I am still processing all that has occurred in Thailand and the lessons learned so far. I wanted to document some of what I learned, that you all can get something out of, before I move on to India tomorrow.

I can see that working in the tourism industry such as a resort or cruise ship etc can be exhausting to spend time getting to know someone on a deep level in the short period of time, only to have that person leave and go there separate ways perhaps never to contact you again.  Spending three weeks on Koh Yao Noi where most visitors are on Holiday for two weeks or less gave me an opportunity to practice letting go and non attachment without fear of connecting on a deep level while I am with them. That connection with the people we meet while traveling brings a sense of community, and makes the experiences we have at our destination more memorable and prehaps wanting to go back to that location in the future.

When we travel, and do activities like yoga or other personal growth activities its easy to get to know someone fast on deep level, especially when we are open to letting people in without fear, instead of keeping people at arms length because they are leaving or live far away. The trick is to practice letting go and non attachment of those people or connections without having expectations. Knowing that the connection that you have when you are together with that person, is happening for lessons to learn about ourselves. When we bring gratitude for having that connection, it becomes less draining to have such connections because we are not spending so much energy protecting ourselves from getting hurt, having heartache when they leave, or being venerable. What if we just gave and let people in our lives without fear? I feel we would have more meaningful relationships. Relationships with wonderful experiences where there was much to learn from eachother, to grow and we change eachothers lives and its well worth the effort.

Out of all the experiences i have had in Thailand, I would have to say that going through a Shamanic Ceremony, Rock Climbing, riding a motor bike, traveling alone, and taking classes with yoga teacher friends Kristie, David and Akkiko have been the most transformational for me. Meeting and connecting with so many wonderful people especially Julie Patzwald. Julie is a wonderful TV and movie actress and actor coach from Vancouver Canada who was on a healing journey on her travels to Thailand, Lao and Bali. I learned so much about myself from looking in Julie’s mirror from our very similar experiences, thoughts and my experience might not have been so deep if she wasnt there. I am so grateful Island Yoga attracted us both at the same time, it was perfect divine timing. I just realized i do not have many photos with the people who made this trip most transformational probably because i was too busy experiencing it with them.

One of the huge things i have noticed about traveling and reaching your destination is to be present, take it all in and absorb what we are experiencing where we are experiencing it, in the present moment. One of the things i have noticed about having conversations with backpackers and people who travel a lot is that…. often times our minds, conversations seem to be at another location or time instead of the destination and time where we are at. I often had conversations with people about where they are coming from and where they are going next or what there experience was when they were at another place. I had some great conversations and advice on traveling alone, places to go etc and really appreciate all that people have shared with me. At the same time, when it was all people were talking about, it took me out of the present moment where i could truly enjoy where i was at, the beach, the views, feeling safe grounded in that moment of time and space on earth.

Once i felt truly safe, grounded in the present moment after concurring some fears after rock climbing a tremendous amount of joy and vivid awareness of everything around me occurred and I wanted to stay there as much as I can. I became aware of patterns, behaviors and actions that take me out of that feeling and take me into the past, future or another space  instead of the space I was at in the moment. The new present moment feeling that i get is feeling the vibration of everything with so much love and gratitude instead of sadness, pain or fear. I now know that we can be grounded in our root chakra in the physical body and physical space we are located, in the present moment without suffering. My desire to continue to feel this the NOW moments is strong enough to not engage in those patterns, behaviors or actions that take me out of that space. This may mean that how I relate to other people could change, and if those of you who are reading this are not in that same place you could be irritated, or hurt, by this. Please dont take it personal and see the lesson about yourself in this.

One thing that I was reminded of the more I felt the present moment without suffering was how our mind chases after things, people, places or feelings we don’t have in that moment. If the world is a reflection of ourself… then if we chase after things, people, places that are unavailable in that moment; Are we being unavailable to ourselves? Un-available to accepting the present moment just as it is, instead of wanting something you don’t have in that moment. Is the challenge or the chase after something we don’t have just a reflection that there is something missing within ourselves?

The job, the relationship, the money, the car, good health whatever we are striving for in the outside world that is not currently available, is not accepting the moment, not loving and being grateful what what we do have and could take what we do have for granted. For an example food to eat, a place to live, clean water to drink and bath in, hot water are things that we all take for granted and also strive to have or keep. It seems to be what we strive for beyond basic survival needs, but don’t have in the moment is just an attempt to feel something on the inside about our life and about ourself. Once we realize that looking outward for these things is looking too far we can go more inward to feel these things about our life about our self.  Sometimes it takes having those experiences of chasing those things like a cat chases its tail to see that your just going around in circles and the only place to look for these things is more within.

Perhaps even basic survival needs in the root chakra is also something we need to feel within. To feel safe, secure enough to feel grounded to be able to survive here on earth. We can see the experiences we have as reflections of ourself, to learn more about ourself to heal the things that prevent us from seeing the love, light that we are.  To often we dont see those reflections and lessons around us and we blame, point fingers, or play the victim of circumstance. If you been to my classes you would know that doing lions breath we can invoke the fierce lion energy instead of the prey or victim and take responsibility for everything that occurs in our life and use that to empower ourselves to learn, grow, bring what helps us on our path into our lives.

Ok after reflecting so much on what i learned from this trip i need to rest and be present. I am still reflecting the rock climbing experience and how empowered, grounded and glad to be alive it made me feel. I will climb again. Part 4 i will talk more about fear and rock climbing and my time in Bangkok vs the islands of southern thailand.

I am so feeling this quote as it fell into my lap while on this trip. To some degree when we travel, to a specific destination it changes us. Is it the journey and not the destination or is it both that changes us and what kinds of changes do we see happening? Over the next couple of months I will be pondering over these questions within myself and observing and talking with others I meet over these questions.

In Part 1, I had described the first part of my traveling adventures through Louisville KY, NYC by bus and train then flying through the air and boats to reach Koh Yao Noi Island in Southern Thailand.

I have been in Thailand for a week now mostly on Koh Yao Noi island. Koh Yao Noi island is a quiet relaxing tropical island with beautiful bays, beaches and ocean views of other islands/mountains raising from the calm warm waters. Koh Yao Noi is a perfect getaway for the relaxing adventure types who like an authentic native Thailand feel. The local people are friendly, welcoming, smiling and very helpful. The island nature is pristine with not much development, roads or highways. The main transportation method is motorbike, pedal bikes or open air taxi/pickup truck or boat. Cars are not used on the island. The island feels very safe, everyone leaves the keys of their motorbikes in the ignition and there are no thoughts of anyone taking it, or any valuables. The economy on the island is based on tourism, rubber making, fishing and farming. Accommodations on the island for visitors are in resorts, or bungalows which often has a Thai restaurant on site.

People who are seeking adventure, personal growth, transformation, healing on many levels with the support of a friendly community on the island really needs to go to Island Yoga, you will love it even if you never had done yoga before.

Island Yoga offers personal growth retreats with accommodations in bungalows, meals on their onsite Thai Restaurant Ulmers Nature Lodge, yoga classes, meditation, energy healing, sound healing, thai massage, rock climbing, kayaking, birdwatching, cooking classes, mountain biking, laundry services, free wifi internet. Island yoga attracts yogis and people who have never tried yoga before from all over the world. Island Yoga and Koh Yao Noi island is a tropical paradise escape where partying is not the main focus of escapism. It’s where one can find peace of mind and connection to yourself and the earth. Where one can transform their lives with the things that are learned in the fabulous yoga retreats and workshops, concur there fears with the islands eco-adventures that will transform you from the inside out.

I took a trip to Ko Phangan for a couple of days. It took about 10hrs to get to Ko Phangan from Koh Yao Noi on a boat to Thalene Pier near Krabi, open air taxi pickup truck to bus station, 3.5 hr bus ride to Sarat-Thani, another bus to pier got on a huge Ferry for 3 hrs and then arrived in Ko Phangan on time for accommodations to be filled for the full moon party. Met Chow who took me around on her moter-bike to find a place to spend the night before meeting up with friends the next day on different part of the island. Spent a couple days in Sratinu area of the Island of Ko Phangan which is a nice town with several resorts, bungalows, shops restaurants and Agama Yoga School. I stayed at Seaview Rainbow Bungalows which was beautifully landscaped, and right on the beach, nice restaurant but was louder party atmosphere compared to Koh Yao Noi. I spent a couple of days in Sratinu got tai massage on the beach, ate some great tai food and fruits then headed off the island towards Koh Yao Noi island and booked with the many travel agents in Thailand. A package deal of taxi, boat and bus to Krabi. From Krabi i went to Ao Nang Beach area and spent the night on the strip of tourist shopping and eating, even a Starbucks, and MacDonalds which are really not in the islands or parts of Thailand i have seen so far, however there seems to be a 7-11 convenient store in every town even on the islands.

More photos are located here

Part three will go into the transformations i have made on this journey and its destinations and its activities.

My journey starts with a bus ride from Buffalo NY to Louisville KY for a couple days and then a bus ride to NYC for one evening and then Jan 1st fly to Koh Yao Noi island of Thailand for about 3 weeks with stops in London, New Delhi, Bangkok, Phuket. Perhaps i will do some island hopping in Thailand. May spend 3 weeks in Thailand and 3 weeks in India. In Koh Yao Noi i will be teaching yoga, workshops and doing healing work at a few resorts, spas and adventure yoga studio Island Yoga. Then spend a couple of days in Bangkok before flying out to India where i will spend a couple of weeks then back to USA. Of course this is all subject to change and going with the flow with not much planning.

First part of adventure was taking a greyhound bus to Louisville KY to visit a long distance romance and do a exchange of services, healing work for him and his family for NLP techniques. I see how the re-framing techniques that i learned from Brad Reichart Master NLP Practitioner will be very useful in the work that i do with others. It is about bringing a state where there is limiting beliefs, not useful or something you want to change to the surface then feeling the opposite and combining them to find the balance. Its another tool that can be used to find the balance between extremes like which i talked about in blog entry A Balancing Act. Remembering to practice this technique will be very useful. Working with an NLP master practitioner is highly recommended to complement your counseling, chakra work, meditation, yoga and spiritual development. Brad is very good at what he does and is passionate about helping others with this practice. I recommend going to him or where he learned the NLP Learning Center in Dallas. My time in KY was short, and much healing was started but was not yet completed. A warm love of Sunny shined so brightly through the darkness that it made the whole trip worthwhile even though my work felt incomplete. If you are reading this i am sending you the amazing energy of this paradise island to you and your family and that you find your paradise in eachother.

On Dec 30th i left for a 19hr trip to NYC Brookyln area where i spent New Years Eve. On that 19hr trip i got to talking with people about where i was going and what i do and had so many great conversations on spirituality, holistic healing, relationships, diet, you name it. Seeing these peoples reactions helped me realize what an amazing person that i am just being who i am. They said they saw that i was at peace with myself, they saw that i was intelligent, caring, giving, gentle, beautiful women and said the man who had my heart is a very very lucky man. If only he knew that.

I arrived in NYC about 530am Dec 31st and got through the subway with my suitcase to a old friend/neighbors house in Brookyln. As i walked a few blocks down to his house four people said good morning to me. This neighborhood reminded me of my home city Buffalo the houses styles, trees and friendliness. My friend picked that area to live in because it was so much like Buffalo. Had a great time walking around the waterfront on a warm day for new years eve. I was pretty tired from the bus ride and had to get up at 4am to get to the airport so we celebrated the new year with a Kirtan Jam and dinner. Thanks Doug.

The journey from Brookyln to Newark NJ airport was an adventure. NY Subway to NJ train where i sat next to a man who was meeting with this group of spiritual people once a month and they work on things like psychic development, seeing auras, energy healing, meditation and more with a sort of guru. After a short conversation with him on what i do he asked me to come to the group when i get back, he thinks i have a lot to offer the group and vice versa. How interesting i was attracted to sitting next to this person on a 30 min train ride.I made it just on time to the airport to board the plane at 730am.

The journey to Thailand from NY was interesting. Virgin Airlines is wonderful great food, lots of leg room, friendly staff, and a travel care package, personalized entertainment systems with movies, games, music, tv made the time go by fast. If i had to do it all over i would have stayed with one airline the whole trip. Changing airlines in a foreign country that you are only flying through to get to another country was a nightmare in New Delhi. New Delhi was the most unorganized and not traveler friendly airport ever. The staff was very helpful to me though so helpful that one staff member walked away with my passport. I panicked for a moment, the man seemed to have disappeared in the sea of Indian people. I got my passport back though and flew on Air India to Bangkok. The flight leaving New Delhi to Bangkok was delayed 3 hrs and the airline gave all of us food while we were waiting and food on the plane. That is great, and unheard of in the States.

Arrived in Bangkok late and just took a taxi to the hotel where i slept only a few hrs then went back to the airport and took a flight on Air Asia to Phuket just after sun rise. Didnt see much of Bangkok yet, just near the airport and the airport itself. Then from Phuket i took a taxi to the pier where i got on a boat to Koh Yao Noi island. One of the first things i saw that was different about Thailand way of life was driving on the left side of the road, shower is in the same area as toilet no wall separating them, you dont flush toliet paper, and you take your shoes off pretty much everywhere, most people get around by moterbikes on the island.

The boat ride to the island from Phuket was breathtaking views and just continued once i got to the island. I took some photos and posted them to my facebook page take a look.

