worry
Find The Eye Of The Storm
Your relationship is falling apart, you have lost your job, your finances are in a shambles, you suffer an unexpected loss due to a global pandemic. Chaos comes in many forms and at times it touches multiple areas of our lives at once.
The ripple effect starts in one area and then spreads insidiously, until every aspect of your life begins to look very bleak. Your emotional reserves are drained, confusion sets in and you feel stuck, powerless…reeling from the shock.
When things turn bad in your life this way it can have the force and power of a hurricane or tornado. It can be devastating.
Perhaps you sensed it coming. Your intuitive radar was ‘pinging’, sensing imminent danger, or maybe it caught you completely off-guard. Either way, the results are the same.
Now what? How do you get your bearings, recover your sense of direction, recharge your battery and get the inner strength to move forward?
All tropical storms have a center, or an eye. The stronger the storm the calmer the eye, which is characterized by lighter winds and a clearer sky. So, take a breath – a deep breath – and find your center. Find the eye of your storm.
Making decisions from fear or chaos always increases the strength and ferocity of the storm. Remember, all storms do pass. The beauty of life lies in the newness and change each moment offers us.
Fate Karma And Your Life Lesson Number
Have you ever noticed we seem to circle around the same problem or kinds of problems? In Numerology this theme can be found in the Life Lesson Number which comes from our birth date. The birth date identifies what it is our soul wants to master in this lifetime. It is also called the Life Lesson Number or Destiny Number in Numerology.
The meaning of your Life Lesson Number is an underlying theme that will dominate our current life. You will continue to learn more and uncover more layers about the lesson as you go deeper and experience more in life.
So if you sometimes think that you seem to keep dealing with the same issues over and over or repeating the same patterns (or maybe you think that about someone else), I would say to you, “Yes, you are!”
That is what the art of mastery is all about. It is interesting; we don’t hear people ever complaining that Picasso, for example, kept painting and painting, but we often criticize ourselves for repeating patterns in our lives. It is helpful to re-frame our thinking about spiritual life lessons.
In order to master something, it means we need to learn about it, and discover the best ways to handle the pros and cons of the lesson. In order to learn something, we need to practice, and that means repetition.
So, when you find yourself up against the demands of your Life Lesson Number, instead of saying to yourself, “When am I ever going to get out of this rut?” it might be more helpful to look at all the progress you have already made in this area of your life! You should seek progress, not perfection.
The Three Laws of Grace
There are three primary Laws of Grace that function under the overarching Law of Attraction. Grace is generally associated with divine support or spiritual help, but in this context it simply means that we are always free to choose again.
The Law of Love
The first Law of Grace is the Law of Love. The Law of Love does not refer to feelings, sentiments or emotions. Too often it is assumed that love is a feeling we get when we are with someone, but in metaphysics and spirituality love is not a feeling.
Instead, spiritual love is choosing to accept others as they are and to want what is best for them. What most of us know as ‘love’ today is actually ‘like,’ because to like someone or something is conditional. Real love, on the other hand, has no conditions. It is unconditional.
There is also a common belief about ‘love’ that can be very damaging to relationships. Sometimes we create emotional attachments to future events and declare that “this is love.” Yet, it is impossible to love a future other – either you love a person, or you do not.
When people conjure up extensive images and stories about a future version of another person and attach their mental and emotional attention to these things, they often create a strong sense of painful longing, which creates within them the desire to change the other person.
It is this painful yearning that is the key to understanding, because with the Law of Attraction like always attracts like. Painful longing can only ever attract more pain. It does not even matter how compatible two souls are in this life, if one of them is participating in such a painful longing, then pain will inevitably become the result of the relationship.
Love is unconditional acceptance and there is only one love. Therefore, Buddhists believe one cannot have friends and enemies. If you have enemies then eventually all of your friends will become enemies, and vice versa.
Take A Moment To Breathe!
In today’s harried, hurried world we all too often go through life just going through the motions. In our actions and in our words, day in and day out, we rarely take the time to stop and smell the roses. We get up, we go to work, we take care of what we think needs our attention the most, often neglecting ourselves in the process.
Then one day you become burned out. You have no energy to do what you used to be able to do. Your energy seems ‘all clogged up’, rather like a blocked drain, and you can’t breathe. You may feel suffocated. The answer lies in all the excess and adverse energy that you have taken into your body over the years, or over a certain period of time.
Our muscles have what is known as ‘muscle memory’ and we inadvertently have become used to doing what we do, day in and day out. And our bodies remember the feelings. It happens with amputees a lot where they often complain about pain or itching where the missing limb used to be.
