I posted this recipe on the Seren Facebook page for Easter. In case you missed it here it is again. Raw chocolate cheesecake. What I love about this dessert you can serve it to pretty much anyone & they won’t guess it’s made out of avocado. (unless they are in the raw know!) The avo makes a great creamy substitute to cream cheese that you can even serve it alone as a mousse.
Enjoy,
Love Seren xx
This post has been in the making for a while now. Like most new discoveries (or old rediscoveries) I like to integrate them into my life first & see how they resonate. It’s too easy to think ‘that is amazing’ be all over it, shouting from the rooftops about it. However if I have not taken the time to ‘live’ this new finding by putting it into action in my own life I feel I cannot fully embrace it or write about it. With todays subject I have been living with the concept every day for many months and now I feel I’m ready to share my findings.
Let’s talk about mirrors. Those shiny glass things that reflect back to us many different images. Some images are pleasing to the eye, some may be a nice surprise, whilst others may shock and disappoint. Now I may mess with your head with this next bit. Forget the ‘actual’ mirror, the physical object kind. Now look around you where ever you are, you are in fact looking into a mirror. You are sat in a room full of mirrors. Everything around you is a reflection of ‘you.’
It is a bit tricky at first to grasp this concept, especially with our conditioned human brains. We are all made of the same essence from the same source in the universe that is unconditional love. Therefore we are all ‘ONE’, the same. That great Asian term “same, same but different” might help. We are all from the same source yes but we are each unique projections of our souls separated into individual human bodies. Underneath that physical body we are all the same energy, light or love what ever you’d like to call it. Therefore when we look at each other we are looking at ‘ourselves.’ Following?
This analogy has really helped me this year to get my head around some issues that in the past would have sent me into a rage. Recently a lot of past hurts, some from many, many years ago, have come back to the surface for me. (With a little help from Chiron turning retrograde on 15th June) Some past hurts were quite small & I’d all but forgotten about them so it did surprise me when they suddenly reappeared in my conscious mind. It made me realize that these wounds, no matter how small, still carried some weight for me and now I was ready to heal them in order to finally let them go.
How does the mirror talk fit in? The old hurts that I have been carrying around were actually a reflection of my own behavior in other situations. For example when someone is yelling at you they are actually showing you a reaction that you yourself have inflicted on someone else. At first it’s easy to over react back, rant, rave and stomp off fuming. With my past hurts I’ve been questioning “what is being shown to me here that I need to deal with inside of me?”
For me to be hurt by someone else’s actions or judge their behaviour means I must recognise this action/behaviour inside myself first. ‘Takes one to know one!” I look back at the situation and put myself in the other person’s shoes. Seeing the situation from their point of view I can relate it back to times in my life when I have reacted in the same way. I was doing things to them that I myself would have found annoying or offensive in some way if the roles were reversed. When you look at someone knowing you are actually looking at a reflection of yourself you really start to see people differently.
For example if a yoga student I am teaching is not responding to my corrections it’s easy to get frustrated with them as I think they are not listening. In fact ‘I am the one not listening’. Looking back to when I first started yoga I bet I didn’t react to every correction I was given because I probably didn’t understand what I was being told or I was physically/mentally not ready for it. It’s humbling to review life in this way.
To go even deeper into this analogy the mirrors reflect back any emotion we transmit as well. When we hurt someone else we are actually only hurting ourselves. Those negative energies we spit out at someone, anger, hate and resentment are instantly re-given back to us. Likewise if someone is screaming at you they are actually just screaming at themselves. Much more better to send out love.
This is how we attract like with like. Now I am aware that I must always treat others with kindness and respect (And myself, self-love is a HUGE factor too, how can anyone love me if I don’t love myself first!). If I’m mean and nasty I’ll only bring about pain on myself as well as others. I’ve noticed I am no longer attracting people who drain my energy with their constant moaning and bitching because I am no longer moaning and bitching. It is so wonderful to be surrounded by loving, like mined people because I am projecting kindness and joy.
Digging deep I can see the lesson’s I can learn from this, how far I’ve come and how I would not repeat this pattern again. I needed reminding of certain past hurts, as maybe I was on the verge of repeating them all again. We will keep repeating lessons/situations in life until we learn and grow from them. Now I can really let go of these hurts, heal & move forward.
