Sunday, September 25, 2016

Thank You and God Bless You, Jose Fernandez - by Raphaella Vaisseau

My parents are grieving today, especially my Dad. As you may know, Jose Fernandez, the Miami Marlins pitcher, died this morning in a boating accident. Besides his talent, this young man expressed so much joy, on the field and off, it was infectious to fans, and in particular, to my Dad. Baseball has a huge piece of Dad’s heart. He recently shared with me he gets depressed when baseball season ends each year. Last night he spoke again about how much he loved the game, and told me he started playing when he was 3 years old by hitting rocks with a stick in a field in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Fernandez was his favorite player and he watched every minute of any game he pitched.

Both Mom and Dad loved the story about Fernandez coming over on a boat from Cuba when he was 15 years old. According to a story I read today in the NYDN, “Fernandez, who became a U.S. citizen last year, defected from Cuba to the United States with his mother and sister after three failed attempts resulted in jail time. He escaped by boat, leaving his grandmother Olga, a woman he called the ‘love of his life,’ behind. While crossing the rocky waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Fernandez jumped in to rescue a woman who had fallen overboard. It wasn’t until he reached her that he discovered it was his mother.”

My Mom and Dad are in their mid-90s so they have experienced a lot of grief in their lives. Even still, today’s loss of Jose Fernandez will be especially missed by Dad as he watches Marlins baseball and wishes he could see this young man pitch just one more game. Rest in peace, Jose. You have given much to many, not the least of whom is my Dad.
September 25, 2016, Raphaella Vaisseau

Saturday, September 24, 2016

This means something: liberty and justice for all - by Raphaella Vaisseau

This means something: liberty and justice for all. Think about it. Liberty is “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.” (… or religion, color of skin, sexual preference, handicap, etc.) Justice means fairness and “using laws to fairly judge” with impartiality and respect for people. All means “everyone,” the whole of us, every member of our society. Black lives matter.
-Raphaella Vaisseau

Thursday, September 15, 2016

New 11x14 Worthiness Poster Now Online - Heartful Art by Raphaella Vaisseau

Years ago, early in my conscious spiritual journey, I did an exercise to increase my sense of worthiness. Not my worthiness, but my sense of worthiness. We are innately worthy. This was the 1970s, I was living in an ashram, and I was devoutly studying soul transcendence and higher vibrations.

The exercise was to repeat a phrase 100 times a day for 32 consecutive days. Doing this supposedly laid new track in the subconscious mind for the intended affirmation. A big fan of positive thinking and using affirmations to lift my vibration, this was one of my favorite exercises.

Here's how I did it: I sat at my dressing table with a mirror in front of me. (Note: This exercise can be done without the mirror, but in the case of "I am worthy" I felt it would be important to see myself and feel the words and meaning as deep within me as possible.) I gathered ten pennies and ten dimes and put the pennies in a pile to the left of me and the dimes in another pile further back, also on the left side of the table. I was ready to begin. Looking into my left eye, I said to myself, with feeling, "I am worthy" and moved a penny from the left pile over to the right side. As I said the words again, I looked in my right eye, and again moved a penny from the left pile to where I'd placed the first penny. Again to my left eye, and then my right. After doing this ten times, and all the pennies in the pile on my left had been moved to the right, I moved one of dimes from the left to a new place on the right of the table and began again with the pennies until I'd repeated the affirmation another ten times at which point another dime was moved to the right. Using the coins allowed me to not have to keep track of the number of times I said the affirmation. I could move them from side to side without even taking my eyes from my reflection in the mirror. When all the dimes had been moved from the left to the right, I had completed 100 repetitions.

Two more things about this process are (1) before beginning I would write out my commitment, date it, and sign it, and (2) after I completed the exercise each day, I would check it off on a chart I'd created and labeled for this purpose. I had learned the 32 consecutive days was important, and if a day was skipped, I was to start again at the beginning with a new agreement and new chart. This is a powerful, powerful process. Each time I wrote out a new affirmation and made a commitment to myself to do this to lift higher, I would immediately feel the results.

