In containment does one learn the deeper lessons of the self. If one but turns inward and allows for truths to surface, one will face both the best self and the worst self. Yet such encounters will teach the true lessons in life, the lessons that all must hear in order to evolve.
It is not a punishment but a liberation to hear the truths of the self spoken in this manner. It is not a chore but a joy to encounter the deeper self and all aspects of that deeper self. It is not painful but freeing to face all that one is made of and know the depths of the self so fully that nothing remains a mystery.
In knowing the self so fully, one becomes an open channel for new adventures in life. One becomes empty, and detached from that which binds the soul to eternal misery, and fully available for other work. But first the inner work must be deeply sought after and fully accomplished. In containment of self is this possible.
Sit with the self daily and contend with the inner world that reveals itself. Release and relief will come to aid you if you let it, and then you will begin to notice the work of the self having effect, taking hold, revealing the mysteries that now puzzle you and keep you constrained.
Seek refuge in containment of self. That is where freedom from everything lies. In sickness and in health turn inward and ask to be shown the truth. Be patient as you wait for your inner process to get underway and gain momentum. Stay with it. Your rewards are plenty.
Thank you Jeanne and all of our guides in infinity. Channeled with love, by Jan.
We gather our books, our notebooks and writing pens, and go into retreat. We leave everything else behind. Perhaps we take a cup of tea, a jug of water, an apple or two, but little else. We leave the phones, laptops, all forms of communication with the outside world, and disappear. No one knows where we are. For the time we’ve allotted ourselves, we are free.
We sit amongst the catbirds, quietly conversing or silently reading. We meditate, or perhaps even doze in our chairs. A doe and her two fawns come out of the woods and walk past. We are so invisible in our intent to retreat that they take no notice of us. We are present yet not present.
We reject all attachments, including the needs of those closest to us. On another day of retreat we sit in our canoe on calm waters. We drift, going nowhere. We let the world rumble by, all its troubles and turmoils, all its fears and desires, all its crisis and calamities. We are free.
We know what awaits us upon return to the reality of our world, yet we allow ourselves to turn from it as often as possible. In this manner we offer ourselves balance, we create a container in which to nurture our spirits. We offer ourselves sacred space in the midst of everyday life. We lift the veil of one world and enter another, rejecting the chaos that constantly seeks attachment. In the simplest of ways, at little or no cost, we seek retreat as often as possible.
Choose a new path...
Perhaps we take a walk at dawn, or at midnight. Perhaps we go to a movie. Perhaps we sit on our deck as the sun rises. Perhaps we build a fire and watch its sparks light the night. Perhaps we take a friend out to dinner and sit in a calm garden cafe. Perhaps we take a yoga class, or hike along a new path. All of these things offer retreat from the energy of the world constantly stirring around us.
Part of going into retreat, part of disappearing for a few hours or a few days, requires careful planning. It requires honing detachment by setting limits on the self and the outside world. It requires that we reject the chaos. It requires that we leave everything behind that might interrupt our retreat, anything that might interfere with our solitude. Often enough it requires leaving behind worry and fear, leaving behind the thoughts and ideas that we are needed, that we are important, that the world might collapse if we are not available every minute of every day to those who need us, want us, rely on us for whatever reasons. Going into retreat requires honing nerves of steel while simultaneously extending a tenderness toward the self that we might not ordinarily feel. Foremost, going into retreat requires rejection of all outside energy.
In turning inward, in going into retreat, in rejecting the chaos of everyday life, we learn how to care for ourselves. We learn how to detach from the critics, whether outside of us or inside. We learn how to suspend judgment: what others might think of us, what we might think of us, how the world judges us every day.
In successful retreat, we achieve calmness and contentedness. Our minds slow down; our hearts slow down. We become better givers, lovers, kinder more gentler people, because we give to ourselves, love ourselves, are kind to ourselves. In desiring to be giving beings we must first learn how to give to ourselves. In desiring to become more compassionate beings we must first experience what that means, and the best way is to practice compassion toward ourselves. In desiring to be loved, we must first learn how to love ourselves.
If we are in the midst of painful recapitulation we have already learned how to leave the world behind, for we do it every time we go into a memory. We know how to retreat, but it’s vastly important that we give ourselves sacred space for healing retreat during recapitulation too. In small increments we must learn how to care for ourselves, even though we are not used to caring about ourselves at all.
Recapitulation is forging a new self...