Part two will continue with adventures on Koh Yao Noi Island. Life as a yogi on the island with new friends from all over the world at Island Yoga, Paradise Island Resort and Six Sense Spa, Mountain Climbing, Kayaking, Buddha Beach hiking, and riding a moped for the first time. Experienced travelers to Asia i have met say that this Koh Yao Noi is Thailand best kept secret where its natural state still exists and tourist development hasn’t been taken over the island like some of the other islands.

I am so grateful to be able to share what I have learned about the chakras and my own life, with those who take our classes. I recently have had some huge personal transformations, realizations about myself and my chakras while doing some landscaping and gardening that I would like to share with you. I will make this journal entry simple as I can, without getting into much detail about the chakras and giving away what is learned in the workshops we teach. If you have any questions please feel free to send me a message.

I never really enjoyed gardening/landscaping, and always found myself putting it off or letting it go and get out of control. Once I started seeing the metaphors of gardening in my own life and started to see things about myself from these actions I began to let go of some of the things that were being buried in my chakras that were creating imbalances, illness or suffering.

Most of the landscaping around my yard was put there from the previous owner and didn’t know what a weed was, or what was intentionally planted to grow. Perhaps this is a metaphor for my past life karma, that was there before I moved into this house or body.

For years, in the back yard I didn’t want to know what the plants were and just cut down everything that was between the obvious rose bushes. I was afraid to look within myself to my deep rooted issues. I didn’t pull those plants out, so they came up the following year and I cut them down, without giving it a chance to see what it was.

Years later after coming back from Yoga Teacher Training at the Ashram, I was feeling the energy of all life forms so intensely that I just wanted to let all the plant life grow in my yard, and not be forced by society to keep my yard looking nice, so that’s what I did in the back yard. I even wrote a poem about it, called “The Weed” After allowing them to grow I saw that some of the plants in between the roses were beautiful wild flowers and there were also a lot of weeds or little cottonwoods trees trying to grow. Two houses over there is a cottonwood tree that tries to reproduce with cottonwood seeds flying all over the neighborhood for a couple of weeks in June. I literally looks like its snowing in June which kept me from doing things outside.

The cottonwood tree and not wanting to hurt the plants symbolizes my limiting beliefs or fears of whats preventing me from gardening or looking more within to these deep rooted issues now that they have shown themselves not to be so scary. Some of the issues were a blessing in disguise and some were just unwanted, just like the weeds or plants growing in the back yard.  I became overwhelmed and let the back yard grow, just trimming the grass or weeds that have taken over the grass and the concrete when it was really long.

Back yard, may symbolize whats behind me or in the past and front yard whats is in front of me or right in front of my face. My back yard wasn’t really a priority until recently and the front yard was kept up and would have moments of creativity over the years but for the most part just I felt yard work as something that kept me from doing what I wanted to be doing in the now. It makes sense, looking in the future and in the past keeps us from living in the Present moment.

Just recently I found the joy of gardening and landscaping and have much gratitude for the many lessons I have learned about myself in doing so. Gardening in itself is very healing and grounding. When we have our hands and feet in the soil we are connecting to our root chakra, earth energy and grounding ourselves into our earthy existence and connection to all beings. The downward movement or manifesting flow of energy through the chakras is very important to not only create what we envision in our lives, but also to live in this earthy experience in the present moment as spiritual beings. Buddha had moved the energy up the chakras to liberate himself but it wasn’t until he moved the energy downward to the earth that he was at home enlightened to the Love and Light that he was.

The goal is to have my landscaping be clean and easy to maintain in the future. In the front yard I moved the Hosta plants that were on either side of the walkway going to the porch. I moved them because it was really hard to cut the grass where they were. So I expanded the garden in the front yard, digging up the grass in front of the burning bushes to put them there. Almost like expanding my view of possibilities for the future.

In the back yard I start to pull the weeds and the unwanted plants that the previous owner may have planted in between the rose bushes, to make way for easy to maintain plants and garden. As I started pulling up these weeds I started to also pull up some deep rooted issues within myself and within my chakras. My deeply rooted fears of abandonment, fears of not being good enough, attachments, and how I have beaten myself up with my thoughts in the past.

As I pull on these weeds I noticed the roots are spread out and seeds or bulbs starting to grow roots of unknown plants are visible in the soil. I wondered if some of this plant material were not weeds at all, but ground cover purposely planted their. That’s the only thing that I could think of that would spread around like that. Too late though, I already started removing it. As I dug deeper I found more seeds and bulbs growing roots. I realized if I didn’t want this to take over the garden that I would have to dig up most of the soil that these seeds or bulbs were in and create new soil for what I really want to grow to thrive and survive. Very symbolic for letting go of the old to make room for what I want to grow and create in my life. Sometimes you just have to dig deep and remove the ground that supported the old stuff and sometimes you can just pull it out.

The process of getting rid of this old soil with the seeds and soil has not been easy. I don’t want to put it in my compost, then have those roots grow again. I had put some of it in my trash can, and the can was so heavy that the collectors didn’t empty it. So I need to find another solution to get it disposed of. This is very symbolic of what is going on with these issues. There is something to still be learned before I can remove them and the foundation in which holds them within me.

One of the things that I learned from this process was about attachment. Attachments in the spirituality scriptures and books have always been talked about as to create suffering and we need to practice non-attachment. This in itself creates so much duality, illusion and ego. Its natural to have attachments to things here on earth, we are part of the earth and we are connected to all the beings on this earth. However we do have a choice if we suffer from those attachments or not. When we accept that thing we have attachment to for what they are realizing at any moment that thing can change we can avoid suffering and the fear that causes the imbalance in the root and crown chakras.

It seems as though as long as we are on this earth plane we are going to have attachments to things, because it grounds us, it keeps us connected to the earth plane and the root chakra, when fear is not involved with the attachment. Its also something that imbalances the crown chakra which is the center where we cultivate bliss and surrender to what is, and accept, respect, knowing everything is happening the way its suppose too.

It seems as though when we hold on to things too tightly or loosely, that’s when we suffer. It seems as though when we hold on to what we are attached to, too tightly we are grasping in fear based energy. We are holding on for dear life, to it like we are going to loose something if we don’t hold on tight. Perhaps we fear loosing a part of ourselves, our livelihood, our comfort, our safety, or dreams etc. Sometimes when we hold to loosely we may loose the gratitude for that thing and take if for granted, and when its gone or changed then we suffer. If we hold to loosely we could be also be bringing fear based energy of not letting it come in our lives, maybe we have a fear of it taking over or engulfment of loosing the self(which can be never lost) or fear of loosing freedom etc. When we hold too tightly or too loosely it can also bring anxiety which is just projections of fear into the past or the future and not accepting of the now.

I realized that I was holding on to some things, some people, some ideas, desires and plans too tightly because it felt really good to have them in my life. I wanted to keep feeling that amazing, blissful, Love, happiness when these things are in my life or in my thoughts. So I held on to those things too tightly in fear that if I let go a little those feelings would as well. Now I see that all of those feelings were always within me and those outside things, were just mirrors for me to see it within me. When we seek for the bliss and happiness outside of ourselves we tend to suffer because we become attached to that outside object instead of realizing its all within us.

I am still working on this landscaping project so will write a part two when it is finished with even more lessons learned. And photos.

I will leave you with these quotes.

“Most people are searching for happiness. They’re looking for it. They’re trying to find it in someone or something outside of themselves. That’s a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way you think.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

“To want something from another is to utterly misunderstand their role in our happiness. Other people are our opportunity to extend what we are.” Hugh Prather

“The purpose of all relationships is to dissolve the barriers that keep us
from recognizing the love that already is, and expressing the love we
ultimately are.” The Breakthrough experience.

“It is impossible to fall out of love. Love is such a powerful emotion,
that once it envelops you it does not depart. True love is eternal. If
you think that you were once in love, but fell out of it, then it wasn’t
love you were in. There are no ‘exit’ signs in love, there is only an
…’on’ ramp.” ~ Anonymous ~♥~

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. …Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“When you’re in the illusion of one-sided positive or negative experiences, you automatically attract the opposite side to balance you. When you acknowledge lifes perfection by embracing both of its sides you experience unconditional love.” Dr J Demartini‎

How can we become a balanced educated consumer instead of a fear based educated consumer? First we must look at balance.

In a previous post  “A BALANCING ACT” balance in our lives is pondered over so i am not going to go into great detail in this post. Balance means going beyond duality and our lopsided perceptions of likes and dislikes positive or negative and between extremes ends of emotions. Taking the middle path. “Right in the middle between positive and negative emotions between like and dislike is the core of human experience and its nothing other than Love” Dr John Demartini

I know from my scripture study and study of the world around me that we get false beliefs and lopsided perceptions from filtering everything through our senses, then we label it and categorize things as positive or negative according to our value system, creating duality. That value system is based on our programming that we have been put under from or culture, ancestors, society, authority figures, media around us. The part of the mind that determines something is good or bad is based on what we hold the highest or lowest value in our lives. For an example, we label things as positive when it supports something high on the value scale and we become attracted to it. We label things as negative when something challenges our value system, or supports our lowest values on the scale and may have resentment towards it. The problem is that our value system is based on the programing we have been put under that is talked about in Part 1.

In bringing balance into being an educated consumer we must be willing to be a conscious person and look at the programing we have been put under, how it determines our decisions we are making. Looking at how it brings duality of likes and dislikes or positive and negative into our lives. Also looking at our emotional psychological patterns and past experiences we have with not being a conscious consumer. Looking at how we can bring ourselves in the middle of those extremes to find the balance of Love and connection to our true nature and the Divine.

Gabriel Cousins book on Conscious Eating says it beautifully “To create a healthy diet one needs to understand more than simply food, one needs also to understand ones physical, psychological and spiritual self. It is important to have a template of conscious living that establishes food choices in their proper perspective in the context of Divine communication with prayer/mediation, love, wisdom, right companionship, and love and respect oneself, others, Mother Nature and all of Gods creation. This means not living to eat or eating to live, but eating to enhance one’s communication with the Divine”

Gabriel Cousins line “Not living to eat or eating to live but eating to enhance one’s communication with the Divine” is such a powerful statement. We find two opposites, eating to live, and living to eat and then the middle path that creates balance eating to enhance ones communication with the divine. Making choices as a consumer on buying things that are loving and respecting oneself, others, Mother Nature and all of Gods Creations. Do we know how do that?  I am struggling with it because of the deeply held impressions society has programed within me, is everywhere. Its even in the calendar, all the holidays that are just a way to get us to buy things to keep the economy going. Its social-economics and greed instead of love and respecting oneself and others and Mother Nature.

Many of us are so disconnected to nature and what mother nature has given us for food and it shows in our poor health. Everything outside of the produce section is not in its natural form and what mother nature gave us. Majority of the things outside of the produce section are man made processed, preserved, pasteurized dead foods which do not have the same quality of quantity of nutrients that the original form that mother nature has given us. The more we eat these man made foods the more mal-nourished, imbalanced and sick we become.

Eating food appropriate to ones individual needs is a means of extracting energy from our environment in a harmonious way. In today’s world of fast foods, food irradiation, processed or preserved foods the relationship to food has become confused and degenerate. Many of us disconnected to nature perceive these foods as what mother nature has given us. Therefore eating the natural way, the way mother nature has given us becomes old fashioned or strange. (Cousins)

The disease that unnatural diet causes are so rampant that they are thought to be an inevitable part of life. This is not the case. Western medicine approaches this problem in concluded ways and continues to spend billions of dollars developing technologies to treat the symptoms instead of the cause while continuing to bang its and our heads against the wall. The one who choose to stop banging their head against the wall by giving up destructive food habits is often ridiculed. (Cousins)

“Our culture has become so upside down that one who chooses to heal and maintain good health with diet that brings them into harmony with nature is considered idealist or extremist or rather than practical or appropriate” Gabriel Cousins.

After having some conversations about all of this with some friends we began to realize how disconnected to nature humans in this society have become. We dont know what mother nature has given us or what people of power and ego has made. We would rather listen to what others at telling us to buy, than to listen to nature. It seems to be easy to be a product of manipulation against nature than to live with nature.

Most of us dont know how to grow our own food to sustain ourselves. Most of us dont eat seasonally or locally. We eat dead, petrified, radiated, old, preserved, processed, molecular changed food and dont realize what it is doing to us. Most of us dont look at other wild animals in nature as a part of us and we are all connected. We dont learn from other animals in nature. For example other animals do not drink other species of milk when their mom stops lactating, its just not natural. Mother nature gives the mammals moms milk until a certain age and then its not needed in the child anymore. Most of us does not see how everything is connected and everything has an energy and vibration to it and it can be felt if we pay attention. I can go on and on.

The point is that we have become so programed that we have lost touch with nature, with what mother earth, divine/god has given us. One can argue that the processed foods etc are made from what the earth has given us. However it is not in the same structure of what mother earth as given us. We have modified what the perfect food of what mother nature has given us and made it to something less than perfect and sometimes to be hazardous food.

Think about it, if man had not interfered so much with the earth digging into it to find substances that perhaps we were not meant to handle then their wouldn’t be as many toxins or hazardous materials for us to be exposed to. We have gone to places deep into the earth for oil, or radioactive materials etc… for materials that had a reason and purpose for being deep in the earth.  Who are we to interfere with that reason and purpose. Perhaps those substances are not meant for our handling that’s why they were so deep into the earth and why we have harmful reactions to them. Perhaps these materials of the earth that we have dug so deep to get are the organs or the blood of the earth and without them the earth, is getting sick.

