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Asserting Yourself Equals Greater Balance, Well-Being, Health & Vibrancy
I was tuning in this morning to see what theme was important to support others with and again got that “being true to oneself”, “taking action on the feelings and intuitive guidance you have in support of that truth”, and “boundaries” were speaking out.
I also know that a lot of people have body image challenges and confusion around wellness “idealism” because of a lot of conditioned messages we’re bombarded by (more than you may even realize from all sources around you), which is why I reblogged and added to this older post of mine last week: True or False? I Am Perfect Just As I Am, which only but scratches the surface of some of these things.
(I went on this last weekend to having a really in-depth discussion about even more myths I started cracking that were so freeing when I brought them to light – you’d be surprised at even the seemingly “positive” conditioning that is controlling your life by some other people’s/person’s/collective idea of idealism)
Anyway, these themes all go hand-in-hand and all of them have a common thread of consistent self-assertion being important.
I then decided to go open up a couple of books I have from Shakti Gawain and Louise L. Hay to see what they may want to share on the subject for everyone and what do you know?
They had a couple of things to say on the pages I opened to that went right along with this and that were in line with one another.
So here are just a few words from Shakti and Louise to help you to begin a new dialogue with yourself, open new perspectives, trigger a shift, and inspire you into living a more authentic, healthy, balanced, and empowered life.
From Shakti Gawain:
Assert Yourself Consistently
“The most important key to creating your perfect body is learning to assert yourself consistently in your life. For example, overweight people may have a pattern of doubting themselves, of being afraid to trust their feelings and act on them. We especially need to learn how to say no to others when we don’t want to do something. Overweight people often try to please and take care of others. When our first priority is to please and take care of others, we are denying who we really are and what we really feel. When we are afraid to be true to ourselves, our bodies will always serve us by reflecting those fears, so we can become conscious of them and heal them.”
Take Action
“The key to asserting yourself is to take action on your feeling and intuition. I have seen people begin to lose weight or become physically healthier simply by doing something they’ve been afraid to do, or by expressing some feeling they’ve suppressed. By becoming more assertive, underweight people become more willing to take up space in the world. By continuing to speak and act your truth, you will dissolve blocks and find your proper weight.”
Risk Asserting Yourself
“At first the prospect of asserting yourself moment to moment can be frightening. We are not used to stating what we need and taking the action necessary to give it to ourselves. It takes a conscious effort for us to tune in to how we feel and to risk doing it. But once you start, you’ll want to keep doing it. You will have more energy and look more radiant.”
Balancing weight easily and naturally
“Once overweight people learn true assertion, they are often able to lose weight easily and naturally, without any type of deprivation. The increased energy circulating in their bodies dissolves the blocked energy and the extra weight gradually melts away. They do not need it for strength or protection so they release it effortlessly. By the same process of assertion, underweight people release their fear and are able to take in more life and more nourishment. It becomes safe for them to take up more space. If any particular food plan is needed, they will be intuitively led to an appropriate nutritional consultant and diet.”
From Louise L. Hay:
“We need to do more than just treat the symptom. We need to eliminate the cause of the dis-ease. We need to go within ourselves where the process of illness began.
Listen to your body’s messages.
The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of your inner thoughts and beliefs. Every cell responds to every single thought you think and every word you speak. (My personal note: And might I add, and EVERYTHING that you FEEL)
Good health is having no fatigue, having a good appetite, going to sleep and awakening easily, having a good memory, having good humor, having precision in thought and action, and being honest, humble, grateful and loving. How healthy are you?
Only accept what is best for you.
Some people don’t know how to say ‘no.’ The only way they know how to say ‘no,’ is to be ill.
If I threw a hot potato at you, what would you do with it? Would you catch it? Would you hold it while it was burning your hand? Why would you even catch it? Why don’t you just step out of the way? It is possible to refuse anything, even a gift. Are you aware of that?”
