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The
Power of Letting Spirit Guide
Jackie
Kosednar
Have you noticed that
when life is going good, you often just cruise along? Your
body works well; your outlook is good; and then – inevitably
– comes a major upset.
Immediately, you feel a difference in your body.
You’re not quite as energetic, and aches and pains develop.
All that chronic stuff starts acting up again. The quality of
your thought turns negative. Your free spirit feels grounded
and life’s not looking so good anymore.
Body, mind and spirit
are interactive. When one goes downhill, they all do. If the
stress is heavy enough and goes on long enough, your body
begins to accumulate imbalances. This is how disease begins in
the body. Disease is usually a wake up call. What do we need
to wake up to? We need to wake up to our Spirit and follow it
because in some way we are off course. Although there are
other factors to support the process (such as how well you
take care of yourself, your heredity, environment, etc.), the
most important is whether or not you let your spirit guide
you.
Behind the world you are
creating is the essence of you. Your essence creates and
controls your individual world. This spirit-essence is your
uniqueness. As you look back over childhood and adulthood
memories you may notice that you – the ‘you’ that looks
out of your eyes – is the same you at 1 month and 12 years
and 80 years. It didn’t change; rather, your body and mind
developed so that you could have more expression. Like God,
your essence is not a physical thing even though it lives in
the physical universe. The physical body takes on the
invisible essence of you. Like a mirror, it reflects your
individuality and history.
You are not your mind
either. Rather, you use your mind to express your essence and
negotiate your world just like a captain uses his ship to get
where he wants to go. All your life you accept programming
from the outside world. You come in like a clean slate and
every one writes their name on your slate. One day you take
the bull by the horn and say, “No, I am not that” (usually
as a teenager) and from that day forward you choose your own
programming and how you will express your essence.
Your spirit has priority
and power. It controls the mind.
Many people are not in touch with their essence and
don’t know where their personal power comes from. Your
spirit gives your mind its power. Your spirit knows your life
plan and guides your life down your individual path. Some
believe that spirit is the part of you that goes on when you
die, taking all your memories and lessons with it. When your
spirit is very connected and strong and you know who you are,
you can weather the storms of life and keep your mind
positive, which, in turn, balances the body.
All of us, at one time
or another, may get confused about who we really are. The
world gives us many confusing messages. It would have us
believe we are our bodies, our social status, or our income
level. If you are not aware of your spirit, you can become
confused as well. Identity crises may occur at regular
intervals as a product of our personal growth, until we come
to know our spirit. You can often see this in teenagers. They
try to look alike and dress alike as they identify with their
peer group. The
developing teen psyche needs to break the bonds with the
parents in order to develop into one’s own person. It is the
same with male-female relationships.
A fact of modern life is
that most relationships don’t last and most people will
experience more than one primary relationship in their
lifetime. This comes from our spirit’s need to find and
develop itself. We have to find out who we really are and who
we can be. The search for Self – the search for Spirit –
goes on in all of us. In relationships, we develop ourselves
in relation to the other person.
Parts of ourselves go underground and other parts come
to the surface. Friendships can go through the same process.
People are in our lives by divine assignment. We attract them
because there is something we need to learn or develop. In
relationships in which we can’t grow and develop what we
need to, we may become very uncomfortable and have to leave.
Unfortunately, Spirit doesn’t play by the rules that the
mind makes up. If all you ever wanted was to be with the
‘right one’ and you are on your fourth ‘right one,’
then your spirit is probably right on course.
Leading with the spirit
is not so much religious as a personal growth process. When
you lead with your spirit, you begin to let go of sole
identification with your body or mind or outside world. You
begin to listen to the beat of your inner spirit, and you
follow it. This process creates a powerful space of
detachment. With detachment comes freedom. When Jesus said,
“I am in this world but not of it,” he was speaking about
this space of detachment.
When you stop buying
into all the garbage programming of the world, what other
people think of you stops mattering. Being socially or
politically correct loses its importance. Now you are
listening to the beat of a different drum. Yet, you will feel
more love. Love is of the spirit and changes into many forms
as it expresses itself. When we let our spirit lead, it always
leads to more love because it is love. Love and
self-expression are two priorities of the spirit.
Intuition is the vehicle
or way in which our spirits communicate to us. We all have
intuition that develops automatically when we become aware
that we are spirit. Children know they are spirit and are very
in touch with their intuition. When we grow up and buy more
into the world thought we lose contact with our intuition. We
also lose our spontaneous joy because joy is a product of
spirit.
To let the spirit lead
can be an amazing, joy-filled journey into love and greater
self-expression. When your spirit is in charge, things just
feel right. You
know deep inside that anywhere you are is exactly where
you’re supposed to be. Why? Because your spirit led you
there.
Jackie Kosednar
is a hypnotherapist, Energy medicine practitioner, spiritual
counselor, personal growth trainer, and the publisher of
Alaska Wellness Magazine. She teaches Energy Medicine
techniques in all of her workshops. Call 272-2469 for more
information.
