I was just listening to another parent’s story of an out-of-control, unrecognizable teenager.

It seems as if one day our kids are grinning lovingly at us, and the next they are sullen, slamming-the-door sorts of beasts. They don’t do what you ask them to, and they want to do things you don’t want them to do.

You yourself go from the wizard who could kiss the boo-boo better to an idiot, or worse.

Yeah, things get crazy in the teen years.

It’s not just hormones. If you can remember (heh), our teen years were when we began to find our independence, and learned to stand on our own two feet. We became more mobile, learned to drive and could go places without guardians, woohoo. Older, we could stay out later. We even longed to experiment with increasingly powerful situations and substances to find out who we were.

Adolescence and the process of independence from parents is a crucial part of our development as humans, one that I believe very few adults have completed well. I swear 90% of healing sessions I do work on issues of self-power not resolved by the end of adolescence. How can we help our kids not need healers for these issues?

What Makes the Difference?

I am writing about this all because we’ve got a high school senior and a high school junior. When they were little, I used to joke with my husband, “Oh they’re cute now, but one day they will be slamming doors at us, screaming, ‘I hate you I hate you I hate you!’”

It seemed amusing at the time.

Then again, so far we are up to about five or six slammed doors. I think I’ve heard “I hate you” only twice. But yes, check their birth certificates, they are teens.

Odd?

As my heart was breaking listening to this other parent’s story of her struggles, I wondered what was different about our house.

I thought about a friend who has very strict reins on her kid’s computer habits and, now that I mention it, almost every other activity, too. She told me why — “I don’t want him to do what I did at that age.” I’ve also heard, “I know what she can do at this age.”

Let me know if I’m missing something, but this is what occurred to me:

-> My friend doesn’t trust her kid to follow her marching orders, so she tries to overcontrol at a time when the kid is seeking independence and self-control.

-> At our house, we set up tasks and required behaviors that the kid will have to do as an adult anyway, training them to be adults.

What’s the core issue here? Trust.

1. Trust the Kid

I think trust has probably been the biggest factor in our ending up with non-monster teens.

I trust my kids to always be making the best decision they can make (which as this age, might not always be the wisest, I remind myself.) And then I make it my job to step in where they aren’t learning from consequences and show them easier options.

So when a kid doesn’t come home on time or do their chore, I trust them. I have spacey creative kids, and they probably got involved in what they were doing. I trust that they knew what they should have done. Then we have a Long Boring Talk in the near future about keeping your word, etc.

I used to NOT trust that they knew this, and things got ugly, fast.

But when I let go and did start trusting that they knew better, the issue shifted. It gave them more independence and respect they could feel. The issue became a behavioral thing then, down to mere choices or breaking old habits, not a question of whether they were smart enough or good enough or responsible enough.

Whew.

How much do you trust your teenager? Is there something you can trust them about or with? If there was something, what would it be?

2. Trust the Universe

I choose to trust the Universe too. Trust is a choice, after all. You can begin to trust right now with a simple choice. I deeply trust the Universe, even when I do not understand.

So when a teen is late coming home at night, I don’t run through every scenario that could have gone wrong. (Ok, once in a while I do catch myself doing this, and then I stop.)

I refuse to give negative fantasies, aka worry, any energy. I refuse to make those options any more likely.

Yes, I might ask the Universe to keep an eye on the kid. I might text said kid. Or I might go to bed without doing anything, following up with a Long Boring Talk about what it was like for them to be at that decision point and how they weighed their decisions, and how it felt to be at home waiting for them.

Each time a kid departs my supervisory radius, I trust that everything will work out for the best. This did not come easily at first. It is a spiritual practice.

What are you trying to control with your teen?  Can you truly control that?  How might letting go be a healthier choice?
Can you make a choice to let go of something stressful, right now? 

3. Be Trustable

When I first started parenting, my #1 rule, which I have only broken 3 times (sigh, long story), was to never ever lie to my kids. As a kid I was empathic and it was extremely confusing to experience adults lying to me. When I became a parent I realized how easy it is to throw a white lie at a kid, without even realizing it. (The kid won’t know, right? Wrong, lol.)

Honesty is always the best policy in our house, as in life. This is especially true in important relationships, which are based on trust, and which every parent models for their kid (whether they intend to or not, live with the kid or not).

In this house, admitting to having lied does not get you yelled at, but gets celebrated and may even get your punishment cancelled. Yay for telling the truth.

So we model telling the truth and being trustable. And no, it’s not always easy, and we don’t have a perfect track record by any means, but the results for our efforts have been priceless.

Our kids trust us to not blab confidences, even to other family members. Our kids trust us to be on their side, to support them, to help them figure out who they are, to always root for them, or to help them when they are confused or upset. That track record has carried into the teen years, though I notice they are more reluctant to outright ask for advice as teens, which I have to admit I miss.

Finally, I also believe being trustable includes not criticizing your kid. It seems to me that too much criticism, especially unasked for, makes one untrustable. Randomly criticizing is like randomly punishing, which drives animals mad in experiments.

You can help your kids improve, if they want you to help. I have to seriously stretch myself to allow my teens (or tweens or grade-schoolers) to express THEIR style in THEIR way.

Our job as parents is to help them see and learn to live up to their potential (not to be our dollies or puppets, tho). It’s easy to criticize when I get frustrated (then I apologize), and I’m working hard on this one. But it’s good for both of us.

Be trustable. Not criticizing yourself — or others — is another brilliant spiritual practice.

How are you trustable for your kids? How do they know this? Are you ever unpredictable or arbitrary? Or do you stick to what you say? 

4. Trust in Your Romantic Relationship

One of the big reasons I married my husband was trust. At the time I felt he was the only person on the planet I could 100% trust (well, also he’s super cute and funny).

Since trust is such a great element in friendship, my husband and I have sustained a fabulous friendship over, um, about 33 years now, yikes. Overall, we’ve enjoyed buckets of trust in our relationship, and it runneth over into the family, too.

I couldn’t live any other way, because I chose not to. Trust was a huge requirement for me for a life partnership.

How about you? Is trust a requirement for you? 

5. Trust Yourself

Finally, I trust myself. Hey, I’m not perfect, but I am doing my best.

Ya, the spanking experiment didn’t work and was shelved after only a couple months. Yelling, well that has not been so good, but I trust them to forgive me…in the long run.

Face it, we all have made parenting mistakes.

I choose to trust it will all work out in the end. I choose to trust that my kids’ wonderfulness and the power of his or her higher, divine self will trump my faulty parenting by miles and miles.

And personally, I choose to trust that God loves me no matter what stupid thing I say or do today. He’ll be waiting for me in the end, when we can all have a good laugh then.

