Musings and Reviews of Metaphysical, New Age and Meaningful Writings

Posts tagged ‘Della Temple’

Tame Your Inner Critic – Book Review and Author Interview


Screen Shot 2015-12-31 at 2.24.09 PMIf you want to start 2016 with the goal of loving yourself, loving others and loving life, I recommend picking up a copy of Tame Your Inner Critic: Find Peace & Contentment to Live Your Life on Purpose by Della Temple.

We all spend too much time in our lives criticizing ourselves, what we’ve done, and what choices we’ve made. I wanted to learn more about how to differentiate between my authentic self and the judgmental voice in my head. All the tools necessary to do that and more are found in Della Temple’s book.

This isn’t a quick read – rather, it provides a process of peeling away voices in your head that were placed there by others, and getting in touch with the voice of your own inner guidance, your own intuition, your own higher knowing.

As a writer about the chakras, I was very interested in Della’s chapter on “Chakras and Your Life Force,” and her experience with releasing foreign energy from the chakras through a grounding cord or blowing up this unwanted energy in the visualization of a rose.

The result of using the many exercises in Tame Your Inner Critic is a feeling of greater peace, and the ability to create your reality following your life’s intention, not the wishes of others.

There is also a companion workbook that makes it very easy to follow the recommended exercises. You can use it make notes, or you can use the journal of your choice.

I wanted to know more about Della Temple’s personal process, so I interviewed her and share her answers with you here:

1) As we’re entering into the New Year, can you explain how you re-create your statement of being instead of making resolutions?

Most people believe that action is the most important part of creating the world they desire. In forming a New Year’s Resolution most people come from the negative and figure out a way to attack the “problem,” believing that by physically doing something, they will fill the void in their lives. They have it backward; it’s better to think and feel it into being.

So, I don’t think in terms of lack or resolutions. Instead, I choose terms more reflective of my feelings and my best qualities.

If I think and feel love, kindness, and joy every day, then even if unexpected things happen in the coming year, I will view them through the lens of these top-of-mind conscious thoughts. Everything that is coming to us is a direct result of the vibration of our thoughts, feelings, and internal dialogue. As we think and feel, so it is. Changing our thoughts and feelings really does change our reality.

2) What made you decide to delve into studying psychic healing?

My inner critic used to be very loud and annoying. It held me back from doing many of the things I wanted to do. It told me I was too unprepared, too opinionated, and just not good enough. In fact, I had grown so used to the incessant negativity that I believed I was deficient in some way.

I had read about the body’s energy system and had a hunch that greater understanding of auras, chakras, and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and bodily reactions would lead to the peace and contentment I craved. So I enrolled in a beginner’s program at Boulder Psychic Institute. As I did the work, my inner critic stopped nagging me. I wanted to write about my experience to help others find their own inner peace and contentment.

3) How would you say we allow others’ voices to turn into our own inner critics and how do those voices stop us from living a life of purpose and meaning?

Thoughts and feelings are energy and through our energetic body (our aura and chakras), we exchange energy with the people in our lives. As an example, when we think of someone, we transmit some of energy from our aura into theirs.

When a parent worries about a child, they may be sending a mixture of love, concern, and judgment energy into their child’s aura. A boss or a co-worker may send us a little bit of criticism energy mixed in with their morning hello. These outside energies combine with our internal truths. Soon we are unable to tell one from the other, so we accept it all, as a right, accurate and exact portrayal of who we truly are. This I believe is the genesis of the inner critic. The judgments, criticisms and displeasure we feel about ourselves are energies we’ve unconsciously absorbed from the people in our lives. It’s difficult to live a life full of purpose and meaning – our own purpose and meaning – when we are surrounded by the stories of who others think we should be.

4) How can we tell foreign energy from our own?

Foreign energy makes your body feel tight, tense, and uncomfortable. An old Chinese proverb states, “Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” Our natural state of being is relaxation, joy, and peace. Our body is relaxed because our energy is flowing, not static.

The book is full of tools and techniques to keep your energy flowing. One of the most effective tools and a tool that I use in my personal life every single day is called a grounding cord. A grounding cord is an energy cord that connects your body to the center of the earth. It acts like a vacuum cleaner, helping you efficiently release all those thoughts and feelings of insecurity and self-doubt. Attaching your aura, as well as your body, to this grounding cord allows your full energetic system to be connected to the earth.

5) Can you explain how the chakras play a part in manifesting what one wants?

