GLOWING INTO PEACE….

My Beautiful Souls,

Good morning to a view of restoration, light, and renewal. Grab a mindset that chooses to be open to the possibilities, that wants to evolve with new knowledge, to expand its think tank to a capacity that is as endless as the waves upon the shore.

We are conduits of a light force that has superpowers the mind controls only if you choose to be light. “I AM… LIGHT!” What you believe is your reality. Do not shy away from your greatness. You are meant to stand out and shine brightly. Be bold, brave, and beautiful for the world to see. He made you this way for a reason. You play a significant role in this world…

The love of learning is power in and of itself. We are given this ability to glean new knowledge, to embrace a different perspective of the world, and to be fearless when faced with the unknown.

Aspiring to a higher degree in education in America is free. It is a right and privilege to learn whether through colleges or technical schools, or online learning. Many of us take education for granted. Instead we should use our gifts for the good of humankind, human dignity, civic engagement, and community service.

The power of knowledge can transform our global economics, environmental sustainability, infectious disease research for cures, and political angst into one of peace if it was channeled with human decency, respect, humility, and love for one another.

Healing from inside out has a way of transcending our mindsets to one that relinquishes the brokenness we’ve endured from endless battles of illness, trauma, and abuse. There is beauty in the breaking when we fall to our knees. The only way to heal is to rise victoriously.

In our moment of vulnerability, we seek a higher summoning to sustain, save, and protect us from the all-consuming darkness. We will choose either a victim mentality where the status quo is our demise. Being like everyone else changes nothing. And we stand for nothing and fall for everything. Or we rise to thrive.

In rising, our brilliance shines through the cracks of our souls to become victorious over our past and present indiscretions. The God spark within claims us as His own. We ultimately experience a mind shift, a transformation whereby we are clothed in self-love. By grace we surrender to a spiritual conscious and mentally release ourselves from the prison of shame, guilt, and blame. Freedom never felt so good.

PEACE: A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Glowing into peace is a state of blissful harmony. Inner peace brings stability, balance, and spiritual calm. For those who have suffered repeatedly from trauma and abuse, its abundance brings attributes of tranquility, contentment, security, and a mind shift of being ‘at one’ with a higher power.

I long for peace. Letting go of corporate people and their linear protocol mindset that dictates white privilege decisions over sanctions that govern my medical, dental, food, and shelter is like removing a mountain of toxicity from my life. Then having to master an extraordinary positive mental health is a force to be reckoned with.

Like myself, people can only “see” what they’ve been taught to “see,” and don’t “see” what’s actually there. We are blinded by our own distorted bias when it comes to the poor, disabled, elderly, mentally ill, and those who have addictions. Ignorance is bliss. Until you become one yourself and experience the suffering, poverty, loneliness, and medical havoc your body spins for you by the hands who harmed you, you do not comprehend the severity of consequences that banish you from normal society.

Discovering peace and mental calmness among the chaos fosters indescribable virtues of serenity. When thriving from the aftermath of the storm, I crave the comfort of the ubiquitous rapture of my soul.

I want peace to roll in like the tide and the waves drench me until I’m baptized with angel dust upon my brow.

To drink in its silence. To bathe in its forgiveness. To bask in its life-altering state of divinity. I want peace to engulf me and allow my mindset to soften like the first fallen snow.

I want worthiness to embellish me with fire. With wings of a dove my spirit soars with unbridled brilliance. Those who have devoured me will feel the heat of my glow that rises from my soul. God’s light is revealing. And when unveiled, His spirit will shine through me. Because I AM enough.

I will not wait for the right time to experience peace. I want to drench myself in it now while still breathing, swimming, jogging, and blogging. I want peace to come with purpose, conviction, clarity, and gratitude.

Rising with peace is to have it drizzle down my face with stardust. Those who follow in my footsteps will receive sprinkles of light to shine at a moment’s embrace.

I seek tranquility that comes with age, wisdom, and resiliency. These are gleaned from years of experience in how to channel emotions with passion. I want to enlighten rather than erupt with emotional rage. I have gleaned that those who trigger my emotional buttons are not good for my mental health. My joy rests in the harmony of my soul.

Peace manifests a life of mental tranquility. In living a holistic, healthy lifestyle, I choose to be surrounded by like-minded souls who spur me forward toward spiritual enlightenment. Those who clipped my wings so as not to soar, did not know I’d grow two more.♥︎

Eating nutritiously nurtures the anatomy of my spirit with holistic foods that are fresh, wholesome, and organic. What I put into my body reflects the depth of my self-love.

