Soul in my Shoes

When Sleeping Women Wake....

2014-06-27T17:04:00.000+10:00

I have been asked to repeat the poem on a blog that I wrote some years ago.

I wrote the poem when a dear friend asked a question that I had no answer for at the time, and needed to think about. He asked me “What does it now mean to you to be a woman?” I had to drop all previous perceptions, he said, and look at being a woman, changing. I had no words then to make some sense of it all to him or to me, but the next day my journey over the previous five years kept coming to mind – what I had woken from, and what I was awakening to, and as I word-doodled I found I was writing a poem.

So the challenge is - think about what it now, at this time in your life, means for you to be a woman, and write it in your journal, so that you can look at it down the track. And then perhaps you can think about it again and see the change and write about you again.

There is this woman coming

the Woman I am

and becoming

and will be

A woman no longer limited
by male religion and politics which says
she is the candle-holder
and not the candle.
I am the vessel and I am the flame
a mother of sons searching
for old intent in a language
twisted out of shape
by skewed male narrative.
Sometimes I use the symbol ♀
to stand in place of the word
because it reminds me
I am the tree of my knowledge
heavy with the fruits of my labours
fruits that are tart
and plump with the fleshing out of me.

And there is this woman
becoming

A Woman whose instinct says
if she believes she is like this or is this
or just this
then her definition of herself
as Woman stops at this.
So I remember
I am the feminine side of God
and yes, the male side too.
I am witch and bitch and beautiful
with as many faces and facets
as all the Goddesses in mythology.
I am triple-facet feminine
a third polarity voice flowing
between black and white duality
a surge from middle ground
questioning why
asking what if
saying there are other colours
saying it sometimes loud sometimes lewd.

And I am this woman
becoming

A Woman who feeds on her own wisdom
who grasps the mirror and dares
to look at herself and within herself
and allows herself to feel
her body her voice her story.
I am a chameleon living on air and changing
a lunar ray of myth and mystery
I am feminist and feline and feral
a crone wearing her sexuality
like an old coat that hugs her warm.
And I am nurturer, warrior, voice,
allowing the resonances to rise
saying I am that I am
accept me as I am
more masculine than male
more feminine than female
a whole earthy woman vibrating
with the energy of being.

For this is the woman I am
and becoming
and will be.

Remembering

2013-11-12T16:20:00.000+11:00

My memory has been pleasantly jogged in the last few weeks by a request from The Stara Project website in the USA to publish my blog “When Sleeping Women Wake” written back in April 2010, which has in it my poem “There is a Woman”. The reaction to the poem so far has shown me once again how important it is for women to read about other women’s journeys.

I remembered writing and reading about women telling their stories,(and how it creates a motivational reaction), many years ago. Other women’s stories can often help us take that first step towards allowing, something to end and something else to begin. This can be scary stuff, for our thoughts tell us that it is safer to stay with the known. What stops us is usually a lack of not feeling good about ourselves. No self-esteem and/or no confidence is caused by thought and thought alone. We think we can’t financially afford to do something. We think we can’t go back to study. We think we can’t change jobs or professions. We think we can’t possibly leave a troubled relationship or a relationship that has lost it’s intimacy.

Thoughts can keep us on the edge of a life we dream about but think we cannot have. Staying unhappily with the known; playing a role and staying where we are because it is familiar means we live in an if-only world, or on the edge of a promise that we will make a change - one day. How many women stay, but have already left in their heart.

Life is all beginnings and endings, endings and beginnings. – with letting go all that no longer gives us peace of heart and mind the axis which creates change. We listen to our soul and use it’s wings. It is the only way to allow whole new possibilities to occur. We have to have the courage to leave what has to be left. We need to allow the unknown; the transitional time where there will be periods of anxiety, fear, loneliness, and even scary times when you doubt not only your sanity but trusting you will get through. But you will get through, and other women who have taken the step off the edge will tell you this.

