I am open to the will of spirit.

I was thinking this morning about “being more open” and opening to the will of spirit. I decided to write a short affirmation to assist me in this process. I thought I’d share it here in the event that it might be helpful for you as well.

Have a good weekend!

I am open to the will of spirit.

I am open.
I am open.

I am open to the will of spirit.
I am open to the will of spirit.

May thy will be my will.
May thy will be my will.

I am open.
I am open.

I am open and my openness draws new opportunities to me.
I am open and my openness draws new experiences to me.

I am open and my openness draws divine favor and divine blessings and divine opportunities into my life.

I am open.
I am open.
I am open.

Take a moment now and focus on opening. Open to receive. Open to greater love. Open to greater world service. Open to greater financial abundance. And above all else open to aligning your will with the will of spirit.

Let this be your experiment today, to open in greater ways: to open to divine blessings, to divine favor, and to divine opportunities.

Go through your day in a state of openness (coupled of course with wisdom and wise decision making). Be aware of how your openness to life impacts the quality of your day.

~Hayley Mermelstein

TRCB Tuesday Video – Opening to the Light.

Welcome to Tong Ren Chakra Balancing (TRCB) Tuesday. This week we will be focusing on opening to the light. Watch this video anytime greater connection to your inner spirit is desired or anytime you would like to connect to a force of life greater than yourself. Allow the tapping and the affirmations to align your chakras and assist you in bringing your best self forward.

This weeks affirmations are as follows:

Crown: I am open to the light.

Third eye: I am open and my clarity will protect me.

Throat: I am a radiant being of light.

Heart: I am a radiant being of light and love.

Solar Plexus: I accept myself completely.

Identity: I know who I am and I know why I am here.

Base: I am disciplined. I attend to my mind, body and spirit every day.

Again, work with these affirmations frequently through out the week and watch the video whenever greater balance is desired.

Now its your turn!

Let us know how this video impacted you? Feel free to leave comments in the space below. We love to hear from you!

I am free and you are free.

Freedom. I’m a freedom lover. I enjoy being free and I enjoy giving others freedom as well. And so today I offer all of us a plate of freedom. You are free and I am free. You are free to be true to yourself. You are free to live a life in alignment with your own true nature. You are free to listen deeply and go where you are guided. You are free to walk away from that which you are guided to leave. You are free to say yes and you are free to say no. You are free to follow the impulses of your spirit and go where you are guided to go.

I grant myself this same freedom.

I am free to listen deeply to my own inner spirit and the whispers of spirit all about me. I am free to go where I am guided to go, and walk away from that which I am guided to leave. I am free to live an attuned life. I am free to follow my deepest impulses and live the life that is meant for me. I am free to say yes, and I am free to say no.

Freedom when coupled with deep listening is highly responsible.
Freedom when separated from deep listening can be highly irresponsible.

And so listen deeply. Listen deeply to the inner core of your being, and listen deeply to the whispers of spirit that are all around you. Spirit will guide you towards the life that is most meant for you. Spirit will guide you toward personal fulfillment, actualization and contribution. Listen deeply. Give yourself freedom to do that which you know is yours to do. Give yourself freedom to be the person that you are most meant to be.

Listen deeply. Be free. And the way forward will be revealed.
Hayley Mermelstein
c. 2014

When we feel betrayed

I was home sick with a cold for much of this week and this gave me some time to think and reflect.  Memories of time when I felt betrayed by a friend rose to the surface.  I felt waves of disbelief and anger rise within as I allowed myself to relive old memories.   How could this have happened?  How could someone I trusted turn on me in such unexpected ways?  Questions surfaced and feelings of blame arose:  How could she have behaved that way?

And then I remembered hearing that when we are feeling anger, sadness, regret, blame or any imbalance to turn to deeper levels of self acceptance and it is there that we will find peace.  This advice made no sense to me on the surface and I found myself thinking, what, my friend betrays me and I need to focus on greater levels of self acceptance??  But despite my skepticism I found myself curious about what would happen if I focused on accepting myself more in this moment.  And so I turned my attention away from my former friend and began to fill myself with a feeling of complete self-acceptance.

I repeated the affirmation:

I accept myself completely.
I accept myself completely.
I accept myself completely.

