your journey Archives

Loving – Instead of Missing What Was

wvlju2021-05-19T18:09:37+00:00

Spring brings with it the promise of brighter, freer, and easy breezy days. However, this year that promise does not hold all it usually does. And even though we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, our patience may be waning, our nerves frayed a little, and our tempers raw. The continued restrictions, lack of freedom to do as we want, and reduced contact with our loved ones – are so counterintuitive to our sense of well-being. And although we know we will shortly have more freedoms than recently, we also know that the free-as-a-bird easy-breezy feeling we all long for is still a way off, and is very tentative. (This is a repost from last April, tweaked a bit to reflect this year's reality? ). So, as we move through the Spring and possibly still feel the heaviness of the restrictions and long for light-and-breezy gatherings with loved ones, remembering what we have loved – and dream about what will come, helps keep love alive in our heart and a sense of lightness in our being. Even while missing the touch of our loved ones or longing for outings and regular get-togethers with friends and family, there are ways to help waylay the sadness, keep our spirits up, and our connection to them alive in us Life is ever-changing. With its ebbs and flows, things and people come into our lives and go out of our life. Circumstances change. It is human nature to miss what was – especially what we loved and were comfortable with. However, it is more helpful to us that we love what was, rather than miss what was. Remembering what was with love creates loving feelings within us. Loving feelings dispel sadness, longing, and loneliness. They create expansion in our being. When we live from an expanded place, we are connected to Universal love. Connected to Universal love, we more easily find contentment and happiness with whatever we are doing. Appreciation for what is. Our sense of belonging comes mainly from this connection; not so much from others or circumstances. Missing what was creates negative feelings within us. Our consciousness reads missing as lack. As despair – void of love, hope, and appreciation. This creates contraction in our being. When we live from a contracted place, we rely mainly on our human emotions for our contentment and happiness, where sadness, longing, and loneliness can easily thrive. Move to Loving What Was – from Missing What Was. Bring into your heart the feeling of what you miss created within Revel in the feeling. Hugging yourself – or a pillow help to create the feeling. Smile about it. Write about it. Bring to mind the details. The sights. The sounds. The smells. Dig out old pictures and lovingly gaze at them, embrace them, and hold them to your heart. Do, or bring to mind, whatever creates that positive and loving feeling you remember about what you miss. The more we connect to the feeling what [...]

Loving – Instead of Missing What Waswvlju2021-05-19T18:09:37+00:00

Self-Forgiveness Returns Us to Our Innocence – Part 3/3

wvlju2020-10-07T11:23:12+00:00

Self-understanding is the path to self-forgiveness. And it is sacred work. Working hand in hand, they strengthen our connection to our True Self, which paves the way to peace, happiness, and feeling empowered, and becoming our Best Self. We forgive our self of all ways we hurt our self, or others, because we are all innocent and loving beings at our core – we have just forgotten this. We only ever feel, react, or behave badly or in unhelpful ways from our unmet wounds, or from current stressors we cannot deal with. We inherited this way of dealing with life from Humanity's past. We are all influenced by left-over attitudes and behaviors from past generations that were based in fear, blame, projection, and protectionism, causing us to feel, react, and behave in hurtful, unhelpful, and unloving ways. Humanity is at the pinnacle of its evolution, and we are primed to address, and overcome, our injured selves. In Parts 1 and 2 I discuss in depth why we act in ways that hurt our self – and others, and the importance of looking at what is driving us to act or react in unproductive or hurtful way. I explained that it is Unconscious Influences we inadvertently anchored into our being that act upon us without our consent, and that must be addressed. In this Part 3, I will focus on Self-understanding and Self-reflection, which together allow for Self-forgiveness. This lays the ground work to connect the dots to the associated Unconscious Influences that are causing us to feel, react, and act in unhelpful and harmful ways – so that we can be free of their influence. Link for Part 1 HERE for Part 2 HERE Unconscious Influences will have been affecting us – one way or another – whether we are aware of it or not: they act upon us without our conscious consent. And with all the stress and uncertainly we are living with these days, our Unconscious Influences may surface more than usual. Whenever they do, we either hurt our self, others, or both – as negative reactions and behaviors affect all involved. We hurt our self when we turn our fears, hurts, insecurities, and disappointments back onto our self. We may be overly-sensitive when disappointed by others and get hurt feelings. We may be tentative and afraid to try things. We may suffer from angst, apathy, insecurity, guilt, shame, or be overly-passive and not stand up for our self. We may become dysfunctional, or even an addict. As these all cause further internal angst and pain, we continue to think, act, and react in disempowering ways, and the cycle continues. We hurt others when we project our Unconscious Influences onto those around us. We may lash out in anger, blame them for our unhappiness, or are judgmental, critical, demanding, bullying, controlling, uncooperative, abusive – or any other harmful or disempowering way that may hurt or stress them. This causes conflict in our life and disharmony our relationships. It is the denial [...]

