Casting the Burden

Casting the burden is a very gentle but potent tool that I learned years ago when reading some of the writings of Florence Scovel Shinn. Shinn was a new thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer born in 1871. She published The Game of Life and How to Play It in 1925, Your Word is Your Wand in 1928 and The Secret Door of Success in 1940. I was amazed reading her books how very ahead of her time she was. She was one of the pioneers in our understanding that what we think and hold true, we manifest in our lives.

She was a great believer in affirmations, affirmed what she choose to be true about her reality, and encouraged others to do the same. One affirmation that I have used throughout the years, and that I needed in particular today, was "I cast this burden to the Christ within and I go free."

I had a bad day at work. People were grumpy and mean-spirited. I tried very hard to keep my mood separate from what was going on around me, but by the end of the day I was feeling pretty beat up. I forgot all of my tools. I got completely sucked in and it didn't feel very good. When I got home I sat down to do my meditation, but was feeling kind of antsy. I had absorbed so much of the conflict energy that I couldn't settle down. My mind was racing. I was frustrated because I knew that I needed to take some time to release the stuff I'd picked up that was not me, but I couldn't even decide what to do. (I trust I'm painting a clear picture of how keyed up I was, and how very much I wanted not to be!)

When I finally let go and stopped trying, and said to myself, "I don't know what to do to," I instantly remembered Florence Scovel Shinn's affirmation, "I cast this burden to the Christ within and I go free". The acknowledgement of that inner wisdom recreated my perspective, in an inkling, to one of truth. No situation I encounter could ever be more powerful than the truth that God lives in me and as me, and in any situation, I can choose how I view my experience. I can dwell on it and suffer over it, or I can let it go and focus on other, more positive things. The Christ within me, who knows herself as one with God and the sole creator of her perception, can decide at any point to be free of any burden, and it is done.

Shinn was a great teacher of truth. I look forward to writing more about her teachings in this blog.

Thank you, God!

Happiness

I came across a wonderful quote today by a man named Denis Waitley that started me thinking about cultivating happiness: "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. " How true.

Many people use benchmarks outside of themselves to decide whether they can claim happiness. Is my partner meeting my needs, is my job validating my abilities, do I have what my peers have, or more? These markers for happiness are fleeting and don't fulfill us on a deep level.

That's not to say that we need to adopt a life of poverty and isolation to be happy. It seems that many believe that creating material things is shallow and meaningless, or in some way against our spiritual nature. Material things don't provide lasting happiness, but provide myriad ways for us to express ourselves as divine creators. Expressing my birthright as a creator in God's image does make me happy! I believe that God wishes for us all of the good things that will help us relish a complete and full life.

Although material things can't create lasting happiness, they are not contrary to expressing the highest in ourselves. The difference is our intention. Are we working to buy a bigger home because it's expected, or because it would be a healthy and peaceful place for our growing family? Are we working nights to get through school because someone expects us to do something more with our lives, or because we are drawn to a new career as a way of expressing more of our true talents in the world? Are we saving money for a special vacation because we're trying to keep up with someone else, or as a way to connect lovingly with our partner, experience joy and more of the wonderful places and people on this planet? We are meant to experience all that we want to do, be and have as expressions of the highest within us.

If material things can't provide lasting happiness, what does? Can we cultivate happiness, consciously, as a practice? I believe we can. The beautiful quote above provides good insight. Happiness is a spiritual experience wherein we are present in our moments with these three things: love, grace and gratitude. Having our moments in love is allowing others their path as we walk our own, and remembering that each of us is uniquely expressing the God within. Having our moments in grace is having an awareness of ourselves and others as being worthy of God's highest favor. Having our moments in gratitude means simply acknowledging the tremendous gift in all of it. As complicated as life gets, these three things we can do.

True and lasting happiness comes when we accept the truth of who we are, and are glad of it. When we know ourselves, God rejoices!

The Mock-Up Bubble

Using a mock-up bubble is another tool that I learned at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, and one that over the years has become second nature to me in manifesting my intentions. A mock-up is a model, or prototype, of something that we want to create. This techniques involves visualizing, in your mind's eye, a bubble out in front of you that contains what you desire to bring about. It's probably easier to start with your eyes closed. Remember, what we think has great creative power, and when we visualize our intention it becomes even more powerful.

