At my Wednesday night Gathering for Pioneering Souls, my guide, Otmon gave us some good advice that I thought I’d pass on to you. He said that any place in our life that we felt at the effect of someone or something (meaning feeling oppressed or like we had no choice) that was a symptom that we have given our power away in that situation.

The solution, he said,  is to simply decide to take your power back. You don’t even have to know how to do that. Just decide and then ask your Higher Power for assistance, and you will be shown the way, step by step. 

He also said that in this time of great change it was imperative that we make changes in the direction of what we want to create rather than making changes to get away from something we don’t want. He said whatever our focus we will create more of, so if we are making a change to get away from an unpleasant situation we will simply recreate it in some other form. Better to get clear or what you DO want and take steps, no matter how small, in that direction.

This is a powerful time in history to be launching new projects. Everything is in flux and we have the best possible chance to shape how things settle out. Great time to dust off you dream and get crackin’

Love and light,

Jennifer

I had a lot of things I could have, and should have, done during the Memorial Day Weekend. For one, I’m on a mission to clear out the spare bedroom in my home to make room for someone (or a couple) to share my home as a way of exploring living in community, because I am seeing that living in community and sharing resources will be the only way humanity can survive.

Those of you who remember the communes of the 60s know most of them didn’t last very long, but we have learned alot about human psychology since then, and for those who want to learn how to live pleasurably and comfortably with a diversity of people, there is plenty of education available, and I have become a student.

So, anyway . . . I “should have been” clearing the clutter, but instead, early Saturday I was drawn to download an advanced Light Body course called Exploring Connections with Light Body Consciousness,  and I spent most of Sunday and all day Monday listening to the meditations.

While I am extremely grateful that I have the space to do that, I am also grateful that I trust my guidance enough to do as I was guided, instead of what I “should do.”

The result was that I woke up this morning feeling like today was a new beginning. I felt refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated and energetic to get on with the tasks that had previously been a burdened to-do list.

I hope this encourages you to follow your yearning for quiet time when it arises. These are whispers from your heart and soul, which when honored, struggle ceases, and joy abounds!

Love and light,

Jennifer

In 1996, I was in the throes of growing spiritually when none of my family or friends had any interest in the subject. Although I was teaching awakening light body classes, so I had students, I had no peers to talk with until I came across the manuscript for Call From the Heart, written by Martina Dobesh. Reading about her spiritual journey validated my own journey. I now had proof that i wasn’t crazy. My spiritual experiences were “normal.” What a relief that was for me.

At the time I was looking for a project to generate money to build a retreat center and I got the bright idea that I could possibly publish Martina’s book to raise retreat center funds. I met with Martina and when she said she just wanted to see it in print, it was agreed I would publish her book, give her some copies for herself and sell the rest of them to raise money for the retreat center.

People would ask, “have you ever published a book before?” and I’d respond with “no, but how hard could it be?”

Oh brother! It was very hard and it took me a year to produce a finished product, but in the process I learned a lot from Martina about opening my heart.

The book won three awards from the Sacramento Publishers Association, so in that sense it was a “success,” but the retreat center never happened.

Over time Martina and I drifted apart. She moved to Baja, Mexico and we lost touch. We recently reconnected when I received an email from Martina that included her eZine, The Baja Sun, that features articles by Baja writers covering the news from Baja. It is beautifully produced with lots of inspirational material.

If you’d like to be on the mailing list for the eZine you can contact Martina at TheBajaSun@gmail.com.

BTW Call From The Heart is still available through resellers on Amazon.com. I have included the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=martina+dobesh&x=0&y=0

Love and light,

Jennifer

I have been a fan of non violent communication for quite some time and feel a strong affinity for their philosophy that all people have the same basic needs and when all people’s needs are met we can live peacefully.

The BayNVC group in Oakland, CA has formed a Consciousness Transformation Community that holds great promise. Learn more: http://ctc.learnnvc.com . Check out their core commitments and if it resonates you might want to sign up to receive their monthly bulletins. http://baynvc.org

They are having a Self-Acceptance Without Limits workshop this Saturday, May 8th. Most of us can use a little more self-acceptance. We Pioneering Souls can sometimes be so HARD on ourselves!

Love and light,

Jennifer

Here is a link to a couple of sound attunements that can accelerate the energy clearings we need to make to be in alignment with the inflowing cosmic energies stimulating the evolution of humanity. http://tomkenyon.com/sound-gifts

If you’d like to receive Tom’s newsletter with his channelings about the earth changes go to http://tomkenyon.com and click on the Contact link to sign up for his newsletter.

Love and light,

Jennifer

For those of you who are visionary, I know you share my frustration of seeing so clearly the future only to be met with unsuppressed sighs and eye-rolls when you share your vision, and the exhilaration you feel when your vision is finally validated by an outside “authority” like science or mass media.

