Goddesses Never Age: The Secret Prescription for Radiance, Vitality, and Well-Being (45 page)

The action you take to align with Divine Order needs to be both spiritual and practical. You have to let go of your expectations about what is supposed to happen in your life and be open to the divine plan. Recently, my youngest brother, who raises mule-horses, hybrid animals known for their gentleness, was bucked off as he was riding downhill and landed on his neck. As a physician, of course, I did what I could to get information from his doctors and help our family understand his condition and what could be done for it medically. That was the action part. But there was a spiritual part too. I knew that the accident could be something he was supposed to experience as part of his life story. I took spiritual action and said a prayer that he would recover completely. I also gathered with other family members to send Divine Love to him, and especially to his lungs, because I knew he would need strength in his lungs to survive the emergency surgery. But beyond doing what I could do, including praying and sending Divine Love, I had to let the Creator fill in the holes of my brother’s story. To everyone’s great relief, he made it through just fine. And by surrendering to Divine Order rather than trying to micromanage the situation as the designated know-it-all family member (every family seems to have one of those in a crisis), I saved myself and everyone around me a lot of suffering.

I can’t guarantee that if you live joyously and agelessly, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you. Stuff happens on planet Earth. Even if your physical body ages, or suffers an accident, or develops a disease, living joyously and agelessly is going to maximize your healthspan and lifespan. And the source of all joy is Spirit. The ancient Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “There’s a kiss we long for our whole lives: the kiss of the Beloved.” Spirit or
Source is our true Beloved, who will always accept, forgive, and love us. It is the kiss of the Divine Beloved we’re all looking for, and the Divine Beloved is willing to bestow it upon us. All we have to do is invite in the Beloved who has been patiently waiting. We don’t have to wait until we’ve lost that last ten pounds, or cleaned out our junk drawer, or vacuumed the rug—we can have it right now!

THE BODY, THE SPIRIT, AND THE EARTH

I’m all for quieting the mind for 15 to 20 minutes or so to meditate, but we’re here to live and enjoy our bodies, hearts, and minds, not escape them. Life is the real meditation. I know a meditation teacher who sits on a cushion ten hours a day, but his life off the cushion is a wreck. You can get addicted to the whole “woo woo” metaphysical thing as a distraction from the needs of your body and your daily life. You can go to India, trek to ancient Mayan sites, and sit at the base of the Great Pyramid and chant. But when you come back home, the relationships that drove you nuts when you left will still be there—and so will your laundry. You can’t ignore your physicality and your connection to the earth.

The separation from our generative pelvic bowls and our sexual, sensual life force is mirrored by our sense of separation from Mother Earth. That painful disconnection began thousands of years ago when our reverence for the sacredness of the life-giving earth started to fade and a culture of domination, not collaboration, begin to take over. We developed the belief that we’re supposed to dominate and exploit the planet. Intuitively, though, we know this isn’t how we are supposed to relate to the natural world. Spirit and earth are completely connected. The Gaia hypothesis says that the earth is a living being and that we’re not just living
on
the planet, we’re
part of
the planet. After eons of separation, we’re finally acknowledging that a relationship with Spirit, the earth, and each other based on domination instead of collaboration isn’t healthy. And we’re recognizing the sacredness of life on our home planet instead of thinking of God as existing
far above us in the heavens, separate from us, our daily lives, and our experiences of our bodies.

Reconnecting with the earth—and sky—isn’t just something you can do figuratively. The human body evolved to walk on the earth, drinking its water, breathing its air, and basking in its sunlight. You can actually improve your health by spending more time in nature and getting in touch with the earth and sky. When you do this, you experience the divinity of both the earth and your body.

