Find your balance within your own Self. Rather than reach outside of you, thinking you will find it there, turn inward and seek balance within. It lies in the stillness of your mind, in the calmness of your central nervous system, in the quiet of your heart. It lies in knowing your wholeness as a human being on a spiritual journey. Find balance in your two feet firmly planted upon the ground and your spirit’s guidance showing you the next step to take. With measured care of the Self, inside and out, carry on.
Let not depression get you down or sweep you off your feet but keep it at a distance, an entity you have no use for, like a wolf circling its prey. Though it may point out an issue to tackle or a direction your inner journey must take do not let it be your journey. Turn to the reason for the depression and face that instead. Is it something outside of you or something inside of you that causes it? It is worth your time and energy or best left to its own devices? Is it something only you can resolve or something that someone else must tackle? Sometimes the things that depress are teachers that come to guide. With gratitude and thanks, face the truth and resolve your grief, your sorrow, your sadness and let your guides and teachers show you that life is an evolving journey of spirit, the Self that knows exactly what to do and how to do it. With loving kindness for this Self, take life one day and one step at a time, accepting the lessons to be learned. Eventually, all will be well again.
Get to know yourself on the deepest of levels, what it feels like to be in balance, as well as what it feels like to be imbalanced. Both states are important to know and understand so that the things in your life that create imbalance may be curtailed or eliminated and that which creates balance may be nurtured and supported. Staying in balance is a constant daily challenge, especially when things are in turmoil, but knowing the self more fully will certainly aid in keeping in balance, no matter what is causing the turmoil. Self care is an important part of a healthy life, so don’t neglect the self, inside and outside. You do matter—all of you.
Today, I request of the I Ching*: Guidance for ALL, now.
What is given is hexagram #32, Duration. The essence of duration is union, as an enduring condition.
The image of duration is built with thunder, the arousing, on top of wind, the gentle. Thunder and wind are a naturally paired set of influences. With the sound of thunder comes the energy of wind. The human social analogy for duration is the enduring relationship of marriage.
Within the individual, duration is a state of being that is not worn down by hindrances. By embracing enduring meaning in one’s life, one becomes self-contained and self-renewing. This kind of meaning is found in aligning one’s will with one’s true spirit.
Thunder and wind are mobile occurrences, seemingly an unlikely pair to depict the qualities of duration. But this fluidity of coming and going implies a definite lack of rigidity or refusal to change. That which acts from duration changes with the changing times. What doesn’t change is one’s unswerving commitment to the inner truth of one’s being, that which guides all actions.
No particular moving line was emphasized, hence, all the lines of the hexagram carry guidance for specific challenges to the state of duration.
The first line: Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently. Relationships require time to achieve duration. Self-development requires perseverance over time. If we grasp too quickly things fall apart and we are saddened, or give up.
The second line: Regret disappears. The power of one’s will is greater than one’s material resource. However, in the time of duration one is able to regulate one’s inner strength, thus avoiding excess in action. This removes the cause for regret.
The third line: The inability to turn inward brings misfortune. If one remains at the mercy of moods aroused by outside events, one suffers inner turmoil and loses the innerly connection to that which provides duration.
The fourth line: No game in the field. If one persists in a course of action that is fruitless, one will only be disappointed. Here, will overpowers spirit and loses its duration.
The fifth line: Flexible reason, moderate emotion. Reason must be flexible and adjust to changing conditions. Emotion must remain moderate lest it burn up or remain overly attached to the moment. Best that reason lead to maintain duration.
The sixth line: Continued restlessness brings misfortune. To remain in persistent hurry or worry precludes inner composure. Turn inward, breathe in, breathe out. Let calm breathing lead to duration.
In this time of outer threat, find composure in that which provides duration. The power of duration will endure and safely bridge to coming stability, where that which lends duration within will also lead to duration without.
Strengthen the mind with positive affirmations so that the voices of old may recede and without issue no longer hold sway. Remind the mind that there are other things to think about besides the old patterns of thought, that there is creativity and magic, that everything is possible. Remind the mind to turn away from that which is negative and harmful to that which is positive and healing. The mind is pliable and weak, but the spirit is strong and flexible. Leave the old mind behind and join the spirit’s cause, to bring you to a new level of profound mystery, within and without.
