Life Transition Blog | Transition Pathways Coaching & Counseling

My Christmas Message

It’s Christmas, a time of celebrating the birth of Jesus/Yesuha. Some 2030 years ago, the birth of the Christ child, began 33 years of this higher dimensional being living in human form. He brought the gift and teachings of divine love and truth, the ways of light i.e. higher dimensional energy, the path to peace on earth and goodwill to all.

Yesuha was born of Jewish parents, yet he lived and preached under no particular religion. His birth was intended to be the expression of inclusion and oneness. He was for all humans, of all cultures, beliefs and gender. Some made him of their own, as a way to create fear, power-over and exclusion. This is not the message of Yesuha, his birth and message is about love, power-with and inclusion. His purpose was to offer humanity a way back to innocence, to love, connection, peace and goodness. Christ showed us the importance of loving thy enemy, mainly the enemy within us, housed as the ego and shadow aspects of the human psyche. I’ve come to appreciate the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad and other true spiritual prophets around the world; all were offering a similar message of love, acceptance, oneness and peace; just in different languages and ways of expression.

Over the years the message of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas have become diluted, even polluted. We’ve become consumed, thus distracted by means of commercialism, the need to spend gobs of money to feed the economy on what’s called “gifts.” I’ve learned over the years the importance of offering and receiving gifts from the heart. Not to be consumed with worry or expectations as to how the gift will be perceived. For if the gift comes from the energy of love and sincerity that is more than enough. I ask: Have we lost the true meaning and purpose of the “gift?” For it seems the true gift, is the gift of love, acceptance, kindness, compassion; wrapped in the spirit of connection and unconditional giving.

As we celebrate this Christmas, let us be mindful of the true meaning of this time, and what this superhuman child was truly bringing forth through his birth, messages and actions. Offer yourself the time and gift, to be in the silent night‒for it intends to be the holy night. As Yesuha expressed Just Be Love, light, kindness, and giving this season, and all year round. This is what Christ consciousness is about; this is what will birth heaven on earth, peace and goodwill to all.

Blessings and peace to you and yours‒may the love and light of the Christ Spirit, and other prophets guide your way, David

Living Life as a STAR

As I wrote in my book, Just Be Love, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of being a STAR. It’s not about the star in the sky or being a movie or sports star. It’s about being a personal star in the game of life. Being more in our higher mind and heart-centered, rather than our in our ego and intellect state. The acronym for star in this case is to:
Surrender
Trust
Allow
Receive

Surrender: The STAR’s meaning of surrender, is not about giving in or giving up. It is not about focusing on what we believe we may lose; which is the human ego’s version of surrender. The spirits view of surrender is to let go of our human will and way, to the divine will and way. Spiritual surrender is the willingness to yield to the greater power and knowing, with the intention of gaining or benefiting for our highest good.

One of the most difficult things for the human ego to understand and do, is to surrender its will to the divine will. Human nature is such that we tend to focus more on what we believe we will lose. We struggle to focus on the benefits of change and its call of surrender, so we become fearful and anxious, leading us to be protective, resistant and reactive. We want the status quo and to stay in our comfort zone. This is a primary reason why human’s struggle so with change and growth. There is no higher awareness and growth in the comfort zone and status quo. Change and transformation is a dynamic process, not a stagnant pond. Many of our life experiences call us to spiritual surrender-to accept the things we cannot understand from our human perspective. To surrender is to trust.

Trust: Is openness and willingness, a sense of faith and hope in divine will and way. It is to believe in the divine’s loving guidance and grace. Faith is trust in the unknown and unseen, the things we desire, but are yet to be in physical form. Faith is a sense of hope, and hope is about the future, thus waiting. Our sense of trust and faith are tested in times of unknown and uncertainty. Trust is accepting that the divine universe always has our back and highest good in mind. Trust is the foundation of relationship building, and requires us to be vulnerable. With trust we can allow.

Allow: Is to accept and let life unfold within us and for us. It says ‘Yes” to love, life and the higher wiser self. To allow is to stand as a mountain, yet flow like water. Both the mountain and the water surrender, trust and allow, through strength, courage and flow. To allow is to be free of judgment and expectations, with no need for control or power-over. To allow is to receive.

