Mapping Out Your Journey – Creating Your Map

This is the final part of the Mapping Out Your Journey series.  Now you will create your map to your future.  If you have completed every part of the process, you will have a good idea of where you want to go in life.  In this part of the process, you will create a vision board that will help you visualize and focus on your intentions for the future.

If you missed the other parts of the Mapping Out Your Journey series see the below links:

• Mapping Out Your Journey – Introduction
• Part 1: Journey to the Past
• Part 2: Journey to the Present
• Part 3: Journey to the Future

For this final part you will need the following supplies:

• Large Tag Board
• Magazine Clippings that reflect your life
• Markers, paints, pens
• Creativity, imagination

Review your answers to the questions on your past, present and future. Your tag board will be arranged in 3 parts.  A suggestion for how you can arrange your images would be: placing your images from the past on the left hand side, the middle will be the present and the right hand side will be the future.  To help create your path, draw the past and draw the future.  When you have completed each side, draw the present.  Fill in the blanks from your past and the steps you want to take to create your future.  As you connect your past to the future, fill the present with images and words that inspire you, motivate you and will empower you when you are afraid to make changes or feel unsure of your life’s path.  The future portion should reflect how you want your life to be next year, 5 years from now and overall vision for your life.  

 Don’t be afraid to create the map for your life.  You can decide where you want your life to go and set the intention of what you want to create.  The more detailed your vision the easier it will be for you to create it and the less mystery and fear there will be about your future.  

If you have any questions or need help with any part of this process, please contact me.

You Are Your Own Valentine

While you are spreading the love this Valentine’s Weekend, don’t forget to sprinkle some of that love over yourself.  One of the most important valentine’s in your life is you and your own heart.  Whether it is taking a long deserved nap, special candlelit bath or doing something you enjoy yet put off doing because you feel obligated to take care of others first.  Do something special for you this weekend.  

Perhaps you aren’t quite feeling that much love for yourself.  Do you feel unworthy of love or feel like it would be too much work?  You are worth the effort to renew the self-love that each of us should share within ourselves.  Look yourself in the mirror in the eyes and say “I Love You! You are Beautiful!”  Say it until you truly mean it.  No matter what has happened in your life, what mistakes you think you have made or how you feel your life has turned out – you deserve love and forgiveness.  Give yourself the gift of forgiveness, love and compassion.  Wrap it up in a little box and surprise yourself with the blessing of unconditional love just for being you.  Truly you are a glorious, lovely, beautiful being. 

Perhaps you only see that others’  lives are better than yours, that they are more beautiful, worthy or better than you in so many ways.  When you find amazing traits in others believe that those same wonderful and beautiful things can be found within you.  Perhaps they are shining out the qualities that you have yet to realize are truly found within you at the same time.  Within each of us is the ability to rise above, be more than we think we are and make a true difference in our lives and others’ lives.  When someone else reflects back a positive loving example, take some of that light and raise your own candle high and shine back in unconditional love and acceptance.  Acceptance for the beauty that is in the other person and the acceptance that this beauty is also found within you. 

Love can be expressed and received in so many ways beyond romantic partnerships.  Love can be simply sharing a smile with a stranger, opening the door for a co-worker or helping another carry a heavy load.  Simple acts of kindness are so important in this time when people are so disconnected and stressed out.  You have all of the tools you need to be a miracle in the world waiting for you to tap into.  I dare you to step beyond your comfort-zone and love fearlessly in the world.  Take a small step in that direction and see love blossom and fill your own world in infinite ways that you cannot yet imagine.

Life’s Twists and Turns

Life takes many twists and turns. Often times leading us in places we never knew we would go and other times leading us down roads we never thought we could go even if we wanted to.  It is amazing to me to see the roads my life has gone down, many times by choice and other times not at all by choice.  Currently it feels like I am being lead down a completely different road with even more choices to rise above and push through walls and circumstances that I never thought I would enter.

