Healing from Within

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Mindful Paths Leading to Higher Awareness

• March 29, 2021
• Rev. Constance McClain
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Welcome to “Healing From Within” with host Sheryl Glick Reiki Master Teacher, intuitive healer and author of The Living Spirit which shares stories of spiritual communication healing energies miracles and finding intuition for creating your most purposeful joyful and healthy life. Today Sheryl welcomes Rev. Constance McClain author of Mindful Paths: Steps Towards a Living Spirituality which is based on a course entitled Spiritual Health that Rev. Constance McClain developed for using in a classroom setting that has been available for over ten years now. It is a key component in an accredited degree program on Holistic Health. As Listeners of “Healing From Within” are well aware Sheryl and her guests share intimate experiences and stories in an advanced metaphysical search to discover who we are. why we are experiencing this physical life, and how we may merge our energetic intuitive soul wisdom with our ego based reality for a productive happy and healthy life journey. It is we find in the knowing that we are spiritual beings having a physical life that we begin to understand the energy aspects of our thinking health and how we create with our thoughts our own reality for better or worse. As it is said, “We are the masters of our journey.”

In today’s episode of Healing From Within we will discuss what Living Spiritually actually is and how coincidences or divine intervention often bring us together with people who share a similar interest as we discover more about ourselves the world universe and ways to create our healthiest most prosperous loving life story and learn how to deal with the stumbling blocks or challenges along the way.

Rev Constance tells us about the genesis for her book Mindful Paths Steps towards Living Spiritually which she co-authored with Rev.James Anthony Walker and how she believes that there was divine intervention many times in her life and that it was not random or a coincidence that she met Rev Walker and wrote this book. Perhaps an awareness of the benefits of mindful spiritual awareness and meditation practices led to the genesis of this book. His leadership and passion have led the way in the development of a rigorous body of research focused on the physiological and psychological benefits of mindfulness meditation.

The results are staggering and have brought meditation into the mainstream of our healthcare systems.

Benefits have been found to include: Physical Benefits

• Improved stress response, lessening of cortisol production rate
• Improved parasympathetic nervous system regulation (resulting in a relaxed state where the body can heal, repair and renew)
• Decreased blood pressure
• Decreased respiration
• Improved pain management Psychological & Emotional Benefits
• Improved mood and sleep quality
• Improved concentration, attention, and self-awareness
• Reduced anxiety, depression, and impulsivity (improved neuro-chemical balance)
• Improved detachment skills
• Improved understanding of and control over thought processes

Meditation, in all of its many forms, is here to stay. We hope, if it’s not already a daily practice for you, that you’ll give it a try. As with any physical fitness training practice, there are certain elements of it that are foundational. There are many forms of meditation Here is one….Transcendental Meditation, with its roots in the Vedic traditions of India, was brought into the global mainstream in the 1950s by Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is a form of silent mantra (most often a religious or spiritual thought/prayer) meditation, practiced sitting comfortably, with eyes closed, and assuming no particular position from the yoga traditions. The fundamental goal of TM is largely the same as with other meditation practices… to quiet the mind to a point where a greater clarity and focus can be achieved. While training in TM requires a time commitment and financial investment, you may find some approximation of the clearing benefits of this practice by selecting a mantra that holds meaning for you (‘Om Nama Shivaya’ from the Hindu tradition is a good one, and means ‘I honor the Divinity in all things’)… and, seated in a posture which is respectful to your body… say it silently, repeatedly, for 15 to 20 minutes. You may want to journal about your experience, as well as with these other techniques. Mindfulness meditation continues to experience remarkable growth and popularity all over the planet, and today, as a spiritual practice it has also become increasingly legitimized within the medical community a development which has come in large part through the competent hands and creative mind of Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Living an inspired life is important because it is completely co-mingled with the endless creativity of the universe, of Spirit. Life in all of its dimensions is constantly creating something new of itself, expressing itself in new and exciting ways. For us to live a life outside of that flow seems somehow less than what it should be. And yet, we often do.

We become creatures of habit, because it is comfortable, easy. Life is working just fine for us, so as the old saying goes: why upset the apple cart? What we lose in the process is our ability to hear the subtle voices inside us. Our ability to hear our inner guide, that which many would call our intuition… that rarely steers us wrong, if only we are willing and able to hear.

