Reaching a Fork in the Road

Reaching a fork in the road is an invitation to reflect on where we have been as well as on where we are headed.  It is about recognizing we have the power to make different choices.  Making more conscious choices enriches and strengthens us from the inside out due to acting from a state of deeper awareness about ourselves. Feel the urge to change focus and/or priorities?

Now is the moment to recognize and act more based on things that really matter: the power of vulnerability, courage, innate worthiness.  Part of the journey involves bravely exploring our shadows, the characteristics and behaviours we adopt that echo we are less than we actually are.  More specifically, this is about making the unconscious,  conscious, growing aware of self-defeating and self-sabotaging choices that point to patterns. Our overt and covert behaviours are linked to our sense of belonging and fear of rejection. 

As we reflect on how we are taught to live, what we are taught to achieve and the persona/ role we project, underneath words like "success" and "fulfillment" is that compass that gauges our sense of belonging.  This points to our unspoken desire to be seen, heard and validated. Beyond that is a yearning to “be part of something bigger than ourselves, to experience genuine connection with others. Beig true to ourselves is what makes us aware of the nature of authenticity, true freedom and innate power.

3 Ways to Clarify a New Reality

Changes are unfolding at an increasingly rapid pace.  This draws our attention to where in our lives we resist change and/or, where we are receptive or ready to respond differently to life. Consider 3 Ways to clarify and ground in a new reality.

1. Recognize where something is not working

Feeling restless implies something is not working in our lives. Each of us must clarify what 'not working' means or feels like for ourselves. When things are working, this is not necesarily about what the ego wants. What if 'not working' implies living unconsciously, using less than our full potential? We may get a funny feeling in the gut or signs in dreams that invite us to pay attention and listen differently.  We may feel imbalance, notice we are giving someone too much thought and feeling drained or exploited, expressing affection without getting reciprocity, putting too much time into work and being repeatedly overlooked for promotion or unrecognized. Our health or fitness level may be less than optimum although we put effort in. Feeling dissatisfied, ignored, or undervalued invites us to explore unconscious beliefs that create patterns. It also invites making the conscious decision to create a different reality.  Where attention goes, energy flows.

2. Explore Breathing Patterns

The rhythm of the breath is a language that echoes how true we are being to our soul. We can undertake different kinds of breathwork to get to know our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies on a whole new level.  What if the breath is the bridge to all systems, conscious and conscious, and we each have the power to engage the breath to gain new insight into ourselves?  The breath is a path to determine where we harbour blockages and also how to release them. When ready, opportunities arise to explore conscious  breathwork and decode the puzzles in our lives so we can feel better, more alive right where we are.

3. Reclaim inner power 

When we allow fear to run us, we are unconsciously giving our power away. This grows more apparent as we pay attentionto our thoughts, emotions, language, perception and life experience. Whenever we live in fear or are movated by fear, we give some of our power away.  If someone is not respecting our time, invalidating us (verbally, in writing, belittling) or generally not treating us with kindness and compassion, the moment is ripe to shift gears. Reclaiming inner power is about seeing about seeing ourselves as whole and complete, nurturing fearlessness in ourselves and others, speaking our truth, living in integrity and setting a standard for how we wish to be treated.  Living our Truth is about consciously choosing to be aware of true nature, feeling our way into life and treating everything with reverence. Anyone or anything that invites us to feel less than whole, is not belief or vision we have to adopt. We can choose to create a new reality. Recall teh 5 peopel we speand the most time with are the five people we are evolving into. take a close look at the characteristics of entourage. Is this the most desirable vision for a new reality or is it time to shift focus?

10 Ways to redefine success

Something tells you it is the moment to review and refine your version of success.  This term has different meanings to different people. Ever ask yourself why this topic comes to your attention right now?  Maybe you are in transition, reflecting on the nature of your accomplishments, feel restless about professional progress or unsure of your current longer term direction.  Whatever it is, the moment is right to devote some time to what success means to you.  Observe how your own version of success is changing with you. 

1. Is success about meeting a deadline?

2. Is success about goal-setting, planning, and working toward short-term goals? 

3. Is success about giving yourself  the freedom to to help others reach their version of success?

4. Is success a moving target, always reched for but rarely if ever achieved?

5. Is success about shadowing mentors/ inspirations or drawing their qualities out of yourself?

6.  Is success a state of mind that you nurture or train inside to carry with you?

7.  Is success finding ways to be happy where you are, to love something about what you do?

8. Is success about soul-searching? Finding that perfect relationship  or situation?

9. Is success some combination of the above?

10. Is success something else? 

"My definition of success is fulfillment of your soul's purpose." -Jack Canfield

What I want is what you want

Excerpt from Alan Watts:

Notice what I want is what you want and I cannot specify what you want. 

When you do not know what you want, you may not have thought about it, or so many choices arise, you cannot choose.  A naive view is a desire to control everything, some kind of technological omnipotence or power where the"I" (ego) is in charge.  Craving is the source of suffering and exists due to ignorance. All disappointments are the result of frustrated desire and believing in the illusion and constraints of time.

When you reach the state of not wanting, not seeking, this is desirelessness. You have to let go and let it happen.  Its not about arriving anywhere, not about a journey or being results-oriented at all.  To be in complete control is not something any sensible person wants. Every moment, the universe is simply reacting to your perceived problems until you see they are imaginary.  See if you can calm desire and be a master of life.  When you get control of everything , what would you do with it? Turn off pain, foretell the future, read your thoughts, be above ordinary human frailty. Go beyond all pleasures at your command.

Why don't you know what you want? 

a) You have it

b) You do not know yourself because you never can. The Godhead is not an object of its own knowledge.

I do not know is the same as humility, and unconditional love. If you know you do not understand. When you cease to cling to yourself, you access infinite power.  It is common to waste energy trying to force things. The moment you stop, that wasted energy is available.  When you stop defending yourself, you are letting go of energy you suppress, allowing it to flow.

 What is helping you ?

1) Courage to see beyond fear

2) The fact that everything is in decay, dissolving, process of constant death is helping you because you do not have to let go.  Nothing exists to hold.

3) The power that comes to you does when you do not reach out for it.  It arises when you can be trusted fully with power (and do no harm) 

The real power of choices

How many times in life do you tell yourself to behave in a certain way with the thought this will bring you a certain outcome?  The linear way of seeing is conditioned and a common assumption.

The ego will have you believe your behaviour determines a certain outcome, even when the unfolding is meant to be regardless of your behavior.  Perception alters experience.

Get this: the terms and conditions of your experience are pre-determined before your incarnation. Yet, you can make choices to change how you see, feel, live the quality of each moment.

Brace yourself: your choices do not make things happen.  Your choices determine the quality of the experience you are living out.  You are only talking to a  screen, versions of yourself.

Ultimately, every experience you have is an invitation to recognize the heart is always open.  Love flows freely unless you get in the way.  As adversity arises and you get emotional, ego is dissolving from your field, and you are being more authentic and deserve more love. Every experience invites you to be loving and to appreciate yourself more.  

Thus, unexpected change has the power to inspire your deepest growth.  When your focus and attention are not on loving yourself more then you unconsciously and energetically create relationships and conditions that invite you to do this.