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Soul vs. Ego – a higher vision
I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that’s right in front of you, and you miss so much. Pema Chödrön
The ego and the soul struggle continuously for control of your life force. When you’re young and hungry, the calls of this world are very strong—the ego flexes its muscle for domination while the soul is often gagged and bound in the closet. The ego has its place and benefits in life but it should not be the lead voice. Somewhere along the path whether early or late in life, spiritual maturity kicks in and you begin to listen to the call of your spirit, release it from its chains, and allow it to lead. The ego takes the back seat at this point in your life and learns to take its directives from your spirit.
You move from needing to have facts, evidence, and assurance, to listening to your intuition. Your controlling mind cannot play a part in the realm of the mystical and mystifying side of your intuitive self. It was not created for such adventures and doesn’t have the skill set. As such, it is not happy and works hard at attempting to pull your soul back to earth. Why does it do such things when it too loves the beauty it sees? But the day will come when it must acquiesce to the guidance from your higher self. When that day of alignment comes, your power upon this earth will have been multiplied.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where is your well-meaning ego getting you in trouble? Where do your higher soul observations need to lead the vision for your life?
Affirmation: The clarity of my soul vision leads my life!
Abundance Grows from Consciousness
Only a change in consciousness can bring improved conditions. If there is an area of struggle in your life, then consciousness must be lifted above the human condition in order to live in the abundance that life is. Fighting the situation doesn’t bring freedom; the battle just energizes the disorder by feeding it your energy and keeping it more alive. Liberty comes by shifting your consciousness and seeing the larger picture. What is known within out-pictures in your life and contributes to the world. Take the evolution of the Divine out of the hands of the world by returning to Spirit the authority for the emergence of Spirit in your life.
Spirit reveals truth right where the picture of error is. Let me hear thy word. Joel Goldsmith
But a different perspective isn’t about what it can do for you and your family alone. Rather the degree of spiritual abundance that you achieve in your life is measured by what you give back to the world, quickening the abundance of freedom for all. When you leave this world, you take nothing but the qualities of your being with you. What’s the big deal about how much you can possess or control if you leave it all behind? If you are a place of spiritual flow, then the battle for conditions won’t be your thing because you are free in your ability to shift the causation in consciousness to something larger.
Spiritual Contemplation: Do you hold a quarter so tight you can hear the eagle scream? What conditions would you like to stop holding on to so tightly with the battles in your consciousness? What larger picture of the abundant flow of life could replace what you are struggling with?
Affirmation: A larger, more abundant vision emerges in my consciousness to share with the world!
Dwelling in Possibility!
I dwell in possibility. Emily Dickinson
How often do we feel like we are stuck, trapped, or unable to imagine that things could be different than they are, whether they are bad or simply okay? It can leave us feeling barren or depressed—how can we break out into something new?
A joke found in an 1899 Punch magazine that had been donated to Harvard University by the Pulitzer family offered a look at the “coming century.” A genius asked, “Isn’t there a clerk who can examine patents?” A boy replied, “Quite unnecessary, Sir. Everything that can be invented has been invented.” How laughable is that today, with everything that has happened in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in virtually every field of endeavor.
We live in an Infinite Universe, which means there is an abundance of possibilities in every situation. It isn’t a lack of possibilities that keeps us stuck—it’s only the imagination to dream them up and the will to execute them. We worry about consequences, and failure, and the impact on our lives. Yet the only way for things to change, is for them to change. It all starts with knowing that we dwell in an ocean of possibility!
Spiritual Contemplation: Is there an area of your life where you feel stuck or trapped? Have you tried everything or run out of ideas and you just can’t figure out anything new? This means there are a whole host of possibilities you have not yet entertained out of fear or unwillingness. Begin to list all the possibilities, no matter how silly or fearful they seem. This is the first step.
Affirmation: I dwell in possibilities. I allow my imagination to soar and my mind to roam in the field of many options.
Dreaming the I-Am-Possible Dream!
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. Gloria Steinem
When my son finally moved completely out of the house and I found myself alone, I began dreaming of a place to live, just for me. I loved to imagine some really cool place that was close to everything but still had woods and trees everywhere. I spent time dreaming of a two-story condo that I wanted to call my own.
