Tag Archives: inner work

Messages from Jeanne

#742 Begin a Practice of Navigation

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Written by Jan Ketchel and including a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.

It’s very early on a cold winter morning as I begin writing. The snow still lies deep and white after last week’s storm. The gutters are blocked with ice, in spite of all our efforts to alleviate the problems of ice jams and icicles, but our wood stove keeps the house warm. We have enough, as far as creature comforts are concerned. We are happy living a life of relative simplicity.

But, as Chuck wrote about in Saturday’s blog: there are no advantages or disadvantages. I carry awareness of death, yet I also choose to fully live, to each day more fully embrace this life I am in, to continually shed old burdens and become more fully myself. It is my choice to more fully open to where this life is leading me, into the unknown to be sure, but I know, from previous experiences, that if I remain open, allowing myself to be guided, that my life will indeed be fuller, with far greater experiential potential than if I chose to remain in an old state of suppression, repression, and depression.

In suggesting that I am open to being led or guided through life, I am speaking of being alert to and aware of the meaningful signs I encounter as I go about living each day. These signs often point out a direction to take, offering me a choice of one thing or another, leading to different outcomes, different experiences. In navigating through life in this manner the journey becomes partly personal intent, partly spirit-driven, and also partly universe-driven. As I engage in this process of navigation, I have come to rely on what I consider to be two of the most important mantras for living a life of constant growth. They are:

1. Everything is possible.

2. Everything is meaningful.

Jeanne gave me these mantras quite a few years back, as I struggled through a time of great personal conflict. I saw how important they were, strong supports, always ready to offer me the light at the end of the tunnel, the hope and optimism to keep going, as I learned to accept the signs and synchronicities that were indeed present to guide me. I just had to look for them.

Once I accepted these two ideas as the backbone of living a life of fulfillment, my world lightened considerably. By continually repeating and admitting to the truths of these two phrases, the darkness that I often found myself in began to lift. Eventually, I saw and perceived life and myself differently. And my life, seemingly of its own accord, began to change, as I allowed the intent of these two mantras to become my intent.

I know that many people give up hope of ever having a better life, a different life, a fulfilling life, not finding what they need, feeling overcome by the challenges and vicissitudes of life, electing to stay in a state of incompletion. But is it really easier? As Chuck and the seers of ancient Mexico state, there are no advantages or disadvantages because we are all facing the same thing. In reality, we are all facing the light and the dark. But we can certainly choose how we are going to face them.

Being in the darkness may be the only way that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the opposite is perhaps also true: that it is only when we are in the light that we notice the darkness encroaching. Is it the light or is it the darkness that we fear? Both are present simultaneously. Facing both are necessary aspects of the personal journey.

Today, I ask Jeanne for guidance around this dilemma, as we all suffer at times in darkness. We all need a little light to guide us. We all seek something, and even a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel may be all we need to keep going.

Jeanne says: Look within where all of life lies waiting to be explored. In personal sifting, in explorations of the self, will all light and all darkness be revealed. It is not so easy to simplify this process to a few words, but I will try, for it is indeed a subject worthy of making available, so that all may journey inward, even as they journey outward.

I ask, first, that a process of sitting calmly alone, in quietude, be established on a daily basis. In order to begin to change one’s life, one must learn to slow down. Even if it seems that there is no time for such a practice, it must be arranged for and strictly adhered to. It is in such quiet times that one will draw upon the inner knowing that is necessary for taking a journey of change.

Find a time each day to sit calmly. It does not need to be any place special, but it should entail noticing the breath, using it to center and calm the self for a few minutes at a time. Your breath is always with you. You carry it with you at all times, so where and when you choose to do this practice does not matter. The only thing that matters is doing it.

You can do this calm sitting in the car after a drive to work, before stepping out into the workday. You can do it for a few moments at the beginning of the day, sitting in bed. The early morning, still drowsy from sleep, is perhaps the most beneficial time to connect with the inner self, before one steps into the outer self who must begin a day of outer doings.

By offering the self a few moments of quiet, by being open to the inner self and the mantras of possibility and meaningfulness, as Jan states, a new feeling about life in general will begin to take over. Without trying, simply by intending a rich life full of signs and synchronicities, one will begin to have experiences to support the changing self.

Begin this process now, this day. Sit quietly. Breathe calmly. Repeat the mantras: Everything is possible. Everything is meaningful.

Do this for 5 minutes. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Let the mantras erase the thoughts that preoccupy you.

Accept the truth that life, the universe, and the goodness that exists all around are there for you too. Do this now and begin the process of opening to the light and to the dark, for they ride side by side, within each one of you. And they are both ready to guide you.

Thank you, Jeanne. As I finish channeling, coming out of the dark tunnel that is my experience with her, I see that the light has come into the world, creeping over the snow, through the trees and into the house. I see the tracks of deer, fox, cats, squirrels and mice in the snow outside the window, life that is present in the dark, in the night, as well as in the day.

As I greet the light, I am thankful for this guidance on behalf of all of us, and I look forward to more experiences of these two dear mantras—everything is possible and everything is meaningful—for they have indeed served me well. I hope they work for you too. The third mantra that Jeanne gave me, that was so helpful and still is to this day, is: Everything will work out just fine!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message in the post/read comments section below. And thank you for passing the messages on!

Most fondly and humbly offered.

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Intending Change

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I have been practicing intent as prescribed by the seers of ancient Mexico to enact change. Every day I state my intent and let it go out into the universe. I shout out or silently speak the word: INTENT! Sometimes I don’t even feel that I have to keep repeating each personal intent that I have set, I just shout the word INTENT and ask that my already prescribed intent bind with the intent of the seers of ancient Mexico, with the intent of the women seers, with don Juan, and with the intent of good, because I feel that it is important to imbue my intent with pureness of heart.

In the old days, before I did a recapitulation of my childhood and learned about the seers of ancient Mexico, I would take drastic measures to force change in my life. My favorite method of enacting change in those days was to move, sometimes across the country or even sometimes across the ocean to another country. I once counted eleven moves in seven years, from state to state, city to city, apartment to apartment. Sometimes I moved alone, sometimes with a partner or with a husband. When it was impossible to move house I would rearrange the furniture in every room, shoving and pushing sofas, beds, dressers, bookshelves around until I got just the right feeling that I was seeking. Often I was seeking a sense of contentment, peace of mind, inner quiet and if my outer environment could reflect that I could calm down.

Restlessness was more often than not the catalyst for these moves, a restlessness that I bore my entire life but never quite understood as a deeply inner restlessness. I thought I just needed to keep moving all the time, that I was innately a person who sought experience and adventure, but it wasn’t until I sat down with Chuck and began to explore that restlessness that it revealed itself as something else. It took a while for me to fully grasp that with all of that moving and rearranging I was trying to run away from none other than myself.

During the recapitulation of my early childhood I understood just what it was that I was running from, devastatingly frightening memories of experiences of near annihilation that would have sent anyone fleeing. I learned to sit in one place and bear the tension of those memories as they reappeared, not to haunt me this time, but to teach me something about myself. I learned that, even though I wanted to get up and run, sell my house and move to another town, another city, another country, I did have the courage to stay and face the demons, as I had once done so strikingly well as a child.

In facing my demons, both my old abuser and my personal inner demons who had stood by me for the first fifty years of life, becoming increasingly more familiar as each year passed, I learned not only about how useful they had always been to me, but also how well I had utilized them to keep going, to stay not only alive but to grow up and eventually be ready to recapitulate. I learned that my inner demons were not all scary beings, that many of them helped me, that in fact I controlled many of them for my own purposes. I learned how powerful I had become, mostly in order to keep them quiet and to feel safe.

Now after having learned the lessons of recapitulation, one of them being that we hold everything inside us, I no longer feel the urge to run when I feel the need for change in my life. I know that in simply sitting, by intending change on an energetic level, I can profoundly impact my life and the lives of those around me. When restlessness hits me these days, I acknowledge its powerful intent. I thank it for alerting me to the fact that I am perhaps stagnating again and that, yes, I do indeed need to shift, but then I sit with it. I ask it what it wants, why it came at this moment, and I look for the deeper meaning inside myself now, rather than focusing it outside of myself.

