Category: Spiritual Growth


She Always Wants What She Can’t Have

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Relationships, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on She Always Wants What She Can’t Have


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have a very bad case of wanting what I can’t have, especially when it comes to relationships. I might have a crush on a guy until he becomes a real prospect, but then I begin to have doubts and get scared off. There are two men in my heart who were boyfriends in the past. I wasn’t serious about them when they pursued me and I easily let both of them go. When I thought about committing to them, I had all sorts of excuses for why they weren’t right for me. Years later, they are married fathers leading happy lives and I am single and going through tough times alone. I am now able to see how great they were and how my excuses for not getting serious about them were poor ones. I can’t tell you how hard I kick myself for letting them go. It’s truly eating me up, loving them deeply now and wanting them back and thinking how much more meaningful and fulfilling my life would be now had I been wiser before. I don’t want to be obsessive and stuck, which is how I feel, but I don’t want to stop loving them because even with all the painful regret, the love somehow feels better than indifference and the petty criticisms I had for them when I was dating them. I want to move on, stop the cycle of running from love, and be happy. Please help!

O.

Dear O:

Thank you for doing such a wonderful job of explaining your situation. What you describe is a common pattern; in fact, I know a number of people personally who do the same sort of thing. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term self-sabotage and the idea that many people unconsciously sabotage their efforts to create what they want in their lives. As a hypnotherapist, I see this a bit differently. While it’s true that people may do things that don’t appear to make sense, there is always a good reason why people do the things they do.

For example, Joann came to me at more than 200 pounds, deeply frustrated and desperate to find a way to lose weight. She had been on countless diets in her 47 years and had lost tens of pounds over and over again. Every time she got down to a size 8, she would start putting weight back on and regain all she had lost and more. In this way, she crept from around 145 pounds to over 200 despite years of dieting.

When I took her into a deep trance and asked her to go back to a significant event in her weight struggle, she at first relayed some upsetting but relatively minor experiences such as being embarrassed of her body as an adolescent and an incident in which she couldn’t fit into the jeans she was trying to borrow from a friend. These were just the outer layers of the onion, however. Eventually when asked to go back to the next significant event, she began to cry and hyperventilate. As I walked her through what she was experiencing, it came out that she had been raped at the age of 22; it was after this that she began to put on weight in an effort to feel less attractive and thus safer. She had been a size 8 at the time of the rape, and every time she became a size 8 again, she would grow very uncomfortable and immediately try to remedy what her subconscious perceived to be a problem by gaining weight again.

When I brought her out of trance, it was clear that a light bulb had come on: She now understood that she hadn’t been sabotaging herself – she had been trying to protect herself. The problem wasn’t a lack of self-love; it was the unfounded belief that if she didn’t carry extra weight, she would be hurt again. Once we healed and released the past trauma and put some empowering new beliefs in place, she found it relatively easy to lose the weight and keep it off.

Perhaps you’ve already figured out what this has to do with you. In case you haven’t, I’ll offer you a case that is a closer match to what you’re going through. Sarah came to me with a problem similar to yours: she was in her late thirties and had never been married because she too always wanted what she couldn’t have. She only wanted men who were unavailable for some reason. A couple of times, she did develop crushes on men who eventually returned her interest, but once she could have them, she didn’t want them anymore.

Regression therapy uncovered a number of possible causes for this pattern, such as her father abandoning the family when she was small, which led her mother into a depression from which she never recovered. From this she developed the belief that it’s never safe to give your heart completely to another human being.

More powerful, however, was the past life she relived in which her parents wanted her to marry a man of means but she chose to marry a penniless youth for love. Though he was handsome and romantic when he was courting her, her husband turned out to be a mean drunk who beat her and the children they had together. They lived in miserable destitution because he was too drunk to earn a living and would spend the money she was able to bring in on alcohol. She would sometimes see the man she had chosen NOT to marry with his wife, looking happy and prosperous, and think to herself that she had made a terrible choice. She died young in childbirth, and as she was dying, she was very worried about what would become of her young children with just their alcoholic father to depend upon. As she was dying, she was filled with regret and thoughts of how just one bad decision can ruin your life.

As a result of this traumatic past life experience, she was incredibly indecisive in this life: every time she was faced with a decision, she would get anxious and second-guess herself. She was also forever thinking that the grass must be greener on the other side. Though she consciously believed that she wanted to fall in love and get married, on a subconscious level, she did not believe this was a wise or safe thing to do. This led her to constantly chase after men she could never actually catch, and to run away from those who chased her. Within two years of resolving this past trauma and the limiting beliefs underlying her lack of fulfillment in love, she was happily married to the man of her dreams.

To resolve your pattern, first you must stop beating yourself up about it. Assume that your subconscious mind is trying to help you and that your job is to get your conscious and subconscious minds working in harmony. Imagine that your goal is to move a dresser: if your conscious mind is pushing forward on one side and your subconscious mind is pushing forward on the other side, you’re going to end up very frustrated. Now imagine that you can bring your subconscious mind over to your side to push WITH you: suddenly, things start to move forward with surprising ease.

I know of no faster way to totally transform your life than to begin to consciously work with your subconscious mind and higher self. Since every person’s story is unique, I encourage you to seek hypnotherapy so you can uncover and resolve whatever may be keeping you from a truly fulfilling experience in love.

Finally, it’s normal to continue to love people we’ve loved in the past, but that doesn’t mean we’re meant to be with them in the future. I think you’re hung up on these old boyfriends because they are symbols of the sort of man and relationship you want. Instead of lamenting the ones who got away, I encourage you to focus on the future and open your heart to meeting someone new.

Soul Arcanum

 


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A Spiritual Response to Global Crises

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Energy/Vibration, Healing, Manifesting, Meditation, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on A Spiritual Response to Global Crises


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I feel so unsettled these days because of the crisis in Japan. How do you feel about this? Are we going to get through this? 

Ka:

Dear Ka:

Please note that I do not intend to make light of the situation in Japan or human suffering in general. My heart goes out to those who have lost their loved ones, homes and businesses in this tragedy, and to all who face an uncertain future – which includes you and me, my friend. However, in asking for my opinion, I assume that you are seeking a higher spiritual perspective on all of this. From this higher spiritual perspective, I can see that all is well and that there are valuable lessons and opportunities in this situation.

The reason you are feeling uneasy is because the whole world is feeling uneasy. Your unsettled feelings belie the fact that we are all connected; what happens to one happens to all on some level. This is perhaps the greatest lesson humanity is in the process of learning right now.

We live in exciting times. It wasn’t that long ago that an earthquake could have devastated Japan and only those present would have known about it. Now we are all connected on more than a spiritual level; we instantly receive news of what is happening across the globe in vivid, full-color images. Further, given nuclear technology, what happens in other parts of the world could have a devastating effect on us here.