In the meantime I started looking. I looked for over a year, and just kept being disappointed. At one point I wondered whether my dream was simply not possible. Maybe it’s impossible to find what I was looking for in my sprawling, flat, overbuilt metropolitan city. But each time that I was confronted with this thought of impossibility, I turned around and claimed that nothing is impossible for the Law to manifest. All I needed to do was stay committed to my dream. I truly believed that the I AM that I am would attract to me exactly what I was dreaming. Today I live in a beautiful two-story condo, close to everything, with woods and a creek all to myself right outside my backdoor. Who knew it even existed within six minutes of my workplace? I may simply have dreamed it into existence!
Spiritual Contemplation: Where has “impossible” taken up residence in your life and kept you from dreaming?
Affirmation: Nothing is impossible to the Infinite Power and Presence of Life. That Power and Presence is moving in my life today!
Breaking Open to a New Idea – Shattering Limitations
A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us. Friedrich Nietzsche
The only way things can change is if we allow them to change. Nothing will be new if we keep doing things exactly as we have always done them. This means our thoughts, behaviors, attitudes and/or actions may need to change. Can we imagine that possibility?
Spiritual Contemplation: What if we imagined the possibility that we really are SPIRITUAL BEINGS having a human experience, and that this is our true identity? What story would we have to give up? What limitation would we have to let go of? What false belief that keeps us safe would we need to release? How would we walk around in the world differently?
Affirmation: I allow the possibility of my true identity to shatter all limitations and transform my idea about myself.
The Shape of Our Acceptance Manifests Abundance
How much life, abundance, goodness, truth, and beauty can we mentally entertain— this is the measure of our possible experience, this is the mold of acceptance. The Infinite fills all molds and flows forever into new and greater ones. It is the unborn possibility of limitless experience. We give birth to it. Ernest Holmes
Daydreaming or wishful thinking about having a more fulfilled and abundant life is not enough. We must imagine that it is actually possible for us to experience. Imagine the kind of life you would truly like to have, then notice where the “yeah buts” or ideas of limitation creep in. Notice where there is lingering judgment or a sense of something being unreachable. These are the boundaries of the mold, the shape of your mental acceptance. Every time you say, “I just can’t imagine . . . ” you are defining the shape of your life.
Spiritual Contemplation: Entertain a new idea about some area of your life. Imagine the possibility of it. Feel into its size and shape. Experience yourself in it. Create the mold of your desire into a mental acceptance of its reality for you.
Affirmation: I expand my mind into new possibilities. I entertain them as my own reality. I accept that I truly can have a more abundant and fulfilling life.
From Possibility to Probability – Choosing Accomplishment and Achievement
If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. Mahatma Gandhi
My father was a real pragmatist, not so much a possibility thinker. He always had a lot to say about how realistic we should be in our dreams and working on something. I think he really believed that being realistic would keep us in the arena of what we could do and would keep us from failing. Possibilities were mere pipe dreams, not hard reality.
The problem with focusing on “reality” was that it kept me from trying anything new, and I learned to play it safe. It also guaranteed that the probability, even the possibility, of anything new or truly creative breaking through was basically zero. I have since learned that focusing on something as being possible is much more likely to open up a space for something new. Focusing on what’s possible moves us toward the achievement of a breakthrough and makes it much more likely that we will actually accomplish something completely new, different, or better than what we had before.
Spiritual Contemplation: When are you such a realist that it keeps you stuck in what you don’t want? In what areas are you afraid to explore what’s possible?
Affirmation: I now am open to possibilities that improve my chances of accomplishment and achievement.
Getting Past the Bad News – Good News & Evolution
New arts, new sciences, new philosophies, better government, and a higher civilization wait on our thoughts. The infinite energy of Life, and the possibility of our future evolution, work through our imagination and will. The time is ready, the place is where we are now, and it is done unto all as they really believe and act. Ernest Holmes
It can be challenging and disheartening, listening to the news. It seems as though something awful is always happening somewhere. We can long for the seemingly easier, better days of the past. Or worry constantly about an inevitably dimming future. We can feel overwhelmed about what anyone of us can do.
