Yesterday, a new client started her third session with me by saying: “God sent you into my life. After 25 years, I was able to restore my dignity and my sense of self-worth. During the 10 years that I was seeing a psychologist, I was told by her that everything was my fault, even when my husband hit me.” We’re just at the beginning of her healing from the abuse that she experienced throughout her life, but at least now she understands what happened to her. With this new awareness, she can change her life in a positive way. She already has a strong connection to God and a deep sense of gratitude which is wonderful. The problem is that often spiritual people move into gratitude as a way of avoiding their negative feelings. They don’t want to feel anger or sadness or resentment. They believe it isn’t spiritual and/or they are afraid that those feelings will overwhelm them. When we bury the feelings, however, they do even more harm, often causing physical problems. When we allow ourselves to feel and release the pain of our life experiences, we can avoid its turning into physical pain or a serious diagnosis. The gratitude then is an authentic result of releasing the pain and appreciating the beauty of the life that we do have. Moving too quickly into gratitude also blinds us to the truth of our lives. It keeps us in illusion and prevents us from healing. As defense mechanisms go, it’s one of the better ones. In fact, the negative emotions can be overwhelming if we are not working with someone who can help us identify, feel and release them. Unfortunately, most counselors are like the one my client had. They blame the victim and do not provide the information and support that people in abusive relationships need in order to become self-empowered and heal. Fortunately, many people are beginning to get the appropriate help.
Feel The Pain, Then Be Grateful
Often spiritual people, like this client, also wonder why their prayers have not been answered. Is God not listening? Because we don’t get the answer in the way we want it when we want it, we assume our prayer has not been answered. I’ve discovered that sometimes God is saying, you’re not ready for that experience yet. First you need to have a certain set of experiences or maturity or you need to develop a certain set of character traits, like strength, patience or compassion. God then sets us on a path to get what we need before we can have and appreciate what we want.
Following Guidance
When we really get into the flow of life, we often get the information we need ahead of time so that we are prepared. As you know, I turned 70 since our last show and celebrated with my children and their significant others in New York. Just before I left, I read a post on Facebook reminding people that in some situations, it’s best to say nothing. That was an answer to an unspoken prayer and I played the message in my mind several times during my visit. One of the gifts of aging is realizing that you don’t have to and really shouldn’t say every thought that you have. That reminder helped me enjoy my birthday celebration.
Silver Linings
The other gift of advance information was as a result of my show with Dr. Dawson Church on EFT, often referred to as “tapping.” This is also my silver lining story for today. I had been working on healing some digestion challenges for a while and the problems were getting more intense as the healing process went deeper. Normally I’m quite patient with these kinds of healing episodes, but not so last weekend. I really wanted to enjoy my birthday and eating was part of the celebration. Not surprisingly, I got stuck in serious traffic as we were leaving LaGuardia airport. This gave me time to think. I got out my iphone and found a video on EFT. I practiced tapping to relieve the indigestion until it was gone. I used the technique all weekend and thoroughly enjoyed my food, as a result. The silver lining, is that the indigestion is now totally gone. Also, now that I know the technique, I am using it for other problems that are near completion, like congestion. I feel like I just got a new toy–only it’s better than a toy because it improved the quality of my life.
The other challenge during this trip was my cat, Benji. As I told you a few weeks ago, I called a pet psychic to help me solve his bathroom behavior. As long as I was talking to her, I decided to address some other problems that had seemed to get worse recently, like his digestion. She said that he was eating too fast because he missed me when I was out of town. So on this trip, I decided to ask Caroline to come every day while I was gone, feed him and also give him some extra petting and attention. In addition, I followed the psychic’s suggestion of sending him love every day in the form of a visual image. This was to reassure him that I loved him and would be back soon. The result was a happy cat. Caroline said all was well while I was gone and I could tell by his response when I returned that he had done better this time. Because of the planetary shift that is happening now, our energy is changing. This is also true of animals, which is why my cat has been exhibiting increasing problems. I had already added a fermone scent diffuser where he spends a lot of time to help calm him. This diffuser emits a scent that causes him to think his mother is present. That has helped him immeasurably. Having a calmer happier cat was a silver lining to the bathroom problem. I don’t think I would have consulted the psychic otherwise, but I’m really glad I did. Since Benji can’t take care of himself, it’s my responsibility to meet his emotional and physical needs. In the future, I will not hesitate to call a pet psychic again. It was well worth it. The other silver lining was that it freed me to have a good time, knowing that he was more relaxed.
Feeling the Joy
And that I did. I couldn’t have been happier with the play that I chose for us to see on Broadway. I felt that I had been guided to that choice over the course of a couple of years. First, one night when I needed to unwind, I ran across a movie, Kinky Boots, which I had never heard of but thoroughly enjoyed. Second, I saw Billy Porter win the Tony for the male lead in a Broadway musical for his role in Kinky Boots. Then I saw a public broadcasting program, Back to Broadway, featuring Billy Porter singing Broadway hits. When he sang the song from Kinky Boots, I was deeply moved. We all know that 3 is the magic number. So when it came time to choose a play, I knew exactly what I wanted to see without even checking reviews or current shows. I didn’t even know if Billy was still in the play. To my delight, there he was just a few feet away from me. Later, my daughter, who shares my passion for Broadway musicals, told me that he was only back for a limited run of a few weeks. The Universe was very busy arranging things for me. All I had to do was pay attention and have the courage to ask for what I wanted. My daughter even bought me Billy’s CD of the TV program I had seen so that I would have a reminder of my special day.
I’d love to hear from you. What are some ways in which you bring more love into your life?
