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The Practice Of Hope

3/31/2020

Do you actively practice hope? I believe that hope is a spiritual practice. Hope is not just a feeling, it's a verb, it's something that we practice. It's not just wishing that something might happen, but rather, being confident that something is going to happen and actively taking part in creating it. Hope opens the door to new possibilities and imagines a world beyond what exists.

Hope is an intentional act...choosing what we aim to create. Using our intuition, focusing our intention, exercising our faith and letting them be our guide.

Hope motivates and inspires us to act with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and generosity. It opens our eyes to the beauty that surrounds us. Hope is having faith and relying on God’s grace instead of our own will, strength or abilities.

The practice of hope can look different for each of us. I practice hope through daily intention, by being still, checking in and connecting with my spiritual self and with Spirit. This practice reminds me that I am more than this human body experiencing this moment in time. I am a spiritual being having a human experience. From this space, I can tap into spiritual wisdom.

Writer and life coach, Hilary Illick, shares another step in the practice of hope, "Having connected to your spiritual self, you can move into the practice of self-compassion. An especially effective method for cultivating self-compassion involves repeating the self-compassion prayer: I am suffering right now; all human beings suffer and deserve kindness; may I be kind to myself. Combining this with placing your hand on your heart, or rubbing your cheek or lips (all of which spur the production of oxytocin, the bonding hormone) can switch your state from fight-or-flight (the sympathetic nervous system) into relax-and-respond (the parasympathetic). Once in your parasympathetic nervous system, you are no longer churning out the stress hormones of adrenaline and cortisol, but are instead creating endorphins and oxytocin, the feel-good hormones."

We can then practice hope by offering compassion out to others who are suffering. This can be as simple as noticing when another person is in pain and holding space...listening without offering advice or trying to fix it or them.

Compassionate gestures for ourself or for others, no matter how small, casts out ripples of goodness into the universe. We have no idea how far-reaching the impact of these ripples. Making choices from a place of hope and not fear casts out ripples of goodness, and opens the door to new possibilities beyond what currently exists.

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Opening To The Spiritual Wisdom

3/21/2020

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The past few days I've been feeling all the feels. It's hard sometimes to know exactly how/what I'm feeling and it's been hard to feel centered and connected. Anyone else struggling and feeling wonky?

I keep reminding myself that it's okay to not feel like my "normal" self, that I don't need to beat myself up about it or try to force myself to feel "normal". Yes, I can practice my tools and techniques...reflect more, practice gratitude, meditate, exercise, get out in nature, keep perspective, connect with others, etc., but ultimately it's okay to just be present with whatever I am feeling at this moment.

Not getting swallowed up by it and ruminate stories about it in my head, but also not try and sweep it under the rug. Remember that having feelings doesn't make you a negative person, it makes you human. Just be with it and accept it for what it is, not attaching too much to it, but be willing to be light with it.

Did you know that "Corona" means crown, a halo, like garland or wreath worn on the top of the head? Corona is also a reference to the aura of light surrounding the sun and other stars. Spiritually a crown represents our Divine nature, our connection to the Divine, it's symbolic of Divine good and truth. For me there's a spiritual suggestion here that we open up to the spiritual wisdom of the moment.

Our crown chakra is the portal through which life energy enters our body. Without this energy, we tend to feel disconnected with self and others. The offering of the crown is the experience of unity that everything is connected, oneness with everyone and everything in nature.

The reminder here is that we are all always connected to the Divine and to each other in a big interconnected web of love and light. It helps me to envision the connection as light coming down and connecting with the top of my head filling me with light and love. This morning as I was doing this envisioning exercise, I was reminded by Spirit that "it's all about love"...open up your crown to the Spiritual wisdom, open up to love. Bring that beautiful loving light down through your crown, then drop it down into your heart space and blast it out into the world.

Now is a time to open up to the Spiritual wisdom of this experience and feel your connection to the Divine and to all that is. Reflect and discover the Spiritual wisdom within your own personal experience, maintain your spiritual practices and be okay with feeling all of the feels. Go easy on yourself, know that you are deeply loved, supported and connected always. Sending you huge blasts of love and light. Be well.

