How Reincarnation Works

I guess I’ve been so excited about Ascension that I forgot to explain the basics of reincarnation. Reincarnation is the way we, as souls, have been doing our learning for eons of time. Although there are some souls who are very new to this physical world (I mentioned about this issue of “soul age” when I reviewed Michael Newton’s The Journey Of Souls), most of you have been reincarnated many times.

Reincarnation as a way to experience the world from different perspective

By definition, this physical world requires us to take certain specific perspective. For example, you are either a man or a woman. As a soul, everyone has both male and female energies, more or less of each. But as physical beings, we are either male or female. And we are born at a specific time and place in this three dimensional world even though there are no time and space limitations in the spiritual world. We also chose specific parents and birth settings.

A unique birth setting and life experiences offers a unique perspective. So souls often choose very different — often opposite — perspective to round up the learning process they set out to do. For example, if you were the kind of man who had sexual relationships with women as a way to show off your social power, you, as a soul, may choose to be born as a woman in the following incarnation and live closely with that kind of man, the mirror image of your previous self.

You have the same basic disposition of your starseed, but you are in a very different situation.  This way, you get to experience both sides of the story and learn what non-loving relationships are like — which is a way to learn love.

Likewise, if you were an exploitative factory owner before, you may incarnate in a poor family and eventually work for a difficult boss. If you were a very dogmatic and authoritative religious leader in your past life, you may choose to be a revolutionary next time, another way to use your inner power and to experience leadership in a very different setting.

I have no value judgment for those souls who have “acted out”, so to say. And being born on the receiving end of the scenario is not a punishment. It’s just a way of learning. You don’t have to reincarnate this way, but I see it happen often in my Akashic Record Reading.

Perhaps Hitler is reincarnated as a Jew now. . .

Reincarnation as a way to experience different life choices

Another common way of reincarnation is to set out in a similar birth setting but to explore different path by making different choices. Throughout life, we make many decisions with our free will. Each decision changes the available options in the future and together carves out our life. So even with similar birth settings and dispositions, people live different lives. Some souls choose to explore the options they missed in previous incarnation.

For example, let’s say you were a middle class woman in your past life. You chose to marry with the man your parents chose, a man from the same social and religious group with yourself, even though you were secretly in love with a man from a lower class. You chose to go for parental guidance and social approval rather than being true to your own feelings and asserting yourself.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you made a “wrong” decision and were unhappy for the rest of your life. But that decision defined your life from there on, and you often wondered what may have happened if.

In this life, you may be born in surprisingly similar settings — again, a middle class woman with parents of traditional values (in probably a different country. Souls really like living in different locations.) Again, you are secretly attracted to a man that you know your parents won’t approve of. And they talk how nice it would be if you married with the boy you dated in high school, whose family they know of. So what do you do this time? Do you do the same thing again, choosing the “safe” option that pleases your parents, or do you try something different?

Purpose of reincarnation

These are just two common patterns souls choose their next incarnations. I want to emphasize there is no judgment here. It’s like choosing roles in a play in this world we call reality. I don’t think “good” karma brings good next life and “bad” karma brings bad reincarnation. That view is bound by our limited understanding of what is “good” and “bad”.

We all chose our birth settings. There are special spirits who assist us in this process, but it’s ultimately our choice.  And sure, sometimes we choose to reincarnate in a way that doesn’t really fit our disposition nor our learning plan — like this. But that’s okay, too.

Also, the time a soul spends in between incarnations seem to vary quite a bit. Some souls come back in a few years while some spends many decades, or even centuries, on the other side.

And finally, the question, “Why do we reincarnate? What’s the purpose?  Do we ever quit this cycle of reincarnation?” My understanding is reincarnation is a way of learning. We are the individualized pieces of God, and we are hear to learn Love, Light, Truth, Abundance, and Power, to see what it is like to experience joy and freedom. So when a soul achieves that objective, I wouldn’t be surprised if it stops to reincarnate. That’s the whole point of Ascension.

Do you have any questions about reincarnations? Please let me know by leaving your comments. Thank you.

(Photo credit)

Spirit Guides 201

This is the follow up of my first article on spirit guides. In that first article, I shared the basics such as who spirit guides are, why they are such a great resource to improve your life, and why you may be feeling so lonely and helpless. (Photo credit)

Today’s article is what I have been learning myself by facilitating Spirit Guides Coaching. This gave me opportunities to work with various clients and their spirit guides. While each client and their spirit guides are unique, there are also commonalities.

Nothing is too petty to ask to spirit guides

First I encourage you to communicate with your spirit guides daily, from small to large things. Don’t wait until some catastrophe hits your life and you desperately need some supernatural help.

Attempting to communicate with your spirit guides only when there are major problems in your life is like running a marathon only when there is a race. You will be much better off if you practice daily. And the good news is you might enjoy the practicing part.

And don’t be shy to ask for help for some “small” things. There is no small things for spirit guides.

For instance, I was at a supermarket the other day. Usually, I do most of my grocery shopping at a small natural food store, but sometimes I go to the big one called Market of Choice. I think I wanted a can of tomato or something that day. Because I eat a lot of raw foods, I don’t buy cans often. I went to the aisle that I thought I saw them before, but I didn’t see any. Hmm… Where are they? Do I need to ask a clerk?

