. The idea of taking from another to fill your pocket keeps you in the duality that results from the concept of scarcity of resources.
Opening to your inner guidance increases trust and faith so that you are able to see how you and your community can prosper and uplevel together, not one over the other.
The more you can see another person’s point of view through mindfulness–> the more increased your understanding –> and the greater your understanding, the greater your capacity to see the other as yourself –> see how you are similar –>which increases your capacity for compassion and love –> and through this: war, conflict, and those activities that spawn from mis-understanding will diminish and an overall upleveling and prosperity for all is increased.
Here are some reminders on how to get back to your inner guidance.
1 always draw your strength from within and source*.
*source as spirit, god, the spiritual universe as you connect with it as an entity or energy or supportive pattern.
2 to do so feel, listen and see your internal presence and connection to source through your internal sensory guidance system, your 6 senses – surround yourself with love and light and joy.
Listen to your inner guidance over and above the propaganda around you .
3 remember to focus on a higher spiritual plane and understand changes come on the planet from stepping out of the earthly battle and into the spiritual light –
so if you are feeling let down by the infighting, in politics or tragedies – Focus your energies in being even more light even more love and forgiveness – smile – and ‘do battle’ by living in that light with spirit.
think of the battle as not against human forces but against the mistruth or lack of truth.
4 to remain steadfast, surround your self with source and the inner truth.
This can be like an armor or coat of truth, light, and love – surrounding yourself with that energy so that you can feel more protected as you see through the lens of compassion and love.
5 believing is seeing – so believe, know the truth and you will be shown and will see light, spirit and prosperity –
ignore and look away from the propaganda of the earthly plane – political and business – focus on spirit for guidance and truth –
make each choice from an integrated and spiritual connection and then you will feel strength from your feet all the way up your spine to your head or crown – surrounding your waist like a belt and spilling out and around your chest and heart center.
6 walk in the truth of what you know and remember to always be in gratitude and love –
mercury is seen as wearing wings on his feet and on a helmet on his head consider the power of the swiftness of truth to spread through a community –
truth spreads more quickly than propaganda because it goes straight into your heart – no glitches or questions.
7 Through everything have faith and be faithful, when you feel fearful acknowledge this and then stand in your faith turning the fear on its head –
it’s fine to be educated about what is happening around you in the politics but act from your inner truth and inner guidance
8 see the way and follow it like a path –
Know your truth, live it, say it, feel it, see it, be it!
9 share your knowing with the world in love and light without pressure or hardness –
Meditate, be mindful, listen from within and share it at every opportunity.
This is the way to inner guidance and it can bring you an infusion of peace, joy and prosperity.