Such was the case when I was thumbing through a Time magazine in my dentist’s office.

The March 22nd Annual Issue featured an article, “The Dropout Economy: The Future of Work Looks a Lot Like Unemployment.” The article suggested that the young people dropping out of the educational system (30% drop out of high school, and less than a third of young people have finished college) are on to something (realizing that the road to financial security does not lie in getting a college education, then landing a high paying job . . . that . . . hello . . . those jobs are leaving the U.S. faster than fleas off a dog on fire!) The article goes on to predict that the jobs that do emerge will be ones we can hardly imagine right now.

I have been saying that for years!

But the part of the article that caused me to feel the most exhilarated was the prediction of community living.  “. . . private homes will increasingly give way to cohousing communities, in which singles and nuclear families will build makeshift kinship networks in shared kitchens and common areas . . .”

You see, over the last five years when I have shared my vision of humanity evolving into living communally, along with the sighs and eye-rolls, I’ve endured comments like: “we already tried that in the 60s. It doesn’t work.” Or “that’s communism.”

Well, OK. Excuse me.

So I quit talking about it, but I’ve kept a casual eye on the movement towards various forms of intentional communities, ranging from living off the grid to luxurious communities of individual dwellings in gated communities, and plenty of diversification in between.

As time is prone to do, it has marched on, and we now find ourselves in the midst of a global crises of consuming earth’s resources beyond our capacity to sustain ourselves as a species. So guess what is emerging? Community living!

There are so many intentional communities emerging around the world there is even an organization that provides a directory to such communities.

I can’t tell you how much I love being right (because that wouldn’t be spiritual—it would be ego talking, right?)!

Personally, I am not that much of a community kind of person. I like an inordinate amount of alone time. I like doing things how I like, when I like, preferably without bystander’s comments that what I just did could have been done better their way . . . and they are right!

Yet, I absolutely know, that as a species, our survival is dependent upon us coming together in community to conserve resources and live sustainably. Rather than resist what I consider inevitable, I have taken the co-creator position to either locate, or create, a community of people I think I would enjoy living with.

So far this is my vision of my ideal intentional community:

A community of pioneering souls on a path of conscious evolution that embraces diversity of people, customs and view points. What we have in common is a desire to transcend ego and victim consciousness. We recognize ourselves as co-creators of our lives. We value transparency, authenticity, integrity, accountability, allowing, and tend to focus on what is working and making it better, while letting what is not working dissolve from lack of attention.

We value humor, fun, and the full range of being human, including our sexuality in whatever form consenting adults find pleasurable that does not negatively impact non-consenting adults.

As I explore various communities these are some of the features I’ve encountered that I want in my community:

1. Consensus based. Nothing happens unless everyone agrees. The philosophy behind this is that in a small community, having even a few disgruntled people diminishes the happiness of everybody. My (untested) philosophy is that it is possible for everyone’s needs to be met, and no one has to sacrifice something important to them, as long as having everyone’s needs met is held as a desirable community value, and that every interested party is willing to keep thinking outside the box until an acceptable solution is reached. (Notice I said everyone’s needs can be met, not necessarily everyone’s wants, which is an important distinction.)

2. Living joyfully is important. No matter the task at hand, I’d like an underlying focus of “how much joy can we experience in accomplishing this task?” be part of the equation.

3. I am inspired by Lafayette More House community whose only rule is “don’t do anything you don’t want to do.” I’d like our community to agree that if one cannot give a whole-hearted “yes” to a request, they have the courage to say “no” rather than perform with resentment.

4. My ideal community supports a high-level of clear, non-judgmental communication skills. I like the Non-Violent Communication guidelines put forth by Marshall Rosenberg as a possible communication blueprint. It fosters a partnership approach to relationships as opposed to hierarchical relationships based on reward and punishment.

In investigating shared housing possibilities I have imagined what a humongous task it would be to pare the possessions from my current 1,400 square feet of living space that is all mine into a single bedroom of private space! While that is a daunting task indeed, the other side of the equation is the paring of living expenses to next to nothing! A tantalizing concept, indeed! Not to mention being in community where my contribution was doing what I love to do, while other’s contributions took care of many of my needs. Hmm . . . something to at least think about!

You know how Ghandi said “be the change you wish to see in the world?” I am taking my first steps in preparing to be in community. I am downsizing from the master bedroom in my home to the tiny bedroom adjacent to the room I use for my home office. This will create a little suite for me that includes the hall bath. I will offer to rent the master bedroom to a pioneering soul (or couple) on the path of conscious evolution who would like to experiment with community living as a preferred lifestyle.

