DECORATING MY TEMPLE

Dedicated to the little girl who was scared of everything on the horizon, feared what she did not know, judged what she did not understand and never gave up on remembering the Light... 

Nothing in Life is Permanent 

I walked into the small meditation room not really knowing what to expect. Immediately I felt a presence of something huge and loving. It was thick and if it was a color it would be a golden fog. I sat down and started crying. Tears flowed out of my eyes in a manner that I had only experienced once before except this time the emotion behind it was not of sadness or despair. I was sobbing for no logical reason and there was an intense amount of love and bliss surrounding my body. There was something pure and limitless about it. In hindsight I realize that I had experienced this feeling a few times in church when I was a small girl and I had experienced it again in my adult life when visiting the Golden City in Southern India.

This room was special; I came here with a specific list of intentions. The feeling of floating and no mind was strong but I told myself I'd try to stay grounded and I’d remember my list no matter what, saying every item out loud. So I started talking, “My intention here is to heal any sadness and hurt I’ve caused to others or others have caused to me, to remove any blocks stopping me from increasing the financial abundance in my life, to liberate my ancestors to the highest light of heaven and to clear any negative karma I have acquired through all of my lifetimes (male and female) connecting all of these lessons into this body, now, so that I may be a pure vessel for the Divine to flow through and make use of.” Looking back it seems like quite an extensive and heavy list of requests, but at the time it was all that was there. It was all that I could focus on and it was flowing straight from my heart.

In the moment of saying my intentions out loud I felt like I had floated to a very special temple. This temple is a real life location in Southern India. The first time I visited this temple I was on a journey of self-discovery, it was my 1^st time traveling outside of the United States by myself and of all places to test my travel skills, I picked an isolated place in the middle of nowhere in Southern India. It turns out there was no better place to find myself than in the middle of nowhere, completely lost.

During my 1st soIo trip abroad I had randomly met a group of amazing people from Norway and they became my travel companions. They happened to be traveling to the same temple as me (2 hour away from Chennai) and we decided to share a cab. After some horrible communication barriers and getting lost for an extra 3 hours I suddenly started laughing. The laughter was uncontrollable and there were tears running down my eyes, it felt like the top of my head had something pouring into it and my body felt light and full of energy. The laughter was pure bliss, and then Lise one of my new friends started laughing as well. We were looking at each other just laughing ourselves to pieces. Still riding in the cab I looked up and in the distance I could see the most majestic white temple I had ever laid my eyes on.  I instantly had an understanding that the energy field of the temple was having an effect on my kudalini (causing the bliss to run through my body). Little did I know that THIS was when my adventure and my life began.

 | My special temple in Southern India | 

Back in the little mediation room in Iowa, USA the tears, and the laughter and the bliss were rushing through my body. I had received a clear answer that, “YES, everything that you wish for you will receive.” I also saw a vision of a specific piece of sacred geometry. This vision was one of the designs on the top floor of that very special temple in Southern India. I saw it emerge from my back and lay directly on the opposite side of my heart chakra. It looked like a tattoo. It felt like it had been there before and it felt like it was ready to be there again.

Many more mystical things happened in that meditation room and perhaps I will post about that in the future. Regarding the vision I saw and felt on my back, after I had some time to integrate the energy more insights came to my awareness.

1. Nothing in life is permanent.

2. This isn’t your 1^st time having this tattoo.

3. This symbol comes to you when you are on the path to your purpose (the reason I came to Earth). 

4. You are always completely taken care of.

Three days after this experience I decided to get a better understanding of what this symbol meant. I knew nothing about it. This is what I found: It is called a Sri Yantra (Sri Chakra) and it is super awesome. 

| The Sri Yantra I visualized and focused on while singing the Moola Mantra during my 4.5 hour long tattoo process. |

Sri Yantra

Sri yantra, also known as Sri Chakra, is called the King of all yantras because all other yantras derive from it. In its three dimensional forms Sri Yantra is said to represent Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of the universe.

The Sri Yantra is conceived as a place of spiritual pilgrimage. It is a representation of the cosmos at the macrocosmic level and of the human body at the microcosmic level (each of the circuits correspond to a chakra of the body).

