Rachel Naomi Remen & 5 tools to readjust your sails

Rachel Naomi Remen is the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom. Her healing perspective emerges from being a patient herself and living over forty years with chronic illness. She is also a physician and counselor and draws from real life stories.

Rachel has a gift for guiding you to uncover things you had not consciously recognized about yourself.  She has a way of empowering people to acknowledge and transcend their own self-destructive beliefs and judgments.

As you evolve within yourself, you come to sense that her insight reveals she reconnects with her spiritual core. She invites us to open up to be more receptive to the wisdom of the ultimate spiritual teacher, which she believes, is life itself. Consider these 5 tools you can use to readjust your sails;

1) Recognize receiving is not a weakness. People frequently feel drained of energy and do not always understand why this happens. You may assume it relates to what you did or did not eat. Beneath the surface, there is more to it. Some people evolve to give of themselves and do not learn how to receive in return. They exert effort caring for others and do not permit themselves to discover reciprocity. As you relax, you can learn what it feels like to be loved and cared for and transformed as a result.  

2) Choose to redirect your attention. Every experience serves more than one purpose. You grow or stagnate in ways you do not notice until you are ready to move onto another focus. As you evolve in awareness, you are ready to acknowledge particular behaviour or choices no longer serve you.  Things you have been afraid to explore within yourself require courage and encouragement. When you are ready to shift, you will choose to experience sources of pain, frustration and other negative energy.  This is part of a process to rechannel energy and gain deeper self- understanding.

3) Decide to share your feelings. Many people deny this aspect of common humanity. They are taught it is inappropriate, embarrassing, unprofessional or unnatural. They curtail the free-flow of emotional energy because they incorrectly assume no person will understand. This could not be further from the truth. Loneliness emerges as a symptom that deserves new attention.

4) Accept you will never cease to be amazed. As people collect life experience, they may decide that nothing will surprise them anymore. You may have had the same job and same friends or colleagues for a long time, and begin to think you know everyone and have symbolically seen it all. Think again. You experience moments of connection to what is going on around you but you are not always aware.

5) Remove labels and dissolve expectations. How you view things triggers stress. You unconsciously decide one choice, action or situation is better for you. This illusion leads to undesirable anxiety.   As you explore possible reasons for bad energy, you realize values and beliefs underlie your chosen labels and expectations.  If you compromise your true values, then you precipitate imbalance.  As you become more true to yourself, you begin to see stress often relates back to external pressures and expectations that you have deliberately chosen to adopt. Nothing is unchangeable.

Comments

[Svasti]

"Recognize receiving is not a weakness..."

Absolutely! But not just recieving from others, but from yourself.

One of the worst things about what I've been through in the past few years is that I've self-punished whilst I've been dealing with trauma.

I've taken away from myself the things I enjoy - exercise, things I enjoy doing and so on. Not to mention eating poorly - really poorly, despite knowing better. It has all been part of the self-punishment game.

And I'm learning to reverse that trend now, thankfully.

But also, I'm learning to ask for help when I need it, from those who are capable of giving it. Which is of utmost importance.

Happy New Year!

[Liara Covert]

Svasti, human beings each have a life force. Many people underestimate their inner strength. It is always there and ever-accessible. You are learning that you access greater inner strength simply by working through misplaced beliefs, attitudes and opinions. I like the Talmud reminder that, "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are." That is, our perception of the world evolves as our self love and self-acceptance evolve.

[Christa at Giggle On]

This is brilliant! As I read it I kept exclaiming, "Yes", 'Yes"..."YES"!

Yes, people DO have a way of transcending their own self-destructive beliefs and judgments. It is my mission to spread message too!

Great post! I'm bookmarking this site right now!

[Liara Covert]

Christa, people always have the ability to raise their awareness. As people are encouraged to explore their true feelings, they will be more likely to uncover reasons behind their behaviour and to choose to change how they think and feel where it makes sense to them.