This week’s audio channeling offers us insight into what it means to be in balance, within and without, in a healthy way. We may learn by our mistakes, but our bodies and our hearts know what being in balance and in alignment mean. Have a listen and see if the message resonates. In any case, have a great week!
There is still a very small part of me that struggles with my old friend and nemesis Unworthiness. We have been companions on my entire life’s journey. If I have anything left in me that holds me back I’d have to say this is it; the last vestiges are tenacious. And yet, I am well aware of it and how it works within me, of how I have also worked with it and used it to my advantage, how interwoven we are in the unfolding of my life. We’ve become very accustomed to each other.
At this point in my life, Unworthiness has the least amount of control that its ever had, the least impact, and is seldom a visitor. But when something arises, an issue perhaps, something I don’t want to do or feel intimidated by, I just have to sit for a minute to know that my old enemy and cohort is sitting right there, waiting for me to notice. I can almost hear a gleeful laugh as I go about my inner inquiries.
Over the past week the energy has been a little strange. I’ve felt it and Chuck has too. Perhaps others have as well. The daily Soulbytes have been stuck on one theme—to sit and wait. Chuck wrote about it this week in his blog, Activating Change—Staying Put. But it’s spring, a time of bursting forth, a lot going on in nature, activity all around, and so the urge is to do quite the opposite.
My own energy has been in keeping with the sit and wait energy this week, not by choice—it’s just the way it’s been. I’ve noticed that my normal busyness has been replaced by a slower pace as I’ve naturally fallen in step with the advice of the channeled messages. It doesn’t feel as if I’ve accomplished any less than had I expended a lot of high-strung energy, running around feeling like I’ll never get done all that needs to be done. My old friend Unworthiness was strangely absent and silent this week too, I noticed.
Could the slower calmer energy I’ve adopted have anything to do with that? I wonder. I am usually not a high-strung or nervous individual, but I like to get things done and often push myself, perhaps expending a lot of energy unnecessarily. This week I let my mood, my body, and my sense of the importance of taking it slow dominate and decide. Without a sense of having to rush around or push too hard I’ve noticed that I am calmer overall and, as I said, things have certainly gotten done.
It makes me wonder if I’ve unwittingly encouraged old friend Unworthiness to stick around, far beyond its necessary lifespan. I have indeed continued to question my worthiness in so many areas of life, but the noticeable lack of doubt in my thoughts this week raises that question as much as anything else I’ve experienced.
I recently heard someone speaking about “selfie” this and “selfie” that. At first I thought, “Wow! People are so focused on themselves, taking selfies, posting selfies.” I got worried about what all this focus on the outer self would result in. A self-absorbed generation too self-interested to care about the world? But then I realized we all do it! We’re all concerned with out own selfie image, including me with my Unworthiness/Worthiness selfie issue! All of those internal machinations that circle through the mind are nothing more than grand selfies!
I noticed this week, however, as I’ve allowed myself to slow down, to put off a few things and wait, that my own selfie talk has diminished to almost nothing. I’ve gone about life with little attention paid to my usual inner selfie stuff and been focused on the energy instead. The instruction to engage in the energy of waiting has relieved me of a lot of usual mental stuff, and the normal worry and doubt—am I good enough at this or worthy enough of that—has naturally dissipated. This is the true meaning of doing recapitulation, letting the energy of the process guide and instruct, rather than push to make something happen or to process too quickly, going out of alignment with the natural flow of one’s own process. Deep inner work, when undertaken in this manner, is not selfie-selfish but liberatingly self-revealing and self-transformational.
In keeping pace with the natural energy of each day this week, I’ve felt more naturally aligned myself. Sitting in stillness offers quiet inside and outside. My own selfie-self can attest to that, as it has acquiesced to the energy of sitting in stillness all week and felt truly calm and in balance.
And so, I have no fear for the “selfie” generation. Perhaps all the self focus will have a similar selfless experience. Perhaps sitting in stillness, with all the “selfie” paraphernalia put aside for some quiet time, the beautiful warm spring days we’ve had lately in the Northeast can really be enjoyed in calmness.
In sitting in stillness you might notice that you too shed some of your usual anxiety or concerns. In alignment with nature only what is naturally of concern exists, as I found out. I learned that I had a lot of “selfie” stuff that was just not part of my own true nature, the self I truly am. It’s been a calm but strangely enjoyable week. I wish the same for you.
Unworthy no more,
Jan
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Here is a channeled message to begin this new week. May it bring you insight and ideas as you continue your journey toward balance of body self and spirit self. Have a great week! Offered with humbleness and gratitude.
