Embrace Your Re-Entry

EMBRACE YOUR RE-ENTRY

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to be afraid.
And what’s more, it’s okay to seek greatness.
That does not make me a black hole seeking attention.
It makes me a supernova.”

— Amanda Gorman*

As we lean into our 2nd year with the COVID pandemic, many of us still experience levels of isolation, fear, and loss. Some question their faith that we can and will somehow emerge in health, hope, and possibilities.

We wonder if we’ll ever again know- the joy of freedom and connection.

The recent buzz words I’ve been hearing are all about re-entry, or to be specific, the anxiety of re-entry. It’s as if the extreme stress and oppression of the pandemic has not been enough for us.

We begin now to move out into the world, to rekindle some of our old associations, and to flirt with familiar haunts and activities. 

Yet who are we as we emerge? Certainly each of us has changed…

Some of us have been sanded down, still feeling a bit rough around the edges, we are diminished in overall stature. Others have found new pieces of themselves and have carefully crafted new realities to step into.

As I make way to re-enter the stream of Life outside of my own domain, I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned because of the pandemic…

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to be afraid.”

• Making it okay for me to feel afraid shifts the habit of self-judgement.

• Giving permission allows me to be compassionate with myself and with other feelings I’ve deemed unacceptable in the past.

• With each conscious acceptance of a piece of me, I grow to appreciate the lightness and freedom that comes from it.

“And what’s more, it’s okay to seek greatness.”

• I can choose to re-enter in solidarity with my internal truth.

• I can give myself that much needed pep talk each time I boldly pounce into unfamiliar territory.

• I can recognize that my Life exists in the here and now and there’s really no one watching!

“That does not make me a black hole seeking attention.”

• I have felt like a black hole before. Feigning invisibility, a hollow shell.

• Desperately seeking approval from others. Hiding in the dark, feeling disconnected.

• Eckhart Tolle reminds me, “The ego creates the separation, and separation creates suffering.”

“It makes me a supernova.”

• A star that bursts forth its brightness in reaction to a catastrophic explosion -that ejects its heavy energy and old identity.

• I deliberately wipe out the weeds of my consciousness, cease negative thinking, and dissolve any harbored resentments.

• When I break free of my entanglements I shine brightly and give freely!

Though darkness and pain continue to plague our worlds underbelly, I trust that a new dawn is on our horizon. I trust in the peaceful light that lays calm in the passing of our raging storm. 

I trust in humankind to remember our connection, to embrace our re-entry, and to bring with us, the very best we have to offer.

PONDER THIS:

How do you bring the best of you to embrace your re-entry?

*** Quote from Amanda Gorman -The Rise and Rise of Amanda Gorman, written by Doreen St. Felix, photographed by Annie Leibovitz April 7, 2021, in VOGUE Magazine.

This re-entry business can be tricky. Holding ourselves in courage and confidence can make this transition less challenging. You don’t have to make your way alone. Let me be your partner to help you realign with your path, power, and purpose!

Click here to schedule your 30 min consultation.

WAIT NOT - WANT NOT

WAIT NOT - WANT NOT

“Maybe, just maybe, all the challenges of 2020/2021 are just birth contractions, opening us into a time where we finally realize
the preciousness of every moment, every being, 
everything and every experience. 
”

— Mary O'Malley

In early sobriety I learned how to live Life one day at a time… For me It was a new practice to focus on the present - to direct my attention, to make decisions and to take action based on what was presented to me - in the moment.

This new perspective allowed me to release the old emotional energy that tied me to my past. It freed me from being a prisoner to the things I could not change.

I learned how to rein in my projections of the future. I turned away from the worry and the powerlessness that comes from focusing on the “what if’s”.

Living a day at a time opened me up to a Life experience rich with courage clarity, and confidence. It gave me access to my inner wisdom and internal guidance. I was aware of my oneness and celebrated my connection to others.

Speed forward some 30 years to witness the power of a global pandemic to wipe out Life practices and scatter my focus into oblivion. 

As one familiar thing after another dissolved from my reality, I found myself struggling to hold on to my way of Life, my way of thinking. 

I started to have holes in my resolve that Life could be trusted.

Perhaps you have had a similar experience?

As the physical connection to those I love unraveled to a thin thread, I felt the sadness that comes from a hollow yearning.

My usual activities stopped beating out the joyful rhythm of my Life. Left in their place I found myself feeling confused and disorientated.

Without my usual benchmarks to ground me, time, motivation, and my sense of well being - seemed to drift into the mundane.

