This model is very powerful for creating change in any area of life however I’m being urged to specifically illustrate how to use it to navigate job loss – as this is a subject that is of real concern to the collective consciousness at this time.

Job loss in particular challenges our sense of security which is a basic human need – however, you will learn through this model, where to place your sense of security so that it can not be threatened by losing your job.

Lets begin by laying out the model (which is a self assessment tool that you can you use to identify which level you are in and what you must release to get to the next level) and then we will talk about where most people in job loss will start and what the most powerful way for them to move through the situation will be.

The first level is Life is Happening to Me. In this stage you feel victimized and helpless…as if you have absolutely no power and that something else has to happen in your external environment in order to make a change. To move out of this stage you have to give up blame.

Life is Happening BY ME

The second level is Life is Happening By Me. In this stage you will feel that you have complete control over everything and that it will happen because you will make it happen. This is the highly driven personal action stage. In order to move out of this stage you have to relinquish control.

Life is Happening THROUGH ME

The third level is Life is Happening Through Me. In this stage you feel that you are here for a reason and that you have a purpose. You have gifts, you ‘re in touch with your Higher Power. You trust that you will get what you need, you don’t even have to try that hard to get it and know that worry just cuts you off from Source. In order to move out of this level you need to release separation.

Life is Happening AS ME

The fourth level of consciousness is Life is Happening As Me. In this stage you feel that there is no separation between you and Spirit and you and others. You show up without the beliefs that keep you separate so you are operating from a perspective of compassion in which you don’t necessarily feel that you need to change others or the environment because you see yourself as an extension of it.

When a person loses their job they are most likely going to start in the Life is Happening To Me, level of consciousness and they may feel like they were just dealt a physical blow.  It is the sense of being attacked by life on an unseen level which tends to create victims of us…in order to move beyond this stage we need to understand that it is not personal, we don’t need to hang the blame on someone or something, we are not really under attack – things are simply changing and we need to learn to flow along with -  instead of resisting that change.  People in general don’t appreciate change, especially change that threatens their sense of security, however all change carries within it opportunities for new growth and provides a path of opening within our lives that is ours to make of it – what we will.   If  we befriend change (no matter what it looks like on the outside) we can use the energy of it to take us where we want to go.

So with that in mind, the next best level of consciousness to move into is Life is Happening Through Me.  Once you are no longer taking it personally, you realize that you don’t need to engage in resistance as a bid for control over your situation.  Getting your old job back and putting everything back the way it was is simply not an available option for you at this time and you start to open to the idea that there might be a good reason for this shift to be taking place and you seek what you can learn from this experience.  Perhaps this was a pretty good position for you, most likely though, you could think of some things you would like to change, new areas of growth you’re interested in pursuing, or situations you’d like to avoid.  As you focus on extracting the learnings – you begin to get clear on what it is that you want to create in the space that vacating your old job has left you.  This space is a great gift – because space is what we need to grow something new.

As you step further and further into the idea of what it is that you really, really want in a job…you begin to see that your old position really wasn’t that great of a match and an excitement about finding something more fulfilling to all the different parts of your self emerges.  This excitement encourages a sense of gratitude to rise up within you toward the original loss as you fully embrace at very deep levels just what an opportunity this is to create a livelihood that allows you to be more authentically who you really are.

From this mental positioning you enter the Life is Happening As Me level of consciousness, fully accepting yourself as the creator and participant of circumstances all working toward your Highest Good.  From this place of ownership, you are able to harness the power of your consciousness into action.

With your knowing in place (like a map before you) you engage the Life is Happening By Me level of consciousness, channeling enormous amounts of energy and enthusiasm into the necessary action oriented steps it will take to get you there.  Confidently creating, your new way of working in the world

So is job loss a disastrous event or an opportunity to work out of your Highest Path and Purpose?  Are we empowered regardless of what is happening on the physical level of our lives?  My answer to this question is….YES, YES, YES!!!

I believe that it is our level of consciousness that determines the answers to these questions…not the actual circumstances that we are experiencing in our lives.  What we think and feel about what we encounter in our day is where we hold our power, when we get the inside to line up with the goals of our physical, outer world needs – we’re pretty unstoppable!!!

This is what I’ve lived in my life and I’ve seen countless clients living it as well.

All my love,

PK

Let me just start off by saying I’ve had a lot of jobs in different industries and I’ve been fired, given a “time out” and told that I had to work from the office or resign just to name a few of the “highlights”…LOL!  I guess this could be looked at as a major catastrophe, or that I had somehow failed.  Closer to the truth was that these were opportunities and they kept me moving in a direction that was more in alignment with who I am.

