Braving the Hot Mess

Loving The Hot Mess

2/25/2020

Love is a key spiritual element. Usually when we think about love we think about love in regard to giving it to someone else, or receiving it from someone else, but how many of us stop to think about and give consideration to self-love? In last week's post I shared some thoughts on self-love and an exercise designed to cultivate and support loving of oneself.

Because self-love is a topic that frequently comes up when I'm talking with people, I felt compelled to explore it further and to share some additional thoughts on loving ourselves.

In Matthew 22:36-40 the bible says, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments". Hmmm...love your neighbor as yourself...what if we don't hold much love for ourselves then? How well will we be able to love our neighbor?

In her book All About Love, bell hooks states, "We are not born knowing how to love anyone, either ourselves or somebody else. However, we are born able to respond to care. As we grow we can give and receive attention, affection, and joy. Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment." Are you learning in the presence of a loving environment how to love yourself, so you can in turn love others?

I've often heard that relationships are like mirrors reflecting our strengths and weaknesses, showing who we are at that moment. Deepak Chopra says, "The world is a reflection of us. If you don't like the reflection, it doesn't help to break the mirror". And Joe Vitale puts it this way, "What you see in the world around you is a reflection of your inner self. Once you change the inner you change the outer along with it." What do you see when you look in the mirror?

A lot of us are in the habit of beating ourselves up and exercising self-loathing. I'll never be able to do that, or I'll never be able to do it as good as so and so, or I'm not as smart, or as pretty, or as thoughtful, or as well-read, or as traveled as I should be, or as much as the next person, I'm dumb, I sound stupid, I look fat. It seems we are often looking for a way out by seeking...a better degree, job, relationship, diet, or house. Some people seek a way out by self-medicating through drinking or overeating, by becoming control freaks and perfectionists, through an addiction to spending, by attacking others, and some of us just hide it better than others.

Marianne Williamson states in her book, A Return to Love, "The perfect you isn't something you need to create, because God already created it. The perfect you is the love within you. Your job is to allow the Holy Spirit to remove the fearful thinking that surrounds your perfect self." She goes on to say, "To remember that you are part of God, that you are loved and lovable, is not arrogant. It's humble." Fear is the opposite of love. Fear and ego keep us from self-love. Just recognizing this goes a long way toward shifting and changing. Just shifting how we think about life produces a shift in how we experience it.

Cultivating self-love is a journey of spiritual growth and self-discovery in the practice of living consciously and intentionally. There are many layers to building self-love and many tools and techniques. I'll highlight some techniques that I've found useful in my own practice.

One technique that works toward building self-love is called mirror work. It's recommended that this routine be practiced every day for at least 30 days (it would be great to have it be an on-going daily practice). Look into the mirror, into your own eyes and repeat to yourself, "I love you, I really love you, I love myself as God loves me". It seems simple and maybe silly, but after doing this for a period of time you should start to feel an inner shift occur. During your first few attempts, you'll probably notice the bags under your eyes, or your crows feet, or hear the self-loathing talk and that's okay, go easy on yourself. Be intentional and keep working at it, keep working toward seeing the good in you and the beauty versus judging yourself. Many of us have a hard time loving all parts of ourselves, this exercise changes how we think, feel and what we believe about ourselves.

Another simple and yet powerful tool to help build self-love, as well as love for others is called Metta meditation or loving kindness meditation. The loving kindness meditation is a simple repetition of the following phrases...May I be healthy and strong. May I be happy. May I be filled with ease...first directing them toward yourself, then toward someone you are thankful for, then toward someone you feel neutral about, then toward someone who is frustrating you, and then to the Universe as a whole. Repeating each as many times as you would like. Here is a link for more detailed information on this loving kindness meditation technique
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/better_than_sex_and_appropriate_for_kids

Another way to exercise self-love is to start taking care of yourself and making yourself a priority. Nothing sends a stronger signal to your unconscious self than when your conscious self places priority on doing things that nurture you. Taking a walk or a hot bath, going to an exercise class, eating well, getting enough sleep, reading a book, spending time with friends are all ways to nurture yourself. We often times back-burner our own needs/nurturing and get caught up in the tasks of life, even to the point of feeling guilty if we do spend time doing something for ourselves. Refueling and reenergizing our own spirit is an important expression of self-love and will go a long way toward causing us to be more productive in all areas of our lives. Take time to nurture yourself and don't throw yourself on a guilt trip.

Some spiritual leaders would say that love is our purpose here on earth, that to experience love in ourselves and others is the meaning of life. That is a powerful statement, but love so greatly impacts all of the other elements of spirituality that I have to agree that it is clearly a very important piece...love your neighbor as yourself.

