Positive Energy Guide

Optimization—making our best decisions and making the best of circumstance and conditions—relies on acceptance. If we do not accept or if we mis-assess the actualities of things as they are, we will be less ineffective to the extent that we do so.

Traction means being in contact with the ground and able to therefore move forward. Figuratively, traction means being grounded in the actual. This requires acceptance. Wishful thinking, holding your breath and hoping, or denying fearful possibilities introduces slop into the situation, which functions like a wild card, reducing traction.

In order to optimize something, one accepts what is already established— and then says, “Within this, what else is possible? And is it mine to do?”

If something is not ours to do, we return to acceptance and find ways to respond more gracefully to circumstances rather than unbalancing ourselves by exerting force.

Letting go of any compulsive tendency to cause influence makes expressing positive types of power a choice rather than a defense or reactive stance. It does take self knowledge or keen intuition to clearly distinguish between an impulse based on desire and internal guidance. This discernment is an essential aspect of spiritual mastery.

Optimizing our choices with the most beneficial outcome in mind rather than reacting from habit or desire helps develop a type of will that allows us to move through life with purpose and strength.

Optimization is not perfectionism, which stems from self-judgment and a lack of self love. Perfectionism is a form of resistance. It is automatic and compulsive.

Learning how to nurture and love ourselves through our choices in ways that do not have a backlash is a rudimentary step in developing positive spiritual will. By spiritual will I just mean learning to follow our guidance instead of reacting to whatever is in front of us. As with eating healthfully, intentional choices make us happier and lead to greater fulfillment than does random indulgence.

Healthy will springs from our Essence. It promotes living fully, individuation, and positive relationship with life. Unhealthy will is largely a defense against feeling pain.

When our plans and intentions do not work out, this is only a defeat if we fail to use the situation to learn, making it a positive part of our spiritual process.

Living by attending to guidance is a receptive process, fairly fluid and flexible. We remain open to the universe, acknowledging that we are a participant within it. When we fall out of alignment and become distracted into our issues, we simply need to relax and come back, come back, come back.

Loyalty to our values develops endurance. We transform gradually, through a long series of small shifts. Each rendition of ourselves more present, like a slightly new incarnation. It’s like the movie, “Groundhog’s Day.”

What do you habitually resist?

What will happen if you lean into that experience in the moment?

What would you like to optimize in your life?

What would you have to confront in your life in order to optimize it?

How would the process of confronting it change you?

What do you need to accept in order to free yourself up to make a welcome change?

“When power leads and wisdom follows, the face of wisdom is veiled and she stumbles; but when wisdom leads and power follows, they arrive safely at their destination.”  ~Inayat Khan

Accessing intuition is supported by inner stillness. When our energies are still like a smooth pond we can most easily read what is going on and sense when, how, and whether we need to act.

Fear, excess speculation, investment in a particular outcome, and external Influences interfere with intuition. The things we do in our minds can interfere with inner Guidance.

When we become afraid and get stirred up we may well get into a loop in which we go outside of ourselves looking for information, and render ourselves less able to access intuition and internal guidance. If we are looking to an unstable outer situation for guidance, it is easy to become confused and upset. Gathering information is necessary, but it is essential to take the step of then quieting ourselves to access clear, balanced, intuitive Guidance, which transcends the external situations. If we do not, we will rush about all reacting to one another.

When we are invested in a particular out come it is very difficult to be objective. Does this mean not to hold goals and values? Absolutely not. Self mastery consists of holding goals and values, and caring deeply about them, yet also being open to good coming from scenarios other than the ones we envision. We need to balance between acting on our best assessment and accepting what is going on. This does not mean we accept it without acting to change it. It means that we act from inner peace and intuitive presence instead of reactive emotion.

Self-observation is the greatest boon to intuition. Intuition is strengthened or obviated by our capacity to self-observe.

The most difficult and some of the most important Inner Work consists of self-observing our survival reactions and defense systems. When these are kicked up and in action it is all but impossible to access intuition, for it will be biased by fear and speculation, and often from energies that do not originate with us, clouding perception.

It is easy to understand how we naturally go out into our environment to collect information and impressions when we are uneasy, to try to sense what is going on. This opens us to external energies. When we are at peace, we go out to gather impressions and then return to ourselves, releasing them.

