Surrender. It can be massively unsettling to flow with events beyond our control.
But the energy of support has never been greater. In this episode, originally recorded on March 26, 2020, join us to tap into the spirit of service, solution, and connection.
On this call:
- We share the dual experience of surrender, both the fear and the freedom.
- Learn ways we use to switch into the freeing aspects of surrender and to tap into a source of supportive, nurturing energy through grounding and meditation.
- Tap into the powerful energy that’s available to you now and put your creativity, skills, and talents to work in ways that can bring the solace of meaning and purpose.
- Only the wisdom in our hearts can figure this one out. People worldwide are tapping into where and how they can help and using their resources and skillsets.
- Creative Altruistic Energy is CONTAGIOUS – it gives you energy and lights you up. Tap into your wise heart and soul to guide YOUR next step.
- Geneva also reads an excerpt from the phenomenal book ‘Strength to Love’ by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Watch on YouTube:
Get to work lightworker!
When you are engaged in compassionate, soul-guided action, the fear melts away, and only good will spring forth.
More events:
Resources:
https://www.lunaholistic.com/resources/
‘The Secret Art of Happiness – Change Your Life with the Reiki Ideals’ by Geneva Robins http://genevarobins.com/book/
‘Strength To Love’ by Martin Luther King Jr.
‘An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life’ by The Dalai Lama
‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ by Norman Vincent Peale
‘Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
‘The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself’ by Michael A. Singer
‘Light Is the New Black: A Guide to Answering Your Soul’s Callings and Working Your Light’ by Rebecca Campbell
‘Rise Sister Rise: A Guide to Unleashing the Wise, Wild Woman Within’ by Rebecca Campbell
‘Gift from the Sea’ by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
‘Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself’ by Kristin Neff
Transcript
Lightworkers Global Call to Action
Following the Path to the Heart
Hosted by: Geneva Robins
LunaHolistic
Facilitated by: Ayla Thomas
Podcast Air Date: Thursday, March 26, 2020
GENEVA ROBINS: Hello, and welcome everyone. Thank you for being here for the Lightworker Global Call to Action podcast series. Thank you for joining live; thank you for joining later.
It is so amazing, the energy that’s been building with this series, and really what’s happening collectively for us all during this massive time of change and transformation and hopefully some positive growth, and I’m just so happy to host these for everyone just to give you a little shelter from the energetic storms and give you a chance to connect in and ground and get into your aural bubble!
My name is Geneva Robins, I’m a Reiki Master here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and I’m really, really happy that you are all here. When all of this happened, I just felt this big call to service to help and support in the way that I know best. This is really sharing the experience that we have had doing Reiki and meditation and really training people how to ground and connect in and manage their energy, especially for people who are really sensitive to the emotions and energies of others – this can be an exceptionally heightened time right now. So, thank you everyone for being here.
I also want to extend a thank you to all of the indigenous peoples of the world, wherever you are, just taking a moment to thank the ancestors of the land on which you’re sitting and if you are an indigenous person, welcome, and welcome everyone.
And I have a helper tonight: Ayla Thomas is a Reiki Master, life coach, hair-extraordinaire-dresser and amongst many other things she’s a multi-talented, multi-passionate woman. Say hi, Ayla!
AYLA THOMAS: Hey guys!
GR: Thank you for joining me, we’re gonna be, she’s gonna be supporting you on the chat and helping with any of your comments and helping me and being a buddy for me in this because we all need each other, so thank you Ayla for joining.
Yeah, wonderful, the, tonight’s topic is Following the Path to the Heart, and really that’s huge, right? We’re in this, we’re really pushed right now into this state of surrender. There’s so many things in multiple areas of our lives and for each individual, but also collectively and globally, so many of the things and structures and maybe even people that we used to count on for support, are, everything is in upheaval, and so we’re pushed into the situation of needing to surrender to what is and to learn to cope with really massive uncertainty on many different fronts.
What I’m finding as time goes on is that more and more we’re getting settled into this sort of newer routine and expanding into that and as that new routine or new normal becomes part of what we’re adjusting to, we are really starting to dig deep and a lot of the older issues are starting to bubble up.
So, the things that were big issues before are almost heightened in the way that we are needing to dig into them and heal them on a very deep level. So yeah, so it puts us into this scary, surrendered space, but within surrender is also this enormous opportunity. It’s a hugely freeing experience as well, so it’s both challenging, and it’s also massive opportunity, so thank you all for being here.
4:49
I’ll just get Ayla to hop back on and just have her explain the Zoom webinar meeting room that we’re in right now and how that all works. Ayla, can you share with people how all the Zoom stuff works?
AT: Totally, so if you’re on your computer, you have a little bar at the bottom that says “Chats”. If you haven’t already opened that one up, just open that one up. And then there’s a little blue bar on the right-hand side, right above where you would type your messages and it says “To All Panelists”; you can change that to “To All Panelists and Attendees” if you want everyone to read what you’re gonna say. If not, just leave it at “All Panelists” and just me and Geneva will be able to see that.
If you’re on your phone, it’s just gonna be a little button on the left-hand side that says “Chat” and same thing. And then you have a little “Raise Hand” button under the attendees which is also on the right-hand side of your screen, so if you do want to speak, you can use the little “Raise Hand” button, yes.
GR: Yes, and if you want to speak there’s two steps that have to happen so you can feel safe and secure that first we have to approve you to speak and then you have to unmute your microphone, so that you don’t have to worry about accidentally going on air, or at all, so it’s nice and cozy.
But, please, we’d love to hear how you are today, how things are going for you, if you want to type that into the chat or any of your experiences as we go along, we’d be happy to read them out, share them with everyone. Yeah, you can go ahead and do that.
So yeah, Ayla, I’m curious how you are feeling with surrender and things being beyond your control right now. I’m just curious about your thoughts on that.
AT: Oh, I feel like that’s been a strong life lesson for me that I’ve been really forced into this week. I’m feeling a little bit more surrendered, and happy to surrender, this week. I feel like last week was way harder, way harder. This week is feeling a little bit like, okay, I can do this. It’s still challenging, I’m still in fear sometimes but it’s more manageable.
GR: Yeah, yeah. This is the first time in, I don’t know how long, that I actually did my hair! You know, I actually did my hair and I did my makeup because I was like, well if I, if nothing else it’ll encourage me not to touch my face, you know, but it just, it’s sometimes it’s like those little things of comfort or like things sort of – oh, there’s a piece of my routine that’s coming back or there’s a piece of, sort of, this taking this collective sigh of relief and just sort of settling into whatever you’re in is really huge and sometimes it’s those little tiny things.
So, a little tiny thing, of just like, how we’re processing and coping was – I love little Sudoku puzzles, I do one or two everyday just because I love puzzles and when this all hit it took me ten days to complete one puzzle and I had to cheat two or three times. I stopped counting how many times I had to cheat to finish that puzzle because I was just like I need some feeling of forward progress here and just because my, I was, my mind was so overloaded with information and processing what this means for me personally, for, globally, just, all of the energy was very heightened. And now my time to complete a Sudoku puzzle is three days, which is, for me, a little, good measurement of where I’m at.
