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Be Content

The door opens onto NOW. What you experience is always right now. Here you stay fully focused on what you are doing in this moment. You choose to feel good by thinking thoughts that support you. Being is at the top of your to-do list. You are fully present and there is always enough time. Your Universe reflects all this right back to you. Isn’t this a place you’d like to BE?

Allowing the Silence

2/21/2020

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“Real peace and happiness can be experienced only when the pendulum of the mind stops swinging altogether. From that stillness, real peace and bliss ensue. This state of perfect stillness is verily the essence of life.”
-Mata Amritatnandamayi

Many of us struggle against unhappiness because unhappiness is uncomfortable. 

​Our minds tell us that if we can just do enough, be enough, have enough, then we will be happy. We constantly struggle to attain more of what we think we need, yet as Wayne Dyer says, “You can never get enough of what you don’t want.”

What this means is, what we think we want is not necessarily what we need for true happiness. The new car, new house, new romance, new job, new hobby, new exercise program, may feel good for a time, but no matter how many activities we do or how many things we have, it is never enough to create lasting happiness.

In our struggle to feel happy we energize the momentum of the pendulum in our minds. The pendulum swings back and forth from happiness to unhappiness, day by day, minute by minute. The seeking and struggle keep it in constant motion.

The Indian saint and great spiritual teacher, Mata Amritatnandamayi (Amma) speaks of stilling the pendulum of our mind. How do we attain the peace and bliss within that stillness?

We attain the stillness by wanting it, wanting it so much that we are willing to release the struggle against unhappiness. To do that we must also release the struggle for happiness.

What? Release the struggle for happiness?

Yes. The keyword here is ‘struggle.’ Release the struggle.

 “When something really, really, really matters to you, let it go! Say to the Universe: ‘You know what I want.’ Give it to me in the path of least resistance…”
- Abraham Hicks

The stillness lives deep underneath like the depths of the vast ocean. The waves and troughs of highs and lows roil about on the surface. As long as you stay at the surface trying to ride the highs of the waves, you are inevitably carried down into the troughs as well. Think of a surfer catching a wave at the top and riding from the height of the wave down to its bottom, only to have to return again to catch the next wave and ride it top to bottom. Over and over again the surfer rides top to bottom. When we constantly seek happiness, we inevitably ride the waves, top to bottom and back again.

While there is fun and excitement in riding the waves in the ocean, riding the waves of our emotions is a constant struggle to get back up to the top of the wave.  We try to fix unhappiness by having more, doing more, being more. We try to ensure happiness by struggling against unhappiness. We are constantly riding the waves of our emotions in an attempt to control what we cannot control.  

It is only in the depths where the stillness may be found. It is in the release of the struggle to keep our heads above emotional waters that we may encounter true peace.

When I was a child, I spent summers in a lake cottage with my grandparents. There we spent many hours each day swimming in the lake. My favorite thing was to be underwater. I would find a heavy rock and use it as a weight. Resting the rock in my lap, I could sit on the sand at the bottom. There I would feel the pressure of the ringing silence in my ears, surrounding me. It was so still and peaceful. It felt deeply restful.

As a child I understood the silence. As an adult I find I have to relearn the art of allowing myself the silence of my soul.

Are you allowing yourself the silence of your soul?

“Are you practicing the art of allowing or the art of disallowing? Are you practicing the art of allowing yourself to be in sync with who-you-really-are; the art of allowing yourself to be the true extension of Source Energy? That is who you were born to be.”
-Abraham-Hicks
Photo by Abbas Malek Hosseini on Unsplash

Your Spiritual Toolbox

The Temple of Silence 
Go to a place where there are as few outer distractions as possible.

Sit in the quiet with eyes closed. Take three slow, deep breaths pulling your attention within as you take each breath.

Listen to the sound of your breath. Hear it, like the sound of ocean waves rolling in and out. Continue breathing slowly and deeply, listening to the sound your breath makes moving in and out, as you drop deeper into that quiet space within.

If you find thoughts coming up, allow them to drift. Become a screen door with your thoughts moving through like a passing breeze.

