Wednesday, December 30, 2015

We are taking a recess until the new year. 

Enjoy the Light. Enjoy the Love. May peace, prosperity and abundance be your gifts and may you continue to be blessed beyond what can be counted or measured. 

Love & light, The Soulcerer's Path 

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Deserving

We deserve to rest, to have fun, to enjoy life, to enjoy what we have accumulated and what we have worked for. Yet we focus so much on the thought of deserving that it borders on entitlement. We have corrupted the meaning. We say we deserve to rest as a complaint to how much we work. We say we deserve to sleep in because we have been up nights, again as a complaint to how much we do. We say we deserve the two pieces of pie with ice cream, one more glass of wine, or to spend extra on our credit card all because we feel deserving of it, entitled, due to some perceived imposition of life. We say we deserve to give someone a piece of our mind, to show our wrath, because we have endured so much frustration from many directions. This attitude gives rise to feelings of resentment, justification and guilt. We have twisted the satisfaction in accomplishing tasks and goals we aimed for.

What we don't often say is that we deserve to wake up a little earlier to have more time to work on the dream we have. Or that we deserve to meditate because there is so much we want to do and we want to be focused and centered. Neither do we often say that we deserve to eat well today because we have been feeling so good, that we deserve put some money away because we want to travel soon, or that we deserve a pause before reacting to problems in order to keep our calm, our focus and our energy high. What we deserve is what stems from our purpose, what we desire and what we are grateful for. We deserve to show up joyfully to life, offer and give the best version of ourselves, and allow for reciprocity without a feeling of entitlement. We deserve to stop living with a mentality of punishment and reward. Every outcome is a result of our choice.

Let us leave judgment aside today and purposefully have a great day. Let us change our perspective from one of victimhood to one in which we choose our moods, feelings, thoughts and responses. We deserve it.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 18, 2015

How are you?

Someone asks, How are you? Busy, we answer. Or Going crazy. Or Tired. Maybe we say something sarcastic in reference to how bad things are apparently going for us, or something negative. Sometimes we spill over our complaints to life in answer to the question.

Our answer sometimes has a second part to it which asks How are you? back. The reply many times comes charged with negativity as well. By now, not only are the two of us not well, we are dragging down everyone around us too.

We do this because we haven't channelled what bothers us very well or we haven't dealt with ongoing issues and so we bring them up to anyone who will listen looking for validation of our feelings and to share the weight of the burden. Yet when we are done complaining, we do not feel any better, we haven't changed anything, we haven't fixed anything either, and we have spread misery. We have passed on the negative energy. We would do much better if we stop glorifying how bad things are. We wouldn't have this constant need to gripe to others if we found healthy ways of venting what troubles us, of working with our issues, of seeking solutions.

Today is a good day to uplift ourselves and others by answering Very well, thanks for asking when someone asks How are you? If you are not well, try answering I am glad you asked, or Thankful, or Looking forward to what's to come. Make it a statement, a charm on the moment, a start on the future. If you need to talk to someone about problems that you are having, sadness or any other situation you are facing, seek someone you trust or talk to a therapist. Your wellness should be the focus, not the anxieties and troubles of the world. Go with the sincere intention of being well so that next time someone asks How are you? you can answer in a more positive way.
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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Through the cracks

The cracks are anger, despair, confusion, indecision, fear, sadness, mistakes, judgment, doubt, and pain. They are those feelings and emotions that fracture our sense of safety, certainty, tranquility, belonging, connectedness and peace of mind. Yet the cracks are also the slivers through which hope enters. Through them we can see outside to what circumstances and the state of the world may point to, which may increase our anxiety, or we can look inside of ourselves and see willingness, personal redemption, possibility, confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, curiosity, connection, power, and excitement for life. Through the cracks we can see darkness and we can see light. These ruptures in our personalities make us whole. They point to the truth of who we are. These fissures are openings through which we perfect ourselves, give of ourselves, receive, accept, do and think. Today is a good day to allow air to flow, light to shine and love to peek through our cracks, to look inward and see how beautifully the light enters and dances with our shadows. It is through the cracks that we will find understanding, empathy and compassion as well as joy, hope and harmony.

Image found at newevolutiondesigns.com.
© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 11, 2015

The Difference – a meditation

Find a quiet and comfortable place. Sit with your back straight, either on a chair with your feet planted on the ground or on the floor with your legs crossed. Let your hands rest open facing upward, resting on your knees. Breathe.

Close your eyes and open up to thoughts that trouble you. Breathe in.

