September 2024's Soulful Living & Wisdom Periodical offers a short story about faith, health, healing, and an insight into the spiritual attributes of our Brother Chipmunk.
May you enjoy the full version of the October 2024 - Soulful Living & Wisdom Periodical available on the blog site of Integrative Therapies & Consulting. You're invited to share what inspired you, personal experiences that resonate with the topics, and uplifting thoughts in the comment section below.
A story about faith, health, and healing...
Allow me to tell you an interesting story about a man who was committed to his faith, but not understanding how to be faithful in the care of his body temple until he had no choice.
Faith and action are a good place to begin...
Carlos was a faithful man. He had vowed to be committed to his religious practices, his church, work, and family, as a humble, God-fearing, and kind-hearted human being.
Sometimes people would see him actively participating in his religious circles, declaring the good word, being of service in his community, taking care of family and friends, and meeting everyone's needs and concerns to the best of his ability. But, privately, he felt torn. His body felt far older than he was, and he wanted to be present for a long time to enjoy having a family, watching children grow, and experiencing the connection between himself and his [future] life partner.
Partner. Partnership. That held deep meaning for Carlos. He made vows to his God to be a good servant, but how could he do that if his body wasn't functioning at its best? What would it take to turn this around?
As a man who believed in the power of prayer, miracles, and healing, he prayed fervently for guidance and answers. He knew that he would be called to action but just needed to know where to start.
His first step was to meet with his doctors, where he discovered he had become an insulin-dependent diabetic. It troubled him in his youth, but it hadn't improved, and just got worse over time, until he was on daily injections in his adulthood for a few years. He tried some things to improve his health with the typical recommendations for exercise, counting calories, and being mindful of sugar, alcohol, and such. But it just wasn't taking, and he was wavering on what he thought God had intended for him, and how this was going to serve a bigger picture - if at all.
Ask and you shall receive...
One day he was introduced to a woman that, unbeknownst to him, would be a contributing participant to his finding a new way to health and healing. As he was still focused on a future with a wife that would match his enthusiasm for faith, and living with compassion towards others, his friend set him up on a date with this woman, at his request.
During one of their excursions getting to know each other over dinner, he felt inspired to share his concerns, even though he wasn't sure why he was willing to be so open or vulnerable, especially only having spent a short amount of time with her. Other than he felt unequivocally safe to share openly and honestly with her. So, he did.
Upon her recommendations, and because he felt trust in her as a compassionate and intelligent woman, he agreed to a few energy-aligning Acupressure sessions with her. After a few sessions, he began to notice a change in his sleeping patterns and physical energy. With her continued recommendations that he followed through on, he modified how he was eating and moving his body. It didn't seem as complicated as he once was taught to believe.
To his surprise and delight, and praising God for the guidance, he lost the excess weight that his doctor said was necessary to ensure any form of quality of life, and because his life as an insulin-dependant diabetic depended upon drastic changes.
Not only did Carlos lose the weight, but had a consistent increase in his energy, his mind became clearer and sharper, and he slept better than ever before, each night.
He was able to be taken off insulin altogether and have his blood sugar remain stable, with simple modifications to his dietary habits and nutritional intake. He found that this, while simultaneously practicing his spiritual and religious beliefs, changed his quality of life long term.
Carlos was certain that his prayers were answered, declaring that 'God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!' And that wisdom and guidance were instilled upon his heart from the Holy Spirit, guiding him exactly to where he needed to go to allow his prayers to be answered - even beyond what he was able to imagine was possible, or his doctors.
In Conclusion...
Carlos reported years later that he continued to keep off the weight, and never returned to the need or use of insulin. And, since we know you're curious... no, they did not get married. But their friendship continued for some years, and she got to witness him finding the woman he wanted to marry. And they had children that he has been blessed to see grow up and live their own lives.
We desire that this story inspired by real events, may offer some hope, and maybe even insight, for whatever challenge(s) you're faced with, in your life. May you be blessed and find guidance on your journey.
PS - You're invited to discover how 'Carlos' made changes that benefited him, by learning more about Natural Health Consulting. Individual results vary from person to person.
PPS - Yes, the 'woman' was Josephine, our proprietor and practitioner at Integrative Therapies & Consulting.
Insight into the spiritual attributes of Brother Chipmunk...
According to various references, it is said that generally, Native Americans consider our Brother Chipmunks to be positive spirit animals that bring luck, fortune, and prosperity to all those who encounter them. So it’s considered a good omen if these little ones cross your path, as they are not here as pests or nuisances.