As I went more deeply into self-acceptance I had a sudden flash of insight.  I realized that the original imbalance lied within me.  I realized that I had a habit of seeing the best in people.  An admirable habit except that I also had a habit of not honestly looking at their weaknesses.  As I result I’ve been blind sided when the weaknesses revealed themselves.  I realized that in this case I had given my trust to someone who wasn’t trustworthy.  This friend has left a trail of broken hearts behind her and I knew that but hadn’t registered that she would ultimately do the same with me.  I hadn’t been willing to look honestly at this persons strengths and weaknesses.

I had a choice, I could blame her for betraying me or I could accept myself more deeply and take responsibility that I hadn’t been discerning enough in the relationship to see this persons strengths and weaknesses.  If I had looked honestly I wouldn’t have been surprised at all by this persons actions.  I would have expected it and seen the potential all along.

We always have a choice.  It is easy to blame others and focus on “what they did”.  And we may even be justified.  But their imbalance is their imbalance and their karma too.  Experiment for today with dropping the focus on them (whoever they might be ) and bring the focus back to yourself.  Fill yourself with a feeling of complete self acceptance and affirm:

I accept myself completely.
I accept myself completely.
I accept myself completely.

What is it that you need to accept about yourself?  What are you dodging by focusing on them?  What is it that you are to learn from this situation?

And so go deeply into self acceptance. Instead of focusing on the imbalances of others learn instead to focus deeply on accepting yourself.  Every time your feathers are ruffled, every time you find yourself focusing on what they did experiment with turning your attention back to yourself and accepting yourself on deeper and deeper levels.  This does not mean to turn a blind eye to the imbalances around you. Look honestly but then return to a place of complete self acceptance.  As you accept yourself on deeper and deeper levels you will grow calm.  When you are calm you will see both yourself and others more clearly.  When you see clearly you will have a deeper understanding of your own responsibility in the situations that you find yourself in and you will feel less blaming and judgmental of others as well.  When you accept yourself you will see the lessons that you are learning.  You will see the purpose of all that is transpiring.  And so make this a daily practice.  Fill yourself with complete self acceptance as you go through your day.  When faced with your various challenges of the day turn to deeper self acceptance.   When faced with the imbalances of others accept yourself on deeper and deeper levels.  Again, your increased self acceptance will bring you calm and your calm will bring you greater levels of clarity.  And so make this your practice for today.  Be gentle with yourself for learning to accept yourself in your entirety is a process.  Learn to accept both your strengths and your weaknesses for everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses.  Learn to accept the fact that you, like everyone else are learning and growing for the earth is a school and you have come for learning and growth.

Accept yourself on deeper and deeper levels and learn to look honestly at those with whom you relate.  In this way you will not be so caught off guard by the imbalances of others but instead aware of the nuiances of each relationship, aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those which you engage and aware of level of trustworthiness of those with whom you interact.

Affirm frequently:

I accept myself completely.
I accept that I have strengths.
I accept that I have weaknesses.
I accept that I, like everyone else, am learning and growing.
I accept myself completely.

The 15 minute rule

When I was in acupuncture school my friend and I made up “the 15 minute rule.” Actually, I’m not even sure if we made it up or simply heard about it somewhere. Anyway, our version of the rule was that we had to spend at least 15 minutes per day studying. Now, I realize this sounds like a very short period of time. But the trick was that it was every single day and that it …got me to sit down and begin. I found that if I just started, if I just sat down, I’d often get into it. In fact, it seemed that the hardest thing to do about studying was starting. Once I began I would sometimes stick to my 15 minutes but more often than not, I would study for longer periods of time. The key to my success as a student came from my 15 minute rule. I rarely crammed for an exam because I was such a regular studier, even if it was only for 15 minutes. Just recently I came across this same concept for house cleaning. The article suggested that you devote 15 minutes per day to house cleaning. Now once again, one could yell out, but this isn’t enough. And while it may not be enough, 15 minutes per day adds up to almost 2 hours of house cleaning per week which is a lot more than zero!

