beliefs Archives - Sarah's Gift

How do you communicate with the Divine?

I read a post on Facebook fairly recently by someone who said that meditating or following other similar modalities was not the way to have a personal relationship with the Divine (Spirit, God, Creator, Providence, Allah, or however you name the Higher Power). I beg to differ! I feel that we all have our own way of communicating with the Almighty and that this sacred relationship is what provides a deep connection to one another. Since the Divine is everywhere – within and without…

There is not just one way to feel the presence of Spirit in one’s life. Click to Tweet

I love the sit outside next to my favorite tree, feeling its energy, with the sun shining brightly in the sky as the clouds flirt with it, with a warm breeze brushing across my face and hearing the cacophony of cicadas. I hear Spirit beckoning me as the wonders of nature surround me in a loving embrace. To deepen my experience, I may close my eyes and go into a meditative silence to listen for the inner divine voice that speaks to me. I also have a meditation ritual where I try to meditate every morning upon rising. I will sit in front of my altar and open my heart up to the messages that Spirit may have for me each day. I also use Tarot and Oracle cards to tap into my intuition, allowing the inner voice to speak divine wisdom. That divine wisdom has also come to me in my dreams.

And then there’s journaling; shamanic journeying; doing energy work; working with crystals, angels, the elementals, power animals, and color; near-death experiences and the like, which all open the door of communication to Spirit. There are so many different ways to have a personal relationship with the Divine and it disturbs me when someone discounts all but her or his way; as this, to me, is what causes separation, not connection, in our world.

We all have our own life journey, being spiritual beings in human form.

We are Spirit and Spirit is us, no matter what religion or spiritual practice(s) we embrace. Click to Tweet

If you are interested, please sign up for Sarah’s newsletter in the form to the right. I hope to bring you information that will be inspiring and enlightening to you. Also, you can find my Sarah’s Gift series as well as my other books on Amazon.

ERICA TUCCI had a full life as a corporate manager of a Fortune 500 company, a healing arts business owner and an author. It all came to a screeching halt in June 2011 when she had a stroke. During her recovery, she gained much wisdom about what’s really important in life. Although she was a Reiki master, massage therapist and life coach as well as a corporate cog for many years, she realized that her passion was her books. Her hope now is that the messages of her books will be an inspiration for others, young and old. Visit her websites at www.ericatucci.com, www.sarahsgiftseries.com and www.radiantsurvivor.com.

Is there a hole in your sidewalk?

hole in sidewalk There is a story that I feel is a metaphor for how we, as humans, typically deal with challenges in our lives. At least, it seems this is the way I have faced them thus far in my life. Being a former dancer, I see it as a series of dance steps.

You may know the story and if I don’t explain it as you remember it, please bear with me. It has my own twist with a bit of embellishment. It goes like this…

There was a huge hole in the sidewalk waiting to swallow anyone who wasn’t paying attention to where they were going. Click to Tweet

1…Late for her Monday morning meeting, a woman was mindlessly talking on her cell phone and checking her watch. As she walked down the sidewalk to the building where her office was, she fell into the hole. How did she not see it?…

2…The next Monday morning, she was rushing down the sidewalk, again on her cell phone and checking her watch for the time. This time, she saw the hole, but just as she approached it, she tripped and fell into it. What caused her to lose her footing?…

3…The next Monday morning, as she approached the hole, she put her phone away. She checked her watch to see that she was on time for her meeting. Walking around the hole, she continued her trek to the office. Looking ahead at the building she would be entering, her shoulders drooped and she sighed deeply. What made her heart heavy?

4…The next Monday morning, she decided to quit her job. No more phone calls. No more checking her watch. She took a longer route to her office, stopping by the corner bakery for a cup of tea and an almond croissant. Later that day, she exited the building carrying all her belongings. She looked in the direction of the hole and smiled. What made her smile?

5…The next Monday morning, she took a walk in the city park. Birds were chirping. The sun was shining brightly overhead. Children were playing, with their moms looking on. Joggers passed her by as she strolled along the sidewalk. An image filled her mind momentarily – the hole in the sidewalk – but then it faded, no longer part of her vision.

After I finished writing this, I did some research to find out the source of this story, and I found it – Portia Nelson’s book There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self Discovery. I bought the book and can’t wait to read it! Have you read it?

Are you in the intimate embrace of self discovery? Where are you in this dance?

