I just recently returned from a retreat in France, where I hoped to connect with a group of like-minded, spiritual women.
Soon after meeting this group of women, many of whom seemed to be there as nothing more than an escape from the day-to-day doldrums of their lives, I realized that things were not going to turn out the way I’d expected.
As a result, I found myself living in two unexpected worlds: one positive and one negative.
In any case, I had an important decision to make. The question was: How am I going to allow this situation to influence me and my intentions for the trip?
When a negative, angry situation or group of people are in your face for days on end, what do you do?
How do you manage your energy? How do you control your emotions? And how do you stop yourself from judging these people?
From my perspective, the key is to determine what your responsibility is.
In the case of my trip to France, my responsibility was to keep myself as clear and centered as possible, avoid judging others, and be clear about where I allowed my awareness to be placed.
For me, another key to dealing with this situation was to see beyond the surface of what was being presented. Looking beyond the loudness, negative attitudes, and behavior, I saw a lot of woundedness and unhappiness, which triggered my compassion for these women.
In response to this, there were actually a few beautiful moments of connection where the light within me and them lit.
Another key to how I dealt with this scenario was being very careful about how I handled the situation.
You see, it is not what happens to you that really matters. It is how you handle what happens to you that creates your outcome.
So, as much as I possibly could, I tried to focus on my compassion, instead of just looking at what was playing out on a surface level. This gave me the freedom to focus on accomplishing my intentions.
That being said, I soared through the week, accomplished many of my intentions, and opened my connections with Mary Magdalene in a way that I was not aware existed!
I received many personal messages from her that still bring me to tears of joy.
Our final week was in a beautiful little town called Cassis, by the Mediterranean Sea.
The food was wonderful, and I was able to open up new levels of awareness and expand several spiritual abilities.
Finding the balance and love within not only saved my trip, it ruled my trip!
However, after such a long and intense experience, I will say that there is no place like home.
My beautiful group of ladies here in Charleston enjoyed my discussion of this situation, as these kinds of things were also happening in many of their own personal and business lives.
It was very heart-opening to explore these different ways of handling circumstances with my friends and apply these tactics to things that were happening in their lives.
One of my friends applied this knowledge to figure out how to handle a cashier who shortchanged her $20, and another hoped to use these tactics so she could better handle a manipulative coworker.
Below, I’ve laid out the various steps for using this process. It may be of great help to you when you’re trying to control your emotions during experiences you find difficult.
- Take time to acknowledge and experience your emotions. Simply sit with them.
- Once they’ve subsided (and they will), then ask, “What is beyond them that has been hidden?”
- Next, ask yourself, “What is it that I really want?”
- Once you decide what it is you really want, then (and only then) can you discover how to begin magnetizing it to you.
- Be present within yourself.
Through our group discussion, a beautiful “Wholing” session came through me, which inspired this guided meditation, which is my gift to you.
Please enjoy the guided meditation, and feel free to listen to it as many times as you want!
And whatever it is you’re dealing with in your life, if I can assist you in any way, please reach out to me.
Love to all,
Rose Marie Swanson
