Letting Go: A Guide to the Challenging Art of Moving On

Letting Go: A Guide to the Challenging Art of Moving On

by Kate Hanley
life.gaiam.com

Change can be a wonderful thing. Even when it comes in scary packages, such as illness, it can help us appreciate the miracle of our lives. The problem is, when we get scared, we have a tendency to tense up and cling to whatever we can grab onto – whether it's people, habits, food, drink, or what have you. It's a natural, human reaction. It also makes letting go very difficult.

I've noticed that people often try to "get Zen" about a situation, and stay calm no matter what’s happening in their lives. But this is a delusion. Bad news is going to rattle you. Even the most enlightened teachers of Buddhism have bad days. Kanju Khutush Tulka Rinpoche, a highly regarded teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, said it best:

"People commonly feel that because I am considered a living Buddha I must experience only serenity, perpetual happiness, and have no worries. Unfortunately this is not so. As a high lama and incarnation of enlightenment I know better."

The key to letting go is to give yourself permission to truly experience your reaction and feel everything it has to teach you. If you are angry, get mad and yell. If you are sad, watch a tearjerker and cry your little eyes right out of your head. One emotion will likely lead to another, like the old game for kids, Barrel of Monkeys, so don't be surprised if you get taken on a rollercoaster ride. It might take you an afternoon, a week or a year. Allowing your emotions to pass through you will get them to move along much more quickly than if you ignore them or stuff them down. I know it seems like a frightening proposition to allow yourself to feel your darkest emotions, as if you were opening a box that you’d never be able close again. But, as one of my favorite teachers, Max Strom, says, it's more like uncorking a bottle of Champagne. Yes, there will be some spillage in the beginning, but it will pass and the sweet rewards will be able to flow freely. Please ask for help if you need it. I have always been delighted by how open people are when I have gone to them in an obviously emotional state and asked for their support.

If the person who needs to do the letting go is someone besides yourself, the best thing you can do for them is model the behavior and let your example and your energy draw them out of their holding pattern. Let them see you cry so they can also see how much better you feel afterward. Show them how wonderful it feels to try new things by inviting them to do something that they know you are afraid of. And because the body and the mind are so intertwined, here’s a simple breathing exercise to help you flush out any old feelings or ideas that you may be clinging to. I learned a variation of this from Max Strom.

Breathing to let go

Lie on your back with a pillow or rolled up blanket under your knees and your hands on your belly.

* Inhale to a comfortable level.

* With your mouth open, make a loud whisper sound, as if you were trying to fog up a mirror, and exhale all the air out of your lungs. When you think you are done exhaling, gently use your hands to squeeze out any last bit of breath.

* Allow the inhale to occur naturally.

* Continue breathing this way for at least 5 minutes.

We typically only expel about 50% of the air out of our lungs with each exhale. This breath really works to get out the stale air and infuse the body with fresh air. It sounds simple, but it’s no joke! After all, the Latin derivation of “inspire” means “to feel with breath.” You can modify this exercise and use it throughout your day too: Anytime you feel yourself tensing up or getting rigid, concentrate on making your next exhale longer than usual.

SaturnsLady

Stop Arguing Simple Strategies To Stop Arguments And Restore Peace

Stop Arguing

Simple Strategies To Stop Arguments

And Restore Peace

by Lynne Lee
EzineArticles.com



Anger uses up a lot of emotional energy and plays havoc with your body. It simply isn't good for you. Arguments cause bad feeling and can be hard to recover from. While people forgive, they can find it hard to forget. Arguments can seriously damage your relationships.

The wrong words, or even the right words spoken at the wrong time can cause a lot of trouble. The more you persist in saying the wrong things, the bigger the trouble you'll cause.

Sometimes it's simply better to stop talking and say nothing. A good way to stop an argument is to stop providing fuel. You can easily avoid an argument by simply deciding to say no more.

