Today I was listening to a Q & A call-in show on one of the many webinar series which I follow.  The spiritual teacher / new-age guru was taking callers' questions and advising them on various resolutions. It is said that by listening in, we can often learn something valuable about ourselves. Well I learned something very valuable about myself today. After listening for better then 10 minutes to some woman whining about how all she has ever wanted was a love  relationship. Men come into her life and leave right away, she just gives and gives; still nobody loves. She is broke because she has been repeatedly ripped off by psychic advisors who tell her what she wants to hear and take her money. The host reassured her over and over that she was lovable and the fault was not in her. But the woman would interrupt and continue whining. Finally I said (out loud alone in my apartment), “LOVE YOURSELF FIRST, BITCH”. Oops, I guess I just learned that I should NOT be a personal counselor or maybe I learned that I have a very low threshold for whining; which was the main reason I decided not to become a psychologist.  A few minutes later the host said the same thing with a bit more tact then I used, “whew what took you so long”.
          I think I have told this story before, “When I was in the 7th grade my
teacher asked the class, “Who here likes themselves?” I was the only one in the room (35 students) to raise my hand… for a moment I thought I may have been caught in some kind of trick question. Then she said, “If you don’t like yourself, how can you expect anyone else to like you?” That made a lot of sense to me even then.
           The most important thing you can do for yourself, everyone you truly love and the planet as a whole is to learn to LOVE YOURSELF
1st and BEST. The reason those other children did not have the audacity to answer yes to that question was because they had parents who taught them proper modesty. My parents where young, overwhelmed and dysfunctional; there were certainly downsides to that but on the upside it spared us becoming ingrained with the conventional “wisdom” of polite society.  Often oppressive beliefs about our value, our place and our roles within the family and community; which may need to be unlearned before you can fully love yourself. 
           Let me be very clear, I LOVE MYSELF. Everything I do… I do for me. I have been called an earth angel and even f’n Mother Teresa of the f’n
homeless. With all that I do for and give to others, I can very quickly tell you what is in it for me. I don’t resent or regret any of the things I do, and
every day of my life is abundant with peace, joy and love.  
          The entire world can only be changed from within the individual…everything is about you. In your life and in your world everything should be about you. Because that is the only thing you can control. If you are not happy and you feel something needs to change, take a serious look at your level of self love.
 
             I will give you a few exercises to help dislodge those old
          teachings and help you learn to appreciate the gift that is you. 

           First and foremost is gratitude (this is a little different then
the gratitude discussion we had in previous blogs), each day before going to bed list one thing about yourself that you are grateful for. In the morning read your list. Then add another self-appreciation item the next night and read the list again in the morning. During the day you should be looking for something in your attitude or behaviour to add to your list. By day 7 you should be waking up reading 7 things that you apprieciate about yourself.  I am not asking you to change your behaviour, I am asking you to be awake to the good LOVABLE person that you already are. Try to continue doing your list for 30 days, after that keep it beside your bed and take 2 minutes to read it each morning.  
           Next I would suggest that every time you do something, ask
  yourself, “What’s in it for me?”  Dig deep.  I’ll try an example, “You prepare wholesome meals for your family (they like it, hate, probably don’t even notice) so what’s in it for you? It keeps them healthy…if they get sick you are the one that is going to have to take care of their runny noses.” Ask yourself truthfully, do you put sunscreen on your wee
ones to prevent future cancer or to prevent today’s sunburn? That is what is in it for you, one way or another our kids' pain is our pain.  
          If you don’t already love yourself, try these exercises and your perspective will change. Love is the root of everything good, you will ever have, be or do;  spiritually and physically.   Loving yourself makes it possible to love and be loved by others. Do the world a favour and
 LOVE YOURSELF 1st and BEST.

Have a joyous day.

          For the past few weeks I have been trying to write a new blog, but I have been so scattered I can’t get much past 100 words on any one topic. So today I am going to share my random thoughts, I’ll colour them in post-it note fashion so it is easy to know when one ends and the next one starts. At this  moment I am writing your blog, preparing a canvas, reminding myself of 3 phone calls I need to make later and listening to a mp3 that is supposed to help me focus. LOL Welcome to the world of ADD.


            You have heard me say many times to live your truth and allow others to live theirs. The logical response is truth is truth, how can it be yours, mine or ours. If the planet implodes and everyone goes into spirit, I am sure we will all see the same absolute divine truth. As long as we exist as human forms our individual truth will be coloured by experience, genetics and culture; making our understanding/perception of truth very specifically ours’. This is o.k. as long as we understand and respect that fact; not only in oneself but everyone else.  Also what is truth, will change over time as you change, evolve and grow with age and experience. 

           Just as waking up in the morning is a process, awakening  consciousness is also a process. While it is similar for everyone it is also
unique to each individual.  Sadly there is no magic wand allowing everyone to simultaneously be enlightened. If you are alive on planet earth today you are facing the most amazing challenge, an evolutionary growth spurt. It is not about abandoning the physical; it is about connecting the physical and spiritual. The connectedness of the  individual’s consciousness to the collective consciousness is not so much
assimilation as it is an interdependence (the Buddhists describe it as a net of marbles). For those of you born in the digital age, I recommend you look up the mechanics of a Swiss watch… you will see a whole bunch of wheels, cogs and springs. Each of these is complete unto itself and within the watch together they create something really cool. What is really exciting is that if even the smallest of these parts is missing the watch does NOT work.  My point is that each and every person/spirit is important to the collective consciousness; not in that "we care about you"  kinda way, but in an "essential to the existence" kinda way. If you took your net of marbles, lay it across a stone and shatter one marble... all of the reflections are changed.
 
           Is energetics just another word for spiritualism? I have been  
thinking about this a lot. I was spiritual long before I was introduced to
energetics. So for me at least I think energetics describes the use of
spiritualism (metaphysical principles) to effect change in our physical reality. 
 
           Do I believe in angels? I believe in possibility, I always have. It is arrogant to dismiss any possibility just because it lays outside of our personal experience. If my spirit exists beyond my physical death, then I
have to assume that there are other spirits existing eternally. And what forms spirit beings would have, I do not know because spirit exists beyond my ability to perceive them with my 5 senses. So I believe in the possibility of ghosts, angels and god.
          Now I’d like to ask you a question.  If you believe in god and god can do anything; is it even possible to NOT believe in possibility?

          Sorry my brain has stopped working for now. Back to my canvas for a bit. Have a joyous day.