Sometimes we can lose sight of the stress and how it’s impacting us and then something happens and it’s like, oh wow, I’m not truly back to resting. I burnt the French toast the other night and I fell into a puddle of tears. So, it’s just sometimes it’s like you’re good and you’re coping really well and things are good, and then other times you’re just really not, and that’s sort of riding through the waves of this as new information comes out and sort of processing everything, yeah, thank you.
9:47
I just want to read a few comments. From LEXIE: “Today was weird, I heard they might close the USA-Canada border and I almost brought home a hydroponic vegetable garden. The unknown is kicking my butt.”
I hear you; I hear you.
HALEY, hi Haley: “Feeling much better this week as well.”
That’s great!
NATALIJA: “I’ve been doing okay with surrender. I feel like it’s not the fear but settling into the new unbalance of real and surreal. I feel like these last couple of weeks have been sinking into this new normal while keeping up with some type of normalcy. It’s a swirl of many things!”
Absolutely. It’s so many things – it’s so many great things, it’s so many scary things, it’s so much unknown, and then it’s also – it’s also some ‘known’, like there’s, I’m surprised at how many things are still working! You know, with all of this disruption and all of the emotion that’s connected with it, it’s like, so much is working and it’s like the things that we’re working well are still working well, that our basic systems, getting our needs met, are still working, and that’s phenomenal.
So, if you’re a part of the essential services, like – whew! We all love you so much right now!
KELTY: “Feeling better this week. I actually found toilet paper at the grocery store today!”
Who knew that that would be a sign of things returning to normal before this? But it really is – like, those little things are just, they are big.
REENA: I’m going back and forth between grief and frustration at what’s happening overall and so much emotion and heartbreak for what people are going through.”
Absolutely, absolutely – for me, I can get really, really pulled into the collective grief and collective energy, so much so – when previous big events have happened, I kind of turn into a giant mess and a puddle and I’m not able to cope for weeks, if not months, and I get glued to my phone and I get glued to the news feeds.
And I was very, very aware of how much my Reiki training is helping me through this because I immediately started grounding when it all sort of got shook up for us here in Calgary. Whoever knows when that was, like on some Thursday night, ages – about 15 years ago, when everything changed!
And I grounded and I started, you know, putting on my aura and using all of my Reiki skills and training and it’s really saved me. It’s saved me from not getting swept along into just crying 24/7 about what’s happening and I really care about what happens to our vulnerable people and the people who are vulnerable before this are still vulnerable if not more so, and so for me I have to really sort of marshal my mind and use my skills and not go beyond my scope of how I can help and how I can serve and then and then doing whatever I can, to – whenever I can – to sort of help those people on the fringes, but for right now it’s – I really feel like my place – I think there’s some solace of knowing what your purpose is, of knowing how, what your talents and gifts and skills are, which may be, you know, the skill sets that you had from your day job, or skill sets that you have within your heart and your wealth of compassion inside you – that’s a huge, huge skill set that we all need right now.
That when we leverage those skills, gifts and talents and we help from our sphere of influence, and –everybody has a different sphere of influence, you know – if you’re, if you’re a mom with little tiny babies, you have a sphere of influence which is really about, you know, staying and nurturing your family and maybe helping a little bit beyond that, but that’s okay – like, stay there and if that’s where you are.
14:49
If you have and had a big platform or big voice before, there is, that’s a sphere of influence. You know, for me, I knew how to do this and set this up and they have this, these skills in helping people with their energy and helping them ground in chaos, and I feel like this is a little energetic and emotional pit stop for other people to be on the front lines because I know I’m not a frontline worker.
I am behind-the-scenes, helping people stay in the flow of energy so that they can keep moving through whatever they need to move through.
And I keep on seeing this – we’re all lit up like lights all across the globe and that everybody is doing their part, and if everybody does their little bit, it’s so much easier, you know.
I think we’ve smashed the model of “one person in charge knowing what to do” because who knows what’s going to happen? Very few people do.
Some people in the higher levels of our hierarchy – our old hierarchy – they do know what to do, and they are taking positive, mindful, compassionate action to help support all of us.
But it’s really like this lighting up of – and I really see that – this lighting up from the inside out of so many people in their communities within their families, within their connected circle of friends, supporting each other in the ways that they can support each other.
And I see such beautiful compassion springing from this and this amazing depth and resource of creativity and problem-solving. Everybody is home problem-solving, you know, and we start it with our personal sphere and then it just ripples and grows from there.
So yeah, thank you, thank you everybody for sharing your thoughts and feelings and experiences. Ayla, did you have anything to add to that before we jump into the grounding meditation?
AT: No, I feel like you covered so much there; it’s perfect.
GR: Great, thank you! Thank you, thank you. Wonderful, thank you. Thank you, everybody. Why don’t we start out with – this is what I always like to do and it’s a big part of the Reiki classes and my teachers, we always start out with grounding, or the sort of connecting in and settling in meditation in any of the work we do with people.
And if you’re new to grounding or new to meditation, it’s really, really simple – I’ll just read to you and you’ll just follow along and close your eyes and just allow whatever feelings, emotions to move through you that needs to move through you.
Grounding is an energetic technique that helps plug you into the resources of Mother Earth – this very ancient energy below your feet – that has existed for billions of years and has seen it all! There’s not one single thing that has happened on the Earth that the Earth energy hasn’t been a witness to, and so we can draw on that wealth of support and love and nurturing energy, and its really a visualization technique and so just by visualizing it, the energy will balance within your body and the Earth and it makes you feel more stable, more connected; it gives you a sense of feeling safe and plugged in into the present moment where you are right now.
And with meditation, if you’re brand new to meditation, don’t worry – it’s, we, I go with the easiest model first, and there’s two main things that will help you with meditation.
19:13
The first thing is to close your eyes because when you close your eyes you start dropping yourself out of that fight-or-flight. When we get scared or we get nervous, our eyes go wide open and we go into sort of a bit of a panic or shock.
And when we, you close your eyes, even briefly, even for just five minutes, you start telling the deep centers of your brain and your body that you’re safe. And if you combine that with slowing your breathing down –breathing in to a count of seven, breathing out to a count of seven – those two things together will start calming your nervous system, it’ll settle down your heart rate, and it will get you back into your body.
And when you’re back in your body, and back connected in, and into that heart-connected space, then – ahh – you can kind of take this, it’s like, it’s like this little connecting in – it, when you’re grounded and connected in that way, it feels like being on a long forest walk.
And if you can go for a walk, if you’re allowed to be out in public, being outside is a really great way of grounding, just through nature herself.
And these little meditations are ways that, even if you are inside or you can’t get out as much as you’d like, or maybe you can’t get outside at all for safety reasons – and thank you for keeping yourself and everyone else safe by staying inside – the grounding meditation can give you that feeling of being plugged into the Earth below you.