I immediately got a hunch, “Over on the other side” Oh, really? Sure is! Gee, my spirit guides even care about my grocery shopping!

They are just so helpful. I might even say my spirit guides are a bit too mothering. They try to remind me what to take when I go out. (“Refill your water can, Akemi!”) I guess they know how unorganized I am in my natural state…

Spirit guides are ALWAYS encouraging

Many people are afraid of communicating with their spirit guides. They think spirit guides would criticize them, like their caregivers and peers did when they were growing up.

And let’s admit we go through ups and downs in our lives. Sometimes we fail to do things that we know we need to do. Sometimes we act out in a way we regret later. When these things happen, we are depressed, often blame ourselves, and we fear rejection.

“Do my spirit guides still love me? Or are they sick and tired of me, like I am myself? Are they going to leave me because I am no good?”

And I am here to say I have never seen spirit guides being fed up with our humanly failures and weaknesses. They are always loving. Spirit guides are very patient in their love.

If you don’t take their advice and do something else, then they figure out how to help you from there. Spirit guides live in the now.

So don’t be afraid to face your spirit guides. They are always willing to help you.

Spirit guides want you to take good care of yourself

I’d like to emphasize that I have NEVER heard spirit guides talk like,

“She needs to work harder. Things are not turning out because she is not pushing hard enough. Maybe she needs to cut down her sleep to put in more hours. “

This is the kind of human thinking that is limited by space-time. Spirit guides are far more creative in coming up with ways to help you. And they don’t like seeing you abuse yourself.

Often, clients come to me because they want to see certain change in their life. For example, the client may be considering to start their own business. The Spirit Guides Coaching runs only for six weeks, so they want to jump in and talk about self-employment.

Typically, however, their spirit guides have different idea. They first want the person to take better care of themselves. Which makes perfect sense if you step back and think well. Starting a business takes a lot of energy, and if you are consumed with years of sleep deprivation, malnourishment (physically and emotionally), and most importantly, overworking in the corporate world, you are not going to make it. Further, when you are attached to one idea of a new business, you fail to notice other good ideas.

So, quite often, their spirit guides first give assignments such as relaxing and detoxing. For example, they might suggest solitary walk in the morning. Or napping. Or playing with a dog. Or taking a detox bath.

Don’t worry, when you are ready, your spirit guides are happy to help you with the things you think you need help for. But first, they want you to take good care of yourself. So leave your shortsighted agenda and trust your spirit guides.

Do you have any questions about spirit guides? I cannot comment back questions about your spirit guides because specific individual case requires individual attention (so you might want to consider ordering a reading), but I’d be happy to answer general questions in the comment.

Review: Happy For No Reason By Marci Shimoff

Are you happy?

It’s a simple question. Are you happy? And if you hesitated to give a big YES!, this book Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out is for you.

Marci Shimoff is one of the Law of Attraction teachers in the movie / book The Secret. In this book, she explains being happy is the best way to utilize the Law of Attraction because it’s really the feelings, not thoughts, that has the creative power. (The link takes you to my own article on this point.) So be happy and have a wonderful life.

How to be happy

“Sure” you may say, “I want to be happy, but I have problems. . .” Well, that’s the point. You don’t need to wait until all your problems are resolved to be happy.

What I really like about Happy For No Reason is it doesn’t just pay lip service discussing how important happiness is to your mental and physical health or what happiness is to begin with, but it shows the solid steps you can take immediately to be happy. She clarifies there are seven aspects to be happy. Let me introduce them by their chapter titles:

1. Take ownership of your happiness
2. Don’t believe everything you think
3. Let love lead
4. Make your cells happy
5. Plug yourself to spirit
6. Live a life inspired by purpose
7. Cultivate nourishing relationships

I understand it’s not like you must achieve all the seven aspects fully to be happy (this attitude only puts off happiness to the future), but these are areas we can look at to be more fully — us.

Happiness is our natural state of being

Being happy for no reason is our natural state of being. The seven principles help you to unlearn some of the happiness-killer habits, such as over-thinking (“Don’t believe everything you think” and “Let love lead”) or victim mentality (“Take ownership of your happiness”).

The book is an easy read with lots of anecdotes and even cartoons. (Marci Shimoff is also the co-author of some Chicken Soup For The Soul books.) One of my favorite stories is about a woman called Happy Oasis. She traveled to Bangladesh in her youth when there was a serious famine there. One day, she found herself surrounded by people who were dying.

I’ll skip the middle part of the story so that I won’t spoil your fun reading it. But in the end, she finds it is possible to smile even in such a horrific situation. And with that, she finds she can be happy anywhere in the world, regardless of the situation.

Is happiness important to you?

Our soul’s ultimate purpose is to experience this world and find joy in it. In other words to be happy. And the best happiness is the happiness for no reason. Happiness for a reason shall pass, happiness for no reason comes from your core and yours to keep.

My concern is that many people don’t really care about happiness. The book shows a survey of what people value in life and how happy they felt. Those who value monetary and career success over personal happiness are indeed less happier than those who value happiness and relationships. Well, duh, that’s the Law of Attraction working — you get what you pay attention to.

I don’t think we need to choose one or the other, but at the same time, I’m sure that, if you don’t value happiness, you surely won’t find it.

So . . . are you happy? Do you care to be happy?

Next Page »