When we are burdened by fear or survival issues, the emotions and imbalances this causes in our energy systems causes our energy to become sticky to and hold onto matching fear and anger energy from the outside. This is the energy-equivalent of the mental process of case-building, where one builds up a biased point of view by gathering evidence.

Mental types are more prone to case building. Emotional types are more prone to reactive emotion. Body or sensation types are more prone to instinctual gut level defense. All of us have all three functions. Ability to self-observe each of these reactive stances in ourselves is an advantage. This skill can be challenging to develop, but if we cannot, accessing accurate intuition and inner Guidance will be spotty at best. Actions taken from clear perception and intuitive Guidance are more positive, powerful, and peaceful than actions taken from a reactive stance.

In general, the less aware we are of our reactivity the more it runs us. Intervention consists of bringing one’s self back into balance. To do so, we need to accept What Is, self-soothe, relax our reactions, and shed external influence so we can identify what belongs to us and what does not. In our current political climate one needs to do this multiple times a day. When we do not, negative emotions and energies build up and create painful and frightening imbalances, and we are unable to take clear and effective action, or to calm ourselves. Noticing that we are able to be safe and okay just in this one particular moment can help body chemistry return to normal so that clarity is possible.

What is your tendency when you go into fear?

How does this influence your ability to access inner Guidance?

This excellent quote on the relative value of religious or practice nicely summarizes the theme of my last few posts:

“Often the aspirant is concerned in the early phases of his awakening by his attitude towards established religions and their rituals. All of these have a tendency to encourage the spirit of love and worship, and as such they help to a limited extent in wearing out the ego-shell in which human consciousness is caught.  But if they are followed unintelligently and mechanically, the inner spirit of love and worship dries up.  Then they harden the ego-shell instead of wearing it out.

Rituals and ceremonies cannot carry one very far towards the path, and if they are unintelligently followed they bind as much as any other unintelligent action.  In fact, when they are deprived of all inner life they are in a sense more dangerous than other unintelligent action, because they are pursued in the belief that they help towards God-realization.” ~Meher Baba.

Steady and consistent practice of a discipline has multiple advantages in creating rhythm, momentum, focus, and depth. It can form positive neural networks that persist and assist us for extended periods of time.

The quote is not intended to discourage spiritual practice, but to point out that awareness, engaged personal expression, and open, intelligent application are essential elements.

Whether a particular action or mindset serves development depends upon where we are along the path. Intelligently engaged action furthers. Taking an aware and intentional breath in the line at the grocery store furthers Awakening more than habitual, unengaged spiritual or religious practice. Fully engaged, Present practice aids development significantly.

The benefits of religious or spiritual practice depend as much upon how we bring ourselves to it as on the particulars of the practice. It could be argued that one action, engaged with Presence, has no greater or lesser merit than another, except as a personal preference. This is more true in abstract theory than in practice. In life, learning to engage ways that express our own Highest Option in the particular moment at hand is ideal. Doing so is a function of inner Guidance.

Have YOU ever felt that the way you are approaching religion or spirituality was keeping you asleep instead of waking you up?

Did you find a more alive and satisfying way to bring yourself to it, or move on to something else?

We have it backwards: “You don’t get love by being good, you get good by being love.” ~TD

Issues about whether or not we deserve love are relics from childhood. Divine Love is not earned. Some might call it a birthright. I agree—but with prejudice. “Birthright” language evokes entitlement, which is often toxic. It also presupposes that we are separate from Source. Having the right to something brings up the sense of not having it, and having to demand it.

But where would we demand Love from? This again smacks of childhood wounding.

From an energy perspective, to invite higher Love we need to resonate with it. To resonate with Divine Love we become it. This means finding, sensing and feeling the quality of such Love inside—and amplifying it. Doing this is an act of creation. This does not mean it relies on fantasy. Fantasy is a sidetrack. The path is to locate the resonance of Love inside by learning to focus and call it forth from within. Then we blow on that like an ember. This takes spiritual work. Anything that stands in the way must be embraced—but not allowed to stand as a distraction.

When we have something, we can give it away. If we do not have it, it is not ours. Having Love means receiving it first. When we seek that in other people we are bound to be disappointed, as we probably were in childhood.

