Month: March 2014

Day 9: Goals and Purpose

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On 2014-03-12

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance is repetitive and straight forward.
Ego throws things at you out of the blue and tries to derail you from your original divinely inspired goals and purpose.

This is certainly an interesting pairing. In my experience, Life does an equal portion of throwing things at me from out of the blue, sometimes altering my sense of goals and purpose, sometimes reinforcing them. Maybe the key phrase above is “original divinely inspired.” But this idea that we can live anything but our purpose makes no sense to me…that we can take a “wrong” turn and end up on the “wrong” path. How can there be anything but reality, as Byron Katie might say. Seriously, how can something that is meant to happen not happen? Isn’t the repetitive and straight forward nature of Divine guidance just because it is what is? Or is Divine guidance something else entirely?

I feel like I’m walking a labyrinth with this exploration. Sometimes, I feel so close to nailing Divine guidance, and other times I feel like I couldn’t be further away.

Day 8: Divine Guidance & Free Will

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On 2014-03-11

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance is often very simple.
Ego tries to make things seem complex.

This morning on Facebook, I came across a post by Mooji, that speaks to the idea of free will. It went like this:

Q: Mooji, you say we don’t have complete free will. I disagree.
M: For instance?
Q: For instance: If I wish to climb this tree, nothing can stop me.
M: Can you climb it now?
Q: No.
M: Why not? It would demonstrate your point very well.
Q: Well, I don’t feel like it right now.
M: What makes you feel like it? Do you have any choice in that?
Q: No
M: Then where is your free will?

~ Mooji

I love this story. I love it because it demonstrates so well the simplicity of guidance vs. the complexity of ego. Guidance inspires us to either climb the tree or not. It is the ego that would question our motivations, the timing, the consequences, and whether or not we’ve made a good decision. It would berate us for not being ready, for not taking charge.

We are so sure we have some say in the matter when it comes to what we do and when we do it. Do we? Do we really “create our realities” or do we merely choose how to respond to them? What if our only power lay in our responses alone to accept what is handed to us by higher intelligence?

If I “decide” to stop eating bread, is that a free-will choice? And does the answer depend on whether or not I actually do stop?

The nonexistence of free will presents an interesting question and one worth considering, because if it is true, there is a lot less to worry about, a lot less effort to expend, and a lot less to beat one’s self up for.

)

Day 7: Divine Guidance

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On 2014-03-10

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration, Self-care

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance will help you improve areas which will bring you peace and take you closer to your purpose by giving you doable step by step instructions, one piece at a time. Ego causes discord and wreaks havoc on your thoughts and emotions.  Instead of helping you take proactive steps, it paralyzes you in fear with an all or nothing approach.  Instead of baby steps, Ego says you have to jump off the cliff to make it happen.

Now that I’ve come to the conclusion that Divine Guidance doesn’t rely on language to communicate with me, I want to tweak today’s pairing to read that it will “…take you closer to your purpose by revealing one doable step at a time toward the goal.” Divine Guidance isn’t going to hand me an outline to execute. It isn’t going to expect anything from me, either.

Ego, on the other hand, can take the information from my guidance and then run with it. It might decide to be helpful and create something totally practical and achievable, bringing to mind past accomplishments that can bolster my thoughts about it all…or it may play its tricks, making me feel like it all has to be done at once, the surest road to chaos and failure. And for good measure, it can remind me that I’m not good enough, but that if I don’t get it done NOW, everything will be ruined. So get to it!

So, Ego may assume the voice of love or the voice of fear. This is the premise I’m now working from, rather than thinking these two things come from two different sources. They are both language driven…they just tell two different stories. Divine guidance, on the other hand, transcends all that. That’s my take.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Vocal Play: Spring Cleaning!

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On 2014-03-09

In Blog, Self-care, Sound & Vibration, Vocal Toning & Meditation

pinwheelEvery Spring, many minds turn to the practice of spring cleaning, clearing out the closets, dusting in all the nooks and crannies of a home, and making things sparkle!

Why not do the same inside? Our bodies and minds could use a good cleansing after this rather challenging winter, don’t you think?

