To have true authority and empowerment in our lives, it’s crucial to balance our masculine and feminine energies. Many empaths and highly sensitive people allow their energies to get extremely out of balance, being controlled by emotions and not allowing our more masculine energies to provide boundaries/structure.
Masculine energy is crucial to balance – especially for empaths and highly sensitive people, (or anyone who comes from an abusive background).
Here are 3 Tips to help balance these energies:
Choose to take authority: A lot of us forget we have authority over our lives/actions/decisions. When we allow our emotions or sensitivities to control us, we often feel at the mercy of external forces, but being highly sensitive is not an excuse to be lazy about our energy. Once we realize our thoughts/feelings/and emotions are creating and influencing the way we experience this reality, the more crucial it becomes to own our power. Direct and conscious force of will comes from our masculine energy, and it’s important to use our masculine energy to provide balance, structure, and boundaries for our creative, powerful feminine energy. We have authority to choose what we allow ourselves to feel and focus on. We have authority to choose how we will respond to the world around us. Claim that authority.
Will peace and good things to flow into your life (don’t wait to FEEL them): So many of us (especially if we’ve been abused or are highly sensitive/empathic) grew up feeling as if we were at the mercy of everyone else’s will – like we had no will of our own. This alone is the root of most of our issues: our problem with co-dependency, our tendency to be led like sheep, allowing others to overpower us, and not seeing/allowing or acknowledging our strength to come forth. We have to choose to WILL things in our life, and not wait to feel like doing something – or wait to feel like we’re powerful. This is crucial if we are to truly be empowered. We can choose peace. We can will ourselves to be free from every whim of emotion. We can use our strength to WILL positive energies into our lives. When we make a firm decision to choose good things for us, our emotions/feelings will catch-up. Once we trust our will (or masculine energy) to choose what’s in our best interest, our more sensitive/creative side will learn to trust us and will be free to flow toward joy.
Use your words wisely and with intention: How we speak and feel about ourselves determines (to an astronomical proportion) whether we feel empowered and confident, or disempowered and weak. A lot of highly sensitive people (and empaths) refer to themselves in incredibly disempowering terms. Again, this typically stems from abuse, and we’ve learned to use our sensitivities/weakness as a way to get others to love us. Often, being “in need” or helpless, is the only way we experience the intimacy we so crave. We’ve had to learn this in order survive. But there comes a time when it no longer works. Eventually others tire of always having to rescue us, and we tire of being the weakest link. It’s time to take responsibility for our lives in every manor, and this includes how we speak about ourselves. Notice your self talk. Notice what you say after “I am” and how you describe yourself to others. If we continue to use words like “too sensitive” or “scared” or “overwhelmed” – we will never have freedom. Don’t use your sensitivities as an excuse to a victim.
Stepping into our power is stepping out of a victim vibration and into responsibility. We must do it with love and compassion, but do it, nonetheless. If we use our will and our authority over ourselves to demean, put down, and demonize our sensitivities, we will never be able to fully trust and ground into our strength – and our strength will never trust our emotional power. As long as we are at war with ourselves, our lives and relationships will continue to reflect the conflict.
Make peace with your masculine and feminine energy. See their mutual power and remember that one is always less without the other. Once we begin to trust our strength and our sensitivities, we will truly step into empowerment.
If you want to go deeper into learning about how to stay balanced/empowered/and healthy as an empath, check out the “How to Heal and Thrive as an Empath“ online class.
A couple weeks ago I wrote an article titled: “Empaths Forgot Their Power”and within just a couple of hours, it had been shared over 4 thousand times on Facebook!
I knew I struck a cord when my inbox began flooding with people expressing a common theme: feeling alone and isolated as an empath and unable to truly understand themselves. That’s when I realized a deeper contact is asking to be made — a closer connection and a network needs to form that is more cohesive and supportive.
Currently, my “Empowering Empaths” online Facebook group has over 800 members, but only about 10 people who regularly post/share. Although I love the connection we’ve made and the fact that we’ve created a platform TO share and connect, I realize it’s just not as intimate and close as I’d like it to be. I still get a lot of people emailing me privately with their questions, rather than posting and sharing with the group.
So here’s what I’ve decided to do:
Along with my “How to Heal and Thrive as an Empath“ online course, I am going to open a private mentoring group for all the people who have pre-registered. This group will be a place where we can EMPOWER and support each other on a more personal, intimate level. Not merely a place to post articles or talk about our problems, but a place where we can share our strengths, our practices, and even our triumphs, as well as get the encouragement we need when we’re feeling vulnerable and alone.
