Held in Love and Healing Energy

One of our basic human needs is to belong.  We are born into families for a reason!  We naturally are drawn to living in communities.  And we grow and heal and transform within the context of a group of people who are supportive and loving.  Who listen and share.

Would you like to be a part of a group of people with whom you can walk alongside in your journey of life?  Be open with your spiritual experiences and beliefs?  Share the raw and vulnerable times of life?  I invite you to consider Sacred Circles!!

What makes a group capable of holding these valuable, and sometimes, tender, places within us, is the kind of container that is created for it.  

In Sacred Circles, the online InterSpiritual group of Eye of the Heart, it has been my intention to establish a strong and loving container within which you are able to do the heart opening and soulful work of connecting, transforming, growing and healing. 

Although showing up for the Live Circle is definitely one of the aspects that facilitates healing and change for Sacred Circles members, it is only one aspect of the container.  (I will say, though, that it is some kind of powerful when all come for the Live Circle!)

Each member is held in the arms of the sacred container that has been created, regardless of physical presence on the day of the Circle.  There is another energy that is connecting, working, loving, and healing in between.  Yes, the recording that is available helps us transcend time and space.  But it's more and deeper and vaster than that.  You are in the Circle.

I am seeing amazing openings, revelations, and healing, that simply being a part of the Circle has contributed to.  It's like agreeing and committing to it, brings up that THING that is preventing you from really being fully YOU; from fully showing up in the world!

Whether that is the fear of being judged; the fear of expressing emotions in front of others; the fear of going into a painful place inside that you would rather avoid; or the fear of taking the time for a 2 hour group every 4 weeks, when there are so many other demands to meet!  Chances are that whatever the thing that keeps you away from a particular session, or even the whole Sacred Circles process - when really, something deep in you wants to dive in -  that is the very thing to have a relationship with, to listen to, to stretch just a little.

I've watched it happen these past 6 months.  And I've seen the transformation, the old skin sloughing off and the new peaking out from underneath the old.  It is an honor and a pleasure to witness; and to hold this space, this sacred container...that is Sacred Circles.

How is the container held?  How does it work?  Some energetics and prayer.  And some practical, physical boundaries.  First, each Circle is lovingly and prayerfully created by me, with a topic, a theme, questions for reflection, meditation practices, and often art and music.  Remember - we are InterSpiritual, and we are practicing inner work.

We begin each Circle with opening and connecting with each other, with ourselves, and with the Divine Presence in and among us.  All members are spoken by name, whether or not they are able to be Live, their energy is with us.  As I already mentioned, the recorded Circle is available for those not Live to view. 

Each Circle includes a powerful meditation experience, often including energy healing shared by me.  I intend it to be nurturing and healing for all!

Sacred Circles has a private Facebook group.  Only members are invited to participate.

I have an outdoor altar on which is a stone which represents each member of Sacred Circles, symbolizing the container of the Circle, within the broader container of Eye of the Heart.  It receives the wind and the rain, the sunshine, and the energy of the moon.

I periodically, in between Circles, feel a strong nudge to bring each member of Sacred Circles forward in prayer.  Sometimes this is with my singing bowls, sometimes with Oracle cards, sometimes with a chant or a particular prayer.  

And members have agreed to pay monthly for the Sacred Circles experience.  $45 is automatically withdrawn from your account every 4 weeks, unless you decide to save a little and purchase a year (13 Circles) at a time.  You can cancel the regular payment at any time.  But having the payment in place allows a certain level of commitment that contributes to the strength of the container created.  So each person assists in holding that space with me, for each other.

I am witnessing Sacred Circles be in its own state of transformation, taking on a life of its own.  Would you like to come on into the Sacred container??  Do you have some old skin that wants to shed, allowing the new to come through - the YOU that's just waiting to be seen? 

We in Sacred Circles are here waiting for you!!

with gratitude and love, peace and healing!  Alisa

She began to bathe his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair...

