Have you ever had a fear that you wouldn’t consciously admit, even to yourself?
The most transformational gift for me to accept in 2013 was facing a health challenge that required major surgery. This was the year I learned to say YES to ALL gifts that Life offers at a much deeper level, even those that forced me to face my deepest fear. I learned that I am greater than my fear, that giving is not better than receiving and I have what it takes to meet whatever Life brings me.
Since I was a little girl, I had a very strong anxiety and fear reaction to the idea of any illness that might require a surgery to heal. This mostly subconscious fear created so much resistance that I consistently avoided going to the Doctor to check out physical symptoms.
Except for one visit to the Hana Hospital many years ago, my body has been quite healthy and the need to face that fear did not come up.
That is until the beginning of 2013 when my body, or maybe it was my soul, manifested a health condition that I couldn’t ignore or easily cure without the very intervention I’d spent a lifetime fearing!
All that repressed fear came flooding into my awareness with an overwhelming intensity… sleepless nights had me blindly feeling my way through the deepest experience of fear I’d ever known. One of my darkest nights came when my consciousness was almost completely overcome in fear. I couldn’t find my link to the LIGHT… to my SOUL.
When I finally stopped and faced my fear of SURGERY, I recognized that what I actually feared was death.
When I found my YES to fully feel my fear of death and didn’t run away from it at all, I discovered a light within and connection to my soul so profound that I laughed out loud!!! I suddenly knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is only LIFE and that I have what it takes to metabolize the emotions of what ever Life brings.
All of the pent up energy it took to be in a resistant NO to my fear became available in a surge of creative power and JOY beyond anything I had yet to experience. I found my dazzling YES. Yes to my fear, Yes to all the love and care of my friends and family, Yes to everything. I found the GIFT in a challenge and it has set me free!
But that’s not all!!!!
Like you, I LOVE TO GIVE. It is commonly taught that it is more bless-ed to give than to receive and while giving is certainly a value to embrace, it only represents half of the story. Receiving is also an innate skill that we all had as children, but many of us learned that it is selfish or wrong to enjoy receiving.
Can you relate?
I know now that this a misunderstanding of how Life really works. One of the universal principles of life on Earth is the Principle of Polarity:
•Everything is dual and must include it’s opposite.
•Giving and receiving aren’t really opposites.
•They are part of an energy circuit that is only truly effective when the circle continues and is unbroken.
•It is not possible to give fully and forever without receiving in equal measure.
I came to realize that the imbalance which manifested as illness in my body was the long-term result of being stuck in the Giving Mode too much of the time. By resisting being on the receiving end of Life, I set myself up for being out of balance in my physical, emotional and spiritual being. For the past 9 months, I’ve been practicing the art of intentional receiving at it has been AMAZING. I feel happier and healthier than ever before.
At this sacred time of cycle change in the New Year passage, I invite you to pause and reflect with me.
Consider the high and low lights of your 2013 and really tune into your dazzling YES to all that Life gave. Know that you too have the capacity to live in YES and to metabolize any experience.
CHOOSE to consciously receive your gifts! Find the GIFTS in your challenges and you will experience an illumination of soul and emotional maturity that will set you free!
And may I suggest that you try out my granddaughters Azure’s Christmas morning YES TO THE GIFTS OF LIFE Practice? Stand to face your New Year heart’s desires and pure potential and you will be unstoppable. Just say YES…
AZURE’S YES TO THE GIFTS OF LIFE PRACTICE (see below for instructions!)
•Stand up with legs wide apart
•Fling arms wide open
•Open your heart and put a big smile on your face
•Anticipate the gifts that are coming, even though you can’t ‘see them (Azure knows the presents are there but she can’t actually see them)
•Every time you find your self in a NO space or imbalanced in the output mode, assume this posture. Breath into it until you feel your YES again
*** Variation: Try this practice lying on the floor or in bed -take over the whole bed!
