Self-love. Is it possible?

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Self-love. Is it possible? By Maria Mar(c)2009 Everyone talks about the importance of loving and accepting yourself. But that’s easier said than done. Thousands of good, loving people go through life beating themselves up constantly, carrying old shame and guilt and working hard without ever feeling that they’ve done enough. If you feel unlovable and have a a hard time forgiving yourself, or if you simply want to love yourself more, read on. At the beginning of your life, you are in a magical state of innocence. You don’t know a thing about the world. You are dependent on others for your very life. You can’t talk or walk. Yet you don’t feel insufficient or defective. How’s that? At that stage in your life, you are still connected to your Universal Self. Call it God, Cosmic Consciousness, Divine Intelligence or Oneness. You are in a state of Grace. To you, there is no separation between who you are and what you are feeling and the elements in nature and the energy world involved in the experience. You receive everything that happens with an open heart, unclouded by opinion, ideology, fear or judgment. This innocence allows you to learn quickly and easily. If you stumble and fall, you simply get up and keep going. If you hurt, you cry. If you are happy, you laugh. If you like something, you go for it. If you don’t like it, you move away. There is no opinion about the worth, goodness or badness of your emotions or experiences. Later, you pick up on the opinions and judgments of your elders. You learn that what they dislike in your actions, translates in rejection or punishment for you. But your actions are not distinguished from you. When you cry, they say that YOU are weak. When you are angry and scream, they say that YOU are bad and nasty. If you fall, that is a mistake, and that means that YOU are stupid. All these labels and judgments get attached to your experience and emotions. But it goes deeper than that. They get attach to who you ARE. Your mistakes now stick to you like a stain, and each one makes you more undeserving and imperfect. You are still carrying that stained film in the form of guilt, shame and insufficiency. The Sacred Child in you, who lived in Oneness, got buried under all that burden. The way back to your innocence and self-love is the way to your Sacred Child. What would you do with a little girl who, in making an honest mistake, began to cry and pull at her hair, screaming “I am bad. No one loves me. I am stupid.” You would pick her up in your arms. You would hug her lovingly. You would make sure that she felt your unconditional love and acceptance. You would tell her over and over that she is a perfect, beautiful being because she is made in the image of god, or is part of the Divine Consciousness. You would tell her how much you love her and how she is so lovable, and remind her of the good things she’s done, and how she is kind and generous. You would help her understand that mistakes are important steps in the discovery of solutions. You would help her distinguish between making a mistake and BEING a mistake. Finally, you would help her see how she is loved by you, others and the world. Do the exact same thing for yourself. The path to self-love is self-mothering. Light and love, Maria Mar The Dream Alchemist http://www.catchthedreamexpress.com

Assume your Personal Power with the Swan Posture

Assume your Personal Power with the Swan Posture By Maria Mar(c) Do you catch yourself making yourself small, hiding your neck into your shoulders, like turtle, constricting your spine, folding your torso or hunching? This attitude leads to depression and lowers your self-esteem. It holds you back from taking action and makes you feel insufficient. It sends others the message that you do not believe in yourself. Why should them? Whenever you realize that you are making yourself small, here is a Power Posture that will release your stature immediately, uplifting you and moving the energies that may have stagnated in your body. It will shift you from Ugly Duckling into the majestic swan you are. My drawing below illustrates what happens to your spine and how you create back pain and disease as a result of your “Ugly Duckling” posture. Feeling small leads to standing small, which makes you small. The Swan Posture works from the inside out and the outside in, to restore your magnificence stature. Be a Goddess! The Swan Posture Stand with legs apart and plant your feet firmly on the floor. Keep your knees lightly flex and your feet positioned parallel to your hips. Feel your roots connecting to the roots of the Ancient Trees. Breathe slowly and deeply for three cycles: Inhalation, In-pause, Exhalation, Out-pause. That’s one cycle. Inhale as fully as possible, allowing your whole torso to fill with air, from your crutch to your chest. Exhale as slowly as possible. Focus your attention on your spine. Release your spine as you exhale slowly. Feel your tail being released, so that there is no contraction in your pelvis. The excessive curvature in your lower back at the beginning of the buttocks should be released and lower back pain or tension should be alleviated. Now do the same with the back of your neck. Raise the crown of your head towards the sky and stretch the back of your neck. Your chin should adjust, being parallel to the floor. When you raise your chin up, as in false pride, you actually crunch the vertebrae of your neck. Make sure you release from the back. Now raise your sternum to the sky, offering your heart in celebration of the Goddess within you. Watch out that you don’t curve the back again! You are raising the sternum to the point that you feel your torso free and light, and your chest feels proud. But not past the point that you begin getting a curvature in your lower back. Breathe deeply and bring both your arms up as if you were taking flight. Feel your majesty. Feel your power. Feel the breadth of your love. Bring your arms down gracefully, as the Queen you are. Feel yourself connected to all the elements: air, water, fire and earth. Feel how you have the power to communicate with these elements inside you and in your nature. Feel your power! That’s it. Practice the Swan Posture until you can do it automatically in 3 minutes. Let me know how it goes. Take a bit of time to leave me a comment about his entry, will you? It makes me feel SOOO good! Light and love, Maria Mar The Dream Alchemist http://www.catchthedreamexpress.com For Spanish-language tips in not making yourself small, visit Corazon Tierra’s blog at: www.cuerpoadentro.wordpress.com