What do God's Answers FEEL like?

   This post comes from my dear eternal sister and friend Allie Duzett. She is a wiz with words and says things better than do.  

Follow the Spirit: learn your baseline

In the Home Healing Course I'm teaching, we spent the past week studying intuition (among other things). A bunch of people commented that they wished they'd known this one technique for their whole lives, so I'm just going to share it here in the hopes that it helps others.

The secret trick: every time I pray with a question now, I have God remind me ahead of time what yes and no feel like.

So the other night, I had this weird experience where I was supposed to go to a social event, and when I got there, I started feeling like the Holy Ghost was telling me not to go. This was basically an enrichment activity involving just a bunch of people from the ward, and so I was very confused. Why would I be told not to go to that?

So I ignored the prompting, got out of my car and headed toward the house, only to be told over and over again not to go, not to go. So I went back to my car and prayed.

Image here.

Fortunately, I had this tool in my tool belt. I prayed for God to remind me what a "yes" feels like, and I allowed myself to feel that for a few moments. Then I prayed for God to remind me what a "no" feels like, and I allowed myself to feel the difference.

Then I prayed again, asking: should I be here? (No.) Should I go home now? (Yes.)

I went ahead and phrased my questions different ways--Can I go in? Should I leave right this minute? Do I need to be at home tonight? Just testing my answers' consistency. When the answers all matched, I ended up turning the car back on and driving on home, just on faith. I wanted to go be with friends but as soon as I acted on my prompting I instantly felt better. When I got home I felt to ask my husband for a blessing, for all my confused feelings. The blessing basically was like, "Good work following the Spirit!" and that was that. So I have no idea what that all was about, but I did have a good time alone repackaging my long-term food storage and listening to Har Hari Haray Wahe Guru over and over on YouTube.

That story is just an example, though, of this principle in action. I believe I was inspired to begin asking God for these reminders of what yes and no feel like. Getting answers to prayers can be hard enough without having to guess if the feeling you're getting is a yes or a no.

So, a challenge: spend some time this week with God just learning what a "yes" and a "no" feel like. Go ahead and take it a step further, if you want, and ask what a "deceptive no" feels like--the most convincing false yes that the adversary could plant in your heart. Practice discerning the difference. Watch how much more easily you will be able to discern the yes-no answers to prayers as you live your daily life. Where it used to take me personally quite a while, sometimes, to understand if I was getting a yes or no about something, now it does not take long at all. I still ask for reminders of yes and no at the beginning of important prayers, but overall I am much more confident at knowing that when I get a feeling, I will be able to recognize it for the answer it actually is.

Yes Feeling Samples

Image here.

Talking to random people who have tried this, "Yes" feelings seem to tend to include:

- feelings of light or warmth of tingling in the lungs and face
- feelings of spiritual expansion
- feelings of energy rising in the body
- feelings of spiritual "smiling"
- open feelings in the heart area

No Feeling Samples

- feelings of being closed off
- energy sinking downward instead of upward
- tingling on different parts of the body (my guts sometimes tingle, or a friend's ears tingle)
- feelings of constriction

False Yes Feeling Samples

- dizziness
- energy moving around, but not in the same way as a yes
- different body parts tingling than you would feel in a yes or a no

Everyone Is Different

It's important to figure out for yourself what your baseline is. You might have the same yes and no feelings that I do, or you might not. I suspect it's like muscle testing. For most people, if they stand up and ask themselves what their name is, their body will sway one direction or another as an answer. But for some people, instead of swaying, their body will make, for example, the right arm tingle or lift for yes, and the left arm tingle or lift for no. That's not wrong. It's just different. There are lots of different ways a yes or a no feeling might manifest for a person, but it's up to you to discover what those manifestations look like for you.

Personal prayer. Image from lds.org.

And it's so, so important to learn what a deceptive no feels like. The adversary wants us to fail when we seek answers from God. The more important the issue is that we're praying over, the more he will try and influence us falsely. If God's answer is no but the adversary's answer is yes, you need to be able to recognize what that feels like.

Similarly, you need to be able to recognize feelings of "yes" as being from God, because sometimes God tells us answers we don't want to hear. "Yes" feelings for me are not particularly comfortable. So if all I asked was a yes or no question and I got that uncomfortable sensation of yes, that buzziness in my chest, if I didn't know any better I could easily just tell myself that my answer was a no, because what would I have to compare it to? And a lot of times I think people seeking answers expect them to come in a specific way, without asking God if that specific way is appropriate for them or not.

Also, I'll mention that another thing I like to do is specifically pray that God will send me answers in a way that is unmistakeable, that I will fully understand. God will always send us answers, but there's no guarantee we'll understand them unless we ask for that understanding too!

God is not going to lead you astray with this. If you go directly to Him to get your baseline, He'll be happy to give it to you. He wants you to be able to easily discern between yes and no. I believe it's actually one of His big goals for all of His children. So I challenge you to spend some time this week practicing with this. Get on your knees and ask Him what yes and no feel like. Ask Him a question and ask Him to give you the answer in a way you won't be able to misinterpret. Notice the difference in the quality of your prayers.

  Check out  her other awesome blog posts I have her linked to my page on the side. Believe! Witness miracles!

Fight for positive Sexuality

We hear a lot now days about the fight against pornography.  I do admit that pornography is a BIG problem even among the Saints.  But I have also learned that it is much better to fight bad things by filling your life with good. Joseph B. Wirthlin in his talk Seeking the Good says "We can fill our lives with good, leaving no room for anything else. We have so much good from which to choose that we need never partake of evil." The mantra -fighting the fight against pornography- isn't nearly as powerful to me as -Fighting for  Positive Sexuality. To me this includes so much more than DON'T DO THAT! I want to be in a place where I can teach all those around me that Sexual Energy is a gift from God that can be harness, controlled, shared, and a powerful blessing even to those who are not sexually active.
So how do we harness and control and share our powerful sexual energy if we are celibate or not sexually active right now?   Its easy we train our minds and body to live in a higher state. As we make good choices we feel a CHANGE in our hearts. As the sexual energy rises it goes up the cerebral spinal chakras  and we feel that energy lift us higher.  So we spend our day doing things that lift the body, and the mind, and the spirit.  Good things raise our vibration of our bodies, sin and negative things lower our vibration.  If you have done enough bad things you  put off that "bad vibe" that others pick up on and if they are spiritually minded they really don't even like being around people who have that "bad vibe". Good people also put off a strong

