The Sneakiness of Self-Deception

It is a very sneaky creature. Self-deception used to have its way with me. But once I caught on to its ploys, it methods and its slyness I learned to confront it and chase it out of my path. I stopped cheating myself, stopped fooling myself and stopped playing the game of self-deception.

Self-deception can hide you away. It can keep you from shining your inner light. It creates excuses for you to not take risks, to not change, to not dig deep. It also keeps you from living in your integrity as well. Oh, so sneaky it is! It wears a mask! It covers its ugliness behind big excuses and justifications.  It gives you all the reasons, the rationalizations and the validations to not BE, DO, TRY, or EXPLORE!

Self-deception, if fed and nurtured, coddled and sought, will train you to become a master at rationalization. It will stroke you for all your justifying and curl up in your lap for every challenge you excuse away instead of taking on or at the least facing. The face of self-deception smiles at your arguments that you know, deep down inside, are just excuses.

With time you begin to realize that the longer the story is around your excuse, the more layers and details you have used to support it. This means then the further self-deception is taking you from your truth. Cheating yourself from your authenticity, from being your truest self is a non-fulfilling act.  Living a life where you do NOT hide away from being, even if it is less than perfect, a little scary or at a slower pace, leads you to a life of empowerment and beauty. You are filled with a presence that escalates your expansion and growth.

What is self-deception keeping you from in your life? What wonders are you making rationalizations for so that you are not stretching to reach for them? What excuses are you feeding that are holding you back and keeping you small? What one justification can you let go of today so you can shine just a bit brighter and live a bit truer?

Blessings, Lisa

Living With Heart and Soul

I have come to believe that the heart and soul are the wisest parts of my being. In my youth and then later into my adulthood my learning skills, my academic achievements and my knowledge base were aspects that gained me applause and I shined brightly. But over time I have learned that what I rely on more fully than any book knowledge, what I turn to consistently for guidance and resource, and the place that I find the richest source of my wisdom is my heart and soul. Never do they fail me.

They are alive. They are filled with light. Just as the Universe is. The Universe is not about intellect, it is about energy and experience and flow. While knowledge is a valuable thing, it can and will fail us. But the energies of our heart and soul don't. We just have to gain practice in turning to them, being present with them, practicing life with their energies and bringing them into our presence.

When I am living with heart I am living within the love aspect of my soul. It is a very different and essential level of my being. My intuition awakens, my focus is direct. Living with soul love is not based on an emotional love. This soul level is a much higher vibration. It is a finely tuned energy that allows me to grasp the essence of someone. And it is done without my projecting any of my feelings or beliefs onto the situation. It is clean, pure, vibrant and alive. And it is impersonal. Don't confuse that with cold or uncaring. But instead it is so deep and present that my "story" remains outside of the equation and the focus is only on the other person or the situation at hand.

How have I learned to live with heart and soul? Mainly through appreciation. This act is a big turn on for the heart and soul. Why? Because it is based on a choice, a conscious choice to live with your soul present as opposed to living with emotional responses to life. We call it forth. We put intention into it. We choose to be appreciative of life, wonders, relationships, miracles, beauty, lessons, pain, and more. Our appreciation muscle needs a daily workout to get stronger and stronger. Eventually, living a life full of appreciation becomes easier and grace filled. When we live this way our heart and soul flow with love and wisdom. We learn to listen differently, to check in more often and to see with expansion. Living with heart and soul opens us up to the energies of the Universe, to the vibrations of love and beauty and everything shifts from there.

Blessings, Lisa

The Detachment Factor

So how detached are you? I don't mean distant, cold or uncaring. I mean how well contained you are. How good you are at boundary setting. And how present you are.

This skill took some time for me to develop. My emotions and feelings would get the better of me. Contrary to what was in my heart, the desire to help someone and show compassion, I would get wrapped up in the drama of the emotions, pulled into the feelings and actually become far less present in the situation. That is because when I allow my ego to drag me into the emotions and feelings of a situation I am contemplating on my stories of the past or my projections for the future. I am anything but present.

