Transform! Module Five Self-Study

Transform! Week Five Self-Study Now that we’ve been clearing out resistance in the body, we are ready to begin integrating practices that will help to welcome higher vibrations into your body and your life. This week play with these various tools to help you begin to cultivate a neutral mind and accept the “what is” in your life without moving into illusion or avoidance.

Vocabulary/Concepts: Neutral Mind Mind Patterns Innocent Perception Reactivity Chains Limiting Belief Systems

Recognizing Mind Patterns:

Emotions are not the only cause of our suffering. We suffer any time we cannot accept the “what is” (which is different from acquiescing to a situation).

Often this suffering is from a “runaway” mind, resulting from a culture where the mind is constantly overstimulated and overworked. Neutral Mind allows us to bring awareness into our typical thought patterns and add some checks and balances. If our go to is “doom and gloom,” it helps us not to leap to the worst-case scenario. If our go to is rainbows and butterflies, it allows us to stay out of illusion and acknowledge the less positive aspects of an experience.

In other words, although Ego=Mind and Soul=Heart, we need the ego and mind to effectively navigating our 3-dimensional landscape. This middle path isn’t about overcoming the mind or ego, but training them to work for us instead of against us. Below are common ways our minds have their way with us: • Negative Thought Momentum: Incessant focus on what we don’t have and can’t do Sense of entitlement that we “deserve” things to be different than they are • Judgment: Comparison between ourselves and others Sense that things “should be” a specific way, and that we know best Labeling a situation as good or bad instead of holding it in all of its complexity Inability to (duality creates separation)

*Remember: Love is flexible, withholds judgments, seeks understanding • Pleasure Seeking & Avoidance: Numbing Addictions Feeding pleasure centers temporary high • Projection: Guided by limiting belief systems that keep us in illusion Projecting our unworthiness stories onto others Paranoia Distorting reality to fit our worldview • Storytelling: Leaping to conclusions Taking the “data” from a situation and filling in gaps to create meaning that we cannot know to be true • Need to Know: Convincing ourselves that we “know” and are “right” to feel safe.

Over researching and achieving

The truth is, while our rational minds (i.e. reptilian brains) are doing their best to keep us safe by creating mind manipulations that allow us to feel safe (i.e. mind illusions), the truth is that we can never really know. We have no control over anyone else’s actions or world events. Ever.

In fact, by trying to control outside circumstances, we shut ourselves off from trusting ourselves and the universe. The more we come home to our hearts and begin to live in alignment with our truth, the more we are able to show up fully in the present moment without needing things to be different to feel safe and happy. A favorite spiritual saying is, “Relax!

Nothing’s under control!” As we release the ego-mind, we allow a complete and utter trust fall into universe and surrender into heart.

Practices: Innocent Perception: This week note how your mind responds to undesired situations and circumstances. Rather than rushing to “know,” or judging a situation as “good” or “bad,” see if you can begin to stay curious about what is happening around you. Note any overarching mind patterns that prevent you from staying with the full “what is” of a situation.

As we begin to train the mind to become more flexible and curious, we allow ourselves to stay in heart and in the present moment. Ask yourself: • Is this thought true? How do I absolutely know that it is true?

Could something else be true?

• Is this thought helpful? Is it taking me out of the present moment?

• Can I stay curious and fascinated by this situation instead of judging it?

• Am I able to collect the “data” without jumping to value judgments?

• Am I able to navigate the uncertainty and ambiguity of the situation without trying to control it or “know” the “right” way?

Identifying Reactivity Chains: Once we realize that everything is a potential lesson pointing us in the direction of personal growth, we realize that our imperfections offer profound learning opportunities. It’s not about flipping a switch and becoming perfect, it’s about holding ourselves in compassion and love as we start to rewire our well-worn pathways. The more we practice loving awareness and accountability, the more gently we learn and grow from our lessons. As we do so, the fallout of our actions become smaller and smaller and we begin to welcome our lessons with grace.

Reactivity Chains allow us to begin to piece together several of the tools and practices that we have been cultivating over the course of the program. They are an opportunity for us to map out our heightened responses when triggered and to recognize how we got there by breaking our response into smaller pieces in order to get the “data.” One of the things that happens to us when we are triggered is that everything speeds up and suddenly feels very urgent—that is one of the telltale giveaways that we are not in a fully present, conscious state. Reactivity Chains allow us to use these experiences to heal and grow from.

For this practice consider a recent event that left you triggered.

• What physical, emotional, mental vulnerability set you up for this reactivity?

• What was the external happening that triggered the reactivity?

• When did the seed of the issue begin? What was going on when it started?

• What were you doing, thinking feeling before it all happened?

• What is the vibration in your body as you think about the trigger?

