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​Dear Readers,
 
In all honesty I had no idea a new Musing would arrive so hot on the heels of my last one, but that's one thing I love about this journey - being constantly kept on my toes and made to walk that fine line between expecting nothing and staying open to everything! As always, the content of this post stems from the fruits of my own personal and professional experience, and I can only hope that the time spent reading and contemplating these ideas will be of value to you.

​​Not long into my last Musing about ​​Self-Care and the Medicine of Who We Are, I mention a process I’ve become increasingly aware of in the context of my practice whereby my clients act as somewhat of a collective voice, delivering subconscious material which I am in turn asked to decode, digest, and reflect back once the material has become conscious and has been worked through. As I become further accustomed to this process, it seems that more and more is being delivered for exploration and contemplation.
 
​That said, quite shortly after publishing my last post I met with a new client who had been struggling with something rather elusive for the past two decades to no avail. As the client elaborated about their life and certain experiences, despite a calm and collected exterior, I could sense a tsunami under the surface, a storm in the silence between their words. To my amazement, immediately upon beginning the energy work portion of the session, a theme suddenly blew up - and as my empathic gifts are often filtered through my intellect, they showed up as two big, bold words: COMPROMISE and SACRIFICE. Following the words themselves came much imagery to illustrate how this client's life force had literally been squashed since early childhood, and that compromise and sacrifice lay at the root of the manifestation of their symptoms. Like clockwork, following that session, sessions with other clients began to deliver a similar message and so, without hesitation I started to decode, digest, and distill.
 
From a young age, as we begin to socialize with siblings and other humans big and small, we are taught about what’s MINE and what’s YOURS and about SHARING and BEING KIND. If we are raised in a relatively functional household we are often encouraged to understand what it means to be a "fair and honourable" individual. Our role models’ understanding of those concepts however, and our own understanding of those concepts, is open to vast interpretation. Though a concept is a concept, it is never black and white - it is a multidimensional "field" that will be experienced differently according to the particular beliefs and conditioning packed into it for each individual. And so, what with so much guilt and fear polluting our respective and collective bloodlines, what may be initially presented and intended as something positive and constructive can potentially manifest as a destructive distortion.
 
Therefore, while the ability to "reach a place of compromise" or to "sacrifice something for the good of everyone involved" may have social and interpersonal benefits, there is a great difference between that and compromising or sacrificing one’s SELF for the sake of someone or something. ​
 
To quote my last Musing: "we are akin to lighthouses and the natural light within each of us has its own specific frequency, its own specific vibration. It is this unique inner light, this unique frequency of our individual consciousness that underlies the medicine of who we are. With each of us carrying organic keys and codes within us, it is through these keys and codes that we have the capacity to heal ourselves, to heal each other, and our planet. When we detach from what serves to control us and to drain us - and take the time to resource with that which nourishes and sustains us - we are able to uncover our unique inner light and get back to what is most important, which is being the medicine of who we are."

​The time is now to take a good look at your life and to examine where you’ve been told you're TOO MUCH or NOT ENOUGH, where you yourself have adopted the belief that you’re TOO MUCH or NOT ENOUGH, and where you may tend to compromise and sacrifice your Self as a result.
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​As we come to a close, the point I'm trying to make here isn't about rebellion or anarchy. It​​ ​isn't about angry defiance or arrogance. ​Once again, it is about opening our eyes and becoming aware of where we allow our consciousness to be manipulated and controlled, funnelled and siphoned. It is about the will to thrive, about stepping into our personal power from a place of genuine self-love and healthy self-esteem, about aligning to those who believe in us and support our greatest vision, about recognizing ourselves and being the inspirational pioneering spirits we were born to be... ✨

​Before signing off, I will leave you with some questions for further reflection. As always, these questions are asked from a place of curiosity and there is no one but yourself to answer to:

​* Can you see the difference between reaching a place of compromise for mutual benefit and compromising your SELF to please or to appease?
 
* Do you experience chronic feelings of anger and resentment, sadness and depression, worry and anxiety? If so, can you relate those feelings to situations or relationships in your life where you may be knowingly or unknowingly compromising and sacrificing your Self?
 
* Have you grown to believe you’re not enough, or that it’s selfish of you to follow your dreams, to invest in the people, places and things that make your heart sing?
 
* Have you grown to believe you're too loud, too honest, too bright, "too" whatever? ​What is it that makes you stand out?​​ What are the qualities you embody that others may feel threatened by and want to tame in you?​​ What qualities have you learned to fear and to tame in yourself?

