Our One Great Possession

My grandmother was 96 when she passed away. In her lifetime she had gone from being one of 9 children filling a farmhouse to bursting point to owning, in her marriage to the local miller, quite a large house decorated with antiques and family heirlooms. After retirement she moved with Grandpa to a smaller retirement home still filled with knick-knacks and ornaments. A place where I recall feeling very safe and loved. After Grandpa died, Granny went to live with my parents and so her world was reduced back down to one room with a few precious pictures and favourite pieces of furniture. By now with failing eyesight even her much loved and much used Singer Sewing machine could not find a place. When she finally died all the possessions of Margaret Robinson nee Stewart filled a drawer and a shelf in the hospital, a drawer and shelf quickly cleared and allocated to the next patient.

   It is a cliché I know but a fact nonetheless, that we come into this world with nothing and go out with nothing. In between we can have been a millionaire or a pauper, owned a castle or a caravan - it is all illusory, all eventually passes through our hands. Regardless of our personal experience, however, there is one thing we always carry with us, one thing we truly own - the energy we put out into the world. In fact it is the one thing we have to own, denial is not an option. So we should continually be asking ourselves what energy do I hold within me, what energy do I feed to those around me and what energy do I leave in my wake? Is it of a higher or lower vibration? Is it love, joy and care or is it envy, anger and fear? Is it energy which will return me to my higher self or is it energy that will drag me back in another lifetime to heal ancient hurts, balance old karma and release stuck patterns?

   When I think of my grandmother I hear her humming as she cooked, I feel her soft hands washing my neck in the bath. I listen for the whir of the Singer sewing machine as yet another piece of clothing would be re-modelled or altered within hours of purchase! I see the twinkle in her eye and am inspired by the wonder she exuded right to the end at something as simple as seeing a 'wee birdie' at the window.

   Once we are gone our 'earthly goods' get divided up by the family and are received - gratefully or not – we have no control over that. In many ways it’s irrelevant for it’s in the memories of those who knew and loved us that our worth is really stored. And the nature of those memories, the shape of our energetic footprint we own every day of our lives. It is our energy, our one great possession, and always our choice.

Holding Boundaries versus Building Barriers

For many people it is a challenge to hold boundaries and not allow others to tramp all over them. They struggle to be assertive and to hold their own. In these cases I often find that the aura – the energy bubble which is our first boundary and enshrines our personal space – has lost its integrity. It can be ripped, or open at the top or saggy and deflated. In some cases a person may have pulled it right back in close to the body.

   If that first boundary is compromised then we can often easily be overwhelmed by the energy of other people or situations. Also if we can’t hold our first boundary then we create artificial ones through physical distance (how many people choose to live a good drive or even flight away from family!!), or through withdrawing from opportunities for experiences or interactions.

   Even more damaging is when the mind feeding on our anxiety convinces us that the best solution to protecting ourselves is to build barricades behind patterns such as inferiority, guilt, anger, shame and fear. So now what boundary we do hold is around distortion and faulty beliefs about who we are.

   We actually do most of our communicating on the energetic level - reading each other’s auras and energy field. And so if the aura is pulled back or not strong and shaped around a set of faulty beliefs we can be read as ‘victim’,  ‘forever-giver’, ‘splintered’  or ‘weak ‘. Others then adjust their behaviour accordingly, or we draw towards us those who are most likely to take advantage of these patterns, setting up a vicious circle of fear, reaction and further entrenchment of the negative barrier, the negative narrative we continually recycle in our mind.
  If this sounds familiar, there are actions you can take:

• Step One is to refuse to indulge and feed these distorted negative versions of self – stop listening with devoted attention to the mind’s addiction to fear.
• Step Two is to find and embrace your authentic self, drawing it out from behind the barriers, to love all that you are and accept your inalienable right to be all that you are.
• Step Three is to pump up your aura – fill your ‘bubble’ with light and energy and see it as a taut, blown up balloon. You can also put a mirror finish on the outside to bounce people’s negativity back at them. Then notice how the perceptions and therefore responses towards you change. (I have clients from the primary school play-ground to corporate meeting rooms benefiting from this latter technique.)
• Step Four – repeat 1-3 until they are your default position, honouring and holding the light you came here to shine!

