Tag: #creator

In praise of age

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

I have not withdrawn into despair, I did not go mad in gathering honey, I did not go mad, I did not go mad, I did not go mad. – Hoda Al-Namai

Thinking a lot about how our society views getting older lately.   

I’ve never had a huge concept of “age”, but I experience the unhealthy concept we have of getting olderin our culture of age-obsessed thinking. 

It’s everywhere we look.  

It’s in Hollywood, in politics, in social media.  

We think we should look 18 when we’re 80.  Or at least, 25 when we are 50 and “youth culture” tells us that we are no longer valid.  

Topically, in my experience, (and quantum theory backs this up) the degree that we age is very much based upon the degree that we accept what society tells us is true about age. 

I’ve been told that I look significantly younger than I am my entire adult life.  Part of this is because I believe my body is my temple, and I care for it well, but beyond that, I just don’t think about what I am. “supposed to” look, feel, or be like at any given age. 

I haven’t quite cracked the code on not aging at all; skin cells still break down, and the rate at which they replicate may not be the same at 50 as it is at 15, but our mindset can hugely influence just how rapidly our aging markers shorten.

From every other perspective beyond what we are told about our held value, getting older is an incredible experience.  

Because I have lived many years here on earth,I’ve had ample time and opportunity to learn, to grow, and to

examine the doctrines and dogma that I was brought up with.  

I’ve had years to recognize, acknowledge, and fall in love with those previously lost parts of myself that I had disconnected from out of shame, or guilt, or fear. 

I have had decades to sift through and discard any previous belief systems that do not serve my best, my most true, and highest self.  

Because of my years of experience; the joys and the losses, the challenges and the triumphs, the grief, and the bliss, I am so much more settled into the gorgeous, full and authentic human, be-ing than I ever have before.  

I can feel the strength of my foundation; something I certainly did not have in my teens, 20s, or even my 30s.  

I feel completely safe in exploring alternate ideas and ideologies from what I have learned to date. 

In fact, I have come to realize that this is the best way to keep growing – and having the stable foundation of what feels true to me keeps my value system intact while I approach new things with curiosity.

I have learned that my value is not in the constant need to be validated by others.  

I don’t have to “Do” to prove my worth.  I love who I am, exactly as I am.  

For that matter, I don’t have to prove my worth to anyone, and I don’t have to stay in a room where my care and value is not recognized or appreciated.  

I am not in any way saying I am close to whatever “perfect” is supposed to be, and being a little more aware doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes.  

But rather than judging or shaming myself, I have learned to take a step back, acknowledge the “mistake“ or misaligned behavior, and then look for the root of that sabotaging behavior.  

When I was actively teaching martial arts, one of my favorite things was those moments when one of my advanced students would get a good strike in on me in the sparring ring. 

It didn’t happen often, but when it did, I would always get a little thrill, because that little “zing” would show me an area of weakness that I may not have recognized otherwise. 

I’ve taken that lesson into every aspect of my life.

We humans are such beautifully complex creatures, and our past can influence our presence, but one of the most powerful lessons that I have learned is that it doesn’t have to be our identity.  

Like that kick to the gut, or punch to the jaw, (geared up, ofc) I may have an area in my psyche that I’m not paying attention to, or have a link to a past identity or egoic construct that I didn’t previously recognize.  

I can acknowledge the trauma, the challenges, the losses, and the accompanying patterns that grew as a result of those past experiences – but I get to decide the meaning – and how I frame – the emotions and residual vibration of those life experiences.  

I can allow the energy that lies behind me to be anchors that keep me tied to the past, or I can embrace them as lessons that provide ammunition for future growth and evolution.  

Perhaps the only real “truth” that I know for certain is that when I’m in the present moment, the past is no longer real.  

With each turn around the sun this physical and spiritual embodiment of my Self takes, I have become more deeply attuned to the world and other souls around me; able to “see” what keeps people stuck, but I have also lost any sense of judgment over where people are at in their personal journey. 

I love it when my experience and ability to heal or empower can be a catalyst for healing or growth in others, but my years of living this life have taught me that I don’t need to be a “savior” to those around me. 

I may be able to guide another soul who is ready along the path a bit; the reason I got trained in and and started my healing “business“, but I have learned that it has never been my place to try to change any other soul who doesn’t want to change, no matter how  “good” I may have thought my intentions to be. 

I have also learned that the law of equal exchange is both real and valid. I used to give my services away for free, or ask very little in exchange for my lifetime of experience in empowering, healing, and coaching others – then be hurt when the teaching or training I had given away was neither valued or implemented. 

 I have come to realize that if someone truly wants the help that I can provide, the equal exchange of energetic currency is incredibly important, and devaluing myself also devaluates their experience.  

When I was very young, I had a bit of a “Cinderella” complex.  

 Because of the lens that we are taught through fantasy and fairytale, I associated my childhood trauma with the idea of some prints or Savior who would sweep in to save the day, making all of my dreams come true, and fulfilling my every heart’s desire.

