Archive | Tips & Tools RSS feed for this section

20 September 2013 4 Comments

LGS #88, Developing Discernment and Guidance Skills, Part 2: How Can I Tell an Emotional Issue from a Physical One?

LGS #88, Developing Discernment and Guidance Skills, Part 2: How Can I Tell an Emotional Issue from a Physical One?

How can I tell an emotional issue from a physical one?

Let us consider protocols for making this discernment. We will look in the next post at using internal sensing. Internal sensing can work well when working on yourself. Protocols work well with clients, but I also use them when I work on myself. Using protocols on oneself increases objectivity and helps to maintain focus.

Protocols important are like learning the scales for a musician. Once we have them internalized they retreat into the background. We can improvise well without them. Our skills are less extensive and flexible without learning them first. It is important not to be limited to protocols alone. Healing is an art. Ideally, we use more-objective indicators and subjective sensing together, working from both sides of the brain.

The protocols I use to see if emotion is primary/first priority come from several types of practitioner training. These systems rely on muscle testing, which I do using my hand muscles. There are several ways to do this. I describe the easiest one below.

P1030196Accuracy with self-testing and with non-orthopedic muscle testing takes dedication. Entire trainings are dedicated to achieving consistent results. These trainings focus primarily on physiological and energetic issues that can compromise results, such as dehydration, toxicity, or upper neck misalignment. They touch on emotional interference–on how to get around it during testing to get clear results.

Learning to get accurate results when emotional issues are present is challenging. I attended several extensive trainings to address uprooting emotional sabotage. This work addresses unconscious interference with testing and also with health, success, intimacy, etc. Addressing unconscious emotional resistance to positive goals is, in my opinion, an essential skill for working successfully with tricky cases.

With respect to our own emotions, we are all tricky cases. šŸ™‚

Muscle testing without extensive work with sabotage may be inaccurate. Muscle strength is easily altered by emotion. One must be able to recognize and address interference from resistance to seeing aspects of oneself.

Donā€™t let the above discourage you! Learn to recognize exactly what it feels like when your testing is not clear. Then lean in and work to get underneath your resistance and face down any related issues.

When you get information that is inconsistent, doesnā€™t feel right, feels biased, or if you get suddenly vague, tired or tense these are major clues that an emotional issue is present. Watch your breathing pattern, jaw, shoulder, and stomach tension for more clues.

Protocols:
Some systems of healing use two points, one right above each eyebrow, or lay a hand across the whole forehead. If a strong muscle goes weak or a weak muscle changes to strong, these points indicate that emotion is primary at the moment.

ā€œCross-checkingā€ to find out whether a physical area of discomfort, such as a sore muscle or organ, is being impacted by emotion:
Place one hand over the distressed area and test a muscle. Place the other hand over the forehead points and see if the muscle you are using to test goes from strong to weak or weak to strong.

You have a few seconds to test while the nervous system retains information from touching the two areas, so you can let go and then test if youā€™re working on yourself.

You may be able to feel your energy change when you touch an indicator area. If you are highly sensitive you might attend to this change instead of using muscle testing, but it works better to use them together.

Hand Mudra Test with O-Ring Testing:
Touch your (or a clientā€™s) ring finger to the thumb on the same hand and pull them apart gently to see whether this circuit–the energy holding the two together–remains strong.
(Make an O with your Left hand and see if the circuit is strong by putting your Right middle finger inside the O and seeing if it pulls through the junction where the thumb and ring finger connect, or if that junction remains strong.)

If this circuit is weak, emotional involvement (or endocrine issues) is a body priority at the moment. When emotion is primary the forehead points will also be weak. (If not, the issue is likely to be endocrine.)

Acupressure Meridian End Points:
Depending on the system used, the points used for emotions are mostly on the fingers and the face. Each point is related to specific emotions associated with each organ. These points are very helpful for pinning down the exact emotion.

A number of different systems such as AK (Applied Kinesiology) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) tap acupressure points to clear emotion. Their maps vary. You would need a map of the points and a list of the Chinese organ-emotion relationships. Points that test weak or sore points can be used to determine which emotion is active. Lists that include less-common emotions for each organ, in addition to those considered primary, are far superior. I like this method of discovering exactly which emotions are active.

