Aloha,
I'm Reverend Cindy Palos and today we are going to feel alive so we can thrive.
We have all been going through a very,
Very,
Very difficult time through COVID and then the war and then the stress of rethinking our finances and our life and it's time to overcome some of the stress to the point where it could even be post-traumatic stress that we have encountered and have buried because we've been using things to keep us busy.
So we have not been necessarily feeling all the stress that our body and our emotions and our mind has been going through.
So it's very,
Very key that we realize what's happening.
Now if we look at the word thrive,
It's a good word,
It feels good doesn't it?
It means to grow vigorously,
To flourish.
I like that word flourish because flourish rhymes with nourish.
I love writing and I like words that rhyme and nourish and flourish go well together.
Because when you're nourishing yourself with self-care,
When you're nourishing yourself with meditation,
With awareness,
With being happy to be alive,
Then you are really prospering.
What is it to prosper?
What is it to really prosper?
I think we've all had to look at that in many ways of what's most important,
What motivates us,
What our values really are over the last few years.
It's important to know what is important to you.
What is your driving force in life?
Since I've been very young,
Since 12 or 13,
My driving force and my most important thing in my life has been God and seeking God and finding God and meditating and seeing what's important inside.
But as I have been doing this over 50 years now,
55 years,
Plus I realize that that is only half of it.
The mystic path I follow has that inner connection to the God,
That spirit within.
But you have to be able to take that walk along the bridge and live it in your life.
We aren't hermits.
Sometimes I wish I was.
I think maybe in another lifetime I was a hermit.
This lifetime I've been very much out in the world in many,
Many ways doing a lot of things.
I just finished my eighth book.
I have a new CD I'm almost finished with.
But that's God-driven stuff that's coming in an inner direction for me to do.
And that stuff I love.
So the question comes back to do you love what you're doing?
Or are you burying yourself with being busy and stuff so you don't have to feel some emotions that you might not like to feel?
So self-care is part of nourishing and flourishing and thriving.
There's many ways and tips you can do that.
Sometimes we get in a rut and we feel stuck and we're in a pattern.
Because patterns are safe.
And we've been feeling under attack by everything,
What's going on in the world.
Some people definitely more than others.
But when you try something new,
Which we hadn't had a chance to do in a while,
When we couldn't fly and do other things,
When you try something new,
It really stimulates your whole mind and your body and your enthusiasm.
You know,
I love the word enthusiasm.
That's part of,
That really is part of striving and thriving and nourishing and growing is this enthusiasm.
And the word enthusiasm comes from the Greek enthio,
In God.
It does,
It comes from being in tune with God enthio.
So when you're enthusiastic,
You're in tune with that energy,
That positive life force that comes from the one source of all.
And you know,
When we are eating right,
Drinking more water,
Definitely,
I always need to remind myself,
Drink more water,
Don't you?
When we are reminding ourselves to enjoy getting out and walking,
Maybe it's even just short walks a couple times a day.
I walk every afternoon for at least 20 minutes or 30 minutes.
I start every day with yoga.
It's a wonderful practice and wonderful way to start your day.
Yoga of course is union with God.
Not all spiritual teachers,
Yoga teachers use that because some of them don't like to use the word God,
But it is,
That goes back to that total connection,
Right?
When we do these things,
The things that we love,
We are thriving.
We are nourishing ourselves.
And truly,
It's wonderful to start every day like I do every day with a meditation and some yoga,
But it's also good in that time that we have to set an intention to do something you love,
Something you really enjoy,
Something that you'll get excited about.
Now,
We all have things we have to do.
We all have to pay our bills.
We all have to do certain things.
Even getting gas can be stressful these days.
If you get gas for your car,
It's like,
Oh my gosh.
All of a sudden you're stressing because it's like,
Did I really just spend $40 on getting gas?
I go to the market,
Did I really just spend $200 on getting groceries for a week?
I live on Maui.
So yeah,
Those things can have a shade,
A shadow they cast on us and they can cause us stress.
So we have to be aware that the things that we do like shopping and getting groceries and getting gas can cause us.
I mean,
Immediately I just sigh when I think of that.
And then we go,
Okay,
This is part of our day.
This is part of the ripples on the pool of the water.
The water is not always still.
There's wind that comes up.
There's ripples that come across the pool.
And in our day,
There are going to be ripples on the pool,
The inner pool.
But when we become aware,
Then we can do things that we learn to do to overcome that stress.
We learn the basics,
The breathing,
The breath that sweeps our mind.
We learn to negate the negative self-talk.
We delete things that are going to bring us down.
We don't allow ourselves to judge ourselves harshly.
We learn to love ourselves so we can love others.
And we learn that through going deep into meditation and even being aware of how you even feel about yourself.
A lot of people aren't even aware of how they feel about themselves because they may not want to really know how they feel.