I will be posting videos regularly and opening up on a much deeper (and more personal) level about my life as well. My intention is to connect with the people who TRULY want to connect deeper, not just be an anonymous bystander who never particulates and is unwilling to to open up.
Empaths, we need each other. And not in the co-dependent, draining way we’re use to being needed, but for true empowerment and courage. We need to know we’re not alone in our sensitivities, and that there are people who not only know how to ‘cope’ with their gifts, but THRIVE. We need to know we can consciously create an epic life with our thoughts and emotions, and that being sensitive actually gives us an advantage in the manifestation department – we only need to learn to consciously direct our focus and emotions on what we WANT to feel, rather than feel we are forced to swim in every emotion that comes our way.
There is so much more to living an empowered, empathic life that “shielding and protecting” and’ just doing your best to not get hurt’ don’t even touch on. I’m so tired of that BS. We are a soul family and we have codes each other needs. Think of the Hundredth Monkey Effect — once one of us get the code for thriving and shows another how to do it, it can spread like wildfire. Think of how different life could feel if empaths were empowered!
If you are ready to go deeper and connect with your empath family on a more soulful level, you can join the “How to Heal and Thrive as an Empath” online class and be added to my mentoring group for 2 months of free mentoring. Please don’t join if you’re going to be a passive participant — we need to hear/see/experience each other so we know we’re out there. Come with your whole heart. I look forward to connecting!
Happy Monday!
I talk a little bit about the group in this audio:
Click here to sign-up for the “How to Heal and Thrive as an Empath” online class!
This week marks Chakra Center’s third birthday. And it got me thinking.
When I started this blog, I thought it was to help others. I had no idea it would be one of my greatest tools for helping myself. Through all the classes, articles, and intuitive readings I’ve done, I realize all along I was learning about me. I saw my shadows as well as my light. My poor boundaries (that I thought 8 years of therapy had cured me of) became glaringly obvious. My tendency to want to fix people made its thrilling debut. My inner critic, I discovered, was alive and well. Insecurities crept into nooks and crannies, and old fears reared their ugly heads.
But I also rediscovered parts of my heart I had long since buried. I was reminded of my endurance, realized my commitment to self-love and growth, and discovered how genuine my desire to help others thrive and feel empowered actually was. And I finally understood the saying “If you want to master something, teach.” Knowledge isn’t enough – it’s practice that makes perfect.
In the early days of blogging, I attracted a lot of wounded/broken people. I thought I could somehow fix or serve or help, but often I simply reinforced their desire to be rescued. And while I know some of them were inspired and encouraged – changed even, I ultimately felt unbalanced and wondered how I could possibly teach or talk about empowerment when I myself still felt completely drained by giving. I struggled finding my authentic voice, and felt, once again, like I was doing a great job creating an idea of what people wanted me to be, but still, deep down, remained unknown and unseen.
So I stopped blogging. I stopped teaching classes. I stopped doing readings. And I looked within. I began to consciously and consistently use the tools and techniques I was so good at teaching other people, but felt I didn’t need myself. I wrote only when I felt inspired, and I let myself feel everything that came up – which was mainly disappointment, self-loathing, and fear.
Despite my attempts to connect with others like me, I felt more alone than ever. A dark night of the soul, perhaps? An ego death? Both and neither are true. I think it was a cycle of reevaluation – we all go through it. So much of my life was spent trying to please others, that Chakra Center ended-up becoming just another extension of that same pattern – a pattern, ultimately, of self-denial. But it has been my greatest teacher, it has been the catalyst for immense growth, and I am proud of what it is, and what it is becoming.
I’m still learning about self-love. And I’m doing better. Slowly, but inevitably, I’m regaining my sense of self…finding my voice – learning, for the first time, really, that my needs matter. I no longer have to pretend I don’t have needs, or that they are small or insignificant. Because the truth is, I have a lot of needs – and they DO matter. I’m reminded of Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, watch over the heart, for it is the well-spring of life.”
Self-love allows the nourishment and energy we need from Creator to flow freely into our lives. Without Source energy, we have nothing to give and the only way to survive is to become a vampire, or a blood doll – getting the next fix from those who will drink, and tell us how amazing we taste. Co-dependency at its finest.
