Community

On February 5, 2013January 24, 2024 By Alethea KehasIn ReflectionsLeave a comment

This is the word, or concept, that keeps appearing to me when I think of the shift of human consciousness that we are experiencing. The word community has two basic meanings. It can define a group of people living in one geographic area together, or it can represent a population that shares the same values. I think the true definition melds the two.

With our myriad of technological devices and options for connecting to others that seem to negate geographical distance, no longer is there such a need to physically exist in a shared space. Space, in a sense, collapses when we open up our Facebook walls, connect to our loved ones through FaceTime, or send a text message on our cell phones. With the push of a button we are instantly brought together. Or are we?

Although I have found these methods of connection limiting, I have slowly come to embrace them. There are moments when I sit alone on the couch sending out my words, or reading the messages of others; when I feel the lonely pull to physically be with the people I am connecting with through the internet. No amount of blogging or FaceTime can replace the energy of a group of people sharing a space, especially when that space is filled with their collective joy.

So, while I cherish the ability to easily connect to friends and family who are not living nearby, as well as the opportunities I have found to form bonds with individuals I have yet to met in person, I can’t ignore the void created by distance.

I am sure I am not alone in my sentiments. What does this mean for our evolution? How will we successfully collapse time and space to share in this new era. I think some of us are discovering that it is not enough to seek community through the airwaves.

Travel has become easier and more efficient, enabling us to move to places where we can find shared values and beliefs. I have a good friend who, through circumstances beyond her control, moved and found that she and her family landed in a community that was wonderfully suited for them. So much so that it seemed predestined.

I, myself, often feel the overwhelming tug to hurry time and finish the space I am building inside my home, which will allow me to more easily host gatherings of people who seek a community of shared truths. We are not, after all, a solitary species. Humans, by nature, thrive and multiply through shared love.

Yet, I think, sometimes we forget this. Just as a child will suffer the physical and emotional symptoms of neglect in an orphanage, so does the individual who shuts herself off from interacting with others, or chooses to interact with people out of shared pain rather than love.

When we seek community, or choose not to, it behooves us to examine why. Jealousy and a strong competitive drive can cause us to be drawn to others who appear to have less, or in some way make us feel superior, therefore feeding our fears of not being good enough. Sometimes we are so consumed with our own toxic love affair with pain that we can’t help but shut others out.

If you don’t know if you are attracting the right community, ask yourself these simple questions: Do my “friends” or family bring me happiness? Do they lift me to joy? There is, after all, nothing that matches the collective vibration of love.

Love

On February 4, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Energy Healing, Memoir, Reflections4 Comments

It’s one of those words that is as complex as it is simple. Love. Last night, in the moments before sleep, I thought about love, and what it has meant to me in this lifetime. Overcome by a sudden wave of emotion, I realized my soul was asking me to release still more of the dense energy that I have accumulated as a barrier to allowing a complete, unobstructed flow of love energy.

Although I work with the energy of love to heal others, I am also still healing myself. Even though love is the ultimate state and expression of the free soul, many of us carry with us the energy of fear. We are, quite simply, afraid to open up completely into what our egos tell us is the vulnerable state of love. We fear rejection. We fear that we will give love unconditionally and it will not be returned, or worse, we fear we will be betrayed by our love. Our fear creates patterns that are hard to break.

As a child I accepted that love was something that must be earned, even at the sacrifice of my inner truth. I wanted, like all children do, to be loved at all costs. To whom I gave my love to was a choice that I thought was not my own. As a result, love turned into a concept that was muddy and confusing. Love, for me, was complex and dangerous, and it often resulted in pain.

I traded love in for loyalty. I traded love to survive. Yet, still I loved in my desperate and silent way, sacrificing my inner-self along the way. I found myself loving the “wrong” family members, the “wrong” pet, the “wrong” friends and the “wrong” boys, and as a result I welcomed in the greedy energy of betrayal and pain. I was an easy target. When we consistently send out the message of, “I love you, but I must not deserve your love in return,” or “I want to love you, but I am afraid to,” we cannot fully receive the pure energy of love without the trappings of fear.

Through fear we impose a complexity to love that does not exist when love is in its pure, unconditional form. Although love is the highest, purest frequency of energy that exists, it often takes great courage to live in it fully. We, as humans, have complicated our world with fear and all its restraints and conditions. Breaking away from them can make us feel vulnerable, when, in reality, it opens up our inner strengths. It frees our trapped voices. It leads us to our pure, divine, essence.

