The Way of the Warrior

This week I would like to thank Lynn for sharing this wonderful video, The Way of the Warrior, by John Cali. John is a writer who communicates with spirit guides. You can sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.greatwesternpublishing.org/ and connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.

As I listened to John’s video I thought about an experience I recently had involving my parents. My 86 year old dad was hospitalized with pneumonia and my 85 year old mother is in the first steps of dementia. For the last ten years, I have been responding to emergency calls from them that always seemed to interrupt my planned life. As a dutiful daughter, I would give up my plans to make sure their needs were met, while inwardly I felt terrible. Within me was a furious battle, the spiritual warrior wanted to go on to the next worldly adventure and the spiritual teacher in me whispered,  " Walk the path of compassion.”

I wondered how I could either move to the center or bridge the two parts of me that called for me to be both a warrior and a teacher. Through mindfulness meditation, I realized that the adventure was right before me, giving me many opportunities to practice my spirituality. I paused and looked at the path of aging. Longevity is something we all want, but with it comes new and different experiences. I realized that my parents were trying hard to hold on to the life they knew: 50 years of living in the same house, attending the same church, voting at the same school, working in the same garden, and shopping at the same stores. But the world around them had changed, and the most devastating experience for them  was seeing many of their family members and friends make their transition. We talked about death and I felt their fear. The battle within me faded as I listened to their stories and tried to walk in their shoes. Our roles have reversed. I’m now the parent, caring and nurturing them. They are willingly working with me as we try to find the appropriate care for them to live a quality life.

And for me, I’m where I’m suppose to be. As John Cali says, “The Warrior totally trusts in - and surrenders to - the flow of her life. She knows all is as it should be. Therefore, she must always completely trust in - and surrender to - her Higher Self, her Soul, the Great Spirit.” And as I do this, the spiritual teacher in me rises to the occasion.

The Power of Our Hidden Thoughts and Feelings

The other day as I was getting new tires put on my car I mentioned to the attendant that the shop was relatively quiet considering the cold weather and the holiday season. He quickly told me that I was being negative referring that the holiday season causes “trouble.” Later thinking about the incident I realized that my intention was not to speak words of negativity about the holiday season, but upon further examination of my spoken words I realized that they inferred negativity. And he called on the carpet for it. The good thing about the incident is that I can now look at the thought and do something about it.

The energy circulating in the universe right now uses synchronicity experiences to help us to become aware of our thoughts and feelings that keep us stuck in 3D consciousness. Awakening from the many programs functioning in this physical reality is a process we all must go through to become multidimensional beings. However in order to reach that status, we have to have a multidimensional consciousness. And it starts within.  

It was time for inner reflection.

I love to curl up in front of the fireplace with a cup of ginger tea, my journal, tarot, angel and sacred geometry cards with Bocelli or the Gregorian chant playing quietly in the back ground. Usually, I’ll select one card from each of the three decks and meditate on them.

Often my guides will make their presence known, and I just follow the train of thought presented to me without any doubt. I let the thoughts flow onto the journal pages. They led me to my family of origin and failed relationships. I remembered how stressful holidays were. I probably could list pages of incidents, but I had moved from the blame game to self-empowerment. Nevertheless, the thought –holidays equal stress- was still planned in my consciousness. The incident with the car attendant showed me how it had spilled over to other areas of my life.

I knew that environmental stress such as a holiday produces a lot of inner conflict due to a lack of coping skills. I also knew that as a nurturer I’m so busy taking care of the needs of others I forget to take care of me. It was time to put my mask on first.

The powerful coping skills I put in place:

Meditation: Mindfulness meditation is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future or getting caught up in making judgments about what’s happening. The great thing about my mindfulness practice is that it helped me to develop deep connections with others. The incident with the car attendant brought me back to full awareness of daily activities. I’m more conscious of what I’m saying, doing, and thinking.  Holiday stress will probably never really go away. But through mindfulness I’ll be aware and be in the NOW.
Mindfulness Meditation  

Emotional Freedom Taping: Created by Gary Craig is a form of alternative psychotherapy that uses tapping on acupuncture points while a person focuses on a specific traumatic theory. EFT is considered one of the best psychological techniques for working through stuck thoughts and beliefs. It’s easy to do and you can use it anywhere. It only takes a few seconds. The basic concept is based on utilizing the body’s energy or meridian points (ancient Eastern medicine) to stimulate kinetic energy and therefore healing. It’s also taught as a stress-reduction tool to organizations, businesses and high-stress work environments such as hospitals and clinics. Along with the tapping a statement or affirmation is used. The first part of the statement deals with the traumatic experience and the second is a positive statement.  The traditional EFT phrase uses the following affirmation: Even though I have this_______________, I deeply and completely accept myself. This statement has been modified many times. You can fill in the blank to cover any physical, emotional, mental or spiritual challenge you may have no matter how small or large it might be.
I find it to be one of the most effective techniques you can use. It’s universal and will change the face of medicine.
tapping technique
http://www.tapping.com/emotional-freedom-technique.html 

Therapy: To reach out and touch someone is a powerful action. We all need someone we can talk to about our life experiences.  The human race survives on social interaction. When things go terribly wrong in our lives that’s the time we need to reach out to a  family member or friend. Hopefully that person is nonjudgmental. Some of us are lucky to have such a person, others are not. Another alternative is to seek out professional help.  In this piece, I’m referring to psychotherapy that helps a person use his own experiences to bring about the desired changes or solve normal problems. One of the first things in any challenge is being aware of what’s going on in the body, mind and spirit. Listen closely because all the aches, pains and hurts are the results of our own thoughts and feelings. Talk to a love one or try therapy. Do not hold it in. The challenge/pain is not going away until you do something about it. Lastly, take responsibility for your life by accepting all of  life experiences. To help me with this, I often recite The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr:
Serenity Prayer 

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference