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

Joseph Campbell – Finding Bliss

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else. ~ JC

© copyright Joseph Campbell Foundation 2009

Joseph Campbell was born in White Plains, New York to a Roman Catholic family.  His road to mythology began with an interest in Native American stories as a child, through which he found greater insight into his own faith and a doorway to many others.

Myth became his passion and as he studied it, he began to map out the cohesive story threads that are constant in world mythology and in essence through myth gained insight into the sense of spirit people wordwide share – that drives our human experience.

Joseph Campbell has taught me that ~

Following Your Spirit Allows You to Truly Experience Life

My first exposure to the work of Joseph Campbell came through George Lucas and the orginal Star Wars films when I was about 8 years old.  George Lucas based his script on Joe’s book The Hero’s with a Thousand Faces and Campbell was even a mentor regarding the shape and impact of the story.  This is one of the earliest films that I can remember touching something so deep within me that I could only describe it as my core.  Though I didn’t understand it at the time I would get another opportunity at the age of twelve.

When I was twelve, I ran into The Dragonlance Chronicles and once again my spirit started to stir in a way that was familiar.  Tracy Hickman (one of the co-writers and the lead designer of this fantasy world) also based these books on the Hero’s Journey model.  Two years later, I would begin my first hero’s quest – it would not however, be the last

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. ~ JC (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

The Hero’s Journey (Moving Beyond Your Small Self)

Journeying into the Unknown

1. Call to Adventure
   The hero always receives a call to move into the adventure which he/she must answer.  This call represents the unconscious and suppressed impulses of the spirit – and an opportunity for an awakening.  Sometimes these impulses are represented mythically as a dark forest, babbling spring, a great tree, a magical quest, chasing after a magical animal, following unusual sounds, etc.  In my own life it has come through acting on dreams and following intuitive impulses that my spirit has given to me and sometimes I just got swept into the journey by life circumstances seemingly without my consent!
2. Refusal of the Call
   Sometimes the hero chooses to refuse the call.  When he does he usually really suffers and the call passes into its negative form unless he changes his mind.  Walls from which he can’t escape close in around him and he becomes a victim needing to be saved, having failed to activate his own internal power.
3. Helper
   After the hero starts by answering the call (consciously or unconsciously) he will at some point meet someone who gives him some vital item or knowledge that will help him on his quest.  This could be a wizard or sorceress, a little man of the wood, a unicorn, a fairy God-mother or other such supernatural presence.  It could be a magical item, a phrase, or some information about the challenge that lies ahead.  In my own experience many teachers have appeared at this stage – often in dreams and meditations and sometimes as chance meetings and encounters with people that are just too precise and unlikely to be ignored.
4. Threshold Crossing
   In crossing the threshold the hero leaves what is known to him and enters the realm of the unknown.  This is the point where everything changes and the hero encounters dangers that are also bestowers of power.  For me this has often been times in which we have physically moved to new and unfamiliar realms or in which I have faced deep fears. However, your first sexual experience, marriage, children and other rites of passage also qualify.
5. The Belly of the Whale
   This is the final separation of the hero’s known world and self fully into the unknown and is often represented as his or her lowest point.  The experience is often something dark and frightening.  The willingness of the hero to enter is symbolic of their willingness to die to their old self, and their openness toward embracing something new.  In my own life the belly of the whale has had many shapes and forms; depression, alcoholism, confronting abusing situations, being made to face fears, surrendering control, etc.
   The Initiations
6. Tests and Trials
   The hero must overcome a series of tests or trials, through which aid is received from his or her supernatural helpers.  This is an act in which the hero begins to understand and embrace his or her own true nature.  The battle is really with the ego and the defeat of the limited self which often leads to the discovery of hidden abilities or power.
7. Meeting with the Goddess
   The Goddess in the hero’s journey represents an encounter with the Divine Feminine - she is all that lives and all that dies.  From womb to tomb the whole round of existence lives within her.  This is often depicted by the sacred or mystical marriage – representing the hero’s mastery over life through uniting with the Divine Feminine aspect of his or her own nature.  This is when the cycle of rebirth and this ultimate truth comes into full consciousness. Through this cycle of living in a world of inadequacies – there is bliss to be achieved again and again.  I’ve had many impactful encounters with the Goddess, the birth of my children and the death of my grandmothers and a time when she came to me as the Crone to name a few.
8. The Temptress
   The woman as temptress in the hero’s journey represents the distractions of the hero’s own earthly self and the unconscious revulsion he holds toward the acts of life in contrast with what he perceives as his pure Soul.  his encounter with the temptress is an opportunity for him to transcend his own divided nature.  I consistently encounted a male version of the temptress many times in my dreams  until I healed my relationship with my own sexuality.
9. Atonement with the Father
   Atonement with the father really means (at-one-ment).  This is where the hero is required to die to his or her own infantile and immature self as they face the force that holds the most power over their lives, proving themselves worthy to then govern themselves and through these trials, receive the blessings of the world.  Honestly, I am currently moving through this one and it is a BIG transition!
10. Apotheosis
    In Apotheosis the hero recognizes fully the God within – having fully left his or her the attachments to the mother, been delivered up and initiated by the father, died to ego and reborn to spirit they have moved beyond all strife.  This also represents the womb-like period of rest and incubation that precedes the hero’s return.
11. The Ultimate Boon
    This is when the hero achieves the goal of the quest, having been purified by his or her trials, the hero now has the maturity to receive the gift as a proper custodian.
    The Return
12. The Refusal of the Return
    The refusal of the return comes when the hero decides to stay in the presence of the Gods rather than bring back what he has learned for the renewal of his community.
13. The Magic Flight
    The magical flight occurs when the hero has obtained the boon without the blessings of its guardians, a pursuit follows and the hero’s need to escape these supernatural forces initiates the return.
14. Rescue from Without
    Just as the hero needs assistance to get in, he often needs help to get out – or that is to say the world has to come and get him for who having cast off the world is in a hurry to return?  The rescue differs from the refusal in the sense that when the world comes knocking, he agrees to return - having merely been transfixed or delayed by his new found perfect state of being.
15. Return Threshold Crossing
    The return threshold is returning from the world of the divine into the human world, only to find that though they once seemed as opposite as night and day, or life and death only that these vastly different kingdoms are one.  The hero ventures out into darkness where he is beyond our physical sight, has his adventure and then returns from the dimension of the Gods to the world we know.  The hero’s challenge is then to retain and translate his experiences from the deep into something the world can use – for it is difficult to to communicate to people who insist on the exclusive evidence of their senses the message of the all-generating void!
16. Master of the Two Worlds
    The hero gains an equal level of comfort with both inner and outer worlds (represented in myth by figures like Jesus and Buddah) having given up completely all attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears and no longer resisting the self-annihilation that is a prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth, he exists in a way that is relaxed into whatever may come to pass in him, both worlds living in him with his unreserved consent.
17. Freedom to Live
    As the hero is released from the fear of death through the understanding and experience of his own immortal nature – he is finally free to live without anticipating the future or remorsing the past – he can live fully in the joy of each moment.

