emotions
Forgiveness Is Choosing To Take Back Your Power
Ah, forgiveness! Such a misunderstood concept. For many people, forgiveness, as noble as it may sound, is very difficult, even impossible.
Sometimes certain wrongs are so grave to us that the offender doesn’t deserve forgiveness in our eyes. There is also a misconception that forgiving someone is tantamount to excusing or justifying their terrible actions. But forgiveness is not about absolving someone of responsibility. Instead, it is a powerful, personal act of release and healing.
When we forgive someone, whether they’ve hurt us emotionally, betrayed our trust, or even caused us physical harm, we’re not letting them off the hook.
We are not condoning their actions or giving them permission to repeat those offenses. Rather, we are choosing to free ourselves from the weight of resentment, pain, and bitterness that binds us to them and their past actions.
Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. It allows us to move forward without the burden of past grievances and with an open heart, free of resentment.
By forgiving, we determine for ourselves that the transgressor’s actions and the memory of their misdeeds will no longer hold us hostage or march with us into the future.
While we may not be responsible for what happened to us in the past, we are responsible for how we choose to carry the memory of it into the future. This is the power of forgiveness: it gives us the strength to embrace our present reality with clarity, compassion, and freedom. It also transforms our future, for it is ultimately a karmic choice that will shape our destiny in ways we will only understand much later in this life and beyond.
Always Choose Your Gut Over Your Heart And Mind
We all have a higher purpose in this lifetime, and yet many never awaken to it, much less achieve it, because their ego has become more prominent in their lives than their higher self.
How do you know if what you are doing is for your highest good? How do you make sure you are aligned with your soul purpose? How do you know if what you want out of life is based on your worldly desires instead of your spiritual mission in this lifetime?
Well, you listen to your inner guidance. You trust your intuition. You follow your gut.
When you were born, a deep-seated dream was placed within you. As children we are often more in touch with our true calling or purpose, but many of us lose that awareness as we grow older. Unfortunately, it has been buried by the expectations of society and the many distractions of the material world.
Often our parents, peers, teachers, and mentors play a significant role in this process of shutting down our spiritual awareness. Has anyone ever laughed at you when you told them what you wanted to do or be? Did someone say, “Go back and think about that because it will never happen”? Each of us has a different story as to why we do or don’t achieve our dreams in life.
Today is the day to decide, “I will achieve my dreams as long as they come from the spirit and are for my highest good.” It is time to look at your dreams for your life from a deeper perspective.
Why You Should Be Dream Journaling
When my grandfather was alive, we had many deep conversations about spirituality and the afterlife. During a few of those conversations, he also promised me that if there was a way for him to contact me from the other side after he passed away, he would do so.
True to his word, he kept his promise. Our connection has remained strong ever since, and he continues to guide me from the other side.
It’s been well over two decades since his death, but I still have visitation dreams and mediumistic experiences in which he communicates with me. I feel incredibly blessed for these encounters, and they have confirmed much of what I’ve always believed about the afterlife and the spirit realm.
Grandpa was one of the few people with whom I could openly discuss my psychic abilities, mediumship, and paranormal experiences growing up. He was incredibly open-minded and spiritually aware for a man of his generation and background.
Not only was he a firm believer in the existence of the soul beyond this life, but he was curious about all things mystical and supernatural. I vividly remember him telling me about an out-of-body experience he had, describing how he had seen his own body from above as he “floated”.
One of the most valuable lessons my grandfather taught me was the spiritual significance of our dreams. He grew up at a time when dreams were losing their mystical significance in society as scientists began to increasingly view the dream state purely through a psychological, biological, and neurological lens.
How To Embrace Your Shadow Self
Most people tend to shy away from acknowledging their dark or “shadow” side when it comes to spirituality.
In fact, the tendency to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of the self is due in large part to our religious or spiritual background. Throughout history, most traditions have encouraged people to suppress, deny, or transcend their human flaws and shortcomings in favor of higher ideals such as purity, salvation, or enlightenment.
This reluctance to face the shadow within continues to this day, with modern spiritual and metaphysical communities often favoring light, love, and positivity while largely ignoring the messy, difficult, and painful aspects of the human experience.
