#535 Practice Concerned Detachment

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message for us today?

In order to consolidate a few things that I have been speaking about and set you on your forward path, I advise a concerted effort be made to detach from the unusual and difficult lives of others, even though they may wrap you up in their plans. The journey through life is indeed a solitary one and although aid must be given and received so are the consequences of life meant to be borne in deep reflection.

Often deep reflection will only come when all else no longer works to propel one forward, especially in the days of youth and folly. Do not judge or allow for your energy to be drained by engaging in negative thinking or determinations. In order to remain in a positive frame of mind, without energy drains, the practice of concerned detachment must come into play.

Concerned detachment allows for removal of judgment, removal of compromised energy, and removal of responsibility for choices made by others. In order to remain in compassionate concerned detachment there must be an anchoring in the knowing self, a firm planting of the needs of the self that are appropriate and necessary in order for your path to be focused and steady. It is not wrong to stay focused on the spiritual and everyday needs of the self, and this is what many of you must more fully take into consideration as you begin this busy week of energetic flare-ups and attention grabbing desires.

Anchor the self as this energy seeks to subsume all other energy. There will be calls for attention, yet are they but unwarranted calls by those who must push forward now, taking full responsibility for decisions and choices that have nothing to do with you. I advise a stand be taken, rules laid out, so that your busy week may be one of steady calm truth and focus.

Practice concerned detachment by continually anchoring in the deeper self, acknowledging the interruptions that life offers as further reminders to turn inward and settle your fears and worries. Life does not wish to wait to unfold. It will bring its desires forth for all who reside upon that earth.

Anchor in heart-centered certainty that you are on a journey of spirit; a journey that needs you firmly present, fully aware, yet also available to guide others in your path by your examples of calmness, detachment from worry, and by your concerted efforts to be understanding, compassionate, and guiding.

This energy of now requires firm anchoring or you will be torn from your moorings and caught in the storms that rage in your vicinity. In order to be aware, yet not get caught in their fury, go into inner knowing and stay grounded by your love and compassion for all beings, firmly rooted in these qualities for the self as well. Give to the self and you will do well as this energy makes attempts on your kindness, your compassion, your attention, and your energetic availability.

By remaining in concerned detachment you will notice that the storms will remain on the distant horizon, seen, yet of no greater concern for the time being, except as a sign that it is time to be aware.

#534 Chuck’s Place: Awe!

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

Don Juan maintained that we live in a predatory universe. Life feeds upon life. Human beings are not exempt from being food for another awareness. However, in our case, as humans, the predator feeds upon our awareness, not our physicality. This siphoning of our awareness renders us incapable of growing beyond our obsessive worries about the self. Don Juan suggested that our awareness rarely grows beyond our feet, and at that level we are fixated on self-importance.

Carlos Castaneda was repulsed at the notion of a predatory entity feasting upon his awareness. Don Juan suggested that he view the predatory dynamic as a test. Growing awareness always requires mastering skills and passing tests to advance, hence, in this context, the predator is actually a necessary aid.

When Carlos inquired as to how we might defend ourselves from the predator, don Juan proposed that we defend ourselves through discipline. When Carlos questioned what he meant by discipline, don Juan answered that it had nothing to do with stringent routines or sacrifice. Don Juan defined discipline as AWE.

Awe is awareness of the magical dimension of everything. Life is magic, consciousness is magic, we are magic! When we stay in the place of awe our awareness repels the predator because we are no longer tasty, unaware fodder or complacent meat, fattening ourselves in self-indulgent bliss, willingly and unconsciously surrendering our awesomeness to another entity.

To stay in the place of awe requires discipline. Discipline in this case means a consistent effort to stay in the magic. We are so easily seduced into the poppy field of the mundane. In that place, we worry, we obsess about appearances, we strive to be valued, acknowledged, recognized, appreciated, wanted, loved, etc. We lament and agonize over being treated so unfairly, being owed, screwed, cheated, rejected, etc. When our awareness is consumed in that world we take our eye off the ball of awe. We slip deeper into self-obsession, self-pity, self-importance, and our awareness tenderizes, becoming quite delectable to the predator. This is why don Juan defined awe as discipline.

To remain in awe requires that we constantly wake ourselves up to the magic. Remember that we are magical beings on our way to dying. Keeping death as our advisor relativizes our heightened concerns about our status, possessions, physical survival, and, oh yes, our love relationships. We are travelers on this awesome journey in infinity, now. From this place, does it really matter what the scale says, who is calling or not calling, whether we are accepted or rejected, valued or glossed over? These are the concerns that the predator distracts us with. If we fall for the predator’s trick, we fall asleep in the poppy field, content with a life of slavery, allowing ourselves to be fed upon with delight, like victims of the vampire.

How do we remain in awe? First of all, realize that awe is a deeply personal experience. Do not fall for the trap of convincing anyone of anything. We are socialized into complacency with the illusion of self-fulfillment through self-importance. Break the chains of that socialization in every moment through the discipline of shifting into the awe of the magic of life.

