This last week a question was posed to me regarding doing one’s personal best; a profoundly worthy question in these confusing times. As we learn to live in Unity, we must question what we have been taught historically and question our reactions and responses to that conditioning.
The concept of doing one’s best is fraught with questions regarding the motivation behind the goal. If I am attempting to do my “best” and I am doing it for monetary gain or for recognition, is my motivation really about a personal best? And why have I decided that this should be my personal best? A personal best in sports or other competitions is one thing, and a personal best is appropriate. In daily life, we are taught to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. I just wonder, dominated by ego as we are, if we are individually the best best perspective on what that “best” might be… Mightn’t our “best” change with our perspective, our focus, our criteria, and our motivation?
I do not attempt to make an argument one way or the other. The purpose is simply to make you aware that there are many reasons why we each attempt a “personal best” and it is important to identify what those reasons are. In Unity thinking, we have to remember that what we do for one, we do for all because our energies and our personal motivation absolutely affect everyone around us. What we clear for ourselves, we clear for everyone. It is so important to remember that.
And so I am told:
When one is aligned with one’s personal Truth, with clarity of vision and honesty, seeing one’s motivation for action becomes clear. Do you act out of fear or divine direction? Do you see how this is similar to “doing the right thing for the wrong reason”? For example, if you choose to further yourself because you do not recognize your own gifts and unique qualities but still want to be “better” than those you have set your self in competition with, you are acting from a place of shadow, rather than following the direction of the Higher Self. Fear has become the motivator. “Personal best” is a concept that must be examined for motivation, with clear and heartfelt honesty. Being the best one can be at any given time is, in and of itself, not a positive or negative. It simply is a choice. It is a judgment, and judgment implies either/or thinking as opposed to both/and. In Unity Consciousness, one must endeavor to accept ALL that each soul embodies, the “good” with the “bad”, so to speak. The pressure of cultural influence cannot be ignored, so each being must face their own inner truth with clarity and an open and loving heart.
As one begins to embrace Unity Consciousness, one must be willing to let go of patterns of behavior and thought that support separation. One must take the time to think with the heart and embrace with the mind, allowing new insights and patterns of behavior to develop and replace those outworn patterns.
***This guidance column was written by Jan Finley for TheCosmicPath.com. It may be shared freely, but only when the author’s name and website are included.
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The news this week was horrific. The selfish, mindless killing of innocent people just to satisfy the ungovernable shadow aspects of one young male has just gutted me. Not because we haven’t seen this kind of behavior, but exactly because we have and it still continues. Unabatedly.
I dream of a better, kinder world. A world where we help one another rise to their potential. A world where one race, one color, one religion, one gender, one bank account is not more valued than another. I dream of a world where life is appreciated and celebrated, not ripped away for selfish reasons. I dream of a world where Mother Earth is cherished and nurtured, and not exploited. Of a world where women and children are not violated and used. I dream of a world where we greet and welcome one another with kindness and compassion.
As I write this, it is the first day of spring, and yesterday Shelly Leal wrote this in Saturday’s Cosmic Consciousness blog, “Today is a balance point, where we can come to rest in the midst of duality, of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, and take stock of how far we have come and where we want to go next.”
I hope we will all take this moment and do so.
And so I am told:
The lessons humankind struggles to learn are unfortunately basic ones, those of the open heart. Until each individual learns to go inward, to face and embrace all shadow aspects of the self, forward progress is stymied. While all must be embraced and acknowledged, an open and willing heart is required to do so. The fear of not being enough drives the need to be superior to others. Do you see how that obstructs learning and acceptance? Do you not yet see that when these situations are presented to each of you that they are opportunities of learning?
Everything in your world was designed to teach you of rebirth and renewal, which comes from the Heart. This should be obvious by now. Today is the first day of Spring in what you refer to as your Northern Hemisphere, a perfect reminder of cycles and renewal. Each year you observe this cycle being played out around you, its message vivid and clear, and yet humankind continues to repeat that which clearly does not work, embracing instead oppression and constraint.
There is a flow to all life that must be honored and acknowledged and it begins within the heart of each individual. Let this be the moment in time/space where each person chooses the Path of the Heart. The Earth and every living being depend on your choice.
***This guidance column was written by Jan Finley for TheCosmicPath.com. It may be shared freely, but only when the author’s name and website are included.
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For the last couple of weeks, I have sensed these lovely wispy spirals coming up from the ground. Sounds strange, I know, but they felt ephemeral and yet filled me with anticipation and hope of new beginnings.
As we passed the one-year anniversary of the pandemic, my knee-jerk reaction was to feel a little blue, but these wispy spirals kept me distracted. I began to notice that my attitude of same old, different year was changing, lifting. Then Saturday, the New Moon in Pisces blew through my body, my mind, my emotions and my spirit. I don’t think I have ever experienced a new moon quite like that. Of course, it was accompanied by several new planetary cycles starting at well which certainly boosted the experience. (If you haven’t or don’t read all the many offerings on this site, I encourage you to do so.).
