Come as a Child

I think I’ve mentioned, maybe a time or two, that I find myself too busy at times. It’s a tendency I learned in childhood, taking on too much responsibility for things to try to keep my world safe. I’m not complaining; I’m definitely not the only person in the world who believes at times that she can hold it up single-handedly. That particular part of my personality has provided me with a good deal of compassion, and a desire to make things better in my own small way, among other things. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn what I learn from it, and continue looking for balance in my life.

Last night I came home from work feeling stressed, and really looking forward to my meditation time. I was aware that I needed to stop for awhile, but more than that I also felt that I needed some help with all of it. I was too burdened, in that moment, to even know what kind of help I was seeking. I was eager to just sit and rest, and let the answers come.

As I closed my eyes and grounded my body, the voice of God within me reminded me clearly to keep it simple, and come as a child. I felt instantly eased as my body caught up with the fact that I could be very gentle in my attention to myself, because there was nothing else to be concerned about. As I sat in communication with the God of my heart, I was able to be the center of my own universe, knowing that all existed for my good, much like a child involved in some kind of wonderful, creative play. In my simple meditation, I watched as my own electric blue life force energy coursed through my body, aware at the same time of Father/Mother God standing over my shoulder, watching over me, shielding me, and orchestrating everything for good.

I know myself as a child of God, made in her image, creator without limit of my own sacred life. But I don’t think I’d ever perceived myself as God’s child, beloved, precious and safe, seeing myself as God does, without the need to do anything to earn my place here. I sometimes think that all human worry stems from the very common but flawed thinking that if we could just fulfill some role a little better we just might be allowed to stay.

There’s a part in Neale Walsch’s Coversations With God in which God says, “You can’t hear my truth until you stop telling me yours.” I believe that’s what happened last night in my meditation. When I finally released my own agenda, stopped trying to control the outcome of everything in my thinking, and just sat quietly waiting for the truth I sought, the voice of my knowing reminded me that we are, all of us, held in the benevolent hands of infinite good. I know in my head that I am safe, and that divine intelligence is at work. But I really appreciate those times when I know it in my heart, and my body, as well. It’s balm for the soul of the scared child that exists as a part of me, and for the fairly capable grown-up who sometimes needs a very solid reminder that she, and the rest of this planet, are safe in the perfect design of ongoing creation.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Sound Healing

I was blessed today to experience the profound healing that can come from sound.  I don't know a whole lot about the subject, because sound isn't the type of healing that I have focused on in my life.  But I understand the importance of changing vibration in order to initiate healing, and sound is, of course, vibration.  In my own meditation, I have experimented with my breathing and allowing myself to release by sighing with the outbreath, and I have noticed that it creates a deeper sense of connection and softening within my body.  I know many of you have experience with sound healing techniques and I hope you share them here.

I am frequently healed by music.  I have a playlist on my IPod called "spirit songs," which has many of the songs that help me feel connected to the peace and truth that is the God within me.  Today, I was healed watching my son's final concert of the season with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.  I was enraptured by the first piece, called The Chairman Dances, composed in 1985 by John Coolidge Adams.  My son tells me that I prefer minimalism.  I don't understand much about that because I'm not  a musician, but I did notice that the pace and starkness of it allowed me to feel as if I could almost taste each sound, and was left waiting expectantly for the next one.

The concert brought me to tears, listening to those young people making such perfectly exquisite music.  That a fellow human being had the talent and vision to conceive such beauty to begin with, and the musicians had the commitment and passion to pour their hearts into the beauty of it, and that they can all come together and weave each of their parts into such a heart-rending, exquisitely beautiful whole speaks to me of the never-ending good that is us, expressing our greatness.  There can be no real ill in a world where that can take place.

I received another sound healing earlier today, at our Unity service.  A woman by the name of Denise DeSimone spoke about a video she created called "Pray Peace," which is a compilation of prayers for peace from all around the world, set to moving images and music.  Denise had stage IV cancer and was given a very short time to live.  She now coaches other cancer survivors and has created a program around sound healing, which includes chanting, breath and sound techniques, and specific combinations of tones (my son would understand more about this).  She also has a CD available called "Make a joyful noise - a meditation using sound."  I'm really grateful that I was able to learn about the amazing work she is doing in the world.  You can visit her website here.

