Discovering Our True Power

My whole life I viewed power as a struggle, a conflict, for authority and influence. Power implied greed, competition, wars, and forces at battle. If you wanted power, you needed to join the sea of others that were stepping over each other for wealth and control. You'd need to look past humility, love, and gentle kindness, a much nobler path, but one that was for the weak. If you wanted power, you'd have to separate and distinguish yourself, as it required proving yourself over others to achieve domination. 

The real source of power involves no separation. Power is a state of oneness. While conflict creates chaos, unification brings strength. Our pure power and potential is created when we are internally sound, clear, and whole. We can find our true magic when the different parts of ourselves find resolution and when we are no longer separated by our polarities -- the good and the bad, our pleasures and our pain. 

Similarly, when we as people are no longer divided by our egos and our identities, we realize that we are all reflections of each other and that there is no seperation. As a people, our connection and bond is stronger, and our true collective power can be realized. A divided consciousness creates a divided world, and division can only lead to conflict and destruction, which can hold no real power. 

We can discover the power in ourselves and create true power as a people by beginning to live a life of oneness. And what better way to remain in a state of solidarity than to experience life through love. True love is the bond that glues all together and offers no separation or conflict. Open your love channel and stay tuned. Love each moment, each experience, each breath. Love the person next to you, and the person far away. Love them because they are just a reflection of the same energy that is you, that is all things on this planet. 

Love will guide you to a complete sense of self and connection to all things. It is the answer to the void and the disconnection we may feel. It is the key to your true power potential. 

The Art of Meditation

Our minds are composed of perspectives, beliefs, impressions and thoughts. There are layers of consciousness that dwell within each of us, and most of us maintain minimum awareness on only the shallowest level of our being. Meditation is an ancient art of stilling mental activity so that one can discover the depths of their being.

I had only a faint conceptual understanding of meditation when I began to practice years back. I would read yoga and new age texts and attempt sitting with closed eyes and crossed legs, searching for mental stillness - only to find that my mind was a mental chatter box! I would think about running errands, think about my work, think about something a friend said, think about something I should have done. I felt defeated by distracting thoughts, and the world of peace and tranquility that meditation promised felt worlds away.

Somewhere in my daily meditation practice, I observed a strange occurrence. I had found a pause, a hesitation between the mental chatter, almost like a comma in a sentence. I began to look for the pause each time I would sit and meditate. I would look for it when I was going about my daily business. Each time I found the pause I would breath deeper and carry it out for longer stretches of time, until the comma in the sentence became a period, and the period extended into an ellipses.

The art of meditation is finding the space between the thoughts and cultivating a suspension of the mind. In this beautiful state of mental emptiness, the real power begins. A mind wiped clean of incessant thoughts gives an opportunity to instill a new consciousness and awaken to the fullest potential. Once our minds become a blank canvas, it can develop into a beautiful masterpiece created by our connection to the cosmos. Here, we can enjoy the fruits of our practice. Our world may appear more vivid, deliberate, and harmonious.

Exercise: Mental Housekeeping
Like all art forms, meditation requires practice and perfection. Here is an exercise that can help you build a peaceful mind.

1) Sit quietly and comfortably in a chair or on the floor in a simple cross legged position. It is important to feel comfortable in your posture, so be sure to find a posture that you can maintain for a period of time. Make certain that your backs is straight, your shoulders are relaxed, and the top of your head is facing the heavens.

2) Begin to notice your natural breathing. Feel the breath flow in and out of the lunges. Begin to take in longer and deeper inhalations and exhalations. Focusing on the breath is a basic meditation technique that allows you to relax and bring your attention inward. It is difficult for the body to perform deep breaths and for the mind to become very active at the same time.

3) Notice the content of the mind. Notice any thoughts, but in a compassionate and non-judgmental way. Imagine your mind as a beautiful special room in your life. With each breath you take, imagine a breeze blowing out the thoughts in your head. Have them fly out opened windows and dissolve as they leave your mental home. Begin to feel lighter and lighter in your mind with each breath. After several breaths your mental room becomes clean and clear. Now, fill it with protective radiant light. The light can be rainbow colored, white, or any vibrant color you imagine. Fill your mental body with this protective layer until all you feel is the warmth and love of the color(s).

4) You may now begin to sit in peace, relaxing in this new joy. Sit this way for five, ten, twenty, or thirty minutes. If new thoughts enter your mind or you become distracted, invite the vibrant color you imagined to sweep through your mental home and carry the thought out the window.

5) Bring yourself our of meditation very gently. Place a gentle smile on your face. The smile is a way of sealing your practice and inviting closure, sort of like a bow after a martial arts practice. Practice a mental housekeeping as often as desired, and at least once a day.


Helina Metaferia is a holistic practitioner and visual artist and teaches a Meditation Intensive class through a company she founded called The Meta Experience. Visit www.themetaexperience.com and click on The Love MySelf Program for more information.

Raising Our Vibrations to Realize Our Potential

Each day gives us the opportunity to awaken to our fullest potential. It is how we choose to think, feel, and act that determines what we do with our day. It is what we choose to do with our day that creates the series of events that become our circumstances. All of this is a reflection of our vibrational state.