• Where do you feel it? What does it source down to?

• What was your Fear Response? Fight, Flight, Fawn, Freeze?

• How else could you have responded to the situation?

• Were there any “check engine” lights that warned you your system was run down?

If it feels productive, spend some time doing Feel & Process with this Reactivity Chain. See if you can get underneath what was happening in the moment—what it was really about. Then watch yourself making a different choice that is in more conscious alignment with what you needed and how you wished you had responded. Watch that alternate route play out in your mind’s eye. Working through the Reactivity Chain allow us to learn how to better set ourselves up for success.

*Remember: this work isn’t about being perfect. It’s about becoming more resilient and taking responsibility for our part of an equation. Be gentle with yourself and to have a sense of humor! We all have our triggers, no matter how much work we do.

Limiting Belief Systems: Another way we self-sabotage is through ideas that we have learned and internalized about ourselves and about life.

These Limiting Belief Systems are learned very young through our family and friends, as well as through the social and cultural environments we were groomed within. Because we are so entrenched in them, we believe them to be “natural” and “right” and “true.” It can be incredibly challenging to find our way out of structures of belief that we do not even know are there!

When we can begin to bring some awareness to these less than helpful— limiting—beliefs, we can begin to ask ourselves if we actually know these things to be true, and if it’s possible that they are not. From here we can get curious about where they come from, where we learned them, and begin to heal these parts of ourselves that learned to shrink ourselves for other people’s comfort.

Many of these beliefs are connected to needing to be “good” and to “belong” (i.e. people pleasing). When we release our dependence on outside validation, we allow ourselves to heal from phantom fears and other people’s attempt to project their fears onto us out of their own traumas, insecurity, lack of awareness, and internalized limiting belief systems. By saying “no” to these limiting stories and belief systems we also ourselves to move out of an ethos of self-denial and scarcity and into abundance, prosperity, and gratitude.

When we begin to say “yes” to ourselves regardless of the what others around us think, we honor the expansiveness of our souls and begin to move into a space of self-sovereignty. We learn to nourish and trust ourselves. We flow into worthiness, we honor our needs, we allow ourselves desires and wants, we allow ourselves to take up space. We allow for the opportunity of radical self-love. By releasing ourselves from external constraints, we allow.

Journaling Exercise: Get into the habit of asking yourself, “is this true” about your Limiting Belief Systems. By identifying our stories and staying curious about whether they are true, we can begin to do our own “fear chasing,” investigating where ego stories (fear) are keeping us stuck and playing small.” Ask yourself: • What Limiting Belief Systems do I hold about myself and my worth?

• What fears do I hold onto?

• Where do they come from?

From here, begin to ask yourself the following questions about each belief: • What is this really about?

• Do I want to believe this to be true?

• Is this belief serving me?

• Is it possible that something else could be true?

Examples: • • • •

“I’m a small-town girl. I shouldn’t set my sights high.”

“I can either have a relationship or a career. I can’t have both.”

“I am bad with money. I will never have a savings account.”

“I am not good at X, so therefore I can’t do Z”

*Warning: Limiting Belief Systems can be very embarrassing to admit to ourselves. They can be even harder to say out loud! For that very reason, I encourage you to say them out loud to yourself as you identify them.

Often once we hear how ridiculous these stories are, it can be enough to shock us into telling ourselves a different story!

Remember that the vibrational imprint of our energetic field is connected to our unconscious stories that we tell ourselves. This is why it is crucial in bring awareness into our mind stories that we are telling ourselves, as these unconsciously affect what we are attracting into our life. As we begin to excavate these stories and belief systems into our conscious mind to examine and release, we are purging these outdated aspects of ourselves that work against the life we are calling in.

Violet Flame Practice: This is an energy clearing practice that can be used to clear situations and circumstances, your energy field, and your energy entanglements and relationships with others. The Violet Flame comes out of the lineage of St. Germain. It is the highest frequency of light and is thought to transmute anything that is not of the Light.

• Invite Protection: Begin by asking the Divine to place a white tube of light around you for protection • Set the Intention: You can do this through a visualization of the situation or person, or you can name a specific intention, or both.

• Decree (Mantra): Repeat “I AM a being of Violet Fire, I AM the purity God desires” OR “I AM the Violet Consuming Flame in Action” for 15 minutes a day, all at once or at different points throughout the day (shower, morning meditation, commute to work, before bed) • Seal the Intention: “And so it is” This is a beautiful practice that leads us into a practice of non-attachment.

Since we cannot “know” all the pieces to a situation, this practice allows us to set an intention and clear lower, denser energies while opening ourselves to trust that the universe will resolve the situation for the greatest and highest good for all those involved. You can also use this practice to clear past situations or to preemptively clear upcoming situations (ex. holidays).