Now, allow your breath to normalize. Imagine you are sinking beneath the waves, still breathing normally. Sink deeper and deeper until you rest gently on the sandy ocean bottom.

Imagine a beautiful, light-filled, underwater temple before you. Enter the temple and sit quietly within. Feel the ringing silence, the slight pressure in your ears, enveloping you in deeply restful silence.

Breathe that stillness and quiet into your heart for as long as feels good to you.

Ask your Higher Self to make this Temple of Silence available to you whenever you desire it by taking three, deep, slow breaths into your heart area and imagining again the temple within your heart.
 
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Feeling Overwhelmed?

10/11/2019

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“Overwhelm is an illusion that states: ‘I am not capable. I cannot handle all this. It is too much. I am doing this all alone.”
-Shoshona Ortalia Rogers from Goddess: 7 Rings of the Heart

We’ve just returned from a week in New England visiting with family and friends and a week driving back and forth. Our days were busy, fitting in everyone we wanted to see. It was wonderful and exhausting.

Getting back home, though tired, I swung full tilt into Weight Watchers and creating a new way of eating. Learning how to use my new FitBit, (which is at this moment buzzing my wrist because I haven’t taken enough steps in the past hour!) Preparing to co-teach a Goddess class. Taking an on-line writing and publishing course. Writing and editing fiction and non-fiction. Planning for our upcoming holiday and birthday parties. And last, but certainly not least, grandparenting, parenting and spousing (is that a word?). I swung myself right into overwhelm.

Overwhelm is a state of mind. It really has nothing to do with what and how much you are doing.

There are many who can handle a daily schedule that is packed from morning to night and beyond with equanimity. There are those whose flexibility makes it possible for them to easily go with the flow. And there are those who get overwhelmed by any change in their daily routine. I probably fall somewhere in the middle depending upon the day.

Overwhelm has everything to do with what and how you are thinking and feeling about what you are doing.

I experience overwhelm when I perceive a task as bigger than it actually is. This happens particularly when I have a number of different projects and responsibilities that I am juggling at once. They gather together, increasing exponentially, and loom over me, mountainous and huge.

I feel confused. I don’t know where to start, and so I don’t. I am stuck. I feel like there is not enough time to accomplish what I must.  I feel alone, as if there is no where to turn for support.

The specter of resistance then rears its head. My ego-self digs in her heels and pulls in the opposite direction from where I want to go for fear that what I do or create will not be perfect. Sigh…

Overwhelm is not fun.

So, what do we do when the illusion of overwhelm, does its thing and overwhelms us?

1. Understand that the feeling of overwhelm is an illusion. It is a misperception. You have the power to look at things differently.

2. Know that you are not alone. Your Spiritual Support Team is interested in and involved with every little bit of your life. They’ve got your back. You can hand that fear in your gut, which is at the base of the perception of overwhelm, over to your Team. They will take care of it. Today’s Spiritual Toolbox is a visualization guiding you through doing this.

3. Focus and Organize. Break each task down into, small, incremental steps. Then, take one step at a time. As you do so you reduce that looming mountain of overwhelm into manageable, orderly, small piles of pebbles. These you can deal with, one at a time.

4. Express gratitude for each small step that you take. Gratitude shifts your energy, lifting you into alignment with your Higher Self. That’s a nice place to be.


Are you willing to give it a try? Me too!

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Sit comfortably, feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes and slowly take deep breaths. Feel yourself relaxing and sinking deeper into your chair.

​Allow whatever is on your mind to drift away and focus on breathing deeply.

Mentally invite your Spiritual Support Team to support and guide you through this visualization.  

Now, out loud quietly ask your body to show you where the feeling of overwhelm is strongest. Keep breathing deeply and notice any sensation of discomfort, tightness, blockage, swelling, pain, anything that is unusual.

Ask your Spiritual Support Team to remove this overwhelm from your body and your energy bodies.

Visualize a shower of light cascading over you, washing you in sparkling white, cleansing light. Clearing your body and energy bodies of all feelings of fear and overwhelm.

Visualize this sparkling white light filling and surrounding your body. Know that you are cleared, loved, protected, supported and guided.
Continue with this visualization for as long as it feels good to you.

