One Way to Make the Going Easier.
As I welcome 2018, I find myself reflecting on the gift of life. For the holidays we went to visit my husband Karl’s parents and family on the east coast for a week of goodness. I loved the simple moments shared with food, hugs, tea pots, sewing, cleaning closets and shared time. My heart still warms with feeling so loved, respected and accepted by his parents.
Our filled calendars this time of year don’t always allow us the room to connect inward, and staying open to your own needs can be especially challenging over the holidays. Lately, I have connected with many that are stressed and feeling disconnected. Personally, between clients, events, 18-hour non-stop truck rides to the east coast and back (wonderful shared holidays with my family too), I find myself peopled out. I hunger for alone time to rejuvenate and to just be. Halfway into our east coast trip we hung out with Karl’s friends for a day on Wall Street in New York, but the next day I tapped out and simply stayed in the hotel room with no food, no lights, and snuggled in bed just to be. I wasn’t sick, hurt or angry; I simply needed time to rejuvenate. After meeting my needs for rest, the next day I was ready to go again.
For those of us who live in colder temperatures, I want to acknowledge how impactful the cold weather can be. A friend of mine told me about a Kahuna (wiseman) he met in Hawaii who claimed that making progress in one’s spiritual growth was harder in colder climates since your body is contracted and it is harder to be open. Anecdotally, I can see how that may very well be true. But whatever is happening in your life, winter or summer, acceptance can bring love to any pain, and transform your experience automatically.
When pain (mental, emotional or physical) reveals itself to you, and it will, ask that it be met with acceptance. It is a conscious commitment to give yourself permission to be happy no matter what. This practice, and it is a practice, is an opportunity to have a major shift on any source of pain in your life. When we allow our pain to be met with loving acceptance, it can transform. Even if the situation doesn’t change, your experience of it can change immediately.
With acceptance, you invite your heart to open and to stay open. An open heart facilitates you feeling connected in your life. Through this acceptance and connection, life automatically flows more smoothly. You have a whole lot more fun. When your heart is open, you tap into the flow of the light, love and truth that you are and always have been – whether you feel the love or not. It is such a relief to know that even when you are experiencing pain you are still a magnificent being of light; again, whether you feel it or not.
When your heart is closed, you are isolated and trapped in fear, but the truth of who you are…LOVE… remains the same. YOU ARE LOVE! Even when you experience pain, struggle and conflict. Can you feel it?
Remember, we learn through the contrast of all that life offers. Let it shape you, but there is no need to get stuck within the process of life and what it offers. As Jesus said, “I am in this world, not of this world.” That goes for you too.
You are a gift to the world. You are love. You are life. May your experience of yourself in Truth continue to deepen and expand, just like the Universe itself.
