Undoing Conditioning

Foreseen and Forewarned

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Wow!  This has been a chaotic couple of weeks!  In the midst of the chaos, I want to offer some words, if not of comfort, at least of perspective.

Everything we are seeing today has been foreseen and forewarned – by myself and by a whole slew of other individuals who have been able to read the sign of the times and have come to surmise where humanity is heading. All signs have pointed us here:

THIS is the death throes of the patriarchy.

As much as I don’t personally care for Donald Trump and the way he presents in the world (neither do I care much for his buddies), I clearly see how the actions he has been taking since his inauguration are those of clearing.  Like a scythe, he is hacking away at all we have come to know as the foundations of governance and how a government provides for its people. Some might suggest his actions reflect those of a tyrant, oligarch, autocrat, or dictator.  Perhaps. Beyond initial appearances, however, I see a greater work (beyond DT) at hand.

The clearing that Trump is attempting, provides us with an opportunity to examine what’s been cleared (or attempted to clear) and separate the wheat from the chaff.  What in the hacking is legitimately excess and unnecessary waste and what do we want to preserve as a useful provision of federal governance?

In this, we are being given the invitation to step forward and claim what is ours. In order to do this, we have to use our own discernment, setting aside blind obedience to an outside perceived authority while collectively claiming what we consider important for the new world that is being born out of the dregs of the old.

Death is painful and the initial reaction is often shock. “How can he do this? Does he actually have this kind of power?” When we wait, and breathe, we often learn that no, he doesn’t have this power, like the cases in which the judicial branch has stood up and Trump has been forced to rescind his orders. In this, he is also learning. Like a three-year old, he is testing the limits of presidential power and (if the system works as it should) the other branches of government show him where he’s stepped over the line.  When the system fails, then it is up to us – perhaps in the context of the Constitution of the United States – perhaps with a vision toward something better.

For too long, we have relied on and trusted in the government to have our backs – to provide for our needs, keep us safe, and ensure that we have equal access to the American dream. Herein lies the greatest lie – the government has never truly done any of this. When we’re really truly honest, we know and understand the lie for what it is – a dangling carrot for which we have been willing to give up our own power.

Now is the time for us to live beyond the lie.

The same is true of Robert Kennedy Jr. I think the man has a screw or two loose, BUT, through his efforts, he is shining a light on the shortfalls of the American medical system. In no world am I anti-vaxx, and I wholly advocated for masking during the pandemic. AND, corporate medicine is not serving us. In some ways it might be killing us. While RFK’s plan seems to be to decimate the current system in favor of wholistic medicine. I personally believe (and have experienced in my own life) there is room for both. RFK’s extremist policies may be the exact pendulum swing that we need to find a place in the middle where healthcare is truly healthcare, and not just the treating of symptoms at our expense and for the profit of insurance, pharmaceutical, and healthcare corporations.

This dismantling is what we’ve been waiting for.  It has been foreseen and forewarned. In this, there is a strange kind of relief. The dying may be painful, and there will indeed be loss. And, I believe there is a greater work at hand. The greater work is the birth of a new world – no longer of someone else’s choosing, but our own. In this we are being invited to ask the questions: what in the old world needs to die and what do we want to preserve? What do we want to be part of the new world and what would be in our best interest to leave behind? And this choice is our own – not Trump’s, not RFK’s, but our own. But first we have to see beyond the illusion of fear and into the heart of the matter – an unsustainable system is in the throes of its collapse so that something more sustainable and equitable might take its place.

PS: you may find it helpful to seek out the loopholes in Trump’s executive orders. I believe these may be intentional – on the surface appeasing the certain audience, but looking deeper, ultimately unenforceable, thereby helping those the order seems to condemn.

To further support yourself during the dying of the patriarchy while clearing the way of something new, join us for this six-week LIVE (via ZOOM) course.

Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Starting March 5, 2025

Learn more HERE.

Building Your Fortress of Peace

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

Because I have an overly active mind and one that is geared toward looking for how things could be better, I am vulnerable to the co-dependent compulsion to want to fix things and save people. This inherent and conditioned way of being has gotten me in trouble my entire life – most often because people either didn’t ask for my help or advise, or they don’t have the true desire to make the changes that would be necessary to better their lives or the unhealthy situation in which they find themselves.