Chakras are wheels of energy that connect our physical body to our energetic body. The chakras act as waystations, transmitting information back and forth between one’s body and Spirit. If the chakras are clogged with foreign energy (other people’s thoughts and feelings), then we might be manifesting a life that’s in tune with our neighbor’s idea of the good life, not ours.

Using the energy tools described in the book (grounding, blowing up a rose, tapping), you learn to release energies that are not your own, bringing balance and harmony to your energy system. When the chakras work in harmony with each other, they send out strong vibrational signals to the universe. These signals call back to you energies of the same vibrational family. So the trick is to align all seven of your major chakras into a harmonic – a symphony of vibrations resonating with the energy of what you want to manifest.

6) How should one best follow your exercises and meditations when the first step is always to close your eyes? I found your accompanying Workbook helpful in this regard, but is it necessary?

One way is to read through the meditations first, and then record and play them back as you sit in meditation. One of my beliefs is that we can heal ourselves; we don’t want to give our power away to others. With that in mind, I think it’s helpful to hear your own voice on the tape as you sit in meditation. But I also know that people need a starting point, so I’ve recorded a few meditations for readers to download free.

I believe that taming your inner critic and uncovering your life’s purpose is both a left-brain and a right-brain activity. It’s truly a journey of discovery, a process that takes time and patience. I designed a companion workbook (Tame Your Inner Critic: The Workbook) with space to do the exercises, record your thoughts, doodle and answer some deeper questions not found in the book. I’m glad you found it helpful.

7) In doing this work you recommend, what did you find to be your unique gift and how are you sharing it with the world?

The clues to solving the riddle of who-you-really-are and what your unique gift is, reside in the quiet space of joy. Teaching is one of my joys. When the light bulb goes on for those that I am teaching, and I see their faces light up as new horizons of learning become apparent, that is joy to me. That is who I am and why I am here. I hope that I’ve done this with my book.

Find Tame Your Inner Critic on Amazon.com, or learn more about Della Temple and her work at www.DellaTemple.com.

Namaste and Happy New Year!

Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets, Balance Your Chakras-Balance Your Life, and The Chakra Energy Diet
www.theChakras.org

 

 

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Walking in Grace with Grief – Review and Author Interview


WalkGrace text_Layout 1One of my best friends lost her son in an accident and I felt the terrible anguish she and her family faced. I couldn’t imagine how one could go on to grow stronger and more centered in the midst of such tremendous grief. The answers came to me in Walking in Grace with Grief: Meditations for Healing After Loss by Della Temple. She beautifully offers her personal story of the loss of her son and the path she took to release her pain and find comfort in a continuing connection to him. She also describes how others can be of help to those suffering a loss, something we all need to know.

Part memoir and part meditation guide, Temple offers powerful guided visualizations to ground yourself, release the pain, grow stronger by filling yourself with universal energy and connecting to your higher self.

Using her meditations, you too can choose a path of growth and strength and release pain and grief, whatever your own personal struggles. Temple explains how to “let go of the story, the story of what would or could have been.”

Della Temple is an author whose writings meld the worlds of the physical and the metaphysical, a teacher and an energy healer. Here, she answers my questions:

INTERVIEW WITH DELLA TEMPLE


Becca: How would you describe the term “Walking in Grace?”

Della: A few days after the unexpected death of my son, I found myself in what I refer to as a state of Grace. I don’t know how else to explain it. I didn’t feel anger or rage against God. I experienced sorrow, a deep, fathomless sadness, grief, love, acceptance, compassion, and happiness – yes happiness – all at once. I felt the Divine surrounding me, in what I call the energy of Grace, offering me comfort and support.

I lived in this protective coating of Grace for most of the first year. It went wherever I went – and it literally felt like I was walking in a bubble of Grace. I wanted to include that in the title of my book, but there was also another part of my experience that was equally important. I don’t believe we walk through grief because grief isn’t something we get over. We walk with grief for the rest of our lives. We will always feel the hole in the heart left by the death of our loved one. The pain lessens, but grief is with us always. Walking in grace with grief is a very literal description of how I felt that first year of loss.

Becca: What message would you most like readers to get from your book?

Della: Often, we are so caught up in the emotions of sorrow, sadness, grief, anger, rebellion, and outright rage that we fail to hear our loved ones’ voices. But they are here. They constantly surround us with their love and support. We just have to open ourselves up to be able to receive their messages.