Peace offers contentment, a surrendering of self to a spiritual power. I am complete in Him. I will know when love gravitates towards me. His heart will be large enough to hold my sails. Upon exhaling, he can enfold me with angel wings so love can be unveiled.

It is in the magic of becoming, in blooming that I give myself permission to blossom into peace. With deep roots I am transformed into a higher consciousness and clothed with self-love, worthiness, courage, confidence, trust, and grace. The God spark within becomes my superpowers. He cultivates my resilience, brilliance, and voice when rising.

Being at peace grants me an open heart to give and receive love. To feel the expansion and depth of soulful unity when colliding with another like-minded soul. It is a friendship on fire. One that is hungry and thirsty for adventure, intimacy, passion, and the chaos that life has to offer. May it rapture me with purity, authenticity, and transparency.

With peace I know, I AM enough. It’s walking away from those who no longer bring light and joy to my life. The older I get, the more challenging it is to embrace true friendship. Yet I have a gold card that says I can say “No” and not have to commit.

Choosing peace claims who I am. What I blog or publish may not be liked by all. And that is fine with me. I am no longer the ‘people pleaser’ I once used to be.

Rising from abuse and trauma gives me the right to set my own standards on how I want to be treated by others. I do so without shame, blame or guilt. I have forgiven those who abused and traumatized me.

I ponder, have I opened all the layers of myself so the child within can be freed? Is she safe from harm, abandonment, control, and gas lighting? The masterpiece God has made continues to have holes within its fabric on display. My gratitude runs deep for His patience and for carrying me this far. My faith is far beyond that of a mustard seed.

The God spark within continues to transform me from victim to victor. I am glorified in Him, by Him, and through Him.

Because of Him I am capable of living a life well-lived but only if I choose it. It is not the life I wanted or hoped for, yet it is the life I’m blessed with. It has been the journey of a lifetime. The resiliency of my human spirit has been woven with broken, torn threads from trauma and abuse. Yet even as it continues to be refined, it is manifesting into His masterpiece. What’s not to celebrate?

Peace has eluded me for years and has finally consumed me because of the surrendering to His will. God has been teaching me these past 25 years to be patient, humble, and to let go. Even so, fear has a way of keeping me stuck.

He’s been refining me, stretching my heart, and cleansing my mindset for what’s to come. To do without. To realize people speak out of two sides of their mouth. I must ascertain how to trust myself in order to trust others before opening my heart.

James 3:6.“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 8. but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

He’s shown me to trust people’s actions over their words. I am forced to discover the magic within the silver lining of angel dust.

Peace for me is to discover it through the path of resiliency and enlightenment. Peace can not be bought, bottled, redeemed, or refunded. I have to learn, like self-love, how to seek it through forgiveness, which to me is grace and humility in union. Forgiving those who sporadically persecute me today is mentally, emotionally, and physically challenging. It causes stress, illness, exhaustion, and sleep deprivation. And as hard as I persevere, chips of glass from the storm of past pain remains a thorn that fails to be released. My saving grace is fitness, which offers me meditation, physical health and tone, and mental stamina and acuity.

Peace means accepting how the “old” me, still within, bears an unimaginable resemblance to who I am now. Yet, I carry only part of “her” with me and half a mental “battery” daily to sustain me due to my three traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

The acquired toolbox of strategies grants me the choice to have a life that is fabulous! I choose a life of glow…and live in the magic zone. I preach it and thoughtfully practice it daily. Although some days I fail miserably and retreat. I draw strength from the delicate shades of shine that crossover into mine when I am mentally under siege.

Being at peace doesn’t mirror perfectionism. It fosters an inner sanguine serenity of spiritual enlightenment that cradles my flaws. I don’t expect perfection from others either. I do, however, empower people to rise and become a better version of themselves. Gratefully, I have a purpose in life and am grounded in principle, values, and a spiritual power of consciousness.

Peace informs my decisions when choosing to move beyond the status quo. Those who stay in their comfort zone choose not to change. When people continue doing the same thing, they get the same results. This is defined by Albert Einstein as insanity. “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s a mute point for change.

Inhaling peace dilutes excuses as a choice. Accountability and owning my mistakes are key. There is no such thing as try. Standing in the doorway and holding onto the doorknob makes if difficult for God to shower me with His gifts. Peace means owning my faults and being transparent with people. It’s also forgiving myself instead of blaming, shaming, and guilt being held hostage in my head. I let it go.

