Much of human history could be summarized as a reaction to a profound feeling of powerlessness. Souls evolve through dealing with opposites. In a sense, the soul is infinitely powerful. How much power manifests depends on the development and skill of the individual soul, but on the nonphysical planes, there can be no experience of powerlessness, since power is all there is. Therefore, isn't it a clever game to come into human bodies where power and the lack thereof seem to loom so large? Souls temporarily forget that they are infinitely powerful and instead, you might say, set their clock by the mortality of the animal body in which they are living. All animal bodies have finite lifespans, but their survival instinct wants to keep them going as long as possible, at almost any cost, and other eternal souls who also are living in finite human bodies can jeopardize your human survival. For the purposes of the game you are playing, a game that helps you develop further as a soul, survival is handy; we're not implying that it's all an illusion and it doesn't matter. However, an object of the game is to recognize that those who seem to have power over you ultimately do not. On one level, other people do affect and influence you, just as you affect and influence others. However, it remains a fact that, in a spiritual sense, there is infinite power.

A good deal of what humans do that is destructive to self and others results from trying to compensate for the perception that they do not have enough power. Others then try to get more power to protect themselves against them. Sometimes a person is described as a "control freak." The desire to control others (or self) again springs from a belief that one doesn't have enough power.

The news is dominated by issues about power. For example, it is often said that there is a shortage of energy, which is a less personalized form of power. Most military undertakings are an expression of profound insecurity because there's not an awareness of or confidence in spiritual power. There are certainly intelligent things that need to be done to conserve fuel and find alternative energy sources. Likewise, there are perhaps times when, considering the state of consciousness in the world, military action might be necessary. However, these problems exist in the first place because most people are out of balance and put too much emphasis on physical survival, which includes financial survival, and are less aware of the power inherent in all life. Consider the power of the atom, for instance.

Currently, people are increasingly panicked in their belief in powerlessness. If you are aware that this is out of proportion and can maintain your conscious realization of eternal power, you will be able to remain more comfortable and relaxed, and can broadcast a reassurance that things are really okay: the universe is not running out of power. There are some things that a human being will always be powerless over, yet your essential nature is power. The more you let go of struggling with the things that you do not have power over, such as the right of others to make their own choices, the more influence you are likely to have, at least in making your own life more pleasant. Paradoxically, relaxing into the innate power of who you are frees you to exert a more positive influence on others.

MEDITATION:

Feel the power of your breath.

When you *try* to breathe, you breathe less well than when you are simply aware that the larger you already knows how to breathe; it does a better job of breathing than your intellectual surface self.

As you let your body breathe, be aware of the wonderful aliveness of nature. Consider, for example, the power in a rainstorm. It can be reassuring to your physical self to feel the power that is supporting it from nature. Let nature fill you with a comfortable experience of its power. Your body already knows how to receive this, just as you already know how to breathe in a way that feels good. In fact, your physical body is already part of nature. Everything is ultimately part of nature, but when you are incarnate in a human body, your body is your most direct link to it.

As you continue to let your body breathe in the most comfortable way, bring your consciousness to one part of your body that is most in need of healing. If there's more than one, just start with whichever first comes to mind. Focus your attention at this part of your body, and notice that at this exact point, you can connect to all of nature. Feel the power of nature filling this point with energy.

Maybe you have felt powerless up until now because of this challenging health situation. Perhaps doctors haven't been able to offer you a complete solution. Although it can be a good idea to take advantage of whatever the world has to offer to help with your health challenges, it is beautiful to remember now that there's also infinite power through nature available to support you. Thank nature for the infinite power it offers, and affirm that you are now opening yourself to receive it into your body through this point. Notice if you are feeling better.

When you are ready, pick a second place in your body where you would like to experience more power and healing. At every point in your body, you are connected to all of nature. As you practice, it becomes easier to open to its infinite power.

Choose a third place; perhaps you are now able to immediately feel a difference.

Now, use a "wide angle lens" and feel your whole body. Notice how appreciative you naturally feel as the healing power of nature brings a greater sense of well-being to it.

It is normal for bodies occasionally not to operate as smoothly as one might like. You may feel powerless because what you have tried has not succeeded in correcting a problem. Feeling the power of nature filling you at that location can assist you in relaxing more, which might also help you find external solutions in addition to an increase of healing energy.

Bring to mind a problem in your life that is not directly related to your physical well-being. Maybe it's a financial or interpersonal challenge. Put your consciousness into the center of it in a calm way and ask that infinite power, beautiful life force, fill the space that has been holding this problem. Notice that the feeling around it is starting to relax. You may have felt powerless. Although you cannot control other people, notice how your relationship to the situation becomes more comfortable as you remember the infinite power that you are in relationship to it. Let the whole space of that problem fill with a sense of your love and peace.

