|
|
|
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Voyager - December
2007 Love vs Fear: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Akasha Lonsdale
When fear, hatred, desire for revenge, intolerance and anger are present - Love is missing. Fear and Love are opposites. Fear is contraction of the heart, which is not great for physical, emotional or spiritual wellbeing. With fear, possibilities are limited and life is likely to feel very narrow and restrictive. Love holds hands with Courage to overcome Fear Love is at the core of our being. We don't have to find it - it is and always has been, within us. Tucked in the inner recesses of our Being. Sometimes the journey to "re-discover" it, can seem a long one and yet there are moments when we glimpse it totally and may not even recognise it. For example:
Love is not soft and soppy. The love I refer to embraces: Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Open-ness, Genuineness, Truth, Courage, Authenticity, Joy, Generosity, Laughter, Stillness, Freedom, Clarity, Willingness, Sharing, Compassion, Empathy, ...and Tolerance. It is a felt sense - the sense of expansion when the heart feels full. When love is present, tenderness and strength co-exist. People may be moved to tears by its power but tears can be of joy and relief too. We may feel vulnerable but the paradox is this: Vulnerability is true strength How can that
be? Because when we are vulnerable, we are open, exposed, REAL. We are flowing
with the river of life, not swimming against it. We surrender, we fall into
ourselves and within we find the Love that is there - has always been there -the
eternally burning light. The light that just is. The light that will never go
out - no matter how dark life sometimes gets. It is said that the "darkest hour
is just before dawn" - many times though, great insights and change come after a
"dark night of the soul". It is as if we create the dramas and traumas in life to challenge us to look within and begin taking us back to that place we know. A time of "re-membering", "re-joicing". The parting of the 70,000 veils - to reveal the inner treasure - LOVE. No judgements, no criticisms, no anger, no bitterness, no recriminations. Just Love, all embracing, all encompassing, all knowing, never ending Love. Love that cradles us like a parent with a new-born child. Love that holds us in our pain. Love that sometimes creates the pain so that we may grow. Love that wraps around us like a beautiful cloak. Self Awareness As you journey with yourself, getting to know yourself better, being kinder to yourself - more open, more generous, tolerant, compassionate with yourself, so you become that way with others. It is a natural evolutionary process. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap". Through this process barriers can be broken down, conflict resolved and communication become authentic. Win/Win is possible when Right/Wrong are not part of the equation. The Shadow When we point the finger at others, when we label them Bad or Evil...it is we who have missed the point. By focusing outwards on how others seem to be, we don't look within. We don't acknowledge the shadow parts of us. The parts that can be spiteful, vengeful, angry, dismissive, shut down, rejecting. We like to think that we would never behave like "they" have behaved. But it is said that there is a killer in each of us - a mother to protect her child is a classic example. Often we dress our shadow in a mantle of self-righteousness and self- justification. Worse, we just believe that we are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT and all views opposed to ours are WRONG and BAD. Then Love is lost and we are in a contracted place. Know Thyself These are turbulent and sometimes frightening times...but, as with all adversity it contains the opportunity for all of us to learn and grow. Take time to look within. "Know Thyself" said the Oracle at Delphi - ancient Wisdom that is even more important in our modern world. Too often we look outside ourselves for answers and expect others to change, when really inner peace is a truly powerful step towards world peace. © Akasha Lonsdale 2007
Her professional memberships include the Professional Speakers Association, the International Stress Management Association UK and the National Register of Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists As an individual member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, she is bound by its ethical framework for good practice in counselling and psychotherapy and subject to the professional conduct procedure therein. She is in on-going supervision. See her profile here - or visit her website here - www.simplydivineceremonies.com
|
Reverend
Akasha Lonsdale is a qualified psychotherapist, ordained Interfaith Minister
and certified Laughter Teacher. Her passion is for developing people and
incorporating everyday down-to-earth spirituality in daily living. She has been
effecting powerful change in people’s lives one way or another for over 30
years. What she brings to her work is humour, humility, clarity, authenticity,
deep insight and intuition, respect, directness and non-judgement. She is an
experienced workshop facilitator, author of the popular self-help book “How to
do life – powerful pointers for powerful living” and writer/narrator of the
relaxation CD “Bliss Out – Serious Relaxation”. She has also been a regular
guest on BBC Wiltshire’s “Sandy Martin at the weekend” as The
Emotional Detective and was a recent guest on BBC Radio London with
Vaz Sriharan, the young and dynamic founder of London’s latest inspiration – The
London College of Spirituality.