I know that once I took that first step it was as though I was walking down a corridor with doors opening - taking me in directions I could never have imagined. Thank God I read another woman’s story – many in fact. Check out my poem in April 2010 blog – and also my favourite poem written by Mary Oliver , “The Journey”.
Love and blessings, Robin

Tarot help in letting go.

2011-02-11T11:59:00.002+11:00

When I was on my spiritual awakening journey (my “down the rabbit-hole experience” which I wrote about in the memoir Soul in my Shoes), I was given a few amazing metaphors via Tarot readings by a dear friend. The flame of a match and firewood was one of them.

I was experiencing channelling by automatic writing and getting my guidance wrong quite often - unaware my thoughts and wants were influencing my interpretation of what was coming through. I was becoming disillusioned and even angry because what I thought I was being told was going to happen was not happening in the way I thought it would.

It was a time when I hadn’t quite got the gist of my connection to that part of me that is the spiritual me; I didn’t have a visual of the Divine three-in-one being that I am – human + soul+ inner voice (the I Am God part of us that connects us all). Our visions come from our own unique experiences, hopes, dreams and beliefs and the Divine side of us uses these human traits, as how else can we learn? I believe we all see a different view, sometimes similar but not the same. I kept seeing a triangle in meditation but didn’t understand what I was being given for a long time – in fact not until I was writing Soul in my Shoes. Now, when I wish to deal with a situation as the spiritual being that I am I picture myself as a triangle with the human me us just one of the three legs and I use the other two legs, my Soul and the God I Am (inner voice) to bring about a stress-free solution. This is what I write about today – I call it The Alchemy of the Three.

But back to the Tarot reading metaphor. Picture firewood enough to burn each day to keep warm then using it to melt snow, when snow was going to come and come. It would be fighting nature my friend said. He then said I was using up my energy in like manner on something I couldn’t shift; I was wasting my energy and my power. I had to always remember the paradox. My spiritual side had a goal but I had free will and choice and paradox was the key. My spiritual Self was playing me as a card in the hand and perhaps I should not bother about, or be bothered with, the game – it was all about the way I chose to see my position. Perhaps I should focus more on why I was on Earth, he said.

This reading helped me through the rough patch I was encountering in understanding my own spiritual processes and I was left with four very helpful visuals. The flame of a match, firewood and snow showed me that I was using my energy to fight nature instead of letting go, letting God. The card in the hand made me see the journey as a game of poker and that being, say, the Ace and choosing not to play would close down the game, or in this case, the spiritual path. I didn’t feel I wanted to go that far.

This all happened many years ago but when I am trying to manifest something in my life and my human self feels she is getting nowhere I still remember the flame of a match, firewood and snow and that I am a card in the hand of Spirit – the Ace. That is when I let go let God. I remember not to hold to tightly or too lightly. And if I have learnt nothing else from my journey I have learnt that in hindsight nowhere is usually somewhere years down the track.

As separation comes from us, stay connected to who you are.
Love & blessings Robin Taylor www.soulinmyshoes.com.au

Tips on Healing

2011-01-14T16:07:00.002+11:00

We can play a major role in healing ourselves by taking more responsibility for our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual state. Working in our spiritual journal as the three-in-one being that we are, we can keep ourselves balanced on these four levels by acknowledging and owning our emotional reactions, our thoughts, and any behavior patterns that cause us, or others, unhappiness in any way. To be able to heal ourselves in this way we have to understand that our day-to-day reality can alter the way we define things, therefore our grasp of what is actually being played out for the purpose of our Highest good can be missed if we do not ask for guidance.

My journal plays an important role in healing me. The first question I ask when I am not feeling well is, what physical, emotional, or mental trouble do I have to heal that is affecting my (stomach, headache, thumbs, or whatever part of the body is affected)? After the ‘what’ question, comes the, why do I have this problem, question. The answer is usually an emotional problem, so I again apply the ‘what’ and ‘why’ questions. The “what” question is important because the emotion has to be recognised, named and accepted as a problem. This acknowledges there is a problem. Just by doing this, much healing is done. Something cannot be healed if there is no acknowledgement that it exists.

