LS-9

chapter 9

Sandy shows up a few minutes late for her session. Rushing into the office, she explains, apologetically, she has just gotten out of the shower, thrown on a beach dress, and rushed over to the office with no time left to do her hair and makeup. I tell her not to worry, that no one would see her but me, and after we talk briefly I will dim the lights during the actual hypnosis portion of the session. We laugh, and she seems to relax a bit while we talk about other things. Later, as the session unfolds, it becomes apparent that the woman standing before me is the opposite in nature to the straitlaced character from her own past life that she will explore in today’s session.

Sandy wants to explore her past lives because she wants to get clear on some things. She is in a transition period in her life and wants to get clarity. In her meditations when asking for guidance, she gets flashes of past lives. She wants to bring all the pieces together to help her move forward in a spiritually aligned way. She also wants to find out more about a health issue she’s been dealing that has started to improve with a new regimen she is under.

We begin the All Lives Session with the usual induction and deepening. Sandy quickly moves through some present life memories as we make our way back through time. She experiences excitement at being born into this life to a loving mother with whom she shares a close relationship early on. Excited to meet her mother and be with her, she enjoys the feeling of her mother’s love, knowing that love is reciprocated. To Sandy’s great relief, she sees very clearly that her mother is happy as a young wife and mother. She understands that her mother’s unhappiness later in life was caused by other factors in the marriage, not Sandy’s birth as she had feared. It is a great revelation for her to realize this, and to realize that somehow she has picked up her mother’s unhappiness later in life and taken it on as her own.

After crossing through a bright light into an open space at the end of a hallway, Sandy’s spirit guide, Nipa, appears to her as an Asian Indian, tall, thin, and graceful, standing in the periphery wearing a sari. She shows Sandy a scene with two children growing to adulthood and then meeting as they became adults. A woman with long brown hair is there in an open field of golden yellow flowers and blue skies standing with her beau. They are both young and their relationship is full of promise, but Sandy feels a rush of great sadness come over her relating to events that are to come.

Fast-forwarding a few years into their marriage, she suddenly feels a pressure on her stomach and a sharp pain as if something is stuck there. It feels as if something is trying to get out, but also something is stuck there too. Nipa shows her the image of a mother and father holding a new baby being christened. It is the young couple from the field. There had actually been two babies, but only one survived. The stillborn child is still inside, stuck there, while its twin has broken free.

The pain is connected to the area just under Sandy’s ribs and up to through the lungs and heart. It sits there like a heavy pressure that weighs on her diaphragm and makes it difficult to breathe. Sandy remarks that she experienced a similar pain when she had her first child at about the same age as this woman. Nipa helps her to realize that this was a part of herself that she didn’t want to “see,” and this memory serves as an entry point to reveal itself to her now that she is ready.

She is shown the point in the past life that is tied to the pain. The pain came about at the birth of her child in her current life, though it was rooted into her past life experiences with loss as a Civil War widow. She and her husband, a Confederate officer in the Civil War, lost their little girl before he went off to war. They each dealt with pain the only way they knew how. Leaving his young wife to grieve the loss of their child alone, he ran away, using the distraction of war to take him away from the constant reminders of his young daughter around their Virginia homeplace. She kept herself occupied and her anger buried deep.

They talked about having other children once the war was over, but they never did. He returned home as a broken man, for which she never forgave him. He later died, which only fueled her bitterness at losing someone else she loved.

The young couple in the field had such a promising future ahead, but all that changed with the death of their child and then the Civil War. It changed her, wore her out from the hardships she and everyone endured. She finally gave up on the idea that life could ever be good again and was bitter and resentful of the injustices life had placed upon her. She lost everyone she loved in that war and now was all alone in the world in a home filled with the belongings of those she has lost. The belongings served as old, painful memories to a life she no longer had—toys, clothing, furniture. She was angry because she considered herself to be a good person and didn’t understand why this was happening to her. She didn’t deserve this and her life was in ruins.

She would never be happy again, but as a well-to-do proper Southern woman, she held back her words and swallowed her tears instead. She was too proud to reveal her pain, so she kept it stuffed way down inside. The worst of it all was that it was stuffed down so deep that she didn’t even know how to let it go if she wanted to. What was the point anyway? After the Civil War ended there was no place to find relief. Everyone was suffering with no way to lift themselves up. Everyone was broken.

Sandy speaks with her past-life counterpart, offering compassion and understanding. The widow’s scowled face softens a bit as Sandy starts to make realizations about how this has influenced her current life thinking. Sandy is more of a free spirit than her uptight, straitlaced, past-life counterpart; however, both have experienced suffering nonetheless.

As they talk, the sensation begins to change. At first it is like a clamp, pinching on either side of Sandy’s abdomen. In her chest there is a hardness like a lead bullet lodged there in her heart. As the light of awareness begins to reveal what Sandy needs to see, a golden yellow light pours into this space.

The bullet opens like a flower as each of the petal-like layers begins to unfold up to the light. And as they continue to talk, it continues to shift. Layers and layers of pain and associations between current life and past life similarities begin shifting. A few moments later, light sprays out of the top like fireworks, just as tears of relief spring from Sandy’s eyes.

She smiles proudly as these new discoveries about herself sink in. Sandy recalls making the decision early on in her current life to not be so disciplined that she is chained into a “straitjacket kind of life.” Others have made her out to be wrong for choosing her own path in life. She recognizes that her free-spiritedness isn’t a bad thing after all.

