Are You Holding Yourself Back?

How do you know when something is holding you back?

When you think of your past, does it fill you with regret, blame, sadness, fear or any heavy emotion that weighs you down?  If the answer is yes, that’s a sign that you probably need to release what’s weighing you down.

Do you feel hopeless, doubtful or a general sense of tiredness when you think of your life?  If the answer is yes, it’s likely that you need to release what’s draining your energy.

To the extent that limiting beliefs, heavy emotions and old wounds weigh you down, you’re not free to move forward.  Heavy emotions, such as worry, jealousy and feeling offended, drain your energy and keep you stuck in the past.  You need plenty of energy to successfully create what you long for. That’s why you must free yourself from inner demons.

Sometimes just becoming aware of negative thoughts can be enough to defeat them. There will be times, however, when awareness alone will not defeat your inner demons.  That’s when releasing practices can help you.

Do You Know Your Energy Leaks?

Memories, people, events and ideas that deplete your energy are energy leaks.  They drain your life force.  More often, they rob you of energy in subtle ways over time.

If a close friend were to ask you what your energy leaks are, what would you say?  It comes back again to awareness.

To change your reality, you must know yourself intimately.  You need to know your strengths and weaknesses.  We all have energy leaks.  Some people have more than others, but we all need to work on ourselves.

Whether you need to let go of self-pity, regret, impatience or depression (to name a few), face each one, forgive and let go.  It does not empower you at all to rehash the past with judgment, regret or blame.  Take responsibility for your emotions and release those that weaken you.

What Will You Gain By Stopping Your Energy Leaks?

When you stop your energy leaks, you build up your energy and can alter your destiny.  You put yourself in a place of power by choosing strength over weakness.  It’s always up to you to choose what gives you strength.

By growing your inner power, you gain benefits on all levels.  Remember, the physical and spiritual worlds are interconnected.

As our energy increases, even in small degrees, we’re more likely to have insights, to see new possibilities, to feel stronger and experience more optimism.  We shift energetically, just as water changes when exposed to certain thoughts.

When that happens, we tend to increasingly draw resources and people into our lives that will help us.  Our probable future changes as we change our inner world.

Excerpts from The Warrior Spirit –How To Use Hidden Mind Powers and Ancient Wisdom To Create Wealth and Much More!

September Forecast – Tips for Staying Positive and Overcoming Worry

This is a tremendous and unpredictable time of change, opportunity and resetting patterns and we have no idea how it’s all going to manifest or show up. So what is called for right now is to be generously allowing of whatever is occurring to occur without resistance, fear, judgment, over processing, over identifying, over thinking or denial. “Allowing,” means opening yourself up to the unknown, stretching your flexibility muscle and being neutral about whatever is happening. Allowing is not about surrender or giving up, nor is it passive. It is an active choice to let things be the way they are.

The biggest challenge this month is worry. Worry keeps you in a micromanaging position of constantly needing to track and obsess about what is going on. Worry creates a hyper vigilance that is not useful at this time and will only keep you from being able to move forward. Worry and fear are never justified and any choice or decision that is made from a place of worry or fear will set you back instead of supporting you in your greater intentions and desires.

We could say that the subtheme for the month is Trust. A great deal of trust is needed at this time in order to allow for what has been seeded and planted and nurtured to actually be able to come into full bloom. If you have seeded your intentions and tended the garden, you can trust that the plants will bloom. It does not require you to stand in vigilance worrying that they won’t. We are quickly moving towards the harvest of what we have set up for ourselves as a species and global community. What comes before the harvest is seeing the full bloom of our efforts, lessons, personal and collective patterns, and the colors of what we have accomplished and what has yet to be done.

So if you have been in denial, fear, worry, resistance, negativity, complacency, ambivalence, anxiety, judgment or any other negative expression, you will see this in its fullest bloom so you can do something about it. If you have been manifesting unexpressed emotions, old patterns or suppressed anger through your body in physical conditions and symptoms, these may show up as well. If this is the case, the worst thing you can do is go into more anger, resentment, martyrdom, self-loathing, resistance or judgment. Let it be. Allow whatever it is to show up fully however it is showing up, without any resistance and from a place of deep neutrality. From there you will be able to make practical and proactive choices about the changes you need and about what should come next. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

However if you have been working on yourself and weeding out what does not serve you, setting good intentions, staying present, paying attention, taking responsibility for yourself, your health, your reactions and your patterns, then you will see the fruits of your labors and the blossoms will be big and beautiful. Continue the good work, as this time frame requires a continued focus, responsibility and showing up. Allow yourself to be flexible and resilient. Have compassion for those less fortunate without feeling the need to fix.

The times are unstable, unpredictable, chaotic and full of trends and patterns that are very new to our collective experience. We have pushed through the birth canal and now it is time to trust the current environment to fully support a new life. Allow the environment to serve you in its own way and allow yourself to be in service to whatever your essence has in store for you. This is no longer about what the personality wants but rather what the essence goals are. So get out of your own way and allow the transformation. Just as the caterpillar resists the destruction of its form, that destruction is necessary if it ever intends to be a butterfly.

This is more of a “being” month than a “doing” month. Certainly you may have energy to put into tasks and projects but the motivation and support for their accomplishment comes from a place of being rather than a place of doing and effort. Because of the unpredictability of the times, things may manifest in very unusual ways if you allow them to. This requires putting your fixed ideas about how it should be done aside so that something new can emerge. It is a good month to revisit all of your intentions and determine whether you have enough flexibility to allow a new way of manifesting.

The other challenge this month is to stay positive in the face of so much fear, negativity, martyrdom and discouragement. Staying positive takes discipline. Not effort, just discipline.

