Amy Allen's Blog, page 2

My Mayflower Experience

Have you heard the story about the Native Americans who could not see the Mayflower as it approached? According to legend, they could only see the effects of the ship on the water; but because their brains had never conceived of such a vessel, they were unable to visualize it.

 

This sounds pretty far-fetched, because we see things all the time that we have never imagined. But I have a little story of my own to share that may change your mind. Several years ago, I was out running just a few streets over from my house. I noticed a friend from high school’s mother standing in a random yard. I didn’t think much of it and went on my merry way.

 

Weeks later, I ran into that friend and mentioned seeing her mother in the yard. She asked, “Well, what did you think of my car sitting there upside down next to her?” Confused, I said, “Uh, what?!” She replied, “Yes, I had just been in an accident, and my car flipped over into that yard. We were all fine, but she came and stayed with the car until the tow truck took it away. If you saw her, you should have seen the car, because she left as soon as it was gone.”

 

After a long pause, I said, “Do you mean to tell me that your Chevy Surburban–one of the biggest SUVs on the road– was flipped upside down in a yard a few feet away from me, and I did not see it?” She smiled and said, “Yes, and you are not the only friend of mine with whom I have had this exact same conversation.”

 

The human psyche is complicated and endlessly fascinating. We rely heavily on our five senses for verification and truth, yet when an event is way outside of our comfort zone, there appear to be protective mechanisms in place to keep us from questioning our seemingly stable reality. Of course, quantum physics blows all of that out of the water, but most of us haven’t caught up to quantum mechanics. As Deepak Chopra once said, “The universe is not stranger than you think. It’s stranger than you can think.” It seems that reality is a soupy mess that gets collapsed into appearing as whatever reality we expect.

 

With that said, may I suggest getting crystal clear on what you want your life to be like? Collapse the atoms and molecules of your life in a way that the Taoists would refer to as “more favorably arranged.”

 

Amy Allen is a transformative healer and teacher of wisdom and success methods, conducting private healing sessions and teaching Lit from Within workshops for health, happiness, and positive self-esteem and body image. Whether clients struggle to love themselves and their bodies from a lack of self-care or a drive for perfection, they will experience a powerful and embodied transformation through Amy’s work, which directly addresses mind, body, and spirit.

She has been doing this work for over 15 years and has worked with hundreds of people to live healthier and happier lives through her unique blend of compassion, difficult truths, and humor. Her diverse training and scope of practice includes the world’s religions, philosophies, and healing methods. To visit her website, go to www.litfromwithin.net.

The Cosmic Therapy Couch

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, narrator of the fabulous series Cosmos, said that no matter where we stand in the universe looking out, we are always at the center of our perspective. This is true on so many levels, and gives us clues to how we can liberate ourselves from patterns that keep presenting themselves in our lives.

 

All spiritual seekers have had the experience of facing a familiar life pattern and thinking, “I’m here again?! I thought I had grown beyond this dynamic!” And yet here it is again, showing up once again for us face. Are we going to react to it the same way as always (expecting a different result), or are we going to stand in a different perspective and see what happens? I suggest the latter, but only if you are interested in freedom.

 

I have a perspective for you to try on for size. Warning: you will have to give up being victimized by anyone or anything. You will also have to leave suffering behind. Oh, and it contains seeds of true happiness.

 

My favorite teachers keep reminding me that this is a friendly universe; everything is for us, not against us. Even if man means something for your harm, God is meaning it for your good. What if you began standing (or sitting) in that perspective? What if, even when things don’t work out on your timetable or according to your plan, you trusted that they are working out on the perfect Divine plan? What if every difficult person or situation was really an angel in disguise, nudging you towards better boundaries, seeing your shadows, or giving yourself that validation you have craved your whole life?

 

Same cosmos, different perspective. When seeking to understand yourself from the therapy couch, always seeking to know “why,” simply sit in this perspective and see what happens. If you find yourself doing a happy dance, please email me amy@litfromwithin.net or comment below.