Sri Yantra is first referred to in an Indonesian inscription dating to the seventh century C.E. It may have existed in India, its country of origin, long before the time of its introduction to Indonesia.

The Sri Yantra is a configuration of nine interlocking triangles, surrounded by two circles of lotus petals with the whole encased within a gated frame, called the "earth citadel". The nine interlocking triangles centered around the bindu (the central point of the yantra) are drawn by the superimposition of five downward pointing triangles, representing Shakti ; the female principle and four upright triangles, representing Shiva ; the male principle. The nine interlocking triangles form forty three small triangles each housing a presiding deity associated with particular aspects of existence.

Man's spiritual journey from the stage of material existence to ultimate enlightenment is mapped on the Sri Yantra. The spiritual journey is taken as a pilgrimage in which every step is an ascent to the center, a movement beyond one's limited existence, and every level is nearer to the goal. Such a journey is mapped in stages, and each of these stages corresponds with one of the circuits of which the Sri Yantra is composed from the outer plane to the bindu in the center.

The Tattoo Process

It was as simple as Googling "Sri Yantra Tattoo." There is actually a tattoo shop with that namesake. It is a place that focuses on Sacred Geometry and was clearly where I needed to go. I booked the appointment and both the flights and hotel. Six months later we were on our way to San Fransisco!

After a stop to pick up some healthy healing foods we were in Oakland meeting Dillon Forte of Sri Yantra Tattoo. In my opinion Dillon is someone who is blessed to have found his calling and I feel grateful to have found him. 

Video of Tattoo Day! 

And the process began....

During the process I was in a very meditative state, chanting the Moola Mantra and visualizing the Sri Yantra located underneath the center spire of my special temple in India. I had some extra help by using hypnotherapy to help center and calm me. Of course being well hydrated and having light nutritious food circulating through the cells of my body helped the whole process go smoothly. 

| I focused on the Sri Yantra located below the center spire you see in this photo to calm and center myself during the 4.5 hour tattoo process. |

Everyone asks, "Did it hurt?" The truth is that I was calm and there was a sense of peace. There were moments that were intense but there was always a level of relaxation. Relaxing into the intensity was all I needed to do and before I knew it the moment had passed. I was not aware of how long the tattoo would take or where we were in the process, but during the last 10 shots of ink tears started running down my cheeks and there was a feeling of coming home. Then just as the tattoo had started, it was complete.

What is the end of this little tale? I don't feel there is one, this is a story of an amazing life that is just beginning...

To be a pure vessel of Light, a portal for the Cosmos to Awaken humanity.

Quality - Renovation Raiders Experience

What level of quality are the Renovation Raiders rooms put together? This is a valid question and I’ve answered it a lot to family & friends because of the recent renovation through the show.

Sometime people ask questions out of curiosity, sometimes they ask questions or make comments from fear, anger or doubt. A person must use some serious inner integrity to recognize where their questions or comments are coming from. For anyone just curious from their heart, I'm happy to share ...

The Job: My experience is my truth. In my experience everyone who works on this show truly cares about the final product and they are artists at what they do. It is not “just for TV”. The production company for this particular show has integrity and my house was loved and taken care of very well during my whole experience. In our instance the surprise was for my husband. They were very detailed in asking me what my husband would like the room to look like. Their concern was never about what they wanted it to look like. The focus of the whole crew was on making my husband (and therefore me) happy with the changes that were to take place. What did we dream of? Someplace relaxing and peaceful that brought in lots of earthy/natural elements. They did such an amazing job and not only was my husband completely in shock when we came home from dinner, but so was I (and I knew that the renovation was going to occur)!

Relaxing by our new fireplace! It gets used a ton. None of the
decorative wood on the sides gets burned of course, and also - no bugs ;)

The Details: In the end were there details that my husband and I will finish ourselves? Of course! Little things that we are glad to do, because putting the finishing touches on a job that huge sealed the deal and made it even more ours! (Plus they left all the extra supplies for us in case we wanted to touch up paint, etc.). Not only did we not have to pay for anything done in our house (as advertised on the production company website), but the work the Raiders do is carefully crafted and well thought out with the homeowners in mind. It is mind blowing. 