In gaining both years and experience on this earth, I have realized that there is no fairytale hero who will save me.   I have to be the hero of my own life, as we all do.  

I believe this is the primary lesson of this existence, here on earth.  

If we learn to love and heal ourselves, and in doing so, experience firsthand our incredible power and ability to shape our individual reality, the magnetic resonance of that love, healing and self-creation is projected into the Field, and may provide the spark for someone else to find wholeness, too.✨

This is how we save the world. This is how we heal our planet; one beautiful soul awakening to their incredible value, beauty, and power, becoming a ripple that spreads into the ocean of this reality.  

We are the new Christs, creating heaven on earth.  

This is the importance, and immeasurable value of each additional year we spend on this planet, in this time space reality. 

So darling, the next time you look in the mirror and see the physical evidence of your time here, celebrate that shit.  

Own your age, in your completely unique perspective. 

Trash whatever opinions someone else tries to force down your throat in what you or your life is supposed to look like at any given age.  

Wear the flowers, or the stripes, the sparkles or the tie-dye, or whatever suits you, Boo.

Keep your hair long, or rock a mohawk.  

Follow your bliss.  Follow your heart.  Listen to the whispers of your soul.  

Love yourself, and recognize your incredible contribution and value on this planet. 

Be gorgeously, gratefully, fully what you are.

But please, beloved, for the love of All That Is, stop thinking that your value ends at whatever perceived age your culture or society may tell you is valid.  Let go of old and outdated identities that no longer serve your highest self. 

Cast them off like an old coat that is three sizes too small and horribly outdated.

Step into the glorious version of yourself, as you are, right now.  

It’s more than enough, I promise.  

Big love.💖

  • Terah 

The Only Sin

by Terah Drake, posted in Honoring the Sacred

Is there absolute truth in the world?

When it comes to our personal belief systems, I am not so sure there is. 

When it comes to taught lessons in much of organized religion, even less so.  

This idea might get some of you riled up, but stay with me to the end – I think you might just see some value and understanding as I bring it all together. 

Each religion teaches different ideologies; largely accepted and unchallenged “Truths”, such as There is no God but The God…But is God Yahweh, Allah, Shiva, the Demiurge, Zeus, or our own Buddha-nature?

We can speculate and theorize, preach and prosthetize, but ultimately, to say that any one person – or group of people – absolutely knows what “God” is is an extreme form of confirmation bias.

We each come to our own perspective and “belief” based upon our own unique set of experiences and learning.  Humans may be at the top of the food chain here on earth, but we are extremely limited in what we can perceive or understand.  

We receive an average of 11 million bits of sensory information per second – yet can only process 40-50 bits of that information per second.  This overwhelming amount of data is filtered by the Reticular Activating System, the brain’s “Reality Filter”, which largely “shows” us reality through a lens that was created in the programming of the first seven years of our life. 

So, for most of us, we are just reiterating, or regurgitating, the belief systems of our parents and caregivers, and their parents and caregivers, going back hundreds of generations.  

The religious beliefs of the moment, whether that moment is right now, ancient Greece, or 3000 years ago, change slowly, and only with a massive collective mindshift.  

Ra, Isis, Osiris, and others were also Thor, Freya, Loki, and others in the religious beliefs of the Norse, and were also Zeus, Poisedon, Athena, Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis and others, who then became Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Minerva, Venus, Diana and Apollo, who kept his name when the Romans became the predominant political structure. 

But you get the idea, right? 

We can see “throughlines” in each culture, including Christianity, where religious culture “borrows” from the one before, but adapts to reflect the appropriate mindset of the time.  

This is not to say that I do not personally believe that a higher consciousness or power exists, but my personal interpretation, insofar as my limited human mind can conceive, is that God is the Unified Field; a consciousness that is woven into the fabric of every atom of reality – including those of every human on this planet.  

We are all cells in the infinite body of the Divine, having the experience of itself, as a human, or puppy, or plant, here on earth.  

Within this framework, I believe there is a place for organized “religion”; a gathering of minds in shared appreciation of our connection to and within this fabric, without the extremes of judgment and dogma that often accompany conventional religion.  

We need connection with others, and the reminder that comes through this connection that we are not individual, selfish little avatars rushing through this reality pursuing our own pleasures at the cost of others. 

But personally, I do not believe that the only way to God, or Christ consciousness, or Enlightenment, is through one exclusive religion.  We all can access the power and wisdom of “God”, whatever God is to us as a collective and individuals, at each and every moment. 

Perhaps this is why the apostle Paul said “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.”  

Hafiz, a revered Sufi poet who lived in the 14th century, said “What is that sweet voice inside that incites you to fear?  Now is the time to know that all you do is sacred.” 

Both statements, though in different times and cultures, speak of Divine connection.  When we “pray without ceasing”, we are in constant communication with the Source within – and without.  If we recognize that this life, and our actions are sacred, we are in alignment with All That Is.  We can not be in “sin.”  

