What's in your Spiritual Toolkit?

Many people are coming to a crossroads in their lives right now and are beginning to see the importance of practicing a spiritual life to help them through these difficult times. I came to my crossroads about ten years back which started me on my spiritual journey. I have found on this path that the world is a beautiful and magical place, far more amazing than I had ever realized. Just like Dorothy entering the magical land of OZ we all begin following the yellow brick road at some point and eventually become aware of our own magic too. Here are some of the tools that I have used along the way that helped me tremendously to stay on course, and I believe are there to help all of those embarking on their journey as well.nnSea Salt Baths- This is an easy way to pamper yourself and to enjoy a complete cleansing of your aura. Anger and other negative energies may periodically get trapped in your aura, so regular cleansing of it through sea salt will help to keep you feeling energetic and joyful. Salt has been used for centuries to remove negative energies and is used often with such disciplines as Feng Shui. I often give my daughters sea salt baths after a long day and I can tell that they are much happier and relaxed when they receive this type of energetic cleansing.nnFlower Essences are a great way to heal emotional pain and to cleanse our energy systems too. Flower essences are vibrational remedies that act as a catalyst to spark healing in our bodies and energy systems. They work to help your body to attune itself to the energy of the particular flower you need for healing. On our spiritual journey many of our repressed emotional and physical pains from the past get stirred up. Without a way to handle and release this pain, we often feel that the load is too hard to bare, so flower essences can be a great tool to promote a deep healing.nnEmotional Release- Emotional Healing is really the first step on our spiritual journey, but it's a step that is so vital to your spiritual growth that will most likely continue with you throughout your journey. Our emotions become the lens that we use to view the world through. Unfortunately this lens eventually becomes dirty in most of us, due to repressed emotional pain and anger. We often will repress our emotions because we want to avoid feeling them, so we numb ourselves to them. So it's not that we stop having the emotional pain, its that we just begin to unconsciously ignore it since it feels like too much to handle. So a huge role of our spiritual journey is becoming aware of our repressed emotions and then releasing them. Once the emotions are released they are gone for good and the natural beauty and true voice of our soul will be permitted to shine through easily. The ability to release emotions is a skill that anyone can learn to dramatically improve their life.nnAsking for help- Help is always available to you on your spiritual path. We certainly don't have to handle our crisis's alone. God and his spiritual helpers the angels are always eager to help. When I started asking Angels for hel,p my life immediately became much more harmonious and peaceful. Their energy is really palpable and when they are around I feel such a strong presence of peace. I have had some great healing sessions with Angels, they are amazing healers, and all we need to do is simply ask. One of my favorite books on Angels is by Gary Quinn called "May the Angels be with you" expect a real healing session when you follow his angel hierarchy, it really works! I could feel the energy from his recommended Angels very intently, it was pure energy!! I also work with Archangel Michael and ask that he be with me at all times for general protection.nnSelf awareness- Begin to become aware of your thoughts and emotions because these are the tools that are creating your world through the Law of Attraction. So you are either creating out of unconsciousness and haphazardly creating whatever your ego dictates, or you are a conscious creator and are creating through awareness and enjoying the wonderful life that God intended for you to have. In order to become being a conscious creator, we need to get brutally honest with ourselves. Ever heard the phrase, Know thyself? Well this is another huge part of our spiritual homework. Become aware as often as you can of what you are thinking or feeling and then ask why do I feel this way? What am I really wanting by my thoughts and actions? Instead of just allowing yourself to feel angry, get to the bottom of why you are feeling angry then release it for good. Forget the superficial excuses of well she did that to me, so now I have a right to feel this way. Trust me part of the spiritual path is realizing that others are simply mirroring to you how you feel. They subconsciously sense the anger within you and work to bring it out for you to help you become aware of it in yourself, so you may heal and release it for good. Isn't that nice of them? Ha, we all are each others spiritual teachers showing each other what we need to work on everyday. Whether its the belligerent boss at work, or the annoying next door neighbor who thoughtlessly keeps you up at night partying, they are all actually master teachers who are secretly helping you grow. Doesn't that make you want to thank them? Well we may not be that far in our growth yet to thank them , but it can help to realize that its all for your own growth. In Eckhart Tolle's book " A New Earth" he states that the universe is always giving you whatever situation you need to evolve your consciousness at any given moment.nnActive meditation- In Sonia Choquette's book Soul lessons and Soul Purpose she devotes a whole chapter to active meditation. She says that this type of meditation utilizing visualization is now viewed as just as important as traditional meditation where the mind is emptied for a certain amount of time which Sonia states is the old paradigm. I practice active meditation by focusing on what I am grateful for daily. So I relax for 20 minutes and focus on all the ways that God shows me he loves me everyday. This is fun, and by the time you hit the end of your session you feel such a warm buzz that you don't want to stop. Once I started this practice I got some really fun surprises out of the blue too. I think the universe really and rewards pure and genuine gratitude.nnChakra clearing- Clean out those energetic centers to remove old debris and energies that are slowing your energy down. To do this hold either hand about three inches from the desired chakra with an open palm facing down (you can start at the root chakra and work your way up, or just work on whichever one you believe needs the most work). Once hand is in position rotate it counter clockwise for up to three minutes to open up the desired chakra and cleanse it of debris. After your opening and removing session shake your hand vigorously to remove any dirty energies on your hand, then begin rotating your other hand in the same manner, but clockwise this time over the same chakra to close it and smooth it down. When I first did this I stirred up so much that I had trouble relaxing for the whole night after that, so now I only do one chakra at a time. Less hard on your hand too.nnGood luck using these techniques and good luck on your spiritual journey!!