This is the first year that I have offered a weekend retreat, The Magdalene - Wounded Woman, Anointer, Beloved:  A Retreat for Wisening Women.  When listening in to what the theme would be, I experienced a strong call toward Mary Magdalene.  This isn't that strange, since I am all about her!!  I want to start sharing a little about Mary Magdalene and me!  She has captured my heart these last 12 years or so!!

I have come to learn that Mary Magdalene has also captured the hearts of many others, even many who don't proclaim to be "Christian," as that term has come to be understood in the past fifteen hundred years.  This was a surprise to my born and raised Episcopalian self!

I am very grateful to Mary Magdalene, and the way that she has been presented to me through the writings of Cynthia Bourgeault - The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and Margaret Starbird - The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, for being an integral player in my second spiritual awakening, which began in 2010.  I have come to believe deep in my Being, that we, in the Christian tradition, only had part of her story, and thus, only part of Jesus' story.  With the study of the Gnostic gospels, particularly Thomas, Philip, and Mary, our view has broadened.  Not to mention the teachings from several other esoteric traditions!  But that for another time...

Before being introduced to all of that, though, my connection with her came through the canonical scriptures.  (Continue reading below this icon of Mary Magdalene)

The Magdalene is known as the woman who anointed Jesus in the Gospels.  In some of those stories, she is anointing his head, and this action precedes, and prepares him for, his capture, imprisonment, torture, and death.

In the Gospel of Luke, though, the woman is not named, except to be identified as "a sinful woman."  Luke also refers to this Mary of Magdala, as the woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons.  There is much discussion among the scholars, as well as in the Divine Feminine camp, about why she may have been presented in this way - possibly to silence her voice beyond the resurrection, possibly so that the "master story" wouldn't be threatened. All of that makes a lot of sense to me, but, nonetheless, we have these stories of Mary Magdalene being in need of healing.

I feel her here as the "Wild and Wounded Woman."

At the time when I began to engage with these scriptures in a deep and personal way in 2006, I, too, was in need of healing.  I, too, felt like an outsider - too religious for some, not religious enough for others.  Wild and Wounded fit me perfectly. 

I resonated with the words "inappropriate," "unacceptable."  I had not yet found my voice fully.  I had not yet vanquished a great degree of shame I lived with.  I was just discovering who "Alisa" really is; just beginning to play with the idea that I needn't apologize for her.

You see, in the story in Luke's gospel, Mary Magdalene is not invited to the party.  She sneaks in and washes and anoints the feet of Jesus - with her tears and her hair and with her costly perfume - to the shock and horror of the prestigious men who hold the dinner party.  (You can read the whole story here, if you like.)

It is such an intimate expression of love.  I could imagine being that woman.  I wanted to be that bold with my love for Jesus, and for others.  I desired such unabashed intimacy.  It was out of her deep love and gratitude to Jesus for bringing her to herself, her healed and whole self, that she could pour out her own love for him.  

I found Jesus as an intimate friend, and even as a Lover, through Mary Magdalene.  I felt a door open up for a deeper connection with Holy Divine, by my connection with her.  She showed me how to receive love and healing.  And she showed me what it looks like to give love and healing.  I'm still working on opening myself up so I can let it flow as freely as she could. 

I will continue sharing stories with you about how I have come to know and love Mary Magdalene.   Let me know what, if anything, they open up in you!  Look for the stories on Facebook on my Eye of the Heart page or send me an email with your thoughts!

I am grateful that you have taken the time to share in this sacred journey.  Keep coming back here to read more of how my relationship has unfolded with Mary Magdalene!

with gratitude, and love, peace and healing!  Alisa
 

Light in the Darkness

I had an emotional and powerful conversation with a client yesterday. (She gave me permission to share this...)It began with a large dose of grief, helplessness, and outrage as yet another tragedy of violence - the shooting in FL - takes hold of our hearts. She used words like "awful, horrible, terrible, heart-breaking" to describe how she was doing with it, how her week was, and just her state of mind in general. As the conversation went on, though, I kept hearing examples of what I saw as, actually beautiful and expansive.

