Journal
Insights for April 2023
Awakening Insights
Enlightenment is seeing the light. Enlightenment is simple. It is seeing the light of truth. Trust truth to see the light.
Remember: you want to be a little overwhelmed … you’re learning. You want to be learning. Growing. Stretching. Waylon S. Lewis
"Your body ages, your awareness/your soul, does not.
We are part of an enormous life force; and its ageless and timeless.
Our capacity to awaken is endless."
Who you are was born into your body; it is not your body." Jack Kornfield
"The stories we tell of our past are written on water." Jack Kornfield, "No Time Like the Present", pg. 102
More awareness
More acceptance
More forgiveness
How do you feel? Do you feel things intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, or somatically (in your body?)
How much alone time do you need?
Know truth. Believe truth. Trust truth.
What if you release to existence?
Do you have a mentor? If you don’t you can use bits and pieces of mentors. You can look at one person for passion. One for creative vision. One for grit. One for compassion, One for determination, One for wisdom. Piece it together and pull from what you need when you need it - it is called modeling - and modeling teaches you he pathway to being.
Are you listening to your inner voice?
You haven’t found it until you find it.
You can stay true to your values, and you can’t control others’ values.
It's ok to put yourself first, 1. take care of yourself and 2. be thoughtful to others (not the other way around.)
We continue to breathe ourselves into existence.
"Your imagination is a doorway to your soul." Mark Jones
Tired of Being Courageous, a poem:
Perhaps, it's okay to be tired
of being courageous at times.
For sometimes,
you don't want to think about
doing something afraid
because you're tired of being afraid,
and you just want to know
what it feels like
to be okay.
Yes, there will be days
where courage finds you
in the deep waters of life
and propels you forward
with mighty waves.
And then, there will be other days
where all you want to
do is find a quiet place
along the shore
and let the waves of courage
remain at a distance,
allowing yourself to just be…
and longing for this
does not make you weak.
Yes, there will be times
where courage will be exactly
what you need…
and then, there will also be times
where you just need room
to be still
and breathe.
Morgan Harper Nichols
Meditation Insights
"It is because we're afflicted by the thorn of craving and attachment that we act unskillfully." Andrew Olendzki
The things that comes with Vipassanā meditation are more awareness, more seeing, deeper knowing, more letting go through seeing things with equanimity, peace, truth, transparency, release of resistance, and freedom.
Freedom is existence without attachment.
"Buddhism teaches that joy and happiness arise from letting go. Please take an inventory of your life. There are things you’ve been hanging onto that really are not useful and deprive you of your freedom. Find the courage to let them go." Thich Nhat Hanh
"…true nature of awareness is a source of lasting strength and resilience. Awareness is beyond conditions like pain and pleasure, suffering and ease. It is that which allows any and all experiences to arise, and yet is unchanged by them." Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
"Whatever arises concepts, feelings, your body, subject and object, everything-is like clouds in the sky," he said. "They come and they go. Your true nature, awareness imbued with love, compassion, and wisdom, is like the sky itself.? Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
"The basic teachings of the Buddha awaken us to who we are. They begin with learning to recognize the Truth of our experience by opening to life, just as it is. Then we discover how to awaken our inherent capacity to meet this ever changing life with Love. This unfolding of presence and love reveals the Freedom of our true nature." Tara Brach
"Since that long-ago evening when I faced the never-ending narrative of falling short, I have discovered that enoughness has absolutely zero to do with accom-plishing, nothing to do with achieving, and is not at all about trying to be good enough. Rather, the realization of enough is right here in the fullness of presence, in the tenderness of an open heart, in the silence that is listening to this life. These are the moments when the glow of gold shines through." Tara Brach
"The boundless mind is free of ideas, opinions, conceptions. It is fresh, open, and unmediated." Roshi Joan Halifax
"Every time a habitual pattern gets strong, every time we feel caught up or on automatic pilot, we could see it as an opportunity to burn up negative karma. Rather than a problem, we could see it as our karma ripening." Pema Chödrön
"Not only do we have a precious human life, but that precious human life is made up of precious human days, and those precious human days are made up of precious human moments." Pema Chödrön
"In any moment, you can put your full attention on the immediacy of your experience. You can look at your hand resting on your leg or feel your bottom sitting on the chair. You can just be here. Instead of not being here." Pema Chödrön.
"When you are completely wound up about something and you pause, your natural intelligence clicks in and you have a sense of the right thing to do. This is part of the magic: our natural intelligence is always there to inform us, as long as we allow a gap. Just do it over and over. Allow a gap, gap, gap. Allow yourself the space to realize where you are." Pema Chödrön
"Awakening is not a destination, and meditation is not a bus ride. Awakening is the unfolding of an ability to see what has always been there. To see, more and more reliably, what is actually in front of you." Joan Sutherland, Roshi.
"Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness.
As we let go, our innate freedom and wisdom manifest. Nothing to have, nothing to be.
Every for. Of genuine awareness is liberating. Each moment we release entanglement and identification is selfless and free." Jack Kornfield
"Aversion is just the other side of the coin. We have an aversion to what we don't want because we're trying to hold on to the way we want things to be. And ignorance, in order to sustain itself, requires a kind of contraction around our current view of what reality is, or what it should be, or maybe what it can't be. It's a closing of the fist around a particular story.
So the question at the start of the Buddhist path, and at every step after, is simply this: of the things you are grasping, which are you afraid to put down?
Whatever you say, your answer reveals who you think you are.
What you're holding on to is not a problem in itself. This is about what you think you need, what you're afraid to let go of. Nothing you are holding on to right now is something you can't put down. Nothing. Your hopes, fears, beliefs-you think they make you you, but until you liberate them, you'll never be liberated from them." Koun Franz
Grief Insights
"All meeting ends in parting, said the Buddha. This is an inescapable-and heartbreaking-fact of life. Whether it is someone we love, a good situation, how we define ourselves, or life itself, there is nothing we can hold onto forever. Everything eventually changes, ends, falls apart, breaks, dies. How we react when things fall apart is the single greatest challenge in life-and its greatest opportunity. In it is the choice between suffering and awakening. So when things are falling apart, when we feel groundless and uncertain, we only create more suffering when we try to put them back together - to make them solid again." Melvin McLeod
Relationship Insights
Mutual respect is one of the foundations of a healthy relationship.
Pure love is truth. Pure love has truth. Pure love knows truth.
What does each of us want as we age? Where are the intersections and where at the canyons? Where do we merge and where do we separate? How do we see our future, envision our lives, and plan to do what we want and need to do and also be partnered?
Astrology Insights
You get to know yourself better and better and better through astrology. And when you know yourself better, it is easier to be you.
REMINDER:
Pluto is currently in CAPRICORN and is moving into ➡️AQUARIUS. It retrogrades ⬅️and ➡️until 11.20.24:
Mar. 24, 2023, Pluto ➡️AQUARIUS
June 12. 2023, Pluto ⬅️CAPRICORN
Jan. 22, 2024, Pluto ➡️AQUARIUS
Sept. 3, 2024, Pluto ⬅️CAPRICORN
Nov. 20, 2024, Pluto ➡️AQUARIUS - Pluto in Aquarius for 24 years.
As I said above, Pluto has left Capricorn and moved into Aquarius. It will not leave Capricorn without every effort to demand your attention to letting go of Capricornian ways.
Nothing will ever be the same. There is no going back. #plutointoaquarius
The future is now.
The Saturn return (at age 28 - 30) is not over until it is over. This is the same with all transits - when a planet transits around your chart to align with one of your birth planes and brings upheaval, new awareness, and transitional changes, the energy of the transit is not over until it is over - until you can have merged with the energy and manifested the changes.
It won’t reign down on us but arise in us [Pluto in Aquarius.] Steven Forrest
I am not enslaved. Saturn has gone through my 6th house and eliminated all of that.
Aries mantra: I greet the sun, me - shining, and my destiny.
Healing Insights:
Healing: find someone who is similar to you in many ways who is going through the same challenges - and process it all out together. Bare your souls to each other. Listen. Take notes. Reply. Share insights. And you’ll move through it. Make new plans. Support each other. It works wonders.
"GATHERING AND GROUNDING BREATH: This is way to get out of your head and into your body. Sitting or standing, find an upright pos-ture. Close your eyes and tune into the feeling of your natural breath coming in and out. Slowly begin to lengthen your inhalation and extend your exhalation, just a little bit at a time. When you breathe in, imagine all the scattered parts of your mind collecting together in one spot at the edge of your nostrils. As you exhale, let that soft ball of energy drop down into your body, giving you a feeling of earthiness and stability. You can also do this during a challenging conversation or meeting or even while you are walking down the street." Cyndi Lee
Insights for March 2023
Awakening Insights
"Rather than making a few heroic or virtuous gestures or taking on some righteous cause, the idea is to have a quality of awareness, gentleness, and benefit to others color everything you do." Judy Lief, “Train Your Mind: All activities should be done with one intention”
Sometimes patience shows up. The middle path is a huge fan of patience. The Insight Center
Do the outer work first. The daily work. Then do the inner work. The inner work is a reflection of the outer work. The Insight Center
When you evolve and your vibrations are at a higher level, you will be in a space where you need more rest. The Insight Center
Be open to what’s next. The Insight Center
Awaken. Know. Choose. Let go. Heal . Awaken. Know. Let go. Heal. The Insight Center
When anxiety arises use inquiry. What am I feeling? Name it. Allow it. See it. Know it. Over and over. This way you deeply connect with your truth and see yourself deeply and clearly so you can let it go. See it. Release it. The Insight Center
One advantage of a solo retreat is being alone. One challenge of a solo retreat is being alone. The Insight Center
Make no excuses. Make peace. The Insight Center
I am choosing fate. I know that sounds strange. How can we “choose “ fate!?! Look at it through the back door - which to is release clinging and attachment. The Insight Center
Ego loves tension and wisdom loves peace. The Insight Center
Do what you love. And keep doing what you love. The Insight Center
Denial of aging alienates you from reality. The Insight Center
Meditation Insights
When you get bored or it feels arduous to meditate the last 10 or 14 minutes, remember that you are building your meditation muscle. The Insight Center
Having a good day? Meditate.
Having a bad day? Meditate.
Feeling anxious? Meditate.
Feeling happy? Meditate.
See? It’s the equalizer. The awareness equalizer. The Insight Center
It is a bonus when grounding naturally shows up during meditation. Ground, and return to your breath. The Insight Center
If sending love and / or healing can show up during meditation. Send it if it’s aligned with you, and return to your breath. The Insight Center
With Vipassanā Meditation you receive wisdom without attachment and you can trust what arises as wisdom. The Insight Center
You are in France doing a solo retreat. You are in an apt. in a small village. They are jack hammering up the small street next to you. What do you do? Meditate. Meditate as usual. Meditate during the jack hammering. Do you know why!? Sometimes there are obstacles to our meditation and in our lives. One option is avoidance (I could go for a walk or a drive,) but my mind, body, and spirit will still be waiting for the meditation. So sit as usual and meditate through the obstacle. It builds meditation muscle. The Insight Center
“Sitting quietly (often called meditation) can be the most sublimely peaceful experience. It offers the most refined way to really rest into non-doing - an opportunity to truly relax not only your muscles, but also your nervous system, your breathing, your thought world. Meditation can be a moment of bathing deeply in true silence, stillness, and peace.” Martin Aylward
Meditation reminds me of the ordinary. An everyday practice of meditation is ordinary. It is not special. It is not about achieving. It is about being. Being ordinary. The Insight Center
Vipassanā Meditation practice includes choice-less awareness. Whatever shows up, shows up. And we don’t attach or judge. Choice-less awareness then starts to show up in your life - showing you how to not attach and not label. The Insight Center
"… the whole Buddhist path is nothing but a way to get from who and where we think we are to who and where we really are." Melvin McLeod
A deep breath during meditation is a release. The Insight Center
Grief Insights
The purpose of death is the release of love. The Insight Center
Relationship Insights
Don’t get overly invested in what you think is in the mind and thoughts of another. Rick Hansen. This is his new book on relationships, "Making Great Relationships: Simple Practices for Solving Conflicts, Building Connection, and Fostering Love"
Don’t worry about how to say it right. Say it straight with kindness. The Insight Center
Astrology Insights
Astrology for March 2023 is BIG
I primarily watch the big outer planets for their shifts because they are the planets of transformation. These movements create shifts for everyone and profound changes for us. In March 2023 these changes are are profound and create openings for alignment with our truth and break down prior structures to create space for revolutionary awakening and transformation.
SATURN - MARCH 7 - SATURN ENTERS PISCES. What is your dream and how will you make it your reality? Where is Saturn bringing this energy into your chart? Contact me for a reading.
PLUTO- MARCH 24 PLUTO ENTERS AQUARIUS for 3 months. This is big news.
Pluto is currently in CAPRICORN and is moving into ➡️AQUARIUS Mar. 24 and it retrogrades ⬅️and ➡️until 11.20.24:
Mar. 24, 2023 Pluto ➡️ AQUARIUS
June 12. 2023 Pluto ⬅️ CAPRICORN
Jan. 22, 2024 Pluto ➡️ AQUARIUS
Sept. 3, 2024 Pluto ⬅️ CAPRICORN
Nov. 20, 2024 Pluto ➡️ AQUARIUS
Pluto in AQUARIUS FOR 20 YEARS
The Pluto in Aquarius time will be about dynamic progressive changes. Aquarius is about awakening. It will be a time of acceleration. Discovery. Invention. Futuristic. Technology. Connectivity. AI. Unexpected forward trajectories. Freedom. Brotherhood/sisterhood. Revolution for the people. Hang on and be on board or get left behind. To understand more about how this impacts you, it is important to know where the Pluto transit is happening in your chart. Contact me for a reading.
