emotions

Leadership

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

If your leaders guide you astray – away from what you know to be right and true and good, you must let your heart guide you instead. Trust yourself!

When your leaders are mistaken, misguided, ill informed, emotionally stunted, you yourself must step up and be a force for good in the world. You don’t have to shine on a national stage, run for elected office, or head a large corporation to make a positive difference in the web of all things.

Grandmother Cottonwood, winter afternoon

I ask you to allow yourself to become a force for good and kindness, guided by your heart and by Source in your own life, within your own sphere of influence.

If you feel alone in your beliefs and actions, hold fast! Do the right thing and you will respect yourself and gain confidence. Others of like mind will be drawn to you. And you will create ripples of compassion and loving kindness in the web of life.

The ripples you create flow from the center of your spirit and touch all things on the energetic level, the level of spirit. All creatures benefit from your heart’s wisdom and your wise and kind actions.

Let your guidance and leadership come from within, from the depths of your heart and spirit. Let Source be your partner, and you will make the world a kinder safer place.

Connect with Earth Energy

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Dear one, do you feel shaky, off balance, flighty, un-tethered?

Our great mother, the Earth asks you to lie down heart to heart, belly to belly with her and absorb her loving grounding energy into your body.

When you feel anxious she will calm you, when you feel unmoored, she will give you solidity. When you are tired, she will fill you with energy. When you feel lost, she will provide a home, a safe resting place, a solid foundation.

Go to the Earth when you find yourself off balance, jittery, bereft. Let her energy heal you.

Let her envelope you in the energy, the safety, and feeling of home. Know that we belong to each other!

Contentment

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Can you allow yourself an hour or two of contentment each day? If that seems like a tall order, how about 15 minutes?

A few minutes, an hour or two of simply feeling at peace with your life, letting go of wanting something you don’t have, letting go of striving for the next goal, letting go of pushing ahead, letting go of forcing things to happen, will bring a refreshing new serenity to your life.

Grandmother Cottonwood

The energy frequency of contentment ripples through the web of life bringing more peace to all living beings on this earth.

Contentment is living in the moment. It is bringing your awareness to the here and now and knowing that life is good, that you have everything you need for this hour, that in this moment and the next and next, all is well.

For this hour of contentment, there is nowhere you have to go, no one you have to meet, nothing you have to do unless it contributes to your happiness.

When you know contentment, your body mind and spirit feel calm, relaxed, and satisfied. Can you give yourself this precious gift?

It is Time!

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You who are alive at this moment in time, those who are called to live here upon this Earth – You are needed now more than ever to be at the top of your game, to keep yourself clear of emotional clutter and baggage, to be clear and open channels for spirit for the specific gifts and talents you bring to this place and time, the home your spirit has chosen for you.

All who can, this is the time to stand tall in the light of the divine. This is the time to root deeply to our home, the Earth.

Grandmother Cottonwood

This is the time to hold your ground, maintain your light, keep yourselves attuned to the frequencies of life. This is the time to know your truth and live by it.

This is the time to love and cherish every breath, every beat of your heart. This is the time to access the power deep within yourself. This is the time to open to those beloved people in your life and love them with your whole heart, leaving judgment behind.

This life of the spirit is a mystery. There is no beginning, no end. While your spirit inhabits your body, there is only the river of now in which you have the power to act.

Grandmother Cottonwood

It is time to surrender to spirit’s plan for you, to cease any dithering and get to work!

It is time to dedicate yourself to the flow of inspiration and energy that is drawn through your being and create our world anew.

Houseplants II

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Dear humans, do you need a focus for your caring energy? Try a houseplant or two… We are living beings you can grow to love and enjoy.

Get to know us, speak to us with kindness and encouragement, meet our simple needs and we will bless you with all that is in our power.

We have been given the honor to share your space and your life. For this we thank you. We have so much more to give than meets the eye. We can communicate through touch, through telepathy, through intuition, thorough energy.

We can sense your moods and intentions. We know at a fundamental level the beat and energy of your heart. We are affected by negative news media, by loud and harsh noises, by violence nearby, by the energies of anger and fear. We are sentient beings, more sensitive more aware than you think.

We respond well to kind voices, the energy of love, an atmosphere of peace. We mirror you. If we are wilted, dried up, yellowed, leggy, or vigorous, strong, brightly colored, or blooming look into your own life and see how the same may be true for you.

Are your roots shallow or deep? Are they rotten from over watering? Is the soil in your container depleted or nourishing and supportive of life? Are you blooming? Going to seed? In this way we act as a metaphor for your self awareness.

We cannot speak your human languages. If you take the time and gather the patience you can tune into our way of communicating. Quiet your minds, use your fingertips. Listen to your intuition and trust the messages you receive from us. In this way you expand your experience of what is possible and form deeper connections with nature.

When you bring a plant into your home, you imbue your life with the sweet green energy of nature

Know your own mind

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With many voices of so called authority speaking through your shiny devices, your 24 hour news, TV, radio, podcasts, newspapers, e-mail, Facebook, and other social media, you might be tempted to allow them to dictate your agenda, your itinerary, your thoughts, your fears, your beliefs, your affiliations, your choices large and small, your taps and clicks.

You are the curator of your life, the gatekeeper of your thoughts and beliefs. You are in charge unless you decide to give away your power to those who wish to sow discontent, to change your mind, to implant their beliefs in you, to distract you from more important things, to manipulate your behavior, to make a buck from having you click on their content, play their little games and come under their spell.

I say to my human friends, step up, take back your autonomy, your inner power. Trust your innate authority to know yourself! Regain confidence in your own beliefs. Look inward and get to know your own mind, so you can stand in the light of your own personal truth.

