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Bringing my spirit back into my body.

That is what I’m about.

Those places that let me hear from them

Are God’s voice, calling me back where I belong.

So yesterday I started to notice a real achiness in my lower left back–in my ribcage when I turned my body in a particular way. Oh no. Now what? was my initial response. What’s wrong now? Why me? I quickly ruled out travel. I’d actually made a very long journey, but it had been kind and it had been a couple days since I had arrived home safe and sound. I went to bed hoping that it would be gone in the morning.

No such luck. So I made tai chi and my date with my beloved on the roof a priority. First thing, I was on the roof with my tea in hand. No gorgeous sunrise, though. Not even visible stars, with Hurricane Matthew roaring off in the east somewhere. As I listened to Trina Brunk on my iPhone, I heard her words and they penetrated my soul, opened my heart.

Remembering that my task is to live what I ask others to do, I brought my awareness to my ribcage. Tight. Frightened. Abandoned.

And I realized that as my spirit enters my body, it may need to do so little by little. And that is what is happening here, though without realizing it, I had been resisting it out of fear.

And so I made an adjustment in my perspective. Today my spirit is entering my ribcage. Am I going to greet it with “You are too much!” “Go away!” “You are such a pain!” It is asking me for my caring, tenderness, touch. Curiosity, listening.

Yes, I think I can do that. What else might be in order? I could check with a couple books to see what “ribcage” might suggest. What it means in the universal language of dreams and nature. What I already know is that this has to do with breathing deeply, turning to the left and flexibility in the face of expanding capacity.

I can rub myself gently and be aware of this tender place in my beloved, vulnerable body. I can slow down. I can pause and say, “I notice you, and I’m wondering what you need. Are you okay? You have been protecting me and supporting me for all this time, and I have not even acknowledged you. I am so grateful for what you do for me. I honor your presence in my body as part of my system. I recognize that you have needs and I am interested in understanding what you have to say. Your pain is not so great that I need to shut it out. I am not afraid of you. Thank you for communicating with me. You matter to me.

Ahhhh, that feels better. And I can add Mantak Chia to my meditation regimen, which will encourage me to breathe more consciously and bring awareness to my organs and inner energy flow. I realize that I am needing a little more structure to provide boundaries to my days. I also realize I am needing a durable but expandable container that allows for movement of the whole, while protecting the vital vulnerable parts inside. Thank you, ribcage. Welcome, spirit, into my body. Thank you for your wisdom that I can know with just the right timing and in just the right way that I can understand and allow this amazing, transformative process. I am willing. I am grateful. Aho.

Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires, by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham). Carlsbad: Hay House, Inc. 2004. Has 1,402 reviews and a 4.5 on a 5 point scale on Amazon.com

For many years I had been hearing about Abraham, and I had seen YouTube videos of Esther channeling Abraham, and until I read this book, that energy was just a bookmark; a place I knew I needed to return to. This book is power itself; abundant, generous, practical, accessible and compelling. This particular copy came into my possession because a German friend moved back home and was forced to part with many of her books, and I offered to “babysit” some of them for her. This one was among those I chose to babysit.

Ask and It Is Given has been such a joy to read, and so aligned with my recent discovery of Joy and Pleasure in Just the Right Measure as a tool for dealing with trauma and connecting with oneself. It is also strangely aligned with another book I just read by Alexander Lowen, the student of Wilhelm Reich, for both of whom pleasure and body-mind connection has been a lifelong passion. I share gleanings from that book here.

For me, Ask and It Is Given helped clarify how the Universal Laws work. For me, fine tuning had been in order for a while, and such fine tuning requires focus, time and attention.

I love how this book approaches the time we’ve spent, so far, immersed in lives that have felt to us like struggle, scarcity and chaos, or just don’t feel like they express who we really are. None of this time has been wasted, they say.

Go forth and attract life experience to help you decide what you want. And once you have decided, give thought to only that. Most of your time will be spent collecting data that will help you decide what it is you want, but your real work is to decide what you want and then focus upon it, for it is through focusing upon what you want that you will attract it. That is the process of creating.