As of now, anyway, that’s the plan, while I continue my exploration of the myriad communities already in existence to glean wisdom from those actually successful at this lifestyle.

On May 22nd I’ll be taking a one day tour of San Francisco area cohousing neighborhoods sponsored by The Cohousing Association of the United States (www.cohousing.org). (Their motto is “build a better society one neighborhood at a time.”)

BOTTOM LINE: However the current “economic recovery” takes place, the jobs that have gone away are not coming back. Earth’s resources are dwindling as population grows. Conserving and sharing resources is inevitable. Large populations of “have-nots” lead to revolution!

Once examined closely, the benefits of community living become, not only apparent, but desirable . . . imagine a community of people who love and care about you, who share your values, who need the gifts you have to share, and share their gifts with you that fulfills your needs.

Our task is to evolve in consciousness to the understanding that, at essence, we are all one, and what we do to others, we do to ourselves, and we darn well better learn how to get along!

TIP: Start thinking about who you have in your life that you absolutely can count on to be there for you, no matter what. Begin building your community from that base. If there is no one that fits the bill, start thinking about the qualities you’d like in the people you would consider forming a community with.

P.S. How on earth did we create a culture in which children are relegated to day-care and the elderly are warehoused in assisted-living facilities, while adult job holders are separated from family for eight or more hours per day, five or more days a week? How crazy is that?  At the More House community the age range is from 3 to 93. “Child-care” and “assisted-living” are built into the community and “job holders” work on the premises keeping the business aspect functioning. Isn’t that a lot more soul-friendly than what we have going on now?

What are your thoughts on community living? Have you heard of any successful communities? Contact me with your comments. I’d love to hear from you!

My mind was in turmoil and my guts were as twisted as barbed wire as I began the hour and a half drive home. It would be 11 pm by the time I got there.

Those of you who know me, or have read my book, Becoming Conscious, know that the phrase, “fools jump in where angels fear to tread,” has often applied to my eagerness to try new things.

I thought I had learned my lesson about signing up for things without asking detailed questions of what would actually take place, because I so often found myself somewhere I had paid to be, wishing I wasn’t there . . . like the time I signed up for the one day workshop: Speaking with Heart and Soul: How to be More Comfortable, Natural and Compelling in Front of ANY Group. I thought I’d get a few pointers on overcoming my fear of public speaking only to find when I got there I’d have to actually stand in front of the group and speak. I was so terrified all I could do was just stand there and cry. I was so embarrassed!

Just because the end result in that case turned out to be a giant leap forward in spiritual growth didn’t mean it wouldn’t be wise to know what I was getting into before clicking the “Sign Me Up!” button on a weekend workshop titled Basic Sensuality.

Feeling oh so wise, I’d asked questions designed to be sure there wouldn’t be any exercises or demonstrations that I would find uncomfortable. (You know, like “OK everybody, off with your clothes!”)

I have to admire Spirit’s ability to provide me with the growth I need even when I am careful to avoid it. In this case, when I was told there would be “homework” on Saturday night, it never occurred to me to ask what the homework might be.

So there I was, a bundle of conflict, distress and agitation, driving home in the dark of night, on an unfamiliar stretch of highway, thinking what a big mistake it was to sign up for this workshop. Adding insult to injury, in the split second required to make the decision, I chose the wrong highway exit, which not only took me the long way home, also cost me a $4 bridge toll!

My first clue that I was in for a “growth experience” came at the end of the first evening. I felt queasy and lightheaded when the detailed description of the homework was being explained. There was no “reason” to feel this way. All we were being asked to do when we got home was to create a beautiful, private space in which to view and touch our bodies in loving ways. The purpose was to exchange an attitude of dislike about our physical bodies for one of appreciation, and to discover what sorts of physical touch felt good to us.

When I asked myself “When have I felt this way before?” I was transported back to my high school health class at Holy Names High School in Seattle, Washington. Sister Joan was teaching us the biology of the female reproductive cycle. I had to put my head in my lap to keep from fainting, a rather extreme response to the mere thought of blood.

Then the memory surfaced of Sister Joan telling our class to always cover ourselves with a towel when getting out of the shower so we wouldn’t see our naked bodies in the mirror. Obviously an unconscious pocket of traumatic energy around body-shame had been activated by the homework assignment.

Useful as this information was, there was a deeper issue at hand . . . the conflict of honoring the part of me who didn’t want to do the homework versus the part of me who wanted to comply with the request. It was the part who didn’t want to do the homework that was causing the intense internal distress.

“OK,” I said. “You don’t have to do it tonight. You can do it at another time when you are ready. I am not going to force this on you.” Peace flooded my body only to be replaced with tears at the thought of having to tell the group I didn’t do my homework.

If I wouldn’t coerce another person to do what they didn’t want to do, why would I do that to myself? I thought in defense of my resistant part who had just received the reprieve.