So, we’ll jump into that. This grounding meditation is from my book The Secret Art of Happiness. Over the next coming days and weeks, we’ll be adding more resources to our website and from the existing material that I already have from the book and other resources and recorded meditations.
I’ve got lots of ideas of how we can support you, not just through this, but really, through everything, because what we’re learning now to cope with this upheaval is really the skills and tools that we need to cope with everything that was broken, hurting and disrupted in our lives before this.
And so, it’s really, these tools are, they’re needed all of the time, but now they’re not optional because it’s all so intense. So, we’ll just hop into a grounding meditation.
22:25 to 29:51:
Great, so just very gently, as you listen to my voice, you can close your eyes and let your breath relax.
Place your feet flat on the floor and bring your spine up straight. Just gently become aware of the energy of the earth just below your feet, just below the base of your spine. Notice the vast expanse of energy available to you now. This energy is wise, dependable, and nurturing. Feel the charge and character of this earth energy now. Now become aware of the energy within your body. Observe the difference or similarity between your energy and the Earth’s energy. Just notice this gently, easily and with great kindness. Now easily, with your breath, allow the energy of your body and the energy of the Earth to balance out. Let the energy reach its own stable resting point, your natural equilibrium. Allow the charges in your body and in the Earth to harmonize, just easily and gently with your breath. Notice how your breath helps the energy flow. Notice the support, the love, the comfort that is available to you now. There is no need to push or pull the energy here. Just step aside and let it flow. Allow the Earth energy to rise up your body right to your crown. Allow any unwanted energy or tension to flow off, right through your feet. Let the nurturing presence of Mother Earth be with you now. Surrender all barriers and blockages to her magnificent love. You are so loved. Feel it now. Rest here for a moment.
Now, very gently, you can begin to wiggle your fingers and your toes, bringing yourself back into the present moment. You can bring your hands down your legs, just smoothing off the energy connecting you in to the Earth below you. And then with your hands facing your body, just smoothing the energy around your body, your aura or your electromagnetic energy field, just smoothing that off, head to toe, all the way around you, making sure that energy is nice and even. And then giving that ener-, your aura, your bubble, a little pat, to seal in the healing. Ah, there you go! And when you’re ready, you can open your eyes.
29:52
Ah, welcome back, everybody! I’d love if you could type into the chat what you experienced with that meditation, how you’re feeling now and how that went for you.
It felt so cozy and warm. I felt this flood of energy all around me. I was just resting in the middle, and I just feel better. It just is amazing how much energy we can share, how much space, and this energetic container we can share together, because I meditate a lot and I do a lot of Reiki and it’s always easier in a group, and this group is just bigger and bigger and more energetic, every single time, from call to call it’s just amazing what’s happening.
Yeah, so I’ll just read a few comments and then I’ll swing back to you, Ayla.
BEA: “I was feeling anxious going in but I’m feeling so much, much, much calmer now. Thank you!”
And NATALIJA: “Thank you. Beautiful meditation as always! I felt so much charged energy grounding me to the Earth and I just feel amazing after that, like electric roots coming out of the Earth.” Wonderful!
MELANIE: “I was also anxious, and my mind was racing before, and I am definitely more settled and calmer! Thank you!” Thank you, thank you, and yeah, you can keep typing in if you’d like to share.
Ayla, what did you experience?
AT: Oh man, I feel like what you were just saying about so many people coming together and meditating and like, the energy’s so much different and my computer is like, saying that the Internet’s really laggy, I’ve not got a good connection and I’m like, no, I have a good connection because the last two calls have been totally fine. So, what’s happening on this call that I don’t have that? So, I feel like the energy on this particular call is like, ooh! It was nice though, it was great. I feel like that meditation really calmed me down and kind of calmed my mind, too. I feel like my body is feeling grounded, but my mind isn’t necessarily feeling grounded, if that makes sense.
GR: Right, yes, yes, yes, I do get that. Yeah, it’s, it just sort of helps settle everything down and the energy is big. You know, the, whatever the disruption, whatever the challenge, whatever the fear or anger or worry, the energy underneath is always bigger. And the energy of support is really big as well right now.
KELTY: “So much lighter. I felt like I was draining off the static of the day and releasing it to Mother Earth.” Wonderful!
HALEY: “I felt deeply pulled into a brighter energy, feeling very supported by Gaia and reassured of the divine purpose in all of this.” Wonderful.
Thank you so much, everybody, for sharing. That’s beautiful, and if you’re still feeling kind of like a static and a zing to things, that’s totally okay – we will do another, longer meditation towards the end, which I’ve, I’m still working – it’s got a title somewhere but I’m working on “Energy Activation and Clearing Meditation”, so it’s a nice, it feels a lot like a Reiki session that you just visualize. So, just moving the energy through and clearing all the energy off and so, so yeah, we’ll be doing that in a little bit as well.
So, wonderful. Well, thank you, everybody! At any point if you wanted to share an experience or you had a question or comment you can absolutely do that in the chat. We’d love to hear from you.
34:20
Yes, so, this surrender and control thing – oof! It’s so scary and it’s so unsettling. The interesting thing with the word ‘surrender’ – it’s one of the words we use a lot in Reiki, which is this ‘getting out of the way’, and it’s really, there’s two sides to it. So, if you’re surrendering to something unknown or something scary, then we don’t want to let go of control. We want to hang on to as much control as we can and we kind of, you know, cling to things.
But if you are surrendering instead to an energy or benevolent force in the universe that is supporting you, that’s guiding you, that has guided you every step of your life – however you relate to that benevolent presence within the energy of all things, whatever name you give that, that – if you’re surrendering to that, you know, then surrender is easy.
And it’s a lot easier to let go into the state of, you know, handing things over that are beyond our control. And I’ve been really pushed to do that in many, many ways, because there’s many things that I like to control, and I have no control over them.
And then I realize I didn’t really have control over those things in the first place. I didn’t. Everything that’s being placed outside of my control never belonged to me. It’s on- – and I’m hyper-focused on the things that are within my grasp. What are the things that I can do in this moment where I am knowing that there’s uncertainty all around me, all the time, for many different things?
And one of the things that has helped me so much is this idea of surrendering to something greater, or leading from my heart space, or tapping into this, you know, the energy of the Earth and Reiki or the energy of the Universe, the energy in all things, my connection to the divine – it has pulled me through what would have been unthinkable to get through without it.
And it’s really been this anchor that’s helped me steady through that. And I think that sometimes when these things happen, it’s, it feels like the outer is doing something to us, but an idea that’s always helped me is what if this is happening for me? What if this is happening for us? What if this is an opportunity to change things?
Because everything has changed, so what better time do we have than right now, when everybody has let go of control because they have to? To use our powers of manifestation, of positive focus, of compassion, to use the resources of our creativity, our talent and skill in whichever way you are talented and skilled to shine the light a little brighter.
37:50
I am a big Star Trek nerd/fan and I, when I get feeling out of control, I watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. I love Patrick Stewart so much! So much. I grew up watching that show and it’s still a source of comfort because it’s so repetitive and easy to watch.