I was really out of alignment, for example, when I got fired from the Downtown Hilton shortly after I moved to Seattle.  The hotel did not treat people the way I thought they should and their policy of overselling rooms put me in a values conflict every single day that I worked there.  As a result I drug myself to the hotel day after day and couldn’t show up on time to save my life – my inability to be on time was a sign and symptom of how wrong a match this job was for me and so when the manager fired me because I was habitually late there was almost a sense of relief mixed in with my hurt and fear.  I knew I didn’t belong at this place but needed the job and didn’t know what I was looking for.  The motivation to go find something else wasn’t going to come without a little outside help   To some of you this will sound very familiar!!!

I had other experiences that were similar – however, the next example I am going to give you is a little different.

I had a job I loved more than any of the others (up til that point) working for a man I respected in the floor coverings industry when I became pregnant with my first child.  We decided that when the baby came, I would work from at home.  I told him that my husband and I had looked into the cost of childcare and decided that I would need to work at home if I was going to stay in the job.

I was a one woman office whose time spent as a manager allowed me to “mind meld and anticipate needs” it was the big joke with his wife who would come in and ask if he had consulted his brain (me) for permission to place anything on his schedule or tamper with anything else going on in the day to day business of the office.  As you can imagine, being so highly dependent on my skills, my boss wanted to give the working at home thing a go.

Spirit had other ideas for both of us – because neither of us would have made a change as long as we were together.

It wasn’t long before the Higher ups intervened through the office phone system.  The parent company refused to ring the phones over to my home number and my boss who was always on the road was left with no one to handle the phones while he was in the field.  Soon no one could get through and I was given a choice.

He called me in knowing what my answer would be but didn’t feel there was an alternative, he had to have someone for the phones and didn’t have the budget for another salary…I was going to have to come back into the office and daycare my son (which we couldn’t afford to do) or I was going to lose my job.

I felt so trapped and betrayed!  Why was this happening to me?  I wondered, signing my resignation, I stuffed my tears down as far as I could get them to go and wondered if we would make it financially.  While at home with my son I started to explore my interests and eventually started a handmade soap and lotion company.  Two years later, while I was pregnant with my second child that same boss called me to say he had a job that he thought I would be good at.  I asked if I could work from at home and he said, absolutely.

I worked side by side with this man for years and didn’t know anything about his passions.  He was inviting me to help him live them by promoting his family’s Southern Gospel group.  I was shocked that he could sing – and when I listened to the recording I felt my Spirit pull strongly toward the position.  I didn’t know anything about Southern Gospel Music, booking a singing group let alone managing one but before it was all over I would be a marketer, promoter, booking agent, publicity agent and band manager all in one.

I sold my soap company, Elysian Dream, in record time and started working for the group.  Within a few months, Spirit manifested a contact with one of the top 3 recording studios in Southern Gospel Music, a year later my boss and every member of his group took a leap of faith and moved from Washington State to Tennessee, almost a year to the date after their move they recorded a project at the studio with whom we had the contact and I found myself helping them negotiate a 10 year recording contract with the Producer who had been our greatest mentor for the last two years.

After helping my friends achieve their life purpose I realized I had hit on something that resonated deeply within my Being and started exploring myself from the inside out to more fully understand how to manifest this calling outside of the role of a marketer (as Spirit was calling me away from my ego, which was deeply embedded in that aspect of the job).

This experience was the pointer for what I do today – following the passions and purpose of my own Soul.  What looked like loss through the previous experiences was really an opportunity to sync up with something greater – my Highest Path and Purpose.  With each experience I learned and grew and began to understand where my Soul was trying to go.

If I hadn’t been fired and given my other experiences,  I would have been complacent and happy to stay where I was.  However, what looks like a terrible event may just be the push that you need to have the freedom to explore what you really, really want in life because all of a sudden you haven’t got as much to lose.  Many, many of my lightworker friends who were hearing their purpose but were paralyzed like a deer in headlights by the security of their income are facing similar pushes and shoves as the universe urges them to awaken!!!

I wonder if Susan Boyle (the latest unexpected superstar of Britain’s Got Talent) would have auditioned for the show if she had been comfortably employed with her life completely on track?

Susan Boyle – Britain’s Got Talent

Is it scary??? Yes…but it is also exciting and if you breathe into that fear it will transform into an energy that moves you toward the path you are meant to be on!

Nowadays I expect good to come from my storms…how about you?

How I Discovered Coaching

When I first became aware that I was on my Highest Path and Purpose it was very surreal.  I was enveloped in this energy that is securely anchored to Source and even though I had no idea where I was going – it was clear that Spirit was leading somewhere, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow.

One day while at my computer I distinctly heard a voice (from outside of my own head) say life coach as if someone or something had been leaning over my right shoulder.  Now this really impacted me because clairaudience is not my usual channel and so I immediately typed it in the search bar to see what this life coaching thing was all about – where was this guidance leading?

As I searched I found several definitions of coaching and what really struck me about the modality is that you see your client as whole, capable and having all the internal resources they need to achieve whatever goal they may have.

