Month: April 2016

How to be grateful?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Personal Development, Self help techniques

Gratitude is not hard. It is a habit to cultivate. Instead of seeing what is wrong with the world, just focus on what is right. Focus on the beauty, the joys, the flowers and trees. Focus on the kindness, the peace and tranquility of nature, the laughter of children.

gratitudeGratitude comes easily once you have made it a habit. You can be thankful for the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the home you live in, the friends you have. There are many people in the world who do not have these luxuries, they sleep cold in the street and starve most days. So be grateful for what you have, even if it annoys you, even if it is not your favourite taste or look. At least you have it, whatever it is.

Be grateful for arriving safely at your destination each day and waking to a new one the next morning. Many people don’t wake up, they die, and you have been gifted with another day. Even if your life is not how you would like it to be – if you are unhappy at work, alone, or unhappy in your relationship – don’t focus on the negatives as that will just increase the size of them. It will seem worse than it is and your level of dissatisfaction will increase. Focus instead on the positives. At least you have a job, it is providing you with income, opportunities to make friends, to learn and grow. Find the good in it and you will feel more satisfied.

Think about what it is you would prefer, the kind of job you would like to move into, picture it, feel it, know you will make the change when the time is right and be grateful to the Universe which is guiding you towards it. Know it will happen with certainty and take steps towards it, even little ones – read a book related to it, research positions, training required, do a course, talk to someone in the role. Each step you take you will feel more empowered, excited and hopeful. This is much more productive and feels better than simply complaining about your current job or feeling stuck and acting like a victim. You are not a victim. You have options. You just have to learn to take them and believe that you can change your life. You truly can.

Gratitude is one of the keys to a satisfying, fulfilling, enjoyable life. Your circumstances don’t have to change to create it, just your attitude and your thinking patterns. Each time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought or complaining, stop yourself. Just stop it. Refuse to do it. Refocus on something else. You can say to your mind “Thank you, but i’m not doing that any more”, then look for a more positive aspect of the situation or a solution to focus on.

When you focus on solutions, you find them. When you focus on problems, you see more of them. Like attracts like energetically. When you focus on problems, your mind thinks it is helping you by coming up with all sorts of thoughts about the problem. It is like you have placed an order at the restaurant and your mind serves up all kinds of beautiful dishes in the hope to help you, to serve you and fulfil your order.

If your focus is on solutions, then your mind and intuition will come up with lots of ideas on how to solve the situation. They will just surface and come to you, if you ask for guidance and you allow some space and time, to sit quietly and listen for the answers from within.

An attitude of gratitude can greatly improve your life and it is simple. It doesn’t cost money. You don’t have to go anywhere to get it. You just have to make the effort to focus your thoughts on more positive aspects of life. Keeping a journal can help. Some people like to write a list of items they are grateful for each night. It may include interactions with others, experiences throughout the day, insights they had, even ‘negative’ experiences that they learned something from.Mandala-Gratitude

Another way to do it, is to sit at the dining table and add a round of sharing to the conversation at dinner. You may ask each person to share something they are grateful for that occurred during the day, or three things. This forces each person to come up with three things to be grateful for. It helps build the habit of being grateful. Good to do.

Gratitude is a tool you can use to help yourself enjoy life more. It is well worth cultivating for a lifetime of greater pleasure and enjoyment of life. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (22 April 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.

How to heal from emotional abuse?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Healing from child abuse, Personal Development, Self help techniques

Free-BirdEmotional abuse is just as devastating as physical or sexual abuse. It damages the psyche and deeply affects a person’s self worth and feeling of safety. It leaves individuals afraid to interact with others and sets up a condemning pattern inside, where they repeat the abuse to themselves, by calling themselves less than loving names and treating themself in less than loving ways.

While devastating at any age, emotional abuse while a young child (0-6 years) of age is most damaging, as this is when children simply believe and absorb anything they are told. It goes straight into their subconscious programming and they are conditioned to act it out their whole life, unless they learn how to change their subconscious beliefs.

