The Season of Giving

Learning how to recognize our unique role in the grander scheme of things is one of the keys to joy.  This is how we come to give our true service to the world: by staying in our joy.  I like to let my joy be my guide.  If I find myself slipping out of joy, it is a signal from my higher self to make a course correction.  Yes, we want to help others and yes, it is good to lend a hand, but we need to check within to be sure that what we are lending our energy to is in accordance with our truth, the truth of who we really are.

Too often, we are socially conditioned to give ourselves over to the wishes and demands of others, to be beholden to the tribe.  And this by nature is not necessarily bad.  It can be a beautiful thing provided that the type of service being asked of us is what we feel in our hearts that we'd like to give. 

Herein lies the key.  We have to ask within.  Only we know how we'd best like to serve.  And this is something that we find out when we listen to our gut feelings, or when we take the time, usually in meditation, to consult with our god-self within.  And when we hold to this as our guiding principle in life, we not only give our lives in service to all, but we also find a sense of everything being right in the world.

So, in this, our season of giving, I like to remember to ask within so I can stay in harmony with my part in Divine Plan and thus find myself in service to the whole in my own special way.  

© Josephine Laing, 2015

We All Dream For A Reason

We spend over a third of our lives asleep and dreaming.  Dogs dream, cats and horses dream, we all dream.  And we do this for a reason.  Without sleep and dreams, we die.  Even if you don't think you dream, you do, many times a night.

We dream to clear our psyches of the stresses of the day, we dream to be able to see and know ourselves more accurately.  We dream about our denial and repressed issues in order to bring them to the forefront of our awareness and we dream for optimum future guidance in our lives.

In 1984 a man named Mellen Thomas Benedict died of cancer.  But he didn't remain dead for very long.  He popped back into his body miraculously disease free.  While he was on the other side of life, he experienced many extraordinary insights.  But, what he shared that really stuck with me is this; he was told that from a Universal perspective, we are a fairly ordinary planet in a relatively ordinary galaxy, but the one thing for which we are legendary throughout the Universe is our ability to dream the solutions to our problems.  Think of it.  Legendary. 

So, I say, why not make good use of this planetarily unique talent of ours, and do like Thomas Edison did and sleep to find the answers to your most pressing questions.  See what your sub-conscious mind has to report.  Catch your dreams and that 'state of the union address' that you receive every night about your life.  Find your inspiration and guidance by paying attention to where the big dreams of your super-conscious mind guide you.  Take the time to remember your dreams and then work with them so you can stand firmly at the helm of your life.  It's what I do and it works great for me and I hope that you find your way to make use of our wonderful dream time too. 

For tips on how to remember and interpret your dreams, please go to the Radio Archive page of my website, stepintomagic.com and click on the month of May, 2015.  You will find three hours of free information there all about our dreams.  May you have a good nights sleep and many sweet dreams.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Reclaiming Our Connection With Water

In 2010, PBS aired a show called "Next Year Country.  In it, Matt Ryan, a rainmaker from Mount Shasta was called to North Eastern Montana to come to the aid of three families who were experiencing a profound drought.  The situation had become so dire that they were about to loose their farms.  The rainmaker brought large metal pipes and laid them out on the ground moving them from time to time for two weeks.  Then he left.  The drought persisted throughout the rest of the state, but the North East Corner, where the three families lived had heavy rains and an abundant harvest. 

In 1983, Shirley MacLaine, the American Film Actress wrote an autobiographical account of her explorations into the infinite possibilities of life in her book, Out On A Limb.  There in the mountains of Peru, she tells of her experience in calling the weather to change.  Vicki Noble in Shakti Woman speaks of the same phenomena.  This inspired me to play with that energy as well.  And you know what?  It worked.  Standing in openhearted harmony with the beauty and sacred interconnection of all things, while engaging my imagination and holding to my intention, I have engaged my sense of command and parted the clouds or called the rain. 

Last year in my women's circle, we all went out back with some simple dowsing rods and walked around an old abandoned two story brick building.  The dowsing rods swung together and touched every time one of us walked across an irrigation line or water pipe.  It took us a while to realize that that was why our rods were crossing, but then we saw the spigot and the meter.  The rods also swung right where the vetch was growing lushly in the sparse field.  Vetch has deep roots that reach down and pull water up to the top layers of the soil.

My grandfather was a 'Water Witcher.'  Most of the folks in his part of the Midwest didn't want to have anything to do with psychic ability and abruptly dismissed it out of hand.  But somehow, dowsing slipped through the cracks of acceptability.  Using an old forked willow branch, he would hold it in his hands, letting the end that would have been closest to the root zone point out in front of him.  Then he would walk the land.  He would start off for the places where water would likely be, and then he'd move along until the branch dipped sharply down toward the ground and told him the life giving liquid was near.  All the farmers in his section of the country called him to help find a good spot whenever a well was needed. 