 

So many others are feeling the same way, coming up against walls of built out of fears that they don’t have enough, feelings of insecurity that they don’t have the funds to meet every day expenses, let alone emergencies.  The fear that is surrounding so many communities is palatable; you could almost cut it with a nice.  It is a feeling of depression and failure that men and women can’t support their families and that no amount of success in the past even measures up to the current status of their lives where the years they may have put into a job or learning a career don’t mean anything. 

 

It is at these moments when life seems darkest and most fearful that we have to reach deep inside and reflect on what is truly important in life.  Reflect on what it is that we truly want to create with our lives.  Perhaps what we most desire has to be released so we can welcome in something new that we were meant to be. 

 

Right now for me, it is amazing and odd to be seeing what new possibilities can come out of going back to work at a university after spending so many months trying to create a healing practice.  Along the way, I have learned so much and realize there is still so much more to learn that it isn’t the end yet of that dream.  That dream continues to be reshaped as it is bigger than me and what my own vision can hold.  While working at the university, I will be able to return to get a master’s degree and pursue a different way of helping others.  I am still unsure where this path is going and it is often frustrating that things aren’t going how I planned them to be. 

 

As I look at all the broken pieces, I am rearranging them into a new picture, perhaps something stronger and more detailed than what it had been before.  Often when I am most frustrated I find the words that help not only myself but help others to find that inner strength and courage to keep pushing forward, too.  There is so much darkness surrounding the world right now, it takes every ounce of courage within each of us to shine our light out, to shine the love we have inside to help bring about something greater than we had dreamed of. 

 

I am confident that in each person I talk to that each one has something special to share, something important and vital that is waiting to be shined out.  Right now, while I am cursing the walls around me, I am also grateful for the insight they have given me.  It is a reminder that within me is something greater than just the day to day challenges of life.  That inner spark is more powerful than the world around me can drown out.  I will tend to my spark and hope it helps light the way for another to shine brighter.  Cause God just isn’t finished with any of us yet! 

 

Continue to have faith in your heart and shine your light.  When in doubt of your true worth, reach out to those who have loved you, who have stood beside you no matter what – without judgment of who you truly are.  Remember you are loved, that your love is important for someone else in your life.  Shine your light!

Walking with Grace 06.19.09

Walking with Grace

Alicia Crystalus

Sermon Given at the Spiritual Lighthouse Church

Jacksonville, FL

June 21, 2009

 

Imagine with me for a moment, that after having a tough and challenging day, you decide for to go for a long walk.  No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t seem to relax your mind.  You replayed your day over and over in your head.  Then you were reminded by this small still voice in your head to bring Grace in to your walk.  Then immediately everything shifted. You could notice the beauty around you from the colors of the leaves, to the smell of the grass.

 You were reminded that walking with Grace is walking with – compassion, courage and determination.  Grace is a state of being; it is an acceptance that you can always be filled with grace. All you have to do is ask.  Grace is with you wherever you go. 

 Grace is feeling safe, secure and loved while you are on Earth.  Grace provides an inner strength and courage to face life’s challenges.  Grace helps you to hold onto faith and hope when all seems lost.  When you allow God’s grace to fill you, you will always feel God’s presence within you.  It is the seed of God’s spirit that thrives and shines when we are surrounded in the darkness.  That seed of grace can be nurtured to provide light to guide your way on even the darkest paths.  Grace helps to remind you that you are never alone and always loved.  I want you to imagine what it feels like to be loved and filled by grace. Feel that sense that you are never alone and always loved.

  Some crucial questions you may have about Grace:

 *What do you think grace means?

 *Some of you may be wondering, how de we receive grace? 

 *How do we activate grace in our lives? 

 *Do you think you have to work hard to receive grace?

  The answer to those questions is:

 Grace is not something you have to work for, no amount of good deeds can win you grace.  It is something that has already been set aside for you to receive.  Almost like a present waiting for you to accept the gift and unwrap it.  It is freely and easily given to you without any strings attached.  Accept God’s love and forgiveness for you and your life.  When you open your heart to God; God’s grace, hope and love flood in and fill you with more than you can ever imagine.

