Sing Your Own Song - Live Authentically

All right,

So again,

Welcome to Soul Soup,

The Sunday morning service of Oneness Center Online.

And I'm Dr.

Jeanette Freeman,

And I'm here to give you a little food for your soul this morning,

A little warmth for your heart through a meditation process.

So our focus this morning and every Sunday morning is to help facilitate you in your own spiritual experience.

So everybody's experience is completely unique to you and completely guided by your own higher self and anything that comes through me,

I know that it's just received from within you with exactly what you need,

Knowing that your own higher self is your guide.

And we just support you in this.

And my intention is to allow the Spirit to speak through me and to bring some sort of inspiration that's been happening with me in the week,

Really,

Or on my heart and mind and bring it to you.

And then to help facilitate some sort of a process where I can work with your unconscious mind,

And you can work with your unconscious mind,

I should say that,

In order to release anything that's in the way,

In order to let go so that you can live from your higher self.

So the ultimate vision,

The ultimate goal of all of this is for our spiritual awakening and to live from our higher spiritual self.

This is not about religion.

This is about your own soul,

Your own higher self,

Your own authentic self,

Which is your connection to the Divine.

God,

Spirit,

Soul,

Higher self,

Whatever word you want to use is appropriate for you.

And I know that that Divine Presence,

Which we all share,

That is within all of us,

Is completely guiding all of our processes today and every day.

So again,

Welcome to Soul Soup.

So this week,

My inspiration happened at a concert.

And some of you who were on my,

Get my newsletter,

I heard a little bit of this already.

And I went to a concert to see a master guitarist named Tommy Emmanuel.

Now I had never heard of him up until about three months ago.

And a friend of mine had told me about him and then I had a friend that was going here in town.

And this person had come,

Tommy Emmanuel,

Had come to Fresno.

And so I thought,

That'd be fun.

So have you ever just been in the presence of genius?

And what happens in the presence of somebody that is in their genius zone,

That is doing what it is that they're supposed to do when they're doing something that they really,

Really love,

Or when they're just not in their head and just in their experience of being fully,

Fully present.

You cannot be in the presence of that one and not be lifted up into your genius.

Anyway,

So Tommy Emmanuel,

He's been playing guitar since he's like four and he's got to be way older than me and I'm not that young.

So he's been doing and playing guitar for a long time.

And it was like the guitar was a part of his arm,

Part of his soul,

Part of his body.

And it was like he was lost in the intense presence of his genius,

In the intense presence of his love.

And of course he was magical.

He's playing the bass line at the same time he's playing the rhythm.

And so it was amazing guitar playing.

But I felt myself go into an altered state just being in the room.

And I felt myself really vibrating right up here.

I felt myself like being totally held and sustained in this energy of witnessing genius.

And in a more simple way,

Witnessing someone doing what they love,

Witnessing someone doing what they love.

And so today's message and intention is sing your song,

Sing your own song,

Play your own instrument.

And that is how I see that is really from our most authentic passion,

Our most authentic self.

So much of our lives get caught up in our mentality,

In our mind and about what we think we should do and how do we please other people and how do I fit in this world.

And we're bombarded by not only external expectations,

But we're bombarded by internal restriction,

Internal belief systems that we come up against that get in the way of our pure experience of the now,

Of our pure experience of the higher self,

Of our pure experience of our authentic self,

Our divine self.

And so we know that living from this authentic self,

Because of these influences external to us and because of these influences internal in us,

It requires something from us to be able to surrender the little self,

The old beliefs,

The things that have held us back in order to move into a greater,

More authentic,

More freeing self.

It does,

It requires a surrendering,

It requires growth and anybody that's been on a spiritual path knows that this is not easy.

It's not easy to live more from that higher self because living from the authentic self starts to require us to let go of the small self and what that looks like many times is an unraveling of life,

An unraveling of the ego,

Unraveling.

And unfortunately it doesn't always look pretty.

It doesn't always feel pretty.

But if we step back from a higher perspective and realize that the course of this journey of living and singing our own most authentic songs,

Living our most authentic life,

Living from the higher self,

We look back and we can see how all the crumblings that we've had in our life have been contributing to the blossoming and the freeing of the higher self in and through our own expression.

So there is an ancient story,

Hundreds of years old and I want to share that with you.