Receive: Is to open ourselves to the gifts and wonders of the universe. Can you allow yourself to receive what the divine and your soul desires for you? Many of the difficult and painful life experiences we have, are intended for us to receive unconditional love, acceptance and freedom, as we move through the struggle and pain. To receive requires us to feel worthy and deserving of the gift. We receive through the people, places and experiences that makes up our life. From the higher soul perspective, our life experiences offer us opportunities to be a STAR. To: Surrender, Trust and Allow, is to open our inner pathway to Receive divine love, goodness and truth.

What’s Needed Now is Acceptance

In uncertain times, we struggle with trusting the process. We are fearful, so we want control, we want to know the outcome, and we tend to predict a negative outcome ahead of time, while bypassing the process of “what is.” All this only feeds our fear, the sense of powerlessness, which fuels our anxiety.

Could it be in these uncertain times, that our individual and collective shadow aspects are being exposed more than ever? Could it be the duality of light and dark is coming more to the forefront to be recognized and reconciled within us individually and collectively? Sure seems like it to me, how about you? Transformation and growth always comes from the uncertainty and the struggle. Creation, birth comes from darkness.

Uncertainty, is a lesson and opportunity to practice Acceptance. So in this uncertain time, we are called to the act of acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean you like or agree with “what is.” Acceptance is to just be present to it. To be in the thoughts and behaviors of love and compassion with what is, rather than fear, resistance and resentment. Acceptance is to ride the wave of uncertainty, without losing yourself in the unknown of what is. Acceptance is shedding our will and way, and aligning with the divine power and will. With the knowing we will gain more than lose, as we trust and allow in the power greater than ourselves. Acceptance is getting to know/understand our neighbor, from their perspective, not just our own. To accept each others and our own (what we call) imperfections, is to discover the perfection. Perfection in spiritual terms, means to have Compassion for. The divine has compassion for all that is.

This quote below seems to fit for this current and uncertain time. All is right on schedule. The choice is always ours individually and collectively, as to who and how we want to be in times of uncertainty. I choose understanding, acceptance and compassion, for they equal Love! What do you choose?
Love & Light, David

Why Am I Here?

Many people struggle with the question, Why am I here? Why am I having this experience? We struggle with seeing the higher perspective and meaning to our experiences, especially painful ones.
In my book Just Be Love, I talk about the soul in human form, being here to experience, to create, to remember love, to serve, and to expand in awareness. Love is the primary mode for our life journey. Our experiences ask us to: Understand, Accept, have Courage, Compassion, and to Forgive or Reconcile. These concepts are acts of love, promoting healing, inner peace, spiritual maturity and growth.

It seems the more we can come to Understand our life experiences from the higher perspective, the greater our ability to Accept the “what is” of life experiences, especially the difficult or painful ones. When we can accept, rather than expect, we have fewer disappointments. Acceptance connects us more deeply with the divine, puts us on the path to freedom, divine love is freedom. With acceptance, comes the Courage to change what we can, which is often just ourselves, i.e. our perspective, thoughts, belief, attitude, and behavior. To alter our life, we must alter the belief and attitude in our mind and open our heart. Acceptance is to embrace life and love. We can’t change something in our life, unless we accept how life is in this moment. It helps us gain greater clarity of our life and how we are moving through it. Acceptance brings inner power and confidence back to us, to move forward in our journey. It opens our mind to entertain and create new possibilities beyond our created story and illusion, to more fully learn the intended lesson of the experience. This creates expanded awareness and growth in body, mind and spirit. Courage is an act of love, and the willingness to move your life forward from what you have accepted.Acceptance and Courage generates the willingness to step out of our comfort zone, in order to move through change with a greater degree of ease and grace.

To have Compassion, is to be present with the pain, without judging, blame or being defined by it. This is especially important with the self. Self-compassion softens the inner critic, and is an elevated path to higher learning, inner happiness and joy. Compassion creates space for new possibilities to come to be.

