Our second installment of the ESSENTIAL LIFE WISDOM series begins with a fun survey that is designed to help you think about the category that best reflects the general psychic “theme” and power management of your life. I developed this survey as a way to help people recognize how they co-operate or interfere with the cosmic dynamic of co-creation. That is, you live in a continual flow of ideas. Some ideas qualify for the word “inspirations” and others are just ground level survival ideas, but you are constantly receiving ideas and reviewing them. You do this so rapidly that you are unaware of the hundreds of thoughts that you receive, consider, log into your psyche, toss out, or retain on a daily basis.

The ideas, thoughts, and inspirations that you draw to yourself or that you generate from within reflect your archetypal patterns. If someone makes a suggestion to you about wearing a certain style of clothing, for example, or redecorating a room, you immediately run that by your archetypal team of twelve that make up your Sacred Contract for a collective opinion. If the suggestion made does not resonate with any of your interior twelve archetypes, you are likely to say, “I can’t relate to that,” or “No, that’s just not me.” And you would be right. Without an archetypal coordinate, you would not be able to relate to a suggestion or an idea that had its roots in another archetype that was foreign to your Contract.

The constant flow of ideas and inspirations is a part of the creative dynamic of life, as natural to the psychic field as breathing is to body. You require creativity and psychic movement to feel alive and to connect to the vitality of your life force. It is impossible to stop the cycles of change, as Buddha so wisely pointed out 2,500 years ago. The only wise choice a person has is to cooperate with the essential nature of change and to know oneself. The challenge confronting most people, however, is that change is an uncomfortable force. Change dismantles the known and forces us to continually encounter uninvited “newness” into our lives. The ideas and inspirations that filter into our minds, hearts, and intuitive system, is an expression of “organic Divinity”; that is, it is a channel through which the energetic patterns in your life orbit are attempting to motivate you to make a choice in direction. Choice organizes energy patterns, giving them direction, focus, purpose, and intention.

As a very simple analogy, imagine walking into a kitchen with cabinets bursting full of food products and a refrigerator that’s just been outfitted with all the freshest organic goodies from the market. Given all that is available in this kitchen, every meal you can imagine can be prepared, but you have to make a choice. Someone who makes no choice whatsoever because she is waiting to be told what to prepare or is waiting to have her food prepared for her will end up eating nothing at all and watching all the food goes to waste. A choice based upon old and familiar ideas that lack any imagination - because you are afraid to try something new - results in 80% of the food going to waste. An inspiration to try it all, however, results in the birth of a chef. Three different choices offered to the same person regarding the use of the same life ingredients, each choice resulting in a very different outcome.

In listening to people through the years describe their lives and their ambitions or future plans, I have noticed observed these patterns at work in front of my eyes. I listen with intrigue as people describe what they would like to do – in fact, what they should BE doing – and then I listen as they convince themselves that the time is “not right”. Most often I have left these conversations wondering if the time is EVER going to be right for them. Then one day during a lecture, a man said, “I know I was born to do something special, I just don’t know what that something is yet.”

I looked at him – I mean, I really looked at him. He was probably 60-years-old, far closer to the end of his life than the beginning. He should not even be using the word “born” anymore considering how long ago he arrived on this planet. What was he waiting for? So I asked him exactly that?

“What are you waiting for? What do you mean by ‘something special’?”

“Well, I don’t know exactly”, he said, “but something. I mean not what I’m doing now – I know that.”

That’s all I needed to hear. I knew his life wouldn’t change. He was talking “pure FICTION”. He needed to tell himself that he was born for something special because it had become a coping mechanism or it had become a part of his new age spiritual fiction. I wondered, “What then, should he do if he isn’t ever going to get on with the business of his special mission?” And was it that he lacked a “special calling” or was it that he lacked the courage to follow the signals that he was receiving because he just could not cooperate with the necessary life changes that go along with altering your life’s compass. You cannot, after all, prepare a chef’s meal with all those magnificent groceries AND never open any of the packages of food just in case you change your mind. Either you jump into the process of change with both feet or change will simply drag you along the debris of your life because you were too frightened to make the essential choices to lead the way. And that is a FACT. People who have the courage to make choices make a difference in life, their own and in the lives of others. That’s a FACT. They heal faster. That’s a FACT. The factual path is the rigorous one, no doubt about it.

