Healthy Hugs

I recently read an article about the health benefits of hugs that is directly related to both the healing advantages that came from hugging and how we hug one another.

The real health advantages in a hug occur when it lasts at least 20 seconds. The average hug, the author lamented lasts only 3 seconds.

As I began this blog and looked for pictures it was interesting to see how many of the hugs that were available on the photo site I use, were given sideways. The energetic blending of life force that to me represents a healthy hug is heart-to-heart.

In a heart-to-heart hug, you both give and receive concurrently. That is part of the magic that unleashes the physiological and psychological benefits of a hug. Oxytocin begins to be released after 20 seconds in a hug. Oxytocin is nature’s antidepressant and anti-anxiety neurotransmitter. In that way a “healthy hug” is healing.

The information that hugs result in better health and wellbeing is not new. Over 40 years ago, when I worked as a counselor in a community mental health center in Los Angeles, there was research published that proposed that for optimum mental and physical health an individual needed to receive 7 hugs a day.

Of course as mental health professionals, we were all into optimum mental and physical health. Among the staff, a tradition began that changed the work environment in a way that made it less stressful to be in a very intense and stressful work environment. The staff began to hug one another in the interest of health and wellbeing. Since you cannot really give a hug without receiving one the atmosphere of the workplace began to transform into an environment that was much happier and supportive.

Teams became much more effective. Networking and interdepartmental collaboration improved. Patients and clients who were by professional ethics not eligible for hugs seemed calmer and I know in my program migrated back out of the hospital and into society much more rapidly. The measures for success improved.

If I was a researcher, which I am not by nature or inclination, this would have been a wonderful opportunity to understand the healing power of hugging. My observations remain anecdotal and completely subjective. Of course, as others and I migrated into other work environments I realized how rare and special work environments like that little community mental health facility long ago were.

Actually, I had not thought about that experience in years until I read the article about hugs achieving their optimum effectiveness at 20 seconds and realized that even in non-intimate situations where hugging is considered socially appropriate average hugs are so brief.

This realization made me evaluate the nature and duration of the hugs I give to close friends and family members and resolve to relax into a hug and sustain it beyond that brief socially acceptable 3 second parameter and I have found that the researcher was right. A hug of at least 20 seconds is more relaxing.

Stress and tension I had been unaware that I was holding is released in the longer hug. Breathing is deeper and in just a few days of my own brief experiment with healthy hugging, I seemed able to return to my work tasks more creative and focused. In a longer hug, you seem to share breath and the life energy or Prana.

Now, to make a healthy hug also a healing hug add the power of your intention and the principle that “energy follows thought.”

As you are hugging heart-to-heart imagine the person you are hugging being infused with love, from your heart to theirs, and see them being strengthened and supported in what is right and good for them. In this way, your hug becomes a healing force in their life.
– Genevieve Gerard

This you can do without any personal needs or expectations. This hug is a gift you can give freely. This is a gift that by giving you receive. Your gratitude as always enhances the experience.

Since you have to feel comfortable with both the person you are hugging and the concept of giving and receiving a hug it is perhaps the mutuality required in the act of hugging that enhances the power and effectiveness of a hug.

Consider this simple way to reduce stress and enhance everyone’s wellbeing.

When you hug, linger a bit longer and make it a healthy hug.

So as a way to reduce stress, increase joy, and in general, live both a happier and more healthy life I encourage you to hug one another. Relax into the hug and let your hearts blend, and enjoy!

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

P.S. Comment below with the number of hugs you gave or received today.

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Be The Director Of Your Life

Genevieve Gerard

Be the Director of Your Life

The nature of thought is that it directs what is created in your life.

This is the subtle principle behind the Law of Attraction and the teaching that “energy follows thought.” This is why thought leaders of diverse backgrounds tell you that to change your life you need only change your mind.

In this simple statement of truth about the nature of reality and the nature of life is a powerful tool that you can use to create the life of your dreams.

Universal laws, such as the “Law of Attraction” and the principle that energy follows thought reveal how the world works. And, it works that way whether you believe it or not, whether you choose to use this information or not. The workings of these forces can be something you bring to your conscious awareness or ignore. Whatever you do, whatever you choose does not change the law. It works and operates with or without you consciously doing anything at all.

