Learning To Flow

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 3

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Forgiveness, Law of Attraction, Self Realization, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Relationships

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

This week, we will explore the all important Spiritual Truth # 3 of being able to understand that our enemies are our teachers.

It takes a high degree of consciousness to separate our perceptions from what is really happening, so this is something that must be practiced.

But the more you intellectually understand what your “enemies” represent in your life, the faster you can heal and start creating what you DO want to experience.

Namaste
Jeff

Quote of the Week

“Remember, your “so called” enemies will keep reappearing in your life until you learn the lesson that they have come to teach you” – Hu Dalconzo “Self-Mastery: A Journey Home to Your Self”

You have no enemies…

Truth Three:
You Have No Enemies…just Lessons.

This can be a difficult lesson to understand because we are born into this world tied to our ego mind which is filled with the karmic energies we came to work on in this lifetime.
Our ego tells us that if we are to feel better, we need to change what someone else is doing, saying or not doing or saying. We have been programmed all of our lives to believe that we change our lives by convincing someone else to change so that we feel better. But this is a denial of who and what we are. It is also only a short term fix.

So for example, if I dislike my joy and I change jobs hoping that my new job, new manager or new co-workers will change how I feel, I am only trading one situation for another. The new place may feel better for a little while as my optimism may carry me for awhile, but if I have not dealt with the anger that surfaced at my old job, or the fear and anxiety that surfaced again and again, I am sure to experience it again.

Others are simply the mirror to our own pain. It is our perceptions of them that cause our “problems.” Our perceptions are created by the karmic energies we brought into this life to work out and are anchored in this life by the life experiences we had in childhood.
Our parents can often seem like the greatest enemies we have.

But in order to heal this, we must take a step back and recognize who we really are. We are NOT the sons, daughters, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, friends, engineers, teachers, etc. These are the roles we chose to play in this lifetime. They are the backdrop to the grand play we are in. They provide the opportunity for us to experience the drama of life.

We ARE Divine Vibrational Beings. Whatever we focus our attention (vibration) upon grows in strength and power. So when we focus upon something we do not like, that situation grows and we experience more of that.
And we came into this life with a karmic agenda. Many of us brought all of our past life karma into this life. We chose VERY difficult paths of abuse, abandonment, shame and feelings of inadequacy so that we could remember who and what we truly are and transcend ALL of it.

Our parents, caretakers, teachers, spouses and friends agreed to soul contracts with us so that we and THEY could experience the dramas of life in order to realize experientially who and what we truly are. Some of us are awakening to who and what we are faster than others. This can be confusing for us because others are still enmeshed in their dramas.

So when we look out at our world, the way we start to differentiate between our drama and their drama is by how WE feel. If we feel bad in any way, then the responsibility is ours to heal it. If someone else is feeling it, it’s their responsibility to heal it.
Only you can think YOUR thoughts, feel YOUR feelings, heal your SELF, choose to let it go, choose to visualize what you do want, etc. And only THEY can do that for themselves as well.

When you start to see your “enemies” as your mirror to what you most need to heal…you can silently bless them for keeping their soul contract and let them go.
Then you can turn your attention inward to forgive yourself and others and finally release your emotional karmic burdens.

You can then understand what the drama was really about…your healing.

Practice of the Week

Think of someone you feel angry, frustrated with or perhaps even hurt by.

Does the situation you feel with them seem to happen to you again and again?

If so, understand that this is simply the Law of Attraction in action. It is working 24/7 in response to the energies YOU carry.

So think of this person again and tell them in your mind how you feel…then forgive them.

Forgive them because you don’t want to carry these feelings any longer. Be willing to release everything you feel is the “evidence” of WHY you are justified to feel as you do.

Remember that the Course in Miracles says, “Do you want to be right…or do you want to be happy?”

As long as you want or feel the NEED to be right, you cannot heal. You have to be willing to completely let of of all of it.
For understand that while in this life, you may have been the victim…in other lives you were the offender…maybe even in this life…maybe even something you did unconsciously that hurt someone else.

What you are feeling is simply your own karmic energy coming back to you.

So forgive yourself first and then the other person. The other person is simply your mirror showing you what you have been at some point, allowing you to feel both sides of the energetic equation.

Forgive yourself for it was all part of the growth experience, to KNOW yourself as the Divine being you are.
You were simply learning what power was, what love was, what peace was and how to manifest all of it.

Forgive yourself first…then others.

© Jeffrey L. Scholl 2010. Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this transmission on the condition that the content remains complete and intact, full credit is given to the author(s), and that it is distributed freely.

www.learningtoflow.com

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 2

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Empowerment, Enlightenment, Self Realization, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

This week, we are discussing the Second Spiritual Truth and its impacts on our health, relationships, career, etc.

This is also being explored in a new book coming out called “The Shadow Effect” by Debbie Ford, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson.

We cannot run from our shadow side. The path to healing requires us to turn and face it directly…then watching it melt under the light of our consciousness.

Namaste
Jeff

Quote of the Week

“If you don’t deal with the shadow, the shadow will deal with you.” – Debbie Ford

Most of Your Core Foundational Beliefs…

Truth Two:
Most of Your Core Foundational Beliefs are Rooted in…FEAR.

Many people have told me…”I don’t have anything to work on.” I smile when I hear them say that, but do not argue with them. Anyone who says this simply has not yet reached the stage where they are ready to deal with it.
But make no mistake, we ALL have these beliefs. We all have a shadow side that we have to deal with. We all will have to deal with it eventually if we intend to grow.

Our ego minds tell us that we don’t need to change, that our spouse, boss, friends, family, neighbors, government, country…etc needs to change so that we can feel better about it. This is denial.
When we change by facing and releasing our core fear-based foundational beliefs, we are then able to see that everyone else has these too and this is what continues to manifest realities both individually and collectively that do not match the highest we can imagine for ourselves.
If we try to imagine more for ourselves and happen to share those with people who have not yet dealt with their shadows, they will all too quickly tell us, “You’re dreaming. That’s not reality” or something similar.
Yet anyone who has lost the ability to even dream is truly the one creating their own living nightmare.

We are seeing the effects of these negatively charged beliefs in our world today. But the way to change our world is not to get others to change. We change our world by changing ourselves from the inside out. It is not enough to simply do positive visualizations or affirmations. We must let go of the negative beliefs anchored within us by our fear-based energies.

Can you imagine your life without worry? How would you live your life differently if you felt safe to pursue your life the way YOU wanted to live it?
What if you felt safe enough to work at the career your soul feels called to do, to pursue interests that you may think you cannot make a living at?
Would you stay in relationships that were not satisfying to you intellectually, emotionally and spiritually if you understood you could have the relationship you wanted and weren’t worried about how others would feel about your change?