Astrology shows you the patterns. Then you learn the patterns. Then you recognize the patterns. Then you break the patterns. Then you create new patterns. This is the alchemy of the cosmic game. Farah Siddiq
Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces: The sensitive, intuitive water element, often mistaken for weakness, is actually a powerful agent for change in surprising and paradoxical ways.
“Water us yielding, but all-conquering. Water extinguishes Fire, or finding itself likely to be defeated, escapes as steam and reforms. Water washes away soft Earth, or when confronted by rocks, seeks a way around. It saturates the atmosphere so that Wind dies. Water gives way to obstacles with deceptive humility, for no power can prevent it following its destined course to the sea. Water conquers by yielding; it never attacks but always wins the last battle.” Lao Tau
Full moon quandary: How much am I living my life is response to others?
"Saturn - decide what you are going to take seriously". Mark Jones
What are your most important dreams and what is the strategy you can take? [This is] Saturn in pisces. Mark Jones
During a difficult planetary transit, follow the lead of the transiting planet. The Insight Center
Insights for February 2023
AWAKENING Insights
“Illumination
Freedom
Soaring heart
Transform
Where do you start?
You start where you are. “~ The Insight Center
“Since your mind is with you wherever you go, you need to sit down and start unwinding your ball of yarn.” ~ Jakusho Kwong-roshi, @tricyclemag
“You are built to handle the pressure that comes with your calling.” ~ The Insight Center
“Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” These lines are often attributed to the great German playwright and thinker Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ~ Mark Jones Astrologer.
“Every time I set myself free, I am freer. This is obvious, and we forget. Freedom grows incrementally.” ~ The Insight Center
“Self-love helps us build internal cohesion so that we are no longer far away from ourselves. The more we come in contact with our truth and learn to embrace it with full acceptance, the more we are able to find greater personal harmony Building this self-awareness opens up a gateway where we not only learn to love ourselves better, but we start to have a deeper sense of love for the people in our lives. At its highest levels, self-love continues expanding, ultimately becomes an opening to loving all beings unconditionally.” ~ Yung Pueblo. “Lighter” page 26
“Letting go can literally be an unwinding process. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is HARD. You can unwind attachments and release them from your body and energy system. I can help you do this!” ~ The Insight Center
“You won’t see it for what it is until you stop looking through the lens of what you want it to be.” ~ @tinybuddhaofficial
“Letting go is not a dramatic moment we build up to some time in the future. It is happening now, in the present moment—it is not singular but ongoing. Letting go is based on our present realization of the reality of impermanence.” ~ Judy Lief, “Letting Go”
“If it is done, it is destiny that it be done.” The Insight Center
“You are not in a body,
On the planet,
To live someone else’s life.” ~ The Insight Center
“Don’t wait is a pathway to fulfillment and an antidote to regret.” ~ Frank Ostaseski
“Your new level will require a new version of you. Don’t fold.” ~ @farahmsiddiq
“Before you do something think about how much attachment is involved. If you are doing something that has a lot of attachment you are potentially setting yourself up for suffering. Live freely without attachment and you will be free.” The Insight Center
“Reminder: “Everything that exists is subject to change.”
“If everything is always changing, that me as we are experiencing change all the time.”
“Change is everywhere, so we are never choosing between change or no change. We are just choosing between different sorts of change.” Dan Zigmond
“Whatever we have done with our lives makes us what we are when we die. And everything, absolutely everything, counts.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
“There is within you that which is beyond birth and death, beyond success and failure. It just knows that you are, and it is.” ~ Yoshin David Radin
Be intuitive meaningful wisdom.” The Insight Center
MEDITATION insights
“With each session of silence, the fog lifts a bit more, until one day the egos “I” with it is insistent look-at-me voice, drops away, revealing the true self afloat in a vast blue sky.” ~ Joan Duncan Oliver, “The Sound of Silence”
“You can experience multidimensionality in meditation and everything becames one.” ~ The Insight Center
“Part of it is observing oneself more impersonally… When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, “You’re too this, or I’m too this.” That judging mind comes in. And so, I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.” ~ Ram Dass
“If you have mindfulness enabling you to read yourself and understand yourself, craving will have a hard time forming. In whatever guises it arises, you can read it, know it, extinguish it, let it go.” ~ Upasika Kee Nanayon, “A Glob of Tar”
GRIEF insights
“These books on grief were recently recommended and look great:
“How to Carry What Can't Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief “, Author Devine Megan
“It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand”
Author Devine Megan and Mark Nepo
RELATIONSHIP insights
This is a new book by Rick Hansen about relationships. Check it out along with his other books. He is a great practitioner and writer. Simple chapters to read and work on with your partner!
ASTROLOGY insights
“Astrology is a symbolic language of truth; that’s why I want to share it.”
“The story of Uranus is, “Where do you feel no barriers?” ~ The Insight Center
”Inside you, there is an eternal flame or diamond of truth that becomes more condensed or brighter, lifetime after lifetime.” ~ @markjonesastrology
“Jupiter doesn’t lock things down. It opens things up.” ~ The Insight Center
“Aquarian energy does not resist change while at the same time leads the resistance.” ~ The Insight Center
“When you are looking at the nodes think of the word “ease.” Where do you feel ease (S. Node) and where do you feel less ease (N. Node.)” ~ The Insight Center
“I am a collector of key words for all parts of astrology. Today I gathered these new words from a conversation about Aquarian energy between Dr. Safron Rossi and Alejo Lopez, in The Astrology University podcast:
Pluto was in Aquarius during the French Revolution
Eye on potential
Radical
Break out of known to unknown
Chaos and potential
Non hierarchy
Break free
Higher vision
Inventor
Ruthlessly original soul” ~ The Astrology University Podcast
“When you are a strongly cardinal (initiating) person you can be afraid you might forget your latest greatest idea(s!). Cardinal signs are Aries Libra Capricorn Cancer” Write them down!” ~The Insight Center
HEALING Insights
“What do you feel in your heart?
What do you need in your heart?
How can you give it to yourself?” ~ The Insight Center
“Rest is more than napping on the sofa.
Rest is anything that makes your nervous system feel safe enough for your stress response to switch off so your mind, and body can recover and restore.” ~ Nicola Jane Hobbs, @realizeemepath
Insights for November 2022
The Insight Center Newsletter for November 2022
The insights/quotes offered here are collected as I read materials that are interesting or moving to me, along with my own insights, and are also shared online at Insight Center Journal, and on Insight Center Instagram. Please feel free to share this with others.
COMPREHENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSE
Comprehensive Astrology Course for 2023 will begin in January 2023! This is a course I developed with original materials and is taught in person in Portland and online. Course is limited to six persons.
The class size is small, and all topics are personalized with your own charts! In this one-year, twelve class Course (1 class per month), you will learn each concept in depth. All recordings of classes, written materials, and homework are included.
Please contact me for course outline, fees, or questions at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com
AWAKENING Insights
“Inner peace comes not from turning off the mind, but from deliberately confronting one’s innermost prejudices, expectations, habits, and inclinations.” ~ Mark Epstein
“What is taking a toll on your soul?” ~ The Insight Center
“True fundamental evolutionary change typically happens at the pace of a glacier.” ~
Forrest, Steven 2019: Fire. Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, Inc., pg. 218.
“Pick the path that lights you up
The one you know deep down is the right choice
Stop listening to doubt
Start connecting with courage
Do not let the idea of normal get in the way
It may not be the easy path
But you know great things take effort
Lean into your determination
Lean into your mission
Lean into the real you.” ~ @yung_pueblo
“Sometimes you don’t realize it because you have gradually become it.” ~ The Insight Center
“I don’t understand setting boundaries, from a Buddhist standpoint - everything is impermanent so what is the point of working to hold up boundaries!? Learning to say “yes” and “no” and “maybe” with ease and awareness seems like a better plan.” ~ The Insight Center
“There is no way out of this mess except to become enlightened and enjoy it.” ~ Robert Thurman
“Sometimes I feel no where in no time.” ~ The Insight Center
“The very fact that you have looked at the problem straight in the eye means that you are on your way up and out of it.” ~ Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Breathing”
“What does it mean to check in with your energy?” “I don’t feel comfortable in this situation.” “I would love to do that.” “I am going to stay home.” “She is having a bad day and her energy feels toxic.” “If I ground myself, I will feel more stable.” ~ The Insight Center
“If you are having a hard time letting go you are overly attached to something/some aspect of the situation. Know what that is and shine the light of awareness on it and lessen its grip on you.” ~ The Insight Center
“The more attached we are the harder it is to let go.” ~ The Insight Center
“Imperfect, limited, and vulnerable as I am, the sun still shines upon me, things do work out, food appears, rain falls, wonderful conversations take place, and the grass grows without any help from me.” ~ Dharmavidya David Brazier @tricyclemag
“This is your moment.
Your moment to find your voice,
to breathe through fear,
to become your best self –
which is just, simply, yourself.” ~ @walkthetalkshow
“You need to do your spiritual work.” What does this mean!? It means you will be seeking your truth through increasing your awareness. Get your astrology charts read by an evolutionary astrologer. Continue to be aware of what you learn. Start to read spiritual materials that you are drawn to. Meditate well (Vipassanā increases wisdom.) Wisdom is understanding your truth and attachments and seeing how to let go of attachments. Continue with inquiry and make the choices incrementally along the way that are in the direction of truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“What’s meant for you will sometimes feel scary, risky, and new. Easy and calm doesn’t always mean you’re going the right way. The biggest rewards usually come from having the guts and perseverance to create your own path.” ~ Yung Pueblo
MEDITATION insights
5 Meditation Tips for Beginners:
“Allow Your Meditation Goals to Drop Away
Stay Flexible Within your Structure
Find a Comfortable Posture
Allow Thoughts to Come and Go
Sit with All Experiences” ~ Tricycle Magazine – Fall 2022
“Stillness allows realignment + focus.
The quiet is your sanctuary of recalibration.
It is Productive.
It is where you return to yourself over and over.” ~ @farahmsiddiq
“The clear light mind does not come from an original primordial god or Buddha; it comes from ordinary beings diligently working with their own minds.” ~ Dalai Lama
“Meditation is a tool that helps us explore hidden aspects of our individual experience.” ~ Mark Epstein
“Sitting with modest discomfort teaches the mind to be less frightened. Experiencing the disappearance of discomfort soothes the mind, makes it confident, and allows for the insight of impermanence: Everything passes.” ~ Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort”
“Meditation becomes both a refuge and a training: a refuge into being, and a training into doing.” ~ Martine Batchelor @tricyclemag
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practice Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Please contact me if you are interested, theinsightcenter@gmail.com or read more at Insight Center Meditation Course.
ASTROLOGY insights
“We can make course corrections if we sleep through an activation. The soul is resilient – but it is much easier to get it right the first time.” ~ Steven Forrest
“The progressed Sun/Moon phase symbolizes the unfolding of our birth potential over time.” ~ The Insight Center
“But in order to maintain vitality and engagement, we must be true to the ever-changing values indicated by the position of the progressed Sun. They don’t erase your natal Sun; nothing but death can do that.” ~ Forrest, Steven 2019: Fire. Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, Inc., pg. 221.
“Karma operates as a universal law from a nonlinear dimension of ultimate truth.” Mark Jones
“Astrology shows what is going on around us in the field. How that influences each individual depends on the level of consciousness of that individual. The same Mars transit will impact a person who tends to run negative energy (anger, frustration, worry, etc.) in a very different way than to a person who tends towards higher vibration energy (acceptance, willingness, love, etc.) Mars transits irritate the lower vibration type of person yet are experienced as motivational for those of a higher vibration. The message being…to get the best of these transits, work on raising your own vibration.” ~ David Pond
“Archetypally we see the moment the Sun rises on your birth (the Ascendant) as the dawn of self-consciousness, of you self-awareness. And the moment that it sets on your birthday (the Descendant) is a point of ultimate relatedness, or openness as the self-light reaches the horizon, to the light of others.” ~ Mark Jones
“Uranus is “the big theme,” and Mars is the “quick trigger.” That’s how it works.” ~ The Insight Center
HEALING Insights
“If time actually healed people, no one in the world would be hurting. Time is simply space, what matters is how you use it. If you fill your time intentionally with self-love, letting go and building the new habits your being needed, that would make a real difference.” ~ Yung Pueblo
Eight Tips for Anxiety from Sharon Salzberg
1. “Be kind to yourself
2. Reach out to someone
3. Remember you are not alone
4. Help someone else out
5. Don’t believe all your thoughts
6. Make a gratitude list
7. Remember that everyone struggles
8. Practice lovingkindness meditation”
“Since so much of healing is dependent on the sharpness of our self-awareness, we do not always realize how we are training our mind to become like a microscope that magnifies the roots of all our mental patterns and movements. This focus on expanding what we are conscious of by turning our attention inward results in an influx of new information that helps us understand ourselves at a much deeper level. “ ~ Yung Pueblo
“I will never have this version of me again. Let me slow down and be with her.” ~@soulhealingwithamila
©The Insight Center. All rights reserved. 2022.
