Circles and Networks:
Always Upgrade
In her wonderful book, Your Sixth Sense, Belleruth Naparstek has a chapter titled, “Specific Things You Can Do to Cultivate and Maintain Psi,” Psi being psychic ability. The third thing on her list of things is, “Keep like company.” In other words, hang out with others who have the same intense interests and goals as you. Whether your passion is for intuitive development, artistic creativity, entrepreneurial achievement or whatever else, Belleruth’s insight is a valuable ground rule to set for yourself as you make plans for networking and gathering in circle during the holidays and the New Year to come.
In fact, I’d suggest you take things a step farther. There’s an old saying: You become what you behold. So find ways to be in the energy you are striving to become. Be among those who have accomplished what you hope to achieve, in all the ways you seek to achieve it.
If growing your intuition is important to you, be with people who have shown a clear, consistent, demonstrable and clean (non-manipulative) psychic ability that is significantly beyond your current capacity.
If artistry calls to you, be where the kind of art you aspire to create is present and accessible, and find ways to be among the artists who have achieved the kind of work that is most meaningful to you. Join in their circles. Become their student if you can. Go to their shows so that you can become more familiar with them and they with you.
If owning and running your own SUCCESSFUL business drives you, network with those who are where you hope to be five, ten, twenty years from now. Purchase their products when you can. Join groups in which they have memberships. See if you can engage them as mentors.
It’s all pretty basic stuff, right?
So how come it can seem so hard to do?
Wellllll… One reason is that it really may be necessary to see and accept − without being judgmental − that your current circles and networks no longer nurture you, assist you or serve you. That would imply that you have to let go of something old, familiar and oh-so-comfortable in order to go after what your heart and soul seek now.
In fact, if you’re honest with yourself, you may decide that you have to scramble away from the good ol’ crowd as fast as you can ─ a realization that can have a lot of tugs involved in a lot of directions. It’s something that’s sometimes just not easy to do.
But look. We all have to evolve. Even I had to give away my favorite old pair of Beatle boots (Oh yeah. It still hurts to even think it!) when I finally admitted to myself that my arches had fallen about a mile and I was more than a full shoe size bigger than during the British Invasion. And besides, the boots looked like hell with Cargo shorts.
So letting go can be the first roadblock to deal with in the process.
Next, you may have to really wrestle to the ground all those decrepit worthiness issues so they stop cutting you off at the knees. After all, you deserve and are intended to continue your personal growth and development in all the ways that are for your highest and best. Therefore, you are entitled to access the finest teachers and mentors life can offer at any given time.
You just have to be the one who screws up a little courage and finds a way to break the ice. And most good people and worthwhile circles will be open to the development of a connection if you begin and proceed in a considerate, caring and respectful way.
So accepting that you deserve to go after your dreams biggertime may be a hurdle to be jumped.
Then there’s the step where you realize that, as an artist, a healer, a writer, a consultant, an entrepreneur, a person, you are always spiraling upward, and that even the new connections you are hoping to make and the circles you are striving to join or create are destined to become things of the past. Always be aware that you have the right to examine whether any teacher, any circle is truly meeting your evolving needs. If not, and there seems little prospect that they can, it’s up to you to continue exploring and move on.
How do you know whether a teacher or circle is right for you ─ or is still right for you? There are a few simple elements to consider. The most important is how you usually feel after having been with them:
~ Truly uplifted, filled with light, energized, hopeful, more accomplished, and at least generally positive? That’s good! Keep the good energy flowing!
~ Darker, angry, jealous, demeaned, less capable, hopeless, worthless or just really stuck? That’s bad. They’re Beatle boots, and it’s probably way past time to drop them in the Goodwill bin.
Of course, the implication in all of this is that you’ve done some homework and have begun to develop a strong, pretty clear sense of where you would like to go and how you would like to grow and evolve over the next few years. If you haven’t, then you might want to begin by identifying and targeting networks and circles that will help you with those aspects of your quest.
Think of it this way: You are a wonderful, shining ever-evolving being. You exist to spiral upward to higher and higher goodness, creativity, health and achievement for the highest and best of all. This holiday season and New Year, let yourself find more and more ways to connect with more and more people who resonate – and help you resonate − with hopeful, happier, more profound, more beautiful, more healing vibrations. How can you settle for less?
Brightest blessings!
©2007, 2008 Stephen Neal Szpatura
An earlier version of this article appeared in Balanced Living Magazine, www.balancedlivingmag.com