Her grown children reaching out to her in their pain. An intimacy with her husband that allowed her to invite him into having an open-hearted compassionate prayer for the shooter. A recognition of a yearning to give of herself to young people who would be at risk of experiencing loneliness, isolation, and rejection.

I was struck with the two stories that she was telling. One of horror and hopelessness; one of connection and compassion. Living together, side by side. The one of beauty and nurturing just almost becoming buried within the one of anger and pain.

The story of how horrible it is that these things are happening so frequently in our country and noone knows what to do about it - holding some judgment for the how much gratitude to be having these kinds of conversations with my family and to be seeing the place in me that's blossoming so much that I want to contribute with my gifts story.

This is a woman who has had way more than her share of abuse and physical illness in her life, and whose protective parts have often kept her true light hidden from others, and, more importantly, hidden from herself. To see it begin shining so brightly, in the midst of such tragedy, to see her protective parts that might have been prone to judge or condemn a perpetrator relax enough to have such compassion - it was, and is, beautiful beyond measure.

To hold light and dark together. In the midst of darkness, to still see the flicker of light. Most especially, to allow light to emerge out of the darkest dark. That's where we are, it seems. That's what we are being invited to do and Be.

We are not the first to be here. We've been taught about this phenomenon over and over. By many Teachers from many traditions. My wager is that if we can learn this lesson, we might just get to experience Peace on Earth.

gratefully,  Alisa

Alisa Carr, Eye of the Heart, Spiritual Director, LCSW, DreamWorker, and Contemplative

Untie the Strong Woman!

Today, December 12, 2017 is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  It often slips by me without my being conscious of it, despite the devotion for her that has been growing within me over the last few years.  Not today. 

She is and has been calling to me, from the time I began making trips to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey, a monastery in Pecos, New Mexico, in 1999.  She was instrumental in revealing the path of the Divine Feminine to me through my friend and colleague, Heather Neary of SHE (SHINE Heather Elizabeth).  She has made the archetype of the Black Madonna come alive for me through conversations with my beautiful spiritual friend from high school, Deb Shine Valentine, my Jungian studies, and the writings of Sue Monk Kidd, and Clarissa Pinkola Estes.  

Untie the Strong Woman is the name of Estes' collection of writings about the way Guadalupe's wild love for all of humankind has been revealed in our times, especially for the heart-broken and downtrodden, and especially for those who suffer because of the way the Feminine has been bound.   (Read on past her picture!)

The Strong Woman is most definitely being Untied!! 

I don't even watch, read, or listen to much news, but I can feel the rumblings that come with the revelations of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse that seem to just keep on emerging.  It is awful and wonderful.  It is disgusting and healing.  I am so humbled and grateful for the courage of all the women - and men - who are voicing these experiences.  We can no longer hide them from ourselves.  The truth is erupting from deep down.  

With these groans and cries that are ripping the blinders off of so many, comes not only exposure and witnessing, but also pain, anger, and grief.  I have had numerous conversations in the past 2 weeks with women - and men - on a healing path, whose own experience of sexual trauma have been triggered by what has been unearthed and spoken out in the media.  And I have it on my heart to speak to this.  With the help and support of Our Lady, Guadalupe.

Make no mistake - the voices of those who are speaking out are courageous and healing.  And the experience of anxiety, rage, disgust, flashbacks, overwhelming emotions, challenging though they may be, are part of the healing process.  Once something like this suddenly breaks the surface, when it has been buried or at least locked away for so long, it hurts!  Acknowledging it is only the first part of the journey of healing.  

So, if you are one of the ones who is remembering past sexual abuse, or feeling intensely about abuse you already knew was part of your past, or in any other way are being triggered by what the world is just now hearing, know you are not alone.  If you - or someone you know- is experiencing pain related to sexual abuse, the time is ripe for approaching that experience with compassion and caring.   