When we embrace the truth that love is our truth; that love is our divine right to give and receive in pure form, we open ourselves to all of its gifts. Through the family I have created I have learned (and am still learning) this lesson. Love ripples back. It attracts to equal frequency. Pure, unconditional love, frees the soul’s truth. When we get there, we realize there are no constraints. We realize that there is no rejection or pain. We realize that it does not matter that our love cannot always be “returned” to match our frequency, not because we are unlovable, but because a fear exists that may not be our own.

Love, in reality, opens doors, it breaks barriers. When we live in the frequency of love, we free not only ourselves, but raise the collective energy of the world, helping to release the sticky web of fear.

Toxic Energy

On January 29, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Energy Healing, Memoir, Reflections6 Comments

Sometimes in life we encounter energy that is so wonderful, it transforms us into a state of pure joy. While in that energy, and hopefully for sometime after, our own energetic vibration is raised to match the frequency of the being that is emanating this bliss. This could be a person, a group of people, an animal, or even a place in nature. I need only to walk into the woods with an uncluttered heart, and I feel lighter and happier than I was when I left my house. The energy of love is always nearby, we just need to allow ourselves to tune into it.

Sadly, some people are so consumed by their lower vibrating emotions that they rarely, if ever, allow themselves to harmonize with the frequency of joy, or, what I like to call, pure love. The lower vibrating energies of anger, fear, hate and pain weigh our bodies down, and they leave their shadows behind, even when their source as moved elsewhere. Have you ever walked into a place, even if it is devoid of people, and felt an over-whelming sadness, or maybe even a flash of anger? I remember years ago, walking along the trail of an old battlefield and feeling consumed with despair, even though it was a bright sunny day. I was having a nice outing with my husband and young children, and had no logical reason to be suddenly sad. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was feeling the energy of grief and despair left by people who had lost their lives at that site, lingering, still, centuries later.

For those of us particularly sensitive to energies, we easily reap the rewards of being around high vibrations, but also suffer more from energy that is dense. In some cases this energy is even toxic to our beings. This has been a tough lesson for me to learn, and I am, to this day, still dealing with how to know when to remove myself from energy that feels toxic to my body and soul. And, then, there is the question of how to cut the cords.

As I suspect is true of most empaths, I could safely say I started feeling and absorbing the energies around me even before birth. Studies have show that an emotionally and/or physically stressed pregnant mother is more likely to have a baby that is colicky, under-weight, and/or will suffer from emotional dis-ease in life.

If a child is brought into the world knowing the energies of fear, and then finds that her world outside the womb is filled with the same, she will need to figure out, instinctively, how to survive inside an environment that is in many ways toxic to her health. I use the world health in the broadest sense possible.

Those of us who know, too well, what it is like to live in energies derived predominately from fear, are likely to have a more difficult time cutting their toxic cords. Until we learn that these energies cannot have a hold on us, unless we allow them to, we will continue to encounter their desperate grasp.

I find this idea complicated by having a family and being in circumstances where I need to recognize how a situation, or an individual(s), is affecting no only me, but my young children, and sometimes, my husband. I find myself asking the questions: Is this person or situation only toxic to me? How are my children reacting when they are around this energy? Is there a benefit to being around this person or in this situation, and, if so, does it out-weigh the cost(s)?

Here is where it gets particularly tricking, because I truly believe that underneath all that heavy energy, there is pure love. If I allow myself to enter a meditative state and align with the soul energies of people who appear toxic in my life, I am able to see them in their true essence, and always their higher-selves vibrate in the energy of pure love. Yet, this alone does not solve the dilemma of what to do in this life with the dominate energies we allow ourselves to receive from these people and circumstances.

I have learned to wear stones and crystals, to seal the holes in my energy field, and, if need be, to clear the imprints of dense energies, yet I have to admit, I would prefer not to. I’d love to life in a world where I only encounter (and, I should add, send out), the frequency of love. Sadly, this world, on Earth, does not yet exist.

As I write this, I long for an easy, or at least a clear-cut answer. Perhaps it is there and I have yet to find it. For me the answer is complex, as there is always a loss. Someone will often suffer from whatever decision I make (at least in my mind), and I suspect it’s that nagging guilt that I so easily align to, that keeps me from making a clean separation.

Surrender

On January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy Healing, Reflections4 Comments

The concept of surrender keeps appearing to me, during my days and nights. It comes cloaked in the words of my friends; it creeps into dreams on the back of nightmares; it shows up in the mirror.

