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Latest Daily Words
Beyond Wishing
If, then, we believe God is substance, God is food, God is shelter, God is happiness, God is life, and we wish to enjoy and experience that life which God is, we must claim for ourselves everything that we claim for God. For we and God are one. The mind by which we think is God. Ernest Holmes
Claim your prosperity, abundance, and joy! Wishing and hoping for it simply aren’t enough. Begin with realizing and knowing that you live in an abundant universe—this is a good place to start. Knowing that you are part of that same universe is the next step. The final step is to claim the abundance in consciousness, accepting it in your mind and heart as true for you. You make this claim because you now sense and feel what the Master Teacher Jesus reminded us: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.” You are already in and a part of this Abundant universe. Now stake your claim to your experience of your birthright!
Spiritual Contemplation: What helps you feel the Abundance of the Universe? How do you sense yourself as part of this same Abundance? Is there anything that keeps you then, from claiming that this abundance is also yours?
Affirmation: The Universe is flowing with Abundance. I am a part of it all. I claim my place and my abundance in this ever-flowing River of Life.
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Living at the Frequency of Your Vision’s Vibration
What is the vibration of your life? How would you describe the overall quality of your life—adventurous, plodding, meaningful, dull, fulfilling, stagnant, full, or empty? How would you like it to be? When you describe the life of your dreams, not in terms of form, but with descriptions of feelings, you are describing the frequency or vibrational rate of your life. At what frequency does your vision vibrate?
A philosophy of life: I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure. Paulo Coelho
Now you must keep your eye and heart trained on your vision. Stay focused on the end result. Don’t become confused by the twists and turns of the path. Simply continue moving in the direction of your dreams. Eventually, you will get where you are going. The path really does lead toward complete alignment with your vision, where you regularly live at the level of the frequency of your dreams.
Spiritual Contemplation: Describe the feeling/tone/vibration or frequency of your vision. How close are you to living at that vibration on a regular basis?
Affirmation: I choose to live my vision. I don’t let anything get in my way! My life is lifted to a higher vibration.
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Singing the Song of Life
Since God is infinite, our expansion is progressive and eternal. No matter how much good we experience today, the Infinite has more in store for us tomorrow. We should joyfully look forward to this expansion with enthusiastic anticipation. The march of Life is not dismal, but a song of triumph.
Ernest Holmes
The song of life is forever singing, through all of creation. This song is singing through you. Do you hear it? The melody of your joy glides over the rhythm of your days, sustained on the bass notes of faith. This song pours forth from you whenever you feel most alive. This is the song of Abundance, Joy, Peace, Wholeness, and Love! Let life’s song resound in your thoughts, words, and actions.
Spiritual Contemplation: How much of life’s joyous and abundant song do you sing on a daily basis?
Affirmation: The Song of Spirit is singing in my heart, from my lips, and in my life, praising the abundance and joy of Spirit that is everywhere.
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What Words Are You Using?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
All of creation begins with a word. The way in which we co-create our lives with the Universal Power is through our intentions, which we frame by the very words that we use. Ernest Holmes reminds us that “in the integrity of one’s own conscious self, each person’s word is a seed which is already impregnated with Divine life, and all we are doing in prayer is nurturing this seed. We do not make the seed grow; we let it grow! The great Power is always near, ready at any time to help, but we must use It according to Its own nature, in harmony with Its Law.”
There is such power in your words! Every word you speak is a seed planted in consciousness. Pay attention to the words you use and what you spend your time talking about. This is a good indication of what you believe, and what will play out in your life experience. Be very mindful of your words!
Spiritual Contemplation: What words and phrases do you habitually use that are actually limiting and contrary to your spiritual beliefs and the life you want to lead?
Affirmation: I consciously use only those words that are in alignment with Spiritual Truth, the Power of the Universe, and the Presence of Love.
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Point of Transformation
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan
A boat, a horse, a train, a car, a jet, or maybe even astral projection—they are all expressions of the spiritual idea called transportation. The Infinite must move through a filter in order to take some kind of form. You are that filter, that point of transformation, and no matter what may be happening in your life, a part of your awareness can always tap into the ever-available Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent Spirit with its revelation of where you are. It is this kind of realization that can translate the God quality into an appropriate expression.
