Tag: #Youarepowerful

Pray for peace

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Mother Nature seems a bit pissed off atm… Not just here in America but just about everywhere – 

👉United States: Flooding and severe storms have impacted the Northeast, with flash flooding in New York and New Jersey, and devastating floods in Texas. Wildfires have also been a concern in California. 

👉Japan: Deadly floods have occurred in central Japan. 

👉Africa: Flooding has been reported in several countries, including Chad, Morocco, Algeria, Tanzania, and Kenya. 

👉Asia: Typhoon Yagi caused significant damage in Asia, and Southern China has been devastated by deadly floods. 

👉Central Europe: Storm “Boris” caused widespread damage. 

👉Papua New Guinea: A landslide flattened a remote village, killing hundreds. 

👉Taiwan: A massive earthquake caused casualties and trapped mine workers. 

👉Hawaii: Kilauea, a Hawaiian volcano, has erupted dozens of times in the last 28 days.
👉 Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted again July 7, sending an ash plume 11 miles into the atmosphere.😬
👉Mount Etna in Italy recently erupted
👉Mount Rainer in Washington State has seen dozens of seismic swarms over the past week

👉Panama: A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific.  

These are just some of the recorded natural disasters that the Earth has been experiencing over the past few weeks.

According to quantum physics, everything in the world – and the universe at large – is connected.✨

We are all microorganisms in a larger macroorganism, much like individual cells in a human body. Or perhaps, we are more like the bacteria residing in a human body; a population even greater than human cells. 

Given all of the negativity in the world right now, it makes perfect sense that our physical environment would be a reflection of the stress, strife and unrest that so many are experiencing.   

If the negative emotions that we hold in our magnetic field are projected into the unified field, perhaps the mass of anxiety and strife is contributing to the upheaval of the Earth. 

If this is true,  we should also be able to influence the Field positively – to set our differences aside, allow our anxieties and hostilities take a backseat, and focus on the positive.  On healing ourselves and the planet.  On building a better future for ourselves and future generations.✨

Skeptical?🤔

Here’s something to consider➡️

In 1993, a three-week experiment was held where 4000 participants gathered to pray and meditate in Washington DC; at that time the most crime-riddled place in the nation.  (I can attest to this – I lived in DC for several years at that time, and though I absolutely loved it, there were areas where I would not have gone for fear of being shot on the spot).  

The Maharishi Effect in action

The intention of this experiment was to significantly reduce stress and increase coherence(peace), lowering the crime rate in our nations’ capital. 

👉 A 27 member project review board monitored the experiment and weekly crime data gathered from the DC police department.  

👉 During this time, crime decreased by nearly 25%!  The decrease could not be attributed to outside factors such as weather, additional police staffing, etc.  

👉 the probability of this drastic of a decrease happening by chance was estimated to be impossibly low –  (p < 2 x 10-9 )!

This experiment became known as the “Maharishi effect”.  

There are hundreds of other examples of how we influence our environment every day – most of us have had the experience of thinking about somebody and then they call or text, or we meet them at some random and unexpected place.  We have a song in our heads and turn on the radio to find it playing.   We need healing and it happens.  Or we are desperately in need of something; be it money, health, a partner, or just a kind word, and it shows up in a way that feels like a miracle.  Like prayer answered.  And it is.  

✨In most world religions, it is called Prayer.

✨To the spiritualists, it is manifestation. 

✨To the Wiccans, it is spellcraft.  (Spelling=magic✨)

✨In spiritual philosophy, it is coherence with All That Is.

✨In quantum physics, it’s vibrational alignment.

How are you “spelling” your reality?

At the root of our belief systems, it’s all the same, regardless of language, belief system, or philosophy.  We are in constant communication with everything that is, or God/Allah/Shiva/Goddess/Unified Field, etc.  As my favorite “guru” Wayne Dyer once said: 

Our futures are formed by the thoughts we hold most often. We literally become what we think about, and we are all given the gift of being able to write our own story.

✨We can change our story, individually and collectively.  

✨We can make the earth a place that we all want to live in. 

✨We do not have to accept as norm the destruction or downfall of our civilization and the strife, upheaval, divisiveness and warfare we are currently experiencing throughout the world.  