 

Truth has strong muscles

Have you ever experienced or seen muscle testing? It is a technique of Applied Kinesiology in which the tester places one hand on the testee’s (yes, I just made up that word) shoulder, and another hand on their outstretched arm. Then the tester asks the testee to state their name. While doing so, the tester pushes down on their arm, to no avail. Next, the testee is asked to say something flagrantly untrue, like: “I hate cute little babies.” Voila, the tester can press the person’s arm downward without any trouble.

It looks like this:

So, what does this tell us? That truth actually strengthens our bodies; lying, whether to ourselves or others, weakens us greatly. The power of our words and intentions create a holographic reality that either supports health or deteriorates it. I am known to say that integrity is our best medicine, and I am not speaking poetically. I am literally saying that our cellular structure is affected by doing and saying what we know in our hearts is the right thing to do for us and our value system.

God spoke the universe into existence, and we are made in God’s likeness. We speak our world into existence by what we choose to say, so choose your words wisely and speak only the truth. Not only will it set you free, it will give you strong muscles!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Amy Allen is a transformative healer and teacher of wisdom and success methods, conducting private healing sessions and teaching Lit from Within workshops for health, happiness, and positive self-esteem and body image. Whether clients struggle to love themselves and their bodies from a lack of self-care or a drive for perfection, they will experience a powerful and embodied transformation through Amy’s work, which directly addresses mind, body, and spirit.

She has been doing this work for over 15 years and has worked with hundreds of people to live healthier and happier lives through her unique blend of compassion, difficult truths, and humor. Her diverse training and scope of practice includes the world’s religions, philosophies, and healing methods. To visit her website, go to www.litfromwithin.net.

Lessons Learned from Pecans and Cadavers

A house that I owned when my daughter was very young was in a neighborhood that was filled with pecan trees. Pecans littered the sidewalks and yards every year, and we would walk or ride bikes around the streets and literally pick them up off the ground and eat them. The first time my (now) husband saw us do this, he freaked out, thinking it was somehow unsafe (you know, since it was not in a plastic package at the store). But he quickly came to our side of doing things (God bless him, he usually does) and began not only to eat the pecans but the abundant and delicious pears from a tree in our back yard. He also enjoyed fresh rosemary and tomatoes and lettuces from my lovely Italian neighbors who kept gardens and smuggled fig trees in their yard. This was the most effortless and amazing way to eat, and I never expected to experience that in the middle of a small city neighborhood.

 

Fast forward to present day. I was having an interesting conversation with some medical students who had recently done a lab where they worked with cadavers. Their sense of amazement, wonder, awe, and respect of the human body and all of its internal magnificence was evident in their speech. They had a profound experience working with these bodies and a new vision of how things that our eyes are normally not privy to looked and functioned.

 

What is the connection between these two events? Just this: the design of God is exquisite, down to every detail in everything in existence. For instance, we are told by nutritionists and doctors that pecans and other nuts should be eaten sparingly. Ask any kid who has ridden their bike around, eating pecans off of the ground: nuts are really difficult to get into. It’s like they are designed perfectly to be hard to overeat because it takes so much work. When given the chance to see the hidden world of the human body, one comes to understand the profound miracle that one cell knows to be a liver cell and another cell knows to be a heart cell and how no computer can even compare to the intricate inner workings of all these beautiful things.

 

Take some time today and deeply appreciate the beautiful design of your life and of the life all around you. Instead of looking for things to criticize about your body, appreciate it the way those medical students do. See the miracles and the exquisite designs in you and around you….and guess what: they will show themselves more and more.

 

 

 

Amy Allen is a transformative healer and teacher of wisdom and success methods, conducting private healing sessions and teaching Lit from Within workshops for health, happiness, and positive self-esteem and body image. Whether clients struggle to love themselves and their bodies from a lack of self-care or a drive for perfection, they will experience a powerful and embodied transformation through Amy’s work, which directly addresses mind, body, and spirit.