Here are some common responses when past sexual abuse is triggered:

• Remembering, reliving, or even "watching" an incident of trauma over and over again.                                                                                   

• Questions like, "Why didn't I tell someone?  Why don't I speak up about what's happened to me?  Am I to blame for not speaking up?"  (The answer is "NO!!!" There are SO many reasons why!)

• An overwhelm of feelings of shame, guilt, disgust, rage;  or intense anxiety, not knowing what feelings are deep within, and if they can be handled.  (They can be!)

• Sexually intimate relationships may become challenging.   

• Increased irritability that seems out of context, increased use of alcohol or drugs, or other numbing or distracting behaviors.

If any of this is going on for you, reach out to someone you trust to share your feelings and experience. 

Click here to reach out to me, or contact another Healer who understands how to guide you through a process, to do the inner work of healing your experience of abuse.   My intensive healing program Becoming Your Heart's Treasure is designed just for this kind of situation.  The Independent Study/Healing program,Anxiety - Doorway Into Your Heart is not specific to sexual abuse, but can definitely support you through any emotions or anxiety that are triggered.

Call out to Our Lady of Guadalupe to guide you and be with you, either as a manifestation of the Spirit speaking to and loving you directly, or as that Divine Mother intercessor.  We all have different ways of connecting with her - consider what that might be for you.  Let her prayer wrap around you and bring you comfort:

 ...I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings.                          Our Lady of Guadalupe

As I write this article, I am holding space and energy of love, of comfort, and of hope for the healing of all who have had an experience of sexual abuse of any kind.   I believe I can speak for Our Lady, Guadalupe, that she is also here with us, loving us, encouraging us, and supporting us.  The healing is happening, my companions and friends, it is here!  Let us participate with open and committed hearts!

gratefully - Alisa

Alisa Carr, Eye of the Heart

Spiritual Director, LCSW, DreamWorker and Contemplative

Extravagant Gifts

What a year of Extravagant Gifts this has been!  There has been such a blossoming in my life and in my work - one has influenced and enhanced the other, and then the gifts return, like a constant figure-eight of energy flowing, from my work and back to me.  I am, indeed, very grateful at this time of Thanksgiving.  

The journey has lead me to share more of myself and more of my creativity with more people.  YOU are one of those people, and your energy returns to me in just the act of your reading this letter!

I want to share a little of the story...

It all started in the dairy section at HEB in May 2016.  I received a text from my close friend and colleague, Dana.  (Yes, I am one of those people stopped in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store, texting!) 

She was telling me that she had finally decided to go "all in" and apply for an intensive training in a modality that she had been studying on her own for 4 years - Internal Family Systems.  It contained many of the elements from which I had drawn for many years. 

She was asking if she could use me for a reference for the training that would take place in the Boston area over the course of a year.  Every other month for a long weekend. 

Maybe I wanted to do it with her, she asked.  I said to myself - "Yeah, right! I can't see that happening!" 

There had been a lot going on with me personally and professionally in the previous 2 years that I won't get into here...suffice it to say that I sure didn't even consider that I could spend money or time on training and travel.  Not for a second!

Or did I??
 

When I returned home from the grocery store, I looked up the program.  There was a level of curiosity - for what Dana was doing, and for myself as well.  The first thing I noticed is that the training was to be held in Natick, outside of Boston. 

I am very familiar with Natick, since I have traveled there for 20 years to visit my brother and his family!  He no longer lives there, but my niece and nephew, both my Godchildren, still do.  Maybe I should take another look??!

Needless to say, I applied for the training, for some financial aid, and was accepted, along with my friends, Dana and Connie.  Between October 2016 and August 2017, we traveled to Natick, MA, outside of Boston, 6 times.  We waited in airport restaurants and bars, laughed, told stories, cried, read Tarot cards, and created business plans.  We stayed in AirBnB's and hotels.  We ate good food.  We had a layover in Baltimore due to a snowstorm, and so many synchronicities occurred that we had to pinch ourselves to see if it was real!  We created friendships with New England IFS people that distance will not diminish.   

