|
Amidst a state of fear and lack reality
I recently had the pleasure to speak live about this topic, and I wanted to share what I shared with them on that call last week (if you want to hear the live version, and all 4 speakers, you can listen to that here). I’ve found that maintaining a positive, abundance-based mindset is a lifelong journey. The mind is a trickster – you think you’re working on this, but without a diligent and consistent awareness of your inner dialogue – the old patterns, limiting beliefs and negative mindset can creep in. I’ve gone through many countless phases and levels of having this awareness, but I find the more I practice, the easier it gets. During Covid I saw the contraction mindset as a rippling plague – fear was the actual plague, not the virus. We are still suffering the ripple effect of that. The primary message we received was RETRACT! Go inside, hide, and don’t touch anything! Right? When I felt into this fear-based energy, I made a decision to not hide my language anymore, to help people develop their awareness of the inner dialogue. When we say negative things internally, they manifest externally. It’s as simple as that. We are powerful beings, and in this hologame, we either have awareness of this or we don’t. ANY negative statement is a low vibration, causing our energy to contract – it feels like we’re living safely, but in reality, it manifests as a prison of the mind, blocking opportunities, freedoms, and abundance from us. For example – I recently had someone tell me that whenever she’s entrusted things to the Universe, whenever she’s let go of control and surrendered, she said “it hasn’t turned out for the best.” So how that manifests for her, is that she thinks if she doesn’t control every detail of her life, things will fall apart. That’s a bleak outlook! Instead, I offered her this: It’s all about setting the intention, and expecting the best. If you expect the worst, you tend to get that. If you expect the best, you tend to get that. It’s not complicated, but we make it complicated. It’s how you play the matrix. I do believe there’s a bit of the “fake it til you make it” energy there, but if that brings up a low energy or vibration for you – because that phrase doesn’t sit well with me personally, I have a trigger for fakeness – then I offer the concept of “Prayer Fields.” Prayers cause instant ripples in the energy matrix. Prayers that are rooted in gratitude, not desire or need. Such as when I’m walking into a networking event, I set the prayer field that the event will go awesome, I’ll meet all the right people, speak my truth and be heard, and make the connections I need to continue to further my dharma. I see those intentions ripple into the matrix ahead of me, I see people smiling, and talking, and in their own truths, speaking of the things they are passionate about, and I see our passions collide with a flutter of energy and rainbows of color, making new passions and collaborations together. Then I EXPECT this. And so what happens? All of that manifests. But again, it takes practice, and you have to train your brain to do this, to remember to pause, even if you feel like you’re running late, pause outside the event, and pray that in. And let me offer this as a last suggestion – when you feel the energy drop in your day, sit back and ask yourself, what was I just thinking? I’d place money on it being a contraction thought. When you can begin to see them, see the difference, and control the flow of them, you’ll begin to see that and flip them more quickly. Just say to yourself or your source, hold on, I’d like to change that, and flip it. Here are 3 examples of the things I hear, and how to flip them:
I urge you to SHINE, the brightest you can, for the world today. If all of our light was turned up to 10 on the scale of vibration, think what a brighter world this would be.
0 Comments
Together we emerge!
I have said this over and over lately... the collective energy feels like CHRYSALIS. And I can't wait to see the butterflies you all become! As a collective we process energies together, we are a web, a matrix, a network of energetic bustling! Although we may be in different stages of the same lesson – whether that's awakening, processing, advancing, or resigning, we still process energy together. These last two weeks I've heard, "I think I need to write a book," "I'm looking for something new," "I just moved too!" And various other signals of transformation more times than I can count. So I'm seeing a pattern emerge – a collective chrysalis energy! Before the emergence, a butterfly's cocoon will tremble and shake, as she transforms from one being to an entirely new on. Sometimes the transformation is uncomfortable, wobbly, scary, even painful. But what comes out of the other side is always more beautiful than what went in. I see you, hairy caterpillar. And I can't wait to see you on the other side. To transformation! 🥂🦋 And an announcement!