Insights for July, 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“You have a responsibility to keep your vision sacred. “~ Daniel Giamario
“Authenticity is a product of slowing down and allowing yourself to align with the way that you intentionally want to show up in this moment.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“When you don’t follow your nature there is a hole in the universe where you were supposed to be.”
~ Dane Rudhyar
“trust yourself in the moment. again, and again and again. “~ The Insight Center
“At some point awakening begins.
The awakening happens with trauma, or it happens when somebody you love dies. In sexuality you transcend separateness. It can be drugs. It can be meditation. It can be a hymn. It can be a leaf falling. It can be lying under the stars. It can be trying to solve a problem where you mind gets so one-pointed it goes through the veil. Whatever it is, you open up into other planes of consciousness that have been there in all of the splendor all the time.” ~ Ram Dass ~ @babaramdall
“Wisdom is owning your truth - your real moment-to-moment transcendent truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“When you release false narratives, the truth flows in.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Acceptance creates stability, and it offers the spaciousness that you need to see more options of behavior than simply going along with old ways of being. Acceptance is needed before transformative action can occur.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“I don’t need to feel special on the normal field of existence.” ~ The Insight Center
“Nothing in life is perfectly pleasant all of the time.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“I am not interested in lowering myself to the lowest common denominator.” ~ The Insight Center
“Uproot to reroute.” ~ The Insight Center
“At each new level of awareness, enlightenment, recalibration you will be lighter and clearer. Old information and stories will fade away. You will receive new information about yourself. Each step of the way is a renewal.” ~ The Insight Center
HEALING Insights
“Before active healing and growth, it is common to move through life in a disconnected and dissociated manner without even being aware that this is happening.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“When you give up control, you allow space for freedom and truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“Sometimes I don’t want to talk about it if the energy around it doesn’t feel soft.” ~ The Insight Center
“Acceptance will calm your soul.” ~@poetstic
“…be mindful to not accidentally grow in unwanted directions. You have to ask yourself, “what am I feeding my senses? This is especially important to remember when you are in the midst of transformation, you are not helping yourself by being in environments that feed old patterns you are working on breaking.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“I release myself from versions of me that I created to survive.” ~ @tinybuddhaofficial
“The deep soul threatens the ego.” ~ Mark Jones
GRIEF Insights
I am reading a really good book on grief, "Grieving Mindfully" by Sameet M. Kumar, Ph.D. I highly recommend it.
“Grief is a force of energy that cannot be controlled or predicted… Grief does not obey your plans, or your wishes. Grief will do whatever it wants to you, whenever it wants to. In that regard, grief has a lot in common with love.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
“The paradoxical effect of losing a loved one is that their sudden absence can become a feverish comment on that which remains. That which remains rises in time from the dark with a burning physicality — a luminous super-presence — as we acquaint ourselves with this new and different world. In loss things — both animate and inanimate — take on an added intensity and meaning.” ~ Nick Cave
“This feeling…of alertness to the inner-spirit of things — this humming — comes from a hard-earned understanding of the impermanence of things and, indeed, our own impermanence. This lesson ultimately animates and illuminates our lives. We become witnesses to the thrilling emergency of the present — a series of exquisite and burning moments, each extinguished as the next arises. These magical moments are the bright jewels of loss to which we cling.” ~ Nick Cave
“I am a really sensitive soul, and I am feeling pain.” ~ The Insight Center
ASTROLOGY Insights
“The goal of astrology is the alchemy of personality. It is to transform chaos into cosmos, collective human nature into individual and creative personality.” ~ Dane Rudhyar
“Saturn loves it when any individual becomes the best they/she/he can be.” ~ Philip Sedgwick
“Here’s the deal with Saturn in transit. Saturn in transit wants you to do your work. As a reminder, it will not return to this part of your chart for 30 years. “~ The Insight Center
“Pluto work will take you deep - to the depth of soul for release and rebirth.” ~ The Insight Center
“Air signs need to talk it out to process.
Earth signs need to DO, to process.
Water signs need to FEEL, to process.
Fire signs need to ACT, to process. “~ The Insight Center
“Chiron brings us deep weeping, and release.” ~ Barbara Hand Clow
“The freer I am, the happier I am. Aries/Aquarius” ~ The Insight Center
RELATIONSHIP Insights
“Within the brain, every person we love leaves a tangible, structural imprint, encoded in synapses that can never be vanquished or replaced by new and different love.” ~ Mary-Frances O’Connor
“When you allow love into your being it will turn your attention to letting go, because the hurt that you feel is the pain that you keep dragging from the past into your present.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“Love is water and hurt is stone. If you let water flow powerfully, it will remove all residue and blockages.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“In a good relationship we are like two fingers of the same hand. The little finger doesn’t suffer from an inferiority complex and say,” I’m so small. I wish I were as big as the thumb.” The thumb doesn’t have a superiority complex, saying, “I’m more important. I’m the big brother of all the fingers; you have to obey me.” Instead, there’s a perfect collaboration between them.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Harmony arises when you strike a balance between giving, receiving, and letting go. Finding a middle path where both of you feel empowered, listened to, and nourished requires a high degree of honest and calm communication.” ~ Yung Pueblo
Insights for April 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“Our breath is a reminder that we are connected no matter how lonely we feel.” Dr. Kamilah Majied
“When facing big life decisions, don’t try to figure out the answer by thinking about it. In thinking over a question again and again, we do not generally arrive at real wisdom, but we easily tire ourselves out and get even more confused or anxious. Thich Nhat Hahn
“These deeper life questions can’t be resolved at the level of the mind but must be entrusted to a different, deeper part of our consciousness. Thay [Thich Nhat Hahn] suggests we consider this big question as a seed, plant it in the soil of our mind and let it rest there. Our mindfulness practice in our daily lives is the sunshine and water that the seed needs to sprout so that one day it will rise up on its own, in its own time. And then we’ll know the answer to our question without a doubt.
But we must leave the seed down in the soil of our mind and not keep digging it up to see if it’s growing roots. I won’t grow that way! It is the same with a deep and troubling question. We ask our deepest consciousness to take to take care of it and then let go of our thinking and worrying about it. Then in our daily lives we practice calming, resting, and coming home to ourselves in the present moment, and that will help the seed of our question to ripen naturally and authentically. This process cannot be rushed or forced. It may take weeks, months, or years. But we can trust that the seed is “down there,” being tended by our deeper consciousness, and one day it will pour into a clear answer.” ~ Kaira Jewel Lingo.
“A big part of the journey is being aware of the journey.” ~ The Insight Center
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." ~ Viktor Frankl
“You will experience freedom when you yourself are free.” ~ The Insight Cente
“Reality’s ability to continually baffle us with what we don’t yet know, and our willingness to continually plumb the unknown for new truth and beauty, even as it baffles and terrifies us, is the loveliest thing about being alive. Being alive together, as members of this boundlessly inquisitive and imaginative species, is the loveliest thing about being human.” ~ Maria Popova, The Marginalian.
“Flowing will get you places forcing never could.” ~ spirit daughter @spiritdaughter
“Let go to let in.” ~ The Insight Center
“There is an attractive vibe that people who are willing to grow emit. Even if you are just starting on your journey, being comfortable with the fact that you are imperfect and are ready to move beyond old limits gives off a special energy that calls in emotionally mature people.” ~ Yung Pueblo
‘To study the way is the study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all living beings. To be enlightened by all living beings is to drop the barrier between oneself and other.” ~ Eihei Dogen
“Being willing to grow makes a difference…” ~ Yung Pueblo
“If you don’t get along with someone, is it ego or vibration?” ~ The Insight Center
MEDITATION insights
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering.” ~ Ajahn Chan
“Each moment can be a meditation. Whatever comes up, look at it with mindful equilibrium, and let it pass.” ~ The Insight Center
“Be in harmony with each breath, each moment, and know that in giving yourself this time to develop awareness and a steadiness of attention you are nourishing spirit, head, and heart. Let it be an adventure, and in the silence and the stillness that comes with practice you’ll discover wonders here for you, now.” ~ Elana Rosenbaum @tricyclemag
“The technique of the witness is to merely sit with the fear and be aware of it before it becomes so consuming that there’s no space left. The image I usually use is that of a picture frame and a painting of a gray cloud against a blue sky. But the picture frame is a little too small. So, you bend the canvas around to frame it. But in doing so you lost all the blue sky. So, you end up with just a framed gray cloud. It fills the entire frame.
So, when you say, “I’m afraid” or ‘I’m depressed; if you enlarged the frame so that just a little blue space shows, you would say ‘ah, a cloud.’ That is what the witness is. The witness is that tiny little blue over in the corner that leads you to say, ‘ah, fear.’” ~ Ram Dass
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami @elephantjournal
“Please don’t forget to do the practices that stabilize your mind, heart, and nervous system. It might be a privilege, but it’s not selfish to do so. You’ll be much more help to the world if you feel settled in your own being.” ~ @ethannichtern
“By opening the hand, we let go of whatever was in its grip, and refrain from grasping something new. With time, meditation practice makes it easier to choose what to focus on, let go of, linger with, indulge in, turn away from, enhance, or reiterate.” ~ Jill Satterfield @tricyclemag
GRIEF insights
“Most people, I think, are at least a little afraid of ceasing to grieve. I know that I was. However terrible our sorrow may be, we understand that it is made in the image of love, that it shares the characteristics of the person we mourn. Maybe there was a day in your life when you were brought to your knees by a faded blue ball cap or a tote bag full of knitting supplies or the sound of a Brahms piano concerto… Part of what makes grief so seductive, then, is that it seems to offer us what life no longer can: an ongoing, emotionally potent connection to the dead. And so, it is easy to feel that once that bleak gift is gone, the person we love will somehow be more gone, too.
Thus, our strange relationship with the pain of grief. In the early days, we wish only for it to end; later on, we fear that it will. And when it finally does begin to ease, it also does not, because, at first, feeling better can feel like loss, too. Contemplating how our deepest losses might be so painful “not because they defy reality but because they reveal it,” she adds:
“One of the many ways that loss instructs us is by correcting our sense of scale, showing us the world as it really is: so enormous, complex, and mysterious that there is nothing too large to be lost — and, conversely, no place too small for something to get lost there… Like awe and grief, to which it is closely related, loss has the power to instantly resize us against our surroundings; we are never smaller and the world never larger than when something important goes missing.
It is this harsh corrective to our sense of being central, competent, and powerful that makes even trivial losses so difficult to accept. To lose something is a profoundly humbling act. It forces us to confront the limits of our mind… It forces us to confront the limits of our will: the fact that we are powerless to protect the things we love from time and change and chance. Above all, it forces us to confront the limits of existence: the fact that, sooner or later, it is in the nature of almost everything to vanish or perish.” ~ Kathryn Schulz
“Everything that has passed between this moment and the last moment you were present is as insubstantial as a mirage. Everything between now and now slips away like last night’s dream, leaving you nothing but a mind full of fading fragments and maybe the solace of forgetting.
I am already with you. I am here, and I see you. Everything is fine.” ~ Lama Karma, “A Letter from My Future Self, Encouraging Me to Practice”
HEALING insights
“How I Stopped My Panic Attacks” Mingyur Rinpoche
https://www.lionsroar.com/how-i-stopped-my-panic-attacks/amp/ “~ The Insight Center
“I believe in the power of awareness to heal.” ~ Mark Epstein
“One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light. It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light.” ~ James Baldwin, Nothing Personal
“Dear co-dependents. You can’t hold everything together. Nobody can. “~ The Insight Center
“Be a diligent soldier for the benefit of your soul. Nobody else will do this for you.” ~ The Insight Center
“May your struggles and sorrows be eased.
May you Hold yourself in Great Compassion.
May you be Safe and Protected.
May your Heart be at Peace.
May your Life be at Peace.” ~ Spirit Rock
“Forgive yourself. Healing and growing require self-forgiveness. You are human. You will make mistakes, you will backtrack, and, at times, you will fail. Refusing to give yourself grace when you drop the ball or get it wrong is not helpful. Holding yourself hostage to your past can keep you stuck there. Give yourself permission to love yourself through the hard stuff.” ~ Alex Elle
“Once you have genuinely, fully, and tenderly touched your own brokenness, place a seed in the crack. Make a wish in that fissure and share with yourself the aimless kindness of your own presence.” ~Lama Karma, “A Letter from My Future Self, Encouraging Me to Practice”
BULLETS by Brayden
“Sit down, world and relax so you don’t have tornadoes.
Trees, color your leaves.
Relax, people. Go to sleep.
Relax, wolves. Lay down by the trees.
Relax, bullets from guns. Stop shooting people.
Fire, eat wood.”
ASTROLOGY insights
“It is the skill and extent of the consciousness of the astrologer which determines the
limits of its use.” ~ Alan Oken. Rest in peace Alan Oken and thank you for your incredible contributions to astrology.