I’m not doing that anymore. I don’t need others to tell me I’m a good friend, a good listener, or a wise guide – I need friends who see me and love me right where I’m at – even when I’m empty and scared and have nothing to give. I finally love myself enough to let more friends like that in, and I’m lucky to say I have a few. I cherish them.
Despite my impatient tendencies, I realize I’ve been growing/changing/evolving all along. It’s easy to get down on myself when an old habit or relationship dynamic pops up. And because I am self-critical to a fault, (and on the lighter side, introspective) I’m always looking for areas I can improve, but often miss what beautiful miracles have already taken place (slowly, quietly…unnoticeably).
That’s what I want to talk about. The miracle of simply living and growing and allowing. The amazing strength it often takes just to get out of bed each morning and breathe in-and-out all day long. Being a human is no small task. It takes bravery. Courage. Power. And despite the dark side of empathic abilities, (the trauma, the setbacks, the potency of feeling everything to the extreme), I still chose to get up every day and live – however half-heartedly, and I’m proud of that.
I chose to drop the self-judgment and simply love myself – as best I can. And better still, I’m learning to allow the Universe to love me — to feed me with that nourishing life that sets my heart free. I chose to stop treating myself (and everyone around me) like problems to be fixed. There is nothing “wrong” with any of us. We’re just living and doing our best. God bless us for that.
I don’t want to fight the world any more. I don’t want to save or fix anyone. This reality works exactly as it is meant to: a training ground for growth and expansion – where we get to experience ourselves in every context imaginable. We see what we are and what we’re not. We test our strength and our ability to love. We observe how we respond to every sort of adversity. It’s intense. Sometimes ruthless. But it’s also full of incredible magic, waiting, as Yeats said, for our senses to grow sharper.
I simply want to LIVE and experience – allowing the best of me to come forth, and learning patience and forgiveness when the worst of me shows up. I want to share my journey with others, simply because I know how it feels to be alone (for an empath, there is no scarier place to be).
And we’re NOT alone. Let’s see each other – look each other in the eye, not with the disempowering message of “you need me, let me fix you,” but with the transformative power of “I see you. I feel you. You’re not alone.”
Over the past two years, the majority of people who have contacted me for mentoring or taken my classes have either left, or are in the process of leaving religion.
Many empaths and highly sensitive people find religious environments debilitating to their sensitivities because it is often preached that emotions are “wicked,” and unreliable. Many religions ignore emotions at best, or demonize their purpose and function.
(So why do we have them, then? Small malfunction on God’s part, I suppose?!)
Although Jesus’s message was all about the heart (and he was the ultimate empath), many churches value the mind, “right practice,” and “right doctrine” over personal experience, and prioritize doctrine above individuals. Spiritual bypassing is rampant, congregants bury their emotions in duty in an attempt to “die to themselves” (rather than nurture and expand “the well-spring of life” — which is THE HEART – Psalm 4:23), and in the end, they’re left feeling spiritually empty and exhausted. They kill their passion, lose heart, and call it moral fiber.
Being ardently committed and passionate about doctrine or a “plan of salvation” is not the same as spiritual growth and expansion, and for empaths, this kind of “mind over emotion” environment is deadly.
Because I have SO MANY empaths contact me who are in this transition period out of religion, I thought I’d share some common themes I’ve noticed, things to be aware of, and resources that may help the process.
Themes I’ve noticed:
*Most people who outgrow religion feel they have nowhere to go. They either carry a chip on their shoulder about religion and turn
off all aspects of spirituality out of (understandable) anger, OR float around aimlessly with no sense of connection to others and no clear moral compass.
*For those who come from a strong Christian background this is especially true, as most Christians have a deep sense of community/family, and when you leave, no one knows quite what to do with you. It’s not that they’ve stopped loving you or no longer care, they just don’t know how to relate to you anymore. And leaving the religion feels like you’re leaving THEM. And in a sense, you are.
*Many who leave religion often go through a pendulum swing, trading a life of duty/service/rules, to a maelstrom of drugs, sex, and partying. This swing typically causes them to eventually go back to religion and shut down their hearts even further, because they never learned to trust themselves. They never learned moderation. They never figured out who they are OR resurrected their hearts. They simply tried to numb the pain by releasing all their suppression in one fell swoop. And because they made a mess of things, they feel even further convinced that they “need” religion to babysit them, because they’re convinced they are sinful to the core. In my experience (with the people I’ve worked with), this is the most debilitating conclusion one could come to.