She has been doing this work for over 15 years and has worked with hundreds of people to live healthier and happier lives through her unique blend of compassion, difficult truths, and humor. Her diverse training and scope of practice includes the world’s religions, philosophies, and healing methods. To visit her website, go to www.litfromwithin.net.

Not Until You���re Squashed Like a Grape

Answering a call to pursue something in your life that has no known path is rarely easy. First of all, this call is rarely a booming voice from the sky or a directive like your father would give you. Instead, it seems to come in forms like: being keenly interested in things most people have never heard of, or a severe inability to work in corporate jobs that you find easy but soul-killing, or a sense of purpose that feels anointed but vague.

 

I have pursued alternative ways of healing and living well since I was in my early twenties. Early on, my parents wanted me to get a nice, steady job with benefits and a regular paycheck. A beloved college professor even told me that what I was pursuing was ���counter-cultural.��� Yet, I just could not do these things that they wanted for me. It felt like trying to breathe water instead of air.

 

Despite me feeling anointed and called and all that, don���t get me wrong: there are times when I feel like an Israelite wandering aimlessly in the desert trying to reach the Promised Land. Even though I see a lot of miracles, I still want to turn around and go back to an imprisoned, but ���safe��� place, where at least I know what to expect. I also wonder if I have misinterpreted God���s calling and directions. I wonder if I have made a serious, 20 year mistake.

 

These dark nights of the soul are archetypal in nature, and happen to anyone who is on a spiritual quest. They arise to test our faith, to force us to do some practical quality control, and most of all, to help burn away all that is keeping us stuck. The dark night is a terrible, painful event, and you wonder if and when it will pass. When does it really stop? Not until you are squashed like a grape. That is when God and your angels can finally get in there and do some real work through you.

 

I recently went through one of these dark nights, and I can still feel the residuals of it. Yet, let me tell you, in those residuals, I feel the presence of God in ways that I never have before. I see moment by moment mini-miracles and I feel they are a sign that I am right where I am supposed to be. I feel the covenant of my calling. I am renewed and filled with hope again.

 

 

The next time you have a crisis of faith, remember the Promised Land. Remember that what you are going through is what so many before you have gone through, and it is a necessary part of the journey. You can get through this. Ride the contraction with Lamaze-style techniques of going with it instead of against it. You are being squashed for a reason: to be re-made and re-formed for even more light to come through you and what you are called to do.

Not Until You’re Squashed Like a Grape

Answering a call to pursue something in your life that has no known path is rarely easy. First of all, this call is rarely a booming voice from the sky or a directive like your father would give you. Instead, it seems to come in forms like: being keenly interested in things most people have never heard of, or a severe inability to work in corporate jobs that you find easy but soul-killing, or a sense of purpose that feels anointed but vague.

 

I have pursued alternative ways of healing and living well since I was in my early twenties. Early on, my parents wanted me to get a nice, steady job with benefits and a regular paycheck. A beloved college professor even told me that what I was pursuing was “counter-cultural.” Yet, I just could not do these things that they wanted for me. It felt like trying to breathe water instead of air.

 

Despite me feeling anointed and called and all that, don’t get me wrong: there are times when I feel like an Israelite wandering aimlessly in the desert trying to reach the Promised Land. Even though I see a lot of miracles, I still want to turn around and go back to an imprisoned, but “safe” place, where at least I know what to expect. I also wonder if I have misinterpreted God’s calling and directions. I wonder if I have made a serious, 20 year mistake.

 

These dark nights of the soul are archetypal in nature, and happen to anyone who is on a spiritual quest. They arise to test our faith, to force us to do some practical quality control, and most of all, to help burn away all that is keeping us stuck. The dark night is a terrible, painful event, and you wonder if and when it will pass. When does it really stop? Not until you are squashed like a grape. That is when God and your angels can finally get in there and do some real work through you.

 

I recently went through one of these dark nights, and I can still feel the residuals of it. Yet, let me tell you, in those residuals, I feel the presence of God in ways that I never have before. I see moment by moment mini-miracles and I feel they are a sign that I am right where I am supposed to be. I feel the covenant of my calling. I am renewed and filled with hope again.

