Karen Monroy's Blog

Your Energetic Votes

May 12th, 2010

Sam is a beautiful soul who works in healing modalities. Sam has been courageous in her life, overcoming addictions and healing an abusive childhood. Sam is gentle and kind, and loving. I think if you knew her for ten minutes you’d like her.

Sam offers a service that her clients find helpful, and she expects to be paid at the time of service. She doesn’t shy away from her fees and Sam has worked hard to know the value of her service and convey that value. But Sam’s money is always a struggle. She goes into debt, works her way out (mostly) only to go into debt again. Sam thinks her problem is cash flow, but the real problem is energy flow. Giving and receiving are part of the SAME energetic loop. One form of this loop is called ‘spending.’

A few years ago when Sam had the opportunity to create her dream ‘home’ she Feng Shui her entire house and bought all new furnishings and accessories. She didn’t create a budget to do the project, nothing to tether the principles of balance and flow with the spending.

“The universe will provide” and “I deserve this” were her two mainstay mantras. Before you decide to laugh at the mantras—I submit you do the same thing too—just in a different form. It might be with your latte, or that must have pair of shoes, or a car. Truth is, out of balance and flow invites more of the same.

The problem for Sam ‘appeared’ as wanting a certain ‘look’ and going to the big box stores to achieve ‘the look’. One item at a time, everything seemed so cheep, so affordable. Three hundred dollars for a chair, a little over one hundred dollars for a coffee table, Sam looked at each item in its microscopic price element. Sam put some of the purchase on a credit card, paid some from business funds and paid some from savings. You know how monkey mind thinks: if you hide the spending by dividing it up it’s not like you spent what you spent.

Of course today, three years later—Sam is still paying the credit card off, (the ‘beauty of minimum payments’) and the cheap is demonstrating itself in the broken and worn nature of the goods in her home. Wooden ‘carving’ of Buddha coming unglued, broken frame on sofa, and the pungent odor of cheap still lingers in the air.

Sam is understandably disappointed. The error in thinking continues with the victim thoughts, “I had to buy what I bought, it was all I could afford” and “I shopped around for the best prices.”

Remember the Spiritual Principle “giving and receiving are part of the same energetic loop?”

Sam expects to be compensated fairly for her services, for her labor and efforts. She didn’t however give in this regard as she wants to receive. Sam bought cheap, made in China goods, filled with poisonous chemicals, sprayed with poisonous chemicals (okay, news flash: that smell you smell when you walk into the big box stores? What do you think it is?) made by someone (perhaps a child) who was not paid a fair wage for the hours they spent working. Add a layer of complication with Feng Shui malpractice( Sam’s use of Fen Shui was tantamount to speeding all of the time and rubbing your lucky rabbit’s foot when the cop pulls you over) and you have constant struggles with balance and flow, also called debt.

Giving and receiving are part of the same energetic loop. Essential elements of this energetic loop are balance and flow. You VOTE with your dollars what you want to receive in your life. You create balance and flow with your dollars or you do not. There is no escaping this fact of Earth School.

Up for a test?

Pick an object in your living room/family room. See if you can name where it was made, and how much the person who made it was paid. Can you see their face? The face of their family, the conditions they toiled in to make it?

How many items in your home do you accurately have this information about? One, ten, none?

You voted for something when you made your purchases. Voting consciously or unconsciously it matters not to the Universe: the vote registers

The question is: do you like what you voted for? Do you move into the victim thinking about your energetic votes when attempting to answer the previous question?

Oh, yes this is hard work. We need to have compassion for ourselves, for our habituated minds and the hard work that goes into escaping the gravitational pull of our thinking.

Focus on the Spiritual Principle, and the energetic voting of money; the giving and receiving will correct the money. Focus on the money and chances are your habituation will pull you into the gravity of your problematic thinking. In Sam’s case, when we did the “I can’t afford cheap” exercise Sam could see if she put money aside for 6 months, she could have made a fair exchange with her energetic votes and achieved the look she wanted. It would still be blessing her environment today, sans broken sofa ( wasted energy) and she wouldn’t be paying off her credit card.

Sam can keep thinking all she needs is a few more clients, she’ll increase her cash flow, but now you know that isn’t the problem. There is no exception to the Universal Principles at work in life: giving and receiving are part of the same energetic loop.