Having a system that babysits and monitors your behavior might be good when you’re spiritually young and immature, but you are meant to eventually grow-up. A parent wouldn’t keep their kid in a play pin for the rest of their lives. That’s abuse. We are meant to grow, make mistakes, and learn how to take care of ourselves. Sadly, many churches and religions foster an unhealthy dependence on their system, emphasizing that without them and their rules/standards/structure, the people would be utterly lost and hell-bound. This is the most destructive and emotionally/spiritually stunting system a person can submit themselves to.
So what can you do?
If you’re coming out of religion, here are some tips to help you stay grounded/healthy:
*Connect with others who are in your shoes: When I first left religion, I didn’t have friends for a while – at least not any that I felt truly understood my heart. I still believed in (and had a relationship with) that which I called “God,” but I was exploring what that meant outside of the programming I’d been raised with; I had no desire to abandon it entirely. I simply needed to feel authentic, a feeling I deeply lacked in the religious environment. There were too many things I did not resonate with, and I just couldn’t lie anymore. It wasn’t until I connected with others who were on a spiritually “open” (and expanded) path that I began to truly find myself again.
Check-out Meet-up groups in your area, or connect with groups on online (Facebook has a ton). I also explored YouTube videos and found others like me (YAY), some who have become very close friends. Finding your “tribe” is an important part of the exit journey. You might be surprised how many people out there are on your same path.
*Know the withdrawal stages. This will vary for each person (depending on how severe the religious programming has been). For me, it wasn’t entirely excruciating, because although I was raised around religion my entire life (including fundamentalism) I managed to escape all the extremes, and the one church I grew up going to was pretty mild, open, and free (emphasis on having a relationship with Jesus, not on the “church” itself). But I also never deeply connected to it. I’m not sure why that is, but I have NEVER been able to connect deeply to any organization. It just didn’t resonate…and never has.
But for some of my friends/family who were in pretty extreme/fundamentalist groups, it is a much more painful, excruciating, and even terrifying process to exit. If you were raised or deeply programmed in a religion that preaches legalism and constant fear of hell, it’s extremely difficult to leave (and all the more crucial that you do, when you’re ready).
*Join support groups – especially if you’ve been in anything that resembles a cult. Again, Facebook and Google communities have groups that help people who are leaving fundamentalism. It’s important to connect with others who understand the process you are going through (so you don’t feel alone). And it wouldn’t hurt to consider therapy. A lifetime of religious programming takes time to be free from. You don’t walk away unscathed. A lot of unhealthy beliefs stay with you. And frankly, most religions don’t equip you for living a healthy life outside of their boundaries. Get the support you need.
*Have compassion on yourself. I think one of the biggest challenges people who leave extreme fundamentalism have is the ridicule and tone of ridiculousness they (and others) have toward them(selves) “how could you have ever believed in that?!”
Remember that the reasons you were in religion is because on some level it served a purpose, and the purpose is different for everyone. For some, religion was simply a stepping stone on their path of spiritual awakening, for others, it served as an escape from a destructive or abusive life.
Extreme religion often appeals to those who’ve been abused because of the strong boundaries many fundamentalist uphold. The organization will often feel “clean” and “safe” and offers an immediate sense of family and support. This is not only appealing for the abused person, but can initially feel deeply healing. The strong boundaries gives the initiate an opportunity to feel “safe” and hear messages about God – and that initial experience, regardless of how abusive the church/cult may turn out to be, is always the hardest thing to grapple with when one considers leaving. They feel the church “saved” them or that God spoke to them (or led them) there, and if they leave, it would be denying that experience.
Leaving religion also causes people to question their ability to hear God speak. This alone can be devastating. When you are raised in an environment that teaches you to listen to them (or their doctrine) above your own intuition/inner-knowing, it severely damages your ability to tune-in to your own inner guidance system. Putting your faith and trust in something external from you is disempowering. Period. It is impossible to be truly (ultimately) free when you give your power away to a person, an organization, or any doctrinal idea.
It’s okay to honor and respect your decision to be in religion. You don’t have to demonize the experience, but you also don’t have to stay in it. Every experience we have is here to teach us, and when we judge the process, we limit the understanding.
However, it is equally important to realize we grow out of things. Just as we go to 1st grade, then 2nd, then 3rd, we’re not meant to stay in the same place spiritually forever, and after a person gains a sense of safety/foundation and feels strong enough to go deeper, they often feel stunted and trapped, the once appealing religious standards now become stifling to further growth.
