Happy Groundhog Day! A good day to study our behaviors! As we are in the midst of a winter storm it looks like spring is a ways off, but the Soulbyte today suggests we plan for it anyway. The audio channeled message from Jeanne will be posted tomorrow, Tuesday, but here is today’s Soulbyte to start off a fresh week:

With tenderness, look upon the self and others as both fallible and infinite, as human and spirit, as terribly uncertain and keenly aware. This dichotomy of self, this wandering fool and this perfect magician that you all are, is where all that you seek and all that you will become merges to do the work of discovery. Within the self, do not blame or hate. Do not dismiss or overindulge. Do not demean or inflate, but instead take full responsibility for the raw truths of where you have been and who you are now, on this day. These raw truths offer you the material of your transformation, the secret formula by which you will grow and change.

Take charge of these raw facts of self, painful though they may be. Study, nurture, and provide them with all that they need so that from them you may grow your new self. You are all full of potential, contained within that which you were born with, the life you were born into, and that which you have evolved into so far. Just as you might wish for the new growth of spring and prepare seeds for spring planting, do the same for the self. Now is the time of planning, seeding, and tender nurturance of new potential. All that you are now, and all that you will be, is contained within the seeds of self. Take over these seeds and in your own creative way set about the seeding of new life for the self. Only you can do it!

The answer to the dilemma of balance must be found within. To remain part of the world and yet maintain a spiritual practice is the crux of the dilemma that all must contend with at some point in life if one is on an evolutionary journey. This dilemma of balance is both critical and necessary, as well as a practical process. How much in the world is it necessary to be, and how much in the spiritual world is desirable? What is the perfect balance? For each individual, the weighing of this dilemma will be different and very personal. It is dependent on where one is in life, the deeper work already done, the work still to do, and the ever-present needs of the physical self in the physical world.

The best advice lies always within the self. Keep in mind that while you live upon that earth plane you must be part of life. If you did not need physical reality you would not be there. So, as you exist so must you challenge yourself to experience life as a physical being and all that that means. Do not restrict out of fear or reluctance, or overindulge either. Yet do accept yourself as a physical, emotional being with needs and desires. Entice and nourish this emotional being as much as you encourage your physical body to eat, exercise, sleep, and attend to the necessities of life.

Balance of the serious, the playful, and the spiritual is necessary for life to flow most naturally. Engage in life, for it may be your last chance, as you just might be evolving out of the physical realm into another realm. Give it all you’ve got!

When faced with a decision, weigh all options. Ask the self to back down from judgments, of self and other, so that only the facts are laid before you. Ask the mind to stop its usual chatter, its usual condemnations, the usual things it tells you, so that you may sit in the silence of your knowing self. Present the options, the pros and cons, of your decision to your knowing self and then sit in the silence and wait. Important decisions deserve patience, so take the time to allow the silence of the knowing self to work through them, to embrace all that is, to sit and mull through all that is presented so that unadulterated clarity may be achieved.

Sit in the silence of the knowing self for as long as it takes for the right decision to rise to the surface and make itself known. It may not be the decision you’d automatically make. However, if the silence of the knowing self is allowed to do its work properly, it will clearly be the right one. The challenge then will be to act on it. For the betterment of all involved, proceed with kindness, knowing that a decision can impact many lives simultaneously. As you carry out the decision of your knowing self, stay connected to your knowing self and you will be provided with the compassion to act gracefully.

If one is to be satisfied with life, effort must be applied. Intent must be set. Awareness must be maintained. Reminders that one is on a path of change must be constant, made an important part of each day. If one it to live a satisfied life, a life that at the end will have both advanced one and been full of life, love, and experience, then one must live each day with that in mind. A satisfied life will naturally unfold as one opens up to and lives a rich inner life to complement and understand the meaning of life upon that earth. To live a satisfied life is to seek always a path of heart, a path of kindness, and a path of inner exploration. All of these things, as one begins to know the self on ever-deepening levels, will bring a satisfied life.

A warrior seeks knowledge. The warrior knows that knowledge comes from being open and having experiences. The warrior knows that knowledge is to be gained by taking the inner path and the path of heart. The warrior knows that these two paths are really the same path, for they reveal the same things, that the only way a path of heart will unfold in the outer world is by the inner world becoming fully known and experienced. The two worlds are parallel and full of knowledge. This is what the warrior knows and thus the warrior’s search for knowledge is as much internal as external. A path of knowledge is a path of heart; a path of heart is a path of knowledge.