Self-discovery is highly rewarding, and these tools are useful.

How do YOU feel about learning a protocol to increase your discernment between body symptoms and emotion?

How would greater access to what is going on inside impact your life?

16 September 2013 6 Comments

LGS #87, Developing Discernment and Guidance Skills, Part 1

LGS #87, Developing Discernment and Guidance Skills, Part 1

Refining the asset we call discernment is a highly rewarding lifelong process. If we remain loyal to it, this quest gradually brings about not only a valuable skill set but a lasting condition of deep personal integration.

The journey of developing discernment also helps to evolve:

  • Personal clarity
  • Accurate assessment of situations and conditions
  • Excellent decision-making skills which may be reflected in business
  • Self-trust and confidence
  • Improved relations with others
  • (Un)common sense
  • Sound health choices
  • Wisdom

In response to a readerā€™s recent inquiry, the next few posts will wade into the following questions:

  • How can I tell an emotional issue from a physical one?
  • How can I identify what is mine from what is not?
  • How do I know when I need to ride out something versus when I need to address it?
  • What is the best way to develop Guidance skills?
  • When is it a good idea to ask for assistance?

Rediscovering these important topics will reinforce previous material in a fresh context. I will also offer new points for your consideration.

Before moving into the first question, How can I tell an emotional issue from a physical one? I would like to comment:P1030188

The division between body and emotion is largely a matter of concepts and language. Emotion IS physical. Emotional reaction quickly becomes chemical, postural, muscular, and glandular. Emotions also congest energy in related areas, which in turn impacts blood flow and lymph. The same factors and others, such as toxicity, also can drive our emotions.

While we cannot separate physical from emotional, the distinction between them still remains useful. The way we intervene with an issue and the actions we take to resolve it often depend on whether physical processes, emotion, or both together are stimulating the related symptoms.

Some of us tend to physicalize emotion. If we have a hard time accepting and allowing feeling, or trusting that our feelings are valid, physical symptoms are more likely to be an expression of emotion. Others types of people are more likely to become emotional about physical issues. If we hate to feel weak or sick, judge having symptoms, or have had emotionally painful experiences with injuries or surgeries we may add emotion on top of our physical symptoms.

The sequence of events and related development of symptoms can provide clues. What started first? The emotion or the physical symptom? Sometimes they happen at the same time. Sometimes symptoms come entirely from energy-events.

How you might discern between emotional and physical causes depends on your existing skill set and your degree of motivation. In the next post I will answer the question by mentioning several useful clinical protocols. Then I will revisit the question from a SENSING or more intuitive standpoint. These two approaches, by protocol or by sensing, are complimentary.

Using a protocol makes the often-tricky discernment between physical and emotional much easier–after you develop a groove by practicing. As this discernment becomes routine it becomes easier to maintain the objectivity that supports clear perception.

In mastering this particular discernment it may work best to start with the approach that is easier for you. As you build confidence you can begin to layer in the other approach to flesh out your skills.

Are YOU less uncomfortable about body symptoms or emotional issues?

What were the subtle or overt messages about this in your family of origin?

3 November 2012 2 Comments

Increasing Internal Stability

Increasing Internal Stability

The PACE OF CHANGE in the world has accelerated to the point where many of us feel destabilized. Those of us who are sensitive to energy are being impacted by intense planetary events such as storms, flooding, and election-related stresses.

Remember that influences that create external change rock our inner worlds too. We are stimulated to make internal adjustments, on top of meeting our external duties. Almost everyone I know has been feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Many are not sure why. We seem to forget that it takes energy to accommodate change and to assimilate information. It also takes energy to adjust our fields to these changes, including the electromagnetic aspect of weather and seasonal change.

A large percentage of sensitive clients and friends have lingering illnesses right now. These conditions do not respond as easily as usual to support. A psychotherapist friend had to cancel half her client load due to the number of sick clients.

This cannot be explained as ā€˜a bug going around.ā€™ The maladies I am seeing in my own client load are not all contagious. While a number of clients are having lung issues, for example, some are reacting to chemical or mold exposures or food allergies rather than microbial illness. When complex maladies come on suddenly they almost always include energy imbalance. An emotional element usually underlies the initial susceptibility. This element can delay response to treatment unless it is also addressed.