My energy healer brought surrender to my attention recently, citing her own struggles, while gently nudging me to recognize mine own. Over the past week the call of surrender has appeared in myriad forms, making me aware of how universal its voice is.

When I explore the idea of surrender, I think about what binds us. Surrender, quite simply, is the opposite of resistance. Consider the pull of gravity as you climb a hill; consider the push of oars as you paddle your canoe against a strong river current; consider the tug of a child wanting to run free of your clutch.

What does it feel like to resist? What does it feel like to let go? What are you holding onto? I find what I am holding onto each night in my dreams. Here I struggle to let go of my fears, and some nights I experience the bliss of letting go.

We resist out of fear, and the impulse to control our fate and the fate of circumstance that are ultimately beyond our control. Resistance creates knots is our stomachs, our shoulders, and our necks. It quite literally traps the flow of our energy centers, densely packing pockets that bind. Resistance creates imbalance both internally and externally. The flow of energy inside of us is impeded, as well as the energy that we give and receive externally – that beautiful state of balance our souls seek to achieve with the universal flow of energy.

Consider the effects of letting go – of surrendering as you go about the day – and notice what is causing you to constrict the easy flow of your energy. Perhaps your trigger will be a misplaced phone, being late for a meeting, a beautiful home you see in a magazine, a jar of pickles that you are sure you purchased, but never made their way into your pantry, or the feeling of illness trying to manifest itself inside your cells.

What is it like to experience your triggers of resistance? How do they make you feel? When I think of the opposite of resistance – surrender, I see an eagle or a hawk soaring with the currents of wind; I think of a leaf, floating gently down a stream; I think of a healthy, radiant, balanced body. For me these are images of absolute freedom, and represent the beautiful, natural flow of energy.

Many spiritual leaders are calling our attention to the surge of flu outbreaks and other widespread illnesses that our occurring right now, as a reminder of what we are individually and collectively holding onto. For, when we let our fears bind us to tightly, we make an easy host to illness. Now, more than ever, as we seek to move into higher frequencies of existence, we are being nudged (sometimes not too gently), to let go of resistance. It all, of course, comes down to fear, and sometimes it’s so deep-seated we don’t know where to begin to untie its cords. Yet, with each snip of release – each surrender to what is beyond our “control” – we move closer to a state of peace and freedom. We move closer to the harmonic frequency of love.

For a wonderful (and soothing) example of the harmonious flow of energy, please watch this Bird Ballet video:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/01/bird-ballet-thousands-of-birds-dance-in-the-sky/

Stress

On January 17, 2013January 19, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Reflections3 Comments

I’m been thinking about the idea of stress since my husband came home from work last night holding onto the stressors of his day. When we are in a state of stress, we attract and, often, magnetize ourselves to other triggers. For my husband, this trigger was the snowy driveway. It wasn’t the snow, but the footprints and tire-treads laced across it that bothered him. It didn’t matter that the sun would shine the following day and melt the stubborn tracks of snow the shovel could not easily remove, it mattered only that the tracks had been made.

Now, my husband is a kind man, and hopefully he will not mind that I am using him as my example for stress. The point, after-all, that I am trying to make, is that stress is often unnecessary and irrational, except to the person experiencing it. If you type “stress” into Wikipedia, this is what comes up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(biology):

“Stress typically describes a negative condition that can have an impact on one’s Mental and physical, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible.”

I like the ambiguity in this definition, because, as it states, ambiguity seems to be inherent to the nature of stress. One of my biggest stressors is time. I loathe being late. Sometimes, if I don’t catch myself, the idea of being late sends my heart into a rapid beat, tightens my stress and causes me to be not so nice to the people in my path. These days though, I try to let stressors, like being late, act as lessons. I may not know the “cause” or root of the anxiety. I tend to believe our stressors, like our fears, are complex and deeply rooted, often compounded by lifetimes of unhappy circumstances. Yet, I know I can resist its pull.

Instead of letting the stress, which is very much like an elastic, stretch you to the point of breaking, you can step inside of its shape and examine density. Now, when I’m driving to a destination I know I am going to be late for, I ask myself these questions. What if I am late? What does that mean to me and others? How is the stress of not wanting to be late impacting me and others right now? How does it change the situation? What would happen if I wasn’t feeling this stress?

