"Peace Maker", collage by Licia Berry, 2006
the intelligence and practicality of acknowledgement
by Licia Berry, June 2007, originally published at www.liciaberry.com
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. ~e.e. cummings
In our personal healing process, we are often encouraged to love all parts of ourselves; we are frequently told that loving What Is, unconditionally, is the path to freedom and enlightenment. But, actually loving What Is can be too much of a s-t-r-e-t-c-h sometimes, so acknowledgment of What Is can be the next best target….
What does acknowledging What Is mean? If we aren’t able to actively love What Is, aren’t we already at least acknowledging it by default?
Nope; most of us are either actively denying What Is or resisting What Is by wishing it were different. Think about it; when I look at something and judge it as being not the way I want it, in effect I am negating its existence in my life. Whether it is adipose tissue on the body, or the behavior of another, the traffic or the weather, or the way you feel in that moment, or some old pain that needs releasing, if we judge it we are saying, “Go away. You are not the way I want you.” If I am expending energy wishing What Is was “what’s not”, I am tying my energy up that could be spent in moving forward if I would simply acknowledge and recognize what I am so busy denying or resisting. Whew, did you follow that? Acknowledgment is a choice, just as loving is a choice.
Here is an example: Eileen Caddy, co-founder of the Findhorn community in Scotland, has been an internationally respected leader in the consciousness movement. However, she fought and resisted her own aging process, even saying to others that she wanted to die before her body became old and dependent on others. She was impatient and grim and unhappy about her body’s aging and shared her discontent with everyone. Eventually she was forced to give up her resistance to What Is (we do indeed age), and she surrendered. As soon as she accepted What Is, she relaxed and became happy again. Her considerable energies were no longer tied up in fighting the inevitable, and she was again able to come into flow with the well-being of the universe. Here is an article about her awareness:
Eileen Caddy – Surrendering To Age
Despite our best attempts, glossing over, pretending, suppressing and denying What Is just doesn’t work. We may have a measure of success for a time, but at what cost and to what end? We must eventually face the truth of where we are at some point. AND, it helps to move us forward from our discomfort if we acknowledge and recognize What Is. There is some magic, some alchemy that occurs when we quit hiding from What Is. Acceptance of What Is is the key that unlocks compassion for ourselves, and opens the door for our normal, healthy energy to flow.
How much energy do we expend by pretending something is not the way it is, or by suppressing something under the surface of our psyche, or by actively fighting against how we feel? I came across an article that affirms what I know (from my own experience as well as what I hear from the angelic realm) about the nature of healing and freedom and happiness….
“Name that feeling: You’ll feel better…Naming emotions makes them less intense, scientists say”
In essence this article states that there is now scientific evidence that naming and talking about our feelings assists us in moving forward in our process and gaining self-understanding and peace. It actually frees our energy up to acknowledge and be with What Is because we are not longer expending energy denying What Is. How does this work energetically in the human energy field?
If you consider a healthy human energy field, there is openness and movement; we allow the well-being that is everything to flow through us uninterrupted. In a stream, the water and all that depend on it is nourished if it remains free-flowing. The flow must continue to ensure the health of the stream. However, if something blocks or constricts the flow, stagnation begins to occur. I observed this while hiking in Arizona and came across a lovely brook which had been blocked by a fallen tree; where there had been clear water upstream, here forced against the side of the decaying tree was a dam of branches and refuse, and pockets of smelly, green scum. It was an illustration of what happens when something impedes the progress of an otherwise healthy energy flow; the progress becomes sluggish, sometimes getting down to just a trickle or to no movement at all. This is when the human energy field, like the stream, gets into some trouble.
But if I had pretended that the block to the flow in the stream was not there, I could not have lifted parts of the dead tree to allow some water to flow through. I had to first look the situation in the eye and say, “Yes, I see you”, before I could remedy it.
When we are clinging to an old idea that no longer serves us, or suppressing old pain that needs to be acknowledged, or pretending a situation that is occurring really isn’t, we are in a very real way blocking the flow of goodness, ease and well-being in our own energy fields. We are also missing out on the wisdom that can be harvested from whatever the situation offers us. In our insecurity or attempt to control, we deny What Is and may unwittingly manifest mental disorders, or emotional symptoms, or physical issues. As the Angels remind me, everything is energy and all imbalances begin in the subtle energy fields; if the imbalances are not addressed, they descend in vibration into the mental, emotional and physical bodies. I can assure you from my own experience that it is much easier to address something in the subtle energy body than it is to reverse it out of the physical!
“You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment but as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.”
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
The Angels remind me frequently we must acknowledge and release What Is in order to move forward and embrace a new choice or reality. They say it is a fact of being in a human body that we must vent out to open up space inside ourselves, that we must recognize What Is before we can let it go and make room for fresh, new energy to flow in. This can be a hard thing to do, especially when what we are trying not to face is painful. But there is no other way.
