The voice of truth: the throat chakra

The throat chakra governs, as you might guess, communication. But more than that, the energy of this chakra is all about communicating truth. It's about building connection and community, about creativity, and it's key to accessing our psychic abilities (we usually think of the 3rd eye for this, but ....)


In a week or so, when we start looking at some of the other energy centers, we're going to take a long, hard look at the higher heart chakra, which rests between the heart and throat, bridging the two. In itself, though, the throat chakra could be considered a bridge between heart and brow. If the heart chakra connects us to others through love and compassion, the throat chakra connects us not only to others, but to a consciousness beyond the physical. Voice manifests ("in the beginning was the word") ideas; voice transfers ideas from spirit to physical reality when we communicate with others...we shape our reality through our throat. Blocked, says Alberto Villoldo in The Four Insights, this chakra can constrict our energy-focus to our family, our tribe. Open, we are able to connect to a greater "us." Communicate. Community.

It's not just talking, though, it's speaking truth. This is a chakra that is often shut down in women (especially in older generations and certain cultures), children, and others who are told they should be "seen and not heard." It's the chakra that's shut down when we're told physical reality is all we have, and we stop telling people about our non-physical experiences.

When we open the throat chakra, we allow the truth voice, and we share that truth with others. The chakra, by the way, also governs hearing. One way to shut down truth is to refuse to listen.

When you visualize this chakra, see it as a light to bright blue (the color of the lapis stone is perfect). When it spins, it glows brilliantly with the light of truth—your truth. If you've not done much clearing of this chakra, don't be surprised if your voice over the next few days feels rusty. But then again, maybe it will sound brighter and clearer than ever before. If you're using stones in your chakra meditations, a few good choices for this one are blue kyanite (my favorite—it's such a beautiful blue, especially if you find it tumbled and polished!), chrysocolla (which lends itself well to strength and balance in communication), lapis lazuli, sodalite (which also works well with the brow chakra, allowing truth to flow freely), and blue sapphires.


Have an amazing, blessed day!

Straight to the heart (chakra)

Sorry--the last couple days got the better of me. I started a container garden on my balcony, and started sprouts this week, and that's taken up a bit of time--but the clover sprouts are amazing, and even the radish and broccoli are actually sprouting (a huge improvement over trying to sprout at my last place). This morning? One lone carrot top peeking out of the soil. I suspect the cool weather is slowing things down, but that's okay.

So mundane life was a bit hectic, the garden required a bit extra time, but that's life, and it gave me a little more time to think about what I wanted to say for our first look at the heart chakra.

As you could guess, the heart chakra is located right about where our physical heart is. The color associated with it on our rainbow ladder is green. The quality most closely associated with it is love. The heart chakra is sometimes referred to as a bridge chakra--part of its role in our energy is connecting the three lower chakras, which really place us in the world--our stuff, our relationships, our personal power, and the three upper body chakras (throat, third eye or brow, and crown) which start to connect us on a different level. It is here that we process emotions. And because 99.999% of everything is rooted in either love or fear, imbalances in this chakra can affect (or be created by) things going on in almost every other area of our lives.

I love this chakra (no pun intended). When it's clear and glowing, healing energy just floods your entire being and your life. It is, however, a chakra that is frequently out of balance, especially for women. When you're raised to place others' well-being above your own, others' opinions above your own, and others' feelings above your own, this chakra either shrinks or armors up to protect you, or expands until you have no recognizable emotional boundaries or emotional self-preservation: you're giving, giving, giving and never replenishing.

Not only our heart but our breath/lungs is governed by this chakra. In Chinese medicine, the lungs hold grief (think about this for a moment!). This is a great chakra to practice breathing into/through -- something we'll be talking about next week. For now, we'll stay with the practice of clearing through visualization. If you need reminders, go back to the post last Friday (?) on the root chakra, and review those suggestions. The color you should see when you go in and focus on this chakra is green. Imagine an emerald (an excellent stone for heart chakra work) in your chest. Other stones include seraphinite (a gorgeous mossy green), sugilite, green, pink or watermelon tourmaline (yes, it really looks like a cross-section slice). Rose quartz is a favorite of many people; calcites are good for clearing any chakra (match the color with the chakra), so pink calcite would be your choice here. Yes, it's not green, but the pink stones tend to associate with feelings of love as well.

Three more chakras in this section of the adventure ....

Have an amazing, blessed day!

I will: chakra three

The third, or solar plexus, chakra, is the seat of our power--or at least the seat of our recognition of power. Remember, with any energy in our lives, it's not so much about its absence or presence as it is about our connection. Energy simply flows, and if it isn't flowing, or isn't flowing in a way that works for us, it's usually because there's a blocked connection of some sort. Often the complications in our chakras are comparable to a dam holding back water. Power through the dam, and things start flowing freely (and stop backing up and flooding other areas!).