Whatever you are experiencing in your life today is YOUR creation. What we are experiencing in our world today is OUR creation. We cannot just blame others and say we had nothing to do with all that is occurring. Our negative energies, the very energies that swell up within us when we read or see things that anger, frustrate or disappoint us are what must be released for us to heal ourselves and heal our world.

Use the exercise this week to dig deeper into your life. Face your fears head on and let go of all of the “evidence” you feel justifies holding onto them. Remember, the “evidence” was just a reflection of your inner consciousness to begin with…the reflection of the consciousness you brought in with you to work on in this life.

Namaste

Jeff

Practice of the Week

How different would your life be if you could let go of any feelings of:

Embarrassment:
- about the way your body looks
- your social status
- abundance level
- how much and quality of stuff you have
- how adequate / competent you feel in areas you feel drawn to enjoy

Anger / Frustration:
- with people in your life
- with your self
- with God

How about for:

Anger-Betrayal-Hatred

Sad-Abandoned-Despair

Afraid-Insecure-Anxious

Sorrow-Grief-Indifferent

Frustrated-Pessimistic-Powerless

Disappointed-Discouraged-Doubtful

Embarrassed-Inadequate-Victim

Envious-Deprived-Jealous

Hurt-Excluded-Helpless

Scared-Hopeless-Confused

Ashamed-Unworthy-Guilty
Read through each feeling and jot down any that you feel something about. Then write out how this shows up in your life. As you write, you will likely feel the feeling welling up within you.
This feeling can be scary and your mind may want to distract you from it. But let that feeling come up. It is rising to the surface to be felt and released. Breathe directly into that feeling and exhale it out forcefully. Use EFT to tap it out. Use other detox methods to let it go. Physical exertion can help with this.

Be willing to let go of your pain. Forgive yourself. Forgive others.
You grow every time you release fear-based energies. It allows you to fill that space with love. As you release and refill, you gain the experiential wisdom for which the whole experience was created to fulfill.

Be willing to face your shadows…to realize more light.

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 1

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Empowerment, Self Realization, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

This week, I am starting a seven week series in applying the “Seven Spiritual Truths” from Hu Dalconzo’s “Self-Mastery – A Journey Home to Your Self.”

Studying these truths alone gave me greater peace, but in really learning to apply them…gave me a greater view of the God within me and all of us.
I hope you enjoy this series.

Namaste
Jeff

Quote of the Week:

“As a Godlike being, you are incapable of error or failure. What you perceive as an error is either your old Karma self burning off or your spiritual evolution manifesting.” - Hu Dalconzo

You Have Never Made a Mistake

Truth One:
You have never made a mistake because you are incapable of error or failure.

Last weekend, I was recounting to my niece a story from my past in which I had an opportunity to write with a famous country singer. I presented some songs I had written to his partner who was a music publisher on Music Row at the time. He said they were good and he wanted me to write with the singer.
I realized later that as I was recounting the story, I still carried feelings of disappointment, embarrassment, shame and anger…all directed at myself.

The reason I didn’t take the opportunity at the time was due to fears of not being good enough. But then I punished myself further by holding onto all of these other feelings.

I know that one of the lessons my soul came into this life to work on is “perfectionism.” That doesn’t mean I think that I AM perfect. It means there is a part of my ego mind that has always told me that I have BE perfect and that if I’m not, if I make mistakes, then I have to be punished.
I realize now that I have manifested my own punishments as an adult by hanging onto these repressed negatively charged feelings…for they just manifest the same unwanted realities over and over again.

I have limited new opportunities coming to me, turned down offers for assistance…instead of embracing all of the blessings open and offered.
I turned down help and opportunities unconsciously by holding onto feelings of unworthiness.
These feelings created a fatigue within me that seemed insurmountable at times.

What I needed to do was to forgive myself for my perceived past errors, to fully feel the feelings I had repressed and allow them to provide me the information contained within their energy to teach me how to respond more joyfully in the future.

In doing so, I find more joy within and feel more confident to put myself out there in the world, knowing that I will not always be “perfect” in new situations, but also knowing that each new situation carries within it either the opportunity for success or to heal and release something else…which also brings me closer to success.

What past “mistakes” have you hidden away? Are you still unconsciously punishing yourself? Isn’t it time to let it go?

Namaste

Jeff

Practice of the Week

Think of something for which you still feel embarrassed and ashamed.

Using your mind’s eye, see yourself as you looked when this happened. Give yourself a big hug and surround yourself with warm, golden light.

Tell your younger self that it is safe now to feel these feelings and let go of them. Tell your self that only by letting these go can you create a more joyful outcome.

Find where in your body you feel the energy of this experience. Move your consciousness into this area by breathing into it. Once you are in the center of it, just FEEL it…just experience it.
Your mind may want to run away from it, but remember…it’s just a FEELING and if you still have it, you HAVE been running from it.
Just FEEL it and keep breathing into the center of it.
You may find yourself taking deeper and deeper breaths into it.
Exhale the energy with the sound of Ahhh…which is the sound of relief.

This is a way to surrender these feelings back to God.

My first book “Learning to Flow” is now available for purchase in paperback, hard cover or e-book now at:

http://www.learningtoflow-book1.com/

The Key to Your Spiritual Practice

Posted by learning | Filed under Being in the Now, Empowerment, Enlightenment, Inner Peace, Meditation, Self Realization, Spiritual Growth

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

Meditation is the last spiritual practice we will discuss in this series. It is the most difficult for me as I have a very active mind. Yet the more I allow myself to just spend time in silence, the peaceful my life becomes.
So in the spirit of silence and simplicity this week, I will keep everything as simple as possible…including my intro. J

Namaste
Jeff

Meditation: The Key to Your Spiritual Practice

Meditation is the place where all of my other spiritual practices come together. In taking the deep cleansing breaths, I am detoxifying my body. I am letting go of that which does not serve me by bringing my focus to my moment of now, feeling my repressed feelings and surrendering these toxic energies to the Universe.
Sometimes I use my meditations to focus on what I intend to create and project the vibration of my intended creations out to bring me the essence of what I am feeling.
It is when I meditate that I realize how much value my mind places on “doing.” My mind tells me all of the things I NEED to be doing, all the things I haven’t done and all the things others have not done for me. My mind places great value on action and little on allowing. And yet what my mind has not fully accepted is that it does not matter how much I do…if I have not aligned my vibrational frequency to what I desire…by simply allowing myself to attune to it, then it cannot come to me.
When I close my eyes, place my attention in the center of my chest and use my awareness to find the stillness waiting on me there and simply breathe into it, the chattering of my mind stops. Spending just 15-20 minutes a day in this stillness allows all that I desire to flow to me…instead of me trying to make it come to me.
I have found that it doesn’t matter how my legs are folded, what chair I sit in, if I have incense burning or not…as long as I am in a space where I can be quiet and comfortable, I can reach the stillness. Quite often I don’t want to leave when my meditation timer goes off. Sometimes I just reset the timer to go another 20 minutes.
When I first started to meditate, I couldn’t say that the practice brought peace to my life. Rather what I experienced was a lack of drama.
But the more I practice silence, I am finding subtle feelings of peace and even joy in my practice.
I encourage you to implement this valuable practice into your life.

