Monthly Archives: January 2021
Crystals And Stones For Your Spiritual Practice
Crystals and stones have grown in popularity in recent years, to aid in healing, protection, divination and wellness.
They can be worn as jewelry, placed under a pillow, infused in water, set around the home, or used in prayers, meditations, spells and rituals.
It is important, however, to purchase only ethically sourced crystals and stones from businesses that respect their high vibrational qualities, because they are precious metaphysical tools from Mother Earth that should not be taken for granted.
Here are some popular crystals and stones I recommend for use in your spiritual practice.
Amythest
This is one of the most popular crystals and aids in enhancing one’s spiritual vision. It is also great for recovery, sobriety and calming down anxiety. If dreams during sleep are intense, you can place this under your pillow to get a good night of rest.
Black Tourmaline
This stone works with the root chakra to ground one’s energy and cleanse the aura from negativity. It also promotes inner strength when dealing with difficult people and adversity.
Blue Calcite
A wonderful crystal for encouraging rest and relaxation. It is a gentle stone and assists in soothing emotional trauma and gain a positive perspective.
Manifesting Meditation For Beginners
The practice of meditation is tremendously powerful and has impacts on both our spiritual and physical well-being, as well as on our reality. Creating a routine meditation practice can help to super-charge your ability to manifest your desires, has incredible health benefits, and believe it or not – it can actually be a fun experience!
The idea that you have to be able to completely clear your mind of thoughts to successfully meditate is probably one of the most common misconceptions. This is only one form of meditation and honestly, it’s quite challenging! For someone who has never meditated before, it would be like giving a kindergarten student a complicated math equation to solve.
As with anything, it takes some time to learn the technique and train your brain to comply with your spirit. The first thing you must understand is, you are not your brain or your thoughts. You are not your body, or your emotions. These are all things you experience. You experience the thoughts in your mind, you experience the sensations of the body and of emotions, but these things are not you.
So, what or who is doing the observing? The answer is Spirit. Your spirit. This understanding is vital. Once you can separate your Spirit, your Soul, from the mechanics of the body, you can begin to tame the voracious beast that is your mind.
Going back to stillness meditations for moment, these are certainly powerful and wonderful to experience, but our brains are used to running the show! Instead of trying to turn off your thoughts, I encourage you to begin by giving the mind something to do instead.
Take some time to think about what you want to achieve through your practice. At its most basic meditation can be used as a tool to help align your mind, body and spirit with your overall goals. These goals can be anything! Reducing stress or anxiety, improving overall vitality, enhancing mental function, boosting your mood, improving your sleep patterns, and so on. Creative visualization is a remarkably powerful tool for manifesting. If you have never tried it before, start with just one simple intention. As you grow more adept, you can expand your goals and wishes.
Dreamwork With Your Angels
Dreaming is not only the doorway to the unconscious, but also an entrance to other realms. Our dreams connect us with our subconscious mind and the spirit realms, often in the form of strange and mysterious symbolisms.
We should be more grateful for our dreams, because even the difficult ones, that stir up our traumas and worries, help us to deal with any issues we have been resisting.
Dreams are also a portal into the influence of angelic forces. Connecting with the Angels in this way is easy and natural; it happens even when we are not aware of it.
The dream state is an entry point that offers unique advantages for our heavenly companions, for when we sleep, the mind is wide open. The resistances and blockages of our busy minds are suspended for us to access what normally cannot be seen. The fluidity of dreams is closer to the higher dimensions, rather than to the structured, material state in which we exist in our waking hours.
Our Angels often appear to us in dreams, but we seldom remember this, or, if we do, we do not recognize them. They are usually that friendly presence that often accompanies us through a dream. Or they may feature in the dream, as wise, powerful, and influential figures, but not necessarily with wings or other stereotypical symbols of their identity, such as ‘harps and halos.’
Angels are messengers of the Divine, and they come in various manifestations. For example, they sometimes appear in animal form, or make their presence known as an intense, bright light. They also have diverse things to communicate and infinite ways for doing so. But they all have one common purpose, and that is to be of service to humanity.
Most of us have all been brought up to believe that there is a separation between humans and Angels, but in truth we share our world with them! In our dreams, we can overcome the mental barriers that separate us from their higher energies.
Astrological Forecast January 4 – 10, 2021
Back to the grindstone! It could be a bit difficult to get back up and running after all the holiday cheer, but duty calls. Make today all about details, gathering information and making a plan under the Virgo Moon, and then spend tomorrow restoring balance to all aspects of your world, as the Moon dances into Libra.
Wednesday we’ll finally be ready to move as Mars moves into grounded Taurus, making it easy to catch up and start addressing everything that piled up over the holidays.
