Letting Our Visions Emerge by Rachel Ginther
Have you ever heard the phrase – “Sometimes love isn’t enough”? How is it possible that Love, the force that binds the Universe, the glue that holds the fabric of life together, could somehow not be enough? The answer lies in how we feel about ourselves – how we love and care for us. If we don’t love ourselves then how can we truly be available to love anyone else? For women it takes the shape of the ever- available-always-doing-for-others-superwomen, for men it’s the silent-strong-rock-with-no-feelings. Women end up being overly involved and concerned with every little thing around them and men end up withdrawing until they are nonexistent in any relationship. No boundaries or no openings – two extremes of the same experience.
The Myth of Selfishness
Why do we so easily give parts of ourselves away or seal them off from human contact? Many are taught to live their lives these ways through their family experiences, what they observe in their culture and in social institutions. Another extremely influential part of our cultural experience is our media. The fantasy of love that the media portrays leaves us feeling insecure and inadequate – we can’t live up to that fantasy of love because at the same time our culture and media portray taking care of ourselves as selfish. When you give a part of yourself away or withhold a part of yourself, you shut down a cycle, a flow of energy that maintains a balance in ourselves and in all life. It’s only when we are out of balance and out of touch with our true self and our own life that our behavior appears selfish. Yet, sometimes that selfishness is what’s needed to bring back our lives back into balance.
When we are out of balance we attract experiences and people that will reflect back to us our own unconscious beliefs, fears, dysfunction and misperceptions about ourselves and our world. When we are in balance and loving ourselves we are expressing our Authentic Self, our true Essence to the world and we can attract people, situations, relationships that are real and lasting. Balance is not an “equal” thing – it’s not split down the middle. Think of walking a tightrope, sometimes an arm is stuck out over there and a leg over here and yet there is balance; the tightrope walker does not fall. Balance is not about being perfect, it’s about working with and doing the best you can with the resources you have available to you at that time. Balance is a flexible, mutable experience that feels peaceful inside.
Letting Our Visions Emerge
So what’s loving ourselves really about? This acronym for Love is a good way to explain it – Love is about “Letting Our Visions Emerge”. It’s about sharing our vision of ourselves, of others, of the world and how we want to blend, meld and co-create with those forces. In order to love, we must grow and in order to grow we must love.
So what are some ways we can love and nurture ourselves and create and maintain our balance?
~Prioritize, be honest about what you really want to be involved in and with whom
~Be realistic about the amount of time and energy you have to give to things outside of yourself
~Create a peaceful restful environment in your personal space (home, work etc)
~Limit or eliminate your contact with those people and situations that are negative or unsupportive of your personal growth
~Take time to do things you really enjoy – if you’ve been out of balance so long that you’ve lost your sense of what you like and want to do, try the following exercise. Put a pad of paper and a pen or pencil beside you wherever you sleep. First thing when you wake up write down 5 things you would do that day if you could do anything you wanted to do. Do this for three weeks, at the end of that time you will have a good idea of what you need to nurture yourself and how you want to live your life.
~Take time to be quiet – if you have challenges sitting still or being alone that usually indicates something we are afraid to address within ourselves
~Be aware and don’t judge your “performance” – this is about you loving yourself, you know what is right for you
~Be open to change
Loving ourselves begins with a vision. As our vision changes and expands it teaches everyone we encounter how to love themselves, and isn’t that the best gift of all?
Copyright 2004 — Rachel Ginther/Garden of One
Clearing, Grounding & Opening the Heart
Clearing, Grounding & Opening the Heart, probably the three most important skills to master as a being on Earth for these three make everything else possible.
Clearing, keeping your energy fields free of the influence of other energies that can confuse and distract us. Grounding, the ability to be consciously connected to the Earth and the life forces that enervate us. Opening the Heart, allowing the energy to flow freely through the heart center, to be able to make decisions that reflect the wisdom of our heart. All three of these techniques are invaluable and Grounding is the key that makes Clearing and Opening the Heart develop into permanent experiences.