Which leads to the second topic of this blog.  The idea of sin. 

If there is no ultimate “Truth”, can there truly be sin?

The Hebrew word for sin is Chatta’ah.  It means to “Miss the goal/ mark”.  It is to be misaligned with the Sacred.  

 It does not, exactly, as biblical culture suggests, encompass the litany of evils or “deadly sins” that are found within most religion, from coveting your neighbors’ goat (or wife), going out in public without a headcovering, gossiping, idolatry, unbelief, and what seems like a hundred or so more rules, regulations, and accompanying rites. 

I believe there is only one true “sin” – To believe, or treat the world as, Lao Tzu stated in the Tao Te Ching, as though everything is not sacred.  

If “God” is in every particle in the known universe – and beyond – and we “worship” God as holy, does that not mean that everything – everything is, in fact, absolutely precious, beautiful, perfect, and sacred? 

If we were to hold anything as an absolute truth, perhaps this would be it.  If we love that which is sacred, we must love it all.  “Sin” is when we forget this.

The only “sin” is to forget that this life is sacred. To destroy that sacredness; especially that which is innocent.  

This is reinforced by biblical scripture – in Matthew 18:6, Christ says “Whoso shall cause one of these little ones (that believe in me) to fall, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”  

Think about that.  If it would be better to be drowned at sea with a stone around your neck than otherwise face the consequences of destroying the innocence of another being, what would the alternative be?  

We are in “sin” when we use that which is sacred for our own selfish use and mean – whether that is hurting a child or animal, coveting a neighbor’s goat or wife, or using a holy order such as a ministry or church for personal gain.  

Conversely, if we are in remembrance of the sacredness of life, how can we be anything but love? 

If we are living in a state of love, we cannot be controlling, jealous, prideful, envious, gluttonous, wrathful, or in sloth. 

When we die, I believe the actions and choices of our life will be weighed – by our own eternal knowledge – not according to the way we “acted” in life, but rather, what the predominant force of our hearts and minds were.  

Anubis weighing the human heart with a feather

Islam teaches “hell” as a place of fire, boiling water, and suffering. Judaism teaches damnation as nothingness; a complete separation from God.  But my belief is that there is no real “hell” at all; that this particular reality is a place for us to learn, and to grow spiritually.  If we live from a place of selfishness, we likely are confronted by the “sins” of the life we chose to live, but when our soul takes accountability for these choices, we get to try again, in another life.  

I’ve had experiences to suggest I’ve been through this life many, many times before.  I’m certainly not perfect in this particular version of me, but I am aware, and that awareness allows me to keep remembering that life is beautiful, sacred, and absolutely perfect – even when it might feel far from it.  

This is only my personal perspective, given my own unique set of life experiences. I can not speak for – or judge – anyone else’s personal way of seeing, being, or navigating this particular version of time-space reality. 

But perhaps, if you are in a space where conventional religion has been failing you, this might give you something to think about.    

Big love.💖

  • Terah

Self-love, Unbecoming to Become

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

“The pinnacle of self-love is not ecstasy, it is the heartbreaking process of undoing the life that our unloved self built when we didn’t know better. “

Becoming who we really are begins with learning to love every aspect of our lives – but most importantly, it is learning to love ourselves.  It is an unbecoming of who we were when we didn’t know how to love ourselves.  

It is chaos before order; a difficult and messy unspooling of the heavily bound threads of dysfunction and neglect that we have wound around ourselves, all too often in a cocoon several sizes too small to contain our vast spirit.  But unwind we must before we can step into the fullness of our purpose and truest self; before we can learn to spread our wings and soar. 

Before self-love becomes freedom, it must first be a burden that we carry with minds and hearts just beginning to open to new possibilities.  

We must carry the weight of the anger that we feel towards others for not being treated with the care, love, and respect that we should have asked for all along.  We must carry the weight of anger towards ourselves for what we allowed, often not realizing that there was ever a choice. 

There is the anger for not asking; for not insisting that we were worthy of care and respect. 

For those of us who experienced childhood trauma, this unraveling of emotions is an especially perilous journey, for dragons often lurk in those murky places of our subconscious minds that we fear to tread.  But the journey is a worthy one and the reward of integration with those lost parts of ourselves can not be understated.  

 When we have processed the anger, then comes the heavy grief of time lost – sometimes many years’ worth. 

Eventually, we feel lighter.  We learn to set boundaries and say “No” to those things that are not right for us.  We become deepy accountable to our own self-care and growth; a process that is not an easy one.

At some point, we begin to recognize the truth of the saying that we become the amalgamation of those that we spend the most time with.  And so we learn the painful necessity of cutting away or holding at at careful distance those people and things that have hurt us in the past, or don’t currently serve our highest good.  Sometimes those closest to us decide to grow with us, even if their pace does not match our own.  Sometimes they don’t, and we must make the  difficult decision to allow them to continue their journey on their own, in their own way.  

