CHOICES

We all have choices in our lives. We can choose to continue to work a job where we are totally miserable, angry and depressed about everything that goes on around us, or we can choose to find another job.

We can choose to remain in a marriage with a partner who is unfaithful, abusive - emotionally, physically and mentally, or we can walk away or seek help.

We can choose to be happy or we can choose to be miserable in every decision that we make. You may be snorting over my comments, thinking why would anyone choose to stay in a job that makes them miserable or with someone who is abusive? You would be surprised how many people do. Perhaps if you look closely, you'll even have to admit to yourself that this could be you.

Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate your life and find what's truly important to you. What have you missed out on in your life? Is there something that you've always wanted to do, but you just keep putting off doing it? What's the good of wanting to do something if you aren't going on to do it?

You can choose to stand up for yourself and speak your mind, or you can choose to keep burying it deep inside of yourself. This is called AVOIDANCE. You do anything and everything to think of something else so that you don't have to deal with what you're really feeling.

You are denying your soul happiness. You are denying yourself - your physical being, all the joy in the world if you remain in a (ie. job, relationship, location) where you are completely miserable not only to yourself but to those that you love. 

You may say that you don't have anywhere else to go, but you do. There are always choices. Talk to your soul, dig deep inside and find the answers. Are you being fair to yourself or to others?

If you're truly miserable in your job, are you doing the best you can do? How many days are you out sick each month? How often do you schedule vacation because you can't stand to be there any longer? If you truly loved your job you would yearn to go to work each day. Sickness would be an unheard word, because your inner self is happy, not holding on to grudges, hurts or anger.

The same with relationships, past and present. If you continue to hold on to the anger, hurt, grudges, and all of the "stuff", you are keeping yourself from moving forward. If you aren't in the relationship any longer, good for you, but for heaven's sake, let it go.

You won't be able to even get close to another relationship - a good relationship - unless you get rid of all that baggage that you're carrying around with you. Forgive  yourself and the other person, release it to the Universe to handle all of those emotions and get on with your life. 

If you want to salvage your present relationship, then you need to dig deep to figure out all the positive good reasons to keep it, and get the help you need to restore it.  Sometimes no matter how hard we try to hang on to a relationship, it isn't meant to be. If you've done everything you can, and nothing is working, accept defeat and walk away.

There isn't any blame or judgement on either part. There was a purpose for the job, the relationship, or the place you moved to. The Universe put you there for a reason - but you always had a choice to accept or not accept the reason.

It's time that we all learn to open up and listen to our soul. There are some very important messages to be heard. Perhaps if we did, we wouldn't find so much conflict within our lives.

"IF YOU TRULY LOVE YOUR WORK, SICKNESS AND DEATH GET TIRED OF CHASING YOU" - THE SIMPLE LIFE OF NOAH DEARBORN

THREE LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

As we grow from infanthood, we forget our true nature. We tend to go through life with our heads lowered, living in fear and unable to acknowledge the strong, noble person inside of us.

Each of us is a divine being, one with the Creator of all that is. Once we accept this and act upon this knowledge with absolute certainty, we become masters of our destiny. We are able to live with self-respect and capable of facing the challenges that fall onto our path.

Since we are all divine beings, we will treat each other as such even if the other is not aware of this knowledge. Only when we accept and act as a divine being will we be able to overcome anger, hatred, jealousy and greed with effortlessness. We will then be overcome with the feeling of love and empathy.

When we come into this world we are born with basic survival skills. These are not taught, but programmed within us. These are the abilities of eating, sleeping, excreting and growing. As babies we are cute and lovable, making the sounds that get us attention, when we want a hug, to be fed, or changed. These are all unconscious acts on our part as infants, meaning that infants don't think about making noises - it just happens. This is an act of survival.

As we grow older we are taught that our parents will feed us and fulfill all of our basic needs without any longer having to use the basic survival skills we were born with. Our parents show love and affection through quality time, respect, acceptance, comfort, etc., just because of who we are.