Inspectors are on site and everything is up to – or surpasses code. How do I know this? Because on June 27th the day our show aired, a city inspector showed up at our house (she was walking around our yard approving the final inspection for a new roof we had installed), it just so happened that she was the inspector that was at our house the night the Raiders remodeled. I invited her in and she told me all about her experience watching the Renovation Raiders do their work on the night of the remodel. It was so cool to hear the story from her view point. She said Amy was a wonder woman, digging in and helping out with every aspect of the remodel. She said it was like a perfectly choreographed dance, it was the coolest thing she had seen in her whole life, and that everything they did exceeded the city's code regulations. Very cool to hear.



7 months after the remodel, the inspector posing under the new header,
which allowed our load bearing wall to be removed.

The Good Life: The remodel is more beautiful than anything we could have done ourselves and seven months later we couldn't be more happy or grateful for this Miraculous Gift!

Want to see the full episode? It's now free online HERE!

Life is beautiful: Our little buddies enjoying their new spot in front of the window.

Mind vs. Miracle

 

For years the mind has told me that my riding a bus instead of driving the route I would have been taking the day the 35W Bridge fell was just a coincidence. “Nothing to talk about here, nothing to see, nothing to be grateful for.” - Whatever I do, “Don’t say it out loud, you’ll sound stupid.” Well here I am saying it out loud and the thought of any naysayers (people thinking this is stupid) brings up an uncomfortability, because up until now I was too conflicted to consider this as a Miracle. It's crazy how powerful & persuasive the mind can be. "Who am I to think that I'm special enough for God to take care of me in such an extravagant way?" says the mind. Well, here I go anyways...

On July 1st 2007 I moved to NE Minneapolis. The location was a quick on/off ramp away from my work. All I had to do was hop on to 35W and go south and bam, I was at work. (See map below)

 PATH TO MY WORK VIA CAR: “A” was my work. “B”is my neighborhood. The Red box is the 35W Bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an easy & simple drive to my job.  So why after this move to a new house was there an urge to suddenly learn how to ride a bus? Public transportation over the independence of my sweet car was not my style, but there was an urge to “RIDE THE BUS!” I thought, “Well I can read the paper and relax instead of having to sit through traffic – yeah, that would be nice.” But I still wasn’t convinced. There was NO reason for me to want to ride the bus. The bus schedule was confusing. It wasn’t a straight shot ride. I had to go through downtown and transfer to a different bus one or two times before making it south to Bloomington where I worked. It was actually quite a hassle, but for some reason I was determined to “conquer the bus system" and so, I started riding the bus. Annoying as it was, my body was automatically going through all the motions to learn the bus route, stand in the rain, sit in the uncomfortable seats and ultimately get to work. If I liked it or not I was a bus rider.

On August 1st 2007 at 6:05PM exactly one month after I started my “Bus Adventure” and within minutes/or seconds of when I would have been driving over the 35W Bridge in my car, the bridge collapsed.  I’m not being dramatic. It was the path I would have been on, and the time I was scheduled to be on the bridge (considering the day, the traffic and the time I left work).

See below: Instead of being on the path of the red box (the bridge that fell), I was on a bus safely going over a different bridge (circled in yellow) blissfully unaware of how the Divine rerouted my life one month earlier to keep me safe.

RED BOX: 35W Bridge that collapsed.
YELLOW CIRCLE: Me safely riding a bus over this bridge.

Photos of the bridge that the Divine did not want me on:

Aftermath of the fallen 35W Bridge

Overview of the fallen 35W Bridge

After the fall:

The day after the 35W Bridge collapsed, there was shock of what had happened, but internally there was peaceful feeling came through that said, “Okay, you can drive your car to work now.” And just like that, without a second thought I simply started driving my car to work. No more bus for me. It was as if the urge, determination, the NEED to “conquer the bus system, “ all of it, just left my body and I knew that it was okay for me to start driving myself to work again.