I use the hero’s journey as a model for transcendence extracted from myth. I see it as a how-to guide for navigating this experience – passed on to us – through the stories of an earlier time – whispering to our Souls through subconscious imagery and understandings. Joseph Campbell helped me to navigate these experiences with his vast body of work and amazing teachings.

I don’t have to have faith, I have experience. ~ JC

Joseph’s work also gave me the permission I needed to remain on the outside of religion, relying instead on my own personal experiences of spirit as my highest and best authority.

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. – JC

I gained the confidence to walk my own path, embracing all faiths I encounter along the way, noticing the beauty and truth of their teachings and using from them, whatever I am called toward, as my own.

Joseph Cambell was a man who understood being passionately alive, coining the phrase “Follow Your Bliss” and speaking tirelessly toward the unseen doors that lie there for us where before there were only walls. His willingness to say yes to the adventure and truly experience life is what makes him a Hero of Healing.

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!

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

I haven’t done a tarot reading for myself in ages…so the other day I decided to whip out the cards with the idea of getting a larger picture of my current growth and development.  I went into the presence and drew three cards as follows:

The Queen of Cups

The first was the queen of cups; dreamy and contemplative, she is the very image of one who walks between the worlds. She is the stable aspect of the element of water. The still pool, deep well, the cup, the cauldron and the depths of ones own psyche. The well of the Soul that leads to our own inner mysteries.

She also embodies feminine power, exerting a seductiveness that has nothing to do with physical beauty but rather a beauty that radiates out from within…the beauty of a well developed spirit.

She is the mystery of emotions and the subconscious mind and she will reflect to you your inner-most desires and fantasies.