Having peace means integrity. I am always trying to use God’s word in discovering the truth to live by. His truth IS the only truth. Any other truth is just an opinion, which means nothing unless its backed by research and empirical facts and data.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

Peace is choosing who walks in and out of my circle of friends. My worthiness is dependent on how I honor myself so others will know how to treat me. I take conflict in stride and shoot from the hip. I do not tolerate lies, deceit, or control because that mindset is not how I roll.

Peace grants me a presence with those who are here. I live in the moment, inhaling gratitude, exhaling love. I continue to choose self-care when my battery runs low. It is in those moments I realize my tasks are not as important as my mental, emotional, and physical health. I treat myself with dignity and grace.

Transforming one’s mind to glow into peace is a mindful, discerning process. It is done out of conviction, perseverance, and with fortitude. I come to a spiritual presence of transcendence because I seek it abundantly. I am fully blessed in Him.

Mark 9:23-“All things are possible to him who believes.”

Spiritual peace is transcendence. It involves a connection to love, always inviting us into a spiritual renewal. It is in creating space to bloom, become, and transform into an expansive root system from within. What we seek is change, resiliency, and safety.

Transcendence

Transcendence can be defined by how we choose to react to all circumstances gifted to us whether good or bad. How we respond carries our light when interwoven with intuitive knowledge that brings a course of action discerned from morals and ethics. When we respond from a place of transcendence, it may bring discomfort, yet the choice is not made lightly nor is it made from the ego.

An emotional response from a transcendent experience may profoundly enlighten our identity and channel a fidelity with our spirituality that leaves us permanently altered. This doesn’t’ mean we are free of life’s tribulations, challenges, and uncertainties, because these adversities are what force us to choose a path of growth, humility, and resiliency.

Authentic spiritual experiences “assign meaning in our lives and shift our focus from ourselves to a connection with something more, whether it be God, a higher power, other people, or nature.” (The Beauty of Transcendence and How it Informs Our Spirituality)

When we experience transcendence, it’s important to know the duality between spiritual transcendence and spiritual transformation. Many of the teachings on spiritual transcendence have been influenced by the East. While the West tends to teach more of spiritual transformation, which is persuaded by the Kabbalah.

The Oxford Dictionary’s definitions…

  • Transcendence: Surpassing of one’s perceived limitations; the capacity to achieve a higher level of awareness, compassion, or consciousness
  • Transformation: The action of changing in form, shape, or appearance; metamorphosis

What’s interesting about ordinary people like us is that our minds dictate how we see the world. The mind tries to make sense out of the complexities through organization, and compartmentalizes events to bring clarity and order out of chaos. It helps us navigate the world by making sense of how it influences us and how we perceive it. And that is how we become bias and analytical.

We are subliminally aware of, if not minimally, of this dual functioning mental “self-other” contradiction, and get stuck, if not paralyzed, from fear in how to move forward. As much as we long for connections through the lens of global diversity, we tend to lose site of living a life grounded in self-love and self-care when our triggers get pushed.

In order to change our dual separative energies to be ideal for ourselves and others, a prominent spiritual experience in transcendence must transpire. Spirituality is approached as believing outside the realm of possibilities. Of being part of a larger universe where energy flows from every living creature. We are all made from energy and send signals out to the universe, whether positive or depressive, based on our algorithms of mental endorphins. Our thoughts are so powerful they craft our present and future realities.

A sense of hope and surrender are two additional spiritual character traits associated with transcendence that are fostered with a sense of contentment. This state of mind allows the brain to decompress so it is not on auto pilot responses to negative stimuli. In this way, transcendence can offer enhanced control over responses to reactive circumstances to allow healthy emotional bonding behaviors to override maladaptive ones.

Surrendering to a higher power with transcendence channels the mind to become more centered and harmonious when focusing on spirituality. It generally produces increased clarity, calmness, tranquility, and trust. Prayer also has the ability to reduce the stress and return balance during the fight, flight, or freeze response. Through the vagus nerve of the autonomic nervous system, there are ways to relieve anxiety and foster resilience from trauma by stimulating the vagus nerve to increase vagal tone.

The vagus nerve carries electrical signals to and from your brain and body for functions of the heart, breathing, and digestive systems. It will assist in disengaging your sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight, flight, or freeze response. Unfortunately, the auto response system doesn’t know the difference between immediate danger and daily life stressors.

