by Angela Blaha | Nov 25, 2014 | Positive Psychology
I have talked about Self Love and Care before and I cannot express enough just how important it is in your life. I have been gently reminded lately just how important it is to continue to teach about Love, especially self-love!
A message from ArchAngel Metatron channeled through Angela.
All things begin and end with Love. Love heals all wounds, all patterns, and addictions, everything. When you ignore the signs and continue to lack self-love you fall into the trap of karmic patterns and behaviors. Now you have the gift to choose, so why are you not choosing Love?
I know love can be a scary emotion especially when you are used to not having unconditional love for yourself. If you can get past the fear of how love reacts unconditionally to everything you will experience life in a whole new way. The vastness of love is beautiful, yet very misunderstood. Loving yourself is not egotistical, as you may have been taught, instead it is humble.
Mother Teresa said it best: When you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.
Self-love is not praise, it is rather a form of care, grace and joy. You need to change the way you think about self-love if you want to understand what being humble is. Being humble is the greatest of sense of self-love, the greatest gift you have been given. When you do not acknowledge your own love for you, you do not know who you are. Instead you follow the crowd, you do not stand in your own wisdom and truth. When you ignore your own wisdom and truth you create your own pain and suffering. You have a choice, choose love over pain every time.
Love is strong, encouraging, kind; it makes you feel as if you are home among the vastness of the universe. Nothing can penetrate it or break it down. Go within and feel the love your soul has for you, if it is too strong then visit your soul often to get accustomed to the feeling. Do not fear the overwhelming joy that unconditional true love can bring to you; you are very deserving of its beauty.
Namaste!
I realize self-love and care seems like an endless job and very overwhelming. Start with baby steps, meditate in silence for 5 minutes, or take a walk in nature, allowing the mind to settle down and the soul/higher self/heart space to open up.
by Angela Blaha | Oct 23, 2014 | Positive Psychology
I will be hosting a workshop on Saturday, October 25 from 1-3 called
Understanding Feeling & Emotions!
Lets begin to open the door and welcome our emotions in, rather than keeping them waiting in the rain at the doorstep. When we welcome our emotions they become strengths and pathways for growth.
We will discuss why our emotions seemingly appears to be the enemy. We will use a three-step exercise to deprogram the emotion and challenge our beliefs and patterns. By creating new belief patterns around our emotions they become our driving force of support. When we go with the flow of emotions, our life flows easily. By creating new patterns, which allow our emotions to flow, this becomes our new state of being. A state of flow!
Please join me for this fantastic workshop of creating new emotional patterns!
by Angela Blaha | Sep 11, 2013 | Positive Psychology
This blog post is a guest blog from Ashton Blaha – thank you Ashton!
I just got back from a weekend getaway in Colorado. A friend and I did some hiking at the Red Rocks amphitheater before attending a concert there. It was the first time I’ve been there – the view was absolutely stunning and the energy there was high! I felt the creative energies rising within me once again; as they usually do when I attend musical gatherings like this. Needless to say, the show was amazing and this venue made it even more special!
Having the spectacular experience that I did and the connections that I felt, not only to nature but the people around me, really put me in a good mood. That is until I get home. I seem to always have the feeling of being left out of what the world is doing when I get home from gatherings of this kind or any traveling for that matter. I feel such a connection to the bigger whole when I am exploring what the world has to offer. While i was reflecting about my recent trip and feeling this urge inside, questions began to arise. Do you think that creativity is the driving force behind life? How do you take the energy that you have from profound experiences and bring them back home to your everyday life? Shouldn’t we be having these experiences In every day life or are they supposed to come in moderation?
I’ve learned in the past year or two that creativity is what really excites me about life. It really puts that fire in my step. Whether that be dancing, drawing, listening to music, painting, writing, acting; any form of creativity that you are comfortable with will speak to your soul. Specifically I’ve been trying to incorporate creativity into my corporate life and I’ve found it to be a struggle.
Often with societal pressures, I’ve always been conscious of what people think. I’ve come out of my comfort zone and started to bring some creativity into my work space. I have color on my walls, hung art that I’ve created and just made it more of a positive place. People come through and comment on the artwork and just from my space they can get a look into the type of person I am. I think deep down inside it also makes their soul smile. I try to make the most of things on a daily basis but still can’t kick that urge of needing more creativity. That leads me to believe things should touch us every day and we must look to the simple things at times as our perception is always adjusting based on the “now” moment. I challenge you to do the same with your every day life. Maybe take a painting class or a cooking class, volunteer to read books to kids or maybe hang that painting up that you’ve been meaning to. I think you will really appreciate yourself even more. For now, that urge has been satisfied, until we meet again.
by Angela Blaha | Sep 5, 2013 | Positive Psychology
I was asked recently to write about Fear and ways to overcome it. What is fear? It is simply being afraid to do something. But how do you know you are afraid in the first place? Is there a place in your body that alerts you to feeling fearful? What kind of stories do you create in your head that allow you to escape doing something?
Fear creates a feeling of helplessness. You can’t do it because you have created this sense of being helpless. Fear is really only a creation in your mind, it is a self-limiting story you have created so you do not have to move forward. If you did not create a sense of fear you would do everything you wanted to. You would sky dive, wakeboard, travel to many places of earth, pick up snakes, etc. But because you have created this fear that stops you in your tracks, you become paralyzed and find excuses for your inability to try something new.
