spiritual-growth

Receiving Guidance

Mon, 03 May 2010 02:12:34 +0100

Stay open to messages from spirit. If you have not developed your abilities to receive messages from your guides and your helpers, now is the time to develop that skill. You don’t have to get anxious about it, and you don’t need years of training for that to become a skill. You just need to be able to get into a quiet, alert, and receptive state of mind and be willing to listen. This is a time when each individual will be highly guided into the situations and places that are right for him or her. This is a time to learn how to follow that guidance. Everyone will be told where to go and what to do if they are open and receptive to guidance. Being open and receptive is literally a survival skill during this particular era.

Think of your mind like a baseball catcher’s mitt, open and ready to “catch” messages from spirit. You will find that completed thoughts or inspirations will actually drop into a receptive mind quite suddenly. You might not know where they are coming from, but they make total sense. Don’t try to figure it out. This is still uncharted territory in the human consciousness. It will be mapped in the new paradigm when humanity gets there and begins to develop educational structures for these sorts of things. That mapping has begun and you can find metaphysical and self help books in the bookstores if you want to learn what has already been discovered about this process. However, it isn’t necessary for you to understand the mechanics of how receiving messages from guidance works. All that is necessary is that you quickly adapt to tuning in to these other senses and use them to the best of your ability.

Don’t worry. You’re a natural at this! You have spent many lifetimes knowing how to listen to guidance, even if you are not conscious of those lifetimes or the experiences of those realities. The skills will re-emerge for you as bleed-throughs from other times when you had experience with this come through. You have an innate knowing of how to pick up on what you are being given from spirit.

Learn how to know what to look for. Guides send messages in multitudes of ways. Each individual receives messages a little differently. The guides know how to deliver them in a way that each individual will be able to receive them. Guides are learning too, and sometimes they don’t get the message to you on the first try, especially if you are not receptive in that moment or you are a beginner at these endeavors, but they will try many angles and ways until you get adapted to specific ways that work for you. They will find what works for you, and so will you.

Very rarely do messages come as audio sentences that you can hear the way you hear someone speaking. Most of the time messages are delivered as images, feelings and ideas. A guide will drop into your mind something that might even seem like an original thought to you, as if it came from within your own consciousness. Learn what your most receptive mechanisms are and develop them.

If you are a visual person, develop your abilities in interpreting and seeing with your inner vision. If you are a sensing kind of person, learn how to develop your abilities in picking up energy and feeling energy. If you are a mentally active person, learn how to soften the mental body so that clear messages can come in as thoughts without the mind getting in the way. If you are an emotional person, learn how to use your emotions as steering mechanisms and “feeling” if something is right for you or not. You will know. If the emotions feel good if it is right for you. If it feels bad emotionally it is probably not a good choice.

Sometimes the guides simply bring you opportunities or the right people who you are supposed to meet. Learn how to recognize opportunities and people who will help you achieve what it is that you want to achieve. It is more common than not that opportunities are missed simply because you didn’t recognize them when they showed up. This makes it difficult for the guides to keep trying to get these opportunities to you because it takes quite some doing, even a lot of time depending on the situation, to get these opportunities to manifest, materialize, and find you so that they can present themselves to you.

Don’t be afraid to talk to strangers, even if they might not be someone you would likely think would become part of your life. If they come to you and present an opportunity, it may be that guidance is sending them to you. This is a time when many people will come together to work on mutual goals and plans. Learn how to be receptive to new people, even if it seems strange that they show up in your life. Learn how to determine if these people are part of a new path you are to be taking. Sometimes they are actually only there to help you make a connection with yet another person who will then become someone you hook up with in order to organize something in your life.

Sometimes new people are just there to deliver you information, even if they don’t even know that is why they are there. Pay attention to what they are saying and look for “clues” that are being sent to you from spirit. Sometimes just the simple timing of certain information or a sentence or two, a chance encounter, is there for inspiration if you get a little disoriented, discouraged, or confused. Guides communicate to you through other people quite often. Did you ever wonder about the synchronicity of things? Did you ever wonder who writes this stuff called life? Sometimes it is so “right on” or synergistic that you have to wonder if someone is scripting it all!