 

“May Grace and Peace be multiplied to you.”  1 Peter 1:2

 

When Peter wrote this he felt the bliss of grace and the blessings of peace.  He wanted all other people to feel this amazing miracle of grace.  He formed it was a greeting to friends.  What greater blessing can you wish someone than grace and peace?  Think about someone right now that needs the gift of grace, maybe it is you, or a dear beloved friend or family member.  Ask that they be blessed with Grace right now.

 Grace is a special gift from Heaven.  All other blessings of joy, peace, compassion and courage come from first receiving the gift of grace. 

 May grace be multiplied to you and all forms of grace received by you.  Grace is the empowerment of something brand new and holy within your heart.  This act of accepting grace allows your heart to be transformed to become God’s own heart.  Allow God’s own heart to beat within your chest.  Let every beat of your heart spread love, mercy and compassion as life blood through your body. Do that right now. Allow God’s own heart to beat within your chest.  Let every beat of your heart spread love, mercy and compassion as life blood through your body.  You can do this any time you need to.

 Grace does not make a superficial change.  It makes a sacred and lasting change that helps guide your soul through eternity.  It helps you to understand your divine purpose and provides an inner knowing that you are following the right path even when you do not know every step of the journey. 

 It awakens the image and divinity of God within your mind, body, heart and soul.  It awakens you to the divinity that has always been within you.  Grace helps you to realize that you have never been nor will you ever be separate or apart from God.  Grace allows you to remember and experience the true oneness with God on a deeper level. 

 The transformation of grace allows you to accept the precious gifts of compassion, courage and determination.  Not only for yourself but for all life on Earth.  These special gifts assist you to claim your life’s purpose and fulfill it with courage and confidence.  Grace helps you to maintain faith that you are strong enough and good enough just as you are to complete your divine mission.  Grace flows through every cell of your body, bringing understanding, light, tenderness and harmony every where it touches. 

 God’s Holy Spirit assists you by streaming grace into your heart every second of the day.  Each wave of grace touches your heart and plays it like a beautiful instrument.  The song that is sung in your heart plays in harmony with the heavenly choirs of angels.  Allow your heart to sing along with the heavens and let your life be in harmony with the Earth. 

 Think back to a time in your life when you didn’t feel you were enough or that you just couldn’t get through the next challenge in your life.  We all have those times.  I want to you think about a recent time when you felt that way.  Now I want you to imagine that you allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through you, breathing grace, hope and love back into you.  Did you feel like you were never alone when you walked through this situation?  Did you know that you could accept the calling of your divine purpose?  And that you were supported every step of the way by God’s grace?  Did you feel a boost to your spirit that helped pick you up off the ground so you can walk with grace again?  It is never too late to bring Grace into any situation. 

 While God plants the seed of grace into our hearts.  It is up to us to nurture, water and grow the seed into a glorious rose of love, mercy and compassion.  Every time we allow light into our lives, we bask that seed in sunlight to help it grow.  Every tear we cry and offer up to God to help us over the hurt and pain of life; waters that seed.  Every day that we meditate, offer praise or worship we nourish that seed.  So that one day that seed will blossom into a beautiful rose that has spread throughout our entire lives.  Take time each day to tend to the seeds planted in your heart.  You have a beautiful garden waiting for you. 

 God lays the foundation for our faith, but we construct the holy temple by walking with grace every day.  The Holy Spirit helps continue to work of grace in our hearts but we must be open to the ways the Holy Spirit moves in our lives.  Working to open our hearts, allows the Holy Spirit the opportunity to help tend our garden and temple with us.  We don’t have to walk this path alone.  Allow the help and support of heaven to be with you every step of the way.

