We want to speak about ‘guidance’, for as many of you invite it into your lives through prayer, meditation, ritual, and more, the guidance also scares you––and rightly so–-because it asks you to change, alter, see something about your lives in some new way––the nature of, or activity of, your Being.
Asking for guidance by its very nature suggests, implies, you want change––you want to see, understand, and change some limitation, some issue, some relationship, some habit–or simply to open up to the new. You want to change a way of Being or doing in the world so that you come into greater alignment with the truth of who you are––where there is no separation between the authenticity of your Being and your expression in the world, where there is less suffering and more joy, where your Soul self and your human self are in coherency.
But for many of you, the block, the resistance to this, is that at the same time you ask, invite guidance in, you also stipulate that you want to see, experience, the results of the choices you make before you make any choice at all, before you commit to change, and so therefore, you resist the change. In actuality, you want to direct the change from the same place from which you co-created the issue, the limitation, the pain, the separation, or the suffering itself––from the past. But decisions to act on a desire to change a habit, to move location, release a job, leave a spouse, commit to a partner, or pursue a spiritual path with more passion and vigor all reshape the whole of your life––not just one part––and bring you into the New.
Even a choice to change, do something “small,” such as taking a walk each day or setting aside 10 - 20 minutes a day for stillness, has the power, the potency, to reconstruct, re-envision, your entire life, for the energetic shift in those few moments ripple out into all areas of your Being. Each of you knows intuitively–in the core of your Being––that there is no such thing as a ‘small choice’, which is why so many of you find committing to, sticking to, even the smallest choices, the smallest changes, so challenging for you.
In fact, many of you prefer the ‘large’ changes––because they ‘throw you’ you think into the new irrevocably, and for a while you can allow yourselves to be victims of them. But we say to you, there is no small or large change––even the smallest shift, change, shifts the perspective of the Universe––your life and what unfolds––for it ripples out into all areas of your life and the world around you. Let us say this again, there is no small or large change: there is only change as part of the law, the nature, of the universe. But because you experience change in your physical and social realms with value judgments attached to them some changes feel negligent, others tantamount to ‘tragedy’.
This is change based in history, in the past….
So, the paradox that exists in asking for guidance is that you want guidance and you want circumstances to change without changing, without acting. You want out of a marriage without the inevitable pain of separation, divorce, or the diminishment of property. You want to move without leaving home, so you can retain the familiar. You want love but are afraid to allow yourselves to open to receive it, to make room for it, to be seen and loved in all the aspects of your Being. You want to start a new business by being successful at it before you even begin––before you understand what the true work is by first moving towards it. As a result, many of you find yourselves going in circles, experiencing the same energetic patterns, while in actually not really moving at all. So, while you ask for guidance, you resist change. And this is the mind, history, talking you into and out of any change you seek guidance for. It is like a ball in a maze that continually ‘hits’ the sides, changes perspectives, accrues bruises, but is still operating in the same context, the same framework, the same energetic pattern.
And so you begin to ‘disbelieve’ in the power of your Being. You begin to ‘disbelieve’ in the true creativity of who and what you are…. You begin to ‘disbelieve’ in the knowing that is within you…. Until you can no longer hold the limitation, the suffering and repetition, and decide to cease resisting and surrender.
Until you decide you are tired of the same energetic pattern in different clothes.
Understand, we do not judge you. We do not judge you. We understand from our perspective the usefulness, value, and purpose of ‘resistance’––it's ability to ground you in the midst of outer change, and its power to bring about surrender, that moment when one ‘lets go’ and Allows oneself to be ‘truly guided’––moved from a place of both heart and Soul, a place in which you surrender to the larger flow of love, joy, when the small self’s will is assumed by Divine will. That place in which you recognize the rationalizations of the mind and let the mind know, “You are safe, you are safe, you are safe….”
Now, we do not say these things to suggest you ‘throw’ yourselves haphazardly into change.
We say this to you, so that you may see, feel, the energetics of ‘choice’ implicit in guidance––the energetics of choice in even the smallest change, and know there is also a peaceful, lion-hearted center of choice, change. Choice arrived at through guidance and your inner knowing…for as we have said many times prior, ‘choice Is consciousness.’
Know too, we say this to you, so that you may see, begin to observe, the ways in which you turn away from, rationalize yourselves out of, the guidance you receive––the sudden insight, the reoccurring appearance of an image that speaks to you, the words in a song that suddenly speak directly to you as a message , the ‘popping’ of a certain sign, direction, or plan, the profound compulsion to act or go in a certain way, and so much more. Ask and you shall receive. Let us say that again, “When you ask for guidance, know you will receive it.”
It may take a while for the universe to align to bring into fruition what you ask in guidance, but know the guidance is Always given. And if you allow yourselves to be fully present first to the guidance and then in the choice to act on that guidance: if you allow yourself to feel it, imagine it, and then in the expression of it, let go trying to control the outcome of the change, and instead, just breathe through the moment in wonder, in curiosity because you have already imagined it, felt it––you will begin to experience the power, the authenticity of your Being as a change agent, which indeed, is the truth of who You are.
A way shower in the world.
And we say to you again, as you ask for guidance and receive it, imagine how it will feel to make this change, to Be this change––do not disregard it as “Oh that was a passing thought”. Be the change, the energetics, of that change––even if only momentarily each day. Allow it to grow inside you. Nurture it until it wants to become the Expression, the manifestation, of who You are, and comes through you ‘as naturally as leaves to a tree’. Even if it is as small as a walk each day, imagine yourself walking––experience/imagine the fresh air, your body alive, fresh, awake. For what you imagine, think about, focus on, will manifest into expression.
Let go the negative charge––the sweat, the painful feet, the tiredness. For if this is what ‘walking’ is to you, this surely will be the realization, the expression, of walking, and therefore, what you will manifest, and thus, you will decide not to walk at all after the first foray into walking.
As you are guided into change, make the unfamiliar familiar—imagine it, feel it, smell it, imagine what a day would look like, feel. Imagine the steps to get there—play with them. Let yourself be the child of your wonder, the lion-heart of your Soul. This is where you are the alchemist who transforms the fear, the negative charge of change, into joy, excitement, action.
We say this to you so that you might become aware of, conscious of, the ways you avoid connecting to the guidance given––by imagining the negative, the fear, the ‘cost’, the uncertainty of the guidance, rather than the liberating joy, the embodiment of the true reality of your Being––that change itself is who you are, what you are. Know, on each inhale, you receive, and each exhale you give––an exchange of Being carries you through your days.
The natural flow of you, of change….
Know too, we understand and know that free will is yours—the gift of your Being human. So we say to you, as choices are presented, given through guidance, know too that You alone have the power of free will––to choose which choice you prefer.
Know, those places in your Being, your physical form, or in your life where you feel stuck, that you call ‘blocks’––they are only places where the energy does not flow, the exchange of Being has become constricted, dense, and does not move. Breathe into these areas in your form, allow all of life to breathe through you, imagine breathing through them without any outward action. Practice this, and imagine what the change––no matter how small or large you think it might be, allow it to be there in its positive charge, its expanded nature, and allow yourself to make it familiar, for as you make it familiar, so too do you move towards it…expand into it and allow yourselves to move through it, and into expression, in increments…
Marvel at each step…
Understand, when change comes from the heart, the Soul, others will feel this, know the truth of it, the Truth of your change, though they may not initially know how to respond. Allow them time. But know, you are this powerful, this beautiful, this creative….
Nurture the flow of change…the knowing of the truth of who you are…
Love yourselves this much….
The Mindful Heart