In the beginning, this can create isolation.  Loneliness.  But as we remove those things in our lives that were creating darkness, light can begin to enter those empty spaces.  Our tribe begins to find us.  We begin to fall in love with not only ourselves, our lives and those souls around us, but we draw in and create close friendships and partnerships that are fulfilling rather than stagnant.  That lift us and allow us to better lift others, in turn. 

We begin to create, or rather, I believe that we learn to consciously collaborate with Source to become the architect of our lives, shaping the fabric of our reality with intention. We learn to see the infinite possibilities within and before us. We find our wings, and begin to soar.

Today and all days, beloved, I want to see you soar. I wish for you the feeling of freedom as you create a life of abundance and beauty. A life of light, and of love.

You deserve it.💖

Much love and big hugs

– Terah

All One

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

We sleep.

When we sleep, we hold the illusion of separation – that each of us

Is a completely isolated 

And separate being, 

Drifting purposeless

On a giant rock in space.  

But then we Awaken.

 To realize we had been dreaming.  

And the dream often was a nightmare

Constructed by Illusion

By Ego

By the Dream itself. 

We dreamt we were alone.

We dreamt we were broken.

We dreamt we were “sinners”,

Destined for a dark hell.  

But it is the dream that is hell.

The dream that is the lie. 

The Truth 

Is that there is no separation.

No isolation.

No sin.

No hell.  

No brokenness.  

There is only the All That Is;

The All That Is is Us.

Separation from the Divine;

From “God”  

Is the illusion.  

This Awakening from 

The Dream,

This Remembrance 

Is the point of this existence.  

The Divine is Us

And we are the Divine.  

The Lover and the Beloved in one.

We are here to be the struggle

And the release.  

The conflict 

And the resolution.  

The battle and the peace.  

We are Arjuna in his struggle  – 

And Krishna/Shiva in his Wisdom.  

We are Christ and the Apostles.  

We are Mohammed, and Allah.  

The Divine 

Is every molecule of who we are

Of nature

Of the atmosphere  

The Divine 

Is the fabric of Reality

And Reality Itself.

Every experience 

We are given here 

Is an opportunity 

To remember this. 

Every sweet strawberry 

Tasted on the tongue

An opportunity to remember.

Every glass of wine

Every  lingering kiss 

Shared with a Lover

By a peaceful river

Or surrounded by green trees

An opportunity to remember.

We are the Divine.  

Every tiny hand held in our own.  

Every Child’s Innocence 

And Laughter, Tantrum and Terror.

The Divine. 

Every moment of Beauty; 

Every moment if Hope

Every moment of Joy.  

The Divine.

Every moment of Sorrow

Every moment of Despair

Every Conflict and Struggle.

The Divine.  

It is only in remembering

That there is no separation 

Between Us and God

Between Us and the All That Is 

That we find freedom.  

We are the Buddha

We are Allah, 

We are Elohim/Yahweh/God. 

We are the Mother, the Father, 

The Son 

and the Holy Spirit

And the Daughter.  

It is only in Awakening

In remembering 

That we can begin to 

Play with life

With reality.  

It is in remembering 

That we can create Magic.

It is in remembering 

that we experience Holy fallout.

It is in remembering 

that we fill our mouths and palms

With Joy. ✨

Today and all days, 

Beloved, 

My greatest wish 

Would be that you might 

Open yourself 

To the possibility 

That you are not alone.

That you are not isolated.

That you are not broken.

But that you are 

God Incarnate

Having a human experience 

On this beautiful 

Holographic Reality 

Of a planet called Earth.

I would wish you to see 

That you are Beauty.

That you are Wholeness

That you are a 

Rare and unique jewel;

A perfect expression 

Of the Divine. 

You are love

And you are loved.

The Lover and the Beloved

All wrapped up 

In one gorgeous package

Of infinite potential.

I see you.

I am You.

You are we

And we 

Are

Love.

– Terah

This One Precious Life

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

My love. 

If I could have only one wish for you today,

it would be that you could see

How precious

How beautiful, 

And how infinitesimally short

Life truly is.

I would wish that this understanding 

Would draw out your perspective

To fully realize that none of us 

Are guaranteed tomorrow 

And the only real certainty 

In this life

Is Death,

And that each day,

Each moment,

Each breath

On this magnificent planet 

is a blessing and a gift.

I would wish that this knowledge

Would help you to stop 

Giving your power to petty tyrants; 

To stop giving your precious energy

To those who do not value 

The investment and expenditure

Of who you are;

To stop being afraid,

To stop seeking 

The approval

And validation 

Of others

Who could not possibly 

Give you advice based on

Their own understanding

And experience in the world.

I would wish that the fullness

Of appreciation of life’s 

Beauty and brevity

Would cause you to

Begin to live your life

From the perspective of 

What feels most important to you;

That you would seek out those people,

Experiences, and adventures 

that feed your soul,

Quicken your mind

And fill your heart

With a love so deep and vast

That  joy

Expands into every 

Pore and crevice,

Every cell and molecule 

Of your being 

And pours from your eyes

In tears of gold. 