Wake up, walk out of the poppy field, and immediately suspend judgment, because judgment is the root of self-obsession. Stay with the reality that we are magical beings on a journey of awareness. Refuse the predator’s world, which is nothing other than an interruption of that journey. That interrupted journey, without awe, fixates our awareness on our ability to accumulate and become important; a mediocre substitute for the real magic. Practice the discipline of awe! Resume the real journey.

I welcome your awesome comments.

Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

#533 When Truth Speaks

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message of guidance for us today?

I find that the next step in gaining further awareness in your world, and in your lives, is learning to pay attention more keenly, more trustingly, and more directly, without reservation, to your heart-centered self. Your guidance in that world will be assured if you can continually connect with and remain trusting of this aspect of self that so rightly is available for guidance.

Your absolute trust in self must now be further established, My Dear Ones, as you continue your journeys and find your paths. Your true light of reason and of trust comes from within, but when I say this I do not mean within your thinking mind, but within your heart, which connects you not only to your self, but to all else as well.

Through the development of your heart-centered knowing self, you will find that your truths will be revealed. All of your truths lie buried inside you and these truths extend beyond your physical body, for they are truths of all knowing, of all time, and of all things. Connection to your heart-centered inner self is the next step in opening the door further to true trust in your journey.

I advise, as usual, heart-centered breathing to calm you into a slow pace of life and a meditative state. From this place of calm, I next advise that attention be given to nothing more than feeling your heart-centered calm and allowing whatever feeling comes to be present. Ask it to show you something that you have not known or understood about the self. Ask your heart to guide you in better understanding something that is of utmost importance for you to learn, at this moment.

Cultivate moments of calm as you visit your heart center, keeping your focus on feelings alone, in order to get to know the deeper self. Do not be afraid of your feelings, My Dears. They are leading you each day, though you may pretend they are buried or asleep, or put aside while your ego self takes on the world, but, in actuality, your feelings do control you in one manner or another. Now, I ask that you pay attention to how they present you with what you need to know about the self. Pay attention as they speak the truth to you, asking you to follow through on truthful decisions and choices as a result of allowing them to be heard. You cannot avoid truthful feelings. They will continually arise to push you in the direction you need to go in. Will you pay attention to them this time? That is always your challenge.

When truth speaks it is offering an opportunity to change. It may be a small change or shift being proposed, or it may be a life changing major step. But do not dismiss what comes from your heart when it speaks so truthfully that you are shaken to your core in recognition of its knowing and awareness. As truth is encountered, ask for a sign in what to do next as you bravely and trustingly determine that this time you must stand with heart-centered truth as your traveling companion.

I do not mean to imply that you should make impetuous or unreasonable changes in your life, or take harmful actions, but I do suggest that far too often the knowing heart is dismissed from the process of life as too weak an advisor when, in fact, it is the only true advisor.

As you slow down and go into inner contemplation, silencing your busy mind, find the doorway to your heart as it opens and invites you in to learn something new about the self. That is what your true journey is, learning constantly about the true nature of the self. For only in knowing the self will you be available for all else that wishes to guide you. This is a moment of trust, and that is what you are now being asked to cultivate, trust in the truth of the self, trust in the heart-centered self, in the journeying spirit self.

Good Luck! This is a time of inner contemplation and growth, but it does take slowing down, as I have advised, in order to make this deeper connection not only with the self, but with all things.

#532 Slow Down

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message of guidance for us today?

Anticipate conflict and you will receive conflict. Anticipate smooth flowing certainty and you will meet such energy waiting at each step. Anticipate that life will offer you what you need, but also that life is prepared to promote your success and progress, and you will be available to take your journey as a flowing energy being.

The time now is one of barriers, but I urge you all to consider the barriers you meet outside of you as inner barriers. Why are you meeting such barriers in your path? Most likely they are present to slow you down, asking you to look inwardly, perhaps more deeply than you like, at something you have yet to truly confront.

You may wish for seamlessly flowing life, without barriers and without conflict, and although it is energetically possible to greet such conflict and barriers in a flowing manner, accepting them as necessary, it is impossible to remove them, for they are your necessary means of growth.

I suggest that an energetically flowing life is one that is aware that challenges will arise, that walls will appear, that difficulties will resurface, over and over again, leading to the inner work that will allow for further growth. Although I suggest that your own attitude is important in what you draw to you, I do not mean this in the sense of living a life without challenge, for that is impossible. A life without challenge would be rather boring. What I am suggesting today is that you may draw to you unnecessary challenges and unnecessary energy that is not really of your concern, and this is what you must continually be aware of.

How you elect to use your energy places you in a position, each day, to meet and greet energetic conflict and attachment, resulting in choices that must be made. How do you wish to use your energy each day? How do you wish to receive the energy outside of you? How do you wish to be affected by what you meet outside of you? You do have a choice in decisions of attachment, engagement, and outer play. Yet, do you also have a choice in how you utilize the outside energy for your inner work.

