Change & New Beginnings: Love or Fear

As we come to the end of the “Winter that wasn’t”… and approach spring, it always makes me think of New Beginnings and Changes. We all seem to want them and are inspired to imagine creating them; however, if we are on the road to authenticity and desire to come from a place of the Heart and love versus a place of the Head (ego/mind), are these desires for new beginnings and/or change, coming from a place of love or fear?

For the past couple of years, I have been inviting you to come from a more authentic place. One of the Heart and Love, versus coming from our heads, where fear is prevalent. Being more authentic suggests not reacting out of fear, but questioning why you are making these decisions. It suggests that we become conscious of who we really are? Instead of just making decisions to please others or from a place that our childhood self perceived was “safe”.

Approach change in the same authentic, heart centered way. We often want changes in our career, relationships, health or finances, and sometimes all of these areas. What is your reason for wanting a new beginning or change in your life? People often want a new job, because they don’t like the one they have. Yet when we explore why they don’t like it, it often has to do with conflicts at work. Conflicts in relationships. Their boss is giving them a hard time, there is petty gossip that they are the subject of, or someone has betrayed them. This is the same in relationships, health etc.

What I have learned over and over again is that Love is about giving, not getting. It is about how much we can give love, not controlling our circumstances. Fear seems to be about what I can “get”. The Secret has taught us that we can create anything we desire, but I have found that essentially we are trying to control our creations and desiring out of fear instead of a place of love.

If we are here to expand our awareness and grow spiritually towards love, then we need to learn to respond from our hearts, not our ego/minds. To truly desire change from a place of love, we have to give love. We have to come from a place of unconditional giving. Change from love would come from being in service to others, and having no expectations of what we would “get” as a result of our giving.

Why do you want change or a new beginning in your life? How could you approach this from a place of love versus fear?

See more at: http://www.intuitivesoul.com/change-new-beginnings-love-or-fear

Deepening Commitment with Self

I’m a firm believer in leading by example; I try and take 100% responsibility for everything I see happening around me.

But I’ve noticed lately I’m giving the same advice over and over again about people sabotaging themselves and I know I’m as guilty of sabotaging myself as those that I’m guiding. Why do we sabotage ourselves by refusing to foster a deeper commitment to Self? We all want to have a strong commitment and love with another Being and we all want to foster a connection with something greater, call it Higher Self, Soul or God/Goddess. Why isn’t the connection we foster, first and foremost with our Self?

One of the ways we sabotage ourselves is by continuing to put others’ needs ahead of our own, as if they were more important. This keeps our energy stuck in different areas of our lives, and then patterns become established and we become afraid to change them. We seem to be afraid to change aspects of ourselves (limiting beliefs like we are afraid of our own power) because we fear change; that somehow what has occurred in the past (conscious or unconscious) may repeat itself (we may abuse our power in some way). We don’t do what we need; instead, we give away our power and energies to others, helping them and not ourselves. Why are others somehow more important? What prevents us from treating our selves like we are equally as important as our family, friends and responsibilities? Why can’t we foster this deeper commitment to self as we do others?

What if we all learned to love and accept ourselves for who we are? What if we treated ourselves like we treat our best friends? What if we made a deeper commitment to ourselves? How can we be gentler to ourselves? What would that look like?

I believe it all comes down to “choices”. Sometimes small choices impact our life dramatically. From how we feel while making the choice, to the decision we make. Everything is a choice! Do you stay the same out of fear (sabotage) or deepen your commitment to self through love? Sometimes these are the only choices we need to consider.

I want to offer a support group for those who have goals that just aren’t realizing, in an online community and through meditations. It can be any goal from weight loss to getting that new project going. Let’s find a way to move through the self-sabotaging towards creating a deeper commitment with Self. Contact me at Laurie@IntuitiveSoul.com.

-See more at: http://www.intuitivesoul.com/deepening-commitment-with-self

Participation or Victim

Lately, due to some work I’ve been doing, I discovered something profound. It is highlighted in the Movie “The Lorax” and I’m beginning to grasp its significance in all our lives.

We feel the need to be victims, consciously and unconsciously. Because the alternative is Being responsible for not only our own lives, but that of our planet’s as well.

