higher self
The Spiritual Aspect Of Physical Ailments
As a medical Reiki master and teacher, I have come to understand that there is often a spiritual aspect to almost every illness, pain or symptom that comes up in the physical body. When we are not in alignment with our spiritual self, it can create imbalances in many aspects of our health and wellness.
Note that I always recommend seeking and following professional medical advice. Despite the possible underlying metaphysical and spiritual aspects of any illness or disease, you must never assume that the intervention of a registered medical practitioner is not needed. Always seek medical advice if you are not feeling well, and do not stop using whatever medication and treatments have been prescribed for you without consulting your doctor. It could save your life.
What I can however recommend is to supplement your conventional medical treatment with energy work and other spiritual healing practices. The Eastern practice of Reiki is something you can use effectively to compliment your western medicine treatment.
Reiki is an energy healing modality that brings our chi into alignment. Chi is the energy of life itself. It is an electromagnetic energy which flows through everything in creation. Reiki brings the chi of the body, mind, and spirit back into alignment and can reveal which areas need to be worked on, or released, or simply acknowledged.
Here are a few examples of common spiritual meanings behind some of our ailments. Headaches are often associated with self-criticism and fear. They are also a source of feeling invalidated in some way and often aimed at the self. The solution is to start affirming how amazing you are, how divinely perfect you are, how much you love yourself. The best affirmation you can say is:
I love myself unconditionally. I am perfectly perfect as I am.
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
Discover Your True Strength And Inner Beauty
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Are you looking at only the outer appearance, or are you looking at the soul behind the flesh? Are you seeing the spirit within you?
Take a few minutes today to shut out the noise of the world, as well as any negative self-talk you may tend to indulge in. Then be still, take a few deep breaths and go within to explore who you really are on the inside.
Shift your awareness out of your mind and into your heart and gut. Uncover the inner strength that lies beneath the tears and hurt. See the love that longs to come to the surface and be shared with others. Find your inner spiritual truth.
So often we tend to see only our defects and not the good that lies underneath. It is time to see yourself as the best possible version of yourself. Begin to realign the way you see yourself and make it positive, confident, and powerful.
Trust me, I have been there too. I used to be always looking for affirmation from others that I am worthy, beautiful and worth being in their life.
Then one day, Spirit woke me up. Spirit spoke clearly and said, “Sheri, close your eyes and see the real you within. Feel your true power. Feel the essence of goodness that you are and what you can give to others. Help others to also see their perfection within themselves and guide them to not give their power away to others who cause them pain and hurt.”
It was a powerful moment of enlightenment for me and the message from Spirit has stuck with me for decades since.
Now, you may think that you have nothing to offer. Maybe you feel old, or unattractive, or not smart enough, or successful and talented enough. Maybe you believe your partner left you for another because you were not good enough, and so on. But none of these ideas you have about yourself are true.
You are a spiritual being in human form. You were created in the divine image of God. There is an inner beauty, a goodness, an infinite intelligence that lies beneath your physical exterior, no matter who you are or what you look like.
Love, Joy And The Pursuit Of Happiness
According to the United States Declaration of Independence “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable birthrights of every human being given to us by our Creator, God, Source, the Divine.
Sadly, I find very few people to be successful in their pursuit of happiness. The same is true for finding love and joy. It seems many are merely stumbling through life trying to find it.
A teacher once told me life is like school. For some of us it’s like kindergarten – easy, uncomplicated, and lots of fun. For others it’s like graduate school with lots of difficulties and challenges to overcome.
Searching for joy, love and happiness does seem to be a ‘wild goose chase’ for many people. It truly is like chasing wild animals. The faster we run after it, the more it seems to flee. I don’t believe joy, love and happiness can be found. Well, at least not in the ways that many of us are hoping to find it.
Like happiness, the right to love is also the natural inheritance of every person. The well-known channeled text, A Course in Miracles, delves into the idea of love from a spiritual perspective. It states that it is impossible to teach love. Instead, the goal should be to remove the blockages or obstacles we have to allowing love’s presence in our lives.
I have seen repeated evidence of this in doing readings for many years now. Certain reading themes are repetitive and common themes are ‘finding love,’ or the ‘lack of love,’ or ‘loss of love.’ In all these readings one thing always becomes very clear: love itself is not an ‘out there’ thing. It is also not something that can be received from another person or thing.
In readings, Spirit will often say, “Love is not a feeling.” This one initially took me a while to understand myself, until I realized that love is in fact an intrinsic quality of being. It is already within each of us. We refer to it as the Higher Self, the Soul, or the Spirit. No one is ever separated from this innate love because it is an intrinsic aspect of our very being.
Enlightenment Is For Everyone
The term ‘enlightened’ seems to be everywhere these days. But what does it really mean? From a spiritual or metaphysical perspective enlightenment simple means refers to our level of awareness. Enlightened people are deeply aware – of themselves, the world around them, of the realm of Spirit
In a world of increasingly empty noise and superficial values, true awareness has become a rare commodity. It’s easy to immerse ourselves in all the empty noise and meaningless materialism. It’s much more challenging to look at the things of this world with greater depth and see these things (and yourself) for what they really are.
When we begin to see more clearly and authentically we become more enlightened. We begin to see the light of truth. And when we do, we become more aware how our beliefs, choices, and actions all have consequences.
For example, you might be tempted to answer with harsh words to someone who has wronged you, or to swat a spider in the sink rather than take it outside. Each one of these actions, no matter how small, radiates outward and impacts the world around you.
Choosing peaceful or harmonious action is a vital step on the road towards enlightenment. Stop to think, before you act.
Another common thread in the fabric of enlightenment is lack of attachment. In many spiritual traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, unhealthy attachment is seen as the root of all human suffering. This could be an attachment to material wealth and possessions, to beliefs and ideas, to people and animals, or to our memories and our ego.
Enlightened people are able to release attachments that are not serving their best interest and highest good by letting it go gracefully. If you spend less time worrying about these earthly fixations and obsessions, your spiritual inner being will naturally start to flourish. And once it does, you’ll become more aware of the signs, synchronicities, and subtle messages the Universe sends us all the time.
Questions That Truly Satisfy The Self
Once upon the ages, over 5,000 years ago, the world’s great saints, sages, and spiritual scholars assembled at a place called Naimisharanya. This sacred forest was known to them as the energetic hub of the Universe, from where the benefits of their practices, sacrifices, and speech would extend to all the world’s inhabitants. Thus, they gathered here specifically with the intention of welfare for every living being.
By dint of their self-realization, these wise seers were gifted with foresight of the Age of Quarrel in which we now live. They considered that humans of this time would be short-lived and plagued by various mental, bodily, and natural disturbances. So, they contemplated what they could do to bring relief and the highest good for all in the many generations to follow.
They selected Suta Goswami as the most elevated among them, offered him a seat of esteem, and inquired from him with great respect. Because Suta Goswami was free from vice, learned in all scriptures and teachings of physical, metaphysical, and spiritual knowledge, and properly guided by the great masters, who had gone before him, the sages regarded him as most qualified to enlighten them about the Supreme Truth. Therefore, they humbly approached him with inquiries toward that end.
The sages began with six questions which they had ascertained to be of primary importance:
1. What is the absolute and ultimate good for people in general?
2. What is the essence of all scriptures and prescribed practices, by which the hearts of every living entity may be fully satisfied?
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.