Wisdom Wednesday

3 Questions To Ask Yourself To X Out Expectations

3 Questions To Ask Yourself To
“X” Out Expectations

Expectations by Genevieve Gerard

There is a simple way that you can immediately increase your happiness and enjoy your life more.

It is by freeing yourself from the expectations you have layered onto your life.

Those expectations not only cause you pain but they are most often a fantasy of something that is both untrue and unreal.

Many, dare I say most of our expectations come from a belief that any event or situation in life “should” be different than it is. This tendency to hold our lives up to the judgment that any circumstance “should” be different than what it is, or what is expected, is a guarantee to interfere with the ability to enjoy and appreciate what is actually happening in your life.

If you were to actually consider where most of these “should” thoughts originate you would realize that many of them come from media input, found in television, movies, and magazines. It is important to understand that these stories have been created and edited to match up with fantasy expectations of life. They are not real stories of real people, and even when they are taken from real-life stories they have most often been manipulated to make a good drama or an engaging comedy. They are not real life. Real-life, your real life, when freed from these projections of unrealistic expectations is for most people filled with many opportunities and blessings if you stop to evaluate your life realistically.

Happy endings (an obsession with many American audiences,) and happily ever after, a required part of the modern fairy tale, are a fantasy. To meet this need for happy conclusions, many foreign filmmakers create alternate endings, one for American audiences and a more realistic and some might say sad ending for other parts of the world. That practice has waned as the worldwide media distribution has carried the proliferation of unrealistic expectations to the far reaches of the earth.

It seems to me that even though you probably know that these imitations of life are not life itself it is all too easy to hold your life up to these fantasy portrayals in your mind. Then, unfortunately, you experience the pain of disappointment when your life fails to measure up. The fact that these expectations came not from your observation of reality, but rather from the illusions of the media industry might never cross your mind.

Dealing with your expectations and freeing yourself from the litany of “should” and “ought’s” is one of the single most powerful things you can do to increase your joy and satisfaction with your life. Dropping unrealistic expectations of how an event or situation “should be” opens you up to be able to experience what is actually happening in your life. Frequently, when you stop evaluating your life through the fantasy the media portrays you realize just how amazing your life really is.

This single shift in your perspective does so much to make your life happier and more fulfilling that I began in my own life journey to refer to the times that I was “shoulding” on myself with the byline of “how I make myself miserable.” Fortunately, since the fantasy of these “happily ever after” “happy endings” are clearly not real, a little application of logic and a simple decision to “X” out the expectations and let yourself look at your life without holding it up to an imaginary standard goes a long way to increase your experience of pleasure and happiness.

You were born with an amazing mind and it is helpful to use your mind to shift your perception. I have prepared a few questions you might pose to yourself when you find yourself caught up in the thrall of unrealistic expectations.

The Questions To Ask Yourself:

1. “Who says I “should”?

Britney Spears Before & After Airbrush
Britney Spears Airbrush

 

This may be one of the most powerful questions to ask yourself.

Xing out expectations is a process of freeing yourself of often well-established glamours and illusions in your mind so it is helpful to identify the “voice” that is generating that message.

This identification of either who in your life or where in your life you developed the message that you “should” is very freeing.

Very often that “should” comes from the news, television, magazines, or the movies and your logical mind can immediately comprehend is not real life and therefore is not a realistic standard by which to judge an event or situation.

 

If this is from someone else, a parent, a sibling or friend look objectively at their life and consider if their life meets this imaginary expectation. Most often, it does not.

Brittany Murphy Photoshopped to fill expectations

 

Just ask yourself, “who says I should ______________” and fill in the blank.

As an example, “who says I should try to look like a movie star in order to
feel glamourous and feel good about myself
?”

 

As you can see, even movie stars don’t really look like movie stars (in everyday life.)

 

2. “Why Not Me”?

This is a very revealing question. In my years of counseling and coaching individuals often ask “why me” when dealing with catastrophic life circumstances. I coined a phrase to address that question. I would ask, “why not you?.” I would often then say, “Show me the ‘life guarantee’ you got with your birth certificate and I will make God honor it.”

In over 40 years, I never once saw such a guarantee.

 

3. “Is that experience really better than what is really happening?

This is a question where I often, and I hope you can upon examining a situation or circumstance, realize that actually what is really happening is not only perfectly fine but is often preferable to what was being proposed in the unattainable “should” category.

Asking yourself the three simple questions does a lot to free you from the pain and sorrow that evaluating your life based upon unrealistic fantasy expectations cause. Freeing yourself of expectations opens you to experience, appreciate and enjoy your life. It is a way to enable you to feel the full breadth of joy that is available to you in any moment of time.

Bringing your consciousness and attention into what is actually happening in any given moment of time and leaving behind the expectations and illusions of “shoulda, coulda, oughta” gives you the strength to deal with what is real in your life. And although not every event or circumstance in your life will be exactly what you may wish it to be, experiencing what is really happening is so much more satisfying and fulfilling than trying to live up to your unfulfilled expectations that can never be.

This simple application of your logical mind can create greater joy and satisfaction in your life.

Clearing your life of the self-induced sorrow and pain of never-ending expectations will be freeing and will open you up to the unlimited potential and magnificent possibilities that life can bring with each new day.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts That You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 10-3-2019

 

Genevieve - Soulful

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

3 Questions To Ask Yourself To X Out Expectations Read More »

Are You Still Carrying the Past?

Are You Still Carrying the Past?

Are You Still Carrying The Past - Genevieve Gerard - Wisdom Wednesday

There is an old Koan that tells a story of two monks who were traveling from their monastery to a neighboring monastery far away.

Now a Koan is a story that Zen masters of old told to impart an important lesson.

A Koan is a story the student is to ponder to learn an underlying truth that leads them to intuitive enlightenment.

Long ago in my spiritual training, my Zen Master told this one to me. It is one of my favorite stories. Today I share it with you.

The Story

Two monks were traveling on a long journey. As was the way of the times, they were walking. Their journey eventually took them to a stream that was rapid and overflowing. As they were considering the best way to cross the stream, a beautiful maiden approached them.

It was the tradition of Buddhist monks that they take vows of celibacy so these monks had little experience with or exposure to beautiful maidens. The woman explained that she must get to the other side of the flooded stream and had not been able to cross. She asked for help.

One of the monks, upon hearing of her difficulty swept the woman up into his arms and carried her across the flooded water. He gently deposited the maiden on the opposite bank. She thanked him profusely. Then he walked on.

When his brother monk had also made his way across the stream, the two monks traveled on. As they walked, there was an uncomfortable silence between them. The brother monk seemed to be agitated and annoyed.

Eventually the monk inquired of his brethren monk what the cause of his distress was. The monk finally blurted out in anger and judgment. “I don’t understand how and why you could touch that woman. We, monks, have vowed to have nothing to do with a woman.”

After a few moments of considering what had distressed his brother the monk stated calmly “Brother, I left the woman back at the stream, are you still carrying her?”

This simple Koan speaks to the distress that is trapped in judgments and anger. The longer you hold onto that judgment and that anger the more you are trapped and limited from moving on. Clinging to your anger and righteous indignation can keep you from enjoying and appreciating what re opportunities and possibilities are before you. Clinging to those feelings, especially holding on to resentments keep you unable to see what is available in the present, in the moment, in the NOW.

I have always liked this simple story because it is clear that the angry monk did no harm to anyone but himself. The Buddha is reported to have said “It is not that you will be punished for your anger, but that you will be punished by your anger.” Ponder on this.

To carry your anger forward from the event that initially created the anger is one of the most significant ways we interfere in our own happiness, our ability to enjoy life, and our ability to experience true joy.

EXPERIENCING EMOTIONS

Of course, it is natural for us all to experience anger. That is an unavoidable part of our human experience. However, once someone has done something that makes you angry you get to decide how long you wish to carry it with you. In that decision, you decide how much you choose to be hurt and ultimately held back by the anger.

An emotion, any emotion, but particularly a strong emotion like anger has a flow to it, much like diving into a pool of water. When you dive, you know instinctively how deep into the water to take the dive before you naturally and spontaneously turn to the sky and come out of the dive.

When you take that natural and spontaneous feeling of anger and layer it with judgment (they shouldn’t have done that to me), resentment (I deserve to be treated better) and any of the other justifications you can create to cling to the anger, you are prolonging the pain of the initial injury. This is where you have a choice that can have a far-reaching impact on your life. This is the crucial point where the choices you make have an impact on how much joy you have.

In the thrall of your anger, judgment and righteous resentment at the wrong, it may be difficult to see that you have a choice. But anything beyond that initial spontaneous flash of the emotion of the anger is within your control, your choice. You might ask what you can do other than experience the outrage? You might wonder what choice I am talking about. You could feel completely trapped in that past event and see no possible solutions; after all, you were wronged.

Aren’t you totally justified being angry and resentful? To that, I say yes that may be true. But I ask you for your consideration, why would you choose to? What happened, whatever happened, is now in the past. The question I would ask for your consideration is what does bringing it into the present and carrying it with you give you? It certainly does not make you happy.

You can let go of the past pain, sorrow or injury by coming into present time and releasing the past. That immediately frees you from the burden of carrying old hurts. I understand it may require forgiving the person who hurt you. They may well not even deserve your forgiveness. The freedom that your forgiveness gives is to you, not them. The life forgiveness most influences is yours.

FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is a way that you can put what is past behind you and move forward in your life to whatever new experience and adventure that life places before you. You do not have to choose to carry old hurts and waves of anger around with you. Ironically, the person who wronged you may not ever know that you forgave them. That really is not important. If you are in an ongoing relationship with that person they may sense it on some intuitive level, or you may choose to tell them. However, the most important change that takes place when you release an old anger is within you.