I believe that it comes out of Eastern European story,

Folklore and storytelling.

And there was this couple and this couple was very,

Very,

Very poor and they had nothing.

They barely could get by and the only thing that held them and kept them alive was they had this little scrawny cow and it was skinny and it was scrawny and,

But it was a cow and the cow provided milk and the cow provided butter and it provided some things to trade so that they could have something.

And so they had this scrawny cow and they lived in a little hut and they barely had anything.

And one day knocking on their door came a great wise master.

He was well known.

It was such an honor that this master would come to his door,

Their door and this master came and he had seven of his male students following with him and they were traveling and the master knocked on his door,

Their door and the master said,

Hello,

We are traveling and passing through and we wonder if you would feed us so that we can get on our way.

And our only request is that you give us meat and you give us fresh vegetables and you give us an excellent wine,

Of course.

And the man looked at them and it was such an honor.

He didn't know what to say and he said,

Yes,

Of course.

I mean,

Here's this great master.

It's such an honor that the master chose his hut to go to.

And so he kind of interrupted himself and he says,

Let me go check with my wife about the menu.

And he went into the other room and they're huddling together and they know that it is such a great honor because the master has come to their home and they must feed them.

They want to feed them.

They weren't thinking.

They were right in the moment.

What should we do?

What should we do?

What should we do?

And the only thing that they could do,

The only thing they had was this scrawny cow.

And so the man says,

I must sell the cow.

And the man took the cow and he went into the village without thinking,

Just had to act.

It was such an honor.

And he went into the village and he sold the cow and he got what he needed.

He came home and he just had bundles of things and they came in and he had great meat and lots of vegetables and great wine.

And they put out this feast for the master.

They put out the feast for the students and they ate and they ate and they ate and they drank and they drank and they ate all of the meat and they chewed the meat off the bones and they ate the vegetables and drank the wine.

And when they were all complete with this feast,

The master thanked them profusely and said,

Thank you,

Thank you.

And they got up and they says,

And we are leaving and to continue our journey.

And out the door they went.

And as they walked out the door,

The man looked at his wife and it hit them what they had done and realized that everything that they had owned,

They no longer had.

They thought that they were empty before,

But now they had absolutely nothing.

And his wife is crying and say,

We have nothing.

We have no,

Now we don't even have our little scrawny cow.

And so the husband was so beside himself and he finally ran out of the house and he says,

I just got to think I got to go for a walk.

And he went for a walk and he walked around and around and he's like walking in circles around and around and around until finally,

Finally,

Finally,

He falls to the ground.

He falls to the ground in prayer.

He falls to the ground in prayer and this time he has absolutely nothing.

He's not asking to save the scrawny cow.

He never prayed before.

He had a scrawny cow.

He could get by.

He could get by.

Okay.

But now he didn't even have the scrawny cow and he had to pray and he had to surrender and he had to give it all up.

And he prayed and he asked God,

He goes,

I'm alone.

I got nothing now.

Now I need you.

Now I need you.

And he prayed like he'd never prayed before because this time he started praying for everything.

He asked for everything.

And that was something that he had never done before,

Was asked for anything at all.

Prayer is not about religion.

Do you know prayer?

It's not even just about asking for something.

In one of the deep meaning of the word prayer from Sanskrit,

I believe it means to judge oneself wonderfully made.

To judge oneself wonderfully made.

When we surrender in prayer,

When we surrender,

We drop down into that part of us that is wonderfully made.

In true prayer,

We have to get,

We have to let go of all of,

Of any place else that we have held onto our own scrawny cows.

Anything that we have held onto thinking,

Well,

This is going to work for me,

Or this is going to work for me,

Or this is going to work for me,

Or this is this,

Or this is,

And let it all go and let all those scrawny cows go to pray and to surrender and to ask for all that and all the remembrance that I can remember that I am wonderfully made.

That I am made and I am one with this power and this presence and this love.

And true prayer is that prayer of surrender,

True prayer is that prayer of surrender that I surrender that,

That this,

The scrawny cow parts of me,

I surrender all those little pieces I think are so important and so real and all part of it.

And I let that go and know that I am wonderfully made.

And so he laid down in the woods and he's crying and he's praying and he's reaching out and pretty soon behind him,

He hears some kind of rustling in the woods and he looks around and he sees this man,

He looks like he's drunk,

Kind of stumbling through the woods and he looks to him and he says,

He says,

Come here,

Let me help you.

