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The Healing and Purification Effects of a Sweat Lodge Ceremony

Jules Ravenheart
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The Healing and Purification Effects of a Sweat Lodge Ceremony

The benefits of sweating for healing and detoxification is a widely known practice in many Native cultures around the world. Not only does sweating clear the body of illness but also removes impurities from the mind and spirit. Toxins are removed from the body with extreme heat and muscles and joints can be rejuvenated.

As temperatures rise and breathing becomes laboured, the path to self awareness begins to open and emotions stir. The connection to mind and spirit are joined and the participants fall into a dream like state where sometimes visions are seen. The sweat lodge is seen as though a giant womb and symbolizes rebirth. For the Cherokee, the sweat lodge is used for honouring the Sacred feminine spirit. Since it is believed that woman already possess this, only the men use the lodge.

The Making of a Sweat Lodge

making a sweat lodgeThe location of the lodge is important. Most sweat lodges are built in the wilderness, near running water. Once the site is decided the structure is built. The lodge is built like a small dome constructed from bent willows and covered with blankets and/or animal hides in order to hold in the heat.

It is usually built during spring. A hole is dug in the center of the lodge to be used as a pit for hot stones. A sacred fire is started next to the structure and rocks are chosen. The number of rocks varies depending on the size of the group of participants. These rocks are placed in the fire outside while the elders use tobacco and sage to cleanse the lodge before the ceremony begins.

Next the participants enter the structure on their knees, usually wearing only a loincloth or shorts. They are seated around the stone pit and the heated stones are brought in carried on a pitchfork. Water is poured on the hot stones to create steam and the flap to the lodge is closed.

Throughout the ceremony, hot rocks are brought in four times, each time it is called a door or an endurance or gateway. The lodge is now dark and quiet with only glowing red stones.

Sweat lodge ceremony: Calling in the elements of nature

sweat lodge-temazcalThe first round begins with the direction of the East. This is where the sun rises and symbolizes the birth of a new day or new beginning. The feminine spirit is recognized and her energies are invited.

The Eagle is called upon to help participants look inside themselves and focus on why it is that they have entered the lodge. What healing do they seek? Songs and prayers are made and the elder calls for the door to open.

The second endurance begins once new stones are placed in the pit and the flap is closed again. Now the male spirit is recognized and the spirits of the wolf or rabbit are called upon, representing the direction of South.

During this stage, the heat is intense enough to alter consciousness and many have entered the spirit world via out of body experience. The sweat has also begun and toxins are being released from the physical body.

When the elder calls for the door to open, water may be passed to those who wish for it and there is a short break to signify the half way mark of the ceremony.

Before the start of the third round, more rocks and water are brought in. This doorway is dedicated to the West and the spirit of Bear is called upon to help us in introspection. The elder helps the participants into a deep meditative state and begin the process of seeking our answers deep within. Images may start to appear on the hot stones and prayers are usually done silently.

The last stage or endurance is for the North and focuses on specific personal healing. The spirit of the buffola is called upon to gain wisdom and knowledge. Once the steam has subsided, the elder gives thanks in a summanizing prayer and participants leave the lodge one by one in a clockwise manner.

At the end, there is celebration around the sacred fire with food and drink.

Benefits of a Sweat Lodge

sweat lodge 2The effects of the sweat lodge ceremony are many. The lodge can get up to 120 degrees and since bacteria and viruses cannot survive temperatures that high, they are flushed out of the body.

The rise in temperature can also stimulate adrenaline and cortisol responses. This brings blood flow and relieves cramping and muscle aches. Exposure to steam can reduce pain from arthritis and alleviate skin disorders such as psoriasis.

The mental and emotional effects of a sweat lodge are also beneficial. The sauna effect activates the sympathetic nervous system releasing hormones including serotonin and endorphin. This elevates mood and creates a feeling of euphoria. There is also a sense of belonging from bonding with others throughout the experience. All of this relieves tension, stress and isolation.

The sweat lodge ceremony is an ancient tool used by many tribes and medicine people throughout the world. It is a celebration of respect for one another and our ancestors and quite the experience to behold.