According to Dr. Roy Martina, we are programmed to find people in general who will not give us what we want and need. The end result is that we become more desperately depressed and clingy, or bitter, aggressive and negative. We project our needs onto others to give them to us, then we either blame ourselves or the world for not giving us what we think we need.

At the first level our consciousness is based upon matter. We use a lot of energy working hard to accomplish our goals, desires, dreams and to get what we need to survive. We are often frustrated by obstacles that get in our way - one being not enough hours in the day to accomplish what we think we need to accomplish. You want to be a success and you are intense about it. This level entails material manifestation. This is your goal.

The second level of consciousness is all about energy. You discover that if you work smarter, you can do less. You begin to follow your intuition and listen to your feelings. You find that when you make choices from your intuition you create a life of harmony. Here you rely on your core values. What is most important to you? Family? Career? Happiness? If we suppress our feelings and intuition, we create dis-ease within our body. There may be a tendency toward illness such as immune dysfunction, cancer and chronic fatigue. You will find that balance and harmony are an essential part of your life now.

The third and final level of consciousness is anti-matter. Work is effortless, thereby boosting and energizing us instead of depleting us, We are one with the Universe; in total synchronicity. The right people seem to cross our paths at the right time for us to create our desires. At this level, we don't waste energy and know the Universe is here to support us. We accept that we are tuned in to our higher consciousness and are guided in allowing our intentions to manifest. Here it is all about communicating with your guides. Your number one priority is spiritual growth and letting go of all distractions.

It's important to know that your relationships will be built on spiritual values with unconditional love. With your complete trust with the Universe, you are on the level of true healing.

As you read these three levels you should be able to recognize in which level you are dominant. Most people are dominant in one level, yet you may also be able to recognize yourself in some of the other levels. Don't be discouraged if you are not in the level you want to be. As with anything in life, it's natural to start at the first level of consciousness and work your way up the ladder.

Blessings,

Sue

The Shadow Aspect of Archetypes

According to Caroline Myss, author of Sacred Contracts "the shadow aspects of our archetypes represent the part of our being that is least familiar to our conscious mind."

The shadow aspect of our archetype are self-evident. But when we recognize the victim in us, it can be an amazing help to us, in regards to warning us when we may be in danger of allowing ourselves to be victimized. Watch your behavior when it runs from one end of the gamut to the next, in other words, you are very passive to being rash and exhibiting inappropriate actions.

Have you ever done something then realized you just victimized someone else for personal gain? Or perhaps you intended to do so.

Do you continue to play the part of the Victim because of the positive feedback you receive through sympathy or pity?

It's important that you start to recognize these inappropriate attitudes in yourself and others, you can change your attitude and walk away from someone elses. You don't need to encourage their "victim" behaviors and attitudes.

The shadow aspect of any archetype is just like any other person you have to get along with, Sometimes you must work out a compromise, or you have to resist them, or shower them with love. These actions are all determined by the situation at hand. Your shadow will turn on you with hostility only when you ignore it or misunderstand them.

The shadow aspects of any archetype is fed by our relationship with power. Last week I told you that the Victim archetype feels as if he has no power, no choices and has become helpless, without any hope,

Whether it's empowerment or disempowerment, we are all intimidated by this feeling. Disempowerment threatens our ability to survive.

You're wondering why we are intimidated by being empowered, aren't you? The shadow aspect is basically unexplored power. When your shadow behavior emerges, it often sabotages the picture you carry of yourself and your desires of who you believe you are. Do you ever find yourself behaving or doing something that you have no idea why you did it? It is so out of character for you. Or perhaps you have a fear that you have to cope with and no explainable reason for that fear.

Can you recognize a moment in your life when you realized that you held a lot of power? Perhaps in grade school or high school? Did you take that heady feeling and use it to perhaps bully someone younger than you? Or did you use it to stand up to the bully and protect the one being harassed? This is just one example of a shadow aspect using power.

