Practicing as a clinical psychotherapist, it was easy to recognize the power of thoughts in shaping peoples' life experiences. As an intuitive coach and earth school student, I am learning more about the power of our emotions. And while our thoughts surely shape our emotions, it is the emotions themselves that seem to have the power of transformation and creation. Many of our spiritual teachers emphasize bringing conscious choice to our emotional experience in order to shape how we create our reality, and some actually propose that bliss is the natural human state.  

In the Divine Matrix, Gregg Braden writes that "The language of consciousness appears to be the universal experience of emotion. We already know how to love, hate, fear, and forgive. Recognizing that these feelings are actually the instructions that program the Divine Matrix, we can hone our skills to better understand how to bring joy, healing, and peace to our lives."  The idea that our feelings are the direct programing instructions of the energetic web that surrounds us seems motivation enough for me to consciously choose to spend more time actively practicing love and gratitude than reacting in fear and anger.                                                

I watched part of an Abraham/Hicks DVD last night that illustrated how our emotional vibration draws to us more of the same energy that we are generating, and that the point of power is choosing where we put our attention since that is what we will manifest more of. So if we radiate fear, we draw things that feed our fearfulness. If we choose to focus on someone's good qualities, we move deeper in the vibration of love and appreciation and we attract more love and appreciation. This process of choice involves the synergy of thought and action and the willingess to do what it takes to get us where we want to go. This past weekend I experienced a large disappointment and felt myself sliding into resentment and self pity. Having spent considerable time in those places in the past, I recognized them and decided I did not want to stay there. So I chose to make a gratitude list, then went out in my garden and observed the natural beauty there, and said a quick prayer of wellbeing for everyone involved. I felt better and recognized I was responsible for creating that reality. I liked that. It worked pretty well. I'm gonna do it again. 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

In her book The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron discusses the Buddhist concept of renunciation in language that invites new perspective and application. 

"Renunciation is realizing that our nostalgia for wanting to stay in a protected, limited petty world is insane. Once you begin to get the feeling of how big the world is and how vast our potential for experiencing life is, then you really begin to understand renunciation......When we sit in meditation, we feel our breath as it goes out, and we have some sense of willingness just to be open to the present moment ........Every time we are willing to let the story line go, and every time we are willing to let go at the end of the out-breath, that's fundamentally renunciation: learning how to let go of holding on and holding back."

In these times of rapid and often frightening changes, the williness to let go of the past seems to be the lesson of the day. We need to let go of old ways of doing things and especially old ways of thinking about things. A lot of really good ways were appropriate in their time, but no longer fit today's world.  

One of my clients told me a story about a family holiday ritual. Every Thanksgiving, the generations came together and ate an elaborately prepared meal that had a baked ham at its center. One Thanksgiving, as she was preparing the ham in the traditional way by cutting off the end before she seated it in the baking pan, her young daughter asked, "Mom, why do you always cut off the end of the ham?"  She replied, "Well, I don't really know. My mother always did it that way, let's go ask her why." So they went to ask Grandma, who told them, "I guess I did it because my mother always did it that way". Fortunately Great Grandma was still with them and she told them, "Well, my mother always did it that way.........  but come to think about it, I think she did it because her pan was too small."

Abundance is not about holding tight onto what you have, or what you have always done, but rather more about allowing the natural flow to make room for new blessings and paying attention to the choices you make. So clean out the closets, the ones in your house and in your mind, and notice what shows up to perch in your newly opened space. 

When and why do our instincts betray us? I often talk about listening to our inner wisdom, allowing our guides / angels / unconscious connection to the cosmos provide us with direction. However, our unconscious wisdom "can be thrown off, distracted and disabled. Our instinctive reactions often have to compete with all kinds of other interests, emotions and sentiments" writes Malcolm Gladwell in  a very interesting book called  blink.   He proposes that we all have the abilities to know, to recognize and process data literally in the blink of an eye. He further suggests that such instant knowledge is usually more accurate than rational analysis and investigation.

There have been times in my life that I have had periodic flashes of awareness along the lines of "Pay attention here!.... this could be trouble..... did you see that?....do this now......" And sometimes I chose to ignore them because I was invested in an outcome or caught up in an emotion. In hindsight, it was reminiscent of  "Warning, warning! Danger Will Robinson!"  with me being out of earshot because I was busily engaged in my own agenda. The times that I have paid attention and went with that instant knowing have been extraordinarily rewarding. One time that I chose to listen to my intuition instead of the apparent evidence in front of me prevented what could have been a fatal collision.

I am learning to pay better attention to these flashes of knowledge, and to check in with myself to observe if fear or desire or at attachment to an outcome might be compromising my ability to receive and process information that truly is available to me. And to quiet myself if needed, to inhibit the blockage and redirect my open attention to what is before me. The collaborative connection between unconscious processing and conscious insight allows us to know more than we think we know. 

I have one little ceramic and iron table in my house that I keep empty. I use it most every day to hold a cup of tea or to rest a book. I make sure that nothing comes to stay on this table for more than a brief period because it symbolizes open space and receptivity; it represents having room for something new in my life.

The tendency to stay overly busy, or to fill the surface of every table and counter leaves little room to receive new input. And it often reflects a repetitive "conversation for no change" thought pattern that maintains the status quo by blocking out new ideas and perceptions. Participation in disciplines such as meditation and yoga and T.A.T. open us to powerful life changes because they create quiet internal rooms of alternative experience.

The other day a friend told me that in the best restaurants an open table is kept "reserved" even when there are people waiting to be seated...... just in case someone of great importance shows up without a reservation. I like to think that my little empty table helps remind me to be mentally and emotionally available  for opportunities that come my way.