spiritual self-care
Coping With The Loss Of A Loved One
Many people I know, including myself and several of my clients, have experienced the loss of a child or grandchild.
Losing a grandparent or parent is heartbreaking, but losing a child is absolutely devastating! It is difficult to understand why someone so young is taken before they had a chance to live a full life.
A few years ago, I found some solace for my continuing grief from a very unexpected source.
I am an avid Nascar fan. If you don’t know what Nascar is, it is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Stock car racing is one of the largest spectator sports in America.
A few years ago I watched an interview with one of the masters of this sport, Richard Petty, also known as “The King.” His words struck a deep chord with me.
Richard Petty’s grandson, Adam Petty, was also a racer like his grandfather. He was only 19 when he died in an accident on May 12, 2000 while practicing the sport he loved so much. His car hit the outside wall of the track, killing him instantly.
In the interview I watched, his grandfather spoke of his depression, guilt, grief, and not wanting to get out of bed because he felt he was somehow to blame for encouraging his grandson to pursue this sport that cost him his young life.
Unstuck Your Life With A New Spiritual Practice
One of the most transformative things we can do in life is to step out of our comfort zones and infuse our lives with new vitality. As creatures of habit, we tend to get stuck in life with repetitive routines and recurring patterns that drain our energy and stifle our personal and spiritual growth.
When conventional methods fall short, exploring spiritual or esoteric practices can breathe fresh air into our lives and help us break free from the shackles of monotony.
Feeling stagnant, experiencing a lack of fulfillment, or longing for personal growth are all signs that it’s time to break free from a comfort zone, a soulless daily routine, or a recurring toxic pattern that no longer serves our highest good. These indicators often signal the need for change to invigorate or even reinvent our lives.
By adopting a new spiritual practice and delving into realms beyond the ordinary, we embark on a new journey of self-discovery and soul expansion that unlocks our hidden potential and transforms our destiny. Exploring esoteric and occult traditions offers alternative perspectives and transformative experiences that can expand our consciousness and provide profound insights. It can uncover hidden knowledge and help us tap into higher realms of consciousness that enrich our lives.
The Spiritual And Therapeutic Energies Of Blue
In metaphysics, colors are associated with a specific energy signature or vibrational frequency that affects our aura as well as the energy fields in our surroundings. The energy signature of blue carries certain vibrational qualities that have both spiritual and therapeutic significance.
In spiritual and religious contexts, this color is often associated with the divine and sacred, representing a connection to the heavens and the spiritual realm. The color blue also holds a significant place in various mythologies around the world.
From its celestial associations in Greek mythology, to its divine symbolism in Norse mythology, to its mystical significance in Celtic mythology, blue represents the vastness of the cosmos, the power of divine forces, and the enduring nature of wisdom and knowledge.
Blue is also traditionally associated with spiritual healing and purification and is considered a protective color. It is believed to have a calming and cleansing effect on the mind and spirit. It is also said to ward off negative energies and provide a shield against spiritual harm.
Beyond its spiritual symbolism, blue is considered an important color in color therapy for its various therapeutic effects that promote physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
The Inner Truth Of External Clutter
We are almost a month into the new year, the time when most people begin to flounder in their resolutions. For me, resolutions are like empty promises, so my only resolution every New Year is to not make any resolutions.
Instead, I try to simply live my life with a few consistent rules. I have found that staying true to these personal and lifestyle guidelines eliminates the need for major resolutions each New Year.
Clutter is a big one for me. I make it a point to clean out the clutter in my life on a regular basis, whether it is physical, material, emotional, or spiritual.
Material clutter is the easiest to deal with because it is tangible and visible. It is hard to ignore a pair of shoes that you never wear anymore and have to move around in your closet over and over again.
It is also hard to ignore all those old clothes from another era that you have held on to in the hope that one day they will come back in style. Equally difficult to deal with are those old spice jars and other pantry items past their expiration date that you should have thrown away years ago!
These small lifestyle annoyances may seem insignificant on the surface until you consider that material clutter goes hand in hand with mental, emotional and spiritual clutter. The way we live, the way we manage our environment, and the way we organize our outer existence are a reflection of our inner being. The resulting clutter then becomes a recurring pattern that leads to more clutter, chaos, and dysfunction in our lives.
Blessing Your Food And Drink
I am convinced that a cup of coffee or a sandwich always tastes better when a dear friend or loving relative has made it. Maybe it is because it was prepared with love and good intention?
I also believe that when food or drink is prepared with love, the intention behind its preparation is more beneficial to our bodies and well-being. This idea often comes to me when I’m a guest at someone’s table.
My belief is not just a personal fancy; it is based on the metaphysical notion that food is just energy, as are our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Energy is transferred through touch, and both good and bad energy can be transferred or exchanged through physical contact. Even without speaking, subtle, invisible thought forms and intentions also pass from one person to another.
It therefore makes sense that this would also happen when one person prepares food and another consumes it.
I believe this is one of the reasons why many religions and cultures have a tradition of blessing food and drink before consumption.
Learn To Say No To Toxic People!
Do you allow others to steal your energy with their drama and demands? If so, you may want to reconsider how you deal with them, because it is very unhealthy physically, mentally and spiritually to be around negative people and force yourself to do things you don’t want to do.
Protecting your energy field from toxic people and situations is more important than you may realize. They can have a profound effect on our overall well-being. Physically, the stress and negativity can lead to various health problems, such as elevated blood pressure, a weakened immune system, and disrupted sleep patterns. Chronic stress can also contribute to the development of more serious health conditions over time.
Emotionally, exposure to toxic people can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Overly demanding people tend to be self-centered, manipulative, abusive, and lacking in empathy. They disrespect emotional and physical boundaries and undermine your self-esteem. Constant exposure to such people can leave you feeling emotionally drained and manipulated, and undermine your confidence and sense of self-worth, affecting your emotional resilience and ability to cope with life’s challenges.
The Compassion Of Tough Love
We have an amazing tool within us: our heart. Not only does it keep us alive, but it also allows us to feel deep emotions, such as love and resentment, joy and sadness, achievement and loss, compassion and apathy.
Many people fail to see the power of the heart and what we as humans can do with that power for ourselves and others. The heart is in fact key to our personal and spiritual learning and our soul expansion in this lifetime.
However, many of us who strive to contribute to a better world with the power of our loving hearts have also seen that giving material things, like money, and trying to help those who refuse to help themselves, does not cure the suffering in the world. It usually only puts a band aid on the underlying problems and in time it just returns as additional problems.
We all have our own karmic lessons, and if not learned it becomes a recurring issue until we finally learn to fix it, learn from it, and move forward. Then it is no more a lesson, but a wisdom.
It is also true that we can get in the way of others learning their lessons. Sometimes we jump in too quickly or end up taking on their burden, only to find it happening again and again. Then all our efforts and sacrifice were in vain.