But I saw him on Twitter, and he was reading, and, he’s reading something, probably from a Shakespeare play or something, but it was beautiful. And I was just thinking, here is a person who is tapped in to his greatest gift. His greatest gift is acting and sharing these beautiful words that have been written and it’s, he’s just looking right in the camera. If you haven’t seen it already, I totally recommend you tracking it down because it’s just this beautiful example of people tapping in to how they can serve, and we all serve in different ways.
And that’s the other thing that is like, what is within my control is how I use my time, how I can use that to get out of my own head, get out of the mind space which wants to know what’s going to happen and what’s going to be next and all of that stuff. The mind cannot figure this out. It’s only the wisdom inside our heart, inside our soul, that can come up with great solutions to these problems.
The mind is a computer. It is just there, it’s just meant to follow directions of our inner being, our soul, our heart. Our heart is the compass that we need to lead our lives right now and we’re all being called into these greater roles of leadership, within our family and friends groups, within our greater community and for ourselves as well, to tap into that beautiful energy inside of us.
40:10
Oh, I, LEXI says that (40:15) Patrick Stewart has been reading a sonnet a day while the pandemic is happening.
Ah! Ah, so good! I love that, I love that so much. Yes, and there’s just so many examples of people tapping into their resources to help others, and I find that pulls me – when I tap into service, when I’m here with you and sharing what I know how to do – I know how to do this bit. This is my expertise. This is what I’ve trained – now that I know what has happened, I feel like I’ve trained my whole life for this moment.
I have a background in science, and I have a master’s degree in ecology, I have 16 years as an environmental risk assessor dealing with a fairly high-pressure, high-paced job and academic training – to really use all of those skills so that I can bring this to you now. If I didn’t have all of those experiences in my past, I wouldn’t have all the resources I do now so that I can help all of you who will then go on to help whoever you can help.
And even if it’s just to get your own self centered and good, that is enough, because you create this ripple of light, just by your presence, just by you being plugged in and tapped into the earth into your heart in your energy you create a wave or a ripple of energy that benefits us all.
So, you don’t need to leave your house. You don’t need to do anything other than just hold space for beauty to happen. Hold space for compassion, hold space for the energetic work that is being done worldwide to solve this big problem. And what I feel like is that, when you, when people tap into that creative, altruistic energy, it’s contagious – it’s, in the best way.
And it is, it is – it gives you energy and it lights you up and it makes you feel so good and people are tapping in to this to solve this big problem. They’re using all of their resources, creativity, ingenuity, their compassion, to solve this big problem that we are all facing worldwide. And once this problem is solved or handled or we can return to some semblance of new normal, do you think we’re gonna want to stop solving big problems? No!
We’re gonna want to keep going with all of the big problems that were here before, but now we’ve got this engine of connectivity, of people talking to each other, of people being empowered where they are to act within their sphere of influence and help reach out and connect and do these things together, collectively.
It’s massive and that’s a big part of what I’m feeling, and that just gives me so much juice and energy to keep going with things, even when I’m uncertain about what’s going to happen. I have a space here in Calgary and, where I was teaching – I teach Reiki and I help support other people who also teach Reiki and offer Reiki sessions in meditation as well as many other, you know, modalities out of the space, and it’s uncertain about what’s going to happen with that physical space. And it’s hard when you worked so hard to create something magical to have it all go up into a giant question mark.
But there’s so much change and there’s so much growth and there’s so much opportunities, and that’s the energy and space that I try to get in and stay in, because when I’m in the heart, I feel all of that. My heart knows that it’s gonna be okay. And just lean into service and everything you’ve ever needed will come to you … everything.
And I know that, deep inside me. When I get into my brain, my brain is like, “oh we can figure this out, you’re really clever, you can do all of these things!” And it’s like, it can’t! My brain cannot solve a Sudoku puzzle right now. That’s where my brain is at!
So, I can’t ask my poor little brain to figure out something that it has not got an answer to, and because, it is unanswerable at this moment. It will just spin and spin and spin like a wheel on the computer, you know?
45:35
So, yeah, so that’s kind of where I’ve been with all of this “path to the heart” business, and as soon as you get it – because the heart is a safe space to be and to live from through any big change or upheaval in our lives. It is the only way through this – for me, that’s been my experience, when I’ve experienced upheaval before, the only safe space was being in my heart, being in my soul, and asking deeply in every moment, “what am I meant to be doing? What do I need to do right now, where I am, where my feet are – what’s next in this next moment?” and letting my heart and my soul decide and make all of the decisions. And then my brain is only there to carry out orders, that’s it.
It’s about using the intellect to be in service of the heart, and that flow, if I can keep that going, then I’m good. And as soon as I don’t, if I’m in here, and I burn the French toast, oh man, it’s a mess! Wild, control, like just a mess! But if I’m in here and I burn French toast, it’s like it’s okay, it’s okay. There’s more, it’s fine. Laugh about it! It still tastes good! (47:08) So, that’s where I’ve been at.
I’d love to hear from you, how that landed on you, how that resonated. Ayla, I’m curious if you had any thoughts to add or experiences to share with any of that?
AT: Totally. I feel like when I get all up in my brain in the fear and then I’m like, ten steps ahead of where I am right now, and that’s why I’m in fear – is because my brain is automatically like, “next week! The week after that! Three months from now! Like, how am I gonna pay for this? How is this gonna happen?” And if I don’t, kind of, follow that fear down the hole to nothingness, and I go back into my heart, that’s exactly it. Like it’s, you’re able to kind of step out of it and you’re like, it’s okay. Like, I let go. But it’s hard to do when you’re in the fear ’cause when you’re in it, your, like, your brain is convincing you that that’s real and that’s the only thing that’s possible, you know? Like, everyone around me is gonna die and everything’s gonna be terrible! Catastrophizing stuff that’s just not, it’s not real.
GR: Yes, yeah. And because (48:20) when faced with a question, our mind immediately wants to fill it in but if it’s under stress and it doesn’t know, it’s gonna fill it in with the worst possible answer, you know? And, or with – it’ll fill it in with our previous experience on that topic.
AT: Mm-hmm.
GR: So, the last time you were in the state, what happened? What was happening? And so, it will just assume “if this, then that,” like a computer. The last time this happened, this is the conclusion, you know. And so that’s, and that’s fine, wherever we’re at with it as where we’re at with it, and I find, even that, like the more gentle we can be with where we are at, with how we’re feeling, whether we’re getting caught in the mind or not, whether we’re grounded or not – the more gentleness and yin and calm we can bring, and compassion for ourselves, the more we can bring that in to every single experience, the less time we need to be in the confusion overwhelm.
And even if you’re gonna be – even if you’re in it for a whole day or a whole week, and you’re just in it, and just in the trenches, in the muck – that’s okay, because you won’t, it’s impossible to be there forever. Emotions, by their nature, move, and if you breathe into them and to the sensations within them, if you use tools to bring you present, if you do things that kind of put your skills to work, even if it’s just mindless little repetitive tasks, it can start moving things through.