This typically causes one to feel a tremendous amount of guilt, (with the extra bonus of fear if the church is one that stressed the consequence of eternal damnation.)
Leaving fundamentalism can be a huge psychological mind f*&K and it takes some time to be free from the fear. But freedom does come, and often, if you love yourself enough to continue to go deeper with your spiritual growth, you find more freedom, love, and harmony than you’ve ever had in the church/group you were a part of. God is not a building, and spiritual growth is not limited to a group of people. Peace and expansion, as well as a deeper (and more freeing) experience of the Divine awaits all who love themselves enough to receive it.
(For those who ARE Christian, but have left religion or are perhaps feeling spiritually dead, this John Eldridge talk is the perfect reminder that there is nothing religious about Jesus. It’s possible to be a Jesus follower and be deeply in touch with your heart, your emotions, and your vulnerability. In fact, it’s essential:
For those who are ready to move beyond religion entirely, here are some things to challenge your spiritual journey for further growth:
I forget my emotions are my friends (not my enemies).
I forget contrast is here to serve me (not master me).
I forget I am worthy of love.
Coming “home” is where I typically pick up all of my old insecurities:
I’m not good enough, it would seem. I’m unworthy of truly being free.
My first response to is beat myself up. WHY?! Why in the name of all that is holy would I choose to come back to the place I feel the worst about myself? Haven’t I learned my lesson? Why would I do this to my emotional body?!
If I follow that line of thought, the only conclusion I come to is that I am powerless over my emotions and I will always be stuck here – rooted in trauma and fear.
But I know being “stuck” is impossible in a world of constant growth and expansion.
So I press on, guiding my focus toward a stream of thought that feels better to think.
Although feeling powerless shifts responsibility away for a bit (how I feel is caused by THIS PLACE – not me), the truth is, I know better. I know the feelings come from within. I know my thoughts are the ones in control here, not this geographic location. “Home” is a hologram built on my experiences and beliefs.
And I begin to regain power.
Oh yes. That’s right. I get to choose what to think about – where to direct my focus. What do I want to think? What will feel better than these thoughts of powerlessness?
I need to know I have my best interest at heart. I have to know God loves me enough not to abandon me in these feelings of unworthiness. I want to remember the way the Universe allows me to continually revisit deep places of conflict to give me the opportunity to heal further, to accept, love, and understand myself with more clarity. I want to develop more compassion and an unconditional presence to my emotions.
Yes. That’s it. That’s why I’m here. I needed to show up for myself – especially in these places that feel the most unacceptable.
Okay. These thoughts feel better. I feel my vibration shift. I feel more empowered. I feel more taken care of. I feel more seen and heard and loved.
Maybe I’m not abandoned.
So here I am – the genesis of my trauma. I loved myself enough to come back here, right? What do I want out of this experience? What do I need? How do I want to feel?
Perhaps I simply need to be reminded I am not alone. I Am here. God is here. Purpose is here, in this place. This is a loving place to be – a loving thing to do to myself. I need this reminder. I need to know this part of me matters.
I chose to come “home” because I wanted to show myself I care enough to strengthen the places within me that need the most unconditional love.
I chose to revisit old wounds because they asked me to bear witness to their presence – they begged not to be abandoned in the past. And I love myself enough to show up.
I am thankful I have the courage to come home. I need this part of myself for the journey.
Oh yes. I remember now. I almost forgot about the journey – the moments of love and soothing presence offered along the way. The peace found in the storms – the halleluiah chorus along the way reminding me why I chose to come into this life in the first place. This knowing is the reason – this space between pain and beauty – the place of surrender and acceptance of all things, especially the hurt.
Now I can say I am truly thankful (and mean it) for this spot on the earth called “home.” I have not failed here – this is where I had my greatest success. Here I chose to live and hurt – to love and lose and bleed and desire. This is the place I am continually led to for renewal of hope. And God meets me here, in my “weakness.” This place is where I find my greatest strength.
Intuition is a term given to a very natural, though commonly ignored and suppressed method of accessing sensory information. Intuition is no less natural than the five senses commonly accepted by modern-day humans, although sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing are more openly spoken of and utilized to gather information about the world around us. For the past several hundred years, intuition has been sitting decidedly below the radar of the majority of humanity’s conscious awareness.
