Namaste: Completing the L.O.V.E. Method Series
Namaste. The divine in me honors the divine in you. That’s what namaste means, if you’re not familiar with that term. And I always love starting the podcast off that way because it’s. It’s my way of honoring you, acknowledging that you are not just a human being, but you are a spiritual being.
You are divine.
And that’s what today’s episode is really all about. It’s about acknowledging and embracing your divinity. So why am I doing that? Well, it is because this is the final episode of our series that I’ve been conducting over the last four months, one episode a month. I’ve been focused on sharing with you something that was given to me that’s called, I call the L.O.V.E. method.
And love is an acronym. And so we have covered so far. L, which stands for let go and let God. O, which is open your heart to receive. V, which is value your uniqueness.
And then, of course, E today is embrace your divinity. And if you missed any of those episodes, not to worry, I will have them listed in the show notes so you can go back and, and catch them, especially if you are new to the show. So you, you, you no doubt have missed them.
How the L.O.V.E. Method Was Given to Her
So I, I, as I said, I, I love this concept, even though when it was first given to me, I didn’t quite know what it meant. And, and how the love method came to me, which I think I explained in one of the other episodes, was I was meditating one morning.
Wow, 2016. Yeah. So it’s been nearly 10 years now. I was meditating. And this, I heard this voice in my head say, you need to write a book about love.
And I thought that was crazy because I, my business at the time was online marketing, and yet I went with it, opened up a word doc and said, okay, well, if I was to write a book about love, what would it be? And the voice that came through in my head said, love is an acronym. And that’s what it was. It was let go and let God. Open your heart to receive, value your uniqueness, and embrace your divinity.
Now, it took me a while to actually sit down and finally write the book, in fact, and didn’t get published for about another five years, four and a half years, I guess. And this last section of embrace your divinity I wasn’t quite sure about, even though I was, I was raised Catholic. Like to say that I was a cafeteria Catholic because my, my mother was not the best influence on me because, you know, she didn’t always believe or, or adhere to what the Priest taught. And so at the same time, though, was that she. She named me Gloria Grace.
So she believed in God clearly and, and always, you know, referred to me as, you know, and said in general that we are, you know, we are a child of God. I am a child of God. And I believe that for you, too. Whether you believe in god, it’s immaterial. You don’t have to. That’s your choice as a human being. You don’t have to. So you could always replace God with Creator, Source, or even your own higher self.
And my mom also loved to say that God doesn’t make junk. And so, you know, we are human beings, so we are imperfect, but there’s also this perfect part of us. Our soul inside is perfection. And so it’s, It’s. It’s good to be able to acknowledge that and to realize that.
Freedom, Divinity, and Designing Your Life Your Way
And we’re going to talk some more about this, but one thing I wanted to share with you as well is kind of also going back to a previous episode. I guess it was two weeks ago. Yeah, two weeks ago when I talked about freedom. And in that episode, I read the Daily Word for July 4, which was about freedom. And, and at the time I hinted and I said, we’re going to come back to this because I’m going to share just a little bit of what the message said because it pertains to what we’re talking about today, because it said, it talked about the fact that our most authentic self is fully human and fully divine, and that spirit of God within releases us from our burdens and fears.
Let go and let God. And because we’re made in God’s image and likeness, we have the power to create our life’s experience and the freedom to choose how to think, feel, and act. We can let go of limiting beliefs. We can lean into the. The truth of who. Who I am, who you are. You know, open your heart to that. And, and when you embrace your divinity, you are free to live, love and, dare I say, design your life your way, which is the name of this podcast.
Take a quick sip of water here.
So, again, take what I say today with a grain of salt. You believe it, don’t believe it. I suspect, though, if you’re. If you’re listening to this podcast, you probably. And if you’re still listening, now that I know you, we’re on the same wavelength here, and that’s good.
Why Embracing Your Divinity Matters: The Isolation Crisis in Midlife
But you might still be wondering, though, why. Why is it important to embrace your divinity to. To recognize that you’re not just this flesh and bone, human, but that you do have a spirit, you do have a soul. Well, I’m gonna give you one practical reason. And it’s, It’s. It’s a sad state of affairs in. Certainly in the United States, where I know a lot of you are listening, but I also have listeners of this podcast who come from all over the world, all different countries. But in the United States, suicide is one of the leading causes of death, and rates are on the rise, especially among people 65 and older. Older, over. Yeah, and it’s higher in older adults for a number of reasons. And they range from social isolation to physical impairments, chronic illness, or economic circumstances.
And any of those things can really, basically revolve around the fact that you can start to feel really alone.