Recently, I decided to apply this same rule to the “marketing” of my business. I’m a healer. I like to focus on healing, writing, creating, sharing. I do well at these things but am not as good about going out into the world and letting people know about Tong Ren Chakra Balancing, about my acupuncture practice, about my energy healing practice, about my cd’s and my books. In fact, I have resisted it terribly. Just recently I had someone suggest that I make one call or take one action per day in relation to the promotion of my various projects. This instantly reminded me of my 15 minutes per day rule. Of course, 15 minutes per day. Spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day promoting your business. Seems like such a simple concept and again seems like not enough time. But one action per day times 365 days per year adds up! So, I’m just embarking on this endeavor. Its been a whole 5 days now(which of course, gives me total license to write about it!) In that time, I’ve promoted this page, called two md’s, and written an article for a magazine. Of course, some of these actions took more than 15 minutes but the point is that breaking it down to devoting 15 minutes per day towards the sharing of my work with the world has suddenly made a daunting task feel more manageable. Some days my action step is a quick phone call, other days it’s the writing of an article. In the past I would stare blankly out into the vast world of options and become paralyzed. Since starting my 15 minutes per day project, it suddenly doesn’t seem so daunting. Just one action step a day. Even I can handle that!

The beauty of the 15 minute a day rule is that it can help get us going in any area of our life where we feel blocked. If your not exercising create a 15 minute rule for yourself. Walk for 15 minutes a day. Do something. Do anything. Just get the energy moving. If your home or office is a mess challenge yourself to spending 15 minutes per day restoring order. 15 minutes times 365 days per year adds up.

I think we, myself included, can get overwhelmed by the many tasks that we have in a day and can overwhelmed by the projects before us. I suggest that you take an area of your life that needs more attention and start by devoting just 15 minutes per day to it. This will help the task feel less daunting and allow you to break it up into doable steps. If you aren’t sure what to do, well just do something, it will help move the energy. Day by day, week by week, change will occur.

As I’m writing I hear this message:

“Too many are looking for the big moves, the big steps, the big action, when so much of life is made up of the little things: the writing of the letter, the 15 minutes of straightening up, the quick phone call. Do not over look these seemingly small action steps for one by one, little by little, they add up and before long you have mastered an art, built a business, gotten in shape, lost the weight, or saved the money. It’s the little things done on a daily basis that create the basis for our lives. Do not overlook the little things. Do not overlook the small steps and changes. Break down your task into small steps and they will seem more doable. If you haven’t exercised in years start with a 10-15 minute walk everyday. If you understood the power of walking 15 minutes per day and how it could transform your health you would for sure begin to day.”

And so again, pick some area of your life where you feel blocked and commit to working on it for 15 minutes a day.
Know that at first you will resist. You won’t want to. Be brave. Be courageous. If you can push through this initial resistance you will find yourself looking forward to your 15 minutes a day and your 15 minutes may become 20 or 25 or longer. But start small and be consistent.

“Too many overestimate what can happen in a short period of time and underestimate what can happen over a longer period of time. And so begin today by devoting 15 minutes to some area of your life that feels blocked. Let this be your commitment to yourself, to your body, to your home, to your business, to your studies, or to whatever area in your life needs it. Begin today and see how this transforms the quality of your life. Remember slow and steady wins the race.”

~Hayley Mermelstein

Cultivating Positive Expectancy

I am filled with positive expectancy

I am filled with positivity.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I expect the best possible outcome.
I expect things to change in my favor.
I expect the goodness of the universe.
I expect new opportunities.
I expect something wonderful to happen.
I expect to be at the right place at the right time.
I expect divine intervention.
I expect divine synchronicity.
I expect healing.
I expect learning.
I expect growth.
I expect the silver lining.
I expect divine love.
I expect supernatural abundance.
I expect miracles.

What I focus on grows.
What I focus on comes forward.
I aim my focus wisely.

I expect divine favor.
I expect divine good fortune.
I expect the best possible outcome for all concerned.
I couple my expectancy with wisdom and wise decision-making.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positivity.

I wrote this affirmation after listening to a talk on positive expectancy.  It is easy, I realized, to think about the worst possible scenario or to dwell in fear or negativity or worry.  These states seem to come naturally to most of us and don’t require much vigilance.   Staying in positivity and positive expectancy that is more of a discipline and cultivation.  What would it be like to start the day looking for the good?  What would it be like to look for miracles?  To look for possibilities?   What would it be like to really embrace the idea that there are spiritual forces of life that are working with us to assist us in our life’s journey?