By forgiving, you are now free. You are no longer limiting your ability to seize the new opportunities that are unfolding before you because of something outside of this moment. By choosing to let go of the past you are empowering your life.

A SIMPLE FORGIVENESS TECHNIQUE

A very simple technique of forgiveness that I have found to be very freeing and very powerful comes from an old Hawaiian teaching called Hoʻoponopono [ho-o-pono-pono] (an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.) Please note, I have added a few additional phrases to the standard teaching.

The Traditional Phrases are:

  • I love you.

  • I’m sorry.

  • Please forgive me.

  • Thank you.

The additional phrases that I sometimes also add are:

  • I forgive you.

  • And

  • I forgive myself.

The elegance of this technique is its simplicity. All you have to say in your mind is the specific repetitive phrases above when observing the behaviors of those around you. Keep repeating the phrases no matter what is happening or what anyone is doing.

Beyond using the power of your mind there is nothing you need to do or say out loud. You don’t have to belabor the circumstance; the focus on these phrases creates the release.

IN CONCLUSION

The freedom to be in the present releases you from the past and opens you up to enjoy the possibilities of the future while you experience more joy in your life at this moment.

At times, although this technique is very simple it may seem hard for you. That is OK. Simple is different from easy. When you find it difficult to release the past or forgive it, it might be revealing to ask yourself what are you getting from clinging to an old hurt or wrong.

For many the lure of clinging to the past is the reassurance that you were right, and therefore, the other persons were wrong. Certainly, that reassurance is not worth carrying the pain of the anger with you and it is not worth limiting the potential and possibilities that are emerging in your unobstructed life as the future is unfolding.

Therefore, I encourage you to choose to stop carrying the hurts of the past and open yourself up to the new opportunities that will be revealed to you. You will be happier. You will be immediately rewarded with a greater lightness and more joy.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 3-20-2019

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Are You Still Carrying the Past? Read More »

It All Depends on Your Perspective

It All Depends on Your Perspective

Read It All Depends On Your Perspective blog post by Genevieve Gerard

How you experience something is influenced by your perspective.

Everything that happens in life is always being processed, cataloged and interpreted by the combined influence of the input of your physical senses, sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

As quickly and spontaneously as that information is noted and processed a flood of emotion is added to the situation. Immediately, your quicksilver mind begins evaluating, processing and analyzing. The sum total of your life experience is spontaneously judging and comparing what is being experienced.

The power of realizing this amazing way that information and events are being experienced is that you have the potential to interpret and truly understand an event simultaneously. This gives you great power to be in the role of the director in your life.

In spiritual teaching, in the Ageless Wisdom and in so much of psychological and motivational thinking is the reminder that how you react to any life circumstance is important. Every situation and happening require interpretation. In that process of interpretation lays a profound secret of being happy vs. sad, frightened or excited, fulfilled or disappointed.

When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It’s all a matter of perspective.
      ~ Harvey Mackay

Perspective is important. Unfortunately, so much of your response to an occurrence is framed in an automatic almost knee-jerk reaction to what is happening and does not come from a fair evaluation and comprehension of what is unfolding. So much is being colored by fear and the desire to avoid pain that it takes being conscious and living in the moment when you consider something to have a true perspective.

This is one of the reasons that when you do the personal work to release your fears you can have a cumulative effect on every aspect of your life.

To be able to consider something consciously requires a multitude of very important and significant factors.

Perhaps the most important factor to consider when you are evaluating and responding to something is to ask if your response is based on what is happening right here, right now in your present situation.

This is very important because the tendency to respond to something is often influenced by the past. Unfortunately, in making a correlation between something that is happening in the present and in the past, all too often fears come in. Once fear enters the equation, whether it be from the input of your mind chatter (also at times called the “Monkey Mind”), you are no longer experiencing the present, the moment, the NOW, but living in the past.

When you observe the influence of the past from the perspective of the detached observer, you are able to shift your consciousness into the present moment, and that can transform your experience of the past or the present.
      ~ Genevieve Gerard

The realization you gain as the detached observer enables you to engage consciously the power of your mind to reframe and reinterpret your experiences of the past.

To use your awareness and your perspective in this empowering way enables you to be the director in your life rather than the actor and reactor. It allows you to harness the incredible power of your mind to manifest the life that you have dreamt about. It puts you into an active and vibrant partnership with your Higher Self or Soul so that you can be a co-creator in your life with that Source.

In order for you to experience this and have a better understanding, I will share with you a detached observer technique.

 

Seeing As the Detached Observer

– a technique to transform your life

The first step in this process is found in really understanding the word “detached.” When you look at your life, events and situations using the detached observer technique it is important to be as “detached” as you possibly can. The detached observer does not judge or criticize; the observer only needs to observe.

It helps if you realize that the part of you that is the observer is the Higher Self. By affirming and connecting with your Higher Self in the start of this process, you have already shifted your perspective to a more enlightened awareness of the situation.

The second step is to focus your attention and determining how much of what you are experiencing is leftover fears of frustration or failure from the past. You are then able to enter into the present as you consciously and with intention put the past behind you, knowing and affirming that the past is powerless in the present moment and in the future. What has the potential to be created now is filled to the brim with potential and possibility because it is yet to be manifested.

Next you want to reinforce further your alignment with your Soul. This can be aided by the addition of the aspect of Divine Will into the unfoldment of your circumstance or situation. Your will, intention and goals will be enhanced when they are in union with Divine Will in your role as a co-creator of your life with the Divine.

Ultimately, focusing your conscious mind on being in the present also has a ripple effect on your life because by doing this you release your fears that are based on your past or your unknown possible future. This further empowers you when you, again consciously, choose to observe without judgment or criticism, stilling the toxic mind chatter of “should have, would have, could have” thinking.

While using this detached observer technique it is helpful to take deep and relaxing breaths. You may be pleasantly surprised how much stress you can relieve by doing this. Simply breathe in deeply through your nose and breathe out long relaxing breaths through your mouth.

Next having aligned with your Higher Self, and opened your mind to the objective assessment that is required to be detached be open to automatically creating a shift in your perspective and perception. This new perspective and perception are now having a dynamic change for good in your life.

With this new frame of reference you can now consciously reframe your interpretation of the situation and apply insights or use techniques such as affirmations; I am statements, or even prayers, meditative ponderings and invocations to reinforce what you have realized in this perspective shifting technique.

It is also frequently reported that using the method of the detached observer and accordingly releasing the fears that come from the past, has a healing influence on your emotions as you realize that you are not bound or limited by your past beliefs that may have been limiting you.

Remember, you can receive these benefits when you consciously align with your Soul and use your mind as the powerful tool that it is in your life.

Having now aligned with the consciousness, the Love and the wisdom of your Soul, it is with your mind and your emotions that your personality must incorporate the new insights, the promptings and the guidance you have received. You are a whole being as a human being.

Finally, to actually manifest your full possibility and potential in life you must utilize, integrate and incorporate the wholeness of yourself, calling upon and using all of you, valuing and including all of the input awareness granted to you by your body with your five senses, then appreciate the sensing’s that are provided by your emotions and the insight of your intellect and mind. This is the information that your personality can integrate and utilize instantly in any and every life situation. The simplest way to reinforce this is with regular meditation.

I have found daily meditation is a powerful tool for helping you free your fears and clear your energy field of the congestion of clinging to old hurts, past failures, and past pains. Although I recommend daily meditation, when you are working to release the residuals of your fears and your sorrows, it helps to do an energetic clearing technique throughout the day to help process these emotions.

Because of the law that “energy follows thought” you are able to use your thoughts to release your fears throughout the day while you are busy living your life. Recently, I was speaking to a friend of mine, and we were talking about 2 of my most effective healing meditations “I am Feeling Free” and the longer “Feeling Free” meditation. I shared that during the most difficult times in my life I used the energetic clearing techniques included in these two meditations hundreds of times in a day. Moreover, I still use this technique (that you can do instantly in any situation) whenever I find myself experiencing anger, frustration or fear.

I hope you now have a better understanding that the sooner you clear away the residual of an uncomfortable or unsettling experience, the sooner you can be in present time and react and respond to life free of what is having an influence over you from the past, from your fears or from your limiting beliefs so that you can take advantage of what opportunity of possibility is in the here and now for you.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 9-8-2018

 

Copyright © 2014-2018 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC, All Rights Reserved.

 

It All Depends on Your Perspective Read More »

Release Your Fears

Release Your Fears

   
Read Release Your Fears by Genevieve Gerard, a Wisdom Wednesday Blog Post

Fear is probably the most limiting thing you can feel.

It stops you from doing what you truly want to do.

Learning to transcend your fears is one of the most powerful and liberating tasks that you may encounter on your spiritual journey.

Fear stops you from being who you know yourself to be truly. It limits you in many little ways that destroy the joyful spontaneity of life. That said releasing and freeing you from your fears is one of the most challenging charges you may ever undertake.

If you think back over the course of your life and consider the ways in which your fears may have prevented you from trying something new, going somewhere different, or seizing a new opportunity, they are probably vast. Of course, one of the most difficult issues you may struggle with is in determining whether something is just a fear vs. a warning of intuition. In order to actually make that discernment from a place of centered awareness, you must strive to conquer your overall shapeless fears to some extent, and so dealing with fear becomes a proverbial Catch 22.

So many little fears and worries can linger in your undetected and unaware mind chatter that they can rise to sabotage you. Because of this addressing your fears becomes a significant step in your spiritual work and evolution.

It is essential to realize that what you fear may be a real danger. Learning to release your fears and improve and empower your life can happen during certain circumstances in life that are generating your worries. War, Pandemics, environmental dangers such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, typhoons, and tornados are all examples of things we as human beings justifiably fear.

However, even when the cause of the fear is genuine, you are far more able to cope with the severe life changes these situations may engender if you learn to transmute, transform, and transcend your fears.

The mind is more effective and efficient if it is free from the paralysis that fear engenders. Your emotions are more effective and efficient when you don’t let the stress of a difficult situation be in control.

The spiritual life lesson of stress and even danger is to learn to let your Higher Self (your Soul) have more control. Allowing your Higher Self and your whole self to be released from the paralyzing influence of fear is both freeing and dynamically empowering. Using the opportunity of the current life crisis to learn how to release your fears can make your life much better.

I use as the entering invocation of every meditation the words. “Calm your mind, Open your heart, and Invite the Light.

I have found that every life circumstance, no matter how dangerous, is better when approached with a calm mind, and open heart, and openness to the wisdom and direction of your Higher Self.

To free yourself from letting fear limit your life, so that you can take advantage of the possibilities and potential that life serves up to you in the buffet of life experiences, you need to understand better the purpose of your life. When an event or opportunity presents itself, you can, by identifying and aligning with your higher source and affirming and understanding your Soul purpose, use that strength to face your fears. This is where many people throughout the ages have found using the powerful tools of meditation and affirmations can be very helpful.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
      – Oprah Winfrey

Meditation can help you calm the chatter of your mind which too often generates fear, not from what is happening, but what might happen or could happen. The way that your fears bring you out of the NOW moment, into reliving past events and errors, is part of how they grab hold of your attention. Releasing the past with the firm realization and awareness that the past is truly over and is in the past, and there is nothing that you can do to change it, is helpful in releasing fear. Likewise realizing that the future is right NOW, both unformed and yet to be created is also very freeing.

Feeling Free Guided Training by Genevieve Gerard

 

Check out…

Genevieve Gerard’s Feeling Free Meditation:
Transmute Fears and Doubts and Feel Renewed and Alive

 

Affirmations can also help you invoke your intention and engage your own will, which strengthens and empowers you. Ultimately, using positive affirmations can help you energetically create a future more aligned with your Higher Self and your higher life purpose.

Meditation can help you focus on what is real and calm both the mind and emotions. Meditation helps you center yourself in the powerful and potent potential of the NOW.

To be afraid and experience fear is a normal and natural response to the human experience. A great deal of fear is instinctual. Over the ages fear developed, in our evolution, as a way of keeping us safe from harm. Some fears are spontaneous responses to what is unfamiliar and unknown. A loud noise unexplained is an example of a fear response that resolves immediately upon an understanding of what caused the sound.

Freeing yourself from fear does not eliminate those natural and normal responses to a stimulus such as the automatic response to a loud noise. Freeing yourself from fear just means taking control of your life in ways that open you to explore the vast array of possibilities and opportunities that life offers you from a different perspective of your consciousness.

Learning to transcend fear does not mean that you never feel fear, but it does mean that you are the one in control in your life. This transforms the fear. This makes it more manageable and less of a presenting factor in your life.

 

To Free Yourself From Fear Is A Multistep Process

 

1) Use Discernment & Discrimination

Before you let your fears prevent you from doing something irrational use your better judgment and discrimination as the first step in freeing yourself of the limitations of fear.

2) Clarify What It Is That You Are Fearful Of

A key element in releasing your fears is to use your mind to explain what it is you are afraid of. In the clarity of understanding, what exactly you are fearful of, you can often see the absurdity of the fear itself. I am reminded of times in my coaching when upon hearing someone’s fears expressed I have fed back to them what they just said by asking them to clarify “Just what is so bad about feeling good?”

3) Face Your Fears

To transcend fear it is important to not only look at what it is that you fear in any situation or circumstance in life but to face your fears. As the saying goes “do what you fear most and you will conquer that fear.” When you do this, what is underlying the fear may surprise you and once revealed may dissolve in the light of your consciousness looking at and understanding the fear.

4) Learn From The Past

Often, the underlying genesis of the fear lies in events or circumstances of the past. Past failures, past rejections, or past events that may have seemed to justify and validate the fears may often be the most difficult to transcend. Honestly exploring the nature of a particular fear is crucial. If the fear is from your past life experiences, it is wise to evaluate and examine what caused those failures. What lessons can you learn from the past failure that can help you avoid mistakes as you move forward in your life?

This shift in your attention and intention to learn from your past errors while not letting the fact that you have made mistakes limit you from embracing the full power, potential and promise of the future is vital in manifesting your life’s purpose and your Soul purpose to fulfill your true destiny.

5) Put The Past Behind You

Once the lesson aspect of the past is clearly understood, it is equally important to put the past behind you and realize that what has happened in the past does not have to affect what is going on in the future which is still uncreated and unformed. You are a co-creator of your present and future.

6) Transcend Your Fears

It is important when you experience fear that you make a choice between living your life with fullness and abundance or letting fear keep your happiness and joy locked up so you can only take it out to look upon occasionally and wistfully. Transcending your fears and then moving forward to do and become what you know in your heart is what you are meant to do, to be or become is an important growth or spiritual evolutionary step.

To help you transcend your fears
here is a simple affirmation technique:

AN AFFIRMATION FOR TRANSCENDING FEAR

 

I align myself NOW with the wisdom of my Soul
that I may clearly see the
opportunities life is presenting to me.

 

I consciously choose to
embrace my life guided by how love is best served,
directed by my insight and intuition so that I may
manifest my higher purpose in my life today.
      – Genevieve Gerard

By affirming your choice, you take control of your life from the tyranny of fear and limitation opening your life and yourself to the freedom and the joy that are your birthright as a spark of Divine Light and a child of God.

For me I choose not to let fear control my life. That does not mean things are easy or always go right for me, but it does mean that I give the control of my life to my heart to be guided by love, my mind to be directed by discernment and my Soul to direct me to where I need to be when I need to be there to fulfill and manifest what is for me right and good.

Just remember that your unexamined fears and mind chatter may work against you. Meditation and contemplation allow you to be the director in your life instead of just the actor or re-actor when you consider your mind chatter with your higher consciousness and awareness.

Finally I will close with:

An Exercise to Help You Learn to
Transcend Your Fears

For just 3 minutes every day, sit quietly in reflective meditation. Take a deep breath while you calm your mind, open your heart and invite the Light. Open to the wisdom and guidance of your Soul.

Then, for that 3 minutes step outside yourself and be a detached observer of your chattering mind. Each time you catch your mind in a thought of fear, take a few seconds to identify the nature of the fear. If it is from a past mistake, consider where the mistake was and learn from it, then quickly forgive yourself for the error. Remember the past is finished. It is over and what is happening now is different.

If it is an intuition or warning, consciously decide not to do what you are being warned about. If it is a limiting thought or belief that could hold you back, reframe the thought (in a positive light) and look into the possibility and potential that life is offering you.

In this brief exercise you may find some mistakes in the past that you need to forgive, that’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up over them. Forgive yourself for them and let them go. They are in the past and only the present moment can be truly lived. Ponder on this.

In this way you can learn from your life lessons, release your fears and take back conscious control of your life, refusing to let fear control you.

Then go forward into the events and circumstances of your life that are happening at the moment, emboldened and empowered by this brief meditative experience to help you transcend your fears.

Embrace your personal power as you learn from these daily 3-minute experiences and if necessary, forgive your past mistakes. Relegate the past to the past; enter into what is real NOW. Free from the limitations of your fears you are now empowered to move forward into a future in which you can fulfill and express your reason for living.

When you are aligned with your Soul and have faced the fears that are generated in your chattering mind life presents you with unlimited possibilities to be and become all that you are meant to be and to manifest and do all that you are destined to do.

 

You have my blessing to release your fears!

Namaste,

   Genevieve Gerard

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!

P.S. Please comment and share your experience with these techniques

 

P.S. QUICK FACT: This post has been viewed 13,130 times. Please share it with friends and then check out our other related posts below and in the “Hot Topics” sidebar.

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Genevieve - Soulful

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on Apple Music (iTunes), Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Last updated 3-26-2020

 

Copyright © 2014-2020 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Release Your Fears Read More »

Faith Freedom and Fulfillment

Faith, Freedom, and Fulfillment

Read Faith, Freedom, and Fulfillment post by Genevieve

 

A life lived with faith is more fulfilling and free.

When you have faith, faith in God and confidence in yourself or faith in life itself you have a head start in conquering any challenge that may ever come your way.

You are granted wisdom and an understanding that is an underlying support in everything you do.

One of the most reassuring aspects of faith is that you are assured that you are a beloved child of God. That you are beloved means that you are loved, by the one whose very nature and essence is love. This realization, this understanding, and this underlying confidence and assurance can be a guiding force in your life, a beacon of light in the threat of darkness and despair that can mar the human experience. It can comfort and sustain you in the moments where you cannot see the way.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
          – Robert Byrne

A part of living with faith is the realization that your life has a purpose. You are more than just a physical collection of atoms and matter; you are an integrated being of a body, emotions, a mind, and a Soul. You are a spark of Divine Light. It is your nature to shine. To live a life that manifests your purpose gives you great freedom and provides a sense of fulfillment and joy.

To make the journey from faith to freedom, from freedom to action and from action to fulfillment requires a merger of your personal will with Divine Will. It involves aligning with your Soul and committing to the work and the service to others that demonstrate love to the world. This often means taking the road less traveled. It might mean that you make choices and decisions that do not make sense to others. A life of universalizing faith is guided by the still quiet prompting of the Soul and the gentle nudges that come from time in prayer and meditation.