Isogaisa 2014 Sweat lodge

Image source:
Temazcal
Sweat lodge, image by Shannon Thunderbird

4 Meditations For Honouring And Releasing Chaos

Lauren
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4 Meditations For Honouring And Releasing Chaos

“I accept chaos, I’m not sure whether it accepts me.” ~ Bob Dylan

Ascension fatigue and chaotic emotions that seem to rocket off the scale in both directions can be hard to cope with, especially when they seemingly come out of nowhere. But in truth they offer us a very unique and wonderful opportunity.

In sending gratitude in their direction, we recognise that they are the signals we’re sending ourselves that something is not right; that we are separate from our inner being and need to reel ourselves back in.

The chaos we’re experiencing can also very much be the chaos of others; earth shifts, collective cleansing and residues from childhood, in many cases our chaos actually belongs to someTHING, or someONE else.

In accepting this we might be at last able to free ourselves from the density of them. In accepting that much of our density and chaos belongs to something beyond us (and that we have taken them on as an act of kindness gone wrong) we can do the right thing and transmute it before blowing it from our energetic fields like the seeds of a dandelion clock.

Clearing Chaos Making Miracles Guided Meditation

Here are 4 meditations for honouring and releasing chaos from our aura and sending it packing:

Clearing through the breath

Have you ever noticed how taking a deep breath can clear away the cobwebs like nothing else? Sometimes a deep breath can touch recesses you’d forgotten even existed; it clears out closets you hadn’t opened in years. It can direct life force through areas of yourself that were long forgotten and reignite them like an old flame.

The breath can also trigger past karma and heal it by directing Prana there. Breathing and releasing in equal measure can become the most self loving thing you’re able to do for yourself. Even three in the morning is enough to get you moving in new and refreshing directions.

Breathing deeply will release energies that do not belong to you, and once you have completed them you can set a new intention; one that better serves the new rejuvenated You.

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Anger rising

Anger is the emotion that rises from the deep when our fear has been put aside and dealt with. This is why numbness and resistance to life that expresses itself in the form of depression becomes the layer we seal in our anger with. Society does not like you to express your anger, and from a very early age, we are taught not to do so.

 

Never mind anger being the natural reaction to injustice and things we cannot fully understand, anger gets trapped in us like nothing else and so it’s imperative that we face it. And soon. If you feel as if you have so much anger it overwhelms you, try this simple technique:

Meditations For Honouring And Releasing Chaos

Every time you notice anger, observe it rising. Just this. At first you probably won’t remember until you’re knee-deep in it, but promise yourself that next time you will catch it earlier. Don’t rationalise, but let it flow.

Sit in the armchair or a safe place… or on the observation deck of your inner being and watch it rise. Keep doing this, and you will notice that, surprisingly, it doesn’t take too long for this terrifying monster to subside and disappear entirely.

Enjoy the ride

If you look at it like this; you are a spiritual being having a temporary human experience then absolutely everything that comes into your direct experience has been created by you, and much of the reasoning why you have attracted it will be under lock and key by your inner being or higher self. This is why it’s important not to take yourself so seriously and just enjoy the ride.

Say the affirmation ‘I trust myself’ whenever you feel frustrated or confused. Repeat it like a mantra and accept that you can never understand everything in the bigger picture and if you did then it would remove all the fun.

Do you really never want to be surprised by life? Don’t you like the feeling there’s something bigger than you? Or do you prefer to play small and safe?

In just accepting that you will never know all the answers you can take everything with a big pinch of salt and laugh at yourself. When you have this perspective you remember to enjoy the craziness too as you know it may be its final visit.

untitled 1See yourself as a transmutation machine

Imagine yourself literally eating up poison – whether you identify those poisons as ‘yours’ or ‘others’, it’s all the same, really – and transforming that poison into light. Every time you catch yourself playing the role of the victim in a situation, immediately put yourself in the shoes of the other and talk yourself around it.

Things like ‘You’ve had a bad day, and you were actually trying to create a good situation by treating me like *(insert expletive), you just happened to forget your kindness, but I understand where you were coming from’ create the world we want to live in. Purposefully notice the positive things you have in common with them.