I would wish that

The preciousness,

The magnificence,

The awe-inspiring beauty

Of this life

Could help you to release your

Past pain and programming

To more fully love, value,

And appreciate

Those friends, family, 

And neighbors that

Also love, value

And appreciate you;

That you might remember 

To hold those loved ones 

So close,

To hug harder

To kiss deeper

To be present

To speak of things 

That matter

Things of interest

And importance

But also, 

Of lightness,

Of fun

Of Bliss. 

Because they, too have been allotted 

only a small portion

Of this earth’s history

And perhaps,

Tomorrow will see them

Moving on

Beyond this realm

To whatever is next.

Today, my love, 

This is my greatest wish 

For you.  

Because perhaps, 

The greatest sin

We could ever commit

Is to live a life 

Only half-lived

And die with regret

Bitter in our hearts

And on our tongues. 

Much love ❤️

Today and all days;

– Terah

Egoic Constructs – Safety or Prison?

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Life is a dream; a self-created reality in which our subconscious programs largely direct our thoughts, moods, and actions. Most of the time, these programs keep us in a state of sleepwalking as we react and respond to life based upon what our past experiences have dictated. But frankly, it’s all bullshit.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…Life is but a dream.

– Row, Row, Row your boat.

It’s all a construct. The human brain is wired to survive, not to thrive. As a result, we build these supposedly “safe” walls and edifices with our minds until at some point, whether we realize it or not, we are locked inside a fortress of our own making.

These constructs are often (usually) based on childhood experiences and family dynamics that lay down neurological programming – such as taking on the identity of one of the six “roles” of a dysfunctional family life: the Hero, Scapegoat, Lost Child, Mascot, Caretaker/Enabler, and the Golden Child. Because these egoic identities were built as a result of our early neurological programming, they become the pathways that we continue to follow well into adulthood, and sometimes until death.

I don’t know about you, but this just feels like a huge Ouch.  

I think of myself as someone who is fairly #awake.  I’ve had a deeper sense of “knowing” for as long as I can remember.  I think I may have been born a little less asleep, or perhaps I’ve just been around the block enough (#reincarnation) that I am usually pretty good at seeing through the veil.  Through the constructs. Through the Bullsh#t.  

But for any of us, no matter where we are in our soul’s evolutionary journey, I believe that in this life; what the Buddhism and Hinduism call the “Maya”, or veil of illusion, we wake, then fall asleep again, only to awaken wondering when it was that we lost our awareness of the Maya.  

I don’t know that we ever become fully enlightened, full time.  That’s part of the process.  Part of the contrast that is necessary to keep things interesting and to keep us engaged.

But here’s the thing – the more often we awaken, the longer these periods of awareness will be, and the more observation and awareness that we bring into the Who that we are keeps these periods stretched out and more frequent. 

But a recent circumstance in my life made it abundantly clear that I was still holding long-standing #childhoodpatterns of low self-worth and people pleasing. In my desire to see someone I care for happy and whole, I lose parts of myself. In my need to heal and be invaluable, I allow myself to be de-valued.

 In my own #toxicchildhood, I alternated between Hero, Scapegoat and Caretaker, and perpetuated those cycles into my first relationships.  I thought I had healed those parts of myself years ago, but this experience showed me that I was still holding those roles – those identities – close to the heart.  

Seeing my own dysfunctional childhood programs and huge egoic constructs staring me in the face felt like being punched in the gut and tbh, I had a week’s worth of wobble as I tried to decide if I could just ignore it all and keep #pretending that the years of #therapy and #selfwork had left me fully #woke. Enlightened.

In the end, I opted to look that sh#t straight in the face and run towards the storm rather than away from it. The fastest way through, right? Until we choose to be #relentless about our continued growth and do the damned work, we can not move into greater #wholeness and #authenticity. We can not achieve the life of freedom and joy that we may be seeking.

And sometimes, that f#cking sucks. The work is hard, and often creates more chaos in our lives before it opens up to peace and joy. I guess that’s why it’s called “work”.🤷‍♀️

But here’s the thing – Once you get past the initial shock and pain of seeing those hard truths revealed, you realize that your conscious mind and highest self is navigating the waters of your life, moving you towards greater freedom and fullness rather than continuing to be a slave to your past programming and #toxichistory.

Our highest selves are always communicating with us, trying to show us the way to release those outdated programs and patterns that no longer serve our highest evolution. But it is up to us to listen. To pay attention. And when those hard truths come, we must confront them rather than turn away.

Going into those unfamiliar waters, confronting our “demons” and doing the work may be difficult – but it is also incredibly rewarding and an exciting journey.  It can be beautiful and joyous, even.✨  Ultimately, being awake and aware not only makes us more happy, caring, and compassionate humans, it’s a whole lot more fun.😁

What unhealthy #childhood programs might be holding you back from living your best life and the fullest expression of who you are? 

