Saturday, March 7, 2009

How to Kick Negative Feelings and Habits: The Confrontation Technique

Confrontation is one of the most useful tools/tricks I have ever learned. It's wonderful because it's easy, effective, and can be used for just about any negative situation. I was about to write out a Confrontation exercise for one of my clients to take home, but decided to just turn it into a blog so that it's easily accessible to anyone who wants to use it.

I use the Confrontation exercise just about every day of my life. It can be used to get rid of negative thoughts, habits, situations, feelings...... I use it for everything from overcoming fear to getting in shape. So here it is!

The Confrontation Exercise:

1) When whatever you are trying to get rid of comes up, focus on the presence of God inside of you. My meditation post talks about how to do this (the first meditation exercise on that post is a good one for this exercise), but you don't have to be in a deep meditative state. I often do this exercise in my crowded gym on a treadmill, so being in a meditative state is definitely not necessary.

2) For those who haven't tried meditation before, or aren't used to feeling one with God, just focus on the thought that the all-powerful God, who created this whole Universe, is within you and resides in you.

- EXTREMELY quick break down: Most religions agree that "God is everywhere." So, if God is EVERYWHERE, then it logically follows that God ALSO has to be inside of YOU. Thus, God is inside of you. :-)

You can visualize this as a big, bright light inside your head (eyes closed helps, but adjust it accordingly if you are in public and don't want people to think you're crazy).

3) Once you're focused on the presence of God inside you, you say:

"The God-Power within me is GREATER than ___________ (fill in the blank with your negative thought/habit). I completely yield my mind, body, and emotions to the God-Power within me."

4) Keep repeating that statement over and over while you visualize the God-Power inside of you (the big, bright light) growing and taking over your mind and body, pushing out or disintegrating the negative feeling. Try to FEEL the God-Power within you really flooding your body and confronting the negative energy. The concept is that NO temporary negative energy (which is what negative thoughts and feelings are) can stand up to the power of God. So when you confront the negative energy with God (who resides inside of you), the negative energy has to give (it LOSES!!!! TKO!)!!! :-D

I say the first part of the phrase ("The God-Power within me...") over and over until I completely feel the statement inside of me and then I move to the second part ("I yield...."). I just keep repeating it until I feel like I'm ready to move on. BTW, the "I completely yield" part will take you into a deep, meditative state, if you'd like to go there.

5) Once you are done with the confrontation say:
"I give thanks to the God-Power within my mind for giving me Self-Mastery."

And you're done!

6) Keep repeating this exercise whenever the negative feeling/thought comes up until it's gone forever.


Please keep in mind that you are free to change up the above terms for whatever you feel comfortable with. If you don't like the term "God-Power" change it up to whatever resonates with you.


Alright, those are the steps above, but I will give a couple examples to give you a better idea of how it can be applied.

Since I mentioned using this to get in shape (and I know that's a popular goal), this is how I use it at the gym:

Example 1-

I'm on the treadmill and I want to get off/am tired/bored/have a cramp:

I say, "The God-Power within me is GREATER than the energy of laziness inside me. I completely yield my mind and body to the God-Power within me."
"I give thanks to the God-Power within my mind for giving me self-mastery."

- This has REALLY taken my work outs to a new level!


Example 2-

I'm hungry late at night (I've already had dinner)/I'm about to reach for junk food:

I say, "The God-Power within me is GREATER than the negative energy in me causing me to overeat. I completely yield my mind and body to the God-Power within me."
"I give thanks to the God-Power within my mind for giving me self-mastery."

Example 3-
Fear. That's my big one in the spiritual realm. It's one of my life lessons. So I use this exercise for fear all the time. I usually lay down on my bed, close my eyes:

And I say, "The God-Power within me is greater than any feeling of fear inside me. I completely yield my mind, body, and emotions to the God-Power within me."
"I give thanks to the God-Power within my mind for giving me self-mastery."



Those are just a few examples from my every day life, but you can really use this confrontation technique for ANY feeling/issue. Play with it and use words that resonate with you. The point is just to confront the negative emotions/thoughts/habits with the power of God inside you because none of those energies can survive when confronted with the power of God.

