2016

Since the paired mantra and intention process worked so well for me in 2015, I gave it another go the following year. When I leaned energetically into my learning edge what I noticed was that there was quite a disparity between how others saw me, how I felt when I sat in prayer, meditation, or in my Akashic Records, and my own low self regard.

I called out for a mantra, and what I initially got was something like “to see myself through the eyes of God.” But as with any intuitive work, our senses and our mind have to translate packets of energy, and sometimes the words and metaphors that we first channel don’t quite ring true. So I played around with the wording to fine-tune it, and I settled on “to see myself through the eyes of Love.”

YMMV, and that phrase may bring up unwanted associations with the movie Ice Castles (how’s that for ancient history?), but for me the mantra hit all the right places. I wanted to see myself through the eyes of those who loved me because through my own eyes I seemed to fall short on so many accounts. Imagining what that would be like filled me with great relief—the visceral sign I was on the right track.

Again, my mind kind of balked at the tall order, and decided to work on self compassion as its more manageable intention. Having seen how much success it brought about in its new role as “chooser of the higher path” rather than micromanager of my entire life, it embraced its ability to surrender to the Higher Mind of the brilliant system. So each time I let the old scripts of the critical voice play, my mind would remind me that I was still learning “to see myself through the eyes of Love,” and that however long that took was perfectly fine.

On this particular road there isn’t any staring at the mirror with affirmations or making lists of my achievements or all the ways I am awesome. There is just gentle reminder, gentle breathing, and vibing the energy of the mantra as I went through the business of life.

And again, before the year had ended, I realized that I had somehow surpassed the mind’s intention for self-compassion and landed on self love. It took awhile to recognize it because for me it didn’t come with fireworks, or a parting of the clouds, or angel song. Rather, it was this very quiet, very stable undertone that I was able to bring to every moment and situation.

I had, in other words, found my strong, stable center—the core of my brilliant system—which was entirely easy to love unconditionally as a spark of the divine. And each time my human mind wanted to judge anything I said or did, or didn’t say or do, I would remind myself of my true essence.If you’ve been following this series, you might have noticed that with this process I managed to stair step my way from darkness to self care to self compassion to self love without resorting to all the usual hard work that we associate with self improvement and transformation. I truly hope to inspire others to try this out for themselves because you will amaze yourself and you will see what a gift life is on this planet, even during the craziest of times.