Much love and huge hugs.💕

  • Terah

Individual components of a larger whole

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

https://futurism.com/astrobiologists-earth-intelligent-entity

This article in Futurism is an Interesting read and makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anyone remember those old educational cartoons – “Schoolhouse Rock” that taught about the human body, mathematics, American Politics and much more more? 🤔

I specifically recall one of the episodes on the body – “red cells carry oxygen, white cells fight off germs”.  Watching these cartoons very possibly started my interest in the human body and physics.  Probably also part of the reason I have thought of humans as individual cells in a much larger macrocosm for a long time.  

I’d imagine that something like say, a red blood cell doesn’t have a strong sense of awareness of anything outside of itself, right?  

It is an individual cell, doing exactly the job that it was created for. But that one individual cell is really a part of a huge macrocosm and wouldn’t survive very long without the rest of the system. And certainly wouldn’t be very productive in supplying oxygen and nutrients if it was on it’s own, right?🩸

I think that humans have a tendency to be similar in this.  We have difficulty in viewing ourselves as anything but individual entities and often act from this narrow perspective, sometimes causing pain to those around us or the world at large as we only think about what is best for our own survival or self-interest.

But what if we broadened our perspective as a collective? What if we could view ourselves as small, individual components of a much larger creation; individual drops of water that make up an ocean or, like a Seurat pointillism painting, individual dots of color that when seen together make up a breathtaking piece of art? What if we stopped the “me against you” mindset that seems to be so rampant today and instead considered everything from the viewpoint of the greatest good for all involved?

What if we put our incredible collective intelligence to good use to find sources of energy, sustenance and information that supported each other and our planet rather than enslaving others while stripping the earth of its resources and reserves?

I know that this topic may feel a little deep or intense for a Saturday morning, but if not now, when?

How long can we keep up the hostility and animosity that so many hold towards our neighbors, communities, leaders, and planet – before we well and truly go into self-destruct mode – or our earth decides that we are an invasive species that she is damned tired of supporting?

An interesting fact to consider is the fact that the “Doomsday Clock” just hit 90 seconds to midnight. This means we are closer than ever to world destruction.

Just sayin’…😒

Here is what I would put forth as an idea for today: that we create a personal and societal mantra along the lines of:

Or perhaps – “I am an individual human in a much, much larger body of humans and other species. How can I work as an individual, but also with other humans, to create greater unity, greater cohesion, greater entrainment – to achieve the healthiest, happiest self and ecosystem/biosphere/body possible?” 🌏.

Feels good, doesn’t it?🌈✨🌞

Incidentally, for those parents that are looking to provide a little more educational content than “SpongeBob”, The Magic Schoolbus had one episode where Miss F. took the kids through a human body, and there was a really wonderful series of French cartoons “Once Upon A Time – Life” from the 80’s that covered pretty much every aspect of humans in 26 episodes.  They can be found on YouTube, as well as the “Schoolhouse Rocks“ series. 😎

Much love and big hugs, friends. Happy weekend!💖

– Terah

The Power of Gratitude

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Charlie Brown, in the comic strip Peanuts, expressed it perfectly – What if today, we were just grateful for everything?  

Better yet, what if every day, we were grateful for everything?  What if we were grateful for every single experience life has or is bringing to us?  

This may seem like a strange way to think.  Why would we be grateful for all of the negative or even awful things that we experience in this life?  

It can be so easy to regret and lament past decisions and the “negative” experiences life has brought to us.  But this can keep us in a negative loop – holding “victim mentality”, and inhibiting our abilities as creators.

So what if instead we learned to be grateful for it all?  What if we viewed all of the negative experiences of our past as opportunities for growth – to gain wisdom, to learn greater compassion, to experience the contrast of those things that don’t work for us to better know those things that do?

What if we considered the possibility that we came to this life as spirit, ready to be born into flesh to learn those lessons and to fully experience every single aspect of life from the sunsets to the sh#t on our shoe? 

You may be reading this and rolling your eyes, thinking that I am being a wide-eyed idealist rather than a realist.  What could possibly be the motivation to be thankful for the sh#t on our shoe or any other “crappy” experience life throws our way? (pun intended )

Would you reconsider if I told you being grateful not only increases life quality, overall happiness, physical and emotional health but also builds a better brain and significantly fatter wallet?

I thought that might catch your attention.  Read on…

Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology and creator of the wildly popular “Happiness Lab”  at Yale University, teaches that gratitude is one of the key factors of happiness – and science is backing up this previously “woo woo” theory.  In her course “Psychology and The Good Life” (most popular course at Yale in 300 years) she teaches much of that science. 

For example, it has been shown in research that when we feel grateful, our brain produces greater concentrations of dopamine; a feel-good neurotransmitter.  That dopamine increases when we express that gratitude through writing, speech, or compassionate action. 