Something I am experiencing in my own life is the death of an old and limiting idea of myself. I was unwilling to let this idea go because it was comfortable; I was used to it. But I was challenged to expand my idea of myself, and this meant letting go of the old identity. If I didn’t let go of the old identity, I would not make room for the new one and the subsequent expansion of experience in my life that would come flowing in with the new identity. As I successfully acknowledge the impulse to grow, miracles are occurring in my life.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anais Nin
It is so true!!! In order to grow, I had to be willing to open and bloom. Otherwise, I would only be hurting myself.
In this current global cycle (initiated in June 2007), we are experiencing phenomenal death/rebirth opportunities, where we are being shown the things in our lives that aren’t working so well anymore and being given the chance to let them go and embrace a new vision. If we aren’t willing to acknowledge what is ready to be released, we miss the opportunity to live the lives we were meant to live.
But don’t misunderstand; I am not advocating that we get stuck in the muck and mire of our pain, either! I have seen folks at the other end of the spectrum, wallowing in their issues and pain to the extent that they do not move forward. They become so identified with their problems that they become their problems! Do you know any healing junkies? They are so busy working through their issues that they are forgetting to live their life? Remember the Angels say that we are meant to enjoy the journey! Being stuck in the pain is just as out-of-balance as avoiding it entirely; it is the other end of the pendulum swing. Being with What Is is not about beating something to death…in my experience, getting stuck in the wash cycle of it is just as painful (if not more) than dealing with it, whatever it may be. Being with What Is entails living the delicate balance between acknowledgement of the issue and simultaneously pointing our nose in the direction of freedom and happiness.
So, are you feeling the presence of something that is hindering the flow of happiness in your life? Are you feeling stuck or like you are missing out on the joy you came here to experience? How do you move forward into the glorious flow of well-being again? Here are the steps that I have experienced and incorporated into my process, given to me by the Angels:
1. Well, step number one is not to judge yourself for feeling this way. Self-judgment is just another form of resisting What Is. So stop! This step alone may get you unstuck and moving forward again. Why? Because it is being with What Is. It is acknowledging what is really happening, rather than wanting it to be different. There is something about that being with What Is that just transforms energy, all by itself. It is the same thing as being fully present. Have you ever experienced someone really listening to you, with full presence? That act alone can be enough to remedy whatever is going on.
2. The next thing is to consciously choose joy. I do this by saying aloud, “I choose lightness of being, happiness and joy in my life.” I really focus on feeling it in my body when I say this.
3. The last thing is to know what is getting you stuck. This means looking it in the eye and saying, “I see you” (like the dead tree in the stream). Sometimes this isn’t necessary, but other times it can be very informative to know what is tripping you up. I like to know because I want to uproot the problem so it won’t trip me again, and so I can learn from it. I do this by saying aloud, “I choose to know what it is that is causing me discomfort right now.” And then I listen. Between my wise body, my intuition and my communication with the Angels, I am told pretty quickly where the imbalance started. Once I know what I’m dealing with, I very purposely acknowledge it, then bless it for what it has brought to me in my life (VERY important). Then I release it through my intention to do so.
You might ask, “Why go straight to choosing joy first before finding the problem? Doesn’t it make more sense to look for the imbalance first and then choose the joy? Well, that’s the way I used to look at it, too, until I got a little talking-to from Archangel Raphael (ahem….a frequent occurrence):
“When there is a water leak in your house, doesn’t the plumber first turn off the water before finding the leak? Otherwise the water continues to pour out and you have a flooded house! Choosing joy first is like turning off the water (in this metaphor). Choosing joy paves the way for you to find peace with whatever is bothering you. Then it makes sense to hunt the “leak”. Sometimes it is not necessary to know why you have allowed an imbalance inside of yourself…..although it is helpful for some of you. But recognizing and being with What Is is acknowledging you have a flood going on and turning off the water, thus enabling you to move forward.”
What I know is that it is truly compassionate to accept those aspects of our lives that cause us to feel unhappy….and only by being with them and acknowledging their existence can we begin to change things. Inevitably when we extend a loving embrace to those parts of ourselves that we may not relish, they stop making so much noise and disruption and finally integrate into our wholeness. But until we can actually love them, we must first acknowledge them. I also know it is just good sense and plain practical to be with What Is if my desire is to grow and be happy. Being with What Is then becomes a simple matter of doing what it takes to ensure my well being.
“We’re asking you to trust in the Well-being. In optimism there is magic. In pessimism there is nothing. In positive expectation there is thrill and success. In pessimism or awareness of what is not wanted, there is nothing. What you’re wanting to do is redefine your relationship with the Stream. We do not ask you to look at something that is black and call it white. We do not ask you to see something that is not as you want it to be and pretend that it is. What we ask you to do is practice moving your gaze. Practice changing your perspective. Practice talking to different people. Practice going to new places. Practice sifting through the data for the things that feel like you want to feel and using those things to cause you to feel a familiar place. In other words, we want you to feel familiar in your joy. Familiar in your positive expectation, familiar in your knowing that all is well, because this Universe will knock itself out giving you evidence of that Well-being once you find that place.”
-Abraham-Hicks