"The astrological symbols are quantum fields of possibility and probability. With consciousness, you can influence how these energies manifest - but there is one choice that is forbidden to you: you cannot choose to have the energy disappear and become irrelevant." ~ Stephen Forrest
“My assumption is that life is inherently meaningful. That we have been born for a purpose. That there is nothing random about anything.” ~ Stephen Forrest
SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC
Aries: "I am"
Taurus: "I have"
Gemini: "I think"
Cancer: "To nourish"
Leo: "I will"
Virgo: "I analyze"
Libra: "I balance"
Scorpio: "I create"
Sagittarius: "I perceive"
Capricorn: "I use"
Aquarius: “I know"
Pisces: “I believe” ~ The Insight Center
“Why did we choose to incarnate at this time? For a crash course in authentic operational mysticism.” ~ Hunter Reynolds Astrological Counseling http://astrodharma.org/2022/02/the-dharma-of-failed-regimes/
RELATIONSHIP Insights
“Love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.” ~ Lama Karma, “A Letter from My Future Self, Encouraging Me to Practice”
Insights for May 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“Peace is
to arrive
at the place of
it is what it is.” ~ The Insight Center
“Real is rare.” ~ @poetstic
“Every storm runs out of rain.” ~ Maya Angelou
“Your intuition will ask you to be brave even if you don’t feel ready.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“The aim is to know and align with the seeds of your truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“Are you discerning with your magic? Or do you share it openly and freely even with toxic people and toxic situations?” ~ The Insight Center
“Whatever is happening to us now mirrors our past karma.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
“Solitude can be an incubator of higher consciousness.” ~ Steven Forest
“Stress and anxiety are the children of attachment.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“If you don’t get along with someone, is it ego or vibration?” ~ The Insight Center
“Your immediate reaction does not tell you who you are, it is how you decide to respond after the reaction that gives you real insight into how much you have grown. Your first reaction is your past, your intentional response is your present.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“Change does not cause stress, failing to embrace it does.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“Maybe there’s nothing wrong with you-
Maybe it’s just really difficult to exist within a system that was not designed to support a spirit like yours.” ~ @selfcarewithwall
MEDITATION insights
“Meditation gives us the courage to change, to transform. It helps open us to our creative potential and we can be liberated from our fixed habits.” ~ Martine Batchelor
“Each person has his own natural pace. Let things take their course. Then your mind will become still, like a clear forest pond. “ ~ Ajahn Chah
“A really bad day is a great day to strengthen your meditation practice .” ~ The Insight Center
“The Buddha advised us not to run away from suffering. Instead, we have to confront suffering and look into the heart of suffering. Understanding the nature is the second Noble Truth.
Without understanding of suffering, the fourth Noble Truth, the path leading to the cessation of suffering, would not be possible. “~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Anxiety is teaching you/reminding you to operate at a higher vibration. Bring in your awareness, let go of old information, and activate/reactivate your higher energy.” ~ The Insight Center
GRIEF insights
“Keep in mind that grief doesn’t just dissolve. Instead, it arises in waves and gradually, with growing compassion, there comes more space around it. The heart opens and in its own time, little by little, gaps of new life—breaks in the rain clouds—appear. This is a natural cycle you can trust—how the heart renews itself.” ~ Jack Kornfield
“If time actually healed people, no one in the world would be hurting. Time is simply space, what matters is how you use it. If you fill you time intentionally with self-love, letting go and building the new habits your being needed, that would make a real difference.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“Heaviness comes from hanging on tightly to emotions that were always meant to be ephemeral. We want things to last forever or we turn difficult moments into long lasting pain simple because we have not learned to let go. We have to learn that the beauty of living comes from the movement of change. Letting go does not mean that we forget, and it does not mean that we give up, it just means that we are not letting our present happiness be determined by things that happened in the past or by things we wish happen in the future.
Letting go takes training and dedication. Find a practice that brings you noticeable results and use it consistently. When things get tough remember that we are not building something small, we are building a palace of peace within our own hearts, and it takes determination to complete something of such beauty and magnitude.” ~ Yung Pueblo
ASTROLOGY insights
Astrology Highlights for May and into early June 2022:
May 10 - Mercury goes Rx and Jupiter moves into Aries
May 16 - Scorpio Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse
May 20 - Sun moves into Gemini
May 22 - Mercury goes Rx into Taurus
May 24 - Mars moves into Aries
May 28 - Venus moves into Taurus
May 30 - Gemini New Moon
June 3 - Mercury goes direct
June 4 - Saturn goes Rx
“Remember: Whatever happens on one side of the chart also activates the opposite side of the chart.” ~ The Insight Center
“Uranus is all truth. Uranus wants you to know your truth and live by your truth. (That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.)” ~ The Insight Center
“The Planet ERIS is fascinating, I recently did a deep dive into understanding it better and am adding Eris to all chart readings. Here are some highlights:
· Feminine warrior for soul’s purpose.
· Goddess of war.
· Nonconformist.
· Unapologetic.
· Discordant.
Where is Eris in your chart?” ~ The Insight Center
RELATIONSHIP Insights
“Sometimes the people you want as part of your story are only meant to be a chapter.” ~ @buddhistbootcamp
Insights for March, 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“Flowing will get you places forcing never could.” ~ spirit daughter
“Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don’t know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don’t know.” ~ Pema Chodron, @wisidomventures
“See transform be
at every step of the way
see transform be” ~ The Insight Center
“You have to do your own work; those who have reached the goal will only show you the way.”
~ Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn
“When you set yourself free
You literally make space
For magic” ~ The Insight Center
“In the end, the measure of our strength is in how we face the fact that we are simply human — mortal, vulnerable creatures of uncommon creativity and courage, body-minds born to die and to make meaning of our fragile existence not by clinging to the self but by practicing our various parts of unselfing: love, creative work, transcendent communion with the rest of nature.” ~ Maria Popova
https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/jane-goodall-alison-bechdel-water?e=82cf85030d
“I don’t know, and I’m good.” ~ The Insight Center
“Seek insight only from higher sources. Forget about peer reviews. According to the black holes, at best, peer persuasion is lateral insight. Learn from masters, the experts, the best of the best (regardless of material or not material costs). Realize what you know and act like you know it. Speak with authority without diminishing tones toward those who do not yet possess similar realizations.
Put everything you know into action.” ~ Philip Sedgwick
“Remember where your seat is. Front row? Second row? Third row? Not anywhere in this room?” ~ The Insight Center
“Slowly you will become a master of your own bliss, a chemist of your own joy, with all sort of remedies always at hand to elevate, cheer, illuminate, and inspire your every breath and movement. What is a great spiritual practitioner? A person who lives always in the presence of his or her own true self, someone who has found and who uses continually the springs and sources of profound inspiration.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
“I am not going to spend the rest of my life asking for permission.” ~ The Insight Center
“We must hope that the love of destruction, the desire for power is not stronger than our love for each other, and our respect for the freedom of humanity.” ~ Lynn Bell, Astrologer, Paris
“We actually have incredible power over our thoughts—more power than any one thought has over us. To tap into this power, we need to find the creative potential for wisdom and of compassion within ourselves.” ~ Martine Batchelor
“There are other methods you can use to avoid falling into loops of thoughts. Notice when you use the words “always,” “nothing,” “never,” “nobody”—these are all words that amplify and hyperbolize disturbing thoughts. When you think, “Nobody loves me” or “Nothing works in my life,” actively question these thoughts. Is this true? Is it always true? What is this thought? Could I think something totally different?” ~ Martine Batchelor
“How much of who I was yesterday is defining who I am today? How much can I allow who I am today to be totally open and turning and responding to the situation, which includes everything I was yesterday, but also all that I will be tomorrow.” ~ Ram Dass
“The greatest difficulty is the mental resistance to things that arise, and the underlying assumption that they should not.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
MEDITATION insights
“…vipassanā meditation involves pointing a concentrated mind at a flowing stream of experience, with each moment presenting a different object. By watching the rise and fall of phenomena at the point of contact with the senses, rather than through the filters of narrative and conceptual thought, the meditator is able to see beyond appearances.” ~ Andrew Olendzki
“The Tibetans sometimes describe thoughts as writing on water, in essence empty, insubstantial, and transient.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“It’s not that there’s no self, because that’s ridiculous. You’re you, and I’m me. But the self doesn’t exist in the way we imagined it does… Try to find it as it really exists, not as you think it should.”
~ Mark Epstein
“Meditate to integrate” ~ The Insight Center
“At each level of spiritual evolution, there are effective practices that can help us advance. As we move to a new level, the old practices cease to be effective.” ~ Steven Forrest
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practice Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Please contact me if you are interested, theinsightcenter@gmail.com or read more at Insight Center Meditation Course.
“Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from outside. Silence doesn’t mean not talking and not doing things; it means that you are not disturbed inside. If you’re truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in you can enjoy the silence.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Heart of the Matter”
HEALING Insights
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. ~ Haruki Murakami, @elephanthjournal
“Once you have genuinely, fully, and tenderly touched your own brokenness, place a seed in the crack. Make a wish in that fissure and share with yourself the aimless kindness of your own presence.” ~ Lama Karma, @tricycle
“If we’re going to change our culture, we have to change our narrative. That’s what is comes down to. We have to change the mental model that our brains are using to make sense of the world.” ~ Trabian Shorters, @onbeing
“Compassion and dread for all humanity today. Not easy to hold. May we build a world without war.” ~ Ethan Nichtern
NEW!! REIKI l WORKSHOP April 21 and 22, 2022
I am happy to offer a Reiki l Workshop in person in Portland, April 21, 1:00 – 4:00, and 22, 9:00 – 4:00, 2022. For more information about Reiki l Workshops, see https://www.theinsightcenter.net/offerings/#reiki. There is a limit of five participants per Workshop.
Reiki Workshop Assistants are welcome at these workshops.
Please contact me if you are interested in attending the Workshop or in assisting, theinsightcenter@gmail.com.
“In turning toward our pain there’s great freedom—a freedom that grounds us in our core of being. As we slowly but steadily undo our various ways of fleeing our pain, the energy we’ve invested in getting away from our pain—as opposed to simply being with our pain—is freed up, becoming available for us to use for truly life-giving purposes.” ~ Robert Augustus Masters, “A Painless Present”
“We all need a fresh dose of faith and hope. And rather than looking to angels in heaven to provide it, let’s look for the angels inside ourselves. Many of us are more advanced than we think we are – and the sooner we realize that the sooner we’ll have the confidence to be able to help heal this battered world.” ~ Steven Forrest
ASTROLOGY insights
“Uranus will not settle for anything but the truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“The underlying fear is that we won’t do our power well a/k/a Pluto.” ~ The Insight Center
©The Insight Center. All rights reserved. 2022.
Insights for February 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“Remember waaaaayyyy back when we used to get depressed just because it was winter?
Hang in there everyone.
None of this is easy. “ ~ Ethan Nichtern
“To embody the transcendent is why we are here.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
“If you want to wake up
Do your work.
If you do your work,
You will wake up.” ~ theinsightcenter.net
“Dear past self,
Thanks for everything, but I’m moving on.
It’s not you. It’s me.” ~ spirit daughter
Maybe it’s not about
doing some thing
Maybe it’s about
being some way” ~ theinsightcenter.net
“IT’S HARD BECAUSE YOU’R DOING IT RIGHT “~ Jessica Schultz @jessicaschultzpilates
Normalize sayings like:
· “I’ll get back to you”
· “I need to reschedule”
· “_____doesn’t work for me”
· “I can’t help this time”
· “I’ve changed my mind”
· “I’m not able to do ______”
· I don’t like ___________” @the_peoplepleasing_therapist
“Did you change, or did you just release the energy that doesn’t belong to you?” ~ Maryam Hasnaa
“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. “ ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you want to make your own internal experience more hospitable, only you can do that work. Others can always support and guide you and spark insights, but ultimately you are your own boss and the agent of understanding your mind and opening your heart.” ~ Ethan Nichtern, “Awake with Others”
“You do not need
A partner to feel whole
You do not need
To have everything figured out to feel successful
You do not need
To be fully healed to feel peace
You do not need
To be fully wise to feel happy
Embracing yourself as you are
Reinforces your worth and
Decreases the friction in your mind” ~ yung pueblo
GRIEF insights
I am a continuation, like the rain is a continuation of the cloud. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
RIP Thich Nhat Hanh. You have been a beautiful, inspiring, wise soul and teacher. I highly recommend all his books and teachings.
MEDITATION insights
“Meditation is a method of recognizing and being aware of the inherent completeness of each moment” ~. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
“When you breathe in, your mind comes back to your body, and then you become fully aware that you’re alive, that you are a miracle and everything you touch could be a miracle – the orange in your hand, the blue sky, the face of a child.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“When we practice, we develop a basic vision, which gets stronger over time, as to who we really are and what we’re really doing in our life. When I say, “a vision,” I don’t mean something mystical. I mean acknowledging who you are and what you want to do next.“
“I believe this “vision” is to know your way. Knowing where your ultimate arrows are pointed.