Yet we know that the news doesn’t show us reality, neither human nor Divine. There are always new ideas being brought forward. There is always great good being done in the world. The evolutionary process is always taking place—Life seeking to be and express more of Itself through creation. This very impulse is the light behind new inventions, different models of business and government, and the restoration of wholeness in places that have been devastated by pollution or war. Each place where this impulse is brought forward, it is done through people around the globe just like you.
Spiritual Contemplation: Do you allow the news to devastate or depress you? How could you see the world from a spiritual point of view, while acting boldly toward the future that you desire for all of us?
Affirmation: I look for positive and good news around the world. I lend my consciousness wherever there is good work and restoration taking place. I support our evolution into who we are collectively meant to be!
Become the Observer and Pull Back
Are you able to become the observer? Can you be aware of inner feelings and outer activities without being them? Are you able to notice that you are independent of these expressions—that you are not them? Can you move your consciousness around and place your attention on the inner and outer goings-on while at the same time realizing you are not those things? The question is, who is the “who” that is aware of them? Where do you think your exploration of consciousness might take you if you investigated the awareness that observes your world, rather than investigating the events themselves?
The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. Eckhart Tolle
When it looks at particulars, your myopic vision brings your attention in on the mind’s chatter. You are so much more than that! When you’re in a meeting have some fun and try pulling your awareness up to a higher perspective of what is happening around you. Take your awareness to the ceiling and notice the whole room, the people’s intensity and the engagement in their positions. You will then have just freed yourself from the draw of that realm and the activity of the room by moving your awareness. You are the witness of your life—you can enter in and out of any charged situation at any time. It’s an extraordinary realization, and sadly so many have forgotten this ability. Remember: you are the observer and not the experience.
Spiritual Contemplation: What experiences in your life do you believe are who you are? Take an experience as your laboratory and try pulling away to a higher perspective. Then go up another rung and notice the activity from an even more elevated perspective until you’re aware that you are the observer and not what is happening.
Affirmation: I am the observer of my life!
From the Inside Out – Allow the Life Force to Flow
To keep the body in good health is a duty . . . otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. Buddha
Have you ever been in a house where someone with a cold was coughing and sniffling, and you used all your energy to surround yourself with thoughts of immunity so you wouldn’t catch it? You created something like an energetic bubble around yourself so nothing could get in and get you. An alternative approach might be to imagine that there’s nothing to protect yourself from. And rather than surrounding yourself in the light of protection, you simply tap into the energy flowing out from the center of your being from an unending source within. There is nothing to fight or rebel against—perceive, instead, an outflow that doesn’t allow anything in. You can take it one step further and see that what’s flowing through you is not only moving through you but is actually filling the whole house. Then see it fill the whole neighborhood or community. If you’re really into it, see how far this abundant energy can reach. Life flows from the inside out, and its stream clears away all the garbage with its flow. Allowing the stream of life to move through you so nothing adverse can come upstream is a great purifying and cleansing approach. No battles necessary—just allow the Life.
Spiritual Contemplation: Practice the exercise above and see how far you can allow your energy to flow from the inside out. Then sit and notice how good it feels to be purged by that flow.
Affirmation: I am an expression of the Life Force!
Unlimited Thinking beyond Victimhood – It’s Not as Bad as You Think!
The key to abundance is meeting limited circumstances with unlimited thinking. Marianne Williamson
Bad things happen to even the best and most spiritual of people. While 90 percent of what we used to worry about are things that we now realize were never really an issue, 10 percent are. The key to meeting any condition that is less than we want or hope for is in our response to it. We can become victims of a circumstance by looking at all the negative things, by worrying about how everything will work out, or by continually rehearsing the litany of issues that we are facing. Unfortunately, this just keeps our eyes, mind, and heart focused on the problem.
The key is to meet these circumstances with the deep knowing that there is a Power and Presence for Life and for Good in the Universe that we can turn to and draw from. We can affirm for ourselves that we have the strength to walk through it, the wisdom to handle it, and the guidance to know how to proceed. We can feel the love of the Presence as well as of family and friends as we work our way through the challenge. Keeping our eyes, mind, and heart focused on these things supports us in rising above a victim mentality (and keeps us focused on that which we are committed to manifest and experience.
