Self Connection: Self Awareness Plus Self Acceptance Plus Aligned Action

It has long been known and accepted that close relationships with others is an important component of well-being.  In contrast, “knowing oneself” and the relationship we have with ourselves has only recently been the subject of research and general knowledge.

Regarding our awareness of self-connection, nowadays, self-connection is touted on social media.  We are bombarded with images of a person holding steadily to a broad grin. But what does it really mean to be self-connected, how  does one become self-connected, and how does gaining self-connection influence feelings of well-being?  

People differ in the extent to which they tend to experience self-connection.

Self-connection is defined in the psychological research and in research on connection theory in particular as consisting of three parts:

• an awareness of oneself,
• an acceptance of oneself based on this awareness,
• and an alignment of one’s behavi
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We all need a place inside of ourselves where we can go to feel safe and at peace. This place is one we create within our imaginations. Having such a place is an immensely valuable resource. If you feel un-grounded, taking a few moments in your safe space can help you to deepen your roots and connection with the earth. If you are experiencing stress, going to your imagined safe space may give you the time and space you need to to sort through what you are experiencing. Sometimes when processing challenging emotions, we can feel overwhelmed. Having this resource within you can put the elements at play in perspective.

For an article about epigenetics and the science behind how techniques such as visualization, affirmations, and mindfulness practices can enable us to harness the power of our consciousness to influence our physical health. go here

The science of psychology has an epic amount of research establishing that imagination can be a great tool for us to use to eliminate fears, ...

 Whether the loss of a loved one is expected or sudden, it remains one of the most difficult challenges to overcome in life. It's hard to cope with the inevitable flood of emotions.

In your heart you know that your loved one wouldn't want you to grieve forever. They want you to carry on and live a good life, while still remembering and loving them. The best honor and dedication to your relationship with a loved one who has passed, is to have learned from not only the loss but the incredible love as well in order to live the rest of your life in a happy and healthy manner.

Each person must grieve in their own unique way and in accordance with their time frame. However, it can be helpful to know ways in which others have been helped in their grieving in the past.

Consider the following tips for coping with loss:

1. Be open. Your first reaction to loss may be to close up. You may need time alone to work through your feelings and to grieve. For some their first reaction to loss is op
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Turn Inward and Discover What’s Most Central, a Core Belief Exercise 

Are you interested in discovering more about your authentic self?

Here’s a Belief Journaling Exercise to turn inward and discover what’s most central.  This belief exercise is powerful because our beliefs often drive how we think, feel, and behave.

Our beliefs often mirror our thought patterns. Much of the scaffolding of our lives is built on what we think about ourselves, others, and the world.  When we seek to gain more clarity about our viewpoints, we develop more agency over our reactions and behaviors. Thus, we can make more thoughtful, purposeful choices.

WHAT ARE YOUR CORE BELIEFS?

Your beliefs may have origins in your culture, the location where you were born or live, religion, spirituality, your lived experience, or your deepest desires.

The Many Types of Core Beliefs

• Self-related core beliefs such as, "I deserve to live a good life."  or  "I am resilient and can handle life's challenge
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Managing Obstacles On The Journey Toward Your Most Authentic Self. 

We all face obstacles to living in resonance with our highest self, spirit, or most authentic self.

Obstacles Along The Path

Common obstacles along the path toward living as your most authentic self include:

• Self-Criticism,
• Acting Out of Habit,
• Fear of Being Labeled Selfish, and
• A Need for External Validation.

First, we need to notice the obstacles.

Self-inquiry

The capacity to expose unexamined beliefs, thoughts, and stories that create unnecessary suffering. Self-inquiry reveals the eternal truth of who you are, free and at peace.

Some of the obstacles I have encountered along the way have had to do with my wanting. My ambition to do everything and do it the best I can and to compare that best to other people's best can be an enormous boulder.  For many years that boulder tipped the balance of my existence more toward human doing than human being. 