Whether you say you can or you can’t, you’re right.
– Walt Disney

Your mind and your thoughts are always sending out messages that affect the creation of what you experience. That may be a painful thought for you to get your head around because most certainly in your life you experience both situations that you want and enjoy, and circumstances that you do not want.

As you read these words you might find yourself arguing with what I have just stated as you think about some particularly unpleasant situation and contend, “well I certainly didn’t want this or that.” However, whether you were conscious of your thoughts or not, this is how the world works. It is not personal, but it is real.

In fact, it is the very impersonal nature of these laws that contain both the blessing and the curse of this fact. The idea that you had anything to do with or were involved with creating the experiences in your life of sorrow, pain, suffering or failure can be a frustrating and frightening thought. However, if you stop to think about it, it can also be very empowering because then you realize that to change your life you need only change your mind.

It sounds simple, but if you examine the content of your thoughts, you realize it may not be easy. In fact, the technique I will be presenting to you today is all about examining the content of your thoughts. It is by using the technique that you can become the director of your life and leave behind the role of actor and reactor to a life that happens to you unconsciously.

You are already the co-creator of your life. That is part of what came with the spark of Divine Light that animated humanity from the dawn of creation. It is what it means when they say; you are a child of God. And deep principles such as free will make that something you can choose to use, or you can choose to ignore. Your choice doesn’t impact the nature of personal reality, but it does affect the life you live.

It is our choices that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.
– J.K. Rowling

That said it is important that you consider the nature of the thoughts that you are sending out to create your life, your personal reality. It is to help you consciously bring to your awareness what you are thinking, that I created this exercise.

The First Step – Observe your Thoughts

It is the nature of thought that it is quicksilver-fast and has within it many layers embedded with emotions. Herein lays the challenge. What you are broadcasting from your mind is all too often, what you don’t want to happen. If what you are sending out with your co-creator power, consciously or unconsciously are your fears and worries then you will most likely create more of the same.

In a recent blog called “Why Let Worry Waste Your Time,” I make the point that worrying is like praying for what you don’t want. When your thoughts are sending out your fears or worries, the universe usually responds by providing situations where those thoughts will be manifested.

Therefore, if you choose to be the director of your life and harness the incredible power of your mind this first step of observing what you are thinking is essential. It has long been the goal and purpose of meditation through diverse methods and techniques to help the meditator gain mastery over what is often called “the monkey mind.”

The exercise I offer you today is a technique I have taught for years to help people gain mastery in their life so they can be the director of their life and manifest the positive power as a co-creator.

I Am the Director Exercise:

Spend Just Three Minutes a Day to Change Your Life

and Observe Your Thoughts as the Detached Observer

I recommend that you pledge to yourself that you will do this for
3 minutes each day.

To be the detached observer requires that you consciously drop all judgment and criticism of yourself as you observe your thoughts. It is helpful when you start the clock on your observation of your thoughts that you consciously connect with your Higher Self and you open your heart and your mind to the promptings of your Soul.

This makes your observation a meditative experience and automatically adds more power to the experience.

Sit quietly with your spine aligned as you:

Calm your mind, Open Your Heart, Invite the Light.

Then just listen in the quiet to what you are thinking. It is important that as you do this, you suspend judgment and self-criticism or those may become your thoughts.

Then, as soon as you recognize a worry thought, a fear thought or a limiting belief, take the conscious role of director in your life and edit it, correct it, stop it and reframe it with the thought of what you want or desire.

As the director command “Cut,” and rewrite the script (thought) reframe it and affirm the thought that is now in keeping with what you want to create. Then you can use an affirmation to help you to bring the new thought into greater clarity and focus. Then you can take action to bring what you have chosen into full manifestation.

Continue this process on to the next thought until you observe another thought that contains worry, fear or a limiting belief. Do these processes repeatedly as many times as you can in the 3 minutes you have set aside.

If you are like most people I have taught this technique too, you will be astonished at how much of your unedited, and uncorrected thoughts are fearful and if allowed to go unchecked would result in what you do not want to happen.