Finding Perspective

A couple of blogs ago I wrote about context – this time I want to talk about ‘perspective’.

   Many of my clients come stressed and anxious and I am shown that their whole vision is filled with whatever it is that is triggering them. Other times I am to reveal to clients how the boulders which they are convinced are falling on them are in the scheme of things mere pebbles, or that the perceived chasm they feel perched on the edge of falling into, is just a furrow they are choosing to plough. The mind/ego of course loves to do this – its main purpose is to justify and reinforce its own existence and to create a sense of the individual as separate. Therefore it makes itself the centre of all drama, the focus of all action, the victim of all events – over and over again!

   Simply saying the equivalent of – “Oh come on now there are children starving in Africa” in order to provide perspective is of no help. The solution is to create perspective around and within our own being. To connect to the energy of our soul with all its understanding and deep seated knowledge  and which is busy whispering to us “this is just a moment in time and together we will have so many of these – why fixate on this one?” It is also for us to understand that each and every situation is offering all those in it the opportunity to learn and to grow. So we examine what truth is revealed here for us, we take our lesson, say thanks and let it go.

   If you are going over and over an issue, stressing about something you may or may not have control over, I suggest the following. Feel your feet upon the ground, breathe into the lower part of the lungs and visualise a line of energy drawn down through your centre and into the earth - concentrate on breathing and holding a centre line. Of course your mind won't let up that easily - it will be insisting “yeah but what about blah blah….. " Refuse to become it’s plaything - drown out its incessant chatter by repeating, “I bless and release with thanks all that no longer serves me”. If you are a visual person pour love and light down upon your own head and on those of any one else involved.  Gradually you will start to notice that the 'thing' is shrinking and fading and your own sense of power is growing and expanding. Often too the situation actually starts to heal because it isn't being fed by negativity. Now you have perspective, now you can see around and beyond  - for gloriously there is always a beyond.

Star Gazing

How often do you look up? Up at the sky that is. I am guessing the answer is not a lot, especially if you live in the city and the wonders of the heavens are dulled and obscured by the earthly glow of city lights.

  Our ancestors certainly looked up! Indeed they derived from the heavens everything from time, to location and direction, to mathematical computations, to the foundations of most world religions. My son recently studied a university unit on Astronomy and World History. In it he looked at the beliefs of the ancient Druids who built places such as Stonehenge and the burial mounds in Ireland, where the frail ray of a mid-winter sun will penetrate to touch a stone placed deep in the heart of the mound. The Ancient Greeks and the Mesopotamian caliphates evolved the basis of western science from their study of the transit of stars and planets. In sharp contrast the early Chinese cultures did not believe that the movement of heavenly bodies was regimented and therefore reliable. As such they saw no point in sundials and chose instead to use the movement and dripping of water for time-keeping. The most holistic cultural interpretation of the skies came, not surprisingly, from Aboriginal Astronomy.  As Roslyn Huynes says in her article Astronomy and the Dreaming:

  “.... natural phenomena whether terrestrial or celestial were regarded as existing in an all-encompassing relationship which sustained, and was sustained by, traditional rituals”

  Anyone who has been to the centre of Australia or just out into the bush away from the city-ringed seaboard will know why it is impossible not to look up. The stars fill the sky layer upon layer projecting energy, diversity and dimensions beyond our wildest imagination. Who can lie under a clear night sky and not see beyond themselves, not feel the potential for something ‘magical’? As kids in Ireland occasionally Dad used to get us out of bed to witness the lights of the Aurora Borealis streaking across the northern sky. I knew from school books what caused the phenomena but all that was irrelevant when seeing the shimmering tongues of light. They touched something much deeper, much more primal and I was as awe inspired as any ancient peasant standing searching the skies for a sign.

  So yes today we’ve got knowledge – enough even to travel ‘out there’ but look up, really look up at the next clear night sky and tell me that it’s possible to lose the wonder. 

Reading Life's Map

I suddenly noticed that while I had put up pics of my trip to Ireland last year, I had no images of Australia on this blog. I have remedied that with some shots taken on my travels around this awe-inspiring continent.