I can see you've had way too much to drink.

Come here,

Let me help you,

Sir.

And the man stumbled over to him and he said,

I'm not drunk,

I'm dying.

And so the man,

Jacob is his name.

Jacob takes this,

This dying man and he helps him and he,

He finds,

He helps make a bed for him and he,

He says,

What can I do?

He says,

Let me take you to my home.

I do not live very far from here.

Let me take you to my home.

And the man said,

Let me just rest here.

And he started to tell him his story.

He says,

I had to come out into the forest to die because my family's all sitting around the home waiting for me to die because I'm a very wealthy man and they're waiting to divide my money up amongst themselves.

And he says,

I just had to get out of that house.

I do not want to die there.

And he says,

And so I've come out to the,

To the woods and in my pocket I have a map and I have buried all my wealth out here in the forest.

And the,

Where it's buried is in a map.

And he said,

And I want you to have it.

You are the kindest man.

You have showed more kindness to me than I have ever experienced.

The man coughed and sputtered and Jacob reached down to talk to him to say,

Let me take you to my home and care for you.

And pretty soon he sputtered out his last breath and then he died.

And Jacob held him for a while.

And then he looked at the piece of paper that the man had given him.

And sure enough,

It held a map.

It held a map to a fortune.

It's like we all have to go through this and processes like this in our life where we are unconsciously and even consciously holding onto the little.

We're holding onto the little when something in us,

When it is really like holding onto that scrawny cow and the universe cannot give us more of ourselves while we're so busy holding onto the limitations of the ego,

Of the littleness,

Even in this applies to everything.

It's like I heard a story of a woman who was a poet and she was a great poet and she loved to write poetry and then she'd go to her desk to write the poetry and her desk was crumbling and it was small and she didn't even like being there.

And here she was a poetess,

But she was holding onto the scrawny cow desk.

And it wasn't when she got rid of that little teeny desk and got the desk that she wanted,

Her genius came forth even more.

And we're invited to what is,

What are the scrawny,

What's the scrawny cow I'm holding onto?

And it can be the little things,

Maybe my little supportive money that I think is all my now holding onto it really tight and I can't get out of the way and allow the greater to come in or holding onto a scrawny love.

Well,

It's all the love I'm ever going to get.

I better just take what I can get or holding onto this scrawny little job that I hate,

That it's all I can get.

And then even deeper,

Holding onto the identities and beliefs,

Thinking that that's who we are.

And most of that is unconscious,

Which we're going to work on on the process.

So this scrawny cow is the little limitations that we hold onto that we think make us so safe.

And that big first thing is that we have to just surrender it,

Give it up,

Pray on our knees that I remember that I'm wonderfully made,

That I am wonderfully made.

Because I am wonderfully made through that presence that I am that I am that I am presence that I am is not missing anything.

And every time we look to some person,

Place or thing as a source of our I am-ness,

Then we are accepting that scrawny cow.

So five years go by and the man and his wife have a beautiful carriage in a beautiful home.

And one day they're in their carriage in the village and there is the teacher and the seven students and the seven students look to the teacher and they say,

Teacher,

Isn't that that couple that we ate them out of house and home?

And the teacher looked at his students and said,

Yes.

And we were able to help him let go so that he could experience this greatness.

So this morning,

What needs to go?

What are you willing to let go of so that you might sing your own song so that you may live from your freer,

Authenticity,

Higher essential self?

What might you let go of?

What might those scrawny cows be in your own life?

So if would it be all right if I speak to your unconscious mind?

And if you're not sure,

That's okay.

But at some,

Some part of us has to be willing to go into process.

So feel into that and find your yes that I am willing to let go of anything that is in the way of my living more from my essential self.

That I'm willing to let go and to be open and surrender to this higher self.

And its inspiration and its wisdom.

And so I'm going to lead you in a first of all in a relaxation.

So you share and turn your phone off or make sure that you're comfortable,

That you can relax without distraction.

If you're listening to this when you're driving,

Please don't go into a complete altered state.

You could still keep awareness on the road.

Yes,

Yes,

Yes.

And so,

So wherever you are,

Just begin to be right there.

That's right.

So just take a breath and be fully,

Fully,

Fully,

Fully present in this moment.