The end result is that rather than being a help for others, I find myself haunted by wishes, hopes, and dreams for other people’s salvation, which are ultimately a harm to me as these thoughts increase my frustration and anxiety, and often lead to the resentment and depression that arises when our gifts are not being utilized.

Recently, I became acutely aware of this tendency in myself to focusing on other people’s pain and fixating on trying to fix it. The current political climate has only made things worse. In all of this, I have become aware of the fact that all I’m doing is harm to myself by continuing to engage in this habitual behavior, and that it was time to stop.

Stopping the compulsion of allowing my own energy, gifts, thoughts, and intentions to be drawn away from me and toward other people’s difficulties, fears, and pain is easier said than done. It takes diligent and focused effort to undo sixty years of conditioned behavior. I am, however, determined to end this cycle so that my gifts can be better utilized, and so I can return myself to peace.

The first step of this practice began with admitting the problem. Then, I turned my attention inward (to the Divine within) and asked for guidance and support in ending this behavior.

What first came through was the “sealing the jar” practice I shared the other day.

Then, it came in a focused mindfulness practice where I focused my thoughts and attention on a still place within myself – specifically, gazing within myself to a spot between my eyes, inside my skull.

Today, what came through was a deepening of that practice in which this focused attention began to build itself first into a castle, eventually becoming a fortress (I saw the fortress as a kind of Winterfell). This is a practice I’m happy to share here, trusting that you will find your own expression of a similar practice.

The practice, as always, begins with awareness.  In this case, becoming aware of all the ways in which your energy, thoughts, desires, hopes, are dragged outside of you and toward another person or group of persons. You may recognize the energy being drawn off of you in your own feelings of worry, fretfulness, anxiety, or concern. (It’s not that concern for others is bad. It’s that fixating on other people’s concerns distracts us from what we need to be doing for ourselves to remain at peace.) Once you are aware of the energy being drawn off of you, instead of following the thoughts or the energy, draw your awareness and thoughts inward. As described above, I found it helpful to focus on a place deep in my mind, specifically to a place between my eyeballs, inside of my skull. (I know, weird image, but it worked for me.)  NOW, hold your focus on that spot. WHEN you find your mind and attention drifting outside of you, bring it back to that focal point. Do this again and again and again (infinity), every single time you find your attention drifting somewhere outside of you. Over time, as you tend to this practice. you will begin to feel a decrease in anxiety and an increase in peace.

As you become familiar with this practice and chip away at the conditioned habit, you will begin to notice increasingly subtle ways in which your energy is being drawn off of you. Now it is time to build your fortress. Remaining in the practice of inward gazing, begin to become aware of the energy around you. The more we keep our energy to ourselves, the more safe and secure we are able to feel in our bodies.  This increasing sense of empowerment over maintaining our own state of inner peace becomes like a stone wall surrounding us. In essence, as we remain with this practice we are unconsciously building a fortress around ourselves where we feel safe, secure, and protected. The next part is the fun part – taking note of what your castle or fortress looks like?  Allow your fortress to blossom in your mind, taking on its own unique appearance. This fortress will be the touchstone you can return to every time you feel your peace disturbed by external people or situations.

The truest gift of this practice is empowerment for it is not someone outside of you who is providing this sense of safety or protection, it is yourself.  You have always had this power, but have been conditioned to believe otherwise. As you take back your own power through this practice, you are saving yourself, and coming to understand that the only person that ever needed saving was you and that you are the only one who can truly save you.  No longer will you be compelled to seek outside of yourself for someone to save you as you have saved yourself.

Patriarchal conditioning is partly to blame for our search for both an outside savior, and for the belief that it is our task or duty to save or fix others.

In this 6-week LIVE online course, you will learn to identify the patriarchal conditioning that continues to imprison you and learn how to undo this conditioning so that you might know a sense of inner peace and empowerment.

Learn more HERE.