I believe that what we see happening on a physical level mirrors what is happening on a spiritual level, and that the political and ecological problems we are facing arise from an inner spiritual crisis. When we began to question and reject organized religion, we lost more than just false beliefs and illusions: most of us also lost all sense of the sacred. This created a hole in the soul of the world and left many people spiritually adrift. It also encouraged the abuse of the planet and other people, for if nothing has meaning, then life becomes entirely materialistic. It’s then every person/country for itself in a race to gobble up as many resources as possible before someone else gets there.

To me it just makes sense that in order to address the crises we see in our outer experience, we must look to what is happening on an inner level. For one thing, it is from the inside that we make decisions: it is our values that determine how we treat the planet and each other.  Further, the seeds of physical existence are planted metaphysically; the state of the physical world reflects what is happening on a spiritual level, so to change what is happening in the outer world, we must change what is happening within.

Just as we can now fly around the world and connect with people on other continents via phone and internet, we are all growing more and more overtly connected. This is moving us toward the realization that we are not separate individuals, separate races and separate nations, but all part of one big family sharing the same planet and resources. Whether it is by divine design or not, tragedies like the one in Japan are awakening us all to the realization of Oneness.

I am sure that we are all going to get through this, but it may not happen here on Earth unless we wake up and develop a respectful attitude toward all life as sacred. Our ancestors had a healthy respect for nature; events like the earthquake and tsunami are reminders that we are completely dependent on the same nature we are so determined to conquer and exploit. The reason I believe we will all get through this is because I know we are more than our physical bodies. Since we are all multidimensional beings, when we die, we will all continue to exist in other dimensions. The earth plane is a place of limited physical resources and extreme contrast. We incarnated here to have an intense experience in hopes of achieving tremendous spiritual growth. We shouldn’t be surprised that Earth isn’t one big amusement park, for that’s not what we signed up for: We came to develop the wisdom to choose love over fear, and to do that, we have to have unsettling experiences.

You are understandably afraid. The news is full of frightening information about war, ecological destruction and every sort of tragedy imaginable. While it’s understandable to feel afraid, I’d like to submit that your fear is a call from your soul to find new faith and reach for light instead of succumbing to darkness.

You begin to do this by holding a vision that is beautiful and peaceful. You can send prayers to those in need and imagine everyone coming together to help each other. If there is something overt you can do to help those who move you with compassion, do it. Otherwise, vow not to be sucked into fear and despair but instead to keep your inner light burning bright so it can shine out to others and illuminate their way.

To manifest global positive change, we must join together to promote what we value. Scientific research has shown that group meditation can create a powerful positive influence on the collective consciousness of society. While there have always been natural events like earthquakes, if we unite in appreciation of the sacred nature of the planet, we may not have to deal with nuclear fallout on top of whatever Mother nature dishes out. Perhaps if humanity grows more peaceful, the planet will as well. For more information on transcendental meditation, visit istpp.org and tm.org.

By affecting collective consciousness, we begin to change what is happening on the spiritual level from which physical existence arises. The same unified field of consciousness that has made you feel uneasy can be used to generate new peace, love, harmony and well-being. You’ve been receiving impressions from the unified field of human consciousness; it’s time for us all to start purposefully sending positive vibes out.

To find your own way to new peace, regular meditation should prove powerful, for it will lead to the development of equanimity. You will then be at peace regardless of what is happening in your outer experience. In addition to meditation, I recommend learning how to have out-of-body experiences, for aside from having a near-death experience, this is the most profound way I know to conquer fear of death and awaken to the truth that we are all multidimensional beings. For a comforting peek at what astral travel can do for you, check out this fascinating talk by Jurgen Ziewe.

When you realize that the Earth is just one dimension of many and that we will all leave it one day for other worlds, it’s easier to relax about what is happening around the globe. This doesn’t mean we stop caring. Rather, instead of running around telepathically yelling The sky is falling!, we are able to respond to whatever and whomever comes our way from a place of higher spiritual values.

I believe we are heading toward the realization of a global community and hopefully a period of greater peace and cooperation, for it is becoming ever more clear that what happens to one affects us all.

Soul Arcanum

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Starting on a Spiritual Path

Filed Under: Divine Guidance, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Starting on a Spiritual Path


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I feel the need for greater balance in my life. At the moment, what I lack most is spiritual fulfillment. What would be a good way for me to start on this path? Where should I go to begin seeking spiritual guidance? There are so many paths out there; how do I know which is right for me? Since I am a Christian, numerous people have suggested that I go back to church, but the attraction is just not there. When I do go to church, the spiritual void I feel remains unfilled. Others have suggested that I try exploring other paths like Buddhism. Where do you suggest I start?

Michelle

Dear Michelle:

You are already doing the most important thing: you are listening within and allowing yourself to be led to what you really need. You are also trusting your feelings to determine what does and does not feel right to you.

God/Spirit/the Universe whispers to us in our own hearts. The only way to determine the right path for us is to pay attention to how we feel and trust that what we long to do is what we are meant to do. Unfortunately, this is a far cry from what most of us have been taught. In my view, the “the Church” generally teaches people to distrust themselves. They are urged to follow a prefabricated set of rules instead of allowing their own heart and conscience to guide them to right action. Traditionally, the church has also asserted that one needs a priest to serve as intermediary between oneself and “God.” The Church not only discouraged a personal relationship with the divine, it suggested that for most people, this was an impossibility.

That being said, I believe traditional religion does have its place. People who are more rooted in their base instincts than a quest for spiritual growth are much like sheep who need shepherding. This is a natural stage in our spiritual evolution that we probably all passed through at some point. However, it is also natural to outgrow this stage: to start to question what we’ve been taught, think for ourselves, and hunger for direct personal experience in order to build a solid belief system. It sounds like you have recently reached that point in your own spiritual evolution.

The first step is to trust that your desire is trying to guide you. Allow yourself to go exploring with trust in your own interests, desires, instincts and intuitions. You might begin exploring by going to a local spiritual/metaphysical bookstore to peruse the possibilities. If you are in an open, relaxed frame of mind and trusting of your intuition, you will feel drawn to certain subjects and titles. Many people even have strange experiences where books fall off the shelves at their feet or strangers strike up a conversation during which they recommend titles.

While you’re there, check the bulletin board for a listing of classes, seminars, workshops, practitioners, groups and other offerings. There will probably also be a local spiritual magazine with articles by local teachers, a calendar of classes and events, and lots of ads for local spiritual practitioners of various sorts. You will discover options you’ve never even heard of before. Don’t become overwhelmed; if you listen within and trust your own interests and instincts, your intuition will guide you.

Sometimes we don’t feel called to a certain path simply because we haven’t yet stumbled upon the path that is right for us. If you are only considering whether to go back to church or explore Buddhism and neither of these paths is the one for you, then it’s no wonder you’re not getting a clear sense of direction. By exploring all the options available to you, you are more likely to hit upon something that really speaks to you.

Now that you’ve selected some books, start reading! One book and subject will naturally lead you to another and another. If you keep trusting your own curiosity to guide you, you will never run out of paths to explore. Similarly, if you have hit upon a class, group, or other local offering that seems intriguing, check it out.