Intuition is not a sense that is unique to humankind. In actuality, most of Earth’s other beings can access intuitive information much more easily than most humans alive today can. If you have ever owned pets, especially pets of varying species, such as cats and dogs, then you have probably seen them interact with one another intuitively, or telepathically. If you think about your own interactions with a pet or a newborn baby, it is likely that you will be able to remember communicating in a way that had nothing to do with sound, sight, or touch – this was your intuition. The plant kingdom also uses intuition to communicate. Some inter-plant communication can be explained by events such as the chemicals that plants release during various stages of their life cycles, but much of the ways in which singular organisms making up eco systems communicate information with one another (as well as in groups) defies what we commonly see as “logical” knowledge.
Because humans have a more developed neocortex than most other beings alive on our planet, and because we utilize verbal language to communicate much of the time, intuition is likely to feel different for us than it does in the natural world…at least to our perception. However, intuition can be seen as very similar, if not identical, to what we call “instinct” in animals and plants. Butterflies spend multiple generations’ lifetimes in one yearly migration, and birds naturally know when to fly to more comfortable climates at various points throughout the year. Other animals know instinctively when to hunt, mate, and hibernate. Why wouldn’t we, as humans, be able to access this inherent knowledge? We are of this planet too. And yet, we are also fundamentally different from much of the animal kingdom on our world. The way that we can bridge these similarities, as well as these differences, is in identifying and understanding our intuitive capabilities.
Besides communicating with pets or babies, you have probably felt intuition bring you information in other ways over the course of your life. You have likely felt an excited feeling before receiving good news, or a foreboding feeling before receiving bad news. You might have thought of a friend that you haven’t communicated with in quite some time, only to have that friend contact you suddenly within the next few days. You may also have experienced dreams that predicted future events, or in which you are interacting with spirit guides, angels, deceased relatives, or living loved ones that are giving you information that you have no “logical” way of knowing that is later proven correct. All of these experiences are made possible through perfectly natural intuition.
Like many aspects of human experience, intuition is readily accepted by children. Most children are highly intuitive, although they may not speak of their intuitive awareness because they do not hear others speak of it. It is also likely that conversations about intuition may not happen with or between children because it feels so natural to them that they have no need to discuss it. When is the last time you heard a child speak about the nature of sight or the sense of touch? It probably hasn’t happened often, if at all. This is because children take their intuitive awareness for granted as another natural sense – that is, until they learn that this is something that is not accepted as a topic of conversation.
I have a foggy memory of being a little girl about four years old, and realizing quite consciously that I had to choose between interacting with the non-physical beings that I could easily perceive and being socially ostracized. I realized through comments made by my playmates that greeting and otherwise speaking with multidimensional friends made me seem weird or crazy, and so I chose to stop seeing my guides. I could not see them and ignore them, so I forced my mind to deny their very existence – and this is a sense that I’ve worked for years to get back.
The choice to not see multidimensional beings is not only one that comes from difficult social choices, however. A very gifted intuitive healer and friend of mine named Kimberly Cochrane had a beautiful baby girl not long ago. When Seraphina was a few months old, Kimberly noticed that she was often laughing, smiling, and happily playing with beings that Kimberly couldn’t see. Kimberly also noticed that often when an adult would lean over Seraphina, speaking to her, she would not look into the eyes of the person there, but she would look and seemingly communicate with someone invisible just above and/or behind whomever was speaking to her. Kim assumed that these were angels, or spirit guides, speaking to and playing with Seraphina in the same way that embodied humans do.
When Seraphina was about six months old, Kimberly noticed that the baby no longer interacted with beings that Kimberly could not see. We had a conversation about this shift, and we realized that although the adults around Seraphina in no way doubted the validity of her experience, she had still noticed and learned that these beings were ignored by everyone around her. So Seraphina began to ignore the beings as well, most of the time.
Seeing otherworldly beings can be likened to looking through a window at the world outside. When you focus on objects through the glass, the window pane seems perfectly transparent. However, once you notice the reflection of your own face or other objects on your side of the window shining back against the glass, the focus of your eyes shifts and you can easily see the reflection. Multidimensional beings, such as angels, guides, and ghosts (which are ordinarily either friendly or completely benign, minding their own business) are similar to the reflection on your side of that window – you must adjust your focus to see them, but once you do, they are relatively easy to perceive.