Self-Forgiveness Returns Us to Our Innocence – Part 3/3wvlju2020-10-07T11:23:12+00:00

Newsletter May 2020 – Evoking the Power of Nature

wvlju2020-07-01T01:30:47+00:00

Evoking the Power of Nature We are all going through various emotions and reactions to all that is going on because of this pandemic. None of us are 100% immune to falling into stress, worry, or fear at least on occasion. We are human and this is normal. Because of the extra stress that cannot be avoided, we must ensure we keep our physical, mental, and emotional bodies balanced. There are many ways to do this, and people are offering up so much. The sharing of beautiful and heartfelt music, uplifting stories, stunning images that evoke awe in us, jokes to make us laugh keeping us light-hearted, as well as free support, meditations, and prayer circles, give us many options to help keep us keep somewhat up and balanced. All of these offerings reach into our heart-space and connect us to the love within – the place where we can feel more peaceful. (Below are links to a few helpful practices and the download of a free e-book I recently came upon). (All my writings are based on my books, Your Journey to Peace ... and Why We Are the Way We Are - Links to About Books and Cover Images are below) It is connecting to the love within and staying light-hearted that helps us navigate these times more easily, and in the long run, helps heal the world. Stress, worry, anger, focusing on the drama, etc. keeps us tethered to our mind and its limited viewpoints, which distances us from the healing aspects of being connected to our heart-space, where our perspective is much broader. And then there is our connection to Nature – our most powerful ally. Being in nature helps us to reconnect to our origins. Nature can communicate truths to us, because it is the cleanest and purest channel within our realm. Nature speaks directly to our hearts. It’s trees, water, rocks, plants, sky, moon, sun, and stars, the animals, the insects, etc. are brimming with love, light, and wisdom that can override the stresses and worries of our minds. And it is through a strong connection to our heart-space that stresses and worries abate. Void of stress and worry, we gain clarity. Clarity guides us to make good decisions – not influenced by drama, echoes of the past, or concerns about the future. The Indigenous peoples have always revered – and have had a reciprocal relationship with Mother Nature. As did the ancients. In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which is about a man seeking enlightenment in Buddha’s time, this relationship is noted. At one point, Siddhartha tells his friend Govinda that nature in its purest form can speak to us, and tells him the tale of a wise ferryman who said “the river’s voice spoke to him.” The ferryman also told him “every wind, every cloud, every bird, every beetle is equally divine and can teach just as well as the esteemed river.”(1) There is more ... to read the full message see here Stay safe and well, with much [...]

