Navigate through what arises

Notice anger and discontent arise. Yet, conditioning teaches us to fear expressing truth, to resist sharing feelings, and to believe expressing anything other than calmness or happiness is bad or wrong. Even within yoga or spiritual circles, emotions that don’t echo only peace, love, gratitude, and joy are often judged as out of place.

Truth is, dishonesty about the ups and downs of life is insincerity. To say one thing directly and yet, express different feelings behind the scenes, suggests what we think, say and feel are incongruent.

Inner well-being comes from the connection and harmony between our inner life and the outer world. As we live from soul, our thoughts, feelings and action naturally align. When something does not feel right, imbalance plays out in our lives to guide us in new directions.

Assuming we must always be happy may misinterpret the sutras, yamas, and niyamas. After all, true transformation involves bringing discomfort to the surface, being honest with ourselves as part of accepting and integrating everything. This is the path to embody wholeness. Each instance we are not open with others, tells us we are not open and honest with ourselves in ways we do not yet recognize. This process of opening the heart to cracks is necessary to guide one into the vibration of true peace and contentment.

Why is it that we tend to overlook mental-emotional afflictions? How is it helpful to run from ourselves? We can only do so for so long. Our emotions or instincts arise as our buttons are being pushed, causing a negative reaction instead of a positive action. It brings us face-to-face with another side of duality before going beyond.

Triggers invite us to face our shadows, to let go of harmful behavioral patterns. Through the lens of svadhyaya, or self-study, we can see shortcomings otherwise invisible to us. The journey inward is a way to dismantle why we react to certain people and ideas, and it helps us explore new directions.

Yoga is about raising awareness. As we grow more aware of our humanity, we naturally feel more comfortable expressing it. Maybe we get angry, frustrated, or upset sometimes because we practice something that stretches us to new levels of awareness and acceptance of who we are. What enters our scope of experience is always the perfect tool to navigate what arises to guide soul growth. We are like invisible air that takes shape through wind, moving clouds and swaying trees and then, blows away.

Love Yourself First

Notice loving yourself first brings greater clarity and fulfillment on a wider scale. "Who am I" who is able to give love? Am I giving it or, simply wanting to receive it? And is this about love or wanting to be desired, accepted, valued, heard? Love and desire are not the same. In this context, to be loved (desired) one day could lead to being rejected another day. Desire is then, not a stable form of emotional energy. Is my desire truly "love" for another or a subtle attempt to control and possess and take away their freedom or potential for growth? Does the free offer of love grow into an unconscious demand based on set of conditions? Is love then selfish or selfless? Is love based on fear, perceived lack and assumed instability without the other? Its amidst the chaos of internal self conflict that the impossibility of certain love is recognized. Related relationships end. This revelation evokes misery, despair, sense of where to from here? The very structure of collective ego is in a state of fragmentation. The only way out of the quagmire is through- to feel and return to Source, focus on love power that is ever present and accessible, alongside the courage to let go of the unreal.

Ego's ideas of love can justify regressing to childish behaviour. To move out of the energy of a codepedent struggle, mental-emotional imprisonment of the other, the key is to recognize true love is about letting go not clinging or holding on. When the other flies, and detaches emotionally, ego is abandonned. True love is seen as it is. Only love of pure goodness gives one the ability to shine or radiate light. The conditioned reaction to fear, deny, repress and run from pain and search for pleasure signals the love we bear for self.

Deny thyself nothing, give self infinity and eternity and discover that you need nothing for you are beyond. - Nisagardatta Maharaj

5 Tips for Living Whole-heartedly

For many, stress and trauma may seem a regular part of life. The question is, at what point do we stop allowing this to hijack our energy and focus? And how do we go about healing from emotional trauma and shift to living whole-heartedly? Consdier these 5 Tips:

1. Accept, Forgive and Be Willing to Heal

The first step to any healing or recovery is acceptance. Denial is a common coping mehanism of emotional trauma. Watch what happens as you choose to empower yourself by reframing the experience in love. Rather than allowing ego to echo that something is wrong with you, choose to see the expeirence in a cathartic way. Responses to experiences are simply pointers and do not define you. You are not your emotions, experiences, mindor body. You are the soul. You are not what you do or do not do, not your personality, not your behaviour. You are pure love.  Love yourself enough to go through the healing process because you deserve the happiness. Trauma may be part of the journey to truth.  It hasn’t taken anything away, you are a whole and complete.

2. Community & Support

Regaining your sense of safety is key to transmuting energy from emotional trauma and living wholeheartedly. This step may look different for everyone, depending on what makes you feel safe and what your idea of stability is. Creating community and a support system can include friends, family, professional help, even a pet.  Being open to vunerability brings strength.  Allow those closest to you to support you and be there for you while you heal. Take the time to ground connect with nature. 

Nature has a very balanced and high frequency vibration that calms the mind and warm the heart. The purity, simplicity, and divinity of nature are very grounding and great for meditation and mind clearing. Society can be very overwhelming by presenting triggers and even just general stress into your life. It’s always helpful to step away from it and take some time to tap into the therapeutic properties of nature.

Even in urban living remember that you, yourself are nature.  You can tap into the divine within you through meditation and you can experience the same soothing and grounding feeling. Allow yourself to reset with calm surroundings. See the beauty in the nature and people around you and begin to trust the universe again.

3. Let it go

The power of releasing feelings is oftenunderestimated! Healing from trauma doesn’t mean brushing it under the rug. To truly heal, it’s important to face it, and let yourself experience all of the emotions it brings up for you. Purge yourself of the negativity, and only leave what’s productive and positive. Cry out your sadness, scream out any shame, punch out your anger at a boxing class, and face and accept your fear.