The trend continues on Thursday, but we may experience a few ups and downs on Friday when Mercury moves into unpredictable Aquarius, and Venus moves into steadfast Capricorn. This could make for a lot of stop and go motion, so practice patience and when one door closes, look for an open window.
The weekend flows along joyfully under the Sagittarius Moon, allowing us a little downtime to regroup, reflect and prepare for the next busy week ahead.
Wishing You A ‘Less-Is-More’ Year In 2021
The year 2020 was challenging, but not all bad. In fact, it helped me to get my life a little more ‘tuned-up.’ I slowed down and really took stock of what is most important.
I was able to spend more time at home, reflecting on what matters most, and getting more in touch with parts of myself that have been neglected for too long. Sometimes there are sacrifices when it comes to enlightenment and I guess that could be said for 2020.
I also had more time for self-care and learning the importance of it. Not just teaching the importance of it, but actually taking some of the tools to bat for myself!
I have also noticed my relationships improved a lot. I stopped communicating with all the energy thieves and psychic vampires, avoided social media, and enhanced those meaningful relationships that needed more love and care.
I do believe I generally live in a very mindful way, with awareness and discernment, but 2020 somehow just helped me see things with clear 20/20 vision on so many levels.
It may seem weird, but actually I do hope 2021 will be somewhat similar – minus the coronavirus, of course, but with continued awareness and clarity. I do not want that aspect of the year to end. It has enhanced my spirituality, health and well-being on so many levels. I think it would be such a missed opportunity to just back to the rat race mentality and start living again with all the usual pressure and stress again.
I am so incredibly grateful for the time spent at home this past year. It has been downright delightful. Who would not get great joy from curling up and spending time with yourself, your cats, and reading cool books?
Embracing The Shadow
When I first began to intentionally and consciously walk a spiritual path, I remember doing so because it just felt so right. Every step I took toward ‘enlightenment’ in this lifetime seemed to bring more brightness into my life, and so many more blessings.
In those early days I was really rolling! I was expecting this to be an easy ride – all joy and light and love. It was wonderful.
What I hadn’t expected was the inevitable emergence of my shadow through as a result of all my spiritual work. And it was not something I was going to be comfortable with – admitting I had places of darkness within me, unloved aspects of myself, disowned pieces of my soul which had been abandoned and in such pain.
Through a series of, what seemed like, unfortunate events, I was given opportunities to face my shadow side. Challenges in relationships with friends and loved ones arose. I couldn’t understand it at first, and felt very alone and misunderstood. I was shifting the blame for this onto the people around me, instead of going inward.
Going inward, into the light, was totally okay, but going inward into the darkness was terrifying. My ego-self raised every defense to keep me from going there. Eventually, I could avoid it no longer.
My life at this point had endured tremendous change in the course of only a few years- so much so, that the entire landscape of my existence and the people in it were now different. While many of the changes were positive, the magnitude of the differences between my ‘old life’ and my ‘new life’ forced me into robust self-reflection.
Where did I want to go with my life? What did I want to do? And who was I going to be? I must admit, these were heavy questions, and I absolutely felt the weight of them. In addition, I was healing from a personal loss, and that was taking more time than I wanted it to.
My ‘aha moment’ came when I was lamenting one day about my relationship with my partner. I had identified that I wanted a deeper level of connection, but felt that he was unwilling to meet me there.
Realign Your Spirit This New Year
With the difficult year 2020 finally in our rear-view mirror, it is time to stop for a moment, clear our minds, hearts and spirit, and embrace the hope, happiness, well-being and prosperity that awaits us in the new year. We do not have to carry the pain and chaos of 2020 forward with us.
The first step to achieve this would be to check our alignment body, mind and spirit. Alignment is defined as the “arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative positions,” as well as a “position of agreement or alliance.” Happiness, well-being and abundance becomes blocked for us when we are not in agreement and alliance with our spirit.
Many of us have been in survival mode the past year, instead of in thrive mode. Dramatic changes in our health and wellness, career, business, finances, relationships, family and social life, and our lifestyles in general, can cause our soul energy to go sideways and out of alignment, just like being sideswiped by a car.
If you step off a curb suddenly, fall, twist an ankle, or pull a muscle, it will often put unusual stress on our spine and central nervous system. When the spine is misaligned a myriad of symptoms such as headaches, lower back pain, neck pain and numbness can manifest. Symptoms like these are the body’s way of letting us know something needs to be urgently attended to.
The same holds true for our spiritual well-being. When our energy, mental processes, and emotions begin to run amuck, our spiritual alignment needs to be corrected to regain our balance. Our body, mind and spirit must all be facing the same direction for us to move forward.
Staying in alignment with Spirit enables us to bounce back quickly, stay on course and manifest happiness and prosperity in our lives. Alignment with Spirit is our natural and preferred state, and while we may find ourselves temporarily off for various reasons, we are never too far to come back.