Let's just be aware here.
Let's just begin by breathing in and feeling that breath going in and doing a little bit of body scan here,
Seeing how you feel.
Let's be doing a little bit of mindfulness.
Let's bring our attention to our body.
Say hi to your body.
How do you feel?
Body,
How do you feel?
Is there anything going on there?
Ask your body.
Is there anything that needs attention?
Let's close our eyes.
Let's get comfortable.
And let's just sit here and scan our body.
Breathing in,
Let's see our whole energy level in our head.
Breathing in deeply,
How does our head feel?
How does our mind feel?
How do our eyes feel?
Breathing in,
How does our jaw feel?
Breathe any tension in your jaw and your ears out.
Just allow yourselves to feel.
Feel what's going on in your neck.
Put your hands on your neck.
Is there anything there in your neck?
Anything that's tension?
Anything that's misaligned?
Ah,
Just release that energy that might be tense there.
Send it light,
Send it love.
Just let it feel good now.
And go deeper,
Deeper into your heart and allow yourself to feel the love deep in your heart of hearts.
Is there anything you've buried there,
Any feelings of pain or overwhelm in your heart?
Just release and let go,
Let go and open up your heart and allow your heart to blossom,
Blossom like a beautiful,
Beautiful flower.
And now let's visualize ourselves.
Let's visualize ourselves as a flower in a field of beautiful poppies and roses and daffodils,
Spring flowers surrounding a lovely lake,
A lake that's gorgeous,
That's beautiful,
That reflects the sky,
That reflects the beauty of the sun,
That reflects the trees and the flowers,
A still lake that is your own inner lake.
This is your place of peace,
Your heart of hearts,
Loving space.
Breathe in the energy that is here in this lovely,
Peaceful blue lake and just allow yourself to realize that all is well and that the love you feel is reflected there in this lovely lake.
And as you feel the love,
The flowers around the lake are blossoming and opening their nourish,
Their flourishing,
Their feeling the energy of your love.
And allow this love to be a beauty that you feel inside your own inner heart of hearts from the source of all love,
That unconditional love that you have access to from the source of all love.
Breathe it in and be at peace,
Be still and know that all is well.
Now breathing in,
Allow the rest of your body,
Your feeling in your organs and your stomach and everything in your lower chakras and your pelvis area and your root chakra to be aligned in the harmony and the beauty of the colors of the flowers in the lake with beautiful shades purified by that purity of the water in the lake.
You are cleansed,
You are purified,
You are energized and you are restored.
Ah,
Feel good now,
Just allow all of your body to feel at peace,
To feel good.
Take a few more deep breaths and feel now this oxygen enlivening you and your body as you exhale,
As you exhale have a sense of relaxing deeper and deeper.
Notice that your feet are still there on the floor feeling energized,
Feel the toes,
Feel the balls of your feet,
Feel the wonderful feeling of the vibrations and the energy of this wonderful space you're in as you relax in this perfect place of peace.
Notice your whole feeling as you breathe,
Sense the lovely energy of your hands and your arms all aligned in harmony and in balance together in your body as you are at peace,
As you are feeling beautiful,
As you are feeling like you are nourished by life,
Nourished by love,
Nourished by the light,
The light that is the light of all light shining down around this lake right now.
Just breathe,
Just relax,
Just let yourself be totally healed and restored and as you slowly come back allow yourself to feel the aura around you cleansed and revitalized with light going up over six feet high,
The light coming down under your feet six feet,
The light going out around you and to the sides of you and in front of you behind you until you bring that energy and the stillness and beauty of that pool right back into your own beautiful aura of protection around you and know that this is an energy of prana,
Of mana,
Of spirit that protects you as you go through your day and breathing in know you can always call upon your breath,
You can breathe and call upon your breathing energy to clear any tension out and you can always go back to a place of peace inside,
The place where you do find yourself nourished and where you flourish and as you flourish you know that you are enjoying your life,
You are restoring your life and you are growing and doing things that you love in life.
You can choose to thrive,
You can choose to enjoy your life every day,
You can choose projects you can do,
Small projects maybe writing,
Maybe doing a piece of art or taking a photo,
Doing something creative that works with the co-creation of the universe that comes through you when you meditate and when you enjoy life,
Allow yourself to walk out in nature and be attuned to that wonderful nature energy,
To be healed as you walk in nature and bring this energy with you,
Breathing in the beauty of mother nature.
There are so many wonderful things you can do to enjoy your life,
To live your life to the fullest.
You can do this,
You have the right to be happy.
You can choose not to play the stress game.
You do not need to be perfect,
You can just be who you are and be so happy being that complete and unique energy of who you are.
You are a child from the one source of all light here to enjoy your life so enjoy your life,
Thrive,
Nourish,
Flourish and God be with you always.
Thank you so much for listening.
God bless you.