Everyone, with no exceptions, does what they think is right at the time using what they know in that moment. Even if you don’t have that direct conversation with them, sending your enemy good vibes and pulling them into an imaginary hug does wonders for the world as a whole as it sends out ripples of compassion consciousness. This is your contribution and trust me it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Transmuting Negative Energy | Guided Meditation for Positive Energy | Violet Light

Don’t forget to send even those big bad Illuminati bosses good vibes as they are also suffering. Things like ‘you must be in the darkest corner of the universe to have done what you’ve done’. Feel compassion for them and imagine them choosing the lighter end of the dualistic spectrum.

Even political puppets who are catalyst for change in being the most awful human beings you thought you could imagine probably need a cuddle and some understanding. Send them love, show that you believe they can turn themselves around and understand that you are revolutionizing the way we respond to each other. You’re fighting the good fight.

So, do any of these meditations resonate with you? Remember that even in the midst of chaos, you still have the free will to bring yourself home. You’re strong enough to eat up those negativities before letting them float away on the breeze.

Be ready to embrace the lighter end of the polarity stick and the universe within will guide you. It’s going to be quite a journey!

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Meditation

The 8 Stages of A Twin Flame Connection

Lauren
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The 8 Stages of A Twin Flame Connection

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

If you know for sure whether you are in or are attracting a twin flame connection, you may be beginning to notice the profound and highly intense cycles you have now been cast head over feet into.

It’s as if you’ve been stuffed in some sort of transcendental washing machine where you can never be sure if it’s stargazer soap or karmic water that’s going to be thrown in your face next and churned into a frothy soup.

Your entire being aches and nothing makes sense anymore; you have been plunged into emotions that are neither rational nor purely physical. They are like nothing you’ve ever felt before.signs of twin flames 2

Rather than reach for your A-Z of how to survive the matrix or pelt yourself with bullets of rationality until you feel numb again, accept that you are ready for this awe-inspiring challenge they call relationships and that you have the glimmer of success already soaring like a meteorite across your eyes.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Here are the 8 stages of the twin flame connection:

Yearning

In the opening act you feel a burning desire to actually have a soul connection with another person in the first place. For the very independent and entrepreneurial among us, we may have never put this down on the list of lifetime goals before, and it is neither fear of loneliness or our own demise that is instigating that desire.

Instead it’s like we’ve finally arrived at the next obvious chapter that we wish to add to our book of successes, plus the realization that we may excel even better at the work we wish to achieve in this lifetime with another soul signed up… And apart from anything else, it’ll be more fun.

For those more romantic among us, we have been on a sharp course of self-love and are beginning to accept ourselves so much so that we feel ready for a deep connection with someone else.

We now have enough awareness of our identity, we no longer need to fall back in to those patterns of abuse we kept attracting in the past. We are ready for maturity and the death of the ego.48857da4facb3c28676f269eba314b25

The first sighting

Having made the intention to find this person on a conscious or subconscious level, we are now treated to either a physical glimpse of them, or a meeting with them in a dream or vision.

This second stage can appear to come before the first stage when we don’t realize we’ve already made the decision to find someone because it was on a subconscious level.

The first sighting, as described in spotting the twin flame connection, will be unforgettable. You may be slow to admit anything out of the ordinary, especially when life has taught you to be cautious, but the best way to view it is that this meeting has instigated or reignited your spiritual path and given it focus and direction.

You may sense that this person is ‘home’ to you and have a strong sensation that you are coming home, and that they will lead you there.

Rising in love

Rising in love (OK, falling in love) either apart or together as you explore each other both verbally and energetically, you run a series of intuitive ‘tests’ that determine whether this person will bring you closer to your true self and the work you came here to do.

This may be inescapable and, even though every thought stored in your mind is going – don’t do it! It doesn’t make sense! It happens anyway. You will feel doubt, you will have trouble keeping your feet on the ground, but you trust it and thoroughly enjoy the ride. You are ascending.

The relationship

The ecstasy of the relationship has arrived, and it was worth the wait. If you had forgotten how to be in the moment and embrace love to the fullest, then this is the relationship that deposits you firmly back into presence and bliss. All your desires are completely fulfilled and return to the true expression of yourself – the one that was You before any fears of rejection obscured that truth.