During last nights meditation class we explored some of these themes.  I thought I’d share some of that exploration with all of you.

Lets begin today’s meditation with the affirmation:

I am filled with positive expectancy
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.

Positive expectancy resides in the crown chakra, the center for trust, devotion, inspiration, positivity, spontaneity and connection to spirit.

Allow yourself to sit in this energy now.  Feel the open and expanded feeling at the top of your head.  Feel your connection and unity and oneness with all of life.  Remember that you are not alone.  Remember that powerful beings of light are all around you assisting you in your life’s path.  Remember that these forces of life want you to be successful, want you to bring your work out into the world, want you to actualize your best self and offer your full contribution.  We are here on earth to learn, to grow, to contribute and to enjoy. Sometimes difficult experiences are needed for growth and learning.  Know that your challenges have come to help you grow.  Learn to embrace your challenges and learn to look for the learning.  Any situation can be filled with positivity when you know what you are learning.

I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.

Take an area of your life where you feel discouraged, bring this part of your life to mind and then fill yourself with positive expectancy.

I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.

Sit in this feeling of positive expectancy now.  When you are in this open state ideas will come to you.  Creative solutions will fill your mind. When you are in this open state you will be able to hear the whispers of spirit that are guiding you in your path of fulfillment.

I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.

Now this time, I would like you to bring your awareness to your third eye, located in the center of your forehead.  This is the center for wisdom and clarity.  We always want to couple our deep trust in life with wisdom and clarity.  Children trust.  There crowns are wide open but trust alone can be dangerous.  A young child will get into a car with almost any stranger.  As adults we want to couple our trust in life with wisdom and discernment and wise decision-making.  And so this time sit in positive expectancy, sit in the knowledge that powerful forces of light are working with you.  Sit in the awareness that all of life is conspiring in your favor, wishing you growth and learning and actualization.  And at the same time bring your awareness to the center of your forehead.  I would like you to activate your third eye by holding a vision of a triangle in your minds eye (focus and concentration help to strengthen the third eye).  Hold this vision of a triangle for 30 seconds.  Now let go of the image of the triangle and imagine a round window in the center of your forehead. Look at the area of your life that you have brought to mind.  It can be a relationship, your finances, your work, your health and wellness.  Look at this situation and ask, what can I do to improve this situation?  What action do I need to take?  Gently peer out of your third eye and see what you see.  Allow the third eye to guide you in appropriate action.  Sometimes you will be guided to take steps forward and sometimes you will be guided to be patient and simply sit in positive expectancy.

I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positive expectancy.

And so, once again, we want to remember to couple our positive expectancy with wisdom and clarity and wise decision-making.  We want to couple our deep trust in life with discernment and awareness.  What we focus on grows.  What we focus on comes forward.  Learn to aim your focus wisely.  Learn to look for the learning.  Learn to look for the growth.  Begin your day with the question, What miracles will come my way today?  What good fortune will unfold today?  Couple this optimism with wisdom and clarity.  Learn to go through your day with your crown chakra open and couple this openness with the wisdom and clarity of the third eye.  My meditation teacher says go through your day looking through the center of your forehead.

And so stay in positive expectancy today and at the same time  stay focused in the third eye.  You can do this by imagining a round window in the center of your forehead and peering out of this window as your go through your day.  In this way your crown will be open and you will have access to your guides and you will be centered in wisdom and clarity and have access to the your own deep inner wisdom.  Be trusting, have faith and couple this trust and faith with great wisdom and discernment.

And so affirm one last time:

I am filled with positivity.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I expect the best possible outcome.
I expect things to change in my favor.
I expect the goodness of the universe.
I expect new opportunities.
I expect something wonderful to happen.
I expect to be at the right place at the right time.
I expect divine intervention.
I expect divine synchronicity.
I expect healing.
I expect learning.
I expect growth.
I expect the silver lining.
I expect divine love.
I expect supernatural abundance.
I expect miracles.

What I focus on grows.
What I focus on comes forward.
I aim my focus wisely.

I expect divine favor.
I expect divine good fortune.
I expect the best possible outcome for all concerned.
I couple my expectancy with wisdom and wise decision-making.
I am filled with positive expectancy.
I am filled with positivity.

~Affirmation from Advanced TRCB- The Book of Affirmations
(coming this fall!)