We do need to generate love for ourselves—but we need to catch the perfume or resonance of it somewhere in order to really grasp just what it is we are seeking. Finding Source can be very abstract. Most of us need one or more human role models to get a sense of how to ‘run’ that Love in our bodies.

The role model we choose is less important than learning to bring forth Love. Since I am writing this on Christmas eve, I would be remiss not to say that Christ could be one such model. Owing to various conceptions and experiences, that name aggravates some people, and many have belief systems that cause them to recoil from religion.

A current of Love and truth underlie and run through religions, but codes of belief do not in themselves produce the miracle called Love. Whether or not we are attracted to one or more religions, we take great benefit in identifying someone, somewhere, some time, who represents to us the possibility of being a human who is capable of experiencing and expressing the vibration of Divine Love. The word “God” can be too abstract, and also laden with freight. “Source” is abstract as well.

From where do we receive the impressions that stimulate in us true inspiration?

This is a wonderful question to ponder in this inward time of year, when we long to bring forth true joy, blessing and generosity.

Ideal Love will be a little bit different for different individuals, depending exactly which vibration of the rainbow of all love is key for that mind, heart, and soul to take the next step toward becoming it oneself. The being, saint, prophet, person, spiritual teacher, or element that inspires us may even change as we develop. It is important to learn to identify and allow our hearts to be impressed (like soft clay) by real Love when we see it, and to own as our privilege in being human, our right to enjoy and express that Love.

Having God’s love (change the g-word if it bugs you) means having it flow through us to others and into the world. It is not something we earn and then receive like an award for being a self or being good. It is something we cultivate and practice over many years or even lifetimes. Seeking to GET it enhances ego issues about deserving. We get more of it by giving. I am not talking about over-giving, driven by old wounds, I am talking about expressing from your heart.

No matter what is going on with us it is okay to allow Divine Love to come though us. If this depends on mood or being in a particular way, we will withhold it. When we let Love touch us despite our shortcomings it will help us to move beyond them, gently over time. Even if we do not move beyond them, our lives will have meaning and value because we have been vehicles for Love. There are no prerequisites. Concentration, attention and intention invite it. Noticing and making room for it when it comes helps sustain it. These are aids. There are no prerequisites.

Please feel free to comment.

I send you love in this traditional time of calling forth Light.

I experience “subtext” (people’s unvoiced, private thought) like being in a room with a radio station playing in the background. Some of people can tune that input out, while others find it intrusive.

How we response to subtext can depend on which ‘station’ is playing, and on our state at that moment in time. Our ability to tune things out depends in part on our ability to concentrate. The better we are able to concentrate, the more choice we have about what to let in and what to tune out.

When someone is emotionally important to me I am more attentively tuned to them, so their subtext stands out more. Subtext can indicate that a sensitive topic has arisen, and the person is readying to address it. This attracts my attention. When I am entirely comfortable and trust the person not to withhold communication, I find it easy to wait for what they might bring forth. When I feel uncertain or shut out, I may find myself anticipating with discomfort communication that is not simply being shared.

As I consider intuitive communication I find myself wanting to share several stories from a recent meditation and spiritual dance retreat.

My spiritual Teacher communicates through intentional “text” (unvoiced yet direct communication). He broadcasts his intentions, and any energy he decides to share, with lucid congruence between energy, body, speech, and emotion.

During practice sessions he models different inner states by palpably producing their energy. He also broadcasts intention when demonstrating clear boundaries. If he were, for example, walking along and did not wish to be disturbed, even an insensitive clod would find it daunting to interrupt him. A friend described this: “It’s as if he has a huge ‘do not disturb’ sign on his back.”

During lunch at the retreat, he and I were sitting at the same table. A young man across from us was saying that he could meditate and work, but could not exercise, because his emotions would come up. The rest of this story is is embarrassing, but worth sharing. I was very tired at the time, and felt like I was going to get drawn in and start to explain how important it is to be in touch with one’s feelings. Having finished eating, I wanted to get up and go, but I did not want to be rude.

“I’m probably the wrong person to say that to,” I told him, “since I bring people’s buried emotions.” Missing my implication, he began to explain his situation in detail. I wasn’t sure how to get out of this without shutting him down.