All of these different aspects of our personalities flow through our behaviors, pulling one over on our conscious minds, then these various aspects assume a dominate role in our personality.

Once you become emotionally and intellectually aware that you are harming another, you must hold yourself responsible and you must also admit that you made a conscious choice to be negative.

Something that is important for you to remember is when your mind and heart do not communicate clearly, you will be confused about what you are to do with your life.

Besides emotional and intellectual responsibility, there is spiritual responsibility. This is when you've recognized that negative behaviors, which include judging yourself, cause harm not just to you but to others as well. You must evaluate your behavior/attitude as son as you see that you are being judgemental.

Judging others and creating excuses for yourself and your actions, in other words being aware of your behavior/attitudes and taking responsibility for them plays an active part with your health. Anger and guilt is toxic to our body and spirit. If you are unaware of your behaviors the toxic poisons of this negative behavior would not be so pronounced. But once you do realize, accept and take responsibility for your actions, and you continue on with this behavior, you need to be aware of the consequences of continuing to allow this toxicity to build in your mind and body and the havoc it will play on your health.

Dreams IV

Have you ever been called a dreamer? Told to get your head out of the clouds? What exactly is a dream? According to Oxford Dictionary a dream is a train of thoughts, images or fancies passing through the mind during sleep.

Do your dreams seem like they are real, conscious experiences? Does the fact that we can sometimes remember our dreams make them more of a conscious rather than an unconscious process?

According to Sigmund Freud our dream's content consists largely of what we fear, home for and expect.

There are two kinds of sleep: Quiet sleep and Active Sleep (REM). Quiet sleep is associated with growth, repair, restoration, relaxed body and an idle brain. We've all heard of REM (rapid eye movement). This state of sleep is also associated with muscular twitches, a paralyzed body, highly active brain and dreaming.

You are not confined to dreaming only within the REM state. If you get eight hours of sleep, break it down to the first two hours are the wishful dreaming stage, the next four hours are the precognitive stage, and the last two hours are the venting state. The area you are most likely to remember is the precognitive stage. The venting stage is where we let go of all the unnecessary stuff we heard, saw, felt, tasted or smelled the day before. This is a very necessary stage of sleep.

If you've ever known someone who hasn't slept for a few days, you'll notice how twitchy, probably paranoid, and most probably aggressive they act. They aren't anything personality-wise like the person you know. It's because their brain is overloaded with "stuff"! They've been unable to vent out anything that's come in over that period of time. It's like a house filling with smoke and none of it seeping out - it's a disaster. This is why it is extremely unhealthy for people to go for long extended periods of time without sleep.

According to sleep study experts REM sleep gradually increases throughout the night and reaches a maximum about the time to awaken. REM sleep happens every ninety minutes or so throughout the night.

How often do you remember your dreams? Studies show that the average person remembers their dreams once or twice a week. According to Stephen LaBerge, PHD. ninety-five percent of most dreams are forgotten. We all dream every night and in REM sleep alone - five cycles per night x two dreams per each REM cycle - that's ten dreams each night x seven nights is seventy dreams. And you're lucky to remember one or two of them!

Sigmund Freud believed we didn't remember our dreams because they contained so many taboo thoughts. Francis Crick believed that the content of our dreams is what the brain is trying to unlearn and shouldn't be remembered. LaBerge proposes that humans might have been protected from dangerous confusion (believing our dreams were real) by the evolution of mechanisms that made forgetting dreams the normal course of affairs.

I, along with LaBerge, personally like to believe that I dream to find out who I am beyond who I dream I am.

The interpretation of our dreams can expose our personality and become a rewarding practice. If our dreams can tell us about our personal concerns, how to work through our challenges, or what our true personality is, doesn't it make sense that our dreams are worlds that we have created from the contents of our minds? If dreams are our most personal, most intimate creations, doesn't this also lead to the belief that they are most revealing in who and what we are, as well as who and what we become?

