JOY, LOVE, GRATITUDE
Joy
We are hardwired for joy! If you doubt that, just watch a baby or young child. They literally exude utter delight in life. Yet we live in a culture where it is normal to work long hours, rush from one activity to the next, gulp our meals, and feel pressured to do more in less time. Instead of feeling joyful, we feel stressed out. However, our bodies have an inner wisdom and an energy system that help us bring back that joy that truly is our birth right. It can send much needed energy to where our bodies most need it to help us start to thrive. In fact, this energy system supports, inspires, and strengthens all of our energy systems to work together in harmony. This system, the Radiant Circuits, help strengthen your immune system, calm emotions, increase resilience and tap you into deeper joy, gratitude and happiness.
Two wonderful exercises for activating the Radiant Circuits are the following:
Ten Hearts: Trace 3 Hearts around your face, starting at the forehead. Trace 3 Hearts around your chest area, starting at your Heart Chakra (centre of chest) and ending at your navel. Trace 3 Hearts around your torso, starting at your Heart Chakra and going up around your head and down to pubic area. Trace one final heart, starting at your Heart Chakra and going up over your head and ending at your feet.
Dancing to the Eights: Move your hips in a smooth and rhythmic figure eight pattern. Add in your arms and trace figure eights all around your body. This is a fun one to do with music playing!
And don't forget to smile! Radiant Circuits get activated when we feel love, awe, inspiration, gratitude and all those juicy feelings.
Love
February is the month of LOVE. l think every month ought to be about love because it seems to me that what we need is more love, particularly self love. It is an epidemic in our culture to not love ourselves. And what a tragedy because people shine their light when they know they are loved, especially when they love themselves.
One of the first ways to start loving yourself is to LISTEN to yourself. Have you ever noticed that when you fall in love with someone, you listen intently to that person, wanting to know everything you can about them? So try listening deeply to yourself...like, really listen. Listen as though you are the most important person in this whole world to you (because you are!). Listen because you are genuinely curious about yourself. What do you truly care about, what makes your heart sing, what brings you fulfillment, joy, energy? This is not about being self absorbed. The paradox is that when we love ourselves and we feel safe in this world, we become less self focused. And when we feel loved by ourselves, we naturally extend that love to others, contributing the gift of our being to those around us.
May you love yourself unconditionally and let your light shine!
Loving Oneself
One of the most common themes I see in my practice is a lack of self-love. I am not saying you ought to be arrogant or self-absorbed, which more often than not hides an actual lack of self-love. What I do mean is the ability to simply love yourself for who you are, just as you are…now. To have compassion for whatever you are going through. To be gentle with yourself when you mess up. To celebrate when things are going well. To be a friend to yourself and to simply enjoy your own humanness. The world would be a much kinder, happier, and healthier place if we all were kinder and more loving to ourselves.
Wired for Joy
It is a neurological fact that our brains are wired for joy! According to neurochemist Candace Pert, humans have evolved with a greater concentration of endorphin receptors than any other creature. Unfortunately, passive entertainment, consumerism and worries/anxieties have rewired many of us to be less in touch with our joyful nature.
However, opening our extraordinary meridians or radiant circuits increases our capacity for joy.
Here is a simple exercise by Donna Eden to activate the bridge circuits - simply draw a "heart" on your chest with your middle fingers, starting between your breasts and ending at your navel. Do this three times and when your hands meet at your navel on the third trace, continue down the inside of your legs. Finish by wrapping your fingers underneath the insteps of your feet. Pull your body up and away and stretch your back. Enjoy and may you be joyful!
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is fundamental to healing. When we truly forgive, (which does not necessarily mean to condone an action), our vision goes from how another or ourselves are less than whole and complete to one where we see wholeness. And it is when we can hold ourselves or another as whole, as already lovable and loving, that healing occurs.
Be Amazed
I find that when I am open to being amazed, with no agenda about how that will occur, I am blown away by life in the most unusual ways. All I need to do is sense into myself for that tingle of excitement, curiosity or joyful anticipation and stay open and pay attention to what is actually going on around me - and then it happens. Life presents itself in a little miracle or even a big one. Alberta Einstein said “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” What I find is that when you come from the perspective that life is miraculous, you can't stop being amazed. All you need to do is stay open to what is. May you be AMAZED today!
Being Open to Others
"For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them." Thich Nhat Hanh
Isn't that so true about people we apparently know? Our friends and family? When we let go of 'knowing' them already, we open ourselves to who they are now, as they unfold in this life. And we might be surprised by the beauty we find!
Love and Discernment
Love and discernment go hand in hand. In fact, the heart chakra holds the energies of love AND discernment; however, I rarely hear people connect the two. As our hearts open and we become more loving outwardly, we naturally start become more loving inwardly. This movement allows us to listen more closely to ourselves and pay attention to what brings us joy, love and vitality. It is this vitality and love that shows us what we are meant to individually contribute to this world. And as we become aware of who we really are and what is ours to contribute, it becomes essential to grow in our discernment of how we spend our precious time and energy. We will need to continually review our lives and carefully choose what is in alignment with our inner vitality. We may, at times, need to let go of certain work, relationships, beliefs and ways of being that no longer serve us and who we are becoming. Giving up a draining job or negative relationship is easy compared to giving up things that have served us well and perhaps we identify with. Each of us is a unique expression in this world and being that expression is our true contribution. The more you make decisions that support doing what you really love, the more you are giving the world the gift that you are.