Here’s how we can change things, from the inside out: 

✅Start with gratitude. Before you fall asleep and when you wake each morning, take a few moments to acknowledge all of the good in your life.  This not only projects into a magnetic field, but also sets our neurobiology to release happy chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin, rather than stress hormones. (cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine) 

✅Request good in your life.  Every spiritual tradition has the equivalent of “Ask and ye shall receive.”  It works. 

✅ Focus on the good.  Spending too much time focusing on the negativity of the past and present, or holding anxiety for the future only decreases our personal power.  Perhaps one of the reasons why there’s so much focus on it in the media; a term called hijacking the amygdala.  The amygdala is the area of the brain responsible for emotional regulation.  When we are in a place of stress or fear, the amygdala overrides the rational thought and decision-making part of the brain; the prefrontal cortex.  This can create a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety.

✅ Reset – when you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or dysregulated, your amygdala is likely in control of your emotions.  Take a moment to center.  Breathe deeply into your lungs and diaphragm.  Hold for a few seconds followed by a slow exhale. Put your mind’s focus on your heart rather than your head.  This resets the parasympathetic nervous system from flight or flight into rest and create.  👉You can also use havening or anchoring techniques to create greater peace and calm – cross the arms and gently stroke down the length of the arms from shoulder to fingertip.  Alternatively, gently stroke the tops of the thighs.  Feel into your body and really notice the sights, sounds, and feel of the body and environment of your immediate vicinity.👈

✅Connect.  Spend time with others who make you feel good and raise your vibrational frequency. Hug often. Physical touch not only increases serotonin and oxytocin (the “love hormone”) but lowers stress hormones, increases immunity, and just makes us feel good.🥰

✅ Spend time outdoors.  Henry David Thereau said “We need the tonic of the wilderness.”   The disconnection from our natural world and into one of rampant technological use is one of the reasons why we are becoming more sick and unhappy as a population.   Being outside reminds us of the beauty of our natural world, but it also exposes us to negative ions, which increases positivity and immune function, decreases stress, increases cognitive function and creativity and can even prevent disease.  

✅Empower yourself.  We have all heard the adage “knowledge is power”.  Pay attention to what is happening in the world, but don’t involve yourself emotionally to avoid the “amygdalic hijacking” I referenced earlier. (Stay frosty😉) 

  • 📰 If you wish to be involved, crossreference everything! Truth has become more and more subjective and even that which should be true must be questioned with the advent of AI, deepfake technology, and increasingly sophisticated psyops employed by governments, tech giants and individuals looking to influence the population to one particular mindset.  
  • Look to your values.  Whether it is a personal relationship, spiritual leader or political figure, the people you spend the most time with should be a reflection of your personal value system.  If you are seriously questioning the alignment of your values with someone else, there is probably not only an energy drain but a potential future disaster. 
  • 🥋As a martial arts instructor and longtime practitioner, I highly recommend at least rudimentary self-defense classes as an excellent way to gain confidence, a deeper sense of personal empowerment and self knowledge.  I also teach and practice yoga and can not recommend it highly enough for the deep sense of calm and connection it creates in the mind and body. 
  • 🖌️🎨Self expression through any form of art – painting, sculpture, dance, writing, cooking, fashion, etc., is an excellent way to not only create greater authenticity and self empowerment, but also can dramatically escalate the level of joy we feel on a daily basis.
  • Power Pose! Tune in to your stance and walk.  How are you resting in your body?  Are your shoulders hunched and back curved, decreasing range of motion and putting you into “prey” mode?  Or is your spine long, shoulders back and head high; all signs of confidence, strength and power? If you are needing an extra dose of confidence, try taking a Wonder Woman/Superman pose – back straight, feet wide and hands on hips.  Studies have shown this to reduce stress and improve cognition and new research indicates decreased cortisol and an increase in levels of testosterone when we “step into our superhero”.  Here’s another interesting fact – our primitive brain does not know the difference between reality and what we create in our minds, see on a screen or dream up on ChatGPT.   A fun tool is to use  AI to create a superhero image of yourself and put it somewhere you can see it daily to remind yourself of how amazing and powerful you are, and to begin to rewire your neurocircuitry to build a more confident, radiant version of yourself.  Here’s one that ChatGPT built for me using one of my favorite photos:

Cool, right?  Here’s the prompt I used: “Please create an image of me, using my photo, as a superhero in a classic hands-on-hips pose.  My chest emblem should be a heart with a sunburst radiating outwards.”  And I’d say AI absolutely nailed it! I’m thinking I might use it as a future book cover…😉

How is your field potentially affecting the mindset of our population – and Mother Earth herself? 