Peace be unto you.

Namaste
Jeff

This Week’s Quotes:

“MEDITATION…is the key to your spiritual practice. If you have the right key in your hand, no matter how tightly the lock is closed, when you take the key and turn it, the lock falls open. If you use your MEDITATION KEY you’ll open intuitive heart to your hearts desires” – Ajahn Chah

“Meditation is not at all a way of making your mind quiet, rather it’s entering the quiet that’s already there buried under the 50,000 or so thoughts an average person thinks each day.” – Deepak Chopra

Spiritual Application

Close your eyes. Take in 3 deep breaths. Visualize the light of a candle in your 3rd eye. (between the eyebrows). Watch this candle flame. Notice that the flame flickers with every thought that enters your mind. The more thoughts that flow in and out of your mind the more the candle dances in front of you.

Focus on the flame of this candle. See the light dancing and flickering as if someone has turned the ceiling fan to the highest setting. Now focus on stilling the flame. If a stray thought enters bring your attention back to the flame. Bring the flame back to a place of calm and stillness. Take in a deep breath. Reconnect to the place in your heart that is still and quiet.

The more you practice meditation the fewer and farther between your thoughts will come. When they do interrupt, do not judge them or analyze them or follow them to their conclusion. Just refocus on the light of the candle in your third eye and continue to watch it burn slowly.

- Created by Pratima Scholl

The Relief of Surrender

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Empowerment, Physical Healing, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth, Surrender

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

I learned of a concept early on in the Self-Mastery process called, “Surrendering to my Higher Powers in Prayer.” Early on, I considered the prayer to be the most important aspect of this, but now I know that the act of surrender is actually what is important.
I learned in “Conversations with God – Book I” that words are simply expressions of the energy of my emotions. Just feeling the emotions themselves simplifies this process. When I stop and realize that who I truly am…my soul…is a form of energy and God is the Divine source from which I am formed, then I can more easily attain my desires by focusing on the energetic connection between God and I through my feelings than I can through words alone.
When I focus on what my ego wants out of a situation, I am typically not purely focused on the feeling of having what I desire. I am typically resisting that feeling and more focused on the feeling of not having it. I am unconsciously focused on the feeling of fear, embarrassment, shame, hurt or disappointment of not having what I want.
I have found that when I get to the point of being so tired of the fight and the struggle, that I reach the point where I am willing to just let it go and let God take care of it.
For some of us, it takes a lot for us to get to that point. Because it typically takes SO much, this point is often called, “the dark night of the soul.”
And yet, it is always darkest right before the dawn.

Explore the concept of surrender this week and in doing so, find the light within you yearning to be let out.

Namaste
Jeff Scholl

Quote of the Week:

“Do you want to be right…or do you want to be happy?” – A Course in Miracles

The Relief of Surrender

When I was introduced to the concept of surrender, I was taught several affirmations to remind me of the benefits of letting go. Some of my favorites are as follows.
Surrendering in prayer:

Allows me to detach from my EGO-mind when it says, “I don’t need help. I can do it alone.”
Frees me to leave the details to God as to how and when what I desire will manifest
Helps me to detach from the models of how life “should be”
Allows God to chauffeur around instead of trying to carry the world on my shoulders
Helps me to understand that “I can’t steer the river.”
Helps me to detach from my friends and family in order to allow them to learn from the natural consequences of their actoins

When I read these and the others in the Self-Mastery book, I am reminded that quite often I am making my life more difficult than it has to be by trying to live my life by DOING rather than allowing God to take care of the “heavy lifting.”
As I have grown, I have gradually turned over more and more of my life to God through the process of surrender. In doing so, my life has become much easier. I no longer worry about how everything is going to turn out. I do occasionally have something come up that concerns me and it may take me awhile to surrender it, but once I do any actions I take are guided by peace, love, compassion and understanding…rather than by fear.
The act of surrender is primarily a vibrational one. When I finally stop and just feel how I feel about a situation that has been causing me some amount of frustration, I realize how stressed I feel about it. I realize that this feeling I am feeling is manifesting more of what I don’t want and that if I want the situation to change, I have to change that vibration.
My ego mind tells me that I need to have someone else change in order for me to feel different, but my soul which is the primary guiding force in my life these days reminds me that the peace I seek will never be found by “thinking more.” It will always be found through seeking the tranquil peace that can only be found within.

Namaste
Jeff

Spiritual / Emotional Application

Praying to God has value because it gets me to start tapping into the very emotions that I need to release. I tell God what I am feeling and why and once I finish that, quite often I realize that I am ready to release it and let God handle it.
All too often, I am amazed how long I have held onto a fear or a hurt that I could have easily given to God to work out. At some point though, the need to feel relieved of this problem won out over the need to feel right.
These days, I rarely keep a problem for very long because I feel good most of the time and I know quickly when I have something that brings up worry or fear. I have no need to feel embarrassed because I have found that it feels better to let go of any need to be “perfect” and by openly surrendering this with others. I just tell people what I am afraid of instead of repressing my fear and thinking that I shouldn’t feel it.
I say to God, “I surrender and I now allow you to take this from me. I allow you to show me a solution. If I need to DO something, I ask that you make that obvious to me. I am going to assume that if it isn’t obvious that you are taking care of all of it and my job is just to be happy.”

Use this process, play with it and change it to whatever feels right to you. Simply saying over and over, “I surrender, I surrender, I surrender this to you” is sometimes all I need to let go.

Physical Application

To focus on surrender this week, allow your body to sleep as much as it needs to. Quite often, we feel the need to push ourselves. We think that we have all of these other people that we are responsible to serve and we forget about what WE need.
This week, take some time for yourself. Ask your body what it needs from you. If you need to sleep, don’t wait until your immune system becomes so weak that it becomes susceptible to illness. Take that time now!

Sleep in until you can’t sleep any more.
Sit in a hot bubble bath and relax.
Get a relaxing massage and allow there to be complete silence between you and the therapist…even if you normally talk in the session.
Spend some time in nature just being silent.

Be willing to surrender your normal stream of consciousness and allow the peacefulness of Spirit to fill your life!

Dis-Creation

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Forgiveness, Inner Child Work

Greetings from Learning To Flow!
Do you ever feel like you’re at the mercy of life? Does it ever seem like you continue to encounter the same types of unpleasant situations in your life?

