I had the huge honor of speaking at the at the Unity of Pensacola church service today, filling in for Rev. Jamie Sanders who was out of town. I know that he’s very good at what he does, and I know that the congregation is always filled with the most beautiful of souls. So I was quite honored to share with them. This post is a very rough summary of what we talked about, which is LOVE and all that I’ve been learning and experiencing about love recently, which has really been rocking my world. Understatement of the year…
And a heads up for some of my readers or for those reading this blog to see if they want to do counseling or coaching with me: this will sound WAY more deep or new agey or woo woo than normal. If so, then definitely read some other posts! This one is totally of a different flavor. I wanted to provide a reference for those in the congregation, though. You do NOT have to think this way to do counseling with me. Not at all, not even one bit. The work that I do with clients is SO general, in fact, that it can work with any human. So please don’t judge just based on this. There we go, now let’s have some fun… Also note that there are lots of recent blog posts about love and what is written below, both before and after this one, so feel free to check those out as well.
Receiving Love
Here’s what I learned in a crowded restaurant on a Friday night with a bluegrass band playing… It was the Original Point Restaurant at Innerarity Point over towards Perdido, near the FL-AL state line on the coast, and Bubba & Them were playing. They’ve been there in different incarnations for decades now, I think. I was with an enlightened guy (literally) named John Mark Stroud and his wife Cindy. I love them. He is totally real, and totally awesome – not on a pedestal or something like that. Quite the opposite, in fact. His website is www.onewhowakes.net. Check it out. It’s definitely a different flavor of spirituality, but it sure cuts right to the truth. And from the top down, too: you already are that which you seek. Yes, it might take some work to cut through the layers of forgetting, though. My life changed forever that night. Here we go…
First of all, the soul is like a sun, beaming love constantly everywhere. We incarnate in a body and forget what we really are, and then we do all kinds of unloving things out of fear. Yet the whole time, the soul is still doing what it does… sending infinite amounts of love indiscriminately. Even if a person is yelling at you, for example, their soul is still sending you love. What?? This means that at any moment, you can stop, put the world aside, and receive love; it’s NEVER missing. And trust me, I know that it sure feels like it is at times. You can always choose to receive it, though, from anyone or anything. You don’t have to know them. They don’t have to be anywhere near you. And they don’t have to currently be alive (in a body), either. Wow! Try this out for yourself. Pick someone, whether you know them or not and whether you are near them or not, and simply acknowledge that they are a soul beaming love, as you are, and simply say, “Thank you for your love.” And then relax, open, receive, and see what you feel. When I first did this, he had me choose a random person in the restaurant. I chose an older woman sitting at the bar with her back towards me. I did as he said, acknowledging the truth of what she is as an infinitely loving soul, and then silently said, “Thank you for your love.” And then I sat back and received. Instantly, my body started to vibrate in the heart area and above. Wow! It was not subtle, either. And I was not told what to expect. His point was simply that love is never missing. Also note that we are all of different sensitivities, so you might feel a nice vibration or you might not. But the body definitely gets more sensitive with gentle practice, as mine has. And finally, don’t forget to beam them back as well! Effortlessly…
Being a Channel for Healing
John Mark showed me another exercise as well, and it was pretty cool. I now realize I forgot about this one while giving the talk, so think of this is a bonus exercise. And what a major, powerful one it is! So we’re still in the crowded restaurant, bluegrass band playing a few feet from us, and he had me say to the Spirit, “If there is anyone here that needs healing, I am open to being a channel for your healing.” Then just be open. Wow! This time, that vibration was even stronger. Like, very strong. Again, it was in the heart area and above for me. Wow. He explained that we don’t have to know who it is or what they need. But the fact is that a person in that restaurant could’ve just gotten the answer to a prayer, or a text message, or the person they’re with could’ve told them what they needed to hear. We have no idea; we are just the instrument. Then he warned me that when he learned this, he really wanted to wake up fast. So he did this 24/7, going to hospitals, malls, and the like. This guy is pretty hardcore… After a few days, he got the flu! This practice brings in such high vibrational frequencies that the lower frequencies have to go. He was a bit extreme, so the body had no choice but to get rid of them in this manner. So he said to be aware of that…
Loving Yourself
Now let’s do some self-love. To start, you can pick something for which you are proud of yourself, big or small. Now close your eyes and breathe in love for yourself as best you can for this. You are simply stopping and giving yourself credit. Breathe it in and feel it. Breathe it down to your toes and let it swirl around the entire body. And don’t worry if this is difficult to do. If it is, well of course it is! It’s new. It can shift SO fast, though. I’ve seen the shift too many times. Just be consistent and don’t pay any attention to the results; just keep showing up and doing it. For example, do this for one minute three times a day and see what happens after two weeks. Also note that the reason for love could also be your intention rather than the result. As in, maybe I don’t think I’ve been the best at this or that, but I sure want to. My intentions are pure. This alone is justification for love from myself.
Now to see where we’re headed, choose someone that you know loves you unconditionally, be it a friend or family member. And some of the best examples are pets, especially dogs. Even a dog from your past. Close your eyes and simply receive love from that one. Breathe it in, all the way to your toes. Picture that one if it’ll help. If it’s a dog, picture how happy s/he is when you get home. Then just receive that love and feel it. Relax into it with your whole being. Just fall back into it, saying “Ahhhh.” It feels amazing! Especially with some practice. Most people can do this quite easily since it’s from another, so let’s note that this is how it’ll be for you loving yourself after a while.
