Shakti Sutriasa
An Invitation from the Darkness

Have you noticed that certain times of year evoke different feelings or orientations?

What does December ask of you?

For me, it’s about LIGHT, about opening to it and receiving it.

How do you define light?

Perhaps you think about it as: inspiration, healing, divinity, truth, love- or something else. 

Whatever your definition of light, the dark days of December seem to call for a kindling of that spark, a nourishing of our inner light.

How about A practice to help you connect more deeply to that light?  

Here’s a simple one: How would you complete this sentence? 

An Invitation from the Darkness
Shakti Sutriasa
Death of Normal: Embarking on a Hero Journey

Last week I began an online class focused on the arc known as the Hero’s Journey. If you’re at all familiar with the mythologist, Joseph Campbell and his work, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!

Essentially, the idea is that we are all the hero of our own story, and within our lifetimes are invited, encouraged, urged, and sometimes dragged onto a journey of self-transformation.

It all begins with the death of normal.

Death of Normal: Embarking on a Hero Journey
Shakti Sutriasa
3 Practices to Help You Live Life Your Way

Have you ever thought about the unique track of your life and your experiences as being tailor made just for you?

It’s kind of a radical idea, one I learned from the Manual for Teachers, which is part of A Course In Miracles (ACIM).

In it, it says that in our journey to God, we have,

“[A] curriculum [that] is highly individualized, and all aspects [of it] are under the Holy Spirit's particular care and guidance.”

When I first read this, I smiled.

3 Practices to Help You Live Life Your Way
Shakti Sutriasa
How to Move Through the Veils

According to Celtic tradition, we’re about to get to the time of year when the veils between worlds is purportedly thinnest.

The actual date is from sundown on October 31st to sundown on November 1st which coincides with Halloween and the Day of the Dead.

Supposedly, this 24-hour period is a powerful time:

  • for divination (since the veils are more porous)

  • for reflection on the balance of life and death

  • for connecting between the physical and spiritual worlds

  • for honoring and remembering loved ones who have passed on

How to Move Through the Veils
Shakti Sutriasa
How to Discern Between Love & Like

I'm sure you’re aware of the difference between liking someone and loving them. But would you indulge me for a minute?

Call to mind a friend or colleague. Someone you genuinely like who perhaps is reliable, trustworthy…Now think about someone you love. A family member or close confidante.

Can you feel the difference?

Yes!

Unfortunately, sometimes the lines between love and like get blurred, especially with members of our family.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

When I was in my early 20s, I moved across the country to live near my sister. Growing up, our relationship was complicated. Sometimes we got along wonderfully, other times, not so much.

How to Discern Between Love & Like

Something Lost & Something Gained

Something Lost & Something Gained

This past Sunday was my sister, Melissa’s birthday. If she were still alive, she’d have turned 54. Only she died 12 years ago from metastasized breast cancer.

I still miss her every day, although as the number of years stretch away from her death, it grows easier. Less sorrow and more smiling in happy remembrance.

This year on her birthday something special happened. My grandson was born!

His arrival will never fully take away the loss of my sister, but it has brought so much joy and love into our family.

It isn’t that he fills a void per se, but it does feel as though the circle has been completed. A circle I didn’t even know felt incomplete.

10 Ways to Cultivate Inner Peace

10 Ways to Cultivate Inner Peace

Recently, I received an email from a woman who told me she was struggling with life challenges, and yearned for more inner peace.

Can you relate?

It might sound counterintuitive, but the most successful way to experience peace is to cultivate it within our own beings.

We think that our focus needs to be on external strife- on conflicts in our communities, aggression among nations- and while it is important to work for justice and world peace, it is even more critical to develop that quality within ourselves.

So, how do you foster peace within?

Here are 10 Ideas for You

Accessing Infinite Possibility

Accessing Infinite Possibility

One of the metaphors that’s worked for me over the years in my spiritual practice, is the RIVER.

I’ve often imagined myself in the flow of its gentle current, relaxing into Source, floating in safety as I'm gently lead on life’s journey.

