Thought

 

"I was a free thinker before I knew how to think." George Bernard Shaw

Everyone is influenced by someone, and so am I. To not be influenced is to remain ignorant.Today I do not hinder my thinking, particularly around spiritual matters, because of pride. I may not like change. I may find it hard to accept attitudes and opinions that differ from my own. I know pride keeps me deaf and often stupid. However, the daily program of a lived spirituality encourages a variety of opinions and attitudes. I can learn from different customs, lifestyles, and religions. I can be helped in my understanding of life by the stranger. I know I do not have all the answers.Today I am prepared to listen.

Sustainer of all religions and philosophies, help me discover You in any differences.

On this day of your life

 

I believe God wants you to know ...

 

... that change is the natural order of things and not

something that you benefit from resisting.

 

We live in a time of enormous upheaval on a global

scale, and more and more people are seeing huge

changes in their personal lives as well. It is the

nature of the world in which we live.

 

Move with grace in the face of these changes, for

every change brings you an incredible opportunity

for growth. Breathe, relax, and know with confidence

that all things will work out for you.

The Gift of Boredom (OM)

 

A bored mind can be the canvas upon which innovation is painted, and the womb in which novelty is nourished. The human mind thrives on novelty. What was once a source of pleasure can become tedious after a time. Though our lives are full, boredom lurks around every corner because we innately long for new experiences. Yet boredom by its very nature is passive. In this idle state of mind, we may feel frustrated at our inability to channel our mental energy into productive or engaging tasks. We may even attempt to lose ourselves in purposeless or self-destructive pursuits. While this can be a sign of depression, it can also be an invitation issued from your mind, asking you to challenge yourself. Boredom can become the motivation that drives you to learn, explore the exotic, experiment, and harness the boundless creative energy within. In Hindu and Buddhist traditions, boredom is perceived as a pathway to self-awareness. Boredom itself is not detrimental to the soul -- it is the manner in which we respond to it that determines whether it becomes a positive or a negative influence in our lives. When you respond by actively filling the emptiness you feel lurking in yourself, you cultivate creativity and innovation. If, when in the grip of boredom, you have difficulty acknowledging the merits of any activities you might otherwise enjoy, generate your own inspiration. Before you find yourself beset by boredom, create a list of tasks you can consult when it feels like there is simply nothing to do. Referring to a list of topics you want to learn more about, projects you've yet to begin, or even pending chores can spark your creative energy and reawaken your zest for life. When we are troubled by boredom, it is not that there is nothing to do but rather that we are not stimulated by the options before us. A bored mind can be the canvas upon which innovation is painted and the womb in which novelty is nourished. When you identify boredom as a signal that you need to test your boundaries, it can be the force that presses you to strive for opportunities you thought were beyond your reach and to indulge your desire for adventure.

The Magic that Happens when we Bear Witness to our Unresolved Traumas.

 

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Now is the Great Time for Transformation

Many healers, gurus, teachers, and mystics talk about living in the present but fail to address how many of us humans on the ground don’t know how to drop the weight of our cycles to show up with the moment as it is.

The truth about being in the moment is that it isn’t an automatic newness. We don’t just show up and everything we knew prior dissipates.

We show up and try to be with the moment without past projections, without an idea of it from something else we carried here to this spot. We want to see its vastness as we release the old and stale, rightfully so. And we ask ourselves, “Do we really like what is here, right now, as it is today? And not how we once said it was long ago?”

We want to know that when we unveil and reveal ourselves to the new dawn, we will be met in our relationships, environments, circles, and projects at the same level of reciprocity and renewal that we have acquired in the timespan of yesteryear’s present moment and today’s.

In order to be in this space, however, we also inevitably carry remnants of the past with us. A part of showing up in the present is bearing witness to all of the unresolved, unprocessed, lingering traumas, cycles, or patterns of the past that we have never really given ourselves a chance to fully integrate. And even if it is a continuum in which we have worked diligently through, we are still pulling from our prior self, somewhere.

