“I’m interested in memory because it’s a filter through which we see our lives, and because it’s foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.”

~Kazuo Ishiguro, 20th-Century British novelist

We all have a story. Some of us even have several. Some keep their story to themself. Others relish the retelling of it at any chance. But the truth is that even having a story at all is enough. It is enough to change the direction of our life on a day to day basis. The story makes our connections for us, choses or friends and lovers, leads us to certain jobs and journeys.

There once was a girl who did everything differently. She never lived up to anyone’s expectations and she was always treated as an outcast, a weirdo. Her overly sensitive ways made her an annoyance, or a laughing stock, to nearly everyone that she met and she could do nothing satisfactorily, because she was one of those unfocused, creative types who drop things once they start them and will never achieve any type of success in life.

So, there it is…the story of my life as told by the nagging little pessimist inside my head. It has been my script for decades, a part that I dutifully played and played well. Every relationship in my life, friend or foe, lover or coworker has either begun or ended somewhere along this plot line, which means that the story as told must be true, right? Well, not necessarily.

The mind is a tricky device, kind of like the hall of mirrors at a carnival. Each distorts your vision in a different way and yet each appears so very, very real. The only eyes that we have in this world, and the only mind we have for perceiving, is our own. We can never see or think as another person does, so we can scarcely guess at how they may or may not see us, or the myriad thoughts that may be running through their head at a given moment. This means that each of us is, necessarily, me-centric. It is impossible to be anything else. All that goes on around us must be about us, or caused by us or happening to us. No, need to ask, “is it me?” because of course it is! At least, it is to you.

The Universe, our source, our creator, is a funny thing. It thinks in pictures, creates in energy. It also seeks always to increase, thus is gives you whatever it believes you are asking for. In creation, in the universe, all things are possible. So, in order to deliver you your most desired reality, the source of creation constantly sends to you situations and scenarios that prove to you that your version of reality is right, is correct and true. This is why your story gets reinforced in your life and your reality. But, this also means that you can choose to have your story and your life unfold differently.

Don’t believe that you are at the mercy of your version of reality? Mayhaps you cannot see any evidence of it in your own life. But, I am certain you can see it more readily in the lives of others. (Somehow patterns are much more stark when they are not your own.) Think of that friend who always attracts that kind of guy. Or the cousin who constantly sees themself being victimized by circumstances. Or the neighbour who continually loses their employment in the same exact way every time. It can even be as small as constantly overeating the same food.

Now can you see it?

Think of the last time you sounded like a broken record. Were you having the same argument again with a spouse? Even repeating the same words? Or maybe running around the same circle with your child or your sibling? Have you ever noticed how these things read almost like a script that you are reciting? Surely enough, you are. These situations arise because we keep telling ourselves the same story, both about the other person and about ourself.

Realising that we embody our stories is nothing to be embarrassed or even angry about, it is simply a recognition of truth and a chance to change the hold our story has over us. Releasing old patterns and hurts and blockades to happiness can honestly be as easy as telling a new story, if we wish it to be.

This is why I am recommending that we all engage in a collective re-scripting, both for our personal and planetary stories. Sit down, think about what the story is that holds you, holds us, back. No need to write out that old tale, but do take a moment to acknowledge what it might be. If it helps, you can jot down a sentence or two on a clean sheet of paper. Such as, “nobody likes me the way that I am” or “I am an angry person.” Then, tear it up and chuck it in the trash bin.

Take out a fresh, clean sheet of paper and write a new story. Make it as detailed and long and memorable as possible. It can be your life story or the story of your career or romantic life or your health, etc. Write the story that you wish to be yours. Fill it with all the things that would set a better foundation under the life you are now building and carry you in the positive direction that you want to be your own.

It does not matter whether you believe yourself to be a “good” writer or not, only you will ever read this story. Just write it the best of your abilities, don’t rush this activity. Give other people the parts in the story that you would like them to have. Give yourself the attitude and reactions that you would like yourself to have.

Read the story out loud to yourself and to the Universe. Read it at the beginning of every day. Tweak it as necessary, but read it and feel it every day. Embrace it is your divine truth and see what people and opportunities it begins to draw into your life. Engage with those new arrivals from the place of your new story, not the old one. All the world’s a stage and you choose which part to play.