She calls us to discover our own depths and bring forth new qualities from within. She advocates an active and healthy inner life, exploring and experiencing feelings and information from beyond the exterior senses, demonstrating how life is enriched by learning to trust our intuition and spiritual gifts.

The Six of Cups (Reversed)

This one was interesting to me. The traditional meaning of this card indicates an absolute refusal to let go of the past. It is the clinging to old traditions, past glories and successes that prevents any achievement in “the now” for fear of not being able to compare.

My guides however told me that the card was chosen for its imagery and to look closely at the symbolism. As I gazed upon the empty cups I got an entirely different meaning…it was one of letting go and emptying out as it applies to learned information. Let me explain.

There are several stages of learning, take driving a car for example. First, there is unconscious incompetence; this is the time when you are not even aware that you do not know how to drive. Second, is conscious incompetence; at this point you begin to understand that this is something you don’t know how to do. Third, is conscious competence; this is where you learn how and can do it, however you are having to work at it. Fourth, is unconscious competence, this is when you are driving, talking on your cell phone and applying make-up all at the same time! (Just kidding) the point is that driving is now an unconscious skill, something you can do automatically without thinking about it.

My guides gave me the meaning through the symbolism of the card, that this was about emptying out and surrendering control. It is this leap of faith and trust that creates an opening for unconscious competence to occur

The Two of Wands

This card is the warrior armed with the courage of his/her convictions. I was not at all surprised to draw this card as in my last post I mentioned the presence of the Archangel Michael and this card had his energy all over it!

It is the dedication, willpower and hard work it takes to bring an idea to fruition. This card is also about pushing out personal boundaries and venturing beyond comfort zones. It is choosing risk over security in order to have the chance of knowing what you are truly capable of.

Overall Understanding

This tarot meditation spread spoke to me on many levels all at once. On the surface it is pretty obvious that I am working on going deeper to reveal more of my spiritual gifts and talents, that trust and surrender is required by my current growth and that this involves pushing my comfort zones and will require a high level of devotion to rework my personal boundaries.

On the deeper level I get that this is connected to my awakened healer; emptying the past, trust and surrender are required as that part of me has suffered greatly through past life experiences and of course, all of this…is going to and already has made me quite uncomfortable!

However these are the lessons before me in order to have full access to my heart chakra.  Since understanding and working with this energy center in my body is the next step on along my Highest Path and Purpose, it’s very cool that a spread like this in the Tarot can give me so much information on how to move through this process!

Share Your Experiences with the Spread!

Have you had any interesting tarot experiences that you’d like to share? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments section of this post! We look forward to hearing them and examining how our Guides like to use the cards

(Images are from The Sacred Circle Tarot by Anna franklin and Paul Mason)

Awoken from a Dream

Last week my husband and kids got a stomach virus all at the same time. I was the only one who was well and I spent several days and nights rushing from person to person doing anything I could to make them comfortable. As they were recovering, I energetically as well as physically cleaned house before becoming ill myself.

I awoke the morning after they were all on the mend to a shift in my body, so I tuned into my own energy throughout the day allowing my physical form to instruct me on how to care for it. I was so grateful for its wisdom, I felt like I had access to the ultimate healer/physician and so I paid close attention to its every need. I sent my body a lot of love and moved through it all with great ease. I was mostly just depleted of energy and I had nearly recovered within the span of a day.

The next evening I was awoken by our daughter who was standing next to the bed stroking my right arm. As I came to full conscious awareness I found that I had been holding my Archangel Michael Pendant while I slept in my left hand. Knowing that this had some sort of significance, I helped my daughter get back to sleep and mentally stored this piece of information for the waking hours ahead.

An Unexpected Reading

That morning, I was concerned about leaving for my NLP Master Practitioner training in San Francisco. Our son had been on again off again sick with the various parts of the virus. Instead of getting it all at once as his father and sister had, he was getting it in stages that were a few days apart. While I was recovered, my energy was still balancing and I felt like I needed to be very gentle with myself.

My friend Raj (who also attends the training) always picks me up from the airport so I phoned him to tell him how I was feeling. During the course of the conversation he gave me a quick reading. As he prepared I grounded and opened myself to source energy. Immediately an image of appeared. I was walking toward a triangular shaped mountain with a jagged snow line. On my left side was the Archangel Michael and on my right the Archangel Raphael. It felt like being brought forth toward Source, like an initiation of light.