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Sending Out Lots Of Love

3/17/2020

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A lot of people are currently experiencing feelings of uncertainty, vulnerability and fear due to the implications of Covid-19. The list of unanswered questions grows. "Are we doing the right thing? How can I protect myself and my loved ones? What does this mean for my income source? What does this mean for my business and my employees? My retirement fund? How will this effect others our community? How long will this last?" This uncertainty feeds our stress and ultimately our feelings of fear.

Our brains are designed for survival and are hard-wired for a negativity bias. This causes us to hyper-focus on the threats, and see more and more negative. Our brains naturally focus on the worse case scenario. Unfortunately, as we experience this on-going stress, we compromise our bodies ability to be at an optimal state of health, which is the opposite of what we need right now.

Spiritual nourishment and practices are even more important at this moment in time. Taking time to be mindful, to pause, reflect, exercise wisdom, courage and compassion to ourselves and to others. There are a lot of simple practices that can help to reduce the stress and anxiety, boost our immune system and cultivate resilience in the face of our current situation.

Two quick and easy practices that serve to not only reduce stress, but also to send out waves of healing energy, love and kindness into the world are a loving kindness (Metta) meditation and a heart connection meditation (heart-brain coherence). I've included easy to follow instructions on performing these quick meditations below this post. Doing them in succession with each other is powerful.

We are all being asked to be generous and compassionate at this time. To modify our behavior for the greater good, especially for those in our society who are most vulnerable to this disease. Remembering our common humanity and showing ourselves and others the gift of compassion. We are all being reminded of our interdependence and interconnectedness. Go easy on yourself and on others.

Something we can all do from our homes is to give ourselves some love, kindness and compassion and to send it out by practicing a loving kindness meditation. I invite us all to collectively send out lots of love, kindness and compassion into the world. A crisis like this can bring out the best and the worst in people. I believe it's important to stop and ask ourself...what is it bringing out in me? During this time of uncertainty and "social distancing" I'll be sending out lots of love and healing energy to you and to the world. Be well.

Heart Connection Technique (heart-brain coherence)
Step 1: Focus Your Heart
Action: Allow your awareness to move from your mind to the area of your heart.
Result: This sends a signal to your heart that a shift has taken place—you are no longer engaged in the world around you and are now becoming aware of the world within you.

Step 2: Slow Your Breathing
Action: Begin to breathe a little more slowly than usual, allowing five to six seconds for your inhale and exhale.
Result: This simple step sends a second signal to your body that you are safe and in a place that supports your process. Deep, slow breathing has long been known to stimulate a relaxation response of the nervous system.

Step 3: Feel a Rejuvenating Feeling
Action: To the best of your ability, feel a genuine sense of caring, appreciation, gratitude, or compassion for anything or anyone.
Result: The key to success here is for your feeling to be as sincere and heartfelt as possible. It’s the quality of this feeling that fine-tunes and optimizes the coherence between your heart and your brain.

Loving Kindness (metta) Meditation
This meditation is the simple repetition of the following phrases:
May you be healthy and strong. May you be happy. May you be filled with ease.
-Directing them first toward someone you feel thankful for, someone who has helped you or someone who you feel unconditional love for.
-Next direct them toward yourself.
-Now direct them toward someone you struggle with, someone you are having a hard time with.
-Finally, direct them toward everyone in the Universe.

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We've Each Been Uniquely And Perfectly Created

3/10/2020

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Have you ever asked yourself questions like..."Why does that person meet people with so much ease? Why can't I be more like that?" or "Why is that person so good at leadership? Why can I be more like that?"

As Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Comparison is the thief of joy." Comparing yourself with someone else is an inaccurate and irrelevant measuring stick and not only that, it steals away your own amazing superpower when you attempt to wear a mask and be someone you are not. It’s impossible to be the best version of yourself, if you jump into the comparison game.

We are all born unique, different from everybody else in our own splendidly authentic variation. The only masterful creation you have to work with is yourself and it's more productive to focus on being the best version of yourself that you can be. I remind myself regularly that the only person I should compare myself to and work to be better than is the person I was yesterday.

How well do you know yourself and your strengths, your own superpowers at a foundational level? Do you know what your needs are, what environments best suit you, how to keep from feeling drained, how to best re-energize yourself when you do feel drained? Do you know your own leadership traits? How well do the people who closely interact with you know you and your needs?

