Farmers know that certain crops need certain nutrients in order to grow successfully. Winter is the time when cover crops are planted. Different cover crops and fertilizers provide different nutrients for the soil. Often combinations of crops and fertilizers are used to affix a complement of nutrients into the soil where the spring crops will be planted. A good soil farmer knows this is imperative to a bountiful harvest for the coming seasons.
Similarly, winter is the time for us to reflect on our harvests of the previous seasons, to settle in and be present with where we are, and to determine the conditions of our internal soil. How is the nutrient level of your internal soil? Where have you been nourished? Where are you been depleted? What do you need to replenish the nutrients of your own internal soil, to make you more grounded and stabilized for the coming seasons?
- First, what are the nutrients of our internal soil?
- How do we know which nutrients are needed to return a bountiful harvest for our upcoming seasons?
- And how do we replenish our spiritual nutrients?
The Nutrients of our Internal Soil
Just as the soil requires basic nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, our internal soil needs basic nutrients such as love, compassion, beauty, justice and true internal freedom. These qualities are the basic spiritual-energetic minerals that we are made of.
These qualities lie at the core of our beings, far beneath emotions that we may associate with the same names. At our cores, we perceive these qualities more experientially, sometimes with a sense of euphoria and without attachment, like we might imagine of a Klingon having an orgasm (for the Trekkies).
These qualities come from the spiritual life-force energy that connects all living things, both seen and unseen. Our perception of them can be more like a sensation of floating on the energetic plain, or a washing of the energy through our bodies.
One of the foundational beliefs of the healing work that I offer is that we come into this world with knowledge of the qualities (spiritual nutrients) that we carry, our connection to the spiritual life-force energy that feeds us these nutrients and connects all things, and our purposes for our journeys.
In reality, these nutrients are never depleted from our internal soil, but we are at times less able to consciously plug into them.
Knowing which nutrients need to be replenished
One reason we become less able to access our spiritual nutrients is because as we lose our conscious connection to them, we simultaneously witness a material world that associates different meanings with the same names or flat out negates what we know inside to be true. Then we paste these new meanings that we witness over the truth we know inside ourselves.
For example, we come into this world knowing our true beauty. Yet exposure to stimulus such as television and advertising shows us pictures that are called “beauty”, and when we don’t look like those pictures of beauty, we may begin to believe that we are not beautiful. “Me, beautiful? Oh no. That’s reserved for Angelina Jolie!”
In reality, appearance is not what defines beauty. We know this intellectually, but do we really believe it? Do we really fully embody our basic inner knowing of beauty? Or can we find ourselves buying into beliefs that we are something less than beautiful?
If you find yourself ever thinking or believing that you are anything less than beautiful, then you know this is one of the minerals of your internal soil that needs to be replenished.
Replenishing the Nutrients of our Internal Soil
In the healing work, I teach two processes that serve to replenish our spiritual nutrients. In reality, our spiritual nutrients are intact.
These processes actually help us to return our witnessing to connect with and experience these internal nutrients so that we may fully embody and live aligned with our inner truths.
The first of these processes is a heart-centered meditation appropriately called Remembrance. In the process of Remembrance, we first set our intention to connect with the Source of the life-force energy that connects all living things and carries all of the spiritual nutrients that we are all made of.
We call upon this Source, and we begin to inhale the life-force energy into our lungs, allowing it to fill our heart space. Inhaling, we invite the energy to fill our hearts; exhaling, we relax and allow the energy to penetrate deeply into our beings. This simple process is repeated with each breath over a period of time.
Sometimes we need to work with this process for a while in order to let go and allow ourselves to be reconnected with our inner knowings, which may show themselves as sensations of love.
The second process takes this a step further. This process, called the CAREFOR Connection, can be very powerful and has the power to bring about true lasting transformation.
The CAREFOR Connection is a 7-step process for transformational healing. CAREFOR is an acronym for the 7 steps:
- Call upon the Source of the universal life-force energy.
- Ask directly for what is in your heart – in this case, the mineral that you have found is in need of replenishment.
- Repeat the Name of the Divine into your heart.
- Extend your energetic heart to reach out or reinforce your connection to the life-force energy and all of its spiritual nutrients.
- Find the sacred gift that it has for you. In the above example, that would be the true experience of divine beauty.
- Open your being to receive that gift. Inhale the energy of that nutrient into your lungs; drink it into your heart. Allow it to penetrate into your being at the cellular level and beyond.
- Respect that your body is a sacred vessel, the house of your divine spirit on your earthly journey, worthy of all of the universal truths that you carry inside.
I do recommend trying this at home. These processes can be subtle, or they can bring about an experience of great ecstasy, or they can be very powerful in other ways. At times they may trigger a strong response, such as an increase in volume of the voices and beliefs that have been pasted over our inner truths, that tell us things other than the truth, such as that we are less than beautiful.
DO NOT BUY INTO THESE VOICES. Continue with the practices. Call even stronger upon the Source. The Source contains all and is much larger than any voices of untruth inside or outside of us.
Remember the final concept listed in the foundational concepts of the healing work:
“The Ocean of Love contains all; nothing exists except within the larger container of Love.”
The example in this article is simplified even though it is very common. Other cases may appear more complicated or be harder to recognize. In this case, you may need the support of the full healing process. The full healing process includes seven phases; the Remembrance meditation is used throughout, and the CAREFOR Connection is one of the phases.
If you need support with this process or feel you need healing support to relieve yourself of negative self-talk and return to your inner truths, please contact me. I’m happy to help either in person or remotely, or I can refer you to someone closer to your area.
The famous Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi wrote,
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.”
This love of which he speaks is the connection to our internal spiritual nutrients. To find it, we must merely seek and find the barriers that we have built against it. To wash away these barriers and reconnect with our inner truths, we Remember the Source of the universal life-force energy that connects us all, use the CAREFOR Connection to invoke the energy of the divine truth and allow it to penetrate our beings to bring about true healing and transformation.
It sounds simple and it is, but our untruths can be tricky. Please reach out for help if you get stuck.
Meanwhile, I’m wishing for you a nutrient-rich winter season to ground you to the earth and stabilize your being to prepare you for a bountiful 2012!
