Healing the World in 2013

December 21, 2012 is behind us, and the world is, not surprisingly, still intact.  There will always be periods when fear takes up a good deal of our collective awareness, and that is as it should be, because large-scale fears of doom provide very potent opportunities for us to choose even more intentionally what truth we will serve.

I remember another period of fear that happened not too very long ago; it was called “Y2K.”  My son was 10 at the time, and worried about all of the predictions he was hearing.  On New Year’s Eve I remember telling him that throughout history people have predicted the end of the world, but we are still here.  And I explained to him that when people confront their fears and walk out the other side they are better for it, because they grow in their awareness of what is true.  He understood that, in his way, even then.

I work in healthcare and interact with many people every day, and I am struck by how many people in the past month have said, “2013 is going to be a really good year.”  Collectively, we recognize the energy and know it to be true.  The end-of-the-world hopelessness that has affected us, even though it was mostly unconscious for the majority of us, has past, and people recognize a new beginning, which is exactly what the Mayan calendar was all about – the end of one period, and the beginning of an entirely new and different one.

I believe that people are connecting in their hearts with hope, aware at a very deep level that we are healing, personally and globally.  At this point in our human evolution, healing our world and all who inhabit it is the most important and sacred thing that we can do.  On the surface the task seems too vast to even consider, and we literally do not know how to begin.  But as humanity moves forward in its unavoidable evolution to knowing ourselves as the beings of light that we truly are, we get closer to knowing the true power we have in creating a world that works for all.

I write this on December 31 2012, the 27^th Annual International World Healing Day.  It began on December 31, 1986, at noon Greenwich Mean Time, when 500 million people on 7 continents, in 70 countries, from 500 spiritual and peace-related organizations, took part in the most comprehensive prayer in history, creating a global mind link aimed at reversing negativity on many levels (taken from the website).  Our Unity Church took part in this worldwide prayer this morning, as we do every year.

Some time after the 1986 beginning the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported “remarkable progress toward a peaceful world,” manifesting as a “break in the pattern of a constant increase in the number of major conflicts with which the world had grown accustomed.”

From our limited individual perspectives, this may not seem like truth at all.  It often seems as if conflict continues to increase in both frequency and severity, but in looking back over just my lifetime I see that that is not the case.  We are definitely more bombarded by it via the Internet and our immediate access to information.

Regardless of appearances to the contrary, we can, and we are, using the power of our collective intention for good to move without error toward the truth of who we are, Divine Creators made in God’s image, manifesting through the physical.

I leave you with a world healing meditation used by many on December 31 every year.  Click here to view the meditation.

May you hold the light of your intention on healing yourself, our world and all of humanity, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

The Gift of the Breath

I had a delightful “aha” moment last weekend at a workshop that I attended.  The insight actually came from the meditation that the facilitator led us through at the beginning of the session.

As a practice, I remind myself as often as possible to connect with my breathing.  Many people from all types of spiritual practices focus on the breath as a way to quiet the mind and bring attention into the present moment, thereby reducing stress.  It is an important part of many wellness practices.

In being conscious of our breathing, we are able to reconnect with the part of ourselves that is eternal, always whole, an integral part of ongoing creation.  We remember that through our breathing God lives as us, and so we can never really make a mistake; we are not only in the light, we are the light.

At last weekend’s workshop, as we were beginning to pull our attention back from the external things that demand our attention to the quiet within, I began to become aware of that now-familiar communication between body and spirit.  I felt the lightness that comes as my thoughts move into the background and my soul expands with gratitude into the temple of experience and sensation that is my physical body.

As the group leader led us in meditation, he suggested a perspective that was new for me - that we notice the breaths coming, unbidden, for the gift that they are.  As I sat there, probably for the first time in my many years of meditation, delightfully watching for each breath, and feeling each one filling me, every single breath became another hello from God. 

I was humbly and very gratefully aware of doing nothing for this gift, of needing to do nothing; life just kept pouring into me in wave after wave of grace.  I am, and I am again, and I was a child being given a new present to unwrap each time the breath of life filled my lungs.  My body knew no separation from God and never-ending good as I welcomed the gift of each and every breath.

I don’t even begin to understand the source of this inexplicably vast goodness at work in our Being.  The more I experience it, the more I realize how much I don’t understand.  But I'm fine about that because that's part of being human.  Even as I recognize my mind's inability to make sense of the miracle of creation, still I try to put it to words. It's my own way of honoring the gift.

May you find delight in unwrapping your life’s gifts, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Playing

A dear friend of mine suggested to me yesterday that I write a post on play.  We've known each other a long time, and she knows that playing is definitely one of my favorite topics.  Friendship would be another wonderful topic today, as I am aware of the amazing gift that my friends are in my life, spiritually and otherwise.  But I think I'll save the very worthy topic of friendship for another day, and today celebrate the importance of play as a spiritual tool.