Express gratitude to your Spiritual Support Team for their assistance. 
Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash
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Relax Into What Is

7/11/2019

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​“Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo). Here comes the sun, and I say, It's all right.
Little darling, it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here.
Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo) Here comes the sun, and I say, It's all right.”
-George Harrison, The Beatles

In the past my everyday life felt pushed or maybe I should say driven, because it was me doing the pushing. I was always thinking about what else needed to get done, who I needed to take care of, how to keep everyone happy, how this or that wasn’t good enough. It took conscious effort for me to relax, allow and appreciate what was. At the end of the day I’d look back over the day and think of all that I should have accomplished and didn’t, setting myself up for a driven tomorrow.

My life was motivated by fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of not having enough, time, money, parenting skills, you name it. Fear of not doing enough. It is not a comfortable way to live.

Fortunately, I’ve learned that there is a better way.

When I began doing sessions for clients, I learned to center and align myself before each session, calling in my Spiritual Support Team. I learned to trust the guidance I received. Trust the topics that came up for healing. Trust the words and tools that came to me to offer and trust the outcome of our work together.

On several sacred journeys to Brazil and to Iceland I was able to expand this into full days of trust.  I learned to trust what was in my present reality enough to fully relax into the moment. Trusting that who I was with, where I was, and what I was doing, was exactly right for that moment.

I stopped thinking that I needed to be with someone I wasn’t. I stopped thinking that I should be saying or doing something else other than what I was saying and doing. I learned to trust and be with what was.

It was like in my sessions but expanded outward into full, shining days.

Unfortunately for me, there was a big difference in how I felt when I was doing a session, when I was on a sacred journey, and my daily life at home.

That sense of relaxing and trusting what was, was missing.

Instead, I pushed to get through to the next activity or the next person to connect with. I drove myself to get everything right, make sure everything and everyone was taken care of.

Yet, I couldn’t help but think, wouldn’t it be wonderful to feel that relaxation, trust, contentment, inner peace, acceptance, allowing and joy throughout all of my days?

Now I know it is possible.

We can each of us do this through consciously intending it to be so.

We make the choice in each minute to consciously connect with our Source within. We breathe deeply, relax and allow ourselves to align, until it becomes our habit and we are living our days in love rather than fear.

What is needed to make this possible is a change in perspective. It looks like this.

The contentment comes from trusting that we are connected and guided and following that guidance. Knowing that something greater than ourselves holds the big picture.

The inner peace comes from knowing that we live in a beneficent Universe and that we are a beloved and essential part of that. No one else can express the part of the Creator that is uniquely you.

The relaxation comes from focusing in on what is in this present moment, and being fully present with whatever that is.

The joy comes through appreciation, gratitude and allowing yourself to experience the pleasure inherent in whatever is.

​It is this change in perspective that allows you and me to relax into what is. When that becomes our habit, it changes our lives. We shine like the sun.
Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash

Your Spiritual Toolbox

​My daughter Ana, a talented energy healer, taught me a quick, functional tool, that is very supportive for breathing through the constriction of fear, clearing negativity, energizing and aligning with your Source within. I’d like to share it with you.

While breathing deeply imagine a golden funnel above your head with the larger funnel end stretching up to your Soul Star chakra (located about 6” above your head). Think of this as your personal sun. It is the doorway to your Higher Self.

Visualize pulling your breath down through that funnel into the crown of your head. Visualize this sun-energized breath flowing down deep throughout your body expanding, clearing, cleansing and revitalizing every part of you.

Intend to feel each breath opening your body all the way to the root. Feel the breath making space in between each atom, dissolving density and expanding outwards.

Negative thought sits in the body becoming dense. Breathing into the thought expanding it outwards dissolves it. You don’t have to struggle against negativity. That just creates more density within. Just breathe into the thoughts, bringing in love with your breath. Love expands.

