Oxford Healing Centre

Ancient Wisdom

A Cherokee Elder was talking to his young grand son.

“In us all”, he said “are two wolves. One turns away from the Great Spirit and is selfish, angry, intolerant, only caring for themselves, and fearful. This wolf pretends to be your friend but only wants to devour you and will leave you lonely and unhappy.”

“The other turns to the Great Spirit. This wolf is caring, kind, understanding, loyal, loving and disciplined. In being your friend you will always be happy and content.”

“Which one wins”, said the grand child?

“The one you feed”, said the great Elder

Spiritual counselling helps find our way home. Home to who you truly are. Home to the peace, love and wisdom of your true nature.

Based on integrating mind body and spirit, spiritual counselling will help you to become aware of your higher self. This is the part of you that is always connected and always one with all that is. Its aspects are love, peace, joy, stillness, compassion, understanding. Your higher self lives without fear because ultimately love is all there is. 

Consequently your higher self sees past the worries and fears you have, is untroubled by events and circumstances and knows that always and everywhere it is safe. It watches your thoughts crossing your mind as clouds that cross the sky obscuring the sun. Obscuring the sun doesn’t change the fact that the sun is always shining.

The more you live in touch with your higher self the greater peace, happiness and contentment you experience in life. Your higher self waits quietly for you to find it. You cant lose it, damage it, or corrupt it. The most that can be done is forget it is there. 

Spiritual development is a lifetime’s work. I can but help you get started. But through a range of techniques such as learning to use breathing to develop meditative practice each day, aspects of shamanic healing through the use of hypnosis to find your inner guides and enabling an inner soul journey, and through exercises taken from A Course in Miracles to change your thinking process, we can start.

HOW TO DO A LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION

Begin by sitting or lying comfortably. Close your eyes and begin a process of relaxing. Turn your attention to your breathing. Breathing slowly and calmly in and out and take deep breathes that fill your lungs and abdomen. With each breath out think of the word love.  Take as much time with this as feels comfortable and then say quietly to yourself in your mind

I give myself peace; I give myself love; I give myself confidence ; I give myself forgiveness. Let these thoughts go slowly through your mind as you give yourself these gifts.

Now think of someone that you love and care about. This time say:

I give you (name them) peace; I give … love; I give … confidence; I give … forgiveness. As you do this imagine a golden thread of light (or any colour that works for you), leaving your heart and connecting you to the other person.

Do this for each person you know and love, naming them one by one.

Now move on to other people. Acquaintainces, work colleagues, neighbours and repeat the process, naming them, thinking of them, and seeing a thread of light flow from you to them  as you say these words.

Then for the challenging bit.

Move on to those with whom you dont get on with, feel ambivalent towards.. or who you feel have hurt you or hurt others. Name them and repeat these thoughts as you imagine sending peace; love; confidence and forgiveness to them. 

Note that while you can still disagree with another persons’ opinions or actions in doing this loving kindness mediatation you are choosing to recognise their underlying humanity and spirit, but also yours. And it is that to which you are connecting in yourself and in them.

Particularly try and focus on this group of people. For your sake, and theirs, as the more deeply held negative feelings you have the more they will take away your peace of mind and and emotional peace.

Wishing loving kindness on those you love is relatively easy to practise. Sending out from yourself, peace, love, confidence and forgiveness to those to whom you have negative thoughts is so much harder.

But remember that your own negative thoughts take away your peace and love. 

Whether you choose to have thoughts of love or hate is a decision you make each moment each day. And increasing research shows that the more you harbour love and compassion as your thought system the happier and healthier you will be in mind and body.

Practise this meditation, therefore in an ever widening circle until you wish wellbeing, happiness and ease to the whole world.

When you have finished see all the connections you have made as though you were at the centre of a spiders web connected to others through this golden light that flows from your heart outwards.