And we learned.  I learned.  In order for me to learn, I had to come with "beginner's mind," which was challenging - it required letting go of my ego, and letting go of my fear of being judged.  It required acknowledging and surrendering to some "deaths" that were happening with my business and in my life. 

The ball started rolling and picked up steam in the winter months of 2017.  Out of deeply inspired conversations, witnessing one another, and amazing encouragement and support from my IFS sisters, Dana and Connie, as well as from the intense inner work that was taking place throughout the year, was conceived a resurrected Eye of the Heart - what you can now find atwww.eye4heart.com.  

I keep hearing myself say that I feel like I am in graduate school again.  Only this time, I get to pick from the wide and vast offerings, not limited by a certain school, degree plan, or physical presence even, found through friends and intuition, on the internet!

I have been participating in a coaching program, Joanna Lindenbaum's Your Sacred Business and Soulful Leadership Intensive, to teach me what I never learned in Social Work school - how to market myself.  With her tried and true, step by step guidance, I found a way to articulate what I have to share with you, and the way I want to share it.  I also learned to see the value of what I offer, and to charge that, without apology! 

All of this has enabled me to reflect on the journey that I have taken over the past 25 years with new eyes.  I recognize that I didn't have anyone to show me the way.  I had to find it myself.  What an honor it is to share the wisdom I have gained and be able to point out a pathway for others to walk on.  

The learning continues!!  I have no doubt that this time next year, I will have participated in other expansive opportunities, and will have more "tricks" to share with you, in the service of your healing, transformation, and growth!

I have received an abundance of extravagant gifts this year! I am so grateful for the invitation I received from Dana in HEB in the middle of the dairy section; grateful for the synchronicities that showed me I could say "yes" to such valuable offers, as I have done throughout the year; and grateful to you for receiving, in whatever way you choose, the invitations I have offered, and will continue to offer to you.

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving in 2017!  Wherever you are along your path of healing and spiritual growth, I hope that my story helps you to listen and look for the invitations and opportunities that are making themselves known to you, and to imagine that you can also say "yes!"

Upcoming
Sacred Circles - Sunday December 3, 2:30CST.  Come and see how Blessed are the Meekbecomes Blessed are the Empowered.

Sacred Circles - Sunday December 31, 2:30CST.  We leave the Beatitudes for this Circle and take a sacred look at our 2017 year, considering what we desire to step into for 2018.

Look for (in the next week!) a brand new online offering for anyone who struggles with a high level of anxiety!!

peace, love and healing to you!  Alisa

Alisa Carr
Eye of the Heart
Spiritual Director, LCSW, DreamWorker, and Contemplative
www.eye4heart.com
 

Ready or not, here it comes...

It is about this time almost every year that I suddenly think to myself  "oh, crap!!  Thanksgiving is in two weeks!!  Who am I going to be with and where will I be with them??"  You would think that, by now, I would know that Thanksgiving is always the 4th Thursday of the month of November...yet it always sneaks up on me.

I can see some of my family members in this!

This is my version of holiday stress and anxiety.  Trying to figure out where I will go and what I will do.  I can get myself in a funk in a couple of different ways.  The first funk is "I don't have a significant other/partner in my life, so there's no one who just KNOWS that we are going to do holidays together no matter what. (sad face, sad face, poor, poor me...)

The second funk is this - "My family is all spread out (for years each of us in a different state)  and my parents are divorced.  Should I go to Mom's?  Should I go to Dad's?  Where will my sister and brother be?  I can't stand flying during the holidays because it's such a nightmare, blah, blah, blah..."

