clarity

Cacao Journals: The Dragonfly & Magic Marble

~ Nicole Gnutzman

Come back to the stillness of the love within and know your heart light to be what it is—reliable and true—showing you the way even now, in peace and stillness. —Alana Fairchild

I arrived a few days early at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala to share some sacred medicine with a small courageous group before the cacao retreat. I found myself caught in a swirl of uncertainty and unpredictability with things not going quite as originally planned, trying my best to go with the flow, which at times felt more like a whirlpool. Resisting, even ever so slightly, and not giving myself completely over to the flow, can be exhausting. So, I simply allowed everything to be as it was.

Unpredictability can be Trickster energy, keeping us off balance, so we can free ourselves of attachment to old patterns, behaviors and desires. On the way to the Lake, I lost a hiking boot, the right foot to be exact. I’m not sure how; it just disappeared out of my backpack. The right side is the masculine aspect, our rational, logical, analytical, planning side. Hmmm, I’ve come to learn that everything in my world is a message. I had noticed on recent hikes that my feet were sore, which is always a sign that my boots were getting old and they also strangely felt too small. Time for new, more expansive boots on this path!

During the opening ceremony of the retreat, we were led in a guided meditation to look inside a tree and see what was there. Now, I am one of those folks who never seem able to follow the directions of a guided meditation because my guides always want to take me somewhere else, lol! This is why I let people know they can go wherever they are guided when I lead my meditations. 

All I saw was a clear, blue ball. Hmmm, I thought, what does that signify? Is it the Lake? Or the ocean? Both symbolizing the deep feminine. It was almost like a globe, as if I was looking down on the world from above. In that moment, it wasn’t clear to me. I trusted it would make itself known.

There is a way forward on the path that needs to be seen by you. It will be helpful for you to have that clarity and that certainty. You might have already caught a glimpse of it but be doubting your vision or yourself….What you are feeling, deep within the passionate love of your heart light, is true. It is real. You are being led into it by the progress of life itself. —Alana Fairchild

Later that day, I went to the Lake to sit by the water and come into relationship with its energy, which is very powerful and transformational. I decided to sit on a stone wall and because it was uneven, lay my turquoise and cream-colored (so me), Turkish towel on the wall. 

The next morning as I was getting ready to go to the Lake for a morning ritual with the retreat group, I realized I had left my towel on the wall. So, at 6:45am I made my way to the wall hoping it was still there. It wasn’t, but in its place was a clear, pale blue marble with a green, blue and white line through it. I started to laugh as it was exactly what I had seen in the guided meditation! A magic marble in exchange for my “so me” towel. More trickster energy. The universe certainly has a sense of humor. Perhaps it was saying in that moment, “What part of ‘you’ do you need to let go of to allow yourself to receive the magic?”

During the morning ritual, we were given flowers to offer to the Lake. I held one in the palm of my hand and closed my eyes to meditate. When I opened them, there on my thumb was a tiny, red dragonfly, a symbol of transformation and magic, which has been guiding me for 2 years now. It first revealed itself to me on a sacred mushroom journey in Huautla de Jimenez, MX and continued to show up in “real life” on my nomadic travels. This particular “real one” rested so long on my hand that a soul sister was able to capture a gorgeous picture. The dragonfly for me also symbolized flying around sharing my work on my travels and landing every so often in magical and sacred sanctuaries to restore my energy. More on that later….

I wove the story about the magic marble into the cacao ceremony I led later that day, which was entitled the Alchemy of Grief and Grace, sharing how we need to grieve our losses to open to grace. The lost towel and marble became symbols of loss and possibility. Many of us were grieving the passing of Keith Wilson, the founder of Keith’s Cacao and our teacher. We remembered him with love; cried and laughed and grieved; and felt his loving spirit with us because we allowed ourselves to feel it all. We realized that many of us, as Cacao Practitioners, were being asked to step into new possibilities of carrying Keith’s vision and mission forward. One of his sayings was “Bring on your magic!” 

I took the magic marble everywhere with me that week and bought a leather medicine pouch just for it. When I held it, it felt like I held the world in the palm of my hand; the world was literally at my fingertips. And, as one retreat participant shared, the world is inside me. My inner world reflects my outer world. Another shared it was like a crystal ball, so I could see into the future. So many powerful messages in such a tiny magical ball. 