My Teacher had one bite left on his plate. I thought, I’ll just wait until he’s done and get up when he does. A moment later he stood up as if to leave. As I in turn stood up, he immediately took his seat once again. The food was still on his plate. I hope I didn’t gape. As I scuttled off with my plate, I saw him look to the young man saying, “Have you considered some form of movement therapy?”

He had made it so simple. I was struck by his economy of words, grasp of the situation, and practical compassion.

I said to him later, “Thank you for helping me escape at lunch.”

He said, “So you’re one of those people who find it hard to turn away when people need too much from you?”

“Yes. I handle it pretty well at work, but the boundaries can be confusing in social situations.”

We had a kind-of repeat the next night. I was exhausted during the evening program and wanted to leave, but did not want to offend the speaker. When I glanced in his direction my Teacher stood up as if to move toward the door, then sat back down. I left.

Now it’s up to me to remember and apply this Zen lesson in all appropriate circumstances, to be fully present or take body with me wherever I’m thinking about going!

It is stimulating to be in situations in which my own text and subtext are as clearly consequential as direct speech.

I suspect that what we do not say aloud is always of consequence. Usually it’s just less obvious.

Do YOU remember being in circumstances in which someone was apparently aware of whatever you were thinking?

What was that like for you?

Suppose you have tried all the interventions from Part 1 and you are still having trouble. Here are additional suggestions:

Find resource that works instead of attempting the channels that do not. If you usually get guidance from your inner voice, and that is not clear, try visualizing what would work for you, or sensing it. When one part of your brain is compromised, another part may rally.

• Focus on self care.
• Avoid pushing yourself or getting anxious, and soothe yourself while you wait out this period, knowing that guidance will return.
• Withdraw from excess engagement with the outer world except for things that bring you energy. Spend time alone, sleep more, and allow yourself to dream.
• Use your experience for growth. Avoid platitudes or belief systems (B.S.) that limit your inner exploration.
• Sense into any emotional darkness or blind spots by staying open to new messages, or messages in new forms. Sometimes when we grow we get different inner guides or forms of guidance and they require a growing-in period.
• Consider distress an invitation to deeper transformation.
• Don’t force the positive or wallow in the negative but remain open to experience–without interpreting it according to personal preferences.
• Surrender any resistance to reality. This does not mean giving up or giving in. It means actively reaching for acceptance of That Which Is. Resistance costs too much energy.
• Seek the guidance of trusted advisors.
• Try new things if they feel right.
• Wait for the energy and/or external conditions to change.
• Lean into your most important values.

One of my best friends died recently, from an extended illness. Even through her death was unexpected, she spent time in her last year exploring her spirituality, including life after death. As shocking as it was to lose her, something felt right about her timing. Pay attention to what you need to do.

Primary Sense

When guidance is rocky, return to your primary sense.

Our PRIMARY sense is simply sensing. Sensing means attending to what happens in your body. Just noticing is the core of all awareness. Sensing is basic, foundational, and primitive–in a good way.

A client wanted to learn to test products for himself. I handed him a poor quality nutritional supplement so he could sense the energy difference between this and an excellent product I gave him to compare. With the first product, he sensed inside, held his hand over his innards and said, “The energy feels sort of curdled.” This word described exactly what I sensed as well.

Sensing is one of the most powerful and overlooked forms of personal guidance. Its primary nature makes sensing less susceptible to distortion and more accessible than other forms of guidance.

When you are compromised and have trouble accessing guidance, simply sensing may work. Without knowing a direction, you can feel your way into something that works. Here is the process:

• Meet the needs of your body as well as possible.
• Find a moment when you can quiet your mind.
• Relax your emotions, especially fears and desires.
• Pay attention to your body and your energy sensations for a baseline.
• Hold a clear intention or visualize a completed action and sense how you feel in your body, especially your heart and gut areas. (Examples: moving to a specific place, trying a particular treatment, taking a certain job.)

Tip: When you try this exercise, be specific about WHEN you are thinking of acting.–It matters.
How do you feel inside when you concentrate on your potential intention?
Compare several different possibilities and attend to your sensations.
Which one feels best?

What do YOU do when guidance is elusive?

Is your self talk supportive or unsupportive when you are having trouble?

One of my readers asked: “What does a person who wants to take guidance-based action do when they can’t be sure they are clear? And they are not likely to get clear in the near future? Sitting on the edge of the pool until adult-swim is over is not an option.”

