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Chrissie Batten is a
Spiritual Counsellor,
Reiki Master Teacher and Author
As it’s coming toward the end of 2011, I thought I’d write what is probably my last article of the year. Just like recent years, 2011 has been a very eventful and stress-filled year for myself and for many others I know. Perhaps you have had to cope with a few crisis points this year also!
Christmas is generally a time when we wish peace for all mankind, but I’ve been searching for peace of mind and heart for many years, where my uncomfortable and sometimes terrifying experiences, have created learning opportunities to progress my personality and my soul. But even though I’ve educated myself to not freak out so easily, and am more able to function almost normally as each turbulent event occurs in my life, I still wonder when will life calm down! And when will I feel peace strongly enough and long enough, to build my confidence and belief, that life is getting easier because of all the work and effort I’ve put in?
Being a counselling therapist, I like to think that I can find resolutions to most problems. Or at the very least, identify a productive way to cope with situations that are out of immediate control. But I have to be honest and say that this soul-healing journey has brought me to my knees many times over the years, leaving me feeling vulnerable and confused whenever there was no apparent solution or remedy for the issue at hand. Meaning I’ve had to learn how to intuitively search for the true cause and affect, in order to identify the most effective way to cope with being powerless.
I’ve adopted many coping methods to help manage my fear and anxiety as much as I can, including positive mind talk, visualisation, Emotional Freedom Technique, Reiki, reading about self-development, soul progression and spiritual emergency. And using books and cards as an oracle to clarify and guide me. There’s also been a lot of interaction with the energy I call God, my higher mind and spiritual guides, whilst dreams, synchronistic events and universal communication have provided encouragement or insight into what I need to do next!
Also, I have to admit to using my addiction to wine and chocolate quite a few times as well, to give me a lift, although this is rarer now. As I realise how this type of coping causes me more problems than it resolves, as whilst I enjoy the experience at the time, my physical body pays the price for the next couple of days, which isn’t so good!
The last twenty years have been the most spiritually intense of my life. Yet regardless of all the learning and understanding I have acquired over this time, I still feel as though I know little about universal energy, and it’s laws of existence that affect every living thing! There are thousand of books written about spiritual issues, where the author submits their own interpretation of what spiritual growth means to us humans. There are numerous techniques for coping, and informational websites to add clarity, but yet the ‘answer’ we seek still remains elusive doesn’t it!
We’re human so we like to label things in order to understand them. Once we’ve got a problem labelled, we can then proceed to find a solution, resolution or cure! But this simplified ideology is not working any more, because we’ve advanced our simplified understanding. So because what worked in the past fails to work now, we must seek new answers, new resolutions and new ways of coping that actually make us feel better, without adding to our distress. And once we understand more about the process of life that the universe exerts upon us, we can start to consciously work with it to ensure the best outcome to situations!
But that is easier said than done, because the answers we seek, that would help us become more confident, can often only be found through our higher mind and our own intuitive consciousness, that many have blocked access to, because of the ego. There are many misconceptions about the ego. I identify it simply as a fear prompt that is designed to alert us to danger, and guide us to take evasive action of some sort!
Ego is a fearful, reactive, protective yet often destructive side to our personality, that we develop because we became afraid at some time in the past. There are many who say we should ‘kill’ the ego, but the reality is we developed our personal ego in such a way to protect us from intense bad feelings and experiences, so the more we try to destroy it, the more it will resist and strive to protect itself and us. So instead of spending life trying to destroy our ego, we need to be re-training our thoughts to not respond to egotistical fear thinking, that struggles to survive by trying to keep us locked into past painful memories and negative coping tactics.
We all want to avoid fearful-to-us situations if we can. But I’ve come to believe that instead of becoming more peaceful as more people seek soul healing, the world is becoming more turbulent, because people within it are struggling to survive emotionally, physically or financially, and are becoming more reactive and defensively destructive. I believe the reason for this to be about enabling us to identify our strengths and weaknesses, in order that we deal with them and the crisis more appropriately.
Whilst I hoped one day to be able to proudly announce ‘I changed the world’ (my ego talking), it’s clear to me now that I can only change me, by managing my emotions, actions and thoughts in a more creative, productive way. I also realise that it’s only when there are many others who make the decision to do the same, that the world will become more peaceful, simply because more people have become less reactive and destructive, to both themselves and others!
Until then the world will remain volatile, the people and new generations will remain destructive. And we will probably continue to feel powerless! So, what’s the best way to approach life considering all of this?
I believe there will always be something to make us scared, meaning we can’t always avoid our fear - regardless of how hard we try! So the simple answer is to learn how to change the old habits of our historic lifetime, and learn how to not be afraid of our fear! This means reducing our fear by challenging panic thoughts and feelings that make us want to run away or hit out! We can make the effort to learn how to calm our mind and body, and when the rug gets pulled out from under our feet, as it will, we can learn how to stand steady until the crisis passes. As sometimes, collapsing or standing steady is all we can actually do!
Each year has its own energetic force! So I usually tap in with my new diary each year in December, and try to feel the incoming energy. A lot of the time I’ve been close, including this year 2011, which I designated was about closing loose ends, finishing unfinished business and being in the right place emotionally to take the next step forward physically in 2012.
I’ve read that 2012 is the year of miracle manifestation. Because of my personal situation at the moment, where I have fear for the future of my family members, I can’t get a clear fix on next year. But I’m hoping for the miracle to happen, that will prove to us light-workers that our work and our suffering has not been in vain! That our heart will start to beat faster with love and passion instead of anxiety, dread and panic! And that we will get a clue about where our real vocation lies, which means that we can start to really share the truth of what we’ve become, because we’ve done all the necessary preparation!
It’s always good to have an ongoing project to keep us focussed. Five years ago I wrote a book about how my fear was created during childhood, and describe some of my spiritual crisis points. It took me about seven weeks to write, and I cried virtually all of the time I was writing it.
The book has been rewritten about four times and has been sitting in my box with lots of other unused writing. So for my 2012 project I intend to publish this book, which explains how I encountered a terrifying spiritual world, that I believed was harmless, because no-one told me there were entities that could over-power my will. I will keep you posted on its progress!
But for now, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a truly happy 2012. I also ask that you and every living thing on earth receives healing, that will enable freedom from fear, joyful living, positive health, and an abundance of all good things to enter your life, including money and success!
Sending you love, light and many blessings,
Chrissie x
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