Of course you must get the facts then make up your own mind. Choose your sources wisely. Do they have an axe to grind, stuff to sell, a point of view that disregards reality? Are they trying to manipulate you?

Turn off the 24/7 news, noise, misinformation, opinion and infotainment to allow yourself the freedom of peace and quiet.

Get to know your own heart and mind, the truth at your center.

Rediscover peace

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When fear in your body feels too much, when the voices of doom and gloom and ugly rants on the news on social media get you down, when you can’t settle, when your head is filled with anxiety, go outside if you can.

You will feel more clarity and greater calm when you go outside without your shiny device, your ear buds, your blinking object.

If it is not safe to go outside, to breathe the air, imagine yourself in your favorite spot in nature. Use your inner vision to go to a place you love and feel completely safe and comfortable.

Move in comforting ways, walk slow or fast, swing your arms, breathe in the fresh air, move through the shifting shade under old and friendly trees, notice the sights sound smells and the feel of your chosen place on this Earth.

Summer grasses

Let your awareness reside in your heart, your body, your senses. Let thoughts from your logical mind and the demands of your ego float in and out like clouds, knowing they are not reality. Do not give them any power by clutching or grasping onto them.

Notice the colors of your world, the flow of the creek or river, the animals and birds, the plant life, the clouds, sky patterns, tree growth, the blooming flowers.

Feel your feet meeting Mother Earth. Feel her support of you. Feel your lungs filling and emptying as your chest rises and falls. Feel the movement of your limbs swinging in rhythm.

Feel the energy of fear leaving your being with each out breath. Feel anxiety melting away as you hug and lean on a friendly tree, letting the tree with deep roots support your weight and connect your heart to the heart of the Earth.

GCW in fall

Let the weight of your worries drain away into the earth for this moment. Mother Earth will neutralize the energy of excess fear, anxiety, and dread.

You may be absorbing unpleasant emotional energy from the collective mind, from other people and groups. Let it go! Let it drain away into the Earth. It is not yours to carry.

When you can get out of your head and spend time in nature, you can rediscover peace.

Choose life!

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My crown and trunk have been severed and cut up, shredded, hauled away to be burned or used for mulch in someone’s garden … I am only a stump now…

…but my roots still live! New tender green sprouts rise up now, between my thick old bark and what was once my sapwood. Anyone can count the rings now in my exposed heartwood and tell my age.

Grandmother Cottonwood

My little shoots absorb the intense summer sunlight, growing taller each day, shooting up into the sunlit open sky. Trusting life again, fragile, yet stubborn.

I am a survivor!

Dear ones, does new life what to renew itself through you after the storms and traumas you’ve been through? What new growth, new ideas, new energy unfold into your consciousness and begin to move you? What new inner stirrings let you know you are not yet dead, not yet defeated, not yet ready to give up?

Contemplate this question: Is it time to recommit to your life here, to choose this life you’re living once again with full knowledge that life can bring hurt, pain, loss frustration, trauma, injury and also joy, happiness, contentment, blessing, wholeness, bliss, transcendence?

I know that you are stubborn, you endure, you are a survivor. Why do I know this? Because you are here now in a body on our planet Earth at this time. You are meant to be here! Somehow, for reasons we may never know, all living beings have chosen this life even in these difficult times.

Just when you think all is lost, pay attention to your inner world, your spirit and you feel the stirrings of renewed life and unfolding growth inside, the will to live. Give it time to grow stronger, to take root, to gain momentum.

GCW, new growth

You as a human being can choose life again and again throughout your span of years. With all its uncertainty and impermanence, choose life.

Heart centered

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I invite you, whatever your story, whatever your fears and worries to journey inward to your heart. Your heart, seat of your wise self or if you like, your soul.

Knower of the truth, interpreter of all threads of information coming in from your surroundings, perceiver of others people’s energy and intentions, sorter of who and what to allow into your life, who and what to distance yourself from.

Your heart is so much wiser than your logical ego mind gives it credit for. Quietly running the show, if you allow it, with discernment, non- judgment, knowing, wise guidance.

Late afternoon silver lining

Listen to your heart. Sing to it. If you are anxious, hum it into calm.

Follow the heart’s advice. Feel what it is feeling and know that what your heart tells you is vital information if you wish to live an awakened life.

Heart centered means trusting what you feel in your heart, allowing and noticing anger, fear, frustrations, just as you allow playfulness joy and contentment into your awareness. When you block any of these vital emotions, you are blocking your heart.

Heart centered means seeing others through the lens of your higher self, seeing beyond the surface to their hearts.

Heart centered living is not all sweetness and light, for that would be living a lie, erasing and blocking much of your human experience. Letting the wisdom and truth of your heart requires no apology or explanation to anyone!

When the truth of the heart is known, it moves us to act with wisdom, to feel with clarity, to live from our true and wise center.

Light and Dark

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Sunlight and shadow reveal and conceal. You can hide in the shadows, draw forward into the light, recede into the shifting patterns of sunlight and shadow on the forest floor.

Sun dappled tree

You cannot hold light and dark in your hands and possess them. Where does one end and the other begin? Would we know what light is without dark, or dark without light?

Without night we would not know the moon and stars. Without day we would not know cooling shade on a hot summer afternoon, or the shape of things.

Get to know the dark in you, the light in you, where they intersect. Do you try to suppress the shadows you fear in yourself and spend your time in perpetual light?

Do you stay in the shadows of life at the margins, fearing the clarity light will bring? Do you feel unequal to sharing your talents and gifts under the spotlight of divine grace?

Do you conceal what you perceive as flaws and hide them in the shadows, or conceal your gifts and powers, keeping them hidden from the light?

For in accepting the light and dark of you, you learn to accept yourself unconditionally, to love yourself fully.