You know, it may be that maybe you. You even live alone right now. And maybe you. You don’t have that many friends or you don’t have family around you. Maybe. Maybe your kids have moved away and, you know, and so you don’t have a lot of family around anymore. Maybe you have some type of physical ailment, you know, arthritis or high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes. All of these different ailments or even chronic illnesses.
Any of these things can really lead you to not live a joyful life, you know, because you can get too caught up in some of the negativity and staying. If you don’t have a way. That’s what I want to say. If you don’t have a way to be able to overcome some of the things that challenges, shall we say, that can lead to certainly feeling down and then possibly leading to depression, It’s a. It’s a. It can be a downward cycle and. And a dangerous one that.
The Spirit Inside You That Loves You
So when you can recognize that you’re not just a human being, that there is a spirit inside of you that loves you.
Wow. I got. I got emotional there for a second.
Okay. Again, this is. This is my belief. I believe that God is love. That’s essentially what. What God is made of. God is love. And if we are God, then we have love within us. And so knowing that and. And then learning to embrace that inner divinity can help you to feel less lonely. And even if you live alone and even if you are isolated.
And I do know that this may sound. Maybe seem easier said than done. And. And I get it, because I have felt alone before, even when I wasn’t.
Grief, Loneliness, and Finding God Again After Losing Her Sister
After My sister passed 10 years ago and almost now, the end of 2016, I was living with my husband and my kids. My. You know, they were getting to be in their 20s now, but, you know, they’re. At the time they were. They were still living at home. I think. I think both of them had graduated from college by then, but they weren’t quite living on their own yet. I think my. I think my son was starting to. Was about to move into an apartment, or maybe he had already, and. But my daughter was still living at home, so I wasn’t alone, but I felt it.
My sister was my last remaining tie to the family I grew up with because I had. I had an older brother and he, he had died a long time ago and then both my parents had passed, so I was an orphan now at the age of 54, whatever it was.
And I felt alone, even though I had. I’d always believed in God. And, you know, I mentioned I was raised Catholic, although I’m not a practicing Catholic anymore, but I. I always felt close to God in a couple places. Number one, when I was out in nature and especially living in Florida now at the beach, and also when I sang, I used to. Used to sing in the choir at church and, and that would be how that really was when the Spirit filled me and, and I felt close to God then.
But when my sister passed, that my grief was overwhelming that connection for a while, and it was tough. And so, so I get it. You know, when you are going through challenges like that, it may be challenging, frankly, to be able to know that you’re not alone because God is always with you, because God is a part of you.
The Vine and the Branches: We Are Never Truly Disconnected
And, and you can also think of it as, you know, in the Bible, Jesus said, you know, I am the vine and you are the branches. But you can also think of it, yeah, as that way, as, as, you know, our Creator is, is like a big tree and we are all the. Either the branches or the leaves, however you want to look at it. But we are still connected. There is still that essence of the tree is in all of the different parts of that tree. So that’s what we are. We. We are, we are human. But there is something inside of you that is thinking the thoughts that you’re thinking of and, and that is, you know, a reflection of your, your inner self.
Writing Live. Love. Engage. and Discovering Self-Love
So finally, when I did, after my sister passed and I started writing my book, Live Love, Engage, and started really delving into what is this love method. So what do. What does let go and let God mean? What does open your heart to receive mean? Value your uniqueness. What is that? And embrace your divinity. What initially I came up with was that it’s about, it’s about self love. It is, it’s, it’s, it’s love of self, love of the small self, you know, your, your egos, ego self, the, and, and love of that, that higher self, the one that gives you those intuition hits, you know, when you, you walk into a room and maybe something doesn’t quite feel right or, or you, you meet someone and you just like, you can tell in an instant that you’re going to be lifelong friends or maybe not.
On the other side of that, you’re like, oh, there’s something about there. This person’s energy doesn’t jive with mine. I think I’m going to keep my distance. That’s, that’s your intuition. That’s your higher self giving you guidance. And it’s a wonderful thing when you can start to really cultivate that and, and to really tune into it and listen to it and, and let it guide you as you go about your day, as you, as you are designing your life the way you want it to look, whether that’s starting a business or continuing in the business you’re in. Or maybe it is maybe deciding that you are, you’re going to retire and now maybe dedicate yourself to some sort of hobby or volunteering or both, whatever you want to do.
