In the days when we lived outdoors in tribal families, winter was a time to turn inward. We slept more, ate less, and listened to our elders’ stories. Contemporary life encourages us to keep up a frenetic pace regardless of the season. Then the darker days of winter can be an emotional challenge––reduced daylight and sunshine shift our hormones and our demeanor. I was being challenged by this and then experienced several personally stressful situations at once. I crumbled. I could only see my failings. Wanting to be more of my better self, I asked for guidance and this is what I received:

A’riquea:  I’m sorry you are feeling so low. It’s true that you are low energy and that that is not often a good place to be looking at what you think of as your failings. Sometimes low energy helps, though, because then your guard is down.

What is there to say about this situation? Just that everyone is doing their best with what they have. You would be willing to afford another person this forgiveness, but you are not as prepared to allow it for yourself. Being gentle and kind applies to your own treatment of yourself.  It’s not necessary to assign value to the number or kinds of trauma you have experienced. Everyone has varying amounts, and varying responses to them as well. In the end, however you get there, it’s important to place your life in the context of a spirit walking the Earth, to understand the universal energy of soul. Soul is timeless and multidimensional. You are here to move as much Joy and Love as you can, living beyond the obstacles that have arrived in your life on the Earth plane, extending yourself into the larger realm.

That seems like a lot of words, but all of it describes a vibration. A quality of presence. If you think that you are limiting this expression due to some kind of protective shielding, then you probably are. You don’t need years of therapy to remove these protections. All you have to do is step into the larger context. See your obstacles, whatever they are, as shape-makers on the physical plane. And then extend yourself into the context of the Universe, allowing your shape-makers to create the vessel of your unique energy path. 

You are overly fixated, when in ego mode, on whether these shape-makers are negative or positive. They are neither, they are both—everything is relative to everything else. When you attach negativity to them, you are attaching negativity to yourself. Generate some gratitude for the shape-makers that help you to be compassionate towards others with similar shape-makers. You are imagining that you need to push yourself into some other shape. But then you would not be you. It happens on its own, over time, especially with attention from you. But the most beautiful shape-making occurs when the light and Love of the cosmos shines through your physical form. As we have said many times: move your attention. You don’t want to focus on the thing or energy that is “wrong.” Shift your attention towards what is right, where you want to be, where you feel good and beautiful. Do your best to be there. Forgive yourself when this is difficult. See each day as an opportunity to do your best.