Your endgame. And maintaining focus on that while navigating life. Because this is what matters to the core of your soul. Your version. Your vision. Meditation helps clarify this and serves as a daily reminder.” ~ Charlotte Joko Beck
HEALING Insights
“Whatever is happening to us now mirrors our past karma.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
“In this and every timeless now the unknown is emerging as the known, the invisible is manifesting as the visible and existence is evolving spontaneously. The only sane response to live is gratitude and unprovoked joy.” ~ Deepak Chopra
“Energetically
recalibrate
out toxic
in clarity
and elevation of
awareness “~ theinsightcenter.net
“The body cannot be healed while there remains an unquiet mind, the mind cannot be well if there’s emotional turmoil, and nothing can be whole unless the spirit is also considered.” Dr. Branda Davies
“Feeling unsettled (awakening)
Meditated (clarifying)
Experienced energetic recalibration.” ~ theinsightcenter.net
“When you stop
carrying their energy, you will
have more energy” ~ theinsightcenter.net
RELATIONSHIP Insights
Signs of a deep friend connection:
“Laughter is abundant
Honesty is encouraged
Vulnerability is welcomed
Support is real and active
You can put your guard down
You inspire each other to grow
You give each other good advice
They help during times of struggle
Both of you feel stronger together” ~ yung pueblo
“When two people have nothing to hide, no one to impress, nothing to lose, no games left to play, no attachment to specific outcomes…real connection and intimacy happens.” ~ Maryam Hasnaa
ASTROLOGY insights
Pluto Return for the United States
Did you know that countries and cities have astrology charts? They do! The USA has a birth chart based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776, @ 5:10 PM in Philadelphia.
The USA chart has Pluto at 27.33˚ in Capricorn (building structure and success) in the second house of values, resources ($), and material security. These matters are being activated.
Pluto is a very slow-moving planet. It takes 224 years to travel around the Sun and return to its starting point. Humans, living an average of 90 years, never have a Pluto return. But countries can and do.
Pluto is about power, control, and transformation. The transformation comes from destruction/annihilation* and rebuilding/regeneration. Pluto will deeply transcend what we know, have us release and grow in the process, and we will be stronger as a result.
On Feb. 20, 2022, Pluto will return to 27.33˚ in Capricorn, exactly aligning with the placement in the USA chart; in the second house. See chart below. The USA will experience a plutonian transformation, destruction/annihilation* and rebuilding/regeneration of USA values and resources. This is not a huge surprise, is it?
It is important to know that the impact of a Pluto return begins about 10 or so years as it moves in to exact alignment (and 10 years after) and it is easy to see the impact of Pluto on USA values, economy, and material security.
Feb. 20, 2022 is the day of perfect alignment. (Pluto will also have a retrograde motion several times over the next few years and move back and forth over 27.33˚.) It may be significant - but the exact calendar days are not always the strongest impact. The impact has been underway for at least 10 to 12 years – and will continue for 10 to 12 years.
Capricorn likes structure and winning, and the USA has been focused on these values and material success. Pluto has been passing through Capricorn since 2008, breaking down structures Americans count on, bringing unsolved matters to light, and looking for transformation.
There has been a tremendous strain on the country and Americans during this time (recession, unemployment, many industries are obsolete, gun violence, racial violence, domestic terrorism, sexual abuse, COVID - 19, work from home, nationalism/Jan. 6 insurrection) - destruction of the old - to rebuild/regenerate. The USA will continue to experience deep and intense undoing/dismantling as steps toward powerful change.
For the next few weeks stay aware, be cautious and observant, and pay attention to your values and resources, release what is old and outdated, and be open to new regenerative energy if you are American or affiliated with the USA.
*If these words are trigger words for you, please use, “breaking down to make space for something new.”
ASTROLOGY FOR TEAMS OR FAMILIES
I would love to do this transformative Workshop for your professional team or family. Please reach out to me for Workshop information at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com.
GIFT CERTIFICATES are always available. I have a digital Gift Certificate that I will personalize and email to you. Available for 1 hour or 1.5-hour Astrology Reading ($125 or $190), and Reiki Intuitive Healing Sessions for $190. Contact me at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com to purchase!
©The Insight Center. All rights reserved. 2022.
Planetary Retrogrades for 2022
Planetary Retrogrades for 2022.
Here is the retrograde chart for the year 2022. This chart shows all of the planetary retrogrades for the year.
To understand each retrograde, look at the planet, know it’s meaning, and realize that where it falls in your chart, you are REviewing, REthinking, REdoing, REthinking, REordeing, REpacing. It is time for us to review that planet’s trajectory to date.
Save this chart or refer to it! Look at the date and then look up into the chart to see which planets are retrograding on that day. Notice it more than one (or two) planets are retrograding.
Insight Center Insights for January 2022
AWAKENING Insights
“You think your kind word or act is small.
But it might be someone’s light in the darkness.” ~ @newhappyco
“Reminder for co-dependents:
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal
Healthy relationships are reciprocal” ~ The Insight Center
“Your life is your own. I want you to read that sentence until it sinks all the way down inside your gut and meets every impulse that tells you to put your intuition on pause, to place yourself second, to squeeze and bend and break into the molds of what everyone else wants you to be. Your life is your own. I want it to pass through your head so many times it slowly clears out the debris of your fear. I want you to meditate on it until you realize that you are not too strange, you just have the courage to be your true self; you are not too different, you just have the courage to follow your own heart; you are not unworthy, you are just honest about the very natural, human experience of feeling unworthiness. Every person alive wishes to embody these very same forms of freedom. They are not judging you; they are expressing the parts of themselves they’ve judged into silence. Your life is your own, and it always will be. You must find the courage to claim it, or it will pass by you untouched – a glimmering, lost potential of all that could have been.” ~ @briannawiest
“Less social media = less of other people’s information.” ~ The Insight Center
“Re: manifestation: notice when you manifested and receive it (breath it deeply into your soul.)” ~ The Insight Center
“There may be moments when you feel emotionally cold and dark, when it seems that all the light has gone from your life. But your experience and inner truth are not in sync—the light is always there.” ~
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
“What happens when you get caught up in other peoples’ emotions? You can lose yourself.” ~ The Insight Center
“Intuitive and soulful. Live by these two paradigms. How does it resonate with your intuition? Is it soulful? ~ The Insight Center
“You are the most constant thing in your own life.
Befriend yourself first.
Invest in yourself first.
Become yourself first.
The rest will come together in time.” ~ @briannawiest
“You know who’s going through a lot right now?
Literally everyone.
Just be kind.” ~ @spiritualremedies101
“Codependency recovery tool:
Moderate your involvement.
Maybe give 25% less to this person. Maybe 50% less (giving half of what you feel inclined to give is a nice easy breaking point.) Or - maybe 75%. I think the percentages will change. Check in with yourself to see how healthy/RECIPROCAL the relationship is.” ~ The Insight Center
“Similarly, when our minds act in unison, our frequencies synchronize, generating powerful resonances that amplify our states of awareness in whatever task we are engaged in. Pay attention to what type of vibrations we resonate with, because we will inevitably tune our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to specific frequencies that will synchronize to specific events according to the resonance we propagate. The principle of transformation of our minds and manifestation of events are related to energy, frequency, vibration, resonance and synchronization of thoughts-emotions-behaviors, very similarly to principles of tuning forks and metronomes.” ~ Author Unknown
“Dear past self,
Thanks for everything, but I’m moving on.
It’s not you, it’s me.” ~ @spiritdaughter
“Let go of control and find refuge in the body’s immediate present sensory field. When the mind relaxes its grip, the body models sustained attention. The body leads the way. It’s a great relief for the mind, in fact.” ~ Willa Blythe Baker, “The Body Is Already Mindful”
“It’s so important to be in touch with your own soul for validation and confirmation. Especially when very few people can see you clearly.” ~ Maryam Hasnaa
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trudging to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.” ~ Ajahn Chan
“Intuition is not intimidating: When you listen to your intuition, you feel like you are your best self.” ~ @somaticexperiencingint
“To become aware that you are conscious right now is to become aware of that intangible essence of who you are, the gap between two thoughts… And that is the unconditioned consciousness in you. “~ Eckhart Tolle
“Next time you feel agitated because you are falling back into past patterns, remember that simply being aware that you have fallen back into repeating the past is a sign of progress. Self-awareness comes before the great leap forward in your personal transformation.” ~ Yung Pueblo
“The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
“A moment of silence for all the things i have to do but am not doing.” ~ @moonbodysoul
“Interdependence is the ongoing recognition that we are not separate from other beings or the world around us. Life is a web of infinite relationships.” ~ Djuna Deveraux
“Choose to be as authentic as possible, and if things work out, you will feel authentically aligned.” ~ The Insight Center
“Re: manifestation: notice when you manifested, and receive it (breath it deeply into your soul.)” ~ The Insight Center
MEDITATION insights
“Meditation is about seeing through one’s presumed identity, one’s identifications, in order to become a truer version of one’s own unique self. “~ Mark Epstein
“How to help manage your emotions:
Monitor the inputs and outputs of your emotions. Who you spend time with? Who you talk to? What you read. Monitor when enough is enough, and when you need more.
Figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. Process. Meditate. Talk to trusted loves. Accept true love.
Figure out what you need. Downtime. Social time. Friends. Family. Books. Writing. Nature. Food. Water. Vacation. Work.
Meditate.” ~ The Insight Center
“Every thought.
Every idea.
Every experience.
Let it in.
Let it out.
Just like the breath.
Naturally.
In and out.
Regular.
And temporary.” ~The Insight Center
JOURNAL EXERCISE Re: Letting go
1. Make a list of 10 things you have easily let go – amazing – right? I loved doing this. For example, one of mine was “perfectionism.”
2. Now make a list of what you could let go of. For example, one of mine was “Pleasing my dad (dead 16 years)” See by perspective, that it is going to be possible to let them go as well. It’s a matter of time, awareness, and attention.
3. I did this exercise fast so that my stream of consciousness information would show up. I have done this with several students and clients, and several did this quickly, and several were thoughtful and reflective. It doesn’t really matter, both offered insightful information. Try it both ways! ~ The Insight Center
HEALING Insights
“Let go more than once. Let go when an old pattern wants to drag you back into the past. Let go when narratives run wild in your mind. Let go every time you try to cause yourself extra trouble there’s healing in repetition. Soon peace will feel familiar. “~ Yung Pueblo
GRIEF Insights
“Each loss takes a piece of us — a piece soft and alive — and leaves in its place something cold and heavy; each subsequent loss becomes the magnet that draws out those old leaden pieces, pulls them out from the reliquary of scar tissue where we have been keeping them in order to live, makes them rip through our being afresh. And yet the shrapnel pieces that surface are smaller and softer-edged than when they first entered through the open wound of raw bereavement, smoothed, and contracted by the ongoingness of life.
In this sense, grief if fractal, each new instance containing within itself a set of self-similar sub-griefs — miniatures of the same emotional structure, rendered smaller in salience by time and tenacity, those twin inevitabilities of aliveness.” ~ Michael Frame
“Five things to say to someone instead of “I am sorry for your loss.”
1. I’m sorry you’re suffering right now, but I’m here with you and willing to help any way I can. Is there anything you need right now?
2. I’m sorry for whatever challenges might lie ahead for you, but I’m here and willing to help. Would it be okay if I call next week just to check in with you?
3. Please accept my deepest condolences. I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now, but I know enough about grief to know that it can be very challenging. Don’t hesitate to call me if there’s anything I can do to help.
4. I’m so sorry to hear about _____. I’m sure you’re going to miss him/her terribly. How are you holding up?
5. I know there’s nothing I can say right now to make things better, but I also know that having someone to talk to at times like this is really important, so don’t hesitate to call me whenever you need to. “~ Elephant Journal
ASTROLOGY insights
“Pluto wants you to go to the depths of discovery. “~ The Insight Center
“under the Full Moon
she felt her magic
her mystery
and her heart
she felt at home.” ~ @spiritdaughter
“Hug your Chiron placement.”
Where Chiron is in your astrology chart represents past life wounding and your ability to heal those wounds. It is a great placement for understanding wounds and fears, and to pay attention to healing.
Sometimes the wounds are lit up and it is very challenging - and you do your work - and you heal.
That’s when you give your Chiron a hug. Actually, hug it whenever you are inclined! ~ The Insight Center
“Where will you feel soft in 2022?
Look for Pisces in your chart. Jupiter is ther pretty much all year.” ~ The Insight Center
“For today fully be your Sun Sign. And pay attention to the people around you, and their Sun Sign. Sometimes the insights are that simple.” ~ The Insight Center
Insight Center Newsletter for December 2021
AWAKENING Insights
“Let go or be dragged.” Buddhist Boot Camp
“When you feel super out of alignment, check your ego.” The Insight Center
“A quickening of the frequency of the energy field isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it does require raising your own frequency to align with it, rather than resisting or fighting against it as if were being caused by some supposed “bad guy”. ~ David Pond
“The underlying sense of uneasiness that we have now is actually a good thing: it is the expression of our sensitivity. Those who go through life without feeling ill at ease are unconscious. The uneasy feeling caused by our awareness holds tremendous potential for transformation. It is a treasure of energy that we can grasp with both hands and use to build something better. Indifference doesn't lead anywhere.”