Big Love. 

  • Terah 

Perceptions, Presets, and Personal Relationships

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

The human brain is an organic computer; a recognition machine that every moment is creating stories and constructs to fill in the blanks of the world around us, largely based upon our individual sets of life experiences and preset patterns.

Put into scientific terms, the reticular activating system; the brain’s “reality filter” sorts through the roughly 6,000,000,000 bits of information we take in per second through our primary senses and magnetic field, and translates that information into 4000 or so usable bits of information that we then view the world through. This filter is essentially created through our unique early childhood programming.

This is why confirmation bias happens. Why we so often end up exactly like our parents or caregivers; for better or worse. This is also why learning and incorporating new experiences into our adult lives is so vitally important if we are to continue evolving as individuals and as a species.

But that is a big and multi-faceted subject. For now, let’s look at how it applies to our self-perception and the way that we create relationships with others.

Our relationship with others can only be a reflection of some aspect of the relationship we have with ourselves.

“The world is looking glass and gives back to every man their reflection of his own face.” – William Make-Peace Thackeray

Because of this, It is nearly impossible for any individual to fully understand who another human is. But we can learn to know ourselves better through how we respond and relate to others and the world around us, and in turn broaden our ability to have a greater scope of understanding of who someone is.

When we meet another person, we create an image of them based upon what our own previous life experiences have been. We build assumptions based on our own identity; an identity that is often an egoic construct based on those childhood patterns of survival and “safety”, or lack thereof that we have continued living well into adulthood.

It is estimated that 98% of our thoughts and actions are habitual (and largely based upon this early programming) before we turn 40, unless we are actively working on neuroplasticity – altering that circuitry and growing a better brain.

What we see in the person we are interacting with at any given moment is an amalgamation of recognized aspects of these preset programs and patterns; often having very little to do with who they truly are as an individual.

Unfortunately, in the same way that we often cannot smell our own bad breath, we are usually unaware of the background programs that are controlling our real-time thoughts, words, and behaviors. It is difficult to see our own dysfunctional patterns until something happens that forces us to confront those damaging subconscious belief systems. We can not know that we are in a dark room until someone opens a window and sunlight pours in.

We can only understand another based upon our own identity patterns.

I have seen this pattern in myself plenty of times. I meet someone and I have this “Wow!” moment in which I see their gorgeous inner child or something especially fabulous in their manner; in their incredible potential, and the beauty of their soul, and I fall a little bit in love. Or sometimes a lotta bit.

When I say that we can not truly know another soul for who they are, I am not negating what I see in that person – I know that when I see that beauty and potential, it is absolutely there. But my own preset patterns of recognition don’t always allow me to see all the other aspects of their nature that might not be as compatible with my own. (Reticular Activating System…). What I also don’t always see is how my own dys-functional pre-sets from childhood might be playing into accepting partners or friendships who do not treat me with value.

Often, the recognition of those things I might not see, whether it is in those relationships or in myself, comes months or even years down the road when I have an “aha” moment or realization that I have been accepting sub-par treatment or that the vastly different, difficult, challenging, or impossible aspects of who they are will not change. I have to either accept the whole person rather than the “potential” that I see, or I need to reframe the relationship that I have with that person.

I very recently had one such epiphany; realizing that an unhealthy situation I had gotten myself thoroughly entrenched in was connected to unresolved (unbeknownst to me at the time) patterns that traced back to my very first relationship. This realization hit me like a ton of “holy sh#t” bricks and made my shadow side do a happy dance, feeling significantly lighter for the understanding and letting go of that heaviness.

Haven’t we all experienced this at one time or another?

I really appreciate the Pollyanna aspect of my nature and her ability to want to be besties with the wise, beautiful, Divinely -connected Starseed inner children she sees in others. I like to think that that sparkly, Rainbow-Brite aspect of my nature is my essential nature. The one I was born with, rather than the one that I learned through a complicated childhood.

