Bright Star Studio
A Place of Art and Spirit
How deep is your love?
yes, I’ll be corny and reference a popular Bee Gees song. I do so love that song. I find it a heartfelt dialogue between God and human. Take a deeper listen and I’m sure you’ll hear it, too.
Now, let’s get to the real nitty-gritty of this article:
The night before last, I felt someone praying for me.
It’s true, I did. I felt the energy of prayer for me from another. It was sweet and amazing. It was from a neighbor praying for me and asking God to bless me. It was unmistakable and real.
This was a man, just a day or two prior, I heard yelling for help after a loud crash just moments before. I had my home office doors open as it was an unseasonably warm and sunny winter day. I left to explore and caught a glimpse of my neighbor trapped under a pulled trailer that had overturned and pinned him down on a steep driveway. He was bloody with multiple facial lacerations. Long, long story short, I was there to lift the trailer and help release him. During his nightly prayers, he was sending me love and thanks for helping him.
This was the second time I felt someone’s prayers for me. The first time I had this experience was while working with a Spiritual Teacher a few years prior. I felt his general prayers of love for me one night. I kind of just chalked it up to the fact I was working with this great spiritual person. I mean, I was surprised to feel it, but it made sense and I was happy to have felt it. It made me engage more with doing the same for the people I do spiritual work for, understanding that it does reach them, even if they are not aware of it.
This time, it felt just as great but triggered a whole new spectrum of wonder to consider. What are the variables at play here that are allowing me to feel this now? I mean, I’m not a bad person and relatively certain someone, somewhere has said a prayer or two for me before. So, why did I not feel it?
Why was I able to feel these two prayers?
I started to look at the two components and considered: what is going on with the sender of the prayer and what is going on with the receiver of the prayer.
There must be some type of quality or energetic level which would enable a prayer to be perceived.
Prayers can be a light, general type of thought that passes. Prayers can also be intensely heartfelt and even charged with depth and emotion. We’ve all experienced the difference between lightly thinking a thought and deeply being connected to them with emotion. I believe the man I helped wanted deeply, with all of his soul, to thank me and send me blessings. I believe this added spiritual weight to it, so to speak.
Interestingly enough, around both of the times that I was aware of the prayers of another for me, I had been involved in studying and working with the spiritual aspects of receiving. This time, I was reading Sanaya Roman’s book, Living With Joy, which states that sometimes we are only open partially to receiving love, even as little as 25%. I looked back on several encounters and could see where I was closed off from receiving love.
I was trying to stretch and actively work on being more open and allowing space to receive love.
Recently, another spiritual teacher, had given me the idea of receiving love from the sunlight and moonlight and I had been practicing this.
It was in the quiet moments of receptive stillness that I was able to perceive the love and prayers of another for me.
I felt I caught a glimpse of what I imagine Helen Keller might have felt the first time she associated ‘finger-play’ with meaning.* It was her door to communicating with the outer world.
Feeling the prayer of another for me opened up a whole new realm of the experience of feeling in the spirit world. I felt the realness of prayer and the real connection which runs between us.
So, how deep is your love?
How deep are your prayers and how open are you to receiving love?
Keep in mind that even the smallest of prayers have great value. But, if you want to expand these skills, try giving it some thought and attention. Really feel the depth when praying for others and allow yourself to be more open to receiving.
Look at the moonlight and feel love.
Be open to receiving love.
And, as always, give yourself love for engaging in spiritually expansive activities!
Keep me posted..
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*Helen Keller lost the ability to see, hear or speak at the age 6 due to an illness. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, would spell with her fingers the names of familiar objects into Helen’s hand. Helen enjoyed this “finger play game,” but she didn’t understand it was related to anything significant until the enlightening moment when Sullivan spelled “w-a-t-e-r” while pumping water over her hand. This had been done hundreds of times before, but there was one moment of connection. Helen Keller later wrote:
“Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! … Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.”