A word of caution: no path is “perfect.” Just as you wouldn’t expect to like everything on the menu at your favorite restaurant, you probably won’t love every aspect and tenet of a particular path. Though I have had some wonderful spiritual teachers in my life, I haven’t agreed 100% with any of them.

Next, pick a spiritual practice you feel drawn to. This may be a certain form of meditation, an exercise like yoga or tai chi, chanting, prayer, or even community service. Whatever you choose, give it some time before you decide if it’s really for you or not. This will take some discipline and devotion. Getting spiritually in shape is a bit like getting physically in shape: if you judge a certain form of exercise based on how it feels the first couple of times you do it, you’re likely to give up before you begin to see its benefits.

Next, keep in mind that you are constantly creating your own experience of life. You can use the law of attraction to manifest spiritual abundance just as you would use it to manifest financial abundance. I count my understanding of the law of attraction as the most precious spiritual knowledge I’ve been blessed with this lifetime. No matter what you desire, working with the law of attraction is the way to get it. For this reason, I encourage you to study the law of attraction and start using what you learn to manifest the spiritual guidance and fulfillment you long for.

Do keep in mind that if you keep telling the Universe, “I don’t know what to do. I feel lost and empty,” then you will get more of that same sort of experience. If you tell the Universe, “I want magic! I want a clear sense of spiritual direction and deep sense of spiritual fulfillment” and you imagine how it will feel when you get that, then you will naturally begin to attract what you desire.

Finally, start a dialog with Spirit. Instead of just asking questions in your mind and heart, listen for insights and answers. Ask for signs to come to you and honor the ones you receive by acting on them. It’s wise to ask for signs to come in threes so you’re sure that they are what they seem to be.

Many years ago, I was in a similar place. I was having all sorts of spontaneous spirit communication experiences but I was far from being able to control or initiate them. I felt called to try to help people with this gift but since I couldn’t control it, that path seemed closed to me. Then I prayed to Spirit. I basically said, “If this is what I’m meant to do, then show me how I can learn to use this gift in a purposeful way.” Within two weeks, three different people had mentioned Lily Dale, New York, to me. This got my attention and I just “knew” I should go there. When I visited, I saw the school I ended up attending advertised on a flier, and I just knew I was going to go to the school. It wasn’t even so much that I knew I wanted to go to the school – I knew I was going to do it. This school proved to be the answer to my prayers.

You ask where you should begin to seek spiritual guidance. I recommend you stop asking other people (including me), and start asking God/the Universe/Spirit – whatever label you personally put on the source of intuition and inspiration. This is a very exciting time for you, my friend. May this new journey bless you with faith, wonder, and the spiritual fulfillment you desire.

Soul Arcanum

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Starting on a Spiritual Path

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Starting on a Spiritual Path


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I feel the need for greater balance in my life. At the moment, what I lack most is spiritual fulfillment. What would be a good way for me to start on this path? Where should I go to begin seeking spiritual guidance? There are so many paths out there; how do I know which is right for me? Since I am a Christian, numerous people have suggested that I go back to church, but the attraction is just not there. When I do go to church, the spiritual void I feel remains unfilled. Others have suggested that I try exploring other paths like Buddhism. Where do you suggest I start?

Michelle

Dear Michelle:

You are already doing the most important thing: you are listening within and allowing yourself to be led to what you really need. You are also trusting your feelings to determine what does and does not feel right to you.

God/Spirit/the Universe whispers to us in our own hearts. The only way to determine the right path for us is to pay attention to how we feel and trust that what we long to do is what we are meant to do. Unfortunately, this is a far cry from what most of us have been taught. In my view, the “the Church” generally teaches people to distrust themselves. They are urged to follow a prefabricated set of rules instead of allowing their own heart and conscience to guide them to right action. Traditionally, the church has also asserted that one needs a priest to serve as intermediary between oneself and “God.” The Church not only discouraged a personal relationship with the divine, it suggested that for most people, this was an impossibility.

That being said, I believe traditional religion does have its place. People who are more rooted in their base instincts than a quest for spiritual growth are much like sheep who need shepherding. This is a natural stage in our spiritual evolution that we probably all passed through at some point. However, it is also natural to outgrow this stage: to start to question what we’ve been taught, think for ourselves, and hunger for direct personal experience in order to build a solid belief system. It sounds like you have recently reached that point in your own spiritual evolution.

The first step is to trust that your desire is trying to guide you. Allow yourself to go exploring with trust in your own interests, desires, instincts and intuitions. You might begin exploring by going to a local spiritual/metaphysical bookstore to peruse the possibilities. If you are in an open, relaxed frame of mind and trusting of your intuition, you will feel drawn to certain subjects and titles. Many people even have strange experiences where books fall off the shelves at their feet or strangers strike up a conversation during which they recommend titles.

While you’re there, check the bulletin board for a listing of classes, seminars, workshops, practitioners, groups and other offerings. There will probably also be a local spiritual magazine with articles by local teachers, a calendar of classes and events, and lots of ads for local spiritual practitioners of various sorts. You will discover options you’ve never even heard of before. Don’t become overwhelmed; if you listen within and trust your own interests and instincts, your intuition will guide you.

Sometimes we don’t feel called to a certain path simply because we haven’t yet stumbled upon the path that is right for us. If you are only considering whether to go back to church or explore Buddhism and neither of these paths is the one for you, then it’s no wonder you’re not getting a clear sense of direction. By exploring all the options available to you, you are more likely to hit upon something that really speaks to you.

Now that you’ve selected some books, start reading! One book and subject will naturally lead you to another and another. If you keep trusting your own curiosity to guide you, you will never run out of paths to explore. Similarly, if you have hit upon a class, group, or other local offering that seems intriguing, check it out.

A word of caution: no path is “perfect.” Just as you wouldn’t expect to like everything on the menu at your favorite restaurant, you probably won’t love every aspect and tenet of a particular path. Though I have had some wonderful spiritual teachers in my life, I haven’t agreed 100% with any of them.

Next, pick a spiritual practice you feel drawn to. This may be a certain form of meditation, an exercise like yoga or tai chi, chanting, prayer, or even community service. Whatever you choose, give it some time before you decide if it’s really for you or not. This will take some discipline and devotion. Getting spiritually in shape is a bit like getting physically in shape: if you judge a certain form of exercise based on how it feels the first couple of times you do it, you’re likely to give up before you begin to see its benefits.

Next, keep in mind that you are constantly creating your own experience of life. You can use the law of attraction to manifest spiritual abundance just as you would use it to manifest financial abundance. I count my understanding of the law of attraction as the most precious spiritual knowledge I’ve been blessed with this lifetime. No matter what you desire, working with the law of attraction is the way to get it. For this reason, I encourage you to study the law of attraction and start using what you learn to manifest the spiritual guidance and fulfillment you long for.