But that other, darker side; based upon learned behaviors and belief systems from that oftentimes difficult childhood is not nearly as sweet, and has negatively influenced my personal relationships and the way I have viewed the world.

I grew up in a home where there was a tremendous amount of volatility and instability. I could not trust the adults in my life to care for me, protect me, or keep their word to me. Because of this, I learned to be fiercely independent and would not allow myself to trust or be truly vulnerable in my closest relationships. Or if I did, at the first sign of any kind of “betrayal”, I shut down and shut them out. I created self-fulfilling prophecies of being treated with less-than love and value in my closest relationships, based on faulty belief systems. I couldn’t even recognize that they were there or how much they were hurting me until I began to observe myself from the outside.

For me, learning to recognize the patterns of both my inner “Pollyanna” and my darker, less-than-trusting side, and look deeply into my own reactions and behavioral patterns with others has allowed me to cultivate healthier relationships.  As an added bonus, it has also helped me to recognize that humans are complex, and sometimes we fuck up.  I can be okay with those that I love (myself included) being less than perfect, and loving them through their own bullsh#t while maintaining some healthy boundaries for myself, when necessary.   

This is not to say that I am willing to be treated as less than the beautiful soul and gorgeously complex creation that I am, (nor should you) but it does give me a greater ability to have grace for the patterns and presets of those that I choose to surround myself with.

God knows, I am still working on all of this every single day, (#growthmindset) but awareness of my own presets and choosing to see the light in myself, others, and the world around me, rather than the mistrust I was taught, has been huge in altering every single aspect of my life from personal relationships to how I allow myself to see and create reality. 

So if we find ourselves feeling cynical, critical, and judgemental of others, we can learn to recognize that it is our own self-identity that is cynical, critical, and judgemental. We just project onto others what we feel critical of in ourselves.

If we are convinced that humanity is destined for destruction, hell, or just a life half-lived; a life of “settling”; if our view of the world is cynical or fear-based; this is all based upon our own internal belief systems and dialogue.  

But the opposite is also true. If we can learn to see ourselves as essentially good; of being capable of beauty, growth and evolution, we will see that reflected in the people and the world around us. The mind is always listening in on our self-talk, and if we begin to shift the way we speak to and about ourselves, those neurological patterns can begin to reshape themselves, too. I get bonafide nerded out just thinking about how amazing the human brain (and body) is…😉

If we can see the possibility and potential, the magic and miraculously Divine nature of our own beautiful Self,  we will believe others to also be miraculous, magical, Divine beings of infinite potential.  

If this resonates, maybe it’s time to step out of the shadow of a faulty and untrue belief system that was instilled by people who didn’t know a better way, and step into the bright, shiny, fabulously Divine being that you are. Maybe it’s time to unravel from the collective cocoon and way of being taught to us by our parents, society, religion, educational system, and political figures, and start embracing your own unique beauty, capability, and intelligence.

Because that is where your power is, babe. That is where your joy is. Where your magic and freedom and fun are – In the fullness of who you are, and the wisdom of what is right for you.

Through your own awareness, growth, and evolution, your relationships will improve.  You will attract others of a similar mindset who wish the same for themselves.  Through choosing to create your best possible life, and fully loving the Who that you are, you give those around you the permission to do the same. 

Ripples on a pond, babe. 🌊. How cool is that?

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

Rainbow Warriors/Love Vs. Fear in creating a better world.

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

Have you heard of the “Rainbow People” prophecy held by many Native American cultures?  

“There will come a day when people of all races, colors, and creeds will put aside their differences. They will come together in love, joining hands in unification, to heal the earth and all its children. They will move over the earth like a great Whirling Rainbow, bringing peace, understanding and healing everywhere they go. Many creatures thought to be extinct or mythical will resurface at this time; the great trees that perished will return almost overnight. All living things will flourish, drawing sustenance from the breast of our Mother, the Earth.”