"A gentle answer quiets anger, but harsh words stir it up." Proverbs 15:1

A gentle answer can bring peace in the midst of an argument. Try it, and see for yourself. If you want to avoid arguments, be more careful with your words and think before you open your mouth.

Often, it isn't so much what you say, as how you say it. The wrong tone of voice or facial expression can easily spark anger.
"Fools have short fuses and explode all too quickly; the prudent quietly shrug off insults." Proverbs 12:18

Sometimes it's wise to ignore an insult. When someone hurts your feelings it's easy to lash out and hurt them too, yet it can be much wiser to let it go.

There are times when you do need to confront people. You could try calmly saying, "I don't like it when you speak to me like that, it hurts my feelings. Please don't do it."

Sometimes you simply need to admit that you were wrong. "I'm sorry," is very powerful. When you admit that you were wrong, it brings healing.

Next time you find yourself in the middle of an argument you could try saying, "I think I'm right but I could be wrong." You just might avoid a costly argument and all that you'll lose is a little pride.

"Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights." 2Timothy 2:23

I love the way Joyce Meyer describes this,

"Stay out of conversations were no one knows what they're talking about, and everybody is arguing over nothing ... in many situations nobody really knows what they're talking about but everybody thinks they do. Pride wants desperately to look intelligent."

Is it really worth always being right? Stop arguing. When you continue to argue, you stop listening and that only feeds the other person's anger.

If necessary, simply walk away and give up your right to be right.

SaturnsLady

What Kind of Messenger Are You?

What Kind of Messenger Are You?

A book excerpt from 'The Fifth Agreement" by co-authors don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose Ruiz on clarity and honesty in communication.

This excerpt, from the chapter "The Three Languages," discusses the ways in which we communicate and express ourselves, as well as interpret others:

The messengers of truth

The fifth agreement is the most advanced teaching of the Toltec, because it prepares us to return to what we really are: messengers of truth. We deliver a message every time we speak, and if we don’t deliver the truth, it’s because we aren’t aware of what we really are. Well, the Four Agreements help us to recover awareness of what we are. They help us to become aware of the power of our word. But the real goal is the fifth agreement, because it takes us beyond symbology and makes us responsible for the creation of every word. The fifth agreement helps us to recover the power of belief that we invested in symbols. And when we go beyond symbols, the power that we find is incredible because it’s the power of the artistic creator, the power of life, the real us.

The fifth agreement is for what I call messenger training, or angel training, because it’s for messengers who are aware that they have a message to deliver. Angel is a Greek word meaning “messenger.” Angels really exist, but not the angels of religion with wings. We are all messengers; we are all angels, but we don’t have wings, and we don’t believe in angels with wings. The religious story about angels with wings is just a symbol, and as a symbol, the wings mean that angels can fly.

Angels fly and they deliver information, a message, and the real message is life, or truth. But there are so many messengers in this world who don’t deliver life, who don’t deliver truth. The world is populated by billions of messengers, with or without awareness. It’s obvious that the majority are without awareness. They are programmed to deliver and receive a message, but they don’t know they are messengers. The majority of the humans on earth have no idea that the symbols are their own creation. They have no idea where the power of the symbols comes from, which means that the symbols have complete control over them.

Be skeptical, but learn to listen

What kind of messengers are they? The answer is obvious. You see the consequences in the world. Just look around, and you will find out what kind of messengers they are. When you find that out, the fifth agreement makes even more sense. Be skeptical, but learn to listen. What will make a difference in these messengers? The answer is awareness. That is what messenger training does for us. It helps us to become aware of the kind of message that we are delivering in this world.

The three languages of humans

From the Toltec point of view, there are only three ways to deliver a message, or we can say that there are only three languages in the world of the humans: the language of gossip, the language of the warrior, and the language of truth.

