There’s a message I want to communicate this week but am struggling to find the words to give it succinct voice.

Each time I have attempted to write you, I’ve been bogged down in trying to set the context and make sure the foundation has been covered. It’s a familiar challenge.

In the beginning of my career, I had no words, no context. I was unencumbered with any level of comprehension or a structure that I felt called to share. Very few people had any clue what I was talking about when the words finally began expressing. Those who understood engaged, and the others fell away, sometimes years later they would return and comment on how they knew there was something going on with what I was doing and teaching, but it didn’t make any sense until they’d heard me recently say something different.

It’s been wonderful to have received and had the opportunity to teach the twin structures of Spiritual Mastery and Spiritual Messenger Mastery. Even as I work on finishing the bedrock of the structural sequence with my first book, I have felt called to engage with our community in raw form once again.

Yet I am tripped up by my teacher’s instinct to explain or establish the foundation, and so on. Perhaps by acknowledging these apparent limitations, I can be freed of them today to simply share what is in my heart to communicate with you today: please focus on self-care.

I don’t mean that focusing on self is more important than focusing on others . . . except I do, but only once . . . Only once you’ve done enough work that the foundation has been laid, that you have begun exploring and embodying God’s expression as you.

If you’re there, you know exactly what I’m talking about, because the pull of your mission (however known or unknown it may be) dominates the landscape of your consciousness and your life. It can seem as though your mission is the only thing to focus on. For some it even can feel as though focusing on self comes at the expense of the mission and that’s a price that is too high to pay.

Is what I’m saying resonating? If so, read on, for this is why I have been trying to communicate this ever-so-important message.

Nothing is more important than self-care. Nothing. In your spiritual development, in your development as an embodied messenger. In the honoring of your divine mission.

If this sounds fundamentally contradictory to what you know to be true, I get it. Reflect on the value and essential nature of seva.

Yet before you disconnect, consider this: each stage in your development as a messenger has contradicted the prior primary lesson, hasn’t it?

For a time, it was all about securing your own safety. Then it was about helping others secure theirs.

Then it was all about creative expression and realizing potential. And helping others do the same. Safety isn’t part of this expression is it? In fact, it’s all about taking risk and expanding the framework and context of what is really possible. About eliminating barriers and clearing blocks so you can shine.

And then … it was (is) all about getting out of the way and letting God shine through you however the Divine wants to shine. A wholly different exploration of creativity—God’s creativity, not yours.

And then somehow (maybe you’re just starting to explore this) the two become one. Your creativity is God’s. No way to jump here from realizing potential directly; surrendering to the Divine is the next developmental step.

And where in all of this is the focus on self-care? Perhaps in the ‘realizing potential’ phase of your developmental journey as a messenger. But once you’ve moved beyond, the focus appears to be on a bigger canvas. The role of self-care no longer emphasized.

I want to beat this drum loudly: in these last several developmental steps as a spiritual messenger, nothing (NOTHING!) is more important. Just when you’ve massaged and integrated the empowered separate self (the part of you that’s totally focused on your dreams, wants, and desires) by surrendering everything to God, engaging in self-care is critical.

I have only one suggestion, when it comes to self-care: focus on activities or experiences that benefit no one else, only you. If the idea of focusing exclusively on yourself and no one else, pay extra special attention to what I’m saying this week.

Want to explore this further with me? Tune in for today’s livestream at 5p Eastern (US) on YouTube https://youtu.be/1gLy4e0zcQs .

That’s all for this week . . . From My Heart.

We are always in God’s Love and Presence,

Ken

If you haven’t already subscribed to my YouTube channel you can do so here (it’s free).

I have facilitated 11 Deep Dive Virtual Retreats this year, and each one seems to open more fully to the resonance that expresses in each of us, the result of our innate connection with, and expression of, the Divine within. My goal with this series has been to address anything and everything that comes up in the circle fully, without concern for context or foundation (sort of like today’s From My Heart). The themes have been turning towards the messenger’s journey, and the work of being an embodied messenger. It’s an incredible circle. Amazing people from around the world, doing extraordinary work, participating in a conversation that is constantly leading us further into the Mystery.

If you’ve been feeling the pull or are curious about how this virtual retreat series could support your spiritual work, I invite you to learn more and register here: https://kenwstone.com/deep-dive/