Although you can continue this exercise as long as you wish, I have found that 3 minutes is a significant amount of time to discipline and harness the mind. Although this is much easier for experienced meditators, I have found that the regular practice of this technique for 3 minutes a day is sufficient that you will see a transformation in your life.

As such, using this technique where you take control as the director of your life is sufficiently empowering and rewarding that you begin to monitor and edit your thoughts on an ongoing basis consciously. In this way, you manifest the power to “Change Your Thoughts to Change Your Life.”

This power is your birthright. This power is yours to use or ignore. This technique is a tool in your quest to “Be and Become All That You Are Meant to Be.”

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love On All That You Do!

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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 10/27/2021

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You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

Genevieve Gerard

You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

Or, more realistically, you can be perfect exactly as you are.

That does not mean that there aren’t things you could have done better. There probably are.

Yet, the amazing thing about the adventure through life is you get another chance to try a different way to handle almost any situation that life brings your way. Perfection only exists moment to moment, situation to situation.

Realizing this can be very freeing. Life as it unfolds offers you the unlimited opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes. If you never make mistakes, you may be denying yourself the valuable opportunity to learn and grow. So much of what interferes with your ability to be happy comes from self-judgment and harsh self-criticism that it is important to consider this aspect of life experience.

Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks. And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are.
– Ariana Grande

Perfection, the whole concept of being perfect is a paradox. On one level, you are perfect exactly as you are. On another level, you could use a little improvement. No one is perfect. If you ever meet someone who thinks they are perfect, their imperfection is hubris and pride.

When writing this post, I went to a site to pick a photo to go along with it. I put the word perfection in the search bar. There were 233,000 pages of photos available, many of specific body parts designed to be used for Photoshop (photo editing) versions of unrealistic standards of beauty or perfection. That mere fact showed me how important it is for someone to not hold his or her life up to unrealistic and false standards of excellence.

You might recall that I explored this aspect of our tendency to hold ourselves up to unrealistic and imaginary standards in another Wisdom Wednesday Blog (see hand-picked post link on expectations at the bottom of this page.)

So many times in life, the tendency to hold yourself up to an unrealistic and unachievable standard of perfection creates stress, anxiety, and disappointment. This can interfere with your ability to enjoy life in the moment and appreciate what is actually happening. Life does not demand perfection, but life does require learning.
– Genevieve Gerard

The ability to learn from a mistake is one of the most fantastic and marvelous things about the human experience. Once a mistake has been made you have the ability, in your complex and remarkable mind, to immediately understand and analyze what you just experienced and quickly evaluate the success and satisfaction with the outcome. What you do not have the ability to do is to change what happened. That is now in the past. It is time to let it go of the past. It is time to forgive, either yourself or another and open up to what is now unfolding at this moment. It is time to learn by considering other options you have.

Once that has been accomplished, the experience, whatever the experience was, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, has served its function in your life. No purpose is served by criticism or judgment beyond the evaluation of how you might wish to handle this kind of situation the next time you encounter it. Ponder on this!

If you store that in your life lessons data bank, then you can move on to whatever is coming into manifestation. What is coming into manifestation is not yet created, is not yet happening, so you need not be concerned until it does. Also, you are assured that you will be given the opportunity to demonstrate and integrate what you have learned.

You are not perfect and you have no need to be perfect. Most believe only God is perfect and you are not God so you can be gentle with yourself, you can be kind to yourself and you can let whatever you have just learned to be an asset to help you cope with and handle whatever new opportunity is coming your way. You can forgive yourself for whatever mistake you might have made either by commission or by omission.

Life will present you with another chance, an opportunity to try or apply the lesson you have just learned. You do not get just one chance or even just a second chance, you get as many chances as you need, unlimited until you have learned what you are trying to learn.

Then, even after you have learned the specific lesson, life comes around again to give you the opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned. Therefore, it is the understanding of an experience or event in life that is important, not the perfection that is more often than not an imaginary standard.

If you think about all of the times in your life that holding an event or situation up to this imaginary measurement of perfection has left you feeling disappointed or dissatisfied then you will have learned a valuable life lesson. If you choose to apply this lesson with compassion and forgiveness, you have set the stage for a new opportunity to present itself to you.