Oral advice transcribed by the author. ~ JIGME KHYENTSE RINPOCHE
“For soulful seekers - live in alignment with your truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“There is as much value in the negative space. Not every second of your life has to be filled. A packed agenda is not success. Living to work as opposed to working to live is not a quality of life. Things are not split into “times in which you’re doing something that other people can quantify” and “times you’re doing nothing.” It’s all important. Your deepest revelations happen in silent moments with yourself. Being crowded with people and appointments and ideas and creative outpourings wouldn’t be so profound and stunning if there weren’t also moments of aloneness and nothingness and mental drought. The context matters. The focal point of a piece of art wouldn’t exist without the negative space to frame it.” ~ @briannawiest
“There is no need to worry if you are truly on your path. Stay true and course correct.” ~ The Insight Center
“Your new life is going to cost you your old one. It’s going to cost you your comfort zone and your sense of direction. It’s going to cost you relationships and friends. It’s going to cost you being like and understood. It doesn’t matter. The people who are meant for you are going to meet you on the other side. You are going to build a new comfort zone around the things that actually move you forward. Instead of being liked, you’re going to be loved. Instead of being understood, you’re going to be seen. All you’re going to lose is what was built for a person you no longer are. Let it go.” ~ Briannawiest
“Dropping our expectations of ourselves and others creates space for true freedom and allows authenticity to flourish.” ~ Jacquie Compton
"Your boundaries attract the right type of energy.” ~ Lalah Delia
“Cook
Laugh
Eat
Appreciate
Hydrate
Rest
Hug
Feel
Go outside
Repeat” ~ The Insight Center
“I respect the monastics, but the worldly path is not lesser. I want to embrace the world and see if that can be a complete path of wisdom in and of itself.” ~ Ethan Nichtern
“In truth, we don’t need to know what the future will bring. We just need to be right in this moment, and if we touch it deeply, mind and body united.” ~ Kaira Jewel Lingo
“To give freedom to a child, you must first understand yourself, the giver of freedom, the educator. If I have to educate a child but do not understand myself and so start with my conditioned response, how can I teach them? ~ Krishnamurti
“Attention is like a fire, when that attention is there that thing which is sorrow, the loneliness, the pain, the anxiety, the tears, when there is that complete attention all that goes, disappears. Attention is a flame.” ~ Krishnamurti
“My heart awakens to the Love that I am.” ~ ForeverConscious.com
When you are congruent with your own essence, you’re not trying to convince people of it, you’re just being it.” ~ Maryam Hasnaa
11 unforgettable truths 2021 taught me:
“Your healing comes first
Boundaries will nourish you
Being busy is not glamorous
Heavy emotions are temporary
Say yes only when it feels right
Self-awareness helps you react less
Build with emotionally mature people
Embracing change lifts up your peace
Saying no supports your mental health
Healing yourself helps heal your connections y
You lose yourself by trying to please everyone.”
~ Yung Pueblo
“Make your life better by letting go of the attachment t to wanting others to perceive you a certain way. Trying to control how others perceive you can drag you into people pleasing. You cannot control another’s perception because it is partially formed by their emotional history.” ~ Yung Pueblo
MEDITATION insights
“In the deepest forms of insight, we see that things change so quickly that we can’t hold onto anything, and eventually the mind lets go of clinging. Letting go brings equanimity; the greater the letting go, the deeper the equanimity.” ~ Sayadaw U Pandita, “A Perfect Balance”
“We meditate to get better at life.” ~ Sharon Salzberg
“Meditation practice makes it easier to choose what to focus on, let go of, linger with, indulge in, turn away from, enhance, or reiterate.” ~ Jill Satterfield
GRIEF insights
“When I ‘m gone & flowers grown from my body, my spirit will reunite with the stars, and I will be forever eternal. “~ Cocorrina
“Freedom is found in the contemplation of death.” ~ Vish Sharma
“Sometimes suffering can be intense and have no easy resolution. In those kinds of situations, compassion is bearing with the impulses to try to prematurely solve situations. Compassion becomes our willingness to keep showing up: to listen deeply, bear witness, and be with suffering.” ~ Christina Feldman and Chris Cullen
HEALING insights
“If you are a recovering co-dependent, it is really important to not let a narcissist recruit you (and don’t feel guilty about it.)” ~ The Insight Center
“In the midst of a breakdown, we often wonder whether we have gone mad. We have not. We’re behaving oddly, no doubt, but beneath the agitation we are on a hidden yet logical search for health. We haven’t become ill; we were ill already. Our crisis, if we can get through it, is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis. It belongs, in the most acute and panicked way, to the search for self-knowledge.”
~ Alain de Botton
“The first secret of dealing with anxiety making energy isn’t a secret at all—it is breath. Energy follows breath, and anytime you are anxious, the breath is always restricted and shallow. Breathe deep into the belly and expand your sense of self to embrace the energy. On a deep in breath, picture yourself rising up on top of this energy wave, like a surfer riding the wave—you can’t quit the wave, but you can ride it.” ~ David Pond
“A life changing Intuitive Healing session for a client can also be life changing for the healer.” ~ The Insight Center
“Allowing us to see with wisdom into the deeper truths that can not only treat but cure suffering, insight shows us that all things arise and pass away in a radically changing stream of experience, that both internal and external phenomena are independently conditioning one another, and that the sense of self we create to navigate process is an arbitrary and contingent construct. Knowing this allows us to abide in the world without resistance, without clinging, and with equanimity. Only when we clearly see the thirst of craving-the underlying cause of suffering-are we able to quench it.” ~ Andrew Olendzki
Gentle Reminder: “Everything doesn’t have to be a struggle or fight. Sometimes the best way to protect your peace and preserve your energy is to not engage. Standing in your power will become easier when you realize that you’re in charge of who and what gets access to you.” ~ Alex Elle
“healing yourself will ask more of you
more rest
more self-love
more letting go
more time for learning
more space for transformation
more honest about how you feel
more time developing good habits
more courage to try new practices
more time cultivating your inner peace
more faith in yourself and the process”
~ Yung Pueblo
“I protect my energy by keeping my circle small.
I protect my energy by unfollowing what disturbs it.
I protect my energy by enjoying my alone time.
I protect my energy by enforcing boundaries.
I protect my energy by releasing what wants to leave.
I protect my energy by releasing expectations.
I protect my energy by prioritizing growth and ease.
I protect my energy by choosing to learn from my L’s.
I protect my energy by not giving everyone access to it.
I protect my energy by cultivating more self-love.
Instead of dwelling I choose growth and progression.”
~ We The Urban
They asked her,
“Can time heal you?”
She answered.
“You are the key to your healing, not time. Hurt, trauma and dense conditioning will continue sitting in your mind, impacting your emotions and behavior, until you go inward. What heals is self-love, learning to let go, self-awareness and building new habits.” ~ Yung Pueblo | intention
ASTROLOGY insights
Uranus – the planet of “expect the unexcepted” – therefore, change, impulsiveness, individuation, freedom-seeking, and awakening, is in retrograde all of December (until January 18, 2022.) Uranus wants to you continue to pay attention to the opportunities for growth and change where it is transiting in your chart.
“Everything in astrology has a higher purpose, and, with effort, there is always a way to get there.” Steven Forrest
“Planets in the 12th house are guiding you to align with internal mastery.” ~ The Insight Center
“Let the Moon
teach you that
your darkest hours
will give birth to
your brightest nights.” ~ Spirit Daughter
Insight Center Newsletter for November 2021
AWAKENING Insights
“Make your life better by letting go of the attachment to wanting others to perceive you a certain way. Trying to control how others perceive you can drag you into people pleasing. You cannot control another’s perception because it is partially formed by their emotional history.” Yung Pueblo
“When I am attached, I suffer.” The Insight Center
“I am happy when I am free. I am happy when I am at peace.” The Insight Center
“You and I are one, and you and I are many. Our relationship is with the cosmos as well as here on earth. I’m not trying to sound mysterious. That’s the way it is.” Sojus Mel Weitsman
“Pull out the weeds and then let your garden be messy.” The Insight Center
“It's your decision. You decide.” The Insight Center
“If we truly wish to be free of our difficulties, our heart has no other recourse than to acknowledge the core issue (even if we have studiously avoided it for decades!) and accept its connection to the suffering we are experiencing.” – Ajahn Amaro
“It’s not all about doing, it’s also about allowing.” The Insight Center
“If a relationship feels out of balance, remember that you are ½ of the formula.” The Insight Center
I am fully vaccinated and welcome back all fully (CDC approved) vaccinated clients for services in person, in Portland. I will also continue to see clients via Zoom. If you have questions regarding offerings or would like to schedule an appointment, please contact me at theinsightcenter@gmail.com.
MEDITATION insights
“The mind becomes tranquil but alert, with neither too much or too little energy, and finds an equanimous stance that neither favors nor opposes anything but rather rests with quiet confidence on its object. A growing sense of well-being ensues and slowly matures into a state of profound equanimity. The mind in this state is said to be luminous, malleable, cleaned of its impurities, and thus able to see things clearly. Now the process of developing wisdom can begin.” Andrew Olendzki
“The beauty of an established spiritual life and practice is that no matter what arises in your life or in your mind, you continue your practice. And in this way, you let go, experience equanimity, detachment, freedom, wisdom, and peace.” The Insight Center
“When you have an established spiritual life and practice, you will evolve (become more enlightened- it’s incremental) along the way - it just happens. Don’t be attached to it! Keep up the practice.” The Insight Center
“The paradox of our practice is that the most effective way of transformation is to leave ourselves alone. The more we let everything be just what it is, the more we relax into an open attentive awareness of one moment after another.” Barry Magid, “Five Practices to Change Your Mind”
“Practice with equanimity and detachment and you will be free.” The Insight Center
“The path to freedom is to let go. The path to letting go is Vipassanā practice.” The Insight Center
“In zazen (sitting meditation) leave your front door open and your backdoor open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” Shunryu Suzuki
“[To sit zazen (sitting meditation) for so many years] It’s like climbing a mountain - the higher you go the more beautiful the view - but it gets lonely.” Shunryu Suzuki
“Becoming calmer is one tangible benefit of meditation. But the deeper purpose is not to be calm per se, but most of all to be real - in other words, to be grounded in the truth of what is happening to you.” Lewis Richmond
“Though it sounds simple, letting go is an advanced practice. It is demanded in the greatest trials of our lives and in our final moments. It is here that the heart learns the secret; that to let go is to also embrace what is true.” Jack Kornfield
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practice Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Please contact me if you are interested, theinsightcenter@gmail.com or read more at Insight Center Meditation Course.
GRIEF insights
“In the perfect ecology of a tree, the dead become the heart of the living, and the living nourish the essence of the dead. So it is with our lives, where life and death cannot exist separately from each other.” Barbara Becker
“We need to understand the goodness of suffering. It is the compost that helps the roses grow, it is the mud from which magnificent lotuses emerge.” Thich Nhat Hanh
I experience a lot of grief each fall, especially after the time changes back and it gets dark at 4:45 PM! I love the beauty of the fall leaves, and then they get wet in the rain and fall to the ground. I know some people love this time of year, for me it is grief to watch nature shut down and go to sleep. I prefer spring when everything is awakening. In the meantime, I continue my meditation and healing practices, study, light a lot of candles, make soothing foods, and try to be creative. And sometimes I give in and take a long nap. Margaret
HEALING insights
I initiated an incredible group of Reiki ll practioners this past week. It was a beautiful experience to share the powerful tools of Reiki ll with these five humans who are all operating at high vibrations and ready to do transformative work. I congratulate them and thank them for showing up for this Workshop and the initiations. It is a privilege. The world needs you! Margaret
“Fall apart to come together.” The Insight Center
“You can love someone & still let them go. It’s possible to want to have someone in your life & know it isn’t possible. Sometimes people aren’t able, willing, or capable of showing up for us in the way we wish they would. Releasing them isn’t a declaration that we no longer love or care for them. It means we love ourselves enough to let go even when it hurts because we are a stand for healthy, honest relationships that inspire connection, intimacy & growth.” Sheleana Aiyana
ASTROLOGY insights
“The astrologer holds the mirror of truth before the client, then basically says, “now do as you will.” Steven Forrest
What I really want is for people to understand the components of astrology so that when issues arise, they can look at their chart and say, “Ah, my Uranus placement is blowing this thing up,” or “This Pluto transit is forever changing how I understand relationships.” I truly want people to understand their chart so they can integrate the information into their life experiences.
2021 has not been an easier year for most people. There are still very dynamic changes/transformations taking place across the world. 2020 was a year of upheaval as very strong planets in transit aligned. In 2021 many of these strong planets moved ahead – and then they went retrograde. For most of 2021 we have been living under the influence of retrograding planets. What does a retrograde ask of us? “Did you learn what you were supposed to learn? Did you really pay attention? Did you really go deep? Did you remove what was not working from your life? Were you brave? Did you transform or work toward transformation? It is as if the gears of change stop and grind backward – for almost a year.
And when they begin to move forward again, they do so slowly. Slowly but surely, they return to the place where they began their retrograde, and then, slowly they start to move forward. The changes are integrating and the more we pay attention to the changes the better we are. Awareness. Acceptance. Forgiveness.” A comprehensive astrology reading will show you where the transformations are happening for you. Margaret
COMPREHENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSE
Comprehensive Astrology Course for 2022 begins in January 2022! This is a course I developed with original materials and is taught in person in Portland and online.
The class size is small, and all topics are personalized with your own charts! In this one-year, twelve class Course (1 class per month), you will learn each concept in depth.
Please contact me for course outline, fees, or questions at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com
ASTROLOGY FOR TEAMS OR FAMILIES
I would love to do this transformative Workshop for your professional team or family. Please reach out to me for Workshop information at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com.
GIFT CERTIFICATES are always available. I have a digital Gift Certificate that I will personalize and email to you. Available for 1 hour or 1.5-hour Astrology Reading ($125 or $190), and Reiki Intuitive Healing Sessions for $190. Contact me at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com to purchase!
©The Insight Center. All rights reserved. 2021.