I often felt my son surrounding me in love and comfort—especially during the first year after his passing. I accepted this as a natural occurrence, and our Spirit-to-Spirit talks became an integral part of my healing journey. When we talked, he exhibited some of the same personality traits as in the body, and his sense of humor and playfulness helped ease my sorrow. I treasured these conversations because, believe it or not, they kept me rooted to the earth. They confirmed my deep faith that my son Rick had just changed form – the body had died, but his soul, the being-ness of my son was very much still “alive.”

What I’ve heard from readers is that some of them don’t believe they have the ability to talk Spirit-to-Spirit with their loved ones. Some even believe that they are not worthy or intuitive enough to communicate in this way.

What I tell them is to try.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to step into meditation. Daily meditation offers us the opportunity to quiet the outside voices and tune into our inner knowingness. Often our loved ones can reach into this space of soft awareness and let us know they are watching over us.

Rick’s presence in my life – his Spirit’s presence – confirmed my deep faith in life after life. My mountain of sorrow was lessened because I knew he existed as Spirit, and that was very healing.

Becca: We all hear about immersing ourselves in the present moment. What are your tips for doing so, to not focus on what could have been?

Della: I’ve come to think that grief is two-fold. It’s the painful longing for the physical presence of our loved one, and it’s the emotional heartache we feel as we disengage from these unfulfilled dreams, the sorrows of what could have been. The stories of a life unlived.

Every time my thoughts wandered to the what-if-he-had-lived stories, I pulled myself back. I literally would not allow myself to experience those thoughts. I chose another thought. I would force myself to think of something else – to remember a time from the past when he made me laugh, or to remember his voice or his smell. Anything but a what-if-he’d-lived story. This took energy and effort, but I think it made the difference in how I healed.

I shifted the thought and experienced my sorrow in a different vibration if that makes any sense. It was a higher, cleaner vibration – a healing vibration full of love and mercy. This vibration felt full of acceptance, kindness, and gentleness. I knew that if I could stay in this vibration – if I could surround myself with thoughts and feelings that resonated there – I could heal this deep wound. I had energy tools to help me stay in this vibration, and I share those tools with the reader throughout the book, so they too can stay out of the mire of what-could-have-been.

Defusing the power of the story allows you to return to the present, the now, the current situation without the baggage of what could have been, should have been, or wasn’t meant to be. Releasing my old stories allowed me to look at Rick’s death from a new perspective. It wasn’t about what could have been. It’s about what is – right here, right now. I still felt the pain, but it was a pain of missing my loved one right here, right now. It was not about all the future things that would not be.

Becca: What helped you most during your time of grieving?

Della: What helped me most during this time of sorrow was to embrace fully the concept of life after death. I have always believed in reincarnation – that we exist as eternal Spirits and come to earth to experience certain challenges and emotions. As we make ready for our trip to earth, we call together the Spirit forms of our soon-to-be-parents, siblings, friends, and colleagues. God is there too. We gather around a big “conference table in the sky,” and we design our soon-to-be life. We think about what our main purpose will be in this lifetime, and we design a life that presents many challenges and learning opportunities. Some of us choose to deal with only one issue; others choose many. Everyone at the table agrees to be a participant in this Contract of Life. Some will choose to be our mentors and trusted friends. Others will choose the harder role of being the “mirrors,” the ones who push our buttons and cause strife and disharmony. Each will take on a role that enhances the learning opportunity of both parties.

This Contract of Life includes many variables, or different paths that a person may take once they come to earth. Some paths are straight and narrow, leading right to the person’s overarching purpose while other paths are full of curves and unexpected dips and bumps. Some life paths are long, and others are short. Every day that a person is alive, she or he chooses which path to travel. This is free will in action.

Becca: What advice do you have for first-time authors who feel they have inspiration to share?

Della: Write! Journal, doodle, scribble – it doesn’t make any difference. Just move your story out into the world. Some people I know are more comfortable doing short videos, others write poetry. Don’t worry about whether it’s “good enough” – just share. You will get feedback along the way about your writing style, and that will help you craft your message so that it resonates with your audience. Most of us (especially me!) worry about what others think of our writing. Some of the energy tools I teach in this book helped to tame my inner critic, giving me the confidence and willingness to share.

Walking in Grace with Grief is available at Amazon.com. To contact the author, go to www.DellaTemple.com.

Namaste!

Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets, Balance Your Chakras-Balance Your Life, and The Chakra Energy Diet

www.theChakras.org

www.ChakraDiaries.wordpress.com

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