At times to follow that guidance necessitates making choices and decisions that might not make sense to others. This is particularly true when you feel guided to serving others. So much of the advice and guidance of the world is based on the fulfillment of selfish needs and desires. To follow a path of love, to be of service to your fellow man entails deeper considerations that are often seen in a superficial examination of your life so your goals and your reasoning may not always be clear to friends and family. When you open your life to a Higher Power and the guidance of your Soul in a quest to find and fulfill your life’s purpose you have chosen to march to a different drummer than much of the world hears.

The support of our Soul and the joy that it bestows
is sufficient to our need and carries us forward.”
          – Genevieve Gerard

Fortunately, your sense of personal satisfaction is enhanced when you explore what your right work is. When your Soul and your divine purpose are in alignment many experience opportunities unfolding before them. To have your work in the world be a fulfillment of your life’s purpose and your Soul purpose is a significant factor in being happy and experiencing joy.

I recall times in my life, when my work was a fulfillment of my life’s purpose and yet I was also amazed that I was being paid to do what I loved doing. Those were times in my life of great happiness and joy.

I can also recall times in my life when I ignored the direction of my Higher Self or let material fears guide me into jobs that were not in alignment with my purpose. It was in those experiences that I learned what the word work meant. I was a great deal more stressed and more fatigued at the end of the day and, considerably less happy. When I ignored the prompting of my Higher Self and let my material desires or my fears make my decisions for me I sacrificed my peace of mind and happiness.

If you are interested, I wrote a Wisdom Wednesday post that talks more about freeing yourself from limitations and fears.

The benefit and rewards of listening to the promptings of my Soul to align with my life purpose and Divine Will were clearly demonstrated to me in painful life lessons. I resolved to be aligned with my Higher Purpose, especially in my work life, as a way of increasing my sense of fulfillment.

I found that to help me be clear about my Soul purpose and life purpose keeping a journal was a helpful way to both clarify and record the impressions I received in meditation and prayer. Journaling is a helpful way to gain insights into higher consciousness. It allows you to observe your thoughts and feelings from a clear detached perspective that when approached with openness to Divine insight and contemplation helps you to understand the promptings of your Higher Self and walk the path where your faith directs you.

Journaling is a powerful tool in a life of meditation, prayer, and faith. There is something very affirming and empowering about seeing your thoughts and your feelings written down on paper. Certainly, what thoughts and impressions you receive in prayer and meditation are worth recording and I have often found them valuable when I have important decisions to make or significant events to consider, long after they were recorded. It is my impression that this technique is an essential element in living a directed life of alignment with Soul, God’s Will and a sense of meaning and purpose that a life guided by faith promises.

To live your life with faith, faith in God and confidence in yourself gives you great freedom and the opportunity to live a life of meaning, a life with purpose, fulfillment and real joy.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 7-10-2019

 

Genevieve - Soulful

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Faith Freedom and Fulfillment Read More »

Slaying My Dragon of Loneliness

Slaying My Dragon of Loneliness

Fairy Tales are more than true: not because they tell us dragons are true, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
      – Neil Gaiman

Read "Slaying My Dragon of Loneliness" Wisdom Wednesday blog by Genevieve Gerard

Recently, one of my coaching clients identified her fear of being alone in life or more importantly being lonely as an underlying issue in her life.

My client is a successful professional woman who has never married and finds the prospect of continuing her life as a woman alone frightening.

She is aware that to be alone is preferable to being in a negative or abusive relationship.

In fact, she recently faced that decision and choice with great strength and courage when a man to whom she was engaged became emotionally abusive and his labile emotions and outbursts had her constantly on edge.

She could certainly see, as many have seen, that being in a relationship does not protect you from feeling lonely. In fact, during my own struggles with loneliness I realized that as difficult as it was at times to be alone, that was preferable to a relationship where you felt alone; isolated and separated from someone you cared for, loved or expected to fill that void within you that loneliness created.

In my life these issues reached a pinnacle when my career took me to a new City where I had neither friends nor family and then changed in an unexpected manner so that I was working from home with no social engagement. There I was not only alone but forced to come face to face with what I began to call my dragon of loneliness.

I had, by that time read a sufficient number of self-help books, both psychological and spiritual to know that I “should” be able to sustain and nourish myself sufficiently to not suffer from my loneliness. But I never found that knowing or determining that I should not feel something ever gave me freedom from an emotion. Fortunately for me, meditation was a well-ingrained practice in my life at this time, so I was able to gain some perspective on life beyond my emotional turmoil, but still I suffered from the loneliness and isolation that had become my life.

Holidays were, of course, the worst and all those days when I “should” be with others or “should be happy.” Attempts to go to the homes or celebrations of other peoples families often left me feeling more bereft and lonely than to just stay home and be alone because it confronted me with what I wanted but did not have in my life.

Often, at night, in my dreams I began to wrestle with this problem in the symbolic form that dreams often take. Night after night, time after time, I would in a terrifying and threatening dream be attacked by a dragon that in my dream I knew to be a symbol of my loneliness. Night after night, time after time, I would battle the dragon, often defeating it. Frequently cutting off its ugly head only to have it either grow more heads like a Hydra either in the same dream or when the dragon next appeared.

During the day, while I had work to fill my time I often felt isolated but not really so lonely. The most difficult times were unscheduled evenings, weekends and of course holidays. The rest of the time my life was busy enough that I did not experience the underlying loneliness so badly, but, somehow it was always there as a reminder that I was ultimately alone.

The dragon dreams became a frequent part of my nighttime sleep adventures. It seems that no matter how dramatically and thoroughly I battled and ultimately defeated the dragon in my dream, it would emerge again hail and healthy ready for battle. Because of the pervasive pressure of the dreams and the circumstances of my life as a woman alone, I began to consider frequently the issue of the difference between being alone and feeling lonely.

I realized that just to be with people did not protect me from feeling lonely. It is possible to feel lonely in a crowd and in many ways that is even more devastating than being lonely when you are alone. I began to see in the lives of many around me how the fear of loneliness led many to make poor life choices, accepting in relationships being demeaned, disrespected and abused just so they would not be alone.

I realized that conquering this dynamic in my life was very important. I often pondered what made the difference between feeling lonely and simply being alone? I came to the conclusion that the key resided in my expectations. It seemed I felt most lonely at those times and events where I believed that I “should” be with others, where personal or societal norms dictated that I “shouldn’t” be alone. I “should” be in a happy family.

In other times I found I was quietly able to nourish and enjoy my time alone. It was these expectation times that were painful. I began to realize that loving myself and liking myself were essential elements in not feeling lonely. I found that journaling was a great way to resolve painful emotions as the very act of writing down my feelings shifted my perspective and expanded my understanding.

You can not be lonely when you like the person you are alone with.”
      – Wayne Dyer

I began to wonder why I thought I “should” have circumstances in my life different from what they were. I began to accept that my life at that time was the way it was and not “should” on myself. I began to see that the tendency to approach my life with the phrases “Should have,” “I could have,” or even “I ought to” were toxic. They led to disappointment and dissatisfaction. They prevented me from appreciating and enjoying what I had as everything fell short of the desires and expectations I projected onto an event.

The way that desire created suffering became very clear. The way that projecting onto life events the expectations that accompany the words “should,” “could” and “ought” brought me out of the present moment. Most importantly it made it difficult, if not impossible, to appreciate and enjoy what was really happening in my life because I held life up to unrealistic illusionary and imaginary standards forged by movie films and book novels that were created in the mind but rarely lived.

A significant breakthrough in all of my thoughts and ponderings on all of these issues came to me as a Thanksgiving Holiday approached. I had already decided that I would not join my friend’s family gathering that had historically concluded in my feeling more lonely and dissatisfied when confronted with what I did not have in my life. I decided to spend Thanksgiving Day alone. Stripped of the projection of what I “should” experience I reasoned that Thanksgiving was a day like any other so I determined to spend it at home, alone.

I had a peaceful fire in the fireplace, I lingered over my coffee. I made a special breakfast for myself. I had a relaxing and very peaceful bubble bath (in fact it was where I created the basis of what today is my Bathing in the Light Meditation product.)

Bathing In The Light MP3 from Genevieve Gerard
Nourish yourself by washing away your troubles and feel restored, refreshed and rebalanced. Instantly download your MP3 meditation visualization of Bathing in the Light by Genevieve Gerard today.

 

It was a luxurious way to indulge myself. I nourished, honored and demonstrated love for myself that whole day, and amazingly was not lonely or sad the whole day. It was one of the most freeing and significant days in my life.

That night I had another Dragon Dream. The Dragon began to approach me in the dream, but as he approached I did not take up my sword to battle and defeat him. I became fascinated by watching him approach as I noticed the multicolored radiance of his scales. As he got closer I realized that his scales were made of jewels.

Slaying My Dragon of Loneliness - Genevieve Gerard Wisdom Wednesday

Still fascinated and amazed by the beauty of his radiant jewels I let him approach, not afraid, just curious and accepting. As he drew closer and closer he wrapped his serpentine body around me. I realized that he and I together looked like a caduceus. His dragon wings were behind me and his fire breathing head centered over my heart.

 

A rainbow appeared in the sky above my head. I awoke feeling restored and refreshed. I realized as I wrote in my journal the next morning that this dream marked a significant transition in my life for I could now enjoy and appreciate my time alone, free from the loneliness that had challenged me for so long.

My ability to be alone and nurture and sustain myself became a strength that stayed with me even when my life changed, to a married woman and mother.

The freedom from “shoulds and oughts” has become a cornerstone in my teaching others ways to live in joy. Since that time having time alone has been a source of strength as I have learned to nurture myself.

Learning to love myself and freeing myself of the expectations of “should” have made a huge difference in my life and in my ability to be happy.

Are you ready to truly love yourself and take time out to nourish yourself by washing away your troubles and feel restored, refreshed and rebalanced? If so take some time this week to purify the deepest pains inside of you and cleanse and soothe your mind, body, and soul on all levels.