Edgar Cayce is quoted as saying that the medicine of the future is sound.  May we be open to its healing vibrations, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

In Nothing Be Anxious

My mind lately has been tending toward worried thoughts, for reasons not fully known to me.  I believe I'm matching the energy of fear that is so pervasive in the world today.  It's also likely that some of it is hormone-driven. . . such is life.   It's amazing how quickly my thoughts can turn to concern if I let them race by unchecked.

As I began my meditation today, I was wondering about what tool I could use for the worry that creeps in for no apparent reason.  I decided to pick up my copy of The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn, and flipped to the back of the book looking for a table of contents.  There wasn't one, but the very next thing I flipped to was the first page of a chapter called "In Nothing Be Anxious."  Perfect!  It caused a chortle, in my delight at yet another demonstration of the unfailing truth that we always find what we seek.

I was reminded that I just need to change my mind.  For as many years as I've been practicing meditation, and learning about the truth of myself as the creator of my experience, my mind still runs amok at times.  That is the nature of the mind, and I'm learning not to get too stuck on where it goes.  Rather than resisting the unbidden thoughts, or even trying to understand them, it's much easier to acknowledge them and then just let them go.  Holding on just gives them more control over my experience.

Scovel Shinn adds another important piece to this in her book when she says that "Infinite Intelligence will express through (us) as success, happiness, abundance, health and perfect self-expression, unless fear and anxiety make a short circuit."  She goes on to say that it is more than just a matter of visualizing, or making a mental picture of Infinite Intelligence expressing freely through us, but "it must be a spiritual realization, a feeling that you are already there; . . . in its vibration."

For me, this spiritual realization is faith, in life, in myself and the process, and in the God who made me.  Faith creates within us the vibration of being open to our good.  When we have our eyes open to the perfect creative intelligence that we're part of, we'll always find the right chapter, and exactly what we need on our own divine path.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Prayer

My husband was dedicated today as a chaplain at our Unity church.  It got me thinking about the many different ways that we pray.  For years I was uncomfortable with the idea of prayer, because whatever special connection people I knew who prayed had with God, I didn't seem to have it.  It seemed to me at the time that prayer was all about someone asking God for something, and then having it materialize.  But the people I saw never seemed to be getting anywhere in the things they prayed for.  When they didn't get what they had asked of God, they explained it as "God's will," and left me wondering why people prayed in the first place.  I wasn't sure what talent or skill a person needed to have God not only hear them, but also answer.  Whatever it was, I knew I didn't have it.  It didn't seem like the people around me had it either.

As I've moved along on my own path, I've come to see prayer much differently.  I see now that because God lives in all things, she expresses not only through me but as me.  There is no separation between the God who hears my prayers and, well, me.   And so it is for us all.

Prayer for me now is ever-closer communication with the God within.  When I pray to the God outside of myself, I am praying to myself as well, to that all-knowing, ever-perfect and light-filled part of me that is God.  God and I are co-creators in this game called life, so I am in constant connection with divine order, perfect intelligence, and love that knows no bounds.  All that I choose to be, I am.  Prayer is saying hello to that.

I have always resonated with the way it is described in Neale Walsch's Conversations With God:  "The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication but a prayer of gratitude.  When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there . . .  Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God; an affirmation that even before you ask, I have answered.  Therefore never supplicate.  Appreciate."

I recognize now that it is not about a God outside of me who answers prayers, sometimes.  We are part of a much more flawless reality.  There was a quote in the service at Unity today whose author I don't remember, but it went something like, "When God sees me in prayer, he sees me through the same eyes that I see him with."  The kingdom of heaven is within.

My husband has learned to pray with people, helping create a space where the truth of their own heaven within can come to light.  I still get down on my knees, sometimes, when I most need the comfort of feeling held by a power greater than myself, although I recognize that I exist as that power, too.  We can pray out loud, or in our heads.  A favorite form of prayer for me is writing letters to God, which I've described in previous posts.  I love writing, and for me the act of grounding my thoughts on paper, and then waiting for my hand to know what to write in response, is very clear and direct.