We have encroached upon the areas of Mother Earth that they inhabit, and they've readily adapted to our presence. It is worth our considering how to adapt to sharing the space we inhabit with our brothers and sisters of all nations - human, nature, wildlife, and plant kingdom, letting go of the old paradigm of eliminating that which is in the path we wish to embark upon.
Tapping into the insights of Mother Earth, Nature, Spirit-Guides, and Native Spirits, the Chipmunk came to me a few times in the past couple of weeks to speak with us. It is a messenger of "curiosity and communication."
The message from Spirit is...
"The Oversoul spirit of our Brother Chipmunk willingly shares its innate spirit of curiosity of the time-space reality in which all in physical form are experiencing as individualized expressions of the Greater One (Source Energy). It is from the higher consciousness of one's Oversoul - that aspect of self-expression and self-aware consciousness that has a broader view beyond, and surrounding, its inhabited counterpart expressed in physical form - that each delightfully and intentionally entered into this time-space reality.
It is a state of both, intention, and joyful curiosity, for the eternal expansion of every nation and kingdom, every Oversoul Collective, and the Greater [Super Conscious] Collective (that which many identify as God, Source, Great Mystery, Divine, Goddess, Allah, etc.) that is an aspect of the driving forces that call all forth into this paradigm of polarities. It is at the root of what puts eternal into eternity.
This, dear ones, must also be applied to how you communicate with yourself, others, and all relations. Through the habits and traits of Brother Chipmunk in the Earthly Plain, it is very vocal, utilizing various tones, sounds, and chips, and chattering to communicate both, its needs, in communication with each other, and in warning of what may be a danger to their livelihood.
Our human cohorts, with the added challenge of its human 'intellect' being given the misappropriated responsibility of trying to figure out things or projecting traits or ideas about other living beings, disconnect themselves from their true selves - the Higher Self or Oversoul that is the stream of consciousness that does conceive of how to communicate. In proper order and usage, one's Oversoul (Spiritual Mind) conceives the broader picture and therefore knows what is the next best step, how to communicate one's needs, wants, desires, and with whom to interact (or not), etc. The brain is the receiver, the body translates, the emotions guide you through the impulses of your feeling sensations as the energy impulses from your Oversoul resonate through the physical mechanism, and the human mind (intellect) does the perceiving of the observed, already manifested aspect of this time-space reality.
It is the gift of observing what is through this perception agency (mind/intellect), to vibrationally relay preference for the aspect of self (Oversoul/Spiritual Mind) to navigate the human/physical expression in the direction of the newly distinguished desire, need, or intention. The joy is being a manifested expression of Spirit, and cocreating through the very mechanism that we are, as an individuated, conscious being of free will to experience, express, and choose what to focus on. This creates one's reality out of the multitude of vibrational frequencies, exchanges, and interactions constantly taking place on a level not perceivable by the human eye or mind.
Embodied Insight to Consider...
Combining what Spirit is relaying above, along with the visceral experience of interacting with our Brother Chipmunks these past few weeks, I find that we are being encouraged to:
Lighten up on the expectations we have of ourselves, and each other - in other words, soften the need to judge harshly, assume the worst, or see people/things through the lens of just black and white - good/bad, right/wrong, superior/inferior. We, and the world around us, are multidimental, multilayered, and multifaceted. We release the momentum of fear-based thinking and behavior, when we appreciate that aspect of ourselves, and then consciously consider a better feeling thought so that we elevate into a more vibrationally evolved way of thinking, perceiving, and interacting.
Choose to be more curious, or approach things and our conversations with more curiosity versus clinging to the need to just react and assume. It's getting ourselves more in the practice of pausing, listening, reflecting, and then responding, with the initial intention of listening to hear for the sake of understanding. And being kinder, more understanding, and gentler with ourselves and each other, as we practice this, including when we fall back on the old mentality of fear-based thinking patterns and interactions. What we resist, persists. Everything is vibrational energy, attracting in likeness to itself.
With the decision to be more curious, we will improve our communication. And the more we practice, the more progress we make. This includes making the focus about ourselves and how we are speaking, listening, and reflecting in our own words what we hear from others. We are learning to incrementally release the need to control our environment and each other to change and be a match to our expectations that are derived from the pain-body or fear-based patterns.
There's a lot to take in here, and I find I will return to it a few times, as I tend to do when I feel I have received new insight or a deeper way of taking knowledge into a visceral experience that may become wisdom to live by, and a new habit that can improve my quality of life and my interrelationships.
What resonated with you in the message from Brother Chipmunk, or the story about Carlos' experience?
What thought, memory or insight came to you as you were reading? Please share in the comments below.
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Expect Blessings,
~ Josephine
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