Of course there is that magnetic quality of stress, if we are in a state of stress, it’s inevitable, like in the example with my husband, that we will attract to ourselves more stressors until we make the conscious choice to let go of its hold on us. Then there is the question of rationality. Does our stress even make sense? If we can step way from the pull of the stress enough to examine its lure, we will often discover that our reaction is causing more harm to us and others than necessary. Even when we are faced with a fierce dog standing in our path, it behooves us to replace our panic with calm. The dog, like the universe of energy surrounding us, reacts and responds to our emotions.

When I replace the tendency to stress-out about being late with calm acceptance, I often find that the lights in my path change to green, the traffic eases, and I am, in the end, only a matter of minutes, if that, late. When I do the opposite, the lights stubbornly turn red at each intersection, I find there are no gaps in the traffic, my kids start fighting from the back seat, and I, well I, am miserable and stressed!

We can so easily grow accustomed to our stress and our stressors, if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have them in our lives. But stress takes a toll on us, both emotionally and physically. Too much stress in our lives, can cause our hair to turn gray (just look at a president who has been in office for 4 years) or fall out, our weight to decrease too much, or increase too much, and over time, dis-ease can start to set in, finding a vulnerable host in our unbalanced bodies.

Yet, stress, as I pointed out, is often, if not always, unnecessary. When we realize that the effects of stress do not serve us, we can start to reprogram our reactions to its triggers. Remember, the human body, like everything in nature, is constantly seeking a state of balance. In that state of balance, we find peace, health and happiness. So, next time you are in a state of stress, why not pause and ask How is this serving me? and What would happen if I let it go?

Lament

On January 16, 2013January 16, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy Healing, ReflectionsLeave a comment

This morning I find myself sitting beside a stove where fire melts wet wood, and provides a warm contrast to the wonderfully white world outside my window. I am thankful for the heat, the beauty, and the quite solitude that blesses my morning, yet here I am writing about lament.

Lament was the subject of the poem that came to me as I gazed at the falling snow. I barely thought about its meaning as I scribbled down the flow of words. Moments later, I paused to check Facebook, and there it was, a friend’s lament over missed chances; over not heeding her inner voice, until, she feared, it was too late.

Of course, it’s never too late. The voice is still there, waiting to be heard. There is only the present to retrieve our gifts. The past is but a memory, reminding us of what we still can be. Of what we still are, if only we trust enough to heed our inner voices and become our truths. Does lament for lost opportunities, or lost “time,” really serve us? Perhaps it can, if we let it, spur us into action. Perhaps we can use it as a nudge to push us over possibility. The Now is the time to follow your heart and heed that inner voice. Once you realize that you are in control, that only your fears hold you back, you can start chipping away at them.

Last week, I launched my dream to help others. It took, I’ll admit, a large dose of courage to get there. It took a lot of chipping away and healing, and there was more than an once of doubt trying to taint its sweetness, but I did it. What is your dream? Here’s mine:

http://innertruthhealing.com/home/

The Gift of Wait

On January 15, 2013January 16, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn ReflectionsLeave a comment

I find myself inside wait, yet I am not unhappy. Between the sprints of life there is that chance to breath before we run through the next event. During the periods of waiting, we can open ourselves to receive the gifts of silence. If we go deep enough into that silence, reaching what Deepak Chopra calls “TheGap,” we find our answers. We find peace. We find love.

When the Universe gifts us with these moments of pause, it is not perhaps our duty, as much as our best-interest to receive. Instead of looking for something to fill the empty space, we can step inside of it. Alone, inside that stillness, we find connection.

Close your eyes (or leave them open, unfocused), quiet your body and empty your mind. Let your breath lead you to that place of solitude and open the door. When you reach “The Gap,” you will discover that, in reality, you are not alone. Your cells hum with the song of the universe; you are not wholly of yourself, but a part of everything. This is your oppertunity to reprogram and realign with your truths.

Inside silence we hear the answers to our questions, for there is nothing to muffle the voice of our higher selves. In wait, find what you seek.

“When you feel a peaceful joy, that’s when you are near truth.”
–Rumi

Create Love & Share

On December 18, 2012December 18, 2012 By Alethea KehasIn Reflections4 Comments

What does the world you wish to live in look like? What does it sound like? How does it taste and smell? When we visualize with all our senses, we begin to manifest our dreams into reality. The universe responses to the thoughts we send out. Now, more than ever, is the time to create the world we want to live in, and ripple it out to gather with the collective energy of Love. Please share your world premised on love in any form: narrative, poetry, picture, song, etc.

