PEACE AND GRATITUDE

Yesterday was an unusually tough day for me; there were a lot of things disturbing me, adding up to strong feelings of sadness and despair. I could have called it the holiday blues, but in truth, the feelings just happened to be occurring with the ironic backdrop of these “festive” holiday times — amidst a seeming tsunami of covid resurgence, ongoing political divisiveness, deaths of family and friends, waves of local crime, and threats of shootings (and actual shooting) at schools, including a threat and lockdown at the high school in my home town. And then there was a shooting at a pretty swanky shopping mall, in another suburb of my stomping ground, Chicago…right when shoppers are doing their frenzied last-minute holiday shopping, of course. 

INTENSIFIED FEELINGS

Unbelievable happenings: It certainly is a tough time in the world at large. In our inner worlds, it’s a time of intensified feelings and emotional sensitivity for many of us. The holiday season can be like that, in general, but for some, like myself, this year has been a tougher one, for all the reasons I mentioned above, plus some additional personal ones too. 

I do a lot of coaching around feeling one’s feelings. I tell my clients to practice the art of staying with their feelings. It’s important to honor our feelings, for the feelings that occupy our hearts are meant to be experienced, rather than suppressed.  We are typically taught as children to suppress our feelings. We learn to please our parents and teachers by stifling the expression of the feelings of our inner child — year after year, we learned to muffle feelings. When feelings are suppressed, we become disconnected from our authentic Self. Our vulnerability becomes layered with energetic armor that keeps others away.

Feelings, however, are apt to leak out in later years as snarkiness, develop into addictive patterns, explode as reactivity, or cause energetic blockages that can affect health. I know this all-too well, being a very human human, myself. 

HOLDING SPACE FOR THE BLUES

So yesterday, in my day with the blues,  I held space for feelings, and breathed into the sadness. It lasted, more or less, all day. I stopped trying to explain the sadness and just experienced the sensations of it. Sometime, shortly after sunset, as I was making dinner, I noticed I felt lighter.  I was gently transitioning back into peace, and when I tuned into my dear heart - there was gratitude there, and for no particular reason. Nothing externally had changed, but there it was, that sweet lightness of gratitude. 

A HEART IN PEACE IS GRATEFUL

Have you ever asked yourself, how can I be grateful when so many other people are in pain, grief, and suffering? There is no logical answer if you’re a conscious, aware, citizen of the earth.  But the answer is not logical, it’s spiritual; I’ve come to know that a heart in peace is simply a heart filled with the light of gratitude, and that gratitude within can have nothing to do with what’s going on in the external world. I would describe this gratitude as a personal, spiritual experience of connection with the sacred inner Self.

That Sacred Self within seems to be the very energy of gratitude. When we can reconnect with our hearts by honoring the feelings that show up there, we can’t help but find our way back home to the light of gratitude within.

FIND YOUR WAY HOME

I invite you to find your way back home, wherever you are, whoever you’re with, and whatever you’re doing.  The essence of this “season of lights” is truly not found in shopping or presents. If you hold space for just being with whatever feelings are arising, you will bring your own natural, inner light of gratitude to those holiday get-togethers, and also to the solo evenings of videos and popcorn, should those occasions occur as well!

In addition to the deep breathing and feeling I coach my clients to do, you can keep a gratitude journal, if you’d like, and write down at least three things daily you’re grateful for, like  “the sun is shining!”. It doesn’t mean, though, that you don’t have to feel your feelings!  Please feel deeply. We typically want to run from feelings, or blame others for them, and certainly we have the ability to do that easily enough. I don’t judge anyone from running into escapism at times. But don’t make escapism from feelings the norm. 

 And when you need to, just remember that you have been given the mysterious gift of life to fully experience it. Your lungs are pumping and your heart is beating, totally without conscious help. Along with that miracle, you have strong feelings. You have angry feelings. You have loving feelings. Say to yourself, thank you for all of this! What a mysterious miracle this thing called life is. And what a mysterious and sacred event is this return to gratitude for nothing other than the reason that gratitude is the grace of returning to our peaceful, sacred essence within, our true home.

CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT

Please consider taking my upcoming class in January, called “Holding The Child Within” for support in moving beyond emotional pain and reconnecting with your peaceful, sacred essence. I’m offering another 3-part experiential class to help you establish a paradigm shift - from living in thoughts, fears and judgement, to living through the heart. It’s a shift from hurt, to peace, gratitude, vitality, and joy. The result is living a life of love and purpose. Curious to learn more about the class? Click here.

From my heart to yours, wishing for you great inner peace and the joy of gratitude this holiday season and always!

GOING DEEPER

To learn more, please book your complimentary discovery session, a Shamanic Soul Retrieval & Extraction, Spiritual Empowerment Coaching, Shamanic Energy Clearing and Cord Releasing session, or an Akashic Record Reading.

My virtual office and my in-person office are open! Come on in.