ThanksGiving and Fear

Why is it that the Thanksgiving Holiday season brings so much pain – especially when it is supposed to be a time for being thankful for what we have? It appears that the energies surrounding this year have intensified even more the challenges that many people are experiencing (especially the Canadian Thanksgiving which is celebrated over 6 weeks prior to the US – hopefully by the end of Nov the outside energies may be less intense). Regardless of the time of year that your culture celebrates ‘Thanksgiving’ the fear during this season is still a theme that requires thought. After all, what is it about these Holidays that creates such anxiety and fear?

Family gatherings are often permeated with difficulties from unhappy memories to outright conflicts. We have expectations that lead to unmet and unhappy outcomes. We expect our Thanksgiving gatherings to be filled with Love, Acceptance, and Happiness despite the fact that our only memories of this occasion are memories of an earlier time – when we were younger and innocent and when we tended to ignore the adults and stressful encounters of our Holiday get-togethers. We were blissfully ignorant. Yet we all play into the victim consciousness and ‘me’ mentality that leaves Thanksgiving and other family Holidays often permeated with strife.

Therein lies the problem. We expect Love, Acceptance, and Happiness but our expectations are unreasonable as these expectations create unnecessary stress as we try to create the ‘perfect’ gathering. We also tend to focus on ‘me’ and how everything we have no control over will impact us personally. In fact we often believe that everything that happens is personal! We stress ourselves as we try to create perfection and when our sought-after perfection doesn’t occur – which is always the case with our ego (our ego always finds fault) – we take it personally. We become stuck in victim consciousness and it impacts how we interpret the success of our Holidays. We almost always expect the worst – yet hope (which seems to also come from fear or misguided presumptions) for the best. We maintain the same family dynamics year after year – dynamics that stem from fear and so we try to control the outcomes. We also continue to see our ‘happiness’ as something that comes from outside ourselves so we try to control the outside factors of our get-togethers.

The thing is we mostly grow through our relationships. So if we are experiencing challenges during a time when we are to BE Grateful the question we need to ask ourselves is: what is my responsibility? What, in my striving for Happiness, is MY responsibility? And the answer is only given in how we respond to each situation. We have no control over what ‘happens’ in our life. We can’t change the past, alter how our relatives relate to one another, predict whether or not the dinner/gathering/gift is ‘perfect’ and whether or not we gain their approval, or whether or not we are being judged. The only thing we are ‘in charge of’ is how we respond to each situation! We have no control over what happens; we are only in charge of our response to the happenings.

Our fears push us to Grow Up. Any emotion that is less than Happy and Loving represents a fear. Sure, it is likely well hidden within our unconscious and we like to stuff our feelings away when they make us uncomfortable, but we have an opportunity to BE more aware and conscious of our feelings and actions. We can only do this, be more aware, if we are in the Present Moment and conscious of how we are BEing in the World. We can BE in charge of how we want to show up in the world. We can and to do that we can choose to go within and choose to BE Happy, Loving and Accepting of all that happens with an Open Heart.

We often believe that we are a product of what is occurring around us; that the emotions and happiness of everyone around us determines how we respond to each given situation. However, if we respond to our situations based on how other people react this only reinforces in us the victim mentality that permeates our society. We don’t have to be victims in as much as we can make a conscious choice to ‘show up’ in our lives. We can choose to BE happy regardless of what is happening around us; that’s us showing up! We have a choice! In fact that is one of the only ways we can truly BE happy. We can choose to be happy – just as we can choose to Love – as that is the only way to BE Love. We can choose to Accept everything about our lives – as that is the only way to have Acceptance. And our choices can only occur while we are conscious in the moment and therefore conscious of our emotions. And being conscious of our emotions we can be conscious of what we choose to experience within our lives.

Let’s understand how Victim Consciousness has saturated our reactions, our emotions, and our actions; and that only we ourselves have the ability to change our perceptions, beliefs, habits, and stories. We can’t do this change if we believe we are a victim so we have to let go of the pain – the fear – of being the victim. And although it sounds simple – and it is – it isn’t easy. However that is the way to Grow Up! It is through our choices that we can intend to BE Love, Happy, and Accepted for who we Truly are! So as we begin this Holiday Season – how do you want to ‘show up’? Unconscious and feeling miserable because Holidays make you feel like you are out of control? Or do you want to be in Charge of how you experience your Holidays? Let go of the need to try and make things perfect. Open up to the unlimited possibilities that exist all around us. Know that you can choose how you feel and when it feels like you have no choice, really examine how you are BEing in your current moment, your ‘right now’. Are you conscious and in the present moment? Are you choosing how you want to BE? Make conscious choices to BE Happy, Loving, and Accepting of yourself … and others! This Holiday Season BE who you want to BE. As Gandhi says BE the Change you wish to see in the World. Happy Thanksgiving!

This entry was posted in Blog and tagged Expectations, Growing Up, Happy Thanksgiving, Intuitive Counseling, intuitive counselor, Intuitive Soul, Laurie Huston, Love-Acceptance-Happiness, Thanksgiving, ThanksGiving and Fear, Victim Consciousness, victim mentality. Bookmark the permalink.

