Shakti Sutriasa
Experiencing Well-Being Part III

We’re already at the 3rd pillar of well-being!

As a quick review, the first two are:

1.Awareness

-Meaning, the ability to be more present, tuned into your here and now as well as to your mind chatter.

From Dr Davidson directly:

“Awareness: A heightened, flexible attentiveness to one’s environment and internal cues such as bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings.

Skills: Mindfulness, attention, self-awareness”

Experiencing Well-Being Part III
Shakti Sutriasa
Cultivating Well-Being Part II

How is your practice of awareness coming along?

Another way to think about awareness, is mindfulness. If you google that word alone, you’ll find loads of practices (in addition to the pause one I gave you) to support you in cultivating more awareness.

Today we’re exploring the 2nd pillar of well-being that Dr Richard Davidson identified with his neuroscience research.

Cultivating Well-Being Part II
Shakti Sutriasa
Cultivating Well-Being Part I

Have you heard of a neuroscientist named Richard Davidson?

He’s been doing research on the brain specifically related to mindfulness, meditation, and well- being for decades. And his research is fascinating!

One of his key findings is around the idea of well-being. Through extensive study, trials and research, he has identified what he calls 4 pillars of well-being.

The really exciting news is that these so-called pillars aren’t inherent qualities, or even simply acquired knowledge. They are qualities that each and every one of us can cultivate and apply every day of our lives! Wahoo!

Cultivating Well-Being Part I
Shakti Sutriasa
3 Ways to Manage the Rate of Change in the World

Have you experienced the past few months as intense, chaotic, and full of uncertainty?

Yes?

You’re not alone.

Some days feel like a tough slog. Like we’re moving through dense resistance. Which is all the more reason to embrace your spiritual practice and deepen into it. 

Many seers have spoken of this time we are in as an amplification, when everything is speeding up and gaining power. This is exactly why you have to choose your own sanity, clarity and peace.

Not only because the chaos is ever growing, but because the benefit of you doing your inner work is amplified during this time. In other words, you can use this time to fast track your liberation.

3 Ways to Manage the Rate of Change in the World
Shakti Sutriasa
How to Know What Archetype You Embody

Recently, we explored the big idea in which I asked you what myth are you living. If you’re still ruminating on this, here’s another tool that might help you drill into it: archetypes.

The concept of archetype is something Carl Jung spent a tremendous amount of time exploring and is so rich! Caroline Myss has built on Jung’s work and expounded on how we can access and utilize archetypal energy to better understand ourselves and the world.

How to Know What Archetype You Embody

Forgiveness and the Enneagram

Forgiveness and the Enneagram

If you’re ready to deepen your work with the enneagram and/or with the idea of forgiveness, keep reading!

The lens of the enneagram is a powerful tool to support us in forgiving ourselves. Why do we want to do this? Because, as Louise Hay reminds us, we forgive and we set ourselves free.

If you’re not familiar with the Enneagram, it is a comprehensive system to help identify your personality and default responses to life. There a 9 different personality types or world views, numbered 1-9.

When we’re in alignment with the truth of who we are, we’re able to access all 9 points of the enneagram, using various responses to stimuli, as appropriate. However, all of us have a default number, a fallback position if you like, that’s activated when we experience fear.  

The Power of the Enneagram: Which Number Are You?

The Power of the Enneagram: Which Number Are You?

The only personality tool I use regularly is the enneagram. Why? Because it’s incredibly helpful in understanding myself!

If you’re unfamiliar with the enneagram, essentially it is a set of 9 world views, orientations, or ways of experiencing the world. There is evidence of the enneagram being utilized as far back as the ancient Greeks. Learn more here

Ultimately, the idea is that when we are in alignment and feel connected to our larger essence (some call this our God selves or universal consciousness), we have the ability to access ALL 9 ways of being and can approach any situation and employ whatever personality traits we need.

That being said, we also have a default way of responding to stimuli. Some call this our learned self, others call it personality. Essentially, it’s how we respond to the world especially when we feel afraid.

What Does Money Mean to You?

What Does Money Mean to You?

A friend was visiting the other day and shared that she’s been thinking about money as an “idea.”

As you might imagine, an interesting conversation ensued! Later, I found myself contemplating the many lenses through which we can explore money.

Here are 3:

1. Money as an Idea

If money is an idea, how are you defining it?

If you really think about it, money (I’m not even gonna touch crypto…) is comprised of pieces of printed paper and metal discs. We are the ones who ascribe meaning to these symbols and give them value.

What do they mean to you?

My first answer is freedom. Freedom to do what you want, to go where you want.

Money also offers opportunity.

What do you think?

Use Dr Emoto’s Research & Change the World

Use Dr Emoto’s Research & Change the World

Sometimes we don’t realize just how powerful we are. But the truth is that if you really want to change the world, it’s actually quite simple: tune into love.

This might sound simplistic but hear me out. In fact, let me give you an example of one thing I do, as well as the science behind it!

I live near the Puget Sound, a part of the Pacific Ocean that runs through western Washington state.

Whenever I’m near the water, I look out at it and say, “I love you ocean. I really, really love you. Thank you for providing food, shelter and oxygen for us and for so many creatures.”

Before you roll your eyes in disbelief, keep reading because there’s actual science behind my actions!