When the universe sends me a sign asking me to change I know that it means I must re-examine where I am and why I am here. Perhaps it indicates that an inner course correction is necessary, or that I am not fully present each day, or that I have slipped a little too far from what is most meaningful in my life. Perhaps it indicates that I have fallen back into an old pattern of behavior that no longer works for me, that I am doing something to myself that is harmful or just plain old boring. Perhaps it is pointing out something as simple as an old idea or judgment of myself that is simply not true, but perseverates along an old path of thinking, a trench long ago traversed and worn deep, a trench that I actually got myself out of a long time ago.

Perhaps when restlessness arises now it is time to reenter that trench one last time and look more closely, with eyes wide open, at the false images and ideas of myself that I once had, to now fully grasp how wrong they were and are. Then it is time to turn my eyes upon the truth of where I am now, who I am now, and more fully embrace that changed being that I have worked so hard to become.

Perhaps when restlessness comes knocking now it is just telling me that it is okay to be me. It is okay to intend change, to keep going, to want to grow and to evolve. It is okay to leave the past behind, but only when it is fully revealed and done. It is perfectly acceptable to move into life more fully whole and present, truths accepted, self accepted. It is perfectly acceptable to fulfill even more of my personal potential in a more meaningful way, without fear that someone will be offended or that I have to carry old burdens or demons that are no longer useful.

Intending change, by sending our intent to the universe that is so ready to help us, is perfectly all right and perfectly right. It is perfectly acceptable to keep seeking to be all that we can be. After all, what else are we here for?

INTENT! INTENT! INTENT!

If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below.

Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#739 Innocence: The Observing Self

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message of guidance for living our lives upon this earth at this time do you offer us today?

Do not be afraid to embrace your innocence, for it is only in connecting to this true self that you will truly thrive and grow beyond the mundane world of black and white reality. In order to truly experience LIFE in a new way—the colorful magic that is available to you—you must reconnect with your innocent self.

This innocent self is pure energy. Do not confuse it with your child self or your wounded baby self, but seek to go beyond personal attachment to find the essence of self. The essence of self, the pure energy of self, resides separately but also in concert with the personality and the self who has lived through the stages of life upon that earth.

I speak of learning to detach from the trials of the present life in order to find your innocence. Innocence refers to the energy of all life, yourself included, that knows why you are there now living the life you do. It knows what it means to be free, to be pure energy. And it is not afraid of anything, even the life you now live, even the most frightening of circumstances and the most sorrowful of challenges.

In learning to encounter this central self, this essence of life, this life force, I urge you to be open to your life experiences from the perspective of observer, for this is what your true self is: An all-knowing observer of your human existence. If you can find the means of sitting outside the self, you will find yourself as innocent. And in so doing you will experience awareness.

Awareness is clarity. Awareness is knowing the blanket truth of the self, of this life and all lives. Awareness is gaining acceptance so that no matter what appears to challenge you in life your perspective is that it is a natural part of your transformation, your evolutionary growth.

In accessing innocence, in allowing the self to accept the truths of the self with this clarity of awareness guiding you through a process of awakening, you will connect to your essence of being, your energy self, but you will also be able to utilize this self in that life you now live.

Many people seek guidance, seek a path of healing, seek a means of understanding the world and their personal predicament, and this is clearly growth-oriented work. As you do the work of the self, you open doors to a fuller understanding of the self in the universe, the self as part of a whole, the self not only as seeker but also as holding all that is sought.

You see, in acquiescing to your personal journey as truly a journey of transformation, you will inevitably experience transformation, incrementally at first, but undoubtedly more fully as time goes on.

In closing today, I wish to state that you are all fully capable of understanding what I am spelling out. Even if you might find my words confusing, vague, or too esoteric to comprehend at this moment in time, just wait and see what happens, for a grain of truth will have been planted today and all you have to do is remember it as you go into life.

Perhaps the first grain of truth to remember is that, yes, you can take yourself outside of your dire predicament or your worrisome mind or your fearful child self and in a place of calm detachment gain a different perspective on the self as whole, as an evolving being.

This is your true life at this moment in time. See that clearly. And then ask why. But do not ask why from your old seat of self, but from your detached energetic seat of self. Allow your innocence to both speak and listen. Allow your innocence to both teach and learn. Allow your innocence to become part of your process toward new life, toward transformation, NOW, in this life.

