Monday, October 25, 2010

The Art of Love

Some of you know of my new adventures in being a doggie mom, but I wanted to share a little bit with you all. I went from having the perfect dog- my dog Gracie who was an angel in disguise as a dog- to having dogs that are flawed. Gasp! :) Through the process of loving these two rascals, I feel like a better person, so I thought I would share a little bit of the adventure. What it has truly come down to is love. Learning how to share love with animals who have been abused can only help me love my clients and all of human kind a little better. There is an art to love. I have had to be creative in how to share love, how to approach with love, and how to see love being returned to me in odd ways. I know that we have all applied our creativity to loving someone, whether it be a child who is pushing our boundaries, whether it be a person that we are deeply connected to who has blocks and barriers to love, whether it be an animal who pulls at our heartstrings, or whether it is something about ourselves that we wish we could change, we all have worked to perfect our art of love. For me, lately, my art has led me on a path to love through my new dogs.

I'll start with Cosette, who is now 2 years old. She came to me through the pound when she was 3 months old. She actually called to me from the heavens and I knew I needed to go to the pound and then she screamed and squealed at me through the bars until I brought her home. People gave me pitying looks as I went to get her. She is high strung, to say the least, and yet she was immediately accepted by Gracie, so I knew she had to stay. Holy crap, though, she was tough. Chewed her way and bit her way through the first year, running and playing like a maniac until she would pass out and then running an playing some more. Slowly, she let me in to her wild and wacky world.She would sit at my feet and give me what I can only describe as a shit eating grin. Are there laws to swearing in blog land? I hope not. I could feel that she felt like the little orphan Annie winding up in some kind of doggie heaven. She let me love on her in fits and starts, and tried to block love through her hyper behavior. Her behavior gradually settled as she could see that she was accepted by the pack and that she was staying. Now, I would still describe her as high strung, but she loves to be loved on and will sit and be petted for as long as you can pet her.

Crazy dog #2 came in the form of Bella, who entered my life a couple of months after Gracie died. Cosette mourned Gracie so deeply, I felt like I owed it to her to find a friend. I was called in a deep way to search for a companion for Cosette, and "randomly" found Bella on the internet. Her little cute face made me drive across town to bring her home. Here is where the true adventure to love begins.

When I brought Bella home, I felt very drawn to her, but I was not convinced she was my forever dog. I felt like I was meant to love on her, but I might need to find her a new home. This was continually confirmed by Cosette, who loved Bella at the Humane Society, but who immediately took a dislike to her when I brought her home. I could feel Cosette mourning Gracie and taking it out on Bella by playing really rough with her. I was a constant referee. Bella was protective of her food, water, toys, and bones and growled quite a bit. She was a bully with Cosette. Bitchiness abounded at my house. It was stressful, but I just kept setting boundaries and loving on both dogs. I could tell Bella had been really abused and starved, but I didn't want to have Cosette lose her place or be bullied. I was just thinking of finding Bella a home when she came down with the non-contagious form of the mange. I needed to get her healthy and love on her some more. Then, she sprained her knee from her weakness with the mange. She was a mess, and it really opened my heart to her and her plight. Abused, bad-assed, and sick, I felt like she needed love more than most. Cosette softened to her as she healed we have found a balance for now. Bella really helped Cosette and I mourn Gracie and open our hearts to a new dog friend. She makes it hard to love her sometimes still, but she is softening and losing her bullying front.

Through this whole process, I have had to be creative with love. I continue to learn when to apply tough love, when to be soft, when to love at a distance, and when to be extra present. It has been a journey and continues to be a journey. We all must find ways to be creative with love and to find the balance of love within ourselves and around us. How do we love ourselves on days that are challenging? Do we get tough with ourselves, or do we need softness and nurturing? How do we love our children when they are pushing our buttons? Do they need boundaries, or do they just need to assert themselves for a moment? How do we love our partner when he makes us mad? Do we need him to understand us, or do we need to listen to his needs? The art of love comes into our lives multiple times a day and if we keep our hearts open and aware we can be masters in this art form. Many blessing to you all.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Living in Divine Truth