The “why” question is where we trace back through the different stages and people in our life – childhood, teenage years, adulthood, past lives. Think of sand-snail trails at low tide on the beach or rocks. The snail withdraws into its shell for protection; the sea covers the trails with its full tide. However at every low tide the snail goes about its business and the trails reappear, same imprint, different locale perhaps. Life is like that for us. We hide our emotions fearing exposure, we go about our business, and everyday life covers our trails. But because the imprint of emotional damage is there our trails reappear too. And will continue to do so until we face the problem, own it, and heal it.

I’ll say it again - be aware the responsibility lies with us to initiate healing for until we ask for change all our experiences are counted as chosen and part of our journey by the Divine, even pain and illness. Keeping me balanced is a caring thing I do for myself and for those around me. We have to remember that when we heal ourselves we heal others with our change of energy.
Love & blessings Robin Taylor.

Working on Ourselves in our Journal

2010-12-02T15:01:00.003+11:00

Working on ourselves in our journal helps us to be clear on what we wish to create for ourselves. Remember there is more to us than this human body we use during life. For those who don't know where to start this journal work here is a suggestion. Pick a situation or condition in your life that is causing you worry or stress. You can then explore this by making lists, drawings, diagrams, brainstorming, flow writing, timed writing, or just write without rules.You can even write a letter to someone (not to be sent) or write a letter to a part of yourself - your inner child for instance. Ask for help before you start working and do not have expectations or time frames. Sometimes things come like a flower bud opening before our eyes and sometimes it is like a seed germinating in the earth out of sight.

If we dabble in the Tarot, I Ching, Runes etc., or have readings done for us by others, jotting down the questions we ask, and the answers we receive back, can give us new avenues to explore. In my book, Soul in my Shoes, I talk a lot about the excellent guidance I received through a dear friend doing Tarot readings for me. And I show the guidance I received and the results of my explorations.

It is step by step this work on ourselves. We have to forget such things as time frames and know that what we learn and remember through our journal helps the journey of the three-in-one being that we are. The more we know the simpler life becomes. As my Soul once told me (through my journal work) my life is simple - it is I who make it complicated.

So to make your life much simpler:
* Remember we are all three-dimensional Divine beings.
* Spiritual journal work sorts us out emotionally - which heals us physically.
* We speak our truth at all times in our journal.
* Seeking our wellness solution has top priority over everything else.
* Record everything. Not only is it interesting reading along the track,
we pick up what we have missed, or learn a little more of what we didn't miss.
* The more we emotionally heal ourselves the simpler life becomes.

Love and blessings on your journal journey. Robin

Using our Spiritual Journal as a map.

2010-08-10T16:23:00.003+10:00

We can use our Spiritual Journal is a map. We chart our journey by what we are healing and what we are leaning. It is the place where we recall where we have been, what we have learned, and work out what it is we wish to create for ourselves regarding health, inner peace and a fulfilling life. My journal work is one of the healing tools I use to keep myself balanced.

I'll give you an example. There was a time in my life when I was living in fear. I was living a phobic, inert life, unable to raise the energy to do anything about it even if I had wanted to. I was suffering panic attacks, palpitations and depression. Thoughts always limited me instead of freeing me so I couldn’t imagine taking the step to something different. I couldn’t see how anything could be changed. How could I? I didn’t know what needed to be changed in any detail. But miracles do happen if you wish them to come and finally I found the energy I needed to make a change. I did this by following an urge to do something I had always wanted to do and I persevered with it when there were many times I wanted to give it up (the full story is in Soul in my Shoes). Following this urge ultimately, but not immediately, changed everything.

