Hello everybody,
My name is Sarah McLeod and this is a talk called Positive Force.
If you are lucky enough to have the space and time to contemplate your existence,
Meaning you're not in a battle just to survive,
Consider yourself very blessed.
If you are lucky enough to have pure water,
A roof over your head,
A warm bed at night and food in your belly,
Your life is far more comfortable than millions of others less fortunate.
You may find yourself in a tangle of frustration or angst about your current predicament and problems,
But if all of your basic needs are being met,
You have a lot to be grateful for.
You're ahead of the game.
It means that you have the spaciousness,
Bandwidth,
Time and energy to ponder the bigger questions.
Many of us are feeling lost and disconnected,
Confused and frightened about the state of the world and the world we're living for our children.
I see that we are living in a state of great flux and a time of great change.
Where two rivers meet it becomes turbulent and the water churns and mixes as it tumbles its way along.
All around us,
Systems and ways of being that have been in place for eons are breaking,
Changing,
Shifting.
Some are collapsing.
For me this means that the gamescape is changing.
The landscape of the creation game called life.
And it may often feel like we're standing on shifting sands barely able to keep up.
Is it easy to feel disconnected and lost when the things we consider normal or that have been a constant in our lives take a turn or shift or disappear altogether?
If you've experienced a cataclysmic change in your life or a loss,
Your health has taken a turn or you're dissatisfied with where you're at,
These experiences are the perfect catalyst for you to begin to ponder what is important in your life.
The difficult experiences in life accelerate our growth.
The heartbreak,
The grief,
The pain and suffering,
While they may leave you reeling and trying to pick up the pieces or feeling like you're underwater.
These experiences are where the jewels and treasure are to be found.
The gifts that come thereafter.
There is a saying,
No pressure no diamond.
The creation of a magnificent jewel such as this is only possible with an extreme amount of pressure.
And it's the same with our lives.
The strength of our spirit is forged in the fire of our hardships and pain.
The difficult experiences force us to be stretched and pulled and squeezed out of our comfort zone.
And speaking from my own experience,
Sometimes it's in retrospect that you can see that the tough times were necessary to burn away the old behaviors,
Thought patterns,
Habits and beliefs that no longer serve us.
And you may be in the middle of an incredible hardship right now and asking yourself,
What is the point?
For as often when we feel most lost,
We ask the big questions.
So if you find yourself questioning and asking,
What is the point and looking for meaning,
You might recognize and acknowledge that you even have the bandwidth to be asking.
Many don't.
I will share with you some of my own experience in finding true purpose and tremendous fulfillment in that purpose.
And it's a beautiful feeling to know that you've made a difference.
And anybody can have this feeling.
In my life,
I've come to understand that it feels good to give.
This is my husband Brandon's mantra,
And he's been fundraising for the environment for decades.
It feels good to give.
The very act of donating to a worthy cause gives us a sense of meaning.
And for those who have money,
This is easy.
But it doesn't have to be about money.
It can be your time and attention,
A loving gesture,
Kind words,
Even a smile can fill someone with good feelings and an infusion of positive energy.
Healing,
Healing yourself.
When your cup is full to overflowing,
The positive energy naturally spills over.
When you commit to doing the work on yourself and you lighten up,
No longer embroiled and tangled in trauma,
You're free.
The trapped energy is power.
In my own journey,
I realized that as I shed layers of trauma,
Grief,
Anger,
Rage,
Despair,
And came to a place of wholeness,
I was no longer bound by my story.
I no longer needed to identify as the victim.
And the natural next step to being at home in yourself,
Embodied,
Present,
Free,
Is to want to assist and help others,
To be of service.
When you experience a radical shift or awakening,
The energy affects everybody around you.
And this then continues to ripple out forever and to infinity.
This is the nature of expansion.
And the nature of healing is an expansion of awareness.
So in the process of doing the work on yourself,
Alchemizing the old beliefs and stories,
You're actively becoming more sensitive,
More astute,
More mindful,
Alert,
Attentive.
You're freeing up RAM,
So to speak,
Or changing the program,
Creating new neural pathways as you relearn and remember how to live in a way that is more harmonious,
More nourishing and nurturing,
A softer,
Kinder,
Gentler way of being in relationship with yourself and others.
This expansion of awareness is also a deceleration of sorts.
Because you heal and free up the energy that was trapped,
You also begin to notice that you have more spaciousness in your life,
More bandwidth,
A wider peripheral perception.
And perhaps you don't need to rush everywhere and fill every moment with distraction.