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Posted in Changing the Energy, Energy of Money, Monkey Mind AKA Ego, Personal/Spiritual Growth | 4 Comments »
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Money and BlueBirds-They Are More Alike Than You Think

April 28th, 2010

I have bluebirds! But according to all the experts I shouldn’t. I don’t do “anything” right to attract them. My yard is more trees than grassy open spaces they supposedly prefer and I have birdhouses I like, not the ones the experts say the birds like.

My bluebirds also hatch two clutches a year. Not just one, which according to the experts is what they do.

When the bluebirds first arrived I made what could have been a major mistake: I got a book on bluebirds and I went online to see what all the experts had to say about them.

In my investigation, I realized the experts knew something about their bluebirds, but they didn’t know me or my yard or the unique microclimates I must have.

Thank God for intuition- what I like to call the Voice for God.

I didn’t try to fix anything after I read their theories and what worked for them, because I realized the bluebirds were happy and didn’t need fixing. I also found that blue bird populations were declining-not increasing-it was prudent to question the experts expertise.

So how are the bluebirds like your money?

If you are not grounded and centered any information about your money isn’t going to be applicable to you personally. Your unique situation, and your desires are yours to manage.

Like bluebirds, humans have a remarkable ability to adapt. Un-centered, listening to experts you may miss any unconventional success you have and likely try to fix something that isn’t broken.

Not only has the world changed so much in the last few years—it’s going to change even more. There is no stable place, just like the bluebirds grassy open fields have disappeared.

You can do what the bluebirds did-be happy anyway and make a new place in the new world, or you can stay in the hands of experts, who’s bluebird population is declining.

Your ability to thrive is a direct correlation of your ability to adapt. This is not the same as resilience experts preach.

In 2006 I wrote a very harsh critique of big banks, the mergers and the shell game that is played with your money –especially your 401K and IRA’s.

I also said that I would be taking my money out of the market and investing like the bluebirds—habituating outside the realm of where the experts say I should be.

Yes, I look freekn’ brilliant now. But then? The blowback was harsh and it ended many relationships with clients who were big banks.

Duh.

I believe the truth is you are your own expert. Doesn’t matter if you want the job or not-it’s yours.

Take a look at the current banking situation and you will notice a few facts:

Nothing has changed in the banking system. No new rules, no new enforcement behind the current rules
The full losses of hidden toxic assets have not been taken on the banks balances sheets, they are waiting for re-packaging so you can buy them
New ways have already been invented to continue the same debacle with CDO’s of MBS –so even if you avoid the current stock of toxic debt, new is being made in emerging markets
Government is still attempting to solve the problem without really addressing the problem

The rigged parlor game didn’t work too well for most folks in 2008.

I can guarantee you it won’t work for anyone in 2012.

Despite all of this I believe you can thrive. Like the bluebirds, boldly go into the new world, eyes wide open, centered and tethered to the knowledge you can adapt.

It’s your choice. You can play the same rigged game hoping for different results or play your own game.

Spirit would have you notice ego tendencies to play small, be a victim and scream “it isn’t fair” and “someone should”.

What should you do?

It’s self-evident: Invest in your values, the kind of world you want to see. If you want to be green, find a green company whose product you thoroughly vet, whose management is transparent and you vet and moreover, be your own expert at all times.

Your alternative is to leave it to the experts who think the answer is for you to be resilient. Experts who think it’s wonderful that the DOW is back above 11,000-even though nothing has changed and it’s an artificial number, inside an artificial balloon, bound to burst-just like it always has before.

Here’s to your brilliance at adapting.

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Mother Earth, Sarah Palin is Not Your Friend

April 16th, 2010

In celebration of Earth Day, I thought the best thing I could do was use the power of the Word in support of Mother Earth. I hope you’ll Join me. I think if Zaslav is flooded with emails/letters/calls and the Discovery channel advertisers are flooded with emails/letters/calls we can make a difference.

When Henry David Thoreau was in jail for his protest against the Spanish-American War, his friends said, “Henry what are you doing in there?” and Henry answered, “what are you doing out there?”

My beloved brothers and sisters, we have a dark toxic vampire energy among us. It’s name is silence. Where you stand on silence is critical to the Earth now. Yes, you are that powerful.

Sarah Palin is a symptom. A symptom that continues to inflame the disease, spurring the disease on to a never ending low point. The disease is our narcissism. Our failure to abide by the sacred nature of our creation and have a reverence for all life. It hasn’t been that many years since humanity strayed from this sacred path. The Native American’s don’t have a word for ’sacred’ because it is implied in everything that is of the earth. Imagine that.