The past tells us of our stories, our lessons, our integration periods. It tells us of not only our wounds and traumas but of our forthcomings and our wisdoms. While we don’t necessarily need to cling onto those pivotal points anymore, we recognize the leaping pads as monumental steppingstones to our “now.” They make up the contents within our medicine bags as we navigate and serve the world today.

We must honor some of those rites of passages we have walked through that have birthed the world we are in today. Because today will inevitably be someday a piece of the past that will not and cannot go unaddressed. Because I know that when we don’t acknowledge those pieces, they subconsciously store in our cells and tell our being, “This is where we are today.”

And when we honor them, we celebrate them for all that they are. Celebration also brings closure. Knowing that the moment was ceased with gratitude as we graduate and transition into the new level of our lives inevitably heeds an opening. So we must celebrate. We must have ceremony. This level of recognition tells the being, “This is no longer, but this, this right here, will serve you moving forward.”

This acknowledgement supports the birth of gracefully welcoming the present.

So, in a sense, and in my experience, the moment isn’t always brand-new. It’s a product of what happened prior and what brought us here. The present is the opportunity to catch up, refresh, and change gears—but that involves facing our history. And even then, in this moment, we lube the gears to turn in the direction we need it to go—foreseeing the future. Time is never still: it is a fluid continuum.

And even the future doesn’t have to be a place we avoid or disconnect from. We are 100 percent allowed to value what is in our lives while at the same time dreaming an even bigger landscape for births to occur.

The future, too, draws us back to the present moment inviting us to be ever more diligent, devoted, intimate, and authentic as we move from what once was to what will be. It happens here and now.

And the magic of showing up in the present is opening the gift of the potentials untapped, the dreams awaiting, and the open spaces before us that have always and ever been beckoning us forth to lay bricks and pave a path.

But what has stopped us from veering down the path wielding no footprints, the grassy fields absent of track marks, the gravel lot yearning for bricks to be laid? I do not think it is fear. No. Because as much as we curbside kick and knock it down, fear is not the culprit of our inability to be restored. Fear often shows us where we must go, and trembling, we move. Even if flailing, unsure, unprepared, it does move us.

I think what hinders us from being with our present is not knowing how to integrate our past and our future into the atom that is the now, vibrating at the center of both. We think that we have to drop our stories, our children, our life, absolutely everything we knew prior in order to show up.

We also think that we have to detach from our calling—the part of us that has already overcome this hurdle, always whispering to us from the portal that is the future and absolutely everything we have foreseen, envisioned, and dreamt to someday reach in order to show up.

But that simply could not be less true. Being with the present is being with the flow of what was and what will be. We can certainly quantum leap, but many of us need an iron rod to hold onto and substance in between as we transition. We need a system for processing.

We need a pool for integrating our stories and, equally so, a pool for dipping our toe into the freshness. We need safe spaces to release and safe spaces to reawaken. Containers in which we can reflect and ask, “Is this how the story still goes?” and inquire, “How do we want the story to transform as we turn the pages?”

More importantly, we want the reprieve to pause for a moment and ask ourselves, “Who are we now that we have climbed that mountain or overcome that hurdle? And in which ways will this new self, from that old thing, serve the future of where we are going?”

So, for me, when I work with being present, I lovingly and delicately sit with whatever comes up from my past. What is this showing me about myself, my stance, my world, today? Where was I then, and how far have I come since? What did this experience show me in the moment as I was moving through it—and how does that differ from now, as I’ve integrated it?

And then when I’m feeling brave, I ask myself, “In which way can I utilize these personal stories, these breakthroughs, these revelations in ways that not only redeem my spirit from then to now, but move into my future and continue to carry me, shape me, or be of service to myself and others as I move forward?”

I am all for sudden death and rebirth.

But I am also all for witnessing, holding, honoring, and nurturing the heart of the present that is inevitably tied together by both the past and the future. The art of weaving the sacred tapestry and connecting all of the dots is my absolute sweet spot.

The transition is the tenderness that takes place when we are both magically conduits of spirit and vulnerable expressions of human beings.

I want to know how I will use my past to intentionally, devotedly, purposefully, and with passion, consciously create a better future for myself and those who inhabit my space.