Although this decision to not move forward with the homework until all parts of me were in agreement felt like a “win,” and another step into living authentically, the decision activated the unconscious pockets of fear associated with the times (this lifetime and probably many past lifetimes) I’d been punished for not complying.

That’s the positive and the negative sides of the accelerated evolution we are experiencing right now . . . we get to heal two or more emotional traumas at one time . . . two for the price of one!

Jeez, what a bargain!

Rationally I knew no harm would come to me for admitting that I didn’t do the homework, but apparently my cellular memory feared retribution, because every time I thought of what I would say at homework-reporting time, anxious tears spilled.

In a desperate attempt to avoid making a spectacle of myself in a room full of strangers by bursting into tears when saying I didn’t do my homework, I dug into my spiritual growth tool box for a process to neutralize the out-of-control emotional energy. I chose EFT (emotional freedom technique) to neutralize the emotional charge, and Light Body to “work the energy” of the future moment in the class when I would say I didn’t do the homework.

Now, of course, I knew I had the choice to either lie if asked if I did the homework, or remain silent if I wasn’t asked. I decided I would tell the truth if asked, and keep silent if not. I was asked. I felt some emotion, but didn’t cry.

The good news is, that although I was the only person who didn’t do the homework, my choice was viewed with curiosity and neutrality, and my body got the opportunity to experience nothing bad happening when I honored what felt right to me. And further good news . . . there was no bad news.

Yeah!

Thank you Spirit for giving me the opportunity to dissolve unconscious fear around being true to myself and creating a feeling of safety around speaking my truth with love and wisdom.

BOTTOM LINE: We all have unconscious traumas that influence our decisions to run roughshod over our authentic selves. Living authentically requires telling ourselves the truth about what feels right to us, and claiming our right to decide what is right for us despite others requests and demands. This is called living from the inside out . . . being your own authority . . .  taking charge of your life . . . etc.

TIP: Whenever you are feeling mental or emotional discomfort, ask yourself when you have felt that way before. As you track back through the previous times you have felt this same way you will likely see a pattern. Once you get to the root of the traumatic experience that has unconsciously been running your life, most likely it will simply dissolve.

P.S. Life is speeding up. We have reached a time in the evolutionary process that we must literally shift or die! I know this sounds apocalyptic, but it is true. Either step into your authentic self or leave the planet. The new paradigm that is arising will tolerate only loving kindness and unconditional love . . . and that includes the behavior towards ourselves!

I’d love to hear about your current life circumstances that are requiring that you “defecate or de-commode” in order to be true to your Self, and how you are handling the challenge.

Here’s a great article on scientific studies done on the topic of intuition. www.PaulBernstein.info/intuition.pdf

One study, in particular is fascinating in its proof that we register physical responses when someone thinks about us even if we are not consciously aware of it.  Yes, indeed, thoughts are things. The scary part is most of our thoughts are unconscious . . . we don’t even know we are thinking them, except by how we feel (lousy thoughts make us feel lousy, joyful thoughts make us feel joyful!)

At the Brand Your Brilliance workshop presented by Kamala Murphey last Saturday, besides great information and a leap forward in “branding” what I do (this is what came up for me “I ignite the impulse to evolve in pioneering souls who have the courage to change and grow!” ) I got turned on to a website where journalists/interviewers place listings of topics they want to interview people about. Go to www.HelpAReporterOut.com and register. You’ll receive daily listings of requests for interviews. Great free public relations avenue.

As my guide, Abraham, said recently at a Gathering for Pioneering Souls, 2010 will be a year when the light will penetrate the darkness and the secrets that have been hidden will be visible to all.

Boy, isn’t that the truth! It seems every day there is a new revelation of corruption, infidelity, back room deals to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

Today a former San Bernadino County supervisor and an ex-county tax collector were arrested for taking bribes from a developer.

Last week it was revealed that a ‘green’ company who received special federal tax credits just so happens to have one a vice president that is the husband of the woman who oversees $16.8 billion in stimulus funds that benefits this company.

I won’t list the politicians outed for their unfaithfulness, and the athletes outed for illegal drug use since those are well known and I think you get the picture . . . what has been going on behind closed doors for eons is being exposed for all to see.

I think we will see more and more of these revelations as the year progresses. This will give all of us a chance to practice compassion rather than judgment. Perhaps it is a good time to take a look at our own Shadow selves and acknowledge what is true for us even when it goes against what others want us to be.

Since everything is going to come into the light anyway now would be a great time to start just being ourselves . . . to be transparent and authentic about our preferences . . . to accept what is true for us without shame or guilt . . . to forgive ourselves for being who we are, to let the light shine through us .

What do you think?

Love and light,

Jennifer