At another beautiful cacao ceremony in a private garden where Keith is interred, there was an altar honoring him with flowers and a photo. As I sat in front of the altar, I realized his clear blue eyes, which always saw the magic, reminded me of my blue marble. Perhaps Keith in his own magical ways was asking me to look at the world with the eyes of magic and possibility, and allow myself to trust again. 

Life operates according to a genius that is beyond a linear approach. It is to be trusted rather than understood….You do not have to also create or control the terrain, nor determine the map for the journey. You simply need to take each step that presents itself to you in each moment.” —Alana Fairchild

In the past, with the guidance and support of cacao, I had come to see the world as magical and the messages, guidance and lessons were so clear; and yet in the last year, as I was struggling with health issues and not able to find true sanctuary, that vision and way of perceiving diminished. I had lost my way and the ability to see the magic. Perhaps it was time to see that way again, to open my eyes and follow my “heart light.”

I am still remembering how to see and trust that way again; it really is like looking at the world with the eyes of a child, filtered and enhanced by the wisdom of life experience. Wise and yet innocent at the same time. I am returning to trusting completely in the path laid out by life and the universe. I am coming back to the “stillness of love”, trusting my “heart light” is showing me the way and taking the step presented in each moment. 

As I embrace the message of dragonfly medicine, I find myself about to fly off again. I need to leave my sacred sanctuary in Northern California for the summer and have been invited by my soul family in Southern California to come there. So, I am accepting the invitation and following my heart light. I trust that it knows….

As you sit with what I have shared, you may want to reflect on these questions: How are you perceiving your world? What’s lighting your path? What’s the next step your heart light wants you to take? 

May we open to the magic that is always there for us!

©Soulscape Coaching LLC

Cacao Journals: Finding Sanctuary

~ nicole
Remember the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you. – Rumi

Sanctuary is vital to me. Where I live, how I live and who I share my life with must be in alignment with that. I love the energy of the natural world, as you know, so my recent move marks a return to living in nature, surrounded by trees, a pond, wildlife and the sound of the ocean in the distance (and a cacophony of tree frogs when I go to sleep :)). I feel a sense of peace and tranquility here that I simply don’t in the city with its energetic human hum and traffic noise.

My ceremonial, drumming, coaching and healing work calls for being present, deeply authentic and in full integrity in every moment, which means I must cultivate and call on my own inner sanctuary to be of service.

I cultivate inner sanctuary in several ways: 1) living in nature, or when I can’t, visiting it frequently in silent devotion, 2) quieting my mind in meditation and noticing when it gets too noisy in there or too darn critical, and 3) journeying to the drum or with cacao and hanging out with my spirit guides, who just happen to live in beautiful natural landscapes or should I call them “soulscapes”?

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time. – Hermann Hesse

In cultivating my outer sanctuary, I have to know what environment and energies bring me inner peace and tranquility. For instance, I’m a forest, lake and beach girl; you may be a meadow, desert or mountain girl or guy.

Find your outer sanctuary and “go” there often by bringing it inside of you. Even if it’s thousands of miles away, put on some music that calls you there, close your eyes, and imagine being there. Take it in with all your senses. Or come journey with me and I will take you to that place.

Sanctuary is much like how we dress here in Northern California; it comes in layers, both outer and inner. Cultivate all your sanctuaries. You will discover they bring you the clarity of mind, focus, inspiration and illumination you need to bring your creativity and brilliance fully into the world. Not to mention inner wisdom and deep peace….

Copyright ©2018 Soulscape Coaching LLC

The Cacao Journals: Wisdom & Guidance from the Drum

~ nicole
Shamanic journeying is the inner art of traveling to the ‘invisible worlds’ beyond ordinary reality to retrieve information for change in any area of your life–from spirituality and health to work and relationships. – Sandra Ingerman

Journeying to the drum for others is a beautifully intimate experience where I am entrusted with a vital question to which someone wants an answer that they simply cannot access on their own. And it brings me such joy to share this work.