I have to disagree with LaBerge's statement that dreams don't send us a message. I interpret the dreams I remember and am impressed with the messages that I am able to discover within them. I use dream interpretation with my clients, and I have found that once they are able to dig deep within the dream and use the interpretation method they are taught in order to understand, that they, too, find a message there that will assist them in working on their challenges or making changes in something they are doing.

Have you started recording your dreams? Have you stopped to try to figure out what message your subconscious is trying to tell you? If not, why don't you give it a shot? You might be surprised what you learn.

Happy dreaming,

Namaste

Sue

Root Chakra II

According to Ambika Wauters, author of Chakras and Archetypes we have two archetypes that represent the Root chakra. The shadow Archetype is the Victim who is informing us that our root chakra is weak or out of balance.

The victim is the lowest level of awareness and energy. When we are in the throes of the victim archetype we have no awareness, or very little awareness of what we're doing, then there is absolutely no sense of responsibility for the circumstances. Things "happen to you" and you feel as if all choice has been taken from you, that everything is out of your control.
We see this behavior alot in our society, starting with the youngest generation. "It's not my fault, so and so did this. I was just there, I didn't have anything to do with it." They are unable to see their part in any of what had happened, They could have stopped encouraging their friend or tried to stop what was happening. One of my favorites is "I wouldn't have flunked the quiz if we'd been told there was going to be one. This is all the teacher's fault."
Or even as adults, "It should be my turn to have a day off, so and so's had the last two days off and yet I have to work for the next nine days straight." Well, perhaps this person may need to remember they asked for a large advance on their next paycheck and perhaps the boss values this employee, knowing the job will be done and done right. Or perhaps the boss doesn't want him stuck without any money when payroll time comes next.

There are so many people who are victims - they've lost their jobs, homes, etc, due to the economy or natural disaster, but they don't remain in the victim archetype. They don't stay stuck in a frozen state of fear, terror, or desperate frame of mind. They refuse to lose the power of their own lives.

In order for us to survive not only mentally, but physically, we must ground ourselves in our feelings and reconnect with the basics of life - simplicity and goodness. Our survival depends on us staying rooted in our bodies, staying away from drugs and alcohol that may only temporarily ease the pain but will cause more issues in the long run; keeping our wits about us, limit your "pity party" to a couple of hours by having a good cry, or write out all the words you're screaming in your head, into your journal. Remember this isn't the end of the world, and trust in your Higher Power to unfold what ever is meant to be. "For every door that closes, another one opens."

Drugs, alcohol and suppressive medication only disconnects us even more from our feelings and instincts. Anti-depressants, and this is my opinion, cloud your mind and masks your emotions so that you don't recognize them in order to deal with the challenge they represent. If you can't deal with them
on your own find a counselor or therapist who is willing to talk with you so that you can get a good handle on what is going on in your life. If at all possible, don't start to rely on a pill to get you through. I understand that there are people out there with circumstances so severe that perhaps suppressive medication is the only answer. Please locate a person in the medical or counseling profession who is qualified to help you.

Living in the moment and trusting in life's process helps us to avoid falling prey to the victim archetype. If you have a strong life force, you'll discover it's easier to work on the challenges and meet them head on. You will survive and learn to master the circumstances that are presented on a daily basis.

If you have a weak life force you fall prey to the victim archetype more easily and you find that you've lost all joy in life. You are no longer able to see or feel the goodness in humanity.

Emotional victims, those who've suffered a tragedy, separation or loss in their life, may find it difficult to re-establish their life afterwards. They are highly vulnerable during this time, their emotions are clouded. They aren't grounded, so are unstable in the decision making and thinking process.

During this time, these people are susceptible to illness and plagued with a variety of problems. One that I'll mention is falling prey to another who is able to con them out of money or other valuables. Now the emotional victim is a victim once again.