Gratitude also increases creativity and performance – professor SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY,,  author of The How of Happiness, conducted an 8-month study of happiness at Harvard University.  The results of this study showed that when a daily gratitude and affirmation practice was used, people were 19% more productive, analytic problem solving increased by 29%, and here’s the really cool one – revenue was increased by 36%. { Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2004, 2006a, 2007} 

Crazy, right?

So what if we woke each day feeling happy, energized and ready to set intentions for an amazing day?  And on those days that weren’t quite as amazing, what if we were grateful for the contrast – and even more so the ability to wake tomorrow and try again? 

 What if we made the conscious decision to begin to overlay those old subconscious programs of lack and negativity with something better?

What if we started a gratitude practice each and every day, in which we spent just a few minutes writing or really feeling into the space of gratefulness? 

What if we wrote letters to our loved ones expressing all the things we appreciate about them?  

What if we wrote a letter to ourselves expressing all the amazing things we loved and appreciated about us?  Can you think of five things off the top of your head that you love and appreciate about yourself? 🤔

I’ve had a morning gratitude/affirmation journaling/meditation practice for several years now and I can tell you that not only do I feel better and more joyful – even in the times of intense stress – but my day flows better and I am able to create and manifest just about anything I can put my mind to.  

Some days I like to “supercharge” this practice with a “handsa” – I write my daily affirmation on my palm to come back to throughout the day.  Today’s handsa is “As my heart fully opens, my mind expands and that space is effortlessly filled with wisdom, freedom, joy, and abundance.”  But there are days where I keep it super simple, too – “Big Juicy Life”, “I Create” “I am love” or “I hold myself in the space of”: (gratitude, joy, contentment, prosperity,etc.)  

How can you make space each day for gratitude?  What would a daily practice look like to you if you knew being in a place of optimism and gratefulness would absolutely improve the quality of your life?  

I can’t wait to see what you come up with.   

Much love, beautiful. 💫💞✨

  • Terah💖

Mud to mountains 2 – Fake it until you make it!

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Hello gorgeous;

We’ve all heard the adage “Fake it until you make it”.  

This advice can help us to get to the place that we want to be – or cause an emotional trainwreck if we aren’t being honest about where we currently are at the same time.  

Does this sound like a bit of a contradiction? 🤔

In simple terms, we are creatures of habit.  Our brains are vast fields of neurological pathways, and these pathways are the tracks for our physiological, emotional and psychological patterns, conscious and subconscious.  

The route we take to go to work each day is a pathway.  The apple oatmeal and black coffee that we enjoy for breakfast each morning.  The way we respond to our partner, parents or friends when we are joyful and excited – or feeling criticized and devalued.  Our habits of industriousness or sloth.  Our temperament, routines and rituals, tendency to isolate or our extroverted qualities, the way we value others – or ourselves.  

All of these and every other thing we do and think are pathways through the dense field that is our mind and brain matter.  

This is good news because it means when it comes to pulling ourselves out of the mud to begin the trek to the top of the mountain – that place of expansive views, joy, connection and the deliberate creation of our best possible life – it is, more than anything, just an action that we continue practicing until it becomes a habit.  

In the same way that we learn and improve when we practice the piano, painting, a new profession or study habit, picking ourselves up out of the mud to move on to something better after a period of grief, depression, anger or inertia is essentially the same mental action as picking up that paintbrush, textbook or laptop to prune old programs and replace them with new habits and neurological subroutines.  

It might feel uncomfortable, difficult or challenging to begin, but once we practice envisioning a new reality for ourselves – or maybe a new identity would be more appropriate – and we begin to act upon what it is that we wish to see and become, eventually, that vision becomes our new way of being – our new reality.

Imagine • Practice • Do • Become

So what is it, ultimately, that you would like your life to look like in six months?  A year?  Three years?  Five years?  

How would you like to see your personal reality unfold? What would your close relationships look like?

Where would you like to live?  Do you see yourself in a villa by the ocean, living in an urban setting – or maybe a tiny cabin in the woods?

What would you see yourself doing for a living – what do you think or feel that your purpose is?  

What would your income be?

What would you imagine your daily habits being?  Do you go to the gym or run each morning, do you meditate, or sleep in until 10?

How will you change your life?  Whatever you can envision, you can achieve.✨😎

Let me give you an example from a friend/client of mine:

“Rebecca” grew up in a dysfunctional home.  She was taught that her value was in what she did rather than who she was and it was best if she was “seen and not heard”.  

So of course, Rebecca grew up to behave in ways that reflected this value system.  

She neglected her own well being.  She put all of her energy into caring for others.  She withdrew when there was conflict or when she was emotionally uncomfortable.  

She topically believed she had successful relationships, all the while avoiding real intimacy.  

Eventually Rebecca found herself depressed.  She assumed it was just the “pressures of life” and took antidepressants – but while it seemed like she wasn’t really depressed and unable to function anymore, she still didn’t feel emotionally connected to her life. 😓

In fact, she didn’t feel very emotionally connected to anything other than a growing sense of desperation and anger, emotions that she desperately tried to suppress.  

