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Finding Grace – Healing Body, Mind, and Computer
Finding Grace in the everyday is a powerful spiritual practice!
Nothing is more frustrating than finding your computer inoperable when you finally find the time to work on a project you’ve postponed until the last minute. Somewhere in the cloud or the server, the gremlins are having fun at your expense and all the glitches have united their forces to frustrate you. Maybe it’s just that Mercury went retrograde and the heavens have conspired against you. But whatever the reason, your computer isn’t working, and you’re infuriated or at least annoyed, neither of which helps you find a solution.
Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window. Steve Wozniak
Well, this then becomes your spiritual practice recognize that computer repair is not Spirit’s domain. Divine intervention for your laptop is always possible, but usually guidance from another person and tapping the correct combination of keys seem to be the channel that spirit works through. Grace can enter into the resolution only when you stop cussing at your screen. So relax and await the realization of Grace to emerge in what you are looking at. Grace is not a power but a presence, and in the presence, there is no need to battle any annoyance. Be still and allow Grace to be Grace. Grace will function as guidance, wisdom, harmony, wholeness, and inspiration while revealing all that is necessary with whatever is before you.
Spiritual contemplation: Where do you give your power away to inanimate objects? How can they become your spiritual practice?
Affirmation: I now sense Grace in all areas of my life!
Overcoming Procrastination – Stalling out or moving forward?
“One of these days I’m going to get help for my procrastination problem.” Unknown
“If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.” Unknown
How masterful are you at stalling? Can you come up with all sorts of excuses, both lame and creative, for not completing what’s before you? Good intentions may fill your mind and a plan and time to finish the task are at hand, but somehow you drag your feet and find other things to do instead: wash the dishes, fold the laundry, run an errand. In the meantime, you are perfecting the art of the stall on the project you really do need to conclude.
There is an empowering quote that says, “I can of mine own self do nothing, the Spirit that dwells within me does the work”; however I don’t think Spirit is going to write your business proposal without your hand, heart, and brain involved. That project waiting for your attention needs your time to find completion. There aren’t two, you and the Spirit—that would be two-ness not One-ness. There is the one life force, the Divine essence, waiting to be called into action through you, as you. When you put no other power before Spirit, your stall tactics have no ability to deny the power of the presence seeking to fulfill your vision.
Spiritual Contemplation: What are some of your favorite procrastination and stall tactics? What projects that you’d love to see completed are on stall mode right now? Go complete them and find how much freer you feel.
Affirmation: I complete those things that are near and dear to my heart!
Spring Equinox
Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” Robin Williams
The spring equinox is that time in the Earth’s annual cycle around the sun when night and day are of equal length. It’s a time of balance when one side is the dark half of the year and the other is the light. It’s been marked since the most ancient of days, as when the Sphinx aligns directly with the rising sun while in Cambodia the temple of Angkor Wat has been designed so there’s a three-day lead-up to the spring equinox when its highest tower is crowned by the rising sun.
Seeds planted in the fall burst forth from the earth, and birth triumphs over death. It’s a time when the powers we’ve been developing through the winter can be put into creating . . . the time of the alchemical process . . . and the time to initiate a new order within your life. Access the vibrant energy of nature for healing and accelerate your growth by opening yourself for the newness of this amazing season of spring.
Spiritual Contemplation: Can you feel a tipping point in your life toward a new transforming energy changing an otherwise heavy vibration to that of a lighter one?
Affirmation: I love the Spring!
Judgement and Comparison Creates a Ceiling to Your Abundance
Accepting someone’s judgment and comparison can limit our abundance. I love having my house cleaned. My favorite day of the week is coming home to refreshing sheets and shiny floors. I’ve worked full-time my whole life and raised a child, so having someone else clean my house was a huge boon to my sanity and time management. The only problem was that my mother had opinions about it. Subtly, but clearly, she let me understand that she thought I should be taking care of all that myself; after all she did, and she had certainly taught me how.
It is certain that you cannot believe in abundance while identifying yourself with lack. Forget the lack and think only of abundance. Ernest Holmes
As I began working with my abundance consciousness and looking for my lack-and-limiting thoughts, I noticed how uncomfortable my mother’s judgment made me. And I realized that for years, I’d used her level of abundance and prosperity as the ceiling for my own because I didn’t want her criticism. That way if I never had more than she did, we’d always be on equal footing, and she wouldn’t have something else to judge about me. WOW—what an eye-opening revelation that was!