How to Get to Know Your Divine Self: The Power of Stillness
Lost my train of thought there. So I’m just going to pause for a second and, and see if I can get my train back on the tracks. Well, okay. I know what I’m going to do. Well, let’s, let’s talk about this a little bit more about how now do we go about this. How so as I mentioned, it’s, it’s about knowing that you are this spiritual being. But how do you, how do you really do that? So the first thing is to get to know yourself, you know? You know, so, so often I think in this day and age, we are just always focused on doing. You know, we’re, you know, you get up in the morning and you, you know, you make breakfast and you go to work or you, you know, you call a friend or you’ve got responsibilities or whatever it is, but we’re doing, doing, doing, but we’re not human doing. We are human beings.
So spend some time just being. And, oh, it’s just reminded myself I have, I’ve got my laptop in front of me and, and I saved this long. I love Chinese food. Okay. And so years ago I got a fortune cookie. And, and the, the fortune cookie message was so good that I taped it to my keyboard. On my laptop. And it says one of the best things to do sometimes is simply to be. You know, what is it Shakespeare said? To be or not to be? That is the question. Well, be. You are a human being, so spend some time just being, not doing, just being.
And that could, that can look a lot of different ways. It could be just spending time in the quiet, sitting. Sitting in your living room and looking out the window, just daydreaming, not thinking about anything. You know, the, the wonderful expression be still and know. It’s a great. I love that expression. It’s so powerful because that’s how you get to know yourself.
You’ve got to be still because when you’re doing, doing, doing, you know, your mind is buzzing thinking about all the things you got to do, then there’s no room for, for you to be able to hear. It’s too noisy. Your brain is. It’s too noisy. So you’ve got to be still. You’ve got to sit. And, and, and I know there’s still going to be thoughts that are going to go through your head, and that’s okay, because what you can do is just. Just watch them go. Just, just don’t even really pay much attention to them. Just kind of just like, you know, if you want, you can sometimes say, okay, thank you, and then just, again, just redirect yourself.
Whether it’s. Maybe it’s staring at a candle flame or just, like I said, looking outside, or maybe, maybe you have a pet, you know, you’ve got a wonderful dog or a cat. Maybe just sit down and spend some quality time with them. Pet them and just give them some loving and just not think about things that you have to do and just focus on being.
Meditation, Mindfulness, and Other Paths to Stillness
And so it could be, again, maybe a formal practice of meditation. I’ve been meditating now since 2009, and I do at least a little bit of meditation every day. Sometimes longer if I have the time. I will do a long time. And, and I’ve done different varieties of meditation over the years. Sometimes I’ve done Vipassana, sometimes I was doing. For many years, I was listening to Holosync. It was through a program called Centerpoint, where I would listen to these binaural beats in my ears.
And so there’s lots of different ways to do it. Maybe it’s practicing mindfulness, you know, where you’re, you know, let’s say you’re washing the dishes again, just really focus on washing that dish. Not, not try not to let your mind think about what you’re going to do after you’re washing your dishes, Just focus on getting that plate clean. Focus on the glass. Just really putting your whole focus in on that particular task at hand.
Maybe it’s journaling. Journaling is a great way to get to know yourself as well. Maybe yoga or prayer. You know, millions of people pray every day. That’s another good way to do it. Maybe it’s something that I started doing six years ago now, which is sharing light language. That has been a powerful way that has allowed me to tap in and connect with my higher self.
A Light Language Transmission for Embracing Your Divinity
And in fact, I think I’m going to take this opportunity right now. I still have a few more suggestions for you, but let’s, let’s take a little. Let’s take a light language break right now. Because listening to light language, as well as sharing it yourself is a powerful way to open up that connection to your higher self so that you can really start to embrace it. Embrace your divinity.
So what I’m going to invite you to do, if it is safe right now where you’re listening to this, to invite you to close your eyes and set an intention that what I’m going to share with you right now, it will help you to either open up, may probably not open up. Let’s just say set the intention that what you’re going to hear today is going to help you to embrace your own divinity. Simple as that. To allow you to embrace your divinity. And yeah, and I’m also going to set the intention that whatever comes through in that manner is for your soul’s highest good and the highest good of all.
So. So just maybe take a deep breath and let it out and let’s see what comes through today.
[Light language transmission — audio only]
I hope. I hope you received that with the love that was intended and that what I. I shared for you. So by the way, if you ever want to have a. A private session with me, please reach out. I would love to be able to share that with you.
You can. When it’s. When you can. We can work together over zoom. I can address whatever is specifically challenging you right now and set an intention because it’s. It’s as wonderful as general light language sessions are, it’s even more powerful when we can work one on one. So I hope you will take advantage of. I have a free introductory session that you can do just a little bit longer than what I just shared right now. So I hope you’ll. I’ll have the link to that in the show notes, so hope you will take advantage of that.