And that is where so many of the practices we’ll be discussing and experiencing will serve you well. They are the key to your inner world, where you can establish your connection to a higher source. You may not know at the moment how to get there. That’s okay… you are at the beginning of this journey of spiritual transformation and that takes a lifetime.

It begins with nothing more than your desire to unearth the parts of you that you want to create, recreate, or co-create… rooted in a personal belief that there is a more evolved, conscious, authentic human inside of you. A decision to expand your life and awaken to the best human being you can possibly become. So let’s begin to locate that inner pulse of yours, in search of that higher, lighter self… the one that arises from a Divine source, or energy, known by any name comfortable for you. Our favorite words to describe this higher (Divine) energy are: Great Spirit, God, Christ Consciousness, Buddha Mind, The Ground of Being, and Source.

Sheryl says, “I always thought of Spirit or God as a philosophical idea to help man and communities deal with the challenges and difficulties of confronting loss illness death and sadness. As a child, a sensitive, I often felt the pain or joy of others and responded to those stimuli in many different ways thought not knowing I was an empathy. It was at times painful and challenging and I needed to learn to protect this quality, which could either be a gift of a difficulty if I was not able to protect my own needs and thoughts. I always followed the thoughts that made good sense and as a result was successful and happy, but not fully aware of this complete connection to Spirit, either in a religious spiritual or physical way until about 26 years ago while being quite ill with the flu I had what I thought was a dream and sensed my grandfather in energy standing to my right side and telling me I had to write something for my father. The next day I received a phone call that my father had passed and proceeded to write his eulogy and so began my journey to understand spiritual communication the afterlife Universal Energy and how we are all connected to one another and source. It was fascinating for me to discover what happens to us when we leave our physical life. As a medium and energy healer I have explored the metaphysical aspects of life and have found that indeed we are very much more than we appear to be.”

Rev Constance gives interesting descriptions of divine paradoxes which Sheryl found very compelling as they show us much more of how paradoxes can lead us to a process of spiritual discernment and to examining truth in our own lives.

Divine Paradoxes are seemingly contradictions, deeper truths. A paradox is a statement that combines several premises, each of which are true in and of themselves, which in their juxtaposition together lead to what seems at first an unacceptable conclusion, but which prove to be well-founded upon our deeper reflection. One of the best examples of secular paradox has to be the entire opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” How can all of these things be true? Well, in this particular example, Dickens is describing life in two cities, London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution, and indeed, from different perspectives that could absolutely have been both a brilliant and accurate statement. Divine paradoxes on the other hand, take us into a much deeper process of spiritual discernment, and ask us to examine their truth in our own lives. Here is the Second Verse of the Tao Te Ching, an ancient, holy and paramount piece of writing attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, a 6th century BC contemporary of Confucius: Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil. Being and non-being produce each other. The difficult is born in the easy. Long is defined by short, the high by the low. Before and after go along with each other. So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity. The sage can act without effort and teach without words. Nurturing things without possessing them, he works, but not for rewards; he competes, but not for results. When the work is done, it is forgotten. That is why it lasts forever. A journaling assignment you might suggest in reference to those statements above might be to choose one sentence from Lao Tzu’s work above about which to briefly share your thoughts. What is your interpretation of it, and what does it mean to you personally?

Rev Constance shares a story of a child who tries to help a struggling butterfly but in his haste to help actually harmed the process of creation. Don’t we often do the same in our attempt to help another try to do it for them. However each person must have the experience to see life in their own way and often we cause more damage than good by not allowing the plan to unfold in the way it spiritually is meant to. Here is the story of a child who meant well. A small child spent hours watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon.

It managed to make a small hole, but its body was too large to get through it.

After a long struggle, it appeared to be exhausted, and remained absolutely still.

The little one decided to help the butterfly and, with a pair of scissors, cut open the cocoon, freeing the butterfly from its struggle. But the butterfly’s body was very small and wrinkled, and its wings were all crumpled.

The child continued to watch his new friend, hoping that at any moment, the butterfly would open its wings and fly away. But nothing happened.

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its brief life dragging around its shrunken body and shriveled wings, incapable of flight.

While acting only out of kindness, the child simply didn’t know that the tight cocoon and the struggle of the butterfly to squeeze out of it was Nature’s way of training the butterfly, and of strengthening its wings.