Since I am addressing all of you, I will answer generally. I will work up to addressing how to find proceed when we are seriously compromised and none of the usual interventions work.

When you are not sure you are clear, you might want to present your body and emotions with a series of tests, challenges, or checks to determine the source of interference. Getting ourselves clear is like tuning your instrument. Your body and energy are your instrument.

First check in with yourself to make sure you have had enough sleep, protein, and water. Low blood sugar or dehydration interfere significantly with clarity. If you are compromised, wait until you handle your basic needs before trying to access guidance.

Next consider whether or not you have been exposed to toxins or allergens. Toxins talk. They don’t have anything nice to say either! Exposure to toxins or allergens creates inflammation, which gets into the brain as well and compromises brain function. Try avoiding all potential allergens and chemical exposure when you need to get clear.

Emotional interference is important but difficult to address. Disentangling convoluted webs of self-sabotage and mixed motivations is advanced and complicated work. I cannot cover it here in total, but here are some places to start:

If you do muscle testing on yourself or another binary form of testing, make sure you are strong in response to the following statements. If you do not use testing, pay careful attention to your body and energy signals as you ask yourself the questions. You will notice that you contract, hold your breath, freeze up, or want to fidget when you are not congruent with a particular statement. Try these:

• “I am willing to get clear guidance.”
• “I am willing to be willing to get clear guidance.”
• “I am willing to get clear guidance about my health.”
“I am willing to be willing to get clear guidance about my health.”
• “I am unwilling to get inaccurate guidance about my health.”
• “I am willing to be aware of all factors that may interfere with my health.”

You may need to ad-lib here to get to your exact issue. Try exchanging the word “safe” for the word “willing.” Also try “I have permission to,” and “deserve to. . . .”

Weakness in response to any of these questions indicates lack of congruence–inner conflict. Any lack of congruence represents active interference with, in this example, health. Inner conflict, which is often unconscious, will express itself in:

• Making what is bad for you seem good
• Making what is bad for you seem terribly appealing
• Making what is good for you seem wrong or annoying
• Blanking out or forgetting and doing things that don’t work for you
• Feeling resistant to what you know you need
• Making excuses or rationalizing ‘why’ you cannot do what you need to do
• Seeking out friends or so-called experts who support misinformation that keeps you stuck or sick
• Using someone, like a spouse, as a ‘reason’ you cannot do what you need
• Setting clear intentions and then doing something else instead
• Forgetting about what you decided to do

As you identify active patterns you need to find a way to clear them.

• First: See them clearly. Pay attention to how they operate in you, without judging.
• Second: Seek to understand and accept the feelings and needs involved with these patterns.
• Third: If you can, use some type of energy-based therapy or technique to clear the related energy to make change easier, like EFT, Thoughtfield Therapy, Blindspot Technique, EMDR, etc. If you do not know how, just think about the patterns and flood yourself with clear light and positive energy, asking to release them.

Almost everyone benefits from assistance with this type of process. If you have significant underlying trauma or illness, or cannot trust yourself, getting help is essential.

Which part of this process do YOU find the most challenging?

What is it about this step that trips you up?

“What is the best way to develop Guidance skills?” (Question from reader.)

This depends whether you mean the best way or the easiest way.

Guidance skills depend on the specific nature of your intuitive assets.

Are you more visual, kinesthetic (feeling,touch and movement), or auditory? Or do you access information via Direct Knowing?

The easiest way to develop Guidance skills is to focus on further developing your strongest suit.

The best way to develop Guidance skills is to explore and expand the inner context within which your skills exist. By “inner context” I mean the compost of your lifetime of experience, turned into vital soil; the sum total of all your learning as the basis of your wisdom. Through assimilation, knowledge is freed from its initial structures and layers itself into your inner sense of knowing. You can improvise instead of playing scales. This type of awareness integrates and transcends structures and categories. It is direct and creative.