In the last few weeks even the most healthy and stable individuals I know are reeling from impending deaths in their families or organizational changes at work.

If you are feeling less stable than usual, be kind to yourself. Focus on using this period as an opportunity to transformation. Give your process meaning and value by using it to re-create yourself.

Here are my recommendations for increasing internal stability during times of change:

  • Think carefully about whether or not something you usually do is important in the short term, such as attending an event, getting on Facebook, or having a clean house. Cut back on all unnecessary activities.
  • Get more rest.
  • Focus on nurturing yourself with simple, healthy meals.
  • Reduce stimulation from media sources.
  • Let yourself do very little if need be, after essentials like work or paying bills.
  • Intentionally plan to make holidays as stress-free as possible:
  • Reduce your expectations and withdraw attachments.
  • Reduce travel if you can.
  • Plan simplicity.
  • Enroll loved ones in making things easy.
  • Get consistent, gentle exercise but do not push yourself near your limits.
  • Get skilled body therapies if possible. An open body processes change much more freely and comfortably.
  • If you have a sensitive system get help balancing your nutritional program to support your glandular system and neurotransmitters.
  • Invite yourself gently to sustain or increase whatever type of spiritual practice that supports and balances you.
  • Extend compassion to yourself when you cannot do what you know would be best, than simply return to it gently when you can.
  • Give up trying to control what other people think of you. It costs way too much energy!
  • Practice discerning exactly which challenges you must confront directly to assist your life changes and break through sources of stress. Let taking on these things stand as the one exception to doing less–but do it as gently as possible.
  • Keep your energy clear in any way you know how. It helps.
  • Make a practice out of learning to honor any distress you may feel by seeing it as a call for compassionate action in your own behalf.

The more intense life is the more necessary it is to attend to your Guidance. Practice developing a habit of turning to Guidance to sense what is the most important in the moment, and what it is best to let go of for the time being.

What traits or abilities do YOU need to develop that can be strengthened by the way you handle your life situation now?

How can you meet your situation in ways that enhance meaningful development?

What happens to the way you experience stress when you are actively using your life circumstances to hone spiritual or emotional development?

12 October 2012 6 Comments

L G Series Part 44: Tuning Space, Part 2

L G Series Part 44: Tuning Space, Part 2

Tuning space is a skill that supports attending to Guidance. You use the area around you to magnify your ability to receive information from your environment.

Tuning space by intentional placement of objects is similar to tuning a musical instrument. You are working with energy resonance related to spatial relationships rather than qualities of sound.

You do not need to use a formal system to activate the space around you–although you may enjoy learning and practicing. Systems are formalized ways to sensitize yourself to possibility.

Sacred Geometry creates positive energy and specialized atmospheres through the relationship of objects and shapes. Feng Shui is used to ā€œtuneā€ or harmonize environments in order to:

  • Bring forth specific potentials
  • Decrease undesirable and increase positive influences
  • Select environments that support certain types of experience
  • Promote personal development

Again, you do not need to use a system. You can also explore simply by using your innate sensitivity to energy and your Guidance, paying attention to how you respond to changes in your environment.

The energy in a physical location holds specific intelligence and latent potentialities that impact what it is possible to create within that environment. A charged place like an energy portal or power spot holds different possibilities than a library or a bar.

Working with the spaces you occupy changes the potentials for what can occur in that space.

Exactly how we tune space depends on the use to which we intend to put it.

When you tune space you are tuning yourself, just as an excellent musician trains ear, heart and mind while tuning an instrument. You are reaching into your sensing function, opening yourself, and discovering what shifts as your environment is changed. This practice develops the ability to use exterior space to make adjustments to the way you feel inside. Our environments reflect and impact consciousness.

Aim to tune the spaces you occupy in a way that powerfully evokes feelings, images, and actions that invite the possibilities you want to bring forth. For example, if you want to experience peace and increased concentration, bring in energies and images that evoke within you feelings of openness, stillness and focus.

I have been talking about the esoteric aspects of tuning space. Intentional use of space is also a practical skill. It shows up in perfectly mundane contexts. For example, I was at a field and track while a friend played soccer. I noticed that in the sport-saturated and dedicated atmosphere I was able to run and even to kick the soccer ball in ways I had never done before.

