present
The Power Of Mindfulness
Many spiritual and metaphysical teachers focus much attention on spiritual practices like meditation and mindfulness. The goal of these practices is to allow our consciousness to shift away from the past and the future, to focus instead on the present moment.
It is important to understand that the past is over. There is nothing taking place in the past any longer. This is important to understand if someone has a habit of rehashing the past in their mind. It doesn’t matter if someone is focusing on positive past experiences or negative events. Too much attention on the past is never useful.
The future is another area where people expend a lot of mental attention. Fantasy and worry are the two most common focuses when obsessing over the future. However, there is no amount of fantasy or worry that can ever make someone’s life better.
When we expend too much of our energy on the past or future, we are sacrificing the precious present moment. For this reason many spiritual teachings and traditions encourage mindfulness and meditation. These practices allow us to recognize our daily thought patterns and help us gain an understanding of where our attention is focused.
The present is the only moment that is real and that truly matters. This is where everything is happening – in the now. This is also the only moment where you have any real power.
The Sweet Nectar Of Romantic Relationships
The energy of the hummingbird brings immense wisdom to be shared with us. When he appears it is always such a treat, as I have learnt so much from this amazing bird, including about love and romantic relationships.
When the hummingbird comes into my life asking to be painted, my vision blurs. I can then only see my artwork clearly and the brush strokes needed to finish his painting. I have learned that sometimes our own vision needs to become blurred, so that what we are seeking can be shown to us.
I have also learned that the ‘narrowed vision’ of hummingbird is vital to the health and vitality of our relationships, especially those of a romantic nature. When we keep our focus firmly on the present moment and the feelings we share with our partner in this moment, rather than on the negative thoughts, concerns or expectations, we blur out the noise.
This allows for a breaking away from the old energy patterns and lack consciousness that too often govern the roles played out in our relationships. It allows for a simplicity to arise in the communion and communication with our partner.
The hummingbird gathers nectar from the flower through its power of focus and natural instincts. It trusts its own innate nature to choose the flowers that will nourish and feed it. Finding trust in our own feelings and intuition is important, so that our relationships are nourished and allowed to blossom from within.
There Are No Clocks In The Spirit World
I attended a lecture at the Arthur Findlay College of Psychic Research in the United Kingdom many years ago, during which I recall the speaker saying, “There are no clocks and watches in the spirit world.”
He explained further that those of us who do psychic readings must bear in mind that as much as our spirit helpers do their best to give us some indication of time-frames, timing can actually be very tricky.
He also emphasized how we tend to get obsessed with time in our world. While we are constantly racing against the clock, our ‘inner states’ change over time. Sometimes, we may feel that we are beating the clock, and it feels empowering for a while, but there often comes moments when we wish we had more time to ‘just be’ and to feel connected to the very source of our being. To truly feel the state we are in.
When we are fully aware of the state we are in, for example the beginning of depression, we are able to process it and deal with it, instead of ‘chasing our tails’ until our mind and body eventually forces us to stop… and really feel the discomfort!
More importantly, when we return to the spirit world one day, our environment there will not be determined by time, but by the state we are in when we leave our current physical body.
How Life Taught Me To Seize Each Moment
If your life is anything like mine, then it is a string of constant changes and random events. Welcome to my boat! And don’t worry about bringing any oars, we won’t be needing them.
When I married my husband, almost twenty years ago, we embarked together on a wild ride that is the military life. Holding hands and ready for a thrill, we signed up for an experience that has indeed been thrilling, and at times quite chilling. More than anything, it taught me very valuable life lessons. In fact, I find that many of my clients go through similar experiences, in a different form, of course, but they still arrive at the same realization.
Imagine for a second what happens when you go whitewater rafting and the power of moving water throws the boat off course. You automatically reach to grab on to something, to maintain your balance and, preferably, to remain safely in the boat. The same thought patterns geared towards survival are wired in our brain pathways for all circumstances in life.
As our plans and dreams get thrown up in the air, due to external circumstances, or sometimes, divinely orchestrated events, we subconsciously tighten up our grip, to make sure that we retain at least some kind of control over the circumstances, including, our safety and stability.