Spirit is present within all that is possible in this instant. When donkeys were the main mode of transportation, people were grateful for them, though at the same time the possibility of a rocket ship was always available. What kept it from manifestation was that the current filters of perception were not yet able to embrace that concept. Only to the degree that you are a conscious realization of the presence do the blessings manifest. You are never bound by the present condition because there is a higher possibility waiting to move through your filters of awareness. Gratitude for a raft can open you to the possibilities of an ocean liner. But until you enter the plane of a spiritual quality or idea, you are not the filter for what is next in that particular expressive flow. There is so much more wanting to be known. Where are you saying, Come through me?
Spiritual Contemplation: Knowing that your future unfoldment is waiting to be known now with all its evolutionary ideas, what spiritual quality would be good for you to meditate on to uplift an area of your life? Spend some quiet contemplative time with that quality and witness its evolution of possibilities available to come through you.
Affirmation: Spirit now finds expression through me.
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The Need to Pay Attention
Pay attention or make a mess. Pay attention or gloss over the surface of life. Too often you can spread yourself too thin rather than going deep with what you know and do. When you’re cooking, it’s easy to get distracted and turn away from the pot cooking or oven roasting. But forgetting to keep an eye on the fire can leave you with nothing but a scorched pan and fodder for your composter. Mistakenly thinking it will go on without your attention is flawed, especially as the fire goes out or the smoke begins to rise. When you take your awareness off what calls to you, you lose.
Keep all of your eggs in one basket but watch that basket closely. Warren Buffet
Without your care, your grand ideas, your heart’s desires remain uncooked, even if you put some initial energy into getting them started. Without your watchful eye, dreams can go askew. You must pay attention – nourish and weigh in on the progression of what you’ve set in motion. The fewer pots on the fire, the less chance you have of missing the signs that need you to pay attention.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you spread too thin in your life? How can you bring more of the pieces of your life into one caregiving basket so you can stay on top of what is valuable to you?
Affirmation: I bring all that is near and dear to my heart into my watchful care. I pay attention to the things that are important to me.
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The Bull
A student asked Suzuki Roshi why the Japanese make their teacups so thin and delicate that they break easily. “It’s not that they’re too delicate,” he answered, “but that you don’t know how to handle them. You must adjust yourself to the environment, and not vice versa.” Shunryu Suzuki
Do you know people who are like a bull in a china shop in that they’re so out of touch with what is actually happening that they just bull their way through? Their conversations are so full of their stuff that it seems they’ve forgotten to listen to the discussion at hand. They come from their egoic-self, not their soul, though their head is quick to tell you they are all heart. Their recommendations come from what they think is better, but they totally miss what is best.
Love means being in sympathetic vibration with your environment—not dominating or exploiting it, because love is a communion that allows true connection to happen. If someone or something is not like you or what you are accustomed to, that doesn’t mean you must change it to fit your patterning. Wisdom comes when you are able to step outside your position, see how you match up, and decide whether or not you can handle the teacup.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you butting heads in your life? How can you adjust to the environment, or do you even want to?
Affirmation: I am able to connect in the various environments I find myself.
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Cultivating “Beginner’s Mind”
Beginner’s mind means having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and freedom from preconceptions when approaching anything. Beginner’s mind is actually the space where the mind does not know what to do. It is that delicious state when you are sure of nothing, yet completely fearless, totally available to the moment. Nithyananda
When my son turned fourteen I was reminded of my own teenage years when I was sure that I knew everything! I thought my parents were unbelievably stupid and didn’t have a clue. As I watched my son go through that same phase, it made me smile to realize that the older I have become, the less I’m completely certain about. At fourteen I was freely dispensing advice; now I’m not always sure I have that kind of clarity for myself, let alone someone else. Sometimes, however, teenage arrogance can harden into a closed mind of certainty in adulthood. I’ve seen it when I’ve been afraid to experiment with ideas, or let things unfold without knowing where they’re leading. I much prefer to know for sure.
Yet what I have come to learn through my spiritual awakening is that Life is a series of opportunities that invite us to be present in each moment and accept the gift of possibility. There is something so profound when we savor the prospect of coming to each moment, each event, each person, completely fresh and new—when we allow ourselves to live in beginner’s mind without judgment or expertise. Let yourself be surprised as you discover how good life can be with an open mind as well as an open heart!