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The Definition Of Love

2/5/2020

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M. Scott Peck's classic self-help book, The Road Less Traveled, defines love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." Whoa, I love this definition of love, it really resonates with me.

When we understand or define love in this way, it becomes clear that we cannot claim to love if we are hurtful or abusive...whether to another or to ourself. Love and abuse cannot coexist together.

Most of us, instead of nurturing our relationship with ourself, spend a lot of our time up in our head doing the opposite... creating and spinning negative self-talk. Can we truly love others if we don't love ourselves? Do you love yourself?

A lot of us don't love ourself and don't know how to love ourself. We may occasionally "treat" ourself to massages, baths, special food, etc. under the guise of "self-love", when in reality we are trying to fill a void inside our hearts. Not that these acts of self-love don't have their place, but they typically don't fill the void and don't cause us to actually learn to love ourselves.

Confronting our own lovelessness is part of the healing process. bell hooks, author of All About Love, states, "When we see love as a combination of trust, commitment, care, respect, knowledge, and responsibility, we can work on developing these qualities or, if they are already a part of who we are, we can learn to extend them to ourselves." She goes on to say, "Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else. Whenever we interact with others, the love we give and receive is always necessarily conditional. Although it is not impossible, it is very difficult and rare for us to be able to extend unconditional love to others, largely because we cannot exercise control over the behavior of someone else and we cannot predict or utterly control our responses to their actions. We can, however, exercise control over our own actions. We can give ourselves the unconditional love that is the grounding for sustained acceptance and affirmation. When we give this precious gift to ourselves, we are able to reach out to others from a place of fulfillment and not from a place of lack."

Elizabeth Gilbert engages in a daily practice that works at a deep spiritual level to nurture self and develop self-love. Every day she writes to love. She starts out by saying, "I need you" as the first sentence, and in the second sentence responds with, "I am right here." It's a way to engage with your own self...your higher self, and/or with God. She proceeds to add what she needs/wants to hear. Writing down anything and everything you want to hear, everything that you wish you could hear somebody else tell you. Being kind, loving, generous and expressing gratitude toward yourself. Highlighting your accomplishments., writing down what you love and appreciate about yourself.

Elizabeth Gilbert further describes her daily love writing practice:

"There were nights when I sat up for hours, writing words like this to myself again and again, through a scrim of tears and waves of panic. And often another (angrier) part of me would scrawl at the bottom of the page: "This is bullshit. I don't believe in you." Then I would patiently begin writing again at the top of the next page, "But I believe in YOU. And I will not leave your side. I will love you and take care of you forever…" On it would go, until I could finally fall asleep. Then again the next night…and so on.

My promise to myself is this: I will walk beside myself for as long as I live, holding my own hand, taking care of the soul with which I have been entrusted.
I will do that always, whether anybody else is in the room with me or not.

You must learn how to tell yourself that you are loved. You must tell yourself this again and again until slowly you learn to believe it. Start writing yourself love letters. It feels weird at first, but keep going. Practice. Practice more. Practice EVEN more. You'll need it someday — or you may need it right now.
Life can be hard, but without your own certain love for your own tenderest self, it is simply impossible."

Deanna Heiliger author of the blog, Me to the power of We: Because Together is Better, shares this, "Writing a love letter to yourself will help you with self-criticism and negative self-talk. We all talk to ourselves in a not-so-loving way from time to time, but it is not really a very healthy thing to do. By focusing on the attributes you love about yourself, those positive things will become more prominent, they will gravitate to the forefront of your mind. And when you love yourself, you naturally love others with less effort and with less judgment. Yes, you can also say positive affirmations about yourself, which is a very powerful exercise and habit to get into…but there is something extremely powerful in the whole writing process. Writing involves your brain, your hands, your eyes and your focus. As you write, emotions tend to surface. The more senses and emotions you can involve in your writing, the truer it becomes to you."

For Valentine's Day give yourself the gift of love. Grow your own self-love, so you can go out into the world and extend that love to others, allowing for your own and other's spiritual growth.

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Doubling Down On Love

2/4/2020

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Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I wanted to share you with you a few posts on the topic of love. Several months ago, I read a post by one of my favorite authors, Brene Brown, on love that I resonated with me. I'm sharing the entire post below (warning it's longer than usual, but worth the read).

For those of you who are local and interested, I'll be facilitating a book discussion on bell hook's book, All About Love, on February 12th. Details can be found at "Tracy's Upcoming Events" tab.