Increase Your Aliveness & Unblock The Flow By Naturally Engaging Change
Change is always happening, even if you’re not aware of it.
It occurs naturally and so change is not something you engage by force.
It happens when you embrace conscious awareness of the things not working in your life and become willing to let it go.
Then allow things to change in their own naturally aligned timing, as you take the steps forward in the supportive direction of the change.
Step out of the need for ego to run the show, and allow your higher self to guide the way.
Instead, engage ego in asserting yourself consistently to take actions that support your heart guidance and intuition.
Relax into patient alignment and then you’ll flow by following the cues, rather than draining yourself energetically “trying” to make things happen.
If you block or try to control the flow of energy in any way that’s when you experience less vitality and feel depleted of energy.
This not only ages us, but creates chronic physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy blocks that wear us down and create more challenges.
To increase aliveness, while nurturing and cultivating the changes in your life, it’s key to trust yourself and listen for the truth that lies within you.
Each and every time you doubt that, you experience less and less of a vibrant life and less magickal synchronicity.
When you allow energy to move through you with flow by trusting, listening, supporting, and following your intuition, you create greater overall well-being and draw in more aligned experiences, less challenge, and more dynamic energy that constantly renews itself with greater invigoration.
~Inspired this morning by something I read from Shakti Gawain
Living in Harmony with the Universe
Today’s daily thought and affirmation from “Reflections in the Light” by Shakti Gawain:
Living in harmony with the universe
Although letting go of the world may seem difficult at times, it is well worth whatever it takes to make the transition into the new world. We are now learning to live in accordance with the true laws of the universe. Living in harmony with the universe is living full of joy, power, love, and abundance.
I am living in harmony with the universe.
Caring Spirit
Daily Thought from Shakti Gawain’s Reflections in the Light: Daily Thoughts and Affirmations:
~ The spirit of giving ~
Take a few minutes to reflect on how you give of yourself to the world. Often we get caught up in the frenzy of buying and giving things. Look at the ways you give appreciation, friendship, energy, time, love, and affection, and give of your special talents and abilities throughout the year. Acknowledge yourself for having enriched the lives of others. Spend some time loving yourself for the giving light that you are.
I honor myself for all that I give.
The Enchantment of Your Own Divinity
Today’s Daily Thought from Shakti Gawain’s Reflections in the Light: Daily Thoughts and Affirmations:
Your Own Divinity
In the stillness of meditation be with your own divinity. Pause and quietly rejoice in the feeling of oneness with the universe. At some point in your life’s path you became aware that there is more to life than what you perceive with your physical senses alone. At that moment your own spirituality was born in you.
I celebrate the birth of my spirituality.
May you fully reclaim the purity and wonder that you are innately and may you come to consciously embody the joyous and miraculous spirit of creative love endowed upon you.
And if the bell doesn’t ring for you anymore, perhaps today can be your day to listen a little bit more and to invite imagination into your heart once again.
In the spirit of enchantment and wonder, I hope you enjoy last year’s Christmas post, “Believe”.
You Complete You
When you truly give up trying to be whole through others, you end up receiving what you always wanted from others. ~Shakti Gawain
Do you find yourself looking for someone or something to complete you and never feel that you can be happy until you have that perfect partner, friend, job, or thing?
Or do you find yourself content and fulfilled whether on your own or not, or in any given situation?
So many of us have spent a good portion of our lives looking for these puzzle pieces to a puzzle that never was missing a piece to begin with.
You are already capable of being whole in the here and now, as you already are, but simply forgot.
Be the love you seek. Be the joy you desire. Be the peace you crave. Be the wholeness you are looking for.
Yes, we’ve heard it all before…self-love is key to fulfilling relationships and experiences. And yet many of us still keep searching….
Expecting love from others is setting yourself up for disappointment. Expectations of any sort create disappointment.
And, you’ll always attract people and things that reflect something to help remind you of your wholeness – person or thing, or not.
