Intention to Connect to the Whole

Consider this: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience we are Spiritual beings having a human experience. How many of us truly embrace that reality and live accordingly? It is not a goal to achieve, but a life journey that has its ebbs and flows. It is easy to be positive, optimistic, and self-confidant when our life appears to be flowing unimpeded, but how do we respond when our comfort zone is challenged? Trauma and stress appears to be rampant and pervasive throughout our lives at this time in history.

There was a time, eons ago, that humans understood the sacredness of all life. We believed that our planet was alive and all life was tied to our honoring the Great Mother. Over the millennia we’ve separated the whole into small parts to examine what we once considered Great Mystery. In doing so we have learned a great deal about the inner workings of our world and our physiology, becoming very intellectual and logical. There have been tremendous advances in technology, yet there has been an equal loss in acceptance of intuition and heart felt trust in our interdependence with all cultures and with nature itself.

Now the spiral appears to be coming back around. Quantum physicists have concluded that Consciousness cannot be excluded from any equation. The researcher’s intention confounds any scientific inquiry whether in a laboratory or in the clinic. Cognitive/behavioral psychologists are recognizing that focusing on pathology merely keeps one’s consciousness hooked into limitation and they are working to develop a Wellness philosophy that includes mindfulness. While a metaphysical understanding of spirituality embraces a personal connection to Spirit rather than any specific religious doctrine.

In other words, conscious intention is key to Wellness. Wellness implies being Whole. Wholeness implies balance of body-mind-spirit, which can only be maintained by equally embracing heart and mind, or both intuition and logic. How often do we trust our own innate knowing rather than giving our personal choice and power away to some greater authority? There is a great need to relearn how to connect to our Higher Selves and begin to trust in our own Divine nature. This has been and remains my intention on my own journey through life, and it is my honor to hold that sacred space and teach techniques that assist my clients in reclaiming their choice to be Whole.

Setting Intention

This has been a busy few weeks and my best intention to write daily has not been met. Oh well, it's a new day and I can always begin a new.

What have I been doing with my time? I have made it through the first hurdle of getting my dissertation proposal accepted by my committee chair and sent on to the rest of my committee. That has been a huge project! And I sigh in relief that I have succeeded to that level. I have the goal of graduating next June with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, which requires I get my research completed and the conclusions written into my dissertation. I have quite an admiration for anyone who gets through this process, because it just is not easy. There are many obstacles along the way and it takes endurance, tenacity, and sometimes bulldog determination to stay the course.

Of course those qualities are required to make any intention, dream, and/or desire a reality. To that end... it has been my intention to get my health, weight, and energy level back on track as well. I did a kidney, colon, liver cleanse for three weeks. During that time I gave up coffee, dairy, meat, sweets, alcohol. I have to say this was not fun! However, it is with energy work, meditation, and acceptance of my wellness that I have now accepted that I can imbibe in some of those habits again in moderation.

In addition I have found a gym that I like and begun taking classes in NIA. Now that is fun! NIA is a form of aerobics, martial arts, and yoga in dance form. I really love the energy of it and the pure enjoyment of movement just for the joy of it! I am also swimming a couple of times per week as well. Swimming has always been a great form of exercise for me. It is low impact, tones quickly and easily... and again (a big factor for me) is FUN!

So I have been busy... meditating regularly has benefitted me greatly, a new exercise regime, continuing to progress on my professional and academic work, and a renewed committment to my own wellness in body,mind/emotions, and spirit. It's all good.

Change

Over the past few years I have faced changes in my body that have baffled me. I could always eat and drink what I wanted and for the most part I stayed a fairly constant weight with pretty high energy. Menopause affected every aspect of my constitution causing weight gain, sluggish energy, hot flashes, and achy joints that really put me off my usual style. At the same time I left a long term relationship and moved half way across the country. Major transition for anyone!

Over these years I have attempted to restructure my diet several times, I have gone back to school to advance my career, served as a liaison, counselor, and advocate for my parents who recently passed, and moved back half way across the country. There have been peak experiences and deep valleys of grief that I have dealt with on a very personal level. Change has been constant and drastic.

Sometimes I have felt the miracle of life in the serendipitous events that have happened, and sometimes I have allowed the old internal tapes and limiting beliefs stop me cold in my tracks with paralyzing fear that I have made every wrong turn possible in my life. I do not think I am alone in questioning myself, my motives, my purpose in this life time. I believe that most of us at one time or another have these times of personal crisis... what I refer to as the dark night of the soul.

In essence these times of upheaval and change help us to reexamine who and what we are, what we really believe, and if those beliefs still support us. We all are conditioned as young children to certain beliefs about every aspect of life from religious doctrine to how we are to behave to be acceptable in our clan, families, society, and nation. Along with beliefs that support us becoming all we can be may be, other beliefs that contradict our self confidence, sense of self worth, and true sense of Self are instilled in us that become negative self talk. That second guessing of decisions made is part of our negative self talk that questions our worth and purpose on the planet.

This habit left unchecked can lead to depression, anxiety, and other emotional disturbances. It can lead to impaired thinking and/or physical imbalance in the form of digestive problems, heart problems, and a variety of long term chronic ailments. At that point we are out of balance in body-mind-spirit and seeking outside help to get us back on track is a natural measure towards regaining our health and wellness. But what philosophy does one embrace when in the throes of uncertainty? Do the tried and true measures of the past work for us or impede our progress?

