Inner Wisdom

"My energy today, and every day, is favorable for letting go of what no longer serves and embarking on new and exciting journeys. And all I have to do is decide." ~lani chaves

So funny to quote myself, I know. Me, a budding painter now wants to he a budding writer. I want my passion to be creative to be of some use to others. But I have no idea what that looks like. I do not know how to begin, and I haven't a clue what I have that others may want. 

So I am submitting the most specific question I can think up to help move me along on my path...

"What is mine to do, be or say today that will bring me great joy and also serve well myself and others?

I now let this well considered question go - knowing that by merely asking this well considered question mindfully and with an open heart, the answer is on it's way to me. 

This asking well considered questions and easily receiving answers, has become part of a practice of living a life of JOY & EASE. For I have discovered we all have exceptionally easy access to our own questions. And within every well formed question, asked with an open and receptive heart, exists hidden within it an answer perfectly taloired to our specific need!

What is your well considered question, the answer to which will change your life forever for the better?

Tag. You're It!

Energy Work

"Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth,"You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky." ~ Hafiz

Energy. 

Can you feel it inside you? It is always there, usually very subtle, but always there. I am feeling great gobs of it right now because big changes are happening all around me! 

Tuning into your own energy has got to be a good thing. Awareness of any kind is a good thing, but energy awareness is really a good thing.  It is not your mind. It is you in a purer form. It is one of the most subtle forms of communication. It is a very real, deep, and wordless thing. I was never taught this. It was not an option growing up. But I know it now and it helps to guide me.

Energy has no words, but it communicates just the same. When I tune in, sit quiet and still, I am practicing the art of feeling the flow of energy. A natural river inside me, it connects me to energy all around me. The more I consciously make time to practice, do energy awareness work, the easier it becomes. 

I am not going to say what it means or how it works or why it is, or where it comes from. It has no words - remember! But I have found that because of my work - my energy awareness work - when I am not practicing, just living my daily life, I pick up quicker on things important to me because I am so much more closer to the surface of my authentic life. I love this accessibility! I trust it. It grounds me. It informs me…all without words. 

Energy has become a silent place inside me that feels like home. For this ever deepening awareness of my own inner compass I am so grateful.


Could you use an artisanal compass personally crafted by time, energy, and awareness? Isn't this work worth doing?

Tag. You're It.

Manifesting: A 1-2-3 Primer

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for – and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool – for love – for your dreams – for the adventure of being alive."

~Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Don't be trapped by what you see all around you. Be informed by it. Look all around you and you can see what your beliefs truly are. Look even closer and you can see what displeases you. This part may feel painful, but it is the first step. 

The contrast between what you see and what you want to experience is the cause of the pain. 

Now that you have become aware, you can make a new choice. You can decide how you wish to feel. You can choose your next experience consciously. This is the second step.

Once you commit to having a new experience manifest, you must use every tool you have to make manifest your new more soul satisfying life. This is the third step.

The Tools:

1) Your words are tools. Pay attention to what you say. What is your "I am" experience? Listen to yourself as you claim who you are. Recognize the old and create a new "I am" experience. Words are some of the most plastic and flexible tools we have. When you become more aware of the words you say, you can easily manipulate them as you like. This is the first lesson in manifestation.

2) Your thoughts are your tools. Pay attention to what you are thinking. You are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are almost as flexible as your words. When you recognize a thought that creates a low or negative vibration you are on your way to the second manifestation lesson. Become a witness to your own thoughts. Make an exchange, like clothes that don't fit any more. If your old thought does not match the new experience you wish to have, choose a new thought more in alignment.

3) Your commitment or intention is your tool. As you become increasingly aware of your words and your thoughts it will be your new responsibility to corral, brand and tame those words and thoughts that are out of alignment with your intentions and to change, create, and manifest words and thoughts that completely and holistically align with your new way of being.

None of this happens overnight, but if you are willing to do the work you will find the life you are currently living easily transforming into the life you choose to live.

One final note: You are working with feelings, vibrations, and experiences; NOT bank accounts, materials things like cars, or relationships. Leave those things for another time. This is all internal work. And by the way, when you do this internal work all those other things somehow organically change as well!


Are you ready for a change?

Tag. You're It!

Newly Minted Butterfly

"The people of this world are like the three butterflies in front of a candle's flame.

 The first one went closer and said, ' I know about love.' 

The second one touched the flame lightly with his wings and said, ' I know how love's fire can burn.'

The third one threw himself into the heart of the flame and was consumed. 

He alone knows what true love is." 

~rumi

The yellow splashed monarch girl swirls back sideways then across and down and I wonder what it is like to be a newly minted butterfly? Seems she is both aimless and joyful as she flits past me on her first butterfly day of this almost springtime. Is she missing her multitude of caterpillar's feet bouncing on air trying out her new wings? I wonder if she still has her caterpillar eyes; if this is her maiden voyage out and about? 

What is it like to know so well how to slink, crawl and stick slowly forward from branch to leaf and have new 'fucking' wings to deal with at the same time? I know something of losing my footing. But I know little about finding out I have wings. 

How is it to awaken from a long cold dark night, unfurl your sails, and let the wind catch them and carry you away. That effortless first flight must feel so abnormal! Can a butterfly scream? Can she fly and see herself flying at the same time? 

I wonder what it is like to be a newly minted butterfly letting go of her past and floating on air? She doesn't eat the same things she used to eat either. Munching leaves seems to be impossible now. Is she worried she will starve to death right before she accidentally bumps into her very first flower, proboscis extended, having her first taste of nectar so sweet?

