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Hostage Situation – Inside Yourself? – Richard’s Commentary
I can certainly relate to Rosemary’s Exploration this week. And it’s not any one or big fear that holds me back from “living my richest life.” It’s usually little things. And when I move beyond the fear and look back I think: “what was I ever afraid of?”
Most of my little fears come from my childhood. I was an only child for a long time – my next brother came along when I was already eight. I was protected and even revered within my extend and large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And because family was always there I didn’t have to venture out much into greater society.
So, when Rosemary asks: What part of you is holding another part hostage? I can usually point to my inner child – that protected and easy living six year-old.
Rosemary is exactly right when she says:
But most of the fears that I see with clients represent a conflict between a part that wants to step forward and a part that is afraid to do that.
It can be around any issue: a relationship, a job, money, family, taking a risk, making a decision. There is a feeling of wanting to move and yet, at the same time, a sense of paralysis.
My adult self always wants to step forward; I am usually energetic, decisive and know what I want. But sometimes that six year-old digs in his heals and sets up a block out of some weird sense of protectiveness.
Does this ever happen to you? Do you ever feel paralysis as you work toward an important goal? When this happens to me I usually have to go inside to work through the issue. Sometimes I even have a talk with the six year-old to calm any fears he may be experiencing. I remind him of several factors in the situation:
- I am in charge and I know what I am doing; I’m the adult, after all!
- We have done things like this before and it always comes out well!
- Look to the end result, the success. Doesn’t that make you happy?
- Let’s just move forward and see what happens; you’ll be OK.
This inner dialogue can take several forms: meditation, writing, even sometimes a shamanic journey (for me this is similar to an inner guided meditation) to visit my places of safety and my power animals. I can even take my six year-old into the future to see the positive outcome and allay any further fear.
Of course using a coach or counselor is always an option. Inner child work can be very powerful and productive. The tools and help are there for all of us to “live our richest lives!”
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Hostage Situation – Inside Yourself?
What part of you is holding another part hostage?
If that question is hard to answer, then try this one: What is Fear keeping you from doing in your life?
We have so many fears, many of them unconscious, and they can cripple our progress through life. Sometimes it is a fear of public speaking (have you heard that this is often greater than the fear of death?) or it might be a fear of spiders. Some have a fear of flying that keeps them from enjoying vacations to distant lands.
But most of the fears that I see with clients represent a conflict between a part that wants to step forward and a part that is afraid to do that.
It can be around any issue: a relationship, a job, money, family, taking a risk, making a decision. There is a feeling of wanting to move and yet, at the same time, a sense of paralysis.
Have you ever felt this way? Perhaps you are feeling this today around something that is going on in your life.
What have you thought about doing that you are not doing YET? What has been hanging around waiting for the perfect time for you to commit to it? Where do you want to go in your life that you have been afraid to move toward?
There is always some fear lurking in the issue when we feel torn about a decision or making a move in a certain direction. Sometimes the fear is that we don’t know what to do next. It might be a fear that we’ll make the wrong decision or choice and there will be consequences.
The part inside of you that is holding you hostage to a fear may not be revealing the exact nature of that fear to you. Often a client will come to me with one issue and the REAL issue is something behind the one they can see.
I spent a VIP Day with a client once who wanted to plan out her business and marketing as we discussed in her preparatory session. She came with calendars and plans in hand. What happened during our hours together, though, showed why she had been unable to get those plans organized.
There were family issues to be resolved before her unconscious mind would allow her to leap forward in her business. We spent most of the time working through the blocks and fears that had been lurking behind her indecisiveness.
After the work of clearing those blocks and fears, we sailed through the business part of the planning!
That is the power of CLEARING THE FEAR! When a part of you is being held hostage by a fearful part, you must learn what the fear is and how to satisfy the part that holds the fear BEFORE you can take the next step in whatever area of your life where you feel stuck.
How are you holding yourself back in your life? Have you identified the fear?
Move the fear out of the way so that you can move freely toward the life you desire!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What Are You Holding Back in Yourself?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What Are You Holding Back in Yourself?
MONDAY’S POEM: Conflicted Poet
There is a Full Moon coming up this week on Wednesday, 6:51 AM Eastern time. As the moon swells it is good to tune into her energy and all the energies around and within. Just notice how you feel. Go out and view the moon and tune in. Observe everyone around you, the driving (also Mercury is retrograde now), the attention span of the people you encounter. This is a good “noticing” time.