Such negative conditioning can have devastating affects throughout their life. If they are told they are ugly, unwanted, not needed, not liked, a failure, hopeless, that the problems others are facing is their fault, etc, then they will believe it and subconsciously they will play it out in their life – at school, at work, in relationships.

When things are going well the conditioning will cause them to act out and self sabotage. If on the brink of success, and the conditioning is that they are a failure, they will find it very uncomfortable to succeed. They will most likely fail shortly thereafter, if not before.

So they may get the promotion, but then find they can’t cope with the job or do something to cause themselves to be demoted – be late continuously, get sick, make a critical mistake or simply leave the job as they don’t enjoy it. This form of self sabotage happens unconsciously and repeatedly until it is changed.

If a child watched one parent being abused emotionally by the other, then the child learns that is how relationships are. They will accept poor treatment from others as they don’t realise that they deserve better or that there can be loving, safe interactions between people.

Worse, the parent who is constantly belittled is likely to withdraw from the child. They are likely to sink into depression, if not addiction, as a way to cope with their unhappy situation. The child therefore becomes neglected as well as suffering from witnessing and receiving the emotional abuse.

If the parent sinks far enough into depression and doesn’t have the strength to stand up for themselves or leave the relationship, then this destructive pattern can continue for years and usually does. A child in such a situation gives up hope. They may have tried really hard to be a good boy or girl, in an attempt to make things better. They may have tried helping out around the house to make life easier for the parent, and in an attempt to reduce the catalysts for fights. The child tries to be the peace keeper.

When that doesn’t work, they may try to rescue the parent, to help motivate them to leave or by standing up to the abusive one. But of course the child is a child acting like an adult, and the actual adult is stronger, more powerful, and can be vicious. The child is dependent on the abuser for their home, food and other necessities. It is a no win situation.

And in this situation the child has lost the ability to be a child and enjoy their childhood. their thoughts are not about their friends, toys, school, sport, playing games or having fun. Their thoughts are about survival and staying alive. Worse about keeping the depressed parent alive, if they have attempted suicide as a way to escape the abuse. The child becomes numb, simply going through the motions, withdrawn in a shell of self protection. Their life is a series of painful events, marked by even more painful events when the emotional abuser turns the focus on them, and lets rip with a torrent of cruel and mean statements about the child.

As the child grows they may come to hate the abusive parent, they may wishe they would die and even fantasise about hurting or killing the parent. This is just an attempt to gain back the power they have lost, to feel stronger, more independent, not so crushed. Few would actually act out such a fantasy.

Emotional abuse is just as devastating to a child as other forms of abuse. It sets up similar fear patterns, mistrust patterns and self loathing patterns. This damage will take years to heal. It will take many decades for the person to become fully aware of their conditioning, to feel and release the emotional pain, and balance backup to a state of self love.

They will have to learn to monitor and change their thoughts to more loving and supportive ones. They will need to change their subconscious beliefs, so that they do believe they are worthy of love, they are a worthwhile human being and they are deserving of good things.

It will take a lot of time to learn to be kind and loving to themselves. This softness will not be natural as they have grown up in harshness. So it will take time before softness feels safe and acceptable. Keep practicing until it does.

healthy-relationships-300x203Harder still will be the ability to trust others. Mistrust will be so deep. Self protection and isolation so automatic, that it will take a lot of concerted effort to break free of it and be able to let people truly close and truly know them.

It will take a long time for the person to actually know themself – what they like to do, their interests and what is fun for them. At first this is such a foreign concept, as life has been about struggle, survival and avoiding further abuse. It hasn’t been about having fun or doing what they like. So they have to learn how to have fun, how to do a hobby and relax and enjoy it.

Their bodies are often armoured, hard with locked up muscles from keeping all the pain inside. The softness is buried beneath the armour and much work needs to be done to help the body relax and come out of its permanent state of fight, flight or freeze. The body is also likely to be exhausted from the constant stress, trauma, and lack of exercise, good food, etc. When locked in fear the breath often shallows, so the body does not get as much oxygen, it can’t digest and absorb the nutrients as well, and the adrenals get over worked and depleted, resulting in fatigue. Good diet, exercise, emotional release work and body work to help dissolve the armour and trauma all help.