Some of us are just naturally grounded, so there’s never been any conscious thought about the connection. As the energies of the Earth and Cosmos have been changing even the most grounded people have been challenged to find ways of staying connected. Grounding is about being safe, feeling safe on the planet. When we are born onto this planet the first thing we need to do is to connect to the Earth, because the Earth is what sustains us. Our bodies are modeled after and aligned with the Earth. The layers of our energy fields and the layers of atmosphere of the Earth correspond. There are seven layers of the Earth’s atmosphere and seven basics layers of the human energy field. The second layer of the energy field of the planet is weather, our second layer is emotion, the weather affects our emotions and our emotions affect the weather. Earth is seventy-eight percent water and so is our body; the trace mineral content and the vibrational frequency of the Earth and the human body are the same. We have the same qualities as the Earth. When we first connect into the Earth, we feel and experience the etheric patterns that have been left in the Earth by others. These are the same types of patterns that we accumulate in our own energy fields. Since we are a microcosm of the Earth, similar patterns are constantly accumulating in the Earth and because they are a culmination of energies from all over the Earth, are greatly multiplied. So the wars accumulate and other people’s experiences, of all kinds, accumulate in the Earth. When we connect into the Earth we start to feel all those things and it’s overwhelming. Many people think, “Whoa, I’m in the wrong place, why did I do that, why did I come to this place” and so they pull away from the energies and never get connected into the energy of the Earth. What needs to be recognized is that those feelings are other people’s experiences and what they need to do is go beyond that, that’s just the first layer. For instance, when you meet someone and they have a gruff exterior and you don’t really like them, you think “Oh, they’re kind of a jerk”. When you connect with them at a deeper level than just the surface you may realize that they’re just afraid of getting hurt. Then when you really connect with the core of them you realize that their Essence and your Essence are the same. The personality part, or the coping mechanism part puts you off and so the same thing happens with the energies of the Earth. When you first connect into it you get put off by it until you realize that there is something at another level and when you go to the center of the core of the Earth you realize that it’s all about love and you make your connection with the love that permeates everything.
If you are not grounded, you will feel spacey and tired, like you are walking around in a dream. You may feel like you don’t belong anywhere. You may be unable to keep commitments or follow through or you will have really great ideas but never be able to make them manifest because there is no universal life force to work with. If we are not anchored we get buffeted around by other people’s emotions and events and every other energy influence that’s around us as opposed to having a strong center. Sometimes people think that in order to grow spiritually you have to disconnect from the earth and worldly things, actually it’s just the opposite. You must be grounded in order to grow spiritually, you must be anchored into the Earth. If the tree has no roots it can’t grow large branches, and if it does the first strong wind that comes along will uproot it. That’s what grounding is about, grounding is about giving you a strong central core to draw from.
Now, we’re all grounded to a certain degree or we wouldn’t be able to maintain a physical body, we all have energy, universal life force flowing through us. The stronger that connection the easier is it to make our dreams, hopes and wishes manifest, fulfill our life’s purpose. When you are grounded and connected to these larger sources of energy you can maintain your own energy and keep it Clear. Grounding creates a strength in your energy field that doesn’t allow outside influences to change it, it protects us from things that might throw us emotionally or mentally, that would change how we’re able to interact with the world. Grounding also allows us to keep our Heart open. When energy comes into our bodies, it enter through all the chakras and other energy centers, if we are not grounded it means that our base chakra is usually closed or barely open. This doesn’t stop the energies that are still coming into our system from the crown and other chakras. What often happens is that the amount of energy that is passing through the body has no where to ground so it looks to be released through the other chakras, most particularly the heart. Too much energy will cause the heart chakra to shut down. So grounding and allowing the energy to flow through our bodies actually enables us to keep our heart chakra open.
The following is a mediation to help you feel the connection to the Earth and other energies that keep us grounded and present in our Earthly experience. Peace, Contentment and Awareness of your own Presence will let you know that you are grounded and in alignment with the Universe. May your Journey be Blessed.
Grounding Meditation
Suggestion: Do this first thing in the morning to make your connections and then at the end of the day to clear energies that have accumulated in your system.