My Definition of a Coach

A coach deploys what I call “full-body listening” in which they hold intense focus on their client (with no mental background chatter) using listening and their bodies response system as a way of syncing with the energy system of the client.

This allows them access to all the choices available, to see the situation from the client’s point of view, but also from many other directions as well.  By the coach holding this expanded space around their client and asking questions that guide the client toward the things that are available that they haven’t noticed or been able to see, the client becomes aware of more empowered paths and choices.

The NLP and Coaching Institute of California

One school in particular literally jumped out at me and when I talked to co-founder Kris Hallbom I was so pulled toward the NLPCA’s Coaching Program that I just knew (right then and there that somehow I would attend).

This program was a 23 day intensive.  At the time, my two young children were ages 4 and 7.  The intensive ran in July when the kids were off from school and my husband did not have the vacation to cover taking that much time off.  My mind looked at this situation and began to run statistics on the likelihood of this all working out, however Spirit was in the driver’s seat and simply said to Speak My Truth and trust what manifested.

When I spoke to my husband about it he was immediately on board as he saw what a great match it was to my natural tendencies.  The training itself was not all that expensive but hotel and food would kick it up a notch, regardless – he was willing to dip into our savings to send me.  His parents who are often busy, just happened to be available and were extremely excited about the prospect of having their grand kids all to themselves for several weeks for camping and other fun summer activities.  I watched in awestruck wonder as every little piece of what seemed impossible fell effortlessly into place!

The program itself was amazing. It was set just outside San Fransisco (one of my favorite cities ever!) in nearby and less expensive Burlingame where a quick drive would deposit you on the BART and into the heart of everything there is to do.

Operating Principles

We had five instructors who were the very embodiment of the teachings (each offering a vast amount of experience and a different area of expertise) over the duration of the course.  Covering a wide range of skills deeply anchored in the empowering perspectives of the NLP Operatives:

• Communication is redundant.
  You are always communicating, in all 3 major representational systems – auditory, visual and kinesthetic. You signal this through tone and tempo of your voice, posture, breathing patterns and gestures, as well as your language patterns and eye accessing cues.
• The meaning of your communication is the response that you get.
  Communication is not about what you intend, or about saying the right words; it’s about creating an experience in, and getting a response from, the listener. The “bottom line” is the response you elicit.
• The map is not the territory.
  People respond to their map of reality, not reality itself. NLP is the science of changing these maps (which then changes the way a person perceives and interacts with reality).
• Requisite variety.
  The element with in the system with the most flexibility will be the controlling element.
• People work perfectly.
  No one is wrong or broken; it’s simply a matter of finding out how they function now, so that you can effectively change that to something more useful or desirable. People don’t need to be “fixed”.
• People always make the best choice available to them at the time.
  (but often there are lots of better ones that they haven’t yet learned to access)
• Every behavior is useful in some context.
• Choice is better than no choice.
• Just about anyone can learn to do anything.
• People already have all the resources they need.
  What they need is access to these resources at the appropriate times and places.
• There is no such thing as failure only feedback.
  Every response can be utilized.
• Chunking.
  Anything can be accomplished (by anyone) if you break the task down into small enough chunks.
• Behind every behavior is a positive intent.
  While a behavior may be harmful or seem “bad”, there is always a positive intention behind the behavior.
• Symptoms – pains, anxiety, depression, tumors, colds, etc., are communications about needed action.
• We are all responsible for creating our own experience.
  Even when challenging events that we cannot control happen, we are responsible for our responses to the events. Typically we have much more control than we think we have. Another way of stating this presupposition is that “We consistently create our own environment” through our beliefs, filters, capabilities and behaviors.
• Energy flows where attention goes. (from Huna)

Learning to Coach

In the training we learned how to create the coaching state, holding the client from the viewpoint of the NLP presuppositions in total respect, while cultivating within ourselves a curious, not knowing state that allows our clients to go deep and find their own answers.  We learned to build trust to directionalize the conversation toward the client’s goals, to hold space for their agenda with active listening and specific questions, planning and action skills and how to create a meaningful metaphor on closing our sessions that the client could easily access to help them stay on target.

Coaching Skills and Tools

We learned the following coaching skills:

Accountability, Acknowledgment, Asking Permission, Bottom Lining, Challenging, Championing, Forward the Action, Goal Setting and Planning, Holding the Client’s Agenda, Inquiry, Intrude, Powerful Questions and Requesting Structures.

Along with these NLP skills:

Meta-Programing, Perceptual Positions, Neurological Level Alignment, Well-formed Outcomes, Backtracking, Universal Cycles of Change, Vision to Action, Ecology, Open Questions, Voting with Time, Energy and Money, Working with and Changing Beliefs (Six Step Reframing), Resonance Patterning and much more.