Let the feeling of discomfort be. Breathe out.

Breathe in. It is what it is.

Breathe out. There is another point of view.

Breathe in. I don't resist what is. 

Breathe out. I allow things to be.

Continue to breathe normally for a few minutes. Do not force your thoughts. Let the feelings be.

Open now to thoughts that comfort you. What are the feelings? Let them be.

Breathe in. A good thought changes my mood.

Breathe out. A good thought changes my point of view.

Breathe in. I am open to other possible thoughts.

Breathe out. I am open to guidance.

Breathe in. A new perspective makes a difference.

Breathe out. I am open to a new perspective.

Breathe in. I receive guidance.

Breathe out. I have a new perspective, a new way of seeing things.

Breathe in. I can make a difference.

Breathe out. I am the difference.

Stay for a few moments. Continue to breathe. Stay with this awareness. When you come out of your meditation, nothing will have changed, but everything will be different.

Namasté.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The difference

Difference and change are not the same thing. The difference is a perception within ourselves. Change is an action taken. Something or someone may change, yet we may view it the same way we have viewed it. On the other hand, we can see things differently without there being a change. And that's the difference.

Change implies action which may or may not happen. To see differently is up to us...and this changes everything. In practical terms, this could be seeing the neighbor's mid-morning loud music (and his singing along) as a happy human letting loose, seeing drug-addiction as an illness that can be treated, a missed deadline as a call to reprioritize, faults that we find around us as opportunities to contribute positively by participating in solutions, obstacles as chances to take a moment to discern–to pause before taking further action, what bothers us in others as something we may need to work on within ourselves, and responsibilities as something that comes with our privileges.

I have learned the difference through meditation. In going within, I have found that many things around me remain the same, yet they are different to me. I have learned to deal with my feelings of impotence relating to what bothers me. I can't grief enough for the dead, hurt enough for those who suffer violence, ache enough for those who are hungry in order to change those circumstances. Going within in meditation quiets my mind enough for me to be able to hear something other than pain and fear. In meditation I become aware. I receive insight, inspiration, ideas, solutions and a change of attitude. I see differently. I see what is my part in all of this, what my lessons are, what my contributions can be and then I am then able to be the difference. I can apply this to all areas of my life.

Today is a good day to take a few moments to go within, to quiet our minds, to find tranquility in the midsts of all that bothers us, to see others–even the ones that make us angry–with kindness, to transform and evolve the way we think in order to see and be the difference.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Morning

"Good morning. Rise and shine." I wake my son up at the same time and the same way every day. He hears me, snuggles in and gets more comfortable. "I can't get up," he says sleepily from under his bedsheets. Of course he can't. He's settling in, doing the opposite of what will help him wake up. So do we. We get comfortable in what was, what has passed, what no longer works for us while wanting to get somewhere or do something else. We stay, snuggled in what is familiar, convenient and comfortable, doing the same thing over and over, thinking the same things over and over.

What if today we splash some water on our face, breathe in courage and shake off our idleness? Let's get up and go. Let's choose to do something different for the sake of our spirits. Let's liven up, choose a different attitude, a different way of welcoming the day and let's go in the direction of what we want and where we want to be.
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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Seasoning

I am seasoning. Not as in adding salt, spices or flavor to food, but as in being with the season.

Over the weekend, we had the beach all to ourselves. Miles of sand and shore were deserted. The sea had conspired with a gray day and a chill in the air. The sea was swollen. The tide was high and raging. The ocean roared in, then roared out. It was not quiet.

During the summer, the voices rise from vacationers and radios lined along coastline. The sea listens, receives, allows. This time, this season, it wants to be heard. It puffs, claiming space and solitude. This is no time to engage the sea at its edge.

I watched three young pelicans loitering on a tree. Rarely do they sit there. But they needed rest. Their experience is not enough for them to know that there would be no fish this time. The sea was tempestuous. The fish couldn't be. The sea had entered a new season.

And so it is with us. We season. We participate, collaborate, contribute, befriend, collect stories, laugh, do, perform, create, join, share, engage. And then we roar for silence, centering, a reclaiming of ourselves. It is necessary if we are to be sources of creation and creativity, music, poetry, lenses to beauty, communicators, dancers, teachers, healers. Today is a good day to be with the season, to let spring, summer and autumn settle at the heel of this time of the year. It is a good day to be winter as we would be winter. It is our season to collect ourselves. Soon, another time of the year will come and we will be ready for we have seasoned.

Winter. © 2015, The Soulcerer's Path.
© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.