Engaging in a Life Review – Part 2
During my ordination training, it was taught that upon completion of this life we are asked three questions by God,
What did you do?
What did you learn?
What did you love?
This really could be all that is said in this article, as these questions are sure to fill you up with much contemplation and introspection.
So, I’ll leave you with the activity of engaging in the deeper meaning of your life.
For those who would enjoy some further commentary, please read on.
Regarding the questions, my guess here is that God is not asking these of your personality, but of our soul. I mean, God is not inquiring about your profession, as if at a cocktail party. Instead, God is asking about that which filled your life. What did your soul do and engage in?
What did you do…probably as deep as you can go with it.
A sample answer might start out something like “I went to school, became an accountant, got married, had children, saved for my retirement, lived in a neighborhood, I learned math, I loved my family….and so on.
However, I think the answers are meant to come from the ‘core’ of your being.
Another way to think about it might be from your soul’s perspective…What did your ‘soul’ do?
So, deeper answers could be, for example, “I helped people with their finances. I overcame obstacles. I learned to walk my talk. I loved teaching/being a parent. I loved writing. I loved watching the sunset. “
And yet, a still deeper response might be “I provided honest financial services for people in their times of need and helped educated them in becoming independent. I faced and overcame alcoholism. I developed resilience. I learned how to see bad events in a good light. I learned the value of family. I loved caring for another. I loved being gentle.”
My intellectual mind thinks that God does not actually ask us these questions because I believe God already knows the answers…probably better than we do.
But, if these questions are asked, it is to encourage us to engage in fully grasping the value of our life, even though (and maybe especially since) we may not have seen it at the time.
And, by having been given this gift of being presented with these questions ‘during’ our life, we have an opportunity to explore this deeper and truly see now…the divinity that exists now in our life. These are the true pearls, the spiritual gains we will take with us.
The physical and the catalyst will fade away and we will carry with us the lessons learned, the strength gained and th
e love experienced.
Be open to this now. See the blessings and sacredness of your life now.
Ted Andrews states that insects are the ‘keepers of the unspoken word’ and that crows are the ‘keepers of universal law.’
In addition to our lives being lessons and experiences, we also hold spiritual traits as a group and individually.
Examples of such traits would be Integrity, Endurance, Adventure, Partnership, Compassion, Balance, Strength and Transformation. The scope is vast.
Think about your life. What spiritual traits are you espousing?
Once identified, take pride in holding these qualities in existence. Honor this within you.
So, again, take another look and ask your life:
What did you do?
What did you learn?
What did you love?
What spiritual qualities do you hold?
Engaging in thoughtful exercises of evaluating our life helps us connect with the deeper and more sacred aspects of our lives. This expands our knowing of our true self, adds meaning and advances our spiritual development. It also settles the soul as we can better feel our value.
Love your life. Honor yourself.
Enjoy.
p.s. If you are struggling with starting, wish to see more or are just curious, send me an email and I’ll send you an example of what I came up with when I first did this exercise.
Engage in a ‘Life Review’ – Part 1
They say that after you complete this life there is a review period… a reflection time to overview your life. It is said this is done with complete love and without judgment. We assess our choices, state of being, how we handled things, lessons learned, etc.
I don’t know if this is true, but I believe it to be true.
Many also believe it is prudent to get a head start by doing periodic life reviews.
I’ve done this for the past decade…periodically over viewing and assessing my life in this manner; and I have to say that I have found it not only terribly helpful, but life changing, as well.
In the beginning, it was really difficult. It was hard to imagine doing this without being extremely critical and self-condemning. I wept many times over the thought of having to review and relive much of my life…especially the early years. This was my human-self reacting.
I kept being reminded that the life review is truly done in a place of complete love and compassion. Although it is hard for my human-self to get there, this concept has stretched my abilities. I’ve learned to practice…just the thought of this. I’ve caught glimpses of this type of divine self reflection, and each time I can experience more of it. It is an easing process.
