Step Into the Magic of Your Dreams

Hello everyone.  My friend Cyndi Silva asked me to do an interview exploring perspectives on Dreamwork.  Please enjoy this 50 minute zoom discussion on various types of dreams, helpful tips on how to remember your dreams and a few ideas on how to easily interpret them.  To learn more about Cyndi and her lovely work visit:  https://geneticalchemy.com  and  https://metaphysicalwisdom.com

A Few Thoughts on COVID-19

 

This is a challenging time.  We've experienced nothing like it in modern history.  But, big challenges can come with big opportunities for positive change.  And we all know that positive change is what is dearly needed right now.  We can benefit from and direct that change toward desired outcomes through training our brains.   Some of you may want to visit the feature length film, "What the Bleep Do We Know," for further guidance on how to do this.  And, for more information on the importance of time spent idly, please read, Do Less, Be More by Susan Pearce and Martina Sheehan.  My gratitude goes to both of these authors for reminding us how vital time spent quietly can be.  In closing I'd like to say,
May the promise, that this season of spring brings with its new life, be a reminder of the possibilities that lie ahead of us, waiting to unfold.  And with that in mind, in our heart-minds, let's direct our thoughts and our imagination toward those of the best possible outcomes and the Highest Good for all.

 

 Disclaimer:
As a Clairvoyant Healer, Spiritual Counselor and Intuition Instructor, I share many tips for leading a healthy and fulfilling life.  Please be advised that I am not a doctor. Nor am I licensed in any healing modality. However, I have had years of experience in alternative and complementary health and healing. All healing programs, including standard western medical protocols in addition to natural therapies, can cause harm rather than the benefit that you may be searching for. After all some people can have a strong reaction to something as seemingly innocent as peanuts or strawberries. Therefore, anything that I may recommend in these blogs and videos could be dangerous for you to try. So, it is important that you Ask Your Doctor First before trying any natural healing protocol. However, most medical doctors have little experience regarding natural healing programs and herbal medicine. So please understand if your doctor is unfamiliar with these ideas.

 
© Josephine Laing 2020

Manifesting Joy

When it comes to manifesting joy, the trick here is that it is not really in our hands.  The manifestation of our deepest wants and needs is the soul property of the highest good for all.  Yes, we can let our desires shine to light our path.  We can mine our sub-conscious minds to clear away any lingering obstacles, and let our sincere and heartfelt feelings guide us.  We can hold our thoughts to the positive and speak out our affirmations with confidence.  But the bottom line, when it comes to finding our joy is surrender.  It is giving ourselves over in service to something greater, something beyond our own individual aspect of consciousness.  

On the inside of my closet door, so I can see it every day, I have pinned up this quote by Mahatma Gandhi.  "God demands nothing less than complete self surrender as the price of the only real freedom worth having.  And, when we lose ourselves, we immediately find ourselves in the service of all that lives.  Such service becomes our delight and recreation.  We are a new person, never weary of spending ourselves in the service of God's creation."

Now, I realize that the word 'God' is a tricky one for many.  There has been so much self-serving and irresponsible theology in the world, leaving death, doubt and destruction in its wake.  So it can be a challenge to embrace the thought of 'God.'  Because of this, the great spiritual teacher of how to heal our lives, Louise Hay, never uses the word 'God.'  She uses 'Life,' instead.  She'll say, "Life loves me."  And I think that looking upon Divinity as 'Life' is a lovely, generative alternative to what has come before.  

I also like Joseph Campbell's definition of God.  He said, "God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being.”  What he is saying here is that trying to fathom the ineffable is simply beyond our limited human capacity.  

Peace Pilgrim, who is probably my favorite spiritual teacher and perhaps our only true American Saint, also refrains from religious associations when describing or referring to 'God.'  She speaks of her own entrance into a life-well-lived by sharing how she felt moved to walk out into the woods one night, motivated by a feeling of deep seeking for a meaningful way of life.  And after she had walked almost all night, she came upon a clearing where the moonlight was shinning down and she found herself speaking aloud and she found herself saying, "If you can use me for anything, please use me."  And she found herself feeling, "Here I am, take all of me.  Use me as I am.  I withhold nothing."  And with that she felt that she had found what she was looking for.  She experienced the complete willingness, without any reservations whatsoever, to give her life to something beyond herself.  She said that from that time on her life became meaningful, because she began to live to be of service; she began to live to give instead of to get.

This is where the journey of manifesting a life of true and lasting joy begins.  And, there is still a bit of road to travel until we actually experience the complete giving over of ourselves, the surrender of our life, to the whole.  