It can also be a time of conflict, inner and outer. Here’s a poem for this time:
Conflicted Poet
What does a conflicted poet write?
What bubbles up from below?
What trickles down from above?
Love. A poet writes of love
For all the world to read
And understand this Queen.
Low. A poet sinks so low
To find the deepest part
And understand this King.
Light. A poet merges with Light
To sing of the highest peaks
And understand this God.
A poet writes of highs and lows.
He writes of light and sings above.
And most of all he writes of Love!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
I wrote today’s poem in early 2013 as a way to live that year, life. There is a cycling about this poem of circles, hinges and turnings. And with faith there is a spiraling that powers the evolution of consciousness. There may be other acts that we, as humans, need to live by, but for me these are three of the most important ones:
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
Three acts to live by:
Love, where it all begins
And ends.
The circle of everything
Turns with the tides
As the Moon loves down.
Forgiveness, in the middle,
The hinge.
It all turns on this act,
Swinging ‘round and ‘round
As a gateless gate for passage.
Gratitude, the end,
No end.
Turning about the center
Where it All rests
As we give thanks and praise.
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude:
Grace.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Create Your Baby! – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary and I just returned to the East Coast from LA and our first visit to our newest grandson, the baby who was the inspiration for Rosemary’s post here yesterday. It is wonderful to have a baby in the family again, even one who is 3000 miles away! We are now inspired to see him often, to watch him grow and to nurture him along his way, as only grandparents can!
And by writing this I have formed my own “baby”, one of my “next steps” in the process of living the life I choose. My intention is to play a significant role in Tristan’s life, no matter where his parents choose to live. Meeting him and being with him this past week reinforced his “calling” to us for our attention! Now I just have to make it all happen. How?
The answer is in Rosemary’s post:
The most important choice that you make is the choice of thoughts that you will think.
Really. This is most important. Your thoughts really do create your reality. Many people try to deny this but worrying about something you DON’T want energizes that which you don’t want. You want to program your unconscious mind to focus energy on that which you DO want and you make this happen by choosing your thoughts to support the direction of your creative dream.
So, I am choosing to think that I will spend significant time with Tristan as he grows and develops no matter how far apart we may live. I have been traveling much of my life for much less important reasons; I intend to continue my journeying well into the future! And I do know that my thoughts and intentions create my reality. Here is a minor story to prove Rosemary’s point.
During our trip to LAX from “the Valley” yesterday traffic was heavy – imagine that! But we had allowed plenty of time and neither of us was worried about our schedule. My boarding pass indicated I was “pre-cleared” through TSA to even save time through security screening. Rosemary set two intentions as we approached the airport: an easy bag-check process and she would join me in the “pre-cleared” line! I was so confident that we were in good shape that I set no intentions for myself as I dropped her with the bags and then left to return the rental car. Here’s where my lesson began!
As we pulled up to curb-check the bags a car was about to pull away where I needed to be; after a brief wait I pulled into that spot right in front of the skycap desk. As I got out and popped the trunk a skycap came to help with the bags; it couldn’t have been easier! I left Rosemary to get the claim checks and raced off to the rental agency.
And I hit a wall of traffic on Century Boulevard! It had been shut down to one lane for an emergency repair. I crept a car length or two through each light cycle. I finally made it to a gas station to top off the tank before returning the car; there the pump wouldn’t take my credit card so I had to go into the store twice, once to get the pump on and once to retrieve the receipt! After a half-hour delay and increasing tension I finally got on the bus to return to the airport and join Rosemary.
Security wasn’t too bad by this time and I breezed through on my pre-clearance. And Rosemary? Yes, she did talk her way into the pre-cleared line as well! We made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare!
Once again the power of intention, that “thoughts really do create reality” hit me over the head! Rosemary had set her intention for a very smooth bag-check and screening process. I had not paid attention nor set intention for a very smooth rental return process! And as I became frustrated in the traffic jam my frustration was compounded at the gas station!
A trivial example perhaps, but: Really. This is most important. Your thoughts really do create your reality.
PS: We will be seeing Tristan in November as he travels to the east coast for a family visit and again in December as we travel to LA on business! Thoughts really do create our reality!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Create Your Baby!
What is waiting for you to create NOW? Not next year. Not someday. But now.