The Navajo-Hopi Prophecy is not only similar to this but also very similar to the Christian belief of the “New Earth”:

“The great spiritual Teachers who walked the Earth and taught the basics of the truths of the Whirling Rainbow Prophecy will return and walk amongst us once more, sharing their power and understanding with all. We will learn how to see and hear in a sacred manner. Men and women will be equals in the way the Creator intended them to be; all children will be safe anywhere they want to go. Elders will be respected and valued for their contributions to life. Their wisdom will be sought out. The whole Human race will be called The People and there will be no more war, sickness or hunger forever.”

There are many Versions of this legend, but most speak of a time of darkness in which greed and division would prevail.  The earth would become sick and many creatures would die, fish going belly-up and birds dropping from the sky. (we have seen this happen many times in recent years)  This excerpt from Steven McFadden’s book Legend of the Rainbow Warriors is another example:

“The Native People would be all but helpless, but then Light would come from the East, and the natives would begin to find their strength, their pride, and their wisdom… I see this happening now with the tribe of People in my area, the dear to my heart Lummi. … At the same time, many brothers and sisters of the other nations – white, yellow, and black – who would feel strongly the calling of Spirit. (This is certainly happening right now. Never before has there been such a vast call of Spirit for people to teach their wisdom, thanks largely to the internet and social media) They would understand the basic fact that it is the Earth which gives us the water, food, clothing, shelter and beauty necessary for the circle of life. These awakened souls would find each other, and together they would teach all the people of the world to have respect for the Earth Mother, of whose very stuff human beings are made. Respect would prevail.

Under the symbol of the rainbow, all the races and religions would band together to spread the great wisdom of living in harmony with each other and with all the creations of the world – and thereby restore the Sacred Hoop. Those who teach this way would be the Warriors of the Rainbow, but they would do no harm. Using peaceful means alone, and by becoming examples of right living, after a great struggle they would bring an end to the destruction and desecration of the Earth.

The tasks of Rainbow Warriors would be many and great. There would be mountains of ignorance to conquer and they would meet prejudice and hatred. THey must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong of heart. They would find willing hearts and minds that would follow them on this road of healing. Peace and plenty would then reign through a long and joyous Golden Age. “

It sometimes feels like the earth is, indeed, doomed to destruction.  I see so many people – intentionally or inadvertently – bringing darkness into this world through fear and anger.  I occasionally find myself feeling frustrated or unhappy by the choices people choose to perpetuate when I know for a fact that we all have the potential to choose better.  To live well.  To be happy. 

From media negativity to social media algorithms pushing hate in our face, everyone joins in the shouting and stick-rattling on government control, vaccines, guns, rampant violence and shootings here in the US and abroad.  Then there’s the war with Ukraine, potential war with China and Russia, oh, and let’s not forget the sh#t show of the Grammys.   

This and a thousand different topics of current events keep us surrounded by darkness and angst.  

But here is an essential truth: 

We can not be in the light and hold another person or thing in darkness. 

We can not spread good and light while expressing darkness.  

We cannot hold and have light in our hands or in our hearts if what we are feeling and sharing is darkness.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about these things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice.  And the God of Peace will be with you.  – Phillipians 4:8-9

For those who are of a religious or spiritual bent, is not God the Light?  

Is it not written that God is Love? ✨❤️

So how can we be in the Spirit of God if our thoughts, words, and actions spread anger, anxiety and fear?  

Here is something to consider:

Our thoughts are energy; molecules vibrating that become things – just as much a tangible aspect of reality as the roadways that we drive each day to work, the trees that purify our air, and the molecules that dance within our own body.   If our thoughts are continuously creating our reality, what reality are we putting out there when we continuously project darkness? We can incorporate brain biology to this concept – the more we invest in negative thinking, the more our neurochemistry and eventually, the neural networks of the brain will reflect this and become who we are rather than a passing dive into fear and anxiety.  

What reality are we creating not only for ourselves but for everyone else, when we, as a society, collectively dwell in fear, angst, and anger?  Certainly not a happy, healthy place to live, to grow, to raise children and evolve as a species.😑

So here’s a proposition.  

What if, instead of dwelling on all of this end of the world bullsh#t, we instead kept our focus on those things that were noble, pure, light, and beautiful; as Paul said to the Philippians?  

What if we stopped throwing sticks at our hearts and God and recognized our grace and ability to change the doctrines and dogmas we have been holding to create something good in the world?  To see that, as Hafiz said nearly eight hundred years ago, that everything is sacred.  