1. The Language of Gossip

The language of gossip is the one that all humans speak. Everybody knows how to gossip. When we speak this language, our message is distorted; we gossip about everything around us, but mainly we gossip about ourselves. If we go to another country where people speak a different language, we find that it doesn’t matter what symbology they use, they speak like us, in the language of gossip, in what I call the big mitote. In the ordinary dream without awareness, the big mitote takes over the human mind and creates all the misunderstandings, all the distortions in the way we interpret the meaning of words.

The language of gossip is the language of the victim; it’s the language of injustice and punishment. It’s the language of hell, because all that gossip is made purely by lies. But humans will always gossip because we are programmed to gossip until something shifts inside of us that is also in the program. This is when we rebel against the gossiping, and the war begins in our head — the war between truth and lies.

2. The Language of the Warrior

The second language is that of the warrior. When we speak this language, sometimes we speak the truth, and sometimes we speak lies, depending on our awareness. Sometimes we believe the lies, which takes us directly to hell, and sometimes we believe the truth, which takes us directly to heaven. But we still believe, which means the symbols still have the power of our belief. As warriors, we jump from one dream to the other dream; sometimes we are in heaven, sometimes we are in hell. As you can imagine, the language of the warrior is a thousand times better than the language of gossip, but again, humans are programmed to shift the language we speak, and to speak one more language.

3. The Language of Truth

The third language is the language of truth, and when we speak this language, we hardly speak. At this point, we know without a doubt that the symbols we use are our creation. We know that we give the meaning to all those symbols to communicate with our own kind, and we use symbols with impeccability, the best we can, to deliver our message, to deliver ourselves, because we are the message. Finally, there are no more lies, and there are no more lies because we have mastered awareness, because we see ourselves as life, as truth.

The language of truth is very exclusive because it’s the language of the dream master, the artist who has mastered the dream. In the world of the master, there is always music, there is always art, there is always beauty. The master artists are always happy. They are at peace, and they enjoy their lives.

These three ways of communicating are what I call the languages of 1-2-3, A-B-C, and Do-Re-Mi. The language of gossip is 1-2-3 because it’s simple to learn, and it’s the language that everybody speaks. The language of the warrior is A-B-C, because the warrior is the one who rebels against the tyranny of the symbols. The language of truth is Do-Re-Mi, because it’s for artists who have music in their heads instead of a big mitote.

The language of Do-Re-Mi is the one that I like to speak. My head is always full of music because music distracts the mind, and when the mind is not in the way, it’s pure intent. I know that all that music in my head is nothing but a dream, but at least I’m not thinking and making a story.
Symbols tell a story

Of course, I can make a story if I want to, and it can be a beautiful story. I can focus my attention on the symbols, and use the symbols that you understand to communicate with you. I can also use the symbols to hear what you say. Usually it is about your own story. You tell me many things that you believe are true, and I know they are not. But when you tell me, I listen, and then I know exactly where you are coming from. I see what perhaps you don’t see. I see the real you, not what you pretend to be. What you pretend to be is so complicated that I don’t even bother to try to understand it. I know it is not you. The real you is your presence, and it’s as beautiful and wonderful as anything on this earth.

When you see a rose, open and beautiful, its very presence makes you feel wonderful. You don’t need to tell yourself how wonderful that rose is; you can see all the beauty and romance of that rose. You smell the rose, and the rose never says a word. You understand the message, but not with words. If you go to a forest, you see birds talking to birds, and trees talking to trees, with another kind of symbology. You can see the inner communication of everything around you, and it’s amazing. There are messengers everywhere in this world, but have you ever thought about it?

Have you ever noticed that since you arrived in this world, you’ve always been delivering a message? Even before you were born, when your mother became aware that she was pregnant, your message was there. Your parents could hardly wait for your arrival, for the moment of your birth. They knew that a miracle was happening, and as soon as you were born, you delivered the message right away with no words. They felt your presence. It was the birth of an angel, and the message was you. You were the message, and you still are the message, but you’ve been distorted by the reflection of the other messengers. It’s not the messengers’ fault, it’s not your fault, and in fact it’s nobody’s fault. The distortion is perfect because only perfection exists, but then you grow up, you become aware, and you can choose to deliver a different message. You can choose to become a better reflection of life by changing the language you speak. You can change the way you deliver a message, the way you communicate with yourself and with other people.

Now a simple question for you. I want you to understand the question, but don’t allow that voice in your head to answer the question. Just allow these words to go directly into your heart, where you can feel the meaning and intent behind the words. This is the question: What kind of messenger are you? This is not a judgment. It’s just a little doubt for your mind, but it’s a big step into awareness. If you understand the question, then just this little doubt can change your whole life.

SaturnsLady

How to Reduce Your Anxiety

How to Reduce Your Anxiety

by Kevin Sinclair
My-Personal-Growth.com

With life seeming to move faster all the time and as more and more people seem to be in more and more of a hurry, there is a great deal to be said for the fact that we need to reduce our anxiety. Anxiety can have effects large and small in our lives and dealing with stress while it is minor rather than letting it grow is a good idea. The truth of the matter is that while everyone gets worried from time to time, anxiety is something that can prevent you from enjoying yourself and from moving forward with the things that you like the most.

In the fight against anxiety, you will find that the best thing that you can do is that you can think about it and figure out what is going on. If you are reading this article, there is a good chance that you can recognize anxiety; you are familiar with symptoms like insomnia, a heightened heart beat, and an inability to relax among others. On the other hand, how familiar are you with what triggered it? Was it being in a certain place, or doing a certain activity? What it talking with someone or was it just thinking about something specific?

There are certainly activities and instances that can make us anxious, and although your first thought might be to eliminate that instance from your life, it might not always be possible. For instance, what if driving over a bridge makes you anxious or talking with your boss makes you feel like your pulse is racing? You can't get away from these instances, and in fact, the only thing that you can control is your reaction to them.

One thing that makes many people anxious is the lack of control. When you know that you are going to be facing a situation where you feel particularly out of control, why not take some time and make sure that you get as much control over it as possible? For instance, say that you are getting very anxious about a phone call that you are going to make. Make a list of everything that has to be said and make sure that you can check off every listing before you hang up. Even doing something like this can be important.

Another thing that many people do not realize is that diet can greatly affect how anxious you are. For instance, stimulants like caffeine and things with a lot of sugar in them can charge up your body and put you in a mode where you can work very quickly, but they can also make you hypersensitive. Some people find that certain foods will trigger them, so make sure that you pay attention to what you are eating and what you can do to make sure that you are going to be getting the right kind of response.

Take some time and really consider what role anxiety plays in your life. If necessary, speak to a counselor or trained mental health professional and make sure that you are getting the advice and treatment that you need.

SaturnsLady

True Forgiveness

True Forgiveness

by Mike Hayden
Lightworker.com

It is rare that one can really forgive and forget. When we feel we are wronged by somebody we may be very good at giving them a second chance. We may feel that we have forgiven them and are ready to let bygones be bygones. However, by the third, fourth, fifth, or 50th infraction, we find ourselves much quicker to react to the situation. Each time, like peeling back the layers of an onion, we have less patience, are feeling more raw, more frustrated, and if we are the type prone to tears; just like the onion’s effect, we shed more tears more easily. Which only serves to teach us, or reminder us, or make us aware, that we really haven't forgotten the first incident, have we? And if we haven't forgotten, does that not mean we haven't really forgiven?

I think it does. Those of us who are on the path of studying Spirit and the way of love and light, or those of us who are following the religious path, can sometimes lull ourselves into thinking that a warm smile and a genteel demeanor means we are practicing forgiveness. Instead what it means is we are practicing Tolerance.

What Do You Tolerate?

Tolerance, as a reaction when confronted by wrong doing, is a great first step. We should honor it and encourage it. It is admirable yet it is not the end game of what the true master seeks. Tolerance does not really address the injustice being perpetrated, it only allows for a more peaceful space, a space that can allow for a deeper level of redress or healing to take place. But without that more expansive, more crucial level occurring, tolerance is left as nothing more than a placating or even a dismissing of the issue.