New Live Course: UNCHAINED

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Six-week Live (via ZOOM) Course

(recorded for later viewing for those unable to attend live)

Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30 pm Central Time

March 5 – April 9, 2025

Registration limited to 25 participants

(for people of all genders for we are all negatively affected by patriarchal conditioning)

Learn more and enroll

Unchained – Freeing Yourself from Patriarchal Conditioning

For over five-thousand years, humanity has been imprisoned by patriarchal rule. Under the rule of patriarchy, human beings have been conditioned by fear to be subservient to an outside perceived authority. Under the threat of punishment, and wrapped in a cloak of false promises, humanity has given over its power to a seemingly powerful few.

Under patriarchy, toxic masculinity is the ruling force and privilege is afforded primarily to white men of wealth. All other human beings are then divided into a hierarchy of servitude to the powerful few.

The patriarchy requires:

  • ·         Blind obedience to a self-appointed outside perceived authority.
  • ·         Subservience to this authority.
  • ·         Expectations of duty.
  • ·         Dependency based on false promises of provision and protection.

Under patriarchy we lose:

  • ·         Access to our own inner authority.
  • ·         Freedom to discern our own truth and choose our own path.
  • ·         Belief in ourselves as loveable for exactly who we are without having to seek after acceptance or approval.
  • ·         The power of our own executive functioning as seen in our relentless search for a savior.

In this six-week course, we will explore the ways in which we have been imprisoned by the patriarchy and the subtle ways in which this imprisonment is experienced:

  • ·         In our own lives
  • ·         In our relationships
  • ·         In society
  • ·         In the workplace
  • ·         In our underlying sense of shame or guilt
  • ·         In our conditioned sense of duty
  • ·         In our search to be saved

We will then explore ways in which we can free ourselves from this conditioning.

This course will consist of:

  • ·         Inspirational readings
  • ·         Lessons
  • ·         Contemplation and Reflection
  • ·         Discussion

*Content portion of sessions will be recorded and available for viewing within 24 hours of the live gathering for those who are unable to attend live. 

Learn more and enroll

No One is Coming to Save Us

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

One of the biggest lies of patriarchal institutions is that they are here to help and/or save us. As we are witnessing firsthand in yesterday’s flurry of executive orders, populations that once believed they had our government’s protection, no longer do.

Whereas we may be tempted to cast a finger of blame upon certain governmental officials for depriving us of what we once believed to be rights, the fault does not lie with them alone. In the simplest of ways, they are simply acting as patriarchal institutions often do – keeping human beings enslaved to the whims of the powerful (and fearful) few.

Power, as we see it in patriarchal institutions, is not built on strength. Instead, their power is based in fear – fear over losing what they value the most – money – measured both in wealth and possessions. In order to keep or grow their perceived power, someone else has to suffer. Like hungry locusts, patriarchal institutions gobble up everything around them with no thought for the survival or thriving of others.

In our culture, patriarchal institutions include: governance, banking, corporations, healthcare, education, technology, and religion. All of these exist to manipulate and control the general population for the sake of their own selfish needs. They do this by keeping us afraid while also promising that we could not survive without them. We need them for our wellbeing and in exchange for our servitude, our needs will be provided for, and we will be safe and protected.

Bullshit!  Not a single one of these institutions actually has our highest good in mind. Instead, they seek profit over well-being, and power over advancement of the species. To this end, they want to keep us ignorant and unaware of the deceptions behind the mask of their false promises.

No one is coming to save us. In fact, the only one who can save us is ourselves. It is by facing the lies of the dying patriarchy that we will find our salvation. Once we see past the lies and stop waiting and expecting our government (for example) to have our highest good in mind, only then can we begin to save ourselves. We save ourselves by freeing ourselves of these expectations, grieving the loss of our former dependency on the outside “savior,” and then doing the work of caring for ourselves. In caring for ourselves, we are free to be who we are made to be – unique, special, courageous, and authentically/inwardly strong. It is here where true power resides. From this place of inner power, we are able to step forward as our own savior and gather with others who have also saved themselves and who are now ready to help others find the way.

Neither governance, religion, education, healthcare, or any other patriarchal institution is here to support or guarantee our highest good. It is for this reason (among others) that we must do the work of saving ourselves.

Hope in the Perceived Darkness

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

Donald J. Trump has officially been sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. Across social media platforms, the reactions have been either silence or sentiments of despair and hopelessness. I haven’t yet seen celebration, but I’ve definitely seen grief.