Being open to guidance is one of the determining factors that will get you into the right location, situation, or give you necessary information at the right time. Don’t wonder if the guides are there. They are. They are just as real as you are, if you actually consider yourself real, being the dream character in God’s imagination that you are.

Be open to the unseen forces who are here to help you. They too have a part to play in the paradigm shift. Just as there are dark energies who are interacting with and influencing individuals within humanity, there are also loving energies who are here to interact with humanity during this era.

Being in the physical form was not the only way that a being could serve in the paradigm shift. It was known from the beginning that spiritual guidance and spiritual influences would be needed for those in the physical so there are a high number of participants who specifically signed up for that part of the work. It is very specified work, just like coming here and being a human during the paradigm shift is, and these guides have different areas of expertise and
experience that they bring to contribute and use in their own efforts to raise the consciousness of humanity and help physical humans stay alive on the planet since there will be some challenges concerning those sorts of things in the near future. Guides are still coming and many positions are open on the spiritual planes to serve in this way.

Learn how to determine if specific guides are “on your side” or not, too. Not all spirit beings are here to help you. Some are specifically here to confuse you, misguide you, or thwart your efforts. In a way, if you could call it this, there is a battle for souls on the Earth plane right now. Each side, the dark and the light, are trying to enlist as many participants as possible in their respective sides of the battle, so to speak. I use the word battle loosely, though, because there is no battle, really. All that is happening is that each individual is choosing which kind of future he or she wants.

There is some speculation as to whether both the bright future and the dark future will manifest, each attaining their own equal version of Earth reality for humans, since consciousness is not limited to only one “official” version of the Earth. The souls that have chosen and match the future they want to be part of will be allowed to move into those realities freely when the split happens. That would mean there is no battle for souls, it is a free choice that each soul is allowed to make.

There is also speculation that only one future gets to be the “official” version that manifests, and the other never happens. If that is true then maybe there literally is a battle for the Earth arena between the two dualities and whoever gets the most souls enlisted wins.

I don’t know which speculation is correct, anything can happen when it comes to God’s imagination, anything is possible. What I do know is that we as an individual must choose between one or the other, fear or love, and whichever one we choose to align with and develop ourselves for is the one you will move into. Whether or not it manifests physically has yet to be seen. That is not important in the moment. What is important now is to choose and then allow
yourself to be influenced by the guidance that goes along with that choice so that you can find your way there.

There are spirit influences from both sides, the dark and the light, fear and love, and you must choose wisely which types of guidance you want to be influenced by. Just the same way that you pick your friends on the Earth, that is the same way you will pick your friends in spirit. The ones you pick are ones that match your energy well.

How do you determine if the guidance you are receiving is guidance you want to follow? Just see how it feels. It is actually very simple. If you feel good when you receive guidance from a certain entity, influence or energy, then that is a guide that you want to work with, one that matches you. If you feel bad, weird or tired around certain guidance, or uncertain and doubtful as to its intentions, then that means that guide or guidance is not energy you want to align yourself with.

Remember, there will be tricksters who pose as a loving guide from the light, but do not be fooled by appearances. You will always know with your heart what is true. The heart is always wiser than the mind. The mind is always the last to get it. Make sure you follow your heart and you will always be on the right path influenced by energies you are aligned with.

Easy Steps To Develop Your Meditation Routine

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:53:33 +0100

You don't have to be a Buddhist monk to get the benefits of regular meditation. However you have to get started meditating so that you can personally experience greater peace of mind and other health benefits.

Here are some easy steps to develop your meditation routine:

1. Get Started

Getting started with meditation is a bit like learning to swim. You can read books about swimming from cover to cover, but nothing beats getting in the water for yourself.

Find or create a peaceful environment where you can sit quietly without being interrupted. Make sure that you dress in comfortable clothing and take off all electronic devices that can beep, vibrate or can otherwise interrupt the quiet surroundings. Then be still and observe your thoughts as you begin to meditate.

2. Manage Your Expectations

Nirvana is unlikely to be achieved upon your first attempts at meditation.