In order for you to know that you want something, you have to pretty well have chewed on details or events that have helped you know what you do not want. (pg 162)

I get goosebumps when I read this next passage. It affirms what John Upledger teaches through the CranioSacral approach. And it speaks to the repressed emotions that we all hold tightly hidden from ourselves, and how we cannot see how they shape our lives until we bring them to conscious awareness. It has only been in the process of writing Being In My Body that have I realized the connection between my body’s information about my infant rage and terror, and my teenage resentment and disdain and how they were generating elements of my reality that I desired (for my growth and learning), but no longer need or desire. For this I am simply awestricken. I am calmed and comforted and my faith in something bigger on which I can always rely is affirmed.

Every cell in your body has a direct relationship with Creative Life Force, and each cell is independently responding. When you feel joy, all the circuits are open, so the Life Force can be fully received. When you feel guilt, blame, fear, or anger, the circuits are hindered and Life Force cannot flow as effectively. Physical experience is about monitoring those circuits and keeping them as open as possible. Your cells know what to do: they are summoning the Energy. (pg 286)

Where I am personally still challenged is in the area of physical pain, stiffness and staying connected to my body’s signals. Abraham offers very clear information that I am trying to apply, but am still chewing and digesting:

Anytime you have physical discomfort of any kind, whether you call it emotional or physical pain within your body, it always, always means the same thing. “I have a desire that is summoning Energy, but I have a belief that is not allowing, so I’ve created resistance in my body. The solution, every single time, to the releasing of discomfort or pain is the relaxation and the reaching for the feeling of relief. (pg 287)

Esther and Jerry are real people, and they have dedicated their lives to sharing the wisdom of Abraham. I find this phenomenon fascinating from the embodiment realm because Esther channels Abraham, a group of non-embodied beings who are working to advance the evolution of humankind. When she does this channeling, she allows the wisdom of Abraham to come into her awareness, and she finds the words that can adequately convey their ideas to us through words.

Here is an example of this book’s practical approach. It uses realistic examples that help to clarify how we get stuck in our creative processes and end up creating things we don’t want. You may feel stuck in a job that you hate. You know it’s time to leave, but you can’t seem to motivate yourself to leave. You are scared and doubt yourself. “I want another job” is what you believe you are thinking, Abraham explains. But we create what we focus on. You can shift up the energy by identifying the other thoughts that you are putting a lot of energy into. Here are some possibilities:

I’m angry because my employer doesn’t see my value.
I feel bored.
I feel unhappy with my current salary.
I’m frustrated that I can’t make them understand.
I’m overwhelmed with too much to do.

If you can take advantage of this unique opportunity to recognize these feelings and thoughts and understand how they relate to your earlier life, while simultaneously developing specs for your new, desired job (using what you don’t like about this job as a launching pad), your desired new job will find you before you know it! The job you are about to leave behind is a rich source of information and knowledge about yourself. Use it and shift your reality!

What follows are a couple lists of things I gleaned from Ask and It Is Given that I plan to review until they take up permanent residence in my body/mind:

Affirmation:

I, Toni Rahman, see and draw to me, through divine love, those Beings who seek enlightenment through my process. The sharing will elevate us both now.

Universal Laws (How it works):