On top of that I'm a terrible planner, so by the time I remember that it's holiday time and plans are needed, it feels completely overwhelming to try to make the plans necessary to get out of town.  And since I'm the one without kids, remember,  I'm usually the one doing the traveling.  (I am super grateful that my sister, Suzanne, and her family came to me last Thanksgiving!!)  

This is my particular version of holiday stress and anxiety.  I know you have yours too - what is it?  Maybe you wonder how I could even complain, given that I obviously have people I COULD be with if I chose to - when you may feel alone at the holidays, without options of people to be with, with whom you share love.

Animals like to be with their packs too!

Maybe - and I confess that this has been true for me at times - the plans to actually be with family are laden with stress and anxiety.  There you will run into the sibling who vehemently holds the exact opposite political or religious viewpoint from you.  Or the relative that loses his temper at the drop of a hat.  Or the parent that is a control freak and can't just have a relaxing time visiting.  Or the alcoholic.  Or...And...you know what tension awaits you in your particular family.

You may have had the experience of  being away from family for some time, during which you have entered into a process of awakening and healing, of growing up and discovering who you are in this world of ours, that might look much different from who your family thought you were or wanted you to be. 

You may feel a strong connection with your family, but when you return, with eyes more open, and some different perspectives and experiences, maybe even different beliefs, it feels a little strange.  Who are these people?  Who am I when I'm with them?  Where did my grown up self go?

It is not unusual to walk into the home of your parents and automatically return to the same dynamic you had with them when you were 12!  This is a huge reason why anxiety starts rising up at this time of year.

The people we want the most to feel connected to, we wind up feeling the most alone with.

Or we are alone, wanting to be with people we feel connected to.

Or we just plain want people to feel connected to, but instead, feel alone!

This against the fairy tale of a picture we have made up in our minds - or that others have made up for us - of what SHOULD be happening at the Holidays.

Are your holiday tensions, stresses, and anxieties starting to pop up too?  It might be the perfect time to take a look at the source of these.

I invite you to consider The Heart of the Matter as a mini healing program to support and guide you through what bubbles up inside you during the months of November and December.

 The Heart of the Matter is a 5 session package that could be the open door you need to walk through this 2017 holiday season.   If your tensions are high, or you are experiencing a reaction to this time of year, I can help you take a closer look at what is behind the dread, the anxiety, the guilt, the same old family pattern.  And once you can see it more clearly, I can help you shift it, and maybe even get a good start on letting it go! 

When that shift happens, you will actually find yourself responding differently to that challenging family member.  You will find a more centered place within, a place of empowerment, even in triggering circumstances.  You will be able to create your own experience at the holidays, even if you are not yet established in community.

Please contact me with any questions you have about The Heart of the Matter, or any other offering that might be calling to you.  

For myself, I've had to work through feelings of grief and resentment related to my parents' divorce.  I had to let go of resentment that my parents started a trend of moving away from extended family.  I had to let go of a sense of responsibility for the feelings or actions of others, and really ask myself what decision is in alignment with what will bring the most Life to me - and, by association, others - at any given time (i.e. Holiday). 

I will probably not be with my family for Thanksgiving this year.  And it will probably be 2 weeks before Christmas, the holiday of my spiritual tradition,  before I know what I will be doing then.  What I do know is that I am available to walk with you during this time, if needed.   Please reach out so that I can do just that!

What is YOUR work in the world?

I want to talk to you today about discovering and uncovering the work that you want to do in the world.  About stepping out of whatever fear or barrier holds you back from your mission and purpose in life.  About stepping into that mission and purpose, becoming more expansive and offering the Treasure that you are to the world!

I call it Becoming Your Heart's Treasure! 

This new program I have created brings transformation on many levels - relationships, controlling emotions. accessing creativity and intuition.  And it also helps reveal the path to take in order to offer yourself to the world.   It is available for 2 more weeks at it's Introductory Rate!!

We can hear this phrase, Becoming Your Heart's Treasure in two ways - and they are both powerful!  The first way is this...there is treasure to be found in your heart - and there is a journey that not only leads you to it, but allows you to BE it!  Become the Treasure that is in your Heart.  That's one way to hear it. 

