Rainbow Eucalyptus

I was in the car when I heard the phrase Twixtmas referring to that period of time between Christmas and New Year that some feel is like limbo land because it’s almost is if we are waiting.  At the time it made me chuckle and then as I sat with it I had a series of revelations which I am sharing with you here as they may help you enter more fully into this time.

Many of us don’t like being in a state of not knowing, we want our life to be full of meaning and when it seems that it is not, you may notice yourself filling up with negative thoughts.  It has taken me a few days to write and post this article because although I can always fall back on colour and numerology as a way of understanding the year, I wanted to be with what was coming up. So I sat with it and allowed it all to process through me.

For breakthroughs to come it is important to realise the following two things – first we tie ourselves up in knots when we overanalyse stuff and place interpretations on what is occurring rather than being present with it.  Second on the spiritual journey for every couple of steps going forwards there is inevitably one step back. Don’t be demoralised by this; it allows for integration, learning and wisdom.

The sickness

When on the spiritual path you start to realise that so much of what we call life is an illusion. Take the concept of New Year. There’s a lot of talk about setting goals and intentions or having a word for the year.  In many ways that is just further distractions for the mind and a hook for the ego. It gives the appearance of progress and moving forwards. On one level I cringe now when I recall a newsletter I wrote in the past called New Year, New You and in another way it shows how much has shifted since that time.

Let me put this another way I have played with non dualism for two years or so and in all honesty never really got it.  There is in fact very little that is original and I began to get the principal ideas behind this theory when I dived into another older sacred text. Interesting side note: the author of said text was only revealed after death because she was not interested in fame realising that within its seduction were many pitfalls.

The key to understanding all suffering whatever level of intensity is to recognise it comes from our projections onto whatever shows up in life.  And if we do that in an unconscious way, these are likely to amplify a sense of misery because for survival we are hard wired for negativity. In other words it is not what happens to us, it is our interpretation of what it means that causes the pain.  

What is worse the ego wants to understand what is happening in any given moment so it associates what it sees by comparing it to what occurred in the past and so assumes it knows what the outcome will be.  And generally that outcome is negative.  

If we are able to recognise the illusory nature of life which is one of the potential gifts offered by non dualism and other spiritual traditions that is the first step; another is to release all attachments which can take more than one lifetime!  And that becomes easier when we stop having expectations about people, events etc.  If we say we don’t understand anything that we see be that an object, a person or an event in our lives, then we can help our minds to remain open to whatever shows up.

What is the value of new year?

Whilst the idea of using New Year to do a big reset is an illusion; it is a reminder of what is asked of us on a daily basis and that is: to recommit to the spiritual path no matter what occurred the previous day. These words really resonated with me:

Coming to trust and surrender to our Higher Power is the work of a lifetime. Just begin. And each day commit to beginning again.

Richard rohr

This year that principle is more important than ever because the theme of the year is initiation.  On one level it is a great time to start taking your spiritual journey more seriously.  If you do you have the potential to experience some real breakthroughs.  In my experience these often come after some big challenges.  Personally we may only be in the first few days of January AND I have already had some tough tests!

In February we enter a Water Rabbit year according to Chinese astrology so if you want to see how colour and numerology can help you prepare for the energy of this year then join me for 1.5 days the weekend of 21 and 22 Jan with an overnight stay near Market Harborough. Email me on kate@wholeselfleadership.com to reserve your place and for more info and photos of this amazing venue I have found.

My take on new year ….
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