I worked diligently on releasing any concern about her, or anyone’s, judgment or opinion of my prosperous and abundant life. Now when someone says to me, “You take more vacations than anyone I know,” I joyfully reply, “Yes, and isn’t it great!” I celebrated the day my mother told me, as she turned seventy, that she had finally hired someone to clean her house!
Spiritual Contemplation: Explore what ceiling you might have put on your abundance. Is it an old belief about wealthy people or spiritual people? Is it a subtle message from your family or friends?
Affirmation: Spirit’s abundance flows effortlessly through all of life. I release any concern about someone else’s judgment or opinion. I accept my abundance.
Toxic Relationships – The Poisonous Arrow
Are you clinging to or ready to release the toxic relationships in your life?
A man was once struck with a poisonous arrow, and in order to save his friend’s life his mate removed the arrow before the poison spread through his body. Imagine, however, if the man didn’t want the arrow removed until he knew who shot it at him and why, their age, their clan, and the kind of poison they used. If he were to wait for all these inquiries to be answered, he’d die.
Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same. Buddha
Life is precious and brief and sometimes we get so caught up in our metaphysical demands that we forget to take care of the matter at hand. You don’t have to have all your questions answered before taking the necessary action in your life. Getting lost in the speculative while life passes you by is a waste of the gift of living. If you are being poisoned, get the toxic relationship out of your life. Then you can do all the contemplating you’d like until you figure out enough lessons. But if you are dead because of your inaction, contemplation isn’t going to serve you very well in this world.
Spiritual Contemplation: What toxic relationships and situations are you presently involved in that you haven’t removed yourself from? What’s the purpose of remaining attached to the poisonous pump? Remove the toxicity from your lifeline now.
Affirmation: I remove all points of poison from my life!
Love and Fear – The Power of Four Letter Words –
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. . . . Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. John Lennon
Every significant decision we make is either motivated by love or by fear. Fear causes us to make contracting and limited decisions that have predictable outcomes and are designed to keep us safe in a controlled environment. Generally speaking, these decisions come from limited and false beliefs we hold about ourselves and about life.
Love leads us to make expansive and empowered decisions. Love is the very self-givingness of Life to Life. It is an outward flow and the more it is shared, the more it grows. We can always tell when our decisions are based on our spiritual knowing because the end result expands and grows us.
Spiritual Contemplation: Think about how you use and share your wealth. Think about how you talk about and work with your finances and investments. Are you motivated by love or fear?
Affirmation: I allow love to motivate my decisions about my wealth and finances. This expands my good in more ways than I can count.
Evidence of Abundance – Look for the Clues
Are you looking for evidence of abundance in your life or assuming it’s not there? My son loves shows like CSI and Law and Order. He loves the investigation and the sleuthing that bring some surprising evidence to light. It’s always something that wasn’t expected, and he loves the surprise, but also the rightness of how things work out.
The plain, practical, everyday problem of moneymaking is a definite part of living and the answer to it is summed up in these words: Prosperity awaits everyone’s recognition and acceptance of it. Or it can be stated another way: Your financial success already exists, but it is waiting for you to see it and accept it as your own. Ernest Holmes
Wouldn’t it be amazing to move in our lives with the same investigative intention, looking for the surprising evidence of how things really do work out? Yet how many times do we actually collect evidence of abudnace, both current and past, or of things that haven’t worked out? Our minds are trained to look for and find the thing we are most focused on. If we are focused on lack and fear, our minds will show us all the ways that these are playing out. But if we focus on our good, the things we are grateful for, and what really is working, then our minds have to go out and collect that kind of evidence instead. Like a great detective, our minds will filter out all those things that distract from the hunt and focus on those things that take us to the truth.
Spiritual Contemplation: Become a detective in your life, sleuthing out the evidence of abundance in your life and seeking clues for all the ways you are supported.
Affirmation: I actively look for clues that I am supported and abundant. I am delighted at how much good I discover.
Overcoming Procrastination – What’s Holding You Back?
Is this what your procrastination looks like? There was a time in my life when it seemed like everything was just too much trouble. It was too much trouble to pack a picnic and go to the lake . . . too much trouble to do the research on where to take a vacation . . . too much trouble to learn about marketing and budgeting to build the business. Every time I tried to go or do or create—it didn’t happen because it was simply too much effort or seemed like a bother.
Doing what’s expected of you can make you good, but it’s the time you spend going above and beyond what’s required that makes you great! Josh S. Hinds
I had to learn not to wait until I felt like doing it. I also had to learn not to wait on other people. If it’s important to me, something I enjoy or want to do, I am responsible for moving forward on it. I am responsible for deciding to do it and then following through on it. I know that when we move on our decisions and intentions the whole of the Universe is there to support us.