First we frame the question, so that it can be received by my guides in such a way that their answer offers valuable wisdom and guidance. The question is always stated in the present tense in shamanic journeying and often takes the form of a “What, Where, or How” question. “Why” questions are not recommended as the “Why” of anything can be so complex, as are questions about the future.

I’d like to share a journey that I experienced on behalf of someone whose question was, “What am I to focus on in my work?” I knew nothing about this person other than his full name and where he lived. I journeyed to meet (and merge with) my Power Animal, the Jaguar, and she took me on a lovely journey emerging out of a dark underwater cavern into a night sky full of stars and a landscape lit by a full moon. We ran towards and through a forest of evergreen trees, and found ourselves at the edge of a lake flooded with the light of the full moon.

My Jaguar entered the water and began swimming across the lake toward a fire we could see on the other side. She dove below the surface of the water and began walking across the sandy bottom. I said, “Wait, you can’t do that!” And she answered, “In this world, I can do anything.” Note to self: in the Lower and Upper Worlds, anything is possible.

She’s a shapeshifter, a real trickster, haunts dreams, sees the unseen – Katalin Koda

We surfaced and began walking toward the fire, which was sending sparks up into the night sky. Surrounding the fire were four people. I asked my Jaguar who they were and she responded with, “They are engineers.” I immediately questioned this and said to myself, “I can’t share that! What if it’s totally off base?” I had to let go of my rational mind and just trust that what I was receiving had some purpose and meaning. I followed my first question with another, “What are these engineers building?” Her response rocked me: “A gateway.” How was I going to share that?

Up a slope behind the fire was a beautiful, log-cabin lodge full of luminous light. Then suddenly I was being called back by the drum and had to return from the journey.

When I returned I shared what I had received, worried somehow that it would not make sense to the person for whom I was journeying. The language of journeys is always symbolic and sometimes quite literal, and often a mix of both. I began by sharing the journey and my interpretation of the symbols of the full moon, the lake, the fire and the log cabin full of light.

The full moon often symbolizes the feminine, so it seemed to be telling him that he needed to be in touch with and guided by his feminine wisdom in his work. Water is the deep feminine, our intuitive guidance system, so the message was that he needed to dive deep into his intuition and walk there comfortably until he could surface with deeper knowledge.

The fire is a masculine symbol symbolizing creativity and life force energy, and the sparks showed that whatever was being created by the fire had some juice! The log cabin up the hill full of light was a beacon of hope and inspiration.

When I shared the journey and my interpretation, the silence was deafening. I had to ask, “Does this resonate with you?” because I couldn’t tell.

This is what he shared: “Nicole, I just returned from a business trip to New York where I had a meeting with four key engineers, who were arguing about one of our more innovative, but not main products.” I began to breathe more easily when I heard the words, “four engineers”.

He continued: “They could not agree about the product and were thinking about shelving it. Normally, in these meetings I play a certain role, but this time I found myself coming from a different place and being an advocate for this product because my intuition was telling me it was a game changer, would revolutionize the industry and that we needed to patent it because it was so innovative.”

I asked with curiosity, “What kind of product is it?” He responded, “In our world, it would be considered a ‘gateway’ product.” He beamed from ear to ear, having just had his intuition validated. He knew with such clarity what he was meant to focus on in his work. I was stunned, amazed and overjoyed.

This work is powerful. I’d be delighted to journey for you if you have a question you are struggling to answer about your work, life, or relationship. I can do this work in person or remotely, so you can live anywhere and receive this wisdom and guidance.

All you need to is connect with me here: nicole@soulscapecoaching.com.

Copyright ©2018 Soulscape Coaching LLC.

The Cacao Journals: Meditation while lying down…?

~ nicole
Each journey is considered sacred…. [T]he ancestors and helping allies reveal to us what is needed for our current healing and guidance. – Angeles Arrien

I love meditating while sitting up and lying down. Yes, you read that correctly, lying down. My lying down meditative practice began when I started working with cacao in personal ceremony.

My teacher provided us with a beautiful, guided meditation where we lay on the floor to relax our bodies for the journey with cacao; and then sacred music accompanied us on the rest of our journey, which almost always meant more lying down (or we could dance or sit or write or draw, whatever we felt most called to do).