It makes me wonder if all the health problems humans are having is just a result of our collective interference. If we are really all connected to all beings on earth it makes me wounder if we all have some karma scars on our soul for our interference. Perhaps healing those scars means living with nature, instead of interfering and abusing it, living a greener lifestyle instead of the status quo of consumption and disconnection.

In conclusion, being a balanced educated consumer seems to mean making choices on what you buy based on living in harmony with nature instead of what man has done to nature. It means finding the middle path between the extremes of duality that the programing brings us, between healthy and toxic, between likes and dislikes or positive and negative we find love. Moving toward the love we find balance, health, contentment, nutrients. Move away from love we find imbalances, illness and fear.

Part 3 i will look at if its possible to change how our body reacts to food when we have past conditioning and programing with that food.

Namaste

We grew up in a society where we were programmed to believe that our doctor knows what’s best for us, the FDA food pyramid is what we should be eating to stay healthy, that we can take a pill and it will heal us, that your dentist was trying to help, that fluoride is good for your teeth, that milk does the body good, that the lifestyle you choose now wouldn’t negatively affect your health and well being or the environment… I can go on and on.

From the time we were born into this society we are being programmed. We have been and are being programmed by our parents, society structure, the media, the government, large corporations to think a certain way, to act a certain way, to live a certain way, to groom and clean ourselves in a certain way, to eat a certain way, to consume a certain way, to die a certain way, to be born or give birth a certain way, to cover up symptoms instead of heal etc….instead of deciding these things for ourselves. You may think you are deciding most of these things for yourself, in the present moment that is true. You are making a choice. You are making a choice of which programming you will live by next, or perhaps you will go against the status quo.

Do you think we would be making the same decisions, if we were not being influenced by all the things that were programming us? Do you think you would make the same decision, if we were more educated about how people were being programmed or what affect it had on society and our life’s? Once we are aware of what’s really going on, we can slow down take a look at the next decision and see if it is a product of this programming. Once we put space in between it, we can see it from a distance, then can make a decision on making our own choice or going with the status quo. It could be the big life decisions like deciding to get married and have children after completing college or delivering a baby in a hospital or not, it could be an everyday decision on what you put into your body or how you clean or groom yourself.

I recently posted some very good documentaries on my website on nutrition, the food industry, healing with food. These documentaries are highly recommended for every citizen in the USA. These documentaries are a shocking eye opener to the programming we had been put under and what is occurring with our food supply, our health, our healthcare system, and how we can heal ourselves. The more educated consumers we are, the healthier we will all be if we take action based on that education. If you are not an educated consumer it can mean life or death, healing yourself of illness or staying sick. It could mean having control of your own life or allowing the government or big corporations and the outside world dictate what you can or cannot do, living in illusion of the American dream or living reality to its full potential. Also every time we buy something we are telling manufactures we want them to keep making it. If we want more healthy choices then we need to vote for the healthy choices. The consumer has more power than we think we do. Please check the documentaries they can be found on my website and the full versions of the previews could be found on netflix or youtube. http://theyogapathtransforms.com/HolisticHealthHealingVideos.aspx

Educated into Fear Based Consuming

I am constantly educating myself on health, diet in a holistic whole body way instead of just the parts of the body as mainstream medical community does in the USA. Reading and taking classes about ancient practices of yoga, Indian and Oriental medicine to find the middle path of being and staying healthy. Surrounding myself with people who are like minded spirits and going to vegetarian and raw vegan potlucks and health seminars brought a sense of community and support to staying healthy and to help others do the same. The documentaries I am recommending everyone to watch also helped to open my eyes to what is occurring in this country, behind the scenes of the USA healthcare and food industries.

The dilemma of being stuck in the marketing/programming or in the truth of what’s really going on, is that it can overwhelm someone with a lot of fear based energy.

Several years ago I started eliminating foods and other things in my life when I was trying to detox myself into better health with herbs, diet changes, yoga and other holistic practices. Now what I am eating is mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, leafy greens plants, seeds, nuts and occasionally I will have beans, rice, bread or baked good, eggs, tufu, almond or hemp milk. I also cleanse my body on a regular bases in a variety of different ways.  I have noticed a huge improvement in my health and how I feel after making all these changes. I also assessed what occurred when i did bring some of those things back into my life which i will get into later.

What i have observed from being more of an educated consumer is that it gradually brought me into fear based consuming. It brought be back to constantly thinking or making decisions based on possible toxins in our food, environment that could make us sick, just as I was, when I was working in the environmental field. The feeling of fear of toxins in our food or environment, which I haven’t had in several years, started increasing in my life over the last six months, not just as a result from these documentaries but all the different forms of education I was getting about food and health.

The fear motivated me to purchased a home water distiller to get rid of all the impurities in my drinking water, purchased organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible, stopped using the microwave, stopped eating processed and preserved foods and most breads, switched many of my health and beauty products to “safer” and products, and I started detoxing my body in a variety of different ways.

Has doing all these fear based things helped me stay healthy and did i feel better doing so? Maybe for some of the things. I think i saw a huge improvement in how i felt when I was eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed or preserved foods added to my already vegetarian, mostly vegan diet and yogic lifestyle. When I felt the worst is when i tried to reintroduce eggs, dairy, breads, coffee, and processed foods back into my diet.

How much was the feeling healthy or good cause and effect or the programing of my thoughts and emotions? Could my thoughts and emotions change the cause and effect these foods had on my body?

I observed the fear based consuming increasing in my life to a point where i was depriving myself of my desires to eat something that could possibly be toxic but gave me pleasure through the senses, then binging on it later.  Some have said cravings to sweet things is probably the effect of the excit-0 toxins in the system. I am not going to get into a whole discussion of excitotoxins in this blog but here is some info about it http://www.joyfulaging.com/Excitotoxins.htm.

You see, us educated consumers have labeled everything as good or bad, toxic or helpful, positive or negative which just puts us into duality, illusion and fear instead of balance. Fear based energy is at a lower vibration or frequency than Love or Joy. Sometimes though, we need to feel the extremes of two opposite emotions or vibrations to find the middle so we can have balance in our lives.

It seems as though this fear based educated consumerism has thrown me off balance in my thinking, emotions, energy, and when their is imbalances there is more of a chance that these imbalances will cause symptoms, illness and pain the more we hold onto them.

As a holistic educator I have seen, how our thoughts, emotions and past experiences as well as diet can create in-balances within our energy body (aura, chi, chakras, meridians,) which correspond to different organs, glands and systems of the physical body. I have also seen how people have changed their thoughts, let go of past experiences, changed their diet, and have done activities to balance the energy body such as yoga, tai chi/chigong, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Reiki, Sound Healing have healed themselves of serious illnesses.

TAKE A JOURNEY WITH ME TO EXPLORE BEING A BALANCED CONSUMER AND STAY HEALTHY

So the question is….

How to move away from the fear and become a balanced educated consumer and stay healthy?

Is it possible to change how our body reacts to food when we have past conditioning and programing with that food?

Is it possible to change how our body reacts to food by evaluating the programming we have been put under about that food?

Is our thoughts, emotions, programing and the in-balances in our body causing the cells in our body to react to “toxins” while other people have no reaction to that specific “toxin”?

If we were in a balance and in a alignment state connected to our true nature, and not only believed but felt and know that everything is divine in nature, everything on this earth is connected and we are one, and everything on this earth has a specific purpose on earth, everything is Love….. then would we be sick if we drank bleach or chlorine or would we be just taking in Love and healing life force energy?

Could our vibration we put into the universe with our thoughts, emotions, and energy change the laws of cause and effect?

These are just some of the questions, that I will be pondering over the next few parts of this blog entry.

Some of these questions i will be experimenting with my own life by reintroducing things into my life, diet. Some of these things i will look to the yoga practice or scriptures for answers, some of these things will just be self study and discussions. Maybe some of these questions are not meant to be answered and maybe they are.

Comments are welcome! Namaste

Yoga Nidra is a systematic method of complete relaxation, holistically addressing our physiological, neurological, subconscious needs, where one achieves true relaxation.

Yoga Nidra relaxes the mind by relaxing the body and relaxes the body by relaxing the mind. Yoga Nidra is a process for learning how to listen and welcome all that you are and all that life is without intention for anything to be other than it is.

Yoga Nidra means The Sleep of the Yogi. Yoga Nidra represents the parodox and a play on the words sleep and awake. In Yoga we are awakening to our true nature Love. Nidra or sleep is the state where we are unconscious to our true nature, where we are identified with the exterior self by jumping thoughts and actions based on perceiving through the senses.

When we fall asleep our mind identifies with the dream-doer and when we are awake we the wake-doer while the background remains veiled. In Yoga Nidra the minds identification of being a doer dissolves and Being moves to the foreground, so we can just Be.

During the practice of yoga nidra, one appears to be sleep, but the consciousness is functioning at the deeper level of awareness. It is state of mind in between wakefulness and dream. Normally when we sleep, we loose track of our self and cannot utilize this capacity of mind. Yoga nidra enables the person to be conscious in this state and nurture the seed of great will power, inspire the higher self, and enjoy the vitality of life.

People have found a constant practice of Yoga Nidra restructures and transforms the whole personality from within. With every session of yoga nidra, one is actually burning the old samskaras, habits and tendencies in order to be born anew. This process is quicker than other systems that work on an external basis. It is the most powerful method for reshaping the personality.

Yoga Nidra is not mere relaxation, as very useful as relaxation exercises might be. Yoga Nidra is a specific state of consciousness, which has to do with the conscious experience of dreamless, Deep Sleep. This may seem unimportant, but if one does not discern the difference between relaxation and Yoga Nidra, the greater depth of Yoga Nidra might be completely missed. Better that one see the difference, enjoy relaxation for its own value, and then pursue the depths of Yoga Nidra when he or she is ready for this deeper practice.

Thus, Yoga Nidra is a tool for examining, attenuating, and eliminating habit patterns or samskaras, which are not useful. Habitual negative actions, normally arising from these deep impressions can thus be reduced and eliminated through the practice of Yoga Nidra.

In Meditation, you remain in the Waking state of consciousness, with one-pointed concentration and non-attachment, and gently focus the mind, while allowing thought patterns, emotions, sensations, and images to arise and go on.

However, in Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state, go past the Dreaming state, and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake.

Meditation and Yoga Nidra work together, as companion practices, through which you purify the deepest levels of the mind, and expand the conscious state to include what was previously unconscious. Finally, the expansion includes the realization of the pure consciousness that permeates all of the levels.

Yoga Nidra is not Hypnosis

Yoga Nidra and Hypnosis brings about a state of sensory withdrawal, but they are two very different sciences.

Although they may start at the same point of relaxation and receptivity, Yoga Nidra proceeds in one direction and Hypnosis in another.

During yoga nidra, the brain is completely awake and it receives a higher quality of stimuli and develops a different type of awareness. However in hypnosis, the subject is led into a deep sleep in which the brain is completely shut down. The consciousness in hypnotic state is very limited and confined to a very small area. This is tamasic condition, while yoga nidra creates a sattvic condition.

According to Yoga, there are three important nadis or energy channels in the physical body known as ida, pingala and sushumna. Ida conveys the mental force, Pingala the vital force and sushumna the spiritual force. Throughout our lives, Ida and Pingala Nadis are continually feeding the brain with the necessary stimuli which enable it to cognize an object, a sound, an idea. If you close off Ida and pingala, then brain is isolated. That is hypnosis. But in yoga nidra, the sushumna nadi is activated and provides the necessary energy and stimuli to the brain. Because of sushumna activation, the brain receives a higher quality of stimuli and a different type of knowledge.

BENEFITS

The process of Yoga Nidra helps us acknowledge, welcome and accept the repression and aversion of unresolved feelings and emotions, stored in the unconscious. When so called positive or negative emotions rise up, we meet greet and welcome rather than refuse them. Yoga Nidra teaches us no to be afraid of feeling afraid, not to be insecure about being insecure and not resist feeling joyous open and vulnerable.

When we welcome opposites of feelings and emotions just as they are they move naturally through their stages of birth, growth, decay and death ultimately dissolving back into their home ground of being. Feelings and emotions are only passing phenomena naturally occurring movements in the body and mind. Yoga Nidra introduces us to our ground of innate stability that is present whether strong feelings or emotions are present or absent.

When you are open to feeling whatever is present, attachment and aversion no longer control your life and you live the ease of Being which evokes profound relaxation and clarity in both the body and the mind. Judgement loses its grip and compassion love of the self and others blossoms.

The practice of yogic relaxation has been found to effectively reduce tension and improve psychological well being of people suffering from anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal pain respond exceptionally well to yoga nidra. Practicing yoga nidra successfully decreases the time required to fall asleep, thereby curing insomnia.

During Nicole’s Yoga Nidra Class you will experience ways to relax the body and the mind with simple gentle postures, self massage, breathing techniques and then Nicole guides you into a the deep relaxation yoga nidra state of consciousness. See Nicoles Schedule for Dates, Times an Locations of this class at www.theyogapathtransforms.com

References: The Teachings of Swami J, Yoga Nidra by Richard Miller

Message from God – Beloved ones, My precious heart, I call you now to rest in Me, to open your lives to the truth of this Love and to the ecstatic joy of giving. How I wish that I could truly show you how deeply the ego has reversed the truth of Love and in how many ways it turns everything into getting something for itself..