Pretend that you are waving a giant bubble wand and have just made a very big, clear bubble. See it out in front of you. It can be as large as you'd like. In your bubble, begin to create a picture of what you want to have happen. It really is as simple as that. Be sure to take time to add to your vision as many details as possible of what you desire. The clearer we are about what we want, the more likely we are to get it!

When you have filled in as many details as you want, the next step is to let it go. As we let it go, we release our limited ideas of how things need to happen, and allow God, the universe, our own higher selves to do the work in creating our heart's desires. One way to release your mock-up and allow it to manifest is to simply watch the bubble float up until it's out of sight, to come to fruition in the perfect way. Or you could watch in your mind's eye as it pops, or anything else that occurs to you. Have fun with it!

One thing I like to do before I let go of my mock-up bubble is to show it to God, and ask that anything standing between me and its creation be released. In that way, I acknowledge the ability of the God within to create my life without limits. I affirm the truth.

I use mock-up bubbles frequently, often for the big things in my life, but also for the small ones. If I'm walking into a meeting that I'm nervous about, I'll see in a bubble how I want it to turn out, show it to God and then release it to come into being. If I need a chunk of money for something, I'll visualize it in a mock-up bubble and then turn it over to the limitless creative energy that we are all part of.

This is fun stuff! And the hardest thing about it is believing that we can, and then remembering to do it. As we ask, we are answered. A mock-up bubble, as a tool for manifesting our intention, is a prayer.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Making Your Day Delicious

Inspiration for blogging sometimes comes suddenly, from unexpected places. I walked past the treasure map I finished a few weeks ago, and one of the statements from a magazine that I put on my treasure map says "Make every day delicious." It sounded like a great sentiment at the time, so I included it. A few days ago, though, it really jumped out at me.

It got me thinking about what making a day delicious means exactly, and how to do it. I think the possibilities are endless, but deliciousness is a sensual thing, one of taste and smell, and probably sight and feeling, too. (OK, sound, also; I could make a case for that. My son plays for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, so I know the sound of delicious!) Making a day delicious is about engaging our senses to notice all of the things that usually go by unnoticed.

I decided to try this going for a walk, and it was fun! It really made me notice, again, how much of the time I spend in my head. There is so much beauty to be experienced in every simple moment, but I have to be present to have it, instead of off somewhere in my thoughts. What will be the most important thing for me at the end of my days, is that I was present for the moments of my life; that I was, as fully as possible, here. I want to live as much as possible right now, savoring every bit of it, all of the ups and downs and victories and disappointments, because that is what it has meant to be me. Fully engaging our senses is a delicious tool to help us fully experience our being.

I can tell you that on that walk the grass was delicious, the smell of it, the vibrant color, and the way it moved in tufts with the wind. Because I had consciously decided to engage my senses, I noticed the intensity of it more than I usually do; it was like that grass was the only thing in the world for a moment. And the great thing was I didn't need to be up in the high Sierras backpacking or in some other amazingly beautiful place where the beauty hits you over the head like a two-by-four and you can't do anything but notice it. I was right here, in my own neighborhood, and the beauty that struck me was just as awesome as anything I've seen in the mountains. There's beauty like that all around us, in simple things. We just have to chose to notice.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Non-Striving

I've been re-reading parts of Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and pondering an interesting question which I discussed with my husband this morning. I love the simplicity of Kabat-Zinn's message, focusing on being an observer, mindful in each moment and allowing our experience to unfold without judgment. In his book, he talks about "the deep importance of contemplation and of non-attachment to any result other than the sheer enjoyment of being."

I agree with this, and am very aware of the disappointment that being attached to a particular outcome can bring. I have seen in my own life how letting go of striving to make events turn out in a certain way allows divine intelligence to exert its knowing.

What, then, of ourselves as divine creators? I have also experienced the miracle of choosing a good outcome and watching as it manifested, through treasure-mapping or affirmations, or any other method of prayer. Is that not being attached? I believe it is, and it provided good spiritual food for our conversation this morning.

What I realized in pondering it is that both perspectives hold a part of truth. I would always want to fully claim that most sacred ability to choose the course of my life. I believe that humanity is just now beginning to grasp the enormity of what we are capable of. We are moving, in quantum leaps, to owning who we are. Jesus said, "Ye are gods," and "These things I do and more you shall do." He taught that we are created in God's image, as he was.