With new surroundings comes new perspective... and I've had an opportunity during the chaos of moving across country to think about what it is exactly that I want to help people do for themselves and their lives. What that came down to was: Help people be the champion of their life with positivity, action, and peace. When I unpack those three words, here's what I get: Positivity - learn how to shift the negative mindset, stop doubting your abilities or gifts, and start believing that you have the power to create what you want in life, and are supported by the Universe in doing so. Action - get out of "paralysis by analysis" and put your future into motion NOW. Action is the ONLY way to make a change in your life. "If we're not growing, we're dying," said William S. Burroughs, and here at AKCO we believe in making sure you're always growing. Peace - our two core values here at AKCO are Freedom and Peace. Those have been my battle cry for over 30 years now, and it's what I aim for myself, as well as my clients. Through our courses and coaching, I seek to help you make sure your level of peace runs deep within your core, so that at every turn, every challenge, and every test, you can dig into that reserve of peace and tackle the challenges with a depth of knowing you are powerful, act upon that, and do so without disrupting your inner sanctum. How we start that is through our primary tool, Affirmations. If you haven't joined us yet for the FREE 21-day course of Affirmations, sign up by replying to this email with "ADD ME!" Or if you have been through our course, and you think a friend could benefit from it, please share it, so that this can become a more positive, action-oriented, and peaceful world we live in. If you made it this far, good job – you get the benefit of seeing our announcement first! In going over our courses today, we're excited to announce that both our Doing your Dharma (finding your life's purpose through 4 modalities of discovery!) and Magic of Crystals courses will be launched this fall! Dharma will be offered online, and Crystals will only be offered in Knoxville, and both to a limited number of people! So if you want to attend, or know of someone in the area that might, please share the love! Law of Inertia
Last week, Craig and I bought a new washer/dryer machine. It might be a mundane thing for most people, but it was a milestone for us. Back in Steamboat, we had an outdated model that had seen better days. It would produce this unpleasant trill every time it completed a cycle, and almost no fail it would shock the living daylights out of me. After some time spent installing the two new units and programming the settings, we did a test run. Basket in hand, the cycle finishes, as Craig looks up at me and says, "Did you hear that?" Confused, I ask, "Hear what?" I lean in and pay attention, and that's when I hear it—the machine sings! Don't get me wrong, I've done a fair share of laundry in my life and it isn't the funnest housework out there. In fact, it's monotonous, there's a lot of waiting and doing the same thing over and over again. Yeah, pretty boring if you asked me. But now, not so much. If you google 'LG washing machine tune', there's an actual video of it—it's that iconic. And I'm sure we weren't the only ones with bug-eyed expressions after noticing it the first time. The point is, that cute little tune broke a monotonous cycle. I actually look forward to doing laundry now. All that routine needed was something different... an element of surprise. Physics calls this inertia. This is Newton's first of three laws. It's not a literal explanation to my washing machine story, but it states that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. That little tune, unbeknownst to me at the time, was the force I needed to change perspective and 'flip the script' on my whole "laundry is boring" debacle. Your perspective (at rest) will remain at rest until acted upon by an outside force. Sometimes all you need is a little nudge, a change of scenery, a slight course reroute (or a cute tune) to perceive life from a different angle, take action and shoot towards a trajectory that breaks away from the daily routine, unpleasant trill of boredom and constant state of rest. The same principle can be applied to achieving dreams. When your dream is beginning to form or when your plan is just taking shape, it is 'at rest'. It isn't going anywhere just yet. You haven't started taking action in order to turn your dream into a reality. These actions are your 'force', and your dream will continue to stay at rest without them. Once you start working towards your dream, your goal—walking towards a trajectory--you are setting it in motion, getting one step closer to accomplishing it every