Examples of naturally tuning space:

  • Cleaning the kitchen before you cook
  • Decorating your home for a holiday
  • Setting the tone for business in your office by removing personal affects
  • Getting things like newspapers and electronics out of the bedroom
  • Dedicating an area for reading or writing, to assist with focus
  • Flowers and candles for a romantic atmosphere
  • Clearing out closets, paper piles, and old things to release stagnant energy
  • Spring cleaning

If you are establishing a healing center, making a meditation spot, or creating an altar you will obviously use more subtle skills and intention than day-to-day tasks require.

Some objects and conditions bring down the vibration in a room:

  • Soon-to-decompose gunk in sink strainers
  • Dirty toilets
  • Anything stagnant or neglected like piles of paper or unfinished projects
  • Anything associated with bad memories
  • Things that evoke resistance

A friend recently cleaned his blocked gutters. His entire home feels notably different from removing this low-vibration, stuck energy.

Bringing in light, clean air, fresh flowers, appropriate colors, and objects of beauty help to establish positive energy almost anywhere.

Using the way we interact with the spaces in our lives to invoke specific energies is a wonderful way to live with awareness. This practice establishes an active, living, and supportive relationship with our environment.

What kind of environment have YOU created with intention, for a particular purpose?

How did this space impact you?

6 January 2012 4 Comments

Life Guidance Series Part 6: Distress as Guidance

Life Guidance Series Part 6: Distress as Guidance

Distress is a call for Guidance. Use distress as a signal. Use distress to awaken yourself to your true needs. Use distress as an alert and a call to action.

Then gently find ways to notice and manage your needs before distress must arise.

Distress is a form of guidance to those who are willing to respond to their needs. It may not be anybodyā€™s favorite form of guidance, but we can learn to use it well when it shows up. Distress alerts us that we need to do something kind for ourselves or make more loving choices.

Intestinal distress encourages more enlightened eating. The distress of feeling invaded invites better boundaries. Distress about situations suggests positive action toward change.

Turning distress toward benefit is a highly positive skill. The skill works much better when we allow ourselves to feel and explore our distress long enough to understand what is actually called for. Learning to attend to the origins and sources of discomfort is crucial.

Turning away from distress before discovering the underlying need can lead to numbness, dissociation, compartmentalization, artificiality, or superficiality. It is important to honor distress. I am not saying wallow in it, just take a careful look and use it constructively. That is the most positive way to handle it.

Here is a funny little example of using distress as guidance: Once I began coughing as a client entered my office. I could not stop. I left the room for water. The moment I left, the coughing stopped. The moment I went back to my office coughing came back. I figured out that the client had toxic energy in his fields. The moment I cleared the energy I was fine. For some years now I get an odd cough if Iā€™m not noticing energy that needs to be addressed.

Loss, prolonged pain, betrayal, and disillusionment are more complicated than mere distress. This kind of intensity can uproot our belief systems until we donā€™t even know what we believe any more. [link to related Post on Disillusionment.] During difficult life transitions when core beliefs are in question ill-fitting or overly-directive guidance can cause complications. The more intense our distress the greater the call for comprehensive and effective guidance.

We tend to live as if we expect to be the same person from day to day, able to control who we will become over time. When life shakes down the pillars of temporary consistency we discover that our responses to life change in the face of different pressures, circumstances and energies.

New situations, events, and collisions of emotion bring forward fresh and untried self expression. Guidance allows us to use our responses to circumstances and conditions toward our highest good, in partnership with life.

The energies that evoke earthquakes, tsunamis, and world-rocking change also restructure our personal lives. While things we took to be stabile are shifting and coming apart it is important to consider how we might use disruption itself to bring about positive outcomes.

We can use upheaval to help restructure relationships, health, finances, living situations, communities, and global structures. We transform ourselves in the process of doing so.

Hereā€™s a fun quote from the end of a friendā€™s email: That is my plan ā€“If chaos does not poke its lovely head into my affairs ā€“ I will be here.