“I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers”
- Kahlil Gibran

The true master understands that ultimately, the other is the self. This is a rather challenging concept to anchor deeply in our mind, yet alone our heart, which is where it eventually must lodge. Kahil Gibran is referring to the aspect of our experiences that has us learning so much by experiencing contrast; that is, from having others really testing our reactivity to how they are pushing our buttons. Notice Gibran is aware that he is not able to be grateful for these experiences, yet he has clearly learned the lesson of when tolerance and/or keeping your opinions to yourself may be the wise course. He is aware that he is not able to forgive the other person because ultimately, forgiveness and gratitude go hand in hand.

There is indeed the flip side to tolerance: feeling indignant or hurt because you have been wronged, seemingly intentionally, by someone else. And that is what can nudge us to lean toward the “other” direction of being intolerant. So if tolerance is the first step, is justice the second step? Because, after all, should we not make sure we are not wronged again in the future?

Does Justice Prevail?

In courtrooms since Roman times we humans have had the vision of balancing the scales of justice. The implication being that both sides of an argument have some validity, and finding the middle course, as the Zen masters would say, is how one achieves justice.

But justice also carries an energy of corrective action, and corrective action seems to sometimes be at odds with tolerance, as tolerance suggests the “turning of the other cheek”, and corrective action could suggest a more forceful response may be in order. When someone curses at you, you may want to curse right back (as I did this past week), or you could hold your tongue and elect for more tolerant behavior (which I was unable to do). And this is what got me thinking…

Where is that balance between standing up for your own honor and dignity, versus simply behaving just as the other person did, and not learning anything from “the contrasting” experience?

This person in question had done this kind of behavior in the past, and I thought I had forgiven them and moved on. Yet when the spark hit the sulphur once again, my flame of justice ignited, consuming any tolerance and forgiveness with it.

Par for the Course?

Ah. The essence of being human. If you find you are having more experiences like this in the early part of 2011, it is appropriate. The energies that are flooding the earth from our Solar System and beyond are specifically designed to burn up the old earth energies, the denser energies of intolerance, injustice and non-forgiveness. Alchemically, how that happens, is they must reach combustibility first. They must rise in temperature, come to the surface, be exposed to the air and then burn up.

So it might not seem as if we are making any progress, especially if it looks like the “same old behavior and triggers” are being experienced. But this time there is a difference.

For me, the difference was that I am very much aware of the interaction and my own behavior. And that is something that was actually pretty rare, for all of us humans. The old earth energies carry a great component of “unawareness”. It is par for the course for many to just keep repeating the behaviors that are discordant over and over…and feeling that it is quite acceptable to do so.

The New Course

In the newer energies of openness and transparency that are now coming more powerfully into the planet, we are becoming hard pressed to remain lost in our unawareness, asleep in our old belief systems that hold another is different from me, another is not my equal, and I have no responsibility to treat them as I would prefer to be treated myself. A great way to think about these things is taking a page from how our great grandparents may have expected us to treat, say “Mr. Wally” down at the corner grocery store: “Son, when you pick up the pantry items, you make sure you treat him exactly the same way you would treat your father. Be kind and be respectful.”

Somewhere along the way, that ancient wisdom got lost in the mire of judging and categorizing each other. But the reality is, no matter what station one is perceived to be living or working in, the time has come for us all to embrace unity and wholeness. There can be no more artificial positions that dictate that one or another of us holds a “higher” or “loftier” position than the other. Because how we treat another is now more than ever directly and energetically the way we are really treating ourselves.