When you are under stress or there is a crisis at work or at home, be aware that the victim is most likely to emerge at these times. Allow yourself to stop, acknowledge and experience the emotions caught in the moment: fear, anger, resentment, sadness, and frustration.

It's important that you recognize these feelings, truely feel them and let them go. Please don't get in to the habit of complaining about whoever or whatever is happening, it will only bring the same challenge back to you over and over. You are sending a message to the Universe and attracting the same issue again and again.

To help you rise above being a victim become willing to reframe the circumstances life has thrown your way into new opportunities, rather than dwelling on the loss. For example, if you've lost your job, you're immediately going to see if there's another job out there similar to what you'd been doing, right? What if there was something you'd always wanted to do? Something completely different from your old job? Would you consider trying your hand at it? Would you consider starting your own business or going back to school?

There are always options, Take a few minutes or hours to sit and think, take a nice long walk, ground yourself through nature and think. Don't immediately fly into panic mode - I know it's easier said than done, but we don't want to do anything drastic.

Reframing those negative thoughts into positive statements about your life will enable you to turn your energy around. By thinking positive you are helping yourself become empowered to freely choose what is the best action for you to take.

This is also the time for you to also start taking responsibility for where you are right now in your life. It's also very important that you take responsibility for your attitudes and ideas. It's crucial that you understand that everyone has choices in their life. You have the choice of becoming a victim, or you can attempt to understand what the roadblocks you've come up against have to tell you about your life's journey.

Some questions you might want to take the time to answer are 1) How do I feel about myself? 2) When do I feel good about myself? 3) Where do I have to be in my life to feel good about myself? 4) How worthy am I to attract love and the good fortune I need? 2) When do I feel worthy to attract love and the good fortune I need? and 3) Where do I have to be in my life to feel worthy to attract love and the good fortune I need?

Another very important question you should ask yourself is How do I feel in order to regain my sense of choice? In order to move forward in your life you will be able to learn and grow through the difficult and trying challenges. It's also important that you realize that it does take time to release the grief, sadness and anger associated with change.

A positive way of freeing ourselves from the victim archetype is to step back and look at any challenge you've had, what you learned about yourself and your life from this incident.

Most of all BE HONEST ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS!! Honesty frees you from any delusions about what's going on and helps you take those steps toward empowerment. Once you begin to tell the truth about how you are feeling you free yourself from the weight of negativity in your life.

When you recogize that you are feeling like a victim, it's time to remove yourself from the person or situation you are associated with. Take all of your energy back and put it all back into yourself.

Ask yourself how and what you feel about this person or that situation. Then if you freely choose, go ahead and release yourself from those negative feelings.

When we project our attitudes about anything onto others we make them responsible for fulfilling our expectations. If you are feeling unloved and neglected, look at how you are sending out that thought or attitude toward other people. When you recognize that you are doing this, you will be able to heal that part of yourself.

Once you learn to love yourself through your difficult challenges, you are empowering yourself and giving yourself the freedom to be you. Acknowledge each step you take to overcome these challenges, pat yourself on the back for a job well done. We all make mistakes and this is how we learn, so don't give up on yourself. There are always different solutions, you just need to find the right one for you.

It is extremely important for you to remember and acknowledge that if you are not willing to release your feelings, please take responsibility for this action. Either releasing or not releasing your feelings will empower you to understand that you have a choice.

Empowerment is all about you believing you are entitled to all the good life can offer and you can completely and totally enjoy it. Let me just say that you should never expect what you want handed over to you on a silver platter, it does take action (work) on your part to receive it.

If you put the intention out there that you want that brand new 2011 Porsche, what actions are you to take to get it? You can't just walk in to the dealership and ask for the keys to the vehicle of your choice without taking a positive action in order to have it. If you don't get it, ask yourself what you could have done differently. Perhaps your wants changed, perhaps you decided to do something different. Look at what you did or didn't do, not at what you think someone else did to you.

Until next week,

Namaste

Sue