In fact you may be disappointed by how much your mind is filled with a thousand random thoughts and how much your squirm around in your seat.

In the fast pace of modern life, sitting still and being quiet most likely will not come naturally to you. Instead of struggling to "quiet" your mind become an observer of your own thoughts. In order to prevent becoming bored keep your early meditation sessions under ten minutes. As your patience grows you can lengthen your meditation sessions.

3. Get Natural

Find a spot where you can be in contact with nature - even if it is near to the only window in your apartment. If you are fortunate enough to easily get access to the ocean or chirping birds in the morning, that is a wonderful environment to regularly practice your meditation routine.

Remember that there are many ambience sound machines that can soothingly mimic the sound of nature - so that you experience the
peaceful calm of natural sounds on demand. Audio recordings of the ocean waves, rain, birds or dolphin songs are quite popular choices.

4. Let The Music Soothe Your Senses

Play soothing or rhythmic music as a calming background to your meditation session. Your choice of music should be geared towards
slowly releasing your feelings of tension, fatigue or negativity.

5. Stay In The Moment

Meditation is more about being rather than doing.

The real power of meditation lies in the opportunity to slow down and deliberately observe your breathe, your thoughts and your
emotions in a non-judgmental, loving manner.

Pay attention to every aspect of your quiet observations from the feel of your clothes, to the texture of the floor as you allow
yourself to become fully alive and tuned into the present. The use of simple mantras can help you to let go of incoming thoughts that are distracting.

6. Be Consistent

Make regular meditation sessions a part of your daily routine. The very act of committing to carve out this quiet time sends an inner message that the real you is being valued and appreciated. As you regularly meditate, you will become more skillful in bringing your mind gently back to focusing on the present.

7. Be Aware Of The Fruits

Regular meditation can develop your powers of concentration and intuition. You may also experience a greater sense of inner peace
and the ability to remain calm in the face of rising external confusion and turmoil.

Pay attention when these fruits from your mediation start to appear in your life. As you start to personally enjoy the benefits of meditation, you will naturally feel more encouraged to stick with the daily practice and will also be willing to lengthen these sessions.

The Nature of Dis-Ease

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:29:47 +0100

Sometimes, the body’s natural harmony breaks down, and we experience dis-ease, which is a reflection of the body’s inability to maintain normal control of its function-providing systems. Because behavior is created through the interaction of proteins with their complementary signals, there are really only two sources of dis-ease: either the proteins are defective or the signals are distorted.

About 5 percent of the world’s population is born with birth defects, which means they have mutated genes that code for dysfunctional proteins. Structurally deformed or defective proteins can “jam the machine,” disturb normal pathway functions, and impair the character and quality of lives. However, 95 percent of the human population arrives on this planet with a perfectly functional set of gene blueprints.

Because the majority of us have a perfectly healthy genome and produce functional proteins, illness in this group can likely be attributed to the nature of the signal. There are three primary situations in which signals contribute to dysfunction and dis-ease.

The first is trauma. If you twist or misalign your spine and physically impede the transmission of the nervous system’s signals, it may result in a distortion of the information being exchanged between the brain and the body’s cells, tissues, and organs.

The second is toxicity. Toxins and poisons in our system represent inappropriate chemistry that can distort the signal’s information on its path between the nervous system and the targeted cells and tissues. Altered signals, derived from either of these causes, can inhibit or modify normal behaviors and lead to the expression of dis-ease.

The third and most important influence of signals on the dis-ease process is thought, the action of the mind. Mind-related illnesses do not require that there be anything physically wrong with the body at the outset of the dis-ease. Health is predicated upon the nervous system’s ability to accurately perceive environmental information and selectively engage appropriate, life-sustaining behaviors. If a mind misinterprets environmental signals and generates an inappropriate response, survival is threatened because the body’s behaviors become out of synch with the environment. We may not think that a thought could be enough to undermine an entire system, but, in fact, misperceptions can be lethal.

Consider the situation of a person with anorexia. While relatives and friends clearly perceive that this skin-and-bones individual is near death, the anorexic looks in a mirror and sees a fat person. Using this distorted view, that resembles an image in a funhouse mirror, the anorexic’s brain attempts to control a misperceived runaway weight gain, by-oops!-inhibiting the system’s metabolic functions.