Doubling Down on Love
By Brene Brown

I’ve been offline and in struggle since the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. At first I thought it was a combination of physical and spiritual exhaustion, or maybe low grade cultural despair with a side of burnout. I tried to combat the strange sense of emptiness with more work and more grind. This solution came to a grinding halt when I fell off my favorite pair of platform shoes. I was walking out of Charlie’s school when I hit an uneven patch of concrete. I turned my ankle, and the top strap of my shoe wrenched my foot and broke three of my toes. For the record, I put the breaking of toes at a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. Holy shit. Nothing puts a stop to running hard as a distraction like an inflatable boot and crutches.

I can be ornery when I’m hurt or sick, so the combination of not being able to work out or spend too much time on my feet exacerbated the emptiness. After three weeks of feeling untethered and increasingly hollowed out, I realized something more serious was happening than the usual exhaustion or burnout. I couldn’t access hope or possibility. I poisoned every good thing with thoughts of potentially horrible things. I didn’t want to let my family out of my sight, but I didn’t feel like I had much of myself to offer them even when they were within arm’s reach.

One night, I sat straight up in my bed at 4am, strapped on my boot, pumped it up, and hopped on one foot to the top of the stairs. Too hurried to navigate down on my crutches, I sat and scooted down the stairs on my butt – like my brother and sisters and I did when we were little. Using one hand to brace myself against the wall, I hopped into my study and grabbed bell hooks’s book, All About Love.

Could the problem be lovelessness? Was the lovelessness in the world seeping into my life?

I went straight for the passages that I had highlighted and tagged over the years. By the time the sun came up, I understood what was happening. Yes, the world is suffering from traumatic levels of lovelessness right now, but what really brought me to my knees these past few months was how susceptible I was to perpetuating lovelessness in my own response to our collective pain. As I started to untangle everything I was feeling, I realized that over the past few months, I had unknowingly turned away from love – the only fuel source that really works for me. Instead of being fueled by love, I unconsciously had turned to fear, contempt, self-righteousness, and maybe a touch of high-octane disdain to navigate hard news and hard people.

I’ve learned the most about love and lovelessness from bell hooks. I’ve been reading her work for the past twenty-five years. Her books Teaching to Transgress and All About Love expanded my teaching and activism so much that I often say that her work is responsible for 90% of the stretch marks on my heart and my mind.

In All About Love, hooks writes,
“Taught to believe that the mind, not the heart, is the seat of learning, many of us believe that to speak of love with any emotional intensity means we will be perceived as weak and irrational. And it is especially hard to speak of love when what we have to say calls attention to the fact that lovelessness is more common than love, that many of us are not sure what we mean when we talk of love or how to express love.

Everyone wants to know more about love. We want to know what it means to love, what we can do in our everyday lives to love and be loved. We want to know how to seduce those among us who remain wedded to lovelessness and open the door to their hearts to let love enter. The strength of our desire does not change the power of our cultural uncertainty.

Everywhere we learn that love is important, and yet we are bombarded by its failure. In the realm of the political, among the religious, in our families, and in our romantic lives, we see little indication that love informs decisions, strengthens our understanding of community, or keeps us together. This bleak picture in no way alters the nature of our longing. We still hope that love will prevail. We still believe in love’s promise.”

I don’t claim to know what fuel works best for everyone, but what I know for sure is that I believe in love’s promise and I run best on love. For me, love is sustainable, renewable, and it burns clean. That doesn’t mean I don’t get angry. Anger is a soul-sucking lifetime companion, but it’s also a great catalyst for two of the grittiest, truest forms of love – justice and equity.

Cultures of Domination
hooks explains that we can only awaken to love if we let go of our obsession with power and domination. While All About Love was written in 2000, her observations about domination, white supremacy, the patriarchy, and power offer important insight into what we’re experiencing right now.

She explains that people who are willing to speak out against injustice are not smarter or kinder than their neighbors, but are “willing to live the truth of their values.” hooks shares this example:

“If you go door to door in our nation and talk to citizens about domestic violence, almost everyone will insist that they do not support male violence against women, that they believe it to be morally and ethically wrong. However, if you then explain that we can only end male violence against women by challenging patriarchy, and that means no longer accepting the notion that men should have more rights and privileges than women because of biological difference or that men should have the power to rule over women, that is when the agreement stops. There is a gap between the values they claim to hold and their willingness to do the work of connecting thought and action, theory and practice to realize these values and thus create a more just society.”

When we have a president who repeatedly uses language and rhetoric to dehumanize immigrants (including some of the exact language used by the shooter in El Paso), and a gun lobby that uses racism, nationalism, and fear to recruit and maintain members rather than advocating for safe and responsible gun ownership, what do we expect is going to happen? Lovelessness in words becomes lovelessness in deeds. This is a culture of domination at work.