Perhaps as you heal,
You can actually delight in taking time to sit and ponder,
To meditate on the light play in water,
Or the wind in the leaves.
So you find yourself delighting in the company of nature.
If you were to drive the same route every day,
Day after day,
And one day you decided to walk home instead,
You would notice a gazillion details that you hadn't noticed before,
Simply because of the gentle speed that you were walking,
Compared to whizzing past in the car.
You notice a tree,
Or the color of a fence,
Or the fact that an old lady lives on the corner,
Or a crack in the path where a weed miraculously busts through the concrete.
Life bursts forth in the most magical ways.
The slower you go,
The more you can notice and there is a delight to be found in paying attention to the details.
So the more you decelerate,
The more your perception becomes magnified.
And the slower you go,
The more details that you notice,
The more spaciousness you have to notice how you're feeling.
And it's in the depths of feeling that you will find your passion.
And it's in the depths of your passion that you will find your heart's desire.
And it is the thread of passion that will lead you to fulfill and follow the dream in your heart.
So don't be afraid to feel what's in your heart.
When you start to notice what you hold in your beautiful heart,
You may feel tangled,
Confused,
Despairing,
Grieved,
Enraged,
Or maybe you feel love.
If your heart is turbulent,
Perhaps it is holding all of the unexpressed hurts and wounds.
As you allow yourself to sit with these feelings,
As uncomfortable as they are,
And allow yourself to experience them,
Rather than bury them or numb yourself to them,
You can also begin to release them.
You may notice water leaking from your eyes and nose.
Your body releases pent up emotions in so many different ways.
Through the breath,
Notice how you're breathing.
Your body may shake.
You may need to go to the bathroom.
You may throw up.
You may sweat,
Cry,
Sob,
Wail.
This is all emotion moving through you and it is good because it is releasing the energy that has been held and stuck,
Stagnant in your body.
Stagnation is dis-ease.
Flow is vitality and health,
The life force.
So by allowing your emotions to flow,
You are supporting your life force.
One of the more difficult emotions is rage.
If you tap into anger that has been pent up,
I recommend a constructive way to discharge that feeling.
Exercise is a fabulous way to discharge anger.
Even a fast-paced walk up a hill will discharge it,
Or screaming into a pillow.
With any feelings,
It's good to spend time alone in nature to really sink into them,
So they're not bleeding onto other people or loved ones.
With anger and rage,
You want to be sure that you're not directing this at others,
Because then it becomes destructive and damaging.
You want to allow it to flow,
But directing it in a constructive way.
When you have had a big cry,
For whatever reason,
Even though you may feel tired,
The energy field is refreshed.
Just like the air is crisp after a big storm,
And usually the light is golden after a big dump of rain.
Sometimes there's a rainbow and the birds chitter excitedly,
And the smell of the sweet earth.
The petrichor is divine.
There are negative ions in the air,
And it's the same with you.
The storm may be dark and thunderous and dramatic and intense,
But just like the weather,
It will pass and the sun will shine again.
You will find that the atmosphere of your being is nourished with positive energy after an emotional release.
Be kind to yourself if you find that tears are flowing.
You may feel tender,
Raw,
Vulnerable when you tap into your feelings.
You don't even have to understand why or how these feelings came to be.
It just is what it is.
The mind wants to comprehend,
Analyze,
Gauge and measure,
But the heart wants to feel.
And when you begin to feel what's in your heart,
You will find that you begin to know.
And just as experiencing is believing,
Knowing is believing.
When you know in your heart what is true for you,
You will believe it.
And as you come to know your heart,
And you become aware of the dream buried deep in the fibers and tissues of this muscle,
No longer embedded under layers and layers and tangles of hurt,
This dream begins to flow into your thoughts,
Into your waking moments,
Into your impulses and yearnings.
It begins to take shape and form and reveal itself to you,
Step by step,
Moment by moment.
The way becomes clear.
As you give your dream more of your focus and attention,
And your energy is freed up from the tangles,
The dream starts to become manifest in your waking experience of reality.
You begin to see the signs of its manifestation.
Synchronicity happens.
Doors open.
Opportunities arise.
There will be chance encounters,
Random spontaneous occurrences that delight you.
Joy floods into your heart.
Delight,
Wonder,
Excitement,
Bliss,
Gratitude.
This is the moral compass in your heart that is turned to be aligned with your true north.
This is your heart guiding you through uncharted waters,
And it's exciting.
Navigating life through uncharted territory,
This is the definition of courage.
Courage to feel what is in your heart.
Courage to know yourself.