​Dear Readers,
 
Looking at the date of my last blog post, it seems I am long overdue to publish some new material. As you know however, my commitment to you has always been quality over quantity, and the quality of what I share depends on the quality of what I distill from my personal life lessons. In retrospect I realize it was right around the publication of my last post that I felt the pull to unofficially unplug myself from social media, an extended break which continues to this very day. More of a pull than a decision, I now understand that I was being guided to focus my attention and energy elsewhere. And so, throughout the entire spring and summer of this year, this guidance drew me to devote much time to my work, to my creativity, to exploring what and who is truly important to me, and to make certain necessary changes in my life. Interestingly, in the time I've taken away from social media not only have I been experiencing a greater level of connection than I have in years, but I am busier in my practice than I have ever been. 
 
As always, the timing of this post has definite purpose, and I can only hope that the content will prove to be as valuable to you as it is to me. In the six months since my last piece there has been so much growth, and it is from that growth that I share with you my new Musing on the topic of Self-Care and the Medicine of Who We Are.

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​As a practitioner in the field of holistic health for almost a full decade now, I have seen a lot of clients and have noticed that a particular trend will often arise amongst them in a given timeframe. As the cornerstone of my practice is rooted in mutual respect and the understanding that my client and I hold keys of healing for one another, I also understand that the trends I notice represent specific topics seeking my own attention and exploration.

​What with the recent trend having been so highly focused on the topic of self-care, I knew this was something I was being asked to look at deeply within the context of my own life and experience. Having been led to such important insights over the course of the last several months, I had originally wanted to write about self-care as a standalone piece. However, in light of all that has been so graciously delivered to me and encouraged through the collective voice of my clients, I couldn’t help but see the interconnectedness between self-care and what I have come to revere as the "medicine of who we are". And so, as I am reminded of things by you from a rather subconscious medium of transmission, I am in turn asked to reflect these very things back to you once they have become conscious.
 
That said, one of the major components of my work is to really actively LISTEN; not only to actively listen to what is being said out loud, but to understand the messages conveyed between the spoken words. Although many clients had been coming in asking for help with motivation in terms of self-care, the consistent message I could hear blaring behind that was that they felt broken and on some level were hoping our sessions would somehow "fix them into fixing themselves". Compounding the feeling of being broken was the feeling of being further broken because they lacked the motivation to fix their brokenness. It was as though they were all saying, "What is so wrong with me that I can’t even seem to be motivated to fix what is wrong with me?"
 
The more I listened to what was being conveyed between the spoken words, the more I thought about the importance of the energy and intention behind the concept of self-care. Though in theory, self-care denotes CARING for ONESELF, I realized that in practice it is often rooted in self-loathing, in self-criticism, in violent dissatisfaction, in comparison, in wanting to fix something perceived as broken or defective, in seeking a personal or collective ideal of perfection.

​I also realized that the approach to self-care was often goal-oriented, that the targeted focus was perceived as something arduous to achieve which required deprivation and motivation, rather than something perceived as exciting and liberating, inspired from a place of enthusiasm.
 
No matter the targeted focus of the desired self-care routine, whether it be changing our diet, implementing a new exercise regimen, breaking an addiction, going for therapy, delving into spirituality, etc... what is the energy and intention behind that focus?
 
Louder and louder was the message that we must get honest and really ask ourselves: is the desire to initiate these changes truly coming from a place of caring for ourselves, or is it in the guise of caring for ourselves and yet rooted in something else?
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​Whether we say we HAVE TO or even that we WANT TO
- HAVE TO lose weight, WANT TO meditate, etc. -
What makes us feel we HAVE TO? What is it that drives the WANT?
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​In spite of all the lip service we give to self-care being from a perspective of inspired action and choice, the truth is that quite often these changes are initiated as a form of self-flagellation propelled by personal and societal pressure, and in measure of CONSEQUENCE - of what we stand to lose if we don’t make those changes.
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​Often in the name of self-care we turn to externals, looking for medicine and healing outside of ourselves and hope that whatever internal efforts we make will shift how we appear to the outside world. And so, this is where we begin to introduce the next topic. In our extensive quest to heal and to fix what we have been led to believe is wrong with us, in all of our shame, guilt, and fear, in getting so wrapped up in what we have been convinced we must do to be healed, whole, lovable and worthy, we remain ignorant to the powerful medicine OF WHO WE ARE.
 
Despite what we are told, the biggest war these days is not on terror, nor on drugs, nor on cancer, nor on whatever you have been led to believe. The biggest war is an invisible war - it is a war on CONSCIOUSNESS. Way above and beyond anything we could possibly own, our consciousness is our most precious commodity and, whether we realize it or not, it is consistently being tapped in order to keep us locked in a vicious cycle of fear and consumption.
 