One of the things that I recommend to people who need to reduce their level of stress is to find a way every single day to play.  It's a pastime that we tend to do much less of when we become all grown up, and start taking our lives more seriously than is probably good for us.  I know that's pretty true of me.

Still, I do make it a point to find ways to include the energy of play in my life as much as possible.  Engaging in pleasurable activities, things that just make us happy for their own sake and delight us in their spontaneity, are good for body and soul.  The cells of the body heal when we are happy, laughing, or just thinking positive thoughts.  And when we engage wholeheartedly in some act of rebellion toward our adult deference to responsibility, propriety, and keeping our clothes clean, spirit within giggles and says, "more, more!"  In all types of play, and in life in general, a good rule is the more childish the better.

When was the last time you jumped on the bed?  I can't tell you how many times my husband has in fun scolded that I was going to break ours.  Even jumping up and down on my knees in bed is enough to bounce him around, and that definitely tickles me.

He and I take swing dance lessons, and even though we have a lot yet to learn, we have a whole lot of fun doing it.  And I have to say, attempting those anchor steps and underhand turns standing up in bed is a hoot.  I always feel like we're living dangerously because I'm afraid that any minute an overly-enthusiastic rock-step is going to land us on the floor.

Have you looked lately at a rain puddle as the amazing opportunity that it is? Why not indulge the child within you and go ahead and jump in it?  Kids really do know a lot about what's important in life.  I can tell you from first-hand experience that the splash is so worth having to dry out your shoes.

How about trying a bout of last one up the stairs is a rotten egg?  Or to the car, or that fence, or . . . anywhere?  When we play like this we are so caught up in the moment that we are able to fully enjoy being alive.

There is no end to the ways that we can play.  There are child-like ways and grown-up but still hugely fun ways.  Sing at the top of your lungs driving in the car (that's the only time I'll do it).  Play solitaire instead of loading the dishwasher, or Twister instead of doing the budget.  Dance alone in your living room.  Try your hand at juggling using the fruit in your kitchen.  Blow a raspberry, or blow some bubbles!  Who says that freeze-tag won't get your heart rate up as much as the treadmill?

(Shhh...My husband is napping.  I think this would be a good time to get in some serious spiritual practice using a tried-and-true tool mentioned above. . .)

May you cultivate many playful moments, and may this tool be a blessing.

Seeing Things From a Distance

In the middle of the trees, it’s hard to see the forest.  And oftentimes while in the midst of our life’s circumstances it’s hard to see the bigger picture playing out.  Getting caught up in the details that are apparent on the surface is part of being human, and sacred because it allows us to fully experience our humanness.  It provides the opportunity for us to struggle with challenges, and learn from them.  Through our humanness we are graced with forgetting, and then blessed with remembering that all is for our good.

Still, sometimes it feels like we struggle more than we need to, and we long to find a way to access the awareness of perfection at work in our human experience.

Lately, when I’ve been caught up in circumstances, I have chosen to step back, and view them from a distance.  And just as if I had been able to take a glass elevator up from the forest floor to a space high above, my limited view opens up to take in a broader perspective.

We can do this on a spiritual level any time we want to step out of a situation and view it from a more neutral place.  All that it requires is to be aware of pulling your energy back from it, and then watching what enfolds.

One technique I learned many years ago during my years with the Berkeley Psychic Institute is to “go to the corner of the room.”  Start by spending a few minutes in relaxation with your eyes closed.  Then allow your energy (or whatever you would like to call it - your spirit, the observer, God within you) to move up to a corner of the room.  From this perspective, look down at yourself, and let spirit within you see from a higher vantage point. 

From this distance, you may want to notice what thoughts and emotions are moving through your body.  Because you are not in that moment caught up in the situation, you are able to see it more completely.  As the observer you are able to be more neutral and less reactive. 

As moving our attention to this observer's perspective becomes more comfortable, we are able to shift to it in an instant, eyes open, by pulling our energy out of a situation just enough that we are for a time not part of it, but watching it without judgment.

We can use this tool any time we want to approach something from a less reactive and limiting outlook.  In any moment that we choose to become the observer of our experience rather than caught up in unconscious reaction, we are brought directly into present time.  And from our perspective as fully-present in this moment, we connect with the truth of our being.  We align with what is.  For that moment we are timeless, and we live in the miracle of ongoing creation.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Honoring Your Gifts

During this time of year, many of us are aware of all that we have to be grateful for.  Some may have had more time to spend with family and friends.  Those who celebrate Christmas likely had presents waiting under the tree, and exchanged gifts with important people in their lives.

It is a time of many gifts, but the truth is that we live all of our lives in the midst of a legacy of treasure.  It’s easy in a busy life to let much of this amazing bounty go unnoticed, so that we miss out on the true magnitude of what we’ve been given.