My thoughts and words began to convey a belief in lack. Their focus was on what I miss, what I don’t have, what I can’t have, because of the pandemic. 

I can’t wait until we can travel again.

I wish I could spend unrestricted time with my loved ones.

When will it be safe to enjoy live performances?

Teach in-person workshops?

Celebrate and mourn together in community?

What if my grandson doesn’t know my face?

The pandemic’s weed-like tendrils have been incessant in choking off the sunlight of my spirit!

Mary O’Malley’s metaphor for this pandemic experience being “like birth contractions” certainly resonates with me.

Like giving birth:

• the inevitable change in how Life looks -grows obvious over time. The experience elicits curiosity and fascination, while simultaneously fear and unrest.

• this natural process of change, of creation, moves forward in its’ own way, own time line, and without our control.

• we can experience waves of uncertainty, self-doubt, exhausting effort, and excruciating pain.

• we lose our old identity and personal paradigm to emerge, expand, and eventually, embrace the new gifts of the present.

For me, the most glorious gift received has been indeed, a new birth!

Amid the uncertainty of this pandemic, our daughter and her husband gifted us with a new grandson, born October 2020.

There is nothing like the miracle of Life to snap us into the present.  The past dissolves into nothingness and the future loses its intrigue.
Time floats here….

When I gaze in wonder at this beautiful Life, this blessed creation, the only focus I have is love. My only thoughts are of gratitude and awe. And the only place I choose to be is here, … in this now moment.

PONDER THIS:

What special gifts of the pandemic are you grateful for?

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Navigating thru Life, this pandemic and other real challenges, can throw us off balance, make us forget who we are and lose sight of the power within us. You don’t have to make your way alone. Let me be your partner to help you realign with your path, power, and purpose!
Click here to schedule your 30 min consultation.

Dissolve to Resolve

Dissolve to Resolve

“Your task is not to seek LOVE
but to seek and find all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.
”

— Rumi

In my early twenties while teaching high school in a rural mountain community, I was first introduced to the concept of self-love. The idea that self-love and acceptance could actually heal my body, heart, and Life was pretty far-fetched. 

Still, it was the mid 70’s and the New Thought Movement was just amping up for a wondrous ride. 

Now after surviving the trauma of 2020, I again reflect on how to move forward, how to heal my Life…

Louise Hay believed there were four primary barriers to self-love; criticism, resentment, fear, and guilt. She believed that “our experiences always reflect our inner beliefs.”

This pandemic has shown me ways that I (still) use these and other barriers - to lose sight of the true abundance of love in my Life.

I took a fresh look at these barriers. This is what I discovered. . . 

Criticism - I believe I am less than, flawed, or out of control. I criticize myself or others in an effort to distract me from feeling uncomfortable or taking personal responsibility.

What I’ve learned:

• I make mistakes; I am not a mistake. Making mistakes is human. Everyone makes them. It’s how we learn.

• In my need to be right, I must make someone else wrong.

• When I let go of judging, my resistance dissolves. I begin to experience the sweet relief that comes from acceptance.

Resentment - I believe that someone is responsible for the way I feel. I continue to re-feel a hurt or disappointment. I direct my pain outside myself while suppressing deeper the original wounds of my heart.

What I’ve learned:

• My feelings are my emotional responses to the triggers in my Life. They exist to catch my attention and to offer me a lesson.

• Blaming others for the way I feel is a habitual defense mechanism.

• When I allow myself to feel and process whatever I am feeling, the need to protect myself dissipates.

Fear - I believe someone or something is threatening me. I feel unsafe. Future Events Appear Real. I experience the sensations of what I might feel if whatever I am thinking about actually occurs.

What I’ve learned:

• Anything new and unfamiliar threatens my comfortable complacency.

• Life is lived in the present. The very guidance and connection I crave exist only in today.

• When I let go of projecting, I experience courage, confidence, and stability.

Guilt - I believe that I don’t do enough or give enough. When I recognize how much I have while observing the more challenging road of another, I at times, practice self-condemnation.

What I’ve learned:

• Making myself small is an act of selfishness that serves no-one.

• Losing sight of gratitude is what cultivates an environment for guilt.

• When I release my need for Life to be fair, love rushes in with the gift of acceptance.

In this New Year, I resolve to pay attention and take action to weed out the un-truths of my consciousness. I let go of focusing on anything that I am not. 

When I dissolve the barriers I have built within me, I am free to create, contribute and celebrate- all that I am!

PONDER THIS:

What is one barrier that restricts you from loving and accepting yourself that you could let go of in 2021?

