With love and aloha,
Susan

I thought I would share some images from the earlier this month. I am off to Vermont to pick up my dad and begin another adventure with Alzheimer’s, beliefs, agreements and assumptions.

With love and aloha from Lithuania,
Susan

Here in the town of Nida the wild pigs have been very busy rooting up the grass in the town square. They are making a mess. For some reason I like wild pigs, but not when they are destroying my property in Hawaii. But when I see them in the forest or standing near by they seem so, umm majestic, well I am not sure what adjective I would use to describe them. I think they are cute.

Here is a picture of one that came up to the window the other night when we were doing a dream workshop. Wild pigs are supposed to be dangerous. When I look into their eyes I see peace and curiosity. I find it hard to feel afraid of this creature yet there are stories of people being hurt by them. What we see is definitely defined not by out there but rather by what we tell ourselves about out there.

We can see danger or destruction or cute or food, it all depends on what we tell ourselves and then the choices we make based on that dialog. What is it you want to create, right now, in this moment, in your life? What is your story about having it? What actions do you take to create what it is you say you want?

Affirmations and visualization are wonderful as long as they are followed by the appropriate actions. I am glad I have had my pig fix here in Lithuania so I won’t have to attract them in Hawaii. When they did show up on my property they made a huge mess so I called pig hunters to trap them. The pigs moved on to ‘greener, trap free pastures’ and I was glad I didn’t have to see them killed.

Thoughts, decisions and actions. Creating what you want when you want it is a matter of choices and outcomes. If you keep making the same choices chances are you’ll keep getting the same outcomes! Is it time for some new choices?

A wonderful exercise is to practice changing your habits and routines. Go to work a different way, eat with your other hand, sleep in a new direction, just shake up your ‘normal’ way of doing things and see what happens!

With love and aloha from Lithuania,
Susan 

With love and aloha from Lithuania,
Susan

This morning I was sitting at my desk writing as the sun was rising. My room in Lithuania has a beautiful view of the sunrise. When I finish working here, I will fly to Vermont to pick up my father and bring him back to Hawaii with me.

In Hawaii there is a word for trauma and drama that I love,  it is pilikia. When I get home there could be much pilikia. My dad’s Alzheimer is progressing and he has always been an angry man. As I was writing I thought about the world as an energy system and I know the only thing that is real is that energy of creation, I think of it as love. Not human, conditional love but rather love that is the essence of incredibly beautiful, limitless, expansive energy of pure creation.

So, I thought about my dad and realized that once I let go of the story, which is after all what creates the pilikia, I can simply experience the energy of creation. In the midst of anger and domination I can experience love and dominion just by allowing it to be so. What a wonderful opportunity for me to practice!

When you watch the news and hear a doom and gloom story about the economy you could remind yourself only the love is real or get caught up in the fear. The universe is totally, absolutely abundant, there is no scarcity. Actually in the 1930′s during the height of a world wide depression, there were more millionaires made than in any other time in history and only 75% of the population was unaffected! Whatever we focus on we get more of, so the question is: do you want to focus on your limitless nature or on fear? Do you want to focus on abundance and create that or fear and create lack?

I know my dad is a limitless spirit, at the essence of his being he is unconditional love and we have ‘history.’ I remember how scary he was when I was a young child and he would go into a rage, I remember what it felt like a few years ago when he told everyone I abused him and stole his money and I know when I put him in a care facility he will once again ‘hate’ me and think I am evil. The question is: what do I want to experience, love or fear? I can choose to see only love, even in the presence of his anger.

Every moment in life is an opportunity for us to practice deepening our connect with our spirit or with our filter system. We always have that choice, it is just that by habit, we often choose to see only our story and forget the love that gives the story the illusion of being reality.

So moment by moment ask yourself: What do I want to create? What do I want to see, love or fear? Do I want to be right and reaffirm my story or be happy and connect with my spirit?

With love and aloha,
Susan

The more often we remember our intent the more rapidly we will see its affect in our life. Currently I am teaching in Lithuania. I am talking a great deal about developing practices, spiritual practices and making them part of your life. When I began my spiritual journey I thought in terms of black and white, all or nothing.

I would decide to meditate, journal, do yoga, and recapitulate all before I went to work in the morning. I would quickly get overwhelmed and wind up doing nothing. The easiest way to retrain our thinking and improve our lives is by doing something consistently and finding something you will consistently do!

I have been suggesting a lot of mini practices lately. Something that only takes a few moments, that you can easily do frequently throughout the day.

Here are a few of the mini practices I have suggested:

Set a timer and when it goes off just pause, take a deep breath and remind yourself how wonderful you are.