Spiritual Contemplation: What keeps you from taking that trip, or a day at the park, or starting that creative project? What keeps you from moving forward on creating or enjoying your abundance?
Affirmation: I willingly move on and apply myself to those things that I want to enjoy, create, or share! I no longer procrastinate or wait for anything or anyone.
Gratitude is a Decision
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Melody Beattie
Never underestimate the power of appreciation. Appreciation moves us from a fear-and-lack mentality to one of having and enjoying. It’s a powerful discipline to decide to appreciate what you have rather than focus on what you don’t have. Remember that whatever you focus on grows!
Appreciate your bills—you have received good value for them whether they’re for your home air-conditioning or gas to get where you want to go. Appreciate your income regardless of how much it is—it’s one of the many channels through which your good is flowing to you. Appreciate all the unexpected income, gifts, sales, discounts, and free things that you enjoy. These are more of the channels through which Spirit supports you. Appreciation reminds us that it’s all good and it’s all Spirit!
Spiritual Contemplation: What parts of your abundance and finances do you have trouble appreciating? Begin to find a way to appreciate these very areas.
Affirmation: I appreciate every check I write and every deposit I make. Every one of them represents abundance moving in my life.
Spirit Is Sufficient! It’s an Abundant Universe
God is my sufficiency. Joel Goldsmith
We contemplate the Abundance of the Universe and focus on Spirit as the Source of our prosperity. The Divine Reality is the wellspring of our good—we are drawing from an infinite, unlimited supply. This means that Spirit, as Source, has more than enough for all our individual and collective needs and is sufficient to all our needs.
Let’s take this one step further, however. “God is my sufficiency” is true in EVERY area of our life. It’s not just that Spirit is the Source of our abundance —it also means that relying on Spirit is enough. Spirit, by Its Presence in us, as us, fulfills every need—for love, friendship, health, and creativity as well as abundance—not by drawing those things to us, but by already being those things for us, right here and right now.
So the act of relying on Spirit is what allows Spirit’s abundance to be revealed as already present. The act of turning to Spirit, the Spiritual Truth, fulfills the need, even before we ask.
Contemplate: “God (or whatever term speaks to you) is my sufficiency.”
Affirmation: God is my sufficiency!
New Thoughts can be Consciously Planted – Tend to your Inner Garden
Are you planting new thoughts, consciously tending to your inner garden?
God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures. Francis Bacon
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now. Chinese Proverb
Planting a spring vegetable garden demonstrates a belief in the good that tomorrow holds. With the perfect balance of water and the appropriate amount of sunlight, nature will bring you the nectar of the gods. But this delectable harvest of fresh vegetables also depends upon a rich soil teeming with life-giving nutrients,
Likewise, is the garden of life. The creative process of seed, soil, and plant is a great metaphor for the thought seeds you plant into the creative law that says yes to what you believe, and these thoughts manifest as the form in your life. Selecting the seeds—your thoughts—is a conscious decision of what you’d like in your world. The soil—the Law—says yes to what you plant; it doesn’t say, “I don’t like those choices, choose again. Then the law of growth takes over as you continue to add affirmative support, trusting in the natural unfoldment of what you have planted.
Spiritual contemplation: What new thought seeds are you planting in consciousness? What weeds would you like to uproot from your world? How can you better enhance your thoughts around what you’ve planted?
Affirmation: My new thought seeds bear wonderful fruit!
What Do You Want? An Abundant Life that Fits!
It comes down to a simple question: what do you want out of life, and what are you willing to do to get it? Unknown
I bought and remodeled a condo when I became an empty nester. It was both exciting and a bit overwhelming. Originally, I thought I wanted a condo in a certain part of town. Then I wanted a little house by the lake. After that I realized what I needed to do was give myself permission and time to explore. I kept having to ask myself “what do you want?” Finally, I realized that I needed trees and a certain environment—everything else I could work with.
I then found the perfect condo, but it needed a huge facelift and I ended up having to remodel it from top to bottom. Weeks of stores and tiles and paint colors also left me wondering how it would all go together. I’m not a designer! Again, I realized that I needed to give myself time and permission to explore. I needed to ask the same question of myself, “What do you want?” I began to notice the kinds of colors and styles that repeatedly caught my eye, and as I collected samples, I saw that a pattern was emerging. I could really see which things I liked and which ones I chose only because I wondered if they might in some way be “better.” Finally, I decided to focus just on the things I liked, and after three months of remodeling, I moved into a gorgeous, contemporary condo that looked different from anything I originally would have said I wanted, but is exactly and perfectly ME.
