The energy of love is so crystal clear. I’m speaking of the compassionate love, the divine love, that pure love that resides within all of us. It is different from possessive or jealous or conditional love. They are both strong emotions and we find them confused often. Perhaps you’ve heard it called “agape” love or just agape. It is love for all humanity, for mankind and its consciousness. And it resonates and emanates from within all of us…if we just get out of its way. It is inside us, all of us. Sometimes it just gets hidden or covered up by hurt and pain, but it’s STILL there….
Clean, calm, clear and vibrant…this energy is life affirming and sustaining. It is like a warm blanket from within and around us from without.
Imagine a world where love was the primary emotion shared among humans, among strangers.
What keeps us from this? Fear, spite, jealously, anger, disappointment, expectation, resentment, etc?
However, there is something you could do TODAY to chip away the barriers. Start today to open yourself up this amazing and healing energy that COULD heal our species, our modern world, our collective consciousness.
*Here’s the small step you can take today: Share your smile! Smile at a child, smile at a stranger, at anyone, at everyone!! Replace fear, anger and separateness with compassion, connectedness and agape love. Just let it flow…you’ll be amazed at how good it feels. Feel for it now in the middle of your body, uncover, unveil, and… let it SHINE….bright, warm and luminescent….and healing.
Are you familiar with the “ask and you will recieive” concept? The Law of Attraction perhaps? Well, it works…it really works! And having been working with it for some years now, I’d like to share a recent revelation.
Not too long ago, I asked for something very specific and it came into my life within 12 hours. This experience was VERY exciting. What it was is not important, but let’s just say that no one had ever offered this to me in my entire life UNTIL 12 hours after I asked the universe for it. Coincidence? NO WAY! When relating this story, a good friend asked: “what were you feeling, when you requested that?” I searched my feelings and thought …well, I was saying “YES” and was filled with curiosity, curiosity about the experience, wondering what it would be like to do this thing, etc. So, he suggested that I continue with that formula. YES (that’s a BIG Yes) + the emotion of curiosity.
Try this:
Think of something you want. Now, let’s practice feeling the difference between “I want XYZ” or “I am curious about XYZ”. Say them both to yourself and plug in your specific desire. You may have to change the sentence structure but as long as the outcome is similar, it will work. Okay, now say each: ”I want XYZ”, stop and feel how it feels. Then say “I am curious about XYZ” and then stop and feel how different it feels. Want vs. Curiosity. Do you feel it? What is the difference you feel? To me curiosity feels like it’s filled with possibility and childlike energy. It is filled with opportunity.
Try it next time you’re practicing deliberate intent!!!
Energy flows in and out of everything. It’s not just something that comes through the electric power lines. It’s in the air, the water, the earth and in US. Everything IS energy AND energy flows through everything. We do create some of our own…but more flows through us than we could ever create. To live the most amazing life and to feel really great: recognize, connect with and allow the flow to move FREELY through you! Everyone’s experience of energy flow is different. Whatever way you come to the experience, it can amaze you. You’ll wonder what you were doing before you learned about letting it flow. Whether you know it or not, whether you intentionally feel it or not, energy IS flowing through you, right now! When energy is free moving, it increases our vitality, our excitement and our movement through life.
Energy in action
Energy flows in (and sometimes out) through the top of your head, down through your body and out through your hands and feet. Generally, the flow is top down but it can flow in and out of our bodies in all directions. It flows in, co-mingles with the things in our body (thoughts, emotions, cells, matter such as food) and then moves out.
Some examples:
Think about an artist or a writer. They get in the “flow”. When they are in the “creative flow”, energy comes in, mingles with their specific set of thoughts, talents, emotions and vision and then comes out through them, into existence as a new creation on paper or in whatever way they express themselves.
When they speak of being “blocked”, it means that something, probably negative thoughts or emotions have temporarily impeded the flow through them.
Another example is an angry person. They have the flow happening, it comes through, mingles with their anger and negative thoughts and then comes out of them often in the form of violence or negative talk. Or what is worse; they don’t release the energy that is now co-mingled with their negativity and they simmer and simmer until something sets them off and they release it. BOOM! Energy must be released. It will come in and it WILL go out.
If you have a lot of negative emotions, thoughts, beliefs inside you, the energy flow will be slowed because negativity feeds on energy. It gets stuck and the product, released externally or kept internally, won’t be pretty. Positivity feeds on energy too…yet the outcome is far friendlier. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We have full dominion over what comes out of us.