On the surface, advancements in technology seem to encourage us to connect and to interface with others, to help foster a sense of unity. In reality however, these advancements provide an increasingly insidious framework to bombard us with strategic advertising geared to target our vulnerabilities, erode our self-esteem, amplify our sense of dissatisfaction, and prod us to invest - both financially and energetically - in whatever it is that is touted to make us feel happy and whole.

​What is presented as something to foster a sense of unity is in truth cleverly designed to both keep us feeling alienated and to assimilate us into a hive mind. Little by little we are being profiled and exploited, turned into drones, tied up in invisible mental and emotional nets. Often completely unbeknownst to us, our consciousness is being manipulated and controlled, funnelled and siphoned by unseen forces. Despite the concrete and natural challenges we face in life, there exists an abundance of invisible artificial intelligence set to capture our attention and energy, to keep us feeling drained and sick, anxious and depressed, dissatisfied and envious, and ultimately to turn us against ourselves and against one another.
 
While it may seem that this post is all about doom and gloom, do not be mistaken. As you read further, you will see that essentially, everything discussed in this article is in the aim of helping you to become aware of the frequencies you are dialled into and aware of the interrelationship between those frequencies and the frequency you emit.
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As originally discussed in Awakening to Authenticity through the Heart, our entire life we are conditioned to believe that we start at zero and must build, add, and acquire to be good enough, that we must always strive to be better, that there is always something to improve. We are conditioned to constantly look outside of ourselves for the perfect template, technique, modality, diet, image, completely hypnotized and driven by this all-pervasive, deep-seated belief that the focus is to BECOME rather than to BE.

​As this conditioning is amped up with greater and greater intensity with the help of artificial intelligence, as we buy into everything fake and staged woven seamlessly into the news, into the internet and social media platforms, our consciousness is unwittingly hijacked and bound to a vicious cycle of fear and consumption.
 
Hence, the concept of self-care is further and further tied to the void we are made to feel and to what we are made to feel we must do to fill it up. Held hostage by ULTIMATUMS and CONSEQUENCES, the system understands that the more we hate ourselves, the more alienated we will become, the more anxious and depressed we will be, and the more we will feed into the system.
 
Fortunately however, behind these skin suits and beyond the convincing deceptions of this harsh reality, we are not only infinite and eternal beings, but are true masters of creativity and manifestation. As mentioned in the article I linked to above, we are akin to lighthouses and the natural light within each of us has its own specific frequency, its own specific vibration. It is this unique inner light, this unique frequency of our individual consciousness that underlies the medicine of who we are. With each of us carrying organic keys and codes within us, it is through these keys and codes that we have the capacity to heal ourselves, to heal each other, and our planet. When we detach from what serves to control us and to drain us - and take the time to resource with that which nourishes and sustains us - we are able to uncover our unique inner light and get back to what is most important, which is being the medicine of who we are.
 
Thus, true self-care is not about fixing what is broken or about avoiding a given consequence. True self-care is about becoming aware of the natural and engineered sources funneling and siphoning our consciousness, about choosing what and who we must unplug from in order to plug back into ourselves. Ultimately, true self-care is a sacred practice that serves to reignite the unique inner light within, to cultivate and nourish our individual consciousness, to gather our organic keys and codes, to honour and share the medicine of who we are.
 
Though life will always present circumstances of constraint and a certain amount of stress, we must begin to decipher how much of it is natural and how much of it is engineered. How willing are we to unveil all that serves to control our consciousness, seen and unseen, to extract ourselves from those mental and emotional nets, to take responsibility for our individual consciousness and how we wield it?

As I stated earlier, just as our consciousness is manipulated and influenced by our environment, our environment is manipulated and influenced by our consciousness. The more we become aware of where our consciousness is ensnared both naturally and artificially, and begin the process of plugging back into ourselves and unleashing the powerful medicine of who we are, the more our individual consciousness will displace the current state of the collective.
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​When we walk into a room or when others walk into the space we occupy what effect do we wish to have? Do we wish to be experienced as a doormat, as an insatiable black hole, or as a bright flame in the darkness with the potential to rekindle other flames?

​To have an uplifting and positive effect on our environment, which people, places, activities or things must we unplug from to shift our consciousness to where we want it to be?

​No matter what is going on in our life, and no matter the hats we wear - husband, wife, lover, parent, sibling, child, friend, teacher, student, employee, employer, etc. - there is always more going on than meets the eye and we always have much more power and choice than we are led to believe.

​In closing, and as we make our way towards the end of 2017, it is time for us to truly awaken, to remember our immense power, to take responsibility for our individual consciousness and how we wield it. Above all, may this article encourage true caring for self from a perspective of INSPIRED ACTION and CHOICE rooted in the energy of pride, love, and joy, allowing us to reignite our inner light with zeal and to unleash the formidable medicine of who we are.
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