If you have a group for folks to join regarding this issue, please feel free to post it in the comments. I offer the letter below as a humble attempt to ask you not to be silent. You can personalize the letter or send it as is–but please send it. We need to stop the symptoms from spreading and tackle the disease.

—— Forwarded Message
From: Karen Monroy <Karen@KarenMonroy.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:27:42 -0400
To: <David.Zaslav@discovery.com>
Subject: Boycotting Discovery Channel Advertisers and letting them know!

Mr. Zaslav

I’m writing to express my disappointment in your organization’s choice to contract with Sarah Palin to
host a documentary/reality series on Alaska.

To say this is incongruent with the quality of programming I have grown accustomed to on the
Discovery Channel is an understatement.

I don’t believe you could have chosen a bigger enemy of the planet than Ms. Palin. Her views
on threatened/endangered species, indiscriminate drilling for fossil fuels, and climate change are astounding.

Ms. Palin’s position on climate change is the epitome of anti-intellectualism. To be able to say with a straight face that because there was a blizzard on the East coast, it is proof that there is no such thing as global warming, is tantamount to saying we want to send astronauts to the sun but we don’t want them to burn up so we will send them at night.

When Ms. Palin brought God into the climate change argument by tweeting: “Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think
we can change nature’s ways.MUST b good stewards of God’s earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature”
she effectively said that man cannot overcome nature’s power and we are full of ourselves if we think we can, apparently she was busy when the Exxon Valdez disaster hit Alaska. Ms. Palin’s lack of regard for the finite natural resources of our environment continues to amaze me.
To trivialize the environmental changes this country faces by reducing them to monosyllabic “bumper sticker”
slogans, Ms. Palin disregards the science that has proven time and again that mankind does have an impact on his
environment, and has always had an impact on his surroundings.

It appears this is about ratings for the Discovery Channel, and you are sure you will get additional viewers, but I assure you,
this is not the case. I am part of an effort to boycott your network AND any sponsors as I certainly
cannot patronize a company or sponsors that intentionally associates itself with deliberate ignorance.

Willful ignorance is nothing to be proud of, yet that’s the message you communicate to your viewers by selecting
Ms. Palin. How your organization could reconcile anything associated with Ms. Palin with a program like Mythbusters
which is based completely on intellectual curiosity is beyond me.

I’ll close by saying that I hope your advertisers greet this development with skepticism and I have a
feeling this may hit them as a low point for your network.
Regards,

(your Name)

If you have a group for folks to join regarding this issue, please feel free to post it in the comments. I offer the letter below as a humble attempt to ask you not to be silent. You can personalize the letter or send it as it–but please send it. We need to stop the symptoms from spreading and tackle the disease.

AND PICK A BUTTON BELOW TO PASS IT ON! MOTHER EARTH THANKS YOU!

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Pot Smoking, Potato Chip Eating, Couch Camper: Victim

April 14th, 2010

When you hear the word ‘victim’, what do you think? Really, take a minute and solidify your definition.

Here are common definitions based upon the archetype:

Innocent–-hurt in some way–powerless over circumstances–uninvited event/situation, which resulted in trauma.

The definition above averts the reality that “victim” as used today, is more often expressed in your life as something you do unaware, to your self. It’s a choice in mindset between aligning with your power or squandering your power. This kind of ‘victim’ is fake, an imposter of the archetype; having snuck in the back door of your mind, is now camping out on the energetic sofa, eating potato chips and smoking pot. Imposter victim is depleting your resources and wants more.

Okay, it might not be smoking pot-but it’s smoking’ something, cuz you don’t even know it’s on your sofa.

Ego minds individually and jointly, aided by our cultural conditioning embezzled the word ‘victim’ in a blatant attempt to obfuscate our authentic power. Not only is this act hindering the creation of the life we want, it invades every aspect of our life once we deploy the ‘victim’. Naturally we are talking about a pattern of behavior based in a belief “out there” exists a power to act upon us. It’s the belief in universal caprice, an unfair unkind universe that is designed to thwart you.

*It’s you saying you can’t go back to school because you don’t have the money, or your spouse won’t allow you to. AND believing it

*It’s saying it’s not nice to say the emperor has no clothes, when the emperor has no clothes. AND believing it.

*It’s blaming the banks and the government for your financial woes. AND believing it. +

*It’s saying you can’t spend money on self-growth because you don’t have money. AND believing it

*It’s saying you can’t get a job or make money. And believing it.

