I am here. I am holding space.

Dear Courageous Soul,

I come with my commitment to practice:

I am here. I trust you. I see your greatness. I see your creativity at work to inhabit more and more of your potential and greatness.

I hear your concerns. I hear your laughter, I taste your tears. Your darkness will not shy me away. I stay here, rooted in my commitment to be here. In owning my own darkness I am able to keep my eyes, my mind, my heart wide open when facing your darkness.

I celebrate you and your creativity to find answers to the twists and turns of life. I connect to the infinite being that you are – behind the facades of physical life. I trust that source of yours so deeply. I trust that you walk your path. I feel your commitment to be as useful and effective as possible.

I don’t deny the challenging factors in life. You don’t have to persuade me how heavy life weighs on your shoulders. I sense it. I believe what you say.

And I believe in you. You have all you need to handle this situation in you. I respect your decisions. I trust your innate wisdom. I trust that in every given moment you respond to life in the best way you can. I trust you.

I don’t need to advise you, because I trust your own wisdom. You are an expert of your life.

I listen to what you say – but not to advise you! I listen to you because I know that speaking about one’s situation clarifies it and gives access to new ideas and forgotten resources. I trust you. If you ask me for advice, I will tell you what worked for me in the past in my particular situation while bearing in mind that your situation is different from what I experienced.

When holding space I will invite you to not only speak from your mind, but move deeper into your heart and into your body – to ground your experience in order not to get lost in the mental bubble. I will listen to your words and your body with the intention that you sense yourself again, that you reconnect with yourself, that you see yourself with fresh eyes.

My heart opens up while I tell you this – because I celebrate you and your gifts and your creativity. I celebrate that you walk this planet with us all right now. I celebrate what you want to give to life, to the world, to humanity. I don’t take that for granted.

I celebrate what you are becoming in this very process that you are experiencing right now.

This is my commitment to practice.

With love and admiration,
Uli, your Soul Sister

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What is Dharma?

Dear Courageous Soul,

You write:

I am exploring the meaning of Dharma. Until now I have associated it with my work in the world, with how I wish to serve humanity, with how I am called to express myself “professionally”. […] In the past two years, my interest and desire and passion for my professional work has nearly disappeared; I often feel wearied by it. […] I would welcome hearing from those who may relate to this experience. I would also like to hear more about how one embraces one’s Dharma when it may not be related to directly being of service in some outer expression.

When I introduce the notion of Dharma, I usually start with the idea of a soul’s plan. Maybe you want to follow me on this Gedankenexperiment: What if the soul makes something like a plan, an intention, a sankalpa for the incarnation to come? This intention, this sankalpa is something like the title of the book of your life. It’s the heading of your life story. This intention, this sankalpa is not only manifested in your professional life – but in every single second of your life.

As far as I experience it, the soul’s plan manifests differently in different life situations or phases. As children we express our soul’s intention differently than as a teenager, as an adult, as an elderly person… but always we have this red thread of our soul’s sankalpa running through our life. And there are phases of our lives when we are students of our Dharma, before we can re-enter the stage of giving our gifts to the world…

So when trying to get hold of this soul’s sankalpa I often ask for flow experiences, as I believe that flow states are experiences when our being is fully aligned with our soul’s intention.

Until my teacher Chameli introduced the notion of Dharma to me, I usually spoke of vocation or one’s soul’s plan. Dharma for me captures this amazing interwovenness of everything, whereas the soul’s sankalpa still feels quite “individualized” to me. Dharma for me points to the fact that no-one and no-thing is separated from anything else. So our soul’s sankalpa is so much connected to all the circumstances of our incarnation. It is no pure coincidence that we live where we live and at that certain time – for me Dharma is an expression of the Divine Choreography of Life. Chameli uses this beautiful metaphor of the tapestry of life where all beautiful Dharma threads are intervowen to the magnificent universe that we live in.

And I am convinced that we can never ever “loose” our Dharma, we can never ever be “off” our Dharma. What we can choose (in my view) is how consciously, how committed, how aligned we want to live our Dharma. But we cannot ever loose it. How should we manage to “fall out” of the Divine Choreography of Life?

So when we are in inbetween-states (this is what I feel when I read your lines) it might be that the expression of our Dharma is changing, is deepening, is becoming even more focussed. I love to bring the metaphor of an onion: All layers belong to the same onion. But whenever we peel off one layer, we come closer to the core of the onion. So maybe you are currently peeling off one layer of your Dharma’s onion…

May your roots grow even deeper into your Dharma. _/|\_
May you blossom even more beautifully into your Dharma! _/|\_

So much love to you, dear Courageous Soul. ❤
Uli, your Soul Sister

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Proud of You

Dear Courageous Soul,

Last night your darkest shadow showed up. In tears you tell me how dark you feel, how bad, how completly wrong.

I smile at you and tell you that I am so proud of you.

What a break through! You were able to contain and embody your deepest fear, your darkest shadow, your most feared aspect. And you are conscious of it!

Yes, I know this immense shame that shows up “the day after”. I love you for your shadow and your shame. Your shame tells me that you want to bring to the world the complete opposite of what you did yesterday. It shows me your huge intention to be of service for a better world.

The fact that your deepest shadow showed up tells me that you are able to contain strong strong energies. It tells me that you are willing to go for the real deal and to grow into the biggest version of you. It tells me that you have freed up the energy that had been bound by this shadow. It tells me that you are ready to take the next powerful step in your life.

May you see that you are perfect as you are. May you feel “right” with your darkest as well as your most shining parts. This is how Life wants to express itself through you. Yesterday you didn’t hesitate to be of service to the collective to embody this shadow that no-one wants to see or feel or express. You volunteered to express it, to be a channel for this energy that is so often denied and closed into the underworld.

I am proud of you. I am grateful that you did this job. I bow to you that you brought awareness and consciousness to the human shadow.

You are truly a courageous soul. The world needs more of your kind.

I am so proud of you.
Uli – your soul sister

Silence and Growth

Dear Courageous Soul,

There are these days when you draw back into your own being. Life energy is directed to inward matters. On the outside you become silent, very silent.

But on the inside a whole world appears. Your system is flooded by fireworks of associations and interrelations. Aha experiences occur, pictures take form. What a rich time! Growth is happening.

Usually we overlook this precious time of development and increasing awareness. People ask us: “Everything OK? You’re so silent and withdrawn.” But you just don’t have the words to describe the precious new wisdom just sprouting into your being.

When you recognize yourself as inseparable part of the vast Mystery of Life, all these “intense times” become time of apprenticeship. Insights (cognitive, emotional, mental, spiritual, …) are sparks of increased awareness and consciousness. Your horizon widens.

You are on your path of dharma. You get the lesson. You celebrate Life. You bow to the Beauty of all-that-is. I celebrate you, precious soul. I am so happy to walk this planet with you! ❤ ❤

Connected in the vast Mystery of Life,
Uli, your soul sister