I also want to know how my brothers and sisters will not only overcome the triumphs of their old ghosts but allow their forthcomings to be the platter that serves their gifts today.

I want to know how we can weave the tapestry that is our human birth right of evolution and expansion in a way that honors our past, not as a setback, but as a catalyst into our future. I want to know how we are able to access the medicine within what was once the wound and move from there.

And between the stories of my history and the dreams of my future is my now. The present. To enjoy.

As restoration, as magic, as a cauldron of redemption, integration, alchemy, and embodiment.

I think that we need more safe spaces, open arms, sacred covenants, containers, circles, platforms, networks, and rites of passage that honor the present. Not only as a magical, new quantum moment but as the product of the chemistry between our history and our destiny.

We need more tools to weave it all together in a way that redeems us from our past and catapults us into our “caught up” selves as we lovingly and gently nurture the delicate human being we are in the process: in the in-between.

I am lovingly working on creating these spaces myself and others—for all of us.

~

 

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Taylor Rose  |  Contribution: 2,045

Taylor Rose is a Mother first, a pursuit in which has inevitably shaped the remainder of her life’s meaning. It was through motherhood that she learned patience, presence, b… Read full bio

AUTHOR: TAYLOR ROSE

IMAGE: ASJABOROS/INSTAGRAM

Finding my Purpose: 5 things I would tell my Younger Self.

 

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Twenty-five. The number of jobs I’ve had trying to find my purpose.

Considering I’m 40, had my first job at 15, and have been self-employed for over six years, that’s an average of a little over one job title per year.

Throw 20 studio apartment moves in that mix, and you have a perfectly imperfect scenario of a wandering lost soul trying to find themselves.

I have always believed that we each come to earth for a specific purpose, and I used to daydream about discovering mine. I thought my reason for existence was something I would find in an extensive search outside of me. Like one big scavenger hunt in the world that would lead to this significant ah-ha moment.

Growing up, I looked high and low in every high school textbook, sport, and hobby. I paid close attention at career days and college fairs, listened to coaches’ feedback, and I even thought my report cards or grades may reveal what I was good at. When none of that worked, I started to explore all my jobs.

The titles I have had are vast—baby sitter, barista, hostess, student assistant in a pharmacy, nanny, administrator in a warehouse, assistant meeting planner, event planner, assistant to a chiropractor, Nesquick bunny, Jack Daniels girl, promo person for Charmin, three different titles on a cruise ship (Youth Staff, Cruise Staff, Crew Activities Manager), caretaker, customer service in a mortgage office, customer service and then business development in IT, administrative assistant for an acupuncture school, flight attendant (I also worked in the office for an airline when my body didn’t like flying), virtual assistant—shall I keep going?

None of it was fulfilling. While there were moments of bliss every so often, and some things felt good, I certainly didn’t feel like any of it was purposeful. I looked to others who inspired me, taught me, and mentored me. I thought they might have the answer to help me find it.

Nope.

So, what changed? My mind…

…and I can pretty much pinpoint the moment.

I had been seeing a spiritual teacher, who prided herself in assisting people in finding their purpose. This was part of the problem; her leading me to believe that she had the answers, and if “I just stuck with it,” I would be the best Feng Shui Practioner, Intuitive Medium, and even better as an Energy Medicine Practitioner. *Insert facepalm here.*

I took a class from her that I believed I needed before I could really do what I wanted to do to fulfill my purpose—finally.

This was well before Zoom, so we met via conference call for six weeks, with two hours of instruction each week. About three weeks into the class, I had an all too familiar flashback of being in second grade, sun gazing out the window, thinking about the fruit roll-up that was in my lunch box. I was in pure boredom and realized I hadn’t learned any new material in the first half of this series.

It wasn’t that the information wasn’t good or interesting. There wasn’t an opportunity to practice the material with others. I asked myself, “If I already know the content, and there isn’t practicum, what the hell am I paying for?” It ended up being an expensive lesson that taught me the only difference between the person leading the class and me, was she decided to put herself out there and do the damn thing.

