by Laura Vida | Jan 10, 2020
This morning I was thinking about money and God and was wondering where I was blocked in this area? You see, I recently left an eighteen-year career in real estate to follow my dream of being an author, teacher, and speaker of spiritual concepts. The past week I’ve been feeling fear and constriction rise up around money, questions that circled in my head and haunted my dreams.
This
anxious energy said, “So now how do you think you are going to be able to
support the lifestyle you’ve been accustomed to? Where will the money come from
now that you are out of real estate? Maybe you need to downsize in order to
survive.” I even dreamed that I was trying to save my commission on a real
estate deal that was in jeopardy of being stolen from another agent. I screamed
into the telephone, “This commission belongs to me!” I felt an
anxiety course through my body even as I slept.
The
next morning, I wrote the sincere question as a prayer in my journal, “Show me
where I am blocked in my beliefs around money and help me to shift them.”
Within
moments came the download and it looked like this:
1)
You have been looking in the wrong place for your Source.
You
see, as I pulled back from real estate over the past year, I started running
the story that now it was time for my husband to take over paying the bills. I
didn’t know how he was going to do so since losing his job, but I knew I was
tired of carrying the responsibility both emotionally and physically. Wrapped
in this belief were little resentments that I held were a part of me blaming
him for the extra stress I felt being the breadwinner and the physical crash
that came later which I used as an excuse to stop working myself.
“He is not your source. I AM.“
2)
You believe that you need to bust your ass to be successful.
Right.
I still held to the old masculine paradigm that helped me build a successful
real estate business that said I needed to work like a dog, run myself ragged, be
there for everyone, any time, all the time. I thought that my level of stress
equaled my level of success.
I
have indeed been struggling with resisting the pull to start “building my
business” and doing all the things that it requires, like growing my
platform, teaching classes and working with new counseling clients. Instead, I
have chosen to follow my inner guidance and focus on finishing my memoir, which
I’d been judging as a bit self-indulgent and possibly a great waste of time if
it’s not a massive genre-breaking bestseller! Such pressure…!
“Stop grasping for the shore and surrender to the flow, I’ve got you.“
3)
Stop seeing others’ success as taking something away from you.
Recently
my sister told me that she was planning a trip to Paris next summer and although
happy for her, I also felt awash with envy. Traveling around the world has
always been a passion of mine, and something that had until recently, been in
my reach. I wondered if now that neither my husband nor I were making a steady
income, would this desire die unfulfilled in me?
“That which you see outside yourself is a reflection of an aspect of your reality. When one in your circle succeeds, celebrate with abandon as this means that it is closer to being made manifest in yours.”
4)
If I follow my dreams I will be abandoned by God and live in poverty.
When
I was a child, my parents drastically changed our lifestyle and moved from the
city to the woods where we homesteaded and lived off the land. They were
following an inner directive that they experienced as the voice of God. They
trusted that divine guidance to make this lifestyle shift and in return, my dad
lost his job and we spiraled into poverty…in the woods…where I hated
living.
As
a child, I began investing in the false belief that if I followed my dreams, I
too would be lost in poverty. Now here I was following my own inner guidance
and dreams and drastically shifting my own life. Would I suffer the same end as
my parents?
This
was the subconscious root of my issues around money. Yet, somehow, simply
shining the light of my awareness on this old misguided belief freed it up
inside and I can let that old fear go.
“You can trust me. I will never punish you for following our dreams. Your fulfillment lies in your ability to listen to divine guidance and follow it. I will never lead you astray.“
I hope by sharing my journey that it inspires you to have the courage to ask the hard questions too and begin clearing the stagnation out of your life along with me. For it is in asking that we receive, seeking that we find and knocking on the door of The Divine that our path will be opened unto us.
by Laura Vida | Jun 21, 2019
The Path of Soul-Centered Coaching
What does it look like to work with me? My work with clients is
two-fold. I access the home and make note of the areas of blocked energy. I
look at the corresponding areas of the body and life situations they represent.
Then I work with my clients through Soul-Centered coaching and we begin to
unwind the unconscious stories and limiting beliefs that have taken hold in
their hearts and start to heal those through radical self-forgiveness and heartfelt
reprogramming.
Once the internal process is realigned, then we are ready to
address the home, the external. Furniture can be moved, bushes trimmed, lights
added, vibrant art or soothing water features and yes, even the traditional
cures of crystals and wind chimes can have a place. The difference is that now,
the external changes become empowered touchstones reminding us of the internal
lessons learned. The more frequently we see these external reminders, the more
new neural pathways are created. This allows us to reinforce the new changes we
wish to make a part of our permanent reality. We literally become the
alchemical process and “as within, so without” becomes our mantra as we live in
conscious alignment with our soul’s purpose as creative beings evolving and
expressing at the highest level possible throughout our lives!
The Interior Alchemy: Soul Centered Coaching Process:
- Identify the area of your life that feels stuck or is currently challenging.
