Aligning with love

I meditate for several minutes in near icy water several times a week. No matter what is going on in my life, whether I feel ready or not, I step in without hesitation, embrace the experience, breathe deeply, quiet my mind, and surrender to the life force in the body that knows how to manage the situation.

For a committed comfort, love, and joy-seeker, that may not sound very reasonable, but I have a good reason. I want to own my own mind, and this particular practice, which admittedly is not for everyone, has forced me to train my mind to relax upon command.  The minute I step in, I have two choices: allow my mind to run wild, tense up, and freeze, or quiet it and surrender to the experience with total peace. It took time and practice, but now I have a little joke – Instant meditation, just add ice!

On a good day, I am so relaxed that I actually start to feel warm inside, and the cold water feels like an icy blanket on the surface of my skin.  On tougher days, when I cannot quiet my mind as easily, I sing the song from Disney’s movie Frozen to myself and… Let it go! It makes me laugh. I relax, and once again, the life force within knows what to do. Blood vessels near the surface of the skin shut down to conserve the warmth inside. I feel a squeezing sensation as if I’m a watermelon in a rind. All this goes on without my input.  Clearly, the Ann-self is not in charge. Something much deeper knows what to do.

Whether or not cold plunges are your thing, anything you do to practice being in charge of your own thoughts is useful in today’s world, where we have so many influences vying for our attention.

In many ways, we’ve been taught what to think. We’ve been taught to fear aging, illness, the economy, politics, etc., but when you really start to think about it, life happens now and now and now again, and now you always know what to do because right here and now is where you find your guidance.  The fears serve the fearmongers but block our reception of higher wisdom.

This year, in particular, fearful opinions are being presented to us on a regular basis. “Vote for this person or that person, or life will go to hell in a handbasket,” we hear, even as we attempt to watch an entertaining little YouTube video.  We see people leaving the planet in droves and in our own lives. We are spoonfed, fearful “what if’s” and “if / thens.”

Nonetheless, God is still God.

The angels remind us of this all the time.  While the world and people in it might be capricious or even downright scary at times, the love that flows unceasingly from the Creator is powerful, peaceful, loving, and secure.

So many times, we have seen evidence of the miraculous power of the Divine. People have had tornadoes skip their homes or spare their lives while in fervent prayer. I personally know someone who was praying on the roof of a home she was watching in CA while walls of wildfire raced up the mountain toward her. She doesn’t know how it happened, but she woke up a few blocks away, and the house she prayed over was untouched.

People I know got the guidance to evacuate during the recent storms and, as a result, are alive and well.  People I know who prayed were spared from the rising rivers. I have one very dear client who lived on a mountain that was totally burnt in a wildfire a few years back. Her front bushes were singed. Her lawn was burnt. The trees on the road winding up to the property didn’t make it. Yet, her house was untouched. I’ve never seen anything like that.

“Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of darkness, I shall fear no evil” is a quote I grew up with, as many of us did.  Aligned with love we are resting in the arms of the Presence that creates and sustains our life. Faith in what is good is far more powerful than the influence or fear of the “bad.”

It is a good time on earth to align with love rather than giving our power away to things that stir up fear. It is a good time to “delegate up” as I call giving my problems to God. It is a good time to sit, breathe, receive, and feel the flow of love that is always there for us. It is a good time to rest, cocoon, and emanate as much peace as possible. It is a good time to focus on the value of our human connections.

One man on YouTube who teaches “prepping” said, very wisely, that when the waters rose and came barreling down the valley without notice, it “didn’t matter how many beans or bullets you had saved in the cellar.”  What mattered, he said, was whether or not you knew your neighbors and could work with them to get through the unthinkable.  Love, connection, and kindness are qualities that are saving lives as we speak.

Another story about the magnificent power of aligning with love really touched my heart. In this case, a couple of kids were with their grandparents when a mudslide came raging down the mountain and buried their home within seconds. The grandparents and girl escaped, but the young boy was nowhere to be found. The walls had caved in, and he was tossed beneath a stairway that landed over him. Within seconds, the stairway was buried by mud.