Here is a re-script of the story with which I opened this article:

There once was a girl who marched to the beat of her own drum. She lived in a way that pleased her and allowed her to explore the truth of her own talents. Her unique sensitivities came across as warm and inspiring to everyone who crossed her path. People came into her life for positive reasons and shared their genuine selves and creativity with her openly. Her friendships became the steady, guiding light of her life. She was successful at all that she truly loved and was able to gently release things which might other wise have distracted her. Life was her oyster and she lived it unencumbered by fear or embarrassment.

Whenever you tire of scenarios, circumstances and emotions that are no longer serving your highest intentions, you can try this exercise and see where it takes you.

Though some stories will be more difficult to reshape than others, such as self-stories that involve abuse or addiction, it is my firm belief that rewriting it again and again in your more positive light will eventually shift it to the new place that you desire. Let your heart lead the way, not your head, and the energy will follow.

Namasté

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist Monk, Peace Activist and Author

As you walk a deliberate path of awareness, opening yourself to your higher nature and a deeper connection with the waking and non-waking worlds, you develop an increased sense of compassion and sensitivity to the needs and vibrations of your own spirit and of other living beings.

You also may find that this increased sensitivity manifests itself in unexpected ways. Perhaps you begin to experience psychic abilities, reading the thoughts right out of your loved ones heads, only moments before they are spoken. Perhaps you are becoming more attuned to nature, knowing what the weather will be without needing to consult the news or getting “warning” feelings just before a large natural occurrence such as earthquakes and floods. Perhaps you simply find yourself unable to hear about, or witness images of, human suffering, on large and small scales, without bursting into tears or getting tense in your body.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. Quite the contrary, you are experiencing a place in your spiritual awareness that is common to seekers and those who walk the path of deliberate ascension or self-development. For much of my life my sensitive nature has been a source of both frustration and suffering, sometimes for me and sometimes for those around me. Being aware on a spiritual level may put you at ease while putting those around you on edge, making them feel as if the slightest conflict, criticism or stress will cause you greater upheaval and upset than it would cause them. It can be difficult to understand and more difficult to embrace, both from within and without.

By no means an expert, I nevertheless have found some tools and approaches that seem to benefit both myself and my loved ones, whether they are folks who embrace spiritual awareness or not.

My number one piece of practical advice is a simple one, yet may be hard to implement as it can require some level of sacrifice and change on your part. It is to surround yourself, at all times if possible, with positive and uplifiting messages. This can be as easy as posting uplifting quotes on posters around your home or as involved as limiting what books, newspapers and television programs you expose yourself to.

This approach works and will benefit you as much as you take the time to focus on it. It will not lessen your sensitivities. It will lessen your distractions and allow you to focus on the inner peace and human compassion that you have within you. In the process it may just help to clear some mental clutter from your loved ones as well.

But, for you to free yourself of all negative messages, you must also be willing to free yourself of negative entanglements and relationships. Anything that makes you feel more negative than it does positive, be it a job, a family connection or a personal habit, is something that you would do better without, both energetically and psychologically.

What makes a zen master impeccable? It is their absolute dedication to the path of spiritual peace which they have chosen to walk. Nothing else is paramount to it. Your own peace is no less sacred and must be afforded the same reverence and preeminence if you are to use your awareness and its gifts to the best of your abilities.

Some may call this self-indulgence, and many have labeled it “escapism.” Yet those are their words for their external understanding (or mis-understanding) of something that is a deeply personal, internal experience. What bliss one follows comes from within, and any tool that allows more peace to flow into the world, through each individual’s free will, is a tool that is worthy of being tried. Peace is in every step, if the one walking the path chooses to embrace it.

Some ways that I have chosen to surround myself with positive messages:

1. There is no television in my home. We choose our viewing selectively, purchasing or downloading movies, documentaries and news programs that we feel attuned to and enriched by.

2. Our phones, generally internet based, often are not set to ring but, instead, go to voicemail, where messages and their energy can be accessed at times we feel are appropriate.

