Month: July 2017

As I was writing this month’s blog, Taming the Temptress, the topic of contrast and duality arises to the surface.  That place where we experience, learn and grow from the opposite of our desire, but with it is the opportunity to discover greater strengths and gifts in the process of pain, or even loss.

I feel called to write a Blog to the Blog, sharing more of my personal experience in discovering what temps me away from what I truly desire.

Life itself is based on contrast …from Beginning to End…from Birth to Death.

I read Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ book, On Death and Dying, in my early twenties when taking a psychology class on the topic.  I remember people saying it sounded so morbid.  But in reality, the whole experience for me was really about LIVING…living now in the moment versus waiting for a wake up call of impending death, or some sort of loss, to start really exploring life as desired.

I bring up the 7 Stages of Loss as a reminder that loss can come in many forms, such as relationships, finances, health, natural disaster, etc.  Loss is also not one-dimensional, following a specific sequence.  The emotions can be jumbled together and last as long as is needed for healing to occur:

Shock/Disbelief – it can’t be happening

Denial – it’s not true

Anger – it’s not fair

Bargaining – if you give me this and I will give you that

Guilt – it’s my fault

Depression – feeling overwhelmed, unable to resist any longer

Acceptance/Hope – learning from the lessons of life and going forward with integrity

What is important with the topic of Taming the Temptress is if you find yourself in these emotions, you may seek relief through practices that don’t serve your highest and best in riding the emotions out or even healing them.  Instead, you may be feeding, escaping, avoiding, not listening, not looking, or some other form of “self-medicating” to not feel the pain.

The deeper and conscious question Taming of the Temptress asks each of us in looking at our daily practices, habits, behaviors, and values is “am I using this to stay in denial or to reduce any pain/drain of energy/anger/loneliness/feeling of not enough/guilt/depression/or grief?”

Don’t misunderstand my intention here.  It really is okay to EN-JOY chocolate, wine, shoes, clothes, jewelry, love-making, working out, driving nice cars, etc. and spending time, energy and money on things that truly align with your values and bring you greater en-JOY-ment.

However, the Temptress’ way is about Temp-orary relief, or using behaviors and habits to escape versus doing the work of healing/growing.  The biggest contrast is when such behaviors start to control you and negatively affect your health, your relationships, and your life.

My discovery is that the Temptress shows up when I am over-tired, over-giving, pushing into the Strong/Running Woman (an earlier blog), not stopping for breaks, or self-care. I hear my my body’s request for rest, for food, for water; my hearts request to spend more time with friends; or my souls desire to be in nature, but I over-ride it to get done that “one-more-thing” that needs to get done.  She…the Temptress…typically temps me into missing lunch, or pushing to work until 7 when two hours earlier I was feeling myself winding down.  By the time I get home I am overly exhausted.  I grab nuts or chips to feed my energy drain while fixing dinner.  So if I look closely, her gift of contrast to me is revealing when I am…

1. Not giving to myself…either self-care or self-love…as I may do for others.
2. Out of alignment with my values, my philosophy, my purpose, my passion and my practices of self-care.
3. Not planning or preparing enough for extra-long days at the office by taking more breaks, or having more protein rich foods for lunch, or bringing quick snacks to have in the afternoon (i.e. smoothies, apples, carrots/celery, coconut water), or even bringing a salad to eat before going home.
4. Out of alignment with the energy exchange within myself. Really it isn’t about the food, as much as it is about me becoming overly drained energetically and then finding quick ways to rejuvenate the loss.  Or better yet, the gift of contrast is discovering how to NOT get overly drained in the first place!

The Temptress begs us…or temps us… to ask the question, what do I really need?  Or what do I really value? What is my body, heart, and soul really saying that I am not stopping to listen to? What will re-energize or rejuvenate me and bring me into alignment with LOVE?

What en-JOY-ment am I really longing for?  What do I really want?  What will re-energize and rejuvenate me? Do I want chocolate, or do I want to sit out in the sun?  Do I want shoes, or do I want to be out in nature and fresh air?  Do I want chips, or do I want to spend more time socializing, or have coffee while chatting with a friend?