The other task is to be able to view your life ‘as a whole’ and see it from a larger perspective. Seeing your life with love and compassion from a large perspective and gently evaluating it offers rich rewards. It can help you come to peace and understanding about your choices and situations. It can help you see patterns and direction. It can help you better align with that which you want to do and how you want to live.
And most of all, it can help you avoid feelings of regret and remorse upon your end-of-life time. It is truly a sad place to be…one of “I wish I had….”
Review now. Resolve issues now. Make peace with your life. Go through periodic times of evaluation to keep on track.
It can also help to ask yourself “When I look back on my life, I want to see…”
Questions to ask yourself would be: What is dearest to your heart? What is it you wish to do most? While it is true we have as many lives as we want…why wait? Why experience regret, remorse and sadness?
My own self reflection reveals ‘What I want most is to be proud of my life’. I can’t always say I have been able to do that in the past, but I can say that now. I also want to live a beautiful life. I heard a friend comment that she wanted to live a bold life.
It is so easy to get off track. Whatever type of life you desire, keep it close to your heart and your awareness, and periodically assess if you are on track.
Make only choices that support your ultimate goal.
I try to live not being afraid, loving myself and moving forward.
Keep in mind, there is always a turning point where we may decide to go in a different direction; a turning point of growth, love and understanding, and of living more of the divine life that we are given the opportunity to live.
Each of us has this desire within us, whether it is to be a divine parent, mechanic, teacher, real estate agent, or…..
An earnest life review now can help get us there.
Review you life…where do you need to make amends? Where do you need to experience more joy? Where do you need more love and understanding? Where do you need to live in more balance? What will it take for you to live now, in balance, with the feeling of not owing or being owed? Can you release those you feel are indebted to you..those who you feel owe you? Coming to peace with the situation and releasing them frees you.
Do this several times a year and anytime you feel out of balance.
Assess your current actions and be pure with them to assure that you are not making offerings which, in some way, hold the other person in debt to you. Do things because you wish to do them and you want to offer them. Be clear about this within yourself. Do things only when it is right and feels good to do so. Do not make actions out of guilt or to get something in return. Be clear and honest with yourself about this. This will help you to balance your emotional state and above all, love yourself.
Give yourself credit for engaging in challenging task such as this. Be gentle and loving with yourself.
Fix the things you can in your life…let the rest go.
Follow that which brings you joy.
Many do this review and evaluation in a deeply private state, many work with a spiritual advisor to help with guidance and perspective, and many utilize a type of journaling. No matter your preferred method, engage, review and enjoy.
I’d love to hear your experience and comments on the exercise!
Bringing in what you need…
The Healthiest You Series
The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing
Just as the physical body needs nourishment, so does the Emotional Body. At first glance, we can readily acknowledge that this nourishment is supplied by the emotions and experiences of love, joy, comfort, happiness, etc. And while these are all major sources, there are also many, many other varieties of emotional nutrients to consider.
Some of these include: interest, excitement, engagement, connection, harmony, beauty, vitality, expression, reward, recognition, solitude, peace, clearing, activity, appreciation, forgiveness, freedom, understanding, intimacy, worthiness, success, etc. There may be others that come to mind for you.
The ones that piqued your interest here might be ones that you need at this time. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
And at the same time, it somehow makes us feel better just knowing this. It is amazing how this works. This is because the Emotional Body is going…”Finally! Finally, I am beginning to be understood.” And a flood of warmth flows in. Sit and just bask in this idea for a moment…
The idea of and attention to emotional nourishment is a fun one.
First, we want to become aware of the many different and wonderful ways to nourish.
Next, we want to learn how to bring these in.
Exercise:
Find quiet place just to be. Ask for guidance, love and protection.
Take a few centering deep breaths.
(This is a feeling exercise so try to quiet the mind as best you can.)
Start to notice and feel your Emotional Body. This is done by identifying and becoming familiar with the emotional energy surrounding you. This is the area that holds and governs your emotional activity. What does it feel like? Is it balanced? Does it feel slightly off? Is there a place that feels lacking?