So I trust myself. I choose to accept my innate trustworthiness.

Do you trust yourself? Where have you been naturally trustworthy? What is one thing you can do to allow yourself to trust you? (If you are still stuck, ask someone who trusts you WHY they do.)

An Exercise in Trust

So what do you think of the trust thing? Is it relevant? Try this. Think back to your childhood. Did you feel trusted as a kid? What did that feel like to NOT be trusted? Journal a page about that without stopping (you can burn or shred it when you are done).

Not being trusted rotted, as I recall. When it happened, I felt demeaned, not respected, and babied. And as a teen, I haaaaaated that.

Oh look, emotions! That there is raw gunpowder for the rebellious teen years, isn’t it?

The trouble with out-of-control teens is that the more they go crazy, the less and less you feel you can trust them. What if you just drew the line one day and said, “You know what honey, I’m going to trust you to make the best decision about your activities this weekend. Let me know if you want any input or help.” (And then you have to really let it go.)

What might happen? (After they pick themselves up off the floor, lol.) Want to find out?

Personally, I believe anyone who is a Child of God is trustworthy. (That would be everyone.)

If that is true, the key question becomes how can I live up to my inherent Trustworthiness, and bless others by sharing it?

I trust you will come up with something.

(c) 2013 Daria Boissonnas All Rights Reserved. Please contact us for reprint permissions.

My friend is putting together a class on clearing clutter, and this perennial struggle has been top of my mind.  Then this morning, my meditation gave me an unexpected insight into the piles and disorganization we call clutter.

As I sat in meditation enjoying an unusually deep peace and nothingness, I began to see myself sitting at my desk, as if my eyes were open.

Oh dear.

I’m still in the throes of removing the large desk (and emptying seven large drawers) in my office. Stacks of paper dot the office countertops as well as my massage therapy table.  Evicted empty drawers huddle in one corner.  The shredder has been throwing a week-long confetti party on the far side of the room.  And a few accretions of miscellaneous… I’ll be nice — stuff… are now seeping across my desk like a glacier field.

As I “saw” this (with eyes closed), I could vividly feel how stressed I used to get about clutter.

Clutter used to drive me nuts.  Whenever I needed to concentrate or start a new project that required thinking or creativity, I would instantly become super-distracted by things out of place in my environment.  (Coincidentally, I lived a fairly ordered but cluttered life, so there was lots to be distracted by.)  The piles around me would scream: “You don’t have time for THAT, you have to take care of THIS.”  And send me reeling into uncertainty.

Ugh.

But this morning, in that lovely meditative place, I felt my old reaction with compassion and love.  (Awww…)  Then the stressed feeling faded completely, and I was looking at my office clutter while once again feeling that kind of deep peace you can only experience far out in nature or in meditation.

Peace? Amidst clutter like this? But… yes. I could feel Peace in the desk, in the papers, in the… stuff. Peace. Stillness. The scene suspended itself, as if it was waiting for me.  And I got it: clutter is OK.  Clutter doesn’t matter.  Only what I thought and how I felt about clutter made it miserable.  Inside the clutter is stillness.  Inside me is stillness.  Inside each atom of clutter is Tao, Presence, or God.  Inside chaos is the deepest Peace.

And I can (and may) find that stillness, in the midst of any chaos.

I sat with that for a while, until I felt I could reach it again in a non-meditative state. Even now, hours later, I feel deeply peaceful.

Do I still want to create systems so clutter does not build up in my life?  Of course. But this I know: should clutter creep up on me, like when I’m moving furniture around or when I get too busy to file for a while, there will be stillness and holiness in the center of that clutter.

Today I activated this insight by plopping my laptop on top of the clutter and peacefully writing this out for you.

How can you find Peace and Stillness in your clutter?

© 2013 Daria Boissonnas

Continuing from last week, we are exploring an often misquoted saying from the Gospel of Thomas, which erroneously is quoted like this:

INACCURATE:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”  (emphasis mine)

In the last article, we considered what the first part of the official translations mean, as a writer, artist or healer, and came up with three intentions for Awakening.

Now let’s look at the second part of the quote.

Part 2: The Thing about the Thing that Kills You

Consider the same five official translations for the second half of the quote (emphases mine):

Thomas O. Lambdin:
(70) “…That which you do not have within you will kill you if you do not have it within you.”

Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer:
70. “…If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you.”

Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson:
(70) …(2) “If you do not have it within you, (then) that which you do not have within you [will] kill you.”

Pico Iyer:
70.) …What you do not have within will kill you.

Coptic Ecumenical Project:
70. …If you do not have that within yourselves, this which you do not have within you will kill you.

In this part, the misquote almost restates the official translations of the first part: suppressing your gifts will kill you.

But in the official translations, it doesn’t seem to matter what you do any more. This part says you either have it, or you don’t. And not having it will somehow end your existence. Not having… something… has dire consequences.

What does this mean?

Know Your Gift, Divine Purpose, or Calling

One of the things I love about spiritual teachings and truths is that they can be interpreted in many ways or on many levels, and, if the teaching is deep enough, each of these interpretation provides valid insights. There is no “wrong” interpretation. (Just don’t mangle the teaching to say something else, lol.) So if you have other interpretations, please comment them below.

One way we could understand the correct second half of the phrase is like this: if you are pretending to be something other than what you are (that is, if you do not have within you what you are putting on the outside of you), it will kill you.

Well, ain’t that the truth. We have probably all done that at some point in our lives, moreso in our youth. Note to self: be genuine. Or, as I tell the kids, truth gets you much farther in life than lies.

What else does this teaching mean? To me, it’s all about seeing your own divinity, your own divine creative gifts, your own natural Inner Healer.

I bet you can think of a few incredibly gifted people who cannot see their own gifts. They don’t seem to appreciate how deep their abilities go or how much the rest of us, not having these gifts, treasure their abilities and their help. What I have observed in my clients over the years is that when you are truly living your gifts, it’s easy and fun. Effortless and enjoyable. The divine gift you bring to the world is so easy for you, in fact, that it can be hard to appreciate… or even notice at first.

Now let me ask you this: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to notice it, has it really fallen?

That is, if you have a divine gift inside you but you never see it, is it still there? Isn’t your gift, in a sense, absent from your being? If you do not look, do you really “have” it?

This teaching says to me that if you do not know what you have within you, for example if you do not explore your inner divinity, life purpose, calling, or Inner Healer, that omission will kill you. (You can interpret “kill” any way you like, from make you miserable to end your life.) If you never find out who you are, whether you get up the guts to express it or not, it you will simply cease to be.

Cease to be you.

This, in turn, reminds me of some of the oldest spiritual advice in the world, inscribed in the temple at Delphi: Know Thyself.