 

The Contemplation:

Since that day in 2007 the Mind has been telling me that riding the bus during the bridge collapse was not a Miracle. Today I can see that in my Heart I've always felt I was taken care of that day, but as that peaceful feeling would start to set in, the Mind would start rationalizing why I wasn't worthy enough to be taken care of in this orchestrated kind of way...and how my story sounded stupid. This back and forth between the feeling and the thought was the conflict around this experience.

 

My beautiful husband told me, "There are no feeling in your head and there are no thoughts in your heart. - Which place would you rather be?" All of a sudden it clicked. It's impossible to be in both the head and heart at one time. Being drawn to my heart but pulled away to the thoughts was the suffering & confusion.

 

The Confirmation:

I was taken care of that day the bridge fell. It was Divine intervention that rerouted my path to work, and for this I am Grateful.
 

There are two Miracles here:

1) My safety on a day that had the potential to be filled with hard lessons.

2) The Gift of seeing the Mind and living through my Heart.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.intraawareness.com/

 

The Original House Miracle

I've been spending lots of time contemplating Miracles. The next one that is being recalled to share involves the place I call home (seems I'm going through a "home" phase when it comes to Miracles). It's being brought to my attention that my Renovation Raiders Miracle was not the first major miracle involving my house. 

The Contemplation:
I'm realizing that since I was a little girl I always wanted a nice, clean, organized house to call home. The memory that keeps coming to me is that as a tiny little girl I would get off the school bus and walk towards our neighbors house just in case any of the children on the bus were watching. I was hoping that they would think I lived in the nice red rambler next door instead of the paint chipping, kind of falling apart house that some might consider a cabin (in need of some love and care). Of course everyone knew what house I came from, but my little tiny mind felt better just thinking that someone, anyone, on the bus might think I belonged in that one story rambler with pretty bright red paint. I guess my prayers to God about wanting a nice house started earlier than I let myself remember.

The Miracle:
My second house miracle is short... but once again involves the internet, and winning things. I see a theme starting here.

I love a local magazine called Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine. Before the economic downturn in the US companies would have contests to give away their products as promotions. One random day I was called to go to the website of my favorite local magazine (note: no angel voices this time, but back then my antenna had foggy reception).

Here's the website as you would see it today:
http://mspmag.com/Contests-And-Promotions/


Back then they were giving away a ton of free Christmas gifts (today the economy still hasn't recovered enough for companies to warrant promotions like they did back then). This particular promotion was titled, "What's on your Christmas List", basically all I had to do was go down a checklist they had set up and click on anything that I would like to win and get from Santa. Easy enough, right? So, out of a list of 25-40 things ranging from dinners to local restaurants, vacations to exotic places, and gift certificates to boutiques I chose very carefully. I didn't want to click on too many items because I thought it would take away my chances of getting what I really wanted - new Cambria counter tops for my kitchen. What are Cambria counter tops you ask? Well here's a link to view some of their fine products:

http://www.cambriausa.com/en/designs/photos-and-videos/

As you can see, they are very high quality items and I felt I would be very lucky to have such an amazing gift in my kitchen.

I forgot about the contest until a few months later when I received a phone call. Turns out the Divine wanted me to have nice kitchen counter tops! Wow. This is one lucky girl!

I could not see putting such nice new counter tops on the 1951 cabinets that were currently in the kitchen. A project started and the whole kitchen was going to get a makeover.  This too is a miracle, because there was no budget for a new kitchen but somehow things just fell into place.

The Lesson:
I can see now how wishes from when I was 8yrs. old were being put in a bank. A big God bank. When do withdrawals happen? I have no idea, but I'm seeing how Gratitude is like knowing the account number and password. That's all for now.





Oh, want to see some photos of the kitchen God gave me? .... The photos are not the best. I almost didn't get "before" photos at all, and took them after the demo started so please excuse the mess ;) however, I think you can get the idea of the transformation!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Angels watch HGTV - Angels talk to me (and I listen)

 

I just returned from a life changing 24 day trip to India, there I learned that the Universe sees sharing the Miracles of our lives (large and small), as an act of Gratitude. The more we share the joys in our lives the more they multiply.