1…Are you living a frenetic life, possibly unaware of how it may be affecting you or denying that it IS having an impact on you? Kind of like a hamster on a treadmill, mindlessly getting nowhere?

This is where I was before I fell into the hole and had a stroke. Click to Tweet

2…Are you living a frenetic life, knowing what it’s doing to you, but feeling that you have no other choice. You feel off kilter because you know you’re spinning your wheels.

3…Or do you realize in your heart that what you’re doing just isn’t what you want to do with your life, and you know you need to find another way, another path?

4…Or perhaps you have already begun to make a change. How exciting it must feel to be able to let go of something that just doesn’t serve you anymore, that just doesn’t have any meaning in your life anymore. This is where I am now, having “moved from my head to my heart”, so to speak, surrendering to my heart’s desire. Living consciously instead of in a fog, in the darkness of the hole.

What I aspire to is the last step of the dance…

5…Where the hole is a part of the past. It has served its purpose and is no longer on one’s radar. No longer does one live unconsciously, anesthetized to the goings-on of one’s life. It’s time for change, a metamorphosis…like the butterfly in its chrysalis.

So, I ask you again… where are you in this dance? Are you romancing yourself down the self discovery path?

What I learned from talking to a prophet

Prophet I had a long discourse recently with someone who called herself a prophet whom God speaks to. The conversation brought out the best and the worst in me, and I am grateful for the dialogue for what it showed me. It concretized a lot of beliefs that I already had. One thing that was brought up in our conversation was my last blog post about Nothingness, which brought out our different viewpoints.

First, I must say that I have difficulty with the notion of a self-proclaimed prophet who says that God speaks directly to her, since I attribute that to the likes of Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad and the like. (Perhaps that is just me.) But a prophet can also mean anyone who claims to be a healer, teacher, leader or foreteller of the future.

A prophet of an elevated state such as Jesus is humble. And having God-given power does not preclude being gentle and subtle. Being powerful to me means being comfortable enough in your own skin so that you don’t feel the need to continue explaining yourself after a disagreement.

Sometimes it is just better to agree to disagree, and let it go. Click to Tweet

Let one another sit with each other’s own experience of the dialogue without trying to sway the other’s feelings about it with more words.

Words mean different things to different people. They can be interpreted differently and can be misconstrued. There is the literal dictionary meaning, but there is also the figurative symbolic meaning as well.

Accept others for who they are. Everyone is on their own path of evolution, with their own truths. But we are also mirrors of one another, reflecting the good and the bad in each other. So when we see something we don’t like in another, we should reflect back to see if it is something we don’t like in ourselves.

This brings me to a final point, something that I talk about in Radiant Survivor: what’s really important in life. To me, a strong relationship with myself, with others and with Spirit are what is most important. If you have these, you will have abundance in all aspects of your life.

You will radiate your inner sense of joy, peace, love and fulfillment, and others will feel it. Click to Tweet

Writing a love letter to yourself!

We have had a shaman visiting us for the past week doing healing sessions on our entire family. It has been an experience to say the least…a wonderful experience! After one of my sessions, my homework was to write a love letter to myself to honor those beliefs from the past that have held me hostage for so long and then release them by burning the letter. I finished writing it and was pleased with what I wrote, but then in a meditation afterward, I got a message that said that I needed to change it a bit.

You see, in writing all the things I wanted to release, I used the words “I am this” or “I am that”. For example, I am not worthy, I am unloved, I am undeserving, etc. (Have you ever found yourself using these kind of statements?) These statements were saying that I AM these things, that this is the state I am in. But this isn’t true.

I may feel these things, but I am NOT these things. Click to Tweet

Instead, I FEEL these things deep in my heart. The inner message was telling me that there was an emotion that underlies these feelings, causing them to surface…the emotion of FEAR. And what I needed to do is to get to the root of these feelings, get to the fear. And what would be the best way to do that but to replace that fear with LOVE?

So, here goes…

Dearest Erica,

First I want to tell you that I love you. I hope you know that. I know I don’t always act like I do, but that is because of old beliefs that I have had, and that is why I have written this letter to you.

There are many fears and thoughts and beliefs that have clouded my mind for so long that have prevented me from opening my heart to love, and thus, you have not felt loved like you deserve.