Yes.

And just letting all distractions of the mind just fall away.

Feeling the ground underneath your feet and the chair and feeling completely safe and supported in every way.

And as you're sitting here,

Begin to feel your body relax.

And if you're looking at the screen,

You're looking then just,

You may notice that your eyes start to get even heavier,

That you want to blink or blink again or blink a few times until finally your eyes begin to relax.

And perhaps you'll even want to close your eyes and be guided on this imagery and guided into this process of letting go of that which is no longer serving your higher self's authentic expression.

You may even want to tell yourself,

I am willing to be guided.

I am willing to let go of whatever has been blocking the full expression of my own authentic self.

I am willing to see and to release any little scrawny cows,

I am willing to let go.

And then just trusting yourself to know exactly what to do.

And as you relax now,

I invite you to call into your imagination now.

Imagine that you're standing out front of a very large building and looking up.

And this building is a skyscraper.

It is very high.

You can hardly even see the top of the building from where you are outside and looking up and you know that you want to go into this building and go up,

Up,

Upstairs.

And you know that as you go upstairs,

You're going to have to let go of things that have been holding you back,

But you're really willing to start to let go of that now,

Even contemplating the opportunity to walk in that door until you get that place within you that says,

Yes,

I want to go higher.

I want to go higher.

I'm willing to let go of that which has been in the way.

And you walk through the front doors of this building and right out in front of you,

You see a very,

Very large elevator with brass doors that open and close and open and close and open and close.

And you see those brass doors and you walk toward those brass doors.

And of course,

They open so that you may walk in and you walk through those doors and you feel the elevator door close behind you.

And it's one of those elevators that has doors on both sides.

So you stay in the position you're facing towards the apparent back of the elevator and you look up and you see the dial or the numbers that are going to tell you as you move upstairs.

And you see that there are a hundred stories to this building and you want to go to the very,

Very top.

And so as you look up,

You begin to feel this elevator start to move and it's moving up.

And with every floor that is moving up,

There's a willingness to release something that is holding you back and you're willing and you move up one and two and three and four and you get to the 10th floor.

And as you get to the 10th floor and you're looking forward,

You feel and notice the doors open behind you on the 10th floor.

And as those doors open immediately right now,

Just sliding off of you in behind you and out the door,

Something,

Some scrawny cow,

Some old belief that has held you down,

Something that you thought was required for your security that is a falsehood.

You're willing just to let it go.

Whether you know consciously what it is or not,

Whatever has been blocking you feeling completely secure in every way,

Let that go.

Feel it slide off your body and just move out behind you,

Outside on that 10th floor and feel the doors close again and feel how much lighter you feel already.

And now the elevator's moving up 11,

12,

13 with every floor you're feeling lighter and lighter until you get up to the 20th floor and instantly again the door opens behind you and all slides off everything that has been blocking you from living in greater passion,

Greater aliveness.

It's not even important that you know what it is,

But whatever has been blocking you,

Some little scrawny cow that you thought,

Oh,

This is passionate enough.

That's good enough.

Let it go.

It just falls off you whether you know what it is or not,

It doesn't matter.

Something within you knows and it lets it go now.

That's right.

Letting it go and as the doors close again,

Feel how much lighter you feel as the elevator begins to move up even more and more and more letting go and you're feeling lighter and lighter already feeling lighter and lighter as you get to the 30th floor and the elevator door opens up behind you.

Again,

You feel everything,

Something has been in the way of your own personal empowerment,

Your own personal strength,

Something.

You may not consciously know what it is,

But something within you knows what it is and it is now because of your willingness,

It is really ready to let it go and feel as it slides off you and it moves out of that door and as that door closes,

Oh,

That feels so good,

It's behind you now and you begin to move upstairs and every floor up,

You're feeling lighter and lighter and freer and freer and you get to the 40th floor and you feel again behind you,

The door of the elevator open up behind you and right now,

Whatever has been in the way of your greater experience of your own love nature,

Your own ability to be loved,

Your own ability to love in a larger,

More expansive way,

Whatever has been in the way is falling off you and moving behind you now and you may not even know what it is consciously,

