Conscious Closure of 2010

As the year is coming to a close we can embrace a significant opportunity to consciously reflect upon life.  We can connect with the meaning of our past year and bring closure to this creative cycle.   Here are some tips for intentionally connecting to the purpose of your year and moving into the New Year with conscious grace. 

·   Set aside quiet time to reflect on 2010 over the next few days.   Give yourself 15 – 30 minutes each day to quietly connect with the process of creating closure.  Turn off the phones and schedule time that will be uninterrupted.  Get a journal or note paper to record your process.  Play soothing music.  Light a candle and/or incense to set the intention for that time.  

·   Step 1: Consider what you experienced in 2010.  As you sit in your quiet space consider the year as if it were a film you have just seen.  Don’t evaluate the value of the movie, the leading character (you) or other players.  Breathe deeply and observe the movie of this past year as if you were a neutral observer in the audience. What is the movie about?  Who are the major players?  What are the primary themes of this movie?  What was the dramatic arc of the film? What did the characters accomplish, struggle through and learn?  You may want to write out the story or simply observe it through your meditations.  If emotions arise, let them come as you breathe through them without judging anything you feel.  See if you can witness the story without attaching to the players or outcomes.  Simply observe. 

·   Step 2: Isolate the themes.  Sitting quietly in your uninterrupted space, reflect on the themes for your year.    What are the big ideas running throughout 2010?  Was 2010 about family, change, money, health?  What were the primary messages showing up throughout the year?  Where did your energy tend to go?  How do these themes relate to each character within your 2010 storyline?  What did you, as the main character of your story, learn this year?  What did you resist?  Are you willing to expand through whatever you resisted?  Are you embracing what was learned?  What did you gain from this year?  What did you offer to the world this year? After you have isolated the themes, give yourself time to reflect on these.  

·   Step 3: Name your Story.   Sit quietly in your space and breathe deeply.  2010 provided great opportunities for your soul to expand. What was the primary theme or message of 2010?  What does the story of your 2010 life-journey want to be called?  Give your story a name. Do the characters, including you have names too?  Perhaps there are chapters in your story that deserve headings as well. 

·   Step 4: Appreciate. Sit quietly in your uninterrupted space and breathe deeply into your body.  Call light to yourself and allow the light to settle into every aspect of your being.  Feel the essence of light expanding into your cells, flourishing throughout your body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  Expand the light and allow it to enfold you until you are basking in a sphere of light.  As you bask in this light, settle into a deep appreciation for you, your journey and all it has given to you.  Become aware of all the help you have received in the physical and from the non-physical world.   Spend time experiencing the sense of gratitude for what you have created in 2010, how it has helped you to grow and to contribute into the world. Appreciate YOU and all that you have experienced and learned through; all that you have shared with the world and all that you are. Everything that you experience in this physical world is designed to uplift, enrich, empower and evolve you.

·   Step 5: Going Forward.   As you sit quietly, breathing deeply into your body, consider the gifts you have received from your journey in 2010.  There may be places that you do not appreciate, enjoy or experience value.  Offer compassion to where you resist.  You may have observed patterns that no longer serve you and you may choose to let these go. Write on a piece of paper where you do not appreciate and where you may resist; write where you want to release.  Then set the intention to allow a higher perspective into your consciousness and the gifts from these experiences to arise throughout your awareness.  As an act of acknowledgment, you may want throw the pieces of paper into a safe fire, as you affirm your willingness to release, open and expand into a new horizon. What you release opens you to new experiences.  What are you taking with you into 2011 from your lessons learned in 2010?  What power are you integrating into your new way of speaking, thinking, feeling and acting?  What are you creating in 2011?

·   Step 6: Creating 2011. You are the creative force behind your life story.  What will you create in 2011?  Take time to peacefully contemplate what you want to experience in this coming year.  As you breathe deeply into your body, imagine yourself doing this very same conscious closure process at the end of next year.  What do you want the2011 story to be about?  What will you have learned and shared with the world?  How will you feel at the end of next year?  What do you appreciate at the end of next year?  You can write the plot for 2011 and give meaning to this story now.  Make a conscious effort to intend, allow and appreciate your life.  As you set the intention, you then allow your spirit to lead the way through this journey by practicing sitting in uninterrupted space daily, breathing deeply and intentionally connecting with your soul.  As you do this, feel into your true essence and allow that light to expand intentionally into your physical life.  Notice your creative journey unfolding through you consciously and appreciate how you are allowing your true essence to flourish into the creations of your new year. As you do this, you will consciously create a meaningful and spirit centered 2011.

May you experience the bliss of your divine self now.  May all beings experience the bliss of divinity in every possible way.  May all life on earth create and know peace.   

I am seeing you experiencing a peaceful closure to 2010 and a blissful creative journey in 2011.  Thank you for all the ways you have nourished my life.  Thank you for consciously creating yours.  Namaste.

The Medium on The Housewives of Beverly Hills

December 19, 2010

So I just found myself watching a television show that has truly left me stunned.  After spending the day teaching a Level 2 Intuitive Empowerment class where we focused on accessing mediumship abilities and connecting with loved ones in spirit, i noticed that Alison Dubois was going to be on television tonight.  Alison is an internationally renowned medium and the premise for the television series "Medium".  In her television show, Alison focuses heavily on the ethics of her work.  Today's class I too focused on the ethical responsibility of shamanic mediumship while guiding students through meaningful connections with spirit.  It was a profoundly fulfilling day.

