SHE’s been playing with this title for a couple of days now. One version was The Optimal Surfing of Stillness. We’ll get there. But, first, in this window of Everyone’s Every Kind of Karma Up in Our Face, it’s good to take a breath or three and Calm. Down.

What we need most is what we most often deny ourselves. Why? We set things up that way to learn about what we are from attempting to be what we’re not.

All self-denial is birthed from our original imprint {original separation from Source} carried through in our causal bodies {the structures that come with us from incarnation to incarnation} and re-interpreted into every incarnation as some kind of separation fear/anxiety, which then turns into pathological denial and acting out. When we choose a Source-driven life or Enlightenment, in rare cases, the next steps are the dismantling of all that jazz and releasing ourselves into the Oneness, from which we will be called forth in our true natures. The mechanisms we’ve used to manifest this design are extraordinary in their complexities… and quite simple at their root. One root. One cause. That of feeling separate from Source. An impossibility we’ve chosen to manifest. And you thought pushing a boulder uphill was a challenge!

It’s an odd thing, the current cave experience. For the uninitiated, a ‘cave experience’ is, or perhaps was, an ancient initiation into Enlightenment. The monk in question is sealed into a cave with a limited amount of food and water, and sometimes a candle. More often, not. The initiate was left in isolation to meditate/teleport him/herself out of the cave, or die. It was the very definition of a ‘final test.’

When one experiences a classic ‘dark night of the soul,’ it mirrors the cave experience, but in consciousness. Transformation happens from the inside out, regardless of physical circumstances. The cave experience is a morph-in-place in what people call the ‘real world.’ {The one that will never be the same.}

Yesterday my housemate followed the path of hurricane Laura via some news station or other. I noticed every time I walked through the room that the fear vibe pouring out of the TV had intensified. At one point the reports even went so far as to predict “unsurvivable” storm surges whose effects might travel 40 miles inland.

The drama dredged up a few memories of other such storms. I remembered another hurricane, decades ago in Boston. Fierce winds, lashing rain, some trees down, and the power was out for a couple of days. I remembered meditating through the worst of it, opening my eyes occasionally to a particularly strong gust rattling my windows. I was going through an intense time and the cleansing power of the storm was glorious.

Last night, after feeling that things were not going to be as bad as advertised, I meditated and went to sleep.

Storms fascinate me, as they mirror locally held collective consciousness.

One benefit of the global ‘pandemic’ will be the re-writing of Self-Care. Today is the inception of the 10-day celebration of the Elephant-Headed God Ganesha, in case you weren’t aware. The celebration is an opening for the removal of obstacles, letting in celestial flows of wisdom . Obstacle removal is Ganesha’s gig. His stories are many, and I encourage you to look up a few.

What does this have to do with Self-Care? Invoking the removal of obstacles is a request to the Divine for ease, grace, and smoother flow. It can be a request for the removal of karma as well, including how we self-punish, self-poison, and self-condemn.

It is deeply understood in Hindu culture that when we ask for karma to be smashed, it must be opened, taken out of mothballs and storage, and released so that it can then be dissolved by Source. Karmic patterns, once set in motion, MUST play themselves out. They re-enact again and again until we understand their lessons, and even then it can be difficult to release a karmic pattern, if we’ve made agreements and contracts around it, armoring it in. How do we know? The pattern keeps repeating, no matter what.

When was the last time you asked for a sign? “Oh, I don’t do that anymore…” indicates a spiritual ego process. “Five minutes ago,” could indicate a constant need for validation. Or, are you in the flow with it, asking for signs when your mind/ego will accept nothing less than physical earth-space-time proof or guidance? And, when you receive a sign, how do you interpret that information?

As you awaken, your vibration rises and you become more physically empowered…theoretically. Some of us have programs in place that prevent our empowerment beyond whatever parameters our programs are hiding. Does that resonate at all? The more your vibration rises, the more empowered you are. The more empowered you are, the more awake you can become. That is if your ego doesn’t co-opt the process. They all try. The trick is not to spiritually bypass but to use empowered vibration to assist you.

This is such an important part of the journey that it seems to require its own post. So here goes.

We all need help. We all need guidance. The forms of that help and guidance vary. The first mistake most of us make is not to reverently honor the guidance we receive. What does that mean? Probably not what you’d imagine. DEFINITELY not what you “think.”

When we receive a “correction,” on the path to enlightenment, to spiritual advancement, ascension, living a better life, or whatever our goal might be, our egos will, first and foremost, try to sabotage that correction. The ego misinterprets the information, and, truth be told, downright lies to us.

The thoughts we have are that we are not being correctly perceived, not being seen. If the guidance is real, the truth is usually that we are being correctly perceived and our ego will do ANYTHING to avoid the discomfort that causes. It will do ANYTHING to protect its behaviors. Mine did this over and over. I know whereof I speak. You can always tell the voice of the spiritual ego. It is always “right.” I stopped caring about being “right” decades ago. I care about the truth. Don’t you? Your ego does not. Trust me on this.

Remember the movie Contact? The wormhole transit system that enabled Jodi Foster’s character to travel to a distant star system, through several linked portals? Quantum leaping begins this way. First, we surrender the concept of an either/or in every choice we make. “This one or that one” becomes a series of case statements: this one or that one, this one and that one, some combination of both, some combination of neither, and, finally, all of this or something better…

As the world begins to move outward again, one baby step at a time, we need to turn our focus inward, as fully and completely as possible. What seems to be, is not what is. We need to pay attention to how we are using our energies, our emotions, and our stories.

What will move us into the most optimal new realities is a combination of surrender, faith, and trust.

I always ask Source, “What have I not yet surrendered about this?” when challenging feelings or situations show up. Most of our unsurrendered internal content has to do with how we want things to be, with expected or hoped-for outcomes. Some of these are conscious, some unconscious.