day. Now, your dream is no longer at rest. It's on the move. You must remember that you are the force that will put your dream in motion. While other factors can play a role in the journey, it's up to you to take control and make a difference in your life. No one knows better than yourself. You will innately know what steps to take in order to succeed. Yes, you may fail in the process. Yes, failure may happen more than once. And yes, you will keep learning and moving because we simply cannot risk having your momentum deterred. You (the force) are the most vital key to changing your perspective, to achieving your dream, to meeting your goal and to making your mark. And sometimes, all it takes is a change of tune—a slight jolt—to get you on that track. The collective 'ooomph'
Whenever I feel like I am experiencing something a little more intensely than should be, I reach out to friends to see if I'm the only one "feelin' that." This week I have felt like my brain is not quite coming back online—it wants to rest, or it wants the body to move--it doesn't want to sit in front of a computer. And when I do push my brain past the comfort zone, it seems to melt. Not just soften a little in the heat, but straight up go-to-puddle. This isn't normal for my brain, except for the period where I was recovering from a concussion. In fact, the energy right now kind of feels concussed. The heat is oppressive. The word on the street is struggle or overwhelm, and the consensus is summer is coming early, and it would be nice for a siesta. So I reached out to my crew to see if I was the only one feeling this, and sure enough, I wasn't. "I haven't gone live in weeks, I just don't have the energy to," one friend said. "I am sleeping later and taking more naps right now," another remarked. "I just want to hide until it goes away," even, was one extreme. I haven't dug deep into the astrology, but maybe I don't need to... We just had a full moon, summer solstice is coming up, and we're in between eclipses. All of these energies combined will push us to the point of exhaustion. I always think of this time of year—the ramp up to the longest day, feels a little like a roller coaster, or a crescendo. Up and up and up the energy, effort, and sun go... and we feel that on a deep level. So here are a few of the things I've done to support my brain and energy during this week:
Here's to summer! Enjoy the melt. And a message.
Before we left Colorado, I broke my baby/pinky toe on my left foot while trying to shut the veggie drawer in the fridge. I missed entirely, and kicked the fridge. I was hurrying to pack up the house, I was distracted, and I went down like a sack of potatoes, but I didn't cry out because initially I couldn't tell if it hurt. Then the pain came. I was sitting on the floor holding my foot and doing reiki on it when Craig came in. He saw me quietly sitting there and asked if I was okay. I replied that I didn't know, because I didn't. Because of my calm demeanor, he thought nothing of it. My toe didn't swell up right away, and it didn't change colors. But within a few hours it was puffy and blueish. I'd already put comfrey salve on it, and reapplied at that point, and then iced it down. The next day, it was definitely worse. So I looked up pinky toe in Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life book, filled with messages from all body parts (see our All I Learned From video on this one if this is your first exposure to it, it's one of my staples!), and the message for pinky is "don't sweat the small stuff" basically--let go of the little details. And the mantra she gives is "all details take care of themselves." Okay, I thought, that makes sense. Craig kept insisting it wasn't broken, but I knew it was. I didn't make a big deal of it, because I knew there was nothing I could do but ice it, and salve it. So that's what I did for the next 3-4 days until the pace quickened—we spent the weekend down in Denver, and then came back to Steamboat to put everything in the U Haul and roll out. I didn't ice it, I didn't salve it, and by the time we got to Tennessee it was worse. Throbbing if it wasn't elevated, painful to the touch. It didn't help that I kept falling on it. It's been a week now since we've arrived, and I think I've fallen off 3 curbs, twice off the driveway, and once off the ramp to the U Haul—no major falls, just a roll to the left and bam, it's insanely painful again. I know from years of using this book that the left side is receptivity and femininity, and that when something on that side is injured, it's helpful to realign your masculine and feminine energies. My do-everything, get-it-done attitude isn't always helpful. Sometimes, I need to rest and receive. Every time I seem to roll it/trigger it, I am reminded to slow down, let go of the details, and let someone else help me (or ask for help). Since we're all connected, perhaps you needed that message too. And perhaps I could use everyone's collective good thoughts to help my little toe finally heal. TIA — Thanks in advance for that! Receive my friend, receive. Abundance is your birthright, and sweating the small stuff certainly is not. Dip your toe into that one and see how it feels. Full circle and "coming home"