But by avoiding the shadow within, we deny ourselves the opportunity for a deeper understanding of our soul’s purpose and untapped possibilities for personal and spiritual growth.
According to Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who pioneered the concept of the “shadow” in psychology, “one is not enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Enlightenment isn’t about avoiding the shadow. Instead, it’s about facing it and integrating it into our being.
When we face the shadow within, we reclaim parts of ourselves that hold immense power, creativity, and insight. By delving into the deeper truths of our shadow selves, we can unravel the unconscious patterns that dictate our lives, allowing for true healing, transformation, and enlightenment.
The Mysterious Mischief Of Poltergeist Phenomena
I have always been a sucker for scary ghost stories. In fact, the scarier, the better! Since my teenage years, I have sought out sensational tales of the supernatural for the sheer thrill of it.
One particular story, that of “Pete the Poltergeist,” still stands out in my mind.
Britain was going through a recession in the 1980s, but despite the economic downturn, two self-employed men in Cardiff managed to run a successful lawnmower repair business called Mower Services out of one of their homes.
One day, one of the men thought he heard someone throwing stones at the door of the workshop, but when he went outside, he was surprised to find that no one was there. The rocks seemed to come from nowhere!
Later, the men noticed that their keys were hidden, and there was a very strange smell in a certain part of the workshop that suddenly became extremely cold. Later, they began to even find money and witnessed objects being thrown across the workshop floor – but they did not know what or by whom!
As a result of this unexplained activity, they decided to close the shop one night and conduct their own séance-style experiment. They placed their hands on a table, fingers touching, and asked the presence to throw a stone at them – which it did! Then one of the men asked for a pen and the entity threw one at them as well!
Who or what did this? The two men simply concluded that they had a ghost in their workshop that had become “like a member of the family” and decided to nickname it “Pete the Poltergeist.”
Trust Your Gut First, Your Heart Second
How do you know that what you are doing is for your highest good? How do you know if what you want out of life is based on your own desires, or if it has been placed there to be achieved by the Universe?
Everyone has a higher purpose in this lifetime and yet many never seek it out or achieve it because the ego starts to become more prominent in their lives instead of their higher self.
When you were born, a deep-seeded life calling was placed within you. As children, we were able to tap into it, always knowing that we wanted to be a fireman, a policeman, a doctor, an astronaut, an artist, a lawyer, a dancer, a scientist, or a princess. Some of us just wanted to help others, even at a very young age. We would be kind, caring, and giving to other people, whether they were children, adults, or seniors.
Unfortunately, this energy has been buried over time by the society and culture we live in – whether it be teachers, parents or mentors.
Has anyone ever laughed at you when you told them what you wanted to do or be? Did someone say, “Go back and think about that, because that will never happen”? Each of us has a different story as to why we do or do not achieve our passion and purpose in life.
Today is the day to decide, “I will achieve my dreams as long as they come from spirit and are for my highest good.
The Spiritual Significance Of Colors
Color permeates our very existence, profoundly affecting our homes, our work environments, the food we eat and the clothes we wear.
In every facet of our lives, color exerts a significant influence, shaping our moods, behaviors, and spiritual well-being.
In Kundalini Yoga, for example, teachers traditionally wear white outfits made of natural fibers, along with a white head covering. This custom is not just for practical or aesthetic reasons.
Just as the color white deflects the sun’s rays while black absorbs them, white also deflects negative energy while black attracts and absorbs it.
This practice thus serves a dual purpose: it symbolizes the purity and spiritual clarity that the teacher exemplifies, and it also protects the teacher from negative energy that may emanate from his or her students.
Kundalini Yoga can attract a wide range of students, from those who are highly developed spiritually to those who struggle with emotional instability. The white attire acts as a shield against negative energy that may be projected or “dumped” on the teacher.
In particular, the head covering protects the seventh chakra, which is located at the top of the head. This chakra is essentially our ‘spiritual umbilical cord’ that connects us to God, Source, Spirit, the Divine, so its protection is crucial.