So be with me as I hold everything that I need to let go of, in love’s embrace before I release them…

I don’t feel deserving!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I don’t feel worthy!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel abandoned!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel unloved!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel unable to love!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel frightened! Life scares me!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel shy!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel incapable!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel imperfect!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel stupid!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel like I can’t do anything right!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel ugly!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel jealous and envious!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel mean and angry!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel impatient!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel controlling! I feel like I am not able to let go!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I feel selfish and ego-centric!…I hold you in love’s embrace
I want things my way!…I hold you in love’s embrace

All of you have been with me for a very long time and I honor your presence, but it is now time to release you into the ether to be transmuted into light. You have served your purpose and I bid you farewell.

Now dear Erica, my heart is pure and free from the weight of the past. I embrace you with loving arms. I am you and you are me! We are one!

Much love,
Yourself

Misa Hopkins, bestselling author, healer, speaker and teacher, who healed herself of MS, introduced the Holding Meditation, an ancient meditation where one is held with compassion in the womb of the loving Sacred Feminine essence. When the shaman asked me to write the love letter, embracing myself in love, I thought of the meditation, which you can download for free here.

Yesterday, I took my letter and put it in a despacho, which was burned. A despacho is a shamanic offering to the Universe, in my case, a ritual of energetic exchange for healing. You may be familiar with burning as a technique of getting rid of the baggage of the past. I look forward to seeing what the impact of the burning will have on my healing. Of course, I also have a tremendous amount of “homework” given to me by the shaman to continue my healing and become the “new me”…rituals, creating an altar, flower and salt baths, body movement and reciting a new mantra that is positive and replaces the negative beliefs of the “old me”.

Have you ever written a love letter to yourself? Click to Tweet

Or any letter, for that matter, that helps you release the beliefs from the past that have held you back from really being who you are, from expressing the genuine YOU? If so, what did you do? Did you burn it or cut it up or bury it or release it to the wind? Did it have an impact on your life? I would love to hear your story and its outcome!

If you are interested, please sign up for Sarah’s newsletter in the form to the right. I hope to bring you information that will be inspiring and enlightening to you. Also, the second book of Sarah’s Gift Believing in the Magic has been released on Amazon.

Believe in yourself and watch the miracle unfold!

Recently, I was working with my personal trainer at the gym. (She actually calls herself a functional specialist because she works primarily with people who have some sort of affliction and she tries to help them return to optimum functionality. She herself has had two strokes, so she is the perfect trainer for me!)

She praised me for my strength, but told me that I don’t believe that I’m that strong and that’s what’s holding me back from recovering completely. And you know, she’s right! I’ve had a hard time believing anything positive about myself for a very long time. If you know me, you might think that’s crazy, but it’s not.

Anyway, it has taken her observation of how I am during my sessions with her (and she is unbelievably observant of everything) to show me what has really been delaying my full recovery. It’s about believing in myself!

Below is an excerpt from my book Radiant Survivor. Sometimes it takes a long time for a message to go from your head where you intellectualize about something, to your heart where it becomes part of your core essence. I feel the message from my trainer about believing in myself is finally making it to my heart, after many times trying. I hope this passage helps you in some small way, if you’re feeling puny about yourself.

“Believing in yourself doesn’t come from others or outer circumstances. It comes from within. It’s about having self-love. It’s about knowing that you have something to offer the world – your special gift, whatever it is. It’s about knowing that no matter what your situation is, you have the wherewithal to meet that challenge head on and deal with it.

To believe in yourself, you must first know yourself. Find your true essence, who you are at the center of your being. When you can transcend your self-doubts and fears that cloud your perception of who you truly are, you have reached that place of self-love. In this state of great prowess, you begin to believe in the fabulous unique person that you are and that you have a true purpose on Earth. Believe in yourself and ‘watch the miracle unfold’.

I have an exercise for you. Get out a journal or a notebook and write down all your positive attributes in the form ‘I am _________’ or ‘I have _________’ or ‘I can (do) _________’ or whatever way you can affirm the greatness you have inside. Then whenever you start questioning your worth, repeat whichever attributes are called for at that moment.”

If you are interested, please sign up for Sarah’s newsletter in the form to the right. I hope to bring you information that will be inspiring and enlightening to you. Also, I would love if you would support me in my campaign to “help kids with special gifts build confidence”. It costs nothing, is completely safe and takes five seconds. Finally, the second book of Sarah’s Gift Believing in the Magic will be available for pre-order on June 30 on Amazon with a release date of July 18. My virtual book tour to celebrate its launch will be July 18-29 at bewitchingbooktours.com. I will keep you posted.