And it shifts and it changes, so there’s a real wave – we go through waves of this, you know, of things being easier and then them being harder and easier and harder. And that’s its nature as well, so.
50:34
From KELTY: “I’ve been combating fear with gratitude. It takes me out of my head and puts me into my heart. Focusing on gratitude has helped me feel, to feel blessed and not fearful.”
Exactly, yes. When I was spiraling about French toast yesterday, I, you know, I did this gratitude practice. It’s something that me and my husband often do, especially when, you know, things have gotten big and intense and how we’ve worked through other crises in our lives, is to do this gratitude list and we just go back and forth. And sometimes it’s really like, surface, and whatever, snarky, it’s like – but even if you do a gratitude practice petulantly, it still is gratitude and it will move you through whatever you’re in. So, I just want to – and it really did help. I felt better after.
NATALIJA: “Well said, Geneva. (GR: Thank you, Natalija.) I resonate with all of that. For myself, I feel like I’ve been reminding my family and friends to let go of the fear and just focus on what we can. Helping them see how joyful it is that we have this time to connect and spend with our children, partners, or even just ourselves. Keeping our heart open is scary during these times, but I feel that has been where my work has been lately too – (oh, I just lost it) – we can never close our hearts at this time. I’ve always – I always have and still say three things I’m grateful for no matter how big or small to keep that flow of abundance and joy flowing.”
GR: Thank you so much, that was really beautifully said. Thank you. Yes, absolutely – thank you for sharing, everybody. I’m with you.
52:56
So, I’d like to share something I was reading today that, and something that, a practice that I use as well is to lean on my spiritual teachers and mentors and go back to the books and teachings that really inspire me.
A lot of teachers who have persevered through their own difficult times and difficult moments and have really tapped into this well of compassion and courage to overcome those challenges, and this one is from Dr. Martin Luther King’s book Strength to Love, which is a fantastic resource for you, just in general for all of life and living.
If you, I find sometimes tapping into people who have experienced more hardship than I, like Dr. King did, it really helps me put things into perspective. But I find that the guidance applies no matter what level, what is the problem for you whatever – whatever it is, you know. Not to minimize or compare our pain, because pain is pain – it doesn’t matter where it comes from. If it’s real for you, it’s real for you.
And it’s, and that’s okay, and … but I find that the tools for overcoming pain are the same. And so I always look to these sort of great teachers and I opened this book today and it just so resonated and when I, as soon as I finished the passage and it’s like, I think I’m gonna read that tonight.
I actually had Ayla message me and say, “oh, there’s a solution to this technological problem that we’ve been having.” And she found something for me, and I was just like, okay, now I’m sharing this for sure, because there’s all kinds of little beautiful synchronicities of like, here you go! If you weren’t sure you were on the right track, this is it.
So, hopefully this can be also something that will help you activate that little synchronicity dynamo in your heart to give you all of those little tools and signs to let you know that you’re heading the right direction.
So, this is from the chapter “Our God is Able”. So, of course, Dr. King was Christian, so it’s in his, from his faith. You can always replace the word “God” with any other word that suits you.
56:05 to 57:40:
Let us notice finally that God is able to give us interior resources to confront the trials and difficulties of life. Each of us faces circumstances in life that compel us to carry heavy burdens of sorrow. Adversity assails us with hurricane force. Glowing sunrises are transformed into darkest nights. Our highest hopes are blasted, and our noblest dreams are shattered.
Christianity has never overlooked these experiences. They come inevitably, like the rhythmic alternation in the natural order. Life has the glittering sunlight of its summers, and the piercing chill of its winters. Days of unutterable joy are followed by days of overwhelming sorrow. Life brings periods of flooding, and periods of drought. When these dark hours of life emerge, many cry out with Paul Laurence Dunbar – “a crust of bread and a corner to sleep in; a minute to smile and an hour to weep in; a pint of joy to a peck of trouble; and never a laugh but the moans come double; and that is life!”
And he goes on to talk about that our belief in the divine, whatever that is and however that means for you, even if it’s just presence when you look up at the stars at night, or look at the moon and feel like there is something connecting you back in to the deepest parts of you, that that energy gives you the power to meet all of your troubles.
And at the end, there’s a story that just resonated so deeply with me when I read it:
58:23
As I come to the conclusion of my message, I would wish you to permit a personal experience. The first 24 years of my life were years packed with fulfillment. I had no basic problems or burdens. Because of concerned and loving parents who provided for my every need, I sallied through high school, college, theological school, and graduate school without interruption.
It was not until I became part of the leadership of the Montgomery bus protest that I was actually confronted with the trials of life. Almost immediately after the protest, I had been undertaken. We began to receive threatening telephone calls and letters in our home.
Sporadic in the beginning, they increased day after day. At first, I took them in my stride, feeling they were the work of a few hot heads who had become discouraged after they discovered that we would not fight back. But as the weeks passed, I realized that many of the threats were in earnest. I felt myself faltering and growing in fear.
After a particularly strenuous day, I settled in bed at a late hour. My wife had already fallen asleep and I was about to doze off when the telephone rang. An angry voice said, “Listen. We’ve taken all we want from you. Before next week, you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.”
I hung up, but I could not sleep. It seemed that all of my fears had come down on me at once. I’d reached the saturation point.
I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. Finally, I went to the kitchen and heated a pot of coffee. I was ready to give up. I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing to be a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had almost gone, I determined to take my problem to God.
My head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory: “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right, but now I’m afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I’m at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”
At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never before experienced Him. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, “Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.”
Almost at once, my fears began to pass through me. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. The outer situation remained the same, but God had given me inner calm.
Three nights later, our home was bombed. Strangely enough, I accepted the word of the bombing calmly. My experience with God had given me a new strength and trust. I knew now that God is able to give us the interior resources to face the storms and problems of life.
Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the City of Freedom. When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great, benign power in the Universe whose name is God and he is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
This is our hope for becoming better men. This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world.
1:02:50
Whew! So beautiful. You know, as long as they can skip past the religious and gender-based language of his time. But really, such a powerful sentiment and I think it’s just huge for me to lean on that kind of strength to persevere and keep on going and to look for hope when there feels like it’s all dark, it’s all midnights.
That it just made me feel like, yeah, I have had, experienced that, those dark nights of the soul when it just feels like everything is spiraling out of control and something in me just turned inward to something deeper. And I just connected into a voice, a presence, that – and I just knew that it would be okay if I just got up and did the thing that I needed to do. If I just stood up and I did what I could, then I would feel better and I could maybe help others.
And it doesn’t have to be huge. It doesn’t have to be world-changing, but I feel like we’re all being called to access our own deep resources to shine that light, and when we all do there’s really nothing that we cannot change. There’s nothing we cannot overcome. We can connect through the ages to resources and strength from time immemorial to bring us through all of this.