The shooter in Ohio had a “rape list.” We know from a growing number of studies that there is a strong connection between mass-shooting incidents and violence against women. Again, lovelessness and domination.

For me, the short, well-lit, well-worn, path from theory to action – from words to deeds – seemed so clear that all I could feel was hate and rage toward not just the perpetrators of the shootings and the inciters and normalizers of violence, but I was indignant toward everyone around me who didn’t see the connections and weren’t sufficiently outraged.

Without love as the driver, my rage and contempt didn’t fuel action or serve as a catalyst. They killed my hope and resolve. Some days, my lovelessness just pulled the covers over my head, and other days it dressed me up in a “Death to Extremists” t-shirt and sent me into the world.

Erich Fromm writes, “There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as ‘moral indignation,’ which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.” Ouch.

A Love Ethic
“Individuals who choose to love can and do alter our lives in ways that honor the primacy of a love ethic. We do this by choosing to work with individuals we admire and respect; by committing to give our all to relationships; by embracing a global vision wherein we see our lives and our fate as intimately connected to those of everyone else on the planet. Commitment to a love ethic transforms our lives by offering us a different set of values to live by. In large and small ways, we make choices based on a belief that honesty, openness, and personal integrity need to be expressed in public and private decisions.”
bell hooks

I’ve lived by a love ethic my entire life, and I want to double down on love again. Right now. I want to nurture and protect love and kindness in myself and in others. The doubling down is going to require some changes in my life. I’m going to start with these:

I’m not afraid to have hard conversations or face pain, but I can be skittish when it comes to inviting joy and grace into my life. Joy fuels love. Grace allows me to reflect. I need to find a way to open that door more often. Even when it feels so vulnerable.
Even though there are a million things that need to change, we all need to rest sometimes – even when there’s still a shit-ton of work to do. Burn-out drives lovelessness.
For me, self-love is making and taking the time to create. I can’t live a love ethic if I’m not researching and writing and thinking. Creativity is who I am and how I’m wired.
When the world feels tough and disconnected, I need to sink into the softness and connection of my family and friends. Family is my love ethic. Sometimes, my go-to is to try to get tougher and even more disconnected than the world so I can fight back. It doesn’t work and it actually feeds that domination paradigm.
I need to make sure my anger is a catalyst born of love, not justification for causing pain when I’m in pain.
I want to co-create a love ethic in our organization and in our facilitator communities – an ethic that informs how we show up with each other, serve the work, and cultivate belonging. Lovelessness corrodes organizational culture. We need love wherever there are humans – that means at work too.
I need deeper, more meaningful spiritual connection. I need to rekindle things with God in some way that makes sense for me. Maybe I’ll take a run at meditation again, or renew my Daily Examen habit.
PS I don’t think you’re supposed to “take a run at meditating” but you know what I mean.
I’m going to live into my values and stand up for what I believe in from a place of love. And I’m not talking about rainbow and unicorn love. I’m talking about learning how to stay fueled by a gritty, dangerous, wild-eyed, radical, change-the-world kinda love when disdain, judgment, and contempt are so much easier and when fear is seducing me into staying quiet. hooks writes,
“Refusal to stand up for what you believe in weakens individual morality and ethics as well as those of the culture. No wonder then that we are a nation of people, the majority of whom, across race, class, and gender, claim to be religious, claim to believe in the divine power of love, and yet collectively remain unable to embrace a love ethic and allow it to guide behavior, especially if doing so would mean supporting radical change. Fear of radical changes leads many citizens of our nation to betray their minds and hearts.”

I’ll take radical change over betraying my mind and heart every time.
Doubling down on love demands that we be brave enough to straddle the tension of staying awake to the struggle in the world and fighting for justice and peace, while also cultivating a love ethic in our own lives. We can’t sacrifice the micro for the macro, or the macro for the micro.
Love, belonging, connection and joy are irreducible needs for all of us. We can’t give people what we don’t have. We have to live love to give love.

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Precious Energy

1/28/2020

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Are you restless? Antsy? Feel like there is a void in your life? The feeling that you want to do more, that you need to do more?
Whether it's because of citizens living in poverty, homelessness, the political environment, racial disparities, sexism, human trafficking, climate change, crime, terrorism...whatever your reasons, our reasons, many of us our feeling restless.

Part of why I am feeling restless is due to the continuous barrage of negative news. It's exhausting, overwhelming and hard to witness the news reports, endless social media posts, and related verbal commentary. There is a fine line between fueling the fire with anger, having your voice be heard and creating an onslaught of repeated negativity.