Even this joy that you are meant to have in Me and this great and glorious peace, it manages to keep turning into something that you must strive to achieve, when in truth, dear ones, it is your inheritance. It is as much a part of you as the very breath you breathe, that one glorious breath of the living cosmos. The fact of taking Love in from Me each Now Moment, into your Twin Flame heart of mine, and giving it forth continuously is as natural as breathing..

But I cannot explain the joy of giving to the ego mind at all for it will take it in and turn it around in some uniquely creative way. But I can show you in the depths of your heart what it means to live to give, and to allow the little self to fall away completely in this glorious flow of Love that is ever and always moving outward to bless and to transcend anything that causes separation or interferes with Love at all..

Thus, I must call you again and again to return to this Love and its true flow which is giving all that you are in service to Love as the surrendered heart of God. If it is a world of only Love that calls you in your heart, then, dearest ones, the key to this world is to give everything you are in service to this Love as it appears in all things. Releasing the ego’s dream of a separate world in which it can gain things for itself, allow Me to live life in the world as you and to truly be your Twin Flame heart, the great cauldron of ecstatic joy that comes out of giving all that you are..

So the peace that passes all understanding is the peace that is beyond the ego mind, for the ego mind cannot comprehend it, that true joy comes from giving all that you are in service to Love. But you, beloved ones, you know this. And you know the pure truth of who you are because you find it in your heart when you open to Me and allow Me to be that living service to Love as it appears in the world as you..

What does it mean to give your all to Love and to see only Love before you, because you already know that if you see other than Love you are recreating the world of duality right then and there? So if you see only Love it means living from your heart. This, dearest ones, can be your guide. When you look at the world before you, whatever it is that is appearing, do you see only Love standing there? If you do, you are living from your heart. If you do not, you are living from your ego. I promise you that Love mends all rifts, transcends all limitation and transforms the world of duality and separation into a glorious unified worship of the living Love we share..

How will you know when you truly are living this? When this Love has reclaimed your heart and when your heart’s great perception, its awareness as this living instrument is the instrument of the totality of your perception? You will know through the joy in your heart and by our clear relationship and My guidance. As you surrender the things that the ego mind desires and you surrender those things it is attached to, you become free and open as a living conduit of Light and your heart becomes the instrument of your experience. You will see only Love everywhere you look..

True Love is a glorious feeling of the heart. It isn’t a decision of the ego mind. It rises from within you, from the deepest part of your being and immediately forms the Vertical axis, alive and open to Me and to this Love I Am as it speaks through the truth of your being and as it names the world through your heart. This, My beloved ones, is what I want to speak to you about today..

That which is the heart sees is so different from the ego. What the heart sees is only the unity of Love and the great perfection and joy of giving. It simply does not see what is in it for yourself. Nor does it need to have an evaluation of everything and everyone it encounters. If you are this Love and it is the truth of your very being, then what appears before you as your world will be only Love also..

As you make this shift and see only Love, feel only Love and live for giving, then your experience of life will come into alignment with Love’s very highest vibration and everything around you will come into communion with you through your open heart, and all life is then a celebration of this one limitless Love..

Breathe this Love in, beloved ones, and feel it as the truth of your being. Every step is meant to be a miracle, opening wide the pathways of Love. When you see only with your heart, see only Love, then only Love is also what you are receiving, since as you know, you always receive that which you give. So while it is an important step to understand the ego’s dream and to recognize its machinations, the next step is to choose to see only Love, to know that Love is your great call to giving, that Love, true Love, the one Love, is that which you learn, which you receive..

So let Me ask you to gently re-inform your ego mind and explain to it that anything it wants will come to it measure upon measure if it will give such things first, and trust the law of Love. At first it will rebel and continue to pull you in the old pathways. But the ego dream has its place in your life right now as the anchor for your giving and therefore, will come under the direction of your heart as you allow your heart to be your vehicle and Me to be the center of your world. Not the little mind and ego..

I Am the One circular life and therefore all that is given is always returned, for that which goes out travels around the encompassment, the circle, and returns always to its source multiplied. This law of Love, beloved ones, is understandable to the ego and will bring it into subjugation to the heart..

So as you love even this, even the ego that has tricked you and created the veil of separation, then you elevate it all to the vibration of the heart and to the great flow of the living river which is the giving of My Love to everything, to everyone, to you, beloved ones, for example. When it is received and passed on, it then completes the circle..

When you rest in this Love so completely that you do feel it, connect with it with every in-breath, then Love becomes your experience and the world of separation created by the ego falls away… You recognize that there is only one true resonance and it is the experience of unity of this one God consciousness, energy and heart!

Today, Creator of the Universe we ask that you help us to accept ourselves just the way we are, without judgement. Help us to accept our mind the way it is, with all our emotions, our hopes and dreams, our personality, our unique way of being. Help us to accept our body just the way it is, with all its beauty and perfection. Let the love we have for ourselves be so strong that we never reject ourselves or sabotage our happiness, freedom and love.

The path is really a practice. A practice of applying what you learned, the concepts you have been exposed too to help you on your journey. With practice comes many lessons learned about self. With non practice and realizing you are not practicing also comes different lessons, perhaps on what blocks you from practicing. More than likely it will be your own thoughts and judgments coming from fear or outside influences.

I have seen people, myself included, who are very knowledgeable of metaphysical, and spiritual concepts, texts, etc teach others about these concepts but struggle with applying these concepts to their own life, because they have mental or emotional blocks that are preventing their practice. In the yoga culture a guru would help a student to see these roadblocks, help to break down the veil of illusion brought upon by sense gratification, material gain, identification of the self as the physical body, actions, thoughts that create lopsided perceptions and false beliefs. If a guru has not been found to experience this with, we can look around in the mirrors other people are holding, and observe the self looking in those mirrors and if we are reacting to the reflection with Love or not.

As a coach, yoga teacher/student, I often have an ah-ha moment of my own physical and emotional blocks from observing people in my classes, my clients, or people close to me and my reactions to their traits. I may help lead others in the direction of self realization during practice, but we are all teachers to eachother, and mirrors for eachother and can learn so much about ourselves by just observing.

Most of the roadblocks I see people encounter with practicing yoga is within the mind. People have limiting and false beliefs about practicing yoga and what yoga really is, even before their first class. Even with physical conditions or illnesses there are underlying mental and emotional blocks and false beliefs. After breaking those false beliefs, fears, and mental blocks they realize yoga is much more than an exercise and they develop a practice that transforms their life. They will soon find those physical limitations or illnesses are not limitations at all and may even begin to heal them the more they practice.

When I have people comes to class who are brand new to yoga I will make sure I say things like; “Yoga is not a competition activity, every-ones body is different and every-ones practice is different. Listen to your own body and if you feel any discomfort pull back, modify or simply come out of the pose and rest. Rest when you need to, everything is optional, this is your practice. Accept on where you are at in the pose without condemning yourself or judging yourself. Just accept.” Reminding people of this creates ease and enjoyment in their posture practice and they can let go of the mind a little more and surrender and bring in more of the spiritual aspect of yoga and connection with themselves.

Even people who have been practicing yoga for a long period of time have mental and emotional blocks to their practice. With posture practice I often see people comparing their current practice to their practice in the past instead of being present and accepting on where they are at currently and listening. When we accept on where we are at in our physical practice we can let go and surrender in all areas in our life much easier. Everything that is happening is happening for a reason, lessons to learn. Once we surrender to that and have let go, it is easier to see the reason and lessons in everything that happens in our life and gratitude and love shine from within.

After taking a fall down the stairs, my posture practice changed dramatically and so did my approach to teaching. I went from practicing an active posture class such as Asthanga or Vinyasa and Sivananda to a more gentle and restorative class. My teaching style became more of a mixture of different styles and traditions and was gentle enough for beginners as well as people who have been practicing awhile bringing more of a spiritual aspect to the class. I also learned many other limiting false beliefs and mental and emotional blocks that I held in my life that may have even caused the fall in the first place. I am very grateful for falling down those stairs because without that experience and injuries I would not be where I am today in my practice and self development. I am also very grateful that I am almost fully recovered from that fall, physically and emotionally.

I also see people who have been practicing a long time comparing their practice to other peoples practice bringing more of a competitive energy to their practice which just brings on more blocks, illusion, false beliefs and ego. Yoga is NOT a competition activity. Bringing a competitive attitude to yoga practice can take that person in the opposite direction of the true meaning and goal of yoga. It can lead to inflation of the ego and increased identification with the body not realizing that it is just an illusion and not who we really are. The goal of yoga is to develop a relationship and connection with our true nature, enlightenment or becoming one with the light, liberation of the barriers that prevent our true nature from shining. Those barriers are often called; the veil or mya or ego which is the exterior identification of the self, such as the physical body, actions, sense gratification, material gain, and thoughts that create lopsided perceptions and false beliefs. Sometimes practicing with others in a room with mirrors can bring on a competitive feeling to your practice. Observing yourself when it does occur and breaking through that barrier by bring a little ease to your practice, going more within and maybe practicing in a space without mirrors. Then we can clearly see the invisible mirrors others are holding and our reflection in them.

The following are excerpts from “Meditations from the Mat” by yoga teacher and recovering addict Rolf Gates that I sometimes read in class. His words beautifully describe some of the roadblocks people encounter with yoga practice as well as our spiritual and life practice.

Working with beginners affords me the opportunity to observe just what it is we bring to our mats. Despite wide age, gender, socioeconomic, cultural, physical differences, we all carry some of the same baggage. Whether you are a dancer, a housewife, a grad student, retired police officer or an aerobics dropout, you will not doubt confront the same roadblocks to learning that I see students encounter every day; pride and fear.

If you are new to yoga, chances are you are wrestling not only with the postures but also the judgments you pronounce on your efforts. But if you can make commitment to be a little easier on yourself, I am certain you will enjoy your practice more. If not you may soon find yourself making all sorts of excuses to avoid practicing altogether, it will become too painful.

When we opt out of experiences that challenge us, its usually because of our pride is in the way. And pride is really another word for Fear, the fear of not being good enough. Marlon Brando delivers this truth in Apocalyse Now “ It is our Judgment that defeats us”. We become our own executioners when we sit in judgment of our efforts. Only when we act without judgment can we truly flourish in our lives.

Yoga means becoming one. As long as we stand apart in judgment we sabotage the opportunity for connection and integration that is yoga. So I encourage you: get into that canoe and ride with the river. Commit and don’t look back. Before our bodies can open they must first let go; clinched and guarded muscles must relax but the mind must let go first.

By choosing to practice yoga, we are saying that our spiritual growth is important to us. We are making it a priority. Our practice is a shelter we build for our spiritual selves. It is the work that we do to safeguard and support the possibility of spiritual growth. The winds of life constantly wear away at this shelter, but if we stick to our tools, the shelter will hold.

“If one knows what the particular disease is there is the possibility of curing it. To know the particular limitation, bondage or hindrance of the mind, and to understand it, one must not condemn it, one must not say it is right or wrong. One must observe it without an opinion, a prejudice about it, which is extraordinarily difficult because we are brought up to condemn.” J Krishnamurti

“Try to do everything in the world with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.” Acjaam Chah

NAMASTE
NICOLE PETROFF

This concept of the balancing act in posture is also an act of balancing the mind and it can be used in all areas of our life. It is useful not only for balancing the thoughts but also the emotions that create blocks in our chakras energy centers which in turn can create illness and physical symptoms in the physical body.

These balancing concepts that I bring up in my yoga classes has a deeper lesson that can be applied off the mat and in our lives. Lets break it down. Letting go and accepting, careful not to judge or condemn self or others, staying present, going inward, creating ease, wobbling from side to side, finding balance.

Going inward if we notice we condemn ourselves or judge others. What we see in others is a reflection of what is within us. Perhaps the condemning and judging is coming from not loving the self or not feeling good enough. Going more inward after you see the reflection in the mirrors others are holding. Being a little easier on yourself by not judging the self will create ease and more enjoyment in your yoga practice and in your life. Wobbling from side to side in posture just like, on the scale of emotion and energy is part of the process. After all how would we know what balance is unless we experienced both ends of the scale. Acceptance on where you are at, balanced or not, wobbly or not, present or not, attached or not, suffering or not.

Underneath these balancing concepts is perception and letting go. The act of letting go of attachments and attachments to particular outcomes takes surrendering that everything is happening the way its suppose to happen for reasons and lessons to learn and also, trusting in that its all happening perfectly. Surrendering and letting go takes great faith and being present instead of fearing the unknowns of the future or fearing letting go of the past. Life is in the present moment and when we are not in the present we are missing out on life and will suffer.

With my own experience of observing myself to create balance in my thoughts, emotions and perceptions I noticed several things. I knew from deep inside there was energy shifts occurring within me and my relationship to others and the environment. I was able to sense and feel when I was out of balance and could either suffer or not. I knew that when I am in a state of illusion of who I really am, that I am vibrating at a different frequency. For instance if I am being clouded by trying to get sense gratification, material gain, and start to identify the self as the physical body, actions, thoughts that create lopsided perceptions and false beliefs, I suffer. When I was in a place of BEING LOVE and feeling Love, peace, balanced I am more intuitive, clairvoyant, and more aware of energy, vibrations around me, and instantly I become more compassionate, empathic, forgiving, loving, generous.