An out-of-balance third chakra often is connected to an imbalance of power in our lives (I say "connected" with regards to chakra imbalances because it's not always clear which came first--the out-of-whack chakra [causing the energy imbalance in our outer life] or the out-of-whack life [causing the energy imbalance in the chakra]). It's often the case that chakra imbalances, especially severe ones, can be traced back to events happening in particular timeframes of our early lives--and if you look at childhood development timelines you can often see why. Third chakra imbalances often date back to the ages of 2 1/2 - 4 1/2 years: the time in which children develop personal power and a recognition that they are separate bodies from others. Think the terrible twos, here....

Back to the chakra. Loosely paraphrasing Anodea Judith from her work Wheels of Life: Feeling powerless is failing to consciously use our will. It's not that we're lacking in will, it's that we're applying it in directions that don't serve us. Yes, this can be a big hurdle. Yes, this can be overwhelmingly because of myriad issues that drive us into choosing to respond in accordance with someone else's will, rather than our own real purpose. Yes, yes, yes. Tons of reasons. But I think it's important to realize that our own purpose is there, just waiting for us to take a shot at tuning in. If you feel out of control, powerless, and weak, or simply (if such a thing is simple) stuck, you want to take a look at your third chakra.

This is a chakra to pay attention to with your daily energy clearing as well, especially if you spend much time around other people engaged in power struggles, because this is where those sit as well. This is the chakra associated with the physical element of fire, and as such it's the seat not only of power, but of transformation. It's where we focus when we're doing centering exercises, and if you've ever engaged in a battle of wills and lost, feeling like you've been kicked in the stomach, this is the place. You want this chakra clear and working for you so you can keep healing.

If you need, check back to the post on the root chakra from last week for details on the visualization process we're working with right now. To help boost the energy of the clearing of this chakra, I do suggest running through a grounding/centering exercise first, then visualizing the white light energy of your spirit-aura. When you trance, you'll be looking for a yellow glow just below your rib cage. As you go through the visualization of clearing and balancing this chakra, pay attention to any feelings of anger or fear that may come up. Let yourself breathe through them (literally--give it a try and you'll see what I mean), visualize the white-light energy dissipating them, just as you did when we started on the clearing of personal space. Be willing to let them be too much to deal with in one sitting--sometimes deep issues can be overwhelming. (Note: most of us know if we have serious issues. DO find a qualified counselor or medical professional to work with. Energy work, especially on your own, shouldn't be a substitute for professional help on physical, mental, and emotional issues.)

Continuing the list-o-gemstones: good gemstones to work with for the 3rd chakra include citrine, amber (not actually a stone; amber is a resin), topaz, and again, tiger's eye. My personal favorite is citrine for this work, but amber is also excellent for helping increase personal power.

If your 3rd chakra issues are related to over-powering, and you find yourself downsizing the chakra in your visualization, adding water to your environment, adding tonglen meditation, volunteering in settings that help you exercise compassion...all excellent ways to help bring that into balance. Also recognize if the over-powering is related to fear. Clearing and balancing this, along with the other two lower chakras, can help heal this life imbalance considerable.

The more I think about the chakras as I'm posting these, the more I'm conscious that we're just scratching the surface here. If you have any questions about a particular chakra, feel free to post them in the comments or email me privately at conscioussanity@gmail.com.


Have an amazing and blessed day!

Second chakra: you, me, and everyone else

The second, or sacral, chakra is an interesting power seat. I was thinking of it especially yesterday while doing some work and having the TV on in the background to one of those shows about hoarding.

Now, you wouldn't think the sacral chakra would relate to hoarding--after all, it's the root chakra that connects us to our "stuff." But a lot of the people I see on these shows aren't suffering from lack of "stuff" (or, more accurately, they aren't suffering from a fear of a lack of stuff). I'm sure that plays in to a lot of people's experiences, but one thing I've noticed when I've run across these examples: many, many times the stuff is filling a hole in their emotional lives.

Emotional balance is connected to the clear functioning of most if not all of the chakras, true. But a particular role is played by both the heart chakra and the sacral. The sacral chakra connects to the root, and it's sitll sort of fixed in the physical world. Part of what it does is govern how we relate to others through physical expression--sex, especially. But on a larger level, it's about intimacy and whether we allow it, or put up walls--and one of the things that stood out for me with these hoarders was they collected stuff to avoid intimacy. Things couldn't leave them like people did. Although none of them ever said it, I suspect it provided a physical barrier to keep people from getting too close--they couldn't bring people into their homes, often they couldn't sleep in the same bed as their partner, they didn't eat meals as a family. I'd be willing to bet that a look at their second chakra, even more than their first, would show a dingy, misshapen mess of energy.

The second chakra is located in the lower belly. In our rainbow ladder, it's associated with the color orange. Unless your energy is pretty clear--and sometimes even if it is--working on second chakra issues can bring up some difficult stuff. Can't maintain a healthy long-term relationship? Odds are good that working on this chakra will bring those issues up. It'll bring up your addictions, whatever they are--at least in the sense that you'll find yourself confronting the "why" of them (addictions, in the end, are simply those things that we put and keep between ourselves and life--not just alcohol or drugs, but addiction to convenience, to food, to coffee, to bad relationships, etc). It's useful to start off this work with a prayer to your deity of choice, spirit guides, what-have-you that the clearing of these issues be gentle.