Winter is typically a time of reflection and hibernation. We’ve taken inventory and hopefully come to a clearer understanding of what is worth keeping and what has to go. Now, tiny buds emerge and new colors pop into our awareness as we prepare for the re-emerging of dormant life.

Vocal play is a perfect selfcare tool for clearing out and making space for what wants to emerge from within you. So set aside 10, 15, or even 30 minutes, go outside into the sun, and have some toning fun. Choose a vowel with a vibration that resonates for you with the sweeping out of dust and debris of the winter. Maybe for one person that is “SHHH” sound. Maybe for another, it’s an “EH”. Give the byproducts of your toning to the earth for recycling; she knows what to do with it.

When that process feels complete, tone for the joy of Spring! You can tone to a tree you encounter on a walk, tone to the little bulb sprouts popping their heads into the day, or simply breath in this fresh promise of spring and exhale an “AH!”

Enjoy!

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 6: Divine Guidance vs. The Voice of Love?

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On 2014-03-09

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance gives you positive feedback, yet lovingly helps you in specific areas if needed.
Ego lashes out criticism (and can do so either in-your-face or so subtle it’s hard to recognize, you just know you feel like you’ve been deflated).  Ego also makes generic and pointless criticisms you can do nothing about.

My husband is an amazing landscape artist. He’s encouraging me to paint, something I’ve always wanted to do. My ego is all over the process. It compares my work to the work of others. It judges the flaws and miscalculations. It tells me not only that I am not good enough now but that I never will be. The judge can be incredibly subtle, though. It can say, “That’s pretty good…for a beginner,” and while it pats with one hand, the way it says “beginner” is a dig. Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. Move along. When it comes to creativity, I learned to ignore the judge long ago.

I also hear another voice. It compares my initial work to my advancing work and gives me a sense of accomplishment. It looks at the “mistakes” I’ve made and takes in the information for next time. It finds what it likes in what I’ve done and makes me feel good about the risks I’ve taken or the discovery I’ve made. It propels me forward. Now that’s the voice of love! But it is still a voice, if you know what I mean. I don’t think this is Divine guidance.

Because they share a common language, the ego can easily masquerade as the voice of love, not to say that the voice of love isn’t authentic. Maybe there is an assumption at the root of my confusion over what is and isn’t Divine guidance. If ego relies on us to consult the voices in our heads for Divine guidance in order for it to pretend to be our guidance, then maybe the key is finding a language that only Divine guidance speaks.

Divine guidance is what gives me the inspiration to paint in the first place. Divine guidance is what takes my hand and eyes, the paints and brushes, and creates something unique and colorful and surprising. Divine guidance is simple and transcends language. Knowing this, how can I confuse it ever again?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 5: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

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On 2014-03-08

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance helps you work with your strengths and apply them in meaningful ways.
Ego plays upon your weaknesses & darkest fears, discounts your strengths & accomplishments.

Ego can be an incredibly devious and efficient force. When it plays upon my weaknesses and darkest fears, it often has no need to discount my strengths and accomplishments because I can’t even see or relate to them anymore. It is a master of killing two birds with one stone. It goes even further, though. Ego hides the strengths that are inherent in my weaknesses. Nothing is all good or all bad. Yet, the ego would argue otherwise. I’ll give you an example:

I will now confess to being something of a drama queen. As my mentor puts it, “I’ve never known you not to be floating on a raft downstream while you flail and scream.” Ha! With this stinging and accurate commentary, I began to realize that I indeed learned and integrated a “sky is falling” approach to much of life. Hey, I inherited it.

The thing is, I can’t stand this aspect of myself. She’s draining. She’s ineffectual. She’s embarrassing! But that kind of judgmental black and white thinking totally discounts that this same archetype has an amazing ability to rally the troops, to focus, to defend herself. My inner drama queen, tempered by patience, can be put to good use. Oh my GAWD!!!!!!  ; )

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 4: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

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On 2014-03-07

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

I am in a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance helps you manifest your heart’s truest
desires and abundance in every realm.
Ego blocks you or tells you that you’ll never get what you want.
It works from a reference point of lack.