Now notice that that one didn’t need a specific reason for loving you. This leads to unconditional self love. We picked a reason before, even a small one. Now let’s think about the fact that living on earth is hard enough and I’m doing my best! So that’s reason enough to shower myself with love at any moment. Well, there’s unconditional self-love. And, I’m a soul beaming love everywhere all the time anyway, so why would I be left out of that! Practice this for one minute, three times a day. Before you get out of bed in the morning, when you get into bed at night, and any other time during the day. You can do it at a red light or in the bathroom (just sayin’). See what happens after two weeks. And don’t judge the results; just do it. If you need help, then feel free to call or email me to set up a session and let’s explore. It’s just too important!
Another thing you can do is silently (or not) say, “I love you” to yourself over and over. A lot. Fast or slow. Just do it a ton and see what happens over time. It might sort of take you out of the equation and melt some of your defenses. Sometimes, I’ll say it over and over pretty quickly, for a minute or so (which seems like a long time when you’re doing this). I’ll do this no matter how I’m feeling, and not even thinking about “if it’s working” or “If I’m feeling it” or anything like that. Just do it. And after just a little while, sure enough, my chest area will feel lighter, more expansive, more open. Then I’ll take a big breathe into my heart, and it will have opened up and shifted. Pretty cool… Try it!
Breathing In God’s (Source’s) Love
I forgot about this as well during the talk and only did this for a bit during the meditation afterwards, and yes the meditation was a bit short. This is MAJOR, though, and it sure speeds up a meditation and getting to a deeper space. So maybe I’ll get to come back to focus some more on this. So let’s talk about the breath and our Source. The breath is said to literally be Spirit. Let that sink in for a moment… And for another moment… And for one more… This is HUGE! And it definitely is not currently common knowledge, even among spiritually-minded folks. Some call it the Holy Spirit. Some call it God’s (Source’s) Love. It is the real-life bridge, accessible at any time, to our Reality as spiritual beings, connecting every cell in our bodies to our true Self that exists in perfect peace outside of time and space. That might sound like a bunch of slick talking, so let’s put concepts aside and do it: simply close your eyes, relax your body, and breathe in Spirit. Breathe in God’s love, or Source’s love (the name doesn’t matter). Also some call God “All That Is.” Are you separate from all that is? Am I? Is anyone or anything?? No! Thankfully… Here’s something else I was not able to get into the meditation: Some say that our inbreath is God’s outbreath and that our outbreath is God’s inbreath. Think about that for a moment and let the mind be blown… And then do it! Do some relaxed breathing while considering this, with no goal or anything like that. Just doing some innocent – and playful – experimenting (a playful quality really speeds things up). You might just have a profound experience with the breath. And note that there’s no special technique or anything like that. You don’t need a course or a certificate. It’s simply information, understanding. And it’s available to you for free anytime, anyplace. Just breathe in through the nose, up the base of the spine. Breathe up into the heart and let it gently roll over into an out-breath. And then breathe in again in the same manner. And know that you are breathing in Spirit or God’s love, and see how it feels in the body after not even one minute. Talk about a stress melter… This alone can change your life. Also note that you can always breathe in this manner. Always. Some call it LovesBreath. Check this out for more information – you might want to try it out (or anything else on this website): http://bit.ly/1Q38xd2.
Deeper Healing
There’s another level of this that can be applied to very deep personal healing, but that’s pretty much for another talk and another writing. It’s so transformational, though, that I’ll mention it here briefly. This stuff is hot off the presses for me, too, so I’m still learning. Let’s say you’re triggered, meaning you’re in a really bad place feeling-wise. You’re feeling upset, sad, anxious, abandoned, rejected, not good enough, unimportant, etc. Now let’s take a close look at what’s really going on. In that moment, it feels like love is missing. Love is what you need, so the answer is love. But you expected it from someone or something else. Since they did not supply it, you can now do the radical thing of supplying it for yourself, NOW! You become the source of the love that you thought you needed. Bam! Can you see the power in this? It’s pretty huge. Again, this is just a taste here. Just a taste. We will go into much more detail when the time is right. And I hope that time is soon, because this is big stuff.
Let me give an example before we go. Something happening to me not long ago and the feeling was huge. I was really, really triggered. And I thought, “Why am I this triggered?” It just seemed exaggerated and out of proportion. So I thought back and realized that a similar thing had happened years ago that really rocked me emotionally when I was younger. And what happened recently reminded me of that older event, without my even knowing! And it served to really amplify the feeling. When I finally took a step back and saw what was happening, I was able to see that there was a younger version of me in there that was super scared and thought that love was missing. He needed love. So I gave him love. I flooded him with love, right then and there. Then things shifted and I was able to see the current event more clearly.
That’s just a very brief illustration, but it’s the best we have now. In the meantime, though, I highly recommend that you get a copy of Matt Kahn’s new book, Whatever Arises, Love That. It’s describing a new spirituality for a new time, which is now. We are here, and we are ready. Any of his videos are amazing, too, including the one that I wrote about in a blog post from October 2015. And his website is www.truedivinenature.com. I can’t say enough about this guy or the love revolution that he is helping to usher in. Great videos, great articles, and a great email newsletter. And the book is where it’s at. We are ready and you are ready. It’s a major honor to join with you here, wow, and as always, let me know if I can help. And… I love you!