In Retrospect

This course really changed me.  I learned more about myself in 23 days than I had in many, many years and had the opportunity to shift many of my less productive mind patterns while we learned and practiced the material.

It helped me to embody an awakened Highest Path and Purpose perspective and I still rely on the mindsets and tools for creating shifts in perspectives that I learned in coaching in my personal walk everyday.

I made some amazing spiritual friendships and experienced as well as received much healing over the duration of the course.  In, fact you could very well say that this course is what awakened me to my path as a healer…it was the first step that I took toward that direction and I have never regretted it!

Reminder

For those of you who missed the teleclass on intuition the audio is available here (I’m still working out the technology end – so please excuse the static – it doesn’t last long) 

Special Offer

For those of you who might want to take up coaching, NLPCA is offering (this year only) a special price of $3600.00 for their training.  Be sure to head over to www.nlpca.com and check them out if you’ve been considering coach training!

My next post in this series will cover NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner training

More and more it leads, like a dance I simply follow it without much thought to where it is going.  Lighting the way, with whom to speak,  what to investigate.  Guiding my hand so that souls may be heard, bringing forth an authenticity from within…helping others to understand just how much they already know.

Grow your confidence.   Listen to the messages all around you.  They will guide you – it is of no use to plan it out – simply flow with us – the voices of the core from within.  It will come to you at the moment of need – exactly what to do and what action to take.

Keep listening and we’ll keep whispering as you travel the inside road…

I’ve been walking this path and I am not yet ready to return.  Projects have materialized before me in direct response to spiritual query – I will have much that is exciting to share with you soon

Until then – listen and be true to yourself – you are sacred and loved!

Author’s Note:  The following post was inspired by questions asked of me by Albert Foong of the Urban Monk.  Thank you Albert for your questioning and seeking of the Truth

On Halloween or Samhain there is a belief that remains constant regardless of how you may celebrate the holiday – this is the understanding that on October 31st – the veils that typically keep us from seeing the world of energy and spirit and keep us firmly rooted in our 3rd dimensional reality grow thin even for those who typically don’t experience such things.

In ages past, it was also thought that this made people particularly vulnerable to negative entities who use this unaccustomed sight to generate and feed off of the fear energy of the those unlucky enough to encounter them.

This kind of thinking still survives, only now it lives in the collective subconscious mind where it mostly remains out of sight and unnoticed until something stimulates it into action.

So let me stimulate you by talking about the biggest beastie of them all – Lucifer himself.  When it comes to fear-based promotion, this guy has got a great publicist – after all what could be more terrifying than the very personification of evil itself?

So who is he and what does he really want?

The answer is simple.  Lucifer is an Archangel who was given a pathway to become one of humanities greatest teachers.  Stay with me now…

Why?

Because within our evolution came a time when our third energy center became very active within us. We moved up from the level of survival and simple pleasures and now were beginning to understand that we could influence and impact the world and situations around us. We could bend nature and others to our will.  As a result, individuality began to step forward above the group or collective thinking and as it began to take over the control booth a funny thing happened…we fell into judgment.

Now during this time the lower energy centers were in control – and we basically operated from two principles – moving away from pain or moving toward pleasure.  Only now there was another element getting mixed in -  what we believed would get us pleasure (or what I call projected into the future pleasure) – and this thing came to be called desire or what I want.  Soon all things pleasurable became good, anything that promoted our sense of will was good and anything that stood in the way of it was bad.

We chose this method of learning so that we could fully experience our individual impact on the whole.  In the Archangelic realms – plans were made to support us in this learning so that we could fully explore our own power and impact through our third energy center.

The Archangelic realms mirrored our internal split – many of the Angels were assigned to be space holders for Divine energies to support us in understanding and finding our way back to Oneness.  Others, were given the job of taking on negative energies in order to mirror to us our learning choices.  These were called by history – fallen angels – however they are merely high level dark teachers wearing masks.

So who is the Devil really?

He is the essence of Duality – a paradox – he is everything scary and he is everything Light.  The best way to consider it is through the concept of a spectrum – what you see and experience of him is determined by the vibration you are humming along at when you encounter him.

If you meet up with him when you are in a vibration of fear – he’s the scariest thing on cloven feet you’ve ever seen.  From the vibration of unconditional love he is the Angel of Light – the most beautiful of Archangels – the one who sang over the throne of God.

Some angels hold the space of Light,  fallen angels have followed us down into the darkness and will not come back until we all choose the light – this is how much they love us.

Lucifer’s job is to reflect to us the darkness that lives in our hearts – so that we may choose to live in love – this is what he does.  In order to do this he has to stay rooted in Source – otherwise it would be an impossibility to be meet us at each level within the spectrum.

What is he like?