But something within you knows and your willingness to release it lets it go,

Feel it go out and as the door closes again and you begin to move up even more,

Feeling lighter and more freer and more expansive and more available to love in a way you've never been before and it feels so awesome and you're moving up that elevator and pretty soon you come up to the 50th floor and it feels so awesome and the doors open behind you and some of that which has been blocking you from greater creative expression and art and music and whatever is your creative expression and your creativity,

Whatever has been blocking you whether known or unknown is sliding out of you and out the door on the 50th floor and as that door closes behind you,

You are able to let that go and you feel light and you feel free and you feel like you're soaring and you're moving up even faster now because you don't have all that baggage and you're moving up and there you go,

You're the 60th floor and that door opens behind you and anything that's been blocking your intuition and your spiritual connection is now able to just slide out of that door and you may not even know what it is,

It may be something you know or don't know but something within you knows and your willingness to release it allows it to be gone instantly and so the door closes and that goes behind you and you move forward,

You're looking up there and you see you're moving up higher and higher and it feels so light and you feel light and free as you get up to the 70th floor now and that door just opens quick and out goes any residual that has been in the way of your own spiritual awakening and it just swishes out and you're coming back in and again you're moving up feeling lighter and freer,

Lighter and freer and it goes to the 80th floor,

That happens again even more,

Whatever's in the way of just your expression and your spiritual alignment and your intunement and again you go back in and you're moving up again and you're feeling freer than you've ever felt before and you see the 90th floor coming and of course that door opens from behind you that fast anything and you come back,

The door shuts behind you and you feel this freedom and this openness and the door moves up and finally you are there on the 100th floor and now the door in front of you opens up and as you look out you realize you're up on the rooftop and you're up on the rooftop and there's a gorgeous crystal glass ceiling like a big dome and you can feel the sunshine coming at you all around you from above and everywhere and you smell this beautiful fragrance up on this rooftop and you feel the sun coming down in you and you feel this deep connection that's always been there but now because you release so much of this old scrotty cow you're free to receive it all and standing in the light right now making that holy and high deep connection to this light which represents God or the higher self or infinite wisdom or divine love that represents your own essential self that represents who you really are your own I am presence being immersed in this holy presence now and asking this presence the question what is it that you most want me to experience and what is the song that I am most wanting to sing and what is my song and what is it that you want to do through me and what is it that you want to give through me and or how is it that I can live in greater joy and love and passion and aliveness just feel the light all around you and listen and whether you get it consciously or not something within you does what is the most the highest authentic way I can sing my own song what's calling me now more powerfully and what's the song I most want to sing and what's the instrument that my life wants to play and whatever you get or don't get allow it to be exactly as it is feel the light pouring forth and now absolutely integrating into every cell of your body filling you up with everything that you need to feel secure everything you need to feel your passion everything you need to feel empowered and strong everything you need to feel the love that you are and to express this love everything that you need to express creatively your art your song your gifts everything needed to connect deeply to your own intuition everything that is needed to live from your higher awake cell everything that is needed integrating bringing that all in as you stand in front of the elevator it is time to go back into the body back into the life integrating bringing all these things from the higher self integrating into everything as you move into the elevator now and you feel the door close behind you to the ceiling to the rooftop bringing with you as you move down down down every part of these great higher gifts integrating into every cell of your body integrating into every integrating into every cell integrating into your mind integrating into your spirit down down down seeing the 90th floor and the 80th floor integrating into your unconscious mind at every cell integrating into the unconscious mind at every cell every level in ways known and unknown 70th floor and then the 60th floor and then the 50th floor and coming down down down moving back into earth into the material life into the body into form integrating into the unconscious mind everything that you need that will carry you forth to sing your own song in a bigger and brighter way in alignment with your higher self going down 50th 40th 30th 20th 10 and finally on the ground floor see those brass doors open wide and as you walk out into your life now integrated from the higher self and all the internal resources that are needed to begin to even more fully sing your song live your life play your own instrument in a greater way letting go of those scrawny cows that we thought were our source and allowing this infinite presence the spirit of life itself to be a blessing into every part of your life as you're walking out of that building that fully integrated into your body begin to bring your awareness back to your body back to the room back here with me back into our community and where we integrate it back knowing that at every level each person is getting everything that they need that's right as we come back i want to thank you i know that as you move forward in your week that you will integrate this it'll happen in ways you may not even be aware of but your very willingness to let go of this chronic house and to see them will bring it to you so thank you so much