Today we are constantly triggered by flight, fight, and freeze mechanisms due to the emotionally charged lifestyles we interact with daily. These may be indicative of abuse, discrimination, dysfunctional relationships, loneliness, angry conflict, poor communication, poverty, sleep deprivation, trauma, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, illness, depression, and lack of medical insurance.

Living in a constant state of anxiety, frustration, pain, and desperation makes you at-risk for detrimental health conditions of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cancers.

A healthy vagus nerve can assist in balancing your body’s stress response to reduce anxiety and increase your body’s overall healthy lifestyle. Knowing how to put it in motion is key.

Mental Health: Stimulate the Vagus Nerve

Healthy strategies to respond to stress and reduce signals that cause anxiety can be activated by stimulating the vagus nerve. These are simple steps we do daily like preparing nutritious meals, exercising to increase the heart rate for 30 minutes, and ensuring 8-9 hours of sleep every night. Thriving requires extraordinary measures for living in the magic zone where everything is possible!

To increase energy for sustaining harmony and peace when life throws stressful circumstances may include the following practices:

Mindfulness

Practicing mindfulness is taking time out to meditate in a quiet place of undisturbed silence. It can be done anywhere you feel safe and are able to be vulnerable. Breathing in and out for five seconds will start as a warmup to discover peace and tranquility. Continue this breathing for longer periods of time to quiet the mental chaos. Other ways to achieve mindfulness include fishing, planting a garden, hiking, fitness class, swimming, jogging, cycling, a good book, music, and a massage or mani/pedi.

Yoga

Yoga is the routine practice of developing new brain paths resulting in enhanced cognitive skill sets in the hippocampus of the temporal lobe for language, emotional responses, new and long-term memories, learning, awareness or spatial navigating of the body, and critical thinking.

Damage to this part of the brain from traumatic brain injuries, stroke, etc. can lead to impairments in memory and memory formation, appropriate emotional responses, balance, language skills, and executive functions necessary for executive career positions.

Practicing seasoned yoga has been found through brain imaging to create a denser cerebral cortex and hippocampus. This is profound research because it shows to counter age related decline in cognitive functioning. It also provides increased executive critical thinking skills such as decision making, discernment, reaction time, mental acuity, and reasoning.

One of the key aspects of yoga is that it affects the mood levels of the brain’s chemistry, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This fosters a better mood with decreased anxiety. This combined with meditation reduces chaos in the brain area specific to emotions so your response to triggers is more relaxed and calmer.

Meditation

Meditation is grounded in the reduction in stress and anxiety so your life can be more focused with clarity and purpose. “Mindfulness is the invitation into the present moment, and so it’s cultivated through a meditation practice where you really work on bringing your mind to the present, not getting lost in those thoughts,” Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at University of California, Los Angeles Mindful.

Biofeedback

An alternative medicine to changing the way your body functions. It may enhance your mental and physical health by sensing physiological signals from your body. This is produced through methods such as a heart rate (electrocardiogram EKG), breathing, muscle movement (electromyography), sweat (GSR) sensors, electrical brain activity (EEG), and skin temperature.

Tai Chi

This is a fitness routine with flowing, fluid movements that are performed with balance and harmony. The focus is on slow breathing and mental motion, so each movement captures energy in harmonic rhythm.

For centuries, Tai chi has channeled “meditation in motion” to synchronize the body’s energy and poise, or qi. The body moves slowly together to create a flowing masterpiece that is balanced with strength, mental stamina, and coordination.

My sweet tribe, peace is the ultimate experience we long for as we collide with daily stressors. It is a life-style of mental harmony. It is cultivating kindness, gentleness, and forgiveness as a ritual in meeting people where they are. Many people are unable to meet you halfway because they do not have the tools to get there.

Share your spiritual resiliency, fortitude, grace, and love so they too will yearn for the light you shine upon them. If you are an empath, it can become draining. Healthy boundaries are necessary for knowing when to reach out and when to wrap yourself in self-care with angel wings.

There is nothing wrong with loving the crap out of everything…♕ People who dislike you will not appreciate the light you shine in their eyes. That’s fine. Glow brighter and offer your sunglasses so their presence doesn’t block your shine. You are a masterpiece in the making! What’s not to like?!

Bastille Day is upon us… Seize the day, celebrate our allies, and bask in their cultural French cuisines. Discover peace wherever you are and thrive! Celebrate YOU! Because you are worthy of love, joy, and peace.

In Light and Love,

Dr. Kimberly Lees

letyourlightshineon.org

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