You deserve to love and indulge yourself and slay your dragon of loneliness.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The blessing of love on all that you do!

 

Related Posts You May Enjoy:

 

Last updated 5-29-2019

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Slaying My Dragon of Loneliness Read More »

Attract Money

A Spiritual Way to Attract Money

A Spiritual Way to Attract Money - Genevieve Gerard

We all need money to support and enhance our physical being, our need for food, for shelter. This is an integral part of life.

I’m here to tell you
it’s OK to ask for money.

It is even OK to pray
for the money you need
to be provided to you.

It is OK to provide what you need and desire for yourself and your family.

Often, those on the spiritual path reject money thinking that somehow money is bad or evil. The simple fact is money is material matter, therefore it is not spiritual, but it is simply matter. As such, in its material form it is neither good nor evil. It is spiritual neutral.

This rejection of money, because to have money is not spiritual, leaves many spiritual people without their needs fulfilled. Money, as matter cannot be more than its material nature. The good that money can do, or the harm that can come from money, rests exclusively in the hands of the one who uses it.

However, the love of money can lead you away from what is good and right action. All around us we see the attachment to money and the desire for money lead people astray. It is the however the greed and the desire for money that becomes the problem. It is the all too common tendency to put our faith in money or to let “things” take precedence over right action and right human relationships.

When you really look into it the money is not the problem but rather the over attachment to the money is the problem. It is not wrong to own things, but it is wrong to let things own you. It is this attachment and misplaced faith in money that gives material possessions a bad name in spiritual circles.

Your ability to attract money into your life can have a powerful effect upon your ability to express and fulfill your Life and Soul purpose. I believe fulfilling your Soul purpose is one of the most significant things you need to accomplish in your life. Ultimately in order to feel safe in attracting money as a spiritual person you must have faith in yourself to use what money comes your way for right action and purpose.

Many over the span of lives have become confused about this important fact. Those who identify themselves as spiritual often seem to shun the material, thus leading to a life of poverty and lack. This essential confusion may have its genesis in old traditions of humbly begging for one’s daily substance or religious orders who took vows of poverty.

Just as there is nothing inherently evil about money, at the end of the day there is nothing inherently good or spiritual about poverty. The often misquoted phrase that “money is the root of all evil” is actually correctly stated as “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

Although we are cautioned against a love of money or of placing money in the role of a deity in our life, to use money wisely with a positive spiritual intent (with harmlessness and a will to do good) can be a celebration of your Oneness with Source and your service to your fellow man. In fact ancient words of power affirm in the spiritual practices of the Ageless Wisdom the power of the invocation “The Highest and the Lowest Meet.”

Making money serve as a tool for good, and a spiritual tool for God, is a high and blessed calling. There are in the world so many ways that money can be used as a servant of what’s right and good in the world. It is when men and woman of goodwill and good intention fall into a trap of serving money that a problem is created on your spiritual path. It is however possible to not fall into this trap as long as you go about attracting money in a spiritual way and understand the importance of wielding money for good in the world.

Your power as a co-creator of life with the Divine requires your ability to use and accept all of the many opportunities and blessings that are available to you. Rejecting the abundance of the world of matter which creates self-imposed shortage and suffering is often more about fear and a failure to love, honor and value yourself. Be open to and have gratitude for the abundance that is available to you. Love yourself and honor the purpose of your life and the spiritual benefit of asking for money and what it can accomplish will be available to you.

So, it is ok to ask for and attract money in your life. However, the intention and purpose of the money you request is of great importance. Money can be used to serve good as well as serve greed and selfishness. What you do with the money you manifest is a very important life lesson and life challenge. The choice about how you use the money can have both spiritual and karmic significance. Remember money is just matter and how it is wielded determines its value in a spiritual life.

To empower your attraction of money into your life I have created this visualization and meditation to invoke the abundance that is available for you as a blessing. Then, when you remember to share your blessings with others you will be truly engaging in an act of love and your service will become truly spiritual.

And, when you express your gratitude for all that you have and will receive you will unlock the door of magnetic attraction to manifest and fulfill your Life Purpose and Soul Purpose.

A Meditation Visualization and Invocation for Money

Begin by aligning your body by sitting with your spine aligned.

Then, imagine your Soul as a radiating golden point of Light energy above your head.

Affirm yourself aligned with that Light and Higher Purpose of your Life.

Then visualize, descending from your Soul golden energy flowing, which may manifest as money, which may manifest as creative ideas and which may manifest as golden light transformed into real gold, as you invite and invoke prosperity into your life and affirm that in so doing “The Highest and The Lowest Meet.”

Add to your invocation and invitation of money into your life the clear intention to make your money a servant of good and right action in the world.

Then to attract money into your life consciously open your heart and your mind to receive money and imagine it freely flowing into your wallet, your bank account, your wardrobe, full to overflowing coming to you from Source, coming to you as a blessing, coming to you to serve both your needs and the needs of your brethren.

As you invite and invoke money into your life take a brief pause to consider how your life would be different if you had all of the money that you needed.

Put as many details into this imagining as possible. Vividly see in your mind’s eye where you are or will be living, what you are or will be doing, hear the sounds that surround you, sense what you will be experiencing when you have all of the money you want and embrace all of the money you need to do good in the world.

You might wish to add the positive affirmation that the money you attract will be used to fulfill your life purpose and to help others fulfill their Soul purpose. Affirming that you will dedicate a certain percent of whatever money you receive for service to others is a time honored way to deal with receiving money that has been shown to increase both prosperity and abundance.

To ask, in invocation or prayer, for money when you are committed to using it for right action, fulfillment of your Soul purpose and to enhance right human relationships is O.K. What you do with what you receive is where the spiritual lesson and demonstration lies. Ponder on this!”
      – Genevieve Gerard

If you want to make a list of what you see, hear, feel and vividly imagine that can help to empower your manifestation. The focused goal setting and purpose clarifying intention helps attract the resources that are needed, for the purpose defined.

Now as a last step, with complete trust and faith, assert and affirm that the channels for money are open to you and flow freely for you as you accept the best in the world for you and offer the best of yourself to the world.

Now, give thanks and have gratitude for these great blessing you are receiving, and all of the blessings you have already received.

So it is and it is so NOW and throughout your life.

Namaste,

Genevieve Gerard

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

 

Related Posts:

Copyright © 2014 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul. All rights reserved.

 

Attract Money Read More »

How To Experience True Joy

How To Experience True Joy

Read "How To Experience True Joy" post by Genevieve Gerard

This post is part of my ongoing series on Joy

The experiences of joy and sorrow while seeming to be complete opposites have something in common. That is a relationship in our ability to experience them.

When someone, as people often do, blocks off their ability to experience sorrow, as people often do when presented with painful life experiences, one of the unintended consequences is that they also limit their ability to experience joy.

I don’t know why this is true. It certainly seems like it should work to wall off our sorrows, but it doesn’t. I first observed this relationship between our ability to experience joy and sorrow way back in 1975.

I lost my Father as a young child at the age of 7. Raised in a culturally Northern European home, mourning, any display of sorrow or frankly any emotion deemed to be negative was strictly frowned upon. Crying or frankly, any emotional honesty was vehemently discouraged.

I know that this message was not limited to my coming up. It was a pervasive social norm at the time. Consider the praise heaped upon the way Jacqueline Kennedy was stoic with dry eyes as the First Lady, widow of a much-beloved president.

Strong emotions can be unsettling or frightening to others. Therefore, they are easily discouraged. Most of us feel powerless to really comfort someone when they are in the midst of heart-wrenching sorrow. It is much easier to discourage their expression of sorrow than to just be with them through their pain.

But, what I learned in 1975 when I was finally able to mourn the loss of my Father was that the unexpressed sorrow I had held in my heart for so long had also limited my ability to experience joy. In fact, there seems to be a direct correlation between these two seemingly opposite life experiences.

In describing this it seems there is almost a bandwidth in the spectrum of our emotions and it may be that we cannot limit the scope of one side of our ability to experience life without limiting the other. Perhaps the impact was so great for me because I had held back such a dramatic flood of tears behind a dam of inconsolable sorrow. But once I released the tears I had held back for over 20 years an amazing transformation began to take place in my life. I was able to feel more fully and completely than before.

The depth of my sorrow is the height of my joy.
        – Genevieve Gerard

In that fertile valley of emotions that had dried up when I dried my tears at age 7 were the seeds of a deep and abiding joy. When I realized this I coined for myself the phrase that I share with you today, “The depth of my sorrow is the height of my joy.”

In choosing to embrace life, the good, the bad and the sometimes sorrowful, I opened a portal to joy and happiness. The transformations that this shift in my understanding brought into my life were far-reaching and profound. It gave me the ability to have emotions in their full depth and range, without letting the emotions limit me.

I learned that an emotion, freed to be expressed, had a natural flow to it that is analogous to a dive into a deep body of water. You go into it, as deep as feels right and that then, automatically you begin to pull up until you are free of it, washed clean and released into the light.

By granting this natural flow of experience and expression you can have emotions but then they are then released. New revelations and understanding can now flow in bringing a new awareness. This freedom to experience the full spectrum of life’s events open you to not only your joy but also an understanding and perspective on your life events and life lessons that is very freeing.

Also, the willingness to feel whatever life offers along the journey also releases a lot of the need for fear. So much of what fuels fear is the desire to avoid pain and sorrow. When you realize that the sorrow of life is something you can cope with and handle, a lot of the need for fear disappears. All of the energy you used up avoiding sorrow is now available to create the life that you envision and desire.

This understanding and awareness works into your life gradually as you grow in confidence and trust in yourself to take on life’s challenges and events as they come.

Another small piece to the puzzle is revealed when you realize that nothing is ever too much to bear when dealt with at the moment. It is only when you project it; backward or forward in time that something becomes too burdensome to bear.

