The Journal of a Spiritual Seeker, Releasing Attachments to Suffering
Hello Seekers,
Many of you who follow me on Instagram or listen to the podcast will have heard me talk about my health issues. I have a collection of chronic illnesses that have been varying degrees of disabling for the last eight or so years. The journey of alchemizing suffering and opening to the lessons of my soul has been physically painful, but spiritually enlightening.
Certain things, like losing a lot of hair every Fall, continue to be difficult to bear. For some reason — that I have to admit does have at least a little bit of vanity mixed in — hair loss is one physical symptom I have a hard time seeing the silver lining in. Though as I typed that I just heard, “it’s an indication you need to pay closer attention to your body,” so if you ask for a silver lining, I guess you’ll always get an answer!
And paying closer attention is what this message is all about. This communication was the first time I received the analogy I use often of our suffering being like the dashboard lights of a car. When we suffer, it’s like the “check engine” light has gone on and we need to look deeper into what we’re experiencing and explore what is happening underneath. We can always go deeper, and just when we thought we’ve resolved an issue, it comes up again in a different way because we’ve reached another layer. We need to be mindful of this as a functionality of healing, and not beat ourselves up because we “should’ve resolved this already,” or “shouldn’t let such things bother us.” Just accept it as an opportunity to go deeper and heal more and let go of any and all attachments to that suffering.
Hindsight can be a lovely thing as long as we don’t use it to dwell or self-punish. For me, having these illnesses and having them become disabling took me out of the life I was living — a life I’d worked really hard for and found a lot of joy in — and held me in place for a few years. Once I was well enough, my new life allowed me so many different opportunities to be present with people and animal friends I loved dearly before they left the physical. None of the experiences I had these past few years would have happened if I had still been living that other life. So I can find gratitude in it all, and that gratitude helps me release suffering.
I hope this finds you all well and in a space of healing that allows you to discover context, gain perspective and move into joy and gratitude.
With love,
Jodie
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Message from the Light, Oct. 3, 2017
The bark of a tree is its skin, the leaves its hair, the roots its legs. Liken these aspects to your physical body. Think of your skin as bark, your hair as leaves, your legs as roots reaching down into the Earth, providing you strong grounding.
Life force comes up from the Earth and nourishment comes down from the Sun and holds the tree in perfect balance.
Visualize this when you are feeling unbalanced. The force of roots, breaking through barriers to get to water and nutrients, providing stability and grounding. The rich nourishment from the sun above, bathing you in light and love and absolute oneness. Bring together these forces — pull down light from above and pull light up from below and ask that you be held in perfect balance — as a tree. Ask that your skin be strong like the bark — providing protection and serving as a filter against toxicity. And try not to mourn your hair as it falls like the leaves. It will grow back, this you know, and when it does, it will be full and lovely again.
Picture yourself strong, for you ARE strong. It is not simply a mental exercise. You are enduring physical challenges that require a great deal of strength and fortitude, so take heart in that which you have survived and rejoice in the strength you have employed and will continue to employ.
Days of rest are needed. Breathe deep and release attachment to the ideas of what life is “supposed to” look like. These are days of deep inner growth, for the ability to stay still and experience what is needed is an exercise in and of itself. Let go of ideas and attachments to what is “supposed to” be, in general — and especially in this process. You’ve seen how it comes together without your mind, so trust that and trust us.
Let’s talk more about attachment to suffering. To identify with suffering and in suffering is an affront to the light of your Soul. Your Soul is whole and pure in Light and is your true identity.
Suffering is sometimes a karmic reaction, and in these instances comes from choices you’ve made in other selves, other times, other moments and other dimensions. To fully bring all of that through and heal on the soul level, you must acknowledge these actions and choices, heal these places of misunderstanding and bring through the light of truth to shine and illuminate these spaces.
These electromagnetic charges can be neutralized without attachment to the suffering they’ve caused. The suffering is an indication of the energetic imbalance — like a warning light or an unpleasant noise in your car. Once attention has been brought to this energy and the intention to transmute is set, the suffering no longer has a purpose. Continued attachment to the suffering is in essence a disrespect of your Soul Light and its purity of form. Because when you continue to identify with suffering, you’re saying, “I AM my suffering. I AM my pain. I AM the pain I’ve caused others. I AM my guilt and misunderstanding.” But your Soul is none of these things.
Instead say, “I am my Soul and my Soul is a beautiful expression of Source and Light. And as an expression of Light, I can transmute suffering and neutralize the electromagnetic charges that are karmic pain.”
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Exercise: Begin each exercise by grounding and protecting. For more information on how, see this post.
Once you’re grounded and protected, sit for awhile and reflect on a time or times when things did not work out the way you wanted, but very much worked out the way you needed. What can you understand through hindsight about how suffering — of being denied the path you thought you were on — helped you discover a different path? What did you experience as a result that you wouldn’t have otherwise? How can you use these revelations from the past to help unlock your heart in the present and open you up to discovering a future that is even more lovely than you could ever imagine?
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A brief note: This journal and its exercises are simply a means to help you find your own flow. There is no pressure to follow them exactly or read each and every one. It does not need to be read in order either, so if you miss one, don’t feel like you’ve failed or fallen behind. These messages are here to hold space for you as you discover and evolve within your spiritual practice.
This is the first volume of The Journal of the Spiritual Seeker, and I’m presenting it here on The Devic Connection website, serialized over the last 10 weeks of 2020, with weekly roundups via email (you can sign up in the box at the bottom of this page if you’d like to receive these.) If you’ve just arrived here and would like to start from the beginning, here’s the link to the first post.
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We all need help with clarity …
Sometimes, things come up in the healing journey that we can’t quite manage by ourselves. I’m fortunate to have people I can call on to help me gain that clarity. And I’m also in therapy, which helps immensely with processing the psychological and mental health issues. If you find yourself getting stuck on this journey or having something come up that you need some guidance on, please do seek help. An internet search can help you find a qualified mental health practitioner for those psychological issues. And if you’re looking for help from the Light on the spiritual questions, I have some availability for readings. (Read more about that here.)