As we round the bend into the last months of our rainy season, here in California, where the reservoirs are still low from the last few years of drought, I am wondering how many of us, when we see those big cumulus clouds overhead would prefer not to have it rain today.  Perhaps we just washed the car or have plans for a garden party.  Maybe the new roof is not yet on that house we are building for that young couple with the baby.  Or, perhaps we are thinking how there is still no rain.  'No rain.'  "Not enough to do the trick."  How influential are our thoughts and words?  How deep do these infinite possibilities run?  My experiences have shown me that the subtle energies of nature are willing to join their wisdoms with ours.  But we do need to step into concert with them, open up and ask.  When we do, they respond.  So I invite you to join me in reclaiming our connection with water.  Let's use our imagination to feel and smell,taste, hear, thrill at and call the rain?

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Activating The Heart Center

Hello everyone.   I've just created this little video with my dear friend Einar Berg.  It's called Activating The Heart Center.  This lovely exercise will open and engage your heart center. This helps us to find and embrace the guidance of love in our lives. Enjoy.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Our Hearts Know Best

Our dear friend Bob Banner of HopeDance Magazine brings so much awareness and wisdom to those of us who live on the Central Coast.  He recently showed a film called "The Power of the Heart" which left a profound impression on me.  There was so much goodness in it that if you get a chance, you really must see it.  I'll share a little of what I can recall with you here.

The HeartMath Institute has been researching the intelligence of our hearts for nearly twenty years and not long ago they conducted an interesting experiment.  In it, they showed volunteers different randomly selected photographic images that were chosen specifically to elicit strong emotional responses.  The photographs ranged from puppies and sunsets to violence and destruction.  Electrodes were placed on the bodies of the volunteers which could read the responses of their nervous systems.  Information was gathered from several areas on their bodies: the heart, the brain and the gut.

As the volunteers watched these images, a very intriguing pattern began to reveal itself.  Several seconds before an image was shown, the heart responded either positively or negatively depending on what the image would soon be.  This heart response immediately sent a message to the brain which would then send the information to the gut.  When this happened, the subject would feel the result, either relaxed or agitated.

The experiment showed that not only are our gut feelings accurate, but our heart knows the truth of our feelings first.  The brain is next in line.  And the gut brings it to conscious awareness. 

Our hearts tune us to our life.  They are faster and wiser than our heads.  They let us know if we are loved and welcomed.  Our heart knowledge pervades the Universe.  It teaches us that our soul is not in the intellect.  

The Sioux nation has a saying, "The longest journey you will make in your life is from the head to the heart."  And there is a lot to this.  Here in the west, we constantly defer to our minds.  We dwell in the past and in the future, always trying to figure things out.  But it is the heart energy, which knows the power of the present moment, that is meant to guide us.  My teacher and mentor, Jana Massey used to remind us of this.  She would say, "The heart is meant to be the true leader in our lives."

Maya Angelou said, "I believe the heart is the only thing you can trust."  Deepak Chopra said that we need to ask our hearts everything.  "Where do I want to go?"  "Who should I spend my time with?"  "What should I do with my life?"  Your heart will bring you alive.  It will guide you true by the voice that comes forth from inside of you.

© Josephine Laing, 2014


                  (The amazingly beautiful begonia in the photo was grown by Paul Carlisle)

The Power and Importance of Sanctuary

Hello everyone.

Please enjoy this little video that I created with my good friend Einar Berg.  It's called The Power and Importance of Sanctuary.

The Buddha said, "Do nothing, time is too precious to waste."  Time spent on our own is some of the richest time in life.  Join me as I discuss the many benefits that I've received from time spent in sanctuary.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014

Guided Imagery Meditation

              


One of my favorite types of meditation is the Guided Imagery Mediation.  This type of meditation engages our image center or our imagination.  It stimulates our clairvoyant function by activating our third eye.  Meditations of this nature guide us through an idea or an image.  When we do a guided imagery meditation, we can either listen to a prerecorded meditation or we can guide ourselves through the process using our own thoughts. 

My first exposure to guided imagery meditation was with a prerecorded forgiveness meditation.  This was on an audio tape that was made by Louise Hay, who wrote You Can Heal Your Life.  I listened to this almost every night on my little tape player while I was healing from a painful and long term injury.  Louise's gentle, loving voice, playing through my ear-buds, helped me to more easily manage the pain and often lulled me into sleep.  In this meditation, she asked her listeners to imagine our parents as little children, to see them as innocent, to forgive them, to pick them up, hold them lovingly, and then place them right into my heart.