Do keep in mind that if you keep telling the Universe, “I don’t know what to do. I feel lost and empty,” then you will get more of that same sort of experience. If you tell the Universe, “I want magic! I want a clear sense of spiritual direction and deep sense of spiritual fulfillment” and you imagine how it will feel when you get that, then you will naturally begin to attract what you desire.

Finally, start a dialog with Spirit. Instead of just asking questions in your mind and heart, listen for insights and answers. Ask for signs to come to you and honor the ones you receive by acting on them. It’s wise to ask for signs to come in threes so you’re sure that they are what they seem to be.

Many years ago, I was in a similar place. I was having all sorts of spontaneous spirit communication experiences but I was far from being able to control or initiate them. I felt called to try to help people with this gift but since I couldn’t control it, that path seemed closed to me. Then I prayed to Spirit. I basically said, “If this is what I’m meant to do, then show me how I can learn to use this gift in a purposeful way.” Within two weeks, three different people had mentioned Lily Dale, New York, to me. This got my attention and I just “knew” I should go there. When I visited, I saw the school I ended up attending advertised on a flier, and I just knew I was going to go to the school. It wasn’t even so much that I knew I wanted to go to the school – I knew I was going to do it. This school proved to be the answer to my prayers.

You ask where you should begin to seek spiritual guidance. I recommend you stop asking other people (including me), and start asking God/the Universe/Spirit – whatever label you personally put on the source of intuition and inspiration. This is a very exciting time for you, my friend. May this new journey bless you with faith, wonder, and the spiritual fulfillment you desire.

Soul Arcanum

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The Law of Allowing

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Energy/Vibration, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Law of Allowing


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have been studying the law of attraction for about five years, and have manifested a number of great things so far. Part of this process has included working with a life coach who has taught me to focus on what I want in my life, pour lots of positive emotion into my visualization efforts, wish for what I desire with all my heart, but then surrender whatever happens to a higher plan and power. This is the part I’m struggling with: if we can create what we want in our lives, why do we have to surrender to a higher plan? My teacher tells me that the more I strain for control, the less control I actually have. Can you explain this? Also, do you think we can decide what we will create in our lives even if it goes against some pre-established higher plan?

Bob

Dear Bob:

I chose your question because this is something I’ve struggled with myself. We hear a lot about the law of attraction, but not so much about another law that is just as essential to the process of manifesting: the law of allowing. In my experience, most people are much better at working with one of these laws than the other.

People who are better at working with the law of attraction tend to be successful and good at manifesting what they want, but they also tend to experience lots of stress and frustration. These sorts of people are better at getting what they think they want than being happy with what they have. People who are better at working with the law of allowing tend to be easygoing, relaxed types who struggle to make ends meet and often feel sorry for themselves because life just seems unfair. They are better at being happy with what they have than they are at creating what they want and need in life.

Of course, these are gross generalizations: each individual is a unique mixture of all sorts of traits and qualities, and there are many well-balanced people in the world who draw the best from both camps. This is the goal, by the way: to get good at working with both laws so that we can create what we want in our lives and be happy and at peace at the same time. Instead of a warrior or a dreamer, we want to be like a Tai Chi master: both a powerful force to be reckoned with AND able to flow with the other forces around us instead of fighting against them.

As I mentioned, your question is something I’ve struggled with myself. In fact, this issue of control recently reared up again. Before falling asleep one night, I was pondering just how much control we actually have over our course of experience, and I thought to pray to Spirit to send me an illuminating dream. I had a number of dreams that night, but there was part of one dream that felt powerful and stayed with me when I awoke:

In the dream, I am plowing a field with a donkey, and am strapped to the donkey with an old-fashioned leather yoke. I am aware that this is the first time I have done this sort of plowing, and there is an invisible force guiding me, telling me what to do and how to go about the whole process. When I get to the end of the first row and try to bring the donkey around to go back the other way, the donkey angrily whips around on me and knocks me backwards. This scares the heck out of me, but it doesn’t kill or seriously injure me. (I remember thinking with great surprise that I was neither killed nor injured.) I then feel that invisible force guiding me to regain control of the donkey and set it moving back on course again.

When I woke up, I knew that this dream was in answer to my prayer. I see it as a message about how much control we have over our course of experience and how we go about working with the creative forces of the Universe. As I meditated on this, a long message from Spirit came through about how creating what we want in our lives is very much like working with nature to cultivate various crops.

Here is some of what was relayed to me:

  • We aren’t the only force influencing what happens in our lives. We can harness the creative forces of the Universe to create what we desire, but since we are dealing with wild forces, sometimes this is easier said than done. If we don’t completely know what we’re doing (and who ever does?), we may sometimes experience some backlash. The bigger the goal or dream – the bigger the “donkey” and the field – the trickier things tend to get.
  • We can choose what we are going to cultivate as well as how we will go about it. We choose how much time and effort we put in and how much we study nature and how to go about growing lush crops, but there will always be factors that remain beyond our control.
  • The weather/climate we are working in will always play a big factor in our results. Even if we cultivate very carefully, sometimes forces beyond our control can destroy what we’ve been working on. Of course, those same forces can also prove ideal and make our crops grow especially lush. Though we are forever looking for ways to control our results or at least understand why some things happen at some times and other thing happen at other times, there is much that remains beyond our scope and understanding. This is the realm of so-called bad luck and good fortune.

Many people have a hard time working with both/and thinking as opposed to either/or thinking. The less rigid and limited we are in our outlook, the more we can understand and work with laws of the Universe. For example, most people think they must choose between believing that we either have control over what happens in our lives OR we don’t have control and must surrender to “God’s will” or chance. I’m suggesting that we both have control over what happens in our lives AND must surrender to a higher plan.

This is the way of the farmer who does his best to grow what he wants and needs in his life. He gets up early, harnesses his donkey, heads out to the fields and does his very best to cultivate what he wants. He reads the Farmer’s Almanac, studies the ways of nature, and allows both his learned knowledge and his instincts to tell him when the time is right for planting, watering, weeding and reaping. He prays to higher forces to bless and guide him in all of this, and he listens within for that guidance. Ultimately, however, he knows that much remains beyond his control. He feels that he is a part of the nature he is working with, and this makes him feel safe: he is at home in this world, for the very forces that hold so much power over what happens in his life are the source of his own creation. He therefore wisely surrenders ultimate outcomes with faith that no matter what happens, everything will be fine.

I believe this is a wise and powerful approach, for it allows us to both cultivate what we want in our lives while at the same time feeling a sense of peace with the way things are. Ironically, letting go of outcomes actually makes us more powerful cultivators of what we want in our lives, for when we can relax and feel good without straining for control, we are able to maintain a high vibration. This is like being calm and assured when yoked to that donkey. If we approach the donkey feeling stress, strain, anxiety or frustration, the donkey will sense it and may rear back on us and make things very difficult. If, however, we are calm and assured, we remain masters of the situation and are able to steer toward where we want to go and align with a smooth journey to fulfillment.