Sometimes, a little extra effort is exactly what prepares us for the next obstacle we face in our lives. These struggles are a part of our journey, and they prepare us for what awaits. It is in the struggle that we learn to fly. -author unknown Rev Constance discusses the difficult times we live in and how changes are happening even though we need to let go of some of the trappings of our ancestors.

She writes, “It’s scary out there. We live in a time filled with chaos and uncertainty, worldwide. As a contemporary humanity, we have no corner on the market, but over the history of the planet many continue to seek stability during these unsettling times, by turning their attention toward time-tested tools that can help. In the past, this often meant turning outward to one of hundreds of faith traditions worldwide, to find equanimity, community, confidence, and the courage to go forward in life. But since the 1960s, here in the United States and in many other countries, young people have begun to move away from the churches, faith traditions, and definitions of community which served their parents and grandparents. Because even though these time-tested institutions were no longer approachable or authentic enough for a younger generation living in a significantly transformed world, they still found themselves yearning for more understanding and inner guidance for their lives… still yearning to find and develop their “highest self,” but without some of the trappings of their ancestors. Their numbers became so large, and their statistics so overwhelmingly unavoidable, that they emerged as a new category of “spiritual seekers” that author Sven Erlandson coined the SBNR… an acronym where they could begin to self-identify as those who had chosen not to become involved with organized religion, but who instead were “spiritual but not religious,” still wanting to develop approaches to better evolving into their higher spiritual selves.

Our needs are changing. Time has shown this as something more than an overnight sensation that is here today and gone tomorrow. The Pew Research Center conducted a 2012 study on SBNRs, and their findings gave us new vision to both their size and scope. The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion has increased from 15% in 2007, to 20% in 2012, and a follow-up study has shown that number continues to experience significant growth… to 27% in 2017. The depth and breadth of these approaches to spiritual growth are both eye-opening and potentially life-changing, and in this book, we’ll walk you through a number of spiritual practices that will help you open your heart and mind, while becoming far less judgmental in your everyday life. This book Mindful Path is about the self-discovery of you, and how to begin to look at your world through a more mindful, authentic lens… one that is truly yours, and one where we can begin to better recognize the importance of working together to create a better world for ourselves, our children, and for all sentient beings. This outlook asks us to expand our perspective of life itself, and to look at it through a much more panoramic lens. A lens of inclusiveness and care, not only for our families, but for Mother Earth herself, and all the species that she wraps in her constant, loving and non-judgmental care.

Living from this perspective is an inside job, and so we’ll begin by better understanding how we witness the world, determining whether or not we witness it through a lens of non-judgment, kindness and compassion… or in some other way that may not even be truly our own.

Sheryl has discovered over time that perhaps the reason a soul opts for a physical life with it’s many challenging aspects is to have the opportunity to remember their soul magnificence and eternal life force and find once again what may have been lost…their true soul essence past time and space bridging heaven and earth. The remembrance of your inner being brings with it many wonderful awareness of peace love interconnectedness Source and divine life paving the way to creating spiritual as well as physical and emotional well being.

Spiritual health is a thing. Perhaps one of the root causes is a lack of reverence for life itself, lost for so many in an increasingly disposable culture. Perhaps a deadening of our willingness and ability to communicate in a world that operates at light speed, where change comes at a pace which often exceeds our ability to absorb it. And so, we become numb to it. Let’s face it. Being human means we’ll be wounded and scarred. This pain can either be mental, emotional or both, often manifesting in physical symptoms that can disrupt our lives, and often either shut down our ability or our willingness to cope with it. We believe that over thousands and thousands of years, this has left a deep wound in our collective heart and soul. These wounds cry out to us to be healed. But with an empathy that is compromised, it has become increasingly difficult to hold something, anything… reverentially. And so, have these centuries old wounds weakened our sensitivities toward the world at large? Imagine if we all woke up one morning feeling the collective pain and suffering of humanity. Could we regain our empathy, and our reverence for humanity? Is this our problem, or at least part of the problem? We’ve written this book because we hope it can help us, together, to become a part of the solution to a world seemingly at war with itself. That when we live our lives with moral integrity, we can become more aware, more conscious, and far more awake to our unique potential to support others Rev. Constance says “The Choice is Ours.” And Sheryl asks, “What choice are we talking about?” Allowing ourselves to be the spiritual beings that we are means that we first come to understand our values. Do we refuse to accept greed, dishonesty, cruelty, violence, discrimination or any other mindsets that, through our ego-based self-centeredness only compromise the other sentient beings with which we share this Earth? If so, then we have begun to seek the sacred in our life. A life filled with meaning and purpose. Our divinity, wherein we reach to our highest potential as human beings. As French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin so famously wrote: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” We are here, now, breathing freely as an expression of the lifeblood of everything in this universe to which we are connected. A unique, living embodiment of something much greater. Something endlessly creative. Something arguably nothing less than Divine.

