Dear Ones, you have been going through a lot recently. Big changes, great upheavals, large storms have been brewing throughout your lives. And you have not been feeling well. Your bodies have been asking you to rest a lot more. You've been needing to take much greater care of yourselves, much to your chagrin. The time of taking your self-care less seriously is at an end. Truly, that chapter has closed. From now on you will HAVE to take the best care of yourself as you know how; the work that will be presenting itself to you throughout your life will absolutely and completely require it of you.
Now, what is self-care? You have struggled with this concept have you not? Most of your being says "yeah, yeah, do the basics, get a passing grade, and then get on with it. I'm too busy living my life and striving and climbing and achieving to devote so much time to taking care of myself."
This is exactly what is holding you back. All of the areas in your life that could use more vibrance, more aliveness, more achievement, more success are needing more of one thing and one thing only: for you to take better care of yourself. The channel of life throughout your life starts right in the core center of you. How well or not well you are taking care of yourself is exactly related to how much joy, how much love, how much vibrance, and how much anything you want in your life you are experiencing.
Your common feeling is this "yeah, yeah, get on with it. How many more days do I need to lie in bed feeling sick? How many more hours do I need to spend feeling crummy, not getting much done. I need to be productive. There are things that need to get done. I need to get over feeling crappy so I can hurry up and make things happen."
You are missing the most important point in having this attitude. If you continue "being productive" in exactly the same ways that you've been doing it you are going to keep getting the same results over and over and over again. How successful have you been? How happy have you been with your life? The flurry of activity and the pressure to perform is the exact thing that is keeping you stuck in all the same old ruts of your life.
Activity on top of a basis of unwellness will only get you so far and then it will dump you flat upon your face. This pattern will continue and continue and continue until you have some sort of crisis be it health, financial, relational, in your job, a personal crisis, etc. The flurry of activity on top of basic patterns of unwellness is like building a house on top of a sink hole.
What is unwellness you might ask? All of your basic patterns of not truly taking care of yourself. Inside of you is an inner baby and it needs exactly what all babies need: fairly constant love, affection, positive care and attention, nourishing food and drink, lots of rest, joyful interaction and play, reassurance, loving safety, and to feel warm, comfortable, relaxed, and well taken care of. From within this place all of life thrives, it abounds, it expresses creatively and abundantly and it enriches everything it pours into. How much of these basic needs are you getting met within your daily life? Does your flurry of activity help you get these fundamental needs met more or less?
When you get sick do you tend to feel more like a baby?
Your body gives you exactly what you need to get well. I will say this again. Your body gives you exactly what you need to get well. So does your life.
If you are feeling ill, your body is giving you exactly the situation to finally get your needs met. This is progress. This is growth opportunity. Do not bemoan your ill condition; do not dwell on how poorly you feel; do not sink into story or depression about how this will set you back or how this is the perfect wrong time to be sick or how awful all of this is. Take a big breath. Reset yourself. Do it again. Take a big breath. Reset yourself. Hear me: this is exactly what is needing to happen for you to take the next step, this is exactly what is perfect to get you where you really need to go. Breathe. Relax. Let it happen. Stop resisting, stop fighting, stop bellyaching. Stop labeling this as bad. You are getting in your own way, and you are getting in the way of life itself. Get out of your way and let go.
What you need in your life is more life. And you can't do that or get more or achieve more by living in a state of depletion. You have very real needs and the basic ones are what we described already: loving care, joyful connection, getting enough nourishing food, drink, and rest, and ultimately feeling safe, relaxed, happy, trusting, and well taken care of. All of this releases you in a deep and powerful way into the greater nourishment and flow of Life itself.
Your illness is leading you there. Your pain is leading you there. The discomfort throughout your life is ultimately leading you there: to the deep powerful nourishing river of life itself. And you can't get there by being busy, by doing things the way you've always done them, or by skimping on the basics of being good to yourself.
Breathe into patience. It is your friend. Breathe into it again. Patience is what will lead you home. Relax and breathe. Slowing down will ultimately speed up the journey of taking you where you really want to go. You can't get there with the tightness in your belly. You can't get there holding your breath. You can't get there with the deep lodged ancient pain that sits in your heart. The place that you really really want to go to, that you desperately long with all of your being to feel again, is only accessible by slowing down, breathing, and softening into all of the places that make you most want to speed up again. It is time to go home, it is time to get your most fundamental needs met.
Breathe into patience and affirm: I am ok. This is ok. I relax, breathe, and soften. I let it be exactly as it is, knowing that it is here to teach me. I cannot learn this lesson if I am tight and tense. I cannot grow by resisting. The harder it feels now the lighter I will feel once it is healed. I say yes to feeling lighter. I breathe and soften into this lesson, I breathe and soften into healing. I let go, I open up, and I say yes to all of life.