I lay on the ground a lot, opening, allowing and receiving messages, guidance and healing as that was what I most needed. It became a healing, meditative practice for me.

This posture of “lying meditation” is actually an ancient shamanic practice according to Dr. Angeles Arrien, an anthropologist who studied ancient shamanic cultures and shared her learnings in the book, The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary.

“The lying posture is the most healing posture that the body can assume. The body equates this posture with rest and the nourishment that comes from receiving and giving love. It is the posture of surrender and openness. The lying posture assumed in the journey is way of placing the body…in order to open to guidance and to receive healing.” – Angeles Arrien

This was certainly my experience with cacao journeys, and it became even more evident as I began my work with drum journeys. Drum journeys are another shamanic form of lying meditation, one that allows for direct connection with spirit guides to receive healing and guidance. In this form, you can ask a direct question of your helping spirits and receive an answer while listening and journeying to shamanic drumming. My journeys with the drum for myself and on behalf of others tapped us into a wisdom beyond our minds.

We usually think of meditation as a practice of witnessing the mind and accessing a deeper state of awareness; as a sitting posture with specific positions for spine, hands, legs, chin and gaze; and as a practice that connects us to our breath. There is a meditation form called Yoga Nidra, where the savasana (corpse) pose is held while being led through a guided meditation. All forms are calming and clarifying.

Lying meditation with cacao or the drum embodies those same qualities, but what’s received is qualitatively different based on my experience with both forms. In order to explain it beyond my own experience, I Googled it, of course.

Scientific studies have been conducted to understand the difference between “regular” meditation and shamanic journeying. Here’s what those studies found, according to Sara Violante, a Shamanic Practitioner, Journey Meditation Instructor, & Reiki Master: “During ‘regular’ meditation the brain slips into a Delta state, but during Shamanic Journey meditation, the brain slips into Theta state.”

It’s the drumming at a certain rhythm or the ceremonial cacao that allows us to access this Theta state. Sara shares on her blog post: “Theta brainwave state is known to foster creativity. It is that space between being awake and being asleep…the state where there are no barriers between the spirit world and our brains. Entering into a theta state the mind is open, aware but at rest; there are no pesky barriers of consciousness throwing up “rational” road blocks for what presents itself….[W]e connect to spirit in this state and then the mind interprets this connection and translates it via imagery formed through the imagination – we receive imagery.” Thank you, Sara, for explaining it so well.

Both sitting and lying meditation are each beneficial and complementary. I practice both (not at the same time, of course) depending on what I need in that moment. While I have received clear messages while sitting in contemplative meditation, when I’m looking for a boost in imaginal creativity, deep inner healing where what’s being healed is beyond my awareness or direct messages from spirit, I lie down :).

Copyright ©2018 Soulscape Coaching LLC

 

 

 

The Cacao Journals: Integrating our Masculine & Feminine

~ nicole
When the Condor of the South flies with the Eagle of the North, a new day for Earth will awaken. – Inca Prophecy

Before each cacao ceremony, I always look into the significance of the day in the Mayan Calendar and allow the energy associated with it to inform ceremony. Some days are more auspicious than others; some are feisty and need to be balanced; and others provide deep reflection or spiritual connection. When we align ourselves with these energies and allow them to guide us, our days flow more easily.

So, in preparation for my upcoming Elemental Cacao Ceremony at FLOW Studio on November 4, I looked up the Day Sign, which is 2 Kawoq. The numeral 2 (of 13) represents the galactic tone energy of the day; and Kawoq (1 of 20 signs) is the Day Sign energy, spirit or essence of that day in this year. Together they are a system of astrology and divination that is celebrated in daily ritual and sacred ceremony.

Two is the symbol of duality: birth and death, joy and sadness, night and day, darkness and light, and male and female; while Kawoq is the divine feminine, which can bring a certain wild storminess, while supporting spiritual connection and communication. The combination of the two requires directing this wild feminine energy toward positive desires, and to do so means seeing “very, very far down the road you are traveling…so you may see a clearer, deeper, purer truth (Mayan Calendar Portal).”