Recapitulation is really a time of retraining our minds and bodies, of reawakening our spirits, and remaking ourselves into a different being altogether. It’s a time of rephrasing how we think and speak, recreating our life styles and agendas to fit the changing beings we are in the process of sculpting. And so, even when deep into painful recapitulation—especially when one is in deep painful recapitulation—one must take responsibility for occasionally pulling out of the chaos and advancing the healing process. By finding some means of rejecting the chaos—however captivating it may be—one establishes balance.
Keeping in mind that the intent of recapitulation is to heal, the balance comes in learning healing activities and skills, and actually practicing them. Nothing will change if one does not act on what one is learning during recapitulation. This entails regularly stepping back from the intensity of the process and assessing the progress made. This entails reevaluating the self, appreciating the self in a new way, actually rewarding the self for the difficult work that has been accomplished. This entails reframing the state of one’s mind by offering it positive accolades as one rejects the old negative thought language. This entails learning how to be gentle, kind, and compassionate with the self, and eventually learning how to love the self.
Although recapitulation is an ongoing process of change, there will always be times when it is appropriate to reject the chaos of recapitulation—even if only for a few minutes at a time. In such moments of respite—think calm retreat—one builds stamina and regains balance that may have been lost during intense memory recapitulations. One learns how to detach from energetic attachments, nurturing one’s own reclaimed energy in the process, experiencing small doses of freedom along with a newly unfolding self.
A young woman told us of losing her phone and how free she felt. Sitting in a circle of friends, she noticed how everyone had their head down, looking at their phones, texting, reading, only peripherally attached to the conversation of the group. In that moment she clearly understood the addiction that she normally carried in her own pocket, the addiction to constantly needing to be in touch, to not missing something, to having everything at her fingertips. In that moment she saw her friends as slaves and she experienced her own freedom. Forced to break her own habit, she experienced a sense of relief, for a moment glad she had lost her phone. For a moment she basked in her own place of calm retreat.
No matter who we are, where we are in our lives, no matter what is happening, we must learn to take moments of retreat. We must learn how to reject the chaos, turn from our addiction to the chaos of life, and take responsibility for our spirits needs for calmness and balance. We must learn to nurture ourselves. It’s not that hard to do.
Do not turn from that which arises as your biggest challenge this week, My Dears, for progress lies in such challenge.
As you meet your personal agenda—come to greet you in a myriad of ways—do not sit back and let it ride over you, but gather your wits about you and swim with the current, which will take you where you need to go.
In landing upon a new shore, whether literally or figuratively, you will find the next step upon your path. Within the self lies knowledge of how to proceed, yet confrontation, conflict, and challenge must arise to guide you when all else fails.
Question the self today as to how you’ve been handling things. Are you avoidant? Do you wait for others to make your decisions for you, or are you proactive? Do you take on your fears, wrestle them to the ground, or do they hold you down in a vise grip that does not allow for real life? Have you not already experienced a glimpse of life and don’t you desire more of it above all else?
I must confront all of you with the simple fact that life is short. In the grander scheme of eternity, life upon that earth is a mere blip and with each life you live comes an opportunity to more fully become alive and accepting of your challenges. Now is a day to challenge yourself; whether innerly or outerly does not matter, though I guarantee you will be offered an ultimatum of sorts.
Are you awake enough to recognize your personal challenge of now, of this moment in your life? Perhaps “this moment” in your life has dragged on for a long time, or perhaps it is but a blink of the eye, but know that a time of shift has been prepared for you. Alignments are in place, and all you need to do is click into alignment with what is being offered.
A final note: this is positive energy in alignment. So if you are feeling especially negative and lost, I suggest you wipe away your fears and your old ideas of self and the world and look on the bright side, for that is what is being presented now. The bright side of the moon, the sun, and the coin of opportunity are shining upon you all. Do you see it?
Look up from your reverie and catch a ray and then walk the path it lights up for you. That is the direction to go in now. Notice how everything is perfectly lined up for you. Do not hesitate or doubt what you are being shown, for this is the path of life, in this moment clearly revealed. The only real challenge is for each one of you to shift the self out of your slump, out of your pit of despair, and out of your despondency so that you “see” it. And then, as I said, dare the self to click into alignment and ride the energy without fear. And even though fear will attempt to accompany you, it will find no handhold, especially if you directly challenge its presence.
Go without fear into the life that awaits, for as I said, it seeks you. Though it may at first appear to be the most challenging of circumstances, in the end it will lead you into new life. What are you really afraid of? I gather it is nothing tangible, and if it were, it would not matter in the least, for if you align with the energy of now, nothing can stop you from achieving your dreams, even dreams you have no inkling of. It’s your choice, but I suggest that you face the dream and greet reality, a new reality.