Another great teacher of this type of meditation is Shakti Gawain.  She headed me down the path of guided imagery meditations with her remarkable book, Creative Visualization.  I welcome you to discover for yourself this little book and the life changing wisdom within it for yourself.  One of her readers said that it was like being led by the hand into a beautiful garden and being given a single flower, one after another, to marvel at and enjoy.

I'd like to share with you today a few of my favorite guided imagery meditations. The first one is the pink bubble technique.  Take a minute to imagine a pink bubble, with your eyes either opened or closed.  Place into the bubble any worrying thoughts you may have.  Close the door on that bubble if there was one, and see the bubble lift off and start to float away.  Let it float over the distant horizon, perhaps even over a mountain, and know that it has gone to its next, most highest placement in the universe for its transformation.

A dear friend of mine who has since moved to the east coast taught me about the healing modality of Regenesis. This is a technique where the practitioner imagines a beautiful blue light entering into each and every cell of the client's body.  This is the light of regeneration.  I have taken this idea and altered it slightly to create a wonderful guided imagery meditation for myself that I do every day.  In it, I imagine the blue light of Divinity entering in through the crown of my head and igniting all of my cells, one by one.  In just a few moment's time it fills my whole body with the loving light of my higher self.  This guided imagery meditation is part of what I do when I clear myself before I do my clairvoyant healing work for a client.

Another beautiful guided imagery mediation is to imagine a golden disk or a golden halo over the top of your head.  Let this halo be a filter.  Your thoughts can come and go, but all the thoughts of others are naturally sifted away.  This lets us really focus on being who we are in accordance with our original blueprint, our natural being, our true self.

I'll leave you with these few meditations to enjoy this week. May they serve you as well as they have served me. 

© Josephine Laing, 2014

Premonition, Synchronicities, Cards, and Coins: Allowing Spirit In

Spirit continuously steps in to assist us, often saving the day.  We can make room for guidance from spirit to more easily reach us.  Dreams, meditation, and prayer work wonders.  Or we can cast the Runes, the coins of the I Ching, or layout decks of cards.    Synchronicities can also point the way that will best ease our day.  For some of us,  it's deja vu and premonition that let inner guidance reach us.

In our dreams our physical bodies communicate through pictures.  Our higher self sends inspirations as well, in the form of images placed in our minds.  As we meditate we learn to quiet our minds.  This can allow information to flow into our conscious awareness from on high.  Our prayers are how we express our needs and our gratitudes, and engage in conversation with our own version of the divine. 

Some of us find guidance by laying out cards or casting the runes.  The symbols and the placement speak to us about where we've been and where we need to go, what qualities can bring us strength, and what might hold us back.  The I Ching is another mode of divination, meaning "to give the voice of the divine."  With this ancient Asian method of finding guidance the user tosses coins and makes note of where the coins lie, and if they are heads or tails. This leads the seeker to a passage in a book that can bring answers and insights to the questions asked. 

Another way that spirit can edge its way in is through synchronicity. We wake from a dream about a certain friend, that morning they call with an invitation to go swimming. We had plans to clean the garage, but because of the dream image we decide to go with them instead. At the water's edge we just happen to meet someone who needs something done, and we are just the person for the job. Synchronicities can channel us to right where we need to go. This is divine love saying, "Go this way, you'll like it."

Some lucky souls are granted the gift of premonition.  These individuals receive strong senses of knowing and inner guidance.  My mother was a premonition dreamer, and once or twice she saved our lives. We were so impressed by this skill that we never hesitated or doubted when she got that certain look in her eye. 

My brother inherited the gift of premonition as well.  One day he was driving on Mulholland highway, speeding and squealing around the turns, going way too fast.  Then suddenly, he got an image, blatantly and strongly, right in his mind.  It was of the front wheel of his car popping off its axle. This startled him so much that he slowed way down.  And on the next turn it happened.   His wheel came off and his disk brake plowed into the ground, saving him from sudden and certain death.

I often think about how our angels are watching over us.  I imagine his angel was riding on the front corner of the hood of his car, watching those bolts on that wheel.  When they started to get loose the angel zoomed that image right into his mind, getting his attention and causing him to make a change. This allowed him to live on to make a lifetime's worth of positive changes in the lives of others. 

When we are open to guidance in our lives, guidance comes.  It can be subtle or strong, it may follow a circuitous trail, but it brings us to right where we need to go.   

© Josephine Laing, 2014