Thank you Jeanne!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below.

Most fondly and humbly offered.

Messages from Jeanne

#738 All Lies Within

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Recently, I have been reading over some of my earliest written communications with you. At that time you stressed six points of importance that you urged me to consider as part of an ongoing process in learning how to live in a new way. Those six points were:

1. Stay in form (good physical shape).

2. Rest.

3. Allow for flow and take one step at a time.

4. Stop thinking so much.

5. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.

6. Learn detachment.

Since then you have expanded on those original points many times over, but heart-centered breathing and staying in balance seem to be the most important. I still see these six points as extremely helpful in the process of staying connected to the inner self and doing inner work. I ask you today if you have something new to offer us, as we all wish to remain alert, gaining in awareness, and as we continue to seek experiences of spirit, of our own spirit, even while we must confront our human selves every day as well. As we seek balance of these two aspects of self, what do you consider to be the most important consideration?

My Dear Ones, as you already know and, as Jan mentions, I always stress connection to the inner self through heart-centered breathing. This is the ultimate process that must be taken into consideration and adhered to: Listening to the inner self.

It does not matter what modality you find out in the world to entice you to healing or growing or expanding consciousness, as long as the inner self, the spirit that pushes and urges you to evolve agrees that it is a necessary or productive process, or that it is time for such activity.

The true spirit self needs a lot of attention. It holds your truths and these truths range from the truths of your past, as well as the truths of your present and your future.

The true inner spirit self, once you have awakened to its presence and its voice, requires constant attention so that its words of wisdom may be clearly heard. Then it takes work in learning how right those words are. It is okay to test what it tells you and to try to align with what is outside of you, but really, in order to truly grow and change, in order to heal, your inner spirit self has all the answers.

So, in addition to my original six pointers, I do stress heart-centered breathing, for it will lead you to deeper connection to the inner spirit self who holds ready all that you must find out about the self.

You, within your human body, hold all worlds. You are more than just flesh, blood, bones, brains and organs. You are also infinity itself. You are the doorway and within you are infinite doorways. Through resolution of the physical self you have the opportunity to explore the infinite self.

Keep in mind: All lies within. That is what I offer you today: All lies within!

Thank you Jeanne!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below. Other ideas for maintaining balance and doing inner work are categorized under Guidance in the side bar to the left on this Channeling page.

Most fondly and humbly offered.

Messages from Jeanne

#736 The Self: Your Greatest Guide & Your Greatest Challenge

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What advice or guidance do you offer us today?

Be assertive but be plain.

Be forceful of spirit but retiring of energy.

Do not waste but do not be withholding.

Turn inward even as you turn outward.

Be in your world but be open to other worlds.

Find solace but seek also adventure.

Look for peace and calm but turn toward the storm and face it impeccably, and with impunity be strong.

Find your light and allow it to guide you but do not use too much light for then will you miss what you must find in the darkness.

Allow for outer guidance and advice but spend much time listening to your inner self. This is where your greatest guide lies waiting, where your healing energy waits for your tapping lines, and where your energy reserves are simmering.

Look not too far from the self for the answers to all your questions and confusions. You, each one of you, My Dears, are founts of wisdom, energy, and health. Ancient paths within the self invite you to tread upon them in your search for wholeness.

Seek within yet question that which is without and between the two, working pragmatically and in spiritual cohesion, find your way.

If you have not yet dared to face your inner self, use this energy of newness that abounds now to begin a new means of self work.

Begin to know the self so that you may heal the self of all the wrong doings you have carried within the very sinews of your physical body and lift the veils that hide you from true release, without regret or care, but simply allowing for acquiescence to the journey already taken and to the journey of this present time and to the future journey as well.

Allow the turning inward process to become your journey now and you will, I guarantee, find new life, new energy, new meaning and you will eventually be free of all that now bothers you so fearfully.

Face your greatest challenge: YOUR SELF.

That is my advice and this is my guidance for how to begin the process of opposing this most fearful adversary who is also your greatest lover, mother, father, partner and guide. Good Luck!

Thank you Jeanne!

Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message from Jeanne in the post/read comments section below.

Most fondly and humbly offered.