So, what is it that you are afraid of?
How many excuses and distractions can you find?
Are you afraid of failing or are you afraid of creating?
We generally believe fear is a sign of danger, but is it really danger or is it a story we continuously tell ourselves so we do not have to change? Maybe we should view fear as a sign that we are growing, we are moving beyond our self-contained box, we are spreading our wings and flying into uncharted territory. Fear is exhilarating; it is removing the boundaries that have held us captive. When we feel fear we are moving towards our dreams, what our souls have come to earth to do.
If you think you are alone in your fear, you are mistaken. I believe everyone knows fear, some of us hold ourselves back by it and others engage it.
So I could create all kinds of self-help tools, however, you can do the same thing without me telling you what will work. But until you fully acknowledge and almost encourage fear to enter your world, you will never get past it. It will plague you forever, and it is possible that a great opportunity will pass you by. So I encourage you to feel the fear and ask yourself, what is this fear and what can I learn from it? How will it move me forward and create happiness in my life? Focus on the benefits of the movement instead of the repercussions of the hold it has on you.
I wonder if I viewed fear as an opportunity to be more creative and allow it to guide me, what would my world look like then? After all fear is only a thought, which can be changed to fit any need I have.
So for me, fear is about change and I have a choice to embrace it or to deny it. The choice is mine!
by Angela Blaha | Aug 15, 2013 | Positive Psychology
What is it that you are attracting into your life? When you wake up in the morning, what do you say to yourself? Do you say, “good morning you beautiful, loving, caring you.” Or do you say, ” good grief it’s cloudy again, going to be another crappy day.”
When I arise in the morning, before I put my feet on the floor, I give thanks to spirit for a great night and a glorious day to come. Then I say a few prayers, meditate a little, and then I roll over and get out of bed. I am then ready to start the day in a positive manner, because I want to attract positive things into my day.
Some days when I am feeling out of sorts it is more difficult to stick to my positive routine and I notice that my day is not what I thought it would be. So as often as possible I begin with the positive routine I stated above.
When we want to have positive things enter into our lives, we need to think positively, act positively, and then the world will give us what we want. Life reacts to our every move, every thought, every feeling. So if I find myself criticizing something I do, or think, the world reacts to it. Life does not happen to me, I create my life. I am fully responsible for every action, thought, and feeling. No one else is responsible. I am the only one that can put myself in a bad mood and I do it with my own will, my own thinking, and the way I allow myself to feel.
Earlier this week I came down with a sore throat and headache. I could easily just give into the sick feeling and become withdrawn, blaming everyone for getting me sick, feeling achy and feel sorry for myself for having this illness. However, I choose to continue my practices of giving thanks, being positive, asking spirit how may I serve others today, sending love and light to everything and everyone I come in contact with. It really does not serve me or anyone else to complain about my illness, nor does it serve me to think and feel in a less positive way. My vibration would lower and I have worked way to hard to raise it, to allow a simple sore throat and headache ruin everything that I have worked for. So I continue with my practices and try to stay positive and continuously give thanks, meditate and pray through out the day knowing that I should be able to maintain my vibration, which will allow love, joy, peace and tranquility into my life.
So give yourself permission to feel good all the time and see how life responds back to you.
“And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth,
“You owe me.”
Look what happens with love like that.
It lights up the sky.”
― Rumi
by Angela Blaha | Jul 10, 2013 | Positive Psychology
Like many other words is the western world, emptiness is defined by my perception, a way of looking at an experience.
How does the word emptiness influence your present thinking? Does your past experiences or teachings create an image in your mind? Do you have feelings or emotions attached to the word? Do these images and stories create suffering around emptiness?
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of Empty is:
1 a: containing nothing
b: not occupied or inhabited
2 a: lacking reality, substance, meaning or value
b: destitute of effect or force
c: devoid of sense
If we empty our old stories, emotions and feelings from the word itself, does the word create a different meaning? The word becomes void of these attached emotions or feelings like loneliness, depression or sadness. There is something, but that something takes on another form. If I take away the negative connotations from the word there becomes a different meaning altogether. I’m not sure I can explain it but it becomes attached to more neutral words like vastness or spaciousness and even connectedness. It becomes larger and seems to encompass the world. It’s like a word that reaches and touches everyone and everything.
The Dalai Lama refers to Emptiness (Sunyata) as “ the knowledge of the ultimate reality of all objects, material and phenomena.” This is the basic concepts in Buddhism and is explained as everything is interrelated, interdependent and is without substance.
My understanding of this teaching is that everything is temporary because everything is forever changing and therefore empty. Everything around us, ourselves included are compounded, the result of something else. I am no longer the baby in my baby picture, I am now a result of many years of growing and learning and maturing. Therefore I have changed and I am empty of the baby. It doesn’t mean I am no longer that person it simply means I am no longer the image of that baby, in fact I am no longer the person I was a few seconds ago writing this article. We are continuously changing, continuously in flux, as is everything around us.
The reason for teaching about emptiness is to release our selves from attachment. Attachments to views, opinions, stories, emotions, etc. leaving ourselves empty of greed, anger, resentment and delusion. If we leave ourselves unattached we are empty of suffering, stress, depression and frustration.
With this new found perception of emptiness there seems to be an overwhelming sense of peace and freedom.