Soul Arcanum

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The Spiritual Power of Yoga

Filed Under: Energy/Vibration, Healing, Meditation, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Spiritual Power of Yoga


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have a friend who is always raving about the benefits of yoga and has piqued my interest. Last week, I attended a yoga class at a local gym and I have to say that I was disappointed. I thought yoga was somehow going to be spiritual – that I would feel something special during the experience – but it was basically an exercise class full of very limber people. Do you think yoga has spiritual benefits? Do I just need to keep at it or was I perhaps just expecting too much from the experience?

Joyce

Dear Joyce:

Please note that when I use the word yoga in this article, I am referring to yoga as most Westerners view it: as a form of exercise that involves movement through various poses. When most of us think of yoga, we probably think of hatha yoga, which involves a slow-paced, gentle series of different poses. There are a number of other yoga schools that are popular in the U.S., including vinyasa, ashtanga, Iyengar, bikram and kundalini yoga. There is an abundance of information on these and other styles available on the internet, so I encourage you research what each one emphasizes so you can find the right style for you.

Of course, even within a particular style, every yoga teacher is a unique individual and will teach in a unique way. If you think back to when you were in school, I bet there were teachers you loved who taught wonderful classes and teachers you really didn’t like who taught classes you dreaded. The same is true of yoga.

There are people who could turn a class on how to change a flat tire into a spiritual experience, and others who could spend an entire hour of Bible study talking about mundane, trivial matters. Similarly, there are students who can find the spiritual meaning in every life experience, and there are others who could receive a thunderbolt from heaven and think of nothing but the weather. My point is that with everything in life, what we take from an experience largely depends on what we bring to it.

That being said, I have encountered yoga teachers who seemed to be missing “the point.” In one of my own first classes, the yoga instructor was as unlike the stereotype of a serene, mantra-chanting yogi as one can imagine, for she was loud, abrupt, abrasive, impatient and critical. (Naturally, I never returned!) As you can see, finding the right teacher is essential.

It’s also important to remember that whenever we try something new, we tend to feel pretty uncomfortable since we are outside of our comfort zone. I therefore do encourage you to keep trying, for the more familiar you become with a certain practice, the more you can put your left brain aside to get fully present.

As for yoga’s spiritual side, it is definitely far more than a series of exercises designed to increase the strength and flexibility of the body: it is a practice designed to harmonize and unite the body with the heart, mind, spirit and cosmos. Through mindful yoga practice, you can move into greater harmony on all levels of your being and into greater sync with the Universe. This state of harmony can lead to improved physical health and fitness as well as profound well-being on an emotional, psychological and spiritual level. The key phrase here, of course, is “when practiced mindfully.”

Yoga developed as a way for spiritual seekers to achieve higher states of consciousness in meditation. A yoga teacher once explained that yoga was what one did before attempting to engage in deep meditation, the idea being that by getting all the tension out of the body, it would be far more comfortable to sit in a meditation pose for hours afterward. In my experience, it is indeed amazingly easy to go directly into a very profound state of consciousness when meditating directly after practicing yoga.

Getting centered in our bodies and gently stretching toward greater flexibility has concurrent effects on a metaphysical level. When we let go of physical tension, we naturally begin to let go of tension in our hearts and minds. As we move through each pose, we let go of stress and strain from everyday life and can quickly shift from a bad mood into feelings of profound peace and joy. In fact, yoga practice encourages such a high vibration that it can lead to instant healing not only of emotional issues but also physical ailments and imbalances. Further, the more we engage in the process of getting centered within, the more we carry this ability throughout our everyday lives. We can then move through all sorts of normally upsetting situations with calm grace because we are so practiced at moving in this way.

Yoga encourages a state of health on all levels, for balance is health, and yoga cultivates balance in the body and between the various aspects of our being. When we are in balance physically, our bodies feel good. When we are in balance emotionally, we feel centered and calm. When we balance all aspects of our being, we begin to embody graceful poise and radiant vitality.

Yoga also opens us up for a greater flow of life force energy, which leads to shining health and happiness. In some cases, yoga can ignite kundalini and spark a spiritual awakening and the development of psychic powers. When we are fully present to each moment and in a peaceful, high vibration, our intuition blossoms and we begin to receive all sorts of insights and creative ideas on how to solve problems and create what we want in our lives. Further, the more we synchronize our bodies with our hearts, minds and spirits like this, the better we get at this sort of communication. This allows us to hear different aspects of our beings telling us what we most need. This greater intuitive awareness helps us flow through everyday life much like we flow through different yoga poses: we spontaneously take just the right actions, say just the right words, and know just the right way to move forward so that what we desire to happen happens and our journey remains smooth.

On top of all of this guidance, yoga practice enhances our ability to consciously create what we want in our lives via the law of attraction. When we move into sync with the Universe, our desires merge with the desires of nature, which makes it far easier to focus on something and attract it into our experience. When we move into a state of flow with all aspects of our being and All That Is, we begin to dance with the Universe, drawing what we need our way, flowing away from what we don’t want, and naturally attracting whatever will fulfill our true needs and desires.

I think yoga is great for everyone, but I have found that it is especially beneficial for people who suffer from anxiety disorders because it helps them train themselves to relax into the moment instead of endlessly worrying about the future. It is also beneficial for spiritual seekers who are highly energetic and find it hard to sit still for meditation. It’s a wonderful form of physical and spiritual exercise for anyone who is tense in body, heart or mind, for it teaches us how to relax and go with the flow instead of endlessly pushing ourselves or fighting the current. Finally, yoga is a fantastic way to bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual, for it harmonizes all aspects of our being and opens us up to a higher level of spiritual awareness and experience.

Soul Arcanum

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Can Spiritual Growth Lead to Divorce?

Filed Under: Relationships, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Can Spiritual Growth Lead to Divorce?


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

Does our life partner change as we grow and develop on our path? As we become more spiritual, does God sometimes feel that we are ready for another partner, and is that why some marriages break? Thanks and warm regards to you!

Kiran

Dear Kiran:

I do see a strong relationship between spiritual growth and divorce. While spiritual growth can lead to incompatibility in relationships, the end of big relationships can also spark new spiritual growth. Of course, people can also avoid personal growth by bailing out of marriage or by resisting the end of an obsolete relationship.

Over the years, I’ve watched many new spiritual seekers experience upheaval in every area of their lives, and I went through something like this myself when first awakening. This is such a common phenomenon that there is even a word for it: “spiritual emergency.” It generally occurs when a person first awakens to a conscious spiritual path and begins to seek a more expanded way of being and deeper sense of meaning in their lives.

In this newly awakened state, people begin to question pretty much everything, such as who they have assumed themselves to be, what they’ve believed to be right and true, and many of the decisions they made in the past, including whether and whom to marry. As they search for an extraordinary level of experience, they have a tendency to break free of conventional occupations, lifestyles and situations.

This is all in the name of living a more authentic life. Most people go to school, pursue certain careers, get married and “settle down” simply because this is what everyone else seems to be doing. When a person awakens from this reverie, they begin to live in a more conscious manner, which naturally leads them to abandon much of what has already been established.