To Forgive or Reconcile the self or another for an error or feeling of injustice, is to move beyond the wounded self, and set the prisoner free- the prisoner being ourselves. The act of forgiveness helps us rise above the wrongdoing, and choose love and peace over guilt, judgment, grievance or resentment.

To Understand, Accept, have Courage, Compassion, and to Forgive, is to Serve and Remember Love. It is to punch a hole through our cloud of darkness and illusion, in order to illuminate the light and love of truth within our experiences, in order to discover the true and divine self, and Rise as Love, because Love is who we are.

David Schroeder, LMSW, CPC from Grand Rapids, MI., is a licensed social worker, certified life coach, and author of “Just Be Love: Messages on the Spiritual and Human Journey.” His practice, Transition Pathways helps people find healthy pathways to love, greater awareness and higher potential. Visit his website: transitionpathways.com

A Higher Meaning of the Term Soulmate

In popular culture, dating sites, and various relationship writings, there is a common phrase used, called: Find your soulmate. Like many words or phrases there can be a variety meanings or interpretations of what soulmate means. However, in order to truly understand the meaning of soulmate, you must be open and willing to think out of the box. But first let’s look at some definitions of soulmate from the dictionary. “A person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.” “A person who is perfectly suited to another in temperament.” “A person who strongly resembles another in attitudes or beliefs.” “A person/s who is compatible with one other in disposition, point of view or sensitivity.” Each of these definitions speaks to being compatible with another person, but not with the one we live with 24/7, which is our self.

Many of us have the belief we aren’t lovable or enough or that we are incomplete, flawed, not whole. We struggle with finding meaning and inner happiness and peace. Our belief and sense of separation from that power greater than ourselves, along with feeling separate from other souls playing the art of human beings like us, takes us on the search for love and worthiness outside of ourselves. All this creates the illusion that I need someone or something to complete me, than I will be happy and content. It creates barriers to attracting the partner or friend that can dance with us in life.

Society, through dating sites or pop culture articles, says this is how you find that person who can complete you. Ultimately, they do a dis-service to the readers and customers. They sell you on the idea and illusion that you are incomplete, and so the only way to completeness and happiness is by finding Mr. or Ms. Right, i.e. a person outside of yourself. This thinking and believing is the main reason we struggle so much in relationship. Your completeness and happiness will never be found outside of yourself.

c1e26f65a1658df0b4c9f629fff8ee06 What would you say, if I told you, you are already complete; you are already whole, good enough, and especially loved. See I told you that you would need to think and believe out of the box. You come from a source that is greater than you and this source is love and complete. Since you are a creation from this source you are already love, goodness and complete. You have likely just forgotten this, because that’s part of what aspects of a soul chooses to do, forget, in order to take on their life experiences. What I call “Spiritual Amnesia.” Our path back to remembering is an inside job, others assist us along the path, but we alone choose to remember ourselves as love and goodness or not.

Having said this, on the spiritual level, it my understanding the term soulmate means: The reunion with the lower (ego) self to the higher divine self. Than with this inner marriage/union, we unite back to the holy one (God or whatever name fits for you), the creator of all. To find your soulmate, is to connect with and reconcile your ego, wounded, and shadow self. Doing this you will connect more fully with your true and divine self. You unite back with your soul. You become more curious, conscious, and engaging with yourself and life, this creates intimacy within you. You begin to have a deeper more fulfilling connection and relationship with your soulful self, i.e. the essence of you. You mate with your soul; hence you found your soulmate.

By way of this inner union and reunion with the holy one, you can then more fully attract a soul or souls outside of you to dance in healthy and constructive partnership or friendship with you.

How My Book, “Just Be Love” Came to Be

I recently became a self-published author, of an inspiring book, entitled: Just Be Love: Messages on the Spiritual and Human Journey.