For instance, if you are greatly disturbed by the choices and decisions made by someone close to you, your first decision is to decide how you are going to allow this other person’s activities to affect you on a very practical level. Are you going to become wrapped up in something that is better left to the other? Discern whose challenge it is. Are you better off allowing the other to take full responsibility? If you elect to step back and look at your own energy, your own outer work and inner work, and assess the level of involvement that you are willing to engage in, you may achieve a sense of detachment that will allow for a good decision that will further allow you to better utilize your own energy for all concerned.

Choices in using your energy must be made each day. How do you choose to use your energy? Where do you choose to spend it and with whom is it important to spend it? Are you benefiting the self and the other by your choices? Are you fully engaging your inner process in your decisions and choices? This is perhaps the most important factor to consider as you present your self with the question of how to use your energy each day. Am I doing my inner work if I elect to make this decision? Am I neglecting my inner work and draining my energy if I make this decision? How best can I serve myself while at the same time be available for others who may, indeed, need my attention?

I suggest the greatest first step is to slow down! Speed has become analogous with oblivion in your world; with so much rushing around in your new world of convenience and availability your ability to slow down has become relegated to a special pastime when, in fact, it should be a daily practice. Slow down your inner process, your energy, your thoughts, your ideas, your must-dos, and just sit in quiet meditation by breathing into your heart center. Find your personal comfort in a natural breathing pattern, slowing down your inner world while closing your eyes for a few minutes, effectively blocking out your outer world. Make a commitment to slowing down by beginning to actively do so.

You will find that your energy, if calmed down, will become more available. Your mind will be clearer. Your decisions will appear as less overwhelming and your challenges as easier to handle. Slow down and discover that, indeed, your conflicts will not loom over you in quite the same way and your barriers will not stump you.

Slow down and discover that you can, indeed, flow more easily, and in so doing you will draw to you a resonant calm energy. Change begins within the self. Turn your inner speedometer down to a slower pace and discover that the people outside of you are no longer as threatening, as argumentative, as difficult, or as challenging. Turn down your inner gauge and discover that your incessantly gnawing thoughts dissipate, no longer so loud. Slow down and discover that your awareness of your energy will lead you to flow better through life, even as it will allow you to go deeper inside as you ask your self to confront your self on a deeper level.

See what happens as you take this vital and engagingly energetic step and SLOW DOWN!

#531 Be Contained: A Mantra

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message of guidance for us today?

Note the self with detachment now, stepping back to allow for clarity and truth to become known. Have you not learned something about the self over the last few weeks and months? Have you not gained clarity and absolute certainty about some aspect of the self that is leading you along your path? Have you not received some clarification that is necessary, though it may also be challenging?

I encourage you all, My Dear Readers, to continue accepting your challenges, for they will lead you to your truths if you accept them as ready guidance, necessary teachers, and signs toward progress in life. Your challenges, as uncomfortable as they may be, are teaching you what it means to embrace your truths, trust your journey, and read the signs in your life.

This time now, though an energetic lull may appear to offer respite, is not a time to fall back into complacency. Instead, it is a time to more fully study and contemplate what is happening in your life. It is a time to accept the direction you are headed in and to solidify your steps along the path you are on. I do not foresee that your progress will slow or stagnate if you remain innerly connected. However, if you fall into ignorance of your own energetic powers you may resort to an old place of inertia and this may cause some concern for your progress.

It is time to consciously stay connected to your newfound insights, talents, decisions, and determinations that have set you upon a changing path. Do not lose your connection to all that you have learned about the self simply because you are not being pushed so heavily from outside you.

This is the time to decide that nothing is more important than continued progress in the direction you are most resonant with. It is the time of constantly remembering your energetic intent, your newfound abilities, and your need to be a spiritual seeker.

Today, as you begin again to look at your feet upon your path, a most necessary inner mantra is a grounding one, asking for the energy of the earth at your feet to keep you connected to your path while the energy above your head remains clear and entity free. But these energies will only be available now if you ask for them, for during this time of lull the energy will lie in wait, ready for your asking, but not necessarily pressuring you, as it has over the past few weeks. So, you see, this little mantra may be just what you need for the next few days in order to stay grounded, yet open; balanced and aware; and energetically connected, yet peacefully open to the truth of the self.

Be Contained: A Mantra

I ask the energy at my feet to flood me with clarity of purpose.

I ask the energy above me to fill me with truth of self.

I ask the energy of my own path to fill me with insights as I continue along this path.

I am guided.

I am safe.

I journey with awareness and truth in my thoughts, and energy in my body.

I trust my journey now and forever.

Good luck, My Dear Ones. Though the energy may appear quite calm and even dissipating, it remains fully alive, always rejuvenating, and that is what you must allow your own energy to do now as well; rejuvenate, but remain fully aware of all that you have recently learned about the self. Stay upon your path of right choice. The energy will pick up again soon, to show you what comes next.