A hundred or so years ago, the Victorians believed it was important to get fresh air and sunshine. They instinctively understood that public parks could help reduce crime and disorder and calm people who enjoyed them, which is why they built so many of them.
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People would go off to a sanitarium in the mountains if they contracted tuberculosis. The cure often worked because the fresh air, relaxation, and relief from everyday stress helped the body heal. But then we started shipping people off to hospitals and clinics with electric lights and doctors who had prescription drugs and scalpels to treat us. Fortunately, we’re starting to see research that backs what we all know: that spending time in the natural world revitalizes us and reduces our stress, which leads to better health.
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Time in nature also lowers cortisol levels, boosting immunity.
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Being outdoors in the sunshine increases vitamin D levels, reducing the risk of depression, cancer, heart disease, and other serious illnesses. One of the effects of nature deprivation is that we don’t expose ourselves to natural light the way we did when we lived closer to the land, before artificial light came along. Think of natural light as a nutrient your body needs for good health and balanced mood. It is Mother Earth’s gift to you.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, or have little exposure to sunlight because you’re indoors all day under artificial lighting, you’re probably low in vitamin D. You can improve your levels by getting enough light. Get outside more, especially on sunny days. I don’t advocate baking in the sun for hours. But a 30-minute sunbath without sunscreen in the early morning or late afternoon can do a world of good for your mood
and vitamin D levels. (Beyond that, use sunscreen.) Make sure you get plenty of natural light through windows. When that’s not possible, use natural-spectrum lightbulbs. You can buy light boxes that will give you an extra burst of full-spectrum light that mimics outdoor lighting. To prevent eye strain, set them up so that you can see them in your peripheral vision. Let the light of the sky shine upon you and replenish you.

And speaking of eyes, being indoors most of the time is associated with nearsightedness, while being outdoors may prevent or halt its progression.
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Be sure to spend some time outdoors—without sunglasses—like your ancestors did. Also, your retinas need natural light to produce serotonin, a “feel-good” neurotransmitter that boosts your mood and prevents depression. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a temporary condition that’s most common in winter when there’s less natural light, can be alleviated by exposure to sunshine or full-spectrum lighting. That said, respect and work with the natural cycles of your body and the sun’s light. If you feel like sleeping in once in a while when it’s dark and dreary, listen to your body. If you sleep a little more in winter, don’t worry about it.

Another way that being in nature can improve your health is if you practice “earthing.” Earthing means reconnecting with the earth’s electromagnetic field (usually through walking barefoot on the ground) to stabilize your own electrical field. All the modern electrical devices surrounding us, such as cell phones, televisions, and other electronic equipment, affect our personal energy fields and the electromagnetic field we’re constantly interacting with. I sleep with an earthing sheet that I plug into a grounded outlet, but I also spend as much time as I can with my bare feet touching the earth. The earth’s negative ions counteract the positive ions that cause oxidative stress in your body, which is what causes damage to your tissues. In fact, studies have documented that standing on the earth herself decreases jet lag and also decreases cellular inflammation. Try this next time you have to fly somewhere so you can get back in touch with the natural rhythms of the earth and sun.

NATURAL CYCLES, COSMIC CYCLES

Part of aligning with Divine Order is aligning with the natural cycles of the earth and the cosmos. One of the natural cycles is the cycle of the sun, which creates two solstices each year: winter and summer, December 21 and June 21 in the northern hemisphere (the dates are reversed in the southern hemisphere). Winter solstice marks the return of the sun and a lengthening of days, and summer solstice marks the longest day of the year and the beginning of the nights becoming longer. Each one has a different significance. For those who lived closer to the earth, back when the Mother Goddess was at the center of spirituality and religion, summer solstice was a time for joyful celebration and dancing. Winter solstice was a time for reflection. As the light returned, it was a time for imagining what to create in the longer days to come. Since winter solstice falls near Christmas and New Year’s Day, you might want to take either of those days, or the solstice itself, as a time to reflect on what you would like to bring into your life. Spending time resting and reflecting will nourish you, body and soul.