It can be triggered by stressful situations, things that bring fear or some sense of trepidation into our lives. Our necks begin to tighten; perhaps your jaw starts to lock up from the stress of not saying what you really want to say. The blocked, burned-out feeling comes from this place of tension and remembered circumstances, and it can be cleared by the power of your breath. We hold so much in psychically that taking some deep cleansing breaths to help us expunge the energy taken on during our daily life.
Do some simple breathing exercises for five minutes when you awake in the morning, to prepare the mind for the day ahead. You will be pleasantly surprised at the results. If you are able to take a break during the middle of your day to practice some additional cognizant breathing, that would be great!
Work Through The Fear, Obligation And Guilt (FOG)
Reflecting on my life I have found how many of my early life experiences have subconsciously influenced me, mostly due to a lack of awareness that allowed fear, a sense of obligation and guilt to remain hidden.
These hidden influences mostly come from my formative years and became obstacles I had to repeatedly struggle with in my adult life with regards relationships, career, finances, family and community.
Once I discovered these non-empowering beliefs, it was time for me to get out of the FOG (Fear, Obligation, Guilt). In hindsight, several things I was unaware of in my family’s dynamics, were actually ‘seeds’ hidden beneath the surface that in time sprouted into personal challenges and self-sabotage.
Fear
Fear and insecurity are frequent visitors for many of us in all areas of life. I was constantly focused on the negative and worst-case scenarios. This is because our brain is wired this way for the purpose of survival. Much of it also depends on our upbringing. So, we must recognize this and catch ourselves early on, in order to shift our thoughts and emotions in a positive direction.
We must be cognitive of our behaviors and explore where in our life we have learned these negative, fear-based responses. Fear is a natural part of life, but can easily become a ‘whack-a-mole’ of frustration, anxiety, uncertainty and indecision, always showing up at the most inconvenient times.
A Silver Lining In Times Of Uncertainty
We grow in our spiritual awareness and insight in different ways. Some of us read spiritual material by great authors, for example, and learn from their wise teachings, while others meditate and go deep within for guidance, and so on. However, in my experience the most powerful catalyst for spiritual growth is a time of trauma or crisis.
With the Covid-19 pandemic currently raging around the world, many people have lost loved ones, income, savings, businesses and homes. These losses can be devastating, especially when children are involved. Many people are in grief, many are lonely and isolated. Normal life has been greatly curtailed for many, with no clear end in sight.
It has also been an extremely stressful, challenging time for our essential frontline workers and healthcare professionals. The novel coronavirus has affected everyone to some extent, and it is during such trying times that many of us turn to Spirit, or the God of our understanding, and ask: why?
In these times our faith in a higher power, in ourselves, and in our world at large, becomes even more pivotal to our mental health and personal well-being. Hope and faith give us the strength and courage to carry on another day, regardless of not being able to see the end result at the moment. When we dig deep, we can often find untapped spiritual and psychological reserves, that we were unaware we actually had.
Although living through a global pandemic is an experience our generation has not encountered before, many of us are rising to the occasion by helping others in person, online or by donation.
People are also transforming from within. Many are becoming stronger, more resilient and positive, knowing that they will be able to surmount this challenge, and even support others throughout the ordeal too.
Slow Down, Relax And Let Go
A friend recently mentioned that when she finally made up her mind to just allow herself to relax, let go and feel safe in the presence of spirit, she felt her shoulders spontaneously lowering from her ears back down to their natural position. “It was such a surprising relief,” she sighed.
Indeed, when we slow down and relax, we can let go of the worries and fears that are beyond our control. When we give ourselves permission to just let go, it allows deep healing to begin, and to be more in-tune and connected to our body and its needs.
There is no need for us to control everything. It serves our highest good to release the past, the limitations, the fears and anxieties, the unforeseen circumstances, and the constant criticisms and judgements. Instead, we must allow the Universe to work on our behalf.
As a child I was an obsessive worrier, over-achiever and a classic Type A personality – harder on myself than anyone else could ever be! I even refused to use an eraser doing my school work. My mother would say that’s why they put erasers at the end of pencils, to easily correct our mistakes. But I felt I had to do everything perfectly the first time. It was exhausting.
Mom also would say that most of the things we worry about never actually happen. My mother had many such words of wisdom, which my daughter today calls grandma’s “nanaisms.” Well, Nana was spot on! We tend to waste so much precious time and energy on worrying about absolutely nothing.
Lost time and wasted energy, however, is not all we sacrifice to our fears and worries. When we constantly anticipate problems or disasters in every life situation, we create unnecessary stress and anxiety, which can also lead to illness, relationship problems, depression, and even premature aging and death.