self-sabotage
The Empowering Wisdom Of Forgiveness
Although I consider myself a very spiritual person, forgiveness has not always been one of my strengths. In fact, I used to struggle with forgiving those who had hurt or wronged me.
Fortunately, as I matured in my spiritual evolution, I eventually realized that by not letting go of negative events and experiences in my past, I was only being haunted and held captive by them, which was not serving my highest good.
For several years, I was stuck in a downward cycle of replaying certain past events in my mind, reliving every excruciating detail and allowing the past to negatively influence the present and my future. Over time, it became clear that this issue was holding me back in more ways than I could have imagined.
To find some answers, I decided to shift the focus of my spiritual practice for a few months to consult my guides on this issue. During this time, spirit guided me as follows.
Letting Go
To truly forgive, we must let go of the past. There is no true forgiveness if we still somehow hold on to the smallest regret or resentment. Forgiveness is all, or nothing. There are no half measures or gray areas.
Forgiveness is more than just an emotional healing process, it is also an empowering metaphysical practice. If we do not release something completely, we continue to hold some level of negative energy that continues to affect our current vibration, which diminishes our quality of life and negatively affects our future happiness.
How To Manifest Your Best Life
As spiritual beings in physical form, we are the conscious creators of our best life and have the divine power to shape our own destiny. We create our future every day with our free will. But contrary to what some believe, this is not just a matter of positive thinking, daydreaming, or casually wishing for a better future without being proactive.
To achieve what we want in life, we must take daily action steps that will lead to the achievement of our goals and manifest the results we desire.
If you have been wishing for a better life and a brighter future with little success, the following strategies can empower you to achieve better results. By implementing these tactics gradually, one day at a time, you will see a major change in your life.
Gratitude
Gratitude is the mother of all manifestation efforts. When we are grateful for what we already have, we attract more of what we want.
Seems simple, right? Yet we easily forget to count our blessings and tend to be very ungrateful. Instead of celebrating what is good in our lives, we tend to focus on what is wrong or missing. When we are constantly sulking or complaining, we are self-sabotaging because wherever our focus goes, energy flows.
The Magical Possibilities Of 6,000 Thoughts
According to a 2020 study at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, we have more than 6,000 thoughts a day. From a spiritual perspective, this is fascinating, but also potentially troublesome.
Those of us who are metaphysically aware know that our thoughts create our reality. Not only do our positive or negative thoughts determine what will manifest in our lives, but also how we choose to feel and act based on those 6,000 daily thoughts!
In addition, we tend to have lingering thoughts and nagging worries that we obsess over throughout the day. The more we repeat those same toxic thoughts, the more they gain energetic momentum and manifesting power. Thoughts are energy vibrations, and thoughts become things.
We all have the innate spiritual freedom to act of our own free will. Every thought we have comes with choices and options. It can range from a simple decision to stop thinking a particular negative thought…to making a life-changing decision.
Unfortunately, most people make the same choices over and over again. They stick with what is safe, comfortable, familiar, or predictable, while ignoring the other options that may be open to them. This is often how we get stuck in comfort zones, or struggle to manifest the things we dream about.
In order to manifest new things and invite change into our lives, we must carefully examine our thought patterns and habits. If we choose the same responses and actions to the same thoughts every day, we cannot expect to move forward, or create a new reality. Often the problem is not the thoughts we think, but how we choose to feel and act in response to those thoughts.
Karma Is A Teacher, Not An Avenger
People often talk about karma as if it’s some form of divine punishment or retribution that will eventually be visited upon those who have wronged them. Letting karma “take care of it” is a comforting reassurance that we may be rewarded for being the ‘bigger person’ in unfair situations. And certainly it is always advisable to do the right thing when others are being petty or behaving badly.
But this is not karma.
The universe is not in the business of handing out ‘karmic punishment,’ for we are not judged as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for our choices and actions. All of our choices and actions have value and teach us lessons. So, why would there be any need for a universal system of punishment? Or reward, for that matter?