Your inner context for guidance includes:

• All that you have learned and studied
• Guidance and healing skills you have developed over time
• Understanding born of direct life experience
• Energies and processes you have absorbed from exposure to other guides
• The wisdom hidden in your weaknesses in addition to your strengths

Your inner context for guidance is expanded by:

• Confronting anything that holds you back from compassionate self-honesty
• Taking on the varied challenges that arise with respect to your personal and your energy boundaries
• Exploring and understanding your values
• Pushing the limits of your current understanding and compassion
• Discovering new types of perception
• Getting clear about who you are
• Learning how and when to use your less-developed intuitive gifts
• Meeting experiences that do not fit your preconceptions of reality
• Encountering and accepting the underlying energy-based reasons for various kinds of ethical behavior
• Learning to treasure and cultivate discernment

Your state of Being and the quality of your Presence are essential to quality guidance. Quality guides are not cultivated by doing some kind of exercise to increase intuitive access. Without context, exercises that enhance intuition can lead to various types of imbalance, including delusion and quandaries with ethics. 

This post series, along with the Inner Work series (under Self-Development tab above) is designed to provide a comprehensive context for balanced and ethical guidance skills. These post series offer a wide range of ways to practice and deepen Guidance skills, from body-based intuition and sensing the energy in a room to exploring profound spiritual states.

The Life Purpose series, which may also be of assistance, debunks some common misconceptions about life purpose. The short External Energies series under Healing tab will also be of service.

I recommend: 

• Work through each series from its beginning. (You will need to go to the square-boxed numbers at the page bottom and navigate to the first post of the series.)
• Get a notebook or journal and answer the questions at the end of each post
• Pay attention to which posts you resonate with and make a note so you can review them down the line as your perspective deepens
• In a separate section of your notebook, write down any of the suggested exercises that call to you
• Practice each exercise on its own for two weeks before going on to another
• Pay attention to concepts, ideas or experiences that bring up issues for you, and gently allow yourself to explore what that’s about
• Write down any questions that arise
• Notice the changes that begin to occur in your intuitive perceptions and orientation toward guidance

I produced this work to fill in important but often overlooked elements necessary to use powerful skills safely, ethically, and without the drawbacks of most belief systems. Beginner and advanced practitioner can both gain insight, inspiration, and personal clarity by working through the series. Obviously different readers will benefit most from different posts.

Accurate guidance rests on congruence between thought, sensation, and emotion. Awareness of our issues and motivations helps to prevent our unconscious material from biasing and distorting our guidance.

What do YOU tend to hide from yourself and why?

What would actually happen if you allowed yourself to be aware of the parts of yourself that you find the hardest to see?

How would being comfortable with these parts impact your guidance skills?

“How do I know when I need to ride out something versus when I need to address it?”

If you can stay balanced and at peace without having to push any issues away, you can let some things ride. If something eats at you or presents an ongoing concern, address it.

Symptoms are wonderful guides. Even when a symptom comes and goes offers valuable information. A passing stomach ache may occur every time you eat an allergen, or whenever you begin to worry. An occasional cramp may indicate a mineral deficiency, which also causes less obvious but more important problems. A headache may tell you that you’re suppressing anger. Energy-based symptoms are also informative.

If you let something go by, observe whether or not it repeats. Bear in mind that the sooner you catch and address an issue the easier it is to correct. This applies to issues with energy and patterns in relationships as well as body symptoms. Don’t wait until issues become established.

Be attentive and intelligent, not neurotic and hypochondriacal. The difference between intelligent and neurotic is not in the subtlety of the issue but in the attitude with which you approach it.

In relationship be proactive, not defensive. Before addressing energy you may be picking up from someone it is essential to ask yourself WHY YOU are open to picking it up. Address your internal state and energy boundaries as soon as you feel distress. Look first to your motivations for doing so before taking this up with another person. If you’re working your own part and the other person is open, talking is good.

Psychic hygiene significantly improves moment-to-moment experience. I scan and make internal corrections right away if something is compromising the integrity of my energy systems.

Many subtle influences are difficult to distinguish from our personal energy fields. Weather patterns and the amount of available sunlight and can influence mood, especially rapidly changing barometric conditions or positive ion storms. Sun spot activity, solar flares, and the pull of a powerful full moon can cause difficult-to-track states.

Over time I have observed that what we might call Cosmic Weather has a significant impact. Influences that create floods, fires and earthquakes bring up human sensitivities. So do intense waves of emotion after disasters, from warfare or political threat.