At the moment you have strength. At the moment you can cope. If you let your fears drive you to think it (whatever the situation of it is) will always be this way, many of life’s challenges become too much to bear. However, in the amazing freedom of the moment, you can always handle things.

This is a great blessing that is inherent in the promise that we will never be given more than we can handle. Yes, sometimes life is sorrowful, and sometimes that sorrow seems to be more than we can bear, but it never is more than we can bear. And our bearing the sorrow, though it may leave us feeling bloodied, can be healed.

Ask yourself “Do I experience more Joy or Sorrow in my life?” Amazingly, when you keep open to the full spectrum of life, joy is as likely as sorrow, and your strength and confidence will grow with each life challenge conquered.

Remember you are part of an amazing adventure called life and you are an amazing being blessed by every lesson learned along the way. Allow yourself to really enjoy all spectrum’s of life in the moment as you let all experiences, whether in joy or in sorrow, flow over you.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 5-1-2019

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

How To Experience True Joy Read More »

Harnessing The Power Of Your Mind

Harnessing the Power of Your Mind

Harnessing The Power Of Your Mind - Genevieve Gerard

Your mind is a powerful tool.

As with any tool, how effective it is depends upon how it is used.

Learning to use the great and amazing power of your thoughts to manifest your life’s purpose and fulfill your goals is a primary reason that many people explore the subject of consciousness.

It takes only a minute of sitting quietly and observing what you are thinking to realize that the quicksilver nature of thought is so multidimensional and diverse and scattered that if the principle that “energy follows thought” is true and our thoughts create our reality as the “Law of Attraction” claims, we all have some work we need to do if we want to use our mind effectively and efficiently.

Gaining mastery over the mind, particularly controlling the free flow and often negative input of unbridled thoughts is a challenge. In your 1 minute of observation of the nature of your unfocused and uncontrolled thoughts you probably noticed how much of your thoughts reflect what you fear. This is not a judgment of you, but a simple observation of the nature of what spiritual teachers have for centuries or longer referred to as the “monkey mind.”

The practice of meditation provides a variety of techniques to help you harness the power of your mind and quiet the mindless chatter of the “monkey mind.” Different ways work differently for different people and at different times. You could certainly ignore the input from the world of meditation and teachings about consciousness were it not for the understanding of the mechanics of the “Law of Attraction” and the principle that “energy follows thought.”

This pesky idea that your thoughts have power, indeed the power to create your reality and can help by working for you, or can unfortunately work against you is a powerful motivator to explore how these subtle principles and laws work. These revelations about the power of your thoughts are not new. Way back in biblical times the book of Proverbs stated “As a man thinketh, so shall he be.”

Since that time, there have been a variety of teachers and preachers, business leaders and thought leaders who have both validated and expanded on that powerful wisdom. In writing this Wisdom Wednesday Blog I realize that I could fill the whole post with books and resources of those who praise the truth and power of your mind. I will, if you like, provide some links to some that I believe are the best at explaining or teaching about this important issue and help you explore these concepts from a variety of teachers and approaches.

 


A gift of one of my very favorites, Napoleon Hill’s life changing book “Think and Grow Rich.” This is a free Adobe PDF of the full book that you can download and ponder on.


 

Napoleon Hill once stated that “goals are dreams with deadlines.” Manifesting your dreams and fulfilling your life’s purpose is an important reason to use the tools and techniques of meditation to harness the power of your mind and make it work for your benefit in your life.

My main purpose in this blog today is to discuss this ancient wisdom within a perspective of what techniques you can use and activate in your life to help you harness this awesome power of your mind to make it a tool to help you achieve your life and your Soul purpose.

One technique that I have found valuable in my own practice and in my years of coaching and counseling people is that you begin just by self-observation. I recommend starting with committing just 3 minutes a day to consciously observe your thoughts. When you observe a negative or fear based thought flash through your mind, edit it, correct it and replace it with a conscious thought of what you want and are striving to manifest in your life.

This self-observation, edit, correct (with intention) and replace technique is most important and empowering when what crosses your mind is a fear. To do this consciously and with intention is best achieved in a meditative state while aligning with your Higher Self and focusing upon your life’s purpose. In this alignment you have a greater vision.

This technique is best done from the perspective of what I call “the detached observer,” free of self-judgment or criticism (each of which work against achieving positive thoughts to replace the negative and fear based chatter of the “monkey Mind.”)

I refer to this as a meditative state because it is not really meditation, but as you are seeking to consciously align with your Soul and your Soul purpose in life you are in a higher state of consciousness and keener awareness than just thinking. So this exercise of observation from the perspective of the “detached observer” is a bridge between normal uncontrolled and casual thinking and meditation.

This can be a powerful and transforming technique. As I mentioned I recommend starting with this technique 3 minutes every day. That may seem very short but if you really consider and catch most of your negative thoughts to edit, and revise and replace the thought, you will have made a huge step forward in your ability to harness the power of your mind and learn to quiet the chattering mind. This simple (although sometimes not easy) step is important in learning to meditate and to empower your life.

In teaching this technique to my coaching clients, most have observed that a daily 3 minute practice of this technique begins major transformation in their lives.

The substitution process of exchanging a negative thought for a positive one can also be used with other meditation techniques such as affirmations or by following a guided meditation. The powerful principle that “energy follows thought” and the activation of “The Law of Attraction,” will be incorporated into your thoughts and life on a multidimensional basis, shifting your thoughts and your perspective on a daily basis.

The more often you practice this technique the better the response in the material world. Your thoughts are more powerful than you realize and your mind is a co-creator in your life in cooperation with the Divine or Source or however you envision the Creator to be.

The choice is yours. The time to activate the awesome power of your mind to live the life you have always envisioned is NOW. It is your life and your power to master.

Namaste,

Genevieve

 

Related Posts:

Copyright © 2014 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul. All rights reserved.

 

Harnessing The Power Of Your Mind Read More »

Live A Balanced Life

Live A Balanced Life

Read Live A Balanced Life by Genevieve Gerard

In your life experience, learning balance is important.

 

You must learn to balance work with play. You must learn to balance your selfish desires with charity. You must strive to balance your joys and your sorrows. Even when something is good and enjoyable we can realize that too much is not good because it takes us out of balance.

But more important is another step to living a balanced life.

Balance is important in so many subtle aspects of our life that we seem to gravitate toward it unconsciously. There are aspects of the concept of balance that serve as primary lessons for the spiritual demonstrations that are a part of our evolving consciousness.

A part of our growth and maturation as a conscious being and a spiritual being requires learning to use each distinctive part of our being in harmony and balance with the other parts of our being. The lessons that come about from harnessing the desires and impulses of our physical nature and our body are not only important psychological lessons but also important as spiritual lessons.

The Ageless Wisdom speaks of these lessons of consciousness in terms of calling upon our Soul to give us dominion over the desires of the flesh. Likewise, the insight and perspective of the Soul is called upon to enable us to conquer the dragons of our fears and calm the troubled water of being overly emotional.

Balance is the most important of all qualities. We don’t want a little bit of rapid growth and then to stagnate. We want continual growth, continual development, which implies balance, always.
        – Dr. Frederick Lenz (Zen Master Rama)

In a higher turn of the spiral, the wisdom of the Soul is invoked to bring the mental body into balance and alignment with the impressions of the Soul. In each of these important developmental tasks on the spiritual journey, integration is significant. In each of these significant milestones, the evolution of our human consciousness and understanding of the scope of the human experience is demonstrated.

This process of integration continues as a theme in variation through our many lifetimes as we explore the vast array of possibilities in life. You may or may not believe in the continuity of consciousness that is known as reincarnation. If you consider that a possibility, within the context of our evolving and growing into the fullness our dual nature as fully human and our sense that we are in some way connected with that which is Divine in life, as a hypothesis many unanswerable questions seem to find an explanation.

To consider that our nature and the fullness of our being includes a physical body which we must not let run amok in life seems pretty clear. We have all seen the disastrous results of unchecked lusts, gluttony, and laziness. These temptations along the spiritual path are well established and they are even listed in the seven deadly sins.

To expand your thinking to include the challenges of the other parts of your nature, wrath, greed, pride and envy you can see that bringing your emotions back from uncontrollable expression is also an important part of living an integrated life. Likewise, learning to harness the impressions of the mind beyond just the capacity of thought into the more spiritual application of wisdom is a task that often requires courage and conviction. To bring the needs and desires of our physical body into balance and bring our mind and emotions to equilibrium are all vital to have a truly successful life experience.

Integration of these often conflicting urges and influences is the work of the personality. The better integrated, the more balanced and cooperative these dynamism’s are the happier and I believe the more successful and fulfilled an individual is. We can see the truth of this by observing our fellow man.

The Final Step In The Process Of Balance

A less obvious factor in our comprehension, because it is less tangible to our human expression, is the final step in this process of balance and amalgamation. This is the dynamic that becomes available with the integration of our Soul into the wholeness of life experience. It is, however, only when we embark upon this final quest of human consciousness that we can begin to fully understand and express the mystery of our creation as being fully human and at the same time in union with the Divine. That mankind has known itself to be of this dual nature as both human and Divine is reflected in the ancient greeting of “Namaste,” a Sanskrit phrase that means “the Divinity in me recognizes and honors the Divinity that is in you.”

Initiations Into Different Stages of Consciousness

The developmental tasks along the spiritual journey have been explained in the Ageless Wisdom in the terms of initiations into different stages of consciousness simply expressed as:

  1. The first initiation, Soul dominion over the physical body;
  2. The second initiation, Soul domination of the emotional body;
  3. The third initiation, Soul domination over the mental body.

