Category: Universe

Open Your Heart

4/16/2019

“Be willing to dare different things and try different things. Comfort zone and rut are synonymous. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable, but when you get stuck in a comfort zone you are in a rut.”
-Red Feather

Inspired by Michael A. Singer’s The Surrender Experiment, (see the previous post below in Trust God, “Say Yes!”) I read Untethered Soul, also by Michael A. Singer. Once again I was challenged to open myself and grow even further. Though Untethered Soul was written before The Surrender Experiment the order in which the books came to me was exactly right.

Untethered Soul extends the teachings from The Surrender Experiment into staying open in every situation that feels uncomfortable, observing your discomfort, allowing the discomfort, feeling it, breathing through it and releasing it. Staying with the situation, no running away, no hiding, no avoidance, no protection, no closing off, only observing, experiencing and releasing. Saying, "Yes," to keeping your heart open.

Just reading about it at first brought up fear for me. That’s understandable. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to avoid and protect myself from emotional discomfort. Yet in doing so I’ve locked up my heart, imprisoning myself in order to feel safe, effectively shutting off my heart energy in many areas of my life.

After reading Untethered Soul, I chose to say, “Yes,” to moving through those layers of fear in which I hid from pain, tried to fix events, tried to protect my sensitive self, and avoided emotional discomfort in my life.

It is freedom I seek, freedom above all else. Emotional freedom, mental freedom, physical freedom and spiritual freedom. The wisdom in this book showed me the next step to that freedom.

This morning my heart opens to a feeling of excitement for what Life will bring me today. I choose to free myself by accepting, saying “Yes,” allowing myself to push my comfort envelope. That sense of excitement is about opening to freedom, the freedom to say, “Yes!” to life and all it offers.

How often have I been reminded of Red Feather saying that comfort is synonymous with being in a rut? Pushing one’s comfort envelope is where our growth is. Apparently, it doesn’t even have to be a big push, just one small, “yes,” at a time, allowing something new into your life or allowing yourself to breathe through a fear.

I’ve been practicing, amazed to discover how many times each day I feel that little twinge of constriction in my chest that signals a fear response. I had no idea fear was so much a part of my daily life. When fear pops up my mind gets busy explaining it to me and what I need to do to fix it. But rather than listening, I focus upon observing the sensation, just noticing that it is there without judgment. I breathe deeply into that feeling in my chest, consciously breathing in relaxation, and letting the sensation of fear go on each out breath. Sometimes it releases on one breath, sometimes more. I stay with it, breathing and relaxing until once more I feel at ease.

When I travel someplace new, taking in new sights, smells, tastes, doing new things, it gives me a feeling of excitement, a sense of aliveness. I thought I had to travel to experience that. Not so. I can experience that every day just by saying, “Yes.”

We can all experience that excitement, that aliveness, that love. Every day can be a day of discovery, experiencing new things and growing into freedom as we keep our hearts open.

Your Spiritual Toolbox

The teaching in Untethered Soul is about saying an internal “Yes,” to every emotional experience in which you find yourself, most especially the uncomfortable ones. “Yes, this is an opportunity to release a little more fear by keeping my heart open. Yes, this is an opportunity to grow myself. Yes, this is an opportunity to grow into a little more freedom. Yes, I keep my heart open. I choose to observe, relax, breathe and release.”

Let’s give our minds a new job. That job is to notice discomfort, relax into observation, breathe and release. No more fixing. No more hiding. No more protecting. No more closing off. Staying with discomfort as it arises, right here, right now, observe, relax, breathe and release.

Do these ideas bring up fear or resistance for you? Do you feel a twinge of constriction in your heart? That’s your heart responding with fear and closing to protect. Close your eyes, breathe deeply into it, relaxing your chest area, your heart chakra. Release the fear through your out breath. Open your heart.

Our body’s respond habitually. Our hearts have learned to close in for protection. Release that now and open to what Life/God/the Universe bring you today and every day. Open yourself to freedom.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

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Say, "Yes!"

4/12/2019

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"When you say ‘yes’ to Spirit you are saying ‘yes’ to the Universe. Trust that, have confidence in that. Trust that when you claim it the Universe steps in and supports you."