As Sandy and the Civil War widow finish talking, the Civil War widow is led into the light to join a group of souls who are there waiting for her. Many of the loved ones she believed to be lost reunite with her to welcome her home.

Sandy’s attention is drawn to a Greek-styled building with columns. She follows the pebbled path, lined with roses and flowers, that takes her to the entrance. Her guide, Nipa, steps out of one of the columns to greet her. More is revealed to Sandy about the Civil War life. Nipa reminds her that every life has seeds of pain in it. One must accept that and not run away from it. She tells Sandy to take the lessons in stride and to not hide from them.

Sandy feels herself being lifted up by the love Nipa has for her. Nipa reassures Sandy that she is proud of her. She encourages Sandy to continue opening herself up and to not be so cautious. Nipa projects her golden light, with touches of purple and bronze, onto Sandy, showing her how to open herself up.

Nipa shares with Sandy that she chose to appear as an Indian woman in today’s session because Sandy has taken an interest in Hindu and Buddhist mantras lately. It is her way to honor Sandy for opening up to learning.

Another insight comes relating to the pain in the abdomen. Humans are like batteries that plug into each other’s energy fields. Be mindful of people who drain us and those who energize us, and in the reverse, whether we’re energizing or draining to others. Sandy is told not to take things others say or do so personally. She doesn’t have to “carry” everyone’s emotional pain in her solar plexus. She recognizes how her gift of being intuitive opens her to feeling others’ pain. It also causes her to feel responsible to help them and it is adversely affecting her health.

Nipa reminds Sandy that the pain is not even hers. It is someone else’s … family, friends, clients … Sandy is instructed to use her gift of being able to recognize where the issue in them lies, so she can send them to someone who can help them. That itself is helping them.

Nipa explains further that Sandy cannot “fix” the pain for them by holding it in her abdomen. Sandy holding the pain only causes her pain but doesn’t resolve their pain for them. This robs them of their own abilities to “fix” the pain themselves. Sandy shares that as a young girl, she wished that she could take on her mother’s pain. Even at a young age, she knew that no matter how much she wished she could heal it, her mother was the only one that could do that. She is not responsible for her mother’s happiness.

As the pieces come together for Sandy, she feels ready to take on the next phase of her life. She is reminded that she doesn’t have to go it alone; there will be others there to help her along the way. She feels a sense of renewal, relief, and spiritual alignment at being released from the pain of the Civil War widow. She has faith that more will be revealed in time by working more closely with her guide and her spiritual team.

_ Soul-Minded Exercise _

Cutting the Cords Visualization,
and Clear Clutter to Ease the Mind

As part of learning to let go of what is not yours, it’s important to take a look at the people and things you surround yourself with. There comes a time when it’s necessary to let go of certain people or things that are no longer serving you. Clearing distractions and unnecessary drama keep you more connected to your soul’s guidance, allowing you to move more smoothly along your path.

Part 1: Cutting the Cords

For this two-part exercise, it’s important first to take a look at key relationships in your life. Do you have healthy boundaries with others? Are you carrying their pain as your own? Do you try to “fix” it for them? Take a moment to identify the people in your life whose cord it’s time to cut—those people who drain your energy, or you drain theirs. Cutting the cords doesn’t have to mean letting them go from your life. It can mean letting go of energy the way it is so that you can create a new approach to the relationship.

Identify the people (living or deceased) you need to cut the cords to. This doesn’t have to be face-to-face; this is an energetic clearing exercise that works across time and space. Then close your eyes and imagine the energetic cord that runs from you to them. Notice where that “plugs in to” your body. There may be many cords or one big one. Now imagine a golden pair of scissors cutting through those cords, freeing you both from these emotional entanglements. Surround them with light and thank them for being in your life and for what they’ve taught you about yourself as you let them go. Let the light move into the spaces in your body and mind, healing the areas where the cords were attached.

If the person is someone you’d like to keep in your life, but have a healthier relationship with, imagine having a conversation with them as if they’re sitting across from you. Again, they don’t have to be face-to-face. Come from your heart and imagine telling them that you’d like to continue to have them in your life, but in a better way that supports each of you. Let them know you’re sorry for any interference you created by trying to “fix” them. You can also let them know that you don’t need fixing. You’ll figure out your issues too. Notice the subtle changes that take place in the relationship over time.

Part II: Clear the Clutter to Ease the Mind

Next, sort through physical possessions to determine what to keep and what to let go of. It’s easy to get caught up in keeping material objects that once held meaning to us, but then over time these items can become painful reminders of the past. Broken things become a reminder of things that need to be repaired every time you look at them, and if they start to pile up, it can feel overwhelming and trap your energy, creating stagnation. Storing unneeded items or old, worn-out clothing takes up space and costs money to clean and maintain.

Are you grieving the loss of someone, or a relationship that’s over, and holding on to the pain of this loss by holding on to material things that remind you of them? Do the things around you empower you when you see them, or do they cause more pain? Do they leave you feeling uplifted or downtrodden? Do you even like them or feel like you “should” keep them because you loved the person they used to belong to?

Go through your home and remove the things that you no longer need or use, or that you are holding on to out of guilt or some other disempowering emotion.

Make a pile for items to be repaired, replaced, sold, donated, or discarded. If the items that you’d like to get rid of have family connections, pass them on to others in the family, but you don’t have to give them space in your own home if they’re not meaningful or useful to you. Sort through clothing you don’t or can’t wear any longer. Find someone who will enjoy these items!

Notice how freeing it feels to clear the clutter from your space and your mind. This freedom allows room for the new people and things that will be coming into your life!

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