And then there’s the FANTASY path, which refers to the 80% path of the familiar recipes BUT with a 20% allowance for the possibility that a choice fueled by imagination and courage could spontaneously take over – and fantasy choices, by the way, usually are spontaneous. One woman was absolutely, uncontrollably elated as she told me about the red sports car she purchased. She had always wanted a red sports car because it was a sex symbol for her. It represented a carefree, fun-filled lifestyle that included sensuality and a quality of freedom that she had never allowed herself to experience. “I always had fantasies of myself as a coyote wild woman, unattached and free to go where I wanted and to be with whomever I wanted to be with. One afternoon as I was doing my bills, I realized I had lived obsessed with saving money, and for what? For whom if not for me? That did it. I left the house right then and there and drove straight to the car dealership. Two hours later, I drove home in my new car, fully paid for.” Of course, to make this story just perfect, she was, at the time, 64-years-old.

What are your patterns and how do you organize and evaluate your decisions? Are you someone who lives mostly in the category of FACT, FICTION OR FANTASY? And can you change your patterns? And can patterns be changed?

THE FACT-FICTION-FANTASY LIFE SURVEY

DEFINITIONS TO FOLLOW:

FACT: Answer a question as FACT if you have actually put into practice the idea or habit suggested in the question.

FICTION: A fictional idea is something that you know in your intuitive gut that you will never really get around to doing, yet you maintain the fictional idea because fiction helps you acknowledge that you need to make some choices in your life – that change is on the horizon and you can feel that in your intuitive system – yet you do not want to forces of change to really enter your physical world. By dancing with fictional ideas, you are participating in an archetypal ritual of “honoring the gods of change” while trying to outwit them. Fictional ideas, however, are capable of expressing themselves as lies or acts of self-denial, among other forms of shadow play.

FANTASY: A fantasy idea is one that you have allowed into your energy orbit or one that you have a passion to animate. A fantasy is an idea that causes a rush through your biology and is capable of carrying a positive imprint through your mind/body/spirit. A fantasy idea is also capable of redirecting the course of your entire life.

ALERT: REMEMBER THAT FACT, FICTION, AND FANTASY QUESTIONS MUST ENGAGE THE LIGHT AS WELL AS THE SHADOW QUALITIES

When you are inspired with an idea, is your first response, “What will others think of this?” Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy______

Everyone postpones acting on ideas and intuitive hits. No one, after all, can possibly do everything. Yet, everyone gets “hits” on certain ideas and then immediately categorizes these ideas, telling himself or herself that they will do something about them such as, “I’ve got to start exercising.” When these ideas “hit” you and you tell yourself that you are going to act on them, simultaneously you know that your response is a: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy______

You are always getting that gut feeling to clean out your closet or organize your files. You might even visit the mess for a minute and consider when this project will fit into your schedule, knowing all the time that this plan is a: Fact______Fiction__________Fantasy

Healthy eating habits are just a part of everyone’s life these days. You tell yourself that you have to upgrade your health routine; you may even purchase food products to help you get started with your new plan, all the time knowing that sticking to it is a: Fact_____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

Exercise is essential to health. You know that. Every one knows that. So you make a plan to make exercise a part of your daily regime, knowing full well that sticking to it is a: Fact___Fiction____Fantasy_____

Every day you receive inspirations to follow that reflect the on-going journey of your life such as reading a particular book. Getting around to doing this for you is a: Fact___Fiction____Fantasy_____

Decisions are a part of everyday life. Some are more difficult than others. Many times decisions are gone over and over again in our minds and then we tell ourselves, “That’s it. Today I’m doing it,” knowing full well that it’s a: Fact___Fiction____Fantasy_____

Sometimes our lives call us to make a major life decision that requires great courage. The signals that we need to act on the decision are clear – these signals may be telling us that it is time to leave a relationship or a job. We recognize the signals in every part of our body and in every intuitive thread in our system, and we tell ourselves that we are going to take action knowing that it is a: Fact___Fiction____Fantasy____