I checked in with Lucifer to have a little chat before writing this post.  He is very funny!  As you can imagine he is also very charming.  I like him a lot.  It IS difficult to maintain the vibration necessary to see him as the angel of light rather than something of darkness as it requires you to consciously disconnect from the collective belief system and several times during the our conversation I was prompted to raise my vibration.  Like I said, it’s not easy – but it can be done!

His message is that he is really working FOR you.

He really appreciates anyone who can see him through the eyes of love as it is such a rare treat!  When you realize that Lucifer is really working FOR you rather than against you – what on Earth is there to possibly be afraid of???

So my dears, be Light-based tonight.  Enter your heart centers, open your seventh chakra’s, raise your vibrations and have yourself a wonderfully fun and Happy Halloween!

Image Credit

Last week I had a conversation with Source and the Angels that has changed my life.  I matter of factly told them I was done with illusion that I only wanted to live in Divine Truth and to – Bring it on!!!

I’ve been warned that I might want to use a little caution with this kind of enthusiastic statement – however, I am not a very cautious Spiritual Seeker

Well Source said, “O.K.” and it has been a pretty wild ride ever since!

This next story is a teaching about how we can take a step beyond forgiveness with the people that have hurt us most in life.

I was a fly on the wall observing a meeting most of us are unaware even occurs.  Here in this room sat my Higher Self,  Source the Archangels and my Guides discussing life lessons and hiring participants with whom I would dance in my current incarnation.  The candidates were reviewed according to the level of complement for what each Soul was working on – and that turned out to be quite the detailed process.

“What am I observing?” I whispered to Archangel Gabriel.  He simply smiled and said, “The truth”.

I returned my gaze to the meetings before me and a Soul I recognized came forward and was asked if he would be willing to play a role in the life situation displaying before him.  His gaze was cast toward a screen – I turned to watch with him and saw his beautiful Soul willingly take on a negativity that instantly transformed him from the very presence of beauty to something slinking in the darkness.

“Are you willing to play this part?” he was asked by the council.  “Are you willing to take this job in order to help the One before you evolve during it’s incarnation?”

“Yes.” he said gazing at me with such Love that my heart nearly burst – tears wet his eyes and with this answer he accepted the mission.

I began to cry tears of gratitude – it never occurred to me that we could be so loved and so supported by other Souls that they would be willing turn themselves into something despised by others in order to help move us toward our Highest Path and Purpose.

“Gabriel” I said, “is this the true Nature of Darkness.”  “Yes.” He said, “Even the Dark Teachers work for the Light – they simply take a different path to get there.”

When I consider the Dark Teachers in my life (the people I’ve encountered who’ve pushed me to grow with the energies of pain or fear) I’m now grateful for the lessons they taught me – because I understand what it must have taken for them to move themselves out of the Light and into extremely low vibrational energy in order to aid me with my life lessons.  Only the greatest kind of Love and Authority can produce Courage of this nature – and I find myself wondering if I have what it takes to make that kind of sacrifice?  I’ve certainly changed my mind about a lot of things due to this experience and I now know that Dark Teachers are more evolved than most of us believe

I’ve also come to recognize that along the way I made the decision that I no longer wanted to learn through darkness in my life.  I realized that I had an option and that I was drawing negative learning experiences to myself because at that time – I believed that I needed them.  That all ended when I chose to create positive learnings instead.

When we as a collective decide we no longer need darkness as a vehicle through which to receive our lessons and experiences – the Dark Teachers will be able to take off their costumes and return to the Light

Maybe it’s a strange idea that they are here because we want them to be here – but I think it makes sense…afterall we ARE that powerful!

Image by Aelle.

I haven’t been posting this week due to the profundity of my most recent experiences. I made a vow to focus my energy and intent on my personal relationship with Source and the Beings of Light that assist me in life and when I try to write about what has happened over the last week, all words seem to fall short of an accurate description.

One of these experiences however, I feel compelled to share, whether or not the words I use here fall short of actually conveying to you the magnitude of the process to which I was participant and witness.

The Archangel Gabriel has been working with me in a very personal way this week. He has shown me processes, systems, worked with me on illusions and abundance to name a few. I often do energy balancing on the treadmill, but this week I have been doing a lot more than usual. The balancing I do happens both before and during my workout and this day was no exception. I worked out and had a particularly enlightening session with Gabriel, St. Mary and St. Germain – I left the gym with my vibration so high, feeling so balanced that what happened next nearly threw me for a loop.

I returned from the work out, ate lunch and knelt before my alter – starting a conversation with Source. Immediately, I felt an extremely heavy, dark weight come up from the depths of my chest. It hurt, it was constricting and I was forced to double over with it. Immediately, I began to see it emerge from the depths of my being and form a ball in my heart chakra. Gabriel was instantly beside me and I asked him about this black sphere. He told me that it was my share of all the toxicity that I have created on this earth since my first incarnation on this planet.