In this integrative process the personality is also integrated with the Soul as the sum total of our body, emotions and mind.

This step in our spiritual evolution of integrating and fusing our Soul with our personality is the culmination of so many life lessons and spiritual lessons that it is rare to find. It is a stage in consciousness to which you can aspire and open yourself to in meditation. There are, in the Mantram taught in the Ageless Wisdom, specific opportunities to open your heart, your mind and your Soul to this experience.

One of my very favorites, the Mantram of the Soul, comes from the works of Alice A. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II. p. 123.

Affirming, asserting and invoking this blending of light and fusion of your Soul with the personality brings about a shift in your life experience and consciousness. These, in turn, bring about a new way of being and facilitate the expression of the new kind of human being who is evolving into the world. It is with the development of this new type of human being, that you can imagine the changes and transformation the world will need to undergo if the long-predicted golden New Age will come to fruition.

This step in your consciousness and expression of your dual nature, fully human and Divine, is a giant step for mankind that has been eons in the making. This expression of your role as a co-creator of life in harmonic cooperation with the Divine promises new possibilities and potentialities as you venture through this experience we call life.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts That You Might Also Like

 

Genevieve - Soulful

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Last updated 9-25-2019

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Live A Balanced Life Read More »

Stress and Procrastination

The Relationship between Stress and Procrastination

A Wisdom Wednesday Blog

Stress & Procrastination - Genevieve Gerard

 

Recently, I had the opportunity to observe how procrastination – putting something aside to complete later, impacts your stress.

This is a lesson that I thought I had already learned, but sometimes our behavior or the behavior of others on whom we depend impacts us in ways that are frustrating and harmful to us. Stress can be a negative factor in your health and certainly unpleasant to experience.

Sometimes stress is completely unavoidable. When that happens, I am compelled to use meditative and visualization techniques to return, hopefully quickly to a state of equilibrium.

At other times the pounding heart, the on edge feeling of too much adrenaline in the system, the vague tension of an impending headache is the penalty that life extracts from faulty planning and procrastination. I don’t know about you but I hate to be late. I hate to miss a deadline even if it is only a “soft “or self-imposed deadline. When it is a deadline imposed by events in the world, the stress of missing it is dramatically increased.

The hands of time move forward in life without regard for your position in the plans of your life. No matter how we try, we cannot ever change the impact or influence of what we have done in the past, or what we have left undone in the past. Once a situation or event becomes the past, it releases us from any mistakes we may have made or disappointments we may have suffered. As freeing and comforting as this is it is also significant to observe recent events to see what you can learn from what has happened so you can avoid whatever was stressful, uncomfortable or unpleasant in the future.

It is after a stressful work experience that resulted in a missed deadline and accordingly diminished effectiveness and success that I am writing today, trying to learn what I can do better and more effectively in the future. In exploring what I can do to avoid the discomfort of too much stress that resulted in dis-ease I realized that often the culprit creating stress is a direct result of procrastination, although it fortunately did not create disease.

The impact that procrastination has on your level and experience of stress can be significant.”
– Genevieve Gerard

Procrastination results in a backlog of unfinished events that often result in feelings of being overwhelmed. Ironically, it often takes much more time and effort to bring a task to completion than it would have in present time. To complete a procrastinated project you often must review what you have previously started to bring it into the current situation and circumstance.

This is not always an issue, but when working on multiple projects with any time or external deadline significance I find the time at hand sometimes expands by at least a third, how much work needs to be done to accomplish a single project. Therefore, the procrastination has ultimately increased your workload and as a result has increased the stress that you experienced. That does not even take into account the fact that until a task is concluded it remains a small pressure in the back of your mind, increasing your sense of stress and your tendency to feel like it is all too much, overwhelming and frustrating.

This pattern of choice compounds your stress and reduces both your effectiveness and efficiency. Like the old time management axiom advises that you handle an individual piece of paper only once, procrastination deprives you of the satisfaction and feeling of success that finishing a task brings.

Yes, it is true that there are always more tasks to be addressed in the ongoing adventure of life, but bringing a task to completion actually reduces the volume of work required since you don’t have to revisit where you were before when you placed the task in the “I’ll do it later” pile. Soon, that pile becomes so high that, prior to beginning any task you have to prioritize your tasks amongst all of the procrastinated tasks. You may feel pulled into too many directions and the constant need to re-evaluate and re-prioritize actually adds to the work load.

The extra work of the constant re-evaluation and re-prioritization it creates is a direct by-product of the procrastination. Otherwise, you could have moved on to more fulfilling and creative parts of your work. We tend to procrastinate most about those tasks we enjoy least.

So the wisdom I offer you today, from the life lesson I again learned, is to understand the relationship between procrastination and stress. Leaving things unfinished, uncompleted is disruptive and damaging on several levels. First of all, it deprives you of the satisfaction that a finished task provides. An unfinished task then adds to the tension and stress with which you approach your work because you know you have not finished. Even if you go on to supposedly relax, what has been left undone is a subtle pressure added to you mind where you know what is left to do. Even if you try to put it aside in your mind it adds to a sense of distress and burden about your work.

 


Is this stressing you out just reading about this? Need to reduce the stress in your life?
Give yourself theGift of Relaxation” MP3 ==>Download Today for FREE.


 

The other damage and harm that results from procrastination is that procrastination brings you out of time by constantly requiring a focus of the past, considering how you will finish what you left undone. It also requires you trying to constantly project into the future as you strive to plan for and incorporate the procrastinated task. All of this reduces the free feeling of being in the moment with an unencumbered future brimming with possibility and promise.

Although, it is not always possible to finish every task once you begin, it seems that by realizing how stress is compounded by procrastination, it would be wise to build completion into your work and life habits. It may require better planning and assessment of a task at hand, but whenever possible focus on completing one project at a time. If you cannot conclude the task, planning the time to bring it to completion and then executing the task as soon as possible eliminates the expanding work of procrastination and reduces the stress of being overwhelmed because you never feel finished or free.

Consciously choosing to complete a task the first time it needs to be accomplished, even if it takes a little more time to finish in the present, will ultimately not only reduce your stress but you will have less work to do because the work the procrastination pattern created will not exist.

Changing your mind about how you work when you work is a powerful way to increase your sense of satisfaction and success in life.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on all that you do.

 

Related Posts:

© 2014 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul

 

Stress and Procrastination Read More »

What You Appreciate You Attract

What You Appreciate You Attract

Read What You Appreciate You Attract, a Wisdom Wednesday blog post by Genevieve Gerard

There are in the world certain principles or laws that you can utilize to empower your life and bring into manifestation the fulfillment of your goals and objectives. One of these is known as The Law of Attraction. Many have taught about it.

Teaching the primary principles of The Law of Attraction is what the famous book by Napoleon Hill was all about. His book “Think and Grow Rich” was a bridge between business thinking and consciousness. Since the 1930s when he first published this book and the principles outlined in it, it has been the key to success in many lives. Reading this book had a profound impact on my life and my understanding of life. I suggest you take the time to read it.

One essential element in the Law of Attraction is appreciation. What you appreciate you attract. Appreciation and gratitude signal your mind that this is something good, this is something you want, this is something that you desire. Therefore, the act of conscious appreciation works as a powerful magnet to bring to you more of what you enjoy.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.
      – Oprah Winfrey

In the simple act of appreciation is the activation of not only the Law of Attraction but also the dynamic potential of the principle that “energy follows thought.” These two dynamic rules, when working in concert, influence your life in amazing ways.

Your thoughts are powerful things. It is through your thoughts that you enter into your co-creator role with the Divine to manifest in your life. It is the meaning of the biblical passage “As a man thinkith, so shall he be.” Wise men and sages throughout time have taught these truths. They are not new. And, just as they have throughout time, they still work.

The challenge for many of you it to halt the negative self-talk of the monkey mind and not dwell upon the fears that you can generate faster than lightning to utilize and activate these “power of positive thinking” thoughts. Gratitude and appreciation can focus you mind toward the positive principles by their expression.

The advantage of expressing your appreciation and gratitude is twofold. Not only does it positively focus the attention of your mind on what you have liked and enjoyed, it makes the person to whom you are expressing gratitude to feel good and feel appreciated. So appreciation is not only a key element in making your life better, making your life manifest more of what you want and desire, but it is also a key element in right human relationships.

As I say this, however, there is a factor that I think is very important. The gratitude that I am recommending expressing needs to be real and heartfelt. The perfunctory of “good manners” expressions of gratitude do not have the power or the potential of what I am saying.

The world is full of people who are judgmental scorekeepers in their interpersonal relations. Making gratitude and appreciation further grist in their mill is working against the laws and principles of which I speak. Your mind is not fooled by a demanded or manners expression of gratitude. Your mind knows when you are expressing real appreciation and sincere gratitude and that is what will activate the underlying laws.

With gratitude and appreciation especially because of their dynamic influence on manifesting in your life, I suggest that you find the place within yourself where you truly feel gratitude and appreciation. It is in that spontaneous out flowing of joy where the magic and wisdom resides.

Your appreciation and your gratitude can be activated and expressed for a myriad of blessings and benefits. Each time you discover something you are truly grateful for you are actively working to empower your life with greater success and more joy.

What is interesting to understand is these principles are at work whether you use them consciously and with intention or not. Universal laws are not personal, they are just the rules. You can however, use them for accomplishing your goals and to manifest the life that you desire.

Approaching life with an attitude of gratitude is a way to dispel the darkness in your life with the light of joy.
      – Genevieve Gerard

Approaching life with “an attitude of gratitude” has far reaching implications. When your mind and your heart are brimming with appreciation there is less room for fear or negative self-talk. As the darkness is dispelled by the light, these positive expressions diminish the fear. It is one of the many examples in life that by giving we are twice blessed, the one who gives and the one who receives.