Many authors seem to equate the 2nd chakra to sexuality only. I disagree. I think that sexuality is one expression of a willingess for intimacy, and that intimacy is more in line with 2nd chakra energies. Intimacy, after all, requires strength and the willingness to be vulnerable. Note that this chakra is not about love per se--that's related to the heart chakra. It's really connected to our willingness to be emotionally open, to be vulnerable, to be intimate in a physical way. True intimacy cannot be achieved without love (so few things can), and so I think we find heart chakra imbalances almost any time we find imbalances in any of the chakras (more on that when we get to the heart chakra). Regardless, when we're talking about second chakra issues, we've almost invariably got to include the fact that we're still very physical with this chakra, so there's almost always a physical expression of an emotional or psychological issue. Weight issues, when related to intimacy or fear of it, are frequently related to the 2nd chakra, although things that start out here could also then turn into habits that might be impacting the 3rd chakra (yes, it can get a little complicated--aren't we amazing beings?).

For now, though, we'll focus on very simple clearing for the 2nd chakra. Remember, when we get through the first seven chakras, we'll circle back to some of these clearing techniques and I'll do a post on some other ways to clear them.

You can use the same visualization techniques for this chakra as you did for the root. Light trance, look down your spine, look for the orange, etc. You might also check in on your root chakra at the same time. A friend turned me on to using tangerine quartz as an aid to second chakra work--again, if you can, use four pieces, one to each side of you, as you do this meditation. You can also use tiger's eye, amber, or carnelian. Try placing your hand on your belly as you do the visualization and pay attention to any physical sensations, like warmth. To me, 2nd chakra issues involve both serpent and jaguar levels of seeing. (Which we'll touch in on in the next series of posts after the intro to chakras).

Have an amazing, blessed day!

The root of it

Just in case you aren't familiar with the chakra system, here's a quick explanation: chakras delineate areas of, shall we say, more intense energy concentration. Everything is energy, connected by a flow of energy, and chakras are sort of like train stations, where energy of a particular type is concentrated and from where it primarily stems. We usually refer to chakras as though they are completely within our bodies, but a) there are chakras located completely outside our physical form, b) there are chakras not specifically residing in or around humans and c) just like that train station, the chakras have openings of sorts that allow energy to flow into and out of the world around us. Literally, this is where things can get messy.

There are a lot of chakras of importance, and we're going to start with the 7 most familiar ones, all located within the human body and primarily engaged for most of us in helping us deal with the day-to-day. The first, base, or root, chakra is roughly located at the base of the spine. It is concerned with matters of survival, and as such, the Incan shamans would equate it with the level of seeing with the serpent (I promise, one day soon we'll get into the four levels of seeing): it's really about "who am I in the world" -- the psychological component of this is "do I deserve to be in the world" -- food, shelter, clothing, physical safety, etc. Off balance, it can result in poverty or fear-driven greed, constant fear of physical harm, being a bully, and so forth. In a sense, it doesn't matter how it manifests in your life because your goal is to keep that energy clear and flowing under all circumstances and in all settings anyway.

One simple way to clear the energy of a chakra (we'll get into more complex ways after we cover all the physical body chakras) is through visualization. Imagine the chakras as a rainbow ladder: the root chakra is the first rung, and the associated color is red. To use visualization to clear this chakra, go into a light trance, and if you like, increase your connection by first visualizing your body filled with the white light of your spirit energy. Imagine you are looking directly down your spine (I find this rather easier to visualize than working from, say, a ground level view!). Right around your tailbone you should see a red ball of energy. Spend a few moments paying attention to it--its color, its size, its shape. Now imagine it perfectly round, clear red, and spinning smoothly. If it seems too large, like you have an over-focus one way or another on survival issues (this can include being too generous, too), feel free to shrink it. If it seems too small, like the Grinch's heart (or heart chakra, perhaps?), breathe into it, rather like a balloon. When it reaches "just right" in all ways, or a point you are comfortable with, hold that image for a few moments, then take a deep breath and open your eyes.

Over the next several days after doing this exercise, I do encourage you to pay particular attention to what is going on in your physical / survival reality. Remember our comfort zones are often ready to reach out and pull us back from our progress. If you are not familiar with chakra work, you'll want to repeat this frequently. If your chakras are reasonably in order, not so much. You can also augment the clearing and strengthening by setting root-chakra oriented gemstones around you -- an ideal number would be four, one to each side of you during your meditation. Some good ones are garnet, tourmalinated quartz, onyx, obsidian (especially snowflake obsidian), ruby (raw rubies are inexpensive and easy to find at metaphysical shops), or smoky quartz. Try with and without the stones and pay attention to their effects to find what works best for you. And, of course, you can always use clear quartz. If any of this makes you feel unsettled and ungrounded, go ahead and take a minute to do some grounding (see my earlier post on this for ideas).

You may want to keep a journal associated with your energy work so that weeks, months (or even just days) from now, you can look at how things are changing.

Doing it all at once

I feel like I've been bouncing around on the blog lately, trying to touch on this topic and that. Problem is, there's just so much to talk about, and I get on one topic and then start thinking I'm missing things. I think I'll just have to let it flow and get better at tagging so you can find what you need, when you get around to needing it.

Here's the thing. Or one of the things. There are a lot of pieces and parts that go into creating a life of purpose, and into creating a life of spiritual purpose and evolution. At its core, it's about the awareness of where you are, and what your part of the big picture is. It requires a willingness to examine your life, and to move on -- no "analysis paralysis." So even as I jump from clearing space to dreams to the other topics currently on my list, even as I think "wow, this is scattered," I realize they're all pieces of creating this life.

It is, in fact, all about the energy. It's about finding the vision, holding the vision, and getting rid of the things in your life--stuff, obligations, karma, people, whatever--that keep you from your vision.

It does NOT require you to go into seclusion in a mountain monastery (tempting as that might sound!); it doesn't require you to give away all your possessions and take up the life of a holy fool, or even a purposeful nomad--although that works beautifully for those people whose purpose that is.

All it requires is attention to detail, and THAT holds a lot of facets. So over the next several weeks, as we look at all the different kinds of energy, I'm going to try to be willing to go deeper into a given topic for several days running--hopefully you'll find it interesting; eventually, we'll move onto something else.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back to personal energy. We've touched some on clearing personal space (that is, your own energy) as well as the energy of your personal environment (that is, your house!), but I want to dig in a bit more into personal energy and spend several days looking at the chakra system.

Speaking of dreams...

Moving off the topic of waking dreams (i.e. life) for a foray into the forest of sleeping dreams. The other night I had a post-apocalyptic dream of sorts--I have these every once in a while, and I value them because they open up possibilities of what we may be evolving toward. They almost always involve complete strangers to whom I become closely bonded; they are almost always communal in nature...almost like intentional communities, although not in the way we generally think of those.

I do not consider these dreams to be precognitive--they're far too removed from recognizable reality. Nor are they consistent in location or people--so if they're precognitive, it looks like I'll be moving around quite a bit! However, in them there is something of a consistency in feeling, of purpose, and I think THAT might be a possibility for us physically--to live in communities of like purpose, or perhaps like spiritual purpose--perhaps in groups who take responsibility for a particular area's restoration. Such a group might include energy healers who specialize in gardening, or botany; some who clear water or soil of toxins; some who heal people and animals; others who are involved in the arts or teaching or what have you. Very land-based, these dreams--rather like seeing bits of daily life in a very small (maybe a few hundred people, tops) village.

As most people who know me will tell you, I'm mildly allergic to very small towns, which makes these even more interesting to me.

How about you--any interesting dreams of possible futures?

Clearing space: using herbs

I suddenly have a stack of topics, but want to touch on space clearing a bit more, as promised last week. Over the years I've seen students, clients, and customers at various metaphysical shops head for one thing when they need to clear space: sage.

Sage is good. And no, it doesn't really smell like anything but itself when it's burning. You can get it in bundles, which you light and let smolder as you walk through your space; you can also buy looseleaf, which will burn for a shorter period. Please note that if you use a sage bundle, you need to be very careful in making sure it's extinguished when you're finished. I love the combinations of herbs you can find in the larger sage bundles, but please put it in a fireplace or similar fire-safe spot after you've extinguished it, just to be on the safe side. The only drawback to sage is that it will sometimes set off a smoke detector. If you're concerned about that, you can buy sage oil and create a mister, or buy a mister already made--there are some really good ones out there, including the Sophie's Potions Spiritual Cleansing Mist I've probably mentioned before (full disclosure: the creator of these mists, and the proprietress of Avalon bookstore is a friend, but I recommend her products because they're really good. I don't make a dime on them.).

The one thing I see people failing most spectacularly at when using sage is the follow-up. Sage is known to clear energies. While I think it leaves some residually higher vibration in the space, I don't think it leaves it strong enough to stand alone. Always follow saging (or smudging, as it's often called) with another herb that fills the space with the vibration you want, if not ritual or prayer or another form of manifesting spiritual intent--otherwise, you run the risk that you'll collect unwanted energies in the space. Sage is often paired with cedar or sweetgrass in incense or sage bundles, and this works beautifully. Sandalwood is also a good follow, so if you like the scent of nag champa, go for it. Lavender will bring peace. Most resins are great follows--copal, dragon's blood, and frankincense among them.

One of my favorites--but again, something designed to set off smoke detectors!--is palo santo, or holy wood. This has a wonderful sweet, woody scent traditional used by the Incas.

If you know what you like, and know its properties, most incense available will work--the ones listed above are among my favorites, and they're easy to find (palo santo is much easier to find than it used to be). The important thing to remember is that when clearing a space with sage (the same goes for your personal energy field) you've only done half the job.

Connecting

We are all connected. Put us under a big enough microscope, and you wouldn't be able to tell where one begins and another ends. But more importantly, we are connected to Source (pick a name) -- and from that connection we get ideas bigger than ourselves and our conscious knowledge. We get healing that goes beyond scientific explanation. We get...so much.

When we nurture the conscious connection, we can see patterns and focal points--bits of inspiration that point us in the direction we should go. Synchronicity becomes the norm. Doors open, as Joseph Campbell famously said, where none appeared before.

Meditation is one tool for nurturing the connection--it helps us clear the mental clutter of the day-to-day. Focus on another being can also nurture the connection, when we do so with an open heart, open mind, and open ear for what is being said to us.

Talking to plants, hugging trees, appreciating the beauty of the green world--the plant brothers and sisters, if you will--can be an excellent starting point for nurturing connection. Hold a plant between your hands, gently, close your eyes if you like, and simply open to its energy. This is easier than it sounds--it's mostly a matter of holding a conversation with the plant and letting it answer. This is also not as crazy as it sounds, although you should note that as a rule, plants are gentle beings and if any of them suggest you do something violent, you might, in fact, consider that your imagination has taken hold and you should gently decline to do as instructed. Plants don't move very fast, so it's not like it's coming after you.

Back to connecting. I'm assuming that if you're spending time reading this blog, odds are good you are willing to consider that plants, as living beings, are sentient. Studies have indicated, by the way, that they do at least respond to the energy of a place/person. If that thought disturbs you, consider that a) the plant isn't communicating with you, it's just you opening your mind up and letting your subconscious speak, b) God/Source/pick-a-name is speaking to you through the plant or c) they are in fact sentient and it doesn't matter whether it bothers you because there isn't anything you can do about it anyway.

What does matter is your willingness to open to Source, to consciously connect with the other beings of this world. Strengthening those connections consciously will open you up to new connections, new visions of what's to be, new ways of service.

And you never know--the jasmine spiralling up the post beside your garden gate may have a story to tell.

Conscious lifestyle choices: how much is enough?

Thought I'd dip into the well of what other people are doing and talk a bit about frugality today.

Frugality is something I'm not very good at. Some people are great at it--so great that they publish newsletters on how to turn those rubber bands you're saving into, oh, car tires or something. They, as the saying goes, pinch pennies until Lincoln screams.

Why?

Some people, I think, do it for the ego boost, but that's not us. People living a consciously sane life might choose frugality to lighten their burden on Mother Earth--realizing that enough is, in fact, enough, and more than enough is harmful. They might do it in order to spend their money on other things of importance: perhaps making it go farther so they can do work that isn't repaid in cash, or so they can give more to others with less than enough. They might do it because they're trying to make the money they have actually go far enough to take care of their own obligations (if, for example, they weren't so good at frugality before).

They might practice frugality in order to not be frugal about something else, like travel.

Or, they might not aim for frugality at all. They might be seeking out simplicity.

Simplicity means spending your resources (money, time, energy, etc) on the things that matter most. It's choosing to spend less overall in order to get out of debt, because releasing that burden frees you to do other things without worrying about whether you're repaid in cash. It's choosing to spend less on a car, because you really want to focus on what you do when you get there, not what you look like arriving. It's choosing to put your money into yoga sessions instead of credit card payments, or hand-crafted anything or organic foods from local farmers (or even your own garden, if gardening simplifies your life). It's about focusing on the accoutrements of your path (the flowers along the way, perhaps) rather than wandering down the path someone said you should be taking, with the furniture someone else says you need, or the car that will make you sexier or more powerful.

Frugality does not necessarily equal simplicity. I know people who take frugality to the clutter-bug extreme (hoarding). I think some people take minimalism to an extreme (there, too, one should be seeking "enough," but perhaps the true minimalist simply "needs" less to create enough). Simplicity, though--well, maybe you can take that to an extreme, but then you take it out of the category again. Enough is enough, and only you know how much that is for you. More than enough? Might be time to ask what space you're trying to fill.

Too much protection?

The other day I posted about space clearing. What prompted that was that I'd just spent the weekend experiencing some really icky energy in my new apartment--I let it ride, thinking it was just stress causing the sleep problems and nightmares, but Sunday night my dreams made it clear it wasn't just me. Monday I fixed it.

Avalon (http://www.avalonbeyond.com/) carries, among other things, some very cool evil eye protection charms. I can't help it--I think they're gorgeous. But I'm not a big 'evil eye' decorator. I had one small one with faceted glass attached to it hanging from a chandelier in the foyer of my former house to take care of any random negative energy, but as a rule, I don't have that kind of life. A friend gave me a new one to hang in this house, but mostly because I'd been wanting something prettier (this has a silver elephant, very stylized, very cool, and one of these days I'll take a picture of it and show you). She did, however, time the gifting with the cleanup project.

But the question is: is there such a thing as too much protection? I know people whose lives are filled with people throwing negative energy at them. On any given day, the number of negative people in my life averages around one, and they're only throwing garden variety muck, not intentional harm. I wonder sometimes about a) the karma and b) the intentions of the people who are under constant attack (or who feel they are). I also wonder if preparing for emotional, physical or psychic attack sets you up for attracting it.

I'm really on the fence on this one, although I think it has more to do with your motivation and intentions than anything. If you are calm, focused on where you need to be, but also recognizing that random acts of crap can affect you, then I think not--after all, if storing water and canned tuna every summer attracted hurricanes, we'd have a lot more of them. That is, there are patterns beyond our choices and actions (other people's choices and actions among them!).