Apparently the show is a reality based series called "The Housewives of Beverly Hills".  Don't tune me out yet! I can barely believe I watched it either!  I watched because I wanted to see Alison!! Well, I have to say I was disheartened. First, Alison was drinking heavily while being filmed and while under the influence of alcohol, she shared psychic "hits" with the party guests  who did not know her/  She was a guest, not there for entertainment.  Alison claimed to be able to see "when the party guests were going to die", laughing that one of the guests was "married for a second time but that the marriage would end up badly soon", calling individual guests "bitches" and "morally bankrupt".  She claimed to be "off the clock" and yet raved about her own "gifts" and how others should be fascinated by her as a result of her abilities.  She instigated arguments and told a stay-at-home mother that she "has done nothing of value with her life". 

I do not know what was happening for Alison Dubios at the time of this filming.  I can only comment on what I witnessed.  And let me begin by saying this....

Mediumship is not for entertainment. It is not meant for casual conversation.  As I understand it, a divine messenger will never be given hits that are judgmental about another.  Judgment is a filter of the ego; not a message from the divine.  Nor will a medium be given offensive language to describe another.  It will be neutral and factual but not offensive.  If that medium is truly plugged into a divine source, he or she will see the whole truth of the individual. An example I can give to you about this very subject is when I sat for a client and saw that her husband was engaged in something very harmful.  The divine guides sharing this insight with me had no judgment of him instead, they provided specific guidance to 1) awaken the client from her denial; 2) support the truth and safety of the children, 3) stop the offense and hold him accountable.  The entire message served to bring healing to all concerned. 

When a medium is plugged into the divine channels and spirit, compassion will emanate from that messenger. At the very least, you will experience the messages as neutral but fundamentally empowering to the client at a soul level. 

Alcohol deteriorates the energy field of the user.  It diffuses the messages, no matter what the messenger claims.  She happens to claim it makes her more "spot on".   The concern is not with her drinking. To engage in offering "psychic hits" while under the influence of alcohol and while voluntarily being filmed is not just irresponsible, it creates suffering.  Liken it to a doctor giving his/her medical opinion to a friend after having 3 cocktails. Would you consider that to be a worthwhile consult?  I do not care if Alison wasn't "on the clock" as professional medium, ethical boundaries do not just pertain to when you are "working".  

Psychic Boundaries are the responsibility of the professional, not the recipient. The guests at this party were completely infatuated and curious with Alison's abilities.  This is understandable because even though every human is innately intuitive and capable of connecting with spirit, we have a tendency to believe that this is a gift given only to a few. The party guests were pressing her for insights and because she'd had some cocktails, was therefore very relaxed and  overtly  infatuated with her own abilities, she did not have the good sense to say "I am at a party, enjoying a cocktail and need to refrain from any psychic activity for now". The guests did not understand the boundary was hers to establish and hold.

There is a divine purpose to mediumship encounters. Today in class I shared how my guides had encouraged me to teach the value of mediumship from a shamanic point of view.  According to my divine helping spirit shamanic mediumship is meant to: 

1. Awaken the individuals participating in the encounter. 
2. Bring closure, meaning and healing to all concerned
3. Uplift, inspire and even empower the client and all concerned.
4. bring through validations that souls are eternal and life is in a continuous evolutionary process
5. Provide connections that reassure the living that we are never alone;
6. Remind us all that we are all loved - even those who seem 'morally bankrupt" (Alison's language) because divine spirits are consistently aiding us into a higher state of consciousness and living!  
7. Remind everyone that mediumship is never for the sake of entertainment or casual conversation; it is always purposeful and it is never meant to dis-empower anyone.
8. And it will never promote the power or gifted skills of the medium over anyone. 

Witnessing a professional medium on television handle herself in such an insensitive and in my opinion, an unethical manner was disheartening.  I know Alison Dubois is talented. I've been a fan of her show mostly because it helped me to feel less alone in this world when it first aired.  It was the only television show that validated the experiences I had lived through as a medium.  But talent and responsible ethics are not the same thing.  Because we shamanic practitioners and mediums stand on the fringe of cultural acceptance, we each have a responsibility to clearly offer our services in alignment with their divine purpose.  As humans, naturally we will waver.  But it is my hope, that when we do, we openly reflect on our missteps and share the lessons we may be learning as a result of our derailment. 

What you do think about mediumship and its purpose? Did you catch the episode?  I have to admit I felt like a gawker watching a bad accident.  I just couldn't believe my eyes and yet I watched the whole thing to its intensely uncomfortable conclusion.  Whether or not you saw the show, I'd like to hear your thoughts about mediumship.    

(Shaman means an individual who is capable of accessing and understanding the world of spirit at will while living soundly in the material world.  A Shaman navigates both the non-ordinary realities of non-duality and ordinary reality at will. Shamans are innate healers. Shaman is a word originating from the Turko-Mongol and Tungusic cultures in Siberia.  It is not a Native American word)