Perhaps you find yourself in the same kinds of unfulfilling relationships or that no matter how many times you change jobs, you wind up working with difficult managers or co-workers.

Quite often we feel like if we could just find the right person or the right job, we would feel happy or at peace.

When we are ready to take responsibility for our lives though, we remember that we are creating ALL of it. While we may not be consciously seeking out these kinds of situations, we are certainly unconsciously attracting it. The “why” of that is another discussion entirely and we will get to that in a few weeks.

But it is a huge step forward in the growth of a soul when we are finally ready to take responsibility for our creation and seek to understand how to change it. We covered one part of this last week when I explained how to create what you want.

This week, I will explain how to stop creating what you don’t want. This is called, “Dis-creation.”

You will find that only focusing on creation will only take you so far. You will arrive at a point that if you do not understand how to dis-create…you will just keep running into the same walls.

To master creation and dis-creation requires significant practice. But if you do not master it, then you will remain at the mercy of what seems like “the winds of fate” and in case you haven’t noticed, those winds are starting to pick up considerably.

If this is your first introduction to dis-creation, then get ready for your spiritual growth to start moving forward in leaps and bounds!

Namaste
Jeff Scholl

Quote of the Week:

“If you bring forth what is within you, it will heal you. And if you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you.” – St. Thomas

Peeling Away our Emotional Layers

As children, we reacted to our environments with intense feelings. If we were not taught otherwise, we creating stories around what we were seeing reflected back to us. And the more we replayed those stories in our minds, the more we were unknowingly programming our own minds.
If we had abusive parents, we quite naturally developed beliefs like, “I’m not safe” or “I don’t deserve love” or “I can’t have what I want.”

If we had an older sibling, we may have developed beliefs such as “no one listens to me” or “I’m not important.”
If we were the oldest sibling, we may have developed beliefs such as “I’m responsible for everyone else” or “What I want doesn’t matter” or “I have to be the responsible one” or a myriad of other beliefs.

One way I started detaching myself from these beliefs was to stop identifying myself with them. I started identifying myself as who am what I truly am…a spiritual being…a being of energy. I started looking at my body as not who I was…but as my vehicle for what I am creating in this lifetime.
Once I could create that distinction clearly enough, then I came across information that reminded me that I came into this body…into my family…into the lives of the people who have touched me throughout my life..to become the conscious creator of my life.

But if I had come in as a clean slate, then I could not become that conscious creator because I would never have known anything different. So as I learned in “Conversations with God” if I had never learned “hot,” how could I know “cold?”
Similarly, if I had never been sick, how could I appreciate being well? How could I create healing in myself and others if I knew only vital health?

So into this life, I brought an agenda…a very full agenda…meaning I brought a lot of negative energies in with me. When I started understanding my life from that perspective, I realized that all of those people who I thought had been mean, hateful, rude and abusive to me…were also simply playing out their roles. They were perfectly responding to the set of energies I brought in…and I was responding to their as well.
And since I now knew that I could feel those energies through my feelings, then I could choose to LET THEM GO. Now this wasn’t always easy and when I first started out, I needed a coach to help me learn how to face those energies. I needed someone else to create a safe space for me to do it and to guide me through how to delve down into that energy and let it go. I had to learn to feel that energy and how to maturely express it to others.
Denying it was there only resulted in situations being attracted to me getting more and more intense…until I finally surrendered to just facing them and letting them go.

Dis-creation is the act of facing the feelings you have carried with you all of your lives and letting them go.

Anyone can learn how to do this but I will warn you that it takes practice to be able to face fear and pain. And it will also take the guidance of someone who has been through this to face your deepest fears.

Also realize that these are the fears and pain you don’t even realize are there until you start digging down into them. My coach proved to me in an hour how much pain I carried. He didn’t tell me I was carrying it. He just led me through some questions and through the questions he asked…I could feel it.
After going through this myself and coaching others for the past five years, I can safely say that everyone I know has these energies buried within them. Facing them is one of the most difficult phases on the spiritual journey towards mastery.

But once you experience the value of letting this energy go and choosing to practice a new, more loving energy in its place, your perceptions of what is possible for you in this life will shaft dramatically.

Namaste
Jeff

© Jeffrey L. Scholl 2009. All rights reserved.
www.learningtoflow.com

Spiritual Exercise of the Week

Think of an area that was painful to you when it happened. It could be something like divorce or a friendship ending. It can be the loss of a job or encountering a bully when you were in school.

Take a few moments and replay that experience in your mind. Do you still feel the feelings you experienced when it happened? If so, that energy is still within you and it is still attracting experiences that match it into your life so that you can heal it.

This is the purpose of attracting these situations in your life…to allow you to have an opportunity to heal and let go of the energy within you.

So many times, people tell me, “Oh I already worked through that. I’m done with it.” But when I ask them how it feels, they still feel it intensely. This is the difference between healing something and just denying that it’s there.

So close your eyes and replay the scene. Notice what you are feeling. Give yourself permission to feel angry, sad, worried, fearful, embarrassed, hurt, etc.
Notice where you feel this energy within you.
Now envision this energy as a small child and ask her/him why she is feeling what she is feeling. Allow him/her to vent their feelings to you and validate whatever they are telling you.
Explain to them that what they are feeling is normal….that anyone would feel that way. Explain to them that it’s natural that they feel pain or tightness in their chest…and explain that it’s necessary to feel it so they can let it go.

Then breathe into that area…allow yourself to feel it as intensely as you can while forcefully blowing that energy out.

Take at least 7 breaths in and blow it out, then blow out the next three breaths using the sound of relief…sighing out those breaths with “Ahhhhhh.”

Most people feel significantly better after this exercise. Some people only feel a little better, but again this comes with practice.

Realize that your ego will only allow you to go as deep as it feels safe and if you truly want to dive down deep, you’re going to need a “diving instructor.”

Once you learn how to go deep with guidance, you’ll feel safe enough to get into some of those feelings when they happen. When you get to that point, you are no longer at the mercy of the world. You realize at this point, as I did, that the FEAR isn’t “out there.” It’s “in here” and since it is, I can face it and let it go.

And the more I let it go, the less I am attracting similarly charged experiences into my life.

Creating Your World

Posted by learning | Filed under Law of Attraction, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth, Vibrational Being

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

Christ said, “Ye are gods and ye know it not.”

This statement is often misunderstood primarily because we have assimilated a belief in our mass consciousness that we are less than God…instead of understanding that we are God…expressed in human form.

Some have confused this line in the other extreme professing that they were God and this is in error also since none of us individually are God. Even everyone on Earth collectively, along with every rock, plant and animal…is not the entirety of God.