It seems that the more and more I chose to live in the present, my perspective shifted and became more and more impersonal. AND that was a good thing. To be effective as a shaman, a healer, a teacher and a woman in service to others, this skill needed to be honed.

Learning this detachment factor allowed me the grace to not get hooked by others feelings or emotions; necessary for the work I do. I could still maintain my compassion for others, but have clarity on what I could offer, what work needed to be done and how I would be present in the situation.

It also eliminated the need for me to have others in my life be a certain way for me to get on with my day. This detachment factor was huge! If someone was angry, frustrated or down in the dumps, I learned that I did not need to react or have it impact my day negatively. I just moved around it, took the detachment detour and got on with my day. I certainly could understand their feelings, their situation, but it did not become a part of me.

Actually, I was better able to understand what was happening to them. I could see it more clearly. My understanding expanded and so my services were more and more spot on, direct and effective. Being objective does not mean being uncaring. It actually affords you the distance and viewpoints to care in the best possible way, not a reactionary way.

Detachment keeps me clean. I don't pick up the energies of those I am working with. I also don't mistakenly place my intentions upon others, even the best of intentions. It allows my heart energies to be of love, not of expectation. It allows my soul to bring its beauty and essence to the equation without old stories or labels. It allows the situation to unfold in truth instead of confusion. Bringing detachment to my day gives me so much more room to be present, in tune with Source, in alignment with my truth and authentic.

Blessings, Lisa

Sabotage

Sabotage exists. There are those who are the victims and those who are the saboteurs. But what if we are both. We can be our very own saboteur. We may be practicing certain behaviors that are setting ourselves up for failure or keeping us small, locked in and shut down.

We all have great potential in life. Most of this potential involves change. But for many change is the very thing that makes them cringe, though they may be quite unhappy and dissatisfied with the life they are living and the relationships within in it. But the minute they explore the possibilities that are within change, they begin to find the need to run, to justify or blame.

It is natural for us to want to escape pain or fear. To experience a new way of being, to take a risk, to step into the unknown is very unsettling. For some, so much so, that they unconsciously will shield themselves from it. They will create scenarios that will prevent them from having to be in the change.

Part of our defense mechanisms that often trigger our saboteur to step into action are fear, anxiety, frustration, lack of motivation, anger or dismissive behavior. These feelings can often be the perfect trigger to pull us away from potential change, to keep us from exploring possibilities or to prevent us from facing what is the next step in our evolution. Part of us longs to remain in the safe zone, the familiar places and the expected outcomes. Even when we know that they will not satisfy us or bring us happiness.

Playing it safe can prevent us from moving onward into the life that is designed for us. It can keep us small. It can keep us silent. It can prevent us from taking a part in the wonders and miracles that await us. The unfamiliar is often filled with many gifts and lessons and we prevent ourselves from experiencing them and embracing them because it will mean taking an unfamiliar step, doing something new or acting differently than we usually do. We allow the fear and anxiety to block us in. We create our own prison.

Change is part of life, we can only escape it for so long. Nothing is permanent, so everything, including your fear or failure will be only temporary. The same with your success. That is why we are created to be continuously evolving, learning and growing.

The more and more we worry about tomorrow or create a story about what could happen, the more we sabotage our self. We need to instead build upon all possibilities, not just the ones we fear the most. And in doing so we begin to see the places in which we can take action and move forward.

We cannot force things to happen or not happen, there is a much bigger energy beyond us that plays into the outcome of our lives. But we can be present and open. We can stop expending our energies into making something not happen and instead put it into making things shift and become alive. It takes practice, it takes courage, and it takes patience and flexibility. But in the end you become your biggest contributor and supporter of the life intended for you instead of your saboteur.

Blessings, Lisa