As for myself, I have spent too many years and too much time in deep prayer over the role Donald Trump is playing in the unfolding human drama to get upset. Once I got over the initial shock in 2016 of his victory over Hillary Clinton (let’s be honest, Hillary was less than a perfect candidate), I prayed, “Please help me understand the larger purpose at work here.” I’ve shared before what I was given to understand, but I’ll share it again in case you missed it:

Donald Trump is playing the role of the Angel of Death.

Biblically, the Angel of Death arrived at crossroads times to bring liberation to the enslaved by destroying the power of the ruling class. The Angel of Death is perceived as benevolent from the perspective of those being liberated, and malevolent by those who are losing their power.

In the short term, it may appear as if a Trump presidency will deprive some of freedoms they once had while elevating the status of the ruling class, but there is so much more at play here than what is in our immediate sight.

Stepping back……way back…..away from the media propaganda, political rhetoric, and those who benefit from creating (perceived) division….is a 10,000 year old human experiment coming to an end. This experiment began with fear and ended with patriarchal power. This experiment has reached its limits and will result in the extinction of humankind if equilibrium is not restored.

Donald Trump is being called to play a role in the restoration of that equilibrium.  In the short term, and through eyes conditioned by division, we may not like what we see. To see evidence of this restoration we will have to look at things through a new set of eyes.  Some of this evidence we may already see. For some, we will have to look beyond what is right in front of us to a time that we do not yet know.

Hope and Trust are two words that may prove helpful as we navigate this transitory time.

Hope – not in that which is outside of us, in some person of perceived authority and power – but hope in ourselves. A big part of the dying system is the savior complex – the idea or illusion that there is someone outside of us who is going to save us. Instead, we are here to save ourselves. We are the hope we’ve been looking for.

Trust – in a bigger story at play. In the natural unfolding of the universe story. In a higher plan. In God (if that is your thing). But most importantly – Trust in yourself. Trust in the Love that you are. Trust that this Love has the power to not only transform yourself, but also has the power to transform the world.

As the Angel of Death, Donald Trump is helping to facilitate the destruction of all the institutions and systems that have benefitted from the conditioning that has left us feeling powerless. On the other side of this destruction, should we accept the invitation, is a world in which all of humanity is empowered to come forward with our own unique giftedness for the sake of our own fulfillment, and in service to the good of the all. This can only happen, however, if we have hope and trust in ourselves and believe in the power of Love.

By dividing we have been conquered.

By uniting we will be set free.

Contained Radiance: How Best to Serve Humanity in the Face of Collapse

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 4 Comments

On Monday, January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in for the second time as President of the United States. Whether you are hopeful or terrified in the face of another four years of Trump, the result will be the same.  The empire will continue to burn itself to the ground. President Trump may hinder or hasten that collapse – only time will tell.

In the meantime, we do the only thing we can do:

  • We hold space for that which is meant to occur.
  • We bear witness to the collapse.
  • We care for ourselves and our loved ones.
  • We observe our reactions and acknowledge the fears being triggered.
  • We do the work of healing and transforming our unhealed wounds,
  • Most importantly, we guard our energy and the precious spiritual gifts we’ve been given to help usher humanity through this collapse.

The collapse is happening with or without us. We cannot prevent it.  Neither can we stop it. Nor should we. The power of the patriarchy has run its course along with the hierarchical systems that have been established on fear, power, and control. We must allow the collapse so that something new may takes its place.

Yes, collapse is uncomfortable. Yes, it can be terrifying. Indeed, many will lose property, wealth, and even their lives as the world seeks to right itself. Yes, there will be sorrow and we will grieve these losses.

And there is nothing we can do about it. Instead, we are called to do something for ourselves.

The something we are called to do at this time, is to confront the holes in our soul that have been caused by all the ways and times that we have given our energy away in an effort to help, heal, or save, and that energy was either rejected or taken advantage of. The time of limitless giving in a culture that limitlessly takes, has come to an end. Instead, we are called to seal up the holes left behind from all the ways in which our energies and our sacred gifts have been misused.

