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Notes From the Field

The Light That You Are

12/16/2020

10 Comments

 
There is only Light. We might think that darkness exists. We see it as Light's opposite, which might suggest that it has equal weight; just the other side of the same coin. But darkness isn't the opposite of Light. Darkness merely reveals that there is an obstruction to the ever-present Light. 

The darkness of nightfall happens when our part of the earth turns away from the sun, blocking its light. But does the sun go away? We enter a room with dark curtains covering the windows, but when the curtains open, there is light. Did the light ever leave, or was it simply blocked by the dark curtains?

It's the same with us: we are Light. Yet, just like nightfall and the darkened room, the light is obscured: it's obscured by
the denser energy of thoughts, emotions, opinions, and beliefs. We make the mistake of thinking that these energies are who we are. We tend to think that we are the sum of our thoughts, beliefs, preferences, emotional proclivities, and the physical vehicle that contains it all. 

When we confuse these human traits with who we are, I am Light, seems blasphemous. And indeed it is. I Shelly, am not Light. Shelly is merely the vehicle, an outward manifestation, a potential expression of the Light.

​The vehicle of Shelly was created by the merger of two other human, flawed vehicles. And as a result of this merger, she inherited their mental patterns, emotional programming and survival strategies, and those that they inherited from their parents. 

Perhaps this is the "fall" that scripture speaks of. Being born into this human dimension means that we necessarily merge with the often misguided, limited, fear-based thoughts and strategies that we humans have developed in response to living in a potentially frightening world. To be born into a human body means that we have to come through these dense energies, and like our ancestors, we confuse them with who we are. 

But we are much more than the culmination of our thoughts, feelings, and physical forms. Take a moment to notice: if you stop thinking, do you cease to exist? If you momentarily feel nothing, do you cease to exist? If you imagine being somehow physically altered in some extreme way, do you cease to exist? Of course not. So who or what remains?

Awareness remains; the awareness that you're not thinking, not feeling, or that you're different physically. 

So what is this awareness? At first glance it might seem that Awareness is part of your mind. But if you can observe your thoughts, then the you that's observing your thoughts cannot be the same you as the you that's thinking them. And besides, as we experience Awareness more deeply, we notice that while it's highly alert, it's also silent. It's also difficult to locate, much less describe, because as soon as we engage our minds to do so, we've entered the realm of thinking and left Awareness. 

Scientists have looked into every nook and cranny of our bodies to try to locate the observer, the one who watches, Awareness, to no avail. And yet we can say irrefutably that it is. 

We also have powerful evidence of what Awareness can do. When it is accessed, when you be it, your alert awareness has the capacity to quiet your mind, transform any negative emotion, even long-standing emotional states, relax long-standing, limiting beliefs, open your mind to new possibilities, relieve physical pain, and change the molecular activity in you body. It does all of this with such elegant simplicity and is so unfailingly reliable, that one who experiences this process firsthand will sometimes describe it as miraculous, even holy.

And it is. Our limited human egos can't do this - not with lasting consistency in any case. 

Some of my clients who've experienced this transformational process have said that they felt the Holy Spirit come through them. And while this might be true, it suggests that the Holy Spirit comes, implying that it, at some point, left. Yet it's my experience that it never leaves. As Light, it's always present. We just needed to open the curtains.

And how do we open the curtains? By accessing the light of Awareness, by being it, and allowing it to do what Awareness does - shine it's light of truth on any energy that is not Light, not of Itself, allowing that energy to transform.

So friends, as the earth makes its tilt, bringing us the darkest day of the year, and as we see more darkness in our world, in others, and consequently feel it more strongly within ourselves, let us not forget that the Light hasn't left: it's merely been obscured. It's been obscured by our amped-up, personal and collective, dense energetic responses to living in a somewhat frightening and changing world.

These challenging times are likely to drive some of us into deeper darkness. In response to worldly events, we will grab onto familiar, fear-based strategies, becoming more deeply entrenched in our limiting beliefs and opinions, moving further away from who we really are. Others of us will turn inward for answers, using this potent time as incentive to look more deeply, accessing Awareness, and transforming denser energies by bringing them to Light.

We get to choose. But it's comforting to know that no matter what we choose, no matter what happens, no matter how long it takes for us to remember who we really are, collectively and individually, the Light is always available, always present, always is, always will be . . . forever.

Merry Light-That-Is-Who-You-Really-Are Christmas! 

Shelly

You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14


Related posts:
​
The Light Of Awareness ". . . Twenty years ago, I lost a friend, mentor, and role model to cancer. I haven't had many role models in my life, but Reverend Jack Crandall was one of a kind . . ."

Your Light ". . . There is nothing so dark in you that I have not acknowledged within myself . . ." 
10 Comments
Di
12/20/2020 08:49:52 am

Thank you Shelly for this Christmas gift, a reminder of who I truly am now and forever...

Reply
Shelly Smith
12/20/2020 11:02:15 am

You're welcome! Hope it was helpful.

Reply
Linda Robinson
12/20/2020 08:54:05 am

I so enjoyed reading this, dear Shelly. Thank you for your excellent writing, for sharing your light, and for the beautiful reminder.

Merry Christmas.

Reply
Shelly Smith
12/20/2020 10:59:17 am

And Merry Christmas to you!

Reply
sonja
12/20/2020 09:36:52 am

Great Sunday morning service Shelly! For me, church is wherever and whenever I can find the holy. You took me to church today.

Reply
Shelly Smith
12/20/2020 11:01:25 am

So glad. Holy Sunday to you!

Reply
Amy B
12/20/2020 11:52:26 am

Shelly, at our darkest time of the year, This is what we need! Understanding about Light. Knowledge that It Is. Always. In Us.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Reply
Shelly Smith
12/23/2020 10:28:19 am

You're most welcome Amy!

Reply
Suzie
12/20/2020 02:14:17 pm

Oh Shelly, how beautiful and perfect. Thank you again for your timely words. Many blessings.

Reply
Shelly Smith
12/23/2020 10:28:50 am

You're welcome Suzie! Hope it was heloful.

Reply



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​Heaven On Earth Farm

  • Five minutes from downtown Pickens, SC
  • Thirty minutes from downtown Greenville, SC
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  • Home
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT
    • The Body Doesn't Lie
    • The Compassion Process®
    • Who You Really Are
    • Testimonials
    • About Shelly
    • Location
    • Poetry >
      • How She Heals
      • CREEK THERAPY
      • the gift of adrenal fatigue
    • Video Library
  • Services
    • Overview of Services
    • Nature-Based Counseling and Coaching
    • Body-Informed Counseling/Life Coaching
    • Emotions Coaching
    • Equine Assisted Personal Growth
    • Somatic-Based Expressive Arts
    • Dance/Movement
    • Relationship Coaching
    • Phone Coaching
    • Trauma-Informed Therapy
    • for veterans
    • Continuing Education
    • Immersions
  • Blog
  • For Women
    • For Women
    • Female Embodied Movement™
    • Everyday Embodiment
    • Sex and Pleasure
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