The LDS Conference Center seats 21,000 people

vibration. If you are spiritually minded you will pick up on it. The prophet's vibration is so strong and large it fills the whole conference center. If you have ever been to conference You KNOW the moment he comes into the room. No announcements are made like "all rise here comes the prophet!!!", you don't even have to be watching for him to come in, but as soon as he  comes in that great big room you FEEL him, and you stand.
 When we are balanced and filled with light we, like the people of King Benjamin, will have "No more disposition to do evil. " (Mosiah 5:2)  Part of being balanced is filling our life with the good things of God. Let me list a few things that raise a persons vibration. Healthy eating, scripture study, service, smiling, temple work, PRAYER, exercise, playing with children, connecting with a new born baby, taking the sacrament and repenting, meditating, connecting with nature, being grateful.... There are so so many. But the ones that have the most lasting effects and that raise the vibration quickly and safely are Prayer- deep meditative conversation with the Father.  Applying the atonement through repentance and taking the sacrament.  Reading your scriptures in a way that you are learning and feeling the spirit.  Going to the temple. All these are things we do with our minds and for our spirits, they  raise the vibration far but to reach even farther in spiritual areas we need to master our bodies and quiet our minds. The fastest way to do this is by doing Kundalini Yoga and meditation in addition to those things listed above.
 I am going to assume that you know all about how wonderful meaningful prayer, scripture study, keeping the Sabbath day holy and attending meetings, and temple work bring to your life, so I wont go deep there, but I want to talk about  what  Kundalini Yoga and meditation will do for you.
Kundalini Yoga (YK) strengthens the nervous system, and quiets the mind. It also balances the bodies energies. A kundalini rising is where the energy that is located at the base of the spine moves up the spine to the top of the crown.  It is a way of coming unto Christ. We are moving our energies and our divine potential out of the base "natural man" energy of the 3 lower earthly chakras up to the  upper triangle or what is also known as the spiritual chakras.  This movement of energy helps us connect with God, Christ, and our divine purpose on this earth.  We move  from a fallen state of energy- or lower vibration to a higher state of energy- or a higher vibration.  This is described as pure bliss.  You really have no more disposition to do evil when you are in this state- its heavenly.
The body is the vehicle of the soul. We can do so much spiritual work but the body is an eternal blessing. If we do not treat it as such we will miss much of the purpose of this earth life.  KY helps us train the body to put off the natural man and move  forward and upward. KY also helps us  quiet our minds so we can feel, and hear, and see the things of God. - So what does all this have to do with positive sexuality?
 When our bodies are balanced, and our energy is flowing the way God wants it to, our desires change.  Instead of seeing our bodies through  Satan's lenses we begin to see them as the powerful beautiful creations and eternal blessings from God.  Satan tells us we are ugly, fat, unattractive , that body parts

are dirty or nasty. He helps us hate our own eternal blessing of a body- and the bodies or body parts of our spouses.) This does not help healthy sexuality.  If our sexual energies are too low (or our first and second chakras are not as big as they should be or spinning as they should) we have a low sex drive. We don't feel that God given need or desire to be intimate with our spouse. If our first and second chakras are too big and there is too much energy in them we can have an over active sex drive. This can be unhealthy and can lead to feelings of a need to release this extra energy. Many people turn to sex and feel there is still energy left to burn. Satan entices them to look at porn or engage in other unhealthy sexual activities to  try and "balance" this extra energy and meet the extra need and pressure this energy puts on their system.   This is not healthy and like all the temptations of the Deceiver it is a trap, leads to addictions, and a larger amount of energy that is not being spent doing  what God would have us do.
Kundalini Yoga and meditation balance that energy. It sends energy where it needs to go and converts extra sexual energy into creative energy.  It brings a low desire in to a normal range and high desires  down to normal range. The system is balanced and a healthy sexual relationship can exist.  This works for people who are not sexually active as well. The body, mind, and the spirit know that sexual activity must wait until after marriage and  the energy will be sent up along the chakras for a balanced system.
Sat Kryia is the go to  yoga kryia for balancing the lower triangle ( the first three chakras located at the perineum, in the pelvis and in the solar plexus).  This moves the energies up and  helps the chakras to get the right amount of energy and sends any extra energy up.
Below are two videos  that show  you how to do Sat Kryia.  Below is  a link where you can read the directions and the MANY other benefits of doing this kryia.  LINK
So instead of telling our youth  they need Stop looking at porn or Don't look at porn  or Dont masturbate, or  whatever!... Lets give them tools- something TO DO when the  urge and temptation hit. Or give them tools to use daily to raise their vibration so there is no urge or temptation because they will  have NO disposition to do evil.

The armor of GOD

Here is a guest post

I share Yvonne Withers Russell post on  here with her permission. I will add my thoughts and ideas on a different post called "The Armor Of God Meditation- time with Heavenly Mother."   I just love her line of thought here. She is teaching in UT  so if you live in the area check her out. http://www.energyhealingconference.com/classes.html  and This liberatinglight.com is the website for her energy healing  practice.

