past
How To Practice The Art Of Gratitude
My life has not been without its challenges. Nevertheless, I love my job, have a beautiful son, an adorable husband and supportive friends and family. Therefore, irrespective of current world events, I genuinely have a lot to be grateful for!
Gratitude is beneficial for all of us, including physically, emotionally and spiritually. For one, appreciating the good things in our lives helps us to be more tolerant and forgiving, with a higher sense of life satisfaction. Grateful people also tend to have more hope and inner peace and feel less anxious and alone.
God, Spirit, the Universe loves gratitude! Those who are sincerely grateful are blessed with even more to be grateful for. Like attracts like.
How does one ensure that you practice the art of gratitude ever day? The following guidelines should help:
Seek Out The Positive
In my own personal research into positive psychology, I became aware of something referred to as negativity bias. In case you have not heard of this, it means that our negative thoughts tend to be more dominant than the positive ones.
An excellent way of counteracting this negative way of thinking is to seek out at least three things in your life every day that you are well and truly grateful for. Try to make this a daily habit. By doing so, it should have you smiling in next to no time!
I remember when I was about 26 years old and in a particularly challenging place in my life. I was advised by a psychic, whom I reached out to with my troubles, to watch the film or read the book, The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It is some of the best advice I have every received. Once I had read the last chapter, I felt so grateful for whatever I had in my life.
My Near-Death Experience
About 12 years ago, right before Christmas, I had a lot going on in my life. I was taking care of my two kids and my brother. My cousin had a three-month-old baby, whose mother was in the hospital with complications due to diabetes. He brought me his new baby and asked if they could stay with us, and if I could care for his son while he worked. He was working the night shift, from around 7pm till 4am. Of course, I said I would help in any way I could.
Between my kids’ and my brother’s schedules, and now this new baby who was colicy, I was exhausted at the end of the second week. Somehow, I also got food poisoning. Never having had food poisoning before, I didn’t know the symptoms and thought I had a touch of stomach flu. Being so tired, I hadn’t realized how sick I actually was. After about 18 hours of fluid loss, I become so dehydrated that I had a seizure. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I fell down. Apparently, I was clinically dead for around 1½ minutes.
I did not experience all of the typical near-death phenomena. There was not any floating over my body; there was no white light, no tunnel. I was simply here and then I was there. The first thing I remember is walking along a sort of grassy path. I don’t remember turning around to look behind me, but, I just knew that there was a darkness from which I came, back there.
There were two people there to greet me. A woman and a man, the woman spoke to me first, and the man was a little ways behind her. Today, I could not tell you who these people were. But, when I was there, I was so glad to see them. It was like when I had sent my kids to summer camp, and they were gone for all those summer months, and I missed them terribly. It was the same feeling I got when seeing my children for the first time returning home. I had a deep love and bond with these two people.
The next thing I remember is that I was taken to the top of a mountain. There was no journey to get there, I was just there. The only way to describe the mountain is that it was like standing on top of Pikes Peak and looking out. I was so high up that the only thing I could see was blue sky.
Release Then, Embrace Now
I did the most interesting and heartfelt psychic reading the other day. Once it was over, I thought about my responses as a reader for this particular subject matter and how we live and, hopefully, learn. This was a case of lost love come back around again, after many decades of separation and years of wondering ‘what if?’ My client had loved and lost her soulmate when they were mere teenagers, many moons ago.
The parting had not been easy or a willing one for either of them, but our parents’ opinions when we are a certain age often tend to determine our decisions and choices. The two lovers parted ways and went on to lead their separate lives with other people, but in their hearts they never forgot each other. It took a long time, but their paths did cross again – this time with life at the helm, instead of their parents’ wishes and decrees.
Their original parting was so painful for the woman that, although she was so happy to see him again, she could not help but react from a perspective of fear and panic. She approached their reconciliation from the then place, which was one of loss, confusion and grief.
During a reading on this matter, it was immediately apparent that there still were many rivers to cross. The first words from me were: “There is so much love here waiting to happen!” Little else seemed to matter much at all. But the client was still stuck in the past.
Then a pearl of wisdom came from Spirit. “Right now is right now,” the Angels confirmed. “We would not have brought the two together were there not unfinished business and love here to attend to. Tell her to release the past and take the leap of faith. Once she releases it, she will be able to see the now. Then she can proceed from an open heart, not from the fear of loss. She won’t experience the same scenario again, or have it re-enact itself, because she will have released the past. It will literally be a new lease on life.”
The True Value Of Psychic Insight
There is so much more value to accessing psychic insight than simply seeking to see what the future holds. The true value of life, in fact, is not in the future. It is occurring now, in the moment. This is where eternity is truly touched.
The Bhagavad-Gita (Song of God) is a spiritual manual for humanity, spoken over 5,000 years ago, between the infallible Lord Shri Krishna and His dear devotee Arjuna. It offers timeless wisdom to appreciate the value of the present, the now.