Spiritual Contemplation: What am I obsessing about that keeps me in the hole? How could I think about this from an unlimited, spiritually grounded perspective? What if Love and Wisdom really were present in me as I walk through all of this? How would I feel in moving through it?
Affirmation: It is not as bad as I think it is. I turn my eyes, heart, and mind to the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Universe. I turn my energy to knowing the Presence walks with, through, and as me.
Drop Your Excuses – Move Into Greater Success
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George Washington Carver
Have you become so masterful at excuses that you actually believe them? Do you tell yourself that it’s the other person’s fault? Does the voice inside your head ask, How could they have done this to me? Is your excuse loop telling you it’s the government’s fault, and do you try to place blame by asking why your body is failing you? Whatever your excuses, are they so good that you’re convinced they are the truth? When you battle something, it lives on in your energy. Metaphysicians, however, disengage their attachment to duality and become a transparency for the Divine to flow through.
The consciousness that is without excuses is a Divine Consciousness and a spiritual power that can move mountains to bring heaven to earth. Spirit is Infinite and doesn’t know large or small because It is all. It doesn’t matter whether It’s addressing a common cold or the fourth stage of cancer, Spirit can transform it all back into wholeness. The abundance of Life is not concerned, whether it’s your personal bills or the national debt. Spirit doesn’t know size—It responds only to totality of consciousness.
Spiritual Contemplation: What are your favorite excuses? What “truth” do you believe in that doesn’t support your life? What kind of shift must you make in consciousness in order to be a clear place for the abundant good to flow in a greater way in your life?
Affirmation: I drop my excuses and embrace my greater good now!
Pray from Gratitude
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. Kahlil Gibran
Prayer and spiritual contemplation are not only for times of need. When your cup overflows and life is pouring its magnificence into your life, then is also a time to pray. Keeping your mind fixed on the Joy and Abundance you are experiencing is a powerful form of praying without ceasing! This is the prayer of Gratitude.
Spiritual Contemplation: In your quiet time contemplate your abundance and joy. Take time to enumerate it all and then revel in how Spirit is showing up in your life. Today, pray without ceasing a prayer of gratitude.
Affirmation: I am grateful for the joy and abundance in my life. I am grateful for love and friendships. I am grateful for fulfilling work and a satisfying contribution to humanity.
I Rest In Spirit – Release Old Beliefs and Know Your True Nature
We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us. Rumi
One of the big challenges on the path to spirituality is confronting an early religious upbringing that speaks of a God outside you who is waiting to do something for you only if you do the right thing. This serves only to anchor a belief in a mythological God. It’s hard to forsake the old ways of thinking that you are separate and apart from God. You’ll come to know your true nature, however, when you understand the infinite includes you. Because you are one with the all-knowing, your needs can be met before you even know of them if you can get your little-mindedness out of the way. You’ll be able to rest with no concern for tomorrow in the knowledge that SPirit is the very essence of your consciousness. There is not God and you—there is only Spirit appearing as you.
Spiritual Contemplation: What earlier religious beliefs do you hold that puts God outside of you?
Affirmation: I rest in knowing all my needs are provided for now!
Sharing Abundance. We Don’t Truly Own Anything.
When I thing of sharing abundance I think of the song “Colors of the Wind” from the movie Pocahontas. It’s a lovely description of the Native American understanding that we can’t really own anything. The trees and the land, the water and the sun, these all flow from the Great Spirit and belong to all of us. I have a friend who says the same thing about her money and prosperity. She is constantly reminding people that it all comes from the One Source and doesn’t belong to us. We surely can’t take it with us, so it’s ours to enjoy and share only in this lifetime.
To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance. Buddha
Everything in the physical world is only on loan to us for the time that we inhabit these bodies and walk around on this planet. When we truly realize this, we stop clinging, hoarding, or worrying about money. It would be like worrying about our next breath. It’s there for the taking, right when we need it. But we don’t keep it. We actually have to exhale before we can inhale again. This is trusting in our prosperity – we must share abundance when and where we can! Source is always there, no matter how much we share!
Spiritual Contemplation: Imagine that everything you have and own is on loan to you for your sojourn here and that you are the steward of it while it is in your possession.
Affirmation: Everything I have is on loan. It is mine to enjoy but not to keep. I effortless share my abundance with others.