Meditation
Setting Intentions Successfully
I have discovered at different times in my life how powerful intention, when guided from the heart, can be. Again, more recently, I experienced this when it was important for me to manifest some prosperity for my family and get my own health issues back on track.
I was specific in setting my intention regarding the amount of money I needed to manifest in order to meet my family’s needs. I also set the intention to attract to me the information which would help me heal and return my sense of well-being.
Intention is a motivational force of energy and it’s a force to be reckoned with when our intention is for the highest good of all individuals involved. When we set our intention, we are focusing on positive visualizations and affirmations to help steer our lives in a desired direction.
I see intention as a process of becoming, a desire, or a longing to achieve a specific result. When you wish to help bring about better circumstances for others, and your intention of wanting the best things to happen for them, it works like mass prayer.
Every morning, before I begin work with clients, I stand in one corner of my work room and set the intention for the day by asking my spirit helpers to assist me in helping others on their pathway through life, and to help me to help customers find clarity and direction with their pressing concerns. Doing readings and healing with good intention works wonders, because one has the best interest of the client at heart, as opposed to working purely to make money.
Actually writing down your goals make them feel more real. In other words, ‘if you see it, you will believe it’. It is more than likely your goals will change in time, and as you surpass them you will be making new and higher goals. There are plenty of negative people (often relatives), who say this is not the time to dream, including the media who say it’s time to be realistic. Granted, we have to be sensible and make reasonable arrangements to meet our worldly commitments, but the greatest challenge is our ‘attitude’ about reality.
Moon Transits In Your Daily Spiritual Practice
There are many additional ways to apply Astrology in a spiritual lifestyle beyond the customary horoscopes and birth charts. For example, following the lunar transits is one of my favorite methods for working on my personal growth and spiritual development.
The Moon is the fastest transiting planet of the Zodiac, as it moves into a different sign every two and a half days. The Moon’s monthly journey through the constellations, enables us to reflect on the qualities and pertinence in our charts of each of the twelve zodiac signs.
How does one use the energies of lunar transits as a guide for personal and spiritual growth? In my work as a professional astrologer and psychic reader, I have found the following aspects useful:
Natal Chart
Do you have a strong natal Moon? How is it aspected? Have you struggled with any emotional issues in your lifetime? A Natal Moon with a lot of squares and oppositions can predict issues such as emotional lability and impulse control. Gaining insight into one’s struggles through astrological interpretation can help a person find spiritual healing.
Also, consider the transiting Moon’s current aspects with your natal chart. Is the Moon, for example, in a conjunction with your natal Mars? This aspect may create an emotional need to connect with your inner warrior on that particular day. Or perhaps the Moon is transiting your midheaven sign today, which is the highest point at the top of your chart that says, “I’m here!” to the world.
Ritual In A Modern Spiritual Lifestyle
Rituals, rites and ceremonies are the oldest forms of spiritual practice and essential aspects of all religions and belief systems. A ritual is a meaningful or symbolic action or series of actions that has a standardized format or sequence and can therefore be repeated in exactly the same way by individuals, groups or even communities.
The metaphysical energy generated when we focus our intent using symbols, tokens and metaphoric activities during a ritual that has special meaning for us personally can be highly transformative! Whether you practice ritual in a group or solo, it can supercharge your manifesting ability and aid in any mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual healing processes you may be going through.
When some people hear the word ‘ritual,’ they tend to imagine darkened, smoke-filled rooms with mysterious people in long robes, chanting strange refrains perhaps, all choreographed with everyone knowing their roles. I’m sure there are people who practice rituals in this way and elements like incense and chanting can indeed be party of a rite or ceremony. But a ritual can also be more simply crafted in a way to fit into a modern lifestyle and everyday spiritual practice.
In my own practice, I created a little ‘altar’ for myself. A small sacred space where I have placed a few candles, some incense, crystals, feathers and a few other symbolic tokens which hold special meaning for me. I also added a picture of my mother and a statue of an angel given to me when my grandpa passed away. In this way I created a sacred space that has deep meaning for me personally and brings me into a spiritual mindset.
You don’t need to have a lot of room for this in your home. So, you can even create a small sacred space for yourself on the corner of a dresser or table top. As my practice has evolved, I now find that any spare surface or quiet corner in the places where I have lived can become a nook for little spiritual treasures that I find during my adventures. Once you start creating a sacred space, the Universe will send you little gifts to help you along.
The Importance Of Self-Investment
When I was younger, I thought of self-investment as ‘self-indulgence.’ However, as I grew spiritually, my guides made me aware that this was far from the case. In fact, I have learned that self-investment is a necessity – particularly in today’s world!
What can self-investment do for you? Well, it helps to calm your emotions and ground your energy. You feel more in control of your overall situation – whatever that may be.
It can also help prevent burnout by reducing stress, inducing a sense of calm, and minimizing anger, frustration, and depression, while boosting self-esteem! It may further help increase your sense of focus, aid concentration and thus help you deal with any current tasks.
