acceptance
Grandma Will Wear Her Big Girl Boots!
I recently discovered a website where you can “rent a friend”. It made me wonder, why would anyone need to rent a friend? Isn’t making friends a natural thing?
Normally, people who have something in common or enjoy each other’s company tend to gravitate toward each other. Even when attending a large social gathering, people tend to find like-minded people in the crowd to interact with. So, why in the world would anyone ever need to ‘rent’ a friend?
Well, the site had a list of occasions when one might want to purchase this type of service. Some of the things on the list included hiring a companion to be your plus one at a wedding, or to go to the theater, sightseeing, dinner, or even traveling abroad.
Essentially, the service connects people with common interests.
Then I wondered, are there really enough people who would use such a service to make it profitable? Apparently, there are and I should not have been be surprised. Our social life increasingly depends on digital technology.
Most of us are lucky if we can count on one hand the friends we can invite to join us on some of our adventures, let alone the few close friends we can count on in good times and bad. It is rare to have friends who have the time, money, or energy to do fun things with us on a regular basis.
Accepting The End Of A Relationship
Don’t resist change, even in love. It is always best to accept things when a relationship ends. Sometimes a door needs to be closed in order for another door to open down the road.
I have seen this in my own personal relationships and those of many of my clients and friends. If it’s meant to be and there is true, everlasting love between two souls, there can never be a permanent goodbye. Rest assured, if you are meant to be with your beloved, they will come back to you, or you will go back to them.
At some point we all experience the pain of saying goodbye to someone we love very much. Experiencing relationship break-up tends to turn our lives upside down. This is especially true when we have to close the door on someone we love very much when we don’t really want the relationship to end.
But if we do it in a way that leaves the door open for them to come back, then maybe we can have a new beginning later. We just have to do the very hard thing of saying goodbye and taking a step back for now. If we refuse to accept that a relationship is over, we only prolong the pain and dysfunction, and make it difficult to heal and grow from the issues that caused it to fail in the first place.
Instead, we should focus on ourselves and our own needs for a while. When we are in a relationship that is not working, it can be easy to neglect our own needs and issues. Accepting the end of a relationship allows us to focus on our own healing and well-being. No matter how hard we try to hold on, it will only make it more difficult to bring healing to the aspects of the relationship failure that need healing.
How To Be More Present In Your Life
We often hear the advice that ‘being present’ is an important spiritual practice to master on our journey through life. Being present with ourselves and in the moment. I like to think of it as being with yourself wherever you go and whatever you do. This is certainly true, but what exactly does it mean? And with all the busyness of life and keeping up with our daily responsibilities, how do you become more present in your life?
Firstly, cultivating ‘presence’ requires time management and effective planning. It is important to organise the responsibilities of our lives in a manageable way. Otherwise, we find ourselves in a constant state of worry and stress, having to manage daily demands ‘on the fly’. And this is a sure way to lose our presence.
Planning ahead may seem like the opposite of being ‘in the moment’, but it is actually essential. When we are busy making plans for the coming week, thinking about what we need to prepare for and making decisions about how to organise our time and spend our energy, we don’t think much about the ‘present moment.’ But this is something we need to do in order to then be more present in our daily lives. It is key to cultivating presence.
The Spiritual Virtue Of Patience
Patience is considered an essential virtue in most spiritual and religious traditions for several reasons. It is consistent with the core values and teachings of various spiritual paths and belief systems.
Many spiritual practices emphasize the importance of maintaining a state of inner calm in the midst of life’s challenges. Patience is fundamental to achieving inner peace and serenity. Patience helps us maintain a sense of serenity even in the face of extreme adversity.
Patience also enables us to surrender to the universal flow and accept the divine timing of outcomes for our highest good. We are better equipped to accept the divine plan and trust in the unfolding of events and circumstances as they are meant to be. Patience signifies our belief in a higher power and the universal order of all things.
Through patient introspection and self-reflection, we learn to understand our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which leads to spiritual growth and self-improvement.
Impatience leads to negative emotions such as anger, frustration, and resentment. By practicing patience, we can better control and manage these emotions, which promotes emotional well-being and spiritual harmony.
Without patience, it is also difficult to develop understanding and empathy for others. Being patient with our own flaws and imperfections, as well as those of others, promotes the spiritual qualities of empathy and kindness.
Don’t Let Your Ex Jinx Your Love Life!
I just did a phone reading for a Psychic Access client whose first words were, “Do you think my ex put a curse on me to jinx my love life?”
As always, I turned to the spirit realm for guidance. A very close friend of the client, who had crossed over just a few months ago, then came forward with the answers.
“A recently deceased friend of yours says you are jinxing yourself,” I replied. “He says you cannot expect things to change for the better if you keep repeating the same old patterns, looking for love in all the wrong places, with all the wrong people, for all the wrong reasons.
“Um, I don’t see how I’m the cause of the problem here,” my client countered. “I’ve met many women since my last relationship, and all of they seem to want from me is financial support, or to fix their house, or to solve their legal problems, or to somehow take care of all their problems.”
“Well, what do you expect?” replied his friend from the spirit realm. “The first thing you always tell women is how much money you make because you feel the need to compensate for your lack of self-worth. Your ex made you feel you were worthless without all the money you spent on her all the time. But you have so much more to offer than your financial success. You are a good man with a good heart. You don’t have to lead with money all the time,” his friend said.
Friends For A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime
I recently reconnected with a family friend with whom I had a very close relationship about three decades ago. She was like a mother figure in some ways, even though she was only about 12 years older than me at the time.
She is a very caring and nurturing person and was always there for me when my own mother was physically or emotionally unable. Her door was always open and she always had many people around her. After working in retail for many years, she changed careers to become a full-time caregiver, which she loved. After she retired and her husband passed away, she continued to be very active and had a very vibrant social life.
But during the Covid-19 pandemic, like many people her age, she experienced intense isolation and trauma. We spoke frequently on the phone during this time, and she was very much looking forward to the restrictions finally being lifted.
However, when the worst was over and most restrictions were lifted, her group of friends remained afraid to go out. Some of them even developed agoraphobia, a type of anxiety disorder that causes people to experience extreme, irrational fear of public places and unpredictable situations that they imagine could cause them harm, panic, or helplessness.
My dear friend was deeply affected by this. Seeing all her friends again was one of the things that kept her strong and hopeful through the chaos of the pandemic. But now she felt she had lost her tribe (beyond her family, who all have busy, demanding lives of their own and live several hours away). Fortunately, she is a determined soul who will not easily accept defeat and apparently she is gradually getting more of the old gang together for their usual fun meet-ups!