Insight Center Newsletter for October 2021
AWAKENING Insights
“Distancing yourself from situations that weigh you down is essential if you want to protect the new you that you are in the midst of cultivating.” Yung Pueblo
“If you have spent your whole life becoming somebody and having something, and then with awakening you turn around and you start the journey in the other direction of becoming nothing, becoming nobody and having nothing. It would seem to make the whole first part of life meaningless or some sort of error. But it’s important to see that this sequence is a necessary sequence, that when one takes incarnation in an evolutionary moment when one is going to awaken, you still have to become somebody and become grounded on earth before you can do the spiritual work.
Part of the experience of living richly has been identification with the desires and emotions, with the passions of life, with the hatreds, and the joys, with what I call the “mellow drama” of life. Each of us has an intense drama going on around ourselves. Will we, won’t we, can we, can’t we, should we, shouldn’t we? And with awakening one begins to see the way one has been trapped in one’s story line. But it doesn’t mean the story ends. The Ram Dass story is alive and well. The only question is, who’s living it? Am I Ram Dass or am I just, “I am.” Ram Dass
“Being reminded of my imperfection makes me feel more balanced.” The Insight Center
“As we observe sensations without reacting to them, the impurities in our minds lose their strength and cannot overpower us.” S.N. Goenka, “Finding Sense in Sensation”
“If you let go a little you have a little freedom, if you let go a lot you have a lot of freedom, if you let go completely you have complete freedom. “ Ahjan Chan
MEDITATION insights
“If you are individuating, almost everything in collective consciousness drives you out of reality. Meditation brings you back.” The Insight Center
“With meditation practice our mind and conscious awareness will explore current times, adapt, adjust – and return to peace of mind.” The Insight Center
HEALING insights
“You can tell humanity is maturing because more of us are saying no to harm. We are taking time to examine our biases, moving our love from being selective to unconditional, and expanding our idea of what is possible. More of us are healing ourselves, and actively helping heal the world.” Yung pueblo
“A reminder: there are no “should” for adults.”
Be true to you. Get rid of the “shoulds.” And while you are at it, there are no “have to’s” for adults either. Be free. Set yourself free. You can choose freely and live your life aligned with your own values and truths. There are choices and outcomes, And wise adults make wise choices. The Insight Center
“An essential part of self-care is having the right type of people for your nervous system in your life.” Lalah Delia
ASTROLOGY insights
“Do your work to heal your Chiron wound (at age 48 onward,) and the you get to live with the power of your healed Chiron.” The Insight Center
“The power of Saturn returns (at age 30, 60 and 90) happens deeply in your unconscious and your consciousness – with or without your conscious awareness. It is much better to navigate these changes with awareness. It is much more challenging without awareness. “ The Insight Center
“You can communicate with the planets in your chart – and planets in transit.
For example: “Pluto, I understand your place in my chart and my life. I will work with you to learn, grown and transform. Let’s work together so your power is not so disruptive.” The Insight Center
“Certain new moons, in certain signs, can really be a challenge for you. Don’t fall for the narrative that all new moons are all good! Some are really hard for some people” The Insight Center
The Insight Center Newsletter August 2021
The Insight Center Newsletter August 2021
You can see this and prior posts at Insight Center Journal. On the Journal page you can search for any topic (grief, relationships, meditation, etc.) and all quotes related to that topic will be collected and shown.
I have a revised my website! Many thanks to the very talented Lara Townsend for her work on the redesign.
Lara Wilson Townsend
Brand Designer, Nom de Pixel, LLC
p 248-231-8634 | w nomdepixel.com
AWAKENING Insights
“Is it good for your soul?” Margaret Gervais
“Feel it all. Whatever may come up. Even if the present hurts. Even if the past is roaring. Heroes do not run away. Healing is not wone easily. Let your emotions breathe. Even if it is hard. Feel wisely. Without letting what is temporary control you. Find the space where you can honor what you feel without letting it consume your day. Let it burn but do not keep feeding the fire. Acceptance makes real freedom possible.” Yung Pueblo
“Be your own emotional support.” Margaret Gervais
“The ocean of life will push you here and there until you turn on the motor of your boat and sail through the waves that try to hold you back.” Yung Pueblo
“We depend on our own felt sense of the truth. And we can spend a lifetime discovering it.” Sallie Tisdale
“Our challenge as modern people is to look beyond the superficial and see the subtle truth that carries more depth.” Yung Pueblo
I am fully vaccinated and welcome back all fully vaccinated clients for all services in person, one-on-one, in Portland. I will also continue to see clients via Zoom.
MEDITATION insights
“Through equanimity and in that peace, there is a great power; the two go hand in hand. Through equanimity, we fortify ourselves with non-fear, with compassion, with acceptance. We cultivate the strength to face reality without being crushed by it.” Kaira Jewel Lingo
“This truth [of impermanence] changes our perspective and makes us much happier. It helps us appreciate the life we have right now – moment by moment. It helps us understand that every day is a bonus.” Trungram Cyalwa Rincoche. Tricycle
“Look at the real nature of the harm that is done to you. It is as elusive as a drawing on water. Let your resentment subside by itself. When the stormy waves of thoughts have vanished, the mind becomes like the cloudless sky that has nothing to win or lose.” Shechen Gyaltsap *1871-1926)
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practices Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Contact me if you are interested, theinsighthcenter@gmail.com or read more at Insight Center Meditation Course
HEALING insights
A recorded Grounding Exercise is available at Grounding Exercise. Use this exercise as often as needed to help you be grounded during these challenging times.
This is an 11.11 minute grounding exercise to help you get grounded. A lot of us have chaotic lives, busy minds, a lot of stress, and we are not grounded. Being grounded means that our mind, body, nervous system, and energy system are relaxed, at ease, and held. We can be rooted in the earth like the strong roots of a huge old tree.
During challenging times, this exercise can be helpful. Connect and ground through your root chakra every day.
There is no need to over think this! Please relax, breathe, listen and follow these simple instructions. You can do this exercise daily – or as often as you need to do it. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
ASTROLOGY insights
Chiron, the wounded healer planet went retrograde July 16, 2021, at 12˚56 Aries.
Dec 19, 2021, it goes direct again at 8˚Aries. And, on April, 12, 2022, it is back to 12˚56 Aries
(where it started to retrograde.)
This retrograde cycle for Chiron is almost a year long and affects us most if we have planets at these degrees Aries – or these degrees in Cancer, Libra or Capricorn.
How will you work to heal your woundedness?
The Insight Center Newsletter June 2021
AWAKENING Insights
“Quiet time alone helps us all.” Steven Forrest
“Dear co-dependents:
You do not have to please everyone. (P.S. you can’t anyway.)
It is ok to make & maintain boundaries.
Managing their drama is not you job. (P.S. it will never stop anyway.)
You may initially lose a sense of heroic harmony (P.S. you may want to look at how that got dumped on you.)
But you will get peace. (P.S. you deserve it.)” Margaret Gervais
“Obstacles are challenges to overcome, not permanent prisons.” Mark Jones
“People with good/pure souls don’t magically appear in our lives.
You have to earn them.
Once you begin your journey towards a higher vibrational lifestyle and let go of all things that are spiritually weighing you down.
You’ll naturally start aligning with them.” @bespiritual
“Equanimity is a radical acceptance of not-knowing and a means of not taking everything so personally.” Christopher Willard
“Everything you are looking for is on the other side of surrender.” Jaymee Carpenter @loveistheauthor
“Practicing detachment and individuation.” Margaret Gervais
“pick the path that lights you up. the one that you know deep down is the right choice. stop listening to doubt. start connecting with courage. do not let the idea of normal get in the way. it may not be the easy path, but you know great things take effort. lean into your determination. lean into your mission. lean into the real you. “ yung pueblo
“What do your toes know? What whisper runs through your veins? What awakens in the touch of your skin – just now, in this moment?” Lopön Charlotte Z. Rotterdam. Buddhadharma: The Practitioners Quarterly, Spring 2021. Page 15.
“The impact of change is like a wave of various intensities building up force in the ocean and heading for the shore. It is going to happen.” Margaret Gervais
“if you spend too much time fearing change, you will forget to celebrate it. everything you love and cherish in life exists because of change. the continuous back and forth between endings and beginnings makes all things possible.” yung pueblo
I am fully vaccinated and welcome back all fully vaccinated clients for all services in person in Portland. I will also continue to see clients via Zoom.
If you have questions regarding any of these offerings or would like to schedule an appointment, please contact me at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com.
MEDITATION insights
“Do not fear things that arise in the mind; question them, know them. The truth is more than thought and feelings, so do not believe and get caught by them, See the whole process arising and ceasing. This understanding gives rise to wisdom. “ – Achan Chah
“Meditate to find or return to balance. Meditate so your psyche can process and let go. Meditate for peace.” Margaret Gervais
“When life knocks you down, the first thing you should do to regain your balance is shift your attitude from inner resistance to inner acceptance and willingness. Acceptance means: ‘I accept that this problem, sorrow, or emotional pain has arisen to show me something valuable.’ Willingness means: ‘Let me wait to receive the answer within my heart.’ This revelation of a deeper insight occurs not through our compulsive attitudes of ‘It must be this way’ or ‘It must be that way.’ It arises when we become relatively still inside.” Acharya Shunya
“My nerves feel frazzled. I meditate to ease the distress and find relaxation, peace and ease for my nervous system.” Margaret Gervais
‘I woke up and felt really out of it. My mental processing felt dull and barely filtering through quicksand. Is this a good time to meditate? YES. In meditation I viewed the lethargic state of my mind, over and over and over until it had processed and was gone. I finished refreshed, more clear-minded and at peace.” Margaret Gervais
“What happens when we sit is none of our business. The practice is to accept whatever arises instead of trying to control our experience. What we can control is our wise effort to be present with what is.” Narayan Helen Liebenson, The Refuge of Sitting.
“During long deep meditations deep breaths will arise. Releasing tension. Restoring peace.” Margaret Gervais
“If we can allow some space within our awareness and rest there, we can respect our troubling thoughts and emotions, allow them to come, and let them go.” Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Allow for Space”
“To experience emptiness is not a descent into an abyss of nothingness but a recovery of freedom.” Stephen Batchelor, “Nagarjuna’s Verses from the Center”
“Meditation neutralizes drama.” Margaret Gervais
“To experience emptiness is not a descent into an abyss of nothingness but a recovery of freedom.” Stephen Batchelor
“It’s the ‘I expect/want things to be normal’ thing that trips people up.” Margaret Gervais
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practices Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Contact me if you are interested, theinsighthcenter@gmail.com or read more at https://theinsightcenter.net/meditation/
GRIEF insights
“Grief is one of the heart’s natural responses to loss. It takes courage to grieve, to honor the pain we carry. We come face to face with genuine human vulnerability, with helplessness and hopelessness. These are the storm clouds of the heart.
We need to respect our tears. Without a wise way to grieve, we can only soldier on, armored and unfeeling. Let whatever feelings are there, pain and tears, anger and love, fear and sorrow, come as they will. The grief we carry is part of the grief of the world. Hold it gently. Let it be honored. Keep in mind that grief doesn’t just dissolve. Instead, it arises in waves and gradually, with growing compassion, there comes more space around it.” Jack Kornfield
Grief helps us relinquish the illusion that the past could be different from what it was. Sharon Salzberg
HEALING insights
A recorded Grounding Exercise is available at The Insight Center – Resources. Use this exercise as often as needed to help you be grounded during these challenging times.
This is an 11.11 minute grounding exercise to help you get grounded. A lot of us have chaotic lives, busy minds, a lot of stress, and we are not grounded. Being grounded means that our mind, body, nervous system, and energy system are relaxed, at ease, and held. We can be rooted in the earth like the strong roots of a huge old tree.
During challenging times, this exercise can be really helpful. Connect and ground through your root chakra every day.
There is no need to over think this! Please relax, breath, listen and follow these simple instructions. You can do this exercise daily – or as often as you need to do it. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at theinsightcenter@gmail.com.
REIKI l and ll WORKSHOPS
All Reiki Workshops will resume this summer! Please watch future Newsletters for dates and/or contact me if you are interested in a Reiki l or ll Workshop.
ASTROLOGY insights
We are in retrograde season!
Mercury is retrograde until June 22
Jupiter is retrograde June 20 – October 18
Saturn is retrograde until October 11
Uranus us retrograde August 20 to January 16, 2022
Neptune is retrograde June 25 to December 2
Pluto is retrograde until October 6
See my drawing of these retrogrades at https://theinsightcenter.net/blog/.
When planets are retrograding, we are being asked to review, rethink, revise, and remember. We may be ready to move on from 2020 and get back to business, and yes, that is happening. But do so thoughtfully. Move into 2021 with the wisdom you gained in 2020. Remember what you learned. Remember what you let go. And know that these retrograde times are for reintegrating with insight.
Saturn is the planet of discipline and seriousness, and Uranus is the wild cowboy/cowgirl planet that is impulsive, rebellious and demands individuation. Saturn and Uranus are at a 90˚ angel to each other, challenging each other, all year. We can look at these energies in your chart and see where these two powerful forces are instigating change. Where are you being asked to be serious and work hard and where are you being invited to rebel and individuate? To activate this transit well this year we need to do both.
COMPREHENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSE
Starting February 2022, my Comprehensive Astrology Course for 2022 begins. This is a course I developed with all original materials and is taught in person in Portland and online. The class size is small, and all topics are personalized with your own charts! In this one-year, twelve class Course (1 class per month), you will learn each concept in depth.