Your twin flame partner IS you and so you melt into one another. You turn heads when you’re together and become frequency transmuters by your sheer presence. You show the way like the pair of exemplary lightworkers you are.

twin flames2Core wound cleansing

Here arrives the first really testing stage of the relationship. As you may have already experienced on a solitary scale, the relationship begins to allow you to transmute your denser energies and, if you are mature enough to handle it, transform them into pure light.

You may feel inner turmoil and a sense of being purged; an intense swing of emotions that is highlighted by any relationship, especially when faced with the need to continue to focus on the positive aspects of the other when their negative ones keep rising up right in front of your nose.

With the twin flame connection these core wounds will feel even more intense and trying, yet you will feel a compassion for them where you hadn’t for all the soul mates who came before.

However, the smallest threads of karma still alive within you will be wrenched out and twirled around the finger of the other, and it will take only the most compassionate and willing to continue the love regardless.

Cat and mouse

If you reach boiling point and cannot stand the heat, it may do you both good to have a cooling-off period. This may happen within the relationship or result in the end of the relationship, but you will find your way back to each other before too long.

As the video at the end of the article points out, you may repeat this and the previous stage many times before reaching the ability to give up your own egos for the sake of the relationship and the work you can achieve together.

There may be a lot of running and chasing, but you will find yourselves inextricably drawn back together time and time again.

Soul expansion

thK9AAQX23Soul expansion is the stage of ego dissolution and the equal acceptance of this work. This is a really beautiful stage, and you may see your lives stretching out ahead of you like an open book.

You surrender all fears and resistance of love and any wounds you had in the past and decide not to apply them to this relationship.

You give up all ego and vanity that has you chasing other people or hankering to the fixed image you had of your future self. You dissolve self and become one, yet individually bouncing off one another and feeding each other’s connection to the Source.

Shared meaning and purpose

Your shared purpose has been refocused on and gained new strength. You both grow rapidly and embrace your highly mature and spiritually advanced selves. You are equally ready to become one with your inner beings and the truth and authenticity this surrender brings.

You have reached bliss and harmony with one another, and now you can soar. So there it is, the miracle of the twin flame relationship in all its glorious stages. Do you see yourself in one, or all of these? This is the work you came here to do, and it’s magnificent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmOSnUSOBAQ

Image Sources

Twin flame
Mark Henson art
Manafold art

Working Towards Group Consciousness: Why Empathy is Essential to Oneness

Lauren
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Working Towards Group Consciousness: Why Empathy is Essential to Oneness

“The true miracle lies in our eagerness to allow, appreciate, and honor the uniqueness, and freedom of each sentient being to sing the song of their heart.” ~ Amit Ray

Some spiritual teachers like Teal Swan talk about ‘secondary enlightenment’; the need for a second enlightenment where we remind ourselves that we are all interconnected therefore cannot truly become enlightened without others becoming enlightened too.

Teal explains how you can easily experience a degree of enlightenment yet exist in a narcissistic bubble where you have made the law of attraction work for you, for example, but purposefully cut yourself off from others to avoid being pulled down by their lower frequencies.

The Next Step In The Game (The Secondary Enlightenment) - Teal Swan

So, according to Teal, we are unable to fully achieve enlightenment without bringing our fellow woman and man with us. Some regressive therapy sessions taken with Dolores Cannon in a variety of her books also bring up the question of group consciousness; where a community of animals or insects such as ants actually think ‘as one’.

They’re plugged in to their own private intranet as well as more willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole. Many sources also say that humanity is heading this way and it is the inevitable step forward in the evolutionary process.

When it comes to empathy and an actual experience of the overwhelming sensations of another person’s energetic field; their fears, their potential, their emotional history, their projections on you etc, you are able to experience first hand the implications of this group consciousness.

As more people connect with the notion of being an empath or begin to scratch under the surface a little more and ask themselves – why do I feel like that when I speak to that particular person? And ‘why do I keep attracting this type of person?’ – the more our collective awareness of this phenomenon increases.