Mirror Work: A Simple Practice for Embracing Self-Love
So again, what else can we do? How, how else can you embrace your divinity? One of the wonderful ways that I think is so remarkable was one that I years ago heard Louise Hay teach. She was the founder, author and founder of Hay House. And she talked about mirror work and you know, about every, every time she passed a mirror, she would look at that mirror and she would say, Louise, I love you. And I’ve, I’ve had my clients do that as well. I’ve done it, of course, myself.
And it does feel weird maybe, you know, especially if self love is not something that has necessarily come second nature to you. If you have been someone who is good to other people, but not as kind to yourself, perhaps, shall we say, and engages in self judgment, maybe self criticism. It may feel very weird to look in a mirror and to, you know, say your name and look yourself in the eye and say, I love you. And I challenge you to do it. I challenge you to do it.
Do it, do it for a week. Do it for seven days. Every time, you know, when you go to the bathroom, you look in the mirror, you get into your car and you look in the rear view mirror anytime you pass a mirror. And now, of course, if you’re around other people, you might want to whisper it, but if you’re alone, go for it and do it for a week and see what a difference it makes in your life. Because I’m telling you, it really does.
I, I’ve, I’ve seen it with my own client clients and I’ve seen it, you know, in the feedback they’ve given me and I’ve, and I’ve done it for myself and that I can really say that I, I love me. I do, I love me. Do I always like what I do? No, because I’m a human being and I screw up from time to time, you know, we’re gonna do that, but I still love myself anyway and I forgive myself. And that’s part of embracing your divinity too, is practicing self forgiveness.
Self-Forgiveness and the Practice of Loving Yourself Anyway
Because again, our human self messes up, but inside is, is still perfect. It is still God. And God loves you no matter what. Because part of living this human existence, I believe also is that we’re here to, to learn and to experience things and to screw up and to learn lessons from those things and to, so that we will do better next time or so that then we can teach others to avoid the mistakes we’ve made.
Gratitude as a Doorway to Divinity
Another thing that I recommend to do is to keep a gratitude journal. Now, keeping a gratitude journal in general is a wonderful practice. Because the more things that you can find to be grateful for in your life, it’s law of attraction, baby, the more you are going to have things to be grateful for because what you focus on expands. So if you are always focused on the good, yes, you’re still going to see occasionally bad stuff happen. But you’ll be able to even see the silver lining in that dark cloud a lot easier when you focus on keeping a gratitude journal.
But as part of that gratitude journal, and this is the part where it comes into embracing your divinity, is to include at least one thing that you’re grateful about yourself every day. Maybe you’re grateful that you held the door open for somebody today when you were, you were at a store and, and you let them in. In fact, fact, the other day, yeah, that was, that was yesterday. It was like I held the door open for someone and then. And then she held the door open for me. As, as. Because we were both wound up leaving at the same time. I don’t know, it was, it was just kind of fun that we were, we were, we were trading being nice to each other.
You know, maybe you are grateful that you could be grateful today that you, you were able to solve a problem that other people were struggling with. Or maybe you’re grateful that something happened to really piss you off. Maybe somebody cut you off in traffic and instead of getting all angry about it, you just breathed and you let it go and you didn’t stress over it. Keep track of those things because on those days where you’re not feeling very divine and you’re really leaning into your humanity, you can look at that and go, oh, yeah, you know, I did that. Oh, okay. I’m not a terrible person. I might do icky things sometimes, but all in all, I am a divine person inside. I am human. I am fully human and fully divine at the same time.
Closing Thoughts: Live Love, Engage and an Invitation to Share
Let’s see. Anything else I want to share with you about that? I think, I think that’s it. I would love to know what you think about this concept. If, if it’s, if this is something that you’ve even thought about, do you, do you spend time thinking about that? I’d love to know what you thought about the whole series. So again, if you haven’t gone back to listen to them, I hope you’ll go back and, and, and listen to the episodes.
And if you want to know more about the love method, that’s what this book is about. My book, Live Love, Engage: How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Start Being Yourself, which is a fully human, fully divine person. So I hope you will do that. And you can find it anywhere. It’s online. You can go to my website as well, and get it there, which is gloriarand.com and again, that’s in the show notes. You’ll have that.
So also, if you did find today’s episode useful, the single best thing you could do for the show is to share it with one person who’d get something out of it. So you don’t have to necessarily do a review, although those are lovely. But just share it with someone.
So that’s going to do it for this week. And I will be back again next week with some more ways for you to design your life your way. And until then, I encourage you to go out and live boldly and on purpose.