Children are another great example- Why do they have so much energy? Because it flows through them easily. They don’t have any worries. They are not weighed down by all their angst, fear and anger. They are free of limitations of the mind or blocks to their energy. And they are amazing creators because they have not had their creativity judged or quashed. They do not criticize themselves yet. They have not learned to compare themselves to others, to think themselves unworthy. They are just in the flow of energy. It moves through them and they say what they think, feel what they feel, create what they like and don’t filter as adults do with a bunch of shoulds and shoudn’ts and harsh self judgments.
Getting a sense of your energy
To begin to get a sense or a feeling of the energy, think of yourself as a conduit, channel, pipe or tube. Close your eyes and imagine it coming down through your head (which it is always doing) and then sense/feel it filtering down through your body, out through your hands and feet. Give the energy a color if you like.
Get still for a moment and just sense it. Concentrate on your hands for a minute and the feeling of it moving out of your hands. Then focus on your feet. Feel the energy moving out through your feet.
Now, see it flowing, never stopping and while you’re feeling/sensing/seeing it, imagine where it might get blocked. Use your intuition and your creativity. You might be surprised by what ideas come to you. Keep track of where you sense/feel/see a block. Common places for blocks are the head, heart and gut. Those are easy: thoughts (head), emotions (in and around the heart), Self-esteem or digesting food (gut).
So if you sense a block in your head, work on the thoughts that you consistently entertain. If you sense a block in your heart, work on your healing your emotions, if you sense it in your gut, work on self esteem, the concept of releasing and eating cleaner healthier foods and drinking lots of water. Energy can easily get blocked or stuck by food that digests slowly or is made of unnatural ingredients.
Becoming a clear conduit
In order to be a clear channel and to consistently raise your vibration which is what happens when energy is moving un-impeded, you’ll want to think about what is IN your body, heart and mind on a consistent basis. Work on clearing and cleansing your body of negative stuff, material and otherwise.
Body:
- A clean and clear conduit had lots of water moving through in addition to energy.
- The food you ingest should be healthy, fresh and natural.
- Getting up and moving your body will also dramatically increase the flow of energy. This is clear to see with children when we tell them to “go run off that energy!” Or the angry or frustrated person who is able to release some of their energy with exercise. Find some version or type of movement or exercise that feels good to you. Haven’t found one? Keep trying. Something will feel good to you. Perhaps it’s dancing or bouncing on a trampoline, swimming or joining an aerobics class. What ever gets you moving, will help increase your energy flow.
Heart:
- Forgive and release old hurts.
- Get clear about what you control and what you don’t.
- Strengthen your self-love.
- Purify your emotional intentions.
- Release yourself and others from ego-control.
- Cultivate a truly compassionate heart.
- Open your heart and learn to express love to people other than your family and friends.
- Work through your fears.
Mind:
- Be vigilant about negative self-talk.
- Fully accept compliments.
- Know that the mind is an amazing tool, when directed, it creates in the direction of your intention, left to its own devices, it keeps going, often returning to old thoughts and patterns.
- Recognize that all un-intended thoughts just rise and fall and you do not have to follow them where they go.
- Learn to meditate.
- Work on seeing/thinking the positive aspects of every situation.
- Be aware of what you are feeding into your mind. It is just like a computer: Junk In, Junk out.
When you shake a new person’s hand…you’ll feel their grip and their skin…but you may also get a pulse of energy, maybe something electric or something exciting. Maybe you get a sense about their personality, their energy: vibrant or dense, happy or depressed, etc. We don’t have to touch another to get a sense of their energy, though. Just being in their presence can give you a very clear picture.
Perhaps you have people in your life that drain you. People who drain others, (often called energy vampires) don’t care to or haven’t learned how to express energy positively. They use their own energy but seem to need more than is supplied to them, so they suck it out of others. They may have something so emotionally negative inside them (that may or may not be expressed) that all their energy is used up to feed the thing inside them… they then come and try and get your energy, often un-intentionally.
What about folks who perk you up? How do they do that? They have found a way to take the energy that flows through them and to give it back out to the world in a positive manner. That’s all. It’s a choice. It all has to do with how they are filtering their energy, what they create with their energy: positive creation or negative creation or even neutral creation.
So which are you? Now that you know how to let energy flow through you more freely, what will you do with your creative energy? It’s all yours to create the life you want. Everything we see around us came into existence through nature or through humanity. You too have that power: to create! Let the energy flow, rid yourself of limiting beliefs and emotions and stand back…the most powerful force in the universe is creative energy and it flows right through YOU. How will you use it?
