The Energy of Life

At times my life has read like a struggle for survival, as have many lives. The challenges in my life have included loneliness, betrayal and rejection by many I held most dear. As I lived through these events, I developed strength, courage and love. With courage I faced my fears. With strength I remained true to myself. With love I experienced renewal.

As an incest survivor, I know a lot about control, abuse of power and fear. The person who abused me, and the people who allowed it to continue, were all people with lives veiled in fear. Over time, as I healed, it became difficult to hate these people although the injuries I experienced at their hands altered my life and personality forever. Why is it I don’t hate these people? Moreover why is it that I send love to them?

What I came to learn through my healing process is that all our experiences contribute to the totality of our spirit and consciousness. It is ‘I” who make the difference in how experiences shape my life. No person or event has the power to choose how I create my life. No injury can stop me from realizing my potential. The only person who can stop me from realizing my potential is me.

The path to success for me lay in forgiveness. Forgiveness led me to compassion for my victimizers and the darkness in their hearts. Compassion taught me that it is only when all people are whole and complete will humanity live in peace and prosperity.

I have met many people who define their lives with a victim mentality, consciously or unconsciously. The position of victim is power-less. You cannot create a prosperous life from a victim position. The lie about “they did it to me” is really a mask for fear that says “Am I valid? Do I matter? Can I believe in myself?” The “victim” is afraid that the lie is true. Victims stay entrenched in the illusion of comfort and connection, even when the comfort or connection is empty and painful.

From childhood, I was blessed to know there was more to life than what I saw, touched, tasted or smelled. I held on to my center tightly. Even when no one else would tell me I mattered, somehow I knew I did matter, and that one day my value would be reflected back to me.

Through all my trials and tribulations I listened to my inner voice, my conscience, my connection to Source. I learned that it was the noise of life, that most often contributed to my errors in judgment. So, I learned how to center myself. I learned how to tell the difference between a truth and a lie. Our bodies are natural lie detectors, if we will listen. More accurately, our bodies our truth detectors. They practically humm and buzz when truth is spoken. We feel peaceful when truth is present. Too often we turn away from the inconvenience of truth. We must always embrace truth without judgment.

If we want to create a free flowing relationship with Source, we have to move away from the concepts of good, bad, better, worse. The events, relationships and circumstances we experience must be viewed neutrally. When neutrality cannot be gained, we must practice the art of “re-framing.” We must frame every experience in such a way that we garner a positive position about our circumstance. In truth it is an energy game. We must actively participate in managing the energy of life. If we judge energy, we create filters through which we must try to receive, or through which our contributions must navigate to reach manifestation. Energy like truth is just “what it is.” The ability to embrace that reality empowers each of us to create the landscape of our lives.

People may ask me “how can you say incest is positive?” Incest, as a stand alone act, is not positive. I chose to frame my reactions to it in a way that caused me to become a better person and a stronger person owing to the experience. I developed aspects of myself I might not have ever considered. My choice was to remain open rather closed. I chose to believe in self, rather than disbelieve. I chose to believe there is more to life than the physical. My consciousness expanded. My heart expanded. I came to know that only those in pain hurt others. But further I learned that if I could contribute to the healing of any other being I am doing a service to myself and humanity.

My answer to all my dilemmas in life is to expand my awareness, my love, my compassion, my strength, and to spread it in as many directions as possible, including the direction of those who have caused me the greatest injury.

As I have become accomplished at re-framing and giving, the joy in my life has increased exponentially. I feel connected to a life purpose. I have a knowing-ness that I am living the life I am meant to live. There is no question I am fulfilling my potential. If I were to break it down, my formula for personal success lay in the following seven steps:

1. Belief in self, no matter what. You matter. Your unique opinion and ideas are vital our planet. You have a contribution to make that no other person can make. It is not more important than any other contribution. Yet without your unique stamp, humanity will not fully prosper.

2. Learn to listen to self and to what is not said – Learn to turn down the noise of life so that you can hear your guidance, your truth and the insights that come to us through the grace of synchronicity.

3. Honor and protect the truth – This is all we have as spirit in the physical body. It is the key to establishing your relationship to Source and to finding your life’s purpose.

4. Embrace forgiveness – It’s an energy game. To keep your energy clean and open release painful experiences, and clear the way for those who have injured you to find the light in their own lives.

5. Move away from a judgment mentality - Judgment is an impediment to spiritual growth. Re-frame experiences to keep yourself in a position of power. Judgments impede our ability to give and our ability to receive.

6. Spread love and generosity of spirit without pause. The ability to send loving vibrations out to all people at all times is a gift to you, and to the planet. Once you connect to your purpose, you earn the responsibility and the blessed joy of contributing to the evolution of humanity. It is a gift to give.

7. Enjoy your life – Life is work and challenge, but is also to be treasured and enjoyed. This is the ultimate act of appreciation to Source for your life. Just as an artist creates a stunning work of art for humanity to appreciate, as we enjoy our life, our work of art, Source receives joy from the positive expression of our experience.