On Sunday in Gospel Doctrine we were discussing putting on the Armor of God. I started to realize that each piece of the armor of God protects certain chakras AND that the type of spiritual armor becomes MORE significant when you understand what each chakra influences in your life. I never quite understood the traits/qualities/principles used to protect each body part in this lesson until this past Sunday.
Loins girt about with truth.
*This piece of armor protects the base and sacral chakras. A balanced Base Chakra gives you a sense of security, stability and a feeling of a balanced existence. Truth protects our sense of security, stability and of feeling balanced. The sacral chakra is your pro-creative powers, your ability to co-create children and it also represents your posterity. Truth protects our posterity. When we can recognize the lies we have believed about ourselves and others and instead accept the truth into our lives, we shed the false traditions of our fathers and protect our children from false and limiting beliefs.
Breastplate of righteousness.
 * This piece of armor protects the Solar Plexus (personal power) and the Heart chakras. When we protect our Solar Plexus chakra with righteousness, we do not exercise unrighteous dominion or control over other people. When we protect our Heart chakra with righteousness we increase our ability to have unconditional love for others. Doctrine & Covenants 121: 34-46 comes to mind and a re-reading of those scriptures with an understanding of these two chakras is really insightful.
Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
 *Carol Tuttle teaches in her Chakra 7 series that there is actually an 8th chakra that isn't directly on our physical body. It's purpose is to help us follow through or see our ideas to completion, manifest what we want, and to keep us grounded during meditation or other spiritual pursuits so we don't lose focus.
Preparation of gospel of peace
* This protects our foot chakra by helping us identify clearly the direction we should take in life so that can see our inspired ideas to completion, manifest what we want (a true Zion society fulfills not only needs but also wants), and help us develop the focus needed to meditate or pray.
Shield of faith.

 *Roman soldier armor does not have a piece of armor that covers the throat. And so it is with the Shield of Faith that we need to protect our Throat Chakra. The Throat Chakra is linked to our ears, and our ability to hear – both physically and intuitively. It is linked with understanding and being understood.
Our throat chakra is also a gateway or bridge between our psychological and spiritual selves. Our lower chakras represent our physical body (first chakra), emotional body (second chakra), mental body (third chakra), and relational self (heart chakra). Our third eye and crown chakra are linked to our intuitive, occult, and spiritual levels of being. Our throat chakra serves as the bridge between these two groups of chakras, just as our neck bridges our torso and head. When it is blocked we may feel as if we can not integrate spiritual experiences and insights into our daily awareness. For example, we may feel peaceful, calm, and wise within meditation or prayer, but not experience an increase in these feelings when we are off our meditation cushion or away from a house of worship. It is through exercising faith and sharing our testimony that we hope to be understood by those not of our similar religious beliefs. It is through faith that we gain understanding of all eternal truths. It is through exercising faith that we create spiritual experiences throughout our daily lives.
Helmet of salvation.
 *The helmet protects the Brow/Third Eye chakra and the Crown chakra. The Brow/Third Eye chakra is responsible for our intuition, or our ability to listen and heed the still, small, voice. The Crown chakra is our conduit to Heavenly Father. By protecting these two chakras with "Salvation" or through the Atonement of Christ, we can ensure that we are our lines of communication to and from the Godhead does not become infiltrated or corrupted by Satan's counterfeits.
Sword of God’s Spirit and His word through revelation. This does not directly "protect" our individual chakras, but by the Spirit and His word through revelation, we are better able to support each other. An enemy that is charging at my neighbor on the battlefield can be stopped by the sword I wield as I rely on the Spirit and God's word through revelation.


Watch  Carol Tuttle's  Chakra 7 series mentioned above  HERE

Chakras

First of all what are they?  A Chakra is an energy center in the  body and there are 8 main ones.  Chakras are not only energy centers but they are in constant movement they  are swirling vortexes of energy. The word Chakra comes from the Sanskrit word meaning wheels.  How open or closed these  energy centers are  effects your  Kundalini energy- or what we like to call our Divine Potential.  Lets back up some.  And take a min to  review the chart.  Start at  #1 and read a bit about each  energy center.