 

 

The next time you have a crisis of faith, remember the Promised Land. Remember that what you are going through is what so many before you have gone through, and it is a necessary part of the journey. You can get through this. Ride the contraction with Lamaze-style techniques of going with it instead of against it. You are being squashed for a reason: to be re-made and re-formed for even more light to come through you and what you are called to do.

Why McDonald���s Is NOT the Problem

 

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow mom who, like myself, had a young child. She complained that she had trouble losing weight because she was always eating the same stuff her child ate: McDonald���s, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese.

 

OK. First, let���s identify that her belief is simply that: a belief. It is not based on facts or even reality, but it is a convincing belief nonetheless. What happens when we believe thoughts like these? They are true for us, and consequently everything we do and the way reality matches up to our beliefs is pretty uncanny in proving them to indeed be accurate. That is both good and bad; in this case, I would say that it is BAD.

 

Second of all, call me crazy (you would not be the first), but no 3 year old that I have ever met drove themselves to McDonald���s and ordered a Happy Meal. Ever. So really, McDonald���s is not this woman���s problem. It is just a neutral entity out there, existing in the world. It only becomes a problem when she makes a decision to go there, gets in her car, drives there, orders the food, and then consumes it on a somewhat regular basis that a problem begins to arise. She actually picks the fight, so to speak, by engaging with McDonald���s by choice!

 

Whatever we struggle with persists. To end struggle, strife, and pain, we must look at the underlying root causes of our behavior. Only then, with that amazing and powerful awareness, can we change our reality. ���I must take my child to McDonald���s���—it that true? It certainly is not for many people in the world, and for them, McDonald���s is not a problem. Questioning our beliefs about reality, we become like Switzerland, peacefully existing in the world while others battle it out in surface struggles.

~~~~~

Amy does private healing sessions in person and by phone. She specializes in creating healthy self-esteem by cultivating inner and outer beauty, as can be found in her book, Lit from Within, The Sacred Path to Healthy Self-Esteem and Permanent Weight Loss. You may contact her at (404) 326-9565 or amy@litfromwithin.net for more information or to join her mailing list for classes, specials, and other goodies. Speaking of goodies….there is an awesome 4 week webinar coming up in February! Check it out here and indicate your interest here!

Why McDonald’s Is NOT the Problem

 

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow mom who, like myself, had a young child. She complained that she had trouble losing weight because she was always eating the same stuff her child ate: McDonald’s, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese.

 

OK. First, let’s identify that her belief is simply that: a belief. It is not based on facts or even reality, but it is a convincing belief nonetheless. What happens when we believe thoughts like these? They are true for us, and consequently everything we do and the way reality matches up to our beliefs is pretty uncanny in proving them to indeed be accurate. That is both good and bad; in this case, I would say that it is BAD.

 

Second of all, call me crazy (you would not be the first), but no 3 year old that I have ever met drove themselves to McDonald’s and ordered a Happy Meal. Ever. So really, McDonald’s is not this woman’s problem. It is just a neutral entity out there, existing in the world. It only becomes a problem when she makes a decision to go there, gets in her car, drives there, orders the food, and then consumes it on a somewhat regular basis that a problem begins to arise. She actually picks the fight, so to speak, by engaging with McDonald’s by choice!

 

Whatever we struggle with persists. To end struggle, strife, and pain, we must look at the underlying root causes of our behavior. Only then, with that amazing and powerful awareness, can we change our reality. “I must take my child to McDonald’s”—it that true? It certainly is not for many people in the world, and for them, McDonald’s is not a problem. Questioning our beliefs about reality, we become like Switzerland, peacefully existing in the world while others battle it out in surface struggles.