Western medicine prods us with pills, procedures, and maintenance measures, telling us that this is what is natural. Because of my training and background, I have found these measures less than satisfying and therefore question the idea that I am in a state of decline due to my chronological age, or that I should trust the pharmaceutical companies to provide me with the latest quick fix.

Recently the two books I mentioned in my last post have come into my awareness. I have always been miracle minded and believe fully that my life is blessed. All of us came to this planet with purpose and joy. Even if circumstances appear that make us question that, we can regroup and embrace our Divine essence moving forward again on our journey of life. So believing in the unbelievable is a state of mind. It is seeing the glass half full as opposed to half empty. It is realizing that when a door closes another one opens... which really means that we can turn a disappointment or tragedy into an opportunity for personal growth. I view this time in my life as a time of letting go of attitudes, beliefs, habits, behaviors, and relationships that may have served me once but no longer do so. Cleaning house so to speak, and knowing that where space is made for the new and more appropriate things to come in...the universe speeds up to fill that empty space.

The second book mentioned is on ancient healing methods to clean out the internal debris in our intestinal tract and embrace a more holistic diet and lifestyle. To that end I have started a cleanse that promises to improve kidney, colon, gallbladder, and liver function, which in turn will improve my overall health in body-mind-spirit. I am again living in miracle mind that I can regain optimal health by using trusted ancient measures to regain access to my body's innate wisdom. This next few months should be quite interesting to see how my body responds. As purification has been a constant message for awhile now, my response is to take this opportunity to continue my process and take it to the next level consciously. To that end I am actively taking responsibility to embrace my conscious sense of wellness.

A Question of Balance

Presuming that wellness equates to balance in all areas of life, what does balance represent? How is that defined? And how does one maintain that fine, delicate homeostatis in all areas of one's life considering that we humans are always in a state of flux? I ask these questions as much for myself as the next person.

As a Transpersonal therapist, I have made my life's work about helping individuals, couples and families work with these very issues. I base my theories about life on my own life journey... wandering through the interpersonal questions about meaning in life, purpose of life, the hows and whys of what makes me the way I am. I have had opportunities throughout my life to travel, to pursue ideas and studies that expanded my spiritual beliefs, my multi-cultural acceptance, and my basic openness to learn new things and interest in self-growth. I am also grounded enough to strive to make what I have learned applicable in my life.

That being said, life is in flux and changes in relationships, job status, and other areas of life can adversely affect my emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health like anyone else. Along the way we all naturally come to cross roads or times when we look at what truly has meaning and value for us. Do our habitual ways of thinking, believing, behaving support our true Self? Have we accomplished what we thought we would by this time in our lives? Are we content and happy with where we are?

These are stressful times at the personal, the national, the global level. On all areas of life we as humans are being asked to reconsider our thinking, our beliefs, our values, and to be willing to move beyond our comfort zones to come back into balance. As I believe, we must begin with each of us individually to make positive change in our collective lives, I intend to use this creative venue to discuss the issues that I am also dealing with to promote the psychology of consciousness and wellness.

Sometimes a personal crisis of some sort occurs to pull us out of our self induced day dream within our personal comfort zones. I think of a personal crisis as anything that we perceive as significant loss. Within all the feelings of upset and uncertainty there is also an opportunity to begin to question our certainty of beliefs that we may have held dear consciously or unconsciously for years, perhaps decades.

Emotionally, perhaps we have become numb to our true feelings, or our ability to relate to the day to day habits of our lives. Physically our bodies rebel with chronic aches and pains. Clarity may elude us as well as we circle around and around issues without any certainty on what decision to make. Spiritually we may feel that we are out of cinc with our beliefs or we may be questioning what is of value in our lives. These are all symptoms that our lives are out of balance and that it is time to face our fears of the unknown and jump into embracing positive change.

These transitions in life are normal occurances and happen at regular intervals throughout the life cycle as well as when unexpected events occur. An individual's astrological and numerological birth chart is very predictive of life lessons related to the alignment of the planets and the meaning behind your given name. These are old scientific art forms that can be quite helpful in learning about one's self. It is amazing the first time you have that done what will stand out for you that is so easily seen through appyling your time and place of birth plus your full name to mathematical formulas and interpretations.

One such astrological event is the placement of Saturn (the teacher planet of life's lessons) and it's return to birth place every 28 years roughly. Generally around those times you might have what you might consider to be earth shattering changes/upheavels in your life that make you consider all those big questions about yourself. Looking back on one's life around those times, 27-30, 54-57, etc. you might see that pattern for yourself. If you haven't reached it that period yet, pay attention when it comes. This is one of those natural opportunities to re-examine how life is working for or against your true Self.

For me I have had both of these types of times in my life over the past few years. Wellness through changing my consciousness... refining the base levels of my life is the process that I am entertaining and learning to embrace at a new level. Being conscious means I set my intention to strive to regain and reclaim true balance of body-mind-emotions-spirit through examining and releasing those thoughts, beliefs, and habits that do not support my Wellness. In sharing this with any interested reader, I will also be continuing to serve as transpersonal therapist, as a model and through demonstrating a method to pursue the next level of personal growth and wellness.

To that end I am going to share the name of two books that have recently crossed my path:

Learning to Believe the Unbelievable: Living Life as a Miracle Leader by Stephen McGhee
Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation by Andreas Moritz