It must be a time of great confusion and amazing discovery all at once... I guess I do know a little about what it is like to find out I have wings. And, now that I think about it - yes I can fly and see myself flying at the same time. For this awareness I am grateful. It helps to carry me higher and farther than I have ever been before. And I scream a lot less now!


Have you ever experienced the awkwardness of finding out you've got wings?

Tag! You're It!

Moving On

"Stop thinking so much. It is alright NOT to have all the answers."

When I think about moving on I am stymied by the shear weight of the task. The letting go of old things, the sorting and packing. The gargatuan schematic that has to be created so everthing gets done right, with a place for everything and everthing in it's new place. 

When I feel about moving on I recognize the immediate appropriateness of allowing, even celebrating, change in all things. Then I can collapse my bag of worries and sorrows and get excited by the amazing new adventure before me. 

I imagine both ot these ideas are True for me. They carry me forward. They both have their place in my world. One pragmatic and one more lofty. I think I will give into adventure, it will make packing up so much more fun!

How do you support your soul's self when faced with moving on?

Tag. You're It!

Summoning What Really Matters

Okay, let's take a moment and use all our powers of imagination. Let's pretend for the next 10 minutes. Let's crank up our happiness quotient as if we are children making things up just to try things on and see how they feel… just for the fun of it.

Are you there with me? Is your sense of wonder and excitement palpable? Is your heart racing fast like mine is? Okay - now in this creative feast of a moment pretend your wildest dream has just come true! 

...hey what just happened? 

My imagination just totally shutdown. And my excitement just dropped off a cliff. I had no idea how hard this was until I actually tried it. Turns out imagining as attained your most amazing hoped for outcome in a pretend moment of exaltation is r-e-a-l-l-y scary! To hold space for this kind of completeness, I must confess, is way passed my abilities right now. 

Maybe I need to work up to this "imagination challenge" by first pretending I just read a great book in which the hero made it through some horrible gauntlet and then finally achieved her heart's desire. Perhaps right now that is the best I can do - see my dream as happening to somebody else who is not only NOT ME, but NOT EVEN REAL!
Oh but…

...wouldn't it be grand to feel the way the hero feels - to feel the foggy giddiness of pure joy that eclipses all other joys? To allow my body to fall back in a beautiful crush of surrender and elation knowing nothing else mattered and I could die happy knowing that I have missed out on NOTHING. Wouldn't it feel fabulous to have finally got that which my soul has been demanding for so so long!

Yes, yes, yes, I feel it now. It feels warm in the middle of my chest. It feels like vast and never ending pink and green BLISS.

Hey! I did it! I imagined it!

I guess the trick is to let go of the mind's particulars, the never ending detailed plans, and just work our imagination muscle long and hard enough until our thoughts find their way to (or from) our hearts.

Feeling blissful emotions creates electrical charges you know. Whether these charges arise organically from a reaction to real world circumstance or whether they are actively summoned from a deep well of conscious imagination the energy is exactly the same. 

This is the energy that manifests desire into form. This fundamental understanding is the driver that churns dreams into reality. If this is new information you may find it difficult at first to believe, but it does get easier with practice. And I am convinced if we can begin a practice of dreaming and freely feeling our dreams, the rest will take care of itself.

Experiment and see. Summon your child-like self again. It will be fun, I promise.


What have you got to lose?
Tag. You're It!

Unpack Your Love

"I believe we are all held safely by Love."

"Unpack your Love" is what came through the meditations. "Unpack it. Open it. See into all it's light and shadow.  Inspect all that is included in your thinking about Love." 

My Love includes Attraction, Sex, Parenting, Kindness, Hurt, Compassion, Self-Loathing, Abandonment, Attachment and Detachment, Unconditional Trust, Grief, Joy and sushi! I guess this is NOT a carry-on bag?

I had only experienced Love like an ON/OFF switch. I loved my husband and he loved me. That was it! But I never knew how much Love could grow, that Love takes many forms, and that Love can show up in many different ways. Then Life and Death circumstances showed up and taught me more about Love. 

Experiencing my husband's complete surrender to an illness and his complete trust in me to care for him changed me. I saw how friends, new and old, supported us. In this way we have all been changed. And when Mike died I came to know him in another way. This changed me too. 

It was the hardest work I have ever done, but he and all my friends helped me to live again. Slowly I have come back from Hell. Slowly I have gotten to really know my authentic self. And it is Love in all these many forms that has shown me the way. 

Love begets more of itself; I have seen this. And I have experienced how Love surrounds and dwells inside all things. And through all of this I have felt Love get bigger and bigger and bigger. And it makes me wonder, "Just how big can Love get?"

To some this may sound cliche and simplistic. To others it may seem impossible. But Love grows exponentially when you nuture it. This is my Truth and to this day this Truth undergirds all my doings.

My own path is still uncertain, the details on how to make my dreams come true are fuzzy, but the clarity of how Love serves to guide my way is crystal clear. To this I am completely reverent. 

Gary Zukav, author of Seat of the Soul says, "Reverence is engaging in a form and a depth of contact with Life that is well beyond the shell of form and into essence."

I believe holding reverance for Love has caused me to look for Love in every circumstance. And in doing so Love teaches me to listen for it's lesson. This reverence for Love, in all it's forms, involves caring for my own well being first... and from this creates a great compassion for everyone else. This way instead of being ruled by or resistant to life's happenings I am moved forward by Love's immense power. Love has shown up in many forms for me over and over like this. In this way I have moved mountains.

I can move these mountains because Love has shown me they do not exist. 

What resides inside your ideas of Love?

Tag You're It!