At this point I began to cry for her – Oh, Mama – I’m sorry - I sobbed.  It was at that moment that I felt the magnitude of it – of my own unconsciousness over the course and history of my Soul.

I turned to Gabriel and asked, What do I do with this? He replied, You make a different choice. Within seconds I knew what I needed to do. I chose to take this from the earth and give her something she could use in it’s place – I did not know how I would do it – Source provided me grace though and that was all I needed.

Gabriel held the dark sphere in the space of Divine truth for me and I passed it to the Archangel Michael. Michael used the blue fire of God to purify it – until it was ablaze with Divine Light. At that point the torch was passed to the Archangel Raphael who brought it to a state of balance and wholeness – infusing it with his green/gold light. From there it went to Uriel who filled it with the vibration of Divine Love and then on to Ariel, who with the greatest of compassion, showered the earth with this new revitalizing energy.

I felt the lightness immediately as the ball transformed and my vibration soared even higher still. Gabriel, I said, thank you.

I now understand an aspect of spiritual abundance that was previously lost on me. It’s the greatest recycling process the world has ever known – and we can all do it – all that is required is that we release – we can let go of our darkness (our illusions, programs and anything and everything that is not real) to the purification of the Light which turns it into something we can reintegrate, balance and harmonize.

All we have to do is give it to Angels, tell them we no longer desire, need or have any attachment to it and they will take care of the rest – the only caveat is that we have to be extremely honest and really want to let it go -  we can decieve ourselves and often times do – but Spirit doesn’t buy into our illusions, walks in Divine Truth and sees through us every time

What does your Spirit want to let go of?  What comes up from the depths of your being for transformation and release?

Photo By Xnir.com

You may not believe that we are God. That’s o.k., I’m not here to convert you, change your mind, tell you are wrong or to prove that I am right because none of that matters to me in the least…it’s all just mind stuff that serves to distract us from what is real.

Instead, I am here to ask you a very important question and then to offer you one of the most insane and absurdly simple answers to just about any problem. Mastering this pattern, not only attunes us to our full creatorship but also creates within us lasting inner peace.

Start by Questioning Suffering Often

When you find that you are suffering…ask yourself if this is really working for you?
Are you being offered heaven or hell by the thoughts, programs and patterns that your belief systems are generating in this moment?

If your thoughts offer you hell, why not create heaven instead?

Do you think…
I’m being punished for the night we spent together?

l don’t think it’s God who punishes us.
l think we punish ourselves.
Would it not be a comfort to believe…
just for a time…
that we create our own heavens and our own hells?

It would be a comfort.
It would, Lancelot.

Maybe God does not grant you all the comforts you ask of Him…
but offers you others which you refuse to see.
Maybe you should find the comforts He does offer you…
my dear lady, and accept them. ~ The Mists Of Avalon

Creating our heavens requires us to take responsibility for our hells.

Owning the Keys to the Gates of Hell

Step One: Look around and ask, how did I create this?
There are two things that happen immediately when I say this, because of what is implied in this statement. The first is acceptance and the second is possibility.

Surely, if I can create something large and impacting in one direction…it stands to reason that there was a process or a procedure that I used to get there. If I can become conscious of what I am doing that is not working for me…I am in a better position to notice what is missing, what I’m not paying attention to and design a way of simply taking that energy and turning the other way with it.

Step Two: Turn the other way by finding the good.
Ask yourself to find anything that is good and positive about (or as a result of) your situation.

In every set of circumstances in life, you can find opposites. Look for the comforts that are available to you within your problems, see how you might learn from them, how they can help you to grow or how they may in fact be helpful to someone else.

Look for a way to align yourself within the situation. This positions you for acceptance and forward movement by creating space within your problem for new ways of being with it, new thoughts and new emotions.

You are the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is within you.

When we are at war with ourselves on the inside, the universe lines up our outer circumstances to reflect this to us and it would seem like the entire world is against us. When we comes to terms within, the lightness and ease with which we can move through our inner world follows us out into our physical experience…and everything seems to go our way.

Hell is merely a reflection of the conflict we rage upon ourselves, we create heaven by cultivating inner harmony, congruence and peace. If life is not enjoyable and you lack that peace…it is your responsibility to let go of the struggle, to put down the weapons you have been using against yourself and to make the choice to take notice of the comforts that are all around you.

Accepting Creatorship

No one else is responsible for the life we create. We create with our every thought, emotion and impulse, consciously and unconsciously alike. This is what it means to be a creator…and this is the Truth operating within our lives regardless of whether or not we embrace this viewpoint.

Our power, however, (despite our many fears) actually lies in ownership. When we take ownership of what we create, our creations are of a higher quality…the quality that comes from operating out of our conscious awareness. The more consciously we create the more control we have over our quality of consciousness and the more we grow .