After class three, I reflected. I could continue feeling safe and listen to information on repeat, or I could take action and start.

That sounded good but there was one big problem. The thought of starting scared the sh*t out of me. I immediately grabbed ice cream from the freezer and turned on the serial killer series, Dexter, in hopes it would take effect on my ego, and drown out the voice in my head that was telling me to just begin.

But the following morning, the voice was back. She hadn’t drowned, and she was even more obnoxious consuming my entire morning. She wouldn’t leave!

I started thinking about how I had always followed fear. The thought of being stranded at sea freaked me out yet I went to work on cruise ships. I was scared of flying then became a flight attendant. I asked myself how I could do it again in this scenario. And I did.

I finished the class because integrity is important to me, but I broke up with that teacher. I fully invested in a mentor who helped me see the answers were in me.

She put me in touch with some of my first clients. I kept practicing and saying yes to things that scared me. I emailed friends letting them know what I was doing. I did more practice sessions and upped my prices.

I just kept going leaving no stone unturned.

Eventually, I began working for myself full-time. And even then, my title and my purpose have shifted from Feng Shui Practioner to Intuitive Medium, to Spiritual Counselor, Intuitive, and Spiritual Mentor.

As I write this, my whole business is being re-branded. Not because I don’t like it, or I am searching, but because I am evolving, as we all are. We are each designed to shift, change, learn, and ascend.

I look back at all of the titles and labels that I have owned and chuckle with delight that I have never been afraid to leap. I am reminded of the beautiful journey that led me to where I am, but damn. As former first lady and activist Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”

I have found this to be very true, and if I could go back to my 16-year-old self, I would beg her to reach out eagerly without fear at every step.

If I could give my younger self five pieces of advice to save her time in the ultimate search for her purpose, I would share the following with her:

1) We don’t find our purpose, we live it by saying yes to joy, moment-to-moment, and by aligning with our core values. Please know your core values well, review them often, live by them, and rest assured this approach will bring more purposeful experiences.

2) We live our purpose with greater ease when we stop being afraid of fear but instead follow fear like a trusted teacher. Please keep following the fear and saying yes to things that scare you.

3) You are never going to feel ready. Other people won’t feel ready either but may say yes first. So, listen to number two and just start. Please keep following the curiosity, leaving no stone left unturned, and say yes soon.

4) The only wisdom you will gain from a teacher or leader who makes you think they have an answer you don’t already have, or a miracle cure for something you need, is that you are no different. Please keep following the call to work with mentors who guide you to embodiment through self, and say yes to the lessons and wisdom of others who teach with integrity.

5) Remember this quote by Oprah, “I believe every one of us is born with a purpose. No matter who you are, what you do, or how far you think you have to go, you have been tapped by a force greater than yourself to step into your God-given calling. This goes far beyond what you do to earn your living.” Please keep following the nudges you are called to for the sake of love, not money, and saying yes to all that feels right.

I am not claiming to be the master of purpose. I haven’t faced adversity before being appointed a Supreme Court justice like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or made life-changing contributions to the development of the quantum theory, like Albert Einstein. But every day, brings a new gift, with miracles I witness, and I feel gratitude each morning and night, that I feel a sense of purpose.

In being an Energy Medicine Practioner and Embodiment Mentor, I get to work with heart-centered people every day to help them take the steps toward living a more embodied life. There is far too much hype around finding that big deal purpose, and “that thing” we are supposed to do. In reality, that thing doesn’t exist, we will not find it. It is within each of us, living, breathing, and continually birthing and morphing.

May we all feel the blessings in the freedom that comes with saying yes to joy, letting fear be our trusted teacher, and doing it all for love, never money.

May we all feel the blessing of the freedom that comes with a purpose-led life.~Gina Nicole 

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Gina Nicole Ballard  |  Contribution: 46,485

Gina Nicole helps heart-centered entrepreneurs and empaths transform their fear into creation energy so that they can embody their truth and live with meaning. Her specialty i… Read full bio

AUTHOR: GINA NICOLE BALLARD

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