Working with sensitive clients and checking in with skilled healers and therapists has shown me that local or global influence can be powerful. When my sensitive clients all come in reporting the same states and sensations, a theme emerges. Over time it becomes easier to discern cosmic or global influence.

It might be said that it is best to ride out influences over which we have no control. On the other hand, these influences evoke powerful emotions for which we may prefer support.

Intense conditions can bring to light issues that are less accessible during normal conditions. This is an opportunity to address issues that might otherwise remain buried. Difficult conditions are opportunities to develop a less-assailable state of balance.

I let influences ride out when I experience them as transient discomfort and feel a sense of perspective about them. When they throw me off balance I seek assistance. Sometimes just knowing what they are or having an idea how long they may last is sufficient support.

We want to make sense of our experience. In an attempt to do so we tend to make things up. For example, if external influences (like a positive ion storm) promote anger, we cast about for someone or something to be angry ABOUT, so our world makes sense. It can be a relief to realize that we are simply experiencing a passing sensation that has nothing to do with us.

How much tolerance do YOU have for distress?

Do you tolerate too much, react too much, or maintain a good balance?

Whether we are beginning or advanced, whether we use protocols, body sensations, or intuitive sensing, discernment is considerably enhanced by keeping our energy clear.

Every type of guidance skill is only as reliable as the practitioner is clear. For accurate muscle testing, for example, it is essential to function as a clear instrument. The ability to get accurate information hinges on self-honesty. Authenticity, clarity and self-knowledge are essential to guidance skills.

Being clear about who we are and what we are doing goes a long way toward keeping our energy clean. When confusion or suppressed or unsettled emotions are roiling about, these conditions are expressed in our energy bodies. The resulting energy disturbances also cause energy that does not belong with us to be drawn to us, and to accumulate in related areas.

Energy in our fields ‘talks.’ It can sound like an inner voice, or feel like a particular motivation. You may feel like you want or need something, or ‘hear’ a voice expressing what you think is a personal emotion or desire. When you clear your energy this desire or voice immediately disappears, showing that it was an expression of accumulated energy, possibly from another source.

Boundary confusion exacerbates muddled energy. If we cannot tell whether an issue or an energy is our own or someone else’s, it is more likely to hang around.

When you use any kind of testing or discernment, notice whether you feel the least bit squirrelly. If you feel unclear, evasive, sly, disconnected, or a lack of continuity, clear yourself or stop until you can trust your information. Avoid testing when unclear. This helps to develop a groove of success, so you develop self trust. Begin with issues that are not highly charged, about which you do not feel conflict.

When I feel squirrelly, I do various tests on myself to discover whether or not I am able and willing to receive accurate information. I still need to do this if I am accessing something about which I have strong feelings or opinions. Detachment and ruthless self-observation are essential. The ability to unravel unconscious resistance to accurate information takes training, practice, and work with skilled practitioners.

Clear energy is necessary for clear perception. Compromised energy distorts perception. If you sense that your energy is not clear, try your discernment again when you feel more clear and focused.

These interventions can enhance clarity:

• Spend fifteen or twenty minutes sitting on the ground or on a rock. The magnetics of the ground itself can clear and balance some energies.
• Shower, with the intention of clearing your fields. Alternating warm and cold water can help. The colder the water the more it clears.
• Make sure your blood sugar is balanced. Eat protein regularly.
• Clear the rooms you spend time in. There are lots of techniques for this. In my extensive experience frankincense works best. (If you email a request I’ll send you detailed instructions.)
• Practice Qi Gong to learn to generate, direct and recognize energy, or yoga to get your energy flowing more smoothly through your body.
• Make sure your upper neck is in place. Misalignment can make you foggy.
• Avoid toxins such as alcohol, drugs, allergens, pesticides and chemicals. Resulting inflammation creates brain fog.
• Relax any emotional reactivity or over-concern about others, including criticism.
• When you need your clarity, visualize cutting and releasing all psychic connections and “cords” (sticky energy links between two people, forged by needs, awkward obligation, or attachment). Cross everyone off your inner to-do lists until you’re ready to actually communicate.
• Release emotional investment in information or events turning out to your liking.
• Be willing to be wrong and open to being surprised.

Use these effective energy-clearing devices to throw off energy from external sources and clarify your energy. 

What do YOU do to clear your energy?

What is your biggest challenge with discernment?