It has definitely one of the most helpful techniques I have come across, so I'm happy to share it. :-)

Sending lots of love and light,
J

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Dealing with a Venus Retrograde and More Free Tools/Resources

I wanted to update my blog with info for those who share my uneasiness in regards to the upcoming Venus retrograde. LOL, just the thought of my finances, beauty, and love life going backwards makes me cringe! I've been eyeing the Venus retrograde suspiciously and planning my life around it for a minute. I planned a last-minute trip to Vegas last week in order to avoid going later during the retrograde (and it went really well. My last-minute accommodations were very luxurious, Trump International, AND I won lots of money!). I also made sure to invest my Vegas winnings in the stock market ASAP, rather than waiting for stocks to fall even lower, so that I wouldn't have to make the investment during the retrograde. And I got my haircut beforehand as well (why risk a disastrous haircut if you don't have to, right?). :-)/ As you can see, the retrograde has been heavy on my mind!

Luckily today one of my mentors/teachers told me what to do to ease up Venus' effects and I wanted to share the info with you all. Especially since some of my friends have already started feeling the effects of the upcoming retrograde (the pre-retrograde period gets you too)!

I asked one of my mentor/teachers today if I could combat the effects of the retrograde with energy work, and she told me that if I learned to work with the planets, I would be just fine. She taught me that when it comes to a Venus retrograde, it's important to give Venus offerings. The offerings can consist of lighting a candle and setting up some flowers or a bowl of fruit (like you would do for one of the saints). You are supposed to set up the offerings every Friday during the retrograde period (March 6th through April 17th) and when you set up the offerings, you tell Venus they are for her and you ask her to please be gentle with you during her retrograde. Doing this is supposed to make the retrograde period 10 times easier. LOL, now I realize that doing this sounds silly to some being that Venus is a planet (vs. a saint) BUT if you think about how most old religions (and new religions actually, umm... Christianity?) are heavily based on astrology and the celestial bodies, its really not that out there. I will DEFINITELY be setting up my offerings every Friday starting tomorrow being that the last Venus retrograde wreaked havoc in my life (the last one was in my sun sign)!

And by wreaked havoc I mean I RANDOMLY, out of NOWHERE, became depressed for no reason at all (life was really good and I was traveling the world and I'm NOT the depression type). I also suddenly, out of NOWHERE, missed an ex-boyfriend that I hadn't even thought of since I had broken up with over a year beforehand, I decided that I hated the career I had studied and didn't want to be a lawyer, I started spending money like water to make myself feel better about my life/career choices........ And this was during a period where I wasn't as informed in the area of astrology as I am now, so I didn't even realize what was going on or that it was related to a Venus retrograde (in fact, I had been excited that Venus was in my sign for so long, which is usually a good thing). In retrospect, what I went through makes perfect sense since those are all things Venus retrogrades bring about. If you want to think back to where you were during the last Venus retrograde, it happened July 27, 2007 to September 8, 2007, but its effects started around June 23rd that summer.....

If you want to read up a little bit more on the effects Venus retrogrades, here is one of my favorite astrology sites:

http://www.cafeastrology.com/thisweekinastrology.html (just scroll down a little to the retrograde section).


So, all that being said, I'm very happy to have received today's tips from a very powerful healer who I completely trust. Granted this time around, I'm about 100 times stronger spiritually, so I know that I'm much more well-equipped to deal with this sort of thing. AND this time around the retrograde isn't in my Sun sign (it's mostly in Aries this time around, in case you were wondering). BUT, I'm still happy to be able to shield myself from some of its effects. And I definitely wanted to share because I know the economy is no joke right now and I want people to be able to shield their finances from going awry!!! And so that you can understand what's going on if you suddenly start missing an ex that you don't really like..... No, you're not suddenly going crazy and there is nothing wrong with you, but do think a little deeper about your actual desires before you take any action.

So those are my "Dealing with a Venus Retrograde" tips.

In a totally unrelated topic, I also wanted to share a link to a wonderful site where you can get free metaphysics resources/tools. You can dowload weekly lectures from the University of Metaphysics and you can use other resources on the page (such as free affirmations and meditations). I love that the University is doing this and wanted to share it with my readers!

Here is the link: http://www.universityonline.tv/index.html

Enjoy!!!!

Sending everyone tons of love and light,
J

P.S. If anyone has any questions or has a topic they would like me to write about, please do not hesitate to e-mail me! Just click on the e-mail function on my profile.