Close your eyes and take 3 Deep Breaths…
Send your energy down through your body, through your base chakra and soles of your feet into the Earth. Down through the building, the floor, down through the soil, through the rock and water, through the magma, all the way down to the center of the Earth. Connect with the core of the Earth, the colors are gold and red…. feel the love, strength, contentment and peace…. Now bring those energies, the red and gold spiraling together, bring them up from the core of the Earth, through the magma, through the water and rocks, through the soil back through the building and floor and back into your body, coming in through the feet and the base chakra. Now bring the energy up through your legs, your torso, up and all the way through your crown chakra and send it up out of the building, through the sky and all the layers of Earth’s atmosphere, past all the stars and planets, all the way to the Sun…. to the center of the Sun. Connect into the center of the Sun, feel it’s expansiveness, it’s omnipresence…. Now bring the energy of the Sun back down to Earth, bring it through the sky and atmosphere, bring it through your surroundings and back into your body through your crown chakra…. Send that energy all the way down through the pathway you’ve already created, to the center of the Earth. You have now connected both Heaven and Earth, male and female energies, electric and magnetic, cosmic and matter…. Bring your attention, and both energies, to your heart chakra and feel the two blending and melding in the crucible of the Heart. Now being a continuous cycling of the energies…. Send the energy from your heart to the center of the Sun, then loop that energy, in your mind’s eye, from the center of the Sun around to the opposite side of the Earth, bring it up through the center of the Earth and back into your body — create a cosmic orbit with your body as the conduit between Heaven and Earth. Try sending the energy the other way… send it down to the center of the Earth and then loop it around to the Sun, through the center of the Sun and back down through your body… See how the sensations differ and which one feels best for you in this moment.
3 Deep Breaths, open your eyes when ready…
Rachel Ginther, Alchemist, FSE and Co-Creator of the Garden of One Vibrational Products. has been making Essences since 1994. She has traveled extensively worldwide and brings a background of Sacred Living to all she does through teaching/sharing wisdom, writing, consulting and producing the Garden of One Vibrational Products which activate the healing potential within each of us and create Oneness/Union in Self, Planet and Cosmos.
Rachel Ginther has done over 10,000 private sessions, doing bodywork and energywork (Reiki, Seichim, Ama Deus, Free Energy Balancing), all over the world. She begin in Pennsylvania doing medical massage with severely injured chiropractic clients while studying many modalities of bodywork (craniosacral, deep tissue, reflexology, swedish) energywork, hypnosis and ear coning (among others). In the early 1990’s she helped found a school of energywork in PA and has extensive teaching experience working with college programs as well as the private sector. Currently Rachel has a private practice seeing clients, produces almost 400 Vibrational/Flower Essences & Aromatherapy products and founded and directs a not-for-profit retreat center, The Garden at Thunder Hill ~ A Center for Spiritual Evolution.
Copyright 2004 — Rachel Ginther/Garden of One
HEALING WITH ESSENCES
Earth is gracious in her bounty and has given us all the tools we could ever need to live a happy, productive life filled with beauty and service to others and ourselves. Whatever we have around us in our immediate environment can be used to help us evolve; the plants in our gardens, the trees in our forests, the wind, the sun, the stars . . . All of Creation.Everything in existence is energy, and its form is created by a series of overlapping energy patterns that define its characteristics. Each overall pattern is unique unto itself and that individual. Every experience that we have creates a pattern in our energy field and that pattern either helps energy move through our bodies and lives, or it inhibits the movement. As we shift and change our thoughts and beliefs about the world and ourselves, often the old patterns will no longer work for us.Flower/Vibrational Essences are unscented infusions of the spiritual or energetic qualities or attributes of a particular flower, crystal, color, symbol, seed, metal, fruit (or combination of these and other organic elements) in water with a preservative. They are designed to create a level of consciousness that helps us to rapidly change, alter, remove and improve our beliefs about ourselves. Essences release our unconscious mental and emotional patterns that keep us repeating behaviors we know are unproductive for us. Each Essence has a pattern to it, which fits into the patterning we carry in our energy field. The Essences either complete a part of our aura that allows us to grow or they act like a key in the lock of a door and open us to new aspects of ourselves. This allows us to accept ourselves, move through transitions, accelerate our growth and helps all things around and involved with us to grow too.Because Essences are energy, they are Creation and have their own intelligence. They know where to go in your system to bring your body, mind, emotions and spirit into balance with each other and your world. They are “programmed” — intended to release energy blockages (core issues) at the root or causal level. We may feel we have an emotional block in our consciousness, yet that blockage might actually be held in an unconscious mental belief we have about ourselves. We could work for a long time on the emotional aspects of the issue and not be able to resolve it because it is the symptom rather than the root. Essences deal with the root.
Sometimes when you release the root of a pattern, the change is so profound that you can’t even remember the way you used to do things. Usually, the core parts of our patterns reside in our collective beliefs in unworthiness and lack of self-love. We, in the United States, have been raised in a Christian culture, whether we were raised Christian or not. Because of that, our collective belief or illusion is that we have been born with original sin, so we are unworthy from our very beginnings on this planet.