There also came a time when I had to look at my life as it had been, from the spiritual perspective. In my journal I listed the situations I chose to enter into and remain in. And then taking the spiritual view I saw what I had learned from those who were in the situation with me and indeed the situation itself. The realisation I chose to remain unseeing in regard to many things in order not to disturb the status quo was quite a shake up. But it is no good doing this type of work on oneself without absolute truth. And I came to understand that in future if I am not happy, my choices are the cause. No one else is to blame if I choose not to look after myself, love myself, and protect myself.

Fairy tales, with their suggestion of both the spiritual and the psychological, explain choices made despite intuitive premonitions. There are many stories depicting the naive woman overruling warnings coming from both without and within and choosing an experience nevertheless, usually with a wizard. In fairy tales, once she’s in the experience, the naive woman does not to see what she knows to be true. This is the challenge she sets for herself.

The woman in the fairy tale ends up freeing herself in due time, stronger and wiser, by choosing to open the door to the forbidden room - the room where all the things in life that she couldn’t bear to face are stored. Then comes the greatest challenge of all - the recognition and acceptance that it’s not only the wizard who is the saboteur, the woman’s wish not to know what was stored behind the door makes the woman her own saboteur as well. To blame my phobias on a particular reason or person was to ignore the challenge. What was important was how I lived the life I had regained and what I did with the knowledge I’d learnt.

The healing didn’t happen overnight, nor did it happen without continuous effort to free my thoughts of negative memories. In the end, the healing happened through sheer bloody-mindedness not to have the new path run across the old path any longer. Going over and over the past becomes both trivial and unessential.
Love and blessings Robin

The Hundredth Monkey Syndrome

2010-07-15T14:01:00.003+10:00

Human interaction worldwide today is exacerbated by religion, government and political party policy and rhetoric that cause everything to be seen as good or evil, right or wrong, gay or straight, East or West, Christian or Other. However there are many of us who have come to know and see that the light of tolerance, compassion, and unconditional love between two opposites transposes and heals differences. We are the triple facet, the other colour between black and white needed for the emergence of more light, love, and fair dealing to heal the world’s imbalance.

When I first thought about what I, one person, could do towards balancing things up, the Hundredth Monkey Syndrome came to mind. For those who haven’t heard of it before the story goes like this. A group of researchers introduced sweet potatoes to a particular species of monkey on a group of islands back in the 1950’s. One smart monkey liked the sweet potato but disliked the sand coating it, so she took it down to the sea and washed it. It wasn’t long before the whole tribe caught on to the idea. Then researchers on other islands saw the same thing happening there. How did their monkeys pick up sweet potato washing from so far away? A similar thing happened with a species of birds in England. One worked out how to open the caps of milk bottles and within days all the birds of this species were piercing milk bottle tops and drinking the milk all over England and Scotland.

This phenomenon is called global thought form but the key principle is resonance; the same key principle that makes affirmations work and I reckon if monkeys and birds can do it so can humans. So I send healing, peace and love to the planet and to people of the planet daily and I know I’m not the only one doing this. Even those who may not have heard of the Hundredth Monkey Syndrome are doing it. Their thoughts go out in prayer, in meditation, in projected healing and it is making a difference. Love and blessings - Robin Taylor.

A spiritual journal maps our spiritual journey.

2010-06-21T11:14:00.007+10:00

When we decide to walk a spiritual path we usually seek out books about other people’s ideas, beliefs and spiritual ways. And I for one am extremely grateful to those writers because their books have given me information, ideas, and motivation over the years that I have been able to use as a springboard. However I must say that the journals of my own healing process, full of questions, quotes, scribbles, lists and diagrams - plus channelling I receive from my Soul, have also become important and enlightening sources of information for me because they are all about who I am. It is my record of my journey. A log if you like of the discovery of me; what I am learning and what I am capable of - because of what I am learning. Revisiting this log of mine and seeing fresh insights, is what keeps driving me further along my spiritual path.

