Your body is a temple - well not quite but close enough
Yesterday I had the really good fortune of attending a seminar held by renown mystic and medical intuitive, Caroline Myss. I only read her best selling book, the Anatomy of the Spirit, a few months ago and thanks to synchronicity, managed to sign up to a rare seminar she was holding in Sydney.
As jet lagged as she was, Caroline exhibited the most wicked sense of humour I've seen and also had a really great way of explaining spiritual concepts. There's so much to tell you (and so many quotes to share), but let me start with the one analogy that really resonated with me: your body is a building.
Essentially, if we think about the building being an apartment block, you'll see that it has a number of levels. The building as a whole doesn't "move" per se, it's the inside of the building that does. Are you with me so far?
So now think about the building having 10 levels. Anyone living in the building would have a different view of the world depending on where they are in the building. For example, the lucky sod who manages to be in the penthouse has a fantastic view of the harbour (including seeing the NYE fireworks) for example. The lower you go, the less of the harbour or fireworks you can see (assuming of course you're on the SAME SIDE of the building that faces the harbour). Those on the completely opposite side won't even see the harbour/fireworks. As you go lower, the "view" changes to become that of the building opposite you, or, if you're on the ground floor, you might just see a car - everything being at eye level. I.e. everyone has their own way of how they see the world, and no one else in the world has that perspective.
Caroline equates each level of the building to one of the chakras. Whilst traditionally we know there are 7 chakras, Caroline expands this to include chakra 8 (Archetypes - which are essentially impersonal descriptions of types of people, like Myer Briggs profiles), chakra 9 (Soul Knowledge - which is the "haven't we met before" type of thing) and chakra 10 - the cosmic law.
Going back to the analogy of the building, being on the lower floors means things are relatively "easy" - i.e. it's easiest to get to, convenient, and it's closer to the "group" mentality of people. As you go up a floor, it'll take a bit more effort, and, as home owners know, buying an apartment on the floor above is much more expensive! But then, on an upper floor, you get a better view of things, so the higher you go up, the more effort you have to take to get there, but when you get there, you have a better perspective on things and take that perspective with you when you "visit" the other levels.
So floors 1-3 are considered to be us in the physical world, floors 4-7 are us in the "energetic" world, and if we manage to reach floors 8-10, we have reached what Caroline calls "grace". A better analogy (which was brilliant when she seemed to come up with it on the spot during talking to us) is the following:
Floors 1-3 are eau de toilette - you need to spray LOTS of it in order to smell nice and keep spraying it. See the correlation between "toilette" and "toilet"? <-- That brought out a lot of laughter from the audience.
Floors 4-7 are cologne. You need less of this in order to smell nice.
Floors 8-10 are perfume - yes, the actual REAL perfume. All you need is one drop.
In this lifetime, your job is to figure out how you can get from floor 1 to floor 10. In fact, Caroline says all of us, each of our souls, entered into a contract with God before we came onto this Earth that we were going to learn specific lessons from our time here. She calls this a Sacred Contract. The thing is, we were made to forget this "contract" when we were born here, and part of the contract is to figure out what your lesson on this Earth is! I.e. "what is my life purpose?".
I have been so fortunate to have had the "epiphany" earlier this year about it - and this life purpose governs the majority of decisions now. There were a lot of "points" in my life where I could have got to this point a lot sooner than now. In one of my first posts, I told you about how I did work experience as a physio in Year 10, was thinking about medicine but didn't get the marks in Year 12, tore my ACL and had knee surgery prompting me to look at medicine again, etc etc. It was only now that I decided that it was the right time for me to make the jump - and seriously, it is trusting that I know my life purpose, and that God and the Universe will sort it out for me. Losing that sense of "control" was extremely important.... and I am fortunate it only took me these "minor" experiences to figure it out. Other people have had bigger and traumatic experiences to figure out their life purpose.
So how do you find out what your life purpose is? Deep down, you intrinsically know it. Whenever you make the right decision, it feels good. You feel cool, calm and collected. There is no ego in it - I dunno how to explain it - you just know. When you make the WRONG decision - you can kind of feel it too. Maybe your stomach gets tied up, maybe you feel like something is in your throat, maybe you get that sinking feeling or the "oh crap I shouldn't have done that", the feeling of regret - you just know. So if you of today look back and do a review of your life, I'm sure you'll be able to identify certain points where you made a decision that was either good or bad. Take a look at them and try to find what the hints are and what direction they are pointing you are in. Generally the answer to your life purpose is what gives you happiness and joy - and it's not a selfish one either. When I massage someone and can see the effects of what I have done on them, when I see how more relaxed and happy they are, that makes my heart jump for joy. And each time that happens, I know I have made the right decision.