Now, I want to be clear-very clear-terrible things happen in life and there are times and places the archetypal meaning of victim applies. Even in these situations though, ultimately healing is about taking your power back. It is also possible to have both kinds of ‘victim’ at work in your life.

Here are some of the common ways we voice the Imposter:

“He/She won’t let me.” “I can’t believe what they did!” “Yes, but….” “If only…” “I ‘m the kind of person who can’t deal with….” “I can’t because…” “ I only did that because you…(fill in the blank)” “It’s not fair” and anything co-dependent.

Here are some common emotional states that Victim transports us to:

Sadness Anger Frustration

Blame Anxiety Resentment

Whine Complain

The most powerful question you can ask yourself about the victim? “What do I have to learn from it?”

Victim is meant to teach us what power is, what owning and disowning power is like. Often the lesson is learned in the shadow: being nauseated at the feeling of powerlessness, we are compelled to notice the unnatural freakish nature of powerlessness. Powerless is not the real you-that is why it feels wrong.

You were not meant to be in service to the couch potato, or buy it it’s pot. You are Divine, and the plans for you are grand. So how do you get the couch potato off the sofa?

Be determined to catch the voice of the victim. Watch for the emotional states.

And say to your self “if I want to be Who I really am, manifest my passion I need to see this imposter at work in my life.”

And if you have been truly a victim at some point, your best healing is begun with knowing in the present moment, you do not need to add to your suffering by living in the past. Be kind and loving and compassionate with yourself, know that you deserve to heal, to overcome the trauma and not compound the trauma by inviting the experience to stick.

You are awesome, wonderful, beautiful, fantastic and powerful. You are Divine Love in expression. Own it.

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+Footnote: I suspect some victims have really done a good job with the financial crisis, so here is the truth: While banks and government have violated the sacred trust of the people, you helped and continue to help with every dollar you invest and every dollar you spend. Consciously or unconsciously you have co-created the mess. Even if your part in it is one tenth, of one percent: you have a part, and you have a choice to invest and spend ethically or continue down the same road.

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More Happy and Less Crappy~Or~It Can Happen in a Minute

April 10th, 2010

Drat and double drat.

Monkey-mind is on its trampoline, to be precise: it seems to have several trampolines out and is multiplying like zygotes, jumping from one trampoline to the other. It’s 12 pm and I’m back in bed. Ego has even brought out its clubhouse. It has a sign on the door, “no enlightened thinking allowed!” I shudder. I haven’t seen this clubhouse in quite some time.

As I melt into my covers I offer the ethers the excuse that I am sick. Sick of being sick actually.

“I’m usually never sick” self-consolation is now flat. “You get to read,” Looking on the bright-side rationalization has transformed into, “you can’t fucking remember what you just read.”

I breathe. “Start with that,” I encourage myself.” It’s slippery, but I can feel some Force at work. I want to turn my face from it. I want to say, “no”.

Then I hear the gentle, beckoning, judgment-free Voice say, “You have a practice for a reason”. “Shut up ass hole,” ego snaps.

I gaze across my bed. Grab for a tissue. “Shit.” It’s empty. I watch myself pick up the box and smash it. Fur babies startle from their sleep. Nutmeg, the English chocolate lab is first to me. She puts her paw on me, sniffs the box. Beau the Black English lab is now sniffing the box. They look at me. Worried. Pensive. I can feel the question in their penetrating stare, “Who are you? And what did you do with Karen?” I’m totally shamed by the question. “You have a practice Karen,” critical ego chortles.

My ego voices aren’t all dressed up, with names and outer ware. They are probably like yours—an attribute of some kind. Judgment, critic, satisfaction, proud, –all variations on the ego distilled into a clear ‘I want” from a certain perspective.

But this gentle, beckoning, judgment-free, “You have a Practice for a reason,” Voice-it’s not any of those voices. It’s Energy, it’s Clarity, and it’s qualities I first got to know from previous almost dead experiences. That might sound dramatic, but heck, I think death brings out drama, it can’t be helped.

Death always brings clarity with it. In the middle of chaos, it’s clear what is important. Secrets fall, hearts soften, and what is True becomes self-evident. Almost dead has been a teacher. It gave me the space for the Voice.

Gag. One of the dogs has gas. Really. I’m sick and and can’t smell crap. but now I’m gagging on doggie farts. I take that back, turns out that is all I can smell: crap. And now it’s clear. I have been praying for more happy and less crappy. The crappy has been breeding like roaches. The anger under the surface is now clear and palpable I am back to the Voice.

