December, 2010 (edited 4. 2014)

A bit of light pushes away a great deal of darkness.   Baal Shem Tov

As I write this, Chanukah is already beginning to feel like a distant memory. Each year during this holiday we are reminded of the miracle of the oil that was sufficient for just one day, but then burned for a full 8 days. As we celebrate this event, we are prompted to reflect on what it might be able to teach us to enrich our present-day lives.

Just as the candles long ago burned  for so much longer than was expected, we also are capable of so much more than we are aware of, or give ourselves credit for.

At this time of year when the sun’s light – at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere- is the darkest of the year, I offer the following thoughts on allowing your own unique light to shine.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us…. We are all meant to shine, as children do.     Marianne Williamson

Allowing your light to shine

Is there something you’ve wanted to do for years?

A yearning to write, or to travel?

A dream you’ve held, and yet perhaps abandoned long ago to some dusty shelf in your mind?

Many people just like you have found Focusing to be invaluable in supporting them in moving forward in their lives and in accomplishing things that had previously seemed unattainable.

Focusing can help us clarify what it is that we truly are wanting to do, to have, to be. And perhaps even more valuable, Focusing can help us to clarify what might be in the way of realizing our dreams.

A personal vignette

After completing my masters degrees in social work and public health at the University of California, Berkeley, I participated in a career seminar offered by the University. One of the exercises assigned as homework involved looking into a mirror and spontaneously describing my vision of my life’s work.

I’ll never forget what came for me that day 23 years ago, long before I’d ever heard of Focusing:
“I want to look deeply within and help others to do the same!”

Remembering these words never fails to have a profound effect on me. And yet, life has a way of getting in the way of this clarity. In fact, it was many years after learning Focusing and even teaching it to others that I re-visited this long-ago vision and realized that Focusing has greatly facilitated its realization.

Even with this clarity, as my close friends and family know, I am blessed to have my share of life’s challenges that at first glance (and often second, third, and fourth glance as well) seem to be in the way of my moving forward.

It is only when I am able to be aware of these, and to stop and Focus within, that I am able to glean the gifts of what had previously seemed to be blocks to moving forward. Once understood, what had before seemed to be obstructions suddenly seem to melt, allowing me to once again move forward.

I wish you ever increasing clarity that you may see more clearly into your own hearts and souls, and that you may gain clarity about those things that get in the way of you allowing your light to shine.

With blessings that you and those you care about
will soon bask in even more of your light!