Therefore, I urge you today, to be kind to yourself, be compassionate with yourself, and forgive yourself easily, freely and frequently. You don’t have to be perfect. You already are an excellent student of life by your nature, and that is quite sufficient. In this whole world, indeed in this entire universe, there is only one you. The only perfection you will ever need to achieve is to be you. You are already perfect in the mind of God. Any other kinds of perfection are not only not possible but also unnecessary.

For you to truly be and become all that you already are and learn and evolve and grow through life’s lessons and events is enough. Now take a deep breath in through your nose, exhale fully through your mouth, and say after me:

I am enough; I am enough exactly as I AM

Live your life to the fullest and learn from everything life deposits on your pathway.

Do the best you can with what you have available in your exact situation and circumstance and keep moving forward by learning, forgiving and opening up to whatever unusual imperfect situation is coming to you.

It might help to say or affirm when you wake up each morning:

Morning Affirmation

Today, as my life unfolds before me I am ready to learn, to gain in wisdom and understanding what it is to live.

I appreciate this adventure of life.

I open myself to experience fully all that life has available for me, today.”

– Genevieve Gerard

This attitude and this approach to your day will set you up to enjoy whatever life brings, knowing that any mistake you may make can be forgiven. Every circumstance and situation is an opportunity to grow and learn. Seize that opportunity.

Take from it as much as you can in the present, then let it go into the past. In this way, you can appreciate the diversity of life’s adventure. Before you, the future is being created, evolving and forming, right now.

Enjoy. Grow. Thrive!

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

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3 Questions To Ask Yourself To X Out Expectations

Genevieve Gerard

3 Questions To Ask Yourself To
“X” Out Expectations

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.

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!

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

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Are You Still Carrying the Past?

Genevieve Gerard

Are You Still Carrying the Past?

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!

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Faith Freedom and Fulfillment

Genevieve Gerard

Faith, Freedom, and Fulfillment

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!

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How To Experience True Joy

Genevieve Gerard

How To Experience True Joy

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!

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To Be Free

Genevieve Gerard

To Be Free

Around 4th of July,
our thoughts turn to freedom.

In the 241 years since a gathering of revolutionaries met and decided to risk their lives in a quest for freedom, this date has stood out, certainly for Americans but also as an example to the wide world of the importance and value of freedom.

At that gathering so long ago, the United Sates of America Founding Fathers declared freedom to be an inalienable right of a human being. This was a powerful thought that spread throughout the world. It was at the time a synthesis of thought that emerged from the philosophy and expression of what has been called by scholars, “The Age of Enlightenment.”

Certainly, nothing in human history until that fateful act of defiance had identified freedom as a right, a right given to mankind by its creator. This powerful thought still impacts lives, governments, policies, and humanity across countries and cultures today, and will influence people for years to come.

Such is the power in a thought. This is certainly a demonstration of the powerful principle that “energy follows thought.”

I am sure that every veteran who ever offered their service and their honor to fight and quite possibly die, did so in the name of preserving freedom for those who waited at home.

Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”
― Abraham Lincoln

But war has always taken its toll on those who served. The very inhumanity of war, on whatever shore has left behind warriors wounded in body, mind or spirit. For many of our veterans, they long to be free of the memories, the nightmares and the vigilance required by war.

As our technology and science is applied to war we have veterans returning with unprecedented pain. There are many reasons for this. It, unfortunately, leaves those who fought to defend us with less freedom than their sacrifice granted us.

It is to provide a way to use the tools of meditation and visualization in the service and for the benefit of our veterans that I am offering a gift to any and all veterans. Over the years I have created several meditations and visualizations that have been offered to people with great success, people from all walks of life.

Recently, I created a special series of meditations and visualizations to help with many of the challenges that are faced by our veterans. This 4th of July weekend through midnight the 4th of July, I am offering for FREE a Veteran’s Bundle called “I’m Free.”

This $64 bundle is available for FREE to veterans over the 4th of July holiday week. It contains 3 meditations “I’m Free to Sleep,” “I’m Free to Relax” and “I’m Feeling Free.” For more in-depth details about these three products look here.

Please help deliver this gift to any you know who could benefit from becoming free of the residuals of war.