If God is in every molecule, then all is God, right?  Even those things, circumstances or people that we may not approve of.  

It’s also important to remember and acknowledge that we all have times when we lose our way.  

All of us – whether we are a celebrity or a stonemason.  So what if, instead of casting stones, we held ourselves and others in love, in grace; in Light, and started creating the heaven on earth that I – and many others – believe we were meant to live?  Not only would we be happier and healthier as individuals, but the world just might become a beautiful reflection of who we are rather than a mirror of the darkness we hold for and within ourselves.  

Just a thought. 🙄

There are those who DO step forward, every day to bring light into the darkness.  To create a better reality.  To wake up and not only smell the coffee but share that motherfxcing goodness.  To all the other Rainbow Warriors out there, Thank you.  I love you.  I honor you. I appreciate you.  

To those that keep sowing those seeds of discord, anger and angst, babe, I see you.  I understand that you are expressing yourself from a place of fear rather than love, but believe me when I tell you – it does not have to be so.  Fear is an illusion that we create or accept, largely because our primitive brain functioning wants us to stay safe in the cave rather than step into the light of what may feel unknown.  

But when you come to the light side, you will see some of the joy we hold over here.  Some of the healing.  Some of the grace.  And yes, we, too, have cookies. 😉

Much love, big hugs and many blessings for this and every day.💖

– Terah

Memento Mori/Into the Chaos

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

For several years, my (adult) son has gotten a new tattoo each New Year’s Eve.  

The tattoo that he chooses is one that is representative of where he’s at in life, the past year and the one to come.  I personally think this is a really cool way to physically evaluate where you are at and manifest the future you wish to create.  It’s not my way, but I love the idea and that he knows so clearly what is right for him.  

This year he is getting a tattoo of the Memento Mori skull with a Pacific Northwest scene incorporated. 

Momento Mori means “Remember Your Death.” another way of putting this is “Remember that one day, you, too, shall die.”  

This may seem morose or melancholic, but I believe it is a perfect representation and way to begin a new year.  It is a reminder of the preciousness of life.  Incorporating the Pac NW mountains and pine trees is a grounding memento of the home he grew up in.

It got me thinking about how ending one calendar year and beginning another is a bit like a mini-death and rebirth. Personally, if I were going to do a similar tattoo, I might go with “Memento Mori, Memento Vivere” – Remember your Death, Remember to Live.

How often do we spend our days just putting one foot in front of the other without really being here? How many of us aren’t really living but just existing, waiting to die? What if our New Year’s resolution was to really live our best possible lives in 2023?

How would that look for you?  What would you change if you knew you had no limits?  

What steps might you take to move toward the life you would like to be living instead of existing? 

What risks would you take that might make you uncomfortable in the short term but alter your level of joy exponentially in the long term?

Recent studies in Neurobiology show that the old idea of “Be happy and your life will follow” is a flawed philosophy.

The adage “Fake it until you make it” is far more accurate – mood follows action. This is so important that it is worth repeating.

Mood follows action.

Behavior is the control panel of the mind. We have to take the steps that feel uncomfortable and sometimes frightening for the joy to show up.

This means that in order to step into our best possible life, it is often necessary to step away from all that is familiar to us and into the unknown.

It is our safety-based (fear-based) egoic constructs and pre-set survival programming that keeps us locked into stale patterns and an unfulfilled existence.  

This is not only a psychological phenomena based in how we were parented and cared for as children, but also a characteristic of our neurobiology.

When we begin something unfamiliar or new, the brain, being hardwired to survive rather than thrive; to choose safety over success, views things that are not known as “unsafe”.

Because of this primitive biology, the amygdala – the brain’s primitive survival center – will produce stress hormones such as adrenaline and norepinephrine, causing us to feel frustrated and uncomfortable; to give up and go back to the safety of our “cave” or normal life.

This is extra true for any of us over thirty-five years old – unless we are actively learning new things or utilizing practices to grow a better brain, 90% or more of the way we live is the result of the biological structure of the brain’s wiring. Ouch, right?