Image Credit

The Good

There are times when we approach life confidently. When we feel strong, supported and anchored in our direction. Our interior dialog is positive, we are mindful, gentle and nurturing to our inner being, and as a result of this perspective and how we are viewing life we feel energized and on track…like everything is going our way.

From this space when we look out over our lives thinking of how far we’ve come and all of the progress that we’ve made we’re filled with a deep sense of accomplishment and often end up in the space where everything seems right with the world.

The Bad

At other times, we feel quite the opposite. It’s like the universe has a wrecking ball aimed at our lives and everything we touch just turns to shit. Nothing we do, goes as planned and life seems completely beyond our control.

These are the times when we feel stuck, like we’ve fallen down the hill we were climbing and we’re now at the bottom sitting in the mire of all the garbage we dropped down, never to be seen again along with everything else we thought we were leaving behind.

Our inner dialog is a little different here as we will often attempt to motivate ourselves out of this mess in a manner that resembles, flogging a tired horse.

So what’s the best approach when we are stuck in the middle of our old patterns and self-deceptions? Is it possible to remember to nurture ourselves, when we’ve fallen flat on our faces and are eating a mouthful of dirt???

It’s Only Dirt

Well, I think that lies in how you view the dirt.

Determining the View

Let’s take a look at falling into the mire from the Four Levels of Consciousness:

If I’m in the Life is Happening To Me level of consciousness, my first reaction will be to find someone or something to blame for my fall.

If I let go of blame and enter the Life is Happening By Me level of consciousness, I’d be more inclined to think…I can get myself up and I would proceed to dust off and move on…after all, I’m in control.

If I give up control and enter the Life is Happening Through Me level of consciousness, I might look at what happened and wonder what it has to teach me about how I’m approaching my life…I might query and ponder the timing of my fall, the position I fell into and distill learnings from the experience of falling…it would be all about understanding the positive purpose of falling and allowing that purpose to carry me forward.

Now if I give up separation and I enter the Life is Happening As Me level of consciousness, I would see the dirt and myself as one. From this perspective, I would see the fall as my own creation and an expression of the highest good manifesting in my life.

In the above scenarios, the act of falling into the dirt never changes, it remains an impartial fact…such as saying, I fell to the ground. I fell to the ground has no meaning in and of itself, the consciousness (to me, by me, through me, as me) having the experience (falling) creates meaning (good or bad) of the ground (the landing spot).

Bottom-Line

No one, no thing, no experience…can give the events of your life meaning, but you.

One Person’s Mire is Another Person’s Spa Treatment: A New Definition for Dirt

The first thing I’d like you to do is go back into your recent memories of reading this post and recall the images that speaking of falling down in the mire conjured up for you…was it anything like this?

Image Credit

My friend Christine often says:

When you plant a seed, the first thing that comes up isn’t the perfectly formed sprout. The first thing that comes up is dirt.

In other words, when you embark on a new path, the resistance comes up first so you can push through it and get stronger in that process.

Love the Mire

Loving the mire is all about using the act of falling in our lives as a signal to recharge, and the dirt that comes up as a result of planting something new to nurture, heal and begin a gentle self-care routine that enables us to grow stronger while we push through life’s challenges.

It’s a signal that you’re moving…afterall if you weren’t making any changes, there’d be no place to fall from

Image By Miss Stanford

Endangered Monk Seals are right at home on La’au Point.

Molokai is special to me. I truly love this island and its Spirit. People don’t come for nightlife, chain stores or shows. People come to Molokai to connect with the locals, the land and to unwind.

Island time, truly exists here…stay awhile, and you’ll get lost in the timelessness of the place. The sacred also exists here, you see it in the faces around you, in the long ocean beaches, the red soil that stains your socks, the sheer cliffs of the northern shore and the fact that there is not a single traffic light on the entire island!

I understand why the people of Molokai protect it and why they are careful about the kinds of development they endorse. The land is a member of their family and so as we speak in this moment they are sacrificing their own comfort for the health of that family member, having opposed Molokai Ranch’s Master Plan for developing their holdings at La’au (an entity that owns roughly a third of Molokai). As a result the Ranch announced they are closing all of their operations on the island, taking 120 jobs away from the population of 8,000 who live there.

If living courageously is the key to co-creating life…then the people of Molokai are no strangers to courage.

I can’t help but wonder when this same dynamic will be a force of circumstance for those of us who reside here in the wide, open spaces, where the necessity of an act like this is harder to see…where we are less mindful of our connectedness than is an island…or can we, will we learn now where to draw the line on progress, from their example before it comes to that?

I don’t know the answer to that question…so instead, I’d like to share with you some of what I encountered while visiting the island, so that you can see what it is that the residents there are trying to protect.

Memories from Molokai

Image Credit

The first trip I took to Molokai was very active. My husband had been coming to the island since he was a child, so we hiked as far out as our feet would take us nearly every day, rarely encountering another soul.