But...(I know, there are a lot of buts in life, aren't there?). When you are focusing on the energy of your personal space or physical surroundings, there is a fine line between protection and fear. Growing a cactus or two in a pretty pot outside your front door may radiate "stay away" energy, but a whole garden of them might completely isolate you. Decorating your entire house with crosses and evil eye protection symbols might make people (including you!) wonder what you're protecting yourself against. And any nastiness out there with, let's say, teenager-like characteristics, might interpret that as "bring it on."

One suggestion I've given students and clients over the years when they're concerned about negative energy (whether in the form of a person they know or otherwise, or just for general use) is to raise the energy level in their space, focused on love and spiritual practice in general. This is not a New-agey, crystal loving (although crystals can be involved), bunny-hugging, tree-hugging, granola crunching, feel-good action. Everything has energy. The strongest energies will pull the rest of it into line with them (for the most part). If you focus on the wanted energies in your space, I find that the unwanted energies have a harder time grabbing hold.

This isn't to say that 'shit' won't happen, but it's less likely that it will make a habit of happening to you.

Baby, it's cold outside!

How ya doin'? Got your vision set on your path? Targets for ways to bring you in alignment with it (aka New Year's resolutions)? Space clear, personal energy flowing smoothly?

Have I mentioned it's cold outside? Yes, it's January, but this is Florida and I really don't like cold weather (although at least this year we're just getting it a couple of days at a time, so it's more tolerable). The dislike of cold weather is one reason I live here. Which brings us to today's notes (you knew this was going somewhere, right?):

What do you do to maintain focus when things aren't going as planned or hoped? To stay "positive"?

First, I think positive thinking is overrated. Not in the sense that your thoughts don't matter. They're energy, just like everything else in and around you, so of course they matter. It's just that they aren't the be all and end all of what's going on. It's the action you take in accordance with your thoughts. Negative thoughts often result in doing nothing to change the situation. We feel lost and hopeless and it's all we can do to get through what has to be gotten through. But positive thinking also can be dangerous when it results in doing nothing. (There are some finer points to this we'll talk about eventually. For now, just go with the principle that thinking positively is great, but you should still read the want ads....)

Back to topic, though. So you're thinking positively, you're doing the work, and nothing is moving. Or is moving in a different direction. You have some options here for your perspective and choices. One, you can act as if there is divine purpose directing your path in a way you hadn't anticipated. Trust that things are working exactly as they need for your best growth and outcome. Let go and let god, as the saying goes. This is easiest to do/envision if you're actively maintaining and recognizing your divine connection. Meditate!

Two, you can act as if you made a bad choice. Examine what you're going for, what's happening, and consider whether what was a good idea at the time really isn't the right path. Maybe your burning desire to serve has you thinking in medical terms, and yet you can't find a training program you like, everything you see says the job market sucks (that should not be your determining factor, ever, though), etc. Maybe what's going on is you have a romanticized picture of medical practice and how it serves, and you're trying to fulfill someone else's dream; meanwhile, your subconscious is screaming "no."

Three, you can act as if this is exactly the right choice, and your old self or what Seth Godin refers to as the "lizard" (a projection of the reptilian brain that is concerned with survival and not much else), or what the shamans would refer to as serpent self--again, concerned with physical survival...yes, we're talking about your comfort zone trying to control what's going on. You are moving onto your path, and you are trying to sabotage your own efforts so you don't have to work so hard.

Four, you can act as if it's just coincidence, something in the stars, or some external crap going on that you can just ignore and work with, through, or in spite of.

Cold outside? Bundle up and keep walking.

Clearing Personal Space

Another important piece of the conscious sanity puzzle is keeping your personal energy clear. And no, this is not a topic we'll exhaust in a single day's post!

A lot of things come into play to muck up our personal energies. That matters for any number of reasons, but on a purely practical level it translates into this: unclear personal energy gets in our way. It hampers our focus, our willingness to take risks in relationships, and often it hampers our understanding of just where our path lies.

Although a lot of things can mess with the energy, two major aspects control a majority of the flow (whether clear or muddy): personal karma and the people/energies we come into contact with every single day. I can pretty much guarantee you that no matter how you spend your time, you are ending your day with a fair amount of energy (call it psychic, if you like) debris clinging to you. Daily meditation practice helps, as does a practice of visually clearing the energy (we'll discuss other ways some other time--I, of course, am late for work!).

I've probably discussed this before, but it's such a great exercise, it won't hurt to bring it up again. Pagan author Silver Ravenwolf calls this the "Liquid Light" exercise, and frankly I can't think of a better name, although my version of this practice has changed a bit over the years and I expect yours will, too.

Bring yourself to a meditative trance state--as calm as you can. Visualize (or sense, if your inner eye is out of focus) the energy field that surrounds you. For this exercise, you want to focus on the white light part of the spectrum. So see yourself surrounded by white light. Observe for a moment the characteristics--how far out it extends, whether it's clear, etc. Then you want to spend a few moments clearing the light field. (Note: the white light field carries no negative energies of itself, but if you've gone a long time without clearing, you may perceive some bits and pieces, hence the desire to clear the light field.) Next, begin to bring the light into your body--just visualize or feel it extending into and through your body. This may take some practice, but the more you do it, it gets easier and clearer, and will stay clearer longer (practice strengthens it). Then you'll spend some time visualizing the light in your body--notice blockages, cloudy areas where it comes into contact with injuries, other people's junk that's gotten "under your skin" and so forth. Visualize the light clearing it. When you feel clear, you can visualize the light moving back out of your body and back into its usual place surrounding you. And of course don't forget to breathe through the exercise!