A good metaphor for how we work with God and the Holy Spirit might be a sailboat floating on the ocean.  God provides the Grace Compass for our lifeboat.  We begin our journey of life and create a sail to help speed the trip along.  For us to truly sail the world – we need wind to fill up our sails so we don’t get stranded on the high seas of life, with no land or friends in sight to help us in the storms of life.  The Holy Spirit is that friend, providing wind to fill our sails.  Sometimes this wind is gentle, like a whispering breeze across our face so we know we are not alone.  Other times it is a gale force wind that helps push us into safety and blow the storms of life away.  Each blow of grace helps us to maintain our faith and moves us forward on our journeys through life. 

 Grace provides us a way to commune with God.  Grace raises us up to God’s level and allows us to be friends.  Commune with God on a daily basis to continue your walk with grace.  There are so many different ways to commune with God and it is a shame to miss them! 

 Here are 5 easy ways to commune with God on a daily basis.

 #1 – is to pray and offer words of praise for blessings received during the day. 

 # 2 – is to take God along as a passenger while you drive to work, He is an awesome listener and if you listen back God may even offer words of advice on how to have a peaceful day.  (No one will ever know. They will think you are talking on your cell phone.)

 # 3 – Another way would be to turn on uplifting music that stirs your soul and offers words of praise and worship to God.  

 #4 – My personal favorite is something I like to do a few minutes before I get out of bed in the morning.  I talk to God about what I want to accomplish that day and ask for His help every step of the way.   

 #5 – At night I will review my day with God.  It is an act of prayer that I offer up.  I review blessings I had received during the day.  Share my problems and moments of gratitude where I was able to see God helping me.  God is always present, every second of the day. Ask God for further guidance on walking with grace, mercy and love each day.   Allow yourself the chance to see the beauty in the world around you.  See where God was in your life each day.   No matter if you were less than perfect, there is nothing in life to be ashamed of for God loves you unconditionally and always loves you perfectly.  As you walk with grace, walk with your head held high for you are walking with God. 

 If you can’t find time for any of the ways I have shared, the single most spiritual thing you can do is to fall asleep without anger.  Fall asleep with peace and you will wake up with peace.  Trust that God will continue working on your life and filling you with love while you are asleep.  So any challenge that seems to big, give it up to God and allow Him to work on it while you sleep, trust that you do not have to worry while you sleep for your life is in the best hands possible.  Then when you wake up invite God to be with you every moment of the day.  You will be amazed at how your life changes by simply inviting God to be at your side. 

 Walking with grace makes life more exciting.  It makes life peaceful and extraordinary.  God is helping you create your life and filling each moment with magic, mystery and wonder.  Remember nothing is impossible with God. 

 If you would like to learn more about walking with grace or how to build an intimate relationship with God, please talk with me after the service.  Walking with Grace in the past has not always been easy for me.  It is something that I have learned to do.  I am committed to helping you experience God’s grace.  One of the ways, I would like to do that right now, is to share a song with you by Paul Baloche; it is Open the Eyes of My Heart.  Please join me in singing along.  After the song I will show you how you can truly accept God’s grace into your heart right now.

 I want each of you to close your eyes for a few minutes.  Allow your hearts to accept the love we have just been singing about.  Allow your hearts to soak it up.  If you have been moved by my words, please raise your hand.  Please keep your hands up if you want to accept God’s grace into your heart.  Just the act of raising your hand will show God that you are ready to open your heart for a deeper relationship. If you are 100% committed and ready to accept God’s grace, unconditional love and forgiveness into your heart, please raise both of your hands.  On your chair was placed a special prayer in an envelope.  Take that out now and say this prayer with me.  You may do so silently in your heart if that feels right to you. 

 Dear God, I want to share more of my life with you.  Please surround me in your love and fill my heart with your grace.  I open my heart and trust that you will plant the seed of grace within my heart.  I ask that your Holy Spirit guide me on how to tend to this precious gift of grace so it can mature into a beautiful rose of life.  I invite you into my heart and into my life.  I truly accept your unconditional love and forgiveness and can’t wait to walk with grace with you for the rest of my life.  Amen.

 Thank you for allowing me to share my walk with grace with you.  I appreciate each and every one of you and am thankful that you shared your hearts with me.  May you be surrounded in love, joy and peace! And remember, to please see me if you have any questions or give me a call.  I am here to help bring grace into your life.