As we open ourselves up, safely, to the unifying experiences of exploring a more contemplative life, we cross a sacred bridge, into a world where confidence in our right-mindedness blossoms like a field of spring flowers where we begin to walk along our most meaningful path with full vision to life’s infinite possibilities. Crossing this bridge is a mystical experience all of its own, where we discover that, one step at a time nothing is frightening or overwhelming. Where our self-limiting thoughts release into the ether, and our confidence in the Divine within us grows, grounded in a powerfully-rooted, often intoxicating love for humanity, and for the wonder in the world around us. If you’ve found yourself with his book in your hands, make no mistake… it is here because it was meant to be here. You are being called to a higher purpose. One of the main ways we cultivate and nurture this calling is through contemplative practice. These practices guide us on to better ways of living a humane, authentically human experience. We know we must contemplative practices and discover more about a transformative Journey. Meditation is first and foremost a mainstay practice in the contemplative traditions, if not since the dawn of man, then for a very long time. Findings suggest that prehistoric cultures and religions often practiced a kind of repetitive chanting in order to bring a focused result in thinking. This has evolved over time in a direct way to become what we know today as either chants, or mantras… still an oral tradition (more on that in another section). Some of the earliest written records of meditation come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism, in around 1500 BCE. Much later, in around the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, other forms of meditation developed in both Taoist China and Buddhist India. Through the centuries, meditation has become an integral part of all of the world’s great wisdom paths… Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism alike, with varying approaches to its practice, but with remarkably similar intent.

Fundamentally, spiritual transformation is a desired change in ones sacred or spiritual relationship to life. Psychologically, human beings have an inner pulse that wants to understand its place in the world. We are better humans when we connect ourselves to something greater or wiser than we understand ourselves to be. We feel we are better served in our life if we find a sense of meaning and motivating purpose for ourselves. In pursuit of that connection, we seek out answers to the big questions in our lives. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? These seem at first blush almost unanswerable, but if we have a willingness to examine who we are in the moment, the answers can come easily… by looking within to our mind, our body, and our spirit. Our mind represents the flow of information through our nervous system. This includes all the information we process, moment by moment. Our body is the vessel that holds all of our dreams, our aspirations, our past, our present, and our hopes for the future... a manifest reflection of the state of all of the dimensions of our health, for better, or for worse. Our spirit animates us (the body and mind). Spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to our consciousness. It comes from the Latin word “spiritus,” meaning “breath.” You speak of the season’s of the soul and refer to an awakening as we live our lives and experience many different emotions. You may have come across the phrase “seasons of the soul.” If you have, it’s likely that what you found was a broad reference to the process of our aging, passing through the seasons of our life. You may even have heard the reference being made in the classic song “It Was A Very Good Year,” written in the 1960s by Ervin Drake, and made famous by Frank Sinatra, as a man, now growing older, reflects on the seasons of his life:

When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights. We’d hide from the lights on the village green. When I was seventeen. When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for city girls who lived up the stairs. With perfumed hair that came undone. When I was twenty-one. Then I was thirty-five, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls of independent means. We’d ride in limousines, their chauffeurs would drive. When I was thirty-five But now the days grow short, I’m in the autumn of the year And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs. From the brim to the dregs, it poured sweet and clear. It was a very good year. You’ll also find this type of reference in a variety of literature attributed to the world’s great wisdom paths. One example where the concept is most deeply engrained comes from the Hindu tradition, which suggests that at different stages of our life, there are four things that we really want:

1. Pleasure - seeking personal happiness and attending to your needs
2. Success - enhancing your happiness through acquisition of wealth, Fame, and power
3. Renunciation - searching for meaning and value
4. Duty - helping others. You can easily see the seasons of a life play out in this as well.