~~~~~

Amy does private healing sessions in person and by phone. She specializes in creating healthy self-esteem by cultivating inner and outer beauty, as can be found in her book, Lit from Within, The Sacred Path to Healthy Self-Esteem and Permanent Weight Loss. You may contact her at (404) 326-9565 or amy@litfromwithin.net for more information or to join her mailing list for classes, specials, and other goodies. Speaking of goodies….there is an awesome 4 week webinar coming up in February! Check it out here and indicate your interest here!

What You Want, Also Wants You!

Most of us have had the experience of working towards creating something in our lives that we really want. Whether it involves getting into a certain college, opening a bakery, or finishing a marathon in under 3 hours, an end result of a specific experience is born in our minds and then we must do the necessary steps to create the experience.

One thing that we often fail to recognize is that the experience is also working towards us. There is a natural attraction, a pull, between your heartfelt desire and the experience itself. I have been stunned by this revelation a few times in my life, and the following is a story to illustrate.

When I was in my early 20s, I had an interest to learn about Kabbalah, the mystical side of Judaism. I would look at books about it in bookstores, but would always feel overwhelmed by the complexity of it. I realized that I was clearly not ready for it and may never be, so I let it go.

Fast forward about 20 years later, and I find myself in an introductory workshop taught by a healer and teacher I had known for a long time. During a silent meditation that we did, I had the experience of ‘seeing’ myself surrounded by a luminous 3-dimensional star tetrahedron. After the workshop was over, I went to speak to the teacher and sketched out what I had seen. I asked her if she knew what it was, and she said, “Wow, that looks like the Merkabah, the Golden Chariot of God.” The Merkabah is a symbol in Kabbalah referring to ascension into a higher state.

Moments like those feel like a shimmering, a momentary lifting of the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds. They also show me that Kabbalah was searching for me just as I had been searching for it. I had never heard of or seen that symbol or word before, so it was as pure of an experience as I can imagine (meaning my mind did not generate it from something I already knew).

Back to the college or the bakery or the marathon….don’t underestimate what is seeking expression through you. Every act, every creation is sacred, if we let them be. We have to show up and do our parts, of course, but rest in the knowledge that the journey is only half as long as you thought. Your dream is also on its way to you.

 

Amy does private healing sessions in person and by phone. She specializes in creating healthy self-esteem by cultivating inner and outer beauty, as can be found in her book, Lit from Within, The Sacred Path to Healthy Self-Esteem and Permanent Weight Loss. You may contact her at (404) 326-9565 or amy@litfromwithin.net for more information or to join her mailing list for classes, specials, and other goodies. Also, go to her website for more information!

I Believe in Your Limitations! (Not really)

Recently, my husband engaged me in a classical “Yes, But…” debate. You know the one: a person complains to you of a situation, seeing no possibilities of a satisfactory solution. Not being personally hooked by the conflict yourself, you offer a multitude of obvious and reasonable solutions. Unfortunately, every offering is met with a “yes, but…..” and another obstacle is presented.

 

Finally, irritated by this, I blurted out, “You know what, I believe in your limitations! I really do. You have convinced me.” (He knows what I am all about in life, and this was the last thing in the world he expected from me!) What do you think happened next? You got it! Suddenly, he was able to come up with his own solutions! When I wouldn’t hold up the other end of his polarizing fixed position, he no longer had the luxury of fighting against something and had to either be miserable or choose to get out of it. He chose to get out.

 

We all do this, (unconsciously, of course). What happens when there is nothing to fight against? Suddenly, we are the captains of our own ships. Most often, the “enemy” is living right inside of our own psyches in the form of limiting thoughts and limiting beliefs. So we struggle against ourselves and wonder why what we want to create never shows up (or even worse, shows up in the opposite form).

 

If you want power over your addictions, your laziness, your life, then become a one-pointed, unconflicted force of health, wealth, wisdom, and beauty. Get the limiting thoughts out on paper, flood them with love and space and compassion. Begin to recognize when you are thinking these thoughts throughout the day and gently bring yourself back to the one-pointed intention of what you really want. Be the lighthouse, emitting the qualities of being that nothing external could ever truly give you anyway. This will draw to you the life experiences that serve your highest purpose.