So in this way yes, in Ram Dass’ words it’s true that we are all walking each other home and this spiral of increased awareness directly relates to a new consciousness.

Continuous Awakening 1

For those who dislike seeing us ever working towards anything and would rather enjoy the now (after all, the concept of evolution is, in a way, dualistic and anyone who has had the experience of halting the monkey mind during meditation will know that time disappears when you suspend all notions of then and to come), group consciousness also works on the non-dualistic level.

By dissolving the ego during meditation we are able to see that it never existed anyway (because now is all there is and we’ve just dissolved it), therefore we have just experienced the full expression of group consciousness by returning ourselves to the flow of higher love.

So why are animals, who are seen as existing constantly in this stream of higher love as depicted by the various realms of Tibetan Buddhism, why are they seen as having a lower consciousness to humans?

Perhaps it is the common agreement amongst Buddhists and regressive hypnotherapists that life is one big experiment and humans, being the realm you can experience the most contrast, is therefore the most sought after. The bliss is only blissful when you’ve known intense suffering of the mind. A ‘joy’ animals don’t have.

So as we awaken from the sufferings of the mind we need to help each other. There’s no getting away from it. And isn’t that the joy of the journey? Becoming plugged back into the whole and this constant flow of higher love but doing it gradually and giving each other little nudges this way and that as we discover ourselves more fully.86f229d76ef7c40a6daa5cef7efe128f

We can never truly cut ourselves off from others as their ‘lower frequencies’ are our inner guidance system showing us that those lower frequencies still exist within us and need to be transmuted. We can practice empathy with the intention of moving towards Oneness every day.

By using our increased awareness of other people’s timelines, fears, true potential etc, by using that increased perception we have where we can pierce the veil of contrast and see beyond the division we can become a beacon of light.

This involves both becoming a role model or wayshower in that we live our own dreams and embody the path of someone unconcerned by other’s projections on them AND by treating others with compassion as we encounter their denser energies.

By deflecting those denser energies and projections we bring light to their attempts to pull us down. This, in turn shines a light on how the human race uses power over others to gain strength.

After ‘deflecting’ the density we then offer an alternative. How about instead of needing to bring others down to pull yourself up you empower yourself? What if there was a never ending wellspring of everything you could ever need inside of you? And we come full circle back to the act of being a role model.

Abraham-Hicks (Caring too much about others)

It really doesn’t take much. Whenever we remember that people are fighting to feel good we find our common ground and help the collective.

Without getting lost in their darkness and forgetting it’s not your own (see how to block abusive relationships and narcissists), without taking it personally and letting their words or actions lower your self esteem, without getting caught up in social phobias or becoming a hermit, let yourself become the mirror.

It’s OK to be vulnerable and not have it all worked out yet. After all, we’re in this together.

Image source

Zen Circle
Alex Grey art

8 Synchronicities that Indicate you are Merging with your Higher Self

Lauren
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8 Synchronicities that Indicate you are Merging with your Higher Self

“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There’s no way of really explaining life, but something that we are all familiar with are the certain stages of living. We know what it feels like to be in a rut, for example.

In this way, we know what it feels like to have completed a cycle; those times when we are looking around for inspiration and are feeling fresh and excited about the next step. We also know what it’s like to shine and to be in the fullest expression of our selves.

But what if the stage you’re at now is transcending all that? What if you have finally come to a ‘stage’ in the form of a confrontation with your higher aspect. What if now – having collected all the information and experiences that make up you in this time and space – you are now ready to turn in and come home to your self?

Here are 8 synchronicities that indicate you’re merging with that higher aspect and are ready to step off the merry-go-round:

You have begun to follow your life purpose

Forget the opinions and actions of others; all activity around you is falling away and you’re only concerned with how to work towards your life purpose. How am I going to achieve this goal?

What is the next step? Whereas before when you blankly looked around the room seeking some sort of answer no matter how abstract or obsolete, you now turn inwards and wait for that familiar and loving voice to say calmly, Get some rest.