The seasons of our life are the broadly brushed seasons of our soul. Of course, we physically go through the seasons of our Mother Earth many times in our lifetime. But it is very much the same with our soul. Consider … There are times when we need to be alone. To quiet the mind and listen for our highest voice… our greatest purpose. By any other name, this is soul-searching, where we unplug and go inward for our answers. This is Autumn, our time of centering. There are times when we need to cleanse. To let go of anything which does not serve: people, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that have begun to get in our way. Once we have centered ourselves by quieting our minds, we can then begin to take inventory of what’s inside and releasing whatever no longer serves. This is the classically barren season of Winter… a time of emptying. There are times when we need to grow into our mind. To hear our creative voice, to listen to our intuition, and to trust our mind. This is a time to let go of ego, and connect with something higher, more personal. To prepare to simply receive, without judgment, the creativity that surrounds us, and which will feed us if we let it! Where we can experience a relaxed receptivity to the Divine in each of us. This is where we can ask ourselves the big questions, like: “Who Am I?” and “Why Am I Here?” This is Spring… a time for grounding. These traditions we have discussed and the quest for a spiritual path have taken such deep root in human civilization.

In a nutshell, our quest for clarity. Our quest for calm. And in achieving that, an increased opportunity to live life more fully. To be present in the moment. To rid ourselves of the constant distractions which we self-present… that tendency we commonly refer to as “monkey mind.” This term came from no other than the Buddha himself, who described the mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, carrying on endlessly. “We all have monkey minds,” Buddha said, “with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention. Fear is an especially loud monkey, sounding the alarm incessantly, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong.” And so, Buddha, along with other mystics and contemplatives like Confucious and Lao Tzu, came upon the power of calming and quieting the mind. Rev Constance Mc Clain has helped us to follow a journey of awakening with the use of transformative tools such as meditation and in a delightfully clear concise and wonderfully creative look at that process in her book Mindful Path captures your mind and heart to open. The self-investigative process and journey of the soul has intrigued seekers from the beginning of time: now in the age of technology we have an even greater need to explore and refine the energy of our Universal Source within, as we discover once again the truth of our divine and physical aspects and the eternal force of life and creation. In summarizing today’s episode of “Healing From Within” we have explored the contemplative means to go within and to recognize the personal power and wisdom of our soul and its connection to the Universal Source of life as well as our interconnectedness through the seasons of the soul in a physical life. We have discovered the beauty of the calm and peaceful methods: meditation prayer moving past the chatter of the world and finding peace within the alignment to nature man and the divine. We have seen through the words and stories of age old seekers such as Buddha and others that at some point in our lives most of us will want to know who we are, and how to make the most of the time we have in this present incarnation. Whenever you awaken to the beauty of your inner voice and the song that brings you the most joyful remembrance that you are a spirit of eternal life living a physical adventure, know that that will be the right time for you to begin to live and breathe the beauty of the Universe and feel free. Rev. Mc Clain wrote “And now… a few thoughts from the Dalai Lama on meditation: “Generally speaking, our mind is predominantly directed towards external objects. Our attention follows after the sense experiences. It remains at a predominantly sensory and conceptual level. In other words, normally our awareness is directed towards physical sensory experiences and mental concepts. But in this exercise, what you should do is withdraw your mind inward; don’t let it chase after or pay attention to sensory objects. At the same time, don’t allow it to be so totally withdrawn that there is a kind of dullness or lack of mindfulness. You should maintain a very full state of alertness and mindfulness, and then try to see the natural state of your consciousness — a state in which your consciousness is not afflicted by thoughts of the past, the things that have happened, your memories and remembrances; nor is it afflicted by thoughts of the future, like your future plans, anticipations, fears, and hopes. But rather, try to remain in a natural and neutral state.” Rev. Constance McClain Rev. James Walker and Sheryl would have you know that as we all in these challenging changing times opening to the guidance and love of Spirit and the energy of life as we walk the mindful path, the opportunity for greater awareness and higher consciousness is allowing us to make choices..Please make the choice to be well, to be happy, and to be grateful, for this divine time in the history of the soul.