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Visualisation - the Best Stress Reliever

Just Relax!

How often do we hear that expression?

Usually it comes at a time when we are under pressure and one more instruction is the last thing we need.

It is difficult to stay calm, present and connected when we are pushed at by work, finances, family responsibilities and the rest. Life changing events and other people’s anxiety affects us too.

At these times self-care is essential first aid. Mental relaxation techniques are hugely effective in breaking the stimulus-response mechanism of stress that keeps us running like a caged mouse on a wheel. They are also the gateway to unlocking creative capability, enabling intuitive responses to the conditions which we are experiencing as stressful.

I include a suggested visualisation in this post which can be easily adapted to life conditions and personality type. These types of creative visualisations are an excellent lead in to meditation proper. With regular use they are of huge assistance for self- improvement, boosting imagination and creativity and for realigning our outer life to the soul’s direction.

You may like to read and record these instructions for use at any time. There is no special equipment required so you may find it an enjoyable activity to do on a park bench at lunch time, on the train, or at night after everyone else is in bed.

Play with it and experiment. Just remember to return by the same route you entered.

Choose a time and place where you will not be disturbed for the next 10-15 minutes. Get a rug to cover yourself if you are likely to get cool.  Loosen any tight clothing, take off your glasses. Be seated in a comfortable position with the back well supported. Close your eyes and take a moment or two to settle.

Breathe deeply in through the nose and hold it for three seconds. Exhale slowly and gently out the mouth. Repeat.

Breathe in through the nose for a third time. Hold it for three seconds and as you exhale through the mouth let all tension, worry and concern flow away from you with your outbreath.

Rest a moment, breathing naturally. Know that all your muscles and nerves are switching off. You are comfortably relaxed.

If you should notice any tension in your body, place your attention on it now. Adjust your position until you are completely comfortable.

Take another deep breath and hold it for three seconds. Exhale as before knowing that your body is releasing any and all residual tension with the breath.

All cares and concerns of the day now fade from your awareness.

Imagine you are in a boat on a calm inland river. The oarsman with you is a skilled and competent fellow. On him you can rely. You are aware of his comforting presence as he guides your boat gently upstream. You are lying comfortably, supported by luxurious pillows. Above you the sky is crystal clear and intensely blue. You are completely comfortable as you drift easily and gently down the river. You feel safe and secure and wonderfully relaxed. Notice the beautiful trees and flowers along the river banks. Beauty and peace surround you here. A gentle breeze caresses your face. You hear bird song- light and lovely. The gentle aroma of flowering plants comes to you on the breeze. You feel so relaxed, so happy and content.

Now you notice the boat sweeps gently to the left around a bend in the river. Gradually it comes to rest on a shingle beach. Majestic trees averhang your landing place which slopes gently upwards from the water to the fields beyond. The oarsman is standing beside you. Together you leave the boat. He guides you across the shingle to where a path begins. You see the path now and notice it leads into this peaceful place. This is your special place to explore. This is your path. Follow that path now.

 Notice your guide is taking care of you from a short distance away.

Stay exploring your landscape awhile. Whenever you come to this place you are completely free. You are always relaxed and at peace here. Take note of what your senses record here and who or what you meet.

 You know when it is time to return. You see your guide indicating the way back to the boat. Together you retrace your path down to the river. You return the way you came.

Be aware that you are now back in the place where you began this exercise. Open your eyes. Take a moment or two to adjust your awareness before you recommence your usual activity

Connecting with Place

Our southern hemisphere year draws to a close this week. With the New Moon, and eclipse on April 29, comes Samhain and the turning of the wheel once more. This quarter day marks the descent into winter and begins a New Year. Traditionally this is a time of close approach to those who have gone before us. Mummery and games are associated with the twilight hours of Samhain, now commercialised in Halloween celebrations by some cultures.

For the Homestead Project it is a turning point of a physical nature too. We are moving North during May, going to a place where sea and land meet, partly urbanised and partly wild. There we will apply what we have learned to a different environment. To build new community relationships we will be considering both human and natural world neighbours. The opportunity to build bridges of understanding and communication between all types of life, seen and unseen, is the central focus of the Project.

Samhain is the ideal time to look forward while honouring and letting go of conditions now passing away. We have made many Life-long friends and connections here. It is good to know that real energetic connection with them is possible at any time, simply by placing our attention on them.

Like family members who have passed away, places and landscapes retain their links with those who have connections to them. This is why many people report feeling a heart-tug when they go back to a place that was meaningful to them in childhood. It is not just pleasant memories being evoked on these occasions. It is a real, though unseen, heartfelt connection with the Spirit of the Place.

What is your current environment like? Does it please you visually? Do you feel connected to the location? Does it support you in a healthy life, responding to your initiatives to make it beautiful, as you perceive beauty in and around you?