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Why are there so many blue jays in my yard? I ask this question because it’s true; the jays have taken over! I study them as they come to feed on the seeds I’ve put out. If I don’t get there early enough they knock impatiently on the window, suggesting that I hurry up and feed them! Their coloring is a combination of blue, gray, white and black. They have come to teach me something, I surmise.
Along with the usual New Year’s resolution to do more yoga and meditation, to eat healthier, to cut back on what I know is not good for me, I have set the intent to become a better dreamer, to train myself to be aware while I dream, and to discover what the shamans and Buddhists, and many others mean when they say that all worlds are one, whether we are awake or dreaming. I’ve had plenty of experiences of this concept, but I’m interested in going more deeply into the true meaning of reality while I’m asleep and my energy body is active. So far, I’ve had some pretty cool dreaming experiences, which I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say, my intent is working.
If I am to use my dreams to evolve beyond this reality, as is my underlying intent, I must learn how to remain fully aware as I dream. This is all in preparation for the time of my death when I intend to seamlessly pass through the bardos and achieve life beyond human form. At least that’s my intent. As far as I know, this is what we are all challenged with, to find a means of not having to reincarnate in human form more than we absolutely have to. If I can do this, I feel that I will have not only accomplished my own personal soul intent, but that I will free up space on earth for others to live more comfortably. We all know that the earth is overpopulated and overtaxed. I don’t really want to come back again, knowing that I could possibly have done more to free myself of this realm, and this realm of me! Now, back to the blue jays.
While they sit and scarf down the seeds I’ve put out, I study their coloring and the way their wings lie enfolded across their backs. When in repose, an intricate pattern appears, so beautiful that I am reminded of stained glass windows. As soon as they spread their wings and fly, solid bars of color appear and the intricate pattern disappears. Okay, this, I see, is what I am being shown, what I must learn something from.
Ted Andrews, in his book Animal Speak, says that the blue jay “has the ability to link the heavens and earth, to access each for greater power.” The jay represents both heaven and earth, the white of the heavens and the dark of the earth separated by the blue of the sky. The gray perhaps represents the veils that keep us from fully knowing and experiencing our full potential, to be both of the heavens and the earth, aware in dreaming and while awake. The colors also represent our light and dark sides, what we show about ourselves and what we keep hidden, to both ourselves and others. Andrews also notes that the jay is a little tricky in that it can be a bit of a dabbler. It shows us our potential, but if we are to gain mastery and fully utilize all that we are capable of we must grapple with this side of ourselves. I see how my New Year’s resolution, to train my dreaming intent could be a challenge if I don’t stick with it, but I have no intent of dabbling.
I notice that when in repose—in dreaming, as I see it—the blue jay’s colors are all present, though the pattern of them is quite different from when they are actively flying—going about in their everyday reality, as I see it. We all wear certain stripes and patterns. We are perceived and perceive of ourselves in a certain way. But in actuality, all that we are is present in us at any given moment. When we dream, I surmise, everything that we are in waking life is also present. Likewise, in waking reality, all that we are when we dream is present as well.
It’s easy to assign to our dreaming selves some of our more challenging possibilities; the ability to fly or shape shift, to instantaneously be in one place or a thousand miles away. But, if we keep in mind that all that we are, all of our potential, is present in us at all times—like the colors of the blue jay—we might just be able to appreciate what our dreaming self is trying to teach us about the oneness of worlds, the fluidity of our energetic selves, and the fact that all realities, dreaming and awake, are equal and the same, just formatted a little differently. Whether we are in stained glass pattern or striped pattern, it doesn’t matter, we’re all composed of the same substance, and that is energy.
I watch the blue jays fly back and forth, feeding on the seeds and then flying into the trees or off to have an adventure in the world. They drop to the earth with ease; they fly to the heavens with ease. This is what we are challenged to do in our lives, to be fully energetically present in our daily lives, finding the means to realize our fullest potential at all times, all parts of us assimilated and in alignment with the fact that we too can fly. At night when we spread our wings, disrupting the usual patterns of who we are on a daily basis, we earn our energetic stripes as we fly through our dreams.
And so, if we can just remember that we are energetic beings all the time and not only while we dream, we are well on the way to achieving what the Buddhists call enlightenment, freedom from samsara, the suffering of being in human form. With intent, we can gain mastery to fly seamlessly, and with awareness, between heaven and earth, just like the blue jay!
Happy dreaming!
Jan