Consider building into your life focusing your attention upon what you like, and then observe the results that just this shift in attention can create. It is a simple adjustment that can result in amazing transformation in your life, in your relationships and in what you experience.

You have nothing to lose and much that can be gained.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 10-18-2018

 

Copyright © 2014-2018 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC, All Rights Reserved.

 

What You Appreciate You Attract Read More »

New Color of Promise

New Color of Promise

Color of Promise blog post by Genevieve Gerard

The unique tone of pink that comes with the dawn always gives me hope and promise. It always makes me smile.

For me, the color of dawn, the way the light of the rising sun merges and mingles with the emerging blues of morning as gray is chased away, is one of the purest joys in life.

The colors of the dawn seem to come with the assurance that there are new possibilities available. All that I have known to be a problem or a pain can fade away with the emerging of the light of a new day. It reminds me of the truth of the old saying “today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

To me the dawn comes embedded with the promise that new possibilities are available today. It is a reminder that the past is past. What may come into being with the emerging of the new day is really unknown. It is a part of the magic of life and the mystery of life that change is always happening. Change is a constant in a life experience that may seem to have no consistency.

This is one of the most amazing things about life, and at times the most terrifying. That change can bring into manifestation the fulfillment of our deepest desires, and at the same time create the circumstances of our greatest fears is an element of the adventure of the experience of living. What has been before, is not a guarantee for what is now emerging. This is as equally true for our desires and our fears. Change is the one constancy in life. We can embrace it or we can flee from it, but no matter what we do, we cannot change that.

The chance that change will be positive and move my life forward to the manifestation of my goals and desires is at least equal to the chance of something I do desire not unfolding.
        – Genevieve Gerard

I choose hope with the emergence of the day. I see the possibility that the life experiences that will unfold in the emerging day will be wonderful. The chance that change will be positive and move my life forward to the manifestation of my goals and desires is at least equal to the chance of something I do desire not unfolding. However, when you add to the mix the powerful principle of life that energy follows thought, it seems the odds tip in the favor of the new day bringing the fulfillment of my dreams.

No matter what happens in the circumstances of the unfolding day, holding hope in my heart has not only empowered the subtle influence of the universal law of energy following thought to work in my favor, it has removed the temptation of worry and fear. Likewise, holding hope and trusting in life, not only reduces the experience of fear, but it also reduces stress and anxiety.

Since none of us knows what will happen in the future, remaining in the present with the promise and potentiality of the new day, leaves me strong so if the winds of change blow ill for my life, I have the strength and energy to cope and deal with events, but need only to deal with something once it has really happened. “Sufficient for the day are the challenges I face today.” This is a choice I make about how to live my life. It is a decision that I make when the dawns early light emerges from the shadows of the night. I choose hope. I choose faith that great good is coming to me. What do you choose?

To empower and enhance this hope, I often use affirmations. I find that affirmations activate a sense of my identity about what I aspire to be. We each make these choices about what we think, what we consider, what we believe, often without intention or focus.

For me, the pink of the dawn is a reminder to choose hope and believe in the unlimited possibilities of time unfolding, which will bring great blessings and new opportunities to fulfill your life’s purpose and manifest what you desire.

Hope can spring eternal in your heart and it can be renewed with each dawn as you affirm in the morning’s light, that this new day holds the potential for the very best of change in your life.

 

The Blessing of Promise & Possibilities on All That You Do,

   Genevieve

 

Hand-Picked Posts That You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 5-22-2019

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

New Color of Promise Read More »

Words Have Power

Words Have Power

Read Words Have Power Wisdom Wednesday post by Genevieve Gerard

A word, once spoken can never be recalled. The good that you can do with just a word or the harm that you can do with just one word is legendary.

Have you ever said something just to feel like you put your foot in your mouth? Of course, you have. We all have. But once the word is spoken, it cannot really ever be retracted. We can of course apologize. We can try to clarify or explain. But once the word has been spoken the energy it creates for good or ill is a tangible force.

I once read that a word is like a living organism, capable of growing, changing, spreading, and influencing the world in many ways, directly and indirectly through others.

To understand this important principle we need to understand that in a word is great power. The power in a word is a building block to creating the reality that surrounds us. Remember in the creation story of Genesis, creation manifested according to each word of God’s intention, the most famous words “Let there be Light” was followed by Light manifesting from nothingness.

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
          – Oliver Wendell Holmes

How Words Impact

It is important to consider two very important principles.

  1. First is that Energy Follows Thought, so even before the word is spoken the energetic flow is empowered by the thought. This can be shown by the Japanese scientist and water researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto who has revealed that thoughts and vibrations affect the molecular structure of water. Just think, since a human body contains 70% water, how it can have a strong impact on human consciousness.
  2. Second is the principle of harmlessness. In what you say and in what you do it is always important to consider the impact your words can have on others. What you say can have a major impact on the one with whom you are speaking.

All too often, we speak without thought, without considering the impact or influence our words can have. Even if you are alone, and you are the only one who hears, the intermingling of words and thoughts create your reality or influence your perception. Part of becoming a more conscious being includes taking responsibility for yourself on many levels, thoughts, words, and deeds.

Part of realizing the power that words possess is taking responsibility for the words that come forth from our mouths.
          – Genevieve Gerard

By considering the important desire to live and act with harmlessness by looking to the words that you choose and use to express both your thoughts and your feelings, is a wise and powerful tool to transform your life and your relationships. Ultimately, you need to consider before you speak the impact your words may have on others, and you need to consider the impact your self-talk has on your own life.

When you get ready to speak, think:

Is it true? Is it kind? Will it help or cause harm?

If you apply this filter to your words and consider each word you speak in light of the principles of harmless you will find your relationships transform. If you then apply the same filter to your thoughts about yourself you will transform your life.

Words have power, thoughts have power. Words have the power to incite and divide or to calm and connect. These influence your life all the time whether you are conscious of it or not so by bringing these principles to your conscious mind, invoking your will and intention to wield these tools with wisdom and compassion gives you a potent force for success in life on multiple levels. By becoming aware of the consequences of your speech, and making a conscious attempt to engage in Right Speech, you are harnessing a mighty force to influence your life.

Living consciously, observing and accepting responsibility for your words and the influences they have is one of the steps to wisdom. One advantage of observing your speech is that in so doing you are also observing your thoughts. By harnessing these two dynamic forces in life to make them work for you, you are empowering your life in a way that strengthens and supports your relationships with others but also increases your potential for success.

Finally, I leave you with these words because the intention to speak consciously and think consciously puts me in mind of a blessing may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight.

Ponder on this.

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!

Namaste,

   Genevieve

 

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

 

Last updated 8-7-2019

 

Genevieve - Soulful

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Words Have Power Read More »

10 Things I Have Learned About Consciousness From My Dog

10 Things I Have Learned About
Consciousness From My Dog Silky

Genevieve Gerard Dog Silky

 

Life offers us many lessons, sometimes from unlikely teachers.

Although I originally published this post in December of 2013, I am republishing it because the lessons I learned from my dog Silky are different from the lessons I learn from my current dog Bentley, just as our human teachers have different personalities and characteristics that teach us different life lessons.

As I was considering what to post for this week’s Wisdom Wednesday Blog I chose to update and repost this article.

Update:

Silky passed on to doggy heaven in July of 2014. In 2014, a new fur baby came to me as a rescue, my dog Bentley. He has a very different nature and teaches different life lessons.

In October of 2014 I wrote a post about what Bentley was teaching me.

The thing that I think was most wonderful is that each of these souls had mastered giving unconditional love.

The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.
      — M. K. Clinton

I am very grateful for the blessing of unconditional love that each of these dogs have brought into my life.

My life has been richer and blessed by the animals that have accompanied me on my adventure. I encourage you to take some time to consider what you can learn from the animal consciousness that has come into your life. Each Presence is unique in what they teach you and offer to you.

I hope you enjoy this somewhat lighter perspective on life lessons. Life lessons are available to us from everywhere if we keep our hearts and minds open.

 

10 Things I Learned

    1. How to relax – when my dog relaxes he does it completely without a worry or concern.
    2. How to forgive immediately – my dog forgives any error on my part and then forgets it.
    3. How to express love with spontaneous joy – my dog gets completely into expressing his love and doesn’t stop until I say enough.
    4. How to be grateful for what I receive – my dog approaches every treat or blessing that life offers with gratitude and appreciation.
    5. How to be in the moment (in the Now) – my dog does not let anything that has happened in the past have any impact on the present and he never worries about the future.
    6. How to Love unconditionally – my dog always loves me and it has nothing to do with what I do. It is always there for me.

If You Would Like To Open Yourself To The Energy Of Divine Love & The Love That Your Soul Brings To You,
check out my Gift of Love CD Meditation (MP3 Download.)


    7. How to forgive yourself – as quickly as he forgives me he also forgives himself, even if he has done something wrong; as quickly as any of my transgressions are forgiven and forgotten so are his.
    8. How to honestly express his feelings – if he doesn’t like or trust someone, no amount of comforting or commanding will stop the expression of his feelings, he trusts his intuition completely.
    9. How to delight in the simple joys of life – playing – running- sniffing a new smell – whatever the experience, it is approached with a joyful abandon
    10. How to just be – My dog never makes demands of himself or his time, is never self-critical, he enjoys and appreciates just being.

 

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

 

P.S. Silky is a Havanese (his breed is from Havana Cuba and is sometimes referred to as a “Havana Silk Dog” and they are hypoallergenic because they have hair like a human.)

P.P.S. Please comment below and let me know what you have learned from your dog.

 

Related Links You May Enjoy Reading:

 

Copyright © 2013-2016 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul

 

10 Things I Have Learned About Consciousness From My Dog Read More »