I'm referring to you in your most natural state, your inborn temperament without the masks that we wear to meet our perception of the expectations of the world. We are all born with our very own temperament, it’s rooted in the core of who we are. Newborn babies exhibit from birth different temperaments and tendencies they are not born a blank slate.

Layered on top of our temperament is the impact of humans and the environment on us. This is called our character. At birth, we begin interacting with our environment and our environment interacts with us. The environment is everything we see, hear, smell, feel and learn. These perceptions are forever locked into our brain, and they slightly mold and alter our temperament, thereby forming character.

Our personality is what the majority of the world sees. Our personality is expressed in the way we perceive how we must behave to survive in the world in which we live. This may or may not be part of our temperament or character. It's what most of the world who don't know us well experience of us.

In order to thrive and become the best version of ourself that we can be it's critical that we have self-awareness, that we are intimately familiar with who we are, what makes us tick and what our needs are. Making healthy connections with others starts with an understanding of our connection with self.

A new service that I'm offering is a temperament analysis profile assessment. The results of the analysis builds self-awareness, allowing us to understand our needs and how to make stronger intentional connections with others. It identifies our unique superpowers, how to optimize them, and strategies for shoring up our challenging areas to become the best version of ourself. If you are interested in learning more let me know or check out the website at www.intentionalconnectionsllc.com.

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How To Attract More Of The Good Stuff

3/3/2020

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How do we get more of the good stuff? More love in our life, more appreciation, more joy? A key way to get more is to give more. It's the Law of Reciprocity...the more you give, the more your receive. It's a cycle of give and receive.

As Deepak Chopra writes, “The more you give, the more you will receive, because you will keep the abundance of the universe circulating in your life. In fact, anything that is of value in life only multiplies when it is given. So if you want joy, give joy to others. If love is what you seek, offer love.” As Deepak suggests, "You can give a small gift to everyone you encounter, whether a smile, a heartfelt compliment, a flower, or a silent blessing. When you do something to make someone happy, you immediately feel more happiness yourself."

Darren Hardy explains it this way, "I do something that sounds a bit odd, but I send love to someone. The way to get love is to give it, and one thing I want more of is love. I give love by thinking of one person, anyone (it could be a friend, relative, co-worker, or someone I just met in the supermarket—it doesn’t matter), and then I send them love by imagining all that I wish and hope for them. Some would call this a blessing or a prayer; I call it a mental love letter. This process turns my love magnets on every morning. It’s amazing how the world changes around me when I have these magnets on."

I love that, a mental love letter...not only does it make us feel good and change our vibration and our energy, but I believe that it energetically goes out into the world and impacts the world around us, and ultimately to the person that we direct the mental love letter to.

I also love the idea of turning on my love magnets each morning, what a super cool way to start the day! When you change, the world around you also changes and your "love magnets" attract more of that love vibration to you.

The good stuff, like love, expands in our life through the power of momentum, taking small steps that build our energy and our momentum. Once we set it in motion, momentum can be an amazing and abundant force, a magnet for more and more and more.

A big thing to keep in mind (and this can be a tough one) is that the universe doesn't always give back love (or other good stuff) from where you gave it. Your gift of love to one person may be returned by a complete stranger. The key is to keep putting it out wherever you see that it's needed and you'll keep getting it back in return.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe. I believe that one of the biggest reasons we are here on earth is to love and to be loved. Love has the power to heal. Love is the path to living a life of happiness and of well-being. Love shows up in what we do for others, what we give to others. Love forgives faults and imperfections and allows for differences of opinions. Love is compassion for others. Love is gratitude for others. Love is empathy for others. Love doesn't judge. Love listens and love inspires. Love is who and what we really are.

If you want more good stuff, give more of the good stuff. As Darren Hardy says, "Don't want what you want. That will only create more want. Instead give what you want, that will ignite the process of creating it. Wanting wanting wanting creates more wanting." If you want more love, be brave and give more love, become a love magnet!

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The Practice Of Hope

Opening To The Spiritual Wisdom

Sending Out Lots Of Love

We've Each Been Uniquely And Perfectly Created

How To Attract More Of The Good Stuff

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