The Pendant Meditation

During the weekend the subject of my Archangel Michael Pendant came up often. People who are energetically sensitive are drawn toward it…as if it is communicating something to them on a spiritual level. These attractions and conversations generate the sense of a deep soul level relationship as we recognize the significance of meeting someone who is on our spiritual path of growth.

Considering all of this, it is not surprising that a group of us began to hold it, seeing what we sensed as we did. Raj held it and said that he could hear it speaking but he couldn’t understand what it was saying; he urged me to connect with the pendant and find out. So while we were on our way to a fellow practitioner’s house to watch a viewing of the Princess Bride, he led me through an exercise to find out.

I went into a very deep trance despite being in a Mustang that literally excels at noticing every bump in the road and here is what I found:

The pendant showed me a radio dial and tuning into a clear channel. Raj asked what the pendant is telling me to do and the words, BE YOUR TRUTH came. So then he asked, “How do you be your truth?” I was given the answer, by walking the path of light and love.

Then he queried, “And how do you walk the path of light and love?” At this point I was shown the path directly out in front of me…an intense sense of desire, will and passion emanating from my solar plexus began to form an energetic attraction to the path and I simply replied…I must want to…but there was so much more than these words to that simple realization.

This did not mean mind wanting alone…this meant full body…wanting…the kind of wanting that moves you without your conscious awareness that you have moved.

Compassion and Jesus

The next morning I entered a meditation in which I wanted to get clear about my truth and what the path of love and light means for me. So I went to the place where I usually convene with my higher self, spirit guides and angels. I sat watching the sunrise over the ocean view from an ancient stone wall when I noticed Jesus approaching, flanked by Archangel’s Michael and Raphael.

I moved forward to greet him when he said quite abruptly, yet full of love and compassion that my heart was too small. He reached into my chest, pulled my heart out to where we could both see it, stretched it to an enormous proportion and then returned it to my chest cavity.

I sank to the ground with its weight as I watched him wave and begin to walk away. “Allow yourself to receive love,” he said, “It is always available.” At the sound of his words the new heart in my chest opened like a sponge and beautiful golden light began to flow into it from every direction. Jesus continued, “Love is in the air you breathe, the sunlight that falls on your skin, the animals, plants, trees and in the very gaps of space that create life itself. It’s in silence and it’s in sound. It’s in the people around you…and it’s in you.”

But what about the path of light and my truth? I thought toward his retreating form. “I’ll leave that to Sylvia (my higher self) to explain,” he said. O.k. yes, I thought, but please leave Michael here with me…and in a flash the Archangel was by my side. I gazed out toward Jesus in the distance noticing Michael still walking beside him…looking up into the Archangel’s face I smiled at just how habitual the programmed limitations of the mind are.

The Meaning of the Path

Sylvia spoke from the stone wall where she had been standing. Focus on your heart, she said. Place your full attention on it’s center, be there with it…and notice it deeply.

I did as she said and found myself in a darkened room. All around me were the silhouettes of pregnant bodies, inside the large abdomens were beautiful children of light. I rushed around to each tummy full of child, placed my head against them and spoke loving words of excited encouragement. I was filled with anticipation and couldn’t wait to welcome these radiant souls into the world.

Soon, I began leading the forms to a birthing room. There I helped and witnessed each child be born. I was the first person to hold them and see their beauty and perfection. As I held them and wrapped them up in love…I began to hear their song of light.

I listened for awhile, humming the tune to the infants, noticing their nuances of excitement in response. Then I handed them off to their parents…who would assist them in entering their world. At various stages of development they return for a visit. I again, noticed their beauty and perfection, together we sang the song…and from this place of love I tell them how they’ve grown. They ask me questions and I listen to them deeply…from the level of my soul, providing directional assistance while knowing fully…the curiosity, wonder, excitement, love and pure potentiality that accompanies them on their journey.

Back to Class

Later on that day, I am assisted by the Archangel Raphael in helping a classmate who is a budding empathic healer gain control of her energy after she unintentionally healed another attendee in tears over the difficulty involved in the previous day’s processes.

We hug each other as she comes fully back into herself and her own Source infused balanced energy.

The same love that I felt while holding the babies in my meditation bursts forth from my heart chakra. With Raphael’s gentle and glowing form in my mind, I smile…allow the love to flow and think…ain’t life grand?

