Emmanuel is a being of golden light channeled by Pat Rodegast over decades.  Emmanuel was asked, “Emmanuel what is your world like?”  Emmanuel responds:

“Well, if I were to take you on a tour

I would delight in showing you brilliance of colour,

sweetness of air,

delight of perception in all manner.

I would offer you

streets of safety, beauty and softness,

aromas of incredible wonder.

All things that are contained in physical promise

in your world come to fulfillment in mine.”

As a child one of my favourite flowers was honeysuckle so imagine my delight when the next question Emmanuel was asked was, “Do you have honeysuckle there?”  Emmanuel says:

“It is the essence of honeysuckle

and it is absorbed not only through the nostrils

but through every portion of who I am.

You can begin to touch my world

even while you are in your own

by allowing yourself to experience without boundaries.

For example, when you eat a meal, taste your food

not only through your tastebuds,

but see it in its beauty,

hear it (it has a sound), see the vibrant life,

the gift of love that food is offering to you.

Let your body absorb the light and delight of it.

Eat slowly, compassionately.  Eat with awareness

and you will begin to see what my world is like.

It is essentially the same, but so much more.”

(EMMANUEL’S BOOK)

TIP 21:   BE SENSUAL

Enjoy life with all of your senses.  Really taste your food, smell the air, see the beauty around you, listen, and allow yourself to feel sensuous and sexy.  Live life fully awake and alive.

Although many of us think of sensuality through association with sexuality, at its core, being sensual is not about sex.  It is about living in our senses and living in the NOW.  We can become more sensual by becoming more aware of our senses.  What are you hearing?  What are you touching?  What are you tasting?  What are you seeing?  What are you smelling?  What are you intuiting?

There is an exercise that I have given my Hatha Yoga students over many, many years as homework the first night of class!  I ask each student to eat an apple as if for the very first time.  It becomes an anticipatory exercise as well as an experience in mindfulness.  Take your time as you slowly reach for the fruit.  Feel its weight in your hand.  Notice its colour and variations in colour.  Take the time to smell it as you raise it to your mouth for that first bite.  Describe its texture.  When you eat the fruit you will have slowed down and your senses will be engaged and ready to experience completely. I explain to my students that when life is approached this way, everything takes on a heightened level of both pleasure and satisfaction because you are living in the NOW.  Of course, this exercise prepares students for the way that I want them to experience the Hatha Yoga sessions that I teach.  Moving very slowly and consciously into poses, maintaining the pose without straining (when you are advanced, all technique disappears) and moving out of the pose (asana) slowly and with complete awareness.  For me, Hatha Yoga, 30 years ago, was a revelation in learning what awareness and relaxation is like.  Hatha Yoga is said to have been created by watching animals stretch and relax.  When I think of the word sensual, I think of a cat.  The goddess Bast was often depicted either as a cat, or with the head of a cat.  Goddess Freyja, the goddess of fertility is also associated with the cat and in the Hindu tradition, Shasthi, the goddess of childbirth, is depicted riding upon a cat.

There are various forms of meditation that employ our senses as a way of focusing ourselves until we are able to go beyond them and directly to our Source.  We may listen to music, gaze at a candle, or hold a stone/crystal, as a vehicle to transport us beyond our thoughts, beliefs and actions.  However, when we return from this journey beyond we often find that we return with our senses awakened and the colours more vivid than ever.  In fact, Emmanuel tells us very clearly that the only difference that separates us from him at any given moment is “that you believe in what your five senses are now registering.  You accept their power to limit you.  The moment that you stretch beyond that belief you are home free.”  Climbing the ladder of consciousness, freeing ourselves of old thoughts, beliefs and patterns – results in our senses on all levels becoming more fully alive.

Don’t rush anything if you wish to increase your sensuality.  Don’t rush a conversation to its conclusion or a kiss to sex.  A sensual person experiences every moment.  As yogis know, being fully present in the moment in an asana, meditation or in pranayama (breathing exercises) can evoke as much bliss as anything else can.  Slow down, smell the roses!

TIP 22:   LIVE YOUR LIFE NOW

Don’t keep postponing your joy, waiting for someone or something to complete you.  Make a list of all the things that you wish to experience in this life and start doing or working toward them now.  Fulfill yourself and your own needs so you are not needy (an unattractive energy).  This is the advice of our contemporary spiritual teachers today who are ‘awakened.’  We are advised to live in the NOW.  Eckart Tolle’s work comes to my mind and his book THE POWER OF NOW has proved transformative for many of us seekers.  Tolle indicates to us that without presence (being in the NOW) we are unaware of the beauty, majesty and the sacredness of nature.  He compares the state of presence with the state of “no-mind.”  In the state of no mind our holy essence shines through and we truly ‘see’ the beauty of nature.  However, Tolle states that when we are not in our essence, our holiness, our minds create monstrosities.  “Look at our urban landscapes and industrial wastelands.  No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness.” Tolle, like my teacher, the Amazing Grace, urges us to live in the now.  Tolle says that if we find our here and now intolerable and it makes us unhappy, we have three options.  We can remove ourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.  If we want to take responsibility for our life (own our power) then we must choose one of these three options and we must choose now.  Then, we accept the consequences Tolle says. ” No excuses.  No negativity.  No psychic pollution.  We keep our inner space clear.”  However, Tolle reminds us that when we are leaving or changing a situation – drop the negativity first, if it is at all possible, because, “action arising out of insight into what is required is more effective than action arising out of negativity.”

Tolle reminds us to let go of the past in order to live life now.  He says that thought processes that create guilt, pride, resentment, anger, regret or self-pity help to “accelerate your body’s aging process by creating an accumulation of the past in your psyche.”  Tolle says to verify this for yourself by observing people around you who have a strong tendency to hold on to the past.  He says, “to die to the past every moment.  You don’t need it.  Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant.  Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being.  Feel your presence.”  (page 84)

What are you waiting for?  (answer this in your journal).  If there is one step that you could take today (no matter how seemingly small) toward something you wish to experience – what would it be?  Why not do it NOW?

Love & Light,   Monica