Inspired to RELAX, Inspired to BE

Do you ever feel like you have to do it all on your own?

Like there just isn't enough energy and inspiration within you to get it all done or to make some good magic with your life?

I know exactly what you mean.

After recently experiencing the joy of receiving an amazing book offer, and going forward with that relationship, I have been faced with not only the enchantment and wonderfulness of all of that, but also the strong feeling of oh shit, now what? While the answer may seem obvious, (now what=edit, share more, put yourself out there), the "now whats" that we often feel do not arise out of a stupor of not knowing "what to do," but rather from the energetic plateau we meet again and again throughout or lives where doing feels contrived or inspiration feels blocked.

Now what? can be daunting when the energy is not there for a participation in whatever is happening, particularly when you think it should be. How many times in your life have you attempted to muster up the energy for this or that because you thought you "should" or because you believed you "needed to," only to feel more exhausted and out-of-touch as a result? We all know what that is like.

When we have expectations about how we should feel or what should be happening, and we get on that bandwagon of actually believing those expectations, then we are in for quite the ride. Why? A few reasons. First off, although we know what is best for us in the innermost sense, we do not know how that is meant to manifest. In other words, it may be your dharma and your truth to focus your energy on this or that project, but you may need to rest this week and focus on your inner world in order to really be able to show up in all of your power and glory. There might be the most amazing, perfect event happening on Thursday night, but if your spirit is saying stay home or I need to be in solitude, then to go to that event on Thursday night is to pull yourself out of alignment and, believe it or not, actually delay you in living out the most aligned unfolding. Whoever you thought you'd meet at that event, well, you probably would not meet the most ideal match for you; rather, you'd actually meet that harmonic match naturally, like walking to get a cup of coffee the next morning after a good night to yourself.

If you just stayed in on Thursday night, perhaps meditated or took a warm bath and just let yourself be, who knows? Perhaps, in that deep relaxation, the perfect next step would arise. The divine inspiration would swirl through your being upon you finally having space to let go. When we let go and let God, the possibilities are truly endless!

We are never goin' it alone. When we start to feel that way, it is a signal that we need to rest and remember. We are putting too much pressure on ourselves to do or to be something we are not or to fill out imagined shoes of who we think we need to become. It's all a trip and it's just a trip to take you home. Within yourself. At peace, and giving space for God to rush through your being and light up your cells. Divine inspiration always comes in divine timing. That's just the way it is.

As for me, I am drinking my own medicine. The past week included a few challenges and plenty of tears, and I did my best to let each tear clean the lens of the flashlight so that I may peer inside and see more clearly. So that I may help liberate whatever needs liberating. By resting into each moment and staying clear-eyed for what I am being shown, I know the way is cleared for inspiration to have the space to rise, and that is the best I can do. And that is enough. In the end, it's all one big opportunity to see more, clear more, love more and be more...which really just means: see, clear, love, be... there is no more when we are with these aspects of being.

Furthermore, I realize that I am, actually inspired right now: I'm inspired to be. I am the inspiration of restfulness. Inspiration is not meant to equate to doing.

So remember, there is no "should." We feel how we feel, and that is that. How we feel is never right and never wrong. How we feel benefits not from our judgement, but from our listening. When we slow down and move deeper within, past the details of what it all seems to be about, and listen to what our being is actually saying... we fall into alignment, we fall into grace, and we remember our divine place.

Let yourself be... let go of the pressure. Everything happens in its time and we have no idea what that actually is. Keep listening to yourself carefully and with love, and all is then as aligned as it can be.

Honoring Your Humanity and Embodying Divinity at the Same Time

The duality this possibility presents can be challenging for many. How can I dive into my feelings in all the rawness of their corners and simultaneously embody my divinity, my deeper truth? Doesn't the act of going into the feelings take me away from the truth, from the stillness, and deeper into duality?

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In the deep dive of feeling, potent treasures of wisdom await. It takes great courage to explore the mysterious, powerful ocean of feeling, and there is much insight to receive. Each emotional experience is there to open you, to clear spaces that are tight, that are in resistance, so they may melt back into receptive spaces for love.

Emotions carry the essence of water, and like water, they move through spaces and push through barriers on their way. Consider it like this: when something happens and a trigger arrives and feelings erupt, it is like a big waving flag that says "dig here." Dig here to see where you are still stuck, where you need more acceptance. It is an invitation to salvation.