Every single day, we wake.  We breathe.  The sun rises.  Whether we revel in these things or not is a choice we’re given to make.  Our ability to choose what we hold as real, and what we attend to, is probably the biggest gift of all.

We are here, luminous expressions of perfect consciousness, bringing that light to physical form.  When we wake, God has the experience of beginning another day.  When the sun rises, God delights in the goodness of her creations.  And when we breathe, God is awed by her body’s perfect dance through all of it.

When we turn our attention to all that is right in our lives, and in the world, we help make it so.  As we honor all of our many gifts, we create space for our own, and others', abundance.  It is our conscious acknowledgement of and gratitude for the limitless good that we're a part of that creates it in our daily experience.

So in the new year let us appreciate and nurture the gifts we've been given.  Look for the good that hides behind your most challenging situations.  Take care of what’s important, and remember that awareness is the goal, not perfection.  

Choose as often as you can to see the light of God expressing in everyone you encounter.  Make a list every day of all that you're grateful for.  Take time to notice the small things that bring joy.  Do what you need to do to take good care of your body, that most holy temple of the soul’s expression.  And find a way every day to connect with the light of God within yourself.

May you dance through 2011 in joy and abundance, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Solving Problems From a Higher Level

One of my favorite universal truths is that we can’t solve a problem from the energy of the problem.  It has helped me countless times manifest a higher outcome by getting out of my own way, and allowing divine intelligence to work its magic.

Solving a problem from a higher place means first acknowledging, and then trusting, that within us resides the perfect solution to any issue that reflects less than our perfect good.  It helps to remember that we are created of the same vast consciousness that created all perfect answers, every loving act, and every moment of inspiration or guidance.  Vast and unlimited awareness of good is not only something we can access in moments of need, it is who we are, at our core, when the veil of human forgetting is gently swept aside.  We are never separate from divine intelligence; it lives as us.

Deciding to manage a problem from a higher vibration can take a good deal of faith, and perseverance, because sometimes it can be very difficult to surrender our worry about a problem.  Every bit of human programming we have tells us that we need to stew, and fuss, and worry, until we solve the situation.  In some cases, a great deal of fear can be involved, which makes turning over the problem to divine intelligence within us even harder to do.  When we are in a lot of fear, we identify with that, rather than divine intelligence from which we are created.

When we turn the details of a problem over and over in our minds, we are stuck in the energy of the problem.  When we continue to relive a conversation or situation in our thinking, expecting that we will somehow get a handle on it, what happens instead is that it just grabs more of our attention.  More and more of our awareness is sucked into a problem vibration.  This is not helpful.

What is helpful is remembering, when the what-ifs and oh-my-God’s that fear speaks are getting me nowhere but upset, that I always have a choice in what truth I will serve.  Even when the voice of fear is loud, I choose to serve the truth of God’s infinite good, living as me.

And as my heart fills with the grace of remembering, I am connected with all that I need to create my own highest good.  My decisions are aligned with a rightness that I not only sense but feel in my heart, and right down to my bones.  My burden is light, and I am blessed beyond measure.

May your burden be light, and your blessings many.  And may this tool be a blessing.

Being in Present Time

I’ve said that for every challenge there is a spiritual tool that will bring us back to the light of truth.  My tool for today is being present!

Right now, in this moment, I sit watching the lights on our Christmas tree twinkle on and off in random patterns, and I remember another December evening 21 years ago watching these same lights twinkling.  I was very pregnant and peaceful, and joyfully aware of how immensely right things are in the world.

In this moment all is well.  There is no way to know exactly what the next moment will bring, but right now my feet are up, my tummy is full, and there is nothing I need do but enjoy the peace that those familiar lights, and ornaments, bring to me.

In this moment I breathe; my heart beats.  I am, and that is all I need.  The concerns of the day may arise in another moment, but that moment is not now.

Only in present time can we fully experience the magic of this beloved existence.  It isn’t always easy to keep our focus on the current moment, because life is full of needs and wants and what-ifs that take us out into the future, or back into the past.

A dear friend forwarded me an email recently that said, in part, “There is no situation too big to handle; just put one foot in front of the other.”  What a perfect sentiment for being in present time. 

The past is gone, and I don’t know what the future will bring.  But I can be here right now, with this next step, and the next.  One step at a time, I create my own perfect dance, in time with the twinkling light of my soul.  

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Learning From Our Children

I like to think that I have imparted some important and valued life lessons to my children.  I know that I have, and can think of no accomplishment in my life that is more worthy.

As much as I have taught, I have learned from them as well, and the things they have taught me are valuable beyond measure.  From my daughter, Mara, one of the really wonderful things I have learned is the importance of saying what I mean, and not shying away from speaking my truth.  That’s not to say that I do this all the time, but as someone who’s always been pretty reserved, I’m making good progress.  Mara is a very brave woman, and I admire her very much.