Just as we experience the differences in hot/cold…sun/moon…light/dark…etc./etc….Life grants us the opportunity to learn by contrast.  So does the Priestess and the Temptress. The Temptress is the contrast, or dual nature of the Priestess teaching us through contrast.  Neither good, nor bad…positive or negative…just opposite of what one may truly desire.

I hope this month’s blog…Taming the Temptress…and the addition of Blog to the Blog, will inspire you to look at your practices, your preparation, and how to stay on purpose with your values…Body, Heart and Soul.

If you would like to embark on greater awareness and transformation with Taming the Temptress, feel free to reach out to me and request a complimentary consultation.

I am honored to be of service as you explore the contrast of the Priestess and Temptress in bringing clarity to your values, your life, and living in alignment with LOVE!

Love & Hope, Dr. Cheryl XOXO

Stepping onto the Path of the Priestess, or any spiritual journey, is a process that requires keeping one’s heart open and vibration up as high as possible.  It’s about staying in your TRUTH and staying in a state of LOVE where you live, breathe, and experience each day from this vantage point.

Sounds simple enough…right?  Simple…yes.

Easy?  Hmmm…maybe not so much!

How can it be easy in a world of polarity or duality?  A world where extremes exist, such as night/day…sun/moon…male/female…birth/death…young/old…black/white…hot/cold… love/fear…positive/negative…contentment/depression…satiety/hunger…whole food/junk food…GMO/organic…and sooooo much more…and with ALL the in-betweens.

How is it easy to keep your heart open and in a vibration of LOVE…or higher…when you are walking, breathing and living amongst lower vibrations such as Fear, Hatred, Deceit, or Jealousy???

It is easy to keep your heart open if you’ve never been hurt, betrayed, or experienced loss.  It is easy if you are always surrounded by other open hearts, compassion and LOVE.  But LOVE isn’t always the way.  A mentor once told me, sometimes you have to put on your “spiritual armor” to guard your open heart.

With that being said…I figured if I kept getting adjusted to clear my nerve system, allowing any held energetic experiences to transform and integrate, while changing my perceptions, mindset, exercising regularly, eating whole foods, drinking plenty of clean water, getting adequate sleep and rest, taking time to play, relax, meditate, continuing to check my thoughts and self-talk to stay positive, and visualizing what I desired, it would be a “piece of cake” to stay in the vibration of LOVE and keep my heart open.  Right???

It was all about healing the wounds, transforming them into gifts, and then engaging in “practices of daily living” that resonated with the new me (a higher vibrating me) and aligning in all new ways of living with the Divine in me…right???

Well…it wasn’t always as easy as it sounds.  Sometimes is was easy and sometimes it wasn’t.  It just wasn’t.  Sometimes it still isn’t easy!

The Path of the Priestess is about putting your highest vibrational self into walking, breathing, and living on the earth….a Woman of Worth…an Earthly Goddess.  It takes and commitment and discipline to yourself.  Discipline comes from the root word “disciple,” or pupil/student.  The Path of the Priestess is about being a pupil of Life and living in LOVE.

However, we are born into a pretty dense vibrational world.  A world that is amazingly beautiful, full of wonder, love and compassion.  However sometimes the higher vibrations of LOVE, Truth, Hope, Joy, and Compassion, along with the Sacredness of Life,  and the Connected Spiritual aspect of Living can seem almost out of reach.

When the stress of surviving and fear takes hold..the heart closes.  The sympathetic nerve system is activated in preparation for fighting or fleeing.  The joy of living in LOVE, and the experience of ease and flow, along with thriving and flourishing, can seem once again out of reach.

When you are around by people, situations, experiences that are positive, then it is easier to stay in a higher vibration and a state of LOVE.   Whether it is the energetic field outside of you…or the energy field that lies within you….YOU will resonate with the frequency of greatest magnitude.  The goal is to come into entrainment or alignment with the higher frequency.

“Taming the Temptress” is taming the lower frequencies within us that keep us from our Path, our Purpose, and our Passion.  Taming the Temptress is recognizing the frequencies of feeling drained, or not enough, or in contradiction to our values such that our vibration is lowered.