I have created a special website, www.For-Veterans.com to support our veterans. In addition to the Veteran’s Bundle gift it has articles and information special for veterans and posts from those who have also dealt with the issues of recovery and restitution from war.

It is with gratitude to those who have served that I offer this gift bundle.

I thank you for the safety and security you have provided me and hope the healing and resolution available in these techniques provide restitution from the ravages of war.

Namaste, (which means the divinity in me salutes the divinity in you)

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

P.S. Are you a veteran (military personal) or know a veteran, send them this link for our Independence Day bonus week “I’m Free MP3 Veterans Bundle.”

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Live A Balanced Life

Genevieve Gerard

Live A Balanced Life

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:

The first initiation, Soul dominion over the physical body;
The second initiation, Soul domination of the emotional body;
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!

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New Color of Promise

Genevieve Gerard

New Color of Promise

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

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Words Have Power

Genevieve Gerard

Words Have Power

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.

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.

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

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Love Is The Meaning of Christmas

Genevieve Gerard

Love Is The Meaning of Christmas

Christmas is a time to express our love for others. We do this often with the sharing of gifts and trinkets.

This pressure to give gifts, the stress of finding the right gift, and the pressure to spend resources has resulted in Christmas often being seen as more of a commercial event rather than the spiritual love that we know is the deeper meaning of Christmas.

We get caught up in the pressure of presents, shopping and acquiring, decorating, cooking, and celebrating. When we do this, it is easy to forget that love is the motivation for all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

Express Your Love To Those You Love

So, as we prepare for the festivities of Christmas let us take the time to express our love to those we love and to express our gratitude for the incredible abundance we already have. Let us remember the love that motivates the busyness and activity of the season.

Let us consider how blessed we already are.

Let us remember that telling the people we love that we love them and appreciate them is a gift that lasts longer than any shiny bauble you can give.
– Genevieve Gerard

The more that we do that, the more we demonstrate the deeper meaning of Christmas, and the more we bring joy to the world and our lives.

Expressing the joy of love and our appreciation of our loved ones will bring us a meaningful and very Merry Christmas.

Namaste,

Genevieve Gerard

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

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Earth Day – Green Day

Genevieve Gerard

Earth Day – Green Day

There was a time, in the annals of time, when every man, every woman, and every child thought of the Earth as Mother.

She was called “Mother Earth” and mankind was her children. They nourished and cared for her, and through her benevolence, all they needed was provided. Our ancestors lived both on the land and off the land and understood the importance of preserving the balance of resources, taking from the earth only what was needed and taking it only as it was needed.

As we moved away from the land to the cities this close symbiotic relationship lost its relevance to people. Our sense of ourselves as a part of the earth, coming from the earth, and returning to the earth faded in our consciousness. The industrial revolution and the greed and disregard of many industries brought us to abuses of our planet unimaginable throughout the history of man. Species, once abundant began to slowly disappear. Voices from the wilderness of science began to issue dire warnings of the dangers of ignoring the many blessings of “Mother Earth” and abusing the gifts so freely and richly shared with her children.

Carelessly, selfishly, starting from the industrial revolution up to the second half of the twentieth-century man used the vast resources of the earth thinking only of the fastest way or cheapest way to get what we wanted or needed. Earth was no longer seen as the benevolent Mother, but as a resource to be commanded by our ever exploding need to consume. There was no thought to the harm it was creating. Carelessness, profit, and greed were sufficient to bring us to a tipping point. The voices crying out warnings finally began to be heard.

Since spring of 1970, people began to look at different ways our needs could be met. Recycling programs, carbon footprints, green industries have swept across the planet in a unified desire to fulfill our wants and needs in ways more in keeping with the principles of harmlessness.

What is most exciting about the vast education and awareness that Earth Day symbolizes is the profound understanding of people across all nations of our need to come together in a human family that transcends borders in our unity.”
– Genevieve Gerard

Our need to work together for one unified purpose and one unified goal has galvanized us in the common protection of our Mother, the Earth.

Earth Day as an international observance and international purpose, with an international intention, affirms our oneness, our unity and our common good. All around the world on Earth Day celebrations that unite our human family, children of mother Earth will gain strength and power, and create the united thought forms of healing for the planet; new, healthier and better ways to meet the needs of people with greater attention to harmlessness.

