Transforming Life's Challenges

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Transforming Life's Challenges
by Dana Reynolds
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Recently I have become very aware of how often grief and mourning surface in our lives. Our losses include not only the departure of the physical presence of those near and dear through death, but we also endure loss through divorce, or moving away from familiar surroundings. Changes in employment, children growing up and leaving home, and other transitional life events also create voids in our hearts and souls. We are constantly letting go of people, places, and things as we circumnavigate the pathways of life.

How do we cope, and more importantly heal, during the times that sweep over us with grief, pain, and loss? How do we transform agony into the clay from which new beginnings can be shaped and formed? I believe that each of us carries tools for healing the empty places created by grief through our sacred imaginations and creativity.

There comes a time in the grieving process when the spirit signals it is ready to move forward, to engage in a return to life, to begin again…. yet the body and mind resist. This is the time to co-create with the Divine to open the doorway to deeper healing and to begin the return journey to life from the depths of the abyss. Making sacred art, creating altars and shrines, writing poetry or expressing feelings in a journal, these activities engage the body, mind, and spirit in a dance of physical manifestation, imagining and contemplation, and mystical expression. When we engage with the sacred imagination we step into the alchemist’s chamber. This is the place where transformation occurs.

Many famous writers and artists have expressed that some of their greatest works were born from their darkest moments. Through the suffering, pain, and loss, the human heart and soul are dropped like a bucket into a well to be filled with solace and healing. When the bucket is full to overflowing it is time to pull it up from the darkness into the light to be emptied into the river of life where the waters of grief merge with the flow that is unending. Art and creativity and the sacred imagination are the hands that pull the bucket from the well of recovery to be poured into the river of life once again.

May Sarton said,

"We have to keep the channels in ourselves open to pain. At the same time it is essential that true joys be experienced, that the sunrise not leave us unmoved, for civilization depends on the true joys, all those that have nothing to do with money or affluence---nature, the arts, human love."

If you are grieving a loss or know someone who is, here are two gentle suggestions for ways to honor and integrate pain by transforming it into beauty and prayer. It is important to mention that each individual has his/her own particular way of journeying through the grief process. There is no universal map to guide the way. To hurry the process is not the goal. Rather, think of art, creativity, and sacred imagination as kind friends who are present and ready to offer support and wisdom.

The Blessing Bowl: When a person is going through a dark and painful time it is helpful to have touchstones, reminders of love, support, and joy, present and near for comfort. Create a Blessing Bowl by gathering small objects and touchstones to represent healing and nurturing. These may include an array of treasured keepsakes; tiny gifts received from friends and family, special finds from nature, and other visual reminders of love and caring. Add your prayers written on dried leaves. Next, fill a shallow bowl (large enough to hold your touchstones) with sand. Arrange the objects with prayerful intention in the bowl. You may want to place a small votive candle in or near the bowl. Think of this arrangement as your Blessing Bowl. When you are feeling empty come to the bowl and select an object to hold for comfort. Offer your prayers to Spirit. Open your heart to receive healing.

Prayer Vessels and Boxes: Sometimes when the pain of the heart is just too much, a container is called for as a physical reminder that the pain can be offered to the Divine for healing and transformation. Select a box or a vessel (preferably with a lid) that will serve as a sacred container. You may want to paint, collage, or otherwise decorate your box or vessel.

When you feel overwhelmed by your problems write your prayers and those things you are choosing to let go of on small slips of paper and put them into your Prayer Vessel. When time has passed and you are on the other side of your healing journey you may choose to burn the contents or bundle them in a sacred way as a reminder of how your trust and faith were blessed with healing.

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soulfulliving.com
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LOVE & THANKS TO:
LoVe*addict -aka- lightworkers
For Sending/Passing it Along- :)

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