As positive psychology researcher and author Michelle Gielan says, "We can focus on the problem, but it is equally important to move the brain onto discussion of what we can do about it. Getting the brain to see that there is another path forward and that your behavior matters in the face of challenges is the key to unlocking better health and happiness. The more you seek out inspiration and solutions, the more you fuel your success and that of the people around you."

I think we need more action and less reaction. As author Dottie Fuller recently wrote, "It is time to educate ourselves. It is time to get re-involved. It is time to make our voices heard proactively the right way, starting where we are. It is not the time to share articles that trigger us with the bait and switch headlines or un-researched, smart-ass memes that create more division." It's time to take action. Action instead of reaction.

What action might look like for you is something that is personal and for you to decide. It depends on what you are passionate about and where your skills and interests lie. Whatever it is that breaks your heart, that keeps you up at night. As Margaret Mead stated, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

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See The Shimmer

1/21/2020

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This time of year can be challenging for a lot of people, especially here in Wisconsin. It's cold, it's dark and the holidays are over. We're hunkered down, hibernating, and there appears to be no end in sight. Everyday life can feel like drudgery as the days are counted toward the light and the warmth.

I'm definitely not a winter person, I prefer the the warm sunshine and long days. Over time, with intention, I've grown to appreciate the cold and the dark. That's what having a gratitude practice has done for me, it allows me to notice, appreciate and find beauty in the things that I use to just complain about.

Now I focus my attention on, and marvel at, the beauty of the pure white freshly fallen shimmering snow, the icicles glistening in the sunlight, the crackle of the snow and ice beneath my boots, the crisp winter air, the berries still hanging on the trees against the backdrop of the white snow and the bright blue sky. I take it all in and am amazed by its stunning beauty, with the awareness that each day that passes brings with it more light.

Now I focus my attention on being able to cozy up with a warm cup of tea, wearing my warm fuzzy clothes, changing into my comfy pajamas at 5 in the evening because it's already dark out, sitting by the fireplace, eating comfort foods.

Now I focus on doing a lot of self-reflection, regenerating and renewing. Using the opportunity to look within to the story of my heart. The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge beautifully says it this way, "The inner life, the story of our heart, is the life of the deep places within us, our passions and dreams, our fears and our deepest wounds. It is the unseen life, the mystery within-what Frederick Buechner calls our 'shimmering self.'" I ask myself...How I am showing up in the world? How I can be of service? What are my intentions?

I invite you to focus your intention on seeing the shimmer of the outside and also on the inside, in your heart...seeing your shimmering self.

An excerpt taken from The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge

"For what shall we do when we wake one day to find we have lost touch with our heart and with it the very refuge where God's presence resides?"

Starting very early, life has taught all of us to ignore and distrust the deepest yearnings of our heart. Life, for the most part, teaches us to suppress our longing and live only in the external world where efficiency and performance are everything. We have learned from parents and peers, at school, at work, and even from our spiritual mentors that something else is wanted from us other than our heart, which is to say, that which is most deeply us. Very seldom are we ever invited to live out of our heart. If we are wanted, we are often wanted for what we can offer functionally. If rich, we are honored for our wealth; if beautiful, for our looks, if intelligent, for our brains. So we learn to offer only those parts of us that are approved, living out a carefully crafted performance to gain acceptance from those who represent life to us. We divorce ourselves from our heart and begin to live a double life. Frederick Buechner expresses this phenomenon in his biographical work, Telling Secrets:

"[Our ] original shimmering self gets buried so deep we hardly live out of it at all...rather, we learn to live out of all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world's weather."

On the outside, there is the external story of our lives. This is the life everyone sees, our life of work and play and church, of family and friends, paying bills, and growing older. Our external story is where we carve out the identity most others know. It is the place where we have learned to label each other in a way that implies we have reached our final destination. Here, busyness substitutes for meaning, efficiency substitutes for creativity, and functional relationships substitute for love. In the outer life we live from ought (I ought to do this) rather than from desire (I want to do this) and management substitutes for mystery. There are steps to a happy marriage, five ways to improve your portfolio, and seven habits for success.

The inner life, the story of our heart, is the life of the deep places within us, our passions and dreams, our fears and our deepest wounds. It is the unseen life, the mystery within-what Buechner calls our "shimmering self." It cannot be managed like a corporation. The heart does not respond to principles and programs; it seeks not efficiency, but passion. Art, poetry, beauty, mystery, ecstasy: These are what rouse the heart. Indeed, they are the language that must be spoken if one wishes to communicate with the heart. It is why Jesus so often taught and related to people by telling stories and asking questions. His desire was not just to engage their intellects but to capture their hearts.