Whenever you find yourself upset ask yourself:

How could I see this though the eyes of love?
What would love do?
Do I want to be right or happy?

Take long. slow deep breaths frequently and allow yourself to deepen your connection with yourself.

Take a five minute meditation pause.

Whenever you are in the bathroom take a moment to look at yourself and say something loving.

Smile at a stranger.

Help someone in need.

Look at the clouds.

Feel your body.

Pause and remember you are a spiritual being in a wonderful vehicle called your body.

Celebrate and savor the moment.

Make a gratitude list.

Hug yourself.

Maybe use this list as a starting point and add one more thing every week and feel free to share it with everyone in the comment section!

With love and aloha,
Susan

With love and aloha from Lithuania,
Susan

There is the world we can see with our eyes and then the world we feel with our heart. When I limit myself to the world of my eyes I cut myself off so many wonderful experiences. If I believe in magic I will experience it and if don’t believe I will never get to see the miracles that occur everyday.

Presently I am in Lithuania. Yesterday one group ended and today another begins. One woman shared she had a fatal disease. She was determined to cure herself and she also has many beliefs that help her to feel safe. I watched her struggle and tenaciously old onto her beliefs. She wasn’t able to surrender and allow the love in. Everyone else was smiling and hugging while she held herself apart, alone with her beliefs and her disease.

When we are willing and able to open our hearts to love the entire universe expands. As we allow ourselves to live in that expanded universe the possibilities become limitless. But to live in that world, we do have to let go of our old beliefs. We have to stop successfully arguing for our limitations. 

Fear creates limitations and love allows them to dissolve. The more we practice unconditional love the less we have the need to suffer. All of suffering comes from our belief that we are separate from the sea of unconditional love that always surrounds us.

The more I let go of my beliefs and live my life from my heart or my spirit the freer I am. I can listen to my mind pontificate about my version of reality or surrender to my heart and see a new world free of limitations. I get to make that choice moment by moment, thought by thought.

Love or fear, freedom or limitations, joy or suffering. My emotional state will let me know what choice I’ve made. The nice thing is I can always choose again.

Choosing love, joy and happiness for the moment,
Susan

The Toltec tradition emphasizes the fact that the world is a vast energy system. When I was a student I loved working with shadows. I found learning how to hear the shadows in the sound an incredibly profound experience. I still remember the first time I was able to hear the spaces or shadows between the sounds. The awareness of an entirely different universe began for me that day and when our awareness shifts so does our experience.

Recently I have been playing with what I have begun to think of as the shadow of the witch. We all have an energy field that influences our world and the people around us. The more personal power we have the greater the influence we exert. We gain personal power by deepening our connection to our spirit and opening our awareness to the world of love instead of focusing on the world of fear.

I think of the shadow of my spirit as the shadow of the witch and the shadow of my filter system as the shadow of limitations and fear. So, depending in which shadow I stand in I get very different results in my life. Witches are magical and can perform incredible feats of healing and manifestations so I think of the shadow of my soul as the shadow of the witch.

I am currently in Lithuania and it is much cooler than Hawaii. When I stand in the sun it is quite warm but where the sun doesn’t shine, in the shadows it is a lot cooler. When I view life from a fear based place I get certain results. When I view the world through the eyes of love I have so many more choices.

Listen to your inner dialog. How do you view the world? Is it a fearful, limited place or is it a magical universe in which you get to create what you want when you want it? It is amazing what in a profound influence your choice makes and it is a choice. You can stand in the sunlight, in the shadow of your spirit and in the darkness, the shadow  of your filter system.

As a society we tend to choose the shadow of fear so we have a world filled with violence, disease, hunger and limitations. Yet there are spiritual evolved people who stand in the shadow of their spirit and live in a world filled with happiness, abundance, ease and free of limitations. Some live on mana or the prana alone not even having the need for water or food. Personally I enjoy eating so I choose to eat. I allow my spirit to manifest in my life as magical serendipity. Yesterday I was on a flight that was seriously overbooked.

Another man and I were called up to the counter. The man said we’ve probably been bumped. Instead I was upgraded to business class, he was given my old seat and I had a very comfortable eight hour trip. I also sat next to a woman who was part of a large spiritual organization so we had great talks and exchanged business cards.

Life is, then we tell ourselves a story which determines what energy field we are going to play with and be influenced by. Paying attention to our choices makes all the difference in which world, we can chooses consciously or unconsciously where we get to play.

Love or fear? The shadow of the Witch’ shadow or of fear. Which shadow will you choose?

With love and aloha,
Susan

ith love and aloha from Lithuania,
Susan