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Fear and Health

As we move towards our Canadian Thanksgiving I contemplate all that I am thankful for: a sustaining and incredibly fulfilling career that I love; a home that is nurturing and holds many wonderful memories; great friends and family; and my beautiful and crazy Angel – my fur baby. I feel overwhelmingly Blessed!! The one area that still eludes me though is my health and well-being.

I have made such great strides over the last few years, especially this past year. Thanks – partially to my Carrot App (which is now discontinued thanks mostly to our Ontario elected Premier) that rewarded me with points towards movies and entertainment – I walked over 100 straight days of walking heading into this New Year. And then I continued my walking again in February – after I ended my streak on my trip to Europe – and have been going straight through – now at 230 days beginning in October. That is over 7.5 months and I’m still increasing my daily steps and feeling much more at ease and have much more energy. The beginning of the year I received a statement that I am walking more than 80% of Canadians? Which honestly shocked me since I definitely still feel like I need to do more to feel better. However I am grateful that my health is improving with each step.

So, YES I am feeling better and know I have more energy than the same time last year – I’m walking more than triple each day what I was doing last year at this time. I’m moving every hour – given that my Fitbit reminds me to move. I’m less achy than I was – my back and hips are not as stressed – although my shoulders and neck still aren’t as fluid as I would like them to be. This shoulder and neck situation can create issues while I sleep but my Fitbit also helps me identify my sleep patterns and quality of sleep I am getting each night. There is even this fascinating sleep quiz to discover your Chronotype (sleep animal) – no surprise to me: I’m a Bear.

Even with all of these improvements I feel I have a long way to go. Or maybe a short way to Freedom through finding my motivation to achieve my dreams. But what is stopping me from the ‘short way’? Is there something that is stopping me?

I certainly find diet to be the most fascinating area that continues to sabotage my efforts at achieving optimal health and well-being. I have discovered these past few years just how important diet is. Even more than exercise when it comes to my health, although, I once I have improved my daily steps I feel much better. I’ve seen firsthand how eating sugar and carbohydrates create an imbalance. And I feel like each day is another day closer for me to understand the great mysteries of the body and health. Yet it is also confusing – we have the high fat Keto diet which scientifically appears sound and then the Bright Line diet that holds similar beliefs around processed foods, sugar and simple carbohydrates – but can be difficult to sustain indefinitely. However each diet program – including the alkaline diet and Whole 30 – has important messages about diet and how the body responds to dieting. Each program shares tips on how important food is to our wellbeing; specifically about whole foods vs processed, sugar being addictive and other messages that are specific to what the authors have learned on their journey about food, emotions and will power.

Now you may wonder why I chose my title as, Fear and Health when I’ve been discussing food and Diet? There is some confusion around diet and its power to heal. Maybe I am sabotaging myself in my journey to optimal health through the eating of food without the right awareness to effect the change I want. And why would I sabotage something that I want so much? Do I actually have some fear around this that makes me want to sabotage myself so that I have something or someone to blame rather than my own successful (or not) approach to dieting? Am I – or could I actually be – fearful of attaining that optimal health?

I will have completed a show with Tom Campbell on this topic – before this newsletter comes out. How does fear relate to our health? We have all seen the devastation of ‘dis-ease’ that stems from stress and fear. We all know how cancer has become an epidemic – especially recently. Too many people who are pioneers in the Spiritual Community have left us too early. Diabetes, heart disease, strokes, pulmonary obstructions and disease, Alzheimer’s and many more – are all linked to our diet and stress. We see it – we know it – and yet we still sabotage ourselves.

Our emotions created from patterns and Ego have debilitated us through Fear. If our fears didn’t have such a detrimental impact on our health we might never have the courage to push ourselves to understand ourselves better. Unfortunately we know that even if we identify the causes of our ‘dis-ease’ we may not heal from the experience. Healing, it is our understanding, would typically occur due to a ‘bigger picture’ we are unable to see.

Yet facing and overcoming our fears still leaves us with a satisfying sense of ‘freedom’ and gives expansion to our awareness of our Consciousness. We continue to create opportunities to Grow Up. And that is the Goal and Purpose of each life.

For me Pain has been a motivation to find answers – Abandonment was more of an emotional pain that was responsible for me beginning this journey. The physical pain of Frozen Shoulders and hormonal imbalance coming from perimenopause and – before that Heavy Metal Poisoning – all contributed to make me look more closely at what was sabotaging my health and these all have continued to push me seek answers. I know that we can have it all! I know that we are meant to Live Life to the Fullest. Addiction, Ego and our mental wellbeing seem to sabotage those efforts – however maybe they are the catalyst of change instead.

Each direction I go allows me to continue the Exceptional Life I am living. It allows me to go deeper, seek more answers and Evolve my Consciousness. To the point now that I look forward to what I can uncover about the mysteries of this world. I hope you can join me in appreciating every aspect of our adventure towards Love. Happy Thanksgiving!

This entry was posted in Blog and tagged diet, Fear and Health, Happy Thanksgiving, Laurie Huston, News for the Heart, News for the Heart Radio, sleep patterns, Tom Campbell. Bookmark the permalink.

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