Self-investment also helps you feel much more optimistic and increases your sense of happiness, thus attracting more of the good that the abundant universe has to offer you. It aids you in tapping into your higher self, connecting with the Divine, and utilizing your fullest potential in life.
Sounds great, right? But how does one go about implementing self-investment in a modern, busy life? Consider the following strategies:
Manage Your Time
Most people feel that they cannot self-invest as they never have the time to do so. However, why not draw up a timetable for your week and schedule some me-time? Taking time to do so will pay many dividends for your overall well-being, and what is more important than that?
Drawing up such a schedule will allow you to incorporate healthy habits, and it is the correct kind of habits when it comes to self-nurture that have the most impact. Schedule it: whether you like singing in the bath, cooking delicious healthy food, taking a brisk walk before bedtime, or planning for an early night!
Eye Gazing As A Spiritual Practice
Eye gazing is a powerful, ancient practice in which two people engage in a shared meditation practice during which eye contact is maintained for an extended period of time. Eye gazing is usually done for about ten minutes at a time, although it can certainly be any duration preferred.
Eye gazing can be used to access past life information, promote healing, connect to your higher self, guides, or angels, and almost anything else you can imagine. The eyes are the windows to our soul, and our soul is the singularity that connects us to everything else: the Universe, Source, God, the Divine. Eye gazing is also a profound manifesting tool we can use to further develop our ‘spiritual muscles,’ so to speak.
Before you include eye gazing in your spiritual practice, I recommend you read my previous blog on the essentials of eye gazing. Once you are more familiar with the basics, you can also apply the following guidelines to your eye gazing practice.
To use eye gazing for a specific purpose, you must set a clear intention beforehand, and then hold that intention throughout the gaze. You hold an intention by simply keeping a gentle awareness in the back of your mind that what you are seeing during the gaze is relevant to your intention, and trusting that whatever comes forward is always relevant.
It’s important not to simultaneously hold any expectations about what you’re going to see, or to resist anything that comes up spontaneously, just because you don’t immediately see its relevance or connection to your intention. Keep an open mind and be flexible and accepting in the flow of your gazing experience.
If you’re gazing alone, sit comfortably in front of a mirror, take a few centering breaths, and then state your intention out loud. I prefer to speak aloud in my spiritual practice whenever possible, as words are energy forms and therefore add a ‘weight’ to our prayer requests, intentions, and affirmations. State your intention out loud and ask Spirit to provide insight around this intention. Use language that feels right for you.
Make Time To Listen To Your Heart
The heart is a wondrous place, the keeper of all your dreams, desires, hopes, and wishes. The heart is your protector and guide and the holder of your very own sacred flame.
No matter where we are in this life, or what role we have embraced as our life’s mission, we must always honor the calling of our heart. It’s built-in GPS will never lead us astray. The heart’s invitation is always one that guides us to our greatest purpose through the love of the Divine, love of life, love of self, love of others, and love of service.
There are times in life when the heart calls for us to make a sacrifice to bring to fruition a special dream or mission. But the fast-paced world we live in provides little time or space for the calmness necessary to hear the sometimes faint calling of the heart. This is why we must take time away from others to honor the commitment of the soul. It is as necessary as the medical student in the preparation for becoming a great surgeon.
For a tree to grow, a seed must first be planted, which requires retreating into the stillness of the forest or the garden, breaking the soil, and carefully nesting a seedling into the heart of mother earth. Similarly, to overcome the many distractions of our worlds, we must create the time and space to tune in to the song of our heart.
In doing so, we are honoring our heart, which requires consistent practice, beginning with baby steps. Over time, we can cultivate a spiritual practice of listening to the heart in much larger steps, and then bold, giant steps.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great activist, and humanitarian, once said that prayer, regardless of one’s religion or spiritual path, purifies the heart. Gandhi cultivated a deep stillness in his own life by making time to listen to his heart through the daily practice of meditation.
Life Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder
What is the lens through which you view the world? When I close my eyes I see waterfalls, flowing streams, and flowers. This is the scenery surrounding me with my eyes open too. It tells me a story of life, of inner perception, and beauty.
The experience of life is what we make it, not because we are independently powerful controllers or causes of physical outcomes, but because we are eternally sentient beings with the gift of free will.
The spirit soul is a spark of consciousness, and we can express that consciousness through a variety of qualities. It is that inner flavor of our quality that then colors our experience and lens.
So, for example, when I see the water in the stream rolling around rocks and carving a curvy path through the land in front of me, I am reminded of a world that is gentle with feminine energy. She flows and nourishes and moves with consistent but soft determination.
I know that elsewhere there is also hard, jagged terrain and a state of mind that matches it. I can choose to match my mind to the beauty, diversity, and gentleness of spirit, or to the rigid harshness of a cold, hard, inert world of matter and might.
This choice presents itself at every step. Two people may suffer a similar loss in their lives, but process it completely differently. One might see it as an opportunity to grow and become more resilient, while the other might choose to feel angry and unfortunate. It depends on the lens through which we choose to view the world and our interactions with it.
Our circumstances also do not have to change for consciousness to change. When we change our inner consciousness and the lens through which we choose to view life, we change the experience.