“Practice your Practice,” it says.

I’ve done this so many times.Why is it still so fucking hard? I notice ego-righteous indignation, stubborn and tell me why, are jumping sky high on the trampolines.

“Why?” I pray. “The suffering prayer,” Buddha says. “Oh great, another freekn’ voice” ego comments and continues: “Voices that do not get on the trampoline are not useful,” and ego slams the “no enlightened thinking” clubhouse door, as it retreats inside.

The Voice doesn’t argue. I notice this about the Voice; it NEVER tethers itself to something by resisting it. It’s like it’s all there is and there is nothing else.

“Much better,” the Voice says. I pray as sincerely as I can muster in my pissed off illusion: “Dear Jesus: you know I have gotten quite good at not invoking your name in vain and I’m hoping you’ve noticed. Here I am, Divine Elderly Brother please put your hand in mine, pleeeeeese.”

Nothing. I feel nothing. No presence, no power. Ego thinks, “fuck you Jesus.” But I am not hooked. There was no sting in the fuck you. My energy isn’t rallying against Jesus. It’s shifting. “Shifting the shit,” I observe. I smile at my joke. Ego’s voices are peeking out the clubhouse door.

Peace. Ahhhha, Divine Peace. “It’s so good to see you again Jesus, it’s been a long time”.

“Prince of Peace” the Voice says. I smack my forehead. “Oh yea! I remember that part of Sunday school,” I think. Sunday School –not a total loss–that’s quite a thought for a recovering Catholic: I smile.

“Oh thank you God for your Grace,” Is in my exhale. Nothing on the outside has changed, but the shift inside it’s as real as the ground beneath my feet.

“More real.” The Voice corrects. “Gottcha,” I acknowledge. I notice ego is out of the club house and back on the trampoline, standing, waiting.

The Space inside, the Presence that is there all along~for me, for you, for any Being ~it breathes my Spirit into it. It expands to hold all, all the Love and all of my garbage.

Tenderly, Lovingly it welcomes all the crap I’ve been storing up. I’m amazed as I observe this. Most days I’d never guess this was possible, despite the number of times I am blessed with the Divine Alchemy of a Merciful God and this experience.

“The Doctor,” The Voice says. It takes me back, back to last year and the emergency room doctor I met. Totally forgotten. But that is what the ego is: one big persistent sleeping pill. Ego is beginning to bounce on the trampoline~again. But I’m unhooked. Detached. Observing.

The Doctor shared his ER experience: when someone came in who was not going to make it, he would see light. He’d work on them longer than the others just to be sure, because that is what his ego would have him do. He’s observing himself work on the dying person and all the while the light was streaming down to them. He’d witness them rising into the light-their essence-their light leaving their body and merging with the light.

“A body can’t live with-out its Spirit, “ the Voice says

I breathe deeply; I am aware I am back in my body, commanding it to breath. Slowly, one breath in and slowly one breath out I realize all the crap I left in the space is still waiting for me. My Spirit has been pick-pocketed. One little aggravation, one grievance, one judgment at a time~bit-by-bit leaking my energy, my Spirit.

“You can say yes to when you do the lesson, but never no to the lesson,” the Voice says.

Ego stops jumpn’ on the trampoline. Transfixed and frozen ego is terrified-I can see that now. Ego is afraid of Spirit’s, “yes.”

Well it makes sense now. More happy and less crappy is not about changing anything. My secret list of what I want to be different I hand to Jesus.

“I have to know Jesus,” I plead, “when most of me understands, truly sees that it’s all good~and dear God I have SO SO SO much good~why does this happen? Why do I let my ego take over, again and again?”

I see my list transform into a dove. A feeling consumes me, this must be rapture I think. The Dove makes the most elegant flap of it’s wings: powerful and silent and yet the waves of Energy are unmistakable and the waves imprint:

The Voice. Jesus. Buddha. God. Dove. Me. The list. We are all One. Together, we are going to go through the crap.

I take a breath. “Oh Lord! I can really breathe!” I’m observing how well my body feels, amazed. I understand: one more choice point on the Sacred Spiral traversed. Deeper and deeper into life, it’s layers and purpose: to learn.

Ego is looking very sad. Clubhouse in Tatters. Trampoline turned over. I feel bad for ego. Decide to give it a blessing, let it know it’s okay~ego doesn’t get what it wants (for now).

I decide to get up, rescue the day. I look at the clock and it’s 12:01.

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Karen Monroy