Image By Weirena

A Rose By Any Other Name

I’ve written this article for those who would like to bring a little more love in their lives. If you are at a place where you want to find someone of like mind and heart to spend a little bit of time with, this article is for you.

Love and the Law of Attraction

Before I met my husband I had a list of criteria I wanted in a romantic partner. I wasn’t even interested in dating someone that didn’t meet these requirements. When dating a new person I always had what I was looking for in mind, and if I didn’t see enough matches early on I moved on to someone else. Although I never realized it, I was using the law of attraction to find what I wanted.

I had dated enough to have a list of areas that I was really clear on…and I was a complete and total match for getting it partially because I would accept nothing less and partially because my beliefs were congruent with what I wanted.

The Love List

To begin getting clear on what you want in a romantic partner, compile a list of attributes that are a “must have” for you, in that special someone. Write down everything that comes to mind and then go into detail as to why specifically it matters, what your person having that will get for you and what makes it a must have. When you’ve finished your list, the next step is to find out if you are a vibrational match for what you want.

The Vibration Revelation

Many of us think we know how we feel about love, what we want and how to get it, however I am guessing that most of know less than we think. A love relationship is an old subject even for the very young among us as it is one of the very first relationships that we experience.

As a child growing up we form ideas about love, what it means, what it will get for us and how to get it by watching the interaction of those around us…the conclusions we come to become deeply embedded within us, operating below the level of our conscious thought.

Are you curious about the beliefs you have lurking under the surface within your deeper mind? Are you wondering what is driving your patterns, attracting you to the same type of man/woman and influencing the kinds of relationships you bring into your life?

If so, answering the following questions will reveal how you really think about love and provide a window into how congruent your thoughts are in this most important area of life.

Comparing the outcomes of these questions with the attributes you’re looking for in a partner with give you a good idea if you are a vibrational match for what it is that you want.

So what if you’re not a match for what you want? I’ll cover that in part two of Manifesting the Love of Your Life.

Uncovering How You Think About Love

Experiencing the Gift of Winter

This time of year Washington State is gray and wet. The sun did not come up until past 8am this morning and it will be dark shortly after 4pm.

As I ponder the waning light something holy within me stirs. Approaching the shortest day of the year doesn’t bring the winter blues it once did, instead, my awareness gravitates toward the sacred within me that revels in the feeling of absolute silence, in no-thing-ness. I go further down and it sings to my spiritual ears like a heavenly choir and what I imagine must be angelic voices…emanating peace, joy and a complete center of being-ness.

The very earth herself whispers to me of sleeping in dark, warms spaces, of the womb and the possibility that lies in the miracle of rebirth. In total awe, I experience the message of this season that speaks of rest, rejuvenation and completeness…of being whole. Of the way of being before dualism and the split of segmented sexes…the way of being in and of ourselves complete.

The feeling travels me down the course of eternity, to depths that were previously unimaginable. To the solid, sure, core which is synonymous with possibility, dreams and the spark of creation…to this place my soul takes me and the word that comes is home.

The Soul’s Longing for Home

In the above passage I took you on a little soul journey of what the holiday season means to me at levels deeper than the rituals we perform each in year to celebrate.

This is a time of year that is often full of longing for joyful celebration and the deep connections of family and home but have you ever stopped to question that longing? Why does it drive you home each year? What does it want?

Over the years I have come to understand that as humans we come into the world with an inborn desire for family. Recently I asked those questions and the answer that came back was a little surprising to me.

For me being close to my family is symbolic of my deep seeded need to truly know and experience the joy of connecting with who and what I really am.

How interesting that the first view we develop of ourselves comes from the mirrors of our family and that what we see there causes us to cycle between wanting to get away from them and wanting to go back…wanting them to anchor us and wanting them to let us go.

Our families are our starting point of awareness and our movement within them represents the ebb and flow of the life to which we go and from which we come.

This holiday season I’m expressing gratitude for my family, who has assisted me in growing my consciousness and developing awareness in more ways than they will ever know.

Merry Christmas!

Image Credit

This post is a creative approach to exploring the paradox of judging what we are, or limiting ourselves to a particular way of being. I know that many people find looking beyond the many aspects of what we are to be a powerful way of cultivating awareness through the you are not what presents itself inside of you approach.

I think that an equally powerful practice that is sometimes overlooked is totally embracing every role you’ve ever played and every archetype you’ve ever embodied.