The Beauty Within

 

Where does the idea that you are not beautiful come from? 

Where does the idea that you are not good enough come from? 

Where does the idea that you are ugly, stupid, worthless come from?

 

So many of the negative thoughts that replay in our head stem from words we heard as children and were not even created by us.  As children, we hear everyone else’s opinion of who and what we are and take that to form our identity.  This identity isn’t always true or even accurate of who we really are.  Sometimes parents, friends, teachers and others around us say some of the most awful things that as children become planted like seeds and instead of growing into beautiful flowers of self confidence and inner strength, they fester and grow into life draining weeds.  We can stop the weeds from growing and draining our self worth and stop the havoc of what was planted so we can create a garden of beauty within us. 

 

Take the time this week to really look at the inner thoughts and dialogue you have with yourself.  What thoughts replay over in your head, what thoughts are hurting you and causing you pain?  When you look at yourself in the mirror – do you immediately turn away or say something negative to yourself?  Look for where this idea came from, did it truly come from yourself in that present moment or are you merely repeating a cycle of thought that you have had for too many years?  These thoughts have no real basis in your life and aren’t true. 

 

For each negative thought, replace it with a positive thought about yourself.  If you think to yourself, I am too fat and I can never lose weight.  You are right – you will continue to be too fat and never lose weight.  But if in that moment when you think ‘I am too fat’ immediately replace it with “I am beautiful and becoming healthier every day.” you will be retraining yourself to succeed.  Each negative thought you have is written on your heart a hundred times, making it harder for you to believe in yourself and transform yourself into who you truly want to be.  It is harder to clear away the negative thoughts because they multiply like weeds in the garden, but one positive and powerful thought can stand over them all like a beautiful rose. 

 

These thoughts extend past weight and beauty to every aspect of our lives.  As children, we soak them up like sponges.  Some of us were lucky to be told positive and uplifting messages, but even the smallest and most meaningless negative thought can sit hidden and block us from embracing all that we are.  A child told that she is stupid and will never amount to anything is just as damaging as being told she is ugly and fat.  Or being told by those around you that you can’t do something, you aren’t good enough or strong enough to live your dreams or accomplish all that you dream of doing.  The only one who can truly limit yourself and the possibilities you have for your life is you. You don’t have to keep believing what others say or think, you can stand tall and know you can do anything you choose to do.  Believe in yourself and there is nothing that can stop you from doing what your heart desires!

 

Some activities you can do to help erase the negative thoughts and start to think about yourself with powerful and positive thoughts are below.  I hope they help you to begin your journey to a positive and healthy new attitude about yourself and your life.

 

·                     Look in the mirror, and really look at yourself.  Take the time to see yourself and not just glance at your appearance.  What thoughts pop into your head as you look yourself over?  Are they positive or negative?  As negative thoughts pop up – consider why you think them.  For each negative thought about yourself, come up with a positive thought or a way to improve yourself so you don’t think so negatively about yourself.  Next really look yourself in your eyes and say “I Love You.”

·                     Every morning as you get ready for your day, say one positive affirmation about yourself.  To help you remember, post it on your mirror so every time you look in the mirror you will see this awesome thought about yourself.

·                     Compliment others – each day compliment someone on something different.  Maybe you have to find something positive about them if you always like them; this just makes it more of a challenge.  As you are less critical of others, you will become less critical of yourself.  This will help you find more positive aspects of yourself!

·                     Pamper yourself – take time to renew your spirit and feel your body at rest.  Take a long bath with some sea salts and light some candles.  Let yourself take a luxurious nap in the sun on a beautiful afternoon. 

·                     Treat yourself to a new haircut, manicure or outfit.  Even the smallest treat can boost your spirits and self esteem.