There are 8 major energy centers in the body and each energy center is responsible for certain types of energy and is associated with certain  feelings. Yes the  diagram only shows 7 the 8 th is your aura and your aura is affected by all the chakras and how they are interacting with each other.  Your aura which combines the effects of the other seven chakras can often be seen by others and is another post on its own- some day I might get around to writing one.  The chakras  and their swirling motion  tie the spiritual body, and physical body, and ethereal bodies together. They transfer spiritual information back and forth to and from your physical body and are centers where energy flows.  Remember that  swirling vortexes are powerful forms of energy. Think of  Hurricanes, tornadoes,and maelstroms for a visual reference. Just like these environmental vortexes, energy is constantly being pulled in and emitted out in  a circular motion internally through each chakra.  

The  first three chakras  deal with the basic needs of life and the physical needs of the body.  In the LDS world we would call this living as the natural man focusing only on  physical things that bring  pleasure, power, and posterity. In KY (Kundalini Yoga)  we call this  the lower triangle.  Lets talk about the upper triangle now. The chakras in the upper triangle  are 5, 6, 7  they accumulate, create, and refine the energy, and deal with more spiritual things.  Someone who lives in the upper triangle (think of  a wise man  who spends his days meditating in a cave, or people who devote ALL their time and energy to spiritual things) we consider them to be very enlightened and intuitive but they live in this triangle so they lack balance.
On to  the 4th chakra  or the heart center. The Heart Center  is the balancing point in the body between the flow of the upper energies of the Spiritual things or the Heavens and the lower energies that stem from the natural man or the energies of the Earth. A balancing of the energy in all the chakras  will meet here at the heart. 

When  man partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil there was more than just a physical detachment from God. Man's consciousness  fell as well.  In stead of being like god and balanced and spiritually minded  we fell to the lower triangle making us natural men and carnal minded. Lets read Mosiah  16 :3-5   

3 For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil.

 4 Thus all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.

 5 But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God.

So this isnt a good thing. We need to rise up and over come the natural man. Mosiah 3:19  

Knowing that energy attracts like energy its important to raise your vibration- raise your  kunidalini energy up the Chakras or Raise your divine potential  by putting off the natural man.  Here is a good  quote that  says  it better than I could. 

This relationship between behavior and your dominant chakra is key because energy acts like a magnet. We constantly attract vibrations to ourselves that are on the same wavelength as the chakras from which we are operating. Kundalini Yoga allows the kundalini energy to rise, balancing and coordinating all of the chakras.
Kundalini Yoga does not force the kundalini to rise; it prepares the body to allow it to rise so that you can experience your higher consciousness. When this balance of the chakras occurs, you become empowered; you are able to be a compassionate, conscious, and capable human being.
Yogi Bhajan taught about the functions and attributes of the eight major chakras so that we could understand and transform ourselves via the practice of Kundalini Yoga.
[From Kundalini Yoga: The Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwha Kaur and The KRI Aquarian Teacher Training Level 1 Manual]

So when we tap in to our divine potential and divine energy we become  more Christ like. Pay attention to the word Energy its all over in the Scriptures if you are looking for it. "All energy of heart."  it is interesting  to me that when the word is used  it often corresponds to  the correct chakra. energy of heart- love and concern for children and others.  Or this one  " I did speak unto my people,and did urge them with great energy" here he is using the energy of his throat speaking words to convince others to  fight for freedom.
It should be our  goal to find a Good balance and to live in the heart chakra. We can come up  for spiritual highs but we cant live there or we wont be able to live this life as it was meant to be lived.  We can  spend time doing Earthly things- hey its part of life- but we cant live there or we will miss the spiritual experiences we are are meant to have in this life. So to live life to its fullest we  must seek a balance we must raise up from the natural man and shake yourself from the dust of the earth and become a saint - full of LOVE.   Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled (GR purified) from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.  Or in other words let us  be pure in heart  cleaned from evil minds and have a clean body free from the dust of the earth.

For more reading  check these helpful sites out
Chakras
The Eight Major Chakras
Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Living in Love
The Chakras and the Two Trees in The Garden of Eden
Chakra Center