Toward the end of this first trip we hiked down into Kaluapapa on a trail consisting of 26 switchbacks stretching out over three miles, taking us down over 1600 feet to the sea level peninsula that was both home and prison to those struck with Hanson’s Disease in 1866. We learned about Father Damian, the priest that came seven years later to help by building houses, a hospital and a church for the inhabitants.

We were toured through the old structures and told the history of its residents; from the times when they were cast off into the ocean to fight their way to shore in the 1860′s, through to the drugs that cured the disease in the 1940′s up to Kaluapapa’s current modern day residents…survivors, whom remain by choice.

Image Credit

Awe inspiring beauty and the horror of its history co-exist in this place…serving as an opportunity to break open the hearts of all who visit for under the surface, a living, almost palpable strength of spirit that is unifying beyond the challenges that one encounters in the world can be found here. It speaks to the beauty that exists…in and through all forms of life.

When the tour ended however, there were some four-legged forms in particular that we wanted to get ahead of, so we hustled back up the switchback path attempting to beat the caravan of mules that had served to bring many of our tour fellows in. Slowly hiking up a path covered in fresh mule dung on a hot afternoon just didn’t seem appealing…so it was our plan to get through first

On the way up, sweating, panting and striping off as much clothing as we considered decent, we were passed by a friendly and very fit Hawaiian who was not at all out of breath. He smiled at us and said, “You guys are doing really well!” as he continued up the path, as if on a leisurely stroll.

We looked at each other, barely able to inhale in the unaccustomed humidity and watched him continue on, not missing a beat. With our heads down and our hands grasping our knees…we started laughing as soon as we could catch a breath. It was amusing to us because in that moment our perception of health and of being in shape shifted to a new possibility.

My husband and I have always been people that work at health and at that time in our lives we were especially disciplined. This man however, was in a league of his own. It would not have surprised us if he walked this grueling hike everyday for fun!

Thinking of him, made the climb easier and to a large degree we stopped taking ourselves so seriously the rest of the way up…just in time too, cause our next stop was the infamous Phallic Rock

Image Credit

The Phallic Rock is an ancient fertility site dedicated to the male fertility God Nanahoa. As the God himself was thought to be encased in the stone, barren women throughout the ages would bring offerings and spend the night at the rock’s base in hopes of conceiving a child. Women still come here to bring their offerings and pray for fertility.

I’ve been to the rock twice, once on our honeymoon and once while 36 weeks pregnant. The stone has amazing energy that most people find irresistible.

If you hang out there for long enough you will see people laughing while they sit on it, straddle it, or stand next to it. Most can’t help but allow their hands to follow over the contours of the stone for a time as well, seemingly reluctant to leave. Apparently, Nanahoa’s power is still there working in full bloom as we’ve heard and experienced quite a few tales of conception surrounding visits to the Phallic Rock!

What’s Next for Molokai?

Well, this is not an easy question…but I think the answer lies in connectivity. From what I understand the Molokai Community Service Council is working toward raising enough money to buy the land at La’au Point from Molokai Ranch. The Ranch is saying that the development of this land was necessary for them to continue their Molokai operations. It is uncertain if the jobs will come back once they have divided up and sold the land at La’au.

Part of the struggle that the people of this island seem to have faced over recent years stems from outside interests. The investors that own land do not live on the island and so, if something changes in the financial climate they simply leave (this is what happened to the plantations some years ago). I would like to see what would happen if the jobs that sustained the people on the island belonged to the community, rather than individuals

What Can I Do to Help?

Many believe that what happens to one of us, in actuality is happening to all of us. There is a fabulous rain forest myth about a man who kills the song bird of the forest, and with the bird, he kills the song and with the song…he kills himself.

So this question of how to help has been on my mind the most. My first response is to pray for them, which I have been doing because I believe there is power in that. My next idea was to create some kind of symbolism (like the song bird was in the above mentioned myth) for the spirit of the people, something that illustrates their aliveness while emphasizing connectivity.

In my mind the symbolism that came out of this line of thinking was a Hawaiian version of Friendship Bread. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this bread requires a starter (like in sour dough). Making this bread is a ten day process of intent and sharing.

Once it is started, it spreads and the starter then has to be fed and passed onto others, who will likewise do the same. The care and concern required to make this bread is symbolic of the community spirit that is necessary to get through a situation like the one currently facing the residents of Molokai. If you are interested in participating in the bread chain, please e-mail me at pk@paulakawal.com.

Lastly, there is the option of financial support. If you want to donate (this is not a pressure thing, I think prayer is just as powerful), then please click here. You will be taken to the Molokai Community Service Council’s donation page to buy Molokai Ranch.

And as always…much love to you…or as they say in Hawaiian:
Me Ke Aloha Pumehana!