How to Really Change the World

How to Really Change the World

You know that expression, “wherever you go, there you are.”?

I was thinking about that the other morning.

If you’re like me, you want to world to be a better place, more loving, peaceful, sane.

But what if the real way to succeed at changing the world isn’t by going out and tangibly changing the politics, or environment but is all about changing yourself? In other words, changing your mind about the world.

This is what I think the above quote actually means.

How Porous Are Your Boundaries?

How Porous Are Your Boundaries?

Boundaries often get a bad rap, as if they’re not a good thing, as if they prevent us from genuine connection.

Is that really true?

First off, let’s define what we’re really talking about.

A boundary can be physical like a fence or a wall, even your skin is a natural physical boundary.

Boundaries can also be set by social or cultural standards. For example, in Japan, people greet one another with a bow, rather than in the United States where we often shake hands or hug.

Boundaries – in terms of dictating behavior- also differ in public versus private spaces, and vary depending on the types of relationship you have with someone.

Feel the Presence of God with You Always

Feel the Presence of God with You Always

When you were a child, did you have an imaginary friend? Someone you held tea parties with, read to in bed, played hide and seek with, or blamed for the mess in your room?

According to WebMD, around 65% of children under the age of seven have them, so if you did, you’re in the majority!

Naturally, there are social and emotional reasons that children have imaginary friends. It’s good company. It’s also a way to try out new social behaviors, or process feelings. An imaginary friend can offer support, too. After all, it’s YOUR special friend, someone who loves you, won’t leave, and doesn’t judge.

The Key to Having a Lasting Romantic Relationship

The Key to Having a Lasting Romantic Relationship

February is the month for lovers, for love, for reminding us of what our hearts yearn for.

Are you like me? Have you always been a romantic, from the time you were little?

I completely bought into the fantasy. You know it, right? Get rescued from your unhappy situation when you meet the love of your dreams, and live happily ever after.

As part this, I was HOOKED on the idea of falling in love even though I had NO idea of what love actually was.

I harbored this romantic dream for years.

The Tarot Card Influencing 2024

The Tarot Card Influencing 2024

Last year my daughter turned me onto this idea that there is a Major Arcana Tarot card that informs the overarching energy of the year.

One way to think about this is as the TONE for the year on a global scale, reflecting the energy that might be arising.

It’s actually quite simple to learn which tarot card it is for the year. Simply add the numbers of the year together. So, for this year it would be: 2+0+2+4=8

The Card that correlates with the number 8 is STRENGTH.

Immediately that feels heartening, don’t you think? As if it is inviting us to call on our own inner strength, knowing that it’s there for us always. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to cultivate strength even more since we may need this quality as 2024 unfolds.

Your Time to Vision

Your Time to Vision

Now that you’ve landed on a word to be your guidepost for the year, it’s time to REALLY vision into how you want 2024 to unfold.

We can choose to be intentional AND allow the universe to support and provide us with mystery, too.

My all time favorite tool for doing this is to create a vision board. It’s such a great way to launch the year with intention, guidance and inquiry.

What Exactly is Compassion in Action?

What Exactly is Compassion in Action?

Lately, I’ve been ruminating on compassion., and this idea: What if demonstrating compassion is our way of embodying God (which I define as love) on earth?

The Christian scholar and theologian, Matthew Fox says, “compassion is, of course, a kind of passion. A caring, a feeling of the suffering of others—and acting to relieve that suffering. It is the opposite of a cold heart. Compassion is also the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Fox goes on to remind us that Meister Eckhart insisted that, “the first outburst of whatever God does is always compassion.” 

How to Get Everything You Want

How to Get Everything You Want

I recently wrote to a friend and shared this story with them.

Last year I was feeling frustrated. I was working hard but not seeing the kind of rewards I was expecting.

You know that feeling, don’t you? When you put everything into a project only to see it flounder, or not yield the results you were expecting?

By December, I was in a right mood about it. And, honestly, pretty irate with God. Because years earlier, in 2015 in fact, I’d received a very clear and loud message that said, “you can have everything, you know.”

In the years since, I’d been working with that idea, opening up to receiving everything.

Only last year, it felt like I had hit a wall. Why was I not feeling like I had everything? Why wasn’t I creating exactly what I wanted?

6 Steps to Transforming Regret

6 Steps to Transforming Regret

Still ruminating over the 5 biggest regrets dying people have?

Good!

Now let’s focus on how to release regret. Because, let’s face it, we all have them. The trick is to not allow them to keep you stuck in the past.

If you’re ready to move forward and heal, here’s what writer and life coach, Martha Beck has to share.

Her six steps to dissolving regret.

1. Get Beyond Denial

Bad sh*t happens to everyone. The question is, how do you remember it? Are you holding onto it, wishing it hadn’t happened? Are you angry or sad about it?

Beck describes this as, “unproductive regret,” a way to avoid taking action and moving forward

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Working as a hospice social work intern, I often sat with people who were actively dying and talked about their lives, what brought them joy, and what they were afraid of.

So, what hospice nurse, Bronnie Ware , had to say in her 2019 book, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing wasn’t a big surprise.

Can you guess what the #1 regret waas?

Not being brave enough to live a life true to yourself.

In other words, not following your dreams.

Take a moment and ask yourself, will this be one of your regrets?