Through the centuries, to “participate” in life was a double edged sword. We were damned if we did anything, and damned if we didn’t’. An example of this would be during the crusades. To watch and not do anything or to not say anything, made us almost as guilty as those doing the killings, and certainly left us with the guilt and shame as burdens to carry. Yet, to stand up against the crusaders, whether to say “no” or to continue practicing religious beliefs other than Christianity, meant certain death.Many spiritual teachers (including myself) have reinforced that the only work we have to do is our own. But at what cost? Are we taking full responsibility and participating in life, while we sit by and allow our earth to be raped of all its beauty? We say it doesn’t affect us when the rainforest is being demolished halfway around the world. We don’t see it. We don’t believe we can make a difference, so we work on “us” and know (or is it hope) that real change begins within.

I believe that when we fight against something, or resist it, it will persist (ie when we give something negative energy and hold that energy, it keeps it stuck). So, is fighting against our raping and polluting the earth, is that the same as participating? Or by holding a love vibration is it enough to stop the destruction? Or am I just fooling myself and still afraid to participate because taking responsibility is too horrible to consider? Because what can just one person do? Do I just accept that I’m a victim?

I believe I am responsible for “my” world, but doesn’t that mean “our” world too? And how do we “participate”? Conscious Choices and Conscious Actions where our message is one of Love and Compassion and “service” as we do our part to take care of Self and Planet. To not “hate” when we see those in “victim” mode who continue to have disregard for our waters and land. To lovingly devote our hearts in service to pick up litter, to replant trees and foliage that has been destructed. To send Love and Wellness to the planet. Being like the Lorax, not fighting, but loving and “planting the seeds” of love and compassion to all.

See more at: http://www.intuitivesoul.com/participation-or-victim

Pain a Divine Purpose

I’ve come to have a new appreciation of pain in the past few months. Chronic Pain is debilitating, but I never understood how it can infiltrate every area of your life. Physical pain impacts your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. When we are stuck in our emotional pain/trauma it can impact every area as well.

Which makes me contemplate pain in a deeper way, and why we never seem to heal our deepest wounds. I’ve been dealing with abandonment on every level my entire adult life. Each layer going deeper and deeper. Like pain, I wonder if instead of trying to “fix” it, are we just supposed to love and accept it? Take responsibility for it and then surrender it to our inner Divine?

I certainly know I didn’t “attract” this pain (I believe, like many other spiritual truths, we have misunderstood the Law of Attraction. We attract from our “resonance” to people and events, but the Law of Attraction is only one law in this Universe), and in the midst of my suffering, I do feel powerless, separate and victimized (aka abandoned), which only adds to my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual dis”ease”. However, I can see that I am responsible for everything and everyone in my life that creates the stress that makes me feel abandoned, powerless and stuck in my painful story.

So I wonder if not everything and everyone in our life is our Divine Purpose. Here to gently guide and honor our journey; to love and accept us for exactly who we are. Not to change or fix, but to let us see what our choices are, so, we may make new choices from a different perspective. To remind us that life surrounds us with opportunities to surrender our ego/mind attempts to control our life and invites our higher Inner Divine to support and nurture us from that higher perspective that we will never be able to see from this three dimensional perspective.

I believe everything is our Divine Purpose, especially our pain. We are not here to “do” things differently, we are here to BE! The only thing we need to become aware of is our perspectives, based from our unconscious and conscious beliefs. We need to respond instead of react. To surrender our ego’s desire to be “right” and justified, and move into a place of love and acceptance to all. May we see our pain, in whatever form in materializes, as an opportunity to create a deeper connection to our Inner Divine Wisdom. To love and accept our pain as the message of possibilities that exist to bring us back to Self and balanced in mind, body and spirit.

See more at: http://www.intuitivesoul.com/pain-a-divine-purpose

What are your Perceptions?

This month, I have been reviewing my perceptions and the perceptions of those around me. By perceptions I mean our thoughts about what others or ourselves are believing about what is happening in the world around us. I have noticed that I have been slipping into perceiving incorrectly and I have been bringing it up for discussion. I discussed this first with Jean Adrienne and later Eric Altman and I delved into it.

We tend to get very confused around the two, often separated, views in our world: on the one side we have the views of our ‘human aspect’ or ‘human nature’: the views of the inner child who strives to be right or the ego that creates disharmony in our lives and on the other side we have the views of the more enlightened and evolved ‘higher aspect’ or ‘higher nature’ of ourselves which we call our intuition, our higher self, our soul, or our BEing. The human nature, often referred to as the lower nature, doesn’t necessarily view things the same as our higher nature.

