Leaning towards the Light. What I learned on Christmas Eve.
For Christmastime this year, I spent a few weeks back home in Iowa with my family. On Christmas Eve we attended church together as is our tradition. I’ve always loved Christmas Eve service - especially the finale when we sing Silent Night by candlelight. This year, however, the highlight of the service was the message given by the pastor. It was so down to earth and real. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Basically, the message boiled down to “lean towards the Light.” He used the winter solstice and the gradual process of the earth tilting back towards the sun (in North America) as a metaphor for how, even if we’ve been lingering in darker times, we can decide to tilt back towards the Light of God; or Love’s Pure Light (as sung in Silent Night). In an age where there are plenty of reasons to let yourself get sucked into negativity and hopelessness, from what we see happening in the world to what we experience in our own minds, this message was poignant. And from an energetic perspective I cannot agree more.
Life Force Energy is the life-giving energy that pulses throughout the Universe and through every cell in your body. It is high-vibrational, like the Light of God. Indeed, they can be considered one and the same! Since you are made up of this Life Force Energy/Light of God, you are intimately connected to all of creation energetically speaking. That doesn’t mean we always have open channels to this energy, however. Blocked energy is what keeps us from experiencing the best, most vibrant version of ourselves. Blocked energy keeps us stuck in the dark.
When our energy channels are open and our mind, body, and spirit are leaning towards the Light, we are living in greater health, well-being, peace, and abundance - or as we like to call it, Harmony. In fact, wisdom and spiritual traditions teach that living in Harmony is our birthright.
Yes, that’s right, you were created for Harmony.
As the pastor mentioned in his sermon, leaning towards the Light can happen little by little, one step at a time. And no matter how dark it’s been, no matter how skeptical you are or how hopeless you feel… the Light is there waiting for you. So maybe a good practice for this new year is just turning a little bit more, day by day, towards the Light that has been waiting for you to come home all along.
Here are a few ways I practice turning towards the Light:
- Daily meditation. I meditate once in the morning for about 20 minutes. Easy Peasy.
- Turn off the constant stream of news. Instead of talk radio and news channels, I listen to music that uplifts me, or audio books that inspire or educate me.
- Connect with friends and family. As an introvert, this one is challenging for me. I think about my friends and family all the time but they’re not mind readers! Giving them a call for no particular reason is a good thing. I never regret it! Just make the call (or text).
- Catch my negative thoughts and self-talk. With compassion, I gently redirect low-energy thinking towards higher-quality thoughts.
- Be kind to myself. More sleep? More water? More nature? More forgiveness? The possibilities are endless.
How about you? What are a few ways you turn towards the Light? The pastor at the Christmas Eve Service mentioned something interesting about the winter solstice. He said that on the first day, the additional daylight isn’t even perceptible to the human eye. Same for the second day. But on the third day you can actually register the longer daylight. So it takes a little bit of time to notice the changes. Be patient and trust the process.
Here’s to living in Harmony!
Angela