Although angels and ghosts take up much of the topic of otherworldly awareness in stories and media, intuition is more than just communicating with multidimensional beings. Intuition can be utilized in gleaning valuable information about the world around us, much like hearing a traffic report, checking the weather forecast for the day, or receiving an itinerary for a trip. Intuition gives us another perspective on the events of our lives, gifting us with a greater sense of efficacy, fluidity, and conscious involvement with our experiences. Ancient cultures often not only believed in intuition, but utilized it fully, having men and women in the community who specialized in gleaning and interpreting intuitive information. These people where often called shaman or medicine men or women.
Developing intuition is not a difficult process, although it takes a good deal of mental and emotional focus in the beginning. Because intuition is a natural human sense, it does not need to be activated or gained. Instead, the blockages to perception that most of us have adopted over the course of our lives need to be cleared in order for us to fully identify and understand our own personal intuitive language. The first big hurdle to using intuition is in believing that intuition is “real” at all. This paradigm shift can be sped up by doing research on intuitive information that has been accepted by the modern world, such as the power of prayer and miracles recorded by religious institutions that the researcher respects. The second hurdle is in noticing one’s own intuition. Like the window’s reflection, intuition is often ignored or assumed to be imagination or a wandering mind. Keeping a journal of intuitive thoughts, feelings, and dreams especially help toward this effort. The journal should be reviewed every so often (perhaps each week or so) to see what intuitive awareness can be confirmed. After a substantial record has developed of your own intuitive “hits,” it becomes much easier to identify and accept the intuitive information that you are perceiving quite often, just below your conscious awareness.
Accessing and utilizing intuition is often a rewarding and fun exercise. Because intuition is a natural human sense, it can assist us in every area – relationships, businesses, hobbies, talents, and more. We are living in a time where people are noticing their intuition more than they have in hundreds, possibly thousands of years. At one time, people would have been persecuted harshly if they utilized their intuitive potential very much. These days, the application of intuitive abilities can range from career choices to party tricks, but like any sense, why would we choose not to use it?
Charis Melina Brownserves as an ambassador to realms of existence that our modern Western culture has denied the existence of in recent centuries.
She carries an MA in Transpersonal Psychology, and is the author of two books, Journal of a Starseed: Discovering the Real World, andInstruction of a Starseed.She is a regular contributor for our Starseedcorner at Chakra Center.
Charis has a beautiful website and YouTube channel, sharing all things blissful and metaphysical. Check her out at the following links:
Many of us struggle with the concept of forgiveness. Forgiveness seems pointless, permissive, and often times can feel like a betrayal of the self. However, when we struggle to forgive others, it’s usually not because the other party must be punished, nor is it usually because the anger and resentment is such a powerful tool we use to motivate ourselves so we can “show them.” Quite the contrary; when we struggle to forgive others, it’s most commonly indicative of our underlying inability to forgive ourselves for our transgressions against others and ourselves.
How Do We Start Punishing Ourselves?
When we engage in behavior that goes against our alignment, we are programmed to self-loathe. Do you remember being a child and being called ”bad” for something you weren’t supposed to do? Do you remember being expected to do exactly as you were told, and if not, then you were the “problem child?” Our childhoods are wrought with structures and social norms to make us belittle ourselves in an effort to be humble and to disregard the maintenance of our present self.
This doesn’t make our parents or caretakers bad people. It just means they weren’t the human conceptualization of perfect, and that is okay. What we need to realize is some of our belief systems or behavior processes simply aren’t useful for having the best life, nor creating the best world.
What Happens When We Don’t Forgive Ourselves?
This is perhaps the most important question to ask because if you are like I was, you might be thinking, “Well, it only hurts me if I don’t forgive myself. Besides, it really doesn’t hurt if I just don’t think about
it.” I used to fully believe that punishing myself for the things I wasn’t proud of was the best way to keep myself on track and to never again do those things. Let’s take a look at what is really going on though when we go through this punishment type of atonement.
If you want to live a happy, fulfilled life but you are engaging in behaviors and feelings of unforgiveness, you begin offering a contradictory vibration to the universe. Your conscious vibration might be a layer of happiness, contentment, and even excitement depending on your situation. However, there is an underlying, subconscious vibration of underserving, self-loathing, self-doubt, and self-depreciation.
These feelings create a lower frequency cumulative wave that goes out to the universe as your manifestation order from the Universal creative menu. What ends up coming to your life table either turns out to not be what you ordered or comes back with a bug in it. This not only affects your life, but also affects the world on both an energetic and physical level.