Can you relate to Rebecca’s story so far?  

Eventually, Rebecca began to see a counselor 🥰 who helped her look at childhood patterns that were causing huge blocks in her ability to experience joy, to value herself, to adapt and evolve – and how those patterns were reflected in her current relationships. 

She spent some time grieving for the many years she had neglected to care for the physical and emotional needs and wellness of herself and her inner child as a result of those patterns.  

She learned to reset her vibrational field to allow good to come to her rather than repelling her wishes and dreams due to her subset programs of scarcity and lack of value.

She discovered that she had to learn to self-care and nurture her personal growth, set healthy boundaries with others, and began to prune some of the toxic people who couldn’t accept her boundaries, growth and the radical responsibility for the shaping of her personal reality.  This was a process that was deeply painful but also deeply cathartic.  

Fast forward three years.  Rebecca is living the life that she hadn’t realized she was missing.  She has a truly successful relationship with a partner who enjoys healthy dialogue and honest communication.  This honesty also means intimacy and she understands what real vulnerability and intimacy means.  

She has taken up several hobbies that had interested her in childhood and although she reports that it is sometimes frustrating to not be “better” than she is, she loves the process of learning and slowly gaining skill.  

She had quit her corporate job a couple of years back,  and now works largely from home contracting her skills to large companies.  She loves the freedom this gives her.

She also makes it a point to spend time with friends and family each week to recreate and build personal relationships.  

In short, she has radically turned her life around.  

Rebecca still has occasional days when she feels a little blue.  But knowing that feeling connected, happy and deliberately creating her life is just so much better, she gives herself some grace and space to deeply feel on those days, but also keeps envisioning an ever-expanding future – and joyfully continues to expand into that future.

And you know what?  Rebecca’s blue days will become less and less the more she practices bliss, curating and cultivating the life of her dreams, healthy communication and community with others and most importantly, loving herself into wholeness.   How cool is that?

If Rebecca’s story resonates with you, I’d love to hear your story, too.  How do you lift yourself from the mud after those days that you need to give yourself a little more grace and space to feel deeply and acknowledge those past parts of yourself that might still feel a little broken?  

What habits do you practice that keep your vision clear and ever-expanding and your vibrational field humming at a frequency that allows good to come to you – rather than repelling it with hidden subconscious programs?  

Drop me a comment below!⬇️☺️

And just in case you needed to be reminded today, you are amazing.  You are valuable.   You are a magnificent creation and capable of achieving anything you can dream of, and babe, you are so very loved.🥰

Healing, hugs and much love;

  • Terah💖

Mud to Mountaintops

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Hello Beautiful;

How are you feeling today? Are you feeling fabulous and shining bright? If you are on-task and feeling amazing, I see you – you glow, girl!

But maybe today is a little rough. Maybe you are going through an especially difficult period and even the idea of getting out of bed to face the day is a struggle.

If this is where you are today, I also see you. I feel the pain you are going through. I have been there myself, more than a few times – and am sending you so much healing and love.

We all go through times like this. We all experience days that are challenging; days when we feel blue, irritable, or under the weather. Days when we don’t want to adult, and coping is a challenge. Frankly, these days suck – but are a necessary aspect of the human experience and can help us to grow.

There will be times when we come up against challenges, grief, new or unresolved trauma, or sometimes we just hit a wall because we are tired.

But here is a secret that modern society tends to ignore or overlook – if we are to get back to feeling fabulous and creating a joyful, connected life, it is vitally important that we acknowledge and honor our honest feelings on those days when we are struggling with keeping our “spirits up”.

 In the same way that in healthy relationships with others, we validate another’s truth and emotional state, we need to do the same with ourselves in order to move forward and move on to a higher resonance and better vibrational state.

So babe, if you are in the mud today, it’s ok.  Give yourself permission to squish your toes in that gooey mess a little.  Talk to yourself or someone you trust about where you are at and why you are there.  

Allow yourself to cry – tears release stored cortisol in the body, which is why we almost always feel better and lighter after we let go of the negative feelings we may have been holding or hiding, sometimes without even realizing it. 👀

Once you have validated your experience and given yourself time and permission to access and acknowledge the sh#ty aspects of your emotional or physical reality, start looking up again.  

It’s ok and even healthy to be in the mud for a little while but babe, don’t stay there too long.  Remember that our emotional states are neurological pathways that can become trenches and even personality traits when we dwell in them over-long, and ultimately, we go through the shiznit in our present to get to a healthier, happier place in our future, right? 😎🥳✨💫

Stay tuned next post for some tools on finding our way out of the mud once we are ready to start climbing that hill again.  🏔🏔🌄

The views up here are spectacular and beautiful, I can’t wait to give you a hug and a hand up.  You’re going to love it here.🥰

Just in case you had forgotten – you are amazing.  You are worthy.  You are capable, beautiful, valued and so very loved.💖💖💖

  • Terah