It’s been a great metaphor to help me develop trust.
Lately, however, a new metaphor for what I call this “Big Love” has been coming to me – the OCEAN!

Yes, still a body of water,​ but one that feels completely different.

Because Divine Love isn’t just a river.

How to Live Open Heartedly

How to Live Open Heartedly

Recently I had a conversation with someone who told me he wanted to live openheartedly.

In truth, don’t we all?

The question is how…

We can certainly experience heart opening moments, but how do we sustain that space every moment of every day?

Whenever I think about opening my heart, I ALWAYS see an image of Lord Hanuman in my mind’s eye .

If you’re not familiar with this Hindu god, he is the one who looks like a monkey and is known as the servant to God/Love for he has devoted his life to serve Lord Rama.

Image from Photo Mix on Pixabay

A Journey Into Healing

A Journey Into Healing

Have I told you about the Black Madonna?

Ugh, she is so beautiful!

We received her last year. Take a look.

It was one of those synchronistic things. One day last January I began thinking about this painting, La Virgen Negra by Alfredo Arreguin.

It might sound weird, but it was almost as if she was calling to me.

You see, a few years earlier, I’d seen it at a gallery show where I was absolutely mesmerized by her. The photo I’d taken promptly got pasted onto my 2020 vision board!

Realizing I needed to say something to my husband, I confessed that I wanted to purchase this painting.

Fathers & Forgiveness

Fathers & Forgiveness

We just celebrated Father’s Day here in the U.S. and that got me thinking about relationships between fathers and children.

Many of us feel that we didn’t have the kind of father we wanted or needed in our lives.

Is that you?

Did you experience your dad as unavailable? Either physically, emotionally, or both?

Perhaps your dad was an active addict and wasn’t available to you. Maybe you never saw him as he lived in another state or country, or was incarcerated.

I have a friend whose father became homeless when he was a teenager.

The Buzz in My Root Chakra

The Buzz in My Root Chakra

Since last December, I’ve been doing a curious exploration.

It started over the winter holidays when one day I had this acute sensation that I was going to be “replaced.” At first I didn’t even have words for the intense anxiety and fear I was in.

It wasn’t until my husband asked me what was going on, that the words popped out of my mouth. “I’m afraid that I’m going to be replaced.”

You can imagine the look of astonishment on his face.

It’s illogical.

In my desire to understand the root of this fear, I ended up tracing it back to infancy.

This makes perfect sense because when I was just about to turn one, my younger sister was born. And to my infantile reptilian brain, that meant I was getting replaced!

Step Into Radical Self-Love

Step Into Radical Self-Love

For over a year, my daughter bugged me to listen to a podcast. The problem was, I didn’t have Spotify! I know, I know. I can see you rolling your eyes at me… the good news is once I did sign up, I immediately listened, and it was incredible!

Here are the specifics. It was an episode of Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us in which she interviews Sonya Renee Taylor about her book, The Body Is Not an Apology and they talk about this concept:

RADICAL SELF LOVE

Time to Step Into Delight

Time to Step Into Delight

Have you been feeling like you’ve forgotten how to have fun?

It happens especially when the world seems extra chaotic and crazy. Almost like we feel like we have to be more serious and somber. But here’s the truth, we NEED to hold the beauty, the joy, happiness and fun to remind the world of what is really here.

To help me with this, I’ve set an intention for myself this year to really step into joy in a playful way. To rekindle feeling free, goofy, silly, and act like a child again!

How about you?

Take Action with Peace

Take Action with Peace

One of my first “real” jobs was at a non-profit called the Institute for Peace & International Security. It just so happened that my time there overlapped with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since the organization was founded to end nuclear proliferation, that was considered a pivotal event!

I was the assistant to the assistant (if you can imagine that!) doing lots of data entry and other tedious office tasks. One morning my boss came to work ranting about the idiocy of Boston drivers, and people in general. She was fuming mad, and I could palpably feel her fury. While experiencing her in that state, I had a curious thought - that on a professional level she was working to end war and violence, but on a personal level was filled with rage.