Just sit and feel. Just 
sit and notice. Breathe deep from time to time. If you could give yourself something, what would it be? Take as much time here as you need.
When you are ready, ask the question to your Emotional Body, “What do you need?”
Wait for the answer.
The answer will come in a feeling, generally speaking; but be open to thoughts, visual clues or other avenues of expression that will lead you to the answer. You may even just come to ‘know’ the answer without being able to describe how.
Spend some time here just feeling, noticing, observing and being aware. This is where you are developing your sensitivity to feeling your emotional body and what it needs.
Just notice what comes up.
Observe.
Then, when something does come up that you can identify, send a message of appreciation to your emotional body for showing this to you and for identifying it. Surround the encounter with a warm glowing light.
Then, whatever the identified quality is (love, joy, connection, warmth, recognition, excitement, connection, etc…) give this to yourself.
The way to do this is to take a moment and feel what this quality feels like. Explore deeply what this quality is, what it means to you and what it feels like to you. If it is a quality that you would like, but is unfamiliar to you, then spend some time imagining what it would feel like.
Bring it into your inner self.
Bask in it.
Expand it. Encompass it.
Fill up with it.
Know and experience what this quality feels like inside.
It is as simple as that.
When you are filled up and ready to complete the exercise, come back into daily awareness and know you can connect to this whenever you need.
The more you do this exercise, the deeper you will go and the more aware and in tune you will become. Keep in mind that there also needs to be a system of releasing, in order to make room and to keep things in balance. So, don’t forget to attend to this aspect as well.
Our outer world is largely influenced by our inner world. Notice after just doing this exercise once that your perspective, feelings and view of the world changes. You become lighter and happier. Notice how doing this exercise regularly brings greater love within and how the outer world evolves to match it.
Have fun and play around with it. And, as always, give yourself a lot of credit for going deeper, feeling more and reaching for a better place.
The Emotional Body: Part 1, The Basics
The Emotional Body: Part 2, Intake and Releasing
The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing
The Emotional Body: Part 4, Developing Intuition
Mental Body and Spiritual Body series to follow.
Copyright © Bright Star Studio, llc.
Emotional Body: Intake and Releasing
The Healthiest You Series
As discussed in the previous article, the Emotional Body has a digestive system, much similar to the physical body. It just works in the emotional realm.
What this means is that there is a system of evaluation. In a healthy and ideal system, the Emotional body will keep that which is nourishing and release the rest. This is the overall goal and objective.
Many times, when we are unaware of the intake evaluation process, we accept everything that is thrown at us or presented to us, or we do the opposite and reject everything. In the former we take in too much and the later we take in too little, including nourishment.
So, the first big step is to recognize and start to work with the initial intake evaluation of emotions. This may seem like a difficult concept for some. But, just realize that there is a choice of what we bring in from the outer world into our inner world. If you are already comfortable with this process, you can begin to work deeper with it.
A basic example would be if someone were to say to me “Leigh, I think these articles are stupid” or if they were to roll their eyes when I tell them what I do. In the past, I probably would have been hurt, upset or at least have felt bad. Now, I’ve learned I can look at the comment/gesture, evaluate it and then decide what to do with it. This is done before reacting.
Now, who the person is that made that comment, and the situation play a large part in deciding whether to take it in or release it and not bring it in (therefore not being hurt by it). If this is a stranger, it’s easier to give it no value. If other reasons followed the comment or if this is my spiritual teacher, then that will take further work.
The idea, at least in the beginning, is to slow things down to understand all of the elements at play.
I do not have to feel bad because someone does not like my work. I can discard the comment. Another way to look at this would be choosing not to participate. Or I can choose to evaluate my work on a different level. I can digest the comment further and decide if changes do need to be made or if this is helping me identify something I need to address or heal.
When we recognize s
omething within that feels bad, we are presented an opportunity to heal it.
This whole work on spiritual development is microscopic management and understanding of the inner world and how to make your inner world healthy and beautiful.