In her experience of it, Peace said that this aspect of the journey seemed like a struggle between two parts of herself, what some might call the ego and conscience, or what many have referred to as 'my will' and 'thy will,' or what she called the low self and the high self.  The two viewpoints are quite different.  And each one of us must reconcile this difference before we step fully into a life of harmony. 

While we are working through this stage, initially we get glimpses of our life lived in union with the whole.  And as we progress, we find ourselves there more and more frequently.  Then we start to really miss that immersion in pure love, when we find that we have slipped out of it.  Finally, as we reach harmony, and as Peace says, "You will know your way from there."  

With this, we can imagine the beautiful results that we are hoping for; and we let the way to achieve them gracefully unfold.  We strive to do all the good things that we find ourselves motivated to do, to help make the world a better place.  And we find that our life is characterized by a deep seated sense of joy; and it is that joy that unerringly guides us right onto our path before us.

I find it quite miraculous really to think that there is an energy or a force, a benevolent field that is attuned to our every thought, awaiting our alignment with the whole.  And as we give ourselves over to it, more and more completely, motivated by love, we enter into the great cosmic dance of the river of life wherein we manifest whatever we need because it is completely attuned with everything.

These are not the wants and needs of the ego, trying to get ahead of others; nor is it the part of us that holds ourselves as separate, better or less than any other.  No, this is not that analytical, critical thinking part of our self that feels 'a business plan' is the way to go here, oh no.  This is the open, benevolent, expansive lover of all, that we each hold inside our hearts.  This is the part of ourselves that unquestioningly reaches out a hand to save another, knowing that at our core essence, as Joe Campbell exclaimed, "You and the other are one!"

And from my perspective, 'The One' is vast!  It includes not only all of humanity and Gaia, our planet, but also our solar system and the massive spiral arms of our galaxy swirling out into the unending space of the Universe.  I'm talking here of the fundamental consciousness, that is not only in me and in you, but that pervades everything and beyond.  This is the flow that we must tap into, (that we are already tapped into) and align with, (that we are already aligned with,) in order to really manifest what we'd like to see in our lives.  And all of this is already fully accessible within us.  All that is needed is a little shift in our perspective.  Here we embrace everything with love, even the stinkers, and those who have not yet found their way.  Here we serve all.  And, incidentally, thereby serve ourselves.

Our good intentions, our desires, our inspirations and our feelings of deep fulfillment will all point the way.  They are the compasses that help us to align.  They are the keys that open the doors to the deeper meaning of life.  But it is our surrender to our unique service in life, to our own pathway of giving, that brings us to our knees with Joy!  And here we find that the Universe has lain the road open wide before us, bountifully bedecked with everything that we truly need.


© Josephine Laing 2017

How To Change

We know that if we change our thinking, we change our life.  But therein lies the rub.  How do we go about changing our thinking?  Research tells us that 95% of the thoughts that we had yesterday are the same thoughts that we will have today.  Our minds and bodies prefer the familiar patterns that we have grown accustomed to.  This holds true even in the case of difficult patterns like accepting neglect or abuse.  It generally takes something big to wake us up to change.

Most of the people, who successfully make changes in their lives, have experienced something fairly major like a bad diagnosis or the death of a friend.  These big emotional experiences open our eyes wide, so we can freshly see who we have been and who we have become.  This is when we suddenly find ourselves free to choose differently.  We see where the old thought patterns have taken us and we decide that we don't prefer that version of our reality anymore.

For me, it was three major injuries back to back, requiring two separate years spent in bed and ten consecutive years focused on healing my body.  There is a saying that I love about how God helps us to change.  It is this, "First she throws a pebble, then she throws a brick."  Some of us, myself included have required the brick in order to bring about change.  How much nicer it would be to respond to the pebble.  A much gentler course indeed. 

So, how do we initiate that more gentle 'wake-up call?'  Fortunately it is fairly simple.  One of the traits of successful change is to become more conscious, more present-moment focused, more active in the right hemisphere of our brain.  Another way that we can help ourselves to change our thinking is through knowledge and understanding.  The more we know about our new potential way of being, the more we can embrace it. 

While it is true that trauma can catapult us into these types of changes quickly, we can also bring about quick personal changes in these more gentle ways.  As we increase our knowledge and understanding we see why we'd like to change.  Keep that new information flowing; read books on the subject; notice how other people do it.  Spend more time around those who focus there, where you want to be.  Infuse your awareness with the positive emotions associated with the changes you are choosing in the present moment.  Let those emotions be big.  Bigger than the brick.  Soon this will become the new habit, and the old familiar patterns simply fall away.   