The moon has cycles, or phases, too. In ancient traditions, the sun was often seen as a male energy, but the moon was a goddess. After all, the moon rules the flow of fluids in the body, including our menstrual cycles. It also rules the flow of fluids on and in Mother Earth, including the tides in the ocean and the fertility cycles of many plants and animals. There are times of the month when the moon is full and abundant and times when it’s invisible and has no light to shine on anyone. Those who work with plant medicine very often follow the cycles of the moon for planting and harvesting. It’s also instructive to notice how the moon affects the cycles of your life. The waxing moon and full moon are times when things are birthed and come to fruition, while the waning moon is a releasing moon. When the moon is waning, it’s a good time to release what is no longer needed—including old resentments and hurts. The new moon is the time to plant “seeds” of new intentions. Lunar eclipses and solar eclipses often cause agitation and upheaval in people, and there’s research showing what we who have worked in obstetric
wards have long noticed: that births occur more often when there’s a full moon.
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Pay attention to the phases of the moon and reflect on what you want to bring in and what you want to release because it’s no longer serving you.

The planets have cycles of their own. While the astrology forecasts in newspapers and magazines are harmless fun, actual astrology, which uses detailed charts and looks at the positions of all the planets when you were born compared to their positions now, will help you see how your cycles fit in with larger cycles. If you choose not to believe in this form of divining based in nature, that’s fine. But for many people, including me, astrology is a tool for becoming aware of life patterns and societal patterns. Astrological charts are blueprints of the soul’s journey. I have a “solar return” chart done every year by a professional astrologer to see what major energies will be influencing my journey. Knowing my astrological forecast helps me be conscious and prepare for what I’ll experience, including spiritual lessons. It’s kind of like when you consult the weather forecast to see whether or not it would be a good idea to take an umbrella or light jacket. Being prepared keeps me from feeling victimized by circumstances. There are no “bad” charts, but sometimes the planets’ positions show that you’re going to be dealing with something challenging.

If you want to consult an astrologer, don’t go to one who scares you with the information in your chart. Consult someone who uses astrology as a tool for consciousness. Doom-and-gloom astrologers are just as bad as doctors who always look for the worst instead of assisting you in truly flourishing.

Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, whose oath all of us doctors take when we get our degrees, was an astrologer. But we have lost that sense of the connection between the earth, the cosmos, and our bodies that was present back in his day. If the moon rules the flow of fluids in our body, why wouldn’t other planets besides the moon affect us? The subtle energies and how they move and interact in the energy field we all share are still mysterious to scientists, but they are transmitted to us through the electromagnetic grid, which we experience in our connective tissues. This is scientific fact. And it’s very empowering to know that we have this tool!

As I was first writing this chapter in September 2013, the planet Saturn dove into what is called the north node of Fate. (The nodes mark the points where the orbit of the moon and the orbit of the sun intersect.) A slow-moving planet like Saturn joins those nodes rather infrequently. In this case, that node/ Saturn conjunction had also occurred in June 2002, and before that in January 1991 and July 1979. I looked up those dates in my journals and saw that, in fact, each coincided with a major event involving one of my books. Many people shared with me that they, too, had experienced huge turning points in their lives during those periods. Knowing about astrological cycles like this and seeing how they have manifested in my life are ways to trust in Divine Order. I realized that it is no mere “coincidence” that I was writing another book at this time.

Pay attention to your body’s natural cycles too. If you’re a morning person, consciously choose to reserve your mornings for activities that are priorities for you. Don’t give away your best time of day to just anyone or anything. If you find you’re most reflective in the early evening, honor that by writing in your journal, pondering your dreams of last night, or meditating at that time. Respecting your natural cycles and those of the earth and sky will help you connect to Spirit and your own creativity and joy.

CONSCIOUS CONNECTIONS

Knowing the cycles of nature and the cosmos, you can consciously choose to align with them. When you do this, you’re aligning with other people, and you’re changing the relationship among humans as well as the relationship between humans and the earth.