Know Thyself

When we get sucked into our angst, drama, and depression as writers, creatives, healers, and intuitives, we get pulled away from seeing that which we have within. We get sucked into a downward spiral of ego and insufficiency and crushed intentions. That is not the road to happiness, a meaningful life, and the joy of helping others.

Happiness comes from exploring, awakening, and expressing what you already have within. We know from the first half of the teaching that, whatever it looks like, what you are inside is GOOOOOOD. Take your time. Enjoy the chase. Enjoy the expression of your true self.

In a sense, fully investigated, this teaching of Jesus turned out to be even better advice for artists, writers and healers than I assumed.

What do YOU have within?

Over and over again in the spiritual journey, we encounter dark nights of the soul–periods when we get discouraged and bleak, despite our circumstances. This depression rarely makes sense: just last week you may have been totally upbeat about a certain project, with the world at your feet. Today, it seems hopeless. Even in the depths of a DNotS, you may be able to logically count many things to be grateful for and promising aspects of your life and project. But for some reason… the forecast feels bleak, really bleak.

In our dark nights of the soul, we shed what was holding us back. We let go of old limitations. The dark night of the soul is often the breakdown before the breakthrough. Though a difficult and uncomfortable experience, the process can be a good sign of letting go, with forward movement on its way.

But we must keep moving through our DNotS. Somewhere, hidden within each one is a kind of “pull tab” or “escape lever.” It’s the thing we have been hanging on to, which is disintegrating. When we fully let go of it, cut the strings, we emerge more quickly back into the light again. Happily, we often let go of these things in our sleep, or unconsciously. We have to keep showing up–you must get help if you need it, call your best friends, keep learning, meditating, exercising and all those things you do when things feel brighter.

Over the years, I’ve become familiar with the pattern of the dark night of the soul and have gotten better at recognizing them and sliding through them faster.  :)  But sometimes we (and I too!) can get stuck bumping up against something that does not move. This kind of stuckness, if it becomes chronic, eventually can disconnect us from our power core. We feel burned out. Worst of all, the process seems unending, a very long holding pattern.

Well, last year I finished my book and crashed into a wall of burnout like this. My hair started falling out, I could hardly function at work (and rudely inconvenienced a lot of people in the process–I’m so sorry!) At home, I easily hit my emotional tolerance level for kid noise and was wiped out by their unending (though wonderful) questions. Parenting was nearly impossible. It was so odd.  I could feel I was bumping up against something HUGE. Something old. Some issue that did NOT want to budge, and, unfortunately, did not want to release the book.

As a spiritual citizen and healer who helps others, I believe it’s my responsibility to move beyond my own blockages. Every healing shift I experience helps me help my clients more effectively. In fact I believe all healers owe it to their clients to take their own recommended medicine and get regular healing from other healers with diverse backgrounds, skills and techniques.

So I took a break from blogging for this particularly process of healing. I am grateful to all my readers for the sweet and supportive messages and love I have receieved. Yes, i’m back. I’m in the office, providing healing and healer-to-healer consulting.  I missed you. I missed blogging, and I’m glad to be back.

Have I entirely excavated what was holding me back? Mmmm… maybe not entirely, but I see the shape of it, and I”ve lopped off BIG chunks of it. Meanwhile, I continue to attend a local healing and intention circle, and I continue to heal.

Sometimes we need a silent retreat — we have to stop talking (blogging), so we can listen better to our hearts. I am happy to be back, and I look forward to sharing more healing wisdom with you.  

Until then, my friend, many blessings on your journey,

Yesterday I had the most wonderful time at a writer’s group. I was productive, ate great quiche, met other writers, and enjoyed being with other people who spend all day writing or thinking about writing.

Best of all, after working, we took turns reading some of what we’d written: two memoirs, a poem, a YA novel, and my nonfiction. And then we all commented on each other’s work.

This is where my warm fuzzies went a little cold.

How do you feel about criticism? Even criticism you have asked for?

One particular point they made stung for a while. It made me realize, first, how out of practice I am at taking constructive criticism. They pointed out a distracting detail in the story that starts my last chapter. At first, I couldn’t even understand what they were saying, and flashed back to the early stages of my book’s reading committee — 10 brave people who volunteered to read my book by email, chapter by chapter. When I saw the committee’s edits, I thought I’d sent files around for 10 different books, none of them the one I wrote. What were they talking about?

Criticism Insight #1: It’s all about them.

People read their own stuff into your stuff. When they criticize you, it has everything to do with them. The trick is, if you are writing for a broad audience, you do have to write flexibly enough to handle all their stuff, too. So while it’s good to remember that they are talking about their side of the fence, not yours, it’s also important to listen to what they have to say.

Criticism Insight #2: We tend to notice criticism over praise.

When I got home and reread my notes, their constructive ideas finally made sense. I made the edit. Then I remembered they also gave me great compliments: “I like how the book talks about healing in such a positive light.” “I like to hear your enthusiasm.” “That is a great story!”

I received that.

Criticism Insight #3: Even when you’re brilliant, people can complain about something.

Then I started thinking… If I brought a page of Faulkner, Hemingway, Twain, or Joyce to a writer’s group, read it and asked for critiques, I would get them! One of the readings we heard was so good, all I could find was one word that confused me. But I did find something. In fact, I feel bad that I did not emphasize how brilliant it was.

If you ask for critique, you get critique, even on masterful writing. Art is not set in stone. There are no right answers. Everyone would do it a little differently. Writers are notorious for changing (and changing and changing) their own work. Of course you can critique the masters — people earn PhDs doing so, but those writers are still masters for a reason.

Criticism insight #4: With practice, you can get a lot out of constructive criticism.

You asked for it, you got it. And you asked because you wanted to make your art better. Let go, listen, and have fun with it. See what others have to say. (Nobody said you had to take their criticisms, after all. One particular member of my committee clearly didn’t understand the kind of book I was writing, so most of their comments were inappropriate, and I moved on.) Constructive criticism is a resource for better art, for you, and for healing yourself, too, when you look at what catches you or ignites strong emotions.

All told, I cannot wait to back to the next writer’s brunch! What are you doing to take your art and healing to the next level?

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

Yesterday I found myself consulting with a wonderful doctor. (Due to ironic school regulations, I had to drag a kid out of his sick bed to have someone else say, “Yep, he has a virus and should be resting.”)

Here’s what struck me. Each time I said something positive (and true) like, “My kids rarely get sick,” she said, “Knock wood.” (And yes, she reached out and knocked on something.)

Remember that? From childhood? What a throwback for me. I’m sure I froze the first time she said it, trying to grok it.