Thanks to Jeanne for today’s message! Channeled, with love to you all, by Jan.
For the past several months I have been studying the art of fermentation, an ancient process of preserving and transforming fresh raw food for later use. Most cultures around the world have some form of traditional fermented delicacy, whether eaten daily or looked forward to on special occasions. Even we Americans eat fermented foods all the time. Yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, sourdough breads, tofu and tamari, as well as wines and beers, are all made using a fermentation process that involves containment in an environment that is conducive to growth. Containment is key if new growth is to be achieved.
Chuck and I recently discussed the nature of the times we are living in. The whistle blowers have been telling the truths for decades and longer, telling us over and over again that we are destroying the planet, that we are poisoning our bodies, our food, our environment. But have we heeded their calls? No. And that brings us to the truth of where we are now. The world as we know it has reached a point of no return. There is no way that we will ever have what we once had. We humans, by our greed and negligence, have forever changed the life of our planet. This is clear. It is also clear to me that we can no longer look to others to do the right thing. We have been waiting for someone with means and power to wake up and carry us forward, but in spite of some fierce arguments and efforts, nothing is happening in the world outside of us. And so, the way I see it, it’s time to stop looking outwardly for transformation and go inward, which brings me to the subject of fermentation.
The practice of inner work, changing the self in a deep way in order to evolve the world outside of the self, has never been more crucial than now. In containment, we offer ourselves the opportunity to transform. The process of fermentation offers insight into this process of self-preservation and transformation in a very practical and methodical way, resulting in healthy life-giving sustenance and the opportunity for new life.
I gather cucumbers from the garden, wash them thoroughly, put them into a container, add garlic, dill, and peppercorns, and pour a solution of brine—water and sea salt—over them until the entire pot is filled. Adding a weight to keep the raw foods totally submerged, contained within the transformative solution, I cover the container with a cloth, allowing just the right amount of air to enter and begin the process of fermentation. And then I watch and wait. I must be patient, but it doesn’t take long before I see activity. Within a few hours bubbles begin to form and the fermentation process is under way. The next time I look I see that it is percolating nicely.
There is continuous activity within the container. How could it be otherwise? The temperature is right, the ingredients are right, and the solution is right, but the key is that all of these things are being contained—offered the opportunity to transform—single ingredients that by themselves are just that, lonely vegetables. I am looking for something new to emerge out of this process. I want my vegetables, the beautiful bounty of all my hard work, to evolve into something different, something lasting and delicious. Is this not the same thing we all want in our lives, our souls to transform into something everlastingly enticing?
Each day I must tend to my pots, skimming off what rises to the surface, accepting it for what it is, bacteria that has risen and become exposed to air, showing me that the process is functioning as perfectly as I intended. What is happening under the surface is that good bacteria are forming; the lactobacilli that we all know are so beneficial to our body’s health and immune systems. Transformative activity is taking place within my containers.
In the fermentation pot, all that is good and all that is bad go to work on each other. Forced containment means that one will win out over the other. In a balanced environment, with the right ingredients, the good bacteria take over and eat the bad bacteria. During the battle some bacteria rises to the surface and this is what I skim off. But I know that underneath, my intention to transform raw ingredients is well underway.
If we apply this process to the inner process of personal change, the same thing will happen. As we sit in containment, with the right ingredients of spirit and intent, and submerge ourselves in a transformative process, we will begin to see changes. Before long the real truths of the self, the good bacteria, awaken and overpower the untruths, the bad bacteria. That which we once valued and held onto but no longer find life-giving is allowed to release, perhaps thoughts, ideas, and lies that have held us in captivity, exposed for what they truly are. Once skimmed from our conscious awareness, we are free to return to our container, now filling up with good bacteria—new ideas, thoughts, and truths about ourselves—and before long we discover that something has happened to us on a very deep level; we are different. Without the old bad bacteria infecting our souls we now have the opportunity for the good bacteria to multiply and transform us into new healthy beings.
In allowing ourselves to be contained, in taking back our outer projections and need for others to fulfill our deepest needs and desires, we offer ourselves the opportunity for self-nurturance and self-love to blossom—the good bacteria that changes the very fibers of our beings—just as the raw vegetables change within the good fermentation solution.
Raw ingredients waiting for the process to begin...