3. Family members and old friends who live in a loop of self-created negativity or who are critical of our beliefs/relationship/diet/lifestyle are no longer contacted or communicated with, but have been let go with a peaceful and loving heart to follow their own bliss as they choose. Our caring for them is not lessened, though not all of them may see it this way.

4. Songs, books, artwork etc., that have negative undertones or bring up negative memories, are being slowly removed from our walls/iPods/bookshelves etc…

5. Foods which lead to ill health, tiredness or gluttony (Mmmm, pasta…) have been minimized, though not ruthlessly axed, in our diets.

6. When myself, or my lovely husband, have a negative thought, regretful or otherwise, the other does their best to bring them out of it. We remind each other of our positive intentions, our true existence as a divine piece of the Universe and the power of positive thinking, (ie. The Law of Attraction.)

7. I try to spend some time every day in meditation, whether by breath, mantra or visualization.

8. I am aiming to read, or listen to, the soothing words of a monk, guru, priestess or wise person for a few minutes every day. On the days that I do this it often sets the tone for the ensuing hours.

What experiences have you had with increased sensitivity and bringing positive messages into your everyday life? Do you have more suggestions?

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”
~ Robert Ingersoll, Political Orator

I believe that we as humans are born hopeful. That we have an inherent light within us that lives in positivity, no matter what the circumstance. This is borne out by the repeated words and advice of the spirit guides.

It may not always be easy to remember and have faith in this inner light and, when looking outside of ourselves, to the Earth and the human community, we may more easily see evidence of darkness and despair. But the truth is that we are all creations of the infinite light, that hope is always with us waiting to shine upon our path.

This is true for both individuals and for the planet upon which we live.

Based on my own experience and the wisdom of the guides, here are some valuable actions that you can take to ensure the growth of hope, within your own life and the life of the Earth:

• 1. Incorporate a practice of daily meditation into your life. This helps to empower your thinking, balance your energy and de-stress your life. It also helps you see the positive in more things, when the negative would seem to be more obvious. Meditation is a great regulator of stress, fear, high-blood pressure and depression. Take 15 minutes for connecting with yourself every day.
• 2. Switch to a diet that supports the natural processes of the planet, one incorporating organic, seasonal foods. A vegetarian or vegan diet is even more beneficial for the pressure that it takes off of the environment (commercial meat farming uses an inordinate amount of natural resources.) If you buy local, seasonal, organic produce it will benefit your immune systems like you can only imagine, and will support a local farmer who is doing things the right way for our long-term planetary survival.
• 3. Learn about how to grow and preserve your own foods, look into permaculture gardening and then practice these things. The amount of work needed to create good food will help you readjust your view on food and the ease with which we now get it. You may realize how unnatural our chemical-laden supermarket shelves really are. You will also greatly lessen your footprint on this Earth by growing food the old-fashioned way as well as greatly lessening your likelihood of developing diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
• 4. Walk more. To school, to work, to the grocery store or just to a friend’s house. Walking is such an aerobic, calming and connecting meditative experience. And what you save in finite fossil fuels will benefit not only you but the environment as well.
• 5. Volunteer your time. Giving is the surest way of receiving, and spending time with those less fortunate than yourself will certainly give you food for thought about what is valuable in life and how blessed you are by your creator. Everyone is too worried about money and acquiring things to give of themselves these days. You can begin reversing that trend, in your own life.
• 6. Smile and say hello. Strangers don’t generally bite, despite common belief to the contrary, and your moment of kindness and connection could very well change the amount of light that another person finds in their day. If you pass someone on the road, say hi, and see how it also makes you feel high.
• 7. Turn off the tv. Turn off the radio. Media is not a free medium, the commercials, news reports, political messages, offensive images and lyrics all take a very costly toll on your energy and your thinking. The amount of pain in your life may truly be nil, and yet the mental anguish and emotional upset brought to you every day in the form of “information” from the media can send any individual into a real and deep depression. Spend time in silence, share conversation with your loved ones. Let the media spin for their bread, but don’t let them spin your head.
• 8. Teach your children about physical exercise by setting an example of fitness. You can be as spiritual as you want, and it will benefit you to no end. But, if you combine that with lethargy and immobility, you will suffer constant malaise and illness, which does not benefit spiritual awareness. Sick people are a much bigger drain on planetary resources and what good is it to be great a meditator and astral-projector, if you also end up in a wheelchair or needing regular treatment for degenerative disease? Walk, run, dance, do yoga and just throw a ball around, you and your kids will be glad that you did.
• 9. Refuse to accept chemical and synthetic replacements for natural things in your life. People once stored their foods in wooden barrels and earthen jars. Clothes were once made from plant and animals fibres. Medicines once came from nature, without the chemical removal of their balancing “non-active” ingredients. Cleaning products were once homemade and non-estrogen mimicking. Building materials once came without chemical impregnation and manufacturing. It can be that way again, but only if you are willing to demand, and pay for, real value in the products that you use.
• 10. Breath before speaking. When you let words, which are energy and just as real as a seed in the ground or a slap across the face, escape your mouth in a moment of passion, without thinking, they can add more of what we don’t need to this world. Do not let your life breath be the vehicle by which more hurt, anger, violence and despair enter into our environment. Instead allow yourself to find the eternal spiritual source within you before attempting to express your feelings, let this divine spark be your guide to communicating your thoughts in a balanced way.
• 11. Allow yourself to believe that there is more beyond this world and more beyond this life. Know that you are always a part of that divine energy from which you came. Know that you have been sent here to learn and grow and that the opportunity is a gift. Have respect for yourself, your planet and the others in your life, for they are all essential to your ability to grow while you are here.