- Uncover the limiting beliefs, judgments, and stories you have built around the challenges by asking yourself: “What have I made this mean about them, the situation or myself? How have I judged them, the situation or myself?”
- Work the Process with Spiritual Psychology counseling techniques to release the limiting beliefs and replace them with what is actually TRUE by asking yourself: “Why have I drawn this into my life? Why has this happened for me? What could my Soul be trying to teach me in this situation?”
- Affirm the higher Truth of the other, the situation and/or yourself.
- Map the challenging areas of your life using the Bagua in your space.
- Activate your interiors with modern Feng Shui techniques, to anchor and reinforce your intentions.
- Add gratitude to raise the vibration.
Interior Alchemy is an integrative process. You can deeply benefit from
applying either part (soul-centered coaching and feng shui) or make a more
powerful transformation through their combination. It all depends on your
personal needs. I can help you clarify which is best for your situation.
Laura Vida, The Interior Alchemist,
is a Feng Shui Master, Geomancer, Interior Designer, and International Top
Selling Realtor and holds a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology. Laura is
devoted to helping her clients create lasting change by offering a higher
perspective on healing in order to align with ones souls purpose more fully.
She can be reached at Laura@LauraVida.com or reach out for a free 30-minute discovery session by visiting www.lauravida.com and learning more about how we can work together.
by Laura Vida | Jun 21, 2019
Interior Alchemy – A Soul-Centered Approach to the Art of Feng Shui
Have you ever had a feng shui consultation and experienced dramatic shifts in your life, only to find yourself in a similar place months or years later and wondering why? As a seasoned feng shui practitioner of over two decades, I’m offering you an explanation and a solution to creating lasting empowered change in your life.
The Ancient Alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus
The ancient alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus taught, “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul” as the key to transmuting base metal into gold, a metaphor for the potential of a Soul’s journey. This principle points to the truth that there is always a mirroring between our beliefs and our reality and conversely, our reality and our thoughts about it.
It is my belief that we are no longer living solely in a “cause
and effect” reality. The causal theory supports transformation, a shift in the
way something shows up in the world. Similar to a getting a make over, you look
different and therefore you begin to feel more confident and start to act
differently. Your life begins to change to reflect the new feelings you have
about yourself, yet underneath it all, you are still the same person and at
some point, another layer will rise to the surface wanting to be transformed as
well, all part of the Soul’s growth.
I offer that we are now being called to a deeper level of
manifestation based on transmutation.
Transmutation is a full metamorphosis where the energy at the core of our being
is no longer obscured by our limiting beliefs. However, transformation is the
first step toward transmutation, a necessary step, as it allows us to peel away
and release what no longer serves us. Once removed, what remains is the true
essence of the soul. No longer merely transformed in appearance, but the
potential for transmuted through a process of inner alchemy exists. This is
akin to the butterfly leaving the cocoon or in alchemy, the lead being changed
to gold. Both are metals similar in their essence, but the gold expressing a
much higher, lighter frequency. I offer that this process is also available to
individuals, so we are free to express in alignment with our soul’s highest purpose.
I believe that this potential is the whole meaning and gift of life!
What is our Souls Purpose?
We make the mistake of looking for our soul’s purpose by
thinking that it is something we are supposed to do with our lives. When in fact, it is not a career or even a job.
Rather it is a way of being in the
world. By slowing down and taking responsibility for what we are drawing into
our lives and then actively “taking dominion over our consciousness” by
becoming aware of our responses because our response is what attracts more of
the same. When we consciously choose our response to life (instead of just
blindly reacting), we literally alter our way of being in the world and what is
mirrored back to us is congruent with who we truly are, a limitless energetic
being, divinely connected!
Life is a process of evolution and ultimately, our soul’s
purpose is to continuously evolve through our own creating. However, we have to
become aware of the level we are choosing to create from, (blindly reacting or consciously responding to life) in order
to become conscious participants in what we are creating for ourselves. This
involves radical self-forgiveness and letting go of blame and victimhood. If
you want to know what level you are creating from, take a look at your life and
see what it is reflecting back to you. Are you satisfied or are there areas of
continual repetitive challenge?
When our natural radiance is muted by blame, victimhood,
irrational beliefs and our natural radiance obscured by the false stories we
tell ourselves, our reality will match the vibration we are emanating. If deep
down you don’t believe you are lovable (and you may not even be aware that you
are operating at this belief) you won’t be able to attract a loving
relationship no matter how many people you meet or even crystals and wind
chimes you hang! With the proper tools to gently remove these caustic layers
eating away at the pure radiance of our soul’s essence, you will begin to
radiate more brightly. Just as the Hermetic Alchemical principle, states, “as
within so without”, you will become golden, attracting a life of higher
vibration, fulfillment and personal meaning. The power is in your hands and
choice is yours alone.
How Does this Relate to Feng Shui?