What relic of an old time and a mindset the world is quickly outgrowing: the idea that spit happens and there’s nothing you can do about it. That thinking positively risks invoking the wrath of whatever else had been planned. That you have no right to take your own destiny into your hands. That it is dangerous to think positively and enjoy a good life.

It struck me as so strange that I think we should all pat ourselves on the back! We’ve come a long way, baby! We are no longer afraid to dream our dreams and then do something about them, to change the course of our lives. We are increasingly accepting that positive change (and healing) can be easy, and that much more is possible than we have assumed in the past. Yeah!

Yes, we can change the world for the better. Let’s honor how we used to think, honor our shift, and then keep moving forward. Knocking on wood is no longer necessary. We knocked, and that door opened.

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

Just went to the cabinet to get out some tea. When I opened it, one box jumped out at me and kerplunked on the counter. Kombucha. Detoxing tea.

(What do you think? Anything meaningful there?)

“It means I’m supposed to have that kind of tea!” exclaimed one corner of my mind.

Hmm. I have been feeling a little under the weather with a cold in the last two days. So I asked my body if it would benefit from hot tea right now (yes), and what kind would most benefit it.

Nope. Not that one. Thoughtful, I made the other kind of tea.

All the events around us have meaning, and the greatest meaning comes from tapping the truth within you. Our minds are busy things, but, as you may have learned over and over yourself, the mind is not always correct. It makes best guesses.

The heart knows. Your energy body knows. Your inner wisdom knows. Some part of you always knows the answer to questions about your best interests. Tap into that.

Fate may bring you in contact with a range of people, things, and experiences. Are you meant to engage them all? Not likely. But this I do know: You can learn from each connection.

Intuitively, it feels like I have two… somethings… to cleanse out of my life. A little more meditation, and I’ll soon figure them out. Thanks, tea!

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

What struck you about my tea experience? Let me know in the comments, below.

My yoga teacher, Sofia Diaz, recently described the difference between intensity and pain in our daily practice. She said intensity was like a low hum in the body, stretching us to our limits and asking us to let go into something greater than ourselves. Pain is sharp and sudden and an obvious indication we should stop what we are doing. Many of us mistake intensity for pain. We pull back when we should drop further in.

A heart ache is an opportunity to ride intensity, to drop in, to open still further. Our hearts ache when the radiance and potency of the heart meet something other than unbounded love. Our hearts ache because the intensity of our love is met with something we perceive as other than that love. It is in the moment that the heart’s fierce gift meets obstruction that our greatest thresholds can be crossed.

How many of us give up on love because it’s embarrassing or raw or too revealing? How many of us pull back from an another’s eyes afraid to stay too long or afraid what another will think or how we ourselves will react? How many of us make our love ‘nice’ instead or letting it flow like the wild and powerful river it is?

We welcome the sign of Pisces today at 10:18 pm pacific time. This is the final sign of the zodiac. It is a sign of culmination and synthesis. It wraps up the zodiacal year and asks us to leave behind what we do not wish to carry into the next cycle. In many ways, it is a month of surrender — a surrender into a greater love.

Let us remember that the heart can ache as it witnesses exquisite beauty. It can ache as it registers a remarkable act of love or compassion. It can ache because it wants to learn to love ever more. And the month of Pisces is a month to learn to love bigger, deeper, wider, with less boundary, with less reserve. It’s a month to stand open and willing to be touched. It’s a month to choose intimacy rather than escape. And remember– intimacy can be felt as you order your coffee in the morning or as you thank someone for packing your groceries. It’s a choice about how you connect moment to moment.

This month, take the phrase “the eyes are a window to the soul” as a real and tangible truth — and meet the gaze of many. Look deeper. Love more. Let go of all (at least some?) of the emotional baggage or accounts you’ve been carrying. Put them down. Walk lighter. Uplift those you meet. Redeem what you can. Stand in a rain of grace and invite others in.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet. As a practicing astrologer for over 15 years, Heidi takes a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving worldwide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is pleased to offer Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

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A Poem for Pisces

Love Is Not Fragile, by Samantha Reynolds (bentlily.com)

Who taught you
to be sparing
with your love
as though your heart was a bank
as though love could dry up
nonsense
it is as if the ocean complained
it was too
wet
love is not fragile
it is as common as breath
it is play money
it is a race
to give more
go first
say it with impunity
you think you will ache
with vulnerability
but the strangest thing will happen
you will nearly drown
with peace.

When you have a fight or other painful event in a relationship, how do you get back on track?

Many folks would say forgiveness.

I agree — that is a great place to start! However, I’m going to step out on a limb here so you can give your forgiveness practice more power. Forgiveness is not, as many believe, the entire healing process. It is the first step.

But it is an extremely important first step that allows the rest of healing to happen.

This came up for me recently, a little too close to home, when someone I love took dramatic offense and hurt at something I said with all good intentions. They were done with me; I was devastated. Several days later, a friend brilliantly and lovingly asked me, “What else do you need from this situation in order to heal?”

Great question! You can’t go anywhere if you don’t know where you want to go! It’s so easy to get stuck in the emotions of a crisis without looking for the healing solution.

I went within. I… I wanted to be forgiven. Even though I had technically done nothing wrong, they were genuinely hurting. I wanted this person to say, “That’s OK dear, I understand, things like this happen sometimes, I’ll get over it, I forgive you.”

The Power of Forgiveness Is Disconnection

When we are stressed by a negative event, our energy and consciousness freezes. It locks us into the event(s), which is now in the past. Even today, many of us are locked to painful events from earlier in your life. (Some vividly, as if it happened yesterday. Is there anything left from your upbringing that can rile you up upon thinking of it?)

When you maintain connections to the past, you must power those connections with your energy and consciousness. They are distractions and energy drains. You struggle where there could be ease. You feel adrift, confused, or vaguely dissatisfied with life when you tend these old wounds. It is as if you are carrying them around in a massive backpack, bending under their weight.

This I know: the heart of healing is connection. It is connection to that which sustains and nourishes, and disconnection from that which drains and demoralizes.

Forgiveness is a letting go, a healthy disconnection of your energy and consciousness from the painful experience. It is a release of blame and the need to receive anything back. Forgiveness turns you around, from being stuck in the past, attached to what happened, to facing forward again, being present in today, and moving forward into healing.

Sometimes, it’s easy to get over an offense. Hey, things happen and we can move on. But in situations where stress, outrage, shock, hurt, and other emotions have firmly attached us to that original fight or event, forgiveness is golden. It initiates the healing process.

But What If They Won’t Forgive You?

What do you do when you are the transgressor — intentional and repenting, or unintentional — and the person you hurt will not forgive you? What do you when the other person is refusing to reconcile?

You heal. You step beyond this situation, by disconnecting yourself. And the #1 rule about healing is this: you have all the resources you need at all times.