Courage to dream that you are worthy of living your dream.
Courage to believe in yourself.
Courage to know that you can do this.
So consider for a moment that by devoting yourself to your own healing journey,
You are actually contributing to the betterment of all living things.
Just by focusing on your own healing,
You are making an extraordinary contribution.
By aligning with divine nature,
Your own divine nature,
You become Earth's ambassador,
Because you are now walking through life and experiencing life with your senses fine-tuned and open and receptive to the world in a way that you can see and feel and hear and sense what is needed in any given moment.
You become able to respond.
You become responsible.
Instead of being numbed or disconnected,
You are now tuned in and attentive.
Instead of being fragmented and your senses dampened,
You're alert and aware.
And as you heal,
Your awareness becomes honed,
Sharpened like a blade.
Your awareness becomes astute.
This clarity is to be honored and treasured as the greatest prize,
Because with that clarity,
The way of least resistance becomes known.
This is the sacred path.
This is you walking in alignment with your highest destiny.
This is you being a positive force.
And rather than your energy being bound by evading,
Preventing,
Resisting or fighting the energy of struggle and suffering,
You come to know that you are really only battling with yourself.
That inner turmoil is reflected in your life experience.
The inner turmoil creates outer chaos.
And in contrast,
Inner peace creates outer joy.
So as you heal and come into a place of wholeness in yourself,
You come to a place of peace.
You give up the fight.
You surrender.
And you find that you're able to respond,
Able to support others less fortunate.
This responsibility is positive action.
You become a positive force.
Your moral compass aligns with your integrity.
And when your feelings are allowed to flow,
So too does the positive energy.
And first comes the trickle that flows into the stream,
And then joins the river and flows into the ocean.
And just like the pulsing action of the heart,
Or the nourishment of water from the rivers and streams,
The flow of positive energy brings life.
This life force or positive energy is the current that flows deep within your being and affects everything in your sphere of influence.
Everyone you meet,
Everyone you know and love.
So heal yourself my loves,
And become a positive force for good,
Affecting change for the better by starting with your own self.
Making a contribution to the greater whole,
And fulfilling your life's purpose along the way,
By being able to offer support and comfort and relief for others.
The natural next step of one who is able-bodied and sound of mind and clear in their hearts,
Is to be of service.
And with this comes the recognition that being of service is the most fulfilling path of all,
Because the results are immediate and gratifying.
Everybody yearns for fulfillment,
Just as everybody yearns for happiness.
Being a positive force is walking a sacred path.
In the process of healing your life becomes consecrated and blessed.
And the wider your perception and deeper you go on your healing journey,
The more you find yourself supported,
Endorsed and sanctioned by the universe responding in kind.
Gratitude begets gratitude.
Positive energy begets positive energy.
You reap what you sow.
Every day in every way there are opportunities to affirm,
Encourage,
Help,
Support.
And being a positive force you will find that you are challenged to keep your word and be honorable in your intentions and your actions.
This is being noble,
Ethical,
Trustworthy,
And you have rightfully earned admiration.
All of these qualities are deeply fulfilling and give our lives meaning.
And when our lives have purpose,
We feel like we are adding value and making a contribution to the greater whole.
The experience of life is rich and potent,
Like drinking sweet nectar.
It nourishes our thirst for meaning.
It both enriches and amplifies our rapture of being alive.
And we all want to feel like our lives have worth,
Significance,
Merit,
Value.
And even if you have no money and you're on the path of healing yourself and you are following your heart,
Clearing the tangles and hurts and wounds,
You make an extraordinary contribution.
Be aware that walking through life consciously can be painful because with awareness and clarity comes empathy.
And if you decide to be the spiritual warrior and follow that dream,
It requires extreme amounts of courage and strength,
Resolution and resolve,
Because life will knock you sideways again and again.
And you'll find that you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off each time.
But your resilience increases as you drop the baggage.
It takes great courage to be a positive force in a world that doesn't make any sense and is hardwired and geared to generate negative experiences.
So to all of Earth's ambassadors,
Spiritual warriors,
Those devoting your life to your own healing journey,
Those calling back the broken parts,
The fragmented pieces,
Dissolving and absolving the tangles of the past that bring you into the present moment,
No longer drifting in the fantasy of an illusory future or stuck in the past of unhealed hurts and wounds,
But living embodied here and now,
Present,
Alive and aware,
You are living the dream.
So it is with greatest gratitude that I offer you my prayers and blessings to amplify and empower your healing journey so that you may find your true purpose and be a positive force.