This week, in working with my online community, I saw our souls as being held within a jar. For many, if not most, our jars are full of holes where our magic is being stolen from us or from where we are giving it away. It is time for us to seal those holes so that our magic might be safely contained. For every hole we seal, the light of the Divine within us gains power and grows in radiance. The goal is to seal every hole so that the light of the Divine within us might be safely contained so that it might better serve ourselves and our world – not as a commodity to be given or taken away, but as the radiant light of Love that just is – the light that not only transforms ourselves, but transforms our world.

It is through this contained radiance that we can best serve our world at this time. Guard and protect your energy. Draw it inward. Seal up the holes. And let your radiance shine.

The Practice of Non-Interference

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering

(Tao Te Ching Verse 48)

  • The wildfires in California.
  • The genocide in Sudan.
  • The destruction of Gaza and Syria
  • The war in Ukraine
  • The aftermath of Hurricane Helene

These are just a few of the devastatingly destructive experiences that are in the forefront of our minds – all in some way brought about by the actions of human beings. We pray for those affected. We hold them in our thoughts. We wish, and hope, and plead for things to change so that the world might live in peace and humans might be safe from other people’s actions.

When we have the resources and the opportunity and it is within our power to do so, we take action – like my friends with The Beacon Network who have been boots on the ground providing help and support to those areas impacted by Hurricane Helene. Most of the time, and in most cases, however, there is literally nothing we can do. All we can do is stand back and watch these events unfold and perhaps grieve for those affected and hope these devastating experiences never come our way.

Grieving, and hoping, however, do nothing to ease the anxiety we feel over the suffering of others. Whether our anxiety is fear over the possibility that these kinds of events might find their way to us, or empathetic concern for those harmed, the impact is the same. We experience fear, unrest, worry, concern, and maybe even panic. In an attempt to calm our anxiety, we ruminate about all the ways we might protect ourselves from such disasters, how we might help those who have been harmed, we fixate on the terror that those who are facing these horrific events might be feeling. Again, none of this calms our anxiety. In fact, it likely makes it worse.

Fixating on the devastation others are experiencing or creating for themselves helps no one – lease of all ourselves, most of all those affected. All this misplaced worry does is cause us harm and prevents us from being present to what is around us and within our field of influence or control.

We cannot fix it. We cannot solve it. We could have done nothing to prevent it. We cannot save humanity from the devastation brought about by their own actions. As is true each and every day, the only one we can truly save is ourselves – and even that is debatable (when it is our time, it is our time, period!).

Soooooooooo, what do we do when humanity is destroying itself and the world along with them? We get out of the way.

I know!  I know!  I can hear the collective gasp, “How can we just stand back and watch the world go up in flame?”

This is where the wisdom of the ancients provides us some guidance and support:

From Ecclesiastes (3: 1-8):

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

From Jesus (MT 6: 25-27):

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

From HH the Dalai Lama:

“If a problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.”

From the Quran (Surah Al-Imran Ayat 173):

“Sufficient for us is Allah, and [He is] the best Disposer of affairs.”

From the Tao Te Ching (vs 48):

In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

Less and less is done

Until non-action is achieved.

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering.

In short, the wisdom teachers know through their own personal experience that the closer one draws to Source (God, Tao, Presence, Truth, Love, etc.), the more we are able to meet the reality of the human experience from a place of equanimity. We are able to ride the joy, the sorrow, the celebration, and tragedy without getting caught up in any of it. In the face of tragedy, especially, we experience our initial human and empathetic reaction (anxiety, fear, worry), but we are then able to walk ourselves back and see the tragedy through the wider lens of the human experience and recognize that this too serves a higher purpose. Maybe the tragedy begins to wake people up. Perhaps it calls them into action. Maybe it invites them to make a change in their own life. Or quite possibly, they see it as something over which they have no influence or control, so they are able to let it go and experience the restoration of peace.

As human beings, survival is our first instinct, so it is natural to feel anxiety or worry in the face of devastation. Equally is it natural for our instinctual response to drive us to seek out ways to keep ourselves safe. It is wisdom, however, that allows us to move beyond those initial instinctual reactions and ask ourselves over what we actually have influence or control. If nothing, then the invitation is to let it go, trusting the natural unfolding of the human experience while turning back to ourselves which in truth is the only place we can actually know peace.