How much energy do you spend doing things that don’t feel good? What about things that just don’t feel right? How much of your precious life force is being expended fighting against things or pushing yourself to do something?
Give yourself a break! If something sucks the life out of you, it IS SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF YOU!
Do you absolutely HAVE to do this thing? Is there someone else that could do it? What would happen if it didn’t get done now? Or ever? What would happen? Would the world come to an end? Can you ask someone to help? Is there someone else who would be much better suited for this?
It’s okay NOT to do something. It’s okay NOT to like something. And it’s better than okay to honor that voice inside you that keeps saying: “I don’t like this”. When are you going to start to listen to that voice? What will it take? How long will you continue to do things that suck your life force? There is almost always another way of acomplishing what needs to be done.
Identify all the things in your life that drain you or that you really don’t like or that feel off or just not right. Make a list, then start brainstorming about ways to take those items OFF your list of responsibility. It is possible, it will take some creativity, some compromise perhaps, but it’s up to you. This life is yours and you are in charge of your actions, your feelings, your behaviors and your own happiness, no one else, YOU!
So much of my life has been spent moving toward something…moving toward a desired place, a destination…another place, another job, another….something. There I was in constant “seek-mode”. Always running and moving toward…something. I enjoyed where I was for a while…but then I wanted change. Unlike most people, it seemed my brain was programmed for change, instead of loving routine, I thrived on “new”…or at least changing and shifting situations. I didn’t mind living in the same place and having a consistent group of friends…but I did need change in some part of my life.
So, was I running toward something or away from something?
And while contemplating the answer to this question, I realized that I am now tired of searching and running and going, going, going. As I’ve been living this gypsy life for the past 6 years, I’ve given away so much. My attitude while I moved around, here and there was …if it doesn’t fit in my car (a 4-door sedan) then it’s too much! So I’ve given away couches and beds and small appliances. I just released them to others. Happy in the knowledge that if/when I needed those things, they would show up in another form…or the money to buy them would be available. And yes, this has always been true. For all that I have materially purged, I have never regretted. Never. However, I think I am at a point…where I might be ready to STOP giving everything away. Not just the material objects, but the friendships and the roots and everything else that comes with being a part of a community.
It’s an interesting feeling to be shifting again. And I do recognize that I am trading one type of change for another. After all, staying put for a while and making a home will certainly be a change! Each of us has periods of hibernation, nesting, rebirth/renewal, retreat, metamorphosis, emergence and reconnection.
Humans are fascinating creatures! We could do something literally FOR YEARS, happy or asleep in the habit and then one day or over a short period, something just clicks: CHANGE!!! You know what I’m talking about. It’s like we’ve been hit on the head: ”I want change”, ”I’m ready to move on”, ”I want to eat a different kind of sandwich for lunch today”.
As happy as the brain is with us following a pattern or routine, eventually, after a while…it wants some sort of variety. Isn’t that amazing? We are pre-wired, most of us…for growth, for expansion, for change. Perhaps this is what keeps life so interesting! I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner!
I felt drawn to write a little piece on this today. Something that many of us suffer with in this country and culture is a lack of comfort in saying “No”. For many of us…we’ve been taught that it’s rude. As we get older, we may decide that we can’t afford to turn down opportunities that come to us. We may even fear that there is a limit on the opportunities coming or that if we ever say “No”, the opportunities will just slow down or dry up. Is that true? What is propelling us to say “Yes” to so much? Are we saying “Yes” out of trust or out of fear? Are we trying to always please others? Or…are we truly in a place where all these opportunities feed and nourish us?
It’s good to begin to understand where we are in this game of Yes and No. If we are always saying “Yes” and always in the the act of receiving, then more of this will come to us, many opportunities…for us to say “Yes” to. It’s the nature of the world.
The question then becomes; “Do I really want to say yes…to all of these things?” ”What would happen if I only said yes to the things I really wanted?” Hmmm. “How would that feel?” “Would it all dry up?”
When we get clear about what we really want and then start accepting things that come to us…that fall into that category…we start to move toward what we want…more rapidly. Clarity-Observance-Acceptance-Actualization. Yes…something like that. When we say yes to everything…the universe keeps sending us EVERYTHING!
Remember, when you say “NO”, you’re actually saying “Yes” to something else. When we say “NO” to things we don’t want, we are honoring our inner selves, we are nourishing the child within, we are parenting ourselves. It’s okay to say “NO”.