The book that is custom-made to show us who we are is our own personal spiritual journal. Let’s do it the way we’re supposed to - let’s get spiritually independent. The more we walk our spiritual path the more we discover how to work from this three-in-one Divine being that we are.

We are meant to be co-creator with our Soul and the God I Am presence within (also known as inner voice) to make this the best journey of experiences we’ve had yet. Keeping our body perfectly balanced – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually assists this challenge. And our spiritual journal is our map. We chart our journey by what we are healing and what we are learning. It is the place to recall where we have been; work out what it is we wish to create for ourselves regarding health, inner peace and a fulfilling life; and see how far we have come when we revisit our pages along the track. My spiritual journal work is one of the important things I do in healing myself.

Not all, but most physical disease or dis-ease comes from emotional damage. So we have to keep working on our emotional health. One way to do this is via our journal. This is what The Alchemy of the Three is all about.

Three steps to remember each time we look at an issue in our journal. We call upon the God I Am presence within to initiate what we wish to change, let go, or bring into our life, and state what action we are willing to take to bring about our wishes. And then we ask our Soul for the knowledge we need from our history - for there is a store of experiences waiting to be tapped. Thirdly, we believe in what we are doing, we have faith in the process, and we love and trust the Divine aspects of ourselves.

Here’s an exercise you might like to try. Do certain past actions - by yourself or others - or past circumstances or situations, still come to mind occasionally causing a negative emotional reaction from you? Think about the question. Leave plenty of room for this exercise because once we have written the question in our journal we may want to add things over the coming days. List each memory and write the emotion it triggers at the end of it and circle it. Jealousy? Guilt? Resentment? Anger? Fear? Embarrassment? (these are only a few suggestions to give the idea.)

Now we take each emotion and approach it from every aspect – times in life (e.g. childhood, youth etc.) work, home, people in our life past and present - because the memory might not be the original cause of the emotion. Healing a negative emotional response from something that has happened in this life means looking at the cause of the damaging emotion as possibly an experience we chose in order to grow and evolve in some way. Or maybe it’s something from our childhood that needs recognising, healing and letting go. Again, these are just suggestions to get the exercise going. So as not to be drawn back into the shadows that were emotionally damaging, we make sure we work from the position of the Divine being that we are.

Just remember, do not push. Receive. It will come. let it. Allow inspiration to happen. Allow yourself to ponder in the Light.
Love and blessings Robin.

We are in the driver’s seat

2010-05-17T13:49:00.003+10:00

The main point I am trying to make in The Alchemy of the Three is for people to realise who they are and then begin to use this concept in everyday living. Being open to our Divine side brings through strength, courage, and a return to our own power. Operating as a three-in-one being also starts a healing process from within. We use our Divine knowledge to become a spirit walking a human path that is balanced physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. We are in the driver’s seat powered by our own Divine light, the trouble is we either don’t realise this or don’t use it as a tool for living.

From this Divine light we can get ourselves out of despair, control our thoughts, embrace change and let go all of the things that do not bring us wellness and contentment. As I’ve said we are what we think so controlling our thoughts and using them to create our life is not only possible, it is an important step in the journey. Doing this from our Divine aspect brings whole new possibilities to us as does embracing change. Bringing in new experiences or going with life’s surprises is all part of life’s natural rhythm and when we do it as a Divine being we do it with a lot more ease and flow. It is helpful to remember that good things come out of difficult challenges too. Nothing is all bad or all good. In fact the Divine view does not see anything as bad or good so that is one of the many core beliefs we have to learn to let go.

Letting go; now that is one of the biggest challenges of all in my opinion. We grasp on to, cling limpet-like to - stuff. Whether it’s emotions like anger, resentment, hurt, etc., or possessions, or core beliefs (otherwise known as conditioning), or negative habits, we hold on to them like a dog with a bone; we bury them, dig them up, and bury them again, guarding them all the time. We have to discipline ourselves to rely on our Divine self and therefore if something is not in our best interest then we can let it go.