The two parts here are identifying what is being presented to you and what is in your inner world, and then deciding what to do with it.
Exercise:
The next time you have a noticeable emotional reaction (big or small), take a few minutes to look at it a little deeper. Ask yourself to describe what you were feeling and why. It is very important to remain extremely neutral with this. Give yourself permission to be as honest as you can. Do not judge, just notice.
Deep self honesty is the foundation of spiritual health and the ability to heal.
Practice consciously making the decision to take in or release (discard) different things presented to you.
If the item is unpleasant then you can choose to discard it. You can even take it a step further and replace it with a thought or emotion that is nourishing, which would be a deeper skill. You can also deem it for the highest good or send it love.
The ability to release that which is no longer needed, that which is harmful and that which no longer serves is very important and vital to a healthy system.
Take some time to think about what it is you no longer need that you can release. Send it away with love. A deep or forced exhalation can help.
This also gets us looking at the inner self and thinking about what it needs for nourishment. This can be a deeper exercise to play around with. Take some time to think about what it is you need and how you can give it to yourself.
Doing this type of exercise will help you further be able to identify what is being presented and also what is in your inner world. Both are huge and valuable skills.
And always, give yourself lots of loving credit for engaging in practices to make you happier and healthier!
-L. Leigh Meriweather
The Emotional Body: Part 1, The Basics
The Emotional Body: Part 2, Intake and Releasing
The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing
The Emotional Body: Part 4, Developing Intuition
Mental Body and Spiritual Body series to follow.
Copyright © Bright Star Studio, llc.
The Emotional Body: the Basics
The Healthiest You Series
Many of us understand how to achieve better physical health: exercise, eat well and get enough rest…plus or minus a few other rules. However, how many of us are aware of the other bodies we need to take care of? These include an Emotional body, a Mental Body and a Spiritual body.
The focus of this article is on the Emotional Body and what it needs for optimum health. The first step is to understand that we do, in fact, have an emotional body, what its purpose is and how it works. The second is to gain some basic information on how we can connect and communicate with it for optimal emotional health.
To start, emotions serve the purpose of helping us guide our life, align with our inner purpose and help us make right choice for us. Just as our physical body manages the aspects of the physical body, the emotional body manages the functions of our emotions in relation to ourselves and our lives.
The Emotional body even has a digestive system, similar to the physical body. This is where intake is ‘digested’, items are broken down and it is decided what to keep (nourishment) and what to discard. When we are not consciously aware of this, it can seem like emotions are something that happen to us and even get in situations where we feel we are on a roller coaster ride or overwhelmed with emotion. This is because we are not connected to the fact that we are doing the digestion, that we have communication and influence in the digestion. We are not getting the message the emotions are trying to give us and we are not using emotions wisely.
Emotions can also help us access and create more of what we want in our inner world, which helps us do the same in our outer world. In addition, emotions can help us heal and develop our intuition and inner knowing.
Keep in mind that emotions and feelings are different. Emotions are temporal expressions of a certain type of energy. Feelings are in the inner world and are related to our core self. I can experience anger (emotion) at being fired because in my inner world I feel hurt. The joy (emotion) I experience with my dog is because I feel deep love for her. The fear (emotion) I experience is because of unsafety or insecurity I feel inside.
It is not as important to make the distinction every time and detail this out. It is more important to generally realize there is a separation and that emotions are here to guide us to better understanding our inner world. Emotions are meant to be a tool. We do not have to be attached to them, over whelmed by them or hurt by them. Fully grasping this distinction can be a huge step in emotional health.
So, just start to notice and feel what you are experiencing on a very average everyday experience.
Emotions serve as a way to guide us to know how we are feeling. Often, we process this without realizing it. How many times do we leave a room or make an odd decision just based on a ‘feeling.’ Our emotions and feelings are here to help us and we are in constant communication with them, whether we realize it or not and whether we pay attention to them or not.