Into the Wilderness provides a process and protocol to support you in cultivating inner peace, non-attachment, and to heal from the conditioning that drives us to try to interfere in those things that are actually outside of our control.

  • Online course
  • At your own pace
  • Pay what you are able.
Learn more HERE.

Preventing M*rd*r

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Yesterday while working with one of the Magdalene training participants, I received the best possible testimonial and endorsement of my course Into the Wilderness which is the third course in the Magdalene training (and which can be taken stand-alone). Tongue in cheek, the individual shared:

This course has helped me to not commit m*rd*r!

I knew they were joking, but I also get it. Into the Wilderness is based on my Authentic Freedom protocol and on my book of the same name. Into the Wilderness is the cornerstone of all the work I do for myself, with clients and with students. It is an effective process for identifying and finding healing and release from those things within us that prevent us from knowing peace, joy, contentment, and love in our lives.

Into the Wilderness presents us with our shadow and provides effective tools for freeing ourselves of past conditioning and woundedness. Into the Wilderness frees us from the imprisonment of our own fears and creates space in which we can know ourselves as Love more fully and live from that place of love.

And if it helps us not to commit m*rd*r, then so be it!

Learn more about Into the Wilderness and my other online training courses. HERE.

Guarding Our Power

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

I’m inviting you to join me in a purposeful, reflective pause. STOP and closely examine all the places in your life where your energy and power are being drawn from you:

  • Places where you say yes when you want to say no.
  • Situations where you do things out of a sense of duty or obligation.
  • Relationships in which you feel called to help or fix another.
  • Experiences where you can see what would be best and want to offer your expertise.
  • Friends and family, clients and strangers who seek guidance but who habitually disregard that guidance.
  • Situations in which you assume your guidance is wanted but in fact was never requested.
  • Those to whom you run at their first call of distress, hoping to help or take away that distress.
  • Experiences where you continually hope and wish for things to change, but they never do.
  • Those who want more from you than you can actually give.
  • Those who seek your listening ear but do nothing to heal or transform the situation about which they complain.

I’m inviting you into this reflection because you are not alone in this. I am woefully guilty of falling into the trap of co-dependency where I believe not only is it my job to help others, but believing I actually can.

We cannot help others who are unwilling or incapable of helping themselves.  We cannot help those who don’t believe they need help. Every time we try, a hole is drilled into our soul and a piece of our power is drawn out. That power, then is no longer available for us to access, as it is held in the others hand. I call this entanglement. There are certain relationships and experiences in which we become so entangled we may not even see how much of our power we’ve given away.

Contrary to the way in which we have been conditioned (women especially), our power is not meant for others. Instead, our power is meant to serve the purpose of our soul – to know and be Love in the world. This Love is not co-dependent, seeking to help or heal others. Instead, Love is meant to provide an example that others might follow. In witnessing the Love that we are, they may ask us how we came to know that Love. We may share with them the tools that helped us get there, but we cannot do the work for them. The danger with this Love is that it is magnetic and many are drawn to that Love – not to understand how to achieve that themselves, but to draw a bit of it from us. Do not let them.

The power of Love that we are is a precious thing. It is what feeds and sustains us. It is what allows others to be awakened and to seek out that Love for themselves. This is the Love that Jesus spoke of and the Love that changes the world. This Love is not for us to give, but for others to find within themselves. We may provide inspiration, but we are not the source.

For those who have uncovered this Love within themselves, we know how hard the journey is to know that Love more fully. The power of this Love is ours to protect. Protecting that Love requires a reprogramming from what we have been taught about what it means to Love. Love isn’t doing harm to ourselves to care for another. Love is not doing for another what they should be doing for themselves. Love does not intrude on the journey of another, but allows people the freedom to live their lives, learning their own lessons and making their own mistakes.

For me, protecting the power of Love begins with identifying those places in my life where that power is being drawn from me through co-dependent entanglements. Next, it is my job to STOP participating in that entanglement. This is no easy task due to the trigger response that is engrained in so many of us to want to help another’s distress. In order to stop this response, I have had to learn the signals in my body that let me know my co-dependency has been triggered. For me, it is a feeling in my solar plexus (gut) or on my left shoulder of energy being drawn from me. I literally feel as if I have to run to the individual expressing distress. Instead of running, I STOP. I repeat a silent mantra (“it’s their shit not mine”) and then I STAY PUT. I cannot express the strength it takes in me to stay put and not run after the distress.  And I am not perfect in this practice. I repeatedly fail and continually find myself in entanglements. But I’m learning and I’m improving. Every day, I’m a little better at guarding my power and taking back that which I have given away.

