“Dive deeply into yourself and you'll uncover the Divine, but along the way you'll meet your shadow, your wounds, your purpose, and your sacred path.”
- Paramahansa Yogananda
Dear Friend,
Today’s spirit whispers are written in the old growth forests of Ådalen, Norway. We have walked through the blazing fires of Vetrnaetr and rekindled the dialogue with our ancestors.. My morning began with a barefoot walk in the fresh moss.. The deep contact with the frozen ground moves attention from the head into the body, helps optimise and regulate the nervous system and the mist carries the healing aroma and immune boosting showers from the pine trees. For any turmoil or tension, especially in these turbulent times, I keep returning to the forests - to clear the inner and outer air and purify my channels of perception so I can better tune into where I am needed and what is needed for my own balance and joy.
The past weeks of autumns’ composting matters has brought a deep dive into the shadows of the collective and individual psyche in both waking and dreaming life. And sometimes it can get so dark, the only option left is surrender - giving it all up. In every surrender there is an opportunity for complete dissolution and at the bottom of the well glimmers the reflections of our deepest wounding. In most schools of self-illumination, this core wound represents our most constricted patterns of separation from Source, which through contemplation and care, we can begin untangling..
With increased self-acceptance, self-responsibility and self-forgiveness, we slowly begin learning how to open our hearts again after a lifetime of protection and armouring. This can be a gradual process that takes many years to complete, but for some it can also happen overnight, emphasising the need for tools and methods of integration so we can learn to uphold the soft tenderness of our heart-born lotus in bloom.
Life continues to unravel as a mad, flourishing flow between the fertile darkness of the Earth and the celestial realms of Heaven. The more time we spend in the Heart Cave between the two, the more sensitive we become, and the deeper we can experience the sacred wound of my human existence and that of humanity as a whole. The pain brought forth by this connection is my greatest zen teacher, and each time we chose to embalm it with love, we open vaster fields of compassion and empathy for my surroundings. We learn to create space for my emotions, find ways to channel and transmute the aches of suffering, wrap ourselves in healthy boundaries to protect the harmony of our ecology, conserve prana/life force, and seek the most potent of nutrients for mind, body and soul.
We often blame our surroundings for the way we react to suffering and fear, whether it is our parents, childhood traumas or situations of adult life. By choosing love as our remedy, we begin walking the path of the ‘wounded healer’, where each step into softness brings another spell or formula we can share with others so we can walk each other home. For many, this realisation can be a life-changing experience, as our focus shifts from craving something from the outside and falling a victim to our shadows, to finding our inner source of power and opening to emit our own frequency of light and healing.
My most powerful of teaching on the journey towards self-love has been to carefully follow the quality of each and every present moment, so I can stay aware of my multifaceted needs and better serve my surroundings. When I learned how to care for my moment and speak its truth was when my life began falling into place with a great magnetic force. Our moment is our most precious of jewels - Our Golden Child. The still lake of the present moment is also where the Heart resides, and from where we can move closer into our Dharma, the path towards manifesting our higher purpose in our local and global community. To me, the journey of surrendering to self-love has become my true calling, responsibility - and the carving-out of a practice I call pathfinding.
The following are some of the living brush-strokes that have helped me colour the darkened canvas of November’s melancholic currents..
Begin softly by re-routing your life force into more natural currents - closeness to the elements (fire, air, earth, water, ether), natural fabrics, organic foods, soulful relationships - leading the way to more conscious choices and natural living.
Abhyangya self-massage with warm oils, an Ayurvedic practice leaving you feeling nurtured, cared for and blissful.
Finding your place of inner stillness. I can recommend the meditation teachings of the Self-Realization Fellowship and The Art of Inner Tracking/ Sit Spot in Nature.
Frequent Forest Therapy immersions to cleanse your senses and stabilise your nervous system. This will also help you to attune the Earth’s natural cycles, circadian bio-rhythms, and support the balance of your hormones, menstrual flow, sleep patterns and other bodily functions.
Exposure to polar opposite natural forces with hot/cold showers, sauna, and outdoor swims to clear emotional stagnancy and boost the immune system.
Collect drinking water from wild, natural sources, which is still high in negative ions and qi/life force.
Find a good supplier of organic CBD-oil to easy anxiety and activate the endocannabinoid system, which help us open to receive deeper love from your immediate ecology and relations.
Build healthy boundaries to nurture your present moment. Learn to practice the 'whole-hearted yes’ and ‘wholesome no’ so you can learn to play with the mature masculine and feminine forces of manifestation.
Cultivate nourishing social circles to help ease the edges of a square reality, such as song circles, sister/brotherhood gatherings and movement practices.
Allow yourself longer periods of silence and personal retreat to clear the noise and clutter from your mind and surroundings. Purify your space with sage or local herbs. This will also open to more frequent visits from the Holy Spirit/Creativity and that feeling of flow we never seem to get enough of..
This work arises from a dedication to serving the divine flow of Her will. If you would like to make a donation to keep the river alive, please do this here. May these words leave you refresh and rejuvenated as if you were drinking from a hidden natural spring in the wild woods of the north!
ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པ་དྨེ་ཧཱུྃ - in peace,
Caroline Ināya