The affirmation, "I am Divine truth," is on my mind today. What exactly does that mean? Here's what it means for me. When I spend time and sit with my divinity, I feel a vast ocean of wisdom and support within me and surrounding me. There is a feeling of deep peace and tranquility and my mind stops whirling around all of the issues that I am facing in my life. I call this true surrender; I am surrendering to what is always there within me and around me. I can sit and find this truth no matter what is going on in my life. If there are more challenging circumstances in my life, it might be harder for me to access this ocean, it might be harder for me to still my mind, but the ocean is always there. This is divine truth.

I realize that I am lucky that I can still my mind and find this space relatively easily, although it took a lot of practice and focused intention to get to this place. I was actually a very intensely mental person in my earlier life and I never could get out of my head. I knew there was divinity in there, I just had a hard time accessing it. For me, the breakthrough that really got me into a deep space of divinity was learning yoga. Though I don't practice it much any more, it really helped me get out of my head.

A lot of people that I work with find challenges getting in touch with the divine within as well. It takes practice and it also takes finding what works for you. I recommend finding an activity that helps you "lose your mind."  For some people that would be running or biking or walking or yoga, for some people it would be knitting or cooking or cleaning (if it is cleaning you are welcome to come over to my house!), for some it would be drawing or painting or playing the guitar; we all have different way of getting out of our focused thinking. Practice whatever activity helps you get out of your head daily and ask for divine assistance in feeling and experiencing and knowing divine truth. You will start to connect more with your inner divinity and the truth will be revealed over time. The more you practice surrender, the more surrender will be natural to you.

Many blessings on your path to consciously living in divine truth. You will love being able to access a vast ocean of divinity more and more in your life. When you connect with divine truth, you will find life to be more fluid and gentle and more meaningful.

If you need help on this path, let me know. Love and Light, Liz

Sunday, October 10, 2010

10-10-10- Divine Balance

I love direct symbols of divine balance, and today being 10/10/10 is one of those days. I love numbers, though I know very little about numerology and I especially love when numbers are in balance. Today and every day we can honor divine balance within us and around us. Many blessings to everyone on this beautifully balanced day!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Empowering our Divine Self

I was reading through an old journal of mine from years ago and I wrote that I thought the biggest challenge in life is identifying who we truly are and then living from that true self regardless of what other people might think of us for doing so. After years of practicing intuitive life coaching, I would still agree with this. We all have "quirks" or differences on how we perceive life.These differences are the divine's way of balancing life by allowing us all to be unique. Often, instead of embracing these quirks, we try to conform to how we think other people perceive life or how we have been taught we "should" perceive life. We have been conforming every year we have been here on the planet. Sometimes the conforming is small, and sometimes it is big, but each time we conform we lose a piece of ourselves.

What would happen if we all loved and honored who we are and embraced and honored everyone for who they are? Some might say there would be complete chaos in the world. To me, it feels like it would create a perfect balance.

Now for the big question... Drum roll, please. How do we navigate our way back to our perfect self, our true identity?

Know that our whole being is driven by our true self, so returning to that self is not a process of creation, but a process of surrender. We don't have to create our identity, we were born with it. It is actually harder to be someone that we are not than to be who we are. We have just forgotten how to relax into our truth. It's like we have been carrying around a heavy backpack that we forgot we were carrying. We need to find a way to take it off.

Start with intention. "I set a deep intention to find, know, love, and honor myself. I open to easily and gently heal and release all the fear that surrounds me in this process." Spend some time with yourself doing things that you love doing. Spend some quiet time with yourself listening to your mind. First, your mind might just chatter, but underneath the chatter is your true voice that given time can be heard. "I surrender to my true self, my true voice."

Returning to your divine self takes time. It took time to get where you are and it will take time to relax into who you truly are. Love yourself through it all and you will find this journey back to yourself joyful and inspiring.

Blessings, Liz

P.S. I am now doing a weekly audio prayer on my website. http://intuitiveliz.com/weeklyprayer.html