One of the treasured lessons I have received from my daughter, Brittany, is to look for the good.  Brittany is one of the most positive people I know, moving happily and gently through life, seeming to always look for the silver lining in every cloud.  What an amazing gift that is.

The lessons I learned from my children began almost immediately.  They didn’t need to be grown up people to be wise beyond measure.  I remember one night when my son, Eric, was two.  I was tucking him into bed, as I did every night.  I had recently started clairvoyant training, and was experiencing one paradigm shift after another as my awareness was being expanded to a much larger reality than I had previously known. 

I had been doing past life readings at the Institute where I studied, and it was rocking my world, to say the least.  I’d never really thought too much about past lives, or what eternity really meant in terms of a spirit’s expression.   My believing was trying to catch up with what I was “seeing”.

Enter my wise and very verbal two-year-old son, who said that evening out of the blue, “Mommy, do you remember when we were babies together, and we were laying on that blanket on the floor touching each other’s faces?”  There was my sacred lesson and my instant answer, that the past lives I had been seeing were real, and more importantly, that I could trust this new awareness of the clairvoyant space in the center of my head.

I’m happy to say that the lessons from my children continue.  I’ve been struggling with a personal issue, and feeling pretty reactive to it.  This morning I was “chatting” via text message with Eric, who is now almost 21, and he was telling me about how he is doing.  It made me infinitely happy to hear that he “is just very conscious of setting the energy to how I want it to be every morning.” 

His profound and simple words of conscious creativity were just the ones I needed to hear, to remember how to proceed in the face of a challenge.  I helped teach him that, and today I learned it again from him.

We continue to teach, and remind each other, of truth, and of the best in life.  I am deeply honored to know God through her perfect expression as my children.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Visualization

What we think, our bodies perceive as real. What we hold in mind affects the body very directly, on a moment-to-moment basis. We’ve moved beyond the spiritual awareness of a deep connection between mind and body to a point where science is able to confirm what we have known intuitively for some time.

Our thoughts create vibrations of energy within the body which the body immediately responds to. The energy of our thoughts then manifests from the inner universe of our bodies out into the greater physical world around us. In essence, we are what we think.

Consider sitting at home watching a very scary movie on TV. The things we watch on TV create thoughts that gear the body up into fight-or-flight mode, but we’re not really threatened. We’re sitting there safe and comfortable in the living room, where our thoughts alone are creating the dramatic change in our body chemistry, and causing the fearful response.

Our bodies react to our thoughts in this way throughout every moment of our lives. Worry or fear-based thoughts trigger a stress reaction in the body which can have long-lasting effects on our health and well-being. Over time these effects can become chronic.

In the same way, we can use our thoughts to trigger a relaxation response in the body. Our thoughts can actually be a vehicle for health and healing, and for enhancing our quality of life.

One very effective way to use our thoughts to positively affect our bodies is through visualization. When we make a conscious choice to hold in mind thoughts that are peaceful, grateful, joyful, or whatever we want to have in that moment, our bodies respond automatically. When we can add a picture in our imagination to our thinking, the effect on the body is enhanced.

A simple visualization technique is as follows:

1. Sit quietly with eyes closed and begin to focus on your breathing. Take a few minutes to allow your breathing to become comfortable, deep and regular.
2. In your mind’s eye, begin to visualize yourself in a place that is very peaceful and relaxing. It can be a place that you have been before, or some place that you would like to visit someday.
3. See this place in your mind’s eye as if you are there, filling in all of the details that would make it even more relaxing and enjoyable. Notice what is under your feet and above your head, and all around you.
4. Allow your senses to take part, noticing any sounds or smells that are there, or the feel of the wind blowing across your skin if you are outside.
5. Stay there in your mind’s eye for as long as is comfortable, and then open your eyes feeling at peace.

I teach this much-used technique in the stress management class that I lead at work, and also use it myself. Yesterday, as I sat for a time visualizing myself sitting on the shore of a small mountain lake where we backpack in the summer, I found my body responding to the incredibly peaceful feelings I have when we go there.

We are what we think, and we can use the powerful connection between mind and body to create peace in any moment.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

More Synchronicity

I love the idea that synchronicity is playing out around us all the time, as part of the divine intelligence that moves us ever forward toward our awareness of ourselves as human expressions of God’s perfection.

Synchronicity works through us, and for us, in ways we often don’t even notice. Seemingly unfortunate events lead to unforeseen positive outcomes, and seemingly random events that are really part of a bigger plan connect us with our good.

An auto accident, after all of the inconvenient details of working with insurance companies and searching for a new car are finished, ends up providing us with a nicer, more reliable car. A conversation with an acquaintance we bump into in the supermarket ends up planting a seed in our awareness about how we can move forward with a long-held dream we’ve had.

Many people have read the stories of people who for some reason were supposed to be in the World Trade Center on September 11, but because of a sick child, or even a broken heel on a shoe, were kept away on that day. For those people those simple events were not random, but part of their perfect path in ongoing creation.

Like all things having to do with learning to navigate as spirits through these physical bodies, the more aware we are of the synchronous nature of our universe, the better able we are to harness its power in guiding us to create our best lives.

Listening for the gentle promptings of a perfect universe can be enlivening, and fun! It is at the crux of our connection with the purely creative essence that guides all of life. We have to be sitting squarely in the present moment to even notice synchronicity playing out in our days. And we definitely need to be fully present to be able to hear where divine and perfect order is guiding our next steps.

Some people experience their connection with synchronicity by trusting their sixth sense. With practice, we can become more adept at noticing the subtle messages we receive in our bodies when that six sense seeks to guide us toward our greater good.

In my own life, I’ve experienced synchronicity by heeding a gentle hunch to do something in a different way than I had planned. At those times, it would have been very easy to disregard my quiet intuition in favor of following the track that my much louder thinking was stuck on.

I’ve said before that I write to remember. So today I remember to let my moments unfold one by one. And I will listen for my heart’s quiet direction as I walk my path this day. I will pay attention as my heart says, “no, not that way, go here,” in its soft voice that is almost a whisper, part voice, part feeling. I will listen as my spirit’s voice speaks through the quickened feelings and gentle voice of my heart.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Non-Doing

I love the statement by Jon Kabat-Zinn in his book, Wherever You Go, There You Are, that “it takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity.” I would add that it also takes lots of practice!

I recognize the gifts inherent in cultivating non-doing, but in our doing-oriented world, it is often difficult to just be. One would think that ceasing doing for awhile would be the easiest thing in the world, a simple choice to make. It is a choice, but one often fraught with repercussions when things are expected of us.

It does take courage to keep reminding ourselves that the panic to get things done is part of the world, but not who we are. And it can feel like a big leap of faith to fully accept things exactly as they are, and with ourselves as we are, trusting that all is as it should be. It always takes courage to place our trust in a higher, unseen truth.

It also takes a lot of energy to stick with it, to be in the world, and immersed in our days, but constantly remembering to reset our reality to one that for the most part doesn’t mesh with what is around us. As Kabat-Zinn says, “The doing mode is usually so strong in us that the cultivation of non-doing ironically takes considerable effort.” Sometimes, rather than going with the flow of life's hectic pace, we need to make a conscious decision to just stop.

When we do choose to stop and just be for a moment, the awareness that nothing else is really needed but our presence in our experience can bring immense joy and clarity. It is a great paradox that we can also choose non-doing in our activity as we take our steps throughout the day, fulfilling our roles and being the people who we are.

According to Kabat-Zinn, “Non-doing doesn’t have to be threatening to people who feel they always need to get things done. They might find they get even more “done”,” and done better, by practicing non-doing.” “Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way.”

Words to live by!  And I am, as always, grateful for the reminder.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Being Willing

My husband and I are in the midst of Unity’s yearly fall book study program, spending treasured time once a week with a group of spiritual seekers and kindred spirits.  While willingness isn’t a specific topic in the book we’re studying, the idea of being willing came up last week, and I was grateful for the reminder about this important spiritual tool.

All forms of unforeseen assistance result from a decision to, if nothing else, just be willing.  In life we face many different situations in which we are unsure how to proceed, or are not sure that we know how to accomplish what is expected of us, or what we hope ourselves to be capable of.  There are times when what we envision is so very different from what we’ve known ourselves or the world to be that our seemingly lofty hopes can seem like pipe dreams.  In all of these times, being willing opens our hearts and our minds to divine intelligence that will find a way for good regardless of how things appear on the surface.

The limitless creative potential that exists in each of us is quickened by our willingness.  In those rough times when we feel stuck or lost and can think of no appropriate course of action, being willing to just consider the possibility that there is a perfect answer to our need can allow the universe to work its magic on our behalf. 

Being willing to suspend our judgment and preconceived notions for just a moment makes room for the seeds of a higher reality to take hold.  An example might be feeling deeply unable to forgive someone, even though we might want to.  A decision in that moment to just try to be willing to forgive creates a subtle but vast shift in what we are capable of, and who we know ourselves to be.  We can change the world by just being willing.

In making a decision to be willing, we don’t have to be perfect.  We don’t even have to trust that we will be able to do what we’re hoping to do.  We can be ever so gentle with ourselves, and honor our humanity, by acknowledging that even when things seem the most fraught with limitation, we can stop fighting and surrender to our willingness.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Spontaneity

My husband and I had planned to spend last night taking care of some financial planning details, but on a whim we decided to put our Halloween costumes together instead. We’re going to be superheroes, in blue sweat outfits with red boxer briefs over the top, and red capes. We’re going to look completely ridiculous, which of course is what we’re aiming for.

I’m grateful that he and I are both pretty comfortable with changing plans. We definitely don’t get the “need to’s” done as quickly as we could. And sometimes I do feel like we just need to dig in and spend a few weekends checking off the items on the to-do list. But in the end what really needs to get done on any given day always manages to get done.

There will always be chores to do, lists to write, and any number of small tasks to finish. We could spend an entire long life focusing on details, and miss all of the opportunities that come from following our hearts and being spontaneous.

My husband has taught me a lot about being spontaneous. He’s always been good at it. I tend to be much more linear, and used to believe that I should get my work done before goofing off. But I’ve learned that the moments I spend doing what I “should” do won’t be the ones I remember. I’ll remember the nights we decided on the spur of the moment to walk up into the nearby hills with a bottle of wine to watch the sunset, or to run fully-clothed through the sprinklers in the park when we were out walking the dog.

I find that it’s a tricky balance, making time to take care of the necessary details, deciding what can wait until later, and then really letting go of what I thought had to get done so that I can enjoy the adventure of the moment. What’s different now is that I err on the side of enjoying the adventure, and I’m fine about that!

May you find joy in unplanned moments, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Handling Problems From a Higher Vibration

It always amazes me how when I make a spiritual discovery, I often have to forget and then remember it countless times before it becomes ingrained as the truth that shapes my expression. I am reminded of a spiritual truth that I have known for many years, but tend to easily forget when it really counts, which is that “you can’t solve a problem from the energy of the problem.”

Our human tendency is to approach any type of problem in terms of the challenges that it’s causing, and then respond with frustration, anger, resistance, or whatever seems warranted at the moment. It’s difficult to think our way through to a solution, because in focusing on everything that’s wrong, we actually breathe more life into the problem, and cause it to persist.

It is said that what we hold in mind manifests in kind. Managing a problem is a great example of how this plays out as we move through our experiences. As long as I am reliving in my mind the problem at hand, I am holding it in my awareness, and there is no space for resolution.

Part of our journey here in physical form is to forget that we are part of a divine intelligence that creates all that happens for our good. Our gifts come from the choices that we make about how we respond to what we are faced with. Our most holy gift is our ability to choose.

We can choose to repeatedly focus our energy on the details of an issue and what we need to do to make it better, or we can handle it from a higher vibration, by turning it over to the perfect intelligence of God within.

There is no issue, no worry, no problem large or small that we can’t turn over to God within. In doing so, we get out of our own way and make room for the best and highest outcome in any situation.

When I am aligned with this truth, my moments are filled with a deep peace and life-affirming joy. I remember then that all is as it should be, and there is nothing that I have to do. Just being here, and experiencing my moments, is all there is. I am aware that everything, absolutely everything, in my experience is happening for good.

May you raise your burdens to the truth of God’s light within you, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Sitting With Discomfort

It is human nature to try to avoid discomfort in all forms. We learn early on in life to be careful with our physical selves, keeping our hands away from fire, or walking carefully down stairs so we don’t fall down. A little later on, we learn to minimize emotional pain by perhaps not speaking up when we should so we don’t feel rejected, or maybe agreeing with something that is not our truth in order to feel accepted.

While it makes sense to want to minimize pain, we can do this to a point where we end up shutting ourselves off from our deepest feelings, and also our greatest opportunities for growth.

It isn’t easy to sit with confusion or disagreement or disappointment, let them exist, and just experience our reactions to them. I know I always want to jump in and fix the issue as quickly as possible so I’m not uncomfortable anymore. But I’m learning that many of the things that cause me discomfort are due to things beyond my control, and I need to let them be. In my striving to change the energy of a situation, all I end up doing is getting myself off center.

One way we shut ourselves off from fully processing our experiences and receiving their gifts is by placing our focus outside of ourselves. When I am spinning about circumstances around me, who said this or did that, I cannot be sitting with my own experience. Sometimes it’s more comfortable to focus my thinking on what others are doing.   While it may be frustrating and painful, thinking and spinning about what others are doing is often less frustrating and painful than actually deeply feeling my own feelings about what is taking place.

If I try to think my way through something uncomfortable, I may stew for awhile and then feel as if it’s over, but really I’ve just pushed it under the surface. Over a lifetime we can build up so much unacknowledged emotional pain that we begin to see everything through its lens.

I really like the idea that the only way through something is through it. Avoidance doesn’t help, and as they say, resistance is futile. When we start shutting off our uncomfortable experiences, we shut down our ability to feel all emotions, the painful stuff and the joyful stuff. Uncomfortable things will always happen, and the experience of them provides the impetus we need to open our hearts to the profound miracle in all of life’s ups and downs.

An interesting example of this that I heard about recently involves a group of people who were studied regarding their response to the discomfort of holding a hand in extremely cold water. One group was instructed to focus their attention on what they were feeling in their hand. The other group was asked to focus their attention on something pleasant, such as a warm beach in Hawaii. The group that stayed with the pain they felt actually processed it more quickly and easily.

If I sit with my discomfort and give it the space it needs to be fully experienced, I can eventually let it go. In the meantime, while I am in that process of integrating what I need to learn from the discomfort, I validate it as part of what it means to be human. And I remember the hand of God in all of it.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Prosperity

In these challenging economic times, it can be tough to stay centered in the truth that we can live in prosperity. I’ve noticed how easy it is for me to get caught up in the fear of the day, and I start wondering how bad things will get, or if our financial future is secure.

It helps to remember that prosperity, like all other possible experiences in this life, is a creative choice. It is, at its core, a vibration of energy. We attract things to ourselves based on what we believe to be true about us. We can “vibrate” at prosperity, or at a lack of prosperity. Interestingly, what we believe we can have, do or be often comes from parents, teachers, our community, or other people we’ve encountered along the way, and is not our own deepest truth about ourselves.

As with all things, our thoughts and beliefs about prosperity form what transpires in our experience of it. When we acknowledge the truth of ourselves as empowered to create our heart’s desires, always connected to the flow of divine intelligence, it is made manifest in our lives.

We can live abundantly in many ways. We can enjoy good health, joy, wisdom, or wealth, among other things. Financial prosperity and abundance have long been seen as non-spiritual, and not in alignment with expressing our Godselves.

We are meant to experience ourselves as unlimited creators manifesting all of the good that we can envision for ourselves and our world. We glorify God when we live in alignment with that ideal, doing our best, creating our highest, and then blessing it as good. We bless it as good with our gratitude.

I was reminded of the power of gratitude in a recent article on the DailyOM website. It spoke of a practice that I intend to start in my own life, when I do that seemingly-mundane activity of paying my bills. Paying bills can feel like a chore, and can also lead us to feel less-than-prosperous if we have a bit too much month at the end of the money. The DailyOM article provided a great way to look at it:

“We may not always recognize simply paying a bill as prosperity in action, but it is. We can make it a spiritual practice and align ourselves with the energy of giving and receiving when we give thanks for having the ability to pay for it. We can then extend our view far beyond the horizons of our own lives to imagine all the employees whose paychecks are paid from our resources. We can imagine all the bills they can pay and how they support their families and share with their friends.

This exercise gives us an idea of how far our financial energy reaches out into the world. When you can envision every financial transaction as a grateful act of generosity today and every day, you cannot help but attract more abundance into your life.” Amen!

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Laughter

I’m not talking about a chuckle, although that’s great, too. I’m talking about the giant laugh that catches you off guard in its volume and delight, the laugh that leaves you wiping tears from your cheeks and feeling wonderfully spent.

It is said that “a smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly, but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all round.” That is the laughter that makes us, and everyone around us, happy to be alive.

Another old saying holds that laughter is the best medicine, and that has to be true, especially considering the effect that our thoughts and moods have on our bodies. Surely the glee that we feel after a good laugh affects us physically. Every cell in our body is healed when we experience positive emotions, and laughter overflowing is the physical expression of positive emotions that are just too delightful to hold inside.

I dearly love having my funny bone tickled. Once in awhile one of the stand-up comedians on the comedy network will deliver just the right brand of comedy, and I can’t get enough. I’ll stay up late, not even minding that I’ll probably be tired in the morning. Watching my husband sitting next to me laughing adds a whole lot to the total entertainment package.

There are certain people in my life who I laugh a lot with. My sister is one of them. Maybe it’s because we grew up together and know each other so well. But laughing is one of the things we do often, and well. Other people watching us would probably think we’re loopy, and I’m sure they wouldn’t think that the source of our amusement is at all funny. When we get in that mood it doesn’t take much, and then it’s all downhill to unbridled hilarity, which can be a whole lot of fun.

I’ll end with another saying about laughter, which is that it’s like aerobics for the soul. In our joy and laughter, our souls recognize themselves, and we are home.

May you laugh loud and often, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Sending Them On...

I heard a quote the other day from Unity's Daily Word that touched me, but before I share it with you let me explain why I liked it so much.  The day before, at work, I had facilitated a support group that I do regularly.  It's a support group for people with diabetes, and I've been leading it for almost 10 years.  It's grown alot in that time.  I've always loved watching as the participants grow comfortable enough to share their feelings, and how they inspire and learn from each other.

Leading that group is a joy and a challenge.  There is a huge discrepancy in people's needs, perspectives and awareness.  Creating an environment in which such a diverse group all feel welcome and accepted tests me, and at times wears me out.

Part of what I do leading groups is consciously set the energy.  I set my own vibration at being open and accepting, and model that.  I set the energy of the group at being inclusive, effective and positive.  Mostly it works!  It's a pretty successful group.

Even still, in all groups that have been together awhile, there are some participants who others resist.  One particular man last week was annoying the others, interrupting, being negative, falling asleep and snoring loudly when others were speaking, which he does fairly often.

I noticed myself beginning to resist this man, as I got stuck in feeling like I had to control the situation, and him.  I felt the familiar frustration that comes with resistance, and the invalidation that comes with feeling out of control.  When I got home I still felt frustrated and invalidated.

And so I finally get to the point of the story:  the quote, and how we leave people.  The next morning, as I was getting ready to go to work with very little enthusiasm, divine intelligence provided my answer to me in a gentle and perfect way, as it always does.  My husband often reads me the daily word in the morning, and it had a quote from the Bible, "You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God."  (3 John 1:6)

I remembered then that when I fall into judgment or resistance, I can choose to be my best self.  I can encounter people in my day in a manner befitting my Godself, by being the best I can be in the moment. I'll never be perfect, but I can choose to lead that group affirming that in that little corner of creation, there is ample space for God's love in all of its expressions.

I choose to send them on in a manner worthy of God.  And in doing so, I am blessed beyond measure.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Living Your Purpose

I believe that the purpose of life is, simply, to live it. Really live it. We are meant to live our lives fully, experiencing all of our moments as deeply as possible, and thereby knowing what it has meant to be uniquely, and completely, us.

To live our lives fully, we need to be in present time as much as possible. It’s easier said than done, but important because we can’t really know all of the richness of being here when our minds are in the future, or in the past. There really is unimaginable power in cultivating being right here, right now.

Living life fully means being present for all of it, the highest highs and the lowest lows. It means not hiding from our deepest emotions, and accepting those feelings that make us uncomfortable and we wish we didn’t feel. It means accepting the parts of ourselves that are still stuck in forgetting.

When we are in touch with the present moment, we are aware of what we are feeling, and can make more conscious decisions about how we want to show up. We design ourselves with clear intention.

I have heard it said that our purpose in life is to pursue what makes us happy. Yes!  We are meant to create the best and highest expression of ourselves in all ways. Sometimes, though, creating our highest in this human form means pushing through the pain and confusion of forgetting. That too, as uncomfortable as it can be, is our purpose, to be fully present with our experiences, learn from them, and ultimately appreciate their lessons as they lead us to knowing our Godselves.

For me, the crux of living my purpose is consciously creating myself and my experience, and then being aware enough to appreciate the creation. In doing so, I am God, knowing herself.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Getting Behind the Mind's Chatter

I saw a sign many years ago at the Aesclepion Healing Center in San Rafael that said, "Don't believe everything you think."  At the time I thought it was funny, and also knew that while it was profound, I didn't quite get it.  I imagined an existence where we have all types of random thoughts and live as if they are true, but most of them are not.  It would be rather like being actors in a play, pretending.  At the time I couldn't get my mind around that.

I've seen since that life really is like that.  We pretend that what our minds tell us is true, so that we can pretend, for a time, to be less than God.  Because of this, we are provided with our most holy of gifts, that of remembering our Godselves.  It is funny, in an existential kind of way.  And I'm still trying to get it.

The thing is, I'll never "get it" with my head, because we can't intellectualize spirit.  Truth doesn't happen in the mind, but in the heart.

The ego-driven mind's purpose is to maintain the illusion that we are separate, and that there is need to fear.  And so my thoughts can take me on a very convoluted path that becomes a slippery slope to a really unhelpful perspective.  The more I stop to notice where my mind is taking me, the more I realize just how frequently my thoughts turn to worry, and that worry sets the emotional tone of my experience.

When we decide not to believe everything we think, we can consciously choose which thoughts to attend to.  The rest we can notice and release without any concern about them at all.  And that is the tricky part, the letting go without concern, when the thoughts would have us believe they are hugely important in the moment.  How do we trust that the sky won't fall, finally, as everyone's been threatening, if we refuse to entertain the voice of fear that our thoughts can be?

I've found that first I must stop.  I must stop and acknowledge that my thoughts are running loose, and that I can choose which thoughts I want to nurture.  I then focus on my breathing, and watch in my mind's eye as I breathe into, and out through my heart.  In doing so I reconnect with the truth that resides there.  And I remember then to turn it all over to Father/Mother God, as I've been encouraged to do over and over, and in countless ways.  God is there, always there, just behind the mind's chatter.

May this tool be a blessing. . .