The human mind seeks to define God and has long defined God in his own image instead of the other way around…meaning that humans have bestowed limits, judgments and restrictions on their perception of God.
We have even misinterpreted that God made man in his own image. What would be more accurate is that God made the human soul…the essence of our Self in God’s own image…not our bodies or our minds.

We are unlimited beings and when we start identifying ourselves with that perception, then and only then do our lives start to blossom by unleashing the power that dwells within us.

This week, I encourage you to start using that power to create the life and the world YOU want to live in.

Quote of the Week:

“Life is always flowing to you and through you, but for you to have conscious deliberate awareness of it is the ultimate in truly living.” Abraham-Hicks “The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent”

Creating Your World

There are many books on how to create our reality. The science behind it is covered in “What the Bleep Do We Know.” It continued with “The Secret” and the Abraham-Hicks material that has been published in the last five years or so comes closest to describing how creation happens…by vibration.

Everything is energy and everything vibrates a different frequencies. A happy thought vibrates at a much higher vibration than an angry one.
Some have even defined the frequency of different thoughts and states of beings. But we do not have to understand any of the science, the vibrations or the levels of frequency to apply this information.

All we have to do is be able to discern the subtle differences in our feelings.

A word of caution…this will require practice! While we all have innate memories of being able to create instantly on the plane where we reside between lives, the very reason that we came into this life to create is because it does take more focus here. When you can create anything you desire instantly, there is no satisfaction gained from your creations.
A similar analogy would be someone who has been wealthy all of their lives. If all you have ever known is abundance, how can you truly appreciate it? If you have only known fabulous health all of your life, how can you appreciate a vitally healthy body?
If on the other side, everyone is love and all of your “relationships” are loving and peaceful, how can you appreciate loving relationships?

Now contrast that with your own lives. Have you achieved the ideal? Have you created realities for each of these areas that feel joyful and fulfilling to you?

If not, consider then the possibility that this is the reason that you are here. Consider that the people who frustrate, disappoint and hurt you the most are your greatest teachers…for they show you where you have yet to create what you truly desire.

When you start to experience your life from the perspective that you are a Divinely powerful creative being, then you start to become aware (through practice) of what thoughts you think and how they feel to you.

When you find yourself thinking a thought that does not feel good, ask yourself, “Why am I thinking this?” “Who says THIS has to be MY reality?”
The answer to that is that no one can choose your reality for you but you. You can choose to think thoughts of self-punishment and fear or you can choose to think loving and peaceful thoughts about yourself and the interesting thing is that no one can possibly make that choice for you…but YOU.
No one can think your thoughts for you. So since no one can do that but you, then you have the unique power to practice thoughts that feel good.
Now it’s only fair to say that when you start practicing a thought that is the highest you can dream, it will feel uncomfortable at first. It feels that way because the vibration of that thought is SO different than what you’re used to feeling. It will feel so different that it may even feel like you are lying to yourself. If you feel that, consider that you have already been lying to yourself if you have told yourself anything that does not reflect who you truly are…a Divine being…God being expressed in human form.

This is a crossroads and one you will be at many times as you grow. Each time you come to this crossroads, you will have to decide if you are willing to believe the lie you have been telling yourself or if you are willing to accept the truth of who you are.
As one of my teachers asked me once, “how good can you stand it?”
The answer to that will directly impact how easily your life flows in a way that feels good to you.

Practice thoughts that feel good. Practice images that feel good when you imagine your life and most of all, practice FEELING a higher vibration. All you really have to do is intend to feel better and breathe that in.

Why would God make it more difficult than that…if you ARE God?

Exercise of the Week

Envision something you want, but do not yet have. Close your eyes and imagine yourself with it.
So for example, imagine yourself in a new car. See yourself having plenty of money to buy the car you WANT, not the car you’ll settle for. See yourself in that car. Hear the engine or if it’s an electric hybrid, marvel at how quiet it is. Smell that new car smell as you get into it. Feel the steering wheel and the gearshift in your hand. Hear your friends and family tell you how well this car fits you and that they’re happy that you got the car you wanted.
How does that feel in your heart?

Now open your eyes and look at the car you have now. Do you have that same feeling? If not, just notice what this feels like.

Now realize the difference between owning the car you want and the car you have right now has less to do with anything you are doing than it does with the vibration you are sending out into the world. When you vibrate, when you send out an energy that matches the experience of having the car you want, it has to come into your life.

This is true whether it’s a car, a relationship, your health, being treated with respect and love by others or anything else you can imagine.

What you are living today is a direct match to the vibration you have been sending out. If you want to experience something different, but have been wanting someone else to change for that to happen, you’re in denial of how your reality is created.

If YOU want your life to change, you have to CHANGE your life. You have to BE that change…by changing your vibration.

Dialoguing with Your Inner Child

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Inner Child Work, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

This week, we are taking the next step forward in creating our sustainable spiritual practice by learning about the inner child. I will explain what the term “Inner child” means and why it is so important.
Each of the steps in our spiritual practice tie together so we will continue to build on the fundamental practices of feeling our feelings and being in the now. We have to be in the now to face our feelings and we have to be practicing feeling them in order to be willing to face our inner child’s deepest fears and pain.

It is so important to understand that the pain we carry within us is manifesting what we experience as our “problems” in life and until we release these energies from our being and replace them with a reflection of who and what we really are, our world will not change.

Being a man, I know how resistant the ego is to taking this kind of step. My ego told me that doing something like this was silly and wouldn’t have any impact. But phase I of the shift from an ego-based consciousness to a heart-based consciousness is the realization that ego methods are not working sufficiently and we long for more.

I encourage you to take this important step on your journey, to surrender to the necessity of it and allow your inner child’s messages to flow.

Namaste
Jeff Scholl

Quote of the Week:

“We originally established our protections as children in an attempt to protect ourselves from pain that was too overwhelming for our little beings…As adults, that pain is still within the Inner Child and we may still be protecting against it. As long as we choose to protect against it, the work we must do to avoid that pain controls our lives.” Margaret Paul, PH.D. in “Inner Bonding”

Dialoguing with the Inner Child

This week, we’re going to talk about working with the inner child. In the Self-Mastery process, I learned a method called Self-Parenting. In “Inner Bonding,” Margaret Paul teaches her own form of this method and establishes a two-way dialogue with our inner child. I am going to explain how I have learned to dialogue with my own inner child, how this has helped me to grow and evolve as a soul and what benefits I’ve experienced as a result.