Fortunately our habit minds, our sub-conscious minds, reason logically and follow orders from our conscious mind.  This is why intention plus attention brings manifestation.  We grab the meaning behind our will to change, which is our intention and then give it our full attention by staying in the present moment with it.  We focus on it.  We watch how other people do it.  We gather new and novel approaches to solving the problems of our lives and that holds our energy to the changes that we wish to make.  

In my mother's day, people would tie a string around their finger, as a reminder for themselves. That little string would constantly get their attention and help them to remember.  In this case, we might use that little trick to help us remember how and what we want to think.

And then, just like me, injured for those many years, we need something that helps us to drop our former sense of self, our belief in who we are and who we have been.  This can happen when we go away on a new vacation or an adventure.  Another way that we can help ourselves to embrace our new changes is through meditation, especially if we do this in the early morning while we are first waking up, or at night, just before we fall sleep.  As we infuse our our bodies and minds with the emotions of the new desired state of being, then the reality of it quite naturally follows.

I'll leave you with this little affirmation that I learned during the time while I was gaining knowledge for change.  It helped me to catch myself and stay in the present moment in order to embrace the new.  I would say this to myself whenever my old thought patterns would try to assert themselves.  It is a very polite and loving affirmation.  And it is addressed to the dutiful habit mind which is still trying to hold onto the old thought patterns.  It goes like this, "Thank you for sharing.  You used to serve me well, but you no longer serve me now.  I now choose differently and reap the rewards of those new positive changes in my life,"  Then give yourself a big smile and feel how good it feels.  

Bless you on your journey of gentle change into a healthier and more joyous life.


© Josephine Laing 2016

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

Why do I keep doing that thing that I do? or Ten Paragraphs and Ten Helpful Tips to a New You!

Before the age of seven, our minds are in a hypnosis-like Theta brain wave state.  We are not yet able to reason and have not yet learned how to think for ourselves as individuals.  This is a very necessary step in our development because it lets us learn everything that we need to know by habit.  Our early childhood years, spent in Theta brain waves, set the patterns of our culture, our body movements, and our roles in the family.  This is also when our beliefs about our self are formed.

At around the age of seven, our conscious minds come on board and we individuate with awareness about our personal identity.  This lets us discover our own wishes and desires.   This is also when our habit mind, our subconscious mind really starts to come in handy as it can run the show while we are busy solving problems with our conscious mind, our thinking mind.  Because of this, we are able to walk down the hall (movement gained from habit and memory) while answering a question (fully engaging our thinking mind). 

Unfortunately, while we are very young, the adults in our lives may not realize that we are unable to use rational thought.  When adults receive criticism, they can think about it, consider changing their behavior and the experience can be constructive.  But as small children, when we receive criticism it gets recorded into our belief systems about who we are.  It becomes our truth.

When an adult says something to a small child like, "Why would you do such a thing?  or, "That's bad."  or, "No, no, don't touch that!" or,  Get away."  The child's mind hears and records feelings like, "I'm unlovable." Or, "I'm not good enough."  And, since we hear this type of information about ourselves as children, again, and again, it becomes a belief that we hold, out of habit, at the core of our beings. 

These programs stays with us into adulthood and just as soon as we are not paying attention, they can result in our beloved subconscious mind dutifully and skillfully changing things, in order to prove that our early childhood programming is right.
This can result in all of our good conscious mind intentions being thwarted.

We like to think that if we can simply become aware of our programming, we can change it.  So, we read self-help books, understand them and really commit ourselves consciously to change.   And, yes, those changes will happen, so long as we are actively thinking about them, using our conscious minds.  Unfortunately, this occurs only about 15% of the time. 

As soon as we get distracted and start to put our conscious attention elsewhere, guess who comes on board to run the show, our dutiful habit mind.  This leaves a whopping 85% or more of the time where our old programs are still running.  This is why we find ourselves so often inadvertently self-sabotaging all of our good intentions.

The good news is this, there are several tools that we can use to change these deeply programmed negative beliefs into positive ones.   In order to clear an old program it can really help to use some of the same tricks that created it, ex: a theta mind or hypnosis brain state, strong emotions and repetition.  These are the techniques that we can use to clear old beliefs about not being good enough, smart enough, worthy or worse still, not lovable.

A great way to get started is to begin, a practice of meditation.  This helps us to notice our negative thoughts and beliefs in the first place.  Then, using repetition, having some new and better replacement thoughts at the ready, can work wonders.  Twenty one days of a consistently new behavior or thought locks it in.  Powerful emotion is also good.  It was our strong feelings that created our old beliefs about ourselves.  New and different strong feelings will create new ones.  So, affirmations said with genuine, sincere, positive, loving feelings consistently over a period of time are really helpful. 

