alignment
Spiritual Awakening And The Segmented Sleep Cycle
One of the most commonly experienced symptoms of spiritual awakening is frequently waking in the early hours from 3am to 5am. It’s important to rule out any medical reasons this could be happening. However, if you are in good health and you have been regularly waking up this early, then you may be experiencing this due to spiritual awakening.
You may have found by now in an online search that you are waking up at 3am because it is ‘the witching hour’. You may also have read that 3am is an auspicious time to wake, or the opposite, that it is a ‘time of dark magic.’ Or that during your spiritual awakening you may be ‘spiritually attacked’ and this is why you are waking in the wee hours. While some of this may be true for some people, I am going to have to say that it probably has nothing to do with your waking up at or around 3am.
Yes, it is a sign of awakening! And a very, very common one too. But the reason you are waking at 3am is not metaphysical; it is biological. It is biology which is influenced by your spiritual progression. But essentially it is a return to your natural state of being – your natural sleep cycle. This is called the circadian rhythm.
Most people just accept that we sleep naturally for about eight hours a night. But there is a great deal of evidence that this is not actually the natural sleep cycle for human beings. In fact, evidence suggests that prior to the industrial revolution, our sleep cycle was very different.
To demonstrate this point, we must return to the concept of awakening and what awakening really is. We call it spiritual ‘awakening’ for a reason – we are waking up. Waking up means being conscious in an otherwise largely unconscious world. During the process of awakening people often find themselves becoming very sensitive to things that never really bothered them before. This is because they are suddenly present and hyper-aware when things are out of alignment with the natural order.
Life Invites You To Dance
In the quietude of the morning, as the sun gently rises with a golden glow glistening through the trees, I feel a calm within reflecting the clear blue sky. The season is changing. The heavy heat and humidity of summer has dissolved into an idyllic balance of coolness, warmth, and lightness in the air.
It is a time of transition, moving toward autumn, but not fully there yet. For me, it is a season of revitalization and renewed inspiration. The vastness of nature expands all around and the interconnectedness of every soul within it reaches the forefront of my awareness.
Today, I will be intuitively teaching a dancing with nature class at the World Peace Sanctuary nearby. All of life is a dance with nature and its Creator. We are invited into that partnership and party of life, to move together in joy and harmony.
But how do we join the flow? It begins at the feet, at the root of the tree of life. In Srimad-Bhagavatam, the great celestial sage Narada instructs, “As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satisfies the demigods, who are parts of that Supreme Personality.”
Not only are angels, nature spirits, and demigods part of the tree, but so are we. Like leaves upon it, we are connected not only with the twigs, branches, and trunk, but with the root, the very source and sustenance of all life. By watering that root with our whole-hearted attention and intention, we are nourished, supplied, and satisfied.
But what does this mean practically? It means peace and growth rest not in pursuit of individual desires, but in harmony with and service to Divine desires. Endeavoring to serve separate interests is futile and unfulfilling, just as watering the leaves and limbs of a tree individually would be. They would dry up and die if simply watered separately. Continue reading
Opening To Divine Guidance
Beginning to work with your angels and spirit guides is just like learning any other new skill. It requires patience, commitment, openness, and a willingness to ask for help.
In fact, I compare opening to divine guidance to learning a new language, because in essence you are discovering the ways you and your ‘spirit team’ communicate with one another.
Everyone has this ability and if you are willing to put forward the effort, the dividends will be life-changing in positive and joyful ways.
The first step, as with everything related to spirit, is to set the intention to work more closely with your spirit team. Ask your spirit team to work more closely with you. Empower them to turn up the volume of their communication with you.
It is important to remember that you are an important member of your team. You are not a subordinate or lesser, because you are in physical form.
In fact, our spirit team reveres us for our courage to come forward into this lifetime, and they assembled strictly for the purpose of supporting us in this endeavor. They are here to make your life easier and to support you, so let them!
The first way spirit communicates with us is through signs. This can be something as profound as a book we need to read falling off the shelf in front of us at a bookstore; or overhearing a conversation that answers a question in your heart; or something as simple as finding feathers and pennies on the sidewalk.
The key to determining if something is divine guidance or not, is how it makes us feel. If we feel love and inspiration, rightness in our heart, mind and body, then it is a Divine message. If it makes us feel scared, frightened, or disempowered then it is not divine guidance, it is human ego.