And A Price Tag Is Attached

If we continue to treat “ourselves” without intending to bring in the utmost in respect, the true course of honoring another human being, our own path will become rapidly more difficult and troublesome. The new earth energies are now primed to immediately mirror back what we put out there. Time and space are shifting rapidly; we are well aware of how fast the days, weeks and months, even years, are going by. But it is not just limited to the passage of the days of the week…if we don’t start “getting it right”, as in, right action, we will find our immediate world, the one we live and work in on a daily basis, will crack and crumble. Literally. We will become less prosperous; less secure, less happy…will find trouble and difficulty at every turn.

The Good News

Is that the “justice” and “honor” we each seek as we interact daily with one another will be directly reflected back to us by how well we take another person’s justice and honoring into account. It is about honoring ourselves as we honor another. By starting with true tolerance, then seeking to be kind and just in our actions and reactions, we can finally venture into true forgiveness.

And can you imagine how THAT will change your world?



SaturnsLady

Expanding Love from the Inside Out

20 Practices to Let Love Flow Through You

Expanding Love from the Inside Out

by Neil Legault
unbelievableyou.com

When you allow Love to flow from the inside out, you are in tune with “what Love would do” and “Love hurts no one”. The flow of Love in every individual is different and is based on negative beliefs about yourself. Working on opening your heart (heart chakra), without the need to shove ideas or to find external sources, allows you to burn-up and settle your past hurts and experiences which block the natural flow.

A byproduct of allowing Love to flow through you is a greater connection with Life, connecting with the law of attraction and most importantly, Self Love.

Here are 20 practices to help you build a greater flow.

1- Resist the desire to react negatively to what’s around you. This is a hard one. Just being aware of it is a huge step.

2- Allow yourself to project a positive outlook about Live and you.

3- Meet people’s negativity by turning it around to neutralize it or shine the positive that is present.

4- Enjoy as many moments as you can where you can do a walking meditation.

5- Slow your pace on all activities and focus on doing with Quality vs. Quantity.

6- Slow your pace to make all your activities a joyful meditation.

7- Show a genuine appreciation of others early on to set a new pace for your interaction.

8- Make someone’s day by doing a spontaneous act of kindness. The more you listen to others the easier it is to identify what it is.

9- Spend time alone and allow yourself just to “feel” Love inside you.

10- Allow Love to swell up in you as much as you can. Let some tears of joy come if you can without forcing it. This opens your heart chakra. You will feel an overwhelming desire to forgive yourself or to connect with others.

11- Be present at all times. This means that you have to listen closely to what IS as much as you can.

12- Help others look at themselves in a positive light.

13- While you are being, listening, enjoying the moment, allow positive thoughts about you to surface without trying. Don’t force them but allow the ones that feel genuine to expand.

14- When you feel a strong flow and connected to Life, allow your past hurts to surface naturally and forgive yourself. Forgiving yourself allows more flow.

15- Forgiving yourself is an acknowledgement that something happened, there was hurt and now you want only to Love.

16- Project Love on purpose. Feel Love for others, animals, flowers, etc. Looking at them and feeling the Love you have for them raises their energy and they feel your Love and acceptance.

17- Allow yourself to feel with others when negative or hurtful things are happening to them. Their hurt is your hurt. When you feel Love for others, you recognize that we are one. A unity of Love to emerges with you at the center.

18- Try to see that there IS only Love being expressed everywhere. See all negativity as a cry for Love. Don’t interpret what is happening. You find it by asking “what would Love do”.

19- Bring a stable, meditative flow of Love and practice the 50 Ways to Connect with Yourself and Life.

20- Work with a friend on these and do it together to increase your awareness of the energy flow. There is more energy when two or more are together. But remember to be and have a genuine experience for yourself. I.e. be true to yourself and your experience of this moment.

A big part of being successful is creating some consistency in your life to allow the expansion of Love to happen and stay. Maintaining an upwards balance between positive expansive thoughts and the burning of old hurtful thoughts is an art that you can easily master if you allow yourself the space to do it. Old hurtful thoughts get burned up and their negative emotional charge gets released. You will still have the memories but they won’t hurt you as much or at all. This collapses the “time” required to heal.