The spirals I experienced reminded me of the Wholing Ray and Saturday’s new moon was a full-blown burst of that incredible energy. I have been working with the Wholing Ray for the last couple of years, an energy that is less about healing, although it does provide healing, and more about creating Wholeness. This energy is available to everyone if you simply ask for it and allow yourself to receive it. I have always received it through the crown of my head but Saturday’s experience was fully multi-dimensional and very powerful.
And so I am told:
The Wholing Ray is indeed available to all, for it is in every breath you take, for those who waken. Breathe deeply, for new beginnings are indeed here. With this in mind, we offer this benediction.
Blessed children of the Light, may your hearts be filled with inspiration and your eyes open to all possibility. May attachment lessen its hold on the human heart allowing love absolute freedom of expression. May the coming days delight, inspire and rejuvenate with conscious awareness of and appreciation for the long path that brought all to this time/space. May illusion pass away, and open hearts prevail. You are blessed to us and to all wise ones who observe, guard and guide. May you all remember that you exist in Oneness.
***This guidance column was written by Jan Finley for TheCosmicPath.com. It may be shared freely, but only when the author’s name and website are included.
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Many I have talked to continue to express how exhausted they are as we enter Year 2 of the pandemic. Tired of not seeing friends and families, having outings and vacations, of just hanging on – all of these and more has affected most of us. After a long year of pandemic protocols and isolation, we are all tired and a bit out of sorts left longing for normal. Whatever that normal was…
As I have said before, there is no normal to go back to. And in fact, it never really existed in the first place. Humankind has slept the sleep of complacency and denial. We have had inklings that there is “more”, that maybe we aren’t seeing all of any situation, of maybe all is not is as well as we thought…but our denial has held strongly.
And now, all that is changing. This last year has jump-started the awakening process and I suspect it is that awakening that creates the exhaustion as much or more than the longing for “normal.” We can no longer hide our heads in the sand and pretend that all is well. We can no longer keep our heads down and ignore all that is changing around us, and more importantly, within us.
We are in unstoppable motion, in full-blown transformation and must accept that this is so and move forward in full awareness and command of ourselves. Our exhaustion, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual, serves to cloud our awareness and the simple knowledge of how much we have transformed already. It is time to sink our toes deep in the earth, raise our arms to the sky, open our hearts completely and embrace the Be-ings into which we are evolving.
I have had the sense for some time now that there is much more going on than meets the eye; the sense that just because this feels like another day of slogging through the pandemic experience, it is truly anything but the same old same old.
For one thing, we all are completely different people than we were a year ago. We have learned to dig deeply into the heart of ourselves and embrace whatever is placed before us. We haven’t always embraced what we were served in the most graceful ways, but our boundaries have stretched to accommodate the existence of the new and different, even when we don’t like what we see.
In the spring, as the growing things begin to awaken and emerge, so we also emerge from the winter depths. My sense is that we are awakening from a similar deep sleep and the temptation is to keep moving forward, in the same way we have for the last year (lifetimes) seeing only the familiar, reacting only with familiarity.
But something more, deeper, richer is occurring. I am being prodded to stay awake, to pay attention, to recognize, to be aware. My Higher Self is demanding I listen and pay attention. Something is at work and I am – we are – part of this new yet strangely familiar way of Be-ing.
Every choice we make, every step we take, every word we speak powerfully impacts the Whole. As such, we must take responsibility for every moment of our existence, so that it might serve the Whole and not the lost “normal”of the past. Our choices, our sacred Light affects all that we perceive and all that we are.
And so I am told:
The richness you perceive is only, as you would say, the tip of the iceberg. The costumes and roles you have worn for millennia are beginning to fray and fall away, exposing the glory which lies within. The inertia of the pandemic both disguises what is occurring within the Heart/Mind of many and exposes the rank dichotomy of what is real and perceived. As the veils of illusion fall away, those who cannot and will not take part will stand exposed. The Light will always prevail and each must allow it to have its way with the Self, so that all that is false may fall away.
When the doldrums or inertia seems present, sit in peace and allow your self to acknowledge the presence of this richness within you to arise and fill your world. Bask within it, letting it wash away illusion and reacquaint each Heart/Mind with the sacred flame within. Make time to do this regularly and reverently, with gratitude for All That Is. You will see that the perceived boundaries between you and the world around you begin to disappear.
“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember … you are the medicine.”
~María Sabina, Mexican healer and poet
(Ronnie Grishman)
***This guidance column was written by Jan Finley for TheCosmicPath.com. It may be shared freely, but only when the author’s name and website are included.
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