Changes can run the gamut from very subtle to quite dramatic. Here is an example:
Lisa had an eating disorder for 26 years. She exhibited both anorexic and bulimic behavior. She would have panic attacks when she would do her grocery shopping, always wondering if she was going to be good or bad, if she was going to hurt herself. She was actively looking for solutions, fearing her young sons would catch her purging. She was in a store when an Essence caught her attention. She was attracted to it before she read the description and after reading what its purpose was, she bought it. On her way home she needed to go shopping. She sat in the parking lot and thought to herself, “what do I have to lose?” and took the Essence. When she went into the store, this is what she experienced:
Everything was different – the light seemed different and I had no anxiety, no emotion at all. I did my shopping, paid and left the store. When I got back in my car I burst into tears. I knew I would never hurt myself again.
Lisa has maintained herself without manifesting her old behaviors for the last five years since taking the Essence. She also found the root of the behavior through taking Essences. When she was 5 and getting ready to have an eye operation, her uncle, who was like a parent to her, said, “Lisa, you’ll never be beautiful but I’ll always love you.” That comment, made with all good intention, began the creation of a pattern that four years later manifested as anorexia and bulimia.
How to use them . . . how to choose them
Essences are Earth, people, children, plant and animal friendly. They are traditionally taken internally under the tongue or in a small glass of water. You can use them in food, put them in your personal products (shampoos, lotions, etc.), use them in the bath, use in rituals, use with children, plants and animals. They are used to focus your intention.
With Essences, much like homeopathy, less is more. One drop of an Essence is more potent than three drops. Many practitioners will give you a protocol for taking your Essences. So many drops, so many times a day for a certain number of days. I suggest using 1-3 drops first thing in the morning to set your energy frequency for the day. As you start using Essences and feel the differences when you take them you will start to know when you need them.
You can choose Essences many different ways: Read the names and descriptions and note which one sounds or feels “right.” Use Kinesiology (muscle testing), intuition, guidance, and instinct. Check the energy of the Essence for you or another by holding the Essence to your heart or passing your hand over it to sense the vibration. There truly is no right or wrong way to choose. Simply pick and use the Essence(s) with which you feel most comfortable.
Kinesiology is a way of testing the electrical system of the body to determine what maintains or increases its ability to channel and direct energy for positive, life-enhancing results. I also recommend a form of Kinesiology that you can do yourself: its purpose is to teach us to trust what we already known to be true:
1. Stand holding the bottle or a piece of paper with the name of the Essence written on it with both hands. (Multiple pieces of paper chosen at random and tested individually can get your intellect out of the process, or having someone else hand you the bottles when your eyes are closed). This creates a circuit and balances the masculine and feminine aspects of our nature.
2. Hold the bottle at the heart or solar plexus. Close your eyes, making sure your knees aren’t locked.
3. Settle and center yourself and ask a yes/no question, making it as specific as you can. “Is this good for me?” is usually too general. The more specific you can be, the clearer your answer. Look at the recurring patterns in your life and see how they connect. That’s where the root of the patterns exists and locks up your ability to make changes. Therefore, questions that are more specific will help you to get the clearest response. Examples: Would this Essence assist me to my next level of spiritual growth? Would this help me to release the emotional trauma of my childhood? Will this help me to know and express my authentic self in the world?
4. If the answer is “yes,” your whole body will move forward. If it is a “no,” your whole body will move back. Sometimes you will do the “hula” – a back and forth movement that indicates possible benefit, or you will stay still (neutral). You are using your body like a pendulum and matching the energy patterns or sine wave signature in your auric field to the energy patterns found in the essence, to neutralize or change behaviors.
This testing experience can be subtle or quite dramatic. This is about your getting in touch with you. Ultimately, you are the only one who can know what is right for your system. Most people have that level of self-knowing in a dormant or sleeping state. These techniques, and the Essences themselves, are designed to awaken, enhance, nurture and empower your own innate abilities.
Utilize the Gifts of the Goddess, connect with Flower/Vibrational Essence. They will lead you to your own true Essence.
Copyright 2003 Rachel Ginther/Garden of One
To contact us or schedule an appointment call (413) 592-2828
abundantwellnessblog 