Some places sing to us, providing an energy that supports us and our life activity. Others may not be so compatible with the type of life we are or the activity we generate. Places change too, just as people do. Intuiting a healthy relationship with place is just as important to our overall wellbeing as healthy human relationships.

If you feel unsupported by life, or by the environment in which you find yourself, try taking a quiet moment to connect to the Place. This exercise can be both healing and informative. It is done by sitting quietly, without using your mind to judge or analyse.

What impressions come to you through your body, through your senses?

Accepting those impressions as valid is the first step. Acting on those impressions is the second. Most often this simple exercise allows the Spirit of the Place to communicate the most beneficial way for us to Be together.

With regular practice you will build an intuitive relationship together – one of mutual support and growth.

Happy New Year

North Island New Zealand - a celebration in images

Easter thoughts on Free Expression

Today I asked our teachers for their comments coming into this Easter Season. They referenced the context of the upcoming lunar eclipse on the Full Moon, along with prevailing astrological conditions, suggesting this was an opportune moment for us all to consider the theme of Rebirth.

In discussing the balance to be struck between the outer life we lead and our spiritual life they offered this advice:

Be aware that life asks you to nurture the Idea that you are and the life you are living.

If you are ever uncertain as to what action you should take, or stance you should adopt, ask yourself:

              Am I leaving myself free to express who I am?

              Am I clouding my own light with screens of duty or inhibition?

              Am I fulfilling my responsibility to my own life as well as others? 

Things may be clearer from that point of view.

Sometimes it is hard to get at the Idea behind our life. With age and experience our pure note is often muffled by our environment and conditioning.

Often we put aside our own interests because we have been raised to consider it a selfish action to put our own needs first. Yet clearly we have a responsibility to explore our skills and talents, our like and dislikes, in order to discover the purpose of our life. 

Thomas Aquinas guides us to take stock of what sings to us as a clue to our intended expression. He says the things we love tell us what we are.

So what sings to you? Your expression is unique. You are the only one who can make it. Will you join with us this Easter in striving to play a part in the great orchestra that is Life?

Michael's Avenue Park Trees

Last night we were drawn to visit a local park and sports field. We were shocked by what we found there. Plans are underway for expansion and redevelopment. More than a dozen trees had already been removed, part of more than thirty mature trees designated for destruction.

This is no isolated incident in Auckland. We are denuding our city of trees at an astonishing rate. As light workers we are often called to spiritually assist trees being removed because of illness or for reasons of safety. Increasingly however our work has been to ameliorate pain caused by the unmindful, heart-less removal of flourishing lives. More often than not it is a business or planning decision based on economic value rather than a consideration of the balance of life for the community as a whole.

Trees shelter life. They protect, shade, solace and uplift by the beauty of their forms and their appeal to our senses. Trees are nurses to all life. By their presence they add quality and support the health of all that lives above or below ground, seen or unseen.

Each tree is a life, like you or I, connected to those around it by an energetic field of activity. By this means they are interconnected not only with each other, but also with any and all who come into their field. They serve Life by manifesting love and beauty, which is the source of their close kin to humanity.

Groups of trees are cared for, as all life forms are, by an angelic life often referred to as a Diva. They are also under the care of the overarching Spirit of the Place where they stand. All of these lives can be easily perceived by humanity intuitively.

These are the lives we called and honoured last night. As we addressed them we gave appreciation for their contribution to the life of the community. We expressed our outgoing love for them as one form of life to another – as friends and loved ones in actuality. We communicated intuitively with them, giving them a bridge – an opportunity- to express and to act.

Their message, though given in a spirit of peace, was direct and pertinent:

Be harm-less in all that you are. Like every person who walks beneath them, Trees too are individual expressions of the Great Life. The same Life and Light of Love connects us all. They are family in other words.

Act then to improve life quality, but do so while honouring the duty of care to the wider family.

No good comes from a mechanistic approach which denies the life and beauty present in the environment. Surely deforestation on this scale is not the only way to expand fields or improve sports facilities

Which leaves us with these questions: Is there a way we can do better at Michael’s Park? Can we find a middle ground? Is it possible there is a way to undertake development there while leaving the lives of the landscape intact? Have we sufficiently accounted for the health and life quality of generations to come?

I invite you to visit Michael’s park. Please go to place your attention on the trees. Open your heart to them and value their contribution. 

Meeting Spirits of Place

Auckland is blessed with a wealth of venues for ritual, healing work and conversation with natural life.

Recently I took a day out from routine to explore the green spaces of the central city. 

The object of the trip was to relate intuitively to the landscape – a conversation with spirits of place, if you like. 

Here I share some images from that journey.