"Be willing to dare different things and try different things. Comfort zone and rut are synonymous. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable, but when you get stuck in a comfort zone you are in a rut."

-Red Feather

I just finished reading what is a pivotal book for me, The Surrender Experiment, by Michael A. Singer. It found me, through a friend who offered it. I almost said, “No, I’ve got too many other things to read.” Which is an enjoyable instruction because the book is all about saying, “Yes,” to whatever the Universe offers. It is about recognizing and releasing the inner voice that tells you, “I prefer this, and I don’t prefer that. I want this. I don’t want that.” It is about awareness of that inner dialog that is a culmination of all your past experiences and is an attempt at controlling and manipulating your outer world so that you can feel safe. It is about acknowledging that when you close yourself off to experience and what is offered anew each day by the Universe because of your preferences based on past experiences, you close yourself to the river of joy which is your true self. He teaches that preferences and self-concept, limit us. That voice in my head that speaks of preferences, judgments, good and bad, want and don’t want, is the voice of my ego. It lives in the past.

Michael A. Singer writes about learning to release his preferences and saying, “Yes.” He teaches about accepting requests made of him even if they don’t fit in with his self-concept, even if they interfere with his idea about how he wants things to be. He writes of the incredible experiences that come to him because he said, “Yes.”

"Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them."

-Jim Carrey

This idea is wonderfully demonstrated in the movie, Yes Man, starring Jim Carrey. It is a humorous and touching story of an emotionally closed man who opens his heart by reluctantly saying, “yes,” to each experience the Universe offers him. I highly recommend it.

So, what would it be like if we started each day anew? If we released the past and experienced what the Universe offers us today? What would it look like if we said, “Yes?”

I choose now to say, “Yes.” I choose now to say, “OK, let’s see what the Universe is offering me with this experience today.” I choose now to begin each day anew.

Your Spiritual Toolbox

How about allowing each day to be a new beginning?

How about releasing your ideas of your self and your self-concepts?

How about if you release your ideas of your role, what you do and don’t do, even what you like and don’t like?

What if you choose to accept, be available, feel vulnerable, feel joy, feel scared, feel open and not closed?

What if you say, “Yes,” to each moment, to each experience, and know it is ALL FOR YOUR BENEFIT.

This means that each day is new, a treasure hunt of experience, and you are opening each day to what the Universe offers.

The Universe is always offering something. Sometimes it looks like what attracts you, fascinates you, feels good. Sometimes it looks like an experience you think you don’t want, but if you allow it, say “Yes,” it can lead you into growth and freedom you might never have anticipated.

Photo by Zachary Nelson on Unsplash

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Be In Your Heart

10/11/2018

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“If my heart could do my thinking, and my head begin to feel, I would look upon the world anew, and know what’s truly real.”
— Van Morrison

Be in your heart. How often have we heard that advice or something similar? But what does it mean? What does being in your heart look like? Can we even approach being in our heart with the analytical mind? Maybe not.

So what does it feel like?

It feels like living as the child in you most wants to live, living in trust and innocence. Trusting that the Universe is a beneficent place in which to live. Knowing that you are loved and cared for. Innocent of any knowledge of separation so there is no need for judgment or making the self or other wrong.

Being in your heart feels centered and expansive, for this is your true home, and all the different aspects of you recognize this and relax as you allow yourself to be in that space.

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Take a deep breath and feel the air expanding the area around your heart.

Visualize a beautiful, emerald green light, the color of your heart chakra, filling your chest and expanding outward.

Now take another breath, deepening the green light in your chest. See the light expanding outward from your chest into a sphere.

Keep breathing deeply as the green light expands outward to totally surround your body.

Continue to breathe deeply into your heart filling and surrounding yourself with beautiful emerald light expanding the sphere bigger and bigger.

Now allow your breathing to relax into a normal rhythm and sit within your heart space, breathing and feeling the expansion for as long as it feels good to you.

Throughout the day if you find thoughts of judgment or fear uppermost in your mind, take a moment to close your eyes and breathe deeply. Feel the emerald green light filling your chest once again reminding you of where your true home is.

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Trust God

Open Your Heart

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Say, "Yes!"

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Be In Your Heart

Your Spiritual Toolbox

"Behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

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