Art by Brady Wedman and Maya Jensen

As part of my Elemental Cacao series, I had chosen the element, Air, to be honored in this ceremony. Air symbolizes clarity of vision, inspiration and the ability to see expansively like the eagle, which soars above the land seeing far and wide. The clarity of the eagle, balanced by our inner desires and intentions, brings us to a deeper truth than either would on its own.

Many indigenous prophecies foretold that human societies would split into two paths: one of the Eagle, which symbolizes the path of the mind, the material and the masculine; and the other, the Condor, which is the path of the heart, intuition and the feminine.

The prophecies also foretold that the potential exists within all of us for the Eagle and the Condor to come together and fly in the same sky when we create a new level of consciousness and live in balance with nature and within ourselves. It is up to us to activate this potential.

When the sacred masculine is combined with the sacred feminine inside each of us, we create the “sacred marriage” of compassion and passion in ourselves. –Matthew Fox

The path we are being asked to take now, in these times of crisis and chaos, is towards a higher expression of ourselves, to balance and integrate our masculine and feminine energies. We’ve gotten off center, out of alignment, either too much in one or too much in the other, which throws us and society out of balance.

It is the will of our hearts that allows these energies to come together again, to be in balance. This deep truth and heart wisdom will heal us and allow us to be whole again. Integrating the positive aspects of our masculine and feminine energies is an absolute requirement on our journey to wholeness.

Having spent 18 years in the corporate world, I had developed a strong, masculine side and had to relearn how to be vulnerable, trust my intuition, be comfortable with uncertainty, and open myself to the flow of life. What I found as I integrated my feminine side was a lightness of being, loving acceptance and a deeper trust of myself, and infinite joy.

Being aware that this integration of the masculine and feminine is necessary and critical to our wellbeing is the first step. Opening to the positive aspects that we have not embraced in ourselves (and that we often look to others to fill) is next. What’s missing in our lives is found within ourselves….

Copyright ©2017 Soulscape Coaching LLC

The Cacao Journals: Catalysts and the Unknown

~ nicole
We do not fear the unknown. We fear what we think we know about the unknown. – Teal Scott

So, what awaits after surrender…? The unknown. Scary stuff for those of us who always want to know; for those who need to be fully in control; for those who struggle to have faith in themselves or in life itself. At some point in my life, all those control scenarios were me….

I’ve had my own fears of the unknown, and what I discovered as I surrendered is that the unknown is simply a path I have not taken, something I haven’t yet opened myself up to, or an aspect of myself and life that I did not yet know, but came to know and embrace. It’s a place of truth and trust and mystery, and nothing to be afraid of.

In The Book of Truth, there’s a beautiful passage that captures it completely:

To lift to the unknown, to the unpredictable, to what may be but cannot be seen is a challenge for the small self….The True Self abides there, not in uncertainty but the unchosen–the unchosen, that which was not chosen in prior time but may be chosen in the moment you sing. – Paul Selig

Being curious about the unknown is a big, first step. That’s how I began with cacao, I simply wanted to know what it was all about. It reached out and called me to get to know it. That’s what certain kinds of catalysts do: they start a conversation with you, then they introduce you to the unknown, and then you get to see what the fuss is all about.

Some of us only need gentle catalysts like cacao; others need stronger plant medicines like ayahuasca (I like to call it the two-by-four of plant medicines :)) or other entheogens (which literally means “generating the divine within”).; and still others need nothing at all except sitting on a park bench like Eckhart Tolle (mind you, he did this for a whole year) or a deeply, devoted meditation practice. Heck, life itself is a path too, just a long, arduous one.

All these catalysts can give you a glimpse of the divine within and of your connection to life. It’s there and always has been, we’ve just somehow forgotten. Once we’ve had that glimpse, we want more and that’s the beginning of a beautiful inner journey.

Each catalyst we choose, or that is chosen for us, can lead us to this state of inner and outer connectedness (what some call oneness) and all paths are valid. It’s easy to remain unconscious in this disconnected world of ours. It’s only when we integrate and embody the message of the catalyst and its medicine that we are truly transformed. We become its message.