I was born and raised in northern Virginia and grew up playing in the woods and in the waters of the small lake community we lived in, as well as going to some form of overnight camp for a few weeks to two months from about 8 to 16 years old. Needless to say, my love of the outdoors and the adventures within them runs deep. So moving to northeastern Tennessee feels like "coming home" to me. The woods look and smell the same, there is water everywhere, and we are just 11 miles south of the border of Virginia. Each state is different, there is no doubt, but when I roll down Sweet Creek Road to the edges of our property, it feels very familiar. It feels like what's old is new again, and that we're coming full circle. What we're establishing on this 40 acres in Eidson, TN is a mouthful – in short, it's going to be an intentional community with a permaculture education center – in the long run. How do you do this? Chunk by chunk. But let's back up... we often get asked "why here?" And for that answer, we have to look at why we're leaving Colorado... skyrocketing prices, interminable drought and resulting fires, and change. You can't buy 40 acres for less than a mil$ anymore, you can't grow a lot of food without a lot of water, and there simply isn't much water, and the winters are just too long for what we want to do. There are other reasons for leaving too, but those are the big ones. So on the other side of the coin, that leans to "why Tennessee." My short answer has been, "it will have water for 50 years." I'm sure it sounds crazy to be thinking that far into the future, but that's the kind of thinker I need to be for this project – this legacy. When I am gone, I want someone to inherit this food forest and heart-centered communal way of living that we are intending to create. If those concepts are new to you, do a little digging, and keep reading our emails and socials. Soon we'll be unpacking much, much more. Until then, here's to a mobile business I can take with me, here's to working from home, here's to manifesting big things, and here's to food security. Parting is never goodbye...
When I moved to Steamboat in 1998, I was fresh off a decompressing two months at Eckerd College, from which I graduated in 1995. In those 3 years I had spent two in Oregon studying all topics of natural living, and one in Scotland taking a long-needed and appreciation-building "gap year." After 3 years of rain, I was mostly looking for sunshine when I rolled into Colorado, but I was also looking for community, for small town living, and for deep friendships. I got all that in spades over the next two and a half decades. I met my future husband, traveled the world, tried my hand at several careers, and always felt blessed to come home to this historic and quaint hamlet of a town. Winters are sweet (albeit LONG), and summers are sweeter (albeit now quite smoky). But a LOT has changed in 25 years, and so do your priorities. Yet once again, it seems I am pivoting for the same two reasons I always have — the great outdoors and the weather it provides. What we are establishing in Tennessee is all together exciting, scary, short-term, and long-term. I'll unpack that a little more next week. But suffice it to say, it's bittersweet to leave here. The friendships I've made, the work I've done, the community I've been a part of, the memories I've made—both individually and together with Craig—make up who I am, and will always come with me. But the emotions are at the surface as we wind down to the final days as residents of Colorado, and as we close one door, another opens. I know we'll see all the people we love and adore again, and I hope that our new hamlet of Shambhala will draw them to us. The lesson? Feel the feels, appreciate the lessons, and keep manifesting the life you want to live until it looks like the legacy you want to leave. For months now, I haven't had anyone sign up for our Manifesting flagship course. This is a course I've poured my heart and soul into. I know its value because everyone experiences profound change through it. So I know it's doing good in the world, when it lands on its target. Which it hasn't been. Is that us? Or is that a sign of the times? People are "learned-out" and "burned-out" on online learning. Zoom fatigue is real.