When you can love yourself enough to hold your own light AND darkness, then you can do the same for others and you come to a point of being able to extend radical compassion to everyone you encounter and relate with, especially yourself.
If you empower others with being the source of your needs, desires, and fulfillment, then you will never get anywhere, as humans are fallible and each has their own experiences to go through. So you end up choosing to be in whatever state they are in, rather than choosing your own.
It is your responsibility to be responsible about your life. When you displace power to others to be your source for anything or everything, it becomes easy to place blame elsewhere or find excuses and scapegoats for embracing your own growth.
If you give someone that kind of power over you, who really is responsible for that?
Relationships are powerful growth facilitators, but the key is in continuing to develop your own individuality, independence, and sense of self during the process of relating, learning, and loving. Your personal growth never ceases to be important and it isn’t just for yourself that you do this, but for the greater good, as well as the beauty and grace of your relationships with others.
Cultivating and nurturing your own passions, having some alone time, and time with friends outside of your relationship, really enhances the relationship. When you complete you, you’re in for a truly amazing union with another, as then you are purely there to enjoy each other and in so doing, enhance the quality of the companion you’ve attracted (or will attract) and the time and/or life you share with them. You can shift things instantly within your current relationship as well, the minute you start pointing the power back to yourself and being your own source.
And, when you stop trying to heal and “fix” others, which really is a subconscious cry to heal yourself, you will also start creating things you want more rapidly and come to experience greater and enduring quality of life because you are healing the source, rather than a reflection of it – efficiency and effectiveness at its best.
Since we attract reflections of ourselves in others, as you complete you, the people you attract will start reflecting more of what you always hoped for because you no longer displace your power and now walk in the grace of those things yourself.
Life is a Journey of Evolving Consciousness
“Life is fundamentally a journey of consciousness, a journey of growing awareness.”
Bridge across Campbell Creek Trail in Anchorage, Alaska
“… consciousness is an ever-unfolding, deepening, and expanding process with no end point. We are infinite and complex beings, and our human journey involves not just a spiritual awakening, but the development of all levels of our being – spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical – and the integration of all these aspects into a healthy and balanced daily life.”
Talkeetna, Alaska
Loving and Living “Your” Truth – Taking the Steps to Creating the Life You Want
This post feels especially important right now to reshare, given what I’m picking up in the collective energetic field. As many of you are embracing new shifts in your life and focusing on your joys, passions, and dreams, it can bring up a lot of voices and create an inner conflict between what you know you want to do, and what you have learned to do. Real security is only found in your heart. Nothing else will ever provide that. Taking steps is more important than arriving anywhere, as your life will always be constantly evolving and building upon the steps taken. As you journey more into living from your truth and supporting what that means to you, may you be inspired to keep reaching deeper into the well of your heart that has unlimited gifts to bestow upon you.
The Alchemy of Responsible Reflection
I have been feeling prompted to repost this blog for the last few days, given what I’m picking up on and hearing in the collective field of experience. So as always, I’m listening to that nudge and sharing this again. Perhaps it will speak to you in some way needed, or will be the little reminder or click that aligns with current experiences. Wishing you clarity and balance in your relationships with self, others, and your experiences at large.
Sea Lion Wisdom – Balancing Inner & Outer to Reveal the Truth & Beauty of You
I love when nature reflects messages to me and especially love when it comes in the form of an animal spirit guide. I cherish my time outdoors connecting with our dear Gaia (Mother Earth) and am grateful for the blessings she is always so generous in gifting.
I see many animals always and sometimes they are reflecting a magical moment, confirmation of something that I just was thinking about or asking, reflecting what I’m currently focused on or moving into, or are providing guiding wisdom for things currently in my life.
After an 8-mile hike, which I enjoyed once again in my flip flops – the best way to go for me these days – we made our way to the beach for a picnic lunch, reading, and napping. I usually see a lot of interesting things at my favorite beach, Crystal Cove, and today I was instantly greeted, as I 
approached the water’s edge, by a large male California Sea Lion. He was not more than 20 feet away swimming and playing in the waves and following me as I walked the same direction. It was really a sweet experience.