Your nervious system which has been in constant fight, flight, freeze is wound up tight, constantly activated, pumping adrenaline and cortisol through your body, or if you feel there’s no hope and you’ve started to give up and shut down, then your body is pumped full of opioids to numb you.

A range of actions can help your nervous system to calm – deep breaths, time in nature, but most importantly Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) which activates the body’s natural stress, tension and trauma release mechanism, so that the body can complete the unfinished trauma reactions and return to its normal, calm state. It is well worth doing to help you find greater peace.

Once the nervous system calms and you are no longer in constant fight or flight, your mind will soften as your body will feel safer and your mind won’t feel a need to be so defensive, so your defences melt and you can open up to play, to softness, to enjoying life interacting with others.

There is much that can be done to heal from childhood emotional abuse, but it takes a lot of time and effort. If you are going through this process, be as kind to yourself as you can, understand that you are undoing a lifetime of conditioning and it will take time. Every step you take is helping. Every day it wil get a little bit better. If you feel discouraged seek help, join a support group, see a counselor, or start a fun activity to help balance up. Love yourself and your life will improve. It takes time, but it is well worth doing. Good luck, I know how hard the journey is. I also know it can be done. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (02 April 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.

What is God-realisation?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Conscious Evolution

God-realisation occurs when a person realises that there is a larger purpose to life and an orchestration of events to help you grow and evolve into a loving being of light, being of service while living on Earth.

God-realisation is simply honouring that larger process of evolution that is occurring for all beings and choosing to align with it, not fight against it.

God-realisation occurs when you consciously look for signs and synchronicities to guide you forth, trusting the Universe and your higher self to provide you with what you need for your highest and best growth.

God-realisation occurs when you see this dance of creation and realise that you are just a small piece of the puzzle, being guided by larger forces which are loving and benevolent. In awe of the process you awaken to God, to love, to spirit, to the unseen dimensions, which include the realm often thought of as Heaven.

amazing-nature-sunrise-hd-wallpaperHeaven is simply a realm where there is no resistance to life, all live in harmony energetically and physically. It is a realm in which beings / souls are transparent and can see each other’s thoughts and essence. Hence lying and manipulation are not possible. People live in peace, connected to and vibrating at the rate of Source energy. It is therefore blissful, heavenly, beautiful and beauty filled.

It exists as a space to visit and return from if you have a Near Death Experience. It exists as a place we go to between incarnations. It is one place, one dimension or realm of many. It is not a place that is distinct from other aspects of life. It is all interconnected and we touch it when our heart melts looking at a new born baby or when in nature and standing in awe and stillness at the beauty of Mother Earth. It is a pure, loving vibration that we can tap into and become most of the time. We can live from that pure, loving space if we heal our emotions and vibration, so that it elevates to Christ-consciousness or God-realisation. Christ was an example of someone who obtained the God-realised state while on Earth. He is a guide for us to do the same.

It is not about Heaven or Hell as places to fear or to worry about. You will be accepted in Heaven, as it is not a place of judgement or exclusion. It is not a place of isolation or welcoming. All are welcomed. All are loved. It is only we humans who judge and exclude.

A Source-realised person knows they are love, they are worthy and they are of God. We are all created from Source energy. It is all there is, so we are pure and innocent. We are capable of kindness and loving our neighbour as we love ourself.

Most of us have just forgotten to truly love ourself, let alone anyone else. We have forgotten that we are children of God, aspects of Source energy visiting Earth for a chance to evolve and once completed we rejoin the whole. We are that. It is all one. All aspects of the Great Creator, the Source of all things, commonly known as God.

There is majesty in the Universe and its orchestration of events to assist each person to evolve and grow, to heal their hurts and return to wholeness, to awaken to God-consciousness and God-realisation. It is happening all the time, it is a process that takes a lifetime – in the sense of discovering it, experiencing it, and then becoming it.