Prayer can be out loud, or silent.  It is not only speaking to God, but listening also.  Sometimes that's all I do, just sit and listen.  In truth, every thought we have is a prayer.

May you be grateful for prayers answered, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Peace

We all want peace, between nations, between strangers, and in our close relationships.  We want peace within ourselves especially.  It often seems that if only circumstances outside of us were different, our lives would finally be different, and we could get some peace.  If my family members were all doing well, if the economy weren't such a mess, if there were different politicians running the country, if my kids were grown and out of the house, if my boss (or my spouse) weren't such a lunk-head, if drivers weren't so rude (the list is endless), then I might find a tranquil moment in my life.

But the world we experience is an ongoing reflection of what is taking place within us.  The amount of peace that we are able to find is directly proportional to the nature of our thoughts and beliefs.  Awareness of this truth really can set us free.

If I accept that all I see in the world is mirroring my beliefs, then I can challenge my thoughts and change  my experience.  I exercise my power in designing my reality when I choose to live in peace.  Every less-than-peaceful person or situation I encounter is a perfect teacher, once I get past the resisting and fussing over how the world is not behaving according to my expectations, for me to choose how I want to show up.  At some point, hopefully more sooner than later, I remember to stop and ask myself, have I done or am I doing something similar?  And I try to work on that.  Our interactions with others provide a mirror in which to see the still-learning places in ourselves that we would not necessarily see otherwise.

It is said, as within, so without.  I'm learning that it's never about the other person.   It's always about me, and what I have yet to remember about choosing my best and highest expression of the God within.  I try to be grateful for the events in my life that seem to rob me of my peace, because they provide such perfect opportunities for me to remember that I can at any moment choose the peace that is the truth of me.  I may have been waiting many years, or many lifetimes, to come to just this moment, where I can stand in opposition to another's choices or expression, and then choose instead to forgive us both.  Even when we are expressing less than our highest, we are all heroes.  Our armor may at times get dented and rusty, but it never stops reflecting the light.

Peace stems from the decisions that I make every day about how I label my experiences in the world.  As those decisions nurture peace in my heart, they promote peace in the world as well.  Let there be peace in my heart.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Spirituality and Health

I was asked by Catherine at Continuum Wellness to do a guest post on spirituality and health for her site, which covers many great topics on natural and alternative healing methods. Catherine is a homeopath and holistic coach with alot of very useful information to share.  You can read the post, and check out the Continuum Wellness website, at the following link:   guest post on Continuum Wellness.

I've wondered a few times if and when I'll run out of tools to share.  I have many rolling around in my head, and jotted down in my notebook, and life presents more ideas on an almost daily basis.  So it's not going to happen for awhile.  Thank you all for reading, and for your uplifting comments, and for sharing yourselves.  We are all a part of creating heaven on earth.

Blessings,
Sherry

Being in the Body

I've heard of people looking for out-of-the-body experiences.  I am seeking as much in-the-body time as I can muster.  Being out of the body is easy; we do it all the time.  Where our thoughts go, so goes our energy, to things outside of us.  I am having an out-of-body experience when I'm sitting at work planning what I'm going to cook for dinner, or when I'm reliving a conversation I had with someone the day before.  There are plenty of wonderful things for us to put our attention on, and we need to do that to be in the world.  But I've found that to really experience my life, to live it in the way that is most appropriate for me, and to find meaning in all I see outside of me, I have to be, as much as possible, in my body.

Being in my body means that my attention is within.  At the Berkeley Psychic Institute they speak of it as having the outside of the aura close to the body.  The energy field expands to encompass all that a person has his or her attention on, and the more that we have our attention on, the more we have to consider, decide about, and possibly be responsible for.  When our energy field encompasses too much, it becomes very difficult to hear our own voice.  We can become scattered, stressed, depressed, or physically ill. 

In addition to helping us hear our own truth, being in the body helps us be present in our lives.  It enhances our experience of the sumptuous feast of this existence.  When I am present in my body my senses are turned up, my own healthy emotions are ebbing and flowing, and I feel more of what it is to be fully human.  I am aware of being me, rather than the effect of everything around me.

Pulling the aura close in around the body reduces the amount of data that we are tuned in to, and allows us to quiet the external in order to focus on the internal.  I often stop and visualize my aura shrinking, as I "pull myself back in." What we visualize, the cells of the body perceive as real, and is made manifest.