Everything in this world is made of energetic and matter components (more on this in my next article). Because we are biological energetic transmitters and channels, our energetic outputs affect our environments and the entire universe. Once we manifest those energetic outputs into our physical space, we’ve created an energetic contract for that experience. It doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind, but what you’ve done is created the physical, sensorial experience you didn’t want.
Keep in mind, this can manifest in a number of ways, including: manifesting the situation you were fearful of, manifesting the right opportunity at the wrong time, manifesting almost the experience you wanted but it’s just not quite there, or even manifesting the experience you wanted and then engaging in self-sabotaging behavior. There are other scenarios, of course, but these are the big ones.
As you can see, in order to live in alignment, joy, and fulfillment, it’s important to go through the process of self-forgiveness.
How Do We Start Forgiving Ourselves?
You may be wondering, “What is the self-forgiveness process? How can I overcome the years of programming, guilt, self-sabotage, suboptimal manifesting, and unhealthy emotional processing?” Luckily, I’m going to tell you.
Forgiving yourself is an expression of self-love and self-acceptance. That does not mean you accept or condone your behavior. Instead, you are choosing to acknowledge and take responsibility for your “out of alignment” decisions.
In order to forgive yourself, you need to do the inner work which led you to the original decision to begin with; it is important to note that the “why” of things is not always important, but if you can notice your own patterns and triggers, then you can develop new healthy habits and ways of dealing with these instigative situations.
The next step is to realize the person you are in this moment, is not the person you were in the previous moment. While your actions had consequences, you do not have to atone for those actions through self-loathing tactics of any kind. Atonement is more effective when done through the acknowledgement of your out of alignment choice, integrating all of the lessons learned from that experience, and choosing to expand from that experience into a newer, more aligned version of yourself.
When you choose the path of self-forgiveness, you choose the path of expansion, self-worth, and empathy for the human experience. We did not come here to be perfect, we came here to learn and come back into self-love after seeing ourselves through the veil of separateness and imperfection.
I will leave you with a quote of my belief about life and I hope it will inspire you to fully love and forgive yourself in every moment of every day. ” I believe life is all about learning to unabashedly, unconditionally love yourself because when you love the creation and the infinite spark of Source, you are glorifying all of divinity.”
Fun Challenge
I want you to consider an area of your life, or specific experience, where you’re having a difficult time forgiving yourself. You can either share that experience in the comments below, or choose to go through the process of forgiving yourself and share that experience. We’d love to hear about your experiences with self-forgiveness.
PollyAnna presents ways for people to come into their own power, how to powerfully manifest their reality, and how to balance their left and right brain so they can self-actualize, realizing their highest potential. Quantum Empowerment shares what it means to lead a quantumly empowered lifestyle. How are you affected by the energies, people, animals, and objects around you? How can you break victim mentality? How can you activate your DNA on a biological and energetic level? What are the ways you can expand your consciousness? This column covers a wide spectrum of information, all dedicated to helping people grow into their interdimensional, interconnected self and reality.
emotions or sensitivities to control us, we often feel at the mercy of external forces, but being highly sensitive is not an excuse to be lazy about our energy. Once we realize our thoughts/feelings/and emotions are creating and influencing the way we experience this reality, the more crucial it becomes to own our power. Direct and conscious force of will comes from our masculine energy, and it’s important to use our masculine energy to provide balance, structure, and boundaries for our creative, powerful feminine energy. We have authority to choose what we allow ourselves to feel and focus on. We have authority to choose how we will respond to the world around us. Claim that authority.
astronomical proportion) whether we feel empowered and confident, or disempowered and weak. A lot of highly sensitive people (and empaths) refer to themselves in incredibly disempowering terms. Again, this typically stems from abuse, and we’ve learned to use our sensitivities/weakness as a way to get others to love us. Often, being “in need” or helpless, is the only way we experience the intimacy we so crave. We’ve had to learn this in order survive. But there comes a time when it no longer works. Eventually others tire of always having to rescue us, and we tire of being the weakest link. It’s time to take responsibility for our lives in every manor, and this includes how we speak about ourselves. Notice your self talk. Notice what you say after “I am” and how you describe yourself to others. If we continue to use words like “too sensitive” or “scared” or “overwhelmed” – we will never have freedom. Don’t use your sensitivities as an excuse to a victim.
Chakra Center 