Some of my suggestions may seem too simple, some may seem too hard. But if you are not living a life of wellness and ease, try some of the things I put to you. If you show intent, say twenty minutes a day spent with your Divine self over a month, you may be pleasantly surprised. It cost nothing, and all you have to lose is dis-ease or a stressed out body.
Love and Blessings, Robin Taylor

The Alchemy of the Three:Book Two is coming shortly to www.soulinmyshoes.com.au

"When sleeping Women wake..."

2010-04-09T14:42:00.009+10:00

I wrote a poem many years ago in answer to a question posed by a male friend. At the time we were talking about the previous five years of my life; the beginning of my quest to find out who I was. My friend and I were recalling with awe and delight some of the inner and outer changes that had occurred since embarking on my spiritual path and he quoted the old Chinese proverb, "When sleeping women wake mountains move".

And then he asked me a question. “What does it now mean to you to be a woman?” I had to drop all previous perceptions, he said, and look at being a woman, changing. I had no words then to make some sense of it all to him or to me, but the next day my journey over those five years kept coming to mind – what I had woken from, and what I was awakening to, and as I word-doodled I found I was writing a poem.

There is this woman coming

the Woman I am

and becoming

and will be

What is a riddle with plenty of return opportunities?

2010-03-11T14:48:00.004+11:00

Those of us who believe in reincarnation know we have been here before, many times, and that the soul is eternal. Many of us think we are here for a particular purpose, although we have no idea what that is. Now I have this notion that my soul is here for the challenge of waking me up to who I am, as well as evolve through the experiences I choose - though I don’t always feel I choose them at the time.

The interesting thing is, the soul births with remembrance of past lives, but we the human have no memory of the soul, or the Divine being that we are. Therefore the human self with no memory of the soul’s history must be the soul’s major challenge I think. And despite knowing that the birthed human will be ignorant of all things Divine, the soul still comes for the challenge of connecting to us. Is this the “real” reason we are here? Possibly the soul’s journey is not reliant on our awakening in order to gather experience and knowledge, but I suspect there is gratification if we do.

I suspect some young souls tire waiting for us to connect; just give up and wait for the next round. Aged souls would probably persist, refuse to concede; tirelessly wait for anything or anyone to switch us on to our spiritual path – with the ultimate goal being the soul/human connection.The old soul knows it can happen in a twinkling.

So here we are, the plodding human, on a journey without maps. And as the memory of who we are lives in our soul, the task then is for us not only to connect, but talk to one another. I'm not talking of constant chit-chat, but guidance from a part of us that knows who we are. The tricky bit is, unless something or someone awakens us to the fact that our soul is a valuable source of information waiting to be tapped, we can journey through life thinking the external things happening (which we call life) are important and the so called inner life is only for the likes of gurus, monks and zealots.

There is more to us than we realise

2010-02-23T16:51:00.004+11:00

The Alchemy of the Three ebook series, of which Book One is up on the website, is about recognising who we are, discovering we can heal ourselves in many ways, and using a spiritual journal to do all this. The premise is, we are all Divine beings, and it is only a section of us, the human body, doing the journeying on Earth in order for the whole being to experience life. I remind the readers often that it helps to think of ourselves as a triangle, with the human us as just one part of the three legs of the triangle, remembering always to use the other two legs, the Soul and the God I Am (some may prefer to say I Am). This is what I call the alchemy of the three.

We are meant to be connected to, and listening to, our Divine side. All the knowledge and wisdom we have gathered over previous lifetimes is there for us to use - that’s why healing ourselves becomes achievable. When we use a spiritual journal it becomes our guide-book. The more we walk our spiritual path the more we discover how to work from this three-in-one Divine being that we are. So come on The Alchemy of the Three journey, where I share what I have learned so far, and give suggestions for your own journal work.

Love and blessings Robin

Thought for the day

2009-11-02T17:23:00.000+11:00

Life is all choice and change