inner vision
Be The Star Of Your Inspirational Story This Year!
As we enter a brand new year, it is essential that we optimistically turn a page in our book of life today to embrace an entirely new chapter! The past three years have been challenging for all of us in many different ways – all the more reason to dream bigger and reach higher in 2023.
Some of us are very determined to make up for lost time and have already made clear resolutions and set bold intentions for the coming year, while others may not yet know for sure what should be next to unfold in their life journey. Staring at the blank first page of a supposedly ‘new chapter in your life’ can be daunting, especially when true inspiration seems untenable.
Yes, thinking more positively about our life goals and dreams can at times be very difficult, especially when things have been tough for a long time or you have been stuck in a rut.
Emotional challenges like anxiety, grief and depression can cloud our ability to envision a better life, and the notion of dreaming about a better life can feel like a frivolous luxury or a pointless waste of time. It becomes challenging to clearly identify your goals and explore new dreams when you can no longer remember the last time good fortune smiled at you, or when last your own needs took center stage in your life, before that of others.
Whatever the cause, the struggle to move beyond such an impasse will always become very real when our pause buttons eventually light up. As creative spiritual beings in physical form we will eventually always want to break free from whatever rut or comfort zone we may find ourselves in.
Healing The Karmic Patterns Of Ancestral Trauma
Sometimes during meditation, I recall past events and childhood memories that had been long forgotten. A recent vision, for example, took me back to the home I was raised in. But the scene was one I do not remember.
I saw myself as a little girl, around three years old, and members of my mother’s family were visiting us. Everyone was singing and playing instruments together. I saw myself watching them and enjoying the music, but then felt guided to look diagonally upward to another scene happening simultaneously.
In the other scene I saw my ancestors; at least that is what I concurred because they were going back in a line. Behind my great grandmother, who was playing the piano, there were people who I sensed to be her parents, and then her grandparents behind them, and so on.
In that glimpse into the distant past, I observed how the behavioral patterns and family dynamics of our ancestors, some of it dysfunctional and unhealthy, had become the patterns of my family. I also saw how these patterns were passed on to me and how it has shaped the patterns in my life and my own family to this day.
I then invoked the Heavenly Light to wash over all of us: myself and my family, my living relatives, all my ancestors who came before us, as well as all of our future descendants. I prayed that all of the disharmony in my family lineage be healed, and also that any other families and individuals we had disharmonious interactions and relationships with be healed too.
In Hawaiian culture this kind of healing prayer is known as Ho’oponopono. It is an ancient spiritual practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, which in English literally translates to ‘to make right,’ or ‘to make good.’ Ho’oponopono is essentially a personal responsibility and forgiveness prayer or ritual to heal, among other things, feuding families and ancestral trauma. When practiced repeatedly, it is said to balance out karma. I do believe in praying for those who wronged or harmed us, because within their healing we find our own as well.
Eye Gazing As A Spiritual Practice
Eye gazing is a powerful, ancient practice in which two people engage in a shared meditation practice during which eye contact is maintained for an extended period of time. Eye gazing is usually done for about ten minutes at a time, although it can certainly be any duration preferred.
Eye gazing can be used to access past life information, promote healing, connect to your higher self, guides, or angels, and almost anything else you can imagine. The eyes are the windows to our soul, and our soul is the singularity that connects us to everything else: the Universe, Source, God, the Divine. Eye gazing is also a profound manifesting tool we can use to further develop our ‘spiritual muscles,’ so to speak.
Before you include eye gazing in your spiritual practice, I recommend you read my previous blog on the essentials of eye gazing. Once you are more familiar with the basics, you can also apply the following guidelines to your eye gazing practice.
To use eye gazing for a specific purpose, you must set a clear intention beforehand, and then hold that intention throughout the gaze. You hold an intention by simply keeping a gentle awareness in the back of your mind that what you are seeing during the gaze is relevant to your intention, and trusting that whatever comes forward is always relevant.
It’s important not to simultaneously hold any expectations about what you’re going to see, or to resist anything that comes up spontaneously, just because you don’t immediately see its relevance or connection to your intention. Keep an open mind and be flexible and accepting in the flow of your gazing experience.
If you’re gazing alone, sit comfortably in front of a mirror, take a few centering breaths, and then state your intention out loud. I prefer to speak aloud in my spiritual practice whenever possible, as words are energy forms and therefore add a ‘weight’ to our prayer requests, intentions, and affirmations. State your intention out loud and ask Spirit to provide insight around this intention. Use language that feels right for you.
Life Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder
What is the lens through which you view the world? When I close my eyes I see waterfalls, flowing streams, and flowers. This is the scenery surrounding me with my eyes open too. It tells me a story of life, of inner perception, and beauty.
The experience of life is what we make it, not because we are independently powerful controllers or causes of physical outcomes, but because we are eternally sentient beings with the gift of free will.
The spirit soul is a spark of consciousness, and we can express that consciousness through a variety of qualities. It is that inner flavor of our quality that then colors our experience and lens.
So, for example, when I see the water in the stream rolling around rocks and carving a curvy path through the land in front of me, I am reminded of a world that is gentle with feminine energy. She flows and nourishes and moves with consistent but soft determination.
I know that elsewhere there is also hard, jagged terrain and a state of mind that matches it. I can choose to match my mind to the beauty, diversity, and gentleness of spirit, or to the rigid harshness of a cold, hard, inert world of matter and might.
This choice presents itself at every step. Two people may suffer a similar loss in their lives, but process it completely differently. One might see it as an opportunity to grow and become more resilient, while the other might choose to feel angry and unfortunate. It depends on the lens through which we choose to view the world and our interactions with it.
Our circumstances also do not have to change for consciousness to change. When we change our inner consciousness and the lens through which we choose to view life, we change the experience.