Saturday, January 20, 2018

GOVERNING SHUT DOWN?

In reflecting on what is currently happening in the United States government I begin that reflection process where I always choose to begin: how is what is happening out there mirroring something that I need to see in here?

Whenever I find myself in opposition to what is happening or to what someone else is doing I as quickly as possible pray to open to the lesson I need to learn. I pray to surrender and to open in order to release my own internal resistance. When two or more people with opposing agenda’s strive to have their own way a battle ensues and manipulations start flying. Human beings will employ every strategy at their disposal to be right and to have their own way. These are ego-mechanics that we all learn relatively early in life. They are functions of the reptilian brain and are foundational to everything from a marital spat to a deadly world war.

When we perceive we are not getting our way we feel threatened and retaliatory. We get triggered and we shut down. Walls come up and defenses get employed. This is literally automatic. Shut down is a primitive defense mechanism. It is hard wired in all humans. It was necessary at one time for our very survival. That is rarely so in our current human trajectory.

Spiritually awakening includes coming to recognize this automatic shutdown, and developing the capability of relating to it in such a way that we don’t employ our strategies, manipulations, and defenses. We become more skillful in our relating and in our negotiations. We become less invested in having our way and more interested in being the way. We become open to choosing connection over protection, cooperation over control, union over divisiveness. We choose staying open, or at least being willing to reopen when we find that we have shut down.

It is very literally a moment by moment choice as to what we allow to govern us. We will either sync into Spirit wisdom, or do battle from ego-mechanics. It is not a one time decision. It is a felt-dynamic that we learn to repeatedly open to and follow.

This is not to suggest that we don’t establish and maintain clear and appropriate boundaries. I am clear in what values I operate from. I will not allow violations or injustices to occur without speaking up and calling them out. I will just not choose to go to war over them. I will not choose to dehumanize people because they don’t agree with me or because they are pushing agenda’s that don’t resonate for me.

I live in clarity of what I allow to govern me, and I don’t have to shut down over what is governing others. I am letting my heart stay open because that is how I am choosing to live. I am being governed by Source God and not by ego shut down. And so I can watch what is happening out there from an open heart and with soft eyes.

I am choosing to open up as I observe others shutting down. This choice keeps me on track and responsive. It keeps me centered and able to contribute peacefulness to the whole on an energetic and spirit-level. As I watch what is currently unfolding I am praying that our state of being truly does become united. It will indeed as union becomes a priority over personal agenda. It will when we choose to be governed by what is common to us all, regardless of our politic or ideology.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

SENSE OF SELF

After thirty plus years on a conscious spiritual path, what I have come to know for sure is that my sense of self in this world IS my quality of life. Everything flows forth from my sense of self. It is the lens through which I experience absolutely everything. I am always looking out from who I think I am. I am always unconsciously projecting out what I am not aware is primal inside.

My sense of self is emotionally based and fueled. The mental commentary, though commanding, is secondary. I will always draw relationships, circumstances, situations that will be reflective of my imprinted emotional self. Thinking that you or this makes me feel this way is a partial truth that can trap us in a self-generated story. The things that happen to me are always pointing back to what is unacknowledged and unintegrated deep inside of me. They are roadmaps to my own interior. Though often painful, they will lead me to the emotional residue that is clogging my highest expression. The question is, am I willing to follow?

I feel the impact of what you say to me and how you are treating me. Without diving into delusion I allow myself to fully feel that impact. I allow myself to feel and to stay with my reactivity to you, my messenger. I allow for the anger, for the blame, for the impulse to retaliate. I allow them; I do not act on them. I stay in my body, and I do not continue to feed the story of what you did to me. By staying present, the energy of the impact has the freedom to move and to flow. I blame you just long enough to feel what is happening inside of me. Connecting to and staying with the feelings, the need to blame lessens and lessens until I can own the causal emotion of what got triggered. As I own the trigger as mine, I release you as the source of my pain and suffering. As I release you I begin to become free.

I know beyond mere intellect that my sense of self is my attractor and eventually my liberator. I am here to integrate my early wounding. As I do I am less and less capable of wounding others. I know for sure that if I cannot move beyond blame I cannot heal. That moving beyond is often clunky and unskillful. It is painful and it is can feel relentless. But I know it is necessary.

I am more than willing to have my sense of self revolutionized. I am willing to be willing that my sense of self be Sourced. I am willing to be redefined. To allow Life to show me what I need to see, no matter how painful looking in the mirror may be. I am willing to own my inner experience. I am willing to be strong in letting Life Love me. Those who have hurt me become my greatest teachers. I do not remain in abusive relationships, and my sense of boundary is clear and non-negotiable. That is not the same as residing in blame and victimhood. If you continue to violate my space you will be removed from my sphere. I will do so, however, with an open and empowered heart.

My sense of self is the quality of my life. It for me has been a constant unveiling and rewiring. It has been central to my spiritual awakening. I know that I must have full and free access to my emotional Beingness in order to know God experientially. I get up every day praying to be more available, more accessible, and more defenseless. When I am anchored in my Sourced Self I am strong, centered, and resilient. I am clear about what I am in Truth. From that inner-space, I can then see the truth of you. Even when you are behaving badly, I can remember you are more. I may not allow your behavior to continue, but I will not identify you with it.

This year perhaps you will join me in engaging in a sense of self revolution. Go deep within and find the places where you flinch. Listen to what you make situations and the way others treat you mean about you. Own it. Take responsibility for it. Feel it, stay with it, release it. Be free with it.

As your sense of self expands so will your experience of Love. Then you can thank your messengers with an open, undefended heart. You can know that you are more for having dealt consciously with them. You can know your sense of self is stronger because you chose for it to be.