As we careen into an uncertain future many feel frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, or unclear about how to harness motivation. Motivation can be difficult when we cannot see a clear path or need to alter our goals. Guidance is interaction that assists us to select a meaningful path or purpose with greater clarity and confidence.

These questions may be useful in learning to take guidance from distress:

  • How well do you listen to your distress?
  • How much distress is required to get your attention?
  • Do you respond better to some types of distress than others?
  • What do you need learn to respond with compassion to the kinds of distress you try to ignore?
  • What changes are supported by any disruption you may be experiencing?
  • Do you develop strategies for change or resist change?
  • How does your response to change increase or reduce your distress?
25 November 2011 4 Comments

Life Purpose, Part 14: Ways to Contribute

Life Purpose, Part 14: Ways to Contribute

Here is a wide range of examplesĀ of meaningful ways to contribute. Mix and match:

Does your vision of making a difference include political impact?

  • Canvass for a congressperson or someone running for office
  • Get signatures for an initiative
  • Volunteer at a caucus

Are you passionate about world welfare?

  • Join the Peace Corps
  • Help with Doctors Without Borders
  • Raise awareness about important issues

Do you want to help the Earth?

  • Support an environmental cause
  • Set up a living will that supports old growth forests
  • Send healing energy to problem areas
  • Give up using plastic bottles

Do you want to help people?

  • Support your neighbors with earthquake or emergency planning
  • Volunteer at a hospital, food bank, or crisis line
  • Serve in a soup kitchen
  • Get involved with Kiva, for microloans to those in need in other countries
  • Read to the people or play music at a senior center
  • Become a Big Brother or Big Sister
  • Learn conflict mediation

Do you love animals?

  • Volunteer or get a job at an animal shelter
  • Take care of strays or find homes for them
  • Adopt Greyhounds that used to race

Do you want to develop your energy, or support others through energy?

  • Learn and practice Qi Gong or other techniques to balance, tune, and strengthen your energy
  • Learn energy medicine or go to practitioners who use it
  • Send the energy of love and support to people and nations under duress

Are you inspired to develop your own or other peopleā€™s ability to experience peace and states of grace?

  • Meditate
  • Practice watching your breath
  • Practice random acts of kindness
  • Express your love

Are you in a partnership?

  • Ask your partner what you can do to improve your relationship
  • Offer to take a chore off your partnerā€™s plate when s/he is overwhelmed
  • Spend half a day a month doing anything you have avoided that your partner wants you to do

Do you read this blog?

  • Work intentionally with the questions.
  • Please pass my posts to people who will benefit from them. They take about 7 hours each, and Iā€™d like to see them serving lives!

Here is a loving conversation that occurred between two friends:

Becky told Karen, ā€œI get the impression you have something important to do in the world.ā€

ā€œThank you.ā€

ā€œIā€™m just a piano teacher,ā€ Becky said. Her tone implied that she could not be important or make a large contribution in this role.

ā€œStop!,ā€ said Karen. ā€œItā€™s not about ego; itā€™s about Path. Donā€™t minimize who you are and what you do! You are awake and aware. You are touching all the people you work with. Your purpose is just as big as mineā€”itā€™s your energy and love. Thatā€™s the gift. For all you know you could be teaching the next Beethoven!ā€

Karen went on to say, ā€œI used to think I would Save the World. I now understand that we can help the world, improve and impact the world. Thatā€™s heart. SAVE the world? Thatā€™s bravado. No one person can save the world. We can only save ourselves, and help impact those who appear on our path. –And youā€™re doing it.ā€

Dive heart first into life! (Comment credit to Evelyn Roberts.)

What are YOUR favorite ways to help, improve, or impact your world?

What do you get out of it?

Great Christmas Gift idea! Simple but potent tools effectively clear out unpleasant energy & promote higher awareness.

18 November 2011 3 Comments

Life Purpose, Part 13: Making a Difference with Energy

Life Purpose, Part 13: Making a Difference with Energy

We each impact the world at every moment. Life Purpose is about being intentional about this impact.

I recently returned from a spiritual camp in which we used breath, intention, movement, music, and concentration to bring about a very real experience of being safe, loved, and connected with the entire group and with life itself. This had nothing to do with doctrine or belief–just direct experience.

