Posts Tagged 'Healing'

Driving through the Iowa countryside last fall, I experienced a moment of awakening around the subject of self-concept.  I had been thinking about how self-concept limits us, how many of my clients work so hard to release and come to terms with the false self-concepts they adopted in childhood (all of which boil down to believing you are unworthy). On this day, I wasn’t thinking directly on the subject of self-concept; I was simply enjoying my drive, staring at the fall asters along the highway, noticing the beauty of pink, yellow and purple mixed together, when suddenly, I literally saw something I had not been able to see for three years–
 
Why was this astounding?  For three years, since I arrived in Iowa, I have held the belief that there are no hills in Iowa.  I’ve spent most of my life living in the mountains—the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts.  At my first party in Iowa, people were talking about how wonderful it was to drive into Iowa and see the hills.  I laughed, “There are no hills here!”  I felt so certain.  I knew for sure that there are no hills here.  I even took time to tell my friends back in Massachusetts how funny it was that people here talked about the hills.  I had a concept for sure.  Not a self-concept, but a concept about the landscape in Iowa.
 
On this day, as I enjoyed the beauty of the flowers while listening to an inspirational CD, in a split-second I saw the hills!  I had driven on this stretch of highway many times without seeing any hills at all.  Now, there they were!  I screamed aloud to myself.  “I see the hills!”
 
Not only did I see them, I felt a shift take place in my perception.  I felt a belief drop away, a concept that I had ‘known for certain’ was suddenly gone.  The hills appeared.
 
I was reminded in that moment of the scene in What the Bleep Do We Know where the shaman looks out at the ocean but does not see the large ships approaching because he doesn’t ‘know’ what ships are. The ships are literally invisible to him because his mind does not have a concept for ships.  He sees the waves, however, so as he keeps staring, eventually the ships appear to him.  Before they appear, however, he must find a way to realize within his consciousness that ships are a possibility.  (Contemplating the waves does this for him.)
 
Because I held a concept of what hills look like (my visual cortex had known hills to be only a certain size) I literally could not see the hills in Iowa (until I did!)  As the quantum physicists and the mystics alike teach us:  We see what we believe is possible.
 
Going back to the topic of self-concept.  When we are ‘told’ in childhood that something about us is not quite right:  i.e. too sensitive; too fat; not smart enough; not pretty enough; or when an abusive experience happens that creates the belief that we are unlovable and unworthy, then, this self-concept, which is composed of false beliefs about yourself, is fixed within you and you literally cannot see yourself in any other way.  Have you ever known a person who could not receive a compliment?  (Perhaps it's you!)  That is because they hold onto a  self-concept opposing the compliment.  It quite literally cannot be received.
 
How do you know you are trapped in a self-concept that is not who you really are?  Where in you’re life is your self-concept limiting your enjoyment, vitality, creativity?  I’ll discuss this in Part 2 of Self-Concept & Self-Love.  In the mean time, contemplate your answer, and if you haven’t yet watched What the Bleep Do We Know I highly recommend it as an educational tool.
 
Have a great day!
Nancy

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Today, the most important thing the Earth reminds me of is the perfection of life.  The five bluebirds sit on the telephone wire, perfectly.  They fly up a few inches, trade positions, like a game of musical chairs, perfectly.  The black cows rest under the shade trees, some lying, some standing, all still, perfectly.  The meadow comes to life this spring, dry grasses from last year amid the new green ones, a perfect mixture for the wind.  The petals of each flower; the shape of each tree; the juxtaposition of hillside, stream, meadow and oak groves; all perfect.

Even where humans have altered nature, if you look closely, you can see the perfection.  The wild mustard flowers, their shade of yellow-green is the perfect shade for that particular flower.  How could it be otherwise?

Early this morning, before the night fog lifted, a hawk flew low from limb to limb, watching me walk my dog, Horton, through our neighborhood.  I asked the hawk, “What are you doing here?”  He said, “Watching over you.”  I said, “thank you.”

If you learn nothing else from the earth this year, learn to see the perfection that she teaches.  Then, learn to see the perfection of your own life, for you are part of nature.  And from this, you will gradually begin to stop thinking there’s something wrong with you, with your moment, with your life.

copyright 2010 Nancy Swisher

I love putting these two words together because I don’t think they are often associated.  In reality, you can’t have one without the other.

What is self-love? The foundation of self-love is the realization that you are love.  You live a life of self-love when you identify with your spirit, with the non-physical Being that you are.  When you really know that you are a spiritual being having a human experience, you become committed to mastering the tools of self-love that help to release your conditioned mind, all those beliefs and feelings that block your experience of the love that you are.

What is success?  I prefer to use Deepak Chopra’s definition.  It’s a good one: “The continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.”

There are no right goals or wrong goals.  Worthy goals are those that bubble up from within you that bring you a sense of joy when you imagine them.

If you do not give yourself the time and space to go inside, to touch the Being that you are, to feel your unique energetic vibration and frequency—if you are always on the go and seeking the next accomplishment while ignoring your Being, your success will not bring you happiness.

Soul-aligned success can only be accomplished by learning to love you. The worthy goals are those that outform your heart’s desire, your soul’s-purpose.

You can work hard and make lots of money and have all the things that make the world label you as a success.  And there is nothing wrong with wonderful things.  But the new paradigm of success that is being birthed in the world now—success that comes from soul-alignment—cannot come to fruition without the practice of self-love.

How does one practice self-love?  That is a much bigger question than I can answer here, but the most important starting place and the #1 practice is this: Stillness.

If you want to learn to master 15 self-love practices check out my 9 week Choosing Self-Love Tele-class Intensive at http://tinyurl.com/mlu8r5

www.choosingselflove.com