Stillness: the best medicine

How rare.

Traffic chugs along in streams.  Sirens scream.  Dishes, children, ambitions demand attention. 

Our caffeine and adrenaline saturated blood surges through arterial rivers.  Daily news, daily chores, daily posts.

Behind heavy lids past midnight, minds wander the subconscious but we do not rest.  Our culture is hooked on doing, hooked on “connecting.”

Do we have more or less for all of this?  I say:  less. 

And deep social anxiety is the tragic outcome.

I received an email today from a prominent social change network that (paraphrased) said:  “We were hacked and shut down for several hours.  To be shut down for an entire day would be disastrous!”  Of course, they asked for a donation from conscious supporters to keep this from happening again.

Please, shut it down.  Please, let us all shut down.  Go outside.  Sit.  Dig our feet into the mud and lean hard against the trunk of the oak.  Listen and breathe.

what i learned today

that twenty minutes of contemplative prayer/meditation can completely relieve the perception of pain previously unrelieved by medication

Raising the Energy of Love: Affirmative Practice

                                          Artist Unknown

“Prayer is most effectively sent when each person in the world ‘raises their energy of love’ by imagining a scene where the peoples of the world are living in peace…I have decided to call out to my fellow global citizens.  Let us pray by putting our hands together in the prayer position.  [You must] start praying for yourself, [then] something will definitely change in yourself.  And when more and more of your fellow men [and women] change in the same way, your surroundings will change, society will change, the country will change and the world will change…”

                                             Masaru Emoto 

Try using these affirmations as a way of "raising your energy of [Self] love."  At first, these may seem simplistic statements, redundant even.  But if you allow yourself to simply focus the mind in this way, paying attention only to these words, taking a deep breath between each line or phrase, focusing on the breath and bringing the mind back when it wanders to focus only on these words and the breath, you will notice a shift in your vibrational frequency for the better.  This is subtle work, but its effect is powerful.  

If possible, find a quiet space.  Perhaps you will light a candle to signify sacred time.  No worries if you have only five minutes.  Practice affirmations for five minutes then.  Try repeating the affirmations several times daily as a practice for training the mind.  Then, when apparent crisis seems present, you will be able to summon the affirmations as a way of calming and centering. 

If you find that you do not believe what you are saying (reading) in the affirmations, simply tell the mind, "I notice that my mind does not yet believe these statements.  Nevertheless, I state them now as Truth, denying the power of any disbelief."   

I am breathing now

I am breath

I am the breathing

I am forgiving now

I am forgiven now

I am the forgiving

I am whole now

I am the wholeness

I am the whole

I am healing now

I am the healing

I am the healer

I am opening now

I am open now

I am the opening

I am aligning now

I am aligned now

I am the alignment

I am present now

I am the present

I am the Presence

I am flowing now

I am the flow

I am the flowing

I rock

I am rocked

I am the rocking

I root

I am rooted

I am the rooting

I reach

I am reached

I am the reaching

I touch, I am touched, I am the touching

I stretch, I am stretched, I am the stretching

I lengthen, I am lengthened, I am the lengthening

In wholeness All is Unified, Here is now, Now is here, All is Now.

 

A few days ago, a neighbor and bodywork client came to see me with a debilitating headache. We worked together for more than an hour in my newly discovered at-home sanctuary.

When a client presents with an acute condition, I have a strong (ego) desire to "fix it." I have to actively practice asking the ego to step out of the way, prayerfully invite Spirit Guides and Healing Helpers to bring the client the healing that serves their highest good and let go of the results. 

Because I do this, I am repeatedly delighted and so are my clients when their symptoms dissipate or disappear entirely. By this kind of surrender, I am humbled and convinced, time after time, that it is Spirit doing the work through my hands and not me. It is crucial that I do not take credit for the results so that I, in turn, do not have to accept blame when symptoms do not abate. It is crucial, as well, that I know for the client, for myself, for humanity, and for the planet that even though I may not see healing with the body's eyes, healing that serves the highest good of all concerned always happens. Who am I to judge because I cannot see?

My practice remains, however, to deny the power of all manner of unhappiness, disease, dysfunction, distress, or negative energy of any kind as those are thought forms made manifest in the body and in one's life circumstances in cases of mistaken identity. If I identify myself with negative manifestations of any kind, even though they seem real because I can sense them in my body (or in my client's body) or because I can see them or touch them, witness them with my senses, then I am mistaken about my True Identity. When I am mistaken about my identity, I experience disconnection, dis-empowerment, chaos, disease, and unhappiness and, even more importantly, I proliferate that mistake into the consciousness of the race mind.