Many other tools explained in this blog and elsewhere help us get back into the body.  Deep breathing and meditation techniques work, being in nature, walking, anything that helps return our focus to our own being.  Other possibilities might be taking a bath, enjoying a really good meal or glass of wine, or other things that cause us to relish the experience of having our amazing physical bodies.

I was glad to be in my body a few minutes ago, sitting in my living room as the clouds passed overhead and for the first time today I was washed in sunlight, listening to a jazz recording that has been my favorite since high school.  If I had been attending to anything other than just being, I would have missed that exquisite moment of my life.

When I am in my body, it is a celebration of my spirit's divine creation.  My spirit knows it's home, and I hear the voice of the God of my heart.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Forgiving

I woke up from an interesting dream this morning.  I dreamed that I was with a group of people and we were writing a story together.  It was being recorded on paper, for some reason 14 lines per page.  Someone suggested that the next thing in the story be to forgive.  I didn't feel that forgiving should be written into the story at that point, without any context explaining it being there.  People were talking amongst themselves, and I said something like, "In order to forgive, we need to have had someone do something that was not in our best interest, and then we need to remember that they are worthy of a place in our heart, and then we can create a space to forgive."  Everyone stopped talking and started taking notes, and I woke up.  

I've writtten about forgiveness before.  One of the things this dream reminded me of was to take note of  the quiet truth of my heart, rather than the much louder promptings of my thinking.  Another thing that the dream caused me to remember is that I call people into my life in order to experience forgiving, or anything else.  As with everything, even those situations where people don't have my best interest at heart, are called forth by me, to create the opportunity for me to choose how I want to show up. I could never know myself as forgiving if I'd never had a reason to forgive.  I could never really know peace if I'd never known chaos.  And so it goes.

I also realized that there are layers of forgiving.  I can decide to forgive, and feel like I have, but then suddenly feel hurt or angry over what I thought I'd forgiven.  In order to really release something, I must first look directly at it, be honest with myself about why I am being so affected by it, and feel my feelings about it.  It doesn't help to avoid the very situations I've called to myself in order to grow.

I am struck often by the grace that allows us the ability to choose what expressing ourselves as God actually looks like.  Over and over throughout time, we decide.  Every situation is an opportunity to choose who we are, and who we want to be.  We are gifts to each other in our awakening.

I came away from that dream renewed by the peace that comes from knowing that the best interest of my soul could never be thwarted.  And I am again grateful for the gifts I have been given, in their many and varied packages.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Hearing God

Early this morning I had a conversation with God in our room at the Howard Johnson's.  I was really glad for that conversation, because I've had some important things to discuss.  I've been busy for the past few days, traveling to Georgia to be with family for our grandson's third birthday, and so this morning was the first opportunity I've had to be still and listen.

I sat down and quieted my mind, asked my question of God, and then focused my attention on that space that is everything, where it feels like I can hear the hum of our collective being.  In that place, I wait to hear God's voice from the air, from the glow of the streetlight, or the paint on the wall of the motel room.  God's answers come to me from all of those places, and everywhere, all at once.

I sat and waited, and God's voice did not come.  I continued to quiet my mind, and listened, but the familiar dialog didn't start.  What came instead was a strong sense that God was busy, and not available just then.  For a moment I felt quite disheartened, until I realized that that was not possible.  God is everywhere present, and in every moment of my life. 

I recognized that it was I, not God, who was too busy.  My mind had been too busy.  I am never separated from the voice of God, but it felt like that was true, for a time this morning.  I remembered that my experience of God is reflected in how I am experiencing myself.  And with that remembering, my dialog with God resumed; my questions were asked, and answered, and I was reconnected with my truth.

I have found that hearing God's voice is a matter of shifting my attention, from the details at hand, to a softer focus on being, where everything just is and the details are not important.  The God whose voice I seek speaks to me from all that is, from outside of me but also from within.  Because my experience out in the world reflects what is taking place in the universe within me, when I find peace in my thoughts, there is no end to the peace that I find in the world of my making. 

This morning I remembered myself as God, choosing again to hear herself.

May this tool be a blessing. . .