Indeed, if we will listen, a Sacred Romance calls to us through our heart every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love. We've heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean. The Romance is even present in times of great personal suffering: the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend. Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.

This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.

We cannot hear this voice if we have lost touch with our heart.

The true story of every person in this world is not the story you see, the external story. The true story of each person is the journey of his or her heart. Jesus himself knew that if people lived only in the outer story, eventually they would lose track of their inner life, the life of their heart.

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Saying "Help" Is A Prayer

1/14/2020

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Minister and author, Michael Bernard Beckwith states that if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then you need to get out of your own way. He says that you need something that gets you out of your little mind, your little perception, and that's where prayer and meditation come in. That's where you say, "Help. I'm open and I'm available to something new."

Just saying "help" is a prayer. Michael shared this acronym for the word help:

H ello
E ternal
L oving
P resence

Michael's process of prayer I think is intriguing and a useful approach to prayer. Here's a summary of his prayer process.

1. Ask God Empowering Questions
During your prayer ask God an empowering question and then be still, listen and be available. An empowering question includes questions like..."What's trying to emerge in my life?", "What's my gift to share?", "What's my purpose?", "Why am I here on the planet?", What's trying to unfold in my life and in my soul?", "What lesson am I learning?".

Disempowering questions sound like this..."What should I do?", "Why me?", "Who/what is to blame?", What's wrong with me?", "What's wrong with my life?", "Why is this happening to me?", "Why isn't life fair?".

Michael believes that if you ask an empowering question you'll get an answer that will help you to rise above the muck. Answers will come in the form of nudges, intuitive hits, dreams, and other signs and symbols.

2. Listen, Be Still
Take time to be still and to know. Have faith that by being still you will know the next right thing to do. Your intuition will know, your gut will know, it will bubble up to the surface and you will know. Be still, be available, pay attention and have faith and trust that you will know.

3. Be Vibrationally Ready to Receive
Let go of resistance and be in alignment with it by asking "what if" questions and by visualizing.

Start asking "what if" questions..."What if all my needs were met, what would I be doing in my life?", "What if everything is really working together for my good?", "What if all of the bad things that happened in my life are leading me to activating some great potential?", "What if God is really on my side?" He says when you start asking "what if" questions, small miracles will start happening in your life.

Begin to see, to visualize, the kind of life that you wish to live. Begin to talk about it, to write about it, to dream about it. Talk about the vision more than you talk about your problems. Give it energy, pay it attention. Talk about the possibility, even if you don't know how to get there. Talk to the vision and then after a while you will be talking from it.

By asking "what if" questions and visualizing you are becoming vibrationally ready to receive it. We are vibrational beings. You are drawing into you all the time the vibration that is most like what you are putting out. You cannot have what you're not willing to become vibrationally, you need to be aligned.

Michael believes that if you come from a place of I want, I want, I want then that will only create more want and it will block you from receiving your blessing.

Michael shares how pain pushes until the vision pulls, being pulled by a larger vision. Walk in the direction of the potential and the possibility. Taking small right steps in that direction will help pull you out of the suffering, will help release you from being stuck in the muck.

He says, "We are not praying that there aren't any challenges, we are praying that for the challenges that come that they activate latent potential." I love the perspective!

For times of deep need, where the challenge is great and we feel stuck in the muck, it's helpful to me to give my prayer some framework, some clear intention that is productive and useful in opening me up to God's message for me.

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Deep Awareness

1/7/2020

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Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh says that, “Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.” I absolutely love this, it brings forth wonderful imagery.

The word sacred means connected with God. Therefore, the quote becomes...each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes connected with God.

I like to envision holding out my thought, or my action, in the sunlight of awareness and then ask myself, "Is this a godly thought, or is this a godly action?" That deep awareness of being connected with God, being one with all, and shining a bright ray of light on that deep awareness with the knowledge that it touches everything.

This doesn't mean that we won't have challenging feelings like anger, frustration, sadness, etc. I'm not a proponent of sweeping these feelings under the rug and ignoring them. However, we can bring awareness to our feelings, to our thoughts, and reactions to those feelings. A lot of times our thoughts and reactions to the feeling is the piece that causes us to get stuck.

Yesterday I was reminded to "embrace the anger", to use it as fuel for positive change. This is a good example of how we can either choose to use our anger destructively and gear our thoughts and reactions toward things like vengeance, or we can use our anger productively toward something like steps to correct an injustice, etc. Anger can be a wonderful motivator, a change agent.