The way energy works, the only way you can experience or perceive someone not forgiving you is if, in some way, you have not fully forgiven yourself. This you must do. As soon and as much as you can.

Surprisingly, and wonderfully, when you forgive yourself — when you disconnect from that event and the pain around it — you make it much easier for the person you hurt to do so, too.

Now THAT is healing. (You healer, you!)

You are not dependent on other things or people for your happiness and spiritual journey. Any thought that says otherwise is Resistance. You can find everything in the world within you, including forgiveness.

I know this spiritual principle, but I’m human and I had gotten caught up in my emotions and forgotten. When I remembered that no forgiveness on the outside means no forgiveness on the inside, I knew it was 100% right. I was devastated and shocked, and had not forgiven myself in the uproar.

Forgive Yourself and Free Yourself to Heal

After a nice meditation of self-forgiveness (“I choose to forgive myself, I choose to let this go, I hand this situation over to God for resolution, I choose to forgive them for not forgiving me,” etc etc), I felt less upset. You may choose to take a physical action of forgiveness, too, like a donation to a relevant charity or sharing your newfound wisdom with someone.

I will repeat this meditation a few times. Connections of energy and consciousness are a bit insidious. Once built, they tend to resonate with similar connections and entwine themselves where they don’t  belong. To truly forgive and fully let go, it helps to repeat your forgiveness exercises and touch on the situation from a variety of angles. You might want to get help from a healer or counselor.

Once you have forgiven yourself, you will be able to freely look at the situation and see what you reacted emotionally to and do some healing (eliminating or rewriting patterns) around those issues. Sometimes this stage is so easy, once we let go/forgive, that we assume forgiveness was all that was necessary. Hallelujah!

When I am done with my self-forgiveness, I will no longer need forgiveness from the other person. I have not abandoned them or the situation, but I will have completely let go of the source of the painful rift between us. It will be water under the bridge. And I will rest in that wonderful place of genuine spiritual independence, where others truly have no power over my happiness.

I pray for them to find this inner release, too.

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

Have you struggled to forgive yourself? Do you have advice or a different perspective? Please share it in the comments below!

“I see the goal, I reach the goal and then I see another.”

Have things been a bit intense of late? Can I hear a hallelujah? Wow.

Everyone around me has been in the thick of transformation. The month of Scorpio is always a ride. It requires a full address of the darkness. It requires tenacity and it requires firmly holding a vision of the light.

But now…..Ahhhhhh. Now we welcoming Sagittarius. No matter how much we love Scorpio for its intensity and power, we are all ready for the  the optimism and freedom of Sagittarius when the Sun moves into this fiery sign.

(And by the way, the Sun moved moves into Sagittarius at  8:08 am pacific time today).

Sagittarius brings momentum. It brings forward movement. It brings the big, gorgeous goal and the white stallion even shows up for us to ride on toward it. Jupiter rules Sagittarius bringing good fortune, generosity and expansions of consciousness. Everything grows bigger, richer, fuller, stronger under Jupiter and the sign of Sagittarius.

The legs are ruled by Sagittarius allowing us to run, ski, jump, kick with vigor and passion. We STAND UNDER what we believe in with the power of our legs, our roots and our connection to the earth. And we UNDER-STAND the biggest ideas and visions and begin to make them our own.

Sagittarius is the physical philosopher. He wants to travel the world and come to understand who we are as Humanity. He wants to be free and unbounded and full of aspiration and desire. The KEY with Sagittarius is to gather all that gorgeous, vital energy and DIRECT it towards a tangible goal. This way we can become ‘the one pointed disciple’ of Sagittarius and harness all our vitality in the name of our vision.

Pay attention this month to Mercury Retrograde IN Sagittarius. Mercury goes retrograde on November 23rd and again goes direct on December 13th. (This might not be a ton of fun for Thanksgiving travel, but breathe and bring a good book). In general, during this time let the ride be an inner one.

Dream. Envision. Discuss. But don’t necessarily focus on huge outer action.

Mercury Retrograde is a time to turn inward and focus all your inner yearning, passion and visionary strength to rally around the goal. If you Do take action, be clear, one-pointed and lead with your JOY.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Sagittarius

A (very) Sagittarius Song

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Enjoying facebook yesterday, I found this poster. If you can’t see the visual, it says:

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” ~Albert Einstein

Hmmm, Einstein? I doubt it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love the sentiment. And I have been a huge fan of Einstein’s since high school, when I read his little 1916 book on Relativity (delightful little volume). The man invented the field of theoretical physics and innovated how we view the world.

Einstein looked at the world from a new perspective, one in which things were not fixed and stationery, as western science typically viewed the world.  For instance, western science has said the hardest substance in the world is a diamond, while eastern philosophy names water as the hardest substance because over time it can eat away anything. Though this is changing, Western science has tended to take a snapshot view of things, dissected and frozen in time. (Physiology was such a great step forward from anatomy! )

Einstein moved us into understanding that perspective mattered, that the same thing can be validly, scientifically experienced differently from two viewpoints. It was radical.

So where did this Law of Attraction-sounding quote come from?

Granted, I am a lay person, a mere fan of Einstein and not a scholar. But, sorry, I don’t remember Einstein’s theories on the Law of Attraction. Attributing quotes about magical manifestation and subtle energy to Einstein is, in my opinion, going rawther overboard.

Therefore, I would like to see the source of this quote. Anyone have a footnote? (Please comment with your source. The source of the poster was not mentioned in the post, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who owns the copyright to it, please also comment with your information, too.)

This quote is not in wikiquotes, for instance: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_einstein.  (But the disputed and misattributed sections of Einstein’s page are enlightening.)

Why Am I Picking on This Quote?

I am not trying to be a party pooper here! On the contrary, I have been a student of energy healing, consciousness, intuition, manifestation and many other “soft subjects” for a decade and a half, if not my whole life.

But I am disturbed that we are relying on a fictional quote to inspire us, when the truth is so much stronger.

Share this inaccurate poster, and this quote can be debunked and used to debunk anything else you stand for, too. Why bother?

We don’t need fictional quotes.

We don’t need to induct Einstein into the New Age to make the New Age valid or “real”.

Einstein did worlds of good exactly as he was. And we can do good exactly the way we are, too. Those who are ready will recognize the truth in this quote, without the Einstein byline at the bottom. Let it go.

A false attribution weakens the quote, weakens your argument, weakens your reputation, and weakens the public opinion of what you are doing.

The truth is so much stronger.

The lesson here is this: check your sources before you post. Even if you LOVE the sentiment, make sure you are accurate. (For example, in my first book, Gift of the Healer, I even use a  quote often misattributed to Einstein, but I note its vague source.)