This power of unified intention and unified purpose brings us closer together every day and helps us heal this beautiful planet so it can better sustain life and opportunity for all who dwell here.

So please remember: Earth Day isn’t a one day event, it’s an every day event.

Let’s come together and be encouraged and empowered to take an active part at work and home, through using allocated receptacles for recyclable waste, and being mindful to better reuse, donate and create, rather than waste in the spirit of a greener planet.

If you have ideas on how we can strengthen being green, or would like to share how you made a difference on Earth Day, please reply to this post.

Earth Day is 4/22/… Each of us can make a difference!

Earth Day Trivia

(source Earth Day official website, justalist.blogspot.com, wikipedia.com and google.com)

Here are some interesting facts on the impact we have made already.

On the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, take a look at how the celebration—and the planet—have changed.

Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, was the brainchild of the late Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and was celebrated by participants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.

Here’s a look back at our Earth Day roots.

20 Million: Number of people who celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970

200 Million: Number of people who celebrated Earth Day in 1990

500 Million: Number of people who celebrated Earth Day in 2000

192: Number of countries worldwide that celebrate a designated Earth Day (was 175 in 2016)

3.7 Billion: World population in 1970

6.8 Billion: World population in 2010

7.8 Billion: World population in April 2020

225,000: Number of people Earth Day Network brought to the National Mall in 2010 for a Climate Rally

2,688,209,868: Environmental service actions toward the goal of A Billion Acts of Green®

1,590,000,000: Number of Google hits for Earth Day

12,180,000,000: Number of Google hits for Green Day

Google has celebrated Earth day with many animated Doodle’s on its home page.

Earth Day 2015 included a cleanup of the Great Wall of China, beach-litter removal in Lebanon and an attempt to protect 25,000 acres of rain forest in Indonesia.

What is the Earth Day 2020 theme?

Despite that amazing success and decades of environmental progress, we find ourselves facing an even more dire, almost existential, set of global environmental challenges, from loss of biodiversity to climate change to plastic pollution, that call for action at all levels of government. – Denis Hayes, Earth Day Network’s Board Chair Emeritus

The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. The enormous challenges – but also the vast opportunities – of acting on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary year. At the end of 2020, nations will be expected to increase their national commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, so the time is now for citizens to call for greater global ambition to tackle our climate crisis.

Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable. Unless every country in the world steps up – and steps up with urgency and ambition – we are consigning current and future generations to a dangerous future.

Earth Day 2020 will be far more than a day. It must be a historic moment when citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a zero-carbon future.

Earth Day Meditation by Genevieve Gerard

Earth Day Meditation

To celebrate Earth Day, take a meditation pause to tune into the loving and abundant Presence of Mother Earth, who is often known as Gaia. She is a part of the Divine Mother, the Divine Feminine, and a part of the Creator nature of God.

Calm your mind, open your heart and invite the Light as you invoke the Presence of Mother Earth.

Take a deep breath, filling your lungs with air, which is always abundantly available to you to satisfy your need in exactly the measure of your need.

Appreciate the miracle that what you need is freely available without effort or toil, a generous blessing from Mother Earth to provide for life spontaneously without restrictions. Give thanks for this blessing.

Then consider all of the amazing beauty that surrounds you that is teeming with life. Appreciate and enjoy the vast array and diversity that fills this world. Take this moment to express your gratitude for the miracle of life that has been so generously granted to you.

Pause and for the next three minutes think of as many wonderful and amazing things there are here on earth that you can appreciate. Then give thanks to the creator and earth mother for this myriad of blessings and miracles that are so unreservedly available.

To honor earth day, open your mind and your intuition to receive from your Higher Self any ideas and impression of how you can serve this world and your fellow man to help maintain and sustain these many blessings that have been provided so freely to provide for your needs in life.

This gift of life has been generously given to you. Celebrate that gift and show your gratitude in the little ways that you can help.

Walk gently on the earth. Be conscious and considerate. Even little efforts can have positive results. This earth is your home. Honor it and cherish it.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that You Do!

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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 4-22-2020

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