However, there is some danger in ascribing our feelings of attraction for others to some divine plan. Though I sense this is not what you want to hear, in my experience, when spiritual growth is behind the dissolution of a marriage, there is no third party involved. If spiritual growth is the driving force behind a divorce, a person will leave the marriage for their own true selves, not for someone else.

While it’s possible to have spiritual growth be the main cause of divorce and for there to be a lover (or potential lover) waiting in the wings, it’s generally wise to make sure that the reason for ending a marriage is not this other person. I’m even going to go out on a big limb and suggest that it’s never a good idea to leave one person for another. Statistics support me in this, for research indicates that when a person leaves a spouse to pursue a relationship with a third party, that second relationship is twice as likely to fall apart as the relationship that was ended.

Further, people who end a marriage for someone else are the most likely to regret getting divorced. This is because the divorce was not caused by spiritual growth but a desire to avoid something and unfounded assumptions. Since all relationships are important, if we’ve already made a sacred vow to someone, I believe we owe it to everyone involved to base our decisions about that relationship on the relationship itself instead of our hopes or feelings for some third party.

It is true that spiritual growth can make us incompatible with someone we used to be in harmony with. While both partners can simply grow in different directions, usually one partner awakens before the other. This can create tension, especially if partners put pressure on each other to be more like them. The loneliness of feeling unaccepted and misunderstood can lead one or both partners to search for kindred spirits, which can lead to all sorts of confusion and complications.

Since like does attract like, we are naturally attracted to people who are of a similar vibration. We are also naturally drawn toward people to whom we already have a deep spiritual bond due to other/past life experiences. This pull doesn’t necessarily mean that being with them will make us happy, however – it just means we have something to gain from interacting with them.

People often feel irresistibly drawn toward each other and end up having a tumultuous sort of relationship because big karma drew them back together. Instead of happily ever after, what they get is a whole new set of challenges. In my reading work, I often see love affairs as destined connections that aren’t meant to be permanent but are instead designed to help individuals reconnect with who they really are and what they really want. As such, they involve strong feelings of attraction, but are only meant to be temporary bridges between what has been and a more authentic future. It is foolish to expect such attractions to fulfill all our dreams for love or to allow them to affect how we feel about the other people in our lives.

For what it’s worth, I think the high divorce rate is a natural sign of the times, for life on Earth has changed dramatically since the invention of marriage. Where we used to struggle to physically survive, we now have the luxury of pursuing emotional fulfillment and spiritual growth. The pace of life has also increased dramatically, and we’ve all gained an incredible amount of freedom. Where we used to live in one place our whole lives and have few choices in terms of mates, we can now travel around the world and connect with anyone on the planet with the help of the internet.

As a result of all of these changes, people are living the equivalent of several lifetimes’ worth of experiences in just one incarnation, which means they are growing and changing at a faster rate than ever before. Given this new pace, it just makes sense that we may need several lifetimes’ worth of relationships in order to keep making progress.

I’m not suggesting we abandon marriage whenever the impulse strikes us – far from it. To determine the value of a relationship, we must ask ourselves if it is based on love or fear. If people stay together because they’re worried about how others will react if they split up, they are staying together out of fear. One might argue that they are staying together out of love for those other people, but the bottom line is that they are afraid of what will happen if they listen to their hearts. When we do anything from fear, it will eventually break down and lead us back to make a new decision.

Though we might be able to physically force people to stay together, love can’t be legislated, and hearts can’t be bound by spoken words or written contracts. We should stay with someone because we love them and want to be with them, for this the only sort of relationship that proves to be truly happy for everyone involved.

Though we tend to view the choice to divorce in a negative light, from a higher spiritual perspective, it’s more like a graduation from one phase of life and the launch of a fresh new beginning. We don’t condemn someone who has long been miserable in a particular career when they finally quit that job to pursue their dreams; we celebrate their courage and their determination to live a fuller, more rewarding life. With the right perspective, the end of a marriage can similarly be celebrated as a tremendous opportunity to expand and enrich our lives. For more on how divorce can be a positive spiritual experience, I recommend the book Spiritual Divorce: Divorce as a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life by Debbie Ford.

Soul Arcanum

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Psychic for a Little While

Filed Under: Intuitive Development, Psychic Ability, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Psychic for a Little While


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

When I was in college and for a little while after, I had some amazing psychic experiences. I would know who was calling on the phone before I answered it and I had lots of intuitions about things that proved true. Amazing synchronicities also occurred. It was a magical time, but at some point, all of that ended. At the time, I had a roommate who was very spiritual. He was the one who first exposed me to ideas like reincarnation and astral projection. He also meditated and led a psychic development circle. I got very interested in spiritual matters when we moved in together. I began to read some of his books and we had many deep conversations on spiritual subjects. That’s when I started having strange experiences myself. I’m wondering if it’s possible to be psychic for just a brief time in your life, and why that would be.

Sam

Dear Sam:

Everyone is always psychic to some degree. I think exploring the general conditions under which psychic abilities tend to flourish may illuminate what happened here.

Generally speaking, the higher our spiritual vibration, the more likely we are to have conscious spiritual/psychic experiences. The place we live and the people we live with can have strong effects on our vibration, especially if we aren’t adept at “setting our own tone.”

I’m betting the main reason you experienced this surge in psychic activity was because you were living with this roommate. It’s said that one who is connected to the stream of pure, positive energy is more powerful than thousands who are not. Such a person will naturally cause the people around him to entrain to his vibration. These are the ideal individuals to serve as spiritual teachers and healers, for they are both psychically sensitive and able to remain personally unaffected by the subtle energies around them.

We say that people like your old roommate are “charismatic” or have “magnetic personalities.” They are usually confident but in a quiet, peaceful way. I think it’s interesting that “charismatic” also means spiritually and psychically gifted. As your roommate’s vibration prevailed in your household, he drew you up to his vibration where you got to glimpse bits and pieces of his reality. That you were living with him would have an especially strong effect on you given how much time you must have spent soaking up all those good vibrations. Sleeping there would also be powerful because we are more open when we’re asleep than when we’re awake and our rational minds are blocking and parrying every new idea that comes our way.

Of course, living with this friend also opened you up to all sorts of new ideas. You mentioned that you had never been exposed to many of these notions before, which was probably a good thing, for you’d never been taught to reject or dismiss them. In wondering at these new possibilities, you flowed positive energy and attention toward them and thus began to manifest related experiences in your life. When we focus on something, it’s like fertilizing a plant: the energy of our attention makes it grow in our lives. As you were thinking and talking about these ideas with a feeling of interest or excitement, they naturally began to bloom for you.

Since our vibration largely determines what we experience, certain periods of our lives tend to be different in many ways from others. For many people, the years after they leave home but before they fully move into adult responsibilities are especially exciting, free and happy. Most young adults are also very open-minded and actively engaged in pursuing new ideas in order to determine who they are and want to be. This is especially true of university students who are constantly rearranging their minds to accommodate new ideas. If this describes you at that time, it would mean your vibration was high and your auric boundaries were thin or flexible, which are ideal conditions for psychic experiences.