In my case, if we were told to move to the place that was not anywhere on the list of our moving preferences, I would immediately fast-forward in my mind to the next action step I should take, to bring this uncontrolled environment into something I could grasp.
The Dreary Room Of Unbearable, Silent Suffering
Some people spend their life as if they are trapped in a cheap motel room with drawn, yellowed shades and a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door. Is this possibly your life too?
To ponder such an important question, to be sure, brings an illuminating insight not necessarily appreciated until consciously recognized – but not while holding a ‘passing fancy’ flippant attitude of nonchalant concern. Long-awaited release often only arrives after the slit, which has formed from those unbalanced motel drapes, offers a hint of brightness to the dreary room of denial and pretense.
Too many days of too many lives are dissipated in unexpressed anger, masked as benevolent concern. Until you come to grips with the gnawing unsettling disturbance, in your chest, you will, in no way, be able to embrace the fullness of unfulfilled potential in your life.
Raw adventure, insatiable variety, fun-loving spontaneity, and serendipitous enjoyment: words which now maybe symbolize an alien state of mind for you, are but a numbing reminder of how easily things which were so much a part of your life have slipped into another phase, which does no longer interests you in the least. In other words, could it be that you have become an unbearable bore to yourself and others?
You know how to create unending comedy in all of our endeavors, but may have forsaken the practice for a duller, somber, ‘more responsible,’ serious nature… which you feel is more appropriate and acceptable. You need to be more committed, you say, and much more dependable, in order to be happy. But, pray tell me, what has happened to your contented spirit? Where is your vivaciousness and vitality? By working so hard to achieve a specific way of producing certain results, you have deposited yourself in a sealed bank vault where there seems to be no possible method of withdrawal.
Facing Yourself As The Other In Your Relationship
Relationships are funny things. They are by their very nature designed to elicit the best and worst from the individuals involved in them.
Although it may appear in a relationship as if you are involved with another distinct person, you are, in fact involved with an underlying, obscured part of yourself, which needs identifying and relating to. With appropriate understanding and recognition, you can see your way clear to an insightful experience.
Once having subjected yourself to the nebulous involvement, you will no longer need to refer to your actions with dread of ‘doing the wrong thing,’ or suffering unnecessary hurt. You will comprehend that it is impossible to avoid anything and there is no guarantee associated with the leap into the depths of your own foreboding abyss.
The fact of the matter is that you will emerge unscathed and filled with unmistakable self-knowledge and power attached to the plummeting into the relational depths of tense despair. By facing both the dark side and light side of your vehemently nervous, fretful mind, you will be freed from the bonds of panic and contentious worry that forever plague you.
Your undisclosed, insecure personality, as revealed in the other person, is laden with criticism, negativity and lack of confidence, based upon the premise of unawareness. The guilt, anxiety, and duty you have attached to personal responsibility in the outcome of the relationship is nothing short of nauseating. You are not that important in the material scope of things.
The Blind Men And The Elephant
If you consult with various psychics on a regular basis, then you have probably found that you tend to receive varied, and sometimes even contradictory information from them. Whenever I am asked about this, I explain it by relaying the old fable in which six blind men set off to try and ‘see’ an elephant.
In this story, the first man touches the elephant’s side, and says it is very much like a wall. The second man touches the tusk and declares that it is like a spear. The third man grabs the trunk, and declares it is similar to a snake. The fourth man touches the leg and is sure it is like a tree. The fifth man touches the ear, and says it is like a fan. The last man touches the tail and is sure it is like a rope. They then discuss what exactly an elephant is.
This is very much how psychic readings work, and why different psychics may give you different information. Each psychic’s talents and reading process are as unique as they are. Some are very good at identifying issues from the past, or old karmic patterns that have helped put their client in the situation they face today. Others are very good at reading the current energy and events in the client’s life. Still others may have a knack for peering into your future. Some are good at all three.
Certain psychics are also excellent at providing specific ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers or timelines, while others may be much more adept at offering in-depth guidance and comprehensive information. Some are good at names, while others are better at describing people and places.