My world already exists, but sometimes I forget. It is:

The Forest & the Chickadee

On December 14, 2012May 6, 2013 By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Energy Healing, Gaia & Elementals, Reflections2 Comments

Last night, before I entered fully the realm of dreams, I found myself inside a lush green forest. Before me was a large fallen tree covered with moss, and flitting atop the felled tree was a chickadee. For several moments I watched the chickadee, wondering as I did, what it was trying to show or tell me. The chickadee never took flight, but rather hopped around on the log, pecking at it and then looking in my direction. That was it.

Before I fell into sleep, I remember telling myself that I needed to recall this vision I was given the next morning. I knew there was a message, but, as often happens during these moments before sleep, I was unable fully to decipher it at the time it was occurring. Throughout the morning and into the afternoon I thought often of that chickadee in the forest. It was not the first time I had paid attention to these social birds and their messages, but it was the first time one had visited me before sleep.

Chickadee, the bird of Truth. It was, I knew, no accident that this bird had visited me on the night of such an important date. 12-12-12. Yesterday was not only a day to receive and send out Love, it was a day to face our fears. I saw clearly during mediation that my second and fifth chakras were still holding onto past pain and, as much as I wanted them to spin in their full vibrancy, I knew they were lagging with residual density.

The 2nd and 5th chakras are intimately linked. Together they spin the energies of our creative truths, something important for a writer of truth. This morning I mailed a chapter of my memoir to a publisher. I sent the second chapter, and although I tried to deny it, I felt the tether of fear and guilt. Intellectually it’s easy to explain away our fears, especially when we can see that logically they are unfounded. Inside the forest of the heart though, we find the truth.

I took my dogs for a walk this afternoon, as is my custom. Instead of going into the forest, we walked around the adjoining neighborhoods. The first trigger to meet me came in the form of a large German Shepard, who bounded, seemingly out of no where, towards me and my two dogs. Immediately fear came rushing in (most of my live I have feared dogs, having two of my own has healed much of this). Thankfully, I recovered quickly from my initial impulse to flee by stepping into my heart-center and sending the energy of love out to the dog. Although he followed us for a little while, he seemed to want to play more than anything else, and I calmly encouraged him to “go home,” until, finally, he did.

Apparently that was just a warm-up. Later in the walk I found myself picking the blown plastic bags and other garbage off the side of the road, as I often do, and stuffing it all into a grocery bag I had found. Since I was also holding a dog leash in each hand, I looked around and contemplated the trash toters lining the road-side. Which one should I put it in? I peered into one with a half-broken lid, and, seeing trash inside, tossed it in. I could hear the engine of the garbage truck in the distance. It would not be there for long. No harm done, or so I thought. No sooner had I tossed the bag in, then the owner of the house came rushing out his front door in a full rage. His words were heated and to the point. He didn’t want my dog waste smelling up his trash can, and I needed to remove it (I won’t repeat his actual words). Again, I felt my heart race in reaction. I was just trying to clean up your neighborhood, I wanted to say. Instead, a jumble of words came out as I tried to explain to this enraged individual that I was not throwing away my dogs’ waste, but the trash I had collected on the side of the road. I needn’t have bothered though, he didn’t want to hear it. Before I could finish, he was back int the house and I was left flustered and feeling like I had just failed a test. I retrieved the bag and went home.

I knew that man’s anger was not about me, that I was just the excuse he was looking for to let of steam. I knew that my actions were well-intended, even if I had made a “mistake” by choosing his trash can, but that awful feeling stayed with me throughout the day. I grew up with a man not unlike this man, and I was bullied in school. I was used to feeling guilty for doing nothing wrong. I was used to taking un-deserved blame. I was used to being the victim. But, I had hoped I was finally free of it.

We get these triggers in our lives when we need reminders that we still have aspects of ourselves we need to pay attention to and heal. Later, when I was back home and had settled down a bit, I decided to meditate. Entering that heart-centered place of Love, I envisioned a soft pink energy around my neighbor’s home. I felt, with empathy, what it was like to live there, and what it was like to be him. I understood his anger and his fear, I saw how it was linked to mine. I knew we were meant to have this interaction today, and I sent the energy of love and forgiveness to us both.

Sometimes life’s lessons hit us hard and by surprise. One day we’re feeling great, the next defeated by a test. Each test, though, is our opportunity to learn. I knew, as a healer, I could send love to this individual, and I also realized, I needed some healing of my own.