How to stay positive:

Always acknowledge a higher order, a bigger picture and a greater plan to anything that feels like a setback, unfair, limiting or contrary to your highest intentions.

Remind yourself daily that you and only you create everything you experience, and usually for a good reason that you may not be able to see just yet.

Allow for the positive things to come into your life as well as the challenges. Just because others may be challenged does not mean you have to join them.

Be inspired by, rather than fearful of, the possibilities and the opportunities that change provides.

Be willing, be allowing, be trusting, be flexible, be in humor, and be delighted.

When you take responsibility for your own blossoms and harvest you come from a place of power. If you are in the drivers seat you can determine where you go next. So if you don’t like what you see, know that you have the power to change it. If you like what you see, don’t get arrogant. Just be grateful.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

July 2011 Forecast–Personal Growth and Big Breakthroughs

The main theme for July is Birth.

It is OK to feel like a different person, to not know who you are, to sense that something has changed in a big way even though you can’t really say what it is, and to feel somewhat unsettled, ungrounded and anxious. It means you have found yourself in a new landscape and are uncertain as to how to navigate and move forward. Learn to let spirit guide you and give up trying to control everything. There is great opportunity this month for personal growth and truly stretching your container of what is possible. You can adopt a whole new belief system and expand your awareness to the degree you never thought possible.

The “birth” theme of the month can also be seen as a re-birth. Re-birth always follows the death of something. It is not too late to give up and let go of attachments that may have been holding you back. What in you still has to die for you to be able to have a re-birth into a new life?

We have been in labor and in the birth canal for a while now. Labor is uncomfortable and being in the birth canal is intense. We leave the safety of the known environment that has gotten too small for our growth. We are launched into a new world that we have no idea yet how to navigate. It is a scary place of stimulus, danger and our focus is instantly on the basic need for survival. We are vulnerable yet strong with a powerful intent to survive and live life. If you have ever watched newborn animals at this critical phase, their ability to propel themselves fully into life in order to survive is amazing.

At this juncture we have been launched into something new. We are all in some process of birth whether we like it or not. Some of us are still in labor as some labors are longer than others. The shorter labors provide more intensity and the longer labors provide for more preparation even though they may leave you somewhat weakened. Some of us are already in the birth canal with the realization that there is no going back. And some of us are actually crowning and ready to explode into a new life.

Just as it is important to have good physical caretakers that await you as you are born, and helpful teachers as you learn to navigate physical life, it is also important at this time to have strong guidance and support from your spiritual practice, your relationship to spirit and nature, your guides and allies, and those who can help you at this time. The support of community is also being called upon to provide a strong container for this new experience.

An infant at birth has no idea how their intentions and life goals will manifest as they mature. An infant at birth is pure potential landing in an environment of vast opportunity, pure innocence, and not yet imprinted with the limited belief systems of others. The imprinting and circumstances of a physical infants birth and first experience of life is usually dictated by karma, agreements and a chosen blueprint. Your birth now into something new carries a freedom with it of choice with regards to intention, imprinting and limitations. Use this time well and decide how you wish to live, how you intend to be supported and what you choose as your new imprinting. You can either limit yourself or go for an expanded sense of freedom and creativity.

An infant spends a great deal of time on the astral plane bringing across the information needed for developing the lifetime. You may find yourself drawn into dreamtime for short catnaps during the day. Do not resist this. It is important time on the astral plane. An infant is curious and trusting and has no way yet of defining the present based on past experiences. Practice living your life like an infant whenever possible. This will keep all your options open and allow you to truly see things in a new way.

We can’t stress enough how truly amazing this time is for breaking through into something new. See every challenge as an opportunity and trust in the big picture when events around you are being defined as negative, destructive or unnecessary. It is a raw and edgy time. Emotions will run high and aggression could be at its worst. Just as a woman in the process of giving birth is not always the nicest to be around, everyone going through their own process will have times of being cranky, overwhelmed, out of sorts, very uncomfortable, and even in major meltdown mode. Have compassion for yourself and for others around you. You have grown beyond the size of the old container and it is time to push through into a new landscape. It is scary leaving the known environment even though you are cramped and squeezed but there is no other option at this time. We are at the point of no return and there is no going back. An infant that refuses to come out of the womb when it is time will become toxic with its own waste. Do not let that happen to you. Let go, let go, let go. Your future security will depend on how well you navigate the birth canal, not whether or not you can hold on to any of your old structures.

An infant needs care. You need care. It is a time to put yourself and your needs first. We are not talking about high maintenance needs of the physical body personality here. We are addressing care in terms of health, spiritual life, time, rest, creativity, love, and allowing yourselves to do the things that you love to do and have wanted to do for a long time. Personal care is nurturing and protecting the new landscape, not taking things personally that others may project onto you, and making sure that you put yourself and your true desires of spirit first. It is a good time to revisit your definitions of responsibility and to differentiate between your true responsibilities and the dependent expectations of others. Being of service is not carrying another’s burden but rather showing them the way through your own example.

This month is crucial for taking some time for self and for setting good boundaries against energy leaks from others, bad habits or behaviors. It is an excellent time to be surrounded by nature whenever possible. Focus on the power of the sun as the representative of fire, one of the elements of the year and a masculine energy. Bless the service of this element and spirit in your life. Focus on the power of water and the other element of the year and a feminine energy. Bless the service of water, its life-giving as well as destructive force. Pay attention to your own water element in your body. Feed it with the spirit of water. Focus on the masculine sky realm as the patriarchal father archetype witnessing and supporting your birth, protecting the infant, imprinting it with the unconditional love of the generous and protective masculine.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.