If you have had direct energy experiences of unity with others you will fully understand what I am saying. I am not talking abstraction, theory or concept. I am talking about FEELING a sense of Unity–personally and palpably. When this happens in a group we can discuss the experience with the people who were there and discover that they felt exactly the same thing that we did. If you have not experienced this, remain open and motivated.

Even when we are in distress we are one with the world. We just donā€™t have our attention focused in a way that allows us to notice.

Personal issues block our access to feeling Unity. We feel isolated, alone, needy, or estranged when we are out of touch with our essential unity with others. Our influence becomes less positive when we are entangled in our issues. Learning to love yourself is service to others.

If you have not done so please read the post on Inner Work as Universal Service.

Working out issues that keep us from loving ourselves IS contribution to the world:

  • It strengthens our energy connections with others by making us more available and clear.
  • It allows us to effectively support others with issues we have already healed.
  • Our impact on everyone we come in contact with is more positive, and their added ease spreads to their contacts as well.
  • It makes your energy better as we begin to broadcast happiness and love instead of distress.

What if loving yourself is the one thing you can do that makes the most difference in the world?

Accepting and being larger than our issues is a spiritual act of healing. I have seen advanced spiritual teachers fall from their state of realization and harm their followers due to unresolved inner wounds, and motivated people who were once broken blossom into loving Life Purpose.

In addition to dealing with issues that block our ability to love, we can change the world just by breathing with awareness. Any way that you get good energy flowing you impact everyone who comes in contact with you, and everyone who comes in contact with them. What you do with your energy, at home alone, matters.

Working intentionally with energy strengthens our influence, and we can learn to direct this influence. I have seen masters of energy who can clearly and powerfully impact the state and experience of a roomful of people through the qualities, frequencies, intentions, and awareness they place on their breath. Their prayers pack a wallop. They did not develop these skills by wanting to change people. They developed themselves.

The most important way we make a difference is through Presence, full attention, and our love. BEing in the moment has intrinsic value. When we bring ourselves fully into the current moment in a spirit of contribution the question of Purpose dissolves into direct, internal, moment-to-moment guidance.

Sense of Purpose is a form of internal guidance. Being in touch with your inner sense of purpose from moment to moment–let alone Life Purpose–rests on the same skills necessary to receive all other types of inner guidance.

The next blog series will be about Guidance.

What does it mean to YOU to make a difference in the world?

What have you done that has helped to develop your Sense of Guidance?

11 November 2011 3 Comments

Life Purpose, Part 12: Getting On with It

Life Purpose, Part 12: Getting On with It

This post speaks to additional challenges with Purpose.

The problem with ā€œneeding to knowā€ is that intense focus on the mind and on outcome block the processes of feeling and intuitionā€”the channels through which the information you long for might otherwise come.

So many people want to ā€œknowā€ what their Purpose IS. Beyond presupposing that Purpose is like a job, and that it doesnā€™t change, this prevailing attitude implies that we are equipped to live out Purpose without needing to be in touch from moment to moment.

Life paths are like labyrinths. They twist and wind, and we often cannot tell whether we are getting closer or farther away from our goal of returning to the center. The answer of one moment may not suffice in the next. Each challenge along the way calls for the discernment to commit more deeply, or to establish a new direction.

Being whole-hearted whenever we possibly can is one of the best investments we can make. Even if we make mistakes with more vigor, we then learn quickly and do not repeat them.

I have been deeply touched and honored to be present as clients discover Life Purpose. At times Purpose pops up quickly and clearly, like a revelation or an insight. When this occurs we are communing together in a state of grace, perceiving together.

If someone else tells you what your supposed Purpose is and you cannot feel it for yourself this can cause intense and painful confusion. That person has no way to assume responsibility for their effects on your life if they mislead you.

A healer once told me I had a strong and abiding connection with and should be following a certain Master, she with whom she was connected. After checking in and finding I felt no internal connection with this man I felt kind of slimed. Fortunately I was intuitive enough to sort this out easily for myself.

Occasionally I meet someone who cannot seem to keep alight the fire of inspiration or make anything matter enough to fully engage themselves. Weā€™ve probably all had days when nothing trumps anything else. We stir around wishing we wanted something enough to feel connected with a goal or take purposeful action. This feels worse than being really hungry and not being able to find anything you feel like eating, and can go on and on for weeks, months and perhaps years.

Remember the time between high school and college when grownups always asked, ā€œAre you working or are you in school?ā€ Without purpose or plan you may feel useless and flat yet intensely frustrated, tied up with too many choices you donā€™t relate to, looking ahead at the daunting task of making a critically important choice, without information or inspiration. Where to start eating that elephant?

Lack or loss of goals and dreams can be devastating. I have wished I could do their work for them, but even when I have found and lit a spark, they themselves need to keep the fire going.

If you still have trouble developing a relationship to Purpose, here are some serious suggestions:

  • Rule out physical causes such as clinical depression, low thyroid, adrenal hypofunction, low testosterone, neurotransmitter imbalances, blood sugar and chronic occult (hidden) viral issues.
  • Then address feelings, beliefs, and the intersection of the two, as discussed in Post #2. Do this with a proficient therapist or healer.
  • Answer the questions that have come up through this series.
  • Read the Inner Work series. [link]
  • Get help to clear out energy that does not belong with you, that you may be carrying from a parent or other source.
  • Find ways to increase your physical and spiritual energy.
  • If it works for you ask the Universe or pray for Life Purpose, remember to stay in humility, openness, and surrender.

Remember: Purpose is a sense. Hence: Sense of Purpose.

Use sense about your purposes.

When you heal yourself you can attract and sustain what is best for you. If you do not, you are likely to undermine what you want.

Remember: We need to be in partnership with life, not control it.

Like any other type of sense, Sense of Purpose is a skill to nurture and develop.

Sense of Purpose and ultimately Sense of Guidance are developed by making a daily habit out of paying attention to what we really feel and need and what life is currently inviting, making choices that support our best interests.

What do YOU do to get in touch with your feelings, senses, or intuition?

What is your worst fear about being in touch with your intuition?

28 October 2011 4 Comments

Life Purpose, Part 10: Misconceptions About Life Purpose, Part 1

Life Purpose, Part 10: Misconceptions About Life Purpose, Part 1

Letā€™s take a tour through common misconceptions about Life Purpose. Part of this is summary and review, heading into fresh insights about the things weā€™ve covered. We will also break new ground:

  • Success and Life Purpose are the same thing
  • Life Purpose refers to your entire life
  • You will be known and seen in the world by doing your Life Purpose
  • The status and magnitude of your activities reflects your worth
  • Your purpose has to be something in the outer world
  • You need a particular job or role to serve others
  • The status and magnitude of your activities reflects your worth
  • What you do for meaning should provide money and security
  • Getting what you want leads to happiness
  • Life Purpose comes with a time line and a plan
  • Being good at something means you are supposed to do it
  • Your purpose means living up to your full potential

Weā€™ll pick through these misconceptions one by one.

Success and Life Purpose are the same thing:

What is the difference between success and Life Purpose?

Success is generally defined against the backdrop of superficial, societal values. You are comparing yourself to other people, or to an external standard of accomplishment.

Life Purpose (also known as Soul Purpose) is that which actualizes not the brightest, best, and most recognized potential, but the elements of heart and character that invite authenticity, joy, balance, and expression of core values.

Life Purpose is that which gives your life meaning and valueā€”to YOU. We are social creatures in an energy web of oneness, so our experience of meaning and value is not separate from our contributions and relationships with others. Since Purpose is personal, when it is lived in the outer world, authenticity is required.

Life Purpose refers to your entire life:

Motivations, values, and attitudes transform during the course of life. Even when you commit ā€œyour lifeā€ to something, what you are committing is your life energy, full participation, will, and intention. You are not placing the years your body will live in a trust for that commitment. You cannot count on having years. Your life is your life force, not your years.

Life Purpose does not refer to one thing you have to do or else you have failed. It refers to the way you bring yourself to what you choose to do. There are many different ways this can play out, according to the unique requirements of an individual life.

Purpose can change. You may have many purposes.

You will be known and seen in the world by doing your Life Purpose:

Being in public view does not measure either success or Life Purpose, just as money is no indication of our worth as individuals. If money equaled worth, Mother Teresa had no worth. We know this is not true.