So, no matter what, that energy – the energy underneath it all – is really what I connect in to and gives me that strength and support to keep on going, keep on going. And just come back to my breath, come back to grounding, come back to my own spiritual practice in my own spiritual understanding of how I fit into the Universe.
And it just really helps me. It helps me through this, but it’s really helped me through all of the things that I’ve ever needed to get through.
1.05.40
So, yes. HALEY: “I’ve been making a conscious effort to not give power to the amygdala when I receive information or fearful news. I really get, I get to still and sit with it, feel if it’s rings true, and deciding whether or not to react to it. Every time I do this, the journey to the heart space, and reconfirm, I reconfirmed that all as well.” Thank you.
And if you have anything to add, I’d love to hear from you. Ayla, what do you feel? What’s your thoughts?
AT: Man, as you were reading that, I just started crying and I was like, whoa! And I thought about this quote. I actually just popped it in an email that I sent off. It’s by Rebecca Campbell and it says, “Sometimes the Universe turns off all the lights so that we have no choice but to find our own.” And it totally made me think of that! Like, when we’re in the dark we don’t have any other choice. There’s no other option, there’s no other distraction. You just have to look inside yourself and figure it out.
And it made me think too, of – I think in Reiki training, you were talking about this – like, when you shine your light, you kind of give others space to shine their light, and room to shine their light as well. So, in each of us, doing this work to shine our light in the dark, then it just sort of spreads that ripple everywhere. It’s such a beautiful thought that like, I, even talking about it now! Oh, it’s such a beautiful thought everyone all over the world is doing their work because they have to.
GR: Yeah.
AT: It’s so beautiful.
1:07:24
GR: It is, it is, yeah. That idea of, you know, that we need to all shine our light, that comes from Marianne Williamson. It’s a beautiful quote, which I can’t remember! Maybe some of you can. But yeah, and we’ll track down that quote and we’ll put it in the links, all of the resources in the links to the blog post on LunaHolistic.com/blog and, when we post this episode. [Add this link to YouTube (or similar): https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/928-our-deepest-fear-is-not-that-we-are-inadequate-our]
So, yeah, thank you! If any of you would like to share your experiences, we’d be happy to hear from you before we go into the next energy activation healing meditation/clearing meditation, name yet to be determined.
I swear it’s just water and not vodka. It made a real ‘swig’ sound when I drank, so. Yes, there we go.
So, if everybody is ready, we’ll drop into another meditation. We’ll just get all settled, and after the meditation if you would like to share your experiences aloud with us, you can always raise your hand and where we can activate your microphone and you can unmute yourself, and we’d love to hear your voice and what you experienced after this meditation. Great.
1:09:23
Alright, so, just taking a few deeper breaths, just relaxing. Gently closing your eyes. Just letting any of that static charge be released gently by a sigh of relief. Just knowing there is a strong, guiding presence here within us all.
Deep down in the core of everything, there is a steadiness and a flow – a deep, inherent wisdom within the planet, gently guiding us and nourishing us, supporting us in any way imaginable. Just letting everything heavy melt into the tender arms of Mother Earth. She is prepared to receive it all.
There is nothing too big. There’s nothing too painful. There is nothing too overwhelming that she cannot help us with. Letting that strong and nourishing guidance flow. Feeling that ancient rhythm of energy. Knowing that rhythm within the Earth, that slow and deep cycle of nature lives within you. You can feel it in your bones. You can feel it in your heart. You know this to be true.
Take another deep sigh of relief, letting everything melt off of your shoulders, placing temporarily everything outside of your bubble, giving you the space and time to be within the stillness inside of you. Letting anything that isn’t connected to your purpose in this lifetime go.
Allowing your soul to decide what to keep and what to stay, knowing that this is a process that happens deep inside of you, a knowingness in your heart.
Allowing the mind and all its thoughts to step into service of your heart and your soul. Your heart is in charge and it knows what to do. Your heart is in presence and full expansion of your spirit and your being in this moment, this beautiful and precious moment, with all of its grace and gifts. It’s yours.
A beautiful violet light, a beautiful purple colour, is descending to touch your crown. The violet light descends from the infinite heavens to the top of your head, your crown.
This violet light shines and radiates through your whole body, filling the top of your head, the crown.
Filling your forehead and your brain, your third eye, down through the throat, clear and flowing.
Moving in through the heart, filling and expanding.
Softening in through your shoulders, down the arms and out the palms of your hands.
Filling and concentrating the energy in your solar plexus, your belly, gathering all of your solar plexus energy, keeping it inside you.
Bringing the energy down into the sacral, into your lower abdomen.
Bringing the energy right into your root, the base of your spine, all the way down your legs, shining radiantly out the bottoms of your feet, and all the way to the center of the Earth, completely connected and rooted.
Take a few soft breaths into whatever you are feeling, knowing that all of your feelings are okay. Giving them space to be felt fully, breathing deeply into the sensations of it. Noticing how they naturally shift and move.
Very gently, one by one, being led into the light – into the light and grace of your soul – begin taking soft breaths into your energy field, noticing what’s there. Noticing with kindness and compassion, allowing anything in your energy field that isn’t yours to dissolve, letting it go to the highest light.
Knowing that there’s an immense, kind, and loving presence within the Universe looking out for all of us.
Surrender everything that is beyond your control to the light, allowing your aura to be swept clean and clear by your guides and angels, your immense divine team.
Feel this light extend through your aura, your electromagnetic field, right around your body. Feel it clear and cleanse the energy right near your body with a beautiful and comforting red, an energy layer all around your body.
Just beyond the red, a beautiful, vibrant orange light, all around your aura.
Just beyond the orange, a beautiful, radiant yellow light and energy, all around you.
Beyond the yellow, a brilliant and compassionate green, all around you.
Beyond the green, a cool and soothing blue, all around you.
Beyond the blue, a serene indigo, all around you.
Beyond the indigo, a protective and comforting violet, all around you, a beautiful purple colour.
Notice or feel or know the presence of loving divine beings, your team, your spirit guides, your guardian angels, ascended masters, or the Universe itself. Whatever you think the best is, they are here with you.
Know that this divine, loving presence is maintaining your ground and maintaining your auric field, no matter what is happening, no matter where you are – they are there and supporting you, making sure you are completely contained within your bubble of light. It’s all held in place by the divine. Rest here for a moment.
And now you can gently bring yourself back to presence, gently wiggling your fingers and your toes. Bring your hands down your legs, letting the energy connect into the Earth below you. And sweeping your hands through and around your aura, with your hands facing your body, just smoothing off that field all around you. Giving the edges of your aura a gentle pat, just sealing in the healing. When you’re ready, you can open your eyes.
1:23:49
Ah, there you go! While you’re all arriving back, yeah, you can either type your experience into the chat or if you have a good internet connection and a headset and you’d like to share your voice, if you’d like to share your experience, you can raise your hand and we can, we can bring the mic to you.
That just felt so cozy and comforting for me, like I could just take a giant, soul-deep sigh of relief! And this immense presence and energy, just all around me. At one point, I felt this little tap on my shoulder, like, “We’re here! We got you!” And it just felt very, I felt very supported and nurtured. Wonderful.