It’s liberating and a little scary sometimes but each of us has full permission to say “No” when we need to, when we want to. Goodness, two-year olds are very good at it. Funny how adults have such a hard time. Think about it.
What are the limits of your life? What are your limitations? Do you like to argue for them? Are you addicted to your excuses? Like to stay stuck? Enjoy the comfort of familiar complaint? What you believe is what you achieve. Don’t forget it!
Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking… it’s true…there are some real limitations in our world. Yes, it is true that if a person jumps off something high without a glider or parachute, they probably won’t fly. True. It is true that if someone wanted to become a different person all together, physically and mentally, it might be a bit difficult. True. But what I’m talking about are the other limits, the self imposed ones.
Many of us, most of us, spend our lives arguing for limitations that just aren’t real. They are only real in our minds. You might have a long list of why you can’t do the thing that you really want. So, what’s the issue? Why are you talking yourself out of so much? Happy to sit in the suffering pot?
Recognize why you argue for your limitations
Here are some possibilities:
1. If you beat yourself up all the time, chances are, on some level you truly believe in your limitations, mostly due to your loud inner critic who LOVES to tell you how bad you are. Constantly abrading yourself for every little thing? Every thought, every deed? Solution: Stop beating yourself up, absolutely stop it. Catch yourself and stop it. Listen for it when you’re talking and especially pay attention to that inner critic who sometimes just whispers. When you start to listen for it and actively work to stop it, you’ll be amazed. Just remind yourself that you are doing the best you can do right now, it’s ok. Forgive yourself, love yourself AND ABSOLUTELY STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP NOW!
2. You like to use your excuses to keep you from failing….or succeeding. Solution: List your excuses and limitations. Put them down on paper and then look at each and ask : Is this true? Is it really true? If not, strike it and never say it again. If you find an excuse or limitation that may have some validity, look for a work-around. There is ALWAYS a work-around. Don’t kid yourself. Work your way down your list until you’ve gotten them all taken care of. If you still feel stuck…you’ve most likely run into fear. See Fear below, #7.
3. You use your limitations and excuses to keep yourself a Victim. Solution: Work with a Therapist, Counselor, Spiritual Coach, etc. or read books about Victim Mentality. It CAN be changed. You do not have to play victim your whole life. It’s up to you.
4. You use your limitations and excuses to get sympathy. Solution: This is akin to sustaining your position as Victim and getting attention. See Victim above.
5. You speak your limitations and excuses in order to get people to tell you the opposite. Solution: Needing others to overcome your objections of yourself comes from your need for approval from others and lack of self approval. Working on Self-love and Self Worth issues and techniques will help. In the end, the only approval you’ll ever really need is your own.
6. You are comfortable where you are and don’t really want to change anything. Solution: Own it! Stop making excuses and just accept that you are good where you are. There is nothing wrong and nothing needs to be fixed. Be yourself, own your stuff and stop telling a story about something you don’t even want.
7. You are NOT comfortable where you are but are afraid to change things. Solution: Your key here is Fear. Remember, Fear is only an emotion. We ALLLLLLLLL have it. Never think you’re alone on this one. It’s a biggie and the main block to most individual progress. Remember, fear is trying (most of the time) to protect us from some perceived threat. It’s good to pick apart your fear in regard to the issue and ask; “What am I really afraid of”? What is the worst that could happen? What would that look like? How would that feel?” Many times, facing the fear and looking at it deeply and asking …ok, “so what?” will take a lot of the energy out. Go all the way down the rabbit hole to the “worst case scenario” and get to the worst of it and see if you can handle that in your mind. Chances are…you can. Fear is most powerful when we don’t really know what we fear, we just know that it feels bad…so we don’t even want to look that way. But the moment you dissect it, it will lose a great deal of it’s power. There are lots of great books on Fear and you can work with a coach or counselor to work through stuff that seems sticky. Remember, it’s smart to ask for help, less smart not to.
So, the main issues we’re dealing with are Fear and unworthiness. Yuck, these are two biggies. Most of us dance with these two fatties a lot!! But in the end, they are simply emotions and emotions can be handled. Emotions are funny things, when we turn to them, acknowledge them, allow them some room to breathe, they calm down a LOT. When we get to their roots…then we identify what we can do about it. It is just like your own private little investigation and you are the one that gets to solve the mystery!!! How exciting!!!!