The brain, like any governing entity, seeks harmony. Neural harmony is expressed as a measure of congruency between the mind’s perceptions and the life we experience.

An interesting insight into how the mind creates harmony between its perceptions and the real world is frequently illustrated in stage hypnosis shows. A volunteer from the audience is invited onstage, hypnotized, and asked to pick up a glass of water, which the volunteer is told weighs one thousand pounds. With that misinformation, the volunteer struggles unsuccessfully with straining muscles, bulging veins, and perspiration. How can that be? Obviously the glass doesn’t weigh one thousand pounds even though the mind of the subject firmly believes that it does.

To manifest the perceived reality of a thousand pound glass of water, something that cannot be lifted, the hypnotized subject’s mind fires a signal to the muscles used to lift the glass at the same time it fires contradictory signals to the muscles used to set the glass down! This results in an isometric exercise wherein two groups of muscles work to oppose each other, which results in no net movement-but a lot of strain and sweat.

Cells, tissues, and organs do not question information sent by the nervous system. Rather, they respond with equal fervor to accurate life-affirming perceptions and to self-destructive misperceptions. Consequently, the nature of our perceptions greatly influences the fate of our lives.

While most of us are aware of the healing influences of the placebo effect, few are aware of its evil twin, the nocebo effect. Just as surely as positive thoughts can heal, negative ones-including the belief we are susceptible to an illness or have been exposed to a toxic condition-can actually manifest the undesired realities of those thoughts.

Japanese children allergic to a poison ivy-like plant took part in an experiment where a leaf of the poisonous plant was rubbed onto one forearm. As a control, a nonpoisonous leaf resembling the toxic plant was rubbed on the other forearm. As expected almost all of the children broke out in a rash on the arm rubbed with the toxic leaf and had no response to the imposter leaf.

What the children did not know was that the leaves were purposefully mislabeled. The negative thought of being touched by the poisonous plant led to the rash produced by the nontoxic leaf! In the majority of cases, no rash resulted from contact with the toxic leaf that was thought to be the harmless control. The conclusion is simple: positive perceptions enhance health, and negative perceptions precipitate dis-ease. This mind-bending example of the power of belief was one of the founding experiments that led to the science of psychoneuroimmunology.

Considering that a minimum of one third of all medical healings are attributed to the placebo effect, what percentage of illness and disease might be the result of negative thought in the nocebo effect? Perhaps more than we think, especially since psychologists estimate that 70 percent of our thoughts are negative and redundant.

Perceptions have a tremendous influence in shaping the character and experiences of our lives. They’re the reason why those faith-filled folks can swig poison, joyously play with deadly snakes and lift a car to free a loved one. Perceptions shape the placebo and nocebo effects. They are more influential than positive thinking because they are more than mere thoughts in your mind. Perceptions are beliefs that permeate every cell. Simply, the expression of the body is a complement to the mind’s perceptions, or, in simpler terms, believing is seeing!

New-Edge Biology Conclusion #4
Accurate perceptions encourage success; misperceptions threaten survival.

Almost all of us have unknowingly acquired limiting, self-sabotaging misperceptions that undermine our strength, health, and desires.

Our most influential perceptual programs have mainly been acquired from others and do not necessarily support our own personal goals and aspirations. In fact, many of our strengths and weaknesses, the parts of ourselves we own as who we are, are directly attributable to familial and cultural perceptions downloaded into our minds before we were six years old. Programmed perceptions acquired in these developmental years are primarily responsible for health and behavioral issues experienced in our adult lives. Consider how many children never realize their full potential or dreams because of limiting programming.

Not surprisingly, these self-sabotaging programs also thwart us as we try to change conditions in the world. This insight tells us that before we go out to change the world, we must first look inward to change ourselves. Then, by changing our beliefs, we do change the world.

As with changing the world, changing ourselves sometimes requires more than good intentions. We must understand the nature of the mind and how the brain’s divine dualities, the conscious and subconscious minds, control the expression of our perceptions.

by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.