So, my Office Magician and I decided just this week to put the course to bed for now and cancel the platform it's on to save money. The same day I was scheduled to do that, I got a text from a longtime friend who's been through the Affirmations course and ruminating on the Manifesting one. She's finally ready. Now, if you live in the world of signs and synchronicity, there's no denying that one—for those two things to happen on the same day is divine. One could ask, "Is it the Universe testing my resolve to pair down and focus on what's making money?" In which case, do I tell the friend, "Sorry, we're not running this course anymore, or right now, and you'll have to wait." 🤔 No. Because this course is magical. And I know this. Instead, I know that for me, this means to trust and let go. And actually, there are two magical parts to this story. I also got an email from the course platform saying my rate was going up 50% this month—charging the next day. So I went in and looked at all the plans and realized I was paying for components I didn't use or need. So I was able to reduce the cost of the platform by 50% instead! So, the magic here is the Art of Letting Go. When we surrender, and let go of our Ego's need to achieve, perform, win, succeed, or create abundance the old-fashioned way, the energy opens up to allow the magic to come in. Where can you do that in your life? If you'd like to join, my friend, in running through this amazing course this month and beyond, learn more here and use this code (333) to get 33% off! It's so good to be back! During my trip to the Golden State, I stumbled upon this eye-opening article written by Jeff Haden, a real estate mogul, all-around budding entrepreneur, and contributing writer for Inc. Magazine. Our industries are worlds apart, but his words held a truth that struck me. I must share it with you. Hopefully, it will open your eyes, too.
The trip to California had placed me squarely in the present. There's nothing like a new environment to get your juices flowing, so I had been especially hyperaware and absorbent of the moments that encompassed during our too-short weekend there. However, research shows the average person's mind spends about 50% of its time "wandering." Thinking about the past. Trying to predict the future. Too preoccupied in the present. Drifting from distraction to distraction. That's normal. What psychologists call "attention cycling" not only helps keep us safe—get too hyper-focused on a call and you might not notice a stop sign—but also helps us learn from the past and make plans for the future. Yet when your attention cycles so quickly, you enter a state the cognitive neuroscientist Amishi Jha calls "hazy autopilot mode." You aren't really paying attention to anything. Your thoughts drift from task to task, from distraction to distraction, from the future to the past. The solution is to be more mindful. Not everyone is a fan of "mindfulness." Maybe it sounds a little too psychology 'frou-frou' for some. Maybe it's a little too "new-agey" for you. A little too... something. But what everyone can do, sans all the frou and new-aginess, is take a beat and focus. Every person on this planet deserves that. And this is where Jha's book, Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day, provides an answer. Jha recommends using the STOP method, triggered by normal daily cues, to remind yourself to be mindful of the present.For example, say you have to stop at a red light.
That's great for broader mindfulness. It never hurts to tell yourself to take a breath and slow down. Research agrees. Improved mindfulness can improves resilience, help reduce stress and anxiety, and improve memory and decision-making skills. Try to push aside all distractions and—while it sounds kind of meta—think about thinking about resource planning, or whatever it is you're into or can relate to. I remind myself that the point isn't to rush through my mental review and mentally scurry to whatever is next. The point is to focus and think and do that one thing as well as I possibly can.Taking a few moments to pause and think and focus has made a big difference. And it could for you too. Maybe, before you pick up the phone to follow up with a prospect, you'll decide to pause and think about what they need... and not just how desperately you need to make a sale. Maybe you'll decide to pause in your car before you head into work to think about the kind of leader you want to be. Maybe you'll decide to pause at the door to your house to think about the kind of person you want to be with your loved ones. Pick a few everyday cues and use them to spark a few moments of focus on what really matters. Sure, it might feel like you're wasting precious time in an already busy day—but you'll more than get that time back in improved effectiveness and efficiency. |
Andy KennedyThese are samples of our emails and podcasts – and you can subscribe to both! Subscribe to our podcasts at this RSS or search "Innerself Lightworks" in your podcast platform to find us!
Join our email list to get these weekly conversations and free content lists delivered right to your inbox! Catalog
October 2022
Categories
All
|
Andy Kennedy CO
RSS Feed