My book takes you on a journey with a series of vignettes on the human joys and struggles of love, and the divine intent of love. Just Be Love, came to be as I was advised by two different people, that I had never met before, in different encounters, both people stopped in mid conversation with me, to inform me, that I was to write a book. As my book visioning process progressed I understood, I was to write a book about love. In the spring of 2010, I had a mystical experience, in which I heard a message from my master teacher, Jesus saying: “Just Be Love.” After this experience, I began to get messages on love that became the content of the book. Just Be Love, expresses through a series of vignettes, examples of how from our human and ego perspective we forget we are love and worthy, due to difficult life experiences. As a clinical and spiritual social worker and life transition coach, I’ve witnessed and worked with many people wounded and defeated by love, through dysfunctional family dynamics, unhealthy relationships, etc. In our woundedness we begin to believe we are not good enough and unworthy of love and goodness. To protect the fragile self, we may create defenses and barriers to love and happiness.

This creates the common, yet painful mistake of making others responsible for our feelings and actions about love and happiness. This pattern continues for those who do not look within and do the inner work of what I call the “4 R’s”: Recognizing, Reconciling, Releasing and Reframing their core negative beliefs and behaviors resulting from difficult life experiences.

Life calls us to punch a hole through the self-created clouds of illusion, that says we “aren’t loveable or good enough” to discover the light and love that we are.

More importantly Just Be Love offers insights and examples of ways to remember we are love; and I offer unique ways the divine expresses love and goodness to us, through our experiences with people, the natural world and communion with our Creator. The book weaves both the science and spirituality of love, providing you with inspiring messages from spiritual teachers, mystics, and poets, researchers, as well as my own insights and perspectives on ways to love.

Just Be Love is a book to return to again and again. Each time you read a chapter, you will discover deeper insights. The messages are intended to help you come to a higher awareness that our purpose for being, is to Just Be Love.

Just Be Love is available for purchase through the publisher: Global Summit House email: infoglobalsummithouse.com and Amazon.com. If you would like an autograph copy of his book, contact David by email: [email protected]

Thoughts on Divine Love and Grace

From my book: Just Be Love: Messages on the Spiritual and Human Journey. Allow me to offer you a spiritual perspective on Divine Love and Grace.

Like love, I believe grace is hard to define, because it’s a spiritual and mystical experience. Grace is a quality we feel and experience within our hearts and souls, like we feel the expression of love, acceptance, compassion and forgiveness. We feel grace in the depths of us, much more than we see and hear it.. We don’t just see elegance or beauty in form; we feel it within the core of our being. Grace is experienced in movement of a loving expression or gesture. It is felt in the accepting presence of stillness. Grace, like love, is always present and holds a steady and continuous vibration that is part of the universal hum.

Many of us have been taught through religious dogma, that promoted guilt and shame. That grace is the manifestation of favor and God’s mercy on us. There is a commonly held belief that God doses out grace—the more we get, the greater the likelihood we’ll be “saved.”

I’ve come to understand Divine grace is not something we earn. Grace is the experience of God’s love, which is unconditional. Since we are love, we don’t need to “earn” that which we already are. Divine grace is already given, we only need to open to it and embrace the opportunity it provides to remember our worthiness of inclusion and wholeness. I believe, salvation means: Relinquishing our belief in separation from the Creator, and returning to oneness with our Source.

Grace is the unconditional gift and love from the Divine and is connected to the mystery of life. Grace makes our surrender to the flow of life possible. Grace happens in the unplanned and unexpected. When we are struggling with money or other needs, than unexpectedly we get a check in the mail or a friend offers us a helping hand. Grace is the expression of God through our higher and loving self. It’s the pathway to love and return to innocence; it’s a form of love in action. The pathway is created through acceptance and non-judgment of others and oneself.

A Course in Miracles states: “Spirit is a state of grace forever. Your reality is only spirit. Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.” To know ourselves as love and worthy is the beginning of our return to grace. To open to grace, is to accept our reality as spirit; in this we naturally experience grace for eternity.

Thoughts on Acceptance and Moving with the Wave of Change

Are you experiencing any change in your life? As humans we seem to struggle with change. Its been said, that resistance to change is the main barrier to both our spiritual and human potential and growth.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but building the new.” Socrates

Change is a part of life. Life and all of us in it ‒ are always changing.

The universe is always creating, expanding and renewing. Since we are a part of the universe, we are always creating, expanding and renewing. To resist this natural process, is to resist the natural flow of the universe and our essence.

We are not like we were 10 years ago, 2 years ago or like we were yesterday. Whether we recognize it or not, something within us and around us has changed. True?