It is easy to dream up great ideas and to plan to make them become reality, but until you take action to create them in the physical plane, they will remain ideas. What is on your drawing board that is waiting for some action?
I am not a fan of regrets or of looking backwards, but when I hear someone say that they wish they had done something differently in the past, I want to suggest that they take action in THIS PRESENT MOMENT instead of looking to what might have been.
You are always at choice in your life. You are always ready to create your next ‘baby.’ No matter what the circumstances of this moment might look like to you, you can always choose to move in the direction of that creative idea, that dream.
What is one step that you can take to give a signal to the Universe that you are ready to make that dream become a reality? It doesn’t have to be huge. You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row. You don’t have to have worked out all the steps required to finish it.
You only need to know what the one next step needs to be.
And then you need to take that step!
Creating something requires a choice to move and an action to follow up that choice. Are you focusing on what you don’t have available? Are you focusing on the overwhelming nature of the full project instead of the requirements of the one step in front of you?
The most important choice that you make is the choice of thoughts that you will think.
Really. This is most important. Your thoughts really do create your reality. Many people try to deny this but worrying about something you DON’T want energizes that which you don’t want. You want to program your unconscious mind to focus energy on that which you DO want and you make this happen by choosing your thoughts to support the direction of your creative dream.
When you have a creative idea, when you get an inspiration, that idea exists in another dimension and you have been given access to that idea as the ‘keeper of the creation.’ It then becomes your responsibility to pursue that creation.
Do you feel that you have an overwhelming list of creative ideas and that you can’t possibly accomplish them all? This is a great place to be! You are being invited to capture the ideas and then to use your intuition to prioritize the development of those ideas into projects.
It is important to ask yourself, ‘Is it mine to take action on this idea?’ Sometimes your role is to receive the idea and then to hand it off to someone else or bring it to a team. Sometimes your creative idea meshes with someone else’s for great synergy.
But if you don’t take action in the direction of those creative ideas, how will you find the partner? How will you make everything come together? How will your creative idea ever become reality?
Start your creative process TODAY. Figure out your ONE NEXT STEP.
Nine months (or earlier!) from now, when your creative ‘baby’ is born you’ll be glad you took the action you decided to take today!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What Are You Ready to Birth?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What Are You Ready to Birth?
New Moon in Libra I Ching Divination
For each new moon I cast an I Ching Gua – a six line hexagram of solid and broken lines (Yang and Yin) lines. I use the yarrow stalk method to derive the Gua. And I use The Complete I Ching by Taoist Master Alfred Huang as my main source to interpret the Gua.
The new moon in the sign of Libra occurred last Wednesday, September 24, at 2:14 am EDT. I cast the Gua on that day to get an idea of the energies coming in for the month. The initial Gua is pictured here. It is Huan which means “dispersing.” Huan is composed of two trigrams, Wind over Water (Xun over Kun). Wind can also mean Wood. The picture I get is of a wooden bridge spanning a large river. It is favorable to proceed, to cross the river.
Notice there are two changing lines in this initial Gua. The second line (from the bottom) is a 9 (a weak yang line) and the third line is a 6 (a weak yin line). Master Huang suggests reading the yin line so the 6 changes to a nine yielding a new, accomplished Gua pictured here.
The accomplished Gua is a double trigram, Wind over Wind, Xun, which means Proceeding Humbly. This means proceeding like a gentle breeze, which can go everywhere. It suggests using caution as we move forward.
Proceeding with humility does not mean moving forward from a position of weakness, but from one of balance. There is no need to feel superior, nor is there a need to feel weak.
Overall there is good movement forward after a period of dispersing of some energy. The changing line at the third position signifies a release of self-centeredness, selfish pursuits. When this third line changes to a nine it signifies it is auspicious to proceed from a position of both humility and strength.
Now that we are moving beyond the Autumnal Equinox and into the sign of Libra, a time of balance, it is good to keep this balance in mind. Move into autumn gently, like a fall breeze blowing through the trees.
And remember, there is nothing static about balance!
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AMD CYCLES” – Meet Tristan
Running on California time today (I guess this is more like “Saturday’s Poem”) where Rosemary and I are visiting our newest grandson, Tristan Wallace Bredeson. It is my joy to introduce him to you! This “image poem” certainly belongs in Rhythms and Cycles. He is the first son of a first son going back 5 generations!
Men and The Goddess 