I will always feel the power and value of my own personal perspective for the ‘Non-Physical Energy’ that creates worlds will flow through my decisions, my intentions and my every thought, for the creation of that which I set into motion from my perspective.
I am here to experience outrageous joy.
Your feelings of increased tension, anger, frustration, and so on, have been your indicators that you have been adding to your resistance. You have been holding yourself in a vibrational holding pattern that does not match the vibration of your desire.
Everything you have ever desired, whether spoken or unspoken, has been transmitted by you vibrationally…now you are going to feel your way into allowing yourself to receive it, one feeling at a time.
You just have to feel it in your being: I desire this. I adore this. I appreciate this, and so on. That desire is the beginning of all attraction.
To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation – with no feeling of impatience, doubt, or unworthiness hindering the receiving of it – that is the science of Deliberate Creation at its best.
Feeling good equals allowing the connection; feeling bad equals not allowing the connection…to your source.
When you stop thought, your vibration automatically rises. And in every moment that you are in your state of non-resistance, the Law of Attraction will be responding to you in a positive way.
Your role is to utilize Energy. That is why you exist.
The standard of success in life is not the money or the stuff – the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.
Your action has nothing to do with your abundance! Your abundance is a response to your vibration…release the word earn from your vocabulary and your understanding altogether, and we would like you to replace it with the word allow…decide what you would like to experience and then allow it in order to receive it.
All the resources you will ever want or need are at your fingertips. All you have to do is identify what you want to do with it and then practice the feeling-place of what it will be like when that happens.
You have a manager who works continually on your behalf called The Law of Attraction, and you have only to ask in order for this Universal Manager to jump to your request. 1) Make requests with an expectation of receiving. Identify the object of your desire. 2) Allow the Universe to yield it to you. Setting goals is like delegating to the Universal Manager.
Treating the body really is about treating the mind. It is all psychosomatic – every bit of it. No exceptions. It takes the determination that you are going to put your thoughts upon something that feels good…any malady in your physical body was a lot longer in coming than it takes to release it.
Physical pain is just an extension of emotion. Good feeling: You are connected to your Energy Stream. Bad feeling: You are not allowing your Energy Stream.
Illness or pain is just an extension of negative emotion, and when you are no longer feeling any resistance to it, it is a non-issue.
You can live comfortably, joyfully, resiliently, and healthfully as long as you have desire that summons life through you.
Look around less. Imagine more. Until your imagery is the most familiar vibration that you have.
Once you practice the thought that makes you consistently feel more secure – the money must follow.

Spiritual Reassurance:

Since we know who you are, we will easily help you remember who you are.
Since we are where you came from, we will easily remind you of where you came from. …easily guide you to help yourself to that which you desire.
Do you understand how much orchestration of circumstances and events on your behalf is available to you? Do you understand how adored you are? Do you understand how the creation of this planet, the creation of this universe, fits together for the perfection of your experience?
We want to assist you in consciously allowing your connection, more of the time, to Source. …enthusiasm, passion, and triumph. That is your destiny.
We want you to relax and not be so hard on yourself when you find yourself in a place of negative emotion. Negative emotion is a good thing in that it is letting you know that some tweaking is required in order for you to be in harmony with who you are.
You are an Energy-flowing Being – a focuser, a perceiver. You are a creator, and there is nothing worse in all of the Universe than to come forth into the environment of great contrast, where desire is easily born, and not allow Energy to flow to your desire. That is a true squandering of life. Be the Spiritual You, and create like a physical fiend.
You cannot get poor enough to help the impoverished people thrive. It is only in your thriving that you have anything to offer anyone. If you want to be of help to others, be as tapped in, tuned in, and turned on as you can possibly be.

Here is a super interesting tool I plan to experiment with: The Emotional Guidance Scale. Ask and It Is Given explains how this scale moves from low vibration emotions to higher ones, and that by generating thoughts that help you move incrementally up the scale, you can align yourself with flow and decrease your resistance to having exactly what your heart desires. The goal is not to reach the top, but to notice the relief as you move from lower vibrational feelings to higher ones, one baby step at a time, if necessary. Staying attuned to yourself is necessary here, as you are the one watching and discerning whether or not you feel a little better (whether you have experienced some relief). I love it because it points out that jealousy, hatred and revenge, etc., are actually of higher vibration than are powerlessness, depression and despair. This scale offers a map, of sorts, to help you identify where you are and find your way to higher emotional vibrations. It helps you identify not just negative thoughts, but thoughts that give you feelings of relief. “If you will make the improved feeling or emotion be your real destination,” they say, “then anything and everything that you want will quickly follow.”

Here is the scale.

Joy/Knowledge/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation
Passion
Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
Positive Expectation/Belief
Optimism
Hopefulness
Contentment
Boredom
Pessimism
Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
“Overwhelment”
Disappointment
Doubt
Worry
Blame
Discouragement
Anger
Revenge
Hatred/Rage
Jealousy
Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness

Included in this volume are accessible explanations and practical exercises that beg to be tested and applied. If there is anything at all you want to change about your life, or if you have questions about why you struggle to get what you want, I encourage you to get your copy and begin these exercises immediately. There is really no reason to wait.