Myers Park and Kevins Arcade stairs

Auckland Domain and Museum

Of Serpents and Doves

“Behold I send you out as sheep amongst wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves . (Matthew 10.16)

In this well known quotation from the Christian tradition we are given the best of advice. Like the disciples, we can benefit our lives by attempting to follow it because in  that simple statement lays the key to healthy management of our outer life.

Those two qualities mentioned – wisdom and harmlessness- form the two pillars of a gateway leading to control of the personality.
The injunction here is the Delphic one: Know Thyself. This is the wisdom which we normally associate with old age and a degree of life experience. Yet we are encouraged to actively pursue it as a way of life. It is the kind of wisdom that allows us to see the qualities and attributes of our being exactly as they are.

There is real virtue in taking that first step of standing to one side as the observer of our own activity and asking: What does this action I am taking say about who I am? Who am I and why do these thought arise in my mind? What is the source of this feeling?

In all wisdom traditions the student is advised to take stock of himself first and foremost. He is asked to hold a mirror before him and see there both his virtues and his vices with an unflinching eye.
Why so?
The reason is that fundamental occult truth that what one perceives and experiences in life reflects that which is within.
It follows then that if we are to improve our life and the quality of our experiences we must work first to know and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the inner ground of our being.


The second aspect here is harmlessness. The dove is used to symbolise this quality because of its association with peacefulness and love.
This is not the passivity of a person lacking self assertion. Being harmless is more the power of a non-combatant life.
It means to do no harm to one’s own life as well as to do no harm to others.

Being able to navigate this ethical minefield brings us full circle – back to wisdom. For how can we know what action or omission is the harmless one if we lack understanding of who we really are?

In the West we have historically abrogated the responsibility for self control and self knowledge to Church, State and the prevailing cultural paradigm. The trouble with that approach is that it substitutes blind allegiance for authentic expression. Invariably this climate produces a conflict of duty within us.

Does the pursuit of wealth, for example, really satisfy our search for meaning?

If the hand of Fate should sweep our material wealth away over night would we be less worthy because of that event?

How are we to solve those incessant ethical issues which require us to “trade off” duty to provide and duty to ourselves in this materialistic culture?

Only by going within. Only by taking back responsibility, by taking the time to reflect, by seeking out what is meaningful and right for our Selves. Only then are we equipped to navigate those choices.

Ultimately these two pillars of wisdom and harmlessness call us through to the place where our activity reflects our inner values, for there we stand in our own Light.

Working with Fear of Change

Statice - Sea Lavender

I have been picking Statice this morning. Their vibrant flowers with a papery texture are called ever-lasting because they hold their colour and shape when dry. These plants of the Limonium family are Homestead favourites. 

While I tied the bunches to hang for drying my mind was playing around the fact that Statice is now an obsolete name in the botanical world. Pity, because the word reflects the plant's properties.

The static state is one of equilibrium, of statis, of standing still. It is a balance point, sure, and a place of rest - but without energetic flow. Inevitably pressure builds until this point of equilibrium tips over into activity once more.

This wave of ebb and flow with a pause between is the natural pattern of life. 

Change and transformation is the way of the world. So why do we resist it so?

Because of Fear.

Fear is inherent in our personality make-up and we each experience it as personal and real. For some it shows up in headaches, tummy upsets or extreme fatigue. Our minds may run riot with thoughts of disaster and our emotions be swept into a state of panic at the mere suggestion of facing the new or unknown. Sound familiar?

In occult terms this is an interplay between the personality will and the will of the soul - the higher self. Soul intends to experience and learn by means of this form life, yet the form itself, managed by the personality is programmed to resist. This is human nature.

Driving head on at fear is not the best or safest way to approach the situation. It may work short term but it reacts on physical body leading to later illness and emotional upset.

The mental approach- attempting to rationalise the situation- only creates a powerful cloud of thought around the issue, which magnifies the problem. Meanwhile fear is blocking us from participating freely in life. So what can we do?

Try this different approach:

 

Take yourself to a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the next 10 minutes or so.

1. Breathe, deeply and calmly so that the body is reassured and begins to stabilise. Close your eyes.

2. Keep breathing to allow time for the emotions to settle a little more. Do your best to stop the mind from running around the fear.

There is plenty of time, so take as long as you need to let those symptoms ease.

3. Close your eyes and imagine your whole body, skin and all, radiant with light, as bright as the sun on a clear day. Pretend that you really are this glowing being of light.

4. Holding that picture, imagine a spotlight has appeared an arm's length above your head. See the strong beam of white light the spotlight is beaming down at the top of your head.

5. Feel the stream of light flow into your body, filling you with a sense of pure light, of pure love.

6. Turn your face up to this soul light, knowing you are being flooded with soul strength and wisdom. Know that you are safe now. Know that in this peaceful moment all is well. Know that the soul will guide you safely through whatever you are called to face. Realise that the soul has all the experience and wisdom you need and it is always there, part of who you are.