This conversation is said to have taken place neat the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the current state of Haryana, India. In the capitol, known as Hastinapura (present day New Delhi), the blind king Dhritarashtra sat with his minister Sanjaya, inquiring about what was occurring between his sons (the Kurus) and their cousins (the Pandavas), as they gathered with their respective armies to fight for the throne.
Dhritarashtra’s nephews were the rightful heirs and righteous rulers, whose kingdom was usurped by the intrigues of their evil-minded relatives. Refusing to go in peace, the Kurus incited war. As it was set to begin, Dhritarashtra was anxious and restless to know what was transpiring between the two parties.
The king’s clairvoyant, Sanjaya, tuned in to what was happening, as if by transcendental television. By the grace of his spiritual teacher, Sanjaya had received this ability to see and hear from afar.
Sanjaya’s guru gave him these gifts of clairvoyance and clairaudience in order to render a great service, not only to the king, but to the world for centuries to come. For, what he relayed to Dhritarashtra included divine instructions imparted by Krishna to Arjuna (one of the Pandavas) when he was bewildered by the situation before him.
Although Arjuna was, in fact, a fully-realized soul beyond the influence of illusion. He merely played the part of an ordinary conditioned human, so that these immortal words would be spoken for the benefit of all those seeking to navigate their way through the troubles of life, and reach its ultimate purpose.
Accept The Past In Order To Move Forward
Accepting the past, and letting it go, is often one of the most challenging issues that come up in the readings I do for clients. When things are not always going as they expect it to go in their lives, it is usually because the client is still stuck in the past, and unable to move forward.
The human body was made to walk forward, just like trains, boats and planes are designed to propel themselves forward. The human mind and spirit is designed to do the same. We are meant to move forward, learning, growing, expanding and evolving into the future.
The human body has eyes in the front of the skull, not in the back. We are meant to look forward, not backwards. The human body can walk backwards, if it absolutely has to, but it’s designed to be bi-regular in a forward direction.
But, if you are holding on to the past, or not willing to see it as being in the past, your subconscious mind and your soul remains in limbo. The greatest thing about the past is that we can learn from it, and observe what and how it affects us in the now. We also have the unique opportunity to change our outlook or approach to the present, based on the lessons of the past.
The greatest gift the human mind has is the ability to shift our perceptions, learn from our life experiences, and expand our horizons. We are able to examine how every past experience or circumstance affects our journey in the present, and we can also choose how we will perceive and acknowledge it as we move forward on our path.
Embrace Change In Your Life
As a professional psychic advisor, one encounters a wide variety of people in various stages of life transition and change. And some deal better with these changes, than others.
Some people, for example, refuse to accept that nothing ever stays the same. People evolve. Spouses fall out of love. Children grow up. Circumstances change. Life goes on. Constantly looking back on an unpleasant past, or desperately holding on to the past, is not the way to live one’s life in the now.
To make the most of life’s challenges and opportunities, we must deal with present realities. Clinging to the past, or obsessing over the future, only causes immense stress to everybody involved. If we go around in circles, repeating the past, we will also not be able to conquer the future.
Some people also tend to be easily disappointed when others do not always cater to their needs and wishes. Then there are those who insist on always being right, while doing a lot of wrong themselves. This kind of selfishness does not make things right either.
As a psychic reader, I can explain the actions and reactions of people in your life. I can also offer you different perspectives and guide you towards potential solutions in dealing with others, as well as changing situations. But, I cannot change people or circumstances for you. I can also not turn back time.
If you feel stuck and you are repeating cycles, I can help you to break the pattern and give you the insight of change. Embrace change. Don’t try to change others, or change the world. The only way this works is if you adapt yourself to the whatever changes may be happening in your life.
Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow
A loyal client recently asked me to send her one of the guided meditations in my collection. I have collected many over the years, and she experienced several of them in a meditation class I used to offer. She said she was planning to start a small meditation group of her own, and would be happy with whichever meditation I chose to share with her.
I sincerely wished to help her, and therefore wanted to choose carefully. So, on my walk this morning, along a path lined with olive trees, I asked my guides for a sign or symbol of what script would best help her get going with her guided meditation venture.
Well, Spirit never ceases to surprise me. The ‘sign’ was almost instant, and prominent. Out of nowhere, I suddenly smelled the exquisite scent of the ‘Yesterday Today and Tomorrow’ plant (Brunfelsia). I immediately knew exactly which meditation to send my client.
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow Meditation
Sit in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. With your eyelids closed, glance upwards for a few moments, directing your eyes towards the heavens. This is helpful in relaxing your eyes and also symbolic in connecting with Spirit.
Now, take several deep breaths and, as you do so, relax your head in a downward position. Allow your eyeballs to relax downwards too, whilst still keeping your eyelids gently closed.