Intuitive abilities are signals you have come to read quite clearly in your psyche and in your body. You recognize intuitive “hits” easily and you like being intuitive. When it comes to following your own intuitive signals, you always respect your inner voice: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

Having been a part of the consciousness culture for many years, you are well entrenched in the knowledge that positive attitudes influence your health and well being. Therefore you live by that creed and maintain a positive attitude as a part of your spiritual practice: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy

Responsibility for personal actions and attitudes is central to the backbone of living a conscious life. As a part of taking responsibility for your personal actions, you never blame another person for the choices you make in your own life: Fact____Fiction____Fantasy_____

Maintain the health of your psychic field should be a part of your daily practice as it is a reflection of a conscious lifestyle. Psychic health requires a high code of congruency in which you hold yourself accountable for living according to the highest truths that are a part of your spiritual life. You are fully congruent: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

Everyone has been betrayed by at least one person during their life and acts of betrayal are difficult to forgive. You have never betrayed anyone. Fact____Fiction____Fantasy_____

Forgiveness is an essential spiritual practice. In thinking about the people you have yet to forgive, the likelihood that you will ever truly forgive them is a: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy____

The fear of humiliation controls the thoughts, actions, and choices most people make in life. Your many dreams and ambitions are often set aside because of your fear of what other people might think of what you want to do. Therefore you keep many of your ambitions or dreams in the category of: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

The success of other people shouldn’t bother you but it does because the shadow part of your ego tells you that their success means there is less chance for your success: Fact____Fiction____Fantasy_____

You often think about getting away from the life you have, selling everything and moving to a new life. If you really had the chance for this new life, you would actually take it. Fact____Fiction____Fantasy_____

You dream about being rich and but the idea of taking a risk is just too overwhelming. Yet there is something about breaking free of being so frightened that feels so liberating to you. Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

You have always had a “sexual double”, a part of yourself that has longed to be sexually free. Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy______

You would like to start off each day feeling good and positive about your life and you promise yourself you will try harder to be an optimist but you find maintaining a positive attitude to be a: Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy______

You would like to stop procrastinating all the time and lead a more disciplined life and you tell yourself that you will be able to change that part of yourself, knowing it’s a: Fact____Fiction____Fantasy______

You make goals for yourself because having goals is supposed to help your achieve your goals, but you are also trying to outwit the Saboteur archetype. Knowing that you tend to sabotage your goals, you become all the more determined, knowing that your new state of mind will help you achieve your end result: Fact____Fiction____Fantasy_____

No one likes to change. Sensing that “change is in the air”, you cooperate with the signals because you see the wisdom in acting on intuitive data. Fact_____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

You have an ideal Self in mind that you are striving to become and you work toward fulfilling that image each day. Fact____Fiction_____Fantasy_____

You know your life will never really change. Fact____Fiction____Fantasy______

Wasn’t that fun?

Now, hold on to your results as in the March Salon, we’ll go into the interpretation of each of the categories.

SALON HEALING NETWORK

Does prayer really help those in need of healing – or does prayer really help? I came across a wonderful phrase, “Prayer is a shield against discouragement.” That is stunning.

The following are the prayers that we will be saying together each day on behalf of all those requesting prayer assistance for their healing and for all of us in the CMED network. And let us add to our prayers our global community.

God is my light and my salvation:
Whom then shall I fear?
God is the strength of my life:
Of whom then shall I be afraid?
In God alone do I put my trast:
How then can others harm me?
I have desired of God one thing,
And still I eagerly desire it,
That I may dwell in the house of my God
All the days of my life,
To feast my eyes on the beauty of my Creator,
To ponder deeply the gracious will of my God.

In the time of my trouble
You will hide me in your shelter;
In the shadow of our tent
You will conceal me
From those who pursue me;
High on a pinnacle of rock
You will place me safe
From those who surge around me.

Therefore I will offer in your dwelling place
Gifts with great gladness;
I will sing and praise your name.

Add your personal prayers to this shared prayer.

God bless you all,
Caroline