“Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”  
-Matthew 5

This past weekend I attended a spiritual retreat with eight other women. It was facilitated by two, gifted, spiritual teachers. At the beginning of the weekend we met as a group and were asked to express our intention for the retreat. Participants spoke of fun and laughter, connection, spiritual community, nurturing, self-love, and more fully embodying the soul self. It was as if each one spoke a piece for the whole group. My intention was spiritual rejuvenation and re-energizing. What I received was all of that and something more.

On the first, full day of the retreat, participants received individual energy work/channeling sessions with each of the facilitators. The sessions, following one upon the other, combined to create more than the sum of their parts. My sessions catalyzed a new understanding of my inner child.

It looked like this. Throughout my personal development journey of many years, I have focused attention on healing the wounded child within. She and I have come a long way together. I love and cherish her now in a way I could not have imagined many years ago.

Yet, in all this time I forgot that other inner child, the child before the wounding. She is that spunky little one who expressed my soul openly. She felt enthusiasm for life, enjoying every day.

My nine-year-old granddaughter recently stayed overnight with us. We awoke early in the morning, 5:30 AM. Neither of us was ready to get up and she came and snuggled in bed with me. After a few minutes I asked her if she was ready to get up. She said, “Yes!” and jumped up, full of morning cheer.

I sat up, pulling the covers up around my shoulders and sleepily said, “I’m not sure I’m ready.”

She answered with deep wisdom, “If you don’t get up, you’ll miss all the fun things that are happening today!” We hadn’t planned to do anything special, but her enthusiasm made that day special for all of us.

That’s who my inner child used to be, the one who most fully expressed the joyous light and love of my soul.

For me, spiritual rejuvenation looks like getting back in touch with that part of myself and allowing her to more fully express through me. Expressing the part of me that is filled with enthusiasm for each day. That part of me is energized and connected with my inner being.

She is happy, and when she is not, she doesn’t hold back. She expresses whatever it is she is feeling. I have to go quite a way back in years to get in touch with her because she learned early to mask all that light and energy.

The question now is, how do we get in touch with that part of ourselves, the child we were before the wounds, the child who freely expressed the pure energy of our inner being? How do we remove the covering basket, reignite the flame, and allow our light to shine for all?

Because even one shining light makes a difference.

During the individual sessions I received at the retreat the subject was approached in two ways.

The first was about balancing my energy, and giving special attention to the particular areas that needed it. This felt like caring and nurture for my inner being as stuck energy was moved and my system balanced.

The second session focused upon getting in touch with my younger inner child, the one before the wounding. What came up first was the name that I was christened with, a name I haven’t used for years, Hollis. Then, activities that I particularly loved to do as a child, bike riding and expressive dancing.

Today’s Spiritual Toolbox is all about applying these ideas in your life and getting in touch with the joyous, loving being you truly are; the being whose shining light can make a difference in our world.

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.
 
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
 
Daily life may be lived as a treasure hunt, finding one gem after another. It is not a matter of what you are doing, it is the attitude with which you approach what you do each day and the focus of attention that you apply to each task.

Yesterday, instead of doing what I previously assigned myself on my to-do list, I chose to do the jobs that were foremost in my mind, the ones that had been niggling at me to get done. My intention was to be fully involved in each thing that I did, whatever that was.

I encouraged myself to focus fully upon what I was doing at the moment. When I wanted a break, I took a break. I tended to alternate physical activity with mental activity.  I pulled my mind away from thinking about the next job, or from thinking about how much else I wanted to get done. 

When I finished one job I moved to the next job that attracted me. By the end of the day I got more work done than I would have otherwise and felt emotionally energized by the process. I was following the energy, allowing myself to be carried by the stream.

This takes a lot less energy than swimming against the current. When you assign yourself jobs that must be done and force yourself to do them, you are swimming upstream, pushing yourself against the energy. This depletes your energy.   

A day spent following the energy from activity to activity becomes a day of discovery, a treasure hunt discovering the gems of flow in each activity that you choose to do.

Flow is attained when you are wholly involved in what you are doing. Mind, body and emotions are flowing together to create what you are doing.  It is a state of Love. You become a channel of loving energy, both giving and receiving. You feel energized. Whatever you are doing becomes imbued with that loving energy.

As a channel of creative energy you serve others as you serve yourself, literally bringing more love into the world. Go on today's treasure hunt.