Before we get too far into this subject, let’s clear up what this term “inner child” means since many people feel uncomfortable at first with this term. The inner child is essentially our emotional body. It is the part of us in which our emotions are felt and stored or actually repressed. When we have an experience that triggers our repressed emotional energy it is our “inner child” that cries foul. The emotional energy is triggered and starts coming to the surface. If we are identified with that pain AS us or we are primarily identified with our minds, then we do not understand that it is not only normal and natural for those feelings to come to the surface, it is necessary that they do so.
When we are triggered, all that is happening is that this repressed emotional energy has attracted a situation for the purpose of evolving our soul. When we learn to recognize that this is what is happening and open a dialogue with this energy through the symbolic visualization of communicating with our inner child, then we can let go of those feelings more easily and replace them with feelings of love, acceptance and security. When our inner child feels safe and secure, our vibration is raised and we experience the reflection of that higher vibration in our life experiences. In effect, we are clearing out the blockages in our emotional body which is imprinted upon our soul in this lifetime.
So again, it is important to note that what has happened in this lifetime did not “cause” these energies to be there. What happened to us with our parents, teachers, siblings, etc was a reflection of the energies…or the agenda we brought in with us. When we can detach ourselves enough from the perspective that we are this person who all of these bad things have happened to in our lives and start identifying ourselves primarily as a soul who is simply continuing our evolution in this lifetime, then we are able to move forward in that growth more easily.
Visualizing the inner child as being the one who has all of these upset emotions allows us to detach ourselves from identifying with the emotions and/or the thoughts that spring from these emotions. We are then able to be who we really are…a soul who is expressing our unique energy in a human form.

When I learned how to create this conversation with my “inner child,” pretty quickly I didn’t feel so attached to these emotions. I didn’t feel like they were mine. I just felt like they were being expressed through me. This is an important distinction as being able to see myself as the “observer” of the triggers and the resulting emotions has helped me to understand “why” my inner child is upset. It has helped me to validate that he has a right to feel angry, sad, frustrated, etc and to give him permission to feel it. This distinction between me and my inner child also allows me to create a safe space which allows him to let go of his repressed emotions. I can then see myself as his parent and giving him what he needs to feel which is loved, accepted and safe. And when he feels that…I feel it in my heart. As a result, I am feeling safer and more loved in my life…not because the outside world is giving it to me…but because I have the power to give myself this feeling.
But in doing so, it has changed my vibration significantly. I do feel safer and more confident in my life and I am seeing more people reflect acceptance and appreciation for who I am back to me. Another side effect is that I am experiencing an explosion of creativity for what I want to create in my life and what I want to write about. Right now I have more topics to write about than I have time, so my next project is to create more time to write.

For more on how to dialogue with your inner child, go to the “Spiritual Exercise of the Week.”

Spiritual Exercise of the Week

When you become aware that you are upset or fearful about something, find a place where you can get quiet and explore these feelings.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths…slowly inhaling and exhaling.
Scan your body with your awareness and feel for where you feel this energy in your body. Notice what it feels like and put all of your focus on just feeling it there.

Then see a younger version of yourself there. Notice what age your inner child is and ask him/her what she is feeling…and wait for an answer.
Then when you have that answer, ask them why they are feeling that. Let this energy tell you why this is coming up right now.

Validate your inner child by telling them that it is normal to feel that way.
So for example if your boundaries have been violated in some way, you need to validate your inner child that it is normal to feel angry when this happens. By doing so you are giving them permission to feel what they feel.
Most of us were never validated so this may take practice or you may need to have a coach help you with this prior to being able to get really good at this.

Once your inner child feels safe to feel what she/he is feeling, you may feel a strong rush of emotion. Whatever pain you have been experiencing may get significantly more intense. This is normal.
Just recognize what is happening and instead of running from it…breathe directly into the center of that pain. Inhale deeply and forcefully exhale. You may have to do this several times, but you will start to feel this energy coming up and out of you.
Some people say it helps to see the pain as a dark area and see themselves breathing light directly into that area. They then see the light breaking up the dark area and turning into a dark mist that they are exhaling…kind of like what happens in “The Green Mile.”
There is no right or wrong thing to see or experience. Allow yourself to create something that works for you.

After you release your pain, tell your inner child how courageous he/she is and tell them how much you love them. Give them a big hug and help them to feel safe.
Take a few moments and just practice feeling that love in your heart…and then open your eyes!

This may seem like a very simple exercise, but you will be surprised

Physical Exercise for Your Inner Child

Once you’ve established a dialogue with your inner child, maintain that dialogue and ask her/him what she wants to do to have fun.

Be willing to accept any answer that comes…whether it’s to go play on a playground, go to an amusement park or go dancing.
Be willing to go with whatever answer comes and allow yourself to have fun!

Being in the Moment of Now

Posted by learning | Filed under Being in the Now, Enlightenment, Inner Peace, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth

Greetings from Learning To Flow!

My mantra for the past couple of weeks has been “I AM THAT I AM.” Saying that every day has helped me to become more aware of when I am not in the moment and what I am thinking and feeling about that moment. It has helped me to understand how often I am not accepting someone for being who they are or what I am thinking about a situation in which I am focused on what I don’t like about that situation.
It has helped me to feel the subtle energies of my emotional body, to take my awareness to the next level of being able to feel when I am holding something, where I am holding it and instead of resisting it and allowing IT to control my thoughts and feelings. I can just let it be there…breathe into it and release it.

I know that everyone around me is always doing the best they can and I realize how hard I have been on others and myself. They do not do what they do to disappoint me. They do what they do because just as my first priority is ME, their first priority is themselves as well it should be.

Realizing this has enabled me to take a step back and just allow people to be who they are…and to start appreciating more of who they are. I find that when I step back and just allow myself to be in that moment, I almost automatically start seeing how hard people are working, how much they have on their plate, how frustrated and unappreciated they feel already. Seeing this sparks compassion and understanding within me.
It makes me want to gently shake them by the shoulder and whisper, “Wake up. It’s safe to wake up now.”

And this is the purpose of my writings, my newsletter, my book and the ones that follow it. It is the purpose of my coaching and my classes.

Unlike some teachers who have experienced a spontaneous awakening, I have slowly let go of my ego mind a little at a time. And by sharing what I am doing, how I am doing it and what thoughts and feelings I am experiencing as I do it…I leave a trail of bread crumbs for any who are seeking to find their way as well.

Namaste
Jeff Scholl

Quote of the Week:

“Every time I create a gap in the stream of my mind, the light of my consciousness grows stronger.” Eckhart Tolle

Why I Avoided Being in the Moment

For much of my life, I carried a feeling of anxiety within me. I didn’t allow myself to feel that feeling much. I used alcohol for years to numb it. I fed it with foods that would stifle it for awhile, but which only resulted in more anxiety for the effects that kind of food had on my body. I distracted myself from feeling it by using TV, the Internet, email and video games. I kept myself busy with work, unconsciously taking small problems and blowing them up into larger ones…anything to consume my time and keep me focused on something.
All of it was simply a distraction from being in the moment. Because what that moment ultimately made me face was the very feeling I had been seeking to drown out by all of those activities and substances. Because those moments I had alone brought me face to face with a very uncomfortable feeling that for years, I simply didn’t know how to handle.