To be free means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are, because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the universe. – Ram Dass

The unknown shows us who we truly are. It teaches us to be adaptive, creative, resilient; to be accepting and forgiving of ourselves and others; to be at peace and to love unconditionally; and it allows us to experience the pure joy of being in a constant state of wonder. We can ask from this place of unknowing: I wonder what’s going to happen next? I wonder who’s going to come into my life? I wonder what my clarity and light will attract?

Notice what comes into your life when you are curious about the unknown. Drop your expectations. Let go of “controlling” life for a moment. Trust what comes and that you will know how to respond. There’s such beauty there.

Copyright ©2017 Soulscape Coaching LLC

 

How cacao found me….

~ nicole
All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. – Anonymous

Cacao found me. And she was gently relentless in her quest.

My journey with cacao–the raw ingredient in what we know and love as chocolate–began with the movie, Chocolat, the one with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. Seems a bit cliche, perhaps, but that’s how it all began for me….

In the movie, there’s a tiny scene, which no one ever remembers, where Viane’s father, a pharmacist, is sent to Central America to research herbal, ancient remedies, and in his explorations, he drinks cacao in a ceremony around a fire and falls in love with an indigenous woman, who becomes Viane’s mother. In the world of the Maya, “chocolate unlocks hidden desires and reveals destinies.” That was my “You got me at hello….”

Something unlocked deep inside of me. I suddenly had the unquenchable desire to not only experience cacao ceremony, but to learn how to hold ceremony. So, I went to the source of all things, Google, and searched the web for cacao ceremonies. At that time (6 years ago now), all I could find was Keith, nicknamed the Chocolate Shaman, living in Guatemala, who was called by the Spirit of Cacao to bring cacao out of the rainforest to the people and open their hearts. He lives there to this day offering cacao ceremonies on his rustic front porch and works with a local indigenous shaman and people to source, bless, minimally process and package raw cacao for ceremonial purposes. This is the sacred cacao I work with. Just last year, I finally was able to travel to Guatemala and drink cacao with Keith and his merry band on Lake Atitlan, a sacred, transformational place.

And as things beautifully unfold when we open to possibility,  I found a teacher (or did she find me?) who led an online course in cacao ceremony and created a private Facebook forum where her students gathered to share experiences and receive wise guidance as we practiced on ourselves, family, friends and ever-widening circles of the curious and spiritually minded.

Cacao, along with deep inner work, has revealed who I truly am, which has awakened a fierce sense of compassion not only for others but for myself. It has opened me to new levels of creativity and clarity; provided me with a sense of deep contentment in my life; and revealed my soul’s path and destiny. And I have personally witnessed its transformative effect on others in group and private ceremony. If that’s the gift of cacao, who doesn’t need a little more of that in their life?

 

I know it may seem hard to believe that this delicious tree and its fruit have such gifts to bestow on us. The Maya have known for a long time that it is one powerful plant, full of heart-opening medicine. I like to think of it as Rescue Remedy* for our souls.

Over the next few weeks, I’d love to share more of my story with cacao here. Join me on this sacred journey with cacao or, better yet, come experience cacao ceremony yourself. Allow it to open your heart and reveal your desires, spark your creativity, and guide your life path. It’s lusciously good medicine for your heart and soul….

Copyright 2017 © Soulscape Coaching LLC.

*Rescue Remedy is an herbal remedy made from flower essences that naturally reduces stress.

Gentle intentions–meditation without meditating

~ nicole
Setting intentions means to set a goal that is in alignment with our consciousness. To live intentionally and mindfully we start with a positive intention. – Dr. Romie Mushtaq

Intentions have been on my mind and in my heart ever since I found myself guiding clients to go deep with theirs. If you recall, I shared my experience with intention setting in a previous blog post along with some tips on how to create a positive intention. Here’s a link to the post if you’d like to revisit it.

I was so inspired by setting expansive positive intentions for who my clients are and how I want to be in my work, that I decided to set gentle intentions for myself each day and see what unfolded. And, to make sure I actually followed through, I challenged myself to post an intention each day on my Soulscape Facebook page. So I did….