Our vibrational state is the energy frequency at which we radiate - abundance or lack, love or fear, peace or turmoil, agitation or contentment, and so on. Vibration is not New Age terminology. It is science as well as the content of various forms of spirituality. Some may refer to it as the Ka and Ba in ancient Egypt, Prana in India, or Chi in China. It is the makeup of our energetic fields and the substance of our being.

Our breath, food, water, rest, exercise and knowledge contribute to our vibrations. This affects every part of our existence, from our health to our capabilities. Whether we choose to take the deepest breath, eat the healthiest food, drink several ounces of water, get the fullest rest, practice exercise, or deepen our consciousness is up to us. Some may feel limited by their circumstances (they cannot access the healthiest food, etc) or are ignorant to the ways in which one can enhance their life force. Again, everything, in essence, is a choice. The one thing we are always able to access is our will, our thoughts, and our actions. Perhaps all we need is to shift these things in order to create the domino effect that determines our lives.

Choice is at the heart of shifting our vibrations so that we may live the life of our dreams. If we feel stagnant, stifled, or scattered, choose to lift your vibration and watch your world change. Cleanse yourself through diet and exercise, engage in conscious discussion or books, and begin to take time to rest - not just through sleep but through relaxation time. Drink plenty of water and discover breathing exercises. And most of all, shift your thought patterns to reflect your purest worth.

Don't worry about the "how." Just choose to shift and the rest will unfold for you. Raising our vibrations is a constant practice. The more you practice, the more you will discover that your life will become more fulfilling than you have ever imagined it to be.


Love Light,
Helina Metaferia

** Helina Metaferia is a holistic practitioner and visual artist living in Maryland. Visit the website: http://www.themetaexperience.com

The Love Experience - Gratitude to those that are helping me expand my heart

I have been feeling a specific spiritual growth around the heart and solar plexus lately. I have been praying to learn how to love for years now, but have been feeling blocked by my own pain and ego. However, these past few weeks I have been feeling a small spirit guide chip away at an odd ice sculpture in my chest, known as my sentimental heart.

I woke up this morning feeling in complete gratitude, oddly enough, for the most difficult situations I have encountered in relationships. I realize that those who have made me angry, made me cry, and made me want to resist loving are the ones that are helping me grow to love the most. They are teaching me, often unconsciously, all of the polarities of this earthly realm which I must deal with in order to connect with pure Love at its core. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for the most complex emotional situations - the lover that I couldn't stand to be around anymore, the friend that cursed me out, the person who had been an abuser. In my crazy state of heart expansion, I felt compelled to write this blog entry in complete grateful honesty.

Thank you to those special people in my life that had once been romantic partners, who I once thought were the embodiment of everything I've ever wanted, but who also became the embodiment of everything I couldn't stand to be around. I realize now that the pain in my chest that I have been dealing with for years were an unwillingness to let go of disappointment, anger, and disbelief that love could have many sides to it. I was never angry at the person whom I couldn't be with romantically, although I might have projected this anger onto them. I was more so upset with the nature of love. Now, however, I see that these experiences have allowed me to evolve so I may learn a deeper type of love, one that is unconditional and unselfish, and one that is never ending.

Thank you to the friendships that had turned sour, where I felt betrayed and hurt and that you never really "had my back." My tears were never in vein. I needed you to be my spiritual teachers as well. Whether our relationships were karmic settlements from past lives, or whether you intuitively read my insecurities when you met me and knew how to push all my buttons, you were a mere reflection of my vibrational state. I accept responsibility for the situation and that I have attracted a person that could hurt me so. I am sorry for any hurt that I may have caused you. Even in the face of residual pain, I still have Love. I love you unconditionally, whether you receive it or not.

Thank you to those relationships that I still have to work through. You are my everyday teachers. These may be current family, friends, associates, and people that are currently in my vibrational field. We are in each others lives for a reason. We reflect each others deepest desires, thoughts, and attachments. Here is where I can practice the Love that I am growing to know on a deep level. I promise to practice my patience and trust with you, even when it is most difficult. And I promise to practice to see you for your God-consciousness, something that is in everyone of us but is often veiled by our illusions of each other. I Love you. I pray you learn to Love me too.

Thank you for those that have Loved me unconditionally, even without knowing me. My guru, Amma, comes to mind when I think of this. Here is a woman who has millions of disciples around the world, yet who Loves so fiercely and openly as if you are her only child. I feel like she is more than a mother or a best friend. She is the one who Loves me the most while knowing me the least. We don't speak the same language, and I only see her once a year (while she is being swarmed by thousands of other disciples), however I feel her Love to be pure. Amma (and God) have been my ultimate teachers. Thank you.

And thanks to all of you reading this article. Whether I know you or not, I am releasing my fears and am willing to Love you too. I aspire to be able to Love every and anyone the same with no strings attached. This is the teachings of Jesus, of Buddha, of Ghandi, of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the teachings of all of the saints, gurus, and seers. Now, are we willing to practice? To embody it? Or will it always remain in a book on our nightstand, or a theory for the mind? I plan to live it to the fullest, whether I realize it completely in this lifetime or the next.

Give praises.

-- Helina Metaferia

** Some of the "L's" in love have been capitalized intentionally.