The Truth is all you need. It is the only thing that sets you free.

“Warrior am I and from the battle I emerge triumphant”

The Sun moves into Scorpio today at 2:30 pm. We now plunge into the one of the most intense, penetrating, deep times of the year. In Scorpio, we are all warriors and as such we all have the opportunity to wrestle with our stuff.

The energy of Scorpio carries a willingness to dive in and explore all the dark corners. There’s a look in the eyes of Scorpio warriors that says, “Yes, I WILL. I will emerge triumphant.” And this is the month we all get to have that look in our eyes. We all get to say, “I’m tired of this darkness. I insist on LIGHT.”

The wrestling is what’s interesting. It’s not an easy journey. There are tears, fears and inner turmoil. But each step–each TINY step–we take towards something brighter, lighter or better for us is a victory.

I just gathered 19 women for my Radiant Life Retreat about 10 days ago and I watched each woman breathe through her dark corners. Each woman embodied part of what I like to call ‘our wretchedness’ and got to see it transform into LOVE. Emerging triumphant is emerging with more potency, love or wisdom in our lives. It’s emerging more FREE.

I think we must wrestle with the chains that bind us in the name of FREEDOM. Our charts offer our Maps to Freedom and we must call on every tool available– every gift in the chart — to keep us on a path of liberation. Because if we are FREE, we are authentic, generous, vital and unencumbered. We are choosing our lives every moment.  We are offering ourselves without agenda or accounts. We are soaring inwardly and outwardly.

Here, however, we need a word about wrestling. There is wrestling that stays entangled and emeshed in the dark OR there is wrestling that keeps its eye on the light. As we wrestle, we must keep our hearts open and we must breathe as deeply as we can muster. We can fight using LIGHT at our sword. We can fight with the right word, the right touch, the right choice. We can be warriors — who though they may have cause to strike something dead — instead make the choice to kill with LOVE and liberate another being with that love. In Scorpio, we can set ourselves or others FREE with our ability to wield power well.

There are a few dates of note this month. On November 2nd, both Venus and Mercury move in Sagittarius taking all the depth and soul-searching of the last month and putting it in to action. There should be a surge of creative optimism and a willingness to dream big. Also, on November 10th, the planet Mars will move into the industrious and analytical sign of Virgo. Virgo and Scorpio together make for tenacious, rigorous work. Get into it and get it done.

May this month allow you to be your own alchemist taking all that is dead or lead in you and transforming it into the gold light of the soul. Or in brass tacks terms, let’s transform another small piece of the wretchedness in our lives and feel a little lighter, more generous and with more room to breathe in the beauty of our lives.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Scorpio

The Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 29 — Ranier Maria Rilke (Mitchell Translation)

Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
Let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night.  What feeds upon your face

grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
Move through transformation, out and in.
What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.

In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.

And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~

I looooooooove eating pomegranates and have since I was a kid.  An ancient fruit of myth, symbolism, and medicine, today the pomegranate is known for its antiviral and other healing and health properties. 

It’s easy to find pomegranate in many fruit juice mixes, but if you don’t want to drink straight sugar, there’s nothing like the fresh fruit!  They are generally in season in November & December.

One day in my 20s I rediscovered pomegranates in the grocery store and took one home.  There it sat until it dried out because I had NO idea how to cut it!  Luckily, being the persistent type, through trial & error and dozens more pommies, I put together this easy routine for cutting and serving pomegranates.

What You Need to Know:  A pomegranate is a tight jumble of lobes of red juicy seeds, encased in a rind about 1/4″ thick.  All you have to do is cut the rind open, and then you can tease apart the lobes. 

So get out your cutting board and a nice sharp knife.  You may also want to wear a full apron in case a seed or two squirts at you.

Step 1:  I slice off the flower thingy on the end, about even with the rind.  (It leaves messy dried flower parts sometimes.)

Step 2:  Cutting only about 1/4″ or so into the fruit, slice the skin all the way around, ending where your cut started.  Gently pry apart the two halves.  Do this well into the counter space because lonely seeds will often fly out of the fruit.  Admire the beautiful arrangement of seeds inside!

Step 3:  Cutting only 1/4″ into the fruit again, cut each rind in half again, creating quarter wedges.  Pry apart gently, following the lobes.

Step 4:  One more time, cut each piece in half by the rind.  I often just bend each 1/4 fruit backwards and tear the rind into its final 1/8th piece size. 

Step 5:  Make it look pretty & serve!  Peel of excess white membrane to reveal the beautiful seeds.  Arrange the eighths attractively, seed sides up, in a flat wide bowl.  These sizes are perfect for the kids, tho our youngest will eat 4 of 5 of them if she can, heh.

Enjoy!  Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about my pomegranate cutting method.

The most powerful “cure” for feeling blue, sad, tired or depressed is helping others.

Now, even in the middle of the night, you can be inspired by healing and helping stories. KarmaTube.org offers videos about people who have helped others and overcome their own challenges. It inspires me to stop feeling like I am struggling or feeling sorry for my poor ego and get back on the bike again.

It is not often I come across an outside resource I recommend whole-heartedly, but I urge you to browse the FREE videos at KarmaTube. You can even join to support their mission.

Go here:  http://www.karmatube.org/

Now share your discoveries! In the comments below, please share your favorite video link there, and why it inspired you.

Did you like this KarmaTube? Then enjoy GIA’s FREE inspirational and educational series of audio interviews called “I Am a Healer” — 100 Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who are Changing the World and How You Can Too.

“I Am a Healer” — Register here to listen for FREE!

“I choose the way which lies between the two great lines of force.”

The Sun moved into Libra today at 2:05 am Pacific time. The Fall is upon us. Libra is a cardinal sign which means it has a ton of initiative.  But unlike Aries which is a very solo, pioneering initiative, Libra uses its dynamism to create right equality and right relationship.

Libra is the mid-point of the zodiac. It is the cesura or resting point as we travel through the signs. The danger of Libra is that we hang out in the pause, that we don’t commit, that we weigh things endlessly, that we metaphorically SIT ON THE FENCE. It can be pleasant and relational and lovely, but can be hard to make choices that result in action.

So, how can we best welcome and use this beautiful Libran energy? Saturn is still in the sign of Libra for a few more months which puts extra pressure on all the relationships in our lives. This month in particular, we will be focused on RELATING. We choose those with whom we wish to relate. We build  partnerships. We ask if we could do something better — together. We marry. We unite. We hold hands. We try to live ‘the marriage in the heavens’ — which is in fact the marriage of the soul and the personality. Then too, we break up. We end relationships. We choose where to put our energy.