Each morning over tea, I sat quietly and just allowed an intention to emerge. Each day’s intention was different based on how I was feeling, how I wanted to be or what I wanted to show up that day. After setting my intention for the day, I wrote it down and released it into the world. Sometimes, I would feel as though I was gently carrying a baby bird egg with me all day; and other days, I didn’t think about my intention for the rest of the day.

Setting these gentle intentions each morning was so clarifying for me in so many ways: my mind felt clear and uncluttered, my energy was calm and centered, and my heart was open and spacious. It was if I had meditated without meditating at all!

Having to revisit my intention from the day before as I added my new intention to Facebook each morning was both illuminating and gratifying. It allowed me to see what had shown up for me that day, and what was so amazing is that what and who showed up fully supported my intention for the day. My week was positively full of beautiful synchronicity.

Here are the 7 gentle intentions I set for the week:

Monday: “I set gentle intentions for myself each day that guide my soul.”

Tuesday: “I am grateful for what I have and what is yet to come.”

Wednesday: “I reach out and share my soul gifts in joy and with love.”

Thursday: “I nourish myself with friends, healthy food, walks in nature and meditation each day, so I thrive.

Friday: “I reflect the radiant light and energy of my sister (and fellow) soul-workers by creating, collaborating with, and contributing to our supportive community.”

Saturday: “I trust, listen to, and am guided by my intuition.”

Sunday: “I let go of and release my pain by opening to the wonder and mystery of life.”

And now I’m hooked! I can’t start my day without setting a gentle, positive intention. On the days that I try to convince myself I don’t have time or I don’t really need one, I find I can’t not write one…. I’m pulled towards it as if it has an energetic force or attraction of its own.

What becomes possible for us each day when we set a gentle intention? A more calm, centered,  and openhearted presence. Clarity of mind and intention. Supportive connections and synchronicity. What more lays on this path? That’s the path I want to walk, one where possibility opens up in front of me welcoming and supporting me each step of the way….

So, if you’re up for the challenge, set gentle intentions each day for one week, and let me know how it goes for you. I’d love to hear all about what shows up for you.

Copyright ©2017 Soulscape Coaching LLC

The gift of retreating

~ Nicole Gnutzman
“There is nothing more natural than for Life to align with Light in a sacred dance of co-existence and co-creation.”  – Birgitte Rasine, The Serpent and the Jaguar: Living in Sacred Time

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The Lake (Lake Atitlan) called me back and I returned, not alone this time as on my first solo retreat, but with 10 beautiful and brave souls, who were open to whatever awaited them there. And what awaited was more than any of us imagined.

As we opened to our retreat, we left the bustling world behind and immersed ourselves in a new energy, an interplay of quiet solitude and tribal community, relaxation and movement, restoration and revitalization, and receiving and giving.

img_2981We closed ourselves off to the world as we knew it and entered a cocoon, a sanctuary, to emerge from our chrysalis more vibrant and alive, and with bright wings that allowed us to rise above ourselves and the world and see with new eyes.

We lived into the spiral of life, the intertwining energies of the four elements: creation and destruction (fire), nourishment and growth (earth), deepening and flow (water), inspiration and clarity (air). And we yearned to take that emergence and transformation home with us, back into the world.

Re-entry into that world is always challenging after retreat as it seems less real or even unreal, an alternate reality of frenzied, ungrounded energy, disconnected from our own deeply felt experience while on retreat.

Retreating brings us back to our true selves, and we want to bring that radiant energy and truth back with us. It can feel like a burden as the world does not always welcome truth and radiance, but it’s a gift we must give to the world, knowing that everything we give will return to us perhaps not in that moment, but in time.

Our inclination may be to protect what we experienced, shielding it from the unremitting, relentless darkness of the world. If that helps us to keep the light within us alive, then let us hide it for awhile, but know, to hide it for too long, weakens it; it needs to be given to others, so they may shine too, and in their shining, their energy comes back to us. It is the energy of life, the spiral on its return journey, the law of attraction, flow.

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If we have one mission in this life it is to rediscover who we truly are, so we can offer our light and our gifts to the world as we walk on our soul’s path. Retreating from the world for just a little while to deepen that connection to ourselves and to life itself allows us the spaciousness we need to restore that light. And then we, and others we touch with our light, can shine.