Once we start to pay attention to our emotions and see how they are related to our inner self and inner feelings, we can work with them better, and make choices that more align us with our highest self and even help the emotional body discard that which is not needed. This can be done for small, every day decisions to larger, life direction changing decisions.
When we have the skill and ability to know what we are feeling and why, we can be clear in our intention, communication and be better balanced emotionally. It can also lead us to develop our intuition deeper.
Exercise:
The first step is to start to pay attention to our emotions and how they are related to how we feel in our inner self. This takes some time. The purpose of this exercise is to get to know your baseline. You need to know where you start. Get familiar with your specific type of feelings and emotions.
Start by taking 5-10 minutes to overview your day and the various emotions that you had.
Sometimes you might be surprised to see where you had a reaction to something that you did not fully understand. It could be a simple as being irritated at a salesperson or a experiencing a sudden sense of sadness you felt during the day. If you look closely, you will find a connection to something. It could be that something in the salesperson reminded you of someone who hurt in the past or a picture of a couple in an ad which reminded you of a certain time and feeling .
Next time you have a strong emotional reaction to something, take the time to look deeper. Ask yourself what you are feeling or what else this reminds you of. Delve deeper with it. Give yourself permission to explore. You can also do this with a past occurence.
One of the most important aspects of doing an exercise like this is to do it objectively. Just observe and look. Try not to attach any judgment, blame or wrongness about it. Truly just try to see it as a messenger.
Once you are able to identify it, it is easier to understand and deal with it. From here you can start to process it or make the decision to discard it.
The first exercise here is just to slow down and notice. Spend some time in reflection about the various emotions you experience and how they are related to your inner feeling and inner self.
Continued posts to follow:
The Emotional Body: Part 1, The Basics
The Emotional Body: Part 2, Intake and Releasing
The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing
The Emotional Body: Part 4, Developing Intuition
Mental Body and Spiritual Body series to follow.
Spiritual and Energy Cleansing Lemon Bath
Yellow is a ‘sun’ color. It makes us feel happy and optimistic
It lifts the soul. It is cheerful, joyful, friendly. It helps you go through changes. Lemon is a natural cleanser with qualities of purification and love. The lemon symbolizes the human heart, light and love. Lemon is known to bring in feelings of healing and love in addition to calming and a sense of well-being.
So, with this in mind, it seems only fitting that lemon would be the ideal agent to help with energetic and spiritual cleansing. Here is what you do.
Set aside a time to hold your Spiritual/Energy Lemon Cleanse.
This can be done with either a bath or shower. Both are nice and have unique qualities. With a bath, start by adding a few drops to the water prior to entering. With a bath you can feel totally surrounded and emerged in the cleansing. With a shower, it is easier to visualize the negativity being washed off, down the drain or to change water temperature to aid in different feelings. Both are nice.
Hold the intent the entire time that the purpose is to cleanse energy, ridding and washing away negative energies for the highest good. Ask for divine protection.
Visualize and feel the negative, heavy issues being washed away.
Think of, visualize and feel the cleansing qualities of the lemon being used to aid in this. I like to use several lemons and taking them just from the refrigerator so the are nice and cold. I also de-seed them just prior to use.
Lighting a candle helps bring in the transformative and regenerative energy of fire.
Keep in mind that coughing or gagging can be the physical expression of the body eliminating energetic gunk. Go with the flow.
Playing soothing music may add to the goal.
Holding each lemon or lemon half in the palm of you hand acknowledging the cleansing spiritual quality of lemon, honoring and thanking the lemon will help strengthen the effects and bring in more light and love.
During the cleansing gently squeeze drops from the lemon slowly from head to toe. Feel the cleansing, feel the love, feel the gunk wash away. Bring in the light and love. Surround yourself in light and love. See and feel bright yellow, golden light as you do this.
If you have other essences, lavender or chamomile, make nice additions and helpers although, not necessary.
Any of this can be tailored as desired. The important thing is the intent and feeling of cleansing and restoration.
Have fun!