I also realized that from studying laws of attraction, I was trying to be more positive, think positively or doing what always feels good to manifest things in my life. This way of thinking felt incomplete like there was something missing and it had unbalanced me. It felt like I was denying or pushing everything else that wasn’t positive away. Sometimes I felt like I was denying a part of myself as I pushed it away. Other times I couldn’t see the positives and only saw the negatives and it was very hard to let it go when I was in that place. I found myself shifting from extremes of being positive and then being negative and also creating false beliefs. I only felt balanced when I was meditating or after I had completed a yoga class. I began to question if i was using my yoga practice as a crutch or becoming attached to it to bring me balance without looking at how to create balance by itself. I was at a crossroad in my practice and wasn’t sure how to approach this within myself.

I know from my scripture study and study of the world around me that we get false beliefs and lopsided perceptions from filtering everything through our value system and our senses, then we label it and categorize things as positive or negative according to our value system, creating duality. That value system is based on our programming that we have been put under from ancestors, society, authority figures, media around us. The part of the mind that determines something is good or bad is based on what we hold the highest or lowest value in our lives. For an example, we label things as positive when it supports something high on the value scale and we become attracted to it. We label things as negative when something challenges our value system, or supports our lowest values on the scale and may have resentment towards it. In relationships we compare others to our fantasy we created based on our values, expectations and perceptions and programming we were put under. Instead of just accepting the person for who they really are we compare them to our fantasy and value system and then label, categorize them and put expectations on them, based on the fantasy of illusion and lies. Balance comes from being in the middle, neither repelled or attracted, but being neutral. When we are balanced we can shine our true nature, LOVE.

That feeling of being at a crossroads in my practice came to an end when I found the quantum collapse process written about in “The Breakthrough Experience” combined with the knowledge from Yoga philosophy, Buddhist traditions and authors like Wayne Dyer, Louis Hay, Ester & Jerry Hicks had changed my perception and my life to create and sustain balance when the pressures of living on earth in the United States society may get to me. The concept of creating balance with changing perceptions and thoughts can change your life. Breaking through the habitual patterns of using lopsided perceptions and limiting beliefs was really the experience that i needed to create long lasting balance in my life. When we are in balance with our thoughts, emotions, energy centers (charkas) we can shine our true nature (Devine LOVE & LIGHT) to the world.

Dr John Demartini explains how we can breakthrough the barriers like lopsided sensory perceptions that prevent our true nature LOVE from shining and enlightenment from occurring in his book “The Breakthrough Experience”. This book and the Quantum Collapse process works well with the yoga practice in creating balance in perception and healing of relationships to coming back to being LOVE expressing in a state of Gratitude. Below are some excerpts from his book:

If we are all light the why are we so often confused and how did we forget our enlightened nature? The answer is Lopsided sensory perceptions.

Have you ever thought when I get this car, house, job or relationship life will be better? Most people think that when they get something else, life will get better, but that kind of thinking only transforms the positives and negatives into new forms. Im not saying you shouldn’t seek, but if you think something will give you more positives than negatives your living in illusion.

We need the balance of support and challenge of positive and negative feedback, to grow and evolve. We have a lower, mortal nature that wants to have it all nice, sweet supportive and pleasurable, but in reality we attract the other side to keep us balanced and on track. We’re in illusion that we want one sidedness, but in our search for the monopole we find the balance of duality. The degree to which we appreciate both sides and embrace life is the degree to which we become enlightened.

If you run your life thinking that you’ll have pleasure without pain, your setting yourself up for the very pain you seek to avoid. When you don’t see the perfection of where you are, you take the pure energy of inspiration and dissipate it in emotional reactions. You swing back and forth between Im happy, Im sad, im happy, Im sad. Or in a relationship, Im attracted, im repelled, I like you, I dislike you, I cant be away from you, I cant live with you.

When you’re in the illusion of one sided positive and negative experience you automatically attract the opposite side to balance you. When you acknowledge life’s perfection by embracing both of its sides you experience unconditional love.

Everything you do good or bad, positive or negative serves to teach you about love. When you give yourself permission to be fully human, you approach the divine. But there are beliefs and misunderstanding that keep you form appreciating divinity in every aspect of yourself and the world.

Anytime you perceive a positive without a negative you’re drawn into a positive emotion; whenever you perceive a negative without a positive you’re drawn into a negative emotion and both are lower frequency states that dissipate your potential and run your life. Right in the middle between positive and negative emotions between like and dislike is the core of human experience and its nothing other than Love. True love is a synthesis of two aspects of one wave and one full wave is light, which can also be called Love. Love is a full quantum state. Physicists know that a full quantum state is mass-less, charge-less, space-less and timeless which by definition is spiritual and unconditional.

Ultimately life is not meant to be only positive or negative happy or sad, but to be expressed with balanced expression of love and wisdom. Wisdom is the instantaneous recognition that crises is blessing. Love is the automotive instantaneous recognition that crises is blessing and love is the automatic instantaneous expression of the two sides of life. You express either pure unconditional love when you acknowledge the balance, or conditional love when you acknowledge the imbalance. Either your center in a state of love which feels most purposeful here on Earth or you go of on emotional tangents to gain wisdom about what you haven’t yet loved. You cant blow it. There are no mistakes. Tangents aren’t detours, only reminder of how to grow in love.

When two complementary particles or those with equal but opposite charges spins, and masses are brought together they annihilate each other and birth light. In human consciousness when two complementary emotions or those with equal but opposite charges (such as elation and depression or happiness and sadness) spin (forward and backward in time) and masses (burdening emotional distractions) are brought together and synthesized into perfect balance, the emotions annihilate each other and birth the feeling of love and light. Light and love are two aspects of the same phenomenon. All positive and negative particle in the universe are created simultaneously in perfect one to one balance, but your senses mis-perceive local imbalances and can mislead you. Every time you splinter yourself into positive and negative emotions you scatter your light dissipate your energy potential and disempowered your true and centered being. In this way you separate yourself into past and future and your no longer being present. When you bring your perceptions back into balance and become aware of how things truly are you reverse the process. The past and future disappear in an all encompassing state of loving presence. In the state of love, extraordinary things can happen.

Your not here to be one-side being, you’re here to embrace both sides of yourself. When you try to be one-sided you expect other people to be the same, and when they aren’t you get angry with yourself, them or the world. We’re here to be whole beings and positive and negative are the two sides to teach us that.

Life is like a big play and whatever role we most resist is the one we get to act in next. We draw in those things to teach us to love ourselves and the world. Were not her to judge or be positive or negative thinkers were here to be Love that embraces both sides.

If your honest your see that you both saint and sinner, virtuous and vicious. So when someone accuses you of something don’t waste time defending yourself. Instead admit that you are not in fact possessor of whatever it is they’re attacking you for. Not only are you possessor but they are, too, and they’re judging themselves: that’s why they’re accusing you. If it hurts to hear it, that means you haven’t seen how that quality serves you or others and your judging yourself. Their gift to you is to wake you up to another part of yourself that you haven’t’ yet loved.

Anytime you experience a future or past emotion, you dissipate your potential energy into kinetic motion. But in a state of presence and love your reintegrate your kinetic energy and birth a new quantum of creative potential.

When you love yourself people cant push your buttons, but they will automatically attach you in whatever area you attack yourself.

Gratitude is the key that opens the gateway of the heart and allows the unified field theory of love to fill your life. Gratitude makes you present with whatever your doing. You are not here to run from away from sadness to happiness, because fulfillment is not possible when you deny half of your existence. Either side alone is only half fulfillment. Something grand and far beyond either of those fleeting emotional states is available to you. This book is not about the myth of happiness; its about the truth of balanced perception that brings you back to love.

NAMASTE

We have much more to offer eachother
You know its true
I am ready to take this ride
With a loved one by my side
Will it be you
Something I was not able to say, until I met you
It took this whole lifetime to find you
And a few days to possibly have lost you

Whatever happened to those words you have said
Are they still echoing in your head
Words so heart felt, cannot be forgotten or misread
Responded with related words with heart wide open

Trusted you with my soul
So I showed you my whole
A glimpse of our true self in our mirror
Only for fear to frost our mirror
With mine defrosted so I can see
Acceptance of the now is the key

Fear is what blinded our eyes
Fear is what came to our demise
Fear of unknowns of the future
Fear of letting go of the past
Fear of being present

Acceptance of that presence
A present of your presence I have received
Forever grateful I will be
I have not loved as I have with thee

Namaste

In order that the mind should see light instead of darkness, so the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can learn to contemplate reality and that supreme splendor which we have called the good. Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be to effect this very thing.-Socrates

Meditation is the art of doing nothing. In today’s hectic, achievement-focused world we are almost always doing something. This “doing” mode is fueled by the belief that if only we did enough of the right things, had enough of the right experiences, earned enough money, or owned enough possessions we would be happy. As a result our minds are seldom, if ever, still. Instead we are busy fretting about what we should have done or said, planning what we should do or not do, say or not say, in the future, and worrying whether or not we will obtain the things and experiences we think we need to be happy.

Ironically this mental agitation deprives of the very thing we seek. In the final analysis we all want to be happy, to be more at peace in ourselves, yet a mind that is worried cannot, by definition, be a mind that is at peace. This is why spiritual teachings the world over have recommended some or other form of meditation—some way of allowing the mind to become still and thereby find the peace we seek..

The allowing is important. Meditation is not another mental activity, another form mental “doing.” Most techniques of stilling the mind are exercises in attention rather than exercises in thinking. You do not quiet the mind by changing what you think about, but by changing the direction and quality of your attention. In their own particular ways meditation techniques turn the attention away from the world of the senses—the world we thought would bring us peace of mind—and inwards towards our inner essence..

As the mind begins to settle down it discovers an inner calm and peace. The habitual mental chatter begins to fade away. Thoughts about what is going on in meditation, what time it is, what you might say or do later, occupy less and less of your attention. Your feelings settle down, and your breath can grow so gentle as to virtually disappear. What thoughts there are became fainter and fainter, until finally the thinking mind falls completely silent..

Indian teachings call this state samadhi, literally “still mind.” This, they claim, is a fundamentally different state of consciousness from the three major states we normally experience—waking, dreaming, and deep sleep..

In waking consciousness we are aware and experience the world perceived by the senses. In dreaming we are aware and experience worlds conjured by the imagination. In deep sleep there is no awareness, either of outer world or inner world. Samadhi they define as a fourth major state. There is awareness, one is wide-awake, but there is no object of the awareness. It is pure consciousness—pure in the sense of being unmodified by thoughts and images—consciousness without content..

In samadhi you know consciousness itself, in its unmanifest state, before it takes on the many forms and qualities of thinking, feeling, and sensory experience… The Isha Upanishad, an ancient Indian text, says of this fourth state:

It is not outer awareness,
It is not inner awareness,
Nor is it a suspension of awareness..
It is not knowing
It is not unknowing,
Nor is it knowingness itself..
It can neither be seen nor understood,
It cannot be given boundaries..
It is ineffable and beyond thought..
It is indefinable..
It is known only through becoming it..

The Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki referred to it as a “state of Absolute Emptiness:” There is no time, no space, no becoming, no thingness. Pure experience is the mind seeing itself as reflected in itself.… This is possible only when the mind is sunyata [emptiness] itself, that is, when the mind is devoid of all its possible contents except itself..

The Essence of Self – When you are in this state you discover a sense of self that is more real and more fundamental than any you have known before. You are no longer an individual person, with individual characteristics. Here, in the complete absence of all normal experience, you find your true identity, an identity with the essence of all beings and all creation..

Usually we derive our sense of self from the various things that mark us out as individuals—our bodies and their appearance, our history, our nationality, the roles we play, our work, our social and financial status, what we own, what others think of us, and so on. We also derive an identity from the thoughts and feelings we have, from our beliefs and values, from our creative and intellectual abilities, from our character and personality. These, and many other aspects of our lives, contribute to our sense of who we are..

Such an identity is, however, forever at the mercy of events, forever vulnerable, and forever in need of protection and support. If anything on which our identity depends changes, or threatens to change, our very sense of self is threatened. If someone criticizes us, for example, we may feel far more upset than the criticism warrants, responding in ways that have more to do with defending or reinforcing our damaged self-image than with addressing the criticism itself..

In addition to deriving an identity from how we experience ourselves in the world, we also derive a sense of self from the very fact that we are experiencing. If there is experience, then there must, we assume, be an experiencer; there must be an “I” who is doing the experiencing. It certainly feels that way. Whatever is going on in my mind, there is this sense that I am the subject of it all..

But what exactly is this sense of “I-ness?” I use the word “I” hundreds of times a day without hesitation. I say that I am thinking or seeing something, that I have a feeling or desire, that I know or remember something. It is the most familiar, most intimate, most obvious aspect of myself. I know exactly what I mean by “I.” Until, that is, I try to describe it or define it. Then I run into trouble..

Looking for the self is rather like being in a dark room with a flashlight, and then shining it around trying to find the source of the light. All one would find are the various objects in the room that the light falls upon. It is the same when I try to look for the subject of all experience. All I find are the various ideas, images and feelings that the attention falls upon. But these are all objects of experience; they cannot therefore be the subject of the experience..