The first step in empowering yourself is to know and understand yourself. Some great tools to help with seeing yourself objectively are the Myers Briggs indicator -free online test – http://haleonline.com/psychtest/. Just click to the bottom of two pages and find the quick and free test! Then when you find your Myers Briggs four letter indicator, do some research on google! You’ll be amazed! Also, use my Core STTEPs by Hope Tackaberry worksheet to learn more about yourself.
2. Accept thyself
Acceptance includes learning about yourself and accepting what you find. Learning to not only “own” your traits and strengths, but to learn to cherish and love them and LOVE YOURSELF. Also, under “Accept thyself” you’ll find “Forgive thyself”.
3. Nourish thyself
Nourishing ourselves isn’t just about our bodies, it’s also about our minds. Check out a short article on this on our “Power of Thought” page.
4. Grow thyself
Grow thyself by learning what makes you tick, what you want, where you want to go and then by challenging yourself and encouraging yourself (in the ways YOU know best) to move forward.
5. Honor thyself
You are wonderfully made just the way you are. Do you honor and listen to your own wants, needs and thoughts? Do you listen to your body? Are you in touch with the messages your heart and body are sending to you? Honoring yourself is what you do after you have looked at yourself from the inside out and have fully accepted what you find. Then learn to honor your needs and wants. They were given to you for a reason!
If you are curious about awakening or the concept of enlightenment…it means that something has come alive in you.
When I first became curious…it was right after my father died. I was on the computer sending emails or something and the word “enlightenment” just popped in my head. It’s not like I hadn’t heard the word before…of course I had, but before that moment, for some reason…it had no meaning to me..other than the context of “The Age of Enlightenment”. I then googled the term and came across all sorts of information, which led me to certain books, which led me to learn to meditate more, which led me to a whole new depth of life experience. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that my life is now enriched with a deeper understanding of consciousness than I had ever known. I am so grateful. So very very grateful.
You may look at this site and read these pages and think: “I don’t get it”. And my response to you…is that you are potentially at the beginning of “getting it”. The mere fact that you are here reading, tells me that something has gotten you here.
My suggestion to you would be this: If you are curious, start doing your own research. Search words like “awakening”, “enlightenment”, “consciousness”. Look at books on the subject. Everyones’ awakening experience is somewhat different. Ask your inner self, your soul, or your heart what it means. Ask God or the universe what it means. Then be patient, the answer will come to you. Be on the lookout for information. There is an eastern proverb that says: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. Ask, believe, trust and receive. Millions have asked these questions and have been led. You too will be shown what your soul needs to see.
A new day is dawning. People all over the world are awakening to a different and new consciousness. How and why are different for everyone…but it’s happening!
If you have found your way to this page, chances are that you too have come to a “place of asking” in your life. First, you should know that you are not alone. All through history humans have had awakenings. However with advent of television and the Internet, it seems that the curiosity of more and more people is being tickled into awareness. But…for many and most, certainly for those of the far past who had little contact with the ideas of their neighboring locals, the curiosity is not a systematic one that spreads but a yearning that germinates from within. It matters not from whence it came, what matters now is our amazing connection to others going through similar experiences.
Through sites like this, you can explore and learn and connect with the work that is going on now across the world. This work I refer to is the awakening of the human spirit. We do not propose to offer you one direct path, or one ideological belief set. Rather we offer tools for you to tap into your inner self, the place inside you that “knows” and to create your own foundation for what works for you based on how you feel about it or how it feels to you, not necessarily a list of stories handed down from one generation to the next.
There are vast programs and systems for tapping into your inner self, also known as your soul, your higher self, your essential self, etc. It is our hope that we extend to you the hand of possibility, the dream of inspiration, the hope of expansion. If you are uplifted or energized by what you find on this site, then our job is a success. And with that, we’d like to offer a blessing: To the person you are, to the person you are becoming, to the amazing and miraculous being that resides within you, enjoy the ride within, for it is the most wonderful journey you will ever embark upon! Kudos to you and welcome to your Shift!
The energy of love is so crystal clear. I’m speaking of the compassionate love, the divine love, that pure love that resides within all of us. It is different from possessive or jealous or conditional love. They are both strong emotions and we find them confused often. Perhaps you’ve heard it called “agape” love or just agape. It is love for all humanity, for mankind and its consciousness. And it resonates and emanates from within all of us…if we just get out of its way. It is inside us, all of us. Sometimes it just gets hidden or covered up by hurt and pain, but it’s STILL there….
Other places to connect
Created by Philip Norton