Empowerment: The Gift of Giving and Receiving

I absolutely love this picture of Quan Yin. She is the goddess of compassion and loving kindness and is said to hear the cries of all beings. What I love about this picture is that not only is she elegant and feminine, but she is in her power and focused. Standing strong on one leg and balancing the masculine and feminine energies creating a space for love to shine through her lotus. Such a powerful representation of what it is to be fully in one's power in a beautiful way. Which is exactly what this post is about. How do we stay empowered and make decisions from this space, from the heart space, instead of allowing ourselves to be pulled into fear and into our past? How do we contribute to all that is good in the world, when it seems there is so much chaos happening around us? Its very simple, by taking time to connect and by coming into our hearts and connecting to our higher power. Sandra Ingerman states in her book Medicine for the Earth, "We are so out of touch with our own beauty and essence that the illusions we believe in are clouding the truth and our reality has become murky."
It seems so simple, yet as humans we are so far removed on how to connect to the heart. There is so much fear happening at this very moment and the momentum behind the fear is overtaking what is true, which is love. We forget about our purpose and are seeing how it is affecting every single person on the planet. Rates of depression, addiction, and suicide have skyrocketed and we no longer make human connection a priority. We focus so much on what is NOT working and internalize all of the sadness and corruption we are seeing until we break. We forget about love for our Self and love for others. We are literally walking around with our hearts closed and our minds running the show. And when we are in this space, all of our injured and traumatized parts are driving our actions. So, where do we start? How do we re-member who we are, why we are here, and how do we actually hear what is needed for ourselves and for others. When we are stuck in fear, how do we actually no what the heck is going on?
I was listening to an interview with Oprah and Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy Of The Spirit & Sacred Contracts. Oprah asked her, "What about the people who say they don't know what their purpose is? I just don't understand how people don't know they have a purpose!" Caroline's response struck me so deeply as she answered very simply, "It is because people are defining their lives based on what they WANT instead of defining their lives by what they HAVE". In other words, we are focused on the doing, instead of the being. We forget that we have everything we need in this very moment. All of the knowledge, all of the strength, all of the answers. We actually know who we are and why we are here, we just don't take the time to connect to that part of ourselves and become confused and off track. Those tiny little confused parts creep in and take over. Imagine if you took 5-10 minutes each time you felt jumbled up, depressed, unsure about yourself. If you took those minutes to stop and see how your mind is running things you would notice how unrealistic all you are thinking can be. And this is where empowerment comes in!
When you are in your center, your heart, and you are out of your mind (literally) you are in your power. When you are able to feel your body, all of the sensations, your heartbeat, hear your breathing, and connect to the greater good... you are in your power! And yet, we are so addicted to worry, fear, anxiety, and drama that we choose to stay in this place of insanity. The "what-ifs" the "how's" the "I can't"..... all of these are victim thinking and very low vibration causing us to spiral into victim mode, causing depression and uncertainty of our lives and our purpose. It is as if we are losing our lives, depleting our power, and compromising the integrity of our soul. When we are able to connect to our heart and connect to love, we realize that we don't betray our Selves. There is no negotiating your sense of integrity and there is no compromising where you are and who you are.
When we move from a place of empowerment we are living from the four chambered heart. Angeles Arrien speaks of the four chambered heart in her book The Four Fold Way. The four chambered heart is a way to check in and see if you are connected to your highest Self and living from a place of integrity. It is the full, strong, clear, and open heart. In order to develop the four chambered heart we use the practice of meditation, or in shamanic healing we use the drum to connect us to spiritual guidance. The drum symbolizes the heart beat of the Earth, connecting us to the all that is true and real. Taking time to connect and receive healing, with or without a drum, opens us to the possibility of removing blocks and obstacles to receiving love and giving love and love is the strongest healing salve there is. But, we have to be open to receive love from our highest power and learn to love and appreciate our own beauty. We have to repair the damage on the spiritual level and in this way we are repairing the natural world at the same time.
Our natural world cannot heal if we are vibrating from lower thought forms and constantly focusing on what is not working. We have to heal ourselves before any healing can happen outside of us. Staying in our power and creating a daily practice of changing our thoughts and working through our pain is extremely important at this time. Making decisions when our heart, mind, and gut are all in alignment keeps us in our power because we engage the heart before taking action. The heart must be running the show. Love will always be the guide. I will leave you with this final piece written by Sandra Ingerman. May you find love, be love, teach love, and breath love so we can all heal and create fuller and more meaningful interactions with one another. I know for my Self, I am working on receiving and being more open hearted. I want to experience love as much as I can while I am on this planet. I am amazingly good at giving love, but realizing that to live a more vibrant life, I must learn to receive that love and be an open channel for it to flow in both directions.
"Disharmony causes disease. When we return to a life of balance, healing follows. Living this harmonious existence, we gain a true understanding of the beauty of life. When something is aligned with its own nature as well as the natural world, a state of harmony is created that is then perceived by others as an object of beauty." S. Ingerman