Clearing Space

If our work includes being at peace with ourselves and our world (one of the effects of following our path), why would we need to clear our space? Shouldn't we just accept whatever is there?

Yes. And no.

Sometimes our space includes energies that are incompatible with ours. Sometimes those energies are there for our growth, but sometimes they just need to be dissipated. If your space feels murky, dark, angry or fearful, it needs cleansing.

Here's why: there's a pattern called "entrainment" (drummers are familiar with this), where patterns/energy/etc in a group may start out on different rhythms, but at some point the stronger energy draws the others into following it. Not only does this work for drummers, it also is one of the principles in healing: the healer's energy pattern of healing needs to be stronger than the client's pattern of illness (and yes, this does include herbs and medicines, since their energy patterns are built into them--remember, everything is energy linked to more energy). But back to your space.

We'll talk about personal cleansing at another time (maybe tomorrow, as long as I'm thinking about it)--suffice it to say it doesn't hurt to do it on a daily basis. But back to your space. Depending on where you live or who you live with, dark, angry, murky and fearful energies have plenty to feed on, including the energy sticking to you when you come home. No matter how clear and spiritual your space is in general, stuff seeps in if you don't attend to it. Especially with a new home, and especially if someone else has lived there, any number and type of energies may be sitting in the space you now occupy.

There are some simple ways to dissipate the unwanted energies: feng shui principles are designed to help. Doing a formal cleansing is helpful, but even informal cleansings will work. Ringing bells or even clapping (stirs the air) will dislodge these energies from corners and closets. Sage (follow with sandalwood, cedar, sweetgrass or lavender) will clear them. If you are worried about setting off the smoke detector, gently burn sage incense rather than bundles (less smoke) or even use a mister. Sophie's Potions, from Avalon (http://www.avalonbeyond.com/) makes some good ones--I especially like their anti-anxiety and spiritual cleansing mists. Windchimes are great for this, and so is your daily spiritual practice--the little things do add up. Avoiding things that bring with them those unwanted energies: I hate to sound like my parents, but let's face it--death metal does not rank among the world's happiest things. In other words, if you're concerned about clearing your space, the music you listen to, the TV you watch, the conversations you have and the people who come into your space all matter.

I am willing for this to be perfect

If you aren't already following your dreams to their illogical conclusion (there's a point where logic is no longer applicable), chances are good that you have a deep, hard lesson to learn. I don't mean painful, just hard to internalize.

Trust.

You are going to have to learn to trust your gut, your intuition, your guidance. Learn to trust that yes, you DO know when it's right--that it's not just wishful thinking. Trust that YOU can make a difference in the future of the planet (not to mention yourself!). Trust that taking risks will pay off.

My risk tolerance slope weighs heavily in favor of outcome. If there's an infinitesimal risk of something happening, but the disaster associated with the event is extreme, I'm not going to put it in my top 10 list, probably. Large chance of much smaller disaster is better--I'm usually thinking about what it's going to take to recover. Obviously I don't take this to extremes--I do get on airplanes, and of course I live in Florida where we do get the occasional hurricane. I, like most people, prefer the known to the unknown.

But to really live big, to live the paths of our dreams, we have to take some risks. Sometimes it helps to figure out just what is holding up your comfort zone and start there. Can't give speeches, but want to run for Congress? Start with your local Toastmasters club. Think people are going to laugh at you when you hang your shingle as a Reiki master? Start with word of mouth. Scared that you're going to get it wrong to begin with? That's a tough one.

What do you do when you're scared you're going to get it wrong from the start--that you actually can't DO the thing you want to do? The buddy system can work here. Do the work on yourself, your plants, your friends (with permission, of course) and then trust them to tell you the truth (even the plants). Connect with source on a regular (and  I don't mean semi-annual) basis. Let yourself do it right.

A thought/affirmation that popped into my head last night as I was running through the list in my head of everything I needed to do before moving today (moving house, not moving my feet), and the order and timing I wanted was this: I am willing for this to be perfect.

I am willing for THIS to be perfect.

Feel the fear and do...what?

So here's the thing with fear. At its best, it's our higher self telling us to make another choice, and we interpret the signal as fear. Helps us avoid unnecessary dark alleys or golf games in lightning storms. At its worst, it paralyzes us and shrinks our list of options to nothing. Whateve the area of the fear (heights, reptiles, flying, etc), we avoid completely, and when we're forced to encounter it, it wipes us out. That's the phobia end of it.

Somewhere in between are the fears that discourage us. These are often the vague fears (as in hard to pin down or define--they aren't necessarily vague to the person feeling them!) like fear of not measuring up, fear of failure, fear of some part of the unknown that keeps us in our comfort zone.