I invite you to give this a go. See everyone as a reflection of you and you a reflection of him or her. Don’t hurt yourself by hurting others. Respect each other and treat others just how you would like to be treated yourself, as that’s exactly what you are doing. If in doubt, no matter how tempted you are to hate, just love. It takes practice, be patient.
Big love,
Seren xxx
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©Seren Holistic Lifestyles Blog 2013
(please share the love with full credit thanks)
Something rattled my cage recently & fired up a spark. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion for sure I respect that but when people I care about get attacked for doing something they truly love I jump up to defend them. Especially when I believe what they are doing is helping the world not exploiting it.
It’s always been a hot subject when it comes to paying for spiritual services. Money is a form of energy exchange it is the way our world works, it brings order and meaning to material goods and services in a fair way. The issue I am bringing to attention is some people believe spiritual services should be free. It is a delicate subject but this discussion can be applied to any service provider, not just the spiritual ones.
I read a comment on FB where someone got very upset about an advert for a professional spiritual service. They were ‘sick of it being about money’ and ‘didn’t like those who feed off those in need.’ Neither do I. I am sure there are business services in all fields out there that aren’t above board and do dodgy things that may be seen as ‘praying on the needy.’ This comment was targeted at a service very dear to me that I know to be 100% genuine, authentic and I was more than happy to pay for. The business in question provides ample complimentary advice daily so it did get my back up that it was being attacked.
Okay here is the issue. The answers you seek are inside of you, every single one us has an infinite library of knowledge imprinted in our Soul for us to access. This spiritual knowledge is free. It is up to us to access it out of our own free will. We also have the ability to heal ourselves and even stop ourselves from developing dis-ease in the first place. However because some of us get ourselves in all sorts of fixes and tangles where our heads are so busy we can’t see the wood for the trees we may need extra help. Help from more experienced people to teach us how to tap into our inner information bank.
Metaphysical mentors and healers provide services just as a personal trainer, life coach or therapist does. These services involve time giving & I believe in paying that person for their time. It’s their time and guidance I am paying for to help me access the ‘free’ information from within. This monetary exchange keeps the balance. Would you get an hours training from your PT then not pay them? Water is a basic human essential need yet we all pay our water rates. If we all knew how to access our free spiritual knowledge for ourselves then I wouldn’t even need to be writing this post.
I feel it is truly wonderful that the gifted Earth Angels amongst us can earn an honest living from charging for their services. The work they do is amazing and why should these people have to give it away for free because someone decided ‘spiritual’ shouldn’t be charged for. They would be stuck in Soul destroying jobs that are not their passion just so they can pay the bills. I for one needed some spiritual guidance, I found a professional service I believed in & was happy for a monetary exchange to happen. It feels good to support these wonderful people in making a profession out of their natural talents. Everyone’s got to eat right?!
There are healers & mentors that only work for donations, trades or pro bono. If you do not wish to pay then seek out one of these people who offer just as good service.
This topic resonates even deeper for me. I am at the stage now with my own healing work that I am ready to place monetary value on my services. If I eventually want to give up my office job and earn a living from my holistic work this is a natural progression for me. My dream of owning my own business & managing my own brand is slowly becoming a reality.
For years I gave away my graphic design services for free. With my crippling self-doubt I didn’t feel worthy or good enough to charge people so I just gave it away for free. Deep inside my Soul was crying out for me to step up to the plate and own my worth. I ended up giving so much away it caused me great pain. Now I charge correctly and people are happy to pay me for the service I provide. Those who still want something for nothing do not even approach me now.
I hit the same mental roadblock again when I was given my Reiki Masters blessing to start charging for my healings. She explained to me the extra factors I had to consider when setting my price. Reiki isn’t just a one-hour session. There is preparation & continued development involved behind the scenes that clients don’t see. I work from home yes but I pay rent and bills for that space this also needed to be considered. I did feel awkward setting a price as the people who let me practice on them when I was learning were now the people whom I would charge.
Following the advice I was given I set my prices after deeply meditating for the answer. The answer came. I set my price and told my clients. I owned my decision. No one questioned and some were even ecstatic that I was taking payments. They’d actually been hanging out to pay me in money rather than bring gifts.
Paying for spiritual services isn’t for everyone. For me I am in support from both sides of the table. Professionals in the spiritual industry have just as much right to earn a living from their gifts as everyone else. They assist people in becoming the best they can be from a place of pure intent & unconditional love. I invite you to support them if you can or wish.
Love Seren xx
Image credit: http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/spiritual-healing-john-of-god/
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