Posts Tagged ‘Self-Nurture’

Having Trouble With Relationships?

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

“The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors reflecting their beliefs.

So relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth…if we look honestly at our relationships we can see so much about how we have created them.”   Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization

“Our time out of relationship is just as important as our time in it. Indeed, it may be said that, when we are alone, we are preparing to be in relationship and, when we are in relationship, we are preparing to be alone. Hopefully, we begin to learn the lesson of our last relationship before we go into a new one. Then we can experience new challenges and grow in new ways.”  Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 119.

“Coming to completion in relationship is an internal task, not an interactive one. We do the best we can to separate in a dignified and loving way and to support each other in pursuing our new lives. That makes it easier for us to come to completion. But completion itself depends on our willingness to use relationship to move into greater appreciation of and fidelity to who we are and what we need. Then, we don’t betray ourselves in the next relationship.” Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 120.

“The more clear we get about who we are and what we want in a relationship, the easier it will be for us to be honest with others. That honesty will prevent us from getting involved in relationships with people who are unwilling to respect our experience or to work consciously with the unconscious material that inevitably comes up in a relationship.”  Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 120.

Self-Preservation

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

“To hold joy, we may sometimes have to fight for it, we may have to strengthen ourselves and go full-bore, doing battle in whichever ways deem most shrewd. To prepare for siege, we may have to go without many comforts for the duration. We can go without most things for long periods of time, anything almost, but not our joy, not those handmade red shoes.” page 254

“…It is from a poem by Charles Simic and it is the ultimate instruction to us all: ‘He who cannot howl, will not find the pack.’ If you want to re-summon Wild Women, refuse to be captured. With instincts sharpened for balance-jump anywhere you like, howl at will, take what there is, find out all about it, let your eyes show your feelings, look into everything, see what you can see. Dance in red shoes, but make sure they’re the ones you made by hand. I can promise that you will become one vital women.” page 254

Read the story of The Red Shoes in “Self-preservation” on page 215 of Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

Following Intuition

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

“Clear vision is like a man with a compass; he knows where he is going. Let intuition be your compass and it will always get you out of the woods. Even a man without a compass, led by intuition, would find his way out of the jungle, or be able to steer a ship at sea. Intuition will tell you to walk over the rope. It is amazing how people have overlooked their most important faculty-intuition. Always on man’s pathway is his message or lead. Often our leads seem trivial or silly. A person purely on the intellectual plane would dismiss them at once but the Truth student always has his spiritual ear to the ground, knowing he is receiving orders from the Infinite. The Bible speaks often of “the still small voice.” It is a voice which is not an actual voice, though sometimes actual words are registered on the inner ear.”

“When we ask for guidance and lay aside the reasoning mind we are tapping the Universal supply of all knowledge; anything necessary for you to know will be revealed to you. Some people are naturally intuitive and are always in contact with the Universal Intelligence, but by taking an affirmation we make a conscious contact. Prayer is telephoning to God, and intuition is God telephoning to you. Many people have a “busy wire” when God telephones and they don’t get the message. Your wire is “busy” when you are discouraged, angry, or resentful. You’ve heard the expression “I was so mad I couldn’t see straight.” We might add, “I was so mad I couldn’t hear straight.” Your negative emotions drown out the voice of intuition.

“When you are discouraged, angry, or resentful, is the time to make a statement of Truth, in order to get out of the woods of despair and limitation, for “Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be delivered!” There is a way out- “Reveal to me the way.”

“We must stop planning, plotting and scheming and let Infinite Intelligence solve the problem in Its own way. God-power is subtle, silent and irresistible. It levels mountains and fills in valleys and knows no defeat! Our part is to prepare for our blessings and follow our intuitive leads.”

“We now give Infinite Intelligence right-of-way.”

Florence Scovel Shinn, The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn, Four Complete Books, The Game of Life, The Power of the Spoken Word, Your Word is Your Wand, The Secret of Success, page 337 & 338.

Relationship School

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Photo taken at Yuko-En by Robin Hamon

“You can be sure that God did not create relationship so that we would betray ourselves. Indeed, it is quite the opposite. The purpose of relationship is to insure that we learn to be faithful to ourselves.  One of the paradoxes of relationship as a spiritual path is that we give our power away to others in order to learn to honor ourselves more completely. We become co-dependent with others in order to learn how to have better boundaries. We blame others so that we can learn to be gentle with oursleves and forgive our own mistakes.”

“It is all a set-up. We look for love and happiness through other people only to learn that we can find love and happiness only in our own hearts and minds. That is the recognition in which the ‘We’ is born.”

Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, A Guide To Growth And Happiness For Couples On The Path, page 101

The True Self

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Taken at Yuko-En, The Kentucky - Japan Friendship Garden.

“If you’ve been practicing thought monitoring, erasing your core beliefs and traumas, and making perceptual shifts in order to remove barriers to love that interfere with your relationships, then you have begun to unblock your flow of love. As I’m sure you see by now, this work you’ve been doing not only lifts the stress and conflicts out of your relationship, it also-and necessarily-begins to heal the self.” page 237

“When we begin to see how the promises of the ego are untrustworthy and unworkable, and that they actually cause many of our problems, we begin to break out of its illusion and enter into the realm of the True Self.” page 237

“And once you live in this place, you are living in a spiritual way, and your relationships are increasingly transformed from ego–based to spiritual.” page 238

Henry Grayson, PH.D., Mindful Loving, Ten Practices for creating Deeper Connections.