Feng shui, the way it has become popular to practice in the
West, rests in the theory of cause and effect to create change; for every
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, I add a water
fountain at my entrance and I make money or I hang a crystal in my bedroom and
I find a romantic relationship.
Over the years, I have witnessed powerful movement in my
client’s lives. Some got the career change they longed for, others the money
for a new home they couldn’t figure out how to afford. I celebrated with my
clients as they entered brand new supportive relationships and healed
long-standing health challenges seemingly overnight! Imagine my surprise when a
year or two later, I was called back for an additional consultation because
they were finding themselves in a similar life circumstance as before but now
with the new job becoming demanding, a new health challenge emerging or the new
relationship now draining. I had to ask myself why this was happening?
Enter Spiritual Psychology
Just like what I learned about transformation versus
transmutation, I began to suspect that if we were still running limiting
beliefs about ourselves in our subconscious, the positive effects of feng shui
adjustments would not last. The external changes appear to work at first
because they have the power to transform energy, but like a boomerang turning
course mid-stream, the energy can only go so far before our own beliefs and stories
about ourselves call the old energy back home.
Feeling driven to look at the root cause for creating healing
change, it wasn’t until after diving into the study of Spiritual Psychology and
combining these skills with feng shui principles, which I call Soul-Centered
Coaching, did I discover the key to unleashing true lasting change. When I
began including the psyche in my feng shui consults, not only did transformation
of a space take place, but transmutation of a soul. We lifted the opaque layers of
unconscious patterns built up over the years…and evenlifetimes.Now,any adjustments made in the external space became empowered
touchstones, capable of creating new neural pathways in the brain because they
were constant reminders of the intention that was set. For example, when we see
the wind chime we purposefully hung in the tree outside, it reminds us each and
every time we hear or see it that we are calling in the beneficial chi to aid
in our intention. This was the key to anchoring change in present reality. Game
changer!
Soul-Centered Coaching offers that the stories we tell ourselves
about who we are and what we deserve directly create our experience of life. It
offers us a higher perspective to view our life and see how all that is happening
to us is really happening for us.
This involves a process of taking responsibility for our emotional states and
reactions and working through challenges with forgiveness until we can unravel
the story of victimization and transmute the heavy lead of our outdated stories
into the pure gold of wisdom and meaning. Once realized, we begin expressing in
a new way because we start asking the question, “what is my soul trying to
teach me in this challenge”?
Putting It All Together
Our homes read as an external map of our internal beliefs. Everything
we place in our home holds energy that sends vibrations out to The Universe
looking for a return of its match. Do you have a habit of hanging art too high?
That can symbolize goals that are out of reach. The windows are akin to your
eyes and represent your ability to visualize your life or if dirty and obscured
by overgrown landscape, can block your ability to see situations clearly. The
relationships are endless and offer a symbolic map to what you believe about
life.
We can change our exterior environment with esoteric feng shui
remedies, transcendental cures and visualizations, and just like “cause and
effect” the energy of the space will have shifted. I once had a client who
suffered from severe TMJ until I figured out that the issue was that the front
door of her old farmhouse had been sealed shut. This was a serious problem as
the front door is the “mouth of chi” and being sealed shut was blocking
positive energy from entering the home and also jamming her jaw physically.
Once the “mouth of chi” was opened again, the cure was reflected in her own
body and her jaw healed. Seemingly miraculous, these dramatic changes were
commonplace in my practice.
Going Deeper
Now the paradigm has shifted and to create lasting change a
deeper practice is needed. No longer finding solutions in traditional feng shui
cures tied to cyclic laws of cause and effect, I created “Interior Alchemy” as
a means to transform not only our spaces but rather to transmute our
internal beliefs in order to align them with our interior spaces to create
lasting effects.
Going to a level deeper with my “front door sealed shut” client,
we looked into her psyche and uncovered areas where her voice had been stifled
in the past and worked the principles of Spiritual Psychology. We also
discovered where she had been holding back words that need to be spoken and
looked at how she spoke to herself internally. First, we worked inside to heal
the beliefs and reprogram her stories and then anchored the awakened intentions
in the interior of the home. Now, not only did her jaw heal, but she also began
a new career in counseling, using her words to help heal others. Her change was
not just in appearance, a transformation, but rather a transmutation had taken
place from the level of soul alignment and expression. This is the power of
Interior Alchemy!
Interior Alchemy is an integrative process. You can deeply benefit from
applying either part (soul-centered coaching and feng shui) or make a more
powerful transformation through their combination. It all depends on your
personal needs. I can help you clarify which is best for your situation.
Laura Vida, The Interior Alchemist,
is a Feng Shui Master, Geomancer, Interior Designer, and International Top
Selling Realtor and holds a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology. Laura is
devoted to helping her clients create lasting change by offering a higher
perspective on healing in order to align with ones souls purpose more fully.
She can be reached at Laura@LauraVida.com or reach out for a free 30 minute discovery session by visiting www.lauravida.com
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