Purify yourself by letting out all the emotional responses that you have pent up. Sometimes many of the long-term responses you have to trauma are actually a result of holding in your emotions more so than the trauma itself. Exercise and physical activities are an incredibly therapeutic way to heal from trauma for this very reason. They’re a great outlet for letting out emotions and channeling negative ones into something positive. 

Now, the goal isn’t to relive the trauma, but it most certainly is also not to escape the uncomfortable emotions that it brings up. The goal is a healthy middle ground that allows you to heal and process the trauma. Aside from cleansing the pent up emotions the trauma has caused, it’s also important to grieve what you may have lost as a result of the trauma, whether it’s a certain quality of life, a person/being/pet in the case of death, even just peace of mind and sleep. Be patient with yourself.

4. Process and Empower

After you’ve allowed yourself to let out your pent up emotions surrounding the trauma, it’s time to look at the trauma itself from a balanced and logical place to pick it apart and strip it down to something you aren’t attached to anymore. For this tip it’s very important to have a therapist that you trust and feel comfortable with in order to help you analyze the trauma and the how’s, why’s, and what now’s of it.

A professional can help you put the trauma into context and process it in a healthy and constructive manner, allowing you to then empower yourself by detaching from it. The goal here is to see the trauma as something that doesn’t control you and your emotions anymore, to realize that you are bigger and stronger than the difficult experiences. To be able to confidently declare that your trauma is just something that happened to you, it is not a part of you and it does not define you.

Other activities that can help with this tip are meditation and reflection, as well as creative activities. These things help you step back and look at what happened and what it means for you, and even how to move forward from it. Creative outlets and activities are also good for Tip 3.

This step is all about taking the power back from your trauma by moving on from it, and realizing that your trauma is something outside and separate from you, a moment in time, it’s not part of you or who you are. You can leave your trauma in the past and move on to brighter days because it’s not attached to you anymore!

5. Reconnect, Balance, and Live Wholeheartedly

This last tip is all about how to maintain a healthy and wholehearted lifestyle after the bulk of the trauma healing process is done. While it’s important to do this throughout the process, an important factor in moving on and not being pulled back into the darkness of past trauma is having a stable, balanced, and structured lifestyle that includes healthy habits, a healthy support system and social life, and a healthy work-life balance.

When all the major areas of your life are doing well and in check, you enjoy a sense of stability and safety that make it easier to deal with things like triggers. Trauma often causes intense feelings of danger and instability, which is why a balanced and stable lifestyle and environment is so important when it comes to trauma healing. When you lead a healthy lifestyle — eating well, exercising, taking care of your body — your mind is clear and your emotions are more stable to handle reminders of past trauma and future trauma, even.

When you have a strong foundation, it’s hard for the storms in life to knock you down. When you’re living a physically and psychologically unhealthy life, you’re living life on the edge, and any little thing can push you over into chaos and spiral into depression. When you’re living a balanced and healthy life where your mind, body, emotions, finances, and relationships are all stable, you can handle and weather just about any storm.

Staying in touch with nature and maintaining a meditation practice are great ways to keep your mind and emotions healthy, while exercising and eating well are great for the body. Meditation helps quiet down your thoughts and calm the chatter of your mind, so that you can connect with your true self and experience wisdom, acceptance, and appreciation for life.

Emotional trauma gets stored in your body, and the body also benefits from meditation practice and the calm feeling of being in a thoughtless, meditative state. Exercising and activities such as yoga not only release endorphins, which make you feel safe and stable, but yoga aids in releasing the trauma stored in your body.

It’s also always important to continue therapy sessions and to maintain your strong support system to talk to whenever you are struggling with trauma or anything else. Shifting from self-isolation to connection is key as relationships are one of the most important pillars of happiness and balanced living.

Accept your true gifts

Notice chaos is existence that creates its own challenges to bring out True Being. In a curious but divinely-orchestrated way, the True "you" only emerges as chaos intensifies. Chaos takes shape as the trials and tribulations in your reality. Energy build-up is required in the universe for deeper purpose beyond ego to reveal itself. Many things will disappear from life experience to reveal what is always here. Chaos is a catalyst for transformation and transmutation of energy. As social-cultural, economic, environmental, religious and other events intensify, know the highest order of Being emerges from the greatest chaos. The 3D world is operating on different frequencies, fuelled by fear and ignorance, thoughts that we are less than abundant, so to mow and filter the falsity until we realize that certain realities do not exist. Side narratives (timelines) are created to make you think you lack something, or believe you are less than. The truth is: you have always had everything and right now, are remembering how to access and use more of who you are. Every perceived challenge is not really a challenge but rather a teacher to remind you that you are a great being, nothing more, nothing less. This greatness flows through perceived Chaos. The Chaos is a teacher that invites you to bring forth the true wisdom within you that already exists in your physical, emotional and mental form. Everything flows through your spiritual reality. Simply be open, accept the gifts you offer yourself rather than deny or turn away.

Build energetic Soul muscle

(Image from 818lightcodes.com)

Notice one's capacity to tune into true feelings and find the strength to act on them is not about intellectual or emotional intelligence. Rather, our responses to perceived challenges reflect the Soul's strength, resilience, willingness to grow. The Soul builds energetic muscle through initiations and allowing oneself to feel deeply. Its about opening oneself to the pain, the sense of lack, and raw hurt from which our false identity is born, that broken aspect of self so Soul fragments are reintegrated. Through this opening, we enter the heart of our core wounding until it no longer generates solutions or distractions. One cannot turn away from Oneself forever. Go beyond All and exclude none. The heart can accommodate All. Any Light Code may be chosen to assist you by simply noticing how it makes you feel as you see it. You may be drawn to its color and shape or you may be attracted to its vibrational message. Whatever resonates is right for you.