When I put the Russian title of this video into Google Translate, I was highly amused at the "Lap Dance" translation.  This video actually shows an artist working with wet clay on a wheel which is definitely an artistic lap dance.  There are three short segments in this one video.  I enjoyed the first and third more than the second, but all are beautiful in their own way.

Any connotations aside, this video is a beautiful way to engage in a slightly more active form of mediation. It only took a few seconds of watching the wheel spin to a slow and almost mournful music before my body relaxed and moved into a different state of being.  For me, this transformation into a meditative state happens fairly easy now though I recognize for others it is far more of a struggle.  Just stare at the amazing patterns changing on the wheel and let it be the center of your consciousness.  Let whatever your body is holding onto relax into the music.  Breathe deeply if you remember!  If not, your body will keep doing it for you anyway.

During the first section of this (through about 5:30), I got very lost in the concept of "the thread of life."  Trying to articulate what I was feeling and understanding is hard for me, even re-watching it.  The concept I was seeing, feeling and experiencing was along the lines that when we pull on our thread of life as we move forward, we unravel our past, yet that thread of our past creates the path for our future.  I have no idea if that translates into anything sensible to anyone outside of my own brain!

I was focusing on the patterns that appear in nature during the second section (approximately 5:30-9:30).  I was "seeing" shells and flowers in the artist's work and was reminded of the amazing natural beauty at miniscule levels.  I was also reminded of the idea that there is organization even in chaos.

In the final section of this (9:30-end), I felt like I was getting a stream of messages and reminders to go with each layer she carved on the wheel.  I just jotted them down as I kept staring at the wheel and receiving more messages:

• slow but steady creates incredible beauty
  
• patience
  
• complex beauty arises from simplicity
• mandalas are a gift
• leaves offer healing power
• creation thru destruction
• healing through change
• building on the past
• circles are amazing
• losing oneself in one's art
• the power of beauty
• perfection in imperfection
• mental impressions are often tricks of visualization

Reading back over the notes a few hours later, it is fairly powerful for me to see what messages were streaming through my mind without me really being too cognizant of the process.

I'm sharing these phrases and sentiments for others to get an idea of what meditation might look like for them.  There is no right or wrong way to meditate.  There are no right or wrong messages or thoughts or emotions.  Your meditation experience is yours alone and will never match that of others.  For me, this is what meditation looks like some days.  Other days, it is completely different!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

When it comes to metaphysical gifts, all of us have different abilities.  It’s no different than any other area, really.  Some of us can shoot layups, some can hit home runs, and some of us struggle not to trip over our own two feet.  Some of us can cook a gourmet meal without a recipe book, and others of us struggle to open a can of soup.  You get the picture.  There are different ranges of gifts and abilities both in terms of quantity, quality, and actual ability.

One of the gifts I have that makes me a bit different than some others who work as psychics, intuitives, or mediums is that when I connect with those who have died and crossed over, I connect with them in their souls’ current realities.  I am able to tap into their souls’ faults, flaws and difficulties.  One of my own relations, deceased for over 20 years, showed up for me and berated me for some of my life choices; she did this under the guise of her idea of love.  To me, she was a soul who was clearly burdened and still very unhappy in her own right.

When I first started discussing this with others with strong metaphysical gifts, I was told by some, “That’s not possible!”  I was ridiculed for my experience, something that caught me off guard and shocked me.  According to the others I was speaking with, when we die, we are stripped of all our problems.  These others believe that after death, we experience some sort of heaven in the proverbial white light.  We no longer have to work on our "human" issues because they are gone.   The individuals who believe this are, in my words, “blinded by the white light.”  They are not able to experience the reality of what some souls go through after death which is more of a self-imposed purgatory.

Utterly puzzled by this response from others to something I knew to be true based on my experiences, I turned to my mentor, a woman with 40+ years of metaphysical experience, whose knowledge and guidance I cherish greatly.  Her first one-word response was profanity, just one of the reasons I appreciate her so greatly.  She agreed with my experience as being true in her experience as well.  She then was able to help me come to terms with why others would want to deny the idea that are souls are not perfect after death:  As humans on the earth plane, they need the comfort that post-death white light is completely cleansing.  She and I both do believe that the white light (which can be a synonym for God’s love if you prefer) is healing, but only as much as one wants it to be.  When one dies, if that person doesn’t feel worthy of staying in the white light and working on healing one’s soul, then it won’t happen.  Those are the souls that are suffering, but it is because they aren’t working on healing, not because the healing is not available.