At first you may be able to tap into the energy of Source/God when in meditation or prayer or nature. You may glimpse it. You may have an altered experience, a heightened moment of clarity and sensitivity. Then you may lose it, feel like you can’t access it again, until you raise your vibration further, then you see it more often. As you keep clearing out dense energy, emotions, baggage, you raise your vibration to the  point that the mysterious can become an every day experience.

You can be tapped in, tuned in, receiving messages from your higher self and Guides who are there assisting you behind the scenes. It is always there, just you can’t see, hear, feel them or their help until your vibration raises to a certain level. Help is always there, in the form of an Angel or Guide, a friendly entity of light or good spirit who is helping society to evolve. There are many beings of light assisting humanity’s evolution.

There is great love throughout the Universe for those courageous souls who come to Earth in its dense energy to live out a lifetime of pain and awakening to enable their evolution to expand, to further their growth in Self and God-realisation. That is what is occurring over and over again with each soul who is here and they grow a little more each lifetime they live. It is a slow process in human terms, but a fast one from an evolutionary perspective. It is all purposeful, all happening perfectly from that bigger perspective.

We are simply a piece of the puzzle, each piece needed, each piece unique with its own gifts and state of awareness. No need to compare yourself to others for you are unique. Your combination of past lives and experiences from this life is unique. You are here to learn and grow in a way that is unique to you. You serve the whole by being YOU. Don’t try to be something you are not. You have evolved to a certain point and that is okay. Where you are at is okay. There is no better or worse, no higher or lower. A greatly advanced soul may choose a particularly harsh life experience to test their mastery of the concepts. They may appear to our human eye as someone who is struggling with life, who is down and out, so to speak, but that is just a phase of their awakening, their remembrance of truth.

When they remember and heal their hurts, they will shine their light so brightly. They just have to see through the fog to the light of day, then they step into their magnificence. So don’t judge someone by where they stand today. Accept and love all beings and focus on seeing their best attributes, see them doing well, being happy and realising their truth. We all will in time. It is just a step along the journey to Self-realisation and God-realisation. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (01 April 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.

How to get out of your own way?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Conscious Evolution, Personal Development

Many of you block your own progress with worry and fear. There is no need to worry, life will take you where you need to go for your highest evolution and growth. Worry does not slow the process down, it just makes it more painful. You do not have choice or the power to change your fate. You only have the power to change the level of ease and grace through which you experience what occurs.

What is to occur is set prior to your incarnation. So stop trying to control it or trying so hard to get somewhere, something. You can not achieve more than you are meant to. You can not evolve any  faster than is destined. Your influence is miniscule in the BIG picture of life.

Yes, you do have choice to feel that emotion surfacing or push it down. But if you push it down it will just come up again another day. If it needs to be flet it will keep surfacing until you feel it. You have no choice in the matter, it must be felt. You must evolve. You cannot fail or slow it down. What will be, will be. Life will bring you the people, events, situations and experiences necessary to move you along your path, so relax and enjoy the ride. hot air balloonKnow there will be easy times and challenging times. Don’t fight against the challenges. Don’t live in fear of what may occur. Just ride the waves with gratitude, knowing that this too shall pass. The sun will come out from behind the clouds, storms are only temporary. Spring will always be sprung! So, enjoy life more, have more fun. Let go of being on guard, of being so careful and serious.

You can’t get it wrong. You can’t prevent what needs to occur and conversely your lack of scanning for danger will not stop danger or attract more of it. What is meant to be, will be. You are safe. You are loved and cared for by the Divine. Any ‘negative’ experiences are part of what was needed for your growth. In time you will see that. In time you may see the growth and see the gift that the event gave you. At the time of a ‘disaster’ it won’t seem like a gift, but it is. That job loss, relationship end, accident or health crisis led you to a new direction, a new phase of your life, which led to clearing and raising your vibration. It all happens to lead you forth. No mistakes. Nothing haphazard. Nothing by chance. So relax – you’ve got this!! Your higher self has it all under control, so glide through life with ease and grace, see it as a skate in the park, a picnic with the ducks, a walk through the forest, an adventure of a lifetime. For that is what life is, a grand adventure, one that can be filled with ease and grace if you get out of your own way and accept what comes.

Accept what comes, accept what goes, trust it is all occurring for your highest good. See the lessons, learn the code, read the clues, do better the next time – react differently, have firmer boundaries, be more kind and loving – whatever it is. Life is just giving you opportunities to practice, until you master being a being of love and light, walking with grace on Earth, inspiring others to open their hearts and let their lights shine. That is what life on Earth is about. It can be fun or drudgery based on how you think and react to what occurs. Only you can make the decision to glide gracefully through all that occurs. Do so and life is much more fun.

But please don’t beat yourself up if you do worry, if you fall into fear, anger, harshness and cruelty. These are only defense patterns surfacing to be released, to be loved and accepted. They just show you that part of you is still hurting, still sad or afraid and in need of love. Love those parts of yourself and welcome them back into your heart. Welcome them home to be cared for, to play and be at ease again. As you do so you become more whole and integrated, then the defense patterns disappear. They dissolve as they are no longer needed. So when you act in less than loving ways, accept it, take responsibility for what you have done, apologise to those affected if needed and then do your inner work so it will happen less and less. Noone is perfect. Noone can be loving all the time. You are human after all. You are here to learn and grow and you are doing wonderfully. The fact that you are reading this shows your heart is opening up, your light is shining and you are embracing your magnificence. For you are magnificent. We all are. We just don’t see it clearly until we have released our past hurts and opened up to see life as it is – a glorious opportunity to evolve and grow through all sorts of experiences while here on Earth.

Enjoy each day knowing you will get where you need to go. No need for worry, fear or controlling life. Relax. Breathe. Enjoy. Choose peace and harmony with all you do. Blessed BE. Your life is very good and it is going to keep getting better and better as you open your heart more and more and shine your light more fully. You are beautiful beings of light just waiting for the chance to ee more clearly the beauty of who you are and of what life brings you. It is all good. It all serves a purpose and it is all helping you to awaken, to learn to support yourself and to choose peace and harmony with all you do. You will get there, at the right time and place. No race, no pushing, no controlling needed. Relax and flow through all that life brings you with ease and grace. So be it. Amen.

lightWe watch you and smile as you progress. We see your greatness and we know you will too. We celebrate as you realise you are enough, you are acceptable, worthy of love, health and abundance. You are worthy of all good things. As you accept and embrace this we can bring you the things you have always wanted. We can help you have Heaven on Earth. You can have it. You just have to get out of your own way and allow it. Blessed BE. Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (26 March 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and Healing from child abuse pages of this website.

What is the healthiest attitude towards money?

by Dr. Jodi-Anne M Smith, posted in Conscious Evolution, Personal Development

Money is not evil or bad. It is not sinful to have money. Lust and greed are just egoic states of being that souls must move through as part of their learning and growth. Money is just the tool for this learning and healing.

Money supports you, enables you freedom to do as you want and choices of how to live in life. Money is just the tool for this. It is just a tool that can be used for many things. It can be used to help yourself or others who are in need – this is God’s use of money – service with money to help the poor, the destitute and needy. This is God’s mission for all to rise above the poverty line, for all to live knowing his love and the wealth and bounty that comes from knowing you are safe, you are loved and you are held tight in his arms. No need to worry or fear, you are supplied for today and tomorrow.  It is all taken care of, relax, enjoy your life and serve.

Humanity is evolving and growing. It is moving from thousands of beings seeing themselves as separate to each other, to the majority acknowledging we are one, we are interconnected and hurting one, hurts us all. We are moving towards seeing the totality, the unity of all that is. For many it is just a concept. For some it is truth, they see, feel, hear, touch and taste it. They sense the bigger forces at play. They see the interconnection with pollution and environmental destruction on the planet. They understand the damage caused by greed and ruthless companies hell-bent on profits at the cost of nature and life. They see the destructiveness of Western expansion on local communities and indigenous lifestyles. They see all of this.