Imagine doing a favor for a friend and then knowing that they are grateful purely from their heart. This causes us to want to do more favors for that friend. Is it not?

By sharing Miracles we are essentially building a relationship with our Divine. The more we call on it and have gratitude, the more the Divine shows up.

Here is my HGTV Renovation Raiders Miracle Story. My Gratitude for this Miracle is beyond words, but I will do my best...

Sitting in the quiet one day I was pondering how I would love to make our house cozier. You see, I purchased our house previous to meeting my husband. What I noticed was that with every room we painted together, tile we laid, or flower we planted “my house” became “our house.” It felt amazing to be building a home together. Enter: My wish to make our living room a more welcoming place to relax and host guided meditations for our family & friends.

I started adding up the costs of what we dreamed of doing to our living room, and the mountain of money that it would take. New carpet for living room & dining room: $6,000, knock down a load bearing wall to reveal a staircase: $(who knows), New fireplace wall: $(who knows), Painting: $(A lot), Tile around the entry way door: $(who knows)… etc. etc.  The list went on. It would be expensive and probably would need to happen over the next 3 years in stages. In my heart it was something that I really wanted and in that moment it was like I was begging for a way to have it happen, then all of a sudden I heard three sweet little voices say, “Someone will do it for you” – have you ever seen those photos of Cherub Angels? That is what these voices sounded like. The sound of the voices was very playful, sincere and sweet. I am open to receiving messages from Angels and in the past have experienced conversations with Angels, Guides, deceased relatives, etc. - but these three little voices were new and I knew right away that I liked them!

 

What do you do when little Angel voices tell you that someone will remodel your house for you? Well, I asked, “Ok, How!?!” then suddenly in my mind’s eye, I saw the Google box. This was my queue to go to the internet and open the Google site. So I did. I asked, “Now what?” and the Angels said playfully, “You know...” With no thought in my head, my hands just started typing: MINNEAPOLIS, HOME, MAKOVER, and CASTING. It was a strange moment when the mind was dead silent, but by body was automatically moving. A page of websites was revealed with those 4 magical words. Within the search results I clicked on a link for a local Television Production company. Under their Casting page I saw that they were looking for people who wanted to “Surprise Their Spouse with a Room Remodel at little or NO cost to us.” It was a brand new television show and they were casting for their first season – “Yes! (I was talking to the website), how did you know that this is EXACTLY what I would love to do!?!”

 

Within 20 minutes I had submitted a super-secret application. It was super-secret because I could not tell my husband that I was even applying for this opportunity – hence the whole point of the show “Surprising your Spouse.” Fast forward 8 amazing weeks later and see the link below…  My miracle is revealed in photos 1 and 19-31!

 

http://www.hgtv.com/decorating-basics/renovation-raiders-stealth-remodeling/pictures/index.html

The link to the full episode is free online HERE!

My gratitude to the Miracle of Angels.  Please feel free to share any Miracles large or small in your life! The more we share, the more they multiply and who doesn't love a good Miracle?

New Show on HGTV: Renovation Raiders

A new show will be airing on HGTV starting May 30, 2013. It is called Renovation Raiders. Our house was "Raided" and will be featured on June 27th, 2013. I'm still in awe, and can't quite understand how easily this all happened, but luckily for me I kept a journal of the my personal experience which I will share at a later date. All I have to say now is WOW.

Coolest part of our makeover miracle:
1) Treated to a free top notch dinner while our house was being transformed.
2) First HGTV/DIY show where the homeowners do not have to pay for any product.
3) Not having to live through construction for weeks if not months while the work is completed!!
4) Production company has the most fantastic crew to work with!


Sneak Peek Photos: We are photos 1, and 19-31!
http://www.hgtv.com/decorating-basics/renovation-raiders-stealth-remodeling/pictures/index.html

The full episode is free online HERE!


(Friend & family have been asking, "How did you get on the show?" - I finally put it in words in the next post Angels Watch HGTV...)