Patience is a master teacher, it can feel very difficult yet it holds so many of the keys to the locked doors of life. Patience teaches: relax and breathe, let things be. Do it again. Relax and breathe, let things be. Open deeper into the flow of Life. Soften into the mystery and let things unfold. Let go, drop down further and deeper, even more into the magic and mystery of life. Let Life be bigger than you and let that be a warm comfort as you let it enfold you and carry you with it in the stream of ever-flowing good. Life knows what it is doing. Let it carry you and guide you further. Soften even deeper into it. Relax even further into it's warm deep embrace.
This is the lesson of patience: that Life itself brings you exactly where you need to go, and how deeply can you relax into and trust that flow? Relax and soften, relax and soften. Your needs will be met the more that you can breathe, relax, and soften into the flow of Life.
There is so much goodness that is happening through your life right now. All of the old baggage is being brought out, and at first your instinct says "no! I don't want all that old crap out here in the middle of the room! That stuff sucks! I've kept it in the attic, or in the basement, or out in the garage for millennium for a reason! It hurts! I'm f*cking terrified of it! It's dirty, it's messy, and the vision of what I want for my life definitely does NOT include all of that stuff right here right now doing what it does best, ruining my life!" It does feel paradoxical does it not? That that baggage is exactly the stuff that is going to free you for the happy, successful vision of your life you have for yourself?
At this point you cannot move forward until you heal backward. There is pain and fear needing love and reassurance. There are old bad habits of destructive thinking that need compassion and release. What feels like moving backward is really greater opportunity for you to practice what you need to practice and heal what you need to heal. Take these opportunities for what they are!
How much more compassion can you allow yourself to feel and to experience? How much more can you let that compassion flood your entire being and let yourself be exactly who and what you are? How much kindness and love can you breathe into and allow things to settle and be exactly what they are with grace and ease and okness? How much can you allow yourself to feel within the deepest depths of your being that everything is ok, truly, everything is ok? Whatever resistance we have left in these areas is directly proportional to the amount of suffering we are still experiencing.
Let the unpleasant stuff in your life come up and meet it will allowance and kindness. Breathe through it. Relax and soften. Do not resist. Open up to the lessons inherent in the difficulty. Breathe. Breathe again. Soften into life. Let life, or God, or Source, or the great Universe, or whatever you have a relationship with hold you, love you, comfort you, nourish you, and help carry you forward. Soften into that force. Let it hold you. Let it hold you. Breathe, soften, and let it hold you. Relax and soften again, even deeper now. Even deeper. Breathe.
Meet your needs. Establish safety in your life: inside of yourself first and foremost. Treat yourself well, with the utmost respect and integrity. Be good to yourself, kind and loving. Open even more to the great Source of Life within you and let that stream be your eternal source of safety. Establish warmth and comfort in your life, as well as care and affection. Fill your life with appreciation, joyful contact, nurture, and connection. Care for yourself as the divine infant that you are. Care for yourself well and all of the progress you want in your life will be available to you. Start with this foundational step. All of the dis-ease, discomfort, and difficulty throughout your life is asking for you to slow down, breathe, and take even better care of yourself. Get your needs met, first and foremost from within yourself and the quality of your connection to Life/Source/God/Peace/Love and then allow your needs to be met from the environment around you. Let your connection to your food, drink, home, animals, people, and the earth nourish you. Go after nourishment. Let yourself be nourished. Relax and open to nourishment. Breathe.
Be kind and patient with yourself. Be kind and patient with your life. Breathe and relax. All of the good things that you want for yourself and for others will happen, and it will happen faster the more that you breathe, relax, and let go into the flow of life. Keep showing up, be ready and present and available for when life asks you to act. Your skills, talents, and action will be needed but they will come only after your deep release. Your whole being is in service to the great flow of life itself and you will flourish and prosper the more that you let this process happen.
Breathe and be patient. Let things be slow at times and let go. Be present to when action is needed and let the other times be full, fruitful, and slow. Rest is some of the most productive time available to you. Relax, relax, relax. Open. Allow. Let it all sit and breathe. Open, soften, and allow.
It is through the difficulty that you will triumph. Do not fight the difficulty, do not run from it, do not name it or label it as bad. It is exactly what is needed to set you free. Breathe, soften, and open to the lesson. Relax even more. Let it come, and let love and compassion come too.
Slow down so that you can move forward. Breathe and listen, relax, breathe again and listen even more deeply. Let the pain come, and the fear too. Bring love and compassion and have them all breathe together in the middle of your belly. Sink even deeper into the flow of life and let go.
It is through our pain that our greatest triumphs will be allowed to come. Soften into the pain and let it come.