Perhaps after this period in your life, you decided it was time for you to “grow up” by getting a real job and becoming more responsible. Adhering to mainstream social norms tends to repress psychic ability because in the West, everything psychic is dismissed or denigrated. Psychic awareness is highly dependent on a self-referential frame of mind; you have to trust your own values and impressions over outside opinions to clearly hear the voice of your intuition. This is why people tend to become less and less psychic the more time they spend being socialized here on Earth – in other words, the older they get! Only individuals who refuse to “grow up” or conform are able to keep living in magical realities.

Given all of the above, it makes sense that your psychic abilities would suddenly emerge when living with this roommate and recede when you parted ways and shifted toward a new set of goals and values. This doesn’t mean your psychic abilities are gone for good! If you had them once, they’re still there. To encourage a psychic reawakening, you just need to recreate the ideal conditions for your abilities to grow.

You might start by giving this whole subject your attention on a regular basis again. Spend time with people who are psychic and/or spiritual. Attend classes, workshops, and psychic development circles. Start reading books on these subjects. As you do this, try to emulate the open-minded curiosity of your younger self.

Regular spiritual practice could quickly spark big breakthroughs; this may be especially powerful since it sounds like you weren’t engaged in any spiritual practice when you started having psychic experiences before. Daily meditation and/or attempts at astral projection are two powerful stimulants of psychic development.

As with any aim, it’s always wise to study and work with the law of attraction. Many people who use the law of attraction to create the opportunities, resources and other blessings they desire never think to use it for spiritual or psychic endeavors.

If you develop a conscious relationship with Spirit, you can regularly ask for signs, synchronicities, messages and amazing psychic experiences. This is one of the most rewarding, fascinating things I’ve ever done. The more we consciously work with Spirit, the more interesting things tend to happen, provided our minds are open enough to allow new experiences into our personal reality.

Finally, assume that you can have what you want and expect it to happen. It may help to know that the experiences you describe are pretty common. For example, in a 2001 study published in the Journal of Psychology, 78% of respondents reported telephoning someone only to have that person say that they had just been thinking about calling them. Another 47% reported the phenomenon of knowing who was calling before picking up the phone. I hear from people every day who are having amazing psychic experiences. If they can have them, you can too!

– Soul Arcanum

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Psychic Feels like a Fraud

Filed Under: Intuitive Development, Psychic Ability, Psychic Readings, Relationships, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Psychic Feels like a Fraud


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I do psychic readings for a living and also because I enjoy helping others. However, over the last few months, I panic as soon as I think about doing a reading because I feel like I’m a fraud. I have had a lot of stress over the last few years. I’ve lost faith in myself so much that I feel utterly lost. It may help you to know that I’m also very concerned about my choice of life partner. I feel like something is not quite right about this relationship but I can’t work out what’s wrong. We’ve been together for three years, and within that time, my life, work, health and spirituality have suffered a marked decline. He is always nice to me so I don’t understand what’s wrong.

Karen

Dear Karen:

This may sound a little odd, but I think the fact that you feel like a fraud for no apparent reason says good things about your ethics. To me, it says that you care deeply about the quality of your work and would never want to misrepresent yourself or your services. I bet all the best psychic professionals regularly question themselves, their abilities, and the value of their work – I know I certainly do!

There are a number of good reasons for this questioning. For one thing, being a psychic is an unusual endeavor. There is also a lot of denigration of the term “psychic” and everything related to psychic reading work in mainstream society, so it takes an extraordinary amount of self-esteem to walk this path. Telling someone you’re a psychic is sure to raise eyebrows; while some people will be intrigued, many will immediately write you off as either self-deluded, crazy or a charlatan. If you don’t have rock solid faith in yourself, other people’s opinions will constantly eat away at your confidence.

The psychic realm is itself slippery and ethereal, for we’re dealing with that which can’t be perceived or measured by physical means. In this sense, doubt about one’s psychic abilities is similar to all the other spiritual doubts that plague humankind. I regularly review all the amazing experiences I’ve had that contributed to my spiritual beliefs. When I take all of that evidence together, I can’t deny what it’s saying, but when I don’t “live” that reality day after day because I’m immersed in mundane life, it’s natural to start doubting the conclusions I came to in the past.

Being a psychic is like being a painter. It’s pretty easy to determine if you’ve done a “good job” when you’re painting walls and trim, but if you’re creating original works of art, “good” becomes a very subjective matter. Most poets, novelists, dancers and other creative types regularly go through periods of doubt when they wonder if they’re deluded, if it’s ridiculous to consider themselves artists, and even if what they produce is utter crap. In fact, I bet the more successful the artist, the more they doubt the quality of their work.

You don’t have to be an artist to suffer this sort of self-doubt, however. Many highly skilled, knowledgeable and successful people suffer from “Impostor” or “Fraud Syndrome” in which they feel like their success is nothing more than luck or others mistakenly believing them to be more capable, skilled and knowledgeable than they really are. In fact, in 1984, a study of randomly selected American psychologists demonstrated that nearly 70% of them felt like impostors! When you add in the extra challenges of the psychic component, it’s no wonder psychic professionals sometimes feel this way.

Working as a psychic or spiritual counselor is a very heavy responsibility. In my view, it’s like surgery for the soul, for when people reach out for help from us, they are often desperate for comfort, hope and guidance. Since people tend to believe whatever psychics say more than their own inner guidance and common sense, our words have extraordinary power both for better and for worse. Many traditional counselors trying to help deeply troubled people also regularly doubt themselves and their ability to be of true help because so much is at stake.

There is something I do that helps when I start to doubt myself. I’ve always asked for feedback on my reading work, and I keep all of that feedback in computer files. When I start to experience the doubts you’re going through, I’ll go back and read through some of this feedback. When I read email after email full of appreciation and amazement for my work, I begin to relax and remember that I have only to keep doing what I’ve been doing to continue to succeed.

I do think the fact that your life has not been going well is playing a big role in all of this. In fact, one way to evaluate the power of your intuition is to ponder how well your own life is going. Since it sounds like things have been going downhill in many areas for some time now, odds are good that you’re not listening to your intuition, and this would certainly prevent you from doing good psychic reading work for others. I also happen to be of the opinion that if you’re feeling utterly lost yourself, you shouldn’t be trying to guide others. This may be another reason you’re feeling like something of a fraud.

There are lots of reasons why someone who is highly psychic may turn off the voice of their intuition. In your case, your inner guidance has been telling you that something is not right about your relationship, but your head has been arguing with your intuition by saying that this guy is nice to you so your feelings must be unfounded. Since you’re still in this relationship, your head is obviously winning. You can’t regularly deny or ignore what your intuition has to tell you about yourself and still get great psychic impressions for others.