Have you been asking Spirit, God, the Universe for the same thing for years? Has true love been on your manifesting to-do list for as long as you can remember? Are you constantly struggling with your finances? Are you still looking for that dream job?
It is not as if you have done nothing to make miracles happen for you. You have been working faithfully with your guides and the angels. You have studied the Universal Law of Attraction and the art of manifesting. You have consulted psychics, mediums, healers, diviners and astrologers, and all of them have been telling you ‘it’s coming.’
But still, nothing.
So, what gives? Why has your heart’s desire not arrived yet? I hear this question time and again from clients and I have even dealt with it myself in my own life. So, if this is happening to you, you are certainly not alone.
And no, your intuition is not ‘broken’ and your guides are not ignoring you! The Universe is not too busy making other people’s dreams come true. There are many factors involved in successful manifestation and various possible reasons for the lack of results in your life. Often all you need is a few simple adjustments to create the perfect climate for receiving divine guidance and many blessings.
Firstly, there is the aspect of divine timing. It is often true that we must first work through some very important life lessons and do some personal work, before you can receive what it is we truly desire.
If you truly feel you’ve done all your work, but your desires still are not manifesting, then ask your guides if there is something you are missing, or have possibly been unwilling to see, that is still holding you back. This is also a great time to get a second set of eyes on the situation.
It may also be that those involved in the fulfillment of your desire have not completed their work. In that case, either resign yourself to be patient while setting an intention for them to make rapid progress, or ask your guides if a suitable replacement can be found that is willing to step up now and step into the role.
Empower Your Life With Ho’oponopono
I was introduced to the Ho’oponopono prayer several years ago by a friend I met at a meditation group. She told me that it is an ancient Hawaiian custom that can be used to resolve karmic issues in life. So, of course, I tried it, but with mixed results.
It is a simple, yet powerful three-line prayer:
I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.
I did not fully comprehend it at the time, but even in my lack of understanding, I still experienced some results. Then I reached a point in life where I was experiencing a lot of personal difficulties, and suddenly this simple prayer took on a whole new meaning for me.
It was at a time when I had lost three loved ones in short space of time, and I was going through an intense grieving process and associated life challenges. I figured trying out this prayer again certainly couldn’t hurt. So, for a few days, I made a conscious effort to repeat this mantra in my mind.
I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.
Then I came across a certification program Ho’oponopono. It is a seminar over multiple days. I had the time and resources to enroll, so it felt like destiny. I then learned a lot more about Ho’oponopono and came to realize it is not nearly as simple as I had originally thought.
The term Ho’oponopono means ‘to make right what is already right.’ The prayer itself is only part of the practice. As a spiritual endeavor Ho’oponopono is about untangling the patterns and blockages that contribute to the challenges we experience in this life. The prayer itself is merely a conduit to experiencing Ho’oponopono, or ‘making right what is already right.’
The Ho’oponopono prayer is intended to move the practitioner into a state of consciousness that is love, free from things like fear, worry, resentment, blame, guilt, criticism, judgment, desire for vengeance, jealousy, and so on.
The Spiritual Meaning Of Seeing 11:11
The synchronicity of seeing 11:11 is a common sign of spiritual awakening many people begin to see once they become more metaphysically aware. But what does it mean? Why are you seeing this number all the time? And how does it relate to your spiritual path?
As we awaken into higher consciousness, we begin to see all things more clearly for what they truly are. Many people embark on a spiritual journey because they are seeking greater balance and harmony in their mental health and emotional well-being. But while spirituality can help us heal and find greater peace, there are two sides to this coin.
On the one hand we may be waking up to some brutal truths and particularly challenging realities. The world seems broken right now. Humanity is collectively so painfully out of alignment with our highest good that we are destroying the very Earth that gives us life and supports our very existence!
Once you wake up to everything that is happening in the material world, and the thinly veiled realities of conspiracy, hatred, violence and greed, it can be so disheartening.
On the other hand, once we awaken we are able to fully experience and actually see the magic an wonder in the world around us! We also begin to realize that we are the architects of our own life path and destiny. The gift of free will gives us so much potential to create the life we desire. And we begin to experience the signs and synchronicities which confirm this new sense of empowerment and higher consciousness.
It is exciting and liberating to discover that we were not meant to be ‘slaves’ to some pre-determined destiny. We now get to consciously and deliberately create our own reality, as a powerful co-creator of the world we live in.
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.