The status and magnitude of your activities reflects your worth:

Gandhi used to require all of his followers to take shifts cleaning the latrines. Humility and willingness to do whatever is needed has always been the mark of the truly great.

Your purpose has to be something in the outer world:

Life Purpose may be as simple (not easy) as:

  • Learning to love yourself as you are
  • Mastering a tendency to project blame onto others
  • Becoming able to maintain body awareness instead of getting spacey
  • Discovering how to feel safe inside yourself
  • Becoming able to trust yourself
  • Standing in love or peace no matter what happens
  • Bringing to the planet a specific, necessary energy; being a connecting point for that energy, broadcasting or receiving it

I believe in the possibility that people exist who have influence the workings of the entire planet through their profound mastery of energy. Can you say that such a person has no purpose because no one sees it?

You need a particular job or role to serve others:

Balanced, powerful people penetrate and permeate the energy of those we touch or engage with, whether professionally or in the line at the bank. You may impact players on the world stage, set the stage, or influence how the audience receives the play in the course of your normal life.

Cynthia felt no meaning in her job answering emails for an insurance agency. I suggested she send, from her heart, a specific and personal blessing with each email, invisibly. She began to love her job.

We’ll finish the other misconceptions in Part 2 . . .

21 October 2011 2 Comments

Life Purpose, Part 9: The Work of Another

Life Purpose, Part 9: The Work of Another

Here is the complete quote with which we began the series:
“Your work in this life is to find your work, and to give yourself to it with your whole heart. And not to do the work of another no matter how great their need.Buddha

Inspired contribution to the Greater Whole is meaningful and fulfilling. Giving, without respect for the context can interfere or distract, making it all about you instead of helping out. The word ā€œgivingā€ does not imply what happens with the receiver. ā€œContributionā€ implies that we are
participating in something larger than our own efforts; making a difference.

ā€˜Sensing intoā€™ the situations we seek to enhance improves our assessment of when and what to contribute, so that giving may be fully of benefit. This skill complements being in touch with what and when it works for us to give.

The skill consists of paying attention to the potential results of our participation, and aiming to maximize the outcome for others. Without this sensibility we may give what is not needed while overlooking something absolutely necessary, like shipping in crates of Coke when the people need a new well.

Aim to sustain your vital forces and enhance your ability to give by honing discernment.

Contributing to the world by participating in loving service is the most meaningful thing we can do. Love or service cannot be forced as acts of self-assertion. We do not need to be in any way perfect before we set out to help. By involving ourselves we learn who we are and what to develop in order to actualize our values.

Pure service includes exercising wisdom to consider the results of receiving a gift or service. When we do for others things they are able to do and need to do for themselves we weaken them or interfere.

We cannot exercise, eat or eliminate for someone else, and we cannot do their Inner Work. We cannot open another personā€™s heart, motivate them, or give them insight without their willing participation.

The old maxim about teaching a man to fish instead of fishing for him comes to mind.

I was in a relationship in which I attempted to get the other person to take care of himself better, and to develop greater insight and inspiration. That failed. Of course, it ended in resentment on his part and exhaustion on mine.

When someone wants to learn to fish they motivate themselves. You can show them and give them tips, but they need to be pulling for it, and to take up readily what they are able to do themselves.

When we attempt to do the work of another, itā€™s like being a mother who wakes her child up for school every day, never passing along this responsibility as the child grows. As an adult, this person lacks the wherewithal to get to work on time.

Buddhists and several other spiritual groups customarily offer the results of spiritual practice for the benefit of all beings, everywhere. Is this doing their work?

It is not.

Generating positive energy and making it available to those who need it is constructive (except specifically for those who habitually feed off of others). So is praying for others. As long as you are not attached to how or whether specific people take it up you are okay. When you want or need someone to respond in a particular manner it is time to question your motivations. That is not love.

How do YOU FEEL when you are trying to do the work of another?

What if the things you do to try and make a difference interfere with experiences others require to develop strength and compassion?

What if getting your energy strong and balanced by taking care of yourself with respect and compassion helps the world, not only through everyone you encounter but by bringing helpful energy into the world through the portal that is YOU?

What if your love and self-acceptance empower your prayers and positive intentions to enhance the energy-pool we all share?