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Spiritual
Mentoring and Creative Life Building
Stephanie
McMillian
Spiritual
Mentoring acknowledges that there is a higher wisdom within
each of us that knows what is best for our own individual,
unique self.
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Like
Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, our indwelling spirit can spin
the extraordinary out of the ordinary in our life. Perhaps you have
heard or read the statement that we are spiritual beings having a human
experience. As such, it follows that to make the most gain in the face
of challenge, the connection to our spiritual selves must not be
ignored. Spiritual Mentoring is an approach that actively seeks to meet
you where you are and support you in what works for you, while
introducing other possible avenues to access the wisdom that resides
within.
Spiritual
Mentoring seeks to help individuals gain greater utility in meeting the
challenges life has to offer. Change is one of the basic of these
challenges, and the human being is one of the fundamental units of
change in the universe. Spiritual Mentoring acknowledges that there is a
higher wisdom within each of us that knows what is best for our own
individual, unique self.
As
human beings, we all need the enactments of experience. It is through
experience that life presents us ongoing opportunities to expand, many
of which involve making personal corrective adjustments. We can expedite
the process by accessing our spiritual reality. That is, we can gain
greater depth by applying spiritual practices that resonate personally
within us, such as by focusing on that which is communicated to us
through our dreams or meditating, by paying attention to the immediate
environment of the present, by developing intuition and understanding
bodily energy flows, and through pertinent interactions with others.
With
a larger store of tools, we can begin to creatively build our lives in a
better way, for we are now equipped to make choices with greater
awareness. Another bonus to accessing the indwelling spirit is that we
are also better equipped to process through our ‘sticky issues’
(like holding on to hurts, for example) that often adhere to us like
glue. Working with our inner greater wisdom can foster letting go. This
then gives rise to a wellspring of compassion and forgiveness, now at
our disposal. No longer
blocked, we are free to apply a variety of skills that leads to faster
resolution in trying situations.
The
dream world is perhaps the gentlest environment where dramatic change
can be realized. In their book, Dancing
in the Flames, authors (and Jungian analysts) Marion Woodman and
Elinor Dickson assert that dreams “offer truth far beyond facts. They
bring new perspectives and new understandings to our experience.”
The authors refer to Fred Alan Wolf, a theoretical physicist who
claims, “In brief, matter evolves through dreams.” In other words,
the mechanism of dreaming allows us to work out our issues, which can
then be acted upon consciously.
During
Spiritual Mentoring, clients might bring their dreams to the table and
begin to decipher what their dream symbols mean to them while exploring
larger themes. Experience teaches us that concealed in the hours of our
darkest moments or lurking in our shadow side are vital gifts. To reach
them, we must dig down deep, listen, and follow through in the external
world. This is a wonderful opportunity provided through Spiritual
Mentoring. Through the dream process, gems of insight and wisdom deliver
us to beneficial shores. Indeed, we may even be elevated to greater
heights of transformation.
Meditation
is another avenue into the deep, a journey which can provide vital
insight while in the midst of chaos. Through Spiritual Mentoring, some
basic mechanics for successful meditation are taught and practiced via
controlling the breath. By steadfastly and patiently committing to
rounds of rhythmical breathing, slow and steady like a turtle, one can
slip by the chattering of the ego mind to access the deeper and wiser
aspect of Self. Opportunities for guided meditation and musical
accompaniment are also available so that clients may ascertain what
specifically resonates with them. As American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron
says about meditation: “What's encouraging about meditation is that
even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see
very clearly that we're closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate
the darkness of ignorance.” Entering into the quiet takes
discipline, but is certainly attainable as over 10 million Americans
practice some form of meditation.
The
relationship that is established in Spiritual Mentoring involves
entering a sacred space. The
idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts is a very real
part of the Spiritual Mentoring experience. For within this sacred
space, clients may find support for a shift in their orientation as they
open to greater aspects of their humanity. Through Spiritual Mentoring,
clients are encouraged to listen to their intuition and inner
experiences, embrace their inner life, connect with their body, and make
applications to the material world.
In
his book The Power of Intention,
Wayne Dyer states that an individual “cannot remedy anything by
condemning it.” Indeed, when an individual connects with indwelling
spirit, the insight that arises creates an empowering effect.
Creative
Life
Building
capitalizes on the positive momentum now freed from a low-energy thought
or emotion (such as blame) that can block progress. From the smallest
toe-tripper like what to make for dinner to the most perplexing
conundrum, released solutions can lead us to our next step or building
block.
The
perspective of Spiritual Mentoring and
Creative
Life
Building
acknowledges that when you are living with this kind of presence, you
ready yourself for a potentially more exhilarating experience of your
world.
