Uncategorized | Bonnie Barnard - Part 7

Home » Uncategorized

Moving to a New Place

I am right now in the middle of a transition of moving from Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles, California. The move was my own choice, of my own doing. This is helpful as I am not working against myself, with the energy of resistance. I want to be here. So I was surprised when the impact of the transition was so powerful and I found myself experiencing grief, loss, and confusion. I am currently applying everything I know about making a successful transition as I write this. The content is fresh. Acknowledge the Transition. I found myself six weeks into the transition at the doctor’s office from stress-related breathing issues. I had packed up my home, put everything I owned into storage, left my community and subleased an apartment in a city I’m don’t yet know. I found myself surprised when my body started yelling at me. I thought my spiritual practice would be enough to inoculate me from a body response. I was incorrect. I have no doubt...

My Three Favorite Forgiveness Practices

When I am in a state of unforgiveness, my insides feel like a damned up river. I can feel balled up energy acting as an impediment to the flow. The impediment is my perception of how things ought to be and the disappointment within me that they are not that way. That disappointment then is directed toward another person in the form of blame. In other words, I have created the entire internal mess by wanting something to be other than it is or someone to be other than they are. My first favorite practice for deconstructing the damn is pulling out my mala beads and on each 108 beads speaking the following words: “I release ______________________ from bondage. I am free. _______________ is free. I choose love.” The repetition of chanting or affirming these words opens within me a space for love to creep in. Contemplate the word “willing.” Once I am damned up, I often can’t unwind my own mess. To sit with the words “willing to…”...

The Field of Right and Wrong Making

A minister colleague saw me as being wrong within a situation. She wanted me to provide her with some marketing materials unique to her church and yet she refused to ask me for them. She felt I ought to “know.” I knew her perception had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her pattern of pushing people away, making them wrong in order to step in and be the right one who cleans up the mess saving the day. This pattern provided her with a false sense of superiority. I saw the pattern. And yet, this woman was so caught up in her story that she refused to have a conversation. I was committed to speak at her church and she refused to talk with me. At this point I knew I could do one of several things: see the pattern for what it is and bless her, or step into the energy field of right and wrong making myself an investigator. As I was pondering...

How to Do a Breathing Meditation

One of the simplest ways to meditate is to follow one’s breath. Since it doesn’t require external support this can be done anywhere at anytime. To begin, practice sitting down with giving this practice your full attention. Find a comfortable place for you to sit for five minutes. Sitting up is preferred to lying down as most of us have trained ourselves to fall asleep when we are horizontal. Set your phone, alarm, or watch to five minutes. Sit upright, not learning forward or backward and with your head squarely above your shoulders. Plant your feet firmly upon the ground and feel the ground beneath them. Feel your feet upon the ground and the space where the two meet. Turn your attention inward toward your breath. You are going to follow the breath with your attention, riding the breath like a surfer rides atop a wave. Notice where the breath starts.; it may begin in the mouth or the nose. Follow the movement of your breath to your belly....

Death of a Loved One

I sang the song Asi’ Sera tonight in church and was keenly aware of the appropriate message of this song for talking about death in a Soulful context. The words translate: We come to live We come to love We come to pass away And to continue on the journey. The greatest gift a life of Faith has given me, has been the knowing that life continues on after death. This knowing allows me to honor another’s journey as being perfect for them. I can rest in their birth, their death, and their continued form of Soul unfolding. It also gets me off the hook from any form of judging how one dies. There are many ways to leave this world, some more creative and vivid than others and yet the result is the same. Whether for a few minutes, months, years, decades or into old age, our beloved lived, loved, and passed away to continue on their journey. This too is true whether the death is perceived as tragic,...

Walking Meditation

The combination of body movement and mindfulness … is one I can get excited over. I have always been a big walker and when I practiced solitude and silence for years, walking became an essential part of integrating insights into my body and transmuting old thought energy that no longer fit my new emerging self. Motion was a necessary part of my shedding and opening. This insight brought me to reading what I could about the spiritual practice of walking. The Australian Aborigine are known to take Walkabouts which are ritualized walks within the desert guided by one’s intuition and the voices of one’s ancestors. These walks are a form of spiritual initiation as each step is symbolic of external as well as internal movement. This recognition has allowed me to walk out of my house and realize I am literally walking from an old level of consciousness into a new level of consciousness. Labyrinth walking has resurged in the past twenty or so years. Walking the labyrinth is...