Continue to breath deeply visualizing the sun’s breath filling and expanding throughout your body and energy body’s, until you feel peaceful, energized and complete.
​
Use this Golden Funnel Breath any time you feel the need for clearing negativity, energizing and aligning. 
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Memories Are Malleable

5/3/2019

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 “We all have memories that are malleable and susceptible to being contaminated or supplemented in some way.”
-Elizabeth Loftus

Have you ever had the experience of remembering an event a certain way, and finding out later that it happened differently than you remembered? I have, and it was disconcerting.
​
We think we remember an event a certain way and yet that is not what actually happened. Eye witnesses to traumatic events are notoriously unreliable. We perceive events through our personal filters.

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Do you have a memory that disturbs you? One that you go over and over in your mind trying to fix what went wrong? 

Refocus that memory.

Are there any parts of that memory that felt good to you? Or even other associated memories that feel good to you. Focus on those.
​
Even if there is a voice in your head that says, “But we’ve got to fix this!” Keep refocusing. When the old, painful memory comes up, overwrite it with the good stuff.
You are rewriting the pathways of the negative memory with positive, affirming memories.

Daydream your way to a positive experience. Enact it in your mind with as much detail as you can envision until you feel the positive emotions you want to feel. Do this each time the old memory disturbs you and build new, positive memory pathways in your brain.  
What’s more, if the actual event does not support the story we want to tell ourselves we may shift things around in our memory without even realizing that we are doing so.

This is because memories are not a record of actual events. Memories are the stories we tell ourselves to explain things, and our memories are malleable. They can change.
​

Dr Loftus, a psychologist who studies human memory, says,
“In real life, as well as in experiments, people can come to believe things that never really happened.”

“When we remember something, we're taking bits and pieces of experience - sometimes from different times and places - and bringing it all together to construct what might feel like a recollection but is actually a construction.”

This is all pretty interesting, but how can we utilize this malleability to support us?

For example, I have a memory from not too long ago of an afternoon and evening spent with my grandchildren. Tired children can be a challenge for tired grandmothers, even children said grandmother adores.

After playing in the yard and splash pool at our house, then dinner and bath time, one child, who shall remain nameless, tested my patience. I was feeling irritable with tiredness and not happy with myself to be so.

I thought a half-hour of gentle cartoons before bedtime might be a good solution for all of us.

After twenty minutes of sitting quietly to the point of falling asleep in front of the television, one child got up and couldn’t stop misbehaving, climbing dangerously on a piece of exercise equipment we had in the TV room. (You may ask why that particular piece of equipment was in the TV room at all. That is another story.)  In frustration I shut off the TV and ushered everyone upstairs for bedtime.

Our grandchildren are sensitive, empathic souls and this one knew I was annoyed. What’s more this child was annoyed with me right back! Instead of going up to bed as requested this child climbed up to the kitchen counter and stated, “I’m hungry!” though they all had a large snack (as well as dinner) shortly before. Rather than sputtering out my intense frustration, I asked my husband to take over in the kitchen and brought the other two upstairs to bed.

It’s not that the events were terrible or even my reactions. Young children get tired and so do grandmothers. But irritated and annoyed, waiting for bedtime, is not the kind of grandmother I want to be. What I want is to enjoy these precious moments with my grandchildren. They are small for such a short time.

Instead, that night I worried over my reactions, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong. I lay in bed going  over it in my mind, trying to fix it for next time. What I actually did was cement the negative parts of my memory in my brain, effectively eclipsing the positive parts. And we know what that creates, more of the same.

So, how do we make the malleability of memory work for us?

A memory is your mental re-creation; therefore, you can make it anything you want. If the memory of the past event is painful why not recreate it?

For most of us, our tendency is to focus on the negative parts of our memories in an attempt to fix whatever it was, just like I did.

The past is over, you already lived that version. Let go of trying to fix it. Instead, refocus the memory.

Refocus the memory onto the positive rather than focusing on the discomfort. Allow yourself to heal rather than re-inflicting injury each time you access that memory.

How would I refocus this memory with my grandchildren? I’d focus my attention on the parts of the memory that I want to have more of in my life.  I’d picture Eden’s delight as he cannonballed into the pool, Sophia’s mud-pies with mint leaf topping, and Alexandar’s sweet, one-sided smile as he showed me his special truck. I’d focus my attention on their joy and their laughter.  I’d feel the sweetness of our youngest falling asleep in my lap, while his sister fell asleep holding my hand resting against her cheek. I’d see my husband curled up with our grandson sleeping peacefully beside him.