The thing that Eric and I discussed at length on my show was that we aren’t two different pieces, higher and lower nature, we are one. What we see as conflicting are aspects of our one nature and each of these aspects is truly just as important as the other. We are human beings that are having a spiritual experience, but we are also having a human experience. We’re not here to choose sides – we are here to find a way to bring them together and make them whole!

People who try to convince us that for us to BE evolved in this world we must transcend the ego are delusional. It is like trying to pretend that we have a million dollars when we can’t pay the rent. It is denying the aspect of ourselves that is here experiencing this world, the emotional richness of this world. The other aspect that is our BEing, our higher nature, is most helpful when we give this part of ourselves the opportunity to participate in a grounded and centered ‘vehicle’, our bodies. To think that we can just fly off to some higher nature world without being grounded and centered is equally delusional. The higher nature and the lower nature are both an essential aspect of our oneness – and every bit as important.

When it comes to perceptions, this is the human aspect of us that comes to light. It is that part of us that feels like we must defend ourselves, prove that we are right, or hide our vulnerabilities by reacting as if we are invulnerable. Whenever we are reacting, we have slipped (or separated) into our humanness and it is best to recognize this. We are human; we need not try to pretend we are anything but. However, to let this human aspect rule our lives is the opposite of what we are desiring – if we want to grow into love. [Laurie, do we want to ‘grow into love’ or ‘grow in love’? There MAY be a distinction here … and … unless EVERY blog refers to love in this way, you may want to introduce the concept of ‘love’ earlier in the article … to set the stage for this … to show that ‘love’ is the goal, the purpose, of all life and living – or whatever the heck love is all about (where’s Tina Turner at a time like this when we are asking “What’s Love All About?”. BTW: by introducing ‘love’ here … you may want to consider adding it to the latter part of this article.]

When we aren’t recognizing our perceptions then we blame others for how we are feeling. We make our dis-ease into the person opposite us, our job, our employers, our friends and/or our family. We hope that instead of taking responsibility for our discomfort we can displace it onto someone or something else. We are afraid of seeing our own vulnerabilities, our own pain and fears. We have this belief that life is too much of a struggle and to actually touch these waters is to drown in our pain.

Earlier this month in a support group call Eric discussed the idea that “if you aren’t getting what you want then you don’t love yourself”. Therein lies our biggest problem: our lack of self-esteem, confidence, and self-love are what create our perceptions about life to go askew. We react from a place of low self-esteem or it may show up as the opposite, arrogance… yet either way it comes from a place of judging self or others. It comes from fear instead of love.

Think of an example where you are blaming someone else for your discomfort. This could be with a lover, and ex-lover, a work colleague, friend, or family member where something has occurred that you have perceived that you were betrayed, hurt, angry about, or where something has “happened” to you. Everything you are feeling in this situation is perception. You have taken something that happened and made it personal and made it about you. Therefore you have placed the blame on someone else for this occurrence, for your feeling this way. You may feel this has made you depressed or contributed to your already low self-esteem. However, no matter what, it is your perception of what has “happened” to you that has created an inner story and likely a story that you have been playing since you were a child.

When a story keeps playing in your life, you know the pattern is there to assist you to evolve towards love. However, what I am inviting you to become conscious about is that what you believed happened is not the motivation of the other people but rather you replaying your story: that in fact, the other person or people involved have their own story replaying in their ego and these people are as caught up as you are; that these people also just want to feel loved; and these people are also reacting to their own story, not trying to play into yours. And that if these people were conscious, they would be able to explain why they did what they did and that it had nothing to do with you.

What I invite you to ponder is what your underlying fear is? What moves you to react? What emotion are you trying to defer, distract or escape from that is the real problem? And if you could realize that by projecting it onto someone else you are not accepting your human side and that diving into this emotion would quickly disperse the fears, the emotions, and, in fact, even the perceptions – once the answers to these questions are identified.

It is never as unpleasant as we believe. It would empower you to see what is real and true. This is just adding to your story and you can discover that all the others that you are blaming, are as innocent as you are … or as human!

See more at http://www.intuitivesoul.com/what-are-your-perceptions