This is why I shared last week on how to feel your feelings. When you are able to face your feelings without running from them, you are then able to just BE in the moment.

When I allow myself to just BE in the moment and take a few deep breaths, I often find some of the emotions that I have been repressing start to rise to the surface. I can just notice that my mind wants to start up the thought cycle on whatever triggered these emotions and if I get caught up in my dramas, before I know it, I am thinking about the past or the future or thinking about what they might say or what I should’ve said…thus creating more vibrational signals of drama for the future.
When I can just allow myself to stay in that moment, to notice those feelings and just let them be, I can almost feel the energy as a paper-thin barrier that moves and tingles around different areas of my body. And then if I can breathe into those feelings and allow them to be there without judging them or telling myself that they shouldn’t be there, then they start to dissipate. When I allow them to just be there instead of thinking why they are there or who I am holding responsible for them being there or why I must be bad, wrong or broken because they are there…when I just allow them to be there, they aren’t quite as scary as they were before. And the more I practice being in the moment with them, the faster I recognize it when I am projecting that feeling out onto someone else.

Projecting is one of the most difficult things to detect when we’re doing it…mainly because almost all of us are doing it all of the time. Psychologists have a term for it as “projectional transference.” So for example, when something happens at work that upsets me and I get overly upset, what’s happening it that I am transferring similar emotions that I had already repressed out onto this situation.

If I can slow down however and allow myself to be in the moment and feel what I am feeling, I can actually USE this situation for the purpose the Universe intended. The purpose of the situation coming into my life is to show me where I have repressed emotions. So when I have situations that come up in which I find myself upset, I still get upset from time to time. However, the amount of time that I stay upset has greatly diminished. And the level to which I get upset over something that would have really set me off a few years ago may barely register on my upset meter. And if I just allow myself to BE in the moment for a few minutes and feel my feelings, then I find that I am not thinking about the issue 9 or 10 times later that day. I am not sharing what happened with my wife and then getting upset all over again. I stop and allow myself to be in the moment, feel it, release it and it’s gone. And not only is IT gone, but whatever else that it triggers, I go ahead and release that as well.
I will explain a little bit of how to do this in this week’s exercise, but I will also cover it in more detail as we go in this series when we cover Dis-Creation and Forgiveness.

However now that I’ve released the feeling that upset me and I feel better that I’ve released it, I’m not done. Because I remember that I am a vibrational being, IF I want to experience something different in my future, then I CAN choose to feel good in order to send that signal out. And so in the moment, I may allow myself to just feel relieved and to really enjoy the feeling of relief.
I may feel grateful that I feel good now and grateful to my teachers who have provided me the tools to release the feelings that didn’t feel good. I may just feel at peace or happy and allow myself to enjoy those feelings.
So I take a few deep breaths and allow myself to truly enjoy those moments of feeling good for at least 68 seconds…to send a new signal out into the world…a signal that now says, “bring me more of this vibration!”

Namaste
Jeff

Spiritual Exercise of the Week:

What makes an experience memorable for us is the emotion that is attached to it. I can have a thousand experiences a week, but I only remember those to which I felt something. I may not remember the person who checked me out at the grocery store unless they were particularly nice or particularly rude. I may not remember going out to the mailbox and getting my mail unless something happened on the way there or back.
We sometimes think that we will always remember some memories, but I have found that as I release emotions attached to experiences from the past, either those memories disappear entirely or they become difficult to remember. I find that I don’t lose my good memories. I just lose the ones to which I have released the negative emotion.
So think of a recent situation that upset you and replay the experience again in your mind. Notice what you feel. Again, realize that if you feel some negative feeling you have repressed that emotion.

Take a deep breath and feel what you are feeling. Sometimes it helps to give it a name, so you can see it as something separate from you. So pick a word from the below list that matches it as closely as possible.

Anger – Betrayal – Rage
Sadness – Abandonment -
Grief – Powerlessness
Disappointment – Discouragement
Frustration – Dissatisfaction
Worry – Helplessness
Afraid – Anxiety
Hurt – Exclusion
Embarrassed – Inadequate
Envious – Jealousy
Scared – Hopelessness
Ashamed – Unworthiness

Really allow yourself to feel it. Where in your body do you feel it and what does it feel like? Write this down in your journal.
Allow the feeling to just BE there without judging it or wanting it to be gone. Just let it be. Imagine that you can see this energy in your body. What color is it?

Ask yourself if you have felt this feeling before and when? What was happening? Who was involved? What were they doing?
Allow yourself to feel this feeling again. Has it gotten stronger? Has it changed colors or gotten darker? Has it shifted to any other areas of your body or has it stayed in one place?
Allow yourself to accept whatever you feel without judging it or thinking that this shouldn’t be happening.

Start taking in several deep breaths and envision yourself breathing in a pure, golden white light. Feel the warmth of the light as it comes down into your body. Use your awareness to direct the light and the warmth into the emotion you are experiencing. Notice the light start to disperse the darkness. Just allow this to happen. You don’t have to force it to happen. Just observe it as it is happening.
As the light starts to break up the darkness, deepen your breaths and start to forcefully exhale. Sometimes when I do this, I find that I need to cough because so much is coming up and my body starts to assist me in clearing the toxins that I am releasing.
Continue to take deep breaths and forcefully exhale until you feel the feeling dissipate and be released. Take a few more deep cleansing breaths and use the sound of relief…the sound of “Ahhh” as you exhale. It is important to do this out loud. This sound is a therapeutic sound that you can use any time you want to feel relief in a situation.

Take a few moments and enjoy your improved feeling from before. Realize that you may not feel “perfect.” However after using this exercise, it is expected that you will feel much better than before. Keep practicing and use this with any new situations or feelings that surface. Allowing yourself to just be in the moment allows these feelings to surface on their own…which is much easier than having to experience all of them in your daily life in the form of drama.

Physical Exercise of the Week:

Practice yoga in some form this week and allow yourself to just breathe and BE in the moment. You can practice any form of yoga that you want. It can be something as simple as the Yoga on your Wii Fit program or as challenging as Rodney Yee’s “Slow Burn Yoga” DVD If you have FiTV on your satellite or cable, I recommend “Yoga Zen with Sara Ivanhoe” for beginners. If you want to try something different, try Maya Fiennes’ “Kundalini Yoga to Detox and Destress” DVD. We were able to rent both the Rodney Yee and Maya Fiennes DVD’s from Netflix and liked them so much that we purchased a copy.