Spiritual Contemplation: In which areas of life are you closed to new ideas and possibilities? What do you want to bring your beginner’s mind to?
Affirmation: I see myself with beginner’s mind. I see my life with openness and eagerness, free of false perceptions and judgments.
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The Mirror of Your Life
You are either attracting or repelling according to your mental attitudes. You are either identifying yourself with lack or with abundance, with love and friendship or with indifference. You cannot keep from attracting into your experience that which corresponds to the sum total of your states of consciousness. This law of attraction and repulsion works automatically. It is like the law of reflection—the reflection corresponds to the object held before a mirror. Ernest Holmes
I remember when I learned that the physical world of my life was like a giant feedback mechanism. If I wanted to know what I was thinking and believing, all I had to do was look at my life. It was like looking into a mirror, and I really didn’t care for this idea at all! Surely most of what I didn’t like about my life was because of those other people and what they were doing! I had a really difficult time taking responsibility for the messes in my life and the ways my lack-filled and limited thinking was perfectly mirrored back to me.
Eventually I realized that taking responsibility isn’t about blaming or shaming myself. Rather it‘s simply noticing that my life reflects back to me the quality and state of my habitual thinking: how much attention I’m paying to what isn’t working in my life and how much of my intention is focused on what other people are or aren’t doing. As I began to change where I placed my attention, things in my life improved. As I began to focus my intention on my own life, I began moving in the direction of my dreams.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where you place your attention and intention is what the universe mirrors back to you. Attend to those things that are working and to those that you desire. Remember, a mirror is blank until something stands in front of it. What are you placing in front of the mirror of your life?
Affirmation: I pay attention to where and how things are working in my life. I focus my intention on contributing greater good into life. I love what the mirror of my life reflects back to me!
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Paradox – The Pull of Opposites
The paradox is the source of the thinker’s passion, and the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling: a paltry mediocrity. Søren Kierkegaard
Sometimes rushing to resolution is not always the best answer to a situation. Living your spirituality can often bring you face to face with conflict between what you believe and what the world presents to you. It’s natural to want to resolve that conflict, particularly in our hurry-up society. But sometimes, living in the paradox, the pull of opposites, is a powerful way of being. Instead of racing to a solution, sit yourself calmly in the question. This opens the space to bring a different way forward that has never been perceived before.
Whatever this new way may be, it comes as a surprise because you never thought of it before. It emerges because you were willing to sit in the tension of opposites and not battle to get rid of it immediately. It is a spiritual skill to trust the mystery of not knowing and believe that a greater abundant good is present. It is loving the sun and the moon, the yin and the yang, the ebb and the flow without choosing one over the other. By sitting fully present you will discover a new way.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where do you feel the pull of opposites creating inner conflict for you? Let go of your desire to have it immediately handled and sit with it to see what surprising insight that tension has to present to you.
Affirmation: I embrace the paradox of life. I see a greater way emerging in the midst of the pull of opposites.
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A False Sense
You have this idea that you’d better keep working otherwise people will forget. And that was dangerous. Robin Williams
It was on this date in 2014 that Robin Williams took his own life, joining the likes of Whitney Huston, Seymour Hoffman, and Marilyn Monroe. The human psyche alone is not strong enough to carry the longed-for-desire of the masses without eventually buckling under the pressure. Substances can give a false sense of coping that, when abused, create a dependency that ultimately leads to one’s self-loathing and demise.
It is only in the soul’s growth and strengthening that you’ll be able to handle the projections of others. Your urge to express life through the arts, gifts, talents, and passion will help you develop the skills to handle the energy of abundant success. Success excites not only your soul but the cellular level of your body as well, and through its expression you will become more alive than you ever knew was possible. This natural high is intoxicating, though it cannot be sustained and you must learn how to come down and integrate back into life. The genius expression must be carefully integrated if not mentored into the balanced human experience if the deliverer is to survive.
Spiritual Contemplation: How do you come down from your natural highs without crashing?
Affirmation: I am balanced in my life’s expression.
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Jumping to Assumptions and Leaping to Conclusions
Jumping to assumptions and leaping to conclusions can be hazardous to your health. You could easily fall into the rut of thinking you know what’s really going on, but you could be completely inaccurate! Not only that, but you could also actually just be projecting your own thoughts and feelings onto someone else or the situation, rather than seeing it clearly or with Spirit-centered eyes. This is true whether you are thinking about a person, a situation, the state of your abundance, or the world in general.
Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him. Friedrich Nietzsche
It’s always better to ask, discuss, and explore whatever you think is going on, before acting on it. If you must jump to an assumption and leap to a conclusion, why not assume the best and conclude that everything will work out okay? This will keep you from projecting your unhealed past or triggered emotions onto the person or situation.
Spiritual Contemplation: When have you leaped to a conclusion that was unhelpful and untrue? When have you jumped to an assumption you later discovered was just a projection of your own stuff?
Affirmation: I release any need to make assumptions or jump to conclusions that are negative. I see with the positive eyes of Spirit’s Love and assume that abundance and good will abound.
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Loving Life!
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein
Stop focusing on what brings you down. For years I used drugs and alcohol to avoid feeling my feelings. But then after getting sober I spent years skirting around depression. One day I realized that I spent an amazing amount of time hashing over everything that wasn’t working in my life. I was constantly having conversations in my head with people who weren’t even in the room, trying to get them to be different or change how they behaved. My mind was filled with criticism and judgment.
Then I had a child! Watching this precious being learn about life, look at the flowers, and gaze at the stars reminded me of the beauty of life. Every time he asked me to play or simply to sit and snuggle on the couch, I moved into a timeless state of wonder and joy that was truly a blessing. The more time I spent loving being with him, the more I began to enjoy other parts of my life as well. Because I was too busy dreaming up fun things for us to do, I didn’t have time to be in that constant state of depression and judgment. My son taught me how to love my life in a whole new way. And I discovered that Life started to love me back in a whole new way as well!
Spiritual Contemplation: Are you loving your life? Notice the places of beauty, the people of kindness, and the opportunities for self-expression in your life. Seek out the pleasant moments and the things that bring you joy. Count the ways you are growing and all the gifts you are giving.
Affirmation: I love my life! My life is filled with Joy, Beauty, Laughter, and Love. I focus on all the good in my Life and see how abundant and blessed I truly am.
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Criticism Can Sting
It feels like the more I’m out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence—that’s what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people. Gwen Stefani
Criticism can sting. If it comes from a coach or someone who is committed to assisting you, it can be insightful; otherwise, it can hurt. Not everyone will celebrate your good fortune, so don’t take it personally when people take shots at you. And don’t sink to a level lower than theirs in an attempt to prove you are right and they are wrong. Shake it off, keep going, and remain in your joy. Walk away from other people’s negative opinions of you and don’t allow them to take up one more moment in your mind.
If people are talking criticism about you, you walk away, but don’t go on the gossip circuit and fan the flame. Let it die, because what comes out of their mouths and their behavior is a reflection of them. You don’t need to put others in hell in order for you to be in heaven. Don’t waste your time by wondering what people are thinking and saying about you. Don’t waste your creative, artistic energy by being distracted by someone else’s misinterpretation of you. Not everyone is going to be your cheerleader, but your fate is not finalized by what they say. Your destiny is a result of what God put in your heart.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where have you buckled to criticism and denied your greater expression? Where are you now questioning your gifts and talents and looking outside for validation? How would bringing forth that which is within you serve you better at this point than listening to the naysayers?
Affirmation: I create from the inspiration within me.
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Divine Love Raises the Vibration
When we let the love that is within us go out to the God who is in all people and the Divine Presence that is in all things, then we are loving God with all our heart and with all our soul and mind because we are recognizing that the Spirit within us is the same Spirit that we meet in others. This is loving our neighbors as ourselves. Ernest Holmes
Being love is the most powerful way to change your vibrational rate. Love is the highest frequency there is, and when you bring it into your heart or into any situation you immediately begin to raise the consciousness around whatever is going on.
Imagine that you are the conduit for the love of the Divine to be shared in the world. Are you acting as if that is true? Is there any place or situation, or with any person, where the conduit seems blocked or closed? Practice being the love in your mind, in that situation, with that person. Now you are an intentional conduit of Divine Love, and you are raising the vibration around whatever you focus on.
Spiritual Contemplation: Are you Being Love when it comes to your finances and money? At work or on the job? Paying your bills? Making your tithe? With everything having to do with your abundance?
Affirmation: I bring love, I am Love, as I engage with everything having to do with my abundance and Prosperity.
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