Use the wide angle lens to fill with power all your relationships, especially those in which you have felt powerless, as well as your finances, living environment, work, the animals and plants in your life, and your neighbors. Invite everyone you know and everyone in the world to remember their infinite power so that all can let go of excessive insecurity and the destructive actions that spring from that.

Q. I have heart disease. I would like to heal it so that eventually I can get off of oxygen.

A. Each of you in this group is connected directly to infinite power. Let's all focus our awareness, like shining a spotlight, on her heart and lungs area. You don't have to do anything; just be aware that there is infinite power there.

Being aware of the power that is already there is the most direct path to healing. So much of life on the physical plane is about forgetting and then remembering. Help your heart remember on a cellular level that there is more power available. It's like a battery running low and your remembering to plug in the charger. Is anything feeling different for you in that part of your body?

Q. It feels less stressed; it's not working as hard.

A. Place the idea in your heart that you are remembering more and more the eternal energy source from which everything springs.

(New) Q. I had a sharp pain in my shoulder from driving and stress. As I put nature into it, it just left. It's not there anymore--it's really not there. I shall remember to do that often. Thank you.

A. In your culture, you are bombarded a great deal with stimulations of all kinds. Many of you are overloaded, especially intellectually. It is worthwhile to rebalance your connection with the world. Perhaps you have been on a spiritual or personal growth path for a long time and know that it is your choices that most create your life, including your attitude, thinking, and how you react to stresses, not just the stresses themselves. However, even knowing this, it is easy to lose a feeling sense of your power. It can begin to seem like you are running as fast as you can on a treadmill, and it is still pulling you back. It is useful to remember the simple truth that you are powerful no matter what other people do. It is rare on the physical plane to feel that everything is just the way you want it to be externally, but you can always connect with your power.

Q. What about a situation where there's negativity in the atmosphere, and you need to find a way to help clear that out?

A. You could start with a meditation like the one we did here. Find a sense of calm and power in the situation, releasing your emotional charge about things not being as positive as you would like them to be. Otherwise, that will get in the way of your adding something positive. Then, strategize: evaluate what is available to you to do. You might have thought that your options were quite limited, but accessing your creativity, something new may occur to you; when you're not struggling, you have room to move.

Regardless of what approach you take, the main thing is to bring the highest quality of energy to it that you can. If it is an intransigent situation where people are stuck, and nothing you do has an impact, part of your strategy might be to withdraw from it, if that is an option for you. As you shine your light in an unconditionally loving way, problematic situations may also choose to go away from you. Otherwise, you might want to cocoon yourself and have as little to do with it as you can get away with. You cannot override the free will of other people; if they are stuck in a certain mindset and don't want to move forward, there's nothing you can do about it; hopefully, you have some space of your own so that you don't have to rub up against the choices of others all the time. In any case, you can always become more aware of your personal power so that you don't feel that others have so much power over you.

You have greater leverage when you step back from your problems. If you are trying to move a rock with a stick, the longer the stick, the more leverage you have. Distance can give you more clarity about what your most effective actions might be. The key is not to be too attached to what others choose to do, because that that is not where your power is. Your power is not over other people. Power over other people is basically bullying. All you can do is make the best choices you can and shine a light; others may be positively influenced by that even if they don't immediately gain understanding or change their actions. For one thing, your shining a light is always there in their memory, so it is not wasted, even if it doesn't have the result you would like.

Human beings are at different stages of soul development. There are people who are younger in soul age who, like younger people, have not yet experienced conflicts that older souls are tired of. There are a surprising number of people who don't feel that life is very exciting unless they pick a fight or otherwise upset the cart in some way. It is possible that they need that experience because they don't yet have the understanding that perhaps you have already gained. However, their experience of conflict does not have to be with you; if they try to pick a fight long enough and you don't go for the bait, they may decide that you are boring and look for someone else with whom to create excitement. If people do get their hooks into you, you might ask yourself why you are reacting to them and how you can be more neutral. Ultimately, you can figure out your issues and heal them so that there is simply no way for others to get you to make drama with them. Ask yourself, "How can I grow so that I become a person who is peaceful even when someone is doing something outrageous?"

There is probably no human being who is one hundred percent there. In the human body, you have all sorts of real needs, such as for food, water, and money. The goal is not to become aloof like a robot, but to become more sophisticated about what games you want to play and with whom you want to play them. As long as you are human, you are doing something with your time, and that will probably involve other people if you are not a hermit. However, you do have a certain amount of choice about what relationships you wish to invest in, and which you wish to pull away from.

There may be certain situations you are stuck with. Life on the physical plane is not perfect. However, you can shift the balance of power in your life by remembering that what really matters is your own experience of the infinite power that every being is part of.