Libra also brings the qualities of fairness, justice, equality. It brings the Law. So, we could say we bring the Law to all our relationships. We weigh them. (But not forever). And then we commit whole-heartedly to those that speak most deeply to us.

The esoteric ruling planet of Libra is Uranus. Uranus is the planet that demands freedom and authenticity. It asks us to bring our whole selves and our soul selves to the relationships in our lives. It asks us to show up with the truth — not just pleasantries. It asks that those relationships that have been inequitable become more fair or balanced. It asks for radical relating — truth-telling, engaged self-expression and innovative collaboration.

The phrase for Libra is “I choose the Way which lies between the two great lines of force.” This is a razor’s edge. We find the Way only after oscillating for many many years. We swing in one direction fully and then the other with just as much commitment. We feel one way and then the other. We search for balance. The most important word here is CHOOSE. If a Libra is willing to choose with clarity and commitment ‘the noble middle path’, there will be tremendous support as he/she walks the Way. All manner of people and events will conspire to support the choice. The danger zone is in the endless oscillation between EXTREMES.

So, this month:

• Make decisions.
• Jump off the fence.
• Grab someone’s hand.
• Head down a noble path.
• Show up fully.
• Offer up your radical, full, authentic self.
• Again and again and again.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist and highly recommends her retreats and services.

A Poem for Libra:
Clarity Is Freedom by St. Teresa of Avila

I had tea yesterday with a great theologian,
and he asked me,

“What is your experience of God’s will?”

I liked that question –
for the distillation of thought hones thought in others.
Clarity, I know, is freedom.

What is my experience of God’s will?

Everyone is a traveler.  Most all need lodging, food,
and clothes.

I let enter my mouth what will enrich me.  I wear what
will make my eye content,
I sleep where I will
wake with the
strength to
deeply
love

all my mind can
hold.

What is God’s will for a wing?
Every bird knows
that.

St. Teresa of Avila

“I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.”

–Mahatma Gandhi

What do you do in the morning to prepare for your day? You likely clean your teeth and wash and feed your body.  But what about maintaining your connection with your higher self and inner wisdom?  Do you refresh your connection to Source and to your Calling or life’s purpose?

Don’t be a victim to your day and your duties.  You are so much more than that. Decide right now to make ONE change.  Either set up a morning spiritual refresh activity or strengthen the one you have.

• Can you do a 10-minute relaxation meditation?
• Can you restfully contemplate your life purpose goals and vision for the world?
• Can you connect with the results you seek and visualize them so you can bring them out into the world?
• Can you sit quietly, ask a question, and listen for guidance or for today’s ideal focus or task?

You may resist this change for the first several days, but I challenge you to do this for 10 solid days in a row and see how it goes.

I don’t know about you, but if Ghandi found a morning refresh and centering worked for him, I’m inclined to think he knows something I haven’t figured out yet, and I’m willing to try it.  He was after all extremely effective at creating positive change.

Remember too that being “on” requires being “off”. Being successful out in the world requires inner success first.  The more centered, grounded, Connected, whole, happy, and spiritually refreshed you are, the better you can do what you were born to do.  And the more permanent positive change (aka healing) you can create in the world.

You can do this!  You were born to do this.

Source of quote (and a good article): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/meditation_b_827796.html

It’s what you were born to do.

It is the highest expression of your gifts.

And stepping into it creates the greatest life you can imagine, flowing with wealth, wellness, and genuine happiness.

It is your Higher Calling. But if you don’t know what it is or how it works, you can spend your life chasing shadows and suffering.

Join us for a free talk on Friday, Feb 18, when we’ll share 10 important facts you need to understand about awakening your Calling and creating your dream life in a way that naturally makes a positive difference. You’ll be glad you heard this info!

Super-Easy to Register for the Call

To register, just make sure you’re on our email list. If you’re new to us, sign up for our free kit at the top of this page and follow the directions. If you’re on our email list will receive reminders about this call and the audio afterwards.

Many blessings on your spiritual journey,

• Do you get up in the morning and do pretty much what you did yesterday?
• Do you feel like nothing you try will change the outcome of your life?
• Do you assume that what happened to you long ago has trapped you forever? (That’s a big myth!)

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character falls into a time warp where no matter what crazy impulsive thing he does, even killing himself, he wakes up at exactly the same time on the same morning, over and over. 

It’s a movie of course, and the sarcastic angry character eventually shifts from manipulating his environment for the sense of power and accomplishment to genuinely connecting with those around him, esp his love interest. And it happens because this crazy time warp forces him, out of boredom, to stop looking at the surface of things.

Last week a client told me the same thing–that her life felt like the Groundhog Day movie.  Though she knew better, she observed herself every day repeating the same bad habits, the same shortcuts, the same behaviors that were keeping her stuck.  She said she felt like she lacked the power to stop repeating them. “How can I break out of that?” was her question.

Good question.

Plain and simple, I find behavior like this happens when a person is avoiding their Calling. 

It’s a very strong urge, the Calling.  It is an instinct so strong we can feel it but not always put words and actions on it. 

To block it off, to delay doing what you were born to do, to step out of your innate power, you need some serious firepower — lots of energy.  The most concentrated energy we can muster is called up by our emotions.  So the more stuck you get, the more frustrated and angry and grief-stricken and regretful and self-deprecating you get, the more you can “safely” avoid your calling.  The more you can stay attached to those things that happened in your childhood, the unfairness of life, the jealousy, the things that keep you small.  The more you can stay stuck.

BUT, Life is motion, and Life always moves forward.  As time passes, you naturally forget broken hearts, negative comments, etc.  To remember these things, you must think about them and drag in the energy of negative emotions to strengthen your connection with them.  Otherwise, your connections naturally fade.  To stay stuck in limiting habits, you need to generate negative emotion.  Unfortunatley, the side effect of this avoidance loop is that you suffer. A lot.  After a while, it feels awful and you would give anything to change it.

But suffering is not necessary. I remember when I was stuck in a similar place many years ago. I thought I would go crazy with how miserable I was, even I appeared to be living a fine life.  ONE thing pulled me through to the wonderful place I am today.  One thing.  It was that small part of me that knew, I mean it KNEW I was supposed to be doing something else.  Something greater.  Something that made a difference.  I had no idea what it was, but I hung onto that tiny bit of knowingness for dear life, and following it pulled me out of that misery and suffering. 

Can you hear or feel that tiny part of you that KNOWS you are not doing what you were meant to do?  Perhaps you even know what you are supposed to be doing, but feel helpless to break out of your current situation!

Are you ready to break free?  Are you ready to let go of the draining dramas and the tiring tirades once and for all?  The Global Institute for Awakening was founded to help you step into your Calling, the thing you were born to do.  If you aren’t following your calling, something will feel like it’s missing in your life.  You can win everything, get the job the spouse the car the house you desire, but something is still missing.  When life doesn’t satisfy, you’re missing your Calling. 

