During the month of Cancer, the topic of nurturing is always at the forefront of consciousness. What are we nurturing in ourselves and others? Are we nurturing fear and insecurity and worry, or are we nurturing our faith and higher guidance? When we nurture fear and worry, and feed and care for it by entertaining its dark projections, we are probably growing lots of stress within our bodies and lots of tension in our interactions with others. Ironically, worry and stress and tension tends to choke off the flow of life energy in us which actually contributes to attracting and manifesting exactly the kind of dark reality we are fearing. When we live in fear of our own survival and others, we try to control and fix everything, which tends to create more distance and division in our lives, and keep us from the peace and nurturing we are needing. If we can make an internal shift to release our fear and worry, we can choose instead to live with faith and trust that everything is unfolding just as it should and that we are being guided by higher forces every step of the way. We can then experience the peace and lightness of being that comes from being aligned with our divine radiance. It isn’t always easy to surrender like this, but when we can, there is an instant reward in the serenity that we feel.
There is a Native American story about how we choose to use the power of our nurturing. In it, an elder reflects that there is a good dog and a bad dog inside him, always fighting for control of his soul. Someone asks him which one wins the fight, he takes a moment to reflect and replies, “the one I feed the most.” There is a lot of wisdom here, and this story is a great reminder to keep things simple when it comes to how we wield our nurturing power. Our minds can make up a lot of complicated stories to justify our fear and judgment, but if we check in with our heart, we can always feel that love would be a better choice. So when our bad dogs have run amok, and we are busy barking out orders at the world of our own fear projections, we can pull on that leash and put that part of ourselves in the crate for a time out. We can pull out a treat and choose to encourage and nurture the calm dog of our divinity instead.