·                     Take a walk in the woods, by the lake or in a garden.  Look at the beauty in everything you walk by, really discover all the beauty in the world around you.  Think of something that you don’t think is beautiful, something you think is ugly and try to find the beauty in it.  Sometimes we think bugs are ugly and gross, but if you really look at how they are created, the detail and texture of their bodies, you may be able to find the beauty even in bugs.  If you can look at what you once considered to be gross and ugly in something else, how can you not look at yourself and see the beauty of all that you are?  If you still cannot think of yourself as beautiful, figure out why you can’t and find ways to change those thoughts. 

·                     Write down all of the positive and negative thoughts you think about yourself and your life.  If you count more negative thoughts than positive thoughts, find ways to increase the positive thoughts.  Talk to friends, family members, clergy and others to see if someone who has a different perspective on you may think about you in a better way than you think about yourself. 

·                     Think of 3 beautiful thoughts to say about yourself.  Write them down each day and say them to yourself every time you see yourself in the mirror.  Also say them every morning and every night before you go to bed.  These thoughts can be powerful affirmations to help change your life if you choose to create a new positive thought to replace a long held negative idea about yourself.  For example, this thought “I can never lose weight, I always fail.” can be replaced with “Every day I am losing weight and will succeed at my goals.”

·                     Every time you have a negative thought about yourself or your life, imagine a chalkboard and strike the negative thought out with chalk.  Write a new positive thought over the negative one, clearing it out of your heart and memory. 

 

 

Cloak yourself in the stars,

let the sun and moon beams flow down your hair.

 Stand tall knowing that you are a child of light,

filled with all of the hope and promise

that dawns every morning.

Take your inner beauty and wisdom

 and let it gracefully flow from you

 to all you encounter today,

 for your light is special and shines brighter

 every time it is shared with another.

~ Alicia Crystalus

Moment for Peace ~12.24.08

For the past few days I have been hearing the below song, Joseph’s Lullaby by MercyMe on the radio. It is a song about Joseph’s perspective on the birth of Jesus and very sweetly sung. I love how it speaks of allowing Jesus time to sleep in peace, without the weight of the world on his shoulders, without the weight of what is to happen on his journey in life. I think that is an important message for anyone to take in, especially lightworkers, spirit healers, helpers and guiders, anyone who knows their purpose in life and sometimes feels the weight of the world’s pain and worries about the future. As helpers of the world, it is important to take a moment to just relax and be in a moment of total peace without care or worry. Sometimes we have to ask God to help lift the burdens off of us, to give us a night without it being so heavy on our shoulders.

 

 

To ask for burdens to be lifted off of you or have the completely carried by God does not mean you have failed or are not living up to your potential. It means that you are sharing the load and responsibility with the creator of all things. For the most part, helpers aren’t meant to carry or take on the burdens of the world but to help lift them and release them back to God so they can be fully released and healed. I think that is hard to remember and harder yet to let go of it all so it does not become part of who you are. It is very easy to get wrapped up in the fears, worries and spirals of emotions that the world is going through, those with compassion want to help, want to ease that pain and fear. Sometimes stress from our own lives keeps us locked in the huge spiral and complex swirl of challenging emotions so that they are not being released from us but piled on until we as lightworkers are bogged down and surrounded in a storm of emotions.

 

In the moment you realize you are surrounded in a storm of emotions that truly are not your own, take the moment to remember your peace, your light, your love for the Earth. Remember you have the ability to let it all be released to source for cleansing and healing and that is best not only for you but for those you help, too. It serves no one for you to take on the pain and suffering of others, it doesn’t serve you and doesn’t serve the ones you are helping for it is not truly being released that way but just passed around. Let go and release, relax and be free to be filled with joy, peace and love as your heart desire’s you to be.

Another song that I feel helps to release the burdens and cares is Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant.  It speaks of Mary’s struggle and how she found strength to continue on even while the world around her condemned her.  The beauty of the song to speak of the cares, questions and surrender to what God’s will for her life was even though she could not fully see what lie ahead.  God often only provides the next step in the journey and not the end result or even the step just following the one you are on.  It takes faith and courage to allow yourself to follow God’s will for your life and take that next step into the unknown, praying that you will be enough and that everything will turn out well.