My thoughts around this pairing went immediately to two questions: what are my heart’s truest desires and what does my ego have to say about them?

But to start, I want to take a moment to consider the word “abundance” and what it means to me. Typically, people think of abundance in terms of money or material goods. I certainly did for most of my life. That…and food! And if you’re lucky enough to have monetary abundance, maybe that is all that matters; I don’t know. But coming from a different background, what I’ve come to know abundance as is in terms of grace, opportunity, creativity, and possibility.

We often hear, “We live in an abundant universe,” which is evident everywhere you look. Some would argue though that we also live in a world where distribution of that abundance has gotten extremely off balance!

Regardless, I am all too familiar with what the ego has to say. “You don’t have enough money to do that (and you never will)”, “You will never get what you want!”, “You might as well forget it!”, and “That’s not gonna happen in a million years.” It’s all very interesting, especially when I consider that the desire might arise out of ego in the first place. Perhaps it generates a desire for something that wouldn’t serve me anyway and then tells me I can’t have it, reinforcing its position. Maybe.

The voice of my divine guidance says, “Relax. Take it easy. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Move toward without expectation. Move toward with a light attachment.”

But on to my first questions. What is it that my heart desires? To answer this question, there are many directions I can look. What it desires in terms of health, wealth, creativity, relationship, travel, etc? And are these things the desires of my heart or the desires of my soul or the desires of my ego? The ego masquerades as divine guidance a lot, I’m finding. It likes to pretend we have (or should have) control over everything.

But does the voice of my divine guidance say I can have anything I want? Absolutely not. And maybe this is where a lot of people make a mistake and end up beating themselves up when they find that “thing” hasn’t manifested.

I think our truest desires are very light and ethereal. They naturally guide us toward what we want, effortlessly and without control. They aren’t something we have to think about. If we simply live our lives in trust, divine guidance can’t help but lead the way.

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 3: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

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On 2014-03-06

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

I am in a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance lets you know YOU ARE A POWERFUL SPIRITUAL BEING.
Ego tries to convince you you’re a helpless victim or that you’re not good enough.

I must admit I haven’t felt very powerful as of late with the major transition I’ve been in. This rite of passage into a new life, dismantling the old, has left me feeling very much at the mercy of something far, far bigger than myself. I have felt more a very small and insignificant wave in a very big sea. I can’t say that’s the voice of ego, quite honestly; or maybe it’s the voice of an ego humbled. I think accepting that actually becomes a source of power. The voice of the ego, though, is content to make this mean something it doesn’t…that I am Life’s victim or that every challenge I face is some kind of punishment reflecting some personal fault.

How well I’ve known the victim role and the sense of helplessness that comes with thoughts about there being nothing I can do, about not being deserving or good enough, about not being able to change a circumstance or overcome an obstacle. Sometimes, there is nothing I can do to “get my way” and my ego attempts to justify why. It gets angry with the thing called Life. The thing is, there is always something I can do…even if it’s simply to breathe and surrender and trust.

I know my power doesn’t lie in money or materials goods. My power doesn’t lie in control of situations or people.

So what is my power? My ability to intend? That I can choose love, forgiveness, and healing no matter what is going on around or within me? I am not convinced entirely. Sounds too simple, and maybe it’s impossible to really talk about. I don’t think I really understand power, and I’m not too proud to admit it. It’s bigger than I am.

There have been times in my life where I was in complete communion with this power…every part of me vibrating with love and intent. In those moments, I manifested. In those moments, I had no fear. In those moments, I had no doubt. Rather, I aligned and received. Intellectually, I can say, “Yes, that was me, not this small idea of me with attachments and aversions.” But who is the “me” that thinks it’s a powerful spiritual being?

I’m afraid I’m left with far more questions with this pairing than answers. And in this case, I think it entirely appropriate.

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 2: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

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On 2014-03-05

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

Yesterday, I started a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance will always lift you up, and leave you feeling empowered.
Ego/Fear/Imagination DIS-empowers you.