Pastor and entrepreneur, Russ Ewell, explains that, “'Deep Awareness' is a spiritual sensitivity to God and his Word that awakens our conscience, and stirs up the transformative power of the Holy Spirit for change. This awareness keeps us from slipping back into old patterns of life or attitudes of mind. Most importantly, 'Deep Awareness' keeps us confident of God’s grace, so we can navigate the difficult or even discouraging stages of our spiritual journey, and reach the destiny to which God has called us."

In this new year, this new decade, I'm setting my intention to live with a deeper awareness, to bring my thoughts and actions into the sunlight of awareness, to continuously remember my connection to God and to all.

Yoga instructor Lisa Mccormack sums it up beautifully, "When we walk united in deep awareness and stand undivided in our intention, our collective energy is exponentially magnified. Our brothers and sisters and the animals in Australia need this from us right now. The next person you meet needs this from us right now. You may need this from us right now. Join me in creating an energetic tapestry of compassion and hope to surround and comfort all living beings who are suffering in the world right now."

Amen

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Reflections & Intentions

12/15/2019

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As 2019 is quickly coming to a close, it's common for us to reflect on the past year and begin planning for the new year. Reflecting on how the year went, what we accomplished, setting our intentions and goals for things that we plan to do in the new year.

What reflections do you have about this past year? Did you accomplish what you desired? What positive experiences did you have? I invite you to make a list of all your accomplishments from the year, both big and small. What did you achieve? Consider putting your list someplace visible, so you can savor them and be reminded of your achievements.

What challenges did you experience? Consider going through each one looking at what effect they’ve had on your life. There might be lessons you learned through these challenges, setbacks, or disappointments. A great way to heal from negative experiences is to learn from them.

I think it's healthy to productively reflect, to productively look back for a bit before setting it aside and moving forward. Not getting stuck in the past, just looking at it to savor the positive and learn from the challenges.

What's your intention for 2020? Have you thought about it yet? Have you envisioned what the year ahead will look like for you? Have you set some goals for yourself?

How are you feeling about the new year? I know a lot of us have mixed feelings as we are looking out at our world. We want change, we desire change. How is that change going to happen for you? Are you willing to be the change that you want in the world? Are you willing to do your part to create the change in your own life, in order for that to ripple out into the world?

If you desire the world to be a healthier and happier place, than be healthier yourself, be happy yourself. If you desire the world to be a place of more love and peace, than be more love and peace yourself. If you desire more acceptance, more compassion, more tolerance, more forgiveness, than be more accepting, be more compassionate, be more tolerant, be more forgiving. Ripple them out to the rest of the world. Create big bold bright sparkly ripples!

Grow these qualities in yourself and they will create huge ripples out to the rest of the universe. Create habits within your daily life to support those things that you wish to see not only in your own life, but also in the world. It's time to be the change, to be a change agent. The world is hurting, people are hurting, it is time for each and everyone of us to do our part to be the change. How can you be the change? How can you create big bold bright sparkly ripples in your own life that will ripple out into the world?

What is causing you to be stuck? Stuck in your life? Stuck in your body? Stuck in your mind? Stuck spiritually? Make some movement, set your intentions, make some change. I invite you to BE the CHANGE you desire to see in the world. This year I want to focus on being the change. This year I want to focus on making big bold bright sparkly positive ripples of change, will you join me? We can do this! We can each make important ripples in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Let's do it!!!

I will leave you with the insightful words of Wayne Dyer.

You become what you think about. If you think about giving, as God does, the Universe will provide. If you think about things being taken away, then that’s what you’ll attract. If you want to manifest your dreams, you must become a master at monitoring the thoughts and feelings you are aligning yourself with. Your thoughts and feelings become your reality, so become adept at observing the thoughts and feelings you are creating for yourself.

Do not let your imagination be restricted to the current conditions of your life, or what I call “being obsessed with what is.” Keep reminding yourself that everything that you’ve believed has gotten you to precisely the point where you are now. This is a rather persistent theme in my work, so it bears repeating here: if you want to elevate your life and become a manifester, then you have to change what you’ve believed to be true about yourself that has landed you where you are. The sentiments of This is reality, This is just the way things are, There is nothing that I can do to change what is, and the like are pernicious thoughts that will taint and defile your great gift of I am that I am, which is your Divine inheritance from your creator.

The words of all the great spiritual teachers encourage us to see ourselves as unlimited and to know that even the least among us has the divine power of God available at every moment of our lives. I know that you, if you practice studiously, can begin to manifest for yourself virtually anything that you are capable of conceiving in your mind. You must unplug from your conditioning and know in that private space behind your eyes that you can and will take on the challenge of manifesting your destiny. It is my belief that you are never given the power to dream without the equivalent power to manifest that dream and make it your physical reality.