If your fear is tangible, reasonable--a phobia, for example (never mind that phobias are not a product of reason. Their validity lies in the undeniable effect they have on people.)--it's up to you to decide if it's worth seeking therapy over. Can you fulfill your dream without addressing your fear? Can you walk your path without facing it? Again, I mean in a practical sense--it would be great to see everyone living lives of fearlessness, but really? If your path can be walked without you being desensitized to airplane travel, don't wait.

For the moment, at least, we're concerned with whatever it is that keeps you in your comfort zone. Hate crowds? The thought of giving speeches paralyzes you? Will your path be best served if you get over it? If so, can you start anyway?

Here's a tricky one (I do battle with this one, so I know first-hand how it can stop you): are you afraid you don't know enough? Do you feel like you need to have a pile of letters and certifications behind your name before you can serve? In this case, you need to know what IS enough (law school to be a lawyer, any more), and what's an excuse (the same lawyer does not necessarily need a master of laws degree). This kind of fear can keep us from jumping careers midstream, so if it's present for you -- start digging!

Checking in before checking out

Do you know where in your body you experience your feelings?

We have loads of language and metaphor that address this -- we're heartbroken. We have gut feelings. Our stomach sinks. Traditional Chinese medicine assigns major emotions to major organs (such as grief to the lungs). And yet, on a daily basis, how much awareness do we have of the real placement/experience of our feelings?

When you're upset, does your throat close up? What about when you're afraid? Hurt? Confused? Happy? Certain?

Having an awareness of where you experience your feelings comes in handy when you're checking in about making changes. I'd bet that somewhere in your list are feelings of absolute connectedness and absolute dis-connectedness; if they aren't there, see if you can find them. See if you can place that knowing we have when we are in the right place at the right time (it feels a lot like love). See if you can place that knowing that something is just wrong--ever done that? Done something you KNEW was the wrong thing to do? Yeah, like that guy you went out with that one time (or twenty) because...well, because whatever, except you knew it was a bad idea, and you ignored it, and guess what? It was a bad idea.

Knowing something is wrong is a bit trickier than knowing it's right. I'm not talking about morals or ethics here, I'm talking about something that's just not the fit for your path. It's tricky because it can show up as fear, but, then, a lot of things can trigger our fear response. If you're having trouble getting out of your comfort zone and into your path, and fear is your response, you're going to have to check in with that a little harder.

The first question is: what am I afraid of? Obviously this ranges from "everyone will laugh at me" to "I'm going to fall and break my neck." If your dream since childhood is to walk a tightrope in a circus, for example. I'm not going to tell you what your decision should be for any of these--it's your path, and the world needs tightrope walkers just as much as it needs a cure for cancer (although for different reasons, I suppose).

Another question might be: "why do I want this?" Or "whose idea is this?" (that last is an incredibly important question. We live other people's ideas all the time.)

I hope you're starting this year digging into what you really want -- this is going to be the year to make it happen. But first, you're going to want to do something about those "no"s.

The blessing of "no"

This is not to say that "no" in itself, as an answer, is necessarily a blessing. There are plenty of times when "no" is outright detrimental, in fact. But it brings a blessing with it, and that is this: being told "no" clarifies for us what we really want.

Got turned down for a raise? If it's money you really want, you'll go out and find it someplace else. If it's the security of a paying gig and benefits, you'll suck it up and go along until a gig with benefits that pays better lands where you can see it without much effort.

Can't find the money to get the Reiki master training you KNOW is your calling? (Lack of immediate resources is a "no.") If you really want the attunement (training is the easy part) you'll find another way...or come up with a creative way to find it.

To check in on this, the next time a thought crosses your mind (chakra training with Anodea Judith, which is on my personal list of "no"s to investigate), whatever makes it "no" (lack of funds), check in with how you feel (and where you feel it). Is it frustration? Why? Make a quick practical list of options to turn the "no" into a "yes." Same with other emotions like anger, sadness. Those are signs that you may be on to something. So is a feeling of relief, but this one comes with a tricky part (there's almost always a tricky part, remember?): why are you relieved? Is it because you can stay put? Are you accepting "no" because you're afraid to say "yes"?

Now, you may look at "no" as the Universe's way of telling you you're in the wrong place at the wrong time to do what you think you want to do, but don't use that as an excuse. If you truly believe that, and you truly want to live your biggest, most sane life ever, do everything you can to make your connection to Source as strong as possible. That way you'll know "no" when you see it, and it won't be an escape hatch to keep you from risking your current comfort zone.

I want to touch on some of these details in greater depth--probably tomorrow or the next day. My apologies--I overslept this morning and am running late, but wanted to get this thought out there. Your homework this week: ground, center, pay attention to "no."

Back to?

It's a new year. We've all (or a majority of us) have made resolutions to do something differently this year--that flip of the calendar is such a handy dividing line, isnt' it?

And now the airwaves are filled with the words "back to."

Back to school, back to work, back to the routines we've established.

But what about moving forward? Do we confuse our brains when we talk about "going back to" and "doing something different" in the same paragraph?

Do we confuse our intentions when we do that? When we talk about getting back into our routine, but creating a new pattern.

What if we dropped the words "back to" from our vocabulary?