~

My blessings on finding your own ways to add value and hope to your life, and to this great planet Earth.

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.”
~ Emily Dickinson, 19th Century American Poetess

This is a channeling from one of my guides – I hope that it touches you.

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There is nothing to fear in this world, in your life. For all that is meant to be will come to pass, good or bad.

The universe decides when and where creation and destruction will take place, and it does so lovingly, without malice or forethought. There is only loving creation, and the act of destruction is merely another stage in an ever-expanding creative process.

The intent of the universal creator is, has always been, and will always be, balance. Balance in all things, for all things are this creator itself. And in knowing itself, and its joy, it seeks only growth, only balance.

Two dogs meet on the roadway, one going home, the other going away. Yet both are still alive. Both are still free. Whether the one going ever returns, or whether the one returning ever again goes, is not of any consequence. They are both equal and the same.

All that the universe has ever created still is. Even if it’s form is lost, or transmuted, it is still there, a record of creation. For all time is NOW. All things are but the one thing, the divine one, the Source.

When you fear you simply make yourself a brighter beacon for all that is fearful. This fear may seem more difficult to banish than most things.

Hope is easier to forget than fear. But it is only the response of your physical body that makes it so.

The true spirit within you is ever-hopeful, at all times, in all circumstances.

How can you relinquish fear in fearful times?

Simply put, you must always negate it. You must answer every fear, every negative with an immediate and counter-balancing positive. Shine a ray of hope upon the darkness of fear. It will weaken over time and leave you standing in the sun.

When it comes by again it will glide quickly past, like the shadow of a bird upon the ground.

How can one cultivate hope? Hope in all moments?

Hope is but the allowing of your divine spirit to flow out from you. Within a moment of silence comes the rush of peace.

You may force a smile to cross your face, do it as a deliberate act. But then sit with it a while, and feel true joy well up within you.

Perhaps the memory of a childhood playground, a silly joke once told to friends.

And that freedom, that ease of being, can fill you up and power you with hope.

Hope is not about the past, nor is it solely concerned with the future. But, instead, it is that conscious acknowledgment that your present is a gift and is filled with endless positives and possibilities.

Bring hope into your life, breed it even in defeat, and your hope will become a beacon to draw all things hopeful to you.

You sit in the middle of a hub of life, in every moment. And the paths that splay out in all directions from THIS moment can take you to countless other hubs and paths.

If you let your worrisome and fearful mind direct your choices, doubtless you will end up at another point of decision which is bound up in fear.

But, allow the spirit, the unconscious hopeful divinity, to take the feet and walk you in the direction of highest good. Then you are bound to find yourself at a new hub, one from which ever brighter paths spread out before you.

Extinguish fear in stages. Multiply hope in steps.

But know always that, no matter the outcome, you are headed in the right direction. For you are directed by creative divine, the Source of all things.

And that Source is love, eternal.