Recapitulation is the process of fermentation, an intentional journey of change. We must remember that we are beings who already contain all the right ingredients. And the solution is the decision to turn inward and let them percolate. In containment we allow the ingredients that are our deepest selves to sit in the solution that is our intent to change, where they lie submerged, fermenting and changing. Eventually they will reemerge in new form.
It’s not that hard to get started—remember all the ingredients lie within—but it does take patience and fortitude to stay with the process, to stay contained while we go through the transformation that our spirits seek. Checking in each day, as we wrestle with our demons and our bad bacteria, we must remain aware that everything that arises, all the struggles for truth and good bacteria, are necessary parts of the process. I also know that if I open my pots too early I will not get the results I desire. And so I taste the ferment throughout the process, checking that it’s working right, that it smells good, but I know that I must be patient if I am to get what I desire. And so I turn everything back into the solution again, weigh it down, cover it over, and wait. When it’s done to my liking, I’ll know, because it will taste exactly right! Just as I know that my inner process has done its work, because I always feel exactly like the real me when I’m done!
Our inner work is always waiting for our inner process of transformation to begin. Though it may be too late for our planet, it’s never too late for that! We just have to turn inward and let the fermentation begin!
Thanks for reading, and good luck as you take the inward journey, Jan
Seek fulfillment in deep inner work; in limitation, containment, respect and love for the self.
Limitation, in all of its forms, is a necessary component of a seeking life. Whether one is simply seeking balance in daily life, or one is seeking deeper meaning and spiritual fulfillment, limitation must be put to use, a most practical tool. For where would man (humanity*) be if limitations were not imposed?
Limitation requires the art of discipline, as well as the ability to know restriction, yet does it also require that one experience it as a balancer, for that is its main utilization in the context of a seeking life. For only in gaining balance in all things will one experience life and all that it offers, as well as the deeper issues within the self, to the fullest.
In studying the deeper self, one must acquiesce to the limitations placed on one by circumstances, yet one must also embrace those limitations, for they are leading one to fulfillment. Lessons necessary for growth are contained in circumstances of limitation just as they are contained in circumstances of excess. Excess—the virtual opposite of limitation one would think—is, in fact, as limiting as circumstances of limitation, for there are lessons to be learned in the circumstances of every life.
Begin anew to appreciate the circumstances, the struggles of life, for it is only in such experiences that one will discover deeper meaning in all things. Man, unlike nature, has the ability to control himself, though he may not at all be able to control that which is outside of himself. Alas, life takes one down a path that may be full of sorrow and woe, yet a man’s heart may know the value of such a path if he but listen to its words of wisdom. The heart does not lie, but without balance in thought, action, and inner and outer experience, a man may never know what his heart says.
Those whom have never known excess may struggle the hardest to achieve balance and that is their circumstance to struggle with. Keep in mind: whether you have lived a life of excess or a life of limitation, you have gotten what you need.
Allow the circumstances of your personal lives to lead you into a new phase of growth and recovery. Each man—as well as the very earth—needs such things in abundance now, for the time of excess has passed. Guided by your individual life’s path, each one of you are already upon a new path of growth, recovery, and indeed transformation. Perhaps you have never noticed it, but know that your life’s circumstances have placed you there.
Perhaps you did not want to notice? Perhaps you did not choose to view the limitations imposed upon you as binding you to your path for good reason? Perhaps self-imposed limitations will be the answer to reinvigorating you, allowing you to more clearly see that only in limitation, i.e.: balance, discipline, restriction and containment, will you achiever your next step.
Mankind is being asked by the greater universe at large, to curb his appetites. The destruction has gone on far too long. Now it is time for limitation, conservation, and deep respect for all life, most importantly your own, to guide you to universal change.
If you must judge, judge the self. If you must be angry, be angry with the self. If you must blame, blame the self. Seek the answers within in order to change what lies within, what speaks within, what hurts within, what refuses life from within. This is the new road to take, to change the self, to change your life’s circumstances, and to change the world.
Accept the challenges that appear to guide you today, for they are to be shared challenges, man challenged to be an evolving being now, on a deeper, broader, universal and innerly level. Let awareness guide you. Do right, and keep evolving!
Change the self by looking to the limitations you are challenged to accept. Utilize them to the fullest in an evolutionary way, first in changing the self and then in changing the world. Do right by the deeper self and you will do right by others; that it the first step in gaining awareness of the self as part of the greater, evolving whole.
Most humbly channeled, with love, by Jan.
Please Note: The word “Man” is used to refer to all of humanity; mankind; men, women and children alike.