Although the self may never be known as an object of experience, it can be known in another, more intimate and immediate, way. When the mind is silent, when all the thoughts, feelings, perceptions and memories with which we habitually identify have fallen away, then what remains is the essence of self, the pure subject without an object. What we then find is not a sense of “I am this” or “I am that;” but just “I am”..

In this state, you know the essence of self, and you know that essence to be pure consciousness. You know this to be your true identity. You are not a being who is conscious. You are consciousness. Period..

In the words of the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger: What is this “I”?… You will, on close introspection, find that what you really mean by “I” is the ground-stuff upon which [experiences and memories] are collected..

No single moment of transcendence is likely to enlighten us forever. Our conditioning is so deep that it does not take long before we once again are caught up in our hopes, fears, worries and concerns. Once again start looking for external sources of fulfillment and get trapped in the “doing” mode. But a little taste of the meditative state remains, and our attachment to the world may not be quite as strong as it was before. This is why regular meditation practice is usually recommended—a daily dose of dehypnosis—a daily remembering of ourselves in our unconditioned state..

Posted in Creating Balance, Holistic Healing, Meditation, Off the Mat into the World, Practice of Yoga-Uniting, Spirituality ]]> http://theyogapathtransforms.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/meditation-art-of-letting-go/feed/ 0 yogininicole http://theyogapathtransforms.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/i-am-love/ http://theyogapathtransforms.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/i-am-love/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:39:00 +0000 yogininicole http://theyogapathtransforms.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/i-am-love Continue reading →]]> I AM
by Sandy Stevenson

I am the wind and the rain. I am the sun and all that shines. I am that which holds the heavens and all that does not shine. I am the all of all-ness and the no-thing of nothingness. I am you – the very source of your being. That which breathes you as you breathe me. I am that which creates through my breath and the sounding forth of my words.

I am that which uses care in making myself known to you, for unto man comes a mighty resistance to claiming me as I Am That I Am. For in so doing, one claims the self as I Am That I Am. I reside in your heart and in your mind. I reside in the all of you, your fingers and toes, your organs, your emotions, your thoughts and indeed in your actions. For good or for naught matters not for I do not judge myself.

I am love, so great and so vast, that I reside in a state of namelessness and formlessness for no-thing can I create can contain me, for I Am That I Am. To limit myself by these very words diminishes my being by encapsulating my breath, my words into the world of form.

Each word I speak, in this moment, is creating for I am that which manifests myself without definition or containment. As the rock creates a ripple in the pond, I create ripples with my breath. Upon each exhale, I send myself forth to materialize in the world of man through action, through inspiration, through the very beingness of the hearts of my heart.

If you, who is me, visualize me, I am not containable in a single form, or any form for I am un-ending – the alpha and omega. I have no face or body. I have no religious right or left. I have no direction. I possess no correctness and know not the concept of wrong, of judging, of being evil or of being good. If you welcome me into your thinking, feeling, acting body, you may find that as I am unleashed in the power of one, who is you, creation is everflowing, unstoppable.

I surround you now in fields and flowers, stars and comets, rain and thunder. I surround you now in the suit of skin that cloaks your bodyworks, your organs and cells and arteries. I am all that and more. Yet, oftentimes, you see me not in the workings, the appearance of all things for you understand not the mind of god, which is no mind at all, for I Am Love.

A love so vast it responds immediately to the smallest cry, the tiniest of whimpers of desire. If one wishes to experience the thrill of terror, one will surely find terror on the doorstep. If one holds the smallest particle of doubt, doubt will surely appear. For I hold no limit in my expression. I Am That I Am.

You have seen me in your lover’s eyes and the tiny fist of a newborn child. You have seen me in the warships and in the bloom of a flowering plant. You have witnessed my phenomenal appearance with every breath you take, in the all of which you are surrounded. You live, move and have your being in me as I, in you. We are not separate. I am you. I am divine perfection. I am known to you. I live in you. I express in you. I am creator and creation in one. I am unity.

Love lies in Service. Only that which is done, not for fame or name and not for appreciation or thanks, is Love’s Service.

I wrote this poem:

Note the formatting is not right. There should be a space after each forth word.

A weed is only a weed if we perceived it to be unwanted or invasive. That weed could potentially be a beautiful flower or have medicinal effects to cure some kind of illness. We are in illusion of its beauty and potential, so we decide if it lives or dies instead of just letting it be what it truly is…a part of us, part of our ecosystem, living being that has purpose.

A friend of mine who practices Naturopathic Medicine often picks what some call “weeds” from people’s yards when we take walks together because of their medicinal effects. He often says he loves the spring & summer because of all the free medicine he can get for people. We have been so programmed that these plants are no good that we try to kill them or remove them.

This way of thinking that these plants are weeds came from our domestication of this society. The domestication and programming we are put under by generations and generations of people teaching us how to think, what to believe, how to live in society.

LOVE IS MY RELIGION
By: Nicole Petroff

Yes I declared myself a worshiper of LOVE. Love is my religion.

When thinking about the concept of having love as a religion, I realized it shouldn’t be like any other organized religion. This religion has no rules, no specific places to worship, no specific god or people involved. It encompasses everyone, every being, every god, every faith, every practice, every action, every thought and energy.

The goal is simply to become self realized of what Love truly is and to become LOVE.

How does one do such a thing? Below is the wisdom I have developed through experiences, reading and self reflection.

There are many practices to choose from that you can use on this learning process and a combination of them is very helpful. I chose the practice of yoga or to yoke meaning union connection and relationship to our true self, Love.

Why do we need such practices to help us to know what love truly is and who we
truly are?

The senses, mind and intellect, and the vacillating nature of the mind creates a constant distraction and identification of exterior self prevents us from seeing. Also the lower emotions (such as anger, hatred, greed, lust, jealousy, envy, fear etc ) prevent us from shining our true nature and seeing what Love truly is. This is sometimes called veil, ego or mya or illusion. Practices such as yoga tai chi, qi gong, zen and many other practices and faiths etc help to purify the mind, emotions so the veil can be lifted.

When the veil is over our eyes, we may see LOVE as a cause of pain, and may discriminate who we love which creates dualism and more suffering. What we call “falling in love” sometimes can be an intensification of the veil and has intense wanting, needing and attachment. The word attachment means a tie or a bond but it can have deep emotional roots and cause scars on our soul or core issues to come to surface for a chance to heal. The feeling of “falling in love” can also be a great lesson looking back at us in the mirror the other is holding. It can be a lesson of seeing true self divine love in the mirror or of ego/veil the other is holding. What is to be seen in the mirror seems to be dependent on, if you are at peace within yourself. The more the ego/veil has been lifted the more at peace and your true nature you become. When we have attachments we create resistance of abundance instead allowing divine energy, abundance, manifestations, happiness, joy, bliss and true love to come into our lives.

This illusion of what Love is, seems to be the result of having that veil covering our eyes and also projecting your thoughts and energy into the future by having expectations or attachments to certain outcomes, which seems to be causes all sorts of suffering. We sometimes do this in relationships by labeling the relationship and putting it into a box of what society or culture says how that relationship with that label should be. When the relationship is in a box, it is confined to those certain behaviors expectations of that label, which bring attachments, and a lot of emotional suffering because you unconsciously placed conditions on how to Love eachother. If we detach from the label or not have any labels we are letting the relationship be free to be whatever it needs to be, with ease, and un-conditional Love.

Attachments and expectations seem to cause suffering and are hard to avoid and is all part of the learning process of awakening to who you truly are. Realizing attachment when it occurs and coming back into the present moment we can let go of it, and see its changes in energy, vibration or dimension as just what it is, a changed in energy and vibration. Learning to detach from those vibrational energy shifts by letting go of control, having faith that everything is happening for a reason/lesson we can avoid and overcome suffering.

When the veil is lifted it is easier to not allow those expectations, detach and love un-conditionally and are accepting the person or thing for what they really are, no matter what the do. They are Love, Vibration, Energy, and a reflection of yourself.

When the veil is lifted we can see and feel love as this beautiful feeling of warmth in everyone, everything, everywhere, it cannot be gained or lost, it is found within, and we begin to vibrate this love to the world, you become LOVE. The feeling of becoming Love that is so great, it is totally beyond words, beyond all capacity of the ego mind to describe it or to evaluate, but rather, it is like great waves of ecstasy and feeling and the absolute certainty that Love, True Love, Devine Love is the truth of it all.

Once the veil is lifted the work is not over. It takes constant practice, learning about self, and consistency with connecting to your higher self and the present moment. The more you do, the more love you will feel from everyone and everything. Then, you become more aware of what things disconnect you, like things that you consume or the people you associate with. Right diet and right association that will sustain your peace of mind is and your connection to Divine Love. If you don’t have consistent practice or continue to look externally for answers chances are the veil will go back on covering your eyes and suffering will continue.

Therefore if you practice Love as a religion, by lifting the veil, loving all beings un-conditionally, you start to love yourself and become more self realized and you start BEING LOVE

LOVE is a state of being. Love is not outside, it is deep within. We can never lose it and it cannot leave. It is not dependent on some other person or external form.

WE ARE LOVE! YOU ARE LOVE!
AND I LOVE YOU!

1. Changing sleep patterns: restlessness, hot feet, waking up two or three times a night. Feeling tired after you wake up and sleepy off and on during the day. There is something called the Triad Sleep Pattern that occurs for many: you sleep for about 2-3 hours, wake up, go back to sleep for another couple of hours, wake again, and go back to sleep again. For others, the sleep requirements have changed. You can get by on less sleep. Lately I have been experiencing huge waves of energy running into my body from the crown. It feels good, but it keeps me awake for a long time, then subsides.

Advice: Get used to it. Make peace with it and don’t worry about getting enough sleep (which often causes more insomnia). You will be able to make it through the day if you hold thoughts of getting just what you need. You can also request your Higher Power to give you a break now and then and give you a good, deep night’s sleep. If you can’t go back to sleep right away, use the waking moments to meditate, read poetry, write in your journal or look at the moon. Your body will adjust to the new pattern.

2. Activity at the crown of the head: Tingling, itching, prickly, crawling sensations along the scalp and/or down the spine. A sense of energy vibrating on top of the head, as if energy is erupting from the head in a shower. Also the sensation of energy pouring in through the crown, described as “sprinkles”. This may also be experienced as pressure on the crown, as if someone is pushing his/her finger into the center of your head. As I mentioned in #1, I have been experiencing huge downloads of energy through the crown. In the past, I have felt more generalized pressure, as if my head is in a gentle vise. One man related that his hair stood on end and his body was covered with goosebumps.

Advice: This is nothing to be alarmed about. What you are experiencing is an opening of the crown chakra. The sensations mean that you are opening up to receive divine energy.

3. Sudden waves of emotion. Crying at the drop of a hat. Feeling suddenly angry or sad with little provocation. Or inexplicably depressed. Then very happy. Emotional roller coaster. There is often a pressure or sense of emotions congested in the heart chakra (the middle of the chest). This is not to be confused with the heart, which is located to the left of the heart chakra.

Advice: Accept your feelings as they come up and let them go. Go directly to your heart chakra and feel the emotion. Expand it outward to your all your fields and breathe deeply from the belly all the way up to your upper chest. Just feel the feeling and let it evaporate on its own. Don’t direct the emotions at anyone. You are cleaning out your past. If you want some help with this, say out loud that you intend to release all these old issues and ask your Higher Power to help you. You can also ask Grace Elohim to help you release with ease and gentleness. Be grateful that your body is releasing these emotions and not holding onto them inside where they can do harm. One source suggests that depression is linked to letting go of relationships to people, work, etc. that no longer match us and our frequencies. When we feel guilty about letting go of these relationships, depression helps us medicate that pain.

4. Old “stuff” seems to be coming up, as described above, and the people with whom you need to work it out (or their clones) appear in your life. Completion issues. Or perhaps you need to work through issues of self-worth, abundance, creativity, addictions, etc. The resources or people you need to help you move through these issues start to appear.

Advice: Same as #3. Additionally, don’t get too involved in analyzing these issues. Examining them too much will simply cycle you back through them over and over again at deeper and deeper levels. Get professional help if you need to and walk through it. Do not try to avoid them or disassociate yourself from them. Embrace whatever comes up and thank it for helping you move ahead. Thank your Higher Power for giving you the opportunity to release these issues. Remember, you don’t want these issues to stay stuck in your body.

5. Changes in weight. The weight gain in the US population is phenomenal. Other people may be losing weight. We often gain weight because many fears we have suppressed are now coming up to the surface to be healed. We react by building up a defense. We also attempt to ground ourselves or provide bulk against increasing frequencies in our bodies.

Advice: Don’t freak out, but just accept it as a symptom of where you are right now. You will release/gain the weight when all your fears have been integrated. Release your anxiety about this. Then you might find it easier to lose/gain the weight eventually. Exercise. Before eating, try this: Sit at the table with an attractive place setting. Light a candle. Enjoy how the food looks. Place your dominant hand over your heart and bless the food. Tell your body that you are going to use the food to richly nourish it, but that you are not going to use the food to fulfill your emotional hungers. Then pass your hand from left to right over the food and bless it. You may notice that the food feels warm to your hand even if the food is cold– I like to think that the food is good for me when it feels warm and nourishing to my hand. I have also noticed that when I practice blessing the food, I don’t eat as much. It is important not to let yourself off the hook when you forget to bless the food before you eat. If I’ve forgotten and I’ve nearly finished eating, I bless the food anyway. That way I don’t slip out of the habit. Another thing you can do is to stay present while eating — don’t watch TV or read. Heartily enjoy what blessings are before you.