I still have the map I came here with in 1987. It’s a little fragile along the folds but I still mark on it every new road I travel. I have to confess to having a great love of maps and the skill of map reading. Unlike the ubiquitous satnav (advertised here as a great present for mother’s day– cos hey what woman of child-bearing age knows how to locate a grid reference?!), a map helps us to position ourselves in the bigger picture. It allows us to see beyond the quickest route and choose a more ambient journey or perhaps get side-tracked to experience something new.

The satnav encourages unquestioning acceptance of instructions, even when it is obviously wrong, and emphasises the importance of destination rather than the journey. A map, in contrast, helps us to zoom out a little and place things in context, and life in so many ways is about context. For instance the contextual framework of any communication is imperative in order to glean meaning. Our personal story, our cultural understanding and soul history all help define the prism through which we act, react and make our choices to heal and grow. If we cannot see how we got to where we are in this moment, how can we be sure of the direction in which we are heading? If we hand over responsibility to something or someone who does not know or indeed care anything about us can we be surprised when things go wrong? Oh yeah sure we can always blame the satnav/boss/system when we find ourselves continually hitting dead-ends, going round in circles or parked precariously on a precipice, but deep down we know there was another voice we ignored. The one urging us to “Stop, get your bearings”; Slow down and read the signs”; “Proceed with Caution – there might be a better way”.

Apologies for the pile-up of driving analogies! 

Breaking Free of Old Patterns

One of the major aims of my sessions is to help the client break out of destructive patterns which are holding them back from healing and happiness. Events which keep occurring in our lives both on the micro and macro level are really the Universe saying in varying degrees of subtlety “Oi this aint working for you!”  

  We always have a choice when an event happens. We can either move closer to our soul or closer to our ego. The ego fed by the mind, fear and the hurt child says the cost of change is too great whereas the soul fed by the authentic self and our guidance argues that the cost of not changing is too great

  If we follow the soul we get a softening and releasing of the old patterns and of the negativity built up around them. The positive energy of the Universe then floods into our lives and supports us as we move forward. However if we choose to keep listening to that fearful old nag – the mind – we add to our energy system another layer of resistance, reaction and refusal to grow. This causes blockages on all levels; the energetic, physical, emotional, and also in terms of our progress in jobs, relationships and finances. It also means that we have to experience the whole cycle again!

  And whilst these events can start off as a little tap on the shoulder if we keep ignoring them the tap becomes a hammer, then a sledge hammer and sadly sometimes it takes a wrecking ball through our health or marriage or career before we choose to listen!

  So next time you notice a recurring pattern -1) STOP 2) Create the space to feel where your usual reaction comes from, what fears or old hurts trigger your response. 3) Try something different – even if it is only a tiny step - no matter how unnatural or frightening it feels at first.4) Breathe out and give yourself a pat on the back – you just spoke with your soul!

Embracing the Energy Shifts

The last 12 months have undoubtedly seen a significant change in the earth's vibrational energy, with several key downloads taking place. As an energy worker I can feel the energy shifts both within everyday life and inside my healing room which is currently buzzing! Also as a therapist, like many of my colleagues, I have noticed that people are being pushed through their issues with ever increasing firmness and speed. In fact it seems to have been a long winter of struggle and growth for a great many of us, followed by heady spring with a dizzy lack of stability and now a challenging summer draws to a close.

   The night after the Summer Solstice when a major wave of high vibrational energy came through, I went down to the beach and spoke with some indigenous spirits who were very quietly and calmly acknowledging the new shift. The description they gave me was “Mother Snake sheds her skin.” They also said that their people’s knowledge held memories of this having happened a couple of times previously. The word Renaissance immediately popped into my head.

   As the energy of the planet re-calibrates, so does that of all its constituent parts including all those of man’s creation. So we are bearing witness to many institutions being rocked, belief systems challenged and faulty values exposed. For each individual too, anything that reflects faulty beliefs is being brought to the light. The challenge for us is to observe this level of change on the macro level without fear. Whilst on the personal level to recognise that we can no longer shove our ‘stuff’ down into dark recesses – for undoubtedly “it will out.” And in that lies the path to true healing and alignment.