In the wise words of Caroline Myss - You need to get over yourself!!!
As jet lagged as she was, Caroline exhibited the most wicked sense of humour I've seen and also had a really great way of explaining spiritual concepts. There's so much to tell you (and so many quotes to share), but let me start with the one analogy that really resonated with me: your body is a building.
Essentially, if we think about the building being an apartment block, you'll see that it has a number of levels. The building as a whole doesn't "move" per se, it's the inside of the building that does. Are you with me so far?
So now think about the building having 10 levels. Anyone living in the building would have a different view of the world depending on where they are in the building. For example, the lucky sod who manages to be in the penthouse has a fantastic view of the harbour (including seeing the NYE fireworks) for example. The lower you go, the less of the harbour or fireworks you can see (assuming of course you're on the SAME SIDE of the building that faces the harbour). Those on the completely opposite side won't even see the harbour/fireworks. As you go lower, the "view" changes to become that of the building opposite you, or, if you're on the ground floor, you might just see a car - everything being at eye level. I.e. everyone has their own way of how they see the world, and no one else in the world has that perspective.
Caroline equates each level of the building to one of the chakras. Whilst traditionally we know there are 7 chakras, Caroline expands this to include chakra 8 (Archetypes - which are essentially impersonal descriptions of types of people, like Myer Briggs profiles), chakra 9 (Soul Knowledge - which is the "haven't we met before" type of thing) and chakra 10 - the cosmic law.
Going back to the analogy of the building, being on the lower floors means things are relatively "easy" - i.e. it's easiest to get to, convenient, and it's closer to the "group" mentality of people. As you go up a floor, it'll take a bit more effort, and, as home owners know, buying an apartment on the floor above is much more expensive! But then, on an upper floor, you get a better view of things, so the higher you go up, the more effort you have to take to get there, but when you get there, you have a better perspective on things and take that perspective with you when you "visit" the other levels.
So floors 1-3 are considered to be us in the physical world, floors 4-7 are us in the "energetic" world, and if we manage to reach floors 8-10, we have reached what Caroline calls "grace". A better analogy (which was brilliant when she seemed to come up with it on the spot during talking to us) is the following:
Floors 1-3 are eau de toilette - you need to spray LOTS of it in order to smell nice and keep spraying it. See the correlation between "toilette" and "toilet"? <-- That brought out a lot of laughter from the audience.
Floors 4-7 are cologne. You need less of this in order to smell nice.
Floors 8-10 are perfume - yes, the actual REAL perfume. All you need is one drop.
In this lifetime, your job is to figure out how you can get from floor 1 to floor 10. In fact, Caroline says all of us, each of our souls, entered into a contract with God before we came onto this Earth that we were going to learn specific lessons from our time here. She calls this a Sacred Contract. The thing is, we were made to forget this "contract" when we were born here, and part of the contract is to figure out what your lesson on this Earth is! I.e. "what is my life purpose?".
I have been so fortunate to have had the "epiphany" earlier this year about it - and this life purpose governs the majority of decisions now. There were a lot of "points" in my life where I could have got to this point a lot sooner than now. In one of my first posts, I told you about how I did work experience as a physio in Year 10, was thinking about medicine but didn't get the marks in Year 12, tore my ACL and had knee surgery prompting me to look at medicine again, etc etc. It was only now that I decided that it was the right time for me to make the jump - and seriously, it is trusting that I know my life purpose, and that God and the Universe will sort it out for me. Losing that sense of "control" was extremely important.... and I am fortunate it only took me these "minor" experiences to figure it out. Other people have had bigger and traumatic experiences to figure out their life purpose.
So how do you find out what your life purpose is? Deep down, you intrinsically know it. Whenever you make the right decision, it feels good. You feel cool, calm and collected. There is no ego in it - I dunno how to explain it - you just know. When you make the WRONG decision - you can kind of feel it too. Maybe your stomach gets tied up, maybe you feel like something is in your throat, maybe you get that sinking feeling or the "oh crap I shouldn't have done that", the feeling of regret - you just know. So if you of today look back and do a review of your life, I'm sure you'll be able to identify certain points where you made a decision that was either good or bad. Take a look at them and try to find what the hints are and what direction they are pointing you are in. Generally the answer to your life purpose is what gives you happiness and joy - and it's not a selfish one either. When I massage someone and can see the effects of what I have done on them, when I see how more relaxed and happy they are, that makes my heart jump for joy. And each time that happens, I know I have made the right decision.
In the wise words of Caroline Myss - You need to get over yourself!!!