Spiritual Contemplation: What exploration do you need to do to discover what you like and want? When are you overly influenced by what others might think or what you think you should want?
Affirmation: I take the time to explore and discover what I like and want. This makes my life feel so much more abundant because it suits me.
Training Your Mind – Rewire Your Brain
Learning to rewire the brain is one of the many new places science and spirituality meet!
Our outward life is a result of the subjective state of our thought. The thinker is conscious mind, but when we think we let fall the forms of our thought into Subjective Mind, which is the Universal Medium of all thought and action and, as a result of this, the Creative Medium at once sets to work to produce the thing outlined. Ernest Holmes
There is one Life, Power, and Presence in the Universe—we call it God, Spirit, Consciousness. Great thinkers have called it a Universal Mind, the Divine Intelligence behind all of creation. Psychology has revealed that we not only have a conscious mind with which we think and choose, we also have a subconscious, or subjective, mind that stores everything our conscious mind has experienced. Here is where all our beliefs, habits, and patterns of thinking are laid down as neural pathways in our brain. Once these grooves are established, our mind tends to think along those same lines, over and over again, thereby forming the mold that the Universal Law uses to create our world of experience.
Affirmations, new ways of thinking, reading, and learning spiritual truths—these are all designed to provide your conscious mind with new ideas that must be given as much or more attention as the old ones so that new pathways can be carved into the brain. “Synapses that fire together, wire together.” Consciously firing new synapses with affirmations and spiritual truths literally rewires our brain, which then creates an entirely new subjective reality. This is what creates the new mold for our life of increasing abundance.
Spiritual Contemplation: Notice how much mental energy and time you give an affirmation or new idea compared to the habitual thoughts that run around like monkeys in your mind. Take the time to rewire your brain through your affirmations.
Affirmation: I am in charge of my mind. I choose to focus on abundance thinking, spiritual truths, and powerful affirmations. I spend more mental energy on this than anything else.
Its Time Has Come – Inspiration and a New Idea
When an idea whose time has come must birth, it will always find its way to enter into human consciousness through inspiration. In that moment, the idea enters into the field of possibilities from the infinite, undifferentiated Allness through the person who receives the inspiration. The concept of a personal computer, for example, occurred to an individual who then made it available to everyone else in the world. As far-out as the concept of wireless communication may have once seemed, at the moment it entered into the human consciousness through a visionary, it became available to us all.
Wisdom begins in wonder. Socrates
A business person, knowing full well that what is stirring in his consciousness has an uncanny ability to be popping into awareness in many locations, may rush his product to market for fear someone else may beat him there. Artists, however, know that if they don’t share what they can see and hear, it may never be known because they may have been graced as the sole proprietor of this vision. You are an integral vortex for the abundant potential of the infinite to make its way into form. Once you have caught the vision of something greater, it has entered into the human consciousness through you. So now what are you going to do with it?
Spiritual Contemplation: What has made itself known within your consciousness and is waiting for you to do something with it?
Affirmation: I am the birthplace of a new divine idea!
Thoughts Are Things – Affirmations and the Law of Attraction
The things we hold to be true are exactly what the Law of Attraction operates upon. Our thoughts form the mold of our lives and the beliefs in our subjective mind. Thus the saying “Thoughts are Things.” So if we want to attract something different, we have to create a different belief. This creates a “new thought” which becomes the magnet for our new experience.
Resolve a thing into a thought, change the thought, and that automatically changes the thing. Thomas Troward
We can change what we hold to be true about abundance by collecting evidence in support of it. Begin looking for all the ways nature is abundant. Look for all the ways abundance shows up in your life. Focus on abundance everywhere you can find it, see it, and talk about it. You begin to see that abundance is your birthright and believe that it is possible for you to experience. Stop telling any story to the contrary because that provides your mind with conflicting and competing evidence, and your magnet then tries to attract opposite things at the same time.
Spiritual Contemplation: Imagine that your thoughts about abundance clump together to form an actual magnet for your good. Let’s say the spiritual truths you believe create the positive pole and your past experience or old beliefs create the negative pole. Which side of your magnet is doing the most attracting? How is that playing out in your life?
Affirmation: I think and affirm great abundance for myself, and for all people everywhere. I am a powerful spiritual magnet attracting great good into life!