These are the memories I choose to place my focused attention upon.
​

As you refocus your memory, you are laying the energetic groundwork for experiencing a future of events that eventually become memories which heal and support you.
Photo by Mike Marquez on Unsplash
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Give Yourself the Gift of Forgiveness

12/25/2018

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“You must forgive those who hurt you, even if whatever they did to you is unforgivable in your mind. You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you remember what they did to you. It doesn’t matter what others did to you, you are going to forgive them because you don’t want to feel sick all the time. Forgiveness is for your own mental healing. You will forgive because you feel compassion for yourself. Forgiveness is an act of self-love.”

- 
Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love- A Toltec Wisdom Book

Forgiveness is a gift, not just for those you forgive but for yourself. When you feel continuing anger, hatred, fear or any negative emotion for another person, even when it feels justified, it ties you to that person. It creates an energetic cord that binds you together, rather like a sticky, energetic web running from your solar plexus to theirs. The longer you have felt this way, the more negative thoughts you have thought about this person, the more energy you have invested in those negative feelings, the thicker and stronger the web, the more firmly you are bound to this person. What’s more, the cord stretching between you feeds that negativity right back to you.

Who wants that? Wouldn’t you rather be free of all that negativity? Gift yourself with forgiveness. In today’s Spiritual Toolbox is a simple visualization that can support you to free yourself through forgiveness.

If the negativity you have felt is deep-seated, meaning the negative thoughts keep returning and reattaching the cord, you may need additional support. Negative thought pathways can be more like highways than paths, if so, you may choose to bring in additional tools to support you in the forgiveness process.*

There are many available on-line if you search on “Tools for Forgiveness.” Also, check out our Resources page for the technique of Faster EFT-V, which can support you to release negative emotions and allow the process of forgiveness.

"Love is not a quantity it is a flow. When you allow love to flow through you, you are then in a place of love for self, then the choices you make are with compassion for yourself and what you create outside of yourself.  There is no need to do the push/pull. It doesn’t become a trade. There are no disappointments. When we are truly in a place of love and forgiveness we are in a continuous energy spiraling and evolving upward."

-Red Feather



​*We want to remind you to seek out professional support if your emotions feel too much to handle on your own.  

​Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Your Spiritual Toolbox

​Sit or lie down comfortably. Invite your higher self and your spiritual support team to support you in this exercise.

Breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth, focusing your attention on the air moving in and out. Keep breathing and focusing until you feel deeply relaxed.

Now think of the name of the person you choose to release and forgive. Imagine a long cord stretching from your solar plexus (or any other part of your body that feels right) and attaching to the solar plexus of the person you want to forgive. 

Next, imagine you are holding a large pair of scissors in your hand. Cut the cord just where it emerges from your solar plexus. See the cord trailing away from you and dissolving. 

If the scissors do not feel like a strong enough image, invite Archangel Michael to support you with his sword in cutting the cord.

Now, imagine the person surrounded with healing, white light and release them into that light. Internally say, “I forgive. I release. I forgive.” Send them love if that feels right to you.

See yourself surrounded with healing, white light. Internally say, “I forgive. I am free. I forgive.”

Sit quietly and open yourself to allow anyone else to step forward for forgiveness. You may be surprised by who shows up. If a person comes to mind go through the forgiveness visualization for that person.  Keep doing this until you feel peaceful and complete.

Thank yourself, your higher self, and your spiritual support team for this gift of forgiveness.
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​All materials provided on www.hollyhildreth.com are provided for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only and are not intended to be, or serve as a substitute for, professional medical/psychological advice, examination, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychological condition.
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© Holly Hildreth
  • Welcome
  • Blog
  • Savor the Sweetness
  • Be of Service
  • Know Thyself
  • Follow Your Bliss
  • Play
  • Be Content
  • Trust God
  • Faster Emotional Freedom Technique-V