Day 205 - A Year to Clear - Monkey Mind Mom

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Lesson 205: Monkey Mind Mom

Stephanie Bennett Vogt speaks in today lesson of a situation where her daughter was in Europe and she missed some trains. Things essentially were not going to plan and her daughter was crying saying that she wished her parents were there, but that she knew it would be okay by sticking it out. The lesson is about things not going to plan and at times you might feel like the world is against you. You might curl up in a ball and cry. You might feel like you’re making tracks but going three steps back. There are times when we are challenged in this way. Today is to think of a time when you felt really rattled when plans just went into disarray. How did you handle them?

I guess today’s lesson may not have initially resonated it for me because it was named “monkey mind mom” because I’m not a mum (I’m Australian and we spell it mum). I get what the lesson is about and it’s about those times we feel like everything is going wrong and our minds take over. I’m just not sure why it had to be labelled with “mom”. Anyway, that’s not entirely important so I’ll move onto my experience.

I think 2016 and 2017 were some real shit years for me. From not having enough money to support myself, being sexually harassed at a work party, having an abortion, not having any career direction.. I felt like every time something good was happening, something worse would come along. Like it seemed like it was systematic. I felt like I couldn’t get ahead in my life. There were times when I felt like “how much more can I go through?”. I just wanted this bad run to end. Eventually it did when I had a spiritual awakening and starting to see all the good things in life, even if it were small positives. I feel like having the awareness to look at life in a different way really changed my life. I learned to accept that yes, bad things do happen though it doesn’t mean I can’t learn from it or see a positive in it. I just needed to sink to my darkest parts of myself in order to shine the light to get back out again. When my mind gets muddled with everyday life franticness, I try to just breathe through it and think of a better way. There is no way to completely stop bad thoughts from coming into your mind, but it’s just how we react that can make a difference. I try not to overwhelm myself and if I do, I take a moment for myself.

Day 204 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - The Most Elevated Beings on Earth...

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Lesson 204: The Most Elevated Beings on Earth...

….are there to help us and show us a better way. They are the people we look to for inspiration and guidance in those times when we are lost or in the dark. There is also the opportunity for us to help others that need our assistance – those who might be vibrating lower than ourselves and we support those people in our own way. We are in the middle of the two. Today we are to find an opportunity to help someone vibrating lower than us as well as accept help from another.

I honestly believe that the witch shop I work at in Melbourne (Muses of Mystery) allows me to be helped as well as help others. I look to my mentors and other people in the community for guidance when I don’t know the answer. Sometimes it just for clarity on something that I doubt in myself because I thought I didn’t know the answer. It’s good to have this support in my life on topics that I knew absolutely nothing about. It’s at this shop that I can also teach others. I am in the middle of my journey and I recognise when someone doesn’t know how to start, so I start talking about how I found my own path. I think by sharing my story, it allows people to feel more comfortable in themselves and that’s a good thing! We all have doubts, but when someone else shares a story that makes you feel better about what you’re doing, it gives you a newfound confidence. I feel though that most days I’ll be in the middle because there is so much knowledge out there that you will always have mentors and also be a teacher at the same time. It’s all part of our growth.

Day 204 - A Year to Clear - You Can't Plan Everything

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Lesson 204: You Can't Plan Everything

New week equals a new theme and this week we have “Waiting it Out”.

Following on from last week’s theme, I believe it’s a continuation of allowing and accepting. Not everything goes to plan and it’s about accepting that things can go wrong and just to allow it to flow how its supposed to. Sometimes we don’t have the control we think we do. Things can go into disarray at any point but it’s having the awareness to accept and just let it be. I think this week’s theme is all about setting less expectations on ourselves or situations and just seeing how it pans out.

Day 203 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - To Be Illuminated...

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Lesson 203: To Be Illuminated...

Being illuminated is an awakening for you are now conscious. It allows you to be on a different path to others as you come to understand how to work with your own energy. We have moved through the passages of the heart of pain and compassion. Can you now see how this has changed you? And, can you help another who is currently going through these passages? Look around today to see if there is an opportunity to do so.

I think going through those passages have allowed me to deal with situations and feelings that have plagued me my whole life. It allowed me to shed things that don’t hold me back now. I think by applying compassion to myself, like how I do for others, really allowed me to be forgiving to myself. There is a lot more acceptance I have for myself than I ever have. From my own acceptance, it allows me to assist others or recognise when another is need of my light.

I didn’t necessarily have anyone that needed my assistance today. The only way I tried to help a stranger, was the girl who came in Saturday in the shop I worked at. I talked about the spiritual path that may help her with her tarot readings. I just wanted her to see her own potential whilst being surrounded by a supportive community. I mean there are some friends who are currently going through passages of pain and compassion, though that’s more like an everyday energy I share with those people. I think it’s slow progress but progress nonetheless.

I will keep trying to spread my light to help illuminate others on a day to day basis. How did you help someone out through pain or compassion?

Day 203 - A Year to Clear - Check In WEEK 29 - Accepting and Allowing

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Lesson 203: Check In WEEK 29 - Accepting and Allowing

The week was very much about accepting your self and being present in the moment. It was a lesson of jut letting things be just as they are – not that you had to necessarily change anything but just fully acknowledging your self. How did it make you feel? What got in your way?

I felt like the blocker was just my monkey mind and all the silly thoughts that can flow through. I think the thing with self-acceptance is that it’s done in parts. You can learn to love and accept all parts of you, but it takes time. I don’t think it happens overnight. I think it’s a step by step process of you working through the characteristics, habits, patterns, qualities of you that you don’t necessarily like, you may fail to recognise or think are good, though others love you for it.

I think the meditation of really being in the now helped to calm everything down and make you realise that there’s no need to look in the past or future, but just be in the now. It’s actually hard to achieve this all the time. But the more we can stay in the present, it allows you to let go but also clear space for being more open.