Ayla! Are you still there or did you fall asleep?
AT: I’m here!
GR: What did you experience?
AT: That was so lovely, thank you! I feel like, I got really emotional again. Oh, man, just filled with this, like, sense of gratitude for just each moment, each moment that I get to have, and yeah. I just felt really, really great at that part at the end when you’re saying, kind of, a “protective team”. It felt like, very much like, Archangel Michael – just like, that beautiful, like, “I’m right here!” Like, “I got this! You don’t have to even worry!” And it felt like there was lots of people around him, like infinite amounts of people that showed up to, like, support and protect me, which is really cool. And I feel like yeah, just really reassuring, and super supported, and yeah. I just feel like I can kind of step back for a little bit like, “Ah, okay, that’s nice. You got this!”
GR: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah, well, that’s so great, thank you. That’s sounds, that’s amazing, amazing.
KELTY: That was so beautiful. What a gift. I felt so connected!
Thank you, Kelty, thank you. And if you’d like to share your experience, I’d love to hear from you. There should be a little button somewhere on the bottom of your screen that you can raise your hand if you’d like to speak.
Natalija, absolutely I’d love to hear from you, Natalija. I’m going to allow you to talk and then I’m going to unmute you, and then you can activate your microphone and you can share.
NATALIJA: Hello, can you hear me?
GR: I can, I can, we can. What is your experience?
NATALIJA: That was so, so lovely. I felt like that was a great compliment to the first meditation, ’cause I felt like there was still some kind of static energy a little bit like everyone else has been experiencing, but just, I’m just a big – it just brought it back to, like, so much expansion.
1:27:37
Like, I felt like when you were going through all, like, the chakras and the colours, it felt like I was standing on the edge of, like, a mountain cliff, overlooking the ocean on, like, a sunset. And it felt like all the colours were expanding, like, out, like as if, like, as far out as, like, where the sun was setting. And it just felt, like, how, just reminded me, like, how connected I was to the Divine.
And I did feel like that part, I can’t remember which part it was, just like my Divine team and just like the little angels, just kind of sweeping away everything.
And I had like a, like a tension headache, almost, in the beginning of it. And at first it kind of felt like it was really, like, heavy in my aura space and I saw different layers, and then when that part was about melting away, I felt like it was like, a lot of different layers of different, either people’s energy, or just from what’s happening in the world right now, was kind of seeping through.
And then I noticed once that kind of fell away, my, like, tension headache was gone and just that vision of standing out, kind of, by the ocean and that “sunset feel” and just to see how far my aura could expand and connect to the divine was just really beautiful and almost a little bit surreal, considering, considering what’s happening in this world. But that was lovely, thank you.
GR: Oh, that’s so wonderful. Thank you, thank you so much, Natalija. Thank you for sharing with us. That was beautiful. I’m so glad you got that gorgeous, beautiful image of nature and that connected feeling, so yes, thank you so much. Thank you!
I’ll just, there we go. Still figuring this out. Great!
HALEY: Wow, what a beautiful meditation. My experience was much of my aura expanding into the light.
Ah, that’s beautiful, thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for all of your experiences. If you have more to share, we’re happy to hear from you, and if you’d like to share aloud, we can have more people join in. But if you’re good, that’s good too. Wonderful, there we go, wonderful. So, Ayla, did you have more to add?
AT: No, not at all. I feel like you’ve done such a beautiful session tonight. They’re always beautiful, but tonight was especially beautiful.
GR: Aw, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that, I appreciate that. Yeah, there’s just such a neat, held space when we gather in this way. It’s, it really makes a big ripple and a big difference, and I hope all of you got to connect into that deep energy inside and that deep energy all around us. There’s such immense support through all of this, and just giving us that bubble of connected space.
1:31:11
I always like to tune in to what my heart says in any given moment and listen to what my heart and my soul will ask me to do, and just taking it one step at a time.
And when I find that you tune into that, sort of, deep connected space – and doing meditations like these or other ones really helps you get into that connected space – then you can ask your deepest part of you, your inner being, what is the very next, little, tiny empowered action step that I can take from right now where my feet are, you know, either today or in the next couple of days, that your heart is just yearning for you to do something.
1:32:04
And sometimes it’s about rest and self-care and nurturing yourself through this difficult time of upheaval. Sometimes it’s about reaching out to loved ones and friends and connecting in with, you know, supports that are all around you.
Sometimes it’s, you know, a bigger, more expanded vision of how can you share your unique gifts, talents, creative ideas – if you’ve got a novel in your head or a song in your heart or some great big vision or idea, you know, how could you take one tiny, teeny little action step towards that?
For me? Hmm, what does my heart say? I think it’s really about, like, just meditating more and giving myself a little bit of a wind down tonight, and just lingering in that heart space is what my heart’s saying, and to just, sort of, rest a little bit, and then I’ll be all set to go for tomorrow and the next steps there.
1:33:26
If you’d like to share what your heart’s calling you to do, your little tiny, teeny, soul-guided action step, we’d love to hear. You can type that into the chat of what that might look like for you. Ayla what is your heart and soul say is your next little, teeny tiny step?
AT: Oh, my god. So much love tonight, I feel like I just need to kick my feet up, wear my PJs, and text all the people and call all the people I love and tell them how much I love them!
GR: That’s beautiful! I love that as a tiny, teeny action step. And that, and that’s so powerful, you know – sometimes we don’t realize how important those little tiny acts of care are, but it really makes such a huge difference, just, you know, just even texting a little heart to somebody that you care about is huge – huge, huge.
REENA says, “I’m inspired to paint all those colours we walked through, and I want to call my mom.”
Oh, that’s so great. Yes – all our moms need us to call them all of the times. If you have a really loving, close relationship with somebody that you care about, it’s beautiful to connect in with them and reach out. So, that’s wonderful. Yeah, and you can type away if there’s more you want to share there.
Beautiful! So, thank you. This was just such a wonderful experience all the way around.
I want to invite you to join us for the next call; we’ll be posting that very shortly on the LunaHolistic.com homepage. So, if you go there, that’s where all of the current calls will be and the links to this call if you wanted to listen back or get that meditation again. You can fast-forward through the, it, or listen to it all again, and that will all be posted on the LunaHolistic.com blog.
Feel free to share the LunaHolistic.com website and our, these live events with anybody who you feel, like, could benefit from them. So, if you’ve got sensitive friends or people that you know are maybe struggling to connect in and ground, and this may be in that, kind of where you were at the beginning of this call of feeling sort of, like, okay-ish, but kind of staticky and worried and feeling the bigness of it and struggling with the uncertainty.
We’ll be, we’ll be doing more of these as this all unfolds, potentially two a week. We’ll just sort of play it by ear, but I’d love to keep bringing this content to you for as long as you guys need it, and yeah.