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Photography by Kerry Howard

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Has your heart been calling you to change, to grow? Do you long to be kinder and more loving with yourself yet don’t know how to get there?
You don’t have to make your way alone…

Schedule a 30 minute consultation with me to explore how we could partner on your journey!

Intention is a SuperPower

Intention is a SuperPower

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. 
All things break. And all things can be mended. 
Not with time, as they say, but with intention. 
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. 
The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”

— L.R. Knost

Even a rubber band has its limits! We’ve all been stretched in so many ways this year. Physically. Emotionally. Financially. Spiritually. Our worlds have shattered… individually and collectively,

It seems every structure, organization, system and cultural belief has been infected or crumbled under the weight of the Covid pandemic. We continue to experience loss and uncertainty. Many of us are on the verge of snapping under the pressure.

Recently though, we’ve been given a thread of hope from a vaccine and a promise of an eventual “herd immunity”. It can’t come soon enough.

We have finally been thrown a Life-line to shore up our perseverance. We’ve been given new incentive to continue to let go and to fortify what remains important to us. 

Yet how can we trust and reclaim our faith in a brighter tomorrow?

Anything is possible! Certainly we’ve learned this lesson the past 10 months. Now it is our responsibility to take thoughtful action. We develop trust when we become part of a solution. 

When we consciously choose forward movement, we cultivate our intention! An intention sets our focus in a particular direction. It lays out a path for us and clarifies our next right steps. 

It aligns us with our heart, summons the support of the Universe, and empowers us to courageously embrace change! 

Our intention is a superpower that burns within our spirit spark. We can choose to fan its flames. That commitment frees us to shine our brilliant light, to contribute - unapologetically!

During this pandemic, I dimmed my light to feel safe. I can only imagine you might have experienced something similar. As an intuitive empath I’ve learned to quiet my voice and retreat when I sense hostility and fear. Or maybe it’s just my own doubt… I lost sight of my path, power and purpose.  

Well, no more!

I share with you this message written on wall of Mother Teresa’s home for the children of Calcutta:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

“I am a spiritual being courageously enthusiastically illuminating beauty, joy, and love in the world.”

Ponder This:

What is your intention to bring your light to the world?

 Learning to trust yourself as you forge a new path in this world can feel overwhelming. Gaining clarity and a new focus can empower you to be courageous & confident. Schedule a 30 minute consultation to learn how my Claim Your Freedom Coaching Programs can support you.

TAME THE KRAKEN!

TAME THE KRAKEN!

“Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

In Scandinavian folklore, the kraken is described as a gigantic sea monster. It has multiple spiked tentacles protruding from its head with powerful suckers that line the underside.

It is told that the kraken could appear out of nowhere, attacking and terrorizing everything in its path. Sailors claimed the monsters possess an uncanny ability to deceive and remain rampant -simply by paralyzing its opponents with fear.

In the 2010 movie Clash of the Titan’s, Zeus (Liam Neeson) in his final  effort to cease the fighting between the mortals and the Gods - thunders his command “Release the kraken!”

I remember watching that movie and shuddering at the sound of what felt like armageddon. 

What if COVID-19 is the kraken being unleashed upon us in 2020?

It is deceptively present without being visible, terrorizes all within its reach and lacks any discrimination in choosing its victims. Its powerful tentacles rip through the infrastructure of our lives. It shreds our health, education, economic and social systems. 

The virus incites irrational fear and claims devastating loss. It blurs our trust in everything we know to be familiar. The prolonged threat and trauma strain and distort our connection - the very nucleus of human relationships.

Though both Earth and her people have engaged in horrific battles, the greatest impact has not been from the outer chaos we observe.

The great disconnect comes from its insidious penetration into our individual hearts and psyche…

Yet, there is a ray of Hope - a course of action, a path still illuminated!

That light is within us as our spirit spark, our free-will, and our power of choice.

Rather than fight a battle I cannot win, I seek that space within me that is solid, safe, and free. I reconnect for guidance, direction, and support with my 7 tenets of Life.

Courage - I revive my valiant warrior!

Focus - I consciously direct my attention.

Integrity - I emulate my stance of truth.

Compassion - I cultivate kindness, acceptance, love.

Presence - I create and communicate from this now moment.

Surrender - I empower my freedom by letting go.

Gratitude - I choose to live in a state of rejoicing! 

 When I choose my response, I am empowered to tame the kraken and remain afloat.

PONDER THIS:

How do you exercise your innate power to respond
to the triggers of your world?