Lately, I’ve been feeling disempowered by bureaucracy. Bureaucracy reflects so well the voices of fear, ego, and perhaps lack of rather than  imagination itself. I’ve been up against so many walls as of late and told, “That’s just he way it is,” or “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do.” And if I’m not careful, I swallow and internalize those voices until they become my own telling me a situation is impossible and leading me down a road of “my only option” instead of “my best option.” Everything becomes fixed and inflexible.

What does it mean to me to be empowered? It means I am open to discovering new options and that I can make choices toward happiness rather than “this is the best we can do.” It means, in the blink of an eye, I can change my perspective and see the world differently. It means that I can remember I may be in this world and subject to its insanity at the moment, but that I am not ultimately of this world nor subject to react to it in a way that keeps me from being content. Besides, I have, at my disposal, The Great Unknown.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

36 Days with the Voice of Love in a World of Fear

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On 2014-03-04

In Blog, Guidance & Inspiration

I am starting a new venture today. I discovered a phenomenal piece of writing on the internet yesterday, and it’s got me so fired up that I’ve decided to work with it for the next 36 days and share my discoveries. It deals directly with our “voices” and helps us to understand the difference between the voice of love and the voice of fear.

Despite having made voices of all kinds my work for the past 13+ years, I’ll admit that when my life started to change recently in unexpected ways…unbelievably positive ways…I lost touch with myself and what I know to be true. With the influx of love and dreams coming true came the surfacing of a great deal of work left undone…self doubts, delusions, bad habits. It all became so painful to me that I began to worry for my health and sanity.

The little article I found yesterday, so unassuming and straightforward, helped pull me out of the dark and refreshed my tainted perspective. You can find the original article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, here on a sweet little website called Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network (yes, that’s really the name). In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. (I did make three attempts by three separate means to contact the site owners to request permission to use the article. I’m not sure the website is still being maintained. Unfortunately, no author was credited either. I hope I’ve done my due diligence as my intent is not to step on or abuse anyone’s rights.)

The first pairing is:

Divine Guidance will always come from a place of Love.
Ego/Fear/Imagination breeds fear and confusion.

I decided to sit in meditation with this. I wrote down a question that had been concerning me and for which I wanted guidance. I held the question in my mind and asked to see how fear would respond. What came up for me was everything I’d been hearing inside my head the past few months of my chaotic life (I’m in a huge transition) that was aligned with fear. I was surprised to realize that this comprised about 90% of my recent thoughts. I’ve been steeped in fear and totally blind! Ego* had totally taken a hold, and it was indeed breeding fear and confusion. I was in a death spiral of self-sabotage. A change of focus was in order to correct my altitude.

I then held the same question and asked to see how love would respond. The impact wasn’t instantaneous. At first, what I heard and could see quite clearly was just how insidious the ego can be. It was disguising itself as the voice of love. But underneath the syrupy phrases, there was this energy of a lie. Along with the comforting words came a twist in my gut. I felt graced and astounded to be able to see it so clearly.

Eventually, what broke through was a quiet, authentic voice of love. I was feeling reassured and lovingly redirected, not by anything necessarily tangible, but by a feeling alone. I stayed with it and decided to trust it, even though it wasn’t exactly answering my question. Rather, it felt like a sweep of energy, a clearing out perhaps.

What happened later in the day was a confirmation that I was once again flying straight. A friend brought me my answer, unbidden. She just came out and said that she had an intuitive feeling about my situation and shared it with me. My jaw dropped, and I actually fell over in relief!

By the end of the day, I was feeling so amazing. Pockets of negative energy that had been suffocating me for weeks…maybe even months…started to burst. I was finding my center again. I was reorienting myself with Divine guidance.

I plan to continue sharing one “distinguisher pairing” from the original article each day along with my experiences in working with it over the next 35 days.

*I use the word “ego” here with hesitation, as I do not wish to villify it. Still, it is helpful to have a term of reference. The ego serves a Divine purpose just like everything else in this world. In my case, its purpose was to help me see all the ways I hold myself back from Love. In truth, it is my teacher and ally. Had it not expressed itself so forcefully, I would not have seen any of this and would be in no better position to serve my clients facing similar challenges. I believe our goal should not be to kill the ego, but to dance with it more gracefully and redeem it to the extent possible.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing Yoga, Mirror Meditation, E-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

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