But Jesus didn't strive, he knew. He did desire certain outcomes, and absolutely trusted that they would happen. He didn't have to be attached to the result, because of total certainty that the outcome was never in question. I believe he did choose to affect situations in ways he saw as worthy, and then put trust in the divine to carry them out, believing that the right and perfect thing would come to pass.

What perfect help this is to me in my own creating: to remember that as I ask it's already being given unto me, and when I knock I am always answered. It can be no other way. There is no effort needed in creating a world of my own making.

Thank you, God!

Practice

Being a spiritual being having a human experience takes practice, if we want to make the most of it. By that, I mean that if we want to be conscious in creating the life we've dreamed of, we need to actively cultivate our awareness of how spirit works through this human form. It's easy to get caught up in the expectations of those around us and the society we live in, and our days can be completely taken up with fulfilling our obligations to the roles that we take on. Things like being a spouse, parent, employee, and friend are all wonderful things to choose to be, but if we do them unconsciously, without hearing our own voices about how we want to be in those roles, we struggle and our unique and perfect expression is lost.

Consciously creating our lives takes awareness, and awareness takes practice. There are so many helpful tools and techniques for helping us connect with the creator within us. All of the answers we need are close at hand. We just have to stop, listen, and practice.

I have found that my practice has broadened over the years as I've learned new things. In addition to regular meditation, I use many of the tools I've mentioned in this blog, such as heart-focused breathing and writing letters to God. I'm looking forward to writing about other tools in the future.

A regular practice is just that, regular, and practice. It ideally is something that we make time for, and try to maintain as a priority in the middle of busy days. It is also something that is done as much for the process as for the outcome; we don't worry about getting it perfectly but we just do it. I always know that when I'm most resistant to sitting down to meditate, I need it the most. If I get off track, I start again. It's a gift I give to myself, something that I get to do rather than have to do. What better legacy, than taking the time to know myself?

A regular practice of whatever spiritual tool we choose helps quiet the voice of limits that says I don't have time, I have too much to do, I can't do this right, I need to stop. Practice gives us confidence in telling that voice to hush, so that we can dwell in the truth of who we are, and who we want to be.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

That's Not True of Me!

I'm grateful to our Unity Minister, Rev. Ken, for his wonderful and enlightened perspectives. Something that he mentions often is his tendency to say to himself "that's not true of me" when he encounters a situation in which he is feeling limited.

There are many reasons why we hold on to thoughts or beliefs about ourselves that do not acknowledge our best and highest. Most of them come from our parents, who were doing their best but likely weren't taught themselves that they were good enough just as they are. We get messages from our families, teachers, friends and colleagues, the media, pretty much everywhere, that cause us to compare ourselves to some ideal. Many of those ideals, being extrinsic or coming from outside of ourselves, are not even what we hold most true for ourselves. We buy into them anyway, though, because we become accustomed to looking to others for validation and answers. There's a noble purpose to this dynamic in that it allows us to forget, and then remember, who we are. Forgetting for a time allows us the delicious moments of remembering.


Who we are, and how we show up in the world, are reflected in what we believe about ourselves. I heard a story once about a young girl who spent alot of time singing and enjoying her voice. One night her mom came home from work really tired, and not in the mood for any noise, even her daughter's singing. So she snapped at her daughter, telling her to stop making noise. The girl stopped singing, and as an adult believed her voice was terrible and never sang again. This is how we buy in to ideas that are not true of us.

So I ask you today to think about the limits you believe to be true about yourself. Sometimes those beliefs are deeply held and we're not even aware of them, but they color our experience. If you have ever thought that you're not smart or talented enough to have the job you've always wanted, or you don't have enough time to do something you've always wanted to do, or that you have back luck and nothing good ever happens, or that you're alone or that no one really loves you, it's a thought going by. It's not true of you.


When we're caught up in self-limiting thoughts, we tend to remember only those instances that make us right. We search our past experience for things that prove that we're less than we should be. We get stuck in justifying how inadequate we are, because that's what we've heard. We develop amnesia about all of the things that are perfect about who we are and what we're doing.


I'm learning not to get too stuck on wanting things to be different. Some of those old programs are very ingrained, and they do take over at times. Resisting doesn't help. But what I can do is remember that I always have dominion over what my thoughts bring to bear. And I am reborn every time I own the highest in myself, and deny that which is not true of me.



May this tool be a blessing!