I highly recommend this technique and the "I am worthy" affirmation to anyone recovering from eating disorders, addiction, to anyone with self-esteem issues, lack of self-confidence, or simply for fun. It it sounds interesting to you, give it a go. We are in this together. I support you as I support myself.
-Raphaella Vaisseau

Monday, August 22, 2016

Law of Attraction: Emotions as indicators by Raphaella Vaisseau

Whoever said we should be real and tell it like it is? What is real anyway? Who is the judge?
The more I study the law of attraction, the more I realize how important it is to tell a new story. Rather than talk about reality, what appears to be real, talk instead about how we want it to be. Become vigilant in thinking and feeling. If a belief is just a thought we keep thinking, as Abraham-Hicks teaches, it may be worth it to make some new beliefs by thinking new thoughts that feel good, thoughts that match what has been created in our vibrational escrows. Thoughts like, "Things are always working out for me" or "The universe gives me what I need when I need it." Ernest Holmes said, "To learn how to think is to learn how to live." Buddha taught, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." Interesting.

How do we make the shift? Abraham-Hicks teaches us to notice and care about how we feel. Consider that we live in a vibrational universe and we are vibrational beings. Consider also that we each have an inner being who adores us, knows what we want, and knows the path of least resistance to where what we want is. By paying attention to how we feel, we can tell if we are in alignment with or out of alignment with the way our inner beings view a situation or circumstance. Emotions are the indicators. For example, feeling happy might indicate being in alignment, whereas feeling sad might indicate a larger separation from the alignment we seek.

Our inner beings never condemn us or another person, never make us or another person wrong, never push, or ignore us. Rather, our inner beings love us unconditionally and see us and others as who we truly are, as extensions of source energy. If we stand in judgement of another, or irritated by a condition, and if we care about how we feel, we may notice a dip in our emotions when we express judgement or irritation. This is because our inner beings maintain the perspective of the god-self, and do not come with us in the judgement or irritation. We feel the separation that develops between where we are in the judgement or irritation and where our inner beings are on the same subject. Remember, our emotions are our guide.

By telling new stories, we practice thinking and speaking in ways that are in alignment with where we want to go, with who we are. Law of Attraction responds to what we think and say. When we notice we are thinking a judgmental thought, we can stop and focus on something that's easy to be in alignment with (nature, a pet, a song, a loved one). The emotional shift may not happen immediately, but with practice we can get better and faster at raising our own vibration. If we have practiced caring about how we feel, and find ourselves expressing irritation, we can learn to notice this, recognize we are feeling differently about something than our inner beings are, and we can move to a more general focus. For instance, we could affirm how things always seem to work out. Henry David Thoreau said, "Surely joy is the condition of life." He surely knew something about vibration. The universe is elegant in its simplicity. Practice brings clarity, and we have a built-in emotional guidance system to show us the way.

All is well. We can't get it wrong.
- Raphaella Vaisseau

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Resurrected Heart 2 Heartful Art print of an original painting by Raphaella Vaisseau - What love is all about

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Week, here's a print of "Resurrected Heart 2" from a series of three paintings I did when I lived in Ashland, Oregon before the turn of the century. (That sounds so long ago.)

The flower in the center of the heart is symbolic of the heart forever opening to the spirit within. That's what love is all about, a forever unfolding of joy, understanding, and acceptance, within and to ourselves as well as outwardly in relationship to others. Such a beautiful thing love is.

Knowing that everything is vibration and living in a vibrational universe, it's easy to feel when we are in harmony with ourselves, our loved ones, and our desires. Abraham-Hicks teaches that our emotions are the indicators of how well we're doing. Does what you're thinking feel good? If yes, think more thoughts like that. If no, refocus on something else that generates happy feelings. Sound too simple? Maybe so, but you might want to check it out for yourself.

I wish you love today and always.
- Raphaella Vaisseau