A lowered vibration, or a contradiction, leads to practices of actions of a lower vibrational path.  It could show up as eating too much chocolate, potato chips, eating too much at meals, or whatever your default behavior that keeps you out of sync with the greatest form of you.  Remember though, these lowered vibrational actions are not really the cause.  They are a reflection of the symptoms or the wounding, or something deep within that still needs to heal.  They reflect the deeper pain.

When the Temptress shows up, it is a time of allure and enticement into a lower vibration taking you away from the highest version of YOU…Body, Heart, and Soul.  She may show up alluring you to fall off the new way of eating, or to skip your new yoga/pilates class.  She may allure you to eating more sweets, drinking too much wine, spending excessive amount of time watching television, mindlessly streaming the internet or engaging in retail therapy.  She may entice you to gossip, judge others, procrastinate, or make excuses.  She may fill your head with old thoughts of not being good enough or other forms of self-sabotage.  How ever she may entice you into repeating these old actions, behaviors, thoughts, or words, remember they are a reflection of the Temptress at work.

So what is the process of Taming the Temptress?

First, understanding that all of Life and Living is a Process.  There is no getting there and arriving.  We are Spiritual Beings in Human Form.  We are here to experience living Life…period.  The experience is ours to choose throughout our lifetime.  It may be conscious.  It may be unconscious.  It may be what our soul desires.  It may be what our humanness desires.  It may be how we respond to life situations and circumstances that are beyond our control.  Life is ultimately a process of adaptation and growing…or not.

Because we are co-creating with each other and with the Divine, the more conscious we choose and the higher the vibration that one walks, talks, breathes and engages in with others and with the universe, the greater possibility of Taming the Temptress and staying the Path of the Priestess while living on the earth plane.

So when you find yourself missing your exercise class, canceling your adjustments, eating out every night, running up your credit card, spending over your budget, or ignoring whatever signs and behaviors are showing up that you aren’t taking care of yourself, or extending LOVE to yourself, then it’s time to take an honest look within.

“LOVE is our response to our highest values — and can be nothing else.”  ~ Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

If you really desire to create a New Way of Living, then it’s time to Tame the Temptress, or at least get to know what triggers her to show up.  It’s time to really look at the symptomology on the surface and then discover what is the driving force, or pain/loss, underneath.

If you had stomach pain, it could be that you ate some poorly cooked food.  Hopefully, you will throw up or pass it quickly.  Typically, the lesson learned is to make sure food is properly prepared and cooked.

On the flip side, you could have a stomach pain for eating foods you have a food intolerance or sensitivity too.  Typically, the lesson learned is to not eat those foods, regardless of the temptation, because it makes you feel bad and may interfere with your ability to think, function, or perform.

On the other hand, you may have stomach pain from overeating, but what you really are trying to feed is a sense of not being good enough, low self-worth, or perhaps the emptiness of not being in a relationship???  The problem is that it doesn’t matter how much you are tempted to eat in this scenerio, food will never fill the void of self-LOVE….nor will chocolate, wine, clothes, sex, jewelry, shoes, etc.

The Temptress is enticing you to solve the problem with an outside solution that only gives you temporary relief…until the next wave of pain, or some form of energy drain, shows up.  However, the Soul-ution must come from the inside.

Taming the Temptress starts when we know our values, our TRUTH, and we learn to LOVE ourselves, even with all our flaws, mistakes, and misjudgments.  We may even need to forgive others, but we may need to truly FORGIVE ourselves first…truly…and them move forward with a greater understanding, acceptance, hope, and integrity!

 

 

Remember the power of support from the Divine in Taming the Temptress.  When we align with the Divine…the universe can show up in a variety of creative ways….whether through prayer, meditation, healing work, counseling, chiropractic, intuition, a dream, a call from a friend, being out in nature…the messages received may just be what you need to bring clarity to the core of Tamping the Temptress and re-aligning to live each day in the greatest version of YOU expressing Hope, Joy, Truth and most of all … LOVE … LOVE … and more LOVE!!!