6. Changes in eating habits: Strange cravings and odd food choices. Some find they are not as hungry as they used to be. Or hungrier.

Advice: Don’t deny what your body tells you it needs. If you are not sure, you might try muscle-testing before you chose a food to see if it’s what your body wants. Also try blessing the food as described in #5.

7. Food intolerances, allergies you never had before: As you grow more spiritual, you are more sensitive to everything around you. Your body will tell you what it can no longer tolerate, as if it, too, is sloughing off what doesn’t serve it anymore. You might be cleansing yourself of toxins.
Some people find they often have a white residue in their mouth, much like that of runners at the end of a race.

Advice: An acupuncturist told me that this film can be removed by sloshing 2 tablespoons of cold-pressed olive oil in your mouth for 10-15 minutes (don’t swallow, whatever you do), then spitting it out into the toilet — not the sink, for you just removed toxins from your body and don’t want them in the sink. Brush your teeth and do the same. Then clean your brush.
(Sorry this is yukky, but it works.)

8. Amplification of the senses. Increased sensitivity.

8a. Sight: Blurry vision, shimmering objects, seeing glittery particles, auras around people, plants, animals, and objects. Some report seeing formerly opaque objects as transparent. When you close your eyes, you no longer see darkness, but a redness. You may also see geometric shapes or brilliant colors and pictures when eyes are closed. Colors appear more vivid — the sky might look teal or the grass an amazing green. Often I see grids running across the ground. As you become more sensitive, you may see shapes or outlines in the air, especially when the room is almost dark. When your eyes are open or closed, you may see white shapes in your peripheral vision (these are your guides).

Advice: Your vision is changing in many ways — you are experiencing new ways of seeing. Be patient. Whatever you do, do not be afraid. Hazy vision may be relieved by yawning.

8b. Hearing: Increased or decreased hearing. I once thought I would have to pull off the road because of the painfully amplified sound of my tires on the freeway. Other symptoms are hearing white noise in the head, beeps, tones, music or electronic patterns. Some hear water rushing, bees buzzing, whooshing, roaring or ringing. Others have what is called audio dyslexia– you can’t always make out what people are saying, as if you can no longer translate your own language. Some hear strange voices in their dreams, as if someone is hovering near them. You can either ask the presence(s) to leave or ask Archangel Michael to take care of the situation. Again, there is nothing to fear.

Advice: Surrender to it. Let it come through. Listen. Your ears are adjusting to new frequencies.

8c. Enhanced senses of smell, touch, and/or taste. I notice I can now smell and taste chemical additives in some foods in a rather unpleasant manner. Other food may taste absolutely wonderful. For some people, these enhancements are both delightful and distracting. You might even smell the fragrance of flowers now and then. Many of the mystics did. Enjoy it.

9. Skin eruptions: Rashes, bumps, acne, hives, and shingles. Anger produces outbreaks around the mouth and chin. I had a dermatitis on my extremities for several months that accompanied healing an episode from my past. When I had worked through most of the issue, the condition was released.

Advice: You may be sloughing off toxins and bringing emotions to the surface. When there is an issue to be released and you are trying to repress it, your skin will express the issue for you until you process the emotions. Work through your “stuff”.

10. Episodes of intense energy which make you want to leap out of bed and into action. Followed by periods of lethargy and fatigue. The fatigue usually follows great shifts. This is a time of integration, so give into it.

Advice: Roll with the nature of the energy. Don’t fight it. Be gentle with yourself. Take naps if you are tired. Write your novel if you are too energized to sleep. Take advantage of the type of energy.

11. Changes in prayer or meditation. Not feeling the same sensations as before. Not having the same experience of being in contact with Spirit. Difficulty in focusing.

Advice: You may be in more instant and constant communion with Spirit now and the sensation may therefore be altered. You will adapt to this new feeling. You are actually thinking acting in partnership with Spirit most of the time now. You may find your meditation periods shorter.

12. Power surges: All of a sudden you are heated from head to toe. It is a momentary sensation, but uncomfortable. In contrast, some people have felt inexplicably cold. I have experienced both. More recently I experience waves or currents of energy rolling through me. Sometimes the energy seems so intense when it first comes into my body that I feel a little nauseated. But if I think of the energy as divine and let go of fear, I feel wonderful and enjoy the sensation. If you are an energy worker, you may have noticed that the heat running through your hands has increased tremendously. This is good.

13. A range of physical manifestations: Headaches, backaches, neck pains, flu-like symptoms (this is called vibrational flu), digestive problems, muscular spasms or cramps, racing heartbeat, chest pains, changes in sexual desire, numbness or pain in the limbs, and involuntary vocalizations or bodily movements. Some of us have even had old conditions from childhood reappear briefly for healing.

Advice: Remember what I said about seeking medical help if you need it! If you have determined that this is not a medical condition, relax in the realization that it is only temporary.

14. Looking younger. Yippee! As you clear emotional issues and release limiting beliefs and heavy baggage from the past, you are actually lighter. Your frequency is higher. You love yourself and life more. You begin to resemble the perfect you that you really are.

15. Vivid dreams. Sometimes the dreams are so real that you wake up confused. You may even have lucid dreams in which you are in control. Many dreams may be mystical or carry messages for you. And in some dreams, you just know that you are not “dreaming” — that what is happening is somehow real.

Advice: You will remember what is important for you to remember. Don’t force anything. Above all, stay out of fear.

16. Events that completely alter your life: death, divorce, change in job status, loss of home, illness, and/or other catastrophes — sometimes several at once! Forces that cause you to slow down, simplify, change, re-examine who you are and what your life means to you. Forces that you cannot ignore. Forces that cause you release your attachments. Forces that awaken your sense of love and compassion for all.

17. A desire to break free from restrictive patterns, life-draining jobs consumptive lifestyles, and toxic people or situations. You feel a compelling need to “find yourself” and your life purpose — now! You want to be creative and free to be who you really are. You might find yourself drawn to the arts and nature. You want to unclutter yourself from things and people that no longer serve you.

Advice: Do it!

18. Emotional and mental confusion: A feeling that you need to get your life straightened out–it feels like a mess. But at the same time you feel chaotic and unable to focus. See #45.

Advice: Put your ear to your heart and your own discernment will follow.

19. Introspection, solitude and loss of interest in more extraverted activities: This stage has come as a surprise to many extraverts who formerly saw themselves as outgoing and involved. They say, “I don’t know why, but I don’t like to go out as much as before.”

20. Creativity bursts: Receiving images, ideas, music, and other creative inspirations at an often overwhelming rate.

Advice: At least record these inspirations, for Spirit is speaking to you about how you might fulfill your purpose and contribute to the healing of the planet.

21. A perception that time is accelerating. It seems that way because you have had so many changes introduced into your life at an unprecedented rate. The number of changes seems to be growing.

Advice: Breaking your day up into appointments and time segments increases the sense of acceleration .You can slow time down by relaxing into the present moment and paying attention to what’s at hand, not anticipating what’s ahead. Slow down and tell yourself that you have plenty of time. Ask your Higher Power to help you. Keep your focus on the present. Try to flow from one activity to the next. Stay tuned to your inner guidance… You can also warp time by asking for it. Next time you feel rushed, say, “Time warp, please. I need some more time to —–.” Then relax.

22. A sense of impendingness. There is a feeling that something is about to happen. This can create anxiety.

Advice: There is nothing to worry about. Things are definitely happening, but anxiety only creates more problems for you. All your thoughts — positive or negative– are prayers. There is nothing to fear.

23. Impatience. You know better, but sometimes you can’t help it. You want to get on with what seems to be coming your way. Uncertainty is not comfortable.

Advice: Learn to live with the uncertainty, knowing that nothing comes to you until you are ready. Impatience is really a lack of trust, especially trust in your Higher Power. When you focus on the present, you will experience miracles — yes, even in traffic.

24. A deep yearning for meaning, purpose, spiritual connection, and revelation. Perhaps an interest in the spiritual for the first time in your life. “Constant craving”, as k.d. lang says. The material world cannot fulfill this longing.

Advice: Follow your heart and the way will open up for you.

25. A feeling that you are somehow different. A disquieting sense that everything in your life feels new and altered, that you have left your old self behind. You have. You are much greater than you can possibly imagine. There is more to come.

26. “Teachers” appear everywhere with perfect timing to help you on your spiritual journey: people, books, movies, events, Mother Nature, etc. Teachers may appear to be negative or positive when you are trapped in polarity thinking, but, from a transcendent perspective, they are always perfect. Just what you need to learn from and move on. By the way, we never get more than we are ready to master. Each challenge presents us with an opportunity to show our mastery in passing through it.

27. You find a spiritual track that makes sense to you and “speaks to you” at the most profound levels. Suddenly you are gaining a perspective that you would never have considered before. You hunger to know more. You read, share with others, ask questions, and go inside to discover more about who you are and why you are here.

28. You are moving through learning and personal issues at a rapid pace. You sense that you are “getting it” quite readily.

Advice: Keep remembering that things will come to you when they are ready to be healed. Not sooner. Deal with whatever comes up with courage and you will move through the issues rapidly.

29. Invisible presences. Here is the woo-woo stuff. Some people report feeling surrounded by beings at night or having the sensation of being touched or talked to. Often they will wake with a start. Some also feel their body or bed vibrate. The vibrations are caused by energetic changes after emotional clearing has taken place.

Advice: This is a sensitive topic, but you may feel better blessing your bed and space around it before you sleep. I rest assured that I am surrounded only by the most magnificent spiritual entities and am always safe in God’s care. Sometimes, however, the fear gets to me, and I call in Archangel Michael and/or Archangel Uriel. I don’t beat myself up for being afraid sometimes. I forgive myself for not always sovereign at 3:00 a.m.

30. Portents, visions, “illusions”, numbers, and symbols: Seeing things that have spiritual importance for you. Noticing how numbers appear synchronistically in your awareness. Everything has a message if you take the time to look. I enjoy the experience of “getting the messages.” What fun!

31. Increased integrity: You realize that it is time for you to seek and speak your truth. It suddenly seems important for you to become more authentic, more yourself. You may have to say “no” to people whom you have tried to please in the past. You may find it intolerable to stay in a marriage or job or place that doesn’t support who you are. You may also find there is nowhere to hide, no secrets to keep anymore. Honesty becomes important in all your relationships.

Advice: Listen to your heart. If your guidance tells you not to do something, speak up and take action. Say “no”. Likewise, you must also say “yes” to that which compels you. You must risk displeasing others without guilt in order to attain spiritual sovereignty.

32. Harmony with seasons and cycles: You are becoming more tuned to the seasons, the phases of the moon and natural cycles. More awareness of your place in the natural world. A stronger connection to the earth.

33. Electrical and mechanical malfunctions: When you are around, light bulbs flicker, the computer locks up, or the radio goes haywire.

Advice: Call on your angels, guides, or Grace Elohim to fix it or put up a field of protection of light around the machine. Surround your car with blue light. Laugh.

34. Increased synchronicity and many small miracles. Look for more of these.

Advice: Synchronistic events tell you if you are heading in the right direction or making the correct choices. Honor these clues and you cannot go astray. Spirit uses synchronicity to communicate to you. That’s when you begin to experience daily miracles. See #30.

35. Increased intuitive abilities and altered states of consciousness:
Thinking of someone and immediately hearing from them. More synchronicities. Having sudden insights about patterns or events from the past. Clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences, and other psychic phenomena. Intensified sensitivity and knowing. Awareness of one’s essence and that of others. Channeling angelic and Christ-consciousness energies.

36. Communication with Spirit. Contact with angels, spirit guides, and other divine entities. Channeling. More and more people seem to be given this opportunity. Feeling inspiration and downloading information that takes form as writing, painting, ideas, communications, dance, etc.

37. A sense of Oneness with all. A direct experience of this Wholeness. Transcendent awareness. Being flooded with compassion and love for all life. Compassionate detachment or unconditional love for all is what lifts us up to higher levels of consciousness and joy.

38. Moments of joy and bliss. A deep abiding sense of peace and knowing that you are never alone.

39. Integration: You become emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually stronger and clearer. You feel as if you are in alignment with your Higher Self.

40. Living your purpose: You know you are finally doing what you came to earth for. New skills and gifts are emerging, especially healing ones. Your life/work experiences are now converging and starting to make sense. You are finally going to use them all.

Advice: Listen to your heart. Your passion leads you to where you must go. Go within and ask your Higher Power, “What is it you would have me do?” Watch for synchronicities. Listen.

41. Feeling closer to animals and plants. To some people, animals now seem to be more “human” in their behavior. Wild animals are less afraid. Plants respond to your love and attention more than ever. Some may even have messages for you.

42. Seeing beings of other dimensions. The veil between dimensions is thinner, so it is not surprising. Just stay in your sovereignty. You are more powerful than you can ever imagine, so do not entertain fear. Ask your guides for help if you slip into fear.