The recipe here includes surrender and detachment. You can feel the fullness of what is happening without attaching to it or identifying with it. Letting it flow through you is purity. When the mind comes in, you move into illusion. It is the resistance and analysis that moves you away from truth because then, you are no longer witnessing. Then, you are in identification, fear and scrutiny.

The divinity is in accepting whatever thoughts, feelings, and beliefs may come, without analysis and attachment. It comes when you let the mystery take over, when you let yourself become one with this ocean and allow it show you what it needs to show you. As far as I can know, it is impossible for the mind to reveal spiritual truth. Feeling, however, can trigger the remembrance of truth. It can inspire the awareness that you are to realize or remember truth. So just let the experience be the meditation it is meant to be.

The key to remaining in truth is in watching to make sure you remain out of identification with any stories, beliefs or thoughts that may have brought you to this moment, and with the feelings themselves. The key is in surrender, in letting go, in letting what is coming to come and eventually, to pass. This is the embodiment of divinity: being aware that all in front of you is here for your growth and wisdom, and not denying that which is natural for you, (in this case: an eruption of feeling). You are not these feelings that are passing, (nor are they "yours"), you are simply that which witnesses their song. Feel them with an openness to learn from their poetry. Allow what is coming to come and pass, greet them with your open arms.

When your are resting as the awareness that you are, how could you be anything but the embodiment of divinity?  The ultimate "spiritual goal," (if there was one), is not to transcend feelings and emotion or treat them like unmanageable ego-consequences that must go. Imagine how uninspiring life would be! How dead! You, like all the planets, plants and creatures on this Earth, are here to grow and evolve. Emotional experiences are often catalysts for great transformation and on their lighter side, they are sweet songs that caress and delight our souls.

Celebrate your humanness with awareness and patience, and watch everything fall into place as you open evermore, evermore, evermore.

The Space in Which We Dream

 

We know the dream space is powerful. It is a place where we have open access to the great universal mind, and the aspects within that great one mind which we refer to as our ("personal") subconscious. In this space, unresolved matters have the potential to play themselves out to resolution. Wishes and fears reveal themselves, so that they may be disempowered by your pure and simple awareness. Psychic channels are traveled through as we remember the possibility of what has already happened, (viewed as "the future"), so that we may walk with more clear intention and accountability on our path. The list of what we are capable of becoming aware of in our dreaming state is endless.

We can connect with guides and spirit animals, and receive key details of important messages, but whether we are asleep or awake in this sacred playground is entirely up to us. It is easy to accidentally treat this space as a time to escape and fall into a deeper sleep state, keeping our awareness in atrophy from the unconscious waking state into the deeper unconscious sleeping space. Intelligently entering the dreamworld for a restful psychic journey is also easy, it is just a new choice to make. Both possibilities are at our fingertips.

Choose to enter blindly, and you'll find yourself constantly having mash-up dreams where all the little crumbs of your days turn into nothing more than a dust cloud of incohesion. Or you "won't remember them." Choose to enter with intention and awareness, and a whole world of heart-opening, healing, and freedom becomes possible. The only necessary ingredients are awareness and choice.

How you engage your time before resting your head on your pillow is the choice. Do you end a frustrating day, or a lackluster day, or even a great day by cruising off to sleep in what is essentially ignorance? (Ignorance of the power of choices, that is.) Or do you honor your life and say hey, I'm going to take a moment to walk through this door with my eyes open. I deserve to deepen my feeling of peace, truth, ease and well-being... and I have, (I am), the potential of a fuller, ever-evolving embodiment of these things.

The base of the recipe you need to work with for conscious dreaming is simply meditation. It includes you doing whatever you need to do: lighting candles, cleansing your space with sage, chanting, deep breathing. It includes you letting go of the energy accumulated throughout the day, from the angry person on his phone at the coffee shop beside you to the way your partner ticked you off at lunch. It includes you being accountable for what triggers you, breathing open space into those tight spots, and setting the intention to resolve the disharmony within you in the dream space. It includes you praying to receive visions and clarity and to take astral flight.

And that wide open space that you fly into is where you can remain when you wake up. It is the wide open sky of truth. With dedication, you will begin to realize the part of you that is aware of these dreams is the same part of you that watches your waking life. You will begin to work with the subtle languages of life, of energy, and before you know it, you'll notice yourself holding the magic wand of your life, intentionally moving through each moment with awareness and power.

As always, go for it. Remember the power of your heart.