They say that time heals all wounds but it’s really about allowing the flow of Love to happen again. In other words; Self Love.

With all my Love,

Neil

SaturnsLady

The Secret of the Three “Only” Things

The Secret of the Three “Only” Things

by Robert Moss
mossdreams.com

The great secret of fulfilling our heart’s desires and living in joy and abundance is an open secret. It is a power to be claimed as soon as we awaken to its existence and adopt the tools and habits required to bring it through.

The lesser secret involves the law of attraction: whatever we think or feel strongly, the universe says yes. If we carry around feelings of failure or dread, the world will give us lots of reasons to feel those things. If we follow our creative passions and are willing to make a leap of faith, the universe will support us and will bring us resources and opportunities in magical ways.

The greater secret is that to work the law of attraction successfully, we need to be aware of which part of us is doing the willing and choosing, and we need to develop a practice that engages the body and the larger self, not merely the calculating ego.

We have the tools we need. They are at play within us and around us, every day and every night. They are the three “only” things we too often dismiss as “only” a dream, “only” a coincidence, and “only my imagination.” They are incredible guides if we will only give them a little room and respect in our lives.

In dreams, we have access to an impeccable physician, counselor and mentor who does not lie to us but shows us what we need to do to stay well or get well. In dreams, we rehearse for challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us. Dreams are a “secret laboratory” (as quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli observed) where we cook up new ideas and life projects. Dreams put us in touch with our soul partners and our soul’s purpose.

Fundamentally, dreaming is less about sleep than about waking up. In much of waking life we go about like sleepwalkers, propelled by routines and other people’s agendas. In dreams, we wake up to the bigger story. The ancient Egyptians, who knew a lot about dreams, recognized this in their language. In ancient Egyptian, the word for dream is rswt, which means an “awakening”.

To make dreams your friend, reserve five minutes a day to record something from the night in a journal. Better still, use those five minutes to share a dream with a friend – but don’t let the friend tell you what your dream means. Have them practice saying, “If it were my dream” and tell you what the dream means to them.

We say, “it’s only coincidence”. Yet when we start paying attention to coincidence, chance encounters and the play of symbols around us in everyday life, we enter the weave of magic. The stream of coincidence alerts us to the fact that we are not alone, that we have invisible sources of support, and that we may be on the right course even when the whole world seems to be going the other way – or alternatively, that we may need to adjust our goals and behaviors to a deeper agenda. We discover that every setback offers and opportunity, and that mind and matter interweave at every level of reality.

To make coincidence a guide, you again need only five minutes a day. Schedule five minutes of unscheduled time, anywhere you like, and pay close attention – using all of your senses – to everything that enters your field of perception in that brief interval. Be open to getting a message from the world through the flight of a bird, or a vanity license plate, or a snatch of conversation, or a sudden gut feeling you hadn’t acknowledged before.

We say, “it’s only my imagination”, yet we live by images. They turn us off and turn us on. They have the power to make us sick or make us well. Mark Twain said, with devastating accuracy, “You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.”

Part of the great secret is that if we can see and sense our destination, we are better than halfway there. To claim the power of imagination, and the fabulous fun of “making things up,” we want to devote five minutes a day to picturing a place in the where we can indulge ourselves in tasting and touching and feeling the fulfillment of our heart’s desires. Bring in anything you want or need – ocean waves at your front door, a shelf of books you have published, your dream lover, a space of deep healing.

When we make dreams, coincidence and imagination our guides and our daily delight, we become citizens of two worlds. We learn that there is a world beyond the obvious one, and that it is here we will reawaken to who we are and what we are meant to become. Reawakening to that world is like discovering colors after living in black-and-white. That other world is actually the multidimensional universe within which our 3D reality bobs like a rubber duck in a bathtub. Science knows it is there, and may be the secret source of all the events that will manifest in the world of the senses.

SaturnsLady