If you are a beginner or even intermediate, it may help you to have someone else guide you through it such as a DVD. Or you may enjoy a class at your gym or a local yoga center. In your practice, focus on your movements and allow yourself to just BE in that moment. Focus on your breathing and allow it to BE what it is. Allow any emotions that you may feel to just surface and release. Some emotions are so strong that they need our attention in order to fully release them, but we do not need to do this for every emotion. Many can be released in our yoga practice simply by allowing them to leave us as we move, breathe and stretch.

May you have a wonderful week!

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Facing and Feeling your Feelings

Posted by learning | Filed under Emotional Healing, Empowerment, Enlightenment, Spiritual Growth

From LTF Newsletter – September 5th, 2009

Greetings from Learning To Flow!
I had planned to talk about “Being in the Now” this week, but pretty much as soon as I wrote that, I started getting messages that the first topic needed to be about “Feeling Your Feelings.” And then to drive that point home with me, I was forced to feel my feelings all week long even those I didn’t want to feel.
In working again this week with my coach, she helped me peel back the layers on a core belief that had been manifesting more and more painful results throughout my life. The more I encountered the situation, the more energy I repressed that attracted it in the first place. The more energy I repressed, the worse the situation was when it happened again. Over time, this drove me to isolate myself from others because I did not feel safe to be around some without my boundaries being violated.

I realized this week that I had a core belief that I brought into this world to heal. In forgiving those that reflected it back to me, I was able to finally able to let these feelings go and embrace the energy of acceptance of who I am.

As we progress throughout the seven steps of a sustainable spiritual practice, you will find that to do any of it…you must be able to truly feel your feelings…for as it says in “Conversations with God”…’”feelings are the language of the soul.”‘

Namaste
Jeff Scholl

Quote of the Week:

“To be angry with someone is easy; but to be angry with the right person, at the right time, for the right reason and to the correct degree…that is difficult.” Aristotle – paraphrased

Facing and Feeling your Feelings

I notice that when I feel angry, my mind wants to play the situation that triggered it over and over in my mind to convince me that I have a right to feel angry. What it has taken me a long time to realize is that my mind does this because unconsciously, I had a belief that it was not safe to feel or express my anger. So in just being able to accept that it is normal for me to feel angry when my boundaries have been violated, I can then feel the energy of my anger in my being, breathe into it and release it.
One of the things prevented me from doing this is because for a long time, I had repressed so much anger that when I felt anger, I did not just feel the anger of the moment; I felt the energy of all of the anger I had repressed. I had forgiven people, but had mostly only done so from a conceptual perspective. I had not actually released all of the energy from that moment. So I was unconsciously repressing all that I had not released. My mind told me that I had handled that situation so it didn’t make sense to go back and feel those feelings again. In fact, because my mind did not want to experience those feelings again, I rationalized that I had “put it behind me.”
What I didn’t realize is that this is impossible. I am a being of energy and whatever I do not release, I hold onto. Whatever I hold onto becomes a part of my energetic signal.

To understand why this is important, we have to examine who and what we are. We are not our physical bodies and we know this. We are not our mind. We are spiritual beings. We are beings of energy that use our minds and bodies to express who and what we are in this world. We are essentially energy and we have been evolving for a long time throughout several lives.
For many of us in this lifetime, we brought all that we had not transcended into this life in order to heal it. The energies we brought in form layers of perceptions that color how we view the world. Our perception of the world is not simply affected by our childhood environment. Our childhood environment provides a stage for the energies we brought into this world. Our environment was selected by our soul to support what we wanted to experience and transcend in this lifetime. Our lives are an ongoing experiment in which we are learning how to allow energy to flow freely through us.

Our minds tell us that if we let go of the anger or the fear or the shame, that we will not have “learned our lesson.” We tell ourselves that only through guilt can we ensure we do not repeat our “transgressions.” But it actually works the opposite of this, for as long as we hold onto the energy we are attracting similar experiences into our lives again and again. It is only when we allow ourselves to let go of the energies we have repressed that we “learn” what that experience was there to teach us.

For me, I had to learn how to feel my feelings, so it was only in allowing myself to fully feel the energy in each moment that I have been able to release repressed energy from my past. It was easy for me to think about my feelings, to keep running events over and over in my mind thereby justifying my right to feel angry, fearful, sad, disappointed, hurt, etc.

I could not understand why I kept experiencing the same types of relationships, career struggles and even traffic incidents over and over until I understood why those experiences kept showing up in my life. They were there to show me what I had repressed. In many cases, it was only when the feeling overwhelmed me that I became aware of how much energy I had repressed for a particular emotion. Once I became aware of it, I was able to start feeling and releasing it.

Along the way, I have learned many methods of releasing this energy proactively rather than reactively and we will be covering many of these over the course of the next several weeks. But none of these methods were effective for me until I learned to feel my feelings. Because in each method, these emotions start floating to the surface. If my mind does not understand what is happening, it distracts me from allowing this energy to be released through the action of just allowing it to BE and feeling it. My mind focuses on things I need to do in the future, things I should have done in the past, things I need to be doing right now…anything to keep me from just feeling what I am feeling.

Once I learned to just allow it to be, breathe into it, feel it and allow it to leave…only then did I learn what it was there to teach me.

Learning to feel your feelings IS scary at first if you are not accustomed to feeling them at all, especially for men. It is much like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Our emotions are designed to be taken in, felt and processed out…much like our food.

This week, allow yourself to either start this exploration of your feelings…or to deepen it.

Namaste
Jeff

There are many feelings exercises out there. One of the best I have found and what I use when I do not have a coach who can guide me through this is “Yoga for Emotional Flow” by Stephen Cope.

This is a two CD set in which the author provides some valuable information on how important it is to feel our feelings and why. On the second CD, he provides three meditations in which he will guide you through both how to clear your emotions on a daily basis and how to release them when you are feeling particularly turbulent emotions. In the “Riding the Wave” meditation, he provides a simple, yet repeatable process that you can learn and master.

Note: I am not connected to Stephen Cope in any way. As with all of the resources I recommend in my books, articles and newsletters, this is simply the most effective methods I have found in my research.

To practice feeling the subtle energies of your feelings this week, get a deep tissue massage. When your therapist finds a knot and presses into, allow yourself to face the pain, breathe into it and release it. The more you become comfortable in facing any pain, the easier it is to feel your feelings when they happen.

“Feelings are not right, wrong, good or bad…they just are!” – Hu Dalconzo

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Learning To Flow

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 3

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 2

Applying the Seven Spiritual Truths in Your Life – Truth # 1

The Key to Your Spiritual Practice

The Relief of Surrender

Dis-Creation

Creating Your World

Dialoguing with Your Inner Child

Being in the Moment of Now

Facing and Feeling your Feelings

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