So why me?  Why can I fully experience these souls in their less than perfect reality on the other side?  Surely some part of it must be where my soul is at in its own evolution.  I am a strong soul, one that some would describe as old.  Based on my past-life regressions, I have seen many past lives where I was a shaman, witch, healer or other individual with metaphysical gifts, and I suspect that is part of it.  My mentor also believes that I may have become more open to the reality of the other side through my experiences with my daughter’s death since I was so tied to her (literally) in the moments she died.  I don’t have a clear answer for this question; I just know that what I experience is my reality.

Others have tried to convince me that perhaps the souls I am encountering are not “crossed over.”  If you aren’t familiar with the term, those who aren’t crossed over are souls who have died but haven’t moved into the white light.  They are what many of us would consider ghosts.  They are stuck in between the earthly plane and the other side and usually need help to get into the white light for whatever reason.  Some of these souls experienced a sudden death and don’t realize they have died.  Others have unfinished business (that may be centuries old) that they can’t understand they have to abandon.  Souls who are in this place can be disoriented, unhappy, aggressive, or in one case I experienced, just plain bored and therefore up to no good.

However, this is not the case for the majority of the unhappy souls I encounter.  They indeed have “crossed over” but have not stayed in union with the white light.  They are lost souls in a spiritual sense, but they are well aware that they are dead and are not in need of crossing over.  Instead, they are in desperate need of believing that they are worthy of healing and that they can and should stay in the white light and work on themselves.  Most of these souls I encounter are trying to “help” relations still living here on Earth, but they are doing it from a place of judgment and misery.  It doesn’t work well.  One client’s grandfather showed up to condemn her sexuality which was not the heterosexuality he wanted for her.  That’s not really any of his business, and from my view, he is the one who needs to go work on his homophobia, sexism, and other dastardly issues.  He felt like the type of soul who didn’t want help; he was sure he was right and was going to force his beliefs on others.  I can completely understand why anyone would want to believe we wouldn’t want to run into that type again once we die!

As I was wrestling through all of these issues, I went to see one of my healers who has been working with his metaphysical gifts for over 30 years.  One of his gifts is the ability to cross over souls who are not going into the white light.  He, too, was initially skeptical of what I was saying to him because it didn’t match his experience.  However, during the session he and I had that day, my unhappy relation mentioned above showed up, and my healer was blown away by the experience of her.  He’d never encountered a soul who was still so burdened by earthly issues.  He was 100% certain that she was crossed over, but clearly she was not spending time in the white light as she needed.  At the end of the session, he just looked at me and said, “I have to revisit and revise everything I believe now.”  It was that strong of an experience, even for someone who has spent decades crossing over souls.  To me, it helped build my faith in him because he was able to open himself to the new experience I brought to the table and grow from it even when it didn’t match his previous experiences.

From my perspective, all of these experiences I have had mean that when we get to the other side, it’s not just a bed of roses. Sure, there are a lot of beautiful roses on the bed, but there’s also the potential for lots of thorns as well.  The example of someone who struggled with alcohol addiction in the earth plane illustrates the situation well.  The person no longer is burdened by that physical alcohol addiction, and freed from his/her/hir human shell, the person no longer fights the actual need to drink.  However, all the soul issues (such as insecurity, lack of love, unhappiness, and low self-esteem) are all still there, waiting for the soul to work on healing them on the other side.  Without the burden of the physical problem, though, perhaps it is easier for us to start working on the deeper issues.  However, it is really important for us to believe that we are able and deserve to be part of the white light on the other side so we can continue to heal and grow.

So consider this a forewarning if you ever decide to have me receive a message for you.  I never go looking for a specific soul to work with you; I just ask for whomever wants to talk to you.  In some cases, this means a less-than-healthy relation may show up.  Some are able to provide great insight despite their own issues.  Others give a strange but still helpful perspective through their distortions and unhappiness.  Often whatever the souls are talking about is truly a major issue in the client’s life, and hearing these souls' perspectives helps clients realize what they need to work on in the earthly plane.  In the case of my negative relation who showed up, it was a wake-up call for me to be completely honest with all those around me about who I am and the fact that I am happy with the choices I have made in my life no matter what anyone else thinks.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance