INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER Caroline Myss

Review
In Invisible Acts of Power, Caroline Myss explains how we become channels for divine grace and vessels for miracles through kind and generous actions. And, as we move from visible acts, such as giving a friend a helping hand, to invisible acts, such as prayer and healing, we undergo a profound journey of personal empowerment related to the seven chakras. Caroline shows the choice to be kind is as essential to our phsyical and emotional health as it is to our intuitive development. To illustrate these insights, she tells numerous stories about life-changing acts of service, chosen from more than 1,200 letters she has received. These stories will inspire you to perform your own invisible acts of power... and attract them to you.
283pp, 128mm x 198mm, Paperback, 2007

Extract
Chakra Seven, The Center of Higher Consciousness:
Gifts of the Spirit - Angels in Disguise and Good Samaritans
Faith is the power of the seventh chakra, which houses the connection to our own spiritual nature. Seventh-chakra energy governs our capacity to allow our spirituality to become an integral part of our physical lives. It is the circuit to the divine and a porthole to our intuitive resources.

In this domain, miracles abound. You are as likely to be part of a miracle and help it unfold as you are to receive one. The power of faith can take on the physical world and turn dreams into reality, heal illness in the blink of an eye, and make easy everything that was difficult. The acts of service of the seventh chakra include the faith you convey to others through your own beliefs, actions, and prayers. You may also become a human agent in a divine intervention or rescue.

Service to Others Is a Biological Necessity
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
- Marian Wright Edelman

Being of service is not an option, it is a biological necessity. Every kind action we do for someone is a reanimation of our own life force - and of the other person's. Many spiritual traditions share the Golden Rule: treat others as you would like to be treated.

Each time you reach out to another person, whether you decide to do a small favor or because you feel compelled to help, you perform an invisible act of power that has profound healing effects for you both. What might begin as a physical, sympathetic embrace, for example, can become a source of inspiration for that individual that helps her through a time of despair and well beyond. This is reflected in the following letter from Linda: 'Nearly thirty years ago, I was a teenage mother, college student, and waitress. I had no financial help and was living from paycheck to paycheck. One month I was not able to make enough money to pay the bills. I was so stressed out with no place else to turn except the state welfare office. It was so deeply humiliating. Before that time, I always had found a way to manage. The basic formula for me had been to get another job. This time, I did not know what to do. I remember having tears in my eyes and being glad that my two-year-old did not have to see me beg for money. I also remember what happened next with supreme clarity, even after all these years. The state employee woman behind the desk stood up, walked around her desk, put her arm around me, and said, 'You are what this agency is for. Don't feel bad and believe me, honey, you will pay this money back tenfold in taxes someday.' She was right and I will never forget her kindness. I am now an attorney with plenty of money, and I enjoy doing small seemingly unnoticed acts of service for people who look like they need someone to talk to.'

We respond to someone in need because we see his pain or distress, and we also feel and intuit it through our energy system. Our seven chakras are extremely sensitive to the energy field of every person with whom we come in contact. You may not be consciously evaluating another individual's energy system, but you will pick up on a child's fatigue, a parent's worries, a spouse's stress, or a colleague's disappointment. You don't make it a habit of reading someone's entire chakra system before you say a kind word - you function from a compassionate instinct, an automatic response that kicks in without conscious thought. Choosing not to respond to someone is far more conscious, in fact, than reaching out to him.

If you find yourself balking as you begin to help someone, check in with your energy centers to see what's holding you back. The letters I received from people who bypassed opportunities to help another person clearly retain traces of regret. Many people who have turned away from someone in need feel that their own life could have been far better if they had chosen to act more compassionately. We probably are placed in someone's path for a reason - for the opportunity to do good and to fulfill a portion of our life purpose.

Sharla's letter expresses this concern perfectly: 'I work with delinquent kids and I still regret a time when I should have hugged one of them. I have worked with kids for more than twelve years and I'm good at it. Some just touch your heart more than others and Oscar was one of those. He was a great kid. He was special. I worry about professionalism and am always careful not to cross any physical boundaries with kids. On Oscar's last day of working with me, he made a motion to hug me. I didn't reciprocate so he backed off. I regret that, still. I don't know if it made a huge difference in Oscar's life that I didn't show him my feelings, but it may have. It was a wonderful opportunity to show him how much he meant to me, and I passed. I wouldn't make that mistake again.'

Our intuition senses when someone genuinely needs help. Cathy W. wrote: 'I had an unexpected attack of vertigo coming home from a trip and the taxi driver took me straight to the hospital - he made the decision that I was incapacitated. Later he called to see if I was okay. I've never seen him since but I will always remember his kindness.' She feels that the cab driver saved her life. He could have just driven her home and not paid much attention to yet another passenger in his cab, but something deep within him responded to her. That wasn't just a ride to the hospital; it was an invisible act of power in which a human angel intuitively responded to another person's energy crisis.

From Invisible Acts of Power, ?2007 by Caroline Myss, published by Simon & Schuster.