As we move into the end of the year, it can be a wonderful time to pause and reflect. Whenever I think about that, it immediately drops me into gratitude.
So, for the next few weeks, I thought it’d be fun to do a deep dive into gratitude.
SOOO glad that last email was helpful to you. 🙏🏼
I’m gonna keep going!
This week, let’s focus on freedom from uncertainty or maybe a better phrase is managing uncertainty.
I mean, let’s be honest. This is a MAJOR challenge for all of us.
When we face uncertainty, it can often cause doubt, fear, insecurity, unworthiness… and the list goes on.
And yet, life is change. Life is constant change. We see it everywhere. Leaves sprout in the spring, green in the summer, yellow in the autumn, turn brown and fall off in the winter.
We live amidst cyclical change that occurs naturally and it impacts us as well. Yet change can also feel difficult to manage. Especially when it’s unexpected or unwarranted.
So here are a few tips to help you navigate this landscape.
I’m on a roll right now, thinking about freedom, and thought that maybe for the rest of this month we could explore ways to feel more free.
The first one that came up for me (how about you?) is FEAR.
If you’re familiar with the enneagram, you’ll know that at point 6 (which is me 😊), this is our basic challenge.
In truth, it’s all of our basic challenge, maybe the flavor of it differs, yes? Because we ALL experience fear. So, the question then is, what do we do when it arises?
We’ve spent all of June basking in the light – the light of the solstice, the light within us, the light that is our true inheritance. 🌅
One of the questions I often get asked related to this, is how can I experience more of that light within me?
In previous weeks, we explored the idea of having blocks to the awareness of love’s presence. We also examined what some of those particular blocks might be, depending on our personalities. (Enneagram)
As we continue to remove these, the next step is experiencing the light in ourselves.
It’s true, we ALL suffer from feeling like there’s something missing, or we aren’t good enough, or that we’re lacking in some way…
Certainly, the human part of us can fall into this kind of thinking. Especially when we feel anxious or fearful.
I think it’s helpful to recognize that we encounter feelings of lack or not enough-ness when we either feel separate from the one-ness and disconnected from the universe, OR we identify and believe we are our self image / personality which comes with, according to Robert Holden’s new book on the Enneagram, a core sense of deficiency.
Having fun connecting with the Divine Feminine? Doesn’t it feel amazing?
Here’s another way to connect to that essence.
It’s our last mothering tool.
Can you guess what it is?
Yes, it’s connecting to the great goddess on which we live and get ALL of our physical sustenance and nourishment, Mother Earth.
During the Covid lockdown, I did a wonderful initiation into seeing the earth as Tara- Tara Gaia. And yet, there are countless first nations who have and continue to honor the earth as our sacred mother.
As you know, I’m a fan of the enneagram. Why? Mostly because it helps me understand my personality, and when I’m operating from my limited perspective, as opposed to feeling connected to the universal mind. In an email, Dr. Robert Holden took all 9 enneagram types, identified them, as well as a specific way each can get stuck or blocked from receiving all the good that wants to come into our lives.
Recently I learned that Wayne Dyer’s #1 choice of book to read was: Feeling is the Secret, by Neville Goddard. In this book, Goddard outlines how to truly succeed and get exactly what you want. In a nutshell, he advises that you “assume the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your objective.”
As you know, I’m all about giving you tools to feel better, and truthfully, this one is a serious game changer!
It’s a Buddhist practice to help you cultivate compassion or loving kindness.
Loving kindness can be defined as feeling empathy, compassion, and kindness towards yourself and others.
Neuroscience research supports that these practices have tremendous benefits including to:
Last week I was at a summer party.
You know the kind, casual and filled with loads of people you don’t know personally, though you all share common friends. Naturally, I was introduced to a man, and once we’d figured out our mutual connections, we began to chat.
At one point he made a reference to politics, or managing current events, or something along those lines, and the strangest thing happened.
I began speaking to him -and at the same time that eloquent words were flowing from my mouth- I was simultaneously wondering, who is saying this? Because the ideas were spot on but were not something I’d previously even considered! Yet here they were, pouring out of me clear, concise, actionable.
The other day while I was gardening with a music playlist in the background, a Paul Simon song I had never heard came on. It’s called Learn How To Fall.
Do you know this one?
Essentially, he suggests that we must learn how to fall before we learn how to fly.
I literally stopped my weeding to think about that idea.
Why?
Because it made so much sense. If I were a bird and had the ability to fly, I’d definitely practice landing/falling until I was good at it. Then I might not be afraid to soar.
I bet you didn’t know that I’m the kind of person who has multiple projects going at the same time. Yes, it’s not typically how to be “successful”, but I crave variety and it’s a way to feed that part of me so that everything I do feels fresh and exciting.
Recently, I was at, not exactly a crossroads but more like a dead end on 2 of my projects! One an art project (sculpture) another writing.
I was eager to get back to my sculpture after taking off like 2 years (busy being a grandma and focusing on other things). I jumped into it thinking I knew where I was going, only as I started to build it up, it looked, well, how do I say it nicely… it looked TERRIBLE!
On the spiritual path, we’re often told that we are light, that we are love, that this light and love are always here and available to us. And yet often we don’t experience that!
In March of 2020, just as the entire world was going into lockdown because of Covid-19, I was getting ready to move in with Tom Carpenter and his wife Linda, who had been Course in Miracles teachers and mentors for decades. They needed support and my husband and I had volunteered.
A few years ago, my daughter turned me onto the idea that there's a Major Arcana Tarot card that informs the overarching energy for the year on a global scale. She now has a business offering astrology and Tarot card readings! (click here to learn more)
One way to think about this is that the card sets a tone for the year on a world-wide level.
To determine which card is being activated is simple. Add the numbers of the year together. So, for this year it would be: 2+0+2+5=9