Whatever your view, it is useful to compare these two modes of thinking, examine them side by side and switch modes from time to time. I feel that I have developed a deep compassion for myself and others by playing with this viewpoint and have found they both ultimately lead to the same place.

Awareness with a sense of humor.

This particular brand of I am that awareness started while I was listening to the radio (something I rarely do) while driving my daughter to preschool one day. A popular song written by Meredith Brooks in the nineties called, “Bitch”, came on.

I’m a bitch, I’m a tease
I’m a goddess on my knees
when you hurt, when you suffer
I’m your angel undercover
I’ve been numbed, I’m revived
can’t say I’m not alive
You know I wouldn’t want it any other way

Perhaps it seems like an unlikely place to find the inspiration for writing an article about compassion, but there it was…a song about the many roles we play within one life time. And it gets really interesting to me when I consider the roles that we embody over several.

I can take it out even one step further and examine the mythical roles we play as a race…the universal experience of the human being that has been evolving since we first became a part of the consciousness of this planet…this living organism. What story might unfold from that perspective?

Whether I’m a bitch, a goddess, a sinner, a saint, a mother, a teacher, a lover or a healer…it’s all part of the paradox within me which encompasses all things but is contained by none of them, it is intangible and undefinable because spirit communicates using channels that exist outside of judgment.

Emotions from the different approaches.

From the perspective of you are not that, you look at emotion and say, there it is…it is not me…it is simply a reaction to egoic or wrong thinking. It is information about what is happening inside of me. From this place of observation and acceptance the feeling wanes and you develop an altered state of consciousness.

From the perspective of I am that, you may look at rage and see yourself as Aries the god of war, or Chaos the father of destruction. Embrace that very male energy bringing it inside of you, channeling it to and from the very place of it’s origin and existence becoming it so completely…and accepting it so fully that the feeling transmutes into self awareness and a higher state of consciousness.

Whatever the approach, you land at the same place. So I find that when I approach something challenging from one perspective and it is not giving me the results I desire, that switching to the other mode often will.

Using the modes to connect with desired states.

I find both approaches very useful but I primarily use I am not that thinking when I want to enter a state of nothingness. When I want to channel specific energies I use archetypes.

I typically call on the Queen that I was in a past life for confidence and authority, I have a favorite goddess for sexual energy and usually I call on a combination of the mother goddess and the Virgin Mary for nurturing energies.

Christ consciousness is useful for inner peace, service and compassion under the many different forms and cultures through which it arises, bearing it’s hidden messages about life through nature…a message that is symbolized in each of the evergreen wreaths, boughs and trees that decorate our homes at this time of year.

Using the modes to access compassion.

So this holiday season when you are faced with someone whose beastly behavior is presenting you with an opportunity to grow, you have a few compassionate choices available in how you select to view them within the situation.

You can look for the spirit within, using the they are not their behaviors thinking, or you can jump right into beastliness with them and ride it to it’s creative Source and the very deepest levels of spiritual communication.

It is the process of using all that comes up for you as the mirror…knowing that you only see what you do in others because it is in your own consciousness, therefore you created it and so it is also within you.

At the Source level there is ever only one thing going on…the rest comes down to our judgments and interpretation.

Both of these methods lift us out of judgment and make us more compassionate to ourselves and others which ultimately comes down to viewing each other outside of the lenses of separation.

Spread the love now!

Some of the greatest acts of compassion I have ever received have come from this non-judgmental space of connectedness.

One in particular that was extremely life altering came in the form of understanding that no matter what I did to chase my step-dad off, I could not make him abandon me. Up till then I had been left by every father I had ever known, he knew what it was like to be left by his parents and so he simply could not do it, no matter how hard I pushed him.

So when someone is really getting under my skin, one of my favorite practices is to fully and completely step into their way of being, knowing I’m about to take an exciting journey of discovery as I acknowledge what I see in them, breathe it in and say to myself…yep, I’m all that…and more!

Then I silently bless them with gratitude for the opportunity to integrate these aspects of my own consciousness, knowing the separation with which I viewed them previously was merely a reflection of my own divided internal state

This holiday season…I wish you many opportunities to spread the love of your ever expanding awareness, opening to who and what you are and finding in the process that you are capable of throwing your arms around the world!

Photo by Anniea

Note:

Thanks to the Three Monks – Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and especially Albert of Urban Monk who by inviting me to participate in the Spread the Love Now! project, ultimately inspired me to get this post that had just been sitting there out to you fine folks!