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The Magic Is In The Mess

12/9/2019

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The holidays can bring up lots of mixed emotions for people. For some, the holiday season is not a magical time of year at all. One of my favorite authors, Brene Brown, shared her thoughts on the holidays and I wanted to share them with you.

Every holiday season, as I think about my own life and reflect upon what my family and what many of the people around me are going through right now, I’m reminded that struggle doesn’t take off for the holidays. As a lover of Christmastime, my mantra has become “the magic is in the mess” and I always like to post a little love note to myself and our communities.

We need to be kind with ourselves and remember that the gremlins don’t go on vacation. Checks bounce, chemotherapy appointments are scheduled, interventions are planned, relationships keep unravelling, being alone feels even lonelier, parents negotiate who will have the kids on Christmas morning, and the “never enoughs” are in full swing.

As I prepare to spend the next few days with my family and friends, my goal is to practice love and gratitude with the special group of folks who keep showing up and loving me, not despite my vulnerabilities and imperfections, but because of them.

I'm grateful for our community. For your generosity and the respectful way that we move forward together!
Blessings, Brené

The Christmas lights, trees, decorations, cards, neatly wrapped gifts and carefully decorated cookies are beautiful and magical, but to me, the real beauty comes in finding the magic amongst the busyness, physical mess, emotional mess, relationship mess, through any and all of the imperfections. Looking through all of the mess and working to find the magic.

Remembering that beautiful and hard can coexist in the same breath, in the same moment. Finding the moment of connection with love, connection with gratitude, connection with compassion. Sitting with the messiness and looking past it to the magical spirit. Remembering that we are perfectly imperfect humans walking this earth and doing our best.

May we see the magic in the mess this holiday season, however that looks for each of us. May we savor the moments of connection. Wishing you and your loved ones a very joyous and loving holiday season!

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Together We Can Create A Happy World

12/3/2019

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You have probably been bombarded by shopping ads and sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but today is all about helping others. Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to helping charities help people in need and that is something way more exciting to me!

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has been tagged as the global day of giving. Bringing people together around the values of service and giving back and to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness. Giving Tuesday unites people and countries around the world by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another.

Today people and countries are coming together to celebrate kindness and generosity. Practicing gratitude for what we have in our lives, as well as what we can do to help and be of service to others. I love the concept of a global day of giving for many reasons, two of which are proven to be key pillars of happiness...gratitude and generosity...service and kindness.

The Dalai Lama in his book, The Book of Joy, says, "As one of the seven billion human beings, I believe everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world. We need, ultimately, to have a greater concern for others' well-being." He goes on to say, "Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others' well-being is the source of happiness. We have to take care of ourselves without selfishly taking care of ourselves. If we don't take care of ourselves, we cannot survive. We need to do that. We should have wise selfishness, rather than foolish selfishness. Foolish selfishness means you just think only of yourself, don't care about others, bully others, exploit others. In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life. So that is what I call wise selfishness."

The Dalai Lama starts each day by setting his intention for the day. His intention is for the day to be meaningful. For him, meaningful means, if possible, serve and help others. If not possible, then at least not to harm others. He believes that, "Everybody wants a happy life...and our individual happy life depends on a happy humanity. So we have to think about humanity, discover a sense of oneness of all seven billion human beings." The path of joy is connection and the path of sorrow is separation.

Bringing people and countries together to celebrate our oneness, our kindness, our gratitude, our generosity to care for, empower and lift each other up, creating a happy humanity and a happy world.

Science supports that when we see someone perform an act of kindness or of generosity it warms our heart. This warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you have witnessed human goodness is called moral elevation. Studies have found that the natural high of moral elevation makes people want to behave more altruistically toward others, causing kindness to be contagious. Elevation motivates those who experience it to open up to and assist others. Elevation makes an individual feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity...something I think we could all use a bit more of these days!

Let's finish out this year by intentionally practicing giving, being of service, acts of kindness and of generosity. Let's create moral elevation, so we can all feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity, the world, and our future together.

What can you do over this next month to create moral elevation? What small act of kindness, service or generosity can you perform? What act of compassion will make someone else's day brighter and lighter? Let's practice wise selfishness instead of foolish selfishness during this holiday season. I invite you to join me in creating ripples of moral elevation.

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Loving The Hot Mess

The Definition Of Love

Doubling Down On Love

Precious Energy

See The Shimmer

Saying "Help" Is A Prayer

Deep Awareness

Reflections & Intentions

The Magic Is In The Mess

Together We Can Create A Happy World

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