Of course I wondered about his appearance and while I knew some basics about Sea Lion symbolism, I wanted to delve into it further, so I started doing some researching and came upon some info that I thought I’d share, as I know people not only have similar experiences, but they may come up in dreams, thoughts, or be an animal totem for you. I also felt that the Sea Lion medicine was particularly timely and relevant to things collectively and even in terms of my post yesterday on intuition and the importance of listening to that inner guidance.
Sea Lion wisdom includes such things as creativity, protection during change, lucid dreaming, movement through emotions, and the inner voice. They are symbols of abundance in many Northwest Coast tribes and in some Nuu-chah-nulth tribes, Sea-Lion plays the mythologically important role of Earthdiver, bringing mud from the bottom of the ocean for Raven to use to create the earth.
The new info I found was in Ina Woolcott’s piece “Seal, Sea Lion, Power Animal Symbol of The Inner Voice” of ShamanicJourney.com, which was particularly interesting to me. Here is what she shares, alongside the same wisdom I already mentioned above:
Seals spend much of their lives in the sea, but they give birth on land. This shows us that there are 2 necessary things that help fulfill our dreams and visions. These are formed deep within us, and are nurtured through the power of our ability to envision them using all our senses. They are most easily made ‘real’ by us when we implement practical and material acts. A lot of the time when us humans are ‘creating’ something, the feeling side of things is absent.
During the mating season, males can partake in extremely savage battles one minute and be playful and amusing the next. Seals have the agility to move from anger to complete calm.
Seals are (obviously) sea mammals, and are highly symbolic of our feeling, sensual selves. The seal helps us to remember our connection to our deep inner rhythms, feelings, and knowing, as represented by the sea. As humans generally believe themselves to be apart from ‘animals’, when really we are a-part of them, we often fight giving in to these deep rhythms and are afraid of ‘losing’ what we consider to be ourselves. When we are afraid of drowning in these depths, Seal being a good swimmer and knowing how to flow with the ever changing current, reminds us how to swim with the current. When we do this the negative feelings we have created such as worry, fear and anxiety are released from our minds. If seal enters your life, you are being asked to review the ebb and flow of your thoughts and emotions and find and keep up a point of balance.
Water is a creative element and symbolizes the feminine imagination and intuition. If the seal appears in your life, pay close attention to your imagination and insight – in the waking state and in dreamtime. A lot of what you imagine generally has a strong basis in reality, no matter how far-off it may seem. People with seal as a power animal are generally highly imaginative and very creative. They will need activities that channel and direct this. The Seal/Sea Lion can show you how to develop and focus your imagination.
Rather than having external ears, seals have small openings. This shows their deep affinity with their inner voice, and can show you how to listen to your inner self, balance your life to it. Your dreams will become more vivid and significant.
Seals swim both below and above water, giving them the ability to experience both the inner and outer worlds.
They teach those with this totem how to flow, how to hear, and how to discover the deeper mysteries of their true nature. Seals are keepers of wisdom. They reveal to us what is hidden deep within ourselves, and teach us how to integrate our imagination with the reasoning power of the intellect. This will give balance and harmony on all levels.
The seal which is so sleek and gorgeous in the water, teaches us how to feel at home in our bodies, and to uncover our inner beauty.
I LOVE Sea Lion’s message and I feel that he was definitely another added nod to yesterday’s post and provided a fluid continuum to the theme of honoring that voice within, the importance of staying balanced so that you can sustain clarity, the importance of flowing and not attaching to any emotions and things, embracing cycles and swimming with the currents of life, be willing to courageously explore the depths of experience and your creative expression, and trusting the feelings and visions you receive.
All answers lie within your beautiful heart and will be reflected for you – As within, so without – As above, so below.