Thursday Evening Meditation and Study Group
This is your weekly reminder for the meditation and study group that meets every Thursday at 5:30pm MST at the Unitarian Church in Los Alamos, NM, and also online.
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5054120010?pwd=aWoPgmIYXkOMdpPHKvASKlE6BapNAD.1
Please join us if you are able, and invite others who may want to meditate with us. I am still on travel yet I will be back Wednesday evening, so we will be able to meet for Thursday’s group.
I would like to encourage you to become a paid subsciber, which will help fund the services and programs of Essential Self Counseling (www.essential-self.com) and the global efforts of Essential Self Counselling International as we provide essential services in four different countries (www.essentialselfcounsellinginternational.com, under construction).
Seeing the True Self in Others
While I was away I encouraged you to reflect on viewing others as their true selves. Please read last week’s newsletter for a more detailed description of this practice.
Imagine, for a moment as you consider those around you, not only who these individuals are in their typical presentation, but also who they are in the expression of their deep inner selves.
It can be hard to get past what others normally present about themselves. These include the mundane behaviors that characterize a person, and also those behaviors that are annoying and frustrating. It could be challenging, but recount what this person is already good at and emphasize that. Then use your imagination to begin to discover what this person’s greatest strengths might be that are more hidden.
If you could look beyond surface structures to the deep inner personality, what would you see? Who is this person, really, if their divine self were to be evident?
In last week’s newsletter I wrote the following: “Remember, we are all mirrors of each other. What you see in another is a projection of a disowned aspect of yourself that you have yet to acknowledge and integrate. If every person you meet and interact with is a reflection of a part of you, what is it that you are being shown about yourself in the behavior of another?”
Every person in your life is your teacher. I often say that if someone pushes your buttons, then get rid of your buttons. If someone triggers you then there is something inside of you that needs work. As you pay attention to these trigger points, taking responsibility for them without blaming the other person, you can begin to resolve these patterns—and heal. You may even be grateful for the role this person played in your life, even if they wounded you, because they are helping facilitate your development.
Seeing others for who they really are is skill that needs to be practiced. Assisting others in representing their divinity is a noble service, indeed. Looking deeply to fathom who another person is in their true self is another way to bring peace into the world.
Frequency Hygiene
This week I would like for you to consider how to cleanse your energy field. To do this you can use breath, visualization, sound, or simple intention to release energies you’ve absorbed from other people and the places you frequent.
Our group, at varying times over the years, has engaged the practices of shifting beliefs, altering thoughts, and processing emotions. I have also written two articles about breath and breathing and you can read about these topics in previous Substack posts or in my books. This will go a long way to clear the energies that swirl around you and in you.
Being careful about where you go and what you do is very important is important for frequency hygiene. For example, not watching the news or violent shows on TV can help you avoid contrary energies. Listening to soft music in the car instead of provocative commentaries and opinions from talking heads can be soothing rather than disturbing. Being in nature and hearing the sounds of birds and the wind can be rejuvinating. Looking out over a picturesque landscape is also kind to the eyes and can foster inner quietude.
Another helpful practice to lighten your load is to intentionally move from fear to love. It has been said by many that there are only two emotions—fear and love. If this is so, then you can measure every thought, emotion, belief, or any other expression of the human condition, by the standard of these two primary states. When something comes up you can ask, is the energy behind this fear, or is it love. You will then be able to dissolve fear within yourself, in your relationships, and your perceptions—replacing it with love while clearing out heavy energetic debris.
St. Francis of Assisi penned his famous prayer by stating:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
In this time of incessant and rabid opinions and biases and judgments, it is important to practice peace, love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy. Even more, seek to console and understand, rather than expecting too much from others.
These are all ways to cleanse your energy field. Practice these over the next couple of days and we will meet together on Thursday.
In kindness,
Tom Steward
505-412-0010
tomstewardpa@gmail.com
www.tomsteward.com
www.becomingyourtrueself.com
www.essential-self.com