Part of the next wave of evolution is the expansion of the heart to hold all people dear, not just your family members, but all of society, which is your larger family. When you do this you automatically expand as love is felt for all beings, for life and the planet. In such an enlightened state you wish to help all, to be of service, so all flourish and succeed, so all feel the warmth and love of God, Source, Universe – whatever you want to call it.

This is the natural evolution of human life. It is occurring all around us. And as a part of that evolution your relationship with money evolves. It is no longer one of clinging and desperation for fear of lack. It is no longer one of greed and separation, bolstering up a false sense of ego self seeking outside approval and showing off to get it. Your relationship with money evolves to one of peace and grace, a confident knowing that all is well, you are loved and looked after and when you vibrate at a state of wellbeing then money flows to you easily and gracefully. You will be guided forth to do what you need to do to serve self and others, to gain the wisdom and wealth needed to implement your purpose, your God-given mission here on Earth. When you are in this state of flow and grace, there is no grasping, no forcing, no efforting, no lack. So money comes, it flows with ease and grace as does love, health and vitality.

You can see clearly how this is really about your vibration, your state of being. It is not about money as an entity or substance. Money is just one more thing in your life that is utilised as part of your evolution and growth. It is not good or bad. Same as alcohol, drugs, tobacco and other items you judge as bad, evil, dangerous and intoxicating. The substances are not the problem. It is the use of them, the emotional state of the people which leads to addiction and poor behaviour. It is the emotional state, their level of vibration that leads to the substance being used in a destructive way.

We are not saying drugs can be used in a healthy way. They cannot, they lower your vibration, interfere with your clarity and your connection to Source. We are just saying that it is how items are used that makes them beneficial or destructive. The items themselves are just learning tools, just part of the evolutionary journey. As you raise your vibration and connection to Self and Source you don’t need or feel a pull towards these lower vibrational substances.

People who use drugs and alcohol do so because they feel disconnected, they have emotional pain and turmoil inside that they wish to escape. Alcohol loosens their lips, loosens the hold of the ego mind and helps them relax and break free from the pain inside temporarily. It quietens the busy mind and the negative self talk. That feels like relief, so it feels beneficial. It is just a temporary fix, but it gives reprieve from the daily hell and torment that many people live in.

As they evolve they gain that peace, that reprieve from other sources – from being in nature, from meditation, from art or sport or whatever activity they enjoy doing and can lose themselves in. This creates space, for the mind is not so active and in that space is God, Source, no-mind, the pervading peace of Christ. It is this that we are all evolving to. Then we don’t need substances to be addicted to, whether that be money, drugs or something else.

Instead of plugging the hole with substances you can use Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) to shake out the hurts underneath, to discharge the painful emotions and stagnant energy from moments of trauma experienced through life.

When you learn to heal and become your own supportive guide you no longer feel so empty, sad or angry. You feel more heard, seen, valued and appreciated. All of this lessens the sense of emptiness. It starts to fill your internal cup. You feel replenished and cared for, ready to be seen and enjoy life. When we fill the hole inside ourselves with love, with light, with laughter, we don’t need the other substances.

TRE can help you on this journey, so that you release the old and open to the new. When you do this there’s less need to consume. You don’t waste your energy trying to impress others. You’re content to just BE and enjoy life doing what gives you joy and peace.

Then money just becomes something we are grateful for, that we welcome, that we accept when it is in abundance and also at times when it is in short supply. We watch it come and go, knowing we are safe and looked after and more will come. We trust our inner guidance and know we will be guided forth to act when the time is right to be of service, and part of that will involve obtaining the money needed for us to fulfil our role. Life becomes about service, connection and love, and in that state money flows to you easily to support your mission, as you are not blocking it or yourself. You are not judging it or yourself. You are welcoming life and saying yes to it all. This is the healthiest relationship to have to money and to life. It is what you are here for. Blessed BE. Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (25 Feb 2016).
Further free guidance on healing techniques and self love are available on the Life Insights and HEALING FROM CHILD ABUSE pages of this website.