The voice knows best and will usually give you direction towards something that surprises you. For example, if you ask why you haven’t manifested a big pay check into your direct experience yet it will tell you to give more time to your friends, or work on your self esteem. You’ve noticed that the guidance is usually very specific, but above all loving.

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You have stopped projecting

Rather than projecting on the world around you and following patterns in relationships you are transcending them and looking within to see what experience you would rather be having.

You have now seen through the veil of illusion and are able to discern between what you have created and what you would like to create. Fantasy about the future and anger about the past slips effortlessly away and you can see more clearly the results of your beliefs as those results begin to appear right in front of you.

You sit back into your experience and let it flow

Whereas before you were always grasping, you have now come to the knowledge that all you have to do is sit back into, and most importantly, accept the energy you are swimming in right now and know that that is exactly where you are meant to be. You accept yourself and are becoming more allowing.

You also trust yourself; you know that there are aspects of your daily experience that you don’t completely understand but understand that within the spectrum of You; the lower and the higher aspects lies all the answers and the fun is in sitting back and watching it all click into place.

You don’t force life

In your higher knowledge that everything is slotting into place, you don’t force life. As a big wanter and person of magnificent contrasts you know that, as well as the deep crevices of density you have explored many times in the past, you also have the capability to manifest the beautiful blossoming moments of clarity and flux too.

You are becoming excellent at balancing and honouring the receptivity inherent in you. Whereas before you were always giving and grasping and moving around, now you are allowing and waiting and trusting.

Time is dissolving in your direct experience

You are rewriting the past and allowing only positive memories to blossom in your mind knowing that this is investing in the future by creating it in the now. You remember your most amazing and wonderful aspects and how much good you have already done in the world, but are also letting time dissolve by giving it up and sending those memories back to Source.

As you dissolve time you remember that you don’t need to hold on to those memories anyway as they are contained within each moment and the presence of You in the Now. The Now has become fuller and more graceful; the whole world in a drop.

You are becoming a non-dualistic being

quote what is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil friedrich nietzsche 285265

In this non-dualistic space you are not only enjoying a new perception of yourself, but of the entire world. You begin to fully comprehend that there is no good or evil and that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

You are able to see the whole spectrum of truth in the eyes of every person you encounter and no longer label aspects of that package as good or bad, only peaks of expression and moments of deliberation. Even when you see a moment of frustration or inversion you feel compassion for it and offer up that compassion but are not upset if that offer is refused.

You even find those moments where existence is expressing frustration extremely funny (from a place of respect and love), and even in your enjoyment of humour you are shining a light on it for the other too.

You allow yourself to feel your emotions to their fullest expression

You do this, not necessarily with the intention to release them, but in the enjoyment of experiencing them. The whole spectrum of human emotion has begun parading itself through your heart on a daily basis and it feels SO wonderful to be able to feel them so fully.

You don’t understand what ever put you off and can now appreciate that to not feel and to be anesthetized to your emotions is actually hellish; the state you have forced yourself in to many times out of fear of losing control.

You are beginning to understand that there never was any control to lose in the first place. Only your connection to what is, and you are remembering that that is where all the fun is contained!

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As the mirror manifest, everywhere you look you can’t help but reflect pure love

You are beginning to flow enjoyment and positive vibes into everything you do and are no longer concerned with a set goal. In becoming more connected with your higher self you know what really matters and that is that you feel good. And so, you feel good; you find good in everything you focus your attention on and that creates more joyful experiences.

You are starting to fully comprehend how the universe is and what’s the point of it all. You understand that you have come here to have experiences so you might as well create positive ones that make you smile. In that place of higher self you have a better grasp on what you really want.

In seeing all this goodness and listening to the voice within, you are now able to know what it is you really want. You understand that you always got what you really wanted in the past, even if that was something you then labelled as ‘bad’. With this knowledge you can now create the life you want, and god that’s empowering.

You feel such an appreciation for all the times you got it wrong, because now you really know what you do want. You laugh with love at the journey you have taken and that laughter ripples with awareness. Life is really extraordinary, and now you have the key. You just can’t wait to see how good it’s going to get.

Merge with Your Higher Self Guided Meditation

Merge with Your Higher Self Guided Meditation

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Android Jones

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