Please contact me for course outline, fees, or questions at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com
ASTROLOGY FOR TEAMS OR FAMILIES
I would love to do this transformative Workshop for your professional team or family. Please reach out to me for Workshop information at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com.
ASTROLOGY 101
This is a one-hour online webinar which introduces Planets, Signs, Houses and how to understand a chart. I teach the foundational pieces of Astrology so you can better understand yourself, others, and what is going on in the world. The presentation is free and posted here: The Insight Center – Resources.
GIFT CERTIFICATES are always available. I have a beautiful digital Gift Certificate that I will personalize and email to you! Available for 1 hour or 1.5-hour Astrology Reading ($125 or $190), and Reiki Intuitive Healing Sessions for $190.
2021 Major Transformative Transits and Retrogrades
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Below is an outline of the major transformative transits of 2021. This information includes the transits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto as I am most interested in their deep transforming nature. As you can see, the major transit for the year is Saturn in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus. This will be in effect all year, so check where it is happening in your chart. Saturn in Aquarius is geared up to take the revolution and your individuation seriously. And Uranus is Taurus wants to activate genius energy aligned with the rebellion and evolution of consciousness. Real, solid, Taurus change is possible and we must do our work.The second chart is an outline of all of the retrogrades for the year. It is helpful that Mars in not retrograding! And Venus does not retrograde until December 19, 2021. This provides us with some ease, in that these close-in, personal planets will be moving forward all year. Mid August to Mid October are loaded with retrogrades. This is a good time to slow down and review the first half of the year with an eye toward the second half of the year. (Please note the second drawing is for 2021!)
Planetary Energies and Shifts December 2020
How to deal with the powerful shifts the next two weeks:Dec. 10 Pluto square Eris (still) Dec. 14 Solar eclipse Dec. 18 Saturn moves into Aquarius Dec. 20 Jupiter moves into Aquarius Jupiter and Saturn squaring Uranus Dec. 21 Jupiter/Saturn exact conjunct in AquariusDec. 23, Mars square PlutoDec. 21-Oct 2021 Pluto square Eris
Many people have asked me to comment on the current astrology, and these thoughts came to me during meditation.The experience of these energetic shifts will be different (and appropriate) for each of us – based on the current phase of our awakening journey and our personal life story. Many of these energetic shifts continue into 2021.
Most of dates are launch points and energize future cycles.If you are a meditator this is payday. Meditate twice a day for 30 minutes for maximum benefit. This will process the shifting energy. View every experience with equanimity, let go, and experience peace.Hydrate. Abstain from sugar and alcohol (not helpful with strong energetic shifts.) Eat healthy whole foods.Be outside. Feel sunshine. Breathe fresh air.Allow the energetic shifts to happen. This means to rest when you need to rest. Do grounding exercises (I have a free grounding exercise under Resources, https://theinsightcenter.net/resources/on my website.)
Take time outs.When you are resting, bring your awareness into your body. Be aware of the energy in your body.Bring your awareness to your aura - the energetic space out about 12-24” from your body. What is happening in your aura? Release old or toxic energies. Connect with positive energies. Check the vibration of the energy in your aura. Is it steady!? Shifting? Expanding? Increasing!? Connect with it. Stay with it as long as necessary to increase your awareness, let go, recalibrate and connect.Align your spiritual energy with your mind and your physical body. Just relax and visualize this. The more they are aligned the better.
How is your mind!? With meditation your mind will be calmer. How much news are you watching? Probably too much. The energetic shift now is more important than mundane news events that are happening. Stay more connected to spiritual shifts than mundane news.You want to connect with this spiritual shift. Staying connected to the news cycle and social media cycles is not helpful for this.Avoid toxic people. Why let them mess with your energy? You may think this is harder with “the holidays” but if not now, when!? Again, the primary thing is to align your mind, body and spirit and be open and available for the shift. Why let historically toxic people/relationships screw that up!? The time is now.
Let the new energy in. And for that to happen there needs to be space. Letting go of old clutter creates the opening and the space.Burn sage, candles, palo santo. Bless them.
Honor the traditions (to avoid cultural appropriation.)Write down what you are releasing and burn them.Write down what you are keeping and create a sacred place to manifest them (mainly in your heart.)Love your pets, plants and loves ones.Breathe in peace and harmony. Breathe out pain and discord.Smile.Trust the transitions. Trust the new energy. Allow it to happen. Allow yourself to shift. Be open and trust.Make your love pure.Stretch. Move. Dance.
Reminder: the energetic shifts will happen to each of us based on the stage of our journey and our personal story – and to be aware and participate as described above makes it better. Awareness always makes it better.From my heart and soul to yours. Be mighty with the Aquarian shift.
Margaret 12.10.20
Insights for November and December 2020
Greetings embodied ones and happy Fall 2020; the winding down of a year we will never forget. Ihave thought of all of you often and am happy to have worked with many of you this year. It hasbeen a year of challenge, tension, fear, fatigue, and hopefully some growth in different ways for all of us. We are sharing collective stress, angst, and loss, (to name a few) as well as resilience,endurance and hope (I hope.) On top of that we are all experiencing our personal challenges andevolution. It is a lot. It is too much. My hope is for some peace and ease in late December.
ASTROLOGY insights
The astrology is looking better going forward (I have waited a long time to say this!)
Nov. 10 Mercury moved forward and into Scorpio – focused and intense thinking returns!
Nov. 12 Jupiter was conjunct Pluto for the third and last time in Capricorn – yes the virus is peaking again (the peaks have coincided with these alignments.) but should back off later in November.
Nov. 13 Mars direct in Aries (15˚) – and Mars moves slowly in Aries all of November – aggressive actions
Nov. 19 Mercury leaves its shadow (still in Scorpio) and is opposing Uranus – time for brilliance.
Nov. 20 Pluto finishes retrograding and stations direct before starting to move forward again – we will all start to feel some relief and if you have been resilient and enduring it will pay off. If not, you may feel overwhelmed.
Dec. 10 Pluto square Eris – for the last time while Jupiter and Saturn are in Capricorn – supercharged hit.
Dec. 14 solar eclipse
Dec. 18 Saturn moves out of Capricorn (for good!) and into Aquarius – yes!
Dec. 20 Jupiter moves out of Capricorn (for good!) and into Aquarius – yes!
Dec. 21 Jupiter and Saturn conjunct in Aquarius (this is the day!) This is the end of the line-up of Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn in Capricorn (which has not happened in over 400 years) – all squaring Eris.The most challenging and awakening alignments are finishing up their work. Hopefully, we stayed attuned, awakened, resilient and are ready to move ahead around year end and into 2021.
I am celebrating December 21, with this once in a lifetime Jupiter/Saturn alignment this year (along with Winter Solstice) with a feast, many lights, candles, music, and a lot of peace and quiet reflection. Think about how you might celebrate this new freedom/forward movement.
COMPREHENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSEStarting February 2021, my Comprehensive Astrology Course for 2021 begins.
This is a course I developed with all original materials and is taught online. The class size is small, and all topics are personalized with your own charts! In this one-year, twelve class Course (1class per month), you will learn each concept in depth.Please contact me for course outline, fees, or questions at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com
ASTROLOGY FOR TEAMSI launched this new product in October with a corporate leadership team! I would love to do this transformative Workshop for your team or family. Please reach out to me for more information at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com.
ASTROLOGY 101 – is a one-hour online webinar which introduces Planets, Signs, Houses and how to understand a chart. I teach the foundational pieces of Astrology so you can better understand yourself, others, and what is going on in the world. The presentation is free and posted here: The Insight Center – Resources.
AWAKENING Insights “Enlightenment is initially subconscious awakening, which is spontaneously merged with conscious awakening at the moment of breakthrough.” Kazuaki Tanahashi, Tricycle
“When you let go you create emptiness. We aren’t used to emptiness, so we rush to fill the space. What if you let the emptiness be?” Margaret Gervais
“When you see me through your lens you don’t see me. “Margaret Gervais
TRUST YOURSELF ENOUGH TO:
Outgrow who and what is no longer aligned with your life walk and purpose.
Speak up and ask for help when you need (or want) it.
Forgive yourself when you get it wrong.
Love again – even after heartache of heartbreak.
Receive support when it is offered.
Rest emotionally. You don’t have to heal all at once.
Change and evolve even when people around you don’t “get it.:
Try something new if old patterns aren’t working or supporting your growth.
Protect your energy, time and space. Not everyone deserves access.
Start over and begin again. There is a lesson is in every failure and misstep. Alex Elle.
“We don’t need to wait until we are enlightened before we act in the world, and we don’t need to withdraw from the world to become enlightened. Conscious social action can be our own work on ourselves that becomes the vehicle for awakening.” Ram Dass
“Is it speaking to your truth?” Margaret Gervais
“The best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good.” iChing, hexagram 43.
“A soft, landed approach sounds good.” Margaret Gervais
“You establish the frequency, do the work and then the Universe may join you.“I’m not a fan of ‘Turn it over to the Universe’ without being engaged in your work. If you do your work, you discover your truth, you understand your karma and work to heal - - - and then - - - the Universe may get on board. ✨ Sound reasonable? My meditation teacher ended his meditation instructions with, “Perhaps, after many years of practice, some wisdom may accrue.” Love that.
MEDITATION insights MEDITATION COURSEI am teaching my one-on-one Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practices Course online. Contact me if you are interested, theinsighthcenter@gmail.com or read more at https://theinsightcenter.net/meditation/
“What happens when we sit is none of our business. The practice is to accept whatever arises instead of trying to control our experience. What we can control is our wise effort to be present with what is.” Narayan Helen Liebenson, “The Refuge of Sitting”
“It’s the ‘I expect/want things to be normal’ thing that trips people up.” Margaret Gervais
“…individual[s] can be moved to achieve a fundamental paradigm shift in their vision of their lives….to becoming a magnificent awakening being soaring out of an infinite past experience in marvelous evolutionary flight toward an unimaginably beautiful destiny of wisdom, love, and bliss – Buddha hood, or simply the supreme evolutionary glory attainable by any conscious being.” 13 Robert Thurman, Forward to The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.”, by Tsong-kha-pa, translated by The Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee
“It is in this very vision propounded by Shakyamuni Buddha…that reveals humans to themselves as participant in this magnificent and meaningful evolutionary process.” ibid
“When all is said and done, mindfulness is really about wisdom, about discerning what is really, really, really true from what is mere appearance, or what you’re attached to because you want it to be true.” Jon Kabat-Zinn in conversation with Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson. Tricycle.
“There is always a message of ‘Yes you can.’ Do you hear it? Do you believe it?” Margaret Gervais
“Meditate longer. It is those longer arduous minutes that build the meditation muscle. “ This came to me in my Nov. 4th, morning meditation, which I thought would be hard. But I have been meditating 42 years and doing vipassanā practice for 30, and the meditation muscle truly builds, and the classic routine of this meditation works. Margaret Gervais
“Meditative awareness, equanimity, and emptiness will show up with a vipassanā meditation practice.” Margaret Gervais
“It is right understanding that is really wisdom. Thinking about truth is not enough. We must realize truth ourselves; we must see things as they really are, not just as they appear to be. Apparent truth is a reality, but one that we must penetrate in order to experience the ultimate reality for ourselves and eliminate suffering.” Entering the Stream, An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings, Compiled and edited by Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn, Shambala, Boston, 1993. Pg. 112
HEALING insights
“If you carried energy for people when you were growing up (you probably are an empath), you are probably still doing it. You can let it go now.”
How to let go: Be brave. Raise your awareness. Learn to say no. Say no. Meditate. Fill your life with what you love. You may feel uncomfortably rude for a while. Stay the course anyway. Their responses are none or your business. Have some healings to help recover from trauma and/or help move things along. Know your astrology and your purpose. Choose that. Do not be a wimp with your karma. Make space. Own the space. Be brave. One step at a time. Choose you. Only you can set yourself free. Margaret Gervais
Embodiment exercise Breathe deeply throughout. Feel earth energy enter and be in your body. Bring the energy up from the earth if you need to. Do this until you really feel it. Now feel air energy enter and be in your body. Do it until you feel it. Now feel fire energy enter and be in your body. Do it until you feel it. Now feel water energy enter and be in your body. Do it until you feel it. Earth air fire water in your body to be embodied. Margaret Gervais“Allow your vibrations to recalibrate. “
“Allow your vibrations to recalibrate. “
“Allow your vibrations to recalibrate. “
“If you are at a growth place, have made a progressive change, have moved on, let go, done some healing, you need to allow your vibrations to recalibrate. Lay quietly. Tune into the Universe and your body. Allow them to connect and recalibrate. Open yourself to receive the higher vibrations.” Margaret Gervais
A recorded Grounding Exercise is available at The Insight Center – Resources. Use this exercise as often as needed to help you be grounded during these challenging times.
REIKI l WORKSHOPAll Reiki Workshops will resume when quarantine rules are eased up to allow gatherings without masks and social distancing.
RELATIONSHIP insights “Love is something else entirely; it is caring. It is arguing, but with curiosity – it is giving an inch when the other is certainly wrong – it is teasing, it is empathy, it is respect. It is admiration each morning.” Waylon Lewis.
©Margaret Gervais. All rights reserved. 2020.