The family panicked and searched but to no avail. A day later, the boy’s dog stood on a pile of mud and rubble and started barking incessantly, guiding rescue workers to the spot where the boy was buried. Tired, hungry, and, of course, shaken, he was rescued and in great condition.  He told the interviewer he was pretty sure he was going to die. The interviewer looked at him in total awe and said, “So the dog you rescued two years ago…” The boy cut her off with an angelic grin, “Yeah, he rescued me.”  The dog had been his constant friend. Love saved his life.

So when the fears of politics, wars, recessions, supply chain issues, etc., begin to arise within you, take a breath. Shut your eyes and receive Divine love, or open your eyes and look for anything good around you right here and right now–anything that you can love and appreciate. Do it time and again until your focus on love becomes habit.

Here are a few pointers to help you move past the fears and back to the vibration of love and security:

1.  Trigger your body’s rest and digest system

to trigger because when it is tripped, you feel peace. Your heart rate becomes coherent. Your mind clears.

An easy biological “hack” to trip your vagus nerve is simple, free, and easy to do:  Breathe in slowly and breathe out as boringly slow as possible. Exaggerate the outbreath as much as you can. As the air flows over the back of the throat, it vibrates it ever so slightly and triggers the vagus nerve. If you repeat this – slow breath in, exceedingly slow breath out, you will eventually feel your entire body sign and relax. If you practice this often, you will develop “vagal tone,” which, like muscle tone, means your vagus nerve can quickly relax the body.

This is what I do in the ice water. I breathe and, due to practicing often, can trip my vagus nerve very quickly and cause near-instant relaxation. In that space, the body knows what to do

In this biological state of relaxation, you will not feel the fight/flight response to fear.

2. Focus on the good now

When in fear, if you can shift your focus, this is a quick fix.  Suppose you feel afraid about someone’s behavior, the politics, the economy, etc. See if you can say this and fill in the blanks…

Life is good now because ______
Life is good now because ______
Life is good now because ______
Life is good now because ______

Keep it up until you start feeling blessed instead of distressed.

3. Shift the fearful story

It is human and nothing to be ashamed of, but these fearful stories don’t serve us. Instead of repeating them, challenge yourself to rewrite them.

For example, if you tell yourself often, “I don’t know how I’d manage to survive if the economy crashes,” try to rewrite that story. Here is one possible example:

I don’t know how I’d manage to survive if the economy tanks. Luckily, I don’t have to know everything. The Creator cares about me. Certainly, I can be guided. I’ve been guided before. Look at nature. It is always guided. What if the economy crashes, and I lose my retirement savings? Well, that would stink, but the Creator could help me rebuild it. I guess I’m growing in faith. I can do this… God is with me. God can do this.”

4. Own the fact that you’re “Worshipping false idols”

I’m afraid that candidate XZY has more power over me and my life than God.

I’m afraid that the weather has more power over me and my life than God.

I’m afraid that my ex has more power over me and my life than God.

I’m afraid that the economy has more power over me and my life than God.

Verbalizing the fear in this fashion will give you perspective. It is the rare soul who truly believes anyone or anything is more powerful than the Creator of universes, so naming it in this fashion helps remove the power from the fear.

It helps you see that maybe your fear isn’t as powerful as you thought.

It is absolutely fine to have concerns and address them. It is great to know who you resonate with. It is great to think ahead if that pleases you and prepare for whatever you need to eliminate fears. But in the end, it is our alignment with love that gives us true peace, true happiness, and a sense of being in the world, but not of it. 

“God is still God,” the angels like to say. And when we are aligned with Love, we can receive the goodness, grace, guidance, and support for all we desire to experience while on this earth.  “Fret not,” the angels say. “All is well in the deeper dimensions of love. Rest in that knowing.”