Canadian physician and trauma expert Dr

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 How We Can Come To Love Ourselves

The refrain "Love Yourself" chimes over us from so many different directions. Two words that may evoke a sense of bewilderment.

We may ask ourselves, "Really? Just how to go about that?"

The act of loving the self does not feel like something that arises intuitively from within us. This is sad because how to love the self is knowledge we are born with. This knowledge has been long forgotten due to the fact that when we were very young we were taught and learned all too well how to suppress showing love for the self. We were socialized by our parents, family, teachers and society to show love and caring for others and taught that any showing of love to the self was selfish. Choosing to focus on our own well-being was deemed egotistical or even narcissistic. We were shamed for doing the thing most necessary for our well-being.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Dear friend, without all of that prior conditioning you would intuitively know how...

 Precisely How You Can  Redraft the Blueprint of Your Life

Healing involves awakening the natural self-organizing processes embedded in our DNA. With knowledge of these processes and awareness of our conscious and subconscious mental activity we can redraft the blueprints of our lives.

In two prior articles in this series on Epigenetics, I explain how our perceptions influence our biology.

The first article in this Epigenetic series,  Epigenetics: How Our Perceptions Change Our Biology, I explain what Epigenetics is and the process of epigenetics. That article will give you an understanding of why our hereditary gene activity is not determined by the gene itself, but rather by the environment for the cell in which the gene exists. You will also come to see how the environment and perceptions of the environment are within your control and that you can use your ability to change the environment and your perceptions of the environment to change the activity of our genes.

In the second a...

 What's Love Got To Do With It? An Epigenetics Masterpiece. 

In my last article, HOW OUR PERCEPTIONS CHANGE OUR BIOLOGY  I described what Epigenetics is, how our perceptions change our biology, and how our knowledge and awareness of our perceptions can be the catalyst for transformation and lasting change. I also described the findings of Dr. Bruce Lipton's Stanford Medical Stem Cell research. You can read a National Institutes of Health article published on the topic here. 

In this article, I will describe a real life example of epigentics, the process by which our mind and perceptions change our biology.

To recap briefly, the groundbreaking research of Dr. Bruce Lipton found that genetic activity is controlled by our environment and our perceptions of our environment.  Genes alone do not control our fate. The environment and our perception of the environment actually select the genetic activity of the cell. 

How exactly does this work?

 Ariel in Love and Ariel in Fear

Epigenetics: How Our Perceptions Change Our Biology

This article describes what Epigenetics is, how our perceptions change our biology, and how your knowledge and awareness of your perceptions can be the catalyst for transformation and lasting change.

Can you imagine yourself, who you are, as an intangible unchanging energy presence and your body as the receiver of who you are and the vehicle of its expression?

Dr. Bruce Lipton is the cell biologist at Stanford Medical School who did groundbreaking stem cell research that underlies processes known as the science of Epigenetics. You can read a report published by the National Institutes of Health Dr. Lipton's research here

Victims of Heredity

Our old scientific view of what would happen in our lives biologically was based in genetic determinism, the belief that genes control our biology, that we could not pick or change the genes we inherited. This view led to the notion that we are victims of our heredity.


The groundbreaking r...

Give Yourself An Intuitive Heart Reading 

A Four Chambers of the Heart Reading of yourself is a wonderful way to get to know yourself better so that you can live from empowered awareness. I learned this technique from my teacher, Sonia Choquette, and it is one of my favorite forms of self-care.

The 4 quadrants of the heart, the upper right, the upper left, the lower right, and the lower left each hold the energy for a different aspect of our being.

The upper left chamber of the heart is the wise heart. The upper right chamber of the heart is the inner child heart. The lower right chamber of the heart is the inner adult heart. The lower left chamber of the heart is the courageous heart.

 THE WISE HEART

Reading the wise heart chamber, the upper left chamber, allows you to look at all of life from the perspective of your soul or higher self. Once you are in a centered meditative space ask this heart chamber to tell you about all of the challenges you have experienced over the course ...