7. Open your eyes. Say aloud in a loving way, as if speaking to a small child "In this place where we are all is well."

Return to your normal activity now, immediately taking one small action towards doing what is feared. Let your intuition guide you to what that action may be. You will get a hunch - Trust it. That hunch will be your soul will guiding you through this necessary experience.

With practice you will be able to call up the light at will whenever you sense yourself diving into a personality response based on fear. The more often this visualisation is used the more powerful it becomes because you are building a highway of connection to your Soul.

Go in Love and Light

Big Assumptions

Last weekend I attended a family wedding. This happy gathering of friends and family brought people of all ages together to celebrate a commitment to relationship. Watching the guests interact I found myself thinking of Don Miguel Ruiz’s classic book of Toltec wisdom The Four Agreements.

His suggestion to Make No Assumptions is a powerful teaching.

It covers so much more than the common sense management of our own affairs based on conscious choices. He is pointing too at the cultural structures in which we live and the unexamined decisions we make which spring from a prevailing social climate. Too often we act with a herd mentality, blindly following this unacknowledged cultural bias. This leads us to activity and conclusions which drown out authentic interactions and the soul’s song with it.

These false assumptions are obvious at a big gathering, but they are constant in our every-day lives too, colouring our choices in ways which are reductive and stultifying. For example, is the future something to be feared? Can a product such as insurance buy you peace of mind? What does society mean by the word “Safe”?

Is it only safe to live when every possible risk and contingency is covered? Is that living?

When guests gathered for dinner I found myself next to a lovely person. C spoke of her adult children with great affection. She described her experience of flying with her newly licensed son, piloting a tiny plane. Her courage was in recognising that demonstrating trust in her son and his ability outweighed her very real fear of the risks of flying. Her intuitive perception of the real value in the situation sounded her soul note clear and strong.

In different circumstances her intuition might have advised her differently. It is a moment by moment procedure this. It is not a choice made on blanket assumptions such as “Sixty year old woman ought not risk their lives in small planes. It is not ..(insert judgement or duty- such as safe, dignified, responsible, in fact whatever restraint society deems might apply)”

There are many such defining moments in every average day. It is, however, only possible to perceive those moments when we are present, living as if it was our last day, with an attitude that every moment counts. Then we are there – present- to intuitively recognise the opportunity for the soul’s note to sound.

This approach seems like a tall order as compared to the way we are raised, but with willingness and heart engagement it comes naturally.

This is living as opposed to existing in a bubble of assumptions.

What did you say?

The purpose of speech is to clothe our thoughts in language and make them available to others.

Yes I am stating the obvious there.

Only consider: sound creates.

What effects are your thoughts and speech having on you now?  Do you know?

What does your inner, self-talk say?

What do your spoken patterns of speech say about who you are?

When a thought is embodied - sounded -by means of language it is energised and activated to bring about the effects of that thought.

Sometimes it is safer to choose silence.

This is particularly the case with self-talk. The constant stream of inner speech is repetitive and powerful.  Where we put our energy is where growth comes. So, if we are focused on unsatisfactory conditions, on grievances, on ill health our thoughts will be of those things. If we passively allow those unhealthy thoughts to sound in our minds we create yet more of those undesirable conditions.

Unmonitored self talk often speaks in phrases which undermine a healthy perception of Self: “I’m so clumsy”, “How could I be so stupid.” Such seemingly trivial speech patterns send out a thought form which is potent and self destructive.

The same power is active in the conversations we have with others around us.

Gossip and critical words concerning others create a powerful energetic field around the speaker, magnetically attracting to them more critical, destructive thought matter.

Over time this makes the speaker increasingly negative in outlook and subject to difficulty in their outer life.

We attract only what we are, after all.

We can make a conscious choice to opt out of gossip and negative chatter.

Try using humour to turn the conversation to more general, happier topics. Laughter is the best way to lift your energy, so steer away from dissecting the latest disaster stories from the media too.

A second powerful step to improving our conditions is to take control of the self-talk tapes.

When you hear a negative phrase in your head such as “I am stupid” -stop. Affirm clearly and forcefully “Cancel”. Repeat a positive replacement, using emotion, such as “I am intelligent and capable.”

The fast track to managing self talk is meditation. Investigate and find the approach that appeals to you. A morning and evening meditation of only 10 minutes or so does much to bring a clear, calm focus to the mind. In just a few months of practise you will find the mental noise drops away. Your tension and stress levels will fall away too, as you will no longer be wearing yourself out with thoughtless sound creation.

Before you know it, you will be sounding and feeling healthier by far. All the best.