My favorite though, is using that theta mind state because it is especially effective.  Having a pre-recorded audio tape of your own voice affirming your love-ability and your self worthiness, perhaps even saying your new positive affirmations, can really work wonders.  Let this play while you are falling asleep or waking up.  It will help to create new programs deep in your subconscious mind because, while we are in that Theta brain wave state, we can access our core belief systems and change them just like in hypnosis.



Please also enjoy these additional ten great tips for cultivating self-love:

1.)  Say, “I Love You.”  Every morning, when you go to the bathroom mirror,  look deeply into your own eyes.  Say your name out loud and then say, “I love you, I really love you, just the way you are.”

2.)  Forgive Yourself.  A lack of forgiveness is a block to self love.  Just as we need to forgive others, we need to forgive ourselves. 

3.)  Practice Positive Self Talk.  Notice when you are blaming or shaming yourself. Lovingly catch yourself and then acknowledge what is good about yourself instead.

4.)  Treat Yourself Gently.  Know that you are your own precious darling child.   Realize that all growth takes time.  Loving yourself is your divine birthright.  Trust and it will come to pass.  

5.)  Think Good Thoughts.  Thoughts are easy to change.  Find good ones and have them ready to replace any negative ones.   I like to focus on gratitude.  It fuels me on my way.

6.)  Give and Get Help.  Don't hesitate to ask for help and look for ways to help others.  We all love to help each other.  We feel honored when someone asks us so it's okay to ask for ourselves.

7.)  Treat Yourself To Robust Health.  Eat mostly organic foods from the garden.  Get plenty of sleep.  Drink lots of good clean water.  Create a healing checklist and give yourself a gold star. 

8.)  Have Fun.  Laugh and take time to make new friends.  Learn some good jokes.  Let yourself be more playful.  Do something fun that makes you smile every day.

9.)  Do What You Love.  At least once a day, do what you love.  Listen to your inspirations, even if they are small, heed them all.  Give them top priority in your life.  It will make your day. 

10.)  Remember Love.   Remember that the core essence of our beings is love.  Love is what we came from and love is what we return to when we make our transition back into spirit.  Remember to look for and see the love in yourself and in others throughout the day. 


© Josephine Laing, 2015

We're Working On It

Isn't it interesting to note that in people with Multiple Personality Disorder, one personality can be very sensitive to sugars in the diet, and have an advanced case of diabetes, while another personality in the same person, a mere moment later, can be absolutely disease free?  That's the incredible power for healing ability that each one of us holds inside of ourselves.  The trick lies in cultivating this skill, which we haven't yet learned.  But we're working on it.

It is our sub-conscious mind (SCM) that holds the potential for us to harness this ability.  This is the part of our consciousness that can accomplish that degree of healing instantaneously.  However, it's a very rare mind that has gained that type of control. 

The good news is that the SCM follows our directions.  It reasons logically and is our beloved protector, always dutifully following our deepest beliefs, even when we have long ago consciously forgotten them.  Its main language of communication is our emotions, either positive or negative.  It also responds very well to repetition.  

The SCM is the part of ourselves that we get in touch with when we access our brain's right hemisphere through hypnosis.  As we tap into the right side of our brain, which is connected to our higher consciousness, we can not only heal anxiety, depression, and addictive patterns, but we can also see tumors disappear, cartilage grow back, and even the "impossible diseases" turn around and heal.  

Think of a world, if you will, where all of our suffering drops away and we open ourselves to the beautiful creation of our heart's desire.  See in your mind's eye, if you can, teachers in schools offering techniques to the smallest children to help them positively manage and cope with their feelings and emotions.  We hold this potential in the palms of our hands and in the depths of our hearts.  It could free us all to find and live our true purpose every waking day.  

With journaling we can pour all of our negative thoughts out onto the paper and begin to notice our mental patterns.  Some of us have patterns of self-criticism, or self loathing.  Some of us are always complaining or choosing to take offense.  As we express ourselves and put our thoughts on the page, they don't need to constantly repeat themselves, like broken records.  Observing these patterns in ourselves lets us begin to make choices so that we can think differently.  

As we learn and start to apply basic spiritual practices like kindness, gratitude, understanding and forgiveness, not only do our negative patterns start to loosen their grasp, but our thoughts also change.  When our thoughts change, our beliefs change.  And now we are in the realm of that great powerhouse, the sub-conscious mind.  As our beliefs change our subconscious mind dutifully follows suit.  This is how we shift our paradigm.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014