So, and we also have a Resources page, so we’ll be putting more resources and more meditations. I’m going to be making a bedtime meditation and a rising/waking up meditation, just something that can help you, sort of book-end your day so that you can let all the static go at the end of the day and let your body rest and settle, so you can get a good night’s sleep through this or any other time.
And then a rising or waking meditation where you can, kind of, pull up the energy that you need so that you can go on for the day. I know some of us have lots of time on our hands and other people have no time. They’ve been busier than they’ve ever remembered being, and which is also a very interesting place to be in.
1:38:00
And then everybody is dealing with a lot of everything of life at the same time. So, yes, those rising and sleeping meditations will be on the way.
TANJA says, “Thank you very much, Geneva. The connection tonight has really helped. Feeling much more grounded. I will be thinking about MLK’s story a lot over the next few days.
It’s really powerful, it’s such a beautiful, beautiful book, especially as a resource if you’re having a really hard time with the nonsensical, non-compassionate actions that you may or may not be exposed to out there, either through media stories, or people acting in a selfish way that can be hard to understand, or being just plain outright cruel.
He survived, he lived through a time of great cruelty, and he chose non-violence and love as a way to mobilize people’s hearts and minds and create the change that has rippled through the decades that, since his lifetime, and forever, really.
And each one of us has our own way that we can create that ripple and wave, and I find those teachers that tap into that deep, compassionate space are such an anchor for me. I find I go back through and read books that really were pivotal for me.
You know, Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés is an amazing one. I love An Open Heart, is the book title by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I really anchor into those.
I love those stories of courage and conviction rising above whatever the issues or problems in that person’s life is, and that gives me, I find a pathway to follow so that I can, I can pick myself up through whatever pain I’m in, when it, through whatever struggles I’m in, it, and just have, dig deep into that compassion inside me and then let that lead me through.
Another great book is The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. It’s an old book so you’ll have to forgive him the gender-based language and the Christian bias, but it’s got a lot of, I found, really useful resources.
He has a chapter or a section on grief that really helped me in a time when I was losing a lot of family members. They were passing away and I was in a very deep state of grief, and there’s a lot of grief happening because there’s a lot of loss, and there’s a lot of fear of what we might lose, including, you know, really deep, tangible losses like, you know, fearing for the people and that, that we love, that are maybe in high-risk groups, either high-risk physically or socially or financially.
There’s a lot of that, sort of, collective concern and processing the losses that, even just the loss of routine and losing jobs. There’s a lot of grief out there and within us, because we all have our personal stuff as well. And I find that some of those tools and resources really help, sort of, pull me through.
Ayla, did you have any resources that you could add that were helpful, or books that you find you’re just, like, picking back up that might be helpful?
AT: Oh man, I absolutely love Rebecca Campbell’s books the Light is the New Black, and Rise Sister Rise. I feel like Rise Sister Rise would be especially helpful right now. It’s kind of all about shining your light and being a light worker and just, like. Empowering. I feel like they’re really easy reads too. They’re not too, like, too meaty, so if you’re kind of having a hard day and in that, kind of, fear state, they’re a really light book. Yeah, those are the ones that are sticking out to me right now, for whatever reason.
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GR: Yeah, beautiful. And not necessarily a light book, but a really powerful one, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. It’s a good one. I kind of read – when I read it, I would read a paragraph or a section a day and, just because there’s so much, it’s quite a – he writes it so beautifully, but it’s quite in-depth.
Do any of you have resources or books that call to your heart or helped you? You can type that into the chat and I’m happy to share those with others.
Yes, we will be doing more of these events as this all unfolds, so please check back to the LunaHolistic.com website and we’ll be adding all of the resources that we can as soon as we can.
Another resource is Reiki classes. So, in Calgary we do Reiki training, but at the moment our centre is closed until the need for social distancing is over. So, who knows when that’s going to be? So, we’re in the process of moving our classes on to an online space and we’ve piloted a few classes and they work quite beautifully. The Reiki energy is beyond time and space. It’s interdimensional, multi-dimensional energy that’s pulling from the fabric of creation and the Universe and it works amazingly well in an online setting, as well as distance Reiki sessions. So, you can access those.
We are running our April classes and we’re just working on a few of the technical things of how to best deliver all of that, but it’ll be much like this, so if you’re interested in attending a Reiki class, or resitting if you’ve already trained with us – if you’d like to sit in on an online class, we’ll be holding those and we’ll be sending out an email, sort of detailing how you can register for that, and working out all of those details.
So, we appreciate you being patient, but we will be running our classes that normally start in the springtime and, or as much of them as we can. And yeah, and just sort of navigating through this.
And I feel like the need for Reiki and these tools has never been greater, and that’s really spurred me on to not just put my feet up and kick back, but to bring list you to support you right now, but then also for anybody who’s interested in learning more about Reiki to just provide that as a resource right now because we need these skills right now.
So yeah, Ayla, do you have anything to add in to that?
AT: No, but I actually just thought of another book. It’s called Self Compassion by Kristin Neff and it’s got all these beautiful little, like, I’m thinking of the word workshop, but that’s not it. Like a, whatever, something you do that’s on the paper that you work through. My brain is in meditation mode.
GR: Workbook?
AT: Yes, it’s like a workbook but with other stuff that you can read in there as well, and so there’s little activities in there. It’s great.
GR: Yeah, and TANJA says, “Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.” Ooh, that sounds like a very intriguing title. So, thank you.
And thank you all. We’ll, I like to end with a big old hug, the world’s safest hug. So, you can just hug your screen, we’re all gonna give this giant group hug. And then, ah, and then we can all feel that hug back, and then we’ll extend our arms out a little bit more to allow more people to join the circle in the group.
And even a bit more so that our hands are reaching out, stretching out over the whole world. So, we’re embracing the entire Earth. And just give the world a big hug and feel that hug returned. You’re full (beautiful?).
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And then give yourself a hug. Bring energy down your legs, smooth up your aura, give it a little pat.
Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for joining us. This was a very magical, special moment. Thank you.
NATALIJA says, “This was so lovely, Geneva. Thanks so much for this. Ayla, you were lovely as well. Such a special place for connection and community here, just what my heart needed.”
Thank you.
“Thank you” from MELANIE.
KELTY: “Thank you so much for this evening, Geneva. I always take away so much from your talks.”
Thank you. Thank you, and thanks for, yeah.
REENA says, “Thank you for leading this and all the positive energy, everyone!”
Thank you, all of you for joining. This was just such a beautiful, magical, special thing. Please share this with anybody who could benefit. You don’t need any special training, you just need to have a compassionate heart and a need or a want to learn some skills and tools to help you ground and get into your aura bubble as we navigate this time of upheaval and transition, so thank you.
Ayla, did you have any final closing thoughts?
AT: Yeah, everything’s so good, so lovely tonight. I just feel so filled up again. Thank you so much.
GR: Yes, thank you. And thank you for assisting and supporting people in the chat and thank you all for joining live. Thank you everybody who joined later and take care everyone. Stay safe, healthy, and well, and we’ll see you next time. Bye!
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