Today’s Reality: for numerous reasons, change appears more accelerated and intense now.

There are 4 main barriers to change: Non-Acceptance, Resistance, Avoidance, these are driven by the biggest barrier ‒ Fear. Fear of the unknown. These barriers come about from our misperceptions and limiting beliefs.

On a scale of 1 -5, 5 being most important. How important is certainty/control in your life?

I’ve come to realize, the degree of uncertainty we can tolerate is directly related to the quality of our life.

If we need certainty i.e. control, and the need to stay in our comfort zone. Our fear and resistance will override the acceptance of change.

Acceptance is a moving forward energy and act of Love to self, others, and our life experiences.

The following are 6 steps to accepting and moving through change:

1. Cultvate an awareness that life is impermanent – things change.
2. Accept and Embrace the “new normal i.e. Life/things will never be the same
3. Be open and willing to acknowledge and unlearn your misperceptions, limiting beliefs and created habits. Realize you are greater and wiser than you appear to be.
4. Notice your fear and resistance to change, and who you become because of this. Ask yourself: Is this change causing me to think and act from fear or love? How does fear, non-acceptance and resistance assist and empower me in creating opportunities?
5. Feel and admit the fear and say “Yes” to the change anyway. Accessing your “will and courage to change” helps you say “YES” when feeling the fear.
6. Focus on the benefits of the change, not what you believe you will lose or need to give up. Look for the possibilities and opportunities within the uncertainty. Trust your higher self and the universe; otherwise you will be consumed by the wave of change.

Put change to work for you. Transform fear “I CAN”T into fuel to change and grow. Turn uncertainty/doubt into Will, Courage and Determination. “I CAN.”

Just Be Love as you move through the winds of change my friends. Namaste, David

Loving with Freedom or with Possessiveness

Love thought of the day: From my book Just Be Love: Messages on the Spiritual and Human Journey. Chapter 11: Loving with Freedom or with Possessiveness.
“The measure of love is love without measure.” St. Francis de Sales
Love is much more than a word or emotion, its our essence. The search for love ends, when I have the awareness “I AM Love” – “I AM now Free.” Living in the alignment of the Divine is to live in love and serenity; this is our greatest freedom and our soul’s birthright. Out of Divine Love we have the gift of free will. The Divine loves us so much, we are allowed to live our life as we choose; while the Divine is still loving us in all ways and always. Wow, that’s love without measure! Ascended Master St. Germain said: “In order to love as God loves, we must give freedom to all parts of life, including yourself; and then we must trust as does a nesting bird in the heart of God, in the heart of goodness and mercy.” Loving with freedom requires trust of self, and most importantly, to trust and unite our will with the will of God. Just Be Love this day my friends. Have a blessed day, David

Just Be Love

In my book: Just be Love, I mention Lise Bourbeau, an expert in human development and decoding illness on the metaphysical level. She says there are five core wounds of the human personality: Rejection, Abandonment, Betrayal, Humiliation or Injustice. Through our human experiences most of us are subject to two of these wounds. One is a dominate wound from the first three listed and the second wound comes from one of the last two listed. These core wounds, shape our beliefs and cause energy blocks, which limits our potential and growth. When we do our inner work, reconcile these wounds, i.e. remove the inner blocks, we discover our perfection, within what our ego self defines as imperfect.In my own journey, and working with others, I’ve realized that: Self-Understanding, Acceptance, Compassion and Forgiveness are also keys to remembering our perfection and the love that we are. I found in my own inner work and working with others. We usually struggle more, with one of the four keys to self love: Understanding, Acceptance, Compassion, or Forgiveness. Whichever is the hardest one for us to embrace is the one that’s most important in our healing journey and we will reap the most benefit from, if we embrace it and live it.

Life isn’t meant to be easy, its meant to be meaningful. Our ego wants us to take the quick and easy way out. No learning and growth happens through quick and easy, this is just spiritual bypass. Our judgement of ourselves is also a block to our growth and potential. I view judgement as simply: the withholding of love; as fear is the absence of love. Our journey is to remember: Love is who we are!! So let’s, Just Be Love.