Following your Calling allows you to live the life of your dreams — full of health, wealth, wisdom, peace, love and joy – while making a big difference in the world.

I invite you to make a decision today to give up the distracting disempowerment and say yes to your Divine gifts.  To let go of the painful routine that is knowable and predictable and to say yes to allowing the Universe to blindly guide you into bliss.  To stop doubting and start trusting. To stop ignoring your gifts and acknowledge them. To stop depriving yourself of your lucrative dream life and start nourishing yourself.  Make the decision today.  Find that tiny bit of knowingness inside you that says you were meant to do something else, something greater than this.  Write your decision on paper.  Write supporting statements of intention.  And when you mean it, the Universe will answer you.

Then consider joining us for our new transformative seminar called “I Am My Calling:  How to Know and Fulfill Your Highest Calling to Create a Meaningful & Lucrative Business/Family/Life you Love that Makes a BIG Difference“.  This is more than just information!  You seek information when you’re stuck, but how do you get unstuck? 

We’re combining workshop classes with breakthrough personal work & healing work to disconnect those old connections that hold you back and align you more fully and easily with your innate Calling and divine gifts.  ”I Am My Calling” not only gives you the information, but helps you cut cords, break habits, and transition into implementing it in your life!

Learn more about this class and our earlybird registration prices here.  Class starts March 16, 2011.

Note from Daria ~ Newsletter 18 Jan 2011

Oh what a week!

Last week was download week for me, and I’m still catching up with reality.  Messages, classes, marketing campaigns, coincidental offers — it all popped in, one after another after another. Almost to overwhelm level.

Have you experienced this yourself?  When your creativity goes crazy, and you become a fountain of ideas?  It’s exciting!  We are each connected to the Pool of All Possibilities, and when we open that connection, we can pull in new, life-enhancing options.  We can make the impossible possible.

Then the BIG question becomes: what do I do about it first?  

Doing something about it is where GIA comes in.  We give you the practical tools and systems to shift that creative fountain of ideas to a well-oiled, enjoyable business, practice or career. 

Here’s my favorite first step:  always always write down the idea or insight that came in. This action honors the Source of the idea.  It’s like saying thank you, plus you ARE taking the FIRST STEP to manifesting the concept in the physical/mental world.  

I keep a “Brainstorms” file on the computer where I write these down, plus a little notebook in my purse.  A beautiful journal would be delightful.

Another good reason to write them down is that sometimes these download experiences can be like dreams — you may have shifted into an altered state, so when you start operating in the everyday world, the brilliant ideas fade like a dream in the morning.  Though they were earth-shattering, now you can’t remember them.

So write them all down, right away.  Then enjoy sifting thru that Brainstorms file now and again to find insights and ideas you can still use.

Let me know how this strategy goes.  Here’s to you and your highest calling!!  

Many blessings,

Daria Boissonnas
Founder, Global Institute for Awakening

TWO Free Calls this Week!

Thursday: Has Your Astro Sign Changed… or Not?

The internet is abuzz about recent news articles that point out that the sun was not actually in your natal astrological sign when you were born, due to the tipping of the earth.  They also claim the Babylonians took a sign out of the zodiac.  Should it be there?  Find out on Thursday.

Tell your friends:  anyone who is signed up for our email list or freebie Wake-Up Kit (at top of every page and at http://GIAwaken.com) will get info for this free call.)

Date: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Time: 12 noon Pacific/3pm Eastern

Speakers: Daria Boissonnas, Global Institute for Awakening Founder, interviews
Patricia Selmo, professional astrologer & ordained minister

How to Sign Up:  Everyone on our email list will get call-in details.  Subscribe to our freebie above or at GIAwaken.com to register for the call details.

Weds the 26th: Your Spiritual Calling and How to Thrive with It

Got a gift that feels like a curse? Listen & discover how to live with your greatest gift — your calling!  Daria will explain why it is much easier to follow your calling than to ignore it.  Join us for this call and we’ll also explain why 2011 is such a great year to strengthen your commitment to your highest calling and step into it!

Tell your friends:  Anyone signed up for our email list or freebie Wake-Up Kit, at the top of every page and at http://GIAwaken.com, will get info for this free call.

Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Time: 11 am Pacific/2pm Eastern

Speaker: Daria Boissonnas, Founder of the Global Institute for Awakening

How to Sign Up:  Everyone on our email list will get call-in details.  Subscribe to our freebie above or at GIAwaken.com to register for the call details.

Note from Daria ~  Newsletter 10 Jan 2011

Hello Awakener,

I have SO loved spending three weeks with our fans & members in our Holiday Gift Clear Wisdom sessions.  As always, I am impressed and honored by your potential to Awaken the world and create permanent positive change.  

On Friday we posted the final call recording.  WOW!  For Kelly, our first caller, I saw intuitively two transformative info products she easily had within her.  (I can’t wait to buy them myself!) 

For Heather, the second caller, I tuned into a transformative program she can create right now that helps people make changes they’ve been meaning to make for a while.  (So often we know but don’t do, right?  BIG demand for that one!)

Get immediate access to these powerful recordings through this post:

     http://giawaken.com/2011/01/final-cw-holiday-call/  

Are You Drained By Your Healing or Intuitive Work?

One past teacher of mine said always to make sure I ate lots of protein during a healing day of clients.  Another said not to eat any food w/in a couple hours of seeing clients, since the food pulled you away from the esoteric levels.  I’ve learned countless energy protection techniques over the years…

And I don’t use a one. 

What I’ve found is that when you’re truly following your calling and expressing your life’s purpose, it’s invigorating and refreshing!  You don’t worry about picking up energies and feeling cruddy afterwards.  You actually feel better after seeing clients than before.

If this isn’t how your practice or business feels, take a good look at how you are working, your attitudes, your clients, what your’e offering, your life’s purpose, and your healing gifts.  Make sure they are all in alignment with who you really are.   

We’ll go into this in detail in our member training this month:  Secrets of the Energetically Secure — it’s all about energy protection that really WORKS and how to stop picking up icky energies from people.  

Join here to learn how to stop being drained by the energy vampires in your life:

     http://GIAwaken.com/benefits

Here’s to you and to your greatest 2011!!  See you on our calls!

Many blessings,

Daria Boissonnas
Founder, Global Institute for Awakening

Join Us for Our Next Free Call

Date: January 14, 2010
Time: 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern
Sign up here: 

Topic:  Your Spiritual Calling & How to Fulfill It
     With Daria Boissonnas, Founder of the Global Institute for Awakening