Love is a journey and a process, and the work is never done but in the heart of this work is a great treasure.  As we free ourselves from co-dependent behaviors, we have access to more of our own inner power and the Love that dwells within us. We have no idea the miracles that can come about when fully embodying that Love!

Finding Our Way to Peace

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 3 Comments

We are conditioned in this world to look outside of ourselves for the things we need. In some cases, this is rightly so – food, clothing, and shelter for example. But for the things we need most – contentment, joy, love, and peace – we can only find these within.

Finding our way to peace is solely an inside job. Whereas we may be freer to access the peace that resides within us through a change in the external circumstances of our lives, it is only from within that we can find and deepen that peace. It is also in cultivating our own inner peace that we are able to access the inner resources we need to discern our readiness and make external change when called for.

While peace may only be found within, we continue to seek outside for that peace. We wait and hope for the world and the people around us to change so that we might know peace. We cast our gaze outward for evidence of the manifestation of our prayers for peace. We sit in expectation for the day in which our prayers for peace will be made real.

But the truth remains – those who do not know inner peace cannot be a part of manifesting peace on earth. Conflict and war exist because human beings are not at peace. If human beings knew peace within themselves, then there would no longer be hardship, hunger, poverty, homelessness, or war and the needs of every human being would be met – not just so they might survive, but so they might thrive.

Our own search for peace, however, does not depend on any other human knowing peace. Neither can any other human being infringe on our ability to dwell within (or at least return to) that deep well of inner peace. Our peace is independent of any one else’s peace or lack thereof. We are the sole creator of our own peace.

Creating that peace, however, doesn’t happen overnight. Neither is it a simple task. In order to know the peace that dwells within and to know it even more deeply, we must embark on a deep and arduous journey of inner work.

First, we must create the space in our lives through which we might glimpse this peace. For me, this is my daily spiritual practice. We must create the time and space for our practice and remain diligent and persistent in it.

Then we need Grace. I cannot say how it will happen for you, but for me, Grace arrived in the midst of my practice and showed me a glimpse into my Union with Source. In this experience, everything fell away except for the light of this Union. In this I experienced contentment beyond understanding. This moment of Grace was but a moment, but through that one encounter I have remained motivated to keep going.

The “going” is the arduous part of the journey. The journey becomes our practice and life itself shows us all the places within where we have forgotten Union with Source (what I call “Love”). All comes up for review. The review is ongoing and never-ending. Over and over and in increasingly subtle ways, we come up against all the places where we have forgotten that we are Love – forgetfulness brought forth through our conditioning, past wounds, traumas, etc. In becoming aware of these wounds, we are given an opportunity to heal them. In acknowledging the wounds and inviting their healing, we are again met with Grace, for we are not healing our own wounds, they are being healed for us. Our simple task is to say yes to the healing.

Healing the wounds may be simple, but showing up again and again for them to be healed is not. Our egos and our need to control (a function of the ego) get in the way. We often become impatient with the journey and wonder if it will ever end. It will not – but we must remain diligent, disciplined, and persistent in our task. Yes, we can quit, but as many have discovered, the Universe finds ways to drag us back to the task.

When we are called to know peace, we don’t really have a choice but to continue the search. We continue day in and day out, no matter our mood.  We become angry, frustrated, disheartened, and despairing, but we continue. We continue because our soul will not give us rest, for the rest we ultimately seek can only be found within and the world provides an infinite number of distractions – including the desire for peace in our world.

Human beings will never know peace until we find our own peace within – and that peace begins with me.

Now say this to yourself: “That Peace Begins with Me,” then find and be that peace.

The journey toward peace begins with a single step: starting and maintaining a spiritual practice.

In this course, you will learn what a spiritual practice is, dispel myths around meditation, and be instructed in a myriad of spiritual practices so that you might find the one or two that speak to you and begin your practice.

Learn more and enroll here.