As a result, anything outside of what is generally familiar to us will feel hard – learning new skills, behaviors or languages, looking for a new career job or hobby, addressing past trauma, going back to school, starting new relationships, traveling to unfamiliar places. Anything new and unfamiliar will likely feel challenging. Difficult. The same chemical processes that keep us “safe” also inhibits us from continuing to grow.

But here’s where “magic” can happen: when we stop avoiding those things that feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar and instead step into the chaos of what may feel like a storm of negative emotion, we will pass through the gates of what is fondly called the “Terror Barrier” and drop into a new neurochemical state.

After the initial dump of adrenaline, if we continue to “ride the wave” of discomfort, our brain begins to produce acetylcholine.

This chemical bypasses the safe zone to bring us into a deeper state of learning, focus and neuroplasticity. Aceylcholine is what is responsible for the feeling of being in a “flow state”. Once we have achieved this state, we have a dopamine release – a feel-good neurochemical reward for creating new neural networks and evolution of who we are.

So cool. 😄😎🤯

It’s like nature and biology created us to largely stay safe. Comfortable. To follow the crowd. But for those intrepid souls who are willing to step into the unknown, to move past the fear, frustration, discomfort and anxiety, new worlds and wonder await.  

An interesting spiritual parallel to this is a scripture from the epistle of Thomas in the scrolls found at Nag Hammadi: 

Fascinating – Exactly like the neural chemical process described above.  Seek/step out of a comfort zone.  Be disturbed/uncomfortable/troubled.  Be astounded and amazed, then the keys to the universe are within your grasp.

For thousands of years, we as a species have left the intrepid exploration to the very few. We have chosen to remain safe, often at the expense of our long-term happiness.  

But I would like to think that we are at a place in our evolution where that access is open to each of us. 

We all have the ability to captain and pilot our own ship to the destiny that we choose, rather than that which society, family, peer groups or just our own fears have chosen for us. 

All we have to do is decide what we want, and step into the unknown with the understanding that the initial response may feel uncomfortable.  Frustrating.  Disturbing.  Like chaos.  But as Moana found out, the other side of that reef is where the whole world lies.🌎✨💫

What will you choose for 2023?  

Happy New Year!🍾🎉🎊

Big hugs and much love.💖

– 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💖

Gods and Heroes

by Terah Drake, posted in Uncategorized

You are the hero you have been waiting for...

Heroes aren’t heroes because they worship the light, but because they know the darkness all too well to stand down and live with it.  – Ninya Tippet

She’s always there on the sidelines, ready to step into who you fully are.  The Hero.  The Goddess.  Your truest form.  

But how often do we overlook the powerful being inside ourselves, choosing to venerate another such as a Hollywood star, social media “influencer”, politician or religious leader – or even an ideal such as a superhero from a comic or movie?  We look for salvation outside of ourselves and wonder why we feel so powerless in our own lives.  

But what if the tendency to revere greatness in others comes from a deep-rooted knowledge of and desire for greatness in ourselves?  All we need is to re-discover that dynamic being within to remember who we really are, under the fear, the anxiety, the worry and the lack of self-trust. 

We need to remember that we are fucking badass. 

We all have our own unique brand of hero within, and it’s high time we stopped looking for someone to save us and start saving ourselves.  Be your own Hero, loved one.  Be someone that, when your time to cross the border to the great beyond comes, you can look back and say you lived big.  You fulfilled those dreams that may lie latent inside yourself right now.  You made a difference by just being who you are.  You were your own, incredible, unique brand of hero, whatever that looks like. 

 If you aren’t sure what that might actually look like, we can find clues to our own authentic heroic voice through looking at those things that we admire in others.  Maybe compassion is your superpower.  Maybe you are a healer, protector of others’ rights, or an incredible artist,  athlete, CEO or entrepreneur.  Maybe your heroic gift is lifting others; of speaking life into those hard dusty places in others’ psyches that seldom see water.  Do you love to share your artistic vision or inspire others to spend more time outdoors?  We live in a time when getting your passions out there has never been easier. 

Whatever your gift, don’t let it die inside of you.  Don’t pass through this life a shadow of yourself.  You deserve to be all that you truly are.  Your soul deserves it.  Those around you need it – by being your most powerful, authentic self, you also give others permission to take their own heroic journey into greatness.  You are the Hero you have been waiting for. Believe it.  Much love.

  • Terah