The other way is to fall in love with your very own heart!  And show yourself to your Heart so that it can fall in love with you!  Be your heart's precious treasure, your heart's lover, your heart's pride and joy! 

Becoming Your Heart's Treasure is available for just 2 more weeks at its Introductory Rate.  Rate ends on November 3!!

"What does this have to do with my mission and purpose?  Why would I want to fall in love with myself?  What does that have to do finding with my work in the world?" you ask...let's talk about that...

I hear over and over again from the courageous people I work with that they know there is a particular work for them in the world, a specific way to share their personalities and gifts, their passions and joys.  They know that, whatever it is, it is a way they can contribute and make a difference, make an impact.  Is this you too?

Maybe you know exactly how you want to engage the world, exactly what you want to bring to others, but fears and negative internal messages hold you back.

Or maybe you desperately want to have a "thing" to offer to the world, you want to be out there bringing something that others need, but you can't quite figure out what that something is.

What I have found through the more than 20 years that I have dedicated to transformative and healing work - with others and with myself - is that listening deeply to those fears and barriers, facing the old patterns of behavior, acknowledging and showing up for the woundedness that you have carried, this is what clears the path toward your work in the world. 

It is a little counterintuitive.  We think that we need to be searching for the right job, or wracking our brains for the right thing to do, or trying so hard to "figure it out."  We get caught up in the belief that the answer, the direction, the guidance is "out there" - somewhere.

Becoming Your Heart's Treasure is available for just 2 more weeks at its Introductory Rate!!  Rate ends on November 3!!

But it is actually in here (I place my hand on my chest), close to the heart space.  When you tend to the business of your inner life, your emotions, the inner messages that plague you, healing traumas and losses, that's what clears the path so that your heart can be reached.  When you are faithful to this work, the way just begins to emerge.  You get an idea in the shower.  You wake up inspired to call a particular person.  You run into someone who has a lead for you.  One step, and the next step, and the next...and soon you are traveling on a particular path.

Will this make it all come just easy, breezy?  No, you will run into problems and challenges.  You will have old fears rise up.  You will stumble and fall.  But this looks and feels so much differently when you have opened up to your passion and are on a road toward something.  It looks and feels differently when you have developed a friendship with yourself.  It looks differently when you have learned how to listen to yourself.

Finding your work in the world is just one of the many outcomes of participating in this transformational program, Becoming Your Heart's Treasure.  You can also expect to Speak your Voice, Find your Authenticity, Claim your Creativity, and Tap into Your Intuition.  You can expect to do deep healing work on past traumas and losses, or troubling family dynamics.  You can release the internal messages that wreak havoc with your peace of mind, and keep chaos stirred up in your life.

So - come go on a journey of mining and excavating the treasure in your heart.  Discover the joy of adorning yourself with that treasure!  Come and meet your deepest self - the Eye of your Heart - so you and your heart can fall in love with one another.  Simply click on the Becoming Your Heart's Treasure links to take a closer look at the program.  Or click on the links in this paragraph to contact me directly. 

Or, as you look around this sacred cyberspace, go to the Contact page to email me. It would be my greatest pleasure to accompany you as you discover the precious gems within your heart!!  

Becoming Your Heart's Treasure is available for just 2 more weeks at its Introductory Rate.  Rate ends on November 3!!

. With Gratitude!  Alisa Carr, Spiritual Director, LCSW, DreamWorker and Contemplative

Nature's Relationships to Guide Us

What kind of relationship do you find yourself participating in?

How do you want to be in your relationships?

One of the first things to shift when you begin to do your inner healing is your relationships!

In a conversation with my veterinarian friend the other day, the subject of boundaries in relationships came up.  This sent him into a full-on biology teaching on the nature of destructive parasites, and the relationship that cows have with egrets!  I loved the metaphor and the chance to invite you to look a little closer at your own relationship dynamics with a little creativity!  