Many of us will return again to Atitlan. Our retreat may become an annual celebration of the transformative power of the Lake and our own transformation….

Copyright ©2016 Soulscape Coaching LLC

 

Effort or surrender?

~ Nicole Gnutzman
Life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. I am learning to live between effort and surrender. – Danielle Orner

IMG_2357I’m with Danielle. I too am learning to live in the liminal space between effort and surrender, and some days I’m better at it than others…. I see this same struggle in many of my friends and clients, who have excelled in life by being fully in control, until something told them in no uncertain terms that they actually weren’t.

When we experience a loss or a longing that cannot be filled by ordinary measures of effort, it can cause us to question our beliefs about life and ourselves. Few of us want to accept life as uncertain; we want certainty and guarantees, and safe risk (if that’s even possible). Uncertainty, unpredictability and ambiguity make us very uncomfortable.

When we realize that our belief about life has been mistaken, we find ourselves at a loss of what to go do, so we keep doing the same thing over and over again–and that’s like doing more of the same and expecting a different result. It’s an infinite loop that never ends or a wall we keep running into. Effort, although it feels safer and more familiar, may not be the place to go to find resolution.

When we’ve exhausted ourselves and our options, we come to the realization that we have to let go of something, whether it’s a belief, pattern, or issue, that’s holding us back from what we truly want (more joy, connection, purpose, etc.). That letting go is what is called in spiritual terms, “surrender,” and it doesn’t feel either safe or familiar to those of us who have relied solely on effort.

 

Finding the sweet spot between effort and surrender just may be the key to our frustration and discomfort. Seeing with new eyes that surrender and effort can be complementary–a “both/and” rather than an “or.” What if we surrendered to surrendering? And then acted from there?

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Two resources that came to me as I was looking for guidance in this realm have beautiful ways of navigating this liminal space. The process in each, even though they come to it from very different healing perspectives, is strikingly similar. Each has tremendous value and power in itself, and I also found in working with both that blending the two is a truly powerful combination.

The first resource by Michael Mirdad, a spiritual healer, is, Healing the Heart & Soul: A Five-Step, Soul-Level Healing Process for Transforming your Life, which takes a more spiritual approach based on his work with A Course in Miracles. His healing method follows this path:

  1. Recognizing the issue: the courageous step of recognizing the need for healing and choosing to make a significant change in your life
  2. Accepting: taking responsibility for identifying the cause(s) of the issue and acknowledging the deeper emotions behind it
  3. Surrendering: surrendering all issues, emotions, people, events unconditionally by giving them to a higher power for healing
  4. Refilling: consciously calling in guidance and healing from a higher power and receiving the message
  5. Giving Thanks: releasing the issue, showing gratitude for the healing and acknowledging your readiness to move on.

The second resource, which I mentioned in an earlier post, by Leslie Davenport, a family therapist and ordained minister, is Healing and Transformation through Self-Guided Imagery, which walks us through self-guided meditation to access our heart’s guidance. Her path to healing and transformation is:

  1. Asking what you need guidance about: one word or phrase that encapsulates the issue
  2. Accessing your heart: bringing attention to your breathing by breathing in “Clarity” and breathing out “Peace”
  3. Discovering your inner sanctuary: allowing an image to arise of a place where you feel most at peace
  4. Bringing your issue to heart: holding your issue up to receive guidance (surrender)
  5. Receiving your heart’s guidance: asking your heart for “a wise and loving response”
  6. Thanking your heart: thanking your heart for its message and integrating its wisdom into your daily life through action.

What’s so amazing is that each process only takes about 20 minutes to complete, and you can do them all on your own. With both, I’ve found writing in a journal helps with the discovery process and integrating the healing guidance into my life.

Surrender all that no longer serves you. Let all that remains buried in your heart come to the surface and be healed. Let there be space for new energies to enter. A new beginning transforms darkness to light. – Anonymous

For those of us who are used to efforting, these powerful, transformative processes provide us with the steps to find our way to surrender and access our inner knowing, which then guides us to right action. We live in that space where both surrender and effort reside.
 

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Copyright ©2016 Soulscape Coaching LLC.