You don’t mention if you’ve had any professional training. If not, now would be a good time to get some. Once you’ve reconnected with your own inner guidance and honored it by taking action to create what you want in your own life, you should be able to return to reading for others with a reasonable degree of confidence, especially if you’ve learned and mastered reliable techniques for tuning in to a high level of spiritual guidance.

Trust plays a huge role in psychic performance. This is a bit of a Catch-22, but if you doubt yourself, you’ll tend to fail, which will just create more doubt. To bring through pure psychic information, we have to connect to Spirit and relay what we get without filtering it. Knowing that we’ve been trained by the best can give us the confidence to relay our impressions without censoring them.

It’s also essential to develop a good working relationship with Spirit and then simply trust that whatever is needed will be provided. I always feel a little tense when beginning a reading because I care deeply about doing my best. After I pray for Spirit to help me deliver a reading that is accurate, useful and empowering for my client, I place the outcome in Spirit’s hands and just get on with it.

What we do as psychics is really extraordinary; if we thought we had to do it all on our own, it would be natural to feel paralyzed by trepidation. Fortunately, all we have to do is remain clear channels for a high level of guidance and trust in Spirit to deliver whatever the person we’re working with needs to hear at that time.

– Soul Arcanum

 

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Healer is Stuck in a Spiritual Slump

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Healer is Stuck in a Spiritual Slump


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

My spiritual journey started with dreams of a past life in a Nazi concentration camp when I was seven years old. When I was 11, I had a near death experience from drowning. In my mid 20s, I discovered metaphysics and spent years learning as much as I could. I’m now 39, and I’ve lost touch with most of my spirituality. I can answer spiritual questions but there is no heart in it anymore. I used to be a spiritual healer employing various techniques, but that too has ended. People call me “psychic” because I can read people pretty well. How do I re-connect on a soul/heart level? How do I find meaning in my spirituality again? I recently broke up with my girlfriend of 12 months who was an old soul mate and I’m still working through this. We loved each other very much but we had very different life paths. My feelings of grief here have at times been overwhelming.

Paul

Dear Paul:

When we go through very difficult times in our lives, our vibration plummets. In order to enjoy the clear, strong sense of connection to Spirit you desire, you have to have a high vibration.

You write that you want to reconnect with Spirit on a heart/soul level. It’s highly likely that you were so emotionally devastated by this break-up that you closed your heart in order to avoid fully feeling this pain and to prevent further potential heartache in the future. If your heart is closed, you’ll feel emotionally dead and disconnected not only from Spirit but from all the joy and beauty in life.

One doesn’t have to go through emotional trauma to end up in a spiritual slump, however; all spiritual seekers go through periods like this, just as every area of our lives goes through cycles. It’s natural for our passions to wax and wane as we move from one interest and level of experience to another.

I too have gone through periods of relative spiritual indifference like you describe. I think most people who awaken spiritually and begin to experience amazing psychic phenomena eventually end up in a place where they miss all the excitement they enjoyed in the beginning.

It’s a bit like riding the same big roller coaster every day: The first time you ride it, it’s so exciting you can hardly breathe. You love how alive this ride makes you feel, so you’re eager to experience it over and over again. As you get more comfortable with it, you begin to relax and fully enjoy what you’re doing. Then one day, you notice that something has changed: The ride you used to be so excited about has actually become a bit boring! In fact, there are days when you dread strapping yourself into that seat. As you climb that first hill, you find yourself looking out over the landscape, searching for something new to try, somewhere new to go.

This is how it is with all endeavors. Everyone who starts a new job or path will eventually grow a bit tired of it. Usually when we are no longer thrilled by a path we used to adore, it means we’ve outgrown what we used to do and are being called to move on in some way. If we ignore our feelings, we feel deader and deader until we’re forced to change.

As for why we’d ignore those feelings, most of us have assumptions that we are destined to be a certain something or other – a banker, a doctor, a dancer, a spiritual healer – and we have all sorts of ideas about what fulfilling that role may entail. Getting locked into those labels and what we’ve done in the past prevents us from being truly authentic in the now.

To stay vibrantly alive, passionate and successful, we have to keep expanding and growing, and we do this by listening to our hearts. The fact that you don’t like how dead and disconnected you feel right now is your inner being calling you to wake up and listen so you can move back toward feeling the way you want to feel. Of course, to hear the guidance of your heart, you’ll have to first be willing and able to face the pain you’ve been trying to avoid since you and your girlfriend broke up.

After you’ve found healing and managed to re-open you’re heart, you’ll have to be open to doing something different than what you did in the past. Perhaps you’re being pushed to develop some new skills, start teaching what you know, or invent new spiritual healing or psychic connection methods of your own. The only way to find out is to listen to your true feelings and allow your own sense of passion and curiosity to lead the way.

Most of the time, skilled healers abide in faith that everything happens for a good reason, which makes it easy to deal with life’s ups and downs with equanimity. This is one reason why unwavering faith is a key trait for spiritual healers and other psychic workers. If you had this faith at one time, you must have lost it at some point or you’d be at peace with this break-up.

It sounds like you have a lot of ability that came to you naturally or as a result of spontaneous events. To supplement this natural ability, it’s wise to get some training in how to further develop and maintain both your psychic abilities and a clear, strong connection to Spirit. Having spiritual knowledge without actually developing psychic skills is a bit like hoping to become a surgeon by reading about how others have performed various surgeries without going to medical school and getting hands-on training yourself.

For example, some of the skills I gained in my training as a medium include learning how to put aside any personal issues in order to give all of myself to the psychic connection process. I was also taught how to shift my state of consciousness and raise my vibration in order to facilitate a strong, clear connection to Spirit. These skills have enabled me to tune in and get the information I need regardless of what is happening in my personal life.

It’s also helpful to remember that you have the power to manifest whatever you want in your life, including that feeling of heart/soul connection to Spirit. In fact, you are either consciously or unconsciously manifesting your experiences all the time.

We manifest a fascinating, fulfilling level of spiritual experience when we pour our hearts and souls into this area of our lives. If you think about it, you’ll realize that back when you felt deeply spiritually connected, you were actively engaging Spirit in an intense, passionate way. You were looking behind and beneath surface reality, and you were full of feelings of wonder, curiosity and appreciation for your spiritual journey.

When I start missing the magic and wonder I experienced early on, I ask Spirit to send me experiences that will move or fascinate me; after that, wondrous things begin to happen again. It’s powerful to vividly remember the feelings you hope to recapture so you can energetically shift into that vibration. If you felt it before, you can manifest it again by approaching it with the same energy and devotion.

Living a magical life begins within: when we look around us with fresh eyes, we begin to see things that others miss. When we look behind and beneath surface reality, all sorts of wonders begin to emerge. After we’ve been on a conscious spiritual path for years, it can seem like we’ve discovered all there is to discover, but there are ALWAYS amazing new discoveries waiting to be made.

Start looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary again: It was this sort of feeling and approach that led you to all the magic you lived in the past, and it’s this sort of vibration that will bring the magic of Spirit back to life for you.

– Soul Arcanum

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