43. Seeing a person’s true form or seeing loved ones with a different face — past life or parallel life.

44. Physically manifesting thoughts and desires more quickly and efficiently.

Advice: Monitor your thoughts. All thoughts are prayers. Be careful what you ask for.

45. Left -brain fogginess. Your psychic abilities, your intuitive knowing, your feeling and compassion, your ability to experience your body, your visioning, your expressiveness all emanate from the right brain. In order for this side of the brain to develop more fully, the left brain must shut down a little bit. Normally the left-hemisphere’s capacity for order, organization, structure, linear sequencing, analysis, evaluation, precision, focus, problem-solving, and mathematics dominate our often less-valued right brain.

What results are memory lapses, placing words in the wrong sequence, inability or no desire to read for very long, inability to focus; forgetting what you are just about to say; impatience with linear forms of communication (audio or written formats); a feeling of spaciness, being scattered; losing interest in research or complex information; feeling bombarded with words and talk and information; and a reluctance to write. Sometimes you feel dull and have no interest in analysis, lively intellectual discussion, or investigation.

On the other hand, you might find yourself drawn to the sensate: videos, magazines with photos, beautiful artwork, movies, music, sculpting, painting, being with people, dancing, gardening, walking, and other kinesthetic forms of expression. You may search for spiritual content, even science fiction.

Advice: You may discover that if you allow your heart and your right brain to lead you, the left will then be activated appropriately to support you. And someday we will be well-balanced, using both hemispheres with mastery.

46. Dizziness. This occurs when you are ungrounded. Perhaps you have just cleared a big emotional issue and your body is adjusting to your “lighter” state.

Advice: Ground yourself by eating protein. Sometimes “comfort food” feels right. Don’t make any food right or wrong for you. Use your guidance to know what you need at any given moment. Take your shoes off and put your feet in the grass for a couple of minutes.

47. Falling, having accidents, breaking bones. Your body is not grounded or perhaps your life is out of balance. Or your body may be telling you to slow down, examine certain aspects of your life, or heal certain issues. There is always a message. When I recently broke my ankle, I understand that my ankle was taking on what I myself refused to deal with. And that was all of the above.

Advice: Stay grounded by taking your shoes off and putting your feet in the grass; even better, lie down on the grass without a blanket under you. Feel the earth beneath you. Get out in nature. Slow down and pay attention. Be mindful about what you are doing. Feel your feelings when they come up. Stay in the present. Surround yourself with blue light when you are feeling shaky.

49. Heart palpitations. A racing heart usually accompanies a heart opening. It only lasts for a few moments and means that the heart is re-balancing itself after an emotional release. I had one episode that terrified me: I woke up in the middle of the night, my heart pounding.
I thought it was going to come right out of my chest. It only happened once and was, I understand, a huge heart-chakra opening. But I did check it out. There is nothing wrong with my heart.

Advice: Remember what I said about getting medical attention when needed. Consult your doctor about any conditions you are not comfortable with.

50. Faster hair and nail growth. More protein is being used in the body. Too bad we can’t tell the body where to grow the hair and where not to grow it. (Or can we? Hmmm.)

51. A desire to find your soulmate or twin flame. More than ever before, the idea that we can have a relationship that matches who we are seems more desirable.

Advice: The truth is, we have to be the kind of person we want to attract.
We have to love ourselves and where we are right now before we can attract a more “perfect” mate. The work begins at home. Here is how I think it works: Hold the desire for this person in your heart, but without attachment. Expect that someday you will meet someone who is more suited to you, but let go of any expectations as to who this will be and how it will happen. Focus instead on cleaning up your own life and being the kind of person you want to be. Be happy now. Enjoy your life. Then you may see…..

52. Memories surface. Body memories, suppressed memories, images of past lives and/or parallel lives. We are healing and integrating all our “selves”, so expect to have some of these experiences.

Advice. Keep in mind that it is best to recall what only what comes to mind, leave the rest alone, don’t analyze everything to death (because you will be stuck in the tape loop of infinite issues to process), and feel your feelings as they come up. Ask for help from your guides.

– written by Karen Bishop
Please visit her website for more information!
http://www.whatsuponplanetearth.com/

One of the reasons we hold ourselves bound in such a non-advancing state is undue attachment: to a spiritual belief system that no longer inspires; continuing relationships with persons or places that cease to comfort and warm the heart; a job that holds us tethered for security reasons, although it is a daily grind and limits all creative flow. Or we can be stuck in resentments, blaming parents, siblings, others, for all the ills heaped upon us – looking back. back. back instead of accepting that life isn’t necessarily fair (as we see it) and letting go of passé negative restraints. By moving forward, we open ourselves to new vistas and opportunities. It’s never easy – saying goodbye to our attachments, even when they no longer honor us. This lifetime is precious; it must serve us well in all facets of our life.

Fear of change also keeps us bound to limiting parameters. The But what ifs… that paralyze our incentive to think outside the box of our own creation. We need to make a stand in the sand and face the fear.What’s truly at the heart of our concern?

So many self-imposed restrictions: feelings of inadequacy; fear of rejection; others disapproval of our decisions; feeling bound by an indebtedness to another that keeps us hostage to their wants and wishes, overriding our own hopes, interests, and desires.

There are other mind passions that also curb forward movement. Anger is one, and it is never pleasant, and it is never righteous. Anger separates and destroys and, if vehement enough – kills. It kills love, and all that has meaning in our lives. Another negative trait is vanity: a certain smugness and preoccupation with self that puts others last. There’s also greed: the insatiable ones who never have enough, who always need more. And lust: let’s not forget those whose lust for power, money, love, is so excessive it smothers all forward thrust.How can one move forward when he is forever stuck staking claim to his consuming desires?

When we can visualize a better tomorrow for ourselves by slowly, but surely, releasing the negatives that are holding us in place, we can then move on to the next plateau – the larger classroom – that is filled with more light and more love. It awaits us. It is already in place.

Ascension is about humans clearing, healing and evolving our energies into a higher form…ascending to a higher vibrational level. The Angels, Light Beings and the Ascended Masters are flooding this plane with guidance, wisdom, information, and techniques. It is up to each one of us to embrace the gifts they offer.

In your personal physical ascension, you must begin where you are. If you have a worn-out, unhealthy body, it is necessary to bring it into greater balance for ascension. Energy imprints and patterns must be cleared. The physical, spiritual and emotional bodies must be healed. Many people don’t realize that ascension means transforming the body they have into a body that will take in more light and higher vibrations of energy. If you are like us, when you realize that ascension means working and healing the body you have, and clearing your patterns/energy imprints, it can be a little overwhelming. You slowly begin to realize how important healing the physical, emotional and spiritual bodies are. I know, until recently, our physical bodies had not been a priority. When it became clear that we would not be able to use the higher velocity of healing energy to help others, we finally got what the angels were trying to say……… take care of yourselves! We both knew we would doing Ascension work with others, but we had no idea how our own lives would change, including how we took care of our bodies. For us it has been a wonderful journey, one that is still unfolding.

We know we are not alone on this journey. We also know that each person will experience ascension and the life changes in their unique way.

We have personally experienced many “ascension/light body symptoms”. They include joint and muscle pain, persistent fatigue, headaches, stiff necks and shoulders, weight gain, difficulties with sleep and concentration (foggy headedness), sore throat, transformational flu, body aches and pains, hearing changes, irritable bowels and bladder, low-grade fevers and depression. We were often at a loss as to what to do to find relief from these symptoms. By trial and error, we found that the list below is what is needed. We have organized what we feel are important ways you can actively support your personal ascension process. This list can serve as an outline to assist you along your transformational journey. It is a list in process.

One of the first things each of us must do is take responsibility for our body and auric field. Remember, you are not a body with a part of you being spirit. You are a spiritual being who has incarnated in a physical body. This body is your temple. Others can help, but you are ultimately responsible for your spiritual, emotional and physical health.

11 Practical Practices

1. You are a spiritual Being, a being of light. It is important to partake of the universal life force energy that is freely available. Before getting out of bed, take deep breaths of life force energy into your body and say, “I AM a creation of Light. The light of God flows through me, in me, and around me.” Throughout the day, take deep breaths and say, “I AM a creation of light. The light of God flows through me, in me and around me.”

2. Take full responsibility and release all energy imprints and patterns that no longer serve your highest good. Many of these imprints and patterns are also are held within the auric field as well as the DNA. These imprints and patterns actually block light from coming into your physical, spiritual and emotional bodies. Light is what you are. Light is where you will return

3. Practice spiritual non-attachment. Archangel Metatron tells us not to become distracted by drama.

4. Strengthen your energy circuits: As more light comes into your physical body, your muscles must be strong enough to hold the light. Regular exercise that strengthens and tones is important, also subtle body exercises, like Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, etc. are important.

5. Keep your chakras – your spiritual energy centers – clear: Meditation, regular healing sessions

6. Attune to your higher guidance: Take time to connect with your Soul. Learn to communicate with Ascended Masters, Angels and teachers for insight, encouragement & guidance. They are always available to you.

7. Making changes that support and promote optimal physical health: Clearing/detoxing of the physical body and releasing attachments to food. We have found that the alkaline food plan is a wonderful way to aid the light body. Be open to your body’s wisdom, regarding what you eat.

8. Etheric clearing of the chakras and subtle bodies: We are Spiritual Beings. We are not just a physical body. We must begin a daily routine that includes taking care of our chakras and etheric bodies. This includes, chakra meditations, sea salt baths…meditations such as Raphael’s Gift.

9. Activities to help raise your vibration: Forgiveness, gratitude

10. Meditation and prayer.

11. Daily acts of service: Remember, service to self is important. You must take care of your spiritual, physical and emotional needs

Relationship Struggles in the Acceleration Process – It is an interesting phenomenon in spiritual acceleration….when we shift consciousness, it affects everything and everyone around us. Since spiritual awakening can sometimes be a sudden shift in consciousness and perspective, we may not understand how completely and irrevocably the old paradigm is gone nor how that fact may change our closest relationships.

In fact, we often do not realize just how comfortable we have become with existing belief systems, until those belief systems can no longer be sustained. Depending on the level of the consciousness shift, it can feel like learning to think and feel again.

Spiritual Shifts Don’t Just Affect You – At first, after a paradigm shift or energetic acceleration experience, it may just feel as if we have changed in some way but the world around us is still the same.

Then, we look around us and see that everyone close to us is reacting differently. Sometimes this change is positive but many times, it is perceived as painful, some kind of loss, or chaotic.

Why do those we love the most resist what is for our highest spiritual good? Wouldn’t those who love us most want this for us? Why would our spiritual acceleration throw loved ones into fear, resistance and personality challenge?

One reason we meet resistance when we break away from longterm or lifelong patterns of interaction with those closest to us is that this change can be construed as destructive to the family member it affects. It can feel as if the relationship is breaking apart. Our shift changes everything and takes everyone outside their comfort zone, sometimes in a pretty drastic way. We may be changing but those we love may want to stay the same and they can only stay the same if we do not change.

Changing Relationships as Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening – Whenever we make the decision to clear our negative thinking, behaviors and beliefs, to release our limiting thought paradigms and to embrace more Universal Truth, that decision shifts everyone around us.

When we decide to let go of unhealthy habits, fears and ego distractions, it can set in motion a ripple effect across every aspect of our life because those with whom we have partnered in fear, unhealthy habits and ego distractions are losing a partner.

It may surprise us, at that point, to find that our immediate circle of friends begins to change. If those around us resist spiritual acceleration in their own lives, then our spiritual advancement becomes a threat to their desired reality. Those who don’t wish to advance may suddenly resent or dislike us. Those who vibrate at a slower vibrational frequency than the one from which we have just shifted, may seem draining to us and not desirable to be around anymore.

Most likely, there will be those of our spiritual circle who want us back the way we were, so they can interact with us the same habitual, familiar and comfortable ways. There may even be unconcious sabotage, designed to help us question our new consciousness and drop back into the old patterns with them.

Flux and Flow – If we are fully committed to spiritual awakening, we will not allow this and will take action to end relationships that do not grow with us. The more compassionately we can end them, the better we become at letting the flux and flow of people around us be ok.

Relationship shifts and changes are a normal part of the spiritual acceleration process. We can learn to allow these changes to occur in a loving way by remembering that each soul is a sovereign master, perfectly capable of fulfilling their own unique destiny, with or without us.

Honoring Others Sovereignty – Sometimes, our vibration will be welcomed and we will be joined in breaking free of old patterns and behaviors. However, if this does not occur and we have those in our lives who choose to remain at slower vibrational frequency, we can honor that and trust that they will begin to be drawn to others of their own level. We are not really leaving anyone behind as much as we are honoring the sovereignty of each soul to choose their own rate of acceleration. As those of slower, more dense vibration begin to clear from our field, there will be new opportunities for connection revealed, evidenced by different kinds of people being attracted to us.

As we begin to meet these potential friends, some of which will seem to be vibrating at a slightly higher vibrational frequency than us, it is important to be alert to any suggestions from our logical mind that we have nothing in common with them. This is an illusion based on the past.

Sometimes, we fail to recognize that we really have moved beyond an old structure of relating. During these transitional relationship times, trust that higher vibration beings would not be coming to you, unless there was a similarity of frequency to attract them. Decide now to welcome new experiences with others, as part of your acceleration experience .