Whereas, when I remember the Essence of my True Self (in spite of appearances): I am a Light Being, a swirling vortex of pure positive, full-spectrum Light Source Energy, connected to the core earth energies and to the Pure Light Source Energies, perfectly aligned, balanced, open, operating in perfect order and harmony, full of Love, loving, and lovable, healed and whole, and claim that which is the Great Reality as mine instead, then All That Lives Within me moves to manifest within and without that to which I am now identified. And, most importantly, by correctly identifying myself with the Divine Whole and therefore with all of its characteristics (read The Seven Main Aspects of God by Emmet Fox), I am not only healing (a recognition and realization of the Whole) myself, but healing the race consciousness and the planet as well.l

This time, my client's symptoms did dissipate by the end of our hour long session, and the next afternoon, she visited me bringing fresh strawberries and blackberries.  

"I brought these as a celebration of joy.   My headache is gone!" she said, giving me the most wonderful gratuity.  For the next two mornings, I enjoyed a healthful "berry-licious" smoothie made with her gift, Almond Ice (sweetened with agave nectar so it's processed, white-sugar-free), rice milk (so it's dairy free), and a scoop of rice protein (contains 12 grams of protein).  


It was so beautiful (hint:  Beauty is one of the main aspects of God) and so delicious that I set it in the garden and took a photo to share with you, extending the celebration of joy (hint: Joy is the highest expression of the Divine) and hoping that you will make and enjoy a smoothie of your own in honor of healing, beauty, and joy. 

Self-Ordained

                                                     

 

Several years ago, having discerned that following a traditional path to ordination as a Christian minister wasn't my path, I began to visualize a sanctuary space I wanted to create. I thought it would be a retail space where I would teach art classes, do energetic balancing, hold circle dances and sacred interfaith rituals, and create community while earning a living.

I busied myself finding a space and signing a lease for it (all with the avid resistance of Mr. Friendly, my spouse, who rarely supports new ventures of mine if they involve spending money). At that point, I did not have the state license I needed to do hands-on work with people. One way to satisfy that need was to apply online for ordination through the Universal Life Church, as ministers can do "laying on of hands." Reluctantly, I did this, but told no one, a part of me still desiring the approval of some organized, recognized entity like "the church" to sanctify my calling.

The lease for the space didn't work out, so I revisited my plan, thinking that road-blocks are Universal Guides to which I should pay attention (interestingly, I hadn't considered Mr. Friendly's resistance a road-block-this is a hint).

I have experienced, that when I am in Universal Flow, the way is clear and unobstructed.

So, I entered and graduated from massage school. This gave me the license I needed to do hands-on bodywork with people. As I prepared to take the state examination for my license, I began, again, to look for spaces near my home in which to establish the sanctuary I had been visualizing. For days, I'd driven round in circles, visited with business owners and landlords, and felt an uneasiness growing in my gut. I had no clientele and I had only a small financial seed, so signing a lease would have been risky at best. But I could SEE the space. I knew what I wanted.

After a few days of searching, out of the blue, I received a phone call from a dear friend. "By any chance, are you looking for a space?" she asked. I almost dropped the phone. She'd been called to a visioning ministry for a mission nearby and they were looking to share space with like-minded individuals. All I had to do was go get the key and agree to donate for the space as I could. Wow.

My practice grew, but slowly. The mission grew very little. Now they are relinquishing the space, and last week, I moved out of that space. I've been wondering how I will attract clients now. Wondering what this means?

I've decided that it just means not there. Not now. It means I have to trust the process again. It means there is more happening than I can see. I began to visualize people handing me one-hundred dollar bills as a practice of manifesting Abundant Supply, visualizing what I want to come into my experience, as I do need income.

Ask and you will receive (even if you don't know how).

So I cleared out my studio space at home and brought my practice home. Mr. Friendly and I are learning to share space in a more profound way than we have in thirty years.

A few days ago, another therapist I'd met two years ago who remembered me, called. I hadn't spoken to her since we met. She is moving out of state and needs a therapist to whom she can recommend her small clientele and wondered if I'd be interested.

Wow!

She came to my studio yesterday to experience my work. She felt well as she left and I think she'll refer to me. Who knows what will happen? Choosing a therapist is a very personal thing. And what about the sanctuary I've been visualizing?

One of the things that passed through my hands during the process of packing, unpacking, relinquishing, and clearing over the passed few weeks is a poem my mother wrote to me when I first opened Moon Shadow Sanctuary in the space I just lost. I thought then that the piece was about that place.

Now, the poem sits on the altar here in my very own studio, a place I've had all along. But now I read the poem much differently. Now I do not read it to be about a place I had to find. It is not about place at all. Instead, I read it to be about living in the sanctuary of Spirit, the sanctuary of knowing that the Universe brings me all that I need in perfect timing. The sanctuary of knowing that the Universe answers the "prayers of my heart" and that even when I don't understand what I'm asking for, or know the healing I need, Omniscience does know and Spirit heals. The sanctuary of knowing that I am co-creating my world (be careful what you think) and that what I visualize, does materialize, always shape-shifted by Spirit to serve the Highest Good.

Here am I
Just as I was dreamed
So lovely
A quiet place
A place to be still and know
A place to Be
The Real Me of You.

Only You are needed
To call forth my Spirit
From my window
To inherit the
Shade of my Tree.

In silence
Come unto me

Beth Ellis Grimes, '07