Newsletter May 2020 – Evoking the Power of Naturewvlju2020-07-01T01:30:47+00:00

The World Needs our Gentle Touch – Part 3/3

wvlju2020-07-15T13:03:34+00:00

In parts 1 and 2, I discuss why all of us need a gentle touch - especially now. In part 2 I also suggest that we extend that gentleness to all living beings on the Planet - on Gaia, as she is home to beings that walk upon her. In this part 3, I maintain that we must also be gentle to Gaia - our home - to Mother Earth. As we have progressed and modernized, we have abused and disrespected our home, and we need to help her heal. (This is a re-post of an article I wrote a couple of years ago and post from time to time - and felt it was a good time to present it again, as these days we all need a gentle touch: compassion and understanding as we navigate these challenging times. I addressed our current situation a little in Part 1, and here this is mostly just a re-post of the original article, but that is always relevant). Gaia is a living breathing being. The Indigenous peoples know this and show her the respect she deserves.They have a strong connection to our Planet, and they are teaching us the importance of respecting her - and all her inhabitants. See HERE for Part 1 - For Part 2 HERE Our Home; Mother Earth In past times, we held a reciprocal relationship with Gaia. She gave to us through her bounty. We took and shared her gifts – with gratitude, and we looked after her. The Indigenous peoples still adhere to this concept of reciprocity, and still believe in the premise of “enough.” Our planet has suffered physically through industrialization and our greed. We have been inconsiderate of her air, water, land, forests, and resources. We are now seeing the repercussions of many of the decisions made decades ago. Some of these we made unaware of the long-term consequences; others, we knew there would be consequences and either ignored or buried the research. We have gotten used to the many luxuries that we now consider our right – many of them attained at her expense. We have gone beyond the concept of “enough.” This article is based on my writings. See here for more information on my books. Our planet has also suffered from the emotional abuses we have put upon her. All the unfairness, judgments, prejudices, hate, injustices, and cruelty we have directed towards each other, groups of people, like through genocides and wars, or even towards the animals have affected her. Because she is a living, breathing organism and it all happened within her boundaries, she too has suffered when those living upon her suffered. Gaia, Mother Earth, our beautiful planet has had to shrug off all of these physical and emotional abuses. And even though she is still in an evolutionary stage and some upheavals are normal, many of the recent turbulent weather patterns are because of her releasing this negative energy we have put upon her. She too requires our gentleness [...]

The World Needs our Gentle Touch – Part 3/3wvlju2020-07-15T13:03:34+00:00

Our Life Matrix, Part 2/3

wvlju2020-06-10T15:59:03+00:00

Our Life Matrix predisposes us to deal with life, others, issues, and situations by responding calmly, lovingly, and with attitudes that unify and uplift, or, by reacting aggressively with attitudes that divide and create conflict. We may also deal with life in overly-passive ways of reacting that usually do not create immediate outer conflicts, but as our emotions and true feelings remain buried, our inner frustration increases. And these eventually surface - and most often in very unproductive ways. Link for Part 1 here A Positive Life Matrix Living under the influence of a positive Life Matrix, we may embody optimism, confidence, and hopefulness. We may feel lucky, be fearless, as well as be accepting of others since a positive outlook and our own self-confidence cause us to be non-judgmental. We could sometimes succumb to arrogance, impatience, or single-mindedness as our personality dictates, but emotional reactions will generally be composed. Most of our dealings with others will likely be propelled by responses instead of reactions. And as our general outlook is positive, we will quickly return to positive attitudes should we fall into negative ones. A positive Life Matrix may temporarily shift to a negative one, but we are usually pulled back as our underlying inner belief system holds a positive approach to life. This article is based on my writings See below for more information on these, and my upcoming books The same holds true for a negative Life Matrix. We may have times where we approaching life or situations with positivity, but we generally default to the negative. A negative Life Matrix can be shifted more permanently to the positive, albeit with a sincere and conscious effort. A Negative Life Matrix If we are living under the influence of a negative Life Matrix, we are often needy. We may tend to be pessimistic, hesitant, doubtful, and feel disadvantaged. As these attitudes do not invite in desired results we are often frustrated. We blame others for our failures. We may act with aggression, timidity, or passive-aggressiveness, or, vacillate between these ways of dealing with our frustrations. When we do evoke positive feelings they are usually undermined, as our negative heart beliefs eventually pull us back under their influence. We may hold a volatile emotional component and will be overtly reactive—instead of being responsive to situations and taking them at face value and without making it all about us and our neediness and/or emotions. Or, we may respond with seeming passivity, but are internalizing our angers or frustrations keeping our inner world in turmoil. This becomes a vicious cycle, as inner turmoil invites in more of the same. Our emotional state is very important because it defines who we are now being, which influences what our future holds. In next week’s post I will discuss how what is held in our Life Matrix governs everything we think, say, and do, which influences what we invite into [...]

Our Life Matrix, Part 2/3wvlju2020-06-10T15:59:03+00:00