This is not to say that karma does not exist. On the contrary, we can see karma at work all the time in everyday life, down to the most mundane things we choose to do. However, karma is not a force of reckoning, but the cause and effect of energy, which is a universal law.
When we live a heart-centered life, doing good deeds and being kind to ourselves and others, we will feel joyful, happy, fulfilled and at peace. We thrive in the vibrant flow of positive energy. On the other hand, when we live a heartless life, do things that are wrong, destructive, and evil, and we are unkind or cruel to ourselves and others, we will feel miserable, hopeless, dissatisfied, depressed. We suffer in the thick mud of negative energy.
The True Meaning Of Judgment
Judgment is card 20 in the Tarot’s Major Arcana. Arcana means “hidden things, mysteries,” from the Latin arcanum meaning “a secret, a mystery” and arcanus meaning “secret, hidden, private, concealed.” Arcana are therefore “pieces of mysterious knowledge or information.”
In a standard Tarot deck, there are 21 Major Arcana cards. They define The Fool’s journey (the first card) through life and all of the life lessons we encounter along the way. As one of the final stages in The Fool’s journey, the Judgment card represents having learned sufficient lessons to now awaken from the illusion and limited perceptions.
The most well-known tarot deck is the Rider–Waite. Pamela Coleman Smith, aka “Pixie,” was a British artist who illustrated the deck. She deserves much credit for the brilliant way she captured advanced spiritual concepts in the deck’s artwork.
The Rider–Waite Judgment card depicts three resurrected figures, a woman, man, and child, reaching up to an Archangel overhead blowing a trumpet as a wake-up call. The scene is based on Christian imagery representing the Resurrection and Last Judgment. The flag of St. George hangs from the trumpet, which references 1 Corinthians 15 in The Bible.
The Judgment card reminds us that no matter what our background may be, we can rise up and transcend any trauma or adversity in life, regardless how challenging the situation. We also have the power to see through the illusion of life and wake up to the truth.
Make Today Your New Miracle
No matter how hard we try, it often feels that nothing in life ever changes. The truth is, something always changes. We change.
We have all said the wrong thing, at the wrong time and to the wrong person. We have all yelled at the gods in some way, or blamed the wrong people for choices we made ourselves. We have all felt badly about ourselves. We are not always happy at the end of a day. But somehow we always make it through.
We sometimes wonder why we spend so much time alone, yet we fail to realize that our very aura puts out an energy that builds a wall around us, so no one wants to come in. We don’t realize that no matter how we pretend to ourselves that we are trying to be positive, no matter how much we want to make it about “no one loves me, I’m going to go eat some worms,” our pity for ourselves creates an aura, an energy, that tells others that we don’t like ourselves.
The truth is, the very people we think are avoiding us, are in their own private minds also not wanting to share the hurt, the disappointment, the loneliness they are feeling.
Spirit most often feels sad, very sad, when someone says “I’m always alone.” Because in truth, we are never alone. We each have spirit guardians, guides, protectors, instructors around us.
Today is a new day. We can change our day, by not repeating yesterday. We can begin to change our life by just doing one thing different today.
The Simple Secret To True Happiness
It is easy to become too focused on the pursuit of happiness, to the detriment of true happiness. For many years, I was constantly setting goals for my ‘future happiness,’ only to eventually realize that I had been missing out on the joy available in the present moment.
I am certainly not alone in this, as I find many of my friends and clients tend to postpone joy and contentment, believing that they will finally be happy once they have achieved milestones, or acquired certain possessions.
Meanwhile, the key to living one’s best life is to fully embrace the present moment. This does not mean that we should stop dreaming of a better future or no longer pursue important personal goals. However, our future hopes and ambitions should not cause us to put our life on hold, nor prevent us from being fully immersed in the now.
If you are also someone with such an intense future-focus, I encourage you to begin living more in the present. You will soon discover a more fulfilling and joyful way of life.
Future-Focused Thinking
The first step is to let go of future-focused thinking. Many of us tend to constantly think about the future, worrying about what lies ahead or longing for future achievements. This mindset deprives us of the beauty and opportunities that exist in the present.