Stephanie
McMillian, Licensed Professional Counselor, has recorded her dreams
for over 20 years. She is in private practice and can be reached at:
229-9926 or smac5838@yahoo.com
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How to Make Good Decisions
by Jackie Kosednar
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Contrary
to what you have been led to believe, the mind is not
a very reliable tool for decision-making. |
One of the keys to success in life
is the ability to make good decisions. Making the best choices will
always lead to greater survival—better health, more wealth, and
love. Major decisions, like who to marry or what job to take, can
impact your entire life. People are very different in the ways they
are designed to know what is right for them. Some of us are fast, some
slow, others are spontaneous; some are very deep and need time. But
when we make decisions from our own “inner authority” we make the
best decisions possible.
Never
make a Decision with your Mind
Contrary
to what you have been led to believe, the mind is not a very reliable tool
for decision-making. It is really an “outer authority;” it has
been conditioned by outer knowledge, not inner. It is like depending
on the hard drive of your computer to come up with solution to a
software problem. It doesn’t care what software it runs. The mind is
a storage place, just like your hard drive. It stores whatever is
programmed into it—education, movies, our experiences, other
people’s experiences. It can’t know what is right for you; all it
can do is gather and compare a bunch of data based on its own
programming, emotional climate, and current input, to come up with a
decision.
Your
mind can drive you crazy if you pay too much attention to it. The
current research in stress reduction has taught us that 75 percent of
the stress you feel is manufactured internally by your own mind from
emotional memory. This stress is what causes disease in our bodies and
dysfunction in our minds. If this is the authority you are making
decisions with, you could be in real trouble.
In
spite of how crazy the mind can be, our society programs all of us to
use our minds to make decisions. Is it any wonder the world is crazed
with drama?
Emotional
People
About
50 percent of the population is emotional; that is, they emit a
continuous energetic and emotional wave that goes from hope to pain
and back again—from good mood to bad mood. Making mental
decisions is most disastrous for these people, and so is making
instant, spontaneous decisions. For an emotional person, their
feelings will dominate and cloud the picture. Truth only comes in
hindsight. Emotional people process their lives from emotional depth.
There is no truth for them without metamorphosis.
Emotional decisions tend to be wrong decisions. If you are emotional
and look back over your life, you might see that when you made an
emotional decision it often led to disaster. Emotional people need to
“sleep on it.” Not to think about it, but to feel it through. If
you condition an emotional person to believe that their “first
impression is best” they are truly lost. Only the third impression
will be true for them.
Emotional people are more successful when they wait for emotions to
pass, so they can see their truth before making any decision. If you
are emotional, the more important the decision, the longer you may
have to wait for clarity. Never let people push you. Never make
spontaneous decisions if you can avoid it.
Non-Emotional People
The
other 50 percent of the population can have intense emotions because
they are picking them up and magnifying them from emotional people
around them. They feel emotional only in response to things and
people. Away from the aura of emotional people, their moods disappear.
In this way, emotions don’t cloud their true picture and they
don’t need to process their lives from within. These are the people
who make sound in-the-moment decisions.
Intuitives
Of
the non-emotional types of inner authority, only a small percentage of
people can make intuitive, split second decisions. You cannot train
people to make decisions this way. It is either their way and works
for them, or it doesn’t. If you’re genetically designed with
intuition as your inner authority, you will always make the right
decisions—if you trust your gut. Unless you are an emotional person,
of course; emotions make more noise than intuition and will cloud it
every time. The truly non-emotional, intuitive people find it easy to
stay in the “now” because they are designed that way. First
impressions are the truth for them, and they must always trust them.
Intuition is a flash in the moment, a hunch that doesn’t repeat.
These flashes happen often and consistently. This type of person can
become very dysfunctional if required to make sense of their
decisions. Intuition cannot be justified by the mind and must be given
the authority for these people.
Life-Force Surge
For
a lot of us, another kind of inner authority comes from a different
place inside and is more physical. It is not emotional or intuitive.
It is a below-the-gut response that seems to come from a life-force
motor within us. It is also spontaneous, but much earthier than
intuition. It often makes a sound like an “uh-huh” when something
is right, or “huh-uh” if it isn’t. This is a subtle body
response, not a flash in the moment. If feels like a strengthening;
the body is saying “yes, this is good for me,” or “no, it’s
not good for me.” Holistic medicine is just beginning to explore the
wonder of the body and how it really works. For a large number of
non-emotional people this life-force response will always make the
best decisions for them.
A Final Note
Emotional
people can have intuitive flashes and also life force surges but these
signals can never be counted on because emotional forces are powerful
enough to override and cloud intuitive responses and the subtle surge
of life-force. If you are emotional you will always be emotional. You
can’t change that.
(For more information on inner authority go to www.unifiedlifesciences.com)
Jackie
Kosednar
is a hypnotherapist, energy
medicine practitioner, personal growth trainer, and the publisher of
Alaska Wellness Magazine. She is also the author of the book, One
Miracle after Another. Contact: 272-2469 or jackie@alaskawellness.com
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