In nature, there are some parasitic relationships that cause biological stress on the host, and some that are downright deadly!  But the dynamic is similar - one creature lives off of the other one, to the parasite's sole benefit.  Sometimes this results in mild irritation, like the barnacles that live off of the whale, and sometimes it results in debilitating disease, as when hookworms invade an animal's digestive tract.  Either way, the host sacrifices some of its being in order for the parasite to have life.  And in some cases, the parasite literally sucks the life right out of the host!

You probably see where I'm going with this!!  

Do you have some parasitic relationships going on in your life?  Are there some destructive dynamics in your relationships?  Are others "living off" of your energy in a way that depletes you?

You know what I'm talking about!  The people in your life who, after being with them, you feel drained and heavy.  Maybe even used or overwhelmed.  The people who don't seem to be satisfied with what you have to offer, who always seem to want more than you have to give.

Do you want to change this dynamic?

We also find in nature, my friend reminded me, other types of relationships that are more mutually satisfying and beneficial.  Similar to the relationship that the cow and the bird have with each other...he referred to it as the cow-bird relationship.

You've seen them...the white birds - egrets (there are actually black ones, too - cowbirds) - who always hang with the cows...they often perch themselves on the backs of the cows.  The white birds and the cows are helping each other out.  Cows stir up grasshoppers, which the birds love to eat. The birds also feeds off the insects infested in the skin and hair of the cow that cause discomfort and disease.  The birds are satisfied with food, and the cows become more healthy in the process of feeding them!  A mutually beneficial relationship!  

It is a pleasure to participate in these cow-bird relationships!  It doesn't mean there aren't challenges in them, conflicts, even hurt feelings at times.  But overall, there is a giving and a receiving, a mutual desire to share, and to receive the gifts (of time, help, encouragement, conversation, etc...) that are offered.  Both people benefit!

Can you bring some of these types of relationships to mind?

Let's pause here for a second...

So far, I've been pointing you in the direction of your relationships, or the people who interact with you in a particular way.  Maybe you have been remembering a friend here, or a relationship there, that fit the description of a parasite,  or of a cow or a bird! These are important to consider, because you may be invited to establish more boundaries with people who are parasitic!  Learning to set boundaries, speak your voice, and find your authentic self in relationships requires self-awareness, inner work, and healing.  These are the outcomes that can't help but emerge when you enter a healing program like what I am offering in Becoming Your Heart's Treasure.

It's also really energizing to notice the cow-birdness of our mutually enhancing relationships and offer gratitude for them.  If these are the norm in your life, you are probably entering into, or already exploring a time of creativity and expanding your intuition.  I would love to walk with you as this valuable Treasure emerges from your depths into your life!

As I've been writing this, though, I've remembered many times when it was I who was the parasite!!  The times that because of my woundedness or lack of awareness, it was me who took from a relationship without being able to offer much to the other, and may have caused stress to the other.  Do you also remember those times?  Is it going on now for you?  

Finding yourself in that place is nothing to judge, criticize, or be ashamed about!!  It's only an indication of an inner unmet need.  I would be honored to help guide you in learning to listen in a deep and profound way that clears the way for healing and growth.  This work will transform the way you operate in your life and in your relationships!  

Relationships and the way we navigate them, have much to tell us about what needs attention within.  Parasites. Cows.  Birds.  These creatures and the way they do relationships just invite us to look a little closer at our own patterns.  On this road of healing and transformation, there is always something more to see, a new door to open, a pocket of energy to be tapped into.  It would be my pleasure and privilege to guide and support you on your journey through Becoming your Heart's Treasure, or one of my other offerings!  

Contact me for a conversation about how I can help guide you in your healing and expansion so that you can have more cow-bird relationships in your life!!  

with gratitude and healing!  Alisa

Alisa Carr, Spiritual Director, LCSW, DreamWorker, and Contemplative